Food and Tibits (ooo, riblets...)

I am proud to say that I am the only member of the group who has tried every single dish at every single meal. I didn’t realize that everyone else was picking and choosing until someone pointed it out. “Have you tried everything so far?” “Well, yeah, haven’t you guys?” “I haven’t” “Me either” etc, etc…They seemed shocked – asked if I had a steal stomach, or had been working up to this my whole life (which, yeah, I suppose I have in a way). It’s sad really.

It’s another contest now. A weird looking tofu dish – send it my way. The battered fish with its head and everything – doesn’t even faze me. “How does this taste?” – I can tell ya. That’s not to say I’ve liked every dish, I haven’t, there’s been a few that I only needed to take one bite out of before I set it aside. Truthfully, though, the scariest looking dishes (like that fish) were usually the tastiest. I’m trying to get everyone to try things – at least the people who aren’t vegetarian or allergic – but for now it looks like I’m the go-to-gal for “what’s that one taste like?”

Anyway, moving on from that side note, we’re no longer in Beijing - haven’t been for quite a few days, actually. Sorry I haven’t been good with this recently. On the plus side, I’m a little behind on my journaling too so it’s not like I’ve left this fine audience for someone bigger and better – like myself. Since my time away from this blog we’ve been to Jinan, Qufu, Inner Mongolia, and are now stationed in Shenyang. And even that doesn’t really count since we’re leaving for Shanghai tomorrow morning. Since I’ve already missed so much – I’m gonna give you all the bullets points. Hopefully when I’m not so tired I’ll get back to long, hopefully humorous, novels about each of these places.

Places:

Jinan

• Fresh water spring with local students practicing their English – needless to say, we were pretty popular with them

• DaMing Lake and the Yellow River

• Mount Tai – Still sore, and oh yes there will be a future entry on this one.

• Martial Arts School and a visit to a ‘wealthy’ village – Rich is such a relative term

Qufu

• Day visit to Confucius’ temple and Tomb

Inner Mongolia

• The Yurt – fun to stay in, although while some complained it was cold, I was more concerned about the concrete-like floor we slept on.

• Celebration feast complete with full goat.

Shenyang

• The Vegas-like city

• Multiple lectures and a night with English major Chinese students – post on this one for sure, too

• Free time and meals on our own – hence the previous post

• Totally rockin’ the street market

Food Tally:

• Goat – not horrible, not great

• Lamb – pretty good

Celebrity photos:

• Posed: in the 30’s

• Paparazzi photos: near 60

Language Barrier

You'd think that in a country with the biggest culture change to the US I'd have a tough time with the language barrier. Believe it or not, not being able to speak the same language hasn't been a huge issue. There's a lot of pointing, acting, and shrugging but we somehow get our point across.

_______________________________________________

“We’re gonna stop at KFC, how about you guys?” –Group 1
“Um, I really don’t want fast food. I think we’re gonna try and find a Chinese place down this road. Meet back in 45 minutes?” –Group 2, mine
“Sounds good – Good luck!”

____________________

“This looks good. Hopefully they have pictures of the food – you can’t really look up characters in this dictionary.”
“Hey, they have forks here! That’s kind of weird, actually…” [Waitress hands us menus]
“Um, George Washington is on these.”
“Did we seriously walk into an American restaurant?”
“[Chinese]” – Waitress
“Think that means drinks? I mean, we usually start with drinks, right? [To waitress:] Fanta?” [pointing at menu]
“[Chinese for Fanta – yeah, I still can’t remember]?”
“[Repeated Chinese with a nod]”
[laughing], “Hǎo”
[Others order using same method]

____________________

“[Chinese]”
“Um, can we have a minute to look at the menu?”
[blank stare]
“[pointing at watch] One minute?”
[both parties laugh as the waitress shakes her head not knowing what we said]
“Let’s just order… Oh, chicken wings! And steak!”
[All order using picture pointing method]
“[Thumbs up] Yeah?” – Waitress
“Yes, that’s enough”
“[Chinese while looking at us expectedly]”
“Does anyone have any idea what that means?”
“No idea. [To waitress] I’m sorry, we don’t understand you. [To group] does anyone know how to say that in Chinese?”
“[Repeated Chinese]” – Waitress
[Shrugs]

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[Waitress and two others come back to the table]
“[Waitress #2 goes over our order in very broken (but good) English]” [other two laughing]
“Yep, that’s right, xiè xie”
“---- yuan”
“Oh! That’s what she was saying! We pay first here.” [All laugh, nod and smile]

[To each other] “You all realize that we left a group at KFC, found an American restaurant and ordered chicken wings, right?”

