Sorry it's been so long since I've written, but China has blocked access to Blogger so I must go through a proxy server to do this.
Anyhoo, I was riding the bus the other day and I never fail to be amused by the dance Chinese people do when there aren't enough seats on the bus. Let me explain. So a person is sitting down on the bus where there are no longer any seats. One of her friends gets on and she notices. She waves her friend over and stands up, motioning the friend to sit down. The friend laughs and pushes the person to try and get her to sit back down, to which the person responds by laughing and also trying to push the friend into the seat. This goes on for several minutes until the friend finally agrees to sit down. Once she's in the seat, it is now her responsibility to hold all purses and bags of the person standing. It's really quite amusing. The dance gets especially fierce when there is no obvious seniority issue because each person wants to honor the other person. Oh Chinese and their funny traditions.
A few weeks ago I went to Pingyao and Datong for a long weekend. Pingyao is this ancient city SW of The Shizz. It was originally going to be turned into an industrial town, but all of the industry left, leaving Pingyao virtually untouched. The way I did this trip was I took an overnight train from Chengde to the Shizz, thinking I could get a D-train to Pingyao. Unfortunately all of the seats on the D-train were full, so I wound up staying the night in the Shizz and taking the early morning (5:30 am) train standing room only to Pingyao. It was fun to stay in the Shizz with Paul and Sam again, but the 4 am wake up call was not fun. So I got on the train and I hijacked some boy's seat and we sat four abreast in a three person seat. Nobody wanted to kick me out. So I arrived in Pingyao without too much ado, and wound up meeting this really nice Chinese girl when I got off the train who helped me get into the old part of the city. It is truly beautiful there. When you think about old-school China, Pingyao is the place you think of, with all the old hutongs and temples. You halfway expect Lin Daiyu or Jia Baoyu to walk out of one of those buildings. Anyways, I spent two days there wandering around, looking at temples and buying crap I didn't need. I hung out with two English people, Ben and Charlotte, who weren't travelling together, they just hung out together. We wound up biking the 6K out to this temple that was outside the city, kind of cool.
From Pingyao I went to Datong to see the hanging temples and the grottoes. The only problem was that I got into Datong at 4 in the morning, long before anything opens and I wasn't planning on staying the night, so no hoste/hotel to sit in. Luckily, some policemen took pity on me and let me sit in their office until the CITS tour office opened. Once CITS opened, I found out the only tour they had that did both the grottoes and the hanging temples ended at 6, and my train left (I thought) at 4. So I wound up renting a taxi for the day for 200 kuai. First we went to McDonalds to get breakfast cuz I was super hungry. Then we went to the Hanging Temples, and got there around 8:30, which was great because none of the tour groups had showed up yet. So I got tons of pictures with NO PEOPLE in them. It was awesome. At 9 all the tours started showing up so it got uber crowded and I decided to leave. Then we went to the grottoes, about a 2 hour drive. The grottoes were really cool as well. Basically some people decided to carve buddhas in these sandstone caves. There are thousands of carvings spread over about 40 caves. They range anywhere from inches tall to 30 meters in the largest of the caves. It's really pretty cool. Much to the amusement of other people, I was taking pictures of myself. So I'd set my camera down and run to where I wanted to have my picture taken. A lot of Chinese people got a good laugh over that.
So I finished seeing the grottoes and headed back to Datong city to catch my 4:00 train. Unfortunately, the lady at the train station booked me on the 2:00 train! I remember checking my ticket in the morning and seeing the "4" from 14:00, but in never struck me that it meant 2:00 for some reason. So I missed my train. And the most frustrating part was that I was actually back in time to take the train, I just didn't know it. So yeah, tons of headache getting back to Beijing to go home. All of the seats were full, I was going to have to take a 6 hour hard seat train to Beijing that arrived at West Station at 5 am. Then I would have to spend a lot of money to take a cab from West station to Central station when I was already running out of money. Many phone calls to Cecilia and tears of frustration later, I wound up paying a hundred yuan to take a four hour mini van ride back to Beijing. Then I got in so late that the subways were shutting down. I was supposed to stay with Zach at Red Lantern House, but it was so much farther to there than to Sanlitun that I just went to Sanlitun instead. Plus it was twice as expensive. So the last few hours kind of put a damper on my trip, but altogether it was fun.
Oh yeah, and I went to an English speaking Easter service in Beijing that was really nice. I met up with the Shizz kids in Beijing and then Paul and I went to the Easter service at this hotel somewhere. It kind of reminded me of one of those megachurches you see in the US. The hotel auditorium was filled to capacity with only foreigners (Chinese people are not allowed inside due to government regulations, you must have a foreign passport to get in), all waving their arms and singing. It was kind of fun and made me feel good. I felt very at home in this Easter service surrounded by foreigners. It's a difficult feeling to explain the feeling of familiarity I had.
And next week my parents arrive for their tour around China, and then two weeks after that Michelle arrives so we can start our big tour. Yay!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Meghan is going to vet school!
As most of you know, I'm just finished my second round of applying to vet school. I applied last year to U of M and ISU, and didn't get into either. I'm ok with this because I was planning on deferring enrollment for a year anyways so I could go to China. This year I expanded my school search: I applied to U of M, U of I, ISU, and KSU. I was interviewed for U of M, ISU, and KSU. Who knows what was up U of I's butt, but they said I didn't meet their academic requirements. Whatever that means, because I was within all of their academic limits... Anyhoo, I was placed on the out of state wait lists for ISU and KSU. Which was ok, because the school I really wanted to go to was U of M. I was supposed to hear back from U of M at the beginning of March. Unfortunately, my parents decided to go on vacation on the 5th of March and stop their mail. Yeah, they won't be back until the end of March! Way to go on that one, Mom and Dad...
