squat pots.

My biggest accomplishment during our trip to Qingdao was my conquest of my fear of squat pots. Mind you, I will NEVER be ok with how they smell or the idea that you have to squat over some hole that doesn't necessarily flush each time or that you sometimes see the presents others leave behind. But, when you're desperate enough, you find yourself doing things you never thought you'd do..like eliminate in a squattie. I think about 4 squatties had the privilege of seeing my bare ass. One of them was particularly disgusting. It was in the arcade. I don't know if it's cus the kids are just messier or what or the cleaning lady doesn't come by at all, but i nearly fainted from the fumes of other people's waste. Yeah, that's how bad I had to go. Anyway, what's that quote, the only thing you have to fear is fear itself? Well, that and squatties. I think between squatties and port-o-potties, I'd still choose the former cus at least they flush....sometimes. :P~~

what's your secret?

I follow this website weekly, called PostSecret. People send in their anonymous secrets on postcards and Frank Warren, who runs this project, selects secrets each week that he posts on the website. This one particularly touched me. I can see myself sending a secret in, just like this, except it wouldn't really be a secret. :) i absolutely adore canines.

Yu Yuan (Garden of Leisurely Repose)

the biggest abacus i have ever laid eyes on!

Pavilion

the demolition of the Old City

i want you!

you can carve your name on the edges of these jade stones, like old school kings did.

the biggest rubik's cube i've ever seen!

Fashion Street--gosh where is the fashion police when you need them?

why does the caged bird sing?

City God Temple--it was closed

koi koi koi!

r
a

elevated performance stage

It was an unusually cool day in Shanghai with a hint of blue in the sky so I decided to take advantage of it. I had been wanting to check out Old City, or ancient Shanghai before the mass industrial revolution took place. The Old City is basically encircled by a loop consisting of 2 streets. Old architecture and homes were there. Sadly, I saw cranes taking down this old residential area as I walked along streets lined with lumber, construction vehicles, rubble, and broken sidewalk, making my map somewhat useless b/c most of the streets were pretty unrecognizable. After asking an old man and crossing streets quite dangerously, I followed hastily placed signs and entered the Old City. Once again, I was saddened at how horrendous and crowded the now tourist trap was. I imagined what it once looked like, with the dragon-decorated rooftops, glazed ceramic and cement and people carrying on with their daily lives. Now it was swarmed with both western and local tourists alike, and I elbowed my way through the crowds, ignoring the junk I would never buy and knock-offs of watches on brochures that these workers shoved in my face, in search of Yu Yuan. I entered into what I believed was the Old City, noted that the buildings looked quite old and were made of mostly black thatched rooftops with red lining. I entered even deeper into this tourist trap conglomerate (mind you this was the weekend so crowds are about 5 times as thick), asked a lady where Yu Yuan was and she gave me a look as if I had just spoken Greek. I followed a sign then found the garden and entered. It was quite beautiful in there. I saw tons of black glazed ceramic. The stones formed many interesting rock formations, were carved into dragons and told stories of wars and mythical creatures. There were tons of strangely geometrically shaped thresholds, really Last Emperor-looking doors, and water everywhere. It was like the garden was floating on water. Tons of koi managed to survive in the greenish yellow water. After I left, I decided to look for Shanghai Old Street and found it easily with a map I got from some tourist booth. Once again, I could see how it used to look, without all these tourists filling up every inch of the sidewalk. I wandered around for a bit, ordered a cup of Coconut Milk Tea (it tasted kinda weird), then began my search for the closest Metro. I began walking down random streets, enjoying the safety of "getting lost" while having 2 maps on hand. There was a gentle cool afternoon breeze blowing and as I entered the New City again, I looked behind and could not see the Old City anymore. It was like it was a magical hidden world that disappears once you leave. Something like the Bridge to Terabithia?

Exploring is one of the activities that make me happiest. Today, I fell in love with Shanghai again.

imsomnia cafe sells Matcha tea.

insomnia is no fun. it started during our qingdao trip. we would stay up real late watching Nat Geo and playing our hand-held games. the clock would strike 4, then we would hustle to bed. we would wake around 2 the next day and start the whole thing over again. after we got back to shanghai, i could not break the cycle. after initially going comatose for about 2 days, i continued my reverse sleeping patterns which then affected my wake patterns. it became hard to get up in the mornings, esp. for work. i've finally started to sorta reverse things back to the original (thanks to the daily 8am drilling upstairs) but then i had to have a matcha tea today and here i am, almost 3am and still WIRED! argg. it's ironic b/c usually dave is the one staying up real late and me passing out when my head hits the pillow but he has been fast asleep for hours now. well it does have something to do with his having an interview tomorrow but still, this is ridiculous!! i need to lay off my green tea espresso.

but at least i'm being productive. i've just applied to 2 positions in dublin. going with the whole green theme and all. :)

Tokyo.

