Here’s to hoping 2012 and year 2 in Canada is a good year.

I don’t remember what time we started the wedding day. It was probably early. We went to the apartment at Yali (where we stayed last time in China) to prepare, it’s less than a block to the Wedding location. Lin was doing make-up and hair at this point. There were 2 photographers and 1 video guy. They cost less than one photographer in the US. I was on my own – so I took a nap in the other room and watched TV.

We did not follow all the traditions for a Chinese wedding. For example, the groom and his groomsmen start the day at the groom’s place. They drive to the bride’s to pick her up. The bridesmaids issue challenges for the groom to complete. This might be quizzes as to the bride’s favorite songs/foods, questions as to who will do the chores/cooking, feats of ridiculousness, etc. Here I had no groomsmen, she no bridesmaids, and I was starting at the same place. So we skipped all of that. We did do one tradition, the groom is supposed to find the bride’s shoe and put it on (her). I just asked her why, she doesn’t know, “it’s tradition.” I’ll assume it represents the bride never being ready to go on time and encourages patience and helpfulness from the groom.

We took a number of posed shots in the apartment with each other, her parents, and some others who were around. This included a shot of the photographers with me – I guess they had never had a foreigner in one of their weddings. They had to ask through Lin, since my Chinese is poor and their English is better, but not good.

We hopped in a caravan of cars and drove around the block to the wedding. As we got out, I was helping Lin out of the car – and they said I had to carry her. It was a bit odd pulling her out of the car (angles were weird), but I had no problem. Apparently, I would normally only have to carry her into the hotel (about 20 feet) – but since Lin is so light and I was having an easy time about it – they insisted I had to carry her upstairs and into the wedding room (there was an elevator, do not worry).

The wedding itself was a crazy event with me wondering more than anything what was going on and what I was agreeing to. Hopefully someday I’ll get a copy of the video to the closest of you at some point. As a quick summary:

Throughout the ceremony there were about 3 lines I understood. Someday I will need to translate this to figure out what I agreed to. I hope to subtitle the video at some point, so far there is no progress. There is an emcee that leads the ceremony. He talks a lot. Generally there is embarrassing entertainment (kind of like the bridesmaide/groomsmen events). We skipped this. Some may have appreciated it, as it makes it easier to eat – some may have wished to see it. I dunno. But it’s my impression that the bride/groom are targets for humor.

Throughout the ceremony there are many occurrences of red-envelope passing. This is money/gifts. I knew about red envelopes, and everyone generally gives them at a gift table prior to the ceremony. Nobody remembered to tell me there were more. So, when I offered tea to her parents, they each passed me a red envelope. I of course was not expecting it and had no idea what to do with it. Do I hold on to it? put it in my pocket? pass it off to someone else? Later there was a toasts – we pass envelopes to them. So really, envelopes of money get pushed into my hands and I hope they all ended up in the right place.

There is a pyramid of wine glasses that we poured. We took a bottle of red wine, poured it in the top glass, and watched it pour into all the others. Not sure that this symbolizes anything other than it’s cool … However, I don’t think this wine ever got drank. It’s a waste of precious wine. PLUS, when lin and I drank together immediately afterwards, arms interlocked, we drank water! If you saw the video – I was not expecting water. I thought it was white wine. I started drinking it, and was surprised. Also, I had no idea what we were doing – do i drink all of it or just a sip. Glancing at Lin, she was almost done. I had to hurry to catch up, but had swallowed weird due to the unexpected water. Needless to say, I choked a bit on the glass and had to cough a few times afterwards.

Lin had 3 hairdos and 2 dresses. This is common, it’s also why the makeup person and hairdressers travel with us. People ate well while she changed. We then went table to table toasting with all the guests. Once again, we had water. Some people use wine, and with friends the friends will encourage the bride/groom to finish the glass otherwise “are you not my friend” I guess it’s not uncommon to have the bestman/maid of honor to do the drinking for you…

People left, and we saw them all out.

