Farewell 2012

Oh. 2012. How crazy this year has been. Last year around this time, I worried about whether or not I wanted to play poker. If there was going to be power. Whether or not I would be able to get out of drinking with my local teachers so that I could hang out with my friends and wear face masks. I thrived in the sun and wear a charcoal face mask that made me look a little bit inappropriate. There were naps involved. I celebrated 2012 by hanging out with a bunch of 14 year olds at a discoteque.

There were hot showers, but not every day.
There was power but not every day.

Now I worry about whether or not my heels are high enough or too high. Whether or not my dress should be shiny. How am I going to not miss my flight the next day?  What do I do if I do miss my flight?

 What a contrast!

Here is a song that I'm currently obsessed with.  May you enjoy it in both 2012 and 2013.

Mic Check 12-12-12

Hi Friends who read my blog. Happy 12. 12. 12. day! I miss you. I will write soon. I promise.

Blog by numbers

These are thoughts and things that have happened to me since the last time I blogged.

65: the number of people I need to call on the phone everyday. If I call more, I feel awesome.
64: is 8 times 8.
60: minutes is an hour. I can't watch TV for more than an hour before I fall asleep.
50: pages of the biography that I read every day on the way to work
50: bucks, the cost of a cab from the airport to my house
48: hangers in my closet, about 100 too short
46: days since I last blogged
45: hours I spent working last week
44: minutes, the length of time I just spent on the phone talking with Lucas
40: the number of times I've listened to Don't You Worry Child by SHM since Monday
31: hours to fly back and forth from Dubai for this year's KO
30: minutes is how long it takes to get from my bed in the Mission to my desk in Telegraph Hill in the mornings
25: minutes I spoke to Lindsey on the phone before she told me she was pregnant!
23: minutes it takes me to walk from my office down to Anthropologie to check out the new sale items
20: minutes, the length of time I interview an applicant for my school
13: number of hangers I have hanging on my rolling rack in my room
12: the number of times I refresh Salesforce a day
11: the time I usually fall asleep with the lights on.
10: hours slept total while in Dubai
10: hours slept while on the plane back from Dubai
9: minutes it takes me to walk from my office to my new favorite Chinese restaurant: Z&Y
8: hours I spent cleaning today
7: things that I have on my list to buy at Ikea, that I'm probably never going to buy
6.66: the amount of money you pay if you buy two instant udon, a bag of cheetos, and a bag of shrimp fries at Walgreens in San Francisco
6: the number of people in my office
6: episodes of Downton Abbey I haven't watched yet
6: hours spent looking at Ikea, Dwell, casasugar, Target Home, Zarahome, Pinterest for ideas for my room
5: photo albums that I haven't edited but plan on doing so
4: people who are applying to my business school because of me (as of right now)
3: times is the number of times I've done laundry this month.
3: average number of cups of coffee I drink a day
3: average number of beers I like to drink in the office on Friday
2: celebrities I saw at LAX, Bryce Dallas Howard and Lance Reddick from the Wire/Fringe
2: black jackets purchased in 2 days
2: number of seats I had flying to Dubai
2: the number of roommates I have
2: times I've changed the layout of my room
1.5: numbers of seats I had flying back from Dubai
1: trip to Ikea
1: wedding in Half Moon Bay, it was beautiful.
1: move to San Francisco from Shaojie, by way of Atlanta
0: the number of times I've dared to look at my credit card bill this month

Sorry, it's been so long! WELCOME BACK TO MY BLOG!

Nail To Do!

First seen from one of many nail blogs that I read, this super cute 19 year old's blog has presented to me a nail idea that I definitely want to do, as soon as I start my job and I'm in the office and I'm not at career fairs. So... in mid- November, around Thanksgiving, I will be paint my nails in this way and I'm so excited!

Oh after a little bit more observation, I saw that she posted a tutorial! Here it is:

Click to enlarge! How smart is this! I can't wait to do it!

September is the best month of the year.

Let me count the ways:

Every year:

1. My birthday is in September. (September 24, what what!)
2. I usually have an affinity for other people who are born in September, many of my friends are born in September.
3. Fall TV starts in September.
4. Autumn, my favorite season starts in September.
5. Pumpkin lattes start in September.

