The Best of L.A.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a fan of L.A.. That's right Zhi, I said it, I don't like L.A.. However a recent prolonged visit (my brother now lives in La La Land) made me think a little more about the things I can enjoy when in the area. The things will make for my list of:

If you have to be in LA you have to see/do this!

1. The Getty Museum
Not only does it house great artistic exhibits, but the building designed by Richard Meier is also architecturally beautiful. Entry into the museum is free, but be prepared to pay $15 for parking.. haha. Check out an exhibit or two (Shayne and I saw the work of Jean-Leon Gerome because the advertisement included a Gladiator, and my friend Jon had recommended it), take the "Architecture Tour" then spend some time just relaxing on the grassy knoll and enjoying the view.

2. Diddy Riese in Westwood

My friend Debs first made me aware of this, the best ice cream sandwich shop around. For only $1.50 you get to create your own ice-cream sandwich. Simply choose any two amazingly soft and freshly baked cookies and a flavour of ice cream. Wha-La, a delicious melt-in-your-mouth summer great. Don't wait... go there now! Yummmm... just thinking of them makes me want to jump in my car forthwith.

3. Hennessey + Ingalls Art & Architecture Bookstore (in Santa Monica)

Specializing in all forms of artistic publications, this is the place to go for any creative. I set aside at least an hour to peruse the many offerings of this amazing bookstore. Photography, Graphic Design, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Interior Design, Architecture, and More! This bookstore has it all. And since I'm teaching a Graphic Design elective in the high school next year, I finally have an excuse to buy! :D

4. Six Flags Magic Mountain

If you are a lover of roller coasters, six flags is the place for you. Rider be warned, dress with zippered pockets, only bring what will fit inside, otherwise you'll be stuck paying $1 each time you go on a ride to rent a locker to put your stuff in. Otherwise, amazing roller-coasters! Stay late so you can get the short lines :D

5. Small Concert Venues
One thing I can say for certain is that L.A. has music. Whether you like the big bands or the small bands, you can find them performing at sometime, someplace. A few great small venues to check out are: Hotel Cafe, The Knitting Factory, and The Troubadour.

6. Disneyland
Who can resist a trip to the "happiest place on earth"? Well, I went two summers ago, so actually this time I resisted a trip there (it was replaced with magic mountain), but really, you can't leave it off the list of L.A's locations.

7. Beaches
Of course the coast of California has TONs of beaches. Beach volleyball, surfing, etc etc. Go crazy, just don't forget the sunscreen.

And there you have it. Seven things to make sure you do in LA. :D

Felix my Muse

It's amazing how as soon as I start riding scoot scoot (aka "Felix") through the streets of Shanghai, I suddenly get flooded with blog ideas. It must be something about the pureness of smog-filled air blowing through my helmet, the constant honking of other scooters, bikes, and cars, the low-rumbling fear that an oblivious pedestrian will suddenly step in front of my bike causing me to be flung onto the sidewalk—that clears up the mind and allows it the safety to roam. Everything strikes my brain in this state, and if there were a typewriter in my head, this blog would be updated far more often!:
"Look, the camera attached to the traffic light just flashed at me as I scooted by. Is Big Brother tracking my every move? Maybe the same technology they used at the Olympics is being used here... face recognition, real Jason Bourne stuff!"
"Why are all the scooters, bikes, people, AND strollers, in the bike lane, while the side-walk is empty!?"
"How am I going faster than that gas powered scooter."
"Look at all these HUGE villas that are being built.... where did all the people who used to live here go?"
"Does a disc break lock really stop someone from stealing a scooter?"

And if non of the above ideas seem worthy of a blog to you, remember, of course, the above ideas are just the floaters... the ones that aren't smart enough to hide again as soon as the scooter-ride is over. The best ideas remain hidden in the recesses of my scooter-powered imagination, only allowing themselves to come out when my mind is truly free to contemplate all the things in life—when the honking and bustle of Shanghai rattles them free into my head where I can once more ponder them, and think about how, if only I weren't busy not crashing, I would type it up forthwith!

