uke envy

I saw these guys a couple years ago in Boston, they were brilliant. Who's for me growing a mustache?? ^^

grad schoool.

Well, it's been a while since I posted here, it's been an adjustment settling into life in America but since I moved into my new place in sunny ALLSTON!, it's been nice to walk instead of commute in the mornings. Amidst frantic reading, papers, and general learning-about-linguistics-ness (which has been brilliant!), I've managed to get out into the world a little bit and catch up with old friends.

Stu, Dawn-Marie and I at King Richard's Faire.



A normal day at work, socializing with students before class starts.



Students show their (Halloween) school spirit.



Me and my buddy Suzanne wait for the Public Library to open in Copley. Love that place.



The trees on my street in Allston are gorgeous.



It's been hard work, but I really love my program at UMass Boston, the readings are all things that I would have loved to explore on my own, but let's face it - didn't have the self-motivation to ever do so. Life is busy but fulfilling. Honestly, my biggest fear in coming back to Boston and diving back into a more normal (less travel-centered) life is that I'll lose sight of the little things in life that make me smile - changing seasons, a quiet cup of tea, blue skies - I don't want to become one of those busy busy people who's so buried in a schedule that he can't see the world around him. I ever get like that, you've all got permission to kick me in the shins till I wake up. :)

SNSD!

소녀시대, "Girl's Generation" ~

Tell me your wish
Tell me that small dream you have inside of your heart
Draw that ideal person you have inside of your head
I'm your genie,
I'm your dream,
I'm your genie
Let's go, riding in the dream car
Sit next to me
Throw everything into my guidance
Even if your heart beat explodes
Even if you fly away with the wind
Right now, this moment, the world is yours
Yes, I love you
Always believe in me
My dreams,
My passion
I want to give them all
I want to answer your wishes
I'm the goddess of your fortunes
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for you boy)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your wish)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your dream)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your dream)
Tell me your wish
Don't the boring days bother you?
Have you become buried by your ordinary life?
Now stop and wake up
You are my superstar, shining star, super star
Release your body into the trembling beating of your heart like a Harley
Now this world is simply your stage
The waves of cheers
In my heart, your body temperature is my path
Forever your Biggest Fan
Yes, I love you
Always believe in me
My dreams,
My passion I want to give them all
I want to answer your wishes
I'm the goddess of your fortunes
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for you boy)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your wish)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your dream)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your dream)
DJ Put it back on
Yes, I love you
Always believe in me
My dreams,
My passion I want to give them all
I want to answer your wishes
I'm the goddess of your fortunes
Tell me your wish!
Yes, I love you
You are my Music
I love you
You are my joy
I love you
I want to be your fortune
(Tell me your fantasy, without holding back
I'll show you the genie's path
Tell me your wish, without holding back
Your genie, I will grant them)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for you boy)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your wish)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your dream)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your dream)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for you boy)
Tell me your wish (I'm genie for your wish)

the highest good

The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent.
In action, watch the timing.

Tao Te Ching

what is enlightenment?

I've been thinking about this question for a few years now, and whenever I'm struck by something I read or experience, I try to somehow add it to my own unwieldy definition. I know others have said it more simply, but I see the journey to enlightenment more as an unfolding mental process, and I've liked developing this more lengthy version which works for me whenever I find myself heading off track. Wondering what you guys think, here's what I've landed on so far:

Enlightenment begins with the sharp perception and experience of present moment awareness and thankfulness and the wonder of being human, builds with education and the broadening and refining of a sense of culture and the world and the good life, an unattachment to results, the realization that everyone (including ourselves) is Buddha/Jesus/insert_deity_here (perfect, just as we are), the nonjudgmental acceptance of and celebration of everything, the oneness/nonduality of everything - and ends with effortless compassionate actions to empower others.

go down from the mountain!

