I’M DONE! FINISHED! FINEETO! DUNZO! In other words, I quit. Today was my last day at work, and it felt awesome. I had tried to change my job a while back but due to some personal difficulties it was not possible. And so now my time has come and I’M FREE!!! I don’t regret my time at VMC construtctioms. That is spelled correctly by the way. I learned a lot about interiors and I made great strides in my education. It was cool to work with the some of the upcoming designs for the Shanghai EXPO (http://en.expo2010.cn/). Now there were definitely some problems that occurred and I definitely have some “beef” with this company, but you can ask me about that later. So to all my coworkers that probably will never see this or even understand what this means, thanks and it’s been great. But to everyone else at the company… no comment.
Today was an exciting day…I didn’t go to work. Instead my friend Geoff and I ventured off to the Shanghai Auto show. I have never been to an auto show before, but I have been exposed to some high class automobiles in my life (thanks dad). So I was just excited to see what’s in store for the up and coming year. So here are some pics from the event and you can also go to my facebook album. Same procedure as before: COPY and PASTE.
The past two weeks have been quite eventful. I went to the island of Jeju in South Korea for another ultimate tournament. I went to the hospital, I’ve been going to work and just been hanging out with awesome people.
First up: Jeju
The name of this tournament was the Gnarly Nines, which means that each time has only 9 members; which also means that each team only has 2 subs for the entire weekend. We arrived into Jeju on Friday and immediately my lungs opened and I actually found it hard to breathe. It was almost as it my lungs were to happy or surprised to be inhaling such fresh air that it started to feel like heaving. We walked around the “town”, ate some nasty ol’ kimchee and some cold noodles and then some of us went to the beach. It was beautiful and it was cool to finally see a real beach and to just throw the Frisbee around. We got back to the hotel mingled with the other ultimate players and then headed to “bed”. My room didn’t have any beds; we were given comforters and fancy rugs to sleep on. First class all the way BABY!!!
The next morning we finally saw the famous Jeju fields. These fields are used by professional soccer players and are used in the World Cup. I have never seen or felt grass like this in my life. I immediately dove into the grass and fell in love. There were no patches, and the grass was just beautiful. Playing was awesome because it was so refreshing to play against people from Japan, South Korea, Guam, and other areas. I love playing against quality strangers because it greatly helps me to improve. My team, the evil HUWA, played hard, but the competition was just too strong for us. That night we attended the ultimate party where the theme was Rubik’s cube. I idea was to wear 6 different colored (red, green, blue, yellow, white, and orange) pieces of clothing and to by the end of the night be in one single color. Now the only way of achieving this is to trade and swap items of clothing. This helps people to meet new people by trading clothes and in a sense strip. Now the idea isn’t to strip, but to meet new people and to have fun. It was a great night and it was crazy to see how some people turned out.
The next day, the evil HUWA only played 2 days because of the brackets, but it was fun to watch HUWA make it to the finals, but sadly lose to a strong Korean team. On a good note, both shanghai teams were in the top 8 out of about 22 teams. Bucuo!
We were highly blessed with awesome weather and it seemed only fitting that we should experience the famous Jeju weather of torrential downpour and howling winds on the day that we were supposed to arrive back home to Shanghai. So because of the weather, we spent a good 7 hours in the Jeju airport, which meant more picture taking and more time seeing the reactions of people when they see foreigners. It will never get old! There is definitely more to the trip, but I can’t recall all of it because I was stupid and didn’t write this earlier. So enjoy the pictures and just copy and paste the links into a browser:
About two weeks ago from today I was playing ultimate and I laid out (I dove parallel to the ground in order to catch the Frisbee). Laying out is an art form and I am proud to say that I look awesome doing so, but this has also led to many scrapes, scars and now injury. I recall feeling a lot of pain in the right shoulder as I landed and not being able to lift my arm the next day. I played in Jeju with this injury because I thought it was only a bruise.
