Senators Talking Smack

Please, if you will, identify the author of these tweets:

Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us 'time to deliver' on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND.

Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a 'hammer' u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL.

Yessirree bob that's Sen. Chuck Grassley talkin' smack to Obama via Twitter.

It's all coming to pass ...

(Side note: "You got nerve" ??! WTF?! Is that like some upper-middle-class version of "You got served"?)

GeoCities Shuts Down; My Internet Youth Goes With It

Sad day today, as Ars reports GeoCities is shutting down:

Unsurprisingly, Geocities has declined in popularity in recent years thanks to the plethora of similar and easier-to-use services—not to mention the rise of social networks like MySpace that allow the same demographic to make equally horrific pages and try to pick each other up at the same time. Add to that the explosive popularity of various blog platforms and the suffering of the online advertising market, and it's really not a shock to see Geocities going the way of the dodo.

Gone, but not forgotten. GC4LYFE.

Also, I learned a new chinese word today: 纹身, wen2shen1, which translates literally as "line body", or more simply, "tattoo" :-)

Tim Lincecum's Tattoo

Tim Lincecum is a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. In the 2008 season, he won the NL Cy Young award. He's also the poster boy for MLB 2K9, the commercials for which feature a shot of the tattoo on the back of his neck:

Because my eyes are drawn to such things now, I quickly recognized that as the Chinese character 男 (nan2) which means, simply, "man" or "male". It's what bathroom doors in China are labeled with (opposite 女 for female).

See, I'm not the only one ... ;-)

Check out my new blog here, where I talk more about baseball & technology and have some pictures also!.

Adventures in Chinese Characters

I was eating dinner with some friends on Friday, and the topic turned to Chinese ... someone said "I heard somewhere that the character for 'trouble' is a combination of two characters for 'woman' under a character for 'roof'?"

I really tried not to laugh too hard. This is how rumors get started, folks. What's funny about it is how closely related to the truth that statement is, even though it's completely off the mark.

If you ever hear this bit of information, say at a dinner party, here's what you should say (which is what I said):

"I don't think that's true. But what is true, and what your friend might be thinking of, is that the character for peace, 安 (an), is the character for "woman" (女, nv) combined with the radical for "roof" (宀, mian). That might be what you mean, which is actually the opposite of a combination that would mean 'trouble'."

To showcase my point, I then pulled up my right sleeve to show the 安 tattooed on my arm. (It's there as part of my Chinese name, 高瑞安. And yes, my parents know, so you don't have to go running to tell them ;-).

(I understand if you cannot do this yourself.)

This is along the lines of "crisi-tunity", the rumor (so famously espoused in The Simpsons) that the Chinese character for "crisis" (危机 weiji, actually two characters) is the same as the one for "opportunity" (机会 jihui). It'd be nice and pleasant, and full of meaning, if only it were true :-)

Bonus: If you further want to impress people at said dinner party, tell them the character for "good" (好, hao) is a combination of the characters for woman (nv, above) and son (子, zi). That actually is true -- and I think says a lot about the Chinese culture and language. Don't worry, you can back up your statements with "I read it on a blog somewhere!" and everyone will believe you.

(This post is along the lines of how useful knowing Chinese is in Austin, TX -- a cool party trick, interesting dinner conversation topics, but not useful in day-to-day life like Spanish would be :-)

Similie of the Month

According to this LifeHacker post, the economy is "lurching about like an over-tired Capoeira enthusiast".

...

What?!

Simple English Wikipedia

Thanks to xkcd, I now know about something called Simple English Wikipedia.

A demonstration:

Wikipedia's opening paragraph on snipers:

A sniper is usually a highly trained marksman that shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles. In addition to marksmanship, military snipers are also trained in camouflage, field craft, infiltration, reconnaissance and observation techniques.^[1]

Simple English Wikipedia's opening paragraph on snipers:

A sniper is a person who has been given special training with sniper rifles. Snipers are able to shoot at targets which are very far away, or are very small, and hit them accurately when looking through a sniper scope. They are also especially trained to be stealthy. Snipers are hard for the enemy to see when they are hidden or using camouflage.

From a technical writing perspective, I find the SE Wikipedia fascinating.
Nice.

You Learn Something New Every Day

Today it's that the word immiserate exists. Who knew?

Thanks NYT.

