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pictures from my desktop

2010-04-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing the internet is good for, it's amazing images. I have a habit of saving any interesting pictures I come across from my internet whereabouts and save them in a folder that rotates them on my desktop. I've been at it for a few years now and here are some of my favorites with a brief explanation. Above is a medieval painting by a nun named Hildegard of Bingen who used to get visions from the Lord and record them. This is her impression of recieving those visions, so I presume those strange red things coming out of her eyes as the grace of God and she is hurriedly recording them .

This comes from a Japanese horror film from the 80's called "House"

Meet Ros Soroysothea, she's a singer famous in Cambodia during the 1970's before the craziness from the Pol Pot era killed her and all the other musicians that made the rock scene there truly special and probably the best I know of

A gorgeous poster for a film I've never seen

A picture from the Russian Soviet future, in the early 80's.

I want a laser baby

I found this picture while looking up information for a band named Supersister

Ross found this picture of a sad fat girl with a disappointing pony. I have a thing for cake pictures and especially like this one

This is courtesy of Engrish.com and comes from a manga comic

A turn of the century Russian circus poster

A still from a telenovela from the late 70's with Veronica Castro, one of the big haired, heavily made-up women from my childhood who still haunt me (in a good way) to this day. It says the name of the soap opera which translates as "rich people also cry"

The Eastern Peak Mountain Temple (东岳庙）

2010-03-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

One snowy Sunday in January Ross, our close friend Chao (超) and I, all went to eat Cantonese dim sum at a new restaurant and to our surprise found a neat little temple right next door. Here is some history about the temple. In a nutshell, it is a Daoist temple founded in 1319 and rebuilt several times through the centuries. In the 20th century it served several secular and governmental functions until a few years ago when it was declared a national treasure and restored.

Above, Chao is taking a picture though he looks like he's getting shot. Behind him are some stelae with all kinds of records inscribed in them. They look to Westerners like gravestones, but more often than not they record things deemed important or noteworthy... like test scores, decrees, new laws and notable visitors.

Ross slipped in the snow, it was really funny

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Below are plaster dioramas with people, mythological monsters , gods and spirits all intermingling; representing the 76 departments of the Daoist supernatural world. They are situated in 76 rooms surrounding the main courtyard. Among the different Departments are
"The Department of Individual Destiny", "The Department of Rewarding Good Conduct", "The Department of the Rain Gods", "The Department of Gods and Monsters", "The Department of Controlling Bullying and Cheating and Department of Suppressing Schemes", and my favorite "The Department of Urging" ... whatever that means.

the character in the palette above is read "ling", it means order

Snow days

2010-03-17T01:41:00.001-07:00

This past winter was especially snowy. The pictures above and below are from the first snowfall on November 1st which was the earliest in decades and later announced as "artificially induced" by the government.

The scene above is just downstairs from our apartment. Under all that snow lies Ross and my bikes as well as Silvia's old bike and some of our neighbors's.

A red curtain in a crazy temple we visited on a different snowy day

One of the three wheeled cars (三轮车) for quick, cheap transport in any of Beijing's neighborhoods

An example of the heavy condensation that happens inside of heated buildings and vehicles on cold, snowy days

I'm sorry.... so sorry....

2010-03-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

It's been over a year since my last entry. I had just arrived home in Beijing after a friend-filled escape to Europe when I last posted. At that time, the Chinese government became increasingly hostile towards internet freedoms and expression; so around May, Blogspot, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and many other websites were suddenly not accessible. Proxys and other scramblers and unblockers were ok for a while but even they faltered and my blog became a small casualty of all the hullabaloo.

A lot has happened since then. I said goodbye to quite a few really close friends, travelled to Inner Mongolia and other places within China, began working again, had little adventures around the 'Jing, went home to America for a few weeks, and now I find myself with a HUGE backlog of pictures and stories ready for posting.

This is the weekend when things change. Ross and I just paid for a proxy, so I'm safe from internet censorship for a year :)

I'll be sure to get my €34 worth

A wonderful reunion

2009-05-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

Armando, Jackie and I were all good friends in New World high School. We've all managed to keep in touch through the years, but haven't hung out together since those days. Just about 8 years later we managed to meet again and spend a great few days in the south of Germany.

My brother/best friend and I in Munich, at Alexanderplatz

above and below: a great afternoon wandering the many beautiful parks in Munich with two people very special to me

Left to right; Armando, his great girlfriend Christine, Jackie and I enjoying coffee in the main square in Augsburg, where Armando and Christine currently call home.

Friends in Paris

2009-05-13T04:52:00.000-07:00

Myself with some of the Martha Graham dancers (left to right) James, Jackie and Lloyd along with the one rented bicycle we all had to share

The guys

James and I after a long, long, long day at the Louvre

above and below: Jackie and I and beautiful, beautiful Paris

Parisian streets

2009-05-13T04:37:00.000-07:00

Walking around Paris is a wonder. There's so much city and detail to discover at every single corner . This all sounds tacky, but you really have to be there to understand fully.

That's the island where Notre Dame Cathedral and a million other famous things are located or nearby.

Jackie and I wandering near the theater she performed at before the show.

This is one of my favorite store window display in Paris, it's a an extermination supply store and taxidermist? I think... anyway, it made me laugh a whole lot.

More of my favorite art, The Musee d'Orsay

2009-04-23T11:40:00.001-07:00

The Musee d'Orsay has the best collection of major French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting anywhere in the world. It also has a few other great period pieces. A visit there was a nice and peaceful way to spend an afternoon, exactly what I feel Impressionism was made for.

I saw this Manet a few years ago at the Met in New York, still looks the same I reckon.

Above and below: The museum has a great collection of Art Nouveau furniture and decorations, this section was my personal favorite despite the plethora of famous Manets, Monets, Degas, Tolousse-Lautrecs, and other rediculously famous paintings.

These are from a wall display I loved featuring the props from a famous shadow puppet theater from in Paris during the late 19th century. Other figures include soldiers, armies, bourgoise figures, farmers, animals and more.

A great painting I remember nothing about :(

Chinese Tombs in Pere Lachaise Cemetery

2009-04-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Something I never expected to see in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery was a bunch of tombs for Chinese people and families. Some of them also Christians. Here are just some of the Chinese tombs I found.

Cemetery Fun!

2009-04-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

In doing research before I came to Paris, I came across a few websites about increasing tourism in Paris' cemeteries. Two particularly popular stops are the Pere Lachaise Cemetery and the Montparnasse Cemetery. I made my way to both on my last full day in Paris, in the cold and under light rain. Still, it was probably the best new thing I did on my trip. I saw the tombstones of people like Edith Piaf, Charles Baudelaire, Jim Morrison, Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, Man Ray, Serge Gainsbourg, Susan Sontag, Rossini, Oscar Wilde... and a million rich and ornate family tombs some dating back hundreds of years.

Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvior

A personal highlight, the tomb of Serge Gainsbourg

Edith Piaf

Oscar Wilde's tomb, something really amazing and unlike anything else I've ever seen

Pere Lachaise is the older cemetery and seems endless. It feels like miles and miles of tombstones and family plots fighting each other for space and attention. I highly recomend these excursions for a break from museums and other more formal and established tourist sites in Paris. All cemeteries provide a map with the names of noteable people buried there and an approximate location of their tomb.

My favorite art in Paris, some of it anyway

2009-04-23T02:15:00.000-07:00

I spent most of my time in Paris wandering (lost is the more accurate word) the halls of "the great museums". Here are some of my favorite pieces.

Above: A great show at the Centre Pompidou on Alexander Calder's Parisian years in the late 20's and early 30's, where he created a toy circus and started the wire scultptures and mobiles that would make him tremendously famous years later in America. This show was my favorite art thing I saw in Paris.

Below: Also at the Pompidou, a giant and complete retrospective on Kandinsky's paintings, prints and drawings.

Above and below: More important stuff (above), and things i really liked (below) from the Pompidou

Above is a Hawaiian funerary mask made of shells. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It was at the Musée du Louvre.

