Sunday, June 20, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
What WHAT? Wat DEE!
June 18, 2010 – Bangkok!
After arriving in at Suvanabhumi Airport, I was welcomed by a CRI (Chulabhorn Research Institute) driver, as well as two Thai students (one working on her Masters, the other her PhD) that I’ll be working with in lab! I’ll have to probably correct myself in the coming posts, but they were speaking a little quickly and not that clearly, so I believe that they introduced themselves as “Tap” and “Guoy?” We drove from the airport to CRI, and then grabbed our rooms in the residence halls here (more like hotel rooms!) to get some shut-eye.
In the morning, I met up with the Thai-based program director, Dr. Poonsakdi, to just ask some general questions about the program, Bangkok, and then grab some lunch with him and a few other professors in the department at a food court in the nearby mall.
And let me tell you… the food courts here are NO joke. They have EVERYTHING here, with the aroma’s stirring in the air and me hoping that I have enough time to try most of the things that they offered!
Anyhow~ I ended up getting Pad Thai w/shrimp, wrapped in egg. I know, I know, you’re probably telling me that I should have gotten some REALLY exotic Thai dish that isn’t offered in the states, but… Dr. Poonsakdi recommended getting the Pad Thai, and I can attest that it definitely tastes BETTER here! Not severely orange in color, not too sweet (unless you add some sugar to it, since they actually do have a jar of sugar next to the other spice condiments for customers to use!!), and actually a tiny bit spicy… good! Add a glass of Thai iced tea, and, ooo.. I was set.
Ooh wait. We weren’t done, yet. That’s right…. Topped it off with dessert!
The blossom ended up being a little bit like the white, not-quite-mochi balls that you find in some Japanese cold, red-bean + syrup desserts (the name is evading me right now, ママ！). The palm fruit was a bit chewy but slightly sweet and yummy – I’ll have to try it again, to taste it without the syrup! And the lotus root was actually fine, since it had a nice crunch to it and had the flavor of the syrup with it, anyway! So, all in all, it was a very good meal… all for 100 baht, which is basically $3!
Now, it’s time for…
LT^3BMD – II
On the way from the airport to CRI, I saw a very bright blue taxi next to us, and asked the 2 students with me if all Thai taxis are blue are not. To which, I got a reply from Tap,
“No! There are many colors! Pink! Red! Orange! Blue! Green! Yellow!...”
LT^3BMD – III
When grabbing lunch, today, and seeing how impressed I was with the food court and surrounding food stalls, Dr. Poonsakdi remarked,
“Yes, in Thailand, eating is a pass-time. We eat all the time just for fun.”
MUSIC TO MY EARS!
After arriving in at Suvanabhumi Airport, I was welcomed by a CRI (Chulabhorn Research Institute) driver, as well as two Thai students (one working on her Masters, the other her PhD) that I’ll be working with in lab! I’ll have to probably correct myself in the coming posts, but they were speaking a little quickly and not that clearly, so I believe that they introduced themselves as “Tap” and “Guoy?” We drove from the airport to CRI, and then grabbed our rooms in the residence halls here (more like hotel rooms!) to get some shut-eye.
In the morning, I met up with the Thai-based program director, Dr. Poonsakdi, to just ask some general questions about the program, Bangkok, and then grab some lunch with him and a few other professors in the department at a food court in the nearby mall.
And let me tell you… the food courts here are NO joke. They have EVERYTHING here, with the aroma’s stirring in the air and me hoping that I have enough time to try most of the things that they offered!
Anyhow~ I ended up getting Pad Thai w/shrimp, wrapped in egg. I know, I know, you’re probably telling me that I should have gotten some REALLY exotic Thai dish that isn’t offered in the states, but… Dr. Poonsakdi recommended getting the Pad Thai, and I can attest that it definitely tastes BETTER here! Not severely orange in color, not too sweet (unless you add some sugar to it, since they actually do have a jar of sugar next to the other spice condiments for customers to use!!), and actually a tiny bit spicy… good! Add a glass of Thai iced tea, and, ooo.. I was set.
