January 2004 Archives
I feel very "Lost in Translation." Seriously. It took John and I over half an hour to get the Kodak people to put my digital photos onto a CD. MOstly it was me pointing and giving very blank looks. Luckily they had a super handy translation program on their PCs (Chinese Windows... ewwww...) that helped out a bit. Also, I found that running, in a polluted city, while being out of shape, really really sucks. Or at least my lungs sucked. Anyhow. (Oh, I'm not sure this internet connection is fast enough to warrent me trying to put some photos on the old blog, so you'll all have to wait till we get back.)
Shijiazhaun is the capital of this provence... of which I don't really know which exact one. Anyhow, we're in a super fancy 5 star hotel and are being treated like living gods. Such a cool hotel. We drove by the concert hall for this proformence, and my god, its amazing to say the least. Its the provenicial concert hall, and I think some people wet their pants when we drove by last night. I can't wait to play there tonight.
We just got back from a 'home visit' of a local family, which was very interesting (The vocabulary of Josh and John is very very small, but 'interesting' is the best word we could think of). The father was a local tour guide for German tours, and he spoke German. Ok.... luckily Sara and Johanna were in our group and they spoke enough German to spice things up a bit. The family was very nice, and we all got photographed for the local newspaper. They were extreamly nice, and they kept serving us all tea. Lots of tea. Yes, thats right... all the tea.
Oh, last nigth several of us stopped at a DVD/CD store for some cheap Chinese fun. Thats right, lots of movies. I only bought three movies, for about $6, but Dave Adolphson bought close to $60 worth of stuff. If we were in the US and bought the same amount of stuff, he'd be talking about $500 worth fo movies. We're just going to have to see about the quality of them when we get back.
Last evening we ate atop a rotating restraunt, which served some awsome food. That including the most potent rice wine. Yeah, some people thought it was water (it was in a serving pitcher) and found out the hard way how strong it was. Lets just say a few people were stumbling back to the bus. But the food! John and I both tried the crab, which was served as actual little crabs. Which freaked out some people. We've found that most of teh people on our tour can't handle food that looks back at them, even fish. This does not appear to bother John or I at all, because we're growing very fat. Well, maybe just me.
So we had a 6 hour bus ride yesterday across China, which showed us the stark contract between teh deveopment of the city-scape and the poverty of the countryside. Seriously, we drive through six hours of countryside that looked a like, and was very depressing. Though the one interesting thing were the people flying kites all over. John and I felt the urge to join them.
McDonalds in China is cheaper then in the US. Though the icecream is better, we think.
Anyhow before I run off again, I thought I'd talk about the people here in China. Overall we've been met very warmly by everyone. Most people on thestreats and in the shops are very tollerant of our ignorance of Chinese. At the concert we were overwelmed with people wanting photos with us and autographs. Appearently we are the next big thing over here, which is why we're being given the roayl treatment and are being interviewed by local papers (Kate Riggs got interviewed by a local TV station). I guess you'll all see that when I get the photos online. If I end up havign time I'll make a DVD compolation of digital photos from the orchestra along with some video when teh tour is done.
Anyhow, I sent off a few post cards the other day (in China it takes 6 people at the front desk to get the whole stamp thing figured out) so I guess you'll be getting them... in a month. Well, maybe sooner if you're lucky. John sends his best wishes, and I'll try and prevent him from escaping to Japan on the way back. (come on, we all know he's going to try to run) I hope to see you all soon, and Jared, if you're reading this, we still love you, and please keep the section clean. None of your 'sexy parties' while we're gone.
So I only have eight minutes to type this up, paying 20 Yuhan for 10 minutes of useage ($3 US). Let me give you a rundown of what its like here in China. It simpily rocks. Beijing is a city of12 million people, and construction is everywhere. Everwhere you look theres a new building going up, its all very impressive. This is in stark contrast to the many ancient structures that we've been seeing. The structures we've been visiting in and around the city boggle the mind, I mean, its a trip of a lifetime people! I"ve been takign way too many photos, and I need to find a nice MAcintosh somewhere to off load them before I run out of space. Seriously. I'll be sure to post once I get rid of my jet-lag. Man, we had about 17 hours of flight, and another 3 on the ground. It took forever.
I"m having trouble writing, the Business center in our hotel is swarming with male GAC students waiting to use the two computers, and everyone is mocking my inability to type.
