Shenyanigans

January Snow in Kabul

2012-01-27T07:04:00.000-08:00

So I just left Kabul for good on Monday, January 23rd, but I almost didn't make it out with all of the snow on the ground. I'm back home in Texas, but I still have a lot of pictures left to post. Since Texas isn't nearly as interesting, I'll try to put up the rest of the Kabul pics in the next couple weeks.
These next pictures are all from one day in early January, when I went out to a meeting at a high school on the outskirts of town.

The man commemmorated in the center of this traffic circle is the Hazara warlord Abdul Ali Mazari. He fought against the Taliban and also committed some pretty horrible human rights abuses himself. In 1995 he was captured by the Taliban, who killed him by throwing him out of a helicopter midflight.

There's nowhere I'd rather be...

2012-01-13T06:24:00.000-08:00

...than Kandahar in December.

Forty shades of brown, and a minor MRAP traffic jam.

Looking out onto the helicopter in front of us, on the trip from the Kandahar Air Field (KAF) to the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT).

A view of the city as we land:

Marine Ball 2011

2012-01-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

At the pre-ball party, Dwayne joins John for a whiskey, which he enjoys from my Will & Kate commemorative mug, free with a subscription to "People" magazine. <3

Requisite picture with the China jacket, with Denise and Andrew:

Marines were everywhere!

Meeting General Allen, 4-star commander of ISAF, i.e. our top military guy in Afghanistan and wearer of the best outfit in the room.

Dates!

So I went to Thailand and only took two pictures...

2012-01-01T03:03:00.000-08:00

I'm just now putting these pictures up, but I went to Thailand for a week in early October for my 2nd RRB. I think I wrote about this before, but everyone posted to Afghanistan for a year gets to choose between taking 3 R&Rs or 2 R&Rs and 3 RRBs. The only difference between an R&R and an RRB is the amount of money that you're given to spend on the airplane tickets. For an R&R, you're given about $3,000, and about $1,500 for an RRB (regional rest break). The idea is that you could go home to the U.S. on an R&R, but would stay somewhere in the region for an RRB, like Dubai or India. You can spend just about however much time you want on each break, but you need to be in Afghanistan for at least 300 of 365 days.

For my second RRB, I was able to use the $1,500 to travel all the way to Koh Samui Island, Thailand to spend a week at the Kamalaya Resort. I basically just slept, ate, and laid on the beach, so I didn't take any pictures.

On the way back to Afghanistan, I spent a day in Bangkok to see the sites (and wade through floodwaters). These are the two pictures I took at a temple, which I visited with a friend from Kabul.

A Foliage Tour of Central Afghanistan

2011-11-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

I should probably preface this post with an apology to the 24 followers I have now apparently accumulated for my delinquency in updating this blog. If any one of you is still loyal enough to check for new posts, I can guarantee that this post will make the wait worthwhile!

At the end of October, my coworker and I took a 2-day trip to Bamiyan province, which is in the center of Afghanistan, about a 30-minute plane ride west of Kabul. He came with me to monitor U.S. grants designed to assist disabled land mine survivors, and as my own monitoring only took about one hour, I had plenty of time to tag along to see his grant sites.

One of our first stops was a religious school for boys in the capital city of the province. Here, you can see the teachers and students of the school, where a ramp was just built for disabled land mine survivors.

Next, we drove down the valley to another, more rural school (and by 'drove' I mean we actually drove ourselves, which was fabulous!). On the way we saw women and girls washing their clothes in the river.

We also say some guys loading the last potatoes of the season onto a truck. Potatoes are a staple crop of Bamiyan, and apparently some are exported to Lay's.

This is a cemetery, with what appears to be an old fortress in the background. The fortress looks like it's been there for centuries, which means it probably dates to the Carter administration. The Afghan environment has a tendency to wear on things (and people, which is why I always wear suncreen here. Lots and lots of sunscreen.)

Our cars, headed down the valley...

When we arrived at the tiny schoolhouse, this boy was installing glass windows, which would stave off the cold and enable the students to study several weeks longer into the winter months.

The whole demining gang, with some of the teachers and students:

Me and Joey, with the beautiful fall foliage of Bamiyan:

Admiring the motorcycle in front of the school:

On the way back, we passed by these girls with matching UNICEF backpacks:

Just hanging out.

In the bottom left-hand corner, you can see the alcove that once held one of the two giant Buddhas.

A main street in the capital of Bamiyan

The Silk Road Hotel, which is almost the only game in town, is owned by a Japanese woman and her Afghan husband. It has great food and excellent views of the Buddha alcoves. Unfortunately, it shuts down during the winter, so if you come to Bamiyan for skiing, you'll have to find a hotel elsewhere.

On the morning of the second day, we had some extra time before our flight, so we decided to climb around the Buddha caves, which are now protected by UNESCO.

Me and Sunil, our gracious host:

Joey, pointing out a sign that shows where a land mine was found and removed.

On the way, we made friends with a local guide who was a native of Bamiyan.

The destroyed Buddha:

The first cave we visited was inside the cliff, on the right side of the largest Buddha. According to our guide, the Taliban brought local Hazara residents here and shot them. They then removed the shoes from the bodies and defiled the cave with their shoeprints.

Me and Joey, on the cliff next to the Buddha:

In another cave, the walls had been whitewashed during the mujahideen era. Afterwards, mujahideen fighters, the Taliban, and others had covered the walls with graffiti.

We basically climbed up one side and then down the other, visiting caves carved into the cliff on each side.

View of Bamiyan from a tiny overlook that sits just above where the Buddha's head would have been:

It was a long way down with very little railing...

The Taliban scratched out the faces of all of the Buddhas too:

Each of these caves used to hold Buddhas, but now they're all empty.

Driving back to the PRT one final time:

Waiting for our departure from the Bamiyan airstrip:

Happy Halloween, Bamiyan!

Countryside around Kabul

2011-10-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

This morning I drove to the outskirts of Kabul (in the opposite direction of Darulaman Road, fortunately, as it was the site of a major suicide attack today). The countryside around the city is actually much nicer than the downtown area, as it's still largely pastoral.

I should probably caveat this first picture by saying that I was actually trying to photograph the building behind these two ladies, but I didn't see them as we drove by, so it was a complete shock that they turned up in the picture!

Many people were living in tents, even as new construction was crowding them in.

Driving through the narrow streets of the village, I was so sure that the mud brick buildings had been there for over a hundred years. My local colleague estimated approximately 30 years. I guess the wear and tear in Afghanistan is a little severe.

The next few pictures were taken around town when I was stuck in traffic this past week. They're just a few typical scenes.

Wedding Halls and Bare Shoulders

2011-10-21T04:07:00.000-07:00

After my various sojourns into performing at Chinese weddings (http://shenyanigans.blogspot.com/2010/08/liu-jings-wedding.html), I was very curious to learn about the structure and ceremony of an Afghan wedding. Large wedding halls like the two pictured below can be found in almost every neighborhood in Kabul; they are literally the biggest buildings in the city. Hundreds of people are invited, and the men and women spend the vast majority of the time in separate rooms, thereby allowing the women to cut loose with sequins and bare shoulders. They are also prohibitively expensive and a huge drain on the economy.

As I drove by the "Paris Kabul Wedding Hall," pictured below, I taught my local colleague a new English word: tacky.

Bare shoulders and decolletage? Scaaaaandalous! Unless you're getting married, of course.

Darulaman Palace

2011-10-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

Every few weeks, I'm lucky enough to visit places in Kabul that take me past Darulaman Palace. It's about 45 minutes from the Embassy, just past the Parliament building. It was built in the early 1920s by King Amanullah Khan, and there's really no other building like it in the city. I would love to get closer to it to get better pictures, but it's set back very far from the road. I've heard rumors of various schemes to renovate the building and some even include plans to house the Parliament in the palace. However, ten years on it's still a looming hulk of steel and rubble, so I'm not holding my breath.

On all sides of the building, people go about their daily lives and largely ignore the enormous structure. All over Kabul and throughout the country, there are historical structures like this, which, if they're not still housing unexploded mines, are used by children as playgrounds or the homeless as shelters. It can be quite startling, especially if you come from an environment in which such cultural relics would be charging admission.

On the one hand, I would hope that these buildings are heading in the direction of such restoration, but I also pass by the bombed out Russian Cultural Center every week and see that such aspirations can take a drastic turn for the worse...

Even more jarring than the presence of such massive ruins is their close proximity to nomadic settlements. The only piece of this picture that has changed in the past 100 years is the slow destruction of the palace. Hmm.

Follow the Mughals

2011-10-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted on this blog in a few weeks because I've been traveling on my third R&R vacation. It's actually referred to as a "Regional Rest Break" or RRB, but instead of staying within the region, I flew back home to Texas. Since I didn't take any pictures during my current vacation, I thought I would post some additional pictures taken on and around September 13, the day that the Embassy was attacked.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was out in the city on that day, organizing an event at a restored park and palace complex, Babur's Garden. In the picture below, our Embassy moderator is introducing the panel of Afghan women leaders to the audience of mostly female Afghan students. The first suicide attack occurred just a few minutes after I took this picture.

Hours later, and we're still there! We moved down into the basement, where we furiously sent emails and stress-ate the mountains of croissants I had brought for audience refreshments.

The picture below just shows the exterior of the building complex, with local residences built on the hillside above. The palace is built in a U-shape, with the open end overlooking the city.

A blurry shot, taken from the window of the car after a rain, when we were finally leaving Babur's Garden.

As a disclaimer, the following two pictures are NOT of Afghanistan! The day after the attack, I was scheduled to fly to New Delhi for a conference, along with several other officers. Our trip was delayed, but I decided to fly out on Friday to attend the final day of the conference. It was well worth the effort, as I was able to spend the entire weekend in New Delhi (3 hours of conferencing + 2 days of touristing = my kind of business travel!). I slept, shopped, and ate all day on Saturday. On Sunday, upon realizing that I hadn't seen a single monument/museum/attraction, I asked a taxi driver to take me to one awesome place that I could see in 20 minutes or less. So I ended up at Humayun's Tomb. I had no idea what I was viewing at the time, but according to Wikipedia, it was built for the son of Babur (the emperor buried at Babur's Garden in Kabul). In my rush to leave Afghanistan, I had just followed the path of the Mughals!

"Looking Back to See the Future"

2011-09-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

During the attacks in Kabul on September 13, I was organizing a 9/11 commemmoration event at Babur's Garden. The event focused on the progress made in women's rights over the past decade, as well as mechanisms to sustain and build upon this progress in the next decade. We heard the first explosion as our moderator was finishing up her opening remarks. After the second, and much louder, explosion we relocated to a basement onsite and continued on with the panel discussion.

Beautiful Badakhshan

2011-08-26T00:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Faizabad, where the river is clean and the donkeys are strong!

Last Sunday I took a 3-day trip to Faizabad, the capital city of Badakhshan province, located in Afghanistan's far northeast.

It's a (relatively) very safe province, having served as the stronghold of the Northern Alliance during the Taliban years. Several residents proudly told me that Badakhshan was the only province to continuously allow girls to attend school, with no interruption from the Taliban.

This is the entrance to the PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team), where the USG is based. We're guests of the German military.

The entire town of Faizabad is built around the river, and lots of the activity is centered around it:

USAID recently completed a paved road that runs parallel to the river, and it's a huge development for the town. Of course, most people still see the road from the back of donkey instead of the inside of a car.

Even more recently, USAID installed solar-powered street lamps along the road, which seem to be really appreciated. Since I visited during Ramadan, lots of people were out at night, eating and walking under the lights.

