This is my Trail

Ode to my Passport

2011-04-01T10:16:00.006-04:00

My passport and I have had a lot of adventures together over the past 9 years. Now we will be forced to part due to an arbitrary date of expiration. Today I must send dear old friend passport away, and get a younger, uglier, thinner, empty model with a newfangled tracker chip. So this post is dedicated to you, passport that helped me accomplish one of my life goals--to fill you up!

Oh, the fun we had! Take a walk down memory lane with me, passport...

Once, we drove about 10 minutes into Cambodia after being forced to leave you at the Vietnamese border. Thankfully, we were happily reunited after lunch.
Then there was that time you were stolen from my nightstand while I slept and then dumped unceremoniously under a bush. Can you imagine, Mr. American passport dumped under a bush in China?! The nerve!
In Cuba, they refused to stamp you, but the papers they stamped instead left a smudge, a bright pink smudge, fitting for Cuba.
Then I had to take you to the Beijing embassy, where they unceremoniously taped extra pages unevenly in the middle of you.
I love your European stamps that show if you came by car or train or plane. I wonder what happens if you walk across the border?

Why are Asian countries are so particular about stamping entry and exit next to each other neatly, while the world stamps totally at random (causing the passport rage demonstrated in the picture, taken on the train at the Austria/Slovakia border)?

Oh passport, you are so beautiful with your 35 stamps, 12 visas, and one pink Cuba smudge. Traveling will just never be the same again...

Richer than you think?

2011-01-30T18:23:00.009-05:00

So...I'm pretty bummed that my epic Egypt adventure is not going to happen, at least in the immediate future.

But in reality, I don't have much to complain about. I'm richer than 96.25% of the world. How's that for a perspective changer? You can go to http://www.globalrichlist.com/ and put in your own salary to see where you stand...

I'm the 225,217,392 richest person on earth!

Discover how rich you are! >>

Places to Go in 2011

2011-01-12T13:50:00.003-05:00

I love it when the New York Times comes out with a list of places to go. Granted, it's geared towards people with a lot more money than me, but it's still an interesting read. They put together an interesting list of both already-popular places (Okinawa, Oahu, London, Miami), but also more obscure up and coming places (Iraq?!).

They even list a place in China that I've never been: Pingyao. That's a fail for me, since I consider myself well-traveled in China. It's been on my list, but I've never made it there. In 2004, I chose to go to Tibet instead. I stand by that choice, but maybe this is the year to make it happen. I'd also like to make it to Koh Samui this year. It's possible...

Here are the 41 places they list for 2011. The ones in bold are the ones I've been to (7 altogether--pathetic!). However, this list talks a lot about new developments, new restaurants, etc. So really, it means I need to go back to all of these places!

Santiago, Chile
San Juan Islands, Washington
Koh Samui, Thailand
Iceland
Milan
Republic of Georgia
London
Loreto, Mexico
Park City, Utah
Cali, Colombia
The Danube
Niseko, Japan
Oahu
Antwerp, Belgium
Melbourne, Australia
Tlemcen, Algeria
Sopot and Gdansk, Poland
Erzurum, Turkey
Hyderabad, India
Manchester, England
Tallinn, Estonia
Fogo Island, Newfoundland
Singapore
Port Ghalib, Egypt
Whistler, British Columbia
Guimarães, Portugal
Olympic Park, Washington
Dresden, Germany
Oualidia, Morocco
Zanzibar
Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay
Tozeur, Tunisia
Hangzhou, China
Iraqi Kurdistan
Durham, NC
Kosovo
Pingyao, China
Salonika, Greece
Okinawa, Japan
Budapest
Miami

Where are you headed in 2011?

International Woman of Mystery

2011-01-06T09:48:00.005-05:00

I'm pretty sure this is exactly the travel accessory that I have been lacking. With it, I would truly become an international woman of mystery. Exploring tombs in Egypt, hugging koalas in Australia, going on safari in Africa, I'm confident that they would all be more adventurous with this bag over my shoulder...

It's $537, but has a one hundred year warranty. Anyone want to give me a late Christmas present?!

Buy it here!

Egypt!

2010-12-06T10:17:00.004-05:00

I'm going to check another country off my must-visit list: EGYPT!

Yes, that's right, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to Egypt in February! Plane ticket booked on British Airways. And it even includes a whole day in London as well!

Now I want to go home over Christmas break and read all the wonderful young adult fiction books set in Egypt that I used to love in middle school!

One of my favorites:

Mara: Daughter of the Nile

Sanity and/or Fear

2010-10-29T10:42:00.008-04:00

I really find this endlessly amusing...

America, the Greatest Country God ever gave Man, was built on three bedrock principles: Freedom. Liberty. And Fear — that someone might take our Freedom and Liberty. But now, there are dark, optimistic forces trying to take away our Fear — forces with salt and pepper hair and way more Emmys than they need. They want to replace our Fear with reason. But never forget — “Reason” is just one letter away from “Treason.” Coincidence? Reasonable people would say it is, but America can’t afford to take that chance.

So join The Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A. on October 30th for the “March to Keep Fear Alive“™ in Washington DC. Pack an overnight bag with five extra sets of underwear — you’re going to need them. Because, to Restore Truthiness we must always… Shh!!! What’s that sound?! I think there’s someone behind you! Run!

“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

Who among us has not wanted to open their window and shout that at the top of their lungs?

Seriously, who?

Because we’re looking for those people. We’re looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it’s appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles.

Are you one of those people? Excellent. Then we’d like you to join us in Washington, DC on October 30 — a date of no significance whatsoever — at the Daily Show’s “Rally to Restore Sanity.”

Ours is a rally for the people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs) — not so much the Silent Majority as the Busy Majority. If we had to sum up the political view of our participants in a single sentence… we couldn’t. That’s sort of the point.

Think of our event as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement; the Million Man March, only a lot smaller, and a bit less of a sausage fest; or the Gathering of the Juggalos, but instead of throwing our feces at Tila Tequila, we’ll be actively *not* throwing our feces at Tila Tequila. Join us in the shadow of the Washington Monument. And bring your indoor voice. Or don’t. If you’d rather stay home, go to work, or drive your kids to soccer practice… Actually, please come anyway. Ask the sitter if she can stay a few extra hours, just this once. We’ll make it worth your while.

Some of My Favorite Things

2010-08-12T10:45:00.000-04:00

Some of my favorite DC summertime activities are coming up next week! I'm busy with work, but I'll have to make some time for these events I love!

Comcast Film Festival (August 13-20)
Free Outdoor movies, and you can buy Hard Times Cafe Chili fries (and the proceeds go to a good cause--NIH Children's Charities)! Best thing ever!

http://www.filmfestnih.org/

Shakespeare Free for All (August 19-September 5)
Last year's Taming of the Shrew was laugh-out-loud (yes, lol) funny! This year they are doing Twelfth Night. Nothing beats free Shakespeare!

http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/about/ffa/index.aspx

Summer Restaurant Week (August 16-22, 2010)
Lunches are $20.10 and Dinners are $35.10 at all participating restaurants! I love this chance to have a three course meal for a reasonable price at the best restaurants in town!

http://washington.org/restaurantwk/

...and Jazz in the Garden is still going on as well (every Friday until September 10)!

http://www.nga.gov/programs/jazz/

I want to use the slide!

2010-08-11T13:18:00.002-04:00

Finally, people see that going down the emergency slide would be fun! After my plane crash-landed in Montreal (in 2000), I asked the flight attendant if I could use the slide. She glared at me...

N.Y. / Region

City Room: Considering the Chute, in the Event of a Non-Emergency

By CATE DOTY

Published: August 10, 2010

You can't help but wonder: Did Steven Slater enjoy his seconds-long trip down the chute, that quick-escape device that looks like a grown-up slip-and-slide?

Craziest Week Ever

2010-08-08T22:29:00.006-04:00

Have any of you ever watched that VH1 show Best Week Ever? I'm not sure my week qualifies at the best week ever, but it was certainly the craziest.

Last Friday: Sereena picks me up at 6:30 am to go to the "Running of the Brides" at Filene's in Friendship Heights. She found a dress that was originally $1,000+, and bought it at more than 75% discount. Then, at dinner, I knocked a whole glass of water on Sereena's lap.

Saturday: Anne and I borrow Sereena's car to go camping. I hit a pothole and the tire explodes. We're saved by a man with a gun on his belt. Yay Virginia.

Sunday: I work from 2:30pm to 2:30am. So much for starting the week rested.

Monday: I take 13 students to San Phan (a Thai restaurant) for lunch, and then teach them how to use the Metro. On Monday night, we had a BBQ at my boss' house with ambassadors, professors, and business people (I'm thinking it would be inappropriate to name drop my personal blog). It was a fun little shindig around the pool.

Tuesday: I have to rush across town at lunchtime to pay for a meal that no one else has money to pay for. It was over $300 (for 23 people). Glad my credit card wasn't rejected.

Wednesday: Had a meeting with my boss, a well-known Senator, and one LA. Definitely haven't had occasion to sit around a table with a Senator before. Baked cupcakes for all the students/interns (2 birthdays!)

Thursday: Went to a party at the Singaporean Embassy, and was possibly hit on by some crazy guys from the State Department's Protective Service division.

Friday: TGIF. Can't believe I actually made it! Went to a social event with the students in Dupont Circle, then to TangySweet and to see Inception with my roomie and her boyfriend. Almost feel asleep during the movie, but who can blame me after such a crazy week?

And now it's Sunday. Time to do it all again. Have to call China tonight, my parents will be in town on Monday, taking the students to the Nats game on Wednesday, going to Charlottesville on Friday, sushi-making class on Saturday, etc.

Thanks for making DC sexy, Barack!

2010-07-27T21:43:00.002-04:00

I'm just going to go ahead and say it: DC is so much sexier now than it was when I was in college here. I credit Barack Obama.

Evidence in Reality TV:

The Real World
I would personally next like to see Real World: Capitol Hill interns. I'm pretty sure some of them are crazy enough to deserve a show of their own.

Top Chef DC
So we may not be NYC, but DC has good food too!

DC Cupcakes
DC certainly isn't lacking in cupcakes. I'm still not convinced that Georgetown Cupcakes are better than Curbside Cupcakes, Baked + Wired, etc., so bring on the tourists to Georgetown Cupake; I'll continue to go somewhere I don't have to stand in line!

And, coming soon...
Real Housewives of DC
A housewife from Real Housewives snuck into an event at the White House people. Case closed. Barack Obama has made DC sexy.

It doesn't quite seem fair...

2010-06-20T16:29:00.005-04:00

My wallet was stolen today, June 20. I usually don't have cash, but since I bought my bike with cash yesterday, I had $50. Even though I canceled my credit cards about an hour later, they had already managed to charge $180 in Metro cards.
My bike was stolen from our company Christmas party in Kunming in December 2008.
My wallet was stolen while getting on the bus in Kunming twice, once when I was leaving to go on a day trip, and thus had more cash than usual. Once I paid about ~$8US in ransom to get the wallet back. Since it had my credit card and such, it was worth it. Thieves on the bus in Kunming also tried to take my iPod at least 3 times, but I thwarted them each time. I'm proud of my iPod protection skills!
My phone was stolen while at lunch in Kunming. It was the cheapest phone available, and more than a year old, so I don't really understand that one.
My car was broken into twice near Wisconsin Ave in DC within a few weeks. They took my CD player/radio and all the CDs I have ever owned (hundreds), and the second time they took the iPod speakers I had been using so I could listen to music in the car. I wasn't dumb enough to leave my iPod in the car.
My hotel room was broken into while I was sleeping in it in Nanning, China in August 2002. They took passports, plane tickets, camera, cash, etc. on the day before we were supposed to leave the country. Thankfully they dumped the passports, credit cards, and plane tickets outside of our window.

Yes, that's 8 times in 8 years. And that doesn't take into account the times my parents van was broken into when I was a kid. When the van was parked at the inner harbor in Baltimore, they took my entire life savings (like $4) and my Oakland A's wallet. One year we were in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl over New Year's and someone broke in and took all of our Christmas presents. That was extra lame. My purse was also taken from inside the car at our old church in Gainesville.

All that to say that it just doesn't quite seem fair. Steal something from someone else next time, please!!!

Public Diplomacy

2010-05-31T19:41:00.001-04:00

So, I had lunch yesterday with Ambassador/Commissioner General to the Expo Jose Villarreal. He was wearing this very suit. Then he was back to the Expo to welcome the one millionth visitor to the US Pavilion, this nine-year-old girl from Wuxi. She looks cute in her cowboy hat (a gift for being the one millionth visitor).

One million is a lot of people! And to think the US almost didn't have a Pavilion at all. Craziness! Whatever happened to public diplomacy anyway? It's a huge mistake for the government not to support these things (at least when they take place in China, our best frienemy). The USA Pavilion at the Expo will see more people in six months than the all of the consulates in China see in THIRTY YEARS. Yes, thirty years. And that's including all the people we reject for visas, who won't have the most positive view of the US after their experience at the consulate.

One of the other people at lunch was the Shanghai Consulate's Information Officer, who is a Public Diplomacy Foreign Service Officer. It was interesting to talk to him about the foreign service, public diplomacy, and how close the US came to committing the biggest faux pas ever in not participating at the Expo. The Chinese government often talks about how certain US actions, like meeting with the Dalai Lama, "hurt the feelings of the Chinese people." I usually find that a bit ridiculous. But not having a Pavilion at the Expo (which most of you have probably never heard of, but is a big deal in China) would have actually hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. Aside from how ridiculously pissed China would have been, how could the US even think of missing an opportunity to create a positive impression and reach out to this many Chinese people? And how could they leave it to companies to pay for it? Chinese people already know about Coca-Cola and McDonalds. What they don't realize is that American don't actually eat McDonalds (or Burger King or Pizza Hut or Dairy Queen every day).

At any rate, Secretary Clinton, Ambassador Villarreal and others pulled it together in the end, and have seen a million visitors in the first month. They also have a blog in both Chinese and English, which is smart, because what this Expo is really about is reaching out to the Chinese people. It's called Public Diplomacy. Perhaps we should get back to that. First step: Don't fail Rachelle on the Foreign Service Exam next time!!!

Well, I'm off to see the USA Pavilion (and whatever other things I don't have to wait in line for) myself today.

Beijing Restaurants

2010-05-26T03:55:00.001-04:00

Thought I'd share some information about some good food I had in Beijing...if you google any of these restaurant names, you will find addresses, etc. Check these places out if you find yourself in Beijing!

Hai Di Lao Hot Pot (海底捞火锅) - Thanks to Sabrina (Chong Zhang) for taking Xiong and I to this great hot pot restaurant. It's a chain, with quite a few restaurants in Beijing, and is known for its good service. The service has to be some of the best I've had in China. I'm not sure that the hot pot was remarkable, but it was good, and there is a sauce bar where you can create your own dipping sauce. They also gave us some free fruit due to either the fact that I am a foreigner or that it was Xiong's first night in Beijing. They then decided that they should give us a tour of the kitchen. We could see why they are proud of it, it was quite clean, modern, and efficient (not always words I associate with Beijing). They also have someone who knows quite an acrobatic show of making hand pulled noodles. Definitely a fun experience for my first night back in China!

Din Tai Fung (鼎泰丰) - "the" place for Xiaolongbao (Shanghai dumplings), according to my boss (whose food advice I usually heed). The restaurant actually comes from Taiwan (which I'm sure will not pass muster with Shanghainese), but has stores in Beijing, Shanghai, etc. If you don't have a chance to get to Shanghai, you should definitely check out Din Tai Fung in Beijing. It's busy, so make a reservation! The menu is not that interesting besides the Xiao Long Bao, of which there were two kinds, although I don't remember what the difference was. The skin is so thin, and there is plenty of soup inside. Xiaolongbao are really fun to eat!

Great Wall Restaurant (长城酒家) - A Chinese restaurant that brews its own beer. Definitely haven't encountered that before. The food was good as well, especially a dish of pork stir fried with tea leaves and diced quail served on lettuce, as an appetizer type dish (unfortunately, I didn't do the ordering, so I'm not sure of the Chinese names). It's definitely worth a visit, due to its uniqueness, but the price was rather high and the atmosphere nothing too special.

Mind Blown

2010-05-21T18:19:00.001-04:00

Just when I thought I knew all about China, two things have totally blown my mind since I arrived back in Beijing. Two things, that is, aside from how badly the jet lag is kicking my butt. Hence the reason I am blogging at 5:51am (and have been awake for the last two hours). But I digress...

1. At the airport, I saw an advertisement that had a fashionable looking model, and was obviously an ad for a clothes store. I didn't recognize the name of the brand, but then I saw the words "fashionable clothes in Sizes 12-24." Aside from the fact that a size 12 seems to be considered plus sized in China, I have never ever seen any kind of advertisement or store selling large sized clothes here. Not that it's a good thing that Chinese are eating so much McDonalds, but there are always people who are naturally larger, and they deserve to have nice clothes as well.

2. In two different restaurants now, I have been asked that all important question (and been reminded how strange it is that it's not asked in the US anymore): "Smoking or Non." Of course, much of the US doesn't even have smoking sections anymore, but the fact that China now actually lets you choose is pretty amazing. I don't have actual statistics, but it seems like about 90% of Chinese men smoke. It's a little less in the younger generation, I guess, but it still seems like those who don't smoke are the major minority. It's nice to see that it's becoming less the norm and falling out of fashion. A world of peace and harmony would be great and all, but I think a world where no one smokes would be an excellent first step in that direction.

Here's to China becoming a country of fat non-smokers!

Astor House Hotel - Shanghai

2010-05-10T10:30:00.000-04:00

Shanghai has a romance unrivaled throughout China. With the European architecture, the river cutting through the city (with its brand new promenade), the modern skyline, the trendy restaurants, it pretty much has something for everyone. I'm very much looking forward to spending quite a few days there (May 23-June 3), especially since I'll be on per diem.

I'm going to be staying at the old Astor House Hotel. Charlie Chaplin, Bertrand Russell, Einstein, William Taft (among many others) all stayed there. It was the first place in China to have electricity and telephones. It also housed the first Shanghai Stock Exchange after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

From the Wikipedia article:
[The Astor House Hotel] has been described as once "one of the famous hotels of the world","the pride of Shanghai", "a landmark of modern Shanghai", and perhaps hyperbolically as "once the most luxurious hotel in the world",was the first Western hotel established in China.Established in 1846 as Richards' Hotel and Restaurant (礼查饭店) on The Bund in Shanghai, it has been in its present location at 15 Huangpu Lu, Shanghai, near the confluence of the Huangpu Rive r and the Suzhou Creek in the Hongkou District, near the northern end of the Waibaidu (Garden) Bridge, since 1858.

It's right at the north end of The Bund (the area where all the foreign concessions were back in the day) and across the river from the Pearl Tower and the rest of Shanghai's famous skyline. I'll take lots of pictures. Lots and lots and lots of pictures, don't you worry.

The Astor House might not be the Westin (where my boss is staying), but I think the history makes it much more interesting. And it comes with free breakfast! Ha.

Click for a larger image of all the buildings along The Bund.

And here's the view across the river. That part of the city is called Pudong.

Get excited! I am!!!

Hungry!

2010-05-09T20:03:00.006-04:00

On Saturday morning, I was daydreaming about all the delicious food I want to eat in China--and specifically in Kunming. Despite the fact that "they" have 拆'd (torn down) at least 2 (and maybe 3) of my four favorite restaurants, I still know of many good places to eat.

All the daydreaming about food made me really hungry, and then I decided to look back at all the pictures I had taken of food during my time in China. It's not something you normally stop to take a picture of...but I think that's what made me do it. I didn't want to forget just how awesome it was. And I had amassed quite a collection, from some of the nicest Chinese restaurants in Kunming to simple every day meals in a village to a home-cooked meal at my coworker's home. One thing in common: they were all delicious!

Thanks to the magic of modern technology (Picasa), I made this awesome collage. Check it out, but don't blame me if you get hungry!

Favorite Restaurants

2010-04-29T11:30:00.000-04:00

So the whole point of my restaurant adventure posts was that I don't have favorite restaurants and prefer to try new places. Of course, that's not totally true, everyone has that fall back place they love to hit up. Here are a few of my favorites. Most of them make the list due to their value. I likely won't be returning to five star restaurants again and again (or anytime other than during restaurant week).

La Madeleine
I prefer the Bethesda location, but I more often find myself hungry and looking something cheap and delicious in Georgetown. La Madeleine always fits the bill. The tomato basil soup is so good. I usually eat it with a quiche.

Zorba's
Greek and delicious. The blue and white exterior should be enough to draw you in! They have raised their prices, but since you get the food yourself and don't have to tip, I still consider it a good deal! And Dupont is a great location for an after work dinner with friends.

Amsterdam Falafelshop
Best. Falafel. Ever. And cheap too. I'd go more often, but Adams Morgan is kind of a pain to get to.

Pizza Mart
I mean, the pizza is huge and greasy. What more could you want for about $3? Again, though, I just don't go to Adam's Morgan, or find that need to eat pizza bigger than my head, that often.

Kabuki Sushi
This place is in the Union Station food court. I know others, who shall remain nameless, who swear by this place. I've actually only eaten there once, but it was quite good (and cheap). Definitely the best thing in the Union Station food court (until they opened Taco Bell!).

Chef Geoff's
Can't beat the $5 burgers during happy hour (except now they are $5.95...boo inflation!).

Ben's Chili Bowl
Actually, the food is not that good, but you have to eat there at least once just for the history.

Sichuan Pavilion
I mentioned this in my restaurant adventures posts, but I'm adding it to my favorite places, too. It's that good. And I've already been there several times--and planning to go back again soon. It's not dirt cheap, but the atmosphere is nicer than a lot of Chinese places.

Jaleo
This is definitely the 'more expensive' place that I keep going back to. It's just really good. And I love tapas.

