Welcome to Shanghai

Let's see...where to begin?

My new home for the next 6 months or so and already I feel like I'm being tested with patience. My biggest pet peeve is coming to life. I hate rude, impatient and dirty people. Yet, here I am surrounded by it.
Lessons learned/ still in the process of learning from Shanghai:

1. There is no such thing as personal space.
People just walk up inches to your face. It gets even better on the subways....
2. Covering your mouth when you cough/sneeze does not exist
Oh how I love walking into your snot/spit.
3. Patience is SERIOUSLY a virtue.
People hate waiting here, so much in fact that they totally dismiss the fact that I'm waiting..right in front of them.
4. They LOVE to stare.
Yes, I DO see you.
5. Be Aggressive, be be aggressive
Otherwise...no one will listen/acknowledge/see you.
6. I don't understand chinese with weird accents
(that isn't a lesson I can really learn i suppose, I'll just have to get used to it)
7. The sleeping bag jacket is IN.
the cocoon jacket/ down jacket I bought in NY is everywhere in Shanghai, I guess I fit right in.
8. Don't drink the water.
9. Always carry around napkins
10. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.
11. Bikers seem to always have the right of way.
12. UCI VPN FTW
facebook,youtube, and my blog are blocked.
(thanks to Timmy, uci vpn saved my life!...my blog works now!)

Don't get me wrong, there have been upsides, the food is amazing and its just as cheap as everyone raves. I'm loving the no tip, no tax. The taxis are pretty cheap, and so are the bootleg dvds...
I love the city, the shopping, the metro, and my mom. My mom is the best travel buddy I could have asked for. She really is charming, we've managed to get free dinner from the many connections she has..and When people are rude, I get mad, she just let's them go ahead of us. I'm torn between throwing something at them and yelling at them in the broken Chinese that I have but she decides to just let them go, they're in a bigger rush anyway" I can't imagine what it'll be like when she leaves..which is in a couple days.
I hope things look up..I need them to.