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Goodbye Xi’an (and the guy crying outside of the bus)

Traffic to the South Gate in the afternoon from the Bell Tower roundabout.

We’re on the bus to the airport, and this guy is standing outside crying because his girlfriend is on the bus with us. They’re talking on the phone. I have no idea where she’s going, this like a horrible chick-flick that Tim would watch.

Joel wants him to come on the bus with us and just fly with her wherever she’s going. I think they clearly need time apart.

So yes, we’re leaving Xi’an today and flying to Hong Kong. Xi’an was great, and for people who don’t speak Chinese, really easy to get around in. There’s no subway, but their busses are fine, and the city is walkable enough.

We started our two day stay by going to the Terra-cotta Army on Monday. Although our hostel had a tour group that goes everyday, we decided to go on our own so that we could go at our own speed and see what we wanted to see. As was recommended to us, we saw the three halls in reverse order (3-2-1) so that it’d get better as we went. If you ever go, definitely do the same. As for my impressions, I don’t think I have a very original take on the site, but it really is amazing that things like this were ever constructed. The army is considered the eighth wonder of the world for a reason.

We wandered around the center of the city for the afternoon and wound up in the Muslim Quarter. It’s essentially a big market with tons of little shops and restaurants to check out. Pretty much the perfect place to people-watch.

(side-note: I’m listening to NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast right now, and this group BOBBY is incredible. The song called We Saw builds like the best of ‘em.)

Yesterday was our walk-around-te-city day. We left the hostel around 10:30 (also, I’ve dedicated myself to making 24-hour time second nature before I get back) and took off for the Big Goose Pagoda which was outside of the city walls. Throughout the day, we hit up the Big and Little Goose Pagodas, an antique marketplace, a Buddhist temple, a Catholic church, a Taoist temple, the Bell Tower, and wrapped up with dinner and haggling in the Muslim Quarter. I snagged a pair of super-real looking Ray Bans for 20¥ (the shop owner started at 170¥, so I’d consider that a successful buy.) It was a day filled with walking, and we were dead afterwards, but it was worth it.

Now we’re at the airport waiting to board our flight. Fun stuff.

Can’t wait to get to Hong Kong to meet up with Pat and Andrew again. We’re also going to see some old ‘SC CC (Catholic Center) friends Thomas Chow and Brian Lang.

Good ‘ole KFC (in Xi’an)

Don't judge. You can't understand until you've been here.

I know what youre thinking. He went all the way to China, and he’s eating KFC?! Believe me, I’ve been plenty adventurous when it comes to trying local food, but sometimes you just need a taste of American fast-food These crispy chicken sandwiches are better than I’ve had in the states, and like everything else in China, they’re cheap.

In other news, Joel and I split from Pat and Andrew a couple days ago when we flew to Xi’an and they to Hong Kong. The air polution isn’t as bad here as in Beijing or Shanghai, but it’s still noticable. Sunday afternoon, after checking in to our hostel, we walked around the area nearby the Bell and Drum Towers in the middle of the city.

While wandering around in a market, a bunch of young guys who were locked together with heavy metal chains ran by yelling, so naturally we ran along with the crowd to see what was up. We all wound up down a side alley onto what seemed like someone’s doorstep where some sort of party was hapenning. Not sure what the celebration was for, it could have been a protest for all we know, but it was more likely some sort of engagement party (what else could the chains mean?) or something like that.

The city seems pretty cool so far; really touristy, but clean nonetheless. I’ll update more on Xi’an in a bit, possibly while sitting in the airport waiting to go to Hong Kong.

Monsoon?

Roof view out of the Shanghai hostel

Not sure if this qualifies yet, but it’s raining cats & dogs out there right now.

Love me some summer thunderstorms

Patio of our Shanghai hostel (pretty nice place)

Shanghai

We arrived in Shanghai two days ago after our flight from Beijing was delayed for three hours. So far, I like it better than Beijing. Something about it feels like a more developed city. Things like subway rides and taxis are slightly more expensive, but it’s still way cheaper than in the U.S.

My final time in Beijing was spent with Joel’s class as they gave their final presentations for the projects that they had been working on all semester. It was pretty cool to see how the students from Taiwan, Beijing, and Los Angeles worked together for the past six months. That night everyone got together to go out, and we ended up with splintered groups going every which way until we all meet up at a small club called Propaganda. Prior to this, the group Joel and I were with wandered down an alley and sat for a while eating what Joel has dubbed ‘meat-sticks’ (ie. lamb, chicken heart, beef, etc.)