Anyhow, I'm feeling way out of place here in China, its extreamly weird being the minority in a sea of asian people. No one else appears to be feeling it, or at least they don't show it.
Ok, so I"m just about out of time. I'll try and post something later on, and I'll be sending out some post cards here soon. I miss you all, and baring any escape attempts being made in the Tokyo airport on the way back, I'll be home son enough.
By the time you read this message I will probably be on a plane to China. Our flight leaves the Twin Cities at 1 p.m. and goes non stop to Tokyo, which would put us at about a 14 hour flight. Don't worry, I plan on sleeping through much of the next day, that or reading, listening to the old iPod, or playing some Gameboy (which Ben so nicely lent me). If push comes to shove, I can always fall back on my favorite travel toy of all, the Spirogroph Travel! You know theres a direct correlation between the decrease in spriograph usage and the increase in teen pregnancy! Actually, I'm going to try and sleep because our flight touches down in the Chinese afternoon, and I don't want to be completely Jet-laged to death. Actually, my parents were a bit worried about me, but I'm not the least bit concerned about this trip. Seriously. I'm extremely relaxed about the whole situation, and will stay that way, until something major happens, during which I'll be calm, and only freak out about it afterwards.
So you're all probably wondering what I'm going to be doing in China, so I figured I'd be nice and include my itinerary.
Jan. 21th: Depart USA for Beijing
Jan. 22st: Arrive in Beijing, hit the hotel
Jan. 23rd: Visit Tain An MEn Square & Forbidden City
Jan. 24th: Perform at Ju Yong Pass of the Great Wall
Jan. 25th: Visit Temple of Heaven, Cloisonne Factory, Yonghe Palace, enjoy Chinese NEW YEAR!
Jan. 26th: (Hangover) Travel to Shanhaiguan, more Great Wall, perform at Shanhaiguan.
Jan. 27th: Travel to Shijiazhuang. Free Time.
Jan. 28th: Home visits. Local sight seeing. Perform.
Jan. 29th: Travel to Tianjin. City Tour. Perform at Tianjin Conservatory of Music.
Jan. 30th: Fly from Beijing to Xi'an. Visit the Gate of the Ancient City Wall. Eat at Dumpling Fest!
Jan. 31st: Visit the Terra-cotta Warriors & Horses Museum.
Feb. 1st: Visit the Tablet museum and Xi'an Jade Factory.
Feb. 2nd: Visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Phoenix Embroidery factory. Fly to Guilin.
Feb. 3rd: Li River Cruise to Yangshuo. Free Time.
Feb. 4th: Explore! Visit Reed Flute Cave & Elephant Trunk Hill. Fly back to Beijing.
Feb. 5th: Beijing City Tour. Concert.
Feb. 6th: Depart Beijing for USA.
Thats the trip in a nutshell. If you're lucky I'll be able to write a quick blog from China every couple of days. If you're extremely lucky you may get a photo or two. But be prepared for a lot of photos when I get back. Currently our plan is to stay up all night and sleep the entire way to China, I'll see if I can make it or not.
Oh, did anyone actually watch the State of the Union tonight? Once again, I hate Bush. But to put it as my good friend Sarah Laflin put it, the next election will be "Who Wants To Lose to Bush in 2004?" If you don't have the time to read the entire State of the Union address, or want a cheap laugh, read this info graphic from the Onion. Lets hope someone does something to solve this Bush ridden mess our country is in. Apparently Rep Jerry Costello is trying to bring the Vice Pres. up on impeachment charges due to some very generous post-war contracts to a certain company, which just happened to have the vice pres as a former CEO. Hmmmm... I wonder....
Anyhow its really really late, and I still have several hours left to go before we leave, so I'm going to go get a Coke and play some video games. Wish me luck people.
'You can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you want, but if you try some time, you might find, you get what you need.'
Mostly I think the Rolling Stones were referring to another song, with what they need, which would be Honkey Tonk Women.
The other weird thing I've been pondering over is because of a Wells Fargo ATM I went up to. This is a drive through ATM, and it has braille. Why would a blind person be driving up, and moreover, even if they did, would they be able to use the computer screen interface? Moreover, is someone out there actually expecting blind people to be driving in general. See, that scares me.