After the wedding, we went up to the hotel suite. A number of family members were there just to socialize. Certainly this is a get together for them as well. Traditionally, their goal is to play games to embarrass the bride/groom and otherwise not leave the suite until late into the first night. Also, encouragement to have children soon.

Lin’s cousin proposed going for a massage and took any who wanted to come along. I think we had about 10 or so. It was quite good. We came back and snacked on various chinese foods and fruit. There was never a shortage of good food.

The first few nights, we stayed a hotel. It was an interesting room for sure (picture above). It was really cheap, because it was so new – and it was just down the street from Lin’s mom. I was afraid of rolling off the bed and into the bath. Somehow, I managed to secure the opposite side of the bed.

At this point, I needed a suit. The lost luggage was obviously lost. Going to a mall, we found a suit place that had a sale going on one of the new fall styles. Asking the price, it was roughly ~RMB2200 or about $300 for the jacket, pants, shirt, and tie. It was 65% off it’s original price. Lin asked “Do you have one that will fit him.” The lady said “Suites are made for bodies like him” Needless to say, we found a good fit – and I looked good, once again.

We visited Lin’s dad, and brought a basket of fruit. I almost didn’t recognize him for various reasons. But, I attribute the most of it to the fact that he shaved his moustache. We stayed a visited for a while – me totally oblivious to most conversation. From there, we went to do a rehearsal for the wedding. And here I learned that the vows would be “(Chinese Chinese Chinese). Tony, do you?” I still have no idea to what I agreed. There will be video – I need to improve my Chinese.

The wedding, and I might expound on this in a later post when I have pictures, was Chinese in some sense but also much more relaxed. It’s more traditional to give the couple a hard time about everything – from picking up the bride, to quizzing the couple (similar to the Newlywed Game) during the ceremony while everyone is eating, to not leaving their wedding suite until you make them play whatever embarrassing games you can come up for them. Ours was much, much, more chill. I don’t think anyone had a problem with it – actually it makes for a much better dinner experience because you can actually talk to the people at your table.

Following the ceremony, Lin’s cousin treated us and about 7-8 other family members to a foot/body massage. That – was a good idea. It was 5 people per room, so still quite social, and since Lin’s cousin knows some English – I wasn’t entirely out of the conversation all the time.

Aside from Lin being gone taking care of business for her dad, one of my favorite days was spent at that same cousin’s house. They were trying overly hard to keep me entertained – keeping the TV on english channels, forcing their son to play me in Go (he annihilated me), encouraging me to play video games – but the best part was cooking pizza. Evidently, her son likes to cook but has been having problems with pizza. Apparently, the main issue was with the dough – it ends up chewy and soggy. Initially I figured they just weren’t preheating the oven, as they seemed confused by the idea.

So – I showed him how to make dough (from scratch). I showed how to roll out the dough … they don’t make much bread in southern China. They were impressed with my dough rolling abilities. I like to think it came across as “Hmm, this guy actually does have some skills / redeeming qualities” since I feel like my lack of Chinese skills makes me appear less competent than I am. Assembling the pizza, we got the the cheese. Cheese in not a popular food in China. … And the cheeses they had aquired: processed American and Brie. I went with the Brie and just let the American cheese be.

Finally, we were ready to preheat the oven. … the oven … the… (Lin’s cousin turns on the microwave) … wait what? Yes. Turns out they have no oven – baking is also not common in China. This – I think – is the crux of the failed pizza issue. Will all our work go to waste because we don’t have the correct baking tools? So, the microwave does have a “Barbecue” setting that is supposed to be more like an oven (apparently that’s how they normally cook things like this). So, we pinned our hopes on that setting.

The dough was a bit chewier than expected, but not bad overall. The pizza was pretty good, and they said it was leaps and bounds beyond their previous attempts. Once Lin was back in the conversation, it seems most of the issues were probably with the dough itself – and not letting it rise enough. A victory for food.

