Recent travels

My longtime friend Dan (Pittsburgh) came for a two week stint in the ol' red country.
We had a great time traveling, eating, and attempting to deal with language/culture barriers. During his first week we hung low in Beijing because I still had to work for half of the week. The following week we headed out to Shanghai for four nights, then Hangzhou for two nights.

In Beijing, Dan and I (Luhan was working)hit up a few touristy things such as Tienanmen Square, Forbidden City, and the Houhai shopping area. We managed to do a short trip out to the Great wall and it was amazingly quiet, probably because it was freezing. Interestingly enough, when you're on the top, there's no wind which makes it not nearly as cold as below. The following day we checked out Mao Zedong's pickled corpse and both had doubts about its legitimacy. This is all I can say about that.

I realize now how different it is traveling with another foreigner rather than Luhan. It creates a whole new set of circumstances or rather opportunities for people to try and sell us things we don't want and swindle us.

On Saturday we headed out to Shanghai via airplane. Dan and I were on our own for the first two days and I think we did fairly well. Shanghai is a lot different than Beijing. Traveling around the city is a bit easier as the city seems to be more of a tight knit. It also presents a whole new architectural style. I'm mainly referring to the old structures that can be compared to the downtown part of NYC and the old buildings in the French concession area with their European vibe. But, the modern buildings, I think far surpass the style of anything new being built in Beijing. To me, parts of Shanghai reminded me of an unkempt Tokyo with a layer of dust.

Finally, we took the fast train to Hangzhou which was about an hour and a half south. I heard so many good things about this city, so I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately it didn't live up to its reputation of being a quiet small little place. First off, the traffic was worse than Beijing. We sat in traffic for more than an hour on one occasion. Secondly, the area around the lake turned out to be a tourist trap with overpriced restaurants. The lake itself was really nice and we took a boat tour. On the last day we were there we decided to go out to this temple at the top of a mountain. It's called Ling Yin. This is easily the best temple I've been to in China, so far. It's spacious and not overflowing with tourists. There's a section of trails on the side of the mountain with Buddhas carved into the stone. And the temples themselves had a really different feel than any of the ones I've been to in Beijing. I highly recommend this place and it's reason enough to visit Hangzhou.

Hot Dogs!

Out in front of my apartment complex there's a strip of about five small businesses tucked away underneath the apartment buildings facing the street. There's an herbal store, a dumpling restaurant, and a few other knickknack shops. In the middle of it all is rather odd looking hot dog shop called "No More Bunz." What the god damn does that mean? I have no idea, so for quite a while I was stubborn and only eating Chinese food.

Finally, after two months or so contemplating this place I decided to give it a go (as the Brits would say). The fine little shop changed my life. In fact, the dogs weren't that expensive when it really came down to it and they're loaded with a choice of condiments.

They offer a standard dog (you know what this is) , Italian (Italian sausage), and German (Brat!). At this point, it's hard for me not to stop there after work. Fortunately they close really early.

Mao Zedong's wings

A little while back Luhan's father asked me if I liked airplanes. We were eating dinner and I had trouble deciding whether I did like airplanes or not. I guess airplanes are OK, so I said yes. Boy was he excited. Apparently he had been trying to get someone to go with him to this aviation museum a bit out of town. The next morning we were off.

We drove out with him and Luhan's mother to this old somewhat neglected museum. It was interesting because it was like someone decided to build it, perhaps in the 80's and then do absolutely nothing to maintain it.

There were two main sections. One was a gigantic space inside of a mountain. Lined up in rows were mainly dusty replications of all sorts of aircraft dating back to the Wright brothers. But the real gems lie out in an overgrown field amidst at least 25 real airplanes. Here I'm talking about Mao Zedong's personal fleet. The picture of me on the couch was taken inside one of his planes. Also, you can see Luhan on the stairs of the same plane. I wonder what Mao would think if he knew I was lounging on his couch? I'll ask the preserved man when I make it out to visit him.

