Sunday, July 02, 2006

Europe - Time slips by too fast...read one of my business school essays!

So my trip is basically over. I'm on the plane back from Madrid to NYC. Madrid was an incredible place, not unlike Buenos Aires on many levels, but much cleaner and with (if possible) an even more buslting night scene. Or perhaps I simply didn't take advantage of my late mights in BsAs. However, this time I definitely took advantage, eating lunch around 2pm and then Tapas for dinner around 11pm each night and tucking myself into my comfortable bed around 2am. I'm proud of myself for being such a late-nighter when I was by myself. The madrid style of living is such a sharp contrast to Beijing, where if I wasn't home by 6:30pm my host family would have already eaten dinner! No joke, it happened a couple of times.
Anyway, I was also surprised how much I fell in love with Rome, which was probably the most expensive city on my trip after London. I guess what surprised me about Rome was how compact the city center really felt. It seemed like I couldn't go 10 steps without running into something very old, or at least that looked very old! Also I fell in love with the food in Rome. I felt like I couldn't eat anything that wasn't ridiculously awesome! HOWEVER, I did a random sampling of gelato in Rome and honestly I can't say that its difinitely better than in Argentina. I mean, c'mon they're both awesome, but the Buenos Aires helado to me was a little more insanely addictive, although in Rome I was able to have some rice-flavored gelato that was pretty amazing. Also I tried a real old-fashioned zabayonne, which blew my mind. I really need to watch out for daibetes! I take in so much sugar!
As for Prague/Budapest/Croatia, they were incredible and I miss them already. I had a chance to bond with both Kelly Stevens and my cousin Joyce, both of whom are awesome. I got kinda freaked out by traveling with other people after about two weeks, but then as soon as they left I missed them terribly. Hopefully I will see them in July when I'm finally back in Sunny CA.
Anyway, now I am faced with the depression that sets in for anyone who has spend siginificant time traveling and needs to face the reality of being back home, or in my case being back in NYC which isn't really home and is quite honestly a place that I literally turned my life upside-down in order to escape. But hopefully I will be able to have fun and I think my sticker shock post-China will be gone a bit now that I have been in Europe for a little while.
I distinctly remember having a conversation with Samidha in Buenos Aires when I went there in 2003. I had met up with Samidha there, and South America was the last leg of her massive 2-year trek around the globe. She was more depressed than I am about going home, but I remember trying to convince her that ordinary life is in itself a bit of an adventure. Making a new life for oneself and finding the things in every day that make us happy can be just as exciting as trekking around the world. At the time she seemed unconvinced, just as I am unconvinced now as I face the prospect of mundane domestic existence. At the same time I don't think I have shaken the bug that makes me want to live abroad again, or maybe even move away.
Anyway, I have decided to spoil you and let you read one of my business school essays. This one is to a certain Southern CA school that I am in love with, accepted me, and even offered me money to go there, but like a fool I declined and instead will be going to nerd school where I can learn better ways to come up for prices of things like securities. Anyway, I thought of this essay because one of my best friends Billy is getting married this weekend so I will see 4 of my best friends from high school together for the first time in about five years. Give it a read if you life...actually I might have already posted it, in which case give me a break...i can't keep track of everything!!
Please provide us with a summary of your personal and family background. Include information about your parents and siblings, where you grew up, and perhaps a highlight or special memory of your youth. (Limit to 2 pages.)
Our heroes stepped forth in the dark night and entered the field covered in fog so thick that five feet in any direction was completely invisible. Slowly, they noticed small shapes in the fog, and as they walked deeper into the field the true nature of these shapes became apparent: hundreds of fluffy, lop-eared bunnies crouched, munching on the green grass. Despite their lack of activity, the five boys all knew what would come next: Bunny stampede.
"NOW!!!!" The boys took-off running toward the herd at fully speed, instantly alerting the hundreds of bunnies of their presence. The stampede had begun.
This was a sight few would ever glimpse: the mad frenzy of hundreds of bunnies running in all directions through thick fog. Eventually the boys realized that they couldn’t actually catch these animals that were literally "quick like rabbits", so they went back to their cars and drove home. None of them would forget what they had seen that day and the lesson they had learned: if you see a story on the local news about five hundred escaped petting zoo bunnies living in a field next to the local elementary school, it presents an opportunity for at least one night’s adventure. I was one of those five boys, and that was a typical Friday night for my four closest high school friends and me in Huntington Beach, California.
My background was typical for the Orange County suburbs of the 1980s and 90s. My father was, like most Orange County dads at the time, an aerospace engineer. He had worked his way out of East L.A. poverty after moving back to the U.S. following World War II as a child. As a U.S. citizen during the war, he was distrusted by the local Japanese, and as an “F.O.B.” (“Fresh Off the Boat”) in post-War California, he was mocked by his English-speaking classmates. He put himself through UCLA for college and graduate school, and spent 35 years working for McDonnell Douglas before retiring in the late 1990s. My mother was the child of white Midwesterners of Dutch, Norwegian, and Irish descent who moved to California before the Great D epression. Her childhood was spent in the then ethnically diverse city of Compton. She attended Cal State Long Beach during the late 1960s as a full-fledged anti-war “hippy”, and worked as a computer programmer, florist, and high school math teacher before becoming a full-time housewife and raising my older sister and me. It wasn’t until I was in high school that she started teaching again full-time. Despite their 12-year age difference, interracial marriage, and contrasting religious backgrounds, my parents’ experience was typically “Californian”, and so was that of their two children.
My sister and I grew up sheltered behind the “Orange Curtain” that separates pedestrian Orange County from its interesting, cosmopolitan neighbor to the north. My sister, the only girl to play on our high school’s varsity water polo team, was also a member of the Huntington Beach Lady Republicans, her class salutatorian, and the first person from my high school to attend Caltech. Between the two children, she was the “good one” and appeased my parents’ ambition to have one child become an engineer. It was only after she left for college that she cut and dyed her hair (many times and many colors) and rejected her religious and conservative past. Years later she would quit her job with Applied Materials to move to Boston and work with homeless animals, finally achieving the personal satisfaction that had eluded her for years.
She may have been the “good one” growing up, but I was hardly a “bad kid”. Despite being lazy and unmotivated during elementary and middle school, I become obsessed with classical music and public affairs in high school. My parents’ greatest fear was that I would decide against professional life and university education and instead opt to become a classical musician. In reality, I wanted to be a lawyer. My friends and I didn’t drink, smoke, or do drugs, not because we were against them, but because the thought of trying simply never occurred to us. All of us were in “Band” and “Model UN” together, contributing to our already high collective nerd-factor, and I went to a summer band camp (yes, band camp) with one of them. We never noticed that we were five nerds in a city of surfers until after we all left home for college.
My friends, however, provided the one deviation from the typical sheltered existence of my youth. The field of bunnies was just one example of our creativity finding adventure in suburban life. Often, we would dress in business suits and “crash” events at the many hotels surrounding Disneyland. We crashed eight high school proms each, a casino night raising money for victims of head injuries, a convention for “co-dependents anonymous”, a national cheerleading competition, a giant 15th birthday for someone named Joyce Gore, and several sorority formals. Those adventures were some of the best experiences from my youth, and bonded the five of us for life.
My upbringing shaped me in countless ways. My parents’ combination of immigrant, eastern, western, Christian, Buddhist, defense contractor, and flower-child brought a variety of experience to our family that made me value diversity in every aspect of my life. My sister’s ambition and self-transformation challenged and inspired me to push myself, but not to take my identity for granted. Finally, my friends, their creativity, and their drive for new experiences inspire me to explore the world around me but also remind me that adventure exists in everyday life. Mine was a typically suburban, sheltered, and nerdy background, but it contributed in countless ways to who I am today, and I love it.