Ooh wait. We weren’t done, yet. That’s right…. Topped it off with dessert!
We all got shaved ice, which, when literally translated, they apparently just call ‘Sweet Cold!’ This consisted of getting 3 or so toppings, putting a scoop of shaved ice on top, then covering it with either the typical colored sweet syrups, condensed milk, or coconut-syrup.
Now, the toppings, though… I was SURPRISED by their selection! While there are some typical Asian sweet toppings, let me just list off some of the choices, shall I?
Now, the toppings, though… I was SURPRISED by their selection! While there are some typical Asian sweet toppings, let me just list off some of the choices, shall I?
Red bean, pineapple, cubed yam pieces, Julienned kabocha pumpkin, grass jelly, coconut jelly, corn, sweetened cooked barley, this weird green-dyed flower blossom thing, this clear bean-looking palm-related-shrub fruit, gingko nuts, sliced lotus root, lotus seeds…
I was feeling a bit adventurous, and tried the sliced lotus root, weird green-dyed flower blossom, clear bean-looking palm fruit, and pineapple with the normal syrup.
The blossom ended up being a little bit like the white, not-quite-mochi balls that you find in some Japanese cold, red-bean + syrup desserts (the name is evading me right now, ママ！). The palm fruit was a bit chewy but slightly sweet and yummy – I’ll have to try it again, to taste it without the syrup! And the lotus root was actually fine, since it had a nice crunch to it and had the flavor of the syrup with it, anyway! So, all in all, it was a very good meal… all for 100 baht, which is basically $3!Now, it’s time for…
LT^3BMD – II
On the way from the airport to CRI, I saw a very bright blue taxi next to us, and asked the 2 students with me if all Thai taxis are blue are not. To which, I got a reply from Tap,
“No! There are many colors! Pink! Red! Orange! Blue! Green! Yellow!...”
LT^3BMD – III
When grabbing lunch, today, and seeing how impressed I was with the food court and surrounding food stalls, Dr. Poonsakdi remarked,
“Yes, in Thailand, eating is a pass-time. We eat all the time just for fun.”
MUSIC TO MY EARS!
Ni Hao~ Part Eight!
June 17, 2010 – Tsai jien, Shanghai~So, after spending a great two weeks in Shanghai under my sister’s care, it was finally time for me to head off to my main destination for this summer…. BANGKOK!
Having a late lunch at a Southern Chinese noodle-joint (lots of peanuts in the soup, mm!) as my last meal in Shanghai, I headed off with my sister to a bus stop to take a shuttle to Pudong Airport. But, this guy with a parked, nice car was offering (or, more like… INSISTING, to put it politely!) to take me to the airport for 30 RMB (the shuttle was 24 RMB, but was running a bit late, and would take stops along the way), and ended up just basically grabbing my luggage with a Mandarin “let’s go!!”
This m-a-y sound sketchy, but, there was another person in the car going to the airport, and it seems like people just drive other people around in their cars for $, all the time in China! How fitting that that’d be my last means of transportation in China~
I always find it funny, though, when I’m with people who don’t know English at all, and likewise, I can’t speak their language either! It’s always interesting to see what types of words do come out of their mouths, in order to converse with me… This was definitely the case in this car-situation, with the driver of the car driving over the bridge in Shanghai (that goes over the Expo), and suddenly pointing and yelling out “HEL-LO! EXPO!” Aww~ cute!
Anyhow! I got to Pudong airport well on time (aka, enough time for me to not freak out about being late, ahha!), checked a couple bags, passed through security, yada yada… went to the gate, and was happy to see that the gate-waiting area had a couple TV screens playing a FIFA match between Argentina and Korea!
