China Pt. 3: Window of the World

I saw a lot of awesome things in China and many things that left a real impression on me.  I hope never to forget some of it, and other things I would be willing to take a drill to my skull in order to lose.  ~Laughs~  Ok, that's a bit extreme.  Anyway, the park Window of the World is definitely one of the things I really enjoyed and would love to do again.  If anyone visits Shen Zhen, I would strongly recommend visiting this place.

Disclaimer:  I was in China for 10 days so I'm in no way qualified to tell you why things are the way they are there. I've made judgements about what I like and dislike but these are founded on a very brief encounter and should not be considered informed nor even necessarily valid. You've been warned. That is all.

My first full day in China was kind of a transit day since Xinye and I were catching a plane to the town his parents lived in in the early evening.  Luckily, Shen Zhen is a fairly large city despite its relative newness and offered one of the most interesting attractions I've ever been to.

We got there by subway (tube for you Englanders).  The entrance/exit to the subway is through a glass pyramid modelled after the one in front of the Louvre in Paris.

The entrance was guarded by statues depicting different cultures' arts and that was only the beginning.  From somewhere inside the park, the top of the Eiffel tower was visible.  The admission price was equal to about £14, which is equal to about $21.

The first thing we see is a large ampitheater with a huge globe behind it which looks like it could open up during a show.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any performances, but we were on a time limit and didn't get to see the whole park anyway.











Next we found a model of The throne hall of Kyongbok Palace, South Korea, then the grand palace of Thailand and then so on and so forth.

Grand Palace, Thailand

Throne Hall of Kyongbok Palace, South Korea

Um... Borobudur, Indonesia?

Cambodia?  Psh, I don't know.

Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma.

Um... another head scratcher.  But it's pretty!

Pulled and Amber right before taking this next picture and spilled stuff on my shirt.  Thus the awkward cover up.  The spitting lion fish thing, by the way, is called the Merlion and is from Singapore.

This is, um, a big impressive dome building from somewhere in Asia... probably.  I dunno.

Above is Xinye standing near the entrance to Bhaja Chaitya Hall, India.  The interior of which is to the right.  Both walls were lined with the pillars, each topped by those little figures and at the end of the chamber was a huge bell shaped thing.  It was all very impressive.This is the Itsukushima Shrine in Japan.

Mount Fuji!  (Inside is a theater where they were showing under-sea 4D movies.

I don't think I'll name everything I took pictures of.  Not because I'm lazy, but because the odds of me misnaming things is high and I don't want to be made fun of.  So there.  Suffice to say that it was amazing fun.


Ooh, I know this one!  The Taj Mahal was amazing!!  As you can see, they didn't just make the building, but the fountain and the trees.  Yes, you may be jealous if you wish.  It is reasonable.

The Taj Mahal!

A close up of the detail on the Taj Mahal entrance.  Pretty cool!

The Taj Mahal was contained in a huge tiled court yard.  So, so pretty.  Maybe I should have gotten the whole thing instead of just the fountain and tree area.

There was an amazing little Japanese town place that had a costume rental place.  It cost about £2 per costume and we could take as many pictures as we wanted in them.  We chose to be royalty... of course.

This next one is Alcazar Castle, Spain... I think.  

And these next are of Venice, St. Mark's Square, Italy.  I was so happy that we went to Window on a Thursday morning.  Almost no one was there which, I think, really helped my pictures.  If you've noticed, there aren't a bunch of strangers in my pictures, and it's not because they were all so busy being awed at the amazing, talented, and beautiful foreigner.  It's because they were all busy being at work!  Ha!  Sukers.

 Xinye's so good to me.  I asked him to pole-dance and he was kind enough to do so because there was no one else there.  (But now I'm sneaking it onto the internet, hehehe)

Crap.  I knew what this was when I was taking a picture of it, but all of a sudden, my mind is going blank.  I think there have been just too many pictures.  That's my excuse.  Is this Winchester Abbey?  Um, I think so.  Anyone want to tell me different?  It might... might be the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.

 And the Leaning Tower of Pisa!  Well, the park says it's the Pisa Leaning Tower and the picture below is of the Pisa Church of Italy.  Heh.  I guess I'm just an American because I didn't even know that the leaning tower had anything to do with a church.  It's pretty though, right?