So Zach and I went to the Orchestra Party last night after going to see Lost In Translation again. Note I said 'Zach.' He actually went to a party! At the orchestra party... we all just hung out and made jokes about each other, while certain brass players got slowly drunk (as usual). It wasn't too exciting, in all reality. Maybe I've been expecting too much because of my recent viewing of Animal House, or maybe its just me. Anyhow, we stayed till after midnight and came back. Also, surprising, the brother Purdham showed up! I'm surprised that either of them could pull themselves away from gaming night to make it over there, but they did! Sadly I tried to get a nice blackmail shot of Kate Riggs with a beer in hand, but she proved much too quick for my camera. I'm quite sure I'll get one over tour.
Speaking of tour, I've got to get a few items still for the trip, which means I'll be spending more money! This is just my trying to help the US economy back on its feet!
So tonight was a night of movies and fun! Boo yeah! Finally, after much anticipation, I finally got to see Lost in Translation. Campus had a showing tonight, and I plan on seeing it again tomorrow if possible. Its a very sad movie about life, love, and finding yourself; while in Tokyo. With Bill Murray. Usually we all know of Bill Murray from such movies as Caddy Shack, or his days on SNL. But as of lately he's been doing some very nice serious work, which in my opinion, is his best work ever. I most certainly loved his work in Rushmore, and hope that he continues to do more serious work. The other main actor in this film was Scarlett Johansson, who I also enjoy. A lot. She's not extremely attractive, but very alluring. She's a very great actor for only being 19, and I enjoy her dry whit way too much.
Sadly I also managed to watch the movie BulletProof Monk. Lets just say the comments we were making during the film, were much more interesting then anything that was actually happening on screen. Seriously, I feel as if I've dirtied my section by bringing in such a dirty film. I only watched it because Professor Abby was going to show it for Orchestra movie night, but there were only two people who wanted to see it, so we came back to 202. Luckily my rum and coke helped me through the film. I pity those who did not have a drink in hand. Lets look over the major flaws in this film.
1) Good actors, bad acting. Come on now, looking at the cast we could have expected at least some good acting. But any and all acting was over shadowed by point number 2.
2) Bad kung-foo special effects. This was to be a kung-foo movie, only it appeared to be a matrix wannabe kung-foo rip off. Seriously, I kept looking for Obi-Wan to come out and say "Use the force Stifler" or for Mopheus to leap out and say "Believe Stifler, you are the one." It was that bad. plus who were they fighting?
3) Nazis. Why are the Nazis always around when there is some really great ancient power to behold? Plus, having Nazis around I would have expected that someone would make their faces melt at some point in the movie. What good are Nazis if their faces don't melt!
Anyhow back to reality. HALO has taken over our lives again. You can hear the screams of pain and joy echo throughout the section as pixalated bodies go flying. Its rather sad though, Zach's laptop is having a tough time playing it for some reason, which it should not. So he's been stealing John or my computer in an effort to get a higher frame rate. Which usually does not help him win at all.... yeah, I said it. I'm stuck up about my HALO abilities. But its true. Of which.. I should go kill Jared a few more times. Ahhh.. the fun.
Well, the title says it all. We had a very long presentation by the International Campus Activity something or another, in which we learned nothing useful except that the entire world thinks American women are easy. See, in my opinion it should just be Earth girls in general.
In other interesting news apparently we're going back to the moon. And then to Mars. As much as I like this, I don't know why bush is going this route, considering his recent NASA budget cuts. Maybe someone should tell him that there is no oil on the moon, or Mars for that sake. Well, that and no terrorists. Sigh....
China looms overhead. Not the entire country, but the whole trip I'm going to take. Its looming. So much to do, so little time. If you'd like to give me a suggestion on what to take with me to China, or if you'd like a post card, post a comment! Seriously. What I'm hoping for in China is a chance to find a Cyber cafe sometime and upload some photos to my blog! From what I've read in the news, there should be a lot of Cyber Cafes in China, as long as the government has not shut any of them down recently. At dinner last night I was surprised by the large number of people who are taking digital cameras with the on this trip, most everyone at my table was. This should be very cool, because I can then snag other people's photos! Muh ha ha ha ha! this also is very sad, because Kodak just announced that they will stop selling film cameras in the US now, which is crazy because over 70% of their cash flow is in film and film development. So weird.
Its bothering, none of my roomies (except Jared) are using their blogs! I mean, Zach hasn't updated his blog sense November! Some people! If any of you know these people, hit them on the head for me. Several times. Me on the other hand should finish this main blog page. I've yet to actually make a Rants or Links page. Which I should get around to doing. I should also talk to Lee-man about making some sort of nice graphical/photo thing for our main page. It looks too bare.
