tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87425948286188153652024-03-13T11:29:59.471-07:00Living in Beijing - My Beijing LifeExperiences, Advice, Anecdotes and Pictures from the two years I spend living in Beijing, China with my fiance and traveling around Asia.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-62593611402271971242011-09-16T08:11:00.000-07:002011-09-21T06:50:50.574-07:00Words With Friends AccomplishmentsI've been playing a lot of Words With Friends on Facebook and Android lately. Its been driving me crazy lately that they've added 39 accomplishments but haven't provided anyway to see all the accomplishments you've gotten or which remain. Here are some of the ones I've found so far.<div><br /></div><div>I also looked around the zynga servers and found a bunch of badges that aren't officially available. Check them all out below. To be clear - I haven't earned all of these badges. Just 29 of them. I haven't had a 600 point game or a 300 point word.<br /><br /></div><div>So there are three big questions that remain:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>1: This is already more than 39 (41 to be exact!). What accomplishments are left? And which of these are official</b><br />I assume a lot are point based. A few more milestones could easily fit in there. I'm surprised they have 600 point solo game, but don't have anything higher than 650 point combined game.<br /><br /></div><div><b>2: Which badges when?</b></div><div>It is also unclear where badges point limits cap out. For instance, I've definitely had combined point games over 650, in fact, a few were over 850 - but those badges never showed up.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>3: Cross Platform accomplishments?</b></div><div>I play on Facebook and Android. Android doesn't give me an alert when I unlock an accomplishment, but Facebook does. I played a 100 pointer the other day on my Android, but when I logged onto Facebook I didn't have a new badge. What gives? Those don't come along every day!</div><div><br /></div><div>Any ideas?</div><div><br /><br /><table style="text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b>Accomplishment Badge</b></td><td style="text-align: center;"><b> </b> <b> Description</b></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qxczevEHnqgtq1DsbKY2X_aF7BscmFcCgI-omu4VHLQtLKW_FMHLVLk1K8x88x6K8JDGQ6eE9JmmmIbiUy5FNR3Y5sgCfQI4yT1-TaShfGJF4oiPuMP374JEx9CR3vbgPxqNAGFLY2s/s320/20PtWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 20 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikiI5jCWiNCq-5g1a4-4nNp8RRxa9LJ8-jlc9lVhMR_S-o_CcU8lmkVH3RMfqMQljROKZV9XY2SDJfDPzUNUtdu9f_2X-sDaqeXr6W_ley5KYuKIOnW4i4vXrLLTLGaYGsVVDasDi6m3M/s320/30PtWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 30 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil0HsRnZyIIQMC_zfJ_qu5FJSPjUCSJgmPvrhLD1E8NW37QD9PlAzEBiT-19NT1LmU4pPzIy-7c1UcasDBR0nGbFXrBUCF52fkUn5u9p_-9O0jI0WPb_3izmtZUJIggCkOOGtCQrbyK9Q/s320/40PtWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 40 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ5JIbFc_QmF1qZnQwBkQAP2nGiqTipjbiu-R6hyfpWrkpbSYRdb5sRnLyjTH_eh365VPqYx7Y8eZn6EYZq60Rp6SFzcRxObyNy4kmgMBc7Nk8EoEXdjkrYaMr9BZ4wpm9HwmO6EFNy8Y/s320/50PtWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 50 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6xmeP10u2zTOaLwFDXStBfAX-tePiLCHcad9e01ewIX3Mpl8OD7Z3HsWxQcFY20DvO_HIfjLSM8rLobPCs-DmIC5pTUQ9Zgj_NpAtbg0RE8Vhiv3tf-56w4HueGeQtzR73p-nioiyjAM/s320/60PtWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 60 points in a turn</td></tr><tr></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCthF5cbkrwGLnYNvy8nzqOCpwZZ6QRx0P9q3ZEq2uqW75T-wo9vvCoKJoC08cU-J-UFoSTSQ1lLxhM0KU5gUMIpslxZWoyWzczebN3CpfdJKhEKUKyQab0qZ3IogYJ2NDatMu9i87tno/s320/70PtWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 70 points in a turn</td></tr><tr></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxOiGLZnNhJP2s95BFbfsGzRah4CZpKjVNfl8ZvT691HPl0vOoMWDacXYN_gWyEUoPF7f9jvVlkjzh95wEIFaWbUOMTnppcD-57yHd70j6K05GoUoN5eTTQw9TT0Hkgc7MCwPDBdiDp0/s320/80PtWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 80 points in a turn</td></tr><tr></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh-hyo_1g4aH__kv8DyMGpWCF2PdRblEYFuEEoRecLqI8EKSU7eolujvGYWWogHRH-fwTKW-k8DEUO-bsgmI5bpxqHlcVSbuqA4D7PgxCaunfe5Vi5C1F4w2a_hfdZYx_5F4Vlm2cOE4I/s320/90PtWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 90 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtyAS8nDWdgCN9muDKTev4HVK_cXMW6MnRz86s-OrYaV6FCDgSasMqXThs2ZlKFQHEuSuncBwkpozyjxrr5OaxmYqA1hQ6Zl-d5lg9awUL0t4Xto4SeGATtHBd7ujk6DmNVUqidyUiyZc/s1600/100PtWord.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtyAS8nDWdgCN9muDKTev4HVK_cXMW6MnRz86s-OrYaV6FCDgSasMqXThs2ZlKFQHEuSuncBwkpozyjxrr5OaxmYqA1hQ6Zl-d5lg9awUL0t4Xto4SeGATtHBd7ujk6DmNVUqidyUiyZc/s320/100PtWord.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654807310444034466" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 100 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdM-J4h3JlPrN67sIzncr91V9q6dxUQvNoRvcNs15KnlVIu_mlvC8rjxaggP-qFOMvRxummaaUxx3EvB2eUurnYVHZr2O009IUU-uIBM10845_JRGSQmMMkdVEmm-nQVizGPXugLxUrm8/s1600/150PtWord.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdM-J4h3JlPrN67sIzncr91V9q6dxUQvNoRvcNs15KnlVIu_mlvC8rjxaggP-qFOMvRxummaaUxx3EvB2eUurnYVHZr2O009IUU-uIBM10845_JRGSQmMMkdVEmm-nQVizGPXugLxUrm8/s320/150PtWord.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654808369343708226" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 150 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqnz1E3A3ZiwwRAbWKvION1SE2AytJUVtM1QM1tJE6xN_IqMfy0_Klw-v5AdPblNlL2WHfw5XScgkjPSoZzJVsYF6By6lzTWcJu_gjQ-nuqJfVvMF7CDh46nDDKvXLJrQ4vCO6NdG3i5g/s1600/200PtWord.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqnz1E3A3ZiwwRAbWKvION1SE2AytJUVtM1QM1tJE6xN_IqMfy0_Klw-v5AdPblNlL2WHfw5XScgkjPSoZzJVsYF6By6lzTWcJu_gjQ-nuqJfVvMF7CDh46nDDKvXLJrQ4vCO6NdG3i5g/s320/200PtWord.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654807309962858386" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 200 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Pi6JX9y6uayZ9sCg1UolXmbEqWW3uVU4eanLO4D7GQp3ghMOGh8kbEBdPgMwR1Y6nKheTJVrnER7e_c4G1wMWrnPby2UKZUHWs6FXBsKU0jmTb5Yuh3Npazle8BVtoe6mVdn1jvLOXQ/s1600/250PtWord.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Pi6JX9y6uayZ9sCg1UolXmbEqWW3uVU4eanLO4D7GQp3ghMOGh8kbEBdPgMwR1Y6nKheTJVrnER7e_c4G1wMWrnPby2UKZUHWs6FXBsKU0jmTb5Yuh3Npazle8BVtoe6mVdn1jvLOXQ/s320/250PtWord.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654806830052848242" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 90 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiLdUp-6nHkC2E71ypsxdlZnHa0gd1REZI76hRGRZTUp652habe1Ek8UPCN12RYcD_JO-5TPZj393bMYKFmF20y342Q730fhM6mr9rVw8PwfL5Ufj0ypIpuG43pEzEGSKcQcMfvFygSc/s1600/300PtWord.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiLdUp-6nHkC2E71ypsxdlZnHa0gd1REZI76hRGRZTUp652habe1Ek8UPCN12RYcD_JO-5TPZj393bMYKFmF20y342Q730fhM6mr9rVw8PwfL5Ufj0ypIpuG43pEzEGSKcQcMfvFygSc/s320/300PtWord.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654807945650170946" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score 300 points in a turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ym8x3cqOnll5PIIdWt3h4YSQnMahR-4-wFmdESg-NMmb8Rtego-ptXk4PK5oDo3RgIGx2kgD62wsHGyrSy5ea8Bw5LoFrjhTp01R4JYZlpO5dciGA2F30R5wu2lOxeZOu7PvXOUvgpA/s320/300PtGame.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Combine with your partner to score a cumulative total of 300 points in a game</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1FOuvlsEEQmUqL9du040AP7P5Mnm_dcSjGmVNkRS0GF1TrJyA0mQjdWlblrE86jGisk4ZhMImQtC_vipy48B5NXHvtbMORLBa5Z78D4YQUorOCHJUe54fv3wp4YOvfm_9ReTQLY23GPg/s320/350PtGame.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Combine with your partner to score a cumulative total of 350 points in a game</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRQt9F_iukrCATWiquEIlGPUb-YGfdKyVA2CDfq_fMRrSO1P5PSBnqYX5Aw2PM0Dy_CgiX7JHZ_t37vJlnAv_hkg1TfEJ-fFTOlFoaEsSlw5mE0tmhKxiBRdeiycD4nDOxHQHaddA8z10/s320/400PtGame.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Combine with your partner to score a cumulative total of 400 points in a game</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsyuH_hFkgaxudfIVZZikf8q8e1yv5yhUpqKhV8c7ITnCdrUfaFl5jgwpxAfTKapRYOYdxX2k4a3K7H_RVGh0p9D2Nm6DXI8dOoOJMDEn7Vq85lX3bSl_lwBy1bIJYxkgObfqFLjfjvGE/s320/450PtGame.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Combine with your partner to score a cumulative total of 450 points in a game</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00z0TbH7iuS421XQPaiJMnUGbuaO-tFmtWLpxCEAjVLdMi-6rSjOfnU4HR3wF2fOWKQbpHLF75ztoUTKrMRlXmXZCHi-lXzFI8wG3eSOrSXzv6NRmxB6Szf3VNTztcEoYFFQ0nJlVBPE/s320/500PtGame.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Combine with your partner to score a cumulative total of 500 points in a game</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZIKk0PbTdqqUItEQytGQtuNdj1AAtRFPvo9MGgFcCmJk8PtCwTRQadOsDLsneMINc_AHqxkIEcknU8rN80Dn3dnC4gnppy0t9A5lNBaX68RGC9XZo4x5vyQkr9a1Y5O1drba8l6rXs8o/s320/550PtGame.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Combine with your partner to score a cumulative total of 550 points in a game</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP9E_eKe5ZXQ5tFlFs3Xdj8K2xXBk3zXr1mpi0bn9BBbI11cjR3J7iouaOIZge9IGPKoxR6nUv9Jzr0OOe3ahQS6LYdiAGr8-WufAS7IooDuNVJKlJCG237_UJ1B3eSeMpR-oErr0xQ-U/s320/600PtGame.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Combine with your partner to score a cumulative total of 600 points in a game</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd4qLhMn1r_XC_NgqSOdvPm2A3u7wAvSjp77Hgc2zlI6KytN_2SxMy-P8GCSzVndLywOxN6ANNU6kySkhMJwkytyz6kSf5rdqo4SNfKzb88k4RtaPoptz7AwJZn6LBx74xyEXlT6pUWBs/s320/650PtGame.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Combine with your partner to score a cumulative total of 650 points in a game</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjts3fHI0Xaf1DkZ_40pzdGiYd8Q8ny6jRnAniwWF1muIwm3Tmf588gsDiM0-ubL9woU1tYZmnzBMLF0JBFSMJ5xkUkaZrx9mU8iyBF6xpc8Ox07RcFCCZdEhNGr27mBFOdvAgWHln6tpw/s320/350PtGameSolo.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Finish a game with at least 350 points</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpdCBUyLNJXYz95Eq8J2PFqvUry9rjcuUtrAsqlMy6j7xC6txi6QO5l7RydTW58LkbrRz6ULAyaA9zv9K-yPg7_31Qq1MxJRaq6yMFbcULy89Zvg18Fpb-lgDuvw76qgmQXI4FFJwMZ5M/s320/400PtGameSolo.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Finish a game with at least 400 points</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNbDdl6FydWoknB4lIorHns7JdFzuXOt-g64fAgdIhnRLdTxOBBrAlwM7RUN4_SJiCbTWkhAgWnFsY89nTGVhwDCkw8imW6ls-Kv1gJoXwEcRNp5IKPURDxNXO6rD3pMxOmE8kwtL1plM/s320/450PtGameSolo.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Finish a game with at least 450 points</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVQHZsOfWWgER59vJFzY1MRD5l2Px9q-cVCkMdVabKOKdrM19x_c99zLkT6REgPeBVq6A01KmL8UB8xp4rvb2NwBjsxCLe4Uo3ARDc1Eyu2XTaf_-duW6JLWdIYEz8cnwyWLT7jfs5GxI/s1600/500PtGameSolo.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVQHZsOfWWgER59vJFzY1MRD5l2Px9q-cVCkMdVabKOKdrM19x_c99zLkT6REgPeBVq6A01KmL8UB8xp4rvb2NwBjsxCLe4Uo3ARDc1Eyu2XTaf_-duW6JLWdIYEz8cnwyWLT7jfs5GxI/s320/500PtGameSolo.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654806832846542322" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Finish a game with at least 500 points</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bqRo1-m2rU5UpmAA3fjRU10O-udFi1LioTWKd4ifaO1_atXhwiF2U60PSRGluyIrrL6iippzc5GKQEUJD72u4aVkS5eNlAcOeXv6z6YBDje9-QosZa01D-DUKixbqHSVsIhPDG1nj08/s1600/550PtGameSolo.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bqRo1-m2rU5UpmAA3fjRU10O-udFi1LioTWKd4ifaO1_atXhwiF2U60PSRGluyIrrL6iippzc5GKQEUJD72u4aVkS5eNlAcOeXv6z6YBDje9-QosZa01D-DUKixbqHSVsIhPDG1nj08/s320/550PtGameSolo.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654806834379905122" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Finish a game with at least 450 points</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwPMDAOXGM73-cmWLNZEIU2dwUxl_IP58dj1Lnv3N6-k_ZORb3yQNYly1c-eVKVfCWsU8KQlwppiCt13ucU5EVuD0zmausCuzabfhq3fAaSA6Iy_nKaB0nAZl43gUfKkZszZ3SOtFTPw/s1600/600PtGameSolo.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwPMDAOXGM73-cmWLNZEIU2dwUxl_IP58dj1Lnv3N6-k_ZORb3yQNYly1c-eVKVfCWsU8KQlwppiCt13ucU5EVuD0zmausCuzabfhq3fAaSA6Iy_nKaB0nAZl43gUfKkZszZ3SOtFTPw/s320/600PtGameSolo.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654806836571143362" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Finish a game with at least 450 points</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijxw0YCsAv1OTPSKue5QMqByrFbPkp6Sn4eRTuaNud2hMjXaVCMczl5Q7n9mshyJ81nRw6sUjAmebtxivFYHMVY3cMJYUeisQNJQsUIqOqMFr080zlHLENiJcGcDvbwFHGserfdLFRWrA/s320/Bingo.