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