Language partner et al

Now that I am wrapping up, I have been thinking of all the people to meet and wrapping up things.
Taking pictures is on my to-do list and I just realized that I did not take a picture with my language partner when I met her for the last time ! That prompted me to write a blog about her and other related things.

Earlier in the semester, my room-mate found me a language partner. One of her Korean friends, wanted to improve her English and I could definitely benefit from learning some Chinese. It started off with good intentions with a focus on language but then deviated to culture and food. Which I am not complaining about. Either way, made a good friend.

I had never realized that teaching English would be difficult. Never having had to "learn" a foreign language (minus Mandarin which kind of failed), teaching someone ended up being more difficult than I had imagined. Luckily, my friend had a Korean-Chinese-English book to follow. It was an interesting layout. My friend knew how to read and write English but had a decent vocabulary but it was the grammar and sentence construction that was mainly lacking. I personally hate grammar, I remember Wren & Martin as one of the prescribed books in middle school, but never ever used it. So using this Korean-Chinese-English book was interesting. It was divided into use of verbs and adjectives mainly.

The verbs started with give, take, go, come etc. And then usage of each verb was illustrated by sentence formation. When we got to the verb "come" - all the sentences were he comes, he came, he is going to come , he will be coming etc etc and this whole time I was trying not to say that's what she said and crack up laughing at the lack of imagination with the sentences. And then for adjectives, it was the same process. So teaching was more grueling than I anticipated but as a solace, our meetings were usually over coffee/Korean food/hot pot so the calories helped with the learning.

At the end what helped the most was just talking to her in English. By the end of 4 months, she carried on a conversation with less pauses. If we were more disciplined, I think it could have been a lot better. But it was nice to have a buddy here. She tried to teach me Mandarin but my vocabulary level of < a 2 year old's and inability to understand the script made us give up. She did help a bit with pronunciation. However, I had less motivation to learn the language knowing that I was returning in January.

Before coming to China I had wondered if I would want to move here, but now after spending 5 months here, I have realized that I would never move to China. I would be totally open to doing a 1 or 2 year short term project as part of a job, live in the expat area, have more cash etc but not a permanent move. I guess I am going to be content with survival Mandarin for the rest of my life :)

On a side note, this is what my friend and I had for dinner at our last meeting. A whole grilled fish swimming in hot spicy sauce :D

Food in Macau

Usually food doesn't warrant its own blog post, but a day in Macau meant highlighting its food.
I have also noticed, that if I travel alone, I end up eating more maybe because
 a) There is no one to judge me
 b) No one to discuss with on what to buy/when to eat
 c) I can eat when I am not hungry just because something looks good

So it may be biased that Macau gets a whole food blog post, but whatevs, the food was delish.

Since I knew I had to take a ferry, I decided to not eat breakfast. Things churning around in tummy is no good while on sea. But I did buy some fresh mango juice for the 30 minute walk to the ferry. After enjoying the mango goodness, I refrained from eating till I safely arrived in Macau and the ground was steady. Soon after reaching Macau, my first treat for myself was an egg tart ! Brought by the Portugese to Macau, the Macanese version is a slight deviation from the traditional pastel de nata but at 3HKD a piece it was a treat. Wiki'ing it later, I found out that it is ranked #16 on CNN go's most delicious foods !



For lunch, I decided that the place with the longest line has to serve the most delicious food. I ended up with a porkchop burger and milk tea. The milk tea was great with the dry burger though the burger itself wasn't too bad. My hands were too greasy to take a picture, so here is one shamelessly stolen from google.



I continued my walking tour with nai cha  in hand. After exploring more of the city, I was ready for some snacking. To my surprise, there were vendors offering free samples of different kinds of meat jerky and cookies. And there were rows of shops doing the same thing. Also, people were especially nice about offering samples to me compared to the mainland Chinese people. I guess it was the brown skin combined with the skinny girl look. I don't know if I had worn my panda hat,would I have gotten more cookies.

The famous Macau almond cookies were buttery, crunchy deliciousness. I do prefer the American style chewy cookies, but the almond cookies being crunchy and hard reminded me more of my ever favorite Danish butter cookies (speaking of which I hope Costco has available the big box for sale when I go back!). After my free snack time, I started to head back towards the city. I was heading back to the city center where I saw this food cart hot pot esque place.

From what I learned, observing from my strategic "next to the cart but not a customer" location was that you pick out what you want and place it in a plate. Then the lady cooks it in a boiling soup. But she has a different soup for seafood and a different one for meat. She uses only a pair of tongs (+hands) for cooking and then serves it steaming hot. She also believes that hairnets and gloves are over-rated when everything is going to be boiled at the end. The portions were huge and I believe it was only 15 HKD.

Instead of a giant hot pot thing, which would require mad skills to consume with chopsticks, while standing and people jostling you, I went ahead with another bun variety because all that observation made me hungry. However, this one was better than bun #1 and was actually a pan fried stuffed buttery bun filled with chopped pork, scallions/cilantro and something else which I couldn't figure out. Again, greasy hands = stealing picture from google. Washing that down with another milk tea, I headed to the casinos.

