Pigeons for the Holiday

Yesterday, during a ridiculously long dinner in Flushing, Queens, I tried my first pigeon meat. I still held strong in not eating any shark fins (I believe the collection method is inhumane), but I figured the pigeons were probably farm raised. So what the hell. It tasted like chicken.

Happy Holidays to everyone who reads my blog.

The Invisible Wall

Many years ago, one random summer in Beijing, I remember the sight of an old man that was like anyone else I've seen before. I was near Wang Fujing, and he seemed to have just came from another planet. His skin was dark and weather worn, his hair matted, his dark thick gray chuba dirty. Holding his prayer wheel, he looked bewildered and lost. The old man knew as much as I, or any other passer-by, that he should not be there, in Wang Fujing, in Beijing. He seemed like a tragic figure, being stranded in a place and time that he did not belong, representing a culture few in the crowd would ever understand. An invisible wall separated him from the rest of the population.

Now, as I try to learn more about his culture, his people, their stories, and any "truth", there always seem to be something holding me back. Like the old Tibetan man of my memories from so many years ago, I seem to be forever seperated - by time, by space, by perscribed facts - from what I want to know and learn about the most. Just like an invisible wall.

Exploring the Southeast

I dropped my friend, Kim, off at her house today and saw some AMAZING pictures she took in South East Asia. Everything looked so beautiful - especially one picture she took from inside a mountain cave overlooking the valley below.

Fingers crossed my plans for this summer works out - not only will I put off the real world for a bit longer, but will also see some spetacular places with some beautiful people!

I hope, I hope, I hope!!!

Mira Nair

I learned today over dinner with Kathryn, her friend, and Raym, that Mira Nair (director of Vanity Fair, Monsoon Wedding - which I loved - and future director of The Namesake) is one of the most dissagreable people he's every met. Difficult even to interview.

Huh.

So much for thinking she's this amazing, extremely nice woman. Maybe it was better off not knowing.

Once Again, an Example of a Small World

Yesterday, Kristin and I had a lunch/dinner at the new crepe place in town. If anyone who reads this ever comes to Bloomington and goes to the crepe cafe, the egg and mushroom crepe is excellent.

Anyway, as we were chatting, we discovered that we both went to eat at the same Italian restuarant, Il Forno, in Manali, India. The restuarant is located between the windy road from new Manali and old Manali. Located in a log cabin style building, it offers a beautiful view of Manali and the surrounding Himalaya foothills, especially at night. The quietness and serenity the restuarant location offers is a nice getaway from all the hussle and bussle of Manali (it seems like every Indian, tourist, and all their mothers are there during the summer months). Though I wouldn't suggest getting the local red wine, the Italian food there isn't bad either - especially considering where you're eating it at.

It's funny we both had dinner there, a year apart from each other (especially considering all the foreign restuarants in Manali). It's fascinating to think about the different memories we both had at that same place during different spheres of time, all in a little Himalaya foothill town.

Brrr...

Walking around in the snow and arctic wind today made me realize why I would rather die in the Dehli heat then ever in the freezing snow.

Back to work now...

Bottoms Up

Last night, my classmates, professor, and I marked the end of our International Newsgathering class by going to the Irish Lion (previous AIESEC post GMM hang out hot spot). I have to be honest and say that I have never enjoyed the company of classmates so much before last night.

Not only are some very verbose and opinionated people, they are very nice people. While drinking and eating with our professor last night, we talked about everything from traveling, to religion, to venting our frustration at our less then favorite classmates. As well, we had our firsts in trying oysters and Blarney Puffballs (an Irish Lion must have).

It is a shame though that I have not, until quite recently, interacted more with some of my classmates. But better late then never, better to have at least one night of great conversations and laughs then to none.

Seeing everyone, including my professor, in a relaxed, social environment outside of class has been a nice change. I feel so graduate student like! All thanks to Chris for advocating drinking after class...

Movies

Recently, I've been in a foreign movie junkie stage. Here's my take on a few of the recent ones I watched:

House of Flying Daggers

I first watched this movie this past summer with Jin Jin in Beijing. I rewatched it this weekend with Stephanie. I've heard this movie will be released soon in the US. I also happen to see Roger and Ebert review this movie on Sunday. The US movie critics seem to love this movie. I am flabbergasted everytime I see another great review about it.

The two best things about this movie are:
- Beautiful cinematography and custumes
- Beautiful cast (I heart Takeshi Kaneshiro)

That's it. Really. The story line is uninspiring, the ending sucks, the physics of what those characters do are unrealistic (no one flies. Not even the best Kung Fu masters), and the dialogs sometimes are very weak.

I just don't get it.

Good Bye Lenin

Love it.

After Life

The concept of the movie is very interesting. After your death, if you can choose one memory that would embody your entire life and not remember anything else about your existence, what would it be?

