Follow-up to Saturday night

For those interested parties:
- party at Jason's friend's place; consume much alcohol
- by 1:30 am, pretty much only gay men left (plus Rich, the Yale Medical Fellow and requisite straight dude)
- went to Destination, the gay club of Beijing; paid ridiculous cover; drank more; danced
- arrived back at Jason's friend's place at 4:30 am; sun rising; pass out

Did I mention that I'm a teacher?

-cy

I've Got a Nautical Themed Pashmini Afghan!

Tomorrow, HIF is taking a trip to Onuma "quasi-national" Park. Tentative weekend activities will include general park activities, jungle gym shenanigans, various sports activities, karaoke, bowling, swimming, an onsen, and sake drinking (legal drinking age in Japan: 20!). Too bad I don't actually like sake...not that I've ever tried it. I was at a Seven-Eleven buying snacks, and I did actually purchase some sort of alcoholic beverage (8% "Arukooru") of a grapefruit variety because I'm a sucker for grapefruit juice and couldn't resist the shiny advertising.

Strong Zero: Double Grapefruit (or, "Sutorongu Zero: Daburu Gureepufurutsu")

Anyway, I have every intention of riding one of those rent-a-boat's that they promised us and singing "I'm on a Boat" at the top of my lungs tomorrow. And now, bed, because I'm tired and judo kind of kicked my butt today. Literally.

Update from Brongolia

Is Monbrolia a better word? I don't know. But this weekend I had a brotastic experience.

We were walking up to the Zaisan memorial, a wonderful Soviet construction with views of the whole city, when Kevin says "Hmm, I wonder what Blue Ribbon beer is. Probably some cheap crap from China." And I'm like whaaaaat? And he points to some umbrellas that say PABST BLUE RIBBON. And then I hyperventilated a bit. When I came to, I quickly explained to him that no, Pabst Blue Ribbon is not Chinese, and no, it is not crap, but yes, it is cheap. Figures a Columbia student wouldn't know about the beer of America's heartland. Anyways, we made our way over to the umbrellas, which were in the corner of a parking lot in front of a giant golden Buddha, an appropriate place for these holy icons. And there were some sketchy guys grilling meat. We approached them cautiously, but lo and behold, they were not Mongolians, but Uzbek kabob vendors! Oppressed minorities in this hostile country, they were more than happy to talk to some friendly Americans. Alas, they didn't have the nectar of life itself, but they obliged me with a picture in front of the umbrellas, and we thanked these Uzbek broskis by buying some of their overpriced and undercooked meat.

And then we saw a wonderful Soviet mosaic. God I love the Soviets.

Broski update: I saw the guy again last night! In a different place! With kabobs but no PBR, and we had a little broski greeting session.

Absurd?

So, my partner's (Jason, TC '05, Glee Clubber...I know, but forgive him for his wayward ways, as I have) best friend from Yale happens to be living in Beijing this summer (this best friend also happens to be Chinese and a graduate of Yali School Middle School, the school where Jason (Pe2 Jei2 Sen1) and I (Yang2 Jun4 Cheng2) will be teaching for the next two years). This best friend is also quite the partier, and considering he's living in China on a US salary (he's works for a Boston consulting firm), he has no qualms partying hard and bringing his friends along for the ride. I've been out with Jason and his bud a few times thus far, and we've had fun, but I think the shit's hitting the fan this weekend when he throws a Hawaiin-themed party. He's invited, like, the entire ex-pat community and is basically buying out a liquir store. I have a feeling it's going be uber-special.

I can't wait.

Love from Beijing, the future capital of the world,

-cy

Creeper Fail

So, I have much practice being a creeper. My friend Claire from high school knows this, because we usually creep together.

But in trying to commemorate the interesting qualities of Chinese wangba, or internet bars, I sort of didn't turn off the front display of my phone whilst taking a picture of the shirtless smoking dude across from me.

I wondered why he was staring at me, so I actually started typing as if I was texting instead of just holding the phone in a texting position. Oops.

Anyway, that picture was for you, and when I get internet set up in my room (hopefully tomorrow!) I'll pass it along

We got to Harbin on Saturday morning, started our language pledge on Sunday, and started class yesterday. Only speaking Chinese makes me a much less interesting person, and my classes so far are enough to keep me very busy. But! I really, really like Harbin. The weather is wonderful, the skies much clearer than Beijing, and people here are nice in general. The area around the Harbin Institute of Technology, or Hagongda, where we're staying and studying, is full of interesting things to explore. And food here is so, so cheap. I love food. I am happy.

For China people: gfxtalk.net is the proxy I've been using to access Blogger, and even from wangba, it works great.

Also for China people: what vocab do you use to explain the YPMB?

CATS

It's official... videos of me spinning cats are a hit in any language.



The host family was even more impressed by the original Wiggy Spin, marveling that he doesn't even need a box to spin on the hardwood floors.

WTF, China: Part 1 -- Showers that aren't

Look closely at this shower. "What shower?" you ask? Exactly.

Last summer in Japan I got used to unfamiliar bathing styles, but this is really something else. It's as if someone built a bathroom then added a shower head as an afterthought. The whole room gets all wet and slippery. I've taken to throwing my hand towel onto the ground in front of the sink as a little island of dryness after I shower, but this other student tells me he's rigged up a two-towel dam system around the drains that I might try tomorrow.

The only plus side to this set up is that if you forget something by the sink, you can totally just walk and get it.

SQUIDS (Part Two)

Squids are a huge deal in Hakodate, so expect tons more squid posts here in commemoration of the most badass section of band =)

Anyway, Chris Brown (I can never resist using his full name), Ashok, and I tried SQUID INK ICE CREAM the other day, aka Ikazumi. It's actually REALLY REALLY GOOD, OMD. Seriously. I had the vanilla-ikazumi, and mooched licks of Ashok's melon-ikazumi (om nom nom!), and I swear, we're going back there again sometime soon to try other flavors.

Sadly, I didn't have my camera that day and couldn't get a close up picture, so I'm stealing this picture from Chris' Light Fellowship Blog:



And...I'm not actually that short. I'm just standing on the lower part of the sloped street o_O

Eat babies!

(edit)
Also, my address if anybody wants to write Elliot or me and send us stuff, because you're missing us so terribly much:

Thanh Tran (or Elliot Eaton, clearly)
c/o Hokkaido International Foundation
14-1 Motomachi, Hakodate, Hokkaido
040-0054 JAPAN