三inSEA

It has begun.

Back in May teaching in China and traveling Asia was just something two of my friends and I talked about. Last week one of those friends, Donald, met me in Zhengzhou where we were lucky enough to join in one of my co-workers pre-wedding celebrations. From there we traveled to Kunming to enjoy the hospitality of another Fordham classmate of ours and meet up with Nicole (the second friend). After a brief sampling of Kunming, Nicole and Donald, and I made our way to Bangkok. 

Despite its wild and crazy reputation and recent splash in international news with the protests, our time here has been rather laid back with boat rides, temple visits, and alleyway cafés. Maybe it's cause none of us want to spend our overnight train ride north hungover that we've been so conservative, in any event our time here has been more pleasant than party. Later today we'll begin our journey to Chiang Mai to explore some of the Northern Thai jungles. I'm hoping to get a close look at some elephants and stay off the radar of the Mosquitos! 

If you want a more visual account of the journey of us 三朋有 (three friends) in SEA (Southeast Asia) check out Instagram and look for our hashtag #三inSEA (there's a pun in there in you think about it hard enough). Thanks for reading! 

Here is the link to a photo in the hashtag collection (http://instagram.com/p/jo25QYuzjS/) 

"Worth A Thousand Words" (updated)

3rd(eye)'s photostream on Flickr.

I got a camera! I also went skiing (more on that later). Here is a look at life in Zhengzhou through the lens of my new camera, if what they say about pictures being worth more than a thousand words then these should more than atone for my lack up textual updates! (hopefully this time the link works)

"Dumplings for Days"

I love dumplings. When people asked me why I was going to live in China for a year saying, “because I want to eat a lot of dumplings” would’ve sounded weird, but it would have been pretty true. I have not been disappointed. 

China tastes good...

A little over a week ago was the winter solstice. The Chinese have a tradition of eating dumplings on this darkest day of the year in order to make sure their ears don’t fall off. Which made complete sense to me and I wan’t going to take any chances. I was lucky enough to be treated to absolutely delicious lamb dumplings by what has become my adopted Chinese family. They run a small local restaurant that I frequent regularly.

Beautiful People

 Whatever my complaints about plumbing or smog, I cannot but feel tremendously grateful for the warm and generous hearts of the Chinese people. If there is some link between smog and/or leaky pipes and people this nice or gracious I’d say the would could use more of both. My night of dumplings was the closest thing to a holiday dinner that I had for Christmas and New Years.

Definitely one of mine...

My friends at work have also noticed my appetite for dumplings and this past weekend I was invited to my friend’s home to make dumplings. There is clearly an art to making good dumplings and it is also clear that I don’t have it yet. I was able to learn the broad strokes and was close to making dumplings that looked almost like they were supposed to. After eating everything on the table, we played Mahjong for hours. I felt pretty Chinese and very happy.

Mahjong

"Give Your Plumber a Hug"

Our lives are full of people who touch our lives in indirect yet important ways. Your plumber is one of these people. Do you wash your hands? Flush a toilet? Take a shower? Wash your clothes? These may seem like only little moments, but they can become pretty slippery operations that soil your day. 

At first, I treated the moments when my sink or shower flooded my bathroom as character building opportunities. That lasted about two weeks with the added side effect of me showing less. I had never really given plumbing that much thought before. At home it’s all hidden in walls or floors and works pretty well, well enough for me not to think about it. However, stepping out of your shower wet and naked onto what was a dry floor but is now a puddle water coming from a rather unappealing hole in the floor which bugs have crawled from on more than one occasion makes you think about the business of plumbing pretty quickly (cue mouth-breathing escape to the bedroom). In short, plumbing is much more visible here, but more as an after-thought. 

As I try to adjust to living in a different part of the world this has honestly been one of the biggest puzzles for me. My school is a good example. The toilets and sinks are motion activated but the pipes are not fitted properly and often leak onto the floor which leaves me scratching my head. I keep thinking I’m missing something, some part of where this makes sense on some cultural level and that could help me dismiss my concerns as childish first-world complaints. The bizarre truth seems that to be that people here really just don’t care. It’s not a cultural issue, it’s just simply not an issue at all. I still don’t get it. I did however get duct tape and did some DIY plumbing of my own. So count your lucky stars if you have a good plumber and give him/her a hug next time you see them.

Metal + hose + rust = : (

DIY handiwork.

Drain in community bathroom.

Getting my feet wet.