Thursday, August 14, 2008
Saturday, August 09, 2008
3 showers a day. cold.
i'm feeling slightly disgusted with the media hype about the 5-ring circus. there are hella foreigners here! who the hell was talking shit about all the denied visas? wait, that was me. well, i should know better than to listen to the hype. although i guess trevor had a nightmare of a time getting his visa extended to a pathetic july 15. they must've kicked out all the dj types scraping by on F visas in between visits to hong kong every 30 days and replaced them with a shitload of smiling faces and happy families, because that's all i'm seeing on the street. i barely see chinese people. in a city of 17 million, that's saying something.
i finally watched american psycho. i never really wanted to see the movie, mostly because i'm a culture snob and prefer to read the book over seeing the movie while sticking my nose in the air, but also because christian bale weirds me out. i'll have to get over that when i go home and see batman, but meanwhile... i don't know if it was the msg-laden (leaving in a month! gotta bone up on msg before i leave!) dumplings we had for dinner, but that movie was making me feel dizzy and ill. and it wasn't nearly as nasty as the book.
who knows.
it's thundering like a mother outside and i hope the weather clears up for tomorrow's brunch 'n pool session. we've grabbed about 8 friends, rented a van, and are heading to le meridien on the outskirts of shanghai for the all-you-can eat brunch and pool usage.
i should start a new section for the shit i'm about to dive into (pun intended).
here we go.
ahem.
pools in china (where the fuck is the underline function?)
are either dirty or have about 100000000000000000000000000000 people in them. i am not fucking kidding you. see pic below of madhouse fake beach pool thing called dino beach in shanghai (totally ripped the photo from the sh municipal government page, sorry), aka hell on earth. therefore it stands to reason that any decent pool in shanghai is closely guarded by strict-ass, borderline ridonkulous regulations for entry. normally sherry and i circumvent the workout aspect of pool access by going to jill's place, which has a clean 50 m pool, usually fairly empty. still, we had to promise our first born children to gain access. but for the summer, all of us americans want that vegas pool party, strawberry daiquiri, my-flag-is-up, hawaiian tropics kind of pool thing. and we are sadly deprived.
so we hatched a plan, resourceful vitamin d-hungry alcoholic girls that we are. tomorrow we are going to le meridien, boondocks version (vs. the one centrally located), and will plunk down rmb 318 for free flow beer and wine (including sparkling, you know that got my ass on board) and all you can eat, which in shanghai usually includes beijing duck, foie gras, dim sum, and sashimi. plus you get all day access to an actual outdoor pool. i am not sure how the mosquito thing will work out, but i'm bringing my 7% deet. i suspect it will be super crowded and less than clean, but shit, don't know till you try, right?
*end rant*
jesus, my place is being blown to pieces. and now its pouring rain. this shit better clear up before we leave tomorrow.
i'm normally happy about getting a little bit of color, but i'm kinda eh about getting darker in my old age. is it the whitening products endlessly marketed in asia finally getting to me? doubtful. i went and became one of those people that burns a lot after my teenage years. it's the weirdest thing. the minute you go and stop swimming outdoors year round, you turn into a differently-complected person. my dad was kind enough to point out that i was 'really pale!' when he came a-visiting. thanks, dad. i would have felt strangely insulted about that in my younger day, but now it's kinda like, meh. i work inside all day. it happens.
Friday, August 08, 2008
lucky day triple 8!
see ruby's:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/dining/dessert.htm
so today is the commencement of the summer games! the whole city (country, i dare to extend) is buzzing with excitement. most companies have given their employees half days off. true to the nature of my business, my company did not. hence i am writing this.
anyway, this is short one because i am sneaking out soon to run around the bund and sniff out the good parties for later tonight with sherry, but we had cake to celebrate the olympics (cheaper than letting your employees leave at 1 pm?) and it was the shit.
you have to be a fan of the chinese cake variety - super soft cake, cream, and either fruit or chestnut filling - ruby is your girl. i don't like cake, but chinese cakes remind me of birthdays when the only cake i would entertain would be chestnut-filled cakes topped with those ubiquitous but somehow tantalizing mandarin oranges. i love those.
anyways, i'm off to rage.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/dining/dessert.htm
so today is the commencement of the summer games! the whole city (country, i dare to extend) is buzzing with excitement. most companies have given their employees half days off. true to the nature of my business, my company did not. hence i am writing this.
anyway, this is short one because i am sneaking out soon to run around the bund and sniff out the good parties for later tonight with sherry, but we had cake to celebrate the olympics (cheaper than letting your employees leave at 1 pm?) and it was the shit.
you have to be a fan of the chinese cake variety - super soft cake, cream, and either fruit or chestnut filling - ruby is your girl. i don't like cake, but chinese cakes remind me of birthdays when the only cake i would entertain would be chestnut-filled cakes topped with those ubiquitous but somehow tantalizing mandarin oranges. i love those.
anyways, i'm off to rage.
Monday, August 04, 2008
for lack of thai oil...
at saadiq's suggestion about thai oil for my purple, lumpy, swollen legs, i remembered these little bottles that came free with my economy-sized white flower oil that i love so much: hoe hin strain relief!
it doesn't smell 'horrid,' as i guess thai oil should, i hope that isn't indicative of its weaker healing powers. when chinese medicine is concerned, if it doesn't stink to high heaven, it's somewhat suspect in its effectiveness. it's making my leg tingle and feel warm, which i guess is better than nothing. it smells cinnamon-y.
i can also douse myself as i see fit since i'm not at the office and vulnerable to 'you smell like an old person' comments.
switzerland
trev sent around this short piece in response to western media outlets covering china for the olympics. he was crafting a mass email masterpiece to precede the head-nodding goodness of the piece itself, but decided that it spoke for itself and needed no introduction.
“Reporter Guidelines for Covering the Beijing Olympics. 1) On arrival, set the scene by saying a few nice things about the infrastructure—the high rises and the multilane highways, the interchanges. Developmenty sort of stuff. 2) Make an amusing, self-deprecating comment about your inability to speak or read the funny language they have in China. Play down the fact that you are dependent on a translator for quotes and newspaper reading. Never admit in print to getting story ideas or borrowing quotes from the China Daily. 3) Get story ideas and borrow quotes from the China Daily. Make sure you do this discreetly. For background only. 4) Now for reportage. After saying the nice things about the new buildings, get your translator to find a Beijing yam seller whose slum was knocked down to make way for the Olympic badminton hall. Do a few paras on him, and how all the money thrown at the Games is not helping the poor, and how terrible the huge income gap is. Make sure you write at least three times as much about the yam seller whose slum was pulled down as you do about all the new apartments, new metro lines, the growth in car ownership, the expanding health insurance and all the other good news about China that nobody in the west really wants to know about. 5) Say how horrible the air in Beijing is, even if it isn’t on the days you are there. Everybody says Beijing air is horrible, so play along. 6) The political bit. Interview a token party member, but reword him subtly to make it sound like he is just spouting the party line. Bend the translator’s words to fit—it’ll be rubbish English anyway. (Ditto in all quote treatment). Then find a good Chinese, one who is fluent in English, has lived in America or Britain, and is prodemocracy. Give them lots of space, let them sing. Martin Lee types, but preferably younger and female, for the mugshot. If you can get an interview with the Olympic artist, Ai-whatsisname, who is an anti-Commie quote machine, give him full throttle. Hopefully, he hasn’t been arrested yet.
