A Hong Kong Holiday: Part 2

It's not uncommon to see "mature adult" Chinese out walking in the morning, or doing tai chi, or other forms of non-strenuous exercises like where they slap their legs and jiggle their arms around. So to start our day out right, we visited Hong Kong Park on Cotton Tree Dr.

We made a friend right away.

Well good day to you, too, Mr. Tony McTuppence!

And then we were reminded of two of the reasons why we love Hong Kong:

even the computer is smiling!

free potable water from a water fountain!

I hadn't thought of it much, but I rarely see water fountains in mainland China. Lapping from a drinking fountain took a lil getting used to.

Then we ran into a wedding party and found that some people don't know what's appropriate to wear to wedding photos.

I guess restrained yelling is the new smile? Well, at least they're happy, God love 'em.

We finally stumbled upon a small group of tai chi-ers moving soooo slowly.

Wait a sec.. if Kung Fu Panda has those animals (tiger, monkey, etc.) that inspired fighting styles, what animals inspire Tai Chi? slugs? sloths?

Okay, to be fair, I'll bet Tai Chi takes lots of concentration and control.

Then we found an aviary and took photos of birds like they were going extinct and we had the last two cameras on EARTH. Well, they're so colorful and potentially cuddly! Actually, I did have chickens growing up, and I do remember being able to pick them up and hug them. really. And they were kinda soft/squishy in that raw chicken breast sort of way. The ducks weren't as friendly, but we could catch Gus because he had the gimp leg. But it didn't really count as cuddling because you know that he was holding his breath and not hugging back.

BIRDS:

These guys had a yin-yang thing going on. Or love triangle.
wow that middle bird just became much creepier.

when I do the Velociraptor, I try to arch my back like this, but I just can't get it. This guy's a master.

Upon leaving the magical park, we found Man Ho Temple. This was really cool because people were actually using it. I mean, I think it's great to keep temples around for cultural heritage, but it was nice to see so many people actually exercising spirituality there.

and there was LOTS of incense. My eyes burned a lil.

coils of incense hanging from the ceiling.

burning coil of incense.

example of incense usage.

Also, one wall consisted of what looked like a bunch of drawers:

Anyone have any guesses as to the special purpose(s) of the drawers/wall?

A Hong Kong Holiday: Part 1

A few months back, I decided that I would spend Christmas in China because I only get a few days off (no Christmas vacation in the PRC!) and because... well, I should try to see as much of China during my year here. But my favorite time of year is easily Christmas (my mom calls me "Mr. Christmas" and thinks I'm special), so I looked for a place that would be the most Christmas-y. Because Hong Kong was a British colony for some time, I figured that the Hong Kongers might have the most festivity. Tanu and I bought plane tickets and booked a room in a very sketchy guest house, and we were all set to enjoy this part of the world's take on the Holiday.

It was very interesting to see the Western influence on China. For example, breakfast wasn't restricted to noodles and baozi, but there were quite a few British-inspired dishes.








After breakfast, we ventured to Stanley peninsula to enjoy beaches! The weather was much warmer there than Beijing, but still jacket-worthy, especially with the humidity and breeze. But it was gwageous! Of course, just like food deprivation while backpacking can make even crackers the acme of deliciousness, living in a city lacking natural landscapes made Hong Kong, with its steep mountains and water features, even more beautiful.

actual footage from street in Hong Kong

We first noticed here a perk of visiting Hong Kong- free wifi in many public places! and not just free, but unrestricted wifi! That's right- I could access facebook without my VPN! simple pleasures, simple pleasures. I know it sounds silly, but the Western influence on Hong Kong's culture and architecture, coupled with little things like free wifi and the right to caricature leaders, gave Hong Kong and almost palpable feeling of freedom in the air (seriously, at one point we remarked that it even smelled like freedom). That's not to say that Beijing isn't a great city and place to live, but, well, some things are different from the way I've been conditioned. I'll just leave it at that.










Back to Stanley. With the waves crashing on the rocky shore, I couldn't help but re-create a Disney scene. And Tanu tried her hand at abstract modeling.

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llkjacxRY91qgyxlto1_400.jpg

and then there was an ICE CREAM TRUCK. (yes, the ice cream tasted like freedom)

with red, white, and blue sprinkles!

Tanu and I enjoyed a few hours of meandering around the southern part of Hong Kong island. The area was very charming, with winding, narrow roads and a unique cross between British and Chinese influences. For example, we would see houses and storefronts that reminded me so much of establishments I'd seen in England, but then there'd be Chinese characters on mailboxes and signs. After checking out one of the 70 temples dedicated to the Queen of Heaven, we stumbled upon a sailing and Dragon Boat racing club. Before heading back to the northern part of the island.






