Hopefully, this will be my last post about food for a while. At least until I go back to China...then I'll start waxing poetic about eggplant, I'm sure.

More Restaurant Adventures

2010-04-28T14:30:00.001-04:00

Even more new restaurants that I have tried recently...
[see the original post about restaurant adventures]

Souk
www.souk-dc.com
I need to give this place a second chance. It wasn't so great when I was there, but that was right after it opened and I have heard good reports since then. I think it's the kind of place where you should have a lot of people and order everything on the menu. They have lots of delicious sounding appetizers and such. Plus, it's right by my house.

*Update. I did go back to Souk, and was more satisfied the second time. We got various small plates, and they were better than the wraps I've had before. They are also adding a bar and a back dining room, and have done much to improve the ambiance since my first visit.

Bugsy's Pizza
http://www.bugsyspizza.com/bugsysrestaurant.htm
Not much to write home about. But they had decent pizza and it's a convenient location in Old Town. They have a buffet at lunchtime, which could be good. I'm sure it's a fun neighborhood place...but I don't live in the neighborhood.

Georgia Brown's
http://www.gbrowns.com/
Oh. My. Goodness. Totally delish. Not a cheap price, but definitely worth it. Everything was great, from the service to the atmosphere to the food. I had the fried catfish, which came with a great tomato sauce, green beans, and really great grits. I also had the Deviled Egg and Fried Green Tomato appetizers. Both were fabulous.

Szechuan Pavilion
http://sites.google.com/site/sichuanpavilion/
Very highly recommended Chinese restaurant. It's not perfect, but it's the best I've found around here--and it's just a few blocks from my office! They also humor me when I order in Chinese, which makes me smile! Their slogan is "the most authentic Sichuan cuisine in the USA." Not sure if that's quite true, but you should give it a try. Come with my and I'll order the authentic stuff!!

RFD (Regional Food and Drink)
http://www.lovethebeer.com/rfd.html
Ventured out with some friends in the middle of the blizzard madness, and had some fun at RFD, which is owned by the same folks as Brickskeller. Decent food for a bar-like place, so not a bad place to hang out for an evening.

Capitol City Brewery
http://www.capcitybrew.com/
This wasn't so much a new restaurant. I had eaten at the one by Union Station before, but it was my first time at the downtown one. I remembered not liking it, but that was not the experience I had this time. Yummy sweet potato fries, a delicious steak salad, and pretzels!! Definitely not a bad place to go if you want some good old American food.

Matchbox
http://www.matchboxdc.com/
Good pizza. Not sure it's totally great pizza, though. No complaints, but wouldn't want to wait around forever to get in, as you often have to. The shrimp and grits were delicious (but random).

Taylor Gourmet
http://www.taylorgourmet.com/
I don't recommend their salads (arugula and barely anything else), but the sandwiches are good. And the risotto balls and toasted ravioli are really good (and really bad for you, I'm sure).

Nando's Peri Peri
http://www.nandosperiperi.com
I am not the biggest chicken-on-a-bone fan, but theirs is quite good--moist, tender, and lots of sauces to choose from. Their mashed potatoes were quite good too. Chicken and mashed potatoes definitely hit the spot. I've heard their sangria is good, and that they have good happy hour specials. Guess I'll have to go back!

Sticky Rice
http://www.stickyricedc.com/
You can't really go wrong with sushi and tater tots. But go early on a weeknight to avoid the obnoxious hipster crowd. Haha.

Levante's
http://www.levantes.com/
They have a nice outdoor patio right by the Dupont Metro, which is why I chose them for a nice springtime dinner. The food was not bad, but it wasn't great either. I'd give it a second chance, and I hear they have good happy hour specials in the bar area.

Founding Farmers
http://www.wearefoundingfarmers.com/
I'm typically skeptical about things everyone raves about. The green/local food aspect of Founding Farmers was great, but the food is pricey, and not super-special. The lemonades are quite good, though! I'll give it a second try for brunch, but I'm not sure it deserves all the attention it has gotten.

Stoney's
http://www.stoneysdc.com/
They're known for their grill cheese, and it was not bad with tomato, bacon, etc. Great bar to hang out in, if you live in the area (unfortunately, I don't).

Urban Thai
http://www.urbanthairestaurant.com/
I don't often find myself in Crystal City, but if I ever do again, I'd definitely go back to this Thai place! The food was great, although service was not. It was relatively authentic, and had nice decor, but strange music.

SanPhan Thai
http://www.sanphanrestaurant.com/
Hmmm. Not the best place I've tried. Thai places are springing up all over the place. My friend saw roaches in the hallway/bathroom, so I think I'd check out another place.

Liberty Tree
http://www.libertytreedc.com
By far the nicest restaurant on H street, Liberty Tree did not disappoint. Get the Clam Casino pizza. Skip the pigs in a blanket. That's my recommendation. This is a great addition to the neighborhood, since it's an actual nice place to eat, and not just a bar that serves food.

Tortilla Cafe
http://tortillacafe.com/
This was an unexpected find! A hole in the wall/delicious/authentic Mexican and Salvadorean place right by my church. This will likely become a favorite!

Curbside Cupcakes
http://www.curbsidecupcakes.com
Their cupcakes are anything but dry. A bit small for $3, though. And sometimes hard to track Pinky (their mobile truck) down!

Looking forward to trying soon: Ping Pong Dim Sum, Vapiano, Asia Nine, Park Cafe, Argonaut, Zaytinya, Biergarten Haus, Granville Moore's, Dangerously Delicious Pies, Cafe Berlin, Ethiopic, Taqueria Nactional, Great Wall Szechuan, Capitol City Diner, and Georgetown Cupcake (cliche, I know, but I want to find out what all the fuss and that long long line are about). Several of those places are new establishments in my neighborhood. Awesome!

Restaurant Adventures

2010-01-27T14:42:00.016-05:00

When I was home for New Years, my mom asked me what my favorite restaurant in DC was. I thought about it for a while and realized that I didn't really have a favorite. In DC (and in any city, really), there are so many great places that it would seem a bit silly to keep going to the same ones. So here I've written a little about restaurants I have tried recently. For someone who was unemployed for 3.5 months and temping for 3 months, it sure seems like I have eaten out a lot! What can I say? A girl's gotta eat!

These little blurbs aren't meant to be comprehensive reviews. Just my random thoughts...

Good Stuff Eatery
http://www.goodstuffeatery.com/
This place was started by some Food Channel guy. He's also won a lot of awards for his burgers. I got the famous "Colletti's Smokehouse" burger (with onion rings, chipotle BBQ sauce, etc.) and it was good. The Village Fries (thyme, rosemary, and cracked pepper) were tasty and they have several different types of mayo (Old Bay Mayo, Chipotle Mayo, etc.). We waited a long time, though, and the atmosphere is not that great. If you don't like greasy burgers, definitely do not go here. In the end, I might just prefer Five Guys (or Z Burger, which I haven't tried yet, but have heard is great).

Thunder Grill
http://www.arkrestaurants.com/thunder_grill.html
Union Station is not necessarily known for its great food, but I was pleasantly surprised by Thunder Grill. I like sitting in the main hall of the station (what can be a real gold ceiling?) and the food was quite good--southwest inspired American food. I might not go out of my way to go there, but if you're looking for a good place in Union Station, it's definitely must better than America (which for some reason I have eaten at multiple times).

La Loma
I don't love La Loma as much as a lot of other people do. Their outdoor patio is great for summer months, though. And the location is near where I live, so I'll probably continue to go back. The margaritas aren't bad, either!

Cafe 8
I got a pide, which is a sort of calzone and apparently one of the signature dishes at this Mediterranean place on Barracks Row. I definitely want to go back and try more of their dishes. The atmosphere was nice and the price was reasonable. I hear they have half price bottles of wine on a certain night of the week, as well. I should find out when that night is!

Las Placitas
http://www.lasplacitas.com
This Salvadorean/Mexican place on Barracks Row (Eastern Market) is pretty good. And it's nice to have more options than just the classic Mexican stuff. Like arepas. Yum.

Lebanese Taverna
http://www.lebanesetaverna.com/
Freaking amazing. There's little else I could say. The price was very reasonable, even when we ordered lots of Mezze. It was plenty of food and all of it was great. And can I again say: delicious! And it was Anne's birthday, so we had red velvet cake. We brought that ourselves, but it was good too. :)

Bar Louie
http://www.restaurants-america.com/barlouie/
Went there with some friends for happy hour and it was great. They had awesome happy hour specials (half price small places, $3 drafts, etc.), but it wasn't totally packed and crazy like a lot of happy hours. Definitely a good place to meet up with people after work. The food wasn't totally unique or wonderful, but it was fine. The fried zucchini was quite good; the tater tots were disappointing.

Cafe Asia
http://www.cafeasia.com
I've only tried the Pad Thai and the Lo Mein, but both were great (not greasy and oily, they tasted quite fresh!). Friends gave rave reviews about the other noodle dishes, the sushi, etc. They have quite an extensive menu of food from all over Asia. The portions are large and the prices aren't bad. I prefer the Rosslyn location's decor and feel, but the downtown DC one is close to my new office, so it's more convenient.

Zengo
http://www.modernmexican.com/zengodc/
I chose this place for my birthday dinner and I think it was a great choice. Unique and delicious, a fun atmosphere, good service, great location. Yeah. It kind of has it all in my opinion, including freshly made churros, which they gave me for free for my birthday! You can't go wrong with Chipotle Miso Soup, Thai Chicken Empanadas, Peking Duck Tacos with curried apple, etc. etc. Their noodle and rice bowls were also rather cheap and large. Highly recommended!

Eggspectation
http://www.eggspectations.com
I was a bit disappointed. Dare I say, "My eggspectations were not met." Haha. Had to do it. I had read some reader's choice award that they had the best eggs benedict in the DC area. I did not find it that great. The egg was not poached properly, which kinda ruins the whole thing. They did have about 12 varieties of benedict. But quantity doesn't trump quality in my book. I did like the atmosphere, though. Exposed brick, old books, etc. If I find myself in Silver Spring again (don't get out there often), I might give it another go.

The Prime Rib
http://www.theprimerib.com/
I went to THE Prime Rib and didn't get prime rib. I know, it seems a bit wrong. I got london broil because I wanted to try something different and I was quite happy with it. We went during restaurant week, so we got the 3 course meal with soup and dessert (creme brulee!). The food and service were great. A little old man was playing jazz tunes on the baby grand near our table. It seemed exclusive and luxurious. Definitely good for special occasions.

Circle Bistro
http://www.thecirclehotel.com/circle-bistro/index.cfm
The atmosphere is nice and the freshly made ice cream (we had blood orange and nutella), which also came with a piece of delicious shortbread, was fabulous. The wine was overpriced and the food wasn't that special, though. That had a fixed price lunch that was a pretty good deal, but for food alone, I'd say you could probably find someplace better.

Jacob's Coffee House (8th and E NE)
Their iced vanilla lattes are the best. I don't know what they put in there, but man it's good.

Red Velvet Cupcakery
http://www.redvelvetcupcakery.com/
Their icing is whipped. I find that annoying. I want the creamy richness.

Baked + Wired
http://bakedandwired.com/
Steve says they have the best red velvet cupcakes in DC. It was definitely a darn good red velvet cupcake. I haven't yet tried all red velvet cupcakes in the District, though. I'll work on that.

Georgetown Cupcake
http://georgetowncupcake.com/
They were closed at 9:30pm on a Friday night when I really wanted a cupcake. I'm still annoyed.

TangySweet
http://www.tangysweet.com/
It tastes good, but they just don't give you enough toppings.

CaliYogurt
http://caliyogurt.biz/default.aspx
Gives you way more toppings. Thus, it earns my approval. Plus it has clear plastic chairs and a really cool ceiling fan.

Yogiberry
They probably have the largest topping selection of the places I have tried. The decor was annoying to me, though (holes punched in the wall?) and it seemed a bit expensive.

Hoping to try soon: Taylor Gourmet, Matchbox, Park Cafe, Sticky Rice, Asia Nine, Argonaut, Zaytinya, Georgia Brown's, Cafe Berlin, East Street Cafe, Founding Farmers, Curbside Cupcake

In the end, I do have a few favorite restaurants. Perhaps I'll write about them next time. Most of them are best value type places. Anyplace is great is you have unlimited money, but there are certain places that are superior if you've got a tight budget....

A White (House) Christmas: Reflect, Rejoice, Renew

2009-12-08T12:36:00.008-05:00

I had the opportunity to go to the White House and see the Christmas decorations on December 5. The theme for this year was "'Reflect, Rejoice, Renew." Kinda cheesy and vague, but I appreciate the alliteration. It turned out that we picked the perfect day to go because it started snowing right before we went in. As we were looking at the beautiful decoration inside (and I had never been inside the White House before), huge soft flakes of snow were falling outside the windows. Magical!

Unfortunately, they don't allow cameras inside, but this video at whitehouse.gov shows what it looked like. I want to steal some of their ideas for my own decorations in the future. And man, do I wish I had a red room because that's a great place for Christmas! The ornaments on the tree were each homemade and it gave me the idea to take some of my own pictures and decoupage them onto ornaments. Those could be fun Christmas gifts to make for people. Or just personalized souvenirs of places you've visited.

The one thing they don't show in the video is the super cool white chocolate covered gingerbread house. Here's a picture:
That little black thing in front is Bo the dog. And the cutout section is the room it was displayed in, so that was kind of cool.

The White House definitely gets my two thumbs up for its decorations. And God gets two thumbs up for sending the snow.

Free Stuff in DC

2009-09-22T12:49:00.005-04:00

One of the reasons I love DC is because it always has lots of free (and cheap) stuff.

So far since being back, I saw Slumdog Millionaire at the 13th Annual Comcast Film Festival, went to Jazz in the Garden at the National Gallery of Art, and got great seats for a hilarious adaptation of Taming of the Shrew at the Shakespeare Theater's Free for All.

Free/Cheap Events that I missed this year: The Kennedy Center's Open House, the National Symphony Orchestra's Labor Day Concert at the Capitol, the Corcoran Gallery's Free Summer Sa turdays, Opera in the Outfield (The Barber of Seville), WalkingTown DC Free Fall Walking Tours, Washington DC Summer Restaurant Week, and WTOP's Half Price Newseum Tickets.

Upcoming and ongoing free/cheap things (other than all the Smithsonians, The National Zoo, the monuments/memorials and all of that stuff):

The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, which has free performances every night at 6pm.
$5 Movies every Tuesday/all showings at Phoenix Theater's Union Station 9 (My personal schedule: The Informant! this week, Fame next week)
The Library of Congress National Book Festival (September 26)

All that to say, DC has a lot of awesome free stuff, especially in the summer. Fun times.

Good Old Kunming

2009-08-22T16:40:00.001-04:00

Well, I’ve been gone from Kunming for more than a month now, and I’m missing the beautiful Spring City! I don’t remember if I have mentioned it before or not, but GoKunming.com ran a great series of pictures taken around the turn of the century by the French Consul Auguste Francois. Click through to GoKunming to check them out. They have the old picture and then a new picture from the same place and also an explanation of the photo. They also have an interesting series on Yunnan recipes (someone cook me some!!). Here’s to you, fair Kunming!

This will officially be the end of “Asian Adventures” and the Google group will no longer send my blog posts by email. I may still blog from time to time, so you can check it online (http://thisismytrail.blogspot.com) or put it in your Google Reader, RSS, etc. I’m thinking about continuing to blog on my US adventures, including roadtrips, restaurant reviews, photography, touristy things I do in DC, etc.. And hopefully I will be able to head overseas for vacation occasionally…come on big money job with lots of vacation time!!

Last Minute Travels

2009-08-21T11:59:00.002-04:00

Using up my overtime days....and my money.

Well, it’s been a while since I left China, but things have been crazy and pictures have been hard to keep track of in the midst of trans-continental moves, so now I'm trying to get all caught up. During my last few months, I quickly planned trips to some places that I'd wanted to visit for a while, but hadn't gotten to yet.

In May, I went to Jinghong, in the south part of Yunnan, to visit friends (including my "roommate") and see a new corner of the province. I had some days off of work for the Dragonboat festival, and added some extra days to have a full trip. Jinghong, also called Xishuangbanna, is well-known as a Dai area (a Chinese minority) that is quite similar in culture to parts of Northern Thailand/SE Asia. China doesn’t border Thailand, of course, but Jinghong is near the Lao and Burmese borders. In fact, we ate some delicious Burmese food one night we were there. Unfortunately, it rained and ruined our plans for a boat ride on the Mekong, but I had gotten a full day of swimming in the day before. We also just hung out in coffee shops with friends (many of them!) and ate good food, including a Thai birthday dinner for Megan (complete with a Trader Joe's cake!). On the last day there, we met up with some new friends and had a fun time visiting an Aka (another minority group) village in the countryside together. We ate some delicious home cooked food and tried on some Aka clothes. We also met some nice older women who were embroidering on the porch. They were very friendly and made us popcorn and tea. Chinese people are quite hospitable! I ended up sliding down the mountain on my bum, but I still maintain that it was the most efficient way to reach the bottom.

In June, I traveled to Guilin and Yangshuo in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Prefecture (where I lived the first time I went to China in 2002—although I never made it up to Guilin or Yangshuo). There I met up with a couple

of friends, Jared and Stephanie, who used to teach with

me in Kunming. I was a little skeptical about Yangshuo because it is so well-known and touristy, but it really was pretty amazing and I would recommend it to anyone

traveling around China. The scenery is really breathtaking and quite unique. We had a great time on a bike ride

around the area and also took a boat ride and explored another small town. There were plenty of cafes and restaurants to check out and relax in (including a McDonalds in the middle of town--good for cheap ice cream!). It’s kind of similar to Dali, for you Yunnan-ese people, but with better scenery. There’s also Communist Santa (see picture). What China tour could be complete without that??

I took the overnight train back from Guilin to Kunming. It’s never as much fun by yourself, but the train was not crowded and you sleep through most of it. Nothing compares to the train from Kunming to Beijing. I won’t consider anyone a true China adventurer until they have tried that. I conquered it for the second time in July. This one was much better than the first, though, because although I was again stuck next to the loudspeaker, I had a friend in the very quiet and comfortable soft sleeper. High class! It also only took about 40 hours, compared to 48 hours last time.

More Xishuanbanna Pics

More Yangshuo Pics

More "Goodbye" Pics - I had many goodbye dinners and such, but I'm not going to post all the pictures on here....take a look for yourself. There were several dinners at my favorite place, Feiyang Teppanyaki. Yum!! I miss that sticky rice stuffed lotus root like crazy!

@ The Zoo

2009-08-20T10:39:00.005-04:00

After my last days of work in Kunming, I had the chance to go to the zoo with some of the group leaders of our handicraft project. It was great fun to see them all and hang out with them in Kunming. We saw monkeys, elephants, lions, tigers...oh my! Many of the women had never seen these kinds of animals, so they really enjoyed it. There were also raccoons in the zoo, which I found quite amusing, since I can find them in my backyard in Florida.

I love these women, so I was really happy to be able to see them one more time. And there was one moment that pretty much made my life. After the zoo, we were going to dinner. My coworker, Ai Fang, and I were leading the way to our reserved tables, on the second floor. The hostess led us up the escalator and Ai Fang and I jumped on without thinking twice. Then we heard a commotion. When we looked back, the women didn’t really know what to do and were scared of the escalator (we hadn't even thought about the fact that most of them hadn't used them before). One brave Miao lady hopped on, but didn’t know that she could hold on to the handrail. She started falling backwards and the others had to push her back up. It was so funny. They also didn’t get off in the most graceful fashion. Don’t worry, I’m laughing with them and not at them. They couldn’t stop laughing either, and I’m sure it’s an experience they won’t soon forget. Usually I’m the odd one out as the clumsy white girl in the village, so it was fun to turn the tables a little bit.

Favorite Chinese Characters

2009-07-21T17:56:00.003-04:00

Since I’m taking a Chinese test for the US government on Thursday, I thought I would share some of my favorite Chinese characters. Unfortunately, the test is only oral, so there will be no writing or reading....and therefore this post is totally un-useful...oh well.

Concave - 凹的 (ao de)

Convex - 凸的 (tu de)

Pingpong - 乒乓球 (pingpong qiu) Doesn’t it just look like a pingpong table?! Love it!

Also, the Chinese are apparently very math-literate. I learned a few weeks ago that in Chinese you can actually say you did something more than "n" times (n 多次), kind of like we would say a "gazillion." However, instead of making up a word, they use math. Aiya. Those Chinese and their math and science skills.

Coming to America!

2009-07-10T05:55:00.003-04:00

Well, even the proxy server has been verrrrrrrry slow lately. Hence my lack of updates. Time has flown by and I will leave on Sunday evening for a 36 hour train ride across China (from Kunming to Beijing). Then, after about 7 hours in Beijing where hopefully I can find a place to take a shower, I will fly out on Air Canada from Beijing to Toronto and Toronto to DC. Loooong trip all together. It's been a busy couple of weeks not working and hanging out with friends and now I'm trying to stuff as much as possible in my suitcases (as I keep receiving more gifts and buying more things I don't have room for!). Fun times. I have made nearly $300 selling my stuff, so that's nice. All I have left to do is eat dog (planned for Saturday night dinner) and then I'll be officially finished with life in China. Haha. Good riddance facebook-blocking China!

On the other hand, though, China is a great place. I will certainly miss the food and the friends. One of my coworkers took me to her house to learn how to cook Chinese food last weekend, so maybe I'll try to buy a wok and hone my skills when I return. Also, here's another story to illustrate the kindness of Chinese people. Today I went to the tea market to buy a certain kind of pu-erh tea that I really like. As is typical in China, we did not just go in and buy the tea, even though I knew what it tasted like and had tasted it before. We still sat around chatting and drinking the tea. Then they gave me a really cool kind of cup to make the tea in that I was already planning on buying myself. They just gave it to me for no reason. I had not bought the tea yet and they ddin't even know how much I would buy. They just wanted to give it to me so it would be easy and convenient for me to make and drink tea in the US. How nice!