And yet, again, I was thoroughly pleased to see everyone in the gate area was quite into the game! Indeed, it seemed as though the gate next to us was actually full of Korean tourists going back home, and so it was fun to hear their gasps whenever Argentina came really close to scoring, shreaks whenever Argentina did score, and very high volumed cheers when Korea scored their… one point. Although I must admit that one of the goals that Argentina received was a bit unfair (the one where the ball basically bounced off of a Korean player’s leg and went into the Korean goal!), but… it was a fun game, nonetheless, especially since I watched the final score of 4:1 occur RIGHT before I walked through the gate to walk to the airplane (so, I felt highly satisfied that I knew what the outcome was, hehe).
The flight from Pudong (Shanghai) to Suvanabhumi (Bangkok) was relatively uneventful, especially since it was only 4 hours long and was in the dead of night (9pm-1am). Although I had requested to receive a vegetarian meal on my flight because I heard from both my sister and father that the other (meat) options on China Eastern Airlines is such bad quality, we ended up receiving basically a BOX of SNACKS! Which, was kind of fun, actually, since I don’t usually eat too much junk food, and it was kind of interesting to see what kind of snacks they’d give us! Anyhow, the box consisted of a dried radish thing (I didn’t try this…), dried apple chips, some peanuty-Chinese thing, KitKat’s, a pound cake slice, a bread roll with some dried hredded (flossed?) fish-stuff in the middle, and… onion cookies (shortbready-like cookies which were surprisingly pretty good, even though they indeed had a slight onion-y taste!)
Now, I’ve heard a lot about how smiley and kind-natured Thai people are, and I’m sure that this is going to become really commonplace (haha, BANAL, TRITE, as my sister would probably imagine me saying right after her saying this!), but I’m going to start my list of Little-Thai-Things-That-Brighten-My-Day! This is ridiculous, but I shall shorten this as “LTripleTBMD!” Or… should I call it “LT^3BMD?” Here goes…
LT^3BMD – I
So, while I was trying to enjoy my treasure box of snackie goodies from China Eastern Airlines during my flight, I gorged down my onion cookies and proceeded to open my plastic-packaged bread roll. What happened, though, is a mystery, because as I was opening the package, the next thing I know… my bread roll is GONE, and I hear a ‘plop!’ as I turn my head towards the aisle next to me and see that, indeed, my bread roll had escaped my clutches to roll itself on the floor and probably collect some gross airplaney ground material that I don’t even want to start thinking about.
Most of my friends know and can characterize me as being able to display my emotions quite well by both my weird vocal sounds and strange shapes that I create on my face.
This was definitely no exception, as I probably produced some sort of very disappointed/shocked look on my face, which I thought was being snickered at by some of the older men who were probably just returning from a business trip and thinking, “sucks for her! Too bad!”
I quickly gathered myself though, and proceeded to just pick up my now-sullied-bread-roll, and shamefully placed it back into its plastic wrap, grabbing the package of pound cake, instead…
But! A few minutes later, I was pleasantly surprised as the guy sitting across the aisle from me tapped me on the shoulder, to present a bread roll in his other hand to me!
It is no secret that food is one (MAJOR) way to my heart, and at that moment, I felt so delighted that this business man was offering up his BREAD ROLL to me! As I tasted the weird combo of fish stuff with puffy white-bready-goodness in my mouth, I felt so thankful~
It sounds lame. But, you had to be there. It made my day. Don’t judge, at least… not too much, ahha!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Ni Hao~ Part Seven!
June 13, 2010 Part Two:
So! After returning to my sister’s apartment at around 4:30 AM (yes, the sky was already starting to light up!), my sister and I basically knocked out… only to…
Have to wake up around 10 AM to get ready for a 12-hour train ride!! YAH!
WHY?! So, here’s the story:
This week in China (Wednesday, to be precise), is the Dragon-Boat Festival. As such, many businesses take time off, and some people try to take the whole week off. My sister and her boyfriend, for example, took the beginning of the week (Monday-Wednesday) off from work – and so, we used this time to ESCAPE the city-life and go on a mountainous adventure from Sunday-Tuesday night!
