Blue Stasis

Final post

2012-02-03T04:10:00.003+08:00

Hey all,

As you can see I have not updated this site in a long time. I am actually surprised how much material is on here. It includes a huge swatch of my life and I am really glad I kept it active for so long.

I am proud to be Google's resident expert on Class III Cavities, law school culture and freestyle walking.

Anyway, I have recently started a new blog at Warner Beer Co. Feel free to keep up with me there.

Warm regards,
Matt

Bed Stuy II

2007-10-17T05:57:00.001+08:00

Before I finish my story from last time, I have to start another story. The local convience store that I have mentioned previously is my favorite. Beyond being about twenty feet closer, it was spaced out so that you did not feel like the shelves were collapsing around you.
It however was not exactly tailored to Allison and I's comsmpolitan tastes, more specifically, its milk selection was appaling. They sometimes carried one or two percent milk by the carton, but even that was rare. Usually they had about ten or more huge jugs of whole milk.
I simply cannot drink whole milk, its cruel (that was a joke, but hard to write). Rather to the point, it tastes like I am drinking butter and I generally find it gross. So on a whim I asked them why they don't carry it.
"Because no one will buy it. It will sit there for two weeks and then we will have to throw it away." The workers there were all nice there.
I replied, "well I promise you that you can sell at least one bottle a week." At the time they probably could honestly have sold more, and I mean just for Allison and I. I have a significant passion for cereal. Its usually the first thing I miss when I am abroad (sorry mom). Cereal has the amazing American quality of being 80% marketing, 18% packaging, and then the actual substance that people in theory pay for, are chunks of wheat. Also, one of my earliest memories was destroying the kitchen in attempt to make cereal by myself for the first time.
Alliison, however, is probably an even greater consumer of milk. She is a predator of milk. One of the sheer absurdities in my new living situation was getting to watch my girlfriend carefully fill an Evian bottle with mlik for the day.
To sum up a long point, we go through a lot of milk. So I felt comfortable saying that we could support their 2 percent purchasers (I would have gone to skim but one step at a time).
The store workers promise to bring in 2%. After a couple of weeks of us checking in, they actually do start carrying it and we start buying it every week.
One Sunday afternoon recently I wanted to play basketball. A court is one of the first things I look for anywhere I move. There was a court only about two blocks away and when I got there it was empty. I played for a while when a large group of guys show up to play.
One of the guys was the person who threatened me, at the time, only about three days earlier. He did not have much of an opportunity to be really mean to me. His friend Q greeted me warmly, and the guy seemed to have enough respect for Q that he just said whatever.
In the end, we ended up playing basketball for a few hours. I didn't exactly school anyone, but I was not a liability to my team. I have been playing there for a while. I have learned to never go into the paint unless you can make a shot while getting fouled. Also, don't call a foul unless you can't get up or you are ready for a game-paralyzing argument.
To this day the guy has been nice to me, and his friends far more so. I ended up with the name Larry Bird, because Q is decisively old school. For the last month they have greeted me warmly.
Why the bit about the convenience store? Right after the game Allison and I went there to get milk. They have all kinds of varieties now. I asked them if they were selling. They all burst out with smiles, apparently the milk has been selling like crazy. Multiple people have asked why they did not carry other kinds earlier.
The community we are in is changing, but I think our understanding of it is changing as well. A new wine store opened, we are making friends out of neighbors and it has been very positive. Also I am getting far better at basketball.

Dreams and Batman

2007-09-22T22:41:00.000+08:00

I get a lot of questions about this blog, enough to take it as a compliment. I am due to put part two of my Bed Stuy story up here. Its half done and I just keep not finishing it, partially because I am busy, but partially because I just hate it. Its hard to justify writing that is not as good as the writing that someone could be reading. This is the bane of every failed writer and forgotten by every failing writer. Writing entails a certain amount of reverence to what you are putting down. It has the ability to reach people beyond the direct listeners. A great writer often has almost no conception of it, burns their poetry, or is so miserable they cannot look up and around.

The problem is that now that I admit all of this, a blog is just less fun. Not to insult the shockingly broad base of my readership (every time I stop posting I get talked to by the usual suspects but I get at least a few people I would have never expected). I take that as a compliment, but its hard to justify writing all of this out when I could tell most of you the same story. And I am generally better at telling.

However last night I had a really cool dream where I read a book...

Tangent: When I was a kid there was a very good cartoon series of Batman. It was remarkably well done. There was an episode where Scarecrow kept attacking Batman in his dreams.. The big question was whether Batman could essentially make his dream lucid enough to take control and fight back. Batman was able to do so when he saw a library. He rushed and grabbed a book. Turning to the first page, the letters on the page just melted off essentially. Batman knew from this that he was in a dream, he became lucid, and then won the battle by controlling the dream. Later, reminiscing his brilliance with Robin, Batman said that he knew to grab the book, because you cannot read in a dream. I have more or less believed that since that damn cartoon, at least in the sense of believing something openly is the easiest way to test its truth. So I often asserted that fact and then waited to see if people disagreed. I typically sourced the cartoon show to make sure I was not spreading lies. However one odd thing I found: I surprisingly got a lot of people who said back "You got that from Batman didn't you?" Apparently that cartoon was spreading lies all over. That was definitely the worst show of a very good series. I am also glad that I have probably now captured a top ten Google result for "Batman dreams."

The book was more or less for kids. It had pictures on the margin. As it came to a climax the text was done in columns instead of one solid block. Then the margins would stager back and forth. It became hard to read both because it was so enthralling but also because of the way it was written. To dash yet more pop culture references unique to my generation: It was remarkably similar to Tenacious D's Tribute. This too is but a tribute to the greatest kids book in the world (that said, at the time it definitely registered into my brain as clear text read like a book); I also know a volcano was involved. A volcano pretty much has to be involved for a book to be the greatest book in the world.

The dream book sort of inspired me to write more stuff in here. An ironic result since it could have just as easily highlighted how silly most of the things I write really are. Instead, I will try to put Bed-stuy up. And I can tell you about Batman and dreams. I may not interest anyone, but at least I will stop getting random demands to put up an entry: no one will read the blog in the first place.

Life in Bed-Stuy I

2007-08-09T06:22:00.001+08:00

This should be part one in a few articles on our new home that are long over due. For those of you who don't know, I moved in with my girlfriend Allison into a brownstone apartment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. We had been looking for a place in Brooklyn because she works here, and I wanted to get a bigger place for a similar price as what I was paying in Manhattan. Thanks to Allison's efforts we got a great place in the heart of Bed-Stuy.

Actually, heart is not really the best term, more like a lower artery. We are in a portion of Bed-stuy which is getting revitalized. Gentrification is not exactly the right term, at least considering its implied meanings, because the area is changing economically, but it is not changing much ethically. There are white people, but they are not common, however people with money is generally increasing.

This means that there are a few new restaurants in our neighborhood, but not many. We rely heavily on three or four. Going a few blocks any direction and the area is not being revitalized, although it is surely no where near as bad as it was in the early-90s.

Overall the area has been great to me, however there is little question that we stand out. Allison and I are used to being the white people in Taiwan, so by comparison, it is not that bad. People are very friendly in general, more so than anywhere I have lived. If I see someone on the street, "Good morning" or "Good evening" is common. However, if I walk with a large group of white friends, say five or six, we get nothing be awkward looks.

The first time I had walked Fulton street, the main commercial area near by, I felt like I was abroad. Predominately the area has huge $1 stores, discount clothing stores, pawn shops, a lot of laundry places, and sweltering hot take-out restaurants. I walked up the majority of the street trying to figure out how the very different economic entities were interacting. Only a couple of pockets were completely franchise dominated like most middle-American towns. My own town, Longmont Colorado, now has every big box store and middle-to-upper-middle class eatery out there (Noodles and Company, Outback Steak House, etc). The closest to that near here has been Applebee's. However fast food is prevalent on Fulton.

Until recently, the only tension I or a friend had was a bunch of my friends who were visiting me were told to "get out of this hood." I don't know the details of the story, but it seemed positive that nothing larger than that had happened since moving in.

This was until about two weeks ago. It was the morning and I walked to the local grocery store about two weeks ago. In front of it was a fat man with an unkept beard and clothes. He asked me for a dollar when I came out.

It was a bit early so my mind was not completely fast, but I just sort of dismissed it with "Sorry, man." I have no problems giving to the community, but if this guy hung out in front of my favorite grocery store, I could be adding a lot of pressure to give in the future. Moreover, he did not appear all that old or otherwise incapable of work. Saying "man" was just stupid. It slipped out because I was trying to be somewhat friendly.

Later that day I was walking with Allison to a nearby pizza place. I pass the guy and gets up into my face and starts yelling at me, with a bunch of his friends behind both of us. He says "Hey, _man_, how are you now? Huh?"

I answer, "umm, I am okay." And we keep walking.

Behind me he keeps shouting, "yeah, hold her hand and keep walking." And then he said something about my mother, and something about "milky" which I think was in reference to Allison (who is not of the darkest complexion). There was more in there, some more threatening, and a lot more overemphasized uses of "man."

I was frustrated by the incident, but there was no reason to make this guy hate me any more, especially if he hangs out nearby and was with a group of friends. I just try to dismiss it, but it was hard not to be angry about someone who clearly lived nearby who might be a threat to Allison or me.

On the way home, he passed again. He recognized me, and said lowly, "get home safe..." We actually were on the way to the same grocery store as before. As we are in there, he comes back in. While Allison is talking about paper towels I can't stop listening to him. It becomes clear he is a drug dealer, great, I have the local drug dealer hating me.

He does not see me again while we are in there. But I end up seeing him again this weekend. However, I am writing this in multiple parts to keep me writing. So I will leave it there for now.

Old photos

2007-06-04T12:10:00.001+08:00

There is a lot I miss about Taiwan. Flipping through old photos, it was weird to relive frustrations and recall people. When you take a thousand photos a second, going through them can be a very odd experience. Reliving whole days in minutes.

Some of the people don't seem far at all, this was of course only a year ago. However, my life is so different. I still make the trivial into huge problems. I still worry about the daily drama and the daily annoyances.

I would probably not move back to Taiwan, but the thought crosses my mind. The whole idea of living in Asia is weird. I like the challenge. I like the language. I like the foreignness, but there are so many things to not like.

This entry is more to put something on the blog to inspire to put up more. For those who complain about the lack of new entries, there are probably only two people on this planet who have read the entire series of articles from China. This is not a recommendation to do so, I am just saying, this site is not lacking in material.

I will try to put up more, more about my new life here in this summer and, mercifully, post 1L. I live in Bed Stuy, I live with my girlfriend, we buy furniture, I like my job, and I don't especially want my grades. This life has been good. My life in Taiwan was good. They just seem so different.

A class three cavity: "Awesome."

2007-02-17T04:34:00.001+08:00

A class three cavity: "Awesome."
So I went to the dentist this morning because my parents have begged me. They have apparently more cavities than teeth between them, as went the apocalyptic scenario painted for me.
So, after getting lost, and confused, I got to my appointment at 9:00 in the morning, absolutely exhausted.
The check-in woman, who was rude in ways I didn't know were really necessary for her position, clearly was concerned about where her lips ended and her face began. That is the only reason I could picture her deciding that the edges of her lips should be lined three shades darker than any other part of her face. However, it clearly worked, there was no question asking as to do with where her lips were.
After a wait I got a very pleasant dentist. She was originally from India, and had a lovely trace of an accent. She was very kind, and set me up for x-rays.
We talked for a while, and the appointment was going lovely. She took x-rays and I waited for my cleaning.
While I waited for her, I noticed that she was talking to someone in the hallway. They were using a great deal of technical jargon, and it all sounded a touch serious.
The person looking after me was looking at my x-rays and said that I might have a cavity. Oh shit I thought, well I guess my parents were right. But, what did I expect, I did not floss and it had been some two years since my last appointment, its going to happen.
Then a blond woman, who I realized was the girl from the hall came in. She told me I had a lesion in my tooth and it would only get worse. To preface the following, I am really bad at writing, or even recreating dialogue; however, I am fairly sure how this was actually presented to me:
"You have a class III lesion. This Sunday I am going to be taking my dentist exam, and that is the exact thing I needed."
"What?"
"I need a patient to perform on for the medical boards to get my license."
At this point my brain went dead, as I had mailed my mom, jokingly "Did you know that this was a student dentist office when you signed me up?"
When I came back mentally, this woman was all but begging me. Apparently, my problem being the exact thing she needed was somewhat rare. The following words were used in relation to my teeth having decayed: fortunate, amazing, and my personal favorite, fate.
My question: "wait, what the hell is a class III cavity? That sounds terrible."
"It just means that you have a cavity on your back teeth, that is a class III cavity. II is on the sides of your teeth, and I is in the front."
She said it would be free, and I would get paid, but moreover, it would mean the world to her. Clearly it did. I hold myself out as someone who would help anyone. Moreover, my main "dentist" assured me that there is no way that she would do less than a perfect job, as this was her big deal and she would be overlooked by a national dentist for the board review.
In retrospect, couldn't a hobo be perfect for this?
At one point, another junior doctor came in, and he was clearly baffled at the
fortune falling from the sky. He looked at the x-ray and said "Oh, this is awesome!"
That was the first time I really wanted to punch a man in a hospital.
And then he said "If he had contact on the category I he would be perfect." Two thoughts: screw you buddy, and, contact?
A real dentist finally comes in. He looks over the charts and says "well, 18 would be good, but 19 might be better." I am enough of a knower to know that those numbers meant my respective teeth.
"Yeah, but 8 would be perfect." Replied one of the people in the room. As I looked around I realized that there were now six people in the room. It reminded me of the first time I got my hair cut in Taiwan and a crowd developed to watch my foreigner hair get cut.
"Sure, but the 7 and 8 don't have contact. They probably won't approve it if you don't have contact."
"What about 16?"
"Its good, but not as good as 19, 16 is just starting."
This conversation went on until I drew the line and said "Would someone please tell me what is wrong with my teeth?"
They were selecting which cavity would be best for use in front of the board, apparently, there were options.
"Wait, so, how many cavities I have?"
"Do you mean number of teeth, or number of fillings you will need?" The dentist replied, looking somewhat perturbed at my question.
I thought, you are the damn doctor, count them however they do it in the trade! Apparently reading that thought he said "the cavities are between the teeth..."

PSA: Floss

"...the cavities are between the teeth, so you can count the number of teeth affected or the number of fillings
"Uhh...fillings I guess."
Numbers, so many numbers...He counted up the different pairings, looked at it all and then went "It looks like 1, 2, 3...4...6...7"
So apparently, depending on how you look at it, I have seven cavities. A brief email draft:

Dear Mom and Dad,

You have meant a lot to me. However, you are of a previous generation. And like all great children, I must surpass you.

Love, Your Boy

Even better news is that this dental board is at 7:30 in the morning this coming Sunday. I actually thought it would be a good contracts exam question, but I won't go into that.
So on Sunday, I will have one of my seven cavities fixed. After that, I have an appointment in March to start filling others.
Here is the best part. Turns out that I have so many great cavities, I could basically just go down to the lobby of the dentist review boards and be a sub-in. I have so many attractive cavities.
Finally, I am no longer just potential, I am, "awesome."

PS - this blog sucks for describing just how bad and ludicrous the whole thing was. I have lost all my blogging edge, but let me point out some of the great facts that did not even get in: in addition to the set of six people in my room at a given time, I realized later when I looked up that there were still six people, but three of them were different; the Indian girl was the first person to treat me like a human being towards the end and essentially said, "Oh god, don't worry, you could just not come back, or come to a dentist, ever again. And stop brushing your teeth, just feel better;" at one point I asked how bad it was, referring to my teeth, and got back an answer referring to the dentist board.

And could someone please confirm or deny the last two sentences from this Yahoo Answers quote. It was in reference to the cost of cavity filling:

"ou have to call around. I called the dentist my mom goes to, and they wanted like 250 bucks! they said it was because I was a 'new patient' and they jacked the price up. I then called my friends dentist, and they told me 100 bucks. And that was with xrays! Just don't go to a dental school, they will 'invent' problems and mess your teeth up. Believe me, I used to work at a University with a dental school."

Life tapped out

2007-01-13T10:15:00.000+08:00

Life tapped out
On keyboards
and from veins

up on cane
Dancing for whordes
clout

is known
for poppers and
staffers

the cont(a)[in]g(iousness)[ency] of lepers
Shak(e)[i]n[g] hand
nothing shown

One-way mirror

2007-01-03T12:41:00.000+08:00

I am now sending out job applications for my summer. Being that Matthew Warner gets this site, and makes it pretty obvious that I am an NYU law student, I know some firms will read this. To be honest, a lot of sentimental stuff got cut because of this very weird specter of restraint.

For me, this blog has always been a one-way mirror. I use it when I am somewhat lonely or detached. I use it to look at how I feel in a harsher light. A light mostly coming back to me, but a lot of it going through the mirror. However, historically I knew the other side were all loved ones. It was easy to be honest because they, as their role in my life would sort of entail, would understand.

Thus, if I had an entry on how I hated where I lived or what I was doing, it was understood that it was a temporal thing. I love New York, but man there were some times where I could have whipped a blog on the opposite. I would not worry about permanence, because thats the nature of a blog where most of the readers are friends and family, they are going to come back.

Now I get all kinds of weird hits. Which is cool, but its not like I am doing anything with them. I have long had some quasi-friends who checked the site based on my writing (at least this is what I was told/took to heart/wanted to take to heart/inferred/fabricated), and I always took that as a pretty decent compliment. The big question mark comes in when someone that will actually judge me will look at the site. And they will see the first entry, and that will be me.

Easily my favorite blog, or, sigh, "vlog" is The Show by Zefrank. I am now watching from the first episode forward and the latest episodes bank, and am about to meet in the "twain."

The reason I like it is manifold, but one is that he has no fear about presenting his personality in reasonable chunks. He has shows where he is just depressed. Shows where he is hung over. Shows where he sings most of the episode. Shows where he does nothing "intellectual." His show is not for new viewers, and he makes that clear. It creates a niche, and a sense of familiarity. An ability to be apart of something "in."

The problem with applying for jobs is I don't want to leave anyone "out." If I have an entry where I am angry and hung over (an entry started, and abandoned, on New Year's Day), then there is a chance that that is who I am when a firm comes google knocking.

This is a whole lot of build up to say, I hate networking.

This may destine me to being a sad commentary, but I think my business skills will always be limited by my unwillingness to network.

The thing is, I love to talk, I love to meet people. The fact is, I might not hate the concept nearly as much as I hate the verb. Why if I compliment someone's aspirations, or earrings, am I networking? Its all about context, and I can't control that context. The concept in isolation is a desire to connect, if fleetingly so, with other human beings. I like this because it reminds us that we project an image, and that image has some good parts. I don't talk to people I think are jerks, but I will gladly talk to someone who seems to care about people.

Usually, people like that. But now, if I talk to a certain set of people, the game is networking, not connecting. Visually those two things are the same but culturally they are worlds away.

In a career finding thing I read, "70-80% of jobs are obtained through network." I have so many problems with that "fact" I don't know where to begin. Notably, how was it derived and what do they mean by networking?

Do they mean what those creepy business school kids do? Like when they hand me cards when I have not met them and shake hands like the harder they squeeze the more I will like them? [Sigh: I don't mean to say all business school kids are creepy, but some are, these are the ones I am talking about...please hire me].

So now I am pandering to firms I have not even sent out things to. I say pander because I am pulling punches. Worst of all, most of the punches are directed at myself, but the game is presenting only your best. If its me and 5 applications I am fine with being the only one with a personality, but not if that personality comes off frail and self-depricating or pretentious and angry.

The worst part about this specter on the other side of my one-way mirror is that I have no idea what it looks like. I am going to try and cast a wide net, but I don't know enough about these firms. I sent out my first job application today and, well, I messed up big (lets not go into how, it was just dumb). The problem: I am new at this. I feel like I am joining a conversation with a faked cough or I am hitting on a girl who is clearly already on a date.

I tell myself that I want to find a firm with a personality, and one that can laugh at itself. One that is driven, but not one that drives its associates into the ground. In other words, somewhere where I actually want to work. But as a 1L, my search is limited by my incredible ignorance of these firms and a table generally slanted against me. If I win the grades lottery, that will help, but I don't need more stress on my grades than my own fear of failure has already put on them.

And on that note of fear of failure, wouldn't you want to hire me to do massive multi-national contract deals?

Classes are over

2006-12-09T05:46:00.000+08:00

I just got out of my last review session, and had my last class today.

Now I just have to study some civ pro, answer some questions, study some torts, answer some questions, study some contacts, answer some questions, and I am done with my first semester of law school. Not so hard on paper eh?

Its funny looking over the school. Stress is getting the best of them, and it is noticeable. Some people are more defensive, some just seem worried. A few people are reassuring themselves by telling everyone that they are not stressed. A few people are enforcing their work habits by telling everyone that they are super stressed.

The whole grades thing has never looked more vain to me. By and large, these kids really know the material. There are holes, and not everyone should be teaching a class, but these are very smart kids working very hard, knowledge is going to happen.

But now we grasp at letters on a page that for some mean nothing less than a stamp of approval on something they have worked harder for than anything else up to that point.

For me? I think its pretentious and not realistic to say I am not stressed. I don't feel stressed, but I work a fair amount. I find myself more standoffish than normal, and a bit more worried. These are signs of stress with me. So whether I call it how I detect it or not its gotta be there.

Life has been good, which has been a decent distraction, I am not all law school, which makes me better at law school. Being able to get away focuses me down more and has helped me a lot when I do study (rather than burning out).

Right now? I look forward to tests. I would never say that to an NYU law student because it comes off arrogant. The implication is that you think you will do well on tests, tests being comparative, the implication because that you will do better than everyone else, which becomes, you think you know the stuff better or are smart than someone else. Sort of a "but for" causation test for arrogance.

I look forward tests for the reason that a great TA of mine and one of my profs have said many times: tests are a way for you to express that you learned something.

So I am left with one question, did I learn something worth expressing? I hope so, and I think so. I remember there was a point where I did not "buy" torts. There was a point where I did not know what "International Shoe" meant. I don't know if I learned a coded language, the moral equivalent of secret-handshakes, or learned the principles that do or should govern our governors. Either way, it feels like I have learned something.

I will put what I have learned on my test, and I will hope that its a lot. I want to do well, but right now it feels like it did before my thesis, I don't care how I do, I am proud of what I have done (then I was disappointed about how I did, defeating everything I just said).

In other words, give me four days, and I will be a ball of stress.

2006-11-30T06:27:00.000+08:00

Gilbert Arenas 3 pointer

I like to follow bad rants with little posts and inside jokes. So here is Gilbert Arenas making a last minute shot!

Some sophistry

2006-11-30T06:13:00.000+08:00

The third comment back by "anonymous" was my mom saying she loved me, the second back was my dad saying I would have been better named Katie and the last one was calling me meaningless, pedantic, and arrogant. It feels like growing up all over again.

To be fair, the last anonymous called my writing meaningless, pedantic, and arrogant. Meaningless I disagree with, I think it has meaning but its rough and could be shorter and easier to access. However, I have a small history in academic writing or legal writing, so really - I am kind of faking it. To pedantic, I have always consider that word too ironic to really process (the only time I have heard it used was by someone being pedantic themselves...like there). And to arrogant, I think that is a bit unfair. I think I rightly characterize the post and its comments with me being a 1L law student sort of guessing my way around.

I actually don't care about the response in itself, I believe it was sarcastic (again, anyone who uses "pedantic" is either being sarcastic or is an idiot - and most of my friends, hopefully, fall into the former): but it did get me thinking.

When do I get to start being arrogant with my arguments again? If I have learned one thing in law school: the answer is always maybe. Sure there are questions that don't get answered with maybe, but those questions don't get asked. Not by teachers and not by students. Which leads to professors saying: "Welllllllll" a lot more than they should.

In my "lawyering" class the other day we were asked what we had learned about ourselves over this semester that would make us a good lawyer. The results: nothing short of disastrous. I see it as an issue of timing. Last Tuesday may have been the climax of kids feeling both unprepared for tests and guilty about having not been studying.

Answers were met with a lot of sighs, entirely different from when our semester began. Day 1: we were all told to say something about ourselves. We had fine answers, most were rather impressive and constructed with a delicate layer of modesty over a good core of self pride. Now the class was awkward and fidgety about how they feel they would be a good lawyer.

To be clear: I think every one of my lawyering classmates would (and for the most part, will) be a good lawyer. I got a great class, eerily so. If I listed people I don't like in the class, I think I would put myself in the top three, its just that good.

But it was a rough time to ask.

Tests from this side of the 1L veil of ignorance seem like this vague cloud of threats. We know what they look like. We can practice them. We will study for them. But there are a lot of unknown factors: what if we get a freak test, what if we have a freak day, what if pressure+law=instant death, and what if we are good, but not as good as our peers.

The latter is the most interesting because its weird for NYU law students to fear, who I think by and large are not that competitive. They are shockingly competitive with themselves, but they are not necessarily competitive with their peers. There are exceptions (almost startlingly exceptions really), but most seem competitive with themselves more than anyone else.

But that is not how tests are graded.

A lot of my peers I think have come to the best solution: get Bs. Learn the material, do as well as you can, but don't stress, and don't drown in books, just swim in them.

I think there is a lot too that, because there is a, not to be pedantic, diminishing returns problem here. Doing better does not directly equal success.

But for most law students it seems to me, the 1L is to abstracted for that. A tunnel vision occurs from the nature of the beast unless you have something else going on in your life. Because NYU law has a bunch of very involved, eclectic, and individualistic students, I think a good lot of the population here has something to go back to. But those who don't run the risk of tunnel vision.

I went the tunnel route by choice, I knew I would, and I planned on this. Best reason? What else do I have to do? I guess I could appreciate New York and any number of other things, but I got time for that. I know I will get back to those things, probably after this first semester. I have always been good at balance, and then saving few months for abundance, and I tend to appreciate those experiences.

So now here is my situation (the aforementioned arrogance is how I took this broad diatribe and put it to the only clear point: myself): when do I start being arrogant and, maybe not pedantic, but academic?

I take a pride in "Level II" analysis. I think I can do well given material and asked, what's under this? This is what got me through undergrad with shockingly little studying (minus my thesis). But after that, I am at a loss. I am historically not very good at "creating" theories, or looking for something deeper where someone else hasn't. But I think that is partially lack of confidence. Most times I don't want to say something that I think is "deep" because I think it is something that was said before.

Thats what was going on in that legal diatribe (my comment on which I think was better than the actual post): I recognized that it was not the first time it was said, but I was trying to say it before I read it or heard it. Afterwards, my classes basically covered the same thing: some risks are assumed, some are not, some risks are allocated, some are not. I think meaningful, but the comment is right, my posting such an argument was meaningless.

I hate comments in class sometimes because everyone just says the book notes. In one class, she basically asks "What's the deal with this?" No one puts their hands up, finally a gunner (myself included, sigh) puts up their hand and goes: "I know, I mean, its totally like this?" This being note four in the book first paragraph, another hand goes up, "Yeah, but what are like, totally, forgetting this" which is the second paragraph. And it goes on like that.

Its not that the comments aren't smart, but sometimes I question the source or the genuineness of that system. I mean, I guess it helps us learn the law, right?

Anyway, now that I know that NYU students are actually checking this (its not like I kept it a secret - I posted it on facebook), to those who don't like me: I am not as much of a jerk as this post would indicate. Or even some of the last few. They are just getting a weird outlet for wanting to rant at a source that won't respond by pointing out the obvious vanity involved...wait, well, I guess thats not true anymore...whatever...

First to speak

2006-11-25T00:35:00.000+08:00

One of my favorite legal rules comes from contracts. If someone manifests a revocation of an offer before acceptance, the offer is revoked. If someone manifests an acceptance before revocation is manifested, the offer is accepted.

The Farnsworth casebook writes: "When offeror and offeree meet at a railway station, is it absurd that their legal relations can depend on who speaks first?"

I love that quote because its a great question. I think the rule is so perfect for American society in its own way. It teems with culture. That was have established a system where it is a little race in order to set up or destroy a cooperative unit. I like it because it is petty and although very detached from a natural state (assuming nature as basic tenants of survival) but so fully ingrained into culture.

Our culture detaches us from the only drive we had before: survival for reproduction and attaches us to so many odd games and trivialities. Its not that I dislike them, I play the culture game probably more than most, although I would like to think I am a bit more aware than most of what games are being played and why.

My favorite part about the rule is that it captures some of the funniest tendencies of American relationships. I think that Seinfeld provides limitless explication on some of these, but notably: Can a person someone refuse an offer to break up? Can someone avoid an offer to break up? Is control in a relationship defined by the person most likely to end it? And pertain to the quote above, how some relationships seem to be a race to be the first person to call it off without offending cultural norms.

PS - I am studying...like...a lot.... And its getting way too natural to write in an outlining shorthand, so send k ?s if you want answs.

I hope I have not gone insane

2006-11-16T12:51:00.000+08:00

My contracts class has a discussion board. It often features discussions that get, well, a little weird. To avoid being apart of that, I have basically avoided posting on it. However, I rolled the dice with maybe the most insane contracts thing I have written in a while. I am proud of it in the amount of thought I put in it, embarrassed in something that should have clear fallacies. But, if you want to see what happens if you give me a little less than an hour and a topic in contracts that interests me, you get this....

I have not posted anything on this board for a while, but I, like Ashley was inspired by something on 798 (but we are posting for different reasons so I did not just reply, though I expect an Ashley response to this). However, rather than the distinguishing Farnsworth presents, which I also do not necessarily accept, I was inspired by the Harvard Ballad at the bottom of 798. I figure if Sherwood v. Walker was worth writing a poem given seventy years of history in casebooks, it has to be worth me trying to write something given one-hundred-twenty years in casebooks.

I will put my argument as compactly as possible. I am doing this without outside reviews and class. I think that the case merits a foray into intellectual discourse by the board.

I am tempted to distinguish Wood and Sherman through inherent risk. We have often talked about how risk is beneficial in contracts. As a gambler with a remarkable tendency to lose, I ironically agree with that. I think that it rewards prospecting, taking adventures, living life to its fullest, and cheering for point spreads on otherwise blow-outs.

However, risk is not for all. Certain contracts, presumably, could be without risk (at least ideally). Say I wanted change for a dollar, and you wanted a dollar for change. That trade should ideally be risk free. If it turns out that one of the quarters traded for, even by mutual mistake, was a fake quarter. It seems fair for the short-changed party to ask for a real quarter within a reasonable time. It simply does not look like a contract where "you pays your money, you takes your chances."

But there are contracts where risk is in the deal. Stocks and prospects are the most obvious. As such, I want to say that the difference between Wood and Sherwood is how much risk the parties intended for in the contract.

In Wood, a rock exchange involves risk. It was clear this involved risk that the rock was valuable or not valuable. If the rock was just a rock, Boyton would have wasted his dollar. If the rock was a topaz, Wood would have wasted her rock. Both knew there was a risk involved. The fact that the risk materialized into something beyond exceptions is still captured by the risk that the rock was worthless or it was valuable.

In Sherwood, no one was gambling that Aberlone was pregnant. It was not a reasonable risk to be assumed. In fact, they take it a step further by not just inferring she was not pregnant, but mutually agreeing that she was not pregnant. There was no gamble here, the intent of the party was to sell an infertile cow for a certain amount of money. The fertility of the cow throws out the whole agreement because that was not apart of the risks reasonably assumed.

I normally don't like over-philosophizing, but I am having fun with this:

Wood:
The trade is (Rock price) = (Price as valuable) * (Probability of that) + (Price as rock) * (Probability of that)

If it was a .0014% chance that this rock was worth $700 this was a fair deal. The probability was probably higher than that (maybe not, maybe this is like those torts cases where the fact that it happened weighs in jury's heads as proof that it was likely to happen), but that could be accountable to the desperation of Wood and the knowledge of Boyton.

However, Sherwood:
Infertile cow = $80

Much simpler math with no algebra and no chances, similar to my change analogy of $1=$1.

I am saying that the parties intended these equations. if the equations are not true, then the contract was not what either party intended. If it was not what either party intended, the contract should not be enforced.

It should be noted that I am not saying that the parties did know of the risk involved, but should have known of the risk involved. If the risk is specifically disavowed, that is clear evidence that the contract is not the intent of the parties. Keeping that in mind, here is how I see the other cases in the chapter:

Renner:
Both parties agreed there was water in the land. They had every reason to believe this. Sure one party may have looked, but usually this will not come up. The intent of the parties was not to include risk, thus,

Land with plentiful quality water = $100 an acre

When it turned out that this deal was not correct, the whole thing aborts as not intentional and not an enforceable contract.

Lenawee County Bd. of Health:
Perhaps all of this is located in the Lenawee opinion, without the silly math, because the court specifically speaks of "risk of the parties' mistake because the contract contained an las is' clause." Thus I feel unoriginal suddenly (I just read this now, but I have written too much to turn back):

Price paid for building = Building "as is"

As is has built in risk as point out by the court, so really the equation is,

Price paid for building = (Buyer's value in using it for apartment buildings) * (Building's likelihood "as" habitable) + (Whatever that is worth) * (Building likelihood "as" unhabitable).

This trade included a risk calculation for the possibility of the building being habitable, or not. The proposed mistake falls into that risk, thus, it was included in the intent of the parties.