 This is the Versailles Palace.  This is the big old court yard in front of the palace and below is the statue of some prince or other.  I'm guessing Phillipe, but I don't know because it wasn't labelled. Jeeze.  Don't these people know that people like me are going to be showing up with no fore-knowledge of anything of culture??

It was the ultimate luxury to be a world traveller without all the jet lag and inconvenience of having to pack and repack and spend a ridiculous amount of time on air-planes and all the other things people don't like about travelling.  I was practically giddy that I was taking pictures of all the famous monuments of the world so easily and comfortably.

You may know that I've been to Stone Henge and taken so many pictures I could put every one to sleep showing them all, but my camera was stolen before I uploaded the pictures and they were lost forever.  I got to make up for that just a little here.  This might even have been better because I could get right up close to these monoliths and even sit on them!

 Heh.  When I first saw this, I shouted out, 'Ooh, look!  It's the tower of Babel!  That's awesome!'  But alas, it was not to be.  Turns out this building is The Tower of Kuwait... which I think it slightly less impressive.  I think it was a grain silo or something.

 And these things are labelled on my map as part of the tower or Kuwait tower.  Don't know how.  Doesn't look like they belong with the spiral tower at all.

 This is part of the Wall and Clock Towers of Kremlin in Russia.

Yep, still Russia.  So pretty!  

Buckingham Palace!!  Aw, like being at home.

L'Arc de Triomphe, France.

It cost a little money, but Xinye and I went to the top of Eiffel tower.  At least I didn't have to climb any stairs!  Oh, and I got a picture of the sign outside the elevator.  Can you spot the Engrish?  Hehehe.

 This was a random Europian town they built.  Wish I'd had time to explore it!

This is a shot of the inside roof of L'Arc.  Pretty cool.  Never knew there was that much detail.

London Bridge!  

 The gardens of Versailles.  The detail of this maze was amazing.

Notre Dame!  How awesome is that??

Ok, yes, this pictures is a little crooked, but that's because it was hot and we'd been walking around for hours already and my attention to little details like 'straightness' didn't seem vitally important at that moment in time.

No replicas here.  Just thought the tree was cool looking.

 The Sydney Opera House, which is awesome because I've been wanting to see this in real life for a long time now.  Perhaps next time I get a picture like this I can get a couple from the inside as well!

 The red mesa thing in Australia.  It looked better in real life.  You'll just have to go there and see for yourself.

Yes, that is me conducting my imaginary orchestra.  I'm a natural.  I can tell.

The Mermaid... Australia?  It doesn't say.

The Idyllic Sights of Windmills and Tulips, Holland.

The Acropolis of Athens, Greece.

Really hope you guys recognize these.  The Colosseum, Italy!

Ooh, aw!  So pretty!  And intractable.  See?

And then I found America!  The coolest part about that was that I'd actually seen the real versions of half the things they had there.  But again, it was a chance to get up close and personal with it all.

My first attempt at the panorama setting on my phone because my camera had run out of batteries by this time.  This is New York, by the way.  No one's updated it though.  See the twin towers?

New York again, a little closer.

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Why yes, that is Mount Rushmore and the White house and the capitol, all in one picture.  Now that's talent!  Woot!

Apparently, there were jaguars in all native american camps... who all lived in Teepees.

The Globose, Mexico

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Me being as serious as ever

I'm pretty sure these are the Statues of Warriors in Mexico

Me being a Easter Head

Do you see the Jesus back there?  From Brazil?

Ran out of time to see the dinosaurs.

There was a statue garden which I wish we'd had more time to explore.  We only got a couple pictures with the ones that were right in the way between us and the exit.  This might be one of my first stops on my return trip to the Window of the World park.

Xinye thinking really hard.  Not that funny.

Me thinking hard.  Hilarious.

..... Delusions of grandeur.  

...What did you do to your baby??

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I was trying to dance with her, but the effect just didn't work out like I'd hoped.

I think this was supposed to be Moses, but he had horns, and a huge beard, so I decided to ask him for a  brand new car. Keep your fingers crossed!

Xinye thought it would be funny to get a picture of me trying to get off the horse.  At least it isn't a video!

Oh... crap.  

That's embarrassing.

Mean, mean lady!!

