Home Sweet Home

I'm back in L.A. had my inn-n-out, tacos, tamales, and tostadas. Maybe this will turn into a food blog! ah, who am I kidding, I won't keep up with it, plus I've got my client project to think about now. 2008 Ch Ch Ch China officially closed.

last weeks

Just got back from Hong Kong and will be making my way to Beijing tomorrow. I'll be travelling for the next couple of weeks and then I'll be home!! YAY! I won't have internet in most of the places I'm going to, so this will be the last post for a long time.

Farewell CAUPD

Today is my last day of work at CAUPD. It's pouring out and the sound of the rain is washing out the Buena Vista Social Club I've got playing on my dinky laptop speakers. The windows are all fogged up b/c even though it's raining, it's hot as hell, muggy and sticky, but there's something charming about it all, and I'm definitely having a China moment. Remember the Simpson's episode where Sideshow Bob turns over a new leave and finds a new love for Bart? And he sings, “I’ve become accustomed to his face..”? Well, we all know that love affair didn’t last, but that’s how I feel about China and the wacky Chinese. I’ve become accustomed to this place, even though at times I wanted to strangle the lady who would knock me over with her sweaty body in the Metro, or the dude that would push me out of line after I’ve been waiting F..O…R..E..V..E..R for a Lillian cake. I don’t’ even bat an eye anymore when I see some guy walking out in his under-roos drying off with a tiny dish rag. These are all everyday China encounters that make this place oh-so-special. The duckie wading in plastic bins (maybe more like duckie for dinner) and babies walking around in ass-less chaps are the highlights. I’ll miss it here.

Gush

I told my sister-in-law that I had a very, “happy china” day yesterday. I left work early and made my way down to see the Andy Warhol Solo Exhibit in shanghai. I had to ask my colleague to write the cross streets of the gallery in Chinese (cab drivers don’t read-a-dee engrish), and he asked me what was there. I told him the Warhol exhibit, and he didn’t know who he was! I said: Campbell’s soup? Monroe? MAO? Nothing. And I realized that Warhol is quintessentially an American artist, and wondered how good can the show be in China where most Chinese don’t seem to even recognize his name? In any case, I went, and it was spectacular. Hands down, one of my favorite Shanghai moments for two reasons: it satiated the designer as well as the dorky planner in me.

Graphic designers are like punk rock fans, they like to take first dibbs on the occult following for any artist, Lissitzky, Laslo. And with Warhol they like to tout that they’ve appreciated his work as a designer and illustrator far before he became regarded as the king of pop art. And when I say graphic designers, I mean me. Warhol isn’t one of my favorites, but I’ve always liked his simple illustrations and sensuous still lifeS. He had a way of making a vase of flowers look like it was dripping with emotion, so it was a real treat to see some of his early work. Secondly, the space was breathtaking and was not only a perfect venue to represent Warhol’s raw, industrial side, but was in itself a perfect example of adaptive re-use.

The building was an old shanghai steel company that was built in the 50’s and the original textures were all retained. The 3,000 square meter structure is split into two exhibit spaces and also holds commercial space housing lots of trendy design companies. The building sits on a 50,000 square meter open area with a dedicated sculpture park. Of course a lot of American companies are building satellite offices, taking advantage of the rent that’s cheap now, but will change and eventually push out the cool bookstores and cafes~sigh. nothing is perfect. (I’m feeling a client project coming on here!) Update on my travels: I’m working my Last few days here at the CAUPD and then I’m off to Hong Kong and Beijing!

Why can't you see my video posting of the soccer game? Well, because NBC Universal Sports claimed it as copyrighted material and took it down. Let's all thank Dick Ebersol (Chairman, who by the way didn't even make the NBCOlympic coverage-stream available internationally, derr.) for censoring my creative expression. THANKS DICK!
Pictures of me are still allowed, here's one with one of the Olympic mascots: Yingying, the tibetan antelope.

Two Hips and One Hooray

Korea v. Honduras was my third and favorite soccer game I've gone to thus far. Obviously, b/c i was invested in the game given the fact that my motherland was playing, but it was the crowd that made it extra enjoyable. Koreans are wacky fans, and every 3 minutes a "cheer leader" would start a dorky, yet, oh so endearing, hoot for the Korean team. Video clip for your viewing pleasure.

Moment of silence please for the pathetic 3:0 loss, Italy v. Korea. I know it was expected, but still.