I could do the other others, but the one where I might be stretching the most is Stees:
Here I see the issue in terms that they use in the notes, being distinguished as a "performance specification" and a "design specification." I see the case somewhat iffy in that there were designs specified for the performance, thus it is sort of both at the same time. However, the controlling factor the court looks to is that, "The defendants contracted to 'erect and complete the building.'" As such, I see the court as viewing the contract as:

Price paid for the building = (Price of building the building if conditions are fine) * (Probability of that) + (Price of building the building if conditions are not fine) * (Probability of that)

Here the conditions were harder for me to write, so the likelihood of me messing it up in terminology are greater but I think that this is still correct in concept. The last postulate is a fine deal if I believe that the probability that the conditions are not fine are low. The reason that this risk is put on the builder is because he has agreed to "perform" not agreed to "try and perform." Thus, his side takes the risk, if the buyer took the risk it might look like:

(Price paid for the building) * (Likelihood that plans will work) + (Price paid for the building) * (Likelihood that plans don't work) = Price of building the building

Both of these show the intent of the parties and an a willingness to accept risk into their intent. Both of these would not allow "mutual mistake" to revoke the ruling.

In a contract that requires risk, such as art, it will be a rare case where there is not reasonable risk on one side. In those cases, "mutual mistake" should not be enforced unless both parties agree that there is simply no risk involved.

If you did not read any of the above, and rightfully so, here is my one paragraph summary:

If both parties' mutual mistake is to assume a materialized risk could not exist entirely, that mutual mistake means that neither intended the contract as stated in the four corners, thus the contract is void. If both parties' mutual mistake was that believing a materialized risk was low or nominal, then the contract still reflected their intent, thus the contract is enforceable.

Writing this out, I thought of a lot of tangential arguments against me that I passed up for the goal of trying to write something on this case (again, the poem captured the legal side of my mind), so I am not sure which ones kill my argument. I also don't know if this is all redundant to much better law review works (which I am going to check out now). So I see ample opportunity for response. Lets do Rose justice and post our thoughts on the case, even if they in no way apply to what I wrote here. Direct responses are good, but I just want to see smart NYU contracts people talking about a case worthy of poetry. Also I spell checked this and tried to have it be clear throughout (despite the algebra, that is meant just for people who think like that), bonus points for those who reply in kind.

Really? That's great...

2006-11-12T16:35:00.000+08:00

"Sigh, yeah, that would be good..."
"...Yeah..."
"So..."

"what do you do..."

"Study law"

"Really?"

"Yeah..."

"That's great..."

"And you?"

"Oh, you know, looking now, just moved here"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah...."

"Cool"

"Well, anyway..."

"Yeah..."

"Pleasure meeting you..."
"Yeah, you too..."

Getting my name

2006-11-06T04:33:00.000+08:00

Okay, this has got to be the last blog post for this weekend, but I am actually a bit excited about a new development. My name finally goes to me in Google.

For as awesome as my parents are, they were not necessarily very creative with my name. For instance, Matt Warner on face book pulls up 60 people with my exact name. I would not be entirely surprised if there is another Matthew Kendall Warner out there.

However, now for the first time that I have found, if you google Matthew Warner or Matt Warner, I actually come up on the first set of pages. In fact, I am number two under Matthew Warner, passing all but a writer who actually writes horror novels about China (when I was thinking about becoming a writer, that was a bit discouraging).

I like this overall because I have been developing websites for as long as I can remember but never really developed much of a presence.

This is not exactly a presence per se, but there is a lot of material, and some of it is worth reading (I liked some of my blog posts in China). Although most of this blog is actually trivial (obscenely so, see last post), its cool to get my name on the web.

It might actually hurt for job interviews, I hear that they more and more look for blogs. However I am not especially ashamed of my personality. If I get judged unworthy based on a blog that has at least some thought value from time to time, I probably should not get that job in the first place.

Freestyle Walking

2006-11-06T04:09:00.000+08:00

It seems a rather broad band portion of my generation, tucked gently under Generation X, remembers "Freestyle Walking" as a concept. Not as a concept that they engaged in, but rather, one they remember existing.

The only connection I had to the concept was from the show "MTV News Unfiltered" where teens were given the chance to film their own news on little cameras provided by MTV. I only remember the name because of Wikipedia, and I remember the concept of the show only because of "Freestyle walking" (well, remember in the sense of occasionally reminiscing on the show, I think even if there was no freestyle walking episode I might remember the concept).

Seriously, why do so many people remember that program? Of course, its determinant on a number of factors, the biggest being that the person answering watched MTV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freestyle_walking

I think there is something deeper going on in this single concept being remember. I think it perhaps speaks to the division of our culture at that time. Skaters as a concept were becoming codified into a very specific group at the time. They shared a jocks hate of nerds, however, they themselves shared the nerds characteristic of social deviancy. There formed a thicker tension in the social groups wherein the hierarchy become more abstracted.

Freestyle walking was so ludicrous, so seemingly sarcastic, and yet seemed so appropriate. If one seriously risked bodily injury and spent similar time and effort into freestyle walking as skateboarding, what really separated the two out? There was clearly something instinctually wrong with the concept, and I can think of only two clear answers.

First, the board itself. The board came to represent the entire social strata that it spawned. This explains much of the tension between skaters, roller bladders, and BMXers. Mind you I am speaking of cultures I am entirely distant to, but this is a blog for friends and I am not going to read up on the latest literature to confirm my facts.

Second, the history of skateboarding made this modification seem truly weird. It pointed out just how abstract our cultural criteria really had become. Going back to the first major change, high schoolers at the time had to suddenly look at a social classification held natural and question whether the only real difference between freestyle walking and skateboarding was a piece of wood.

Clearly there was more of a difference, but that difference all falls into the history of skateboarding culture. The individualism that it had created from other forms of social strata. Skateboarders were feared like hippies by conservatives, and similarly fell out of line from traditional social hierarchy. At the same time, they took on an aggressive posture which assumed illegality, even though what they were doing was less strictly illegal than most deviant groups.

How many of you remember freestyle walking? I am starting to realize how culturally obsessed I am. I buy into every stereotype and I am constantly hunting for deeper meanings in abstracted societies. I do know that I have had conversations with people about freestyle walking more times than one should expect, given that no one actually knows people who really did the "sport," but rather relied on that one irony soaked user created video.

...Is it a bad sign or a good sign that I have way more to write about this but decided I need to draw a line...

CJP

2006-11-05T04:20:00.000+08:00

I like it when judges say really rather catty things. As such, I am going to start putting up occasional CJP, catty judge posts.

"At one point Gabriele prophetically observed in relation to the gold deliveries: "Steve [Saccoccia] is going to put us all in jail some day" U.S. v. Gabriele, 63 F.3d 61, 64 (RI Court of Appeals 1995).

I like that because its both condescending and ironically also prophesies the rest of the appeal.

Crossed eyes

2006-11-05T03:54:00.000+08:00

I just wanted to share a devastating fact.

I cannot become a NY subway train driver. Not as in, the qualifications would crush me. Not as in, "oh no you can't/didn't," "oh yes I can/did." Rather, I am biologically destined to never being a NY train driver.

http://www.strabismus.org/all_about_strabismus.html#benefitstereopsis

I was devastated. So not only does my eye haunt my vanity from a dark corner of my mind, but my job options are closing down left and right (I can't be a rocket ship pilot either!).

The funny part was when they listed things that stereopsis plays a role in, "such as, catching a ball, parking a car, threading a needle, performing surgery, or any other activity that requires accurate depth perception at close distances." Outside of the surgery one (which I won't do for countless reasons), It was like a list of things that I am not especially good at.

I actually catch balls by just putting my hands in front of their path, which is fine with basketball but sucks with footballs (its hard to explain, but a football is harder to catch straight on than a basketball).

One more thing with the article, it says that you will have trouble becoming an NBA point guard without stereopsis. Arguably my favorite player (and starting on my fantasy team), all-start shooting guard Tracy McGrady has an eye that might be even more walled out than my own. The thing that I like best is that he shoots lights out from the wings, which has the least amount of visual cues for "faking it." There was a time, inspired by his shooting, where that was my best shot.

But no subway driving... man, things are looking down.

2006-11-04T11:39:00.000+08:00

This is my view...its good. And we had NYU colors on the empire state building the other night. I love the colors of the ESB, they are alway interesting.

This is the corner in front of my house, the streets were invaded during Halloween.

This is the street directly in front of my room. The building at the top is my law school. The wealth of the people cruising along this strip was intense. Limos, countless Mercedes, etc.

There were multiple break dancing crews just down the street from me.

Taken while coming home far too late after NYU's big fall semester party.

Law school culture

2006-11-04T00:03:00.000+08:00

I have typed out a lot of different blogs on how law school kids are freaks. The problem is that it is hard to write that in such a way that conveys what I am trying to convey without cutting into people that can easily access my non-private site through a very direct link. As employers drift over to this site (as I hear that is what they do now, and thanks to www.waybackmachine.com, I have to stand by what I say), I am going to have to nuance up this comment, so lets go!

So here is the deal, if you are in NYU law school, you are probably a freak. Really, if you went to any intense law school, the odds are probably pretty good; there is just only one group where I am willing to testify to the freakiness. This is why, you didn't get in here by being normal. You didn't get in here by being passive. Diversity directly counts in admission, and that is not just the color of the student, it's their approach to life. In nicer words, you have to be special to go to this school.

The difference between a nerd, a gunner, a "slacker" (my favorite law school misnomer) and an average student? Paper thin. it's this little red line that dances through linguistics. it's a hand raised. it's an hour extra studied. Even the ones that study all the time and the ones that skim (they are out there, and I love you if you are reading this)? They are just in different directions. Because the same intensity that drives one to books, and the intensity that drives one away from books is what got most of the people here.

I don't want to go into "problems," because that is unfair. I am not accusing anyone of a problem. But the school has this weird element to it adopted from being created by this very specific cross section (highly motivated, individualistic, smart kids) of an entire country.

First weird thing: conversations just get weird. I have never noticed how many social layers American society supports within every conversation. People who say it's all about culture always sounded ones for hyperbola to me, now I take it back. A comment left hanging for just slightly too long, a catty comment that had no reason to be said, an awkward turn from someone, all of these are more pronounced by the fact that such different and specific individuals are doing them.

In most situations, these kids dominate. They dominate by being aggressive. They dominate by being smart. They dominate by being funny. They dominate by being just so themselves, and so put together, that people want to listen. Here, that option is a dangerous one, as you audience is just like you. I have seen two people talking at each other, with no real sense a conversation was occurring. Rather, words were being sent at each other to convey the ideas that they wanted to convey. However, there was surely no give and take. Just two people talking.

Second weird thing: drama, so much drama. I think it gets at the extreme social sensitivity of the people around here. For the legal reader and anyone who has access to Wikipedia, there are a lot of emotional "eggshell skulls" walking around the school.

However, it's worth emphasizing, this is not a bad thing. I am not making a value judgement, but stating this, kids take all of this very seriously. It reminds me of middle school, not in it's immaturity, but it's contrived nature. You have 1,500 ambitious kids or so, you put them in the highest stress environment of their lives, and then you have them indirectly compete twice a year for the one standard of achievement that most of them have excelled at for 16 years of their lives. So what is going to happen? Drama.

So what is drama? it's hard to define, I have tried to do it before on this blog. The safest best for me is added social pretense. As I admitted earlier, culture is thick. I think "drama," as used in this context, is just adding a few layers. it's taking things personally that were meant casually. it's fighting without fists or arguments but in nuanced lobs of catty comments. it's people looking down on others that are only nominally dissimilar to themselves (supra above).

Last one, but definitely not the only way law school is freaky: Reflecting on oneself is constant and harsh. I originally had the word ugly in there but took it out because that is not what I am trying to convey, rather, it's just a reflection in a positivist manner, it's neither good nor bad inherently (the reflection that is, the actual process is probably unquestionably good for reasons of self discovery).

I consider myself highly motivated and fairly individualistic. Where do those things come from? I am still not sure, but I have seen a mighty lot of my peers recently. A lot of it seems to be created by the individual - cut themselves out of whole cloth.

I think it is ultimately an imbalance. An imbalance simply being "lack of proportion between corresponding things" not a statement on whether that is good or not. However, these people are just different. And although the response is cultural, I think the source might be biological. This is spoken from the advantage of having virtually no biological background. As such, I can speak to biology as I imagine philosophers doing in the 16th century. Speaking to the entire body of science as a concept that supports whatever postulate they might hope that it does. However, summarized - I think something is different in the head of these kids.

And now you look at them and wonder, is that the same reason I am the way I am?

I am not trying to escape any of these things in saying that their application does not apply to me. I recognize I am a part of this game too. I just hope that I am more aware of it. However, not in an overblown pretentious way, but rather, a recognition of some of the consequences of what seems to be one clear fact: If you have a bunch of people selected for their excellence in similar societal games played over the course of at least 22 years, and you put them together constantly in a high-stress environment - a whole different culture will pour out.

Halloween

2006-11-01T12:57:00.000+08:00

Its bedlam downstairs.

New York goes big for Halloween, and I think the epicenter is one block West of here. I wish Google Earth was live updated...Well, that or I don't....

The racing motorcycle club seems to have chosen my dorm as the place to meet. I just now looked down from my window and saw about fourteen brand new motorcycles, a brand new Infinity, a stretch limo, and two brand new Mercedes.

Where did they get the money?

I like living in the epicenter. I can't appreciate it too much right now in law school, but I will. I am here two more years, and I will see how things are next year.

This is the deal, I am going to work like crazy this semester. If I get good grades, I will keep it up. If I get average grades, I won't. Average grades still get you the world out of here. Bad grades are hard to come by. If my rose colored glasses and dreams of grandeur fail, I will focus on my professional life outside of law school. If I can hang - I will try to stay there and keep building my record.

I have friends who study constantly, and friends far, far less. I am much closer to the constantly right now. And we will see if that matters.

For now, its time to go to bed over bedlam.

So hot

2006-10-05T02:14:00.000+08:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockbird/260716217/

Its just a great photo...

Go Wang.

Google analytics

2006-10-02T22:01:00.000+08:00

I think my hit tracker is trying to tell me something.

Someone found my blog through:

"nyu law drop out"

Agh!

I assume they were looking for the excellent Demetri Martin, that said, it still seems like my tracker is talking smack.

A legal fiction

2006-09-29T21:06:00.000+08:00

My favorite legal term is one that most of you will have heard. In fact, unlike most excellent legal terms, it does not get its excellence from diabolical spelling or comical pronunciation. Rather, its very simple, "a legal fiction."

I love this because it is so value laden. The concept drips its own self-importance. Why do we have "agents" or "implied consent"? Well they are legal fictions. They are made up so that we can make the laws work.

The best part about this comes from the implications. First of all, it implies everything else to be legal fact. If there is one thing I have found, perched on my seamless web, there are no legal facts. Every case has its counter, and isn't there a reason my case books are all written in questions? If they are asking questions constantly are there really right answers? What does that say about the system?

This is not a criticism, rather it speaks to what I refereed to yesterday, the formation of the law as a metaphysical entity. Because every case has its opposite and every rule has its exception, law creates its own life. It thrives on its own fiction.

What does that say about our system? I hope it says something about our values of fairness. There are so many cases where I picture the judge saying to the clerk "So I think the plaintiff won, how do we get there?" In those sticky cases worthy of reaching a case book, the issues might rest on the legal advocates providing the judge a good excuse to find one way, rather than convincing him as a blank slate.

It makes our law bend and evolve without breaking. It makes the web analogy feel even more poetic.

The other side of a "legal fiction" is that now we go a step further. Our system, like the famous aboriginal world of anthropological lore, is the elephant that sits on a turtle, the turtles subsequently on other turtles all the way down. On top of an infinite number of turtles, we put a bunch of blatantly made up stuff on top, and deem them as such.

Why? Because it works. Its all of the pretension and self-agrandizing of philosophy but at the end of the day, law can put people into small cubes for the rest of their life while making only a small subsection of people mad. That's power, that matters, and that is what makes legal fiction worth reading.

A seamless web

2006-09-29T07:30:00.000+08:00

Law school revolves around a constant state of ignorance. They don't teach you things, they ask you things. And you don't have answers, why? Because they never taught you. Its learning through osmosis.

My Civil Procedure class speaks of this frankly, our book refers to Civil Procedure as a "seamless web." In procedure we do not get some starting point on which we build an inverted pyramid. Instead, we get a "seamless web."

My problem, if the web is seamless, isn't it by necessity circular?

I find myself viewing knowledge in shapes. This has always been a practice I have shunned yet admired. I love the poetic imagery of the "blog o sphere." I hate the cheapening of the concept that it entails. As such, I have always been turned off by writers who refereed to the concepts learned in the first year of law school in shapes and broad generalizations.

Yet, I don't know how else to describe it. I find it baffling hard to explain what's hard about law school. It just is. It can make the most rudimentary concept utterly enthralling from the right perspective. It can make the most exciting case so mind numbing that I would prefer to suffer through the complicated and horrifying incident of the plaintiff rather than learn about its legal ramifications.

Case in point: A man drops blocks over a ledge, that is his job. The blocks are dropped some four stories down (unclear on this one, but my image is a sizable drop). As he is dropping a block, his boss (who sounds like an idiot at this point) wanders directly under the drop point. However, having begun to drop the block, the man has a choice:

Save the life of the unexpected innocent below or sacrifice his own life for a man he probably barely knows?

He chooses the latter. He falls with the block, and diverts it in mid-air.

Yet the judge's fact statement on this reads like a dictionary.

Let me write it again, because even the writing of it is intense: He falls with the block, and diverts it in mid-air.

The class discussion of this very famous case (Webb v. McGowin) was good (not nearly as good as it is in concept, but still). However, the book was mind numbing.

At the same time, I have a professor so impassioned by civil procedure we had the following discourse in class:

"What is going on here?"
"Forum shopping?"
"FORUM SHOPPING! One of the world's three great evils: crime, drugs, and forum shopping."

She said this dripping with disgust over the mere concept.

However, even explaining these little concepts, in narrative forum, begs thousands of questions. And that is what law is, thousands of questions. Its not math, it has no right answers. It has millions of questions. No question is right, because every question is relative. If everything is relative, what do you get?

A seamless web.

Orientating

2006-08-29T01:53:00.000+08:00

The orientation was today, and it was dry and what you would expect. Intellectual chest bumping and generally getting pumped. That is not to degrade the speakers, who were all fine, but it was still just an orientation.

Speaking to the upperclassmen was good, because it was clear that one can still remain a human being during the 1L. They emphasized for me that no one got kicked out. they all seemed to maintain lives outside of the school. Furthermore it seems that truly bad grades are hard to come by here.

I love my dorm, its small but exactly what I need - and it includes a beautiful view of the Empire State Building. I even have a chunk of the Washington Arch in my view. I hung up stuff inside and it is quant and Asian now.

Last night were some of the mixers, I somehow went to the only one where there was no free drinks, but I can survive. The mixer itself was a problem because it was International Law and Asian Law, which are the two groups I want to join. That is convenient, but I wanted to feel out the two groups individual. My preference is on Asian Law, so I did not have much time mingling with International Law students, which I wanted to do.

This was such a dry entry, but it was a dry couple of days. I chatted with the huge Beijing population in the LLM section of this school. I did not bring up Taiwan.

Apple/New York = way too cool

2006-08-26T05:25:00.000+08:00

I am rocking down in New York. The place is great and I am really loving it. The photo is brought to you buy a MacBook down in the very cool Apple Store they opened on 5th avenue. The store is beautiful and the city is great. The specific computer is very cool, I did not know how many changes they had made on the MacBooks (other than the new processor). For one thing, the keyboard is really industrial, they keys are spaced apart and seem very strong and well built. Other than that, the computer is just generally super slick and beautiful (plus black!). Come on NYU Law, get with the MacTels thing so I can come back here.
I understand why they say that New York is the world's biggest little city. Everyone you go the place feels personal. No matter where I am, I get the impression that anywhere else in New York is accessible.
The city has incredible diversity, in the last couple hours alone I have heard Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Italian, and French (which got added to the list when I just heard someone at the other end of this table speaking French).
New York has everything I love from cities around the world, I really ended up the right place for me.

I didn't forget photos

2006-08-21T11:24:00.000+08:00

So here are some photos, only five this time. I hope to export more and put them up soon (all of them, for the most part, are the natural contrasts and settings, but I do need to size them and select them).

Mad props to Anamaniacs

2006-08-19T13:43:00.000+08:00

This is a pretty bad first post back in the states, but its what you get for now, because I wanted to post it.

I was going to go to bed but first read a quick China blog. The blog entry was about an old Anamaniac's bit where Yakko lists off the countries of the world. Now really he has a few regions in there, and some cities, but it was clear that the point of the song was to point out countries of the world.

I was a huge Anamaniacs fan back in the day. I even remembering watching that very bit when it was first aired (or around that time, surely not on YouTube). I didn't know that they were tackling touchy political situations with guts.

The author, who is normally very good, points out that Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are apart of China (because no matter how educated, people from the mainland have never given me a deep answer to the Taiwan issue). Agreed with Tibet and Hong Kong, but Taiwan? All I know is that in a year of living in Taiwan I did not deal with the Chinese government once. Furthermore, its hard for me to face that Yakko is the bravest political leader that comes to mind on this issue (surely not the leader of Chad).

No blogging in Beijing

2006-08-13T05:02:00.000+08:00

Sorry I basically did not blog in Beijing. I was moving around a lot, and although I wrote a little, I was not in the "wireless area" if you will. This raises a point I learned from only blogging from wireless. Most cities have wireless, but secluded to a certain region. There are certain areas that will tend to have it, and certain that don't.
Although this seemed somewhat correlated with wealth, It seemed more correlated to foreigners. Areas with many wealthy Chinese (like some parts of Changed) were fruitless. They occasionally had internet, but had some distant concept of wireless internet. I also dealt with a lot of misconceptions of wireless. sometimes I would ask do you have wireless internet, and they would say yes. Later, I would discover they meant wired internet, or a small computer lab.
As to Beijing, I found the city primarily very well. The sites were cool and plentiful. In fact, there were many I did not get to, and will have to go next time. the best site of Beijing, and one of the best on the trip, was the Great Wall itself. i did a tour of the "Secret Wall," and to my surprise, the wall was pretty secret. I went with all foreigners which was a first time, and cool because of the internationalism and a preview of going back to the states (where I am going to get reverse culture shocked upside the head).
The wall itself was truly secluded and without any repairs. Many of locals had been nabbing stones from sections to build their houses. As such, areas where remarkably well maintained (where it was very high and out of the way) and some areas had been picked away at (lower sections). The hike was a bit hard, although short, and it was definitely wild and beautiful.
The company was really great as well. I hung out with a couple of Canucks teaching English and learning Japanese in Japan. We talked a lot about language and culture, becoming good friends for the next couple of days. I also spoke a lot with the Americans on the trip, which was very good, but it served as a scary reminder of how much stuff I am going back to when I hit state side. In some ways, I am not ready.
the other main site I saw was the palace of Heavenly Peace, which was in much the same vain as the other sites in Beijing. A lot of thinking about the logic behind restoration, and how they should approach it. It just seemed weird to be slapping red paint onto a few centuries of history. At the same time, throughout that history they have done this. it seems like every hundred or two hundred years these buildings all get rebuilt, repainted, renamed, or occasionally built down. As such, isn't restoration now apart of these buildings' history?
i started to consider the restoration process a sort of communication between the culture and these buildings. The governments have changed a lot, the culture has changed at least some, but they still have this form of communication with their history.
on a far less cultural note, one of the most involved activities in Beijing was shopping. Beijing has huge markets where they throw down to get your business. Entering their was like going into a huge gauntlet. Walking the aisles you get grabbed and constantly yelled at. At first I absolutely hated it. I thought the approach was disgusting and the whole thing repelling.
The average foreigner walks by a store where the clerk yells at him to come have a look, or to buy shoes. guy walks in, picks a pair and asks how much. The store clerk says "for everyone else," and types some outrageous price that is more expensive than the US retail price like $125. 'But for you," and she puts something like $50.
Occasionally I hear their are foreigners dumb enough to call that good, and buy immediately. Most however, yell "too expensive!" The clerk responds, "o, then how much you pay?" The smart customer writes something like $5 and the clerk (pretends?) to get very upset.
Then the two basically fight. People yell, and the clerk says things like "this my lowest price" or "what is your highest price.' They of course lower their lowest price all of the time (though I have a policy of never, ever, raising anything I call my "highest price').
The first day I just hated it. By the end of the day I had gotten a bit into it, but for the most part I was left dry on the whole experience. I bought a pair of "Timberland" boots because I needed them for the wall. Since then, I discovered that they simply rock as shoes. They are great boots so far, although i don't know how long they will last, they made that wall much easier, final price: $12 (and I had to kill for that).
I went a second time because I needed to get gifts and such, plus i had a friend from the wall who wanted to come. That day, I had studied Chinesepod's podcast on "bargaining" which helped a lot because it taught me a lot of really hilarious vocabulary to throw around during negotiations like "don't try to trick me!," "that is highway robbery,' and my favorite, "i am a smart buyer.' Despite my Chinese, I still often got some bad prices, however it gave me all kinds of tricks.
One trick was to spy on prices given to locals. Locals don't get harassed at all. They typically go in, find something, point it out and saying "how much?" The clerk gives them a reasonable price, with no more than 30 or 40 yuan worth of bargaining room, and then the Chinese person leaves. If they buy something, they often do without even negotiation or with the bare minimum.
So I would often listen to a price be given. Then start, in English, asking about different shoes in the store, at one point including what the other person asked. if they give me a reasonable price on the one I had heard, I have somewhere to start. In that way, I started learning prices for things.
I did get cheated on some things in retrospect, but never by much. For the most part, I bought a lot and did well. That said, unless you are meeting me in Colorado, you are very lucky, or you got married, don't expect anything. i can buy stuff, but sending stuff is a whole new problem.
i was really happy with some of the stuff I got. So far the shoes have been some of the best part I have had in a while. Also they had fake Zegna ties, which I simply could not resist. Now, after a trip to Zegna, i have found that they are of eerily the same quality as Zegna ties (and straight up the same designs). The only difference is that the real ones don't have a tag on the back.
I also did all my negotiating for my friends, again fast and furious stuff. I got them a lot of good deals that I am proud of. I often talked to Chinese people to confirm the prices that i got.

PTI: I am back into the US, and they are all eating. I looked around for what I noticed, and that was the first thing. Burger king, Bugles, M & Ms, Starbucks, everyone is eating. A kid across the way from me is reading Moby Dick with a cowboy hate on while he mindlessly munches down Bugles.

PTI: Comment next to me, in a Minnesota accent, "There is going to be an Ocean's 13 I guess..." Her husband, "wow."

I really am not ready for this. I understand all the conversations again, without trying, they seem like voices in my head, and somehow, they are way stupider than I would hope. The only people I see reading Newspapers are Asians, the rest are reading things like FHM, People, and US.

PTI; A white person reading a newspaper spotted, small sigh of a relief (for a bit there I thought it would not happen).

Despite all of the latest news, security was kind to me. i mean that seriously, they were very nice to me. I even got bag checked and it was no problem. Everything was fast and easy. I had no problems at customs, which i was a bit afraid of (not much, but I figured China might raise flags).
Most people were very cool about the China thing. My bag checker saw a nice Chinese notebook I bought and she called it pretty. One of the security gate people actually knew, and said to me, hello and thank you in Chinese, which I thought was pretty cool and random. Outside of one jerk, all smiles coming into the US, which was nice. But seriously, these people are big, and they look so serious when you are accustom to their faces.
My biggest fear is not going into US culture, but going into my own. The difference is that US culture is an absolute statement of existence, but "my own culture" is relative to me. If I am in China and something bad happens, I can push it away. I can say "that is not apart of what I was raised with." I can say "in my society, that does not happen."
This is a good advantage in china because a lot of stupid stuff happens, and it is easy to push that away. When you are in your own home, that is much harder. I can't argue that dumb people just had a different upbringing. I have to look at what raised me and think about how those influences can go wrong.

PTI: I heard my old cell phone ringer, which was disturbing enough, worse yet it made me think: Oh yeah, I need to get a cell phone. Do I? Do I NEED a cell phone. I think what bothers me is I think I do, but what a stupid thing to need! The problems are stuff like going to someone hows house and needing to call to get in, get directions, or things like that. I barely used my cell phone in Taiwan, but when I used it, I really did need it. I think I will hunt for a pay as you go plan (can you get one that receives calls for free like Taiwan?) and that should save money.

Money is another issue I don't know about. I loaned out a lot of money, some of that money is living expenses, how do I get that? In Taiwan my goal was "set everything up for next year" and then the plan was to think about when I got to the states. Well, now I am in the states, I have to start thinking. Am I going to get a huge lot of money dropped into my account from my NYU account?

PTI: That last question is now answered, and I am back in CO hanging out and relaxing with the last chance I have.

In the unforbidden city

2006-08-13T04:54:00.000+08:00

I am happy to report I found the perfect place to write a blog. I am under a bamboo grove in a garden of the Forbidden City. In the distance I can see couples walking around, by and large the people here are families. Something you don't see in America, most of the families are about three or four generations walking around together. One of the best sights I have seen here was a man in his eighties with a little three year old granddaughter (great-granddaugter?) following behind. They talked a little and smiled a lot.
Sometimes its hard to see this part of China through the rules, the spitting, and the insanity. Yet sometimes its hard to see that part of China through the beauty, the history, and the pride.
The pride spills out on the streets here, and no more so in Beijing. To be fair, this park, its beauty, would make me feel a similar nationalist bend if I were Chinese. Yet, part of that pride comes from this place's history. That history was of emperors building palaces on the backs of peasants. However, the average Chinese would not look at it that way, they don't envision themselves as the peasants, they envision themselves as the emperor (despite the odds against of course).
Perhaps that was a part of Mao's success, "the people's" gets attached to everything. Chinese history was never something for the people. Before, the people were the ones oppressed and used by "China." It was never about the economy, never really about communism, the attraction to Mao came from "the people" getting a piece of the beautiful China, a piece of the China that was never "the people's."
Of course the people still lack a lot more than they have got. The middle of China has a long path up, in part because there are so many of the people. The forbidden city is now open, yet what about the halls of the government?
Allison and I did something that I thought of without much consequence in Taipei, however in retrospect, what we did was a bit phenomenal seen in the context of this place: we stormed the capital.
When I am traveling in a place that I like (Japan, Taiwan, PARTS of China), I am happy to the point of silly. I am care free and willing to do things I otherwise would not. So I decided we should try and meet Ma Ying-jiu, the likely next president of Taiwan, the current chairman of the KMT, and the current mayor of Taipei.
So we just walked in, and went to his office. He was not that, but it seemed clear to me that the staff was friendly enough, that had he been there, they would have let us in. Instead, they let me tour the area around his office, and see the paintings they kept. Furthermore, they told me a time and a place to go if I wanted to meet him, because he did public meetings regularly.
That sort of story in China is not just impossible, its fantasy. If I added a dragon I might be "toning it down a bit." The bureaucracy, the army, the secretaries, I can't even envision all of the obstacles to just trying to pop over and meeting the mayor of Beijing. The biggest obstacle? Psychological. I don't want to end up in a Chinese prison interrogated like the F alu ngoo ng (edited for the same reason I am not going to the capital and asking "Hey, is Hu Jintao around? Is he, you know, busy?").
Yesterday I had one simple goal, read a book. It had been so long I had read English, and I had a guy in Shanghai recommend a book and a bookstore. The book store was as great as he said, and the book was pretty good as well. The book was "Mr. China" by Tim C... [will add later, I forgot his last name] about a business man who invests $410 million (US) into China in the 1990s. It took me some ten or more hours to finish, because I am just about the slowest reader ever, but I did finish it.
The main problem with the book was that at times it was too slow and repetitive. However, this may have even been purposeful as it was clear the author's experience was just that, slow and repetitive. He deals with the same insane situations over and over. At the start something truly crazy happens from the government or the bureaucracy and I, having seen China be insane, was still shocked. However, by the end of the book I was desensitized to it. I would read crazy things and think "well, that is not much crazier than anything else he dealt with." However, this was probably far more realistic.
He used weather a lot, which was something I found interesting. He implies early that he is heavily affected by weather, which is something I very much empathize with. As such, the weather descriptions were good, and put me in about the mood I imagine he was in. That said, the weather descriptions were almost always the same size, and general style. They created a rhythm to the book that rather than paced it, made it a bit formulaic at parts (however, they never took on the scale and boringness of Grapes of Wrath).
The best parts of the book were when something physical and violent would occur, these emphasized by contrast how equally chaotic but completely bureaucratic the problems his company faced were. After a typically absurd business break-down involving incredible cheating, all kind of run-arounding, and a preponderance of nuisances, there would occasionally be some cathartic violent moment done by someone unexpected.
I found these moments to emphasize what is so annoying about getting bureaucratically railroaded here. Because of face, because of culture, because of a thousand things, Chinese people will play a game of complex running-around, all verbal. In human evolution, this could have been solved with a testosterone fueled murder of some sort, but in the modern day Chinese circumstances you are resigned to being screwed regularly and without recourse. The vioolent moments in the book is the sight of someone giving up, forgetting face, and just going back to his roots, not his Chinese roots, his human roots.
One thing the book emphasizes as a main motif is that China has a lot of good people, and a lot of terrible people. For every shady and greedy malcontent, there can be found a genial carrying person. That is the same everywhere, but it is so pronounced here, its very easy to meet both extremes.
One important feature of the book is that his story is really rather recent. They start investing in the early 90s, and things wrap up in the late 90s. By the end of that period, they are still dealing with the same crazy things. That was only five years ago, but things, at least on the surface, look so different now.
Now I see foreign brands and foreign investment everywhere, more noticeably on the coasts of course, but things are changing fast. A small example, when I came here two years ago, even in Shanghai, I could not find a cold drink. The only Pepsi or whatever, outside of a bare minimum, was kept warm. Now its the exact opposite. A warm Pepsi is an odd find, but buying drinks, as a foreigner or as a local (I watched locals for a while to confirm this), is by default cold. In the rare instances where i saw a shopkeeper give a local a warm drink, the recipient said something like "Do you have cold ones?"
I am actually interested in what Mr. China does in the story, but on a small scale. He was looking for medium or big factories that he could invest into and consolidate. However, I am more interested in many small businesses. None of which would expose me to his kind of risk and all I hope can be built from the ground up.
The main difference in my business philosophy is that he was looking for a factory, I look for people. By the end of the book, I think he starts doing the same as I would. A factory is only as good as the people that compose it. Many of his investments I would never have bought into, but he was constrained by a need to by large.
My wish for businesses is to do businesses with good people. If someone is smart, ambitious, and friendly, I want to do business with them. I don't believe that only cut-throats survive commerce alive (outside of places like the oil industry), so I want to support the people who matter, who deserve investment. I hope through this I can get a share of many different small businesses, from internet cafes to restaurants (I guess I tend to favor service industries, I am not a fan of making more "stuff" in this world). If its true nice guys finish last, I would rather finish last.
Mr. China has a brief language section that describe some of the fascinating, and frustrating parts of Chinese. In it, he as a few funny stories about language. I thought I would add mine before i finish typing this.
The other day I was in Shanghai. I passed by a nice art museum. They sold really pretty Chinese/modern paintings. I really am into modern China artwork. There are a lot of artists who have to find themselves in modern China, traditional art in China has such a long history but western art is so dominant. As such, many artists are finding a tentative balance, still steeped in history but inspired by modern western ideas.
The shop-clerk initially talked to me in English, but I switched the conversation to Chinese because I wanted to talk to the artist himself more (rather than my normal rather petty reason, pride). I told them I just wanted to look around. She started explaining the store a bit.
Their most popular art works were sets of little paintings that were divided up in little pieces. There were five lines of these little square pieces, with three to five pieces on each line. The pieces were spaced out in air as little parts of one whole set. She said that some people just buy one piece, some people by a line, and some people buy a whole set.
Here is where she shocked me, she said one of them is (19 kuai). Mind you I was listening casually, as I understood, at least I thought I understand, everything she was saying. However that last sentence shocked me. "These are only 19 kuai!?" (a kuai being a dollar).
No way! I went back and forth with her, in both languages, confirming that the paintings were "19 kuai." So, with the artist and the saleswoman, we combed the store selected four pieces that I especially liked
Afterwards we were sitting down and drinking tea. When I told them my favorite character was 華 (my surname meaning, in part, Chinese culture), and that I would love to see how he would write it. They even made me a fan with the character on it.
So we are sitting there, and he writes on a piece of paper "$1,200" on a piece of paper and says that this is what he would typically charge for such a work. He wanted me to write what I thought it was wroth...
Umm...although ashamed it wen this long, I am proud I quickly realized the mistake. Kuai is used for two things, money, and pieces. They were telling me that the "typical painting was 19 pieces" not that the "average painting was 19 dollars." The story was terrible embarrassing. I don't think it was a tone issue (I know that kuai has two possible tones, but I am not sure if they are affected talking about money rather than pieces).
The main fault on my part was that she was saying that one "tao" (a set) was 19 "kuai." I should have known immediately she could not have possible meant that entire set was 19 dollars, but lets be fair, this was my first discussion of fine art. A nice feature of Mr. China is that it has a similarly silly story, but it is a native Chinese who is confused.'
They were really kind and forgiving in the end. It was a pretty honest mistake and they could see that. They believed me when I said I was a poor student. In the end, there are a lot of nice people in China. They gave me the fan.