Of course, although I will miss China, there are many things I'm looking forward to in the US. As part of my reintegration into American culture, I decided that I would look at the billboard top 10 and download (legally!) some of these new popular songs so I wouldn't feel totally out of it upon my return. Well, instead of enjoying some new music, I'm repeatedly listening to Pokerface and Boom Boom Pow trying to figure out which of the two is the most stupid. They are both quite annoying. And Lady Gaga wears no pants. What on earth is up with that? So I leave you with that thought, America. Can anyone explain Lady Gaga?

News...

2009-06-22T09:32:00.004-04:00

Well, dear old China has been on an internet censorship kick again recently (and darn it, they're getting better and better). Before they only ever blocked blogspot.com, so I could post to my blog, just not see it. Now they figured out that they should block blogger.com too, it seems. Well, poo on them. I finally got around to installing another proxy server, so now I can post again.

There are several posts that should be written about recent travels to Yangshuo/Guilin and Jinghong, taking the Foreign Service Officer Test in Chengdu, etc. However, the biggest update is that I have turned in my resignation at my job (my last day will be June 30) and I will be heading back to the US on July 14 (time is going so quickly!). Many have asked if I am back "for good," but I find that question a little hard to answer. Life is long. Who knows? As far as the near future, though, I'm thinking I will be in the US, although I guess you never know. I'll go anywhere someone gives me a job!

This picture is from my last meeting with some of our group leaders in the countryside. We went out to lunch halfway between their village and Kunming and I told them I was leaving. They were a little bummed that I was leaving and said they'd miss me. Then Wang Pin Feng, the big group leader (second from the left) said, "Thanks for helping us." Well, I have tried...though I wish I could do more.

Crunchwrap Supreme???

2009-05-13T04:15:00.005-04:00

Yes, it's true, KFC (肯德基 ken de ji) in China now has something that is suspiciously similar to a crunchwrap supreme from Taco Bell. After all, KFC and Taco Bell are owned by the same company (Yum! Brands, who also own Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's, A&W, etc.). The 嫩牛五方 (nen niu wu fang-soft beef pentagons??) are pretty tasty. Just add some sour cream, cheese and taco sauce to the spicy Sichuan one and it would almost be Mexican! Don't they look pretty much exactly the same? There's also another "French-style" one (not pictured) that has beef and mushrooms--not bad either, but they always add too much black pepper in China...

According to the Yum! Brands China site (yes, they are so big in China, they have a section for international and a section for China), a new KFC is opened every day in Mainland China. That is totally ridiculous, but not surprising. Even smaller cities (more than 550 total) that no one outside of China has heard of have one (or more!) KFCs. There are also Pizza Huts in 100 different Chinese cities (Kunming has 3 now).

There are about 2,600 KFCs in China and about 2,000 McDonalds.

I just wish they would go ahead and open up Taco Bells in China!!!

Anyway, there you have your Chinese fast food facts of the day...

What is Fair Trade? 什么叫公平贸易？

2009-05-11T07:50:00.005-04:00

I recently created a Facebook page for Threads of Yunnan, the fair trade company that I am working for. This is an intro to fair trade that I wrote for that page. Just thought I'd share it. You can check out the Threads of Yunnan page and become a fan here. Oh, and no, I did not write the Chinese part. That was translated by my good friend Xiong. :)

Fair Trade is a different way of doing business - partnering with disadvantaged producers to bring benefits to the company and the community. It strives to make international trade beneficial to everyone.

Fair Trade contributes to sustainable development by giving disadvantaged producers the chance to learn new skills and bring change to their communities.

Profits are reinvested in the communities of the producers. It gives the people the chance to decide how to better their villages – through new roads, access to clean water, community centers, etc.

公平贸易是一种不一样的做生意的方式 – 通过与弱势生产者的合作，为公司和所在的社区带来利益。最终让所有参与到国际贸易的人能从中获益。

公平贸易为弱势生产者提供学习新技能的机会，提供改善他们所在社区的机会，从而带来可持续性的发展。

从贸易中获得的部分利润将会投入到生产者所在社区的发展建设上。这种方式可以让劳动者有机会参与决策，在如何更好地建设社区方面表达自己的想法– 比如修建新公路、接入干净的饮用水源、建立社区活动中心等等。

10 Principles of Fair Trade
公平贸易的10项原则

Creating Opportunities for Economically and Socially Marginalized Producers
为经济和社会地位上处于弱势的生产者创造机会

Developing Transparent and Accountable Relationships
构建透明和可靠的合作关系

Building Capacity
能力建设

Promoting Fair Trade
推广公平贸易理念

Paying Promptly and Fairly
及时、公平地支付报酬

Assuring Gender Equity
确保两性平等

Supporting Safe and Empowering Working Conditions
提供安全和健康的工作条件

Ensuring the Rights of Children
保障儿童合法权利

Cultivating Environmental Stewardship
树立环保意识

Building Trade Relationships Based on Solidarity, Trust and Mutual Respect
在团结、信任和互相尊重的基础上建立贸易关系

For more information about Fair Trade, check out the World Fair Trade Organization (formerly IFAT) website!

Not quite the Panda Express...

2009-05-01T23:37:00.004-04:00

So, I'm always trying to think of things in China that I take for granted, but you, faithful reader of my blog, would find interesting, shocking, or totally disgusting.

Today I bring you the "menu" of a local restaurant. I posted the room service menu a couple of weeks ago, but this is a very different type of menu. At many restaurants here, there is no real menu...just veggies, meats, and whatever they have that day sitting out (or in a refrigerated cooler, if you're lucky) for you to choose. It actually works quite well for those who don't speak Chinese. We all love the "point and hope for the best" method. This restaurant had a pretty big selection. I couldn't even get it all in the picture.

I'm also including a picture of the kitchen at the same restaurant, which is in Wuding, a small town where we usually eat on the way back from our trips to the countryside (we rotate between a couple of different restaurants there). I love that you go into the kitchen to order.

Would this restaurant pass health inspection in the US? Probably not...but the food still tastes pretty good! :)

Success!

2009-04-25T02:57:00.004-04:00

When eating dinner at a Muslim restaurant the other day, there was a sign on the wall. I got really excited when I realized that I could read and understand the whole thing. Yay.

It said:
油少一点 (you shao yi dian)
盐少一点 (yan shao yi dian)
健康多一点 (jian kang duo yi dian)

A little less oil
A little less salt
A little more healthy

So yes, apparently I can understand Chinese health propaganda. Woohoo! There are also several billboards about protecting the environment that use similar grammar. This "less of one thing and more of another" pattern seems to be used a lot in advertising and public service announcements.

Free music downloads!

2009-04-20T00:50:00.005-04:00

Yes, this is why I have studied Chinese for such a long time....to be able to legally download music from Google China. As has been in the news this weekend, google.cn is now offering free and legal music downloads in both English and Chinese (and in fact Japanese and Korean). They seem to have quite a decent collection of new American music. The artists that have been most popular so far have a little red 热! (re), which means hot, next to them. It's a very funny cultural exercise to see which musicians are "re" in the Chinese market.

Here is a partial list (disclaimer: of course, for your amusement, I have chosen the most embarrassing and strange "hot" artists):

Backstreet Boys
Barry Manilow
Celine Dion
Enya
Hanson
Kenny G
Kenny Rogers
Michael Bolton
Wham!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Yanni

Here are the lists of English songs: Male Singers, Female Singers, and Bands/Groups. I'm not sure that it will work outside of China, though.

Room Service

2009-04-06T02:57:00.003-04:00

Yummy yummy Chinese room service. Don't you want a spiced chicken claw or some meat conjee with preserved duck eggs? Or better yet, spiced duck gizzards?! Mmmm. Man, I'm hungry now.

Where's the nearest McDonalds?! Pizza delivery?!

Better Late Than Never?

2009-03-14T07:33:00.009-04:00

A relatively long tale of the rest of my Spring Festival Shenanigans...

So when we last left my tale of Chinese New Year adventure, we were in Mengzi and mostly eating and eating and eating. That comprised the first few days of the trip. But there were more adventures in our future.

The day after the New Year's festivities, we took a day trip to Gejiu, because there was food there that also needed to be sampled, naturally. It's fun traveling with people who know the area because they can order you the best local food (and then pay for it too!). First we had some BBQ and a special pancake thing. Then we went to a mountain that overlooks the city. At first there were rumors that we would walk up the mountain (the Chinese have built stairs everywhere, so hiking does not really happen), but it was more than 2000 stairs up, so thankfully we decided to ride a gondola type thing up instead. My friend and I didn't really know what was up there, but when we arrived the first thing the others wanted to do was eat again! Haha...after we had eaten some snacks on the way up. We looked around a temple and took in the view (of the 7th cleanest city in China, by the way!), and then settled in for some mid-afternoon snacks of some special kinds of grains. I have no idea what to call them. Similar to rice. Maybe more like cous cous. Look at the piture and decide for yourself what they are. This city is famous for them, and they were quite good. I always appreciate a break from rice! Then we walked down the stairs...and boy did we regret it the next day(s). Soooo sore. Those of us born in 1982 decided to stop and take a picture by our step. We decided we were too full to eat dinner--finally I convinced them that I could not possibly eat one more bite--and went to sing karaoke instead.

The next day, 4 of us took a day trip to a Miao minority village and festival a couple hours outside of town. It wasn't exactly clear what this festival was and we didn't really have that many details. We arrived before it started and so decided to eat (naturally). We had some random snacks and some grilled potatoes. The woman cooking the potatoes did not think I would eat the spicy "lajiao" dip (since I was a foreigner and Chinese for some reason all believe that no foreigner likes to eat anything remotely spicy--I have no idea why they think this, even people who have never met a foreigner!), so she only gave me half a bowl. I finished it all and asked for some more and she gave me the weirdest look ever. The Chinese girls had a good laugh about that. And I'm sure the potato woman told all her friends that she now had first hand evidence that foreigners did indeed eat spicy food. There wasn't really all that much going on at the festival--definitely a lot of people there in their best traditional clothes, but I think the actual festival part may have been later or the next day. There were carnival games and such, though, and it was fun to be in a place that was not a tourist attraction. There were definitely some people trying to clandestinely take pictures of me on their camera phones. I don't understand why they don't just ask. I would even take one with them...but anyway. Of course, I was taking lots of my own pictures. We also met the cutest old woman in traditonal clothes and when my friend asked to take a picture of her, she was totally working it. Hilarious!

Then my co-worker Jiang and I went to Jianshui, a town famous for having a lot of old style buildings, which is rare these days as they seem to be tearing them down to build new shopping malls 24-7, at least in Kunming. It was a little bit touristy, but one of the old gates is quite nice and apparently the apprentice to the mater that built that gate went on to build the Tiananmen gate in Beijing. They had an interesting minority dance show inside of the gate, and that was pretty cool. The Jianshui area is also famous for a certain type of pottery, so we went to a village outside of the town to explore. We paid a guy to teach us how to make vases on the pottery wheel and then let us play around and cook us lunch, and that was really fun. My creations weren't as bad as I feared, but we didn't have time to let them dry, bake, etc., so we couldn't bring them home. Too bad. Later we rode a horse drawn carraige down the old street and saw the gates into a famous Confuscian temple and old mansion and gardens, but they had jacked their prices up like crazy for the holiday week, so we didn't go inside. We're cheap. We admit it.

Jiang's mother was kind of sick, so she decided she should go back to Kunming to take her to the doctor (traditional Chinese filial piety). I didn't want to go back to Kunming just yet, so I decided to head on to Yuanyang alone. We said farewell at the bus station and I headed off into the unknown. Yuanyang is famous for its rice terraces, but the most convenient guesthouse was already booked up for the holiday, so I wasn't sure what I would find upon arrival. I wanted to get to the old part of the town, which in many Chinese towns is not the same place as the new town--and the bus always takes you to the new town. I ended up getting there later than I'd hoped as the road was terrible and took forever, but luckily some other friendly Chinese people were going to the same place. I just hooked up with them to ride up to the old town, but ended up eating (a very very late) dinner, spending the night, and going to see the sun rise over the rice terraces at some completely ungodly hour with them--3 women from Chengdu and 4 guys from Beijing. I'm pretty sure I might have offended them all in the end as they wanted me to be more friendly and talk more, but I find 7 Chinese people who don't really speak much English quite intimidating--especially after only 4 hours of sleep. Chinese people are quite friendly though, and I really appreciated their help as it was more difficult to arrange the van to the old city and the sunrise outing than I would have thought, and I'm sure I would have failed miserably on my own. The place wasn't very western tourist friendly; another white guy ran up to me as I was leaving almost in despearation because he didn't know where to stay, couldn't speak a word of Chinese, etc. This reminded me why I really don't like to travel alone, even though I could probably get by with my Chinese. Anyway, the terraces did look cool with the water in them, but there were way too many people for it to be an enjoyable experience (500+ at the place to watch the sunrise). I did snap a few good pictures, though, and decided to head back to Kunming after lunch.

I had to take a bus back to the new town, then back to Gejiu, and then on to Kunming. I met another nice young couple on the first bus who were also going to Kunming, so we ended up traveling together and the girl bought me dinner in Gejiu. Chinese people really are awesome like that. And it really is nice to let a Chinese person do the ticket buying, etc. so you know you're not getting ripped off.

So I got back to Kunming safe and sound and that's the end of my stories of Spring Festival '09. The next big holiday is in October, and I'm tentatively planning on going to Laos--if I can save up some money and find some traveling buddies!

Oh, and by the way, this whole trip cost barely more than $100US, but I owe A LOT of people meals. I don't think I paid for one the entire week...except a few breakfasts and snacks for the road. I'd like to attribute it to my stunning good looks or witty Chinese banter....but I'm pretty sure it was just the white skin. Oh well.

Click here for more pictures from the trip...

Happy "Niu" Year

2009-02-27T03:52:00.000-05:00

Oh how we foreigners love our Chinglish humor. We find ourselves so punny!

If you don't get the joke, 2009 is the year of the cow, ox, bull, etc. In Chinese, the word for this type of animal is "niu" (牛), which of course sounds a lot like "new." Hardee-har-har.

Anyway, the Spring Festival (Chunjie 春节), commonly called "Chinese New Year" in the US, is officially over now. The last day of the celebration, usually called "Lantern Festival" in English, despite actually being called Little New Year (Xiaonian 小年) or Yuanxiao (sticky rice balls) Festival (Yuanxiao Jie 元宵节) in Chinese, was marked by the complete destruction of the nearly finished Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Beijing. Apparently it was set on fire by fireworks, which are pretty much unregulated here. Conspiracy theorists say they did it on purpose to collect the insurance money in the bad economy. Believe what you will, but I'm just pointing to this as another reason why crazy Chinese people shouldn't be able to buy industrial strength fireworks and set them off in the middle of cities. But maybe I'm just annoyed at having been woken up in the middle of the night every night for two weeks straight. At any rate, fireworks are the quintessential part of any Chunjie celebrations.

The holiday comes with one week off from work, and I used this time to travel south (where sadly it wasn't much warmer), with a coworker (English name: Lotus, Chinese name: Jiang) and various others. We hit 4 cities (and 2 villages) in 7 days. But the trip was actually more relaxing than that sounds.

let's just say we got the last tickets (and thus, the back seat) and ended up taFirst we headed to Mengzi on the bus, where we met up with my coworker's friend, Kelly. The bus ride is perhaps worth a whole post of its own, butking a detour due to a traffic jam, which ended up with the bus driving through a VERY bumpy road in the middle of a sugar cane field. Needless to say, sitting in the back seat became quite entertaining as we were bumped out of our seats numerous times with my head nearly hitting the ceiling. I couldn't stop giggling, which just made the Chinese people start laughing, and it was one big party in the back of the bus (where you know all the cool kids are!).

Kelly is from Mengzi and so we spent the next several days hanging out with her friends and family, including the actual New Year's Eve celebrations. Mostly, we just started eating and never stopped. Her family was very welcoming (especially the 8 and 10 year old girls, who took to calling me Kung Fu Panda--long story). There were almost 30 people all together for the New Year's meal of hotpot, so we had 3 separate pots in separate rooms. They made SO MUCH food. I couldn't believe it. Even with that many people, we all ate leftovers for lunch the next day and there was still some food left. Haha. After dinner, we watched the first part of the CCTV New Year's Gala/Extravaganza, which pretty much everyone in the country watches. Apparently Chinese people think it hasn't been so great recently. This is the first one I watched, but I wasn't all that impressed. Perhaps they spent all last year preparing for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics instead. I did enjoy seeing my Chinese boyfriend Jay Chou sing and dance, though! After about an hour of the show, the young people went out to play with sparklers and set off some small fireworks.

It was definitely fun hanging out with a Chinese family for the holiday. And Kelly, her family, and her friends paid for EVERYTHING except the hotel room (although we did stay at their house once all the rest of the family was gone). Chinese always fight for the bill, and I'm just apparently not quick enough...(or maybe didn't really try. Hehe.).

Mengzi is the home of the famous "Cross the Bridge Rice Noodles" or "过桥米线 (guo qiao mi xian)," so we made a visit to the actual bridge that was crossed with the noodles. It's not actually particularly exciting (and I don't particularly like cross the bridge rice noodles), but there's not actually that much to see in Mengzi. Just lots (and lots and lots) to eat. Legend has it that a man was studying to take the imperial exam and he lived on an island so he wouldn't be distracted. His wife brought him lunch every day, but was sad that the food was never hot. One day she fell asleep while cooking the broth, the fire went out, but the broth was still hot. She began carrying her husband hot broth and all the ingredients (meat, noodles, etc.) were added once she got to the island.

Needless to say, all forms of noodles are quite popular in Mengzi. My favorite was the rabbit meat noodles that we had. And it was just great that the restaurant had pictures of fuzzy bunnies on their sign. Other than eating, we didn't do much other than relax and drink tea (one of Kelly's friends has her own tea shop). We did take a big group picture with the family (another Chunjie tradition) and I hope to scan it and post it soon (I actually just got a copy of it yesterday). Lots of Asians and one white girl. Haha.

I'll write another post about the other 3 cities (Gejiu, Jianshui, and Yuanyang) soon, but that's my recap of the actual holiday--fireworks and food. Or maybe soon-ish, as the trip was already a month ago and I haven't written it yet. Time is all relative anyway...

Chinese Quote of the Day

2009-02-15T20:35:00.006-05:00

On Saturday night a couple of my friends and I went out to dinner. One of my Chinese friends brought her adorable six-year-old nephew, Wang Ruo Xing (long name for a little kid!). At first he was in a bad mood, being shy, and didn't really want to eat western food, but then he got really excited about the ketchup. His aunt dipped a hamburger (汉堡包 han bao bao) in the ketchup and gave it to him to take a bite, but this was no McDonald's hamburger; it was quite thick. He tried to take a bite, ended up with ketchup all over his face, and then said in the cutest six-year-old voice, "我的嘴不够大! (Wo de zui bu gou da!)," which means, "My mouth isn't big enough!" Hahaha. Too cute. And he's missing his two front teeth, which just makes it cuter (and harder to bite, I'm guessing). That's him licking the ketchup bowl in the second picture. And his aunt giving him an "I don't really know what to do with you" look.

*Thanks to Janahlee for the photos...

Just when you think you've seen everything...Merry Christmas!

2009-02-05T01:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry this post is so delayed....I was having issues uploading the pictures.

Sometimes I get to a point where I think I know a lot about China. I've been here for almost two years, so I've seen all the holidays and all that. I feel like I generally know what happens and how things work (or don't work) around here. Then something like Christmas happens and takes me totally by surprise...

So someone told us that there would be a lot of people hanging out downtown for Christmas. Yes, despite what may think, Christmas is sort of celebrated, albeit in a very different way, here...there are tacky christmas decorations and annoying renditions of strange christmas carols playing in malls and restaurants and such. China has even made up some Christmas traditions of their own, such as giving apples as presents because the word for apple in Chinese is "ping guo" which sounds like the Chinese word for peace, which is "ping an." So everywhere you can find these apples wrapped in colorful cellophane and apple ornaments for Christmas trees, etc. You can definitely find a lot of Christmas decorations here, but it seems like most people do not put them in their homes. They are mostly in stores and restaurants and office buildings. In my building, my lights/tree are definitely the only ones I see blinking at night--and you can see them for the major intersection I live on--yay!

Me and my "ping an ping guo"

Anyway, so we went downtown to see what was happening for Christmas. It was total chaos. There were people selling things everywhere. Santa hats, sparklers, glow bracelets, mardis gras masks, cotton candy, and most of all cans of silly string and fake snow. At first we thought it was kind of fun. Spray some snow up in the air and it really looks like it's snowing. Spray it at your friend a little and that's funny. But then things got totally out of control. Thousands of people just going at each other, spraying in nose, mouth, eyes...and all that aerosol. Yuck. We could barely breathe. And then people started going after us. Just random Chinese people who thought it would be fun to spray the foreigners. They would totally gang up on us from 5 year old kids to sketchy 55 year old men. It was totally out of control. Spraying poison at each other just not not seem like a good way to celebrate Christmas (or any other holiday). It seemed much more like something that would be appropriate at Mardis Gras or for Halloween. You couldn't walk 5 feet without being totally attacked. So what did we do? Buy our own cans and fight back, of course. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! I think that's a pretty good motto for life in China in general.

Megan gets ambushed!

Megan fights back!

Aiya!

They were also again setting off sky lanterns at Jin Ma Bi Ji Fang, like I wrote about before. I had my camera this time, so I took some pictures, and a video...

