China Part 2

Right, as promised, here is my second post on China, only about a week late. By now, my memory has probably altered facts, and what I spew out from this point on should be taken with a pinch of pepper.

China and food
Ok, this is a tricky one. My first meal here was a McDonald's McSpicy meal. Sound familiar? Nosh!t. My last meal here was chicken pizza, with frozen mocha. Sound familiar? Nosh!t. And in between, I spent a lot of my time at "Ali Baba" the "northern Chinese Cuisine" place, where we ate .... lamb kebabs, nan, and lassi. (ok the lassi's a bit much). By this point, you probably get the drift. *its a small world after all*

Now i dont usually crib about food (or anything else for that matter, cos I'm just a neat person who doesn't complain) , but I don't generally like chicken on my bones. Yes, the "meats" in local cuisine are more bones than meat. And I'm not exaggerating; when one sees little pieces of meat, one naturally assumes they're boneless. Au contraire, some of those pieces were just bones. And why stop there, other pieces were generally cartilage based, and I even ate something which while I was spitting out I was thinking "human knuckle".

Well, that aside, the food was aight.

In keeping with my character, (I'm talking laziness and sloth today) Im just going to post a few random pictures, as I promised, and let them do the talking. if each picture is worth a thousand words, you do the math. captions under picture.

"the mystic east: china"

"beware the hun in the sun. and the sun in your face."

"am the mc during the second day. and this is the only picture i have?"

"ooh. look at me. im the tall one. in the blue tie. ooh"

"get outta my picture + peter & shuting, REAL chinese people + this time i'm not the tall one"

" jason likes it. I think zaki does too. + neeraj is 'that guy' "

" me and prof chou, the vice dean of engin. no jokes here. oh wait, my eyes are closed LOL"

"I could just eat me up. Where's my nutella?"

"eh.. art?? yup.. paint a picture and call it GRBLAROIASD"

"business......?"

" ..... or pleasure?"

Thats all for this installment folks. Thats all on China for now. And thats all from me for a while. You see, I have "exams". LOL. and I also like LOL more than lol now.

Anyway, the fatman ran 8k today. so it looks like marathon or at least half mar is still doable.

peace out.

The Big C

I just got back from China; Guangzhou to be exact. Here's my "all about China in a nutshell" post.

China and the money

Money/shopping/material goods and gain should be among your primary concerns when you visit the place. When "they" say "stuff in China is cheap," "they" mean it. In fact, the currency of China (RMB) when translated to English (by a wise sage I know) means "youre getting ripped off". So when you ask someone how much somethign is for, they reply "200 you're getting ripped off" or "250 you're getting ripped off."

The reason for this is simple; there is always someone somwhere close by willing to sell you the same thing cheaper (Cardinal Rule number one).
There is no such thing as a bottom price. nada. I'll bet if you bargain hard enough they'll pay you to take stuff off them. Well, maybe not. Then again, maybe.

I had somethign like 40 sing spending money, with which I bought the following:

• a sweeeet graphite shaft pool cue in a gnaaarly wooden case. (26 $)
• gucci cufflinks (yes, you're right, what am i going to do with those) (4 $)
• 8 gb sony flash drive. (yes, 8 fishin' geebees) (14 $)
• mao zedong posters (4 $)
• turning a corner and seeing the same stuff at half the price (priceless $$$)

China and the place

Different parts of the city look pretty different. But most of the city looks like Delhi. In fact, there were instances when I was telling the cab driver, "if you turn left and go down that street you'll hit mall road, and from there Babloo's house is within walking distance." No, I don't know a Babloo, but sometimes I wish I did.

At other times, while walking through narrow gullies to get to that particular counerfeit shop, I could swear I'd be able to turn a corner and see kids playing cricket.

The university was alright, with the highlight being the coop that sold cigarette cartons for a buck, and beers for 60 cents. No, I don't smoke, but sometimes, I wish I did. Oh, and the university had lakes. Thats right; water-body-lake things. Apparently, a lot of universities in China have lakes in them. Very interesting. yawn.

It was also pretty hazy, so I felt right at home :P

China and the people

Chinese people are fun. Well, actually, playing dumb charades for four days straight is fun. I did not have a phrase book. So, I'm sure you can imagine (I'm talking about communication, just in case you hadn't already figured it out). But yes, the delegates at the conference (yes, I went there for a conference) were interesting and receptive. Made new friends, talked to people, etc even though my Chinese is limited to Ni Hao, naka, tckika?, xie xie, and meiyo (which was the word to know, pronounced mayo, like the stuff some people eat).

On a more interesting note though, one of the clubs we went to had a bikini-clad woman dancing with a python around her.

On an even more interesting note, at the airport, a woman tried to hand us a big doll house and convince us to take it with us past customs. No, really. Doesn't everyone know that all dolls at airports are stuffed with unmentionable items. And that chocolates have diamonds hidden in them. She didn't give us chocolate though, just the dolls; so we pretty much stayed awaaay from her.

got work and am sleepy now, will post a little more on china with pictures soon. maybe.

tc

Midsem break

coming soon...

(I know.. completely ridiculous.)

will post either before or after I get back from China. uh huh, uh huh, uh huh.