Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Weekend of “Top 10s”


This weekend was a weekend of top 10s.

For lunch, we went to this Dintaifeng restaurant to check out their baozis because I saw in this theBeijinger (an expat mag—already a bad sign, I know, but they had this other dim sum place in it that my aunt, uncle, and cousin loved and it was reasonably priced!, so I figured why not…) that they were rated as one of the top 10 restaurants in the world by the ny times and as having outstanding dumplings by theBeijinger. Course, as my uncle and aunt told me, it can’t be that good. everything tastes good to a foreigner hahah.

Before hand, my aunt told me she had a colleague who’s obsessed with this place even tho it’s 死贵(sigui--literally deadly expensive haha), and for some reason we still decided to go try it. haha I don’t really know why either because it wasn’t like if we didn’t go I’d be disappointed. Usually 死贵 means that about the equiv of the US price and then some, so it’s like at least 5 times what you could get at any other regular place.

Well, as my aunt said, Dintaifeng was def top 10…in terms of price. We got 2 half servings of their different xiaolongbaozis (one pork and the other crab roe and pork)...33 yuan for each serving of 5 little baozis, each prob a little smaller than an oreo…Pretty much a dollar for each tiny little baozi. And we also got 2 orders of their regular pork baozis…18 yuan an order, and each order comes with 2 baozis…TWO! 9 yuan a baozi!



I have to say tho, their baozi’s (big white ones) were the best that I’ve had in China so far haha. The breading was super soft and moist and the meat didn’t taste super oily like the other ones o I’ve had. The crab roe xiaolong baozi was kind of weird. You could def taste the crab, but it was still weird eating a baozi that had crab flavor haha. The other xiaolong baozi was just def not worth the money. My parents are dad is probably so disappointed in me now; I just paid over $1 for a tiny baozi and almost a dollar for pretty much one bite….so overall like $3 spent for 9, at most 10 bites. At least I’m averaging three bites per dollar here. =D  I made sure to take small bites.

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Then, for dinner, we went to one of the top 10 places to eat pizza in China…pizza hut! Hahah. Its funny how I’ve been to Beijing like 6-7 times and yesterday was the first time I ever had pizza hut in china. I mean it’s not like I usually eat pizza at home and want to eat it every week, but I def remember wanting to eat pizza hut in previous trips, but my dad always refused because pizza hut was too high class of a restaurant for us.



Like the other high class fast food restaurant chains here, namely KFC and Mcdonalds, the service was amazing, the menu options were more varied, the atmosphere much nicer, and the décor was nice like PF Changs, but better lit. We ordered some yummy chicken wings, a 12 inch atlantic salmon pizza, this bbq sausage thing, and some spaghetti for my cousin.

An order of chicken wings is only 4 per plate haha, but they were super juicy and flavorful throughout. There was nothing special about the spaghetti, in fact I know we make better spaghetti (sauce) at home. Typical American food. The bbq sausage thing was my favorite dish that we ordered—check it out:


It’s lke 2 pepperoni sausages on bbq sauce covered w/pineapple and melted cheese, with potato wedges and a HUGE slice of tomato with corn, covered cheese. I thought the best way to eat this was to stick a piece of pineapple, some cheese, and a piece of sausage dipped in bbq sauce and eat it in one bite. Mmmm

We also ordered a 12 inch mid-Atlantic salmon pizza. It came with shrimp, octopus, green and red bell peppers, I think mushrooms, and imitation crab, topped with slices of smoked salmon (I think. I’m not really sure what to call this) and wasabi sauce. Maybe you can tell from one of these pics...

