chihwunk's Xanga

Melted Plastic

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:19:33 GMT

I've eaten crickets, snakes, dogs, frogs, silkworm pupae, and cicadas, but today was my first time eating melted plastic. It happened at school with a turkey sandwich that I had packed for dinner in a plastic container. Because today is Sunday, the cafeteria at school is closed and I couldn't find any paper plates on campus. So I just put the sandwich in the microwave oven on the plastic lid of the container. The sandwich, after two minutes of being nuked, was a little soggy but nonetheless delicious. But after I finished the sandwich, I noticed that there was were two spots where the plastic had melted. When I was eating, there was something stuck to the sandwich and I thought it was just melted-then-hardened cheese. But I think that was actually the plastic...

The plastic container lid that I used (and ate). Dang it... I hope it's not too bad to eat melted plastic...

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:56:08 GMT

This Thanksgiving, I am Thankful for...

As I park my car and walk towards my apartment, I see one of my roommates leaving to visit his parents for Thanksgiving. I tell him to have a safe trip, wish him a Happy Thanksgiving, and go up to my apartment. When I enter my bathroom to wash my hands and to take a piss, I see that my roommate had left a nice, small--well, not so small actually--gift for me: a ball of s&*t stuck in the pipe of the toilet. Given that we don't have a toilet plunger, I grab a pair of wooden chopsticks, poke through the layers of toilet paper hovering over the crap like nimbus cloud, and break up the ball into little pieces. I flush the toilet but see the water rise even higher. I immediately take a step back from the toilet but when I see that the water stops short of the brim of the bowl, I wait a little bit for the water to recede enough for my second attempt. I take the chopsticks again and break up the little pieces of crap into even little-er pieces. I flush the toilet again, and this time I am relieved to see the water completely flush along with all its contents. Thank God for wooden chopsticks. I am just glad that I didn't have to use my plastic ones. Thanks Roommie, and Happy Thanksgiving to you too, buddy.

P.S. Wow, it's been a while since I even signed on to Xanga. With all the hype and popularity of Facebook, I am not even sure if anyone uses Xanga anymore. Nonetheless, I was inspired to write today and made that short entry above.

Quick Update on Life

Just a quick update on life is that I began law school-- yes, finally. The semester is almost over and the finals are right around the corner. Although I am studying like never before, I always feel like I am not studying enough. But one thing is for sure: I love it in law school (and I say this without a tint of sarcasm). I truly feel that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing right now, and it's a hell of a satisfying feeling.

Update on the Last Entry

The restaurant is named Henley's. It's American-Italian and is located in Buena Park behind Washington Mutual Bank at the intersection of Beach Blvd. and La Palma Ave. Here is a small online review about the place: http://graveyardhaunts.com.We still don't have a website for it; I will probably try to make one over the winter break. Please stay tuned. Meanwhile, come and eat and tell others about it, please.

Help: Restaurant Name Needed

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 05:45:14 GMT

Our family is opening a small restaurant and is looking for a name. It's a small place that can serve about 70 people at a time and it will serve American dishes-- sandwiches, burgers, steak, chicken, grilled fish, ribs, wine, beer, some pasta (am I pushing it when I call pasta American?), etc. (for those in Ann Arbor, think of Red Hawk). It's a sit-down place with booths and tables. Price range will be about $10-$25. If you have any suggestions, could you share? Thanks!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 06:36:41 GMT

LONG OVERDUE UPDATE

It's been a crazy long time since I posted and promised to update with pictures from the trip around SE Asia. Dang, that was almost six months ago. Anyways, here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Vietnam

In July, my mom, who was traveling in Korea, came down to Vietnam to travel with me around SE Asia. Our first destination was Mekong Delta River in the southern part of Vietnam. We are on a little canoe wearing the traditional Vietnamese hats, which men actually don't really wear.

It looks so fake, like that boat ride from Disneyland. Doesn't it?

In the Mekong Delta River area, we had to take a couple of ferries to get from one side of the river to the other. One of the ferries was named after me. Puhaha.

Rice paddy. Because of its year-around warm weather with abundant rain, Vietnam harvests rice three times a year. Vietnam is one of the top rice exporters in the world.

For one night, we stayed in this cottage. The entire trip was $18 per person for a 1-night-2-day trip.

We are in a city called Can Tou (sp?) and we had to take this cyclo pulled by a motorcycle to go to a boat which then took us to the cottage we stayed at.

