任是无情也动人

( pics from last night )

This morning, finally got the desk all finished and my junk sorted into the drawers/shelves. Am now posting from my desktop PC. ^_^

Furniture stuff still on the list to get/do:
- Have one more bookshelf to put up. Need to make a run to Lowes
- New mattress
- Need a trash can for the room. Also a recycling bin, maybe
- Need more file folders for the cabinet
- Laundry bag holder...thing, since I don't want to keep running downstairs to drop off dirty laundry every time.
- Need to decide what goes in between the shelves at the back wall... CD-rack? Small futon couch? Bean bag? Table? Low cabinet? Suggestions welcome...
- Given the larger desk surface, I'm pondering whether to go for a dual monitor setup. (Yes this is just an excuse to get a larger monitor *cough*)
- Room freshener. Apparently the scent of anything that gets cooked in the kitchen drifts up the stairway and smack dab into the bedrooms. -_-

Journal Entries:
4/7, Day 0 - US Airways
Day 1 - Life Hates Me
Day 2 - Headless Chicken
Day 4 - More Headless Chicken
Day 6 - Internet
Day 8 - Modern Day Boonies
Day 9 - Belated Qing Ming
Day 10 - Island Tour
Day 11 - Wuxi
Day 12 - Buddhist Tourism
Day 13 - Political Tangent
Day 14 - Passports
Day 15 - VISA's
Day 16 - Girls Day Out
Day 17 - Party & Politics
4/27 - Home Sweet Home

Photo Entries:
Zhejiang, 4/15
Zhejiang, 4/16
Zhejiang, 4/17
Wuxi, 4/19

Today we began the traditional preparations for our eventual return to the US - that is, buying presents for all the thousand and one people back home. Not to mention picking up all the stuff that friends/distant relatives are asking us to carry to the US for them.

For gifts, the obvious choice would be the Olympic mascots since this year is Olympics year. The official stuff comes from the post office, so I went there with my aunt early this morning to take a look at the prices. They range from about 22 RMB for a key/cellphone chain to 58 RMB for a fan. My aunt said there were pairs of Olympics chopsticks that were very pretty and for 20-something RMB, but those apparently were too popular and were already sold out.

Then, we went out shopping for real, with pretty much the entire household of women sans my grandma - there was me, my younger cousin, my mom, and my aunts (of my two cousins). Estrogen... level... skyrocketing...

Our first stop was Fuzi Miao (夫子庙), which is pretty much the grand the flea market of Nanjing, where you will find a lot of stuff for cheap (and/or fake :P).

Our first stop was a walk-by kidnapping from a teahouse. They had a bunch of girls outside advertising various teas. My mom needed to buy some kind of tea that my dad had told her to get him, so while she was busy finding those, the rest of us tried the various teas they pushed on us. I located the section for chrysanthemum tea - same as that I had when I was still rooming with cashew, so I bought a bag for 24 RMB. As I was leaving the place, they also forced on me a bag of jasmine tea for 10 RMB... and I am just an easy mark I guess. =_=

Then we examined several souvenier shops for (non-official) Olympics stuff, and did end up buying a bunch of keychain stuff to hand out in bulk to more generic contacts (like more distant co-workers). Mom bought four ceramic turtles for her male colleagues, against the rest of our advice that those guys better not know what "乌龟王八" means. ^^;

After picking up a few more pieces of souveniers, we drove over to a mall building for clothing. In general, the prices are much lower than those in Shanghai, but there also seems to be more coats and jackets than there were normal shirts and inner clothing for sale (which was I was more interested in). But anyway, with so many females present, I think we spent more time having people trying stuff on and then arguing about how stuff looks on who than actually buying stuff. *cough* I did end up with one pair of pants, one semi-coat, and one shirt.

It was near dinner time when we managed to make it home. My feet hurt like hell, but at least I got most of my presents done. Now I just need to buy some of the official Olympics stuff from the post office tomorrow for the closer colleagues I have at work (like the managers *cough*).