Lastly, please remember: Chinese who love their country are called “nationalists.” Never use this word for Americans, French, Tibetans and other civilized peoples who love their country or territory. When demonstrators protest over Tibet they are acting in a heartfelt, spontaneous way, waving pretty flags you would be happy to see woven into your granny’s bedspread. When Chinese counter-demonstrate, they are always “bussed in,” the mood is “ugly”, and they are draped in intimidating red flags that can be made to look a bit Hitler Jugend-ish with the right kind of photo. (They probably did arrive in buses as this is the cheapest way of moving numbers of not-very-well-off people around, but you don’t need to prove the insinuation that the regime laid on the vehicles). Beijing is always a “regime,” by the way, and is not to be confused with western “governments.” (But: Hong Kong is an exception. Because it was under benign, enlightened British dictatorship for a long time, it cannot be a “regime.” “Regime” only applies to dictatorships in rubbish countries).That’s about it. Don’t be deceived by all that friendly smiling and optimism, that’s just a front. It’s your job, with your long days of experience of the Far East and your fluency in a language spoken by nearly 0.005% of the locals, to get under the radar and ferret out the truth. Did I mention how bad the air in Beijing is?”
http://time-blog.com/china_blog/2008/07/a_reporters_guide_to_covering.html?xid=rss-china
unfortunately, the author is unnamed, but it's pretty much A: what i'm seeing in the major papers i read online, and B: true from the perspective of us living here. i do realize that there is a back story behind my dvd store griping and other spoiled-expat behaviors. while there is undoubtedly a great deal of people who have been ousted from major cities or are being pressured from the government to take their small businesses elsewhere, it was a good reality check for me because we've also been seeing some good stuff go down. these include traffic guards at most intersections, lowering the likelihood that you will be mowed down either by a scooter, bicycle, or a car; government reinforcement of the haphazard air flight departure times on all airlines (it's common to sit on the tarmac for 3-4 hours); the awesome transportation changes that have gone down nearly overnight (beijing's T3 airport building, the high speed trains to neighboring cities, the underwhelming but convenient longest-bridge-in-the-world from shanghai to ningbo, and the upcoming bullet train between shanghai and beijing, the overall impressive list of buildings that have been erected in beijing like the CCTV tower and the egg / nest / water cube) and etc. some of these achievements cannot be attributed to the olympics alone, but almost certainly to the 1-2 punch of the olympics and the 2010 world expo in shanghai.
anyways, thanks trev for finding that.
p.s. pre-olympics we've also been able to view blogspot urls without any problems, too.
“Reporter Guidelines for Covering the Beijing Olympics. 1) On arrival, set the scene by saying a few nice things about the infrastructure—the high rises and the multilane highways, the interchanges. Developmenty sort of stuff. 2) Make an amusing, self-deprecating comment about your inability to speak or read the funny language they have in China. Play down the fact that you are dependent on a translator for quotes and newspaper reading. Never admit in print to getting story ideas or borrowing quotes from the China Daily. 3) Get story ideas and borrow quotes from the China Daily. Make sure you do this discreetly. For background only. 4) Now for reportage. After saying the nice things about the new buildings, get your translator to find a Beijing yam seller whose slum was knocked down to make way for the Olympic badminton hall. Do a few paras on him, and how all the money thrown at the Games is not helping the poor, and how terrible the huge income gap is. Make sure you write at least three times as much about the yam seller whose slum was pulled down as you do about all the new apartments, new metro lines, the growth in car ownership, the expanding health insurance and all the other good news about China that nobody in the west really wants to know about. 5) Say how horrible the air in Beijing is, even if it isn’t on the days you are there. Everybody says Beijing air is horrible, so play along. 6) The political bit. Interview a token party member, but reword him subtly to make it sound like he is just spouting the party line. Bend the translator’s words to fit—it’ll be rubbish English anyway. (Ditto in all quote treatment). Then find a good Chinese, one who is fluent in English, has lived in America or Britain, and is prodemocracy. Give them lots of space, let them sing. Martin Lee types, but preferably younger and female, for the mugshot. If you can get an interview with the Olympic artist, Ai-whatsisname, who is an anti-Commie quote machine, give him full throttle. Hopefully, he hasn’t been arrested yet.
Lastly, please remember: Chinese who love their country are called “nationalists.” Never use this word for Americans, French, Tibetans and other civilized peoples who love their country or territory. When demonstrators protest over Tibet they are acting in a heartfelt, spontaneous way, waving pretty flags you would be happy to see woven into your granny’s bedspread. When Chinese counter-demonstrate, they are always “bussed in,” the mood is “ugly”, and they are draped in intimidating red flags that can be made to look a bit Hitler Jugend-ish with the right kind of photo. (They probably did arrive in buses as this is the cheapest way of moving numbers of not-very-well-off people around, but you don’t need to prove the insinuation that the regime laid on the vehicles). Beijing is always a “regime,” by the way, and is not to be confused with western “governments.” (But: Hong Kong is an exception. Because it was under benign, enlightened British dictatorship for a long time, it cannot be a “regime.” “Regime” only applies to dictatorships in rubbish countries).That’s about it. Don’t be deceived by all that friendly smiling and optimism, that’s just a front. It’s your job, with your long days of experience of the Far East and your fluency in a language spoken by nearly 0.005% of the locals, to get under the radar and ferret out the truth. Did I mention how bad the air in Beijing is?”
http://time-blog.com/china_blog/2008/07/a_reporters_guide_to_covering.html?xid=rss-china
unfortunately, the author is unnamed, but it's pretty much A: what i'm seeing in the major papers i read online, and B: true from the perspective of us living here. i do realize that there is a back story behind my dvd store griping and other spoiled-expat behaviors. while there is undoubtedly a great deal of people who have been ousted from major cities or are being pressured from the government to take their small businesses elsewhere, it was a good reality check for me because we've also been seeing some good stuff go down. these include traffic guards at most intersections, lowering the likelihood that you will be mowed down either by a scooter, bicycle, or a car; government reinforcement of the haphazard air flight departure times on all airlines (it's common to sit on the tarmac for 3-4 hours); the awesome transportation changes that have gone down nearly overnight (beijing's T3 airport building, the high speed trains to neighboring cities, the underwhelming but convenient longest-bridge-in-the-world from shanghai to ningbo, and the upcoming bullet train between shanghai and beijing, the overall impressive list of buildings that have been erected in beijing like the CCTV tower and the egg / nest / water cube) and etc. some of these achievements cannot be attributed to the olympics alone, but almost certainly to the 1-2 punch of the olympics and the 2010 world expo in shanghai.
anyways, thanks trev for finding that.
p.s. pre-olympics we've also been able to view blogspot urls without any problems, too.
