Trip2: Days 1&2, Shenzhen

The saga continues.

So here I am again, back in China. And it’s strange; it actually feels good to be back. Lots of people are jaded by the frequent China trips, but I’m not there yet. The temperature is still hot, but not as unbearable as it was a couple of months ago. Now you only sweat when you are moving, not while you’re standing still.

It’s good to see that some things are still the same. The food is still crazy. The driving is still crazier than the food. People still stare when they see Americans.

This is a picture of the map that told us where we were. Our plane flew from Chicago O’Hare airport over the North Pole to Hong Kong.

She forgets how to pronounce “wine”

I saw about 4 movies on the flight. Here are my personal reviews.

Oceans’ Thirteen: X (4 out of 5 bombs for action packed fun.)
Evan Almighty:XX(3 out of 5 crucifixes for Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman{}but doesn’t provide quite enough humor, or plot depth{}.)

License to Wed: zzzzz (5 out of 5 Zs for sleeping through this movie. This is no reflection of the movie, I simply finally got a few hours of sleep.)

Then we get to “Away From Her” the story of a woman who is loosing her mind to Alzhimer’s. I can’t even rate this on a scale of 1-5. Just because your movie is about Alzhimer’s doesn’t mean everyone who watches it should want to get a case of it so they can forget the time that was wasted. Maybe the acting was great. Maybe this movie dealt with real life pain and suffering in a humane light. But it doesn’t change the fact that this was the slowest movie ever. Seriously. It made the flight longer. I think it was on the screen for a good 4 hours. Not only was it slow, it was uneventful. Every scene was a shot of someone’s face…painfully lost in thought or maybe the lack thereof. Yeah. Watching someone (not) think is not that entertaining.

Below I have embedded the movie. The entire movie. It’s playing right now. Can’t you tell? Oh, you think it’s a picture? Keep watching.

Away From Her’s Julie Christie, thinking about what she can’t remember.

Snazzy picture time!

Ok, that's enough of that. You can enjoy those movies in any country. Lets get back to the real reason this blog exists, to document the wonders of China!

This guy decided to take a nap next to his tricycle on a pile of dirt. I guess it’s more comfortable than the sidewalk.

Norvin’s lunch of choice today included a baby octopus! Yummy. His advice? Eat the tentacles first. Notice the delicious “dong ni cha” in the background. Mmmm, cold milk tea.

Truck Bus Collision

This is an excerpt from the Shenzhen Daily. To me it’s so ridiculous it’s funny. Words have been underlined to…uh…underline the ridiculousness.

“A container truck crashed into an unlicensed bus in Long-gang District on Saturday…The truck and bus collided because of the malfunctioning of traffic lights at the intersection of Lanjing Road North and Lanzhu Road East in Pingshan Subdistict…The lights were not working as the underground cables had been stolen…quoting traffic police. The bus driver, a man in his 30s fled after the collision.”

Yeah…Only in China