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!