This year:

1. I start working in September.
2. My cousin is also getting married in September.
3. I saw Tom in DC in September.
4. I re-discovered that airlines give cute drinks from baby bottles on airplanes.

The only things that would make September better:

1. Restaurant week also occurred in September.
2. Some sort of huge annual sale in all the stores took place in September.
3. If I got paid in September.

Addicted to Downton

If I could constantly shake my fist, I would. ITV has been so wiley about the start date of Downton but apparently more searching has led me to uncover an unofficial start date of September 16th in England. It hasn't been officially posted on the ITV website and after searching up, down, and through the website, I'm desperate enough to cling to this date as the true one. Sure, the release on PBS isn't until January, but who's going to let a six hour time difference turn into six months? Don't be absurd. This is 2012. I'm not waiting until 2013. :) Also, I've found that the edits from PBS Masterpiece are never appreciated. I want my Downton as long as possible!

If you love Downton too, let's start talking in about 2 weeks.

How to leave rural China in style

Have a layover in Beijing and celebrate it HANGOVER style.

I didn't go to bed before dawn for the first four nights I arrived in civilization.

NIGHT 1

I arrived in Beijing from Lincang, dropped off my things, pinned back my hair and ran down the street via scary pedicab to meet with fellow revelers: Laura, Axel, Monica, Andrew, Sarah, Jonas, her bf who bought me menthols, Greg, Annie, and many many foreign strangers at the old faithful meeting place, First Floor. We rejoiced by eating Biteapitta and I quelled my bursting cravings for some baba ganoush. Sure we met some new friends, but after we finished our drinks there, we wandered around the Workers' Stadium before deciding on going to Latte. We made it up the gauche elevator before I was denied entry because I made the mistake of breaking my foot and taking care of it. The lady at the door literally denied me based on my disability then SHOVED me backward. Who shoves someone for the same reason that I've been denied entry into the club?

Through begging, Laura convinced Mo, me, Axel, and Andrew to pay 100 rmb cover to go to MIX and relive her college highs. I grumpily paid the cover before deciding that since I had already paid 100 rmb that I might as well enjoy myself. We drank a nasty shot of something disgusting that burned something awful and like magic, I was obliterated. This combined with Andrew's ability to leap up in the air RIGHT before the drop of a song... got me super excited and ready to dance the night away. Then, I captured the eye of a few Chinese girls who had access to Chivas and soon, it became a Chivas night. The best kind of night. The five of us ran up and down the floors of MIX, blocking exits and dancing in the way of many paths before settling on the pop music dance floor. Many goodies and oldies were played and we ended up exiting MIX at dawn.

I managed to convince a pedicab driver to drive me a very long distance by resting two glow sticks in the shape of an t over my face, the same shape as a ten in Chinese: see 十。 Apparently getting such a low price is unheard of and soon, I found out why. THE DRIVER WAS CRAZY. He kept trying to impress me back moving very quickly with no hands on the handlebars and no feet on the pedals. Much of Gongti was drunkenly walking and probably did not like their peace disturbed by my screams. Then, the driver asked me if I was sleeping alone. I answered by leaping off the seat of the cab and walked as quickly as my leg/boot could move.

NIGHT 2

Eat a delicious meal at a izakaya, a place that I would have picked and was happy to go to. Walk a mile in an effort to find a cab. Chug a Long Island while everyone else takes a shot. Befriend a guy by name of Merlin, ask him politely for the glasses on his face, take lots of pictures in them. Drink beers. Never meet the friends you promise to meet until the bars close where they are. Continue drinking, drink water. Go to 7Eleven. Love life. Wake up in time for NIGHT 3.

NIGHT 3

 

I unapologetically made my friends watch the Euro cup final where Spanish creamed Italy. Monica woke up from a nap and arrived by ten. She was sad until she saw how into it the other fans were. They were insane, the streets were filled with people.