This was definitely the weirdest pizza I’ve ever eaten because not only were the toppings kind of weird, but there was no tomato sauce…which wouldn’t have been too weird b/c I really like white pizza, but instead my uncle and aunt got ketchup on the side and put it on top of their pizza/dipped their pizza in it…Originally on the way there, I was telling them about how really good pizza has really good tomato sauce, in Chinese of course, and I’m pretty sure tomato sauce is just 西红柿酱(xinghongshijiang), and my Xiaojiu and Jiuma were telling me that you could get it on the side too and customize your pizza. I already thought that was weird b/c I didn’t see how you could customize the sauce of the pizza if the cheese was already on it…so I’m not actually sure which I thought was weirder when I realized that杏红是酱 is also what Chinese people call ketchup…

I was kind of shocked to say this, but it actually was pretty good. I really didn’t expect it to be b/c I’m not a fan of wasabi sauce, but it didn’t make it taste bad. But, the thing is, I think the only reason that it tasted good was b/c it was the typical pizza hut pizza, with its toasty bottom and soft doughy deep dish inside and buttered crust. Mmmm. Pizza Hut, tasty, but by far not the best pizza I've ever had, that would be the margherita Pizzeria Delfina in San Fran!

I kind of want to try the pizza with corn and shrimp on it…or maybe the one with shrimp and cheese stuffed crust…maybe one more trip to Pizza Hut before I go to make my Dad more disappointed by my overspending for a Chinese person? Just kidding. For now. =p

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Then, as if I wasn’t full enough after 3 slices, we went to eat some of the top 10 ice cream in the world at Haagen Dazs b/c Jiuma and Xiaojiu promised my (3? Year old cousin) Doudou (who didn’t even understand what it is haha) that they’d take her after she drank her medicine to help her cold—btw that medicine smells HOORRRIBBBLEEE. Omg its disgusting. That stuff belongs on Fear Factor.

[Random side note—Before we went to Haagen Dazs, we went to the grocery store in the basement level of the mall for a bit, and like most big grocery stores, this one also sells hot food…like pork baozis…10.80 yuan for a whole large tray thing—most likely 10 a tray…hahaha ><] [hahahahaha Other random story #2. As I was sitting in Haagen Dazs waiting for the waitress, I turned to my left and looked out the window…right in front of me, like 3 feet from the window, I see a mom holding up her son in his kaidangku, peeing at Haagan Dazs. Hahaha i love how before I had blogged about kaidangku, the only times I saw kids peeing randomly were in nature-y settings and not nice developed malls. The little baby had this really fat face and expression on his face that was so adorable tho. It was hilarious b/c he had this blank stare when my cousin was hitting the glass in front of him hahaha. Maybe you can see his face from this picture. Haha]

First time I’ve ever had Haagen Dazs. The only Haagen Dazs that I know of back home is at Southpoint mall and it’s only a little island stand thing in the food court. The Haagen Dazs here was like a mini restaurant-Starbucks like set up. You sit down at a coffee shop table set up w/the couch like seats, the waitress brings you a menu, water w/a lemon, and nice utensils, etc.

My aunt ordered a banana split sundae thing for 62 yuan (almost $10) for all of us to split b/c we were so full. I thought it was the most reasonably priced thing there that also looked good too. I took an illegal picture of them preparing the sundae. I don't know why they said pictures aren't allowed because it's not like I could go make their ice cream and any idiot can slice a banana.

The left most scoop is vanilla with toffee swirls, the center is vanilla, and the chocolate looking one is Belgian chocolate ice cream. I think it’s just chocolate ice cream w/Belgium chocolate swirled thru. The vanilla was ehh, and we only ordered it b/c the stupid waitress thought the combo of the 1st two scoops my uncle ordered were too sweet…so Chinese. What a waste of a scoop. That vanilla was just like vanilla from the box. -_-. But OMG. The vanilla w/toffee and Belgium chocolate ice cream was AMAZING. I didn’t expect it to be anything spectacular or that much better than regular ice cream (like Coldstone, can’t really compare w/Bent Spoon b/c I think the best kind of ice cream at Bent Spoon is their fruity ice cream), but it was SOOO GOOOOD. Omg. Thank god it’s so expensive and there aren’t Haagen Dazs stores everywhere, or else I would totally just go eat Haagan Dazs like I do popsicles and Mcdonalds ice cream cones. I can’t wait til I find a somebody that my boss wants to hire to be his executive assistant. The first thing im gonna do w/my bonus is go buy Haagen Dazs. mmmm

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Sunday: Still full in the morning from the day before, so I could only eat a few pork and chives dumplings :(, but that was probly a good thing since I was going to go meet Popo (婆婆) again for dinner that night b/c she wanted me to meet somebody to talk to somebody about going to study abroad in the US.