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Use all seven letter tiles in a single turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOyVGdNXCmwJuCDx-EBUBmR7_rbp848HyP0evWafSUM1ro3lTFXobHaw6A1Dht5i_PZfr4LsllYmj21YkEC9QaBYooBbZ9C6iX8CaMplJ4qFpzMq8nnDl9exwSEDWcv7ZVKkyhunb5lgQ/s320/CantStopMe.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Unstoppable! Pass your opponent during a single turn</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJrm6bA8bS-G6SXN6G6UaME2__yOC_gW8tfoASevcPk8iZZkwRHmNkQ-pQ_OuSLOFO6NJLy_2nyI9zx7dusONSr2PVRRmL6OcZR2DJLcjTUdC_Vs8GcfAn-g9YvBYvDB4yg2G3TC7EnJ0/s320/TripleLetter.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Attack of the Tiles! Score points by using a Triple Letter space</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihBoX3XFk69V9UIDM_MoX9-wUNdKEsoqhYXZo3tPLsdexCIbSGXZWAwGhHRrJIZZ0oJu7XPqD-a1el5oewC6-Xf2mlSE-C4d-oKk9UICMHSwTerk2Z4HnwZmmbnxbDk20hvr_F6J2CJUs/s320/DoubleWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Score points by using a Double Word space</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHEs6_2GlM32NmoIJT_6N19v6xPUhjlHDYghkDhE85hHvnOwYdoFryarOKyZSO5KapL6tUhfDPZBPMefYXxEkW2tw9F9hcBsB8-aMZOCAmA7Gtyi7s80yjSkOoto6fC9ikn9lEGV8J2T4/s320/twiceisnice.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Twice is Nice! Score points by using two Double Word space</td></tr><tr><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsOZ2MkH8QPxuSpWw04hQUctXdJYRJqEbMiyjBMUajef8N1WAI5gVQtoVd7pVtII5SSNGHl6HZiDnVoZNSeMjcj2zr3RJNH93nZiDgThbUn9fu13F3onbmEp3dsXtSNsqRqr0AuozhM5w/s320/TripleWord.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Triple Threat! Score points by using a Triple Word space</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVFQJKFhzmhwVRMyvfVUXdgWpqrTgm0K7cVeeP92028ex-0DBo-Ass0YSvAwnis-SoUZYL_ATayF_0GhXpCNCkya2Ni7GsxglLkCLi6VE9Yw2tPNz9V5P_6SOd1-yyA0OPRYoRfRvorZA/s320/TripleTriple.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Triple Triple! Score points playing across two Triple Letters and one Triple Word Space</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9raXYNeQNWoYs4T_qx1E_0w-PefWE59BXSMuakAruxJ27A2KbWsmpNFSwRVMKHOoRX4DqiId3CfudqrixItxQATHSCRldOY_VNstvZu9VsMoIqrfcILnYXW0BmOb6zvb16Cmyldrdta8/s320/twiceisnomistake.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Twice is no Mistake: Defeat the same opponent twice.</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDW3PxPb0PvhRO6ZaV9YX0e8tQ_mYYpXqt5j-nc2gAXWKFferdwSxx04ZM3Uds9J9hOht7Be3GiuMrgDVcaoqsR_AFam6eZdbHPwrYal5TdnE0gGhjTDSnjwYXH5aS0g0IN0MSkVYOQME/s320/3xwins.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Defeat the same opponent three times.</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGp6hM5BD34qnqm7tkp-rDBRDw7VvtyTNQtN53Es6DgAiLIWpCQIIpWEWFsuaOY-m5HgPqjtb7V4_TGfqzRNmh4PFowt49gtt6U3so0KIK8le28h4lyKpGJjN6PKv6qrrcZvQrSeElvEU/s320/dominated.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Dominated! Defeat the same opponent four times.</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYYNO6Hgm3g8ZalHy7h0TNDEo3zvfpCyJ5w9SiDDXIR-eXfMzQmFUsa4iH2HY2eyea91gIxS9YciK5gs1GyOcg7QnKV3Ps_svLt9ut4FuHxgZ751-6kYfccG3Fj-pYuNx4nAY2qDIG2N4/s320/5xwins.png" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Defeat the same opponent five times.</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx6el0YnCrE7BRvtNQizTayO0gUdKs5mq0f1x3VU-4C1xXO-Kk5T2jnX-M_HRUtqZ_RafYWzQ3fqrlnxdi5vt_MQkVQ9pBR2QEZXWcuZhU4VvYbhbBDjOQ1z3sjwxefNdMeGHBk0n_Mz8/s320/superstar-ive-won-10-games.png" td="" /></td><td style="text-align: center;">Superstar! Win 10 games.</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZmWy8y3IVoi0DKEJBRSOIiwdchnvpdznPWn9zIHHHIH4xA1XCxF8kDnf4NPMwqHJOWm4_QRbc1Tyik9qMRiHIeLCpIkj2qrox7h1XeOikz6J2EP9dkKXX7QOoEVpd0XzT27EXfuoTkc/s1600/superstar-ive-won-15-games.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZmWy8y3IVoi0DKEJBRSOIiwdchnvpdznPWn9zIHHHIH4xA1XCxF8kDnf4NPMwqHJOWm4_QRbc1Tyik9qMRiHIeLCpIkj2qrox7h1XeOikz6J2EP9dkKXX7QOoEVpd0XzT27EXfuoTkc/s320/superstar-ive-won-15-games.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654806836325016530" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Win 15 games.</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1mo5t_LeVEcXdAiRf2B9Nj7frvbmTnoe4WXKZTSfTHTF8CVkv0mwxjAYEy3thJe1b7M64iPNBfVN8PEO3RrcH3pA0Ms-prrgPE5liEQBLaPhqsLanJpQhrSWwQhLknNlY9JqDz6ewb_k/s1600/superstar-ive-won-20-games.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1mo5t_LeVEcXdAiRf2B9Nj7frvbmTnoe4WXKZTSfTHTF8CVkv0mwxjAYEy3thJe1b7M64iPNBfVN8PEO3RrcH3pA0Ms-prrgPE5liEQBLaPhqsLanJpQhrSWwQhLknNlY9JqDz6ewb_k/s320/superstar-ive-won-20-games.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654807314447029778" style="cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 90px; " /></a></span></td><td style="text-align: center;">Win 20 games.</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-64125880638040259342011-03-09T05:18:00.000-08:002011-03-09T05:26:09.535-08:00One Last Great Example of ChinglishI just realized it has been a long time since I wrote a post. In case you haven't been following my narrative here, this blog was originally intended to document a few month stay in Beijing. But, as you can see from the archive on the side of the page, its grown a bit. Now, after over two years, Veronica and I are leaving Beijing, heading back to the US. <br /><br />When I have some additional downtime, I plan to share a lot of additional picture and leave this site up as a scrapbook of experiences, advice and bad jokes.<br /><br />So before I do that, I want to share one of the best examples of Chinglish I've seen. This one falls into the category of "mistranscribed letters".<br /><br />I believe the intended text was:<br />"Sweet Cali - Gumballs, Juicy Flavors - Whoa"<br /><br />Needless to say, that alone would have been pretty awesome. However, the creator of this shirt made it even better and have given the world the following, behold:<br />"Sweet Cali - Cumballs, Juicy Flavorsh - Whoau"<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimL1852LiaoUxzTWQdtO50tLrx1z1VLJOw-wjGIPN497Mwb32naZHxWARv8JV-9Mo4raiN8WA7KiP9PHuMNq-KpTdB1kaJidJgMfFKJtQLB5asnMBpT9_rVVr_boDX0RwZE2zxOOFvWVY/s1600/182263_539199892034_10300572_31635649_7978644_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimL1852LiaoUxzTWQdtO50tLrx1z1VLJOw-wjGIPN497Mwb32naZHxWARv8JV-9Mo4raiN8WA7KiP9PHuMNq-KpTdB1kaJidJgMfFKJtQLB5asnMBpT9_rVVr_boDX0RwZE2zxOOFvWVY/s320/182263_539199892034_10300572_31635649_7978644_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582070651186979666" /></a><br /><br />I imagine the "Juicy Flavorsh" line spoken with a minor speech impediment and the "whoau" exclaimed like Joey Lawrence on Blossem.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-35510328838737491552010-06-26T00:18:00.000-07:002010-06-26T00:33:00.754-07:00Visa Run from XiaMen to JinMen (Kinmen)I'm writing this blog post from my friends' house in Thailand, so it is clear that I didn't get a chance to do a fun visa run I just heard about.<br /><br />The standard (read: low-cost and/or fast) Visa runs from Beijing are generally thought to be:<br/><br /><li>Sleeper Bus to Erlian then cross into Zamen Uud, Mongolia</li><br /><li>Sleeper Train to Hong Kong</li><br /><li>Flight to Seoul, South Korea</li><br /><li>Flight to Busan (Pusan), South Korea</li> <br /><li>and some say ferries or flights to Japan from Tianjin</li><br /><br />At this point I've done all of those except for the ferry or flight to Japan. I've even added Thailand to the list a few times because there are very often disturbingly low-priced flights to the delicious nation available on CTrip, Elong, Travelzen, Qunar or even Kayak and Vayama! For me, Thailand is worth a few extra bucks and can easily be done in a weekend.<br /><br />However, my Chinese teacher recently told me about a trip he took that involved flying to Xiamen and then taking a ferry across to the Taiwan ROC controlled island of JinMen (sometimes written KinMen). As my exit date approached, I was unable to find a cost-effective flight to XiaMen, so I quickly aborted this plan. <br /><br />If I had more time (read: if plan better in the future) I'll consider taking a train down or booking well in advance. I've heard XiaMen is a great place to go and JinMen sound quite nice too! <br /><br />Xiamen seems to have a bunch of nice, low-cost hostels and the ferry to and from Jinmen can be done in a day. It is worth noting that JinMen DOES NOT have a Mainland China (PROC) consulate or embassy and this is NOT a suitable run for a new visa. It will only work for those of us that need to exit and re-enter China every time our legal stay expires.<br /><br />Has anyone done this run? <br />Any recommendations for places to eat, things to see or do in XiaMen or JinMen / KinMen?<br />Also, any idea why its name is often written KinMen?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-30917166684687942092010-06-12T23:01:00.000-07:002010-06-26T00:33:27.747-07:00Fundraising: NGOs and NonProfits in China.Before I get to deep into my observations here, it should be noted that I have worked for and with <a href="http://www.donorperfect.com">DonorPerfect Fundraising Software</a> for the better part of the past decade. I have a fair amount of familiarity with the United States non-profit world, both through this role and through various positions I've held at non-profit organizations, along with knowledge gained from friends and family with similar non-profit and fundraising experience.<br /><br />When I arrived in China in early 2009, I began to research and try to better understand the NGO and "non-profit" climate here. The term "non-profit" is all but non-existent, and the local and international community generally refers to such groups as Non-Governmental Organizations. These groups generally take on societal roles, responsibilities and projects normally associated with government agencies - but operate in the private sector with private, governmental and international funding.<br /><br />China's "charity world" is dominated by NGOs. Most are international and raise funds throughout the world via grants and other methods. Many are sub-divisions or the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, United Nations and other globally situated groups. Funds come from member nations and are distributed based on the NGO's current focus and strategy.<br /><br />This is not to say that there isn't a thriving smaller scale non-profit industry that is blooming in China. Volunteer opportunities abound - with animal shelters, orphanages and schools. And many of these groups operate with a "traditional" non-profit mentality. They fund-raise from large donors and often invest their own time and energy as capital. Many have small scale sponsors and supplement this income with fundraising events, such as concerts, fairs or auctions. Others raise funds by selling merchandise. And still others operate businesses with a non-profit mentality. Such as a thrift shop that donates un-sellable donations to rural communities in need of clothing and random electronics.<br /><br />I'm aware of many, very small groups that operate with next to no funding at all and are solely sustained via manpower and arrangements with venues that host their events. This enables them to use a public space without paying, as the event is targeted to bring in revenue for the venue via additional sales.<br /><br />So far, I've encountered very few non-profits or NGOs that operate American (or even European style) fundraising campaigns and I haven't found a single one that uses a sophisticated <a href="http://www.donorperfect.com">donor database system</a> to manage their constituent base and identify and nurture relationships with potential donors. The picture I get is that they are simply too busy and this sort of transition is a large enough paradigm shift that would require a large amount of time and resources.<br /><br />However, it should be noted that I am mainly aware of English language or at least English language friendly groups. It is also possible that the main reason groups are rarely utilizing such systems to attract Chinese donors is more related to the Chinese donation mentality, coupled with the lack of availability of a Chinese Language donation system.<br /><br />After the recent earthquakes in China, all public TV stations aired a large gala event that featured a VERY long segment highlighting dignitaries and leaders inserting donation HongBao (red envelopes full of money) into a donation box. There was a long procession and many leaders wrote inspiration phrases on their donation envelopes that the camera focused on. There were phone numbers and physical locations listed and the program encouraged citizens to donate as well. Most donation campaigns I'm aware of are very nationalistic and related to a national tragedies or issues.