Friday, August 01, 2008
some amusing tidbits
from one of my favorite shanghai news blogs, the shanghaiist:
August 1, 2008
Whatever you do in Beijing, DO NOT wear white socks with black shoes
The Wall Street Journal reports that 4.3 million copies of "an etiquette book outlining rules on good manners and foreign customs, including rules about what not to wear" have been distributed to Beijing residents for use during the Olympics. A snippet: "No matter what, never wear too many colors...especially during formal occasions. When you wear [formal shoes], be sure to wear socks in good condition...socks should be a dark color -- never match black leather shoes with white socks. Older women should choose shoes with heels that aren't too high." Let that be a warning to you.
here's the link to the WSJ article. i found most amusing the guidelines of wearing 3 or less colors at one time. they need to add a sub-topic: only one detail per outfit. you can have ruching, tassels, paint splatter, acid wash, sequins, or drawstrings, but only ONE detail per outfit.
August 1, 2008
Whatever you do in Beijing, DO NOT wear white socks with black shoes
The Wall Street Journal reports that 4.3 million copies of "an etiquette book outlining rules on good manners and foreign customs, including rules about what not to wear" have been distributed to Beijing residents for use during the Olympics. A snippet: "No matter what, never wear too many colors...especially during formal occasions. When you wear [formal shoes], be sure to wear socks in good condition...socks should be a dark color -- never match black leather shoes with white socks. Older women should choose shoes with heels that aren't too high." Let that be a warning to you.
here's the link to the WSJ article. i found most amusing the guidelines of wearing 3 or less colors at one time. they need to add a sub-topic: only one detail per outfit. you can have ruching, tassels, paint splatter, acid wash, sequins, or drawstrings, but only ONE detail per outfit.
Monday, July 28, 2008
prickly like a cactus
this is the market street up the block from me. it's about a heartbeat away from my friend steph's place, too.
i was walking home from the bus one night when i stopped by to pick up some fruit from one of the stalls that actually stays open late, and noticed the joint was swarming with gray-uniformed officials. i mean, swarming. there were groups of 8-10 all over the place. then i noticed that not only were a disproportionate amount of stalls closed, quite a few had were boards nailed across them with some sort of official notices plastered across. a few of the stalls were being bricked over as i watched. it was some sort of freaky scene from a movie. poof! and things disappear here overnight.
so i wandered by last week and the market is a ghost town. there is one guy selling pork, another stall with seafood, and about 3 stalls with produce of some kind. this used to be the liveliest place in my hood (which is saying a lot - it's a congested area). and i'm not even the biggest wet market fan. i generally think they stink and are unhygienic, and people try to ride over your feet or your entire person with their scooters and bikes, making you want to beat them with the pig leg hanging in that unrefrigerated stall next to you, covered in flies. the occasional car is stupid enough to try and drive down the street, too. but i would be amiss if i didn't also point out that these marketplaces are the sole livelihood of a lot of people, not to mention where the neighborhood does its shopping. if it's not captivating, clean, and beautiful, it's at least functional and i'm sure more than a few people were dependent on its existence.
there's no doubt it's because of the 5-ring circus going down in the capital in august. facades are being erected over storefronts overnight, places are getting spiffed up or spit out or just plain closed the hell down. people are getting rolled on - with a quickness. at my friend jill's apartment complex (a nice one with lots of foreigners) the other morning as she was leaving for work, cops set up a checkpoint at her complex gates and were stopping all the visibly non-asian people from leaving and asking for their residence permits. this pink slip of tissue-like paper is the key to your existence here, apparently. mine is buried somewhere in my tv cabinet, i think (luckily i 'pass' and don't normally get harassed.) 48 hours after moving into a new residence, foreigners are required to register at their nearest police station, like child molesters. military state, this place. anyway, jill saw one foreign girl detained because she didn't have her paper on her since she'd crashed at her boyfriend's place. the police wouldn't let her go, saying that she has to register at the police station even for an overnight.
it's just silly is what it is.
lots of things are changing now. the dvd places aren't worth a damn (ok fine, i get it, but it's annoying), the regulations on mail are ludicrous, and the air in beijing is still filthy and making international headlines.
in other news... steph's company is throwing some big bash (or someone they know is throwing a big bash, or there's just a big bash in general) and will have her own apartment in beijing for a weekend during the olympics, so the girls are all planning on flying up there and joining the madness. i've been scared of being in beijing during the games, but i guess at this point i just do like the romans, grab my stupid pink paper, and join the throngs.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
england amorous feeling
that's the name of a shop i just passed on my way home. clever, no? better than ordinary shop names like 'liv tyler' or 'only' or 'belville.' my favorite shop name is 'big toe,' which is a shoe store. logically, you would think, but such logic rarely applies here.
many things have happened since i last checked in. well, not really. trevor left for the states, that's been the biggest news. we're suffering from not being able to text every 7.89 minutes, so consequently we've worked out a semi-schedule that consists of both of us constantly being on the computer no matter what time it is so we can chat. skype has been a rare beast, because mostly he's at his mom's house, which features no less than 2 or 3 people swarming around him at all times. the one time we did skype, his baby sister was at home and later his mom came in and teased him about how 'a certain someone was having an internet conference with a special someone.' trevor, despite his actual age, eventually ended up being flustered about having a skype conversation with me that wasn't a secret to begin with. either way, i log into gmail about 50 times a day to see if he's online. he does the same, often very patiently waiting hours for me to log in. i tell ya, there's got to be another way.
in other news... there really isn't any. yesterday i went to linhai for a factory visit. it is a 3-4 hour drive each way. of course, i slept most of the way in the car. luckily my colleague is shanghainese, so he could at least chop it up with the driver there and back. i cannot stay awake in a vehicle for anything, i'm not sure why. i am the worst road trip companion known to man. except for cynthia. we're tied for last place. once i woke up, however, i was pretty happy, since linhai is situated at the base of the mountains in zhejiang province and is really beautiful and green. much more beautiful than the flat swampland that is shanghai proper.
