i'm back!!!

figured it would be better to make a trip update a blog post instead of a bulletin. anyways!

learning went terrible! not because the teachers were horrible but because i missed a couple of answers on the entry test and was put in a weak beginners group. the decision to make two groups of 30something (!!!!) people was very poor!!! and i suffered for it. and some miscommunications happened in other aspects regarding organizing. but whatever! that's on the company that arranged the trip and on the university, not on the country.

as for the rest: wow it's cheap. with stuff so cheap it's easy to indulge in consumerism! which i did. 5 chibi prize figures (3 hsr and 2 hi3), 4 wafers (2 p3re and 2 p5r), some clothing of a brand that understandably left russian shelves, a bunch of teas (not the kind you think of) (i think it's cheaper to buy imported tea in russia than to buy it in china and bring it over yourself) (i bought the silly kind of tea that isn't sold in russia at all) (barley and corn tea) (my family likes barley tea so far but we haven't gotten around trying corn tea)

what else. man why the hell is everything paid from phone apps? caaaards gimme caaaaards. but that's a minor inconvenience. there is a workaround, which i used. but i am not glad that i could pay with my card in like a couple of places.

ah, places! been around a bunch of places in tianjin. looked around in xingye shuma guangchang (found nothing of interest), bought a vita in bainaohui not so far from there (gotta make a full transition from psp to vita), visited some old-style places, namely guwenhua jie, gulou and the street near it and yangliuqing guzhen. cool! i don't really have much to say though. also saw beijing briefly. it was sunday so instead of visiting gugong or tiananmen my friends and i went to jingshan gongyuan. 0 regrets.

and oh got. i am white. the "taking photos of strangers w/o their consent" problem is dire here if you're white. i think i don't really have a problem with others publishing my photos... but if you do and you're white - don't come. it was like bad and even worse in tourist destinations and slightly further from them, but i didn't notice anything in places where people mind their own business - work or living districts.

i don't handle high temperatures well, like anything above 24 celsius and i turn sluggish, so i think i did insanely well that i had no health complications. wear a hat always.

in general i think the trip went well! i have reasons to return. including me liking the place.