______________

“*sigh*, uh, how you say, [Chinese]” – waitress #2
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
[Waitress 2 racking her brain to remember the English for whatever she needs to tell us]
[To each other] “I have my journal; maybe she could draw it for us?” “How is she going to know to draw it?” “Maybe we could act it out.” “Act what out?”
“Um, your order, ah…how you say…” – waitress
“A mistake?”
“Yes”
“With food or money?”
“Total for money, mistake”
“Oh, how much?”
“1 yuan more, so sorry.”
“1 yuan? Hah, no problem at all. See? We can totally work this out!”

China Day 2

I have two bits of exciting news! First, this site is totally blocked in China. I can post no problem (obviously), but viewing the site always comes up empty. It would be more exciting if I was the only blog blocked here – I’m somehow angering the government with my outrageously heroic adventures – but it turns out that all .blogspot sites don’t exist. Someday I’ll be that underground rebel.

Second bit of news – I’m no longer losing the celebrity photo contest! I would say I’m winning (someday… rebel – oo, without a cause!), but I think I’m in second.

Yes, Wednesday was the day where we went to the Great Wall of China. And I scored 7 pictures. Before I get into that, though, I have to go through the day in chronological order. I get way too confused otherwise (it took us nearly 5 min to figure out what day it was today and what day it was when we went to the Wall. “I think today’s Thursday” “My computer says it’s Wednesday” “Your computer’s still on MN time” “…” “We should call someone” “They don’t speak English” “Hey, that would be kind of fun” - The things I do for you all.)

Anyway, the day started out with us taking a little trip to a local Coke Factory (“make sure you say Coca-Cola factory” – Allie). At this Coke Factory (I mean, c’mon – would you really think that?) we had probably the shortest guided tour ever. You know how in those discovery channel documentaries they go through each step of the filling and bottling process – to the point where they can actually fill up the hour long program? This…wasn’t quite like that. There were 3 big windows, one that showed the bottling of Sprite bottles, another for Coke bottles, and another for Sprite cans.

“These are our three main lines that fill Sprite and Coke bottles, and the one on the end does Sprite cans. Go look.”

Right. We were able to figure what each step sort of did (“the bottles are upside-down! Those must be empty. Oh! Now they’re flipped up again and filled with pop! Oh! Bottle Caps!”) And that was kind of it for the tour. We wandered around a little and kept walking by the Coke polar bear that’d say something in Chinese when you moved near it. We got a free pop, so it was completely worth it. Glass bottles, even.

After some little things that are so not worthy of this blog, we made it to the main event – The Great Wall of China. Before I go on, I just have to, uh, you know…

7 Wonders of the World
> Stone Hedge
> Colosseum
>Tajmahal Hall
>Porcelian Tower of Nanjing
> Hagia Sophia
>Leaning Tower of Pisa
> Great Wall of China

Ah, yes, much better. We pulled into the parking lot of one of the more famous public sections. I have no idea why this made me so happy, but you know when you visit someplace and you always take a picture with the sign? They totally do that too! I had to jump in there also; this was just too good to pass up. I have no idea if it actually said “Great Wall of China” but tourist kept taking turns, so, well what else would it say?

Once we made it on the wall, we took off on the section that looked like it went up the highest. For some reason, when I pictured the Wall, I never really though about how steep it was. I kind of figured it was relatively flat with some bumps here and there. Oh no, it was steep. By the time we got up through a few towers, we were all breathing hard a sweating like mad. We took a short break and admired all of the tiny Chinese women who were walking up in STILETTOS. At least us and a group of older british tourist had a laugh (“Did you see those? Even in my prime I would have snapped an ankle”).

