Pudding and Chopsticks

Go to any big city in America and you will find homeless people, people down on their luck, beggars, etc… Here in China I haven’t  seen anything like that. I’m not sure why. Is it because everyone here lives at about the same level? Maybe. Some of these beggars in America do it because they can make a good living at it, not pay taxes, and what not. Some are truly in need of help. Can’t get a job. Down on their luck and do need the help of someone is more fortunate. It’s hard to tell who is who. The drunks and the fakes from the families and individuals that you should help. Today I saw something that broke my heart. I am a human. Just because I am a man doesn’t mean that I am incapable of compassion.  Far from it. I have my parents and my grandmother to thank for that. She would give you anything if you asked her. The ride from my apartment to work is something on the lines of 5 minutes no traffic to 10-15 minutes with. We were weaving our way through traffic and stopped at one of two lights that we could possibly have to stop at, when I saw her. Now, I have a soft spot for kids. I love kids, they’re awesome. This little girl was standing on the yellow line in the middle of a six lane road. Walking up to windows of cars, taking a little bow, staring directly at the ground and quietly waiting for the window to roll down. Her face was covered in dirt, her clothes were torn and tattered. The only thing that was clean and vibrant was the little stuffed animal that she carried in a little metal bowl. She couldn’t of been 10. I didn’t know what to think of it. My heart sank. It could of been fake. But really, a little girl in the middle of a six lane road. It broke my heart nonetheless. I know that it may be common place in some countries. Still my heart sinks. It gets you thinking about how good you have it. What would happen if you didn’t have what you have. How you bitch about how long Starbucks takes and some people can’t afford the sugar that you put in it. Some people say, “yeah whatever they’re poor who cares.” Yeah, well they may be poor but they are also humans, just like you and me.

Sorry I feel light headed. I’m hungry and here goes nothing. It’s been a week since I’ve arrived in China. What a week. I noticed the other day that I didn’t have a dryer and it occurred to me that, well, I got to bring it back old school. That’s fun. I live next to a place that is very similar to City Market. But not as expensive. I go there just about everyday mainly because I haven’t got anything in the apartment to eat, or do for that matter. I find it funny how I am shopping in a different country. I don’t know what to get. You know. They got squid on ice here. Doesn’t surprise me but how the hell would I cook that. Tons of fish on ice out on tables. I could cook one of them but I don’t have a need to. I just walk around and pick out things that I think won’t kill me, or inflict the least amount of intestinal harm.

I don’t need to cook dinner because I’m at the school from 4 till 1 am. I get up a noon and usually try to get something to eat. Haven’t really been able to find anything as to a place eat. I’ve had some good food since I’ve been here and it’s only the tip of the ice berg so to speak. Lot’s more to come. I suppose when I get better aqainted with the city and can get around better I can become a regular at some place. 

I wrote down some topics that I wanted to cover. Just lightly touch on. I’m sure that I will go into them in detail sometime in the  future. But for now, cooking oil. I got to think the other day about why the hell I see lots of people carrying cooking oil from the store. Then it dawned on me. They cook with lots of oil here. Oh.. Do I love oil. Yipee…

Rubbage on the street. Next to my apartment there are piles of dirt, bricks, concrete, and gravel. Not sure what they are doing there. They don’t move. Back home that junk won’t fly. They take care of piles of junk asap. Here, well, not so much. It just sits there because apparently no one cares.

Electric mopeds. Why the hell doesn’t the US have these things. Instead of a gas powered moped, it’s just electric. I mean really, free mopeding. Well, it would be so cheap compared to gas that you might as well call it free. No noise, it’s cool, and everyone is doing it.

Jack hammering. I think that’s it’s a newly written law that when I landed one must start jack hammering within 50 ft of me as soon as humanly possible. Really people. Dang. I got’s to sleep.

I got some cool ideas for the blog. But if any of you want to know something about China let me know. I’ll see what I can do. If it involves food I will also be more than happy to get me some and taste it for you. For now post a comment or I suppose you could email me at: homerphoto@gmail.com

Peace.

