Sunday, February 28, 2010

Homemade Tradition Dumplings!

Just a quick post today.

Last night I got the privileged of Lindon's (my boss) Mother making me homemade tradition dumplings!

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She even made them vegetarian for me! These ones have egg, chives, and bamboo shoots in them. They do NOT taste like dumplings I have ever had before, but they are fantastic!

They also taught me how to make a dipping sauce out of garlic, soy sauces, and some magical ingredient I have never seen before.

I also made an "Asian" stir fry to go with it that complimented it pretty well. Onions peppers and snow peas in a soy, lemon, and honey sauce all served over rice. The vegstables here all come from the market next door and are always fresh and delicious. It came out pretty well and I was happy with it.

I will have to ask her to show me how to make them sometime.

More soon.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Couch Surfing Night Out!

Last night was pretty easily one of the best nights in Xiamen thus far.

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A bit of a preface. Over the break Chris and I went up to Boston and visited Dan while he moved into NEU and to see other assorted friends who live there. While there, we met up with Chris' friend from home, John Martin. We got to talking about traveling and adventures we had been on and he brought up a website called Couchsufing.org that had enabled him to travel and meet some pretty cool people. I had actually briefly heard about it before and since John spoke highly I decided to check it out.

For those who don't know (I'll be brief since it seems like this blog is becoming a place where I promote websites haha) couch surfing (CS as the user call it) is an organization that links people who want to travel, with people who have extra couches or bedrooms they are willing to make available. It has since grown to also be a place where people can find someone who knows the city you are traveling in and can recommend places to go or find people who are just willing to grab a drink and exercise your English a bit. If you are a little creeped out by the idea, read about it on the website before you judge. (there are a fair amount of safety features)

Anyway, I joined and got a few nice messages from locals Xiameners, but activity appeared to be low. So 3 or 4 days ago I decided "What the heck" and posted a message on the Xiamen message board to see if anyone wanted to grab pizza or a beer.

Well the response was fantastic! About half a dozen people wrote back on the group post and it was decided we would go to a place called ME & U2 at 8:30. (Which I didn't realize I had actually gone to with a Customer when I first got to Xiamen)

ME & U2 is a a mostly outdoor bar/restaurant/club

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situated in Haiwan Park. (which is pretty impressive)

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It is owned by Ulf (THE WOLF!) who if you didn't know, would just come off as an extremely friendly old drunken Swed who spends a lot of time there.

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There is a stage for live music and both times I have been there a pretty decent pair of Philippino singer/musicians have played. They do a bunch of American staples, as the clientele seems to be split about 50% foreigners 50% local Chinese. They have Stella, Heineken, Carona and 5 or 6 Chinese beers which, by Xiamen standards, is a healthy selection. (Though Havana, a South American restaurant I went to once wins so far with Sam Adams!) They also had the best Pizza I have had in China so far!

Back to the meeting.

Well, to be honest I had no idea what to expect. I was hoping that at best half the people who said would maybe show up actually would. That put my expectations at 3-4 people including me, a pizza, and a beer or two which to be honest, would have been great as well.

It was a trickle at first. Once I got there a guy named Che Fung came up to me and asked if I was part of CS. We sat down and were the first. Che Fung was born in Taiwan but lived in Hawaii for 32 years and now lives in Guangzhou.

We talked for about 5 mins before he got a text from Ting a 27 year old local who had said she would attend. Ting was one of the first people to message me when I joined the Xiamen group and she had also met with Che Fung the last time he was in Xiamen.

Ting showed up with some other friends from CS. Cameron from England and his girl friend Sally who I think was from Taiwan. Cameron came to Xiamen when he was 22 and met Sally. They moved to England for a few years and have just recently moved back to Xiamen to start an English school in Sally's home town. Cameron plays Trumpet and Guitar and is learning harmonica so it was easy to find stuff to talk about and we might even play some music some time.

That made five English speaking people, pizza, and beer. My expectations were met and it was officially a good night for me, but the people kept coming!

A few minutes later Bonto a fun guy about my age from Turkey showed up. After that 3 kids who are seniors in high school participating in an exchange program in Taiwan wandered in. Thomas from France (so obviously pronounced TOE-mas) Elan from Germany, and a Taiwanese girl named Hisn Chen They were all great fun! Next came a guy named Mike from Florida who I think was 30. He teaches English in Xiamen and we might do some running together at some point. Finally came Stephanie, another local from Xiamen and her friend Lee who was an older guy from South Africa!

So if my addition serves me well, including my self that made 12 people from 7 countries (Taiwan included)!

It seemed like everyone really hit it off great! I know I had a blast. Most of us ended up leaving ME&U2 after a few hours and going to a club that also had some great live music. There we met a few people from Germany and Belgium and the party went on until 3AM!

So after speaking with Ting, Banto, Mike, and Cameron we decided we would try and make it a monthly event, which I am looking forward too. Unfortunately Che Fung, Thomas, and a few others who I really hit it off with are just passing through. But that is the life of the traveler I guess.

May they have equally fun experiences where they off too next!

It was great to meet so many interesting and fun people from all over the world! I am really hoping making it a regular thing works out.

PS: If you happen to be reading this because you are considering moving to or already live in Xiamen, you can find links to the Xiamen couch surfer forum in the live feed located on the right side of this blog. Feel free to say "Hi" and ask any questions you have!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Helping Poor Entrepreneurs in China

Just a quick post.

Some of you know I am a big advocate for kiva.org and this idea of micro-finance in general.

