eating my last breakfast for this tip. 3 weeks go by in a flash! didn’t get very good sleep last night as usual before a big flight. packing till 1am, mia waking crying as usual. stressed about not being able to pack everything as usual. but i’ve got my fried instant-heart-attack yummy fried elephant ear/egg type thingy and a cup of coffee so i’m happy for the moment.

hongie’s sister & mom just got here and we’re re-packing some crap in boxes that we forgot to pack before. throwing up random pics.

We got up and tried on a traditional hat.

Mommy and Daddy hopped on the bus with Bao Qi to go to the bookstore across town. We saw a girl sporting the latest fashion: Glasses *without* lenses. Next: Coats that don’t keep you warm, watches that don’t have a face, and Beer that doesn’t get you drunk. Oh, wait…. they already have that.

At the book store, mommy put her bag into a locker outside the store. This is pretty usual for “fancy” stores. This one dispensed a bar code receipt, and you showed your receipt to the scanner to re-open the locker.

Upon returning from the book store, the bus was extremely crowded. People were jamming into the exit-back door, and still jamming in more. The bus driver kept getting up to yell at people to move back. We were already in the back, as far back as we could possibly go. A certain Weird Al Yankovic song comes to mind….

That didn’t stop somebody from being all tuckered out:

On the way back home from the bus stop, we discovered a Popcorn vendor! This stuff was expensive: $0.80 for the whole bag!

MMmmmmmmm…. Chocolate!

In conclusion… the iphone served well as a point-and-shoot for the day. I think I’ll start carrying it around some more.

We went to visit Hongmei’s friend Zheng Qi, and her son Wang Chuan Yi. We had fun playing! For dinner we had Mongolian Lamb Meatballs, so yummy!! Mushrooms, Chinese-style tofu tortilla with pork & eggplant; little stir-fried fish, and corn with sweet syrup.

Videos have been published to an FTP site.

If you are interested, E-mail me.

Day 6. It’s been impossible to keep up with the blog. Pretty much the past few days have been jam-packed with activity, and little time to sit down to devote to writing. Right now, though, Mia’s getting ready to take a nap, so there’s nothing to do except hang around the apartment.

Going back and doing a day-by-day “What we did” is too difficult now… it’s all run together already, and we’ve only been here six days. I’m just going to write about things in general so far anyway.

So- Today, we’re at Hongmei’s Sister, Hongyen’s, apartment. She is married with one daughter, Bao Xi, age 9. They live in a small town north of Tianjin. It took about an hour to drive up here from Hongmei’s Aunt’s apartment. It’s a lot more luxurious here! We have an actual sit-down toilet, more rooms for privacy, and a marble-tiled floor.

It’s really interesting to observe how many of the details of things are here. I’m not talking about social stuff; I’m talking about refrigerators, outlets, cooking methods, toys, shopping carts… America prides itself on ingeniuity, but I’ve seen so many things here that are so clever, it makes you want to slap your forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Still, conversely, some things are done in a backwards, inefficient manner as compared to how they’re done in America, that I think to myself, “Why in the heck do they DO it that way?”
For example, it is quite common to see people sweeping the street, or floor, with an old, careworn straw broom, with a short handle that forces the user to bend over. A shop push-broom would probably increase the sweeping efficiency on a scale of 500-1000%, but push brooms are simply not a common item. I saw ONE for sale, the last time I was here 3 or so years ago, but it was a sad, neglected item carelessly placed in a dusty corner of the entrance to the supermarket, for sale.
Electrical outlets are, of course, 220 volts here. However, there are two formats for plugging in: Your basic 2-prong plug-in, identical to ours; but their three-prong plug-in is such that the two positive/negative prongs are at angles from each other. In general, all power strips contain two 2-slot outlets, one 3-prong outlet, and another two-prong outlet on the end face. This is an example of a clever design: Should one only desire to use it as an extension cord to something with two prongs, you can plug it into the end, creating a more streamlined connection, space-wise. To date, I have never observed such a device in America.
Another example of the small engineering differences are the flush toilets. The most common type of flush toilet has two buttons on top of the tank lid. They are designed as two halves of an oval shape; giving a more elegant design to the buttons. One button, usually bigger, is for a full flush; exactly what you’d expect when you flush a toilet. The smaller one simply opens the tank valve as long as you’re pushing it, only flushing for as long as you hold it. This allows you to control the amount of water you’re flushing with.
Cooking is mostly done with older traditional utensils and pots, pans, etc. As I’ve mentioned to lots of other people before, Chinese do not bake anything in their homes. Nobody has an oven. Everything is either fried (stir-fried, or pan fried), boiled, or steamed. Wood and bamboo steamers are used.
Chinese love to drink hot water, and thus her sister’s apartment has a water cooler/heater in the living room; the typical office-type water cooler with the big 5-gallon tank on top of it. The refigerator is also in the living room. This is probably because there is no room in the kitchen; which is actually in a balcony area. The dining area is more like a wide hallway leading to the kitchen, so there’s no room for the fridge there.
Milk is not a commonly purchased item, and it’s actually somewhat of a luxury item. It’s sold mostly in small cartons about the size of a Juicy Juice container, complete with straw, and the straw actually has two tubes so that it’s extendable. It is not necessary to refrigerate it as much as American milk; I’m not sure why; it’s somehow processed to last longer at room temperature. However it will last longer in the fridge so we keep it in the fridge. At the supermarket, I saw all the milk for sale. It was all packaged in very fancy cardboard boxes with glossy print around it, a ribbon stuck to the front, and a plastic window showing the cartons inside, thus further exemplifying it as a luxury item.
Cheese is a rare luxury food item too, being as expensive here as it is in the U.S. I actually saw genuine American “Land O’ Lakes” brand American Cheese and Butter for sale, but they were prohibitively expensive. More expensive than they are in the U.S.! We bought a slightly cheaper brand. I knew it was genuine because the package had no chinese characters on it whatsoever.
Another random example of small engineering differences that seem clever, is the sink stopper in the bathroom sink. Rather than being a long stand with a chrome hubcap on top and a rubber seal, it’s a thick disc fitted in the drainhole and permanently fixed on an axle, so that you can flip it and it comes un-stopped. Hard to explan. I’ll probably make a video of this stuff anyway. This design does force you to stick your hand down into the water to drain the sink, but if you’re that particular about your sink water, then you have problems. Besides, this design is much more maintenance-free, as I can personally vouch for, having replaced some sinks in my past.

