March 2006

March 24
fantabulous Guelph adventure
So, back in Guelph and very bored. Decided to go out for some fun but Dave had some sort of deathly infection which he insists is not oral gonnorhea so he stood me up and no one else would call me back, so Alex and I headed out with the camera and decided to random things up. First we stopped for coffee and money. Then we parked. Alex parked worse than Nana. Then after that we walked around and ended up going to the Cornerstone, natural habitat of the hippy and excellent vegetarian/vegan restaurant/cafe/bar. That's when we ordered the food. The nice man asked us to put our Tim Horton's in their mugs so we weren't so conspicuous with our commercialism. Then a crazy drunk guy came to tell us about how dispossessed he was with his 15 girlfriends in Toronto and something about nesting in a bar andd having a bunch of triplets. Then he chastised us for our bad attitude. I'm not the crazy drunk rambler now am I? Then the waitress apologized. They do that here, it's very nice. Then we headed out after more people tried to make conversation with me. Then we walked and ran into Evan and his friend. We know Evan from highschool, not that anyone remembers much of highschool. Then we stood there chatting in the cold for an hour until Joel came and we gradually made the decision to move. And go to play pool. Alex and Joel and I played pool, but we made our own rules, as you can see with Alex's crowning of the balls. Joel ordered disgusting drinks and realized he's finally a professional comedian - he made money. After that, it was the abysmally early last call in Canada, so we left the pool hall and wandered around, eventually deciding to shoot potatoes in the air with Evan's homemade and rather impressive potato canon which he conveniently had in the trunk of his car. Then we moved to another "secret" location just in case the cops decided to come. Then the potatoes got mushy and melted and it was less fun and more stinky. Then we went home and watched videos of fat people and children hurting themselves. Fun fun. Definitely one of the best ways to kill time in Guelph. The thing I've realized about this town is: you really have to make your own fun here, because no one else will.



11:51 AM

March 22
escaping again.
So, I've been home for 10 days now and I'm so incredibly completely bored. I've never been this bored before in my whole life and it hasn't even been two weeks yet. How did I ever make it through summer holiday? Eventually I'll get a job - but not until I get back from Italy in April. Yay, escaping. Anyway, my Nana and I have planned a trip to Italy from April 8th to the 16th. We're going to Rome then Florence and then Venice, and back to Rome, with a possible stop in Verona. I'm pretty excited about it. I went to Chapters (like I need an excuse) last night and picked up a phrase book and guide book, so I spent some time last night learning Italian. It's a lot more complicated than Chinese, though I'm sure that sounds hard to believe. I'd love to spend some time working in Italy. I have a friend who spent some time teaching English there. Unfortunately, It's difficult for me to work there without an EU passport. But, I'm ready to learn a new language, so maybe I'll make some business contacts while I'm there on my vacation. Seems like every time I go anywhere I get offered a job, which will be handy if I ever can't find a job teaching kindergarten or want to work in a trade company in LA as that girl who can speak Chinese and look pretty.

So, now that I have something to look forward to, things are getting better. I managed to get out of bed before 5 pm two days in a row now and I've got some things to do before I leave - laundry, return my broken luggage to the store, pack, learn about Italy, learn some useful Italian like "please leave me alone" and "I want some coffee" or "your fettuccini noodle is obstructing my view of Michelangelo's David" etc.

Of course, there's also the fun of banking, credit cards, student loans, taxes, and re-establishing a home to take care of, all of which make my spoiled ass want to run back to China and my well-paid but still entirely affordable cleaning lady.
4:35 PM

March 20
mechanical weather failure
I'm back in Guelph now, well actually, I've been here for a week. My flight left Beijing last Monday. My only real problem was my luggage. I managed to get it all in underweight, except for my carry-on which was apparently 2 kg overweight even though there doesn't appear to be any posted weight limit for carry-on luggage on any airline anywhere. SO, they told me to go the duty free and put some of my stuff in plastic bags...

The flight was only half full and I had a few seats to myself which made it a lot more comfortable. I managed to get some sleep on the plane and it wasn't too busy or crowded. We flew away from the sun so we had darkness most of the flight, which kept the air temperature down as well as made it easy to sleep. On arrival in Vancouver, we flew low over the coast, which was amazingly beautiful to see. I spent an hour waiting in Customs there which was horrible. The woman standing in front of me was going on about "those damn asians" slowing everything down. She let me go in front of her though because I had a connection in fifteen minutes and didn't want to miss it. It's probably a good thing she's home though.

