Krabi, Thailand... mmmmmmmm
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Thanksgiving Miracle
Our teachers cancelled our Friday test!
Soooo... since we had to wait till Friday night to have a "real" Thanksgiving meal, we went and ate the next best American-thing... pizza!
Here is our beloved pizza place, the Kro's Nest, with the biggest and most satisfying pizzas I have ever had. Pictured below is the "kiss of death" (lots of garlic!).
A handful of students spent all week preparing our traditional thanksgiving meal. I had my doubts, especially since they had to feed 100+ students, roommates, and teachers, but they blew me away. The food was soooooo delicious and so right on. It was great!
My plate, which i finished, thank you! Spicy pumpkin soup, smashed potatoes, yams, salad, corn, deviled eggs, turkey, stuffing, mac'n'cheese, green beans, carrots, cookies, brownies, and a most delicious pumpkin pie. Notice the chopsticks on the right. That was the only thing un-American about this meal.
My roommate's first Thanksgiving! I actually found it quite surprising that this was the majority of the teachers and roommates first time EVER to eat turkey!
Ok, so she didnt like the soup, but she loooooooooooved the gravy. Kept going back for seconds so she could put it on everything on her plate.
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!
Soooo... since we had to wait till Friday night to have a "real" Thanksgiving meal, we went and ate the next best American-thing... pizza!
Here is our beloved pizza place, the Kro's Nest, with the biggest and most satisfying pizzas I have ever had. Pictured below is the "kiss of death" (lots of garlic!).
A handful of students spent all week preparing our traditional thanksgiving meal. I had my doubts, especially since they had to feed 100+ students, roommates, and teachers, but they blew me away. The food was soooooo delicious and so right on. It was great!
My plate, which i finished, thank you! Spicy pumpkin soup, smashed potatoes, yams, salad, corn, deviled eggs, turkey, stuffing, mac'n'cheese, green beans, carrots, cookies, brownies, and a most delicious pumpkin pie. Notice the chopsticks on the right. That was the only thing un-American about this meal.
My roommate's first Thanksgiving! I actually found it quite surprising that this was the majority of the teachers and roommates first time EVER to eat turkey!
Ok, so she didnt like the soup, but she loooooooooooved the gravy. Kept going back for seconds so she could put it on everything on her plate.
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
独生子女政策- One Child Policy
Fact: In order to combat overpopulation issues, the Chinese government has a law that limits the number of children each couple can have: 1.
Fiction: This is such a horrible human rights issue that China needs to change
Reality: I originally thought that this was just that, a horrible human rights violation. How dare a government tell its people that they can only have one child, right? Wrong. The complete provisions of the law are as follows:
- You may only have one child (with exception of twins, etc...)
- If you "choose" to have more than one child, you must pay a nominal tax for every additional child.
- If you live in the country, you can have as many children as you like. This is to counteract the practice of aborting girl fetuses because a boy is much more valuable to a country family. In the city, this type of sexism is no longer a problem, thus, cityfolk are subjected to the one-house-one-child policy. If you do not want to pay the tax, you move to the country.
Ok, I hope I don't sound too liberal, but...
I no longer am against this policy, actually, I think I support it now. Americans are in a huge pickle. We lambast China for their human rights abuses (such as One Child Policy), yet we fear the rise of China, and we should. 1 in 4 people in the world are Chinese. The world's resources are depleating at rapid rates and the world simply cannot support human life for a whole lot longer. God forbid if an epidemic disease comes around and knocks off part of the population, but if we keep populating the way that we are, drastic measures will need to be taken in the future, one of which could quite possibly be a world-wide support of limiting the number of kids people have. Yes, there are obvious blocks, such as democracy and religion (damn them! (just kidding)), so why would we criticize a country that is seemingly willing to curb this problem? The Chinese, culturally and religiously, have no problem with limiting and planning their families, so I say go ahead and let them do it. Yes, I understand this law doesn't leave a whole lot up to individual couple's choice, but I think it is engrained the in culture and why should we mess with it?!?
Just some food for thought...
Fiction: This is such a horrible human rights issue that China needs to change
Reality: I originally thought that this was just that, a horrible human rights violation. How dare a government tell its people that they can only have one child, right? Wrong. The complete provisions of the law are as follows:
- You may only have one child (with exception of twins, etc...)
- If you "choose" to have more than one child, you must pay a nominal tax for every additional child.
- If you live in the country, you can have as many children as you like. This is to counteract the practice of aborting girl fetuses because a boy is much more valuable to a country family. In the city, this type of sexism is no longer a problem, thus, cityfolk are subjected to the one-house-one-child policy. If you do not want to pay the tax, you move to the country.
