Just a fun little post to spice things up. Tonight, after I got home, I checked my answering machine and found the following message waiting for me.
When I started playing it, I was wondering why a baby was leaving me a message. Obviously, this person called the wrong number. As I heard more of the message, I thought I can recognized parts of the recording. The beginning something like 爸! 爸! 爸! 我係你啊哥! (Obviously, this makes no sense) I cannot decipher what language this message is in. Any ideas on who I need to call back?
One of the most harrowing experiences in my life unfolded this morning. One of my coworkers was presenting at a conference. Two-thirds of the way through the presentation, he fielded some questions.
As he resumed the talk, all of a sudden, he hunched over the podium, his speech and movement became really really slow. It felt like when your computer lags so much that it takes seconds to respond to individual keystrokes or mouse cursor movements, only this was happening to a person, which was totally unsettling. After another few seconds, I knew something was seriously wrong. I was worried he might collapse, so I rushed up to the stage with another colleague. The room was eerily silent. We tried to get my coworker to sit down and take a break. He was in a slow zombie-like state; he kept on iterating that he was okay and could finish the presentation. His arms and hands were like ice, but he was sweating profusely. I asked the conference organizer that we needed to get a medic or EMS here. It's not pleasant at all to say that when you really mean it. The organizer broke the session and got some water for my coworker. We pulled a chair onto the stage for him to rest. After a little while, he started recovering. His speech was more coherent, but you can tell he was very shaken up. He couldn't remember anything from the last couple minutes on the stage. It was relieving to see that he was feeling better.
After that episode, the show must go on. I ended up giving the rest of the presentation. Got a few minutes to skim through the remaining slides beforehand. Definitely the biggest impromptu presentation to a large audience of my life. Given the circumstances, I surprisingly did not feel nervous. I covered everything that needed to be covered. Took a few questions from the audience to cap it off.
Fortunately, everything turned out okay. I am still a bit unnerved by the whole ordeal. At least it's over and we'll be laughing about it soon enough.
Inter-team paintball battle at Wasaga Beach on Friday afternoon. The numerous scrimmages over the year have boiled down to this... one... final... showdown. A shootout till the last man standing. Whose standard will remain flying at day's end?
The last time I went paintballing was back in Cornell. That time, I had a really bad experience where someone snuck up on me while I was sniping in the prone position; I had no claymores.
This time, we were at one of Canada's largest outdoor paintball centers, so I was really looking forward to checking out their facilities. Our special forces infantry unit totaled seven members. Intel briefed us that the hostile team numbered six. We were the only teams doing battle at the center today, so we were able to relax some of the gas mask rules and could pick any field we wanted.
The first map was fittingly named Junkyard. Each team had a school bus. The objective was to cross the junkyard, reach the enemy school bus to neutralize and cap it. We decided to have one person guard the bus, while the remaining six split up into three teams to attack left, right and middle. KS and I took the right. Five minutes into the battle, I came into the following scenario.
Essentially, I was exchanging fire with hostile 1, while my partner was exchanging fire with Hostile 2. After a few minutes of attrition, I signaled to my partner I was going to sneak up onto hostile 1, who was behind a waist high wall. My partner provided some cover fire while I made my move. I got to my target position, reached up and over. I yelled "Mercy!", since he was only a foot away. Hostile 1 was so shocked to see me, he turned around to duck. Out of instinct, I pegged him 3 shots on the arse. (Some funny conversations ensued after the battle). Unfortunately, hostile 2 had noticed my movement. As I got back down behind the wall, he nailed me with a shot right in the chest. I was a bit stunned. I NEED A MEDIC!!!!!! MEDIC!!!!! Good thing we were each given a camouflage jacket to wear, which took the blunt of the blow. I slowly crawled my way off the field. In hindsight, I should have never made such a risky move up the middle. However, the coolness factor of pulling it off was too enticing that I had to try. Eventually, my team managed to get to enemy school bus and take the match. During the match, CK exclaimed after getting hit in the forehead (on the helmet), "Did I get any in my hair?!?!?!" He was sooo serious too. The rest of us just dropped down laughing.