  

They had life size cut outs and freshly bought ADIDAS/PUMA/NIKE fan shirts. It was amazing. I sat outside starting at 9 pm, to watch a game that started at 2:45 am, and ended up getting home around 6.  

 

This is what Sanlitun looks like at dawn. Peaceful, deserted and nice! I walked home in the fresh, unpolluted morning, and took a small nap before....

NIGHT 4

Sadly, I don't have any post-able photos from night 4. I went to Wudaokou for the first time, ate delicious pizza with May and the gang. I went to Propaganda for the first time. Another bar next door that's just like it but with better music... a place called WU bar, where we danced crazily alone on the dance floor for hours before peace-ing out at, you guessed it - dawn and returning home. 

MORE NIGHTS

The following nights, my last nights in China, for the foreseeable future. I'll let the photos say it all.  

See ya later, China!

Best response ever.

I need to stop making pronouncements like this. What I'm about to post is clearly an inside joke and perhaps you have to know both me and JB to know why this is awesome. I don't care. This response to my post has made me smile, almost laugh at loud - for about a week. I think it's worth sharing.

Click here if you want to learn about the many uses of Pedialyte.

Home sweet computer!

Hello world,

the view from three weeks on the road

After almost three weeks of being on the road, nothing feels better that lying in my own bed, watching a slew of decadent shows about unrealistic lives of con-men, police officers, and lawyers. I am shamelessly obsessed with three separate television shows about lawyers. Thanks, USA network!

Suits. Drop Dead Diva. Franklin and Bash (which is admittedly, a TNT show).

Suits because it's smart.
Drop Dead Diva because I'm supporting Georgia's economy by watching it.
Franklin and Bash because I will watch anything with Mark Paul.

Relaxation, achieved.

Getting back on the post train!

I'm been terrible about posting new things on my blog because I've been terrible about technology. Since returning to America, I've spent several days using only my Kindle and Google Voice forwarding ability to connect with my friends. You text me, it forwards to Googvoice, it forwards to my email, I check it frequently using my unlimited lifetime free 3G on my Kindle, which I'm using as my email device, my text device, and my book device, where I'm reading three books at the same time. It was complicated.

Now, I have a smartphone. It's 2012. It's my first smartphone and frankly, I'm worried that it's going to make me dumb! First of all, I don't know how to use all the features a smartphone has to offer yet, BUT I WILL. Don't worry. I've downloaded a lot of stuff, some stuff which is useful, a lot of stuff which may be useless. I'm addicted to Fruit Ninja, which before today, I've called - Ninja fruits, that fruity slashy game, "please can I play it on your ipad/iphone, you know that game I like, the one that isn't cut the rope" - I spent several minutes playing and finally had to stop when my phone ran out of battery. Now, I never have to wonder about things, I can always look them up. I never have to have any sense of direction because Googmaps can tell me where to go and frankly, I'm glad that I have a smartphone, but I'm also glad that I haven't had one up to this point.

I'm a slave to the phone now and I hate it. Why does the battery on my HTC Amaze deplete so quickly? How do I save battery while constantly being online? Suddenly it makes sense why there are so so so many charging stations at airports. I didn't get it but now I do.

I've added a Twitter sidebar to my blogspot, you should be able to see it on the top right corner. I've also joined Instagram, so now you can not only see the photos that I spend time editing but now you can click on stuff that I'm seeing, as I'm seeing it. Oh, technology, great and evil, all at the same time.

I don't know how put together this post is.. but have an instagram of me and my friend Billy, who I haven't seen in about 18 months.

Music fusion. Adele and Gnarls Barkley

These are perhaps my mom's favorite songs from the past two year, fused into one. Adele's Rolling in the Deep + Gnarls Barkley's Crazy = Rolling in the Crazy or Crazy in the Deep? I first heard this song at First Floor, the bar in Sanlitun in Beijing.

I'm laughing because my mom will definitely LOVE this aptly titled song!



You should listen too! It's so good.

HOTlanta!

