Shiznit

2009-03-25T02:23:00.006-04:00

Sometimes having too much time on your hands can be a bad thing. Now, for example, I am sitting here in the office with no real projects to work on, looking up things on the internet and refilling my mug with hot water every hour or so.

So far today I have researched the health benefits of green tea and tried to determine if a PB&J is, in fact, good for you. The consensus is that you can use the internet to support any claim you would like, so yes, it is.

You hear so much about what is and isn't healthy every day, especially living in China. I don't have any kind of science background to speak of, no way to determine the validity of any given nutrition-related claim, so what happens is that all these bits of so-called information float around in my head bouncing off of each other, waiting to be accepted or rejected. There's a saying in Chinese: "Walk one hundred steps after each meal, and you will live to be ninety-nine years old." Vexingly, there is another saying: "If you want to live to be ninety-nine years old, do not take a walk after a meal."

I, for one, would like to live to be ninety-nine years old and I would appreciate if someone would tell me which of these two actions will guarantee my desired outcome.

Besides these pearls of wisdom concerning post-digestion ambulation, I have also heard a great deal about weight loss, including (sometimes conflicting) opinions about when it is best to drink liquids, the ideal temperature of those liquids, what time of day to eat sweets and when to eat salty things, when larger and smaller meals are appropriate, and how you can shed weight by softly and repeatedly hitting the area from which you desire to lose it.

It's impossible that all of these things are true, because many of them are conflicting. Now, I have over the course of my life picked a few sources I trust (friends, news sources, wikipedia etc) so when I didn't know or understand something I could at least decide whose opinion I trusted most. I don't really have a reliable framework like that set up here yet. So I think what I've gained from this is that, barring a sudden and dramatic increase in brain functioning on my part (a la John Travolta in Phenomenon), I have no reliable way to determine what's true and false.

I think I'll keep drinking green tea and eating PB&Js at least. And of course, jian bing -- the green onions and cilantro count as a serving of vegetables, right?

2009-03-22T07:08:00.003-04:00

One birthday down, another couple hundred to go. Someone (whom I'm too lazy to look up) said once, "I plan to live forever: so far, so good." Honestly I'm feeling pretty smug about having avoided death thus far, but I'm not above knocking on wood -- I'd like to see the next 23 years.

The end of this particular segment of 23 years was marked in grand style, with hot pot, karaoke, and dancing (oh dancing). I've never had so lavish a birthday party, made possible in part by a lower cost of living I'm sure. Plate after plate of delicious beef for hot pot, a couple hours of singing in a private karaoke room, and a cake with rocket candles. My only regret is I didn't count the empty beer bottles on the table before we left the restaurant. And that the DJ at the bar did not have the song "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada. Disappointment I can live with.

I heard somewhere that drinking to fill an emptiness is a sin, but drinking to celebrate a fullness is a mitzvah. I can't seem to get the internet to back me up on this one, but I'll believe it all the same. Now that I'm in my mid-twenties I no longer need to verify something on Wikipedia before believing it to be true right? Right. Well, onward with life! Unless we can figure out how to go in the other direction.

2009-03-08T04:14:00.002-04:00

Been a good couple of days!

Spent most of Friday translating for once. I had bought Zhu Wen's book, 《什么是垃圾，什么是爱》 (What's Love, What's Trash) a while back and I set out translating it chapter by chapter for fun and practice (alternatively, for shits and giggles). Zhu Wen is the author of I Love Dollars, a cool book of short stories. I've only read the English versions, but thought they were pretty cool. This is his only full-length book, though, and it's broken down into 3-5 page bits of chapters (a format I happen to like). I wonder if the English-language version could be released gradually as a serial in some periodical. There's some precedent there.

I had originally set out to translate Mo Yan's 《丰乳肥臀》 (Big Breasts and Wide Hips) but it's just too much book for me to handle at this point (nothing to do with the title, just the writing style which is very dense and descriptive). I ended up reading the first chapter in the Chinese version and then buying Howard Goldblatt's translation at the Bookworm to see how the professionals do it. After the first chapter I just kept on through the second and third, so he must be doing something right. There were some really well-written (and well-translated!) parts where I just ended up wincing or jumping or laughing out loud. Don't wanna give anything away so no details, RAFO!

And the awesomeness continued! Jason got me to come down to the Jianwai SOHO office of New Oriental where he was working yesterday for coffee but when I got there he surprised me by showing me my book! Which I have seen before, obviously, but the surprise was that his coworkers had been using the book in the classroom, teaching people English from it. All the excitement got me good and red in the face for about the next twenty minutes. There was a fun house-warming party that night and then Sunday was nice and relaxing: tried a new dumplings place (A++++ would eat there again). I read for a long time and watched Tropic Thunder with a friend. Now, I don't usually watch Tom Cruise movies because I don't want to support his craziness (gotta stand for something, right?), but since he didn't benefit financially from my viewing I didn't feel too bad. Worth watching the whole movie just to see the very last scene.

And what happened this morning, you might ask? Oh, you know, UNC beat Duke 79-71. Then a nice long nap, because due to daylight savings time the game started at 4 AM instead of 5 AM. I guess some bad things did happen this weekend: my phone charger broke, I failed to get tickets to an event I wanted to go to at the Bookworm, I was unable to order free water at the dumplings place (boooo), but overall I would give this weekend a 97. On a 1 to 98 scale.

The month isn't looking too shabby either. Well, time to go knock on wood. Hope (but sincerely doubt) that your weekends were as enjoyable as mine!

2009-02-21T04:49:00.005-05:00

A quick blurb - Clinton was in China a day or two ago and talked with Wen Jiabao about, what else, Sino-American relations. Compare and contrast news reports!

These two articles talked a bit about what went on in the meetings. The first is interesting as an analysis of the aims behind the Secretary of State's visit to Asia. The second is especially worth checking out because it may contain the worst picture of Hillary Clinton available on the internet.

This English-language piece from Xinhhua covers some of the same ground. It has some extras, though, specifically mentioning that Clinton quoted a Chinese proverb about digging a well before you are thirsty to emphasize the need for protecting the environment. All three articles mention her use of the proverb "同舟共济" or crossing the river in the same boat, to show that the US is committed to working together with China. The well bit, though, is missing from the two Chinese-language reports.

To be honest I only looked up the Chinese articles to learn the idiom "You should dig a well before you are thirsty" in Chinese. It remains a mystery...

2009-02-20T02:18:00.002-05:00

Why is it that I travel to a foreign country only to end up watching old American movies. And why, in old American movies, are the protagonists always Americans living in foreign countries? And why are they always watching old American movies? OK, that last bit is a stretch. But both of the movies I've watched while here center around the lives of American ex-pats in Paris.

Which is something you would expect from the first: An American in Paris. Although for some reason I had thought the protagonist would be a woman. Despite some interesting song-and-dance sequences, the only thing I learned from this movie is that Gene Kelly is kind of a douchebag. And also that women apparently found that appealing at some point, or at least acceptable. Sometimes you see things that men do in these old movies and you just sick up a little.

The other movie I've seen before, actually the last time I was here in Japan. Audrey Hepburn plays an out-of-work translator (well, simultaneous interpreter) in Charade. Our shared vocation and joblessness make me really want to like her in this movie, though I find other parts of her character off-putting. A fun movie, though, which has inspired me to go out and buy sunglasses like these:

Of course, she wore them for fashion's sake and I will be wearing them to protect my eyes from dust storms in the coming spring. Still, these giant safety goggles are not without their glamour (or is it glamor?). They make people-watching a bit easier as well, not that I would be the type to stare at strangers...

2009-02-15T20:51:00.006-05:00

We had teriyaki pizza, potato salad, and banana cake for dinner a couple days ago. Afterwards, I was full -- not uncomfortably full, but decidedly so. Last night was another winner with eel-flavored tofu (which may be in the running for my new favorite food). I had what amounted to a sumo-sized portion I'm sure. Needless to say (but what is life if not full of contradictions, and therefore I will say anyway) I've been sleeping well.

It wasn't until breakfast this morning, while eating freshly prepared French toast, that the thought occured to me: I don't deserve to eat this well. Not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the quantity and quality of the food I have eaten to this point makes me feel a little bit ashamed about all of the petty things I've done in the course of my life. Not ashamed enough that I wouldn't ask for seconds, but ashamed enough to pause for a moment, skewered morsel half-raised, and reflect on all the things I might have done differently, had I known at the time that this food was waiting in my future.

Or maybe that's not quite how things would play out. I can also imagine all the terrible things I might have done, if I had known that no matter what I would be eating this delicious food about this time in my life. At any rate, the French Toast is now off the plate and safely hidden away from such speculations and subjunctive musings.

I feel compelled to add here that, while important and enjoyable, eating food is not the only thing I'm planning on doing during my visit here. Being back in Japan for a few days has given me the opportunity to practice a bit of Japanese, even though I feel like I've forgotten more than I ever knew. Still, there are some useful phrases that it turns out were still hanging out in my brain somewhere. I know the construction "I'm sorry that...": "I'm sorry that I ate the last slice of apple cake." Or, "I'm sorry that I can't speak Japanese well." Or, "I'm sorry that I ate the last slice of banana cake."

Another useful construction is the verb ending -chau (present) or -chatta (past) for when something has been done completely or represents an epic fail. Like, "I ate it all." Or, "I drank the last of it." Or, "I spilled my frappucino all over the floor." Most of these phrases go well with the above construction as well.

Also, were you aware that if you spill your drink at a Japanese Starbucks they give you a new one for free? You learn something new and wonderful every day...

2009-02-10T05:49:00.003-05:00

I feel bad for joking yesterday about dying in a fire, because a pretty big building went up in flames last night some hours later. It was the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. First I heard the CCTV Building, which is the crazy-looking one next to it, but apparently that one wasn't damaged. The hotel, on the other hand, is no more.

So far, one is dead - a firefighter named 张建勇. One article reports that he would have celebrated his 30th birthday this month. Six others were also injured, but I think are doing fine at local hospitals.

I wonder what kind of impact this will have on fire-safety regulations and laws about fireworks during the Chinese New Year. During the CNY no one needs any kind of permit to set off even fairly large-scale fireworks, although most people confine themselves to sparklers and mid-range explosions. This is how Chinese traditionally celebrate the holidays, so outlawing the fireworks would almost be like outlawing Christmas trees because they were fire hazards. But of course, fireworks are a bit more dangerous...wait and see, I guess.

2009-02-09T05:31:00.002-05:00

Happy 元宵节 everyone! Today is the Lantern Festival which marks the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in China. You should all make sure to look at the moon at 10:45 tonight, as that's when it's supposed to be the fullest and brightest. Although, good luck seeing it through the smoke of a million fireworks.

A flyer posted beside the elevator in my apartment complex wished everyone a good one and also said something along the lines of "Please clean up after your fireworks so we don't all die a painful, fiery death." I live on the 5th floor, so chances are if a serious fire starts I'm done for. My friend told me today that they don't expect it to rain again here until April, so don't count on the elements to save me either. I would try to jump for it of course - I'm not completely stupid - but in the event that I don't make it, you can read David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames and remember me fondly.

In all seriousness, despite my dislike of fireworks and fear of death by fire, I'm having a great time here. It's been like having two holiday seasons back to back: Christmas in the US, and the New Year now in China. I have thus far resisted the pun, but I have to break down and wish you all a happy Niu Year. 牛年快乐！！

2009-02-07T00:39:00.002-05:00

It's official, I have defective sinus cavities. I'm sure if I had any grasp of science I could fathom why sinus cavities are actually useful, but as it stands I just wish I could walk into a corner-store clinic and have someone scoop them out with a sterilized spoon. Or a dirty one. At this point, I'm not particular.

