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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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So here are a few more pictures from Lhasa, Tibet. I also threw in a classic group photo from my time in the Hematology ward of the West China University Hospital. Let me tell you, it's gonna be tough to get back into the swing of a normal day that doesn't include a 3 hour lunch. I also cannot convey the chaos that occurs in the hospital. Today I went to the outpatient building to visit some Drs and to best describe it, it's like an airport on a holiday weekend. Except that it's got that Chinese twist in culture. For [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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. [View Full Entry]

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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. [View Full Entry]

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Lhasa, Tibet - Day Uno I believe my first exposure to Tibet would have been thanks to Eddie Murphy's classic 'The Golden Child' back in the day when I was like nine, hence the title of this entry. This also forced me to fight the urge the first time I saw the prayer wheels in the temples to do the classic "I said...Aye Aye Aye-ay Aye Aye-I waaaant the kniiiiiife....pullleaze". If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you need to go rent the movie, because I assure you what I'm saying is funny...well, to me it is. Alas, I [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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2 hour bus ride from Chengdu makes this an easy day trip. If you can, you should totally check it out, and while the entire day was full of rain, i think it made it a lot cooler in a mystical type way. wow, did I actually use the word "mystical"? I meant Mystikal. click on the "full text" link to see all of the pics. [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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