Above and below: Also at the Louvre, Egyptian and Mesopotamian art. Two of my favorite ancient cultures, it was quite amazing to make my way through the vast and well presented collections this museum has.

Figure Drawing

2009-03-11T07:06:00.001-07:00

Silvia, Ross and I started hiring models to come to the apartment and host our own figure drawing sessions. We invite friends over for a few hours and turn the upstairs into an open studio of sorts. We've been at it for about 2 months now. These drawings are a few of my favorites from these sessions. The first four were all 5-20 minute poses, the last one is a 2 minute gesture.

The Drum and Bell Towers

2009-02-11T06:37:00.000-08:00

All the ancient Chinese capitals have a Ceremonial Drum and Bell Tower near the town center. Both Xi'an and Beijing's are really impressive. Above is the Drum Tower, below is the Bell Tower, below is the Bell Tower.

The travelers. Silvia, Ross, Andy and I in front of the Drum Tower at night.

The Spring Festival City Wall Spectacular!

2009-02-11T06:24:00.001-08:00

These great, great things were on the Xi'an city wall during Spring Festival. They're a little craptacular and at night they light up! The colors are really intense, even in the desert-y grey of Xi'an's afternoon skies.

I don't really get this one.

The Terracotta Army

2009-02-07T18:07:00.001-08:00

Xi'an's biggest tourist attraction is undoubtedly the Terracotta Warriors. This 3000 year old, completely lifesize ceramic army was only discovered about 30 years ago by a local farmer digging a well. Today the site is still an active archeaological site with thousands of broken and standing soldiers of all ranks, life-size horses, and a full array of ancient weapons spread over half a mile in 3 plots.

Some of the best restored figures are on display on site with real weapons found alongside the soldiers. There were thousands of actual spears, bows and arrows, swords and knives, and crossbows as well as fully equipped chariots.

The sheer number of warriors (over 8,000) is impressive enough, but what really shocked me is the amount of detail in each and every soldier and weapon. Every figure's face and hair is completely unique and retains traces of a once vividly colorful past. Their uniforms, armor, and vestments all have a surprising amount of detail and movement. All weapons are ready for use against any potential enemy, all armed and ready to protect the tomb of Emperor Qin, the first emperor of unified China.

More Fireworks!

2009-02-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

We received the new year nearby at our friend Emelie's house. She and her roommates live in the hutong; the old, disappearing Beijing neighborhoods. Her home has a rooftop balcony which allowed us a great view of the night's fireworks.

These are the rooftops and lanterns typical of the hutong (胡同)

Ross

Silvia

Fireworks!

2009-02-01T05:19:00.000-08:00

Chinese New Year, called 春节 ( pronounced CHOO-en jiE, means Spring Festival) is in my opinion the best time of year in China. Chinese people go crazy with fireworks for days and days. Here are some pictures of the pre-midnight fireworks we saw from home.

from Silvia's room

upstairs from the open balcony, a bunch of fireworks going off right inside our complex

A Nice Taxi Ride

2009-01-22T01:30:00.000-08:00

Beijing is a city with great public transportation. Subways and buses get you anywhere you need quickly, cheaply and reliably. However taxis are a whole lot more fun! They're the most expensive form of public transportation, but sometimes the views are well worth the price. Here are some pictures from a particularly nice taxi ride Ross and I took from a friend's house in the Guomao (国贸) area to our home in BeiXinQiao (北新桥).

This is GuoMao. One of the major commercial areas of Beijing, it's known for it's tall buildings, lights, shops and lots of other things every hyper-consumer and tourist needs.

The three pictures above show the new CCTV (Chinese Central Television, the ONLY major source of tv in China) Tower. It's one of the buildings the Chinese use as a symbol of their prosperity, acheivement, and giant strides into modernity. It was completed in time for the Olympics along with the JinMao building (in the last picture, the tapered building on the right), the tallest building in Beijing.

Spring Festival!!!

2009-01-19T08:50:00.000-08:00

We have some time off coming up for Chinese New Years this weekend. New Year's Eve is on Sunday the 25th, and on the 26th we're all flying to Xi'an ( 西安, pronounced SHE-AN in a high tone) . It's the ancient capital of China, and most famous for the Terracotta Army. Our friend Ruby is originally from Xi'an, so she's going home for the holiday and we're all tagging along. SHe'll be showing us around, so we have a great tour guide with us. Will post photos as soon as I can...

A garden in Winter

2009-01-17T20:42:00.001-08:00

I've claimed the downstairs balcony as my own and made it into the apartment's garden. Right next to the living room, it's quickly become the object of my affection during these increasingly cold and dry Winter months. With the exception of evergreens, the city is pretty much depleted of all green things. From high up, looking down at the city often resembles a sea of sharp brown tree branches. In just a few weeks the season's brown/grey colors will start to be replaced with with the colorful explosions from plum and cherry blossoms like the pink plant centered in the picture above. Their blooming coincides with Chinese New Year and seem to brighten up daytime the same way fireworks light up nighttime's skies.

The succulents

I have mostly tropical plants because they remind me of home. My favorite is the one pictured above near the top left corner. It's a tropical vine of sorts with a kind of cup trap at the tip of each leaf it uses to catch bugs for nutrients.

There are a ton of plants around the house, not just in the blacony. The plants in the foreground are inside the house, and there are also plants upstairs and in my bedroom.
On the wall on the top left corner of the picture above is a sign that these days is a common sight all over China. It's a red and gold sign with the character 福 (read fu, in a rising tone as if you're asking a question) hung upside down in celebration of the Chinese New Year, it simply says good fortune. It's hung upside down to confuse evil spirits and generally keep them away. The one we have on our front door was a giveaway from KFC, with a giant 福 and tiny little KFC logos all over the background.

Ice skating

2009-01-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

Being the proper Florida boy I am, I've only ice skated about twice in my life. Near my home in Beijing there is a huge ancient artificial lake that freezes over from December to February. Said lake is called Houhai (后海), and while just 15 years ago a typical neighborhood, today it's a big bar and restaurant center complete with ancient ceremonial towers...and in Winter ice skating. Silvia, some friends and I went the other afternoon, and I learned to ice skate!

So while we skated, on this one opening in the ice some old Chinese people thought it would be perfect to jump in. I've only seen things like this on television, and now feeling how cold days like that one really are I remain more confused than ever on why Chinese people will only drink hot water all year long, then jump into a frozen lake in Winter for health purposes.

Christmas Crafts

2008-12-28T01:49:00.000-08:00

I taught a special Christmas class early Christmas week. All the kids loved it because they got to make ornaments and cut out snowflakes. Here are some of my favorite students and their artwork.

A visitor

2008-12-08T05:08:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine from high school, Jackie, came to Beijing last week. She's a dancer at the
Martha Graham Dance Company and made it here on tour. I saw her perform last Friday night at the Egg, here next to Tian'anmen Square. It had been a really long time since we'd last seen each other, but everything was just like high school. In fact better, because we're both pretty damn happy where we find ourselves in our lives. We caught up and laughed a bunch, and I took her and her company friends out when they weren't performing.

My favorite breakfast place in Beijing, Cafe Zarah. We met up early one morning and had a fantastic breakfast. My coffee (on the left) is a café au lait served in a bowl, something Jackie found funny.

雍和宫 (YongHeGong) is a temple just half a kilometer north of my apartment. It's one of the most famous sites to see here in Beijing, and embarrassingly, I'd never been it. So Jackie and I went together.

We had so much fun. I miss her so much already :(

Her swank hotel in the financial hub of the city set up a n awesome gingerbread town with lights and all kinds of delicious looking stuff. The first sign of Christmas...

