Can't Stop the Hiccup

   The Wednesday two weeks ago, I managed to catch an evening with Kathy from Princeton. We went to Din Tai Feng at my suggestion, since it was the only place I could think of that might appeal off the top of my head. Reminiscing about Princeton and people was an enjoyable change of pace, and being outside of campus allowed a certain frank, outsider’s look of things that I found refreshing (Either that or I just like gossip, which I don’t deny). Afterwards, we walked along the Bund as one typically does when in that area, and thoroughly creeped out some couples while talking about Shanghainese fashion a tad too vocally. The night was the perfect temperature, and the walk was pretty slow paced (and the people-watching was pretty entertaining/excellent).

   Saturday I again went to Din Tai Feng, this time prearranged, to meet up with Anna and her mom, a family friend. Lest one thinks I need to find more places to eat, we did change location (from SuperBrandMall to YuYuan Gardens… alright, I need to find more places to take people). We chatted over some more diverse food than what I ordered previously, though which was tasty. Talking kind of made me miss the San Francisco area, but I’m sure there are tons of opportunities to determine where exactly I want to go after this.

   An aside on Din Tai Feng: I think if I were just to go by myself, I would just order the soup dumplings. They’re so tasty and quite a good price too. Everything else is really just secondary, although compared to everything else in China it is quite pricy. I guess you’re paying for presentation and décor too? It’s pretty reliable though, and it has some name recognition among people who come visiting. Ah well.

   Last weekend was duan wu jie, or the Dragon Boat Festival. I ate a lot of zhong zi, as expected, but less out of celebration and more out of the fact that I had about ten of them in freezer for about half a month. They taste good, but the leaves really just make me want to take out the trash that day.

   I visited both my side’s grandparents that Saturday; one was a large family gathering of up to forty people at a restaurant (four tables, about ten people each), where I was introduced to too many people to remember, and the other was just me and my two grandparents, which I left with ten more zhong zi and a week’s worth of leftovers. Indeed, I haven’t bought lunch at all this week.

   Since I have been bringing lunch to work, I’ve eaten with a new group of people, mostly consisting of HR women. The conversation is much different, and often touches on pop culture/travelling; some of them have been to / are going to the U.S. and today, we talked about random horror movies. It never fails that I get poked fun at for the food I bring, as all the leftovers my grandparents packed me were meat (so first day just pork, second day just fish, ect.) It’s all good natured teasing though. My Chinese is okay enough to communicate and tease back, although they do say I have a Taiwanese accent. Clearly I’ve been hanging out with the wrong sort of crowd when growing up… I kid.

   Work is work. For the past few weeks my boss has been on vacation, so there’s not too much to do in terms of lab. I have been asked by HR to prepare and teach a half-day business writing class though, so that should be interesting (I have almost no experience in business writing).  Had to go out with my colleague to find a metalworking place nearby recently for a UV machine part; didn't realize old shanghai (re: poor and squalid) was within two to three minutes walk of where I work. It made me feel both sad and somewhat nostalgic, oddly.

   The weather is my primary gripe at the moment. I honestly did not know China had a rainy season. The ground is constantly wet, and the air is disgustingly moist. Everything I touch seems to be damp. The worst part is that mildew has been growing on the ceiling of my kitchenette and bathroom, and is slowly spreading into the living room. Since such impurity really grates on my nerves, as soon as I noticed I tried to wipe it off with a mix of detergent and water. This only spread it in nice towel-wiped textured patterns, as I noticed next week. I ended up buying some 15$ Korean spray-on bleach (I couldn’t read the label) and practically doused my ceiling with it. Unfortunately, I can only barely touch the ceiling at full reach on a chair; not only was my rubbing force very weak, but the bleach would have a nasty habit of dripping off the ceiling, unfortunately sometimes into my face. At least I was wearing gloves.

   To my chagrin, not only were dots reforming on the ceiling when I looked up four days later, but my bamboo coasters were starting to show off-green splotches. It’s really grating on my nerves, I will have to buy another bottle of bleach soon. Hopefully I won’t poison myself.

   Korra ended beautifully, but story wise I can’t help but feel disappointed of the handling regarding everyone except the main villain. I guess it’s hard to end a serial that’s so short and not meant to continue, as they initially thought it would be.