Click here if you can't see the video.

Things I love about China: Making the Chinese Chuckle

2009-01-19T00:05:00.001-05:00

Three recent episodes:

One of my old students, Haibo (English name: Bobo--cracks me up!), works at Chicago Coffee and I see him there from time to time. I ran into him a few weeks ago and was telling him about how I went to the Jay Chou concert. Most Chinese people do not believe that I can understand/sing Chinese pop songs, so I usually have to sing a few lines to prove them wrong. Lately, my song of choice has been (obviously) "Busy Cowboy" (because who doesn't love milk-drinking cowboys???). Sing these 4 lines to any Chinese person and it will crack them up:

我虽然是个牛仔 Wo suiran shi ge niuzai Although I am a cowboy

在酒吧只点牛奶 Zai jiuba zhi he niunai In a bar I only order milk

为什么不喝啤酒 Weishenme bu he pijiu The reason I don't drink beer

因为啤酒伤身体 Yingwei pijiu shang shenti Is because beer is bad for your body

I bought a pair of shoes in the countryside, in one of the places where my company works. They are the typical shoes that people wear in the countryside, but they are actually quite comfortable and, in my opinion, kind of cute with flowered embroidered on them. Chinese people think it's hilarious that a foreigner would be wearing these shoes, though, so they really like to point and laugh. I caused quite the stir when I wore them while walking around in a local neighborhood on a Sunday. I like to think they are just laughing at the shoes, and not my big feet...but I'm probably wrong.

Carrying a piano down the street would probably get laughs in any country. In a strange twist of fate, on the same day that Lang Lang (international piano phenom and one of People Magazine's Sexiest Men Alive 2008) was playing a concert in Kunming that I couldn't go to, which I'm not at all bitter about. Except that I am. But anyway. On that same day, we had a Christmas concert/dinner/fundraiser and had no other way to transport the electric piano than to carry it down the street for a half mile or so. Fun times. I really do wonder what Chinese people think about foreigners. They're still not used to seeing us white people around and sometimes we just do the darndest things.

My Christmas List

2008-12-18T23:40:00.003-05:00

It's a shameless plug, I know...

International SOS Emergency Health Insurance - $685
A month of rent at my new apartment (I'll move in February) - $73.53 (currently I pay $110.29)
Bus tickets for a long weekend in Dali (where I will soon have a friend living) - $44.12
A box of Cheerios - $13.23 (I have no idea why that is so expensive)
A whole pint of Haagen Dazs - $11.03 (sometimes you just need a whole pint)
A CD on iTunes - $9.99 (ok, that's the same...)
A week's worth of Chinese lunches - $7.36 (yes, that's about $1.50/day. One of my favorite meals is as cheap as $0.74!)
A whole season of an American TV show on DVD - $7.05
An apple, maple walnut salad, bleu cheese roast beef sandwich, and a cookie at the Silver Spoon - $6.47
A block of Land O' Lakes cheese - $5.15
A caramel macchiato from Chicago Coffee - $5.15
A scoop of ice cream at Haagen Dazs - $5.14
An English movie in the theater - $5.14
Falafel, french fries, and a Diet Coke at Wicker Basket - $4.56
Baked eggplant, salad, garlic bread and "Millionaire's shortbread" at Mazagran - $4.41
A box of blueberry muffin mix - $3.82
A non-pirated movie DVD - $3.68
A quesadilla and a coke at Salvador's - $3.53
A double cheeseburger combo meal and strawberry sundae at McDonalds - $3.38
A box of Kraft Mac & Cheese - $2.21
A bag of 5 bagels - $1.76
A can of Dr. Pepper - $1.33
A pirated movie DVD - $0.88

Should you want me to experience any of these wonderful things, give me money! Make out a check to Westside Baptist Church and be sure to write "Rachelle Wilson - Account #8269" in the memo line. The gift will be tax deductible and all that good stuff.

Send it to:

Westside Baptist Church
10000 W Newberry Rd
Gainesville, FL 32606

In case you forgot what you're actually supporting, I work for an awesome Fair Trade handicraft company, which is helping a lot of women in rural Yunnan province. Supporting me will help me to stay here and continue working with them. And yes, the above comforts of home do help me to stay here. You try eating fried rice every day for a week and trust me, you would give your left arm for a caramel macchiato or a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese. I personally would prefer to give my right arm, as I am left handed, but you get the point.

Check out www.threadsofyunnan.com.

Deck the Halls!

2008-12-17T00:03:00.000-05:00

On November 30, I threw a huge and, I think, rather successful Christmas party. Yes, November is a bit early, but the Christmas season gets busy and I wanted to actually decorate the tree at the party, so better earlier than later. I ended up inviting more than 50 people (oops) and I think around 30 or so showed up. We rearranged a lot of the furniture and made enough room for all the pengyou (friends).

It was really fun to just mingle and hang out and do some funky dancing to my electronica and ska/punk Christmas carols. "All I Want for Christmas is You" (by Mariah Carey) was also a hit for lip synching. We decorated the tree and had a gift exchange, and then watched Home Alone at the end--classic! We also decorated sugar cookies and red velvet cupcakes. Festive! The rest of the menu included spinach dip with broccoli, carrots, and bread, apples and honey, cheesy zucchini bites (I call them Xiaogua Surprise), and pigs in a blanket. I am also really proud of the fact that I made eggnog and apple cider punch from scratch. I'm especially proud of the eggnog--it was really good (although according to some the addition of an, ahem, adult beverage would have improved it). No punch spiking at my party!

Here are some shots of the revelry:

Before the tree was fully decorated

Scarf sharing

Snowflake Antlers

Thao and I

The food

Yummy Rudolph

Showing off the cow wrist rest.

Adult split pants (it's a looong story), but if you've been to China, you might understand. And this is the single best facial reaction in the history of Christmas.

Showing off their gifts...

Decorating the tree with Erin (fellow DC-phile and maybe future roommate) and Megan

I'm putting the star on. I don't know what Dave is doing...

The Jew is stealing the ornaments right off the tree!!!! ;)

Danyun people (my coworkers) at the party...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

2008-11-30T19:13:00.006-05:00

Actually, I guess it should go the other way. It was the worst of times first. For the last couple of weeks I have been really sick. I'll spare you all the details, but the words projectile and explosive could be used to describe the situation. Ick. Who knows what I ate to bring this scourge upon myself, but I'm thankful to say that it has passed now. Oh, the worst of times in China. The unknown malady also caused me to miss a trip to the countryside for work that would have gotten me involved in some other aspects of the work we do. Since I didn't go I'm kind of out of the loop, which isn't really fair, but what can you do? Hopefully I'll get another chance.

I began eating again on Thanksgiving and did have the traditional meal including turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. I ate with some other "Thanksgiving Orphans" at a western restaurant in town. It wasn't as good as homemade, but I can't complain too much. Our "gravy boat" was a whole pitcher. Awesome! :)

Truly the best of times in China was on Saturday night, though. I gave myself an early birthday present and went with three of my (American) friends to a Jay Chou concert. If you've been following this blog/my email updates for a while, you may remember the milk drinking Chinese cowboy music video.

That's the guy! Needless to say, there was a lot of pointing and giggling among the Chinese that four white girls would go to the Jay Chou concert, but hey, who's to say foreigners can't like Jay Chou too?? I took a video of the same song, but the quality is not the good. It's more for the sound--watch it so you don't miss the "Oh Susanna" interlude in the middle. Hahaha. Oh China!

Anyway, Jay Chou puts on a great show and it was worth every jiao of the 250RMB ($36) we paid to get in (100RMB for fake tickets, and then 150 for real ones). I would have been more pissed off about the fake ticket thing if the same thing hadn't happened to me in the US (for tickets that cost a lot more money). And scalping was still cheaper than buying them for face value. The tickets we had cost 580RMB. And they included free light up swords (which you can see in all the pictures), whistles (an unfortunate choice--listening to a gazillion shrill whistles at the same time is not pleasant), ponchos, a little backpack, and paper binoculars. Haha. It was a regular little gift bag!

In addition to the normal singing, dancing, fireworks, and lights of a pop show, Jay Chou actually played the guitar, the piano (he's really good), the drums, and a traditional Chinese instrument called the guzheng. The concert also included square dancing, latin dancing, dueling pianos, an amazing break dancing kid, a giant high heel, lots of instruments, people, etc. rising up through the floor, and another traditional Chinese instrument called the erhu. If you watched the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, you know that the Chinese can put on a good show and Jay Chou is probably one of the most (if not the most) popular musicians in Asia these days. He's also an actor. Therefore, he puts on a really great show. It really was a great concert, and a real "Chinese" experience. Also a great chance to practice our character reading because they put the lyrics to the songs on the big screen like it was KTV (karaoke). Awesome!

总统大选: The Big Choose

2008-10-31T01:05:00.008-04:00

Some timely vocabulary:

President (of a Republic): 总统 (zongtong)
Vice President: 副总统 (fu zongtong)
Election: 大选 (da xuan) (literally: big choose)
Biden: 拜登 (bai deng) (yes, have a little giggle because his name is "buy deng")
McCain: 麦凯恩 (mai kai en) (the same first character as McDonalds)
Obama: 奥巴马 (ao ba ma) (the same first character as the Olympics--so we know the Chinese all love him!)
Palin: 佩林 (pei lin) (I have nothing to say about this woman)
Progress: 进展 (jinzhan)
Maverick: 独立见解 (duli jianjie) or 独行侠 (duxing xia)
I voted: 我已投票 (wo yi toupiao)

I would make fun of the strange meanings of these candidates transliterated names, but it's been done already.

Thoughts on the election from my (Chinese) roommate:

Aobama is handsome.
Peilin is independent--like all you American women. Is she in the army? (referring to a picture of her with a gun in a Time magazine I brought back).
China will never (in our lifetime) chose their own president, but luckily Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao (his sidekick/premiere) are good leaders.

A thought from my (Chinese) co-worker/office-mate: You already voted for Aobama? You only get one chance? Haha. Unless you vote early and vote often! Luckily, I think I got it right the first time. You may *respectfully* disagree, but if you disrespectfully disagree, I will Chinese kung fu you. Believe me. It won't be pretty.

*I would be equal opportunity and put a McCain T-shirt on here， but I haven't seen any in Chinese.

**Americans: have you voted? Do it!

A Chinese Joke: The Panda's Wish 熊猫的愿望

2008-10-29T02:37:00.009-04:00

我知道熊猫的愿望。他有两个愿望。一个是去掉黑眼圈。另一个是拍一张彩色照片!*

(Wo zhidao xiongmao de yuanwang. Ta you liang ge yuanwang. Yi ge shi qudiao hei yanquan. Ling yi ge shi pai yi zhang caise zhaopian.)

I know the panda's secret wish. He has two wishes. The first is to get rid of the black circles under his eyes. The other is to take a color photo!

Chinese people always love their xiongmao (literally: bear cat), which they refer to as "national treasures" and use as tools of diplomacy. Taiwan recently (in 2006) rejected China's gift of pandas--gasp!--calling them Trojan Pandas. Later, in a move that sums up my love of China, the government named those rejected pandas Tuantuan and Yuanyuan (团团 and 愿愿 I'm guessing), which means something like "hope of unity.“**

Of course anyone who has met a Chinese tourist knows they also love to take their pictures! I considered dressing up as a Chinese tourist for Halloween...but I couldn't find a big enough camera or an obnoxious enough Hawaiian shirt. Haha. I guess that wouldn't go over so well here anyway...

*This joke/story comes from a lesson on ChinesePod. Definitely an amazing resource for anyone studying Chinese! Although, be warned, this one is from the Elementary Level. I will never make it to Advanced!!! You can get the podcasts for free from iTunes, but you have to pay to get vocab lists and other premium features on their website. I stole the picture from their website as well...

**Just to be clear, I love Chinese people, Chinese pandas, and China. No pandas were harmed in the writing of this blog post...

A Little Bit of History

2008-09-17T22:24:00.004-04:00

or why is China such a loud place?

Today is September 18, as you may know if you own a calendar. What you may not know, though, is that this is an important day in the history of Sino-Japanese relations (and by relations, I mean the lack thereof).

Japan staged an explosion on a Japanese-owned railroad in Manchuria on September 18, 1931 and then blamed the Chinese army and used it as an excuse to invade the area. This is one of the events leading up to the second Sino-Japanese War (although it didn't officially start until 1937). Though this may seem like a bit of ancient history (a lot of bad stuff happened during and leading up to World War 2, right?), China is still pretty pissed about it. To celebrate (or I guess commemorate would be a better word) the 九一八事变 jiu yi ba shi bian (The September 18 Incident) as the Chinese call it (also known as the Mukden Incident, the Manchurian Incident, etc.), they just set off their air raid sirens for 13 minutes. While I'm glad to know Kunming has working air raid sirens, I think about one minute of blaring would have been more than enough to remind the Chinese of why they hate the Japanese (they don't need much reminding). But I guess that's just me. I like peace and quiet (which does not exist here ever), and would prefer to celebrate peace with a little quiet (moment of silence, perhaps?).

In further irony, the "Moment of Silence" (maybe it was called "Moment of Remembrance" or something in Chinese) for the Sichuan earthquake the week after it happened involved three solid minutes of all traffic stopping (cops were there to stop it) and people honking their horns, setting off alarms, etc. Three solid minutes of absolute noise. I don't know if you can imagine an absolute cacophony of noise, but it's not pleasant. I guess in the US we have the idea of remembering with a little sadness and reflection, not with total chaos. I guess it's a cultural difference. Some things I'll never understand.

Things I learned from the Olympics

2008-09-17T11:00:00.000-04:00

For all of you who asked, I did not have the chance to go to any of the Olympic events. Tickets were supposedly all sold out and hard to get (except that I kept seeing tons of empty seats on TV....but anyway). Also, where I live in Kunming is not at all close to Beijing. A round trip airline ticket is around $300 US (and probably even more during the Olympics). The train takes 48 hours. Been there, done that. Not again! Also, I don't really have any vacation time from work. Be that as it may, though, the Olympics were still really fun.

Here are a few things I learned:

Lots of new vocabulary. My coworkers were very impressed that I could hold long conversations about Michael Phelps' new world records in Chinese. I can talk about everything from "The Bird's Nest" to "Gold medal" to "world record" to "Breast stroke" to "Opening Ceremony" to "pole vault" to "alien" (used to describe Michael Phelps...haha! Apparently the Chinese media were also calling him 飞鱼 feiyu, which means flying fish). If you want to brush up on some sports vocab, you can check out: www.chinesepod.com/olympics or this great post on the Laowai Chinese blog.

China definitely knows how to put on a good show. I probably good have told you that beforehand, but obviously no expensive was spared. Would you ever have guessed that many people could be dancing, kung-fuing, etc. in unison? Only in a Communist country. Even the most cynical among us have to admit that the Opening and Closing ceremonies were pretty awesome. In fact, even the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympics looked pretty cool from what I saw.

The US still rules the world (even if we don't have the most gold medals). All of the best events were in the morning, so they could be shown live in the US. NBC apparently paid big bucks to make that happen. I'm still surprised China agreed, though. And it sucked for me because the only good things on during prime time here were fencing and rhythmic gymnastics. Haha. (Ok, those weren't the only things...but the team gymnastics competitions and almost all of Michael Phelps' races were on while I was at work in the morning.) Luckily, my office mate figured out how to stream all the events live, so I could dance around the office saying "one more gold medal for the US" (in Chinese, of course) every time he won.

China is now having a mid-life crisis. During the Closing Ceremony, I asked my roommate what China was going to do now. She had a 15 minute freak out session in which she kept repeating, "Oh this is terrible. What's China going to do now? The Olympics are over. You're right, Rachelle, what are we going to do now?" I guess China will now just go back to being in the news for tainted dairy products and natural disasters (I'd like the earthquakes to stop, by the way....a few weekends ago there was one on Saturday and one on Sunday that destroyed about 1000 homes up near the villages where my company works. We could feel the quakes in Kunming as well. Not fun.) My roommate later consoled herself (as did all Chinese) saying, "Well, we still have the Paralympics." However, since the Closing Ceremony for that was tonight, I really don't know what is next. A hot new girlfriend and a little red sports car?

中秋节快乐! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

2008-09-14T23:12:00.006-04:00

It is again the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. Click here for the post I wrote about the holiday last year. Basically, it's a big holiday to get together with your family and eat mooncakes under the full moon. This year's new development in Kunming was ridiulously expensive Haagen Dasz ice cream mooncakes. We tried to buy them last night, but they were all sold out (and way too expensive anyway). Last night the sky was clear and the moon was very bright. I ate a very yummy ham mooncake, but that's the only one I had. The ham ones are famous in Yunnan because our ham is well-known throughout China. Apparently some other places in China have really good nut mooncakes, but I have not tried those.

A new tradition I learned about this year was paper lanterns on which you write your wishes and then put a candle in and send them floating up towards the moon (sometimes called Sky Lanterns). I was downtown last night and there were some that had gone so high up into the air. It was really cool. We also had to dodge one that had burnt out and was crashing back down. Haha. I'm so mad I didn't have my camera with me because I would have gotten some cool pictures. Everyone was setting off these lanterns from a place downtown called 金马璧鸡坊 Jin Ma Bi Ji Fang (see picture) and it would have been awesome to get pictures of the floating lanterns in front of those gates. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Since last year, China has changed their holiday policy. Beginning this year (in 2008), the May holiday was only 2 days (down from one week in the past), but now there are days off for several more traditional holidays including the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tomb Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, a half-day for Youth Day, and a half-day for Women's Day. Everyone in China still has a week off for the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and National Day. All that to say, I have today off of work! So a four day work week this week and three days next week and then I will be on my way to the US of A!

Chinese Word of the Day

2008-09-11T03:44:00.006-04:00

Ok, I'm not going to give you a word of the day every day (or even near every day), but since I haven't posted in a while, here you go:

强子对撞机 (qiang zi dui zhuang ji): Particle Accelerator/Collider (or whatever the official name of CERN's crazy new black hole causing machine is). So if anyone like to talk about nerdy science topics in Chinese, I'm apparently your girl. :) And if it does create a black hole, I for one think it would be pretty cool...for that .1 nanosecond before we're all spaghettified. Maybe the black hole would take us to Narnia, Middle Earth, or Platform 9 3/4?

I promise I have more interesting posts related to the Olympics, etc. coming up soon, but I've been quite busy as of late. I will also returning to the land of the free and the home of college football, the land flowing with milk and cereal, etc. in two weeks (for a few weeks vacation/Kendi's wedding/college football games)!

Things I love about China: Hot Pot

2008-08-21T06:18:00.006-04:00

Hot pot has recently enjoyed a renaissance in my life. For a while, I swore that I didn't like hot pot, but for some reason, now I like it again. Basically, it's a kind of Chinese fondue. You get raw stuff, you put it in a pot, which is hot (gasp!) and let it cook. Most hot pot places around here will give you a divided pot with one section being a kind of vegetable/chicken broth and the other containing liquid fire. Seriously. That does not stop anyone from eating it, but man is it spicy!

Last time I had hot pot (with a group of Chinese coworkers), we had duck intestines and cow throat in it. Yum! I know everyone's favorite part of reading a blog from someone abroad are the stories of weird food. So there you go. The meat added to hot pot is often very strange stuff. We also had hot dogs and a bologna kind of meat. Good times. There are also noodles, veggies, tofu, mushrooms, etc. etc. etc. It really is pretty good. And, because I know you're wondering, the intestines and throat did not really taste bad. I mean, they didn't really taste like much of anything.

The pictures are from a hot pot expedition several weeks ago. Notice how many pairs of chopsticks it takes for the foreigners (and Mona) to get the noodles out of the pot. Haha. Good times. :) And now, I'm actually off to eat hot pot again!

8.8.08 The Day Has Finally Arrived

2008-08-07T21:31:00.005-04:00

The Chinese are still a little superstitious about numbers. Basically, 8 is good and 4 is bad. Apparently, 8 (八 ba in Chinese) is good because it sounds like 发 fa (of 发财 facai, which means "to get rich") , but 4 (四 si) is bad because it sounds like the word for death (死 si). I just learned why 8 is good today, although I've known for a long time that people pay extra to have lots of 8s in their license tag, phone number, etc. Since 8 is such lucky number, there have apparently been lots of marriages in 2008. Would I delay marriage for a year to wait for a luckier number?! I think not. Anyway, apparently there are issues with price gouging in the marriage industry because of this.

Most magical, though, is the Olympics. China couldn't have planned it any better if they'd tried. They are beginning tonight at 8:08pm on 8-8-08. Ok, so they might have planned at least the 8:08 part, but anyway. This morning, on 8-8-08, the elevator only stopped on the 8th, 18th, and 28th floors. How bizarre. Here's to China getting rich...

In case you missed this gem, which has been mocked constantly on China-related blogs as of late, I give you: the official Olympic cheer. Officially created by the Party Office of Spiritual Civilization Development and Guidance (GODPP)....yes, there is such a government office in China. Forbes.com has an awesome article about this cheer and Danwei has a China-fabulous video.
Step 1: Clap two times (while chanting 奥运, "Olympics")
Step 2: Hands in fists with thumbs up, arms extended upward (while chanting, 加油, "Let's go!")
Step 3: Clap two times (while chanting 中国, "China")
Step 4: Hands in fists, arms extended outward and upward (while chanting 加油, "Let's go!")

Also, if you want to learn some Chinese in honor of the Olympics, the Olympic slogan "One World, one Dream" is 同一个世界，同一个梦想 (Tong yi ge shi jie, tong yi ge meng xiang). However, as Jenny Zhu pointed out in her blog awhile back, perhaps what China needs to realize is that people have different dreams--and different cheers.

For more Olympics-related Chinese, check out ChinesePod's Olympics site, which has country names and all the sports names and vocabulary in English, Pinyin, and characters.