Ice cream shop along the main drag:

Banana-flavored ice cream. I still haven't gotten sick yet...

Grandpa and granddaughter hanging out at the ice cream shop in the evening:

Typical street scene:

Following behind a jingle truck on a death-defying mountain pass above the city.

View of Faizabad from above. There were also a couple other local tourists taking pictures.

This monument on the other side of the river is apparently constructed at the site of a mass grave, victims of the Soviet invasion.

We visited the old town, which was constructed roughly 300 years ago and doesn't seem to have changed much.

The outdoor market has also been around since the 1700s:

Local mosque in the old town:

View of the river from a USAID-constructed bridge:

Back on the other side, we passed right by the town buzkashi field! Buzkashi is like polo, with a headless goat carcass replacing the ball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzkashi).

Preparing for the day that buzkashi becomes an Olympic sport?

And on the helicopter ride back, flying over the mountains of Panjshir province, home of Massoud:

A Kabul Skyscraper!

2011-08-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

Magnificent!!

Woman in a burka, begging on Darulaman Road, near Parliament:

Hanging out in wheelbarrows on a Saturday afternoon:

Selling scarves along Kabul River in the old city:

Girl, playing with the pigeons, also along Kabul River:

Pictures from around Town

2011-08-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

I went to go monitor a grant on the outskirts of Kabul a few weeks ago and learned a little more about burqas. Apparently, white burqas are more common in northern provinces, like Balkh, while green burqas are more prevalent in the south, especially Kandahar. Blue burqas seem to pop up everywhere.
If you look closely, you can see that ISAF is written on the street sign:

Japanese cast-off minibuses are everywhere

Peeling flyers on the side of a building:

Driving through the Old Town:

Yes, there's actually a zoo in Kabul. It's probably the most depressing zoo in the world:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0811/p07s01-wosc.html

Poor little donkey :(

Ghazi Stadium

2011-08-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I visited Ghazi Stadium, which is in downtown Kabul. You might recognize the name from "A Thousand Splendid Suns," as it served as the site of public executions during the Taliban era. I thought about putting up a link to webpages with info about this, but they're pretty gruesome. Just google it.

Recently, the stadium has undergone some renovations and apparently has been rebranded as the Olympic Stadium. It's still not very inviting, but it hosts soccer games and serves as a training facility for both male and female athletes.

Very desolate. Renovations are apparently ongoing. The pole in the back righthand corner is obscuring a billboard of President Karzai.

The view on the way out. I don't know who that is...

Que Farah, Farah

2011-07-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today I went on a one-day trip to Farah. It's the biggest province in Afghanistan but literally has a population of fewer than one million people. Flying over it is like flying over the far side of Mars:

The airport has one dirt runway, a water tower, and a gun tower:

Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures in the "city," since I was traveling in an MRAP convoy, with a helmet and body armor. Necessary, but very uncomfortable.

Heading back, after a long and dusty day:

Fast Food in Kabul

2011-07-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

No Big Macs here :(

Kabul Fried Chicken!

Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif

2011-06-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally got out to somewhere more pleasant than Kabul...and not to a detention facility. We traveled in a small propeller plane to Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif to meet the people and see the future consulate sites. Here they are on a map, Herat in the west and Mazar in the north:

Flying over the mountains on the way to Herat:

View of Herat from the consulate roof:
The blue-domed building is the Jihad Museum.

Driving around the city:

Next stop: Mazar-e-Sharif! The capital city of Balkh province, which is now unfortunately most famous for this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8422469/Seven-killed-in-worst-ever-attack-on-UN-workers-in-Afghanistan.html.

On the way to the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), we saw nomads' tents in the desert:

Prior to the attack, when Mazar was considered one of the safest cities in Afghanistan, it was more famous for the building below, the Blue Mosque. We just drove by it, but I managed to sneak a picture:

Side view of the Mosque:

Crowds hanging out around the Mosque:

Here's a final view of the city. Most of the shops are shuttered because it was a Friday, which is a day off.

Daytrip to Parwan

2011-05-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a day trip to Parwan Province, which is just N/NE of Kabul, to visit the detention facility. We took an MI-8 there (it's the red, white, and blue one). No pictures of the facility, of course.

Looking out over the city of Kabul:

It's a quick trip of less than thirty minutes. Just outside the city, we saw tents of nomadic people with their flocks of sheep:

A dusty, deserted traffic circle, just over the mountains from Kabul:

It looks so green and peaceful from the air!

We took a different helicopter for the ride back. I have no idea what kind it was, but it was an old Russian model with a new paintjob.

View from the inside -

R&R #1!!!

2011-05-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

Probably the best part about serving in Afghanistan is the R&Rs and RRBs (regional rest breaks). I'm serving here for one year, and I can choose to take either 3 R&Rs or 2 R&Rs + 3 RRBs. When I go on R&R, the State Department will pay for my airfare either a) back to the States, b) to London, or c) anywhere else in the world, as long as it's cheaper than the ticket to London. When I go on RRB, the State Department will pay about roughly half the amount of the R&R fare, but I'm not entirely sure how they decide the amount. Regardless, roundtrip airfare from Kabul to London is apparently ridiculously expensive, so you can pretty much go wherever you want. For my first R&R, I flew Kabul-Dubai-Hong Kong-Shanghai-Hong Kong-Mumbai-Dubai-Kabul - for free!! I still had to pay for everything else, but it's an awesome deal.

This is the single picture I took in HK. I was too busy hanging out with friends, watching movies (in the theater!), and stuffing my face with delicious western food to take any pictures.

After HK, I flew to Shanghai for a day to see some friends and eat more Mexican food.

Next up: Mumbai!!

Of course, the first ad I see in the Mumbai airport is this:

I was totally there in September last year! It's definitely Ping'an China, not India. Whatever Mumbai, I'm on to you.

I stayed with some friends at a beautiful apartment in West Bandra, with an amazing view of the Arabian Sea.

Emma, Aunnie, and me, walking along the boardwalk:

Of course, we had to get Mexican food again because it was Cinco de Mayo. The next night we all went out in downtown Mumbai, and Emma ended up sitting alone on a stool with her Kingfisher beer, which she was thrilled about. Also, my clutch makes its first blog appearance:

On our last afternoon, we walked around the hanging gardens and got mobbed by this giant extended family, who all wanted their pictures taken with us:

Cricket!

We also stopped by two Jain temples on our walk down from the hanging gardens. One was being renovated...

...while the other temple was definitely in use:

a couple more temple pictures...

and finally, to commemorate the terrible Mumbai traffic, here's an image of the totally adorable Mumbai taxis, which almost compensated for the nasty traffic situation:

Final stop: Dubai!

Of course, the first picture of Dubai has to be the indoor ski slope!

Dubai can pretty much be seen in a day or two, so my mom and I spent our third day on a trip out to the eastern part of the UAE. Here we are, somewhere in the middle:

This is the beach at Dibba, which was on the Gulf of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz. It was beautiful, and the water was crystal clear, but waaaaay to hot to hang around for long.

Mom, back in Dubai, after brunch at the al Qasr Hotel in Madinat Jumeirah.

Final picture of us from the trip, at an oasis somewhere in the middle of the UAE:

And then it was back to Kabul and back to work :(

A Smattering from around the City

2011-05-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks I've had to travel fairly extensively throughout the city and farther out into the suburbs, which has been quite an interesting experience. The old Russian tanks below were stacked up in front of the tents of some nomadic sheepherders, just down the road from a new housing development. Only in Afghanistan...

This is a really beautiful monument built during the reign of King Amanullah Khan (I think), who ruled Afghanistan during the 1920s. At the top of the hill in the background is an old fortress that was built hundreds of years ago. It's unsettling to think that such a fortress would be a major tourist attraction in Europe, but here in Afghanistan its use hasn't changed drastically since construction.

Soldier on top of one of the many building-skeletons:

Boy selling fruit juice on the side of the road:

Posters of political candidates:

Kabul on the move

2011-04-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

Traffic Jam

2011-04-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

back to blogging...

2011-04-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

I thought I was going to be able to add a picture a day, but clearly work interfered with that plan. Anyway, this is a picture of the giant Russian granary in Kabul. I don't think it's still in operation, much like the other remnants of the Russian occupation, including the giant bombed-out, bullet-ridden shell of the former Russian cultural center. I think the only vestiges that are still semi-operational are the old Volga taxis and the AK-47s. Behind the granary you can see the ubiquitous hillside slums.

Shooting through Bulletproof Glass: Image 4

2011-04-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

This is the Pashtoonistan Hotel (that's the actual spelling), which is located at a crowded intersection, close to the Embassy. If anyone wants to visit, I can probably get you a sweet deal.

Shooting through Bulletproof Glass: image 3

2011-04-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

I think that soft-focus and focal black-and-white can look a little cheesy, but I like it here. I just wish that I could make the picture bigger, as it's so hard to see their faces. This is a few blocks from the Embassy.

Shooting through Bulletproof Glass: Image 2

2011-04-02T00:09:00.000-07:00

Spring isn't quite here yet, so the city is still a little dreary and rainy. Only the major roads are paved, so once you turn off them into neighborhoods, you begin off-roading. Even the most upscale neighborhoods, like this one, do not have paved roads. However, the dirt roads bely the richness of the houses that are behind the walls lining the roads. Once you step through the gate in the wall of the compound, the house inside is generally very comfortable. There's no indoor heating though, so you normally huddle around a space heater and hope it doesn't give out before the meeting ends!

Shooting through the Bulletproof Glass: Image 1

2011-03-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

Due to security restrictions in Kabul, I'm not allowed to leave the Embassy compound for social reasons, like shopping or going out to eat. However, I still get out quite a bit for meetings around the city, so I have many opportunities to take pictures, albeit from the backseat of a moving, armored vehicle. Terrible traffic often makes me late for meetings, but the slow speed of the car can enable me to capture some interesting scenes. For the next week or so, I'll try to post a photo a day of some of the people and places I've photographed (usually with my iphone) from the car.

Napping on sandbags

2011-03-25T04:59:00.000-07:00

Don't judge, we've all been there.

notebooks and waiting rooms

2011-03-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

I just finished handling my first VIP visit as a control officer. It was probably one of the most difficult, least rewarding jobs I've ever had. Arranging everything from meetings with the President to getting delegation members on the cafeteria meal plan was incredibly stressful. I won't get into the details, but it made me seriously question my career choice. Even if I don't have to serve as a control officer again after this tour, it is still worrying that I might one day become like the people on the delegation, if I continue to advance in my career.

Anyway, at least I had a few free minutes when the delegation members held their meetings, and I stayed outside to work on logistics. This is where I waited at the Presidential palace, notebook, sunglasses, and schedule in hand:

Three cups of tea and a soap opera at the Ministry of the Interior:

Saturdays in Kabul

2011-03-05T08:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while because I keep forgetting to take my camera when I go out. I took these pictures with my iphone today, when I was visiting a grantee around town in Kabul. This is just a typical street scene, with a giant 3-story mansion on one side of the dirt road, and a pile of trash on the other, with mountains in the background. There is a surprising abundance of large 2- and 3-story houses in Kabul, surrounded by high opaque walls. I don't even want to know what corrupt ex-warlords currently occupy them...

This is just more evidence of the impracticality of heels in Kabul -

Very grainy picture, taken from the car:

I'm always surprised by the number of young guys just hanging around on weekdays. The unemployment rate must be insanely high, but I don't know the official rate.

Carpets!!

