So. Chinese KFCs are pretty amazing.

I went with my aunt today (she's pretty kickass too) so a KFC. I saw some commercials and it actually looked pretty good. The place had two stories, and was really clean. I suppose it's because of the janitorial staff - all attractive twenty-somethings - who cleaned up after everything (you don't even have to throw your stuff away, they do it for you). I had some Mexican wrap meal, which consisted of a Mexican wrap thing, a corn/pepper/celery cup thing (it was kind of like coleslaw except not disgusting), and a tropical citrusy type drink. The only bad part was you didn't get to get refills, but I suppose it's ok because the drink was pretty freaking amazing.

The food, actually, was pretty good. My aunt just got a normal spicy chicken sandwich, which, surprisingly, was remarkably similar to the advertised sandwich. I mean, the chicken was very well shaped, placed perfectly in the middle of the bun, and had shredded lettuce placed evenly on top of the chicken. The mayonnaise was pretty well done too, since I didn't see any annoying gobs of it flying everywhere - there was enough to taste, but not enough to make a mess.

The Mexican wrap was a pretty good facsimile of Mexican food here. It was a pretty decently sized strip of chicken, lettuce, salsa (!), and mayonnaise in a (what I assumed to be) tortilla shell. Unlike most wraps here, it wasn't bulky as to cause problems in eating it. The whole thing stayed together and didn't drip annoyingly. The corn and other vegetables were in a light mayonnaise-based sauce, and were pretty crisp. I suppose it's the Chinese imitation of coleslaw, but unlike coleslaw (which was, in reality, a leaked experiment by Nazi scientists looking for a more lethal way to kill Jews), was edible. And actually pretty good. The drink was great too, if they served it here I'd get it every time.

Now, the whole place was nice as well. There was jazz and other jazz-type music playing softly on the intercom, and the whole place was nice, clean, and well kept up. The food wasn't in the least bit fatty, and unlike American KFC, probably doesn't clog half an artery the moment you bite into it. Wings/Drumsticks/Popcorn chicken etc. aren't very popular there, and the KFC served mostly sandwiches. Hell, they have a shuangceng sandwich (two breast filets on one sandwich...kinda like a double cheeseburger) and different kinds of breading. There was also some chicken soup (with lots of vegetables - the couple sitting next to us probably thought I had some problem when I looked at their soup) and some dessert. Which reminds me.

Dessert was amazing. I had two little tofu-tarts (ok, don't judge them now), and they were totally worth it. The shell was light and airy, with a faintly sweet buttery flavor (though they weren't greasy in the least regard). The filling was a beaten tofu/egg mixture which almost melted in your mouth. You actually couldn't feel it there. The taste was slightly reminiscent of creme-brulee, and the top was slightly burnt to give it a tiny sweet-bitter aftertaste. The whole thing was great, and if they had them here I'd buy like 12 of them, take them to school, and eat them throughout the day.

Anyway, that's my little KFC adventure for today. Hope you enjoyed reading.

EDIT: Shit I found a subject-verb agreement error. Hope you guys didn't see it.

Ok. It's been ages since I've last updated. I suppose this entry will be about the end of school and uhh.... my first three days in Shanghai (I'm leaving for Xi'an tomorrow). If you're too lazy to read pages upon pages of text, you should probably stop now. But my thoughts on Shanghai are I suppose, funny in a biting sort of way. So here we go.

The first day of summer school was pretty uneventful. I came in and sat next to Viktoriya and genuinely hoped to god that you-know-you wouldn't come. Of course, being an atheist, God is out to get me and by some stroke of luck (divine retribution) he ended up sitting behind me. Well actually behind Viktoriya, but you get my point. Mr. Bates, I suppose, was a pretty cool guy. If I ever become a teacher, I'd like to become like him. I actually thought that summer school would be really easy, as I got everything in the first few days.

Boy was I wrong. By the end up summer school, I was hoping for a B+. I don't think I managed, seeing as though I got a thirty-six our of sixty on the final. To put things into perspective, Xingping almost got as many extra-credit points as I got questions right. Goddamn he's smart. Summer days were pretty fun, I suppose. The library really wasn't bad as we played euchre and other stuff. I went out to eat a lot with friends, though, such as Bub's, Taco Bell (Elliott is a chalupa) and err...Omar's house. The world cup game was at Omar's House and by the end of it, I wanted to beat Michael into a bloody pulp. I sometimes can't stand him. Come to think of it, I don't know how you guys stand me.