PTI: I have moved to the city itself. I have been here for six or seven hours, just walking around. I am hypnotized by the place. Now I am in a cafe that is next to where the emperors used to write poetry and do art. I figured that is a good place to order a mlik tea and think about a place I find confusing.
I find this place confusing because I am not sure if this is a good place. I find it beautiful, I find it fascinating, but I also find it terrible. One empress that used to live here wore socks that took seven days of full time work to make. She wore one pair per day, and then threw them away. As such, she had 3,000 sock makers. This seems like archaic and possible, but that was less than a hundred and fifty years okay.
Yet here we are, in droves. Its not as crowded as I heard it would be, but it is plenty crowded. Are we worshiping these people? What they made? Or we simply witnessing them?
Why are soap operas always about rich people? (at least all I have seen). Does their richness distance from us psychologically so that we can watch them do absurdly terrible things. Does their pain become less real? Is it envy? People want this life where the biggest worry is the drama created in a soap opera rather than real life problems.

PTI: the milk tea here is terrible, but not a bad price. The empress would not have been pleased however.

My favorite things are the ones that show great skill. There was an ivory ball carving (nothing like the one in Taiwan), which is a specific example of an incredibly intricate work that I really appreciate. The calligraphy they have also shows incredible skill, and I like them a great deal.
One of my favorite sites (except for a super cool bred set of gold fish tanks) was the palace of the last emperor, who was just a great symbol of China falling apart at the time. He was way more into Western culture than Eastern. I saw his calligraphy as a child, half of it in English and half of it Chinese. His English was incredible, it was so beautiful, things I could not do in my wildest dreams. However his Chinese is on par with my own. He had lots of terrible calligraphy and mistakes not unlike my own.

PTI: I discovered I had only like 30 more minutes so I had to jet.

On the last train for the trip

2006-08-06T15:15:00.000+08:00

On the last train for the trip
At least probably the last train of the trip. I am in the cheap section, a place I am not a fan of, but I have quickly made fans with all of my neighbors, so I think I got their back. Plus after today I feel my methods have been verified as at least somewhat effective.
I got into a huge fight over Taiwan again. This guy's argument was that the US and the UN say there is one China so there is one China and its capital was in Beijing. My point was that in 1971 the US and the UN said that there was one China, and its capital was in Taiwan. So back then, was the capital Taiwan because people said it was?
I asked him, "When your mom was in China in 1971, where did she think the capital of China." He answered that she believed that the capital was in Beijing. Well if the capital was in Beijing, was his mom wrong? The problem was that he was not really listening to me and just saying "yeah" to tough arguments because he wanted to get back to his point (which were all the same old nonsense of saying basically the same thing over and over again).
The big problem is that if he says his mom was right, Beijing was the capital, then of course Taiwan has the right to do the same. He too appealed to history and I quickly said, as always, "Well historically Inner-mongolia was apart of Mongolia and America was apart of the UK, should we give those things back?" I just now memorized how to say Tibet which will make these arguments even more bloody.
And would he invade if he was president? Well duh.
The problem with China is the opinions are way to universal. I have not met one unique opinion on this stupid Taiwan thing, not one! Not even one that hinted at free thought, its really rather depressing. They say the same things about Taiwan, about America, about China, and justify them in about the same ways. Even from professors, and it is really starting to get me down.
I don't think it is a cultural problem, Taiwan's culture is pretty similar (though not as much as Chinese thing), but there opinions are far more ranging and far more nuanced on these things.
One discussion I had at the train station, someone asked me, "How do Taiwanese feel about the mainland?" This was a question that I really liked, most people don't give me the respect of realizing I know WAY more about Taiwan than they do. The fact is most people try to "tell" me the "history" and the "thoughts" of Taiwanese people (yet I can quote actual media sources and percentages when I tell them what Taiwanese people think).
I also thought of a great way of answering his question, I asked him, "How do you feel about Japanese people?" He gave the official Chinese answer (as uniform as Taiwanese opinions and everything else), which is, shall we say, not so kind. I very quickly said, "well, that is how Taiwanese people feel about the mainland."
And its true. There are Chinese people that love Japan. There are Taiwanese that love the mainland. However, by and large, they believe the stupidest things about each other. More to the point, the racism and hate from Taiwan to China is very real sometimes, and the racism and hate from China to Japan is out of control. All because of history, all because of pride. Now pride and history has set up a possible slaughter along the Taiwan strait, all rooted in the same reasons that I can say with confidence "the Taiwanese think of you what you think of Japan." Its ugly, and I was a bit embarrassed to say it, but I was far more embarrassed that it is true.
With Alice I went out of my way to make jokes about how Taiwan is a separate country from China. She laughed and it made her a little uncomfortable, but it was clear she could not really accept what I was saying, and she didn't find it all _that_ funny. But it was good for me, because I needed to get that out.
This is going to drive me crazy, and I am afraid I might make it worse. Learning the word Tibet in Chinese might not be for the best. Even though virtually everyone recommends traveling there. A note, I forgot to mention this, I am confident the government has created this incredible drive to travel to Tibet, everyone has told me I should go to Tibet, its creepy. And they themselves? Never been, but would love to go.
Worse yet, two things I have yet to do, one to worry about, one not to worry about. Not to worry about: I want to see if I can do a day without Chinese here. I want to hear what people say about me if they think I truly don't understand. Second, I need to talk to someone about Falun gong and what they know. However the second is scary, really scary, its like mentioning a thousand Tiananmens. Its hard to get Tianamen info on Chinese internet, its impossible to find Falun gong stuff. Don't worry however, I plan on doing this one person, alone, and when I trust them. But I need to start asking that question.

PTI: I just finished the very good movie Syriana. Its one of those movies that hurts real bad, even with the lingering of truth. The fact that such accusations to the US government are on the table is bad enough. Perhaps I am afraid to know how much of that is true. Perhaps I am no better than the Fox News watcher who believes, who really believes with the faith that he comes to his religion.

Perhaps I believe China. Perhaps I don't see the pain in Tibet. Perhaps I don't know what happens to the Falungong. I look over the faces of the Chinese and I don't see their government. I look over Americans, and I don't see our government. However, when I hear Chinese voices, when I hear their opinions, I hear their government.
The government is not a force, lying across the top of this bus. However it is in the back of their heads. While a different voice sits in the back of my head. A voice that says America fights for the world. A voice that says our success is a product of work, and we deserve it. A voice that sees George Bush as a President, a President I don't like, rather than sees Bush as a flawed man, a man I detest.
How much truth do I write in this blog when I talk politics? About 80 percent, but its that twenty percent that stings. Its that twenty percent that are ideas, that are thoughts. Why? Because I am afraid.
I don't think I am going to be a politician. I don't think so because I don't think I could get elected. Its not a lack of interest, its not a lack of skill, its a belief that America would probably never elect me. I have too many things I am not ashamed of to admit. China, Marijuana, video-games, these things don't get someone elected. This blog alone has enough quotes to keep me out of office, not because I am a bad person, but America is too gutless to elect someone that is anything more of a shadow.
Yet, I studied politics. I believe that the government can do profound good for a nation. I love America. So, I think about office. In the last four years, I have thought about it less and less, but its always there. Every time I talk about politics or Americans I picture little sound bites played back to me on some god awful Fox News program in 2028.
However, I am tired of it. The fact is if I don't get elected for who I am, then I have no interest in office in the first place. So this blog, and its predecessor will be much more political, and I expect a fair bit more hate mail from my dad.
The problem is that the fear comes from "Well what if this opinion changes?" Does that make me a flip-flopper if I change my mind? I used to think that the office of the President meant something inherently. Now I just think that the President is a frat boy who had old money billionaires feed him power from his silver spoon.
His vacations when the "orange alerts" are up are unacceptable. His in-articulation is not a cowboy nuance, its the sign of a moron. He is an egomaniac, and you can see it every time that he says something, and believes something, that his handlers told him to say. This is not a special opinion, I am the last person to write these up in a blog. But for me, its a resignation that I simply don't care about the office of the President, it means nothing without a person worthy of being in there. And you know what? The next president is going to suck too, because this country became stupid and fundamentalistic when we were not looking. My only hope? That people who matter get into the government before rome burns.

PTI: I do get the vanity of that last entry, but I also get the vanity of this entire blog, and this head, and really, that is half of the battle.

PTI: I am in Beijing now, very cool cafe.

And some photos

2006-08-05T17:06:00.000+08:00

So when you go to China

2006-08-05T14:39:00.000+08:00

So when you go to China you have to be careful. The number of people who told me this, especially Taiwanese, I could simply not count. So in China, I have been on a nonstop watch for pick pockets and shady figures. However I was not really sure what to look for.
Typically I keep two bags on me, my camera and my computer. My computer goes on one side, the camera on the other side, and the two make a cross across my chest. Its not to hard to lift and it always seemed safe. I keep my elbows or forearms propped on the top of the two bags, thinking that if anyone grabbed for my bag I would feel it.
The front of my camera bag has a little pocket with a broken zipper so it is half open. You have to lip the flap and then the pocket is basically open but synched at the top by my broken zipper.
So when I went to China...I was walking through Xi'an. I decided rather than see a sight I wanted to do a walk through Xi'an and compare it to Chinese cities as whole, an activity not as historically enlightening but still gives some cultural nuance. Furthermore, it involved seven less hours of buses.
I was walking away from the train station, on the main street to the center of town. This is a place where some tourists go, but not tons (most would take a bus or a taxi through this part of town). It was not a bad area of town by any means, but the commercial drag that dominates that line had not started yet.
At the time I did not have my big bag, for portability I was just using the camera bag and had the computer at home. Suddenly I felt someone digging into the pocket I described before, and in the way I assumed I would based on how I kept my arms. To my surprise, apparently I learned something in Kung Fu class, I knocked his arm away in the inward turn that we did a thousand times in class. As I did that, I turned to him and ended up standing facing the man, making it very clear that I knew what he tried to do, and based on the surprising gracefulness of me knocking away him, I think I looked rather dangerous and surely felt as such.
He was much taller than me, tall even by western standards. He wore dark glasses, a navy blue shirt and kaki pants. He had a pitted face, but was not profoundly ugly. His straight stance reminded me of a businessman, he had a good presence, and tried his best to pretend the obvious had not just happened. That said, he was clearly scared shitless of me.
My first thought actually was to hit him, based on his surprise and a crap load of adrenaline, I think I would have smacked him good. The second thought was get the police. The third thought was just start talking to him, like "does that normally work?"
In the end, and mind you this was all about a second, I compromised. I figured that all three of those plans lead to far too many invariable that provided a whole lot of risk and not too much reward. I took a step towards him, and slapped him hard on the back, not unlike I would imagine a Texan CEO would do to a new intern, and asked him "What the fuck are you doing?"
Of course he did not understand me, because I asked in English. This was actually a conscious decision, as I was not sure talking to him in Chinese would benefit my life. I did not especially want to hear some inane explanation. At the time I was actually listening to the often advertised Chinesepod. He said something to me that, without even having heard it, was clearly a bad excuse.
I said "fuck you" rather matter of fact, flipped him off, and walked off. I looked around a little for the police when I saw the guy was not taking off, however I decided it was just not worth it. It put too many things at risk, and he had just joined a group of guys. I was not sure I could explain it adequately and it was not worth making myself a target.
I walked on, he did not follow me. I was a bit full of adrenaline at this point and went to get a milk tea. After the normal "You really speak Chinese moments?" and "Where are you from?" One guy said "Your President Bush is terrible."
I said I agreed, but I didn't really like his government much either. He said, like many Chinese have said to me (their opinions are creepy uniform here, and that really bothers me), "Bush really likes those wars." I said "Yeah, I don't like him, and I think he has done to much fighting."
He said something like "Everyone else likes peace." This one got an adrenalined up me way ticked off. I said, "Well that's not really certain" (which sounds much better in Chinese), "your government is not exactly peaceful." From there I basically launched on a rant about Taiwan and that the Chinese government is far from peaceful. They called it an internal matter of course, and general party line crap. I gave it back just as much, emphasizing that domestic or not, it is insane to call that any form of peace.
The conversation was quick, and the milk tea was good. I actually had another milk tea today, apparently they like it with beans, and it tastes surprisingly good. In fact, I had one of the best milk teas I have ever had here, with beans, chocolate, and the normal pearls. I figured it would be too much, but it was very good.
Most of the day I walked the street, which is very consumeristic and interesting. It had real CD stores next to pirated stores. It had generic shoes next to Nike "authorized dealerships." I only really talked to one other person, and she was very very uncomfortable talking about my favorite conversations (awkward).
Tonight I am going to Beijing in the cheap section (not my choice). Outside of a lucky upgrade (you can sometimes buy upgrades). Which I am partially looking forward to, and partially dreading. I look forward to the language, but I hear the people are rude. I am also really afraid of some political fights and the crowds.

A great little hostel and a big fake army

2006-08-05T01:06:00.000+08:00

I am sitting at a cafe and there is a person two seats away just looking bored and watching the middle of Gang's of New York. Its actually very hard for me to not talk to her. I mean, I am actually physically resisting asking her where she is from and what she does. Earlier there was a guy there and I couldn't resist, I ended up talking to him for a half-an-hour.
But I am trying to talk less, at least a little while.

PTI: I did not ask her anything, despite her looking incredibly bored. After that an American guy sat down with a book on China and I had to ask him about it. Luckily another person came and started talking to him, so I could get out of a conversation.

PTI: I just had a long conversation with the neighbors, I just can't help it. One is a New York private school teacher, and his school sounds truly great. He is very nice, and very interesting. His English friend is also very personable and

PTI: Another, even longer conversation. I can't have people say they are living in Korea and teaching without me starting long conversations. Also the English friend turned out to be a progressive education director of some sort, who told me a great deal about this

My hesitation to conversation is that I have just been talking to so many people, about ninety percent of those in Chinese, that I just get sick of it. Not just the Chinese but the speaking. Especially after the same basic conversation six times a day. Luckily I usually hang out with one person for a long period of time, so conversation gets deeper, but I have still done a certain set of conversations way too much.

PTI: Now I am getting talked to by some guys practicing their English. I love the question "Do you speak Chinese?" which I answer yes, followed by "Oh really? So, you speak a little?" I now I sound arrogant, and I know it will very well may all go away when I leave here (man I don't want that to happen, but I think I will subscribe to Chinesepod and keep working even if it kills me).

PTI: This is a hard conversation to write. I ended up in yet another conversation with strangers, this time Spanish travelers (and no, not in Spanish, I can barely speak a little, though they have said a few Spanish sentences to me when they could not explain in English). I have been here for like five hours at this couch trying to write this stupid blog entry. In summary, I can't not talk to people, even when that is a specific goal.

That said, this hostel is really great, a great community, wireless, good food. I am very impressed, but I did not get out to see Xi'an a little like I planned (I might still, but I am determined to write this first).
The warriors were very strange for me. Although they were interesting, the biggest question was not why were they here, but rather, why are we here? The tourists were all over that place, so of course, what is the draw?
Ultimately, who was Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China? From the warriors, the man is definitely looking like the vainest, most arrogant man to step on the planet. He is building great walls, hidden armies, and burning vast amounts of books. His name has existed for two centuries as China. Yet really, he was probably kind of a dick.
This is written from far to ignorance, but the warriors alone speak to an arrogance that is out of control. Yet here people are, in droves, an extensive economy has been created by those stone men alone. Are we celebrating the accomplishment of the 700 thousand some people who worked on the project? Are we empathizing with the solders who fashioned themselves into an eternal army? Are we admiring the emperor himself who felt he was worthy such a tomb?
No question, a non-answer seems appropriate. Just saying, "well it sure is something to see right?" seems like an appropriate answer. However, how did it become such an answer, its mass, its complexity, its oddity or something else?
The solders themselves were interesting, however I do believe a decent history book with nice photos might actually be more satisfying except you can say "I have been there."
The entire time I thought, "man, this place is all about pride." The problem: by "this place" I did not know if I meant the pit, the tour area above the pit, or my own heart.
The pit was full of pride. The solders were pumped up with sharp wicked weapons. Most of the archers were ready to fire. More to the point, they were the sign of a man who felt he deserved and needed the command of such an elaborate army even after death. Or is that lack of pride, a fear that he can't defend himself in the afterlife?
The tourist area had many shades of pride. My personal favorite, but perhaps the most subtle - people with video cameras. Who in the world would want to watch that videotape? The soldiers are surely not moving. Really, I think those tapes will sit on shelves marked "Terracotta Warriors Trip" and be the impetus for conversations. Conversations where viewing of the videotape will be offered, and rejected, but the point will remain, "I have been there."
There was also a lot of English. A lot of ABCs (American born Chinese). And a lot of people showing they have a lot of money (my camera quickly passed from good, to average, maybe to poor in this company).
There was a lot of people who deserved some pride. However there were a lot of French, German, Spanish, and Italian Chinese speaking guides. Some of whom spoke beautifully. These people should be proud they learned a language other than English. However, at least according to Alice, their compensation will not be a source of pride.
Apparently her friends who act as French guides get paid something like 50 yuan, about $6, a day. The rest of their money comes from things that their clients buy. They get half of the profit made on the touristy crap that the people are guiding buy. Thus, the person who is entrusted to represent these people when they are traveling has incentive to ensure that the client spends as much money as possible. I was pretty shocked by this, and it was clear Alice was also uncomfortable with this idea. Most of the guides hate this job, and clearly for good reasons.

PTI: Another conversation, but now in Chinese. Very nice woman from Guangdong who is surprisingly giving me her address. She spoke slowly so I could type, look up, and understand some of the vocab she used without losing the conversation.

I also saw a lot of pride in my own heart. I have only recently stopped treating Chinese like a competition. That said, I hear someone translating Chinese in the next room and I can't help listen to each word for mistakes. You can hear the pride in their voice, and I can hear my own vanity in my reception.
I looked at those warriors and I asked myself, would I want this? Am I that sort of person? I want to do well financially, I want to do well personally. What is the difference between me and this demented emperor? Am I fundamentally different or is it just a matter of scale?
When I was younger, I wanted to be in history. I wanted to seek the immortality that the emperor wanted. He did a good job, he will live a long time in the words written about him, both good and bad. His name will live on in the name of his country. But in the long term, this will all go away. Its true nothing lasts forever, and a population of emotional madmen with atomic weapons surely don't last forever.
So what do I want success for? To live comfortably? Well then why not teach English long-term? Its comfortable, and its nice. Not too much stress and I can learn things on the side. Yet I would never do that. It simply does not interest me. I want to make businesses, I want to do law. But perhaps I ultimately don't know want, its just what I want to do.
I had a lot more thoughts at the time, and perhaps I will write more later, but for now, it is one in the morning and I have not moved here in many hours. So for now, I am off to bed.

Leaving Shanghai

2006-08-04T10:54:00.000+08:00

I left Shanghai on good terms, very good terms. I am impressed it has kept its reign in my heart as one of the world's great cities (actually the only other city I put on its level is Tokyo, but lets face it, I have not been to that many). They just need to fix that stupid metro, it has so much potential but currently has so many problems. How did Japan do it? Yeah, do that.
I am on a train to Xi'an and I have to type fast because I want my computer to have enough power to watch Syriana (picked up at the first DVD shop in Asia to not yell at me). That said, I have not put much in this journal writing wise, despite a lot of thinking.
Because there is so much I like to Shanghai, I thought more introspectively than other cities. I did not have to find what I liked (ie - tourist destinations), just being there was nice. Old buildings are cool, western buildings in China are cool. These things gave me a lot of joy. Crazy architecture is at least interesting.
I spent my days with another sweet accompaniment, she was a graduate student in logic who spoke in overly proper Mandarin (sometimes lulling me a bit). I spent my evenings with Alice who speaks in a great mix of proper Mandarin, cute Mandarin (no where near the average Taiwanese girl on the average day, but on the way), and my personal favorite English as a second language English amongst my friends (lots of grammatical or syntax errors that seem to convey far more than if properly stated, which my mom would probably argue is where most of my writing worth comes from).
The last day I saw old buildings like crazy. My personal favorite is the Sun Yat-sen house. Sun Yat-sen, in my mind is a troublesome figure for the Chinese government (I think my excellent professor who led my study abroad in China would agree with this and was trying to tell me this before I had even the basic knowledge to know who he was talking about). Sun was a key figure in creating modern China, but he was also the father of the KMT/GMD, the people that would later bring us Taiwan.
Really I doubt Sun Yat-sen would care much for this China, at least in relation to the constitution he created, which currently reigns in Taiwan. Yet China presents him as a hero of modern China, at least from the memorials and heritage sites for him. His house was really well preserved, with lots of stuff, and you could really walk through the house, not just look into certain rooms. Although short and photo less, it was very interesting for me.

PTI: Took a break to watch the movie, and in doing so drained the battery, thus left virtually entertainment less, and half way through a really good movie. However I am now at a bad ass hostel with wireless internet and western toilets (the two things that make a hotel for me).

Today I will see the Terricotta warriors and tomorrow take a tour of the East of this city.

More photos

2006-08-02T17:42:00.000+08:00

Since its the only thing people care about, and the last few entries have been so silly personal, pretty pictures!

Another day in Shanghai

2006-08-02T00:55:00.000+08:00

Shanghai has been weird for me because I really can see living here, long term. I find that weird because again, its like a couple of dates before a long marriage. The fact is that this city is incredibly interesting and filled with potential. There are enough white people that you are not going to get stared at and that there is an economy of good foreign food and bars. At the same time, you don't have to deal with a constant bombardment of American culture that sometimes gets me down (I really like mixing it up here).

PTI: When I said I was glad I did not have to go to Hooters to find a wireless connection because I did not want to become "that guy," he said "Whatever man, this is China, nothing matters here." He has been here three years.

Man, that was a bad interruption for what I was saying. However, business is booming for these guys and they are drinking it down. I can't blame them, its clear life is good. They are mad American though.
Today I went to the Urban Planning museum. What it has? Its mighty good looking. What it does not have? Virtually any content. They remind me of a bad CX debate case, they lack inherency. Inherency means basically "the problem you have to get around." If this plan is so great, why is it not in effect right now? So they never addressed any of the countless problems facing their happy plans. Who is paying? Who is building? How long will it take realistically? What will the place be like in the interim?
Also they didn't address the one thing I think this city could most use, an improved subway system. The system here has a lot of potential but not much polish. It works from some places, but there are a few obvious lines that they need, and the stations need to be cleaned up and redone. Its like a Tokyo in the making.
Afterwards I had dinner with Alice, where we talked a lot. Its clear she has changed. Her goals now revolve around family and traditional values. Before she was ambitious about world travel and business. I think much of this comes from who she is dating, and I am not sure how I feel about that. Its clear he is a needed support for her, but at the same time, I don't like ambition cut down in any manner.
I think I will be here two more days here, I like it here, its relaxing for now. Its been good to me so far. Tomorrow will be Sun Yat-sen's old place. After that, I think I am going to go straight to Xi'an so that I can keep up with this slow pace (rather than going to Shaolin).
Anyway the chill bar I am in is closing up, so I am going to get going.

Alice

2006-08-01T22:24:00.000+08:00

Writing about people in China is sort of weird for me. The fact is, they will probably never read it, not the case for most places I go to. In America and Taiwan, I could safely assume that anyone I refer to may someday wander to my site, as I surely do not keep this site a secret. Chia, that is not the case, their internet blockage is probably not going away anytime soon (sadly), and when it does, I doubt anyone is popping over to my site, searching out the day I knew them and then seeing what I said (even that involves some high level English most of them don't have).
Alice is a girl that I met two years ago in China. She is a lot like Pudong for me, she is someone that was in the back of my head for a long time, and seeing her hit me a bit hard. I spent only about twelve hours talking to her the first time we met., however we have talked online countlessly since then. There was a time period where we talked everyday. There was a time period where I thought about doing rash things to get to Shanghai.
One thing Alice pointed out off hand was that we met my first day of China. I realized that I saw Pudong my first day in China. An abbreviated thought - on that day, if you had told me the next two year. When I arrived here about two years and two months ago, I had one real goal in China - see the Bund. After that, I was not even sure where I was going.
Now two years later, Alice and I could speak for hours entirely in Chinese for hours. Furthermore, ti was clear that was the best way to communicate. We had shared cultural experiences to talk about and share. That said, as much more that we had, we also had what we did when we first met, a really great computability involving a great deal of smiling and laughing.
Alice is living with her boyfriend and is on the fast track to getting married, so nothing is "on the table." That said I did get nostalgic. Alice was the last one of my great useless "crushes." She was the last girl that I can recall where I idealized them and amplified in my head. This is not a freshly removed habit mind you, I probably only stopped upon coming to Asia and gaining more experience. That said, few of these crushes reached Alice proportions and it was really weird to have her sitting with me, talking with me.
Professionally I can see a surprisingly clear path for me lately, assuming I can cut it, and I think I can, and that I like it, and I think I will. But personally I have been lost as long as I can remember. I write some embarrassing stuff about relationships at the start of this blog, but I don't especially regret any of them.
I wrote a few things saying basically saying that I was on a girlfriend hunt. They were personal and shockingly vulnerable. I am not sure what inspired me to post them, but I think it was a certain coming to turns with myself, as in "You really believe this stuff about yourself, well then put it out in the public domain and see how that feels."
This last year was very good for me personally, resolved things for me, and relaxed me a lot. That said, Alice still has a special part of my heart. She will have a good life, I think she is looking for something normal and traditional, so is her future husband. I think that is exactly what they will have, and who can argue against a dream come true.
For me? I am still vulnerable enough to say I worry sometimes that I am just a fool when it comes to matter of the heart. However I am strong enough to say I am really not that worried, I have confident I will figure it out.

PTI: I wrote that last entry really tired (I nearly fell asleep writing it). I am afraid of reading it, but that is my only excuse if I get umm...sentimental.

Waiting in Shanghai

2006-08-01T22:22:00.000+08:00

I am waiting for my friend Alice at a tea stand outside of her office. I found a nice milk tea (not amazing, but good, the pearls are a bit too chewy). Today has been a great day. The best part of course was Chinesepod. It was actually really creepy for me meeting the Chinesepod staff, it was a little bit like meeting stars simply because I had heard them so much.
The star Jenny, who I thought was beautiful from her photos, turned out to be even more gorgeous and very charming. Furthermore, John, who is one of my favorite features of Chinesepod was very nice and great to talk to. It was all refreshing and they probably ensured my subscription when I get to New York.
I very much did speak some of my Taiwanese, and they are going to put it in an episode. I actually did contact Rebecca, I called her on Skype to make sure I could say correctly my few phrases in Taiwanese that we used. Taiwanese is weird for me, I can recognize it but can't understand it. More to the point, my Taiwanese is the level of most foreigners in China's Mandarin, and I think that is just plain sad.
After that, I went to the French Quarter for some Fish and Chips. I am loving the availability of Western Food here (before you start knocking me, remember I have been eating Chinese food for a steady year here). I ran into a cool girl who went with me to their art museum.
The art museum was weird because one of the main exhibits were from Houston artists. Clearly Houston has some kind of hippie community stashed in there, because these paintings were not exactly that umm...positive towards America. Some were interesting, some were not.
There was a little documentary on a prison rodeo in Texas. I was proud I could explain even a small portion of that to my friend in Chinese. However words like rodeo were not exactly easy (I said things like "cowboy thing" I should have said "cowboy competition").
Tonight I am not sure what I will do with Alice, but this place is clearly out to make me continue love Shanghai. So far between the revolving sushi and the art museum, they are determined to make me keep liking Shanghai. When I move here I hope that this great view I have of the city does not come crashing down on me (which I actually thought it would this trip.

Chinesepod

2006-07-31T11:38:00.000+08:00

I am in the Chinese pod studio, the Chinese learning site I have recommended many times. I am actually really nervous as I am going to make an appearance on their Saturday showing with my, dear god, Taiwanese. Rebecca!? Where are you!?

More photos

2006-07-30T22:11:00.001+08:00

Again, these photos are way behind where I am now.

