On Vaca...

Hello Faithful Readers...(or reader. That would probably be more accurate!)

As is obvious, I have taken a break from blogging the last few months for a variety of reasons.

A. I have been crazy busy at work traveling like mad, and just haven't had time.

B. That constant feeling that I NEED to update my blog because I have taken so many fabulous trips lately was actually stressing me out.

C. I still have not replaced the Internet in my house that I cancelled after a huge argument with Charter back in October. Its hard to update on my off time, when I can't get online.

D. Blogspot can be frustrating at times. They have a lot of technical probs they need to work on. I actually have a couple half-written entries that I can't get the pictures to post on correctly so I gave up.

Hopefully I will be back soon, I actually do enjoy the writing, but I am not making any promises.

Word,
Vivi

Temple of Heaven Park & Fun with Kites

When I was in my second or third week of the big Beijing trip, I covered one of the tours to the Temple of Heaven. Now, while the temple itself was pretty cool, and something to see, my favorite part of that day was the fantastic park that surrounded.

It was basically a daytime social center for the city of Beijing. A place where apartment dwellers could feel like they have their own backyards. All these local people would gather to entertain themselves with all sorts of outdoor activities. Some examples...

The women doing a fun rhythmic, ribbon dancing thing to music that they played on a portable stereo and speaker.

In one area, a bunch of folks were dancing to traditional Chinese music. It was a funny mix of young & old and good dancers & bad dancers.

And there was a bunch of teenagers that were obsessively playing this hackysack-like game in group circles. The difference was that the actual hacky sack had these feathers sticking out to make it fly pretty high in the air. I even joined in and played for a little while.

FYI : Hacky sacking with the feathered hacky sack is harder than it looks!

Of course, I totally bought one of these feathery hacky sack things.

The Day of the Kite

My favorite part of the park by far, was all these people flying kites. It looked like so much fun! I was talking about for weeks wanting to go out there and try. I was bugging my coworkers and my new friends to go with me, but to no avail. Finally, in the 6th week of the trip, I decided to buck it up, buy a kite, and fly it by myself.

Well basically, hilarity ensued.

Problem #1: When you buy a kite in China, it comes unesembled, and you have to put it together.

Solution: This nice kitestand worker put mine together for me.....because I was clueless.

The finished product.....

Me & my new kite, ready to brave the winds in the park.

Problem #2: I don't remember how to fly a kite. The last time I did it, I think I was 7.

Solution: Stand in the field of the park holding your kite in your hand and looking very confused. Eventually someone will come help you. Like this old man....

He tried (in Chinese) to explain to me how to fly the kite. We got nowhere. Then, he even helped me launch it by throwing the kite up in the wind while I ran with the string spool. Again, we got nowhere. He eventually just smiled, nodded his head, and walked away.

I tried for awhile on my own.

Problem #3: Flying a kite is a two person job. One to run with the spool, and one to hold & throw the kite.

Solution: Run around with the spool in hand, letting the kite drag 25 ft. behind you, in hopes that someone else will feel sorry for you and try to help.

Enter these 2 ladies....

They examined my kite for awhile, and tried, again in Chinese, to tell me what I was doing wrong. Well, it seemed the two of them had very different opinions on kite flying, and they ended up getting in a bickering agrument as to how to help me. It was very entertaining watching them yell in Chinese and hand jesture to me and eachother.

They soon gave up also, and I was left to have a go on my own.

And, unfortunately, after almost 2 hours of attempting to fly my new Chinese kite, this is about the best flying attempt I had, and look where it ended up...

Oh well. Still a very enjoyable afternoon.

Quickie: The Famous Door at the St. Regis

Do you remember a few years ago when President George Bush was in China giving a press conference, and he tried to walk out the wrong door? There were all these pictures, and videos of him looking pretty stupid pulling on the locked door, and then just standing there confused.

Here's a visual.....