My friend Sunny accompanied me to the hospital because I don’t speak Chinese. After getting lost for about 20 minutes we finally saw the huge sign that read FUDANUNIVERSITYHOSPITAL and went inside. It was chaos in a building. Chinese people seem to love this idea of IV’s. When they get sick they don’t go and buy medicine or rest, they go to the hospital, sit in a chair or a gurney and then have someone stab an IV into their hand, which supposedly contains medicine and that’s it. So directly in the entrance to the hospital are these little hubs of IV’s and people being fed this liquid. Weird. We wander a bit trying to find the foreigner section until a security points us towards the sign that reads: TOILET. Nice. We head towards the TOILET and find the elevator, go to the foreigner level and they tell us that I have to pay 500 kuai. Tai gui le (too expensive). Sunny leads me back downstairs and she starts talking to the reception counter (one of about 30) and I only now have to pay 120 kuai. What a sweet deal. I take a number and immediately feel like I’m at the deli and I’m just waiting to get my roast beef. I see the doctor, explain to Sunny who explains to the doctor what happened. It’s crazy because total strangers are allowed to just walk in on the patients and just start asking doctors stuff and check out what’s going on with me. There is no sense of privacy or manners in this place and it was really driving me crazy. The gives me a new number to get my x-ray. X-rays are taken and we see the doctor again and he immediately goes, “WOAH!” not a good sign. He tells Sunny who tells me that I have a separated shoulder ligament and that I need to rest it and sling it for at least 3 weeks. So that’s the bad news, but the good news is that I finally went to the hospital. Traveling abroad or working abroad in my mind is all about experiences. Going to the hospital is definitely at the top of list, but the diagnosis is definitely at the bottom.
Day 99 A little late, but Happy Easter to everyone. And I guess it’s fitting that on my 99th day, we would celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but let’s just say it does. I went to church and it was my first church service in China. I should say before the church service, I met up with some friends and we feasted at one of the greatest restaurants in the world, Brazilian Steakhouse. So after a coma it felt only fitting to go to church. Now I know for sure that didn’t make any sense. I went to the 4pm service, which only allows foreign passport holders to attend. So it wasn’t like I was completely immersed in a Chinese church experience, but it was close enough. I will not go into detail of the service or my feelings about the service on here, cuz that wouldn’t really be appropriate. So the next time you see me, ask me and I’ll fill you in on how I really felt about my Easter church service in Shanghai. Next stop, Chinese service.
My weekend in Tianjin and Beijing was definitely one of my more favorite and more memorable times in China. Not only because of the sites and great time with friends, but because the adventure didn’t stop; and I mean that literally. The plan for us was to take a train from Shanghai to Tianjin on Friday night, arrive on Saturday morning, play ultimate, hitch a ride from the Beijing crew, hang out a bit and see the sites in Beijing and then take a train ride back home Monday and arrive on Tuesday morning. Like most plans…they worked out perfectly…and by perfectly I mean that we got the main plan correct. The smaller details could have been better though. Due to the fact that we spent way too much time at the Great Wall on Sunday, we were unable to buy train tickets for our Monday night trip…until Monday morning. We go to buy our train tickets Monday morning and everything seems fine. We find a good timed train to leave at 10pm and then arrive around 7am. Perfect…except there were no seats left…or beds…standing room only…not as planned. The entire day we tried figuring out how exactly we would be able to not have to sleep on the floor. We planned to arrive somewhat earlier so that we could put our stuff away and then spend all of our time in the dining cart until they kicked us out and then we would either hang out in the hard sleeping cabins pretending to read/work/study or we could hang out in the next best thing and wait til everyone was asleep and the cabin crew didn’t walk through the hallway: the bathroom.
We arrive just in time to the station to find that we made it to the wrong train entrance. So we start running around the station looking for another entrance or for someone to ask. We eventually see a large crowd that resembles a common sight in China. People flocking and herding like sheep, whom are all trying to cram into one entrance at the same time. We approach our train and see the dining cart empty, and then look ahead to see about 40 other standing only people. Like I said, the adventure never ends. Adam and I hop into our car and strike up a conversation a seater and then head to the dining cart with the other guys. The difference between the seater’s and the sleeper’s is like going from middle school into high school. Everything is bigger, fancier and doesn’t smell like people who don’t know what deodorant is. We get a booth and celebrate Sara’s birthday with a tasty cake and basically wait it out til we have to leave the dining cart. Time is slow when you watch it, and my life was in slow motion. Around 11pm the mean ol lady kicks us out and our plan is put into action. We each grab a seat in the sleeper’s and start either reading or in my case looking at all 1000 of my pictures. One, two, three-cabin workers pass me and I feel like I’m in the clear. Then some lady approaches me and starts speaking Chinese to me. I of course don’t understand and then she walks away smiling. I feel good; smiling is good, until she returns with someone who does speak English. I act dumb, give the puppy dog eyes, try my bargaining, but nothing works. I have lost. I basically get escorted back to the hard seats/floor where I find Adam and Jon too. I knew I should have just camped in the bathroom.