Hanna taught me a fascinating Korean idiom today. 하산해 - "ha san hey" - which literally means "go down from the mountain", in common speech is used by a teacher when a student has mastered something. In ages past, it was common for the old masters to live on mountains, and the students would come up to visit and learn from them for a while. When the master had nothing left to teach, he would say "go down from the mountain, go back to society!" Such a great image, in just three syllables! It comes from:
the Chinese 下, which in Korean is 하 (ha), meaning down,
Chinese 山, Korean 산 (san), meaning mountain,
and the Korean imperative verb ending 해 (hey) meaning to go, do, etc.

ugly baby

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!" The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The driver just insulted me!" The man says: "You go right up there and tell him off – go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you."

how's the tom sawyer in you? 너의 마음속 톰 소여는 잘 있니?

Hanna gave me a book in Japan called "Love and Free" - a photo/poetry diary of a Japanese couple as they traveled around the world.

"As a kid, I got a bicycle
and the entire town became my playground
As a teenage-punk, I got a motorcycle
and the entire prefecture became my playground
And now, I got time
and am trying to make the entire world my playground

I've always been really good at thinking up new ways
to play in new playgrounds
My style hasn't changed at all
The tools have changed with age
my playground just keeps expanding

"Hey, what do you wanna play?"
There aren't any words that could stimulate
my creativity more than this question does.

"Hey, what are you playing?"
"어이, 뭐하고 놀고 있어?"

- Ayumu Takahashi


Hurricane Bill is coming on Sunday, and creating some beautiful dark cloud / sun patterns in the sky.



Today I went swimming in the sun, while it rained!

MUD!

At 대천 (Daecheon) Beach in 보령 (Boryeong) in Korea, there's a whole lot of mud.

last days in jeju, 2009

I'm really going to miss it here in Jeju.

The other day Hanna and I went to a coffeeshop and played Jenga ~





We've climbed the misty mountains,



and made friends with fat fat Buddhas.



Last weekend we went to Udo Island, a small island off the east coast of Jeju. We camped right on the white coral beach, here's our tent!





We could see the sunset from the beach every night.



On the second night we climbed a small volcanic hill in one corner of the island, where they let the horses graze w/ no fences or ropes to restrict them - true island life!



... and of course ramen for breakfast on the beach!



Until we meet again, Jeju Island ... it's getting harder and harder to leave you!

Xi'an, China - snake wine, warriors, Muslims

Xi'an, near the center of China, is steeped in history as well as, at least when I was visiting, near monsoon-caliber rains. Though of course, I did get out to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.



It's very difficult to capture in a picture the size and grandeur of this place. You can walk around the outside of the complex, which resembles a giant stadium, and look down on the the warriors inside. There are some places where you can get a closer look.



The Emperor Qin Shi Huang (around 210 BCE) constructed these warriors and had them placed in his future tomb, so that he'd have an army even in the afterlife. Quite soon after they were built, the emperor who ordered their construction died. Not surprisingly, the peasants soon revolted and ended up looting the tombs and smashing all the Terra Cotta Warriors they could find. Some survived, most did not, and almost all that are on display now had to be pieced together from parts.



Not all the warriors were locked up in pits, however. Some had made it out to local bars and hostels in Xi'an - there was one Terra Cotta head in our hostel bar, who gratefully accepted a beer when I offered it. He must have been thirsty surviving for over 2,000 years (not to mention being made of dirt).



Also in that hostel bar was a very interesting jug of ... pickled animals?? Upon closer inspection:



There was a very visible turtle in there as well, don't know why it wasn't mentioned on the list. :P The bartender told us it was medicinal baiju (Chinese liquor). What with the rainy weather, a few guys and I thought it would be a good idea, for the sake of our health, to take a shot. Mmmm ... just what the doctor ordered!



The next day, all rested from my medicine the night before, headed out to explore the Muslim quarter of Xi'an. It was my first visit ever to a mosque.



This one was, to be expected, very Chinese in style - it was very interesting to see the juxtaposition of Muslim and Chinese architecture, Muslim and Chinese writing everywhere.







Also in the mosque, saw an amazing tree!



Next stop - Beijing!

Tiger Leaping Gorge

I know this might seem a little out of order, but I'm doing a little retrospective of my Chinese trip, since I didn't have the bandwidth to blog about it in China.

