Hong Kong holiday: Sai Kung

Wuxi

T's company had a small up to Wuxi, about 1 hr outside Shanghai this weekend. I was fortunate enough to go with them.

We had a wonderful dinner then went for KTV, where we sung our share of english songs (Micheal Jackson, Bon Jovi, ABBA, BSB) The next day we went sightseeing at Ling Shan buddhist "Disneyland".

Map of Lingshan. See the statue of Buddha at the very top? Its not an icon. Its actually that big!

They didn't have rides, but they were sure selling a lot of stuff. As we entered the park from our car, a tour guide jumped on us and showed us around. (In Mandarin)

"..be in awe of its fathomless depth... combination of technology, architecture, culture, art, and science"

This is the outside of a buddhist building equivalent to a cathedral. (similar layout as well) There were paintings and cloisonne zodiac sculptures.

We sat in this huge circular theatre surrounded by a screen, which showed different scenary from around asia for a while. Then the circular screen lifted to reveal an elaborate setting of a palace and gardens. Statues rose up on a platform, all dressed in period attire (Something like a tropical asian looking clothes, and painted faces) and then music began and everyone began walking around. (I was really convinced they weren't real up until that point!) There was dancing and singing then the screen came down. In the center of the room, fog emerged to reveal a tree rising up and a statue sitting under it. Then people in robes came out with lanterns (below pic)

cool show we saw about history of Buddhism.

Then we hiked up to see the 100+ meter tall buddha. It was a bit weird sticking out among the mountains and trees. (Wuxi is known for its trees. They purposly planted lots and lots of them there- still young, but hoping to be an attraction I suppose)

over 100 meter tall buddha in Wuxi, China

Me and the big toe.

View from the toe.

detail of giant metal roller (people spin them as they walk by, for good luck)

I liked the corroded texture of it.

It was a fun trip getting to know T's work friends and learning more about Buddhism. Only 2 of them were practicing buddhists, burning candles and incense and praying at the various locations. One of them asked me what Christians do at church- just pray? So that was a interesting conversation to have about beliefs and what "church" is. I learned not to walk thru the center of the archways (of 5 openings, the center one is only for budda) and that they believe its good luck if you touch budda's hand and circle around it.

We also ate a vegetarian buffet there- with typical dishes with "veggie product" replacing the supposed meat things. Weirrdddd. It looked like beef... but it wasn't. Some of the pork pieces even look like they had fat on them.. squishy and gross like fat too! I didn't take any photos b/c it was just a bit weird for me... and the room was dark. I liked the taro balls the most.

I love snow!

wake up and smell the.... snow?!

I woke up this morning to be surprised by a white city- everything covered in snow, JUST like the flocked trees in the macy's displays! I was delighted and immediately grabbed my camera to snap some shots.

DO you see it on the thin trees? Every little bit got some snow on it. Fluffy, bright, snow. Ahhh! So magical. This is when I realized that "Walking in a winter wonderland" was not necessarily a Christmas song, so I was still allowed to sing it post-Christmas. yesss. snowman time!

Now something fun. I visit the commodities/trim market seasonally, sometimes for work, sometimes for fun. Ribbons, buttons, overstock, random logo patches, doodads- a plethora of materials to make something great out of. One of the more intriguing overstock items to me are washing labels.

Back in college I had made a stuffed animal sheep out of "100% WOOL" tags, where the tags were the tufts of fur, and had brown legs and face (of wool). So I picked up a mini roll of satin ribbon japanese washing labels as a design challenge for myself. And if you dare join me, I will ship you a few meters.

new year. two thousand eleven.

After helping someone with their grad school essays, I realized how much revising can improve one's writing. So my 2010 "reflections" post is still being cleaned up so to speak.

At the end of every year, I reread all my journal/blog entries to see how I've learned (or not learned) prayers were answered, or just to make sure time HAS passed. (which it has, unfortunately quickly) Once I got to April, I decided two things (1) My blog is really boring, especially when the most interesting post I reread was about Visa issues.(yikes) So I really need to spice it up. My goal for the blog to was share with family and friends back home how life is going out here, so (2) I need a better format besides the "What is did this weekend" post. So I'm thinking of a simple three part format: What I saw/experienced, what I felt, and what I learned. The "felt" and "learned" aspects should be more interesting on how they reflect me as a person as well as how living abroad has affected me.