Big ol' snake trying to choke me. I look like I'm smiling here but I am really pissing in my pants. Actually, not really. Well, maybe really...

A little boy holding onto his mom on a scooter. Do you think this is dangerous? Usually, they don't even use that belt thing that wraps around the kid so that he wouldn't fall off the bike. The mask is to protect him from the smog and the hat from the crazy Vietnamese sunlight.

This is one of my last pictures of Vietnam I took before leaving that country. The view is of downtown Hochiminh City from the highest building in maybe the entire country. From this view, Vietnam looks nothing like a developing country. Dang... I miss that place. Tam biet va hen gap lai, Viet Nam!

Hong Kong

My mom and I have now arrived in Hong Kong, a city that I've been wanting to visit ever since I first learned about it in elementary school. We are sitting inside a double-decker tram.

That's the gorgeous Bank of China building in the background.

A street market.

At a night (street) market. I am sweating like crazy.

College friend Deepak and Me. Deepak and I lived in the same dorm our senior year in college. Deepak is Indian but he was born and raised in Hong Kong. After attending college in the States, he eventually returned to Asia. When I saw him in July, he was visiting his family in HK from his language study program in Beijing.

This ferry takes you to the Hong Kong Island. There are under-the-water subways that take you there too.

A beautiful night skyline of Hong Kong. I absolutely loved that city so much. I can totally see myself possibly living there in the future.

Singapore

And now we are in Singapore. Inside a cab.

My mom with the downtown financial district of Singapore in the background. Let me tell you, traveling just with your mom is not the easiest thing to do in the world. But looking back, I am really glad we got to travel together. It was just too bad that my sister and dad could not travel with us because of their work.

This is college friend Stephen Suryo. He is Chinese-Indonesian who came to the States to attend college. After college and grad school, he got a job in Singapore, just a hop away from Indonesia. He was a great tour guide for us.

Me and Suryo (his last name sort of became his nickname in college) in front of the Merlion, the ultimate icon of Singapore.

I got a little thirsty.

There is this one resort/park area called Santosa that Singapore claims to be the southernmost point of the Asian continent. But if you think about it, Singapore is an island and technically is already outside of the Asian continent. To me, it seemed like a bit stretched claim by Singapore.

I wasn't sure what the risk was of entering this flat lawn. Was it illegal to step on grass? Did I do something that would make me deserve getting beaten with a paddle?

But how criminal can walking on the grass be compared to this kind of outrageous littering that some Singaporeans do? No, Singapore wasn't sparkling clean as I thought it would be, but still, it was one of the cleanest places I had been to. I think this was the only dirty part of the city that I saw.

Sitting at a coffee shop. I hadn't shaved for a while.

In front of the Singapore City Hall.

Mom in front of a statue of Sir Raffles, who I think is one of the founders of the British colony of Singapore. Singapore has a fascinating history of various cultures coming together, becoming a British colony, then becoming independent and joining Malaysia as one of its states, then getting kicked out of Malaysia, becoming a tiny sovereign island nation with no money and no natural resources, and, under the leadership of its unrelenting first prime minister Lee Kwan Yew, becoming one of the richest nations in the world.

Me and my mom in Chinatown of Singapore.

This is Little Arab. Singapore is truly a melting pot of Chinese, Malay, Indian, European, and Middle Eastern heritages.

These are some Singaporean friends my mom and I made during our travel. We actually met those girls in the picture while we were traveling in Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Then we met up with them again in Singapore. They took us to Chinatown for good Chinese food and then we had dessert together at this little but extremely crowded place.

My last night in Singapore was spent with a couple of friends from college-- Suryo and Eddie Tong, who is now a professor at National University of Singapore (the three of us went to the same church in college.) Singapore is famous for amazing food at these outdoor food stall places called hawker center.

We had all kinds of dishes, including sting ray, and I ended my last night in Singapore indulging in the sin of gluttony.

My mom and I parted our ways in Singapore. She went back to Korea and I returned to Vietnam for a one-day layover to head to my last destination, Taiwan.

Taiwan

Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world--for now.

It was a foggy day, so the picture isn't so clear, but here is a view of Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

This is a Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. Yes, I have a lot of these pictures that I took of myself with one arm extended to hold the camera.

Here is a guard (he doesn't move at all) inside the memorial getting his coat straightened out by another security guard.

Taiwan has Buddhist temples at almost every intersection. This is one of them.

First night in Taipei. I had to stand in the middle of the intersection to take this picture.

A night market in Taipei.