It's not so much that this particular sinus headache is markedly worse than others (I've had two so bad they showed up on CAT scans) but I don't like the idea that this isn't something I can defeat once and for all. I have a sneaking suspicion that there's something out there I could eat, or do, or recite that would fix things, and also a sneaking suspicion that I will never discover just what that is.

Luckily for me at least China knows and cares nothing about meth, so pseudophedrine is not regulated. Phenylephrine is just no substitute, and some studies have shown that a 5 mg oral dose is not measurably better than a placebo. And yet in the US at least, pseudophedrine is being phased out in favor of crappy-placebo-drug because some people can't leave well enough alone. Way to go meth heads for ruining cold medicines for everyone.

Well, enough complaining. On to the rest of my day...

2009-01-31T00:52:00.004-05:00

So it's been a busy few days. Nothing productive accomplished, of course, but still pretty busy. Jason and Seth and I ventured out into the New Year festivities and made our way to the 地坛庙会 -- the Temple Fair at the Temple of Earth, over by Yonghegong subway station.

The Entrance to the Fair

It turned out to be a lot more like the North Carolina State Fair than I expected. Later I found out that this fair isn't known for being very authentic, and that if I wanted to find an authentic temple fair I should go to the Changdian Temple Fair (厂甸庙会). At any rate, at the Ditan location we were able to enjoy kebabs (Jason had squid, I had lamb), buy fair-type things (I got a Winnie the Pooh Rubik's cube) and enjoy fair-type games (Jason tried unsuccessfully to win a giant stuffed animal by throwing metal rings onto posts, while Seth failed to knock down all the cans stacked in a pyramid structure).

Having spent my entire life's savings on these same games at the North Carolina State Fair last October, I had no money left to try the Chinese version. But it was almost as fun spectating.

In summary: fair festivities were fun and full of food, frolicking.

2009-01-25T07:39:00.004-05:00

A new year (the Ox!) a new life for the blog. A lot has happened since...Christmas of 2007?? Is that the last time I posted?

If I had artistic aspirations I might try to pass this lapse off as a Quentin Tarantino-inspired non-chronological approach to my life and then flash back to the period between December 2007 and January 2009 somewhere later down the road.

Well, anyway, rather than try to recount everything in 100 words or less I will just begin again from the present moment as if nothing ever happened, kind of like a friend who ignores you for a while and then calls you to hang out one day without explaining anything. So what's up, you wanna hang out this weekend? I was thinking about going to this thing, you know, at that place.

We begin in medias res. I graduated college, moved to Beijing, and am searching for a job...

2007-12-25T15:02:00.001-05:00

pssst merry christmas!

2007-01-19T17:08:00.001-05:00

Have you seen this beer? I have tried long and hard since coming back from Beijing 5 months ago and all my efforts to locate it have proven fruitless. I went to Asian supermarkets and Chinese restaurants a plenty, even to New York's Chinatown where I was met with more Qingdao advocates than I can count. Let me just put it like this: I don't want beer that tastes like normal beer. I want light, week, sweet Yanjing beer. I want beer you can buy in a ginormous bottle and gan bei with several times during a meal without getting completely smashed. Beer that is cheaper and goes down smoother than water. I had a glimmer of hope when I located this article detailing Yanjing's year of trial market in the US, but then I noticed the date -- 2001. Almost half a year has passed and despite my best efforts, I might as well be looking all over America for another Forbidden City.

There is now only one option left to me: crying out to the vast void of the internet. If you, or anyone you know, has seen this beer, please. Tell me where to find it.

2007-01-09T00:15:00.000-05:00

OK so I know I promised pics yesterday but really am I to be trusted? Here are a few pictures tonight and the rest later. We spent a lot of time at the Met and Museum of Natural History, so there's lots of pictures of Chinese calligraphy and dinosaurs, two of my most favorite things in the whole world. I wonder if I could get a scroll painting of a dinosaur with Chinese calligraphy on it...I would most certainly die of a joy-induced aneurism...

The boys!

This one is a by Xu Bing, an artist who lives in New York City but was originally from Beijing. It looks at first glance like Chinese characters but it is actually English, a Yeats poem to be specific. Coolest thing I saw at the Met.

This one was called The Gateway to Desire, or something like that. I thought it was pretty much awesome.

Me and T-Rex at the Museum of Natural History

Indeed.

Well that's about it for the pictures -- it was a great trip, lots of fun, but it's good to be settled back down here too. Who's excited about classes starting up again!!!

2007-01-07T00:51:00.000-05:00

New York pictures tomorrow. I went to New York over winter break, did I tell you? Yeah, I've been a little lazy lately with the blog...I thought for a while about just giving it up but I always enjoy going back through posts from several years ago and seeing if I've changed, or whatever I wrote about has, or if some things have stayed the same.

I can't tell the word count anymore, but counting this I've made 601 posts. It's like a mini-autobiography, besides the whole publishing thing, oh and the whole structure thing, and the it being about somebody important on the world stage level thing.

But anyway, pictures TOMORROW, I promise. Right now I am too busy feeling sorry for myself and listening to depressing Chinese songs when I should be sleeping...well, see you tomorrow.

2006-12-17T20:59:00.000-05:00

"Maybe I drove so fast he didn't see me" -- Abby on why the police car didn't come after us on the way home from Wendys.

Ah, home. Charlies on Sundays after church, eating their poppy seed muffins, somehow surviving my sister's driving, playing with Panda, Late Nite Wendys and sleeping in til Whenever: IFeel Likeit.

My family often makes itself obnoxiously conspicuous at whatever fine establishment we dine, what with our raucous laughter and sing-a-longs. And seeing as how none of us can cook, we do it quite frequently.

Just a couple weeks to rest up and do that and then there's next semester...hmmm...

2006-11-22T14:02:00.000-05:00

The quest to bring Panda out of obesity begins:

Panda: meowwww!
Mom: No, I'm not feeding you any more than that!
Panda: Meow meowww!
Mom: NO MORE!
Panda: Meow!!!
Mom: Yeah, it's a bitch, isn't it?

But yeah, pretty sure none of us will be able to resist him for long. His fatness makes him cute...his cuteness then will prevent us from keeping him on this diet. What a vicious cycle..

2006-11-21T21:53:00.000-05:00

First post in a while, hmmm?

Well, I'm back home for Thanksgiving and I thought I'd update.

It's always a shock to see how big Panda is, but what else is new. Now I'm waiting for my sister to fiinsh watching a show so we can go get a delicious, delicious Wendy's Homestyle Chicken Fillet Sandwich.

It's only a bit more than halfway through November, but it already feels like school is winding down. I have almost no more major assignments and only a few exams left. It's getting cold (aka wretched), and I'll be spending the majority of my time indoor from here on out.

Side note: Bridget Jones' Diary, in fact a very lovely movie. Some things I get tired of, but some things just don't get old.

Hope this was winding and pointless enough, maybe I'll have something meaningful to say at some point in the future...

2006-10-18T23:25:00.000-04:00

OK, so I didn't realize I hadn't really seen my cat in so long, maybe it hasn't been that long, anyway, the point is that he's gotten HUGE in a BIG WAY. Before, he was a little pudgy, yeah, but what cat isn't plump. Now he's like a dump truck with fur. In a completely adorable way. I just can't get over how big he's gotten. Maybe it's cause I've been around Moosh for so long, and Moosh is tiny-tiny. I am actually concerned for Panda's health.

Now he is doing the thing where he paws and kinda-claws me/the sofa rhythmically like he's trying to dig for something. What a cutie. Well, maybe no harm in letting him be a little plump. As long as he can still move...

2006-10-18T00:26:00.000-04:00

Excited about fall break?

I know I am.

2006-10-04T01:09:00.000-04:00

Nothing much to say. Too lazy to update. Or even form complete sentences.

Update later maybe?

2006-09-24T13:28:00.000-04:00

Up til now, this weekend I have done absolutely ZERO work.

A pretty amazing weekend.

But now I'm writing up a To Do list and not feeling so hot.

So until we meet again...

2006-09-21T23:18:00.000-04:00

Really really mad at myself for having dated huge a douchebag. AGHGHGHGH asshole! The next boy I date is going to be nice, and sweet, and maybe have a southern accent. Or at the very least speak English fluently. I don't think I'm ever dating across a language barrier ever again.

Nothing against Japanese boys. I'm sure there's good eggs and bad eggs, just like Americans. In fact, I'm pretty sure Shige was weird in his own right, not just cause he was from a different country. But I like to know where I stand, and understand where people are coming from. I'm all about learning about other cultures but at the end of the day, I want a boy who knows there are some things he just shouldn't say, and some things he has to! I'm not asking for mind reading, just a little understanding. Ack.

In other news, midterm tomorrow and I haven't started studying yet...I dunno, just not feeling it. Which is no excuse, but I'm not in a good mood.

ok, [/emo]. Back to work. Enjoy your lives, people.

2006-09-17T10:51:00.000-04:00

Ugh...it's the morning after Uzma's 21st Birthday party and I feel like it was my 21st birthday...got a bit of a hangover and my abstract thinking is probably still impaired and I just have one thing on my mind right now:

Jian bing.

Jian bing is the magical street food in Beijing (from Tianjin originally, though, I think) that doubles as a delicious breakfast wrap and a hangover cure. I have heard from some experts on the issue, no matter how fiercely your head is pounding, once you finish this delightful combination of egg, lettuce, cilantro, spicy sauce, sweet sauce, and those crispy things that I don't quite know what they are for sure, you feel a LOT better.

If you wanna know what they look like you can google them. I was gonna put a picture here but I don't think looking at something I desperately want but can't have is gonna do this headache any good.

But in other news, the party was mucho fun. TONS of people came, and it got kind of wild (at Uzma's instigation). At midnight, instead of Uzma taking 21 shots, as per some traditions, she had 21 people take a shot each. Which was kind of cool except mine turned out to be peppermint schnapps which was, erm, surprising.

It turns out during the course of the evening she received two fondue sets, one from me and one from Alyssa. Which was actually pretty cool, now we can have cheese and chocolate going at the same time.

Well, enough blogging for me. I'll put up a lot of pictures on facebook later, and tag every one of you fools. Adios!

2006-09-14T22:33:00.000-04:00

It's official, I'm kind of obsessed with Jay Chou.

I was walking back from Chinese class with Jim, Jason, and Prof. Liu, and we were talking about songs we liked, stuff like that. I told Prof. Liu that I liked Jay Chou's songs cause I had to actually look up some words, I didn't immediately know what was going on. And my professor said a lot of Taiwanese songs were "guai4", or "strange". Which is kind of true. You can listen to some mainland pop songs and the first time around know exactly what's going on, and actually be kind of bored. They're more like a description of events than any kind of art. Jay Chou's songs, I feel, are more poetic. I haven't liked anyone this much since middle school, when I was alllll about the Beatles.

Recommended Jay Chou songs: "Hair Like Snow", and "Tornado" (this one I think was written by somebody else -- but still really good).

2006-09-09T16:22:00.000-04:00

Going into karaoke WITHDRAWL. Yanjing beer WITHDRAWL. No one's yelled lao wai at me for almost a month, and I even kind of miss that. The airline still hasn't found my other bag yet so I'm missing a lot of cool stuff still.

Found out Yanjing beer is mai bu dao here. For those of you who aren't familiar with Yanjing beer, it's a very light, sweet beer that's usually available in restaurants, but not bars, in Beijing. It's kind of like the local brand. Very, very cheap, in fact, cheaper than water. Kind of weak and good for gan bei-ing. But apparently it's not good enough to be exported. I think it's good enough, but who asked me I guess. Went to the local Chinese restaurant, some buffet, and asked if they had it and they explained the above to me. But they said they have Qingdao. Then they said I spoke Guoyu very well. "guoyu" -- that's how you can tell peeps aren't from the mainland. Nice people, but no yanjing beer so I'm kinda bummed...well, Qingdao's not half bad. And maybe giving up beer will be good for the girlish figure, as they say.