So, my sister, her boyfriend, and I took a 12-hour bed-train from Shanghai to Jixi (Anhui province). The overall trip was not too bad, actually, since it was nice to relax on the train, looking out the window, lying on the bed eithr reading or sleeping…
We arrived in Jixi around 1 AM on Monday, then just went to a local hotel and grabbed a couple room for us to sleep (even
more, I KNOW! Ahha!), then wake up in the morning at 8am, getting some morning grub across the street from the hotel.
I was particularly excited about this, since, 1. I love food, 2. This place was just, a VERY informal place run by a family and this nutty-scientist-looking-
We ended up getting wonton soup, grabbing some bao’s to-go, and watched the father making these fried-dough-stick things that represent this evil rich guy and his wife who schemed against the emperor and were symbolically punished by being fried in oil, muaha!
(Props to my friend Herman who told me this VERY informative food-legend, ahha! Serves as a handy icebreaker, no? hehe!)
Anyway. Back to the hike… Let’s see!
So, the hike that we took is known as the ‘Huihang Way’ path, and goes along/over a mountain ridge, going from Anhui to Zhejiang province.
Huihang Way was this really steep and rock+dirt pathed trail, and was apparently used for hundreds of years for the exchange of green tea from Anhui and grains from Zhejiang.
Although I had some trouble breathing (needing to take a lot of breaks!) and it was a bit drizzly when we were hiking, the mountain views were really gorgeous, with a very mysterious mist over the ridges.
After hiking for 3 hours uphill, we finally arrived at this little village (more like just a cluster of houses, haha!), where we were greeted with green tea and stayed with the Yang family at their very quaint Bed+Breakfast.
This area seems to be a very popular hiking place for both locals and foreigners, so we ended up eating dinner with this family (2 chemists living in Shanghai for 3 years, their VERY cute-and-talkative 11 year old son, and their laboratory-beagle Ginny!), having a nice conversation about Shanghai-life/other nature-getaways over various dishes cooked with bamboo, ferns, pork, as well as soup that had a WHOLE-chicken in it [no joke, it was sitting in there, and I had to cover the head with a spoon because I was so creeped out!].
After having a nice, restful sleep (complete with frogs croaking, crickets chirping, and water streaming~!), we awoke in the morning and had some noodles in a really nice chicken-broth with sunny-side egg on top, as well as a bamboo+veggie filled pancake thing (think, Chinese pupusa!)! Tres yummaaay~! My belly was happy.
After saying goodbye to the Yang family (who looked SO happy and young, by the way! Must be the fresh, mountain-grown food and all the hiking!), we hiked a little further up the mountain to actually reach the mountain peak/ridge, then descended the other side of the mountain towards Zhejiang province.
This, I think, turned out to be a nicer hike than the previous day, since 1. It was mainly downhill, 2. There was a lot more greenery and the sound of birds around us, 3. Honestly, hiking is nice, but the prospect of having a shower and proper-toilets again was really getting me excited!
Anyhow~ It took a long time for us to get back to Shanghai (van, bus, bus!), but we made it back to civilization!
Although the hike was a bit painful for my lungs/heart to handle, it was definitely nice to see the other parts of China – aka, the areas that aren’t so heavily populated with people, the number of cars/motor-vehicles is greatly diminished, greenery exists, water is clean, freshly brewed green tea is a social norm, the air is pure, and life is simple.
Ni Hao~ Part Six!
June 13, 2010
Part One:
After grabbing Korean BBQ with my sister and her friends, we went to a HEAVILY ex-pat populated tavern where… at 2:30 AM… they were showing the UK vs US FIFA match (football for you UK people, soccer for my US peeps, and futbol for my inner Portuguese-loving persona~)!
