Sometimes it feels I am living in an airport.. like in Incheon (South Korea), probably the airport where I spent most time.
Its sunday morning, Did I sleep ? Not really, saturday was the only free time I had to see Seoul. The rest of the week was spent in LG town (aka Gumi). And of course saturday night was to enjoy a big party and drinks.
So here I am tired, some fresh air would do me good.. Unless my breath is coming back to me.. hoo gosh was that mine ?
I am like... 2 Hours early, I wouldn't miss that plane to go home to Taiwan.
And every five meters there are huge LCD screens (from LG of course) since its 6 am, there is not many programms going on.. One screen is broken and making some Ultra sound noises, which only a hang over dude can hear, and its pounding me. I stand up, go to the screen, find the plug.. UNPLUG. Got a few thanks from the crowd.. Do they all have a hang over ? maybe so, its South korea after all, the country of Calm mornings (due to hang over).
And then on the working TV.. they have TKO Kickboxing match going on. A Frenchman Jerome LeBanner KO some japanese guy in 5 minutes.. I hear there is a movie with him and clovis Cornillac soon in theater (scorpion is the title, arf arf)
then I see this : The guy is a Texan American, named Heat Herring, and his nickname is "CrazyHorse".. Hahah its so funny, my day just got better.
I specially enjoy the face he is making just after he received the gift from the Japanese boxer. the commentators are in korean, which I can't understand anyway
Yes, Shanghai and touristic places are full of scams.. and I love them. its funny, its twisted, sometimes wicked.. And its like falling from plane.. so far so good, so far so good, but whats matter isn't the fall, its the landing.
So yes, I got Scammed once with Julien, Easy setup:
A park downtown, two students "visiting" shanghai, speaking some english. They start talking to us (one boy one girl), make friends, tell us about their hometown (Qin dao, yeah the place of the beer), and after a while offer us to see the "traditional tea ceremony" from Shanghai. And how convenient its just a few blocks away. On the 3rd floor of department store. there you are handed a menu in chinese for the price, seems ok. then you have the tea, and explanation. They were super kind: they translated everything for us (the students), and at the end they wished to buy some tea.. no thanks. total ? 70$ ? share in 4 ? ho the chinese girl doesnt have to pay (in china the girl doesnt pay). so share in 3 ? the price from the menu was a bit different. so we paid, it was not EXTRA expensive, and it was pleasant and nice. so its acceptable scam. But still no chinese would pay 70$ for a presentation of tea. with that money you can buy at least 4 bottls of fine tea.
here is another story :
Interesting note from a tipster regarding the previous post discussing Shanghai scams. To recap, tourists wandering the Nanjing Donglu shopping street are frequently approached by coquettish young local girls who ask for some conversation time in order to improve their English. Once entrapped in a coffeehouse or teashop of the girls' choosing, drinks and food come out regardless of ordering, and a huge bill is presented to the would-be English tutor. As expected, this is a pretty common grift:
Just wanted to let you know this happened to me and my friend. I knew they were scamming us but my friend said he would pay (he likes trouble) so we went. It was in the back of a department store, on the 3rd floor or so. They started bring all this stuff to the table. The girls were ultra flirty. I was dying laughing cause I knew what was going to happen. So anyway the bill comes and it was like $200. We start trouble but they kind of suggested they weren't going to let us leave, and shut the doors. My friend paid. We went downstairs to some customer service type of booth in the department store. I decided it would be fun to get my friend s money back so I started going crazy, making such a scene. They were losing so much face. My friend spoke some Chinese so they were getting worried that the people in the store were understanding everything. All these managers came out, and instead of name tags they had numbers. So I started writing down all of their numbers, and telling them I was going to come back tomorrow with my dad s friends from the government. The girl at the booth translating was shaking, and the managers started sweating. People were on their phones yelling, then the people from the place that scammed us came down, saying they would talk to us back in their "coffee house." Yeah right, no way I m going back in there. So were started getting louder and all of a sudden somebody hands me the money and tells us leave now, so we left. I thought we were going to get stabbed or something. Good times on Nanjin.