   Diablo 3 is alright. I’m pretty sure I’m bad at these types of games, since I’m very confused as to what to equip half the time and I’m bad at judging damage spells. It doesn’t help that I’ve chosen what’s collectively agreed upon as the least farm-efficient class. It’s okay, witch doctor has a lot of flavor. Tiny fetish people? Definitely a plus.

   I really should have updated sooner. The more time passes, the less my posts become thought oriented and the more they become event oriented. I’m under the impression thought is more interesting, but I guess a mix is preferable. Then again, focusing too much on thought might attribute too much importance to an event or epiphany that is ultimately not very important. It’s like a fine line between writing a book that is action-oriented or angst oriented.

   Eh, no worries, I think writing in itself takes precedence over worrying whether I sound too pretentious or too boring.

Yanoda~~

Pudong Airport’s Domestic Terminal is extremely long, and quite a hike. During late hours, it is quite desolate . I suppose this counts as my first hike on my Hainan trip; not illustrious, but fairly peaceful. The plane flight was nondescript. The attendants were much younger than the average American flight attendant, but definitely caked on the makeup. I had downloaded a few Ipad applications for the first time; a PDF reader, Sonic CD, and a Photoshop equivalent. Turns out I can get motion sickness on an airplane from Sonic-ing too fast…

Dinner was at a small hole-in-the-wall that seemed less touristy and more native, as it was an impromptu stop. Compared to Shanghai, everyone seemed much more relaxed. All ages of men had the “whatever happens, happens” look, and all ages of women really didn’t look like they cared about any minor problem that might come. The noodles were some sort of special noodles, and they were quite tasty. I’m not sure if I’ll ever grow tired of noodles. I’m also glad that my spice tolerance has gone up ever since high school, since the peppers were quite tasty.

The hotel we ended up at was not particularly high end, but was very comfortable and had good services. An artificial lagoon was located in the back; there were these large inflatable hamster wheels that guests could use to cavort around the top, although I never tried. The front had a private beach, and the terrace on the top had a good view of the mountains behind a vine trellis. I stayed with my laboratory co-worker in a room; it was nice and air conditioned compared to outside, which was incredibly hot and humid even at night.

The first night, five coworkers and I decided to get a look at the surroundings. We ended up walking to a shopping center around fifteen minutes away, along a road lined with palm trees, hotels, and the occasional construction. The shopping center was extravagant, with faux-old bridges and a multilevel outdoor complex. We ended up buying some Tsingtao beer and drinking it on the way back. It got warm quite fast; not the best I’ve had. We met up with the other people and I got introduced to those from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Canton, with a total of around twenty-five people. I stayed up until twelve just listening to people talk.

The next day, we piled into our tour bus and got a brief history of Hainan from our tour guide (in Chinese, of course). As my Chinese still isn’t good enough to pick out specialized vocabulary, I have to admit I mostly zoned out. We all got out together to visit a tourist area with a group of temples (There was a disabled man and a woman both selling the same trinket not five meters from each other; in the name of marketing, I wonder who sold more?). The first area contained a grove of trees planted by famous people (bodhi trees? The trees Buddha sat under in the story). The other temples seemed relatively new. Overall, the area seemed a bit too… new and manicured for my taste. Lunch was vegetarian, and unrelated, not very good.

The scenery was quite nice, though. It was next to the sea, and the foliage was definitely biome-specific. Hanging vines, flowers (the male flower: no pistil), palm trees. The highlight, though, was a huge three-faced statue of Guanyin, which lorded over the coastline. I was the only one who ended up taking a walk along this particular coast, although only for a while. The rest of the time, I tagged along with everyone else. We eventually visited this large statue (very lord-of-the-rings-looking), and walked right up to the base.

Afterwards, we went to the Chinese version of the end of the word (tian ya hai jiao), which was a motley collection of recent statures and huge, old smooth rocks dotting the coast. Some of the rocks had words carved into them by famous people. The scenery was quite nice, and walking in the surf was quite nice. However, there was an unfortunate amount of people, which made peace/photos a bit harder to pull off. They happened regardless, and it was fun to see old people do young-style photos, such as the ever infamous all-jumping-in-air photos.

Dinner was nondescript, but afterwards we ended up heading to the hotel’s private beach. My boss and I were the only ones that ended up going into the surf. At this point, I tried swimming farther, but the hotel employee on duty was very adamant about blowing his whistle whenever I’d get past my shoulder. We ended up just wave-diving for a while while the other coworkers relaxed on the beach.

