you're my disco

long fucking day. gah.

hello, did you know im blonde? well apparently i am because i was putting in the batteries upside down. i can't even blame that on being american in china. im just blonde. har. but these batteries run out quickly so i have to shoot and run.. na'mean.

i had chinese "LA PIZZA" today, unfortunately that was BEFORE i found out about the camera working, but i have to tell you.. its better than effing euro pizza on shaolin.. it even had corn!

while at the first factory today i learned how printed earrings are made, i saw a pair from start to finish.. at start they were all white and just a strip of metal, and now.. viola:




they are special:)

i also learned, and saw first hand how molds are made and who metal is made from liquid into an actual piece, right down to the hand polishing, it really is crazy.. i mean we strive for 10,000 piece orders- but teh HAND work that goes into a 10,000 piece order is unthinkable.

NEXT! the bathroom i used while at the second factory, well lets just put it this way- there was a window with NOTHING covering it to the stairway of the entrance of the building.. um, can we say gross?! thank god for wet wipes - i still cannot (and probably never will) grasp the concept of no toilet paper...or even the fact that they refer to the bathroom as TOILET.. thats just soundsss gross.

this is the "thats so chinese" mousepad at the airport internet center.
(i really bet she IS a lovely girl):


and these characters were on the door of the soda machine at the business lounge...i love their "american eyes":


the flight was about 3 hours..in total because it was delayed for an hour - in which time i organized my picture folders on the plane (i feel so accomplished now). i passed the FUCK out, and when i woke up i was pissed because i was dreaming i was home - and something amazing was hapening and the kow meng cha woo ka ping sheshai BANG im on an airplane flying over hong kong. wasn't a happy moment.

at the airport in guangdong there were no american toilets, so i came upon (eggroll please..dun dun...):

but i couldnt use this one, so the mystery inside will never be uncovered!
so....the legend:

low and be-gross,the inside of a chinese bathroom stall..whtf?!
of course there is this friendly reminder on the wall before you leave:

and this lovely polite illustartion not to fall when you are leaving the toilet:



LATER>>>>>>>....
sanck time!
a chinese mcdonalds double cheeseburger:


this is my hotel:

it looks like LA here (does that sound cliche because there are palm trees IN the hotel?!), but all of the buildings are lit up like casinos.. the weather is amazing, its probably like 60. where i am is quite developed, but tomorrow the factory area is the remote part i guess - we'll see.

on that note i will leave you with my in room photo shoot of me attempting to take pictures of the view, but only getting my reflection.. har (blonde!:)







until shanghai! <3

goodbye qingdao!

happy 7am on a wednesday morning.

last night i had a traditional korean & japanese mixed dinner with out #1 supplier. he is korean so we had our translator (who is also his friend) there to speak for us.
he understood more english the more jimo he drank though! (is it wrong i thought he was kind of hot?)

*jimo: chinese potato grain alcohol. it comes a bottle about the size of a beer bottle and is about as strong as saki.

i had the most amazing food! pineapple chinks with korean bbq sauce wrapped in "bacon", pumpkin with cinnamon and honey, and the best part RIBS & FRENCH FRIES!
that shit was bad ass, andlong over due. I also got drunk on jimo and tsingdao beer - i think i had like 8 shots (if you spoke to me on AIM this am you can agree i was quite relentless!). it is an insult to the korean/chinese people to say no to any food/drink they offer; so i was just being polite!

so my camera died :( im so sad. i have rechargeable batteries, but it only takes a single lithium battery, hopefully since i am in the land of electronics; or should i say origin - i can find new ones! the #1 electronic supplier here is HAIER, fyi. it like owns china. there are sins everywhere for it.
today i go to out #1 supplier, then to a print factory - then onto guangdong. it is very remote there(and dirty i hear)so i am not sure if i will have a change to update until i get to shanghai - but then again i could be totally wrong and they may have high class heated toilet seats. i ordered room service and am super excited for my "belgium waffles with fresh fruit and maple falovred serup (<~hahahahaha!, yes "serup!"

i had jasmine tea this morning, it was "selected by the monarch butterfly" maybe thats why it was so good?



L on a mission to get batteries 7

streets is watchin

it looks fancy- no idea whatit says.


there is no way, you can ever even guess what the signs say.


those bikes are the object of a game of frogger - the highway vs. the pedestrian vs the biker rider vs the tractor rider.


but there will be no tractor riding here.


chinese street market, thats how they roll.

tsingdao

qingdao was home to the 2008 olympics for sailing.
thats your chinese morsel fo the monday morning.

L give me jimo 7

manic monday

it rained today.

like a box of green running men

these line the "streets" of the hotel halls; so if you have to run- go thata way

L wall street english 7

what's cookin' good lookin'

poppin off like the top of a chinese soad pop - tastes like american coke, only sweeter.

met with one factory today, its sunday so not many factories are open. it's SO smoggy here, the sun never shines - worse than LA. ten times worse. the girl i correspond with "karen" (sweejun is her real name) is only 26 - and married, she came to qingdao as her "lifes dream, because she believes it is the most beautiful city in china" - it is SO crazy to learn about these people's lives. she freaking taught herself english!

ok on to the crazy shit..

so "karen" and "jack" took us out for a VERY authentic chinese lunch. scorpions and all. im a pussy, i wont eat anything that swims (unless its tuna or a fish stick) or any mystery meat.. so, this was quite the experience. especially since qingdao is a "sea city" - they are right on the water, pacific ocean - or what the locals call the "yellow sea" -keep it to yourself- So everything was seafood!

(yes those are scorpions)

besides the fact that this was TOTALLY in the middle of rural china, like dirt roads and tractor bikes - wait everyone rides tractor bikes here; well you get my jest.

the resty was inside a hotel, where we were indefinately the only non-chinky eyed wonderkids inside. The way it was set up was all these dishes (below) wrapped in plastic wrap, and live tanks of sea food.. you basically pick what you want and then they serve it to you.

it is typical chinese culture to eat inside private dining rooms, so we went in a large room and all sat around a table with a HUGE lazy susan so the food could be easily shared.


i almost thought it was a can of dog food, or food made of dog - but i think its a can of fish?


shrimp salad, in a uh - plastic wrap?


get your mind out of the gutter you pervert, i know what youre thinking.


i couldnt even tell you what the hell these "sea animals" are, but they're eyes are all cloudy


thats what you call a "fun basket"


octapus


not me not now, not ever.


a pile of dead fish, with a lobster cherry


this is your brain on drugs, or fried with veggies..


this is my are "really?" face. bc i really just dont know how to operate fucking chopsticks



the best chicken soup of my life, until i found out it was fish stomach and sea urchin soup -


now thats a lunch (note the pumpkin filled with mushrooms - fucking amazing!)

on that note,

a three wheeled car from the window of a four wheeled car, dip set.

L what is in that, does it have legs 7

i just watched asain mtv

11.) i just freaked the fuck out in my room bc my lights wouldnt turn on, i started to panic thinking that somehwre in a dark corner a small chinese man with a piano wire was crouching like i tiger hidden like a dragon ready to strangle the oodon out of me... alas you must put your hotel key in its special holder and viola! the lights turn on.. stupid blonde american i am.

L i can say thank you in chinese 7

hey you fucking starfish

this is for you rachel:
他不是我的父亲

:)

my view of qingdao:


EDIT: this ones better:


L i cant get my camera to shoot in low light 7