The way down, of course, is always harder. We ended up sliding down on a railing for a small section. Yeah, don’t ask. Worked great though, and we ended up getting a lot of compliments ;) To end the evening there, we were supposed to meet up in the lobby-like area. We made it all the way back down before being blocked off right before meeting the rest of the group. Our tour guide kept waving us in, but I didn’t think these 6 soldiers would appreciate us barging through their formation. Apparently a group of Czech Republic leaders were visiting and they were supposed to pass with no crowd. We were shoed into a coffee shop while their cars drove up and the guards brought them to wherever they needed to be.

Hey, now that I think about it – I sort of got in trouble with the government again! Sweet!

Jetlag adventure of day:
Turning on the shower without realizing the shower head was facing out into the bathroom. Sprayed my whole back and soak my t-shirt. And the floor, and the towels, and the…

China Day 1

I’m in China!

How’s that for an intro? I was planning on having a nice little introductory post before I left that summed up when I’d be leaving, what we’d be doing… But I, uh, didn’t quite get to it (fail!). I’ve actually been here for… roughly two days. I’m not exactly sure how to categorize that first day, so, yeah, about two days. Before I get into it, I want to apologize to my dad and anyone else who has to endure that flight on a regular basis. Holy wow is it long.

“Well, I’m ready to get off – we close?”
“We’ve been flying for about 6 hours, so no, not really.”
“We’re not even half way?! Ah man…”

I managed to get some homework done, watch three movies (Mom – they were 27 Dresses, Jumper, and The Golden Compass), take a few naps, and still had 4 hours to go on this torturous flight. Once we got off, though, we walked into this gorgeous airport. I’m not sure if this is a sign that I’m easily impressed, or of things to come, but it was pretty damn nice. A lot of things are under-construction here to get ready for the games, and this airport is part of that new addition. The first night itself was pretty uneventful - we took a walk around the hotel, ate, and made it in bed before 8:00pm.

Yesterday was our first big, packed, full day. It started out with a trip to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Our guide, Kathy, warned us at the beginning that there may be some Chinese tourists whol would like to to take pictures with us. Some have never seen my fair skin, and these beautiful blue eyes before - only in movies and such. So we of course made this a contest. I'm totally losing, by the way; I've only had a half picture taken with me. A guy was sort of doing that thing where he'd stand near our group to get a picture with us without us noticing. We noticed. I totally would have turned around and posed! You know, given a nice smile instead of the somewhat surprised look that he probably got. I bet I blinked, come to think of it. This isn't a good start to this celebrity life.

We walked into the huge square and slowly made it to the gate of the Forbidden City. The giant portrait of Mao hung above the main gate and was the first thing I recognized from pictures and such. Other than that, I didn't realize the place was so huge. As we walked over, we took pictures, strolled with other tourist groups, and tried to shake off the people selling goods as best we could.

Kathy: "The clearest way to say no is by saying 'no, I don't need it.' [Chinese], ok? Repeat with me, [Chinese]."

All of the merchants threw up their hands and laughed. One who was listening in tried his luck and asked a few people in our group if we would like some post cards. As we said no in our newly learned language, he laughed, nodded, "That's good," and walked off to the next group of tourists.

The Forbidden City itself was pretty amazing - even the gates prompted us to grab our cameras. We'd walk through the first gate (oh pretty!) and take a few pictures, then into another (oh prettier!), and then another (even more pretty!) - yep, we were totally fooled by those first two gates. They shouldn't put so much detail into their security sections - just sayin. [I'll add some pictures once we get faster internet. We kind of got this one on a whim.]

Can I just say that the tea here is awesome? Even the Jasmine tea is pretty good, still not a favorite of mine, but it doesn't taste like ground as much as did back home. We managed to squeeze in some time to stop at a tea house where we sampled 6 different kinds and learn some traditional drinking, uh, techniques? Basically, we were told how to hold a tea cup properly. Complicated stuff.