We lost to VTech today (big surprise). The game was fun but we weren't sitting in the shade so right now I'm a rather crimson version of myself. We were sitting with some exchange students from Singapore and I mentioned the burning -- they said something like "Thought you people liked to get tan". Which, you know, I do. But I'd like to skip the getting red and hurting part.

I dunno, never used to care about what color my skin was before, but spending 6 months in Beijing with people talking about how white I was all the time just made me really really wanna be tan. The pale-skin-is-beautiful thing always struck me as racist, classist, sexist, and a number of other bad things. I think most everybody just has kind of a natural skin tone, and when they get too far in either direction from it it starts to look fake, and thus bad. But who can say really -- cultural differences and all. Well, I can say, I just wont be right...yep, one thing I guess I don't miss about Beijing, ridiculous beauty standards for women. I no longer feel fat or frumpy.

I guess when I started this post I was just really missing Beijing and now I'm feeling ok about being back. So overall, a productive half hour -- have a fun weekend!

2006-09-09T00:43:00.000-04:00

Sooooo, what's up?

Haven't posted in a while...I'll get on that eventually.

Also there's still issues with the cell phone. And my bag is still missing :(

But on the bright side, I am young, healthy, have good friends, like all my classes, at least a few more years ahead of me, and tomorrow I'm going to a football game.

See you around.

2006-09-04T23:53:00.000-04:00

The American President. Only the best movie ever.

"I didn't decide to send 455 to the floor to get you back"

"I didn't come back cause you decided to send 455 to the floor"

2006-08-28T17:00:00.000-04:00

So, I dunno if I've ever mentioned this before, but I'm a fan of Jay Chou. He's pretty much my favorite Chinese musician at this point, maybe excepting whoever does "xi shua shua", and only in that one case will I make an exception for sentimental reasons.

So since I got back home from campus today I've been wasting time online, listening to a few of his songs and looking up the words in the lyrics I don't know. I usually feel terrible after spending so much time doing not much of anything. Today I don't mind so much.

In the course of browsing of all this, I've come to an important decision. I do not approve of Jay's new mustache as featured in the picture below:

I much prefer earlier and cuter Jay, as showcased on his latest album cover, November's Chopin, or in any of his other beardless pictures I might add:

As you can see, Jay's mustache is really only about half a mustache, and not a cute one at all. Asian guys tend not to look so good with mustaches. Not a hard and fast rule, just a general trend I've noticed. Well, not more words of wisdom left today.

2006-08-27T11:10:00.000-04:00

I guess I haven't posted in a while, I've been settling in at UNC. Classes started last week and I just got my class schedule finalized. But an interesting thing happened to me the other day --

I went to Lori Harris' (head secretary for the Asian Studies department) office to talk about a problem I had with my major -- I am a Chinese language major and I had come back from China with credit through Chinese 112, which was the second highest level class offered this semester, but without the prerequisite for Chinese 115, the highest level class offered this semester. The head of my department said I could take 115, but then I could not go back and take 113, because it would be like taking a step down, ya know. But 113 was a blank on my major worksheet. So if I didn't take it, could I graduate?

Now, if you've ever met Lori Harris you'll know that she is just the person to go to for things like this. She was there at the beginning and knows why things are as they are. She assured me that if I didn't take 113, life and graduation would still go on, somehow.

And then, unexpectedly, she said, I also have something else to talk to you about.

I got a little worried, because I dunno, maybe I had broken a rule or something. But she said, I've looked at your classes and it seems as if you already have another major.

So she hands me the sheet she's been writing on and apparently, counting the classes I am taking this semester, I already have a major in Asian Studies: Interdisciplinary Studies. So I'm double majoring in Asian Studies: Interdisciplinary Studies and Asian Studies: Chinese Language. Double majoring in Asian Studies and Asian Studies.

I don't really know how I feel about this. It's cool to think that I completed a major without realizing it just by taking classes I enjoy. But double majors are supposed to be, I dunno, different in some respect. Math and Music. Biology and Dance. Something that says "This person is multi-talented, you are hiring him because of his background in horticulture but he is also knowledgable about Early 20th Century American Literature". I almost feel like a double major within one department is cheating. Or at least, kind of taking the easy way out. I mentioned this to her and she said no, it's more like one is an area studies major and one is a language major. But I still have that feeling...maybe I should try to get a poli sci or psych major...

Then again, were I to double major in anything else I would have to take classes I maybe didn't like during the next two years. And that's just not going to happen.

So thank you Lori Harris! I am no longer a single-major loser among my double-major friends. I just can't tell them what that second major is.

2006-08-18T21:08:00.000-04:00

I have been back from China for several days -- just been relaxing and getting stuff ready to move to the Hill (or really, to Carrboro).

I haven't had much culture shock to speak of. The only thing that has come up repeatedly has been talking to people in the service industry, like waiters or cashiers. During the 6 months I was in China I talked to friends in English, Chinese, and a mixture of the two, but I always talked to cashiers and such in Chinese. So I keep wanting to answer in Chinese, and then I stammer and awkwardly say things like "I'm sorry, I don't have." or "Not necessary, thanks."

Jet lag is still a bitch too. I am going to sleep and waking up at regular times, but I feel tired all the time. It's supposed to take a day for every time zone you cross...which means, basically, that sucks.

But life is mostly good. Bought a few books today, I've been spending today catching up on stuff and studying. If you're at the hill, I'll see you at the hill in a few days!

2006-08-03T12:12:00.000-04:00

So, whenever I receive a text message, my cellphone's screen will light up half a second before I hear the text message alert. I have learned, much like one of Pavlov's dogs, to reach for my cellphone the moment I see the light.

I probably receive, at the least, 15 text messages a day. On busier days, I can receive up to fifty, though I never really count. I text people to remark about strange billboards, dinner invitations, upcoming events, and meaningless, random thoughts. In turn, my friends do the same.

Mostly, I use Chinese to respond, because it is faster and easier. Some concepts can be expressed more quickly, and the text message counts every letter as a character, so english runs over into a second message more quickly. It's good practice and we call it the poor man's dictionary, because you type in the pinyin (romanization) and you get a list of characters. "Which "yi" did you mean?" Because there are, after all, hundreds. Pull out the cell phone, type in two letters, and scroll.

When my phone rings, I know it is either someone I don't know or something urgent, and the sound for the phone ringing is slightly more alarming than that of the text message. Also, it is more stressful in comparison to text messages, where you can plan out at leisure what you would like to say.

I have just been thinking about this because I go home soon and will not be able to text as freely. It will be kind of a weird feeling -- unless I actually have something to say I wont really be talking to people...strangely depressing.

But on the bright side, I will still be able to text in Chinese as I am bringing my phone back. I will only know three people whose cell phones can recieve said texts, but then again, I am willing to rack up unholy bills doing so.

See you in a week in three days.

2006-08-01T13:10:00.000-04:00

Tonight, as every tuesday, I went to Wudaokou with friends to see our favorite Xinjiang band, but to our surprise the usual act was replaced by an extremely passable reggae band. So we stuck around for a while and listened to that. Then I came back early planning to get some sleep, which, if you take a little time to do the math,you may observe has not worked out so well. As of today I have a week and five days left in China.

Tomorrow I have the third say of a five day long Happy English Station (direct translation) which is basically a summer camp for kids my organization somehow roped me into doing. I am mildly pissed off that I was pawned off as an English machine when I could be helping translate for the European Commission grant application they're working on. Mostly I am pissed off that it takes me an hour and a half by bus to get there.

After that I have class and my last (yes!) day of tutoring English. I have discovered by trial and error that I do not enjoy teaching small children. At least, not in large groups and not in large doses. I am glad I discovered this before trying it out as a job, but at the same time, I would be happy enough if this learning experience went on and got over with.

Besides this English teaching stuff, I am also wrapping up classes and my internship. I have a paper to write and tomorrow the topic I'm supposed to be prepared for is Hong Kong -- a place I still haven't been, but I figure I can talk to my coworkers about it some.

The mission for this week is trifold -- one, to make sure my luggage will make it under the weight limit for coming back. Two, to return to Dashanzi (the arts district) and three, to see the Temple of Heaven. If I have time left over, I will probably sleep and eat lots of good Chinese food. If I have time left over from that, and Jim will get on with it, I will borrow Oracle Bones and read it.

Not much else going on...just took an excedrin tonight and so I'm still up and about trying not to think about how I'm going to feel like killing myself tomorrow while talking with 35 middle school students about America's four major holidays...

2006-07-27T00:45:00.000-04:00

chuang2 qian2 ming2 yue4 guang1 Before my bed the moon shone
yi2 shi4 di4 shang4 shuang1 I thought it was frost on the ground
ju3 tou2 wang4 ming2 yue4 I looked up at the bright moon
di1 tou2 si1 gu4 xiang1 As I looked down, my thoughts turned to home

(disclaimer, ROUGH ROUGH translation and I didn't put the characters in because for some reason when I do blogger just messes things up)

The 8th centry AD Chinese poet Li3 Bai2 (pinyin), romanization Li Po, liked the moon. A lot. Kind of like How Shakespeare was always immortalizing women in poetry, he was always talking about the moon, or drinking. And while you'd think that that would get old quickly, it doesn't. As my freshman year Latin professor once said, originality as a requirement for a good piece of art is a very new, very American idea. The Greeks and Romans could take the same play and do it hundreds of times, maybe with a few twists but mostly concentrating on doing something well than doing something new. While it is the new that attracts us, I feel like that new can be something the reader brings rather than the author. Just a thought, at work today without much to do...

2006-07-25T23:20:00.000-04:00

So now that I have less than three weeks left here in Beijing, I've started thinking about how much time has gone by and how fast, and other cliche but true things that people think about when they reach times like this. And of course, I still have three weeks which is a lot of time in a sense. But it feels weird to think that now that I'm used to a place I'm going to be leaving it.

And I regret not blogging more, definitely blogged a lot less than when I was in Singapore and am glad because I have those to remember my trip by. But then, I have a hard time believing I'll forget this.

This entry has no real point...just some thoughts and feelings I've had recently. Maybe a brief life update --

Yesterday I went to hear the Tribesmen, a Xinjiang band we see most Tuesdays, at Lush, a coffee shop/bar in the studenty part of town. It was nice and fun and we got a lot of it recorded for posterity. It was sad to think that I wont have many more opportunities to hear them before I go and it also made me think of Shige, the guy I dated for a while here, which is another story for another day. Mainly though, it was fun because I was there with friends and the music was good.

Then last night I had a dream that I was kidnapped with a bunch of people, put on an old school bus and driven out to the middle of nowhere, given a pair of scisors by my captors and told to kill as many people as I could. What a messed up dream. Wow, yeah.

I woke up and I'm about to go have lunch with my one-on-one teacher. We're gonna eat old Beijing noodles, really good, but filling, and then we'll have another hour and a half of one-on-one. Should be fun, but I'm a little worried because I'm sooooo not in Chinese mode yet (when I've just woken up I'm pretty terrible at speaking Chinese).

Well that's all for now...hope all is well in the states or wherever you are!

2006-07-11T07:22:00.000-04:00

A lot of people don't care about gender roles or feminism, or if they do care they are still not serious about any of it because it's touchy, or it's got so much baggage, or it's so hard to change. Well for the last year or so I've become more and more interested in it and now that I've been working at a women's rights NGO for a while I think it might be something I could pursue in the future.