Anyhoo, so I decided to email the U of M because I didn't want to wait until the end of March to find out. A few days after I sent the email, I got back this response: Meghan, I am pleased to inform you that you have been offered admission to the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine..." Yay! I tried calling everyone in my family, but the only people who answered were my parents! Why does nobody answer their phones when it's really important? I resorted to calling Zach at 8:30 in the morning. Zach was not a happy camper when his phone went off, but he was able to muster up some exictement when I told him the news.
So yay! I'm in! No more worrying about what I'm going to do for the next year when I get home. All I have to do is find a place to live and that won't be too hard. I'm so excited! I get to be a vet and study things I'm actually interested in! I'll eventually be able to have my horses on my own property and do all the things I want to do! I can't tell you how pumped I am! Now I can sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of my time in China. w00t.
Anyhoo, so I decided to email the U of M because I didn't want to wait until the end of March to find out. A few days after I sent the email, I got back this response: Meghan, I am pleased to inform you that you have been offered admission to the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine..." Yay! I tried calling everyone in my family, but the only people who answered were my parents! Why does nobody answer their phones when it's really important? I resorted to calling Zach at 8:30 in the morning. Zach was not a happy camper when his phone went off, but he was able to muster up some exictement when I told him the news.
So yay! I'm in! No more worrying about what I'm going to do for the next year when I get home. All I have to do is find a place to live and that won't be too hard. I'm so excited! I get to be a vet and study things I'm actually interested in! I'll eventually be able to have my horses on my own property and do all the things I want to do! I can't tell you how pumped I am! Now I can sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of my time in China. w00t.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Eerie
So all of you remember that huge tsunami that hit SE Asia back in 2004? Well Zach had two couch surfers from Korea staying with him about a week ago that witnessed the aftermath of that tsunami firsthand. It was kind of eerie, hearing what they had to say about it.
Apparently, they had been travelling in Thailand when the tsunami hit. They were actually on a train headed down the peninsula to southern Thailand at the exact timing. They couldn't figure out what had happened because there was hardly anyone on the train headed south. When they got to their destination somewhere on the mainland, all they could figure out was that there had been an earthquake, but nothing more. Nobody in the hotel could really tell them what had happened. Finally, they got on a bus headed to the coast and found out that a tsunami had hit most of southern Thailand, wiping out some of the major islands. On the bus was a Canadian guy who was on his way to try to find his girlfriend, who was staying on Koh Phi Phi. Sadly, the couch surfers realized he probably didn't find her since the waves washed over Koh Phi Phi, completely submerging it. The only other people on the bus were a family of four, who were headed down there to see what they could do.
When they got to their final destination on the beach, the couch surfers realized the extent of the damage. Most of the hotels were inundated with refugees who had survied the tsunami but had no belongings. They ran into a man from India, who, when the waves hit, had linked arms with his two friends around a light pole. He watched as his two friends were swept away with the water. I don't think he found them.
It took several days before the couch surfers were able to call home and let their parents know they were safe. By the time they did, the female couch surfer's mother was so relieved that she couldn't even talk on the phone. Apparently they had called the American embassies in the States, Korea, and Thailand, trying to find out what had happened to their daughter. I can't even imagine what that would have been like. To hear about how this huge tsunami had taken place right where your child was supposed to be, and you had no idea if they were dead or alive. How horrible!
The part that had astonished them the most while they were there was how friendly and hospitable the Thai were, despite this horrible devastation that had occured. I don't know how they could manage when they were facing such heartbreak, but they still treated foreigners with kindness.
Apparently, they had been travelling in Thailand when the tsunami hit. They were actually on a train headed down the peninsula to southern Thailand at the exact timing. They couldn't figure out what had happened because there was hardly anyone on the train headed south. When they got to their destination somewhere on the mainland, all they could figure out was that there had been an earthquake, but nothing more. Nobody in the hotel could really tell them what had happened. Finally, they got on a bus headed to the coast and found out that a tsunami had hit most of southern Thailand, wiping out some of the major islands. On the bus was a Canadian guy who was on his way to try to find his girlfriend, who was staying on Koh Phi Phi. Sadly, the couch surfers realized he probably didn't find her since the waves washed over Koh Phi Phi, completely submerging it. The only other people on the bus were a family of four, who were headed down there to see what they could do.
When they got to their final destination on the beach, the couch surfers realized the extent of the damage. Most of the hotels were inundated with refugees who had survied the tsunami but had no belongings. They ran into a man from India, who, when the waves hit, had linked arms with his two friends around a light pole. He watched as his two friends were swept away with the water. I don't think he found them.
It took several days before the couch surfers were able to call home and let their parents know they were safe. By the time they did, the female couch surfer's mother was so relieved that she couldn't even talk on the phone. Apparently they had called the American embassies in the States, Korea, and Thailand, trying to find out what had happened to their daughter. I can't even imagine what that would have been like. To hear about how this huge tsunami had taken place right where your child was supposed to be, and you had no idea if they were dead or alive. How horrible!
The part that had astonished them the most while they were there was how friendly and hospitable the Thai were, despite this horrible devastation that had occured. I don't know how they could manage when they were facing such heartbreak, but they still treated foreigners with kindness.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
DMZ Tour
So I took a tour today in Hue of the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ), and it was a lot harder than I was expecting it to be. I'm not a person that normally takes offence to things, but I was kind of surprised by how offended I got on the DMZ tour. I mean, maybe it was because I was taking the tour in northern Vietnam, and maybe all of the museums in southern Vietnam are different, I don't know.
So the DMZ tour involved going to a bunch of old sites where Vietnamese troops were based during the American War (we would call it the Vietnam War), and some old monuments. We went to a few museums, and a few bases, and even one of the old tunnel networks. I guess the thing that was the hardest for me to look at were the captions of pictures, and some of the pictures themselves. There was one picture that showed a bunch of Vietnamese soldiers all lined up and smiling for a picture, and underneath the caption it read "Corageous Vietnamese troops after killing some American soldiers." There was a bronze casting on a wall of a museum that
showed helicopters dropping huge bombs with "USA" emblazoned on them on innocent Vietnamese villagers. A picture of a crashed US helicopter with two Americans face down in the dirt, burned beyond recognition. Pictures of Vietnamese troops standing proudly with their American POW. A picture of two women with an artillery gun with a caption that read "Vietnamese militia women loading a gun to shoot at American ships." Even the tour guides, without meaning to sound that way at all, sounded a little gleeful when they talked about how the Vietnamese outsmarted the American troops, or forced them to retreat in panic. It all made me a little sick.