The food at these night markets was extremely delicious and cheap. Of course, I had to try boba in Taiwan, too. It definitely tasted much more genuine than boba from the US (yeah right, like I could tell...)

I stayed in this hostel in Taipei. I spent total $300 for five days of traveling in Taiwan, including food, transportation, housing, and everything else.

After Taipei, I took this sllloooww train down to Tainan, a smaller city in the southern part of Taiwan. When I was little, I was one of those kids in love with trains. So I decided to take the slowest train available with the most number of stops from Taipei to Tainan to enjoy the ride as much as I could.

Looking out the train window at the countryside of Taiwan.

And here I am in Tainan. It's a much smaller city than Taipei but it's the historical capital of Taiwan. The city reminded me a lot of Vietnam; Tainan was like a much cleaner, orderly, developed version of Hochiminh City.

Public transit in Tainan is not as easy to use as the one in Taipei. So I decided to do what the local do and rented a scooter. Unlike Vietnam, you must wear a helmet in Taiwan.

A Taiwanese man on a vintage scooter. I wish I had that here in the States.

This used to be a military fort back in the days in Tainan.

A fish market in Tainan.

Nicely displayed fish heads.

After two days in Tainan, I returned to Taipei. I was walking on the street of Taipei when I saw this man selling these little bread things on the street.

And it was one of the MOST delicious things I had ever eaten in my life.

This is in front of the President's Office in Taiwan. It's sort of like the White House, except the president doesn't live but only works here. Yes, I am trying to look hard... The President's Office was one of the favorite places I visited in Taiwan, a place full of modern political history of the island considered to be a rogue state by mainland China.

And if you happened to be from mainland China, you could not enter the President's Office at all. Dui bu chi, mainlanders.

My last morning in Taiwan before going to the airport to return to the States after 7 months of living and traveling in Asia. I decided to have one more cup of boba before leaving Taiwan. And they even made it to-go.

SO, that's the overview of my awesome traveling in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. I learned so much about their culture, history, and, best of all, people. I will always have fond memories of these places.

It's almost been six months since I returned to the US. Since then, I have studied for the LSAT, taken the LSAT, applied to law schools, started studying Chinese again and begun dating Alice Right now, I am looking for a job to have until I start law school in the fall.

Well, that was a crazy long update with a lot of pictures. Hope you enjoyed them all!

HK

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:13:25 GMT

A quick hello from HK! I am obsessed with cities and I have a list of cities around the world that I want to visit. HK is definitely one of those cities, and I am pretty thrilled to be here. I have many pictures to share and will share more later once I return to the States but here is one for now. A typical skyline picture of HK that every tourist probably takes from a place called The Peak. But what can I say? This was my favorite place to visit (went back there again during the night time).

Update #7

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 06:10:04 GMT

It's finally been 6 months since I came to Vietnam, and I am slowly getting ready to return to America. The last four weeks with the friends from Southland, Remnant, and GCC were extremely fun. For me, the best part about my American friends coming to Vietnam was their meeting the Vietnamese friends that I had met here. One night, the Vietnamese friends that I had met invited all of us for this huge BBQ. That night, as I was BBQing some meat, I just watched my friends from America interact and deepen their relatinoships with the Vietnamese friends. And it felt SO good watching them all together. I am not sure how to accurately explain the feeling I had at the time. It was this feeling of fulfillment and completition... if that makes sense. Anyways, what an awesome way to finish off my time in Vietnam!

I just have a couple of more things to do before I return to America. Tomorrow early morning, I will be flying up to Hanoi, the capital, to meet some people and will come back to HCMC on the last flight back tomorrow.

Wednesday, my mom will come to Vietnam. She is going to Korea and has decided to take a little detour to come and visit Southeast Asia. We will spend a few days in Vietnam, then Hong Kong, then Singapore, from where she will go to Korea and I will return to Vietnam. On August 23rd, I will leave Vietnam for Taiwan, where I have a layover. I will spend some days in Taiwan and will arrive in LA on August 28th.

Here are some pictures from this past month. Enjoy!

Mekong Delta

One Saturday, my friends from America and I visited this area called Mekong Delta. This is a small town called Cai Be.

A lady selling soda from her tiny boat.

A child playing with a cellphone on a boat floating at the river market of Cai Be.

Rowing through little canals in an area called Ben Tre.

Police Station

So, I've been renting a small motorcycle like the one in the picture for $50 per month. Last week, the bike got stolen and I had to go to the local police station to report it with the owner of the bike. Above is the police station that we went to.