So we make friends and start playing card games. People in the train are super friendly and it is just amazing to me why they can’t be like this all of the time. Why only in a train do people decide to be nice and polite, but once they leave the enchanted doors of a train, the rudeness returns? People are having a kick out of our trophy and our limited Chinese knowledge and are just totally interested in everything we do. We play card games for about 2 hours and then people start falling asleep. Jon and Adam find spots on the floor and I decide to just stand and try to last as long as I can. I continue my stalking ways and just watch people, think about things, and start listening to Harry Potter. It is amazing what a good audio book does to time, so I thought it would do the same thing. My legs start hating me and I slowly make my way down to the filthy, spat upon, and dirty floor. Crossed legged, turns into the straight legs, which turns into the sprawl, which turns into lying down, which turns into sleep. 2 full hours of sleep. Ahhhhhh bliss. I awake to see that the dining cart is open again, so we Jon, Adam and I head back there and we see Phil and Sara. They survived, and they didn’t have to go into the bathroom. Phil used his panda charm to convince the captain that it was Sara’s birthday (she did have a birthday crown), and then he was teaching her Chinese. And Sara used her feminine cat charm begging the captain to not have them go back to the filthy, spat upon, dirty floor. So the captain agrees to allow them to sleep in the sleeper cart and then arrives with some blankets for them! We arrive into Shanghai right on time and then I head to work, dirty, tired and a complete zombie. So a lesson to all those who want to get on a train: work on your charm, and just stay in the bathroom.
Day 93 The next day, Jon, Adam and I went to the Summer Palace, then to the Olympic Green and then to Tiananmen Square. One of the cool things since the Beijing Olympics is the incredible transformation that took place. I know that I didn’t really see Beijing pre-Olympics, but I definitely know that it wasn’t the way that it is now. Here are some differences we found between Beijing and Shanghai: 1. Beijing’s subways are cleaner, brighter, more efficient and way more cheaper, but the stations don’t show the time remaining until the next train like it does in Shanghai and you can’t get phone reception like you can in Shanghai
2. There are way more tourist and historical sites in Beijing than Shanghai
3. Beijing taxi drivers sometimes actually stop and allow pedestrians to cross
4. Beijing taxi’s don’t have stars (see previous post)
5. Shanghai beat Beijing in ultimate
The weather was gorgeous again, and the pictures explain everything. It was incredible to see the Olympic Green and remember my freshman year of college reading about the water cube and thinking there was just no way that it would ever be built. But he it is, and it is amazing. We couldn’t go in, but to just be in the presence of these buildings is sometime I’ll never forget. I’m an architect, give me a break. So enjoy the pictures while I go eat a kit kat bar.
Thanks goes to Chris for allowing us stinky and gross ultimate players to stay at his place. Wake up call was 8 in the morning because this was the day that we were going to go to the Great Wall of China. I remember going four years ago in July and just being bombarded by other tourists, vendors, and being attacked by the evil smog monster. This time I had the privilege of going in April, not being in a tour group, and having friends tell us where to go. So we departed for the HoJiankou area of the Great Wall, where we would be required to hike about 2 hours to reach the wall. We planned to arrive at Jiankou around 10ish and the reach the wall around 12 and then spend a good amount of time on the wall. The weather was perfect, but our plans weren’t. We had to detour form our original plan due to some kind of kite festival and so had to back track and head to a different part of the hike. We stopped for some lunch before the big hike, which was a big mistake. We ordered multiple dishes and only a couple came. Once again, multiple does not equal a couple. And those couple took over an hour to arrive. We lost about and hour and a half of hiking time and that’s not what we wanted. The cool thing about hiking to the wall was that there were these red signs written in Chinese red paint that helped us know where to go. The uncool thing was that the path eventually led us to a cliff. Not the type of cliff that you could fall off of, but more of one that you fall up. Facing this cliff, we were in need of a scout, so Milan volunteered and Jon and I followed.
