2009 – a reflection

Looking back at 2009, I’ve realized one thing – 2009 has been the most unforgettable year ever.  Yes, we tell ourselves that at the end of every year because of course our most recent memories are the easiest to remember, but being unforgettable and being easy to recall are two completely different things.  So many things happened in 2009 that just…don’t happen very often in anyone’s lives, and I experienced them all in just one short year.

To start, I was let go in January.  January 14th, 2009 – I remember that morning well.  Everyone was expecting layoffs, and I remember laying in bed with Janice the night before talking about what she might do if she was laid off since she was in Lev Fin.  Funny how things work out.  The next morning everyone was kind of nervous.  I started getting antsy, so I walked by HR’s office to see who might be inside hearing the bad news…but right when I got back to my seat I got a phone call from Jenny Jones –

“Robert, can I see you in my office please?”

I remember instantly e-mailing some of my coworkers with “just got the call,” and Lisa calling me right away to ask me if I was serious.  I turned to look over at my coworkers as I walked around the corner of the floor to Jenny’s office.  Some of the analysts around my cube gave me a look of disbelief…I just raised my eyebrows, grinned and shook my head to tell them I’d be ok… I remember feeling a flurry of emotions when Jenny Jones told me that this was not going to be an easy conversation, but the most prevailing feeling I had was one of relief.  I was tired of not being able to make plans because of late nights, see family because holidays were being cut short, or grab a bite to eat with friends because of random staffings.  As nice as it was to get free dinner every night, I was tired of eating at my desk while doing work.  I was tired of being scared to check my blackberry whenever it vibrated those 2 evil vibrates, opening a message and reading: “Rob, have you had a chance to…”.  I could deal with doing this every once in a while, but when it becomes a lifestyle, I’m sorry but that’s not for me.

I grabbed a final lunch in the Lehman cafeteria with some of my coworkers before I headed home, told my family, and took what would probably be the most memorable nap I’ve ever taken.

What’s next for me?  Where do I go from here?

Going to China was a decision I made a long time ago, but it was something that I never realized because I never had time.  Now, more than ever, was the time.  When I was still working, my oldest sister asked me if I would do something like move to China for a while on my own.  I told her that as much as I’d like to say yes, if given the opportunity, I probably wouldn’t be able to leave my comfort zone.  Was I scared?  Of course.  The day snuck up on me because I was studying for my GMATs, which I took 2 days before I left.  But eventually the day came…I remember sitting on the floor of the airport at my gate about 10 minutes before I boarded.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into…and I didn’t fully understand why I was doing it.  I didn’t do much planning ahead of time, but that’s what made it even more exciting to me – not really knowing what to expect.  Sure wanting to learn Chinese was a big part of it, but so was just taking a bigger risk than dropping a couple hundred dollars on a hand of blackjack.  I called my family and Janice to tell them one last bye from America and before I knew it, I landed in Shanghai with no working knowledge of Chinese.  What was I thinking?!

Every other day while I was in China, I asked myself what I was doing there and thought about going back home.  I’m not really sure what kept me there but it was a combination of me saying I was going to do it, not having anything viable to do back in the States, and just the challenge of it all.  There were days when I hated China, missed my family and friends, and just wanted to book the next ticket out of Shanghai regardless of how expensive it was.  Then there were days where I was exploring parts of China I had never thought I’d go to, full of life, and feeling so good about my progress as I understood more and more Chinese.  You’d be surprised how much satisfaction you can get as you slowly, over a month or two, are able to read the full ticker inside the bus that welcomes you on the bus and announces bus stops.

I very slowly became acclimated to the Chinese way of life.  When you’re thrown into such an unfamiliar situation, you lose sense of everything.  Getting off at the wrong bus stops, not realizing there was a middle, north, and south version of virtually every major road in China…the list goes on and on of things I did wrong more than one time.  Living 45 minutes outside the city center for the first two months didn’t help either.  I’ll never forget the host family that I stayed with and how accommodating they were to my lifestyle (although one day I did come back around 4 am and was accidentally locked out for like 5 hours…).  There are a hundred funny, awkward, and unforgettable moments I had with them that made my time with the host family worth it, even when I wanted to pull my hair out.