I also found a plane with a description beside it explaining that it shot down an American plane. That gave me a strange sort of feeling and I kicked it. Just kidding.

I'm still not sure how I feel about airplanes, but it sure was cloudy that day.

Mad man in neighborhood

So, this morning I awoke to find this posted to the apartment building beside ours. At first I thought it was an ad of some sort, but now that I'm fluent in Mandarin I read the text below. Ok, Luhan read the text. Apparently, this man (image I'm assuming came from a security camera) has robbed a few people at knifepoint. More specifically, his victims have all been foreigners.

I really didn't think this kind of nonsense happened in Beijing, but of course, I'm nieve. His attacks actually happened a few subway stops away from us, which is pretty far to be posting signs in our neighborhood, but I guess the community gets pretty fired up when someone is at large.

The sign warns that the victim should hand over his loot as the man has already stabbed a russian refusing give in.

As you can see, this is about as exciting as it gets these days. I'm working a ton and ready for a break. Luhan will be in NYC, Florida and San Francisco over the next week mainly to attend a wedding, but sounds more to me like a vacation.

Food for thought

I'm slowly realizing that I should keep a running tally of snacks that I find, photograph them and post them all in one shebang. But, I guess I'm just not that slick of a blogger. I know there are a few readers who appreciate learning about Chinese snacks and checking out their packaging. So, I'll keep it coming.

These are Spicy Duck Necks. From the same brand I also found Spicy Chicken Claws, but I was in a hurry and didn't snap a pic.

What happens when 13 billion people are given a 9 day vacation at the same time?

ANSWER: You learn a valuable lesson about overcrowding, unthinkable lines, and personal space.

We're nearing up the end of our national holiday vacation. More than near I should say as it's Sunday morning now.

As of lately, the weather in Beijing has been perfect fall weather so I really couldn't see the point in traveling around the country when there's still so many things I haven't seen in the vicinity. I've been eager to see Summer Palace(an old summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi), and the Great Wall (supposedly the only man made structure in the world that can be seen from space).

On Wednesday we headed out to Summer Palace using the transportation formula taxi - subway - bus - taxi. As we drove up and approached the entrance the shear amount of people literally made me gasp. Everyone from everywhere was here. At this point I was counting on the huge grounds the Summer Palace encompasses to swallow up some of these people so that I could actually feel like I could relax. Waiting in line to get through the gate made me nervous and uneasy, but we finally made our way in, or should I say we were finally pushed and pulled in. At some point I want to write a little about line culture here and how the sudden influx of people transitioning directly from cave life to city life has changed common mannerisms.

Summer palace is a gigantic park that includes a variety of palaces, a lake and a number of gardens. It was built in 1750, which doesn't make it that old for something in this region of the world. I have never seen so many people gathered in one place in my entire life. One of the bridges looked like a scene from the evacuation leading up to hurricane Katrina. The four of us (Luhan, myself, Angela and Mao) stuck around for a little while, rented a boat and explored by lake. This made it easier to escape the masses. All in all it's definitely a spot I want to return to, but never again on national holiday.

On Thursday, Luhan and I finally put together a little trip out to the Great Wall. There are a lot of points to visit the wall from Beijing. Some are more popular than others and given our experience from the day before, we opted for the less explored route. We made a plan to hike on the wall from one town(Jin Shan Ling) to the next (Simatai). At that point we'd stay over night, then head back to Beijing.

To get to Jin Shan Ling from Beijing we had to leave pretty early, take a bus to the last stop in Beijing, then hire a driver to take us the rest of the way. The total travel time is about 3 hours. Once we made it to the outskirts of Beijing we met a driver that was willing to take us the rest of the way. After negotiating a price we hopped into his tiny little beat up car that probably hadn't been inspected in years. Now, this is the first time I've been in a rural area of China and also the first time I've been on the highway outside the city. The type of driving behavior I witnessed still makes me cringe. First of all, these people apparently think that a two lane highway is actually 4 as they include both shoulders. On numerous occasions we passed people, and were passed by others on the shoulder. Secondly, if someone wants to pass someone else(keep in mind that this is all a two lane highway) but another car is coming at them it simply doesn't matter. The other person will either have to stop or pass by on the shoulder. It's like a racetrack and anything goes, but no one really seems to get angry.

