The Fishing Expedition

The Forbidden City

Or The Palace Museum. I don't really know the difference. Anyway, I spent my last day in downtown Beijing going to The Forbidden City (or again, it could have been the Palace Museum. Please don't think I'm very very stupid). It was huge, as expected. I got lost. It rained. I got soaked to my skin. Oh well. It was fun too.

Pearl Market "Penthouse"

It is almost inconceivable that on top of the busy Pearl Market is this deserted place.

Blue Zoo Beijing

Troy and I went to Blue Zoo Beijing on my last Sunday in downtown Beijing. I took loads of pictures. Here are the better ones...

Looking for Achi Janice's Cheongsam

I went back to the Pearl Market to buy another cheongsam. This time, for Achi Janice. I hadn't even been able to get to the bargaining part when the camera already ran out of memory.

I tried to get it down to 40RMB this time but wasn't successful. Instead, they gave me a plastic compass so that I'd agree to 45RMB.

Notice how there was silence after I asked how much it was. The reason being there were other customers and it just so happened that these customers were Caucasians. Caucasians, of course, are almost always ripped off.

And Achi Janice, I hope it fits. I tried my best. One other thing. I realized after watching the video that the reason for the minor confusion was that we were not thinking about the same unit of length while we were talking about the size. I was thinking in inches. She was thinking in... I don't know. A Chinese unit of measurement, perhaps.

It's Been a Year!

Today marks my first year anniversary in China. One whole year. I wish I could list down all the changes in my life within my one year here, but I know it'll be futile. Where do I start and how do I explain? Some of my friends are wondering what's so great about China that I refuse to go home yet. I don't know. I can't pinpoint it exactly. The best I could come up with is that it's more exciting. I wake up each morning and look forward to new adventures. Every little thing is an adventure, from taking the subway and managing not to get lost, to having lunch alone in a restaurant that I've never been to and trying to make myself understood. Being in a foreign country heightens my senses. I look at everything and try to find logical explanations to otherwise ordinary circumstances. It's like even the most familiar things have a weird slant to them that needs careful observation.

I wish I could explain it better. Perhaps I need one more year to find which words can describe my experiences fully. For now, this will have to do.


**For an update on the Harlequin Theater Festival 2006, click here. Go watch! Go go go! And tell me all about it. Take pictures! Take videos!

Piled Higher and Deeper

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/aboutcomics.html
Constant googling of my name has led me to this site. PhD, or Piled High and Deeper (a grad student comic strip), is maintained by Jorge Cham who got his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. It pokes fun at grad school life and everything that goes with it. Me, I just want to graduate. But then so do all grad students...

Some of my favorite strips are:
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=3
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=13
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=19

These date back to 1997 (that was the year I started college!). Thus, I have almost 10 years of comic strips to read at leisure.