China Pt. 2: Bathrooms

Huh? Wha...? She went to China with one of the longest histories and the most inventions and the richest culture and she's talking about the bathrooms??

Yes.

Disclaimer: I was in China for 10 days so I'm in no way qualified to tell you why things are the way they are there. I've made judgements about what I like and dislike but these are founded on a very brief encounter and should not be considered informed nor even necessarily valid. You've been warned. That is all.

I had just arrived at the Hong Kong airport and had to go to the bathroom. I'm tired, I'm excited, I'm nervous and I decide to go to the bathroom before anything out of my comfort zone happens so that at least I'll be that much less distracted facing new things.

I'm pushing my way into a very normal looking public stall and almost trip. I look down to find that the floor, beginning right at the stall entrance, is raised by three or four inches. Hm, strange... and then I see the toilet. Duh, duh, DUH!!!

Yes. That is a hole in the ground, masquerading as a toilet. Sigh. I've heard of these before, of course, but I had always shuddered at the thought of ever having to use one. You straddle the hole and then squat.

Guest bathroom in one of Xinye's relative's house.  Master bathroom had a regular toilet.

I'm embarrassed to admit now, but I was too scared to try this. I waited patiently for the handicap stall to be available because it had a real life sit down toilet. In my defence, there was a sign on the toilet door that said "For the Weak" and I figured that included me. I did eventually use the squatting toilet. Twice, in fact. Once when there was no choice, and once more when I decided that it needed to be a part of my experience of Asia. (Side note: I had to hang onto a bar in front of me the first time and lean back because I was afraid I'd miss and get myself [pants, shoes, etc.] wet, but the second time I handled the squatting like a pro... I think)

Another harsh lesson learned in the bathrooms of China, is that they don't necessarily provide toilet paper. Cheap skates.

Nobody had warned me about this.

I was a little confused the first time I was caught in the bathroom without toilet paper. I wondered to myself if the Chinese had some way of going that kept them clean so they didn't need it. I was thinking, "Wow, they should share this with the world. Why hasn't it caught on? It must have something to do with the squatting toilet." Oh, my naivety knows no bounds. After that, I just tried to go only at home where they had toilet paper.

Finally, Xinye's cousins, Ben, cleared up the riddle. No, Chinese people did need toilet paper. Everyone carries their own around. If you're suddenly caught in a public place and find you need to use the facilities while unarmed with toilet paper, you're SOL unless the friend you're with is carrying tissue paper or is willing to go buy you some while you wait in the bathroom. Ben had studied in England so he'd gotten used to the Western bathrooms and the toilet paper being provided. When he moved back to China he'd been caught a couple times calling or texting friends to bring him tissue. Lol.

I was very happy, and very lucky, that the homes I stayed at all had western style toilets. However, this did not mean western style bathrooms.

The first home I stayed at in Shen Zhen had a normal toilet, but there was no shower stall or bath tub. There was just a shower head and a drain in the floor. Ok... That's interesting.

I know I look all pretty.  That's because I'd just woken up the day after being awake for almost 24 hours.  So there.

Also, something having to do with the water, which I didn't understand, but you had to flush by pouring a bucket of water into the toilet bowl. Ok... interesting.

It's kind of a running joke, women constantly having to train their men to put the toilet seat down after using it to pee. Not in China!! There, the women put the seat up after they're done with it. They do this to keep the toilet seat clean. This kind of made sense to me when there was no partition to keep shower water from getting all over the toilet and when having to dump water from a bucket into the bowl, but even people with a shower stall kept the seat up. It was a real culture... well, not shock because it wasn't big enough to make me uncomfortable, it was just weird.

Another bathroom that I visited, but did not take a picture of was one in which the toilet was inside the shower stall. Why? I have no idea. You had to slide the glass door open to get to the toilet or make a slight right to get to the shower nozzle.

And that concludes my commentary on the bathrooms of China.