I think I was the only American on that tour. I guess I just couldn't believe how Americans were portrayed on this tour. Is this how all of the world thinks of America? That we are the "bad guys?" Most of America didn't even want to be in Vietnam! I kind of wanted to go through and change all of the captions. I did get a few photos of the captions, so I could post them to my blog. I'll do that when I get home.
Am I wrong to be disgusted by what I saw? I guess in northern Vietnam, the Americans were the enemy, but do they still need to be portrayed as the enemy 40 years later? Is that necessary? Do they need to be portrayed as "weak" and "obsessive?"
Or is this just me being imperialistic and egotistical?
So the DMZ tour involved going to a bunch of old sites where Vietnamese troops were based during the American War (we would call it the Vietnam War), and some old monuments. We went to a few museums, and a few bases, and even one of the old tunnel networks. I guess the thing that was the hardest for me to look at were the captions of pictures, and some of the pictures themselves. There was one picture that showed a bunch of Vietnamese soldiers all lined up and smiling for a picture, and underneath the caption it read "Corageous Vietnamese troops after killing some American soldiers." There was a bronze casting on a wall of a museum that
showed helicopters dropping huge bombs with "USA" emblazoned on them on innocent Vietnamese villagers. A picture of a crashed US helicopter with two Americans face down in the dirt, burned beyond recognition. Pictures of Vietnamese troops standing proudly with their American POW. A picture of two women with an artillery gun with a caption that read "Vietnamese militia women loading a gun to shoot at American ships." Even the tour guides, without meaning to sound that way at all, sounded a little gleeful when they talked about how the Vietnamese outsmarted the American troops, or forced them to retreat in panic. It all made me a little sick.I think I was the only American on that tour. I guess I just couldn't believe how Americans were portrayed on this tour. Is this how all of the world thinks of America? That we are the "bad guys?" Most of America didn't even want to be in Vietnam! I kind of wanted to go through and change all of the captions. I did get a few photos of the captions, so I could post them to my blog. I'll do that when I get home.
Am I wrong to be disgusted by what I saw? I guess in northern Vietnam, the Americans were the enemy, but do they still need to be portrayed as the enemy 40 years later? Is that necessary? Do they need to be portrayed as "weak" and "obsessive?"
Or is this just me being imperialistic and egotistical?
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sometimes you meet the most interesting people...
Good morning, Vietnam! I've been in Hoi An for about two days now, and I'm about to head out and back to Hue for the remainder of my time in Vietnam before I go back to China. Let me tell you, I've loved (almost) every minute of my trip to Hoi An so far.
First off, I met SO MANY cool people! There were Sam and Elliott from England, who I shared a room with, Ash and Dan from Australia, two Norwegian girls (Julie and I can't remember the other girl's name), an Indian (I'm going to butcher his name if I try to spell it), and two Brazilian guys (Raphael and I never caught the second guy's name). Two Canadians and an English guy later joined us. The awesome thing was, we all met on the bus on the way from Hanoi to Hoi An and when we got to Hoi An, we just kept running into each other! It was like a little mini community because it was such a small town. So even though I was travelling alone, I always had someone to hang out with. I love travelling!
So here in Hoi An I havn't done much. I went to the My Son ruins and took a tour, wandered around Hoi An old town and took some pictures, got a suit made, and went to the beach. Unfortunately, I only got to spend an hour at the beach because my bus left at 2 o'clock and my suit fitting was at 10. Now that I'm in Hue, I kind of miss everyone! And the beach was so beautiful in Hoi An, almost as beautiful as Phuket and Ko Chang.
The only bad part about the trip to Hoi An was that the first night we were there, someone broke into Ash, Dan, and Elliott's room and made off with 3.5 million dong (about 200 bucks), two cameras, a cell phone, and a few other miscellaneous items. We know it was the hotel staff because we had only left for about a half hour to go swimming, and when we came back, the boys noticed there was an extra little door into their room and all of their stuff had been rifled through. When they tried to report it to the hotel, the man tried to say that they all left their stuff on the bus and that they should leave because they weren't the type of people they wanted at the hotel. And the police were entirely unhelpful. Needless to say, we left that night and went to stay in another hotel. It's just heartbreaking to know that all of your photos were lost. Elliott had a month's worth of photos on his camera, and I know Ash probably had a similar situation. Luckily, they didn't find Dan's camera. It just makes me sick that someone would want to do that. Why would you want to ruin someone's trip, no matter what your reasons are? Ugh.
I also get really sad when I think about all of the awesome people I meet on these trips, and the fact that I'm probably never going to see them again. They are all such cool people! Hopefully I'll be able to stay in contact with a few of them through Facebook.
First off, I met SO MANY cool people! There were Sam and Elliott from England, who I shared a room with, Ash and Dan from Australia, two Norwegian girls (Julie and I can't remember the other girl's name), an Indian (I'm going to butcher his name if I try to spell it), and two Brazilian guys (Raphael and I never caught the second guy's name). Two Canadians and an English guy later joined us. The awesome thing was, we all met on the bus on the way from Hanoi to Hoi An and when we got to Hoi An, we just kept running into each other! It was like a little mini community because it was such a small town. So even though I was travelling alone, I always had someone to hang out with. I love travelling!So here in Hoi An I havn't done much. I went to the My Son ruins and took a tour, wandered around Hoi An old town and took some pictures, got a suit made, and went to the beach. Unfortunately, I only got to spend an hour at the beach because my bus left at 2 o'clock and my suit fitting was at 10. Now that I'm in Hue, I kind of miss everyone! And the beach was so beautiful in Hoi An, almost as beautiful as Phuket and Ko Chang.