So up we went the mountain. The cool thing was that it was clear we weren’t the first people to make this climb. There were bottled water’s hanging on branches which basicall marked the path for us and saved our lives. Hanging onto the smallest cracks of rocks, roots of trees and shrubs and crawling our way to the top of the ridge, only to find that we have not reached the wall yet. As we climbed up the ridge, the rest of our party decided to turn back because it would have been just too difficult for some of them and it was a better idea if they just headed back to the bottom. With that information in hand, Milan, Jon and I pondered on our next move. There was no way that we would be able to go back the way we came because that meant immediate death; and none of us were really desiring that at the moment. Onward we went following the ridge and using our inner mountain man to find a safer way down. We didn’t die, but we certainly did get dirty. Baseball slide was the method of choice and to a path we made it. We now were at a crossroads, either turn left and continue towards the wall, or turn right catch up with our friends at the bottom. After abandoning our friends an hour ago, we felt like it was a more noble thing to see them at the bottom. Right ward we went and in about 5 minutes we see our friends coming up our way! REUNITED AGAIN!!! So we turned back around and headed towards the wall. This area of the wall is one area that hasn’t been redone or retouched in the same way that some of the other areas have been done. We were alone on the wall and it was awesome. The sun was shining and the sky was pure blue. We traversed on the wall for about 2 hours towards Mutianyu (an area of the wall that has been redone for tourists). Phil used his panda charm and got us a ride on the gondola down and that was the wall! It was cool because Mutianyu was where I was my first time and to see the area without the tourists or the vendors was a nice change of pace. So enjoy the pictures!
Prior to the tournament, we decided that it would be a fun idea if we all went in some kind of costume or a uniform. It was a one day tournament and we all knew that we were going to stomp on most of the teams, and so why not have a little fun doing so. Sara decided that we should all be cats; Jon didn’t like the idea and said we should all just be different animals. So I was going to be a gorilla, Jon a monkey, Phil a panda, Sara the cat, Dan the mouse, Burrowes the bird/insect of some sort and Adam the fox. That didn’t happen. So we all became cats. Sara jazzed us up with a little cat makeup and from that we came with our team name: Thundercats…HO!!!!! So the Thundercats had a bye for their first game and would play one more game, eat lunch, play three more games and then possibly the final (we knew and so did everyone). Now my cat back home, Sonny is quite a large cat and catnip seems to have a strange reverse affect on him. He doesn’t get all hyper and crazy when he indulges himself; he gets extremely mellow and lazier. Well the Thundercats seemed to have had too much catnip (we didn’t actually do any drugs). It was an ugly game, and we all realized that we had to get our stuff together to get ready for the real game in the finals. Luckily we played fairly easy games and won easily as well. The Thundercats started to regain their composure and actually looked like a team. The Thundercats rolled over Tianjin B, played well against Beijing Bang, beat up a high school team, and then literally ran over Tianjin A. Now imagine a tornado. Imagine a tornado in a city. Imagine the destruction and rubble and just plain garbage and crap that would be around. Now imagine that someone just decided to scatter grass around and then call it a field. That’s what it was like. A tornado, in a city, with rubble, garbage, crap, and scattered grass field. The final was between Beijing’s Big Brother and us, the Thundercats. We had just finished a hard fought 7-1 victory over Tianjin A while Big Brother had their bye. So naturally we would want to play right away! Not this guy or any of my fellow Thundercats. We were exhausted, we were in pain, we wanted to rest, we wanted to sleep, we wanted to have had to play Tianjin A. So after 5 minutes of waiting we took the fields. The Thundercats scored the first point, and after that it was all a blur. All I can remember was that I couldn’t properly accelerate or run because my body was so beat up. Instead my Mazda3, I felt like an 18-wheeler. Where I have to warm up my engine and slowly reach my top speed, but I can’t stop too fast or else I will die. But we won….somehow. We are still trying to figure that part out. We were up 9-6 at half and then they rallied to 9-9 and then we scored 2 points to win. Sweeeet. It was really cool to win the first Tianjin Tournament because they gave us a free disc, an “official” certificate indicating that we won and this MASSIVE trophy. It felt good to win because of just the type of day it was with only 2 subs and I really felt like we all improved in some way, whether it was smarts about the game or we just got in better shape. Either way, it was a good tournament, and I’m really glad it was only one day. After the tournament, we were treated to a delicious meal and we all just hung out. They passed out the MVP awards and for some reason all of the MVP’s just started to take their shirts off! Welcome to Tianjin. Drinking games were going on everywhere, bottle caps flying, people losing their eyes, people drinking form frisbee’s…it was just another normal ultimate tournament China, and I’m glad to be here. I am glad to say that I have yet to become under the influence of alcohol here or anywhere, and it doesn’t seem like that will change at all. After the party we loaded onto the bus with Beijing people and headed on our 2-hour ride to Beijing where the next couple days were guaranteed to be a blast.