It's hard to say what aspect of our lives are MOST in need of attention. This is true on a small scale, and it is even more true in the large scale. The environment, gender equality, elimination of discrimination, employment, stability and security and peace. All of these are all sweeping, broad catagories and the smallest part of any of them could easily occupy one person's entire life.

But I think maybe whatever I end up doing, it will be a part of the movement for gender equality. It seems to me, there is no problem in society that is not somehow linked with gender roles. In America, men have in the past been held to the standard of the strong, in control provider and if they cannot muster up the machismo or money to fulfill this expectation, members of society will call them weak, they will lose face. Women, on the other hand, were expected to be gentle, supportive, cleaning machines who looked up to and cared for their husband, and made up for the time he didn't spend with their children. If they did not fulfill these requirements, they seemed selfish, inconsiderate, heartless, and lazy.

There was once a study done, a while back, on American families, trying to assess the amount of time fathers spent with their children. The average amount was 37 seconds a day. I've read of similar studies in Japan and the results were even lower. In developing countries all around the world, parents will sometimes leave their children to work elsewhere for months, or even years on end in order to give them a future, or at least something to eat.I personally feel when either parent spends very little time with his or her children, the child will be adversely affected. This kind of arrangement begins to teach children from a very young age that men and women have different, separate roles and there are some things that women are not allowed to do, some things men are not allowed to do. When it can be avoided, as I feel it usually can be in America, it should be.

The building blocks of society are not people, but families. If families are not exemplary models of peace, harmony, shared responsibiltiy, and mutual respect, then society will not reflect this. As Americans, we like to believe we are much more independent than we are, I think, that other people's actions do not have a great influence on us and that our irresponsible behavior will not adversely affect others -- in this respect, we could all take a page from Chinese society about how to get along.

Then again, Chinese gender roles are not perfect either, and because Chinese society tends to value stability, harmony and security over individual happiness or fulfillment, change in these roles will be agonizingly slow at best. In some ways, security and stability are tied inextricably with one person controlling the other, established and deeply rooted gender roles are integral to one person's feeling of "safety" and thus control over her life, and the other's feeling of control, and thus safety (protected from losing face in the eyes of society).

It's natural to crave these senses of control and safety. I think it takes a tremendous amount of effort for two people to move away from these roles and try to come up with a new concept of safety or control that doesn't involve one party dominating the other, especially considering it goes against what they've been taught their whole lives. What can spark a mass movement of people doing this, changing the way people think about gender roles and liberating both men and women? I don't really know, but I know that the American feminist movement has not engaged men enough to truly engage women.

So, in conclusion, I like to think out loud sometimes. Hope all is well -- enjoy your summers!

2006-07-08T00:09:00.000-04:00

I just found out about the whole North Korea going CRAZY thing. And yet I have no public opinion barometer to speak of. I even tried to involve my co-workers about it but they did not seem enthused. Well, and most of the conversation was spent trying to figure out how to say "fire a missle" in Chinese.

So is it a big deal? Still not sure. They fired missles, yes, but they kind of failed pretty miserably. Which must not be a big morale booster for them. But then, I also kind of get the feeling they might be used to things like that by now...

2006-06-29T05:44:00.000-04:00

So let me just give you a life update. I'm finishing up the second week of my internship, which is at the The Maple Women's Psychological Counseling Center, an NGO based in Beijing.

In a word, awesome. The people there are cool and what they do is amazing. I don't get to actually do psychological counseling (scary thought) but I do get to do some translation and planning some programs.

Working here has actually made me thought about changing my future plans. I have been pretty sure for a while that I want to become an immigration lawyer but now I'm not so certain. Maybe I'll end up working for women's rights, or maybe in China doing something, I don't know. Hard to imagine now.

But whatever happens I'm coming back in 2008. That's gonna be righteously fun. It's two years off and I still get excited thinking about. Plus all the olympics mascots are bank-breakingly cute.

And leave you all with a picture from Xinjiang (but no linguistic history, perhaps another day!):

Heaven Lake

2006-06-13T13:54:00.000-04:00

Today was fun -- I finally got a portable hard drive so now my pictures, documents, and music are all backed up. The potential for something disasterous to happen is now significantly less.

And of course today is the Tribesmen at Lush. It's a Xinjiang band that plays Uigher and some Mariachi stuff every tuesday at a cafe we like to go to. Often they place the same stuff but it's still good.

But the main highlight of tonight was that Korea won a World Cup game and Wudaokou (the area we were in, which has a huge Korean population) went CRAZY. There were people in the streets, standing on cars, harrassing busses, ala Franklin St but rallying around Korean flags and singing songs. It made me happy just to look at. It also makes me sad Americans don't care about soccor as much. :(

But I'ma go to bed, think cheery thoughts, the first summer students arrive tomorrow -- night all!

2006-06-06T09:58:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a shitty post, because I have no way to upload pictures and that's the only way I could do any justice describing Xinjiang. I'll try to focus on other things I guess, and save the pictures for when I get back to Beijing.

To really set this story off properly, you have to understand the dynamic of traveling with a group of other foreigners in China. In my group of three we all spoke passable Chinese, so we became kind of a circus show on trains and in more rural areas. In Beijing of course people will still compliment you on your Chinese the moment you say hello out of politeness, but they're not amazed. Not so after you leave. Because of this, we have been invited to eat, drink, and all around converse more than a few times. It's been pretty fun, although sometimes the starring and 'helloooo!!!'s annoying. In a nation that is very ethnically homogeneous, it almost seems like people associate being able to speak Chinese with being ethnically Chinese. In some of the more remote areas, I've said the simplest things and people kind of have a shocked look for a few seconds before responding. It's like they're seeing a horse talk. In one exceptional case, my two friends and I asked a series of questions in Chinese of a man before he responded, tentatively, "Do you speak Chinese?"

Rest assured these remarks are not due to our poor accents. Because the second most often thing we encounter is "Your accent is so standard!" Srange as it may seem, t his is a very common compliment. Almost invariably, once people realize that they are indeed hearing a foreigner speak Chinese, they compliment us on our accents. This has a little to do with studying in Beijing, which is the most "standard". Because we study in Beijing we tend to pronounce "sh", "zh" and "ch" in a way that a lot of other places don't. This sounds like not a big deal, but for example, the number 4 is "si4" while the number 10 is "shi2" so if you don't make the distinction it can be a little harder to make out this difference.

And then we crossed the border into Xinjiang, where somewhere along the lines of 50% of people do not speak any dialect of Chinese as a first language, speaking instead Uiygher, which is related to Turkish.

This kind of threw us for a loop, even though we kind of knew it was coming, because suddenly we were just tourists, with little or no knowledge of the local language. Though to be fair, it has relieved some of the pressure that comes with using Chinese to get around. I think most students here tend to be touchy about the level of their Chinese, and being corrected by anyone but a teacher is kind of a loss of face (if you will). Here we can still use Chinese to get around, but most of the people we are speaking with also speak Chinese as a second language. It's a nice feeling actually.

Well more later. It's getting dark and I'd like to see some of the city before I sleep. Adios mis amigos!

2006-05-23T07:30:00.000-04:00

I have officially stopped being pissed off when people break in line. You know why? Because waiting in line is a clever ploy invented by capitalist roaders to make us believe that if we wait nicely we will all get some goodies eventually. To put it another way, the concept of waiting in line as a moral good is based on the (incorrect) assumption that resources are not limited.

Think about it. The nation that is arguably the most obsessed with waiting in line (or "queuing up"), Britain, is also the nation with one of the longest track record of colonialism, and thus never lacking in resources. British people were therefore more ok with waiting around because people in other countries going hungry ensured they wouldn't. The same is true of America, and of most of the developed world actually. It is only when people are sure they're gonna get something that they think about waiting in line.

Then, take China. Or at least Beijing. People do not like the line. It just doesn't fly. I suppose this comes from a tradition of there being too many people for everyone to get what they want. So, survival of the quickest.

But as Beijing's economy becomes more and more like Britain's, it will be interesting to see if Beijingers take to the idea of the line. The government is certainly trying to make it happen. Before I might have been right there with em, but I don't know how I feel about it now. I personally have to wait in line or I feel like a terrible person, but the line is the system I'm used to. In actuality a line is a very arbitrary decision maker which says that the people who deserve the resources are those who wait the longest, as opposed to those that are in the biggest rush or need the food the most or something. Though I still think waiting in line is the best option.

Thoughts?

2006-05-16T03:21:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I just get in a bad mood. Right now, for instance. And then I'm tempted to say bad things. Excuse all sweeping generalizations

To put it briefly, I usually have no problems with cultural differences here. Even though they definitely exist. A lot of people are kind of peeved about the tendency to be blunt about weight, height, appearance, etc. I don't mind so much. There are different standards of cleanliness. I don't even have a problem with the constant spitting. These things I do not mind, personally, although I may not think they're a good idea on a larger scale.

What I do struggle with is the concept of face, or I guess saving face. You can save face, give face, and lose face. Basically, it's like there's a system of avoiding embarassment, making sure social order and harmony is maintained.

And you know, that's great. I'm for it. Stability and all. But I can't help balking at times because I was not raised in that system. My instinct is to be straightforward, not even as straightforward as Americans are supposed to be, but straightforward nonetheless. And while I don't like being embarrassed, I sometimes feel that calling out shortcomings can lead to changes for the better. And as for social order, since the way things work here is much more preventative, I feel like there's a lot of self-censorship going on, limiting the self for the better of the society. Which prevents in large number terrible violent crime and the like, but of course has its downsides as well (the feeling of suffocation, predetermination, etc).

Also, morality here is shame-based while in America it's largely guilt-based. Who do you trust to decide what's right and wrong, society, or yourself? This might seem like a rhetorical question to you, but it's answered differently in a culture where society makes that decision. In some ways these two methods accomplish the same end, but in others have huge differences.

To give a concrete example, there's no shame here in Beijing about cutting in line so people just do it everywhere, all the time. Someone calling me fat, I can deal with, someone breaking in front of me in line, makes me irrationally angry. And "foreigner this, foreigner that". It's contrary to my ideal of what an inclusive society should be like. I just feel like yelling at people to be more considerate of others, which then makes me realize that I am such a huge hypocrite, and then I feel even worse.

But for all my gripping, I'm in a bad mood for reasons totally unrelated to cultural differences, and entirely related to the fact that I sometimes get in bad moods. Isn't so much of what we think rationalization? And isn't so much of what we find acceptable socialization?

2006-05-12T04:40:00.000-04:00

So yeah, I've been terrible about blogging lately. I have no excuse, except for of course, interesting stuff is going on. And as a cop out to actual posting, I'm just going to throw some pictures at you instead of an actual life update and hope that you'll be too visually stimulated to care.

Anyway, here's some highlights from when I went to Dashanzi, the arts district. There was lots of stuff, definitely enough for a few more entries, but I don't wanna overwhelm you nad have some kind of medical emergency in my hands. Without further ado:

Communist ballerinas! So beautiful, so creepy.

Another one -- this was actually a series with several of them, all dangerous and beautiful and, well you get the picture. Perhaps they represent allure of idealism and the danger of the mob mentality during the Cultural Revolution, if I may be permitted to put on pseudo-intellectual pretenses for a minute.

I don't know what this represents, honestly, but it's pigs in the water and I thought it was very strange and beautiful.

a nice sculpture of a man on horseback.

A rather disturbingly intense picture taken of some kids during the Cultural Revolution. This was also a series, actually, if you're interested in seeing the others drop me a line.

And that's the highlights from Dashanzi. We spent all day there, just walking around, got some ice cream, and settled down in a nice cafe/bar/restaurant to do homework. Definite plans to go back. That's allllll for now

2006-05-03T07:21:00.000-04:00

I believe when I was in Singapore I had an entry about shoes, so to balance things out here I'll tell you about the day I spent trying to find a pair in Beijing.