The only bad part about the trip to Hoi An was that the first night we were there, someone broke into Ash, Dan, and Elliott's room and made off with 3.5 million dong (about 200 bucks), two cameras, a cell phone, and a few other miscellaneous items. We know it was the hotel staff because we had only left for about a half hour to go swimming, and when we came back, the boys noticed there was an extra little door into their room and all of their stuff had been rifled through. When they tried to report it to the hotel, the man tried to say that they all left their stuff on the bus and that they should leave because they weren't the type of people they wanted at the hotel. And the police were entirely unhelpful. Needless to say, we left that night and went to stay in another hotel. It's just heartbreaking to know that all of your photos were lost. Elliott had a month's worth of photos on his camera, and I know Ash probably had a similar situation. Luckily, they didn't find Dan's camera. It just makes me sick that someone would want to do that. Why would you want to ruin someone's trip, no matter what your reasons are? Ugh.
I also get really sad when I think about all of the awesome people I meet on these trips, and the fact that I'm probably never going to see them again. They are all such cool people! Hopefully I'll be able to stay in contact with a few of them through Facebook.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Strange Horns in Vietnam
Good morning, Vietnam! If you havn't heard by now, I'm in Vietnam for a few days. I havn't finished blogging about Thailand yet, but I wanted to punch this blog out before I forgot.I've been in Hanoi, Vietnam for two days now, and there is an endless amount of funny horns on the cars here. Now, in Asia, drivers LOVE to use their vehicle horns. It's like they have a third hand that is permanently attached to their horn that presses it whenever it seems most convenient, which is ALL THE TIME. They honk if they're passing, if you're passing, if you're crossing the street in front of them, if they're coming up behind you, if you do something wrong, if you look at them funny... Yeah, you get the point.
Anyhoo, Vietnam is no exception. However, the difference is that in Vietnam, they don't just have the simple "meep meep" horn. No. I've heard anything from a train whistle, to a horn that sounds like it has the doppler effect built in, to something that sounds like tu-ku-tu-ku-tu-ku, with a decrescendo throughout. It gives me endless amusement to hear all of these new car horns. I'm pretty sure the Vietnamese people wonder who the crazy white girl is that is giggling all the way down the street. My favorite horn I've heard so far is a horn that has two tones and goes deet-deet-deet, deet-deet-deet, deet-deet-deet, deet-deet-deet. It never fails to make me giggle. Hehehehehehe...
Also, I've decided that I need to buy a sewing machine and start up a western show clothes business over here in Asia. I've been buying all kinds of Asian silks from China, Thailand, and Vietnam. I have enough now to make two showmanship outfits and four horsemanship shirts. But when am I going to use them? I won't get back until 2/3 of the way through the 2009 show season.... I just love picking out the silks, and I know that nobody in the US is going to have the beautiful patterns and colors that I picked out, not to mention the textures. I figure maybe if I start a business buying silk and making them into shirts, it's one way to earn a bunch more money while I'm here. I just don't know if I can bear to part with the silk that I've bought. Mostly because I know it will look stellar with Rodney...
Thursday, February 5, 2009
In which I almost die
Bankok, Thailand 2/2
Megan and I discovered a western grocery store above Central World Shopping Mall and stopped to have a look. Needless to say, being stuck in Asia for the last five months and then suddenly being surrounded by all the comforts of home, we went a little crazy. We wound up planning dinner around what we found at the store. So dinner was turning into soup and grilled cheese, with oatmeal cookies for dessert.
We had been staying at this apartment in Bangkok which has a stove. The stove had been working perfectly well for us for boiling water, so we assumed it would be ok to do what we wanted for dinner. I went to borrow a cookie sheet from the landlord, who when he found out what we were doing, warned us that he had never used the stove and didn't know if it worked. We should have heeded his advice.
Megan cooked her minestrone soup with no problem, and since she makes her grilled cheese with a mixture of the toaster and a microwave, she had no problem. But I like to use the stove to make my grilled cheese. The stove has four burners, so I figured it would be ok to use two of them, one for my soup and one for my sandwhich. I also turned on the oven to preheat. Everything seemed to be going well. My grilled cheese was cooking beautifully, and the tomato soup was just starting to steam. I was busy off to the side preparing the cookies and I noticed that my grilled cheese was done, so I reached over to turn off the burner. Click. BOOM!!!!!!!! The stove exploded! Sending a ball of flames in every direction. Think: small mushroom cloud of flame. The force was enough to blow the top of the stove off kilter (and I mean the ENTIRE top, not just the burner), blow the knobs off the stove, blow the oven door open, and disconnect the water pipes in the sink. Megan and I just stood there in shock for a few seconds. Did that seriously just happen? I hurriedly turned off everything I could before something else happend and went and got the landlord. He really didn't know what to do except clean up the mess I had made and offer to bake the cookies in his oven. I don't think I've ever felt so bad in my entire life. I think our little stove explosion was the landlord's last straw in a series of bad events. I went to tell him about the sink (we didn't find out about the sink disconnection until we started to wash dishes and water came pouring out the cupboard), and I found him with his head in his hands at the kitchen table. I didn't have the heart to tell him. He sent his boyfriend over to bring us the cookies and we told the boyfriend, who was able to reconnect the sink and turn off the gas. There was no way we wanted the gas on while we were still in the apartment.
A little later I happened to look down at my arm. There were blackened bits of something sitting on it. When I looked a little closer, I noticed it was my arm hair! The explosion took my arm hair off! I now look like a shaved poodle. Thank goodness I wasn't wearing a long sleeved t-shirt or something because I don't think I could have taken starting on fire along with the explosion.
The lesson I learned? Don't use gas stoves. They explode when you're least expecting it.