Second map was (Dragon) Valley. Each team controlled a bunker with the valley in between. Goal was capture enemy flag. I was in charge of guarding the bunker and our flag. My team was so good that I did not get to shoot at anyone the entire game. In five minutes, we were able to take out all the enemy forces. I just took target practice on some trees to pass time.
Third map was pretty interesting. Scenario is that a friendly chopper was shot down in hostile territory. Our team was deployed to rescue our chopper pilot, who landed close to an enemy bunker!! We had to rescue our chopper pilot (i.e. walk up and touch him), and deliver him safely to a rendezvous point, without getting him killed.
We were scratching our heads for a bit as we planned our rescue mission. If we get into a fire fight with the enemy around the chopper, it would be really difficult to extract our pilot. The cockpit was essentially a shell with wide loading bays, which exposed it to open fire. We ended up deciding that the enemy bunker (top left) was about the same distance to the chopper as our drop zone (bottom left). We would send two guys sprinting to the chopper to perform the extraction, while the rest of the team will set up a perimeter on the rendezvous side to provide cover after extraction. Needless to say, the enemy was not expecting such quick action, and by the time we got engaged, our pilot was safely behind our line of defense. It was still a bit dangerous having our pilot dodge between the houses, but mission was a success.
Fourth map involved a Wild Wild West setting. Two lines of houses with a center avenue through, which led up to a Church. One team started at water tower on the top right. Yes, you can snipe from the top of water tower. Other team started on the bottom left in a mini house. This field was smaller than all the previous ones, which fitted better with our numbers. Ended up playing this one a few times. Now, with houses on both sides, it would be really reckless if you traveled up the main street, taking potential fire from both sides. So the battles on this field were mainly fought behind the houses, away from the street. In one of the rounds, we had the following scenario. Three enemy forces were spotted - one in the water tower and two in the top house. My team of three was stuck behind the bottom house. We couldn't move up given the heavy fire. So, we made a quick plan. My two teammates would draw their fire, while I sneak up the main street to the top house, and flank them through the windows. The four F's in action. The plan worked perfectly!! When the two guys in the house were engaging my comrades, I popped up through the window and pegged them both with a few shots. It felt awesome hearing "Who the F*k got us?!?!". Then came the part with the water tower. There wasn't anything we could do to take out the guy at the top. Only one way up the tower and that would be suicide. We couldn't get a good shot at the guy from below. What I won't do for a GRENADE right now. The three of us had no idea how to get the guy down. All of a sudden, we hear "I'm dead! I'm dead!" from the tower. We were like... wtf. He yells down, "I'm out of ammo!!!" lol.
Speaking of ammo, paintball ammo is so expensive. $140 for 2000 "bullets". We each spent $30 just on ammo. Some people tend to have poor accuracy and waste more ammo than others. sigh.