Eastern Europe...what's not to love?

Eastern Europe so far (basically 4 days in Prague and 1 day in Budapest) has definitely lived up to expectations. Beer is both cheap and good, wine is delicious, music has been plentiful, and the American tourists are a-plenty. If prague wasn't so big it would start to feel a bit like Solvang. Fortunately its large enough for one to realize that they're actually in Europe rather than a bizarre Euro-centric community in middle-California. This has been a week of many highs and lows.
Highs -
-Realizing that staying in apartments is WAY better and cheaper than staying in a hotel
-Listening to a woodwing sextet play "czech composer's greatest hits"
-Seeing beautiful people again after being in unattractive places for so long. Yes, the czechs are hot. I hear the croatians are even hotter. Sadly the only real czechs we saw were out cute little waitresses, but they were hot nonetheless
Lows
-Realizing that the Turkish delight I bought in budapest is nowhere near as good as the fresh stuff from down in bodrum...sigh
-Finishing "The Historian"...i was sad because I wanted it to go on forever!
-Further realizing just how cheap China was when paying $10 for a meal seems like highway robbery
So now the only crises in my life are the following. As usual advice would be appreciated:
1) Financial aid - I need to do the paperwork and get it started, but honestly who has the time?
2) Fat - I seem to be accumulating it, which bodes poorly for Billy's wedding in which I need to squeeze my ass back into my navy Joseph Abboud suit for a day. Gonna be tough.
3) Lodging/Ferry/Train - Due to a weirdness in my schedule I have 3 days to get my ass from Dubrovnik to Rome via ferry (8 hour) and train (4 hour) in order to catch my flight to madrid and subsequently to Spain. I need to figure out logistics, but right now I'm thinking 2 nights in southern Italy, 1 night in Roma, 2 nights in Madrid before my magic flight back to the motherland (USA).
4) NYC in June - For those of you there that I haven't seen since December, we must hang out! i"m planning 2 days in Washington DC, but otherwise I want to see people. Hit me up if interested or I might be hitting you (up that is)
5) Sunburn - I got a nasty one on my neck in turkey and now its peeling. SO GROSS. I haven't been this tan in years, and I realize now that I don't like it. Maybe i can make it disappear!
OK, thats all you get now. I finished the Historian and now I'm reading a book about ancient religions....