Megan and I discovered a western grocery store above Central World Shopping Mall and stopped to have a look. Needless to say, being stuck in Asia for the last five months and then suddenly being surrounded by all the comforts of home, we went a little crazy. We wound up planning dinner around what we found at the store. So dinner was turning into soup and grilled cheese, with oatmeal cookies for dessert.
We had been staying at this apartment in Bangkok which has a stove. The stove had been working perfectly well for us for boiling water, so we assumed it would be ok to do what we wanted for dinner. I went to borrow a cookie sheet from the landlord, who when he found out what we were doing, warned us that he had never used the stove and didn't know if it worked. We should have heeded his advice.
Megan cooked her minestrone soup with no problem, and since she makes her grilled cheese with a mixture of the toaster and a microwave, she had no problem. But I like to use the stove to make my grilled cheese. The stove has four burners, so I figured it would be ok to use two of them, one for my soup and one for my sandwhich. I also turned on the oven to preheat. Everything seemed to be going well. My grilled cheese was cooking beautifully, and the tomato soup was just starting to steam. I was busy off to the side preparing the cookies and I noticed that my grilled cheese was done, so I reached over to turn off the burner. Click. BOOM!!!!!!!! The stove exploded! Sending a ball of flames in every direction. Think: small mushroom cloud of flame. The force was enough to blow the top of the stove off kilter (and I mean the ENTIRE top, not just the burner), blow the knobs off the stove, blow the oven door open, and disconnect the water pipes in the sink. Megan and I just stood there in shock for a few seconds. Did that seriously just happen? I hurriedly turned off everything I could before something else happend and went and got the landlord. He really didn't know what to do except clean up the mess I had made and offer to bake the cookies in his oven. I don't think I've ever felt so bad in my entire life. I think our little stove explosion was the landlord's last straw in a series of bad events. I went to tell him about the sink (we didn't find out about the sink disconnection until we started to wash dishes and water came pouring out the cupboard), and I found him with his head in his hands at the kitchen table. I didn't have the heart to tell him. He sent his boyfriend over to bring us the cookies and we told the boyfriend, who was able to reconnect the sink and turn off the gas. There was no way we wanted the gas on while we were still in the apartment.
A little later I happened to look down at my arm. There were blackened bits of something sitting on it. When I looked a little closer, I noticed it was my arm hair! The explosion took my arm hair off! I now look like a shaved poodle. Thank goodness I wasn't wearing a long sleeved t-shirt or something because I don't think I could have taken starting on fire along with the explosion.
The lesson I learned? Don't use gas stoves. They explode when you're least expecting it.
Cabana boys are definitely all they're cracked up to be
Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand 1/30
Yesterday Megan and I decided to head out to Patong, the busiest and most touristy beach on Phuket. All of the beaches on Phuket have three rows of deck chairs up and down the beach, covering each square inch of sand. Heaven forbid the tourists don't have any place to sit. It's 100 Bhat to rent a deck chair and a beach umbrella.
Patong was by far the most crowded beach we had been to, but we found two beach chairs right up in front and sat down. I was pretty sunburned by this time, so I wanted to stay completely in the shade. We really picked the perfect place to sit, because the people who worked our little section of beach didn't even make us get out of our chair to move our umbrella. At exactly perfect intervals, when the sun had creeped up the deck chair about a foot, the cabana boy would be there, readjusting the umbrella so we'd stay in the shade. Talk about pampering the tourists.
So today, I was really too sunburned to go outside. Megan decided to go off on a tour since she didn't want to sit around with the sunburned gimp. I decided to go back to Patong and back to the same deck chairs because I liked that they moved the umbrellas for me. We had also finally figured out the bus schedule and I didn't want to risk paying 500 Bhat for a taxi back to Phuket town. So I got to Patong and went in search of my little deck chair spot. When I got near, the Cabana boy spotted me and jogged down to offer me a deck chair right up in front. The kid, I'm not going to lie, was damn cute. He noticed that Megan wasn't with me this time and asked me where she was. I told him that she had left me to go on a tour, so I was by myself today. He flashed me a dazzling smile and said "It's Ok, I'll take care of you while your friend is gone." When I pulled out my towel to set it on the chair, the kid took it from me and spread it out perfectly so I wouldn't have to do it. We sat and chatted for a few minutes before he headed back to work. He told me next time I came to Thailand I would have to stay on Patong so I didn't have to go back to Phuket Town so early (the last bus to Phuket Town left at 5). If only...
I was sad I didn't get to see him before I left the beach. He must have been off doing something else. If only I could go back to Phuket right now... just to see the Cabana boy. Damn.
Yesterday Megan and I decided to head out to Patong, the busiest and most touristy beach on Phuket. All of the beaches on Phuket have three rows of deck chairs up and down the beach, covering each square inch of sand. Heaven forbid the tourists don't have any place to sit. It's 100 Bhat to rent a deck chair and a beach umbrella.
Patong was by far the most crowded beach we had been to, but we found two beach chairs right up in front and sat down. I was pretty sunburned by this time, so I wanted to stay completely in the shade. We really picked the perfect place to sit, because the people who worked our little section of beach didn't even make us get out of our chair to move our umbrella. At exactly perfect intervals, when the sun had creeped up the deck chair about a foot, the cabana boy would be there, readjusting the umbrella so we'd stay in the shade. Talk about pampering the tourists.