The second full day occurred mostly in the Hainan jungle. Teambuilding exercises consisted of a treck up a mountain inside a creek, with rope-swing, tire bridge, rolling logs, nets, and suspended tunnels as obstacles. Nearly everyone was wet at the end from falling into the creak at some point; I would have gotten out unscathed if not for getting thoroughly drenched at the end of a tunnel by my coworkers. At the end, we had to climb up a waterfall with handholds and rope embedded in the rock behind it. Very unique, and quite fun, if not a bit non-integrated into the jungle atmosphere.

I forgot to bring a change of clothes, and the humid air was not making things better. Regardless, I still decided to go hiking with my coworkers after lunch. The jungle really looked like a stereotypical jungle, with large curling vines, exotic fruits hanging everywhere, and gnarled tree roots (along with the excessive humidity). It was quite a nice experience; there were even tiny red crabs halfway up a tree in a knothole. In the middle, we stopped at some random tea house area trying to sell us tea. It’s been a while since I had ku ding tea, and I still enjoy it. I didn’t buy anything though, unfortunately. There was also a shrine with lots of people-placed wooden charms hanging off trees, bridges, and trellises that acted as wind chimes; made me really want to get one for my apartment.

Sunset came again, and I headed to the hotel beach again. This time, more people joined in the surf, including both bosses, which was pretty cool. The hotel guy eventually got tired of blowing his whistle whenever I got too far, and just told me to move about ten metrs off the hotel’s private beach into another’s area, so that they don’t get in trouble if I kill myself. I promptly get faceslammed/winded trying to ride a particularly large wave and am disoriented for the rest of the time.

The atmosphere was quite nice though. If I’m nowhere near the sea and I think about it rationally, it’s kind of disgusting, as even with the power of dilution you’re exposing yourself to many different nasties. But when I’m near the sea, I can’t exactly not enjoy myself. The water on this beach was warm and clear, and the sand was fairly fine. The twilight only made everything else look more surreal and peaceful, and eventually you could see the Milky Way above. Since it was a private beach, there weren’t many people at all. Really my type of environment, hehe.

Afterwards was swimming in the hotel pool, which was not nearly as nice, but had a basketball hoop. My coworkers are pretty enthusiastic about the sport, but I could hold my own, sadly enough. Well, I guess that’s a good thing.

The third full day was spent on a smaller island off the coast of Hainan. Here, our group split; some stayed at the beach, while others climbed to the top of the local mountain. Naturally, I stayed at the beach. Some of the women had an impromptu photoshoot, and there was some  burying-in-the-sand going on, but mostly I swum or helped those who can’t swim maneuver their inner tube. This particularl beach had nicer water than the private beach, but the sand was rough and there were many more people. The primary fauna was jellyfish. In a flash of brilliance, I decided that swimming through a flock of jellyfish would be a positively magical experience… not my greatest idea. At least their stings only itched.

Lunch was noodles and wax apples, which I grew quite fond of. Wax apples and dragonfruit are two things that others don’t seem to like, but I really enjoy, partly because they aren’t overwhelmingly sweet; they are more refreshing. After lunch, we walked around (lots of free-range chickens) and ended up cleaning up at the manmade pool.

Dinner was in the mall we visited on the first day, and it was more a feast than the previous ones, to celebrate the department where my coworkers come from. There was lots of barbecue, coconut drinks, and these columns of beer (meter tall, cooled by a smaller ice column within). It was quite cool. We ended up making supermarket runs for more beer to pour into these columns. Afterwards was KTV; my coworkers are really crazy when it comes to this, especially the ones from Hong Kong. Singing on stacks of furniture, wanton drinking of beer, ect. Much different atmosphere than the karaoke I’ve been to in the states. They made me sing Uptown Girl and Hotel California, even though they had a pretty good selection of English songs. I am not very good at singing. Regardless, because I didn’t know/understand most of the Chinese songs, I ended up just lying there on the couch, college party style. Not terribly interesting, but in my defense, I did drink a lot of beer (which is tolerable now, but still not my drink of choice). This lasted until about 12 AM.