Kobe vs Australia

I've had some surreal moments here but I think hanging out all night with the U.S. Basketball team is at the top of my list. Ok, i know "hanging out" connotes actual conversation and interaction with the players, but i'm gonna throw it out there b/c i did get invited to their table, drank the same champagne they were having, and introduced myself to the infamous Kobe Bryant. I usually don't cap people's names when i type (b/c I am lazy) but his name seems cap worthy. In any case, i shook his hand, and my hand felt like the size of a gumball as his monster-sized hands wrapped around mine. Embarassingly i needed a tutorial on who was who. Huge, intimidating guy? Labron James. Guy in the ridiculous, RED, track outfit? Dwyane Wade. I thought to myself, who is this guy with his uber flashy outfit? yes, i judged, but quickly shut up when i saw him on the courts the next day. I went to the exhibition game: U.S. vs Australia and thought he was the most impressive guy playing that night. I'm no expert, and i'm also the last person to understand the caliber of talent i was surrounded by that night, but even i was tickled by the whole situation.

Nanjing and Olympic Fever

I know it’s been a while since I last blogged, and a lot has happened so I’ll give a quick wrap up of the weekend. I got back from Nanjing on Sunday and every time I go to the train station I’m amazed at how many people are traveling. There are always a sea of black heads running and shoving their way to the station’s platform. The Nanjing train station had a little more character than the rest of the stations I’ve been to. It had this old world quality to it, and the way the trains were separated made the class distinctions here in China all the more apparent. The old trains were stationed to the left, with the even older, dingier carts stationed behind them and the newer trains, seen in this picture, to your right. I wish I could’ve taken a shot of each person in the different “classes” of trains, it looked like a still taken from The Darjeeling Limited, each traveler’s expression had a distinct and colorful character.
When I got back to Shanghai, I could feel that there was a different level of excitement and energy in the air. The Olympic games are two days away, and a lot of athletes have trickled into the city for a brief visit before making their way to Beijing. When I was at the Ritz the other day, what was before an easy entrance turned into an airport-esque screening scene. The guard made me drink my water ( I guess it looked like acid) and watched me swallow. I didn’t realize what was going on til I saw a mob and the Australian soccer team roll in. More stories to tell, but I think I’d better get some work done first.

Accomplishing Zero

I don't know how I'm expected to do anything without CS. I started digging through folders on my computer looking for an "applications" folder. All I see is: 甲方资料, 我的文档, and some more 新建文件夹. I couldn't find photoshop, illustrator, not even coreldraw. I did however find these cute, sleepy bunnies.

Another Layer of China

Went on a site visit to the Shanghai International Container Terminal and visited OOCL’s warehouse and shipping yard. OOCL (Orient Overseas Container Line) is one of the world’s largest international container transport companies. Companies like OOCL make imported goods that we’re so accustomed to, all possible: Japanese razor clams, fancy French cheeses, and probably every piece of clothing you are wearing right now. These ports are operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, no holidays, no breaks, moving goods at the most competitive price. Companies have even built vessels that are too large to fit through the Panama Canal in order to move goods faster. Both the PR rep for China’s ports and the OOCL rep knew we were planning students interested in logistics, but I don’t think they understood the reasons why we were interested, and couldn’t give us clear answers for anything. Questions like: is that housing right next the container yard? Is that a woman and child in that container transport truck? Is pollution even a consideration? What’s the employee base and how many are contracted? Answers: Yes. Uh, maybe. Pollution? 900 in each phase. I didn’t even bother to ask about worker’s safety and health insurance. I’m not gonna claim to understand all the intricacies associated with international trade and I’ll be the first to admit, I love me some imported Umeboshi and shopping at Costco, but after seeing the ports, you can’t help but rethink the way you consume.

Non-Stop

Part of my site has a historic railroad that we’d like to preserve, so about three hours ago I started researching cases of adaptive re-uses for old train depots, and true to my schizo form when browsing the internet, I found myself completely sidetracked: watched Al Gore’s speech to re-power America, read a great, GREAT article on designing new landscapes for the metropolis, and freaked out about the U.S. economy. The interesting thing about it all is that all roads lead back to China. Everything I read today, touched on, mentioned, or gooed over the unprecedented growth China is experiencing. We’ll have to reckon with the social, economic and environmental impacts this sort of development will have on our future. And I’m seeing firsthand how China is constructing around-the-clock, the biggest, longest, tallest airports, malls, skyscrapers, bridges, you name it. Can China be the next superpower? Well, if development is any indication of a country’s potential, then I think China is first in line.

Weekend Trip: Suzhou

Chris and I were being uber goofy at the Humble Gardens in Suzhou. We were taking it seriously the first two hours as we walked the grounds and then the last couple hours were a blur, everything started to look the same. At night, we stumbled upon a great side street lined with hanging red lanterns. It was enchanting and cinematic, like something you'd see in a Wong Kar Wai film.