I’m still tired, check back for great adventure from the Great Wall and Beijing!
Day 91 Well it was a long weekend, really long but extremely enjoyable. This past weekend I joined some of my compadres and headed off to Tianjin for a one-day tournament. It is kinda crazy as to how this all came together because it was about 4 weeks ago when Jon asked my friend Phil and I if we wanted to go to a tournament with him the first week of April. We both were excited and agreed and then asked how many people were going. Jon simply said, “well me, Tao and then you two…so 4”. Excellent. So for the last 4 weeks we’ve been “recruiting” players and Jon basically organized our trip and all of the work paid off this past weekend. We took the Friday night train from Shanghai and planned to arrive into Tianjin the next Saturday morning around 6am. We were not going to play until around 11am, so we had a lot of down time. I have never taken a long trip train ride before and so I was pretty excited to see what that was all about. Excitement quickly turned into blandness. It wasn’t too exciting because I was so tired from another long week that I quickly fell asleep on my hard sleeper and before I knew it we were in Tianjin. Now for those of you that have ever seen pollution before in the states, I can tell you that you then have NEVER seen pollution before. Once I stepped out of the train I felt my lung collapse and I could just feel filthy. Tianjin is a heavily polluted area, to the point where it is just really difficult to see anything. Of course I’m exaggerating, but you get my point. There’s pollution, and we’re going to be playing ultimate with only 2 subs. We’re crazy. So we had a lot of down time, and we filled some of that by just “exploring” Tianjin a bit. We walked through a square and saw tons of people either playing a version of hackysack with a feathered weight, badminton, tai chi, or just walking. I never understood why Nai Nai and Yei Yei were so active in their dancing and walking until coming to Shanghai; and it just made so much sense. Old people are very active and I have found that they do not give up on life and try to stay healthy in some way. It was cool to hang out and play with these people and I think they enjoyed seeing some foreigners and some of them even joined in throwing the frisbee a bit.
To be continued…I’m tired…give me a break (I have become addicted to Kit Kat bars)
Day 89 Well like in most of the world, Shanghai has taxis! Here in Shanghai there is a special ranking system that allows the passengers to know whether they will be spending 5 minutes or 20 minutes in the taxi for the same destination. It has nothing to do with the driver trying to get more money; it just means that he’s bad. The ranking system uses “stars” to help determine the best from the helpless. 5 stars= The Unicorn. Rarely seen, and are lucky to ride in one, he probably knows a bit of English and can drive through Shanghai with their eyes closed. 4 stars= The All Star. Just like the 5 star, there aren’t that many and they know their way around and very dependable. 3 stars= The B Student. Not yet an all star but still shows flashes of brilliance on the road, reliable but may not be the smoothest driver. 2 stars= The IKEA of taxis. Shows that they can hang with the big dogs sometimes, but lacks in quality sometimes. 1 star= Guy who got moved from the mailroom to the office. He just got promoted and wants to prove himself but still has a lot to learn. No stars= The Temp. He will either do an okay job or just totally mess up. There is a chance that it will be okay, but prepare for the worst. Well I have seen the unicorn, and it is beautiful. According to my wise friend Geoff, I will have 7 years of bad luck because I did not get in the taxi when I had a chance. I saw the taxi start to roll up to me as my bus was right behind it. I considered taking the taxi just to say that I rode the Unicorn, but I didn’t and I regret it. So stay away from me for the next 7 years, or help me find a Unicorn again. Just today I had the joy of getting into a taxi and seeing that there was in fact zero stars. I told the driver where I wanted to go and when he repeated it I could see his eyes go to the far left and up, clearly he was thinking but had no idea where it was. I had to tell him where to go and even that could not help him from jerking the car back and forth like I was on a carnival ride. So there you go, that should help you in your journey when you’re in Shanghai, look for the Unicorn.
