Day 42

October 1, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

Day 42? Today is the answer to the ultimate question, yes? The answer to life, the universe, everything? Right?

Um, no. Not exactly. I did some shopping today. I bought a mouse to make my desk computing easier, and:


Fringe. Now on Chinese DVD!

They really put a lot of work into these things: Season 2 has a holofoil cover. Like a comic book trading card from the 90s! It is a shame that their translation skills aren't so solid; Olivia Dunham is inexplicably labelled "Olivia Warren" in the Chinese text. The Chinese title is, however, pure brilliance: 危机边缘 (wēijī biānyuán, lit. "Edge of Crisis!"). Although, the critic's quote on the back of the package calls Season 1 "A deftly jouful [sic], nuanced comedy" (<---click on it!).


Seriously?


I also purchased a set of Project Runway DVDs, and it's title isn't as smart: 天之娇女 （tiān zhī jiāo nǚ， lit. "Beloved Woman of Heaven"). I'm thinking that title refers to the fact that Heidi Klum is a Victoria's Secret Angel. Maybe?

Friday Favorites:

This week's favorite is a bit of a cheat, and I'm willing to admit that. My favorite thing this week is actually today, Chinese National Day. This holiday marks the founding of the People's Republic of China, and starts off what is known as a "Golden Week," in which people, like me, do not have to work or go to school. So, for my Golden Week, in lieu of traveling outside of the city, I will be exploring Xi'an. Wish me luck!


Chinese National Day. The beginning of the Golden Week!


Red Lanterns. Xi'an is decked out for the celebration of National Day.

Hayden

Day 28

September 17, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

I have never been so happy for a week to end. It was just the longest week ever, and every day of it was more frustrating than the last. Now in for a nice relaxing weekend.

Nope.

Damn it! My arm is hurting again. Sigh. I may have pinpointed the problem, I think it has something to do with my posture. I'm not saying it had changed since I arrived in China, it's just that my desk has a stool and not a chair. This is mainly significant because I've been mostly computing from my bed lately. Today, however, I got the brilliant idea to clean off my desk and use it. This, as it turns out, may have been a mistake, re: The arm pain.

Jordan is moving out. Today, actually. He found an apartment near the school with some Chinese guys. So, I'll have this room all to myself. Let's hope the hotel doesn't try to complicate my living-alone plans.

Friday Favorites:

So, what can be salvaged from this week? Not much. The pizza was good, so there's that. And, I guess I got to ride in a taxi two more times. So, bonus there. But, this week's Friday Favorite is...


My New Shirt. Bought at the Vanguard, in Xi'an.

"Easy Your Life." Poorly-chosen words to live by.

Hayden

Day 26

September 15, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

Blah. Jordan is sick. I'm not, thank goodness, but I haven't been sleeping very well and his sickness isn't helping much.

I slept in today, and skipped my classes. It's not as if they take attendance, and we're still in review territory. You would just not believe how exhausting it is to not be able to actually communicate something to some one else. Ever. Even when some one does speak English, conversations can be little more than superficial. Ah, well.

So, for this Wednesday, please enjoy this Chinglish:


Jianmin. "the series high qualityfoodstuff were produced carefully.it is your firstchoice of present."

At present, I guess it is my first choice, mainly because it leads me to rather an interesting end note to a previous discussion. Jianmin is a brand of what is essentially just a very high-gluten flour they use to make cakes and that sort of thing. Gluten in Chinese is "mianjin" (面筋, lit. "bread muscle"). It's really chewy when cooked and a little spongy. One of the many ways in which is is prepared is skewered and grilled. Said skewers are spiral cut in order to allow them to cook more evenly, and then rolled in spices. The result is a spicy, chewy sort of cake. A cake, mind you, that doesn't contain ANY sheep's penis at all, and is sold by street vendors ALL over China.


Mianjin (面筋) 2. Roasted, rolled in spices, and delightfully sheep's penis-free.

Phew.

Hayden

Day 7

August 27, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

Today, in a number of ways, was a repeat of the rest of my week, only sped up. I went to the airport with Xiao Liu to pick up Jordan. Then, I helped Jordan check in and get registered. The day was concluded with a trip to the market on Chang An Nan.

On the ride to the airport, we passed a few cars that Xiao Liu indicated were bound for a wedding. The first...


The Flower Car. The car had flowers taped to it.