Budapest Wackyness

OK, so Budapest has been rainy as sh*t! We had a group of six folks today (Kelly, cousin Joyce, Mike - friend of Kelly's, Gillie - no idea how to spel, and Eve) and we wandered the Buda castle area IN THE RAIN this afternoon before ducking into the WACK-ASS Buda Castle labyrinth, which is this weird set of ancient tunnels under the castle + art installation that tries really hard to be "deep", which I of course hate. There was a point in which we were watching a video which was literally an ad or the labyrinth WHILE WE WERE IN IT, and I just couldn't stop laughing (i mean like ridiculous tears and heavy belly laughter) because the movie was so terrible. I was literally laughing AT the video.
So anyway, long story short we wandered through the rain all day and it sucked, but Budapest itself is really awesome. I feel like its part evil cousin to Paris, part evil twin to Vienna, part second cousin twice removed from Buenos Aires, and part kickass eastern-euro big city. This place is huge and I'm loving it. Also the Hungarians themselves are really diverse (for white people) and love spicy food! So of course I'm a fan.
I will have more to write, but long story short the trip keeps pluggin along. I can't believe that I'm so close to ending my "big trip". China feels like such a long time ago, although I feel more than before that I really miss it...I guess some things can be surprising....

Ruins and Book List

OK, two points on the agenda today:
1) Inane update on what I have been up to in Turkey
2) Inane update on which books I have been reading recently and solicitation (once again) for some books to put on the list
3) Update to my "global superfriends" list
1) Turkey
So I have been on the road with Quyen and Ishika, my former coworkers, along with Ishika's college friend Caroline. It has been soooo easy-peasy this time around. No "adventures" (read: massive screwups or problems), but at the same time few random ridiculous stories. We chilled in Istanbul, we chilled in Selcuk (in which we saw literally hundreds of dudes hanging out in cafes and on the street, but no women to be seen. I guess they are at home with the kids or out plowing the fields), and now we're chillin in Bodrum. Bodrum is exactly as we imagined a mediterranean resort town to look...its beautiful and seems laid back. We are all psyched. Plus it has been a long time since I got to spend more than 18-hours a day with Quyen and Ish, so this is like the "good ole days" at Citimonster. Turkish delight is actually insanely good, and turkish wine hasn't been horrible. So all in its not a bad gig.
2) Books List
So I have read some interesting books, but I'm on the lookout for new stuff to fill the days when I'm on the road by myself or flying around or on a train, so any recommendations would be helpful. Here's where I stand:
The Historian (Anna Kostova) - This historical/vampire novel is totally what I like. Its filled with fun facts about eastern europe, and ironically it has long chapters about Istanbul and Budapest, so its very timely for my current trip! I'm diggin it.
How to Be Good (Nick Hornby) - I just finished this, which I got from LIsa in XinJiang as we both tried to lighten out book load. I really dug this book too, but it made me depressed a little bit about all the things to look forward to in married life.
The Oracle (Manfredi, the guy who wrote the Alexander Trilogy) - This book was great from a history standpoint, but the book itself was a bit WACK and didn't really tie together in the end. I liked it, but only if you're a classical world buff or interested in that kinda thing. I bought this in the Hong Kong used bookstore, along with my China history book and my David Sedaris book which I haven't cracked open.
A Traveler's HIstory of China - This was a great read since I was IN Beijing, but it was written in 1997 so everything after like 1993 had to be ingnored because it just wasn't accurate. I would love to get my hands on the other "Traveler's History of" books, but I just don't think I can do so without the assistance of Amazon.com! Definitely a nice easy concise history of the last 2000 years in the goole ole middle kingdoms
Villa Incognito (Tom Robbins) - Kelly loaned me this book, but I left it in China (sorry!) so I owe her one. This was a fun little read and made me want to brush up on my Japanese folklore. I don't know if it makes me want to run out and read every Tom Robbins book though, or perhaps on in case of a book emergency!
I Lucifer (Glen Duncan) - I bought this because it was on sale in paperback and I had wanted to pick it up for a while. Actually I really loved it, especially all the references to Dante and Milton. It kinda reminded me of when Wendy gave me her abridged version of "Paradise Lost" while we sat in the Steinberg Deitrich lobby waiting for pizza some saturday back in college. Good times. I think Wendy would dig this book a lot, and I liked it too. Sadly I didn't get to do tea at the Ritz while in London, which is where a lot of shit goes down in this novel.
Foucault's Pendulum (Umberto Eco, yes I know I butchered the spelling) - This book took some WORK to get through, but fortunately I had an 18-hour busride in which I could really dig in. Once I got over all the intellectual namedropping and the funky sense of humor, this turned out to be an AWESOME book, the kind that makes you really think about life, history, humanity, and other cool shit. I don't know if I could ploy through another of these books though...
Anyway, any new recommendations would be totally helpful! PLEASE let me know!
3) Global superfriends
So I have a couple of new ones since I last posted the list:
Pierre KW (3)
Maryrose E (3)
Gerry F (3)
Matt C (3)
Rachel C (2)
Elaine L (2, and she was on before but I forgot to put her!)
Sharon P (2, not sure if I included her or not before)
Lisa M (2)
Quyen T (2)
Ishika M (2)
Min C (2)
Frances C (2)
David M (2)
I think thats it, but let me know if I forgot anyone!