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-07T08:01:00.001-08:00

Early in the week, I made traditional Thanksgiving hand turkeys with my kids. I think they get it, but I'm not too sure. Thanksgiving's symbols are mostly alien to Chinese people so trying to tell them why they should care about pies and Pilgrims sometimes gets muddy.
FUN FACT: the Chinese word for turkey is 火鸡 [huǒjī] which is literally "fire chicken"

Thanksgiving happened at our local Friday's. It was a fairly trashy choice I guess, but we enjoyed it. A bunch of appetizers and a bunch of long island iced teas helped make this Thanksgiving memorable. It was a dream come true of sorts to have a fancy cheeseburger Thanksgiving dinner.

Friday morning we saw a sheep get killed just down the block. I think Ross noticed it first just outside my bedroom window. Some of our neighbors (I figure) brought the sheep into our complex, laid it onto the ground near a sewer drain, and slit away. I must tell you this is the first time I see anything like this by here. I must be lucky.

downstairs balcony garden

2008-11-18T21:10:00.000-08:00

I made it a point when I first came back to China to buy a bunch of plants in anticipation of Winter. Beijing is a surprisingly green city, there are many public parks and tree lined streets. However, this looming Winter will quickly wipe out nearly all the green in the coming weeks. There are plants pretty much all over the house, but most are in the living room balcony.

above and below: the plant balcony with all kinds of tropical plants, cacti, and spice plants.

just inside: a newly flowering jasmine just like one from a house I grew up in in Miami. It makes the whole apartment smell good and strangely like my early teenage years. The smaller plant is something called a money tree. It's some Feng Shui (风水) thing that's supposed to bring money. Hope it works!

the downstairs...

2008-11-18T21:06:00.000-08:00

a look into our new apartment...

The stuff above the couch; some of our paintings and some of our cool stuff, and me.

It's clearest I think to show a panoramic of the balcony (on the right), living room, stairs and entrance (on the left). The downstairs also has the kitchen, a bathroom with a washing machine, and two bedrooms one with a wide balcony we use to hang dry clothing.

upstairs...

2008-11-18T20:20:00.001-08:00

The second floor is a big open space we use as the dining room. It has a large and comfortable common area, an enclosed balcony, an open balcony, and Silvia's bedroom room and bathroom

The open balcony with two giant David heads that came with the apartment. The one on the right broke somehow, I suspect it was some cats I've seen around. This balcony is at the top of our building and gives us a view of our whole complex and, on very clear days, a view of the mountains.

recently...

2008-11-09T20:41:00.000-08:00

Halloween was fun. We went out to a party and a foreigner bar all dressed up. Our Friend Ruby (above) from Xi'an joined Ross and Silvia in a "dead 80's" theme

I went dressed as a XinJiang chef. This Muslim minority group from far out in the west of China are a fairly common sight all over Beijing. They have restaurants all over the city where they sell their closer to Turkish than Chinese style dishes. They also sell barbecued meat on a stick called 串 (pron. CHwar in Beijing accent Mandarin). The Chinese character represents two peices of meat skewered on a stick. I made my own 串 out sponges, I think they made my costume a success.

a memory of warmer days... just a few weeks ago it was easy to go out in a T-shirt. These last few weeks have been significantly cooler, and this weekend it's been down in the 50's midday and the 30's at night :(

I VOTED!

2008-11-04T18:24:00.001-08:00

Even all the way from Beijing I managed to do it, so there's no excuse for anyone who didn't. I'm listening to an NPR stream of the results as they come in, eating breakfast and freaking out just a little bit :)
All of us on this side of the world should know the winner by early or mid-afternoon. We're all really excited around here, I had a pretty rough night's sleep as all the voting was going on in America. Let's hope there's big cause for celebration tonight!

Same old , same old

2008-10-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

So, Beijing looks basically the same. Who'da thunk it? more details coming soon, in the meanwhile here are some recent pics

Sorry about that

2008-09-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

I've abandoned the blog while I've been home and for that I apologize. In the last few weeks I was first unable to extract pictures from my camera, then later my hard drive fried and I lost everything :( I return to Beijing on Tuesday, apartment-less. My lease ran up while I was out and I couldn't renew. All Silvia, Ross, and my posessions lie waiting is storage, somewhere.
Still I'm very excited to return to China. I look forward to reigniting the life I very quickly walked out of a few months ago. There's a whole lot of China I've not come across.

Homeward Bound

2008-08-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

We three at Angkor Wat

Silvia and I leave to Miami early tomorrow morning. It's a 31 hour flight stopping in Tokyo and Chicago, and and strangely enough i still arrive the same day I left... I don't get it. I also return to America just 3 days short of exactly one year since I left to Beijing in the first place.

I still have a few pictures from Cambodia and Thailand I'd like to post but those will have to wait a few more days. This final afternoon in Bangkok Ross and I will wander a little more before finishing packing and soon enough heading out to the airport. I'm excited to be out of Asia for the first time in a year... Ross will be staying Bangkok another few days before possibly returning to Vietnam and waiting out Silvia and my return to China, painting and exploring otherwise. I can't deny that I'm excited as hell to return, but I still sit nervously pondering the remainder of this vacation/return to my roots/trip back to my new home in Beijing. Where is home and what does it mean? Guess I'll find out sooner than I think. Why do I sound like a Lisa Loeb song?

Bangkok

2008-08-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

Pics from my first excursion in Bangkok

a humongous reclining Buddha in the old city center and the surrounding temples

Angkor Trees

2008-08-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

The temples at Angkor are hundreds of stone towers constructed between the 9th and 15th centuries by the kings of the Khmer empire. The temples, palaces, monuments, homes and other giant stone buildings were abandoned when it's builders were defeated by the invading Thais and these monuments were slowly and almost entirely reconquered by the surrounding jungles. The entire site was the world's largest preindustrial city, 8 times larger than it's closest competitor. The architecture, sculptures and sheer mass of these buildings is larger and much more vast than i could have ever imagined. Ross, Silvia and I spent 3 whole days traveling between the many sites in the complex. It's quite a sight and I was horribly sad to leave. What impressed me most was the buildings with gigantic trees still left over from the centuries when it was overrun by jungle. More often than not, these exaggerated trees are what hold the buildings together and removing them would cause the buildings to collapse. This is the one place I saw on this trip where I'm positive I'll return.

Ross and Silvia

more pictures of the biggest buildings coming soon :)

Angkor Trees continued

2008-08-01T20:36:00.000-07:00

me :)

Saigon floors

2008-07-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

To conclude the series of Saigon interiors I present photographs of ... floors. Strange as it was, I fell in love with the intricate tile work and carpets in the city's older buildings. The French (the colonial overlords in Vietnam for over 100 years) are really good at integrating a strong design sense and influencing food culture.

Reunification Palace

2008-07-31T07:01:00.000-07:00

The Reunification Palace used to be the headquarters and living space for the South Vietnamese president before the north communist forces invaded after America's departure, hence the present name . It's a very swanky place, with all the Sixty's latest trends and amenities. It was pretty weird and a little crappier than these pictures show. Good fun though :)

Below are pictures from the underground bunker. The bunker, right below the presidential mansion, consists of maybe 20 also very dated wood panel rooms with only desks and phones. some had giant communications radios, but they were otherwise completely bare and isolated feeling. The sexy red ribbon is not part of the original decor, it's there to keep out all the tourists.

Saigon Inside

2008-07-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

some pictures of interiors in Saigon

a great corner shop restaurant

inside a hindu temple

above and below: inside some of the city's buddhist temples

the cao dai religion is a local religion that mixes hinduism, buddhism, chrsitianity, islam and some other things. it's an especially strange religion in part because the western ambassador of this religion was Victor Hugo. I dunno... so this is their largest temple in Vietnam, just outside Saigon

Random Vietnam

2008-07-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

It's been hard to post in Vietnam, the connections aren't always reliable...or consistent. I've finally made it to Saigon, but these are photos from some of the stuff we've done in the last few days. Saigon pictures will come very soon. We all leave Saigon for the Cambodian capital on the 22nd.