<br /><br />Of course, temples and museums have donation boxes as well and many are full of cash gifts. But it is also quite likely that fundraising activities and associated non-profits are not flourishing because of the Chinese reluctance to use credit cards. The Chinese savings rate is tremendous and, while most citizens with a bank account have a debit card, these cards are often for Point of Service (POS) and ATM use only. Its only fairly recent that people are activating their cards to make online purchases.<br /><br />I don't know the answer and, despite my background and research, I'm no expert.<br />I'm curious - what is your take on the status of the small nonprofit in China? Are you aware of fundraising campaigns I overlooked?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-84789118569070923632010-05-31T03:41:00.000-07:002010-05-31T03:50:09.696-07:00Friends Who Can See My Shit GroupsI haven't posted in a while and I apologize in advance too all my friends who check this blog to know what I'm up to. I plan on catching up on the past few months and uploading a lot of pictures, but in the meantime. This. Is. Hilarious.<br /><br />Veronica logged onto her google reader this morning and was prompted to update her privacy settings. <br /><br />Apparently, people at Google are providing us with two options. Either:<br />"Anyone can view your shared items and comment on them"<br />or <br />"People in your <span style="font-weight:bold;">'friends who can see my shit'<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> groups can view your shared items and post comments".<br /><br />I'm sure this was a phrasing used during development of this tool and I don't know how long it was live or if it was rolled out to all of the servers. Anyone have any ideas.<br /><br />See a complete screenshot here:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh03Gfm7TCY5pLjzbH0VqhBm0vKYO1Q1xXT9-gdt9aghiEzxqZJq-RtwwR7g3BfecXi3McBM8Dz4PkWvyq5zeosJqXFGEWYYOwPwAX9FPg2-cXHzhixdVTz6xGA4IusaAz4Wl36X2caN3I/s1600/Untitled.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh03Gfm7TCY5pLjzbH0VqhBm0vKYO1Q1xXT9-gdt9aghiEzxqZJq-RtwwR7g3BfecXi3McBM8Dz4PkWvyq5zeosJqXFGEWYYOwPwAX9FPg2-cXHzhixdVTz6xGA4IusaAz4Wl36X2caN3I/s320/Untitled.png" border="0" alt="google reader friends groups shit" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477383789696619954" /></a><br /><br />See a zoomed-in screenshot here:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc91NSiYMJaoKj7SCLUffUxbuXU3TJcOtt12EsylJDUmHBPvKjeXwMSViRiGUZqmJj8lzFsZBU2N0Tt31Ml62zlFqDitvDVwzmkcBXceeVweVfh06VqOSKtyPDmqTLwmaKKmm_oPwpiJ4/s1600/zoomed-in.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 178px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc91NSiYMJaoKj7SCLUffUxbuXU3TJcOtt12EsylJDUmHBPvKjeXwMSViRiGUZqmJj8lzFsZBU2N0Tt31Ml62zlFqDitvDVwzmkcBXceeVweVfh06VqOSKtyPDmqTLwmaKKmm_oPwpiJ4/s320/zoomed-in.png" border="0" alt="google friends who can see my shit" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477383796095470546" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-7730886542259688422010-04-26T00:36:00.000-07:002010-06-26T00:49:20.873-07:00Electric Bikes in BeijingMost of my friends in BeiJing use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation. Sprinkle in a few subway, bus and cab rides and you can get pretty much anywhere, and generally quickly. Veronica commutes to work on a single gear bike every day. Plus her bike has a pretty cool bell!<br /><br />Last November, our friend Jared convinced us to invest in an electric bike. And I thank the stars for this every day.<br /><br />BeiJing is an ideal city for an bikes in general and electric bikes in particular. Why? Because its flat. Very, very flat. I rarely encounter even minor hills throughout the city and this gets you a lot more distance for your power (be it pushpedal or electric).<br /><br />But why electric? Why not just use your feet?<br /><br />A valid question indeed and one that can only be answered in one word: cheap-convenient-lazy-awesomeness.<br /><br />Okay, that may have been a few words, but every time I charge my battery (pennies a day at most) and zip through the city streets at 30-40KMH, I love life. The bike we opted for resembles a small moped. It doesn't have any gears, just a basic automatic accelerator. Its not too heavy, I can heft it up on a sidewalk if I need to circumnavigate a traffic jam. And its brakes are responsive, to avoid near-death collisions.<br /><br />The bike itself set us back just $300 USD. And, as I mentioned, charges cost next to nothing. I have a few friends petrol motor bikes and, while they can certainly move faster than my bike can, they are also louder, more expensive to maintain and technically illegal without proper licensing.<br /><br />There are actually a huge variety of electric bikes, ranging from small, lightweight bikes that resemble normal street bicycles and have functioning pedals, all the way up to motorcycle-looking bikes with massive batters that can't be taken out to charge. The latter type needs to be charged in a garage or courtyard, but can challenge an motor bike for speed (but not range). <br /><br />Some push pedal e-bikes actually charge the battery while you pedal. Which can be a huge advantage. Running out of battery power with a large, pedal-less electric bike is no fun. Trust me. I've done it three times now. When this happens, you need to remove the battery and figure out how to best take it home to charge. Afterwards, you need to lug the battery back. No. Fun. Especially in the winter.<br /><br />I've looked into the laws back in the US regarding these bikes and generally learned that most states consider a bike without pedals to be a motorcycle. As such it requires a license and license plate. To qualify as a non-licensed electric bicycle, the vehicle needs to have functioning pedals and cannot exceed speeds of 20 mph.<br /><br />While it is possible these laws were designed solely with safety in mind, I think it is time they were re-examined to account for environmental impact. The bicycle movement is growing in the states and I can only imagine how much more it would grow if people had easy access to a small, in-expensive form of electric conveyance.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-9879784572800042492010-02-18T08:37:00.001-08:002010-02-20T03:10:04.014-08:002010 Harbin Ice Festival - Day One - Snow Sculptures.Apologies for the late post, but things have been pretty crazy in Beijing during Spring Festival / Chinese New Year. You'll probably hear about that by the summer time if my slow-posting trend continues. Either way, as many of you already know, Veronica, our friend Jared and I went up to Harbin (哈尔滨) - China's Ice City.<br /><br />Apparently there are four massive ice festivals held throughout the world. I haven't been to the ones in Sapporo, Quebec City, or Holmenkollen; but as of three weeks ago, I CAN say I've been to Harbin. And, despite the bitter cold, I'd consider checking the others off that list too. It was astounding. The only thing cooler than seeing the structures I'm about to share with you would be to see them without huge throngs of people crowding all over the place. But private ice villages that may or may not exist are a bit above my pay scale.<br /><br />After an eight hour train ride and a twelve hour stay at a spa, Jared and I met up with Veronica at our hotel. From the hotel we started our winter wonderland excursion by visiting the snow sculpture display and competition. Simply amazing.<br /><br />There were two major components of this part of the ice festivities. <br />Part one could be called "Yay China (Snow Form)" and focused on many things about which China is proud. This section included sculptures of Chinese Olympic athletes, philosophers, traditional architectural styles, calligraphy, leaders and ethnic minority groups.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPwCZInFmWso-_xilKkXVBgSRDxCWr5W-MhFcrFAQi9XGgIf6-yLt56pjlIbk3niEf-8UKKP_1AmOV3BeLFPJU_V56whnVeGgZbO8kMUkdUCcpAodnXhEBPPP4pd2zyqPiKlu-wZT1Zb4/s1600-h/faceP1090143.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPwCZInFmWso-_xilKkXVBgSRDxCWr5W-MhFcrFAQi9XGgIf6-yLt56pjlIbk3niEf-8UKKP_1AmOV3BeLFPJU_V56whnVeGgZbO8kMUkdUCcpAodnXhEBPPP4pd2zyqPiKlu-wZT1Zb4/s320/faceP1090143.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440276926157876258" /></a>Veronica and Jared made friends with a group of young Chinese children hanging out behind a snow bar by asking for a drink. But in this exclusive snow bar club, patrons were required to provide their own cups before being served imaginary drinks. Luckily Jared had a thermos.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZCOdLOcifMtnHHhxsc1k1Zt1I6WvS3R5RKAmZ8MPTSrVKE-_w3p00SYpeRY5vVSx3RS8A8aVvTrFqI2gLQGuJfkv-2wEB-AZb_EfTNg7MwcAUOgZywbwJR0W8KAozCBRs-2hhITK92w/s1600-h/P1090159.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZCOdLOcifMtnHHhxsc1k1Zt1I6WvS3R5RKAmZ8MPTSrVKE-_w3p00SYpeRY5vVSx3RS8A8aVvTrFqI2gLQGuJfkv-2wEB-AZb_EfTNg7MwcAUOgZywbwJR0W8KAozCBRs-2hhITK92w/s320/P1090159.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440276942302763234" /></a>The other part of the park was dedicated to an international snow sculpture contest, into which applicants from all over the world submitted entries. Some were pretty impressive, others weren't. I took some pictures of a few of these, but around this time my trusty point and shoot digital camera finally died. Veronica and Jared snapped this novelty entrant commemorating the addictive PopCap game "<a href="http://www.popcap.com/games/free/pvz" rel="nofollow" target="_new">Plants vs Zombies</a>". Clearly the game is popular throughout the world, but its name kept escaping me until a Chinese guy touring the park with his girlfriend exclaimed "ooohh Pulan wasa Zanbi" (or something like that).<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8acUKOhYdqThNjxsbYXnBSMdTeO_NL_4fkNEAciZxme-dXp5MwkyEXUp3RyGVG3GWX5FMCYCWND3Zr72HACGuY7S1jSZvMf-QVxHDN6DoClraCvHkYGE9tEc62cW8g3814ne3Gz_cWrc/s1600-h/IMG_0424.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8acUKOhYdqThNjxsbYXnBSMdTeO_NL_4fkNEAciZxme-dXp5MwkyEXUp3RyGVG3GWX5FMCYCWND3Zr72HACGuY7S1jSZvMf-QVxHDN6DoClraCvHkYGE9tEc62cW8g3814ne3Gz_cWrc/s320/IMG_0424.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440276940208486514" /></a>I was thoroughly impressed by this park until we went to the Ice Festival that night.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-30300093115152905842010-02-10T07:46:00.000-08:002010-02-10T08:26:35.452-08:00Fire Cupping (拔罐 - BaGuan)I'm still seeing my TCM doctor, though I don't have much to report beyond continued weekly massages and occasionally acupuncture. Every week, when I go in for my appointment, I secretly hope that I get prescribed a fire cupping procedure.<br /><br />Flashback. Philadelphia, 2000. While visiting <a href="http://www.collphyphil.org/" rel=nofollow target="_new">The Mutter Museum</a> in Philadelphia, I'm struck by an exhibit on out-dated medical procedures. The pictures and tools of archaic techniques to cure the spirits were fascinating - its hard to believe that doctors / barbers used to perform blood-lettings. If you've seen Steve Martin in his classic "Theodoric of York - Medieval Barber", you'll know what I'm talking about.<br /><center><object width="512" height="296 "><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/uiqFtAQxOCBHYwDBjuEI1Q"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/uiqFtAQxOCBHYwDBjuEI1Q" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" width="512" height="296"></embed></object></center><br />Another process that caught my eye was fire-cupping: the barbaric practice of using small glass hemispherical cups, small amounts of flammable liquid and fire to create a vacuum used to pull skin and burst capillaries on patients.<br /><br />After treatments, the ill are left battered and bruised. The colors of the bruises indicate the health of the area and of the patients' spirits. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghpH2xYyp-p-V5mf81SPXh0mEKjdsEhkIJXt52kAX31YP2hu0NhYjrhyphenhyphenjaY124hOP1iQIQaD4Mznw2Xg-VDzn3JqT6_jf7FKcs1m1-l9RmwtrtFW9ppI07K9R1fPEg5rcLbWf2p2m6Of4/s1600-h/faceP1090136.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghpH2xYyp-p-V5mf81SPXh0mEKjdsEhkIJXt52kAX31YP2hu0NhYjrhyphenhyphenjaY124hOP1iQIQaD4Mznw2Xg-VDzn3JqT6_jf7FKcs1m1-l9RmwtrtFW9ppI07K9R1fPEg5rcLbWf2p2m6Of4/s320/faceP1090136.JPG" border="0" alt="chinese fire cupping" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436648736020788690" /></a>Flashforward. Beijing, 2010. As it turns out, the bruising isn't that bad and the pain is really just constant pressure and heat during the cupping itself.