I haven't updated this livejournal for the longest time 'cause I've been a lazy bum. And I also don't like to bitch in writing, but since I have no one here to personally bitch at, this'll have to do.

For those who care, I left for China the day after my graduation and let me tell ya, it was hectic. Then my mom made this huge scene at the airport. She was complaining how our seats weren't together and how she refused to go on the trip if the airline didn't switch our seats. My dad was like "You don't scare me with that treat. I didn't want to go anyway." and he promptly went to refund the tickets. And he was dead serious. I was so pissed at my mom. I mean it's only 15 freakin' hours. She couldn't stand not to sit next to us for 15 freakin' hours that she had to ruin the whole trip. Well, turns out my dad just said to the airline that if they didn't get us new seats, we'd return the tickets. They finally got us seats that were next to each other and it was all okay. Oh, and Gee sat 10 rows behind me on the plane. Watched about 5 movies on the plane, including "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton". I am forced to admit that Kate Bosworth is gorgeous, and Orlando and her do make a very cute couple. Grrr to gorgeous girls.

Once we got to Hong Kong it was pretty much good. Freakin' humid in Hong Kong. You go outside and this head just HITS you. Very uncomfortable. Luckily the hotel that we checked into had ample amount of air conditioning. We met up with old relatives and new relatives, and all that. Went out for dinner in this super-fancy place and paid about $3000 HK for a crappy meal. And by that time I was going on 20-some hours without sleep. Went sight-seeing afterwards on this boardwalk that had famous movie stars' handprints and stuff. Way for Hong Kong to copy Hollywood. But they did have Jackie Chan and Jet Li, which was interesting. Saw the Hong Kong night scene by the lake. Very unimpressive; Chicago's is so much better. Bought this light-up Pikachu pin, though, that was really cute. And that was it for the day.

Woke up god-awfully early the next day 'cause my parents couldn't sleep. So, of course, they decided that meant I couldn't sleep either and dragged me up as well. We went back to the boardwalk and saw Hong Kong in the daylight. Even more unimpressive. Too much fog and mist everywhere. No blue sky at all. We bought some food and breakfast stuff for us and everyone else, which lost a fuckload of money. Stuff in Hong Kong are really expensive. I did see a San Fransico Cafe there which made me laugh. The only good thing about Hong Knog is that so many things are Americanized so that means you can definitely expect a toilet seat in the bathrooms and toilet paper as well. Always a good thing. After we got back to the hotel room, we packed and went to the ferry that was going to take us to Shenzhen, this really modernized city where some of my distant relatives live.

Got to Shenzhen and it's just as humid, if not more than, Hong Kong. But unlike Hong Kong, I could see the sun in Shenzhen; none of that haze crap. Got to my relatives house and let me tell ya, it was NICE. It has like 5 stories but more like 8 levels. Did I mention that my relatives are freakin' rich? They offered to buy me a laptop the first time they met me. And in Hong Kong, they gave me $2000 HK as spending money. They have this little dog who I wouldn't call cute in looks but very cute in attitude. We spent 2 days there and did lots of shopping. Oh, the shopping. I swoon just thinking about it now. So much good stuff for so little money. Ahhh, I want to go back again just to shop. Nothing more, just shop. And maybe eat. And oh did we eat. The food in Shenzhen was definitely better than Hong Kong's. I swear I gained like 5 pounds just in those 2 days. There was a lot of food.

Left for Guilin after the 2 days. Was picked up at the airport by my cousin, who's only like 20 years older than me. My mom's side's complicated. Went to his house/apartment which was also nice but it didn't have a toilet, just one of those flushable holes. Annoyed me so much. They also didn't have enough beds so I slept on the floor for 3 days. And since they have no carpet, it was hard. One cool thing is that my cousin's daughter, who's like 2-3 years younger than me, is really into anime, and she got me these great anime posters for $1.50 RMB each, which is like $.20 here. VERY nice deal. I did have to leave my .hack manga there with her 'cause my mom told me, but mom said she'd buy me another one so it's all good.

Guilin was beautiful with all the mountains and stuff like that. I've got lots of pictures if anyone wants to see them. We took this boat ride through the mountain range and it was gorgeous. It was kinda weird 'cause we were on a tour boat with all German people, and one American woman. My mom and I spoke to her for a while and found out she was from Boston and random stuff like that. Felt good to be speaking English for a while. There was just a lot of sight-seeing in Guilin and it was pretty exhausting. Oh, and more food. And this food was better than Shenzhen's. SO good. SO very, very good food. Gained like another 10 pounds at Guilin. Oh, and I did some shopping as well. Not as much as I wanted but still, some. Left for Xian after the 3rd day.

Xian was definitely cooler than any of the previous places. We were picked up at the airport by friends of my cousin. They were in the police academy so that was cool. They didn't have to pay toll on the highway or parking fees. Very nice deal. We went to the hotel room they booked for us, which was crap but oh well, and then went out for food. And let me tell ya, even though I wasn't remotely hungry, I still ate a LOT. It was soooooooooo good. The lamb. Oh, my mouth's watering now just thinking about it. Then, with the help of our police officer friends and their connections, we tracked down a relative that we haven't seen in over 20 years, which means I've never met them 'cause I'm not even 19 yet. So that was interesting. Went back to the hotel room like 30 mins later and went to bed. It was cold in the room 'cause we couldn't control the air conditioning. Sucked but we were only staying a night. Went to the First Emperor's tomb and it was very impressive, especially considering how old it is. Took lots of pictures, bought some stuff, got on a plane to Chongqing. Finally, after a week of non-stop travelling, we were heading "home".