Since the next 2-3 days are hectic as hell, and I got not clue when people will actually read this by,
Merry Christmas boys and girls!! If it's early or late, well... its the thought that counts.
So yay!!
-Bernard Giuliano Cavalcanti Dos Santos Welsh
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
hey
hey. I'm not quite dead. it's been extraordinarily hectic. Been studying, trying to be as active as i can before leaving hk, doing finals, got sick(both from a cold/cough, and vomitting in an alley in LKF(ironically because cold medecine and vodka don't mix), spent a week in a computer lab working on various projects (i'd get kicked out because they were closing, and I feel asleep in the middle of a group meeting right after finishing a program). After wednesday, i'm done with exams and the last week is going to be absolutely fucking jam packed balls to the walls and such. I got 9 days to do a lot of living, and a day in HK feels longer than normal (in a good way).
I'm leaving here the 27th, not sure when I get back. There is some voodoo going on with the international date line, so I think I get back before I leave? Meh.
Does Blacksburg have any dance clubs?
I'm leaving here the 27th, not sure when I get back. There is some voodoo going on with the international date line, so I think I get back before I leave? Meh.
Does Blacksburg have any dance clubs?
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Beijing
So, I am going to be in Beijing till Tuesday of next week, and then the Saturday after that I will be in Osaka and Kyoto. This shit is going to rock.
And for Halloween, I went to LKF. It was fucking packed like crazy. I was shocked and awed. I went as Wolverine and Cameron was Cyclops, but I think the costumes were a bit too subtle. Not many people recognized it. The hair product started wearing out and I think I was channeling more James Dean than Logan.
And for Halloween, I went to LKF. It was fucking packed like crazy. I was shocked and awed. I went as Wolverine and Cameron was Cyclops, but I think the costumes were a bit too subtle. Not many people recognized it. The hair product started wearing out and I think I was channeling more James Dean than Logan.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Guilin/Xian
In mid October, I was in Xian and Guilin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilin
I got there Friday night by flying out of Shenzen. I was there with James, Wouter, Dawn, Lindsay, Dawn's roommate Shun, and Julian. We got there too late to do anything so we checked into the hostel and went looking for food. There was an amazing resturant not too far away and we got a ton of different dishes. It was pretty damn good.
Oh yeah, and as a side note, I was sort of sick. I've developed a cough (which still hasnt gone away, nearly 2 weeks later, but more about being sick later).
Anyway, the next morning we took a boat trip from Guilian to Yangshuo. It was a bamboo boat and went along the Li River. I got a few pictures of it, I'll post more later.
The scenery was absolutely amazing. It was some of the most gorgeous stuff I've ever seen in my life.
After arriving in Yangshuo, we went around and saw a few places. Alot was closed, but we saw crescent moon hill. It's a mountain/hill with a crescent moon shape cut out of it. At night, there was an absolutely amazing and crazy light show.
It was designed by the guy who did the Beijing olympics opening ceremony. I had no idea what the story was about, but it was pretty. They had hundreds of dancers and performers and used a river to perform on. And they lit up the surrounding mountains and had a lot of music. I couldn't get any decent photos because of the lighting.
Afterwards, we took the bus back to Guilin. Along the way, there was a rather interesting martial arts movie. James and I tried figuring out the story. There was a rape scene that lasted like 10 minutes, where this dude was trying to sleep with a girl who kept turning him down. And then it got progressively more and more violent till he killed her with a pillow. Aside from that, it seemed like a typical martial arts affair. Weird shit.
Woke up bright and early the next day, and went around Guilin (the flight to Xian was that night). We saw Seven Star Park, Elephant Trunk Hill, and Reed Flute Cave. There was a really cool hill in the park that goes straight up and gives you a nice view of Guilin. The cave was okay, but it was really tourisity with the way it was lit. It was more interesting if you went ahead of the tour guides so you didnt have to listen to them, and would get to see the cave with more natural lighting. One of the rock formations looks like a Lion, and I got a photo of it. THe elephant trunk hill was cool. You do a boat ride to the hill and it looks like an elephant trunk, kind of.