2011-02-25T03:32:00.000-08:00

Today is a BIG day for me in Kabul because I just bought my first carpet! It's about 3'x5' and made of a silk-wool blend. The silk was dyed with saffron for the orange coloring. It was $400, which seemed really expensive to me, but I have no idea how much it would cost elsewhere. Regardless, it's my birthday present to myself :)

Also, here is a picture of the old section of Kabul taken from my car. It's a terrible picture, but it's interesting to see some of the old buildings from the early 20th century. The buildings are built along the Kabul River, which is practically dammed up with trash.

Bird's eye view of Kabul

2011-02-11T03:01:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few more pictures from the past week or so in Kabul. I've been really busy, since we work six days a week and only get Fridays off, but I've still managed to get out every few days.

View from the car, somewhere in downtown Kabul:

I went to a memorial service for a member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, who was recently killed. Lots of press coverage.

A few days ago we were allowed to go up to the rooftop of an Embassy apartment building to take pictures, since it had just snowed and the air was really clear. Beautiful views of the mountains and the city below.

This is the tomb of Mohammad Nadir Shah, who ruled Afghanistan from 1929 until his assassination in 1933. Also my camera lens was apparently dirty.

I think that's a picture of Massoud on the billboard, but I'm not sure.

This is the view from the other side of the Embassy. I think this picture is looking west, and the previous picture is east, but not quite sure. Regardless, we're surrounded by mountains. I have no idea who is portrayed on the sign.

The city.

U.S. helicopter, flying over houses built on the hillside.

Me, on the roof, with Kabul behind.

Calligraphy and Unpasteurized Milk

2011-01-31T08:56:00.000-08:00

I went out around town today on a field trip. Actually, it was "site visits" of U.S. grantees, but it felt like the most amazing field trip ever. Much better than the Dallas science museum.

This picture was taken out the window of a moving car, so I have no idea what this building is. However, you can see that there are mountains surrounding Kabul in every direction you look, which is one of the reasons that the pollution is so bad. Also, this picture makes the city look almost desolate, but you can't see the raging chaos of the traffic around us.

All of the donkey-drawn carts remind me of Shenyang! Maybe one of my career goals should be to always live in a place where I can drink tea and buy products off the back of a mule.

Burka sighting!! I don't wear a scarf inside the embassy compound, but when I'm out around town I've been bringing a pashmina and wearing it if I feel like it's appropriate.

More typical buildings in the city...

Lots of houses are built up on the hills around the city, apparently because the population is growing like crazy. Lots of people are moving to Kabul from other parts of the country and coming back from Iran/Pakistan, due to the relative security of Kabul. Also, these 'cabs' have gmail accounts written on their sides!

Girls practicing calligraphy with the help of a U.S. grant!

All of the girls in the front, boys in the back :)

Some of the artwork was on display. I wanted to steal it all! Amazingly beautiful.

At another site, women and girls were learning how to care for cows and sell the byproducts at the local markets.

You can barely see the mountains in the background. U.S. helicopters flew overhead at one point during the visit.

The female veterinarian teaching the participants:

Don't get the pashminas dirty!

My camera ran out of memory, so I had to switch to the iphone. Here's a picture of another veterinarian:

At the end of the visit, they gave us some hot milk with sugar and cardamom, homemade yogurt, sweet bread, and cookies. I was slightly nervous, but it was really delicious. So far, so good...fingers crossed.

So yeah, I spent the afternoon drinking warm milk out of porcelain teacups and eating cookies. Living the fabulous life in Kabul.

Eikenville

2011-01-27T22:59:00.000-08:00

Fridays are our one day off here in Kabul, so I'm about to go to the bazaar that is run at the ISAF base (ISAF = International Security Assistance Force, i.e. our military coalition force). Before I go, here are a few images from outside my hooch:

The world-famous Duck and Cover bar, established 1387 (or 2008, in Gregorian calendar years).

The HPC in the KBL

2011-01-27T10:56:00.000-08:00

You may have heard (although who are we kidding, you probably didn't) that President Karzai established a High Peace Council to engage with the Taliban (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11188294). The HPC is relatively new and has mixed reviews, but I was still pretty excited to meet with the women members of the HPC a few days ago at the Prime Minister's Palace.
No, there is no Prime Minister in Afghanistan, but yes, there is a Prime Minister's Palace. It's a giant building covered in white marble, and apparently the plumbing on the fountain is broken.

The ladies of the HPC, drinking Mountain Dew:

Another cool (or not so cool) issue that came up: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/world/asia/01afghan.html

And some scenes from driving around the city:

Hello, I live in Kabul

2011-01-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

I am now an official resident of trailer #ND-107, which simultaneously makes me sound like a prisoner and trailer trash. Regardless, it's very cozy and I'm just happy to be here after a looooong journey to Kabul. I took the 10:20pm flight from DC to Dubai on Monday night, which was delayed due to ice/snow. I had been on the waitlist for *months* to get upgraded, but sadly it did not happen. This the view from my economy plus seat of the de-icing process:

Thirteen hours later, I was in Dubai!! The airport is very new and shiny, with an "Arabian nights" theme happening. I arrived at 8:30pm on Tuesday night, and then I got on the 3:30 am flight to Kabul.

Two and a half hours later, I was in Kabul! The Kabul airport is...not so shiny and new. I was picked up at the airport by embassy drivers in armored cars, who drove me the 10 minute drive to the embassy compound.

I had to wait around in the parking lot of the airport for the other embassy employees that were being picked up, so I took a few pictures of the scenery, i.e. the barbed wire and the sad, lonely luggage cart.

After arriving in Kabul at 6:50am, I immediately went to the office and worked until 6:00pm. It was rough, but ultimately good for getting over jetlag. I wandered over to my hooch in a haze at 6:00pm and didn't wake up until 5:00am the next morning. I was told that I was lucky to receive my 'own' hooch right away, as apparently people had been sharing hooches for several weeks when they first arrived, due to housing shortages.

This is the view from the door, looking in on the bed and bathroom:

And this is the view looking back out towards the door, which is obscured by the GIANT full-sized refrigerator, which I will hopefully get removed soon. The hooch is actually pretty cozy, and not much smaller than my freshman year dorm, which I had to share with a roommate. I think I might even ship my elliptical, so I can work out every day.

Also, the bathroom is not bad at all:

This is the view of the outside of the hooch facility that is right next to mine. I'm on the first floor, which is nice. Also, cats and sandbags are ubiquitous.

There are 2 main dining facilities (or DFACs - seriously, does everything deserve its own acronym??? Why can we not just call them dining halls? Is that not cool enough for the military personnel? I mean, if the place has a TV that shows "The Bachelorette" every morning and maintains a large collection of board games, including Scrabble and Apples to Apples, I really do not believe that it deserves to be called the DFAC. Let's just keep that extra syllable in there.) But I digress. Another odd fact about the dining halls is that they do not feel the need to have ketchup and mustard at every table, but have replaced them with TWO different kinds of hot sauce.

And one final picture of the embassy compound is below. When I saw the sign I immediately checked my AK-47 and removed my Us Weekly from my backpack.

Alfajores

2011-01-11T21:18:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday (January 5th) I flew to San Francisco to visit friends from high school and college. Lael and Aniva from Gtown and Genesee and Kathleen from Texas were all around to hang out before I depart for my year in Afghanistan.

Lael and Genesee at the cable car museum:

Amazing brunch of croque madame, bloody mary's, and oysters at Foreign Cinema:

Lael, Genesee, and Aniva, post-brunch dessert at the mini-cupcake shop in the Mission:

Kathleen refutes urban legend by demonstrating that it is possible to eat an entire spoonful of cinnamon at once. This is yet another popular tourist attraction of San Francisco.

EPIC game of catchphrase.

Late Friday night party at a Pac Heights mansion with Kath's friends (Kath, VJ, and me):

On Saturday night we went to Allan's birthday party on Valencia in the Mission. Berlin-style ping pong = new fave party game.

Allan seeks dance inspiration from above at Beauty Bar:

Sunday morning at Sutro Baths (L-R: me, Genesee, Lael, Rachel, Aniva):

Lael, Allan, and the Pacific:

Reflections in the baths:

Henry pulls of shearling like a pro.

On our last night there we had amazing alfajores and enchiladas at a restaurant whose name I can't remember. I also at the alfajore too quickly to take a picture of it, but luckily Allan took a picture to commemorate post-alfajore bliss.

You're Welcome

2011-01-03T21:41:00.000-08:00

More here: http://www.youtube.com/user/crnaviofficial

Visa humor

2011-01-03T20:18:00.000-08:00

I just finished my month-long training in DC for my next assignment, which means that I'm back home in Texas and not taking many pictures. However, while in DC I came across the Algerian visa services office, which is just a few blocks from my temporary apartment in Dupont and occupies a tiny office in the bottom of an apartment complex. Most people wouldn't look twice at it, but I found it totally hilarious that this entire country's visa services for the U.S. can be run out of a one-room shop, whereas our visa services for China occupy giant buildings and service thousands of people a day.

There's probably just one guy sitting behind a desk in that office, hoping he might get one or two visa applicants this week:

Whereas Consulate Shenyang's daily visa applicant pool is more akin to this:

On my last day in Shenyang, I ran my stats in the NIV system and found that over the course of 21 months I had interviewed 22,150 people, refusing 40 percent. Taking into account vacations, holidays, rotations, etc, that averages to about 70 interviews a day for 21 months.

After I arrived back in the States, after two days at home in Texas, I went straight into training for my next post - Kabul, Afghanistan, where I will thankfully NOT be adjudicating visas. Training was super short - just one month - which I like, since I hate going to FSI (Foreign Service Institute) for training. There is zero public transportation to FSI (in northern VA), the cafeteria food is not good, and I don't like the feeling of being in limbo between assignments. I did the minimum amount of training for an assignment in Afghanistan, which consists of a 1-week Afghan familiarization course, a 1-week counter-terrorism course, and a 2-week political/economic tradecraft course (required for all first-time political/economic officers). I didn't get any Dari language training, but hopefully I can learn some while in Kabul.

After I finished with my training, I flew back to Texas for my month-long mandatory home leave (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/85089.pdf). So now I'm chilling at home, taking some online FSI courses to prepare for my job in Kabul, and seeing friends.

More North Korea

2010-12-26T11:42:00.000-08:00

In light of the recent craziness emanating from the hermit kingdom, I decided to post more pictures and videos showing a lighter - albeit equally choreographed - side of North Korea. I took so many pictures during my August 8th trip to Dandong that I couldn't post all of them, so here are a few more that didn't make the cut for the initial blog post. In case you're hazy on the geography (mom), this map shows Liaoning Province, which is where both Shenyang and Dandong are located:

You can see Shenyang on this map (the red dot in the middle of the yellow Liaoning province), and Dandong (the white dot on the border of the yellow Liaoning and North Korea, right by the Yellow Sea). It's about a 3-hour drive to Dandong from Shenyang.

As I mentioned in the original post, Emily, Tiffany, Baron, and I visited Dandong on a Sunday and ate lunch at a DPRK-government run hotel. As per usual, the North Korean female employees put on a show for the Chinese audience. I had heard various rumors of mistreatment of these girls, but I couldn't find anything published online, so I have no idea whether that's true. I'd be curious to know more about them, since there are so many similar North Korean government-run hotels with song and dance shows across northeast China. And of course, every show is ridiculously over-the-top. Sequins and electric guitars, the main exports driving the North Korean economy.

Traditional Korean cold noodle soup served at lunch:

View of North Korea from our boat on a small tributary of the Yalu River. It's not always dark, cold, and gloomy!

Chinese countryside, seen from the Great Wall:

At the base of the wall, we found this amazing Chinglish sign. The English at the bottom of the sign is difficult to make out, but it reads "Thousand years ancient well, Te Great Wall historic relic, The tiger mountain is fabulous."