Tukey-lurkey Time!

This is my third day in Turkey, and it is awesome! OK, its not as dirt cheap as I would have liked (its about as expensive as going to Canada...maybe a little bit cheaper, but sadly not as cheap as Australia was back when I lived there in 2002-2003. And maybe it isn't as pristine and clean as I would have liked, but there is something awesome about seeing buildings that are 1500 years old and MASSIVE. Also the people here seem super friendly and the weather has been great. Life is good. I'm traveling with my former Citi-monster coworkers Quyen and Ish, and it has been good times. Not as much beer/wine consumption as I might have been used to, but I'm in good shape. I still miss China, but I'm slowly getting used to life in the western world again! The craziest thing is that here in Istanbul there is the "European side" of the city on one side of the Bosphorus, and the "Asian side" on the other.
Anyway, I have posted my HK/Singapore/Malaysia pictures, and I was lucky enough to be able to spend 24 incredibly expensive hours in London. Somehow 90% of my Australian friends are currently in London, and it was really awesome being able to catch up with them. Definitely a good bunch of kids, so I was really happy, and now I feel like I want to spend some quality time in Europe! ACK! The world is too big but too small at the same time. So now my challenge is somehow optimizing the following:
1) Finding a job
2) Being someplace interesting and near friends
3) Oppotunities to travel
4) Trying to retain the Chinese I learned (and maybe the Spanish I learned)
5) Somehow managing to see my family
Any thoughts?

Penang - Land of my Dreams

OK, maybe not my normal dreams, but definitely my food dreams! Anyplace that combines Malay, Chinese and Indian foods so effectively with a heavy emphasis on spices is my kinda place! Last night I wandered through a hawker stall (best invention ever!) and enjoyed some delicous Laksa Ayam and PohPia (fresh spring rolls) along with Lychee drink! YUM!!!
Today was also fun, because I decided to skip all the temples and blah blah, instead choosing to go on a tour of an organic tropical fruit farm and a spice garden. The spice garden was a bit of a bust (except the random wild monkeys that I saw), but the fruit farm ROCKED! The guys were so excited about talking about fruit, and they loved to dish on the goings on in Penang. I took way too many pictures, and sadly probably won't remember the names of all the fruits, but in all it was a great day. Then I came back, schlepped around Georgetown in the sweaty heat, the came back to my hotel for the free cocktails provided by the club lounge (thanks expedia.com for hooking me up with a club floor room! Yehaw!). So I'm enjoying some Australian wine now (note: wine in China basically sucks. Stick to beer, although the beer there also sucks. How psyched was I to have a cold Crown Lager in Hong Kong?!) In 45 minutes I will head out to another Hawker stall for some more delicious eats!
So to answer the question thats in all of your heads, YES, the real Penang is every bit as good as the restaurant! Yes, its everything I expected. Yes, I want to buy a house here and become part of the scenery. Also I'm loving the Malaysian folks that I meet here. Surprisingly my tourguides all complain about their Arab tourists, who apparently are very rude. I guess that Arabs are literally not allowed to visit Thailand after some sort of hooker murder incident (!?) and they flock to Malaysia for tropical fun. I saw my first woman in full body and head covering, although I don't believe she was an arab as her companion looked distinctively indian/pakistani. Islam is fun!
Actually, I'm not kidding, I am more intrigued by islam after visiting XinJiang and now Malaysia. One of these days I will do my big middle east tour, but later for that....
CHINESE GIRLFRIEND SEARCH
I have decided that it would make a lot of sense for me to have a Chinese girlfriend, preferably from Northern China. Why? Because I need to practice my mandarin and I don't think I want to spend my class credits at UofC on Chinese class, which will only lead to stress and frustration.
Why Nothern China?
A) Because Shanghai women are reported to beat their husbands/boyfriends
B) Hong Kong women don't speak Mandarin, and are also reported to beat their husbands/boyfriends, and
C) Taiwan girls don't like me (not sure why, but might have something to do with my Japanese surname)
So if you have any leads, definitely hook me up. And I'm not talking Chinese American, I'm talking PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, so keep your eyes open!
OTHER NEWS:
1) The rest of my trip is basically planned at this point:
Tomorrow/Thurs - Singapore
Friday - London
Sat - Sat - Turkey with Quyen and Ish
Week after - Eastern European excursion
June 10 - Spain
June 17th - Bill's wedding in NYC
Then I'm just going to schlump around NYC and maybe Washington DC for a week or so, followed by fun in Seattle with Elaine and maybe even Rocio is she's around?? Then I'm back in CA for July 1 but hopefully I can swing by Vegas to celebrate the birthday with Queen B (Bea), which promises to be crazy.
August - Inca Trail with business classmates. This could be insane or it could be really cool. Either way, I already paid and hopefully don't have to buy anything!
Other updates:
1) If I get into China stuff I will get all choked up and nobody wants that
2) I have too much crap in my suitcase and need to figure out some way to lighten it up
3) Through some miraculous act of God, I didn't gain any weight while in China. I think it has something to do with fat weighing less than muscle, so my deterioration in muscle mass was just perfectly offset by incremental fat gains. This trip to Malaysia isn't doig much to help me out though!
Keep your eyes open for new fresh pictures of my last days in Beijing as well as fun with fruits and spices here in Malaysia. Wish me luck in Singapore...la!