In any case, the comic from xkcd here explains the issues:

Our original plan was to have them burned to a disc and mailed. Turns out that doesn’t work. Apparently you are not permitted to send discs internationally from China due to the mass pirating that occurs. So now it’s plan B … either mail a USB stick, or attempt to use ftp.

For Xi’an, we decided to play a little game. Namely, it was called “What, I don’t understand Chinese?” It was mostly Lin playing this game, as I can do it without thinking. She almost blew the whole plan in the airport, when she greeted the driver in Chinese. Luckily, she didn’t say anything that couldn’t have been learned in one or two years of Classroom Chinese. Though I’m sure here pronunciation was impeccable.

First up in Xi’an was a trip to the City Wall. This wall surrounds the entire old city. Now, Xi’an was the capital earlier in Chinese history, for some time BC but mostly during the Tang dynasty (circa 600-900). So, the heavily fortified city is much smaller than Xi’an today. Also, traffic is a mess trying to get into the walled city, as there are a limited number of entrances. But, it’s not so bad once inside. The entire wall is walkable. Unlike the great wall, it’s also flat. It’s only 14 km all the way around. On another day, Lin and I might have just walked the whole route, but we had terre cotta warriors to go see. There were also bicycles to rent. It was during this time, we realized our new guide – though off to a rough start – was actually a better guide than the first. He was much more casual, would explain stuff to us, and then let us wander around. We’d set a time to meet up at a specific location. His style was a mixture of informative and lazy.

On the way to the terre cotta warriors we stopped at another place where they made replicas of the warriors. These are high quality replicas, using methods as close to the original as possible. In general I liked this place because it was actually informative: there was a brief 15 minute description of how it’s done … however, to exit you have to navigate a maze of vendors. Initially it’s related – terre cotta statues, pottery, jade carving… then it explodes into furniture, silk, embroidery, puppets, etc.

The terre cotta warriors are clay statues. It was not uncommon for the emperor, when he died, to be buried with his servants to help him in the afterlife. This emperor wanted an army to be buried with him. Rather than killing off the army (which would leave the empire defenseless), he was convinced to create the terre cotta army in it’s place. Each soldier is unique. They are made to resemble each person in the actual army. Only a few pits are dug up at this point, but it’s enough to see a wide variety of statues. These statues are from circa 200 BC.

The site was forgotten. They did something to the ground to make it less desirable for farming (can’t remember what). It was rediscovered in 1974 when some farmers were digging a well and they uncovered the head of one of the statues. Supposedly, it freaked out said farmers – who thought it was a ghost or something. In any case, you can get the signature of the farmer who actually uncovered it on the site as he generally stops in for autographs.

In all the pictures they look to be a dusty orange or grey. They are actually painted. However, once they are re-exposed to air, the paint quickly deteriorates. Thus, most of the collection is still buried until they work out how to retain the color. Supposedly, some German company has done this, and the next dig in 2012 (or 13) should preserve color. However, that was said for the last dig to… and it didn’t work.

That was it for the day. It was a short day and ended at 3pm (this is why the guide wanted to start late). So, we had them drop us at another site (the Goose Pagoda). We assured them we’d be fine getting back to the hotel. The guide was nervous, and had Lin attempt to pronounce some words to convey the location to the cab driver (that we would have to use on the way back). He was certainly impressed with her pronunciation. We followed the Pagoda with a trip to a huge dumpling house, recommended by the person at the front desk of the hotel.

We then wrapped up our day and prepared for the trip to the airport (in the morning) for Changsha.

First stop was Tianamen Square. We didn’t realize how quick some of this touring would be. We only got 1 picture of the square, and only walked through it to get to the Forbidden city. The tour guide gave us a little background. We both feel it was severely lacking. If it were up to us, we would have wandered around a bit.

The tour of the Forbidden City was longer, but we suspect that’s because it just takes time to walk through it. It’s slowed down by the security checks and various gates you have to pass through. In any case, it felt like we flew through it as well. Though, we were better at taking pictures. It’s just that many of them aren’t that interesting. Getting a picture in the Forbidden city was a challenge because everyone was taking pictures of exactly the same thing. I took a few pictures where that wasn’t the case, but overall our tour-guide was pushing us through.