Funny store with the flight to Xian.
We got the airport, and I had to run to the bathroom. While I was there, everybody else did the automated check in. I followed suite when I finished, but during the time I was on the toilet, the flight got full. So, fuck me sideways.
We went to the counter and asked them about it, and they got me a seat on the flight. In first class. Boo fucking yeah. But I wasn't allowed to sit n the first class lounge. They marked me ticket to forbid me!
The flight was baller, kind of. It was short so no food. But roomy as fuck. It was nice. They had a blanket and slippers. which I stole. So now i got a Chinese airline blanket as a souvenir. I was coughing a lot so I couldn.t sleep much. Anyway, there was a video playing about swine flu. In it, they say it comes from the USA. (propaganda :P)So, here I am, the only white guy in first class and I keep coughing. I'm pretty sure they all thought I had swine flu.
So, we arrived in Xian in once piece and went to the hostel and tried to figure out what to do for the next day. So much to see and the flight was leaving the next night.
We got a tour guide and went to see as much as possible. First, there was the big wild goose pagoda. It was awesome. They had a lot of statues dedicated to different Buddhas and the architecture and statues were beautiful. They had a statue of Sanzo and a lot of monks were walking around (and PLA soldiers).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Wild_Goose_Pagoda
After that, we went on top of the Xian city wall. The original city of Xian was built within it, and anything built in the wall today cant be taller. Fun fact. I straddled a cannon. But it was awesome looking as well.
After that, we went to a work place that makes terracotta replicas. They use the same materials and firing techniques as the original ones did. It smells pretty bad, but it was cool as hell to look at. I ended up with a set of smaller replicas. I heart my army, and they are the slightly taller than Gundam models.
And then there was lunch. We went to a noodle place, and they do something quite interesting with the noodles. They are really long and thick (like a lasagna or something, except 1 meter in length). It was tasty. Laura said it looks like squid :p
And I guess we sort of saved the best for last. This was the thing i was most excited to see. The Terra Cotta ARMY!!!! YAY!
They had a movie depicting the construction, and rebellion and stuff related to the army. They had a book signing where the farmer who found the army autographed a book. I ended up getting it cause I got a thing for history.
But it was fucking awesome getting to see these things. They are OLLLD and were broken, but then painfully put back together piece by piece. It looked so cool. And getting to hear the history and seeing some of them right up close like that. I loved it. They also had a 40 ft tall Terracotta puppet. That was quite interesting.
And after that, we went to the airport and flew to Shenzen and made it back to Hong Kong by like 3 am.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilin
I got there Friday night by flying out of Shenzen. I was there with James, Wouter, Dawn, Lindsay, Dawn's roommate Shun, and Julian. We got there too late to do anything so we checked into the hostel and went looking for food. There was an amazing resturant not too far away and we got a ton of different dishes. It was pretty damn good.
Oh yeah, and as a side note, I was sort of sick. I've developed a cough (which still hasnt gone away, nearly 2 weeks later, but more about being sick later).
Anyway, the next morning we took a boat trip from Guilian to Yangshuo. It was a bamboo boat and went along the Li River. I got a few pictures of it, I'll post more later.
The scenery was absolutely amazing. It was some of the most gorgeous stuff I've ever seen in my life.
After arriving in Yangshuo, we went around and saw a few places. Alot was closed, but we saw crescent moon hill. It's a mountain/hill with a crescent moon shape cut out of it. At night, there was an absolutely amazing and crazy light show.
It was designed by the guy who did the Beijing olympics opening ceremony. I had no idea what the story was about, but it was pretty. They had hundreds of dancers and performers and used a river to perform on. And they lit up the surrounding mountains and had a lot of music. I couldn't get any decent photos because of the lighting.
Afterwards, we took the bus back to Guilin. Along the way, there was a rather interesting martial arts movie. James and I tried figuring out the story. There was a rape scene that lasted like 10 minutes, where this dude was trying to sleep with a girl who kept turning him down. And then it got progressively more and more violent till he killed her with a pillow. Aside from that, it seemed like a typical martial arts affair. Weird shit.