So I ran around the airport trying to make it on time and I finally got to the gate - via Tim Horton's - and it was delayed for no reason, fine. An hour later it was delayed again - mechanical failure. Then delayed again, fog in Toronto, fine. Delayed again, more fog in Toronto. Delayed again, still fog in Toronto. Delayed again, fueling. Delayed again, waiting for the captain.... delayed again - too much fuel on the plane? Here's the explanation we got - we were on a 767 and they wanted to switch us to an airbus because it's bigger and they could accomodate all the people on all the other Toronto flights they had cancelled, so they switched our 767 with an airbus headed to Hong Kong - which probably would be half full considering it's the low season for China (after Spring Festival). The result was that they had to de-fuel the airbus because it was already fueled for Hong Kong and a plane can't land with too much fuel in the wings otherwise they'll break off, or something, I won't admit to having a complete understanding of this. Plus, they waste fuel carrying fuel.

Anyway, the flight was supposed to take off at 1:30 pm PST and it took off at 7 pm (only half full), so that's almost six hours. When my parents called Air Canada to find out what time I'd be landing, they said it would be around 11 pm EST - we didn't even take off by then. Basically, no one employed by Air Canada seemed to have any idea what was happening. But here's the thing - my flight was supposed to take off at 1:30 pm PST and the flight to Hong Kong was supposed to leave at 2:00 pm PST (there's only one flight), so if they were going to switch the planes, they knew that way before I even landed in Vancouver. Furthermore, why did they wait until 6 to tell us and why the fuck did they tell us it was weather in Toronto when that had nothing to do with the fact that they were still fucking around taking fuel out of the plane? Either they're lying or they're fucking idiots. The thing that pisses me off the most is that I could have been doing something in Vancouver for 6 hours since they clearly knew we weren't going to be leaving for a while. I honestly think the weather story they were using was an attempt to deny responsibility for the delay, since Air Canada is not responsible for hotel fees and flight changes when the cause is weather. Weather clearly wasn't a factor in the delay since the fog cleared up hours before we left Vancouver.

We ended up landing about 2 am EST and I went straight home from there. It took them forever to get the luggage off the plane, but the airport was dead, so it made things faster.

Anyway, now I'm home. I haven't been jetlagged because I was awake for almost two days and my bodyclock has been completely reset. I've still been using the jetlag excuse to get out of doing anything useful though. I have some more pictures to put up from Beijing and from some other things I didn't get around to, so those will come.
5:31 PM

March 10
the tale of the red button
This morning we were sitting in Stacey's bedroom looking at naked pictures of her boyfriend and we saw this red button on the wall with a little keyhole. I asked Stacey what the button did and she said she didn't know, but she thought it would turn on the lights above it. So, she pressed the button, but the button didn't come back up. Then Stacey said she felt cold all of a sudden and I said "what in the entire history of your life ever told you that pressing the red button was a good idea? NEVER press the red button!" Then the intercom phone rang and someone called, at which point Stacey proceeded to tell them she didn't speak Chinese and hung up on them. We started to get worried. Then they called again and we realized it was security and they weren't happy. So Stacey went to the dictionary to look up the phrase for "I thought it was a lightswitch" and went to put on pants and set up the video camera because, of course this was all very funny. So, then a few minutes later, the security guard came up and Stacey attempted to demonstrate that she thought it was a lightswitch and showed him to the bedroom, at which point he asked "where is the key?". We had mei you key. So, the amused guard went back to the office to call someone and laugh at the stupid laowai. At this point we realized there was probably a really annoying alarm going off in the security office. Then several minutes later, another man in pajamas came to the door with a key to turn off the alarm and tell Stacey several times not the press the red button. We probably got him out of bed early on a Saturday morning because we decided to press the red button, but on the other hand, it's probably the most exciting thing that has happened in the security office all week, and a tale to be retold to their families for many a day to come. After it all, Stacey said, "Ok, don't press the red button." And we listened to the blurry video of the security manager telling Stacey in Chinese not to press the red button.


10:44 PM

Way to go China!
China lashes back at U.S. human rights criticism
AUDRA ANG

Associated Press

Beijing — China on Thursday lashed out against U.S. criticism of its human rights record, saying racial discrimination and crime were still rife in the United States and prisoners were being abused at U.S.-run detention centres abroad.

The State Council, China's cabinet, denounced the United States for what it said were rampant violence and widespread discrimination against minorities -- especially blacks -- in its annual response to the U.S. State Department's report on human rights worldwide.

“For a long time, the life and security of the people of the United States has not been under efficient protection,” the Chinese report said.

Blacks are given heavier criminal penalties, arrested more frequently and are more likely to be targeted for hate crimes, the report said.

It also criticized American troops for brutality at prisons in Iraq and the detention camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“As in previous years, the State Department pointed the finger at human rights situations in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but kept silent on the serious violations of human rights in the United States,” it said.