Chinese in America

Some friends wanted to take me out for Chinese food, and who am I to turn them down? I was pretty interested in seeing what that was like, now that I can sort of read the menus and talk to the waiters in Chinese. So we went to Din Ho Chinese BBQ, one of the more "authentic" Chinese places in Austin. The food was still very different, and differently prepared, but it was good. Plus I was able to get beef & tomatoes over white rice with no problem. That's a pretty popular staple dish in China, plus I knew how to order it in Chinese (fanqie niurou mifan) :-) I spoke a little bit with the waitress, who was pleased that I could speak Chinese. (Judging from her accent, I think she's from Taiwan.) I even used fuwuyuan, maidan, and women dian cai ba just like in China. It felt so strange because I knew I was in America! But at the same time it was great. Just another reminder of my wonderful 2008. Plus, well, I like showing off, and that was a great opportunity to do so :-) Mission accomplished, I'd say, haha. Can't wait to do it again!

Do I Look Spanish or Something?

I was on the metro last night, standing there minding my own business, when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I instinctively turned to my left: it was a Chinese person (duh), someone I didn't know. And she said:

"Ustedes habla Espanol?"

She was halfway through "habla" before I realized what I was hearing. I almost replied with "一点点". But I was able to marshal my long-dormant Spanish brain cells and reply "Un poco." Then she turned away and didn't speak to me again. A couple stops later, I turned and looked for her, but she was gone.

Very strange. If I didn't remember it so clearly, I'd be tempted to think I was making it up!

No English ... ?

I was talking with my ayi (maid) on Tuesday morning, as I was heading out the door for work, and she invited me to visit her hometown with her. Because she doesn't speak any English and is from a small town in Anhui, I was excited!! ... until she said it would be next Spring Festival, in February. I told her then I couldn't, because I'm returning to the US in January.

Today on the shuttle ride I was thinking about it some more. Even though I've been living outside the US for nearly 9 months now, I've spoken (or listened to) English every single day. English is a must at work. And even on the weekends when I might be out in the city, I'm always with or among lao wai or a Chinese friend who speaks good English. And if I'm by myself, I'm listening to my iPod with English-language music. I come home and read English-language books or web sites. So I don't know what it's like to go completely without English.

Anyway it occurred to me that if I'd been able to go with my ayi, I would have gone like a week without speaking or listening to English once (besides the "OK!" and "Bye bye!" that everyone seems to know, and assuming I don't take my iPod). She doesn't speak or understand English, so it follows that her family in small-town Anhui wouldn't either, unless there maybe are younger children there, who stand a better chance of having been educated with English. Then I got excited at the thought of relying on my Chinese for so many days and getting to experience what we call the "real" China, i.e., China - (English + Western culture). Then I remembered I couldn't go. Dang.

A Break-In

Not really, but yesterday evening I was playing Wii when my doorbell rang. Because I wasn't expecting anybody, I assumed it was another wrong delivery, like what happened last time. But no, it was three people: a middle-aged man and woman and an older woman. Immediately the three of them started yammering away (in Chinese, of course) at 100 mph. I, being a) a lao wai and b) perplexed by having three strangers show up at my front door, stared at them blankly until my brain revved into gear enough to understand what they were saying. Apparently the guy's co-worker was coming in from somewhere, Britain I think, after having spent some time in HK, and he was going to be working in the Lujiazui district in Shanghai. This threesome were scouting apartments in the area (the woman in the lead was the agent, I think) and were looking at a place on the 22nd floor of my building. However the person wasn't there, so they came to my place to see if they could see how the apartments are laid out.

Not feeling very threatened by this trio, I let them in and they began sniffing around my place (and imparting the above information to me). They were pretty efficient about it but seemed surprised that my place only had one bathroom (I guess the place on the 22nd floor has, or is supposed to have, two).

Anyway it was funny, mainly because it was completely unexpected and they were all talking at warp speed while puttering around my apartment. But the best part was when I was seeing them to the door, the agent scolded me for walking around my apartment barefoot. She said I would get sick. I just thought that was funny, being mothered by a Chinese leasing agent :-)

For those of you who haven't seen my Huangshan pics, I highly suggest you do so now. There are some pretty dang memorable shots in there, if I do say so myself. (And, not being able to say it any other way -- that's how I'm going to say it.) You also may be interested in the Hong Kong and Macau sets.

I'm planning more travel soon, so stay tuned!

Exhausted But Amazed

Man, whenever I come back from a vacation, or any length of time without the Internet, I've got like 6,000 things to catch up on in my RSS reader. It's a tad overwhelming. I should probably just mark them all as read and move on with it.

Huangshan was amazing. On the first day, we climbed about 7 miles worth of stairs. It HURT. Just imagine that. SEVEN MILES. of STAIRS. OUCH. But it was worth it, for we got amazing photos of the North Sea and West Sea, so named because of the clouds that roll in and out. The rest of the time, it was rainy and misty and terrible.

