Must. Finish. Vacation. Blogging.

Oops. So, I was surprised to realize that I never finished sharing about our fantastic trip to Asia over Christmas break. Most of the good stuff you can see in Ji's video, but I'll finish up with some favorites here.

There was one afternoon near the end of our Shenzhen visit that Ji's mom and sister went to get massages (turns out it was a blind masseuse clinic, which makes me think of this hilarious news mishap), Eric was catching up on some work and Ji and I hung with his dad in the apartment. We sat around and watched TV and Ji practiced with the Amazing Calligraphy Water Mat.




Our time in Shenzhen could not last forever. Our next flight would take us from Hong Kong to Bangkok, where we would travel further south in Thailand for a wedding. Our flight left early in the a.m. and Hong Kong is three hours from the campus in Shenzhen so we traveled to Honk Kong a day early. This gave us an afternoon to bop around. Ji-Soo and I set out with about 3 hours to explore the city. After about 30 min we were both in love and thinking about moving there. My three hours of experience in Hong Kong tells me that it is interesting, diverse and sci-fi futuristic. Some highlights:

It is hilly and this steep, densely vegetated park is right in the center of downtown, next to all the financial buildings, right across the street from the HSBC building (more on that later). It was an exciting and refreshing mix of development and nature. It seems much wilder than parks in NYC and other cities I've visited, probably because it is less planned. What can they do with a giant rocky peak in the middle of the city besides let it be? It was most like Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan if it is like anything, although the contrast is not as great in NYC. You get the sense that in some cases, nature wins and we just build around it.



This is the Citibank building. I read in a guide book that people were upset by the use of triangles in the design because it goes against many principals of Feng Shui. I tried to imagine what it would be like to work on one of those upper levels and all I could come up with was: scary.

And here is the amazing HSBC building. I love it. Does it not look like a space station? This building and its designer are on my list of Things to Learn More About. As we walked around downtown we kept seeing this building from different angles. Each of them was exciting and a little shocking. What? Someone actually designed that and built it? All things are possible.


More ridiculous architecture: the Lippo buildings. I read somewhere that these building were designed to look like koalas hugging trees, which is exactly what it looks like. Again, crazy. I can't imagine that in the real world someone would think up this building and that it would get built. I thought ideas like this were saved for Disney World. I love it.


I want to go back to Hong Kong and get an architectural tour of the city. I want to know everything about these buildings and I want to go inside of them and up to the top. Must add to Bucket List.

Here is a view of Hong Kong park from across the street.

This picture captures so many of the things that I loved about Hong Kong (after only 3 hours). You can see the raised walkway over the expressway to get to the park. There are elevated walkways all over the city and unlike the ugly, crappy ones you find in NYC, they are clean and curvy and, well, futuristic looking. I felt like we were in the future. I guess if I had to boil down my love for Hong Kong to one aspect, that would be it: it made me feel like I was in the future.

Oops, I got sidetracked. I also love this photo because you can see the mix of developed land and more rugged looking landscape. In the foreground is the multi-lane highway, then the park, then apartment highrises, then mountain peaks. Ah! Such diversity of land use in such a small area! I love it. I'd also love to learn about the city planning history of Hong Kong. I want to know the history of this city. There is another item to go on the bucket list. Maybe it can be a sub-category under Live in Hong Kong.

You can also see in this picture a cylindrical tower with a cone top rising above the trees of the park. This was a six-story observation tower. Ji-Soo is scared of heights but we climbed up anyway and took a gajillion photos. Fret not, I have them here in line, waiting to be uploaded.


Hong Kong park from the inside. Lippo buildings, pond and Ji-Soo, who was also obsessed with Hong Kong and took a gajillion photos also. We're pretty dorky, but at least we can dork out together.


Hong Kong park is built on a a big hill. We took a lot of steps. It was great.


View from the observation tower. Old buildings, new buildings, steeps hills, lovelovelove. It's funny the things you never knew you love until you actually see them and come to love them and then you wonder why you didn't start loving them earlier.


This is the Tai Chi garden next to the observation tower as seen from the observation tower (duh). There was not a lot of Tai Chi going on.


This was a tribute in the Tai Chi garden to the nurses and doctors that lost their lives treating people during the SARS epidemic. After returning to NYC Ji and I watched Contagion and spent a few days obsessively disinfecting everything and stocking up on non-perishables.

Still in Hong Kong park. So many things to love in this picture.


Ok, still not finished but it's time to go get pancakes. I leave you with one last video of the highway in Hong Kong, taken from the futuristic walkway on the way back from Hong Kong Park.

