yourjoie's Xanga

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:16:31 GMT

china - winter 2006 - yunnan province

ready-to-eat crabs

kunming stone forest

morning tai chi

happy chinese man feeding red-beaked seagulls

dali three towers

lijiang's jade dragon snow mountain. glaciers on top!

yaks!

and yak meat?....

drying peppers the yunnan province is known for

mo suo girl and the old town of lijiang. fyi - the mo suo people are a matriarchal society without the institution of marriage, and kids are raised by the woman's family.

mmmm.... tree bark, anyone??

at the *dangerous* black dragon pool

giant shelf mushrooms on display in a giant limestone cave

guilin

narrowest rivercraft ever

yin & yang soup

intricate ivory carvings - talk about attention to detail.... the insides of the ball are something like 47 layers deep!

i <3 china??

the above is only a sample of the millions of pics we took. all in all a really great trip. besides everything being really scenic, it was so interesting to see how different things can be.. from here, from the cities in china, etc. i absorbed a lot just by observing, and i definitely want to see the rest of china! a few observations:

1 - crops are grown on terraced hills, i guess so farmers can use as much land as possible in a mountainous region
2 - i don't think i saw a single piece of farming equipment, unless you count hoes, water buffalo and maybe whatever thing it is that the water buffalo pulls
3 - as poor as some of the rural regions look on the surface, if anything electronic was to be found, i'm guessing it would be the TVs that the many satellite dishes on the roofs service
4 - they dont use kleenex... pretty much spit/blow their noses/cough wherever they want...
5 - 99.9999% of the people that smoke there are men
6 - you can smoke anywhere
7 - 99.9999% of the girls are so incredibly skinny
8 - people drive recklessly and like to play chicken on the road
9 - beggars/salespeople can be very persistent and might follow you all the way to the tour bus door
10 - parts of china are incredibly beautiful

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 04:06:07 GMT

ahhhh new year's. what a time. this year was the first time i got to PARTY, and in chicago, too! it was so fun, just danced the whole night away. fabulous. funny because tara reid was the host of it, and she had that characteristic voice, kinda raspy, so when she yells it is like.... sandpaper? iono. she also had an entourage, among which was an individual you may know as pedro from napoleon dynamite ("vote for pedro!!") he was breakin' it down on stage, and he doesnt really look like his character in the movie.. good or bad? dunno. but they had good music, lotsa drinks and tasty food. maybe i can post pics sometime if i ever get my hands on 'em.

also went to china for christmas break. when i get pics of those i'll post, too. maybe. if i am not lazy then. pics on my camera are only from the 1st two days, after which my batteries died. and i forgot to bring my charger. sigh.

china is such a unique place. i mean it is so huge, so it has all kinda of terrain. parts we went to were pretty beautiful. rural. simple. got some fun things to decorate the apt. my family and i were in the yunnan province in south central or southwestern china, visiting guangzhou, kunming, dali, lijiang, guilin and yangshuo.

pros of being in a tour group
1) everything is taken care of
     a) where to eat
     b) where to stay
     c) where to go
     d) how to get anywhere
2) meeting people also on the tour
     a) funny lady who played ping pong w/my brother and me and was smiles all the time
     b) couple who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary... free cake!
     c) tour guides who were all locals of some region or another
     d) sisters who might know someone we know... small world, i love it!
3) who else would sing karaoke on the bus road trip??

cons of being in a tour group
1) everything in chinese, constantly had to ask for translation
2) less free time to do spontaneous things
3) early wake-up calls

okay that is all i can think of right now. on to new year's resolutions.
1) eat healthy
2) exercise more
3) plan a longer-than-a-weekend trip for once instead of just talking about it all the time
4) save money
5) keep more plants alive for longer
6) get more exciting resolutions.... yikes.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 18:10:06 GMT

S N O W D A Y!!

thank you snowstorm for making friday a vacation day. first snow of the winter, pretty exciiiiting. i just wish i had someone to go play IN the snow with. but... i have no gear, i can't drive anywhere, so i'm just enjoying the sun shining into my window. happiness.

here is what i saw on my balcony this morning

side view

the ground from my window

hello robin. *edit: oops, i mean cardinal! thx alex!*

sky just before current sunny conditions

so now i get to relax at home all day. i LOVE IT. and here i thought only schools shut down, hehhehheh. just hope the roads get cleared by tonight so we can go out still!

