"I was perfect..."

A Review of "Black Swan"



So, some time back, some friends of mine and I saw the movie "Hereafter." We were uttely dissapointed by the movie and though it was not possible, we all wished that somehow we could have regained those two hours of our time and the $6.75 that we had lost. This was not possible, though there was one good thing about it. One of the trailers showed a very dark twisted movie starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis called "Black Swan". It seemed to promanently feature ballet, which admittedly was not too much of a draw initially, but the trailer looked disturbing enough for me to get interested.

Fast forward to two days ago when I actually saw the movie with one of my friends. He was skeptical of seeing a movie that centered around ballerinas, but I assured him that the trailer looked weird enough for him to be interested. His interest piqued, we walked in.

"Black Swan" is a psychological thriller by Darren Aronofsky which was intially released to a limited number of locations but has since rolled out to almost a national release.

First up we meet our protagonist, Nina Sayer (played by Natlie Portman), who is a ballerina. Yes, Nina the ballerina. My memory may be failing me, but I could swear that there was some children's toy with the same name. Anyways, Nina the ballerina is a sweet girl and Portman plays her with such innocence at first. She lives in New York City with her mother (played quite well by Barbara Hershey) who is something of a soccer mom by way of Carrie White's mother sans religious craziness. Nina while she is by age a woman, is somewhat (read: quite) emotionally stunted- almost reminiscant of a dog rescued from an abusive home who winces in pain every time a person moves towards it. She dreams of perfection in her dance and is frustrated with her lack of progress in her dance company in spite of her having been with the group for awhile.

But, that must change. The flamboyant and lecherous head of the dance company, Thomas (Vincent Cassel) announces that they are doing "Swan Lake" in the upcoming season. For those unfamiliar with the story, the story is such that a princess falls in love with prince, but a sorceror turns her into a swan. Fortunately, true love can change the princess back into human form, but *unfortunately* the princesses evil twin, the black swan seduces the prince and as a result the white swan princess in mourning throws herself from the top of a cliff to her death. Yeah, when you have *this* kind of story that the movie revolves around, you know that the movie is not going to exactly be rainbows and puppies.

The lead role for which all of the ballerinas are eyeing is the dual role of the White Swan and the Black Swan- which makes sense as the characters are twins, though the parts are quite different. While the White Swan part is more technical skill, the Black Swan is much more sensual and letting onesself go. Foreshadowing and symbolism much?

Anyways, Nina auditions and it goes quite well until the very end, when a newcomer, Lily (Mila Kunis) walks through the studio door and throws off Nina's concentration. Distraught and with enough existing emotional baggage to rival soap opera characters, Nina begs Thomas for the part the following morning. Thomas explains that Nina was quite good at the White Swan part but lacked the inability to let herself go to truly become sensual enough for the Black Swan. In short, Nina's obsession with perfection inhibits her from letting herself go to actually achieve it, which is deliciously ironic and boarderline poetic.

In order to not spoil too much of the plot for anyone actually interested in seeing it, Nina gets the lead part and that's where the story really heats up. The stress of such a complicated role lumps an enormous amount of stress onto the poor woman's psyche and various other stressors such as her micromanaging mother (who is herself a failed ballerina) and the overt sexual advances (boardering on harrassment) from Thomas adds more fuel to the fire. Enter Lily (Kunis) who appears to be everything that Nina is not. Lily is chill, calm and willing to let her hair down whenever and is a near perfect foil to Nina. Unlike Nina, Lily is able to let herself go into the part and while she lacks all of the technical skill of Nina, Lily is a darn good dancer herself. So, naturally when Lily approaches Nina for mere friendship, one would assume that it would exactly what Nina needed to help her calm down. And of course, Lily would learn from Nina and they'd become great friends.

...but this is "Black Swan" we are talking about. That doesn't exactly happen and a rivalry quickly rises between Lily and Nina and the central conflict of the movie appears and drives Nina further into her insanity.

And poor Nina, her hallucinations are absolutely nightmare inducing at the least. One of her early stress induced hallucinations involves her pulling at a recalcitrant hangnail on her index finger and ripping off skin up to her knuckle. My jaw was on the floor. I should also make the point that I am rarely squeamish and hard to startle- I have dissected cats and have seen many a cadaver and are able to call many "scares" in a given horror movie. With that out of the way, there are a few scenes that left me disturbed after the movie that I won't spoil in this review, but if you see it- the hallucination in Nina's mother's art studio was particularly jarring. Holy crap.

Nina's descent into madness is almost hypnotizing to watch and Portman's portrayal of her is nothing short of amazing. Portman, who is twenty-nine years old, can transform herself from young adult to emotionally wrecked little girl in a way that is both compelling and authentic. She makes the viewer really care for her and this viewer personally wished at a few points he could jump into the projector screen and assure Nina that everything was going to be alright.

The supporting cast is also incredible. Mila Kunis portrays Lily as the sensual, world wise woman that Nina clearly is not and reminds me of Brad Pitt's performance as Tyler Durdan in "Fight Club" (another excellent movie). Thomas makes me want throttle him every time he is on camera and manipulates the naive Nina and Cassel does a fantastic job, as does Hershey as Nina's mother. Also of note, is Winona Ryder's performance as Beth, who was the former head ballerina who is forced into retirement by Thomas to make way for Nina. Beth is full of bitterness and regret (understandably due to a plot twist about an hour in) and makes the viewer wonder if Nina will turn into another Beth.

Anyone going into the movie should not expect it to be a happy one. It is dark, psychotic, sensual and visceral. Of particular note on the "sensual" nature is a sex scene that is graphic and easily offended people may wish to skip out (for reference, Kunis, who participates in the scene, publically forbid her father from watching the movie specifically for that), though the scene is symbolic and makes sense in context of the movie.

The only (and this is really nitpicky) issue that I have with the film is the ambigious resolution in the end. I have no problem with the ending (in fact, I believe that it was excellent) but there is a plot twist near the end that really makes the viewer question how exactly the story took place. Weasel words, I know, and that this lack of clarity may have been the point that the movie was gong for. However, I felt one or two explainations were due that were left ignored, though that could be me being too anal retentive. But that's not enough to detract from a solid movie.

If you want a particuarly interesting character study full of drama and psychological thrill, I invite you into the tale of Ms. Nina Sayers. It is a dark one, and full of pain, but it is one of the best written films of this year and if you are willing to delve into her psyche, you will not be underwhelmed.

9.2/10- Excellent

-Reven

PS- I will be away from the blog for the next few days. I am going to a Orthodox Christian retreat and hope to gain some level of comradery and spiritual enlightenment. Pray for me a sinner, please.

Back again...for good?

So, not having written in here for awhile, I think I owe anyone still reading this an explanation.

Basically school really amped up the difficulty when I returned for winter quarter- harder than I expected. Nothing impossible to be sure, but it was unexpected. On top of that, I really have not felt as though anything significant has happened in my life, mentally/physically/spiritually. So, I didn't have anywhere to start.