Silvia and I jumping off the boat into Halong Bay (Paul's picture)

One of the many, many mixed French and Chinese/Vietnamese colonial residences throughout the country. This was in Hue, a central coastal city.

above and below: The small central highland city of Dalat offers a few fun things. That electric Buddha above is part of a big temple and pagoda. Below Paul poses in one of the corridors of the so-called "Crazy House" of Dalat. It's a hilariously Pee Wee's Playhouse style building with themed rooms. It's almost everything I've ever wanted in a home.

We slid, and ran, and jumped down the Red Sand Dunes in the beach town Mui Ne, our final stop before Saigon.

Halong Bay Caves

2008-07-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

There are a few caves on some of the islands in Halong Bay. This is one of the caves made all pretty like a birthday cake to show throngs of tourists. The color lights make the space great! It's something between a sci-fi movie set an amazing place you'd want to throw a party.

Halong Bay

2008-07-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful natural settings I've ever been in. It's a huge complex of thousands of small islets and one of the biggest tourist attractions in Northern Vietnam. We left early in the afternoon on a small boat with 15 other tourists and went all day along and around the many rock formations. We ended the afternoon by anchoring and swimming in these really impressive waters! We later watched the sunset and spent the night on the boat. The next morning we woke up in a floating village in the site and rode around more before getting dropped off on the mainland.

Here's where we anchored, swam, and spent the night. It was too cool

Hanoi

2008-07-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

A great place to visit, but wouldn't want to live there. Buildings here are incredibly French and overly ornate. There's a nice mix of Art Deco and Art Nouveau/Neo-Classical row houses and Southern Chinese bombast and colorful exaggeration. Bajillions of electric scooters loudly criss-cross the streets these dilapidated and somewhat romantic buildings sit on. There's crazy overgrowth and power lines everywhere and thousands of women in traditional conical hats selling lychee or other fresh fruit all over this tropical city of a couple million.

Hanoi sometimes feels like Miami (Hialeah specifically) and often like Latin America (Cuba is the most prevalent just because of the kind of architecture and current state of the buildings), but is all Asian. The food is really spectacular. It's hands down my favorite new food in the world. I guess it makes sense that the best Vietnamese food I've ever had would be here.

A 22 mile hike and an abandoned monastery

2008-07-03T02:51:00.000-07:00

Ross read about an abandoned French monastery somewhere in the mountains surrounding Sapa, of course we went looking for it soon afterwards. We left town and hiked all day a total of 36 km. The trek was long and difficult but well worth it. The mountains are enormous and endless, the rice paddies almost mythological

The monastery floors collapsed at some point and the walls are overgrown with a bright orange moss. The small but imposing building felt like a giant haunting the wild countryside

Sapa, Vietnam

2008-07-03T01:05:00.000-07:00

Today's our last day in the mountain town Sapa before heading by train to Hanoi. This little town set in a lush mountaintop was a French garrison during the occupation. It now exists as a tourist center with buildings in a semi-Classical French style and tons of hotels and restaurants. At a whopping $6 a night for a decently tacky room and all the French influenced bakeries with free wi-fi you could ever want, it's easy to get used to all this :)

above: both pictures are from the balcony in our hotel "Hotel Pinochio". It rains a whole lot apparently, and suddenly you'll realize you're in a cloud
below: the mountains surrounding the town are covered in rice paddies and little farm houses and roads great for hiking

above: Vietnamese coffee is the best thing in the world! it's a heavy espresso eerily similar to the Cuban coffee so familiar to me. What makes it stupendous is the bit of condensed milk on the bottom of the cup used to sweeten it. The metal bit above the cup is where the coffee and hot water are set then it slowly drips out into the cup through a filter identical to a Cuban "cafetera"

Kunming

2008-07-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

First stop on this grand Southeast Asian tour was the city of Kunming (昆明) in the southern Chinese province Yunnan (云南). It's a very livable and sub-tropical city with a pretty nice central park and an amazing temple called the Yuantong Temple (圆通寺).

Southern Chinese art and architecture is pretty different from that of the north. The colors are brighter and more bombastic and the overall forms more exaggerated. In the temple live dozens of male and female monks dressed all in black.

The entire temple is covered with plants, trees, and flowers of all kinds. The monks seem to divide their day between study, meditation, and plant care.

We left Kunming by overnight bus to the Vietnamese border headed to the northern town of Sa Pa. It's a small tourist city in the middle of a million mountains and rice paddies populated by local minority groups called the Dzao and the H'Mong, where the woman are in full ethnic gear and offer you hand sewn bags and marijuana or opium along every street.

I'm having a fantastic time, but it's been strange and sad to leave China for the first time in 10 months.

36 hours later....

2008-06-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

We left Beijing last Thursday evening by train bound for Kunming (昆明) all the way in the south of China. It was a long ass train trip, 36 hours in all, but well worth it for the scenery alone. Kunming is completely different from Beijing in that it's elevated but also very tropical. The air is humid and there are palm trees. It's already starting to feel more like back home in Miami.
The guy in the photograph all the way to the left is our friend Paul from Newcastle in the U.K. We leave China this afternoon and arrive in a town called Sapa in Vietnam tomorrow afternoon. Check for constant updates over the next few weeks...

Beijing's Parks

2008-06-13T05:11:00.001-07:00

Beijing is a city full of parks. They help bring loads of green to the cityscape and the climate is perfect for all kinds of flowers this time of year.

above and below: this is Yuangmingyuan Park (圆明园) in the northwest of the city. Once the location of a splendid mixed European Baroque and Chinese palace, it's today ruins and well-kept greens and gardens. It was destroyed by the French during the Opium Wars. The little girl above is my favorite student. Her family has become my adopted Chinese family and they took me to this park one afternoon.

a picnic with friends at Chaoyang Park （朝阳公园)

Ross and I went to Tiantangongyuan (天坛公园) the Temple of Heaven Park. This is the temple emulated in the China section of Epcot Center. This one's more impressive.

Smelling the flowers at a park who's name i forgot right next to Tian'anmen Square (天安门) and the Forbidden City (故宫)

Sichuan Earthquake Memorial

2008-06-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

In schools across China, students made thousands of paper fold birds in memory of the students that died in the Sichuan Earthquakes a few weeks ago. These are from a school i frequent in the west of Beijing.

The kids placed the birds along the school's courtyard on long expanses of fence and wall

art attack!

2008-05-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

A small recent painting with charcoal sketches from a figure drawing class Ross and I attend near our house. I haven't drawn from a model since my first semester in college, so it's been over 6 years. It's all come back really quickly; and strangely enough more effortlessly than when i used to do it weekly in high school. I still have a bitch of a time finishing during the sessions, and specifically in finding the time to get to the faces...

videos of home

2008-05-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

For my 50th post (YAY!),I present an updated video tour of my and ross' apartment.

living room and cat/plant balcony

"hallway" and kitchen with view

大殓 ( means big face. DA-pronounced the same way you'd shout "BOO!", and LIEN- kind of how you'd say a dramatic "huh?") the cat, our sporadically messy room and the studio/2nd balcony

we three

2008-05-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

thankfully the recent earthquakes didn't reach beijing in a significant way. here are some recent pics

where the Great Wall meets the Pacific

2008-05-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

The small city of 山海关 (Shan Hai Guan, roughly translated as mountain meets sea) is where the Great Wall crashes into the ocean. sounds amazing and romantic enough, but the entire old city is being demolished and rebuilt in an Epcot center generic chinese style. it's a little unfortunate because the old buildings, of which there are precious few left, are mixed chinese and neo-classical russian styles made entire out of local rose colored and white marble. we made our way there last weekend for a long weekend labor holiday.

Japanese Exercise Videos

2008-04-17T03:01:00.000-07:00

Silvia and Ross found these videos a while ago and they've made my week. I don't really know how effective they are as a learning aid... or a work out... but that melody really sticks to you and they're SO FUNNY!!!