I must admit I forget that I was going to do an in-depth comparison between American Kit Kats and Chinese kit Kats and didn’t bring the American version to China with me. Lame. But what I can do is give a professional review of the Chinese version of the beloved candy I so treasure.  I paid 7.40 Yuan for this bad boy so it better be good. I think that’s about 1.20$ US. I suppose a little cheaper, but not by much. Unless of course you are living in Vail and it’s 80 cents cheaper.

The first thing that you notice about this little devil with chocolate is that is comes in a box. Yes, a box. Well that’s if you get the king size. I did. I needed the extra Kit Kats for test purposes. As you can see from the photo it looks quite similar to the plastic wrapper you might find on one from you corner Stop and Hop. Except there are these weird scribbles on it, Chinese characters. Don’t ask me what they mean. I can only assume that the Chinese have finally designed characters for the word awesome and put them on a Kit Kat box. Makes sense to me. So you open this bad boy up and you will find two smaller packages of the addicting sugar. Much like getting two regular size Kit Kats. Those two packages look like the box but obviously are plastic. On the back you will find a lot of these little drawings. Through my extensive study I can assure you that the meaning equates to one thing: Fat. Now lets taste test these sultans of lust.

Wow, nice, ahh, Heaven. The taste of the chocolate is good. Defiantly different then the American Kat. It seems to have a moderate amount of caramel. It reminds me of Easter. Maybe a Cadbury Egg. Maybe. Not sure but it tastes different. The chocolate melts faster. Quite a bit faster. I like this better then the Kats back home. It seems that they are a little too hard. When you put it in your mouth it just doesn’t want to melt and break apart. Here the melting of the chocolate is instant. I presume from the softer chocolate. The next thing that goes through your mind, well at least my mind, is that the inside wafers seem grainy. Courser sugar or something must be used. Not sure. So all and all a winner. You can bet I am going to be investigating these for the entire time that I am here. I just think that I wouldn’t be an American if I didn’t. I’m all for patriotism you know?.

Man my butt is going to sleep from the couch in the living room. Really people?. Any of you Chinese heard of padding.. really, you skipped landlines you can’t skip to foam.. Dang.

I went shopping today for some items. Well I suppose that’s pretty obvious. I spent 65.50 Yuan I think that the exchange rate right now is 6.85 to 1 USD. I’m not sure. I don’t have the Internet at the apartment yet. So as hammers fly, chisels chisel, and car horns honk like downtown LA in an evacuation of the city because there is a volcano under the tar pits, I sit and write this.

 
I needed a few things to get down to the business of living. Shampoo, soap, some sort of soap applying device, a Kit Kat, ice tea, oj, and some chips. Seems like a lot. In the states this would catch a king’s ransom. Shampoo, something like 4 bucks maybe, soap, 4 bucks (sorry I’m delicate like a flower need good soap), applying device, 1 dollar, a Kit Kat king size (go big or go home), 2 bucks, some ice tea, um, 2-3 bucks, oj, 2-3 bucks, and a grab bag of chips, 2.99. That’s about 20 bucks or there abouts. Here, 10 bucks or less. Awesome, I suppose.
The thing that I noticed today was the relationship between products. Go to the grocery store and guess what some items are based on other items. For example: Oj. You go to a store where oj is 7.99 a half-gallon. Based on that Kit Kats are probably going to run high and be 5.99 or something. Well here, the oj. 1.25 L, is cheaper than the Kit Kat. You get what I am saying. The relation between things that I am accustomed to is bull pucky now.  Flew the coop. So I guess that I am going to have to learn them all over again. 

It took me a while to find this. They have these shower mitts that are like a glove washcloth. Good idea but no thanks.  

Potato chips, awesome. Check these flavors. This tasted just like steak. Man, I am really glad I moved here. Steak flavored chips, yes please.

Not sure what the H this one is. I’ll let you know when I break the seal on them.

These must be potato flavor. Either that or it’s field flavor. Not sure if I like that.

Are these rib flavored? Huh? Maybe.

Yes shower gel, please care for me.

It’s science.

Yes, conditioner.

Instructions. Thank you. Needed them.

Just wanted to say Happy Mother’s Day mom.

I can’t sleep anymore even though I was dead tired last night. I felt ill. Probably because I didn’t have much to eat and only slept two hours in the span of two and a half days or so. But whatever, I made it. What a ride it was. The school that I am working at is pretty cool. Ended up the ladies that picked me up from the airport waited for me even though I changed my flight. That was awesome.