I went to about 3 different markets and one actual mall, and I at least felt like I went to every shoe store in all of them. But they never had my shoe size, strangely the sizes always stopped one size before mine.

An interesting characteristic of shoe salesmen in Beijing, even when shoes clearly did not fit, and I said so, they would disagree with me. Picture this: me, a saleslady, and a shoe that I cannot squeeze onto my foot.

"It doesn't fit."

"Yes it does. Your feet aren't all the way in."

Yeah, no shit. Because they don't fit.

This happened many times. Alternate variations of "Just suck it up and buy shoes too small for you" were "you wont find bigger ones" and "all the young people are wearing them like this"

And of course I should be more understanding. This probably has something to do with saving face, and I should make a less obvious declining statement like "oh, gotta go, sorry!" or "today isn't a good day for me to buy shoes." I am probably more of an Ugly American than I realize. But when a shoe doesn't fit, to me, it just doesn't fit.

Of course there were a few exceptions. But they were hideous. Actually it seemed like every stall in one of the shoe markets had the same pair of shoes in my size, and only that pair. And I am not lying to you. They were perhaps the ugliest pair of shoes I have ever seen. I'm not even going to try to describe them.

Another thing I have noticed about Chinese fashion in general is that there is a greater divide between men's and women's fashions. American fashion tends to be more androgynous, and, for lack of a better word, lazy. Not so here. I was hard pressed to find something resembling birks or tevas because women tended to wear heels or similarly more feminine shoes instead. Mens shoes, in contrast, tended to be more, erm, masculine. Think tevas but add a little bulk. You know how little kids look wearing those kind of sandals? Well just drop that sea monkey into some water and there you go.

I thought at first I could warm up Chinese fashion after a few months, but now I realize fashion has more to do with society and gender roles than I previously thought. Although there are some things I can accept now, the vast majority of clothes and shoes do not appeal to me. So it's really my own fault that I can't find shoes, I'm just too picky.

If I find some shoes I'll let you know. I don't think I could bear a summer without sandals, so I'll have to eventually...

2006-04-29T03:11:00.000-04:00

Apologies in advance to boys age 15 to 25 who are too immature to listen to anything related to the menstrual cycle without cringing.

So I was walking to the subway station with my friend Jeneil when we made a pitstop in Itoyokato, our local supermarket/mall for some, ahem, female products. The kind that cannot be bought at our local convenience store because women here almost exclusively use pads. So maybe you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Good.

So we walk into the place, take the escalator to the basement (the supermarket) and head to the toiletries section when after a few minutes of searching we realize we're going to have to do some asking.

The problem now is that we don't know the word. This happens every so often. For instance, last time I had a sore throat I went to the supermarket unarmed with most cold-related vocabulary.

"Excuse me, miss, I have a cold. This part of my body hurts (waves hands around throat). I mean the inside part. Not the skin. I am looking for a thing, possible to eat, to have in my mouth. Then that part will not hurt. It is sweet, candy. Not chocolate. This thing helps health".

Not the most impressive charades performance but it got the job done. The problem this time was that though my Chinese had improved substantially since those first few weeks I was still going to have to play charades, if you will, and the word was tampon. The most important thing in my mind was to try, if at all possible to keep it to more of a catchphrase-like conversation than charades. I was no about to do the putting-in-a-tampon charade motion in the middle of a supermarket.

"Excuse me miss, we have a problem. (I pick up a thing of pads from the millions stacked in this area of the store). We found these. But you know, there is another method. At this time, you can use this, and can use another method. Where is it?"

I'm pretty sure I should have not used the word "ban4 fa3" (lit, method, way) but it worked. After a very short bit of puzzling, she took us to the three boxes of tampons in the entire 5 floor mall/supermarket complex. And how do you say tampon in Chinese?

O.B.

2006-04-20T03:20:00.000-04:00

Beijing entry!

So I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I joined the Beijing YMCA and started exercising regularly (:-0). Anyway, as I was walking out yesterday a woman was a little behind me and she asked if I taught English at the Y, I said no, I was just exercising, and she asked if I would be interested in teaching English. I said, I can give you my email, and she said, oh, you can just come to our office! So she takes me to the eighth floor of this near by building and introduces me to her boss, who procedes to give me the run down, telling me who I'll be teaching, when, how, etc. This seems to be a common practice of English training centers -- once they latch onto a potential English teacher they speak as if said person has already agreed to work for them. The basic gist of what she told me was that I would teach a group of 6 to 8 children twice a week, basic stuff, they had a curriculum but I would supplement it, and every 2 hour session was 300 kuai. Which is roughly $37.50 in American dollars.

Now, I'm pretty sure this could be bargained up a little, but I want you to look at the number a little closer. That's $18.75 an hour. Now take into account that the cost of living in Beijing is much lower than in, say Chapel Hill. A meal here (unless you eat out at Peter's Tex Mex every night) is at most half, and sometimes an 8th of what you'd pay in the states. Additionally, there is no sales tax, and transportation is more convenient and cheaper. So that's buying power of about 40 dollars an hour, at the least.

So what we're talking about here is a land where a foreigner can be walking along the street and have someone sincerely offer a 40 dollar an hour job that mainly involved having fun with kids for a few hours a week. The only criterea here is that you are obviously, in physical appearance, a foreigner. A native English speaker, really. That's how high the demand for English teachers is.

This phenomenon is not limited to Beijing, or even China. You may have heard the (accurate) statistic that there are more people in China studying English than there are PEOPLE in the United States. Well it seems to be true.

I didn't end up taking the job. I don't really have time right now, the location is not convenient, and I didn't like they way she asked me (another topic for another post). But I am sure I could find another equally lucrative job if I walked around Beijing long enough...

2006-04-13T03:52:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned more than once how I dislike the people who live around Wudaokou, so I guess it's only natural that I end up dating one of them.

(in case you couldn't guess this is more of a Liz entry than a Beijing entry)

So yesterday we went bowling over in Wudaokou, and let me tell you, what fun. Although a little pricy for me. And he tried to do that guy thing where you pay for anything, though I usually try to go dutch (upcoming entry on why I consider this important). I'm not sure how Japanese guys (he's Japanese) feel about going Dutch. I guess it depends on the guy.

Anyway so the very first thing I did was hit myself in the face with a bowling ball. No lie. It still hurts, right on my chin. The smooth and suave Liz we all know and love. You may ask, why, Liz? Well I was doing that thing where you bring the ball up under your chin and look foward, although I should have thought more about the UNDER the chin part than the looking forward.

All and all though, I'd have to say it was a positive experience. Bowling, or baoling qiu, is pretty culturally standard. Next on the to-do list: find DDR!

2006-04-08T01:05:00.000-04:00

In conclusion, I now suck at blogging.

But just to give you a brief what's-up here's a go:

My parents and sister were here for a while, and that was fun. We saw a lot of the sites in Beijing, including but not limited to the Great Wall.

Other than that life has been interesting but not busy. I've made many a trip to Wudaokou and am warming up to it a little (even though I still think nice people who live there are the exception to the rule).

A went out to eat Japanese with a friend of mine recently and he told me about two separate assaults that occurred in Beijing against women walking alone at night and how one resulted in death. Way to be reassuring. Now I am just the slightest bit creeped out because I spent the week my parents were here walking back and forth alone at night between their hotel and my dorm. Oh well, now I know.

Besides that, most people are living it up in Shanghai (which, by the way, is not a place beloved to Beijingers. Every cab driver I've talked to has just talked a bucket of smack about it. Then again, could be sour grapes...).

I'm still trying to figure out how to communicate my opinions about womens' rights, stereotypes, race relations, etc, but so far I have been confined to everyday conversation topics. I'll keep you posted.

Aaaaand my friends are signing the lease to our wonderful house on Sunday, at which point I will celebrate wildly! Because I know I wont have to live in a cardboard box.

More or less, that's what's up.

2006-03-25T09:05:00.000-05:00

Gosh I'm so terrible at keeping a journal when my life is actually interesting. Good thing, because my goal in life is to have no record of all the good times I have. Way to go, Liz.

Life has been interesting. I went to Xi'an and had fun at karaoke. The Terra Cotta Warriors were unsurprisingly unremarkable. The train ride there was fun, the train ride back was not so fun (1 leg is 13 hoursish). Then for my birthday on tuesday we went out to karaoke again (this time at a much more sketchy place that may or may not have been serving up the fake alcohol, as we listened to synthesizer music and sang our hearts out.

Hmmm other than that...my mom's in town. My dad and sister are coming soon. I'm tiiiired from going out LAST night and I may or may not go out again tonight because let's face it, you can sleep anytime but the party just isn't the same on a monday night.

Then again, I'm about to pass out. We'll see.

Today I came very close to listening to traditional Chinese music. But I was too tired so I came back to the dorm. For me, that's a close brush with enrichment. I also ate at Peter's Tex-Mex over near the embassies twice today, it's a long story. I walked the entire length of every road in Beijing (or at least it feels that way).

OK bedtime. Nooooo party for the Liz tonight. Perhaps tomorrow early. We shall see.

Oh, and everyone who lives in Wudaokou (the student-y part of Beijing) is a douchebag, or at least every study abroad student there. Yeah, not to generalize or anything...

and that's Beijing in a nutshell!

PS I'm too lazy to put up pictures

2006-03-14T02:28:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry but this post has nothing to do with China. It does, however, have something to do with modern Japanese fiction.

So if you are a fan, sorry, but I'm about to offend you with what is probably my cultural shortsightedness.

I am not a fan.

Given, my only experience with Japanese fiction to date is South of the Border, West of the Sun, by a person who is arguably Japan's most famous modern author, Haruki Murakami. It actually makes me sick up a little when I read all the glowing reviews on amazon.com of how touching and riveting this novel is. Gag me with a fuckin spoon. The main character does nothing but hurt people all his life, buy things, make money, and cheat on his wife. And we're supposed to empathize with him? I read one review in which the author felt like Hajime (the aforementioned main character) was his Japanese twin. I'm sorry, but if you resemble Hajime that much, you lead a shallow, vapid life completely devoid of worth.

What is so shocking, however, is the number and intensity of the positive reviews. Maybe I'm missing something, but it's my personal belief that a life in which consumerism and self gratification displace all social responsibility needs rethinking.

However, a friend of mine recently suggested I should give his Kafka on the Shore a try. I am tempted to assume that this is just going to be another self-indulgent, overwritten exercise in the justification of spoiled middle aged men's midlife crises, but she mentioned that this book's characters are not completely static. So, I will give it a try and report back -- hope everything is going swimmingly in the States.

Peace!

2006-03-07T02:05:00.000-05:00

So, every monday and tuesday I have a class called 一对一 which more or less means one-on-one. It's me and a teacher talking about pretty much whatever I want. Today I chose gender equality, which made for a very interesting question. My teacher's viewpoint was "eh, 已经差不多平等" which means "eh, already pretty equal". My viewpoint, rendered (poorly) into Chinese involved a conspiracy theory among major entertainment industries and continued exploitation of women by men. I said something like, "在全世界上还存在着一个特别特别大的问题“ Which was like "I think the whole world still has an incredibly large problem." She was willing to concede that in some rural villages there was a problem with female infanticide. I don't think I really got across my main points because I still don't know words like "praxis", "patriarchy", or "inertia", but rest assured I will try my hardest to get up to speed. She was, I believe, slightly ammused at my zealousness and I'm sure thinks I'm a loon because if someone told me something like this a few years ago I woulda thought em a loon too. But people change. Hopefully as my Chinese gets better I can get my points across. We shall see.

