3 showers a day. cold.

i'm feeling slightly disgusted with the media hype about the 5-ring circus. there are hella foreigners here! who the hell was talking shit about all the denied visas? wait, that was me. well, i should know better than to listen to the hype. although i guess trevor had a nightmare of a time getting his visa extended to a pathetic july 15. they must've kicked out all the dj types scraping by on F visas in between visits to hong kong every 30 days and replaced them with a shitload of smiling faces and happy families, because that's all i'm seeing on the street. i barely see chinese people. in a city of 17 million, that's saying something.

i finally watched american psycho. i never really wanted to see the movie, mostly because i'm a culture snob and prefer to read the book over seeing the movie while sticking my nose in the air, but also because christian bale weirds me out. i'll have to get over that when i go home and see batman, but meanwhile... i don't know if it was the msg-laden (leaving in a month! gotta bone up on msg before i leave!) dumplings we had for dinner, but that movie was making me feel dizzy and ill. and it wasn't nearly as nasty as the book.

who knows.

it's thundering like a mother outside and i hope the weather clears up for tomorrow's brunch 'n pool session. we've grabbed about 8 friends, rented a van, and are heading to le meridien on the outskirts of shanghai for the all-you-can eat brunch and pool usage.

i should start a new section for the shit i'm about to dive into (pun intended).

here we go.

ahem.


pools in china (where the fuck is the underline function?)

are either dirty or have about 100000000000000000000000000000 people in them. i am not fucking kidding you. see pic below of madhouse fake beach pool thing called dino beach in shanghai (totally ripped the photo from the sh municipal government page, sorry), aka hell on earth. therefore it stands to reason that any decent pool in shanghai is closely guarded by strict-ass, borderline ridonkulous regulations for entry. normally sherry and i circumvent the workout aspect of pool access by going to jill's place, which has a clean 50 m pool, usually fairly empty. still, we had to promise our first born children to gain access. but for the summer, all of us americans want that vegas pool party, strawberry daiquiri, my-flag-is-up, hawaiian tropics kind of pool thing. and we are sadly deprived.





so we hatched a plan, resourceful vitamin d-hungry alcoholic girls that we are. tomorrow we are going to le meridien, boondocks version (vs. the one centrally located), and will plunk down rmb 318 for free flow beer and wine (including sparkling, you know that got my ass on board) and all you can eat, which in shanghai usually includes beijing duck, foie gras, dim sum, and sashimi. plus you get all day access to an actual outdoor pool. i am not sure how the mosquito thing will work out, but i'm bringing my 7% deet. i suspect it will be super crowded and less than clean, but shit, don't know till you try, right?

*end rant*

jesus, my place is being blown to pieces. and now its pouring rain. this shit better clear up before we leave tomorrow.

i'm normally happy about getting a little bit of color, but i'm kinda eh about getting darker in my old age. is it the whitening products endlessly marketed in asia finally getting to me? doubtful. i went and became one of those people that burns a lot after my teenage years. it's the weirdest thing. the minute you go and stop swimming outdoors year round, you turn into a differently-complected person. my dad was kind enough to point out that i was 'really pale!' when he came a-visiting. thanks, dad. i would have felt strangely insulted about that in my younger day, but now it's kinda like, meh. i work inside all day. it happens.