There are so many other things I could write about, and I might when I have time. But now I am exhausted and waiting for the pictures to upload to flickr. Let me just say that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness nature on such a grand scale. Looking at the vast gouges of jagged earth and roiling tendrils of mist that compose 北海 and 西海, I felt time stop. Seeing those peaks and valleys was worth every sore calf muscle, every overpriced bottle of water, every bug squashed in the hotel room, and every ragged gasp of wheezing breath I just barely managed to exhale as I willed myself to put one foot in front of the other ... just ... one ... more ... time while hobbling up that accursed set of stairs.

Seven miles. And that was just the ascent. It was another seven down, and that's only because we took a cable car partway. There are people who do that ascent and descent twice a day, with loads of hotels' dirty laundry, bottled drinks, and other sundries on their backs. I don't ever want to hear you complain about your day job again.

The pictures should finish uploading in an hour or two, so go check them out. I might post some of my favorites here on the blog. But just know this -- the pictures cannot do the view justice. Everything felt so sharp and clear and in-focus. A picture just doesn't capture the awe-inspiring majesty of looking at those peaks in person. I could have sat there for hours, and I probably would have if the mist hadn't rolled back in. It's amazing. It takes literally 15 seconds for the entire valley to empty out of, or fill up with, an opaque white cloud that kills all sightseeing opportunities. People run from one viewing platform to another, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rock walls that have been obscured for their entire visit. I feel very lucky to have gotten the time and views I did, although there were plenty of other times during the trek where I was frustrated because the mist was blocking a view. It's like, "I know there's something beautiful out there, but I can't see it, dammit!" That's frustrating.

Tourism trips improve my Chinese. I would pass small children with their families and hear them say "... lao wai ..." or "... wai guo ren ..." and then I would say (in Chinese) "Lao wai? Where? I'm not a lao wai! I'm Chinese!" I love hearing them gasp and laugh when I answered them. Unfortunately from then on it was downhill as they would continue the conversation and, more often than not, I would not understand them, haha. But it was still fun.

I met Walnut Lady while taking a picture on the descent to the Hot Springs. She was with her grandson and they were meeting up with the rest of their family. I used my new Chinese phrase "Ladies first" to tell her to go ahead of me while I stopped and took a picture. We got to talking and I managed to do pretty well. Then she said goodbye as she went down the stairs. I saw her again on the shuttle to the main gate, and she waved and smiled. Then I ran into her and her family in Tunxi, and she was so excited. She kept saying something that I couldn't understand -- and nobody with her knew how to translate into English. So I politely said goodbye again. Then, because Tunxi is a stultifying labyrinth of boredom, I ran into her again like 20 minutes later. She tried again, to the amusement of nearby shopkeepers and 7 or 8 passerby who found it interesting to watch a 老人 converse with a smiling but not-understanding 外国人, to say something to me. No go. But Herbert remembered the Chinese phrase, and when we found Charles and Kitty again, we asked her what it meant. "Walnut", she said. So we're assuming that this lady wanted me to buy her a walnut, or vice versa. Thus the Walnut Lady (核桃女) was born. That's how these things happen. I shoulda got a picture with her.

Okay, so, no travelling for at least 2 weeks. Okay? Okay. I'm exhausted. And flickr seems to be borking out again. Boo.

Hong Kong, and Macau Day 2

Monday morning I woke up bright and early (read: 6:30). I rolled over in bed and flipped on the TV, and a steady stream of Cantonese started pouring out of a newscaster's mouth. It sounded really really strange. Like Chinese (Mandarin), but different. Of course I couldn't understand anything. A couple times I thought I did, but I think my brain was just doing some wishful thinking there. It was a little frustrating because it sounded close enough to Chinese that I thought I should be able to understand it, but no, to no avail.

I went downstairs and had some breakfast with Jen and a couple of her friends. Then we met up with some others in the lobby and took a taxi over to the ferry terminal. We bought our tickets for the TurboJet and settled in for the hour-plus ride to Hong Kong. Along the way we passed through immigration. That's one amusing thing about the whole trip, actually. The entire time, I stayed within China's borders. However, I had to leave mainland China to get to Macau, leave Macau to get to HK, leave HK to get to Macau, and leave Macau to get to mainland China. I had to go through immigration each time. So my passport received a lot of stamps :-)

The ride into HK was fun. We sang Disney theme songs and watched the terrible ferry-only TV channel provided for us. The weather was crisp and beautiful. Approaching HK, more islands started to appear in the water. Having not seen the ocean for so long, this was very exciting! Soon, more started to appear, dotted with buildings here and there. And then all of a sudden the great skyscraper-filled Hong Kong island appeared! I really wanted to take a picture, but I knew I'd have plenty of chances later.