But now, I guess I came to a few conclusions and here they are:

First off, I think I realize why I have difficulty getting into the "Christmas spirit." Historically, I have difficulty with the saccharine sweet atmosphere that pervades from (currently) mid-November to December 25th. I strongly dislike the consumerism and the overplayed Christmas commercials and certain Christmas songs (think along the lines of "I wanna Hippopotamus for Christmas," "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth", "Blue Christmas," etc.). But...that isn't the real issue. Even after all of my venting to friends that this should be more of a religious holiday (as it well should be), I think I realized the bit of Christmas that both the secular and religious folk would agree on.

Getting out of ones mind and actually doing stuff.

Yeah, it wasn't until *after* I got away from my school (where I hang out with pretty much the same five or so people all the time usually in one of our rooms watching a movie or something) that I realized how great it is to actually get out of ones house/dorm room and do something. In the last week, I have hung out with ten or so different people and it was fantastic! Not just because it had been awhile since I had actually seen them (it had) but because I got out of my rut and actually did something for a change. Which is something I think both secular and religious Christmas would agree on- doing something different.

The second thing was that I realized I need to get back to writing. Not just on here, but back to the short stories I have been working on since freshman year (but mostly last year). I figured out that last year, I had basically written a decent short story every other week I had been in school. And if I actually want to do something with them, I should probably keep at it. Additionally, finishing a story gives me some kind of inner peace and relaxation that tells me "Hey, you actually did something. You made something new." I really video games and they are a wonderful stress relief, but they can't compare to that feeling. Food for though.

Lastly, and most importantly, I've been a bit...lackadaisical/apathetic/lost in my spiritual life. One of my friends has started up a Bible study among a few of us friends and some parts of it are...awkward to say a little. Kratos (my friend) talks about God speaking to him and...I have honestly never felt that feeling. Or at least not been cognizant of it. Truth to be told, my prayers at night feel like ritual but that it is a one way conversation with my not listening to what God wants. It's frustrating and I really don't know how to over come it. Kratos suggested reading the Bible and I said sure, and started at Genesis but found myself getting upset at various stories (don't even get me started on Lot's wives or Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac or Jacob's trickery being justification for stealing Esau's birthright). I mean, literal or figurative, I dislike some of the stories in the message that they convey. As a result, I get disheartened and close the book. Perhaps I'm not reading them correctly or don't have the correct mindset, but I have issues with those three stories. I admit, the problem is on my end and I need to work it out somehow.

How often I've had difficulty with these issues (and others), I really cannot say, but they need to be dealt with. My sister convinced me to go to a spiritual retreat this upcoming week and I can only hope that it will be able to help me.

But until then, for first time in awhile, I'm going to seriously meditate, pray and crack open that Bible. Hopefully, I will be able to sort some things out before the retreat and even moreso after. My fingers are crossed and morale is high. I will get through this.

To anyone reading this- Merry Chirstmas to you and yours! Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

-Reven

"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous..."

I may have been a bit sleep deprived last night. This revelation was brought on after going to sleep at 12:40am last night and waking up around 1:40pm today. I never (read: rarely) sleep in past 10, so I may have been a bit tired from exam week. Anyways, after waking up to an empty house (sister still being at school, my dad at work and my mom running errands) I staggered downstairs and collapsed once more in the supine position on the couch. Finding the remote, I found that I recorded an episode of Total Drama Island. Smiling, I leaned back and enjoyed.

When I first came across this show, roughly around this summer, I was discussing cartoons with my roommate and we had made the declaration that 90s cartoons were the best ever. This was undeniably true (in our minds). We had Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Beast Wars, Gargoyles among tens of others. And when we turned on the TV while studying, the newer shows often make us sigh in desperation and think of "better" times. So, one could imagine my derision when I saw in an online article that listed the best cartoons of this decade (so far). Wanting to justify my scorn, I found the first episode of TDI on youtube and started watching. Twenty-three minutes later- I was hooked and had one of my shoes firmly jammed in my mouth.


To explain, the concept of the show is that 22 teens (pictured above) are on this reality show called (you guessed it) Total Drama Island hosted by the jerkish host Chris McLean. It is a show within a show that openly lampoons the conventions of reality television while creating compelling drama of its own (sort of like what the movie Scream is to the slasher horror genre). Each of the characters is admittedly a stereotype- there is the goth girl, the juvenile delinquent, the nerd, the dumb blonde, the gentle giant, the party guy, the surfer girl, the queen bee among many others (though these are all played for laughs). However, in spite of each of the characters obviously being stereotypes, none are portrayed as the sole protagonist and all have flaws of some sort, which I find impressive. Obviously due to one character being voted off each episode, some characters end up better characterized than others, though there does not seem to be a bias for who should win upon the part of the writers. This being said, the viewer will root for whomever she or he wishes until the finale.

Now, the teens (pictured above)are competing on this island (as all reality shows must) for the chance at winning $100,000. They are divided into two teams and must compete in a series of challenges (some mental, the majority physical) in hopes to win. At the end of each episode, the losing team must vote off one of their members in a campfire ceremony where the member voted out boards the "boat of losers" and leaves the island.


Now, given that I am a college student, it is assumed that I should be watching South Park, Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Jersey Shore and House. I do enjoy SP and the odd episodes of House and ATHF (especially if I am especially sleep deprived) but I find myself turned off by the language and overall senseless vulgarity. This is not to say that TDI is not less than saintly- characters swear, vomit and one character (whom I cannot stand) frequently breaks wind. However, it isn't done in a way to turn me off- rather the characters all act quite human. Even though I cannot stand Owen (the aforementioned character), I still come back episode after episode.

It is not because I like reality television (which I cannot stand), but it is the incredible dialogue (my personal benchmark for shows I watch) that the genre savvy characters throw around that keeps me around. Take this line from the host (pictured below) as an example:

Chris: (to the audience) Hi. Sometimes teenagers just don't get along. So the producers thought what better than exploit it for ourselves! It's gonna be AWESOME!!

Yeah. That's pretty much the tone of the show. I would recommend it to anyone who can appreciate parodies of reality series, witty dialogue and dark humor. I'll return to more mature writings tomorrow- just needed to get back in the groove of writing every day.

-Reven

Anticipation and such

So, I came home from school today- first time in eleven weeks. It's been awhile.

From my college in western Ohio to the suburb of Cleveland where I live is roughly three or so hours according to Google maps. Since my roommate, Jack, lives around Cleveland, I drop him off at a location where our paths split and his parents take him the remaining half hour home.

This being said, our drive home consists of me driving and him passed out in my passenger seat due to having been awake for thirty or so hours studying for a given exam. His iPod earbuds are in and- while Jack is a great guy- his earbuds are of not the best quality. Even when he doesn't have the sound blasting, I can hear clear lyrics from his earbuds. Yes, maybe not the highest quality. But, I joke about it and he takes it in stride. In order not to wake him up, I kept my music off until I dropped him off.

And then, I smiled as I was around Cleveland and knew that I would be able to listen to my favorite radio channel. Now, I know it sounds silly, but I like to enjoy the little things in life and hearing 106.5 on the drive home just works for me. Turning the knob, I smile in anticipation as I expected to hear some rock or alternative song soothing my ears from the silent drive. I was...disappointed.
Christmas music began to fill my minivan- well, the parts of it that didn't have roughly fifty pounds of dirty laundry and other assorted objects I was taking him. It filled the car as I groaned in defeat. This couldn't be happening. It is November 18th. Over a month before Christmas.