In other Opening Ceremony news (you all are getting up to watch it at 8:00am EST, right?!), the teams will not be entering in alphabetical order. Greece will enter first, as usual, but the other teams will enter based on number of strokes in the first character. Fun fun. Chinese makes everything more difficult. I think the US has 8 or 9 strokes, so we should be somewhere in the middle. Australia has 15, so they are not happy to be near the end. However, as someone whose last name begins with a "W," I never feel bad for any "A" that has to go last. Zambia is still at the end in Chinese, so they have no luck either way.

In other new about dates/numbers, yesterday was "Chinese Valentine's Day"--known as Qi Xi in Chinese. It occurs on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, which was Aug. 7th this year. Just a random non-Olympics factoid.

Things I love about China: Outfit Repeating

2008-07-28T05:16:00.003-04:00

Yes, outfit repeating. In many places in China, it is common to wear the exact same outfit two (maybe three?) days in a row. At first, you might kind of think, "Ewww." And I will admit it takes a little getting used to because it somehow just feels wrong. But then one day it all clicks and you realize the brilliance of it. You wake up late, throw on the same clothes and no one judges you at all. It also just cuts down on the amount of clothes you really need to have. In the US, you might have a pair of black pants or something that you wear quite frequently, but it always has to be with different sweaters or shirts. Not here. You could literally have three work outfits for summer and three for winter and always wear the exact same things together and no one would judge. In fact, one of my friends told me many Chinese people would think it's strange when people have a ton of different outfits and are never wearing the same thing. I think in my two 50lb suitcases I brought more clothes than most Chinese people even own (and I still have a full closet at home...if my mom hasn't stolen all of my things). Man, I love communists!

This also partially explains why so many Chinese people can afford to buy really high-end foreign brands--they even repeat those! In the US, if you can afford one bag from Gucci or Coach or whatever, you'd have 10 bags from there. Here, people really save up and buy the one bag and use it everyday for five years. It's really a whole different mind-set, but I kind of like it. I'd rather have a few really nice/expensive outfits and wear them over and over to just buying whatever is on the Old Navy sales rack and having 30 skirts in my closet.

Now I'm usually on an alternating schedule where I shower one morning and wear clean clothes the next. It definitely cuts down on getting-ready-for-work time. I guess some might argue that you should be clean and wear clean clothes at the same time. But whatever, I do what I want. That's what deodorant is for. And I'm almost out. Hmmm. Don't you love it when I overshare about my personal hygiene habits in a public forum?

Bus Bombing in Kunming :(

2008-07-21T00:52:00.003-04:00

So this morning two buses were apparently bombed in Kunming...at the same time that I was on a bus in Kunming. That makes me feel slightly uncomfortable. But obviously, since I am writing this post, I am fine. Unfortunately, several others are not. Chinese media and CNN are reporting that two people have been killed and around 15 or so injured. The gossip around town, however, says that up to six people were killed.

The real question in my mind, though, is why Kunming. We generally have no problems around here and it's a pretty laid back place. It will be interesting to see what happens in China in the next three weeks leading up to the Olympics (which begin on 08.08.08 at 8pm local time, by the way). The number eight is the luckiest number in Chinese culture and superstition, so it's interesting that they're hosting the Olympics in '08. I, for one, am glad that I will not be there.

This afternoon, I will now have to decide if money, time, or my life is the most important. I either need to walk the 2+ kilometers home (takes time), take a cab (takes money) or ride the bus (which apparently now means risking my life). I'm guessing I should probably not ride the bus...although for once they will probably not be crowded.

Picture from www.yunnan.cn

Mawage is what bwings us togever

2008-07-11T04:52:00.000-04:00

So, back in March and April right after I moved in with my Chinese roommate, I accompanied her to two weddings. Weddings in China are certainly different than in the US. Really different. The symbol you see to the left is the one that is always associated with Chinese weddings; it means double happiness.

As you enter the wedding, the bride and groom (and usually a best man and maid of honor type person) stand at the entrance to the hotel/restaurant welcoming people and handing out nuts, candy, and cigarettes to the guests. In return, the guests place their red envelopes on a tray that the bride and groom are holding. The red envelope has money in it and is the only acceptable gift at a Chinese wedding--just don't give 400RMB, that's bad luck and bad etiquette. How much you give depends on how well you know the couple. You are actually supposed to keep track of how much everyone gives you so you give the same amount to them when they get married. And you really are not supposed to give more than they gave you even if you are feeling generous or are more wealthy. I think it goes back to the Chinese idea of "losing face"--if you give them more it's like you're showing off or saying the person didn't give you enough and that would make the person lose face.

Most Chinese brides do not buy their dresses, they just rent them. In fact, to be honest, most of them are pretty ugly and have hoops around the bottom under which the brides seem to be wearing jeans and/or totally non-matching shoes. It's another instance of China superficially stealing bits and pieces of American/western culture and doing a bad job of it. But we can save my rant on that for another day. Traditionally, Chinese brides wore red qipaos (the kind of dress you think of if you think of a Chinese dress), and many of them will change from the white dress into the red one at some point.

The biggest difference from American weddings is that there is no real ceremony. The whole thing is just a big dinner of mostly mediocre food (ok, that is the same as most wedding receptions in the US). Based on the two I have attended, there's some sort of performance during dinner (random minority dancers, singers, etc.) and then some little part involving the bride and groom and maybe their parents. There might be some sort of ceremonial bowing to the parents, a linked arm toast, etc. The the bride of the groom kiss. One of them had an American style cake they cut (but didn't serve to the guests) and a champagne glass fountain (though they didn't actually serve that to the guests either). And that was pretty much it. No real vows or anything like that. I guess maybe here it's more of a governmental contract type thing. You don't have to promise to do anything; you just have to have the official papers. There's also no real dancing or socializing at the wedding. You pretty much eat and then it's over. Even the little bit of bowing, the kiss, etc. all happen while people are still finishing their meal.

Of course, the quintessential part of any Chinese event/dinner is baijiu. It's pretty much the grossest thing ever--an alcohol that is about a million proof (ok, slight exaggeration) and tastes like rubbing alcohol (not an exaggeration...rubbing alcohol might actually taste better). After the bowing and kiss and presentation of the couple, they go around to every table to toast. I think the bride is usually secretly drinking water and not baijiu...or at least for her sake I hope that's the case. And that's pretty much the end...unless you know the couple really well (or are the token foreigner).

The best part of a Chinese wedding, and by "best" I mean the reason I will never get married in China, is the games that follow dinner. Now this part is really only for the young people and good friends of the couple. It traditionally took place at the house, but now is often done in the hotel room (bridal suite) that the couple will stay in the first night. These games are basically all inappropriate and made to embarrass the couple, but they are pretty funny. I guess in the US you might expect to find this sort of thing at a bachelor/bachelorette party or a shower or something, but certainly not on the wedding night!

For the first game, the bride had to put a water balloon up one leg of her new husband's pants and then down the other leg within a certain amount of time.

For the second game, the bride had a light all the guy's cigarettes while riding piggy back on her new husband. Of course, the guys stand on chairs, lay on the floor, etc. She did get them all eventually, though.

Another game involved the bride being blindfolded and then having to feel all the guys' hands and decide which one is her husband.

There were a couple more games that were so awkward that I don't even want to post the pictures or explain them. Lol. The final "game" involves everyone watching the couple get into bed and then yelling out articles of clothing that they want them to take off. And then they just actually take off their clothes under the covers and throw them out. As soon as all the clothes are gone. Well, then the party's over and every leaves immediately. Hilarious.

So there you have it. The Chinese wedding. I had heard about this taking off the clothes thing before, but I didn't know that people still did it...especially people in the city. Wedding are, of course, still much more traditionally Chinese in the countryside. I would love to go to one there sometime...

Business Cards!

2008-07-08T02:18:00.004-04:00

Ok, I meant to write about this a long time ago....but anyway.

I have business cards now! English on one side, Chinese on the other (business in the front, party in the back?!). I'm not going to lie, business cards kinda make me feel like a real person. It really freaks me out.

Check it out:

My Chinese name is 韦雪 Wei Xue (pronounced Way Shu-way....sort of). The Wei doesn't really mean anything, just a family name, but Xue means snow.

Things I love about China: The Vegetable Market

2008-07-06T09:01:00.006-04:00

There's a vegetable market on a street right next to my apartment. I love going there for fresh, cheap vegetables. The pictures are from a trip there last week. All this veggie goodness only cost me about $2! I never really buy meat to cook at home anymore (rising food prices are seriously problematic, even for a foreigner in Asia), so I usually just eat some concoction of veggies and pasta if I cook for myself. Or peanut butter and jelly...haha! I've also become some sort of rabbit or something--I just can't stop nibbling on raw carrots.

Of course, I am quite the novelty in that vegetable market because there are not many foreigners who live in the area. Everyone is always curious to see what the foreigner wants to buy. When I point to something (or ask for something if I know what it's called), all the Chinese people around say, "Oh Carrots! She wants carrots! Great!" and they call out to each other "Carrots!" "Carrots!" like it's some kind of greeting. Oh well, I'm happy to provide the entertainment. I just can't figure out why me buying carrots is that entertaining. Oh China.

Also, note my reusable bag....because I'm a friend to the environment. I've also recently been making my own granola. Combined with my bike riding, it might be safe to say that I've become some sort of environmentalist...I guess it remains to be seen what would happen if I moved back to the US. Would I still ride a bike? Buy local vegetables? Take my own bag to the grocery store? I hope I would, but I might fall back into the habits of the stereotypical lazy American...

Things I love about China: The Milk Man

2008-06-26T22:09:00.006-04:00

So it's very easy to write about the things I don't like about China (spitting, stealing, pushing, Olympic fever, general dirtiness and a lack of logic regarding anything and everything--just off the top of my head), but there are also some things I love about China. There are several things on my list right now, but I'm going to write about them one at a time.

If you know me very well at all, the first one should not surprise you. I love milk! We have a milk/yogurt man that comes to our office every morning! It's amazing. Everyone runs to the reception desk with glee when he arrives (ok, "glee" might be a slight overstatement). For a mere 21.7 cents, you can get a bottle of milk or yogurt every day. And you don't even have to pay until the end of the month. It's like free milk! Everyone needs a little more dairy in their life! And they recycle the bottles so it's good for the environment too. It's a win-win-win situation. Now if they'd only deliver me cereal too...

When am I ever going to use this stuff in real life?!

2008-06-22T07:23:00.005-04:00

I asked myself (and my mom and my math teachers and anyone who would listen) this question many times in the course of my educational career. Well, to my utter amazement and complete shock, I have recently been using my geometry skillz at work. Yes, when you're designing a circular purse and want to figure out the measurements, you might need to have a little pi are squared (but...I thought pies were round?!) review session. And when your boss tells you she wants a tablerunner made of triangles that have a hypotenuse of 20 centimeters and a right angle, you might have to remember that that is a 45-45-90 triangle and think about Pythagorean's theorem and stuff to figure out how long the other two sides should be. Luckily, geometry was always my best math (if I had to do algebra, I'd be totally out of luck) and I impressed both of my bosses with my quick (and correct) solution to the triangle problem—even without a trusty graphing calculator (those things were always better for playing Tetris in physics class than for actually doing math anyway). Being able to do math might actually be worth more than all four years of that liberal arts degree, even with a job in business/international development. Who knew?!

Countryside Trips

2008-05-20T09:15:00.004-04:00

aka The Fun Part of Work! :)

I've been back to the countryside 4 times since starting my new job. Three trips were actually for work, and one was for fun on the weekend. I've been working for Threads of Yunnan for a little more than 3 months now. I wish I could spend all my time in the countryside. Ok, I might get tired of the lack of internet pretty quickly...but it's so nice up there, the stars are amazing, the people are friendly, and the food is good. It remains to be seen how often I will go in the future, but I hope it's more often than not. Probably once a month is good. Someone from the company usually goes every two weeks, so we're out there a lot and it looks like over the summer we'll be out there even more as there's a lot to be done. (It seems like there's always a lot--too much--to be done!)

In addition to the Threads of Yunnan embroidery project in Jijiezi and the surrounding villages, Danyun is also involved in other community development projects including building wells, clinics, and schools and a microcredit project which involves pigs. The family you see in the picture here is involved in the pig project and the mother is also one of our group leaders for Threads of Yunnan. Last time we were at their house, they had a brand new washing machine. I don't even have a washing machine in my apartment! Good for them; it's nice to see that our projects really are helping to raise the standard of living in these villages. Another one of our group leaders just installed an amazing shower at her house. It even has a solar powered hot water heater--the first in the village! She told us that she also lets others shower there. Awesome. When Danyun first started working with these women, they said they only bathed several times a year. Now they are excited to have their own shower they can use every day, so that's great. We're also planning to expand Threads of Yunnan to several new villages in the next month or two, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes. And by interesting to see how it goes, I mean, I (and my coworkers) have to figure out how to make it work. I'm definitely learning a lot about business, development, exporting, and product design (and so much more). It's certainly not a boring job, and I'm grateful for that.

The first trip for work was to meet with a contractor about the building we want to build in Jijiezi for the production unit we are hoping to begin this summer and to pay tuition for some of the village children that we support. The second trip was to Jijiezi and Shaoziga with a representative from one of our customers in the US. The third was to help the women with some new and modern designs we are doing for some new products. (My life never gets boring. It seems like I'm doing something different every day!)

It takes about 4 hours or so to get up to Jijiezi. The drive is quite bumpy at times, but the views are great. The last time we went the terraces were especially green. We spend the night in a small place called Tianxin (translation: heart of the fields), which is sort of the capital of the county. The last time I was there, I ordered some shoes, which I think my coworkers are going to pick up this week. They're black with some embroidered pink and red flowers. I had to deal with the embarrassment of my big feet, but it was worth it for my $5 traditional Chinese shoes! There is also a restaurant on the way where we usually eat lunch. It's famous (but only inside of our company). We're not sure if the food is really good or if we're always just really hungry by the time we get there. One time I jumped in there to help cook my eggplant. Haha.

The weekend trip was to Da Ping Di, a Miao village (the same one that I wrote about before). We went on a Sunday for their big Easter service and lunch (though it was actually the week after Easter). It was awesome. The Miao minority group is known for their amazing choirs and they definitely did not disappoint! The kids sang a few songs and the adults as well. They have amazing voices! We also enjoyed the lunch, which included the yummy oat/buckwheat pancakes that you dip in honey. Man, I dream about those things. They are so tasty!!! I'm not really sure why they are green, though. Hmmmm.

Anyway, those are just some random thoughts about my job and what we do in the countryside for some of you that have been asking what it is I do...I

hope you enjoyed the pictures! I love the cute kids!!!

Thailand (and Burma)

2008-05-19T20:38:00.003-04:00

Bangkok, Chiang Rai, Mae Sai, Chiang Mai, Sukhothai, and Bangkok again

This post has been a long time in coming. We were in Thailand in February...better late than never, though, right?

Since we took Laos, Malaysia, and Singapore off of our itinerary due to a lack of time and money, we spent quite a while in Thailand and it was great. We never made it down to the supposedly beautiful beaches in the south, but we had so much fun in northern Thailand that we didn't really care. Maybe next year. That's the beauty of living in Kunming. Thailand is always so close and everyone goes all the time.

Bangkok
The first time we arrived in Bangkok, it wasn't the best experience. We got in from Siem Reap too late on a Friday night and we hadn't made reservations, so we couldn't find a place to stay. Carrying all of our luggage around a strange city in a country that neither of us had ever been in before was not the best way to spend a couple of hours. Eventually (what seemed like forever) later, we found a place (on the other side of town from where we had started). It was one of the most expensive and most ghetto places we stayed on the whole trip...pretty sure it was a "pay by the hour" sort of place. The wall was paneled, but one panel was missing and we were afraid a rat was going to jump out in the middle of the night, so we put a plastic bag in there so we'd have a warning of an impending rat attack. Pretty funny. We were staying near the Hard Rock Cafe (it was about 10pm by the time we found a place to stay) and I wanted to go there for dinner, but they were having some sort of concert so there was a cover charge. We went to some diner type place next door and that was the end of our first night in Thailand. The next morning, there was a large roach in the bathtub. Luckily we had already showered, so we just avoided it and checked out. Then we had yummy donuts for breakfast, which somewhat made up for the crappy hotel. We had caved a couple of days before and actually bought plane tickets to fly from Bangkok to Chiang Rai. We were glad to be rid of Bangkok and so headed to the airport right after breakfast. As a side note, I had one of the most amazing salads ever in the Bangkok airport. It was roasted veggies and vinaigrette or something. It was so good...but expensive, of course, since it was in the airport.

Chiang Rai
We got into Chiang Rai and discovered that you had to pay a "cab" to take you into the city. There were no buses or anything. For this reason, they pretty much could rip you off, which was annoying. The funny thing about the "taxis" were that they were just normal cars. No taxi markings, but you could buy tickets to take them inside the airport. Strange. Again we arrived with no idea about where to stay, but we had written down a couple of places from Lonely Planet while we were at the airport. A couple places were full and we were worried about reliving the Bangkok experience, so we decided to call some of the places we had written. One of them had rooms and seemed good, so we walked there (small towns are nice!) and only got moderately lost on the way down to the river where this hostel was. Chiang Rai is a really chill town, fun to just walk around and explore, so that's mostly what we did for a day or two. We decided to go on an elephant trek, so we spent a lot of time researching that. We finally found a great guide and booked to leave with him on a two day trek the next day. He told us about some fair that was happening at the old airport, so we headed up there. It was really fun! We didn't see any other tourists and we bought lots of cheap food and other things (including a Life Magazine from 1967 that I bought for a dollar, some coconut mugs, etc etc etc). Each town in the area had their own sort of booth set up. It was totally a county fair! They were even selling fried stuff with sugar (not quite a funnel cake, but I won't complain)! They were also selling fried bugs. Awesome.

The most exciting part of the elephant trek day might have been the Super Bowl that morning. Haha. What a great game! I only caught the last quarter because I didn't realize that the bar across the street was going to open early to show it (the game starts at like 6 or 7 am on this side of the world). I heard people yelling, though, so I ran over there to watch and eat breakfast. There was this huge football player looking dude from Brooklyn there and he was totally freaking out. It was fun to watch. Man, I miss football. The second the game was over I had to run over to the tour guide's office. We took a little tuk tuk for a while, then switched to a boat for about an hour ride to the elephant place. You might feel bad for elephants having to schlep tourists around all day, but actually, the elephants used to be used for logging and stuff and now that's illegal, so tourism is a way the people who own the elephants can pay for their food and stuff. In case you haven't guessed, elephants eat a lot and are expensive to keep. I guess I won't be having a pet elephant any time soon. Man, their trunks are freaky too! They just curl and come towards you. Weird. We rode the elephant for about an hour, including through the river! Thankfully, they've been trained not to spray water on their backs or we would have been quite wet! Riding the elephant was uncomfortable after a while, but it was fun. We got to feed it sugarcane and bananas while we went along! After the ride, we ate lunch and headed out on our hike after a boat took us across the river and we had another short tuk tuk ride. We hiked for a couple of hours on the first day. A lot of the time we were hopping from rock to rock crossing and re-crossing a smaller river or going along the bank. It was pretty fun, but exhausting. Our guide made us pointy gnome hats from palm leaves. They were pretty awesome. There was a lot of uphill at the end. Finally we arrived at the village where we were going to spend the night. It was a cute little place with animals running all around. There were two other groups of trekkers staying there too, but it surprisingly didn't seem too touristy (though I'm sure it kind of was). Our guide was really cool, so we just hung out in our little hut all night. I helped him make dinner (mmm, Thai food!) and we all just sat around and talked. The other couple with Jessica and I were from DC. Of all the places. We had hardly meet any other Americans on our whole trip and these actually lived about a block away from us on Wisconsin Avenue at one point (Jessica lived across the street from me). Small world. We also got some bizarre massages from the village women after dinner. It was pretty random. There wasn't much method to the massaging, but it was an experience. It had been light when we arrived and I hadn't left the hut at all until after dinner and massages and hanging out. It must have been 9 or 10pm by that point, so it was really dark. I left the porch to go to the outhouse and froze. The stars were INCREDIBLE. I have never seen such a thing!!! I think the sky was more white than black. I think I must have stood there and stared for about 10 minutes...until I realized that I really had to go to the bathroom. Haha. We slept on mats on the floor and then continued our trekking bright and early. I think it was about 6 hours total. Not too much to say about it. We just walked through the woods. We arrived at a hot spring in the end, which was a nice way to relax and then we took a tuk tuk back to Chiang Rai. We had decided to go up to Mae Sai (and Burma) on our own the next day, so we just walked around the night market and bought several pairs of cheap earrings, strawberry smoothies, etc.

Mae Sai
We hopped a bus from Chiang Rai without a problem and the ride to Mae Sai wasn't long at all. We arrived in another unfamiliar city with no guidance, but that had become pretty routine. We took a tuk tuk down the main drag (it's a pretty small place) and then walked down the river checking out a few places. We ended up at the Monkey Island hostel, which was pretty nice. It had a balcony that overlooked the river -- and Burma! We spend Chinese New Year there eating chocolate and hanging out on the balcony. We just walked around a little that night. Everything seemed to shut down pretty early because the only real attraction is the border crossing and that closes at night. We decided to go into Burma the next day. We weren't really sure what the deal was with passports and whatnot, but we just followed along. Some people kind of freak out that they keep your passport at the border. Oh well. Who really needs a passport anyway? We did have to pay money to the Burmese government to let us in, but I'll be honest, I'll sell my soul for passport stamps. It was no problem getting into Burma, but there's really not a ton to see. We took a tuk tuk around to a couple of temples and stuff and then did some shopping in the big market there. We also ate some food from street vendors. The food they had there was all fried (awesome!): spring rolls, samosas, fried potato pancakes, fried corn fritters, etc. Yummy. I'd apparently gain 50 pounds if I lived in Burma. We were probably only there for 4 or 5 hours total, but it was interesting.