Shenzhen Day 4: Art Village

Art Neighborhood

This day we were together as a pack of six and headed to an area of Shenzhen known for inexpensive art. And by art I mean mostly copies, but some originals also. Before we got started I had to use the restroom so we stopped in a free art museum, which lead to us wandering around the entire museum before doing anything else.

Some crummy photos of some cool art:













And then we went into the art village, which is shop after shop after shop of very inexpensive hand painted...well...copies. There was some original art. I was more into the artist work stations than the actual art.









On our way back to the train we passed by this calligraphy shop. This is not where Ji and I got our own calligraphy water mats, but it was one like this. There was a huge variety of brushes of all sizes.





Here is a picture and a video I took on our way home from the art village. It doesn't quite show how dense and beautiful the area was, but I loved it.






And, if you'd like to see some REAL video, check out the editing project Ji-Soo made (it blows my videos out of the water): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjQqy1r2svE

Real time update, Sunday January 22, 2012: We made scallion pancakes and pork dumplings for Lunar New Year. Well...we wanted to make the food and then realized afterwards that it was Chinese New Year so it worked out great!



We baked some pig skin also. Ji's comment: "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I think it's too fatty." My comment: There was none, I was too busy eating.




Dumplings boiling, boiled and to boil, with sauce. Ji's comment: "Wow, they actually taste like what you get at a Chinese restaurant!" Success!

Shenzhen Continued

Shenzhen: Day 2

We went shopping. Ji's sister is a super star haggler. I got a necklace and some super cute shoes. I'm too lazy to take a picture of them and put the picture here, but they are cute.

Shenzhen: Day 3
Eunnie had to work so Eric and the rest of us went to this combined exhibit thingie called "Splendid China and China Folk Culture Village". Splendid China = mini-exhibits of famous places in China. First reaction: How is this going to be cool? Final reaction: I want to go back and spend more time there. See below.

This is a mini-version of someplace in China where there are tens of thousands of these little shrines carved into the rock. Really, they are life-sized.


This is a mini-version of the Yellow Mountain in China. This version has bathrooms in the back. The cool thing about this exhibit is that Ji's dad has actually climbed this mountain! It took three days to go up and down. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the stairs in the mountain that he climbed. In this exhibit, each stair is about 1 cm tall.


A monk burial ground.


The Great Wall of China.

And then we saw this, which was the craziest, most wonderful, random thing ever: a sign that said, "Trees Planted by the Most Famous People in the World". And here they are:

Most of the people I did not recognize - the leader of the Nigeria in 1995? No idea. But...

this tree was planted by Fidel Castro! Pretty cool, huh? So, I touched a tree that Fidel Castro also touched. So close to greatness, so close.

We didn't get as much time to hang out at the Great Wall as we wanted because we had to hightail it to the "China Folk Culture Village" section of the park for The Best Show Ever. They re-enacted a attempted castle take over from back in the day. I know nothing about Chinese history so I will not embarrass myself by trying to guess what the time period was, but I do know that they were fighting while galloping on horses and throwing things off the wall. It was pretty exciting.
There was even one guy who could hop off his horse and then back on again, while it was galloping! Ji got a video of it, not me, so you'll have to talk to him if you want to see it.


These guys would lean over to pick things up off the ground while their horse was at full gallop.



Shooting a bow and arrow on a running horse. No hands! He didn't even come close to hitting the target, but I don't care. I still think it's amazing.

And to give you a little sense of how amazing and intense it all was, here is a short video. During the entire show there was dramatic music and Chinese narration. The video below is when the raider was killed and they took his body away. He didn't actually die, but he looks dead, right?



Then we saw some other shows, ate dinner and went to bed. It was a great day.

A Little Distraction

So, I should be doing a gazillion more important things right now besides updating my blog, but:
1. I just made huge strides in figuring out my certification woes, and deserve a break and
2. I just came back from a fantastic vacation and want to tell you about it.

A quick summary:

Phase 1: NYC to Shenzhen, China for one week where Ji-Soo and I hung out with his family (mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law).

Phase 2: 3 hours in Hong Kong. This was not originally part of the trip but we spent the night here to make travel to the airport easier. We only had a few hours to see the city but it was so amazing it counts as its own, separate phase of the trip.

Phase 3: Fly from Hong Kong to Bangkok with a layover in Singapore. Cab to train station, overnight train to bus to ferry to Koh Samui for a few days for a wedding.

Phase 4: Travel home. Flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok, spend the night, fly to Hong Kong, lay over for 6 hours, 15 hr. flight back to NYC.

I'm not sure how to organize any of this, so I'll just look at my pictures and go in order.

Day 1, Shenzhen
Ji's sister, Eunnie and her husband Eric are living in Shenzhen for a year. We stayed in a faculty apartment in the same building they live in. This is my favorite way to travel: visiting people who live there. I didn't think I had any real interest in China, but it turns out I'm a little bit obsessed.