I woke up this morning around 7 or 8. Mia woke me up. Hongmei was already up, washing clothes old-fashioned style, with a washboard and a tub of water. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that. We had breakfast, and I made a video. I still haven’t gotten the videos to work uploading to the blog. So, after eating breakfast, we had a web conference with Grandma & Grandpa, which worked flawlessly for the second time. Amazing!

While making the video, I also happened to notice a toilet set that I could unfold and use on the squat-style toilet in the water closet. Wow, was I pleased to notice that. For some reason my complaints about having to squat all the time was falling upon deaf ears. Perhaps there’s some sort of language barrier problem?

Yes, Hongmei does provide translation services, but her attention is often elsewhere, talking to her family members about who knows what. (Certainly not me, although I do pick up keywords and usually it’s obvious if they’re discussing something nearby). This trip, I also have Mia to keep me company, if her attention is not getting taken away too! So, anyway, back to breakfast.

I was also pleasantly surprised that a coffee maker was found! We installed it post-haste and I enjoyed my first cup of coffee since arriving. Too bad I still haven’t had a shower! It takes time to adjust to the time change. Lots of fatigue, dietary adjustment, psychological adjustment… just dealing with all that took much attention and energy, I don’t have time for such luxuries until I get my body and mind adjusted.

After the web conference with Grandma & grandpa, we got all bundled up, packed up the diaper bag and the camera, a few snacks and water, and of course my $100 Ultraviolet Water Purifier (TM), and headed out to our first real day of “doing stuff”.

We put Mia in the stroller and rolled across the avenue, caught a bus over to the “Yang Liu Qing” Tourist district. The bus was very bouncy, and it was a manual shift vehicle (All busses are manual here). The driver drove in a very Speed-Up/Slam-on-the-brakes style, and, well, poor little Mia had enough of that jostling: Her breakfast ended up on her scarf… and mommy’s gloves. Fortunately, it wasn’t exceedingly long and we arrived there shortly.

There are many hotels there with the traditional Chinese-style roofs and outside arcitecture. Upon reaching the area, we walked a few more blocks and went to our destination: The “Shi Jia Da Yuan” Mansion, built by a Senator in Tianjin in the 1900’s. Actually, I would call it more of a “Compound” than a “Mansion”. It had several buildings, about 20, all surrounded by a wall, complete with multiple Wife quarters, the Accounting Department, a garden, guest rooms, a wedding room, and a auditorium. I tried my best to take advantage of our somewhat dated “Prosumer” camera, propping it up for some longer-exposure shots.

Well, I started to get hungry, and so did Mia, so we headed off to … KFC! Yaay, Meat! American (sort of) Food! It was pretty crowded, and of course we were stared at quite a bit. That’s normal: I get stared at everywhere I go. Not everybody stares; but everywhere has at least one person who double-takes, or blatantly stares, or whatever. Sometimes it’s not creepy; sometimes it’s friendly. Well, toward Mia; not usually toward me. they just stare at me. Hongmei says, “Just pretend like you’re a celebrity!” Well, being a celebrity isn’t really my idea of a good time; people bugging you in public all the time. I don’t know who, if anybody, would really appreciate that sort of attention. Maybe those who seek fame… ah, forget it.

Click Here for Photo Album of Day 3!

Now, Mia has woken up from her nap and is quite cranky. Time to see if I can actually get a good blog entry published.