<br /><br />My doctor still hasn't indicated fire-cupping as an ideal cure for anything that ails me, but that doesn't mean I can't get cupped. Believe it or not, I paid about six bucks for the beating I received and I got it done at a sauna - not at a doctor's office.<br /><br />It's fairly common for saunas to offer cupping in addition to other spa treatments (ear candling, massages, steams, etc). So, when I visited a sauna in Haerbin, I knew that I had to ask for the works. The technician wasn't really focusing on any particular area and, as a result, my entire back was a mess.<br /><br />As a relaxing cure - I wouldn't recommend it. If my doctor indicated that a localized treatment would help a particular problem I had, I'd do it again. Looks like fun right?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-626899143590019192010-02-05T05:56:00.000-08:002010-02-10T08:27:00.843-08:00Beijing Bagel Making<i><b>"Operation: Bageltopia"</b></i><br />People say that everything tastes better when you make it yourself. I don't agree. Not EVERYTHING tastes better. Trust me - I've made some god-awful meals, just ask anyone who ate my "Israeli Coffee Chicken". I've also made some pretty amazing meals, so I guess I should say "roughly half of things taste better when you make them yourself".<br /><br />Enter Bagels. I'm never one to shy away from a cooking challenge, and while it probably isn't fair to call bagels a cooking challenge, I was excited when I got an email from my friend Jared with the subject line "Operation: Bageltopia". Here our adventure begins. Our surprisingly simple and satisfyingly delicious adventure begins.<br /><br />Excepting garnishes and flavoring, here's what you need:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Bagels:</span><br />500 g flour<br />260 ml tepid water<br />12 g instant yeast<br />1 tbsp honey<br />12 g of salt<br />20 g soft butter<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Caramel Water (for cooking bagels):</span><br />300 g sugar<br />3 L water<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCEv6Ds2kD8xZLaDior9Rf1SbgS1kihZFzb16FFTBMeh0Fl-XjBggsDbwdi-_LMjnbbm97IibotVzQguF8zZXhd2d2BYXxtDBEIBbc2hsqdhlxxswI6_nk-HVBhAjQkyI9eJ9ge8k4cCE/s1600-h/P1090122.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCEv6Ds2kD8xZLaDior9Rf1SbgS1kihZFzb16FFTBMeh0Fl-XjBggsDbwdi-_LMjnbbm97IibotVzQguF8zZXhd2d2BYXxtDBEIBbc2hsqdhlxxswI6_nk-HVBhAjQkyI9eJ9ge8k4cCE/s320/P1090122.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436626711325183858" /></a><br />I'm not going to get too in depth with the process but here is a quick summary:<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 1:</span> Mix flour, water, yeast, and honey in a bowl.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 2:</span> Knead the dough.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 3:</span> Add the butter and the salt and keep kneading until the mixture becomes a smooth, elastic dough.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 4:</span> Prove the dough. Cover it and let it rise for 40 minutes at room temperature.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 5:</span> Make into bagels. Start with 3 inch diameter balls of dough, pull a hole in the center until the hole is about an inch/inch and a half in diameter.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 6:</span> Prove once more for 35 minutes. It must not be allowed to overprove and get too large!<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 7:</span> Make the caramel water. Place the saucepan onto a medium to high heat. Then add sugar and allow it to melt, add the water, bring to boil.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 8:</span> Preheat the oven 200ºC (400ºF).<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 9:</span> Poach the bagels quickly for 1 minute on each side. Remove and put on baking tray.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 10:</span> Season the bagels (poppy, sesame, etc)<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 11:</span> Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Step 12:</span> Serve<br /><br />There were five of us making the bagels, including a seasoned bagel-making pro (HEY JOEL), so our two batches provided each of us with two bagels, with two left over to tease and tempt everyone else.<br /><br />The multiple proving periods make the process take a bit of time, but its well worth it. Our oven was a large toaster oven (true ovens are hard to come by in all but the highest end apartment), so we had to bake in shifts - which made the waiting a lot harder.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimoYE8s0QyRzyjspizwuY8gAstoZ35X4LPdZR9r7imRWoc1YqlqJZa-b9QOPcMZ7mbXqtcdKJm5nzCPjehrKs0ZBlFsQkuGlrFm0ei2RP_ekun9KxUqCuYv5hmccGMBrBVi7uDr7A1V0/s1600-h/P1090125.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimoYE8s0QyRzyjspizwuY8gAstoZ35X4LPdZR9r7imRWoc1YqlqJZa-b9QOPcMZ7mbXqtcdKJm5nzCPjehrKs0ZBlFsQkuGlrFm0ei2RP_ekun9KxUqCuYv5hmccGMBrBVi7uDr7A1V0/s320/P1090125.JPG" border="0" alt="making bagels in beijing" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436626698768735058" /></a>This weekend we're attempting to make 24 bagels for Chinese New Year (春节 - ChunJie)and will likely enlist multiple toaster ovens to speed the process. I'll fill you in with details and pictures soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-85665686030832620532010-01-21T03:19:00.000-08:002010-01-27T06:43:33.528-08:00Cute Humidifier - A Beijing NecessityI've mentioned before that Beijing is dry. And, unlike in Puritan and Conservative states in the US, dry doesn't refer to booze. Don't worry - there is plenty of that stuff here (though, <a href="http://www.mybeijinglife.com/2009/12/chinese-traditional-medicine-doctor.html" title="English Speaking TCM doctor Beijing">per doctor's orders</a>, I can't drink it). I'm referring to humidity. Beijing doesn't have much of it and it can take its toll on someone like me.<br /><br />I'm the guy that needs to drink a liter of water a day to survive in a normal climate. Beijing has upped the ante and I need about two liters on average. Despite my water consumption, I wake up every morning super dry. In fact, I often dry out so much that I wake up a few times during the night just to chug water.<br /><br />Some people say that a humidifier and an air purifier are necessary for life in Beijing. I've been able to make it this far without the better air pair, but I am easing in.<br /><br />I didn't spring for an air purifier yet, but I picked up a cute, animal-shaped humidifier, and since then everything's been coming up Milhouse! I paid a little more than 10 USD for an awesome sheep-shaped super-sonic humidifier. I've only been using it for a week or so, but its really made a difference for me AND for Veronica.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCypcsc7ZfrMoFBrHxTo5YAjspzVOWMO7pe_hsbuUojhWsJHfTEzqy4DO38KXNcuGJliQfDiLyuzGSqNCPEiXqRlLp7mhwgmMdg0gPOg22mXJ_W6RyvXIs7usbjqrafvzvyZcemN2rkf4/s1600-h/P1090126.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCypcsc7ZfrMoFBrHxTo5YAjspzVOWMO7pe_hsbuUojhWsJHfTEzqy4DO38KXNcuGJliQfDiLyuzGSqNCPEiXqRlLp7mhwgmMdg0gPOg22mXJ_W6RyvXIs7usbjqrafvzvyZcemN2rkf4/s320/P1090126.JPG" border="0" alt="beijing humidifier" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431381693175047986" /></a>If you ask her, the humidifier is the worst of many recent additions to our apartment. Its been wrecking havoc on her hair. But, its been a testament to our relationship that she's allowed me to keep it in spite of all the bad hair days she may suffer as a result. It's a big step.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-15027228592817626792010-01-14T02:49:00.000-08:002010-01-27T06:39:42.934-08:00December Beijing SnowWhen we arrived in Beijing last year, there were the remnants of an earlier snow on the ground. This excited me and terrified Veronica for the prospect of a snowy winter. Unfortunately for me, the winter of early 2009 didn't grant me my wish and I quickly learned that Beijing isn't known for its precipitation. The subsequent spring, summer and fall were speckled with random showers and the occasional thunderstorm - but on the whole, not much fell from the sky. <br /><br />Back around the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I remember seeing a Daily Show sketch in which Jon Stewart conceded that China was officially a "Super-Power" as it has the ability to control the weather. He was alluding to reports that a division of the Chinese government seeded clouds to create rain, thus ensuring that the skies were clear for the Olympic Games.<br /><br />We didn't witness this tremendous might until November of 2009, when the Government announced a planned snowfall for the coming weekend. Lo and behold, flakes fell. We were in awe. It was just a few inches, but this didn't happen back in Philadelphia. Mayor Street was barely able to keep public transit running, let alone make the heavens open.<br /><br />The next weekend it snowed again, though not as much and I was surprised that the government didn't take credit for that as well. The next month progressed nicely and snow free until right after my birthday when we were visited by a multi-day and many inch snow storm. Veronica was home, so she didn't have to deal with it - leaving me in my own snowy heaven. I love snow.<br /><br />Beijing is a city much like Washington DC in that it has managed to convince itself that snow is a rare occurrence within its borders. As such, neither city has done much to plan for snow removal if (WHEN) such snow does occur. When the snow kept falling and falling, Beijing was paralyzed.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTP8hHivlArKUaShlZc3CgglOhtR9G7ytrA-5uNNHMr6EpkaVSXcLn4VkJBhpA3l_y2yvsgiXPC5bDe-xpSKhpjq2dEYRKMBFXd6sevGOeRK9-4taf3MVdSvyr4X65gXOfNUprR0NxzR4/s1600-h/IMG_0045.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTP8hHivlArKUaShlZc3CgglOhtR9G7ytrA-5uNNHMr6EpkaVSXcLn4VkJBhpA3l_y2yvsgiXPC5bDe-xpSKhpjq2dEYRKMBFXd6sevGOeRK9-4taf3MVdSvyr4X65gXOfNUprR0NxzR4/s320/IMG_0045.JPG" border="0" alt="2009 beijing snowfall" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431379199162717042" /></a>The morning after much of the initial snowfall, I had some house guests (HEY RAMONA AND KEELEY), so the three of us decided to take a photo-taking-walk around the neighborhood. The Imperial Academy (国子监 - guozijian) and the Confucius Temple (夫子廟 - fuzimiao) look particularly awesome in the snow.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv3xL7jla6H3iNPpsXmLqfvwaxy5bAyUyju2mXff42wUNx9jTToH98QoAtEtVoeTXTJPSp5s7QPvc8tvkaF5VGNx2hlgLH2O-gA1DaPB6LCe6Muv7rR_PiPQBs944nrkX_nj0tvpYunHc/s1600-h/IMG_0098.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv3xL7jla6H3iNPpsXmLqfvwaxy5bAyUyju2mXff42wUNx9jTToH98QoAtEtVoeTXTJPSp5s7QPvc8tvkaF5VGNx2hlgLH2O-gA1DaPB6LCe6Muv7rR_PiPQBs944nrkX_nj0tvpYunHc/s320/IMG_0098.JPG" border="0" alt="beijing temples snow" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431379200331613378" /></a>The snow stopped being pretty and started becoming annoying when it began interfering with everyday life. My motorbike ate up its entire battery four times as fast as normal when it was skidding around in the snow. <br /><br />Roads were horribly messy and one night some friends and I were blasted by a Beijing Snow Removal Vehicle (a street cleaner that was filled with some salt-water compound). This, and a blast text message that told residents to avoid driving, take the subway and help in neighborhood cleanup efforts were about as official as the cleanup process got. Which is probably why it took almost a week to really dig out.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJbul9Dnx5Q8fhzPoSPhhy9-bA_W5iex5HpxRKqRdiun60DTe_52XQrR7c0RP-Zsqlav-FjzI_hV1T16mF8guNFq9GFzKo-ieWfdXsDo0aBPF39X9PtDUTNiUdA05xLXXfDla8ksCUJ0/s1600-h/IMG_0044.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJbul9Dnx5Q8fhzPoSPhhy9-bA_W5iex5HpxRKqRdiun60DTe_52XQrR7c0RP-Zsqlav-FjzI_hV1T16mF8guNFq9GFzKo-ieWfdXsDo0aBPF39X9PtDUTNiUdA05xLXXfDla8ksCUJ0/s320/IMG_0044.JPG" border="0" alt="beijing streets snow" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431379194180342578" /></a>A few weeks after the snow, the government has finally gotten around to sending around cleanup crews. These crews are usually a group of guys with a trash-collecting bike and some shovels. But they get the job done.<br /><br />I think the snow is done for the year - but who knows. Weather is usually unpredictable - except for in China that is.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-24022674092652542942009-12-19T02:55:00.000-08:002009-12-19T07:33:06.610-08:00Apparently, I'm Santa Claus in BeijingIt seems like November and December is when most younger expats and students go home for a few weeks. Thanksgiving and Christmas make the trip pretty appealing - also, Beijing gets REALLY REALLY cold.