Entries for July, 2007
I'm Back! Posted at 02:44 PM After a wonderful and exhilarating trip to China this summer, I am back in the states :) This hasn't been the first time, nor will it be the last time I've gone to China. Upon arrival, my flight got delayed for 5 hours from Chicago to Atlanta, so in my free time, I pulled out my trusty laptop and began to write about my experiences abroad. Five hours later, I realized I had written six pages, single-spaced, size 12 font. Since this is more than anyone would ever care to read, I shall be posting excerpts over the next few weeks onto this blog. If one really wishes to read the entire long post though, you are welcome to email me (mutesiren at gmail dot com). I have to brush up on my math and vocab as I'm about to take my GRE's in August, unpack everything from China, research grad schools, and put together a portfolio! Much <3 and thanks for reading! :) |
On the Ends of Spring Semester. Posted at 10:41 AM Hello dear little blog I have so neglected to write in all summer long! I don’t even know where to begin in telling you about the last three months of my life. Let’s start with the end of Spring ’07. I did not win the Velux competition for studio that spring. I had not intended to win the Velux competition. But I did put together a hell of a display board that Georgia Tech’s Architecture department had ever seen! As you can tell I am pretty proud of it. My concept was fresh and original, but again, like all my designs, it was too drastic, and too wild for the rigid professors’ minds. The Georgia Institute of Technology teaches you a way of thinking as my advisor had once told me, and mine is a different way of thinking. So had I really not learned anything here at this school, or is this just the wrong school for me to be in? Let’s see, moving out at the end of Spring semester was a nightmare. Last year I was staying in Woodruff over the summer, and so I got to stay until Sunday to move out. This year, I had to be out of the dorms by noon sharp on Saturday, else they would fine me $50 for every hour that I was not moved out! (Why do colleges put such heavy fines on their already poor broke students?) Luckily I only had one final exam to take, the dreaded Environmental Systems class. This final was one that could not be prepared for. It was nothing we had ever learned in class, it was nothing we had ever been quizzed over, nothing we had ever covered in the homeworks. (This a typical Georgia Tech test). As an arch student, after pulling a week’s worth of all-nighters, once the final “Final” project is done, you are pretty much done for the semester. I pretty much spent Tuesday through Friday packing up stuff (really it was more like Thursday and Friday). One of my roommates had two halves of a watermelon in my mini fridge since February. When I opened that mini fridge in May, you don’t even want to imagine how disgusting it was. Yet I watched my father stick his bare hands in there, pulling out the rotten, molding, vomit-orange remnants of watermelon + watermelon goo, and thought to myself, “Now that’s a man.” |
On Flying and Arriving in China Posted at 01:58 PM I barely had the chance to catch my breath from moving things when I found myself getting up at five in the morning to catch my flight leaving Atlanta at 8:30. I was finally going to China again. Seeing my relatives again. Studying abroad again. I was so excited I barely slept on the 26-hour flight. My seat neighbor was an Australian native who was living in Brazil. He worked for a consulting firm so really he’s been traveling all over the world. His wife was an architect who only took high balling clients who could afford her outrageous visions. He showed me some of her designs on the plane and they were pretty cool. It made me think that perhaps I could do that too one day. One thing I had always loved to do was people watch. And you won’t get a better chance to do that than sitting in an airport with three hours to kill waiting on a connecting flight. I only had a few days to spend with my relatives in my hometown of Nanchang before I left for Shanghai. Family diplomacy between the Chen and Gao family is an extremely delicate matter. I have to split my time evenly between the two families else one side will think I prefer the other side more. This will cause much distress and hard feelings for both sides of the family, thus causing great distress for my parents. This time I got lucky with four days in Nanchang. I decide to live at my grandma on my mom’s side for two days and go over to my grandparents’ on my dad’s side for two days. My younger uncle on my dad’s side was coming to pick me up from the airport and drive me over to my grandparents’ first. I had to make that side of the family think I was coming back as a mature young woman this time, so I left the states in business professional clothes and some pointy black Steve Madden heels. They did the trick. My uncle and aunt in law were amazed by how grown up and sophisticated I looked. (Little did they know.) The next few days were a blur. I woke up at around 6 am every morning that week. By Thursday I almost didn’t want to leave Nanchang. I really didn’t care to take classes in Shanghai or see any of my friends and classmates. I hadn’t seen any of my relatives in a long, long time. Unfortunately, my train ticket to Shanghai was on Sunday at 8 in the morning, and I didn’t want to miss the first group dinner with my teacher and classmates. By the time I arrived in Shanghai, I’d already missed the orientation, the tour around the city, the visit to the City Planning Exhibition/Museum, and a trip to the top of the Jing Mao observatories. My roommate had already moved in and settled all of her stuff in, so I began to do the same while I waited for them to get back to eat. I had brought my entire watercolor set to China, but all I ever painted was one very sorry painting of the sad little view of the backside of a run-down storage house that was outside our window. That was all the free time I had to sit down and paint. |