We debarked and went through immigration, then made our way into the Shun Tak Centre looking for a place to exchange money into Hong Kong Dollars. After some wandering around, we found one, and also an HSBC ATM where I withdrew some money from my bank account. That all went pretty smoothly. Yay for international commerce!

We exited the Centre and went directly into the Sheung Wan subway station. The other kids fiddled about with buying pre-paid metro cards, but I marched over to the ticket window and bought a new RFID metro card (similar to the ones I have for Shanghai and Beijing). When buying, I also asked the teller (in Chinese) how to get to Victoria Peak, since that's the only thing I really knew I wanted to do that day. She told me to go to the Central station, and so I did. My friends were on their way to HK Disneyland and needed to debark at the same station, so they did, but then we went our separate ways.

I exited off the platform and saw a really helpful subway map on the wall. Kind of like Shanghai's subway station maps. You see the surrounding area and major attractions. I saw the listing for the Peak Tram, so I headed out that exit.

I made my way through the Central district, through skyscrapers and parks and hilly roads and double-decker busses, following the tourist signs for the Peak Tram.


















I really love the way that you can look through gaps in the buildings, down alleyways, and see hills in the distance that are dotted with other buildings. To me that's really cool. There's definitely nothing like that in Shanghai. The layout reminded me of a San Francisco, with all the winding hilly roads. But of course, in San Fran they drive on the right side of the road and therefore have no need for these signs on the pavement:



Notice the sign is in Chinese too, because on the mainland they drive on the right side of the road.

In no time I was sweating like a pig under the hot sun, but I found the entrance to the Peak Tram just fine. I paid my ticket and we started on the upward climb:



The climb was pretty damn steep for most of the way. Here's a picture showing the angle of ascent:



I'm holding the camera parallel to the horizon in that shot! I almost felt like I was lying down.

We got off at the Peak Tower, and the whole place was one giant shopping mall. Go figure; that's what HK is famous for! There's even a Madame Tussaud's on top of the mountain. Talk about unnecessary. There's luxury shopping, fine dining, overpriced souvenirs, and so on. I can't imagine going up there for a meal. It's so out of the way and costs 40 HKD just to get to the peak. I guess they have restauraunts up there for the people who go up at night. Seeing a view of the city at night is apparently spectacular, although I didn't do it.

Inside the tower is a bunch of escalators taking you up to the roof of the structure where, if you have paid the extra 10 HKD, you can step out onto the roof and get an unobstructed view of the city. Of course yours truly did so and captured the following amazing shots:













Going to the tops of things is awesome. (Hell, I'm going to do it again on Saturday when I climb Huangshan.) But honestly, it was fun for about 10-15 minutes. Then it's like yeah, it's pretty, but, you know, there are only a couple spots for a good view from the peak. It's not like the Jin Mao tower where you have a 360-degree view of the city. It is great being able to see the city on the water, though.

I'm just glad they didn't charge me for the "Janitor Sleeping in a Bathroom" attraction:



I made my way down from the peak and then began a period of aimless wandering around Hong Kong. I didn't have a tour book, I couldn't really find one, and I was by myself. I ended up taking the metro a lot and navigating the subway system there. I don't know if London's subway system is confusing, but HK's sure is. By comparison, Shanghai's is a model of efficiency! Never thought I'd say that about anywhere.

I ate lunch in the IFC Mall and befriended a Swedish woman who was sitting next to me. She works in a bank upstairs, helping manage the assets of individuals worth $50 million plus. Sheesh! I think that's in HKD, which would make it like 6.4 million USD, but still. I was like "um, I'm never going to need your services." Haha. I ran across a Dymocks and got perhaps inordinately excited about a foreign bookstore! I perused for about 20 minutes and ended up buying this. What an appropriate book to be selling in HK.

I tried taking a random subway trip to the Kowloon Bay stop and seeing if anything interesting was there. A spot on the map advertised "Festival Walk" and I was like ooh, an interesting stroll, yay! But "Festival Walk" turned out to be the name of a shopping mall. I was more than a little disappointed with this discovery and turned around to go home.

(Side note: Every time I think about HK or Kowloon Bay, I think of Wayne's World. There's a scene where Rob Lowe's character is ordering Chinese food, and he speaks Cantonese on the phone. Everyone's amazed at his ability to speak the language, especially Tia Carrera's character, who is from HK. Then Rob Lowe goes "You sound more like Kowloon Bay than Hong Kong." Everyone's amazed again, because she was indeed born in Kowloon Bay. Yup, these are the kinds of things that stick with me. Also, before I saw the word written down, I thought it was spelled "Calhoun".)