<br /><br />As you probably know, Veronica successfully defended her thesis last week and has since returned home on her original ticket before returning to start work in January. A lot of our friends have left too, but a fair amount stayed too. One of them (HEY JEN!) teaches English, is arranging a literary festival (with no carbon footprint) and seems to do a whole bunch of other cool stuff. The other day, she asked if I was interested in playing Santa Claus for a bunch of Chinese children.<br /><br />To be perfectly blunt, and slightly grinchy, my first question involved payment. After that was resolved my only other question was if I needed to gain any weight to become Santa! It was set - I was going to be Santa. And everyone knows, Santa doesn't speak Chinese.<br /><br />China is not a very religious society, and is definitely not Christian. However, the "red and white" celebration of Christmas is VERY popular over here. Restaurants and stores have displays and schools and offices have parties. I'm pretty sure that no one knows who Jesus was, but they all know who Santa is - ME!<br /><br />I took the subway to the first location in need of a Santa and was met by a library employee who took me to get changed and ushered me in to the restaurant hosting their Christmas party. <br /><br />Now, for those of you who forgot (or don't know me), I'm Jewish. I haven't really done anything for Christmas since my family stopped celebrating it when I was four (or so) years old. I've been to a few friends' and extended family's Christmas parties, but I really don't know too much about the holiday. I sort of panicked when I realized that I probably couldn't sing most Christmas songs if I was put on the spot. Then I remembered...<br /><br />Secular, English-Only Santa pretty much just says HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS a whole bunch and gives out the gifts that the he's been told to give. Whew.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK7aGhVCoPMCLPiJuT37sgf5X5j8UE6JnuSTFOSPADzzDLlDAzUOVBqwAbFPch0EKEKLzQx7SychO4bsbImJZEudQvM8VQe9xwRd_IGElcR9-RtFzPTp-lZFNx5j11cfGm_jRVprQ5x_U/s1600-h/P1090029.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK7aGhVCoPMCLPiJuT37sgf5X5j8UE6JnuSTFOSPADzzDLlDAzUOVBqwAbFPch0EKEKLzQx7SychO4bsbImJZEudQvM8VQe9xwRd_IGElcR9-RtFzPTp-lZFNx5j11cfGm_jRVprQ5x_U/s320/P1090029.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416913171446091218" /></a><br />I had two engagements as Santa today. The first was for slightly older children (5-10) and the second was mainly children under 5 or 6. I was surprised, out of the entire 60 children I Santa'ed, there were about 4 children that seemed pretty fluent in English and a bunch more than knew more than just "Merry Christmas, Hello Thank You". I clearly couldn't speak Chinese as well as some of these kids. But I did try. When it was clear that the children didn't understand my English, I tried my Chinese. Sometimes it worked - often it didn't - all the time it was fun.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zm4Z06kWpWH45vJzWnpjzcT7JQosGpXkLrAMMP7TufpH82nbHCXXvzLoYUE53sPTM-smT2_pLOI1Fk0BMZZmiPQu2ZS4mDiPcf7dLlz99pgrNWqT1KJbdfQ17iLa08RnVrEV2D33fgM/s1600-h/P1090032.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zm4Z06kWpWH45vJzWnpjzcT7JQosGpXkLrAMMP7TufpH82nbHCXXvzLoYUE53sPTM-smT2_pLOI1Fk0BMZZmiPQu2ZS4mDiPcf7dLlz99pgrNWqT1KJbdfQ17iLa08RnVrEV2D33fgM/s320/P1090032.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416913167574156034" /></a><br />Unfortunately, the teachers didn't take as many fun pictures of me with the kids as I would have liked - but they did manage to take one of this creepy, two-headed clown that made balloon animals.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnw-yKU4QZdKmXExE03ysb1bgosaaLFg6n17eiYsfNBLlfMQxAa3hZuJymMJdWwWwxSDgIr0jT0LsqxNmsEfeDkHtk_edUR7fzJf9BORsPJWh8rgZKsSvpykwE1KLw50UJj1ORm90lG6k/s1600-h/P1090031.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnw-yKU4QZdKmXExE03ysb1bgosaaLFg6n17eiYsfNBLlfMQxAa3hZuJymMJdWwWwxSDgIr0jT0LsqxNmsEfeDkHtk_edUR7fzJf9BORsPJWh8rgZKsSvpykwE1KLw50UJj1ORm90lG6k/s320/P1090031.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416913158025350578" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-56063245269050881192009-12-12T02:05:00.000-08:002009-12-14T05:31:54.315-08:00Happy Hanukkah from BeijingDecember brings, among other things, a handful of winter holidays. The most important two, for me, are Hanukkah and Marc Zeiger-Guerra day. Marc Zeiger-Guerra day falls on December 29th and has been celebrated throughout the world since 1981, the day upon which Marc Zeiger-Guerra was born. It is a VERY easy holiday to remember, as it falls between the birth of Jesus and the start of the new year. Same day, every year.<br /><br />Hanukkah, however, is a little more difficult to keep track of, as it follows the lunar calendar. One would think that observing a lunar cycle holiday in a country that has many lunar holidays would be quite easy. Not the case. Despite its status as the most famous Jewish holiday, pretty much no Jew ever knows when it is. I am no exception to the annual forgetfulness. I only learned about Hanukkah's start date (December 11th) by receiving an email from a friend (HEY ALISON!) about a potluck. <br /><br />Most of the traditional foods associated with Hanukkah involve a lot of oil. The most well known are latke's (potato pancakes) and sufganyot (jelly donuts). I've never made jelly donuts and was not about to start now. But I figured latkes would be pretty easy to make with readily available supplies. Veronica ducked outside to pick up some potatoes and yams and we set about chopping them up into fine slivers for the pancakes. Add in some eggs and flour (we used dumpling flour), shape into blobs and flatten in oil. Toss in some salt and pepper and you've got some genuine chinese sweetpotato latkes.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKQIQ8Y-_tDIJUjG1mZDbDtZ2xqoRwQo0s2oKp7WqKjEbbDK90pP5UIl0Xfnzrd2DeqNbf8KZzinQdRB1wevCwA4WJb86Zevr3s9SIK3QUFLP6vsw3CA9lTFEyHm_QNm9FdP4QnPFXflI/s1600-h/P1090023.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKQIQ8Y-_tDIJUjG1mZDbDtZ2xqoRwQo0s2oKp7WqKjEbbDK90pP5UIl0Xfnzrd2DeqNbf8KZzinQdRB1wevCwA4WJb86Zevr3s9SIK3QUFLP6vsw3CA9lTFEyHm_QNm9FdP4QnPFXflI/s320/P1090023.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5414292820803915042" /></a>As it turns out, I was one of two latke makers that night. The other chef (HEY Aaron) used a Julia Child recipe that included all sorts of cream and deliciousness. Between the two of us we made WAY more than we all could eat. So we had latkes and omelettes the next morning.<br /><br />There were a nice handful of expats there that night and we ate, lit candles and sang some hanukkah songs. No dreidel was played, but there was some gelt present<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxNJsx8-bPy73HfuIF0v_CrODzs_WsFnOFI-23jDk3WTDmcXUxBHtv92fqal_1g1AWfe_0I2ikPq8gQbga549p1wmgjSDl1BXRuyn8JK51uh6CnQBqDDKMTZMQW0RlO2KZN_NKErLkLwQ/s1600-h/P1090027.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxNJsx8-bPy73HfuIF0v_CrODzs_WsFnOFI-23jDk3WTDmcXUxBHtv92fqal_1g1AWfe_0I2ikPq8gQbga549p1wmgjSDl1BXRuyn8JK51uh6CnQBqDDKMTZMQW0RlO2KZN_NKErLkLwQ/s320/P1090027.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5414292824139669042" /></a>Veronica and I plan to light candles every night. I'm not sure when the last time I did that was, but I'm excited. We should probably get each other some presents too...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-84449420017689011862009-12-12T01:01:00.000-08:002009-12-13T05:55:46.313-08:00Master Master LeeIn case you haven't heard the news (or the legends for that matter) I recently had the good luck to encounter a great Master, Master Lee. Master Lee is actually a double master, in the ancient arts of Environmental Management and Environmental Engineering. And her first name is Veronica.<br /><br />This past Friday, December 11th, Veronica successfully defended her dual Masters' Degree thesis before a panel that included faculty members from both Tsinghua University and Mines ParisTECH (formerly Ecole de Mines), along with representatives from her internship and her company's parent company. The defense was held in the Sino-Italian Environmental Sciences building on Tsinghua's Campus at 8:45am.<br /><br />Since I work on a time-shifted schedule, I was able to attend. We arrived, through the blustery cold, to see life sized stand-ups of each students' thesis abstract, accompanied by a headshot picture posted in the lobby. Clearly I had to take a picture.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPgW48BJwyQAybQR93yQeVj3XHbecy_VPAOGcX88RCcZBfHSjKnGWdvdCBMoO3lwDJssfxqItOu20cW185t-f4_BF6t0ppNMTEnP4My27WFdxXHoNGXNWr3TNoE7hEvP_LioFnLBCg7pk/s1600-h/P1090020.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPgW48BJwyQAybQR93yQeVj3XHbecy_VPAOGcX88RCcZBfHSjKnGWdvdCBMoO3lwDJssfxqItOu20cW185t-f4_BF6t0ppNMTEnP4My27WFdxXHoNGXNWr3TNoE7hEvP_LioFnLBCg7pk/s320/P1090020.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5414273021364064754" /></a><br />Veronica's defense was impressive. And I don't say that simply because I'm an adoring boyfriend. Really. If she were selling theses, I'd have bought one. I mean, look at her there with her powerpoint clicker assessing Energy and Resources and Mitigation thingies. I clearly didn't understand everything she presented, but the faculty seemed pretty impressed.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV83ZPx9xSW4fbuhjTluNGR8RKzRiQKvIFB-xwxg4WytGANDplGMALay2V4Z8hJtAxs6SMFKTr6ks7uypRM4KLGIV38n7ltV8tq-kPXJkd7TXFsCsEKszD7koODjxJ_91UrAmAgpwX_v8/s1600-h/P1090012.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV83ZPx9xSW4fbuhjTluNGR8RKzRiQKvIFB-xwxg4WytGANDplGMALay2V4Z8hJtAxs6SMFKTr6ks7uypRM4KLGIV38n7ltV8tq-kPXJkd7TXFsCsEKszD7koODjxJ_91UrAmAgpwX_v8/s320/P1090012.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5414273015832883250" /></a><br />In my time here, I've heard many differing views on the state of the Chinese education system. In general, sentiment seems to be that standards are trending upwards and a greater emphasis is being placed on creating and inquisitive thought as opposed to rote memorization. This was not demonstrated particularly well during the first few minutes of questions posed to Veronica about her thesis.<br /><br />The first two professors literally grilled her on the FORMATTING of her thesis. I'll elaborate on some specifics, because it bears repeating:<br />1: Thesis was printed with a medium light green cover, should have been a very light green cover.<br />2: Chinese title of thesis used one word for "valley", but abstract used a different word. The word chosen for the abstract (of the many possible "valley" words in Chinese) should have been used in the title as well.<br />3: Some charts used commas to separate thousands and others didn't<br />4: Some charts included differing number of decimal places<br />5: Inserted figures should not be surrounded by borders.<br /><br />Granted, they did provide students with a FIFTEEN PAGE document outlining the format they wanted. But the fact that the first handful of questions indicated that some people may have been providing grades based on very superficial, "rule-following" aspects of the students' work.<br /><br />The remainder of the questions dealt with substantive issues, almost all of which were addressed in the thesis itself and for which Veronica had elegant and excellent answers. The deliberations didn't take long and as of about 9:30am, December 11th 2009, Veronica Lee has two masters degrees. In May, after a retooling of the thesis for University of Pennsylvania, she'll have three.<br /><br />I don't have a single masters degree, but my last name totally has, like, nine more letters than her's. She may have more letters to put after her name, but at least I have more letters IN my name.<br /><br />Congratulations Veronica!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-45770240577071068382009-12-09T23:06:00.000-08:002009-12-12T01:01:57.325-08:00Boiling Herbs - Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing Part 3Some people have told me that I'm being too graphic and that my readers don't want to hear about my sinuses or phlegm production. They are probably right - but that doesn't mean I'm going to completely scale back. I'll parse my judgement through the filter of someone that I trust (Veronica) and you'll end up with my slightly toned down, yet fully detailed reports on my treatments.<br /><br />I'm almost finished with my first regiment of herbs and nasal irrigation and its definitely working. My reactions are getting smaller and smaller and between treatments I'm more clear than ever before. Boiling and smelling the herbs doesn't really seem to do much, but the irrigation itself is where the magic happens.