Now another story : the lottery scam in england.. its so professional, except the hot chick. Come on !! nobody that pretty would show interest in you. Like the spooks taught me before leaving for Taiwan : "You don't become Brad pit once you get there, if some top models shows interests in you, you must be careful, you didn't change from the guy who were in France"
"In Rome, do as the romans".. based on this principle, I tried to adapt to the asian way of life, but there is something out there that I never mastered : The squatting position.
first time I saw that, it was performed by indians in singapore, at that time I was really shocked, I just thought, "hey they are doing like monkeys".
but then in taiwan, my coworkers sometimes do that position too. For a smoke usually. so I tried, first of course I did the "western position". its not stable and gets painful after a while. so after a while I tried the "Asian position" and I am totally off balance lol, usually finishing on my butt. It is true, I don't have good balance. Like surfing, I spent more hours in the water than on the board. but maybe, I have a bigger butt than my taiwanese friend :), or a bigger beer belly LOL. Maybe they have huge training with squat toilet.. hmm Also I tried it at party, and alcohool doesn't help on your balance. hmm maybe I need to invent a device to help people squatting.
Well anyway you try it and you tell me, how long you can stand it.
For now, I will proudly stand up, and stay like that.
Next time you'll go Japan, you can try something showed in the video, or maybe try a few words, its quite easy to pronounce and to remember for French. (actually, its a little tricky to get it perfect, but you are not japanese so its ok).
When I think about it, last time I ate sushi in Japan, they must have thought I was rude. Its really confusing, sometimes you can be familiar and rude, sometimes you have to be super polite. I guess handling the timing is all a matter of experience.
But I do remember going to a sushi a little off the streets, and it was not possible to get a sit. (too late ? was it private ? now that I think again, I think we were a little late)
Once in Shinjuku with a friend, we got friendly with japanese and got invited to their tables. it was quite nice, then my friend took them to goldengui. (a district full of small bars and narrow alleys) not really a proper place for girls, but hopefully there is a new generation, who is more relaxed and is really willing to break down some rules. I call it the "cool generation", they dress nice, listen to all kind of music, don't have a job and have the cool attitude. are they from 70's ? So thinks my friend.
They found a new way in China to make some cash, they play online games and then resell items and stuff to american players.
Maybe it's a way to make some money, but I fear judging from the video, it won't get you rich. and it sure looks like a sweat shop, even if it seems a little better. It must be quite difficult to live depending on what you can sell on Ebay and stressful.
People always talk about how great and how rich China is getting, well I am sorry but only the top is benefitting from the growth. on the news I heard some player in China died while playing these games, the guy didn't sleep, didn't drink and died. Now on china server, playing is limited to 5H for Warcraft, but not for other games. people keep playing on and on.. to forget their world, to escape their life, to release the pressure or simply to spent time.
For decades, they were told what to do, now they have to think for themselves and get rich. Some do, some don't thus the gap between poor and rich. What would I do in a city, without education and on my own ? I don't know, I'd have to think of something. maybe become a host, you know those guys who keep company to rich woman :) hahaha.
I was surprised, last time I went to club in shanghai (at Armani), my female friends asked for company. about 8 guys showed up, and using their lighter the girls examined the boys's face, before chosing one. the guy is not paid, he keeps company, drinks with us, entertaint. And maybe can receive a tips. Vincent was often asking what where the girls sitting on coaches at the elevator.. now he knows :)
It really made me laugh the first time I went to a beach in Taiwan. Its an island of 22 millions people, I thought everybody would swim.. otherwise how could they live on an island ? I mean, maybe one day the water will go up, and you'll need to swim. no ? ;)
But no, few people can swim. Actually, what they call swimming, is more like "dog swimming" for me.
It's funny, when asked a taiwanese would say "I can swim, but just in a swimming pool, not in the sea".. As a scientist, I'd say "but with salt it's easier to float, thus swimming in the sea is easier". but then I would get the following answer ."the sea is scary" or "the water is dirty". Yeah maybe the later is true.