好久不见！ (long time no see)

2008-04-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

i somehow managed to keep away from the blog most of march so i apologize for that, it's been a busy few weeks. i'm happy, healthy, and okay, so i return to you with some paintings i finished last month.

a portrait from a passport photo i found on the ground

yet another cake. this one is chocolate and strawberry from an internet photo

2008-04-07T05:55:00.001-07:00

spring is a sort of mixed blessing in beijing. one is relieved from winter's awful cold with warm, windy days; but the air becomes drier and the sky thick with sand and fog. on the ground however, trees grow the year's first leaves and there are hundreds of these peach blossoms in every yellow, pink, white, and fuschia you can imagine. it's a pretty magical sight and these trees are all over place.

I finally ate peking duck. it's about time! it's beijing's signature dish and i somehow managed to be here 8 months without trying it. they roast and make a several course meal out of an entire duck. you eat the innards (guts, tounge, pickled eggs), roasted skin and meat, and ultimately a soup, mostly from the same duck. a chef comes to your table and expertly cuts the duck for you. it's quite a show.

more kids

2008-03-06T02:42:00.000-08:00

some recent pictures of kids from a winter camp

Spring in Beijing :)

2008-02-28T18:33:00.001-08:00

daytime is much warmer now. sunlight hits newly exposed skin and warms you to the core instantly. afternoon temperatures reach up to the mid fifties and at nighttime only drop to the forties. all the plants ross and i keep on the balcony are just starting to bloom. the landscape is also beginning to find new, brighter color and life. it'd be nice to wear t-shirts and sandals again. we'll probably be storing away all our really heavy winter clothes in the next few weeks!

this is silvia's kitty who stayed with me for the few weeks kristy stayed with silvia. he and big face got along just fine and were super cute and playful

meet kristy...

2008-02-13T05:35:00.000-08:00

she's silvia's partner in crime back in miami and came over to beijing for a visit, so silvia and i took her to shanghai for a few days. this was my second visit and silvia and kristy's first.

mister donut is the freaking best thing in the world! there are no donuts anywhere in beijing so this small chain eatery in shanghai was one of the highlights of the trip.

some silliness

au revior shanghai

shanghai at night

2008-02-13T05:15:00.000-08:00

the view from our hotel room!

a movie-theater sized screen floats along the river dividing the city regularly, showing commercials on loop.

above and below: the chinese take their new year celebrations really seriously. this being the year of the rat; there are cute, good fortune attracting mice and 福 (pron. fu in a rising tone, meaning good fortune) hung upside down as per tradition all over. a fireworks video will come soon

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

2008-02-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

chinese new years fell on february 7th, welcome to the year of the rat! this whole country gets insane! there have been non stop fireworks for the last 3 nights, and it really sometimes sounds like there's a war going on just outside. you can hear the POW!s and crackles from explosions echoing over all parts of beijing for many, many hours every night until the sun rises. this is rumored to continue for the next few nights.

silvia bought some sparklers, and we had our own fun....

the character on the right is 人 (pron. ren in a rising tone like you're asking
a question, e as in men), which means people or person

this character is 中 (pron. chong in a high tone, o as in show) which means middle or center. this is the first character in 中国 which is the name for china in mandarin

and in other news, sylvia's friend kristy got here a few nights ago and tomorrow we're flying to shanghai! i'm not sure whether to expect the same new years craziness in shanghai but it's sure to be awesome. it's about 20 degrees warmer in shanghai than here in beijing so it'll be nice to feel less freezing air, that's awesome in itself. man i miss summer...

I'm alive by the way

2008-02-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

the snows and winds have not knocked me down. the crazy weather is happening several hundreds and thousands of miles away in the south of china. weather has been cold, but not as hellishly cold as a few weeks ago. spring starts soon, and the afternoon sun already feels warm. temperatures are usually in the 20's and days are mostly clear. it's very surprising to a lot of people here that the snows hit so hard down south, and the north has been such a global warming style winter.
my birthday was great, shared it with new friends. didn't take many pictures so instead i'm putting up some skype art of sorts. maybe this is an unexplored field?

chad and leif

a picture of my computer in china, with the three of us as seen from a monitor in miami.

my stepmom oyalda and my reflection

it's my birthday!

2008-02-02T18:44:00.000-08:00

celebrations started last night. had a small pizza party with silvia, a co-worker friend fred, and his awesome girlfriend fay. right now i'ma few minutes away from skyping my family, then later tonight a get together chez moi. pictures tomorrow! :)

Some new pics and some news

2008-01-19T07:18:00.000-08:00

this week has been the coldest since i got here. today at 1:00 a.m. it was -7 C !!! the day before yesterday we had the second snowfall of the winter and the first of 2008. i realize more and more how much i'm a creature of the caribbean and that snow and freezing temperatures are nice and all, but not something i think i'll ever learn to love as much as humidity and direct sunshine. anyway, winter will only last what's really a few more weeks. by the end of february temperatures begin to rise and spring is in full swing before april... can't wait!

my company had a "thank you party" for a great semester, over and done with. that's me with my two spic partners in crime at the office (left: tracy the panamanian, right: silvia la cubanita). it was a fun fun dinner in a western chinese food restaurant with a billion beers, kung-fu fighters, snake dancers, and roasted lamb.

i never introduced the new addition to the apartment. it's a cat. he's really big and though very shy initially he's now really really sweet. in typical chinese fashion we gave him a western name and a chinese name. i gave him his western name ennio, after ennio morricone. his chinese name is 大脸 (pron. TA! - liENNE) which means "big face." silvia gave him his chinese name because he's giant, heavy, and has an abnormally large head and face.

in other news ross will be going back to the u.s. for a few days!!! he leaves beijing for new york on january 28th and gets home to miami on february 4th where he'll spend something like 12 days. while i'm horribly jealous, i'll be in china for my first chinese new years which starts just a few days after my bday. as an added bonus, silvia's friend kristy will arrive here on the 4th and we're all going to make our way to shanghai for a few days. so i'm psyched to get my ass back to shanghai and hopefully get silvia to fall in love with that magical city from the future and get her to move there with ross and i in a year or two :)

Engrish!

2008-01-19T06:49:00.000-08:00

chinese people often use "oh my god" to display shock or surprise much like westerners. it's especially strange though considering they're atheists and don't truly know what the idea of god is. like most things adopted without full knowledge of context it ends up misused and naming a mediocre boutique in shanghai.

this is another shanghai storefront, and one of the many many lacoste knock-offs available for purchase in china. this is actually a knock-off of the much more popular (and not that cheap) knock-off "crocodile" brand. btw, across the street is a knock-off superman paraphernalia store.

i bought this just a few days ago because i couldn't resist. the product is appropriately enough called BATHMASTER. it's a good enough soap...but i don't think the feagrant is long enough, and my horniness is still intact.above and below: more proof that there is very little respect or belief even in intellectual property. the store above has very few "disney" things inside and is mostly faked japanese-y stationary stuffs. below is but one example of almost convincing but obviously bobo products.

pics from home

2008-01-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

our typical weekend breakfast, when we have time for more than cereal or toast

how we dry our clothes and linens

our living room

a chinese friend, ana. that metallic gray thing is our central heating and the wall behind it is where we hang our recently finished paintings

Shanghai Day 5

2008-01-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

this was our last day and we tried to photograph as much as possible. we had very clear weather for a change and it was windy in the mid 50's. beijing today was in the high 20's :( we had one final walk around familiar parts and new equally impressive side streets and avenues

nanjing lu- one of the biggest shopping streets in the very center of shanghai

that amazing skyline!

shanghai was truly unreal, and it had me rethink a lot about what i can do here in china. i honestly feel i need to live there and will be able to in a year and a half to two year's time. this city impressed me more than i could have ever expected it to. we rode home by train that night bound home to beijing; sad because it was over, but happy knowing we'd had a great time and we somehow got a small peak into the future.

Shanghai Day 4: Chrsitmas Day

2008-01-01T01:43:00.000-08:00

ross bought that turquoise fleece the afternoon before. we both did a hell of a lot of shopping that day...feeling a little guilty about it still.

i think part of what made me fall in love with shanghai is the rampant deco buildings. it often appears like a scene from south beach... kinda.

above and below: this is one of the art spaces in a pretty, arty part of the city with a ton of great, legitimate antique shops. the art inside was fairly awful as evidenced by this yucky worst of fiu type art. but the view and location are fantastic!

we photographed like crazy. for every photograph i post, theres like 10 more.

