Day 5 (retroactive)

Today was a complete waste of time. The only thing we accomplished, beyond necessary e-mails, was to purchase tickets to Shanghai.

And if I'm honest with myself, my reasons for going to Shanghai are somewhat suspect.

I am justifying the trip by saying that it cements my relationships with key contacts who will be instrumental in future exercises.

However, the truth is, I long to get down and party with my homegirls, old-school style.

I figure that meeting Emma, dear Emma, and Pingping in the Pearl of the Orient will help my study, in a secondary manner. And in a primary manner, it will help my mood. And perhaps my jetlag, as I have not made it past nine PM yet.

If I don't stay up past 9 PM in the Pearl (or whore) of the Orient, please shoot me, I have lost all credibility as a college student.

On a side note, today we discovered the Librerie Avant Garde, an aptly named bookstore, also located in the basement of Wutaishan. I'd never seen such a strange bookstore; if it hadn't been odd for it's underground carpark architecture, the decoration alone would have made it odder than any college town pot-smoking nihilistic bookstore I'd ever entered.

For one thing, it had a story-tall giant cross suspended on one wall. Facing it, on the crossbar of a giant, concrete support beam was the red star of the Chinese People's Army. Photos of prominent intellectuals were papered across the walls haphazardly, almost without any distinction. Che was next to Gandhi was next to Warhol was next to Bradbury was next to Cobain. Finally, three rows of chairs had been placed in a semi-circle to create a small, make-shift ampitheatre facing, of course, a television loudly playing a live concert of the Eagles.

I took about a dozen photos, and cannot wait to post them.