I'm back and kicking (literally)

I think the 10 days of walking, followed by the 10-hour flight home during most of which I sat in the same position, followed by the time zone change which I was not fully prepared for, have done something crazy to my leg muscles. Now I can't sit still for more than a few minutes without moving something or it will move itself. I also get involuntary full-body twitches when I'm trying to fall asleep.

Shanghai was, need I say, an amazing experience. The fact that it was overcast/rainy the entire time was the only thing keeping it from being gorgeous.





That, and the fact that it was dusty as fuck. After the rain, all the dust went on the ground and it became muddy as fuck. I think it must be from all the construction. They're doing a lot of renovation in order to get ready for the 2010 World Expo. This blue guy is Haibao, the mascot:



The night scenery, though, was more than spectacular. Because there was so much moisture in the air, my attempts to use the "nighttime" scene mode on my camera always resulted in little round blobs of light as the flash reflected off of the water droplets. So whenever I could find somewhere to rest my camera stably, I set my ISO to 80 or 100 and reduced the exposure to -1. (I don't really know why this works, it's just something that has worked for me in the past.)



Then of course there was the food! The previous time I went to China, we were on a tour, and for some reason they only took us to places that served food that wasn't much better than Panda Express. This time, thanks to the guidance of my aunt (who had been living in Shanghai for the past four years, although no longer) and the ubiquitous nature of street food vendors, I think I gained at least a couple pounds from stuffing my face.









That last picture was taken at the deli in a supermarket. Pretty awesome, even though I didn't actually eat any of the stuff there.

Anyhoo, now I'm back and I need to get back to FEA-ing and designing stuffs. I don't really feel like doing any work though. This trip has really gotten me into non-engineering mode. In fact, for the past few days I've been thinking about writing a short story. About what, I'm not sure yet.

I think I'll start working tomorrow.