After a couple of hours at the casinos, I finally was at a huge food court, under the fake blue sky at The Venetian. Keeping in mind to have time to digest the food before ferrying it back, I decided to eat at the food court rather than near the ferry terminal.

After walking around, I saw a sign for original Macanese cuisine. I ordered the baked seafood curry rice and was delighted to see some cheese in it. It was very similar to Goan food, which was not a suprise considering the Portugese influence. However, they did not have any milk tea to offer and I had to go settle for water, though to their credit it was cold water (which is a rarity in China).  I am glad I ate my fill because with the queue, it took me another 2 hours before boarding the ferry. 

  

It was a fun filled delicious day. I think I succeeded in eating most of the things Macau is famous for :D
Though I will miss quite a bit of the Eastern food, I can't wait to gorge on cheese and chocolates when I get back !

A day in Macau

The day after Christmas, I went to Macau for a day trip from Hong Kong.

Knowing it had been a Portugese colony and now a casino haven, I was expecting it be a good mix of a quaint town with opulent luxury. Which was true and it was a great city to visit. Catching a ferry from Hong-Kong to Macau, I boarded on what seemed like a luxury jet and entered Macau at the ferry terminal. It was the first time I did immigration on a sea port ! The nice thing about Macau were free buses by the casinos. I decided to first check out the old Central square also known as Senado square.



It was very festive and there were Christmas decorations everywhere. The square itself is charming with its undulating cobblestone paths and old architecture. An Indian family talked to me on the bus (probably concerned that I was traveling alone) and offered me to tag along.They were nice, but I lost track of them soon after when I was at St. Dominic's Church taking pictures.



The square was crowded and you had to fight crowds to get to the ruins of St. Paul's and that was quite a sight. Only having the facade and the entire building destroyed, gave it an interesting look, almost 2 dimensional when looked at with one eye and at a particular angle. I couldn't capture that shot, so instead here is a standard picture !



There were a lot of tourists, but the best part was watching wedding pictures being taken in front of the ruins - the photographer lying on the ground and his assistants hovering around asking people to move and shouting out poses for the couple.



Having had my fill of people watching, I headed to nearby Mount Fortress from where you could view almost all of Macau.



After chilling on the fort, I went on one of the parallel streets and away from the crowds. Suddenly, the place was deserted. Antique shops and art galleries lined the small cobblestone streets with compact cars parked on the side. I ended up reaching a garden where locals were exercising, watching construction and not selling things to tourists.

In the evening, decided to take a bus to one of the casinos to check it out. I ended up getting off at the Fisherman's wharf  to take some pictures.

 Sands casino happened to be close by and I walked in there. It was grand. Granted, I have never been to Vegas but this place could probably compare to Vegas (minus the throngs of Asian crowds and serving chocolate milk at casinos). Regardless, very entertaining and opulent. I then went to the Venetian (yay for free bus rides across islands) and that resort was extravagant. Similar to The Venetian at Vegas, there was a canal, gondola rides, upscale shopping etc right inside the resort. I was tight on time, but to tour all the casinos would probably be a day trip in itself.

On the way back, I stood in a stand by line for an hour before boarding a not so nice ferry back. I am prone to motion sickness and the ferry ride was not fun. Add to that 4 people barfing around me, and the crew walking around collecting barf bags and handing out new ones. With my headphones on full blast and keeping my eyes closed, I warded of sea sickness successfully and was back in Hong Kong at night.

It was an adventurous day but I wish I had more time to spend in Macau. And maybe money like some of those Chinese women on the slot machines, whose credit showed 50,000 HKD...on a slot machine.

Beijing photo walk

I love my DSLR. I wish I could use it better and own a wide-angle lens for touristy photography, but still, I absolutely love my camera.

And luckily I found a photo-walk group in Beijing. It is just a group of cool people who like taking pictures, and get together to walk around and take some pictures. And the Beijing group is pretty awesome. I only went on one of the events due to time/travel issues but that day I met people from France, Canada, UK, US, China and a couple of other countries that I am forgetting. They were expats, people with short-term projects in China, students etc. It was a fun group of budding (and some pro) photographers.

I skipped going to one of the temples but was able to go to the mosque - Niu Jie and Fayuan Si (Temple of the Origin of the Dharma), which is the oldest Buddhist temple in Beijing. I was prepared for another Chinese mosque after being to the one at Xi'an. It looked pretty similar in Chinese architecture as with other temples.

And it being China, every tourist attraction has to be accompanied with a silly, confusing but completely amusing sign. This one was green !

However, this being a photo-walk, goal was to get some out of the ordinary pictures. I think I did well with the grill behind a grill (reminds me of dream within a dream from Inception)

And I happened to like the lines created by the construction material lying in one of the mosque corners.

The temple was more colorful and had an air of liveliness to it. There was a giant fish, fake flowers put in plants and super sharp talons on the momma lion.

In China, it is common to see two lions at the entrance. One of them is the momma lion playing with its cub and the other is a male lion with a ball. However, at Fayuan Si, both the lions had sharp claws. No one knew the answer as to why, but the cracked ball looked ominous compared to the other versions I have seen.