Ok, I hope I don't sound too liberal, but...
I no longer am against this policy, actually, I think I support it now. Americans are in a huge pickle. We lambast China for their human rights abuses (such as One Child Policy), yet we fear the rise of China, and we should. 1 in 4 people in the world are Chinese. The world's resources are depleating at rapid rates and the world simply cannot support human life for a whole lot longer. God forbid if an epidemic disease comes around and knocks off part of the population, but if we keep populating the way that we are, drastic measures will need to be taken in the future, one of which could quite possibly be a world-wide support of limiting the number of kids people have. Yes, there are obvious blocks, such as democracy and religion (damn them! (just kidding)), so why would we criticize a country that is seemingly willing to curb this problem? The Chinese, culturally and religiously, have no problem with limiting and planning their families, so I say go ahead and let them do it. Yes, I understand this law doesn't leave a whole lot up to individual couple's choice, but I think it is engrained the in culture and why should we mess with it?!?
Just some food for thought...
Monday, November 12, 2007
Xi'an 第二次
CET took us to Xi'an again, home of the Teracotta Soldiers. Well, I bet you can guess what we did:
No, but for real, we had a great time this time. The weather wasn't as cold as Beijing's (have a 30% chance of snow this week) and it didn't rain, so life is good. We participated in a little compeition that had us race around Xi'an completing tasks. The first one was to ride a tandem bicycle on top of the city wall.
As you may see, he is much taller than me and I couldn't see anything when we were pedalling like all get out.
After riding the bikes we got a little hungry so we ate a Xi'an speciality. I really don't know what exactly it is, but it is good. It's like rice, but not, more of a paste of some kind that is steamed. The colors are sugar. Yummm. Served piping hot and fresh.
Another task required us to meet with a local folk painter. Here we are inside his shop. I returned the next day and bought a few little paintings that you see on the table.
That night we went back to the fountains in front of the Big Goose Pagoda. These fountains are synchronized with lights and music. If you're relatively new to my blog, then you wouldn't know that I had quite an embarrassing experience at these fountains in July. Go back and take a read.
The next day we made it back to the Terracotta Warriors, only to find out one of the 3 pits housing the warriors closed only a week earlier for further excavations.
I took this picture so you can see how detailed the soldiers are. This soldier has hair and a braid. I believe that no two soldiers are alike in clothes, posture, stature, etc... That's quite amazing considering that this one pit houses 6,000 warriors.
A Snickers break on the train on the way home. Actually, I ate my very first Snickers bar on the train during fall break, and since then, I've had a little "tradition" to eat a Snickers every time I'm on a train.
Only 2 KFC pics total. I think that tells you something about Xi'an.
No, but for real, we had a great time this time. The weather wasn't as cold as Beijing's (have a 30% chance of snow this week) and it didn't rain, so life is good. We participated in a little compeition that had us race around Xi'an completing tasks. The first one was to ride a tandem bicycle on top of the city wall.
As you may see, he is much taller than me and I couldn't see anything when we were pedalling like all get out.
After riding the bikes we got a little hungry so we ate a Xi'an speciality. I really don't know what exactly it is, but it is good. It's like rice, but not, more of a paste of some kind that is steamed. The colors are sugar. Yummm. Served piping hot and fresh.
Another task required us to meet with a local folk painter. Here we are inside his shop. I returned the next day and bought a few little paintings that you see on the table.
That night we went back to the fountains in front of the Big Goose Pagoda. These fountains are synchronized with lights and music. If you're relatively new to my blog, then you wouldn't know that I had quite an embarrassing experience at these fountains in July. Go back and take a read.
The next day we made it back to the Terracotta Warriors, only to find out one of the 3 pits housing the warriors closed only a week earlier for further excavations.
I took this picture so you can see how detailed the soldiers are. This soldier has hair and a braid. I believe that no two soldiers are alike in clothes, posture, stature, etc... That's quite amazing considering that this one pit houses 6,000 warriors.
A Snickers break on the train on the way home. Actually, I ate my very first Snickers bar on the train during fall break, and since then, I've had a little "tradition" to eat a Snickers every time I'm on a train.
Only 2 KFC pics total. I think that tells you something about Xi'an.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Shopping & Old People
----Begin Side-Note----
A lot of people have been complimenting me on my blog and though comments are sparse, it seems that I have quite a few regular readers. Thanks for reading! I can't wait to get back to the States and read it all through myself!
---- End Side-Note ----
So, for the last 2 weeks or so, I've been frantically shopping for cold-weather clothes since I came to China less-than-prepared for the winter. The winter has come, so it gives me an excuse to shop.