A whole new cultural experience

2006-07-30T22:09:00.000+08:00

Climbing Emeishan, walking the Bund, crossing Hong Kong's bay, walking through the bamboo forest, cool stuff sure, but Pudong's Hooters? Now we are talking some of that culture stuff.
No one goes to Hooters for the wings, but at least one guy has gone there for their wireless. It did not save my life, although a Hooters has saved my life (Jake you really should read this damn blog), but it did finally let me stop walking.
So this is the first time I have really gotten to explore Pudong, and my thoughts are a bit mixed actually. Mind you, this is only towards Lujiazui (the financial district and the "face" of Pudong), but it simply lacks a personality. Its a cool face, I find the buildings at least entertaining (their artistic value, umm, ranges, but they are surely interesting), but the are itself is annoying.
The first problem, its infrastructure is too expansive. Everywhere are eight lane roads. Walking around is painful (literally, my legs are simply rocked right now). To get from one building to another it feels like going from two distant vegas casinos (Jake you best be reading some of this), you know where you are going, you can see it, but it just takes forever. Except you can't take little breaks to throw some bones and order drinks.
I have a lot of problems with Hong Kong, having skyscrapers lining two lane roads seemed idiotic to me until I saw the opposite. Sure Hong Kong is too crowded, but Pudong is freaking lonely! Even when a bunch of people are out, you are distanced from them and its impossible to have any interaction. Those French architects pointed out this line of thought to me and it seems totally true - adequate infrastructure can really destroy the heart of a place. And this place really seems to have no heart.
Most of my day inside was spent in the Grand Hyatt, a place I have wanted to go to for ages. I love going to Hyatt's (they are classy but they stay fashionable and trendy). I also love going to richy places where I don't really belong. In this case I went all around the building (seriously, outside of going room to room I went to every cafe and bar in the entire hotel). I talked to a bunch of staff but was shocked at how boring their stories were.
That said, the architecture inside the Hyatt was what I had heard: really incredible. You can see straight from the 52nd floor to the 87th floor's huge stabilizing ball along an beautifully designed interior. The Hyatt was also just generally well done and although not necessarily that interesting, they were all very nice. I also like that I got to see views and the beautiful architecture for free, rather than paying to go to the observation deck (floor I could reach - 87, observation deck - 88).
Other than the Hyatt I basically lugged from building to building, taking huge amounts of time for each visit. Anywhere that might have wireless I asked. I even found a connection on the street, but never tracked down the source. I did not have it long enough to do anything and then I could not find the origin.
However leaving one various mall I was struck by a Hooters on the horizon and figured it was worth a try. As the rule seems to be, to find wireless, follow the foreigners. And there are a mighty lot of foreigners here, and there is a great wireless connection. Oh and the beautiful Chinese girls in skimpy clothes, but that is beside the point. That and they like to play little thinly veiled games like riding on stools which are shockingly perverse.
Tomorrow will hopefully include visiting Chinesepod (www.chinesepod.com, my main source for Chinese these days), Shanghai's art museum, and seeing my friend Alice for the first time in two years of talking online. For now, I will be walking back up the Bund and surveying the land before probably waking someone up in the awkward dorm that I am in (I am staying in an amazing hotel, but they just converted an old suite into a dorm room by jamming beds into it).

Returning to Shanghai

2006-07-30T21:20:00.000+08:00

I feel like Pudong is right behind me, a feeling I am used to; however, Pudong really is, which is not something I am used to. I actually did realize how excited I was to get to Shanghai until this morning when I finally admitted to myself Shanghai is not just another Chinese city for me.
For those new to Matt related information, I put my heart and soul into my honors thesis about the Pudong area of Shanghai. It was a huge factor in my life for a year, and I think in some ways a factor in who I am today. I had never worked that hard in undergraduate, but now frequently tirelessly over casual pursuits, like Chinese was originally. I had to start from scratch with Chinese economic history in order to write my thesis, and I think I did far more background work than the average thesis student (having picked a topic that's most basic fundamentals I had to start with).
First thing to be said about Shanghai is the first thing I noticed - man there are a lot of white people. Damn near Hong Kong levels of white people, which is just crazy to me. In fact, at the sushi bar (revolving sushi!!!!!) I am writing this in, Chinese people only make up about half of the customers.
My first impression was pretty negative, as I tend not to like white people. This is not to say that I tend to like Chinese people more than white people (that boat ride really disproved that notion), rather, based on the conditions we are under, I have something inherently in common with every white person I meet here. As such, if I meet a jerk that is white, I know he is representing the prejudice that I will convey to people here. The more white people - the more likely I will meet a jerk.
It also means there is an economy for hassling foreigners, so along Nanjing road I got "hey mista"ed, "DVD"edm and "you buy shoes"ed from one end to the other. However, the hassle did not stop me from walking to the end of Nanjing road and hitting the Bund. More to the point, hitting the image of the Pudong skyline. I actually had to stop for a second.
It was the second time the skyline brought me in my tracks. The first time was that I was not expecting it. The first time I had spent so much time reading about Shanghai history I had no idea that it had a present that was so intensely visually interesting. When I was expecting classy old and got hit by crazy new I was brought to a stop. That was the start of my thesis.
The second time I was forced to stop was again the shock of hitting the Pudong. This time however it was like running into an old friend after a two year absence. I knew what Pudong looked like. I knew so much about it. But I guess I was not really prepared to have it hit me all at once. Hundreds of photos, countless articles, a number of books and some 117 pages all rushed up to me at once.
Shanghai is really just a city, but its a city I know more about than all other cities combined. Yet I still don't know so much. I have little interest in the West side. I don't know much about the plight of the poor. However the things I do know about, I really do know. The problem is that this is a human city and the more I am here the more the gold paint will chip.
All of that said, I am here now, enjoying one of my favorite foods in the world, revolving sushi (if you revolve it, sushi gets better), and I hope to get a room to stay in one of Old Shanghai's main hang outs. I have a lot of goals tomorrow, but today, I am just going to stroll the rest of the Bund until I fully "get" that I am "here."

PTI: Even going to the bathroom is like going to the bathroom on history. I am staying in the Astor hotel. Back in the day this used to be one of the main swinging sections of the Bund. Giving Pudong so much love, I forgot my love for the Bund. The Bund is the old section of Shanghai, its composed of beautiful foreign architecture, and it really plays with your senses of being "in China."
Whereas Hong Kong also has an imperialistic history of enforced poverty, genocide proportioned slave labor, and foreign riches constructed from the spines of broken Chinese backs, the symbols of this glamorous and elegant era are largely built over by "B-" architecture projects. However in Shanghai, the symbols of foreign imperialism are dashed gently along the Yangzi river. Thus, I am pretty excited to be staying in such a place.
It really is nice, and the bathrooms all have western toilets, a feature that goes pretty far into my heart. The place has clearly been reconstructed, but it retains its old charm of a time in which the elegance inside of these buildings truly contrasted with the stark poverty outside and Nanjing road was not sponsored by Pepsi. However, without further ado, its time for me to jaunt to Pudong and maybe find a café to waste away my day as the leisurely foreign gentleman I really am.

More Hangzhou

2006-07-29T23:45:00.000+08:00

Hangzhou has been good to me, although I am ready to go to Shanghai, in fact, very excited. I plan on leaving tomorrow morning.
My second day in Hangzhou started with me cleaning my clothes, something I have not done since a bygone era. As such, I now have very happy clothing, and I get to stop smelling (always a bonus).
Early on I met a young lady living in the hostel. For the sixth or seventh time in China I ended up hanging out with one person for something like eight or nine hours straight. Apparently that is just what I do when I am traveling in China, who knew?
She is a fiancé to a nice sounding owner of an internet bar. She really knew her internet bars too, and we ended up hanging out in one for a couple of hours this morning. It was cool, with the help of neighbors I made an account on a basketball game they were all playing, and I am proud to say that I rocked hard at it (it helped that I ended up with a really good guy on my team, but I did well).
After the internet bar we went to an old street, which was mostly a street that sold "old" stuff. However it was really positive. Most things had prices and I was able to find rough prices for many things I was interested in. I think I will find a similar such street in Northern China (like Qufu) and now how much things should cost. There I can buy gifts right before I leave.
The girl I hung out with today, Michelle, was good at correcting my Chinese. Whereas all my friends agree, at first it sounds like I can really do this Chinese thing, the more we talk the more it falls apart, she was good at saying what I could do better. What was nice is that we, like most of my sudden guides, spoke no English. Even though my Chinese has tons of problems, I can say that I can easily make friends in the language, and I think that is pretty important.
Hangzhou is doing well for itself, I stumbled upon yet another Zegna here. Again I went in and asked a bunch of questions. The girl there was not as forth coming, but I ended up talking to a customer who lived in America for seven years. He was very interesting and revealing.
One last thing of note. I don't know if it is because it is her job, or if it is a Chinese outlook, Michelle attached an inordinate amount of deal on getting online. This morning her goal was clearly hit the internet. When I told her this evening I was going to pop over to a cafe to get online, she seemed to take this as an event. She kept staying like "oh, if you want to get online, thats cool." Getting online being clearly as opposed to sleeping, reading, or zoning out I guess. But it was clear that this was a clear verb of something that you do.
I have a very different perspective. For me I am always online, I just check what's going on whenever I can. However my email address is running when I am gone. My site is up. These things are extensions of myself in a way. I don't see getting online as much of a jump, in places where I have wireless, it requires me opening my computer (not even hitting a button in the process).
I don't know if this is because her life is internet related through her fiancé or this is a Chinese way of thinking. How do you American readers think? Should getting online be an action verb of similar consequence to reading or eating? For me it conjures up the idea of "surfing the web."
Although I "surf the web" I think perhaps my connection to the internet is a bit too broadband, for me saying I am "surfing the web" as an answer seems to me like being asked "What are you doing?" and answering "breathing." Sure you are "breathing" but that is not really what I am asking right. There are times where I am "surfing the internet" as a committed thing, but usually its the sort of constant background of any number of activities.
That said most of my Internet usage is "Web 2.0" fashioned. The best example of this is my addiction to podcasts. Even when I am not online, my iPod likely has something I have not heard yet, originally coming from the internet. Blogs are similar, I often read them offline. Furthermore, while traveling I have been writing my blog offline, but for online purposes. Even in this nation where internet can be, frustrating to find, I still don't see the line as that distinct. This whole thinking needs more though, I realize that, I will try to refine what I am saying later.

Hangzhou

2006-07-28T23:32:00.000+08:00

To answer some comments. I do have a weird passion for Ermenegildo Zegna. I always thought they had the best stuff in Esquire, and their prices are simply laughably high, just outrageously so. Beyond most of the truly expensive brands. I really like them because they always have at least one piece of clothing in their stores that is laughably terrible priced, something like $500 US. I respect that they can still push products. Furthermore, most of the tailored clothing I pick up in Shenzhen for $10 looks basically the same as theirs with worse stitching.
The Chongqing Zegna was an especially cool experience. I talked to the manager for a solid hour. I found out how much product they were pushing, what Chinese customers were interested in, how the area had developed over the last twenty years (from farm land to luxury mall shopping), what their employee wages were, what her wage was, what the employee turn over was, her feelings on Taiwan (typically harsh), the Chinese structure of Zegna profits, raises, and business.
She also told me the weirdest understanding of the Tiananmen massacre I have ever heard. Apparently newlyweds kissing in public is involved (I believe this is about Li Lu who suddenly got married at the square apparently), kissing in public being a cultural no no strong enough to cause the government to start firing. She mentioned the she only knew of one person dying.
To Allison's comment about beating up trees, have you seen Crouching Tiger? Those trees take a beating! I had to really.

So far Hangzhou has been a breath of much less polluted air. I got here in the morning and ate WAY too much. The problem was that I ordered two things I did not really end up liking, one thing that was okay, and one thing that was VERY good. As such, I gorged heartily on the one thing and felt guilty about leaving a good portion of the others. This caused me to have devastating heart burn throughout the day, forcing me to walk for five minutes and sit for five minutes for a good while.
The main point of the day was to go slowly and just relax. I found a great dorm style hotel (my first). It really does rock. The locked wardrobes are huge, there is a gym, there is a washing machine, and the place is clean, nice and polished. Its expensive as far as dorms go, but being that I have yet to stay in a dorm, its my second cheapest room on this trip (the cheapest being basically an out house).
I slowly walked up to the West Lake, Hangzhou's claim to fame, a huge lake romanticized by countless Chinese artists. I spent most of my time with a girl I met that initially looked very plain but friendly, and upon glasses removal revealed herself to be truly very beautiful. I gave her a free English lesson, something I might do with friends (I really want to know how much I can teach in an hour, I sort of miss English teaching), and her English truly was terrible "How many..." was like pulling teeth and I missed the iron trap mind of my students.
On the way to the lake I found a very good milk tea stand (which helped my heart burn absolutely zero but it was very good) and a book store. At the book store I found an advanced English dictionary that had a bunch of Chinese words I have been looking for vainly like "frustrated" and "gross." The book, which in the US would have unquestionably been expensive was $1.50 (US) new, so I had to buy it, despite increasing my luggage load (ugh).
The lake was great, but mostly just big. Its hard to put it all together and appreciate its majesty although it is a nice lake. I met a very cool Chinese heritage family who lived in Canada. I also relaxed and did not care how long it took me to do things. I hope tomorrow to be the same, and then the day after to shuttle off to Shanghai where I will be for five days if I can.
Now I am in a hang out like that one in Taiwan, lots of card playing and the like. The connection in here is terrible, and I will try to find a new one tomorrow, but most importantly - it is wireless.

More pictures

2006-07-28T21:33:00.000+08:00

I will try to put up ten photos from each place I can blog as long as I am able to do so. This connection is so spotty its a bit more troublesome here. Most of these photos are from pretty far in my wake actually (most of these photos are back in Kunming for those following at home).

The world's largest dam through my day

2006-07-28T20:33:00.000+08:00

From the end of the last blog entry, things got so bad, interesting, awkward, confusing, and generally annoying - it deserved its own blog entry. After that blog, we ended up getting to the big boat. From the big boat, we whipped through the three gorges. To be honest, the mini gorges were more impressive for me, as I was closer to them and seemed more personal.
The more talkative of the French guys actually slept through much of it, I listened to my Podcasts and just sort of watched. That said, I can safely say I get the gorge thing (between this and Taroko in Taiwan). I liked looking at the plates and thinking what my dad would tell me about the formations, but I still don't share his passion for rocks.
Returning to my room I talked with my roommates for the second time. The first time was the middle of last night when I discovered that the father loved English and liked to speak it loudly when his wife and child were trying to sleep. No matter how quietly I answered, he asked questions with booming English.
However during the day we quickly became friends. Furthermore, he and his wife were professors, his wife was a professor of political science in fact. With that in mind, I did my questions with a bit more excitement. Towards the government, they seemed rather positive. She emphasized that the amount farmers make has stayed about the same or risen, whereas the cost of living has fallen. They seemed positive on development, especially that it is now really reaching the west. Although the center was not growing as fast, they emphasized it was growing.
Then there was Taiwan. Taiwan was a huge issue, because they were the first people to entertain the question as to why Taiwan was automatically apart of Taiwan. Furthermore, some of the arguments (given mostly by the guy) were pretty terrible, causing me to argue back. This led to the first really passionate Taiwan debate I had, although it was in good humor and none of it was serious in a sense to be worried about.
At one point he said that Taiwan should be apart of China because of history. They were of Chinese decent. However, a good portion of the country has been apart from the mainland for 400 years, by that standard the US had no claim to independence, and in fact a good number of countries have large claims on various parts of America.
My personal favorite bad argument is that the Chinese map would not be complete without Taiwan. I pointed out that Korea is much closer than Taiwan, if we are invading for map completeness, it looks like that would be a good place to start. He said but then we should invade Thailand and a bunch of other countries, I said sure! Where do you sign up? After Taiwan, we just start hitting border states.
His most passionate argument was that Taiwan is apart of China because China _needs_ Taiwan. Their development, their economy, both are needed by China. I like this argument because I like the idea of Mexico saying to the US, "Look, we _need_ you." That doesn't really make a great argument when people are breaking up, I am not sure how it flies with geo politics.
His arguments were similar to those of bad debaters in high school (including myself). Rather than put up one good argument that disapproved a point, and thus ended the argument, one casts a series of so-so or bad arguments to create sort of a reasonable doubt. None of his arguments lacked cohesion.
His biggest, and sadly best, was history. He argued that China had Taiwan since the Qin dynasty, and that Taiwan has been independent for only forty some years. First of all, I don't know how much the Qin dynasty was interacting with the "common man" of Taiwan. I mean, did they collected taxes from Taiwan? Did their laws rule the land? Even if they did, does that really matter? If this is really an argument, what is inner-mongolia doing in China?
After that we hit the dam. The dam was just a blitz on three locations. We whipped around it far too fast to really do anything but take photos. I took incredible numbers of photos, 80% of which I will delete. I figure I wanted at least one to come out, as it was the only reason I got on this boat thing in the first place.
My biggest problem was the speed. We were looking at such a huge symbol for China modernization, Chinese approach to the environment, and generally the future of China, if not the world. Yet we had to get off the bus, take photos, get back on the bus. There was definitely no time to ponder the future of our world and the nuances in the Three Gorges debate.
Now I get to go into probably the worst day of my traveling life. We get off of the bus from the dam. As per usual, I am surrounded by taxi drivers. I want to say bye to the French guys but I have to talk over a thousand drivers saying "Wuhan? Hotel? I take you." It was clear that I was waiting for a specific bus, so they weren't pestering me, but the French guys had two or three of about six people constantly talking to them.
Eventually I yelled "对他们麽关系！走吧！” which is bad Chinese (not bad in bad word but bad is in probably terrible grammar), don't worry about them get out of here. EIther way, I think they got the picture, especially after I said this and a guy kept chilling around and I starred him down until he left (and came back almost immediately).
The big problem was this - turns out I lost my receipt. This is tantamount to losing your identity in China, you are these dumb slips of paper. Everywhere you go they give you handfuls of pieces of paper, each one of them can be worth up to say 600 yuan. You lose them - you are screwed, as simple as that.
Eventually I had a quick discussion with the French guys and gave them my email. Afterwards, I told them in normal volume English and then extremely loud Chinese, make sure to take the taxi driver in the black (who was the only one who left when I told them to leave).
The problem I was having during this time was searching through piles of receipts to slowly realize that it must have fallen out when I paid for something. Despite what I was told from the travel agency, they did not have my name, and could not help me.
This is the deal in China: people will help you like in Taiwan, but only if you are eventually going to give them money. I had tons of people help me search out the driver my bus, or my travel agency, or a new way of getting there. Yet when I said "Okay, I can't find it, look, can I buy a ticket now?" The price they all gave me was four times what it should have been and they noted that there was nothing they could do, an outright lie, but they knew there was nothing I could do. They did this with sweet faces and with utter sincerity.
At one point I out and out had to say to a group of them "look, I don't believe anyone in this country. This country loves to lie to foreigners and I blatantly don't know about this." I frequently pointed out those in the crowd who I thought were genuine and would occasionally say things like "some Chinese don't think foreigners are people" while staring at those who had yelled at my friends earlier.
Now things get weird, and you can tell me what you think. So I don't have my ticket. Eventually the six taxi drivers and three bus drivers leave me all alone. Across the street was an active little place I wanted to check out. But first I wanted to, well to scream. So I pulled off to the side and whacked my bag a good one.
While standing there deciding if I was the stupidest person I knew, a girl came up to me. She had been in the crowd surrounding me during the fruitless search. She said, "Hi, I saw what happened. My boyfriend and I are going out, and I would like to invite you to come out with us. I have a lot of foreign friends, and I would like to at least take you out"
She said this with warmness and she seemed very genuine. More to the point, this sort of thing often happened when I was traveling, basically saving me from a miserable day, so I racked it up to fate and said okay. For the record I memorized the license plate number of the SUV, I watched the two like hawks, and generally was about as aware as I can manage.
The ride was cool, he had a nice system and listened to American hip hop, so I felt a bit like home. They took me to a little restaurant with a terrible milk tea, terrible mapo dofu, but simply great chicken peppers and snail? (they had recommended it).
We talked for about an hour, and they were very nice. The guy was an engineer on the three gorges dam. The girl was a travel agent learning Japanese. Today was her father's birthday. I ate a lot and I ate slowly, but it was nice to have real food after that stupid boat.
When we left there we went to a bar her brother had apparently opened. It was dirty but their friend was nice and the fruit was great.
At one point I mentioned I was not sure what to do as far as what to do next. She said she could help me look for tickets, but she understood that I would probably want to do so by myself (as I had said I basically didn't believe anyone in this country). I noted to her that if she was taking me out and all of this to get a ten yuan commission from a bus ticket, then she was a truly weird girl, so it would be good if she helped me out.
She basically found that going to Wudang mountain would be a pain. It became clear to me (and partially verified in my guide book) that going there would take something like three or four days out of my schedule, way more than I had expected. Furthermore, I wanted to get to a developed coastal city and quick, the center was starting to tear away at me. So eventually I changed my plan to leave to Hangzhou tomorrow. This was after she recommended that I go to a weird forest reserve nearby where I could, perhaps, see a Yeti like creature. ]
After that, they took me to a hotel, her father's hotel. This left me dry. She seemed so genuine, and probably was, but god damn I wish it was not her father's hotel. It was 110, more than I had budgeted but I did want to stay in a nice place (as it was a "three star" hotel) after that boat and today's nonsense.
Here was a new problem, I was out of money. I could have used credit, but the train to Hangzhou left early the next morning, so I needed money anyway. So her boyfriend (who I really liked, I thought he was very funny and cool), took me to basically every bank in that god forsaken city.
Turns out that Yichang has a lot of banks, not even close to its whore houses - which it has like Taiwan has beetle nut stands, in spades - but it has a lot of banks. And all of them, to a one, suck. Apparently not one of them had a single international alliance (between my two ATM cards, I accept both Mastercard and Visa connected ATMs). As such, after about ten banks, I still had no money. This had never happened, even some really remote towns
In the end, I had to "borrow" money from the woman who ran the travel agency there - the mother of the girl helping me.

PTI: I am on a freaking bus and they are smoking, how is that okay?

This morning I went to a running bank and took money out of my credit card. Today I will ty to find a decent ATM and just take out all my Taiwanese cash. I am already carrying my computer, a camera, and an MP3 player, might as well have a bunch of cash as well.
I missed the train to Hangzhou because of having to go to the banks, but I was not willing to spend a single more minute in Yichang than I needed to. As such, I am going to Wuhan on a bus that cost twice as much as it should because I was lied to by the girl's father and told there was no way to negotiate.
By the way, my three star hotel had no bathtub, no hot water, and I found a giant cockroach on the neighboring bed the next morning. It looked nice, it was clear they did everything they could to get three stars, and then just stopped.
What is good now is that I am basically not going to tourist towns from here on out. Hangzhou is tourist, but that is not what drives it. Shanghai is Shanghai, Beijing is Beijing. Xi'an should not have as many travel problems. The only worry is if I still go to Shaolin, that might get rough and stupid. I may say screw it and hit these last few cities real slowly (especially lots of time in Shanghai and Beijing). Either way I am just glad to be out of that cesspool Yichang.
I asked the boyfriend, Peter, if the rampant fake head washing places (the whore houses) were less when he was young. Apparently there were more when he was young, so I guess development has brought Yichang somewhere, just not somewhere very far. The city is factually filled with beautiful girls, both night and day, but during night they are shaded in the pink glow of lacked freedom, and during the day, you have to wonder what their night job might be.

PTI: I wish I had taken notes during all of this. It really bothers me that I never fully trusted that couple, and then to have gotten to that hotel. Living here might make me a great lier spotter, great for law school, or prove that I am destine to be a sucker. Anyway, I am now on a bus to Wuhan, which is all I care about right now. Om Wiuhan I am determined to either to get to Hangzhou, find something worth rediscovering my love of China, or find wireless.

PTI: Getting to Wuhan was good. The very person smoking on the bus and his friends were a big help. We did something that I hate, the bus stopped in a random location and some, but not everyone got off. I hate places like this because I don't know if I should get off here or not. Is this the best spot? Am I next door to the best part of Wuhan, and instead I am going to take this bus to the worst (which is very possible being that I will likely be going to the bus station, often the worst place in a Chinese city).

This time I asked everyone I could trying to figure out what to do. A group of young guys said they were going near the train station (where I wanted to go first to see if I could go to Hangzhou earlier rather than later). As such, we split a cab. Sure they had their motive, to help out and hang out with a foreigner, but there is nothing wrong with that as far as I am concerned. What was nice = they clearly didn't care about my money. As such I got over to the train station very fast.
Furthermore, at the train station I could buy a ticket leaving within the hour to Hangzhou. As such, I am already on my way to Hangzhou (which is good, because Wuhan looked a bit too much like Yichang for my taste). Furthermore, the girl after me in line was also going to Hangzhou, and I quickly enlisted her help. Thanks to her, I found the platform, killed a lot of time, and, quiet happily, upgraded to a sleeper ticket (instead of the hard impossible to sleep in seats). I am very glad about the new seats because I can wake up in Hangzhou ready to go, rather than dragging ass and looking for a hotel. Furthermore I am currently lying down while typing, and I am a big fan of that.

PTI: That said, who the hell is smoking inside the cabin!? As much as I like David Sedaris, and as well as he explained his smoking habits (in both "Ashes" and the story about his OCD), I will never get how someone so freakily clean could think public smoking is acceptable. To be honest, I am more okay with the spitting.

Hangzhou sounds beautiful, and I already have a friend there. I will be there Friday night, so I think I can finally get out. Though I am not drinking, I have been pulling an Allison and watching people drink. The problem with that is that here they want people to drink with them to inspire more drinking. I love drunk Chinese young people (definitely not the older Chinese, but the young ones are great drunk), but because I am not drinking I can't really bring that out.

PTI: These sleeper trains are so good, I sleep really well and generally feel well rested at the end. However they need to mark stations better, in Taiwan and Japan the station name is everywhere, here it can be far too unclear.

PTI: I am posting this in Hangzhou, things are good here, the next post should get into that.

Up the Yangzi

2006-07-28T20:26:00.000+08:00

The food was terrible. On the bus, I discovered that I had paid probably two hundred too much for this trip. My cabin is dismally cramped, and full, and has the worst bathroom I have seen in a long while. You have to pay extra to get onto the terrace. My Sprite cost as much as an American one. I ate my medicine, my bag worth of medicine, latter than I was supposed to. Yet then I sat down, I looked up to the few stars I could see, and I thought one thing, I am in China, cruising down the Yangzi river.
This long river, the third longest in the world (and literally the Long River in Chinese), was the main road for pioneers of China, both those Chinese finding their country and the foreign explorers who discovered this place with new eyes.
As easily as it can be to get corrupted by this people, to get jaded, there is something amazing. There is something unquestionably interesting about a culture so different from your own. Something memorable about this beautiful land full of complex and vast land.

PTI: I stopped writing that last entry when my friends that I met on the bus to the boat arrived. They were two French of architects, another (like my French studier of American Literature) was very positive on America, and hoped to live in New York. Talking to them was great. It was even better that we were on the oo, where during the Opium Wars French and American probably hung out on boat bows in quite a similar way.

As we talked we had some of those far typical "so rude you are not sure how he exists" Chinese guys next to us. There was a lot of hawking, a lot of trash thrown about, and there shirts were off almost instantly. The one that bothered me the most was the smoking directly next to me. I have found my ability to breathe through my nose in China is limited to pollution less areas. These include the Bamboo Sea, Emeishan, and out here in the middle of nowhere on the river that gets cancelled out almost immediately.
Last night,I went to bed in my tiny bunk cabin. My roommate, wanted to practice his English so he asked me the same set of questions the all Chinese people learn from three "How do you do?", "Where are you from?"m and so on. He was nice, but in all to Chinese manner he just yelled the questions despite his family trying to sleep in the top two bunks. Despite me answering very softly, he kept belting questions.
This morning there was much ado about nothing, everyone seemed to be getting up, so I got up. I figured it was sun rise, its 4:30 now and no sunrise. The problem is I have no idea when it will be. I assume some people would be out on the terrace (which I had to pay extra for by the way, but that is another complaint). In Emeishan we were up at five or so, now we are more East (but without a time zone change), so shouldn't it be soon?

PTI: For the zombie hunter in the crowd, Miranda, I think here would be good hunting territory. We just passed a weird peninsula or something with a few truly eerie lights on it and what appeared to be, best described as, writhing human beings. In the otherwise pitch black night, mad creepy. Also I hear weird chanting from the pitch black coast, yet that might be monks...or zombie monks.

A reason, having just consulted my badge, no one is out here is that maybe this place is not open. As, according to the hours, I cannot be out here yet. Which then begs the question why did people get up? and our little cabin boss even keep our door open? seemingly to keep us awake for something.
We are about to cruise into the port of some various city. And that fog horn would have definitely woken me up if I had not already been awake. Why do I spill crumbs on the deck and freak out a little, yet those around me throw peanut shells on the ground openly, or for that matter, spit in buses?

PTI: We are making a late not docking, although I have no idea why. However, some people finally came up here, and of course immediately start smoking.

There is a way to do this trip for something like eight days to Shanghai. That would be simply hell. My bathroom is unacceptably small for something like that. I am really glad I am on the faster one, despite having paid too much. I payed too much, by the way, because my stupid guide book said prices were standard, my price was the one in the book about, so I bought. Whereas my friends haggled for apparently a half an hour to get a class above me for less than I paid (though their room is identical to mine at least).

PTI: I think I heard a rooster, sun? All I know is after that sun is up, I am back to bed. I slept well, as I tend to in moving objects, last night, and I could use more of that in my life.

PTI: It was getting colder and I had given up on the sunrise being worth it, but as I was going back to the cabin we basically hit a five alarm emergency, except instead of a siren they used terrible light jazz. It was apparently time to get up and go back to the terrace. At the terrace I was blitzed with high speed Chinese explaining the mountain. Now I in the middle of the day.

We are on a little boat going through the "mini gorges," which I must say, are pretty sizable to be mini. The gorges really are quiet pretty, but we can barely stand this boat. The tour guide is absolutely terrible. It would be the equivilent if you got a hard core valley girl to do a cowboy auction, in Chinese. She uses this one annoying term 呢 which is typically used for the continuation of a question or idea. The problem is that she uses it every sentence.
The French guys asked what she was sayin, and I translated a section which was basically "look, something black 呢,it is very old 呢" now expand this over some four hours. She does not stop, she barely breathes, she just keeps going. I bonded with some sane Chinese tourists over how terrible her Chinese was. They too hated the Chinese tourist, a breed that makes American tourist look like the sweetest travelers on Earth. They retold stories of guides saying "don't touch this" and then watching every person pass by and touch it.
We bonded even more as we watched in disgust as a worker chucked an empty bottle into the river. This is your river buddy! This is your job, this is your life! I am going out of my way to refuse knick knacky free stuff shoved on me because I know it will end up in the trash or in my bag, begging me to be thrown away while guilt stops me. Yet this guy will just throw crap into the river the composes his livelihood. For a country with so much pride, how can China have so little social capital? If I can be apart of one change in this country, it very well may be that, true social capital. The government, the environment, the respect for others, all would change for the best tremendously if social capital really came to the hearts of the Chinese.
The French uys and myself are getting more than a little angry at some of the aspects of Chinese tourism. On this boat, we asked for how much to go into the nice area of the boat. A worker told us 150 for the three of us, noting the hand made furniture (which was clearly not hand made).
We asked him about getting the terrible crappy chairs out of the room (there were also cheap dollar store chairs in the nice room). I said this should be free of course. He said "no, no, no," and he pulled out a broken chair and said, "these chairs are very bad, they break easily, we can't have people break them, and then we have to buy them."
"Okay, well then we will give you .5 dollars for the three of us." For the record, we wanted these chairs to sit on the small part of the deck where the valley girl auction announcer was the quietest.
"No, no, no, we can't do that."
"Okay then."
Later he said we could pay a hundred to go to the captains room. I told him in one of my favorite grammatical patterns "Even a little interest towards this, I completely don't have. All we want are those little plastic chairs."
He said they were fifty for the three of us to take chairs out and sit on them in our little area. I pointed out that he himself said that they were "terrible and brake easy" how could they possibly be worth that.
I said if you went to the store, and you bought them, they should be like five yuan, how could they possible be rented at fifty for the three. At one point he said that they would cost at least fifty yuan to buy at a store. To this I started laughing so hard that he just left. What I said was bad, but what the French guys wanted to say but couldn't were a lot worse.
Really it was interesting to test the limits of his greed. To see how full of himself he was and his ability to dispense chairs (really we probably could have just gotten the chairs ourselves but I think the boat was already rocked enough). One of the things that bothers me is watching people, who are not beggars, come up to me and beg for money.
I see woman who are just standing there, and when they see me they run up to me and ask for money. When I say "no" they go back to standing there, not asking any Chinese people for money. These incidents are often in areas with Zegnas, Guccis and other stores I could never afford, yet she asks me rather than anyone else.
Well, enough griping and more praising. The mini gorges really are beautiful. Lots of those forms, great mountains. Now I guess they are playing a video, which although annoying, is nothing compared to the guide. We are sitting on the floor in the quiet area, leaning against the 2, and I think the two French guys are asleep. Pretty peaceful overall, and a nice break from the chaos that China has a tendency towards.

Chongqing, a little Hong Kong for you and yours

2006-07-25T13:12:00.000+08:00

So you can call me a Chongqing fan, but maybe just because I ended up in the right area. Apparently the right area for me is the posh area. Luckily posh here is about the medium price for stuff in America, but still. I got here last night and realized almost immediately: finding wireless will be a snap.
Actually, to be fair, the thing I first noticed were all the whore houses next to the train station (I must say, Chinese prostitutes are a league above our own, or at least a league above my image of an American prostitute). They looked like shady hair cut places, but there were droves of them filled with beautiful women under neon pink lights.
After giving up on finding a bus stop (and having exhausted "beauty parlor" sightings) I hit a taxi. The taxi took me around this little island (peninsula?), and I found it rather impressive. They have some of them big buildings. I quickly dubbed it mini Hong Kong, because it was clear that is what they were going for.
I liked it a bit more than Hong Kong because there was still more space, and there were real people on the outskirts of the main hip area. My hotel was just outside of the main hip area and the best one I have stayed in for a week (not really stiff competition to be fair).
I very quickly found a cafe nice enough to have wireless and has my second milk tea for about $4 in three days. That is a very steep price for a milk tea, but both did not disappoint. The one in Chengdu was the best I have ever had, and this one was definitely a decent bo ba milk tea. It was nice to take my milk tea snobbery to a whole new level.
I have bought tickets for the three gorges and I was able to find a faster one that does not charge extra to go to the dam (the thing I care the most about). As such, I am going to whip through the gorges, but have enough time to relax and photo them. Plus I am chilling in this little town a lot (last night I slept a lot and cleaned up all nice like).
After that I have another mountain to hike up, we will see if my body can do that again. However it is the Crouching Tiger mountain = awesome. Plus that whole Chinese history thing. Anyway, I should look around this town a bit more. Also I have a Zegna to go into (yes, it has a Zegna, a place I put it in an odd place in my mind).