It is “an act that fully exposes its hypocrisy and double standard on human rights issues,” said the report which drew mostly from stories and statistics in the American press.

The response came one day after the State Department said the Chinese government's human rights record “remained poor, and the government continued to commit numerous and serious abuses.”

The U.S. report said repression worsened in China in 2005, with a trend toward “increased harassment, detention, and imprisonment” of people seen as threats to the Chinese government. It also mentioned tightened controls over print, broadcast and electronic media and censorship of on-line content.

The State Department study, published each year since 1977, offers a comprehensive analysis of all countries in the world except the United States.

A large section of the Chinese report was devoted to racial discrimination, which it said had “long been a chronic malady of American society.”

It said the country's blacks and other minorities had much lower living standards and incomes and faced job discrimination. Blacks were also more likely to receive the death penalty for serious crimes, it said.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Muslims have been targeted for arrests and detention under “the banner of 'anti-terrorism,”' the report said.

It also criticized American foreign policy and detailed prison abuse by American troops in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, accusing them of using “various kinds of torture” while trying to “extract information.”

The report also touched on:

-- private gun ownership in America, saying the “unchecked spread of guns has caused incessant murders.”

-- secret wire taps and surveillance on American citizens under the Patriot Act.

-- the poverty rate and the problem of homelessness.

“No country in the world can claim to have a perfect state of human rights,” the Chinese report said.

“We urge the U.S. government to look squarely at its own human rights problems, reflect what it has done in the human rights field and take concrete measures to improve its own human rights status.”



Way to go China for standing up to American hypocrisy. As Stacey put it, China's certainly not perfect, but at least China's moving in a good direction, making progress, the US is regressing back to their ultra-conservative religious anti-freedom war-loving intolerant racist homo-hating past.

2:10 AM

March 09
Beijing
So I'm in beijing now staying with Stacey and Dave. Beijing is very historical, but annoying because eveyone here keeps lying to me in order to scam money from me and I can't understnad anything they are saying because Beijing people have really thick accents that I'm not used to hearing. Also it's cold. So it's been a frustrating couple of days but worth it. Monday I flew here by plane and dragged my heavy luggage all over Beijing's inconvenient and access-unfriendly transit system. Tuesday I slept most of the day and then wandered around Tian'AnMen Sqaure until after dark when the PLA everyone off the square for some unknown reason. The square was pretty beautiful all lit up. It would have been more fun if every third person didn't accost me to buy postcards, maps and Mao memorabilia and every fifteenth person ask me where I'm from and then tell me they want to take me to some one-day-only National Art Exhibition that is in no way related to the nation and is every day. But that's just more people trying to scam me. Anyway, I wen back the next day to see Mao's embalmed body, but it was Women's Day, which is actually an important holiday here so everything was shut down, so I came back to the apartment and spent the rest of the day tryng to register for my courses, which was largely unsuccessful and time consuming. As a sidenote, I was able to register at 8:30, because apparently, that's when the day officially starts at my university. Most people would say it started at midnight. 24 hour registration my ass. Anyway, so today I got uo early again - this two days in a row now - and got on a subway and then a bus and then a taxi to MuTianYu, which is one of the more accessible sections of the Great Wall. I was feeling energetic, well, mostly I was irritated at the women in the ticket office yelling bad annoying chinglish at me, so I decided not to take the cable car to the top and toboggan ride down, and walk. After about three sets of stairs I was reallt regretting that decision and I pushed on and half an hour later I was at the top, of the lower section of the wall. Now the wall in this section has been rebuilt for tourism so it's not really authentic. I wanted to see the older sections, which were at the highest section of the wall. So, I walked up and along the wall for two more hours and finally got to the top of the highest part of the wall which was incredibly steep and a little dangerous. But at the top, the reconstruction ended and i was able to take pictures of the old, more original wall. I'm sure the ruins weren't the original ruins since the wall's been rebuilt a bunch of times over the past few thousand years. I'm in a lot of pain now, but i feel a sense of accomplishment. The climb got a lot easier when I got up into the fesher non-polluted air and it was pretty cool to see something so famous. Plus, the whole place was empty of tourists so it was perfectly silent and peaceful, which for someone living in China, is pretty damn rare. Anyway, there are pictures to come as soon as I figure out how to upload them - tomorrow probably. Anyway, so tomorrow is Summer Palace and if I have time, also the forbidden city and Mao, but we'll see. Weekend will be shopping and repacking. Monday will be heading for Canada. Tuesday will be sleeping and meting with a professor to get into a course about modern Chinese politics. Course registratin is so damn inconvenient this year. That is all.
10:19 AM