Trauma in Hong Kong!

OK, not real trauma, but to continue with a previous theme, my surly haircut guy QUIT the HK salon! So now I can't go to him and I'm forced to go to someone completely untried whilst here in HK! Unfortunately if I don't get my hair cut here it will be like a month before I'm back in NYC to visit Hiroshi. If you know me well then you know both of the people that I mentioned (Hiroshi and surly guy, Davy, who apparently has quit the salon. I'll get the details later this afternoon). So anyway, for those of you who knew me in high school and college, you know what happens to me when I don't get my hair cut on a regular basis and it starts to grow out. I start to look like that guy from the Cure or the guy who plays young Voldemort in the 2nd Harry Potter Movie (read: it gets big and ugly).
Cross fingers for me. I'm writing this on my laptop while riding the airport express on my way to Hong Kong.
On the bright side, MAARTJE is in Hong Kong! And if you know her then you realize she is super awesome!!!
More about my HK excursion later...
Side note: despite shipping stuff home and ditching all my heavy books, for some reason my bags are still massively overpacked. I don't know what is wrong with me,but another shipment home is probably in order. Life shouldn't be so complicated!

China - Last Minute Thoughts

One day left in China, then back to the familiarity of Hong Kong for a couple of days, then off for Round 2 of my great adventure. These 12 months off have been the experience of a lifetime, and once again I'm confronted with the thought of leaving a place that in many ways I have grown to love. My love for Beijing has nothing to do with the overcrowded streets, the painfully depressing weather than fluctuates (in the spring) between numbing cold with freezing wind and stinky/hot/humid and stagnant. It also has nothing to do with the supposed "Chinese Miracle Economy" that has given people around the world China Fever as they flock to the perceived gold rush of opportunity. I have my own thoughts on this, but I just don't feel like sharing them now. My love of Beijing comes from the incredible hospitality and friendliness of the people I have met here. Despite their initial gruffness, the people I have met here a genuinely friendly, loving bunch. I have been shown incredible generosity by people I barely knew, and my bad attempts at speaking Chinese have been met with only support and excitement that a foreigner like me would want to learn Chinese. Sadly the same can't be said for my fellow language learners, many of whom are extremely critical of one another and very eager to correct someone else's mistakes. I guess a lot of people learning Chinese feel threatened by others doing the same thing?
As for Chinese itself, I have fallen in love with the harsh Beijing accent, with its gutteral "h" and the addition of "er" (pronounced "arrrgh", yes, like a pirate!). Some people hate the way it sounds, but I LOVE IT! I think perhaps part of the reason I love it is that the Beijingers seem so happy to say it! They also seem so happy when they get to explain that the "er" is a part of their local accent. The Chinese people I have met love talking about China, and they also LOVE talking about Chinese food! Don't get me started on that!
So thats it for my pre-nostalgia for Beijing. Over the "spring break" to XinJiang I spoke to my new "global superfriend" Lisa about the phenomenom of going to places and thinking to yourself "yeah, i'll definitely be coming back here". Sadly I don't know if this little promise I make to myself is actually true, although I have to say that I have been pretty decent about it in the past. China is definitely on the list, but some other places I'm not sure. The problem is that once you fall in love with a place, you really do have to come back, and I know some places are beckoning. Also once you make friends in a place, you owe it to them to come back. I really need to find a job that lets me take advantage of how small the world is. My old boss Richard Blackett (i'm sure he doesn't mind me using his name. Might I add that he might be my favorite person EVER) had the craziest job. He had to fly all over the world meeting with companies and bankers as sort of the "international guy" for years and years. He was a road warrior in the truest sense. However, I traveled with him a couple of times, mostly to Canada and the midwest of the US, and I'll never forget the things he said to me about it. For example, after waking up at 4am to cath a 6am flight to Montreal following a midnight night in the office, we then had meetings all day only to get back to the airport two hours before our return flight on the same day. I fell asleep in a chair at the gate, and when I woke up Blackett was there looking at me and said "Welcome to the Glamorous World of International Finance". I'll never forget that, but at the same time I think he was addicted to the travel and the work in the same way that I was/am. The real question is whether, as Blackett predicted to me over drinks on my last day with Citimonster, I'll try out other jobs and find that they just don't give me the same rush/energy as my capital markets gig. No idea what the answer is.
OK, this wasn't meant to turn into a self-reflection on my old job! It was meant to be a quickie on my final thoughts about China. OK, here is the synopsis, then I'll give you (of course) a LIST of my repeat destinations.
Synopsis from Beijing:
Good: People, food, trains, history, tea, exchange rate, cost of living, fake luxury goods
Bad: Wine/Baijiu, traffic, pollution, piracy (a problem i choose to contribute to), aggressive silk market merchants
So riduculous you MUST see it: Beijing Opera (runner up: Beijing frizzy mullet haircut)
Totally Overrated: Hot Pot
Exactly What You Expected: Great Wall
Surprisingly Awesome: Tiantan (temple of Heaven) park
Surprisingly Terrible: Foreign students overly obsessed with learning Chinese
Potentially Addictive Everyday Item: Bao ze
What I'll Miss Most: My host family and classmates
What I'll Miss Least: Walking over the stinky river
OK, here's the fun list that you've been waiting for: PLACES OUTSIDE THE US THAT I HAVE BEEN TO MORE THAN ONCE! Now I can actually fill this in with some decent results!
Hong Kong - 1983, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006
Australia - 2001/2 & 2005
Bangkok - 2002 & 2005
New Zealand - 2001, 2002, 2005
Singapore - 2005, soon to be 2006
London - 1990?, 2004, soon to be 2006
Paris - 1990?, 1998
Argentina - 2003, 2005
Canada - A lot
So its not a super duper list, but I feel like I'm doing a decent job of hitting places more than once, especially once I have friends there. China is definitely on that list, and actually most of these are places I'll like to see again. In fact, I'll