I left my school on June 28. I had to trudge my things 20 mins through the village that I lived in, climbed on a bus and left in the face of several crying students. Hung out a night in Lincang before flying out the next morning. I said goodbye to John Kuo, Lucas and Casey from my hotel and then climbed in a cab with Monica and Laura to the airport. Our flight was delayed. In the wait, Monica, Laura, and I watched the Eurocup Italy vs. Germany game. Italy kicked Germany's ass and because our flight was about 75 mins late, we saw MOST of the replayed game. Monica and I worried about our flight transfer and we happily climbed abroad our flight 90 mins after we were supposed to. We arrived to the new Kunming airport, which is nice but still somehow doesn't have the two things I like to see in an airport - McDonald's and Starbucks. I guess it was China, not America. A few more hours of delays later, we found ourselves in Beijing. Four intense nights and days of celebrating our two years later, Lo, Mo, Axel and Andrew left to return to America. Meanwhile, I stayed behind, celebrating my remaining days with Nora, lunch with Nora's mother and her friend Missy, Sarah Ye, Sean, Greg, Annie, Ben, Manel and Tom. Some new friends and old - I ran around Beijing, enjoying the city life. Hailing cabs and eating delightful food that was good under any circumstance, not just because it was foreign food and not mixian.

Soon, the night of the 9th arrived, and I needed to repack and figure out how I was going to transport all of my belongings back to America. I had four suitcases and about... 230 lbs worth of things. As there is a weight limit of 50 lbs per bag, I needed to somehow sort all the bags to even weight and then figure what to do with 30 lbs of extra weight. Stress! How was I going to fit everything in just one cab? I called ahead to see if I could rent a minivan for an hour - the cost? 1000 RMB! Oh, helllll no! A normal cab to the airport costs 70 RMB. I ordered a cab on the phone and then waited for a cab drive to return my call. In Beijing, not knowing how things work is no excuse not to get things done. I skipped sleeping for the night and got all my things downstairs in time for my 4 am cab. My cab driver surprised me in how tall he was. He, along with the two doorman, helped me manage to load my four jumbo suitcases, my carry-on rolling suitcase, a large Longchamp, and a huge Gucci handbag into the cab. I gave directions to the airport where I was to meet with my aunt and her family of four.

We boarded the flight at 6 am from Beijing to Detroit. I enjoyed 11 hours of business elite diagonal seating! In Detroit, I encountered probably the most surly Customs and Immigration officer I've ever met. At 6 am, if you don't have anything nice to say, you probably shouldn't say anything at all.

Another short flight later, I arrived in Atlanta.

Now - four days later, I'm still in Atlanta. Let's hang out in the near future!

Can't touch this

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDEzNTY3OTQw.html

If you like Call Me Maybe and you like Europe and shirtless men... click on the link above. If you don't... what is wrong with you? Happy Monday!

Sneak attack!

I took photos of my sneaky sixth graders and their art today. We started off pretty poorly with one of the boys cutting in front of one of the girls. When the girl told me, he kicked her. I ordered him to sit down and he tore his drawing in half. I was disappointed and almost stopped taking photos all together - I'm glad that I didn't. I think that only here, can this happen. It's not the first time it's happened in rural China, but it is the first time for me. 

Take a look at this picture.

At first glance, you might see the smirk on his face. You might look at his drawing and wonder... whaaaaaaaa? But then take a closer look. 

Is that?

Noooo. 

Yes. If you haven't seen it, look at his left shoulder - his left, our right. 

Is that a braid?

It's a bird. 

Like all the other students in class, he stood in front of the blackboard, put his drawing in front of him, but unlike the other students - he pulled what looked like a stuffed animal out of his pocket and put it on his neck.  He positioned it and smiled, then walked back to his desk - no problem.

It's a baby black birdee on his shoulder! After class, I told him to come to the front of the room and show me the contents of his pocket.

He put this on my table. Hi, cutie - stay a while! I asked my student where he got this little creature - he shrugged, nonchalantly saying that he found it on the way to school - I think it's sweet that he's been taking care of this chickadee for the past four days!

8 First Grade Portraits

Try as they might, first graders have the toughest time hiding their true selves, even for a second. Today in class, I vowed to capture each student in a uniform way, but after loading my photos onto my computer, I saw that there was no way that my students were going to fit into any mold.

