The good times, part 1

I took surprisingly little photography in China, but I’m pretty sure I took at least a cell picture of every fun thing we did. A lot of these fun things involve food, because I love food.

The one fun thing I did that I didn’t get a picture of was riding the motorbike at night. Jesse and I were going downtown to look at computer parts for a friend. Or he was getting a new mouse? Well, it was week 2 and I had finally gotten over the 12-hour time zone difference. It was 6pm or so, dark outside, but the city was still in rush hour.

It was frightening and mesmerizing and overwhelming. There aren’t much in the way of traffic laws in China, so half of the time we were swerving around pedestrians on the sidewalk, half of the time we were in lanes of traffic, and then sometimes we were in the lanes of oncoming traffic, to get around the current traffic in a deadlock. Anyway, haha, that was all pretty fun, haha, wow, we could have died back there.

We would park the bike and lock it so the wheels couldn’t budge; it couldn’t be wheeled off. And I think it was too heavy to pick up. A lot of bikes get stolen over there, as they do over here. And there was a tiny compartment beneath the seat that we would jam all of our shopping in, or else I would just carry the bags in the back.

Now for the pictures…

The time I ate at McDonalds and was very happy because normal food and America

The time we saw instant coffee and made an Ouran High School Host Club joke even though we weren’t in Japan

I don’t plug Ouran High School Host Club enough, but seriously, men and women alike, lovers of anime, this show is in my top 3 favorite animes. (Along with Death Note and something else not coming to mind… the Legend of Korra or Fate:Zero.) It helps if you’re familiar with some anime tropes, because satire is involved, but it’s not required.

A better picture of the entrance to the apartment foyer, that’s also really blurry

Notice the random trash. One time I walked up those steps and got dog shit on my boot. Every night they would have to bring the (2) bikes and keep them in the apartment to recharge them in the kitchen table area. I don’t know how other people charge their bikes. The same way? The floors got so dirty in the apartment because of that.

A store had taped tissues to the Oreos and were selling them as a combo purchase. Huh?

We just drove by this and I took a picture. It’s Mao. This monument was so far on the outskirts of the city; I don’t get it.

A blurry picture of Bunny.

Did I mention that Bunny pooped everywhere? They kept her in the main living room near the kitchen table — I must have mentioned that back in the dog post. But did I mention that I didn’t like it? It smelled. I got used to it, but it was always kind of this lingering dirty thing.

For a few days around the Thanksgiving meal they moved Bunny out of the main room, and that was so nice. When they moved her back, I became sad, having had a hard positive experience to compare my current conditions to. I said, “Hey we should keep Bunny’s cage in Amber’s room!” (Refer to the floor plan if needed.) But what they did instead was move Bunny to “the weird in-between room with nothing in it” off of the master bedroom. And that room… became full of poop. I know because one time Jesse forgot to feed Bunny and, rather than confess this to his wife (they’d had a little fight about this earlier), he had me feed her before his wife returned home.

I don’t know how you can live with that much poop near where you sleep, and between you and your bathroom. They couldn’t shower in there — it was broken apparently — how broken, I never investigated — but they did use it for everything else. But to each their own I guess. It’s not immoral. It’s just interesting.

These steps were boss. They actually made the notes as you stepped on them. Big: the staircase.

Curry fried chicken. Upon reflection, not a great meal. The chicken was freezer chicken.

In the same mall as the curry chicken and the steps, there was a fresh orange juice dispenser. $1.50, I had to try it.

A few words before the video:

• Since the area where the oranges are being squeezed is covered by opaque plastic, I’m skeptical that the squeezing is actually happening live. They could be recycling the discarded orange peels you see falling off the right bottom side (in the back of the machine). The same with the oranges falling into the top left area.
• In the US it would be a big scandal if it was discovered that the orange juice wasn’t actually being squeezed real time, as advertised. I don’t know if China has those advertising laws, or if the Chinese people even care. They might. I just don’t know.