Finally we made it in one piece and started our hike. We took cable cars to the top of the mountain to give a us a little head start. It was such a relief to find that the wall was not packed with people and that we could hike at will seeing people only now and again. It was a tough climb with some slopes as steep as climbing a ladder. The wall hasn't had many renovations in this area leaving the terrain to be worn down over the last 400 years. This stretch was a perfect day's hike and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an overnight trip to the wall.

At about five o'clock we made it to our destination, a little guest house beside the wall. We hung out there with this French guy named Frank, drank beer and watched the owner's anxious little boy kick around an empty coke can for hours.

We headed out in the morning, hit the racetrack and made it back to Beijing in one piece. You can check out my photos here

Great summary of the subprime mortgage crisis

While I am in China I still try and keep up with US news. I've been following this, but I haven't always been clear about what happened. This really summed it up for me. It only takes about 3 minutes to read. But, beware there is some graphic language in it. Check it out.

Mingling with the locals

Have you ever read the introduction to a Lonely Planet or another guide book and the author starts rambling about how their experiences living in the said city are just flourished with authentic cultural experiences everyday? For example, I remember reading in the Kyoto Lonely Planet about how the author wakes up every morning, strolls down the path of philosophy to contemplate his daily activities. Next, he heads downtown to share stories with the locals at the fish market. After having lunch and relaxing in the public bath he then sets out to watch Geishas walk by. The reality for the average traveler is far from the dreamy scenes created by our friends that write these books, but occasionally you can get a real taste as I found out yesterday.

While climbing the five flights of stairs to our walk up apartment I heard some blaring, screeching sound and I couldn't tell what it was or where it was coming from. When I got inside I opened up the window to have a listen. I could tell it was some sort of traditional music being blasted from the courtyard of the apartment building beside ours. Now, I'm usually not one for traditional music, especially the watered down acts that fill up Times Square and various other subway stations I've encountered in NYC. This being the guys from the Himalayas playing Celine Dion songs, or the Jamaican guy playing Mozart on his steel drum. But what I heard was not like anything I've heard before, which is sad, I know. It was loud, abrasive, melodic, free form music. I couldn't resist going down to have a closer look.

When I got there there were about four or five guys gathered around a table. They each had a different type of horn. I can't claim to have too much knowledge of horns, but they looked fairly unique, definitely old. I just hung out and an old lady smiled at me and kept directing me to go closer. Finally, I nudged in a little closer to where they were playing so that I could get a better view. As soon as they saw me their faces lit up and at least three people motioned for me to come over. They were clearly excited for me to be there, but it wasn't my intention to get too close, because after all, it was a little strange. They were all smoking cigarettes and drinking jasmine tea, which they continuously offered me as well as a wooden block instrument to join in on their little session. When I looked closer at their instruments I could see just how incredibly worn in their they were. They brought out all sorts of tiny little horns, changed the tips around, and even played tricks with cigarettes. My favorite part was when one of the guys just started screaming in this high pitched voice. It was hard to believe that this sound was coming from his mouth. I hung out with them for about an hour and I have to say that without a doubt this was much more interesting than anything else I've seen in Beijing so far. I managed to catch a bit on a cell phone video and I also snapped some shots with my camera.

Fall in Beijing

So, as people have told me again and again the fall is beautiful here. It hasn't rained for quite sometime and there have been plenty of blue sky days. This is a big change from the last month. The temperature has been mild as well. Everyone seems to be outside taking advantage. Our plans changed and we never made it out to the great wall or summer palace. We ended up laying low all weekend having dinner with Luhan's family on two occasions and staying out way too late on another. I finally had an "expat" night like the days in Korea. You sure do meet some interesting folk here...