Monday, May 01, 2006

Mon, 01 May 2006 03:49:55 GMT

st. patrick's day weekend

green beer. coldness. harvard. huang sisters and friends. esthar. vanessa. boondock saints church. freedom trail. and so... much.... foooooood....

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Sun, 02 Apr 2006 06:26:22 GMT

i miss austin sometimes.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 00:08:51 GMT

okay super late again... some moments from shanghai and surrounding areas. 12/24/05-1/1/06. more at my brother's site...

cute kid with shanghai's pudong skyline

familiar advertisements

snakey snake - i always get criticized for not trying new things. so i finally tried this delectable dish, but only 1 pc. tasty, like fried chicken with bendy bones. too bad my brother ate 6 pcs and broke out in a slight case of hives... yeah, try new things, huh??

before
after

buildings - never seen such a huge city.. just stretches for miles on end, skyscrapers everywhere... guess that's what you need for a city of 20 million

hooray, though there weren't very many that we saw at all...

water village just outside shanghai

door handle to mr. hu's residence

his garden

west lake

tea farm

wood imitation of st. peter's square's columns in vatican city

festive - the 3-wheeled vehicle drivers were all on strike, so we leisurely strolled down the streets instead.

bird lady - birds with sticks in their necks dive, catch fish, bird lady pulls fish out of birds' throats.

parents

brilliantly colored duck

Hsu Avenue

bamboo garden - see the first word on the left?

here's where the word bamboo came from. exciting, eh? :)

it's this guy's year next year

slender west lake - bridge within a bridge

hoodlum

sun yat-sen's mausoleum - yes, he is actually buried there. for the people, of the people, by the people.

so many steps. i think 400 or something?

forgot whose tomb this was, but it is quite high.

hook 'em.

heh heh heh, my brother is a warrior.

350+ years old tree

what kind you ask?

big baby.

pearls - not edible

ants - not edib- oh wait, yes they are.

here is proof. mm, crunchy. ick.

back to the airport on the maglev...

in a hurry...

to meet up with my fellow crew members (*hint* red coats).

okay i think this is the biggest post ever. and it oughtta count for maybe 10-15 of them. so many more pics, but can't show em all here. all in all, a very fun trip, so much to see. definitely need to go back someday, especially to ktv. every tour group trip should end with karaoke for 2 hours when returning to shanghai from nanking. hilarious! :D

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 02:48:54 GMT

this is long overdue, but.... THANKSgiving weekend was fun, hung out with family, saw kanye west, and good times in austin...

THANKS to linyee for inviting us to kanye's private party. i promise this bottle was empty before i got there.

THANKS to the inventors of fondue.. this is how we felt after eating 2.5 hours worth of cheesy and chocolatey goodness.

THANKS to grace and nita for being who they are. love y'all!

and finally, THANKS to random pics here's henry, me and too hottie

here is kevin trying to be ghetto

steven grew antlers!

dang it, cwan, stop looking at your own camera please, thanks.

and here is everybody else not included above that came out on a sunday night, despite tests/work/etc, hooray!

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Sat, 10 Dec 2005 07:07:05 GMT

Clear

15°F
Feels Like
1°F

alriiiight... and this is not even the dead of winter yet.... =\
but the snow is pretty to play in! =D
not so fun to drive in...
sorta dangerous to drive in..
i knew it was bad when i thought 35 mph was going fast on the freeway, so

just GO SLOW...

and we'll all be fine, y'all

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 23:56:32 GMT

c h i c a g o nov. 18-20

friday | giordano's deep dish : hotel allegro : lion's head : blue

ann and kelly testing out the beds in our rockin' hotel

saturday | south water kitchen : michigan ave : encore : a christmas carol : 312 chicago : level

brunch at south water kitchen

michigan ave bridge

gorgeous downtown chicago

after the play, before partying

sunday | art institute of chicago : millenium park : ice skating

outside the art institute of chicago

skyline in a giant bean

everyone please notice ann's happy happy face right behind me. all-natural ice skating high

now, for all of you that went to good ol' space center intermediate (or even clear brook), do you recognize the person below?? yes indeed it IS adaeze!! even tho i am on xanga, this is just one example of how facebook can bring people together again.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 05:25:32 GMT

n e w y o r k

friday | spicAy malay dinner | 46 grand

hi ann, jennifer, ben, and keith!

hi justin, leigh, yin, keith, and shaleen!

monday | union square | columbia

hi yen!

and of course, many millions of thanks to my great tour guide