Arrived in Shanghai

Cheers. After a full day of travel, including a fourteen hour flight that that featured Quantum of Solace, Fight Club, American Beauty, an entire dystopian novel about organ harvesting, and an unreasonable obsession with deep vein thrombosis, I am in my hotel room (very cozy) toasting Shanghai with a cold Tsingtao.


Of course I had to walk through a torrential downpour to go buy this beer, so I am hoping that my laptop will not electrocute me while I sit it on my wet jeans. Is there anything better than wet jeans?


In about 20 minutes, the team from the KaosPilots is coming to take me out to dinner. Thank God.


In my brief stroll through the rain, I realized that I have no idea how to get around here yet. I know I just arrived, I am jetlagged, it is raining, and it's quickly becoming dark, but I am armed with only a fistful of yuan, a map that shows the location of my hotel in Chinese, and possibly the most limited ability to speak the language in the entire country.


I spent time on the plane with the Berlitz application built into the entertainment system trying to master the two most basic concepts anyone should know: hello and thank you. I kind of have those down, but the tonal nature of Chinese means that even the slightest adjustment to the proper syllables can change their meaning completely. I am so afraid that I am saying "horse face" instead of "hello" or "bite me" instead of "thank you." At least that is what I am garnering from most people's reactions.

The Inspiration Tour starts tomorrow, so there will be more tales to come, but so far the arrival phase seems to have gone off without issue.

I hope you are all still sleeping.

Gam Bei -- "cheers" over here.

Hey look...I just learned another important phrase. Unless I am saying "suck blood!" or something.