Sweet Video: Fresh off the Boat with Eddie Huang in Chengdu

I had an American friend ask me recently, in all sweet sincere honesty, "so, do Chinese people really eat Chinese food?" And the answer is a resounding yes!

I was cruising around youtube and stumbled upon this cool food series and thought I would share it. Eddie Huang and friends eat and hang out in Chengdu. They talk about some of the delicacies from Sichuan province, include Mapo Tofu, and various dishes that have rabbit in it.

I was actually just in Chengdu, and have some friends living there now, so it was cool to see it onscreen. They get some nice footage at the Panda Base and chit chat about modern Chinese life. Despite the overwhelming cool guy bro feel and Eddie's mediocre Chinese abilities, it was kind of a fun modern viewpoint, a nice antidote to all of the stories of unusual deaths and coal pollution that unendingly stream out of China.

How to move a lot without going nuts

I am not a big fan of moving. You would think that I would be used to it by now, seeing that in the last five years, I've moved six times. Or maybe I didn't mind at first and now it is just getting old. Originally it was kind of exciting, going to a new place! -- but now it is just a hassle. It makes me feel sort of unsettled. I don't know where the market is, or the cool hangout spots, my bike is probably left somewhere else, I don't have furniture again, etc.

But now, after move number six, I'm sort of getting the hang out it. These are some of the things that I have found really important.

>>Don't get caught in the short-term thinking<<
Sometime you move somewhere for just a short time, maybe like 3-5 months. You think to yourself, well I shouldn't buy a lot of stuff for my place, because I won't get the money's worth in such a short time. While setting up your sad apartment with no furniture, you start skimping on the things that you really shouldn't skimp on. Like a mop. Or a garbage can. A laundry basket, or enough hangers. These are things that you really do need!
As time goes by, your place gets messier and messier, you become more and more miserable, and start really longing for this items that you really should have purchased in the first place. Yet you are caught in this trap in which, now, your stay is already shorter than it was before, and you are really not going to get the money's worth now, so you are definitely not going to buy it! Even though you are totally miserable!
This sort of thinking is totally unnecessary. A messy place brings you down, and can make you less productive. Don't pinch pennies unless you are totally broke: buy the stuff you need in the first place and save yourself the misery of a cluttered messy home.

>>Get your workout/activity situation in order<<
I am so happy that I did this for myself in Kunming. A lot of times when you are packing your bags, you only consider things like clothing and toiletries. If you are moving somewhere for a substantial length of time, you should also consider bringing some active gear, like a yoga mat, running shoes, or any gear you want. Being able to get active is really beneficial for your sleep and for relieving stress, which, couldn't we all use that. If you really can't fit it, just fork out some cash and buy your gear again. A lot of this stuff you can buy for minimal dollars online, especially on Taobao. I got my yoga mat for 10RMB plus shipping. Purchasing a gym membership can also be wonderful. College campuses usually have great deals for students, and private gyms usually let you try it out for free, so you can see which one you like best.
I really went crazy on this one personally, and got a gym membership, a yoga mat, and a bike. I spent a fair amount of money, but I think it has really been fun, and worth it in terms of my mental wellbeing.

>>Figure out where natural recreation areas are<<
Being in a city environment can be really stressful, and being in nature is something that can counter that worn-out, pavement-y type feeling. See if there is an area near you like a park, or a lake, that is easily accessible, where you can just go and hang out and look the trees or water. After starting at a computer screen all week long, it can really bring your spirits up.
On some dark days in Nanjing, Xuanwu Lake 玄武湖 really cheered me up. I liked to go jogging there. The lily pads and quaint bridges and pagodas are lovely. Kunming's Green Lake 翠湖 is also great to walk around, eat some pineapple on a stick and look at the swaying willow branches.

>>Don't live alone<<
Living alone sucks because its lonely. Also your place will be messy because no one else is there for you to be considerate of. That is all.