Several years ago Chinese archeologists discovered that the Great Wall terminated at the Tiger mountain in Dandong, which meant that the Great Wall is actually much longer than previously thought (http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/3021584-great-wall-of-china-extra-miles-discovered/content/31716926-great-wall-of-china-). I was pretty excited to visit the Tiger Mountain section of the Great Wall, because it would mean that I had visited the easternmost and westernmost outposts. Here are some pictures from 2005, when I visited Jiayuguan, the westernmost end of the wall (which I apparently climbed in flipflops?!).

A Few More Chengdu...

2010-12-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

In March 2010 I spent two weeks in Chengdu, and I took a ton of pictures. I realized that I forgot to put some of them on my blog, so here they are!

Brandon and Beth came out for the first weekend, and we visited Dufu's Cottage. This is a roller skating class that was taking place in the park next to the cottage. So cute! Love the pants.

I biked over to the Green Ram Temple after work one day. It was pretty cool, and there was a surprisingly large number of people actually praying there, not just tourists.

Napping temple employees...

Brandon, Beth, and I also went to a Tibetan restaurant for lunch. It was kind of blah. Lots of yak meat and potatoes and bread.

The tea in Chengdu was amazing, though. This was just green tea, but the leaves were tied together in a ball that opened up with hot water.

Favorite Foods and Peeps

2010-11-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

Ms. Chong, Beth, and Xinjiang baijiu: all of which are too strong for most Chinese men to handle.

Delicious Uyghur food and beer!

Beth and Will, immediately after our cab driver told us that Beth, the 老大姐, is much more of a man than Will, who appears to anger very easily. He was clearly correct on all counts.

South Beauty comes to Shenyang!! http://en.southbeautygroup.com/index.html
Delicious 松鼠鱼，squirrel fish, which is deep-fried and covered sweet sauce.

Last Few Days in Shenyang...

2010-11-18T16:14:00.000-08:00

So, even though I'm in DC now, I still have a bunch of pics from Shenyang. Here are the first of the bunch:

Consular section going-away lunch at my favorite hot pot restaurant:

While walking to the consulate on my last day of work, I took a picture of an early morning poker game:

Three common Shenyang sights all in one picture: outdoor sofas, dirty cabbage, and a bike repair stand.

This nice deaf man fixed my bike tire, which was slightly flat. One hour after this picture was taken, the tire was completely flat. Jerk.

China or U.S.?

2010-11-14T05:11:00.001-08:00

U.S.: somewhere above Virginia, on my way to DC.

Shenyang, on my way to work.

Texas, right by my house.

Shenyang, bird's eye view from the 16th floor.

Texas, field of corn in my neighborhood.

Shenyang, cabbage out to dry.

中美关系越来越密切！Face of America: getting faced

2010-11-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

Before I left China, the chief of consular affairs for Liaoning Province, Mr. Zhao Hongbin, took us all out to dinner to say goodbye. Mr. Zhao, of course, famously 能喝酒, so he started the dinner with water glasses full to the brim with 白酒， which is 80-120 proof or 40-60% alcohol. Vodka, by contrast, is only 35-50%. Making good local government contacts in northeastern China requires eating lots of sea cucumbers and drinking lots of baijiu. Beth and I obviously can drink them under the table, so they love going out with us. This time, Beth tried to claim that she had a toothache (true) and I claimed pregnany (false). Mr. Zhao claimed drinking would help solve both problems.

Me with the translator Raymond, who is the only 东北外办who watches more TMZ than I:

Brandon reluctantly toasting with Mr. Zhao:

Beth, gearing up for a night out with Zhao:

LOVE the color coordination happening here.

In the words of Mr. Zhao, 喝白酒是必须必的！

You know you’ve spent too much time in Shenyang when:

2010-10-30T02:08:00.000-07:00

1. When your Pride and Prejudice and Zombies costumes, i.e. tacky dresses, hollow eyes, and pale skin, could have doubled as “typical winter day in Shenyang” costumes:

2. Small Chinese children are no longer scared of the foreign devils:

(Jina, of course, fears nothing and no one)

3. Personal freedom and basic liberties are no longer appealing:

4. You’ll eat any kind of meat: donkey, bug, dog, Beth

5. After seeing the dirt patio of the restaurant covered in grimy cabbage, you immediately order a cabbage dish without thinking twice:

6. You willingly and freely pay for baijiu on tap as a social activity

7. Upon our entrance, the Filipino band at the only Irish bar in town immediately hands the microphone to us, knowing that before the night is over at least one of us will lead the crowd in a rousing rendition of Bad Romance

8. The single life skill that you've learned in 18 months is the art of cupcaking:

I used the strawberry frosting recipe from http://cupcakeblog.com/?p=194 plus the chocolate cake recipe from http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2005/08/announcing_wbw13_like_wine_for_chocolate.php

Delish!

Ambassador and Mrs. Huntsman in Shenyang

2010-10-24T05:56:00.000-07:00

Changbaishan Weekend

2010-10-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

For Columbus Day weekend, Beth, Dannielle, and I took an overnight train to Changbaishan, the mountain on the border between China and North Korea in Jilin Province. It's actually a dormant volcano with a crater lake on top.

View of the train station as the train leaves Shenyang:

The Chinglish signage in Changbaishan was spectacular. This sign isn't even Chinglish, but the hilarity remains. Seriously, what message is being conveyed? The paper being passed under the table reads "secret documents." Perhaps there's a hidden moral.

The icy ride up the mountain over switchbacks was death-defying, but the view was worth it.

That's North Korea on the other side:

Beth, photobombing:

Adorbs.

We ran into this family in Shenyang, then we all recognized each other in Changbaishan! They were also the cutest ayi and shushu from Dalian.

According to North Korean state media, Kim Jung-il was born here, and I can see why. If I had a government-run media apparatus at my fingertips, I might just perpetuate that myth as well.

After we left the crater lake, we visited the sulphur hot springs and waterfall -

On Sunday morning, we visited the underground forest, which is actually just a rock formation in a valley. Luckily, there was no signage to prevent us from climbing!

I'm going to miss Chinglish when I leave.

Beth and Dannielle walked out on the rickety overlook above the underground forest, while I took pictures from solid ground.

This is my FAVORITE picture of the trip:

The Chinese version reads "...or you will be responsible for the consequences."

What is happening here? Why are small frogs being strung out to dry? Do I even want to know? No. let's just move on to the next picture.

Outside the park gates, Changbaishan is seriously desolate and depressing. The only nice building in the whole town was our hotel, the Landscape Lanjing Hotel, which was amazing. I highly recommend it! (this is not a picture of the hotel...)

We got a little giddy in our search for Snickers bars and coke.

City donkey sighting!

Close to the train station, there were lots of these huge wood and wire structures for the logging companies. I think they're some kind of rigging system to get the logs onto the train cars, but I'm not sure.

Our train back to Shenyang was seriously pre-Mao era. I don't think these pictures capture just how depressingly time-warping the train was. This car is the hard sleepers, in which people sleep in triple-layer bunks.

This was the cheapest car, the hard sleeper. People slept here for the duration of the 13-hour train ride. We had a soft sleeper car, which meant that we could close the door to our own small compartment and watch Glee until my laptop died. :)

Dan in China

2010-09-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

My older brother Dan came to China a couple of weeks ago (9/13-9/17) to visit me. Instead of taking him to Shenyang, which I thought might be a bit too intense for his first trip to Asia, I met him in Shanghai. From there, we flew to Guilin and then Yangshuo. We only spent one night in Guilin, since I had heard that it wasn't nearly as nice as Yangshuo. It was a fine city, but it was really just a jumping-off point. However, it had some great food. Here's the restaurant where we ate our only meal in Guilin:

We sat outside and ate the local speciality, beer fish. It was pretty good, but very bony.

From Guilin, we took a 5-hour ferry ride to Yanghsuo down the Li River. The scenery was great, with lots of the famous karst mountains, which you can see on the back of the 20 RMB note:

The bro and I:

Fisherman on the bank of the Li River:

Yanghshuo was a really fun town. It was definitely touristy and accustomed to catering to foreigners, which was not necessarily a bad thing. One of the local shop owners told me that people from other provinces actually come to Yangshou in part to see Westerners. There were also way more options for Western food than in Shenyang, so I made Dan eat burgers for at least a couple meals. I think he was relieved.

After we arrived in Yangshuo on Tuesday, I booked a cooking class for the evening. Before we started cooking, the teacher/chef took us all on a tour of the local market:

Part of the tour included - for those interested - a trip to the far side of the market, where the live animals are butchered. Guess what animal is hanging on the hook...

Yup, that's dog. I actually saw the live dogs in cages, as well as a whole carcass, but I thought that those pictures might be too disturbing. The experience was a little unsettling, but not as depressing as I had imagined. The dogs all looked exactly alike, some kind of anonymous mutt-like breed that was a far cry from a Labrador or golden retriever. Also, as Dan mentioned, not a single one barked. It was weird, but I could also imagine being completely okay with the idea, if I had grown up in a different culture.

More mundane: chickens and ducks!

On Wednesday, we rented bikes and rode out to the countrside around Yangshuo. This is the doorway of a typical house we passed by. Most houses had peanuts drying out on the ground.

More karst mountains:

On Thursdsay, we took a bus to Ping An, which is a small town in the Longji Rice Terraces, about 3 hours outside Yangshuo. The population was overwhelmingly elderly, which probably is indicative of the area's failure to provide competitive employment opportunities. My impression was that the rice terraces would probably have been abandoned several years ago, had they not been sustained by tourism, but who knows.

Several older residents, who were very pleased by the picture when I showed it to them:

The local speciality was rice or meat cooked in bamboo. Neither the rice nor the chicken was particularly delicious, but the whole fish in the background was great:

A resident of Ping An, washing clothes:

Another elderly resident, selling souvenirs:

We hiked for several hours on Thursday and tried to reach another village but got completely lost and ended up reaching a tiny settlement of several houses. This woman thought our predicament was hilarious, but she was very helpful. She was walking outside with her grandson:

Lots of houses had chilis drying outside, which I hadn't expected. I bought some tea leaves from this woman on the hike back to Ping An:

A view of the rice terraces, with Ping An village below:

Just before sunset:

We came upon a more-established lookout point, with a less spectacular view than the pictures above, but which was nevertheless packed with lots of amatuer photographers, who probably came from Beijing and Shanghai. I love that this photographer is taking a picture of a local minority woman drinking an orange soda.

The next morning I got up early with a fellow traveler and we went to watch the sunrise and take some pictures:

We had planned to do more hiking on Friday and fly out to Beijing on Saturday, but I think Dan was ready to head back to civilization. So, we left early Friday morning and were at the Forbidden City by the afternoon:

This photo was taken on the balcony of the south gate of the Forbidden City, overlooking Tiananmen Square. We are just above the portrait of Mao. I liked this couple, because they were clearly visiting from the provinces, and their whole family is with them to document their first trip to the capital:

For lunch, we went to the Noodle Bar at the 1949 Hidden City, which is a new development in the Sanlitun area. It's a great hand-pulled noodle restaurant that only seats about 10 people. All of the chefs are from Lanzhou, which is famous for hand-pulled noodles. They make the noodles to order, right in front of you:

Piping hot noodles on a cold, rainy Beijing day:

Delicious :) We went back to the 1949 Hidden City for dinner, but we went to a more upscale restaurant for Beijing duck, called Duck de Chine. It was amazing, but too nice to take pictures of all of the food!

Of course, we had to visit the pearl market, where Dan bought enough pearls to bathe in.