Enough with the talky talky

2006-07-25T11:43:00.000+08:00

Okay, I get it, enough of the talky talky, more of the pretty pretty...

I don't know how I feel about this set, but they are the ones I choose on a bumpy bus trip.

Leaving the bamboo forest for starey-town

2006-07-25T11:13:00.000+08:00

I am chilling in a little city outside of the bamboo forest. The city is made up of more infrastructure than it is stuff. There are tons of apartments, all four stories high. There are really wide streets. But there are not that many people. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people, but compared to most of China, there is like no one. All of the buildings look fairly recently made.
The bamboo forest was somewhat like that, as an attraction its like intern wearing a three piece suit: dress for the job you want not the one that you have. As such, you come into the forest and are greeted by a massive greeting center: with no one inside. There are tons of tourist offices and a huge information desk - but no one to be seen. I think the center was built when they had some international summit here, but now it is a little much. Yesterday was a weekend during the peak season for Chinese travelers, and no one was there.
As such, my information had to rely on those who have an interest in my money (when I can I prefer to deal with the information people who work for the attraction itself, as they already got my money). That is why I ended up talking to hotel owners telling me that the people of the bamboo forest kill and drink the blood of those with white skin (that was summarized out of "there is no police protection for foreigners here").
The forest itself was cool, but it was hard to get around. The best was a long path along the mountains edge. The weather was clear enough that I could see the farms and terraces (credit: Miranda) below. They also had carvings in the cave wall. Although modern carvings, they were pretty cool, I very much enjoyed taking photos and the like.
The forest itself was peaceful but I did not spend enough time there. Although my goal was to relax, I ended up getting a cab driver to take me from place to place (which I decided would be way easier than getting a separate driver at each place). None of this altered the fact that bamboo is cool.
To answer the question Allison is thinking now, no, I did not do Tai Chi in the forest, but I did beat up some trees (man those things are hard). It was nothing worthy of Crouching Tiger, but I can say that I did it.
Now I am waiting for a bus to go to 重庆 (Chongqing) where I will try to get down to the docks to meet some nice ladies, I mean, to catch a boat. The hope is to be on a boat tonight to the three gorges, preferably a faster one so that I can go straight to the dam and the gorges themselves, rather than spending a lot of time on each of the along the way. Realistically I think I will be on a slow but tomorrow night. I am trying to a bit more like bamboo though, bendable and okay with whatever (I like the bamboo growing in weird places in weird ways, you look at it and it sort of says "Hey man, don't judge me").
One note of sweetness. When I was getting my luggage at the hotel, the very kind girl from last night who worked at the hotel ran up to me and gave me a fan. Upon recollection I remember that giving a fan is supposed to mean "get the heck out!" in Chinese superstition, but I don't think that was her intent. I think she even made part of it but it was not clear. I gave her my newly acquired QQ number (since everyone uses ICQ here), and I will ask her later. Either way, I now have two really nice fans, one of which almost definitely is made out of bamboo.

PTI: This may be one of the creepiest cities I have ever been in. First of all the staring is out of control, so you always feel like you are being watched. Its pretty easy to see why the staring would be out of control. This place is virtually featureless, as such, I can't see many foreigners coming here. I feel like the foreigner who brags about going to some bygone village where they worship him or her like a god. Except, instead of a village I am in miniature version of the generic Chinese city.

PTI: I finally asked someone where I am, its Changning. I literally have three people staring me right now, as in, that is what they are doing. Make that four. I don't mean that as in "four people have walked by and stared at me" I mean four people have taken route for the long haul. If asked what they are doing and they answered honestly, they would have to answer "I am staring at the foreigner, that is what I am doing."

PTI: I have one who just brought me tea. I had another behind me, standing behind me, for about ten minutes.

The city looks like its getting ready for something. They have a mall street, but half of the shops are not open. They have parks, but barely anyone is there. They have tons of houses, but I can't believe even half of them are filled. The people seem nice, but they are so shocked to see me its hard to gauge them naturally.
If I could understand Sichuanese this would be easier.

PTI: I now have three middle school kids "hanging out with me." Make that three middle school kids a toddler, and a n old man, and an old woman. I am very much surrounded right now. Agh, during that sentence we reached three men, thre woman, two kids, and a toddler.

I couldn't possibly imagine living here, with this as a constant. One woman just came up to me and used English to ask me if there was anything she could help me with. At first I did not understand her and a little girl said "You can use Mandarin to talk to him!" Relieved she switched to Mandarin, a thing you would never see in Taiwan.

PTI: I guess one old man and two middle school kids are in for the long haul, we are reaching a good five minutes of them chilling (the old man staring at me from about three feet away).

PTI: The coolest kid in Changning joined me. He has sort of a flock of eagles hair cut died blond, his friend has read spiked hair. We now have six or seven people within two feet of me staring. Okay, I am going to put this away and start firing photos rapid fire.

PTI: So I turned and started launching photos. Chinese people scatter away from big obvious camera. Flock of Sea Gulls was the first out of there. The rest I basically got. I always ask, sort of. I make a quick gesture of "can I?" if they hesitate, bam! Most of them realize that it would be pretty dick of them to stare at me for ten minutes and then not let me take a picture of them.

After that I started walking back to the bus station. On the way I passed a hair salon. As I passed they crowded the door and then burst out of there basically chasing me. They too were scattered by photographs, but a young girl, the cutest of them let me take a couple. It was the first time people came after me in chase.
On the way to the bus station I came upon a hospital. I thought, what the heck, I can buy medicine for my ailing stomach. At times it was really uncomfortable, and I would like to be able to eat Chinese food while in China. So I stopped by and was led to a doctor (who they noted was free).
The doctor and staff were friendly alike. They were all fascinated by me and asked a lot of questions. An unnervingly large number of people know about my digestive problems. At one point a crowd started gathering at the door, just me lifting my camera out got them to immediately flee.
The doctor was writing down a lot of names, and next to them things like "5" "3" and "1" so I figured it would be like Taiwan, they give you a bunch of little medicines to solve one problem. Oh no, turns out that meant things like "five packets" and "one box." I ended up paying before I saw the big bag, and I did not have the time to correct anything (I had to catch the bus). As such, I ended up buying a bag of medicine as big as my stomach myself. Half of the medicine I eat before a meal, half of it I eat after. In all - three days of medicine (some are one times a day, some are two, some are three). In all, I have five kinds of medicine.
I guess this is what happens when you teach western medicine to a Chinese doctor (her sign said she did "Chinese medicine" so I expected wicked weird Chinese medicine).
So when I get to the bus station a woman, a man, and a teenager come up to me. The woman says "You are on the bus to Chongqing right?" She then goes on to tell me that the aforementioned bus was broken, and there was no bus to Chongqing.
I had to go to the desk clerk where I confirmed what she said and had to get my ticket refunded. After that I was whipped onto some bus to a near by city Yibin where I will then take a bus down to Chongqing. So that is what I am now on, a bus to Yibin with no guarantee of finding a bus to Chongqing. That and I have a huge bag of medicine.

PTI: This may become a good example of Chinese travel. Turns out that the bus that took me to Yibin ended up in a place that was not a bus station going to Chongqing So I ended up getting escorted by a cute lady who wanted help the random foreigner with her language to a taxi. When I realized the taxi wanted to rip me off, I got off, ended up in a bus.

PTI: Turns out that bus was not leaving any time soon, so I was put on a different bus. So now I am taking a bus to the bus station to take a bus to Chongqing to take a taxi or a bus to the docks to take a boat - that is travel in China. A bright spot is the young lady who helped me out, she decided to take me to the bus station I guess, and she even paid my ticket. I would have gladly paid but I did not know that was what she was doing. Her English is okay, but we have to speak in Chinese. What I do know is that she is nice and she does not want anything from me except self satisfaction in helping someone, and I think there is nothing wrong with that.

PTI: I am finally on a bus towards Chongqing, and despite this driver simply hauling, I don't think we will get there until well after any boats down the Long River take off. As such, it looks like I have a day in Chongqing. Its alright, the cities bloody past as a center point for GMD (KMT) and Communist violence seems like a good place to spend a day (as my own Chinese experiences lay on a border line between the KMT's Taiwan and the CCP's China). It inspired me to read more into Chinese history as well (as I realized my Chinese history is flimsy at best, and mostly from thee last seventy years or so).

Chilling out a bit in the bamboo forest

2006-07-25T11:12:00.000+08:00

' I have decided to slow everything down. My current speed is simply too much to be constantly enjoyable. I am not sure the sheer distance I have covered in these last weeks is really communicated in this blog. So far I have covered, at a minimum 1,548.61 miles. That completely disregards too small of cities for me to reasonable estimate where they are, which are typically five hour drives. This is in addition to being destroyed by that mountain.
The latest thing destroying me = although Lili can surely eat, and surely eat local spicy food, turns out eating like a formidable eater of some of the worlds spiciest dishes is not the most thought out idea I could have had. As such, my digestive system is somewhat of a joke (where I had been doing shockingly well up until here).
I am tired of being casually lied to. So perhaps law school is not the destination for me. It bothers me that they lie to each other without question and to foreigners as a rule. I deal with so many good people, but then, I deal with a lot of bad ones.
I was told at the bottom of the mountain that I am on that I should stay at an expensive hotel because the police are not here to protect me. They will not look out for me, and so I have to be padded and babied.
Then I paid too much for my ride up here, because I was angry, a little afraid, and tired. However I came into my hotel, a hotel my guidebook recommended, with a full head of steam. My vengeance: getting the price of this hotel below what the guidebook says they are talked down to. I must say, it was clear they normally don't do that. I had to fully leave the room and be up out of the hotel (in as sudden of a fluster as I could manage), luckily the very cute staff here had my back.
The very cute staff was also very nice to talk to. The owner here hires 16 year old girls to take care of the place. Before this starts sounding creepy, let me tell you about the best thing about Chinese high school girls: their Mandarin. Sichuan's dialect is going to be the death of me, and they speak extremely clear and pleasant Mandarin, even more so then the college students I had been hanging out with (even including Beijingers).
Thus, I talked to the staff about America and China for a good hour or so, and now I took a nap of about an hour (I fell asleep to Mahjongg down the hall being played down the hall by a group of guys and woke up to it too).
Before my policy of rest: I would have hit here and plunged into the sites. Thrown myself with the forest and then left as soon as possible. Instead I will go out of my way to see nothing tonight and sleep as much as possible. Then tomorrow I can do my various goals.
I am also cutting the World Heritage check listing out of the trip. I am too good at it, I can crank them out one a day, but it tires me out. I have already (with a bonus one from the last trip), hit five. After this I am sure to hit another six or so (Beijing is just filled with them). Most importantly? I will have gone to more than Allison (in Asia, those US National Parks probably get me pretty bad).

Splitting the River

2006-07-23T08:49:00.000+08:00

Today was a long day, but unfortunately in the more uneventful way. The girl I mentioned in the last post (Lili) and I went around Dujiangyan. She and I were very different, which was bad in that conversation tended to lull, but was good in that we had nothing better to do than near constant learning of words. As such, it was like a high speed language exchange while we explored Dujiangyan, I think I probably learned a chapter's worth of words today alone.
What Lili and I had best in common was food, girl can eat like crazy, and she has good taste. In true Sichuan style we went out (spicy hot pots, Sichuan pepper corned up noodles, etc). I can now eat spicy without much of a question, and my love of Sichuan food is even greater (these people can cook lights out man). That said, I hate their dialect, there are just enough common words for me to make out little bits but not understand. Outside of a few lifted tongued words (which make the guttural R sound in Beijing speech), the dialect has nothing I find interesting to hear. Plus they keep speaking it to me expecting me to understand it.
That is not to say that we did not talk, but what we talked about was hard for both of us, best example, politics=way too awkward. Lili for a solid period of time was taking a hardline government stance and was starting to creep me out. Given the scenario of Taiwan declaring independence, "give them conditions," and if Taiwan does not follow those conditions? "Fight."
Okay, okay, that was the first time I had someone say they would go to fighting over Taiwan (though basically everyone else implied it). Next up, a question I had never asked (but I had spent a bit of time with Lili so I felt safe in asking), so do you know about that whole Tiananmen thing? At first she did not know what I was talking about, and then realized that an older person had told her a bit about it.
Her belief, if a thousand students fell for the protection of the whole country, it would be worth it. It was clear she trusted her government to make this decision. That said, she did think it was stupid she could not read some websites, including those related to this specific incident.
A bit later, seeing a sign written by Deng Xiaoping, I asked her how she found him: very good. Assuming it to be a fish in a barrel, and Mao Zedeng? Not so good. I was a bit shocked but she said most of the younger generation felt this way, anti-Mao and pro-Deng. This should be good news for the current government which finds its roots much closer to Deng than Mao. She had no opinion of the current administration, noting that it was not as powerful or as important as previous administrations.
While we talked we were exploring an ancient (256 BC) system for channeling a raging river into two rivers, allowing for smoother irrigation of the area. This system still works to this day, and is a World Heritage site. It was pretty cool, I found it interesting. Plus, I was with the right person for this. The pride Lili found in the channel was clear, and it was also clear that pride was critical in her deep nationalism.
I found it interesting, but bad weather and a morning spent looking for her friends (long story that is completely devoid of interesting moments) took the day down a notch. Now I need to figure out a cruise (its the only way to see the gorges that I have found), as I hope to leave on Monday for that (after bamboo sea and yet another World Heritage site).

Quick post

2006-07-22T09:17:00.000+08:00

About to hit the travel agency to figure out how I am going to get a slow boat in China (up the Yangzi to the three gorges). Today I am seeing the 都江堰 river irrigation system, which is my third World Heritage site (my fifth in overall China). Tomorrow I leave for the Bamboo Sea as seen in Crouching Tiger, after that, hopefully I will go up the Yangzi for the Three Gorges/Three Gorges Dam, after that, Wuhan mountain (which the girl jumps off of in Crouching Tiger).

Up in Chengdu

2006-07-21T21:09:00.000+08:00

This post is brought to you by an excellent western cafe I will tell you more about soon.

Well first of all, Chengdu is frustrating with their wireless. I have been to so many nice places, I have tried to follow the economy, and the books, and the business, and the computers. Any one of those usually leads to wireless, but not here. I have found three or four places where I can connect, but not wirelessly. I am now to the point where I am like "Do you have WIRELESS Internet?"
"Yes, we do."
"Yes! Really? Are you sure it is WIRELESS?"
"Yes." And then it turns out to be a wired connection.
Of note, the wired connections are pretty rare, these are in the priciest tea bars I can find. I have no idea where I will end up finding wireless, but my guess is it might be out of here. Being that I plan on spending at least three days here, this could get messy.
I am happy with my pace so far, I have looked at where I have been and where I have yet to go, I am going at a good rate. I am unsure about how I am doing spending wise. I can't do a balance inquiry outside of Taiwan for some reason (but I can get money, which is the most important). I have tried to track every time I have taken out money, but I am not confident I have marked them all. It feels like I am spending too much (I am a sucker for $12.50 singles with A/C and TVs rather than $5 dorm rooms, I like having my own room to come home to). However it seems like I am on budget.

PTI: Want to get stared at? Have white skin, go to the Chengdu bus station, sit down on the ledge holding bushes in front out of the station, pull out an Apple computer, and start typing fast. Oh the attention you will get...

Today's quest for wireless internet found that Chengdu is sectionalized like crazy, maybe worse than Taiwan (which always shocked me with how well it was sectionalized). There was the restaurant area, the tea area, and the most noticeable, the computer area.
The computer area stretched for multiple very long blocks. Every store fixed or sold parts or the whole of computers. These were all small stores, but at three (or four?) of the corners there were eight story monstrosities. At one point I entered such a monstrosity and was simply shocked by it. It was non-stop stores, each floor with a vague theme. Think of one of those huge Best Buys, cut it in half, put one half on top of the other (creating more of a square shaped shop), and then stack three more of these blocks on top of each other, then decrease walking space and increase product space. That is about it. There were at least three of these and between them: nothing but computer stores. I can easily say I have never seen so many computer places in my life.
If I opened the computer there I picked up 8 or 9 "Peer to peer" connections. These sorts of connections typically don't have internet (though theoretically could). Only a few didn't have passwords, and those didn't have internet.
Walking up the tower of computer stuff, I went up to what I would discover was the DVD floor=big mistake. Typically the average DVD salesperson in Hong Kong or the mainland is pushy to the point of yelling, imagine ten of those bull charging you at once.
"DVD!"
"DVDDVDDVD!"
"DVD!"
"Agh, stop"
"You want DVD?"
"Seriously 不用谢谢？“
”Videogames?"
"不用，不用"
"游戏？" (Chinese for Videogame)
"不用”
"DVD!?"
One woman had a few of the copied DVDs in her hand, and she started whapping them to make it clear to me they existed. At one point she puts them right in my face and starts whapping them yelling "DVDDVDDVD." I stared her directly in the keys, got in her face and just stared perhaps the nastiest stare I have ever produced. She was startled and I made her realize how psychotic she was being. She said sorry and backed away, what was nice was that it was clear that she meant it. She was probably a very nice woman, and in her line of work its easy to forget that white skin does not mean someone is not a person, simply because their line of communication with foreigners is very thin indeed.
Right now I am waiting for a date I did not technically agree to, well, I am kind of waiting. A girl I met on the train to Emeishan gave me her number and told me to call her if I was going to go to Dujiangyan (another world heritage site I planned on going to). She said she had a friend there and we could go together. I figured a local guide would be good, so I said sure.
Tonight I called her to ask her if she could go tomorrow. She said she could, but did not know what time, I said I would call back at seven and check what time. In short she said, she was on the way. So I did not know what to do. But she is here now, so I am going to go now. More coming soon no doubt.

Getting out of Chinaland and into China

2006-07-21T20:32:00.000+08:00

Note: Sorry for the absurdly long post. A lot happened, and I had a lot of travel time, so it added up.

This may not be the safest thing I have ever typed, but I am getting, for the most part, comfortable with the country. I am in the hard seat section of the train, which is where everyone goes. I feel like I am being far too extravagant getting out my computer in the middle of a group that probably is not carrying Apple computers.
That said, I have a lot to write, its the middle of the day, and I have about eleven hours ahead of me. I am not especially fond of the idea of doing nothing for the next eight hours, so out comes the computer. The population in here is, well mixed. Some of these people clearly don't have much, and its very different than the veritable college dorm of the soft sleepers to Guilin.
So its odd, but the most exciting and interesting thing I have done in China so far - a taxi ride. I was in Lijiang and wanted to go to Chengdu, the original plan was a bus to a town call Panzhihua and then a train to Chengdu. However, when I got off at the bus station a taxi driver approached me.
He had the typical look of a Chinese taxi driver. His teeth were yellow and crooked. His skin tanned like leather. To further complete the picture, he was giving me a mildly sketchy offer.

PTI: There are a lot of police on this train, they have past me three times. The first time the guy checked my ticket, yet did not check any other person on the train. The second time, the person asked me where I was going, and no one else on the train. The third time the guy just stared at me as he went by. This is in counter to the people who will not make consistent eye contact, this is a bit out of the ordinary for China, most people smile broadly (this lack of eye contact started before I brought out my computer).

So the sketchy offer was this: "do you want to go to the train station?"
I replied "Uhh, yes, but Lijiang does not have a train station, I was going to go to Panzhihua and then take a..."
"I know I know, I can take you to the Panzhihua station.."
"Oh, well I want to get there at this time," and I pointed out my guide book where I had written the departing times for the trains from Chengdu.
"Yeah I know, I know, I can get you there. 150 yuan."
"How much is the price from that bus station?"
"I think its like 60 some."
Although 60 or some, I knew the bus would not get to the station in time. I had been lazy and gotten up later than I planned. More to the point, I was tired of rushing around and decided that if I missed my train, whatever, I would just relax at Panzhihua. That said, after reading a bit about it last night, Panzhihua did not seem all that appetizing.
Also I have gotten, I would like to think, somewhat decent at telling who to trust in China, so I signed up.
I was relieved to find out that a thirty-some year old woman was coming along. Furthermore, she was going to Chengdu, so she could help me get tickets onto the train.
First thing of note, they speak almost entirely in their local dialect (Sichuanese), but more importantly, they spoke that dialect to me. They did so with the sureness of someone who was explaining a very simple task that they had mastered. They looked in my eyes, said near gibberish and would wait for a response. When they addressed me, rather than each other, they changed their tone and style a little, but not much of consequence. I understood about as much either way. I would sit their baffled and try to figure out what they said.
In passing I ended up picking up a bit of their dialect, at least enough to catch numbers yelled at me (importantly, 100 is said "ba" rather than "bai"). I would have asked them more questions about their dialect, but talking to them was too awkward and difficult.
The taxi's music was great, switching between such things as techno Chinese KTV classics, and the Eagle's.
This was the first time I really saw China for a long period of time. Not what you are supposed to see, but rather, what there is to see. Before I had been in trains at night, or in terrible places in buses (notably a sleeper bus where I was about five feet about the ground, balanced on a thin bed.
Probably the best thing of all: the weather. I felt a bit cheated in Yangshuo. the views were corrupted from the misty weather. The hills looked great to be fair, but you could not see the incredible vegetation and wild mountains behind the wild mountains. However, for about five hours in the country, it was on.
After a bit of thought, I believe that that taxi ride had the single most beautiful scenery I have seen in my life. The locals made their farms right along mountains. They did so by forming chunks of the hills into stair like things. The stairs held the crops that they were going. Some reinforced the stairs with stones, some just seemed to stand on their own.
The fields, both on mountain and valley were divided up in sweeping curves of different shapes and sizes. The scattered houses were roofed by traditional looking roofs, the kind with big shingles that lead to spikes at the corners.

PTI: The little girl on seat facing me is about as cute as the come.

The patties themselves were deep colors, the crops layer within causing them to be really complex shades of different greens (like a really made shirt where up close it is a set pattern of stripes but afar it looks like a solid color).
They were all staggered along, built into sections of mountains. The mountains varied from a sandy color to white limestone. The road wound between the mountains along the edge, typically looking over hundreds of these little fields.
One thing of shock was that the clothes that peasants nearby Lijiang wore were strikingly similar to the ones that lined the Lijiang town square and danced for tourists. The show in the square seemed so fake that I naturally detahced it from the reality of the area. The clothes were a velvety blue color with a white wrap crossing their chest, and they had cute hats.

PTI: A kid is reading over my shoulder, lets see how good his English is. He is clearly reading what I am typing right now. Trying to not get noticed...still starring. To be fair he has to wait for a cart lady, but he is trying very hard to be subtle and not doing a very good job. Kid, if you understand, say something...nope, well that is unfortunate. Actually, he is sitting behind the cart lady, he was just chilling watching my computer for about three minutes (his mom is another person who earlier spoke her local dialect to me expecting me to understand).

Anyway, the taxi ride itself was as hectic as it was beautiful. We took the winding road with gentle curves about as fast as physically possible. More than once, the driving anime program Inital D came to mind. More than a few times we drifted (the back tires swing out on sharp curves). He would pass people in the left lane (of a two way highway), while leaning on the horn, quickly switching back if an oncoming car flew through.

PTI: I decided to take a writing break to start reading some blogs (I accidently, thankfully, downloaded some four hundred blog entries). Some are in Chinese and some are in English, I was quickly writing out an email to one of the blog writers in Chinese when the same police officer who saw my ticket started reading my computer.

Shocked, he started talking to me. After a quick conversation (where he talked and I just sort of nodded to questions like "you can read Chinese?," "You can write Chinese?," "Your computer does Chinese?" Afterwards, he said to me, "your ticket..."
I started lifting it out of my pocket it again and he said "oh, I know, I know, I saw it before. Just make sure to watch it carefully. Watch it and your stuff carefully. Then he said to all of my neighbors to watch that foreigner and his stuff, make sure that he is okay. It was really rather awkward. That said, it was nice, because I think he totally has my back.
I am not too worried, I am an expert of sleeping while embracing my stuff rather intimately. When I get to Chengdu it will be before seven in the morning.. The sun should be up or rising (I am not sure, the whole country is on Beijing time, so the sun can have weird sun rise times). At that time, there should be enough sunlight but not too many people.
I think few people would out and out assault me that are on this train. and they would have to get me away from everyone first.

PTI: Now that people now I speak Chinese, a few of them have started asking me questions. They almost all do it in the local dialect, and I have to guess from cognates, grammar, prosody and logic what they are asking. I think it would be like studying Spanish and then going to Portugal.

PTI: Also of note, the scenery outside is still very beautiful, but nothing like the taxi ride.

Going back to the taxi ride, we flew down and up the mountains. He passed everyone he could, typically fiercely. At one point a blue truck tried to block our way, requiring my driver to dodge and weave along the road trying to find a way to pass. He eventually got the truck driver on a gravel part of the road.
The whole time that our driver is sliding and flying down the road, I am with the woman going to Chengdu. All she does, the entire time, is stare forward. Outside of some words exchanged

PTI: More in the local dialect. I had no idea what he said at one point and was like "Uhhh...I am sorry, I don't understand."

He said "Oh, you speak Mandarin."
I said, "Yeah, I have been in the Sichuan area for about one day, so I don't exactly have it down."
He then went back to asking me questions in the local dialect and I went back to trying to answer. He asked something which I did not understand, he elaborated by saying US cities. Through this, I explained where I lived, but more to the point discovered how to say American in Sichuanese. It sounds an awful like "pretty ghost" in Mandarin (mei gui).
I don't want to be rude, but I try to end the conversation quick but with a smile (if you asked the people around me right now - I am super shy). Its really super embarrassing to have this thrown at me, because he believe he is speaking Mandarin. I am fine looking stupid, the problem is that he thinks he is speaking Mandarin, or at least he is trying his best.
One thing of note is that no one has tried their English one me, in Taiwan, that would be impossible. The neighbors have been talking about me a lot, as I catch a word or two from the muck, but for the most part, I have no idea.
Back to the woman going to Chengdu. As this taxi is weaving through the mountains, she looked forward, never looking especially tired, sad, excited, or really anything. Now we are on the train, she is doing the same. Every now and then she has loud conversations (they have a loud way of speaking in a lot of these dialects) with people, typically short and often about me.

PTI: There is a downright incident going on behind me. I think it is over the age of the kid with the people back and to the left of me. They got him a kid ticket, but have no proof he is under whatever age. They have to pay something like a hundred more and the family is pulling out individual bills like crazy (paying in basically a stack of little bills). As with any good Chinese argument, it was fast, loud, and passionate.

PTI: And another argument, I would say xity percent of the train is turned around to watch them. And more and more are standing up to see what is going on. There are three or four cops sorronding one seat. The people in the back of the train are standing up for a view of them extracting money from someone. The people standing range from well dressed somewhat affluent looking girls to poor guys without shirts. Things have died down, but there are still tons of people watching what is going on, some with extraordinary intensity.

PTI: I went back to my blogs, and rather unexpectedly, my travel companion leaned over to see my computer. Earlier she had seen what I had been writing in my notebook (which is now forgotten on top of a Chinese mountain, grr), but that was about it. Afterwards we started talking, she did not understand the economics blog I was reading, so I showed her one of the Taiwanese blogs I read. Afterwards I talked to a few of the neighbors, all were nice. The guy who keeps talking to me said the most and we talked about what I was reading (American Economics I said). The little girl, who is deathly cute also wanted to see. She read a little of the Taiwanese blog. It was impressive, I assumed she would not understand (as its traditional Chinese) but she looked very determined and I think she understood. Its probably rare that she sees so much traditional Chinese together (usually its only on titles here).

PTI: Now there is a growing argument on when we should arrive. Like many Chinese arguments, one person says something, another contradicts, neighbors say their opinions, then the original argument splinters throughout the train, so that the one argument becomes five or six little arguments. I actually have the exact time in my book, but declined joining in.

PTI: I put the computer away when a nearby girl moved next to me (catching an opportunity in seat movement) and declared herself to be an English major. She fell in the category of English majors that just memorize long lists of words, but in no way can actually communicate. As such, we spoke mostly Chinese. She was very nice, and a Freshman, so I hope in the next three years she can learn to apply what she has learned.

Now I am at the base of Emishan. This mountain is one of the things I was most looking forward to seeing. However, I got here too early (it is 6:13 and they open at 6:30). Although I could clearly go past the gate and just get in, I am afraid of doing so. I could picture not being allowed into temples (which have their own entry fee) or getting caught by the Communists.

I had a scare getting money, four initial attempts did not work, using both my American Visa and Taiwanese Mastercard. Eventually I got it at an especially pretty ATM that treated me nice.

PTI: I am nearly on top of a mountain (and if you are in Colorado: still read mountain). The trek has been very, very hard. However I need to rest, not for my body, but that is apart of it. Rather, I am resting in order to charge my MP3 player. Why? Because I might die of exhaustion without it. I will try to write a blog entry from the top, and describe why it was so important and what I have been up to, but I might not have enough power or access to a plug.
Chinese gather around my computer like monkies trying to see what I am doing. They are more than a little surprised to see my screen blank (I have nthe monitor all but off . I have three literally staring over my cshoulder right now. Talking about how you can not see the screen. Yeah, I know jack ass, it still works, trust me.
The trip up here was mad grueling, and after about 13 hours of straight hiking (that is a literal number, though there were breaks in there). I get greeted to a f---king parking lot. I now have an hour and a half more (the truly weak SOBs start from here and then pop up to the summit, I on the other hand took the LONG way, from the farthest entrance and taking the simply absurdly hard route option.
So I won't make it in time in order to take a bus down (the original plan), but I am doing this way ahead of most people (this is listed as a two or three day journey). That means I guess I am staying at the top for the night. I just hope i can find a place for less than 100 Yuan. The next PTI hopefully will start describing this crazy day (think monkey fighting, just think about it).

PTI: A very frustrating end of the day. But I made, damn it I made it. Now I somehow ended up in the party dorm paying 140 Yuan for a place that should be 30, but I don't have a choice. It is too dark to walk down to a regular place, and so it was here or the four or five story hotel. Really I think I should have talked the nice hotel down, because this place is terrible. The public bathroom does not have a western toilet and I am not okay with the squatter toilets (I can squat, but they give you no privacy at all, and I am not will to squat and do that in such a public venue).

My clothes are too sweaty to think about wearing them, but my luggage is down at the bottom, as such, I will have a very dirty morning tomorrow.
My consolation is I have no walking to do, virtually whatsoever, to get to the peak tomorrow morning (morning is when you are supposed to see it).
I don't know if I should be frustrated that getting to the top in one day has screwed me over, and I still have to get to the top, or proud that I did it in the first place. When it was becoming clear this might happen I still kept going because my goal had been get to the top in one day and I was unwilling to give up this late in the game.
I hurt all over. At four or something my train hit Emeishan, which I did not know it would do. I had planned on going to Chengdu, and then going to Emishan, so I was excited to go straight there. That said, it caused me to get there incredibly early. I could barely see forward as I tried to find the start of the path. At just before 6:30 I hit the entrance where that PTI before was written.
After that I started hiking like crazy.

PTI: Its the next morning, I am cold but the rising sun is slowly warming me. I am tired, but I won't get to sleep for a bit probably. I smell terrible and I definitely won't fix that for a bit. I am at the foot of a golden temple on the summit.
Last night I planned on writing more

PTI: I am starting to have serious privacy issues with the fact that everyone that passes me stops and reads my computer, leaning over the screen to do so. I know they cannot understand, but it is not blatant as opposed to subtle, it is open and done without intention of subtleness.

PTI: Another thing, Chinese people need a long talk about talking about foreigners when they are right there. Taiwan they at least whispered or talked at a distance. Here they openly talk about you right in front of you, or in the third person. They will say stuff like "Look a foreigner," "I wonder where he is from?" This is a bit annoying, but then when I break in with "America" as a subtle hint for them to stop, sometimes they keep doing it. Also when I am with a Chinese friend they always ask the Chinese friend questions about me (who usually says, "you should probably just ask him."

So the sunrise was very nice and beautiful. It was the first time in a long time I have seen a sunrise, especially one where the clouds were at my feet. It was nice having spent yesterday under and in those clouds to now be over them.
The journey, however, is something I will always remember. I started at six thirty from the lowest point. I only know of one other person that made it to the top yesterday. I had a couple of friends accompanying me for a bit of the trip (on and off at points). I found them this morning and turns out that they did not make it (I assumed they wouldn't since I really flew at one point and I just barely made it).

PTI: The summit here is really nice, I am leaning against a gold temple and behind the temple is a huge Buddha. The tourists are a bit away from me, so that is not a huge problem. When they come to check my computer (every five minutes or so), I guess my look has gotten dirtier, because they leave mighty quick.

