Pudding and Chopsticks

There is a custodian cleaning the already spotless floor. He looks like a greaser from a movie. He’s made the same lap about 3 times now. I am wondering whether I should continue on. I could just go gamble. I am heading to Vail to see some old friends and get my fair share of the high altitude air.

America is weird. Having lived outside of the States for about 18 months I find myself wondering what the hell is going on. For instance, I travel in China a bit, mostly fly, and when confronted with airline travel within the States I just wonder what foreigners think. you must remove your shoes, be stared at, inspected and frowned upon. Remove your belt and whatever else you got. Where as in China you don’t have to remove your belt, or shoes, hell even you cell phone. It’s a little less paranoid. I am all for flying safe but when does it become, lets all get naked and strip searched, you do want to keep our skies safe right?

As for adjusting to America, well, it’s awkward. I find myself speaking softer, slower, more laid back. I feel weird speaking to regular people. Not sure why. I have been in LA for a stint. We will see how I feel when I get to a place that I have actually lived in. Maybe that will make a difference. I roll into Vail today. I’ve had some lag from the time change. That could be affecting me somehow. During the night I seem to be the most awake.

So good times. I’ve been taking photos so when I get a chance to fix’em up, I’ll post them on here for all the world to see in all their glory.

Or something like that.

Sometimes I feel that I am on the verge of awesome. Either doing something awesome or just being awesome. I’m not sure. In either case I am a traveling master. I watched a good number of people get lost today on my way to Hong Kong. While I on the other hand did not.

I am heading home for a stint. So as I write this I am in Hong Kong listening to Catonnese and the whooshing sound of jet engines. Ready to transfer to Beijing and then to LA. Where I will demand the first thing I do is to buy In & Out and vegge out in front of the tv.

More to come. I need to go buy some magazines right now.

Oh and I almost forgot. I am for sure going to have problems with keeping my mouth shut. I’ve gotten so used to saying what I think in front of people because they can’t understand English. Well, that’s going to have to change soon. I suppose.

Peace.

From one perspective you can totally see China being all about competition. Who has the best car, computer, clothes, brand name items, gadgets, new house items, houses, factories, etc. I bring this up because I was snowboarding indoors at this place and had a revelation. I was going to the very top where no one else was going. I was alone. Really it’s not that big. Smaller than most bunny hills, but for Chinese people who can’t ski or snowboard it’s probably death.

There I was all alone at the top. Shredding down and passing the point where everyone usually gets off. After a few times a few guys started following me. Did they need to, well, no. Hell they could barely get down. But they sure as hell tried it. Why? I believe that it is this. The Chinese want face. They want to have the best things and do the best things. So, when some white buy rolls up and smokes them at something then, yeah, they can’t let that happen. So they also try it. I’ve experienced this before. Maybe I am blowing this out of proportion. Seems logical to me. Either that or they don’t like being out done on their home turf.

I remember my first trip to China a few years ago. We were snowboarding and had a crew of snowboards from around the world. I remember them all being better than the Chinese crew. Which, hey, that’s just the way it is. The rest of the world has been snowboarding for a long time. China has just began to enjoy such a magnificent sport. One of the Chinese guys tried to show up or at least do something better then one for the foreigners. He couldn’t land a trick. He tried and tried. We thought he was going to break his neck. For real. He just kept trying it. Not sure why.

Anyway, not sure if you see my point. It’s kinda like this, if I go drinking with new people, I’m going to waste them, no bragging, I can just down a glass of beer really fast. This gives me “face” or respect from the people that I am drinking with. However there will always be one guy who has to out do me, either double the glasses or switch to harder stuff, like downing glasses of whiskey. Which, yes I have done before.

Really I suppose that this can happen anywhere. Just seems to happen more here.

I went on a road trip to visit a place. I took some photos a long the way. I must say it was rather beautiful. It was 3 hrs away up in the middle of nowhere. It reminded me of Northern China. Photos follow.

In fact I should just start a Chinese food blog. That would be awesome. If only I had time. Anyway here are some photos of a dinner I went to one night.

The start. Always with the beer.

Some weird brand beer.

Pork.

Sorry mom. These bad boys are almost better than your Christmas cookies. I could eat them forever.

Pork with little domes of bread. Awesome.

The place.