2006-03-06T05:59:00.000-05:00

Heeeeeey all

Sorry no post in a while, life's been busy. I've had a nice time learning useful words these past few days and this weekend was pretty fun as well. I went home with my roommate to meet her mom and dad, and the next day finally went to the doctor about my cold (which turned out to be a bacterial sinus infection).

This week I have big plans! First and foremost is to stay on top of my studies (of course) and second is to see some kickass live music. A band you can check out on iTunes called Hang on the Box is gonna be playing in two different locations, once on Thursday and once on Saturday. I'm super excited and hyped because I have their album and they basically rock.

I will update later this week with pictures from that, but for today I just have a small blurb about Beijing -- today I decided I would go out alone and check out Xidan, a pretty large shopping area near the center of Beijing. I took the subway and brought along my iPod -- a lot of fun. Although, I was about the only 外国人 (that's foreigner) I saw. Sometimes it can be bothersome to have people stare at you all the time, but it's nothing you can change so I try not to care. Though I am going to the hair salon soon, maybe I should dye my hair black...I'll let ya know.

PEACE

2006-02-26T06:18:00.000-05:00

OK, so this isn't a Beijing post, this is a Liz post.

Today was probably my least favorite day so far. I didn't get enough sleep, I felt like I was coming down with something, it was cold and grey and the air was barely breathable. So it was a pretty bad decision, I guess to trek it out with my friends who were heading out to do some hardcore shopping.

About halfway through I went from a can-do spirit to a fairly cranky, hungry, tired, and ill-feeling mode. It took forever to walk from the shops (where we haggled for hours) to the restaurant (that wasn't even that good). To top it all off, it took an act of God to get the woman in the Kodak store to give me two 2 inch by 2 inch pictures (which I urgently needed to get my resident alien permit in Beijing).

While getting the pictures, it became apparent to her that my hair had frizzed out in a few places. So, of course, naturally, she started to photoshop me back to beautiful. Now, of course this is China, so it's irrational for me to really care about this, but I did anyway because photoshopping that kind of picture back home is definitely a felony. At this point I felt like there were two options, getting pissed off and quit caring. So I did something very American. While waiting for the photos to print I walked over to the Moscow Bakery and bought these babies:

That's right. Mousse and (the best) cheesecake (I've ever eaten). Oh, and two croissants. For a total of less than 2 American dollars.

Then I treated my three friends to a three or four minute cabride (1.25 American) and we got out, and now I am doing nothing, relaxing, and letting things slide.

Now, probably isn't the healthiest thing mentally to eat whenever I start to miss home / get frustrated with things I'm not accustomed to / etc, but it sure is the tastiest, and it seems to have worked today. I'll probably still come down with something but I feel good about today now.

Peace out boos -- hope your lives are going SWIMMINGLY.

2006-02-20T23:06:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows that if you leave a box of Pocky open for more than a day, the contents will get mushy and stale. How everyone knows this, however, is a mystery, because never in the history of Pocky has a box been open without its contents being immediately devoured. It's just one of those things. Like pringles or peanuts. You can't eat just one.

Case and point, I opened a box and said to myself...one. Perhaps two.

But now, approximately 3 minutes after said thought, no more Pocky.

They should really think about making smaller boxes...

2006-02-17T00:42:00.000-05:00

Another post, just one picture this time -- completely forgot to include this one, which really belongs with the entry "Cute Stuff". But here it is anyway, my beautiful cellphone (shouji) with Chinese and English textmessaging capability. The little red thing is a 2008 Olympics souvineer given to me by my (awesome) roommate.

2006-02-16T07:59:00.000-05:00

可爱的东西

Otherwise titled: Cute Stuff!

This entry I devote to my unyielding pursuit of the cutest stuff in Beijing. Exhibit A:

This is quite possibly the cutest laundry thing ever to harbor previously worn garmets. Even if I never had dirty clothes, even if I was really rich and stupid and only wore clothes once before throwing them away, I would keep this laundry hamper. Because I do not think, now that I have found it, I can ever let it go.

And now Exhibit B:

Not quite as cute, but still 可爱 (literally "could love"). The second hand is actually a little monkey head spinning in a circle. Wow. Could it be cuter? I think not.

Last, but not least, Exhibit C:

Today was Jason's birthday (everyone say "happy birthday Jason!") so some of our friends bought him a cake. The words on the box, though heartfelt, are perhaps a little misspoken.

That's it for today's episode of "Liz Does Beijing"

Tune in next time for "曹丽买的东西没有用，可是太可爱。他浪费太多钱。" Or "The Stuff Liz buys has no use, but is extremely cute. She wastes too much money."

Zai jian!

2006-02-13T02:22:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's air quality was pretty bad, but not for the usual reasons. As many of you know, yesterday was the last day of the Chinese New Year, and thus the last day it was legal in Beijing to set off fire works (or, as we say here, FANG PAO!). So while I and some fellow students were eating at a Xinjiang restaurant (Xinjiang is a region in the far west part of China that has a large muslim minority, their culture is closer to Turkey's than China's) we looked out the window and watched fireworks.

It was actually kind of reminescent of Israel, or perhaps Afghanistan circa 2002, as some of my comrades pointed out. As we walked home we had to be careful to watch for extremely loud and ubiquitous noisemakers as well as sparklers, cracklers, and more high powered ammunition. But we decided in the spirit of celebration, that we too would partake.

This is kind of a sparkler, except a little bit more of a live one. This is to American sparklers as a bobcat is to a housecat, I suppose.

So we bought some pretty highpowered stuff of our own. This is the wonderful Jason, one of my UNC/CET friends, holding it pre-FANG PAO

And of course, setting it off!

I forgot to mention earlier, this is one of the most fun parts of the evening. In China, sometimes big public spaces have gatherings of people who do kind of a line dance. It's really cool to watch hundreds of people dance the same dance pretty well. They're also pretty aerobic type dances, so they're very good for your health. I danced a few of em myself and had loads of fun.

Zai jian wo de peng you!

2006-02-10T08:55:00.000-05:00

My first entry in China! It's been a few days but I've been busy settling in and seeing the neighborhood. For those of you who don't know, I'm in northwest Beijing studying Chinese through CET. I'm a bit far from the city center but not too far distant from the subway. I've been having fun just getting oriented and meeting people. My roommate hasn't showed up yet, but I'm sure she'll be cool too. So for now, here's just a little blurb and some shots of the place:

The boondocks of Beijing
The bed
The view into the room
My desk area

2006-01-25T09:34:00.000-05:00

These past few days I've had difficulty sleeping in. On the scale of problems that affect this world, that's probably not up there with tuberculosis or anything, but it's been bothering me because it's not a problem I've ever had before.

Not being able to get to sleep -- another story. A problem I've had before but am not having now (I've caught myself passing out in the middle of the Colbert Report or Daily Show).

There are a few possible solutions. One is prescription medication, an avenue that will probably solve my problem for a while but will ruin my life and make me an insomniac by the time I'm 30, by which point Law and Order SVU will probably be cancelled and TV wont even be worth watching anymore.

The second option is for me to stop complaining. Which is kind of a hassle, and difficult, and contrary to my desires. So I'm not gonna do it.

There is no third option, so I guess my problem is official unsolvable. I'm afflicted, it's official.

Peace.

2006-01-23T10:35:00.000-05:00

Heeeeeey

back from Haiti where I'm sure you all missed my glorious accountings of life. Now I'm in the hill doing pretty much nothing but watch reruns of my favorite tv shows and seeing people. The past few days have been full of great times with friends and hopefully I will get to see everyone in the next few days. These days are your last chance. After this I'm going home, and after home, I'm going to China.

China!

So you better visit soon.

2006-01-08T14:45:00.000-05:00

I just got back from the mountains, and I really am starting to appreciate Waynesville. I'm definitely not a small town person, but for a small town it's got a lot of pluses: a coffee shop with free wireless, a place for good burgers, a movie theater, a Wendy's, a few bookstores, and a close proximity to Asheville (actually that's what I care about most).

We had a pretty good time just hanging out, but we also watched March of the Penguins, Wedding Crashers, and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'd already seen them, but I especially enjoyed watching Wedding Crashers again because, what a hilarious movie. We did some ice skating, went to bookstores, ate good food, built a fire and had hot chocolate, and had some nice long conversations about various important topics.

Govy buddy trips are pretty much triannually essential. Which is sad because I'll be gone for the summer trip :(. But I'm not gonna get on that plane without seeing everyone first.

So, see you in the not too distant future, friends.

2006-01-04T21:10:00.000-05:00

Instead of finishing Mountains beyond Mountains, the Tao Te-Ching, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down or even Ballet Shoes, I have spent the entirety of today on Wikipedia.

Which isn't a waste at all, but I really should do more reading. I don't wanna take too many of these with me on the plane, as I'd like to leave room in my luggage and time for watching all of the in-flight movies.

But for serious, even if I get through with these I have a hefty list left. It all stems from my quest to learn as much as I possibly can about travel abroad, China (Beijing specifically) and Haiti before I leave. I'm not putting money on my own success...

Or ability to get sleep/rest/peace.

However -- looking forward to seeing my govy school buddies tomorrow!
Peace

2006-01-02T21:07:00.000-05:00

So, had the worst headache ever in the history of mankind today. Seriously hell-born. But thanks to the joys of modern medicine (read: painkillers) am feeling fine now.

A trip to the bookstore didn't hurt either.

2006-01-02T13:34:00.000-05:00

Oh gosh, I'm having trouble with my blog. Double-posting and having errors. Ew.

I think I'm just gonna put it on hold until Feb 7th, when it becomes LE TRAVEL BLOG!

Peace

2006-01-01T18:22:00.000-05:00

My entire face hurts :(

I can say with absolute certainty I'm never having my wisdom teeth taken out again.

2005-12-30T09:31:00.000-05:00

Got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday and wooooo buddy, they were not kidding when they said the sedation would linger in your system. I've been groggy or sleeping since I got out of the operation and my greatest feat so far has been eating a scrambled egg and small bowl of grits.

All I remember from the operation was him saying "this'll just be a little mosquito bite..." then a few seconds later I giggled because the happy gas was kicking in. He said "now we got her...you must've thought of something funny huh?" And I said "mmhmm..." and blacked out.

I woke up and saw the nurse and my dad. Apparently my first question was "Is Howard Stern on XM Radio?" Which they took a while to get because it sounded more like "ih howha stah ah eh mm rahdoh?" Then of course I got some funny looks, along with the wheel chair escort to the car.

When I got home my first course of action was to try to drink some cold water, which prompted sudden and excruciating pain. Then I took one of the prescription pain relievers. I forget the name, but I do remember from the bottle that "it may be habit forming". And buddy I can believe that. It removed all the pain, but left me feeling very, very sleey and with impaired motor skills. That, combined with the numbness in my lower jaw made any of my attempts to eat or drink a sight to see.

The day progressed as we watched a bunch of tv movies and played video games poorly (we bought a PS2 yesterday from Christmas money).

I've slept a good deal and woke up this morning to go get some breakfast (which resulted in the consumption of one glass of water, one small bowl of grits, a scrambled egg, and a cup of tea, can you say WOW?). Now I'm just chillin...probably writing so much because of the leftover meds in my system...enjoy your days...see you maybe...peace!

2005-12-27T23:43:00.000-05:00

It's official. Ebert and Roeper know nothing.

They gave A Series of Unfortunate Events two thumbs down! I thought they gave every shitty film you see advertised two thumbs up.

I only stumbled accross this information because I have become obsessed with Wikipedia.

Expect nothing of interest anytime soon. Break is glorious and restful and I've had other things to do.

But I still <3 you all!