So during the journey I ditched most of the tourists quick. There were still people that actually used chairs to be carried up, but they were few (and looked like the laziest thing ever, they were basically hung with their head and feet higher than their back from a carrier held by pairs of very tired Chinese guys.
There was a point where I thought I would not make it. I was climbing very slowly, living off the places that handrails (some did, some didn't) and hitting the steps by basically leaning over them. At one point I decided to try using music, hey, it works in the gym. i must say, I think Wu-Tang saved me on that mountain. I turned on my MP3 player and GZA was making references to strength, fighting, and, as any good Wu-Tang fan should imagine, numerous references to China.
I could feel adrenaline hit my body, realizing the fact that I was doing something so very historical and cultural in China. While being inspired by the confidence of the music I also had a rhythm to keep pace with. At that point I really started flying, I passed a number of people and kept strong for a while.
A little later on, I actually started breaking down a little. Not like going crazy but getting a bit emotional. At that point I had been going for some eight hours with no more than a twenty or so minute rest. I started desperately missing my mom and dad, and thinking about how much they have done for me. I became somewhat weepy (not out and out crying down the road, but I am sure I did not exactly great), and very happy to be going home soon. Not that I want to go leave here, but I do want to go home and see those parents.

PTI: Colorado's tallest mountain is 4,399 meters, and Colorado has 55 over 4,267 meters. This mountain is a just above 3,000. So although I did not conquer the affair offered by my home state, I am still pretty damn proud.

PTI: I am being mad harassed by a huge bee. Its literally getting up in my face and you can almost here it saying "what? what? You want this?"

At the bottom of the mountain I bought a bamboo stick for a hiking cane and a monkey whacker. I heard that the monkeys were fierce and you needed to be prepared, I had no idea. Throughout the journey we ran into monkeys. Not like monkeys in cages, but rather, part of the place itself is a natural reserve, with monkeys roaming around. The first I ran into I took photos of. While I was slowly leaving (taking photos of other monkeys), he ran up and snatched the plastic bag I had in my camera bag (inside has my rag to clean my lens). With the help of a monkey keeper (there were a few keepers at the start of the trip, but you were on your own the rest of the way), we got the bag from him.
Later on we had to take on some big monkeys. Depending on the size, number, or ferocity I used different tactics. For especially monkey ridden places I went with the friends I mentioned before. The guy and I would double team a monkeys eyes with our sticks hovering in front of him and occasionally jabbing forward, usually they would back off.
Later on when I was by myself I ran into some nasty packs. I became good at slamming my cane down and yelling a bit (they said no screaming in the rules with dealing with monkeys but I had for gotten). After that they would back down and I would keep my stick in attack position. Who is the alpha male now bitch?
Towards the very end I was completely exhausted. I made a new rule - walk one hundred steps, stop, breather ten deep breaths, walk a hundred steps. That new strategy was very good for me. It kept me confident and it allowed me to rest without allowing me to rest too long. Each step was easier knowing that I was a certain number away from a break.
I was disappointed about getting trapped up here, but this morning's sunrise was nice. Now I just need to get to Chengdu and get a real shower, and use a real bathroom. Then I am going to eat the spiciest Sichuanese food I can find. I am very excited to be here, the home of my favorite kind of Chinese food (well, most of the west's favorite Chinese food, but whatever).
TI: A little girl is watching my screen, but she is cute and sweet so I can['t produce a dirty look, thus she gets away with it.
After finding a hotel, I will hit some local attractions in Chengdu, that or just die a little in my hotel room. Tomorrow I hope to go to another World Heritage site (Dulujiang? I forgot how to sayl it and I don't want to get out my guide book right now). Then the day after I will go to the bamboo forest (where they throw down in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - sweeeeetttt) on the way to Chongqing (to get down with those three gorges).
For now, I need to get off of thing damn mountain.

PTI: I guess I never finished the taxi story. Really it was just high speed beauty. Our driver preferred to pass on corners in the left lane while blaring hi horn. At one point we pasted a nice Nissan. After a while, the Sinata was still behind us (a rarity) and then suddenly passed us. Our driver basically rode his tail around corners until it was clear the Nissana could not "hang" and let us pass. Later the Nissan passed us while we stopped for the bathroom and honked, I don't think he liked my driver very much.
I was not sure what to do, the driver clearly seemed to know what he was doing (he made some close but very impressive emergency moves at points, doing things like dodging large oxen or passing a car and then splitting two motorcycles). The other passengers were completely ambivalent, the woman just stared ahead, one boy slept (while I am either fearing for my life or shocked from the view's beauty), and a mom just held her kid like it was a normal Sunday drive.

PTI: I am in the bus station waiting to go to Chengdu so I thought I would type something up. A funny thing about the Chinese - they speak Chinese. I have met a few people who's goal in talking to me was to practice English, but I found that they were willing to abandon that goal if it helped communication. Even English majors might say a few things in English, but when its clear Chinese would make things easier, they switch.
Taiwanese people are simply not that way. There are a good lot that can "deal" with speaking to a foreigner in Chinese, but there are also a lot that have entrained in their head: you speak English to foreigners. As such, in Taiwan I had abysmal conversations which were hampered by the recipients determination to use English with me.
However here, most people can accept that I can speak Chinese, and a few even expect it. That said, they really need to work on that talking about you like you are not in the room thing.
Actually they have a lot to work on, horns need to be banned. My driver from the mountain down was a complete jerk and I thought about telling him as much. I guess he equates "World Heritage Site" or "National Park" with "Pinespeak raceway." He flew down the road as fast as possible, but unlike my taxi, he was not nearly as good of a driver.
Three people ended up getting sick. I had the very pleasant moment of watching the woman in front of me vomit onto (not out of, onto) the window next to her. After that, I switched seats, and the boy in front of my new seat and a woman behind me both ended up following the old woman's suit. This was all going on as my driver was blasting the horn at every corner (he had an especially loud horn) on a mountain road (thus, a lot of corners). If we were in America, I very much would have said something upon disembarking.
One thing to add to the taxi story: I left a notebook I was fond of at an obscure place between Panzhihua and Lijiang. I would be sad but I like the idea that a little of me was left to China as a gift of sorts. That is also how I feel about the Lonely Planet I left in Hong Kong (that and I left it at a foreign bar where they could use it, plus, I was not enjoying that guide much).
Back to the mountain for a moment. At parts, the mountain became a big metaphor for life. I dealt with a lot of nice people, there were hard parts and easy parts, I had a lot of people looking at me, I had a limited amount of time, and I had a lofty goal that most people don't do.
Although I mentioned Wu-Tang clan as my big energy boost there were actually two. Wu-Tang got me up the first stage of "I am about to die" syndrome. the second came from a guy who saw me resting. There are little rest sites along the way, especially during the especially hard parts. Typically most people stop at each rest site unless they were doing especially well. He blew through the rest site with a full head of steam and excited to use his English, in a really smarmy manner, he said "Come on now, stop resting" or something to the affect of "slow-poke."
I was inspired by the moment and after another minute or two of resting (I was resting for a reason, I was tired), I just took off. From there out no one passed me and I really got up that mountain. As I passed him I said the same comment he said to me, he looked exhausted. What had I dealt with? A hater. Another thing Wu-Tang would likely say: Don't let the haters get you.

In Lijiang

2006-07-19T09:02:00.000+08:00

Lijiang is what one might expect, pretty, not to poorly preserved, yet tourist stuff everywhere. The whole city is a World Heritage Site, marking my first.
I somehow ended up with a new accompaniment (nearly the same camera started a long conversation). So we spent the day walking around and taking photos. This place is beautiful, but, as it seems with most places in China: Come here in winter! In the summer, the people are thick and hard to get around, the rains make hiking too dangerous. Unfortunately Juanito I could not hike the leaping gorge because the rain has been unpredictable and strong. I think that is a next time goal.
The city is nice in that you can get a sense of the old way of life here. Its hard not to think of the people here as some kind of part of the tourist game. Like that they too are not real. I can't help but think what they think of the tourists that come and stare at them amazed that they use a many centuries old water system.
This is the second city where it seems tourism was just dropped on top of it. The people have have seen radical change here. Not too long ago this was not a tourist destination, now probably more than half of the summer population is from somewhere else.

PTI: To answer J's question in my comments, I did not see the stone forest. I wanted to, but I wanted to keep moving (I was afraid my time in Kunming might start stretching out pretty far).

That brings up something: I am traveling too fast for my taste, but, that may be for the best right now. I have seen Southern China when I came here with CU. Although it was way to fast and furious, I have been to some of these area at least. However the North is completely blank for me. As such, here in the South I am trying to travel with enough speed that I can be in the North with lots of time.
For now, Traveling has gotten a bit difficult here, getting up to Chengdu is being harder than it should be. For a while I thought I would have to first go back down to Kunming, or buy another plane ticket. As of now, I am taking a bus to an iron city and then take a train to Chengdu. I plan on chilling in Chengdu for three days or so, seeing Emeishan, the Bamboo sea, perhaps a famous national park North of there, and then off to Chongqing where I will brave Chinese tourists to take, god help me, a cruise. As I think that is the only way to see the three gorges, and more importantly for me, the three gorges dam.
After that, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Xi'an, and then the big one, Beijing (where I will spend a lot of time I hope).
That said, these places have been cool, but I can't get away from the people. I mean that in the bad way (damn tourists) and the good (I can't help but make friends). Everywhere I go I end up with someone to hang out with and talk with. This is either way better for me to get to know the Chinese people (and as they say, build connections), or way worse for me because I don't have as much introspection.
Last thing on this entry, the Chinese is doing good but has sudden moments of turning South, its clear why classes and not just talking all the time are valuable.

Getting out of Guilin and coming through Kunming

2006-07-18T08:43:00.000+08:00

PTI: Lijiang hotel is pretty cool, but they are not giving me a sec to post this, they keep recommending me what to do. It was 30 over budget but has wireless=deal. I think she was pretty shocked when she said we have internet and I almost jumped out of my sandals into the place.

Almost big props to the Guilin airport, they have the wireless, but they charge.

There is something odd in the air in country China, and I believe that something is marriage. I have heard the words "結婚" being in Guilin and Yangshuo for three days than many month long stretches in Taiwan, and those people love their marriages.
Why? Because China is all about its development, and marriage with a foreigner apparently symbolizes a sudden and massive social development, everyone knows it and they are probably right.
In Yangshuo I was asked in about 60 or 70 percent of my conversations if I was looking for a "Chinese wife" or had it brought up that "Chinese woman are beautiful." My tour guide mentioned her friends who had married foreigners (clients no less) with clear admiration of their achievements.
Its hard to blame her either, we are talking worlds apart economically. A cup of Starbucks Joe in the states feeds a family for a day here. This is not trading up from a Toyota to a Lexus, a Chinese farmer's daughter marrying a foreigner is inventing the car.
My guide and others all spoke of a foreigner searching for a Chinese wife in the way one might mention describe looking for a jade bracelet. At one point my guide mentioned in passing that her (admittedly beautiful) cousin was single, coupled with verbal winks and nudges of all sorts (some not so subtle like specifically saying she could get us together). Afterwards, she continued to say that a wife was another thing she could arrange for me (as arranging was her job).
First of all, as I hope you all know, I am not in the market for one of these aforementioned wives. That said, I find the fact that there is such a market noticeably interesting. As a hopeless romantic in some ways, I actually forgot how many people get married for reasons completely detached from love, or at least a good strong like.
I find it easy to say we should all marry for love, but if I lived off of less than $200 a month in poor country and I had $4,000 a month was "on the table," that is worth a good think. That is the difference between seeing the world and not seeing the world. That is the difference between security and insecurity. If health is at stake for self or family, that is the difference between life and death. Really now, what does love got to do with it?
Now to move from broad pondering to specifics, I want on my first "date" with a mainland girl today, composing about half an hour. It was at the airport. She was a saleswoman for a prepaid credit card of some sort. She mentioned the card and I said I did not need help, she asked if she could help with a hotel or anything in Kunming. In fact, she could. I don't especially like price hunting hotels in the middle of the night, so I was happy to have someone arrange that for me.
She arranged a hotel very fast, with what I wanted. Afterwards, I asked her if she was allowed to take a break. It was more of a way to see if she could take a break, and apparently she could.
Her story was very familiar to yesterday's story. She was a farmer's daughter, her parents grew rice. She moved to Guilin to get this job, which she did not especially like. They provided her with a dorm, and she earned about $125 a month, I think they also provided her meals. She had only worked for ten days there, so perhaps she would come to like the job, or hate it more.
You can see the economy in the distances. My guide lived an hour away and called this "very far." The airport worker lived four hours away by bus and she called the distance "extremely extremely far." It was clear that she considered those fours hours to be basically insurmountable outside of very special occasions. While here I was, talking a plane ticket on the opposite side of the world of my home, flying on a ticket that would be three weeks work for her.
I am not rich, in fact, I am staring up at the crest of a typhoon of debt, yet here, wealth cannot be claimed or denied, it can be seen. My white face in this country is evidence enough.
Our "date" was conversational in that I asked a lot of questions. She was not especially curious, talkative, or ambitious. It was clear she was resigned to her current situation for the most part. She wanted a new job, but had no idea what kind, she said whatever she naturally finds. She had no interest in politics, little interest in language, and no interest in computers. As such, our conversation just sort of faded away before I had to catch my plane.

PTI: I spent the plane talking to two fun French people, one with great English. She actually studied American Literature in England. A French person, studying American Literature in England? That is a once in a life time find I believe. She was a fun break from non-stop Chinese conversation lately.

PTI: I am now in the very nice hotel I ended up at. For the record, $$14 gets you a very very nice room in China, including breakfast and such things. The hotel is nice, but the customer service may be too nice. Charmed by the company, I hung out with the desk clerk until nearly five this morning.

Do not worry too much, I have an eight hour bus ride to sleep through. That said, I had full plans on resting well last night, as I was tired from Yangshuo. As such, my only strategy is to emphasize how charming the desk clerk really was.
Another farmers daughter, she came to Kunming from much farther away and was not working at this rather nice hotel. She was noticeably good at her job and it was clear she went about to do it well. She was studying Business Management at a near by University.
She understood the spirit behind my weird desire for wireless internet, which was a pretty great initial sign of a cool person. She turned out to be happy and funny, ambitious and willing to work. We talked about all the topics that I normally ask with ease. It was the sort of conversation I love in America, it self-sustains and you never seem to exhaust any given topic. It being in Chinese was nice for the confidence, at least until I got simply too tired and stopped making sense.

PTI: At the breakfast area, man they have a good breakfast here, I am impressed.

The conversation was the best I have had in the mainland. This was the sort of girl that symbolizes what China could be, someone who was moving himself or herself from the insecurity and poor farming life to business and the development of China. She had done work on a farm, quiet a bit it sounded like, and recognized farmer life as very peaceful but not for her.
Of the things we talked about, one of them was religion. During that we talked of fate. Asked if I believed in fate I thought about this way, I do believe in fate, fate is what you make of it. I am not sure if I have gone over some bounds of trite here, but it is a thought I can't escape from the people I have talked too lately.
I have confidence that the hotel clerk from today will have a bright future, yet I worry about the girl from the airport. The airport girl admittedly was being moved by nature, the desk clerk was ready to make her own waves. Perhaps this is I am wrong and the plight of a Chinese far is simply insurmountable. That said, I saw a determination in the clerk's eyes lacking in the card seller. I think, riding on the coattails of costal development and Chinese economic expansion, she will get where she wants. Furthermore, she had a pretty good plan and a recognizable one, she wanted to work for a localization company, helping American companies into China (mind you, this was said before I mentioned that is basically the area of law I am interested in).
By the way, yesterday I met my tour guys youngest for about a minute. She was unbelievably cute, showed her mom's bravery in waving by to what was basically a stranger, and I prey to anyone willing to listen, god or mortal alike, for her safe well-being, individuality, and happiness. She may be one of a billion Chinese people, but I have to start my well-wishing somewhere.

PTI: At a weird relaxing place in the middle of Kunming. I don't really get these places, the point seems to be you get to do what you want. Sometimes they have wireless. What I want to do is sit here, use the internet and drink coffee, but they are, and I quote, "not that type of place."

Today has been a weird day. My plan was originally to not spend any time in Kunming. However, that very quickly became somewhat silly as far as plans go, as the point of seeing Lijiang is to see it in the day, and its going to be eight hours to get there. Thus leaving at ten and getting in at six somewhat wastes the day (except the view from the bus window), when leaving at 9 and getting there at five in the morning gives me time to sleep at night and then getting to Lijiang early enough to maybe even catch the sunrise.
The new goal is to see as many World Heritage sites as possible, not moving moving moving seems counter to this, but I probably don't have a choice, and it actually does not change my schedule. Tomorrow Lijiang and then one of the three other World Heritage sites nearby.
I spent the day with the hotel clerk. We saw parks, pagodas, took an egregious number of taxis, at Yunnan style food (which was not too bad despite being apart of the category I call "way too Chinese"). The best part was the company except for too much stress over my bus tickets (which we had to change to a different time, and it was a bit of a hassle).
My clerk (who has a great name, but again, I am uncomfortable putting names up on the blog, even in pinyin with the potential of hundreds of synonyms) is the third person in four days with whom I have probably spent more than six hours with of constant Chinese.

PTI: So Kunming is a big fat wireless black hole. My hotel has wired internet, but as explained, that just won't do. I found the most likely area for wireless near my hotel, a series of western hotels and restaurants for backpackers. I asked at least ten places, I think Taiwan would have gotten at least five connections out of that, even other parts of China I would expect at least two. I came close, one I could connect to (it was actually 5 yuan an hour, but that rounds down to nothing even here). Another they just said "sorry, its broken."

The wireless quest brings up a weird aspect in language, you have to hear it a lot. As such, I can probably reject someone asking for wireless better than I could ask for wireless. Why? Well although I found a question that finally works in finding out if a place has wireless, its probably said terribly. But I don't hear people asking about wireless. But man do I hear people saying they don't have it. I could reject someone's dreams of their own computer on the internet with complete ease (perhaps I would go with the "不行" pronounced (buuu xingggggggggg) and meaning, essentially "not cool man."
Now I am in the lobby of what is probably the fanciest hotel in Kunming. No luck here, its pay. But I am dressed nice, so they are cool with me in the lobby I think. As such, I am resting here before I try the search on the side of the road I was less optimistic about.
I must say, I did Kunming local up good, I covered the sites that interested me in my guide book already and I find these wireless searches to be absolutely enlightening. The interesting part is not so much the places that have it and those that don't, usually those are predictable (if I think they might have it, about a 20%, if I consider it "worth a try," about 0%). Rather, the best part is how they react. I think its the best way to tell what businesses will do well. If the owner or employee's face reacts like "No, but we really should shouldn't we?" Then I think that business has a great future. If there is awkwardness, probably a bad sign. The worst reaction so far was the people that would have charged 5 yuan but I never got on, the guy was incredible awkward about it and basically me existing.
So back some topics, I am in near constant Chinese, which can be really frustrating at times. With the first guy, his accent was hard for me, so there were lots of rough spots. Although we talked about hard things, we did them in a logical order, so talking to my guide was not a problem. However with the clerk, our topics range drastically (she is also one of those people that loves to use idioms). As such, occasionally I don't know a word, or I switch a word (I love flipping words), and things fall apart. She gets in my face about these mistakes, which has made learning much faster.
My accent is all over the map, depending on sleep, how recently I have spoken English, who I am talking to, all of this makes Chinese...variable.

PTI: I almost fell asleep on their coach here, sign to move on to another place I can't get online, but I can order coffee.

PTI: That was not the best hotel in Kunming, this has to be. The waterfall gave it away. Yet they have a broken connection to what I think is the same pay service as across the street, ironic.

PTI: Third nice hotel, not nearly as nice as the first two. Same connection system, a pay system through a phone company. Even if I wanted to pay, its not clear how.

PTI: Another one, same deal. One place (a cafe) forward me to "Quifa" next door, but it turns out, I have no idea what that is (and neither did the man on the street). I think I have hit a wireless vacuum.

PTI: I gave up, I am at a restaurant to pass the time, order a snack and relax. I saw a good chunk of the city on that journey. I must say, it is a Chinese city, and that about covers it. It is a bit more diverse, but not by much. Also the people are not as initially friendly as other places.
This cafe is pleasant, I am by a little open window, nice breeze, apple pie is coming and a milk tea which is supposed to be "Chinese style" upon my inquisition (ensuring that I did not face the typical disaster of a Hong Kong milk tea, only a couple of steps above Hong Kong drinking water). How in the world did I become a milk tea conessueir (Frenchies, Allison and mom this means you, attack), and dare I say, snob?
Speaking of being a snob, my Chinese is doing okay but I am learning words so slow. The problem is that I am always keeping up (not really struggling, but following logic rather than language), so new words pass by in flashes. I usually don't have the time to sit down and memorize word lists like in Taiwan. Perhaps because whenever I have free time I am typing in this thing.
The fact is though that my Chinese works now. I have stopped saying "What are you talking about?" when people compliment, I just say thank you and smile. I make a lot of mistakes, tons of them. There long periods of time where I make no sense or cannot understand simple things. Yet at the end of the day, I can manage real friendships in Chinese. I feel like there are two people from this trip that I can call to some degree close and no more than six English sentences were used in forming those friendships.

PTI: The milk tea is disappointing at best, too much milk, poor quality sugar and pointlessly weak tea. Also they are out of apple pie, two disappointments but she is replacing the pie with something she said was good.

PTI: The new pie is pretty good, somehow it goes well with this bland milk tea.

I am still relieved to find shelter in English, but it is not too terrible to have days without English, and I do like realizing that my thinking is going on in English.
The problem is that I don't want this to all just fade away when I hit the states.
I am going to miss the clerk a lot, I kind of what to use her as a guide in Lijiang (something you can do with actual guides, take them to other places), but the fact is I have to move on from here and she has business to take care of.

PTI: The number of people that I am meeting here is simply not expressed in this blog. I talk about a few people a lot, or I talk about a lot of sites a lot, but the sheer mass of friendly charming people is out of control. I look forward to letting friends and family see the photo album, which probably only has half of them. I am glad that China was not some wasteland of friendliness, and rather far far from (I did not think it would be, but it had a lot to stack up against with Taiwan).

PTI: Everyone seems to sing her, thats a cute touch (just like hum to themselves). Oh, and there is mint in the water.

PTI: New cafe, an old couple, one Chinese and one clearly American are in a great older person fight. I wish I knew more about them, but asking questions might be difficult (the situation is not an especially easy to approach one). Its funny because the American man talks very slow, and orders for his wife, which his wife quickly translates into Chinese for the waiter. One thing I like though, when the wife speaks English, she speaks as slow as he does, when she speaks Chinese, she speaks very fast.

Wow, that switched away from an old person to very real problem real quick, he just said "We have a problem you don't understand, what I say." She says that she can, but she is tired, and he says, "We can't communicate." Agh, its getting more and more serious "At the bus station, at the hotel, I don't know what's going on." The problem is that they are close and loud enough I can't even dodge this incredibly personal conversation...now back to writing it onto the internet.
Apparently a fight over whether a fish should be purchased was the center of a big fight. He also seems upset that she ends up translating his English into Chinese for the waiter (who can't speak English but I guess the guy assumes he can in fact).

PTI: They have eat in mostly tranquility for a while, now they are eating and at one point he said to her "No, you eat...damn it."

Being in China

2006-07-15T20:35:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, a friend explained his feelings towards the Chinese government this way: its doing a good job internationally and doing a bad job internally. The Chinese society is doing the same in a way, it puts on a good face, but its a much more realistic experience to go inside.
This may read like one of those terrible travel guides that revolve around sentences like "there are, like, totally poor people in Africa." As long as no one makes a comparison of my blog to that Cameron Diaz travel program, I think I can sleep through the night.
The face that is easy to find in China is Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing. Affluent businessmen in hotel lobbies with fluent English get to express the needs and progress of China. The Olympics and monolithic banks tower over the middle, the heart, of China.
Yangshuo is an interesting place, as it seems to have to economies, tourism and farming. Tourists come here to see the "real" China. My guide emphasized that foreigners want to take small country roads around Chinese farms and take photos of oxen pulling carts, farmers picking fields, and fishers under massive mountains. That said, she was right, that is what I wanted to do. In fact, its very much what I did.
However, the whole nature of tourism puts the viewer at a distance with the environment. Without Chinese, my guide would a collection of mispronounced English like "trees," "farmers," and "very beautiful." Before I hired her, very much on a whim, she was nothing more than one of the Chinese people yelling at me to buy something or do something.
Yet Chinese and a lot of time gave me an opportunity to talk to a Chinese person in the heart of China. Sometimes when I am traveling, I became little more than a census worker, trying to get at the heart of the country's prosperity or the country's problems.
Talking to my guide, with a great name but one that I don't especially want to post (I am in a country with a government that systemically blocks the ocean that is the internet), was really special for me, as it was the first time in China I got to talk to someone composing the majority of China: a middle aged common person, dependent on and raised in the country.
She fell in the special accent category of people that I completely understand, making communication much easier than with my volunteer guide from yesterday. We also got along very well, so we talked a lot. She told me about tourism, about Yangshuo, about farming, she talked openly about thing she did not like about the government.
There were all things I incredibly interest me, so we talked all day. At one point she mentioned she talked a lot to her Chinese clients (not so much her foreign clients, as her English is not good enough and her average foreign client did not speak Chinese), but I may be the most she talked to any given customer.
She was in her mid thirties with two kids and a farmer husband. She, as a tour guide, actually earned slightly more than him. This was the first time I saw a specific exception to the argument that the tourism industry is actually harmful to communities. It was clear that the tourism industry provided her family with a more consistent and slightly more profitable form of income. She held no contempt for foreigners, yet no undue affection towards them. That said, I think that the foreigners that comes here are by and large better than the average foreign tourist.
She was very empathetic and very curious about foreigners, Americans, Taiwan, and other things I knew about. Her ambition was visible in her desire to be able to speak to foreigners about things deeper than the collection of phrases she used while traveling.
She had not traveled much, her parents had also been farmers. She mentioned that development had not touched this area, that there was no real change. One thing that was changing she mentioned was that more and more foreigners were coming here, less and less Chinese. I think the added foreigners is pretty clear-cut, China's prosperity makes this place seem safer and so a broader audience is coming. I think the lessened Chinese is a bit more difficult, but I venture to guess that the people who used to come here now can afford to go to places like America and Canada (which is a visa stamp very easy to brag about back home).
Her daughters were killer cute (she showed me a great photo). The government allows people in this area to have one child, if that child is a daughter, they can have one more. I asked as gently as possible how she felt about having two daughters, it was clear she knew where the question was coming from and why it deserved to be asked, with utter pride and love in her eyes she left no question that she considered them nothing less than an amazing blessing.
She said something that killed me with laughter at one point, though I forgot how it came up. She said "if my daughters are smart, they can get a great job and learn lots of things, if they are not so smart, they can work on the farm" and it was clear she would be nothing but pride either way.
Her family's house was an hour away, she worked so hard she said so that her girls could go to school. It reminds me of Taiwan. I know a lot of truly brilliant twenty-somethings with very poor parents. The parents worked very hard to get the kid a good education, and it really worked. Perhaps here has that same opportunity. What I do know is that either way those daughters are blessed with some who seems to be a simply great mom.
The sights today was beautiful (though limited by rather subpar weather), but talking with her was the best part of my today and something I think I will remember for a long time. Tomorrow I have to pay her, its clear she was somewhat vague on the price, but she said most give her 100 ($12 US), I wish I had enough money to let her go to Beijing with her daughters, but I know that is not practical. Right now I think I will give her 300 or 400. I don't give to charity, something I regret at times. Here is a time in which I do have enough money and I know the money is going to someone that deserves it. Although I can't spare too much (I have no idea what financial difficulties I will hit before I fall into cascading massive debt), I can give her a solid tip.
On the whole, I can't say much about Chinese farm life, but it was a start. It was nice to talk to a country person's fears and ambitions. This country has a lot of potential in its people, and I think thats why its development can move so fast. At the very least, today was a great start into the heart of China. It was nice to have her experiences to let me see the farmers working the fields here as people, rather than as apart of the scenery.

I have more people I could talk about, a cool French guy who spoke Chinese (and fluent English), the people who pester you to buy water on the way to the top of moon cave. However, I need to limit myself in some way.
One last thing though, I am actually going to fly to the next stop, Kunming. Trains were booked solid until Thursday, so it is the only way to keep going. Plus it gives me a bonus 12-23 hours (depending on the train) of time. I just hope this does not happen again, if it does my budget will take a solid hit.
I saved all of the PTIs for this blog for the end because I did not want to break stride (since this topic was much less jumpy than most entries). Sorry about the size of the first PTI, I try to keep them one paragraph, and this one paragraph got a bit outrageous.

PTI: I am across the room from a foreign woman who may have been here too long. She is friendly, but jaded in a way that I saw foreigners pass through a lot in Taiwan. She brought her dog, and the dog smelled the waitress, scaring the girl like crazy. The dog is completely sweet and utterly harmless, but the waitress overacted and scurried away. The woman shook her head in disbelief at this, like, "this country, sigh..." The girl was simply scared of a dog, but it was clear that the woman looked at this as another part of the problems in the country. No one could say she shied away from the culture, her boyfriend is Chinese and they use Chinese to communicate. That said, her jade (the jade of jaded) is blocking her from what she likes about the country. That happened to me in Taiwan as well, it happens to everyone abroad probably, still sad to see. Man is she harsh on her boyfriends English. She keeps condescending him despite his ability to speak some more than a bit difficult things. For instance, she was shocked he learned the words "abortion abroad" from a dictionary together. I assume he was just reading the first few pages and found them separately, but its unclear. Man, and when he misspelled the Chinese word he just taught her (well, us actually)

PTI: Not long ago a man was staring at me from a three story window (I am on the second story of a local cafe). He looked noticeably serious, he has left, but where he stood you can now see his shelf with a Red Army cap sitting in it.

PTI: Next door there may be a foreigner doing KTV, that or a Chinese doing the most trite song in the KTV library (its a song so simple level I Chinese students can sing it).

PTI: Did I mention that my hotel room is $2.50 a night?

PTI: The new couples sitting in my room are in a constant fight using their local dialect, its actually a bit scary.

From the real journal

2006-07-15T10:23:00.000+08:00

This is a quick typing of a journal I was writing when my computer did not have battery, it may go over the same stuff as the last entry, and its a bit anti chronological:

I have now been on one long distance train in China, and a hundred percent of the long distance trains I have been on have broken down. But the most important thing is that I got out of the sweat shop that is Shenzhen alive (my number one Shenzhen goal).
Actually, that is a bit unfair to Shenzhen, day two gave me hope and at least some appreciation for the city. The cafe I wrote from was a relief, the staff were the first people who made me feel that they cared more about me than my money. After the cafe, Shenzhen started looking up. I wanted to see the stock market, as it was the PRCC's first and it runs in parallel to Shanghai's. I am not sure if the staff at the cafe misspoke or they intended this, but the gave me a map to the book market, not the stock market. I didn't originally realize this because the directions were in simplifed, which I can read but not as casually.
I did realized something was not right when a mom and a daughter did not understand the Chinese I had used in the cafe to express stock market (I think Taiwan and China use different words), yet they said to my map, "Oh, we are going there too." Being that the young girl did not have the blood thirsty eyes of a stock broker, I was pretty sure something was wrong.
Anyway, the bookstore turned out to be directly next to the Shenzhen stock market (one reason I did not worry before this was that we were clearly in the popperish Shenzhen attempt at a financial district).
The book store was great, I actually stumbled upon the law section. After picking up little red books for those back home who put in orders, I started stalking the law stacks determined to start a conversation with a Chinese lawyer or a future lawyer. The first three people I propositioned were all just people interested in reading a little, so they picked up a few books and were perusing. I also learned that approaching politely is far more critical here than in Taiwan. Here you need to be extremely polite at first, otherwise they look like you introduced yourself by throwing baseballs at them.

PTI: This is off the journal until the next PTI, because I did not finish that story in the journal.

The next guy that I ran into was one of the creepiest I have met in China. I asked him "Excuse me, are you a lawyer?" He looked up at me like I was speaking Greek, offensive Greek. Assuming I said it poorly (the word lawyer includes one of the four or five Chinese sounds I truly hate to attempt), I started the question again, very slowly and carefully (which is normally effective).
He curtly cut into my sentence with, "I understand, but what does it matter?"
A little taken a back, I replied "Well, I hope to become a lawyer in China one day, and I want to hear how the experiences of Chinese lawyers differ with Americans."
He replied with one of those looks of a guy who thinks he knows more than you ever will, and said a series of idioms that I did not make heads or tails of, while he tried to look as sage as possible, and then he left. The experience left me, dry.
However, I was determined to make up for it, so I ended up talking to a young lawyer who had graduated only a year ago, and had been working in Shenzhen for a year. As typical for Shenzhen, she came from somewhere else. She had worked for a year at an insurance company. She was a former party member and said she was too "conservative" to talk about those stick political topics I am good at bringing up (I can now casually rattle off "sooooooo, how do you feel about Taiwan?")
She was very sweet, and it sounded like she was a worker ant in Shenzhen for a year, and was now ready to go to Shanghai (right choice I say).
After that, I went to the stock market. Its all computerized now, so a lovely conversation with a receptionist and a picture of the big board was all I got. It was clear it was all offices and nothing to see, but I was glad to go there.
The train was a great time, great people, and great company. The train was broke for an hour two, but then they rushed us to the station and we got in on time. My bunk mates all spoke a local dialect a lot like Mandarin (but not), so it really scared me for a while when I thought that my Mandarin had fallen apart.
I helped a sweet temporary professor, who was the one that held my bags in Guilin. In general, I am very positive on Chinese trains. Good thing too, today or tomorrow I have another and then I am going to Kenming, which I hear is dreadfully not friendly, ugh. Back to the journal:
PTI: Man I am in China now, beautiful green fields, huge limestone mountains, little villages, its really beautiful.
PTI: On top of a mountain (for those in CO, read: hill). The view is great despite the clouds, it creates a sort of mist, making the hills that compose the city more majestic. THe city is a lot of city but its fighting a llot of hills and natural beauty.
PTI: I am sweating so hard, despite a long break my paper is all wet with my sweat from my forehead.
I spoke with two more law students up here. They did not get into the nitty gritty but it was clear they wanted more transparency in government.
I am nervous about time, I have only thirty days in China, but I am determined to make this time relaxing, that is why I am willing to chill at this cafe and type away.