StoryPeople.com

I discovered the artist Brian Andreas in a little shop called Hands Gallery in downtown San Luis Obispo, and have LOVED his work ever since. He combines quirky sketches with short dictums about life, love, adventure, coffee, chocolate,...anything! Many times they are completely random (which is probably why I love them so much) but in some way they will always remind you of yourself, or someone you know. They also help to remind me about the little jewels of LIVING which we can so easily let pass us by if we're not careful to notice them.

I've recently subscribed to his "Story of the Day" e-mails, which means each day I get a new Story delivered right to my inbox! If you've seen me on buzz or gchat, you've probably seen more than a few of the particularly great ones posted.

I'll share this Story in honor of my Kunming host Amber. She can eat more chocolate than anyone I know, and rarely feels any repercussions from a chocolate eating spree at someplace like Whisk (which never ceases to amaze me). I'm pretty sure that she eats it just because it's yummy, and that it's not doing anything to make sure the wind doesn't blow her away (another amazing feat).

My favorite thing is the wind, she said, & my second favorite is chocolate but I just do that so I don't get too skinny & blow away

World Expo Opens in Shanghai

photo from guardian.co.uk


Today I got an e-mail from my mom saying that she saw the fireworks for the opening of the World Expo in Shanghai on National News, and asked if I had seen them. unFORTUNATELY, I was not actually in Shanghai for the opening of the World Expo---Which led me to investigate via the world wide web what the opening was like----which led me to this and this article, in which I discovered some interesting information:

1. "Temperatures in Shanghai today reached 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit)"
What!? Before I left it was not "freezing" at worst, and almost "warm" at best. Ok, so that may be exaggerating a little. The day we left was almost nice. But I'm saddened to think that we may have had only 1--ONE--day of spring :(

2. "The broadcaster, a unit of government-owned Shanghai Media Group, also called on visitors to obey rules set out by expo organizers as it showed footage of people cutting in line, trash littering the grounds and visitors circumventing a barrier to pick flowers off a tree on display."
This just makes me giggle to myself. People not standing in line? People not using trash cans? People ignoring barriers to take flowers from a display? None of this would EVER happen in day-to-day C-land, I can't imagine why it's happening at the Expo. I'm just wondering why they left out "kids peeing on the sidewalk."

3. "China’s richest city estimates 70 million people will visit the six-month long World Expo, more than 10-times the number who traveled to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. To ensure smooth operations for the fair, Shanghai has deployed armed police to patrol the Expo park, restricted sales of knives and given local residents a five-day holiday through May 4, during which they’ve been asked to say at home as much as possible." Yeah! that's me, we got our holiday extended by 2 days... Happy World Expo... I'm in Kunming....... woops... I must have missed the part where we were supposed to stay home as much as possible.

4. "Six people who protested about having their homes destroyed to make room for the Expo have been sent to labour camps, the Hong-Kong based Chinese Human Rights Defenders were quoted as saying by AP." It is amazing how C-land is able to "get 'er done." The Expo site is along prime property along the huangpu river in the center of Shanghai, not exactly "open" land. Very convenient for those attending the Expo, very inconvenient for those who used to have a home.

5. The expo breakdown:

Theme is "Better City, Better Life"

70 million visitors expected, mostly Chinese

192 countries and 50 organizations on show

20,000 cultural performances

First Expo in a developing country

Site is 5.3sq km, twice the size of Monaco

China says cost is $4.2bn - others say costs reached $58bn

Standard day ticket costs 160 yuan ($23: £15)

Runs from 1 May to 31 October

In related news. My roommate and I are thinking that this is prime time to do some apartment letting and pay of any remaining student loans. :D We think that we can beat the quality of "The Olympic Experience Hostel" in Beijing!

C-Land :: Journals!

One of the things I love about C-land are their journals. Actually, my roommate Andrea and I agreed that this is on the top of both of our "Things we like about C-land lists". Andrea, (who actually journals and has a little bit more of an excuse to buy said objects) frequently comes home with some new journal "finds" which she always eagerly shows me. Many times the journals have funny little sketches or images throughout the inside pages, and of course, no C-land journal would be complete without the Chinglish sayings.