My first tutor was amazing.  He taught me for 4-5 hours a day for only 10 kuai an hour.  That’s about $1.50.  I couldn’t believe it…He was introduced to me by a friend of a friend of a friend…which is pretty much how I met everyone in China, and he had all the time in the world to teach me Chinese if I helped him with his English a bit.  Luckily for him, I had a grasp on pinyin, but believe me, there were some conversations we had that were so frustrating.  Trying to discern tv series from tv episode from tv station took about half an hour.  In that conversation he started talking about jail.  I kept asking myself, Where did this topic of jail come up!? until I finally understood that he was trying to ask me if I watched Prison Break.  This is just one of many examples when we went back and forth for what seemed like an eternity to figure out what the other person was saying, but it worked well.  He is probably the most patient person that I met in China…or maybe I’m just a fast learner? 😉  After I moved, my second tutor was also great and fun to be around…but I was paying her substantially more so I would hope she made the process fun!

What also got me through the days were the people I met, and the friends I had passing through Shanghai that took time out of their schedules to see me.  Thank you Jon, Ray, Jeff, Karen, Jenn, Andrea, Kevin, Ariane & Co., Jing, Jess, and Janice who all made it to Shanghai and gave me a familiar face far from home.  Every other week there was a reminder of home.  And thank you Kevin, Nancy, Allison, Esther, Pam, and Geoff for being my family in Shanghai.  Special shout out to my sister who doesn’t speak a word of Chinese for braving the rugged mother land terrain with me for ~15 days.

After traveling to Beijing with Nancy, I set a goal of hitting 10 different cities while in China, and by the end of my trip, I managed to reach my target! (I include Taiwan and Hong Kong :P).  Let’s see…(in order), Shanghai, some bamboo forest city, Beijing, Guangzhou, Taipei, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou again, Huangshan, Beijing again, Hong Kong…Even though I was able to hit double digits, I feel like because I stayed on China’s East coast, I’ve only seen a hint of what China has to offer.  I don’t think I’ll go back for some time, but a country as big as China always leaves areas to be explored.  That rate of traveling made me feel like I was back in Europe sophomore spring when we were in London and traveling every other week…great times.

Then, right when I thought my adventure would be over…literally my last day in Shanghai (on the overnight train from Beijing back to Shanghai) I got an email from a reality show about being flown out with Janice for final casting calls!  Ridiculous.  That last day was so stressful, on the phone with my doctors, the casting directors…what an emotional roller coaster that day was.  Don’t feel like getting into details about the whole casting experience but it was one once in a lifetime opportunity right after another…too bad we didn’t make it or it would have made 2009 even MORE unforgettable…but I’m still very happy with the rest of the way 2009 played out…

After coming back and settling in, first in NYC and then a week at home…I did about 2 weeks of job searching and bumming, trying to keep myself busy.  I finally got a call from Nathan to see if I was interested in a phone interview for an unpaid internship at his company, which I expressed interest in a couple weeks back.  The position seemed interesting, and I began getting a little disgruntled and felt like I was waking up every day without any purpose…so I took the phone interview and after about a week, found out that I got it.  So I went unpaid for about a month or so, then had a couple of serious talks about my future at the company but didn’t get a firm response…and instead started getting paid some money (technically more per hour than banking haha)…and I found out a little over a week ago that I got an offer!  It was a great way to head into the holidays because when I took the position of unpaid intern, there was never really supposed to be any offer at the end of the internship (which was technically supposed to only last 1.5 months into Thanksgiving).  I guess I proved that I could be a valuable addition, so I’m really happy to be starting the new decade with a new job….oh and a new apartment that I’ll be moving into in 2 or 3 days!  Doorman, gym, pool, lounge with 2 pool tables…sick!

So that’s it for you, folks.  Why was 2009 so memorable?…being laid off, moving to a different country to learn the language and teach English and travel to 10 different cities, moving back to America and in with my girlfriend, almost getting on a reality show…moving from unpaid to paid intern to full time…and moving (again, but in the city this time) to a new awesome apartment!  Oh, let’s not also forget writing in a blog for the first time since xanga!

2009 both started and ended on great notes, but in between was filled with more uncertainty than I’ve ever had in my entire life, and also more than I could handle by myself.  Thank you to everyone who kept me going through such a hard time, especially my family, Janice, and best friends who were always there to give me a 加油 when I needed it most.

Cheers to 2010, a new decade, and a new beginning!

