far cathay

[elysesewell]

I'm still pretty high from Chinese New Year. The prolonged break from the frustrations of ladypose moil, combined with the fact that I'm reading The Travels of Marco Polo, a mostly-true catalog of Marky Marc's impressions of unfamiliar provinces, has my soul incandescing daily with delight at the myriad subtle ways in which the Chinese mode of

Comments

[wyliekat]

You'll know how bad the garlic is when you wake up in the middle of the night with the garlic sweats. I used to think it was just me that got 'em, but I've had numerous other people confess it, too.

Ah, the midnight sticky garlic sweat - can there be a more cruel punishment for eating Gawd's Own Food?

[the_ma]

(guiltily from work) Or ever had a garlic hangover? ugh.

[wyliekat]

A garlic hangover? I thought there were no greater heights of garlic-overdose than the midnight flop sweats. I'm intrigued. I make hummus at home with up to five cloves of raw garlic. How have I never had this hangover experience? Please to be describing (guiltily from work, or guilt-free later, as you prefer) this phenomenon. ;-}

the garlic hangover

[the_ma]

It's a consequence of the midnight flop sweats: bed heady hair, dark ringed eyes, dry mouth but bloat from midnight water consumption, and stench from the pores and a white tongue.

[scotophobic]

She's probably the tallest woman in China right now. Last year she took a picture of an airport filled with people, and it looked like Elyse was standing on a chair, but she wasn't.

apparently someone has never been to China...

[euphory]

Miss World (Miss China) is over 6 feet tall. And you do know China has models too right? And China's famous women's volleyball team...

And even with ordinary citizens, if you even go to Northern China, particular in Shandong and Northeast China (where people are stereotyped as tall and big), the average heights for girls are probably 5'6'' or 5'7''. Even for the generation that grew up with famines and tiny food rations, 5'5'' and over women are everywhere in Northern China. Girls who are over 173cm (miminal height requirement on Top Model?) are not all that unique.

Elyse's height would be on the tall side, but she would stand out in these places because she's Caucasian (and a graceful willowy model), not because she's tall.

There seems to be a height difference in different parts of China. I myself am only 5'6'', pretty average in where my family originally from (I'm the shortest person in the family...), but when I go to Canton and even in the U.S., Chinese people have commented on how tall I am.

Re: apparently someone has never been to China...

[anonymous]

Agreed!!!

[haldira]

I've tried those Pringles. They are...special.

[herself_nyc]

That's a fusion, all right.

[qfemale]

So, what books would you like to read?

[elysesewell]

Bliss by Peter Carey. Cannot wait to go on a bender in the HK public library!

[bohhead]

dude. i got HIT ON at the library. and u know the row of chairs in front of the window where old men congregate to read newspaper? THEM EYES BE SPYIN'.
'tis a creepy place.

[qfemale]

Interesting. Any luck yet?