Xinjiang Fun, Catherine's Chinese Fun, Bizarre Dream Fun: Part III

BIZARRE DREAM FUN
No, I didn't dream about a bazaar. However, on my last night in XinJiang I had a bizarre and rather baffling dream about myself posessing superpowers. Actually, this isn't the first time in a dream that I have possessed superpowers. Actually I typically am able to fly, and telekenesis is usually not out of the question either. In fact, sometimes I also have the ability to see into the future, which is a little weird to dream about. But this time I had the choice, which was a little strange, but I had to write what I wanted down (presumably on the ground) and would receive what I asked for. Examples include: "The RIng of Invisibility", "THe Belt of Strenght" or "The Teleportation Shoes". Really the dream was a bit like playing the old "legend of Zelda" where you pic up little weapons along the way. It was good fun. But sadly when I woke up I was forced by my own sense ofcuriosity to analyse this dream, and the only thing I would come up with was that I currently feel a little powerless and lost and these dreams about superpowers show me that I crave control or at least sense of direction.
What do you think?!
I also thought I would share with you the following:
1) Bizarre recurring dream from college: In this dream (what I will refer to as "The Donut Dream") I am in a donut store surrounded by delicious donuts, and I literally can't decide what I want. All the donuts look so delicious, and for some reason I also want the biggest one! So I sit there pondering donuts for what seems like a very long time, never knowing whether to take the simple glazed donut, the bear claw, the weird strawberry glazed one that sometimes is good, the twist (basically the standard glazed in a different shape), or something else. Sometimes the muffins look good! Anyway, in the end I choose something (FYI, its usually the Apple Fritter) and wake up right before the delicious first bite. When I wake up I usually crave a donut.
In college I had this dream a lot, and my friends insisted that the whole thing was about sex, with the round shape of the donut and its delightful whole providing a cunning vagina-symbol. To that I have no real response. Thoughts? These are the same friends that first introduced me to the idea that the whole movie Grease is all about sex. I didn't believe them at first, but when I watched it again I started to wonder what I had been blinded by all my life! What's next? Is "Three's Company" all about sex too?!?!?!
2) Business School Essay - This one was a "risk essay" meaning that I thought it would either work like a charm or end my chances immediately. I couldn't have been more wrong, as I was promptly waitlisted, and on the waitlist for that school I remain! Enjoy!

Describe a personal characteristic or something in your background that will help the Admissions Committee to know you better.

I don’t talk about it much, but one personal characteristic has driven me time and again to most major life decisions. It has shaped my values, guided my leadership style and interpersonal interactions, and has often been my greatest downfall. Of course that characteristic would have to be my all-consuming LUST FOR POWER.

Upon first meeting me, it is hard to believe that I’m consumed by lust, especially LUST FOR POWER. I am neither dominating not controlling. The power I crave isn’t the power to command or control others, but power to control my own destiny, the power to influence personal outcomes, and the power to create.