First, I will introduce you to the pifa (wholesale). The pifa is across the street from my school and consists of quite a few wharehouse-sized buildings. It's basically kiosks filled to the brims with ugly clothes, knock-off brands, and shoes. Every once in a while you can find a gem (my friend found a "Marc Jacobs" black dress for about $10US over the summer. You can't try anything on ahead of time, you just have to eye-ball it, which oftentimes, proves disasterous.
So why is it a "wholesale"? Well, though the details are still very fuzzy to me, apparently all of the store owners in Beijing come to the pifa to buy their clothes in bulk and sometimes individuals can look around and just buy a shirt here and there. I really wish I can take a picture to show you the inside, its quite a hustle-bustle, barely able to walk around at all, but I'm afraid they'll get angry that I took a picture since they have so many knock-offs.
So, after days of looking around, I finally found some sweaters and a coat. Today bought (without trying it on, not so good) a white "Abercrombie" coat with lots of fur on the hood. I wouldnt be a true China person if I didnt have fur on my hood. I think it came out to about $30US.
Yesterday I went to Silk Street, which is where all of the waiguoren (foreigners) shop. This is where I can buy fake bags, shoes, and clothes (and they have waiguoren sizes, too!) I went to buy shoes. Got 2 pairs of Nikes and a European loafer for about $10/pair. Not too shabby. This place is also full of kiosks and people grabbing you wanting you to check out their stuff. Speaking Chinese is such a plus. No Chinese, no deal.
I bought this "Louis Vitton" purse in Shanghai and have yet to see it in Beijing and a bunch of the ladies working there asked me 1.) if its real, and 2.) how much I paid for it etc.. etc.. since they dont often see it and rarely sell it. I found one lady who sold it and asked her how much the average foreigner paid for it, she said about 500kuai ($70US), which is over triple what I paid in Shanghai. I love bargaining in Chinese because there will be a foreigner right next to me buying the same thing bargaining in English and my price is so much lower than theres! Ahh!
Ok, now on to old people.
My class consists of 2-3 lessons a week. Each lesson has a special topic, like shiye wenti (unemployment problem), chinese sayings, guo malu hen weixian (crossing the street is very dangerous), etc etc. We have studied the life of laoren (OLD PEOPLE) at least 3 times now. How we can keep addressing this, I do not know, but we do.
Last week we went to the park and had to interview old people on how they think their retirement life is going and if they would like san dai tong tang, 3 generations under one roof, basically, whether or not they want to live with their kids.
The old people here are amazing. They seem so healthy and active. Dance at least twice a day, get up every morning to go to the park and work out. I'm a member at a pretty decent gym about 15 minutes from my school and most of the people who workout there are not your typical yuppy trying to stay fit, over half of them are old people.
Anyways, though we oftentimes discuss Old People's lives and how China's economy has developed, and how women and men are not equal and whatever, we have yet to discuss POLITICS or RELIGION. Not once. And not in our forsee-able future.
So thats that.
Oh, go to Xi'an again tomorrow with CET to see the Terracotta Soldiers again. Hmmm.
My friend found a really good version of American Gangster online for free (already selling the DVD on the sidewalks for less than $1), so I think Ill watch that right now.
PS- Support Chinese director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) and go see Lust, Caution! I've heard sooooooo much about it! It's apparently NC17 in the States. The Chinese government was originally going to cut out 1/2 hour of the originial, but now is only cutting out 7 minutes. Yay for censorship.
A lot of people have been complimenting me on my blog and though comments are sparse, it seems that I have quite a few regular readers. Thanks for reading! I can't wait to get back to the States and read it all through myself!
---- End Side-Note ----
So, for the last 2 weeks or so, I've been frantically shopping for cold-weather clothes since I came to China less-than-prepared for the winter. The winter has come, so it gives me an excuse to shop.
First, I will introduce you to the pifa (wholesale). The pifa is across the street from my school and consists of quite a few wharehouse-sized buildings. It's basically kiosks filled to the brims with ugly clothes, knock-off brands, and shoes. Every once in a while you can find a gem (my friend found a "Marc Jacobs" black dress for about $10US over the summer. You can't try anything on ahead of time, you just have to eye-ball it, which oftentimes, proves disasterous.
So why is it a "wholesale"? Well, though the details are still very fuzzy to me, apparently all of the store owners in Beijing come to the pifa to buy their clothes in bulk and sometimes individuals can look around and just buy a shirt here and there. I really wish I can take a picture to show you the inside, its quite a hustle-bustle, barely able to walk around at all, but I'm afraid they'll get angry that I took a picture since they have so many knock-offs.
