half food blog. half tech blog. half george blog.
china
day 3 – beijing.
Jan 11th
I finally figured out where I am. I’m 2 city blocks down from Tiananmen Square. So, that’s where I went today. It’s really big.
I’ve been doing so much better about taking pictures of food. That is, you realize, the most important part of any kind of traveling-related photography. Here’s lunch that I picked up around the corner for 50 cents:
Then, for dinner, we went down to Wangfujing and this is what I had for dinner. It costed $8 for the both of us to stuff ourselves. That’s right, be jealous of my shao long bao.
More to come soon.
day 2 – beijing.
Jan 10th
I didn’t really do much today.
However, I did make an amazing discovery.
After spending all morning looking for an internet cafe (with no avail), I came back to my place disheartened and longing. I plopped down on my bed, turned on my laptop, turned on the TV, and while channel surfing, I heard a sound. A familiar sound. It came from my computer.
I received e-mail.
The astonishment was unreal. I didn’t know what just happened. Maybe it was a ghost. Or maybe, it was a gift from the heavens. Apparently, someone nearby turned on their access point.
It was slow though. Slower than dirt forming. But it was something. And now I can update to my heart’s delight. The reason for the slowness, I found out, is because some quake in Taiwan took out some of the undersea backbone cabling. That stinks. My dad couldn’t even get on MSN Messenger these past weeks. What has the world come to.
Only thing interesting that happened today was that after coming out of Starbucks this morning (I’m 19 RMB poorer now, but that Americano kills whatever the one at Brookhurst and Ball serves up), there were a ton of cops all over the place.
I wondered if they were coming after the white guy that I was sitting next to at Starbucks earlier, but all of the sudden, this female cop jumps on a stage and starts belting out some song. She’s a little tonedeaf.
[googlevideo]4266711557273683542[/googlevideo]
My dad decided to give me the full taste of the culture here in China, so he took me to a pizza buffet for dinner. It was actually surprisingly good. My body was craving vegetables, so the first picture I took of food is of celery. If you look carefully, you can see a slice of pizza on the other side of the plate. Sorry I’ve been so bad about posting food pictures, I’ve been too consumed by eating instead of photographing.
day 1 – beijing.
Jan 9th
I’m in China. I don’t know how I feel about it yet. I spent the day today exploring the area by my “place” – which is actually like a rented studio. Here’s a picture:
So that’s my place. My home for the next 5 weeks. The manly bedding is my favorite. I still have yet to figure out exactly where in Beijing I am. I think I’m somewhere in the southeast. All I know is that I’m near the Temple of Heaven. Figuring out where I am will be tomorrow’s project.
Today’s project was actually to find someplace that I can get online, but that has yet to happen. Thanks a lot, Mao. Instead, I just walked around the huge department store next door to my place. It’s really ridiculously big.
There’s an unbelievable amount of construction going on here in China. Just to get an idea, I’m going to try to do a photo series. Across the street, they’re building this big mall/department store thing called Glory Mall. Yeah, it’s across the street from the giant department store. Here’s what Glory Mall looks like today:
Glory Mall, Day 1
More adventures forthcoming. I wonder what the group is doing. It’s kinda lonely here by myself. At least I’ve got Melvin.
P.S. The iPhone is hot.