As the blithe chorus of Feliz Navidad pounded against my head, I thought back to Halloween. One of my friends in my pharmacy class was hosting a party for her kids and needed some guys (read: me and my friends) to put on face paint, hide out in her backyard and scare her kids. Now, this was no difficult feat- children normally run screaming from me (ha ha), but finding face paint one day before Halloween was interesting as when I went into the Rite Aid across from my college- I really had to look for it. This was not because there was a lack of face paint- there were a few kits- but because all of the Halloween stuff was being cast aside for Christmas stuff. October 30th. Yikes.

I guess I have had a problem with Christmas- not so much the holiday itself, but the way that it is celebrated. For the purpose of this post, I think I am going to restrict my scope to the anticipation of Christmas, not so much the commercialization (at this point).


To be fair, I am Orthodox Christian, and the fasting for forty days before the Nativity that a number of faithful do is indeed anticipating the holiday. However, I draw the line at bombardment with Christmas ads and music. I mean, there are some Christmas songs that I like and some ads that aren't that bad, but I think the constant stream of them diminishes their value and by association- the holiday itself. Perhaps tomorrow I will go into some things I actually like about Christmas. To specify my terminology in future posts, Christmas is the secular holiday celebrated December 25th while the Nativity is the term I will use for the religious holiday celebrated December 25th.

Getting back to my original point, I think the fact that the celebration and anticipation for Christmas beginning so early really hurts the holiday itself. For one, how long could one stay excited for some event? How long could one sustain energy and fervor for a holiday? For me, maybe two weeks, depending on the holiday. But since the Christmas frenzy is starting in mid November, I may be burned out before December rears its head. I suppose I may have trouble getting excited for Christmas and the Nativity because I cannot focus solely on the holiday- moreso the tests and papers that will inevitably be assigned and stand between me and my journey home. I suppose I should feel more motivated for the Nativity, but it so difficult with so many early cares dragging one down. Hmm. Maybe I shall have to think on that some more.

Again, sorry for my delay in writing- it has been a hectic quarter and I need to ease myself back into the whole "writing every day" thing.

-Reven

There's always something...

So, today was an interesting day. Even though it is past 11 in the evening, I've only been awake since 1pm ish. I thought it wouldn't happen to me but summer insomnia hit me like a frying pan.

I returned to the place that I worked this past summer just to say "hi" to my boss (I didn't work this summer due to being in Korea) and I really didn't like my work environment. The people I mainly worked within the pharmacy (the techs, not the pharmacist) were very catty, vicious and unforgiving. The commute was over forty minutes one way and it was not in the nicest of neighborhoods.

Being a fledgling intern in such an environment is not entirely recommended. Though, I liked the pharmacists and the people other than the ones that worked in the pharmacy- mostly the cashiers, two of which near my age who were incredibly nice and the custodian/jack of all trades.

I guess, after visiting and having it go really well, especially with the cashiers, I realized that perhaps I'm not entirely forgettable. I mean, I thought that after it had been a year, people would just blow me off and ignore me but it was really cool as they seemed genuinely happy to see me. Goodness knows, it may continue into friendships after I leave there (whoops, did I just say that?).

Anyways, I guess the thing is that this happened on the heels of me attending church in my hometown for awhile and I have felt bitter about my home parish to the point where I was mentally ready not to come back during breaks. This was mostly due to flat out disagreeing with the priest on a few issues and not really feeling a solidarity with the place other than my family having gone there for a long time. But no sooner than I decide to leave then this guy who I really look up to (and am glad to call him friend) gave me an actual good-bye, as did a few other people whom I didn't entirely expect it from. The last of these people was the priest himself, who in the past has been quite impersonal to me, though he has turned over quite a new leaf in recent history. It...was just oddly reassuring.

Now, remember in the past that I really haven't had the best self image of myself and as such really discount the part I play in most social situations (here: church/work) and think of myself as mostly forgettable/fifth wheel/"that kid". Yeah, I know, not the healthiest, but it's what I was going with.

But to return after Korea and leave back to school, it made me realize that I may actually be recognized/noticed by people around me, if not necessarily consciously all the time. I know it sounds elementary, but when one is an introvert and has the uncanny (and unfortunate) ability to feel completely alone in a roomful of people and doubt that if he was not there nothing would be different, it's quite a revelation.

Reason why this is important is that it goes towards my life goal, which is taken from the words of Horace Mann, an educator: "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."

A tall order to be sure. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to accomplish it, but the current aim is to try to have a positive influence on others around me and hope that I finally will figure out what exactly this victory is. Though I have a somewhat nebulous view of what said victory is. In any event, realizing that I'm not just an invisible person and have some bearing on my environment (ok, I know it sounds elementary, but I'm rebuilding myself here...) is a step towards it. To quote from The Departed "I don't want to be a product of my environment- I want my environment to be a product of me."

Anyways, I'm leaving for college in a few days. I have some things I need to accomplish- getting crap out of storage, moving a mature CD into my checking account, give blood, figure out where I stand with a female friend who is leaving the country for six months...yeah. A few things here and there. Anyways, I'll get them done and then some. Updates will be more frequent- need to keep writing daily to keep my typing and writing skills up. Oh, also a shout out to the guy who got me to continue, SC- thanks, man. I really appreciate it.

-Reven

So, I lied...

Even though I said I'd stay away from the subject for awhile, due to personal circumstances and Katja Geist suggesting it (due to personal circumstances in her own life), the topic for the upcoming week (beginning on Tuesday) is going to be relationships. Yes...I lied. Please don't throw tomatoes at me....will write more tomorrow.

-Reven

Only Mostly Dead

So, here I am again. After four or so days of consideration, I've decided to keep this blog up and running indefinitely.

I guess there could be some degree of surprise as why I may be doing this-critics could honestly that I'm not studying abroad anymore, I'm not out of the United States and let's face it, my life is arguably not that interesting now that I've lost the previous two elements, so why read?

Excellent point, critics. And that's one I really don't have an answer for. I guess if you want to read the ramblings of some other incredibly fortunately white Midwestern American, there is a seemingly infinite supply of that in the blogsphere. However, I'll be trying to present mine with minimal angst and a frank analysis of how I view the world. I'll go into who I am, where I am going and what I want out of life.

No small task, and I don't blame any of you if you don't want to hang around. My views and thoughts may offend, but that is a part of life- just thought I should forewarn. Also, after looking back at a number of my earlier posts, I noted that I seem to be focused on the whole relationship/significant other bit and while that is important to me, it should not be the focus of this blog (as that is one of the three or so main sources of angst, in my opinion). If you have any topics you would like me to discuss, I would be quite willing to do so but if not, I'll just talk about whatever pops into my mind that day.

I do not have a more of a clear direction than that, but I expect that when I return to school in the fall, there will be a bit of a narrative about pharmacy school. But until then, I'll be a bit more amorphous and talking about random stuff. I'm thinking of doing week long discussions, but I have to plan those out before I actually go ahead with it. So...yeah. Hope you enjoy reading!

-Reven

Aftermath: The End of the Beginning

So, I haven't written on here for awhile and I guess I just assumed that all you know that I made it back to the US alright. Life is good- I'm currently job hunting for upcoming breaks and next summer. So, if anyone knows of a hospital looking for a pharmacy intern...:) Ahem, shameless self plug.