I then killed some time in a Starbucks, managing to speak Chinese to the cashier. After that my next job was to find the Peninsula hotel in the Tsim Sha Tsui area. I was supposed to meet up with one of Jen's friends there to see Batman: The Dark Knight. I sat there reading my new book for about an hour, but they didn't show up. (I heard later that their plans changed while at Disneyland.) So I was on my own for dinner. I took the subway to Causeway Bay and went out of a random exit. I walked around a little bit before finding a Yunnan noodle shop. I sat down and ordered, speaking again in Mandarin, and ate myself some damn good spicy noodles. The shop had the TV on and the station was playing Liu Xiang's unceremonious exit from the Olympics. The sound was off, so I didn't understand what was happening. I only knew that he looked like he'd injured himself. I'd heard rumors a week or so ago that he was injured, so I figured that's what had happened, and sure enough, it was.

After dinner I took the subway back to the Shun Tak centre, briefly considered flying in a helicopter back to Macau, changed my mind when I saw it was over $2000 HKD, bought a ticket for the ferry instead, and settled in to read and nap on the way back to Macau. It was probably about 6:30 or 7.

I arrived in Macau at around 8 or 8:30 and looked around for a place to exchange my HKD back into patacas, but couldn't find one. Very strange. So I hopped in a cab and said "Casa Real", the name of my hotel, expecting it to work like last time. The driver didn't recognize the name, but I pulled out my map and told him the street name and number in Chinese. That didn't work though, because he dropped me off in the very center of the peninsula, on the road I wanted but pretty far from where the hotel was.

Initially discouraged, I instead realized this was the perfect time to take pictures of Macau's neon insanity that I view as a certain nose-thumbing to the Vegas strip. I was surrounded by bright neon lights, flashing bulbs, and signs promising me untold wealth if only I'd wager some money on their blackjack tables. Here now, a glimpse:



That's the Grand Lisboa, the unquestioned centerpiece of Macau's skyline. I read somewhere the ball at the base is supposed to resemble a pearl, and the building itself is like water shooting up from the pearl. Or something. To me it looks like an egg that's exploding.







Deep breath ... just a couple more!





Whew.

Then I wandered over to another nearby section and noticed that one casino had a two-story TV on the side that was showing the US vs. Germany basketball game.



So I sat down and watched for about 20 minutes, during which I also text-messaged my German friend and made fun of his country's ability to play basketball.

Then I began the long walk back to my hotel. I saw a cool pedestrian bridge that was lit up in an interesting way.



And I tried to sneak a picture of a guy who was sneaking a cigarette, but he turned and caught me at the last second:



At some point, I reached my hotel, tired and sweaty and disheveled from walking around all day and night.

Whew!

If I missed posting any HK pictures, and I know I did, the full set is here.

I don't know if I'll get to post about the subsequent morning in Macau, because tomorrow evening I am leaving for Huangshan and I won't have Internet access there. But I promise that at some point, I'll post about my remaining time in Macau -- although the next couple days after I return will likely be filled with Huangshan posts and pictures!!

Visit to Macau, Day 1

Sunday morning bright and eary (actually, just early, it wasn't bright yet) I hopped on the MagLev to the airport and then to Macau. Macau is part of China now but considered a Special Administrative Region (SAR) after the handover from Portugal. The upshot of this is that internationally speaking, you have to leave China to enter Macau. This means that I had to go through immigration on both departure and arrival. So that's what I did.

Flying into Macau, I could see the amazing blue, puffy-cloud-filled skies. The peninsula and its islands are at the southernmost tip of China, way closer to the equator than Shanghai, so the tropical feel was to be expected. It was so tropical, in fact, that when I got off the plane and took out my camera, the lens and LCD screen were fogged up! I had to wipe them off with my shirt to take a picture.

After that, a cab pulled up and I got inside. My first thought: the driver's on the right side! Holy shit! I've never seen that before. But yes, in Macau (and Hong Kong also) they drive on the left side of the road. It's so different. I entered the car on the left side. Oncoming traffic was on my right, not on my left. Very strange. Obviously the drivers and residents are used to it. But not me! It was great.

Proof:





Macau is on the sea (probably even moreso than Shanghai, whose name literally means "on the sea") and and stretches across several islands (Taipa, Cotai) and the main peninsula that's attached to mainland China. So on the ride in from the airport, we crossed over numerous bridges, which again is pretty cool to me. All these intricate stone ropy constructions to get you from one place to another. I recall hearing about a family member of mine who was scared of bridges; not me. I love them. And I especially love them when the skies are blue, the air feels like the beach, and you've just arrived in a brand new destination.