So today, I was really too sunburned to go outside. Megan decided to go off on a tour since she didn't want to sit around with the sunburned gimp. I decided to go back to Patong and back to the same deck chairs because I liked that they moved the umbrellas for me. We had also finally figured out the bus schedule and I didn't want to risk paying 500 Bhat for a taxi back to Phuket town. So I got to Patong and went in search of my little deck chair spot. When I got near, the Cabana boy spotted me and jogged down to offer me a deck chair right up in front. The kid, I'm not going to lie, was damn cute. He noticed that Megan wasn't with me this time and asked me where she was. I told him that she had left me to go on a tour, so I was by myself today. He flashed me a dazzling smile and said "It's Ok, I'll take care of you while your friend is gone." When I pulled out my towel to set it on the chair, the kid took it from me and spread it out perfectly so I wouldn't have to do it. We sat and chatted for a few minutes before he headed back to work. He told me next time I came to Thailand I would have to stay on Patong so I didn't have to go back to Phuket Town so early (the last bus to Phuket Town left at 5). If only...I was sad I didn't get to see him before I left the beach. He must have been off doing something else. If only I could go back to Phuket right now... just to see the Cabana boy. Damn.
Sporadic Thailand posts, not in any particular order
I havn't been writing in my journal, but I want to get some of my experiences down, so I'll write them in journal entries as I think of them. So they aren't in chronological order like they normally are. So:
Bang Bao, Ko Chang, Thailand 2/5
Megan and I are sitting in an internet cafe in Bang Bao, a fishing village on the southern end of Ko Chang. Ko Chang is a small island in the Bay of Thailand on the eastern side. It's a lesser developed island than Phuket, which means there are less tourist traps. It's really nice. We wanted to come here for a good amount of R&R, a blessed relief after visiting Bankok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket, all really big tourist areas and really expensive.
We're staying in a little bungalow on a lagoon farther up the western coast. The lagoon empties out onto one of those beautiful beaches that you think to only see in pictures. You don't actually believe they exist. Or if they do, you don't know where. I read in one of the Lonely Planet guidebooks that though Thailand is small, it manages to snag most of the world's beautiful picturesque beaches. Our bungalow is kind of cute. It's one small bedroom with a fan and an attached, open-air bathroom. The real high point is that the porch is directly over the water of the lagoon, and you can see the cerulean blue ocean while sitting in the hammock that's strung between two of the deck posts. Megan and I have really just enjoyed sitting on the porch and reading.
Today I went out onto the beach and did a little suntanning, against my better judgement. The sunburns that I got on Phuket (I don't think I've been that badly burned since I was in Acapulco in Mexico my Jr. year of HS) have finally faded into a tan, but unfortunately have started to peel. Kind of disgusting, I know. I don't know if the tanning did any good though. I think I'm just a darker shade of pale.
I always thought I would never really like living on the ocean. All of the oceans I've been to seem dark and cold, and smell like fish. I have a really sensitive nose. But sitting on the beach here on Ko Chang makes me wish I could have a little villa overlooking this sea, with the mountainous jungle at your back. Think Swiss Family Robinson. The ocean is so beautiful, the sun is bright, the ocean is calming, and I could sit on the beach for hours with a good book and never feel like leaving. So long as there weren't 8 zillion tourists wandering around destroying my view.
We just got done eating at a little seafood restaurant out on the water in Bang Bao. Megan and I
both ordered crab, but neither of us has much experience eating it. It was a rather...messy...experience. Luckily I had the bright idea to bring along wet wipes, which I was really thankful for. Unfortunately, it seems like no matter where we are on Ko Chang, the sun is always setting behind a piece of land. I think we just need to go out on the furthest island to watch the sun set. However, we watched the sun set when we were on Phuket, but it really wasn't as spectacular as I was hoping. Anyways, we watched the sun set over the mountainous island while we had our fingers buried in a small crab. Bang Bao is nestled in a small harbor, so there were no waves, creating a quiet, lazy atmosphere, and quiet music wafted across the bay to where we could hear it. There is something about this island that just seems so peaceful.
If I ever come back to Thailand, this will be the first place I go. I'm hoping that tourism doesn't take hold here for a few more years, so the national park that is protected on this island stays exactly the same.
Bang Bao, Ko Chang, Thailand 2/5
Megan and I are sitting in an internet cafe in Bang Bao, a fishing village on the southern end of Ko Chang. Ko Chang is a small island in the Bay of Thailand on the eastern side. It's a lesser developed island than Phuket, which means there are less tourist traps. It's really nice. We wanted to come here for a good amount of R&R, a blessed relief after visiting Bankok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket, all really big tourist areas and really expensive.We're staying in a little bungalow on a lagoon farther up the western coast. The lagoon empties out onto one of those beautiful beaches that you think to only see in pictures. You don't actually believe they exist. Or if they do, you don't know where. I read in one of the Lonely Planet guidebooks that though Thailand is small, it manages to snag most of the world's beautiful picturesque beaches. Our bungalow is kind of cute. It's one small bedroom with a fan and an attached, open-air bathroom. The real high point is that the porch is directly over the water of the lagoon, and you can see the cerulean blue ocean while sitting in the hammock that's strung between two of the deck posts. Megan and I have really just enjoyed sitting on the porch and reading.
Today I went out onto the beach and did a little suntanning, against my better judgement. The sunburns that I got on Phuket (I don't think I've been that badly burned since I was in Acapulco in Mexico my Jr. year of HS) have finally faded into a tan, but unfortunately have started to peel. Kind of disgusting, I know. I don't know if the tanning did any good though. I think I'm just a darker shade of pale.
I always thought I would never really like living on the ocean. All of the oceans I've been to seem dark and cold, and smell like fish. I have a really sensitive nose. But sitting on the beach here on Ko Chang makes me wish I could have a little villa overlooking this sea, with the mountainous jungle at your back. Think Swiss Family Robinson. The ocean is so beautiful, the sun is bright, the ocean is calming, and I could sit on the beach for hours with a good book and never feel like leaving. So long as there weren't 8 zillion tourists wandering around destroying my view.