All over Guilin

2006-07-15T09:31:00.000+08:00

I would post this on the comment section of my Shenzhen entry, replying to Jon, but my site is busy being blocked: "Actually, that was a habit I changed. At first I just looked down and ignored people. However, towards the end I started staring them dead center in the eyes and saying "no thank you." After that, it took only the real jerks to keep pushing it, most people got the picture you were serious. Also, "fantastic city" definitely did not come to mind in Shenzhen. I liked some people, but they all came from somewhere else."

I would post this in regard to an Allie comment (I can read them because they go to my email box): all but one of them are French cuffs. The pants are really great, they are spot on. The three main shirts are beautiful (definitely great fabrics) but I think too big. They said they will shrink in the wash, but I will believe it when I see it, they say bigger looks better, but I did not have time to disagree. That said, the other shirt I got is just spot on, nice fit, beautiful look. Most importantly, I learned lessons, next time I go there (and I think I will go there again), I know exactly what to buy and how to buy it: (get fabric from the fabric store, but go to one of the stationary tailors to make it, and if you think they are measuring you too big, they are measuring you too big. Better yet, bring something to replicate, my pants were duplicated in shape, if you give them an article you like and fits well, you can get a nice copy.

PTI: I don't know if I can start an entry with a PTI, but I will probably add a where am I above this, as wireless is clearly not a thing. On the train ride (to be described) I befriended a former student and temporary teach at the Guilin Normal University, somehow, I ended up at her university, so that she can watch my bag. Now I am taking a quick break at the student area before hitting the parks that make this places name.

It is of note that this little student area, and this campus in general, are very different from Taiwan. For one thing, the Taiwanese universities are blanketed with wireless. I am now at a cafe, next to another cafe, two computer centers, and a number of dorms, yet I can't even smell a connection in the breeze.
The University is super run down, and has a lot of places that are far more Chinese industrial village than University. That said, the people seem nice (though the staring is at an all time high). Even more important, they make a ripping good Milk tea here. Anyone who knows "Taiwan Matt" knows that I am somewhat of a Milk Tea conesuier (there was a time when I was hitting at least two a day). The secret? They use carmel for sugar, a luxury in Taiwan that pushes a 500cc drink from about $.45 to about $1.30. Here? The Bo Ba milk tea (with Tapioca added) is $.25 and ripping good. Also they seem to normally deal in small cups. Anyway, I should go.

PTI: So I just had my day in Guilin and successfully ended it in Yangshuo. The problem is that I am about at least three or four somewhat decent stories, so if things get confusing and anti chronological, sorry.

My day in Guilin was fast and furious. After putting away my luggage at the female dormitory of Guilin Normal University, I took a bus to Seven-star park. Guilin is famous for having many parks integrated into the city. The park itself was alright. The Chinese tourists were not to disappoint and thusly out in force. That said, I found my own little path and followed that. I took it to the top of a decent hill (which I have some handwritten stuff that will probably be added to the end of this blog entry).
The precipice of this mountain/hill was a truly excellent view of Guilin, a pretty weird view. At the top, I met two law students. It was clear they picked luck just as a matter of course. They did not have any strong, at least speakable beliefs about the government. They also seemed to have no focus with law, they were just sort of doing what they were doing.
As I left the top, I ran into a young man wearing a Beijing Olympics 2008 shirt. I started talking to him, doing my normal meeting a Chinese person routine (there are certain questions I always ask, so that I can compare people and regions). He was nice, and amazingly talkative. He wanted to practice his English at first, but it was clear his English was not going to cut it.
After that, I was walking down the hill when he ran down towards me asking what I was doing now. I said I was going to the cave they have there (which I heard was somewhat tacky, but I had already paid admission on accident and felt entitled). He basically repeated the tacky thing but said he had nothing to do and wanted to join me. This he did, as he went with me to the cave, the next park, the bus station ticket office, back to the dorm for my bag, and back to the bus station.
He did this, partially to be helpful and partially for the story "I hung out with a foreigner for a day." No matter what I could say though, he was very cool and friendly. He reminded me of what I like about Taiwan, people will help you because people should be helped. They are infinitely kind and often go out of their way without question.
His accent was a bit problematic for me, plus my Chinese is going through somewhat of a weird phase right now, so communication was sloppy, but it worked. My Chinese has gotten super funky. They use different structures in different parts of China, and everyone here is from different places. That is all battling with my Taiwanese style of speaking. Things I know Taiwanese would understand don't work here. In a way, I feel like I no longer control the language. I keep saying things I don't mean to say, often correctly but surprised the way they come out. The best example is I keep saying 那兒 which is very Beijing, rather than 那裡 which is very Taiwanese. I am okay with that, but it seems like I didn't choose to switch, and that weirds me out (I also sometimes say 那兒裡 and take out both of those birds).
After the first park, we went to a second park, the Elephant Mountain park. It too provided a great view of this city dropped into a natural wonderland (crashed upon it might be a better word). The park was not that special for the most part, a bit crowded, some cool stuff, but nothing worth writing a blog about. That said, I was glad I gave Guilin a chance.
So far Yangshuo is what I thought it would be: Kaosan road from Thailand dropped into China. There are a lot of white people, clubs, cafes, and other things white people bring. I look forward to the views for right now, but first I am going to appreciate what looks to be wireless at cafés all over the place.
Tonight I ate dinner with two Chinese students from my train. They randomly approached me and acted as if we were close friends (we had just said hi a few times), that said, the result was great. They more aggressively pursued English with me, but after a day of nonstop Mandarin, I was not too sad.
It was the first time I had declined alcohol in a social setting while sober (normal I drink to be social, but we are trying, well, not). We played a dice game that is famous in Taiwan as well. Then we ate one of the best meals I have had in China, a spicy garlicky Beer Fish (which conjured up for me dried, scaly fish soaked in beer), the thing was puffy, contained few bones, and was generally shockingly delicious.
Now I am going to go to sleep in my little wood room located under this hotel's stairs. It is costing me $2.50 a night, and lets say, that fee is a bit stretched. That said it works, hopefully I will have an opportunity to post this, write another, and type up the one from my book in here.

Five stars above the masses

2006-07-13T13:39:00.000+08:00

So I have walked a lot of Shenzhen, at least the central area, all in the name of wireless. I spent hours looking, but I suddenly realized that my problems were probably my own fault. I checked internet connections using my own blog, my own blocked blog. I can post, and access blogger, but I can't read my blog. That said, I can read the NY times. Its funny that they shut down all the blogs, but not blogger.
Anyway, I walked around all morning looking for wireless and seeing the beauty, or lack thereof, of Shenzhen. The city is just not a pretty one, the big buildings are mundane and uninspired. Mind you this is after Hong Kong, a feast of architecture, but anyone who wants to put Shenzhen on a pedestal I disagree with. Right now its hard for me to see this place as anything but a tick on the side of Hong Kong's economic back.
I left my hotel last night without bags, which made the place a lot better for me. I could walk around without fear and without being weighed down. The missions were simple, get a massage, a pencil, and detergent.
The massage was partially based on availability. The market for massages are plentiful here, so they are cheap. Hong Kong wives and business people come down here to shop and be pampered. In fact, telling a Chinese person I am in Shenzhen always leads to "have you bought anything?"
I decided on a nice looking French styled massage place. It was more expensive, but I did not want to deal with prostitution houses. By the way, prostitution is rampant. They don't have girls on the streets, they have pimps who offer such services. The mere mention scares me on so many levels, from moral to medical and of course legal.
So I went to a faux fancy place, which had a twenty or thirty foot painting of Princess Diana in its lobby. I think this was a rare moment for me, because the odds of me entering any place with a massive Princess Diana painting are, I would imagine, pretty small. However, I had set out with the goal in mind, so whatever.
I was planning on the normal body massage, but she mentioned they had one done by a Chinese doctor which focused on shoulders. This sounded like a good call, as my shoulders are pretty bad from my bags. He was a cool guy, and he hurt/helped my shoulders. Then he mentioned if I wanted some various thing I did not understand. It was clear he was saying some weird device for your back, but after that I did not know what he was saying (I am still not used to the thick Beijing way of speaking).
I said, basically, worth a try. My back was oiled up and I was put under a hot light. I assumed that was what I had ordered after a while, and was okay with that, as it was rather nice. Then he leaves and comes back with a tray that a helper had gotten him. Because I was lying in a very cool massage bed, I could not see him.
Suddenly, I hear him start a lighter, followed by the sounds of sparks coming off a torch, there was tinkling of glass and then my back is being pulled hard. I look back, with no doubt a bit of shock in my eyes. He was taking the torch and putting it into glass jars and then sticking them onto to my back.
The process was more than a bit frightening but, we shall say interesting. It felt good, but my mind was mostly focused on how weird it all was. In all he stuck something like ten of them on me. Afterwards, he removed them all and stuck another twelve in different spots. This apparently is an ancient Chinese method for improving one's back. I couldn't help but focus on, "I am not sure if this is going to help, but man is it a good story."
Now my body has dark red and even black circles all over my back and a couple on my arms. They don't hurt per se, but they surely are not pretty. I took a few photos which I will put up eventually. I just now mentioned the process to the waitresses here, and they clearly had both done this, or considered it normal. They both asked if I felt very comfortable now. I must say my back is more relaxed, which was my goal.
The next goal was to get detergent. I ended up in an underground Walmart. It was under a massive fashion mall, across the street from two other massive malls (Communism?). The Walmart was a Walmart, that is to say, nothing special, expect for the lines.
I had not experienced a mainland line. I had heard that they don't line up here, I had no idea. They put the lines so close together in a way forcing the crowd into some kind of order. However, their proximity allowed for people to sort of lump together and exist in all lines at one time, pushing towards the side that they thought would end quickest. This caused the lines to disappear and chaos to reign. I just picked one main line and did not let anyone around me into that one line.
The pencil was without event.
Finding internet this morning was hard, a few places had sites, but none of them worked. However, that may have been me using my own site to test the connection, thus it being block. As such, I may have found four hot spots, or four fake hot spots, I don't know. Eventually I came to this fancy hotel, which had very good food and really sweet service. Now I am going to go see the stock market, get my shirts, and get the heck out of this city.

In the mainland

2006-07-13T11:41:00.000+08:00

Where I am: I am in five star hotel in Shenzhen. Finding an internet connection got...messy, I hope to detail that later. For now, I have this entry and the one below.

So I am in China now. Right now I found a cool cafe in the Shenzhen purchasing gauntlet, resting. I ended up buying a fair amount of clothes (four shirts, two pairs of pants).
The goal was clothes. I always regretted not getting more shirts from Thailand. They were the only ones that fit me the way I wanted and they easily looked the best. Now I had an opportunity to refresh my wardrobe (most of my clothes were getting to the point of non-wearable).
I may be terrible at negotiations, or great, to be honest, I am not sure. I always feel like I am getting the last possible price they would offer, but I am not sure how honest that is. Today, I felt the prices I got were all good, and about what Chinese people pay (actually, I have developed two main tricks, one is to respond to a "special price" with "is that what Chinese people pay?" or saying I have to "look at all the options in this huge market").
This "market" I am in is a gauntlet of shops. Directly outside of the train station is a huge 7 circled market of materialistic hellscape. I was prepared for the worst, so it is a bit more civilized than I expected (certainly brighter and cleaner), but it is still a bit much. As you walk the aisles poor English rains down on you. Along with the occasional tug towards a store (luckily never enough for me to employee my scowl).
As you walk the aisles, everyone yells "copy watchoo," "DVD moviea," and such. As such, I walk straight down the aisles and whatever I do, I don't make eye-contact with anyone. This is very hard for me, as I normally always make eye contact and smile broadly while traveling. Now I am just blowing by people yelling at me.

PTI: The accents here are great. Taiwan's accents range from the nearly incomprehensible old person (who normally only speaks Taiwanese) to the average Taiwanese accent. The Taiwanese accent ranges from a bit hard to understand, to very standard, but it does not move around that much.

PTI: The wait staff is everywhere in this restaurant, if my water hints towards a quarter full they immediately refill.

As far as negotiation, the first place I went to was very nice, relaxed, and it was clear they were not lying. That said, they would not budge on the prices of anything. It was clear they were very honest, but they also did not have an email address. My hope is to create a long term contact with one of these vendors for when I am needing suits and new dress shirts more frequently.
After the first place, I thought I would leave here empty handed. I was looking to spend around $36 and get about three shirts. It was clear that was simply not possible at that first place, where I might have gotten two shirts for something like $50. That is still a great price, but I was hopping to match my success in Bangkok.
The next couple places I went were about the same story. I ended up buying one shirt for $16.76 because she liked my "is that the price you give Chinese people line." That was not bad, given that it was a nicer fabric than the other options.
That said, I discovered the real game when I went into the fabric mart. A guide I had read said they had a huge fabric market, but I had not encountered it. When I found it, I found it real good. The place was huge and crazy. After talking to a couple of vendors I realized a lady was following me around. She asked me if I needed a tailor, and I said I already had one (I thought I might go to where I first went with my own fabric).
That said, I didn't know how much fabric to buy, and she was right there, I asked the woman (she was a cute young looking late-twenties early thirties) how much fabric was typical for a shirt. She immediately told me, and she talked clearly and sweetly. I decided to hire her and hope for the best, I figure with her help, I could negotiate much better and find stuff much easier.

PTI: The RNB is actually almost right on top of the Hong Kong Dollar now, that is amazing. Last year there was a clear difference, now they will accept either just as easily.

That turned out to be what looks to be a great idea. She was very honest to me, she helped negotiate with vendors. She told me when she thought something was bogus. In general she was very kind. With her help, I negotiated prices down like crazy. Furthermore, it was much easier to tell if the prices were fair. In the end I bought three more shirts and two pairs of pants, not one of which exceeded $13 (and some where less).
That said, we will save fashion review for tomorrow, it would suck to discover that she was a terrible tailor (that said, I think they just do the measurements, and probably a small groups of shops do all the sewing for all the shops). For now, I have until five o'clock tomorrow in Shenzhen. I am debating a few more purchases, but really I am very excited to get out of Shenzhen. Tomorrow night, assuming smooth sailing, I hope to be leaving towards Yunan.

PTI: I am writing from my hotel. Shenzhen is just so much. My first impression of Shenzhen from last year, its just a little much. Everyone is moving too fast, and there seems to be no trust.

That said, perhaps it was a self fulfilling prophecy. Putting myself in full protect full perhaps created my impression that everywhere around me was dangerous. But the long and short of it: God I hope all of China is not like this. I am constantly holding my back, watching people behind me, and haggling to death every price.
I am wondering if it is too late to get insurance on my computer and camera. I am worried sick, and am relieved to finally have them in a hotel. Here is the thing, this computer will be of only half a use to me in two months, because of NYU's inane policy of no Macs. I think perhaps my problem was that I just looked too tourist, and that was bugging me.
Before i came to this hotel, I thought I would give shoe buying a go. I wanted to get flatter shoes that I could fit into my luggage easily. I had no idea what I was getting into. I have never had someone negotiate so hard and fast.
She: 650 is the original price, begging me for how much I would pay
I: Umm...
She: Okay, because you can speak Chinese, because you are a friend, 350.
I: But look at all of these various problems (point out a bunch of shoddy problems).
She: Well how much will you pay?
I: Uhhh...
She: Come on, how much? We can talk, but I need what you will pay.
I: 70, which was honest, looking at the shoes and knowing the area, I knew she would make a nice profit off of that.
She: What? What? Impossible...she went on crying foul for a while. Give me a real price.
I: Give me a real price! If you give me a real price, I will give you one.
*Extended fight*
I did not really want these shoes that much, but they fit nice, and they were flatter (which will allow me to hike, play impromptu basketball games and without being huge in my bag).
She: Okay, I will give you a real price, 280, that is less than half of 650.
I: Look, I think we are looking for different thing, we simply cannot deal here, I am going to go.
She: Give me your largest price.
I: I threw out 130.
She: No, no way... (at this point, literally the entire store is watching, they had something like ten employees in a small room of a store, and they were all watching me). She says, okay, 180.
I: Long thought, not really about the price, but as to the experience.
She: You are thinking for so long, look 170.
I: Sorry, you wanted my highest price, my highest was 130, I am going to leave at that. Clearly we can't make a deal.
She: She starts dropping the price by tens while I get my stuff together, she eventually says "okay, and just starts packing up the stuff."
I: Mind you, the 130 had been said a long time ago, and it was unclear she had just said f it and given me 130. So I ask, wait, what price?
She: 130, how about 140?
I: No
She: Okay, 130.
The thing is, I am not sure if I wanted them for 130, not saying that I was doped, but its on the list of possibilities. It was just mad confusing. That said, I have fake Diesel's which should not make it much longer than this month.
Getting a hotel was a similarly "ugh" experience, including a guy following me trying to get me in his hotel. That said, I like my current hotel, it looks terrible on the outside, I thought I was getting ripped (but I was not willing to keep looking, nor deal with the aforementioned guy), but the inside is crazy nice. In fact, the inside is easily the best hotel I have been in on this trip so far (not much of a competition, but I was a bit impressed). My view of Shenzhen is amazing.
Tomorrow the only way to get to Kunming that I saw tomorrow left at 2:30, when my shirts will not be done. My thought is to go somewhere in between the two for a night, because I need out of this city.

Gone to Hong Kong

2006-07-13T11:37:00.000+08:00

We just hit the waters above Taiwan so I thought I would start typing. This is an entry I was a little afraid to write. To answer the question, how did this year go?
The answer: well.
Whenever I travel, I reflect on how I am going to return. Every-time I start, I think about the end. So when I was coming to Taiwan, I spent about half of my time thinking about coming back from Taiwan. Typically these thoughts focus on life's lack of progression. I focus on me taking the same bus back and going in the opposite direction of my arrival.
Typically when I return I reflect on these thoughts with a sad acceptance. Even when I have developed personally, I feel that I have not developed professionally. When I feel I have developed professionally, I have not developed personally. Yet, this time, perhaps it is appropriate that leaving Taiwan, I went up a different coast to go to new places. I really feel I have changed during this year and that I have used this year.

PTI: I cannot understand the old man sitting next to me. His accent is intense and it is clear he is used to Taiwanese. I felt bad but the stewardess is also having a hard time.

So with that, I am going to start the potentially painful process of reading my early blog entries from when I first came to Taiwan and reflect on some of the more interesting things.
"The only traffic laws of any consequences [are] the laws of physics." This is a weird quote for me to look back on because i feel like I just read something a bit eye opening. I forgot how crazy Tainan traffic really is. Driving it everyday, especially driving as much as I did (probably an hour a day), really got me acclimatized to the laws of Tainan traffic - do what you can. Outside of the true freaks, I came to more or less accept some of the most insane driving decisions. If someone pulled into my way, I just pulled out. No harm, no foul. I must say I became pretty adept on a scooter (at least judged by defensive driving).

PTI: In Hong Kong, waiting for Allison.

At one point I refer to Englished Chinese as "Romanji," a clear result of having grown up liking Japan. Coming to Taiwan was really somewhat of a surprise. I had all the affection in the world for Japan, but I ended up in Taiwan. Its funny how much the rather random decision to do Taiwan shaped my life. Now I am completely focused on China in my future. This was not really a wrong or right decision. I bet if I had done Japan, I would have the same passion for Japan in my future. It is simply how things went. I am glad with the way things went though.
I speak of a " jaunt away from materialism," I surely did that I believe. I have been much more materialistic than normal, and what stuff I am coming home with (a lot to be fair) is either books or has sentimental value rather than material value. The only really luxury thing I bought in Taiwan was my Camera, and I am using that vigorously.
At one point I write that I had not found a mall in Tainan, that was mostly a product of the route I took, Tainan is all mall. The most notable mall is the biggest Mitsokoshi in Asia. Its materialism is off the charts. It is just a huge military base of want and greed.
I have two references to Saved by the Bell's "The Max," I think that is more due to the colors of Taiwan than a personal obsession that I have not yet come to terms with.
I read an entry of me forcing my non-Mandarin on two Taiwanese girls. To be honest, I am somewhat proud of that. Although I could not really speak a word, I tried, I threw phrases at them, and I learned. I learned Chinese by attacking it. I am not fluent by any means, but for a year, not bad; and it was, at least in part, because I was willing to embarrass myself.

PTI: This blog entry was cut short by a really quick arrival (Taiwan-Hong Kong are simply not that far). So I am actually writing this almost a week later, having done the Hong Kong thing with the lovely Allison. To Allison, thanks for the tour of the city, your surprising Hong Kong knowledge is a testament to the way that you learned the city. The way you learned the city is the way that you learn people, you look at a good person and you find what makes them good; then you make them see that good. Your charm is your incredible spirit and ability to see the best in people and things. Thanks for guiding me around Hong Kong and my own head.

In the Mansions

2006-07-12T08:38:00.000+08:00

I am in the Mirador Mansions. Allison is about to check out of Asia and downloading photos I discovered a wafting wireless connection. These mansions should be condemed, they are hotels and factories piled up on top of each other. Its a world without zoning laws.

Macau post

2006-07-11T15:02:00.000+08:00

Had an amazing and fun time with Allison in Hong Kong. Right now I am in a Macau ice cream shop. Lost some money, played some crazy games. I have my visa and my spirits (though I will have to resurrect my Mandarin from the muck), tomorrow, China.

Leaving on a jet airplane

2006-07-06T08:08:00.000+08:00

It is only appropriate that right after I confessed my love for Taiwan a creepy Taiwanese guy started reading my computer and sat down directly next to me. The thing about him was that, although creepy, he was creepy for Taiwan. This place has some creepy guys, but nothing compared to characters I have met in other places.
He said he wanted to buy me drinks "I don't drink," and he wanted to buy my ticket to the airport "umm, that is not necessary." At one point he offered to see how much money I had. That was an especially odd one, he asked to see my wallet, which is when I said "ummm....that is not necessary" again, and then took off.
I slept at the airport and slept rather well really. They have some really comfy benches here in Taiwan's National Airport for the Dictator (or in other words, Taiwan's NAD).
One quick story I forgot from last night. I was walking with the guys from the bath house after they bought me dinner. The bigger one looked at my sandals and asked "do you think those will last in China?"
They had lasted really hard use since October so I said "Oh yeah, these things..." and then they just broke. I was surprised at just how creepy it was. LIterally in the middle of my sentence the right strapped popped out, and it was clearly not fixable (for less than the cost of the sandal itself).
So I ended up in one of Taipei's many shoe alleys. I had gone to a doctor's office (the front desk people looked friendly) and tapped my sandal together. With this terrible configuration (though better than what I was doing before, which was walking in such a way that my back left heel kicked the right sandal's heel, knocking the sandal back in place every step).
I went to a shoe place, disappointed at the price of real Pumas (China here I come), and bought new sandals. I ended up throwing away the fourth pair of footwear in a week for me, buying a more durable looking replacement pair. I weirded out the shoe clerk because I had her keep the box and everything. I just gave her the old pair to throw away, put on the new pair and was off.
Anyway, this is still a great island, and I am still leaving. Thanks for the year Taiwan.

Murky waters

2006-07-05T22:04:00.000+08:00

Taipei train station - get a connection but it won't connect to the internet, same name as the one in the Taidong train station (aruba).
Today contains no special plans, which is both good and bad. Normally when I travel, I have one very broad plan. This is because most cities I go to are, to me, completely amazing. Everything is worth doing and everything is reasonably foreign. However, I have already been to Taipei, and most things in Taiwan are simply not that foreign.
One foreign thing, my ticket from Hualian to Taipei, about $15 US, its less than two hours away! Normally that is like $3. I think I need to learn how to specify cheaper fare, but their train system umm...leaves something to be desired. Its simply too confusing.
So the plan is to just dive into Taipei and figure out what I want to do. I think I might see a couple of temples. Perhaps I will see the Sun Yat Sen memorial, maybe return to the National Palace museum, or go to a Northern area many people recommended.
I really don't know where I will sleep tonight, I might end up sleeping in the airport, which I often do as a ghetto traveller. Getting to the airport will be hard, as I don't want to pay for a taxi all the way there. A lady at my hotel told me how to go, but I lack confidence in the directions and have no idea what times I have to work with.
We will see about today, I might just be happy chilling at a cafe talking to Taiwanese people in Taiwan for the last time in a while, as Thursday, off to Hong Kong.

PTI: I am now on the train, almost in Taipei. I have figured out, roughly, how to get back to the airport tonight, and I very much plan on sleeping there (or in the small town that I am actually currently in, which is the closest to the airport).

I am feeling a bit sentimental, this is my last real day in Taiwan and I am not sure what to do. There is a lot to love about this country, and I will genuinely miss it. This train trip was a good start, I spent most of the time talking with a factory worker (I am not sure how high up in the chain he was, but he worked for forty five day stints three times a year, and otherwise lived rather far away) who sat next to me, as well as two nearby lady's and there kids. As per par, the people were very friendly.

PTI: I am in a Mr. Brown chilling online. I could not pass up a connection, plus I have not actually drank at a Mr. Brown. I think I will try to hot springs thing today, there is no evidence online to say that the National Palace Museum opened up more sections of the museum, and I cannot count how many temples I have seen. I figured out how I am going to get to the airport (the information center hooked me up with a bus I think.

I am feeling a bit lazy, I am ready for Hong Kong, and I am a bit too sentimental about Taiwan. Oh well, I am going to finish my tea and get off to some hot springs. The hope - mud bath, that would be crazy tight.

PTI: I finally found a way to get to the airport without paying way too much and without having to transfer a bunch. It was a bit of a hassle, but worth 800 NT ($25 or so) to me. So anyway, now I am on a bus to the park which, in theory, has mud baths. This goal is right up my ally, obscure, a little weird, and might take all day to do an otherwise mundane and random task.
I feel really spread out in Taipei right now, here is my vision of today from here out, bus out to the park, walk 5 kms to place, spend maybe an hour in hot springs, find a freaking mud bath, walk 5 kms back, take a bus to one train station, take the subway over to the city center, get my luggage from the Mitsokoshi, get a bus to the airport, fly out of the airport. Lots of transportation, lots of moving.

PTI: Taipei's wireless coverage really is impressive, if I lived here, I would definitely buy it, I have had various connections flick in and out this whole time. Agh, tons of old people are standing, I need to get up for my moral fiber, bye.

PTI: I am waiting for the bus outside of Taipei. Actually, very far outside of Taipei, think mountains. Anyway, it turns out I don't have to walk 5 kms, but rather bus 15 or so. However, I don't have utter faith that this bus is still running.

I have two wireless connections, both you have to pay for, and both originating from Starbucks. Its impressive that Starbucks wedged themselves into the wireless netting of Taipei. If you have a Starbucks card, you can access the Taipei system. That said, apparently no one does. Recently NPR did a report on how Taipei is the most wirelessed up city in the world (very easy to believe) but virtually no one is using it. The fact is in addition to being the more wirelessed city in the world, Taipei is probably one of the most wired cities in the world. As such, people probably already have a higher speed at home than they do from the wireless system. They don't want to pay even more just to use wireless out and about.
That said, for me, I would definitely sign up for this if I were in Taipei. Connections are just about everywhere, and good ones to. It would be nice to chill in random parks and have internet.
It is really way to hot to be going to a hot springs, but a goal is a goal. I have never done a mud bath, so it won out against competition, the problem, is, well, this bus not coming. That said, I would not be surprised if the place I am heading is closed for the summer, or at least the mud bath part of it.

PTI: A bus just went by and I nearly dover in front of it, but it was not to be, I think I am getting paranoid.

PTI: Weird gesture: Why do people sometimes give each other a sort of frown like face to recognize existence with almost the exact same culture implications of a smile. Its sort of a stiffened lower lip thing. They make sort of a stiff frown and nod, conveying respect for some various reason. When you smile a lot in foreign countries, you learn a lot about facial expressions. Speaking of which, Taipei as a whole does not smile enough. I am getting blank stares back here more than ever.

PTI: An hour later and I am still waiting. I spent some thirty minutes talking to a cool although rather creepy Taiwanese guy. He really wanted to help me, so in conversation he would speak freely, but stop to translate words like "hour"...thanks...

I am just being bitchy because of this bus thing though. If I have one day to do a goal, I want to do it. I am willing to resort to a taxi, hell to all about the price, but man it would hurt the pride at this point. I think this would be a good point to defend my cheapness. Although I go out of my way to spend less in certain areas (and certainly I do this less now than before), its simply so that I can do more overall traveling. Fighting for a cheaper way to the airport buys me much better food, more time, and less concern about other things.
That said, if I had been told before I started waiting for this f---ing bus that it would take this long, I would have taken the taxi no questions asked (furthermore the tax is price gouging, and I don't like that). Hell, I would have walked

PTI: Agh! I am finally on the bus and it was four times more than reported, defeating the entire purpose. Man, if those springs are closed, that would burn real bad. It would be an unfortunately bureaucratic and wasteful end to my trip.

PTI: So I am now on the subway heading back to the main station, my luggage, and then off to the airport. I head a long, and very weird day, but that is why I travel, those long weird days.

So thanks to the help of the other passengers on the bus, who thanks to the kindness of the Taiwanese people, screamed at the driver to stop at my stop. Then I discovered what Lonely Planet meant about a three kilometer walk. So I ended up walking. However after a while a few cars went by and I did something for the first time, I got my thumb out and hitchhiked.

PTI: I have no less than eight people staring at me on this train. And there has been at least four conversations about me. Make that about twelve people and six conversations. Enough so that people wanted to take photos with me, of course, but I get to have photos of them!

Hitchhiking in Taiwan might not even count, especially given that I was on a road that led to one place, the spa, but it was worth a try. It very much worked to, the back end of a three car convey picked me up. I was glad to, at that point I was pretty sick of traveling.

PTI: If my mom were a four year old Asian child, she would be the one that is sitting on the opposite side of this train.

The family that picked me up were very Taiwanese, read, amazingly kind. They insisted on giving me a ticket they had to enter, so it was free. Afterwards, the guy led me to the spa area. That is where I realized, if my goal was really to see lots of old Asian penises, mission accomplished. Furthermore, the smell of sulfur was thick and genuinely bad.
I hear the pools were heated naturally through a dormant volcano. And, with a distinct sigh of relief I discovered that they did have mud baths. It might be silly, but I had invested an awful a lot of effort getting into dirt, I was going to do it.
With in not much time I was covered in mud. It was more clay than anything else. It was mostly liquid with patches of mud that you wiped onto yourself like soap. I originally talked to one guy who very well could have been gay, and was definitely old and Taiwanese. Afterwards to guys, one rather big dude and another smaller friend joined the pool.
We talked for about ten minutes, and then the two guys showed me how to go between the pools. Soaking in 42 degree Celsius water is a real experience when combined with freezing water, warm water, mud, and blasting yourself with a huge hose. I am not sure if it was a Korean bath house, but Korean was written everywhere.
Anyway, it was good. After getting used to that one guy staring at me a little too much (and giving failed offers to scrub my back, twice), it was good. Damn it I look good. I was all red from the sun and had a drastically uneven tan (think Neapolitan ice-cream, red, brown, and white mixed together in large blocks).
After the baths I felt really good, and beautiful darn it.
Afterwards I dropped to the two guys I had been hanging out with how incredibly troubling getting to the place had been. I know its a bit petty, and I feel bad that I was using the kindness of Taiwanese people, but its more me being relieved that Taiwanese people are so nice. Otherwise, it would have taken something up to six hours getting back. Instead, they took me to the subway station near where they live, and I am taking a subway to the main station.

PTI: Random Japanese from the couple ahead of me. I ended up talking to them, they were really nice vacationers.

PTI: I am now on a street near a cafe called E-Coffee, I am literally picking up seven connections. This one was free, and of course Wirefly is everywhere (but not free). I was going to update at McDonald's (which I can use because my phone service is through a partner of theirs), but I had forgotten that I had negative four minutes to get my luggage, so I went and got them.

Tonight I leave for the airport feeling really good. After no sleep we will see how I look, that or I might randomly sleep well at the airport. Tomorrow at ten I am off to Hong Kong to see the love city and a lovely Allie. Wish me luck. If the airport has a free connection, expect a new update. If it does not, love you Taiwan, I mean it you big lug, this was a great year and its because of the people who will help a pretty strange stranger in a fairly strange-land.

Man, I really can't spell

2006-07-05T13:19:00.000+08:00

Ouch, I just typed in "Taipei bus scheduel" rather than "Taipei bus schedule"

Google it and check out the first result, ouch.

Going to Taipei

2006-07-05T12:51:00.000+08:00

More photos

2006-07-04T23:18:00.000+08:00

Gorge photos for you and yours (if you want to make a highly complimentary pun out of gorge, go right ahead).

The gorge part 2

2006-07-04T21:06:00.000+08:00

Agh, its the Fourth of July! I did not realize until now, 9:20 pm. I consider myself patriotic, but Fourth of July is bad timing for me, since graduating high school I have missed half of my Fourth of July's (Mexico and two in Taiwan). Sudden realization, since graduating high school I have spent significant time abroad four of six summers. That is not bad considering that I had not left the country until Mexico Spring Break with Jake freshman year.

