The Melting Pot

The holidays are still here and our family is going to have a party, which means my mom is going to invite some of her closer business friends over to do some kind of White Elephant gift exchange kind of party. They're usually not too bad because I know most of the adults that she works with.

Today, I went to The Melting Pot. It was super cool. This restaurant, located in Larkspur, is situated inside a large keln, in which many of the bricks used to build houses in SF were made. It was pretty cool, but for obvious reasons, even with the lighting, the restaurant was dim. The food was really good and the way they made it was really original and surprisingly really good tasting.

http://www.themeltingpot.com/

For those of you who don't know what the melting pot is, it is a restaurant that, I think, is located all over the United States and serves fondue. The cheese kind, the broth kind, and yes...the chocolate kind. It was really good. For the cheese portion, we ordered one of the specials on the menu, but right now the name is not coming to mind. It was Wisconsin cheddar? and some other really good ingredients. Even though the taste of the cheese was really strong, you could tell it was really good cheese, not the kind you would normally find prepackaged. We ate it with bread, vegetables, and apples, which is surprisingly a good mix. Cheese and apple, who woulda thought? At least I didn't...



The second course was the salad, which I guess makes the cheese portion the appetizer. I got a caesar salad, which was really good. However, I always feel like these salads are never complete without an anchovy or two on them. I hear that the original ones even had a raw quail egg cracked on top to get the right consistency for the dressing and the salad as a whole. The salad was good.

Thirdly was the entree. It was a broth base with mushrooms and a pitcher of wine. We were worried at first that the shear amount would just overpower the broth and dye all the food, but after it started boiling, the alcohol burned out and just a little of the taste was left. The food did get died, but it didn't matter because I could only visibly see it on the potatoes. Along side the entree we were given our selection of meats, vegetables, etc. The vegetable dish was free and consisted of potatoes, mushrooms, and brocolli, which was some of the best part of the entree. We also picked two dishes, one called Land and Sea, which I guess most of you could assume is Surf and Turf (balsamic vinegar marinated beef, chicken marinated in something else, and some shrimp). We also ordered the French Quarter, which I thought was better. The meats consisted of shrimp, filet mignon, and chicken. I thought this one was much better because the taste was more catered to what I like, a cajun-y taste. We spent a long time with this one because all the meat was cook yourself, which I like because it is kind of like hot-pot. It was exciting to try all the things and cook our own food and then choose among 5 different types of sauces, which included a ginger one, a bleu cheese one (nasty), and other flavors. They also gave us a baby Tabasco bottle.



Lastly, and since my brother and sister told the waiter it was my birthday, came the chocolate fondue. Most of you know that I'm not very fond of chocolate in particular, but this time I tried some since it was my "birthday celebration". However, all they did for the birthday was put a candle on the deserts that we paid for that come with the chocolate fondue. It was very good, it consisted of the chocolate, which was then flambeed with some kind of alcohol that they lit on fire and poured into the chocolate, then put on graham cracker flakes and gave us things to dip. Among the things (because it was a S'mores order) were Oreo marshmallows, graham cracker marshmallows, pound cake, cheesecake, rice crispy squares, etc. All I ate out of this was the marshmallows, which turned out to be really good. I didn't eat much though because the chocolate was overwhelming.



If any of you ever get the chance to check this place out, it's definitely worth a try. It also has free valet parking, what a deal! The atmosphere of this restaurant is reason enough to try it out. Very different from your usual sit down. At the end of the meal, they top it off with a nice mint...and it's not one of those crappy white and red ones either. This one was quality.

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Christmas!

It's Christmas, which means lots of presents to open. I got a good lot of gifts today, the best including an iHome from my brother. It's pretty sweet. We also got a Wii Fit for the family that we've been playing all day.

I love Christmas, it's always so fun and no one is ever anything but happy.

Anyway, check out this video of the Beijing Fuwa's fighting. The two stole the panda's shoe and he's getting even:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GKFUHVXwis

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The Funniest Video I took in China

The other day, I was looking through my pictures and videos, showing my family the things that I'd seen and the events that I'd gone to.

This is among the best/funniest videos I took in China at the USA vs. Greece Basketball game.

Enjoy:

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Back Home

It's weird. I don't know how to explain it. Just coming back from the airport to my house felt so strange. I was soon shown the likes of SF traffic and everyone speaking English to me again, but thinking about waking up tomorrow and not really having to decide how many layers to put on or what Chinese food to eat really throws me off.

I've spent the last 6 months in a foreign country, adopting a thusly foreign demeanor and attitude, all of which were adapted to the style of living in that foreign country. Then, all of a sudden, I'm back again, to the same routine of living that I was set in, in the United States. It's really disorienting. I've heard people get reverse culture shock sometimes, some people even get depressed. I, on the other hand, was very excited to get home. However, while 10 days before departure I was itching to get back, the day before our flight I was starting to feel sad that we would leave China, most of the friends we've made there, and a lot of the places and experiences that we had been through. It's to think about sometimes. But then if you think about all the good experiences you've had and the lasting friendship, you become happy and grateful for all the fun that you experienced as a study abroad student in China, but also happy to be home with the friends and family that you missed from day 1.