So once again I had Chinese food. The orchestra as a whole went, or the majority of us did, and man was it good. Warren had made arrangements ahead of time for a buffet style meal, which was so good because I was able to sample many new things. They were extremely good. I don't know how my mouth could handle it all. But it did.
Katie Groves has taken pity on me and made me a nice scarf. Really. No longer will my neck be forced to freeze in these dark times. No longer will my neck be oppressed by the frigid nature of the world. Boo yeah. This will most certainly help my poor cold body while I'm in China.
So, more Orchestra rehearsal. Yes, more and more and more orchestra. My back can hardly take it all. Anyone got some pills for me? So today we were, in theory, all going to dress up in our concert dress, just to be sure everyone looked ok for the trip. I soon realized that i did not actually own any black pants. For shame! What kind of sick bastard am I where I don't actually own any black pants? The only thing I can hope to do now is kill Jared Lee and take any and all black pants he has. Or just kill him for the pure pleasure of it all.
I've been watching the extended edition of Dune, the 1984 version, not the Sci-Fi Mini Series one we all watched last year. I've always been a fan of the Dune books, but I can't ever say I really understood the later books. Maybe John can break it down for me, or maybe I should read them all again. Anyhow, Dale found a copy of it... online... for me, and now I've got to write my old friend Michael and rub it in his face. He's been trying to find a copy of the extended edition for years now, but has failed (as always). Oh well, maybe if he's nice to me i'll mail it to him. Or maybe not!
So its been a week sense I've check my PO Box here on campus, and all i've gotten is a forum letter from the dean. It wasn't even worth opening the PO Box to get. No one loves me....
Though Samantha does, at times. She spent her Christmas break in Germany, and was very sweet and brought me back a gift! Its a little vial of sipping peach schnapps! I'd open it, but I think I'll save it for an emergency. Like is I knew the world was ending, I'd break open the schnapps and drink away. Too bad she's not around over J-Term, or else it would be party time!
Justin Delegard managed to get ahold of the new version of iPhoto and iMovie, which is rocking my world. Its so fast and slick and... perfect! the version I was using before was having a tough time handling my 1500 photos, but this new version can apparently handle up to 25,000 photos! All the more fun for me! This should come in handy when i come back from China with a ton of new photos! Oooo the fun!
Zach, Dale, Stef, and I went to Mankato last night to pick up some supplies in China. I bought a super cool stocking cap, thats sooo high tech that it had four different layers to keep the heat it. I don't know if my poor head will be able to handle that much heat, but I guess that I'll be needing it due to the coldness of China this time of year.
Before going to bed I watched Down with Love. So I had heard that it was a so-so movie from several people, but after watching it I fell in love with its kookieness and bad humor. Maybe its just me, or maybe it was the several drinks I had drank that evening, but the movie made me laugh constantly.
Anyhow, this is a big week. Not much time left before China!
Here a recent conversation with Zach.
Me: Zach, don't you think that Optimus Prime was the most bad-ass transformer?
Zach: I didn't really watch transformers as a child.
Me: - Stunned Look- I'm Sorry man.
Zach: Its ok.
Me: We'll, he is bad-ass.
Then again, you could be the bad-ass musical group called Optimus Rhyme. Which is also bad-ass. While I'm talking about funky musical groups, also check out MC Frontalot. He's a nerd hip-hop artist. Yeah, I know.
So, apparently I have too many DVDs. So many that the chest I have them stored in can no longer hold them in the current configuration. So, while I was gone yesterday Vicki and Sara come over and put labels on them all, and made them fit. Thats no easy task, we're talking like 120 DVDs here. But, thanks girls.
I need to go buy some black dress shirts today, and maybe a power converter today. So to Mankato I go! Yeah, I'll bring John along also. He always need shirts.
Also, oddly, Dale is here. You know, the guy who took me to Madison. Looks like we're in for some wild Dale fun! Or just lots of bad videos.
Ok, so I've been a very bad boy and have not been doing ANY blogs in a while. See, I've been super busy doing next to nothing all week. This is what j-Term is about. Doing nothing, and doing it well.