The Summer Palace was up next (See?! Super packed day!). The architecture was pretty similar to the Forbidden City. With the help of our guide we wandered into a quiet part of the palace where some local art students were selling their work. I'm a little bit of a sucker for art like this. Especially when they were all proudly showing of their and their friends work. After supporting our fellow students, we continued through the palace. Which, I feel like I should give you an idea of how this goes. Kathy, has us follow her by holding a stuffed blue sunflower. Other groups get flags, and we get a sunflower - how great is that? Anyway, we'd be a little behind taking pictures and huge group of domestic tourists will engulf us (how come Chinese tourists always tend to be in groups of, like, 100?), Kathy keeps walking but holds the sunflower high above her hear. We see hundreds of dark-haired people, and a bright blue flower sprouting up above the masses. It's a good system.

So, by the end of all that we're all pretty exhausted. [This morning:]
Me: How'd you sleep?
Roommate: Really good, actually. Oh shoot, I left my computer up.
Me: Hah, yeah, you were on your computer then it sort of went black and you were out.
Roommate: I was going to take a shower too... shoot, and my contacts are still in! [rolls over] Ah! And I'm still in my clothes!

Random tidbits-
> Duck is pretty good
> Donkey is not
> Non-western bathrooms and I are hilarious together. And apparently I'm not nearly as limber as I thought - yeah, ponder that for a little while.
> Celebrity Picture Talley: 1/2

House Keeping / Ambition Series 1

I know it’s cliché to start off yet another post with, “Well, it’s been awhile!” but after nearly two months of silence (four if you don’t count the drive-by post), well, it’s been awhile.

My roommates and I have a ritual on weekends; we sleep in, bake cinnamon rolls (I know, I know, I promise to get them next weekend!), sit on the couch, and flip between the Travel Channel and the Food Network. Yesterday we were hooked in to another Food Network Challenge episode where chefs from around the country create the most extravagant, non-edible-looking cakes in a race against the 8-hour clock. It all leads up to a hold-your-breath-cross-your-fingers transfer where the chefs need to move the cake from their cooking stations to the display table that’s two feet away(!). You don’t believe me, but it gets intense. The top always starts shaking, the camera zooms to old women in the audience closing their eyes, we lean a little closer to the TV, and then everyone lets out a collective sigh of relief when the cake is safely on the table.

Roommate: “I want to do that”
Me: “What? Enter a challenge like this?”
Roommate: “No, be a cake decorator. Just for a little while. And do ice sculpting”

That right there was how our ‘let’s write out a list of our life ambitions’ started. I got out a little white board with a chocolate scented marker (what are they teaching kids nowadays?) and we started to list what we’d like to do in life, if only for a little while. Our lists aren’t super long, but they’re all pretty realistic and I’m going to keep them here, just like my goals for the year. This is also going to be a series of sorts – I can’t bring myself write these out without explaining them.

These aren’t in order, really, so excuse the numbering.

1. Make a film: When I was in high school, I had a class with this guy who absolutely loved acting, writing, and making movies with his friends. He actually managed to create a feature length film, rent out the high school theatre, and played it for whoever wanted to watch. Those who know me know that I absolutely love anything entertainment. Movies, television, and music are kind of ‘my things.’ I have no idea what a movie of mine would be about, but I’d love to write sometime and put it up on a screen.

2. Write for EW: Now, I’m not a writer by any means, but have you read their PopWatch blog? Great. Not to mention that I’m all about movies, television, and music – if I got paid to see or listen to these things?

3. Design my own kitchen: A few weeks ago, a few of us were sitting in our office talking about our dream houses. Well, not a complete dream house, more of a “if you could have just one room be perfect, what would it be?” The guys wanted a game room, I wanted a kitchen.

4. Own a coffee shop: I work at a coffee shop already, and I absolutely love the atmosphere. It’s the most laidback job I’ve ever had. When I retire, I’m owning a coffee shop.

There’s more, but it will have to wait until next time.

Roommate: “I want an article published”
Me: “I want to keep my blog updated”
Roommate: “I want have a blog”

Check!

Drive-by

No, I didn't get whacked in some mob-related incident like this post title would suggest. And no, I don't have any excuses for my complete lack of updates in the past few months or so. No worries, I'm sure I'll start spewing out long winded ramblings about my day-to-day life soon. In the meantime, this is what we bloggers like to call "drive-by posts".

Just to let you know, I am completely ripping this off of another blog. I could have practically copied her "sorry I haven't been around much" intro, but this is just too good to pass up.

I present to you, Garfield Minus Garfield. Genius.