So, I guess you all deserve some kind of closure. The flight back from Korea went well and without incident, save for a slight delay causing Miranda and I to have to run through LAX and almost have to cling to the landing gear from LAX to CLE. It's funny, the almost twelve hour flight from Inchon to LA was not a problem, but that last hour of the flight from LAX to CLE was just killer. I was never more happy to be on US soil after that.

Since I knew Miranda didn't like coffee, as we got off the plane at CLE, I asked her if she wanted to grab a beer sometime. She didn't really understand what I was asking, and said she'd be at the Beagle (local bar) the first weekend for friends parties. So...yeah. Not entirely a rejection, but it wasn't what I was looking for.

To wrap thing up with her, I guess I'm going to give up on Miranda. She's intellegent (far more so than me), attractive and driven- three things that I find to be great things. However, she's a little too hot and cold for me- I get the impression that under her armor of snappy snarky comebacks, she's really quite insecure and mistrusting (almost as though she had once been abandoned which if I had to guess was as the result of a very bad breakup or some problem with religion). I can appreciate both of those things, but I don't want to waste my time to try to earn the trust of someone I am not even thirty percent sure that I will earn ever.

Now, I hear you all balking: "Reven! But isn't that the type of girl you are drawn to? The powerful, smart girl who acts tough but is quite vunerable underneath and has a soft loveable center?"


Ok, ok. Fine. That is true. I can think of at least five examples of this general archetype of character in various forms of media that I have enjoyed at least off the very top of my head. But I guess the difference is that the girls in the various forms of media...while I like them....are just that- forms of media.
They aren't real people and while they were willing to open up to their significant others (depending on the work), Miranda has yet to allude to that being a possibility and as such, I think I'm just going to let her be.

Yeah, it's not exactly what I wanted, but I guess I have to accept that. Besides, she wasn't entirely my ideal girl but that's not to say that I would not have been happy with her (had she...y'know opened up). This whole not relationship (which would probably be the best term for it) caused me to reevaluate how I think about relationships and my future in that field.

I find it ironic that in the past I have dated girls who are not what I want to end up with- non-Orthodox (one Mormon, one non-practicing Catholic and one in the process of deconverting Lutheran), psycological issues (the last two) and unmotivated. So what am I doing here? As I have mentioned in previous posts, there are a severe lack of Orthodox girls that I know of in my personal age range who I would want to be with, so just with that one factor, I've pretty much cleared the board.

But is that a negative thing, necessarily? Some people would call it picky- I call it efficiency. I guess I don't have a problem dating a non-Orthodox (as I have yet to date one) but it really wouldn't be my ideal as it may just end up causing problems down the road. So, do I settle or go for what I want?

Tentatively, I'm going to go with the latter as I really am not interested in anyone right now. Unless some random transfer student or freshman girl totally knocks my socks off, I really don't anticipate becoming attracted to anyone in my pharmacy classes, I don't anticipate forming any serious relationships, which as much as I would love to have one- just doesn't look to be in the cards. However, if you personally know of someone that you think would work out well for me, let me know and I'll take it under consideration- I have had some pretty crappy relationships dating who I think I'd work out with so maybe someone else could point out what I can't see.

I guess I've also learned while in Korea to stop looking for approval of other people. Yes, I mean, I do want to please my family and my friends and those are always good to keep in mind, but I don't need to bend over backwards to impress or fit in with my peers especially at my college. Screw 'em- I won't have to see most of them at the end of the new two or three years, so why bother?

The time is now to refocus on those things that are important to me: my degree, my family and my friends. Religion and I are having a tough time right now, mostly due to conflicting personalities between me and the two or so priests that I deal with over the course of the year. That and I struggle with some major issues like why God should care about us at all or why on earth no one prays for Lucifer/Satan (not to support his endeavors but that he will repent and come to the light, so to speak) and have yet to get any satisfying answers. However, these particular thorns in my side are not enough to make me leave the church and in time I think I will be able to figure out answers or accept that none exist.

But that's ok. Life is a journey, right? I can accept that.


I am not sure what will become of this blog now. I used it to document my trip, but now since I really don't have any new trip to go on, I don't know if people would be interested in reading my turgid soap-opera college life. Regardless, I may forage on ahead and write just to clear my mind every once in awhile or perhaps more often then that. Ambigious? I think so. But, it's something I'll just have to figure out later...not unlike faith stuff, dating stuff and general people stuff. It's a bit of a theme, no? Heh.

But, I guess I want to say thanks for reading for these last few months through the interesting times and not so interesting times, the blahhh posts and the exciting ones, the doldrums and the frightful times. So...thanks for reading/posting/commenting. If you have any questions, you know where to find me.

-Reven

Day 38- Loose Ends Tied Up

WARNING- I haven’t been dead for the past week and some change. I just didn’t have access to my blog in China (Repressed by the government. Curses!) so I’m transferring my blog posts from my journal to blogger and adding pictures. AS SUCH, in order to get a good grasp of the time line…GO TO DAY 31 FOR THE START OF CHINA OTHERWISE YOU WILL MISS OUT ON SOME PRETTY INTERESTING STUFF. Ahem. So there.

So, after yesterday's fiasco, I've been keeping my room in lock-down. Campbell moved in with me and it a pretty smooth transition. I kept with my normal group of five people: Campbell, Jim, Nancy, Libby and Miranda and we went around the city- first to this stop called Insadon, which is a place for tourists to buy stuff. I was able to find what I needed for my family and friends and move on.

After buying stuff we headed back to the dorms, dropped off the stuff and relaxed for awhile before heading out to Itaewon, which is basically like a Chinatown, except for all foreigners. If you are looking for Western stuff- go there- it is your place. We walked around for a few blocks and bought Taco Bell. The beef tasted different again and the food was a bit more expensive, but that was alright. Oh, and I saw the name of an orange soda type drink and couldn't resist taking a picture:



Here's the meal:

Yes, the hot sauce packets have little sayings on them too:


Our group split up when we returned to the subway station- Campbell/Jim/Nancy/Libby headed to Dongdaemoon (a place to buy more stuff of which I didn't need more) while Miranda wanted to head to EMart and I wanted just to rest and head back.

So, the four branched off in one direction while Miranda and I went off on the same track. As we were in the process of returning a Korean woman approached Miranda and speaking in English asked if Miranda knew what our society thought of sin. Miranda basically shrugged and passed the lady off to me, the latter asked me what I thought sin was.


I responded with the usual: pride, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, sloth, envy. The woman then asked me if I thought that society was saying these things were alright. Not sure what answer she was looking for, I merely asked her what she thought. She believed that society was saying that certain sins (didn't clarify which though) were being ok'd by society and that society is really off track. She then introduced herself as a Jehovah's Witness and handed me some pamphlets as I walked off the train with Miranda.

Raising my eyebrow, I offered Miranda the "Lowering Stress" pamphlet that the JW had given to me, to which Miranda just rolled her eyes and sighed. She said that she really couldn't stand those kind of people who try to force religion down other people's throats and not listen. I agreed that the situation sucks and recounted my tale of running into that Muslim guy a few days ago. She then said that she just can not stand Jehovah's Witness people. I asked her why that was.

"It's just...annoying. They force what they think at you and I don't need that. I believe in what I believe and I don't need anyone telling me otherwise."

