The Wonderful Turtle

Today in Hong Kong I was riding the bus home and staring glaze-eyed at the TWO TV screens in the bus.  Mostly they have advertisements but sometimes they have little cultural tid-bits.  You can't really hear them and they are always in Cantonese so I don't pay  much attention.

Today they were talking about turtles. There is a preppy guy showing us turtles in their habitat documentary style.   I could imagine what he was saying:  "These special turtles are prized for their special markings; see how the beautiful black markings signify the value of these turtles (turns the turtles over to show the markings on the shell).  Look these lovely little turtles that are just so many months old (now we can see several baby turtles climbing on each other in an adorable way).  Ha ha they all want to go exploring! (The man chuckles. Obviously these turtles are special pets and maybe are rare and highly prized in Asia.)  Here is their natural habitat.  These turtles lay their eggs here and hope that they will be protected until they hatch (the man is whispering now as he shows us from behind some long sea grass the egg area for these prized turtles.)

I think I am really good at interpreting this documentary and it seems very nice and wholesome and about these special turtles.

The next scene blares "TURTLE DESSERT JELLY! THIS BRAND BLAH BLAH BLAH" and shows the empty beautiful shells of these special turtles!!

AY YA!  that was really jarring and disappointing!  the whole thing was a commercial for this brand of Turtle jelly and how they have the best turtles to make it!!

When China Invades

TODAY in Hong Kong I had an early dinner at my favorite salad place that in the middle of a mall. The preferred seats are at the "window"- more like an open frame with a guard rail to keep people from going in and out that way. Well, that doesn't keep SOME people from going in and out (and in and out). A small family from the Mainland of Grandma, Grandpa, young dad and two kids (yes, two) were seated next to us at the "window" and had draped the little girl's sweatshirt over the seat at our table - maybe to reserve it too? The kids were running in and out of the restaurant, coming in at our table spot, and the grandparents never said anything to encourage them to settle down or use the window at their own table. It's ok because we were only two people.

However, for the people who work in the restaurant it is a sticky situation- soon the dad came back with a bag from the grocery store and they proceeded to bring out yoghurt, drinks, and fruit, which they peeled and left on the table or let drop to the ground. So basically they had bought a small drink for the kids and then brought everything else in with them! and they were settled in while the kids played.

In Hong Kong there are several "public use spaces" that are theoretically open to the public, although restaurants next to them spill into them and serve at the table in the public area, making it look like it is actually part of the restaurant and the "public" feel intimidated to sit at the tables, although legally they may do so. In fact, a popular dim sum restaurant serves at the tables in the public use area that one must go through to get to the restaurant, and, indeed, it really feels as though the space is part of the restaurant. They make customers place their orders inside the restaurant because they are not supposed to make the public use space as part of their restaurant. But of course every table is being used by their customers and they end up cleaning and maintaining the space.

HOWEVER, this seating in the restaurant inside the mall is definitely part of the restaurant and they pay rent for that area. For someone to bring in their own food and proceed to eat and drink outside food at their tables is really not kosher.

When leaving, we noticed another group of Mainlanders who had finished eating and the lady was cleaning out the ears of the man in the middle of the restaurant! I am glad my back was to them.

Taipei the *real* night market

TODAY in Taipei I made it to an "official" night market. It is very near a university and it was Saturday night so, ... CROWDED. We got onto the main drag and shuffled along interminably to get 5 feed down the road. Thankfully it was not a hot sweltering night, but I just don't understand why it is like this when the market is there EVERY night and it sells the SAME stuff (nothing interesting) and actually offered very little in the way of food stalls.

We were expecting to have dinner there and were looking forward to something called a Small Biscuit wrapped in a big biscuit- or something to that effect. It is actually not a biscuit at all but a sausage inside another sausage. We never found this delicacy. (Good thing too, Chinese sausages are not exactly healthy treats- they are sweet-ish and very more like a thin chorizo (but not spicy) or salami (but sweet).

We ended up eating at place famous for its soup. We had Chicken soup with chicken and weird vegetable, chicken soup with herbal medicine and chicken, and herbal medicine soup with a chicken stock base with noodles. Quite yummy actually.