When I got there, I sat down and I felt so on the spot. I was sitting on a stool and on the opposite side of the coffee table sat 2 students who wanted to study in the US, Popo, and one of the kids’ parents. Then these parents started asking me questions about community colleges in the US and what I knew about it and what their kid needed to do to prepare for studying abroad in the US, specifically on the west coast…whaatt?? How am I supposed to know anything about either topics? Plus their kid wanted to study compsci so its not like I could help him in any way possible. Not only did I forget all my Chinese, but I was sitting there w/5 pairs of eyes staring at me, waiting for my “wisdom” on where he should go to school. Jeez talk about pressure. I thought about telling them that there was no way in hell I had have even considered applying to a community college when I was in high school, so they could just save their money, but I felt like I was holding the kids future in my hands.

When we went to dinner, I felt a little disturbed by the guy’s dad…I’m pretty sure he’s got some bias against females. More than once he said to his son something like, “See, she can tolerate academic pressure. If a girl can do it, so can you!”...and “See, this girl worked really hard and got into a good school. If a girl can put in this much effort, so can you!”. If I hadn’t been there with Popo, I think I would have asked him about it. -_-

Anyways, the reason why I even mentioned this whole thing was b/c I had a top 10 beijing food for dinner…Beijing kaoya--peking duck! haha. I can't find a picture on my computer, so here's somebody else's that's missing the cucumber slices. otherwise, pretty much exactly what ours looked like!

One less thing I have to eat again before I leave Beijing. Two off my list in a weekend!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Only in China

I think the first time I came to Beijing was when I was 6, and since then, I’ve come back almost every other year, and everytime after the first or 2nd Beijing is always drastically different from what I remember. The change doesn’t feel as big since I came back for the Olympics, but that’s probly b/c China was like my family when we have asian dinner parties…cleaning the house, hiding crap in closets, corners, rarely used rooms, you get the point. China got super modern (compared to years past, still far from the west) and nice for the Olympics, and then as soon as it was over, it became a mess again.

Anyways, I met this black dude from the US playing bball a few weeks ago and he pointed out that even though China does feel a lot more modern (I think largely b/c of the Mcdonalds/KFCs/malls on every corner), there’s something weird about it that makes it still China of old. I couldn’t figure it out, but things happen that make me think, only in China. Anyways, here are the possible explanations for why Beijing is pseudo-modern. I should note that there maybe some rather graphic pictures in this post--this is your warning haha

1. The people still act Chinese. Everywhere. Literally.
Obviously Chinese people are going to act Chinese, but I feel like that there are certain behaviors that people associate with Chinese people immediately. Like the Chinese Squat for one…to be honest, I actually haven’t noticed this, but maybe it’s because I’ve become so accustomed to it that I don’t even think, oh what a weird squatter. I do feel like compared to years past, more people in Beijing stand instead of squat at the bus/subway stop.

The other is what the fat Chinese man does when he eats outside and has either ate too much or ate something that was too hot (either spicy or in temp) that makes him feel hot/sweaty. At home, my dad would just take off his shirt, but I guess that’s a little too (I cant think of any word right now except for 野蛮)hickish/socially unacceptable/would make people think you’re too poor/are a construction worker, so instead you just roll your shirt up until it sits on your giant pot belly nice and high so you can cool yourself down a little.