And there were all these reports that had to be filled out. The policeman who was helping us filled them out-- one report for me and one for the owner. He had to fill out everything by hand. Afterwards, he needed to make copies of the reports, and the copies also had to be hand-written.

I got to the police station around 3:30pm and the policeman began filling out the reports around 4pm. But once the clock hit 5pm, he dropped the pens, asked me to stay in the room, and left. I waited and waited, and when he didn't return, I went out to look for me. I found him eating dinner in a different room with the other police officers. When I looked at him with a "what the heck" look, he just raised his eyebrows and motioned me to wait a little bit.

I got bored waiting for him so I took some pictures.

This is a fire truck-- I mean a fire motorcycle-- that was parked outside the police station.

Today, I met with the motorcycle owner again and paid him $700 for the lost bike.

I have many memories of motorcycle in Vietnam.

Memories of learning to ride an automatic scooter, then a manual one. Memories of riding a very nice one that got me VIP treatment at restaurants, coffee shops and even at the university where I was learning Vietnamese (if you have a nice motorcycle, they let you park it right in the front). Memories of riding a not-so-nice motorcycle (for the most of my time in Vietnam. Every time I went to a restaurant, coffee shop or the university, I had to park it waaaay in the back along with all the other not-so-nice ones. Motorcycle discrimination.)

Memories of learning to ride with people in the back--someone who weighs over 200 lbs and someone who would rub my belly while riding behind me. Memories of riding through a flooded street. Memories of riding through crazy rain storm and wind. Memories of riding with two other people on one tiny scooter. Then there is the recent memory of a motorcycle accident. And now, a memory of getting one stolen and having to go to the police station.

I feel like I've pretty much experienced everything I could with a motorcycle in Vietnam. Well, maybe with an exception of one thing-- going to the lover's park where couples PDA without any shame.

Alright, I think this will be my last time posting pictures and updating my xanga from Vietnam. It's been crazy fun for me sharing these pictures and memories with you. Thank you and I will see many of you back in the States.

Truly thankful for all your support from Vietnam,
Daniel

Update #6.2

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 03:19:41 GMT

Hello! Here are some pictures from last month.

Crash

The 1st week of June, the inevitable finally happened to me: I had a scooter accident.

I wasn't going too fast-- a little over 40 km/h when this motorcycle/truck called xe ba gac made an illegal u-turn and hit me on the side. He didn't hit me too hard but it was hard enough for me to crash, get reared ended and almost ran over by a scooter that was right behind me.

This is where the accident happened, in front of a local police station. You can sort of see these two policemen standing in the background (in front of a sliding door next to the yellow gate on the right side of the picture). They didn't bother coming over to the accident scene probably because little accidents like this happen all the time and people just move on without making a big fuss.

But I was pissed and held tight on to the arm of the guy who hit me so that he woulnd't run) while calling the motorcycle owner. Immediately, I found myself circled by all these people who were yelling at me to let him go. It was a little crazy and I briefly wondered if I was going to get mobbed. Haha. Anways, the guy freed himself from me and ended up taking off on his xe ba gac while I stood there surrounded by all these people. I realized I couldn't do much but just wait for the motorcycle owner to come. So I just took out my camera and took some pictures.

This is NOT the guy who hit me, but I just wanted to show you what a xe ba gac looks like.

The motorcycle didn't get damaged too much, just some bent metals, scratches, and broken mirrors.

Point of impact.

It just cost me about $5 to fix everything.

A tiny scratch I got from the crash. Luckily, I just got small bruises here and there and that was all. But the accident did shake me up a little bit and I became much, much more careful on the roads.

Construction

Construction is in boom in Ho Chi Minh City. Right now, I am sitting at a small coffee shop with wireless access, and I can hear the banging and drilling from the construction that's going on next doors.

Construction workers here (at least the ones that I've seen) don't seem to wear hard-toe boots. In fact, they wear no-covered-toe shoes. They go about their demolishing, hammering, carrying and laying bricks, painting, pouring concrete, etc, all in sandals or with no shoes at all. Pretty crazy.

A Rainy Day

I was just finishing up my breakfast at a small cafe when it started pouring like crazy one day. Pouring usually lasts less than 30 minutes. So I just sat and waited while taking some pictures.

Alrighty, I have more pictures in my camera but haven't had a chance to upload them into my laptop. I will post them later!

Update 6.1

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 12:44:27 GMT

Hello!

The update is a little late this month. And I am sorry to tell you that pictures will be coming even later.