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perspective

a lot of my previous entries were private….but here comes a public one!

yesterday, i was at a career center that was a mandatory meeting in order to continue getting benefits.  i was put into a room with other people who were let go from finance companies, and it was interesting to see such a wide variety of people.  i felt really bad for the older unemployed people who were there.  they have families to provide for.  they have mortgages to pay.  although i am unlucky to be unemployed, i am lucky to be YOUNG and unemployed.  yes, not having a job when you once thought you were set for life sucks.  but i am lucky that i still have time to explore other careers.  perspective is powerful

one really cool (is cool the right word?) thing about being unemployed is that the government is giving people who were let go by certain finance companies up to 12,500 in grant money for any means of training to get back into the workforce.  that means i can take classes to go into a different field (or people who still want to be in finance can take additional courses, like CFA prep classes).  now there’s a lot of fine print, with one of them being that the state has analyzed how favorable certain job prospects are for different industries, and you need to find training in an industry that is favorable or very favorable.

there’s this 10 pages list of different jobs and job functions that were ranked by the state as being very favorable, favorable, less favorable, and least favorable.  it’d be really interesting how they come up with the results.  even if i were to get a job, if the grant already went through, i’m still allowed to continue with the course i signed up for.  i’m definitely going to take advantage of this

and today, obama was awarded the nobel peace prize.  wow that came out of left field.  i’m not sure how much he deserved it, but i am glad that he’s giving the 1.4 million in prize money to charity.  good for him (unless he’s just trying to pay less taxes)

will try to update more often…so until next time!

And now for this month’s TIC moment

i’ll have to thank esther for this title, because all of her facebook albums are labeled TIC (This Is China), which i believe she kind of copied (since all things in china are copies) from blood diamond, when they say TIA – this is africa.  this hasn’t been confirmed yet, it’s more just my superhero deduction powers

the other night i was out with my roommate and another friend and i’m exhausted, so we hail a cab and head to this street called tong ren lu.  i hop in the passenger seat and start drifting asleep.  suddenly BAM! i wake up and my view of the street in front of me is suddenly slanted.  i look outside to my left and see that we’ve managed to fall into a cement ditch.  there seem to be problems in china and wordpress so i get errors whenever i try to upload pictures…so i’ll have to facebook these photos instead…uploaded a bunch from my phone too so check them out:

linkidy link link linky

i had to crawl from the passenger seat to the back seat and out the left side, haha.

also had like 417 grams of protein today after having an 11 dollar all you can eat brazilian bbq.  SICK

a flooded apartment

so i wake up to knocking on my door.  its my landlady, she screams…”robert there is water on your floor!”  not fully understanding in my half awakened stupor, i crawl out of bed, put one of my feet on the floor and instinctively pull back.  holy shit, theres water on my floor!

apparently there had been people running around my apartment for 2 hours, cleaning and getting the water out of of their rooms.  i am such a heavy sleeper that i didnt hear the industrial strength water sucker upper running for 2 hours.

i usually keep my computer on the ground because ill do some important computing on my bed at night, but thankfully i had the energy to toss it on the desk before i went to sleep last night.  in other wetness news, my timbuktu bag got soaked, along with everything in it (chinese notebook with notes from the last 4 months, good thing i put everything into my computer…otherwise i would have to stay here for another 4 months), my luggage piece which was full of winter clothes, which means half my winter clothes got soaked with what is supposedly toilet water (doesnt smell though and is clear, keeping fingers crossed that its clean toilet water, if that exists), and my hamper which was pretty much full…so half my dirty clothes got, well, dirtier i guess.

i noticed that a few of my dress shirts got wet, so i asked if it was possible to be reimbursed for the dry cleaning.  my landlady asked me what reimbursed means.  i explained it to her, she said no.  fml.

surprisingly all my roommates and i acted pretty calm, even the guy that just moved in on monday (obligatory parenthetical “sucks”). Maybe because we feel like everything is out of our control in china, especially law-wise, where we have no idea what our rights are.  i love that feeling

a long awaited update

by popular demand i am writing in my blog again.  so here we go.  here’s an update to keep you guys busy at work when you should be working on that excel document.  i guess it’s better than hulu, right?

ill have to say i had been meaning to write in it for a while and just kept putting it off, but after my former boss facebooked me asking if i had left it all for dead, i knew i had to write again.  i mean you dont want to sever ties with your old bosses right?