China Pt. 1

So, yes, I just got back from China where I visited for 10 days during Chinese New Year. Stupid me, I did not think to bring a note book with me, so now I'm going to be recalling everything from my memory, and everyone who knows me well is groaning right about now because my memory is so so so bad. Oops. I didn't have access to facebook while I was there because it is an illegal site there and no one has access. On the bright side, however, I did take pictures so hopefully those will help me with any memory gaps. After very little consideration, I have decided to break up my postings on my experiences in China into categories instead of going in chronological order. The only reason for this is that it will make it easier for me to post relevant pictures. So here in this first posting I will give you the general timeline of events and then in following posts you'll get the meat and potatoes of the story. I left England on January 17 at 9:30pm. My very nice friend Anna actually gave me a ride most of the way to the airport since I had a very heavy duffel bag with me and it would have been inconvenient carrying it on the tube. The flight to Hong Kong was 12 hours long (OK, slight exaggeration. It was 11 hours 35 minutes long) and incredibly boring because it didn't have any of the movies I wanted to watch. I ended up settling for Cowboys and Aliens, which I don't really recommend, though it was better than nothing, and several other movies that I don't even remember now because they made so little impression on me. I got into Hong Kong at about 6pm Wednesday, local time. Xinye had been sweet enough to sneak across the boarder to pick me up from the airport. Don't know if I was the only one who didn't know this, but since England gave Hong Kong back to China, it's become pretty much a new country. Hong Kong has different currency than China, has different color passports, and immigration checks between the boarders of China and Hong Kong. I'm so glad he did because I would have been well and truly lost if I had tried to find the bus to the boarder and then on to Shen Zhen (pronounced Shen Jen) without him. Most people in Hong Kong speak english because of the long occupation by England, but it still would have been difficult for me. It took about an hour and a half to get from the Hong Kong airport to the place we were staying for the night. One of Xinye's cousins lives in Shen Zhen so we stayed at his house since our flight for Gui Yang, where his parents live, wasn't leaving until about 4pm on Thursday. I went to sleep almost right away upon reaching the cousin's house. (Cousin's english name is Ben, by the way) Ben was at an office party and wouldn't be home until late and I had only had a brief nap on the plane so I was really tired. The next morning, Thursday, we got up pretty early and went to a park called Window of the World, or Window to the World, or something like that. It was really cool and I took a lot of pictures. That will probably be my second or third posting with so many pictures you'll cry. We left from the park and went to the Shen Zhen airport and a little more than two hours after take off, I met Xinye's parents for the first time. They were totally sweet and really happy to see their son since he hadn't be home in more than a year. I think his mom started crying. There was a little awkwardness in my greeting to them because of the language barrier and because his mom had had a serious cold and felt that half of her face still wasn't working right. I never saw any evidence of it, but it made her really self conscious. She had a couple acupuncture appointments while I was there in order to fix the problem. A half hour or so later and we were at Xinye's parents' house which was on the twelfth floor of a huge apartment building, which I came to find out was not unusual. We went to sleep fairly quickly as jet lag was rearing its ugly head. I was pleasantly surprised at how much his mom had worried about me and my eating habits. She had a fork ready for me in case chopsticks proved to be beyond my skills, had bought cereal and milk and even some pasta for me along with bread and jelly. The next day we went to a giant hotel to check out its buffet that we were going to eat at later and then went to visit Xinye's grandma on his mom's side. She was a really sweet lady who, for some reason took a liking to me, despite the fact that I fell asleep after half an hour or so of being at her house. No one really spoke any english and I was tired, so it was inevitable. We also went to see one of Xinye's violin teachers in order to catch up some. The next day, Saturday the 21st, is when the real eating began. Most of Xinye's mom's family got together at a restaurant and there I tried dog meat for the first time. Everyone watched me surreptitiously watching me to see how I would react to it and if I'd actually eat it. If they hadn't told me what it was, I would have no idea that it wasn't beef. My pallet is just too numb to be able to tell the difference between tastes. Sunday was my mom's birthday but I couldn't call and I didn't have access to a computer so I was glad that I'd told her before I left that this might be the case and happy birthday. It was also New Years eve. I met more of Xinye's family including a cousin named Joy who speaks amazing english and her dad who spoke broken but understandable english and went to great lengths to communicate with me. We ate a huge dinner again on this day. Xinye and I went and bought some fireworks from from a corner store. We spent the night firing them off with his cousins. It was amazing and also fantastically freezing. On the first day of the new year, the year of the dragon, we had a huge dinner with Xinye's dad's family. That was Monday. I sang karaoke and learned the art of toasting your elders. The second day of the new year, we spent with Xinye's cousins and family. Xinye, his mom, his cousins and I went to the hotel buffet that we had scouted when we had first gotten to Gui Yang. By this time, I was a little disenchanted with buffets because it's how we'd been eating our whole time in China, but it was delicious! That night he and I went to a different park with a festival of lights. Wednesday, was yet another huge dinner with an off-chute of Xinye's dad's family. I learned how to play majong on this day. I had thought that majong was just matching tiles that were put in different shapes because that's the game I'd played on my phone. But oh no. That's the western way of playing. Majong is actually a really like an incredibly complicated version of the card game Rummy. Thursday, Xinye and I visited his mother's mother one more time before we had to leave Gui Yang on our way back to Hong Kong. Our flight left around 7pm and this time we spent the night at one of Xinye's mother's friend's house in Shen Zhen. The plan had been to explore a little bit of Hong Kong on Friday and then go to the airport where we would spend the night because our flight left at 8:30am Saturday. We really didn't want to carry our luggage around with us though and since we couldn't figure out what to do with it all, we eventually let ourselves be talked into renting a hostel room where we could leave our stuff, and then sleep on Friday night instead of the those ultra comfy chairs at the airport. We spend a lot of Friday just getting into Hong Kong, through all the security checks and immigration stuff and then checking into the hostel. Finally though, we got to walk about on the streets around the hostel and we found a huge street market that reminded us a lot of Portabello market in England, or a non-food version of the farmer's market in California. It was chalk full of everything and anything you could possibly want from China including fake designer bags. The only think I didn't find there was the pokemon toys my friend had asked me to find for her. I searched high and low, but the only stuffed animal I found was Pikachu. I was bummed. We got back to the hostel room kinda late that night then woke up at round 5 Saturday morning, caught a bus to the airport at 6, and were in the air at 8:40 Saturday morning. The flight back took closer to 14 hours and I was irritated, thinking that we were taking a different, slower route home and that the regulations that dictated our going out of our way were ridiculous when we could be travelling at a different altitude instead. It was only later that I realized that it took longer because the world was turning the same direction we were flying this time, instead of bringing our destination closer to us, so I chilled out after that. heh. Xinye and I landed in Heathrow London at about 1:40pm, tired and dirty and ready to be home. And that's my very sparse story of China. There will be much more detail coming but for right now, I'm going to start some homework. Wish me luck!!

