When I was 22...

- My friend threw me a surprise birthday party even when I told her I didn't want one. She got wasted that night out of fear that I would be upset at her. I got wasted that night because everyone gave me booze (and chicken wings) and because it was my birthday.

-Got rear ended at a free way entrance the day after my birthday (not at all related to my birthday drunken-ness). The guy was a mechanic and promised to fix up the scratches on my bumper. I contacted him a 2 months later, his number was disconnected.

-Did a keg stand for the first time in celebration of my college's annual spring concert (otherwise informally known as the day when the nerdiest kid in your class is found passing out drunk on the side walk). The keg stand threw me into a blackout but I managed to talk myself out of detox (I knew the security guard).

- Danced to "Like A Virgin" on top of a piano and later on top a guy in front of a room full of people. And all my much less drunk friends. Thought I was the shit.

- Had the worst hair cut of my life. Took nearly a year to recover/fix it.

- Got really into online Scrabbles. My roommates and I would each be on our respective computers and played against each other, occasionally shouted out "YOU FUCKING BITCH!" from the other room/across the condo. I had no control over this obsession.

I was there

- Took lots of naps in my car during my last quarter in college (school was ridic). Once I pulled over on the side of a freeway during traffic hour, a high way patrol woke me up 20 minutes later. I later found out that it was because the area was shady and I could have been robbed.

- Quited one job on Monday and was let go from another one the Tuesday after.

- Spent 3 weeks in Brazil with 9 other girls. The most estrogen-filled experience I have ever/will ever put myself through. Also the most boobs I have ever been around all at once time. We partied and drank everyday during the last week. Slept on through an entire 6 hours bus ride because we were out all night until 7am so we could make the bus station at 8am.

said mural painting

- Got into two car accidents a week apart from each other. Neither was my fault. It was the Curse of October.

- Went into a post-grad slum and at one point, I would only go outside for food. Drinking became less fun then.

- Started working as a tutor and actually liked it.

- Worked at a Vietnamese sandwich shop and hated it.

more juice, please

- Quited my job at the sandwich shop and went to Vietnam for a month and a half. Spent most of my time there melting and being eaten alive by mosquitoes, but got to drink sugar cane juice everyday. It was so worth it.

motherland

my sandals

- I spent my 23rd birthday in Vietnam.

"I was 22 or 23 when I made a decision not to be actively Hamlet-like and miserable in my daily life, and the decision helped a lot. Living vitally is not easier than living morbidly — it’s just better." — Stephen Colbert  

Looking back, my year as a 22 year old wasn't that bad. Sure, economically I made pretty much no money and couldn't really claim success for anything, but I did have an eventful year. That should counts for something, right? Who knows, maybe in 10 years or so, I would wish that I was 22 again and get to have so much free time and so little things to do again.

For now, I guess I'll try to do what Stephen here said and snap the shit out of it and get the hell out of Sad Ville. After all, 23 is one of the cooler number, I should try and enjoy this age before I'm 26. I'm just not a fan of 6s.

lines are for suckers

I've only been here for 2 days but it feels much longer. I'm getting accustomed real fast to good ol' Vietnam. I think part of it is due to the my aunties and uncles being so chill. I had fun spending time with them talking smack and laughing at how my family in the states are so worrisome/ridiculous all the time. It's a huge relief on my part to be around family who are actually relaxed and semi-supportive. No one has called me fat yet, not to my face anyway, though everyone has commented on how they thought I would be taller "like an American" and didn't expect me to be so dark/light. I had a good time laughing at those things. My feelings aren't hurt (so far) and I'm glad.

Where should I start describing this place? So much has changed over the past 10 years, I find myself reminiscing the good ol' time and amazed at the setting that replaced it. Ahhh so much to say. Alright, I'll try to go in a chronological order.

Last few things about Beijing:

The few last hours in Beijing went my fast. I spent of the time skyping with my ex-Summit ladies while people watching/movie- watching/being one of the few female among the mass of Chinese male flyers. I discovered another noodle shop in the airport on my way to my gate and just had to try it. I mean, the slogan of the shop was "A Good Bowl of Noodles" so how can I resist? I had the noodles with pickled veggies and bean curds. It wasn't bad but wasn't also impressing or anything, except that it was surprisingly spicy. I am usually not shy about spicy food, but for an average eater, this might cause some hurting, and it didn't even look spicy or dangerous! I didn't fall asleep at the shop after I ate this time haha.