we met for a total of one hour with the factory execs, did a quick factory tour (15 minutes), then jumped back in the car for another 4 hour drive. this time we had with us the young president of the factory, whose english was excellent. turns out she grew up in linhai but has lived in shanghai the past 16 years, so we gave her a lift back to shanghai for the weekend. i thought for sure i'd stay awake, since there was someone in the car i didn't know too well, plus we had just signed a contract to do work with them, plus she speaks great english, but we managed to chat politely for about 10 minutes before i completely passed out again for 3 hours. i'm shameless, i tell you.
i got home, made myself some dinner, then chatted with trevor (aka helped him with his resume) for a few hours. sherry organized a trip to xitang today and even booked a driver, but i pulled a lame one and decided to stay home. i slept for 10 solid hours last night (despite the 6-odd hours i got in the car) and could not be convinced that touring a water town in 100-degree weather with 65% humidity was a good idea. water to me means mosquitoes, and i get enough of them here. we are looking to try and take more weekend trips before i leave (and just in general), and i applaud sherry for always being the inspired one on excursions.
today i happily spent chatting with trevor, who sent me about 100 pics of chicago and of his dad and brother, then finally getting my shit together to run errands and get my daily exercise. daily exercise is a piece of shit in the summer. my knee is questionable, so i am taking a break from yoga and 'walking' at trevor's urging. one of the first things he learned about me (besides my general dope-ness) is that my mom is diabetic (2) and that i am likely on her heels to be the same. it scares him to death, much more so than it scares me, so he has commenced operation harass-the-shit-out-of-me about exercising every day. the upside about operation-pain-in-the-ass (covert name) is that walking around for 30-40 minutes actually qualifies as exercise, so i am able to do it most days.
i feel a couple of different ways about it. one, i find it ironic and a bit sad that trevor believes it necessary to actually ride my ass about exercise. it means that i've become this inactive person in his eyes, someone that sits on her ass and eat chips. (mmmmm...) ok, sometimes i do that. but generally i'm healthy and active (note that generally = when i don't live in china). here the pollution is terrible, my asthma is terrible, and i've paid about a billion yuan for a yoga membership that doesn't include a stairmaster. it means that as long as trevor has known me, i've been relatively sedentary, which is sad to me for some reason.
two (did i lose ya?), i am a bit concerned myself about my potential for developing this disease, and incredulous that this is actually happening to me. my mom tested my blood sugar when she was here and it was really high. i can't swear that it was after a full 8-hour fast, but regardless is was high enough to be considered pre-diabetic and i am not about to end up like my mom. so i decided that my reasoning (aka excuses, see above) for not exercising outside are paltry and lame and that i just need to do it. so far it's been going ok. i joined the boys at their muay thai class last sunday (note: not easy on my knee but fun as hell and i'm going again), and i've been walking or running. i haven't done it every day, but 3 out of 6 and it will be 4 out of 7 tomorrow. it's better than 0 out of 7.
so that's whats been up over here. not a lot.
many things have happened since i last checked in. well, not really. trevor left for the states, that's been the biggest news. we're suffering from not being able to text every 7.89 minutes, so consequently we've worked out a semi-schedule that consists of both of us constantly being on the computer no matter what time it is so we can chat. skype has been a rare beast, because mostly he's at his mom's house, which features no less than 2 or 3 people swarming around him at all times. the one time we did skype, his baby sister was at home and later his mom came in and teased him about how 'a certain someone was having an internet conference with a special someone.' trevor, despite his actual age, eventually ended up being flustered about having a skype conversation with me that wasn't a secret to begin with. either way, i log into gmail about 50 times a day to see if he's online. he does the same, often very patiently waiting hours for me to log in. i tell ya, there's got to be another way.
in other news... there really isn't any. yesterday i went to linhai for a factory visit. it is a 3-4 hour drive each way. of course, i slept most of the way in the car. luckily my colleague is shanghainese, so he could at least chop it up with the driver there and back. i cannot stay awake in a vehicle for anything, i'm not sure why. i am the worst road trip companion known to man. except for cynthia. we're tied for last place. once i woke up, however, i was pretty happy, since linhai is situated at the base of the mountains in zhejiang province and is really beautiful and green. much more beautiful than the flat swampland that is shanghai proper.
we met for a total of one hour with the factory execs, did a quick factory tour (15 minutes), then jumped back in the car for another 4 hour drive. this time we had with us the young president of the factory, whose english was excellent. turns out she grew up in linhai but has lived in shanghai the past 16 years, so we gave her a lift back to shanghai for the weekend. i thought for sure i'd stay awake, since there was someone in the car i didn't know too well, plus we had just signed a contract to do work with them, plus she speaks great english, but we managed to chat politely for about 10 minutes before i completely passed out again for 3 hours. i'm shameless, i tell you.
i got home, made myself some dinner, then chatted with trevor (aka helped him with his resume) for a few hours. sherry organized a trip to xitang today and even booked a driver, but i pulled a lame one and decided to stay home. i slept for 10 solid hours last night (despite the 6-odd hours i got in the car) and could not be convinced that touring a water town in 100-degree weather with 65% humidity was a good idea. water to me means mosquitoes, and i get enough of them here. we are looking to try and take more weekend trips before i leave (and just in general), and i applaud sherry for always being the inspired one on excursions.
today i happily spent chatting with trevor, who sent me about 100 pics of chicago and of his dad and brother, then finally getting my shit together to run errands and get my daily exercise. daily exercise is a piece of shit in the summer. my knee is questionable, so i am taking a break from yoga and 'walking' at trevor's urging. one of the first things he learned about me (besides my general dope-ness) is that my mom is diabetic (2) and that i am likely on her heels to be the same. it scares him to death, much more so than it scares me, so he has commenced operation harass-the-shit-out-of-me about exercising every day. the upside about operation-pain-in-the-ass (covert name) is that walking around for 30-40 minutes actually qualifies as exercise, so i am able to do it most days.
i feel a couple of different ways about it. one, i find it ironic and a bit sad that trevor believes it necessary to actually ride my ass about exercise. it means that i've become this inactive person in his eyes, someone that sits on her ass and eat chips. (mmmmm...) ok, sometimes i do that. but generally i'm healthy and active (note that generally = when i don't live in china). here the pollution is terrible, my asthma is terrible, and i've paid about a billion yuan for a yoga membership that doesn't include a stairmaster. it means that as long as trevor has known me, i've been relatively sedentary, which is sad to me for some reason.
two (did i lose ya?), i am a bit concerned myself about my potential for developing this disease, and incredulous that this is actually happening to me. my mom tested my blood sugar when she was here and it was really high. i can't swear that it was after a full 8-hour fast, but regardless is was high enough to be considered pre-diabetic and i am not about to end up like my mom. so i decided that my reasoning (aka excuses, see above) for not exercising outside are paltry and lame and that i just need to do it. so far it's been going ok. i joined the boys at their muay thai class last sunday (note: not easy on my knee but fun as hell and i'm going again), and i've been walking or running. i haven't done it every day, but 3 out of 6 and it will be 4 out of 7 tomorrow. it's better than 0 out of 7.
so that's whats been up over here. not a lot.
