Comments | livingbyfiction: India 0, China 1

livingbyfiction

India 0, China 1

Apr 25, 2009 20:37

People...always talkin'. Always talkin' about China and India. Oddly enough, I went to both this month. 3 days in China, 1.5 in India.

China was awesome. I took the one-hour commuter train to Shenzhen and suddenly I was in a different country. I stayed at the Days Inn, went to Wal-Mart, and ate only one meal that wasn't KFC or McDonalds. Yes, ( Read more... )

travel, expatness, places, china

Comments 7

froggandie April 26 2009, 14:06:35 UTC

The spring-break MBAs went on Brazilian slum tour. They then posted a many pics of themselves smiling and waving in front of shacks on FB.

Non-ironically, of course.

livingbyfiction April 29 2009, 12:33:00 UTC

Are you saying that there's something wrong with swinging by on your spring break trip to gawk at people who will never go more than 10 miles from the place they were born and taking pictures of them with your camera that cost more than entire families make in 10 years (and that you plan on replacing with one of the new digital SLRs because the picture's too grainy)?

lesliesage April 29 2009, 08:27:02 UTC

I was talking to Flatmate about spring in New Orleans and mentioned your longing for cherry blossoms (I didn't know it was a DC thing) and she had a bit of an outpouring of nostalgia. That's so neat that they're a gift from the Japanese... after we nuked them. What a nice present! I could hardly think of a nicer gift from country to country, not even the Statue of Liberty. Do we give nice presents to people?

lesliesage April 29 2009, 08:27:37 UTC

Oh right, BEFORE we nuked them. Oops.

livingbyfiction April 29 2009, 08:42:45 UTC

Actually, Wiki says that the Japanese gave a second round of trees in 1965, so I guess the nukes were a-okay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_blossoms#United_States

Pandas make nice gifts, too. When I moved to DC in 2005, the whole town was infatuated with the newborn cub, nicknamed Butterstick for his teensy size at birth. A lot of people were watching the panda cam all day long. http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/MeetPandas/PandaCubGallery/11.cfm

I think the U.S. mostly just gives gift certificates.

Or DVDs, if you're Obama.

lesliesage April 29 2009, 09:50:55 UTC

This is interesting. Google "The National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift to the city of Washington of 3000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo," incl. quotes. Try any of the links.

And iPods... cringe.

PS OMG SPECTER.

Thread 5