this ones for you, nathan

life in puxi has been much more convenient.  no more bus rides just to get to subways.  i live a 5 minute walk away from the main line, and while its not nearly as convenient as it was in nyc (the subway was on my block…), ill take it. my chinese has steadily improved, but between june and july there were so many familiar faces from the states that i did speak a lot of english. started early june when janices friend from berkeley, kevin, came to shanghai, found out he lived right next to me so i’ve seen a good amount of him.  then the following weekend karen and jen came to shanghai for a couple days.  the week after that i take a vacation with janice, jess and jing for 10 days.  the week after that kevin has friends in town for a week.  the week after that jon and ray swing through shanghai as the start of their asia vacation.  right when i thought the continuous flow of people visiting shanghai had stopped, jeff facebooks me and tells me he’ll be in shanghai for like 8 days. so he comes, and while he’s here andrea emails me, telling me she’ll be here for a couple days a week after he leaves. so many people! so crazy! i’m assuming the madness is stopping, but it’s been a pretty interesting june/july, seeing as how i’ve seen so many people in shanghai.

in other news, what else has happened in the past month? what else but michael jackson’s death. seriously, i woke up to a text message from kevin that said “michael jackson is dead :(“. that is the worst way to wake up EVER. i think for the past 2 weeks i’ve read at least 10 news stories a day about him. the other night we went to muse and in addition to the dance performance inside, they had a huge michael jackson sign outside for people to write stuff on, so of course i did, and also did a pose in front of it MJ style.  i’ve been trying to download the memorial service for a couple days now, but the download is so slow that i’ll just watch it when i get back.  i can see how the conversation will go on my first day:

friend – “rob you’re back!  what’d you do on your first day?”
me – “watch the michael jackson memorial”

michael jackson RIP, huge part of my childhood, and the reason i dance and sing so well…}

speaking of singing, i went karaoke-ing last week in the early evening time with janice’s mom’s family friend’s daughter (so kind of a complete stranger) and her friends, i was definitely fifth wheeling it. but it was the first time i’ve ever karaoke’d without having a single drink in me. a little awkward since i barely knew these people, but still a good time. karaoke places in shanghai are really nice. this one had an all you can eat buffet (very clean), and each room has it’s own bathroom. it’s like a 5 star hotel…and because we went this early we got 3 hours and a buffet for only 69 kuai (about 10 dollars). craziness!

what else, oh! i thought of another awesome t shirt idea. it goes something like this. on the front of the tshirt will be this but he’s holding a nintendo in his hands. on the back, it reads 游戏！ !!!! get it?!! for the non chinese inclined, go here and click on LISTEN…then maybe you’ll get it. gotta love chinese sometimes

anyhow, it was great to see janice when she came. we had been apart for almost 3 months! craziness, it was like college all over again.  i don’t know how we do it, but i’m glad we do =]  i’m sure you’ve caught most of them on my facebook, but here’s my favorite one:

interesting story, i had an “interview” this morning to meet this manager at this company to teach her employees english.  i had a dream this morning that i was at the interview, and i didn’t get the job since they required a longer contract than how long i’m staying in shanghai for.  i wake up, head to the interview…and that’s exactly how it unfolded today.  my dreams are prophetic!  i know i shouldn’t, but i kind of feel bad for my agency though because how do you hook something up like that without knowing what both parties are looking for, etc?  if they were a public company, i’d short them right now

in other news, southwest is doing a 2 for 1 deal to vegas.  that would be incredibly irresponsible of me, but any takers?  haha

lastly, it was my little nephew’s 1st birthday!  here he is, reading the postcard i sent home

happy first birthday benjamin!

til next time folks!

beijing huanying ni-yah!

beijing huanying ni-a!

so i got back from beijing the other day…if you want to skip the boring details go here and look at the pictures all you want (more to come since i am still awaiting pictures)…:

so i went with nancy, who is working in the city, and had thurs/fri off for dragon boat festival…we took a train from shanghai to beijing. we planned to meet at the train station at around 8, and the train leaves at 8:21. i got there around 7:45 and waited, i get a call at 8:05 or so and we can’t seem to find each other. we’re both apparently at exit one of the subway stop at the shanghai railway station. fear flashes when she asks me if i’m at the right shanghai railway station because there’s 2 in shanghai. for like 2 minutes i’m in a panic because, hey i’m in a foreign country and shanghai railway station isn’t that far off from shanghai south railway station…and i think i’m at the wrong one?!?! but i finally find her and we make it on the train just in time. to be honest i was expecting really miserable conditions during a 10 hour train ride, like something out of slumdog millionaire, but instead it ended up being really nice and everyone got a tv! i watched taken in chinese (my fourth time watching this movie, sad but true), passed out at a decent hour, and when i woke up…i was in beijing! i had the olympic song, beijing huanying ni stuck in my head for a good amount of the trip.

