My Neighborhood

There's a 1/4 square mile area I'm familiar enough with to deviate from straight-line when walking. Some are blurry because of the low light. And now, for your viewing pleasure, here they are:




This is in front of the our companies building. He was very happy to have his picture taken. I, too, would be proud of this feat.




This is a view from outside my kitchen window. I walked passed that large building in the distance in search of an illusive "water park." I found an irrigation ditch cum river that passerby seemed pleased enough to consider sitting next to.




This is the view of the little road where my apartment entrance is on. Those are dogwood's that line the road.




This is karaoke. You can hear it very loudly all through the block. Buynow does this as some sort of promotion. There were probably 150 people stopped to watch her sing. They also have the World Cup on a wrap-around flat screen playing at the intersection. I could care less about soccer, but man.. it's HUGE and grabs even my interest.




Live seafood on the side of the road. In Carrefour, the large French Wal-Mart down the street, they have aquariums inside too for seafood. The Chinese like fresh.

McWorld

I pointed at the single ketchup packet and made the best internationaly recognized sign for "more?" that I could. I was graced with another packet, which in absolute terms was double what was originally offered. In relative terms, I miss dousing ketchup and tabasco on everything that touched my plate.

I had given up. I was at McDonald's ordering a special FIFA World Cup sponsered Big Mac. I had played native as best I could, disappearing into a small alleyway near the gates of my neighborhood that was crambed with small "resteraunts," namely kabob stands. I had kabob for dinner yesterday so I was looking for something different.

There were two women with some kind of cornbread biscuits, grilled peppers, and some sort of white meat. I asked for one and after some miscommunication with a woman who had perhaps the highest pitched voice I'd ever heard, I was delivered a greasy pseudo-sandwich for 1.5 yaun (that's 19 cents, folks). I sat on a corner and ate it for a minute or two with some "sweat water" ("sweet water" is what they meant, misspellings and odd english phrasings are everywhere). My first bite delivered news that this wasn't chicken. It wasn't even cooked much whatever it was. I took a second bite. Grease dripped down my hands. I was now covered in the juices of whatever I was eating. On my third bite I established that it was neither chicken nor pork... I spent a moment collecting my thoughts... what the hell was this?

I threw it away and walked down the street to the "California Beef Noodle King U.S.A." and walked right back out after noticing no pictures on the menu over the counter. I walked across to McDonald's. I struggled opening the door because I hate McDonald's and everything it stands for. I never eat it at home. And besides, how stereotypical was it for the chubby American to forego the local food for the pre-packaged crap at McDonald's. The place was packed... they were there too, they had no right to judge.

20 yaun ($2.50) later I had my Big Mac. Curiosly, McDonald's had the best looking crowd of everywhere I'd been... perhaps because it was twenty times more expensive than street food. The customers were almost all my age, all had on make-up and were dressed the most accurately Western of anyone else I'd seen in Tianjin - well, except for maybe the outdoor karaoke queens that fill the main street with their voices every evening outside "BuyAll," the hybrid four story Best Buy/Hamfest.

Recommended reading: Jihad vs. McWorld. China has chosen McWorld.

Pictures up

All my electronics work now!


OK, now for the promised pictures:


This is my last view of Jacksonville.


This is the northern tip of Greenland.




This is either the North Pole or very close to it (Dad, your GPS doesn't work).



This is Siberia



This is the view from the stairwell in my apartment.



This is what I ate for breakfast this morning.



Bikes outside my apartment gate.

Earthquake!!!

Just felt my first earthquake! Wow... been through the eye of a hurricane and now I've been through an insignificant earthquake. They feel like jello. Really. I thought there would be noise. For a moment I realized that the our companies main building probably has the "structural integrity of a blade of grass," as Joe Flowers so described a chair.

Anyway... my clutziness has gone international. I'm pretty sure I messed something up in the wiring at the apartment bathroom wherein the light stopped coming on. It happened within minutes of me fiddling with the hot water heater. Today I finally found an adapter for my laptop in a four-story electronic flea market. So I get home, plug it in and... POW... all the lights go out. My roommates were a little pissed. Fairly certain they kind of don't like me anyway (sample conversation - me: "What was your major?" roommate: "Political Science." me: "Ahh, mine too!" roommate: silence.)


Finally got the laptop up and running and now it's not picking up the WiFi. Three reboots later and I've decided to search for a USB WiFi card at the flea market. Pictures will be up today hopefully.


Happy Anniversary Dad and Joann. 20 years... amazing :-)

Happy Independence Day everyone else. I had a Chinese intel/propoganda officer talking to me about the beauty of the US Constitution. Go figure...