>>Get a smart phone<<
I was probably one of the last people on the planet to realize that smart phone are actually a good thing, but they really are. If you have a dinky old phone with buttons on it, I would really advise you to get any smart phone. I would say also you should get one that you like and think works well, to make sure that you actually use it and don't "forget it" at home.
There are some really cool apps for holding group chats and things (in China we like WeChat and QQ). Especially in Flagship, being part of the group chats really keep you in the loop--news, what up to, activities, questions that might help you, all really good stuff. I felt like if I wasn't connected via my phone, I would have probably missed out on a lot of group activities. It makes meeting people and making friendships so much easier. And it also makes it really easy to keep in touch with the people you moved away from as well.
I used to think that getting a smartphone would turn me into a zombie that plays mobile games as they are walking around in real life, but lo and behold, it did not! Turns out its just a useful piece of machinery that can help you out with tasks that might be overly laborious without one. If you are worried like I was, calm down and embrace the technology. It's a good thing.

>>Remember the things that you used to like to do<<
This is my final and most important tip. When you move, you are bombarded with so much minutiae about bills and money, and you feel disoriented, like, "where the hell am I, even?" Once all of those things begin to subside, you can start to get back to normal life. With all of the excitement died down, you might even start to feel bored. It's really weird, but when I moved to Kunming, I was so spun around, I forgot what sort of things I liked to do for fun, and I did started to feel bored. But boredom is clearly not to proper reaction: what I needed do to is go get out there and have fun and do the things that inspire me! I literally sat down and made a list of things that I used to like to do, but haven't done in a while. Things like hiking, going to museums, seeing movies, listening to music and concerts, having dinner with friends, and writing my blog. This has brought my life a needed shot of excitement, and I feel much happier and more energetic. So if boredom sets in for you, if you feel hazy, or that your life is lacking excitement, definitely nip that in the bud, get creative, and go have some fun.

Moving is tough, takes a lot of effort, and is kind of an emotional roller coaster. That pretty much covers it for my best tips on moving, and I hope that they are useful to you! Peace and love from Kunming,

-Rachel

Xichang wasn't as remote as we thought!

We went to Xichang! What a wonderful time! We thought we were headed to a tiny little village with nothing there, but turns out it was so fun and charming and met so many nice people. It was awesome. Click -->here<-- to see it on the map!

Since it was the Labor Day holiday last week we all went to go hang together. I think I have mentioned in one of my previous posts how crazy travel during holidays are in China, but I would just like to reemphasize this via a brief anecdote: there were so many people in line that me and vicki missed our train! We got to the station about an hour yearly, like normal, but we just couldn't fight our way to the front of the line to get our tickets in time. We were so upset! There were literally lines like I have never seen at the train station, and those lines are ordinarily plenty long! You live and learn: next time we will make sure to be early on a holiday. We hopped the next train in the evening.

So we left around 7pm, and arrived in Xichang at about 3am. We got the "hard bed" so I could sleep most the way there.  Xichang is located in Sichuan province in southwestern China, in the Liangshan Yi Tribe Autonomous reigon. Liangshang means "cool mountain" in Chinese. As you walk around, you can see people in traditional dress, and doing traditional rituals. My friend +Shayn Stephens explained to us that there are many social problems in Liangshan: drug use and crime like robbery is unfortunately widespread. She told us to be careful not to step on needles when we were walking on an unpaved road. She said some of these problems come from the resentment of the Yi people towards the Han Chinese for their takeover, and that they feel like their disobedience is almost a form of payback for their hardships. I'm not sure what the initial situation was when they took over, but I can imagine that it wasn't pretty.

Anyways, most crime occurs after dark, so we just took care to make it back to the hotel in a timely manner. We ate Xichang style BBQ, went to the ancient city, bartered at the street market, and saw a traditional ritual performed by a shaman! We met Shayn's coworkers, celebrated Jacob's birthday with cake, played majiang, and made it back to our overnight train on time! Vicki, Shayn and I had girl talk until late into the night, and (tried) to help Jacob on his online jazz test. Overall, it was just fantastic.

Take a look at all the fun we had:

Slow on the update: moving is hard.

Dear Everyone:

Greetings! I've taken a small hiatus recently to basically get my stuff together. Moving and working every day and getting used to everything has been a bit of a process, but I am finally feeling ready to get back in action.

Moving to Nanjing was such a breeze. I was immediately welcomed into a community of students who were my age, my country, and of similar interests. We ate western food and hung out at western bars and listened to jazz and went to class and it was basically just like back home. It was wonderful! I feel like I can say I avoided culture shock for a good six months!

