I've gotten a complaint that something about the CIA and something else liberal... I don't even remember now what I posted up. Anyways, I've gotten a complaint that whatever I wrote way back when, wasn't all that interesting anymore, and perhaps wasn't really interesting at all to start with.

Anyways, the above picture is of me, earlier this year, as I was in Doha, Qatar for a layover enroute from Italy to China. It was the first time for me in the Middle East. In fact, it was the first time for me anywhere east of Austria and west of Yunnan, China. So, that was pretty cool. Also, Doha was the location of the last full round of WTO negotiations, and actually, is when they officially became the World Trade Organization from the pre-existing GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs), which, of course, for an econ buff like me, is kinda cool.


Then, my to China. This picture above was my little slice of heaven for the EIGHT HOUR train ride from Shanghai to Nanjing. You see, there are several types of train services in China, Tekuai - Express, Kuai - Fast, Pukuai - Regular, and finally, the one I took, which was Tamade Man - Really Fucking Slow. You see, Nanjing really isn't that far away from Shanghai. The express train makes the journey in just under three hours, and that's taking three or four slots along the way. Apparently the train I took was an "out of the normal schedule" train that they run when, for logistical reasons, they have to move a train from one part of the country to another, which means it really doesn't matter how fast, how many stops, or when it arrives. As one of my Chinese classmates told me later, "you never, ever, want to take one of those trains."

There's much more to write about my experience since I've been here. Now that I've made the introduction, I'll hopefully be writing more. To nutshell it though, I've been sick. I'm sick right now. I've been ill on four different occasions, and have been ill for over half time I've been here. I attribute my being ill to the environment here being so drastically different than one my body and immune system is used to (i.e. bad air pollution, different bugs in the food/water). Anyways, not surprisingly that has tainted my experience here. China, Nanjing, and the Center are actually not bad. I've just been disappointed that I feel like, for one reason or another (one of them being ill), I have yet to really take advantage of being here, and to do the things I'd planned to do ever since applying for the program. But that's a whole other bag of worms that I'll delve into later.