Cities on the water look cool to me. I can't figure out why. I think it's because you have flat expanses of water edging up against towering skyscrapers, creating an extreme contrast in elevation. I think it's the contrast that I find intriguing. Macau and Hong Kong have that in spades.

Being a former Portuguese colony, Macau's maps and street signs all have Portuguese (in addition to Chinese and English) on them. This is a welcome sight as that langauge is superficially similar to Spanish, which I vaguely recall from two years in 7th-8th grade and three years living in Austin. So I know what "salida" means on a sign, even if it wasn't right next to the word "Exit" (or even the Chinese 出口, which I can read also. Happy days. An example of the tri-language signs:



However, most Macau natives speak neither Portuguese nor English, but Cantonese, which is an official language. Some might speak Mandarin also, moreso now than when Macau was controlled by Portugal, but it's overwhelmingly Cantonese. So right off the bat you've got four languages you're dealing with: English, Portuguese, Cantonese, and Chinese (Mandarin).

On my hotel's web site, they give the address as being on "Avenido do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues." So I assumed that I would be able to tell this to the cabbie and be on my merry way. No such luck. He didn't understand. I had a map with me that had the Chinese name of the street, so I figured with that plus the number, we would be good, but either my cabbie didn't read Chinese or he didn't know where it was. Luckily I mentioned the name of the hotel (in Portuguese, but it's simple, Casa Real), and the cabbie knew, so off we went.

I arrived at the hotel, checked in, and found my room in short order. I walked down two flights of stairs and knocked on Jen's door, and she came out. It's been 8 or 9 years since I've seen her, so we spent a little while catching up. She told me her friends were going to the Cirque de Soleil show Zaia, so I tagged along. Jen is touring China with a production of The Sound of Music, so I met some of the cast as they joined us. We walked over to The Sands:





From there we caught a free bus to The Venetian (where Zaia was playing). On the bus, Jen and I talked about what I should do on Monday. Her and some friends were leaving Macau at 7:30 AM to catch the ferry to Hong Kong and from there to HK Disneyland. I had no desire to go to Disneyland and had been planning to stay in Macau and do touristy things. But Jen convinced me that, in the couple days her and her company had been in Macau, they'd run through all the touristy things and that there wasn't so much to do, or at the very least, not much interesting stuff. After some discussion, I decided to go to Hong Kong with them, but just break off and do my own thing for the day.

We ate a late lunch at McSorley's, an Irish pub in the Venetian, watched some of the Olympics, chatted a bit, and then headed out to the show. It was pretty interesting. I liked all the clowns and the breakdancing green robot :-) I didn't take any pictures though because I wanted to enjoy the show, oh, and also because at this upper-class resort the ushers actually prevent you from taking pictures. (Not so at many other places in China.)

After the show, I joined Jen and some other kids for dinner inside The Sands. I was in Las Vegas once about four and a half years ago, and it felt exactly like what I felt like in Macau. Grand, sweeping displays of opulence, all ignored while people sit at blackjack, roulette, poker, so so many other kinds of games. We had to thread our way between slot machines and gamers to get to the cafeteria. I wonder why the gambling industry feels compelled to dress itself up in neon and put on this show of luxury? Maybe because people with a lot of money like to gamble?

After dinner, we headed over to the Macau Cultural Center. Jen left to get ready for the show, and I found my seat and settled in to enjoy the performance. I had never seen The Sound of Music, but now know that I've heard a number of its songs. (Especially The Vandals' cover of "So Long, Farewell.") I really liked the show; especially the historical context of being set in Austria before the German annexation in the run-up to WWII. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess. I wonder how much of that context was known to the Macauian (is that the proper term? Macauite? Macauvian? In Chinese it's easy; you just add 人 to a place name to denote its denizens, so these people would be 澳门人 or Aomenren) audience.

No matter: the performance was sold out (like most of the Macau performances have been, I learned), and the audience hung on every word. They laughed at the appropriate times and I even heard a couple people singing/humming along with the songs. The entire script was projected on either side of the stage during the audience, both spoken words and song -- whereas, during the Beijing opera performance, only the song lyrics were projected on the wall. During intermission, I took this picture of The Sands at night:



On the right-hand and bottom-left sides, you can kind of see how my camera lens was all steamed up.