Fifth map we played on was a Warlords map, where one team had to defend a two story mansion, while the other team attacked. Objective for attacking team is to knock over a big blue barrel in front of the house (it was out in the open). We were the attackers this time. Man, trying to take a fortified enemy position is tough. We managed to get 5 of us up to the closest set of barricades before the barrel. The enemy knew where we were, and we knew where they were. We picked one guy to attempt the barrel run, while the other four provided cover fire. As we popped up over the barricades, three of us were gunned down almost immediately, including our runner, who didn't even make it halfway to the barrel. One of our remaining guys decided to dash for the barrel, managed to draw some intense fire but was able to knock down the barrel all in one go. We did not know if he got hit before the barrel or after. But the story is, these brave barrel tippers were subjected to open fire from 5 enemy troops. Paintball on naked flesh does not look or feel good at all. You get a ring-like bullet wound just the size of one paintball. The wounds were bleeding too. >_<
Sixth map was called Ridge Runner. Two hills were separated by a valley. Each team had a bunker on the back side of the hills. Object is Capture the Flag. My team had no idea where the enemy bunker was. All we were told is to go over the hill and head north. We were also down a man now, since two of my teammates had to leave early. 5 vs 6. We decided to split into 2 and 3, and go on the offense. We climbed over our hill, and couldn't see anyone in the valley or opposite hill. We raced down to the bottom of the valley and climbed halfway up before the enemy came over the top of their hill. The situation was rather bad. I was in the team of three, and we were fixed by heavy fire coming up from the top. Since the situation was so dire, I decided to retreat back down to the valley, run east for twenty feet before cutting back uphill. There were some big trees there for cover, so hopefully, the enemy won't be able to spot me. As it turns out, the enemy was so pre-occupied with fixing my two partners, that I managed to sneak up behind them to within 10 feet. Two easy kills for me. Our team of three continued up the hill, and saw that there were two guys guarding the back of the bunker. Since we had the optimal vantage position from the top, we sneaked along the ridge till we got behind the bunker. From that point, it was just simple, aim and spray! I ended up with 4 kills, and our team didn't take a single death! Pure Ownage.
Last map was tank warfare. Essentially, you had to race to the center of the map to get a stick of dynamite , which you then had to toss into the enemy tanks to "destroy them". Each side gets two tanks (actually an APC and a tank). It ended up being trench warfare and we just forgot about the stupid dynamite and made it a free-for-all, to waste our remaining ammo. One great moment was when PT and I were advancing up the field, this enemy jumped out of his tank. PT and I both nailed him in the head, one on the goggles, one through the mouth guard. He had chunks of paintball in his mouth! Lol, he told us it did not taste good.
Overall, a very fun afternoon off. Aside from the shot in the chest, I escaped with just a few shots in the tights and arms. Nothing serious. Bunny hopping doesn't work too well, but flanking definitely does. The lack of mini maps and communication between teammates make it uber simple to sneak up on people. Finished up with some dinner at Moose Winooski's and some drinks afterwards in Barrie.
I don't know why it took me this long to realize, but Tochi in Cantonese sounds very similar to 肚臍 (Bellybutton / navel). Maybe that's why Tochi had a nice ring when I picked it.
Edit: Blah, my original statements were confusing quite a few people. Revised them slightly.
Another backdated post. Apologies for being quite long winded again. I don't know why I end up writing so much for these trip recaps. I also have no idea when Part II will be coming....
"Who cares about Taiwan" -Toyo
After the brief visit to Taiwan, my next stop was ShanDong province - 山東省. My first choice was actually 雲南's LiJiang 麗江. Unfortunately, the tours to 麗江 did not work out with my schedule, so I settled for 山東 and Mt. Tai, 泰山. As the saying goes "五嶽歸來不看山，黄山歸來不看嶽" - I might as well see 泰山 before 黄山. :-)
Following Rich's examples, I will spice up the post with some pictures from the trip. Unfortunately, the weather in ShanDong was mostly cloudy and foggy, which ruined the majority of my pictures. The net effect was that colours came out less vivid and the contrast just was not there.
青島 (QingDao/TsingTao)
"紅瓦綠樹，碧海藍天"
青島 (QingDao) is one of three host cities for the 2008 Olympic Games - other two being Beijing and Hong Kong. All the sailing competitions will take place on her beautiful shores. QingDao is one of the most beautiful and relaxing city I have visited in China.
When you land in QingDao's International Airport one of the first things you'll notice is all the Korean signs. Not surprising given the close proximity to South Korea (1 hr flight). Apparently, Koreans have invested a lot of money into QingDao and visit the big golf course in the city a lot.
青島 is a city on a peninsula in the eastern coast of 山東省. 100 years ago, QingDao was a fishing village. During the opium war, QingDao area was given to the Germans on a 99 year lease, much like Macau and Hong Kong. The Germans started to develop this city similar to how the British developed Hong Kong, envisioning it to become an international hub for trade and commerce. However, after their weak showing in WWI, the Germans lost control of QingDao. The Japanese, Americans and Spanish all occupied the city for periods after WWI, adding their flavours and culture to the city. This mixed Western heritage is what makes QingDao so unique.
