james shaw's blog: One World, One Dream

Day 4

So we woke up this morning and had breakfast at our hotel. It was pretty good. We ate with the Indonesian couple.

Back on the road. We went to Lukang. This part of Taiwan is known for the preserved streets and the oldest Buddhist temple. They also have some pretty good fried sea food.

This is awesome.. You are what you wear.

Food. Fried Monkey Shrimp.

Lwoa Bwoa Gao

More Fried Stuff.

Jhones Tsao and the owner of this restaurant

After lunch, we dropped off the Indonesian couple at the bus station. Pretty nice people. As soon as the get off the car, the AC breaks. It's so humid. Taipei is 2.5 hours away. I was so sweaty. TERRIBLE.

When we got back to Ren Fu, we took a shower and went to see my grandparents before going back to the city to eat with my aunt.

My aunt, on my mother's side, lives in Taipei and is a professor of accounting. We met her at Din Tai Fung, a famous place in Taiwan for Shao Loan Bao. It's so good. But since it was a Friday night, and it's so well known, you usually have to wait. It was in the SOGO mall. Tim and I arrived early and walked around the mall after we got a number. I bought this skin thing for my Mac.

Dinner was nice and it was good to catch up with my aunt. My aunt kept ordering food. Tim got owned.

You may have seen some of this stuff at DIM SUM.

Aunt

After dinner, Tim and I met up with Kat Tang, from Texas. She took us around to hang out and we walked towards the 101. Taipei is home to the world's tallest building.

Near the base of the building on the street we saw these awesome dogs laying down, why are they laying down. This trainer is so sick. Look at these golden retrievers.

Look at their buddy, Wishbone.

This one actually fell asleep

We hung out for a bit then took the MRT home.

Our cab driver who took us back to Ren Fu from the MRT station started telling us this really weird story. I was so confused. He talked for so long, Tim and I just looked at each other. He had a Beijing accent. Then it turned out that he was talking on his walkie talkie. Ehh.

We got in and went to sleep.

Day 5

We ate breakfast right down the street then went to talk to the grandparents for a while before we had to leave. My grandpa, Ah Dia, kept telling me to have 3 kids. And to have all boys.

He kept saying this chinese saying something about boys means money. So far he only has one great grandson with the shaw last name. All the others are either girls or carry their fathers name. So its apparently up to Tim and me. This was his number one priority. Apparently it is my number one priority now. The Shaw name must live.

Talking about something.

Along those lines, this is a noodle house with my name on it.

We said our goodbye to Grandma and got on the van to the airport. Ah Dia is coming with us because he is going to stay at another retirement home by himself for a week. He is apparently bored of Ren Fu. Funny guy.

At the airport we said goodbye to Uncle Ching and Ah Dia. He said "remember what you promised me" and then held up three fingers.

We checked in and got on the flight. It was ok, we got lunch. We landed in Hong Kong. Land of the Cantons. These are not my people.

Got on the next flight. We got haggen dazs ice cream with dinner.

I fell asleep during Iron Man. I woke up because we basically crash landed. Beijing International Airport. Now the largest in the world. It is redonkulous. This airport was built primarily in preparation for the 2008 Olympics and was finished at the end of February.

It is 1 of 3 terminals at Beijing Capital International Airport.

WIkipedia: Terminal 3 - if considered an airport on its own - would be the largest airport in the world in land size and one of the world's largest in capacity and land size (approximately 986,000 square meters). It is larger than London Heathrow Airport's 5 terminals combined with another 17% to spare.

Here are some pictures.

Thanks for welcoming me Yao.

After we got luggage, our uncle, grandma, and distant Yao family relative (from my mom' side) came to welcome us to Beijing. Usually my Uncle has a driver. However, because of the Olympics, his driver can only drive every other day. It goes by whether your car ends in an even or odd number. This is just one of the many restrictions that the Chinese government has implemented in anticipation of the Olympics to clean the air. The pollution in China is terrible. But hopefully the Olympics will inspire China to clan up its city. All the schools, factories, and enterprises have all closed. Many people have left the city.

Our Uncle has two houses. He, my grandma, and my cousin Jimalyn are staying in one, and Tim adn I are staying in another one. They are about 10-15 minute walk apart. We had dinner at his place, then went back to ours for the night.

Our cousin Jimalyn works for the USA house. This is where the US has its press conferences and such for the Olympics. Sometimes she sees famous people, like athletes, president's daughters, and David Schwimmer, ROSS from friends.

Anyways she goes to Georgetown University in D.C. She gets lots of sick Nike Olympic gear. I am very jealous. Anyways she managed to get us some House passes for one day on any day of our choosing. We will pick a good day where maybe Jennifer Anniston will be there. Rachel Green

She also got us these Olympic pins that you can't get anywhere else.

My uncle, Grandma, and cousin all got to go to the opening ceremony rehearsal on August 2nd.

So lately there have been a lot of threats on Beijing and the Olympics. Especially from this one group Urumqi Muslims from North West China. They keep sending video threats. Read about it here.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_fA5bjMZ6-RYv11uLlSCHMCdV6QD92DQ1BG3

Also there are lots of demonstrations all over the place that the government keeps shutting down. The Chinese gov has done a lot to censor the information out of China. Last week there was a bus bombing and there wasn't too much fuss about it. There was also a stabbing yesterday. The USA mens volleyball coach's father in law was murdered, and his mother in law was in critical condition. The attacker then committed suicide.

The attacker, identified as a 47-year-old man from the Hangzhou, in eastern China, jumped from the second level of the building, a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Government Information Office told Xinhua.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/09/olympics.murder/index.html

It is hard to tell if it was a targeting incident because the gov says hat they weren't wearing any clothing that would identify them as specifically supported USA or related to the coach. A Chinese tour guide was also injured. Anyways who knows what the Chinese gov censors. They may even be censoring my blog. CHAIRMAN MAO IS A GREAT LEADER.

I was going to wear this USA shirt from Nike, but now I think that I don't want to get stabbed or bombed. My advisor/boss wants me to wear a Texas Biomedical Engineering shirt near some olympic building, but we will see about that. It's dangerous man.

Also, BERNIE MAC IS DEAD. How is this possible.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/09/obit.bernie.mac.ap/index.html

His show is no longer running, but now they need to find a replacement for Oceans series. Condolences to the Mac Family.

On another note. I am Jason Bourne. I think this was a picture from Bourne Identity.

We went back to the house Tim and I are staying at and watched some Olympics. In Beijing this is my first olympic experience. High def CCTV. China already has 2 of the first 7 gold medals. This chick doing the clean and jerk is ridiculous. She weighs 48 kilograms. That's 105.6 lbs. She cleaned and jerked 117 kgs. AIOFHODIE:LNFQW:KOFHIOEHFQREIHDIVD:SV:OEFIH are you kidding me. I am ashamed of myself. She owns me.