Don’t believe me? I took this picture with my phone (kind of stealthily over my shoulder) at HaiDiLaoHuoGuo (one of the nicest hot pot places in Beijing) when I had dinner with the the CTO of Sony Ericsson China (and our old neighbor, but that just sounds cooler haha).



And it’s not just the old fat Chinese men that make me think, only in China. It’s the kids too, particularly the little ones peeing (public pooping not so common) everywhere, anywhere, and anytime. I have yet to witness such a scene in a public indoor location, but outdoors? Please, when your kid says she has to pee, and you decided your kid was too cool for clothes that already have a giant tear in them (开裆裤 kaidangku), just pick her up, carry her to the nearest tree and let em pee away. Of course, if you didn’t care that you just bought your kid pants with a giant hole in them, your kid is a big kid now, but in a slightly more environmentally friendly way. Take that Huggies! Look at how convenient that is and how minimizes the waste to the natural stuff.

SEE. I'M A BIG KID NOW.












2. English in China is still ehh.
Aside from the subway instructions, which were prepared for the Olympics, you still sign awkwardly translated signs.
From the gym in my neighborhood where I do rehab stuff:


At this huge mall by the shuangjin subway stop…not a big typo, but I like how one letter makes a difference haha




3. Google not in China anymore => bad English names?
Maybe it’s because Google left China so Chinese people can’t search what is a normal American name before naming theirselves. I don’t know, but for the past week, I’ve been trying to find an assistant for my boss and I’ve received resumes from a guy named Panda (the week before this, I interviewed a girl named Panda), and a resume from a guy named Alison…

I don’t know what it is with Chinese people and pandas. My colleague says it’s because Chinese people treasure pandas and consider them to be precious things, which is why they give them as diplomatic presents…It’s good to know this because when I say I want to be a panda, it means that I wish I could just be fat and lazy and eat and sleep all day.

I hope next week I’ll meet somebody who named themselves after a pokemon.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

My Chinese-English name is great.

Hahaha today at work, I finally found this guy on linkedin after a longer than normal google search because I initially spelled his name wrong...I entered Henry into Excel...his name is Herry...and no, that is no typo.
Immediately, I thought of this video Mary showed me yearsss ago. I watched it after lunch with my coworker and it was still hilarious. except for tony. boring tony.



Thanks mom and dad for trying to and finding an English name that could easily be translated into Chinese and still make sense. Too bad you didn't do this for Victor...or should I say it was yeye does, Vicor? =p

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

I was right. =)

My aunt and uncle confirmed it. China really only has one time zone. Yes, one time zone for a country that seems as wide as the US.

Originally I thought it was some way for the government to control/mess with people because for people in Xinjiang and whatever else is on the west side of China, at 8 pm, it's still super bright (like 4 -5 pm pacific time) there…but after my uncle made me realize that it wasn't just because the government felt like having one time zone, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Anyways, to adjust, (the few) people in xinjiang and whatever else is out there (not much tho, really) just shift their schedules and work from like 11 AM to 8/830 pm and sleep at like 2 am. (This used to sound really normal for me because this is my school sleep schedule, but in China I pass out at 11:30 pm and get up at 715 on the weekdays and now I can barely make it to 1 am...)

So why does this make sense? Well now there's no confusion as to what time your meeting/flight/phone call is….did you know that Detroit is in the eastern time zone even though it's in the Midwest? Yup, and yet they still put a major airport where practically all flights transfer in Detroit. (I think Dallas-FW is 2 hours behind EST? maybe it's one…but you get the point.)

Chinese people are so smart. No need to say, I'll call you at 9 pm my time. Having one time zone would also be super nice because then it eliminates the confusion about cell phones and free minutes after 9 pm. When I call Jessica at Northwestern, do I have to wait til 10 pm my time because it's not after 9 pm her time? Or does it not even matter because I'm the one calling her?
First the metric system, now time zones. What's next?

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Thought it was also worthy of its own post...

If you didn't notice, check out the fish tank gadget at the bottom of the page that I added! haha you can click and feed the fish!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

I lied.