Lion on left looks much less menacing...

Hopefully I can find a photo-walk group in Atlanta but I doubt it would be as diverse as the one from Beijing !

Things I will miss when I leave China

Seems that the Chinese gods got upset at my last blog post and hence, it has been windier than usual and my throat is scratchy. To appease them, I am going to write about the things I will miss once I leave China:
   

1. Pandas/panda merchandise - I have never seen so many things Panda, ever. I will miss the street shops selling Panda hats/gloves/socks and souvenir stores selling panda magnets, pictures,bookmarks etc. 
2. Getting away with wearing a panda hat EVERY DAY - If I did that in Atlanta, people would think I was a freak, after the first week. Here, it is adorable and I get compliments all the time and once I even had my own panda hat stalker who tracked me down in the dorm.
3. Cheap food - Lunch for $1 and dinner for $1. Just have to bike to get the food. There isn't a better deal than that.
4. Public transport - The subway system is awesome. Minus the morning rush hour when they have people who are employed to just push you inside the door (true story)
5. Getting offered a job - A stranger on the street offered me a job as an English teacher, would never happen in the US.
6. Street food - Right from street sushi, to fried potatoes and even meat on stick, the food carts offer cheap deliciousness while traveling.
7. Compliments - I don't think I will hear anyone say again - "I like your skin color". Also, my eyes are way pretty in China apparently.
8. Special preference - Being a foreigner has its perks, it is racism in a nice way. People are nicer and more helpful, at most places. 
9. Clean living room - The place where I stay includes cleaning service for the outside room+bathroom. All I have to do is sweep all the dust from my room, under the door and someone else takes care of it.
10. Bargaining - The joy of buying something at 30RMB when the shopkeeper started at 280RMB. 
11. Trophy friend - One of my friend's invited me to a christmas party so that she could be cool, bringing the foreigner to a Chinese event. I was a good trophy friend and single-handedly helped the girls team win Pictionary.
12. Sleeping - Not going out/having cable tv/high speed internet has led to more sleep time, 8 hours is my minimum now.
13. Train system - Clean and efficient and makes traveling a whole lot easier in the mainland.
14. Asking to be photographed - It is nice when total strangers want to take a picture of you (but its creepy when they are taking a picture *of* you without asking/telling)
15. Hot pot - One of my favorite foods here. Debated about buying a hot pot on amazon but realized I won't be able to recreate the Chinese flavors :(

Update: Missed mentioning cat loving BFF (in my defense, he is not bound to China, he shall be back)
     0. My BFF Warren

Things to look forward to in Atlanta

The last post was about things to do in China, but looking forward as I must, there are so many things that are going to make me happy. Again, not talking about work, but life-wise here is why Atlanta will be awesome to return to:

1. English (Hindi/Marathi) speaking friends/ friends, in general
2. STABLE HIGH SPEED INTERNET :-) (It will be nice to not have to wait 5 minutes, before streaming a 5 minute video on youtube)
3. Not having to use VPN or visit baidu.com
4. Not having to bike in freezing weather conditions
5. Unlimited hot water - Don't have to worry about the monthly hot water supply running out in the middle of the shower ever again.
6. Cheese
7. Desserts (which are actually sweet unlike Chinese red bean desserts)
8. Being able to cook again
9. Buying things with a credit card rather than having to carry wads of cash
10. Ordering food without having to point/gesture/use iphone app dictionary
11. No pollution, being able to see the sun EVERY DAY !!! (minus rainy/cloudy days)
12. People not spitting on the street
13. Being able to understand conversations about me - It won't be "Tanu ...chinese rambling...Tanu...more rambling ...." -esque conversations in lab
14. Going out on weekends/having a life - parties, movies, dinners, potlucks and all that jazz
15. Not having to eat unknown pieces of meat that taste funky
16. A soft bed with normal pillows - Not the extremely firm twin bed with pillows that cause you to have a crick in your neck
17. Shower placed in a tub - no more perpetually wet bathroom floors
18. Deep frying all sorts of things in my *new* deep fryer
19. Shopping in supermarkets based on aisle name rather than going aisle to aisle in search of what I want
20. Smartphone with a data plan that is useful

Things to do in China

I have 30 more days to spend in China. And suddenly, I am overwhelmed by the things I need to do. I thought I would share the list. Here it is, in no particular order of priority (this does not include work + research + class related tasks).

1. Go to Forbidden City (seriously, I have been here forever and haven't seen the most famous Beijing landmark)
2. Go to Shanghai
3. Shoe shopping
4. Buy Chinese tea
5. Eat
1. Hot Pot
2. Gong bao ji ding
3. Korean bbq
4. Rotating table sushi
6. Watch movie - Flowers of War
7. Picture taking
1. PKU campus
2. Subway stations
3. Canteens at campus
8. Visit the Bird's nest (olympics)
9. Ice skating at Weiminghou lake at campus
10. Bask in the attention bestowed upon me by virtue of me being a foreigner

ps - All things panda are not included in the list, because I have realized that it is going to be a life long obsession, to collect/do/be involved in all things PANDA.

A panda picture, because they are so darn cute