After popping out the back end of the forbidden city, I realized how quickly this stuff was going to go. I had thought we would walk back the way we came and been able to see Tianamen again. The tour guide was then pressuring us to visit some place to see how silk was made, they also had a shop there too. This sounded kind of boring, and we didn’t trust him anymore (check out the Houhai incident in the last post). We had decided not to accept anything he offered. We then went to lunch.

Lunch was meh. We did not get to order. It was included in the price of the tour, and for the average tourist on these arranged tours it made sense. But for us – the food was almost Americanized Chinese food. Better than the average Chinese restaurant in the US, but nothing interesting. We discussed our disappointment in the tour at this point. In spite of our hiring an English speaking guide, he spoke mostly Chinese, because Lin could understand him – leaving me out of many explanations and leaving Lin to translate.

The afternoon was spent at the Summer Palace. Much more open and natural than the forbidden city, this was a nice place to walk around. It was still crowded though. After walking through a long covered walkway, we came to a fork – take a Dragon boat back or keep walking around the lake. However, the tourguide was pressuring us to take the dragon boat back, or walk back the way we came. He claimed walking around the lake would take a few hours. After debating for a while, we just got tired of it and decided to take the boat – since you could still see a fair amount. But we were really getting pissed with this tour. He even pulled Lin aside at some point and explained that he makes money if he convinces us to go to all these side stores (the silk place, a pearl place he was pushing us on, getting us to sign up for a evening show). We don’t even have to buy anything, just show up. BUT IT STILL COSTS US TIME!

We finished the first day walking around the Olympic area. It constantly had the musical theme for the 2008 olympics playing. I would hate to work there. The tour guide was now pushing us to do a “Tea Ceremony” – which sounded interesting. So we agreed. Unfortunately “Tea Ceremony” means go to a tea place where there is no ceremony, just a tasting of teas where they expect you to buy something. We left pissed off and the hostess left pissed off because we didn’t buy anything. I would have much rather paid for a nice ceremony and no sales. We loathed our tour at this point.

For dinner, we met up with various friends from Lin’s past who were in Beijing. I pretty much fell asleep at the table. Afterwards, we went to the mall to buy me some clothes, so I could wear something other than an undershirt. Finding a taxi was difficult here too.

Second day was off to the Great Wall. Rather than eat the breakfast at the hotel, we found some illegal Jidanbing (the egg crepe). It was illegal in some sense, because the vendor wasn’t licensed to be selling it, but it was the second best food we had in Beijing (second to the duck). There was also a tour of the Ming Tombs beforehand – but we really didn’t take many pictures (the gold objects was one) because it wasn’t that interesting. The tour-guide tried to get us to go to a jade store, but we don’t care about jade. Lunch was similar to the day before, meh and generic. Off to the wall.

You get up to this section of the wall on ski lifts. As per our own discussions, we had tons of time today, and we weren’t going to listen to the tour guide. He suggested turning back when we had barely had a chance to walk. So we said no, and kept going and kept walking. At one point, he stopped and said he would meet us as we came back. Finally. We realized how much our tour-guide just hovered and never let us wander about on our own. It was so relieving to just wander around. We came back when we felt like it.

That was it for Beijing. They dropped us at the airport at something like 4pm. Our flight was at 10pm.

Best things about Beijing: The Great Wall, Jidanbing, the Duck. Worst things: Taxis, the tour.

In Beijing and Xi’an we booked an English tour. This included a tour-guide, dedicated driver, hotel, and preset agenda. Since it was just us, there was still flexibility in our schedule, but we didn’t have to plan it. The tour guide met up with us at the Beijing airport as I arrived. The first day was to introduce himself to us and drop us at the hotel. At the hotel, the guide offered to wait around and drop us off at Houhai for some Peking Duck in a nice walkable area around a lake. Of course, this was not free, he suggested tipping 100 rmb (roughly $20) as that would be similar to cab fare and we wouldn’t have to make an effort to get a cab.