This morning we headed out for a little sight-seeing of Wuxi. We drove out along the banks of 太湖 (Lake Tai) into the 马山 (Horse Mountain) area.

According to historical records, the land used to belong to a retired general during the Tang Dynasty, who was a good friend of the monk Tripitaka. After Tripitaka returned from his trip to India, he was invited to visit his friend. There, Tripitaka noted that one of the hills there very much resembled the sacred mountain he visited in India (灵山) and expressed interest in buying the land to build a monastery there. His very generous friend instead gifted him with the land to build the monastery.

That monastery was later burned down either during WWII or the 50s (I couldn't hear the tour guide clearly). Then in more recent years, reconstruction was begun on the hill now called 小灵山. The last time I visited this area in Wuxi, only the front gate was done, and the huge statue of buddha was under construction. Now, the front gate had been taken down/changed, the huge statue is complete (along with a lot of other things), and the only part that's still under construction is a school (for studying buddhism) somewhere in the back.

The huge statue supposedly has an elevator inside that goes all the way up to the eye level of the buddha statue. But only VIP visitors are able to get in there and be able to "look out the eyes of Buddha". Most regular visitors can only get up to the level of the lotus flower that the statue is standing on.

The other point of interest there is the huge fountain presentation of the "太子" statue. We got there in time to see one of the presentations and I was able to capture it on video.

Pictures are of course forthcoming once I get access to imageshack.


We left the place early as it started to rain heavier and heavier. For lunch, we just went to a restaurant nearby my aunt/uncle's place. We ordered some pretty tasty stuff: white shrimp (said to be a specialty from 太湖, roast goose (now said to be healthier than duck for anti-cancer properties), sea snail (海螺), crayfish, a multi-fruit & 锅巴 dish... Mm... (Have I made anyone hungry yet? Be glad I didn't include pictures. :-P)


Addendum @ 20:24 - just came back from dinner. My uncle had reservations (through connections) at a local five star restaurant/hotel 太湖饭店. I liked the crab paste (made with real crab instead of the imitation crap we see so often in the US), the crispy fried honey eel, the cuttlefish, and the white...somekindoffish (白鱼), said to be one of the three specialties that 太湖 is known for (白鱼，白虾，银鱼). Also had sea cucumber, which was a first even though I didn't find the taste especially of note. Am stuffed though.

We took a tour boat out onto 千岛湖 (Thousand Island Lake) today. Our tour covered the major southeastern islands in the lake, which are mainly scenic spots, as opposed to some of the islands toward the northwest area of the lake which are known for its animals (there's an island dedicated to monkeys, one to snakes, and one to ostriches of all things...)

The lake itself was formed sometime in the 50's due to the construction of a dam/reservoir/hydraulics station downstream. So technically it's a man-made lake. Now it's also a pretty famous tourist spot.

First island we visited was 桂花岛 (Osmanthus? Island), known for the flowers its named for. Unfortunately, they bloom around August, so all we saw was a lot of greenery. The rocky area near the beach, also known as 石林 (stone forest) was kinda cool, though also a death trap to navigate over.

Second stop was at 黄山尖 (Yellow Mountaintop). We took the tram up (and down) to the top where you can look down on a whole bunch of small islets (300 is the number claimed by the guide). Also according to the tour guide, when looking down from the view at the top, the islets sort of form the characters for 天下为公.

Third stop was 天池岛 (Heavenly Pool Island), formerly a quarry during the South Song Dynasty. There's a pretty pretty koi pond where the sales guy was saying that you have to pay to take pictures there. *rolleyes* There was also a rope bridge that charged 2 RMB to cross, supposedly for luck/longevity. *double rolleyes* Probably the only interesting thing there was the corridors with the different ways of writing 龙 (dragon) and the Song mural.

Last stop was 密山 (Secret Mountain), the main part of which was just a buddhist monastery. There was also a 财神 (god of prosperity) shrine in the back, which I don't think is buddhist, but whatever. According to the map, there were more scenic spots further up the mountain, but apparently we ran out of time on the tour, so we couldn't go up and look unless we wanted the ship to leave without us.

