1 year ago
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Twice in a day!
So this is short, but "Take Five" is a great song that I'm not getting tired of, and in my hotel in Taiwan, the toilet seat is heated. Yes, a heated toilet seat. Can you say awesome? Also, nothing is blocked! Imagine that!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
FREE
Hi guys. So a while ago, China started blocking blogspot (adding it to the list that includes youtube, livejournal, and wordpress, among I'm sure a billion others I would never look at anyway), so I haven't been able to update. Right now I'm at the Hong Kong airport sipping on a 芒果沙冰 and, although it is heinously overpriced, it is pretty tasty. Im leaving for Taiwan in about half an hour, and I'm pretty excited, although I'm missing out on a holiday weekend in Shanghai. No big deal right? Anyway, since I'm outside of the mainland, I'm going to super take advantage and just overload my brain with youtube and update my blog every three seconds. Just kidding, but I will update hopefully everyday.
For my Middlebury readers, I was just on a Cathaway Air flight and there was some show or movie on in the plane. I woke up from my nap to see Ethan Hawke's smiling facial hair-clad face on it and almost yelled OMG ANDREW MAY! But it wasn't him. The resemblence is disturbing though. Is that spelled right?
Anyway, since my blog is mostly about random thoughts, here is my one that I wanted to mention a long time ago. Chip flavors in China are nuts. Even normal brands like Cheetos and Lays (classif flavors in the US right?) have nuts ones here. So of course there are Shrip Chips. That kind of goes without saying. But for others... well from what I can gather from my poor Chinese, looking at pictures, and reading hilariously translated English, here are some of the more interesting ones. Lays has a mixed seafood flavor, a shrimp flavor, lychee flavor, blueberry flavor, and cucumber flavor, among plenty of others. Personally, I'm too scared to try most of those. Lays still has its original though. I've only seen original Cheetos here in foreign import supermarkets. Instead they have flavors like roast hotdog and Brazilian barbeque. So weird right? Anyway, interesting fact for you. I have to run to catch my flight now, but expect more soon! I was even thinking about taking a survey/query of all the local markets to log all the interesting flavors. Look forward to it!
For my Middlebury readers, I was just on a Cathaway Air flight and there was some show or movie on in the plane. I woke up from my nap to see Ethan Hawke's smiling facial hair-clad face on it and almost yelled OMG ANDREW MAY! But it wasn't him. The resemblence is disturbing though. Is that spelled right?
Anyway, since my blog is mostly about random thoughts, here is my one that I wanted to mention a long time ago. Chip flavors in China are nuts. Even normal brands like Cheetos and Lays (classif flavors in the US right?) have nuts ones here. So of course there are Shrip Chips. That kind of goes without saying. But for others... well from what I can gather from my poor Chinese, looking at pictures, and reading hilariously translated English, here are some of the more interesting ones. Lays has a mixed seafood flavor, a shrimp flavor, lychee flavor, blueberry flavor, and cucumber flavor, among plenty of others. Personally, I'm too scared to try most of those. Lays still has its original though. I've only seen original Cheetos here in foreign import supermarkets. Instead they have flavors like roast hotdog and Brazilian barbeque. So weird right? Anyway, interesting fact for you. I have to run to catch my flight now, but expect more soon! I was even thinking about taking a survey/query of all the local markets to log all the interesting flavors. Look forward to it!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Cinco de Mayo!
It's that deliciously Mexican day of the year. Unfortunately, Mexican food here isn't readily accessible, and thus, I don't get too much of it. Anyway, I wanted to start with a couple one-liners (not jokes, just punctuated thoughts).
My hair is way too long. I feel like I'm making sacrifices for the promise of my afro.
My mom is here visiting Shanghai to see her mom. My uncle on that side and his son are also going to be here soon, and two days later my cousin and aunt on my dad's side will also be here. It's like my first family reunion, but not really.
My mom, incidentally, hates my hair and its length.
I cleaned my bathtub today. I am quite happy with its cleanliness.