Shanghai & Me

2007-12-29T03:16:00.000-08:00

here's a few pics courtesy of the ross harris collection

my arm on the shanghai subway

the pearl tower at night

shanghai food is AMAZING ! and more similar to what westerners typically think of chinese food.

Shanghai Day 3: Noche Buena

2007-12-29T02:55:00.001-08:00

this day was a super tourist day for us. our first day was rainy and a little gross, but the weather got better the longer we stayed.

"dork with skyline"

i don't remember what this part of the city is called, but it was really pretty and packed with people and tourist shops. and a starbucks.

a korean tourist, one of the many at the yuyuan gardens near those giant red buildings.

in the yuyuan gardens, it'd be more magical and amazing if there weren't a jillion tourists.

one of many markets selling xmas things and other things.

Shanghai Day 2

2007-12-27T05:15:00.000-08:00

this is another skyscraper area in the main center of the city called people's square. there are millions of stores, a big park, a bunch of tall buildings with bright lights ad giant tv's. the shanghai museum, and other fun things.

a lot of the city also consists of shikumen (pron. SHR-ku-MAen) which are 19th century housing with mixed european and chinese ideas and styles for urban living. shanghai's streets vary from these scenes to rich european art nouveau styles, and classic 30's and 40's art deco. there are also enormous areas with brand new giant luxury stores from every clothing brand you know from countries the world over

the shanghai museum was hands down the best museum i've seen in china. early on, when i first got here i mentioned in a previous post about the shoddy quality of beijing's museums but the very high quality of it's gallery scene. shanghai's the complete opposite, the museums have great items and impeccable presentation while the galleries seem mostly lacking.

arroz

a gallery with really amazing architecture but really wack art and a much to high entry fee. but it's a small example of the often eccentric but beautiful architecture the city constantly surprises you with.

Shanghai Day 1

2007-12-27T04:48:00.000-08:00

lots and lots of light rain our first morning there but we walked a lot of the older part of the city for the first time

this is on the waterfront of the river dividing the city, it's an old part of the city packed with tall, ornate buildings ranging from the 1880's to the early 1940's.

above and below: this is what's across from those beautiful, old buildings. that is the new economic center of the city; and back in the rainy haze is the jin mao building, the tallest in china. we made a point to walk along here as often as possible on the trip just to believe it, it's so crazy to see a skyline like that exist.

Shanghai Surprise!

2007-12-22T18:44:00.000-08:00

ross and i arrived in shanghai yesterday morning to celebrate christmas here. we couldn't make it home so we decided a vacation would be the second best way to celebrate it. this city is unreal beautiful and feels like the future somehow slipped into our realm... or something. pictures will come in the next few days, in the meanwhile i'll post again before x-mas, but just in case happy christmas and whatnot to everyone! :)

i've been pretty sick this week :(

2007-12-09T05:19:00.000-08:00

i started my week pretty normally, but by tuesday afternoon my throat began to ache just a little. when i made it home i felt like i was about an hour away from a big, big cold. then within a few hours i got a fever. the medicine, o.j., and multi-vitamins came out and my temperature continued to shoot up and up. tuesday night was sleepless, and wednesday was one of those days where you experience life as if it was much slower and had a heavy fishbowl stuck over your head. wednesday night was sleepless, thursday was another obfuscated bed-ridden day. i finally lost the fever by saturday morning but the i still have really strong throat pain, and sought some crazy chinese cure. hopefully i'll feel 100% soon.
i did manage to do some book reading at home and newspaper reading online. i followed my tradition of watching fellini movies when sick, this time it was "la dolce vita" and "nights of cabiria". i also found a good article in sunday's new york times about beijing. they have a column on sunday's travel section called "36 hours" where they describe worthwhile things to do in a city if you happen to find yourself there over a weekend or something like that

36 hours in bejing here . silvia, ross, and i went xmas shopping today, which was weird to feel like the only ones here this time of year out looking for xmas presents. there are a few places to get xmas your stuff but it's all crappy and dollar store-tastic.  i'll keep writing about how christmas progresses.

more of us

2007-12-02T20:56:00.000-08:00

just a few fun pics

Beijing new and old

2007-12-02T20:25:00.001-08:00

a few images of beijing modern and what's left of the ancient

these towers are one of beijing's newest malls and office buildings at the xizhimen ( pron. SI-jer-MAen) subway station. the mall just opened in october

this is the new cctv (the national television channel) tower. it's enormous and will be one of the most impressive new buildings in the beijing skyline. the two towers will meet horizontally at the middle creating a large negative space between them. i believe it'll open this summer.

yesterday ross took me to the summer palace, a large 18th century complex with a giant artificial lake, parks, and temples. it's where the last empress lived until the fall of the monarchy early in the 20th century and was spared by the maoists. it's really really beautiful and incredibly just within the modern city boundary though originally it was well outside old beijing

this is what a shoreline looks like as winter begins to freeze over the water. super crazy, i don't recall ever seeing this before. in my mind a shoreline is still a sort of beach. i still don't really get winter.

this is one of the bridges in the artificial lake within the summer palace leading to "the temple of fortunate rains and excessive moisture." kinda funny.

Thanksgiving news!

2007-11-21T17:44:00.000-08:00

we will be having thanksgiving here in china on saturday evening! i suppose it will be less than than Rockwell-esque considering the surroundings, but we'll be sure to have fun never the less. some of our beijinger friends have never been to a thanksgiving before, so ross is hilariously driving himself crazy thinking about the exquisite 12 course dinner he'd ideally like to prepare. turkey is an import so it's way too expensive, there will be other little whispers from thanksgivings past however. ross will make stuffing and a pie of sorts, and i will eat them happily. there will be 3 cubans and 1 panamanian girl so we'll definitely listen to spanish music and more than likely dance. i believe this will be a thanksgiving to remember. pictures are sure to follow.
it's gotten very cold now, to the point where the mid-fifties felt pretty warm just the other afternoon. i think we all have a whole lot to be thankful for this year, i sure as f--k know i do! i miss everyone back home a whole lot, but i really couldn't feel any happier here. i want everyone to have a happy thanksgiving and to know i think about home every day and i smile and can't wait to share with you guys again soon :)

silvia in china

2007-11-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

There are more pictures of silvia in ross and my cameras than almost anything else in all of china. these really are but a few.

Fall looks like...

2007-11-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

this is my first real life autumn. trees suddenly change from green to all kinds of yellows and reds, then within days all fall to the ground. days switch between bright, sunny, and cool; to
gray, somber, short, and cold. the winds have picked up and everyone's dressed in layers.

it's funny to experience the cold in this more constant and unchanging way. miami has cold fronts that hit and dissipate within days, after which we can go back to the beach. i guess i've become wired over time to expect cold weather to follow that behavior. instead, i have 4 more months of this coming my way...

these last 3 pictures are from our weekly outing. we found this place a few weeks ago completely by accident that same day we found the abandoned hotel from a previous post. it's the dorms from a university here in beijing, but the buildings seem to be from the teens or 1920's. they aren't in the best shape but look really european and almost completely out of place here in china. they are really beautiful none the less, and i want to try and see if i can live there somehow in the future

2007-11-07T08:22:00.001-08:00

We're all three at ross and my place drinking beer, painting, and watching funny english translation of indian music videos. watch and enjoy:)

so we found this apocalyptic dog park...

