New Summer Trip!
2005.06.04
First off, I need to write about something I've seen for a few days,
I've simply forgotten 'til now. I've seen some ads for Tabasco Sauce
around Shanghai. I think that's kinda funny since I can barely eat a
mouthful of the food from Sichuan or Hunan, two areas that are known
for really spicy foods, but Tabasco sauce is nothing as far as I'm
concerned. While not every Chinese person is in my situation, but the
people who truly like spicy foods will barely taste Tabasco sauce.
Yet it must have a market somewhere, I know not where.
Anyway, it has been a ... day. Today I finally got my ticket to
Russia AND got Haagen Daz.
The problem with my ticket was that teh airline doesn't sell tickets
to Chinese nationals unless they're buying return tickets as well. I
was planning to come out via train from Irkutsk to Mongolia. I had to
call the airline, explain that I'm a US citizen, waittill the
afternoon for the manager to come back and verify that the policy does
not apply to Americans, and tell the booking agency that yes, the
airline does sell one-way tickets to American citizens. Fun!
On the other hand, Haagen Daz was prety good. After all, it's HZ. Of
course, they had a lot more than just ice cream, and the server (it
was a sit down place) kept on encouraging us to try the exotic
combinations. I ended up getting a "Monte Carlo" which is coffee and
dulce de leche (or something like that) over waffle cone pieces, and
topped with whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry. Not exactly sure how
it was better than just coffee and whatchamacallit by themselves.
I'm playing Icewind Dale for the first time. I have a silly party
that has half Half-elf, includes a bard, and a cleric/ranger. That's
a really cool multiclass, someone explained once, since he'd get both
cleric and druidic spells, and both really early. Siffy-keen!
Now I'm in Wuxi, my mom's hometown, where the Xiao2 Long2 Bao1 Zi4 are
wonderfully sweet, where my mom turns into a giggling little girl
with her family, where the language can't possibly be related to
Mandarin (they claim it is), and my younger cousin is starting his
college tests.
For those of you a bit unaware of the process in China, high school
seniors take tests at the end of the school year in the core curriculi
of Chinese, English, Sciences, History, Politics, and other fun
stuff. Then they place down their first choice school, to which their
scores are sent. Then if the scores fulfill some minimum requirement,
which the school decides on a year to year basis, the kid's in.
Otherwise the kid picks a second or third choice, and those schools
pick their second or third minimum requirement.
Anyway, my cousin will be under a lot of pressure, so my mom & I are
going to go travelling soon to avoid distracting him.
PS, I made the silly mistake of picking up a Jin Yong book today. Yi2
Tian1 Tu2 Long2 Ji4. Sure I've read parts of it dozens of times
(okay, I'm exaggerating; at most it's two dozen, or maybe three), sure
I have a copy at home and on my computer(s), sure I can't stand
watching any TV adaptation because I can tell instantly almost every
deviation they make from the original. That didn't stop me from just
reading from the page I happened to open to, for a few hours.
First off, I need to write about something I've seen for a few days,
I've simply forgotten 'til now. I've seen some ads for Tabasco Sauce
around Shanghai. I think that's kinda funny since I can barely eat a
mouthful of the food from Sichuan or Hunan, two areas that are known
for really spicy foods, but Tabasco sauce is nothing as far as I'm
concerned. While not every Chinese person is in my situation, but the
people who truly like spicy foods will barely taste Tabasco sauce.
Yet it must have a market somewhere, I know not where.
Anyway, it has been a ... day. Today I finally got my ticket to
Russia AND got Haagen Daz.
The problem with my ticket was that teh airline doesn't sell tickets
to Chinese nationals unless they're buying return tickets as well. I
was planning to come out via train from Irkutsk to Mongolia. I had to
call the airline, explain that I'm a US citizen, waittill the
afternoon for the manager to come back and verify that the policy does
not apply to Americans, and tell the booking agency that yes, the
airline does sell one-way tickets to American citizens. Fun!
On the other hand, Haagen Daz was prety good. After all, it's HZ. Of
course, they had a lot more than just ice cream, and the server (it
was a sit down place) kept on encouraging us to try the exotic
combinations. I ended up getting a "Monte Carlo" which is coffee and
dulce de leche (or something like that) over waffle cone pieces, and
topped with whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry. Not exactly sure how
it was better than just coffee and whatchamacallit by themselves.
I'm playing Icewind Dale for the first time. I have a silly party
that has half Half-elf, includes a bard, and a cleric/ranger. That's
a really cool multiclass, someone explained once, since he'd get both
cleric and druidic spells, and both really early. Siffy-keen!
Now I'm in Wuxi, my mom's hometown, where the Xiao2 Long2 Bao1 Zi4 are
wonderfully sweet, where my mom turns into a giggling little girl
with her family, where the language can't possibly be related to
Mandarin (they claim it is), and my younger cousin is starting his
college tests.
For those of you a bit unaware of the process in China, high school
seniors take tests at the end of the school year in the core curriculi
of Chinese, English, Sciences, History, Politics, and other fun
stuff. Then they place down their first choice school, to which their
scores are sent. Then if the scores fulfill some minimum requirement,
which the school decides on a year to year basis, the kid's in.
Otherwise the kid picks a second or third choice, and those schools
pick their second or third minimum requirement.
Anyway, my cousin will be under a lot of pressure, so my mom & I are
going to go travelling soon to avoid distracting him.
PS, I made the silly mistake of picking up a Jin Yong book today. Yi2
Tian1 Tu2 Long2 Ji4. Sure I've read parts of it dozens of times
(okay, I'm exaggerating; at most it's two dozen, or maybe three), sure
I have a copy at home and on my computer(s), sure I can't stand
watching any TV adaptation because I can tell instantly almost every
deviation they make from the original. That didn't stop me from just
reading from the page I happened to open to, for a few hours.