We couldn't seem to get our phone antennae hooked up to the service provider in Hong Kong, nor could we figure out the free wifi on the bus, so it took us longer than expected to get to the peak that overlooks Victoria Harbor. Following a short and chilly hike around the crown of the peak, we went to the top of a mall for a photo shoot! okay, it's totally cliche to take this photo, but how could I resist?

Delicious Dish

I've been pleased with myself for not getting sick of Chinese food. Well, occasionally Tanu and I get into a downward spiral where we take turns describing deliciously decadent Western food (we basically hypnotized ourselves before Thanksgiving with lush descriptions of turkey, gravy, stuffing, cheesy corn casseroles, baked sweet potatoes dotted with marshmallows and soaked in a dizzying butter and brown sugar glaze..... oh, there I go again). Anyway, aside from my breakfast of banana+snickers bar, I'm perfectly happy eating lunches and dinners of Easter cuisine.

But if you know me, you know that I love sweets. So much so that I used to enter into baking competitions at the county fair in my early teens. And I'm sorry, but I'm just not in love with most of the baked goods that China offers.

To remedy this, I've taken it upon myself to teach my lab mates how to make several desserts. Of course, this facade of "cultural exchange" is really just an excuse for my self-indulgent behavior. But so far, we've enjoyed making--and eating-- lemon microwave lava cake, chocolate fudge, chocolate banana cream pie, and last night we made chocolate chunk cookies (thanks for the recipe, Jess!)! (now that pizza is considered a vegetable, perhaps I can petition for chocolate to be a food group?) Before last night, I was restricted to the dorm-provided hot plate and microwave, but I recently discovered that my neighbor owns two ovens! This opens a world of possibilities.

Food prep area

Carnage from Jie's chocolate chipping

In order to make these Western desserts, we usually have to venture into the import foods section of various supermarkets. A bag of ho-hum chocolate chips can cost up to $7.50, so we bought Dove and Chinese chocolate bars and chopped them up. And vanilla extract is nowhere to be found, but the sugar cane-derived sugar isn't as purified as it is in the US, so I imagine that extra lil flavoring supplements the lack of vanilla. Because I lack most of a kitchen, I get to be creative: my bathroom sink doubles as a dish washer and a cooling station. And I use my microwave cake tub as my mixing bowl. Considering my resourcefulness, I like to think I'd do very well in the zombie apocalypse.

if Kramer can make salad in the shower,
I can cool cookies in the bathroom.

In the end, the cookies turned out wonderful. Actually, due to an unknown temperature gradient in the oven, one pan of cookies turned out very crispy (would I still eat them? yes.), but most of them turned out ooey-gooey delicious. My lab mates enjoyed them too, and conveniently the overcooked cookies resemble the store-bought sad excuses for cookies that they're used to, so we have a case of Jack Sprat and his wife.

Inner mongolia - Hohhot

Towards the end of October, I was getting a little travel lusty and convinced Warren to take a weekend trip.

Inner mongolia, a north-eastern province of China with its grasslands and deserts seemed inviting enough.

I did enlist the help of a travel agent who said that we would live in yurks at the grassland, see Mongolian people dancing at the bonfire and other fun things. We did know it was cold and we wouldn't see rolling green grasslands but we hadn't imagined quite this:

We arrived at an ungodly hour at 4am at Hohhot (pronounced as Hu-huh-haw-tuh). Then proceeded to the "grasslands". It was freezing and I was shivering and just wanted to go back and sit in the van (which we did after sunrise). The whole dew freezing at dawn made for this empty beer bottle to look artistic.

We did see the sunrise and our over enthusiastic guide took a picture of Warren and I holding the glowing sun !

The rest of the grassland day was kind of a let down though. We saw some horses but didn't ride them because everything was barren. We had lunch with the Mongolians (no fire included) and I tasted some of their wine which I think was 50% ethanol (*gags*). Due to the freezing conditions, our yurk stay was canceled and we proceeded to the city. Warren and I decided to just go exploring the town on our own and that was quite fun. We saw a temple, giant statues, walked around in the market etc.