There were also signs all over city urging people to cooperate with the upcoming national census, which is the first one since 2000. This one was located in an expat area, so it was in English and Chinese. The full text reads "Actively support the population census and cooperate fully to reconcile household and population records." Who knows what the number will be??

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

2010-09-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

The Mid-Autumn Festival, or 中秋节, was celebrated today all over China. The traditional gift that is given for the festival is the mooncake, or the 月饼。According to Wikipedia, the mooncakes were first tied to the festival in the 14th century, when a secret message was hidden inside them and distributed among the Han Chinese to spread the word about a revolt against Mongol rule. This early form of espionage was probably the first and last time anyone ever got excited about receiving a mooncake. They are about the size and weight of a hockey puck, and are equally as edible:

The traditional filling is lotus paste, usually paired with a salted duck egg:

There have been several news articles lately about how young people are opting for more unconventional fillings, such as jelly or ice cream, due to the high fat content of traditional fillings, but I personally kind of suspect it's because jelly is just so much better than a salted duck egg. Even just in conversations with coworkers, it seems as though the mooncake is a traditional gift that's more tolerated than enjoyed, like a fruitcake.

Starbucks is trying to get in on this trend by creating its own version of the mooncake. I tried the hazelnut flavor (below left) and the green tea and black sesame paste flavor (below right).

The flavors were tolerable, but the whole cake is just too thick and heavy. I mean, why eat a black sesame bean paste cake when you can eat a cupcake? :)

Beaches, cupcakes and Chinglish: these are a few of my favorite things

2010-09-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures taken over the course of the past several months that somehow didn't make it into other posts.

Beth and I made a trip down to Hong Kong for the 4th of July, which was SUCH a good life choice. I dragged her to the beach, and she dragged me to Disneyworld. We have a mutual adoration of HK's movie theaters, so we saw a movie per day during our trip.

I think we went to Shek O Beach, but I'm not sure of the name. We just took the public bus to Stanley Market and got off when we saw sand.

South China Sea!

Hong Kong is like New York City, if it were located in the tropics, with white sand beaches just a $1, 20-minute public bus ride away.

Also, just a short MTR-ride away is Shenzhen, which has some awesome Chinglish. I cannot figure out how to make this stupid picture rotate, so please enjoy it at an angle.

About a month later, when we all visited Shanghai, we saw this amazing warning sign in the airport. I'm so glad I left my halberd and fruit knife at home.

Okay, these next pictures have no relation to China, except as they relate to my tireless efforts to bring baked goods to a heretofore untapped market. For a consular/guard barbeque, I made vanilla cupcakes with purple frosting, dusted with edible gold dust. Recipe was from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. I bought the edible gold dust online and shipped it to China, which means that my utilization of the diplomatic pouch is wholly limited to edible glitter and Us Weekly.

For Scott's birthday, I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, also using recipes from Magnolia Bakery. According to Us Weekly, which is my lifeline to the people and culture that I represent abroad, bacon is making its long-overdue comeback.

Like the supermodels of the early 1980s, bacon is back with a vengeance, permeating facets of our culture that were previously verboten. The nexus of this revival and the genius of Magnolia was fully realized in chocolate bacon cupcakes.

They were just so-so. The smokiness of the bacon was a good accompaniment to the sugary chocolate frosting, but the texture was just too weird. More successful was my attempt to create seasalt, caramel, and chocolate cupcakes. I inserted caramel sauce into the cupcake after baking, and then drizzled more over the frosting, finally adding a light dusting of seasalt. Heavenly. and now I'm hungry.

Grecian Vacation!

2010-09-03T23:41:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't update for almost a month because I've been in Greece! Normally, officers in Shenyang are eligible for 2 R&Rs, which means that the State Department will pay for an airplane ticket, almost anywhere in the world, twice per tour. You have to pay for lodging and meals, and you use up annual leave to go, but it's still a good deal. I had already used up my first R&R to go home, so I planned a 2nd R&R to Greece. However, since I'm leaving 4 months early to go to Kabul, I don't qualify for a 2nd R&R. Of course, I discovered this after the flights and hotels were already booked, so I just decided to go anyway. Totally worth it!

This is me, my college roommate Aniva, and Lauren, who is Aniva's friend from high school:

Aniva, hanging out in Athens:

Lauren, climbing to the Acropolis:

Wooooooooooooooo !!!!

Chillin on the Acropolis:

We spent 2 days in Athens and then took a ferry to Santorini, which was gorgeous. The next few pictures are of Oia, Santorini.

We rented ATVs, which were really convenient for traveling around the island, but also super scary to drive.

This is Red Beach, on the south side of the island. Really amazing.

After 3 days in Santorini, we took a ferry to Paros, which is also incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures there, since all we did was lie on the beach :)

Final picture of Greece is appropriately my favorite meal, souvlaki and tzatziki.

A Song and Dance in Dandong

2010-08-12T06:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, the summer interns and I took a 2-hour road trip to Dandong, the largest city on the Chinese - North Korean border. The main tourist attractions are all related to the Korean War, so our first stop was the broken bridge over the Yalu River.

Me, with some kind of weaponry of unclear origin:

Tiff, me and Em, posing as brave Communist footsoldiers. It got a laugh from the crowd.

One the west side of the river, China:

And on the east, North Korea:

In most cities in Northeast China you can find several North Korean government-owned restaurants, which serve Korean food and put on song-and-dance shows. The food is so-so, kind of a mix of Chinese and Korean, but the show is ridiculous. This video is tiny, but it's an all-female North Korean rock band in sequined suits, with several girls dancing around in traditional hanboks:

The grand finale was an "audience participation" number, so of course we allowed them to drag Baron onstage. Also, all audience participants wore Mardi Gras masks, and the North Korean dancers wore bunny ears. Photographic evidence:

Poor Baron :)

After lunch, we tried to go on a tour of the Yalu, but the flooding had created too much silt, so the usual tour was closed. however, we found another boat farther upstream that would be able to give us a short tour. It wasn't directly across from the North Korean city of Sinuiju, so the landscape was less interesting.

However, in the picture below, which is of North Korea, you can see the fence that was constructed to keep out border crossers, and you can also see the roof of a North Korean army lookout post -

Tiffany and Emily, with China and the Great Wall behind them. No, the Great Wall is not in the background of every picture of China, but there does happen to be section of the Great Wall in Dandong.

More North Korea:

Our boat driver, who had some really interesting stories, but we only caught about every 5th word, due to the thick accent.

View of Dandong countryside, from the Great Wall:

After climbing the Great Wall, we stopped by the Museum Commemorating the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. Yes, this museum actually exists, and that is the official name. It's built on a hill overlooking Dandong. From this picture, you can see the Yalu River through the buildings. The low, mint-green building is in North Korea.

The museum was helpful enough to provide English translations of its anti-American propaganda. I especially love how they place the United Nations in quotations.

Thank goodness we did away with the pro-American worship with our fear-mongering!

The final display in the museum:

Liu Jing's Wedding

2010-08-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

The wedding of the summer! Our lovely local employee Liu Jing got hitched on July 18th at the local Wan Xing Hotel. It was quite the event, with over 500 guests, easily, plus 3 dress changes, 1 smoke machine, 10 rowdy Americans, and glass after glass of baijiu liquor.

Here's Scott, Starbucks in hand, scoping out the venue prior to the ceremony:

Prior to the ceremony, we were laughing about the staff's insistence on practicing the simple task of carrying the trays to the tables. That is, until one of the guys veered left when he should have veered right. I guess some people really do need the practice.

The entire ceremony was videotaped with a boom. Seriously. If I were Chinese, I might just elope!

Of course, any wedding in China would not be complete without Coke, Sprite, baijiu, watermelon seeds, and cigarettes. But not every wedding has a blurry Sternberg!

Consular ladies! Wangbo, Jina, Fengying, Yang Yang, Xiao Cai, Ms. Chong, and Liu Chang:

Awwww, miss you guys!!! Scott and Yuri:

Beth, with Chinese Beth:

Liu Jing with her husband on stage:

Next, the parents of the bride and groom gave speeches on stage, in front of a photo montage of the families. It was really impressive to see just how much their lives have changed.

After the moving speeches by the parents of the couple, we bust out with a choreographed dance number to Chris Brown's "Forever." Yes, this actually happened.

We got most of the consular section staff to participate, so we had 12 people in total. Brandon, Beth, and I spent several days together choreographing the dance and teaching it to the rest of the section.

Scott, digging deep, back to his roots freestylin on the streets of Miami:

The dance incorporated glowsticks, but you can't really see them in this picture. It was fairly epic.

Cheese!!

Liu Jing's father came over to thank us for coming. Here he is, looking like he's about to launch into some serious pontification:

Liu Jing's mother, toasting (L-R) Dannielle, Emily, Brandon, and Beth:

Bride and MOTB:

The bride and groom make the rounds after short ceremony, toasting the guests and thanking them for coming. Guests are given a small favor, and men get cigarettes as well. Also, it only looks like she doesn't have a hand because the picture is blurred. I'm still trying to figure out how to take good pictures of people without using a flash, which I hate.

Brandon, with the bride in dress #3. Gorgeous!

Yuri, a happy blur :)

Delicious food! We filled up on meatballs, fish, fried rice, red bean paste, and lots of other dishes.

Clearing away the tables as the guests depart. The entire affair was extremely short by Western standards, lasting less than two hours from start to finish.

Pollution

2010-07-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

View from my apartment last Saturday:

and this Saturday:

Dongbei comes to Shanghai

2010-07-24T02:54:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago (July 9-11) I flew to Shanghai with a few friends from Shenyang to meet up with other friends who work at our Shanghai consulate. Shanghai is only a two-hour flight away, so it's an easy weekend trip, even if it's always too short!

On Friday night, we got in fairly late but still managed to grab enchiladas and lots of frozen margaritas (plus tequila shots) at Cantina Agave (review: http://blog.friday-nite.com/?p=979). The food was delicious, but I might be biased, due to my Tex-Mex deprivation in Shenyang. I'm also always super excited to experience outdoor seating with lots of other expats, so that was another plus. We finished the night at Shelter, which is a cool underground club, converted from a bomb shelter. Kind of a dive bar, but perfect for a late Friday night, post-Tex-Mex.
http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/listings/nightlife/nightclub/has/the-shelter/

On Saturday, after a rough start, we all met up at Azul, right down the block from the U.S. consulate building in the French Concession. Really solid brunch - eggs benedict and a bloody mary. http://www.shanghai-eats.com/portal/285_0/Azul.aspx

Afterwards, we wandered through Taikang Lu, which is a new-ish art district located in an old Shanghai neighborhood. It has lots of boutique shops and art galleries, as well as lots of small restaurants. I almost bought some art, but we didn't have time. There's always next time! http://www.taikanglu.com/

Later, Ruth, Emily, and I visited the fabric market, where I got a few things made. They can make clothes in as few as 2-3 days, but since I was leaving so soon, they just mailed everything to me. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/expat/josephinemcdermott/10135676/a-good-yarn/

After the fabric market, we went to a happy hour at Cotton's (http://www.cottons-shanghai.com/), which is located in an old French Concession villa and has a really chill outdoor bar area. The happy hour was for Johns Hopkins SAIS alumni - which I'm not - but luckily there were a lot of other interlopers as well.

For dinner on Saturday night, we had Shanghainese food at Amao on Fumin Lu and Julu Lu. It was pretty good, but the menu had some outrageous Chinglish, which I really didn't expect to see in Shanghai.

"Chongqin style blood with other stuff"

Man-made shrimp?

And the coup de grace: "drunk stuff." YES.