Peace

2005-12-15T23:46:00.000-05:00

I'd like to apologize about my post about Iran -- after talking with Sarah Shields about it I discovered, contrary to the article, that the president of Iran apparently never said the holocaust didn't happen, or even imply that it didn't happen. The sentence was more like "since the holocaust happened, why not..." but the translated version that appeared in presses was "if the holocaust happened, why not..."

So, yeah. I can't promise next time I'll read it in the original language or anything, but I'll be more careful. Happy holidays everyone!

2005-12-15T17:42:00.000-05:00

Look! You can make snowflakes!

I made one, but it's kinda disappointing. It looks like an evil guy face. I must just really suck at this...

2005-12-15T15:57:00.000-05:00

My econ exam is over so now I have time to do all the things that I put off for about the 72 hours before it, from cleaning my room to studying for my two remaining exams to having a life.

The absence of any significant stress means that now I'm thinking a lot more about break, and all the many fun and relaxing things I'll be able to do for the approx. 2 months I'm home. I plan to visit as many friends, eat as much good food, read as many good books, take as many baths, and sleep in as late as humanly possible. I'll also be getting my wisdom teeth taken out, so I can count on a couple of those days being narcoticly induced comas, which are relaxing in their own ways.

If you're in Charlotte over break give me a call, I'll be around til Februrary. My goal for this break is to find fun things to do in Charlotte besides movies, ddr, and bookstores. Maybe I'll even explore downtown (GASP).

Good luck on everyone's exams and have a spectacular break, filled with Christmas cheer (remember, "everytime you say 'happy holidays' an angel gets AIDS"). Peace out.

2005-12-14T15:06:00.000-05:00

Ok, it's one thing to be mad that the zionist movement has done some harm to Palestinians. It's another to say the Holocaust didn't happen, which is just what Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done in this article.

I mean, how can you be that one-sided? People aren't totally evil, people are not totally good. Furthermore, no particular social group is 100% homogeneous. The vast majority of Arabs are not terrorists. The vast majority of Israelis are not terrorists either. People want peace, and happiness, and freedom to raise their children without the threat of violence. But these extremists' minds don't seem to function unless they can fit everyone into a box -- "good" or "bad", "guilty" or "innocent".

There is no excuse for Iran's friday prayers to be "punctuated with 'Death to Israel and Death to the US'."

And there is no excuse for not believing the Holocaust happened.

There is also no excuse for fighting fire with fire in this case -- labels of "bad" and "good" may be tempting but those who have the responsibility of leading countries should exercise wisdom and caution. This man is very confused, and playing a political game of his own -- to increase his own legitimacy by riling up anti-US and anti-Israel sentiment. We should find a way to defuse this situation. If we can put men on the moon...

2005-12-11T20:20:00.000-05:00

I don't know why I was just thinking about this, but I really hate existentialist literature. I mean, it doesn't matter how good the writer is -- Joseph Conrad, Muramaki, Camus: whatever, I just can't get into it. I guess it just irks me that some people think it's totally ok to be all about yourself.

Wake up people! This is a community! You can wander off on your own and find yourself, but it's expected that you come back to the fold at some point.

The only reason this comes to mind is that Amazon.com recommends that I read Muramaki.

Gag me with a spoon.

2005-12-06T19:38:00.000-05:00

OH MY GOD TWO UPDATES IN TWO DAYS!!!!

But just to tell you to pick up a copy of East Wind.

(I wrote an article about Tibet).

And I think Diaspora is floating around somewhere, leastaways thats what they tell me. Theres another article by yours truly on child marriages (how depressing).

If you don't go to UNC, these tasks will be a little harder for you...but then, what kind of friend wouldn't travel a few hundred miles to peruse a magazine for a friend?

2005-12-05T00:31:00.000-05:00

Now's about the time the work starts getting tough. And when that time rolls around, it becomes clear to me that I do not blog enough, or keep abreast of the news, or sharpen my mind with sudoku and crosswords.

I have also been passing the precious time reading a book called My Sister's Keeper, about a 13 yr old girl who files for medical emancipation so she doesn't have to give her sister a kidney (actually I'm pretty into this book now).

Soooooo, there's about 25 pages total due sometime this week and next monday. And a presentation about my family in Chinese.

And of course I have to find out whether this girl gives her sister the kidney. And blog....

2005-11-29T19:44:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you just don't care about anything. It's a bad feeling, because then you lose the anticipation of the next moment, and that's important. Or so it should be.

Then the things you ask questions about, or maybe write posts about, you just can't write about anymore. Also, all of your sentences become declaratory statements even though they should be questions. You are asking yourself why and how, but you just don't have have any feeling behind them -- thus the loss of the question mark.

So, questions, I guess what I'm trying to say is, theres answers out there, and I'm going to look into finding them...later.

Right now I'm going to blow off work and do some fun reading, maybe I'll start giving a damn about any old thing in a minute.

2005-11-25T15:56:00.000-05:00

I'm not gonna lie.

Thanksgiving break is frickin amazing.

I haven't slept/eaten/relaxed/video gamed/read GOOD books/etc this much in AGES. I feel years younger. Like 10 years. So I guess I feel like I'm 9 years old.

I just need something to take my mind off of the hell week that's gonna happen once I get back.

That something will be Mexican food....

2005-11-21T17:39:00.000-05:00

Schoolwork is all well and good, but sometimes I feel like I'm going to burst unless I read something for pleasure. Which is why, instead of reading a scholarly article about postmodernism and changing social practices in urban China, I'm reading Foreign Babes in Beijing, a book that is (somewhat disappointingly) nowhere near as scandalous as it sounds.

It's written by a woman whose father was a professor of Chinese culture at UChicago, so she knows a bit more than the average tourist. And it's set a while back when Westerners in Beijing stuck out a lot more. The title comes from the name of the primetime soap opera she starred in. I mean, I could go on, but it's pretty much the best thing ever.

Other than that I cleaned Davis out of Bei Dao stuff, and have been reading some of that when I should be working.

I plan on eventually finishing my work though, and since tomorrow is the last day of my classes before break, I'm looking forward about 21 hours to FREEDOM.

I'll be a'ridin that train off into the sunset, off into the sunset, towards home.

2005-11-20T12:56:00.000-05:00

So I'm writing an article about Tibet for UNC's magazine on Asia, East Wind. And it was going fine, until they gave it back and said I needed to find quotes from people one either side of the argument.

Now, it's easy enough to find someone who wants Tibet to be free. I IMed two people and they immediately fell on that side of the fence. But who wants China to control Tibet? All I get when I ask that question is a bunch of metaphorical crickets.

I feel bad because the article isn't balanced. But I also feel like, to balance it I'd have to go over and ask someone in China.

Which you know, I'm not doing for another few months.

2005-11-14T01:26:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the Daily Show, I'm almost glad the weekend is over. But not quite.

Other things to look forward to this week:
Learn all about Beijing program
Lunch at UCIS
Passport renewal
a Connor Dinner
and, last but not least, HARRY POTTER

:) Believe me there will be an entry tuesday about the Beijing program. I'm hyper excited / deathly curious.

Peace out.

2005-11-10T23:17:00.000-05:00

"Christian Science CPR class"

The Daily Show is inspired.

2005-11-09T21:43:00.000-05:00

So, call me paranoid, but I have a search function on my Google News page that tracks news on the military draft. And an article came up talking about how the military is really representative of America, in terms of everything from race to household income.

OK, wrong. First of all, the data used was not that of the individual soldiers, but of their neighborhoods. A reason why this might be bad data to use is obvious: those who make lower than the average of their neighborhood feel more underprivileged, more likely to take up the enticing monetary rewards the army offers.

This article also makes the claim that recruiters don't recruit more heavily in areas that are largely poor, black, and urban. It supplies no evidence for this claim, and since the one making the initial argument has the burden of proof, I'll let this one collapse on its own.

All of the analysis of data is done by the Heritage Foundation, so they're free to pick and choose the numbers that work best for them. None of the analysis is done by an outside, unbiased source. I'll just throw out a couple of articles with some relevant numbers

"Racial Divide Evident in Military"

"Military Recruiters Target Isolated, Depressed Areas"

That's right. And if you seen the military recruitment ads recently...there's no question. Something is wrong.

2005-11-04T16:45:00.000-05:00

I'm so sick of talking about exercising! For like the past two weeks that's what we've been doing in Chinese class, and let me tell you, I'm over it.

Now, you may know that I sometimes exercise. There are things I enjoy in small doses -- tennis, um, tennis...chess and ping pong? Billiards? Walking is also enjoyable. But I don't like jogging and I don't like swimming, at least not when the objective is to make yourself "feel the burn". If I wanted to "feel the burn", I would set myself on fire. As many of you may have deduced by now from my uncharred skin and relatively normal body temperature, that is not something I regularly do.

However, in preparation for Beijing (causeI'mstillreallyexcitedandcan'tstopmentioningit), I will do a little bit of the exercise, yundong if you will. Spending some time in Southeast Asia has taught me that the general Eastern philosophy of body is "be as thin as possible." And while it's not usually my practice to cave to peer pressure like this...I'll make an exception this time. Hard enough being away from friends and family without being told you're chubby, ya know?

So I'm gonna start going to the SRC...tomorrow.

2005-11-02T00:46:00.000-05:00

There is a quote, often misattributed to DeTocqueville, that came to mind today:

"America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great."

I thought about this while reading up for my class on Post-Mao Urban Culture in China. The readings were about post-modernism, the rise of consumerism, the parades of simulacrum and what this meant for society.

To be brief, I had a moment of sadness about America. I've been all over the map emotionally speaking, from a burning patriot to an ashamed citizen, back and forth. On the one hand, I've always loved America, and the pure idea of America, but on the other hand I despise the rhetoric and self-serving politics. I feel that America can and has done great things, but it could do much greater -- and isn't that inaction reprehensible?

Yet even while we dump subsidized rice on an impoverished nation that cannot compete and call it charity, we project the image of a veritable Superman. We empower harsh dictators in countries all over the world to protect our own economic interests. We stand by while nations commit atrocious human rights violations, and even worse, we commit them ourselves.

How can we still claim to be America the beautiful when we squander our greatest assets, our founding principles?

This is where the postmodern theory comes in -- there are three of the four types of simulacrum, or images

The first is a reflection of basic reality. (I would most like this to be true of America)

The second is that it masks and perverts a basic reality. (I fear this is true of America)

The third is that it masks the absence of a basic reality. (What if the America I love never was?)

America might have become like Disney World, a prime example of the second kind of simulacrum. Disney World America has all the trappings and discorse of a perfect world, while in reality it serves souless corporate interests and marginalizes minorities of all kinds (from racial to ideological).

Yet even writing this does not make me stop loving America. There's nowhere else I'd rather be right now, or twenty years from now. But because I really love America, I'm not going to settle for what it is, I demand what it could be.

(Please excuse my self-righteousness, I tend to get carried away.)

This is a call to politicians of all persuasions -- I don't care if you use every tactic and loophole you know, as long as you don't feign a moral outrage you don't feel. Everyone uses the same tools, tricks, and funny rules to get what they want. I also think now would be a good time to stop capitalizing on your audience's ignorance. Have a spine for once and bring up issues instead of sound bytes.

The last thing we need is more confusion. The closer we can get to making rhetoric a reflection of reality, the better. I'm not asking for perfection here, but maybe we could start moving in that direction.

Yours Truly,
A Concerned Citizen

2005-11-01T00:13:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, Halloween. The holiday where everyone at UNC dresses up, goes to Franklin, and comes back wondering why they went in the first place. Me, I was a planeteer. What's that, you ask? Well let me tell you --

A planeteer is someone who helps save the earth ("we're the planeteers / and you can be one too / cause saving our planet / is the thing to do"). In my case, I was Linka the Wind planeteer. My job was to keep polluters from sullying the air around us.

If I do say so, I did a hell of a job.