Friday, July 11, 2008
fido and spot in the wok
http://tinyurl.com/5wdpx7
not for long! sorry, poor, disillusioned, naive PETA lady.
would like to point out that eating dog is deeply rooted in chinese (and filipino, and anywhere else where there are lots of peoples and they hungry) culture. that poor PETA woman needs a reality check. it ain't going away. it's just for show. people love to eat dog here. even the foreigners (above, trev and his best buddy) chow on dog ribs, paws, whatever. it's considered a special treat. trevor gets all FOB on me sometimes and will point out the best type of dog for eating if we happen upon one trotting down the street. only my mom does that, normally.
lots of people here don't eat tofu because it's good for them, more like it fits the budget or tastes good with pork, or stretches that nodule of ground pork for 5 people into a whole dish.
i ain't condoning shit. i eat meat - not dog, but i'm sure i've unwittingly eaten cat or some shit at some hole in the wall here that was billed as 'beef' or 'lamb' - but i draw the line at dog. i've eaten horse sashimi in japan. and ostrich, too, if i'm not mistaken. have also eaten raw chicken in japan. i ain't picky, but the thought of eating dog is pretty nasty and i can't get over the cultural taboo that kinda, you know, forbids the consumption of your pets. but i've also always had plenty of food in my lifetime, so i'm not judging. i'm a proponent of 'nose-to-tail' eating because it both reduces waste and, well, i grew up eating pig feet and fish cheeks, what can i say.
it's your own decision. i'm just saying it sure ain't disappearing from china's horizon any time soon.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
being a big girl
...means learning how to pull myself out of a funk. i'm envious of sherry who is on jet air on her way back to civilization for 2 weeks, with all-you-can-drink bloody marys to help her along the way. i'm jealous of trev who is heading back next week. i can't put my finger on why i care so much since i'm heading back more or less permanently in a few weeks myself, but it may have to do with the massive mosquito buffet i've become, making me hate heat and humidity as my limbs swell with little knobby additions that will turn bright purple and make me look like i'm sprouting oddly-colored nipples all over my legs and feet.
i still have the scars from last summer and the summer before. i hate mosquitoes.
i don't venture out of the house or office without a generous dousing in DEET, insuring that my future offspring be born with three eyes or some shit. i can't survive without blasting the a/c. i am so dependent on chemicals and cooling machinery i can't understand how most of the world's population lives like this.
ok. that was little girl time. big girl time means i button it, pop a valium, and say nighty night.
i still have the scars from last summer and the summer before. i hate mosquitoes.
i don't venture out of the house or office without a generous dousing in DEET, insuring that my future offspring be born with three eyes or some shit. i can't survive without blasting the a/c. i am so dependent on chemicals and cooling machinery i can't understand how most of the world's population lives like this.
ok. that was little girl time. big girl time means i button it, pop a valium, and say nighty night.
we're obsessed with
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8AVebYQNV10&feature=related
this ridiculousness.
we keep sending each other different vids.
yes, we are 11 years old.
this ridiculousness.
we keep sending each other different vids.
yes, we are 11 years old.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
sleeplessness
there's a sense that things are drawing to a close, even though i'm going to be around for another couple of months. i don't really feel like i'm going to be here for another 60-odd days. trev is already getting his stuff together to ship off into the neverneverland of china post, and he's gone as of next week. i still have a bit of time, however i choose to think about it.
basically rounding up the rest of my task list before i leave work (and jesus is it LONG) and trying to do survivalist things like find a job in where i'm going to be relocating, and thinking about what household shit trevor and i are going to need (read: everything). oh yeah, and wresting my belongings from my family members, who have been both secretly and openly appropriating shit from my boxes in the garage. i guess that's what happens when you're too broke / cheap to rent a storage space.
weeks are booking solid in terms of extracurricular activities. have to work to squeeze in the odd yoga class or stay-at-home-and-watch-the-wire nights. at the rate that my apartment appears to retain heat these days, there's not much incentive to be home anyway. i am going to weigh about 300 pounds by the time i leave here. every evening is an opportunity to try this or that place either for the first time or one last time before i leave.
must. reign. in. appetite.
the more or less chronic GI tract issues that i have in the summers in asia seem to have little to no impact on my actual appetite. i like to think it actually makes my body MORE efficient at calorie absorption, therefore accounting for the beer belly i'm cultivating on my frame. and, for the first time in my life, i can actually attribute beer consumption (and dinners no earlier than 9 pm every day) for this unwelcome addition to my physique. if i wasn't so busy all of the time, it would rather suck.
waiting for the melatonin to work...
basically rounding up the rest of my task list before i leave work (and jesus is it LONG) and trying to do survivalist things like find a job in where i'm going to be relocating, and thinking about what household shit trevor and i are going to need (read: everything). oh yeah, and wresting my belongings from my family members, who have been both secretly and openly appropriating shit from my boxes in the garage. i guess that's what happens when you're too broke / cheap to rent a storage space.
weeks are booking solid in terms of extracurricular activities. have to work to squeeze in the odd yoga class or stay-at-home-and-watch-the-wire nights. at the rate that my apartment appears to retain heat these days, there's not much incentive to be home anyway. i am going to weigh about 300 pounds by the time i leave here. every evening is an opportunity to try this or that place either for the first time or one last time before i leave.
must. reign. in. appetite.
the more or less chronic GI tract issues that i have in the summers in asia seem to have little to no impact on my actual appetite. i like to think it actually makes my body MORE efficient at calorie absorption, therefore accounting for the beer belly i'm cultivating on my frame. and, for the first time in my life, i can actually attribute beer consumption (and dinners no earlier than 9 pm every day) for this unwelcome addition to my physique. if i wasn't so busy all of the time, it would rather suck.
waiting for the melatonin to work...
Sunday, July 06, 2008
gu rei hai
chatting with t-money - who believes himself to be one of the more healthy-like-a-healthnut individuals in china, except for his LIVER, mr. smartypants - i realized that it had been weeks since i'd eaten a fruit that wasn't in a cocktail.
what?
i've had a busy past 4-6 weeks, ok? shit. i'm also only eating meals that come either from a delivery person or a package. ramen diet. at least i'm eating plenty of EGGS, the protein everyone here seems to subsist off of. besides pork, of course.
hee hee. show me a chinese person with a vitamin E deficiency and i'll show you a north korean escapee.
what?
i've had a busy past 4-6 weeks, ok? shit. i'm also only eating meals that come either from a delivery person or a package. ramen diet. at least i'm eating plenty of EGGS, the protein everyone here seems to subsist off of. besides pork, of course.
hee hee. show me a chinese person with a vitamin E deficiency and i'll show you a north korean escapee.