But the highlight of the day was going through the local vegetable market and looking at the ginormous produce. We were amazed at the sizes of scallions and carrots and onions they were selling. See for yourself:

Later we had dinner at a non-English speaking place with a Chinese menu. It was quite eventful as the adjoining table had 6 boisterous middle-aged men whose goal was to make conversation with us. Warren and I tell Chinese people that we don't speak Chinese usually as an opening line. That is a good way to stop them from bombarding us with questions. In reality we know a tiny bit of survival Chinese but our vocabulary being limited to about 20 words or so, doesn't really help us in carrying out social conversations. 

However, this dinner group was not deterred by our inability to speak the language. I think they believed that if they talked "louder" and "used more words", we would eventually understand what they are saying. They were sorely mistaken though. I am still not sure what they were trying to say. They gave up eventually, but ended up taking pictures with Warren and I (more with Warren, him being white and all) as a consolation prize. 

It was a quaint town, not touristy at all. We went through the entire day and almost the whole weekend, without seeing any foreigners !

I was going to write about going to the desert the next day, but that is going to be a tribute to Warren's jumping picture modeling skillz, so it shall be a separate post, hopefully soon.

At least there are urinal barriers

I've thought about writing this post frequently. You ask, "How frequently?" Well, just about every time I use the restroom.

That's right, this is a bathroom post!

But don't worry, I'll keep it clean. Even though I've used many toilets ranging in sanitation level and primitiveness (and I have pictures to prove it), this will be SFW. And besides, I'm still gagging from the brain-eating incident.

On a side note, I used to ask for the bathroom by saying "xishouji"... which as it turns out is "wash the cell phone." The correct translation is "xishoujian." That explains the many puzzled looks.

Anyway.

I'm not a huge fan of "How I Met Your Mother", but Tanu had me watch one episode a while ago. In it, a couple gets locked in a bathroom and, well, eventually one has to "use the facilities." The other says with some solemnity that they've crossed a threshold. Now, growing up in a family of eight, I can say that my personal boundaries are probably smaller and less rigid when it comes to multiple-person use by both genders. So I don't think the scenario in HIMYM would bother me that much, but it does describe an underlying averseness that many Americans. That is, that boys and girls shouldn't be able to see into each others' bathrooms, especially while they're being used. To that end, we have elaborate mazes in the US at the entrance to bathrooms to prevent forbidden sight. It makes taking rolling luggage into airport bathrooms really difficult.

If the bathrooms in my building are any indication of widespread feelings on the subject, the Chinese don't have the same qualms.

How about a picture:

Oh! uh. heyyy....

Like I mentioned, I thought about this post very frequently.

The adjacent women's bathroom is no better:

oh yeah, they're eastern-style toilets. at least I'm staying flexible.

And the doors to the bathroom are often propped open for ventilation. 

Oh well. Like I said, it really doesn't bother me, especially if it doesn't bother them. But just like when you're camping and go off into the bushes to "see a man about a horse" while still visible to your friends, I half expect to hear someone jeer, "Hey Warren, what are you doing??"

erhu ready for your closeup?

Recently, I serendipitously discovered a local erhu teacher. Following a brief intro lesson, I decided to take several lessons. Lessons haven't begun yet because of National Holiday/parents visiting/lack of erhu. 

But the other day I ventured into a musical district in Beijing that was really interesting: after exiting the subway, I found a street lined with musical instrument shops. Each specialized in different types, such as brass, violins, drums, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, and traditional Chinese instruments. It was really quite a sight to see!

After a bit of inquiry from several shops to get a feel for prices and characteristics, I spoke with a shopkeeper through broken Chinese and English and explained my musical background and need in an erhu. I tried out few and settled on a beauty with a nice open tone. Of course I bargained a little, but held back in an attempt to keep it classy. 

When I took it back to lab, I played the Chinese National Anthem and song from Phantom of the Opera for lab mates. At first some didn't recognize their anthem, which could either because they didn't expect it from me or because of my lack of ability...

Anyway, here are a few photos:

Get in my belly!... please?

The night started out innocently enough: Lab mates decided to go to a national hot pot chain. We've been a few times and it is de-lish. You make your own dipping sauce (my specialty is a sesame peanut sauce with a health dose of garlic) and then they bring out lots of raw meats and fresh veggies that you then cook in spiced broths and eat, family-style.

pretty raw meats!

they even have in-your-face noodle making!

I usually stick to the beef muscle (you wonder why I have to specify "muscle"?) strips and pâté along with potatoes, mushrooms, noodles, etc.

water lilies are edible! surprise!

Somebody usually orders cow stomach (see?) and coagulated duck blood slices, and I will nibble on something of it partly to be courteous and partly to provide my Chinese friends with look-at-the-foreigner-gagging-on-food-we-think-is-totally-normal entertainment.