One more thing of note was that, in the lunch that was included on the boat trip, each table had a dish of 螺丝 (from the lake too, and pretty clean), which I haven't had in such a long time. Mmm...

Jiande, Zhejiang, CN

Today is the first day of our travel to where my (maternal) grandfather grew up, in 浙江省,建徳市. Supposedly we're in the boonies, though you wouldn't think it looking at all the modernization in progress in the city. Heck, the place we're staying at (how our hosts are related to us is a little too complicated for me to figure out at the moment; all I could tell is that the eldest male in the house is a brother of my grandfather) is more "modern" than the place my grandparents have in Nanjing. (Of course, that's also partly cuz my grandparents haven't bothered to modernize a lot of their stuff). They've got a TV per bedroom for 3 bedrooms, internet connection (but which can't reach IJ), and hot water.

We arrived here by car. Let me backtrack... Last night, my aunt and uncle (my mom's sister & her husband) drove over to Nanjing from Wuxi. They have have 2 cars, but apparently swapped with a friend's car as it was more comfortable for the trip. This morning at 6 AM, we departed for Zhejiang: my uncle, aunt, grandfather, mom, and myself.

First we spent over an hour trying to figure out how to get onto the freeway from Nanjing. Chinese highways unfortunately lack both prominent road signs and more abundant number of on/off ramps to the highway. Midway, we also spent maybe an hour at a rest stop trying to fill up gas. The problem isnt' that there was a lot of automobiles competing - the problem was that there were also a lot of huge trucks waiting in line for nearby nozzles, thus blocking the way for small cars to get in and out of the single station when trying to fill up gas.

WE passed Hangzhou around noonish, then stopped a little past there at a rest stop for lunch. We ate stuff that we brought with us, though it appears that Chinese rest stops also come equipped with cafeterias, which I'm told actually has decent food as well. The place was certainly clean enough - even the bathrooms, which I daresay is cleaner than the US counterparts (except maybe for the lack of toilet paper).

At any rate, we got to 建德 (Jiande) around early afternoon. Took a small tour of the area, including the banks of the 新安江 (Xinan River) nearby. I took a few photos/videos (which I'll put up after I get back to the US and have a better connection to imageshack).

We had dinner at our host's house. All of it is indigenous foods. I like the various bamboo dishes the most (the bamboo is directly plucked from the wild and grown in the fields, not processed/canned).

7 PM local time - On the train from Shanghai to Nanjing

So early this morning we made calls again to the taxi company, etc. But by the time we were heading out the door, we didn't bear much hope of getting our passports back. In retrospect, it seems much more likely that they were pick pocketed during the short time we got off the bus from the airport and before we caught the cab to the hotel.

Anyway, theft is the story we're sticking when we headed to the embassy. There they told us that to file for replacement passports, we'll first need a loss report from the Entry/Exit Bureau. They also said that it will take around 10 (business?) days for a new passport to be issued.

So next we headed to the Entry/Exit Bureau to get the loss report. There they said that we wouldn't be able to get the report once we filed the forms until Friday. They also said that it could take anywhere from 1-5 business days to get the VISA to leave China once we get our replacement passports.

This presents the possibility that we won't be able to get the VISA in time for the time on our return plane tickets. Worst case scenario, we may be stuck in China for an extra week. In which case, we'll also need to inform our jobs. This kinda sucks since I don't have enough leave time for an extra week of PTO, so I'll need to borrow the time from future work hours. I'm sure my colleagues will not love me for this, but well, there's not much I can do at this point.

Anyway, once we got out of the Entry/Exit office (which is also the place that does VISA's), we dropped by the train station to put our other carry-on luggage in holding. Then we headed downtown for some lunch and shopping while we waited for the time to call the airport about our missing luggage from yesterday.

At about 3:30 PM we called the airport, and they told us they'd already mailed the luggage to the address we gave in Nanjing. So at least we didn't have to spend another 2+ hours on the road to/from Pudong airport. At that point, we finished up shopping and headed back to the train station to book a train to Nanjing.