We did manage to make it out to Bei Hai park which is centrally located in Beijing. It's definitely my favorite park that I've been too in the city mainly because there are trees and once you get inside the stressful sounds of bumper to bumper traffic are drowned out. There's also an enormous lake where you can rent boats.

Photos

I'm in the process of uploading photos if you want to have a look. I'll periodically update new albums with China photos. Being that we have a three day weekend in light of a Chinese holiday that Luhan can't recall we'll head out to either the great wall or summer palace. According to the Chinese, there are only a few nice weekends left before winter starts. They say fall is extremely short. I don't have a winter coat.

A little taste of home

The other day someone asked me what American food is. They wanted to know what Americans eat with examples for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I've tackled this question before on numerous occasions, but it just never gets easier. Usually I end up concluding that unless you live near a decent city the food is boring. Having traveled around quite a bit after college it didn't take me long to realize that while America topples many countries in various cultural aspects, food is not one of them.

Now, having said that, there is one meal that America does master and that's a proper breakfast. This is something that I can't live without and I'm sure that there are a few of you out there that would probably agree (J?). Unfortunately, this proper breakfast can only be taken in on occasion unless your looking for a faster route to heart disease.

We heard about a place called Grandma's Kitchen that serves up western food and specializes in American style breakfast. I've been craving it for a few weeks now and we finally made it out. My expectations are usually pretty low when it comes to western style restaurants in Asia, but Grandma's Kitchen is a gem. Hard wood floors, flowers, rafter like ceilings and grandma oriented decor set the mood for this place. My first impression was Cracker Barrel without the Cookie Cutter cheesiness feel if that makes sense. The menu has all of your favorites, so there's no need to get into details. We had a western omelette, sausage gravy/biscuits, french toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, fresh baked bread and coffee with refills. Typically the Chinese don't understand the concept of free refills.

So, when you come to visit this is where we'll go for breakfast at least once.

Gettin' into the swing of things

Sorry I haven't been updating as frequently, but really, I'm trying to be on top of it. Did I just apologize for not posting? I thought I promised myself that I wouldn't have to come to this. I've been quite busy with some mishaps and what not but all is well.

We headed out to Tiananmen Square a little while back to catch up on some of the main cultural attractions that Beijing has to offer. I thought about doing this rather quickly before the adventurous feeling of being in a new place settles down. I lived in NYC for nearly six years and I never seemed to make it to the statue of liberty, but I did make it to the Empire State building last year. Places that attract lots of people are usually just too much of a hassle for me. This is mainly because I'm really cool.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City which sits behind it probably require a little more time than we gave it especially if you have an interest in Chinese history. I'm not going to lie, my Chinese history knowledge is not something I'd brag about. Forbidden City has 980 different buildings and most of them have been converted into small museums/exhibits. After visiting quite a few temples around Tokyo and Kyoto I can definitely see the similarities from a historical standpoint. What I found interesting when comparing the two is that In Japan you are restricted as to where you can walk and where you can take pictures. Here in Beijing there are barely any restrictions. This leads to two totally different experiences. If you are not allowed to take a picture of something or walk beyond a certain area your curiosity will probably convince you that it's sacred and perhaps create a feeling that you're special in some way. It's also easier to preserve things and keep them natural or recreate things and keep them in perfect recreated form for decades to come. When people, and I mean thousands of people a day are allowed to roam at will, naturally wearing things down the average Joe becomes more connected to the history. They also throw Popsicle sticks around as well as bottles and candy wrappers. But in all honesty I can't decide which way is better. Growing up in the US we really don't have a history beyond 350 years. Many of the historical sites you see here are well over 1000 years old.

There are very few places left in Beijing that represent ancient China. During the cultural revolution the idea was to destroy everything that represented the old way and replace it with a gigantic pink apartment building. Well, the apartment buildings didn't come for sometime after, but..

