Indonesian Festival

Today was filled with more mundane tasks, first a repairman came to fix the doorbell on our apartment, then we all went to Taipa to open a bank account.  This turned into a long ordeal for me because of my name change stuff, but eventually it worked out.  Then we walked around the old Taipa village for a while and headed home.  We rested our feet a bit and then went back out into the evening for some dinner at our favorite nearby place.  Carol showed it to Beth her first night here and we have dubbed it "Delicious Noodles".  They also have a lot of other good stuff - this is where the roti prata comes from - and they have newspaper and magazine reviews plastered all over the wall.  It's been in business since 1978!

After a dinner of noodles and choi sum (Chinese broccoli in the U.S.) we went out wandering, as we do at night.  Good thing too, because we wandered right into a festival celebrating Indonesian immigrants.  We stayed for about an hour or so and then headed home again, but here are some photos.  Sorry - I failed to make a video of the apartment yet again.  I keep forgetting while it's light out.  (I've been forgetting everything lately though, needed my old passport today at the bank and forgot to bring it so I had to take the bus all the way back to my apartment to get it. So embarrassing.)  Tomorrow it's top priority.

The show began with a bunch of older gentlemen coming onstage and shooting confetti canons into the air. It was great.  I was too slow on the draw to get them, but these kids were having fun with the remnants.

 

 This group sang a passionate rendition of the Indonesian National Anthem.

  

These ladies did several dance numbers - this was a more traditional one.

 This dude, however, totally stole the show.  It might be hard to see here, but he had aviator glasses, a wacky hat, a tight fitted shirt with a bow-tie and black sequined half-gloves.  Whoa.

Pan fried noodles!

So today's big accomplishment was that I found and ate pan fried noodles, yet another culinary delicacy I've been looking forward to.  Hell-to-the-yeah!  (see photo in side column.)  Soooo delicious.  I had help though.

We had to go into school today to get some training on the computer lab technology and to sign some paperwork for our visas.  The guy in charge of technology, Phil, seems great and he will probably be my mentor since I'm interested in all that stuff.  He has an elaborate Moodle site set up and it seems like I'll have a lot of options for incorporating web use into my lessons.
Yay Phil!

Pictured from top to bottom are Phil, Carol, Angie, and Beth.

Anyway, we convinced Carol, our Admin and Cultural Liaison Extraordinaire to let us tag along with her to lunch.  She took us to a place that had a lot of noodle dishes on the menu, so I asked if any of them were pan fried noodles, also known as Hong Kong style noodles in the States.  She didn't know what I was talking about, but luckily Angie, my Malaysian housemate knew what I meant and saved the day (again) by explaining it to Carol in Cantonese.  She's come to my translating rescue multiple times now, and Beth knows some Mandarin from her time in Beijing, so she's got a head start on me as well, since there's some overlap with Cantonese.  But I'm starting with what I know - food.   I asked Carol what to call the noodles so I could order them again and she said "chow mein".  Even I know that!  But she pronounced it more like "mean", so I will too.

After lunch we came home and tried to set up our bank accounts but are having trouble because our work permits are not finished.  We have to go get fingerprinted in early September, so it is not yet clear whether we can get paid before then.  Good thing I have a line of credit at Wells Fargo!  :)  I also have money coming from Disney, so it will be fine, just a hassle.  My other big accomplishment was getting a phone.  After spending several hours jailbreaking my iphone and reading about various technical aspects of the process on multiple forums, I learned that it's not enough and that I also need to unlock my SIM card, which is really tricky with my model of phone.  I figured it was no longer worth the headache and potential problems caused by continuing to mess with it, so I just bought a cheapie Nokia for my local calling needs.  And by cheap I mean $100 U.S.  It's ok, though, because my daily food budget is 100 patacas, which is like $12 U.S. and that's being fairly decadent.

It's funny how much more time and effort it takes to accomplish simple tasks when you don't know where you're going or how to do anything.  I feel like the end of the day comes and what did I do?  Not all that much.  But I'll get there, my ambitious nature will overcome eventually.  :)  It always does.

And I'll try to get a video of my apartment up tomorrow - promise.

We have internet!

Sorry, I'm a little behind schedule already.  Just finally got our internet set up yesterday afternoon, but then I spent most of the evening jailbreaking my iphone.  Wheeeeee!  But I'm done now, so on to more enjoyable tasks, like blogging.  :) 

Monday was our first day of "work", but it was mostly spent going on a tour of the English Language Center (which is in the basement of the library) and meeting people and setting up our office and school laptops.  (nice!)  Then they told us they don't have much for us to do until it gets closer to the first day of class (8/29) so our task is to go out and explore the city.  Sweet!  So we've been doing just that, when we're not taking care of business like setting up the internet or trying to find stuff - like a yoga mat.  I didn't have room to bring mine and had no idea where to even begin looking for one in the chaotic mass of tiny shops that is most of Macau.  But one afternoon I was just wandering along on a completely unrelated errand and happened to spot one in the corner of a sports store.  It had punching bags hanging from the ceiling and a stack of GNC drink powder - totally odd assortment of stuff.  But I got my mat and it's lovely.  Everything is like that, wandering and pointing and finally figuring it out.  Next on the list is a rice cooker and a toaster oven - we just have a little 2 burner stove and a sorry selection of pots and pans.  Plus, as most of you know, I don't really cook all that much or that well so if I have any prayer of managing it here, I'd better get the tools.  Angie (housemate) found a market today where you can point to the live fish of your choice and they'll clean it for you on the spot.  Or frogs for that matter.  So I guess I can handle cooking some fish, making some rice, steaming some veggies and calling it a healthy dinner.

