So as I said in the email, I would explain how to watch the whole show for those who wanted.
I would just like to reemphasize two things:
1. Your browser may tell you that this website is dangerous, but I have not had any trouble with it so far.
2. You may not find it all that interesting if you don't speak Chinese. I don't really have a big part in anything after the first one.
First Video
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60953
Second Video
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60954
Third Video
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60955
Fourth Video
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60956
Happy Watching,
Lee
Sunday, October 25, 2009
TV Superstar
A couple of emails ago, I mentioned that I had some exciting news, but I couldn’t share it with yall at the time. The news is that a couple of weeks ago I got invited to participate in a local game show. By game show, I mean a real, straight-up crazy game show with slimy fish and buckets dropping things on people. Although I didn’t win much money, just $75, and I didn’t even get to participate in any of the real games, but I still had a lot of fun. And don’t worry, it looks like I’ve already been invited on to do another game show, so maybe I’ve got another chance.
One day, I was getting my bike fixed and talking to the repairman about Chinese politics. Two TV directors just happened to be driving by and they noticed me talking with the repairman. They pulled over their car and asked me if I wanted to participate in a gameshow where I could win $1000 and I needed to speak Chinese.
This email is mostly about the game and its structure, so that when yall watch it yall can try and understand.
There are 6 players, all of us foreigners (2 Atlantans, 1 Kenyan, 1 Brit, 1 German, and one Spaniard). There were main three games that we could compete in to get money, but only two people could compete in each main game. How did they choose those two games? You had to win a kind of musical chairs to compete in the main game.I didn’t win any of these, so I didn’t get to compete in any of the main games.
These games were pretty crazy. The first game had one of the contestants with two of his friends on three stairs. On each of their heads is a bucket helmet. They have to pour water in to the bucket helmet, and then pour it into the helmet of the guy on the step below him, and again into the guy with the bucket helmet below that. The final guy was to pour the water into a giant measuring cup, the team with the most water in the measuring cup won. Contestants are also made to stand in buckets of water with little fish in them that nibble on your feet. I asked them what the point of the little minnows that you stepped on was. They said, “They make the game more fun.”
The second game was on a giant treadmill. The contestant got on the treadmill, and two of his friends were down below with fishing poles and a marshmallow on the end. The friends had to take the fishing pole and dangle it in the person’s mouth so that the contestant could eat it. This is going on while the person is running on a giant treadmill that keeps speeding up (if you fall, you drop into a giant pit of playground balls). The person who eats the most marshmallows wins.
The final game has contestants carry a pole with two buckets on either end of the pole (a traditional rural carrying mechanism still used in China and Vietnam today). A friend of the contestant had to put a live fish in each bucket, a total of two fish. The contestant then had to walk across a slippery, 15-yard long trampoline. Finally, dump the fish in a bucket at the other end of the trampoline, run back and do it again. Of course, if the fish jumped out of the bucket you had to pick them up off the trampoline and put them back in your bucket, all while trying to keep balance on the soapy-trampline.
But then, once you win $100, $200, or $300 they make you gamble with it. After each of these main games, these twelve very scantily clad ladies come out, each of them carrying a small scroll. The winner of the main game takes a hula-hoop and throws it around the one of the girls and then they open the scroll. The scroll is basically like rolling a dice. Your money could be halved or doubled. You might have to give it to your opponent or an audience member. Whatever the scroll the model is holding tells you to do, you have to do it.
I’m not going to lie, it was crazy. I didn’t participate in any of the main games, but I got to be interviewed and I did kind of sing a Chinese song for the intro (lip-sing, we had tapped it earlier that day). If you watch it, I’m dressed in a golden, Chinese shirt and singing with the German dude.
Instructions:
When you go to this website, your browser may say it’s dangerous or it’s infected with malware. So far, neither I nor anyone I’ve given this to has had any problem. I think it is just an issue with the Chinese site.
Those of yall who don’t speak Chinese probably won’t notice it, but the sound does not match with the video, so when you see me say something, my voice will come about ten seconds later.
The show was about 90 minutes and online they have divided that up into 4 videos: the website below will take you to the first video, which has most of the cool stuff:
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60953
The other videos are not of much interest unless you speak Chinese. If you want to watch the other videos, please check out my blog for further instructions:
www.free-roaming.blogspot.com
Finally, I’ve noted the times of some points of interest in the first video:
Minute 1: Nationalistic show
Minute 2: Lee lip-singing a Chinese song with a German dude.