Well, this liitle incident took place at the hotel that I am staying at in Beijing, The St. Regis. The now infamous door was right outside the ballroom where our group dinners were held. And just for fun, and a bit out of boredom when I was having to cover the dinner, I decided to do a little reinactment of the event.

So, here I am on the 2nd floor of the St. Regis Beijing pulling on the exact locked door that thrawted President Bush in 2005.

Good Times!

The Night of the Crazy Mongolian Lady

I love a good night out. Especially one as random as the story I am about to tell. Oh, and just so you know, there are bits and pieces of this night missing in my mind. So, to quote a cheesy movie I loved....."I'm not going to tell the story the way it happen, I'm going to tell it the way I remember it."

And I'm doing timeline form. My favorite.

Backstory: This particular evening, I was going out on the town with my new friend, who I will call D, that was also a guest in the same hotel. We were heading to an area called Sanlitun. Known for its main bar street and backallies of smaller dance joints and cheesy pubs, it is popular with a fun international crowd.

10:30 PM: We head to a little hidden restaurant that I discovered called The Tree. They have awesomely greasy pizza and also some great beer brands you wouldn't expect to find in China. I was drinkin' some Strongbow this evening. Good times were being had.

11:30 PM: We somehow strike up a convo with this older, cougar-esque woman sitting at the bar by herself. She is actually hilarious, and we find out that she is Mongolian....hence the nickname. From here on out, since for the life of me I can't remember what her real name was, she will be referred to as CML (Crazy Mongolian Lady).

Love the fact that she is wearing her sunglasses in the bar....

12:30 AM: As I was noting CML's very intent interest in hanging out with us, she suggests that we follow her to another bar nearby that had a band. Although, in the back of my head, I was thinking she wanted to...ahem..."Ride the tricycle" (random How I met your Mother reference), she definitely seemed harmless enough and we agreed to go.

12:45 AM: While walking, I hear the faint sound of It's Gonna Be Me wafting into the street. Of course we can't just pass by a bar playing N'Sync, and not stop and get down. So, enroute, we make a short detour to this other club for a beer or two. I recall dancing with some Dutch students at this point.

1:15 AM: The 3 of us get to a bar that I believe was called Studio 65 to hear CML's recommended band. And they were FANTASTIC. It was this Chinese total rock cover band. So very fun.

This band had a great chick lead singer. Here we are with her.


I was dancing like an idiot to the great Nirvana and Areosmith tunes they were kickin'.

I also may or may not have been headbanging a little. My neck was hurting a lot the next day, so I think it was "may have".

By far my favorite band I have seen since coming to China. Thumbs up to CML's musical taste.


2:45 AM: The band finishes and the bar closes. By now, we have made friends with some Chinese guys who were also at the bar, and all of us were hanging outside and snappin' pics of ourselves with the band.

At some point, and I'm not sure how they came on the scene, we added these 2 Austrian guys, one's name was Dan, into our group. Well, CML now suggests that we hit a late night place called Maggie's.

Here's where I get suspicious.

I had heard of Maggie's. One of the hotel contacts had mentioned it to me before because it is near the hotel, and apparently an establishment popular with those seeking ladies of the night, if you will.

I share this tidbit with CML, and she just laughs it off. When I mention something to D, he says, and I quote..."She steered us right to this bar, let's trust her on the next place." So, I play along.

3:00 AM: CML, the 2 new Austrian guys, D, and myself all stuff in a taxi on our way to Maggie's. I am sprawled out sitting across everyone in the backseat. I think my legs were literally hanging out a window.

3:20 AM: We tumbled out at our destination and stumble into Maggie's.

Let me give you a visual: The place is very dark, and decorated with cheesy velvet chairs and tall booth couches. It is full of old Western men, most of which were in suits, or at least jackets. The only girls in the joint were very scantily clad young Chinese girls.

I was sooo right....it was a hooker bar!

3:23 AM: I totally realize that I had been wrong about CML. She wasn't just a cougar looking to possibly third wheel, She was a madame. This was confirmed when, right after we walked in, she went to talk to all these young ladies that she apparently knew.