The place was SO crowded, and had two large projecting screens on both sides of the outdoor-covered-area that we were in… and was basically divided between the British and American fans! It was SO much fun, since everyone was being so patriotically loyal, singing (well, more like YELLING, haha!) their own national anthems before the match – by the way, I never knew before how similar/copied the UK and US anthems’ tunes are!!
The match was very exciting and fun, especially since the UK scored within the first FOUR minutes of them game (VERY worrisome, indeed!) and the UK fans were yelling out their fun British calls to their team (‘Come on, BOYS!’, ‘What the BLOODY HELL!’, ‘STEVIE G!!!’, ‘ROOOO-NAAY!’, ‘EEN-GA-LAND EEN-GA-LAND EEN-GA-LAND!!’, ‘You’re not singing anymore! [when the US side was being very quiet after the UK scored, haha!]’).
But, thank goodness we scored in the second half, eh? HAZAH!
Anyhow, that was a thrilling night, especially since, hands-down… watching soccer/football/futbol with foreigners is just SO much more vocal and fun! Seriously, I wish the US were more passionate about soccer just how other countries are! I know that the US already has American-football, basketball, and baseball, but… come on! Soccer’s great!! I look forward to watching other matches in both China and Thailand over the coming month!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Ni Hao~ Part Five!
June 11th, 2010
I started off today by taking a 20 or so minute walk to a Propaganda Poster Museum, which... is exactly as the name entails! It's a collection of posters from about the 1940's to 1980's China! This turned out to be a REALLY cool museum, since.. it was just so random what some of the themes/images on the posters were!
I was unfortunately unable to get many good photos of the posters, since... I was trying to be a good person and follow the museum's rule of no photography, but... here were some highlights, so, just, please try to VISUALIZE! yeah!
What was also fun, was that I bumped into this Canadian guy (from Vancouver) at the museum, who happened to be taking 2 months off from work by travelling around in China! Noon was approaching, so we decided to grab some lunch together, and... he was a pretty nice guy, so we agreed to just roam the streets and find out whatever there was to be found in Shanghai!
We ended up taking the metro to Xintiandi, a part of Shanghai that still has some old, 1920's era buildings (brick style, in the British/French concession style).
For example, we saw this old 1920's era renovated mansion that was uber-nice.
This area of Shanghai also is home to a LOT of reaaaally nice and high-end stores (think Hermes, Louis Vuitton... etc..).
I thought this was funny... I can't believe how unavoidable these types of places have become... my friends (IB? AH? hehe...) would feel at home! [and yes, there ARE Starbucks here as well... groan...]
Still in the neighborho
od of Xintiandi is the Site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. In other words, Mao and all those other masterminds of Chinese Communism gathered in this building, in secret... beginning China's Revolution. CRAZY!
Anyways! It was a really fun day, and I enjoyed learning not only things about Shanghai, but also about Canadian customs, as well!
Oh, the perks of being in a metropolis that is filled with ex-pats, people who love traveling, discovering new cultures, and sharing life experiences ~ love it. :D
I started off today by taking a 20 or so minute walk to a Propaganda Poster Museum, which... is exactly as the name entails! It's a collection of posters from about the 1940's to 1980's China! This turned out to be a REALLY cool museum, since.. it was just so random what some of the themes/images on the posters were!
I was unfortunately unable to get many good photos of the posters, since... I was trying to be a good person and follow the museum's rule of no photography, but... here were some highlights, so, just, please try to VISUALIZE! yeah!
- A strong, buff looking Chinese man strangling the arm of a pretty puny, grotesque looking general holding a U.S. flag and a pirate skull symbol on his helmet
- A happy looking Chinese girl with a chubby pig, trying to promote people to grow pigs in order to produce more fertilizer and support Chinese agriculture!