We are visiting Tokyo next month. I've been all knotted up about preparing for our trip b/c I want to squeeze in all the cool worthy things to do and see in Tokyo in that one week, which I know is impossible b/c there is just too much to do and see there. I was doing some research on the Lonely Planet about what to see and do, weather, tips, etc. I found this interesting, esp. the bit about the literacy rate, lifespan of females, and number of ramen stands. The ramen stands tidbit alone is enough to make me consider moving there. :)

Fast Facts about Japan

• Literacy rate

  99%

• Latitude of Tokyo

  at 35.4°N, the same as Tehran, and about the same as Los Angeles (34.05°N) and Crete (35°N)

• Islands in the Japanese archipelago

  approximately 3900

• GDP

  US$4.4 trillion (the world’s second-biggest economy)

• World’s busiest station

  Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station, servicing 740, 000 passengers a day

• Population

  127 million people

• Female life expectancy

  84.5 years

• Average annual snowfall at Niseko ski area in Hokkaidō

  more than 11m

• Number of rāmen restaurants:

  more than 200, 000

change is in the air.

great and exciting and unpredictable change is in the air. wait, isn't that the nature of change?
toss a coin and see where it lands.
or close your eyes and point to a spot on the globe.
and that's where we're going.
in the meantime, we're going to hit our dream asia spots before we dig.
he picked tokyo.
and me taiwan.

off we go for a 2fer.
then off we go forever.

peace out sistas and brothas, on both sides of da globe.

my wish list.

i wish they would turn the water back on or at least tell us when it will be back on.
i wish my stomach troubles would go away and i could feel normal again.
i wish it would cool down around here.
i wish i could motivate myself to do some work.
i wish i were on a beach on some tropical destination.

family pictures.

My Qingdao Beerthday.

the hotel knew it was my bday and dropped off these.

just outside the elevators on ground floor in our hotel, every night, there were 3 "hairdressers" offering "massage" services: K, marilyn monroe and brownie. here's their card.

a peek at a mansion villa thru stone walls at BaDaGuan. the only view i could actually afford!

some dude showing off his skatin' skills at some indoor skating rink in a vegas-like arcade place. i'm getting flashbacks of Skateway w Depeche mode playing.

one of the Bathing beaches at BaDaGuan. You can see the stone Russian home far in the distance.

Dengzhou lu, the street the brewery was on. very euro looking

the QD brewery

2 workers staring at endless amounts of beer bottles

beer and nuts--the perfect combo

int'l wall of beer

can you spot the beer god?

QD brewery

Little QD Island--i really enjoyed the rocks and sea here.

View from Little QD island

Little QD island rocks. Reminds me of Laguna beach rocks.

Little QD island ocean view.

at the top of the Qingdao TV tower. it was an unusually nice and clear day and we took the taxi driver's advice to go check out the view. so glad we did!

being sold in our hotel room. this cracked me up. you get all this for just 50rmb!

Little Fish Mountain. dig the pagoda and the stud below it.

loved the view atop Little Fish Mtn. you can see the remnants of German architecture and the view of the ocean.

cuddling behind the governor's residence. there was a cool grassy area which i think was the backyard.

Former German Governor's residence--pretty cool.

the shit they sell in the May 5 plaza along the docks.

there it is! the famous torch symbolizing the May 4 movement! it's what began the whole communism movement.

beijing olypmics remnants. the sailing portion took place in QD.

live seafood you chose to be cooked and die!

Qingdao was a fun, relaxing and interesting b'day trip. i particularly enjoyed Little Fish Mountain, the red rooftops, the bathing beaches, BaDaGuan, the Qingdao TV Tower, the former Governor's residence, Little Qingdao Island, Qingdao Brewery, the remnants of the Beijing olympics, May 4 Plaza...well that would be everything! I love the coastal seaside feel of this town. The cool weather after the rain was a nice reprieve from the harsh humidity of shanghai. It reminded me alot of Seattle. I think the space needle type structure, wharfs and docks, ocean, seafood and overcast sky and rain were the similarities. Aside from not knowing what live seafood to pick and how to cook it, no real menus in the restaurants, the taxi drivers refusing to take us to our destination after telling them where, and some attempted scamming, it was the best birthday trip ever! I will download all the pics on facebook eventually b/c it would take forever to do it one by one onto my blog but will share some highlights. I can't say it was nice to be back in SH b/c as soon as we set foot in SH, the heat and humidity made us both want to go back to Qingdao. I especially miss the Qingdao Gold, this really good Qingdao beer we got for 8rmb at our hotel "arcade." It was fun taking swigs of it while walking down the street where the brewery was. We never got to drink the beer out of a plastic bag and straw, as locals do it, but I heard it tastes kinda weird anyway. Also, the locals aren't as used to seeing White people, and a white man with a Chinese girl so Dave got tons of blatant stares. But we're so used to it, it's actually kind of funny. This one girl asked to take a pic of dave at the TV tower. At first I thought she was trying to sell us the photo but it ends up she just wanted to take a snap of a white person. We got to ride the Maglev to the SH airport. It's this cool Monorail type thing where the train runs on magnets and levitates!! It's quite cool and we got to see how the other half lives--the view was of how the poor people lived way out in the boonies. The travel there was kinda hectic b/c although we arrived early, we couldn't figure out where to check in and if we needed to get some tickets. The line was long, people were cutting, and there was a half an hour delay. Then we had to push our way thru to get our tickets checked, squeeze into a shuttle then pile into the plane--such is the nature of travelling in china. The way back was much easier. When we got to QD, we had hotel shuttle take us to our hotel but didn't get in til way past 10. So we grabbed some late dinner at a cafe in the hotel and that's when we discovered QD Gold! We had awesome Korean and German food there too. We were looking for Bar Street then when the crazy taxi driver dropped us off at Disco street where there were tons of shady clubs, we figured this was it. After eating Korean, we kept walking and appeared to hit Bar Street. I later learned that by the brewery, there was also a Bar Street. That's the other thing there--taxi drivers create their own street lanes. They make 5 lanes out of 3. They drive in oncoming traffic to make shortcuts and cut in front of people. I have never feared for my life in a taxi cab as I did in QD! And the people there are pretty fearless too. They wait in the middle of a busy street to cross it! Crazy!