But ever since I moved to Kunming, things haven't been as cozy. I think the most obvious difference was that my group of friends split up! I have lamented about this endlessly, but it was really hard to let everyone go! In Kunming, I have two classmates who are wonderful, but they unfortunately work at a different office than I do, and live quite a ways away, about an hour by bus. We haven't done much hanging out, just because of sheer distance.

The obvious cure for this would to go and make some friends (duh!). My coworkers have become the best friends I have here. They have been really sweet and fun to be around. They help me correct my Chinese, I help them with their English, and they take me out to eat at cool places sometimes. I feel really lucky that my coworkers turned out to be so welcoming and open to sharing and talking with me.

Meeting other people outside of work has been sort of hard though. Like in the US, I feel like it is not uncommon to meet people and have a genuine connection. Its different here though. First of all, less people talk to you, because they just don't think you speak the same language. Second, if they do try to talk to you, they are probably just a dude trying to flirt. Just, no. Third, I find that a lot of cool girls I meet are just passing through, traveling. It's fun to finally feel connected, but a bummer to have to just say, "kay bye" so much. And lastly, I find a lot of people are weirded out by my foreignness. It's a bigger divide than a lot of idealists would like to think: "We're all just people, right man?" But it really is more than that.

Another obvious cure would be to be with the friends that I've got! This has proven really useful. Travel here is SO convenient, and so having a get together with friends from Xichang and Chengdu has been really easy, and has really made me feel so much better. We are all converging on Xichang this week again for the May Holiday to be together and check out where our friend Shayn lives. I am really looking forward to that.

Anyways, I am beginning to feel a bit lighter and open than before. I'm just a little slow on the uptake, okay! You can expect some more regular posts from me in the future, I'm looking forward to putting out some good articles. Cheers everyone.

Adventures at the pharmacy

So lately I have run into one ailment after the next. My boss told me that in Kunming during this time of year, it is really easy to get sick. It would seem that way. She also said that Kunming produces some special medicine that I should try out if I get sick, and I took her advice. I have made a few trips to the pharmacy recently, and I thought I would share some of the things I got, because they are slightly different that what you get in your western pharmacopeia.

Last Friday, I came down with a little cold. I picked up some "Cold Medicine." This medicine is specifically for colds caused by excessive heat in the body. The ingredients include parsnip, dwarf lillyturf root, bitter almond, dried orange peel, and mulberry root bark, among other things. It comes in packets of powder to be mixed with water. The taste is bitter, and seems to help me feel better during the day. 

The next day, I developed a cough, and so I picked up some cough syrup, which also seems to be completely made up of herbal ingredients, including loquat leaf, mulberry root bark, and menthol.

Then to my surprise and dismay, and slight disbelief, my cold had given rise to this earache that I developed, according to the pharmacist. He suggested that I pick up a pack of "Gentian Root to Soothe the Liver." He said the pain in my ear was caused by my liver fire being excessively strong. Again, full of herbs. He also said I should pick up a pack of these mysterious white pills.

So I get all this stuff home, and I am taking these white pills, and I'm like WOW these taste awful. And then I crack open the instruction manual, to find that these pills are definitely not Chinese medicine, and that they are in fact antibiotics. Over the counter antibiotics! This always drives me crazy that you just purchase them like that. Especially given the fact that the pharmacist didn't even bother to tell me what they were, even though I specifically requested no western medicine. I'd been taking them one a day on and off for a while there! Not good! Really not happy about that situation!

So anyways, after like 4 days of this, I have a fully stocked home pharmacy, a lingering cough and a nasty ear infection. In the beginning, this whole getting sick thing was somewhat of a novelty, but now I kind of just wish this earache would go away. I should probably just throw in the towel and go to the doctor, I don't really know what I didn't do that in the first place. But there is a little introduction for you about medicines in China! Cheers, R.

Taobao Account is now up and running!

Dear Folks,

Hello! I've gotten through yet another eventful week here in Kunming. So many thing's have happened: I successfully got myself out of a scam (<-- read the story), I wrote lots of reports at work, and most importantly, I got my Taobao account up and running!

Some of you probably don't know what Taobao is, but it is a fantastic online service, similar to Amazon, where you can buy all sorts of great stuff online, and get it delivered straight to your door within a matter of days. It also runs under the name Alibaba, and is available all over domestic China,  I think even including some options for international delivery. Check it out here.