I hope the Rockets beat the Lakers (in six?).
With that aside, I just have two thoughts to share. This one is really overdue (it was meant to be shared before it got warm here). China, or at least southern China, or at least Fudan University in Shanghai and a lot of the surrounding buildings, have yet to embrace the glory that is building insulation. For some reason, buildings here are not insulated, which makes very little sense to me, considering during the winter the temperature can hang out around 5-10 degrees Celsius, and in the summer, get unbearably hot and humid. Apparently the WHO says ideal/manageable health indoor temperature is something like 18 or 15 or something. Anyway, it means during the winter you are freezing in class/inside, and during the summer you are either melting or wasting a ton of energy on air conditioning. Both are kind of annoyingly uncomfortable and inefficient. I don't know how you can build a building that looks like a five star hotel from the outside and neglect to insulate it. Pretty ridiculous.
The second thing is of a more mature nature. So I had heard that a lot of massage parlors in China were actually covers for brothels, and have seen a lot of fishy advertisements in magazines and such. A lot of them say things like "Beautiful girls" or "Two beautiful girls" or "Two beautiful girl happy ending massage". Anyway, not being particularly interested in brothels, I never really thought much about it besides making fun of the ads' grammar and picture choice. However, I recently found out that four places near my friend's apartment are actually those cover-up brothels, I think two or three as massage parlors and the rest as hair salons (just for washing hair I think...although they probably don't do a lot of that). I've passed by a lot of those places before late at night, assuming they were karaoke bars or small hotels, and it's weird thinking back and realizing those girls downstairs just kind of lounging around are probably prostitutes. What a weird thought. Kind of makes me want to go in and ask them both awkward and illumating questions about their profession (as massuesses and professional hair-washers of course). Anyway, those are my two random thoughts. I will write a more people-based post in a couple days.
My hair is way too long. I feel like I'm making sacrifices for the promise of my afro.
My mom is here visiting Shanghai to see her mom. My uncle on that side and his son are also going to be here soon, and two days later my cousin and aunt on my dad's side will also be here. It's like my first family reunion, but not really.
My mom, incidentally, hates my hair and its length.
I cleaned my bathtub today. I am quite happy with its cleanliness.
I hope the Rockets beat the Lakers (in six?).
With that aside, I just have two thoughts to share. This one is really overdue (it was meant to be shared before it got warm here). China, or at least southern China, or at least Fudan University in Shanghai and a lot of the surrounding buildings, have yet to embrace the glory that is building insulation. For some reason, buildings here are not insulated, which makes very little sense to me, considering during the winter the temperature can hang out around 5-10 degrees Celsius, and in the summer, get unbearably hot and humid. Apparently the WHO says ideal/manageable health indoor temperature is something like 18 or 15 or something. Anyway, it means during the winter you are freezing in class/inside, and during the summer you are either melting or wasting a ton of energy on air conditioning. Both are kind of annoyingly uncomfortable and inefficient. I don't know how you can build a building that looks like a five star hotel from the outside and neglect to insulate it. Pretty ridiculous.
The second thing is of a more mature nature. So I had heard that a lot of massage parlors in China were actually covers for brothels, and have seen a lot of fishy advertisements in magazines and such. A lot of them say things like "Beautiful girls" or "Two beautiful girls" or "Two beautiful girl happy ending massage". Anyway, not being particularly interested in brothels, I never really thought much about it besides making fun of the ads' grammar and picture choice. However, I recently found out that four places near my friend's apartment are actually those cover-up brothels, I think two or three as massage parlors and the rest as hair salons (just for washing hair I think...although they probably don't do a lot of that). I've passed by a lot of those places before late at night, assuming they were karaoke bars or small hotels, and it's weird thinking back and realizing those girls downstairs just kind of lounging around are probably prostitutes. What a weird thought. Kind of makes me want to go in and ask them both awkward and illumating questions about their profession (as massuesses and professional hair-washers of course). Anyway, those are my two random thoughts. I will write a more people-based post in a couple days.
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