Friday, July 04, 2008
get out of town.
no way: http://www.fldsdress.com/
you may recall me going off about this in a previous post. gives the term, 'throwback,' a whole new meaning.
thanks sarah!
you may recall me going off about this in a previous post. gives the term, 'throwback,' a whole new meaning.
thanks sarah!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
congraduation
wish i had some photos of graduation to post, but, er, sadly i was the least devoted significant other at the ceremony (i think there were 4 or 5 non-participants in the audience) and left my stupid camera charging at trevor's apartment. hey man, the ceremony was at 9:30 AM the morning after finals. everyone was out getting smashed the night before; my plane touched down after midnight and i had to roll my suitcase into a bar to meet t.
thank you. we hid my suitcase behind a large plant and ordered me a drink.
oh wait, thank god for f*cebook. one of the students uploaded her graduation album. that was nice of her. don't mind if i do...
pic doesn't tell ya much, does it?
after the ceremony broke we all boarded a nice little bus and went to this restaurant whose theme is based on the foods served to chinese royalty in ancient times. the staff wears reproductions of period clothing and it's in the gardens of what used to be the royal prince's palace. don't ask what dynasty, i didn't get that much detail. but it was a trip, pretty cool. we ate a salad made of flowers, to make you more beautiful, and goose liver, the goose itself, duck, and tons of other rich food. i did manage to take a couple of phone-camera photos of the waitstaff, but i just spent an hour trying to reinstall my bluetooth application and for some reason it's not working, so fuck it. MMS also not sending from my dumbass mobile device that i am mad at right now. i illogically blame it all on china mobile.
the rest of the time was essentially drinking, eating, or recovering from both. i feel somewhat guilty having such a carefree weekend when this upcoming week of the brand launch is going to be hellish, but i guess i just chalk it up there for 'why do i give a fuck since i just resigned.'
i wish i could be so callous. i dream of being so callous.
anyways, yeah, all of the non-participants except for moi were running around with high-powered lens cameras and snapping away. i snoozed until trevor's speech and clapped a lot to make up for how lame i was in the recording-significant-moments arena. i mean, people were taking hundreds of photos during a ceremony that lasted less than 90 minutes. i wanted to make a big foam finger to wave during the ceremony, but after seeing how small the room and actual graduating class was, i'm glad i was too busy at work to actually do it.
bah. i have a lot of thinking to do and so i will now give my brain a 7-hour rest.
thank you. we hid my suitcase behind a large plant and ordered me a drink.
oh wait, thank god for f*cebook. one of the students uploaded her graduation album. that was nice of her. don't mind if i do...
pic doesn't tell ya much, does it?
after the ceremony broke we all boarded a nice little bus and went to this restaurant whose theme is based on the foods served to chinese royalty in ancient times. the staff wears reproductions of period clothing and it's in the gardens of what used to be the royal prince's palace. don't ask what dynasty, i didn't get that much detail. but it was a trip, pretty cool. we ate a salad made of flowers, to make you more beautiful, and goose liver, the goose itself, duck, and tons of other rich food. i did manage to take a couple of phone-camera photos of the waitstaff, but i just spent an hour trying to reinstall my bluetooth application and for some reason it's not working, so fuck it. MMS also not sending from my dumbass mobile device that i am mad at right now. i illogically blame it all on china mobile.
the rest of the time was essentially drinking, eating, or recovering from both. i feel somewhat guilty having such a carefree weekend when this upcoming week of the brand launch is going to be hellish, but i guess i just chalk it up there for 'why do i give a fuck since i just resigned.'
i wish i could be so callous. i dream of being so callous.
anyways, yeah, all of the non-participants except for moi were running around with high-powered lens cameras and snapping away. i snoozed until trevor's speech and clapped a lot to make up for how lame i was in the recording-significant-moments arena. i mean, people were taking hundreds of photos during a ceremony that lasted less than 90 minutes. i wanted to make a big foam finger to wave during the ceremony, but after seeing how small the room and actual graduating class was, i'm glad i was too busy at work to actually do it.
bah. i have a lot of thinking to do and so i will now give my brain a 7-hour rest.
Monday, June 16, 2008
afternoon headaches
up late-night. stressing over some triflin bullshit that won't matter to me in about three years. stress headaches are back but the only thing that gives me some peace is typing, and typing must be done on a computer.
the general mandate of humanity deems compassion to be a good thing, a worthy thing, something to be valued. damned if it doesn't just make your ass the weakest link in the world of business. in this whole mess of resigning and leaving the country and following the hearts-and-flowers path instead of the stress-and-paycheck option, i vacillate between wanting to hide from the real world of dog-eat-dog and pretend all i see are rainbows and angels... and wanting to crush those angels and then sell them some expensive furniture. free delivery.
right now the latter is not appealing to me. i went this weekend and did what i used to do when struck with a dilemma: jumped into a pool and tried to swim myself into submission and my mind into focus, but i forget how much leaner i used to be when the physical aspect of the repentance would last as long as needed in order to bring around the mental . i barely cleared 1000 meters before the physical part of me went kaput and the mind was still in turmoil. and the physical wanted thai delivery.
plus there were no pull buoys or a time clock or flags at the pool and it was really throwing me off. you can only placidly breaststroke for so long in 1.2 meters depth without thinking about pad see ew.
called trevor, who was oh so unfortunately stranded at a bar, but receiving half-sober bar analysis failed to lull me to sleep. you're on your own, sister.
to continue with my griping, sometimes i feel that i was granted half-talents. there is no one thing so keenly developed in my brain, nor so deeply entertaining that i'll throw all of my energy into honing the skill, and so i feel that i fall between kinda wanting to do this but knowing it'll eventually be annoying, to maybe falling back on that bullshit i used to do way back when. what was it again? oh yeah, buying sheets for people or something.
clearly, having a path of some sort matters to me - why else write about it to a cheering crowd of about 4.3 people - but i'm not convinced that the junctions i've visited have involved an interstate of deeply compelling potential goals. i'm in a minivan and it corners like a horse cart.
anyways... enough complaining. there's enough of the middle-class or middle-management or gen X malaise to thickly spread every bagel in the factory, and the truth of the matter is i need to be somewhat alert tomorrow so i can negotiate my way into what will likely be a big fat shaft in the quadriceps. mine, of course. the good thing is that my quads are so under-utilized lately that the shaft will just slide in, easy as butter.