Power means self-determination. My most important decisions in life have been made to preserve or exercise this power: leaving my family to go to school, leaving my friends in NYC to live abroad, and leaving my career at Citigroup to start a new life. Even choosing to work in investment banking was a demonstration of my desire to live unfettered from debt. Power means being able to try new things without apologies. It means freedom and self-reliance.

Influencing outcomes and affecting change are exercises in power. There is no better means to do so than through the spread of one’s ideas. I have found that communication is the best way for me to influence both people and outcomes, whether through tutoring, training, being a mentor in the office, recruiting, creative writing, or even the performing arts. Similarly, I prefer to lead through education, as a teacher and mediator, rather than a field captain telling people what to do. Real power is about changing people’s minds, not commanding their actions.

For me, the greatest exercise in power is the act of creating something new, something that is unique to me. The creations themselves could vary widely. A great onstage performance, telling a good story, building a useful and robust financial model, or even forging a bond of friendship are all acts of creation that bring me a tremendous sense of accomplishment, often the most satisfying validation of one’s power. In order to achieve this I strive to accumulate knowledge about the world around me, including politics, history, commerce and economics, culture and language. I will forever pursue a breadth of knowledge about the world and its people as the fuel for creative power.

Lust for power has driven many of my decisions, but has also been a great vice. Almost 30, I am still nowhere near marriage or starting a family, both goals that I, and society, value highly but that have been superceded by my overwhelming needs for self determination and greater knowledge about the world. The type of power that I pursue comes at a price. It’s a characteristic, personal and precious to me and often resulting in positive outcomes, but I never said it was a true virtue.

Xinjiang Fun, Catherine's Chinese Fun, Bizarre Dream Fun: Part II

CATHERINE USES CHINESE
So Catherine, as some of you may know, is one of my classmates here in Beijing (checkout my myspace for a link to hers). She is also American, but unlike me she lives in an apartment rather than with a host family, so her opportunities to use Chinese are more limited. As such, she admittedly only has a couple of expressions and conversational topics that she is totally comfortable using. One of these is the bargaining language set, which she uses with vigor at the Silk Street Clothing Market ("The Silk Market"), which is the Beijing tourist-focused market in which aggressive chinese knockoff booths attempt to rip-off visiting tourists with fake LV, etc. You can get fake anything here, and the staff are the kinds and queens of the "i'll give you a good price" routine. Here is Catherine in action:
Store Girl: You want these shoes? I give you a good price.
Catherine: I like these shoes. How much?
SG: These are very good ones. 1000 kuai
C: I'll give you 75 kuai
SG: What? You are joking! These are my high quality shoes!
C: 75 kuai
SG: No really, what's your real price? Your no-joke price?
C: 75 kuai
SG: No really. How about 750 kuai
C: Ni juede wo shi erbaiwu? ("Do you think I am an idiot?" using the expression "erbaiwu" which means 250, which everyone in beijing uses to mean idiot but assumes that the foreigners don't know what it means, meanwhile its the first thing we learn when we get here)
SG: 500 kuai, thats my last price
C: (says nothing, just leaves...she makes it about 5 paces outside of the stall)
SG: Wait! 250!
C: 75
SG: 125
C: 75
SG 75
And Catherine wins. My other friend Carino once got "1000 kuai" shoes for 25 kuai because she literally didn't want them!
Anyway, this is all beside the point. The real story is this: Catherine went to the silk market to get a suit made at one of the tailors on the top floor. I would attempt to retell the tailor story but I simply can't do it justice. The punchline is that the suck sucked. But my favorite part of that longer story is this:
While waiting for her friend to get her measurements done, Catherine used her (at that time) meager assortment of Chinese expressions to make small talk with the other shopgirl. Topics probably included:
1) The weather
Then the conversation died, and Catherine, feeling uncomfortable, dipped into reserve and used the only remaining chinese expression she knew:
Catherine: Wo you le ("I'm pregnant")
Let's me clear, Catherine was definitely not pregnant. However, he also remembered the expression for married, and so when they asked in follow-up if she was married, she replied with a firm "No". This sent the shop girls into a frenzy! I still can't believe that she would tell these strangers falsely that she was pregnant JUST TO KEEP UP THE CONVERSATION!!!
Imagine if I did sometime similar and in the midstof a lul on conversation with my tailor said something like:
Dan: Wo yo lao dutze ("I have dysentery")
Would hilarity ensue? Clearly in Catherine's case her clever conversational ploy worked, because she has always had a conversational topic with the silk market tailors ever since.