Xinye's Birthday

Alright, so I'm not going to apologize for how long it's been since I've posted. Mostly because, while sincere, the apology would be pointless since I can't promise it's not going to happen again.

After spending two weeks in London, England, I was forced to go home to America in order to pack up some things and get rid of the rest so that I could return to my boyfriend as soon as possible.

And two weeks later, I'm back. A million and one thanks to Xinye for buying my plane ticket after a skunk in weasel's clothing stole all my furniture and electronics!!

I've been here for a little over two weeks now and I'm so very happy. I'm looking for a job and have an interview tomorrow for an internal accounts management position. It sounds rather like a glorified retail position to me, but I wouldn't turn it down if it were offered to me.

Ok, and on to the actual point of this post! It's Xinye's birthday today! Yay! He actually went to work. What a responsible guy. I wouldn't have gone to work...

Anyway, he was kind enough to pick out his own birthday present, which was good because I probably would have gotten him something he didn't really want and that would not have been a good first birthday experience at all. He picked out a memory chip for his phone so when it got here, I bought a birthday card. I wish I could scan it because it's so fitting. The card has these two dogs on the front and one is handing his friend a wrapped bone (it's completely wrapped but it's completely obvious what it is because of the shape) and saying, "Open it! I can't wait. The anticipation is killing me!" Lol. And the receiver just tuts.

My sweetest Xinye was incredibly wonderful and made me feel very appreciated. That was Sunday because even though we're technically celebrating his birthday on Saturday, he just couldn't wait for his present. heh.

Tonight we're going out to a Spanish restaurant and on Saturday, we're baking a cheesecake together (it's one of his favorites) and I'm going to sing happy birthday. I'm trying to think of what else I can do, because it seems a little small... and less than I'd like to do for him, but I'm drawing a complete blank. It's also a lot harder because what ever money I spend is really going to be his until I get a job.

Erm, there are plenty more stories, but that's going to be it for this posting. Still haven't gotten my camera back from Tokyo Joe's. Grrr. Later!