the general mandate of humanity deems compassion to be a good thing, a worthy thing, something to be valued. damned if it doesn't just make your ass the weakest link in the world of business. in this whole mess of resigning and leaving the country and following the hearts-and-flowers path instead of the stress-and-paycheck option, i vacillate between wanting to hide from the real world of dog-eat-dog and pretend all i see are rainbows and angels... and wanting to crush those angels and then sell them some expensive furniture. free delivery.
right now the latter is not appealing to me. i went this weekend and did what i used to do when struck with a dilemma: jumped into a pool and tried to swim myself into submission and my mind into focus, but i forget how much leaner i used to be when the physical aspect of the repentance would last as long as needed in order to bring around the mental . i barely cleared 1000 meters before the physical part of me went kaput and the mind was still in turmoil. and the physical wanted thai delivery.
plus there were no pull buoys or a time clock or flags at the pool and it was really throwing me off. you can only placidly breaststroke for so long in 1.2 meters depth without thinking about pad see ew.
called trevor, who was oh so unfortunately stranded at a bar, but receiving half-sober bar analysis failed to lull me to sleep. you're on your own, sister.
to continue with my griping, sometimes i feel that i was granted half-talents. there is no one thing so keenly developed in my brain, nor so deeply entertaining that i'll throw all of my energy into honing the skill, and so i feel that i fall between kinda wanting to do this but knowing it'll eventually be annoying, to maybe falling back on that bullshit i used to do way back when. what was it again? oh yeah, buying sheets for people or something.
clearly, having a path of some sort matters to me - why else write about it to a cheering crowd of about 4.3 people - but i'm not convinced that the junctions i've visited have involved an interstate of deeply compelling potential goals. i'm in a minivan and it corners like a horse cart.
anyways... enough complaining. there's enough of the middle-class or middle-management or gen X malaise to thickly spread every bagel in the factory, and the truth of the matter is i need to be somewhat alert tomorrow so i can negotiate my way into what will likely be a big fat shaft in the quadriceps. mine, of course. the good thing is that my quads are so under-utilized lately that the shaft will just slide in, easy as butter.
Friday, June 13, 2008
muggy
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15parenting-t.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=04b9e97c4ed5ef60&ex=1213502400
just finished this article in the ny times magazine. been interested in the media coverage on gay and lesbian marriage dynamics since the very very recent ruling on gay marriage in killa-cali. experts believe that same-sex marriages make good role models for hetero marriages (mixed-sex marriages?) whose members are concerned with equal roles in the house. this particular article is about equally shared parenting. have a read, it's worth it.
guess this has been top of mind because i'm coming up on a move-in with the bf in a few months. i know from past roommate experiences that i'm super partics about things, and trev is, well, trev. he thinks water coolers are great for hanging your coat on, and doesn't bother to check which toothbrush he happens to be using. a toothbrush is a toothbrush, and it's located near him, so he'll use that shit. when we first started dating, he tried sitting on my bed with his jeans on. uh uh. he learned about that one real quick.
most people reading this who know the extent of my OCD about cleanliness and hygiene are shaking their heads. no way, girl, you trippin if you think this relationship is going to last through co-habitation. but in imagining my future apartment strewn with law books and coffee cups and holey socks, feel like things might be alright. trevor, being a big picture kind of guy, is pretty concerned about how i like things done. he learned the no-outside-clothes-in-bed rule with a rapidness that impressed even my mom (who's been struggling with that one for over 35 years). we've had successful tutelages on his weekend shaving kit - aka plastic grocery bag - and where his items go on the bathroom counter once the trevor tornado hits the placid peaceful calm of carolynville. trevor is much less stubborn than me and my kind. it's a good thing - a somewhat foreign thing - but good nonetheless. we thinks we might be able to work with this material.
just finished this article in the ny times magazine. been interested in the media coverage on gay and lesbian marriage dynamics since the very very recent ruling on gay marriage in killa-cali. experts believe that same-sex marriages make good role models for hetero marriages (mixed-sex marriages?) whose members are concerned with equal roles in the house. this particular article is about equally shared parenting. have a read, it's worth it.
guess this has been top of mind because i'm coming up on a move-in with the bf in a few months. i know from past roommate experiences that i'm super partics about things, and trev is, well, trev. he thinks water coolers are great for hanging your coat on, and doesn't bother to check which toothbrush he happens to be using. a toothbrush is a toothbrush, and it's located near him, so he'll use that shit. when we first started dating, he tried sitting on my bed with his jeans on. uh uh. he learned about that one real quick.
most people reading this who know the extent of my OCD about cleanliness and hygiene are shaking their heads. no way, girl, you trippin if you think this relationship is going to last through co-habitation. but in imagining my future apartment strewn with law books and coffee cups and holey socks, feel like things might be alright. trevor, being a big picture kind of guy, is pretty concerned about how i like things done. he learned the no-outside-clothes-in-bed rule with a rapidness that impressed even my mom (who's been struggling with that one for over 35 years). we've had successful tutelages on his weekend shaving kit - aka plastic grocery bag - and where his items go on the bathroom counter once the trevor tornado hits the placid peaceful calm of carolynville. trevor is much less stubborn than me and my kind. it's a good thing - a somewhat foreign thing - but good nonetheless. we thinks we might be able to work with this material.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
fresh water well
children get up early. we have 6 new folks downstairs in my neighbor's 'apartment,' as it were, relatives of the sichuanese wife who lost their home in the earthquake. two of them are kids - two boys around 9 and 11 - nice kids so far but weekends sleeping in are bye-bye. they roller blade in the courtyard, play swords running up and down the stairs, you know, kid stuff. noisy, thumping kid stuff.
life after the quake is simmering down. the two flat-screen tvs on every bus has stopped playing new daily slideshows of photo footage set against sad music. my company - as most companies - has gathered donations from employees, matched the total, and sent them to the red cross. the three minute moment of silence, which was not silent at all but filled with screaming air-raid sirens - has come and gone, the three days of remembrance is over.
clinton lost. i wonder if, when running for president, someone on staff is responsible for counseling the candidate about the possibility of a loss and how to manage. i wonder if preparing for losing is part of the game; or if the candidate is treated much like a coddled athlete and shielded from anything that might affect the mental state needed for wins.
sherry and i scoffed when we heard clinton and obama were in a runoff. america would elect a black man before a woman, and although i wasn't totally convinced, damn it if we weren't right. i am sure that sexism played a part in it, just as i'm sure that the clinton name was an enormous hurdle - we californians love the clintons, it took me a while to understand that just as we love them, many many other people loathe them - and her confrontational stance, her tenacity that translated negatively in the press. i do not personally support girl-power rhetoric, i find it to support negative generalization and to not be representative of my views, but as a girl, i am positive that it would have been enlightening to have a woman in office. gender matters, even if we like to believe it doesn't. in this race, there were many aspects to her personality, and obama's, that led to the results as we know them today. his ability to appear transcendent, just as she appeared to be rutting around in the bi-partisan dirt, was as legitimate a factor in the race as her faultlessly impressive preparation. i wanted to support the practical - her strong foundation of experience and provision - over his idealism, but in the end it was the practical interpretation of that practicality vs. his optimism that forced my hand. his platform of transcendence, as gossamer as it sounded, translated into leadership, and that is what will matter in the bi-partisan election. facing off a rottweiler with a pittbull isn't a guarantee. maybe a unicorn will work better?