We just got done eating at a little seafood restaurant out on the water in Bang Bao. Megan and I
both ordered crab, but neither of us has much experience eating it. It was a rather...messy...experience. Luckily I had the bright idea to bring along wet wipes, which I was really thankful for. Unfortunately, it seems like no matter where we are on Ko Chang, the sun is always setting behind a piece of land. I think we just need to go out on the furthest island to watch the sun set. However, we watched the sun set when we were on Phuket, but it really wasn't as spectacular as I was hoping. Anyways, we watched the sun set over the mountainous island while we had our fingers buried in a small crab. Bang Bao is nestled in a small harbor, so there were no waves, creating a quiet, lazy atmosphere, and quiet music wafted across the bay to where we could hear it. There is something about this island that just seems so peaceful.If I ever come back to Thailand, this will be the first place I go. I'm hoping that tourism doesn't take hold here for a few more years, so the national park that is protected on this island stays exactly the same.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Edge
So my good friend, Edge came to vist right at the end of the semester. Yay!I really had a lot of fun while he was here. I showed him all of my favorite places in Chengde and Beijing, and I even took him to campus to meet my students. He got the real Chinese experience because he was able to capitalize on my four months' experience.
I took him to Donkey restaraunt, Hot Pot, Korean BBQ, New Red Lantern, and Summer Mountain resort here in Chengde. He also got a taste of the BCD and KTV. He met Winter, Arwen, Vince, Ted, and Michael, along with all of my students. Oh, and Mr. Lei and his son. Edge is an incredibly social person (I wish I could be as social as he is), and he had no trouble getting along with everyone he met.
In Beijing, he got to see the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, The Great Wall, an Acrobatics show, and some other cool stuff. We also got to hang out with Paul, Sarah, and Amit, whom I hadn't seen in a really long time. And we even made a day trip to Tianjin, where we saw a Chinese history museum and went roller blading.
All in all, I'm really glad he came. It's nice to have such a good friend come and visit so you can show them all that you've been experiencing. If you really want his true experience, I know he made a video of his adventures, and it's probably rather entertaining, so you should ask him for it.
Christmas
Another late post.
Christmas wasn't that bad this year, despite it being the first time I have ever missed being at home.
On Christmas Eve, five of us went to the Korean BBQ to get good food and french toast like we said we would. It was AWESOME as usual. I naturally wasn't drinking cuz I was on antibiotics and didn't want to screw anything up with the intestinal inflammation finally dying down. But we all had a good time. And I was able to talk to the 'rents and everyone else who was home on Skype, so it didn't seem like I was that far away.
Christmas Day I quick packed up all of the stuff for making the roast (which Rosie's husband, Ming helped me buy), grabbed the oven and headed off to Shijuan and Megan's apartment to start the cooking. Me, Megan, and two of Megan's students spent all day cooking, and I must say we turned out one heck of a Christmas dinner. We had the roast, mashed potatoes, honeyed carrots, green beans and mushrooms, fried pumpkin, rolls, and a few other miscellaneous items that everyone enjoyed immensely. Oh, and a HECK of a lot of beer. There wound up being ten of us at dinner, but only 9 ate since one had eaten earlier. After dinner, we all sat around drinking beer (minus me, antibiotics) until the students had to leave at 10 for curfew.
After the students left, there were five of us that participated in a gift exchange. It was basically a white elephant gift thing that you couldn't spend more than 20 qui on. I bought this hideous pillow with a giant face on it that was really soft. Hideous, but functional. Chris loved it immensely. I wound up getting this awesome pair of slippers with a giant pink pig on it. Yay pink!
Of course, getting home was a problem. The busses stop running to Shijuan at 7 pm, and we didn't leave until 1 am. Bad idea. There weren't even any taxis waiting outside the school gates. We (Me, Zach, and Matt) had to walk 3 miles in the freezing, biting cold carrying a guitar and an oven to even find us a taxi to take us the rest of the way back into town.
The next morning I was able to chat with the family again on Skype and watch them all open gifts, including the ones that I sent home for everyone.
All in all, it was a pretty memorable Christmas.
Christmas wasn't that bad this year, despite it being the first time I have ever missed being at home.
On Christmas Eve, five of us went to the Korean BBQ to get good food and french toast like we said we would. It was AWESOME as usual. I naturally wasn't drinking cuz I was on antibiotics and didn't want to screw anything up with the intestinal inflammation finally dying down. But we all had a good time. And I was able to talk to the 'rents and everyone else who was home on Skype, so it didn't seem like I was that far away.
Christmas Day I quick packed up all of the stuff for making the roast (which Rosie's husband, Ming helped me buy), grabbed the oven and headed off to Shijuan and Megan's apartment to start the cooking. Me, Megan, and two of Megan's students spent all day cooking, and I must say we turned out one heck of a Christmas dinner. We had the roast, mashed potatoes, honeyed carrots, green beans and mushrooms, fried pumpkin, rolls, and a few other miscellaneous items that everyone enjoyed immensely. Oh, and a HECK of a lot of beer. There wound up being ten of us at dinner, but only 9 ate since one had eaten earlier. After dinner, we all sat around drinking beer (minus me, antibiotics) until the students had to leave at 10 for curfew.
After the students left, there were five of us that participated in a gift exchange. It was basically a white elephant gift thing that you couldn't spend more than 20 qui on. I bought this hideous pillow with a giant face on it that was really soft. Hideous, but functional. Chris loved it immensely. I wound up getting this awesome pair of slippers with a giant pink pig on it. Yay pink!
Of course, getting home was a problem. The busses stop running to Shijuan at 7 pm, and we didn't leave until 1 am. Bad idea. There weren't even any taxis waiting outside the school gates. We (Me, Zach, and Matt) had to walk 3 miles in the freezing, biting cold carrying a guitar and an oven to even find us a taxi to take us the rest of the way back into town.
The next morning I was able to chat with the family again on Skype and watch them all open gifts, including the ones that I sent home for everyone.
All in all, it was a pretty memorable Christmas.
Chinese Hospitals really aren't that scary
This was supposed to be posted at the end of December, sorry about that.
Chinese hospitals really aren't as scary as they sound. But let me start from the beginning.