We were jetlagged and exhausted, but the Peking duck was delicious. We had ordered half a duck and some appetizers. We walked around the lake to work off some calories, and started looking for some dessert. It started pouring.

Probably the last place we wanted to go was Starbucks in China. But as it started pouring (we did have umbrellas) it was the closest place and was more or less empty. So we ducked in. After finishing our smoothie, it didn’t look like it was going to stop raining anytime soon. We resigned ourselves to get wet and went out to catch a cab.

Needless to say, there is an apparent shortage of cabs in Beijing. It took forever to find one. It was a miserable experience. We later found out Beijing had started a policy that led to many cab drivers losing their licenses (basically excessively strict penalties for drinking – not necessarily while driving). The cab ride also only cost us about 22 rmb ($5). We no longer trusted our tour guide.

My flight out of Toronto was scheduled for 7 am. Having dropped off Lin in the past, I was planning on being there at 4 am to be sure I had time, I had to leave by 3 am …. and since I was using an external parking lot, I left by 2:30. I had a two hour nap and large espresso before I left.

The flights out there were pretty standard and went well enough. The inflight movies were mediocre (Thor, Win Win, Rio, one other). Anymore, I hate flights with only 1 film at a time. United only seems to have the system that plays one movie throughout the cabin. In addition to my other United problems (lost bags, booking problems, boarding pass problems) I will avoid them for the foreseeable future.

As for the meals, they are always bad (unless it’s Qantas – they have superb food). However, I do not sleep on planes so that I can get all the meals. Airlines charge $7 for a small snackbox on short flights. If they skip me during mealtime because I am asleep, I consider it theft. Also – on international flights – alcohol is free (yay wine!).

Anyway, I arrived in Beijing with little to no problems – until I went to get my bag, and it wasn’t there. Lin had beat me to the airport and was waiting out in the arrival area. I had to file my lost bag form.

Boo!

I’ve generally been too cheap to replace it. But – I did. I decided to go with a Toronto Blue Jays cap – with the alternate logo. The alternate logo is just a T. So, it’s a hint at my name while still being locally relavant. Excellent.

I was debating about other options Tampa Bay (TB), Boston (B), Angels/Braves(Atlanta) (A).

Generally the frisbee team only sees me after exercise (practice or a game), and since we go out socially I plan on eating more calories ahead of time. You see, my food intake is actually pretty regimented. Most of my meals during the week are set in place, and I relax any limits on the days we go out. So, if I’m in a restaurant, chances are I’m eating more than I normally would. Let me break down the normal day:

• Breakfast: 450 calories with Granola/Milk
• Lunch: 350 calories with cottage cheese/nuts/fruit
• Snacks: 100-250 (if hungry) with Granola Bars or fruit or Tim Horton’s donuts, or whatever someone brought in.
• Dinner: (600-1300) Whatever we make.

Basically, until dinner time, everything is pretty much set already. If I’m on a 500-calorie deficit (~1650 calories a day to lose a pound a week) then I still have about 600-750 calories to play with. Most meals we cook can easily fit in this range, it just means fewer extras like cheese, beer, snacks after dinner. Most of our meals lately consist of vegetables (lots, because of the CSA) a bit of meat (often, but not always), and spices. Generally no rice or pasta when on deficit.

The magic foods are eggs and shrimp. If I’m running short of calories for the day – or – if I want to have a beer or ice creame, shrimp or eggs with vegetables is a good goto dinner. They really don’t have many calories to them.

I drink a lot of water and tea throughout the day (and at most 2 coffees, if i even have coffee). I don’t add any sugar or milk or anything. No extra calories, and keeps me hydrated.

Weekends tend to have bigger meals, but only two of them.

I’ll not say as much on the exercising, but I generally get 4-5 days with some for of working out (not counting the biking I do to work everyday).

So really, there is no secret. Pay attention to what you eat and be sure to exercise in the mean time.