Before we went out, we took a few pictures on the Bund. Most were too blurry, since I took them with the iPhone, but here's one of me, with Emily:

Clearly we had an awesome night because I forgot to take any pictures. We started with sangria at Glamour Bar, overlooking the Bund. http://www.m-theglamourbar.com/ It has a great atmosphere, an amazing view, and delicious drinks, but it was just way too loud where we were sitting. We quickly left for M1nt, which is where we spent the rest of the night dancing to a really awesome DJ and checking out the shark tank. Seriously, there's a shark tank.
http://www.m1ntglobal.com/club-shanghai

Dancing was followed by a very late brunch at Kabb in Xintiandi (http://www.xintiandi.com/english/index_e.asp). This might've been my fave meal of the weekend, made even more delicious by the do-it-yourself-bloody mary.

Emily's banana walnut French toast clearly trounced my breakfast burrito.

I'll have more pictures of real people as soon as I can pry them from the cameras of others :)

Rainbow Pancakes and Ziplines

2010-07-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

Once a month, Consular sections around the world take a day off from regular duties like visa interviews and spend the day conducting teambuilding and training exercises. Or at least, they're supposed to. Bigger consular sections like Beijing and Guangzhou craft detailed training plans with 30+ slide powerpoints. We just decided to have a pancake breakfast and visit a park.

Behold, rainbow pancakes!

We spent hours crafting perfectly round, mini rainbow pancakes for Scott's son Yuri. Well, it was more like 30 minutes, but there was lots of craftsmanship involved. Yuri was probably the least impressed of all the attendees. Here's Yuri with his ayi:

After the pancake breakfast, we visited the Horticulture Expo gardens, about a 45 minute-drive away. We thought it would just be a large park, but little did we know there was a giant ropes course over water!

Me, on the zipline:

Wangbo, Liu Jing, Cai, Brandon, and Natacha crossing the swinging bridge:

The whole obstacle course was rusty and clearly not well-maintained, but it was a lot of fun. In the U.S., this kind of park probably would have been shut down years ago over safety concerns.

Tiffany tries out the zipline:

Wangbo tries hard not to fall into the stagnant water:

I also ended up breaking my #1 rule in China: never ride on a roller coaster.

I probably shouldn't have broken that rule, because it gave me a splitting headache.

And below, a candid shot of Scott, our fearless leader:

The park is a really nice getaway, especially because Shenyang is completely devoid of greenspace and trees. We saw a lot of spindly windmills, some of which were in operation. I seriously doubt that they were actually producing any kind of usable energy though.

Tiffany and Beth, basking in their triumphant win of the stuffed pig -

Bs unite! Me (Bridget), Beth, Barry, Brandon, and Wangbo:

And finally, the whole group:

We'll miss you, Scott!!!

Trip to the 9/18 Museum

2010-06-30T05:12:00.000-07:00

On June 16, 2010 China celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival. Although this festival is much more popular in southern China, it is a national holiday, and therefore we got the day off work. I decided to take a bike ride up to the 9-18 Museum in the northern part of Shenyang. This museum commemorates the Mukden Incident of September 18, 1931, which sparked the full-scale Japanese invasion of Northeast China.

First, a few street scenes from the ride to the museum:

Waltzing at the park:

Several men were playing the traditional erhu string instrument and singing, while a crowd listened:

The museum was on the northern outskirts of the city and took over an hour to reach by bicycle:

The large monument at the entrance of the 9-18 Museum:

Even though the actual incident was relatively minor, the museum provided an interesting glimpse into the Northeastern Chinese viewpoint on their history with Japan. Or perhaps I should say the Northeastern Chinese ^government^ viewpoint.

The Japanese germ warfare campaign in China:

This sign is a bit difficult to read, but salient text reads "How did Japanese imperialists dare to wield knives to China? All these pictures here are telling a true story. Why did some people turn a blind eye to it? Some even distorted history. The weak are doomed to be beaten. How did we become weak?"

Of course, the final sign reiterates the main message that the museum is trying to convey. It was all a little over-the-top, which is a shame. Focusing on the real atrocities is difficult when every other sign is reminding visitors to always be on guard against the Japanese.

And finally, the gift shop, which has various toy weaponry for sale. You can also purchase a completely un-ironic "great leader" series biography of Eisenhower, Stalin, Churchill, or Hitler.

On the way home, I passed by the semi-famous coin shaped building, one of Shenyang's many attractions. No one has any idea what's inside it, however.

An abandoned building on the north side of town:

And right across the street, a gleaming, new court building -

Typical neighborhood street by the Consulate

A neighborhood scene on a Sunday afternoon:

Apparently a school nearby was having some kind of celebration, but I didn't read the banners, so I'm not quite sure.

how ridiculous would it be if...

2010-06-18T03:42:00.000-07:00

After the North Korea-Brazil match, I was joking that North Korea would probably broadcast the game as a victory to the home audience.

And then I saw this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR46IzYP7MA&feature=player_embedded

Thank you, dear leader, for always rising to the occasion.
xoxo

A few neighborhood pictures

2010-06-16T04:18:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few pictures I took while walking to/from the Consulate with my iphone.

A typical neighborhood street, a few blocks from the Consulate:

Awesome detailing on a random parked car: "to punish and enslave!"

I had never noticed the fabulous Chinglish on this sign outside of our hotel pool until last week.
Clearly I was missing out!

Expo Fever!

2010-06-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial Day weekend I took a short vacation to Shanghai to visit friends and see the expo. By coincidence, the day that I planned to visit the Expo was the first day of "Liaoning Week," so we were able to get VIP passes to some of the pavilions and attend the opening ceremony of Liaoning Week. FYI- Liaoning is the province in which I live, and Shenyang is the capital city. Apparently, every province in China has a week devoted to it throughout the duration of the Expo.

Unfortunately, our host decided to bring us to the Expo at 7:00am on Saturday morning, 2 hours before it opened. At the very least, walking around the Expo grounds without the crush of the crowds was nice.

Brandon and I in front of the China Pavilion:

Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao had their own pavilions adjacent to the China pavilion. The Taiwan pavilion featured a large globe (see below). Apparently visitors could go inside the globe and view a 360 degree movie screen, kind of like in X-Men.

Shanghai recruited the cutest ayis to work the grounds!

The Israeli pavilion on the left...right next to the Pakistani pavilion.

It was difficult to take pictures inside the China pavilion since we were escorted through with a large group of Liaoning government officials. Plus, in all honesty, there weren't many 'picture-worthy' displays inside, with the exception of this cutie with a Friendly:

After we toured the China pavilion, we attended the opening ceremony of Liaoning week on the main stage, which featured lots of Beijing Opera, patriotic ballads, ballet dancers, and monotonous speeches. Luckily, the Liaoning theater troupe was there to welcome us to the ceremony!

Our incoming chief of the Consulate attended the ceremony as well, so I informed him that impromptu theater productions such as this were a common occurrence on the way to the office.

Ladies welcoming us to the ceremony:

About half of the audience was in uniform.

The next day, our hosts took us out to dinner. Our guide at the Expo was from Shenyang and had been working so hard at the Expo that she hadn't yet been able to see the tourist sites around Shanghai, so we first took her to Yu Yuan Gardens:

On the way to the Gardens, I noticed this sign for a small convenience store:

Priceless!

On the way back to the airport, I decided to take the Maglev train instead of a taxi, even though a taxi probably would've been faster. The Maglev train will get you to the airport in 8 minutes, but it takes almost an hour by subway to get to the Maglev train station. Anyway, it was well worth the time, and I was able to take a short video of the view from the train.

LiXi's Wedding: Friday, May 21st

2010-05-31T07:37:00.000-07:00

I knew it was going to be a good day when I found this new English-language school on the way to work. Talenty English, talenty education, indeed.

Around 3:00pm, one of our local employees sent around an email to the American officers, inviting us to her wedding. Of course I had no plans, so Beth and I joined some of our local section employees.

Dongmei, Jina, and Beth:

Fengying, Ms. Chong, and me:

The ceremony took place in a restaurant, which was really nice.

Our Consul-General toasted the happy couple, with help from another employee, as he had lost his voice:

After the ceremony, the CG - still unable to speak - began pouring the baijiu, much to Beth's enjoyment.

An hour and a half later, a bottle of baijiu later, and 6 Qingdaos later...

The next picture is of Mr. Xu and I seeing how low we can go with the baijiu toasting. The picture is blurry because...so were we. Also, baijiu is a clear grain alcohol with a higher proof than vodka - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baijiu. When you toast in China, you try to "clink" your glass at a lower angle than the person's whom you are toasting, to show respect. Hence our contest.

Beth demonstrating to Liu Chang the meaning of the "drunk dial." Of course she was dialing her fave driver / future boyfriend Ma Jun.

Late in the night, the bride and groom came around to every table, joined by their parents, to toast the guests and thank them for coming.

Congratulations, Lixi!!!

A smattering in and out of Shenyang

2010-05-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

March 24-25: best fraud conference EVER in Shanghai! At Glamour Bar on the Bund, with a few other officers:

A recent fraud site visit in Shenyang, two rent-a-cops. (the company turned out to be real):

May 1st (International Labor Day holiday), spent in Hong Kong with Brandon. Brandon's friend Freeman had done some research ahead of the visit, and found a cheap, hole in the wall dim sum restaurant that was opened a few years ago by the former chef at the Four Seasons. It didn't take reservations, and the wait was over 3 hours. It was also completely worth it. It was the best dim sum I've ever had, and it all cost about $6. Here are two articles about the restaurant:

http://kolomkita.detik.com/baca/artikel/12/1179/_dim_sum_in_michelins_cheapest_restaurant_

and

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2231&Itemid=39

I highly recommend it.

Yu Chen and Freeman, after stuffing themselves with sui mai and cha shao bao:

Brandon and I have never been happier :)

Two weeks ago, my dad came to Beijing for business, so we spent the weekend together going around Beijing. He was especially excited to see the Kung Fu panda in Sanlitun:

Rickshaw driver trying to blend in, in the Russian quarter:

Right outside the Westin hotel:

Haggling at the dirt market:

And finally, on a typical night out in shenyang, I find another reason why the Chinese will take over the world. Genius.

Rabbit Tongue and other delicacies

2010-05-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

Although my prior post implies that I ate nothing but chimichangas and tacos while in Chengdu, I actually did sample a lot of the local Sichuan food. One of the best restaurants I went to was just around the corner from the consulate, and its speciality was rabbit.

This is one of the spicy peppercorn side dishes, and I can't remember the main ingredients. I think it was vegetarian.

Here are two rabbits that we ate for lunch. Really spicy and super delicious.

Can you spot the eye socket and the jawbone?

The inside of the cheek is apparently a delicacy, and it was very tender. The tongue was also very delicious, but it took a minute to work up the courage to eat it.

This is a totally separate meal, from my weekend trip to Jiuzhaigou. Lamb skewers and harbin beer. perfection.

A view of the river in Chengdu from a teahouse. You can see why I never wanted to leave.

And one final picture taken from my iphone. This is the drive back to the airport from Jiuzhaigou. I think that part of my negative impression of Jiuzhaigou derived from the amount of snow on the ground. I had just left Shenyang, where it snowed for seven consecutive months, and I didn't want to see any. more. snow.

Pandamonium!

2010-04-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

More pictures from my stint in Chengdu. Beth and I spent a day at the panda refuge outside town. It was pretty awesome.

nomnomnomnomnom

The red panda. Less famous, but equally cute.

We also spent 1,000 RMB each to take our pictures with pandas. I thought we'd get to hold a baby, but it was more like sitting next to an adolescent. Still worth it.