Like a light bulb turning on, it all came together. She was bringing the guys here to hook them up. Now the question in my head was, how was she planning to get rid of me?

3:30 AM: Being the curious and adventurous person I am, I start walking around this bar taking it all in. The place really was hilarious. I was the ONLY nonChinese girl in there. Everyone was staring at me. Luckily, we were so overserved by this point, I just decided to go with it.

The first 45 minutes here were actually fun. I was lovin' the people watching. And they had a dance floor where the DJ was totally playing stuff like Beyonce. Awesome. I recall doing a performance of the Carlton dance. And I know I slapped the floor at least 4 times. We owned that dance floor!

4:15 AM: O.K. This next part is very fuzzy. At some point, this large guy who I think was Russian, but know was creepy, tried to talk to me when I was on my way back from the bathroom. I believe there to have been a boob graze.

....And that was my cue. As much fun as the dancing was at this place, it was time. I said a quick goodbye to CML, who looked very disappointed that we, or at least D, was leaving. Thought about saying goodbye to the Austrian guys (but their attentions were engaged with some new female..ahem...friends of CML's), and we walked back to the hotel, laughing the entire time about what all had transpired in the last 6 hours.

All in all, definitely a very entertaining night in Beijing.

My 2nd Favorite Holiday - Chinese Style

I was so excited! We were halfway through the 2 month trip to Beijing, and it was St. Patrick's Day.

The other travel staff had put me in charge of the evening. I spent a long time researching, and planning, and asking local people advise until I came up with the "Beijing St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl".

After the itinerary was complete, I headed to the Market to purchase the appropriate paraphernalia for the event. I searched high and low for those plastic green beads to wear, but ended up with actual jewelery. I found a very unique green stoned necklace that tied in the front, and would not only be festive for St. Paddy's, but I would also be able to wear it again.

Then I went crazy. I bought green face glitter, and green nail polish. The funniest purchase by far was, of course, the bright green stocking I bought to wear with my black boots. Awesome! The sucky part was that, despite the saleslady saying they would fit me, after I got dressed and put them on, I started on my way to the elevator. By the time I got there...my new green tights were around my knees. Oh well...I was still happy with the Green themed outfit, and ready for whatever March 17th in China would bring.

The first stop on our Pub Crawl was to be Dirty Nelly's. As soon as we got there, we saw that the entire place was decked out in green balloons. And the workers were handing out shamrock stickers.

Here we are with our first beers of the night


We noticed that there was live music. I have to say that I found it a bit hilarious to see this band of all Chinese people dressed in matching St. Paddy's day shirts.


I did find it interesting though, that the bar's idea of festive St. Patrick's Day music was this band playing covers of U2 all night.

Then the bagpiper came in.

Now, I had always thought that bagpipers were strictly Scottish, but I went with it. And, of course, made friends with the guy!

Next came the very unexpected visit from St. Patrick himself!

All through the evening, we were making friends with people from all over the world. Here we are with 2 German guys from Stuttgart, who work here in Beijing. They were a lot of fun and we did some great Irish Whiskey shots with them!

All in all, a very memorable St. Patrick's Day in China. We never made it past the first bar, just staying at Dirty Nelly's dancing and partyin' into the wee hours. So, technically, it was not a pub crawl. But a fantastic night was had by all. Erin go Braugh!

Quickie: Answering a Common Question

I am not sure why this is, but lately, a lot of people have been asking me where in the world I have left to go. I mean, I know I travel quite a bit, but there are still A LOT of places left fot me to see.

Here is the list of 5 trips I would like to take someday. (hopefully sooner than later)

1. India
2. Egypt
3. Antarctica
4. Israel
5. Alaska

And yes...I do realize it is weird that with all my travels, I have never been to Alaska. Don't worry, I am bothered by that fact.

If anyone cares, the next 5 would be....