This is Ji-Soo the morning of our first full day. He's on the balcony of our 10th floor apartment, looking out on the river. It was hazy there every day, but I don't know if it was climate or pollution. It was pretty cool weather, sometimes cold. Space heaters were used and enjoyed by all.


Ji's parents had arrived from Seoul a few days before us (we got in on Christmas night) and had hung out in Hong Kong. The top note is Hong Kong money and the bottom note is Chinese money. I will be the first to admit that I don't really understand the relationship between the two. I know that Hong Kong was a UK colony and was given back to China (reintegrated?) in 1997 but all comprehension stops there. You have to go through immigration to pass from Hong Kong to mainland China and they have different currencies with different exchange rates. How are they part of the same country? I'm a little obsessed with this issue, and will do research and try to get back to you, since I can't imagine anyone NOT being as fascinated as I am by all this.

Eunnie had to work the first day, but she met up with us for lunch at the cafeteria where we were able to purchase and consume our first bowl of $1 noodles.

I'd been daydreaming about these noodles ever since I'd first read about them here. I'd been waiting and waiting and waiting, and finally I got to eat them. And yes, there were every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped.

They had pulled noodles and cut noodles. I got cut noodles and they were wonderful. I'd never had cut noodles but I watched the guy make them and now I'm an expert. Well, at least an expert how eating them. Poor Eunnie and Eric are a little bit sick of cafeteria noodles by now, but they were both wonderful hosts and very patient with my desire to devour 80 bowls of this stuff. Ok, I only ate one and was stuffed, but I wish I had a bowl right now...


This is Peking University, Shenzhen campus, where both Eunnie and Eric are working this year. Eric is a lecturer in the law department and Eunnie works in marketing. I think. After lunch Eunnie went back to work and Eric gave us a tour of the area. First stop: the library that was shaped like a dragon.

See how the tail curls around at the end? Or maybe that's the head. Whatever, I took a lot of pictures because I thought it was really cool.


The law studies section (for you, Ben) :


Some more shots:






While we were inside we discovered the most amazing thing in the world: a calligraphy practice mat! We spent a good chunk of time there. Apparently the law students use this station for study breaks. I guess 15 min. of Chinese calligraphy practice really calms the mind.


The mats are made of cloth, with a black velvet-like backing. You write on them with water brushes and when the water soaks through to the back, it shows through like black ink. After a few minutes, the water dries and the mark disappears.


This was fun and super interesting. Ji's dad used to be celebrated for his calligraphy skills back when he was a little kid, and both Ji's mom and dad know how to read and write Chinese because there are still a lot of Chinese characters used in Korean and to be really literate in Korean you have to know Chinese (who knew?). This makes very little sense to me since Chinese uses characters and Korean is phonetic, but I'm working on it. We had Ji's parents helping him with his handful of Chinese characters, in Korean and helping Eric with his Chinese in English. And, of course, everyone was using Chinese.



So, in case you had lost track, I don't speak Korean or Chinese. Ji's mom figured out how to write Virgin Queen (Virginia) in Chinese, taught me, and we practiced. I only remember the character for woman. I learned two or three characters in my week in China. I have no desire to learn Chinese, but I do find it fascinating.

On the walk back to the apartment Eric and I climbed a tower to get a good look of campus.

The four tall buildings are residence halls. The building we stayed in, and Eric and Eunnie live in, is #4, the one all the way to the right.


Ji-Soo and his dad did not climb the tower.

After this we stopped by the gym and had fun there. I will spare you the videos of the butt shaking machine or the goofy walking machine, but it was a really good time. We met up with Eunnie, went out to dinner, and went to bed. End day one.

Changes

Goodbye Monteverde

To be honest, I don't really want to say to much more about it. It was a sad but wonderful last few days. I found myself crying more than once, and grateful all the time. My last night I spent with friends and fireworks - what more could a girl ask?

Some older stuff
Ji-Soo came to visit for a few days in October. We went to the beach, where it was cold and rainy. It was the start of an 11 day stretch of non-stop rain. There were land slides all over the place, none fatal as far as I know. We did get stuck in some weather related traffic delays.

Even cold rainy pacific coast Costa Rica is beautiful.


This one cost us about a 40 min. delay.


This one about 20 min. What I didn't get a picture of what the back half of the semi truck that was ripped apart, presumably by the land slide.

Thanksgiving Day Hike with Dad and Kenna

Hummingbird nest we found (Dad found) - Purple Throated Mountain Gem. Later that same day we saw the mom sitting on the nest. The next day or two days later we went back and found the nest with babies in it!


One of my favorite videos ever. Make sure your sound is on so you can hear the wind.


Oh, Monteverde