She had a strange expression on her face, almost a hurt expression like this was something that impacted her greatly at one point in time. I suddenly felt this strange kinship with her but before I could ask her what she meant by that or what she believed in, our paths separated- me to the dorms and her to EMart. I will have to ask her later.

I can understand where she is coming from. I almost left the Orthodox and Christian Church this past school year over being badgered and being told what I thought was right is wrong and that was even by someone who believes in the same belief system as I do (in theory) and had the exact denomination as well. So...while I don't know what she believes (she has no religious views on facebook and I've never heard her talk of anything of the sort), I am very curious. This may be a conversation for the flight home.

Later on, Campbell and Jim came over and we played a traditional Korean game until 2 or so in the morning and realized that sleep would be an excellent idea. I'm going to miss the people here. Honestly, I am.

-Reven

Day 37- Return to Korea

WARNING- I haven’t been dead for the past week and some change. I just didn’t have access to my blog in China (Repressed by the government. Curses!) so I’m transferring my blog posts from my journal to blogger and adding pictures. AS SUCH, in order to get a good grasp of the time line…GO TO DAY 31 FOR THE START OF CHINA OTHERWISE YOU WILL MISS OUT ON SOME PRETTY INTERESTING STUFF. Ahem. So there.

So, no one was really heartbroken to leave China (in fact, most of us cheered when our plane touched down later on, much to the confusion of the natives) and I don't think Tony was especially sad to see us go. However, going was tricky. Though we had buses pretty much take us everywhere in Suzhou, such a concept of hiring a bus to take us to the airport was foreign.

So, we had to lug all of our suitcases and luggage onto the subway to take the subway to a bus to the airport. Remember how crowded I said the subways were in Shanghai? How there wasn't any room to breathe? Yeah. Exactly. This sucked. Eggs. And it was probably the low point of the trip. Thankfully we all got through ok.

The flight went smoothly, though we waited at customs for ages for one of Albert's and Campbell's suitcases. Finally they came out with a yellow lock on them. Confused, I added two and two together and remembered that Campbell and Albert bought a dagger and two swords (respectively) in China. So...they weren't allowed to take them out of the airport. The weapons have to be stored at Inchon airport until they leave...and the guys need to pay for the airport storing them.

Campbell cut his losses and sold Albert his dagger for W10,000. Though, it is funny. I don't think Albert will make it back into the US without incident- he's traveling alone with about five huge bags, one of which has two swords and also he is bringing back soju (Korean alcohol) and he's not 21. I can see this ending poorly, don't you?

Anyways, we made it back to the dorms in Korea and I opened my dorm room to find my roommate's side empty (he hadn't checked out before I left) as well as my side empty.

"Oh ****" I groaned. I had left some souvenirs, gifts for a few Korean people, a few books, and about five pounds of paper on the shelves. Oddly enough, the nice shoes and shirts that I had hidden under and above the bed were safe along with prescription drugs. So, the stuff that was missing wasn't that valuable (well...it could have been MUCH worse...I didn't leave my computer). So, I talked to my RA and he called my roommate and the story is that my roommate left on Monday, left my stuff in the room and the door unlocked. So, possibly someone just entered my room and took my crap.

But, an alternate theory was that the cleaning lady thought my stuff looked funny for a room that was supposed to be empty and stored my stuff elsewhere. I subscribed to this theory (until I found out the truth later on). The irony behind this was that Jim and Campbell were giving me some crap about me taking about 90% of my stuff with me to China (they left most of their stuff and their computers), claiming that I didn't feel safe leaving it.

Though I was fuming internally, I quickly transitioned to "It could have been much MUCH much worse." I ran into Jim and a few other people and they were surprised how well I had taken it. Miranda especially seemed impressed saying that most people would've been screaming and swearing their heads off in my situation.

I merely shrugged and said I wouldn't see the point in wasting the energy in something that was out of my hands. I was just at peace with it. I know it sounds really weird, but maybe a year ago, I would've flipped out, but not today. I just dealt with it and acknowledged that it could have easily been much worse. I am not certain if this was a sign of maturity or indifference or just surrender, but it certainly took a lot less energy than yelling about it.

I went out that night with Miranda, Jim, Libby, Campbell and Nancy and we had the house specialty at the local fried chicken and beer place. It was just so nice and relaxing. I had a bit of a epiphany that if I was in a situation with these five people a month ago, I would not have really wanted to deal with them in any way shape or form as I have a different major and personality than most of them.

However, there I was with them. I wondered if maybe when we got back to college if we'd all hang out again or if we'd just go back to our separate spheres and leave each other alone. I don't want that to happen. We aren't a John Hughes film. We are better than that, aren't we? We have Korea, a month together, to unite us. And sure, we are different but inside all of us there may be an introvert, a party animal, a jock, a princess, a country girl and an ice queen in all of us. Too cliche? I thought so. Anyways, I hope that we'll be able to hang out back at school and I have a good feeling that will be the case.

-Reven

Day 36- The Beginning of the End (of Asia)

WARNING- I haven’t been dead for the past week and some change. I just didn’t have access to my blog in China (Repressed by the government. Curses!) so I’m transferring my blog posts from my journal to blogger and adding pictures. AS SUCH, in order to get a good grasp of the time line…GO TO DAY 31 FOR THE START OF CHINA OTHERWISE YOU WILL MISS OUT ON SOME PRETTY INTERESTING STUFF. Ahem. So there.

After waking up in the morning after a night of little rest and still somewhat emotionally/mentally messed up after last night (for decent reason), I woke up around ten or so.

Campbell (who I was sharing a room with) woke up around when I did. It's funny. I never thought I'd like him very much, but his easy going, very chill nature complements my more rigid mindset and as a result has probably chilled me out mentally. We watched most of Coraline after I told him about what happened last night. He seemed quite surprised that such a thing happened, much less IN THE SAME BUILDING AS THE HOTEL. Yeah. So, there.

But Coraline wasn't that interesting, all things considered. The concept was intriguing but the story just didn't really flow very well until over halfway though and then the story bolted for the exit. The animation looked nice though. It was nice though to have some mental white noise for awhile (so to speak).

We were taken by Tony to this shopping center where we spent an obscene amount of time. The odd thing about this trip is that they took us to Western styles places. The mall was nice (6 floors!) but it had nothing that I wanted. It was mostly clothes that I didn't find interesting (all Western) or Sports equipment (which was admittedly cool- they had legit ping pong paddles from Japan and China- Campbell bought a few). Still, it was nice to walk around, I guess.

We then proceeded to walk around the city square type area around the streets of Shanghai. This was pretty cool and the skyline was interesting. However, Tony seemed uninterested or unwilling in actually taking us places. He proclaimed that he really didn't like the city and just wanted to be in the suburbs. He would point out cool places, but he wouldn't actually take us there. It was...annoying. But whatever. That's his prerogative. He's the fearless leader.

In jest, Mike brought up the events of last night and joked about it. At this point, I really hadn't mentally sorted it out, but it was beneficial for my sanity for someone to talk about it. He then joked further that I was able to haggle the lady down to Y20 ($3), to which I smiled and said in a light tone that I hadn't done anything- she lowered the price on her own. To which, Miranda (of all people) jokingly responded that maybe the lady that wanted the happy ending more than me, much to my honest laughter and everyone else around. I could have kissed her at that point. It just perfectly brought me out of my mental bind- I'm not sure if she realized it, but she honestly did.