Happy Friday

I’m watching a bootleg of “Wanted” right now with Angelina Jolie. Yes, I work, I’m just taking a break at the moment. It’s what we do here in China, work, work, work, and then play! My coworker has Will and Grace on her screen and the guy in front of me is passed out on his cot, which is pretty much his daily ritual. I presented my drawings for the riverfront project this morning, and it went really well. They didn’t bat an eye when I proposed the idea of a 500m sky bridge that would link the new city with the old town across the river. Lofty, I know, but they didn’t laugh at me, which is always a good sign.
Weekend Plans: Making my way to Suzhou. Hangzhou last week, Suzhou this week, lot’s of joes’ in China. Suzhou is one of the major cities in the Yangtze River Delta, and the State Council considers it a “relatively” large city~I can’t imagine what they consider large, b/c like Hangzhou, Suzhou has a population that’s in the 6 millions.
Today’s Anecdote: I went to buy my train ticket yesterday and ended up having a conversation with Yahoo’s, Chinese to English translator-function online. The woman I was interacting with didn’t speak any English, so out of frustration, she starts furiously typing Chinese into the program and it spits out, “I retroactively present withdrawal payment”… Exactly.

You Scream, I Scream, We all Scream for Canteen!

It's time to show you some pictures of "THE CANTEEN". I usually point at a plate, and it's almost always a guess. Notice the block of rice, remember my first post on the canteen? ya, well, my sentiments for the place hasn't changed. Hm, I hope none of my colleagues read this...Uh, I love the canteen!

Slideshow of Hangzhou

Hangzhou Continued

Us trying to figure out our train ride back to Shanghai. First class was sold out so we had to ride the old, slow train: travel time 2.5 hours.
I had the pleasure of being in this guy's line of sight for the duration of the ride.

Hangzhou

The TV in the hotel always turns on to the same channel, 3, which plays constant adverts on Hangzhou City. It's known for it's natural landscape, scenic lakes and mountains, and was the destination for my first weekend trip outside of Shanghai. We thought we were going to the countryside, but turns out Hangzhou is bigger than most U.S. states with a modest population of 6.6 million people so we only got to see a sliver of the city. Nonetheless it was gorgeous and we rode our bikes for four hours around the major lake. I forgot how satisfying it is to ride a bike and how much ground you cover when you pedal around a city. Ok, so here we go, from the top.
The first class train to Hangzhou was very nice, clean and fast: travel time 1 hour.

eh, it's taking too long to upload. I'll post some more pictures tomorrow.

Phone number

So I bought a new cell phone. Gun, the go to guy for chinese translations to english at work, took me the other day. China Mobile is like Verizon in the U.S. and the customer service is the same.. you take a number and sit. the difference is there's a computer screen that lists all the available phone numbers and you get to choose your cell number. So Gun takes me to the phone number kiosk and tells me to pick my number. a screen with a list of more than 30 sets of numbers pops up onto the screen and Gun says, "you choose" and stares at me intently seeing if i'm gonna pick the "right number" like it was a test or something. I hesitated for a moment, more so b/c i was trying to see if there were any numbers that were easy to remember. But gun took my pause as a sign that i was dissatisfied with my choices and said, "ah, you want more choices" (in a tone that made me think i made the right choice for not choosing any numbers on the first page) and then scrolled to the next page.

I saw a number with the only same double digits in a row and went for it: 13601849844and as the printer was spitting out my newly chosen number, gun looks at me and says,

"are you sure you want that number?"

I tell him it's fine and that the 44 as the last two digits makes the number somewhat easy to remember. He gave me a puzzled look and said,

"o..ooo..hhh... ok"

After all the paper work was signed and i was handed my fresh "anycall" phone, Gun shares with me that the Chinese don't like the number four and that it means death. He said, "but dont' worry, b/c you have a couple eights in your number, which means money!"

I smiled at him and quiety thought to myself great, i'm gonna make alot of money and then die. So here it is guys, my expensive, deathly mobile number: (021) 13601849844

Shuffle Truffle

I made my very own pile of fish bones on the table today. I think i'm starting to look like a local customer now, so much so that the woman sweeping the floors straight up swept over my feet with her, oh so sanitary, wet mop~sweet!! This is my highlight of the day, truffles from the Hyatt pastry shop. And by the time I uploaded this image, I already ate all three. The white chocolate wasn't good, white chocolate is never good!

something different~please.

I'm so sick of rice. I know! I'm the one Asian in the group, and I seem to be the only one that is OVER the food they're giving us. We're fed lunch and dinner, at what they call the "canteen", which is just fancy talk for cafeteria. First of all, you have to go through plastic butcher blinds, wait in line and then point to which stainless-steel tray of food you'd like. They usually serve two, veggie-type dishes, a meat dish and a block of rice. The meat is never boneless, and apparently, keeping the bones on your plate is improper etiquette so you’ll see piles of bones on all the tables. Anything that falls on your lap should be brushed to ground and not placed back on the table, which would be sweet for Casperger. I have a picture of a woman whose sole job is to sweep the floor while people are eating, but I don’t know how to get it off my camera. Here's a picture of the canteen food and my classmates chowing down. Oh, and since I've moved to the new hotel (which is another story, maybe to be told in person) I've had access to breakfast-more rice.

