new york, new york

after almost 24 hours commuting im back in NYC.
sick, or course. no asshole - not SARS; they make you go thru a quarantine scan at all of the airports where they scan you fro body temp and germs. i just have amean sinus infection.

this was an amazing experience,and i am thankful to have had it. i will never look at the chinese/korean the same again. thheir country was beautiful, cultural and i give them much respect (aka big ups) for striving through entire cities to work to make a home for their familes.

xie xie.





(this is where qingdao is)

L i have to go blow my nose 7

dunzo on the bund

rest your seoul on this:
acrylic chair 4,000 bux.
*NOT SHOWN colored styrofoam children's chair 200 bux.
(i totally got in trouble for taking pix here)



my personal favorite, the 7 foot plastic spotted horse with lampshape hat.. best part - theres no place for a light bulb. genius.



youre a fucking ham, really?






ladies of the night prowl these streets.
i am beyond toasted, exhausted - and the hope for some rendezvous with an english lad is nowhere in sight - so, last night in shanghai - 7 on the bund.. anazing view of the city; which reminds me of ac on steroids - or that fake city in vegas. to each their own:

someone, somewhere - is thinking of me too.



shanghai from across the bund river, it was FREEZING outside.





i miss my flag.


L but we doo-ooh 7

homesick at spacecamp

happy thanksgiving!



simply shaingai:

this place has some of, no wait THE illest architecture i have evAR seen. ferreal.





i literally feel sick. my throat hurts and my body is done. 6 days straight with no more than 6 hours of sleep and 4 flights across china, i think ive reached my limit.
its been a long fucking journey. and i must say i am happy and excited to know that in 48 hours this will all be done and i will be sitting on my bed back in old shaolin island. i need bagels, i need starbucks, i need my friends.

sunrise in shanghai:








all the houses with blue roofs are government housing. the government provides everyone with a house - but no fixtures (ie TV, stove, refrigerator, etc.) there are no heating systems in south china either - the buildings are SO cold. they only started building places with heating systems built into the floor. right now the only place youre going to find heat is a rich dude's house or an office building/resty.

nobody in china has a washer or dryer - they are like non-exisistant -- this gives new meaning to "chinese laundry" - as farrr as the eye can see. best part is the air is so polluted that people wear face
maskes right/ but youre gon hang your clean laundry to hang in za dirty air.. oy?





ssh. no talking the elevator. especially businessman with briefcase and woman with long hair. simply not allowed!



it actually says "do not promote", i like no men with briefcases allowed better.



apartment turned showroom - the windchill in here is BRUTAL!



xintiandi (chin tea andi) square, where i bought a lucky jade butterfly tassle for leon the neon.











kisses,



L NYC 7!

guangdong mornings & shanghai nights

it's vera's birthday.
give her love-ish.



in guangdong they speak mandarin & cantonese, i cant keep up with all of this.. i thought i was cool because i could say thank you in chinese - this is overload for my brain! heres my view from the window of my hotel room on guangdong - and no this isnt just landscaping for the hotel - it is like this EVERYWHERE, its such a beautiful city:







it was sunny and 75 today, amazing. we had alot of driving and i swear my face was glued to the window everywhere we went - my camera was being tempermental again, so i dont have many pictures -- bleh. there was a beauty store downtown with mena survari (sp) plastered all over it, there were strawberries next to her head and they were selling fish out of a cart below the awning underneath her chin- it was a pictoral moment - too bad i didnt get to document it.

went to the "american grill" for lunch with a client, the ceasar dressing made me feel like i was going to boot (ha). i seriously thought i had food poisioning for a minute. or maybe it was the "cheeseburger".. ugh, dont ask dont tell, dont look. i got to give it to them though, they had ads up for an "original turkey dinner" and a big wooden indian statue in the lobby. E for effort. har.

my first chinese money!


its equal to like 10 bux i think...
edit:that dude looks like he needs to get laid, damn talk about a mug

guess what i bought!
HA.not telling.

im sleeping ON shanghai tonight, wish you were here ;)



outie.

L i have mints on my pillows and an empty bed in my room 7

the difference between 90 and 95

this ones for you MJ:

been sticking BLG in every phonebook in every hotel across asia..

oh, and i know you love my purple monster chains, this has become my power outfit!
its an 85% day!

boredom + camera + fancy mirror=


L my pet monster chain 7

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.