6. Peru
7. Nepal
8. The Galapagos Islands
9. Morocco
10. Bora Bora

Who's up for a trip to any of the above???

The Limit to my Courage....The Beijing Night Market

So I am a pretty adventurous person. Always have been, even when I was a kid. I was, and am, basically scared of nothing.

I have done all sorts of crazy, exhilarating things all over the world: I went skydiving over Hawaii. I did the hang gliding over the urban forest in Rio De Janeiro. I tackled 4+ rated rapids in the coal mining rivers of West Viriginia. I climbed the Syndey Harbour Bridge. Most recently, I did the 10K treacherous hike of the Great Wall of China portion all by myself.

Basically then, I have very little fear...except for one category. I don't eat gross things. Just can't do it. It is the single factor that will never allow me to be on any kind of adventure reality show. It's not even that I can't stomach yucky food; I can't even get to the point where I would put it in my mouth.

I will admit that I am braver when it comes to meats. If something is cooked all the way through, and doesn't resemble the original animal on the plate, I'm usually cool with that. For example, I ate boiled duck brain at a restaurant here in Beijing a couple weeks ago.

Well, out of morbid curiosity more than anything, I braved the Beijing Night Market last week. It is this street fair food stand type thing that they have every night - known for cooking right in front of you, and some very unusual food.

And it really is something to see.

I decided that talking about the Night Market would not do it justice, so here are the pics of my recent adventure.....


First, an overview of the food stands and their offerings.

Anyone up for silkworm on a stick???

How about a scrumptious fried centipede on a stick. "On a stick" was a big theme at the market. Probably because it was easy for the workers to fry up the goodies in these huge vats of boiling oil they set up right there on the street.

Tasty seahorse maybe, to take the edge off your hunger before dinner.

The giant grasshoppers. On a stick of course.

A close up of the popular Chinese snack.

And the gratuitous posed "pretending to eat the fried grasshopper" shot.
My personal favorite find at the market..... I am posing with a big kettle of stew. What kind of stew do you ask?
I'll answer that question with the following picture of the menu at this particular food stall. Yeah. Needless to say, I did not partake of that.

The funny thing is that, as soon as we were finished walking through the infamous market, we went out for a lovely dinner. I had chicken.

P.S. I do have to add a "shoutout" here to my coworker Beth. She said, before we were on our way to the market, that she was going to eat a scorpion. And she did!

WoooHooo Beth! You are braver than I. And I will never get out of my head the look on your face, when you had just stuffed the whole fried scorpion in your mouth at once, and were chewing it up. Priceless!

It has Officially Begun.....

(Disclaimer: This blog entry is not written by Vivian but, like all her blog entries that deal with her various high school pop culture obsessions, it is written by her 16 year old alter ego.)


Like OMG!!!!!

America's favorite vampire family is all in Vancouver, and camera tests have started for New Moon! WoooHooo!!! The first pics from the set are in......


Here is my fictional, self-loathing, Hottie McHotterson, immortal boyfriend Edward Cullen on the set.


And here is RPatz out of costume looking as only he can. Clearly, there is no explanation needed as for why every women in this country between the ages of 14 & 49 is completely swooning. Not to mention all the gay men. (Perez Hilton is OBSESSED with him) I mean, look at that smile. I just want to start licking him.

And the picture, that seriously made me laugh, posted on PerezHilton the other day. He so wants him some Rob.....

I am really getting excited for all this New Moon stuff. With the insane popularity of the first movie, the buzz about this one will be out of control. I'm psyched for all the updates, and footage that there is sure to be. It really is a shame that the movie is going to suck so bad!!!!

There were 101 photos taken on this first day of pre-filming, so here's the link to the rest....

http://gallery.twilightersanonymous.com/thumbnails.php?album=188

A couple of things to notice as you peruse the pics (don't worry, I looked at ALL of them)....

1. Nikki Reed (AKA Rosalie) is wearing a wig this time around. For Twilight she was insistent that she not have a wig, and instead dyed her hair blond.