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlVZ8D-WV5XcrXBCGnQQmXEC4P60Nj8DjkxjYT8eKAA7LOHLhLeEwTN0j13y2nvaVFb_aqcU3ur-DMfkTNk0qfRezUuiYIRcdcrQS-QhPrIq8i7UiebDngDOTBTDzljel3STCNgifEDp4/s1600-h/P1090003.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlVZ8D-WV5XcrXBCGnQQmXEC4P60Nj8DjkxjYT8eKAA7LOHLhLeEwTN0j13y2nvaVFb_aqcU3ur-DMfkTNk0qfRezUuiYIRcdcrQS-QhPrIq8i7UiebDngDOTBTDzljel3STCNgifEDp4/s320/P1090003.JPG" border="0" alt="chinese traditional medicine herbs" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413501885929270274" /></a><br />At my last visit the doctor threw in some acupuncture to the normal massages. It was similar to some that I'd had done in the states, although that was to treat my feet. It's really interesting how Eastern medicine sees this all as related. All of my US doctors compartmentalized my problems.<br /><br />I'm really interested to see if any new healthcare reform back in the states involves better, more simplified tracking of medical records. I'm always a little concerned when I switch doctors and the new doctor asks me about my medical history. Usually I'm pretty good about getting my records forwarded to my new office and I like to think my memory is strong, but ultimately, it can't be that good to diagnose anything without a better understanding of the whole picture.<br /><br />Chinese medicinal theory may not have to apply to the same standards, as the initial exam by most TCM doctors includes a holistic check up to see what is balanced and out of balance. This is how my doctor here picked up on my hip and feet problems without me even mentioning it. I haven't had a doctor in the states express any interest in secondary or tertiary potentially unrelated symptoms when I've gone in for colds or respiratory issues. <br /><br />As always, I remain cautiously optimistic.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-45199100558507473412009-12-05T20:04:00.000-08:002009-12-05T20:51:18.678-08:00Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing (Part 2)My <a href="http://www.mybeijinglife.com/2009/12/chinese-traditional-medicine-doctor.html">last post</a> ended with a visit to a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Pharmacy (P). Right after I finished typing, I went into the kitchen to prepare my first batch of herbal remedy. See pile of herbs below:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM4YJTAJ2ar-lCrJd693zUBrZzfIfWsj-8-LOSxA9DxtsNeAxU8Bo72ASwPBukGbr85ghO91MydVZaFJ2loX2alAeQ-YAEvP2HEsCPcErOISdK9sespUmYN6Wg7PILOtFPTggxqfW2K3c/s1600-h/12431_526173921184_10300572_31242786_4607913_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM4YJTAJ2ar-lCrJd693zUBrZzfIfWsj-8-LOSxA9DxtsNeAxU8Bo72ASwPBukGbr85ghO91MydVZaFJ2loX2alAeQ-YAEvP2HEsCPcErOISdK9sespUmYN6Wg7PILOtFPTggxqfW2K3c/s320/12431_526173921184_10300572_31242786_4607913_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411972793297857794" /></a><br />This is where things get interesting. There are two parts to the treatment.<br /><br />Part One:<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Herb Boiling and Steam Inhalation.</span><br />As you can see in the picture, I need to boil the herbs and inhale the steam. Pretty straightforward. The steam is menthol scented and smells pretty nice. The whole apartment smells great. This didn't seem to do too much for my allergies though.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJVwTKd58V_Bzn34QW77DmpOYg1KsA3VpU_96AOD_YhPbv82p7uIbtv-dMI88kRXYL6D6hK9_Vmk2zV5aHHEBppBpDcLS8uZEgzpHwhvGFSuhpceNl0C7ATvd4G4iRhGUNyKiEZ-R_moY/s1600-h/12431_526173911204_10300572_31242784_7922652_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJVwTKd58V_Bzn34QW77DmpOYg1KsA3VpU_96AOD_YhPbv82p7uIbtv-dMI88kRXYL6D6hK9_Vmk2zV5aHHEBppBpDcLS8uZEgzpHwhvGFSuhpceNl0C7ATvd4G4iRhGUNyKiEZ-R_moY/s320/12431_526173911204_10300572_31242784_7922652_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411972797581381810" /></a><br />After about 10-15 minutes, I strain the herbs out and filter the liquid until any particulate matter is gone, let it sit over night and then proceed to part two.<br /><br />Part Two:<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Nasal Irrigation.</span><br />This is where things get really gross and really interesting. Nasal irrigation, for the un-initiated, is the process of drinking liquid in through your nose so that it rinses your sinus and nasal cavity. I've done this before, usually using a light saline solution and warm water.<br /><br />In this case, the liquid is a brownish concoction made from roots, seeds, leaves and god knows what else.<br /><br />As you can imagine, this was not particularly pleasant. Despite being smooth (no visible sediment) and painless to irrigate, immediately after irrigation - my sinuses BLEW UP. I felt like I was going to get a sinus infection within minutes. Sneezing, runny, stuffy - all the fun stuff at once.<br /><br />The doctor had warned:<br />This could either be very good or very very bad. But either way it is good. You must keep doing it, even if it is bad.<br /><br />This is hard to hear for someone used to western medicine. We are prescribed pills. We take the pills. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. It's usually a pretty painless process. Being asked to make a physical sacrifice for my wellness is something I'm not accustomed to - but happy to do.<br /><br />Since that first irrigation, things have gotten much better. The irritation lasts much less each time and between irrigations I'm much clearer than I've ever been before!<br /><br />I'm still sold on this stuff! I'll update the blog again when anything substantial changes. I'm really hoping I need "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_cupping" rel=nofollow>cupping</a>" soon. I've had <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncture" rel=nofollow>acupuncture</a> in America (without much "success"), but am particularly interested in being cupped. Technically you can request cupping or go somewhere just to be cupped, but I'd much rather have it recommended as a part of my treatment.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-33517141018484775722009-12-02T01:57:00.000-08:002009-12-05T20:48:30.105-08:00Chinese Traditional Medicine DoctorI used to assume that most of my readers knew me fairly well, or at least were aware of me. However, my Google analytics has informed me that nearly 75% of my visitors are random people coming via search terms. It warms my soul to know that I'm attracting people who are searching for things like "asian farts" and "chinese baby split pants". <br /><br />I bring this up, because anyone who actually knows me is aware of my annoying allergies. If you are one of those people that randomly found this blog while trying to figure out how to do a mongolia visa run, be warned - I'm one of those people that has an allergy for all seasons:<br />Winter: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_dust_mite" rel=nofollow>Dust mites</a><br />Spring/Summer: Pollen<br />Fall: Mold/Mildew<br />All The Damn Time: Cats<br /><br />I also have a range of off-putting noises to accompany these allergies: Sneezes, Snorts, Coughs and more. In this regard, I blend in fairly well here. People consistently cough and spit up sputum on the streets. Its nice to not have people look at me like a freak when I clear out my throat.<br /><br />All that said, China also presents a pretty cool opportunity for someone that tried allergy shots and pills his whole life. I've all but given up on western cures for my allergies. Two separate attempts at allergy shots, for over two years each time yielded no results. Claritin and sudafed provide temporary relief but often lead to headaches. I needed to look East.<br /><br />It took me longer than I'd like to admit, but I'm finally seeing a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor. I'd like to transition to a doctor that locals go to, but for now I'm seeing a very expat friendly doctor recommended by a friend (shout out Jen!). Just once a week for now, but I'm already sold. Hook, line and sinker.<br /><br />My first visit was diagnostic with a little bit of treatment. I told him that I had seasonal allergies and he poked and prodded me for a while. Didn't ask any further questions and then had an assistant start massaging and stretching me. After the treatment we discussed my situation and this is where he got me.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">1:</span> He prescribed a lot of hip and back stretches for me.<br />People that know me, also know that I've had chronic knee, hip and back issues. The stretches he told me to do and had his assistant perform on me were identical to stretches my podiatrist and physical therapist told me to do. Those guys were trying to help me run and walk without pain, however my new doctor was working on my allergies! I didn't tell him a word about my back, knees or hips.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">2: </span>He knew things about me that <span style="font-weight:bold;">I</span> didn't even know!<br />He asked if I'd had any head or neck trauma as a child or if I had a traumatic birth. I didn't think I had so I told him no. He insisted and told me to ask my parents. I called my mom who informed me that she was in labor with me for TWO days and there were definitely some difficulties during birth. Additionally, someone (no names named or fingers pointed) dropped me on my head when I was quite young. It does explain a lot - but it also blew my mind that this guy could tell all of this.<br /><br />He then proceeded to give me a list of things I shouldn't do physically:<br />1: Crack my neck/back<br />2: Sleep on my stomach<br />3: Read or watch TV in bed<br /><br />Along with a list of things I can't eat or drink:<br />1: Cold Beverages/Sodas<br />2: Alcohol<br />3: Chili <br />4: Seafood<br />5: Cold foods like Ice Cream and Watermelon<br />6: Garlic that hasn't been cooked thoroughly<br /><br />I've done my damnedest to follow his instructions. It's made me practice Chinese a lot more because I always need to ask if food has chili or garlic in it. It's also driven me crazy - I didn't realize how much I crack my neck and back! I never thought sleeping on my back would be so difficult.<br /><br />Oh and no booze. Seriously. But I'm doing it.<br /><br />Veronica says I'm getting better and I think I am too. So far treatments have consisted of these massages that really focus on aligning my hips to my head (or something like that). Nothing too "extreme", like acupuncture or cupping yet. But it all depends on what my body needs during a given visit.<br /><br />Last visit he wrote me up a script for some herbs for a vapor treatment and told me to go to a pharmacy to fill it. This led to my first encounter with a Traditional Chinese Medicine pharmacy. It was really cool and very different from a western pharmacy.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGSxh0RrFD4JYB9UcDfVmyaPBHtwjZxzae_5FIWndL_1wUe0h9FjSRGz5rroFx4r1Da2EEtQjDuKWusDbGl5VSwvdZmF_2oe9WUGDKirbMf0bJTKSp_mZz0VPzyVcNI-GuXzUFun0Sa8/s1600-h/IMG00069.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGSxh0RrFD4JYB9UcDfVmyaPBHtwjZxzae_5FIWndL_1wUe0h9FjSRGz5rroFx4r1Da2EEtQjDuKWusDbGl5VSwvdZmF_2oe9WUGDKirbMf0bJTKSp_mZz0VPzyVcNI-GuXzUFun0Sa8/s320/IMG00069.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410583545375800626" /></a><br />I gave them my script and they began finding, preparing and weighing out herbs. The then divided them up into seven different packets for me to boil, inhale and then use for sinus cleansing. I have NO IDEA what the herbs were or what they do, but my doctor told me that it should help. I trust him and will blindly boil, inhale and then use for sinus cleansing anything he tells me to boil, inhale and then use for sinus cleansing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-80709885199309445202009-12-02T01:14:00.000-08:002009-12-12T09:37:22.047-08:00Thanksgiving in China, Beijing StyleWelcome to the second installment of "Watch Marc and Veronica attempt to celebrate an American or Jewish Holiday in China with limited resources". You'll recall, the first entry featured <a href="/2009/04/celebrating-passover-in-beijing.html" title="Passover In Beijing">Passover and a lovely meal</a> cooked by Marc and Veronica with the assistance and expertise of the lovely Mary D'Agostino.<br /><br />True to form, this entry features more members of the Lee-D'Agostino clan and their excellent cooking skills. Meet Jessica Lee and Roxana Wells, Veronica's sister and cousin. And know, that when I refer to excellent cooking skills, I'm really referring to Roxana and Veronica. Jess served as more of a "supervisor" and picture taker. I served as "eater", errand boy and potato masher.