1. 

2. 

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

A Welcome to My Home!

For two years, I've been living at 中国云南省临沧市云县茂兰镇哨街村哨街学校 - a house with no number, in a village that is so small that it has no post office. 


I will miss this small plot of land on the side of the mountain that has been my primary residence for TWO years. I cannot stress this enough. It astounds me to think that I've lived here for so long. 


On a recent trip to Beijing, a friend introduced me as having lived in China for years - while I nodded in assent, it was strange to hear it for myself. This wooden house that leaks in rain has built a stronger me. All it took was two years. Also attributing to this new found strength - a rat, non-stop bugs, a broken foot, dirt and dust and ash and dirt, no electricity, no water, no refrigeration, no showers, no cold things,  everything opening directly outside, more rats, some cats, entrails at my door, way too many water bottles in my room, sneaky students, loving students, hard-working students, barking dogs, a mysterious donkey/door sound, moths the size of birds, mold, a true understanding of what it means to own ratty clothing. 


This past weekend, Caitlin and Kristen came over in order to sort through the piles of clothes, food, and stationery that Phoebe and I have accumulated over the two years. Most of the food and stationery were mine; Phoebe was giving away most of her clothes!


As a note to self, I took a picture of the clothes that I was giving away in order to remember, so as to not look for them in a few months - going crazy, tearing through my wardrobe looking for these pieces. 

A farewell to threads

Caitlin and Kristen pored over our things and fairly distributed our things between each other, as well as for Nora. To commemorate their visit, Kristen and Caitlin both took photos - and here is a photo of Kristen's that she has shared with me!

I live the mix of modern objects and the aged design of our humble home. For two years, we took this place over. Thanks for visiting, ladies! Thank you also for opening my eyes again to how  unique and unusual this experience has been, how extraordinary these two years in Shaojie and Teach For China have been. I look forward to seeing who will live here in the following years. 

I nailed it!

This continuous fascination is not healthy but you have to admit they look awesome. Here are the other two posts I've made in recent times about my nails ( here and here). While I know this is a habit that I simply can't maintain in America, I'm pledging to continue to take full advantage of the fact that getting my nails done here as a manicure costs 15 rmb ~ 2.357 USD.

Looking at these nails has reminded me how much I enjoy wearing black and I will fill my wardrobe with new and delightful black clothes once I return to America - in a month.

I want this top

Dear The Limited,

When I get back to America, will you still have this shirt for sale? Even better, can you put it ON sale?

NYMag says, "It's Okonomiyaki Time!"

As can be documented by my random posts (here and here) from 2009 and 2010, I'm obsessed with okonomiyaki. I haven't thought about eating it for almost a year now, but now that my return to American is imminent, check out this article from NYMag and for all my New York friends, I can't wait to see you this summer - let's sit down and eat some okonomiyaki!

A Feast of Dorkiness

A feast not in the food sense obviously, but... feast your eyes on this.

*I have whiskers on my face because I was dressed as Hello Kitty for our Trivia/Animal night.

Hooked!

If you've been reading my blog, my fascination with nail art, has grown. It started with this. I got my nails done in FQ for 15 kuai and afterwards, I couldn't stop looking at nail art tumblrs. Specifically - http://fuckyeahnailart.tumblr.com/.

Are cute animals on my nails acceptable at my age? Perhaps not. For 20 kuai, I found a place in Yunxian that would do it for me - the girl seemed confident that she could do it and.... in the end, she did - but it was difficult for her and she had to paint each nail, probably 2 to 3 times each.

I won't be going back there but damn these nails are cute!

As you can see, from this casual side shot of my eating of fried chicken and waffles - these penguin nails just look like a reverse French.

You might be wondering where did I get chicken and waffles in rural China?  I didn't. I went to Beijing last weekend!

Birthday Cake Oreos Ode

I read somewhere that these special edition birthday cake Oreos were made in honor of the anniversary of the  100 years of Kraft being in business. These boxes have 12 cookies in them and they cost more than $1 USD each. THEY ARE DIVINE. 

These Oreos are by far the best Oreos I've ever. had. EVER. They taste like funfetti cake - with a chocolate crust.