Dinner was...interesting. We ate at another Chinese Banquet place and they served dishes one at a time. I had some interesting things...jelly fish being one of them. Jim, Campbell, Tony and Libby all had some of it sort of as a suicide pact by jellyfish.

Mine was alright. It tasted like chewing on bone- no real taste, just chewy membrane and just...eh. Campbell looked like he was going to vomit, Libby almost did and Tony pulled a nasty face. Tony started whining about the Chinese food saying that normal people don't eat unfried shrimp or duck or jellyfish or ox tongue, much to my personal amusement.

On a interesting note, Tony, Jim and I were arguing about one of the soups. Tony said it had Pork, while Jim and I claimed that it had chicken. We called the waiter over and he said that it was both, to be honest. Tony's head about exploded. Both of the girls from Turkey cannot eat pork (they are Muslim) and he ran over to their table. One of them ate it, unfortunately, but the other did not.

Tony and the managerial staff at the restaurant were flipping out while the girl herself just shrugged it off saying that it was alright as she did not know at the time that it was pork. I was impressed that she was able to just do that considering how big of a rule it is to stay away from pork in Islam.

The night came to a close with a number of us students (Me, Miranda, Libby, Nancy, Jim, Campbell, Albert, Jihoon, Tony and Mi-ye!!!) partying and doing drinking games in Jim/Albert's room. It was officially Miranda's birthday and even though she had celebrated it in Korea in order for her to celebrate it with people from the summer school program, we didn't think it was right for it to go unnoticed this time.

I was most surprised by Mi-ye (the admin) drinking with us. It was amazing and definitely one of the coolest things I've seen a teacher do with her students. Though she was a definitely lightweight (though to be fair, she probably weighed all of about 80 lbs dripping wet), she was hanging out with us and playing our games.

I was ready to leave at midnight when Mi-ye took her exit, but Miranda stopped me and said "You aren't leaving my birthday party that early, are you?"

Whoa. So, I didn't and stayed for another two or so hours. It was amazing, though I was dead tired afterwards. I went up to the room with Campbell, unlocked it, gave him the key and bid him a good evening as he went down to the party.

China, while it wasn't incredible...I'm at least glad that I went. It was an experience, though some were unpleasant to say the least, and I will take it with me for better or worse. Though I don't think I'll be coming back here anytime soon.

Sadly my joy at soon departing China made me realize that I'm going to be leaving Asia soon. I think I will miss Korea a lot. The culture, the food...it's all wonderful. But I do miss people from the US a lot...So, it'll be nice to return.

-Reven

Day 35- My story is not for the faint of heart...

WARNING- I haven’t been dead for the past week and some change. I just didn’t have access to my blog in China (Repressed by the government. Curses!) so I’m transferring my blog posts from my journal to blogger and adding pictures. AS SUCH, in order to get a good grasp of the time line…GO TO DAY 31 FOR THE START OF CHINA OTHERWISE YOU WILL MISS OUT ON SOME PRETTY INTERESTING STUFF. Ahem. So there.

WARNING NUMBER TWO- This post includes one rather DISTURBING part. I like to try to keep a PG rated blog, but one section near the end goes all the way up to R. Normally, I'd omit it, but it was just really rough for me to experience and since this blog is about my adventures, some bad ones need to make the cut as well. I'll mark the section so that if you are fainthearted you can just skip it. I DON'T WANT TO DISCOURAGE PEOPLE FROM READING THIS, BUT FOR YOUNGER PEOPLE OR PEOPLE WHO ARE UNABLE TO HANDLE GRAPHIC THEMES OR SITUATIONS DO NOT READ ANYTHING PAST THE STOP SIGN.

So, today was the day that we go to Shanghai World Expo. We left Suzhou in the morning and arrived in Shanghai in the early afternoon and checked into our hotel. The bus ride there was rather long but that was fine; I was just excited to go there. However, en route, Campbell realized that he left his pass port at the hotel back in Suzhou which caused slight panic and much joking shortly thereafter. He's a really easygoing guy so he just went with it (the loss and the jokes) as he was assured by Tony that the hotel in Suzhou would mail it to Shanghai.Shanghai is VERY different from Suzhou. In Suzhou, save for the shopping area, few people walked around at shopping places at night, but Shanghai was just a mess of people. Trying to get onto the subway was roughly equivalent to a salmon trying to spawn upstream with people rudely bumping into you and jostling you around. Not fun.

But, I didn't let that get me around. The World Expo/Fair has been around for a long time and has given us the Ferris Wheel and the Eiffel tower. I was sort of excited to go there just to see what new things would be there.

So we got there and it was probably 50 square miles of just pavilions. Which was cool. Excited, we all hopped in line for the City of the Future pavilion. As I stood in line I was wondering what would be inside. What new technology could those four walls hold?

And after a half hour, I walked in to find that the building had suggestions for cities of the future such as having cities in the ocean and in space. However, other than having vague concepts, it really didn't seem to have any real technology or thought process as to how these concepts would be engineered. Disappointed, I hoped that the country pavilions would be better.

Since we had people from the Netherlands, Turkey, the US and Korea, we were hoping that we'd be able to hit up each of those four before we left. Unfortunately, the building were quite spread out.

We hit up the Netherlands first and there was quite a line. But, since Nadia is Dutch, she walked over to the people working it and asked if she could get in. The workers saw that she was Dutch and let us all in. Totally cool.

The exhibit was...lackluster though. It had a lot of plastic sheep and some random stuff involving the Netherlands. Honestly, it reminded me of an exhibit from Epcot except for less stuff to do and no rides.


Likewise, we were able to get into Turkey's exhibit just fine (we had two girls from Turkey, both named Irem) and walked around. It fared about the same on my own personal scale. It was like a mini museum. I was annoyed that they mentioned NOTHING about Byzantine and Constantinople, but I guess history is written by the winners and some things get left out. Whatever.

So, next, we tried the US exhibit, which looked huge and had an hour and a half line. I walked up to the people working the exhibit with Jim and Campbell and we asked to get in. The workers were all Asian and didn't really understand what we were talking about. One of the workers responded to us in Chinese while the others looked confused, not understanding what we had asked. The three of us blinked. What was this?

We quickly realized that no actual Americans were working the American booth. Typical US. Typical. So after denouncing our country loudly (apparently to no one that would understand) the group of us decided to head for Korea.

And surprise, Korea let us in ahead of the lines. We went in and watched some kind of movie (that was in CHINESE!!!!! WTF?) which was alright, but more of a kiddy thing than anything else. Not even the Koreans seemed thrilled with it. But, at least they let us in!

Stupid America.

Anyways, we had been walking around for most of the day in beating hot sun and it was getting closer to 9PM. All of us were tired, a little cranky and just blah. It was somewhat of a lost day as it was clearly not what any of us were looking for. If I wanted to do Epcot, I could have gone to Orlando, FL and saved myself a whole headache.

Perhaps I had high expectations, but I was left disappointed by the whole ordeal and overall in China. But, I want to keep an open mind still. No use shutting myself off to it so quickly.