i don’t want to recount everything that happened on the trip because that’s pretty boring. but i will mention a couple of things:

– beijing is absolutely beautiful. there is so much history behind this city, and so much to see and do, that it was impossible (and incredibly tiring) to take it all in in a short weekend. i managed to check off everything on my laundry list, and then some. because we ran from one place to another…i forget where i’ve been and what is where haha. but that’s what pictures are for! (~400!)

– note to self: never go to the great wall again if you didn’t have breakfast. however i did make it to the left end of Ba Da Ling, which the tour guide said even mao zedong didn’t do, haha

– another note to self – read up on wikipedia more about each site

– small world story time…i met up with lihan (you get a shoutout!) one night, and then nancy had a friend in beijing also…and her friend ended up being lihan’s coworker. coincidence? i think not

– beijing kaoya is pretty good, but don’t set your expectations too high like i did. everything i’ve had really high expectations fell short (outside of the lion king broadway show)

– after a short discussion, we realized that modern architecture could probably go so much further if there were no zoning laws, and no human rights like back in the colosseum/great wall days.

ok so my goal is to hit 10 cities in china before i have to leave…3 cities down, 7 to go…

you put WHAT in the smoothie?

at lunch time, my host mom told me she bought this blender thing and made a smoothie. this is how the conversation went:

me: what’s in the smoothie?
host mom: red beans, green beans, semen
me: what was the last thing you said?
host mom: semen
me: (thinking to myself she’s probably just pronouncing it wrong) – how do you spell it?
host mom: s – e – m – e – n???
me: i don’t think that’s what it’s called, can you show me what you put in it?
host mom looks in the fridge, and then hands over sesame seeds to me

*sigh of relief on my side*

fun as a foreigner

got my first haircut in shanghai. it’s a bit different from what i normally get since i can’t tell him anything except 短一点儿！短一点儿! i first pointed at my head and was like (一样的,可是短一点 – the same but shorter, haha i am absolutely fluent in chinglish)

in any case, i went to a semi-western place to get it cut. it was called ESPRIT Salon, like the clothing store. it was attached to the ESPRIT store actually. i had no idea they had hair cutteries, but maybe it’s just in other countries. there’s this place that’s like 10 rmb next to my apartment but i don’t trust any service that costs less than 2 USD, even if it is china. at least i recognized the ESPRIT brand name. reputable enough for me.

before i went in i figured out how to say haircut in chinese, but there ended up being english on the price list. i saw 200 RMB (about 30 bucks). i was like oh heeell no. there was no way i was going to pay more for something in china than in the US. but then i saw student pricing, 100 RMB, which is pretty much what i pay for in the states but i am more than willing to pay that in china (especially because there’s no tip! hip hip hooray!). i decided to press the play stupid button which is conveniently located in my forefinger so that i can have easy access to it…i’ve had to do this a couple times while i was here (like when homeless people come up to me, although clearly poverty needs no language to communicate so i have no idea what i’m talking about here). anyhow…:

lady at front desk:欢迎光临！(welcome! – every worker in every store in china says this when they see you, when they don’t see you, and every 10 seconds on top of that. for the longest time, i thought they were saying morning morning…even at night time. its pronounced huanyingguanglin. say it really quick a couple times, sounds like morning morning right?)
me: 你。。。好. 一个。。。（turns hand into scissors and pretends to cut hair)。。。理发多少钱?. (hello…how much…is a haircut?)
lady:你是学生吗？ (are you a student?)
me: 学…生？ 啊！ 对对对！ 我是学生！ （stu…dent? ah! yes yes yes i’m a student!)
lady: 有没有学生证？ (do you have your student id card?)
me: (reaches into pockets even though he knows he doesn’t have one)啊！我忘了！下次….可以带吗？ (ah! i forgot it. can i bring it…next time? – while in head, thinks to self, there will be no next time)
lady: (nods head because she doesn’t want to have to deal with me anymore) 好的 – (ok)

maybe i should just bring my ISIC student card around with me just in case i see that lady elsewhere though…

here’s the final result

i’m trying to look like popeye in this picture. yes that’s a map of china in the background.