So ahh yes China. The first thing you notice about China is the smell. You ever have been to LA on a bad smog day downtown? That’s pretty much it. It was worse in Beijing. Either that or I am already becoming accustomed to it. At least the apartment doesn’t smell. Oh yeah, I have an apartment. I have to say that’s pretty much the bee’s knees. Here are some photos.

Look it’s a mattress.. Oh wait nope it’s a rock shaped like one.

Bathroom, laundry room, shower, all tile. How can you not like that..

Living room.. With air. Yes.

What you can’t hear is the construction outside and what appears to be someone drilling outside my door. Wonderful. If you look at the bed you will notice that it seemingly looks like a mattress. Nope, well maybe, sure as hell feels like a box spring. That’s just the way it is over here. Foam padding here I come. So today should be pretty chill. Going to find some snacks and supplies. I think there is a KFC around the corner. Then go to work. Pretty much it. Not much different then the states. Except here I’m not that awesome at speaking Chinese. Which means I have to stumble on that. Oh well.

So here is the deal. My flight landed at 2:40pm Beijing time. I had to be boarding another flight to Shenyang at 4:05 for a 4:30 departure. Well needless to say it didn’t happen at all. Sounds good in theory. I had 1.5 hours to get to terminal 2 from terminal 3 after I went through customs and all that jazz. Yeah. It didn’t happen. I couldn’t find my bag with my light stands and tripod deals in it. I was smart enough to check the over size baggage. Yep it was there. Then I booked ass to the terminal shuttle and waited in the bus for 15 minutes. Got to terminal 2. Now terminal 3 is pretty English ready. It’s only been open a year. It’s pretty awesome. But not terminal 2. Some guy came up and asked to help with luggage. Sure why the hell not. I got a lot of junk. We went to check in.. Yep too late. I had to change my flight. Ok not that big of a deal. But.. How the hell am I going to let whoever is picking me up that my flight is changed. Huh? Well. I tried to use one of those damn phone things to no avail. Currently, I am sitting by the gate trying to think of what to do. I am not sure. I guess that I will just show up and see what happens. S. I suppose that I could try to get a phone from someone to use. Maybe. Um. Well. I guess that we will see huh.

The next couple of posts are going to be what I wrote on the plane and the first day here. Enjoy.

Jesus. This flight is taking forever it seems. So far we are 9 hours and 45 minutes into it. It feels like a week longs detention.  Really. Man. The flight from LA to San Fran was good. But when I got to San Fran I didn’t have time to blog or even watch people. I didn’t even have time to hit up a McDonalds. It’s beside the fact I couldn’t find one. I had to go to the international terminal. Wasn’t in any real rush but I didn’t have much time. I wanted to get boarded and see what I could do about these two carry on bags. I really didn’t want to have one by my feet. I have one by my feet. If the bin was 1-2 inches taller. It would great. I guess it isn’t that bad. I can stretch one leg out by the airframe and the other we might have to amputate. Lets see, we are just inside of China, passed Khabarovsk a while back. Think that is in Siberia. Who knows. 977 miles till touchdown, 31,500 ft high, 5,074 miles since San Fran, I got a little reggae on. Katchafire. Awesome.

Did you ever wonder what the hell a country is anyway? I got to thinking about it. It’s a line in some dirt or sand. Either it was taken by force or by barter. For survival. Think about it. I need land to grow crops and what not. The more or better land I have the more that I can survive and provide for my family and the betterment of my species. That’s about it. Kind of weird. Man there are lots of Chinese people on this flight. Full too. What I wouldn’t do for some In N Out right now.. Even some DQ. An Oreo blizzard. I might even let some kid turn my face into a pirate. Who wouldn’t want to go through customs with a pirate face? That would be awesome. Yeah awesome. Anyway I took some pics of some noodle snack that tasted like cardboard. 15-cent roman is better. But whatever I took it down. I guess lunch is coming up soon. Can’t wait..