I cheered for Germany. I forgot they were still in it haha ><. (this is how poorly i've been following the games). My aunt and uncle cheered for Argentina tho.

Final pick tho. Cheering for Germany! haha

I think I can almost start taking the elevator

Pretty much for the past 3 weeks, the main exercise I'd get would be going to and from work (an hour of walking with a super heavy backpack), standing on the subway, speedwalking in the subway station to transfer lines, walking to the grocery store to buy popsicles, and taking the stairs up and down to get to my uncle's apartment on the 6th floor. With all the popsicles I've been eating, and no bball, I decided that I would only take the stairs. [Although lately, I've decided that I can take the elevator from the floor that it's on. (So there's also no electricity used to get the elevator down from the 4th floor to the 1st =D. ) So if it's on the 4th floor, I can only go up starting from the 4th, but usually by the time I get to the 4th floor, I just decide to walk up the last two floors. I mean how pathetic would it be to take the elevator up two floors after I just went up four? Usually though, I still have to walk up tho b/c by the time I get home, everybody else in the building has come home and going upstairs instead of down.) Thankfully, the furthest I've gotten before I realize I've forgotten something is the 4th floor.

Anyways, I've never been so excited to be able to take the elevator because it means I can start playing basketball again. I think I've played basketball only five or six times in the last five weeks. Part of that is because I get back from work at 6:30, finish eating at 715, and don't feel like walking 20 minutes to go to the court to play crappy half court basketball, but the main reason is because of my SI joint, which I feel like is finally almost healed (and by healed I mean I can play bball haha) after hours of stretching, doing rehab exercises, and not playing basketball.

Last week, I even went to the hospital to get a massage therapy session, because with so many people in China looking to make money, you never know who to trust…The day before my uncle took me to the hospital, we (jiuma, xiaojiu, doudou, and me) went to check out the massage places near our neighborhood. The first one was called something blind massage…which didn't really make me feel at ease. It seemed like a mom and pop massage parlor (if there is such a thing), and probly would have been good enough, but my uncle and aunt didn't really want to risk anything sense it was my back…it was pretty cheap too! 38 yuan for half an hour, I think 65 for an hour, 350 for 6 hours.

The next place we went to was actually an apartment complex in our neighborhood that somebody had turned into a massage/acupuncture/Chinese med place. It looked way more professional. They had flip flops for you when you walked in (that they also didn't reuse somehow) and the place looked so sterile haha. So white and clean (looking back, that just made me trust their opinion more). Then their boss came in to take a look at me after we told them my back hurt. He poked and prodded around and found where my back hurt and said that you could clearly see that the joint was not normal, which I believed and made me find them more credible, until he made me lie on the massage bed and told me that my legs were clearly of unequal lengths. And a significant difference in them too. He was so convinced too. He was asking xiaojiu if he could see it (who said no) and the doc was like it's so obvious! Look!

The second he said this, I had a flashback to all the times my dad scolded me for walking with one shoulder higher than the other. It made perfect sense. All those years of walking with one shoulder higher than the other no matter how many times my dad pressed on the higher one was because my legs weren't the same length!

Before we left, xiaojiu wanted to know how many sessions I would need. They said they were unsure, it was different for everyone…regardless, I'd need to see them to get my si joint straightened and worked on…at a cost of 200 yuan a session!! WHAATTT you gotta be kidding me. Where do these people think they are? America?

I walked out feeling unbalanced. I could feel the unevenness of my shoulders for the first few minutes after I left.

Then I walked some more and wondered why after all those years of sprints, running, soccer, bball, etc I never had a problem with my IT band until now and realized that he was pulling bullshit out of his ass. I had directed him to the sore spot on my lower back AND you can pull your leg up and down without bending your knee or really moving your hip (actually a strengthening exercise for your piriformis muscle. See.)

