The Wonder Years

I've always wanted a life that was out of the ordinary.  Maybe even extraordinary.  I've never wanted to be the same as everyone else (and some of my friends would argue, there's no way I could ever be like everyone else).

So I've eschewed what I considered at the time to be "typical" experiences: engaging in the party scene in college, getting a normal job with good benefits, etc.  I dropped everything like a hat and done went to China.  

But with the passing weeks, I find myself yearning more and more for something ordinary.  Just a job.  A decent job.  A nice little place.  A trajectory that leads to a wife and kids, maybe a dog.  Of course the two car garage replete with outdoor grill stashed in the corner next to a set of dusty golf clubs.  

I used to think it was a shame that some of my friends wanted the simple life.  Why not go out and do something extraordinary?  Now, I think it's something I want more than ever.

Latest triumph

One thing that gets me about China-- all the bread is sweet.  I'd always taken it for granted when I was in the U.S., bread, should taste like bread... unless it's sweet bread!  

In China, it's the opposite.  Bread is sweet, even when the package says, "AMERICAN-STYLE" the bread is sweet.  You can tell as soon as you open the package, you get a puff of sickly-sweetness. 

So every time I buy bread, I try to look for bread that might not be sweet.  It helps that I can now recognize the characters for "sweet" and "cane sugar".  I still have to pick through what Chinese consider bread: "milk bread", "cereal bread", "corn bread" (which is not corn bread, but bread with bits of corn kernels).  I've finally found bread that isn't sweet.  Or, rather, isn't AS sweet.  The package says in English, "SALT BUTTER STYLE".  I thought that was a good indicator, and I decided to try it.  Jackpot.  

But I still miss my whole wheat and rye.  Especially a nice Jewish rye, complete with seeds.

Old mainstays

Over the years, I've acquired a taste for certain comfort foods that I just can't do without.  Even while in China, I have to have these foods:

1) Ritz, I always keep a stack in the house!

2) JIF (ok, this isn't available here, so I settle for Skippy), nothing beats JIF's fresh-roasted peanut taste!

3) Strawberry jam, if I've gotta eat jam, it's gotta be strawberry!

4) Sharp cheddar cheese, nobody does it like Vermont.  But alas, no Vermont cheddar here, have to settle for New Zealand cheddar.

Mmm... beer

I mentioned that I went on a trip to Qingdao a few weekends ago, home of the world-famous (or at least China-famous) Tsingtao beer.  

What I neglected to mention was the fact that Tsingtao sells these beer peanuts that are SO SO TASTY.  Seriously, they are so good.  They have a subtle curry flavor and a delightful crunch.  

The sad thing: they are only sold at the Tsingtao brewery store ... IN QINGDAO.  

I have not given up hope, though, of finding these scrumptious Tsingtao peanuts in Beijing, although preliminary Google and Ebay searches have been fruitless.

Quest for Popeye's

I recently dreamt about KFC.  But now, I'm craving Popeye's chicken and biscuits.  Especially the biscuits.  Chinese KFCs do not have biscuits, despite large pictures of them all over the walls.  Quite cruel, if you ask me.  

So it looks like the nearest city that has Popeye's is Dalian (大连), a 10 hour train ride for about $50 RT, or a 1 hour flight for about $150 RT.  I'm seriously contemplating this.  It's a very difficult decision.

Is it worth it for a $5 bucket of spicy cajun fried chicken and savory biscuits?

For Eddy

Today is the day before tomorrow. Specifically, tomorrow being the start of a new term. So today, there are lots of anxious new students, scrambling to figure out everything such as visas, where to get a bike, how to get to the dining hall, etc.

Just last term I remember thinking, how am I going to get through this? I can't read at all. My spoken Chinese is pitiful. Even when I find the place to, say, get my dining card, I can't communicate well enough to tell them what I want to do.

Somehow, I muddled through it. And now, it all feels old hat. There's something cleansing about starting anew.

