Lately Hasaam's Been Underway

Day #25
Funds: [figure it out later I'm in a hurry!]

So I've been slumming it pretty much, just hangin around campus and the local area while people have been going crazy-touristy. I must admit this time round I've been a little disappointed with people's attitude towards bargaining. We seem to have a lot more 'shoppers' this time around, in that it almost seems like the spending of money is what's making them happy, nobody seems interested in the chase, and nobody wants to believe that yes, absolutely everything you buy here no matter where it's from or what label it has is equally likely to be of horrendous quality - it's not worth paying top dollar for it, just in case it is. People are bragging about having 5 kuai marked off, that's slightly more than a dollar, aw man no wonder the hawkers love us whiteys and try to rip me off all the time, ugh what a precedent some of these guys are setting ...
So yeah while people have been running around checking out sites I saw two years ago, I've pretty much been lounging around, going for walks or doing my homework sorta thing. Nice and simple, relaxing, is goooooood. The only problem is I pretty much don't take photos at all these days, just because I can't be bothered bringing my camera around all the time - I've settled. Whipping out a camera at a moment's notice isn't really part of my series of usual habits.
Oh went to the House of Jazz and Blues the other night, instead of Bonbons. Good call, Dylan! The ambience was very chilled, the music was awesome, and I caught up with this guy I met from the Shanghai Train there too. He brought a fellow student who also went to his Taiwanese Uni and we quickly realised she was Japanese. Cue the hilariously mind-bending 3-language conversation. Eugene and Rui with their awesome Mandarin + Me and Eugene with our native English dominated, but amazingly, there were occasions where I remembered a Jap word or two that Eugene didn't know the Mandarin for, and I tried to use as much Chinese as I could. I can't describe the weirdness of the using Japanese after so long. It was kind of like, you know when you sit on your leg or something for a while and then you try to walk and the blood just comes rushing back to it? It was kinda like that feeling, only IN MY BRAIN. I was even able to eventually come up with the sentence in Jap "remembering all these words feels like flowers blossoming in my mind", that was funny. [この言葉を覚えてるのは頭で花が咲いてるみたい/kono kotoba wo oboeteru no wa atama de hana ga saiteru mitai!] Part of me was reignited I spose, I'm really psyched about Japan all over again, like the way I was years ago. I can't really say or do anything useful, but I got a good feeling about how much I'm going to improve once I'm there.
But yeah, Bonbons = 150RMB to get in, then drinks are free. Drinks are incredibly strong, and water is an insane price. We swung by after to go make sure our terribly drunk friends were okay (didn't go in of course) and helped them taxi home. Monica was a little nuts, and wouldn't shut up about water. I continue to give her shit for this.
Me and this guy Quincy have begun distributing nicknames. I like this very much. I'm still Killer Mike cos that's what they called me for some reason last time, Shaun = Stinger and David = Deadly Dave. Man, we are out of control. Quincy also helped us discover that bread here actually isn't as bad as you might think, and I've been eating SO MUCH LATELY.
The food here tastes nice, but my goodness is it loaded with MSG and sugar and grease. I have no idea how I managed to eat out every meal last time. Me and Dylan snapped the other day and bought Australian-Made Oats (gooooo Patriotism!) and fruit and bread and yoghurt and juice, and having that stuff for breakfast really feels different. I feel all kinds of awesome having dodged the grease lately.
Uhhhh what else? Uh, got beaten up in the hallway. Sort of. This guy Lenny is a little nuts about physical fitness, boxing, martial arts, etc. The other night he taught me a few things to do with grappling, we drew a small crowd outside our rooms as we rolled around the floor pretty much dripping sweat all over, man did we smell bad. But it actually was pretty fun, this guy's a total tank so he had to go easy on me, let me get a few shots in and all that.
My dreams are becoming more vivid again. Lots of colour n stuff. Does that mean I'm sleeping properly or badly? Dylan reckons one night I sat bolt upright, mumbled something frantic in Japanese and stared at him. Then I apparently said nothing to him when he asked me if I'd just had a Jap nightmare, I went to the toilet and came back still ignoring him. I have no memory of this whatsoever, but Dylan can't seem to tell the story without laughing. =S
The vibe here is becoming gradually more high school as we go along. I'm trying to stay mature, last time it was so much easier to do that since I barely knew anybody. This time I'm just gonna have to stay grounded on my own merit/awesome. People are basically good now, few clashes of personality here and there though I guess. We'll see what happens. 1 week = 1 essay. That's doing my head in a little, too, since the material is OH SO MUNDANE AND DRY. More on that later, Dylan's trying to get me to go work-out in the park with him and the oldies. More on that later. Oh and I have a different story about old people in the park, maybe soon I'll just do a whole blog about that XD