After the show, we went back to the hotel. It was someone's fake birthday, so there was cake and a small get-together/party in someone's room. I met some members of the cast, including the guy who played Rolf and the guy who played Max, and some of the stagehand crew. It was pretty interesting talking to the actors and getting their perceptions of China. Obviously some of their experiences are vastly different from mine. They've been travelling around the country and have visited tons of cities like Chengdu, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, and so on. They haven't had to learn much Chinese, as they've got interpreters with them (or they will hire different ones in every they visit, I'm not sure). However, some of their experiences are quite the same, including many of the cultural and sociological differences that separate China from the United States. Anyhoo, talking to them was pretty neat.

I hung out for a little while, ate some cake, and then went to bed. I'd agreed to get up at 6:45 in order to eat breakfast at 7 and leave the hotel by 7:30 to spent the day in Hong Kong.

Tomorrow: Hong Kong by day and Macau by night. You can cheat a little bit and look at the full Macau picture set.

Ordering Food is a Spectator Sport

Pregnant Aliens

First things first: having chocolate chip cookies for Saturday breakfast kicks ass. 'Nuff said.

I really like explaining things to people, answering questions, and helping them understand things. (On various occasions when I was younger, I have contemplated being a high school teacher.) I've found that, here in China, I get a chance to do this a lot more than I did back in the States. A couple times a week I get a chance to explain American culture, grammar, idioms, customs, viewpoints, etc. On the subway home I was talking to a co-worker about how the wedding registry system in America works (because he's getting married next year). I talked about how it's sort of a no-no to give cash as a gift (which is the custom in China, cash in red envelopes called hongbao), because the recipients might feel hurt that you don't know them well enough to pick out something specific, so the registry system is a good go-between.

Also here in China I've occasionally seen co-workers coming around and giving small treats or candies to everyone in the office. This is the custom when someone gets engaged.

That's just one example. I remember the hour spent in the cafeteria going over the checks & balances system and the various levels of government (local, state, federal, etc.) And of course that meeting I held to explain the rules of baseball. I spend the most time explaining various custom/culture things to my tutor, who I think has less formal education than my co-workers (where a Master's is the norm) but who paradoxically, because she works in an international school, has more exposure to expats (mostly young British and German kids though) here than even I do. Last week I drew her a small map of Austin to explain where my pictures were taken.

And if I like explaining things, I really love hearing:

1. How customs/cultures/attitudes are different in China vs. the US. This one is obviously a separate post on its own. One of the biggest differences is that Americans/Westerners are so much more individualistic than Chinese/Asians. Yes that's a cliche that I'm sure you're all aware of, but it really hits home when you live in China and see the ways that people act here.

That's why it freaks me out to see a Chinese guy with facial hair (!) Yes, that is an extreme rarity here. I've actually started seeing it more and more among my immediate co-workers, like, some of them will go 2 - 3 days without shaving, whereas when I got here, they were clean-shaven all the time (like most of the men in China or at least Shanghai). I like to think this is a result of how I do things, like I'm rubbing off on them, because I definitely don't shave every day :-) But I don't know if they did that before I got here.

Another example comes to us by way of the Olympics. Chinese are being instructed on things not to ask Western visitors, such as:

• Age
• Weight
• Salary
• Political preferences
• Religious preferences
• Physical ailments/health
• Marital status
  
• ...etc...
  

In the US, these topics are taboo among strangers. Imagine striking up a conversation with someone and, 5 minutes later, they ask you how much money you make or if you're a Christian. I dunno about you, but I'd find that a tad odd. I'd think my interrogator was either selling something or recently returned from living under a rock.

We have our bubbles of polite interactions, dammit, and we don't like it when someone intrudes on that. Just talk about the weather and be done with it! I'm going back to my hobbit hole ...

But in China, these topics are par for the course among strangers/recent non-strangers. They serve as a way to show someone that we're interested in them and what's going on in their life. People I know only slightly will ask me how much I paid for my shoes. Taxi drivers ask me if I'm married or have a girlfriend. It's a little strange, but I know what I'm dealing with. If that happened in America, I'd be a little weirded out. And I am here also -- but I know where I am. I'm in a country that regards these questions as, like I said, expressions of interest. Plus I'm an outsider (an alien, as I'll explain later), so I don't mind. I have to expand my bubble a little bit here, or, just not mind so much when someone else comes in uninvited.

Another example is pregnant women. My first tutor (and mutual acquaintance of my current tutor) is pregnant, which is why she's not my tutor anymore. Eh? Because apparently Chinese husbands like to exert control over their pregnant wives, you know, keeping them safe and out of harm's way and what not. So traveling on the bus or taxi or metro, breathing in all those fumes and risking accidents in traffic each step of the way, in order to increase some white kid's knowledge of Chinese is out of the question.