I got to hand it to him, what a pro at conning people. The place looked really professional and the guy sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

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Saturday morning, my uncle took me to the hospital, where they aren't trying to make buck off you and they are def certified.

I was planning on getting a massage therapy session that focused on my lower back, hip flexor, piriformis, quad, IT band, etc. but of course it was nothing like I had imagined because this is China.

First off, when we get there, we have to wait in line. There was only one middle aged lady working and wow, she was amazing. She was massaging people's sore/tight spots and didn't even get a 5 min rest break in between. There were three people ahead of us, but all I remember was the old lady who had just been seen and she was sitting in a chair resting because of this HUGE dark red almost black sore looking thing on the back of her neck. Omggg it looked so painful. (I later realized that it was from the Chinese fire cupping thing, which I seriously doubt is effective).

The other guy was the guy right before me, who I remember vividly because I felt like I was watching some guy get tortured. Aside from movies and athletes on TV crying (shoutout to JJ Redick and Adam Morrison!), I think it was the first time id ever seen a grown man come so close to crying. Who knows if he was actually going to cry, but this guy (who was rather cheerful before hand, cracking jokes now and then before she started) was getting the fire cupping treatment done on his shoulder area. [Side note—Chinese use this cupping treatment, best summarized by google: "Fire Cupping is a method of treatment that involves heating the air inside a special glass cup and placing the inverted cup on part of the body. A vacuum is created, which anchors the cup to the skin and pulls the skin upward into the cup causing tissues to release toxin". This doctor heated the air by lighting a cotton swab and dropping it on the cup. I'm sure its on Wikipedia if you want to learn more.] anyways, the doctor was putting the glass jar on his shoulder and moved it all around his back and shoulder, which made it really really red. Soon after she started, he was like AHHH 疼!很疼!(PAIN!)IT HURTS SO MUCH! STOP! And so the doctor stopped. I thought she was gonna just stop. Nope, she just waited and started again without warning him, and he started screaming again. 哎呀! 疼死了!绝对受不了!哎呀!which in English is pretty much OMG! OMG THIS HURTS LIKE HELL. I CAN'T TOLERATE THE PAIN. OMG OWWWW OWWW. Course to make this all worse while im watching, this guy is rolling around on the massage bed thing and is like halfway off the bed (his toros was already off the bed completely) trying to roll away from this lady who was using a lot of strength to move this cup thing that was stuck to him.

When she finally finished, he got up and had 3-4 circular red marks on his shoulder like this, his whole back was red, and he had a couple of red lines going up and down his back. he walked out kind of slowly.

Finally it was my turn…xiaojiu was like, don't worry. You def won't be needing that. Nothing to be scared about….

Omg I broke out into a sweat getting "massaged"...一脸都是汗。 I had sweat dripping down my face by the end of it, and it was only like 20 minutes long. At most. She barely even worked on my lower half. When she did, for the most part, I didn't understand what the purpose of what she was doing was for. I felt like she was trying to yank my legs out of their sockets. (She almost pulled me off the bed thing even though I was holding on for dear life). Instead she pushed really hard on my spine on my upper back and I swear she had to have cracked it. At one point, she had me lie on my side and she grabbed both my leg and arm and pulled them back and then yanked on them to make my lower back crack and I felt like if I hadn't been trying to resist her as hard as I could while being sneaky about it, she would have snapped me in half. It was at this moment that I felt like a fish flopping around on the ground, with a human grabbing it however it wants and snapping its spine in half.

When I walked out, I did feel taller (b/c it felt like she had stretched my spine when she straightened by back) and my upper back did feel better though afterwards…my lower back not so much. Immediately afterwards, my lower back felt sore, and kind of in pain/really tired feeling by 10 pm. I woke up with it in pain, and the next day, I couldn't sit or stand until late into the night, which was unfortunate because I went to visit Popo and had to ride the subway/bus/walk/do things that didn't require lying down for hours at a time.

I don't know if it helped, but whatever, I think I can finally play basketball. Yay! =D