It was good! And Jesse is quite the charmer. Notice I said, “Take it out,” sans please, because I was trying to record the experience (for UXD homework) and it looked better if I was filming someone, and he said, “Why me?” Yeah, we had an argument 15 minutes after that about an unrelated matter where I called him an asshole. Which isn’t something I normally do. It just became very clear to me, in that moment. So, you can see tensions are brewing. And he’s charming.

This was a salmon sushi roll that was amazing! Great sake too.

The roll was about $12. Not ridiculous, but not “cheap food.” I mean, this restaurant was on a strip of property between the nicest mall in Jinan, Parc 66, and a scenic river, so of course it’s pricey. And $12 is really not that pricey anyway, by American standards. It was the best sushi I could find though.

I’m grumpy about the sushi situation because I thought China would have more or better sushi than it had, but stupid American me didn’t take into account that World War II also involved some horrible battles between the Chinese and Japanese and tensions have not settled completely. China is not exactly warm to Japanese products. They vastly prefer European imports, according to my observations.

A cool elevator that used lighting really well.

I took a picture of this elevator to remember how it used wavy lights to show (1) when an elevator was approaching your level and (2) what level you were currently on. But I don’t remember exactly how it did that. Oh well, some of these are gonna be duds.

Some government/religious building beside the lake in the center of Jinan. They were charging $30 to get in. Nah.

An outing of one’s own

The day in which I went to get the Thanksgiving spices I decided to splurge on a few other things in the city. I think I got a Starbucks. And I went to another restaurant which was one restaurant down from the sushi place, nestled between the waterway and Parc 66. It had a pub atmosphere. It was pleasant. The waitresses spoke English enough to get by, although they ended up giving me 2 beers when I just ordered one. Oh well, more for me! And it wasn’t on the check! Free beer!

Free Guinness.

I’m not a beer drinker, but I did visit the Guinness factory in Dublin and so I have some affinity for it. It reminds me of happier vacations.

Here’s a picture from when I had visited this restaurant earlier, with Jesse. I ordered the same thing that night by myself.

Ketchup, KETCHUP. French fries. Little burgers of Australian beef. Guinness. I die.

My happiness about meals like this show how much I just wanted normal food and how I couldn’t find anything like that at the stores or nearby restaurants. If you don’t like Ramen, you’re gonna have a bad time.

The iPhone picture is bad, but the leaves carpeting the pavers were a beautiful yellow.

There were some people eating outside the window where I was sitting. The river is just beyond those trees. But they were laughing hysterically at something on that guy’s phone. And I liked how they had matching blankets, because despite the outdoor heaters it was chilly out there. Did the restaurant provide those?

They looked like businessmen, and it did not escape me that I could afford to grab burgers at a place where Jinan’s wealthy businessmen dined. I complain about having spent too much money there, but I am still so rich compared to most of the country.

… and other things you say after a church mission’s trip.

Meanwhile, I had planned my course home via bus.

I was walking across the river, coming from the north, across a huge plaza (the “Silver Plaza”?) to the bus station with the crazy-ass name. Thank goodness the buses had normal designations. This is why it was hard to navigate the buses even if you knew exactly which buses to use and which stops to take… the names of the stops were lost when delivered over the intercom in a flurry of Mandarin. It was much easier to watch your cell phone’s GPS.

Walking to that bus station, I felt so free and happy. There were a lot of people in the square… playing with glowing yoyo’s, launching glowing helicopter blades into the air which whirled in circles of green and blue. Some women were performing a traditional Chinese dance. Closer to the bus stop, there was a man singing opera with two or three instruments to accompany him. He had the largest crowd.

It was night, so no one noticed me to stare. I kept the hood of my jacket up. I could blend it. It was lovely.

And the bus ride home, I turned on my music and relaxed.

Moments like that, or moment like that, were when China was amazing. Moment like that make me glad I went, despite everything.

Next up, a few more positive experiences in Jinan, this time with Jane.