So lets see here.... hmm... I've been doing Orchestra stuff all day, every day. We have call every morning, as in a crash Chinese course. Its basically been history, and no one I know can actually read the required reading without falling asleep. Its kinda worthless, seeing as I've taken way too much Asian history already, and I've heard these lectures already. To tell you the truth, I've not even bought the books for class yet. Nor do I plan to.
So depending on the day, I either have one and a half hours of orchestra practice, or three hours. Which is good, because we're learning the music very quickly, and sounding good. The bad part is my back and neck are killing me. Luckily enough I have some very nice friends who give me back rubs, or else I crack my neck around them constantly. But in other news, I have been bonding with the viola section. The seven of us went to River Rock cafe on Wednesday for lunch. Mmmmm... nice soup and sandwich. Very very good. If we ever get our act together we're going to try and have a viola party before our China trip.
Lets see. I should be working in the library, but I've not had time in the afternoon to do anything at all. Usually orchestra gets in the way, which is too bad. Which reminds me, I should return the stack of books I have next to my bed before I accumulate a massive fine.
Jared and I went to a boys basketball game on Wednesday night. It was rather fun, except for two things. First off, the GAC cheerleaders look like emaciated high school girls. They were not loud, or enthusiastic, and they couldn't even clap together. Oh, and whoever wrote their cheers, should be shot. Quite frankly the 'Superfans' in the front row did more for the crowd then the cheerleaders ever did. The second thing was that the refs started calling massive amounts of fouls during the last ten minutes of the game. Like every ten seconds it was another foul. Blah!
So today I traveled to Rochester to see my parents and help them look for a house. Katie Groves came with me, which was very helpful, because I always get sleepy after a big meal. Of which I had two. Thanks Mom and Dad! The houses we looked at were nice, and I tried to help them figure out their priorities. Like say, one house had a bar and built in computer networking. Thats higher up on my list. Anyhow, I hope they get this one place out on the edge of town. Its really super nice, and has lots of room for our crazy little dog to run around.
Anyhow, what am I doing now? Drinking a pop (well, mostly pop) and about to watch a movie. I think. Oh well. I'm off to have fun.
So I've been really bad over J-Term about updating my blog. Its just been so tough with all this stuff going on, and then with me nothing at all for many hours on end. But i did manage to stuck up some photos the other night of campus in the snow. Expect me to actually update some this weekend.
Ok, so the webserver would not work for me at home, but its working now. So I guess its time that i tell everyone about my X-Mas fun that I had. Moreover, the fun I had while I was sleeping and eating.
So I watched a lot of movies over break. Lets have a rundown of the films I watched. The first film I went to see was Peter Pan. The classic story retold, with super high tech special effects. Despite what local newspapers have said about the movie, I for one loved Tinkerbell. She made the entire film worth watching. Seriously. The next movie I went to see was The Last Samurai. Ok, so I was actually worried about watching this film, I was thinking that it was going to be majorly messed up and Americanized. But it wasn't! The movie was about 1/3 in Japanese, and with subtitles! Wow! Then, the sword fighting was wicked, and I was extremely impressed with the way the movie presented the Japanese culture. And yes Zach, I will probably end up buying it. The other film I saw in the theater, was Something's Gotta Give, which was funny, except I felt I probably would have enjoyed it more had I ben about thirty years older. I felt way too young in that theater. Then again, I did manage to watch, at home, several movies. The Man Who Wasn't There. An extremely good movie by the Coen brothers done in a noir film style. Also watched was the fabulous true story, Dog Day Afternoon. Lastly I watched Road to Perdition. Ok, enough movies. Its time I told you some of what I did over break.
So my parents and I went down to Omaha to visit my Dad's side of the family. It was uneventful. Seriously. The same thing with X-Mas itself, well, besides the extremely good ham my father made. Man, was that stuff amazing! So goood. Anyhow, I got a bunch of DVDs and some shirts for X-Mas. Some luggage also, for the China trip. Thats about it.
So the rest of the time I spent on the phone with the local cable internet company, who after three years of hell, got their act together and replaced my parents cable modem. So I had internet for about half of break, and the other half my parents were blaming me for it not working.
So anyhow, thats X-Mas for you. Nothing too interesting. Really.
Hello! I'm back, and the webserver is working (for now) again. I was going to write a long ass blog about everything that happened over x-mas, but its so late! I've been spending all my time burning off CDs and hanging with the roomies! I'll do it tomorrow, when I have time.