Now Playing: Gord’s Gold… Ribbon of Darkness.

here we are in the something-or-other airport in Korea. Apparently it’s 6:38 PM back home.

Ate at a Bi Bim Bop restaraunt in the airport. They had many interesting ammenities. For instance, to get water with your meal, you retrieved a stainless steel cup from a cabinet that had ultraviolet light to disinfect them, and they were also heated. You had your choice of hot or cold water.

Day 1…

Well, not quite yet. Here’s the plan:

In case you didn’t know, we’re going to China for three weeks. This will be my third trip. The first was one week. The second was two weeks, and yes, you guessed it, this trip will be three weeks long. We’re leaving the apartment today, and driving up to my aunt’s in Lisle, where we’ll park the car, have dinner, then call a taxi or limo to take us to the airport. The limos are actually comparable to the taxis, and are far more convenient and luxurious! Our flight leaves at 1am, and we were told by the travel agency to be there THREE HOURS ahead of time… So I guess we’ll take off around 9:30 or so. I think that’s a load of crap, we’re going to end up sitting at the terminal for 2 hours. Oh well… Better safe than sorry, I guess.

Once we get on the plane, the flight is many many hours, to Seoul, Korea. There’s a 3-hour layover there, then we fly to Tianjin. I actually don’t remember what time we’re supposed to touch down, but it’ll take an hour or two to get through customs, get our luggage, all that. From there, we’ll probably be beat and tired and wanna just go to sleep.

I bought this thing, which is supposed to purify water, for $100. Hongie was giving me a hard time about how much money I spent on it, but if you were in my shoes you’d do the same thing, buster. That there Mao Tse Tung’s revenge, or “Travelers diarrhea”, is nothing to take lightly. It’s horrible. Anyway- this thing is basically a wand, with a digital display, and a 3-inch long tube that emits ultraviolet light. supposedly, if you stick it into a cup or bottle of water, and stir it around for 90 seconds or so, it kills 99.99% of the bacteria, viruses, and some other microscopic thing which I forget. critters. I expended some brownie points to get it… I hope the damn thing works.

HA! The auto-correct function wants to turn “Hongie” into “Hoagie”. Awesome! My wife is a sandwich!

I also packed two large bottles of generic Pepto-Bismol, and I have a prescription antibiotic as well, that may help if I do end up getting it anyway.

Another thing I’m bringing are a bunch of recipes I got off the internet, and all my measuring cups and spoons! I hope, that when we get there, I am able to procure an oven, and all the ingredients to bake lots of yummy treats! Cookies, Bread… Yeah, all the things I’m not supposed to eat because I’m “Glucose Intolerant”. Hey, man, I got nothin’ against glucose. But my body does. It’s basically one step away from diabetes, and too much sugar & carb consumption could tip me over the edge when I’m older. But that’s not going to stop me from trying to pump out large quantities of yummy tasty treats if I can! and maybe even cook some good dinners! Apparently, though, it’s pretty tough to locate many ingredients there, and they may end up being really expensive. We’ll see.

So, that’s basically it… the girls are both still sleeping, this is my last time to myself. Naturally I fired up Starcraft and played one last single player game. I’m pretty bored with the standard game, though. I can’t wait for the new version to come out!

In case you didn’t know, China blocks Facebook. I can’t reach people via Facebook there, and Google as you may know is talking about pulling out of China as well; which would mean more limited access to my e-mail. Of course, I won’t have a phone; and if I did, there are only a couple times per day that are convenient to talk to people on the other side of the world: Early in the morning, and late at night!

So I’m going to try and reach this blog; and keep updates through this channel.

In my dream, it starts out at a party. It consists of some old friends; Chris, Kale and Rich and they are playing with a band. But it’s break time and we’re all drinking beer. It’s a big house with a basement; I hang out with some people in the basement for a while, but then I head upstairs and get some beer from a huge glass, actually it’s a giant replica of the octagonal tumblers we have at home. Brian goes out to the driveway with somebody else to talk or get something out of his prius. Chris and I begin to sing & play “Air-Conditioned Nightmare” in the band area which is bereft of anybody except us. I’m playing it on my acoustic and he’s just doing the weird mike patton vocal parts. Then he shows me a keyboard and gets it into “casio mode” where it’s playing the rhythm and everything for the proper chord.

Somehow, this fast-forwards to, it’s nighttime and i’m outside in the street outside the party. The neighborhood is a bad one, it seems, and a lot of different people are milling about. I end up in another house with some young mexican guy who is into electronics. He shows me a circuit he’s made. It’s so intricate, that the circuit board it’s on bends under the weight of the components as I try to hold it up vertically. It has RAM, a speaker attached, and the circuits look as intricate as a manufactured board. I ask him what it is, and he says “An inpatient monitor”. I ask, “Wireless?” and he explains yeah, it’s picking up the closed conversations of hospital phone lines. I realize he’s built a radio with decryption from some plans he got from somewhere.

 

<No time to finish, sorry>