I have no idea where to even begin with me...

The Cup

Simple story line, but still touching. It humanizes a group of Tibetan monks.

Bollywood/Hollywood

A bit of a satyre on Bollywood. It has its funny moments - like how all the Indian male characters has white women admirers, the chauffer is a drag queen, and the Japanese tourist's clip documenting the freak accident death of the white ex-fiancee died. Gotta love levitation.

Monsoon Wedding

By far, not your typical Bollywood film. Definately more of a drama than comedy. It deals with the complexity of a large family, family dynamics, modern day realities, and also tackles some hard issues. Shows some good clips that I thought embodies the feeling of Dehli. Makes me even kind of miss Dehli...

International Dinner

AIESEC Indiana's best social event of the semester was this past Saturday.

There were two long tables of food. They were running out of table space to put everything.

People made all kinds of dishes - Kugre, kofte, Greek cheese pie, stuffed mushrooms, chicken biriyani, chicken korma, hummus, cherry cobbler, chocolate pudding pie, my Chinese dumplings, just to name a few.

We had a few guests - Adam and Liz from Miami. They almost missed the dinner with their 3.5 hours long road trip that should've taken 2 hours. Wanji's two friends missed the dinner altogether.

Tanya got the "Thank You, at Least You Tried" award for her Pizza Express pizza.
Kristin got the "Most Exotic Dish" award.

It felt like an AIESEC Thanksgiving.

The there was the afterparty.

Last minute, they finally found a place to hold it - one of Teli's Pakistani friend's apartment.

One word. Sake. Two words. Sake Bomb. Enough said.

There's a lovely black and blue souvenier on my knee from when I tripped myself. It had nothing to do with the above paragraph. Really.

Damn my bad memory when under the influence...

Heard a few funny stories though.

Good times, good times.

Lead

I noticed today that a girl who sits next to me in my Central Asia class eats lead. Really. Lead as in the lead that comes out of her lead pencil. I noticed that she broke a few pieces of lead during class and a minute later, put the lead in her mouth and started crunching on it. Even if you are mineral deficient, this is ridiculous.

People do some weird things...

Near Burned Out

It seems like the semester's grind never stops. I need a break, but since week 3, there's been so much work to do every single week. My only salvation is knowing that there's only two more weeks left...

Norbu

It began as a joke. After a day out and about in McLeod Gange, Crystal Blue, Kimiko, and I were relaxing and enjoying chai under the shadow of a maple tree. As we laughed and chatted, reminiscing the memories of our short trip, we became aware of a group of 4 Tibetan monks sitting at a table next to us. Drapped in their maroon robes, they seemed to be doing something serious.

Soon enough, curiousity gotten over the best of us. McLeod Gange has really been the first place on our trip where there were so many Tibetans around. Real life Tibetans. Who can blame us?

So what do we do when put in the situation of a chance at informal contact with some real life Tibetans? I decided to pretend to take pictures of Kimiko, with the actual intentions of taking a picture of the monks - without them noticing.

A few attempts later, the monks noticed something suspicious over at the table of chai drinking, cigarette smoking, foreign girls. Ok, enough fooling around and acting like silly girls. We took a deep breath and decided to be brave.

Crystal took the first step.

"Hi."

"Hello." Replied the monks.

The conversation took off from there. They were all young monks, mid-twenties at most. We found out that all 4 had escaped Tibet from China about 10 years ago. Real life Tibetan refugees. A few of them came from monestaries outside of McLeod Gange to do short term studying. I think one even came from Spiti-Lahual valley. They had been learning English for just three month and before we interupted, were reviewing their lessons. Their English was very impressive considering they've only started a few months back. The most endearing part was that they would say things that you just don't quite hear so often anymore. Things like,

"Will you be my friend?"

and...

"Are you happy?"

I think they said their teacher was Irish.

They asked about us, too. They wanted to know what we were doing there, our interests, etc. I didn't have the heart to tell them I was Chinese. I don't know whether they would have actually been offended or not. I thought it better not to risk it.

The most memoriable part of the whole conversation was their reaction when Kimiko asked them if they smoked cigarettes or killed mosquitos. They all gasped and leaned away simultaniously. We also we realized that most of them carried cell phones and had email addresses. Imagine that! Western technology does not even stop at the likes of Tibetan monks.

We exchanged emails and I would still occasionally get emails from one of the monks, Norbu. It makes my day whenever I receive one (like today) and always brings a smile to my face. His emails are like the conversation...

"Dearest my best friend...I am limitless happy when we meet each other...I will stop with much missing you..."

Like I said, the emails never fails to bring a smile to my face.

The three of us girls ended up taking a picture with the four monks. This time, with their permission.

Bravery pays off.

Bugs

After a few months of not seeing any cold blooded invertibrates in my apartment, I discovered - and subsequently killed - a silverfish in my bathroom. Damn it!