breathing pollution.

it's weird. i can post and all that [obviously], but when i try to see my public blog, i can't get to it! damn you china and your censorship laws. i can't even get to xanga at all. sadness.
so i definitely developed a slight tickle in the throat/coughing-up-my-entire-lungs after yesterday. i mean, i realize that as soon as my plane landed in beijing, i was breathing in pure pollution [not that i wasn't back in the states. but you wouldn't believe how bad it is here. srsly] but hot damn! it was okay and i was doing alright until a few days ago when i got semi-sick. a few of my friends in my program had gotten sick so i guess they gave it to me. gee thanks. anyway, i had trouble swallowing, felt incredibly dehydrated, and had a dull pounding headache. FUN.
got over it eventually. sort of. but then we decided to walk to the area around the olympic stadium, aka the birds nest, and the air was like, 5x worse there. you could feel the dust and shit coating your throat. it was pretty gross. so ever since then i've been coughing and hacking and it's been rather disgusting.
now i can see why everyone here spits all the time. yuck.

also, there doesn't seem to be any kind of sense to how people drive here. people rarely use blinkers. they just kinda swerve between lanes, trying to figure out the fastest route. i mean, you get so freakin' close to other cars, it's unnerving. and the walking lights are so short!! not fun. and then there are some drivers who don't even observe when it's a red light and keep on driving. not cool when you're crossing the street and you walk past a car that's stopped but then the car next to it comes out of nowhere and almost runs you over. goodness.
i've also noticed that my friends and i are like, the only people that run to cross the street. everyone else just kinda keeps on walking at the same pace as they were before. i feel like an idiot but i'd rather live thanks. the pedestrians seem to be almost just as bad as the cars/bikes/mopeds. they do whatever they want, even if it's not their turn.

i feel like china is going to turn me into a really rude person. i mean you kinda have to be like that if you don't want people walking all over you [both literally and figuratively]. like, we were waiting in line to get tickets to the science & technology museum yesterday and my friends and i were clearly next in line and these other chinese people just cut! bastards. i was about to throw them to the side and ask them what the hell is wrong with them that they can't wait their fucking turn. hooray for inside voices. but yeah, i've definitely started pushing and shoving and all that. i barely even say 'sorry' or 'excuse me' anymore. oh boy.

when we went out dancing a few nights ago, we went to a place called pyros which was filled with ALL FOREIGNERS. no joke. there were a few asian faces there but i dunno if they were from china or elsewhere and didn't want to make any assumptions. anyway, that was kind of strange. and then we went dancing next door at propaganda which was fun. mostly chinese. but it was interesting to note that almost all the music played was from america. i think we maybe heard one chinese song total. oh well.

classes start tomorrow [at least the chinese language ones do] and i'm a little freaked. i mean, i'm still in elementary chinese but am slightly higher up. oh geez. i was looking through the books i had to buy and some of the directions are all in chinese and i'm like WTF?! I CAN'T READ ANY OF THIS. it's gonna be rough. i've got class monday through friday, each day starting at 8am. UGHHHHHHHHH. and at least for 3 hours, if not more. it's gonna be intense. and that's not even including my two electives! WTFFFF. this is gonna be freakin' crazyyyyyy.