Candid conversation shot.

Family portrait.

This panda/child combo was way cuter. I'm also a little jealous that the kid didn't need to wear any protective clothing. Ageism? Racism? I say both.

The panda was clearly more interested in his apples than us, which was totally fine with me. No one tells you about the panda-claws and panda-fangs before the close-up. Also, his name is Huan Huan, like 欢迎. After we took pictures, I told Beth "欢迎你来到我的心" and she threw up a little in her mouth.

Tropic Thunder!

Chinglish in Sichuan

2010-04-11T06:04:00.000-07:00

One of the (only) great aspects of being a first-tour consular officer is the ability to do a consular exchange. A consular exchange is basically an agreement between two embassies or consulates to swap consular officers for a short period, usually two weeks. One consular officer from consulate A will go to consulate B for two weeks, and one consular officer from consulate B will go to consulate A. They live in each other's apartments and do each other's jobs. It's a testament to how interchangeable we are, unfortunately, but it's a great opportunity to see another consulate or embassy, and of course, be a tourist.

It's very difficult to find officers from other Posts who are willing to do an exchange with consular officers in Shenyang because, well, it's Shenyang, but luckily I found someone from Chengdu who got suckered into doing an exchange. While he trudged through the snow every day for two weeks, I ate delicious Sichuan food and enjoyed the 70-degree weather.

For the first weekend of the exchange, my friends Brandon and Beth, who are also consular officers in Shenyang, came to Chengdu with me to see the sights. On Saturday, we went to Dufu's Thatched Cottage, which was a really nice garden oasis in the middle of the city.

Brandon made friends with one of the men who was writing characters on the sidwalk and impressed the crowd with his character-writing skills.

There were a few goldfish ponds in the park outside the cottage, which meant that there were ample opportunities for some fabulous Chinglish.

Please do not feed the fishes with your private.

Fall into water carefully.

Later that night, we went to an amazing restaurant called Peter's Tex-Mex. It was the best tex-mex I've eaten outside of Texas, literally, and probably better than some tex-mex restaurants in Texas as well. We were so excited that, after a few mango margaritas, we took pictures with the staff. They loved us.

We even took pictures of the food. It was literally that good. They also do brunch, so when I left Chengdu two weeks later, I took cinnamon rolls and chimichangas back to Shenyang on the plane for Brandon and Beth. Well done, Peter, well done.

endangered siberian tigers die in shenyang zoo

2010-03-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

The gist: Eleven endangered Siberian tigers died in a Shenyang zoo after being fed nothing but chicken bones for the past three months. Two other starving tigers were shot and killed after they attacked a zoo employee. Some zoos may be deliberately breeding more tigers than they can care for, in order to sell the carcasses on the black market, where they will fetch a high price as ingredients in traditional medicine.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g1Y6c77AQ_cFOmsVdiFr_Uh4Qm4gD9EEBB6O0
We've all commented on the terrible conditions in Chinese zoos and even speculated about the black market ties, and unfortunately I can't say that I'm totally surprised that this has happened. The lack of oversight and mistreatment of the animals is indicative of a greater problem that, as far as I can tell, seems to be growing - the inability of the growing middle class to manage wealth. From my own limited experiences, it seem like people are getting far richer far more quickly than they ever were in the past, and no one - not the government or the average citizen - knows what to do with the newfound wealth. This can manifest itself in innocuous ways, like flashing name brands or being herded around on "vacations" that shuttle tourists from photo op to photo op because one believes that someone with money and some leisure time should go on "vacation."

However, an inability to manage wealth can also manifest itself in much more dangerous ways, such as the glut of luxury cars being driven by people who have never taken a driving course, or the increasing number of newly-rich entrepreneurs who choose to save their money because they have no idea how to invest it. The deaths of the tigers are another example: the economic situation of the citizens of Shenyang was likely mirrored in their city government, which is a part-owner. The government followed the examples set by other developed countries and wagered that families with disposable incomes would enjoy visiting a zoo, so they built one - without any idea how to care for the endangered animals housed therein or any clue as to how to manage such a large-scale operation. The zoo subsequently went broke, and the owners resorted to killing the animals to get a loan.

This kind of inability to manage wealth, combined with a lack of government oversight and codification of standards, has created a number of other disasters: some have already occurred, like the devastation the earthquake wrought on the poorly-designed high-rise apartment and office buildings in Sichuan, and some are still looming, like the environmental degradation caused by giant factories that churn out billions of yuan worth of products but lack any kind of real oversight. It's difficult to see when and how any of this will change, especially because any real oversight is impossible when local governments - like the city government that is a part-owner of the zoo - have no power to make radical policy changes without first vetting the changes through the Party machine.

24 hrs in Jiuzhaigou

2010-03-14T01:31:00.000-08:00

From March 5th through the 21st, I'll be working at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan in SW China through an exchange I set up with my colleague: he's working in Shenyang for two weeks, and I'm working in Chengdu. I definitely think I got the better end of the deal, but I'm just glad he agreed to trade places! Chengdu is great, and I'll put up some pictures from last weekend later. However, I want to post the pictures I took this weekend while the experience is still fresh in my mind.

On Saturday morning, I visited JiuZhaiGou National Park, which is a 45-minute flight north of Chengdu. You can learn more about it here: http://www.jiuzhai.com/language/english/index.html.

I arrived at the park around 2:00pm on Saturday, and the scenery was beautiful:

However, on the whole it was very frustrating and stressful, and, just like many experiences in China, very mixed.

As soon as I arrived, I was told that the entire 10k stretch of hiking paths I wanted to explore was closed until April 1st. Fine. I boarded the shuttle bus inside the park, and told them I wanted to go to the farthest point that was open. The bus drove me and other tourists about 10-15 minutes inside the park, and then allowed everyone to disembark.

I'm assuming I was the only tourist who wanted to go farther, because at this point I was told to hop in a park maintenance crew pickup truck - a little odd, but still, fine. The driver drove farther in for about 5 minutes and stopped beside a lake. I got out, relieved, and started to walk back in the direction from which we had driven, hoping to find a path and hike back to the entrance. The driver immediately insisted that I get back in the truck and 'offered' to drive me back to the next point-of-interest. At first I thought he had misunderstood me, but I quickly realized that walking was not an option. After he drove me to the next sight, I insisted on walking along the path. He reluctantly agreed, but he sat in the truck watching me as I took pictures and walked along the trail. When the trail emerged from the woods 15 minutes later, he was there, waiting.

I was forced to walk along the road most of the day, since 90% of the trails were closed. Every 5 minutes a minibus would stop and insist I get on, not understanding that I preferred to walk. Finally, towards the end of the day, the pickup truck found me again, and this time another man in a full suit was riding shotgun. I had seen him staring at me at other sights along the road, and he was clearly there alone. He insisted I get in the truck and ride with them to the entrance, claiming that there were no more buses that afternoon, even though the park wouldn't close for another 3 hours. I got the feeling he had been told to keep tabs on me while I was visiting the park. I'm not sure why; maybe it was because I was an American diplomat in a mainly-Tibetan region, or maybe because the next day would be the 2-year anniversary of the Tibetan riots. Maybe it was some combination of the two factors, but regardless, it definitely made me eager to leave Jiuzhaigou. I absolutely love working China, but I think that, as a US government employee, sometimes I see a side of the local government that many other foreigners don't see, and it can make one a little cynical.

This is my self-portrait, with sore feet from the asphalt hike:

The next few pictures feature the beautiful scenery that I barely was able to enjoy.

After I left the park, I visited the 'tourist' area just 10 minutes down the road. It was fairly empty, but I found some outdoor food stalls and wandered around. I also ate the freshest lamb skewers I've ever had.

Some of the people at the consulate told me about a homestay program, through which you can spend the night at the home of a traditional Tibetan family near the park entrance. It was super cheap (about $26) but the home was really, really primitive. I also had a huge headache from the altitude and couldn't eat all of the potatoes and yak meat they fed me. The family was really nice though, and it would probably be more fun when the weather is nicer, since the house has no heating.

Some of the children outside the house at dusk, with their grandfather:

Zhu Ke, my host, with his cute kid, Luosa, and his mother:

They were all very nice, and it was a really interesting experience...but next time I'm staying at the Sheraton!

These ladies walking along the road were some of the few young Tibetan women I saw. I found it really odd that there were tons of younger Tibetan men everywhere, but no women. Even the men at the house where I stayed were about 25-35 years old, with children, but no wives in sight. Maybe it's a cultural/religious thing.

This next picture is one of many billboards on the route between the airport and the national park. It is extremely difficult to read, since the language that is used is very formal and abbreviated, but I think it means "Visitors from the four corners of the earth gather in SongPan to reconstruct a safe and happy living environment for the Tibetan and Qiang boys and girls." (Fyi, Songpan is another tourist town outside Jiuzhaigou and the Qiang are another minority people).

Riiiiiiiiight. I *totally* believe that the Chinese government is encouraging tourism in Tibetan areas for the sole purpose of improving the lives of minority children. How altruistic and paternal.

AFGHANISTAN

2010-03-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

I've been posted to Shenyang, China for over one year now, which means that I've bid on my next assignment. The verdict is in: Kabul. I'm going to serve as a political officer, beginning January 2011, for one year. I'm extremely excited, since I really wanted to go to this region of the world, and I will have the opportunity to work on political issues, instead of the visa-related work that I'm currently doing.

This position was #6 on my list of 6 job opportunities that I bid on in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, but only because I will be forced to leave Shenyang 3 months early in order to begin this next assignment. As an aside, I only bid on those 6 positions because I really wanted to serve in those places, and I have heard from several sources that such positions are in high-demand. There was definitely nothing "directed" about this assignment.

When I typed "Afghanistan" into the google image search, the returns consisted of 8 maps, 8 pictures of U.S. soldiers, 1 flag, 1 market, 1 NatGeo image, and 3 burqa pictures. I feel like that will likely be an accurate representation of my experiences.

Only one question remains: what should I do about the blog name????

Last of Japan Pics

2010-03-10T07:10:00.000-08:00

So I've had tons of trouble uploading these last photos onto my blog. I have been using anchorfree.com for the past year, which is a free VPN service, i.e. it gives you a random U.S. IP address so you appear to be in the U.S. In this manner you can access any sites that are blocked in China, and you also can watch shows online that are only available in the U.S. (like Project Runway or HIMYM!) However, it recently stopped working so I've switched to a different service that is not free - surfbouncer.com. It's **MUCH** better, and totally worth the $70 annual fee.

Anyway, here are pics from my last day in Tokyo. After my mom and I left Shibuya crossing with my new camera (yay!), we got lunch at a random curry noodle restaurant, which was perfect.

We were pretty tired, so we just hung around until dinner, when we went to another tempura place that I had read about on chowhound.com, Tsunahachi. It had a great atmosphere, but wasn't nearly as delicious and delicate as the tempura we had in Kyoto.

They were clearly accustomed to catering to tourists (not necessarily a negative), since they had an entire English-language addition to the menu that explained how to eat tempura. I didn't realize that it was such a complicated process, but the chef really liked us and showed us which dishes to eat with which condiment (dipping sauce, pickled radish, or 1/3 kinds of salt).

The best part of the meal by far was dessert. We just asked for plain ice cream, and it showed up fried, with raspberry sauce! I wish that happened more often.

Perfect last meal in Japan :)

Tokyo and Kyoto

2010-03-02T05:16:00.000-08:00

On Thursday morning, my mom and I went to Akihabara, which is the giant electronics market in Tokyo. It's about 2-3 city blocks of giant buildings that resemble department stores, but all of them sell every kind of electronics imaginable. Also, the area is famous for its maid cafes, and there were a lot of girls on the street corners handing out flyers.