Xinjiang Fun, Catherine's Chinese Fun, Bizarre Dream Fun: Part I

Ok Kids, it has been a while since I posted, so I have decided to play catchup in a massive way. There are three stories that I want to catch people up on, and I'm not sure how to title them in such a way that people will read all three as they are equally important, so I am just got to post them as one massive blog entry in three pieces. If you are bored with one, just skip it and you can check out the next one. So there are three pieces to this puzzle:
1) My recent trip to XinJiang
2) My friend Catherine's Fun with practising Chinese
3) The bizarre dream I had recently and some other bizarre dreams - you get to psychoanalyze me, which is always good as I hate to pay for therapy but free therapy online is worth every cent!
TRIP TO XINJIANG!
So I finally made it through the passport insanity and was able to fly to XinJiang. Sadly I had to skip the Kashgar leg of the trip, which would have been super fun, but instead met up with Lisa "Brown Girl", who is an old friend that I have known for almost ten years, but whom I have only met in person probably about six times. Anyway, we met in college through Model UN (one of the pillars to my three legged "dork stool" that was my life whilst in high school and college, but at least in college the trips were free) and subsequently saw eachother another two or three times, followed by about 7 years of infrequent emails and then finally meeting again in NYC last summer. I saw her again a couple times since coming to Beijing (she lives in Shanghai but is a freelance writer and the reason I was able to go to the weird Paul Smith fashion show here). Anyway, we made plans to go with her friend Anh-Thu (who looks frighteningly similar to my friend Betsy while at the same time completely different!) to XinJiang, "the land of song and dance" as well as "the land of honey and wine".
Couple of things to note about XinJiang:
1) Its technically an "autonomous region" in China, much like Tibet, which means that it was as one point "aqcuired" by the PRC
2) The majority of people in XinJiang are not Han Chinese, they're Uighur, which is a turkic central asian ethnic group that is predominantly muslim
3) There are also random Kazakhs and Khyrg people in parts of Xinjiang
4) Since most of the Uighur's are to some degree a mix of the caucasian and chinese, many of them look a lot like yours truly (except not as pretty)
5) Xinjiang is the midpoint of the famous "Silk Road" that connects China with the middle east
So these were all things that I knew before I made the trip. However, I soon learned a number of fun facts upon arrival. These included:
1) The Uighur women was very "sturdy" (read: buxom) with a penchant for wearing what westerners would consider evening gowns during the day, covered in shiny/sparkly things like sequins
2) While many of the Kazahks remain pastoral nomads and live in yurts, they're not like the amish, and Karaoke is a perfectly acceptable form of entertainment
3) Be wary of any restaurant that has no menu and responds when you ask about prices with "i'll give you a good price"
About that, so on day 3 we went to Tian Chi, which is this supposedly beautiful lake in the Tian Shan mountain range of northern XinJiang. After a 3 hour car ride, we finally got there to discover that the whole area was covered in a thick mist (ie. pea soup). Our visibility was about 30 feet. It was a lot like the fields of bunnies from my childhood (if you don't know what Im talking about, read some of my other posts). Anyway, we basically couldn't see anything, took the supposedly 30-minute trek up the steps to get to the lake (more like 90 minute), realized that we wouldn't be seeing any lake (literally...it was there, we just couldn't see it...i'll post the sadly comedic pictures of us next to the big "nothing" that reminded us of the Neverending Story, except I was Atreyu or Bastian but short one friendly luck dragon...) and decided to park our asses in a yurt for some grub. So the not unnactractive Kazahk women doesn't give us clear prices on food, and we end up ordering what we think is about 60 kuai worth of stuff. The food comes out, all of which is pretty mediocre except for the milk tea, which is apparently similar to the tibetan yak-butter tea. While not bad, it doesn't really taste like tea and in my humble opinion tastes more like Campbell's cream of mushroom soup with extra salt. ANYWAY, bill comes and the woman wants 200 kuai! Why? Apparently there is a 100 kuai fee for "renting the yurt" and she charged us 15 kuai PER FISH that was included in our gross fish soup! So one extra loud shouting match between Lisa and the woman (i think Lisa's command of mandarin was better than the kazahk girl's) and we're on our way without paying anything! We refused the 200 kuai, offering 70, which is 10 more than what itsould have been, to which the woman replied that if we're not going to pay the whole amount she doesn't want our money. Apparently this is a ploy that works with the "face saving" Chinese who would then either a) not want it to look like the money is worth more than their pride and would therefore pay the full amount just as an "F*ck U" to the restaurant or b) feel guilty for just walking off without paying. Fortunately we were all three americans and neither of these cultural snafus applied to us. We stormed off. Later the woman's brother found us and we gave him the 70 kuai...apparently he's the peachemaker of the bunch. I'll never look at a yurt the same way again!
So aside from that, the trip was pretty breezy and good fun, punctuated by wandering through markets and ancient ruins, drinking beer and eating nan bread, and enjoying lots of lamb. Also I had the pleasure of seeing THE WORST BATHROOM IN CHINA, which is definitely a hotly contested title. The winner: it was literally a set of boards placed on the side of a mountain with a little playpen around it. I have a picture. Good trip? Definitely.

Holy Crap!

So I have been trying to post to my blog via email for all this time, and only now am I realizing that they didn't post! I am going to repost all of them now!

THIS SUCKS!