Hilarity

This blog amuses me greatly. I think the author and I are on a level

http://ispyshanghai.com/wdpress/index.php

He has yet to respond to my email, but as always I live in hope. Mostly of electric mosquito bashers.

Shanghai Solar

This blog it the travel journal of a UK student on a summer research programme into solar panels in Shanghai.

Preparations:

• Visa - 120 days single entry. Trip to London, three hours queueing, by which time the 'same day' service had shut - meaning another annoying trip down to smog central four days later! Humourous Italian gent ahead of me and a good book for company
• Tickets: £440 on Expedia. Not bad - but via Russia! Must remember my Geiger counter...
• Typhoid jab (free). Other jabs all current except rabies and hepatitis B, both cost ~£90. Upshots are, I need to avoid wild animals, and also all of the following (courtesy of BBC - a luxury I may not have this summer!):
• Sharing contaminated needles for drug use - think I'm in the clear here
  
• Acupuncture - sounded unpleasant anyway
  
• Unprotected sexual intercourse - should be in the clear again
  
• Sharing razors - do people share razors??
  
• Blood transfusion or medical treatment - ie. make sure you can afford a flight to Hong Kong!
• Currency: get there, apparently. £1 ~ RMB 15 right now, so it seems like the perfect time to be travelling! My college has also given me a good chunk of funding, which makes things easier.
• Insurance: worrying mother has sorted things on that front. Wonderful!
• Westerner abroad: suncream (lots), wide brimmed hat, mosquito cream, oral rehydration tablets, water purification tablets, aspirin, paracetamol, poncho, sunglasses, several guide books, digital camera, regular camera, etc. Just kidding, I'm not organised to manage any of these so far (except the suncream - in sunny climbs I rapidly develop the complexion of a strawberry)
  

New laptop perhaps? Also am curious about mobile phones. I certainly don't want to be paying roaming rates all of the time, should I get a contract once I arrive there? Even though I'd only be for three months? A problem for another day.

So as things stand, I finish exams on the 4th June, have a few weeks of celebration and apprehension, receive results around the 21st, graduate on the 28th, and fly to Shanghai on the 29th! Allons-y! See you soon sunny Shanghai, this sceptered isle will have to do without me this summer.