So now I will practice my new format-prompt.

Hanging out with meat and clothes by the Chang Shou rd mall. (there's a Starbucks immediately behind what you see) I wonder if the clothes smell like fish? I think this is a creative use of space, and have mixed feelings about the dried fish and ducks. Drying food to preserving has been done for centuries, a process I'm curious to learn- although people are still using this method because they haven't a fridge. This makes me feel sad, but also blessed to be where I am. I also had no idea that poultry could be dried like that.

Festival of Red I headed to Yu garden to search for some parts for work, and the shops are jammed with Lunar New years gear. Plush strings of chili peppers, rabbits, good luck sayings, knots, and lanterns. These cheery overflowing shops can be seen blocks away like splashes of red paint amongst the grey buildings. It makes feel rather excited, like the whole country is having a countrywide party!

Christmas wrap up

The elves have been working quickly, quickly. Actually I've been really ill for the past week, so when Christmas came up on us, we rested some more. We had our usual saturday morning pancake breakfast, special with eggs AND bacon (wow). We each opened our one present.(We had other presents, but we opened the electric blanket and deodorant early out of necessity) I headed to the market for groceries (mad house) while Timon got his hair cut.

We had a few comrades over for a simple dinner; rotisserie chicken, garlic mash potatoes (土豆泥 literally "potato mud"), Jon's broccoli salad, curry made by his chef roomie, and apple pie for dessert (by the Smiths!) Jon's broccoli salad is amazing. He brings it to every potluck meal so we all look forward to it- crunchy raw broccoli, bacon, grapes, homemade mayo sauce, and sunflower seeds. We had so much we ate it for 3 days after Christmas!

Christmas isn't complete with some caroling- so Jon jumped on the guitar as we nibbled on toffee, peanut brittle, and caramels made and shipped over from his mom. Thanks Mrs. Osterman! Tastes like christmas!

Yeah, our kitchen was trashed after all the cooking. By the end of the night I hadn't even made my christmas presents yet. Happy new year!

thanks santa

Santa (shown in previous post) brought me a gift early- an electric blanket!!!! It is awesome. SO awesome.

We had our first snow this week, on wednesday.

Just one day of snow. That evening all was blanketed in white, minus the slippery roads. It didn't stick for the most part, the roads were just wet.

pre-christmas preparations

Can you hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ding dingaling....? We had a pre-christmas party last night to celebrate with our pals who are on their way to their motherlands. With busy weekends we opted to order in rotisserie chicken, sooo delicious. A friend made mulled wine and the Europeans shared the "st. Nicolas" stories they grew up.(Sinterklaas and Sint Nikolaas, who has an assistant named "Black Pete" The wikipedia pic is.. interesting)

Sometime after dinner Timon snuk into his Santa costume (leftover from his bachelor party-) and came out with a jolly HO HO HO and explained the 50rmb white elephant gift exchange. It was mass confusion. T and I didn't even KNOW about the gift exchange until that day (even though I was the one who sent the invites out) and so some gifts were rather nice (5o RMB gift certificate to marks and spencer) and nicer for others (size 5.5 gold shoes). Timon won the former, and I, the latter.

(Above stockings I made this week) One of the best gifts was the biggest. In a large cloth sack was a fancy moon cake gift box. (BTW moon cakes are sweet bean* pastries given during Oct. moon festival. *There are "pleasant" surprises also) This moon cake box was larger than a x-large pizza box, and when the lid was unhinged open, the interior is lined with faux silk and there's empty "spots" that the cakes usually fit into. In this gift, each "spot" was filled with some odd thing- angel bear night light, pack of displosable undies, bible trivia cards, Montreal steak seasoning, socks, and a framed image of an iris. On the outside of the moon cake box was taped a pg ripped form a magazine of a skiier. ("For christmas! You know, snow- christmas?" said the fellow who made it)

I had put in two gifts, we had one left over, which people answered bible trivia to get the last prize. (two christmas plates)

what a weekend! We ran out of forks and plates and had to recycle-wash mid party to continue the feast. woo!

xoxo