...was covered in flowers. Well, not covered, which is maybe weirder. But, it had some flowers taped right to it. ((shrugs)) The second was maybe stranger:


The Rocket Car. Hmm...I have no idea.

I guess a car equipped with rocket launchers is a standard wedding item, but I'll have to defer to my married friends just to be sure.

After we arrived back at the hotel, Jordan and I decided that lunch was necessary. "我想吃饺子！"("I want to eat dumplings!"), I said, and Jordan agreed. We walked down Shi Da and looked in the various restaurants. I tried to read the signs, not always succeeding, but I recognized the word for dumpling and knew we'd found what we were looking for.


Dumplings (饺子). Mmm...dumplings.

We place our order: I ordered one that said it contained meat, but neither of us were sure what kind of meat it meant; it said "大肉" ("Big Meat"), whatever that means. Jordan's order was for chicken, we thought. Maybe. They brought us both a plate. The dumplings looked delicious and we started to eat. Then, they brought us both ANOTHER plate.


More dumplings. More mmmm?

Somewhere along the line, there was confusion in our ordering process. Oh, well. More dumplings it is! They were quite good, but we ended up taking most of them back to the hotel. Later, Jordan and I would both discover that our stomachs didn't like the dumplings much, and we had to throw the rest of them away. It was the first time I'd gotten sick since I arrived last week.

After I helped him register, we took a walk around our neighborhood.



Our Neighborhood. Some of the apartments near our hotel.

There was also a wall around a kindergarten that featured a lot of fun, weird painted characters:






Fun Characters. Hey! Cookie Monster!

This reminded me of some other fun pictures I took this week. Which brings me to my first Friday Favorite. Every Friday, I plan to talk about one thing that was my favorite thing in China that week. This week, its cute characters. Practically everything here has an adorable little mascot on it, and I just love them. So, here are some of the pictures I took of them this week:






More Fun Characters. Haibao, the Shanghai Expo Mascot; the couple that are the mascots for Haier Air Conditioners; Lemonhead; the things from the Dico's box; and, well, the Jissbon Condom Man. lol.

Friday Favorite Bonus: And just for fun, some more Chinglish!


Huh? It's for soy milk, of course.

Hayden

Day 1 (2)

August 21, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

Xiao Liu took me to the bank, where I had to try to do currency exchange in my head while standing in front of the ATM. She then took me to the local super market to buy a few snacks to keep in my room. At the store I saw a number of interesting items:


Pepsi Briefs. Apparently, Pepsi makes underwear in China. Who knew?

And some familiar toys, in a new form:



Baxier Doll. Apparently, they don't sell Barbie here, they sell Baxier.

The bulk of my shopping, however, was food related. I walked up and down the aisles, looking for familiar faces only to be met with twists on what I already knew.



Unusual Chips 1. An assortment of unusual potato chip flavors, including "Aromatic Crispy Chicken" Pringles, Kiwi flavored and Cucumber Flavored Lays. More on unusual chips later.

The market even had a foreign food section:


The American Food Section. The only thing the store had was could be considered American was Hunt's Speghetti Sause. And it was QUITE expensive.

I bought a few items to take back with me:


First Day Shopping. The items I picked up on my first day in Xi'an.

I purchased: Cucumber Flavored Lays, Vanilla Ice Cream Oreos, Strawberry Cheetos, a Moon Cake, Zhàcài (榨菜, lit. "salted vegetables", its basically the pickled stem of the mustard plant. It is apparently similar to Kimchi), Peach Flavored Fanta (picture below), some Chinese ramen, a bowl, and chopsticks. I have a tea kettle in my room, so I got the bowl and ramen in order to make food if I don't feel like going out.


Peach Fanta. Better than I had expected.


My New Piggie Bowl. My bowl for making ramen in my room.

The moon cake I bought is a Chinese autumn specialty. Apparently you eat them in the fall to ensure good luck through the winter. Xiao Liu told me that the school would give each student two Moon Cakes as a sign of good faith.





Moon Cake. The filling is a some kind of paste, maybe made of roasted almonds. The center is some kind of marshmellow/marzipan. It was quite good. The package says "This Moon Cake has carefully produced and crafted with proper condition and enjoy the finest things."

I enjoyed the Moon Cake. And the peach soda. The ramen was complex and delicious, nothing at all like the ramen in America. The Strawberry Cheetos tasted and smelled like Crunchberries. I haven't gotten around to the Cucumber Lays just yet, but I will soon. The whole lot cost me about 50 yuan, or roughly $7.

Hayden