I just want to get up and dance and shake the booty. I need it I can’t feel my butt checks. Is that bad? Whatever. Ill be out of here in 2 hours. Oh I forgot you know what made me super mad… yeah no free booze. What the hell is that? I want my international free booze. 6 bucks a pop. Yeah f that.. You can that that and shove it United. Damn that sucks. So far 3 diet cokes with ice. A white Russian would be so bomber right now. Man. Cream and heavy on the Kailua. Boooya.

So my last meal in American was enchiladas. Thanks Jenna. It was awesome. Not even regretting it today, so far so good. I had some reservations about taking down Mexican food before a day of 14 hours worth of flights. But all is good. I’m hungry.
Order of business one when I get to Shenyang, foot massage. Soo good. Soo cheap. So good. That’s all I want. To sit there and have some girl rub the bejesus out of my paddles. Size 12.. You don’t get that in China. In fact I should have brought more shoes because you can’t find much over size 10 there.
There is a guy behind me that must be married to a Chinese women, younger guy, they have a cute little girl. The thing that kicks ass is that he speaks English like me.. Then busts out some Mandarin like it’s well water at my mom’s house. Which by the way is way, way better then tap water from LA. Let me tell you. Huver you agree. We talked about that. I am again hungry. Damn. There’s some women across the aisle she looks like she’s is about to turn to dirt she is so old. No offense. I just get a running nose around dust. You know. Cute little girl speaking Chinese.. Awesome.. Old lady about to turn to dust is smiling at little girl. Opp now she’s back to sleep. Must be great to be able to fall asleep. I slept 2 hours last night. That’s it. Then when I get to sleep on the plane the damn stewardess hits me with a styrofoam thing of cardboard noodles. What’s this world coming to?  10 hours and 7 minutes.  Some guys walking laps. Still cant fell my butt checks. Will try again in a minute. Really want to open window shade. Would that be a d bag move when everyone else is sleeping. Probably. Saw a girl that looked like she was twelve with two cartons of cigarettes form the duty free store. Damn. What the hell is duty free? I swear that the stores in the airport are nicer than the mall. Don’t save much, 10-20 bucks, but then again that like 6 foot rubdowns. Now I see what the big deal is.. I must investigate. Watching some Discovery Channel. Got to love it. Hey look Kidrobot. That’s cool.

I want more Diet Coke.. Wait, I see movement, maybe some food. Or booze. Ok that’s wishful thinking.

I made it. Oh did I make it. Long boring story to come.

If you had to go somewhere for six months, couldn’t watch American tv, what would you bring for movies? Well this is what I am bringing and why.

The Prestige – Awesome movie. Well shot. Great story.
House of Flying Daggers – Visually one of my favorites. Great cinematography. Great action, love story, and it’s in Mandarin.
Garden State – Fun movie. Sound track is hard to beat. Wonderful story.
300 – It’s got mind blowing action.
Walk the Line – Awesome story. Awesome music.
Indiana Jones – Brought them all. Can’t get sick of Indy.
American Pie – Can’t get sick of comedies in the gutter.
Gladiator – Special effects are so good it makes my hair stand up.
You’ve Got Mail – Classic.
Seabiscuit – Again I love great cinematography. Also based on a true story. Makes it more awesome.
The Bourne Identity – Awesome
Signs – M. Night, one of my favorite directors.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon – Got to have some Kung Fu.
Matrix – Still looks mind blowing to this day.
Various snowboard videos – For myself as well as some shreds over there.
Juno – Soundtrack is awesome, movie is awesome, all is awesome.
V for Vendetta – Can’t go anywhere without Natalie Portman.
Borat – Funny.
Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind – Michel Gondry is an amazing director. Charlie Kaufman an amazing writer.
Memoirs of a Geisha – Unbelievable cinematography. Visually one of my top favorites.
Finding Neverland – The story is amazing.
Closer – Crazy story.
Finding Nemo – Do I really have to give a reason.

So that’s it. I could of brought Star Wars or any other from my dvd collection, but you can’t bring them all. Although it contains some of my top favorites, this is by no means a favorite list. I also picked these because I thought that they represented some of my culture as well. I would imagine that they will not only be watched by myself but by new friends. As for the chick flicks.. Not sure how they got in there.. But no use in leaving them behind……

My carry ons contain all my camera gear and other various electronics. I probably should get a book. Maybe. I doubt that I will have time tonight. Oh well, I got a new wired to look at anyway.