Saturday, October 30, 2010

Bonkers in Honkers


























































































































Hong Kong has more high-rises (buildings over 30 stories) then any other city in the world. Plus it's located right in the middle of a gorgeous tropical island setting. What more could you ask for in a legendary, truly international and first-class city?

A women who teaches at another school in my town referred to Hong Kong as saying, "It's Bonkers in Honkers". That was kind of the unofficial slogan for a recent trip that me and two colleagues made down to HK for a visa run. Paid for by the school, we got in on a Monday afternoon and had to leave 48 hours later on the Wednesday. Still though, we had an amazing time. Lots of great food that's hard or impossible to find in Jiaxing (Indian, Thai, sushi, etc..), explored famous areas like Kowloon, Lai Kwan Fong, and Central, and generally enjoyed ourselves. I definitely feel like not enough time was spent there, look forward to exploring more in the future.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Hangzhou











































































We went to Hangzhou for a weekend sometime shortly after Shanghai. Roughly half the size of Shanghai and twice the size of Jiaxing, I was interested in checking it out. I had heard good things about West Lake. Another really fun, rewarding exploration of China. Highlights included really really tasty Indian food, West Lake and the giant Pagoda on the south of it, riding a traditional boat on the lake, Phoebe Bar/Casablanca, and some really awesome Mexican food. In America, we assume diversity in cuisine, unlike China. In Jiaxing, there are no Indian or Mexican restaurants, and I've found it's something I crave a lot. Paneer Tikka Massala and Enchiladas never tasted so good, ugh..

North-South Lake / Chinese women





















My story with Emily is like a lot of experiences I have had in China: in many ways frustrating and incomprehensible, but yet a fond memory. I had gotten the number for several different Chinese girls and spent one week taking each one out on dates, trying to see if I wanted to date any of them. The first one, Zhulang something, was not too attractive. Went to a nice Thai restaurant, and she was spitting bones on the ground from the fried frog. Pretty frequent Chinese custom apparently but nonetheless not too appealing. The next girl, Ju Yao, didn't speak a single word of English, making communication slightly challenging to say the least. My Mandarin is barely understandable at this stage, although I'm doing my best to add a few words a day.

Emily was the third and last one, and definitely the best. She was 23, adorable, and a really fun chick. She brought a friend with her to translate our first night at dinner, and should have spotted the foreshadowing. We ended up agreeing to date later that night, I was really into her, but communicating was pretty difficult. A few days later, we went to North-South Lake with some of my teacher friends, a really great outing. We had my friend Peter's girlfriend, Vicky Gung, with us - helped translate. Realized her English was almost non-existent, although she could say a few basic things and was trying really hard.

North-South Lake was really beautiful, some 2 hours outside of Jiaxing by bus. We hiked around the mountain for a while, grabbed lunch, then rented some boats and chilled on the water all afternoon. Really relaxing and pleasant day, and me and Emily were getting along really well. A week later she broke up with me though, citing difficulty in communication. Her text was in Pinyin Chinese and I had to get it translated since I couldn't understand it, so I accepted her point. Shame, I liked her a lot, but life goes on. My Chinese has gotten better since then, but it progresses extremely slowly. Oh well, life goes on. The single picture I have of her is pretty awkward too, she seems to have a phobia of looking at the camera. C'est Lavie..

2010 Shanghai World Expo

























































































































Surreal. Otherworldy. Wildy Futuristic.

Really enjoyed my several hours at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Hit a lot of the European pavilions (Czech Republic was randomly the coolest, hands down, completely abstract and bizarre), the giant African pavilion, and many Latin American ones. Had a Quilmes from Argentina after walking around for miles, a nice memory of my times there. The Chilean pavilion was pretty incredible also, as well as the outsides of many that I didn't have time to wait in line for. Like I said, biggest crowd of people I've ever seen. They recently passed the 1.7 million visitors list I saw in the news.

Shanghai el Primero Vez























































My first time in Shanghai was a memorable experience, if somewhat mixed. I was met at the Shanghai South Station from Jiaxing by a friend of some family friends, Jenny, who had invited me to stay in her home. Really nice woman in her 40s, her and her husband, although she spoke better English. My foster family, so to speak, had a nice apartment on the 30th floor of a building right in in a busy part of town. Many many skyscrapers, this was for sure. Jiaxing is only 45 minutes from Shanghai by train, and only just over 3 USD for a one way ticket, so pretty easy overall.

I hit the Expo that first afternoon, but I'm going to do a separate post on that. Wow though. Pretty incredible. Don't think I've ever seen so many people in one area ever. I'll get more into that in another post though.

The rest of the trip was really good with the exception of some technical issues. That evening Jenny took me out to dinner with some of her friends, got to practice more Chinese, and she bought a really good Sichuan meal for me. She was very, very kind overall and look forward to seeing her again. She had a co-worker tag along with me that night who spoke really good English, and we hit up one of Shanghai's most famous nightclubs, No. 88 Bar. A single table there cost 800 RMB, over 100 USD. Not including any drinks.

Thought I was doing well, negotiated a time to DJ there the next night after talking to a few of the music directors. Next day was a nightmare though, my computer was giving me tons of problems. Wouldn't start Windows at all, kept having to restart it, and only four months old. Long story short, scrambled all day trying to fix it, downloading music, researching an alternative DJ method, and failing. I completely bombed after a minute onstage that night, since I didn't know how to use the foreign software (Serato), and was pretty bummed. The rest of my experience was good though. Had really good Thai food and pizza, all courtesy of Jenny. The DJ thing was pretty upsetting but I tried to put it behind me. Back to Jiaxing the next day was a bummer too, Shanghai was a million times more fun.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Jiaxing / Peach Blossom Island


































































I arrived back in China just over a month after I had left, August 25th. Was driven to my town, Jiaxing, from the airport by a senior teacher and driver. Briefly glimpsed Shanghai but being only 45 minutes away by train I wasn't concerned. Apartment was really nice and spacious, nicer then some places I lived in Boston. Everyone at the school was nice and friendly. Focused on acclimating, etc, getting used to learning how to teach/observing classes/etc.. Busy few days, but we all got to relax on the staff holiday shortly after.

The whole school staff, some 40 people, took off on a Monday for coastal China somewhere. We crossed over the world's largest bridge among other crazy landscapes. The beach was really chill, reminded me of Thailand a bit. Great weather, frisbee and beers on the sand, ocean swimming, the works. Definitely good times. Next day we hit a Chinese movie set place, really just a bunch of interesting old Chinese buildings. Really beautiful hiking around there as well. Great introduction to the school in general and getting to know the staff better. I definitely get along with every single person from the school and genuinely like them all, with maybe one or two exceptions. 15 or so foreign teachers, 4 local Chinese girls, plus the local Chinese sales/class monitor staff.

Beijing / Great Wall









































My time in Chengdu was brief to say the least. I choose not to talk about it much, but suffice to say Peace Corps was definitely not a good fit for someone like me. All expenses paid trip back to the States was in my future, but lucked out slightly coming back. Due to a travel delay, me and a staff member had 24 hours to kill in Beijing. The next morning before our flight, we hired a car to go to the Great Wall. Incredible, spectacular, jaw dropping are a few ways to describe it. I'm sure you might agree from looking at a few photos.. Didn't get to say any of Beijing otherwise though sadly. Future visit is in order..

Executive Mission Statement Blah Blah


Due to a few requests for updates on my times here out East, I decided to start a little photo blog. Gonna try to keep the writing to a minimum, but hopefully can give you a bit of an idea of what's going on behind the shots. Hope you enjoy..