Today, while looking through a bookstore in Kunming, I came across a whole table of little journals, calendars, notebooks, and the like. I spent quite a bit of time picking them up, flipping through them, reading the Chinglish, and commenting on each one, then came home with all of the above (it was hard to even widdle the ones I liked down to that many). These ones are "tame" as far as C-land journals are concerned, the inside pages are blank, or simply lined, and only the two with the travels scenes have any sort of ditty. This one reads:

Europe Tour
Like a great travellers
I have seen more than i remember
and remember more than I have seen


Ahhh precious.

The Uncomfortable Incident of Chinese Picture Takers

Today, Amber, Elizabeth, and I went to the Yunan Minority Village. By this time, having lived in C-land for quite a few years, we are quite accustomed to the "sly" walk-by photography... where a Chinese person tries to make it look like they're not taking your picture, but the sudden camera flash in your face kind-of gives it away. We're also accustomed to people asking to take pictures with us as they hand the camera to their friends and snuggle in close for the picture like we're old friends. But, today, while trying to watch the Elephant Show at the Cultural Village, was a new experience.

We were sitting in the stands watching all the people taking pictures of their friends sitting in an elephant's trunk, and people teasing the elephant with bananas before letting them throw it into their mouths; when, three ladies appeared beside us on the stairway. Without saying a word to us (either verbal or charade-y), one lady was taking her time, laying out the perfect picture of us with her camera from roughly 1 foot away. Amber and Elizabeth tried to hide their faces in a (we-don't-want-our-pictures-taken sort of way), after the lady had obviously taken a few pictures, I decided to humour her and make a funny face.

Next (still without saying any word to us), one of the ladies sat down in front of us, while we made confused what-are-you-doing faces, and the other lady took another picture. I tried to ask the lady sitting in front of us posing for the picture if she wanted a picture with us (all in chinese), but she completely ignored me, and just posed for the shot. Next she took the camera away from her friend, and her friend sat down right next to Elizabeth and, still without saying one word, or even doing one half-charade, put her arm around Elizabeth to pose for the picture. Elizabeth sat with a look of confused horror, as Amber finally said "look, if you want to take pictures with us, you at least need to ask!" (also in Chinese).

At this point, we decided that maybe the Elephants weren't entertaining enough to sit through random Chinese people hugging us for pictures while acting as if we didn't exist.

Other than this rather odd experience, the Cultural Village was quite nice, partially due to it being almost devoid of people (something hard to accomplish in C-land), and also because we had a beautifully sunny day to walk around in. :D

May Holiday!

This blog post is coming at you from Kunming China (also pictured in blog header) because I'm on VACATION! :D Labor Day Holiday= 5 days off of work. Back in the good 'ole days the Labor Day Holiday consisted of an entire week vacation. However the C-land government recently decided that they wanted to cut down on the number of times throughout the year 1.8 billion people were all trying to travel at the same time. Their solution, take away the week long holiday, shorten it to 2 days plus a weekend, and spread the other days out to create a bunch of short 3-day holidays so that 1.8 billion people were all traveling then instead. So, originally my holiday was 4 days total. But, roughly 2 weeks before the holiday was to begin, in classic C-Land last-minute style, They decided to allot everyone an extra 2 days of government holiday to celebrate the opening of the World Expo (Better City, Better Life). Yippeee!

So now I'm in my old summer stomping grounds of Kunming, sitting in my friend Amber's newly remodeled kitchen/dinning room area.

Our (Elizabeth and my) trip began with an excited walk to the subway stop that recently opened only a block from our apartment. Also new, was that the subway went all the way out to the airport! Cutting the cost to get there from about 100RMB by taxi, down to 5RMB! As we walked down the narrow still-under-construction pathway that went to the subway entrance, I asked a guard where the entrance to the part of the subway that went to the airport was. He mumbled something about "closed" "4pm". I asked again, not wanting to believe what I was hearing. Who would close the subway to the airport at 4pm!?? I asked again, he answered again, I looked around then finally expired: "Why!" At which the guard laughed to himself heartily. So, we were back to the normal routine, and 1 100RMB taxi ride later, we arrived at the airport per usual.