mom leaves and takes cell phone

My mom left Shanghai today~sniffle, sniffle. She also took my cell phone with her. For a few days, I had a cell, and now I am once again mobile-less. I got to spend all day with her yesterday and was able to show her the little I know about the city. I stuck to the areas where people can speak a little bit of english, and we made it back to the hotel, each with both kidneys in tact.
Did i mention it was hot here? b/c i think i saw a dog crying yesterday cuz his paws were melting on the ground.

work + heat = sleepy

There are so many random events that I've encountered since I got hear last week, but first things first. I've been assigned to a project! last week, the four UCLA students gave 25 minute presentations on their research. I had one day to prepare and of course I procrastinated and worked on it the morning of. It was a little nerve racking b/c not only was the presentation an introdcution of ourselves, but it was also a way to help the director determine which projects he would put us on (ie. cool project or mailroom.) Lucky for me, I landed a super interesting gig and will be working on the redesign of a water-front city in the Hunan province. The project is an international design competition and we have to come up with a master plan in two months, which seems crazy fast, but apparantly it's how they roll here in China.

First Encounters

I was greeted by a very sirley driver that was not amused by my bastardized greeting in his language. I immediatedely felt the rush of "oh my god what am i gonna do!" when i charaded and said "mobile phone" and he took me the nearest pay phone, which is part of the reason why i still don't have a cell phone yet. So our drive into the city was long, it took an hour and half, there were three accidents, and multiple men pulled over and peeing in the street. Hello Shanghai!

Last Day in Seoul

I'll finally be making my way to Shanghai tomorrow. Checked into the Hyatt Regency near Incheon Airport to get as much sleep as possible. Julie, your pops wakes up at the crack of dawn, and sleeping in is pretty much impossible. So the next blog i post should be from China!

Back in Korea

I'm back in Seoul now. Hong Kong was one of my favorites. It's really an impressive city. Getting there was a bit precarious, I almost died on the plane, well, not really. but everyone on the plane thought they'd met their end. We got caught in the tail end of tropical storm and it felt like we were passengers on a toy plane and godzilla was shaking us like we were a snow globe. I was sleeping, all curled up and crooked, in a horribly un-ergonomic way and probably would've broken my neck if my mom didn't wake me up to put on my seatbelt (She's got crazy spidey sense). As soon as i clicked the belt, I think we dropped a 100 ft in a split second. I'm no expert so I don't even know if that's possible (estevie is it?) In any case, people were tossed around like rag dolls and a few passengers and flight attendants were taken away by medics as soon as we landed. It only lasted a few seconds but boy were we shook up.

Thailand

So my itenerary is a bit off. At the airport now and I'm off to Thailand for two days. Sinagpore was great, HOOOOOOT and humid - so much so it was work to breathe.

HONG KONG

I just arrived in Hong Kong. I'm so EXCITED!!!! to be here! there are cranes everywhere and buildings going up all around.

seoul and jejudo pics

museum

calligraphy exhibit. i signed in and left my mark too.
I'm still recovering from this this dinner. Half of the dishes on the table were alive and still moving. not the fish out of water flapping movement, but the traumatizing pulsating, slithering kind of movement. It was no bueno, but i ate it~well, kinda forced to, didn't want to be rude.
Oh, and this is me eating the poison blowfish. I'm still alive, but over rated.

three gods

this is where the three gods of jeju are said to have been born or buried, i can't remember :)
Hotel in Jejudo. The Shilla, not the Shaw, The Shilla. the grounds are beautiful, rooms have that old world charm. Mom got bit by mosquitos, even though the bellman turned on the anti-mosquito thingamajig. (picture of him turning it on below). so, the next night we got upgraded to the "western" suite. the room looked into the tub, like Shutters on the Beach. I preferred the first room, but both were very nice.


































Morning Wake Up.

Nar Nar

Dali had a fascination with ants and he would've had a fit if he saw the ants here, they are HUGE! and bitey! I should've placed a quarter next to them so u can see how big they really are.

Basket-wha

I'm actually watching basketball, Celtics v Lakers: Game 6? You know I can care less about it when I'm home, but here, watching it is like having a slice of home. And I'm eating it up.
Above are some images of Jeju. The island is gorgeous. What's so special about it here is the you'll walk through a lush forest and then it spits you out on the beach, you don't get that in L.A. or in Hawaii for that matter.

Planning actually works! The Cheonggyecheon River replaced what used to be an elevated highway.
http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/12/08/seouls-new-heart/ (mom on right. aunt on left)

ya, this meat isn't refrigerated and it's over 90 degrees outside.

First Week

Where to begin...this is a picture that was taped up on the wall where I sleep at my aunt's house. My uncle wrote, "this will be us when we're 80". How cute is that.