By far, the best thing about Tiananmen Square is called the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. I state this with full confidence even though I haven't actually been there yet. We tried to get in, but it's only open in the morning. This, I kid you not is where Mao's body is on display inside a crystal coffin. He's been preserved in the same way your buddy preserved his first deer kill. People wait in a line to have a look at the guy who's been resting for nearly 35 years. I will get there soon!!

Above are some pictures inside Forbidden City.

Everything has a price

The other night we were out shooting pool at this little bar called "Pool Bar" when I had to use the bathroom. After I finished, I slowly made my way over to the bar and gently placed my 200 RMB (about 30 USD) down covering the corners with my beer mug so that it wasn't blown away by the AC. Looking the bartender in the eye I said thank you and headed out the door.

High school baseball game

While Beijing spent millions of dollars on its over the top Olympic sports complexes, the baseball stadium was constructed with scaffolding. It reminded me of a few high school baseball fields pieced together. To enter you had to climb al the way up the back stairs and then go back down to your seat which had no backrest.

This was not a surprise being that China has very little interest in Baseball at the moment. They do have an Olympic baseball team, but they won't be picking up the gold, silver or bronze. From what I understand, when the games are over they'll be tearing this down. I guess there's no point in spending big bucks on it.

The game was like a lazy day at work that never seems to end. Before the 11th inning there were only four combined hits. In the 11th they used the new Olympic rule to force the game to an end. They automatically put runners on first and second with no outs. This is funny because I was just talking with my friend Dan from Pittsburgh about this and he said that he didn't want to watch baseball because of this stupid rule. Well, I saw it play out and it worked exactly like the Olympic committee planned. The game was over after the 11th. The US hammered Japan after receiving the forced crutch. The rule is pretty lame being that it completely changes the game.

Many people think that both the US and Japan wanted to lose. The loser plays Korea while the winner plays Cuba.

Upon entering and exiting the stadium I was amazed at the amount of ticket scalping. Easily, there were hundreds of scalpers. They were prepared with signs in many languages. Like scalpers anywhere in the world they were annoying.

To end on a bright note, beer (bud, tsingtao, yanjing) were all about .75 each. I paid $8.00 in Tokyo. Also, we made it out of the stadium and on the train in about 8 minutes.

Back in Beijing

We made it back with little trouble. Little trouble was that Luhan apparently over stayed her Visa by one day. The folks at the Japan embassy here in China originally told her that the first day didn't count. Well, they were wrong and we had to pay about 40 dollars in order to leave. In that instant, the friendly, apologetic, smiley Japanese were no longer the same people I remembered throughout our travels. The big picture in the situation makes me angry, but I guess the reality is that China is an enormous country and many people go places only to never leave. Essentially this is immigration. But wait, there is a right way to go about doing this, right?

Ok, just two last things on my fascination with Japanese technology. Lets go back to the grocery store. All of the items in the grocery store have a digital price tag so that all of the prices can be controlled with the click of a mouse.

Also, the Japanese have been using this bar code system that's coordinated with cell phones. The picture above is an advertisement for this system. When you aim your cellphone camera at the code it scans it, connects to the internet and downloads the information associated with that code. There are tons of ways that the system is used. For example, in some grocery stores these bar codes are on things like vegetables and meat. Aim your cell phone at the bar code and find out information about the cow your beef is coming from or where your vegetables were grown.

I picked up this mint julep soda the other day. It was solid.

ALRIGHT, enough about Japan. I'm back in Beijing where people don't bow or constantly apologize. Tonight I'm heading out to the Japan vs. America baseball game.

Birthday party at Hooters!!

Just kidding. I did, however, contemplate this idea when we were in Beijing because there is a Hooters very close to us and Luhan has never experienced such an establishment. Yes, she too can see the irony of Hooters in Asia. Can you think of a better place to have your 30th birthday party than Hooters in China?