Unlike any other Chinese city, 青島 feels like an European town. You would be hard-pressed to find any historical Chinese architecture in the city, but you can find several fancy catholic churches (i.e. 青島聖保羅堂). The streets are wide, the city is very clean and the crime rate is uber low. One of few cities in China where I won't be afraid to walk out at night. Their mild seasonal weather is awesome - max ~30C in summer, 10C in winter, with nice ocean breeze and no typhoons.
Very apparent is the fact that the government is really taking a lot of care in developing 青島. For example, the coastal beaches are adorned with amazing sculptures. The night market district is officially zoned for pedestrian shopping purposes. Beautiful murals are painted on the facades of the residential buildings around the night market district. Multi-colour lights line the main shopping area and all the side streets. The street vendor stalls, while crammed with people, are very orderly. Moreover, there aren't any smelly, stale water or garbage on the ground! You'd be hard-pressed to find such a night market anywhere else. I'm not sure how much of this development is related to Olympic preparation.
I should mention that I visited my very first Walmart in China at the night market here. Everyone kept saying there was a "沃爾瑪" here, and were getting really excited!! Their excitement perked my interest too. I had no idea 沃爾瑪 was just Walmart! (沃爾瑪 in Cantonese is 'yuk yi ma', so sounds totally different). The 青島 Walmart supercenter wasn't too special. The grocery section had large pails of rice, yellow beans, red beans and other Chinese goodies. Other sections were like a typical North American Walmart. However, there was a huge books and manga section in the store. There were not any sofas/couches like what you'd find in a Chapters or Borders, so a LOT of people were literally sprawled on the ground reading. Quite a sight.
Enough of Walmart and back to the city itself. Famed activist and philosopher 康友為 described 青島 as "紅瓦綠樹，碧海藍天" (He didn't say exactly this, but something similar). Since then, this phrase (red tiles, green trees, jade seas and blue skies) has been associated with the city. Quite a fitting description of the historic center of the city. As mentioned before, 青島 feels like an European town and the main reason is the buildings in this part of the city. For example, in an area called 八大関 (Eight Passes), filled with double stories homes showcasing different architectures, ranging from German, Swiss and Russian-style. The neighbourhoods are very quiet and peaceful - houses with open front lawns, tall trees shading the roads, very little traffic and pollution. The look-and-feel really resembles some of the high class residential areas in other great Western cities! We saw a few wedding couples in the area taking their photos.
Had a chance to visit some of the more famous houses in this area. The first stop was the 康友為故居. As one of the most forward thinkers of his times, 康友為 tried to introduce western like modernization reforms into China during a period of imperial instability. He had the young (powerless) Emperor's support. Unfortunately, the day before the coup, the Empress 慈禧太后 found out about the revolt and 康友為 and his fellow conspirators were captured or forced into hiding. After moving around in 40 different countries, 康友為 finally settled in 青島. This particular building is a German/Swiss styled villa, which after 康友為's passing, was occupied by the homeless. The government, in an attempt to find historical places for 青島, just decided to make this building such a site, just for the heck of it. The rooms were big and spacious, and there were a lot of artifacts from 康友為's descendents on exhibit. The one piece I was most impressed with was this sofa set, which was a gift from the young Emperor. Looks like a plain wooden sofa, until you closely inspect the engravings and decorations adoring the pieces. Quite impressive. Moving on...