For those of you who don't know what micro finance is, it is actually much less daunting than it sound. Just a fancy term for making small loans available for poor entrepreneurs in poor countries. You can read about it here or you can skip the article and read my scattered summary in the next 3 paragraphs.

Kiva is an online organization that allows people to go online, make a profile, and help make these loans available. You can lend in as small a denomination as $25 and what is even better is that you eventually get the money back. (I choose to continually loan it out, but you can with draw it too.) Every dollar goes to the recipient. (Kiva does ask for an optional %15 donation to help operations though)

Kiva also allows you to choose where your money goes. You can sort borrowers by location, sex, trade, or amount of need. Then once you have made a loan it shows who else is lending to those people. I loan as part of a team, the "Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious"

Anyway, For whatever reason I tend to give preference to places I have been, and in the past I most frequently made loans in Tanzania. But, because of China's currency policies you can't lend in China via kiva.

But there is good news! Today I found Wokai(in Chinese "Wo" means I and "Kai" means start) They are a newer, smaller operation than kiva but operate in a similar way. A nice difference is that the contribution amount is even smaller, just $10 (with optional 10% donation for operations). So I signed up and made my first loan to a doctor named Zhou Heping in Sichuan. You can view his profile here.

I would encourage anyone to participate in either one of these organizations. I have had great experiences with kiva including a touching letter from one of my borrowers, 100% pay back every time (7 loans), and some great dialogue with my fellow team members.

More about China and what not tomorrow probably.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

我回来了! (I am back!)

I’m back!

Home sweet home. (the entrance to my apartment complex)

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And Xinglong road where I live
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The travel here was pretty painless. I ended up taking a shuttle from the New Haven R.R. to JFK. It was easy, not to expensive, and I met some interesting people. One of the guys who happened to also be on my flight was named Frank. He has been going back and forth from China for 5 years now and gave me some great advice about a whole host of things.

I have found that Westerners who spend a lot of time in China tend to look out for one another quite a bit. Every time I meet one it as if they see a younger version of themselves and wish to take me under their wing to help me along. I can't complain their advice as been invaluable. I will have to remember this as I start to spend more time here.

My flight took off at around 4pm. It was just a hair over 16 hours. I am getting pretty used to them now. As long as I time my sleep for the right times, my jet lag is really limited to a few days of getting up earlier then usual. (which is actually nice when I have to start working tomorrow anyway).

My flight arrived in Beijing with the perfect amount of time for me to get through customs, navigate the massive maze that is Beijing airport, grab a coffee, and stop for a quick bathroom break. I boarded at 7:35pm and arrived in Xiamen at 10:30pm. Lindon’s brother and Lily picked me up right away and I was back in my apartment sleeping within an hour!

Here are a few pictures that where interesting from the plane.

This is the Mountains of Siberia
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And here is the night view of Xiamen from the plane.
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Flying over Beijing and Xiamen I could see Gold and Red fireworks going up EVERYWHERE to celebrate the last day of the Chinese New Year. At one point, I counted 11 different spots where good-sized blasts were going off independently. Wish I could have caught them in a picture!

This morning, after I unpacked a bit, I decided I would go for a walk in the park where I had my adventure looking for pizza. It is actually beautiful! (And not creepy at all during the day haha)

Here is a picture of one of the random creepy status that popped out of no where in the night.

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I had to laugh at my self. As I walked around I realized I couldn’t have taken a longer path then I did that night! There is a short path right out in the open if I had just gone left instead of right when walking in! Ah well, to quote Douglas Adams “You live and you learn. At any rate, you live.”

This park is however, a magnet for interesting experiences for me! As I was walking, I heard some music being played in the distance, so I took a wander towards it.

Here are some pictures along the path I took. It was well decorated for Chinese New Year.

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Only in China would someone’s laundry just be hanging in the park haha!

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Here is a picture for Rach from the old amusement part here. I know how she loves old abandoned stuff. (Im not sure if it is actually abandoned or just neglected... Either way, you won't catch me on it!)
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Once I got there, the players where very excited to see me and asked me to come join!(Well I am assuming they did, I just saw them wave their arms indicating to come over and then they handed me an instrument) I wish I had thought to ask someone to take a picture, but I was so focused on trying to keep a rhythm on my funky Chinese percussion instrument that I forgot!

I did however get some pictures of the Chinese Fiddle player after our jam session had concluded. (This is the instrument I brought home for Dan for X-mas)

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And as a special treat, some video of the players in the park!




It is good to be back!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

It is Time to go Back!

Whoo hoo!

I leave to return to Xiamen tomorrow! Its about time!

It was great to be home and see everyone, and I wouldn't have traded it for anything, but it is definitely time.

It started to sink in the other day after the trade show. I realized I had seen just about all of the family and just about everyone I REALLY wanted to see. Then I started seeing a group of people it was still really nice to catch up with on a regular basis. Then there where a few surprises of people I didn't think I would be able to see.

But recently it has gotten to the point where I go into town and see people that I just need to make small talk with because I know them... then I see them again 5 hours later at the bar and need more small talk. It makes me feel like a townie. This is why I left in the first place!

I also came to the realization just now, as I was thinking about what I wanted for dinner, that I couldn't remember what I wanted my last dinner in the US to be! I had to go back and check the blog to see what I was missing before I came home! haha

So it is time for sure.

I also realized I haven't posted the good news! It's official, Chris Lombardozzi (my college roommate) will be joining us at ENRY starting March 4th! More elaboration on this later since it deserves a post all in it self.

Be expecting more regular posts and pictures to come soon!