- An image of black people next to the Washington D.C. Capitol, to support the civil rights movement in the U.S. (i.e., anything to support a group that is against any form of U.S. or white imperialism)
- Images of women working in agriculture, weaving, studying, and other professional jobs.. with a bigger image of a woman in the center with a bottle of pills - advocating Birth Control.
- And of course, a poster of Mao, Lenin, and Marx standing next to each other...
What was also fun, was that I bumped into this Canadian guy (from Vancouver) at the museum, who happened to be taking 2 months off from work by travelling around in China! Noon was approaching, so we decided to grab some lunch together, and... he was a pretty nice guy, so we agreed to just roam the streets and find out whatever there was to be found in Shanghai!
We ended up taking the metro to Xintiandi, a part of Shanghai that still has some old, 1920's era buildings (brick style, in the British/French concession style).
For example, we saw this old 1920's era renovated mansion that was uber-nice.
This area of Shanghai also is home to a LOT of reaaaally nice and high-end stores (think Hermes, Louis Vuitton... etc..).
I thought this was funny... I can't believe how unavoidable these types of places have become... my friends (IB? AH? hehe...) would feel at home! [and yes, there ARE Starbucks here as well... groan...]
Still in the neighborho
od of Xintiandi is the Site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. In other words, Mao and all those other masterminds of Chinese Communism gathered in this building, in secret... beginning China's Revolution. CRAZY!Anyways! It was a really fun day, and I enjoyed learning not only things about Shanghai, but also about Canadian customs, as well!
Oh, the perks of being in a metropolis that is filled with ex-pats, people who love traveling, discovering new cultures, and sharing life experiences ~ love it. :D
Ni hao~ Part Four!
June 8th, 2010
So, my 'babysitter' (ahha!) for Shanghai, Brian, has the whole week off from work, since they're still setting up things for the new Apple stores in Shanghai! So, he was nice enough to give me a tour of Shanghai!
This photo is from the Bund, which is basically where the new (Pudong side) and old parts of Shanghai are both visible right on the Huangpu River. Brian and I are standing on the old side, with the Pudong side (notable by the TALL skyscrapers, as well as the Pearl TV Tower).
Some highlights from the day...
1. Yuyuan Gardens - really, it's a tourist trap, but, it's nice for pictures anyway~
2. Some things never change... including creepy birds that you find in alleys that say 'hi' to you, Well... this one said "Ni Hao!"
3. A tribute for my fortune-cookie-loving boyfriend~
4. This LG Washing Machine advertisement that I found in the metro station...
SO! I'm guessing... that this washing machine is:
1. User friendly for women, woo hoo!
2. SO calm, that you can balance a tower of cards on it (haha, ALEX!)
3. SO effective, that... see that lady, how she's just so carelessly drinking a cup of coffee/tea in a WHITE dress? She's not worried about spilling, since... (hoho!) if that were to happen, the washing machine's got her back, right?
oh... Advertising... :)
So, my 'babysitter' (ahha!) for Shanghai, Brian, has the whole week off from work, since they're still setting up things for the new Apple stores in Shanghai! So, he was nice enough to give me a tour of Shanghai!
This photo is from the Bund, which is basically where the new (Pudong side) and old parts of Shanghai are both visible right on the Huangpu River. Brian and I are standing on the old side, with the Pudong side (notable by the TALL skyscrapers, as well as the Pearl TV Tower).Some highlights from the day...
1. Yuyuan Gardens - really, it's a tourist trap, but, it's nice for pictures anyway~
3. A tribute for my fortune-cookie-loving boyfriend~
4. This LG Washing Machine advertisement that I found in the metro station...
SO! I'm guessing... that this washing machine is:1. User friendly for women, woo hoo!
2. SO calm, that you can balance a tower of cards on it (haha, ALEX!)
3. SO effective, that... see that lady, how she's just so carelessly drinking a cup of coffee/tea in a WHITE dress? She's not worried about spilling, since... (hoho!) if that were to happen, the washing machine's got her back, right?
oh... Advertising... :)
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