Friends from Southland are now in Vietnam (I can't believe they are here!!!) and it's been so good! Things are extremely busy but I am really having a lot of fun.

I haven't found time to upload the pictures. When I get a chance, I will post some pictures.

Until then, chao!

Daniel

Update #5

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 09:18:13 GMT

Hello! Here are some pictures from this past month.

A couple of friends took me to this nice park about 10 minutes from the city. I still get surprised when I see such nice places in Vietnam. I guess even after 4 months of being here, I still can't get rid of the image of Vietnam I had before I came here. Like this one below:

This is the mental image of Vietnam I had before I came here. Sure, you still see houses like these in many places, but this is definitely not all of Vietnam.

Another picture of the nice park.

A Vietnamese friend took me to an orphanage.

Once a month, some law students from HCMC Law School visit this orphanage to spend an afternoon with the children playing games and doing various other activities.

Volunteer students and children

VIETNAMESE FOOD

Cicada, still alive. One of the Vietnamese children I teach had a whole bag of them. He is holding one of them.

Cicado. Fried. A little salty.

The same friend who took me a couple of months ago to a dog restaurant asked me if I wanted to try snake. My immediate response was "Heeeell no!" (of course, I didn't say this out loud but just politely said no thank you). But I thought again and decided that I wanted to try it-- just once.

What did snake taste like? Chicken, of course.

Snake soup. A few days after I had snake, someone told me that now days in Vietnam, snake meat has too many little tape worms inside. After I heard this, I got a little worried, got myself a couple of tape worm pills, and told myself that I would not eat snake meat ever again.

Chicken feet. It wasn't my first time but it was better than other chicken feet I had had.

VIETNAMESE BEACH
Some friends from Southland visited Vietnam and we went to a beach city called Vung Tao.

First time seeing the ocean since I came to Vietnam.

No, I did not go to Rio de Janeiro. Vung Tao has its own statue of Jesus like the Brazilian city.

Vung Tao ocean from a restaurant that is right on the beach.

Do you ever wonder where Microsoft gets the deskstop pictures of Windows XP? I am now convinced that the pictures are from Vietnam.

Fishing boats.

VIETNAMESE WEATHER
As I said in the last update, it's rainy season now.

A few days ago, I was going to the language center where I teach. I was on top of a bridge. I looked behind me, and it was raining like crazy.

But a little ahead of me, it wasn't raining at all.

I raced the rain cloud the entire way to the language center.

OTHER PICTURES

A sea of scooters.

This is for the Southland people. Do you recognize the girl in the middle?

How about now? A picture of Yisho when she was younger and living in Vietnam.

I drew this. Just kidding. One of my Vietnamese students did. It's much better than anything I can ever draw. BTW, that is not me in the picture. It's the artist's brother.

I hope all of you are doing very well!

Update #4

Tue, 02 May 2006 03:24:06 GMT

Can you believe that it's now been more than three months since I came to Vietnam? Some pictures from this past month:

The rainy season has officially started. It's been pouring like crazy, although not everyday. It rains like crazy for about half an hour to an hour. Then the rain stops, the sun comes out, and it's as if nothing happened. But this one particular day, the rain did not stop so soon, and there was a small flood, as you will see below.

Some men finidng shelter from the rain.

This one particular day, it rained so much that certain parts of the city flooded a little bit. People say this kind of flooding happens every rainy season (but only in certain parts of the city).

I took these pictures after my motorcycle's engine died and I couldn't start it again. I was stranded for a little while on the side of the street where the water was only up to the ankle. After waiting for a while, I was able to start the engine again and continue my journey home. That day, I learned that the secret to riding a motorcycle through waist deep water is to constatly pull on the accelerator and to never stop giving gas.

After I passed the flooding area, I faced this crazy traffic. Basically at every interaction, you would find people from the four streets trying to go their ways all AT THE SAME TIME. Talk about chaos. It took me over an hour and half to go one mile.

Construction is big in the city. There are quite a few new buildings going up like this one throughout the city.

One day I went to a park near my house. It was actually pretty nice as you can see.

A couple at the park.

One day, we played pictionary in one of the classes I teach. The word was 'bakery.'

There are a lot of coffee shops in the city from very nice and big ones to very small ones like this one. This one particular coffee shop was just a shack with tables on the street. Men are playing some kind of a game.

I don't have a lot of pictures that I can post this month. But I hope you enjoyed the ones above.

Chao! (this is not Italian. it's "hi/bye" in Vietnamese :)