It's typhoon season here and I woke up to the sound of very loud thunder and crackling lightning yesterday morning.  It was pretty awesome, so I sat out on my little deck to watch and took some photos.  Here's one of the view directly across the way.  We're on the 12th floor of a 20-something story building.  It reminds me of Rear Window and I have to keep remembering that all the people on the other side can see me too.  So far nothing too exciting going on over there - just a lot of laundry drying.  It's surprising how well it dries when it's so humid.  I'm doing all my "ironing" by spraying and hanging my clothes on the porch.

Beth (other housemate) and I went out on an adventure today despite the fact that it was raining - a lot. I brought my rain jacket and boots from Berkeley, but it's so hot here that I can't stand to wear them.  You'd think that when it's raining the humidity would lessen - it's like that back home.  Not here.  So as much as I like to be warm I can barely stand to leave the house in anything more than a t-shirt and shorts.  At least the rain was warm, and my horrid purple umbrella did a pretty decent job.  (See the right column for my ridiculous outfit.)  We walked to the southern part of our island/peninsula (also called Macau) to look around and to see where the major bus stop is so we know the best ways to come back from work.  Our school is on the island below us, called Taipa.  The buses stop right outside the Grand Lisboa - one of the big fancy casinos here.  Beth and I decided to check out the inside, get a cup of tea and let our feet dry a bit.  It was pretty spectacular.  I can see where all that gambling money goes to.  (Apparently Macau makes 4-5 times the money made in Vegas.)  There was a ton of artwork and many, many elaborate chandeliers.

This one was my fav.  After we dried out we wandered around a bit more until we decided we were ready for dinner and headed home.  Took a bus, which was fine, but it reminded me of the Seinfeld standup routine where he's talking about NY City cabs and how even though what the driver is doing seems incredibly scary from an objective viewpoint, you really don't worry about it.  As Jerry puts it "no matter how dangerous it seems, it's all quite amusing in the back of that cab."  Similarly, when the bus is charging down the crowded rainy streets and scooters are squeezing by in every open space and pedestrians constantly walk out into the street you think, "well this must be normal here."  At least until later on when we saw a car that had crashed into the metal guardrails which are placed all over and I had never really noticed till I saw one all crumpled up.  Remember to look both ways! 

Portuguese egg tarts and dim sum!

Ok, so I'm well on my way to trying all the foods I was excited about in Macau.  I had Portuguese egg tarts last night which lived up to the hype in every way.  Then Carol, our gracious hostess, took us all out for dim sum brunch today.  Awesome.  But the menu was all in Cantonese and it was the kind you order by filling out an order sheet, not the cart style.  Soooo, what's a foreigner to do?  I asked her if she would tell me what we'd had and I made notes on a blank order sheet, so now I can go back and get all the goods again.  I had many of my favorites, and a couple new things - some kind of fried milk with almond treat and turnip cakes.  Delish.

Had a slight food mishap last night though - Beth and I went to a place that sold udon noodle soup.  She knows some Mandarin and is able to use it to help her with Cantonese, since it's different but similar.  Needless to say, there was a miscommunication and so when our soup arrived it was full of chunks of what looked like a large bird's legs.  They had black skin and grey flesh and bones.  We decided to scoop out the legs parts and the rest of it was very good.  We also had a salad type dish with cucumber and eggs.  It tasted pretty good, but the eggs had been cooked in some way that radically altered the color.  They tasted a little weird, but alright.  See photo above - those green and brown things are the eggs.  The yolks were a dark blue-ish green and the "whites" were a translucent brown.

We also went to an enormous outdoor market yesterday and bought some stuff for the apartment - a shelving unit for the kitchen and some sheets.  They had everything you could want, including lots of fresh fruits and veggies, in case I'm ever inclined to cook.  (Doubtful.)  So I think my room is pretty well set up.  Once we get internet at home I'll post a video tour.  I also went on a quest and found one of the laundry places I had been told about - they wash and fold it for you and charge by the pound.  Pretty sweet deal.

Carol also took us sightseeing after our brunch and we wandered around one of the touristy areas.  We saw the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral - probably the most famous landmark in Macau.  Upon Carol's suggestion, I went up to the second level to check out the view and a Chinese tourist tapped me and gestured with her camera.  I thought she wanted me to take a picture of her and her son.  Nope!  She wanted a picture of me with her son!  Funny, but not that uncommon I guess.  Get your picture taken with the American - only 5 patacas per person!  After this I'll head home for a chill evening - Carol is meeting us at 8am tomorrow to bring us to the school.  Shouldn't be a problem since I keep waking up at 6.  :)

Tadaaa!