2007-11-05T18:24:00.000-08:00

ross sees this park which faces an above ground subway station on the way to and from work every day. he wanted to turn it into a feild trip for us and we're all pretty glad he did. the park is super strange and packed full of copyright infringement, chinese weirdness, and mythologically themed kiddie rides. there's a small squatter community that actually lives in the abandoned park and the very back is a small dog park with very big dogs.

the entrance gate, and us photographing crazily in eerie disbelief

that brick area in the back is where the squatters live. just in front of that, on what used to be a race track, is a goat pen...i'm not sure if these are goats, or rams, or sheep. there's another area about 100 feet behind me with piles of corn husks. we assumed that's where the people who live there prepare their corn.

lots of overgrowth, and all kinds of poopy on the ground. you also hear a buzz from the power lines suspended above the park held by giant metal towers hundreds of feet tall on the messy fields adjacent to the park.

i'm pretty sure we'll return, we're also all posting about this neat place in the comping days so stay tuned.

the week in pictures

2007-10-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

i remembered this picture i took of the famous flan of beijing. in front of it is a chocolate mousse that was equally delicious.

it's a bright, sunny day; but we're all wearing heavy sweaters, jackets, and scarves. two days ago was the prettiest day i've seen since i arrived in china but the temperature was in the low 50's by the early afternoon. the leaves on many trees are quickly turning yellow and the ivy and shrubs are changing to red and violet.

beijing is pretty much on the same logitude as new york city so the climate is pretty similar. the last 2 or 3 weeks have been like an apocalyptic miami winter with the city under a thick gray fog.

running korean girls in uniform. i don't know why but there they were, and it was coooooooold!

i've been riding the bus some with silvia. she's become quite the expert and the bus system here is pretty excellent though always crowded.

one day this week we met a cuban girl on the bus named indira who's here to study for 2 years. she made us laugh and realize just how much we miss cubans and specific things like croquetas, their accents, and their funny way with words.

ross spent the last two days sick, though now he's a whole lot better. that's the typical "i'm sick and i'm gonna die" face he does so well at those times.

mmm..... delicious cake

2007-10-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

another cake painting, this one a little less obvious i think than the ones before. there's two more in the works similar to the prior ones, but after those i'd like to head more in this direction, about eating and maybe one or two about smoking cigarettes, stay tuned for those.

something i've learned here is that chinese taste in sweets are vastly different than western tastes. sweets and cakes here are kinda gross and not sweet at all. they generally don't use butter or dairy so pastries tend to be dry and less joyous tasting. they also use flavors we'd consider almost exclusively for sweets like cinnamon, nutmeg, and anise to flavor meat dishes. this works really well, that complexity is one of my favorite things about food here. ross and i found an amazing western style bakery not far from where we live that totally satisfies my western sweet cravings when they hit. they even have delicious flan!!! silvia wrote about it on her blog, check it out here under the title "Let's Eat" on october 14th.

p.s. i'd like to hear from everyone who visits the site, especially from people who haven't commented before or in a while, so... comments please even if it's just to say hi :)

Fragrant Hills park and Temple complex

2007-10-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

ross made it a point to do something cultural this weekend, so we made our way to a park and temple complex just north of beijing called the Fragrant Hills. it's a park set on several green hills housing a few temples, and lots of open park space with fountains and all sorts of park-y things. it was an unusually clear and bright day and we got a great view of the hills and the city skyline, unfortunately i didn't take enough pictures of the landscaping but i've included in this post pictures and videos from inside the temples.

this is at the entrance to the hall of monks, these figures represent the four cardinal directions.

a short walk through the hall of monks. there are over 400 wood statues painted bronze representing different enlightened monks and mythical/historical figures

this was one of my favorite statues, it's of a monk who reached nirvana and is tearing away his flesh to reveal his inner buddha

artificial flowers as decoration or offerings maybe? they added color and helped make the statuary and deities stand in an even more fantastic and supernatural setting

this buddha is the centerpiece of the temples, the gold dome shape above the buddha is from the original 15th century structure. the rest of the building, including the buddha, are from the 18th century. the statue is probably 30 feet tall.

the buddha is surrounded by several life-size figures in a cave-like environment reaching up to a very ornate ceiling, artificial flowers, and little red tassles representing prayers made in the temple

a different, slightly smaller temple. those colored smoke or cloud shapes are my favorite and can be found all over these temples

this is an open air part of the park high on the hill above the previous temple. there are 12 structures i believe like the one pictured above. this is where you get a great view of the city just a few miles away

pics from this last week

2007-10-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

this last week was a big deal national holiday here in china. october 1st marked the day in which mao tze dong announced the creation of the peolpe's republic of china in tien'anmen square, so lots of poeple had the week off and got the chance to do things like travel, relax, and have lots and lots of weddings.

ross, silvia and i left beijing for 2 days to see our friend anna's cute hometown langfang just an hour south of the city. it's a middle sized city with few foreign visitors, so we got blatantly stared at and even followed by some chinos who couldn't believe we were there i guess. strangers even asked us to take pictures with them.

the rest of the week we hung out at home painting and watching lost for the most part. we walked some around our area finding all kinds of new things including an abandoned hotel in classical chinese architecture style and dozens of imperial animal sculptures but we couldn't tell how old they are, or if they're fakes (a common problem here with antiques). a fun week overall :)

ross, silvia, and anna in langfang's central park.

ross y yo

one of maybe 15 couples at the park taking wedding pictures while we were there

silvia at the abandoned hotel

moi dans l'hotel abandonne

kids in china

2007-10-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

china definitely feels like a nation with a billion people. being alone anywhere seems impossible. most of the population is actually really young, i'd say most people are under 45 and a whole lot of them are under 30. there are also more children and baby boys specifically than i think i've seen almost anywhere else in the world. the chinese aren't overly affectionate with their kids, no real kissing or hugging even though they are clearly enamored and feel joy as they play with them. babies here are also kinda dry and never smile which i find really odd and unsettling. here's a post with some kid pictures i've taken these last few months here.

another week...

2007-10-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

another cake painting. i'm an awesome eater, but a shitty cook. this series feels like the only serious attempt i've made at preparing food aside from the fried eggs, george foreman grilled sandwiches , toast, and microwave meals i pride myself on and lived off of for so long. my saving grace here in beijing is that ross is a kick ass cook and that nearly all food is inexpensive. i'll still always eat like i'm really a fat person trapped deep inside a quickly metabolizing body.

details of the china experience and a bonus!

2007-09-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

clothes driers are a luxury most places outside the u.s. so here i've needed to get used to hang drying clothes on a wire on our balconies. it's fun, but it totally robs me of that wonderful "warm, right out of the drier" feeling that makes clothing fun to wear and linens fun to wrap yourself in.

i've also included pics of the construction happening on the block perpendicular to mine and across the street. it's a common sight all over the city, this just happens to be in my backyard so to speak.

as a bonus for all you armando fans out there, here he is dancing the "le corsaire" male variation (one of the most famous in classical ballet). he tells me he's doing well and very happy in the new company, learning a whole lot and getting along spectacularly with the director of the company.

funny advertisements

2007-09-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

the chinese have a strange sense of design and lack crucial skills in photoshop, making ads here just a little off. apparently all you need to have a succesful campaign is ridiculously smiley people, very fake backgrounds, and quite often as much chinese red as possible.

my favorite bottled tea, made from chrysanthemum. i like the weirdo fake gazebo and background dude with a saxophone. you see fake-o skies and landscapes like this a lot in advertisements, pollution obviously doesn't let this happen in real life.

i don't even know what this dude sponsors, but notice the couple dressed the same next to him. that's a totally normal supposedly cute coupley thing to do here, i see at least one couple do that every day.

i just thought this was funny and a little tragic.

i loooove these girls! they actually gave me the idea for this post. it's from a kfc ad all over the city. coming soon: ross will make a painting of these two :)

these chicks come from a dentist office ad, they kinda crack me up they look so happy and maybe a little lost and confused?