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlIYjthT1_PKLaoOse8O5L-xQGuvDvLMbb4xFFwFUI-yb0mzbJCG2lJ9pPRv599c_P84v5DZGINJaaeT4e3bubMZmSlI2zAeSD735lCi0sU-ya36AO8H7F6u7nb0V0tZY7EW94vpxmWZ0/s1600-h/thanksgiving_in_beijing_I_ate.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlIYjthT1_PKLaoOse8O5L-xQGuvDvLMbb4xFFwFUI-yb0mzbJCG2lJ9pPRv599c_P84v5DZGINJaaeT4e3bubMZmSlI2zAeSD735lCi0sU-ya36AO8H7F6u7nb0V0tZY7EW94vpxmWZ0/s320/thanksgiving_in_beijing_I_ate.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410571932529070802" /></a><br />Though not an overwhelming meal to cook, especially with an abundance of cooking pumpkins and sweet potatoes, Thanksgiving, like Passover, provided its own set of challenges. Most specifically - where do you find a turkey in Beijing?! And what is the Chinese word for cranberry?<br /><br />Many of you jokingly asked if we were going to have Thanksgiving Beijing Duck and we almost did! But we had just gone to a fancy roast duck place the night before and, well, we all know what too much duck in a row can do to a person. Unable to find a turkey, we opted for chicken. Nice, roasted, chicken - with head intact and legs and feet stuffed inside. This was a little shocking to Jess and Rox, but by now, I know to go for the neck first and nibble on the feet a bit. I'm not a HUGE chicken feet lover, but I am learning to enjoy them. The neck, however, is succulent and delicious. Its much easier to carve a small roast chicken than a big turkey.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI_fo9NENxL8jhNBB_5Mlpp7VRNlHN-2FWly0q2ckz-hCi_3MfrdnrKKxebGHeFU3i41w6OmXldTzPyO7FDYWguAN172tFwPQ_kUXa-5FRIB3ikjEjmA3Y7CAJttS88k6Qs6YejjTW_X0/s1600-h/thanksgiving_in_beijing_carving_chicken.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI_fo9NENxL8jhNBB_5Mlpp7VRNlHN-2FWly0q2ckz-hCi_3MfrdnrKKxebGHeFU3i41w6OmXldTzPyO7FDYWguAN172tFwPQ_kUXa-5FRIB3ikjEjmA3Y7CAJttS88k6Qs6YejjTW_X0/s320/thanksgiving_in_beijing_carving_chicken.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410571928773054306" /></a><br />We didn't manage to find cranberries, but veronica improvised an EXCELLENT substitution. Common in marketplaces around this time of year, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crataegus_pinnatifida" rel=nofollow>Chinese haw</a> (山楂 in Chinese and <span style="font-style:italic;">Crataegus Pinnatifida</span> in Science talk) is a small crabapple-like fruit that has a similar taste to cranberries. Veronica substituted haw for cranberries in her mother's recipe and came up with a great haw jelly that I actually preferred to cranberry sauce.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQBaYrU6NTSR58FeUhgHqPjiTzzNOFfCyqvMeTVrF3vMePYLKriECcAm5_AhiB_7HWKa_T2OApSFL2qWUvHG9bgUl1-kJkYujMoX91nNTIM9OYbjIfxrSIgxUHR6YXMM8LeqcBimPIqE/s1600-h/cooking.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQBaYrU6NTSR58FeUhgHqPjiTzzNOFfCyqvMeTVrF3vMePYLKriECcAm5_AhiB_7HWKa_T2OApSFL2qWUvHG9bgUl1-kJkYujMoX91nNTIM9OYbjIfxrSIgxUHR6YXMM8LeqcBimPIqE/s320/cooking.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410571913214571074" /></a><br />The rest of the meal was fairly standard and delicious. A nice salad with pomegranate and walnuts, lamb meatballs with cilantro and onions, pumpkin and sweet potato soup, mashed sweet potatoes and a pumpkin pie in an IKEA tupperware!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmtrG8rP780BOwSqE5OXA2_2O6VAsVbfItqJnNZu-c_ni6QG2Bz5V0qpDb35IYUGeiqsAXL3A9mVVvSUWPK0v9i9hPRzP-Zd4D9K2aaS1MgmEAIy26jNw73D4adu7mxHie1pWyAAqrAX4/s1600-h/turkey_j_r.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmtrG8rP780BOwSqE5OXA2_2O6VAsVbfItqJnNZu-c_ni6QG2Bz5V0qpDb35IYUGeiqsAXL3A9mVVvSUWPK0v9i9hPRzP-Zd4D9K2aaS1MgmEAIy26jNw73D4adu7mxHie1pWyAAqrAX4/s320/turkey_j_r.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410571922445403698" /></a><br />After the meal, I ate a chocolate turkey (THANKS MARY!) and we all fit onto our couch to watch Mulan - which I had never seen but all three cousins sang along to and commented about what aspects of feudal China a Disney cartoon with a talking dragon voiced by Eddie Murphy depicted properly. And then I ate another chocolate turkey.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-56050556783742590652009-11-24T23:15:00.000-08:002009-11-25T19:33:59.435-08:00Someone robbed our house!I admit, that title is a bit misleading. No one stole anything from our house. Don't worry. However, someone did steal a potential new apartment from us!<br /><br />We'd seen a dozen or so places and settled on a cozy two bedroom with nice new floors. Then, all of a sudden, completely out of nowhere, our realtor started texting me about seeing new places. My ability to read Chinese isn't that great, so at first I thought I'd mis-interpreted his messages. I wrote back that we really liked the place he showed us and want to sign a lease. After a volley of texts, it became clear that the landlord thought we'd be picky tenants and rented the place to someone else out from under our noses!<br /><br />This doesn't sound like a huge problem, and wouldn't be, if our current lease didn't expire in seven days. Oh and if Veronica's thesis wasn't also due in seven days. Oh and if Veronica's sister (YAY JESSICA) and cousin (YAY ROX) weren't visiting this week. Oh and if we didn't have jobs and Chinese lessons and a thanksgiving dinner to cook. Plus packing .. oh man. We were screwed.<br /><br />Or. So. We. Thought.<br /><br />We met with our Realtor the day after he gave us the bad news and he showed us the perfect place; a better location and a better apartment for less money per month.<br /><br />We managed some basic negotiations in Chinese ourself and signed a pre-lease deposit agreement and started to get super-excited.<br /><br />I tend to be a "prepare for the worst case" sort of person, but things really fell into place on this one.<br /><br />Before you read this and think that Veronica and my Chinese has gone from zero-to-sixty, it must be said that we wouldn't have been able to do much of this without the help of our friends Jared, Jen and Ray.<br /><br />I did learn two lessons though that I think should apply for the US as well:<br />1: Always negotiate<br />and <br />2: Don't be TOO picky when you are busy always negotiating.<br /><br />I wish people in the US tried to negotiate more. I was thoroughly bummed when Ari and I were trying to rent out our Manayunk House and not a single person who checked out the place tried to offer us less than we were asking. I was mainly bummed because it took us longer to rent the place than it would have if someone had tried to get us to drop the price to begin with. Bargaining is a way of life here and I think we could learn a lot from China on that. Isn't bargaining a great way of finding where the supply and demand curve meet? Sounds pretty market-friendly to me.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-48074834473507891802009-11-24T07:21:00.000-08:002009-11-25T06:29:42.846-08:00Beijing Real Estate AmateursAbout two or so months ago, Veronica and I decided that we wanted to move. Don't get me wrong - we love our current place. It has a great sweeping view of the endless landscape of residential towers that is the area between the 2nd and 3rd ring roads. It's got two large bedrooms, hardwood floors, a gym in the basement and five supermarkets within a 5 minute walk. It even has one of the nicest bathrooms I've seen since I've been in the city. Actually - I have qualms with the toilet - but thats another more graphic story. All things said, I can't really complain.<br /><br />But that doesn't mean we can't shoot higher. And by higher, I mean - way cooler. There are a lot of fun areas of the city. WuDaoKou (五道口) is like college town. Wudaokou can be identified by its crowds of westerners and koreans, its rotating supply of good places to eat and drink as well as its inventory of slightly jacked up prices for apartments. Veronica studied near there and many of her friends lived there, so after spending a bunch of time visiting, we realized it wasn't for us. You can get to WuDaoKou via line 13 of the metro - but its a bit of a hike. One bright spot is that it isn't far from Zhongguancun (中关村), the bargain priced electronics market I stop by whenever I need a memory card or a computer accessory.<br /><br />Also in the category of 'not-gonna-do-it' is SanLiTun (三里屯). This place really has it all. That is, if you want to live in America. Western chains, nightclubs, bars, stores and plenty of Chinese that speak English. While pretty much every expat or student makes there way here a fair amount - I don't think I'd actually want to live here.<br /><br />Another popular area is DongZhiMen (东直门). I like DongZhiMen fine. We've got a bunch of friends that live there, probably because the carpools and buses to ultimate pickup leave from the subway station there. Apartments can be more upscale and there are some large malls and food courts as well. Its like a baby Central Business District in the north east corner of central Beijing. We heavily considered DZM.<br /><br />We settled on Andingmen (安定门). This neighborhood is close to historic sites, a subway station, plenty of great, inexpensive restaurants and is fast becoming the best brunch spot in town. Cafes that actually serve good coffee are springing and cute boutiques are opening that are frequented by hip Chinese and by younger foreigners. I don't want to hype the neighborhood up too much because we're very much on the tail end of its development. I'm sure that by next week all the cool people will have moved out.<br /><br />I'll be posting again soon to tell you about the fiasco we went through while looking for an apartment. I can't just yet because we are signing the lease tomorrow night and I don't want to curse myself.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-76861132459484758532009-11-02T20:12:00.000-08:002009-11-03T05:40:04.311-08:00Korean Baby Stroller AccidentsAmerica's Funniest Home videos is a show that is imported to TVs all around the world. This is probably because, bloopers rarely need subtitles and its much cheaper to air a show without captions. I've caught some episodes in China, Korea, Thailand and even Malaysia.<br /><br />It always gets to me though : many of the videos seem blatantly staged, but more importantly, even more probably resulted in off-camera hospital visits. Regardless of the incidents' veracity or the injuries caused, the laugh track plays on.<br /><br />When Veronica and I were in Seoul we witnessed two things that, had they been in a cartoon, or accompanied by sound effects, could have been funny. Instead they were painful and terrifying. And they may indicate a much larger, more cosmic possibility - Veronica and I might be cursed...<br /><br />Walking through an artsy part of town, a grandfather, daughter and granddaughter started to come out of a coffee shop. I wasn't paying attention, but Veronica grabbed my arm as the toddler in the stroller FLIPPED 270 DEGREES OUT OF THE SEAT AND LANDED ON HER FACE. Everyone rushed to help. Minor scrapes and scares aside, the child was okay. But we were terrified.<br /><br />We were terrified, because, not ten minutes earlier, the EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED. A young boy, performed the exact same acrobatic feat when we were doing a little shopping in a different part of town. At the time, we didn't think anything of it, aside from "don't buy Korean Strollers". <br /><br />I'm not sure if two babies flipping out of their strollers within 10 minutes is a pattern, a trend or a what. But I'm pretty sure that the forces of gravity apply differently when Veronica and I are near babies in strollers.<br /><br />If you are a new parent - be careful. Do not invite us to watch you push your child around. Since I don't think that is something that people even do, I think we are safe. But either way - BE CAREFUL!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-76144340994229287932009-08-31T07:35:00.001-07:002009-12-06T00:14:37.689-08:00What is Chinglish?Every tourist visiting an Asian country (generally Japan or China) feels compelled to take pictures of the mangled English that appears on street signs, restaurant menus, clothing and pretty much everywhere.<br /><br />I'm no exception to this rule, but I think its worth determining just what is occurring in these anglophone atrocities. In China, the errors can be divided into three main categories:<br /><br /><b>Chinglish Grammar Errors</b><br />Technical manuals and signs at government buildings are often victims of direct translation errors. Phrasings are translated directly and, as a result, the English is often confusing. Occasionally these are funny, but usually a non-jackass can easily determine the intention of what is being said and life goes on. Graphic example to follow.