groovelotion

my oddest day in China thus far began early in the morning with a trip to the bank to get cash to pay my hotel bill. So I already mentioned there are crossing guards at all the major intersections with orange vests and unecessary whistles. Anyways, I get lucky enough to come across one lady who takes her job way to seriously. I'm sitting at the crosswalk waiting and then i hear the damn annoying "whirrrrrrrreeeeeee". I look up and she's walking toward me waving her big red flag. What? I'm not going anywhere, she must be whistling at someone behind me. She keeps blowing and blowing, walking closer and closer. I look down to see that, and I'm not kidding, my toe was on the white crosswalk line. You've gotta be joking, she can't be ... read more

Yeah, I can't confirm it cause I don't know how to say "pig's lower intestine" in Chinese, actually...who am I kidding? I don't know how to say anything in Chinese with the exception of "thank you, thank you". So when I sat down for hot-pot at a questionable stall last week and tried to convey that I was not interested in any pork products, when the waitress said in Chinese... "So you want Pork anus?" I must have replied with... "Thank you! Thank you!" I walk around here sounding like a freaking Little Ceasar's commercial. I'm not so sure it was the content of the meal so much as it was the conditions that caused me to miss a day of surgery last week and stay confined to my hotel room. I also say that sentence ... read more

Sorry there are no cool pics to accompany this post, next time around perhaps. All you'll get is an earful of my patented rants... Ahhhh, back in my hood where I am the most thuggish ruggish med student in town. After waking up at 5am in Lhasa and walking along the darkened streets, running from sketchy looking dogs and giving the headnod 'wassup' to the streetsweepers who were the only other people out at that hour, I arrived at the bus departure point for the airport only to discover it doesn't leave for another hour. I'm Alaskan and no wus to morning temperatures, but my butt was freakin cold sitting there just praying for the darn bus to hurry up and go. Damn, why didn't I buy one of those prayer wheels. I also wasn't even ... read more

Man, I know I bitch a lot about the snoring kid in my room and thankfully last night was the last I saw of him, but here is how he chose to spend his last night in chez backpacker. He stumbles home around 2am and starts talking about how much whiskey he's downed. Way to go man, I thought my fraternity days were over. Then he climbs into bed and begins the expected roaring snoring, only this time all of a sudden he stops. Awe crap, he's dead. Sven, I think your buddies dead. Then I hear this deep bubbly belch. Dude, I know that burp and I know what it means. He jumps out of bed and runs to the door only to yak half on himself and half in the entryway before leaning over ... read more

All my posts from Tibet will be titled by lines from 'The Golden Child'. Day Deux- Lhasa, Tibet After a freaking thunderstorm from the Wizard of Oz and a Brit whose snoring and flatulence was cruel and unusual, I woke up super early and headed to the Jokhang again, this time to see the inner halls chapels and to experience it with all of the pilgrims. Seriously, this kid is working my last nerve, and I haven't even spoken a word to him yet. All I know is that he snores like there's a flap of steak lodged in his throat. I love the British, but this guy is testing me in a Hugh Grant meets Howard Stern type way. My first thought was "crap, this guy probably has sleep apnea, and if he stops breathing ... read more

I'm sorry, but it's true. With the exception of Yao Ming, we weren't meant to play basketball competitively at the highest levels. The NBA has done a pretty good job of marketing over here and the basketball craze is fairly substantial. I walk past a bunch of courts on my way to class and you should see how many people are hoopin' it up. And by hooping it up, I mean almost killing eachother. For those of you that went to Hopkins, remember open gym? When the Lamda the "asian interest" fraternity would be out there playing pick up games and hopelessly flailing about underneath the net? Probably half the guys there were breaking ankles...and I mean that literally, not in an Alan Iverson Crossover type way. It's the same here. These guys are fit, but ... read more

Here are the pictures from my trip to the Panda Reserve and Breeding ground. The tour was pretty cool, you get to hear the Chinese tourguides use words like "crap" when trying to describe the Pandas gastrointestinal functions. Also there are so few of these poor guys b/c in addition to a very picky bamboo taste, they only get it on like once a year. They tried to explain this away by saying that only a very small portion of the food intake is converted into chemical energy, thus they just don't have the spare pep for reproductive activities. These guys seriously eat all day long, that's all they do. Eat, sleep and "crap" as my tour guide put it. You can't tell me that they can't step it up and get it on maybe, let's ... read more