Now notice I say "exert control". That's how I, as an individualistic (and reasonably progressive-minded) American, see it. But her husband probably wouldn't see it that way. They would see it as the latter -- keeping their wife and unborn child safe. Now I'm not saying that he keeps his wife locked in a closet -- far from it. I'm just saying that in that situation, maybe he wanted her to cut down on extraneous, unnecessary, and potentially harmful activities, like traversing Shanghai during rush hour in order to teach a white boy Chinese. But to me, with my Western individualistic/progressive attitude of everyone having a right to their own opinion, it seems like control. After all, I see pregnant women in America out all the time, doing normal things like everybody else. But of course I understand wanting to keep your loved ones out of harm's way.

Which viewpoint is right? Is there an answer to that question? Probably not. How does my former tutor feel about this? I have no idea -- I haven't talked to her but once since she quit (although I did exhort her to play my demo CD for the baby. Years of research have proven unequivocally that techno helps fetuses grow and develop.) But it's interesting to learn about, and that's really my point here. There are tons of other things like this.

2. What people think about the US, from the outside. Yes, most of it comes about as a result of America's foreign policy. I had a great discussion last night with 2 Scottish guys and a Danish guy about the upcoming elections. They said that Europeans in general are ecstatic over the fact that Obama is the nominee and might win. (Of course, I am only talking to expats who, by nature, are brave (or "something") enough to journey to Shanghai for whatever reason, so they have an international perspective/"broadened horizons" in the first place, and I'm sure that's definitely skewing what I hear. But still. The point remains.)

I talk about this and other things about the US a lot. And in return, expats (and even native Chinese) will offer opinions/examinations about their own country for me. It's really great. I feel like I'm getting to see the US through the eyes of others, which is a fun experience. Definitely don't get to do that much in Austin. Unfortunately though, because I don't drink that much, I contribute to the perception that Americans can't drink for shit. So, to all you American alcoholics that are reading this: I apologize for of lowering our national image in the eyes of others :-)

It's a lot of fun. And it balances out the amount of time that my co-workers and others spend explaining Chinese grammar, like the difference between 都 and 所有.

Luckily I get to explain things for a living, too :-)

In other news, I got my residence/employment permit yesterday. So I am officially a 外国人 (wai guo ren, "foreign person", although on the cover slip it says "alien").

And in other-other news, my team and I are going to karaoke today. These places are open 24 freaking hours a day!! And because they have private rooms, they definitely have a tawdry reputation here, too, at least some places do. But of course we're going during the day, so it's all on the up-and-up. I knew I couldn't escape China without doing this at least once, so, I'm kinda resigned to my fate! Hahaha. If I see anyone in there with a camera though, I'm going to politely kick it across the room for them ;-)

没有英文

今天天气非常漂亮可是很热！


如果你看不懂中文，我帮。

A Transformative Moment in Chinese

Learning how to say "Sorry, you have the wrong number."

Six Down, Six to Go

Six months gone in a flash. Luckily I have the pictures and blog entries to prove I did something worthwhile :-)

This visit to Austin has been fantastic. I got re-acquainted with friends and family and co-workers. I met new ones (of each type). I remembered what it's like to live and work in Austin. I got a tan. I went to Barton Springs. I went to Hamilton Pool. I went downtown. I played trivia. I shot pool. I saw a movie at the Drafthouse. I watched a baseball game. I ate Mexican, Tex-Mex, and BBQ. I ate a sandwich, for gosh sakes. A ham sandwich on buttered toast with bacon, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Ohhh. I bought a ton of books at BookPeople. I read the Chronicle. I drank non-Starbucks coffee.

I. Saw. The. Sky. That's probably the biggest thing I noticed. My vision isn't hemmed in by towering skyscrapers everywhere. I can see miles into the distance in any direction. Acres of green trees replace the constructs of metal and glass. And, who'd have guessed, the sky is actually blue, not sheet-metal gray. And it's got clouds, nice fluffy clouds, that make shapes and change colors and provide such a nice contrast and focal point when you look ... up.

I took the pictures to prove it.

On the 4th I was walking around downtown, taking some pictures of the Capitol, when I chanced to overhear "Yi, Er, San ..." that is "One, Two, Three" in Chinese! I turned around and sure enough, some Chinese people were taking pictures on the lawn. One "Nimen shi Zhongguoren ma?" later and we were talking a bit in Chinese. That was very fun :-)

All in all, a fantastic, amazing, wonderful, and sure-to-be-missed trip.

Not an Idiom, but Close

In talking with one of my co-workers today, I discovered that the computer game "Diablo" is known in China as "Big Pineapple".

Why, you might ask?

Phonetically, "Diablo" sounds similar to Da bo luo (；bō luó');">大菠萝) which means, you guessed it, "Big Pineapple".