i can't say that i ever would have believed that before. so i suppose we will see.
life after the quake is simmering down. the two flat-screen tvs on every bus has stopped playing new daily slideshows of photo footage set against sad music. my company - as most companies - has gathered donations from employees, matched the total, and sent them to the red cross. the three minute moment of silence, which was not silent at all but filled with screaming air-raid sirens - has come and gone, the three days of remembrance is over.
clinton lost. i wonder if, when running for president, someone on staff is responsible for counseling the candidate about the possibility of a loss and how to manage. i wonder if preparing for losing is part of the game; or if the candidate is treated much like a coddled athlete and shielded from anything that might affect the mental state needed for wins.
sherry and i scoffed when we heard clinton and obama were in a runoff. america would elect a black man before a woman, and although i wasn't totally convinced, damn it if we weren't right. i am sure that sexism played a part in it, just as i'm sure that the clinton name was an enormous hurdle - we californians love the clintons, it took me a while to understand that just as we love them, many many other people loathe them - and her confrontational stance, her tenacity that translated negatively in the press. i do not personally support girl-power rhetoric, i find it to support negative generalization and to not be representative of my views, but as a girl, i am positive that it would have been enlightening to have a woman in office. gender matters, even if we like to believe it doesn't. in this race, there were many aspects to her personality, and obama's, that led to the results as we know them today. his ability to appear transcendent, just as she appeared to be rutting around in the bi-partisan dirt, was as legitimate a factor in the race as her faultlessly impressive preparation. i wanted to support the practical - her strong foundation of experience and provision - over his idealism, but in the end it was the practical interpretation of that practicality vs. his optimism that forced my hand. his platform of transcendence, as gossamer as it sounded, translated into leadership, and that is what will matter in the bi-partisan election. facing off a rottweiler with a pittbull isn't a guarantee. maybe a unicorn will work better?
i can't say that i ever would have believed that before. so i suppose we will see.
Monday, June 02, 2008
subvert
watching 'the wire' makes me feel like a future of my horn-dog husband strutting around town and nailing everything that walks while i wait at home with 3 kids and some tired-ass hair is inevitable.
i mean, i know, i watch chris rock. a man is as faithful as his options. but it's sad to think that some people believe that once you have kids and/or are married for more than a decade, you need to put a tracking device on his ass just to make sure he keeps his pants on.
i mean, i know, i watch chris rock. a man is as faithful as his options. but it's sad to think that some people believe that once you have kids and/or are married for more than a decade, you need to put a tracking device on his ass just to make sure he keeps his pants on.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
the 'we miss pho' club
so my mom, in a mom-like quest, decided to bring pho soup spices with her to china because she'd heard through my sister my many laments about a lack of vietnamese food in shanghai. don't get any bay area kid started on how shitty vietnamese food is here - and we aren't even vietnamese - so addicted are we northern californians to our weekly pho lunches. and dinners. and saturday brunch. the only way to roll my ass out of bed on a saturday morning is with the promise of food, and good pho i will rise for. i will even shower.
we couldn't actually track down any beef bones for the broth until the last day of their visit, when my mom happened to wander into a hair salon for a wash 'n set that was owned by a fellow cantonese. they got to talking and he tipped her off to both an excellent nearby guangdong restaurant and a local butcher who sells beef.
when we finally located this 'butcher' i was a bit doubtful... he was completely passed out on his butcher block with one lone leg bone hanging on a meat hook behind him, and several empty seafood buckets in front of his shack. who sells beef AND seafood? as it turns out, cantos never lead other cantos astray, and he quickly whipped out an assortment of bones appropriate for soup, multiple strands of tendon, and several hunks of beef. despite lacking any proper tools (who says you can't beat a leg bone with a hammer?), we quickly made the guy's day by dropping over $10 USD on a ton of cow parts. beef in china is not cheap. and it's actually more like veal.
we spent part of their last day cheerfully lamenting the size of my soup pot (the bone stuck way out of the pot in some grisly jeffrey daumer way) and debating the wisdom of my mom's pho talents, browning the onion and ginger in my toaster oven, and taking turns sticking our faces into the pot.
today it was ready and i invited the girls over for dinner. one conference call, a huge thunderstorm, and a last-minute project later and it was just me and viv inhaling that distinctive anise-cinnamon-clove-meat broth smell that only fellow pho addicts understand as delicious. the approximations of the other ingredients were rough - the basil missing, the onions sliced too thickly, the bean sprouts overly mature - but the broth was there and right now i'm appreciating my mom and dad's thoughtfulness in lugging such a finely curated assortment of expat goodies for their kid.
thanks mom and dad.
we couldn't actually track down any beef bones for the broth until the last day of their visit, when my mom happened to wander into a hair salon for a wash 'n set that was owned by a fellow cantonese. they got to talking and he tipped her off to both an excellent nearby guangdong restaurant and a local butcher who sells beef.
when we finally located this 'butcher' i was a bit doubtful... he was completely passed out on his butcher block with one lone leg bone hanging on a meat hook behind him, and several empty seafood buckets in front of his shack. who sells beef AND seafood? as it turns out, cantos never lead other cantos astray, and he quickly whipped out an assortment of bones appropriate for soup, multiple strands of tendon, and several hunks of beef. despite lacking any proper tools (who says you can't beat a leg bone with a hammer?), we quickly made the guy's day by dropping over $10 USD on a ton of cow parts. beef in china is not cheap. and it's actually more like veal.
we spent part of their last day cheerfully lamenting the size of my soup pot (the bone stuck way out of the pot in some grisly jeffrey daumer way) and debating the wisdom of my mom's pho talents, browning the onion and ginger in my toaster oven, and taking turns sticking our faces into the pot.
today it was ready and i invited the girls over for dinner. one conference call, a huge thunderstorm, and a last-minute project later and it was just me and viv inhaling that distinctive anise-cinnamon-clove-meat broth smell that only fellow pho addicts understand as delicious. the approximations of the other ingredients were rough - the basil missing, the onions sliced too thickly, the bean sprouts overly mature - but the broth was there and right now i'm appreciating my mom and dad's thoughtfulness in lugging such a finely curated assortment of expat goodies for their kid.
thanks mom and dad.
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