I settled for quite the opposite here in Tokyo. A friend of Luhan`s aunt wanted to take us all out for a traditional Japanese course dinner. There were six courses, none of which I can clearly remember because I really couldn`t determine what most of the food was. There was definitely sashami, rice, miso soup, a huge raw snail and some tempura, but also many things I couldn't identify.

Afterwards, we headed to a sky lounge hotel bar on the 46th floor. It was sort of like the bar in Lost in Translation. Sorry, I couldn't bring myself to take pictures in either of these places. I like to think that I know when to be a tourist and when to put the camera away.

We have a few more days left. I'm making dinner for everyone this evening and it’s a rainy day. So, tomorrow we'll wrap things up by heading to the fish market at 5 am. The morning fish market auction comes highly recommended by J．　

baseball game at Tokyo Dome

Last night Luhan`s aunt and cousin took us to a baseball game in the evening. This is something that I wanted to do while in Japan because I know that the Japanese are crazy about baseball and have a baseball league that actually dates back before world war two. This is the only baseball league in Asia with a solid history.

Tokyo Dome is smack dab in the city and pretty much resembles any other dome stadium in America. Unfortunately since we didn`t plan in advance we could only get standing tickets which were about ten dollars a pop. After scurrying around for a bit we were able to position ourselves in right field with a pretty good view. I must say, it was tough standing for an entire baseball game, and of course it had to go to twelve innings. Overall, the Giants and Tigers produced a pretty low action game, but it was entertaining. The "beer here!" folks that we see at American baseball games were fairly young Japanese girls and they carried a mini keg of beer on their back so that they could serve draft beers rather than cans.

Right beside the stadium is this enormous rollar coaster which goes around and then through a building. We rode it after the game and I thought that I was going to die during the initial drop. You get this amazing view of Tokyo for about 3 seconds, then...

I turned 30 today here in Tokyo! Don't chuckle because you'll be there soon, if you haven't already passed.

Japan, so far...

Japan has been amazing. It's really hard to sum up what it's like living here if you haven't been here. We're fortunate enough to be able to stay with Luhan's aunt in a quiet Tokyo neighborhood. My suggestion to you is to take a vacation here at some point. Innovation, beautiful modern architecture, service galore and quality quality quality seeps from this country. Sure, you have to pay for it, but really, these folks have got their shit together. Off the top of my head, this is why:

ALL of the trains are on a time table that's on the money and they stop exactly where they're supposed to. Whether the train is express, semi-express or local, you'll know exactly when it's going to be there.

The buses also use a system (see picture from kyoto) to tell you where each bus is currently on it's route. Now, this is something I could never understand why they cannot do in Brooklyn. The sad part is that this system looks at least 20 years old.

Japanese beer is excellent, for an Asian country. They have much more of a Japanese beer selection here than what you see in the states.

You can eat a great lunch at 711 or Family Mart for 5 to 8 USD.

Besides having heated toilet seats they also do wonderful things to clean you (us eyour imagination for the details).

Just last night I was in a 24 hr grocery store at about 1:30 am and they were blasting the first Run DMC album throughout the store while Tokyo suburbanites bought their kid's lunches for school.

Thoughtful design exists in everything, even my metro card.

more...

We're in Kyoto at a Hotel, and at the moment we're watching the Olympics. This is our last evening here before heading back to Tokyo for a week. We've been out and about on bicycles and foot tearin' up the town. The heat is brutal and the sun turned me pink. In a few minutes we'll be heading out to this sushi joint we've hit once already. It's easily the best sushi I done ever had. The Japanese guys scream at you when you enter, then scream again when you leave. My favorite piece is the salmon with salmon roe. In second place is the shrimp that are literally taken from a fish tank near the sushi bar and moved onto your plate for some soy sauce and wasabi soaking. I've also been enjoying the Yakitori, BBQ skewers. I've included a picture from a Yakitori evening. When we get back to Beijing I'll post all of the pics on Flickr if you're so inclined to see them.

