ReidaBlog

Time is flying but I’ve finally started carrying the camera again so have some random snapshots of daily life.

But before I get started a couple of things.

First, I got an email from Al the other day that had a link to a bunch of pictures he has posted. Apparently he has gone and officially settled down. Gone are the days of sleeping on an inflatable mattress at his apartment in NYC. Now he sleeps on an inflatable mattress at his house in Austin. If you remember the “good old” Numetrix days then you should head on over to his site. Directions from his email:

www.AllanBarnard.com
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|– Pictures
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|– 2005
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|– Page 8 and beyond

Second, I was eating some peanut M&Ms the other day and realized that in the whole time I’ve been in China I’ve never had one of the ‘all chocolate’ ones where as in the US I seem to get about 1 per pack. Coincidence or do the folks at Mars purposely put the peanut-less ones into American packs? Discuss.

Last night my friend Elena invited a couple of us to a small dinner party that was being held at Alex’s house. The occasion was that we managed to get her boyfriend Will to agree to cook us dinner and since he is returning to Australia next week it was now or never. Will is a fantastic cook. He cooked the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been in China. All the more impressive in that he had to work with a kitchen that is pretty much the equivalent of your average campsite. For example, you can have either the stove hood fan working or the lights on. Decision is up to you.

The problem with digital cameras is that you take pictures like this.

Will was a bit concerned that the presentation of the food wouldn’t be up to his usual standards and while we assured him this wouldn’t be a problem, he still did one plate just to show us how it is supposed to be done. Everyone else proceeded to take pictures of it. I took pictures of them taking pictures.

Alex(US), Austin(US), Will(Aussie), Elena(Ditto), Paul(Malaysian)

This picture also reminds me of the amazing people you meet while living overseas. Alex speaks fluent Chinese, is interning at the UN while working on a graduate thesis in income distribution inequalities or something like that. Austin studies with me and I like to call him Jr. George Bush Jr. since he is from Texas (and his name is Austin, weird), then went to Andover, and then to Yale. In the fall he is heading to the London School of Economics to work on a Masters. Elena studied with us for about a month and is now at the UN with Alex. Paul is a lawyer from Malaysia who is in my class and planning to continue studying Chinese for at least another semester. Anyway, it makes for interesting dinner conversation.

Right before we dug in.

Paul looked so satisfied.

So after dinner we decide to go play pool at a dive place that Alex knows. First he takes us into an alley. Then into a basement entrance that looks like this:

After going down some steps it looks like this:

And then right when I thought I was in a low budget horror movie we see:

Just in case you were wondering the sign in the first stairway photo says: “Be good to the public facilities, or be fined”. In English. Which was weird since we were the only westerners there.

Alex, Elena, Paul show how it’s done beneath one of the many R-rated pool posters hanging on the walls.

The pool hall had another sign as well. This one was right off the main room…

Makes you wonder what kind of crazy westerners they are used to.

In other random news:

Last weekend I finally made it to the dirt market in order to buy communist propaganda posters. This is just one of several markets around Beijing but it is becoming rare that they are outside like this. For example the Silk market has been moved into a spanking new 5 story building.

Tai gui le, wo shi xue sheng, wo mei you duo qian, wo gei ni wu kuai.

The government is apparently taking my blog to heart. They have pretty much shut down the sale of pirated DVDs in Shanghai. Although I hear it is only until the end of the Shanghai film festival. Although makes you wonder if they can do it when they want, why don’t they all the time? Not that I’m complaining mind you.

In related news several stores selling DVDs around me have also been closed. Not sure why - rumor is that they are preparing for the Olympics but that is still pretty far off so I’m not sure I buy it. In any case my dealer is still in business so don’t worry.

Ever since I first got my hair cut I’ve been wanting to take a picture about how they wash hair. On Thursday I remembered to bring my camera:

That’s my friend Hing. I haven’t yet started taking pictures of random people. Inside at least.

This brings us to our next fashion photo:

Not about to rain that I’m aware of but for all you marketing majors this is a good example of cultural differences. In the US they sell fake tanning lotion. In China they sell skin whitening cream and umbrellas.

Finally, I didn’t actually go to the hair place to get my hair cut. Nope I figured I still have about 1 1/2 months before I have to show up at work so now is the time to take advantage. Last month I tried black:

This time I tried blonde.

Long time no post.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEG! My sister turns [age deleted but it ends in a 2] today.

I’ve finally gotten some of my friends to forward me their pictures so I’ll update soon on what’s been up with my life in Beijing. But in the meantime let me talk for a second about DVDs and how I’ve ended up with the worst collection ever assembled.

First, let me start by stating that on average I can get any DVD for about $1. Sometimes a little less, sometimes a bit more.*

Second, I don’t buy DVDs at home because I really don’t like to watch most movies more than once.

Third, I love movies. I see pretty much everything I think I will like either in the theater or by renting it.

Fourth, I don’t watch TV here. None. Really.

All of this means that I end up buying DVDs that I haven’t seen. Of course since I’ve seen all the movies in the US that I think I might watch I am left with 2 options.

1: Buy movies I didn’t see in the US. And we’ve already discussed how this doesn’t leave much selection.
2: Buy foreign movies and hope for the best. I won’t elaborate here but there are reasons that the US is famous for movies and the Chinese aren’t.

Before we get to the collection let me just say a couple more things.

Meg and Sara both took what they wanted before leaving. So my collection started to get worse. However, recently movies are being released in the US that I haven’t seen but would see if I was home. This helps the collection get a bit better.

I can get most movies, pretty decent quality, about 1 week after they are released in the US.**

Finally, I actually went to the Cinema to see Star Wars and kind of liked it. Probably the 3rd best of the 6. Although, yes, I could have bought the DVD before the US release weekend was over, kind of scary for you Hollywood types huh?

Ok, no more talk, here is the collection with a couple of amusing DVD box covers thrown in. I did a simple rating scale to save you from wanting to rent this crap. It goes:

3: Really good and I think you should watch it.
2: Pretty good and worth seeing if you like…
1: Not worth your time unless you really like this kind of thing.
0: My scale only goes to 1 so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

* How they can afford to sell me a DVD that looks real (pressed, not burned with professional packaging - assuming you ignore typos) and is sold from a store when in the US I might pay $1 for a blank DVD I just don’t understand. As a mystery of China it ranks right up there with why the taxi drivers all shift into 3rd gear at 25 kph.***

**The quality is pretty good but increases proportionaly to how long it has been since the movie was released. In the first couple of weeks it is normally a copy of someone filming the movie although the quality is surprisingly good and the surround sound is included. If the movie is officially out on DVD then it is a copy of that DVD with all the extras.

Also, for those interested, yes the pirated DVDs are sold in stores. If the government really wanted to enforce copyright protection they just need to look for the shops that say “DVD” on the sign, not to hard to spot. As a side note, you now know another Chinese word since DVD translates to DVD.

***Actually another big Chinese mystery is: Why after they put so much effort into packaging the DVD and creating the menus don’t they just run spell-check?