11 posts tagged “china”
You can see it all too clearly from the plane, welcoming me home. Sigh.
I just landed in Beijing last night and during the cab into town thought of all the things I'd post about if only Vox wasn't blocked. How it's really an amazing city when the pollution isn't so bad that you can't see your hand in front of your face. How they've installed a customer satisfaction machine at customs at the airport, where you push a smiley face or a sad face depending on whether their service is ok... but everyone just stared at it. How I'm actually, finally, excited to be moving back to Beijing.
I clicked on my little Vox button just now because I needed a break from work (been banging away at this computer since 3a.m. YAY jetlag!) expecting to see the usual error message. But then the login page loaded... and then my main page. I still don't really believe that it's working... surely the Chinese government has made a mistake and will deny me once again.
But on the off chance you do happen see this, comment and let me know!!
Censor-less at last!
<gasps for air and jumps on the internet>
I have a lot of Vox to catch up on.
Do you read the Sunday paper? Which one(s)?
I don't usually read the Sunday Chronicle, but it was laying on the kitchen table yesterday and the Travel section caught my eye. It was a picture of Rongbuk Monastery at the foot of Mount Everest, where my sister and I stayed when we went to Tibet eight years ago. The article details the exact trip we took, which is apparently quite a popular route now. The debate about whether this area inspired Lost Horizon has been going on for years, and I read the book to see if I could discern any places I'd been to. Which reminds me that I've been meaning to scan a bunch of those photos. I'll add that to the list of things to do this week.
I admit it: I pretty much ignored the jury duty summons that coincided with the Vox launch. It’s not that I didn’t want to serve, but things were busy at work, and somehow calling after 4.30p.m. seemed arbitrary and altogether too easy to forget. The day I was supposed to check in came and went as I was dealing with media tours, reporters, and the stuff that makes up every day life.
I felt bad about avoiding it. Seven years in China taught me that a fair trial is one of the best things this country has to offer, and not something that should be taken for granted -- let alone considered a drag. Still, it was just bad timing, and though I felt guilty for a minute, let’s just say I didn’t lose a ton of sleep over it.
When the second notice turned up in the mail, I paid a little more attention. (The fact that failure to appear could result in incarceration had nothing to do with it.) I told myself I would do my civic duty. What are the chances of being chosen, anyway?
I reported to the Hall of Justice this morning. The building with its antiquated elevators and dingy hallways reminded me of an old high school or hospital. There were so many potential jurors (about 300) that the judge had to come to us to explain next steps.
The Honorable Teri Jackson isn’t what I expected at all: a
tall, no-nonsense yet friendly black woman. She exuded pride in her
profession, reminding us that there was a time so long ago that courtrooms
weren’t as diverse as the one we sat in, with a black woman in the judge's robe together with her
Philipino clerk and Chinese bailiff. Nobody's saying things are perfect, but it reminded me how far we've come.
The guy sitting across the table from me snorted and rolled his eyes. I wonder if he's ever thought about what would happen if he was the one on trial.
Turns out it’s a homicide…a 4-6 week trial. I’ve made it past the first selection, but that still doesn’t worry me since 99 other people did too. Next step is interviews, and I figure the chances of becoming one of the 12 they finally select are pretty slim. But if I am chosen, I’ll do it.
Friday's QotD that I missed! What do you collect?
My favorite collection is the things I've gotten from faraway places that now decorate the apartment.
Plus I have a ridiculous number of jars!
How many languages can you speak? Which languages can you read or understand?
I speak Chinese fluently. It's a great party trick, considering I look like the least likely person in the world to
speak it, but it's true. I'm actually third generation Chinese speaker on my mom's side of the family. Growing up In my house, we celebrated Chinese New Year and the Autumn Moon Festival along with Christmas and Fourth of July.
As a kid, it was our secret language -- except when shopping in Chinatown, of course. As adults, we have
fun with it. Mom and I have convinced many a taxi driver in Beijing that we are from a tribe of blond/red-headed Mongolians in the Northwest of China. In the U.S., people usually guess just about every Slavic language they can think of before we finally tell get around to telling them its Chinese.
Beyond that, though, I'm pretty hopeless. Many years of high school French mean I can just about eek out bonjour!
What's your morning beverage of choice? Coffee, tea, juice? Homemade or store-bought?
I've had love affairs with both coffee and tea. For a long time, coffee was the only drink for me. And back then, I'd only drink it my way: dark, rich, black and piping hot. When I was in China, that meant Peet's straight from a french press. Coffee was like my little piece of home in the land of tea: my family used to send me Peet's (thanks dad and uncle Johnny!), which I rationed like gold. Time (and Starbucks) has since worn me down -- as the ubiquitous green and white signs cropped up in Beijing, I got used to their coffee. It's also weaker, which is actually a good thing at this point. A cup of french press coffee (especially rocket fuel like Peet's) makes me want to run around the block a dozen times now.
In the meantime, as my coffee jitters developed, I discovered tea. I say discovered, although tea has always been part of my life -- mom drinks it like it's her job. Some of my earliest memories are of dad making mom's tea in the morning, and finally being old enough to carry it upstairs to her in her special tea cup. It was always mom's cure all: when we were little, it was what we drank when staying home sick (somehow it never occured to mom that a caffeinated drink right before nap time might not be a good idea) and what we had after a long day and wanted to sit and chat. There's still the obligatory two cups in the morning before anything happens with mom -- and if you're smart, you'll bring it to her in bed. Extra points for that.
Tea has since stuck. When we left China, Jason and I went to the other land of tea, Sri Lanka, and drank it from one end of the country to the other. It was then that I realized much of the tea we drink here bears little or no resemblance to what is available in tea-centric countries like India and England. After returning to San Francisco, I went on a quest to find good, strong tea and have since started each day drinking this delicious Earl Grey tea.
What do you usually do on Sunday?
Sunday is chore day. Jason and I have the routine down -- we sleep in as long as possible to put off doing the zillion loads of laundry, grocery shopping, apartment cleaning, and cooking for the week. Ugh.
Then, after all our hard work, we are rewarded by a huoguo, or Chinese hot pot, dinner (check out Wikipedia's explanation here). Out of necessity I've perfected my hot pot recipe. There is actually a Korean hot pot place near our house, but the one time we ventured over there we were greeted with a bad selection of slimy vegetables and all kinds of things I hate, like tripe. Jason and I, on the other hand, make a very healthy version with a flavorful broth and lots of leafy vegetables and tofu. Since we live in one of San Francisco's Chinatowns, all the ingredients are readily available. It's the one kind of Chinese food I can actually make -- probably because it doesn't actually involve any cooking!