after the haircut, the guy gave me his card. his english name was Sky. sounds like a las vegas stripper.

i’ve found the playing stupid card really works a lot. when people know you speak english and are learning chinese it helps a lot too because you can’t tell if i’m lying or i just don’ t know how to speak chinese. for example i was in a park studying my textbook, and a homeless painter comes up to me, looks over and asks me in chinese if i’m japanese…and i say no i’m american, so he starts talking to me in english, which is cool i guess. the conversation went kind of something like this…my listening isn’t great, so all i got was the jist of what he was saying, so i’ll write what he said in english…:::dramatization:::

homeless painter: : hey! lets do a language exchange. you come here every sunday and we can help each other with the other person’s language, how does that sound?
me: 什么？ 听不懂（what? i don’t understand)
homeless painter: YOU…teach ME…ENGLISH. I…teach YOU CHINESE
me: 对，我在上海学习汉语。 (right, i’m in shanghai studying chinese)
homeless painter: :::giving up ::: why didn’t your dad teach you chinese when you were young?
me: 他很忙。(he was very busy)
homeless painter: what does he do?
me: 他。。。是。。一个老师 (he’s….a…teacher)
homeless painter: what does he teach?
me: 他。。教。。。(can’t think of anything so i say…)小学。。。 他。。教。。。math (he teaches…elementary school…he teaches…math)
homeless painter: oh! math is good!

i guess being a foreigner is pretty fun sometimes!

i can’t bargain in english, who am i to think i could do it in a foreign language?

so ive been looking for a gym and its been a little hard because im planning on moving. single months at gyms are ridic expensive, but they usually have 3 month memberships, and i plan on moving in june. this entry is as entertaining as it is sad.

ive done a lot of research on gyms here and all the expat forums talk about how if you are a local you can get ridic low prices at gyms. so as i approached this one gym, i was determined to be as local-y as possible. before i enter, im all ready with things to say in my head to try to look as non-foreigner-y as possible. i repeat “im planning on moving to an apartment nearby in june and wanted to take a look around” 10x in my head in what i believe is grammatically correct chinese. i enter the gym and walk up to the front desk. I breathe a deep breath, and let it out. i tell the front lady, she says 好 （ok）, and im thinking to myself， “this is working!”

then my feeling of elation does a -9.8m/s^2 when this guy brings out a clipboard with all chinese on it. “crap” im thinking to myself. i start from the right side because i see a bunch of phone numbers and do recognize the chinese characters for phone number. in the middle of my panic i forget my cell phone number, accidentally switching 2 of the numbers. “oh well,” i think to myself, “as long as it doesnt have too many/few numbers, who is going to know?” then i fill out my name. i was like pshh if i put an english name down im done for, what kind of local person puts his english name down. someone who wants to be mistaken for a foreigner and charged twice as much, that’s who! so i write my chinese name, which i havent done since one of the first days i got here and filled out some chinese paperwork. 黃。。。明。。。going strong i think to myself…i begin to write 德, and feel myself slowing down…heart pounding. the left side i remember, piece of cake…i make it to the right side and im like, “crap, is there a line under the cross? are there 2 vertical lines in the box or is it a plus sign?” i end up putting a plus sign in the box instead of two vertical lines. i blew it. “de?” he asks me? i agree, “dui! dui! dui!” in chinese, knowing that any sort of bargaining power has just been thrown out the window faster than a fat kid in gym class dodgeball. He starts to show me around and asks me some simple questions in chinese. We sit down to discuss prices and he doesn’t budge…haha. i told him in chinese id go check out another gym nearby, wills gym which is obviously a competitor. he starts telling me that wills gym is smaller, the pool is smaller, etc to try to retain me, but i tell him that ill check it out anyway and let him know that even as a foreigner, i am a foreigner from america, where competition reigns supreme!

ugh, i’m such a foreigner. but hey, the last character in my name is pretty hard, right? eh, whatever helps me sleep at night.

in other news, i will be traveling to beijing at the end of this month for 4 days. 今天北京的天气最高的气温是97度（beijing’s high today was 97 degrees.） FML<–i think that’s universal so no translation needed

speaking of FML, have you guys heard of My Life Is Average? –>http://new.mylifeisaverage.com/ pretty funny in it’s own, average kind of way since we can all relate. haonan showed steve, who showed me, who showed my blog.