On my way back to the gate from the noodle shop, I ran into a group of Vietnamese tourists visiting Beijing waiting for the as mine. How did I find out about these folks these last minutes? The group of auties and uncles set up camp at the gate and gambled to kill time. Of course I had to take a picture, so I sneaked one. They were hardcore. Gambling blood runs deep in us Viets, I'm finally seeing it now.

After a very long and bright day because the airport pretty much composed of glass, the sun finally went away. Look at that glowing ball of fire. How ridiculous is that? So much fire and brightness. Who likes these kind of things??

It got cold pretty fast after the sun went away, a shuttle came to take us to the airplane. It was a small domestic one, so we had to get out and walk up to it. One again, the concept of standing in line is a strange one in this scenario. A few smarter folks (present company included) decided that it was best to just be the last to get on and avoid being push around. I went through some additional custom before the last flight, as I am rushing to get my shit together to get to my flight, a worker said something to me in Mandarin. I gave him another "uhh...ummm" and in English he said, "don't worry." For some reason, I imagined him to break out a "relax, don't do it" song/dance number. That would totally make China memorable for me.

The motherland at last:

It was about 2 am when I finally set foot in Vietnam, and I was the only one who needed to get my land visa. I had a post a while back about the visa semi-worrying about it, but the entire process was painless and anti-climatic, thought the Vietnamese airport people took up 2 whole pages in my passport, and that's just for entrance! The Chinese airport people also took over a whole page. I have a feeling that I might need more pages add in after this trip. This is when I finally really appreciate being bi-lingual, as from experience in China, people who work at airport do speak English, but minimal, and since I am Asian, they would assume that I speak their native language.

My uncles picked me up from the airport and we drove through the sleeping city of Saigon. We went through streets I don't particularly recognize because I probably never went by there, but the first feeling I had was how shrunken everything seem. It's amazing how one's perspective of the world changes over time without the self realizing it. It is only because I haven't these sceneries in so many years that I can see how different the world is in a child's eyes vs. an adult. Globalization also plays a part of this I am sure, more people are trying to make a living and set up shops crowding the city streets. More non-two wheelers are now roaming the streets and the number of motorbikers seem to multiplied five times or more over this past decade.

The drivers here are crazy, not in a lunatic way, but in a super skilled way, little motorbikes co-existing along big trucks and cars weaving their ways in and out of traffic smoothly without a care in the world. These people can ride in the opposite flow of traffic if they feel like it. Cars are free go to the opposite lanes to pass each other, at certain time of the night, traffic lights in the city only shows flashing yellow so drivers don't have to wait or stop. There are no stop signs at any intersections so drivers would honk (or my uncle did) as they drive by. All these are in the city, in the country, the etiquettes are even more relaxed. I think it's safe to say that Asians drivers here aren't bad, they just know what to do to get where they need to go to, it's only when they use the same tricks in lawful America that shits don't go down so well lol.

Vietnam only has one high way connecting the North and South, its name is High Way 1 (haha). So travelers making the move between any regions go through it everyday, so imagine the traffic that it endures every day. It calls a highway, but actually is more like a really long street. Lots of people and houses live along side so close to the street especially during parts going through a certain city or town, and so even though the distance between places aren't that far, it takes a much longer time to get there. We drove for about 3-4 hours to get to the country from the city but the actually drive without traffic I think could probably be about 1 to 2 hours.

Anywho, I am definitely not a person of few words. More to come!

hello from the future!

First, man made fire, then he made the internet.

And I have it!

Here is my blog from my 15 hours at the Bejing airport. I had internet then but can only log on to gmail and skype. Read on friends.

...I'm in China. Beijing Airport to be exact, waiting for my connecting flight to Vietnam... in 13 hours. Haha, the price I pay for getting a dirt cheap ticket. It's okay though, I am sort of enjoying this, if only I can charge my laptop here, I will be all set, but I think the voltage is different, and I don't want to risk blowing up anything.