Tiger Leaping Gorge! The place is as cool as the name sounds. The Yangtze River flows at the base of the gorge, which is the third longest in the world and spills out eventually into the Pacific at Shanghai. According to local legend, there's a rock in the gorge which sticks out over the river, and long long ago a tiger once jumped from one side of the river to the other, from that rock. Didn't see the rock, but I see a whole lot of other breathtaking sights.



Right after I started the hike I was closely followed by a man on a ... is that a mule? I think so. He didn't say much, and my little attempts at Chinese conversation were just met with a smile. It was creepy how close he stayed behind me, stopping when I stopped, but talking with other travelers I discovered that these locals are eager to step in and offer assistance to weary / injured travelers on the trail (for a price of course). They're not highway robbers.



Huzzah! Note to self - leave the heavy bag at the hostel at the trail head next time, and take a day pack.



I met up with a couple of Koreans on the trail who were great company (and I got to practice my Korean!) They told me w/ some guilt about how they lied to their children and left them w/ grandparents before coming on this trip to China. Hey, you gotta get out of the house somehow! Here they are looking out on the gorge.



This was the place I stayed at, close to the half-way point on the trek - 茶馬 "cha-ma" meaning "tea horse". It was amazing, I've never stayed at a guest house on a mountain before. We all ate together - the trekkers who crashed there that night - and I felt bad that I was feeling so sick, it was hard to leave the good conversation.



Sunrise at the guesthouse was glorious but late (maybe 9:00?), since the sun was behind the mountains.



Found a Tibetan temple close to the end of the hike (Tiger Leaping Gorge is fairly close to the Tibetan border and there are a lot of ethnic Tibetans in the area).





Definitely one of the highlights of my trip, maybe someday I can go back when I'm in better health!

down to 서귀포 for the weekend

Sum up Korea in three things, you ask? Easy - kimchi, hanging out at Family Mart, and lots of green green money. ^^



Hanna and I went down south to Seogwipo this weekend, to walk along the newly built Olle coast road and visit my homestay family.



I realized how much I miss Kyeong-hwan, every time I see him he's taller, but he's still got the same enthusiasm and happy go lucky nature he's always had. I first met him in elementary school and now he's a freshman in high school!



Also, Jeju flowers are glorious. I love this island!

so what have I been doing in Jeju?

Hanna's got a new way to seduce a man ~ tattoos!



(made from shaving cream)

arrived in jeju & busy & lazy

Well I've arrived here in Jeju, South Korea, it's been ages since I updated things here on Teadiaries, mostly because I was busy trying to fit as much tourist-time as I could in Beijing and Tianjin and then when I arrived in Jeju I've just been - lazy. Yep, no excuses. :-D

I took a lot of pictures in China, over 1600 it looks like, I'll be going through them in the next week or so. And I've got almost as many stories to tell, I think. I went through a notebook and a half of journaling, jotting down Chinese phrases, shopping lists, random stuff on the street - all kinds of junk. I can't wait to go through it, and put some of it up here. But for now, let me start where I left off ...

From Dali I journeyed north to Lijiang, the "must-see backpacker mecca" of Yunnan Province. Lijiang is a difficult city to describe, probably because I didn't see too much of the modern city. The "old city" of Lijiang is a maze of cobbled streets, incomprehensible maps, and absolutely no cars. It's glorious and strange at the same time. My first morning in Lijiang I suddenly couldn't eat anything (and for those of you who know me, you know how out of character THAT is. ^^ In this tourist, no car dreamworld, there were no pharmacies, no convenience stores, and a 15 minute walk to a taxi to take me to any of those places. And considering that I didn't know what was wrong with me, or how to explain it in Chinese, I mostly stayed within my cobblestoned paradise. The picture below is from the main square in the Old Town, it was so hard to navigate around, but I DID know that the street which lay between the "Octopus Pill" shop and the "Dried Meat Yak" shop (zoom into the pic to see the names) was my way back to the hostel. Before you say "oh hey look there's a car" - that was a police van, he was seriously the only one I swear. :)



Met a Korean couple and two Korean students on a hike and we roamed all over together (and they actually gave me some medicine as well!).



