Qingdao

I've been in Qingdao for over 3 weeks now. My daily routine is thus:

7:30am Wake up.
8:00 Go to class where the teacher speaks too fast and I learn inane words like 超声波 Ultrasonic Wave.
9:00 Break 1, I go for a smoke with my Japanese friend Honda-san, a retiree who I like chatting with in my broken mandarin.
10:00 Break 2, I talk to Ian, a fellow American. Ian is very popular among the Korean girls here as he is 1/2 Korean himself and can speak with them. They generally wave and say hi to me, but they can't speak much Chinese and I don't speak Korean so it ends up getting old fast. The Korean guys just smoke a lot.
11:00 Break 3, I avoid Phillip, or as I call him the Polish Asshole. All the guys hate him in class. A royal turd of a person who is arrogant, rude, and stupid. The girls seem to like him as they think he's funny and cool. Says a lot about something.
12:00 End of school. If I am feeling good I go eat with someone. We head to 青大一路, the local food street for students where we eat very well for $3. On special days I get drunk at lunch. On depressed days, I order some noodles and ask myself what the hell I am doing in China.
1:oopm I go back to my room and nap for an hour.
2:00 I wake up and avoid studying by blogging or calling someone back in the States. Why don't people call me?
6:00 I try to figure out my dinner plans. The school cafeteria is monstrously big, loud, and not too appetizing. I've eaten there once so far, but most foreigners avoid it. I think tonight I will go with the Indonesians. They like to eat well and I don't have to talk too much with them.
7:00 Study the endless list of Chinese characters that all sound the same. I am feeling better that I can read more and more, which keeps me going.
10:00 Call my girlfriend in Shanghai. She's just moved there and is not liking it too much. We speak in Mandarin now which is pretty cool. Mainly it's her speaking and me going through my pat set of 200 phrases. Then I watch some TV. Chinese TV is pretty awful full of bad state produced media or hilarious chinese infomercials. Korean TV is pretty awful, but the people look nice and the characters are reassuring in their 2 dimensional way. Japanese TV is much better and relaxes me. I like to watch their cooking shows. Thank you NHK.
12:00 Sleep on a rock hard bed that is killing my back. What's up with the beds China?

On weekends I hang out with the motley crew of friends I have here to avoid the nagging sense of loneliness and confusion that creeps into my mind when I am alone.