Getting Political

I've never been a terribly political person but from time to time, I've been known to be interested in politics, so when the President of the United States shows up on my campus, I had to go. How often can you hear the President speak? I wasn't going to get to hear him any other time.

I went to the political rally on my campus that was sponsored by the Democratic Party and stood out on the Oval for four hours. There was some logistical issues, but it was a pretty decent rally. I went with my friends Cat and Ally. There were 35,000 people total that made it to the rally and the message was pretty positive, please vote every election day. I have to say that I'm guilty of not voting every election, because I don't have time and I didn't educate myself on the candidates. I'm really going to try to vote this coming election day.

The rally included the senator, congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy, the mayor Michael Coleman, and the governor Ted Strickland. Also included into the mix, musical guest John Legend. Here's a picture of him now.

The First Lady introduced President Obama, but I couldn't get a good picture of her. There were just too many people there. I managed to get excellent pictures of the President. I have to say that he is an excellent public speaker and he made the wait worth it.
After going to the rally, I feel grateful that I'm an American and I have so many rights that I probably wouldn't have had if my parents didn't leave Hong Kong. But there's so much more that America needs to do, we need to have an universal health care system and a better education system where everyone can get a quality education instead of being taught to a standardized exam. So, I conclude this blog by saying, I think we still have a lot to do and I will try to vote in two weeks to do my part.

Taking a Study Break...

I'm unofficially taking a study break right now so that I can update my blog. As promised, the pictures from the last post were a wall at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Kuala Lumpar, Malayasia, where the soldiers from the statue do not look Malaysian at all! The goldish picture is from the roof tiles at a temple in Xian and the last picture is of a really old warped tree trunk in the courtyard of the temple at Xian.

That's it for now, I'm going back to studying for my exam.

Back in the C-bus

It's been exactly a month since I stepped off the Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong in New York's JFK airport. I've finally settled into my groove here in Columbus after battling food poisoning and other various ailments related to bug bites. It's week two/three of the quarter and I think I finally know what I'm doing. Now I'm focused on working on my dissertation and figuring out what all those crazy numbers mean! Hopefully, I will be done with it by the end of this school year and I will have earned the title 'Doctor' (which I'm making my cousin use to address me in the future).

In some ways, this summer seems so surreal to me, like it never really happened. I'm dying to go back to see the friends I've made and also to travel more. I have definitely been bitten by the travel bug and I need to get out of Columbus so I can travel to my heart's content. I'm also wanting to finish school so I can put roots down somewhere and start a real life. It would also be nice to have family to stop asking me when I will finish school and get married and have children. Once I'm done they will just push the white picket fence idea on me and I don't think they realize that I might not want that. It's the traditional Chinese family thing. My parents don't do this, but family friends do. Chinese guilt, is it worse than Jewish guilt? Who knows.

I don't want to just keep musing away, I think I'm going to post some pretty pictures from my travels to my future blog posts. Today, we'll play guess the abstract picture and for the next blog post, I'll post the answers.

Singapore and Malaysia

Greetings!

My parents and I decided to go to Malaysia and Singapore because we've never been and our Japan plan fell through. So first off, here is a picture of one of the world's tallest towers, the Petronas Tower in Malaysia. It was kind of disappointing since we couldn't go up to the top of the towers because there wasn't an observatory there. However, there was a mall in the bottom of the towers. The one redeeming quality was the most amazing bakery in the mall. It's called Rotiboy and it had one of the best buns I've ever had. Here's a picture of a old Portuguese Fort and church, one of the few sites in Malaysia.
Surprisingly, there is a identical Iwo Jima Memorial to the one in Washington D.C. in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Here's a picture of my parents with the mounted guard outside the Palace of the Malaysian king in Kuala Lumpur.
Here's a picture of some parliamentary buildings in Kuala Lumpur.
We were only in Malaysia for two days so we didn't get to see much. Then we were off to neighboring city-country Singapore, which is also known for its strict laws. Here's a picture of the merlion in Singapore. For some reason there are a lot of them around Singapore.
We took a night cruise around the harbour and here are some of the buildings.
The main reason my parents wanted to go to Singapore was because of the Universal Studios. Here's my mom with Charlie Chaplin.
Finally, we went to a Singapore beach and we managed to catch the sunset and took a pretty family picture.
Well that's all for Singapore and Malaysia. All in all, I wouldn't return to Singapore because most of the sights revolve around shopping malls and everything was really expensive. The Universal Studios was tiny and most of the rides were closed. It wasn't that much fun. I would return to Malaysia because there's a lot of things that I would still want to see.

All in all, my Asian trek was very productive. I'll spend the next post(s) summing up the trip so stay tuned.

Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Army

Hello!

I have always wanted to see the Terra Cotta Army because I'm just an all around anthropology geek. So my parents, aunt, uncle, and I joined a tour to go to Xi'an. There were only two things that I wanted to do in Xi'an: see the Terra Cotta Soldiers and eat the dumpling banquet. Little did I know, there was actually a lot to see in Xi'an.