Who knows what the week holds. Relaxing is on the list. And per my commitment (which I'm rather starting to enjoy) so is blogging. :D

Over and out.

Israel :: There's a HUMMUS among us!

One of my favorite parts of Israel was the food! It was gloriously tasty :D

My friend Danielle and I arrived in Israel roughly 5 days before our "official tour" started, and on our first day in Jaffa, we went on a search for what the Lonely Planet called "the best Hummus in Israel." We considered this a very high proclamation for Hummus and decided that we must see if it was true.

After much weaving and winding (we thought we'd take a "short-cut" and I think it ended up being a "long-cut"), and after much confusion over street names (the Lonely Planet would say Dolphin Street, and the actual street name would look something like akdaulfeen street) We finally found the tiny little corner restaurant with a busy flurry of locals waiting outside. After a short wait, we found two seats open at a rectangular table where five people were already sitting happily eating. [This part reminded me of China, where it doesn't matter if you know people or not, if there's a seat open at your table, someone might get sat there! I was glad to already be familiar with the practice of squishing in next to a table full of strangers... haha]

Looking around the small restaurant, it seemed to have a very short menu as everyone appeared to be eating the same exact thing. So, we went with the flow and moments later the best hummus in all of Israel appeared. Our meal consisted of what's seen in the picture above: two different styles of hummus, a plate of bread, and the somewhat unusually bet even more unusually tasty part: sliced onion and an olive oil sauce to dip it in.

Danielle and I dug in. Thoroughly enjoying what would be the best hummus of our entire trip, even if maybe my taste buds are too "low" to really be able to tell the difference.

At one point in our conversation the people that we shared the table with said "you're lucky, your first day in Israel and you've found the best Hummus anywhere!" So the Lonely Planet wasn't joking, even the locals flocked here for lunch.

To my great joy, upon returning to Shanghai, I realized that the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs has a whole slew of "typical" Israeli food recipes on their site. I've cooked my way through almost a dozen of them, and have been happily fulfilled each time. Along with the hummus, I highly recommend the: shakshouka, the baba ghanouj, and the falafel .... to start :D

A Committment: Part 1

Dear Blog, Friends, World,

I have neglected you terribly :( And today, as I blended up my fresh fruit GIANT smoothie that cost about 1$, and thought about my friend Mette and the amazing things she always seems to be doing with design, and thinking.... WHY am I not doing some of this?? Well time is one, but focus is another.

So then in my head, I thought, Janai, what are the things that you want to focus on no matter what? Or what are the things you want to get better at? The things that came to mind were:

1. My relationship with Jesus

2. Keeping in better contact with Friends and Family (step one. e-mail updates)

2.5 Physical activity of some sort: running, ultimate, soccer...

3. Improving Design Skills

4. Learning to play the guitar (yes mom, still)

5. Well the list could go on and on.

So then, thanks to ideas from The Minimalist Blog I decided. "Self, you just need to choose a few to focus on!" So, in my attempt to keep in better contact, I've decided to do 1 short blog per day.... for 1 week. Yes, I have short-term goals.. haha. I was about to head over to the google music China site to continue downloading TONS of legal AND free songs... when I reminded myself, if I don't act on my commitment now, I never would. So, I stopped myself from opening said google music page, and instead proceed to type into blogspot forthwith!

So here it is. :) My commitment to you. 1 blog each day for 7 days. Maybe after that I'll renew my commitment. :P

Above is a photo of all the wonderful ladies whom I some-what recently traveled to Israel with. The trip was AMAZING, and will hopefully be the focus of at least a few of my post-per-day-for-a-week posts. :D [pictured from Left to Right: Danielle, Susannah, Elizabeth, Su, me, Chrissy, Angelia, Tiffany]

For now, I must return to my smoothie lunch.

See you tomorrow.

Janai