Amusement Park

While in England, Xinye and I visited an amusement park, and call me Bob if I can never remember the name of the thing. Something to do with Towers.

Anyway! It was one of the cold days when we went. Xinye wore his coat and I wore my sweater. The regular rides were still a lot of fun. The wind in our faces was not so chilly as to chap our skin or burn our ears. And therefore it was not cold enough, apparently, for Xinye because he decided we needed to ride a water ride. And not at the end of the day either, but the second or third ride had to be a splashy, how wet can we get? ride.

The nearest water ride to us when the decision was rendered, was the really short one with the huge boat that goes up, then comes down and the giant tidal wave soaks everyone in the boat and on the bridge that spans the water channel. We have something like it here called the Tidal Wave, I think.

Anyway, Xinye, because he's a genius, says, "Take off your sweater and leave it so it won't get wet. You'll have something dry to put on at the end." He followed his own advice and deposited his coat in the holding cubbies. And I, being stubborn and ridiculously optimistic, reply, "No, that's ok. We're sitting in front. I'm hoping to slip under the wave and not get too wet." ...Yeah.......

As soon as the boat went splashing into the water at the bottom of the ride, I knew that my hopes of staying semi-dry were doomed. I ducked my head, trying at least to have only my back water-logged at the end.

And that's when my hero came to the rescue. I felt Xinye throw himself over me, taking the brunt of the water onslaught. Ha! How sweet is that?!? I got all mealty, gewey inside.

But only the inside, because on the outside, I was very cold. I'm a bigger person than Xinye, so he could not protect all of me. I had minor stripes of wetness and poor Xinye had very thin strips of dryness. He was positively soaked and shivering. But since I'd been foolish enough not to leave my sweater behind, and I had no protection from the chill, he gallantly gave me his coat, his warm, dry coat, to wear.

Yep. Swooned. Right there in the park. I'd found a gentleman. Poor guy probably would have tried to carry me if I had actually fainted. So happy.

We were fairly cold for a couple hours after that, but the freezing cold air coming at us 60 mph as we made our rounds through the roller coasters helped dry us off a little faster. Plus I had plenty of time to wring out his shirt as we stood in line. We left little puddles at at least 3 rides.

And that was the Towers amusement park in England.

Oops...

Ok! So it has been some time since the last post, but as usual, I have a good excuse. There was a post a couple months ago about a London guy named Xinye that I met on EHarmony. Well, turned out that our conversations went so well that we decided a face-to-face was in order. So, I've been in London England for the last two weeks.

I have to admit that I had a little fear that all the wonderful things that I liked about him would turn out to be things I imagined because I was not close enough to him to see the truth. That turned out not to the the case, however.

While I did not get to spend the entire time with him, we were able to do quite a few things together.

I visited a couple amazing open air markets. While I have been to farmers' markets here, they were a little different in London. For one thing, I noticed that there were military uniforms for sale everywhere! And that's awesome for me because I have a thing for uniforms. There were also a lot more countries represented than just the one we were in at the time. There was a Russian stand that sold fur hats and coats. There were French stands selling art, wine, jewelery, and clothes. There were African stands selling interesting bowls, plates, and other tableware. I'm sure there were many other countries accounted for that I simply did not recognize or pay proper attention to. Oh, and there were some American ones too.

Ooh, I got to see the Lion King musical. That was amazing. They did some incredible things that brought the movie scenes to life.

I also got to go to the Lake District with Xinye. It was beautiful. We took a boat ride and toured one of the lakes and its huge houses. My precious even got me a pair of pretty earrings that go well with a few of my shirts. Awesome!

And, I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but I've been waiting for years, about 5 years, to go to Magic Mountain. Well, Xinye took me to an amusement park. There were some huge rides that scared the poo out of me, and some fun ones that made me laugh til it was hard to breathe. Was awesome!

We went to a huge museum together. It very nearly rivalled the Smithsonian. Of course, my feet were hurting so bad by this day, that I couldn't walk the whole thing. He was really sweet and let me take plenty of sitting breaks. We made it through the dinosaur exhibit and some of the mammal, and human exhibits.

I have pictures on Facebook of almost everything I'm talking about here. Just look under the England photo album.

There are more stories, and more details later.