WARNING- HERE BEGINS THE ROUGHER PART. STOP READING IF YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO READ GRAPHIC STUFF. DO NOT SAY I DID NOT WARN YOU!

So after we got back to the hotel, Tony mentioned that there was a massage parlor in the basement. Being exhausted and thinking that it would be decent for my weary body, I opted for it as did Jihoon, Miranda, Albert, Nadia and Mike. We went downstairs and waited for about thirty minutes or so (after which I was questioning if I could stand up- HA HA. Ahem). Normally, I wouldn't be game for a massage, but it was only Y150 ($21) here, so why not try it out?

I met my woman, though I didn't see a name tag. She was younger, probably twenties and seemed to be nice, though she did not speak much English. She led me to my private room as everyone else sorta branched off. She gave me a shirt that looked like vaguely floral print (like a Hawaiian shirt) and some boxer type underwear made out of the same material as scrubs for me to wear during the massage. She left the room and I took off my shirt and pants. I slipped on the new shirt, somewhat confused as to why she had given me a shirt, and put the scrubs underwear over the boxers I was wearing.

When she came back, she looked confused that I had put the scrubs underwear on over the boxers, but I shook my head saying this was the way it was going to be. I'm not laying on some massage table wearing only those scrubs things. Heck no.

So, she has me lay face down on the table and massaged my back and my legs. Then she massaged my butt, which was...interesting to say the least. I had never had that done before and it tickled. Strange as it sounds, it was the truth.

She then had me flip over and started to massage my arms, which also felt nice and then she started to touch my chest. It didn't feel like she was trying to massage it- rather her hands were brushing over certain erogenous zones. It felt...weird and kind of strange that she was doing that, but hey she was doing her job, right? I shouldn't question her. Right?

She asked me if I was an American (Meiguo- I recognized that word), to which I agreed and she counted on her fingers to twenty three and pointed to herself and indicated that was her age. She then pointed to me. Why not be friendly, right? I indicated that I was 21. She nodded and smiled kindly. Why not massage and talk at the same time? Customer service, right?

Then she started to massage my legs. She worked her way up my inner thigh which also felt very weird and made me a bit uncomfortable but due to my just being tired and thinking that this was part of her job, I just went with it.

Finally she pointed to my crotch gave a pumping gesture and said "Massage?"

Not entirely sure I had heard what I did, I leaned up and she repeated, brushing her hand across the area and putting a finger up to her pursed lips. Her intentions were clear. No one would know.

"Y200" she said ($28). I shook my head. No. I didn't want that.

I leaned back as I was really just tired at this point and she took one of my hands and held it just below her chest. She smiled enticingly and asked "No money?"

My voice was kinda raw but I groaned out "No want."

She walked down towards my legs and pointed once more at the area in question. "Massage."

"No want. No want."

Praying to God that she didn't try to do anything and immobile from exhaustion, I just leaned back, ready to try to roll my way to freedom if it got stranger.

Thankfully she respected me and massaged my face and shoulders for the remaining time.

At the end of the time, she looked down at her cell phone and typed in "Y20" (less than $3) and showed me it, giving a sad sort of smile. I hadn't thought it was possible to fear and feel sorry for someone at the same time. However, this was exactly the case. She had really scared me out of my wits (here I was thinking the "happy ending" was an urban legend) but at the same time, I had to wonder how bad her life must be in order for her to haggle herself down to less than $3 for certain deeds. Shaking my head no, she exited, the room, I changed back into my street clothes and waited for the others to get out of their rooms.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who got the same offer. Mike also was offered the same deal (though she didn't go down to Y20 in the end) which made me feel slightly better though at this point I was so mentally and physically at my limit that I thought I was going to fall apart (literally or figuratively) in the elevator with Miranda and all of them.

I went to my bed very uneasy that night, thoughts of Sunny (my name for her) in my head. Just, it was so strange to both feel the utmost pity for someone while they honestly scare you out of your wits. I pray for her. God help her.

-Reven

Day 34- Pride Goes Before Fall

WARNING- I haven’t been dead for the past week and some change. I just didn’t have access to my blog in China (Repressed by the government. Curses!) so I’m transferring my blog posts from my journal to blogger and adding pictures. AS SUCH, in order to get a good grasp of the time line…GO TO DAY 31 FOR THE START OF CHINA OTHERWISE YOU WILL MISS OUT ON SOME PRETTY INTERESTING STUFF. Ahem. So there.

So today, things got better class wise. Though, this also unfortunately meant this would be our last day in Suzhou. So...yeah. The day began with our walk to the school building and a rather amusing incident.

Albert has been getting on pretty much everyone's nerves. He's the the kind of guy who wanders off from the group and would be the first one dead in any horror movie. Naturally his huge ego stops him from realizing that he isn't the most important thing in the universe and how annoying he is to the rest of us.

Now, he was walking the the front of our group, proudly, and we came upon a number of cement blocks that were about a foot high. He tried to be a cool guy and jump on top of it. Now, any guesses as to exactly how high a three hundred thirty (so he told us- I'd guess higher, honestly) black guy can jump? If you guessed three inches you are correct!

He jumped *into* the block falling on top of it and dropping the bottle of orange juice that he was carrying, causing it to shoot in front of him like a rocket, leaking orange fuel all over the place. Everyone in our group burst out laughing. Even the guards that were watching over the square were rolling on the group, which made it even funnier.

I normally don't like laughing at people, however, sometimes they really have it coming. This was one of those times.

Anyways, starting off the day with that incident left me in a good mood for class. The first half was Chinese Calligraphy, complete with brushes and whatnot. Now, I can hear you saying "But, Reven, you said you didn't like writing Chinese symbols." Well, this actually had brushes and was guided by the teacher, rather than the symbols teacher just saying "This is the symbol for tree. This is the symbol for forest." Big difference. Here are my results:



The K looking symbol, I believe meant strength and the two copies in the third row were peace? I'm not certain. I wish I had written down what they were. Anyways, beginning with the middle of the fourth row and including the end of the fourth row and the square on the left of the fifth row are the symbols for my name in Chinese, supposedly. Albert had his written and then asked what the symbols for "God's gift to man." Yes, really. Technically, his name does in fact mean that (his real name, not Albert) but who does that? Ughhhhhh.

After that we had a Tai Chi master show us how to do some exercies. Very calming. It felt like dancing underwater or in slow motion. He was really nice, though he spoke little English.

After lunch, we visited the Suzhou Museum, which appeared to be mostly artsy stuff and stuff from ye olden days. Mostly ye olde Bronze age and Steel age. I took a few pictures but none really really stand out so I think I'll just upload them to facebook and let it stay at that. It was interesting but I would not have been heartbroken if we had skipped it.

We then proceeded to Master of Nets Garden which was beautiful. It was smaller than I had thought it would be but it was really a sight to see. Here are a few pictures:




Anyways, we had dinner (more chicken cutlets for the win!) and then went to this shopping area in Suzhou that is famous (infamous?) for its knockoff Western goods, such as purses and (grumble) watches. Now, you may be wondering why I was grumbling about the watches.

Well, since there were about twenty of us in the group, we split into two groups. I was in the guys group with Albert and the others. I mention Albert because he basically went orgasmic at the prospect of buying fake goods. He walked up to every vendor on the street and (fortunately due to his immense size) the stores did not carry his size.