2. Taylor (AKA Jacob) is looking very buff. He definitely was working out like crazy as promised.

3. Is it just me, or does the entire cast smoke? Everyone one of them has a cig in at least one picture. Interesting.

Quote of the Day

“That’s like getting hate mail from Hitler."

- Seth Mcfarlane (Creator of Family Guy) referring to the Parents Television Council (a fundamentalist Christian watchdog group) and their complaints to the FCC about the show and its "inappropriate" humor.

Seth then went on to say....

"They’re literally terrible human beings. I’ve read their newsletter, I’ve visited their website, and they’re just rotten to the core. For an organization that prides itself on Christian values – I mean, I’m an atheist, so what do I know? – they spend their entire day hating people.”

The Great Wall of China

Been there...

Done that...

Bought the T-shirt!

More Great Wall of China info and pictures coming soon.

I just went to Badaling, the popular tourist section yesterday. But next week, I will be taking the very challenging and treacherous 10 km hike from Jinshanling to Simatai. Apparently it has 250 ft. drops, 70 degree staircases, a zipline, suspension bridges, and hasn't been restored since 1530.

I'm scared, but psyched!

Victory...My First Adventure in Beijing!

A few days ago, I decided to go and see the Olympic Stadium (AKA the Birds Nest) and the National Aquatic Center (AKA The Water Cube) from the recent games here in China. Both of these building have been near the top of my list of sites.

My adventurous spirit made me decide that instead of taking a cab, which are very cheap....usually no more than $3-4 bucks to get anywhere, I would brave, and try to master, the subway. This would be a good trip to do it with since, according to the subway map, I would have to change trainlines 4 times.

So I set out, subway map in hand, to get to the destination. According to the local company helping us, this was to be a 30 min subway trip. Of course, they did not take into account that I would misread the signs and go the wrong way on the first train. Or even that I would accidentally exit one of the transfer stations and end up having to buy another ticket to get back in and find the right line.

But an hour and 15 minutes later, I was exiting the subway tunnel of the the Olympic park stop. It was weird, but I was feeling strangely exhilarated! I felt like I was in a competition myself. Me against the Beijing Subway system, and although the game was rough...I was emerging victorious! A huge smile crossed my face as I ascended to the open air, and right smack in front of me was the Birds Nest......

And it was even more spectacular than I remembered it looking on TV.

The funniest part, that coincided with my feeling of accomplishment, was that there were all these speakers in the courtyard, and they were blaring that "One World One Dream" song (that was always playing on NBC during the games) while I walked up to the building. Totally cheesy, but a very moving moment for me. Let me explain....

Since I was a kid, I have been obsessed with the Olympics and all the hoopla. I always buy into the corny inspirational commercials and the heartwarming backstories of the athletes. So I let it slide when a small tear welled up inside of me as I took in these stadiums for the first time.

One other little tidbit about touring around this area....the staring was worse here than it has been anywhere else in Beijing so far. EVERYONE was looking at me! Now, as I have been told, most Beijingers are used to seeing Western people since the Olympics. But the difference here is that a lot of the people walking around the stadiums would be tourists from other parts of China. It was very possible that I was the first non-Asian person they had ever seen. There were even people taking my picture, and a few who wanted to pose with me.

It was hilarious. After this happen a few times, I was then giving them my camera to get a picture of us together also. Very fun!



So here are some pics.......Enjoy.



As you can see, it is very cold here.

One of my new friends who wanted to get a picture of me. By the by, everyone here does a peace sign when they get their picture taken with an American. For some reason, the Chinese think that all Americans give each other peace signs all the time.

Another new friend. Another peace sign.

A close up of the design.


The gratuitous Vanna White picture.

The Water Cube.

Me and the Water Cube.

The watching tower between the two buildings. Apparently this is where the super important people watched the Olympic goings on from.

Stay tuned for more pics of the Olympic stuff. Since I didn't have a chance to tour the inside on this particular day, I will have to go back and do that. Can't wait!