Video Tour :)

2007-09-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

hello again, here is the long overdue video tour of ross and my apartment. Again, we live on the 10th floor of a white building just a half block from the dongzhimen subway station on the northeast corner of the second ring road. it's a really nice walk in every direction. we're across the street from ginza mall which has a grocery store named Olé where we do most of our shopping. to the east is a whole bunch of hot pot restaurants leading to a hutong which is an old style neighborhood (basically what you think of when you think of china), many such hutongs are scattered across the city. they're made up of seemingly aimless ancient, meandering, narrow walkways with stone and plaster walls topped with those tiled, arched, eaved roofs sometimes lined with dragons and other figures. on the west and a little to the north there's a whole lot of shopping and the northernmost point of the embassy district. we're nearest the russian, german, canadian, and australian embassies. the american, french, and other embassies are nearby and just to the south. my neighborhood is always filled with pedestrains, and buses, and taxis. because of all the money and commerce in the area, it's well kept, clean, and tree lined and of course illuminated with hundreds and hundreds of red lit paper lanterns.

the green door is the front door. this is the living room, where we spend most of our time

this video starts with balcony number one, which we use as our studio and art stuff storage. the small purple area is where our washer is. then there's our funny bathroom, notice that we don't really have a bathtub, just a hand shower head.

the kitchen, complete with live-in chef

this video starts in the small hallway connecting every part of the house, then our bedroom and the second balcony which is where we keep our plants. we just bought a small green apple tree and that plant in the corner is a purple grape plant. and our view.

2007-09-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

just a quick hello and some pics of ross, silvia, and i. had some fun work last week doing dialog recordings for learning english. the company loved me and my voice and said they'd call again for more work, let's hope so.

i also started painting again, this is my first finished painting in china. i like this cake kick i've been on the last few months, they're on my myspace photo album art stuff.

Skype and Olympics stuph

2007-09-13T03:08:00.001-07:00

I'm finally connected to the internet at my new place! meaning that i'll have skype available to me all the time and communication will be even easier. in case you don't know what skype is it's the best FREE comunication tool in the world, and it uses the internet as your phone line. my username is TUDELOOP so look me up if you have it, otherwise here's a link to more info and where to get it skype aqui!

with the olympics coming soon to beijing, you can't go anywhere in the city without seeing blatant advertising with chinese athletes or the cute little olympic mascots, they're on banners, posters, flyers, and there's also all sorts of bootleg goods available on probably every single street i've walked along. they're super excited over here and it's a little contagious. i've driven by the olympic stadium twice since i've been here and it's pretty spectacular looking. it's unofficially called the bird's nest stadium and bubble building(where water events will take place), designed by the same guys who will build the new miami art museum facilities by the bay in the coming years. i've included a few very future-y computer generated photos of what it will look like when completed and a link to some more information. the stadium is almost complete and really is breath-taking even though the thick pollution packed air here.

the building is asymmetrical and HUGE! a side view

this is the entire complex, it lays just north of the center of the city

the water cube, close-up, equally impressive

bird's nest from above

for more information, go to your local library or click here estadio del futuro aqui!

2007-09-10T05:55:00.000-07:00

Ross and i went to the very edge of beijing today hoping to see this group of temples with intact ming dynasty murals which for the work's safety's sake can only be seen with a provided flashlight. unfortunately like most of the city it was under construction and restoration and we weren't allowed to enter. the city is actually the spot in the world with the most construction going up by far and you can tell. it's sometimes uncomfortable when it affects things like subways or pedestrian traffic, but interesting none the less to see a city completely re-invent and revamp itself. imagine all the construction going on in brickell in the last 4 or 5 years spread out for 50 miles in every direction. it's something like that, and some of these buildings going up are quite modern and beautiful. the chinese sometimes go about things the wrong way, recently destroying the oldest opera house in beijing (around 800 years old) to put up a bank or some shit. the rule seems to be that if it makes money it can stay, otherwise it's out and something that'll stimulate the economy will go up in it's place.
a few days ago marked the one moth anniversary of my being here, it already feels like a small lifetime though. i'm learning a few words of chinese at a time, i can count (awkwardly but i can still do it), and am really beginning to know how to get around the city. one month after i first arrived, china is still very much a mystery wrapped in an enigma (thanks oscar wilde). no pics this time, but more to come. love you all :)
by the way, the chinese ADORE kfc, there's one every single block, no lie. and they have slight differences like NO BISCUITS :( but on an up note mcdonalds has a huge variety of dipping sauces for chicken macnuggets like malay satay, french honey mustard, chinese sweet and sour, and some super delicious tamarind one. there are absolutely no wendy's though. my biggest complaint by far of the chinese fast food status quo.

A few notes on chinese bathrooms and other, nicer things...

2007-09-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

So, not to dissuade anyone from coming to see me in china, but there are a few funny things i noticed that some may need preparation for. Chinese public bathrooms are a little crazy, we affectionately call them "squatters" here. I made a diagram to show the basic mechanics...

Maybe 99% of public restrooms in China look like this, a little nightmare-ish, a leg work out when you really don't need one, and initially at least an inhibitor of those functions you're there to relieve yourself of. but it's something everyone faces here. i still get the willies a little every time i use one but i just be careful to avoid them, and to keep a small amount of t.p. on me ALWAYS!
Private homes all have toilets, as do a select few western clientèle orientated businesses. even the maconalds and kfc's have squatters, but they always include t.p. They aren't always the cleanest or best smelling, but i definitely understand why they're more sanitary. and public bathrooms like this exist all over, so it's not really super weird.
showers on the other hand are some crazy shit! the chinese just kinda shower in the middle of their bathroom with the shower head pointing to whatever the open space in your bathroom is, wetting almost everything else in the room. simply put they don't really have a tub, and that's harder to wrap my head around. here i need to squeegee the floor after a shower to get all the water out, it ends up going through a drain somewhere on the floor. i don't really see the logic in that placement...i guess it's a space saver but it's not my favorite thing about china by a long shot.

ON A NICER NOTE...
you can still find lots of beautiful things all over beijing, this video is the view from one of the balconies at my new place on the 10th floor. ross and i face ginza mall, the first building on the corner, then the tree lined street marks the beginning of a several block stretch which is one of beijing's premiere restaurant districts, lucky me. one block east i have a mcdonalds,and half a block west i have a 7 11. sometimes i feel like every single thing in my life has changed except for like 15 really random things.

This is the view from my balcony by day

and this is the kind of hidden treasure you'll find quite unexpectedly between the big buildings, crappy and crazy traffic, and light polltuion-y haze you see cast over the city

2007-09-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

So the art area in Beijing is called 798, ross and i made our way here this typically muggy and overcast afternoon. The art is surprisingly good here, there's lame stuff like any other art scene anywhere but i can't wait to see more soon :)
Of course i didn't bring my camera with me today, so instead i'm posting pictures from other museum things we did in the city these last few weeks. The National Museum of Fine Arts has this pretty neat show running, a "greatest hits" of sorts of the Prado Museum in Madrid including El Greco, Poussin, Goya, and Velazquez.
Also in the Capital Museum there's a nice but very crudely put together show from the Louvre's Ancient Greek collections. Notice how close you can get to the marble portraits of Alexander the Great, Homer, and other important works

2007-08-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a while, so here is a small smörgåsbord of what I've been up to in Beijing, thanks by the way for all the comments and emails :)

WOW! tha's a lot!

2007-08-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

Some more news from China

2007-08-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

I've been doing all kinds of stuff lately. Visiting lots of places getting to know Beijing, and taking a few days off to another province to visit a small, amazing small cityt named Pingyao (pictures to follow in the coming days). I got back two days ago to begin looking for a new apartment to share with Ross. Things are crazy and wonderful, I'm picking up a few words in Chinese and I'll begin classes as soon as this apartment question is solved. Meanwhile, I send out these funny signs and things I've seen in China thus far and a big hug. Still think about Miami all the time :) Lots of posts and pics to come this week!!!

p.s. the middle picture is of a scone in a popular faux-French style bakery near where i live, and the second to last picture is the sign at the hotel we stayed at in Pingyao.

2007-08-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

I made it! I'm in Beijing, and it's great. The picture shows the route the plane took over the North Pole. Here are few more pics from the flight including glaciers and mountains at the very ends of North America and Russia, as well as Mongolian & Chinese deserts and the mountains just outside of Beijing. Pics of my first few days to come :)