So today, I'm going to go take care of a few minutiae. Get my tennis racquet restrung and regripped. Maybe buy some fruit. Did my laundry... check. It's funny how I always feel so accomplished just by doing some of these little things. If I just go out and buy milk I feel like I've done something important. Maybe because it's so easy to just sit at home and do nothing, and have hours and sometimes days pass you by.

KFC

I'm not sure if it's due to the domination of the fast-food market, or because it's ever so tasty, but I dreamt about fried chicken last night. Specifically, fried chicken from KFC.

It's really a strange phenomenon in China, but KFC is considered a high-end sort of place; it's where you go to show off your wealth, and where a lot of first dates happen.

Since I always took my first dates to KFC in the U.S., I must be ahead of the curve.

Choose your own adventure

If I asked those of you that know me well what words you would use to describe me, I'm sure one of them would not be "adventurous".  

Actually, I'd really rather not know the words you all would use to describe me.

Some of you have passions like volleyball, or riding your bike in riverside park, or restoring old clock towers.  Maybe even dining out, or retinas.  Me?  I'd be perfectly content sitting on the couch watching an entire season of Alias while consuming a "Family Size" bag of dark russet potato chips.  In fact, I'd say that's my preferred activity.

Even though my natural state is one of idleness, somehow, I've ended up taking a non-traditional route up to now.  Whereas most of my friends have done some variation of school-job-school-career, or school-school-career, often living near home or near their alma mater, somehow I've ended up in three U.S. cities and now one half-way around the world.  

Sometimes I wish I had done something more traditional. I wonder how my life would have turned out.

The Night Bus

One thing that makes China special is with over a billion people, and lots of places to go, you come across interesting transport options.  

You can often find the newest Audis and Lexuses driving alongside makeshift three-wheeled motorcarts and horse-drawn carraiges.  

An option that I particularly like is the concept of an overnight train or bus.  If these were available in the U.S., I would definitely take them!  If you think about it, you can travel somewhere really far away (say, from New York to Chicago), a trip that is usually 14+ hours by car and 3+ hours by plane, overnight.  You go to bed on the train or bus, and you wake up at your destination.  Awesome.

China's complete lack of concern for public safety has also allowed the invention of the sleeper bus.  Beds on buses!  It works in a pinch.  Also, with over a billion people, you get used to being in tight quarters.  On my sleeper bus from Qingdao back to Beijing last night, a group that was desperate to get back to Beijing ended up taking spots in the aisles.  So I was literally shoulder to shoulder with a random old Chinese woman.  How's that for traveling in style?

Packaging engineering at its best

In the US, you see some necessary compromises when it comes to packaging.  Some space is wasted in order to protect the product, for example, in bags of potato chips, a certain volume is air to keep the chips from turning into potato dust.  

In China, this is taken to a whole other level with cereals.  You see a relatively small box of cereal.  You expect at least 75% of the box to be ... cereal.  What you find instead is a sealed bag that takes up 50% of the volume in the box filled 50% with cereal.  This is why Chinese people are thin.  Calorie-dense foods like hamburgers and potato chips are just too damn expensive!

Bristow vs. Bauer

I've just recently started watching 24.  I discovered quickly why it's called 24.  It's hard not to spend 24 hours  a day watching 24.  There are very few shows that have this effect on me-- but one of them was Alias.  I think my record was 6 episodes of Alias in a row, and I stopped only because my ass really hurt and my bladder tore a little.  

There's no doubt: Jack Bauer is one tough mofo.  After all, he singlehandedly took out an entire room full of hostiles, who were expecting him.  

However, after careful thought and reflection, I still have only one conclusion: Sidney Bristow is badder than Jack will ever be.  

I say "still" because a friend who is a big 24 fan tried to convince me that Jack is the mother of all mofos.  His credibility on this issue has been damaged because 1) he's never seen Alias and 2) he's so so wrong.