Our hostel in Shanghai is the nicest I’ve ever seen (even though its only my third.) The city is great, and the skyline across the Bund is incredible. Last night, we went to an acrobatics show that cost us just 80¥. We found our way over to the 280¥ seats, and the show was impressive – not Cirque status – but still cool.

I’ll try to get some photos up soon.

Hello world (Beijing)

View from the plane from Seattle... taken at 1am

So for the next three months or so, this blog will become the place where I put as much stuff about my summer travels as possible. Most of my posts will come from the iOS WordPress app, so posts will be short but hopefully frequent.

Today is my second full day here in China.

I flew in to Beijing at 10:30pm on Saturday night and stayed with my friend Joel who’s finishing up a class here. We’ll be traveling through the rest of China starting Wednesday. Yesterday we went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square early in the day, and then I headed back to the airport to pick up our friend Dan, who’ll be studying at Nankai University. We took a bus to the school in Tianjin and found an awesome dive bar to celebrate Dan’s birthday at. Luckily his roommate speaks fairly good Chinese already, so he helped us get around.

I’m back in Beijing today. To get back (because another two hour bus ride didn’t sound too fun) I took the bullet train that runs between the two cities. It was awesome (350km/hr.)

Just checked in to my hostel for tonight and tomorrow night. It was impossible to find, but it’s really nice.

The air here is horrible, but that was to be expected. I wish I spoke Chinese, so I’m going to work on that in a few minutes. Things are pretty cheap, but I’ve spent more money than I intended to. Guess that’s just because I’ve been back and forth between here and Tianjin, and it was Dan’s birthday. Not a big deal.

I have some cool pictures on my phone, but I can’t seem to get them onto the blog.

This is going to be an interesting summer.

Google: recursion

Google: recursion. Gotta love when nerds throw in easter eggs for other nerds.

I’m sure this is as old as the internet, but it’s new to me. I’ve definitely seem something similar in my algo books (in the index for Loops says see Recursion, and for Recursion says see Loops.)

(via Reddit – What did the cooling system say to the sound card?)

Beyonce – Run The World (Girls)

Does anything really need to be said? Competition is a wonderful thing.

Son Lux – We Are Rising & the making of the cover art

Album art for Son Lux's We Are Rising

There has been a lot of high-profile/0n-my-radar music released in the past few weeks, and for some reason only a small portion of it is living up to my expectations. One album that surpassed what I expected is Son Lux‘s sophomore album We Are Rising. I’ve mentioned Son Lux before, but I really think that this new offering deserves further note.

For an album made start to finish in 28 days, We Are Rising shines in so many different ways. I love the orchestral arrangements Son Lux (aka Ryan Lott) has put together. It’s obvious from the beginning that he’s a classically trained musician fully capable of composing very complex pieces, and he doesn’t shy away from his abilities. “Let Go” – a short track near the end of the relatively quick 38-minute run time – is one of my favorites not because of any pop sensibilities Lott shows off, but because of the fact that multiple tempos overlap through different instruments and phase in and out of each other until the end when tracks are stripped away until a simple beat is left.

Other standouts include the bombastic “All The Right Things” and the Portishead-reminiscent “Leave The Bones.” But We Are Rising really should be listened to in its entirety. I’ve gone through it many times since its release last month and don’t plan on letting it slip out of rotation any time soon. Lott’s deep constructions will give me new facets to discover for quite some time.

Portishead – Machine Gun

So I just turned today into a depressive Portishead day. This song is by far the most abrasive track from their most recent album Third. It was the album’s first single, and it heralded the return of one of my favorite bands back in ’08. “Machine Gun” kills me every time.

How I found out that Bin Laden is dead

This is just a short story of how extraordinary the internet is.

At around 7:20pm tonight (May 1, 2011), I’m sitting at my desk playing Starcraft II, and a notification from the Huffington Post pops up on my iPhone. It says that Obama is to make a surprise statement at around 7:30pm.

I jump on Twitter and see a tweet from my friend that says:

The tweet that informed me of Bin Laden's death.

Just a few minutes after I go on a mad fact-checking search through the New York Times, CNN, and other tweets, the deluge of texts from friends spreading the word starts. Within 10 minutes of the White House saying so, millions – maybe billions – of people know a piece of information.

The incredible part of this in my opinion is that this didn’t start while people were paying attention. It started on any normal Sunday evening. Now I’m just watching TV, waiting for the official announcement.