And then we saw the watch place.

Now, I like watches as much as the next guy. They serve an incredibly useful function and some people cannot function without them. Now, Rolex watches, I find to be an incredibly huge waste of money. Albert, apparently disagreed. He went up to the watches place and haggled (as this is the thing to do in China when dealing with any kind of vendor) for a solid thirty minutes for a single fake Rolex (which looked like crap anyways). Now, during this time, NO ONE ELSE in the group was buying anything at all. Just Albert.

He seemed oblivious to this fact after he haggled the vendor down to some price and the proceeded to try to buy other fake watches for his mother and sisters. The eight or so other people in our group audibly groaned. He looked surprised and asked "Am I the only one getting anything here?"

"YES!"

"Oh, ok." And then he continued to haggle. After about twenty or so more minutes, the other members of the group including myself announced we were leaving (this is a common bargaining tactic in China and can cause them to really drop the price as a result- but in all honesty, we just wanted to leave). Albert really didn't pay attention and we walked out of the three story building (watches were on the third floor) and waited outside. We weren't going to leave him, though Campbell and Jim were ready to do that. He walked out of the building ten minutes later like nothing had happened. He didn't seem to notice our glares. Jerk.

We continued to walk around.

I should mention that in this section of town, salespeople follow you. If you make eye contact, if you talk to them (even in English), they will follow you like wolves and try to get you to buy stuff, up to probably a mile of distance. And they will keep talking to you trying to get you to come to their store. Now, this problem is augmented by the fact that Albert just spent Y500 on four fake watches and the people at the store probably called other vendors and sent their people out to find him and leech some money off of him as well.

We had around three people around our party for a part of the time. The only way to get rid of them is to tell them to "****/Piss off!" That they understand, and Campbell and Tony had to do this to repel them. Man, they were annoying. The problem was augmented by the fact that their target (Albert) was roughly taller than everyone anyone else in the shopping center and weighed three times more than the average Chinese man and as such was very recognizable.

Thankfully, I knew that I'm not the only person irritated to Albert. Most people (I learned afterwords) really didn't like him before, but after today, he was on everyone's bad list. Good riddance. Tomorrow to Shanghai!

-Reven

Day 33- I'm on a Boat

WARNING- I haven’t been dead for the past week and some change. I just didn’t have access to my blog in China (Repressed by the government. Curses!) so I’m transferring my blog posts from my journal to blogger and adding pictures. AS SUCH, in order to get a good grasp of the time line…GO TO DAY 31 FOR THE START OF CHINA OTHERWISE YOU WILL MISS OUT ON SOME PRETTY INTERESTING STUFF. Ahem. So there.

So, breakfast as usual and walk to class at 9 AM. This is the usual format and it was a bit annoying as we really didn’t learn too much that mattered. We learned some Chinese symbols but the lesson was structured such that it was just throwing information at us rather than walking us through writing it. It just was unpleasant. Eh, but life moved on and lunch- which was cutlet of chicken and rice with curry sauce was fantastic.

On a side note, I have really been assimilated into the Jim/Nancy/Libby/Campbell/Miranda group right now. I don’t know how it happened, but I like the feeling of being a part of it. Of course, my feelings for Miranda may be clouding that. But it’s just nice to be in a group with other people who are from your area and know little regional stuff that you can reference, like Cleveland sports sucking and the like.

As for today’s field trip, we went to this traditional Chinese road area, which while it was traditional and I respect that, the area looked like it was out of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, sans guns and soldiers, though there were probably close by. There was rubble and refuse all over the place and it looked like none of the buildings were really up to code…or had been for years.

Anyways, the real reason we came here (and it was a decent one was to visit a Chinese traditional opera house. Now, Chinese traditional opera is much much different than the Western opera that involves obese women singing Wagner. No, basically the actors walk on stage, speak in incredibly high voices and walk around (yes, I said that twice). The stories that we watched (there were two of them) involved a magical monkey who could do stuff (mostly just walk around with a stick) and some kind of love story between a princess and a prince that took place in a dream world.
Here's the monkey:

And the love story:

And me failing at posing with the actors after the play:

>


It was interesting, though not necessarily entertaining. I'm glad I experienced it though. It was definitely different than anything I have experienced. The costumes were really amazing and the acting was...different, but why not experience it at least once, right?

We exited the opera house for some "traditional snacks of China" which looked like items from episodes of Fear Factor. I wanted to take pictures, but did not out of respect. I was at a table with Nadia (forgot to mention her in the previous post, whoops), Nancy and Jim. I was adventurous and took a few bites. It was alright, but nothing I would've freely chosen to eaten.

Jim called Tony over and asked him what we were eating. Tony just shrugged and said he didn't know, that it looked disgusting and that 'normal' Chinese people don't eat that kind of food. I laughed (as did our table, a bit uneasily). Normal Chinese people don't eat this crap? Haha. So, then why are we?

On the way out, I let Nadia walk in front of me (we were going towards the same door frame and I gestured for her to walk in front of me). She said (honestly) "Ah, what a gentleman."

I have a long history with that word- 'gentleman.' Specifically that it seems to have connotations with someone incredibly old fashioned and a bit set in his ways. I explained this to Nadia and that saying that calling me that made me sound like I was from the 1950s. She claimed that I was wrong and that girls like guys with manners. I somewhat bitterly replied that I didn't feel that was the case. I honestly feel though the chivalry that I was raised to uphold has been squarely shishkabobbed by high heels and it is, for all intents and purposes, is dead. It's frustrating, so I had a bad relationship with that word.

Miranda, who had been walking right in front of us, whirled around (she wasn't part of the conversation prior) and replied that "generally the girly girls do" like manners before looking forward and departing the conversation.

I was stunned by the quick interjection of Miranda, though this didn't faze the very stereotypical blonde Nadia, who continued on to say that she (Nadia) doesn't consider herself a girly girl (she is) but that she still appreciates manners. The conversation shifted, but I was left deep in thought.

First off, why had Miranda suddenly hopped into the conversation (and if she was one of the "girly girls")? That's not really important. Secondly, why do I fight and be bitter about what I naturally am? So what if I hold doors open for girls if they are close enough or give my subway seat to the older man walking in? Never mind that it's supposedly outdated...doing those things is a part of who I am and I shouldn't given it up even if society things I shouldn't. I know it sounds preachy, but I learned a good deal from her saying that. How odd.

It should be duly noted that Nadia just continued rambling on in some other facet of conversation, completely oblivious to the mental puzzle that she threw me into. Typical.

We later walked around the street of Pingjang which were kinda run down but looked interesting (pictured to the left) and ate dinner at a buffet style restaurant. I had a few interesting items- bamboo (it was alright, nothing fantastic), ox tongue (excellent!), duck (not bad, but not too much meat on the bone) and the ilk.

Later, since Suzhou is pretty much considered the Venice of the East due to its abundance of rivers and canals. My pictures didn't turn out fantastic, but that's alright. We were treated to some traditional Chinese music with people in period clothing (though which period, I do not know) playing old instruments. It was really cool and in retrospect possibly the best part of China (I'm writing this a week or so later). So...yeah. I was on a boat. Tee hee. If you don't get the reference, just search for "I'm on a boat" (be prepared for foul language but an amazing song).

-Reven