Since it is near a university, at the market's fringes one can find lots of cafés full of students studying hard on their laptops. These small independent cafes are of course either über hip or painfully cute. It is an interesting mix of crowded pushing and quiet spaces that I don't think other university areas in other countries quite have!

Taipei the night market

TODAY in Taipei I realize the whole city is like one big night market. There are street vendors selling corndogs, fruit, waffle sandwich things, bitter melon juice, other salty juice, corn that can be colored all colors of the rainbow, dumpling, beef noodle soup, potstickers, won ton soup, smelly tofu (this seems to be the season- it is EVERYWHERE), meat or veggies on a stick, buns filled with meat or beans or other stuff, rice noodle soup, even shwarma-type sandwiches...

In just about every district, as far as I can tell, it is possible to find a snack. And people line up to get their favorites. Last night there was a huge line to get red bean filled waffle (it is not really a waffle but a very popular thing here- it is a cup made of batter with a scoop of filling and then a matching lid placed on top and sealed together with more batter). Today there was an even longer line, including foreign devils, for 'flour rice noodle.'

More surprising was the line out into the street for STARBUCKS. A very popular Starbucks that is definitely the biggest Starbucks I have every seen. 3 stories!

Besides the food kiosks and carts and small street restaurants, small shops and people with rolling hangers and tables selling scarves and sweaters add to the night market feeling. Even better, I don't know if it is this weekend only or if it is a regular thing, but in this one walking street area there was live music on virtually every corner! From a blind man playing Erhu with an accompanying rock background emanating from some speakers to full 6-person band with synthesizers and sound boards! right there on the street.

Taipei is interesting too because the signs are vertical rather than horizontal, giving it a more exotic feel than Hong Kong or Shanghai. People are friendly and it is easy to get around. The taxis all seem to suffer from overuse of the air freshener so they all smell sickly sweet with a base note of stale smoke.

Just when you thought they couldn't fake anything new

Today in Hong Kong I learned how China has gone one step further in the Fakery Game: Fake jobs for University graduates!!
The schools want to get their statistics on grads who go on to full employment up, so they are hiring new grads for jobs that don't actually exist.
In some cases, the students just see their name on a list of New Hires.
But evidently is is a long-standing practice. In fact, often students are asked (or required) to bring a letter of employment before they can get their diploma!!
Vocational schools usually boast 85-90% employment for new grads! Evidently is it a not so well kept secret in China.

Lady Boy Lady Boy now you have a home

Today in Bangkok I read in am American news paper about a young boy who was shot at school because he liked to dress like a girl. I struck me even more because just yesterday I read in a Thai newspaper about a school here that has decided to allow girls and boys to choose which uniform they want to wear: girls' or boys'. They even put in bathrooms for this "third sex."

While "lady boys" have long been an "attraction" here in Thailand, today they are no longer relegated to the seedier bars of Pat Pong and are working in many different industries. As a habitual skin care shopper, I have seen many very feminine, graceful, beautiful men as salespeople and managers. Many more young boys are realizing their affiliation and, to it's credit, Thailand seems to be accepting these boys, adding "third sex" facilities and passing laws of inclusion.

And then there's America, purportedly the land of the free and proponent of diversity, where people who don't fit into our boxes are not just ridiculed but slain.

I'm Turning Japanese

Today in Hong Kong I spent the afternoon in Japan. A very popular thing to do here is to take photos in a kiosk and then add stars, hearts, happy faces, flowers, etc. so the photos come out with these decorations. The machines are all in Japanese so we had no idea what we were doing (although we did this last year for my birthday too) so the first batch were terrible. You have to decide which background you want (I chose some scary thing with ghostly hands everywhere- I thought it was happy hands!), then do some funny poses (hand gestures and the like), pose for really fast sequence of pictures, then choose 4 of the 6 poses, then you have 3 minutes to decorate. It is really very taxing.

Then you gave to decide who gets which picture, cut them up, and then get them laminated! Voilà a special little plastic card of you and your students looking stupid!!

While waiting my students to get theirs cut and laminated, I am watching a Japanese music video where cute girls keep tripping and spilling food in slow motion on heavyset guys laying on the beach.  Weird!  First it's an ice-cream cone, then an icee, then ramen, spaghetti, soup, and pork chop rice!! I don’t get it.