Minute 3-4.5 : Other contestants introduction.
Minute 8.20-10: Lee loses musical chairs.
Minute 12-14: Lee gets interviewed by the host, has to do a Chinese tongue twister.
Minute 15-22: First competition, with the bucket helmets.
Minute 22-25: Gambling the prize money.
If you watch the next video (how to find that on my blog), then you can see what the winner actually gets, but it’s hard to figure out what’s going on unless you speak Chinese.
I’ll probably write another email on this later, but until then...
One day, I was getting my bike fixed and talking to the repairman about Chinese politics. Two TV directors just happened to be driving by and they noticed me talking with the repairman. They pulled over their car and asked me if I wanted to participate in a gameshow where I could win $1000 and I needed to speak Chinese.
This email is mostly about the game and its structure, so that when yall watch it yall can try and understand.
There are 6 players, all of us foreigners (2 Atlantans, 1 Kenyan, 1 Brit, 1 German, and one Spaniard). There were main three games that we could compete in to get money, but only two people could compete in each main game. How did they choose those two games? You had to win a kind of musical chairs to compete in the main game.I didn’t win any of these, so I didn’t get to compete in any of the main games.
These games were pretty crazy. The first game had one of the contestants with two of his friends on three stairs. On each of their heads is a bucket helmet. They have to pour water in to the bucket helmet, and then pour it into the helmet of the guy on the step below him, and again into the guy with the bucket helmet below that. The final guy was to pour the water into a giant measuring cup, the team with the most water in the measuring cup won. Contestants are also made to stand in buckets of water with little fish in them that nibble on your feet. I asked them what the point of the little minnows that you stepped on was. They said, “They make the game more fun.”
The second game was on a giant treadmill. The contestant got on the treadmill, and two of his friends were down below with fishing poles and a marshmallow on the end. The friends had to take the fishing pole and dangle it in the person’s mouth so that the contestant could eat it. This is going on while the person is running on a giant treadmill that keeps speeding up (if you fall, you drop into a giant pit of playground balls). The person who eats the most marshmallows wins.
The final game has contestants carry a pole with two buckets on either end of the pole (a traditional rural carrying mechanism still used in China and Vietnam today). A friend of the contestant had to put a live fish in each bucket, a total of two fish. The contestant then had to walk across a slippery, 15-yard long trampoline. Finally, dump the fish in a bucket at the other end of the trampoline, run back and do it again. Of course, if the fish jumped out of the bucket you had to pick them up off the trampoline and put them back in your bucket, all while trying to keep balance on the soapy-trampline.
But then, once you win $100, $200, or $300 they make you gamble with it. After each of these main games, these twelve very scantily clad ladies come out, each of them carrying a small scroll. The winner of the main game takes a hula-hoop and throws it around the one of the girls and then they open the scroll. The scroll is basically like rolling a dice. Your money could be halved or doubled. You might have to give it to your opponent or an audience member. Whatever the scroll the model is holding tells you to do, you have to do it.
I’m not going to lie, it was crazy. I didn’t participate in any of the main games, but I got to be interviewed and I did kind of sing a Chinese song for the intro (lip-sing, we had tapped it earlier that day). If you watch it, I’m dressed in a golden, Chinese shirt and singing with the German dude.
Instructions:
When you go to this website, your browser may say it’s dangerous or it’s infected with malware. So far, neither I nor anyone I’ve given this to has had any problem. I think it is just an issue with the Chinese site.
Those of yall who don’t speak Chinese probably won’t notice it, but the sound does not match with the video, so when you see me say something, my voice will come about ten seconds later.
The show was about 90 minutes and online they have divided that up into 4 videos: the website below will take you to the first video, which has most of the cool stuff:
http://www.showdv.com.cn/play_j.asp?vid=60953
The other videos are not of much interest unless you speak Chinese. If you want to watch the other videos, please check out my blog for further instructions:
www.free-roaming.blogspot.com
Finally, I’ve noted the times of some points of interest in the first video:
Minute 1: Nationalistic show
Minute 2: Lee lip-singing a Chinese song with a German dude.