According to our tour guide, there were actually a lot more foreign tourists that come and visit Xi'an, so the government thought to take advantage of it by building a large cultural center pictured below to explain and show off the Chinese sites. It was pretty impressive. We went on a really rainy day so there wasn't that many people there.
Xi'an also has a leaning temple. I took a picture of it but according to our tour guide, it used to lean a lot more before they fixed it.
Finally, we got to see the Terra Cotta Army. It was amazing because it's huge. I never thought that there were that many figures. They are nowhere close to unearthing all of the figures and they think that they will be excavating for another decade or more. Here are some horses in the pits.
All the figures do have different expressions and they are dressed differently to signify rank and position.
Here's another smaller pit.


This is the famous chariot with horses but this was a replica because the real one was in Shanghai for the Expo.
Xi'an has many temples and here is a pretty large one.
We also managed to have an elaborate dumpling dinner at De Fa Chang.
Our hotel had a large art piece in the back of the famous Chinese emperor, which I can't remember the name of right now.
It was pretty rainy when we went to Xi'an so we didn't get to go up Hua Shan (Hua Mountain) a very famous scenic landmark in China. So we took a picture at the base of the mountain.
That's it for all the Xi'an sights. All in all, it was a pretty fabulous trip. We actually went to Xi'an with Hong Thai travel agency and while we were there, we heard about the hostage situation in the Philippines. The scary thing was that were were looking to go there with the same travel agency. Luckily, we didn't. So next up is Singapore and Malaysia!

Hong Kong with the Parents

Hi all,

Sorry for being AWOL but I didn't have internet access when I was in China and in Singapore and Malaysia. I'm back in Columbus but have been suffering from a heinous bout of food poisoning/sore throat that has been keeping me under the weather for the past week. I'll post pictures from my travels in a couple of posts.

When my parents arrived in Hong Kong, we set out to see the sights. One of the places that was a must see for us was the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. If you know me, one of my life goals is to visit all the Disney Resorts (I know, so thrilling). Here are my parents standing in front of the entrance sign. I'm sad to report that the park was tiny and there wasn't too much in way of rides. They didn't even have the Pirates of the Caribbean ride! But one highlight was that we got dim sum at the hotel where they have food shaped like the characters. We had glutinous pancakes shaped like Mickey, pork buns in a pig shape, and chicken little buns filled with lotus paste. They were all very delicious.


We also when to Lantau Island to see the big Buddha because my father has never been to see it. We took the cable car to the island and it was pretty amazing. The cable car spans over 5 miles and the views were pretty good.
This is the main attraction that everyone comes to see. It's a pretty big Buddha.
My family also decided to visit the island of Macau, which is a SAR like Hong Kong with Portuguese influence instead of British influence. All the signs are in Portuguese and Chinese. There is more to Macau than just casinos, although there are lots of casinos there.

Here's a casino in Macau, I can't remember the name of it.
We also went to afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel, one of the must do things on my Mom's list. She's been wanting to do this for decades. She was very happy and so was I because the food was delicious.
On my birthday we took the tram to the Peak to have dinner. It was pretty nice, here's a night view from the Peak of Hong Kong. It's very pretty with all the lights.
I also managed to convince my parents to take the Star Ferry with me, a ferry that goes from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. It's been around for decades, since my parents were young.

That's all that we did in Hong Kong besides shop and eat lots of food. Next up, my pictures from Xi'an and the terra cotta warriors.

Almost done?

Hello all!

It's been a busy couple of weeks and hard to believe that my time in Asia is almost over. So I've managed to collect data from 695 skulls, which means I have lots of numbers to crunch when I get back to Ohio. My parents come on Monday and we're going to have dinner with my grandparents and celebrate my b-day.

There hasn't been much to report so far since all I've been doing is working everyday. Last Sunday I went to the Hong Kong History Museum to learn about my natal land and I must say that it was one of the best small museums I've been to and that's saying a lot. It was also really cheap, entry fee was only $10 HKD ($1US=$7.76). There was a special exhibit about the qipao, which is the traditional Chinese dress. Here's a picture of one of the many they had on exhibit. I'm thinking of getting one made when I go to China. Here's a picture of the bound feet shoes popular in China merely a hundred years ago (a little family history, my maternal great-grandmother had bound feet). The shoes are so tiny!
On Saturday, my aunt and cousin took me out for dinner and dessert, so I took some pictures of the dessert just for my mom. I'm happy to report they were as delicious as they looked.

Lastly, on the balcony of my dorm on clear days, I get to see spectacular sunsets over the harbour and this photo doesn't really do it justice but I'd thought I'd share it.
So that's all for now from the fragrant harbour. After Hong Kong, I'm going to travel to Xian to see the terra cotta warriors in person, which is what I'm really excited about. Then we're off to Singapore/Malaysia, so hopefully I get lots of good pictures so I can share with you all. Hope you're well and talk to you later.