Woke up bright and early the next day, and went around Guilin (the flight to Xian was that night). We saw Seven Star Park, Elephant Trunk Hill, and Reed Flute Cave. There was a really cool hill in the park that goes straight up and gives you a nice view of Guilin. The cave was okay, but it was really tourisity with the way it was lit. It was more interesting if you went ahead of the tour guides so you didnt have to listen to them, and would get to see the cave with more natural lighting. One of the rock formations looks like a Lion, and I got a photo of it. THe elephant trunk hill was cool. You do a boat ride to the hill and it looks like an elephant trunk, kind of.
Funny store with the flight to Xian.
We got the airport, and I had to run to the bathroom. While I was there, everybody else did the automated check in. I followed suite when I finished, but during the time I was on the toilet, the flight got full. So, fuck me sideways.
We went to the counter and asked them about it, and they got me a seat on the flight. In first class. Boo fucking yeah. But I wasn't allowed to sit n the first class lounge. They marked me ticket to forbid me!
The flight was baller, kind of. It was short so no food. But roomy as fuck. It was nice. They had a blanket and slippers. which I stole. So now i got a Chinese airline blanket as a souvenir. I was coughing a lot so I couldn.t sleep much. Anyway, there was a video playing about swine flu. In it, they say it comes from the USA. (propaganda :P)So, here I am, the only white guy in first class and I keep coughing. I'm pretty sure they all thought I had swine flu.
So, we arrived in Xian in once piece and went to the hostel and tried to figure out what to do for the next day. So much to see and the flight was leaving the next night.
We got a tour guide and went to see as much as possible. First, there was the big wild goose pagoda. It was awesome. They had a lot of statues dedicated to different Buddhas and the architecture and statues were beautiful. They had a statue of Sanzo and a lot of monks were walking around (and PLA soldiers).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Wild_Goose_Pagoda
After that, we went on top of the Xian city wall. The original city of Xian was built within it, and anything built in the wall today cant be taller. Fun fact. I straddled a cannon. But it was awesome looking as well.
After that, we went to a work place that makes terracotta replicas. They use the same materials and firing techniques as the original ones did. It smells pretty bad, but it was cool as hell to look at. I ended up with a set of smaller replicas. I heart my army, and they are the slightly taller than Gundam models.
And then there was lunch. We went to a noodle place, and they do something quite interesting with the noodles. They are really long and thick (like a lasagna or something, except 1 meter in length). It was tasty. Laura said it looks like squid :p
And I guess we sort of saved the best for last. This was the thing i was most excited to see. The Terra Cotta ARMY!!!! YAY!
They had a movie depicting the construction, and rebellion and stuff related to the army. They had a book signing where the farmer who found the army autographed a book. I ended up getting it cause I got a thing for history.
But it was fucking awesome getting to see these things. They are OLLLD and were broken, but then painfully put back together piece by piece. It looked so cool. And getting to hear the history and seeing some of them right up close like that. I loved it. They also had a 40 ft tall Terracotta puppet. That was quite interesting.
And after that, we went to the airport and flew to Shenzen and made it back to Hong Kong by like 3 am.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Mainland China
A quick update. I was in Xian and Guilin over the weekend. I'll write a longer update later today. Just for now I'm posting to let anybody that reads it know I'm not dead.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
It's been a while
Lets see... Nothing overwhelmingly crazy going down at the moment.
Last weekend, I was in Shenzen. Its a city at the border of China, and a special economic region. It's something like the wealthiest city per capita in China. Its different, and very new. The city was built up in the past 20 years. It sort of lacks a cultural identity. Everything is planned relatively carefully, but it feels empty. There are massive 6 lanes roads everywhere, but never enough traffic to really occupy it. There are MTR stops, but its barely built up and a lot isnt connected. I went with Julian, James, and Wouter. It was a rather cultural, laid back weekend. Some people expected a lot of people expecting debauchery from a group of bachelors on the town.
