The Thai Kitchen Trio, Extra Spicy

Paris and its Porn (and the Other Stuff of course) XD - John

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:40:14 -0400

Dear all,

This is John Cho and… THERE’S FREE PORN ON FRENCH TV. I’m so mind blown right now. That’s the thing that’s been keeping us all up til 3:30 in the morning. Damn. That’s some real shit there man. Oh. And all the French girls are really, really, really hot. Too bad they don’t speak English or I would take some pictures with them. Actually, I think they think we look pretty sketchy walking around in jackets in Paris with our hands stuck in our pockets and hoping nobody steals our stuff. Obviously on our trip here, we acted like real legit tourists and basically everybody stared at us at the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, some cathedral named Notre Dame, the Louvre (THERE WAS A TWO HOUR WAIT LINE TO GET INTO THE MUSEUM AND ANOTHER 30 MINUTES OF CRAZY ASS TOURISTS PUSHING US TO TAKE A PICTURE WITH THE MONA LISA - WE GOT PICTURES WITH IT). Too bad it’s fake. The real one’s somewhere hidden. We imitated some random ass sculptures, got some pictures of some butts and balls (the statues), and yea. That’s basically the results of a crazy ass two hour wait.

The City of Light. More like the city of HATERS OF AMERICAN PEOPLE. At least for our group - maybe it’s because it’s four asian kids walking around like tourists and walking into fancy French cafes and not speaking French when nobody else is a foreigner. Awkward. XD But yea, they can’t speak enough English to know that a GRILLED steak equals its FREAKIN COOKED. Instead Minghe and I got served raw beef - beef tatare or some sheetttt. Bad times for my stomach. At least there’s still a lot of SWAG in France - well nice butts and all that. And sleeping late makes me really disoriented. This is why I’m skipping around all over the place. The fact that we don’t sleep anymore and walk around in a daze makes people say some… stupid stuff. Every time someone says something, I tend to misinterpret everything. Minghe likes barefoot cows. HOT NEIGHBOR. It’s a world of discoveries here and obviously playing hearts and PRESIDENT (the asian, more strategic version or something - I suck shit at it) in the middle of night while watching trippy French Cartoon Network shows cuts the deal for me. I got some pictures below so it’s up to your own interpretation. I’ll be back with more when I remember some stuff. I’m watching How I Met Your Mother right now - with Arabic subtitles. What the hell. Off to Barca - MORE HOT PEOPLE and most importantly… LESS LANGUAGE BARRIER / CHEAPER FOOD.

"OMG Aston Martin" - David

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:07:00 -0400

I suppose I’m breaking an internet promise, but Minghe doesn’t want to write, John isn’t feeling the inspiration at the moment, and James says it isn’t “his thing.” So I’m writing one, again.

Our first sensation in London was one of extreme wetness. We trudged through the streets for almost an hour in pouring rain because we were directed in the wrong direction. The only consolation was passing a Ferrari, Lambo, Aston Martin, and Koenigsegg stores. Our second sensation was one of extreme fatigue since we spent the plane ride playing poker, pinball, and watching movies:

Because of that, we satisfied our ADD mentality with an interactive science museum. Some parts of it were just history, but some sections had buttons to press and bright colors to gawk at:

At least the second day we weren’t as tired so we went to the London Dungeon which had some great actors. They make fun of the audience a lot. John was fortunate enough to be picked on twice. Apparently, he bathes in his own “wee-wee” and is guilty of being American.

Then we did touristy things:

London City Hall

Tower Bridge

London Eye

Big Ben

House of Parliament

Westminister Abbey

Buckingham Palace

Good fun. We’re going back at the end of the trip, so we’re pumped.

The Big Smoke - David

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:13:19 -0400

London’s been great fun, but we haven’t had internet so we’ll update write more from Paris. And I promise it won’t be more from me.