Unlike the states, China has a really robust group domestic delivery services, I'm not sure exactly how many, but many many more than your standard UPS/Fedex dichotomy, a fact which makes shipping really convenient. For example, I ordered coffee from Hangzhou, and it got to me here in Kunming a day and a half later (that is over 2000 kilometers folks). I was in the a delivery service office around 6pm on a saturday, and someone comes in asking if there was still time to put something out in the last shipment, and they were like oh-yeah-sure-no-problem.

Taobao is really popular in China, everyone has an account. People buy clothes, electronics, kitchen supplies, light bulbs, cleaning supplies, even food! What had me sold was that I could buy a french press coffee maker and ground coffee beans, something you'd be hard pressed to find in any regular grocery store (believe me I've looked). Another really convenient aspect about Taobao is that once you have your account set up, you can use the payment system to add value to your cell phone account, and to pay for other daily expenses.

So all in all, my life has been made easier now that I have Taobao! I can just go online, find what I want, at a fixed price, and have it delivered to me. This is so much easier than going out and hunting for whatever obscure item I want, wondering how much it is, asking the shop keeper, wondering if I should haggle, feebly trying to haggle for a moment, paying the (probably exorbitant) price, and lugging the thing home... It was totally worth all that time I spent trying to set up my account; it literally took me three entire weeks to get it right, between all the security checks the have on there, all the passwords they require you to make, all the calls to customer service.

Haha but Taobao, I commend you. You are pretty awesome. If you want to make an account, make sure that you make the payment account, 支付宝, FIRST, then open the taobao account itself, this will save you some time. Also, if you have any questions about opening account, ask me down below. I made all the mistakes possible when I opened mine, so I may be able to help you sort out your situation. Anyways, happy shopping everyone, 购物愉快！

Kunming is Kool

Dear Friends,

Since I've gotten here and gotten settled in, I've fallen in love with the place. Things are just excellent. I have my own little apartment, which is smack in the same building as my work! Let me tell you, it really cuts down on commute time ;) Also, Kunming is located in southwest China(<---look at it on the map!), very very far from the watchful eye of Beijing and the super-rich commercial centers of Jiangsu province and Nanjing and Shanghai and all of that, so things seem much more relaxed. Women wear less fur, there are less high heels, people don't look at me as frequently or as suspiciously. And it's much cleaner, with flowers everywhere, people spit less, or at least try to keep it in the gutters. I've got to say, this place is much more "civilized" than Nanjing ever was, and it's out in the middle of nowhere basically (signs everywhere remind you to be 文明, civilized, in the metro, in cabs, in the restaurants...).

Work is going really well also. I know have the pretentious title of being "an intern" which I think is funny and laugh about. I am working at the Yunnan Province Health and Development Research Association, which does grassroots research in rural areas of Yunnan Province to help increase public health conditions. I feel really lucky to have landed a spot here, and I feel like my education and training and personal thoughts really go well with this organization. They are going to keep me really busy though, I will definitely be on my toes for the next four months.

My social life has diminished greatly since I've left Nanjing. All my friends are dispersed all over the place, as I have lamented about at great frequency... Its okay though. I'm doing my best to stay open and friendly, and to hopefully make some new friends here. I went to Salvador's last night, which is an international coffee house on the main drag here to try and meet some new people (go there if you're in the area, they have organic milk and Santa Cruz Juices haha!). Turns out it was mostly drunken foreign students from the local Yunnan University, and Chinese couples snuggled up together, but I did manage to meet a traveler from Shanghai who was just on her way out. We did have a fun chat though, we talked about China and America and Ireland, where she'd traveled before...

I've been tired lately. Chinese company's don't really do "weekends" or "overtime." You just sort of, work. You work at a company, and then they tell you to do things. And they text you and call you and send you messages on your QQ at any old time. Lord how I miss good old American work culture where, when you're off the clock, you're off the clock. My work had made plans for me on both Saturday and Sunday of this weekend...!!! I just about died when they casually mentioned that, by the way, we are having a meeting tomorrow, Saturday, at 8:30am, and make sure to leave early because it's an hour away by bus. Now, I didn't actually end up attending for other reasons, having to do with my ATM card being mysteriously swallowed up in the ATM machine, but that story, that is something for a whole other blog post.

Anyways, love to my friends everywhere, be safe, eat good food, drink clean water, get some rest, because tomorrow, we got some work to do...! Love, R.