10,000 Photos!

 I've owned my green camera since last February. Here is the first photo I ever took with it:

my handsome boy

On Sunday, I took my 10,000th photo with the camera. It was less-than-unremarkable:

I think I'll just focus on #10,015 instead -- the (sequentially) closest decent photo:

A student gets his kite up! 

10,000!!!

Flying Kites on Easter

On Sunday, I went with Tiffany and her students to a nearby park to fly kites in celebration of Easter.

 if you don't know of it, I recommend taking 8 minutes of your wasted time to look up Eadweard Muybridge and his photos of movement / Sallie Gardner at a Gallop

one of the college students

 

 

 

 I love how happy these boys look :)

 the wonky perspective on this photo is kind of interesting to me

searching for four-leaf clovers

 some random lady; I just like this photo

 

 And I quote: "I don't like to take my picture."

 

This guy was adorable! I really wish my photos of him and his kite were better!

Adventures in Chinglish

two of my most favorite signs

Nantong Sign Roundup & Adventures in Chinglish

appropriately translated, this should say, 

"Be Careful: Travel Slowly"

 

 amenities sign

 this is a super-cool (to me) sign for a seafood restaurant

What is a "Decoration Residence," I wonder?

meanwhile, in China

 China Citic Bank? Pardon?

When literal translations go weird...

Scott and I had a drawn-out debate about whether "vitamin functional drink" was grammatically incorrect. I still think it is.

The literal translation does not match the English, and it also does not make sense, so I don't really know if this advice is accurate or not.

DON'T forget your passport when you're traveling in China

'Cause I did, and it wasn't cool. Tiffany, Scott, Stuart, and I took the train to Nantong, a nearby city with a international chain store that's kind of a cross between Costco and Cash & Carry. Also, it has a US cuisine restaurant that is a wooonderful treat!

The train attendants always seem to hock stuff during trips. I have no clue what these were, except that at one point he pulled out a lighter and put the flame against the non-flammable part. Later he pitched socks and belts.

Scott giving me the evil eye

Stuart

We got into town around 13:00, and immediately went to lunch. Then we tried to check into a hotel. It's the law in China that foreigners MUST use their passports to check into hotels. I had forgotten my passport at home---Stuart: "I thought about texting everyone to bring their passports, then I thought, 'we're all smart enough to remember them'''---and only had a photo copy, which the receptionists wouldn't accept. We tried everything: getting them to call managers; calling my boss to work some guanxi-magic; calling Scott and Tiffany's boss to do the same; trying to convince the recptionists to pretend they didn't know about me; looking pathetic. After twenty stressful minutes, we finally gave up and went to a different hotel, where I hung out on the street while the other three checked in. When I walked in with the group later that night, no one gave me a second glance. And, the bed Stuart and I shared was way bigger than the bed in the first hotel---this one could have fit all four of us, but in the first, Stuart and I pretty much would have been on top of each other, something which would have sucked majorly considering I discovered he is a wicked restless sleeper.


With the anticlimactic conclusion of that debacle, we went for groceries, got dinner, and had fun on a short channel tour in a little, plastic, rented boat.

Scott with a "margarita"

Tiffany

in the boat

My small point-and-shoot camera is absolutely fabulous in all things except night shots; in the dark, it sucks big time. Still, with persistence, I managed to get a couple nice photos:

 

CNN: China bans time travel for television

Haha, China, you're so weird!

[comic courtesy of xkcd]

Just in Case: For my less-technologically-inclined relatives, you can get to the article by clicking on "so weird."

All Glory to the Internets

This video from National Geographic, titled "7 Billion," is interesting:

watch it, and you'll see what it has to do with China

Also, this TIME site on China, "Time Frames," is an archive of China-related stuff from the publication:

[screenshot]

Chicken Feet!

No thank you!

from (chicken stock) soup

in the deli section of the grocery store

snack packs!

Summer? What the heck happened to spring?

It was blazing yesterday [Friday]!!! Apparently the gratifyingly mild weather we had in March constitutes spring in Yancheng, because the last couple days have been what Pacific Northwesters consider summer weather. It's anyone's guess if the heat will stick around for a significant period of time, since, like in many coastal cities, Yancheng weather is appropriately characterized by the cliche, "don't like the weather? just wait five minutes..." And if it is here to stay, I wonder how long it will take for the heat to turn from dry to the wet, muggy nightmare all the resident foreigners dread. I am not looking forward to trying to keep my clothes from molding.

I spent the afternoon wandering around a neighborhood I hadn't visited before, taking photos of people going about their day in the swelter.

pineapple cart

 

She/he was so cute, I had to interrupt her/his snooze on the counter of a newspaper stand.

Groups of people always play cards on the sidewalk outside their shops, but I especially like the snazzy guy in the back-center of this group.

A san lun che (three-wheeled vehicle [rickshaw]) driver waiting for some business.

There were, like, six people crowded into this shop watching the tv, in addition to the few people outside.

this guy's waving, not telling me off :)