PTI: I am in the "hang-out," they clearly have one mixed CD on loop, it includes a lot of Back Street Boys and Coolio's Fantastic Voyage. It had this same music on yesterday.

Well, the gorge continued to be amazing. After my tea break, I went on a nice long hike, which included a bad dead because of a poorly made sign. However, it continued to be shockingly beautiful. Its hard to take photos of the gorge walls themselves, perhaps its a problem with my lens, but I have a lot of trouble representing they sheer size with my camera.

PTI: The boss of this restaurant is looking over my shoulder watching my photos going by (which is cool, she is really really nice).

Watching the photos go by it is sort of disappointing. The whole day I thought it was impossible to really capture the walls of the gorge, and I am ending up agreeing with my self. I have some good photos in there, but none that really convey the girth or the beauty of those walls.
The best part was just driving around the mountain, weaving around the corners (very carefully for fear of giant buses). At the end of the gorge (not really the end, but where I stopped), was a huge Buddhist area. It had giant statues, a huge pagoda on a mountain (which you could go to the top floor of), and more bridges, bridges, bridges (most of my photos are bridges really).
Going into that area, I ran into a group of foreigners. I randomly started talking to the last one in their line, to discover him to be a Texan. Not only that, but a Chinese speaking Texan. What I liked was that his passion for Chinese was eerily similar to mine. I think most Chinese learners here fall under certain camps, a) "I can make conversation, thats good enough," b) "Yeah, I can speak it, but whatever" (typically this person has a Taiwanese significant other and speaks it all the time), c) Learns it like an academic subject (boring and used ultimately for grades). This fellow had real passion for the language in all aspects, reading, writing, different accents, etc. Furthermore, he did so without getting flaky and mythic about the language (as I often emphasize, ninety percent of Chinese is not Confucius, it is "Buy one, get three free." He had lived in lots of different cities in China and now lives in Taiwan. I was very impressed, and he said he was a good typer (in which case its on, I have yet to meet a foreigner who can out type my Chinese).
After that, I ran around like crazy taking photos before the sun decided to get serious about setting. When that started happening, I had to get moving. If the sun set, driving through the gorge would really suck, and may lead to an unfortunate trip over the guard rail and down the gorge. So I had, to a certain extent, keep moving. That said, it was really amazing zipping through the gorge, fresh air, few people on the road, while the sun set.
Leaving the gorge I hit the highway to go back to Hualian. As I was coming back, I saw that the police that had stopped me were still where I had left them pulling over people. However, now they had friends on the other side of the road, my side of the road. I didn't have time to pull off into any other streets before I hit them, so I just went onwards.
They flagged me down, and I got over. This time it was a group of five cops. The "English speaker" of the group "took this one" (pull up your belt when you say that). He asked me if I had my passport (in broken, but not outrageously terrible English), I said I did and gave him the passport. Then he said, "driver's license...international driver's license." That last one scared me for two reasons. 1 - I was impressed he knew the word international. 2 - That last one had just asked for a license.

PTI: Someone behind me has a comically scary voice behind me. Not loud, just grainy and high pitched. Think horror movie.

So, rather than saying I did not have one, I humbly gave him the bike registration, the same one I had given the other cop that morning. I had not really looked at this registration for the record. It could have said "please arrest this foreigner" as far as I knew. Yet I was not nervous this time (well, a little, but nothing of note), why?
The cop was not really thinking about the "license." He fiddled with it, flipped it, looked at it, but he in no way read it. How did I know? Because I knew his look, I knew what he was thinking. He was thinking "What can I say in English?" He was impressing his boys. They all were clearly impressed with his English, and he wanted to keep it up, he was looking at the license but thinking about what to say to keep up his image.
How did I know? Because I have totally been there. My goal was not really to impress friends, but rather the listener. I would pretend to be casual about a language I was far from mastering. I rarely do this with Chinese now, but when I was first learning I often would pretend to be casually speaking but really be straining hard for each word.

PTI: I see why the group with weird voice sat in the back, clearly it is not to scare people, but it gets me every time, it sounds like the ghost from any number of movies is behind me promising me a terrible death. I feel sorry for his situation, I think it might be from smoking, it might be genetic.

So the cop pretends to look at the "license" and then gives it back while off hand asking me where I am from. I talked with him a bit, his English was really not that bad, but nothing special. Occasionally he slipped into Chinese and his boys would remind him I did not understand. At the end he asked me, "Can you speak Chinese?'
"Uhh...yeah..." (I normally answer this with a rather definitive yes).
The cop added a very sarcastic "A little?" to which his friends all laughed and enjoyed. In their eyes this fluent cop was talking to a foreigner who despite a year in Taiwan did not really speak any Chinese.
It actually felt like one sentence was physically going around and around my head, "pride before the fall, pride before the fall, pride for the fall."
"Uhh...yeah, I can speak a little. Thanks, bye!"
Is there a translation of pride before the fall in Chinese? If some especially impressive English/Chinese speaker is reading this, add to the comments!
My main thought? What if that had happened in Taiwan, where I did not even carry my registration. I was pretty sure I was getting away lucky, but I had no idea. That said, Hualian's traffic is a whole different breed here. Here people don't run red lights, which leads me to utter confusion. I keep hitting T intersections where people are waiting and looking around like "Sooo, what are we waiting for here?"
To be fair, this is probably due to the random police checks (and more police cars than I see in Tainan for months at a time). This has a weird effect though. People still do illegal things, but they do it with the confidence that no one will do something more illegal than them. Thus they do some really nutty stuff, that stands in contrast to the otherwise law-abiding driving. In Tainan, when you are breaking the law you are more afraid of someone really breaking the law. The constant bedlam of Tainan reaches an equilibrium of constant offense and defense. Here, when people do something crazy, people are clearly not as prepared, in Tainan, thats just driving.
Another weird thing about Hualian: Hualian's beetle nut addiction is out of control. Tainan has a lot of stands, but here we are talking about every few blocks. They are everywhere. There are streets where you can see three or four at a time.

PTI: There is a cop outside, actually two, Hualian is really in lock down in comparison to Tainan.

New topic, my Chinese is doing decent. Speaking a lot of it at random intervals throughout the day has been good. Because Taiwanese is less common here, I have heard many side conversations, often about me. I have been speaking more and more casually. I just don't want that to go away. The other day I met a taxi driver who lived in America for the better part of a decade, left with fluent English, however he has now completely forgotten it (he could have been lying, but Taiwan is a pretty truthful place on the whole, plus he had a pretty real sounding story.

PTI: Another cop! And the voice is getting scarier.

Last thing, I negotiated the price for my room down to five hundred, its more than a hostel but actually not by much. I am spending about my average amount while traveling (fifty dollars a day), I have no idea if that will go way up in China or way down. The biggest cost is the actually traveling, motorcycles, trains, buses, and the like.
Sorry this entry was so long, but i will probably disappear a bit in Hong Kong (Allison is meeting me there so I will have less time).

The gorge part 1

2006-07-04T20:23:00.000+08:00

Where I am now: I am on another sidewalk. There are three bar/cafes nearby, all three of which look like they could have wireless, but don't. However, the point somewhere between all three of them does. My best estimate is that it is coming from the beetle nut stand being man by the old woman staring at the foreigner sitting on the sidewalk typing on a computer.
I really need to add to this story, and I have a boat load of photos. I will send them from the "hang-out" tonight, but I wanted to first scout out a new location (I wanted to get food too, but it looks like this connection is not from a food serving local). Well thank you CHTN_T07AW, wherever you are. By the way, there is no way I am sitting on the sidewalk with an expensive laptop on my lap in the middle of a Chinese city. Anyway, this morning...

I apparently got up too early for the sketchy motorcycle place, so I am instead having some breakfast at a local breakfast joint. What was funny was that everyone knew which was the sketchy joint. No less than three people told me to go there. Last night the clerk said she would take me to pony and get my a scooter. This morning, two either clerks both said "You don't have a license? Okay, no way, but that guy..."

PTI: I am at a 7-11 near the gorge enjoying a free pudding I just won. No wireless, from the neighbors, dang.

So the sketchy guy rented me a scooter, I drove the scooter, I got pulled over. There was a police check up ahead on the highway, and they looked busy with someone else. So I just went, and the other guy left at just the wrong time, so they pulled me over. He said "Can I see your driver's license?"
My heart was pounding, not fast, but really hard, I think my heart was knocking my shoulders around. I pretended I didn't understand and sort of looked around.
He did the international sign of drivers license, you know, the little rectangle made of fingers. I went "Oh" and pulled out the motorcycle's registration. As I pulled it out, he said "right, right." He looked over the registration and then said, "Okay, can I see your..."
My heart was screaming "Don't say driver's license!"
"Passport," and that, I got [editor's note: passport was actually said in English, they say that word in English at least half the time]
He looked at the passport, and let me go. He then told me to slow it down, and I said "Was I going too fast?"
He answered "No, but make sure to be in the white lines for the motorcycle."
I said, "Oh sorry, just wanted to make sure not to crash into you."
Then, I asked "Is this the way to Taruko" and he said yes.
The problem? That was all in Chinese, which I had tried to establish I did not speak. But it was okay.
The Taiwanese people at this 7-11 sitting next to me are LOUD, time to go.

PTI: I am in the gorge itself, and definitely no wireless. The gorge is amazing. If one travels to Taiwan and does not see this, they made a big mistake (Allison). However, one of the things I find most interesting about the gorge is not the nature, but the man.

Taiwan does not do serious hiking. The average Taiwanese trip is drive for four or five hours, eat for an hour or two, hike for half an hour to an hour, appreciate a view for thirty minutes to an hour, eat for another hour or two, drive back for four or five hours.
As such, the parks here are meant to be easy access. You can see amazing stuff without leaving your scooter, in fact, many of my photos so far have been taken while actually still on a scooter. I hope to do one or two of the trails late today (it is not even noon yet), but for now, I am having fun driving around and seeing the gorge.
This need for accessibility forces the park to basically take humans and jam it through the mountains. The roads are windy, and sometimes far too small (oncoming buses add a whole new thrill to life on tight corners), but they are always nice. Its a blast to drive around in this paradise, especially on a very smooth ill-gotten 摩托車 (motorcycle).
Some of the tunnels are jammed right through big mountains, using the same stone as the mountain itself to make the tunnel. Thus the two blend together except for the fact that the man man stuff is beautiful in its simplicity and the mountain is beautiful in its complexity.
I am torn as to how I feel about this. I am not religious enough to say man has no right to blast through mountains. Furthermore, if you do too good of a job, you defeat the purpose. In America, I have not been to too many national parks. I guess thats for a few reasons, one is that I was always a city person when it comes to traveling. I like meeting people, and seeing ways of life. Its why I care about stuff like wireless. Its why I can give a sickeningly detailed account of the Mexico wooden chess board business' price structure. Its why I average something like 10 conversations a day, and usually ask the same questions each time, (these questions depend on where I am, but in Taiwan the first two are always "What city are you from?" and then "At your house, do you speak Taiwanese or Chinese?"
Yet I don't do that in nature. Perhaps I haven't liked it as much because its not as interactive. With mountains, I can touch them, I can photograph them, I can write about them, but they are not moving. They do not care that I am looking at them. Hiking provides wonderful surprises sure enough, but I don't feel like I have a conversation going with nature.
Some people do have that conversation with nature, and I think someday I will too. I think the way is to pick what you are looking for, like you might look for wireless internet in odd places throughout Taiwan. Right now I hear the composite sounds of countless amounts of bugs, birds, water, trees, and a few people. Listening to just one of those sounds provides a very cool interaction, but its not something I am used to. My theory is that the people that really appreciate nature have that conversation, they can look at the little picture to appreciate the big picture. Their own thoughts influence their perspective, which influences their thoughts. Perhaps I will get there, but now I am still a city boy with a motorcycle waiting down the steps of the man made platform I am on (that paragraph is undoubtedly one rewrite from being good, but right now I will leave it as poorly written).
So here I see half man and half nature. The Taiwanese have done a good job, there is no question of that. I hope the environment withstands the holes, but my thought is that the environment withstands a lot more, and millions of years worth of it as well. I am not saying start gouging, I am saying that there is a balance, and from a layman's perspective the Taiwanese are not doing so bad. There are problems according to my guide book, but none of them sound all the grave compared to those using nature for its materials not its beauty.
Random note, many of those photos I put up recently were of Kending. I did not describe Kending much, but it was really great. Again, lots of beautiful driving around rolling hills, lush greenery and thanks to John, good company. At one point, John made an off hand comment that you have to dodge butterflies when driving. For the most part I did a good job of this, expect for once when a butterfly collided with my face going at full speed, it so hard that it genuinely hurt. The same thing happened here as well, but far more gently. I appreciate any place where you have "dodge butterflies."
My favorite sight so far, other than the gorge itself, is the Swallow's Grotto, where swallows come to get down. They swoop and dive and generally act as unphotogenic but incredibly graceful as possible. I tried my best to catch one in my lens, even putting my shutter speed to 1/200; I got a couple shots of them, but really it was just not happening. It was a nice reminder that as techy as I might make this trip, sometimes you should just be there. So I put the camera away, and I was just there, watching swirling swallows diving through holes and generally being beautiful. Now I am going to put the computer away and watch this mountain do the same as the swallows, be beautiful.

PTI: I have explored most of the gorge, but still no real hiking (though some walking down the old highway). Now I am chilling in a Chinese marble pagoda set up next to a famous bridge in the gorge.

I like it here partially because the first time I saw this bridge was one www.camereye.com. The photographer is extremely talented and she inspired me to try more in my own photos. One of the first photos I saw of hers was a photo of this bridge. So now being at the bridge I want to capture the beauty that she did but in a different way. I don't think I have anything comparable to her, but I have taken some good photos. Part of the problem is that this gorge is so beautiful that I am out of my league. Anyone can make here pretty, the place simply does not need their help.
I decided to bust out the computer because I found this nice relaxing place and I was thinking. One of the reasons I was thinking was that I just had tea. An older Taiwanese couple set up in a near by pagoda that I was taking pictures in. They offered me to join them. Afterwards, an elderly Japanese couple with their Taiwanese tour guide joined us. We relaxed, drank tea, talked about Canon camera, bitter tea, and the beauty of the gorge.
It was really nice, I did not have much similar with the group culturally except things I have adopted into my own life, which is Chinese and random bits of Japanese.
Well, I think I am going to sit here for a while and think about life, then take more photos, then get back to exploring, a bitter day indeed.

Also, this is about how I feel

2006-07-03T23:33:00.000+08:00

This is a photo taken by John that is now my desktop. Things are good...

Because I love you, photos

2006-07-03T23:20:00.000+08:00

Here is a small collection of photos. I am saving some so that you have a reason to see the big collection, also this was taking way more time than it should (I try to keep it under thirty minutes for blogging not done on a mode of transportation).

Chilling in Hualian (花連)

2006-07-03T23:14:00.000+08:00

While leaving the sidewalk hotspot, I started looking for somewhere to eat. In doing so I discovered what could be best described as a "hang out." They got food, drinks, tons of games, books, and wireless internet. It is even brightly colored like Saved By The Bell's "The Max" but with less neon (okay, they are nothing alike, but it came to mind).
After getting off the train, I braved the rain and hit up a hotel and asked them how much, their price was about $50 US. I hit the road and asked the next place. In terrible English she said the rooms were about $25, I said okay, I was going to go a looking, then she went to $22, I said thanks and started to leave and she dropped to $18. It was a good play on her part because I did not even think of it as negotiating until then, so I said whatever and I am there.
She had more expensive rooms with internet, but they were wired. By the way, its a pain to explain that I can't use wired internet because of a small traveling project.
On the way here a tall blond guy who looked like a missionary minus his lack of the "uniform." I saw him speaking Chinese to get directions and afterwards we ended up talking. I discovered he was from Utah and this was his second time here, the first time as a missionary.
I think my obsession with missionaries is partially the Chinese thing. The missionaries here are all learning Chinese, if not Taiwanese, which puts them in a rare class of foreigners. I have come to believe that one should never compare their language skill against another, its too abstract and there are so many ways to judge (I know a boat load of people who can read more than me, a boat load that can speak better than me, but much fewer that can do both).
The missionaries are famous for their Chinese, and I want to know how they learn. My impression is they have virtually no English (and they don't have to teach!) which sure would help. However, I don't know if they have some kick ass system of learning or if the average missionary has been here for at least two years (that number is probably much greater).
The other main school I think about is the Foreign Service. I almost entered the foreign service and often worry that I could have learned more there. However, my very sweet friend Sally, who was interviewed for an American Visa, said that my Chinese was better than all six agents that interviewed her. True or not, that made me feel pretty good.
Last thing, speaking Chinese has led to some super awkward moments. The hotel lady originally kept using terrible English and I answered in Chinese. It took her a very long time to stop thinking about how to say what she wanted in English and realized that I actually was speaking Chinese. A better example was when I came in here, there were a group of students playing cards who just started blatantly talking about me like I was not in the room, saying "he speaks Chinese" no less. It was mad awkward because I ended up shooting them a dirty look without intending to do so.

Turning up to Hualian

2006-07-03T22:34:00.000+08:00

This update (again, two entries), is being done outside of a liquor store on the sidewalk. I decided to walk around my cheap hotel, assuming the expensive hotel next-door had wireless. It did, but I could not get online. I am literally in the middle of the sidewalk, so I should go. I really sensed this hotspot, I am getting good. I asked the bar nearby and the liquor store, its not theirs, so who knows where it is coming from.

Green island very much lived up to its name, both there and back I may have been completely green. As per usual, I enlisted the kindness of strangers before I came back, someone gave me nausea medicine hearing my tale of ill on the way to the island. This was a massive relief, rather than constantly wanting to vomit I constantly wondered if I might vomit. The later, I assure you, is preferable.
Getting off the boat onto solid land has been a rough process. I almost took a taxi driver's head off. They were all yelling bad English to me, which I was not an especially big fan of, being that my head was still rotating on a two foot access around my neck. I told them "don't yell at me," and kept walking.
I was offered food by someone yelling at me, so I went across the street to his competitor, and was greeted by a polite Chinese "One person?" which was an incredible relief.
I need to sober up a bit, I am tired after a long day, but have to hit a train to Hualian. There I am planning on going way slower, whatever I do, I want to take my time. However being what I will probably do is "the gorge" I am not sure how much of an opportunity I will get. Speaking of which, I am going to go read what the heck the gorge is.

PTI: You can easily freak out Taiwanese people by staring at them and typing in English. Kids love to watch me, I just watch them watching me while clacking away.

PTI: I am in the Taidong train station and found a wireless network, but can't get really on it. This is an interesting caveat on the whole wireless discussion I have going, places with it but its not really usable. For instance, I won't pay for wireless as a rule on this trip, so there should be countless places like that. I think the brief connection that wafted in at the wharf was such a connection, but for some reason gave me a connection (a Mac issue?). This connection's problem seems to be that they have security to charge people, but they set it up poorly.

One more thing to note, I really am sorry about the problems that will be in all of these entries. This is reading for the small group of people that want to hear from me so bad that they can put up with what basically translates as notes. This is very much a journal and I am just whipping things down in free moments, typically during waits or when I just can't take moving.
I also want to add that traveling Taiwan is really great. Sometimes it is not easy, but this place really is beautiful. By and large the people are incredibly helpful and sweet. I remain optimistic for China, but I don't think I will find this sort of genuineness there. I often wonder about where the general niceness of Taiwanese people comes from, I think by and large its economic. They can afford to be nice. They don't have to be constantly on attack or guard, trying to survive and stave off others who plan on attacking. I have been to a range of economies, and there are exceptions, but I can't help but think Taiwan has a big big blessing when it comes to their economy.

Off to greener islands

2006-07-03T22:32:00.000+08:00

Right now I am going to Green Island. To be specific, I am on a little van going to the ferry. I paid some van company, composed of a real nice family (with dog) to make this easier, and I must say it is easier. They set up my tickets and its cheaper than a taxi.

PTI: Okay, now I am on the boat to Green Island. I met some great people on the van, one of which had spent a lot of time in America, but did not speak English. It was a good confidence builder because we spoke pretty fluently and without much of a problem.
The chops are pretty harsh on this boat, lot of up, and then a lot of down.

I was pretty excited because I got a small chunk of a free wireless access point from the wharf, which was simply shockingly random. I tried a one sentence, very silly post, and I look forward to seeing if it got off, right now the window is still stuck sending.
Which leads to a good question, why am I spending so much internet on wireless? Because wireless says a lot. Wireless is optional, no one really has to offer it outside of high class hotels. Yet so many people do. Partially because its cheap to set up. Partially because the company itself uses the wireless. Nevertheless, I find hotspots to be a big indicator of the nature of the people.
Taiwan is pretty hooked up. Many hotels have wireless (some have wired, but many have wireless in the lobby). China? I don't expect to much but I would love to be surprised.
Anyway, off of technology and on to the basic.

PTI: This boat is rocking, and with it my stomach. I am mad hungry, but its probably good that I did not eat.

I am excited to go to Green Island and drive in some scenery, it all hingers on whether I can get a scooter. If I can't, I don't think I can make of the only four hours I have there.
If I do get one, I can make the loop and check out the sights I want to see (a white sand beach, lots of cool rocks, and a natural salt water hot springs).

PTI: Okay the boat has twice now gotten at least a little air-born. I need to sign off, typing this is making me far too sea sick.

PTI: Now on flat land on the island, that last paragraph was the beginning of a terrible terrible trip, oh man. I am shocked I did not vomit. I only have three and a half hours, agh! Gotta go to go.

PTI: Wow, this PTI thing has gotten out of control. Now I am at an all you can eat ice shavings place. A little child is reading this (six years old) as we speak, amazed at the awesome and wild power that is a 蘋果 (Apple) 電腦 (computer).

Oh man am I burnt, I am sporting a look not unlike Nick, Miranda, Allison and the other super whities that compose my friends. When we got off that horrid, horrid boat, I put my luggage into a van that my friends had put their luggage into. Then, the van drove away, very much driving away without us inside. Suddenly I realized that this had been a bus for a specific hotel, not just some company that did scooters or something of the like (I thought maybe we were disconnected from the main island and the bus took us to the main island).
Anyway, the hotel that my friends are staying at helped me get a scooter (despite me not having an ARC = it being illegal) and are protecting my main luggage. Then I tore around the island.
Despite my dad's claims as I came to Taiwan, there are some interesting rocks in Taiwan, at least to the layman.

PTI: Just found two man sized hairs in my ice shavings - before I shaved my head this morning I could at least pretend they were someone else's, ewwwww...

The road that encircles this island is a driver's paradise, but I ended up with the worst scooter on this island. At points I was pumping the gas up and down. It killed out a few times and was always a bitch to start. That said, it was still fun, and I really got around this island.
I took at least a hundred photos of the scenery, went into a temple/cave, saw what I believe to be grazing yack, went to apparently one of only three natural salt water hot springs in the world, and generally rocked out.
I am resting at this little ice place, the first, and the last, buffet style ice shavings place I have been to. Then I have to take that horrible, horrible boat. I am dreading that trip. Last time, two kids puked, and at least a handful of adults, I was far too close.
To close on a more thought out note. I have no idea the status of foreigners ability to speak Chinese in Taiwan. I want some figures damn it. In Kenting, the owner of a local beach place said virtually all the foreign customers could speak, from a little to a lot. Here, the bus driver who took my to Ludao said virtually non could. Sometimes people stretch the limits of their English in morbid fear of me. Sometimes people assume I speak some, though this is rare and its clear they are sort of testing me in a way.
This has been great for my Chinese on the whole. Most vacationers seem to speak Mandarin over Taiwanese. Furthermore, they are feeling more open, so its easy to start conversations. Lastly, I am more open, so there are more conversations.
Hmmm...eating these ice shavings was a mistake, my stomach already hurts. I am going to hit 7-11 for something a bit more solid and some water. Wish me luck on that boat. Though I guess there is virtually no chance of me posting this before I take aforementioned boat.

Holy shit

2006-07-03T11:41:00.000+08:00

Free wireless at the boat station. We are about to leave, I am going to post now.

---Amendment: I am really psyched this post got up. I sent it from the leaving boat, and it was at 60% on my screen when I lost contact with the connection.

A Random Friend

2006-07-03T10:18:00.000+08:00

First encounter of wireless: The Taidong hotel I am not staying at. It is super nice looking, and the desk clerk was really sweet. I am waiting for a bus to take me to a boat place to get to Green Island and hope to god I can find a sketchy place where I can rent a scooter without an ARC (my boss took it, Grr Valen, Grr).
My hair is nearly completely gone, shaved it! Mailed two more packages, so my luggage is not so bad. No time, gotta go, there should be another new post under this.
To my family and friends SORRY ABOUT THE GRAMMAR AND SPELLING. Some words might end mid-word, sentences might end mid-sentence. I am literally writing all of this stuff in trains, buses and in the middle of the night right before bed. Right now for instance I am on a super small time limit.

PTI: I have to write less, if I want to convey even an eight of what I am doing, I have to write way, way less.

So I get out of the train station and I am looking clueless. The train station is way out of town, and I need to get into town. The buses are clearly not running. Otherwise, it looks like a taxi, something I was figuring I would have to get used to. But a girl from the train stops me. I had talked with her briefly to make sure that I was on the right train (discovering my seat taken).
She talked with me a while, and eventually dropped that she wanted to drive me into town, but she was afraid her motorcycle was too small. I concurred, but we slowly moved in that direction, as she had rising confidence that her scooter could handle what I had just moments referred to as a "sickening" amount of baggage.
But we stuffed it in. Man did we stuff it in. The scooter was small, but we were formidable and overcame. She drove me to the old train station (which no longer runs because apparently the most convenient place in town would be the worst place to have a station). Then we went to the "Gringo Hotel."
She was a Christian (and worked as a nurse for a Christian or Mormon hospital). I told her I wanted to buy her a drink (tea, it was clear she was the tea type). And she said sure.
We had to call a series of numbers at the Gringo to get someone to show up. The girl was Coco. Coco was fantastically drunk and not wearing a skirt in the sense that one might think of a skirt, but rather one might think of a belt. Around the same width, height, and usefulness in covering ones privates.
Coco led to me a very run down, cheap, but entirely functional room, where I am typing this out now. Afterwards, my new friend and I went over to the club that my residency at the Gringo got me in free to. It was just another dance club. Low lights, loud music, and no one there on a Monday.
We sat there, drank orange juice, and chit chatted. She was one of those Taiwanese people that uses a near constant stream of word's I don't know, which made things difficult. After a while, I got used to her style of speaking, and it was okay, but we did not exactly connect on a deeper level than "Hey, its cool someone other than Brazil will win the World Cup."
After a failed attempt at teaching her to dance, we went out ways.
The thing I liked the most? She had no ulterior motive. I think she wanted to help me, because thats what you should do. She asked for nothing. She almost left without us at least exchanging emails. She had no desire to practice English, she just wanted to help. It was nice.

Starting my trip

2006-07-03T10:16:00.000+08:00

I am not on wireless right now, but the thought was that I can start typing away on trains and buses, then upload the entries when I get wireless (again, having wireless is a rule). This might make a few entries a collection of locations, and perhaps, very very long.
Not only am I not on wireless, I am not on my seat. I am in that look nook between trains, the one next to the bathroom. I adopted a Taiwanese guy's strategy of propping myself up within the door frame (however he got the door that is not being use, I didn't). I have a seat, one that I paid for and everything, however I don't feel inclined to chase down justice from the thirty-something year old woman sitting in my seat. The cabin is otherwise full, half the people are sleeping, and I am carrying a shameful amount of luggage. Again, its just not worth it. If it was at a stop I would have enforced, but it was during mid-trip (I was told to stand until one station and then sit down at the next).
I don't mean to write so much on this issue but it actually says a lot about me traveling. Even last year, I would not have cared. Now I don't care, but I did think about kicking her out. This would be rather silly, as when I am sitting down and see that a woman is standing, I typically offer my seat (I have debated whether this is chivalry or some obscure form of masochism).
What this shows is that I am getting to be a softer traveler. I think I still have the potential to sleep in terrible hostels and have eighty stop overs for an otherwise hour long flight. To save money, I would do anything, putting myself in a mind of inconvience not being a big deal.
Now I am down right posh. I like nicer hotels. Those buses I took in Mexico? Hell no. I am not up to my students level of "why don't you fly to Taipei?" but I will spend more to sit down in, you know, a seat.
This is my first train alone on a pretty long trip. I left Tainan on Saturday and it was hectic, and shall I say, stupid. I really whipped things together, partially because I had so much to do. I was trying to say bye to a city that treated me very well, take classes, teach classes, give final tests, grade final tests, pack, prepare for China, prepare for Taiwan, and keep up with Kung Fu all at the same time. It got ugly and corners got cut.

PTI: [present tense interjection] this is a new creation for something made at the time of original writing, I ran into moments like this a lot, and this is a new notation system for them]. A new guy joined are little stairwell group and he keeps staring at me. Its clear he wants to talk, but he is afriad I don't speak Chinese. Mind you, he looks very nice (Taiwanese are not intimidating, save the worrying for China). Anyway, I would talk to him, but I am not sure what I would say, plus I really want to write some of this blog out).

So one of the corners that got cut was that throwing stuff away was hectic and fast. This included throwing away the plane tickets that my mom dutifuly sent to Taiwan. I did not realize this until we got to the Tainan trainstation, requiring a tri8p back to my home, a search through my recycling, and a trip back to the station.
That said, I have them, and hopefully I have my stuidities behind me. To be honest, I am a little scarred. I have had so many different kinds of people tell me to "be careful in China." The Taiwanese people have real trust issues with mainlanders, and I heard 小心 (careful) more times than I could possible count, and from all kinds of people too. Furthermore, its my year. I am a dog, and when it turned to dog year, I was pretty psyched. I assumed that your year should kick butt right? Well not so according to Taiwanese and Japanese alike, who all warned me that I should be extra careful this year. The omens are lining up against me, this is where being an athetist is handy.
That said, I am scared, Taiwan is like the pre-school version..

PTI: I finally spoke the man in the "trainwell." He was very nice, and it was clear he wanted to practice his English. As such, he spoke Chinese but threw in English words to spice it up. Anyway, when we got to a stop I bid him farewell and took some empty seat, my back was killing me in there and i want to get some sleep when I finish this. Though I felt rude taking off on him on essentially mid-conversation, priorities.
Last thing, for some reason the train cabin smells more like shit than the bathroom hallway did.

Taiwan is like the pre-school version of China, all the corners are plastic and rubbed down to gentle curves. You will meet sketchy characters, but they might take your basketball, probably not your life's possessions. Worse yet, I travel with a small bank on me. I got a lot of money right before I left Tainan, from classes and selling things. So I am carrying more money than I personally prefer to carry. I also have my computer, camera, and iPod. All today, I probably have $2,000 on my person, which is amazing since my net assets may actually be worth less than that somehow.
I am a smart traveler, but I am still scarred. Right now I have too many bags, and I think two are about to get sent or thrown away if it kills me. The worst is debating on whether or not to throw away my shoes. I want to go hiking in mountains and such, but man my shoes are big (in comparison to my sandals which are super small.
Agh, my next station is Taidong (Taitung in terrible pinyin, and 台東 in Chinese). Thus, I don't have much more time to type. I think that will be a problem with a lot of these entries. There will not be much editing (though I think I will give access to the blog to the two people most likely to edit it), and there will be a lot of ideas brought up and then dropped midway.
In a sense, I am trying to fufill a goal. I said I wanted to come here and write two books. My blogs in Tainan were not great, but I am going to count them damn it. I drifted in and out of good writing, and kept at least four people interested, that is not bad for something that had so much self deprecating. This is the next book going to China.
Yesterday and today I was in Kending, the southern most area of Taiwan, and a really cool little beach town. Tomorrow, probably Green Island. Alright, I need to prepare a sickening amount of baggage to get off at the next station.

Tainan

2006-07-01T01:27:00.000+08:00

So this blog is going to take an odd turn. My time in Tainan is up, and I am going to start traveling. Tianan has been great and has left the best impression on me. Now I am going to travel China for a month.
This blog will probably not be updated much (not that it is is now) while I am there. But that depends. The goal will be to update every-time I find a wireless connection. The economies of wireless internet have always bee n interesting to me. As such, anytime that I find a free connection, from hotel to cafe, I will put up a blog of some sort, if nothing but a sentence.
I look forward to see how many blogs get written. Anyway, first I am in tainan until tomorrow morning. I taught my last class, scolded my last kid, and am packing now. Its time to move on, on towards the beach and Kending, then up North. I will put up more with time.

Andrew Leonard's blog

2006-06-21T22:33:00.000+08:00

I hope to put up a real blog entry soon, and a whole new blog soon after that. For now however, I am reading up and working on aforementioned new blog. However, in the meantime, read this

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2006/06/06/wade/index.html?source=htww.rss

It was comforting to find out that someone I respect (at least so far I find this Andrew Leonard very smart and interesting), did the teacher in Taiwan thing. Furthermore at about the same age and for more time. I also agree with the article and how Taiwan has grown.

That said, I do think that the WTO can eventually be a tool for increased trade, rather than a deterrent. Although I agree with him, right now the WTO is likely doing more harm than good, I feel over time its role will assist the world more and more.

I also recommend the blog in general, very interesting stuff (despite the stupid advertisement).