So, after days of looking around, I finally found some sweaters and a coat. Today bought (without trying it on, not so good) a white "Abercrombie" coat with lots of fur on the hood. I wouldnt be a true China person if I didnt have fur on my hood. I think it came out to about $30US.
Yesterday I went to Silk Street, which is where all of the waiguoren (foreigners) shop. This is where I can buy fake bags, shoes, and clothes (and they have waiguoren sizes, too!) I went to buy shoes. Got 2 pairs of Nikes and a European loafer for about $10/pair. Not too shabby. This place is also full of kiosks and people grabbing you wanting you to check out their stuff. Speaking Chinese is such a plus. No Chinese, no deal.
I bought this "Louis Vitton" purse in Shanghai and have yet to see it in Beijing and a bunch of the ladies working there asked me 1.) if its real, and 2.) how much I paid for it etc.. etc.. since they dont often see it and rarely sell it. I found one lady who sold it and asked her how much the average foreigner paid for it, she said about 500kuai ($70US), which is over triple what I paid in Shanghai. I love bargaining in Chinese because there will be a foreigner right next to me buying the same thing bargaining in English and my price is so much lower than theres! Ahh!
Ok, now on to old people.
My class consists of 2-3 lessons a week. Each lesson has a special topic, like shiye wenti (unemployment problem), chinese sayings, guo malu hen weixian (crossing the street is very dangerous), etc etc. We have studied the life of laoren (OLD PEOPLE) at least 3 times now. How we can keep addressing this, I do not know, but we do.
Last week we went to the park and had to interview old people on how they think their retirement life is going and if they would like san dai tong tang, 3 generations under one roof, basically, whether or not they want to live with their kids.
The old people here are amazing. They seem so healthy and active. Dance at least twice a day, get up every morning to go to the park and work out. I'm a member at a pretty decent gym about 15 minutes from my school and most of the people who workout there are not your typical yuppy trying to stay fit, over half of them are old people.
Anyways, though we oftentimes discuss Old People's lives and how China's economy has developed, and how women and men are not equal and whatever, we have yet to discuss POLITICS or RELIGION. Not once. And not in our forsee-able future.
So thats that.
Oh, go to Xi'an again tomorrow with CET to see the Terracotta Soldiers again. Hmmm.
My friend found a really good version of American Gangster online for free (already selling the DVD on the sidewalks for less than $1), so I think Ill watch that right now.
PS- Support Chinese director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) and go see Lust, Caution! I've heard sooooooo much about it! It's apparently NC17 in the States. The Chinese government was originally going to cut out 1/2 hour of the originial, but now is only cutting out 7 minutes. Yay for censorship.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Fall Break Pictures
Here are the pictures from Hangzhou and Suzhou that do not involve KFCs.
Hangzhou
Since this was my second time around to Hangzhou, I didnt take any pictures of its main attraction, West Lake. If you want to see West Lake pictures, look under August's post "The Most Beautiful Place in China."
Here are the tea fields up close and personal:
Exercise equipment in the country
Our afternoon tea and hosts.
Longjing cha, dragon tea.
West Lake & Leifang Pagoda. Our hostel was on the lake not to far from this spot.
Some famous temple in Hangzhou
Suzhou
Essentially, the poor man's Venice. Our hostel, again, was at a great location right on a canal. Quite a charming area.
A boat ride down our canal
Dinner at a snack street. We are outside and paid these guys to sing Stephen's favorite Chinese song. The guy was a great singer. Felt like we were in little Mexico. Oh, and for dinner we had fish and they were so kind to just kill it right then and there. How sweet.
Tongli
A small tourist town about an hour away from Suzhou. A network of canals linking old gardens and houses together. One of my favorite spots.
The End.
Hangzhou
Since this was my second time around to Hangzhou, I didnt take any pictures of its main attraction, West Lake. If you want to see West Lake pictures, look under August's post "The Most Beautiful Place in China."
Here are the tea fields up close and personal:
Exercise equipment in the country
Our afternoon tea and hosts.
Longjing cha, dragon tea.
West Lake & Leifang Pagoda. Our hostel was on the lake not to far from this spot.
Some famous temple in Hangzhou
Suzhou
Essentially, the poor man's Venice. Our hostel, again, was at a great location right on a canal. Quite a charming area.
A boat ride down our canal
Dinner at a snack street. We are outside and paid these guys to sing Stephen's favorite Chinese song. The guy was a great singer. Felt like we were in little Mexico. Oh, and for dinner we had fish and they were so kind to just kill it right then and there. How sweet.
Tongli
A small tourist town about an hour away from Suzhou. A network of canals linking old gardens and houses together. One of my favorite spots.
The End.
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