We do have friends in China afterall

Our friends Brad and Vicky came to Beijing for a few days. We met them in the New York City public school world. They're now here studying Chinese and teaching. Strangely enough, they introduced us to a bar that has a pretty solid, fair priced beer selection and music of a respectable nature. It was a miracle that I didn't hear Hotel California (unplugged version) or Celiene Dion's Titanic Ballad while sitting in a public space for more than an hour. Brad and Vicky currently live in Jinan (not worth visiting, according to them) but they're moving to Chengdu, a place we've already thought of traveling to, but now we'll be there for sure.

On another note, we're heading off to Japan for about two and a half weeks and we'll return for the second half of the Olympics. Is it ridiculous that we're leaving before the start of the chaos? I have mixed feelings about it, but that's the way it turned out. We had planned to do a lot more traveling this summer if it weren't for visa issues that both of us are dealing with mainly as a result of the Olympics.

We'll be in Tokyo from the 2nd - 10th, Kyoto, 11th - 15th and back in Tokyo again from the 16th -19th. In Tokyo we're meeting up with Luhan's aunt, her cousin and two friends from New York who happen to be in town. I'm ready for some wild karaoke nights, neon, sushi galore, Japanese bar food and a thin, thin wallet.

If you give me your address I'll send you a nice postcard with something special written on it just for you.

Pringles

The excitement of going to our grocery store still has not worn off. So, I thought I'd write a little about Pringles. You know 'em and you love 'em. How many flavors of Pringles are you aware of? So far as I can see there are 22 flavors of Pringles in China. Here is a listing of the flavors available: Finger Licking Braised Pork, Sizzled BBQ, Tomato, BBQ Steak, Refreshing Lime, Tomato Ketchup, Spicy Chicken Authentic Original, Salt & Pepper, Cheesy Cheese, Presto Italiante, Finger Lickin' Braised Pork, Cucumber, Kimchee, Medeterranan Aroma, Aromatic Braised Chicken, Crispy Roasted Chicken, Black Pepper Ribeye, Sour Cream & Onion, Thai Curry.

The potato chips have just as much variety, if not more. When it comes to snack flavor variety the Asian world has definitely got us beat.

Disappointment

Tears filled my my eyes upon learning that I would no longer be able to bring my magnet or fan with me when traveling on the bus.

Apartment

Some folks have been asking what our apartment looks like. It's in an older brick building that actually has a little character. Those of you that have traveled to Asia know what I'm talking about, most of the apartment buildings are hideous and China is no exception to this. We live on the 5th floor and it's a walk-up so I've been hittin' the stairs hard. We have a small dining room and kitchen with a fairly moderate sized living room and bedroom. The bathroom is an all in one deal like the ones I experienced in Korea except it's so small that a shower curtain can't separate the showering area. It took some time to get used to, but it's not so bad now. I would say it's about the size of a typical one bedroom in NYC(manhattan), maybe a little bigger. With the windows open it's really quiet at night because it's back in a little neighborhood. I shot a little video with my handy cell phone because it's too hard to photograph.UPDATE: The video doesn't work on my end. Blogger videos may be blocked here in China. Does it work for you?

Beat the heat!

I’ve been noticing that there’s a trend of belly exposure as a means of cooling down. At first I thought that only construction worker type guys participated in this technique, but let’s face it, the heat doesn’t discriminate. I’ve been seeing all types of men (only men) walking around like this, even with a suit on. Well, you know what they say about being in Rome and all..I gave this air conditioning method a shot on a few occasions and honestly, I had a lot of success. I highly recommend it to all that suffer.

Cell Phone Spam

As soon as I signed up for a cell phone plan I started getting spammed with messages about health insurance, stock investments and other spam oriented things. Most of them I can't even open. Within the last two days I received 16 messages. It's a pain in arse because I have to keep deleting them. When we talked to the service provider they told me that part of my plan is agreeing to receive their e-newsletter which they send out about three times a day. I can't opt out of it so I guess I'll have to keep deleting.