Arguably one of the nicest buildings in the entire city is the former German Commissioner's residence (not really correct translation) (青島前德國總統府 ). The building is like a mini castle without the towers. Since Chairman Mao stayed in this building before, during the rebellion, most of the building was spared from pillaging. The little damage that was done, however, were quite interesting. In the ballroom, there were these human faces sticking out of the wall. The Chinese rebels had a distaste for the German's long noses and decided to axe off a chunk to make the faces look more normal. On the 2nd floor, there was a small light ball with an assortment of colour crystals. On cursory glance, these rocks must be fake (not really polished or clear). Apparently, this little ball is made of real rubies and gems! Someone chopped off one of the rocks and took it home... smart thief. The rest of the residence is really nice. As you walk in, you enter this giant foyer that extends several stories. There are two guest seats in the far side of the room. From the second floor, there are hidden trap windows that lets the owners peer down onto those seats. Sneaky! It was quite impressive how they kept track of all the things that Chairman Mao touched or used. This was the table, desk, seat, bed, bubble gum, etc that Chariman Mao used. Maybe not bubble gum. Overall a very cool and rare building to visit in China.
Another point of attraction is little QingDao (小青島). 小青島 is a small island just off from the city coast. The island had bore the name 青島 until the city stole that name and bestowed it the title of Little 青島. In the middle of the island is a park with an artistic statue of an exposed female angel. All the tour mates (old guys) were all oogling, and the sick jokes started flowing out. The island is also right beside a naval museum, which has the only PLA submarine on public display. Speaking about the seas, there's a famous 青島 icon of a rock that resembles an Old man in a thinking posture. I kept on thinking that was the Old Man and the Sea. One of the best photography spots (like Kerry's Park in Seattle) is Fisherman's hill, which overlooks beach #1 in QingDao. You can get a panoramic shot of the beach and all the little European houses in the neighbourhood. I took a panoramic, but haven't had a chance to put it together yet. Also, on the hill, there were a lot of people selling fresh strawberries. Very tasty.
Likely the most well known symbol of 青島 during the Olympic games will be the ball structure at 五四廣場, as the shoreline along the plaza is the official site of the sailing events. Visited during the day, and there were people flying kites. Watching and hearing them zoom by was pretty cool. Aside from the kites, there were a few beggars at the plaza. They weren't like the type that invaded South Park. These were people who were missing fingers and arms, have ugly wounds, etc. I bet half of these wounds must be self-inflicted. Anyway, my group just kind of ignored them, but one of them came up and grabbed my arm while I was taking a picture. "Do you have any change?" WTF. WTF. WTF. You can ask nicely and I'd just ignore you, but why TOUCH me?!?! Later on, one kind hearted guy pulled a Kyle and gave a beggar ONE RMB. All of a sudden, a dozen beggars came out of nowhere and swamped us. We scrambled back onto the bus to escape the mob. I went back myself that night to catch some night shots of the plaza. The mob was gone.
Finally, the last 青島 icon I'll describe is the long dock/bridge 桟橋. Historically, the bridge was a pier with a small inn at the end for sailors. We did not actually go on the bridge as a group, since it was filled with pick pockets and beggars. We've had enough of them. We instead went to a Kodak photo spot to take pictures from afar. For those of you who did not recognize the bridge, this is the same bridge as the logo of 青島 most famous product....
A visit to 青島 just is not complete without a visit to the BEER FACTORY! 青島 produces one of the most well-known Chinese beer - the 青島啤酒. Actually, 青島啤酒 makes over 60 beers under different labels. I'm not that much of a beer fan, but I've also liked 青島 beer for their light, refreshing taste. Anyway, as part of the tour, you are entitled to unlimited beer (the real kind, made with spring water from 嶗山)! My table was essentially comprised of non-drinkers, so everyone took a sip and I ended up finishing 3/4 of a pitcher myself; "so it won't go to waste". My face was red for the rest of the tour. Ironically, the best part of the tour was not the unlimited beer, but the PEANUTS. Only produced and sold at this factory, these roasted peanuts uses a secret recipe of herbs to produce the perfect companion to 青島啤酒. I fell head over heels eating these peanuts. Everyone ended up buying boxes of these peanuts to go. I picked up two boxes. Seriously, these were some of the best peanuts I've ever had. Something NOT to be missed.
to be continued....