(No, we decided not to spend another 2 nights in Shanghai waiting for the loss report on Friday morning because there is a huge hassle for us to book a place anywhere without passports, and the place we stayed in last night was... less than comfortable, I'll leave it at that. What with the two-hour trains between Shanghai & Nanjing, it would be simpler just to take a train back to Shanghai on Friday morning to file for the passport.)

Special thanks must be extended today to the family friend who we'd contacted last night. She came with us the whole day today and was a huge help in navigating the public transport system in Shanghai - eg. the bullet subway train thing. (I still kind of boggle at the problem my mom was having with the ticketing and entry/exit system the subway used even though it's almost exactly like BART.) She was also instrumental in preventing my mom from buying some really fugly clothing and attempting to make me try some of the same. *hugs and kisses*

I did end up buying 3 pairs of pants (they adjusted the length in-store for me), one skirt, and a shirt or two to match 'em.

Once we get to my grandparents' place in Nanjing, I expect much nagging and scolding from my grandma on the stupidity of losing our passports. Fortunately, my mom will most likely be the recipient of the sermon, so I might be able to slip by on the radar. *crosses fingers*

Other than that, I hope to be able to take a real bath (shower) tonight and sleep in a real bed. (Did I already mention that our changes of clothing and sleepwear are all in the luggage that's now supposedly going to arrive by mail in Nanjing tomorrow?) Unfortunately, at this point, I still rather prefer to be living my average day at work than be in China with all the hassles that lie waiting in the near future.

Also, I miss internet.

So remember how my parents said I'll be able to have my computer in my room because of wireless internet, and thus not have to deal with sharing the living room with them and their computers? Well apparently that's only until my mom wants to use the wireless adapter on my dad's laptop so she can access the internet from the kitchen. Which of course means that I either take my stuff to the living room and use the ethernet there or I have to wait 'til their done using the thing.

What kind of deal is this? I get better internet service from freaking SBC.

So, with the slightly not-so-dark side of things in that I live conveniently close to Fry's Electronics, I drove over there today and bought a buncha stuff (helps that I got my first paycheck on Friday for the first four days of work). Bought my own wireless adapter ($59.99 with a $20 rebate), plus a good deal on a DVD-R/RW for $39.99 (haven't installed it yet). Also got a small flash drive since my work laptop doesn't come with a floopy drive and it'd be a waste and a hassle to transfer files between it and my home computer using CD's.

Anyway, I got home and tried to install the wireless. And like all the other times XP started giving me problems, it looks like I'm going to have to reinstall everything from XP up... again. Good thing I haven't installed many programs since the last time.

For now, I've installed the new wireless onto my laptop, so I guess I'll be using that to go online until my computer gets working.

(My dad thinks that the real problem may be with my XP, what with being *coughbootleggedcough*</strikefrom China all, but I'm not so sure since it hasn't been giving me any problems on other applications before. Also, XP is currently selling for $199.99, AND you can't even install them onto more than one computer. What a way to gouge customers, Microsoft. *roll eyes*

Well, I'm *finally* home.

Actually, I arrived at the SF Airport at about 5 p.m., courtesy of that 3 hour delay at LA.

Then it took me an hour to meet up with my dad, who was supposed to be picking me up. It seems that he'd wandered off to the international arrivals terminals. Since my last flight was a domestic one, naturally, he couldn't find me there. So while I was wandering around the domestic arrivals terminals, I made a few unanswered calls to my home phone, and a call to cashew, just because I was bored and slightly worried. I fear to look at my credit card statement online to see how much those calls cost me... *shudder*

So, after Dad and I finally met up, we then spent *yet another* hour wandering around the airport trying to find his car. He had parked in the international terminal parking lot, which naturally *had* to be far away from the domestic terminals/parking lot. Add to that the fact that I had all my luggage on a push-cart, which meant we that we had to hunt around for elevators since we couldn't use escalators. Well, it took a while.

But I'm home now. Finally. After all the headaches and delays and pressurized cabins... I'm finally home.

And now I'm gonna go vaguely unpack and then collapse on my bed.