Dali In The Morning

Restaurant with the best Plum wine in town!

A Whiskey A Day Keeps The Parasites Away

I was in Shenzhen in 2012 for 6 months and became the lucky person to host not one, not two, but three different kinds of parasites in my stomach. I believe there are different causes for this:

1.)  Firstly I was eating gutter oil (yes, people open the sewer and suck off the oil that swims on top of the sewage) for 6 months probably twice a week.

2.)  Someone successfully made me drink water from a mountain spring and after writing my thesis on ground water pollution the following semester I realized that I am lucky I didn’t land in a hospital with dysentery.

3.)  I drank a ton of freshly squeezed fruit juice, because I am addicted to that goodness and there was no way that Shenzhen would also take that happiness from me. But fruit juice is made by dropping the entire fruit with skin into the machine.

So basically I am a bit naïve when it comes to food safety. I believe that one experiences culture best through the stomach and I still stand by that. However, this time I prepared myself the right way:

At the duty free store at the airport in my hometown I treaded myself to a bottle of Glenfiddich single malt scotch. I have been hearing rumors that it apparently sterilizes the stomach and makes it easier for the food to be digested. (Really not a hard conclusion to make based on the alcohol content) But, the food in Yunnan is also a lot better than anywhere else in China so it generally is safer to eat whatever you want.

Diarrhea (or in China called Laduzi = pull stomach in Chinese) is the passionate travelers best friend and is sure to follow you everywhere you go. It can have many causes and does not necessarily always mean that the quality of the food is bad. It can simply be because of the different spices.

My stomach did feel funky after my first two meals, but rest assured the sipping of my loyal whiskey helped clear up the problem! The past days I have had a sip (and I mean a sip…. No need to get drunk after breakfast) after every meal and I feel actually REALLY good. I think I have never had such a smooth transition into Chinese food in China before. But I have only been here for 2 days so we will see how it will continue.

For now I am satisfied with my attempt to make my stomach happy. And who doesn’t want an excuse to sip whiskey from a beautiful flask handed down by ones father? 

A few guidelines to the new beginning

I am not quite good at keeping things going that are not always necessarily fun to do. I like to keep my thoughts to myself and try to deal with them in the quietness of my own mind. However, its 2014 and if anything this year promises changes. I want to keep this blog going, post things I am thinking about and make it interactive by including pictures and other things. (As you can tell I haven't thought about this really all that much)

BUT, I generally dislike blog posts dwelling on the greatness of exposing oneself to new worlds and doing new things. Generally no one seems to care anyway so I will try to make this fun for everyone involved and for whomever happens to stumble on this random blog. Here a few rules I will try to keep going throughout the next 6 months:

- SHORT and CLEAR: English is my second language and I just had to deal with advanced english writing in the disciplines for the last 6 months at my university. The comas will be placed at random and I will not spend time editing the hell out of my posts. I will write what is on my mind and not care about the transition of paragraphs.

- ..... I really should have thought about the rules before writing this. But I think that is another thing: I won't be planning my posts all that much and just write as I go.

ANYWAY. You get the picture I think. Here we go!
 

Crazy things that Blow my mind

First topic:

 I know we sometimes get annoyed by the "constant" advertisements in the US. But China takes (as many things) also this to the next level.  
My office is on the 60-something floor and when I look out of the window to look for some green patches in the far distance I see a HUGE plasma tv  on the next highriser with adds playing.
Elevators, Taxis, Subway, Bus, Restaurants EVERYWHERE are adds. I mean I am pretty lucky since I don't understand a lot but I am seriously overwhelmed with the screens I see everywhere. In the subway it is honestly impossible not to look at a screen and watch adds. Even if you are waiting for the Metro to arrive you here adds playing in the back ground.
And as if that is not enough Chinese people have 7 different blogging, socializing, texting applications that really make sure that the eyes are constantly glued to a screen. 

Next topic:

GARDENS! The definition drives me crazy here! In front of the building in which I live if a "Garden". The only garden-thing I can see in there is the frog noises a speaker is making at night. You might expect grass to be somewhere - but let me tell you. wait for it....... there is NONE!

Another Topic:

Self image. In one of my classes I taught about the self image and asked the girls to make a list with adjectives they think boys will like in them. Here is what they wrote down:

- Rich
- White
- Tall
- Uneducated
- Housewise
- no feminism
- submissive
                                 WAIT! What? I know.

Last topic:
........ Here is why I love China: My AC was broken at one a clock in the morning. I called a friend and he went out to find someone to fix it and he did! The electrician came to my apartment holding a couple screw drivers and a hammer. Sooner than I could say "nihao" he was HANGING out of my window (20th floor - nothing to save him if he would fall down) taking a good look at the AC. - he fixed it!


So there are a couple things to blow your mind for now! more every couple days!
Also I miscalculated the number of people living in this town. It is 12 million after all. Only 2 million difference. That is not even that much.

Questions of the day!

Serious question of the day by a student: "Theresa, after your Bachelor are you going to Hollywood and become really famous?"

Not so serious question of the day: "Theresa do you want some of this?" - While holding a stick with duck intestines very close to my mouth.

CHINA!

The Start: Accepting the Job

I am what you would call obsessed with the Asian culture. I have been to China, Laos and Cambodia a couple times and after the first time traveling down the Mekong river for three months I fell in love with SE Asia so much that I immediately chose to become an Asian Studies major.
I am currently at an American college that offers a five year program with two internships build  in. The goal is to prepare students for the working world and have them graduate with connections. I myself love the American college experience especially because I was raised in Europe.
I am a hard working student with a double major. I love challenges and so applied for my first internship at the German embassy in China. Completely out of my reach I did not get the position. Instead I was accepted to a language school in Shenzhen, China to teach English. My priority is to speak Chinese moderately conversational by the time I get my bachelor so I decided to accept the opportunity. 
Coming from a town with 300'000 inhabitants it seems over powering to move to a city housing 10 million people for six months.
Even though I have traveled a lot by myself for extensive amounts of times I see it as another major challenge and this Blog is my way to cope with what is in front of me. My goal is to get as much experience as possible and to put myself as much out there as possible. That means no western food, no western comforts and no European or American culture. 
My departure date is in roughly two month and I am extremely excited to dive into my next adventure!