I won't say that I won't miss China, of course I'll miss the food, the cheapness, some parts of the dirtiness and Beijing attitude...hearing Chinese, speaking Chinese, etc. But I am really glad to be back home, unpack all my stuff and actually have a place that's clean, comfortable and not as freezing cold or extremely hot as Beijing is during it's seasonal phases.

And with having come back home, there are a few things I must get done on my list. Firstly...food! Thanks to all you pranksters out there who did this:


I guess I'm going to be eating Chinese and Barney's tomorrow. It shall be exciting. But now, I need to start unpacking everything and putting things in their place, washing my clothes, and wrapping Christmas presents.

Oh, one more thing: On the way back from the airport was the first time I'd ever seen a full rainbow. One side to the other. While driving along a freeway, we saw a rainbow outside the window over the Bay, in full flex from one side to the next. I wasn't able to catch pictures of the entire rainbow in one shot, but I did take both sides in hopes of maybe making a panoramic view.

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Waiting in the Hong Kong Airport

I know I promised that I would do an update with pictures of the snow and all the glory, but I didn't have very much time. You know, with all the packing and all the last minute shopping and last goodbyes, it was pretty hard to get everything situated and, on top of that, write a blog. I promised to put pictures up and maybe even a Youtube vid.

Anyway, for those of you, my family, who are picking me up, you might be wondering how I am blogging right now. The HKI Airport has FREE WIFI! It's sweet and even better connection than what we had in the dormitories, it only takes 1!, that's right, 1! try to get onto AIM. It did take a little while for configuration, but in the end using the Intel PRO Wireless works better than the stupid Windows Wireless program. I feel so professional on the internet in Hong Kong.

The last night we spent playing mafia with the remainding people and Norman and Hilda, who came to visit from HK. They came during their break, but he's supposed to go back to HK to finish out a year. It's crazy to heare that other people from high school are also going abroad and studying, it seems to be a trend now that there are more and more economic problems in the states. I don't know if it's just an escape or a trend that tends to take form during the sophomore/junior year of college. Who knows?

Waiting for the plane now, going to leave at around 505 PM, HK time. See you at home!

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Breaking News!

It's official. I saw snow in Beijing, and it couldn't have come at a better time. 2 days before my departure from China, back to my home. Details and pictures to come, pending time that I'm not spending getting in the last little bits of experiences in Beijing as a study abroad student.

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9 Days

It's strange, having the feeling of leaving a place that you've lived in for 6 months to resume the life you had before. I think before I kind of described how I felt stagnated here, that things weren't really moving despite seeing all the news and even experiencing the presidential election overseas and the economic collapse. I can't help but feel that only when I get back to Berkeley, to the United States, can I get back to the way things should be and the way that things usually progress.

Anyway, I have 9 days here, 3 more full of class, 3 more full of final exams, and the last 3 for weekend last shopping, seeing friends, and probably a going away graduation ceremony. It should be an eventful last 9 days. I'm pretty excited. But what's also NOT exciting is having to study for these finals, and after seeing the midterms, I know it will NOT be a walk in the park.

To backtrack to the last post I had about snow. Let me tell you: I missed it. I stayed awake for hours, hoping to see it snow. Tammy even woke up at 8 am especially to see it in the morning, but no avail. The sad part was, it was snowing at that time, just such small amounts that it was not noticeable from outside our windows. It was sad. There were students that told us they saw it, because it was an important first day of snow in Beijing, but most people said it was nothing. Very microscopic pieces that only lasted about 30 minutes. We waited in anticipation for the snow to come back because all day on Weather.com and on our widgets it said it was snowing, when it obviously was not. This might be due to the fact that the reader is at the airport, which is a little farther north (may I add, NOT THAT FAR). It was sad. We had waited in anticipation for it, but we were let down by its minimalism. It was very, very sad. Yesterday, we had another spark of hope of seeing this elusive snow (well before January, anyway), but today that too was crushed, it WILL NOT snow on December 20 like it said it would on Weather.com for a short day.

Just to show you what we were hoping for, YEARNING FOR:

A guard in position in front of the Forbidden City. There are always guards here regardless the weather. And no, I will NOT get a picture like this the way the weather is going.

Another shot that is not mine of the Forbidden City during the snowing/winter season.

This is a place in Northern China called Haerbin, or what Americans and other calls Harbin. It's a place that hosts winter festivals every year and makes structures like this completely out of ice. It's amazing, just like the ice hotels in that James Bond movie. We did plan on going here, however the limits of our visas and the change of plans for the date of the finals messed up our plans to go here. After all, it is only a day's trip on a train, which is totally worth it to see this.

In other news, I will do some more reviews of things that I've found on the internet and programs that I've recently come across, starting first with:

1) Mint.com

What a great site, I hear it was named some kind of site for the better of mankind or something, an award that is selectively given to websites. In earlier years, these winners consisted of Google and Mozilla, among a few more. The reason I like it is because it's so simple to use and it allows people, the common lay-people, to figure out how to save their money, where it's all going and how to manage it in ways that would otherwise take a lot of time and effort. It's easy to use and has an Web 2.0 interface that's really nice and friendly (lots of buttons and nice effects). It took me about 5 minutes to get all my accounts on there, and don't worry about putting your information on their to your accounts, they have pop-ups that inform you about how it's safe. But then again, if you're good with your money and know what you want to do, you don't really need this site's help or monthly or even weekly updates on your accounts.