It is currently 8:10 am Wednesday in China right now, and 5:10pm Tuesday back in the U.S, so greeting from the FUTURE! Here are a few things that have been going down so far, in catergories haha

The Sun:

On Monday morning, I had to go back to SD for a varicella booster, and oh man L.A traffics sucks major balls. Seriously, 7am and it's bumper to bumper, who else knew about this?? Every 20 minutues I'm in a different city and it's traffic there. It took me more than 3 hrs to get to SD, and missed my appointment but luckily they let me do it when I came in anyway. The sun made this entire day worse because it was ridiculous, if this is the only benefit of day light saving, I am so not into it. One extra hour of day light every day, are you kidding me? Why would I enjoy the heat, the burning sensation, the increased chance of getting a funny tan light on my body, all with one hour of less sleep?? UGH. Only until at night that I felt better after it's gone. I wish everyday was a gloomy day.

The varicella booster:

Okay, needle shots of things are usually never that enjoyable, unless you're a druggie and you're running after a high, but this shot SUCKED. Holy shit, no wonder babies cry ridiculously when they take their shot. The injection felt fine going in, but when the medicine enters the body it fucking hurt. Everyone told me that the Gardisil injection burns as it enters the body, but I didn't think it was that bad when I got it. With this one, I seriously needed a minute to sit and breathe out the pain, and the injection site still hurts until now. Fuckkkk chicken pox, 12 years later and you're still out to get me.

Flying:

Getting to my flight was no difficulty, it was packed of all Asian aunties and uncles heading to their mother land, and a random group of super tall (potentially) basketball players. Just because they're tall and travel in a pack doesn't always mean they're a bball team, right? Haha. The flight was 11 something hours and I had the middle seat. Thank goodness I'm relatively small or it could have been bad. On my left was a Chinese lady who kept speaking Mandarin to me, and on my right was a white man from Texas who talked to me about beer and how much rice wine can Asian handle (a lot apparently). I pretty much sleep the entire time, except for when the food came by. I wish they still give us peanuts on airplanes, I want those little bags of salty/sweet deliciousness godddamnit. My stomach didn't feel well at all after eating the airplane food, but I was so hungry. There were no in-flight entertainment, and even if there were, I couldn't see anything because of where I sat. Someone else who is taller probably could though.

Beijing Aiport:

Arriving at Beijing was painless until I went to stand in line at the "international departure" line to continue to my next flight, and upon random inspection, got send to a different line, in which I was given a visa stamp and sent to a different terminal, all within 5 words spoken to me by the two officials. I tried to talk to them more, but just got a gesture of "go this way" lol. It didn't help that everyone spoke chinese to me, and I had to reply with "Uhhh...ummm... I don't... Do you speak English?" and then they all look at me with this "disapprove/disappointed/disdain" look afterward. So sad lol

I hopped on little train frail thing to get to the terminal they wanted me to go. The only thing there were baggage claims, exit and domestic flights. I tried to get my checked bag, but back in the states when I checked my stuff in, they already told me that my bag will be transfer directly to my final destination, so my bag wasn't there. Oh god, I hope my shit get to Vietnam with me and not stuck here in Beijing at the end of tomorrow. So I wandered around the baggage claim area for a bit more, looking around and after trying to ask 3 different workers there, who spoked to me a total of 12 words, telling me that I had to leave the area, then re-check in upstairs.

So I did. And stood in line for "international flights" again, and got send back to "domestic flights" again. So apparently if you are flying within the same land continent it's domestic? Did anyone else know that? So I sort of lined up and get myself there. I say sort of lined up because the concept of lining up for something isn't widely accepted and embraced in Asia. People just kind of huddled together and then move as a mass. As I am standing at an infomation booth talking, a lady walked up real close to me, and started talking to the agent at the same time, and another lady did the same... and I had no knowledge of chinese to interupt them so in the end, I ended up waiting for them before asking my quetions. They probably think I'm just being respectful to elders. Hah.

