Alright, sorry guys that it’s been a while I haven’t updated. Once I finish adding in all the pictures from the Shanghai and Beijing trip, I’ll start posting more often as I have some pictures from Macau, Hong Kong and other places that I’ve been too. So lately it’s been extremely hot as in it’s getting close to 100 degree Fahrenheit so literally the moment I step outside the apartment, I’m already sweating. I can even feel myself sweating when I get out of the shower so yeah… it gets THAT hot here and plus it’s really humid too.

For the most part though it’s actually not too bad since I stay inside most of the time with the air conditioner blowing. There’s a cafe right down the street too which is pretty convenient since I can just take the bicycle and ride there. Other than that, I’ve been trying to study Chinese as much as I can but I still feel that I have a lot more to learn. The most difficult part I think is that people here speak with a different accents and there a bunch of dialects too so not everyone speaks “proper” Mandarin.

I guess it’s kind of the same thing with English since you have different accents and expressions but still, it’s really hard to communicate with people here especially when they speak in a dialect that I don’t even understand. I talked with Ariel (our cousin) and she said that she’s going to teach me Chinese over Skype so hopefully that’ll help too 🙂 Lately though, I’ve been fairly distracted with getting some online work done which could still be a while before my income starts to pick up again…
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Haven’t updated in a while but I still have a ton of pictures from Shanghai, Beijing and other places that I went to like Macau and Hong Kong. So how is my Chinese coming along? Well, I think that after two months of being here that my speaking ability has really improved but there is still a lot more for me to learn. Anyway, so after our long busy day at Shanghai we decided that we wanted go to the indoor ski dome. We took the subway to the area of where we thought it was but it turned out to be very wrong but we were able to get there after walking around for a while and taking a taxi to the correct place:
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Alright, so I couldn’t finish the last post since I was getting a little tired. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it here:

Shanghai – Day 1

So we took a cab ride to the Motel 168 that we were going to stay at. It ended up costing like 50RMB (~$7USD) which isn’t too bad. We actually could’ve taken the subway there for about 2RMB a person but we didn’t yet know how to take it. To be honest, being in Shanghai almost feels like any other city that I’ve been to. What I like most about Shanghai though is the weather since it’s definitely a lot cooler compared to the south. Some photos:
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I’m still here guys!! Sorry I haven’t updated for a while but these days I either spend time studying Chinese or working on my online sites. Lately though I’ve been playing golf on the weekends which I’m really starting to like 🙂 It’s a bit frustrating though trying to get the swing right but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. If I’m not playing golf, then I’m probably at a bar or something. Anyways, it’s been almost two months since I’ve been here but it seems much longer. Definitely not in a bad way though as I can see myself staying here for at least another year or two. Why?

Simply because China is one of the only places where I can get by comfortably without having to worry about money too much. Average meals only cost me about $2-4, rent is $200 and even leisure activities like going golfing costs $5-15 depending on where I go. Groceries are definitely a lot cheaper compared to the prices in the States. Since I’ve been here, I have definitely been a lot more mindful of my spending only because I don’t want to get too carried away.

Plus, it’s really easy to bargain at department stores as well. I bought a pair of Puma shoes (pretty sure they’re fake…) for 70RMB or about $10USD but the quality is excellent compared to the Adidas shoes I had before which cost me about $70USD. Coming here though has definitely made me see how much money I’ve spent back at in the States in terms of food, alcohol, drinks, shopping, etc. Once my income starts to pick up and my speaking ability becomes more fluent, I want to start looking into business opportunities but that’ll have to wait. Overall though, China has been a great experience.
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After finally getting adjusted to China (somewhat), I figured that I should start a blog just to share my thoughts and also to post some pictures. So what made me want to come to China in the first place? To be honest, going halfway across the world to a country that is completely unknown to me might seem like a gutsy move and I have had friends tell me that. Of course, I don’t really blame them considering that I don’t know how to speak the language very well.

I’ve also never been outside of the country either but I do feel that this is the perfect opportunity for me to do something like this while I’m still young. Besides, I don’t have anything back in the States to really hold me back. I do feel really sad though to leave my family and friends behind but I’ve always felt that sometimes you need to leave your comfort zone to have the things you want in life. In the worse case scenario I could always just move back to the States but I need to first see what I can achieve here before I move back. In my case, I’m doing exactly that so that I can see what else is out there and after China, I know that I want to travel to other parts of the world like Japan, Korea, Europe, etc. but China is definitely a first step for me.
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