The last day was not particularly productive. It was really the only day I didn’t take a swimming opportunity, because I didn’t want to not be able to change afterwards. We took a taxi to the city, and ate some pretty good ethnic cuisine. Afterwards, we went to a fruit market which was ridiculously cheap (2 RMB for a mango… although I later found out they weren’t … exactly high quality). I bought 5 and acquired some dragonfruit to bring home. Afterwards I bought some coconut candy, pepper sauce, tea, and coconut powder, all being local specialties which I didn’t want to buy in a tourist trap. I inteded for them as gifts, but now that I look at them they look kind of lame.

My last meal was KFC at the airport, and then we headed back. We waited in the ridiculously long taxie queue line, and when I finally slept, it was two.

This is what I do Instead of Reunions

   On Wednesday, I went to Abbey Road for dinner with some co-workers as an informal send-off to one of the German interns here. It was a Beatles-themed restaurant, with lots of European paraphernalia, in the French concession area of Shanghai. However, the most important reason to go to the restaurant was 50 yen pasta meals, which was about 30% off, and happy hour half-off beer. It was pretty fun; it was the first English speaking meal that I’ve had in a while, and my uh, traditional, off color humor made another appearance. Everything was alright though. On an aside, I’m starting to be alright with drinking beer, as opposed to my previous college era self, who didn’t enjoy it at all. All in all though, it’s probably more it’s price rather than its taste. Definitely starting to enjoy it more though.

                  Speaking of which, the Chinese coworkers practically inundated the Canadian intern with tons of awkward (western culture-speaking) questions, such as “do you have a 6-pack,” “where did you get that scar,” do you have a girlfriend”. Kind of glad I appear Chinese enough to not draw such questions. All in all though, office life is pretty interesting. It’s hard to predict everything that will happen on a given day when there are so many people. Today I tried doing a soft hula-hoop, and our head passed out tons of cherries to people. Very odd, but endearing quirks of work. In addition, working in a lab has a huge perk, which is that it has to be air conditioned and dehumidified at all times, which means it’s a prime cooldown zone that only a few people in the company (including me!) have access to. Too bad they both aren’t working quite well right now.

While I was out with another, this time Chinese, friend, we came across yang mei, although not for the first time here. I haven’t had them in a while, but they have to be one of my favorite types of fruit, especially pre-soaked in salt water. It’s odd that I can never find them in the U.S, unless they are in ornamental gardens. What a waste. On another note, I also bought some instant coffee. For some reason I associate this, and canned coffee with asian dramas. I’m slowly growing partial to the taste. This is probably a good thing, as my slight (unofficial) narcolepsy hasn’t quite gone away ever since high school, haha.

My hair is getting extra long, but I’m kind of apprehensive about cutting it here. Perhaps I should just grow it out, haha. No, I’m not going to delude myself into thinking I’d look good with long hair. Perhaps I’ll get it cut after my Hainan trip, maybe even in a way that doesn’t involve pointy sides.

Shanghai weather is really weird these few weeks. The day after I made the post about how awesome the weather was, it started raining. It’s not exactly hot yet, but it is quite humid. Will have to look into lighter clothes soon. I was always under the impression that button down short sleeves were a fashion faux pas, but right now they are so tempting.

The landscaping outside my apartment is coming about nicely, although the immediate area still isn’t occupied and looks like a ghost town. For a while there were peach blossoms, and everything is still freshly planted. Unfortunately, every morning there is a mass exodus of millipedes, pillbugs, and snails that I’ve unfortunately stepped on more than ten times. Bug crunching is probably one of my least favorite sounds. Usually I can catch myself halfway so that it doesn’t fully grind itself into my shoe though. Ugh, the thought of this makes me uncomfortable.

I tried putting up my Mucha poster (de facto girlfriend) and nothing works, not even double sided tape. Must ask family friends to bring poster mounts, since I’ve looked and haven’t found them.

I drew this picture recently. Hm, it's not exactly the type of thing I draw on a regular basis... well, at least not the center part though. For not having a scanner for lineart, I think it turned out okay. 

Bastion is a good game, with a good art style and narrative. I recommend it to everyone. Napa cabbage is better than regular cabbage. Strawberry pocky with little chunks in it looks like barf but is actually my favorite type. Korra is outstanding as usual. Getting Diablo 3 in a week or so. Hainan tomorrow, hopefully I'll have quite a bit to write about.