2) ZDT

This program is amazing. Well, I admit it has some flaws, but the function is great. It stands for "Zhongwen Development Tool" and it's made by someone with the intentions of giving Chinese learners a tool that's convenient and really helpful. The basic functions are an annotator that gives pinyin from characters, a dictionary, which you can update with plugins that are easy to download, and best of all a flashcard program that you can program individual chapters from your book from school and test yourself without ever having to hand make a flashcard again. Of course this takes away from the practice of learning to write characters and stroke order, but this program does its purpose of helping people memorize characters and learn them by using this simple dictionary for reference. It takes up little memory on your computer and is very friendly. There is even a website that hosts a forum, where the creator listens to the users and makes changes and fixes the program very often.

That's about it. Also, the latest episode of Top Gear, Season 12 Episode 5, was sadly not that great. Oh well, I'm going home!

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Tian An Men Flag Lowering

Last weekend, three days ago, I went with Tammy to go check out the flag lowering. Though it wasn't as glamorous as some of the reviews made it out to be, it was still some what of a surprise to me. Here we are, in negative degree weather, withstanding cold with about 100+ other Chinese people. What I don't understand is, where in America is there such a place or such a symbol that is so important that people from the city even (because I know they were not from out of state) would go out of their way and in the cold to see it being lowered.

When Tammy read up on it, she told me the ceremony consisted of the guards coming out of the Forbidden City and, while playing the Chinese National Anthem, lowered the flag, folded it carefully and marched ceremoniously back across a busy street intersection that is blocked off, and into the Forbidden City again. It's pretty cool, considering it happens EVERYDAY and Beijing traffic is really nothing to mess with. I marveled at this spectacle. As I said, it wasn't that amazing a sight or an experience in itself, but watching so many people come out in the cold and having to designate a time everyday where a busy Beijing roadway was blocked, now that's some national pride, more than I've seen in the states by far. I guess that's also another thing that separates China from the US, and other countries at that. It's the little things that they do, maybe even if its only for 10 minutes that shows how much Chinese people really take pride in their country, maybe sometimes to too great of a degree.

Regardless, I can't wait to see the flag raising, I hear it's pretty glorious. I hope it's not as anti-climactic as the lowering. I've already built it up, let's hope that the actual thing can actually muster what I feel like should be a worthy use of time.

After we saw the flag, taking pictures and a long video, our hands were frozen and Tammy bought me a pair of FAKE, but warm, "North Face" gloves. Haha. It was awesome. We then went to check out Qian Men, an area of China that has recently been reopened for business. The sense I get from the area is very "yuppie-ish" if you can call things yuppie in China. The buildings remind me of the clean cut buildings you would see in Santa Row or something. Very mediterranean looking, with the beige-ish color. Of course it was dark so I didn't really get to see very much, or very clear, but it was definitely different from what it used to be or the surrounding areas. It wasn't as traditional looking as other places in Beijing. Either way, the area was relatively barren, aside from the occasional 5 star + restaurants that are famous in Beijing/China. For example, there was already a Quan Ju De (the famous restaurant that we were served Peking Duck (Beijing Kao Ya) within the first week of arriving). They had a couple more, but the areas that were hopping were the inside streets of Qian Men, the more dirty and more traditional-hutong looking areas. Hutong directly means a narrow street, the exact measurements I forget, but it's very precise.

These hutongs had side streets that parted down alleyways and the back around, housing toy shops, restaurants, souvenir stands, candy stalls, the works. I thought it was quite cozy, though some place that I didn't really want to eat at very much. Though what they served looked good, I've "xiguan-ed" (gotten used to) living cheap in Beijing and the prices were tourist prices. Though they were relatively cheap, I know I could have found cheaper and better in our usual places of dining.

With less than two weeks left now, I'm starting to get more ancy. I can't wait to get back and celebrate Christmas and take a couple weeks off before I start school again. This trip, looking back (again), has been an amazing experience and my Chinese has improved so much. The range of words I now know can cover conversations about the government, discrimination, politics, the economy and much more very useful topics. I actually can't wait to get home and practice with people and see how useful it is, though not in Oakland Chinatown because I know they only speak Cantonese, GOSH.

Like usual, the damn PICTURE UPLOAD won't work because Chinese internet blows. It was even off the entire day yesterday. But, I'll upload pics ASAP.

Tiananmen Square

Guards in Tiananmen

Me freezing, in the (empty) line to see Mao's body (because the exhibit was closed already). The line usually wraps around the Square TWICE. It did last time I was here.

Qianmen lit up at night

One of Beijing's Drum Towers

Cold.

Not as cold.

In other great news, SNOW! Tomorrow! AND THE DAY AFTER, and the day after, and the day after. Hopefully, who knows with this Chinese weather.

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