Chiang Mai

The best part of Chiang Mai was definitely the all day long cooking class we took (although the laundry mat--with dryers!--was also pretty exciting). The cooking class was a little bit expensive, but we decided it would be worth it. It was. We had a lot of fun going to the market, learning about the different spices and vegetables (including strange things like aborted eggplants), and eating all the food we cooked. Man, we were so full by the end. We learned to make about 5 dishes (pad thai, spicy glass noodle salad, chicken and cashew stir fry, panang red curry, and mangoes with sticky rice)--including making curry paste from scratch with a mortar and pestle! Sadly, it's hard to find the ingredients to make all that stuff in China, though I did recently make a version of pad thai that came out pretty good!

Our other big tourist activity in Chiang Mai was going to a famous temple on the top of a mountain called Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. It's one of the most famous in Thailand, apparently. It was pretty crazy--packed with people lighting incense, bringing flowers, and doing some sort of pilgrimage walk around the main part of the temple. This was probably the most active temple I have ever seen.

The night market in Chiang Mai was pretty awesome. So many cool things! I didn't want to buy too much, but I did buy a few small things. We also got massages (which were way better than the strange/random one on our trek, haha!). Other than that, we ate at some good restaurants, including a really good Italian place, and walked around exploring random temples, etc.

We also voted (thanks to DemocratsAbroad) while we were there. Two more votes for Barack! (How on earth is the primary not over yet?! Seriously...). DemocratsAbroad actually has delegates for expats around the world that they send to the primary, so the vote really does count. I was excited to be able to vote--especially since my democratic vote in Florida wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Sukhothai

Sukhothai is between Chiang Mai and Bangkok, so we decided to st0p there and break up the long bus ride (into two still rather long bus rides) because we heard it was a pretty cool place. We rented bikes to ride around the ancient ruins and it was quite fun (although quite hot) -- especially when we road the bikes between the old town and the new town, which were much farther apart than we thought. We did stop for ice cream at KFC, though. The ruins at Sukhothai were pretty cool and if you are in Thailand and can't make it to Angkor Wat, I would definitely recommend going there. Of course, Angkor Wat is much bigger and better if you can make it over to Cambodia. It was an interesting place to spend a day, but I'm not sure I'd want to stay much longer.

Bangkok

We were a little worried heading back to Bangkok after what had happened the last time, but this time our bus got in at about 4am as opposed to late at night. The bus station was CRAZY! Even at that time in the morning there were hundreds of buses arriving, huge lines for taxis, etc. It was total chaos. As soon as everyone was off the bus, they pulled out to let more buses and more people flood into the station. We couldn't get a room right away because it was so early, so we sat in a 24 hour Burger King for 3 hours or so. Fun times. Then we found a place off of Khao San Road (the main backpacker area) that let us have a room around 8am, so we just crashed there for a while. The last few days we spent in Bangkok are kind of a blur now. To be honest, we were so exhausted from all the traveling that we didn't do much except walk around shopping and eat pad thai and/or falafel from street stands. We road the water taxis a couple of times. We went all the way to the last stop to just look around. We also went to the royal palace, but it was kind of expensive, part of it was closed, and they wouldn't let us in wearing capris, so we decided to go back the next day -- except we didn't go back. Oh well. We found a few random temples and poked around them. We also went to the National Art Gallery, which was pretty interesting (and air conditioned!). Like I said, I think the month of traveling was definitely catching up to us at this point. It's lucky we didn't find a hostel with a TV because I probably would never have left the room. We did get facials and pedicures, which was nice. We had a lot of fun hanging out and spending the last of our money. Seriously. The last. I actually went to a money changing place and changed $1. Hey, that 32 baht bought lunch. I also sold a couple of books I had read to buy a couple more pairs of earrings. Pretty funny. The flight back was pretty uneventful. I took the airport bus, got there really early, read some magazines at the news stand (how come every other country in the world has American/English magazines except China? I had to get my fix of People, The Economist, etc.), went into Starbucks just to get a big whiff of the coffee aroma (I had no money left, remember?), and then got on my flight--with several people I know from Kunming. Thailand is the popular destination for Kunming expats at that time of year and there is only one direct flight between Bangkok and Kunming every day. I was actually surprised I didn't know more people.

Well, that about sums up our Thailand adventures; after that it was back to the real world. I started working at my new job on Monday after returning to Kunming on Saturday.

Click here and here for more Thailand pictures on facebook.

ditu.google.cn

2008-05-17T10:40:00.004-04:00

Whoa! I just discovered that Google Maps exists in Chinese and for Kunming. It will actually give you directions and all that stuff, as long as you can type it in Chinese (sadly, it doesn't seem to work to use the English version to get directions in Kunming). I typed the name of my apartment complex and the name of my favorite restaurant and it gave me directions. Check out the screen shot. Wow! I feel like Kunming has gone big-time now. This is almost as good as if we had a Starbucks. I also just heard that they are planning to begin construction on the subway (mass transit system, not the sandwhich shop...sadly) by the end of the year. Yes, my friends, Kunming is the happenin' place to be!

Seasick in an Office Building

2008-05-12T22:51:00.003-04:00

Well, as many of you have no doubt heard, southwest China endured a strong earthquake yesterday (2:30am EST Monday morning). It was 2:30pm here, so we were all at work. The quake was centered in Sichuan province which is to the Northeast of Yunnan and Kunming and registered between 7.6 and 7.8 on the Richter scale. Needless to say, a quake that big was felt all over the region in Yunnan, Guizhou, etc. For those of you who were worried about me (I received many emails and facebook messages), I'm fine. There was no damage here. To be honest, though, being on the 18th floor (of 28) was kind of scary. The building was definitely creaking and swaying back and forth. We all suddenly felt dizzy and like we were going to throw up, but we didn't realize right away what was going on. I think the building was rocking for a good two minutes. We just ran down the stairs (all 18 flights - ugh!) and thankfully people did it in a more orderly fashion than I would have expected in China. After staying outside for an hour, it was back to work. One ceiling tile fell down and that was the only proof that something had indeed happened. Many people on the ground didn't even really notice the shaking (it was apparently a rolling kind of earthquake).

Anyway, all that to say that I am fine. Sadly, the people in Sichuan are not and the death toll is already estimated to be around 10,000. Please keep those people in your thoughts and prayers as rescue efforts continue. And the people in Myanmar as well. It hasn't been a good couple of weeks for this corner of Asia.

The Stuff of which Nightmares are Made...

2008-05-04T22:39:00.000-04:00

Scary math and Chinese characters!

I took a picture of my friend's Chinese math book. I think this is the typical college math course--what we would call calculus. I passed calculus and all, but seriously, combining it with Chinese characters might be my worst nightmare! Eeeek!

Super Sexy Silver Speed Racer!

2008-04-22T07:09:00.005-04:00

I bought a new bike!

Since I ride to work every day and often head to the other side of town, I thought a good bike would be a good investment. It's also good exercise. If you've ever been to China and been on a public bus during rush hour, you'll understand why I try to avoid them. If you haven't been to China, let's just say that sardines doesn't even begin to describe. Mostly, though, I just wanted a new bike because I wanted a new toy! Haha. Let me just say that my 18 speed silver and black bike is super sexy and super fast (as you might have guessed from the title of this post).

Yesterday I rode home from work in rush hour traffic while wearing a skirt and balancing groceries on my handlebars. That means I've pretty much mastered life in China. Bring on the next adventure!

A Whole New World of Chinese Culture

2008-04-18T21:17:00.005-04:00

Stuff I never learned while majoring in Asian Studies...

I've decided that since I live in China as a (relatively) young and (moderately) "with it" person, I really should know more about Chinese pop culture. Movies, music, TV, celebrities. I realized a couple weeks ago that I knew literally nothing about these things. I decided to start with music because, well, I love music. Too much of Chinese music, in my limited experiece, is terrible pop and is mainly beatiful girls singing love songs in fields (in their music videos). Well, that's not really my style, but I have discovered that there is a lot more stuff out there. I've only barely scratched the surface, but here are two of my favorite music videos (thanks China for unblocking YouTube) for your viewing pleasure.

This first one is my favorite song although the music video (MV in Chinese slang) is not that great. It's called 改变自己 (Gai Bian Zi Ji) which means "Change Myself." It's about changing the world by changing yourself. Kinda cheesy, but it's a fun song. The singer's name is 王力宏 (Wang Li Hong or Lee-Hom Wang, which I'm guessing is the Cantonese and Americanized version of his name). He's actually an ABC (American-born Chinese) and apparently his sisters go to Harvard or something.

This second song may have the best music video in the history of the world. Seriously. It's a song called 牛仔很忙 (Niu Zai Hen Mang) which literally means "Very Busy Cowboy," but is usually translated as "Cowboy on the Run." It's by a Taiwanese guy named 周杰伦 (Zhou Jie Lun or Jay Chou in English) who has been popular for quite a while. The song is about a cowboy who is very busy saving the ladies and whatnot, but only drinks milk in bars because beer would make him fat. He also likes to take buble baths so he can play with toys, only wears fake leather, and shoots rubber bands when he duels. I found a translation of the lyrics here, but it's really not very good. Until you've seen Chinese rocker cowboys drinking bottles of milk, you really haven't lived. Hilarious.

Baseball in China off to a bumpy but promising start

2008-03-20T21:35:00.004-04:00

Ok, so I have tons of half written blog posts that I really need to finish, but I just haven't had the energy to write them recently. I came across this article on SI.com today and just had to share it. Apparently the Padres and the Dodgers played two exhibition games in Beijing last week. Some of the things it says (supporting a team because you like their colors/logo, spray painting the grass green, serving instant noodles, etc.) are just so Chinese. Man, I just wish I lived in Beijing (well, I don't really), but it would have been nice to go see a baseball game. I miss sports! The China and Australia national soccer teams are actually playing a game in Kunming next week, but the tickets were kind of expensive (and the game is in the middle of the work day), so I'm not going. Anyway, you should check out the link above to the baseball article, but below are some of my favorite "Oh China" quotes from it.

Welcome to China, Mr. Bell, where anything is possible, which also means nothing is impossible. The two exhibition games between the Dodgers and Padres played last weekend in Beijing were a microcosm of what it means to business in this rapidly opening but still largely government-controlled market. The best-laid plans can be swept aside by a single government decree.

At about 1 a.m. on March 15 -- roughly 12 hours before Saturday's scheduled first pitch -- MLB officials were told that there would have to be some changes made "for security reasons," apparently related to the turmoil in Tibet, where police had opened fire to quell the biggest anti-Chinese protests in two decades and fatalities had been reported. Police officials were on high alert and there would be no pregame ceremonies -- never mind the Dragon Dance or 40-piece drum troupe. Security would have to be tightened and metal detectors brought in, even if that meant that many people coming to the game would have to wait in line for close to an hour, missing the player introductions and the first inning or two. And those nice young girls brought in to sing the U.S. and Chinese national anthems? Wasn't going to happen. Apparently the authorities feared handing the microphone to anyone in front of a large crowd, so pre-recorded instrumental versions of the anthems were played instead.

Both games were televised in their entirety on national TV, and Chinese-language programs were distributed, explaining some of the basic rules and including the lyrics to Take Me Out to the Ball Game. The concession stands, run by Tim's Texas BarBQ, one of the city's best American restaurants, sold instant noodles along with beef sandwiches, chicken burritos and hot dogs. Unfortunately they ran out of everything early and often, frustrating many American fans. But Chinese events generally feature few concessions and no vendors, so even sporadic visits by young women in Texas flag shirts selling beer, Coke, peanuts and hot dogs were significant.

"We were very excited for this game," said Wei Meng, a Beijing resident who was wearing a Dodgers jersey and hat, as was his wife. "But I tried to get some of my local Chinese friends and colleagues to come with me and no one was interested."

Indeed, most of the thousands of Chinese fans in attendance seemed to have been given free tickets. Further up the bleachers, Li Wang kept one eye on the field and another on his six-year-old son, who was cavorting with a friend. Wang was wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates cap, but don't ask him who Jason Bay is. "I selected it because it is beautiful," he said with a laugh. "Who is the team?"

Cambodia

2008-02-29T03:16:00.001-05:00

Phnom Penh, Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), and the road to Poipet

A roadside rest stop in Cambodia might have been the most shocking place on our entire trip. You see, I was just minding my business, going to the bathroom, stretching my legs, and obtaining food as had become my habit on these frequent and long bus journeys. I was excited to find some banana chips (mostly because it was something I recognized, but they are always a good snack food and seem somewhat healthy...sort of). Then I walked over to the bathroom. What should I find chained up outside, but a monkey! Yes, my friends. A monkey on a leash! So of course, I fed him some of the banana chips. If you had just purchased a banana product and then met a monkey on a leash, wouldn't you give him the bananas? I think you would. He was so cute! I think Jessica took a video. Then I went to the bathroom. That was pretty uneventful as no kind of bathroom disgustingness shocks, embarrasses, or makes any kind of impression on me now. As I walked out of the bathroom, I said goodbye to the monkey (yes, I talk to animals). I walked to the other side of the rest stop to stretch my legs and try to buy a baguette and lo and behold, what do I see? A woman munching on a fried tarantula. She bit off 4 crunchy legs, then chowed down on the rest. Are you kidding me?! Immediately forgetting the baguette, I ran back to the bus. You will not BELIEVE what I just saw. Yes, there's not much that shocks me in Asia these days...but consuming tarantulas?! That was a new one.

We only spent one night in Phnom Penh because we didn't want to do all the depressing Khmer Rouge genocide museums and stuff (I'd done them before) and there's not really too much else to do. After arriving and finding a place to stay (the International Guesthouse, which turned out to be excellent at $10/night), we just walked around a bit down by the riverside, past the palace, etc. We found someone frying bananas on the side of the road and so purchased more bananas (they were our snack of choice in Cambodia). This kind was battered and fried and quite tasty. Later we went to a Thai Pizza Hut knock off that was quite good. It was in a fairly upscale mall and it was fun to walk around in there a little. I think modern things like malls are very culturally interesting because they're similar to American malls, but never quite the same. It's funny because they use the dollar everywhere in Cambodia and the women ahead of me in line to pay at the pizza place paid with a $100 bill. Geez. We hardly even use those in the US! Share the wealth, Cambodia! Of course, I should mention that it is only a tiny tiny fraction of Cambodians who would have that kind of money. I wonder what kind of havoc the falling exchange rate has on these developing countries that have US currency in circulation. Anyway, that's just a nerdy thought I had.

The next morning (after our donuts at "USA Donut"), we headed north to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat). The bus ride was pretty uneventful (except for the above story) and we met a few other foreigners on the ride. We had actually arranged a hostel in advance (maybe the one and only time?), so they sent a tuk tuk to pick us up at the bus station, which was awesome because the place was total chaos. I can't even describe it. Tuk tuk drivers would basically just grab your bags so you had to go with them. Crazy. Our bags were also covered in ants. Awesome. The Rosy Guesthouse where we stayed was pretty nice. It had hammocks and papasan chairs on a big patio and our room had a TV. We got to watch the Republican debate at the Reagan Library live on CNN. Hey, that's pretty exciting! We don't have CNN in China. Siem Reap is an awesome place to hang out. There are a lot of great markets for shopping including a relatively new night market, which was really nice. We spent one day there just relaxing and one day exploring Angkor Wat.

Getting in to Angkor Wat is pretty expensive, so we decided to only go for the one day ticket. We made the most of that day, though! We were out there for about 7 hours and we saw all the most famous temples (that I saw before) and lots of smaller ones too. It was sooooo hot. You'd think in January/February it might cool down just a tiny bit. It doesn't. It's still a really really fun place to explore, though. We took a picnic lunch and hid in the shade of one of the temples to eat it. What else to say about Angkor Wat? I don't know. You've got to go explore it for yourself and then you too can pretend to be Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Of course, I took a gazillion pictures, but click on the link below for the best ones. After our Angkor Wat day, we were seriously exhausted, but Siem Reap and our hostel with the hammocks and papasan chairs was a good place to recover. There was also a gas station with a mini mart that would make you think you were in the US...especially since you paid with dollars. They even had cheap pop-tarts and milk. It was awesome!

After our lazy day, we hopped a bus to Bangkok. The road to Poipet (the border crossing) from Siem Reap is supposedly one of the worst in the world. It even has a website dedicated to tracking the condition of the road. Some say the local airport/airlines lobby the government to not keep up the road, not pave it, etc. so that tourists will choose to fly, but who ever knows if those kinds of rumors are true. It wouldn't be surprising. Luckily for those of us too poor to fly, though, the road was not that bad. There were a ton of us foreign tourists crammed in to a minibus, though. There were even three people on the jumpseats in the aisle. The problem was that there was no place for luggage and since all of us had huge backpacks, we were packed in with bags piled up to the ceiling. It was an adventure. My favorite part was seeing a family of 4 (mom and dad and 2 kids) on a motorbike out the window of our little bus. I smiled and waved at the kids. My new favorite occupation is waving at small children, by the way. I like to see if they smile back, run away, or just stare in fascination. Haha. I don't think the kids actually saw me this time, but both of the parents did and they both grinned. I may not speak Khmer and they probably didn't speak English, but communication is communication whether verbal or non-verbal and what's the point of traveling if you don't communicate with people? So that smile and wave became one of my favorite moments. Cambodians are very friendly people.

Click here for Cambodia pictures (mostly just of Angkor Wat).

Vietnam

2008-02-23T02:53:00.006-05:00

Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Saigon, Mekong Delta

Well, this post is long overdue, but here are a few stories from our (Havvah, Jessica, and I) travels in Vietnam. We were there from January 18-27 (or something like that).

In case you were unaware, Vietnam is a very long and skinny country. It takes A LONG TIME (about 40 hours) to take a bus all the way down it. Luckily we stopped in various places. We still spent 3 nights on the bus, though. For some reason, we decided that it wasn't worth the $10 or so extra to pay for the sleeper bus, so we went the ghetto way. I'm all about saving money, but the sleeper might have been worth it. I'm pretty hardcore, though, and I can sleep anywhere, so I guess it didn't really matter. Vietnam was actually the most backpacker friendly place we went. It's quite easy to travel there even with no Lonely Planet and no advance planning.

Hanoi
Well, this was my third trip to Hanoi, but I still love it, and I will never get tired of walking around my favorite downtown street there. It just seems like such a chill place with so much awesome stuff to buy. I don't know why I think it's chill because it's actually bustling and crazy, but anyway, I just think it has a nice feel. Other than watching a "My Super Sweet 16" marathon on MTV (hey, we don't get English TV in China!), we went on a walking tour that mostly involved us getting lost (though we still found interesting things to explore), saw the famous water puppet show (see the video below), and explored Ho Chi Minh's house, mausoleum, and museum (hands down--the strangest museum in the world. It inspired me to perform an interpretive for Havvah to explain the link between a volcano, Ho Chi Minh, a table with large fruit, and other random impressionist artwork.). We also shopped, walked around, and sat in cafes drinking Vietnamese coffee (soooo good!). Our favorite activity was sitting on balconies and watching foreigners trying to cross the street. Good fun. The highlight, by far, was the bowl of grits that I ate at the bar in a pub on our last day there. Ok, so maybe it wasn't the highlight, but I was pretty darn excited about it! The place also had a picture of Ho Chi Minh on one side of the door and George Washington on the other. Very strange.

Hue
We were only in Hue for about 6 hours after our bus arrived early in the morning and before it left again for another all night ride, but we decided to make the most of it and go to the historic capital (a UNESCO site). The big gate to get in there was pretty cool, but most of it had been destroyed and was still being restored. We did find a great art store inside of the place, though. Too bad we didn't have the money or the space to take anything home. The funniest part of the day in Hue was the crazy tuk tuk driver who kept following us, yelling at us, and singing at us. He just could not be convinced that we really wanted to walk. I think he was just trying to annoy us into his tuk tuk. It didn't work, though. We pawned him off on some unsuspecting European tourists when we stopped to ask them for directions. If you're planning to go to Vietnam, I'd say Hue is definitely miss-able.

Hoi An
Hoi An might have been our favorite place on the trip. I mean, there were lots of places we liked, but Hoi An was awesome. From the unbelievably great (and cheap) Vietnamese seafood on the riverfront to the amazing tailored clothes to the cute (and UNESCO certified) historic district to the nearby beach and spa/resorts, it pretty much has everything you need for a relaxing vacation. Our hotel even had a swimming pool (the only one on the whole trip). We decided it would be the perfect place for a destination wedding (except for the fact that it doesn't have an airport). I'd say that Hoi An is the must-see place in Vietnam, but then your expectations might be too high and you might not enjoy it, so I'll just say that you should definitely go if you get a chance. There's not necessarily a lot to SEE, but it's a great place to relax.

Nha Trang
It was raining when we got to Nha Trang, which sort of ruined the whole beach town feel, so the first day we mostly just rested (we had just come off an all night bus ride). Luckily, by the second day it had stopped raining. Jessica and I went on a little island tour day trip. It turned out to be really fun. We went snorkeling and saw Nemo, jumped off the roof of the boat (hey, I'm scared of the high dive, so I was proud of myself), went kayaking, sat on the beach, and had quite a yummy lunch on the boat. We also had some cruise entertainment in the form of the boat's captain playing the guitar and a little kid who was crazy on the drums. They sang funny folk songs from all over the world. It was pretty interesting. Haha. Nha Trang is also quite a nice place, especially if the weather is better than it was when we were there. There are quite a few posh restaurants and hotels. We also ate Indian food there. Man, I love Indian food. I also got a pedicure. Man, I love pedicures. We also played Jenga at a bar. Man, I love Jenga.