I woke up Sunday morning (the Sunday before Christmas) with a horrible stomach ache. I was pretty nautious and my stomach was sore. It was painful just sitting there. Because I have an overactive imagination, I started thinking it was probably appendicitis. So I called my trusty family doctor...i.e...my sister Erin. I told her why I was calling and she did some quick diagnostics over the phone. Basically when I jumped up and down it made the pain worse, and when I pushed on my stomach and let go really fast, it really hurt. So even though the pain was on the wrong side for appendicitis, I decided it was probably a good idea to go to the hospital. Yikes! Chinese hospitals! *bites fingernails* Nobody hears anything good about Chinese hospitals! Or was it Chinese prisons?
The first person I called was Zach, because I figured he would want to be in on this and it would be nice to have there with me. Of course, it's 8 am at this time, and Zach had been out most of the night before. I'm pretty sure his thought process when he picked up the phone for my call was "what the F*** are you calling me at this hour for?" Of course, once I told him what was going on and what I was planning, he was in my apartment in less than five minutes. Yay Zach!
Then I called up my good friend, Mr. Lei. I figured he would be the best person to go with me to the hospital since a) he is the most well-connected person I've ever met and b) he's experienced with medical terminology having studied in Australia for 7 years and writing a book about English-Chinese medical terms. Mr. Lei was naturally worried when I told him what I though the problem was and he told me he was going to make a few phone calls because it was Sunday. A few minutes later, Mr. Lei calls me and tells me that he has called the VP of the hospital, and is on his way to pick me up. He then shows up in a taxi because he doesn't want me to walk the two blocks to the Affiliated Hospital of CDMC.
So we get to the hospital, and despite the fact that there is a bunch of construction going on (and not behind closed curtains, I might add), the hospital is actually quite clean. It looks pretty much like a hospital in the states would except with a bunch of Chinese people running around and no carpet. Oh, and no waiting rooms, and everything is called the something something ward.
For the next few hours, I proceeded to be poked and prodded by at least four different doctors. And there is no privacy, so no matter where I was, people were doing double takes past whatever room I was in and then would walk very slowly so they could point and stare. I had an ultrasound done, to which I pointed out to my sister that if anything showed up on an ultrasound, it would be another baby Jesus. I had to take a piss test (just to be sure there was no baby Jesus), had some blood samples run which showed high on the WBC and a few other things, and ran a CT scan, just to be sure. They then called in the head of surgury to come look at my CT scans on his day off. We also took the staff elevator, so we didn't have to take the crowded public elevator.
All in all, they ruled it "intestinal inflammation," and sent me home with a round of antibiotics. The total cost was just over 500 CNY, which translates to about 80 USD. And that includes the antibiotics and maximum strength painkillers. Oh, and Mr. Lei got my bloodwork done for free because he knew the nurse working and the blook counter.
So my ruling on Chinese hospitals is this: they aren't scary if you go to the good ones, and you have Mr. Lei to accompany you. And hey, you might just get the royal treatment.
Chinese hospitals really aren't as scary as they sound. But let me start from the beginning.
I woke up Sunday morning (the Sunday before Christmas) with a horrible stomach ache. I was pretty nautious and my stomach was sore. It was painful just sitting there. Because I have an overactive imagination, I started thinking it was probably appendicitis. So I called my trusty family doctor...i.e...my sister Erin. I told her why I was calling and she did some quick diagnostics over the phone. Basically when I jumped up and down it made the pain worse, and when I pushed on my stomach and let go really fast, it really hurt. So even though the pain was on the wrong side for appendicitis, I decided it was probably a good idea to go to the hospital. Yikes! Chinese hospitals! *bites fingernails* Nobody hears anything good about Chinese hospitals! Or was it Chinese prisons?
The first person I called was Zach, because I figured he would want to be in on this and it would be nice to have there with me. Of course, it's 8 am at this time, and Zach had been out most of the night before. I'm pretty sure his thought process when he picked up the phone for my call was "what the F*** are you calling me at this hour for?" Of course, once I told him what was going on and what I was planning, he was in my apartment in less than five minutes. Yay Zach!
Then I called up my good friend, Mr. Lei. I figured he would be the best person to go with me to the hospital since a) he is the most well-connected person I've ever met and b) he's experienced with medical terminology having studied in Australia for 7 years and writing a book about English-Chinese medical terms. Mr. Lei was naturally worried when I told him what I though the problem was and he told me he was going to make a few phone calls because it was Sunday. A few minutes later, Mr. Lei calls me and tells me that he has called the VP of the hospital, and is on his way to pick me up. He then shows up in a taxi because he doesn't want me to walk the two blocks to the Affiliated Hospital of CDMC.
So we get to the hospital, and despite the fact that there is a bunch of construction going on (and not behind closed curtains, I might add), the hospital is actually quite clean. It looks pretty much like a hospital in the states would except with a bunch of Chinese people running around and no carpet. Oh, and no waiting rooms, and everything is called the something something ward.
For the next few hours, I proceeded to be poked and prodded by at least four different doctors. And there is no privacy, so no matter where I was, people were doing double takes past whatever room I was in and then would walk very slowly so they could point and stare. I had an ultrasound done, to which I pointed out to my sister that if anything showed up on an ultrasound, it would be another baby Jesus. I had to take a piss test (just to be sure there was no baby Jesus), had some blood samples run which showed high on the WBC and a few other things, and ran a CT scan, just to be sure. They then called in the head of surgury to come look at my CT scans on his day off. We also took the staff elevator, so we didn't have to take the crowded public elevator.
All in all, they ruled it "intestinal inflammation," and sent me home with a round of antibiotics. The total cost was just over 500 CNY, which translates to about 80 USD. And that includes the antibiotics and maximum strength painkillers. Oh, and Mr. Lei got my bloodwork done for free because he knew the nurse working and the blook counter.
So my ruling on Chinese hospitals is this: they aren't scary if you go to the good ones, and you have Mr. Lei to accompany you. And hey, you might just get the royal treatment.
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