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[strangeraeons]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anomalousclouds/

Yes, I've started putting together a "photostream." Hopefully it's not that boring.

If you have an account yourself, add me, I guess. haha.

Comments

[glad_ghosts]

oh man, I need a flickr to flood with pix. there is Engrish everywhere here, not to mention totally off-the-wall shit. like on a nearby street some guy hawking herbs and weird medicine laid out on the ground a big picture-emblazoned poster of various wounds and someone's rancid, festering asshole. and in the grocery store we saw a hot-colored bike helmet with a knockoff Pokemon character screaming with huge electric-blue dilated eyes, surrounded by mushrooms. ps I'm Christine, I found you off my old friends list, this is the only "blog" site that isn't blocked in China.

[strangeraeons]

wait, Christine from Virginia? I'm confused, haha. If not, that's cool as well.

[strangeraeons]

Whoa it is you, sorry. Yeah! Pleaseeeee take pictures of stuff there, and get a few shots of what rot-gut Chinese booze looks like. (Yes, I haven't changed since we used to hang out.)

"I accidentally swallowed a mouthful of shower water this week, which resulted in days of recurrent diarrhea." ... Jesus H. Christ, hahaha... wow. I had been fascinated for a while about various toilet/commode designs from around the world as well, and maybe it's just a "Western world" thing, but Chinese toilets seem to be the most primitive in design.

Oh, and fuck the US for having such bad musical exports. Nickleback, Linkin Park... Eminem? You should leave your students mix CDs with some lovely post-punk and such from the 80s/90s. Imagine the effect it will have.

[glad_ghosts]

by rot-gut booze, do you mean baijiu? they have this shit here that they translate as "white wine," which is MOST DEFINITELY NOT WINE, more like grain alcohol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baijiu it's kinda great, because it's served at every faculty "meeting" (lunch) at the college, and they encourage you to drink at least a glass (about 2 shots' worth), afternoon classes be damned. their "cheers" is ballsier, too, they say "gan bei" which means "empty glass

[strangeraeons]

Ahh yes, that's probably what I saw when I was watching this documentary about contemporary Chinese life, and a big part of it was their drinking habits. I don't know if I could stomach the baijiu though, they win in the international drinking game

[glad_ghosts]

drinking on campus is weird just because no college students seem to drink beer. we've hung out with a couple guys who'll exclaim "ANOTHER ONE?" if we crack open a second can. the other 2 American teachers (they've been here longer) are always complaining that all the students think they're alcoholics.

Chinese youth love western music and western culture in general. if I tell them that anything is "cool in America", there's about a 75% chance (if not higher) that they'll cave and say they like it. but they prefer songs with lyrics they can easily understand, i.e. the cheesiest music out there.

I'm in Tianjin. sorrrta close to Beijing, although it takes up to 2 hours to get there. the college is on the outskirts of town. which is good because the city is notorious for being one of the dirtiest in China. they've taken great care to plant lots of little trees and bushes everywhere on campus to compensate.