I just hope everyone's Halloween was as fun as mine...now it's time to say goodbye to the 31st and hello to November. Peace out, my friends

2005-10-26T23:54:00.000-04:00

So, I don't usually brag but....

I GOT THE JONES

APPAREL GROUP

HONORS ASIAN STUDIES

FELLOWSHIP!!!

Which means (for all of my stalkers) I'll be in Beijing from mid-February to June or July. Learning, learning, LEARNING Chinese, and then having an internship!

I'm soooooo excited. I mean, yeah, I'm sure you could tell. But just so you guys know.

:)

2005-10-22T21:09:00.000-04:00

I was perusing the shelves of Borders today with my dad when I came across a book in the 3 for the price of 2 section by Haruki Muramaki. Now, apparently this guy is the most reknown novelist in Japan, but I'm not a fan. I read one of his books, South of the Border, West of the Sun, while I was on a plane from Singapore to Bangkok, and I was not impressed.

First off, it's very existential. This novel (and apparently a lot of his) are about dissolving relationships, affairs, only children, and an amoral consumeristic world. None of that really strikes me as appealing.

Furthermore, a hero who cheats on his wife does not fit well into my vision of the perfect book. What happens in other families is none of my business, but if a man cheats on me, he better not expect supper at the table by 6. In fact, he better not expect a lot of things, including the freedom from having objects flying at his head.

OK, rant over. I bought Billy Collins' new book of poetry and a novel called China Wakes.

PEACE OUT

2005-10-21T23:43:00.000-04:00

What uuuuuuuuuuuup!

Back in Charlotte, and seriously I love my family but this town is lacking in a certain indistinct quality I like to call "fun".

Several fun things that have happened thusfar:

1) Sleepage. Enough said.
2) Sudoku with my mother for hooooouuuuuuuurs
3) MONK WATCHING as a family
4) good old Carter Family Singalongs, which usually start with a bad Destiny's Child song and make their way to some hymn or maybe Stevie Wonder song
5) MY AMAZING CAT PANDA

Totally unrelated

I don't like Bill Maher. Sorry guys. He's just really offensive when he talks about religion. But this quote..."New rule. Sylvester Stallone can't make a new Rocky movie unless it's called Rocky Dies"

It's funny.

And really, another candid confession -- I actually liked Bush's speech at the inauguration at the Reagan Air Force One thing, until he segwayed into "They Hate Us For Our Freedom".

More later guys. I have actual work (gasp). Not that I'm doing right now, but you know, I'd like to pretend.

Shalom!

2005-10-17T16:19:00.000-04:00

My work for the next few days is done so I am basically coasting. It's a good and unfamiliar feeling.

The weather is nice, I am in good health, and have quality food and housing. Also, I am ditching all of you for a nice quilt on the quad outside.

There is no quality entry this week because the number and quality of my entries are inversely proportional to the quality of my life.

:)

2005-10-15T21:31:00.000-04:00

Just look down and see how high I score on "darkness". Basically I'm Voldemort.

the Wit
(66% dark, 26% spontaneous, 15% vulgar)

your humor style:
CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK

You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're
probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean pretentious. You
realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons'
philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most
other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat.

I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer.

Your sense of humor takes the most thought to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion.

You probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm
talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/.

PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais

The 3-Variable Funny Test!

- it rules -

If you're interested, try my latest:
The Terrorism Test

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 91% on darkness
You scored higher than 5% on spontaneity
You scored higher than 3% on vulgarity

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

2005-10-14T14:00:00.000-04:00

BLACK HOLES CREATE STARS

I don't know about you guys, but I think that's pretty awesome.

2005-10-13T23:55:00.000-04:00

Movie review time!

So, I watched Saved for about the eighth time today, and I only have one thing to say.

Diminishing marginal returns? Please. We have so not reached the equilibrium number of watchings yet.

Saved is one of those movies that just gets better every time you watch it. From a theological standpoint it falls against the doctrine that every word of the Bible is divinely inspired by God. I agree because I think it's impossible to expect man's actions to be perfect. It's not as if Jesus wrote the Bible -- that might have been a different situation. This is really about the early Christian movement in Greece, writing sometimes hundreds of years later.

It also comes down really hard against things that almost every form of Christianity opposes, but for some reason keep cropping up -- shallowness, judgementalism, egotism, and a lack of compassion.

Just wanna give a brief ad to the Methodist Church -- we believe in acceptance, service, and reasoned readings of the Bible. And I don't know how to say this but...we're kind of a big deal.

Not to say that there aren't flaws there too -- just, you know. Less.

Anyway, the movie -- I give it an A+ -- I definitely recommend!

Peace

out

2005-10-11T00:31:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I randomly flipped to CNN and they were doing a bit about how a lot of displaced 9th-warders believed that the flooding was partially due to a conspiracy theory. And while I do believe that is unfortunate, and while I don't believe there was a conspiracy theory, I'm a little disappointed with CNN.

One woman interviewed thought Al Qaeda was a person, not an organization. One man thought that the government was out to kill poor black people just for the sake of killing poor black people. Sure, it's a little strange to think that there was a conspiracy, but there's no need to seek out the most ignorant and use them as examples of an entire group of people

I'll give you a better angle to this story -- Ninth Warders, neglected for years and shortchanged on virtually all fronts, encounter tragedy when underfunded levees break and flood waters destroy their homes. Upset, confused, and devestated, they believe that perhaps it wasn't just the hurricaine that did them in.

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist myself, but perhaps there was some reason why they ran this bit right now. They might've wanted to cool talk about race relations in New Orleans because of the three white police officers who beat up that elderly man when, turns out, he wasn't even drunk. They did this by discrediting the people who would raise the most hell -- black residents or displaced residents of New Orleans.

But maybe that's just my opinion.

2005-10-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

Don't really know where to start...

Vance Aycock is always a good time -- albiet beset on all sides with creepy old men and other such dangers.

The weekend started off with me sleeping right through the OCDP Legislative Breakfast, waking up (luckily) just in time to leave for Vance Aycock.

What a day! The highlight of the night was either the main address given by Senator Max Cleland at dinner or Brian dancing and singing the Black Eyed Peas song "My Humps" outside of the hospitality suite.

But as much fun as this weekend was, it's nice to be back in good ol' Connor. I'll sleep about 12 hours, drink some orange juice and maybe crank out a better entry later

Peace out!

2005-10-06T00:55:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, when you hear things, don't you just wish you didn't hear them? Or maybe someone gives you a little too much information, you wish you had a rewind/override button. If you get this feeling a lot, now is pretty much the time for you to stop reading.

Personally, I don't get this feeling often, I generally prefer knowing, but even my less-than-Victorian sensibilities were violated today when my teacher for Post-Mao Urban Culture told me the picture on the screen, which appeared to be baby food, was actually the brains of aborted fetuses.

And yes, now all of you are probably incredibly mad at me, wishing either that you could go back in time and not read, or go back in time and make sure that I was never born. And yes, coming back to the unborn is probably not giving you a positive mental image at this point. Anyway, you have no one to blame but yourselves. I warned you.

Speaking of warnings, wtf? A warning, in this situation, is nothing but a convenience for the person doing the telling. It happens when the person doing the telling wants to tell the other person something, even if he or she knows that the other person will regret hearing it. It puts the burden on someone who usually doesn't know any better, while clearing of blame the person who does know better, but does stupid shit anyway. And by the way, the SAT word for that is "quixotic", meaning "prone to doing stupid shit."

And speaking of stupid shit, did Bush really say "a debris"?

Aye karamba!

2005-10-03T16:23:00.000-04:00

I know what you've been thinking. There hasn't been a post up here in a while. But let me just reassure you, I have not forgotten! I have simply had better things to do.

For starters, there was a small friday get together that ended rather late (approximately 5 am) and though I was in bed well before the sun rose, I had to get up at 7 to catch the train in Durham, becaaaaaaaaause....

...This Saturday was my mom's 50th birthday! Which was a blowout, kind of, with all sorts of yummy foods and people making jokes and speeches. The night ended with several tipsy old men throwing cushions at eachother and people of all ages and sobriety levels dancing to 70's funk as they helped clean up the room.

The next day was church, which I like, and driving the 3 hours back to the Hill, which I'm not a huge fan of. Then there was exec, and a Connor Family Dinner! These dinners are extra special times of love, sharing, and of course, baseless ridicule.

After that was a lot of having fun and generally avoiding work, followed by a brief attempt at said work work, then some more fun and then some sleep.

I dragged myself out of bed this morning at 11:30, Pit sat at 12, and went to class at 1.

I love my life.

2005-09-27T20:38:00.000-04:00

Occasionally, amid every that goes on with classes and clubs, I will find I have twenty minutes to myself. I usually spend it wisely doing nothing or staring at the wall, but every so often I'll be near my computer and then my first move is wikipedia.

Ever wondered about the immigration patterns of the English and Irish in the past few centuries? Or how about what your grandmother's maiden name meant? Or maybe you were wondering who decided which letters to put where on your standard keyboard. About all these things and more, I have satisfied my curiosity with wikipedia. Without it, I simply do not know how I would get by.

After I looked up some stats on Iceland today I went with Uzma to her 5:00 Psychology of Personality class (going to class is another fun way to waste time). It was about psychoneuroimmunology -- or something like that -- basically how your outlook on life can affect how you acquire and react to diseases.

I really like that class...the professor is awesome and a half. I'd take it, except I really don't have time, due to the whole 20 hours thing and the fact that I blog sometimes instead of buckling down and doing some work.

Speaking of work...

2005-09-24T22:53:00.000-04:00

So, I'm a little confused about what's up now with the Catholic Church banning homosexuals from the priesthood.

It seems here you have to make up your mind. If homosexuality is who you are, then how can it be a sin? If it is something you choose, then why is it wrong to choose to be a priest instead?

Prediction: if the Church goes ahead with this plan to screen out men with homosexual tendencies, it will drive people away from Catholicism, maybe Christianity in general. For a long time now, the Church has given those it says have a serious psychosexual disorder a chance to live a life sanctioned even by Catholic standards. But now even that door is shut. It's like saying someone will never be good enough, because they're black or blonde, or God forbid, gay.

And child abuse is so not an excuse. An estimated 90% of pedophiles are heterosexual. Maybe the Catholic Church should keep straight men out of the priesthood...

2005-09-23T16:32:00.000-04:00

Things That Have Caused Me To Feel Better Since Becoming Ill:

Getting A Letter To The Editor In The DTH
Cheez-its
Zithromax
Hydration
Panda Cam!
Sleep

Things That Just Haven't Been All That Helpful, I Mean Really:

The Long Walks To Bus Stops
Class
Bright Lights
The Conspicuous Lack Of Humidity In Connor Residence Hall

...but what I really mean to say is...

...Yaaaaaaaaaaaay weekend!

2005-09-21T23:36:00.000-04:00

Sick as dog.

Damn you, Integrated Chinese Textbook, Level One, Part Two, Lesson 16!

2005-09-19T16:09:00.000-04:00

I have a cold :(

Interesting enough, that's the unit we're doing in Chinese right now: going to see a doctor. I feel a little like someone is trying to tell me something. Especially when I am assigned sentences from the practice section of the book such as,

"Ni dei gan kuai chu kan yi sheng, yao bu ran ni de gan mao hui yue lai yue zhong"

which means

"You should go see a doctor right away, or else your cold will get more and more serious".

Yeah. Way to be subtle, God.

Not that it'll make me go to student health...I will just chi yao (take medicine) and shui jiao (sleep). Hopefully I'll resurface healthy...or, like the poor boy in my Chinese textbook...give in to my foolish hopes for a miracle and end up going to the doctor three days from now, in a coma.