Because my flight isn't leaving until late afternoon/early evening, I don't even have a gate for it yet, but I can't leave the airport (though they did give me a visa, but I don't know how it works/don't want to risk it) so I went through securities anyway and now just wandering around between gates, using the airport's free internet, that won't let me do anything beside skype and email. I tried to buy some food using my American dollars, after a bit of consideration, they accepted it, but not after requesting that I gave them a new 20 dollar bill instead of one that looked a bit dirty. Now I have a bunch of Yuan. $1 is 6.6 Yuan, it's actually not bad considering airport purchases are generally pretty expensive, and all I've been doing up beside writing this entry was walking up and down checking out the entire terminal buying food. There is a ramen shop here, and a KFC, the only American restaurant I've seen so far beside Starbucks. Of course I had to try the ramen, and then fell asleep immediately after eating on the same table hahahaha........ and the waitresses just left me alone. LOL. Proabably because they didn't know enough english to wake me up and kick me out.

Chinese People:

I think I'm pretty much the most casual dressing person in this entire airport. Everyone is so dressed up and I don't know why. Where are they going? All these proper looking middle age men and fancy casual women. The few of them anyway, I have seen way too many men here today. Where are the ladies at? China should definitely reconsider their "We love sons/men" policy because the lacking of women in this country is definitely being noticed. Plus, women are better looking anyway, if it was me, I'd rather be in a country full of beautiful women (i.e: Brazil) than in one full of men.

All the airport employee, beside dressing the same, kinda look the same too lol, some females have the same hair decoration to hold their hair. I wonder if it's a part of their uniform. All the young ladies are pale and slim and all the older aunties almost have the same hair cut. I'm dark and not slim, so I guess I stand out. Maybe that's why people kept staring at me when I walk by them.

Update:

So it's 5pm right now, and my flight is at 7:10pm, but I finally know my gate, C53. Oh the magic number, all day today I've been trekking up and down wondering what it would be, where would I be leave from and now I finally know it. And I finally figured out why the flight is classified as domestic when it's flying to another country, it's because there is a stop in between to Shenzhen (where is that?). Anyway, I'm following signs that point me to C53, and it leads me to two flight of stairs and into a dungeon like place... I think I have to take a bus or something to get to the aircraft, which means it's a small one. Well, good thing I will have ailse seat. Oh and the awesome part is, there is a sign that list the flights that especially going to the route I am going, and somehow after walking by it twice today, I missed it. The dungeon is empty right now, if I knew about it earlier, I would have so come down early and sneak in a nap.

flight again

My heart beats fast, and my body is tingling with excitement. My head is rushed, and I feel like jumping.

No, I did not just do a line of coke, but I did just book a ticket for a month and a half in Vietnam.

I've been thinking about/wanting to go on this trip for the longest time. At first I was waiting for my mom to cave and go with me so she could pay for me too (haha) but it's been a few years now and the woman hasn't budged so I'm going with the "sisters are doin' it for themselves" route and putting the damage on my credit card.

Originally I was going to get off my ass and head to South East Asia for 6 months or so, volunteer and traveling so I don't mope around like a sad puppy getting butt hurt over every little things about life, but some changes arose so I had to cut my plan short. Of course I still have not told my mom yet, maybe when I need a ride to the airport...

I was going to wait until mid January or later to buy my ticket after I sort through my physicals and dental stuff but apparently good flight deals don't last very long, especially after New Year. For months, I was eyeing this awesome flight deals from STA for 957 bucks (a real good deal to Asia, especially Vietnam) but as of Jan 2nd that didn't exist no more. So after the initial stages of anger/panic/regret, I poked around a bit more and found an other deal from Air China through Vayama. The price is even cheaper than the other one but I wouldn't say it's a better deal since apparently Air China is like the American Airlines of... well, airlines, crappy services, long delayed hours such as 13 hours flight gap in Beijing.

Well, I pondered about it for a day and decided that I couldn't pass it up so I jumped on it, and here we are. I guess I'll be packing some books and pirated movies to pass the times. I'm trying to see if I could get around to check out Beijing for a little bit but apparently the Chinese government is tough about people wandering around their country. Who knew?

The departure date is 2 weeks later than I have intended, good thing I've just recently found a minimum wage mindless labor job to occupy my time. At least I'll make a few bucks to spend on cheap Vietnamese street food. Down side is, I probably will have to couch surf/commute during that two weeks because I'll be homeless by then.

*the above pic is from my first out of the state flight ever to Costa Rica in March 2009. I didn't have window seat, but still caught a cool pic.