Plus, I bought a used Canon EOS 20d for $500!!

Afterwards, we walked around the Shibuya crossing, which is a huge intersection, kind of like Times Square. This guy was standing on top of a car and gesticulating wildly.

On Friday morning, we woke up early and took a 2 1/2 hour train to Kyoto. I had booked a bike tour of the city, which ended up being incredibly boring. Riding a bike was a great way to see the city, but all of the sights were pretty bland.

Luckily, we went to this awesome tempura restaurant for lunch. It was just us and one other couple sitting at the counter. I had heard that it was the best tempura restaurant in Kyoto, and it didn't disappoint (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=tempura+yoshikawa).

Afterwards, we visited the Kiyomizu Temple area, which is kind of a big touristy area in town, but it's nice to walk through and we found some good souvenirs.

Also, the place was crawling with geishas!

They were nice enough to let some other tourists take their picture, so I snuck in and got a picture as well.

Of course, this being Japan, everyone wanted to take their picture.

More lovely geishas!

Back at the train station, a familiar sight for my mom:

Touring around Tokyo

2010-02-26T20:50:00.001-08:00

As we were about to leave the snow monkey nature reserve, I saw what I thought was an employee driving a 4-wheeler with a monkey skin for a hat.

Upon closer inspection, I confirmed that he was indeed wearing a monkey on his head.

A few hours earlier, on the way to the monkey park, I had to run into the post office to get some cash from the ATM. We were in a hurry, but I had to take a picture of this. It's a wanted poster with cash rewards for the arrest of the people pictured.

Don't they all look like PhD students?

The next morning, Wednesday, we took a morning tour of Tokyo in a big tour bus. I wouldn't recommend it - driving around in a bus was fine, but the sights we saw were a little boring. First we went to the Meiji Shrine, which I think is the biggest in Tokyo. I thought it was going to be super-old, but it turns out it was built less than 100 years ago. I think after living in China, I have high expectations for any shrines/temples I'm visiting.

This is our cute guide with his fish pole in front of the entrance, about to have a confrontation with security, apparently.

There was also some kind of ceremony going on for the Shinto priests.

After the Meiji shrine we went to the garden of the Imperial palace. I didn't take any pictures, because it was pretty bleak in February. The rest of the Imperial palace is closed to visitors.

Our final stop was the Asakusa Shrine (pronounced asaksa). It was undergoing renovation, but there was a large shopping/souvenir street behind it.

We had some of these flaky pastries, which were just okay. I think both Japan and China are a little lacking in the pastry department.

I think they were shooting some kind of commercial on the street, which is why there was a random woman walking around with a tiger-head, followed by cameras.

After the morning tour, we went to the Tsukiji fish market, which is the huge fish market in downtown Tokyo.

We found a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant in the middle of the market, where we had lunch.

Fresh squid -SO good!

Grayish crab paste - not so good.

After lunch, we headed to Kappabashi street. It's a busy street with lots of little shops that sell restaurant supplies, and it's also the main distributor of the plastic food displays that are everywhere in Japan.

Snow Monkeys...yup, that's right

2010-02-23T04:18:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday morning, we took a 10-minute taxi ride to the nature reserve of Jigokudani Yaenkoen. This is what we saw:

It was awesome.

And, since we were in Japan, amateur photographers were not far away:

Fully satisfied with the day's outing.

Not to sound corny, but it was seriously a winter wonderland.

Hot Springs + Home-cooked Meals

2010-02-23T03:27:00.000-08:00

We arrived at Yudanaka around 3:00pm on Tuesday and checked into our hotel. It was a traditional Japanese-style inn, so the chairs didn't have legs and we slept on mats.

It was not a high point in the trip for my mom.

We explored the small town in the afternoon, and it seemed like the only people on the streets were on their way to and from bathhouses. The streets were lined with various public bathhouses, due to the fact that the town was built above sulphuric hot springs. Even the small streams running alongside the streets were steaming hot and smelled acidic.

Steam was pouring out of the bathhouses everywhere -

At the end of the main street was a large gate, which led to a temple and a graveyard. Someone was considerate enough to cover the statues in knitwear.

Me, next to the statues, with the graveyard in the background:

It snowed all day, and there was over a foot and a half of snow on the ground.

Also, our inn prepared dinner for us, but they didn't have anything to eat when we first arrived. We were starving, and all the shops except one were closed. At the single open shop, we bought Japanese cheese, ritz crackers, and Asahi. We ate and drank and watched the Olympics in Japanese until dinner.

I wish we hadn't eaten so much, because dinner was the most amazing Japanese food I've ever had in my life. It was a traditional meal with lots of courses. None of the food was what you would typically think of as Japanese (tempura, sushi, etc), but it was all delicious. I took pictures of every course, but I just added a few here.

This was our lovely hostess, who also probably cooked everything:

These were the appetizers. I kept the menu, because I knew that I'd want to post it on the blog, but unfortunately it got lost somewhere in transit.

This is the chicken and tofu that was simmering all through dinner. There's a small flame under the pot which helped to cook the chicken, and by the time it was ready, the broth was delicious.

Our lovely hostess again. I have no idea what she's doing with her hand. She was probably incensed that we drank more wine than tea and is flashing us a gang sign.

After dinner, I went to the hot springs that were in the hotel. They had both indoor and outdoor, private and public hot springs. I went to the private outdoor hot spring, which was glorious. There was a foot of snow on the ground, but I was soaking in a 100-degree, 100% natural hot tub. I coudn't get a good picture because it was so dark, but here's the link to the hotel's website: http://www.japanican.com/hotels/ShisetsuDetail.aspx?st=5131002

Japan!

2010-02-23T03:03:00.000-08:00

One of the great benefits of working for the government abroad is the ridiculous number of holidays. Not only do you get breaks on US holidays, but you also get to take off all the holidays of your host country. February 14th was Chinese New Years, and I was able to spend a whole week in Japan with my mom. There were SO many pictures, so I'm going to break it down by day.

We arrived in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon, but we didn't get into the hotel until after 7:00pm, since the bus from the airport to the hotel took 3 1/2 hours! We stayed in and ate in the hotel.

The next day, we woke up early and went to two flea markets and mass. The last time I was in Kyoto, I went to a great flea market outside a temple, so for this trip I found some temples in Tokyo that hold Sunday flea markets. At the second - and much bigger - flea market, a wedding party was taking pictures at the temple. Here are some of the girls in their wedding outfits:

The bride and groom in traditional wedding clothes:

The whole party:

The first shrine was the Hanazono shrine in Shinjuku, and the second was the Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine. That night, we had dinner at the NY Grill, which is located on the top floor of the Park Hyatt. The view was amazing, even if the food was outrageously expensive.

The next day we took a bullet train to Nagano, then transferred to a local train to Yudanaka. Yudanaka is famous for its hot springs and the monkeys who live in the nearby nature reserve. More about Yudanaka in the next entry, but first, look at who we ran into at the Tokyo train station:

Also, these super-cute ladies in bubblegum jumpsuits were everywhere:

Odds and Ends from the End of 09

2010-01-23T18:30:00.000-08:00

In the middle of December I visited Benxi, a town about an hour outside of Shenyang, for a fraud site visit. The owner of a wood flooring factory had applied for a visa to open a branch office in the U.S., so I had to visit the factory to make sure that there was no fraud in his application. Everything checked out, and I got to tour around the factory.

It was no more than ten degrees fahrenheit in the unheated warehouse and I had worn ballet flats. Bad life decision.

Here's a picture of a random street in Shenyang on Christmas day. I was on my way to church (the only Catholic church in the city), and it was snowing on and off.

A picture of the incongruous cathedral:

Typical Northeasterners:

Harbin Comes to Texas

2010-01-05T12:06:00.000-08:00

The city of Harbin, which is about a 1-hour flight north of Shenyang, is famous for its winter Ice Festival (http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/01/05/12351751.html), which showcases giant ice sculptures. The Gaylord Hotel chain sponsors the ice sculptors from this festival to go to the U.S. every year for a few months. About 100 sculptors travel to four different cities, and they set up mini ice exhibits in the Gaylord Hotels. One of the destinations was Grapevine, TX, which is about ten minutes from my house. While I was home for my R&R vacation, my mom and I went to the Gaylord to see the ice sculptures. We didn't know beforehand that it was Grinch-themed:

After we went through the exhibit, we found some of the sculptors in a backroom playing cards. Some of them remembered me because I had issued their visas to the U.S. They invited me to come see them in Harbin when I go back to China, and then we all posed for a picture together:

It was great for my mom to get a better idea of what I do, and to see me interact with people from Northeast China. Plus, I probably really scared them - maybe word will spread that the visa officers fly all the way to the U.S. to check up on you!

Oh Canada?

2009-12-16T07:33:00.000-08:00

I went to Daqing, Heilongjiang on Monday to visit a company to determine if it was real for the purpose of a visa application (it wasn't) and I saw this awesome road sign. Daqing sits on a giant oifield, so I guess they might have some kind of relationship with oil companies from Calgary.
Anyway, 卡尔加里 = Ka Er Jia Li, which kind of sounds like Calgary and is apparently the Chinese-ification of the city, which is not ridiculous at all.

A Family-style Thanksgiving (minus the family)

2009-12-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving dinner this year, the Intercontinental Hotel - where I live - prepared a dinner for all of the Americans at the Consulate. It was a really great meal, and afterwards we all played Apples to apples. :)

Mike here is mesmerized by Danielle's story, while Jon's fork is nothing but a blur.

Beth and Alan amused probably by something Mike said.

Delicious: turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, roast beef, stuffing, smoked salmon.

the demise of plate #2:

This is my awesome hot pink Christmas tree. I bought it and all the decorations and ornaments at the local wholesale market. I bought the tree and a trash bag-full of decorations for my entire apartment for about $60. There are little glittery Santas all over the tree, or as the Chinese call him, "the old man of Christmas."

After the ball...

2009-12-02T05:15:00.000-08:00

After the Marine Ball on November 21st, I flew from Beijing to Harbin on Sunday night. On Monday I went to the Harbin Institute of Technology and the Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation to talk about the visa process. I had some downtime in between the talks, so I visited the St. Sophia Cathedral, which was built in 1907.

Here's the link to a short description:

http://orthodoxwiki.org/St._Sophia_Cathedral_(Harbin,_China)

There was also a choir performing folk songs, but I have no idea what they were singing about.

I didn't take any pictures at the talks in Harbin, but the next day I did another talk at China Medical University back in Shenyang.

This picture is of me and Beth, another consular officer, while I'm doing the presentation.

Our captive audience. Mainly phd students and professors.

Marine Ball 2009

2009-11-29T08:05:00.001-08:00

On Saturday, November 21st I flew down to Beijing to go to the annual Marine Ball with some friends at the Embassy. It's a really fun party, and it was held in a ballroom at the China World Hotel. Before the ball started, we went to a friend's house for champagne and pictures. We all got corsages, so it was just like prom!

Me and Angela in front of the Christmas tree:

Blurry shot of the Marines:

We got a little bored during all the speeches -

Another Marine shot -

Finally, we start dancing!

I love this picture. I don't even know who this person is, but he's in a uniform and stealing the roses.

Feet are tired. Ready to go home.

Best part of the whole night: delivery McDonalds. YES.

Wintery Shenyang

2009-11-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

It's only November 24th, and it's already snowed three times this year! This is my desolate-looking flower market. I just went to the Marine Ball in Beijing this weekend, so I'll post pics soon.