the greatest power the Internet has is to reveal just how little people care about what we write

the title to this blog entry is a quote that can be found at today's article on Savage Minds, the anthropology blog which I really enjoy reading and which I will now link to on the side of this page. It comes from an interesting blog entry that talks about how even though the internet makes writing blogs and creating groups much easier, we don't have time to really get into very much of it. i think that depends on how much time we spend on facebook, but that's just me.

today I finally didn't feel completely scared in China. I went to a store that said "Donut Shop" in English and to my surprise they had delicious american-style donuts. I spent about two hours talking to the girl who worked there IN CHINESE! I used my dictionary a lot but it was really exciting. She didn't speak much English and she was really bored because not too many people go to the "Donut Shop" (Chinese don't like things that are too sweet, and it is in an awkward location for foreigners).

I was so pumped about this that I went to the Kodak store to get passport pictures and managed to order them in Chinese, and bought some office supplies in a tiny little office supplies store.

My confidence was punctured a little when I went to join the gym and I didn't understand anything the guy said. Thankfully so many ACC students go there I knew what to do, but still, it was depressing.

My roommate and I ate at Pizza Hut tonight. It was our last meal where we could talk in English so we just decided to go for the American food too. The veggie pizza had corn, pineapple, mushrooms, tomato, and green pepper and was very very good. They had a seafood pizza too with just about any animal you can eat out of a shell on it, and escargot as an appetizer. In China Pizza Hut is a fancy affair--people get all dressed up and you sit down and they treat you very well. They also have McDonalds and KFC but those are fast food like we know it.

i have more mosquito bites than i ever have had at one time in my life. tomorrow i start the language pledge. more adventures to come!