On Shanghai and Bunnies Posted at 11:13 AM The next few days were a blur. I woke up at around 6 am every morning that week. By Thursday I almost didn’t want to leave Nanchang. I really didn’t care to take classes in Shanghai or see any of my friends and classmates. I hadn’t seen any of my relatives in a long, long time. Unfortunately, my train ticket to Shanghai was on Sunday at 8 in the morning, and I didn’t want to miss the first group dinner with my teacher and classmates. By the time I arrived in Shanghai, I’d already missed the orientation, the tour around the city, the visit to the City Planning Exhibition/Museum, and a trip to the top of the Jing Mao observatories. My roommate had already moved in and settled all of her stuff in, so I began to do the same while I waited for them to get back to eat. I had brought my entire watercolor set to China, but all I ever painted was one very sorry painting of the sad little view of the backside of a run-down storage house that was outside our window. That was all the free time I had to sit down and paint. The first week of being in a brand new city is always awkward. The constant quick memorization of the placement of vegetation, street names, dorm number, telephone booths, building locations, is almost an assault to my detail sensors. And I had thought Barcelona was a big city with a funny dialect. Shanghai was outright ridiculosity! The throngs of bustling people going to and from work, the fruit sellers on the street, the foreigners, the old wrinkly tourists, the outrageous clothing of the young people! The smells of stinky tofu and sewage from the gutter, mixed with scents of incense, spiced meat on a stick, long fried strips of dough… I bought a baby bunny from a street vendor right outside the gates of the school that first Monday. Though we tried quite hard to search for the name of the evil killer bunny from the movie ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, we never did find it, and eventually named him(her) Killer. I put his little cage in my bag and snuck him into the dorms. He was absolutely adorable! His appetite was enormous though. He always ate as much food I put into his little dish, and I served him water in a shot glass. He was a ridiculously cute little eatin’ poopin’ machine. People warned me that bunnies off the street shouldn’t be bought because they usually have genetic defects due to inbreeding and whatnot. If only I had listened. Killer died in two weeks. I was quite depressed that weekend. I went to an open bar for ladies at a place called Murals that Saturday and drank myself into a stupor. Then I threw up. |
On Food in Shanghai Posted at 11:48 AM Food. The food in China is definitely something to look forward to. My only warning is that one won’t get very much cheese in China because most of the population here is lactose intolerant. That and they just simply don’t prefer the taste of cheese. After three weeks of living in China, the group of us trekked a little under 3 kilometers to go to a place called the Sandwich House because it promised us mozzarella, swiss, parmesan, and cream cheese on its various sandwiches. I was never more happy to be eating a smoked salmon cream cheese and caper sandwich on a baguette! The owner of the place was this tall, dark, and not very Chinese looking Shanghainese man who was fluent in Chinese, Shanghainese, English, and Dutch. One thing that cracks me up about Chinese people and American food is that they place these common (pu tong 普通) restaurants on an over-glorified pedestal. Thus, places like Hooters, Pizza Hut, or even Taco Bell are transformed into these really nice, classy, take-your-girlfriend-out-on-a-date-to-impress-her type place! At Taco Bell in the downtown Ren Ming Guang Chang area, the entire staff greets you with a great big ‘Hola!’ in a broken Chinese accent. Then the hostess comes to seat you, while a waitress in a giant, multicolored and ridiculous sombrero comes to serve you cold lemon water and take your order. I never had more delicious Spanish rice than the Spanish rice I ate at that Taco Bell. The portions were American sized too. I had never been to a Hooters in America before, so I can’t quite compare the two. But Jose once told me that he always went there with his dad to get their buffalo chicken sandwich, so that is exactly what I ordered when we went. Surprisingly, when we went to Hooters, it was not completely full of womanizing white men. There were several couples and even a few families in addition to said Caucasian men. The girls at Hooters had relatively large hooters for being Chinese girls, but they were also relatively unfit. (Begin rant about Chinese girls not working out) One would think Chinese people are all skinny because they ride their bikes or walk and not get free refills. However, as I’ve noticed with many Chinese people, this is not the case. Their arms and legs are all skinny because they have high metabolisms, but they don’t really work out, and thus their sides are all flabby. Thus the large bus stop ad for the nearby Hooters depicted an unphotoshopped picture of a girl with a nice rack, but her booty shorts pinched all her belly flab out on the sides, and the white Hooters tank top was not helping hide any of it. (End rant) The best thing to get at Pizza Hut is their salmon pasta in a light cream sauce tossed with asparagus. Blake made us try this awfully disgusting seafood pizza there the night we came back from the Texas Instruments site visit, and I swear I came close to vomiting that night. They replaced normal red pizza sauce with this horrid wasabi-mayo sauce, and just drizzled it on the entire top of the already greasy pizza. I like sushi, and I like pizza, but whoever thought of the wretched idea to put the two together deserves a horrible death! The rest of them were able to stomach it, but I had one piece and that was quite enough for me for the rest of my lifetime. |
A Year Ago. Posted at 07:55 PM One year ago, I was taking classes on campus and working. One year ago, I was dating three boys all at once. One year ago, I was riding motorcycles, slipping away to neighboring states for weekends, getting trashed every weekend since I was 21, going to shooting ranges, etc. Now, I am sitting at home, not doing a whole lot, just being really, truly, Happy. :) |
It's Time for a New Look Posted at 08:50 PM I'm getting to working on a new blog layout. What do you all think of an earthy green/yellow? |
One of Those People. Posted at 06:42 PM New site layout on it's way :) ---- It has come to my realization that I've become one of those people. The kind of person whom I used to think were horridly boring because everything in their life was fine and happy and wonderful with absolutely nothing to complain or rant about. I spent Sunday painting, then went out to dinner with Blake. We slept in until noon and made the bestest chocolate chip almond fudge brownies. **Warning - Sappiness begins here** I couldn't be happier just passing the days by lazily, making things together, going for long walks in the evenings at Piedmont park, watching sci-fi shows and speculating on the outcomes, teasing, tickle fights, cuddling. **End Sappiness** I hadn't a care or worry in the world. Just deep, engulfing satisfaction. It's been several years since I've felt this. And yet my cynical self looks at all of this and thinks: |