Saigon
Frankly, Saigon just wasn't that exciting the second time around. It was hot and crowded and I fell down the stairs, so I don't have much good to say about it. I had a huge bruise for several weeks after the stairs won the fight. Actually, I still have nightmares about the first time I was in Saigon - those crazy Cu Chi tunnels (I shudder even thinking about going to those tunnels), so we didn't go this time (but they are interesting if you're a history buff). We also saw a crushed motorcycle with a broken helmet next to it and blood pooled and spattered on the street. That's just no good. It's almost enough to make me think I should wear a helmet when I ride my bike in China. But obviously the helmet didn't even help, so why have helmet hair every day? Anyway, a combination of all those things doesn't leave me with a very good taste in my mouth.

The one exciting thing about Saigon was that we stumbled into the same Pho 2000 where Bill Clinton ate. Haha. There were pictures of him all over the walls. More importantly than that, though, the Pho was really good!!! Pho is the quintessential Vietnamese dish (noodles with some fresh herbs, meat, etc.). Aside from Pho, we ate a lot of sandwiches on the street. They were baguettes with those French red cow spreadable cheese triangles, tomatoes, onions, etc. Man, those sandwiches were so cheap and good! We also visited an art museum, found some good ice cream, explored the huge market, and found a cafe with bagels and M&M cookies, so it wasn't a total loss.

Mekong Delta
We took a day trip from Saigon to the Mekong Delta. It was really fun! We rode 3 different types of boats. They kept getting smaller and smaller. I thought we might have ended up swimming by the end of the day. Haha. We did end up all wearing rice hats by the end, but we were still in a row boat that held 4 or 5 people. I love boats, so it was fun. I kept a keen eye out for an alligator or snake, but didn't see any (except a huge python at the place where they were making the coconut candy). I touched it, but I didn't really think holding it would add anything to my life, so I didn't. We saw some traditional singing, ate some lunch, sampled honey lemon tea, coconut candy, and banana wine (disgusting--even worse than 白酒 - baijiu is a gross gross gross Chinese alcohol that tastes and smells like rubbing alcohol), saw a water buffalo, played with the plant that closes its leaves when you touch them, and our tour guide sang us some hilarious songs he had made up about Vietnam and his tour agency on the bus ride back. Oh man, I wish I had gotten the song on video. It was incredible.

So that about sums up our time in Vietnam. Jessica and I left Havvah in Saigon and headed on to Phnom Penh by bus. There is more to come about Cambodia and the rest of the trip later.

Click here to see Vietnam pictures! It's too slow and too much 麻烦 (mafan - trouble) to include them here.

This is a video from the famous water puppet show in Hanoi.

Don't Wash Your Hair!

2008-02-06T20:44:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in a guesthouse about 20 feet (literally!) from Burma in Maesai, Thailand and I just wanted to write a note to say, "Happy Chinese New Year!" Of course, in China they don't call it the Chinese New Year. It's called "Chun Jie," which means "Spring Festival." In Chinese, the greeting for the new year is "Gong Xi Fa Cai" which means something to the effect of "Wishing you to prosper." In Vietnam, they also celebrate the Lunar New Year. It's called Tet and it was the day the Tet Offensive was launched during the Vietnam War for any of you who are interested in history.

In Thailand, they don't officially celebrate the Lunar New Year, but that doesn't stop them from setting off the firecrackers. Ugh! Another tradition during the New Year is to burn paper money, paper clothes, paper cars, paper food, pretty much paper versions of anything, which I guess is supposed to send those things off to your ancestors in the afterlife. We saw lots of people burning those things in Chiang Rai, Thailand yesterday. Other traditions include giving young people red envelopes with money (I hope someone saves me some!), eating special dumplings and a big meal with your family, and cleaning your whole house. I think it's to sweep away the dust and dirt (ie bad stuff) from the last year. One important superstition to keep in mind is that you're not supposed to wash your hair on the first day of the new year because it will apparently wash away all your luck for the year. On that note, I'm going to head off to breakfast and Burma. If I don't come back, look for me at Aung San Suu Kyi's house. Just kidding, we're only going to the market across the border.

三十个鸡蛋?! 30 Eggs: My first village trip with Danyun

2008-01-31T20:39:00.000-05:00

Before I left for SE Asia, I went on my first trip to the countryside with Danyun (my new place of employment). I'm not going to start working there officially until February 18, but they wanted me to go ahead and go on a trip with them so I could get some idea of what happens in the villages. I'm honestly still not sure exactly what I'll be doing, but it was fun hiking up a mountain, seeing a rural village (even inside some of the houses), hearing the Miao (pronounced like a cat: meow) language for the first time, and eating an amazingly good (and huge) lunch including 30 eggs, several meat dishes, some awesome oat pancakes and honey (mmmmmm), mushrooms, veggies, etc. It must have been a feast for the villagers who ate with us. I was the only foreigner there, which is always interesting, but those villagers had met many other foreigners with Danyun.

On this specific trip, we met with some leaders of the village and talked about some things (by talked, I mean, I listened and tried to pick out as many Chinese words as I could), ate lunch, and them had a meeting with the women of the village to sign those who were interested up for Danyun's Threads of Yunnan project. They were given a piece of embroidery that they had to copy to test their ability and if "passed"the test, they will now be able to do the embroidery in their free time to make some extra money. Danyun also does various training and education about hygiene, literacy, and many other things on a periodic basis. The first training happened that day where we taught them about using soap to wash hands because they can't get the embroidery dirty. They all seemed pretty excited to try out the soap in the spigot outside.

The one complaint I had is that they kicked us out of the van and then we had to walk 30 minutes up to the village. One would think that meant that the van could not get up the mountain. Not so, it showed up a while later. I think maybe they were just playing a mean trick on me. Haha. (Actually, they had to go pick up another woman from a different village). Oh well, it was actually totally awesome and beautiful to walk up the mountain, so I'm really not complaining. It's just one of those funny China things. They told me later that during the rainy season, the van actually can't get up there, so they often do really have to walk.

I really should have taken some pictures, but I kind of just wanted to see for myself first. I'll try to take some next time, but I'm not really sure where the line is between doing my job and being a tourist.

Pandamonium in Chengdu

2008-01-31T00:54:00.000-05:00

Chengdu is most well-known in China for its ridiculously spicy food and its pandas. I gave the mouth numbing spices a miss, but the pandas were awesome! It's quite a nice zoo type place where they breed giant pandas as well as red pandas. The red pandas were really cute too, although they look more like raccoons. While the giant pandas seemed to take no notice of us and just kept munching on their bamboo, the red pandas were totally hyper. They were waiting for the breakfast. Unfortunately, we didn't have any to give them. They would run to the edge of the cage and then stand up on two legs (see the picture below...). So funny! We had to go pretty early in the morning to see the pandas when they were more active. You can actually get pretty close to them. In fact, if you want to pay $100, you can hold one. While I'd love to support the pandas, I don't really have $100 extra at the moment. We also got to see some small pandas that were still in the nursery area (although they didn't have any brand new ones). They were so cute! One was even playing on this rocking horse thing. Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take pictures of the babies.

The funniest thing about the place was the "panda nutrition kitchen" where they were just washing bamboo. Haha.

Click here to see all the panda pictures.

Just a short video showing some of the pandas. The woman you here is calling them and they actually come. Crazy!

Aside from the pandas, we also wandered around the city to see some other sites. And I do mean wandered...I swear, there was something wrong with that map!!!

One day we went to a city called Le Shan (乐山) about two hours from Chengdu. The biggest (or one of the biggest?) Buddhas in the world is there. Le Shan also turned out to be quite a cute city (at least for China) with winding, tree lined streets. And the Buddha was pretty darn large.

Check out the video above to see what the temple was like, if you've never been to a Buddhist temple.

Other highlights of Chengdu included enchiladas, milkshakes, Ikea, Starbucks, and falafel. Yes, none of those things are Chinese. That's why I like them. Haha.

Peter's Tex Mex (where we got the milkshakes and enchiladas...). Doesn't it look like any Tex-Mex place in teh US?! Awesome

Some kind of street fair we ran into. You can see old buildings, new buildings, and Beijing 08 Olympic mascot lights.

Note: If you're getting this by email, there are two embedded videos that you may have to click on through to my blog or my YouTube site to watch...

Just close your eyes and keep walking: the adventure begins

2008-01-19T09:37:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Hanoi, Vietnam with Havvah and Jessica. I posted a video of the crazy mototaxi ride after my trip to Vietnam in October and the traffic certainly hasn't gotten any better in the last three months, except that now everyone is required to wear helmets. In October literally no one was wearing them, but now they all seem to be following the rule. Too bad red lights aren't so easy to enforce. Jessica was nervous about crossing the roads here (I'm typing this on her computer--hi Jessica!), so I told her to just close her eyes and keep walking. It's good advice, I swear, but I don't think she really appreciated it. Hanoi is really a crazy city, but crazy in a fun way.

Tomorrow we're heading south to Hue, Hoi An, Ngh Trang, and Saigon. Dave O'Malley (if you know him) is heading north from Saigon, so maybe we'll cross paths somewhere along the way.

Expect a few more emails about Chengdu and my first village trip with Danyun soon. I'm going to get around to writing them soon....really. There should also be an abundance of emails this month about our adventures. We're trying to hit 6 countries via train, boat, and bus, so it's quite the epic journey.

Rules for Life

2008-01-14T05:00:00.000-05:00

In order to build a civilized and harmonious tour environment and to improve the moral standards of both tourists and our citizens, please abide the following rules.

Please keep the environment clean. Don't spit. Don't spit the chewing gum. No littering. No smoking except in the designated area.
Please follow the public order. Keep silent. Don't jump the queue. Please keep the gateway clear. Please don not talk loudly in public places.
Please protect the ecological environment. Don't step on the grassland. Don't pick flowers or fruits. Don't chase or beat animal. Don't give animal any food without permit when you are in the zoo.
Protect the historical relics and sites. Don't paint or carve on the historical relics. Don't climb up the historical relics. No photos without permit.
Value the public facilities. Don't dirty or destroy any installment in the hotel. Don't destroy the public facilities. Do not be out for small advantages. Save water and electricity. Don't waste food.
Respect other people's rights. Don't force foreign tourists to take photos. Don't force other people to buy or see something. Do not occupy public facilities for a long time. Respect people in the service sector. Respect religious customs of different nationalities.
To be polite. Wear clean and proper clothes. Do not wear clothes exposing the neck or shoulders in public places. Take care of the elderly, children, the sick and the handicapped. Do not utter dirty words.
Advocate a happy and healthy way of life. Resist superstition. Avoid pornography, gambling, and drug.

~Chengdu Municipal Rules Pertaining to Civilized Tour
[Emphasis mine. I bolded some of my favorites...]

So Chengdu says these rules pertain to civilized tour, but I think they are good rules for life. Chinese people, follow these rules!

...except that bit about clothes that expose the neck. Maybe the scarf-making union has a powerful lobby here?

A Breakfast Biscuit?!

2008-01-10T20:43:00.000-05:00

So my flight to Chengdu left at 8am. After I checked in, I was hungry and looking for some breakfast (preferably of the non-Chinese variety). The airport has a KFC, but I wasn't sure if it was open or not. I saw a sign saying it opened at 6:30 and thought to myself, "Maybe they have breakfast biscuits." Now, I have no idea why this thought even entered my mind, no KFC in China ever has biscuits. I guess I was still in dream land. As I was walking up the stairs to get there, I was really wondering what kind of breakfast food they had. The McDonalds breakfast here is actually not bad. Boy was I in for a surprise. When I arrived at KFC, I saw that they didn't have breakfast food at all. Nope, Chinese people were gnoshing down on fried chicken at 7am. The only difference was that they were drinking coffee or milk instead of soda. "Ewww," I thought, "I don't want fried chicken now." So I had to settle for french fries, which in my mind are sort of like hash browns, which make them a breakfast food. I realize that friend potatoes are not really so different than friend chicken, but anyway. Apparently Chinese people have the opposite thought, that chicken is appropriate for breakfast, but french fries are not because the french fries took so long to cook that I almost missed my flight. I blame all the Chinese cutting in line. I almost punched some people at the train station yesterday for cutting (instead I just gave them an elbow in the back and a hard shove), but that is another story for another day.

Back to the airport...security in Chinese airports is not what it is in the US (thank goodness!), so I always see what I can get away with. Yesterday I smuggled a bottle of lotion, half a bottle of water, and a ketchup packet without using a regulation sized plastic bag. Scandalous! I also listened to my iPod from the time I sat down in my seat until I was at baggage claim (it's only an hour-long flight). I know, I'm so rebellious. I'm totally sticking it to The Man. Haha.

Give me a waffle bowl, China!!!!

2008-01-05T23:02:00.000-05:00

Kunming has a Haagen Dazs (哈根達斯) now!!!!! WooHoo!!!

Let me start out by saying that the dulce de leche is like a little taste of heaven. Dulce. Leche. What more could you ask for? Never mind that one scoop costs about the equivalent of three dinners at a Chinese restaurant...

So ice cream is good, but China wouldn't let me have a waffle bowl. Really. They had waffle bowls, but they wouldn't let me have one. On the menu they had waffle cones, but I guess they didn't have the machine to make the cones yet. But they had bowls. I saw them with my own eyes. They were apparently for a special Sundae, though, and would not sell me one. Oh China. In this country full of conformists, it's impossible to make substitutions. The waffle goodness was there. So close. But no luck. I could not convince them to sell me one. Really, I just want my scoop of ice cream in the waffle bowl. They had a stack of like 15 of them. Sigh. No luck. Capitalism rocks. Everything is for sale for the right price. Here I could have given them $100 and I don't think they would have given me the waffle bowl.

Come on China, throw me a freakin' waffle bowl!!!!

Of course, despite the lack of waffle bowl, I'm happy in these pictures. It's always great to have a new American chain around. TGI Fridays next??? Subway??? Taco Bell??? Ok, probably not. The best we can hope for is a Starbucks. Actually, I really like Chinese food and the non-chain western restaurants we have here like The Silver Spoon and Rocco's Pizza are better (and cheaper) than chains. We also just got an awesome new coffee shop called Chicago Coffee, so who even needs Starbucks?

Food is good. Life is good.

Gainfully (sort of) employed

2008-01-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

So this is the life update for which you have all been waiting. The one in which I tell you that I am never moving back to the US. Well, ok, maybe not never. But I won't be moving back soon. The reason? I got a job! Yay! Not just a job, but a really cool job. In fact, the kind of job (economic development in rural China) that I actually went to college to get. Crazy.

My title is "Product Coordinator" at Danyun Business Affairs Consulting Co. Ltd., but to be honest I'm not exactly sure what all I'll be doing. The job description is 8 pages long and it just scares me!!! I'll be speaking Chinese a lot, traveling to villages, coordinating between producers, marketing people, design people in Denmark, etc.

Danyun does business consulting, but also does some rural economic development stuff, which is what I'll be doing. They combine good business with programs that help raise the standard of living in rural villages in Yunnan province, so it's a "win-win" sort of company that is not technically a non-profit (although they don't really make much profit...lol). Their main enterprise is "Threads of Yunnan" which are small works of embroidery that are made into cards, magnets, purses, etc. There are about 200 women who work doing the embroidery now, but they are planning to expand that to about 300+ soon (and I'll be helping to do that!) The products are pretty awesome (and fair trade!). Check out the website and you can see for yourself and even buy some of the stuff. They are also beginning to get into a tea business, so I'll be working with that some too. It's fair trade and organic and tasty, apparently. (I haven't tried any yet.) I'm exciting about the job, but a little scared too. There are parts of it I am definitely qualified for (maintaining the database and coordinated things and generally being organized and working some with marketing), but the Chinese speaking part and the handicraft design part are a little out of my league. It will be interesting. The job also doesn't pay that much. But no one ever said jobs in international development pay well. Haha. Luckily, life in China is cheap, so my $375/month will go pretty far. For reference, the apartment I looked at today only cost $89/month including everything (and furnished).

I'll start this new job on February 18 (after my Southeast Asian adventure with Miss Jessica Jones), but I'm going to go on a one day trip to the village with them on Tuesday. We're also sorting out all the visa stuff, which is totally a pain. Oh, and I'm also looking for an apartment. I don't get a days rest around here! I am officially done with all my classes now, though (and hopefully done with my English teaching career forever...). We're having a Mexican night on Sunday night to celebrate! :) I'm leaving on Thursday (the 10th) to meet Jessica in Chengdu, then we'll come back to Kunming for a couple of days and then we'll be off to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, etc. Yay! I have two shiny new visas in my passport and I'm going to get a bunch of new stamps! (I have no idea why passport stamps excite me so much, but they do!)

Hope your 2008 is off to a great start!

P.S. Since I'm staying here for a while, you should come visit!!!

P.P.S. Vote for Obama. I may be on the other side of the world, but I can't stay away from DC and politics. I have an American flag, six DC postcards (including of map of the Metro), a Washington Nationals ticket stub, and an Obama 08 bumper sticker on my wall. I just wish they would send me an "I voted" sticker with my absentee ballot. I still love America. In fact, I think when you don't live in the US, you realize how awesomely cool it really is. That's why you should all vote. There are people all over the world who wish they could choose their leader freely. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was just assassinated in Pakistan at a political rally (didn't she speak at AU a couple of years ago? I'm pretty sure she did...), Kenya (until recently Africa's most stable country) is in total chaos and violence after their election, which was apparently rigged so that the incumbent could stay in power, China is...well...China (they recently pushed back--again--elections in Hong Kong until 2017 or some date absurdly far in the future). What I'm trying to say is appreciate the US. Appreciate it with action. Vote. (Really, I don't are who you vote for. Well, not Hillary, OK? But you should vote.) Ok, I'll get off my soap box now.

Funny quote:

"Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for president. One hopes it is the same half" - Gore Vidal

When in China...

2007-12-30T11:26:00.001-05:00

I just had to post these blog entries for you all to read 1) because the whole thing is hilarious and 2) because I actually received one of these awesomely Chinese cell phone accessories for Christmas (the uncooked shrimp one). Way to be ahead of the curve, Havvah!

I first saw the post on Sinosplice, a blog written by a guy who lives in Shanghai, but went to UF, actually:

Hang Your Chinese Food on Your Cell Phone

Years ago I wrote about tiny Chinese food refrigerator magnets. Chinese food has returned, this time to grace our cell phones. My friend Kris spotted these in China a few weeks ago, and recently gave an update with a better picture:

For a detailed run-down of what the food is, check out Kris’s entry on it. He also comments:

They are basically rubber, but after inspecting a few I’m still not convinced the hongshao rou is not the real deal just encased in a thin transparent plastic.

I ran into a vendor for these things twice in the past week just outside of Shanghai’s Changshu Rd. subway station (exit 3) at about 6pm. He asked for 8 RMB for one. Kris was asked for 10, but was able to bargain down to 5 if he bought more.

Original post on China Segment:

Pork Braised in Soy Sauce Cell Phone Accessories 红烧肉手机链

December 20th, 2007 · 8 Comments

Coming to you this Christmas: Chinese food cell phone/key chain accessories.

I am not making this up.

They include the oh-so-lean Hongshao Rou, chicken feet, prawns (cooked and uncooked), some sort of 柿并 (dried persimmon cake), sushi, a lump of noodles, and fruits, hamburgers, chocolates, etc. They are basically rubber, but after inspecting a few I’m still not convinced the hongshao rou is not the real deal just encased in a thin transparent plastic.

So get ‘em while they’re new and mind-numbingly fashionable. YOU ARE GUANXI when you’re spotted with a chicken’s foot dangling from your cell phone… and the contract you’ve been angling for is yours without bribes. A chicken’s foot says you’re a man to be reckoned with, or a woman who’s ambitious and smart, yet also has her mind on the values of family and the home. Hongshao rou says you’re a man of temptation, but also good taste, while for a woman it surely says that while she’s a master chef, she’s also a wh#$% in the bedroom. We know the great helmsman would have worn one, as it was reportedly his favorite dish.

Ok, enough advertising fantasies. Let’s seriously look at what happened here. Another case of a foreign idea (the hamburger key chain was out eons ago in North America), being exported to China via companies producing items here due to lower costs. Next the quest for selling in the local market begins, easily done with the Chinese love of accessories for cell phones and ever-present dangling key chains. Then sprinkle some Chinese characteristics and you have chicken feet and braised pork on your new Nokia. Sweet.

I half want to buy them all up, and horde them all.

I also can’t wait to ask a few vendors for fish heads, lamb kebabs and 豆腐干 (doufu gan, a dry type of toufu). And my wife is so awesome she bought some samples (they asked for a quite unreasonable 10 kuai for each but she got ‘em down to 20 for 4). She even suggested we could hang them from the Christmas tree! Excellent! Braised pork ornaments. Now if you can’t get enough of Chinese food you can include it in your Christmas decorations. Like me.

Some of my good friends are certainly getting these as (late) stocking stuffers. Admit it, you can’t wait.

Stupid Chinese Works!

2007-12-28T23:12:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wonder why I'm trying to learn Chinese because I can usually get whatever I want using what I lovingly refer to as "stupid Chinese." For example, I cut my finger the other day pretty deeply and I kept busting it open and making it bleed and ooze and stuff (was that too much information?), so I finally decided I better get some Band-Aids (I'm totally Band-Aid averse) so that it didn't get infected or anything. I went into the corner store (so called because it's a store on the corner, just in case you were wondering) and said the Chinese equivalent of "Do you have that thing that you can use..." before I realized that I don't know any medical type words (Band-Aid, bandage, cut, etc) and I can't even figure out how to talk in circles and explain what it is or what it does (what I usually do), so I reverted to the super basic. I pointed at my bloody finger and frowned pathetically. What do you know? It works. The girl runs to the counter and grabs a super awesome (sarcasm) pack of Beijing 2008 Olympic Johnson&Johnson Band-Aids. Cool. So what's the point of learning the word for Band-Aid if I can just point to a bloody appendage and get what I want?