So they don't go into the water farther than the hips, and don't wear swimsuits (usually, they keep T-shirt and shorts to avoid getting tanned)
I watched a funny movie last time, the name is "Waterboys", its about Japanese highschool boys who makes a synchronise swimming team to impress their pretty sport teacher. its hilarious
Then the teacher got pregnant and cannot teach them. since they gave their word, they cotinue their trainning and a crook became their teacher.
They end up cleaning the sea park and training on DDR (dance dance revolution)
never a dull moment, I recommend seeing this one.
Well, I don't like so much synchro swimming, but some do and china is getting better and better. here is a video in montreal world champs, the final round. the music is very traditional and can hurt your ears, so its up to you
Previously, I talked about Presidential candidate Ségolène Royal visiting china and the kiss she tried to give to the chinese grandmother, and now I have the video :)
also since then, she did say the Chinese justice is more "efficient" than the french one. Thank you, but we don't shoot people here anymore nor sending the bills for the bullet to the familly. of course she was talking about economics, but still a bad move.
In the video, you can see her visiting a familly (very awkward) and touristic places, but she didn't meet with Hu jian tao, unlike candidate Nicolas Sarkozy.
In the Usa, you have Jim Carrey, the tall guy. We in France we have a small guy Michael Youn. He used to have a Tv early morning, to check his Tv show was waking up people, he used a megaphone, running around (naked most of the time) and shouting, he is a mix of Jackass and other stuff. But what I like most from him, is his musics. (again french lyrics, sorry friends :)). Basically, he is repeating "Put your hood on". Or you'll get cold, you'll get sick, this is our message.
In the clip you can find so many references to rap-singers, but there is also one reference to Jim Carrey, would you spot it ? (if you read my blog you would notice)
a Tip of the hat to Kamini, no he is not japanese or Asian. He is french, and he is the first rap-singer from the countryside, to talk about his town : Marly-Gomont. A town of 426 people, where he is the only black. They have mostly cows over there, the closest hospital is 50 km, people have motocycle (no cars). This guy is funny, this guy is cool, his girlfriend made this video and put it on internet (he doesnt have internet), in 2 weeks it became a hit and now he is a star. (Right now, he is still a nurse). in this clip you can see, the way people talk in the northern part of France, the way they dress and stuff, quite a shock no ? ;)
The tip of the hat goes to this guy, against violent lyrics and with a good attitude is now living his dream (the french dream ?). It sure was hard to grow up over there, I wish there were more of people like him, than those burning cars and buses.
he is now gold record, (200 000 records sold) and brought the award to his small town.
2001, Chicago USA. We are a IIT (Indian institute of Technology) .... Heyyy noo its Illinois Institute of technology :) well actually its almost the same, since like 70% of my classmates (in the master degree) are from India, 15% from Asia, 10 from Europe and only 5% from the USA (only !!)
And we get to know some indians, they were ok when took individually but in a group it was difficult to make friends. Even though, we had a great blast, they have some peculiar sense of humor, and sometimes at their own expenses. Of course it's not politically correct to make fun of them, but this is my blog and I am god here. I do remember one time, the teacher received a call during a class and we heard on the speakers, it was like "dubiou dubiooo Mr professor ?" the speakers were awfull, and it was impossible for the teacher to answer anything, and the show went on for 10 minutes, maybe it was a joke after all ;)
what I want to share tonight is, this music video. It was a blast, and we had a great fun, dancing a copying the singer.
What I love most about it is:
1. the choregraphy (dancing), just focus on the singer dancing, great moves 2. the lyrics. It does get boring after a while, but you can try it "tunak tunak tun" 3. the special effects, probably they spent too much money on the costumes and had to cut of special effects. 4. the costumes. 5. the singer, with his smiles and his looks. kinda creepy sometimes, but harmless on a video.
Why did I think about tunak tunak today ? That's cause I played The world of warcraft, tried a new character, the Dranei, and made him dance for fun.. and surprise he is dancing like Tunak Tunak !! Clapping his hands and all !!!
if you can synchro both of the following video, its really funny :)
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