At one point I got trapped down a well.



Lijiang is famous for its water canals, running all over the Old City. On the restaurant boulevard, I met a very photogenic cat.



And of course I had a cup of tea (ginseng), at a tea shop which overlooks the traditional roofs of the Old City.



My last night in Lijiang, weak from not eating, I realized as I stepped out of the internet cafe that it was in fact Friday night, and the city was alive. Sick as I was, I pulled out my camera and lurched around the streets, feeling like Hunter S Thompson in Fear and Loathing, caught up in the carnival of lights and sounds.



Despite my sickness, whatever it was, while I was in Lijiang I took the bus out to Tiger Leaping Gorge and did an overnight trek - more on that next time!

head west, young man - Dali, Yunnan Province

I took the train from Guilin to Kunming, then a bus northwest to DALI! But first, the last night I was in Yangshuo I went cormorant fishing - and I guess the old bird took a liking to me.

Dali is famous for its Bai people (one of the minority cultures in China), there are about 1.3 million of them living in the Dali area. I had the good fortune to attend a renactment of a Bai wedding, so much fun!

Apparently they have a tradition of ass-pinching the bride throughout the ceremony!

The Bai tea is amazing, we got to taste three cups at the ceremony - the first is bitter because when you're young you have to work hard, the second is sweet because after working you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, and the third is flavorful (like chai actually) because old age is full of memories. I bought some of each to bring home. This picture is the sweet one, there's milk and a bit of almond in it.

A giant medallion of TEA!!

In one of the Bai towns, you could walk around and poke your head into families' houses, which felt really weird, but we did it anyway.

These noodles were the best I've EVER had, hands down. There's actually 4 or 5 different types of noodles mixed in there, and the sauce is soy/chili. That's my second bowl.

They cut the yellow noodles from this big block which looks like cheese.

Silk worms sitting (festering?) in a basket in front of someone's house.

Couldn't wait to eat me some crayfish and bullfrog! Yep, they put them on skewers. there's grasshoppers there too if you zoom in.

On every street corner, in every park, behind every cash register people are playing Chinese chess or card games. There's a wonderful laid-back energy here, people don't feel like they have to pretend to be professional at all - though sometimes you do have to wake people up to pay for something.

And lastly - colorful chicks!!

head west, young man - Dali, Yunnan Province

I took the train from Guilin to Kunming, then a bus northwest to DALI! But first, the last night I was in Yangshuo I went cormorant fishing - and I guess the old bird took a liking to me.



Dali is famous for its Bai people (one of the minority cultures in China), there are about 1.3 million of them living in the Dali area. I had the good fortune to attend a renactment of a Bai wedding, so much fun!



Apparently they have a tradition of ass-pinching the bride throughout the ceremony!



The Bai tea is amazing, we got to taste three cups at the ceremony - the first is bitter because when you're young you have to work hard, the second is sweet because after working you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, and the third is flavorful (like chai actually) because old age is full of memories. I bought some of each to bring home. This picture is the sweet one, there's milk and a bit of almond in it.



A giant medallion of TEA!!



In one of the Bai towns, you could walk around and poke your head into families' houses, which felt really weird, but we did it anyway.





These noodles were the best I've EVER had, hands down. There's actually 4 or 5 different types of noodles mixed in there, and the sauce is soy/chili. That's my second bowl.



They cut the yellow noodles from this big block which looks like cheese.



Silk worms sitting (festering?) in a basket in front of someone's house.



Couldn't wait to eat me some crayfish and bullfrog! Yep, they put them on skewers. There's grasshoppers there too if you zoom in.





On every street corner, in every park, behind every cash register people are playing Chinese chess or card games. There's a wonderful laid-back energy here, people don't feel like they have to pretend to be professional at all - though sometimes you do have to wake people up to pay for something.



And lastly - colorful chicks!!