Got there in the afternoon, and went around the main areas. Like HK, there is a lot of shopping. There was a 12 floor computer center, where I got an extra thinkpad battery for about 25$ USD. It works well so far. (Although I've killed one my right click buttons, but thats another story)
We went to dinner at a Sichuan resturant, and it was amazing. There was pork with vegtables, slices of beef, peanut chicken (which I avoided), and a spicey ass mystery soup, and really nice green beans. And for dessert, there was glutinous rice doughnuts. It was tasty.
Afterwards, we did a mini pub crawl. There was a district of bars that look it was designed by somebody that thought about Europe, but never went to Europe. There wasn irish pub, a german bavarian kind of place, an italian place on a fake mini canal, and some others. We played pool at one, which was kind of funny. The hostess asked if we wanted to play pool, and we said yeah, assuming she meant when the people playing finished. She kicked them off and gave us the table. It was awkward. Julian mentioned having a pool table at home, so James jumped onto his team. (which reminds of something else, when people here found out I could draw, one person asked if there was anything I wasn't good at (apparently I have a curious and/or impressive skill/knowledge set) and james blurted out, Sports!!!). Anyway, Wouter and I ended up beating James and Julian. Fun times. All the other guys, being of European heritage, enjoy beer. Alot. Meanwhile, I ordered a tequilla sunrise, which came out with a pink curly straw and cherries. I haven't lived it down yet. And I still want to try an appletini.
Afterwards, we went back to the surprisngly nice hostel and hung out before passing out. The next morning, Julian felt sick and took the MTR back to Hong Kong early.
Oh, and to explain how to get to Shenzen: The MTR station by me is Kowloon Tong. The green line goes to Mong Kok (the busiest district on Kowloon Island, and where you can transfer to the Red Line towards Hong Kong Island and more busy areas in Kowloon.) Its also got the light blue line, that just goes to the Chinese border at Shenzen. So, to go to China, I just hope onto the MTR and I'm at the border. I get to go through the faster resident line as well, since my student visa makes me count as an HK resident.
Wouter, James and I went to the park in Shenzen, where there is a statue of Deng Xioping overlooking the city. By the end, I felt like hell. Fuck steep ass, oddly sized stairs up a mountain. But the view was amazing, and the trip down was easier. We then went to the fake counterfeit mall, but nobody got anything. We then got some dimsum, but I felt sick and since it was getting late and we were more or less done, we went home.
Lets see, during the week, I didn't do much. I've had a cold. It's mostly been school, food, hanging out at the residence.
For this weekend, I played Mahjong with Cameron and bunch of other people. I won a game. Go me.
Afterwards, I watched SGU. Cameron has been getting that and Dollhouse off of itunes, and weve been watching it. I'm fucking shocked at how good SGU is, although its definately borrowed a lot from BSG. And damn dollhouse is good. Eliza Dushku rocks and is hot. And the dude pkaying Victor is awesome as well.
And then on Sunday, I went to the Hong Kong space museum. It was cool. Alot of stuff I've already learn between other museums (Kennedy Space Center FTW, Smithsonian Air and Space/ Annex) But there were some cool activities. You can go into a harness and it simulates moon gravity. Almost everybody else was either too tall, or in a dress.
For today, its just been class and getting my group project work started. I need to talk to my counselor. After this semester, I need 22 credits. I got a lot to plan. (hopefully I can go to KIT next fall)
Also, KFC has an amazing breakfast. Chicken filet, with gravy, and eggs, and a honey biscuit, plus a drink. It was a good ass biscuit too. Im disappointed they dont have it during regular food service.
That's it for now, I got a lot of class today. I need to set up an FTP to share my pictures tomorrow, and sort out some travelin
Last weekend, I was in Shenzen. Its a city at the border of China, and a special economic region. It's something like the wealthiest city per capita in China. Its different, and very new. The city was built up in the past 20 years. It sort of lacks a cultural identity. Everything is planned relatively carefully, but it feels empty. There are massive 6 lanes roads everywhere, but never enough traffic to really occupy it. There are MTR stops, but its barely built up and a lot isnt connected. I went with Julian, James, and Wouter. It was a rather cultural, laid back weekend. Some people expected a lot of people expecting debauchery from a group of bachelors on the town.