From the outside they look like original Oreos:



But Inside..... TA DA!



Sprinklesfantasmagora! This might not be a real word but it's the perfect description word for how the Oreos taste! I've wanted to post about these for so long, but I kept devouring them before I could take pictures of them!

Yerin Park, I love you.

Just look at her. so much sweet smiley clean baby love!!

Monica is going to kill me for posting this photo

...but last weekend was our final weekend in Dali and I think that this photo best illustrates what our weekend was. 

Full of pizza, beer, smirks of pleasure, and faces made when in the company of loved ones.

Dali, farewell perhaps forever!

BTW, this weekend was the first time that I've ever been called the girl with the dark eyebrows. Do you think that could be a euphemism? You can also see my newly short hair in this photo. Duh. It's still long. 

Little Monsters

The above is a collage of tiny tiny pictures of my fourth grade students' little monsters (Please click to enlarge!). In my elementary art classes, we've been practicing the application of previous knowledge in the form of drawing monsters; by first, drawing five animals, identifying the obvious parts of those five animals and then combining them in order to create monsters.

In Chinese, using the different parts of 动物 to create 怪物。If you don't speak Chinese, the wordplay may be lost on you. The clever one word change pleases all the elementary school students. My delivery is usually met with gasps and giggles.

The head of a giraffe, the body of a butterfly, the legs of a mouse

This is one of my favorite pictures. I had each of the students name their monster along with a listed description of the different animals components by which their little monster was made.


I urged each student to take liberties in coloring their monsters.

This is another one of my favorites due to it's sheer SCARINESS. A simple cross between a butterfly and a rabbit. It is nightmare inducing and slightly cute except for its sharp side teeth. AHH. Enlarge at your own risk!

I introduced this project to my students last week. The assignment was to draw 5 animals, 1 monster and each additional monster would equal one point on either the girls' or the boys' side. The winner of the rivalry gets to participate in the blind man's grab bag, which I will further explain at a later date. For homework, I told the students to draw more little monsters, as well as circle their favorite creation.

What you see in this post are what the students have selected. I expected my students to do my homework. What I didn't expect was them to take it by the teeth and fly it across the world to America. I say that because after entering class today, I was bombarded by 45 fourth graders each with notebooks full of little monsters. I drew stars for the boys' work and hearts to mark each little monster of the girls. One boy drew 78 little monsters for homework.  I spent all period forcing my students to come up one row at a time to stand in an orderly fashion as I marked and tallied each little monster. The grand total for each side came in favor of the girls. The girl had a strong showing of 661 monsters while the boys tried valiantly but failed at 639 monsters. AH! I found a project that the students loved :)!

Student stationery!

Move over Kate Spade, I've found a better, local creator for personalized stationery. MY KIDS. Don't be dismayed and condemn me of using child labor. The Congratulations cards were made for them to think about what students can celebrate with each other. The pandas holding balloons, my idea. In my eyes, each card that I'm showcasing is great for different reasons, shall I count the ways?

Creative lettering, awesome flowers, slightly human looking pandas, with just okay bamboo. B+.

Clear letters in different colors with a large panda in focus with tree like bamboos. You can see the erasure of the first CONGRATS, which was just fine. B+.

Electric CONGRATS, with two pandas, one self described as a tiger panda by the artist, and the other, looks kind of like a rat. The balloons resemble lollipops and the panda eyes look like they are tripped OUT. Great bamboo detailing. B+. Do you see a pattern?

Great symmetry! Four pandas, in a world where I believe that the more the merrier, the flowers are well placed and the balloons are different colors. A.

Nice attempt at the big word. I like the shade of blue the artist colored the bamboo. B+.

I have laughed all day about this one. The combination of the wide eyed panda, the goofy smile, the parallel bamboo, the in-motion bullet and the sniper that is in perfect position to shoot the panda in between the eyes. Hilarity. Strange. Above and beyond what I expect CONGRATULATIONS to mean. But, it's true. If my friend had shot a panda, I'd send them this perfect card, before they were carted to Chinese jail. A+.