I'm Not Easy But We Can Discuss It - David

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 13:49:20 -0400

I don’t go to China often so every time I go I have to visit graves to, as cheesy as it sounds, honor my ancestors. I know it’s something I have to do, but it’s a bit depressing.

Lanzhou is peaceful and quiet, but I enjoy Anyang more since I have more family there. All of my dad’s side of the family, except our family, lives there. Compare that with mom’s side with my grandmother in Lanzhou, my aunt in Hangzhou, and my other aunt in Boston. And there are more interesting people on my dad’s side. My cousin works at a TV station so I got to go on TV (audience) the last time I went and her husband is a DJ/DVJ and also does AV so I went to the club/bar he works at. My aunt and uncle are in the medical profession. My other cousin cooks a mean fish. I would list my other uncles, aunts, and cousins, but my dad has five siblings who are married and have 1-3 children.

My dad’s family was always a farming family, although I think we rented the land out to other people now. So fresh grapes:

They tasted pretty good too. Since we were a farming family, my uncles got land where they built houses and have since moved out of. My dad also got land, but for obvious reasons, it looks like this:

As my dad’s oldest son, ostensibly it’ll get passed down to me. I’ll have a little piece of real estate in China.

We visited a lot of museums about Chinese written language and dead people. Some of it was interesting; others not as much.

One of my cousins is a nurse for some important official’s mother. She took some time off from work to spend some time. She wanted to take me around Anyang, but there wasn’t enough time after we went to some cultural place. I guess she’s fairly tall:

She bought me a shirt so we got around to talking about how some fashionable Chinese shirts have random sentences and letters. In Beijing and in Anyang, I saw a shirt that said, “I’m Not Easy But We Can Discuss It.” Although it’s probably not originally Chinese, I’m sure the girls wearing the shirts didn’t know its meaning. While shopping, my cousin and I encountered a shirt that said, “Fuck like a cowboy. Fuck like a movie. Fuck like a porn.” WOO Chinese designers.

So Anyang is always fun. I have tons of relatives so there’s never a dull moment.

Just Jetlagged - David

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 11:20:00 -0400

Hopefully James, Minghe, John, and I can use this tumblr in Europe, but I’m just going to post some stuff to try it out.

China’s been a blast. There’s less garbage on the ground, more cars on the road, and the same mentality all around. You can start with the pedestrians. Cross the street while cars zoom about? Fuck their shit. So extreme in that regard, I saw a blind person jaywalk. Of course, that means the cars have to also have a “fuck their shit” view. So then it’s the ultimate game of Frogger. Then there’s the people without any sort of vehicle: no car, no moped, no bike. That guy basically said, “fuck that shit” and was pulling a cart full of scrap metal on the highway.

A friend of my mom’s took us to a mountain while I was visiting my grandmother in Lanzhou. We spent some time drinking tea and playing cards. Of course of lunch we had an entire lamb:

Delicious. We ate it with a plastic glove on one hand and a knife in the other.

The next logical thing was to ride horses:

His trainer is this guy:

He told my mom he would be by the horse’s side the entire time. As soon as we turned a corner…BAM he was gone. Either way the ride was fun. Then we climbed mountain. An entire mountain. The steps made it harder since we snaked our way up.

For all the progress that’s occurred in China, they still have squat toilets. I admit they sometimes make it easier to take a dump, but damn it really hurts your legs sometimes. And it stinks even more, no pun intended, when the combined toilet-shower room breaks down, as happened in my grandmother’s home.

No trip to Lanzhou is complete without visiting the Yellow River. After looking at what seemed like hundreds of water wheels, I got to go float on a sheepskin raft:

I guess seven years makes a difference:

Besides this stuff, there’s was a wax museum and more water wheels. I think I ate noodles everyday, either beef noodles or cold noodles.

I guess this post is kind of long, but I’m looking to make shorter ones. It’s just that I’ve had internet about three times in two weeks. Otherwise, I would post more frequently.