Got there in the afternoon, and went around the main areas. Like HK, there is a lot of shopping. There was a 12 floor computer center, where I got an extra thinkpad battery for about 25$ USD. It works well so far. (Although I've killed one my right click buttons, but thats another story)
We went to dinner at a Sichuan resturant, and it was amazing. There was pork with vegtables, slices of beef, peanut chicken (which I avoided), and a spicey ass mystery soup, and really nice green beans. And for dessert, there was glutinous rice doughnuts. It was tasty.
Afterwards, we did a mini pub crawl. There was a district of bars that look it was designed by somebody that thought about Europe, but never went to Europe. There wasn irish pub, a german bavarian kind of place, an italian place on a fake mini canal, and some others. We played pool at one, which was kind of funny. The hostess asked if we wanted to play pool, and we said yeah, assuming she meant when the people playing finished. She kicked them off and gave us the table. It was awkward. Julian mentioned having a pool table at home, so James jumped onto his team. (which reminds of something else, when people here found out I could draw, one person asked if there was anything I wasn't good at (apparently I have a curious and/or impressive skill/knowledge set) and james blurted out, Sports!!!). Anyway, Wouter and I ended up beating James and Julian. Fun times. All the other guys, being of European heritage, enjoy beer. Alot. Meanwhile, I ordered a tequilla sunrise, which came out with a pink curly straw and cherries. I haven't lived it down yet. And I still want to try an appletini.
Afterwards, we went back to the surprisngly nice hostel and hung out before passing out. The next morning, Julian felt sick and took the MTR back to Hong Kong early.
Oh, and to explain how to get to Shenzen: The MTR station by me is Kowloon Tong. The green line goes to Mong Kok (the busiest district on Kowloon Island, and where you can transfer to the Red Line towards Hong Kong Island and more busy areas in Kowloon.) Its also got the light blue line, that just goes to the Chinese border at Shenzen. So, to go to China, I just hope onto the MTR and I'm at the border. I get to go through the faster resident line as well, since my student visa makes me count as an HK resident.
Wouter, James and I went to the park in Shenzen, where there is a statue of Deng Xioping overlooking the city. By the end, I felt like hell. Fuck steep ass, oddly sized stairs up a mountain. But the view was amazing, and the trip down was easier. We then went to the fake counterfeit mall, but nobody got anything. We then got some dimsum, but I felt sick and since it was getting late and we were more or less done, we went home.
Lets see, during the week, I didn't do much. I've had a cold. It's mostly been school, food, hanging out at the residence.
For this weekend, I played Mahjong with Cameron and bunch of other people. I won a game. Go me.
Afterwards, I watched SGU. Cameron has been getting that and Dollhouse off of itunes, and weve been watching it. I'm fucking shocked at how good SGU is, although its definately borrowed a lot from BSG. And damn dollhouse is good. Eliza Dushku rocks and is hot. And the dude pkaying Victor is awesome as well.
And then on Sunday, I went to the Hong Kong space museum. It was cool. Alot of stuff I've already learn between other museums (Kennedy Space Center FTW, Smithsonian Air and Space/ Annex) But there were some cool activities. You can go into a harness and it simulates moon gravity. Almost everybody else was either too tall, or in a dress.
For today, its just been class and getting my group project work started. I need to talk to my counselor. After this semester, I need 22 credits. I got a lot to plan. (hopefully I can go to KIT next fall)
Also, KFC has an amazing breakfast. Chicken filet, with gravy, and eggs, and a honey biscuit, plus a drink. It was a good ass biscuit too. Im disappointed they dont have it during regular food service.
That's it for now, I got a lot of class today. I need to set up an FTP to share my pictures tomorrow, and sort out some travelin
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