Oh, and 12minds.com won't be up as soon as I had hoped. Once this internet nonsense gets taken care of, then I want it up as soon as it can be. Until then, though, it'll be a day at a time...just like with everything else. In general, though, I'm really mixed about being here. Everyday is full of highs and lows going between feeling hopeful about being here and getting used to everything and the low of depression and feeling like i'll never learn the language and never really make friends. It's tough, but as long as it's a day at a time, then maybe it's managable.

-Alberto

Greetings from China. Nanjing has finally started to warm up...and that's really all I got. I'd like to sound brave and say that I'm totally getting used to living in this god-forsaken city/country/continent...but I'm not gonna do that. I'm going to use this site to complain and bitch and moan.

First off...I really don't know where to begin. I miss home and comfort in general, and I really can't believe that I'm going to be here for a full year..minimum. I quit.

On a good note, I'm moving into my apartment today. On a bad note, I don't know if my internet will work. Apparently in addition to being the only hispanic in Nanjing (or China for that matter), it seems as if I'm also the only mac user. So the software to set up the cable modem for my friends was a .exe file which doesn't work for macs (good side to that is that we don't get those viruses all you pc users get. the bad side to that is apparently we don't get access to internet in china...)

So I might be online, I might not..oy.

And yeah, Alicson reminded me of a funny story on my first day in Nanjing. I didn't know the word or character for the word 'Bank' in Chinese, and I was looking for the bank of china. So all I knew was the word for China. So I was walking around asking people how to get to China and then I made the hand gestures for money. Finally I went to a nearby bank, looked at the characters and figured out the character. So I wrote down the characters for Bank and for China. Some guy helped me out and I finally made it to the lovely lovely bank of china. (Zhong Guo Yin Hang).

End of story.

Off to class in like an hour. gotta run to the Yin Hang before, though, so it's time for me to jet. Seriously people, enjoy the states and the west in general!

-Alberto