Quick update 2/9/11: Got my new debit card! And some middle-aged Chinese lady found my wallet in Xi’an! So if I pay her enough (somehow? Haven’t quite figured out how to do this yet) she’ll presumably mail it back to me. Sans cash, naturally, but if this means not having to pay the Texas DMV a visit then sign me up.
Edit 2: Thief broke into Eric’s room yesterday. Stole his iphone, wallet, and watch. I felt absolutely horrible when I heard about this. He should have a huge stock of good karma built up for helping me as much as he did… but then he gets robbed not even a week later. What the hell, China?
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It's the year of the rabbit, and this one looks like he's ready to bring you a whole buncha good fortune, right? Happy new years/nightmares, kids!
Today was another temple festival day. Will be the last one, because the holiday is finally over. Also managed to pick up a new power adapter, in a shining example of why you should always always always carry a pen and paper around with you when you’re in foreign countries and haven’t looked up the requisite situational vocab beforehand. It’s the last picture in the gallery (edit: not anymore, apparently? it’s the hand-drawn one), and showcases my incredible artistic abilities.
Things I failed to do today: finish the grammar for chapter 13 that I’ve been putting off for two weeks now, read my book, apply to more jobs, write a good blog. Ugh.
Edit 2/9: Northwestern hasn’t finished chapter 13 either yet, somehow, so I’m not even behind! Did said grammar on the subway today. And I’m fixing this blog now, and already read a chapter of my book so as long as I send out an app in the next four hours I’ll consider myself redeemed.
Third miaohui was completely different from the first two.
#1 was kinda neat, but ‘romantically themed’ which apparently means ‘packed to the brim with carnie games so you can win your girlfriend a huge stuffed animal.’ I wasn’t so interested in these, but it did have some other stuff to offer in the form of performances and interesting handicrafts.
Maiohui #2 was pretty lame to be honest. Lots of calligraphy and some art but nothing particularly impressive. Set in just a street full of art shops. It did, however, have a bird that did backflips and spoke Chinese. Here’s the thing, though: not only could it say hello, happy new year, that sorta thing, but it also knew it’s own price, and would haggle with you over its cost. Like, the bird cost 750 kuai, and if you proposed anything lower than 700 it’d go “too cheap!” and any number you said above 800 or so it’d say “too expensive!” I felt this raises a few ethical questions. For instance, did the bird understand that it was referring to a pricetag put on its life? Or did it just know how to count and direct people towards 750? How bad is it too tell a bidder that your eternal servitude as a pet isn’t worth as much as he thinks it is? Why the backflips?
Rock on, 趙公明. Ps, this is reason #2 to carry pen/paper -- the monks and people who normally work at the temple were all really bored because everybody was busy chatting with the random-plastic-crap vendors in the courtyard, so I got to have a neat conversation with one of them (who wrote down this guy's hanzi for me) about the dude pictured.
#3 was set in a temple, straight up. Shortly after entering I made the executive decision to ignore the majority of the ‘festival’ component — that is, the special decorations and little vendors squatting in the open spaces — in favor of exploring the temple itself, which was incredible. Its main square was ringed by these little ‘departments’ full of statues, featuring one or two gods and some attendants looking disdainfully at those who violated whatever the department was set up to protect. I’ll list some of the department titles here tomorrow but in the meantime you can see some of them in the pictures. I like the department of preventing violence towards animals one though. Also the 15 types of violent death department.