<br /><br /><b>Chinglish Spacing Errors</b><br />This may come as a surprise, but traditional Chinese poetry and calligraphy uses no punctuation or spacing. In fact, punctuation beyond the full stop and the comma are relatively recent additions to written Chinese. Wikipedia tells me that full stops and comma's were used in scholarly annotation, but were often omitted.<br /><br />This means that spacing and punctuation are NOT first nature to Chinese language speakers. This leads to a fun type of Chinglish error, "thenospace or awkwa rdspac ingerr or". These errors really look like someone took an entire English sentence, removed the spaces and then randomly reinserted them.<br /><br />This is becoming less and less common as punctuation (and to a much lesser extent spacing) are becoming more commonly used and English is becoming more wide-spread.<br /><br />I'll keep an eye out for a good one of these and edit this post.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;">EDIT:</span><span style="font-style:italic;"> Looking through some old pictures, I realized I had a combo error. This definitely includes spacing issues, and probably some character transposition errors as well.</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHw4YNxWP7Pq5-DgcYVsptXQelZyfO8FbbnGdAdgEYc4WIorl_2of8g4T-qW73anzBp7tRUX5s43fBGHrzrQ70Z8dtOFPsuYyKWcvyIXbHl_jgD9TtO49XXXlkD-zBXBer3SN9IT5CMKA/s1600-h/P1030442.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHw4YNxWP7Pq5-DgcYVsptXQelZyfO8FbbnGdAdgEYc4WIorl_2of8g4T-qW73anzBp7tRUX5s43fBGHrzrQ70Z8dtOFPsuYyKWcvyIXbHl_jgD9TtO49XXXlkD-zBXBer3SN9IT5CMKA/s320/P1030442.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412031626808423010" /></a><br />The characters read 省心楼, which could translate to "no worries tower". It appears someone took liberties and called it The Retrospection Tower, only to have their words mis-spaced and improperly transcribed into "THERETRDSPECTIENTOWER".<br /><br /><b>Character Transposition Errors</b><br />Unfortunately this is, by far, the most common type of error I encounter. Luckily its the funniest. This occurs when a typesetter, signmaker or textile manufacturer manages to incorrectly copy one or more of the English letters from a piece of paper onto the magazine, sign or garment. Some may be semi-intentional, like the multitudes of fake Calvin Klein floating around the streets with horrible names like Galvin Kloin Galvln KIein. I've also seen some Ralph Lauren called : Pclo Olub - Palo Team.<br /><br />Other times, people are not trying to avoid copyright infringement and are just horribly transposing letters. I snapped this picture of a haute couture dress<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7s_qzpQqB0QK9-Cryf0uNxtEvDZgWKuFE-7qIGtUENgg37lP-PsEFvrYAjwOKTG44qVUhIBY2ol077NWQYGoJP3T05bamKzp4eixOV7AkjtDdtURn91ltln2n3ye2w2x0ZFl361xlpQ/s1600-h/5376_578524559998_1703036_34547849_4188356_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 480px; height: 384px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7s_qzpQqB0QK9-Cryf0uNxtEvDZgWKuFE-7qIGtUENgg37lP-PsEFvrYAjwOKTG44qVUhIBY2ol077NWQYGoJP3T05bamKzp4eixOV7AkjtDdtURn91ltln2n3ye2w2x0ZFl361xlpQ/s320/5376_578524559998_1703036_34547849_4188356_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376141833451001858" /></a>If you can't read it, it says SEK BOHBS NOT WABS.<br /><br />I find it FASCINATING, that someone able to memorize over 10,000 unique characters manages to mis-transpose one of the 26 characters in the English alphabet. I think my hit-miss ratio of transposing Chinese characters I don't know is MUCH higher than that. <br /><br />Score one for Marc.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-78134576319289548062009-08-28T02:22:00.000-07:002009-08-28T02:45:18.791-07:00Beijing Ultimate Frisbee ChampionsAttentive readers will note that this is the first post I'm making in August. Many of you know the reason for this: Veronica and I were back in the states for a little over 10 days. Those ten days were the busiest, most fun and friendfilled and generally fulfilling vacation days I can remember. Shout outs to the people that we say and BIG SORRIES to the people we weren't able to get in touch with. That said, our open offer still stands: Get yourself to Beijing, and you have a place to stay and some slightly above-average <i>laowei</i> tour guides.<br /><br />Since this blog is about living in Beijing, posting about our trip back to the states would be rather pointless. And so, the blog picks back up, as we pick back up our lives in Beijing. . .<br /><br />And where a better place to start than on the Frisbee fields. Beijing (and China in general) has a small but growing <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.beijingultimate.blogspot.com/">Ultimate</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.beijingultimate.com/">Community</a>. Right now, Beijing is home to at least four ongoing teams, comprised of locals and expats alike. There are a growing number of native Chinese being turned on to the sport, due, in no small part, to the tireless efforts of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://fiveultimate.com/">Five Ultimate</a> to open up new markets.<br /><br />During the springtime, we occasionally made it out to pickup games, but our travel, class and work schedules made it difficult to commit to Beijing's inaugural spring league. Luckily, we were able to join up in time for the 4th annual summer league. The league is small (compared to large Ultimate cities back in the states) with only four teams that play a total of eight games plus finals. What the league lacks in size it more than makes up in spirit.<br /><br />Beijing Ultimate is lucky to have a committed group of expats that love the sport and love the city. The seed of their enthusiasm has sprouted into a lot of locals joining up and bringing their new take (and often incredible speed) to the game. Most of the people we've met so far are quintessential ultimate folk that, having played in or after college back in the states or Canada, couldn't go without it in China. They travel to tournaments throughout the continent and do the same rawkus things we do in America.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmOhUz7E15hrk1ZHZ3BRWXrgIsnt1B8u0eWCtJmGuHs_a5QiOaorl8q19NE4D2YaR6fHoAI56n0M5TTZWHEwu9W2k0FgX1Z6Bs2dPOuDqZica_1diWa5IipQ6QLm5dmRuV_tRKdFvLl8Q/s1600-h/01.+IMG_3673+(L).JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 480px; height: 360px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmOhUz7E15hrk1ZHZ3BRWXrgIsnt1B8u0eWCtJmGuHs_a5QiOaorl8q19NE4D2YaR6fHoAI56n0M5TTZWHEwu9W2k0FgX1Z6Bs2dPOuDqZica_1diWa5IipQ6QLm5dmRuV_tRKdFvLl8Q/s320/01.+IMG_3673+(L).JPG" border="0" alt="Beijing Ultimate Frisbee Summer League" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374947274070207922" /></a><br />We ended up on a great team, that managed to lose all but one game going into Final's weekend. We entered the playoffs as the #3 seed and won both of our games as the underdog to take the BUSL championships. I'm not going to bore anyone with a recap, but if you want the gory details and videos, check them out at Anthony Tao's <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://beijingultimate.blogspot.com/2009/08/weekend-roundup-part-2-all-hail.html">blog</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-40366957043021849582009-07-20T21:25:00.000-07:002009-07-20T21:51:18.958-07:00Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in Beijing - The Art of WarBack in the states, once a year or so, I'd meet up with some friends and watch a fight that someone bought on pay per view. It was almost always boxing and usually a well-hyped, big-deal match. I can't say that I ever counted myself among the ranks of Mixed Martial Arts enthusiasts. <br /><br />To be honest, until the other day, I thought the Ultimate Fighting League went the way of the XFL, Chumbawumba and Pogs. I've been corrected. And I couldn't have been corrected in a more awesome way.<br /><br />If you remember, a few weeks ago I made a quick run to Mongolia. I was supposed to make this trip with a guy I connected with on a Beijing Expat site. At the last minute he was unable to go, but we kept in touch and he hooked me up with tickets to an MMA show in Beijing called The Art of War.<br /><br />Holy Crap this stuff is the real deal and pretty damned impressive too. Its called mixed martial arts for a reason. The fighters specialized in all sorts of fighting methods and the rules are tailored to avoid "point scoring" and determine a winner based on submission, unconsciousness or medical disqualification.<br /><br />This was a straight up Vegas style fight - complete with multiple jumbotrons, smoke machines, american referees, round card girls and fighters from all over the world.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQmsTFGCx7SpJ5IKo29Vo60NqcN5VQWHdYRTmTXi1CzYygQ3n_nMHZ54yy1ZJaQwuzNTieoTIp-myq_eqG2BDzXlUwRbWaR1VEBAfME4Sw0InqJtJxZIjn_FdQS-k2eSJAro7ACr4_sig/s1600-h/P1060428.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQmsTFGCx7SpJ5IKo29Vo60NqcN5VQWHdYRTmTXi1CzYygQ3n_nMHZ54yy1ZJaQwuzNTieoTIp-myq_eqG2BDzXlUwRbWaR1VEBAfME4Sw0InqJtJxZIjn_FdQS-k2eSJAro7ACr4_sig/s320/P1060428.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360769732033981154" /></a><br />The fights had two rounds, the first was ten minutes, the second was five. Only two matches even made it into the second round. There was one impact knockout (within the first 30 seconds of a fight), two head lock knockouts, a whole bunch of leg, arm and neck lock submission wins, one tie and one medical disqualification (huge gash, lots of blood).<br /><br />I really didn't expect to like the fights as much as I did. They were really pretty bad ass. Most of the Chinese fighters got destroyed pretty quickly - it was funny listening to the Chinese cheer at what they thought was a good move by their countryman, but was actually the beginning of the end.<br /><br />The foreign fighters almost always won, with the Thais and Mongolians doing particularly well. My favorite fighters was a short squat Mongolian man that came out wearing armor and leapt around the ring for a few minutes before the fight started. He looked like a cab driver and then he completely rocked his competitor.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFYhIrMu1WIDGiQLRn5UDT90Lmz9fxvqHSSpqZ728OrrTMTPtuQ7BVLWNgw6KDgtM9EPfl81mTU8fxw3AFcBAn_IF5p49opwTz6nB5_c0jFU-vtUaxFmX1xm8WTshXOnVgEDQJgcwchQ/s1600-h/P1060435.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFYhIrMu1WIDGiQLRn5UDT90Lmz9fxvqHSSpqZ728OrrTMTPtuQ7BVLWNgw6KDgtM9EPfl81mTU8fxw3AFcBAn_IF5p49opwTz6nB5_c0jFU-vtUaxFmX1xm8WTshXOnVgEDQJgcwchQ/s320/P1060435.JPG" border="0" alt="mongolian ultimate fighting mma" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360769746625616434" /></a><br />I think I'll check it out next time it comes to town.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8742594828618815365.post-17063609604046100022009-07-06T21:32:00.000-07:002009-07-06T21:36:44.840-07:00The Chinese fixed my biggest pet peeveNi Hao. 你好.<br /><br />China has officially solved one of my largest pet peeves.<br /><br />I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks the platitude "How're ya doing?" as a greeting ranks tremendously high on the list of social interactions that shouldn't exist.<br /><br />Even though it is often clear when someone does or doesn't actually want an answer, some people just don't get it. These people launch into a diatribe about their shitty landlord, their sports team or god knows what else is on their tiny little mind.<br /><br />China's solution is simple and elegant. Their general greeting "Ni Hao" literally means "you good".<br /><br />But that's no solution Marc!? That creates the exact same problem!<br /><br />That's where you are wrong, my fair reader. <br /><br />In Chinese (Mandarin at least) a sincere query into one's well-being is followed by a word that makes it into a question (ma, 吗). <br /><br />That causes:<br />1: "Ni Hao (你好)" to mean "hello", while <br />2: "Ni Hao Ma (你好吗)" translates to a "how are you doing?"<br /><br />Because of this, I propose changing the way it works in English:<br />1: "How are you doing?" means "hello", but<br />2: "How are you actually doing be I have a real and true interest in your current state of affairs" means "tell me anything personal beyond responding with a polite hello and nodding".<br /><br />That should work. Right?<br /><br />Side note: Remember how I mentioned that Chinese Characters are combinations of other characeters? The word that signifies a question "ma, 吗" is actually the word HORSE and the word MOUTH smushed into one character. I have no idea why.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6