B.B. (Before Band-Aid)

A.B. (After Band-Aid)

Beijing: Ewwww

2007-12-28T21:26:00.002-05:00

For any of you who have ever asked why I don't want to live in Beijing (where it would be much easier to find a job, etc.), I submit the evidence from today's New York Times, the tenth article in a series about pollution in China called "Choking on Growth." I have no idea why the New York Times is not blocked here (BBC World is almost always blocked, as is this--and most--blogs).

Every day, monitoring stations across the city measure air pollution to determine if the skies above this national capital can officially be designated blue. It is not an act of whimsy: with Beijing preparing to play host to the 2008 Olympic Games, the official Blue Sky ratings are the measuring stick for whether the city’s polluted air will be clean enough for the competition.
Thursday did not bring good news. The gray, acrid skies rated an eye-popping 421 on a scale of 500, with 500 being the worst. Friday rated a 500. Both days far exceeded levels of pollutants deemed safe by the World Health Organization. In Beijing, officials warned residents to stay indoors until Saturday, but residents here are accustomed to breathing foul air. One man flew a kite in Tiananmen Square.
For Beijing officials, Thursday was especially depressing because the city was hoping to celebrate an environmental victory. In recent years, Beijing has steadily increased its Blue Sky days. The city needs one more, defined as scoring below 101, to reach its goal of 245 Blue Sky days this year. These improving ratings are how Beijing hopes to reassure the world that Olympic athletes will not be gasping for breath next August.

Look how gray those skies are (those pictures are from the middle of the day, I think). It is totally disgusting. I've heard through the grapevine here that the pollution on Thursday and Friday was totally disgusting in Beijing. Poor Cali had to go back from beautiful and blue-skied Kunming to that. Yuck! Actually, our skies have been overcast yesterday and today, but at least I know that it's clouds and not smog.

The article goes on to say that the way Beijing is trying to clean up the air is like trying to lose weight by running on a treadmill and then eating double cheeseburgers because they are trying to clean up the pollution, but aren't doing anything to cut down on private cars or new buildings, etc. Now, I'm personally a fan of the double cheeseburger diet (I've had 2.5 double cheeseburgers this week...lol...calories don't count at Christmas), but I don't expect it will really help me lose weight. Haha.

Cali also told me that she brought her white bag here to use in Kunming because she can't use it in Beijing because it will be gray after two or three days. You also have to wash your hair everyday because it's so gross. No thanks. You couldn't pay me enough to live in Beijing.

[Pictures all from New York Times.]

The Night that China tried to steal my iPod twice...

2007-12-21T19:19:00.000-05:00

[Don't worry, I thwarted China...all 1.5 billion of them, or however many there are...]

So I was innocently going to get on Bus #84 around 5pm to begin my hour-long (or worse depending on rush hour traffic) trek over to the Westside (which thankfully I have to make much less often now that I'm not working at KIA anymore). I had just watched the Ugly Betty episode where she and Henry and Daniel and Gio the sandwich guy and Gio's sister, and some woman Daniel was trying to woo/seduce for ad money went to see Wicked on Broadway, so that had inspired me to listen to the soundtrack (and by that I mostly mean Defying Gravity on repeat) during my journey. I just missed one bus while I was walking to the stop, but another came moments later right as I was walking up to the stop...and there were empty seats! Now, for anyone who doesn't live on Longquan Lu in Kunming, there are NEVER seats on Bus #84. Never never. So I thought this much be my lucky day. So I walk right up and hop on the first step onto the bus. Now, right as I'm stepping up, this other young guy at the stop steps on the first step at the same time as me. As you might imagine, there really aren't room for two people, and as no one else is getting on the bus, I was thinking, "Really? Can't you wait a second?" (But this is typical Chinese behavior, unfortunately...) My second thought was, "Hmmm, wasn't this guy just standing there when the other Bus 84 went by?" My third thought, "What's that? My iPod [which was in my fleece's pocket] is fwapping against my side oddly..." So I put my hand on my iPod, put my 1 kuai in the machine and grabbed my seat on the bus...only to realize that that other guy didn't even get on, which confirmed my suspicion that he was trying to steal my iPod. It's the exact same thing (and the same place and the same bus) that happened when my wallet was stolen before. Someone pushing on the bus who then didn't even get on. Luckily I realized sooner what was going on this time. Seriously, if someone steals my iPod, China and I might be through. I'm not sure we can work out our issues if I am sans a mental escape on the ridiculous buses.

Lightning doesn't strike the same place twice in one night, does it? So I left my iPod in my pocket, continued to listen to Defying Gravity on repeat (throwing in the occasional Dancing Through Life, For Good, Popular, and I'm Not That Girl, of course), and continued on my merry way to 秋苑小区 (Qiu Yuan Xiao Qu). So I switch buses at 小西门 (Xiao Ximen) and get on Bus #82. Now this is always the worst part of the trip, especially if I wait til as late as I did this week. The buses are packed, like sardines. It's something you would never ever see in a developed country, even at rush hour. So I push my way on the bus (if you don't do it Chinese style, you'll never get on. Seriously, on the days I don't feel like elbowing my way on, I stand there as 5 buses go by. Even though there's pretty much no more room at all, at least 10 people pack on behind me. During th pushing to get on, while I'm paying my 1 kuai, my headphones get disconnected from my iPod. Obviously, I realize this right away because Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel are cut off mid-song. I'm a little paranoid after the previous incident, so I put my hand there right away to make sure the iPod is still there. It is. So after everyone has pushed their way on and I'm wedged in so I can't fall, I reconnect the iPod and recommence with Defying Gravity. At the next bus stop, my headphones are disconnected again. Really? Again I grab for my iPod immediately to make sure it's still there. It's not. Oh no no no no no no you didn't. This is not going to happen. I grab the old man's arm who is wedged beside me. He's really the only one who could have done it. As I grab him, I realize that he is trying to get off the bus. Get out of the front door, which you are not allowed to do here. I'm guessing since he was old and the bus was so packed he figured since he was old the driver would just let him hop back out the front (after he had only ridden one stop, mind you). But alas, I have his arm in a death grip. My fingers like talons, my voice screeching, "Hey, hey, hey!" My mind can't think of anything to say in Chinese in that moment. But I shake, shake, shake. I'm going to tap the driver on the shoulder (we're still standing right next to him because we couldn't get any further into the bus and I've heard from one of my friends that sometimes if something is stolen they'll stop the bus and not let anyone off until they find it, call the police, etc.). Right as I go to tap the driver, whoops, my iPod falls on the ground. Now, I'd like to believe in the goodness of people and think the iPod just fell out in all the pushing, but in reality, there's no way that's possible, not with the headphones disconnected like that and not from those pockets, which are really deep. So I guess sketchy iPod stealer wasn't ready to get caught for his crimes, and I think he did get off the bus at that stop. I didn't bother to tap the driver because who knows if he would have understood me in the first place and I'm sure Sketchy Old Man iPod Stealer would have just said it fell out of my pocket. Oh well. Anyway, I have the iPod. I win. I'm still Defying Gravity and Dancing Through Life.

Chinese is Annoying

2007-12-14T21:46:00.001-05:00

Someone gave me a box of dove chocolates as a birthday present. Chocolate is such a great present! Haha. Anyway, so they have the little messages inside just like in the US, but they are in Chinese. It's so annoying to me because some of them I can read every character but still have no idea what it means. Ugh!!!

For example, one of them says:

开心就是心花开了。

Kai xin jiu shi xin hua kai le.

I have no idea what that means. Even with the dictionary I couldn't figure it out.

Separately, the words mean:

Open heart right away is heart flower opened.

Yeah, that doesn't really mean much to me. After consulting the dictionary, I discover that "kaixin" together can mean "feel happy or rejoice" and "jiushi" can mean "quite right," "exactly," "even if," or it can just indicate that the sentence is "positive" (whatever that means). And then "le." Le is the absolute bane of my Chinese study. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to use it correctly. It sort of means something happened in the past, but the direct meaning I have often heard is that it means "the situation has changed." What?! I think "xinhua" together means something else too, but it's not in my dictionary.

So, then we have "Rejoice even if your heart flower just opened." or "Feel happy exactly heart flower opened."

Maybe I could translate a little more liberally and say, "Rejoice and feel happy and then your heart will open like a flower."

Yeah, there's just no hope for me and Chinese. I don't even understand how Chinese people figure out what these things mean. It's just frustrating because two characters can mean something totally different together than they do apart.

Here's another example:

发展中国家 (fa zhan zhong guo jia)

Now, as someone who studied Chinese for a while and came across this in my Chinese class last semester, I thought, "A ha! I know this one."

fa zhan = develop
zhong guo = China
jia = family

"Develop China family. Hmm. That's a little odd," I thought.

Right. It turns out it doesn't have anything to do with China at all. That phrase means "developing countries."

I should have divided it like this:

fa zhan zhong = middle developed
guo jia = family (group) of countries

Of course, "guo jia" also means "national."

For example:

国家公园 (guo jia gong yuan) means "National Park."

Yes, I could go around in circles forever with this. Chinese people say you know by context. But I don't know. It seems a bit ridiculous to me.

My Week - the first week of the second quarter century!

2007-12-14T21:15:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been quite a crazy week, so here's a wrap up--complete with pictures!

Last Saturday, I decided to get my hair permed. I think it looks pretty fun. It was a little more expensive that I was hoping, but certainly much cheaper than in the US. They also cut way too much hair off before they curled it. I didn't want it this short, but oh well. Hair grows back.

I also made my birthday cake. It turned out really well and it was fun to make. Mmmmmm. I solved the candle dilemma (there are only 24 in a pack!) by using a little tea light candle for the 25th one. I did blow them all out too. Ha! I'm still full of hot air!

On Sunday night, I had a birthday dinner at a teppanyaki restaurant called Feiyang (飞阳铁板烧). I had eaten there once before and the food is just incredible. In fact, it's so good (and so not that expensive) that I think we're going to go back there this Sunday night! Haha. My language partner, Chen Yue, helped me make reservations and got us a 10% discount. Then she got me a discount card too, so now I can get the discount even without her. Yay! :) There were 26 people there, so it was fun. There were people from 12 countries (England, France, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, China, the Ivory Coast, and, of course the USA)! Cool. My favorite part about living here is meeting people from all over. My friends were really awesome and gave me lots of cool gifts, and it was definitely a fun day! :)

This is a really bizarre picture of some of my friends at the birthday dinner.

China's Angels (Anna, Havvah, and I)

KIA teachers... (Ms. Papon, Ms. Ektrakul, Ms. Wilson, and Ms. Litfin)

Happy People (Walt, Emma, Megan, Me, Matilda, and Helen)

Trying to teach David to smile for pictures

Most of the rest of the week was consumed with KIA's Christmas program, which was Thursday and Friday night. We had multiple big rehearsals throughout the week. It was pretty exhausting, but it turned out well in the end. In the program, I was only directing the high schoolers, so I took this picture from the balcony of the elementary school kids. They were so cute and they sang so well...obviously due to my tutelage! ;) The high schoolers sounded amazing too, but I have no pictures yet. Someone told me after the Thursday night program that they sounded better than the choir at a university in the US where she had worked. Yeah! :)

Tonight, I have another Christmas party at Amber's place. I'm going to try and make some fun appetizers, but we'll see what ingredients I can find at the store. So that's about it. I'm so glad that next week I'll have some more free time since I won't be going to KIA anymore. It'll be so nice to sleep in and have more time to get things done around the house!

南詔閣 (Dali Attic): Real Chinese Food 4

2007-12-09T01:04:00.000-05:00

So I think the translation of this restaurant name is actually correct. Unbelievable! "Nan Zhao" is an old name for the Dali area in Yunnan (where this yummy Bai food comes from) and "ge" (of ge lou) is the word for attic, so Dali Attic was born. The restaurant name uses the traditional characters, though, which made the translation a little more difficult. This place is right near our university and is my favorite place to eat out.

铁板牛肉 (tiĕbăn niúròu) – Literally: “iron plate beef” (The sauce is sometimes a bit sweet and sometimes more of a gravy. It usually also includes onions, peppers, garlic, and sometimes mushrooms, potatoes, etc. on a sizzling iron plate).

鱼香茄子 (yúxiāng qiézi) - literally: fish fragrant eggplant, it's usually more orange colored than this one.

老奶洋芋 (lăonăi yángyù) – “Grandma’s Potatoes” (chunky mashed potatoes, sometimes a little spicy)

空心菜 (kòngxīn cài) – a green vegetable with hollow stems (literally: hollow center vegetable)

水煎乳并 (shuĭjiān rùbìng) – goat milk cheese (a Bai speciality, usually served with sugar or salt and pepper for dipping)

Yunnan's 18 Stranges

2007-12-06T11:20:00.000-05:00

Yunnan Province is famous for being different from many of the other places in China. There are supposedly "18 Stranges" that make Yunnan unique. Some of these are more in the countryside than in Kunming, but I've definitely experienced some of them. Hope you find this list entertaining. It came from echinaromance.com and a couple of other places. I changed a lot of the text (it was really bad English), but the pictures came from that site.

1. Eggs Sold by the cord

People in Longlin County of the Baoshan area (where I went during the May Labor Day vacation) tie eggs vertically and horizontally up along a bar with rice straw to sell at the market.

	2. Young Girls called "Old Lady"
	People in Xiaguan and Chuxiong call unmarried girls (normally from fourteen to eighteen years old) "old lady." Apparently, such an address is meant to wish her good health, long life, and children.

	3. "Ear Piece" is a popular local food
	饵块 (er kuai), which sounds like "ear piece" is one of Yunnan's unique foods. It is made of refined and compressed ricecakes that look like a thin pancakes. In several dishes, the er kuai is wrapped around fillings sort of like a tortilla. Apart from "ear piece," all kinds of rice noodles are popular local snacks.

4. Automobiles drive through clouds

Many roads wind up along the tops of mountains. While driving through the fog, it feels like you're in a fairyland.

5. Keys are hung on waist-belts

The Dai women in southern Yunnan like wearing long skirts with silver belts on which keys are hung. It is a rule that only married women are allowed to hang keys because wearing a belt with keys shows that one in capable of running the household.

6.Trains are international, but not domestic

There was a narrow railway 464.2 kilometres long from Kunming to Hanoi at the end of the Qing dynasty, which was the first international railway. It was constructed by the French from 1903 to 1910 at a cost of more than 50,000 lives. Interestingly, at that time Yunnan didn't even have a domestic railway.

	7.Straw Hats Used as Cooker Covers
	People in the countryside weave everyday necessities such as shoes, fans, hats, baskets, cooker covers, etc. with bamboo and paddy stems. The cooker covers end up looking like straw hats, though I'm relatively sure that they don't take it off the wok and put it on their heads...but I guess you never know. Apparently, these lids help rice to stay fresh longer.

8. Raining here but sunny over there

Yunnan has "different weather on each side of the hill" due to the plateau geography. The weather is fickle and changes quickly and often.

	9. Girls Wear Flowers in all Seasons
	The weather is like that of an "eternal spring" (supposedly) in most regions of Yunnan. In Kunming, it is easy to get fresh flowers at any time of the year, so the city is nicknamed the "Spring City." Fresh flowers can be seen in any season and the floral industry has become an important part of the economy here.

10. Non-slanting Walls Built with Cobblestones

People draw on local resources to build houses along rivers in the countryside. Cobblestones make neat looking walls and create a unique local architecture.

11. Green Vegetables Called Bitter Vegetable

A green vegetable is grown in the southern part of the province that is a kind of thin featherlike overlapping vegetable similar to vanilla. Its name comes from old customs, not from its taste.

12. Bamboo Used as Smoking Pipe

Smoking bag is also called "Tobacco Tube " which is a typical local smoking utensil used mostly in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. Its length is from a half to one meter while its diameter varies from five to ten centimeters. People put cut tobacco on the bamboo tube, the lower part of which in filled with water, and smoke. Gurgling sounds are heard when one smokes it. I've always wondered how similar this is to the hookahs of the Middle East. I do know that the tobacco they use here is not flavored, but I'm not sure how else it compares. It sounds pretty similar.

It is said that the Dian Army of the past days carried tobacco tubes on their backs to the frontlines to fight against the Japanese. The enemy mistook mistook the smoking pipes as a new type of weapons and were terrified, so the Dian Army earned the nickname "Army with Double Guns."

13.Tea Leaves Sold in piles .

The Jinpo minority group in Luxi county of Dehong prefecture sell tea leaves by piles instead of using scales.

14. Seasonal clothing worn anytime

The weather in most parts of Yunnan is always like spring and the changing of seasons is not obvious, so people dress wearing whatever clothes they want. I personally find this whole "Spring City" idea ridiculous. It does get hot and cold here people! It is true that while walking down the street you can see some people wearing Tshirts and some wearing winter coats. Strange.

15. Girls Hang Tobacco Bags

The Lisu minority girls have a habit of smoking and chewing tobacco, so most females hang tobacco bags on their waist belts. They present these bags to each other as gifts on special occasions.

16. Automobiles Move Faster than Trains

In most of China, it's more convenient and quicker to train a train. However, due to the rugged terrain, trains do not cover much of Yunnan and they are very slow. Therefore, most people take buses.

17. Toes Never Hide

Some people from the mountainous areas wear straw shoes with holes all year round since the four seasons are mild. Yes, I'm all about that! I wear flip flops in all kinds of weather! Local people also wear shoes with a decorative flap on the back that both looks nice and serves as a mud flap.

18. Three mosquitoes make a meal.
Yunnan is filled with mosquitoes. In fact, they seem to dive bomb my ears when I'm trying to sleep. They look so big at the first glance that outsiders joke, "three mosquitoes make a meal."

Some honorable mention stranges:

Granny beats the monkey at climbing
Pine leafs for firewood
Stones reach out to the sky (the Stone Forest karst formations near Kunming, A UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Granny is the expert farmer (Yunnan has many woman farmers) and apparently the men are good at cooking and also babysit the children.
Grasshoppers go well with beer (fried grasshoppers are a delicacy here)
Mini horses are strong (the locally bread horses are small, but good at mountain climbing)

农家国饭庄 (Peasant Village): Real Chinese Food 3

2007-12-02T14:45:00.000-05:00

We usually call this restaurant "the Chinese place around the corner," but today I took their tissue pack (what they give you instead of napkins) with me so I could translate the name of the restaurant. Apparently, it's something like "Peasant Family Country Food Village," so from now on I think I'll call it "Peasant Village." We always sort of make up our own English translated names for restaurants. They're never quite right, but in the end, we even get Chinese people calling them that. (Anyone remember the "Medicine Shop" at Beida?! Or "Hong La Zi"?!)

Chinese food is definitely a "the more the merrier" experience. Today for lunch we had six people, so we got to order a veritable smörgåsbord (my spell check tells me that's the correct way to spell that word) of Chinese food goodness. Seeing is believing....

牙签肉 (yáqiān ròu) – beef on toothpicks, almost dry like a type of jerky (literally: “toothpick meat”). It's served with fried mint, which is also kind of good to eat.

干焙洋芋 (gānbèi yángyù) – shredded potato pancake (Hash browns?! Just add ketchup!)

红烧茄子 (hóngshāo qiézi) – red-braised eggplant, with a brown sort of gravy and some carrots and green something thrown in too.

两绿米(liăng lǜmĭ) – corn and a green bean (similar to lima bean?) cooked together

春卷儿 (chūn juănr) – spring rolls (I think these had pork and some other green veggies and such inside). Served with soy sauce. I'm not sure if the Chinese eat them with the soy sauce, but we westerners like them that way!

青菜 (qīng cài) - green vegetable. That's just the general world. I'm not sure what exact green vegetable this one was...

蕃茄炒鸡蛋 (fānqié chǎo jīdàn) - egg and tomato

红豆 (hóngdòu) - battered and fried red beans

Free Life: Real Chinese Food 2

2007-12-02T00:52:00.000-05:00

Anna and I wanted to do something a little different tonight, so we went to Free Life, a Chinese restaurant on WenHuaXiang (文化巷), which literally means "culture alley" and is sometimes called "Foreigner Street." The restaurant was pretty good. It had a nice atmosphere, the food was good, and the service was decent (anything with "decent" service is a compliment here in Kunming). It was a little overpriced, but most of the restaurants on that street are, especially if they have English menus. Bangkok Cafe is the exception. Really cheap and pretty good Thai food there, and they even have pictures on the menu! ...But I digress.

We only got three dishes since it was the two of us, and since Anna doesn't really like to eat meat, we got three meat-less dishes: potatoes, eggplant (always!), and tofu.

回锅洋芋 (huíguō yángyù) - twice cooked potatoes

铁板豆腐 (tiĕbăn dòufu) - iron plate tofu, this one came with onions (the plate is shaped like a cow is because "iron plate beef" is also a very popular dish)

糖醋茄子 (tángcù qiézi) - sweet and sour eggplant

The Trash House

2007-12-02T00:35:00.000-05:00

Since I'm trying to give you a picture (no pun intended) of everyday life in China, today I bring you the trash house. I mentioned it in the post about the oil shortage and said you just had to see it. So here it is. Luckily, the trucks are gone now, so they have emptied it and it's not overflowing all over the sidewalk. It is still overflowing, but this is the normal amount of overflowage. What's not normal is a foreigner taking a picture of the trash. Oh well.

The guy on the bike is stopping to either add more trash or to search through it for anything he will be paid to recycle. This trash house is under the pedestrian overpass that I never use to cross the street. It's more fun to dart in between the traffic. It's right across the street from the main gate to our university and we have to walk either behind it (which is a narrow passageway that smells of urine) or in front of it in the bike lane to get to the bus stop. Good times in China!