Well this night, I decided to embrace the culture. Afterall, I've been here three months (!).

Down went the coagulated blood.

I slurped up the prickly stomach.

Up next was new.... duck colon?? Well, "when in Rome..."

I just... really hope they clean these things well.

But then came the crowning event of the night....

no caption can do this justice.

oh yes. brains. pig brains. Now, I'm sure I've eaten brains in things before (let's start--and stop--at sausages), but never a mouthful of pulsating, spongy brain. After it sat in the boiling broth for ~10 min to kill any parasites (wait... can that denature prions too?..) they pulled the ladle out and I ripped a chunk off with my chopsticks.

open the grub gate!

Sadly, it took me a few seconds to gather myself. When I gingerly popped it into my mouth, I chewed a few times and it wasn't as chewy as I thought... I guess the other times I've played with brain was in physiology when it was fixed with PFA. But actually the feathery texture just made it worse so I swallowed it whole and willed it down my throat.

One (rather large) bite was all I was up for, but Jinyang devoured the other half of the brain by himself.

imagine your teeth cutting into the frontal lobe...

I stuck mostly to the safe grub for the rest of the night and thought frequently--while my sweet potatoes cooked in the spiced broth spiked with residual brain juices--of the blood, stomach, colon, and brain soup digesting in my own stomach.

Phase 4 trial of a traditional Chinese medicine

A few weeks ago, I noticed a few reddish splotches on my midsection. They weren't raised or itchy, so I figured they were just bruises (you know how much I frolic about). But they didn't go away. In fact, they've slowly multiplied across my body. (to clear up any over-exaggeration, I really only have about 15 spots)

Keeping it rated PG, here's a photo of one splotch on my arm:

splotch.

I've tried figuring out the cause, but I'm not allergic to anything (thanks for the genes and upbringing, mom and dad!). It very likely could've been bed bug bites from Jiuzhaigou. However, they aren't irritated at all, I don't see any bite sites, and I think a few developed weeks after Jiuzhaigou. I am getting pretty old, but I don't think age spots should set in this young.

Anyway, I sent above photo to my fam, and I was recommended antihistamine and hydrocortisone. An overnight benedryl didn't help, so I visited the pharmacy on campus with lab mate Jie.

No hydrocortisone- apparently you have to go to a doctor for that (maybe they thought I meant cortisone shots?). So after some fun translation games, we settled on a traditional Chinese medicine.

my tube 'o TCM with lab notes in background. I'm so studious.

I really have no clue what this is, except that it smells kinda like icy hot... which paradoxically makes the splotch itch (or is it "ironic"? someone text Alanis Morissette for me). Also, the pharmacist said "no spicy food", but considering my addiction fondness for gong bao ji ding, I'm not sure how great my patient compliance will be.

Beijing Halloweeeeen

It's 11:30pm and I have to present in lab tomorrow. I have no slides completed. But I had planned on spending three hours tonight doing flow cytometry until my advisor told me that an alternative--and much faster/cheaper--method for determining nanoparticle uptake would suffice. So it's like I have three FREE hours tonight --> I'm writing a blog post instead of finishing my presentation three hours early and actually sleeping tonight.

It's Halloween! I've heard that eastern Beijing (the international part of town) actually has festivities, but at Beida, I haven't seen so much as a fake cobweb. I don't even love Halloween that much (though my favorite costumes growing up include X-Men's Cyclops where I wore sweats and safety goggles, a homemade zombie outfit [it was awesome to rip up an old suit], the hiker guy from Double Rainbow, and "change you can believe in" where I glued coins to my shirt.) but it was a great opportunity to share a lil culture with my friends. and eat copious amounts of candy.

Kai and I rode bikes to the vast underground supermarket, Carrefour, in search of pumpkins. Not totally surprising, they had no jack-o-lantern-sized pumpkins, but just baby squashes for eating. Actually, at first we couldn't find those and considered carving watermelons (which actually might be awesome/more delicious). I also raided the candy section and got gummies and chocolate.

Ok, I'll just stop writing and just post the photos so that I can work on my presentation.

Lemon cake. "But wait," you say, "there aren't ovens in China!" Well this is a microwave lava cake!!!

Room mate Bobby (yes, the 2nd Asian Bobby room mate I've had), Tanu, Lab mates Kai and Jie.

spook.y.

Lab mate Kai.

Then we watched a scary movie. No, not The Grudge (for obvious reasons).

Happy Halloween!