Umm...I've actually forgotten everything that's happened in summer school. My memory's really crappy so I suppose I'll just talk about the plane ride to China and uhh...first few days there.

So this time we took American Airlines or whatever to get to China. Usually we use Northwest, but I honestly have no clue why we changed this time. We actually went from Indianapolis to Chicago then straight to Shanghai, without stopping on the way. The ride to Chicago was ok I guess. I actually found some interesting articles in the AA magazine (I was saving the magazine catalog for later. I actually like reading those things). The Chicago airport was really big, and they actually have a special gate just for Chicago to Shanghai non-stop flights. It was jam-packed with asians.

The flight actually wasn't bad, if you don't pay attention to the food. The first meal was 'ok', with CHS quality salad (recycled organic matter from meat rendering plants), some pork teriyaki dish (actually pretty decent), some other stuff and dessert. The dessert was "Biscoff", a vaguely Teddy Gram-esque concoction that I've had once before. Which reminds me, I forgot to write about the Bigger/Better night with Kelsey's youth group. Of course, being the lazy git I am, I'll probably save it for later. Just remind me sometime and I'll get around to it eventually.

The ride itself was pretty uneventful. Unfortunately, I didn't get a window seat, but it was ok because even in coach, we got little TV screens on the back of the seats. I watched three movies, Cartoon Network (don't judge me), some BBC special, and two episodes of CSI. The movies were pretty good. Surprisingly, my favorite one was some Chinese comedy about a shopoholic. It was the first time I saw a flamboyantly gay asian (he was a guy who worked at some boutique), and I was surprised at how similar he was to CHS favorites such as Bloke Kaneese. Cartoon Network had some inane cartoons about some characters I didn't much care for. The BBC special was some technicolored animation thing set to music. I believe it was Gustav Holst's Neptune, but I only know this because it was in the first orchestra concert last year. The CSI episodes were good, and I was lucky enough to watch the episode with a really detailed autopsy. Basically he cut up the guy like a steak, opened his chest, and took out random organs and plopped them into a bucket.

Landing in Shanghai Pudong airport was a relief. We waited for about half an hour for our ride to arrive, but I suppose it wasn't a long wait. The first thing I noticed (besides the complete lack of sunshine in the city...the sky was some kind of chemically-colored gray, the kind you see in those low-budget dystopian films about nuclear holocausts) was how many plants were around the roads. The highway to Shanghai from Pudong Airport - which is by the way, quite possibly the worst name you can name an airport - was lined with random trees, all manicured to perfection to ensure foreign visitors would be sufficiently subdued. On the ride I was serenaded with such beautiful songs as Drop It Like It's Hot and other such trauma-inducing crap. The people talking between the songs were talking about going to the pool and Winne the Pooh. I'm not shitting you.

Ok, we arrived at the apartment of the family we're staying with. The mother is Lilly China VP and the father owns a dentistry practice, so the apartment was pretty nice. Wooden floors and fancy lights along with three bedrooms and a big screen TV were really nice touches. There was also a French exchange student, but he didn't talk much. The first day in Shanghai, I met up with an old friend from IUPA, Tommy Yu, and we went around buying pirated CDs. I got a bottle of fake Burberry cologne for around $5 USD. Dinner was at a fancy restuarant. It was the first time I had pigeon. I dont' recommend it. We ended up along Puxi and the Bund looking at the Pudong skyline. Tommy gawked at the girls - some were pretty good looking - but the night was generally pretty nice. He decided not to go to Suzhou with us the next day.

Anyway, the next day, me and our host family went to Suzhou. The driver of our little van apparently took the words "Outer Ring Road" as "Autobahn" and was hitting 100 mph. Not kph, mph. The lack of seat-belts really did nothing to help alleviate my concern. Even Kevin Golovin drives better. Suzhou was really boring, and it was freaking hot outside. Going to Suzhou is a pretty accurate representation of being baked alive in a giant oven. We visited a bunch of places and at this point I'm pretty much bored out of my mind. Right now, as I'm writing this, I mean. I think I'll finish this entry later. Sorry for the low quality writing :|