Here I am, sending my first post from Macau.  I'm all settled into my apartment and it's lovely (and furnished) despite the extremely cheap rent.  My roommates are here with me and are totally cool.  We'll be getting internet at the apartment as of Tuesday, so after that look for daily entries. 

My address, for those that have asked, is below and I'm told the rumor I heard about being charged for accepting packages is false - so send away!  :)
Rua Pedro Coutinho
Edificio Queen's Court, #12A
Macau, SAR

Here is a quick rundown of the past few days:

Tuesday 8/2:
For those who have been following my passport name change saga, here is how it turned out.  I arrived shortly before my 9am apt. to see a long line outside the building.  It quickly became apparent that I should have come and spent all day in line and gotten it out of the way at my first possible convenience.  But since I didn't I waited for my number to be called and was seen around 9:20am.  After going through all my paperwork the woman told me I could pick up my passport between 3-4pm.  I told her my flight was leaving at 3.  She grumbled about it a bit but eventually talked to someone and arranged for me to pick it up at noon.  Luckily my wonderful friend Alicia saved the day by chauffeuring my bags to me and waiting for me to pick it up and then took me to the airport.  Without her it would have been a disaster, but it turned out to be fine. 

Wednesday 8/3:
The flight itself was fine - I read Return of the King and The Social Animal on my Kindle (Thanks Anne!) and was pleasantly surprised to find that Air China still serves real food.  There were little old Indian women on either side of my all decked out in their saris and one of them was using the empty seat between us to sprawl out so I nearly had her bare feet in my lap a few times.  We flew all the way up over Alaska, and they alternated between American and Chinese movies.  I didn't watch because my headphones weren't working, but they showed Tron and Tangled.  I managed to stay awake for most of the flight so by the time I got to the Beijing Airport I was really out of it.  I found the hourly airport hotel and booked a room and made sure I had enough time to get up and ready before my connecting flight to Macau.  Or so I thought...
(Oh, and another thing about the Beijing Airport.  It's spotless.  Sparkling.  There are all kinds of people wandering around cleaning the floors, and they do it like window washers, using the cleaning sponge and squeegee in tandem doing a little dance across the floor.  It was fascinating.
Also, when I was going through security I noticed a Hidden Dangerous Goods poster at each desk with examples of said goods and how they should be properly packaged.  On this list was Semen.  I really wanted to take a picture with my phone but I decided not to draw unnecessary attention to myself.)

Thursday 8/4:
After a night of weird jetlaggy sleep I got up and ready and finally figured out how to log into wireless in the Beijing Airport.  Who knew I had to scan my passport in order to get a password - how else would they track me?  Anyway I got some breakfast and was using my free time to check in back home and Mom says - "I thought your flight to Macau left at 7."  I was like, no, not till noon, but then  I decided to check just to be sure and realized that the flight was supposed to leave at 8:30am.  At that point it was about 7:30am.  So I took off and went to the counter only to be bounced around for about 20 minutes until someone finally told me it was too late for me to board.  Then I got bounced around some more trying to find someone to help me rebook a new flight.  After much ado and $350, I was set for the 4pm flight.  More than the money, I was bummed because it meant having to inconvenience the woman who was picking me up at the airport since now instead of coming during her workday, she would have to meet me at 9:30pm.  Luckily Carol was totally cool and whisked me off in a cab and got me to my new home with no problems.  

Friday 8/5:
After another crazy night's sleep I got up and met Beth, my fellow teacher and housemate.  She's from Georgia and has been teaching in Beijing for the past couple of years.  We spent the morning organizing our rooms and then went out exploring.  Wait, first, I need to make a confession.  We had breakfast at McDonald's.  We had no food and it's literally about 10 steps away from our place.  But that's not the confession.  The confession is that in that moment it was the best thing I've ever tasted.  Egg McMuffin, hashbrown patty and a coffee.  Yum.  At least momentarily I take back all my MickyD's hate.  :)  Anyway, we explored the city, found a grocery store with everything we needed and even more stuff from home than we ever expected.  We also found a beautiful park with a lotus pond and gardens and fish.  Pictures to follow once I'm set up at home.  We ate two more delicious meals at small restaurants in the hood and for dinner, I had roti prata.  That's right, first day in, I found it.  Awesome, yet dangerous.  Later in the evening Angie arrived with her parents who had been with her visiting relatives in Hong Kong. 

Saturday 8/6:
Today, as yesterday, I made myself stay in bed until it was light in an effort to get on schedule, then rearranged my room a bit more and then the 3 of us set off for an internet hotspot, and here I am, eating an egg sandwich with my bottled water (tap isn't drinkable), rice tea and an egg sandwich.  More to follow!

No Reservations - Macau

So Anthony Bourdain recently did an episode on Macau. Here is the YouTube link to the first of 3 segments.  I'm very excited about the milk pudding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1f0VSRsu0U

So sorry.

I changed the settings for the comments to make them less annoying.  Happy Bobby?