Minute 3-4.5 : Other contestants introduction.
Minute 8.20-10: Lee loses musical chairs.
Minute 12-14: Lee gets interviewed by the host, has to do a Chinese tongue twister.
Minute 15-22: First competition, with the bucket helmets.
Minute 22-25: Gambling the prize money.
If you watch the next video (how to find that on my blog), then you can see what the winner actually gets, but it’s hard to figure out what’s going on unless you speak Chinese.
I’ll probably write another email on this later, but until then...
Thursday, October 15, 2009
KKorean Odyssey
When we Last saw our hero, Lee, he was in the ancient Silla capital of Gyeongju, in the south of the country, near Pusan. Lee had already been spent five days in this nation of 50 million people, the world’s 10th largest economy, and, though he knew they were there, he had still not yet seen a Krispy Kreme. Will Lee find that sugary treat before he has to return to the Kremeless land of China? Now, for the exciting conclusion of the KKorean Odyssey:
Hey Yall
I left Gyeongju and went to a city called Daegu, where I had to transfer on his way to Sokcho and Seuranksan National Park. Nothing interesting in Daegu, but while I was trying to find the right bus station, I saw a women hurrying off to work. As she scurried down the subway stairs, I noticed she was wearing Krispy Kreme uniform. Before I could ask here where the Krispy Kreme was, I was accosted by a Korean Jehovah’s Witness, handing me “The Watchtower.” Before I could get away, the girl in the uniform had disappeared.
Sokcho, the place I was going to, is a small city on the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula, too small to have a Krispy Kreme. Sokcho is quite close to North Korea. In fact, it was a part of North Korea before 1950, but it became part of South Korea in the deadly back and forth that costs the lives of millions of Americans and Chinese at the end of the Korean war. While there, I went to hike in Seuraksan National Park.
Originally, I wanted to hike to the top of the mountain and sleep in a shelter in the park, but it was raining, so they actually closed most of the park. Instead of climbing a mountain, I climbed into a gorge and then climbed a smaller mountain. The park was really pretty, mostly made up of a series of prominent granite mountains surging out of the Sea of Japan.
When I started the hike, I meet up with these two local taxi drivers who also happened to be hiking the same route. They couldn’t speak much (any) English, so we had to communicate through charades. Nevertheless, they were really cool and let me share in their lunch (kimchi and rice) while the cold rain sprinkled down on us.
That night, because I couldn’t sleep on the mountain, I decided to stay in a Jjimjibang. A Jjimjibang is kind of like a spa or a sauna attached to a clubhouse. When you arrive, men and women are separated into two different locker rooms. Here, you strip down butt naked and put your things in a locker. Then, you go into the main room which is filled with showers, several jacuzzis, an ice pool and a couple of saunas. I would sit in one jacuzzi for ten minutes, then jump into a hotter one for another ten minutes. The trick though, is to go from there to the ice pool, which is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, leaving your body totally numb (and comfortable) after a minute or so. Then it’s back into the hot jacuzzi.
After about half an hour I would pop out of the pool room back to my locker, put on the pajamas they provide and go into the common area, where men and women can come together, watch tv, play games, sit in the common saunas, go online or sleep. It’s here that I would lay down on a mat in the middle of the floor and get some sleep. The next morning I would get up, do the jacuzzi thing all over again, and then head out to do some sightseeing. The pools and the place to stay cost about $6 for the whole night, so the way I looked at it, it was a cheap hotel with an awesome bath.
But before I could go sightseeing, I wanted to try to get to a Krispy Kreme. I had found one on the map, just outside of Sinchon Subway Station. Just two more days left in Seoul, so I decided to try and hit the hot now then. I bought a ticket for Sincheon Station, traveled about 45 minutes, changing trains twice, but when I got to Sincheon I couldn’t find the KK. I asked someone, they looked on my map and informed me that I was at the wrong station. I had gone to Sincheon Station, the KK was at Sinchon. Damn Dipthongs!
Despondent, I regrouped, eating breakfast at a bakery and deciding to take the subway to the southern suburbs of Seoul to see a giant fort. On subways, people regularly come by and try to sell things, sometimes the crazy people just come and yell, only to leave a minute or two later. This time, an old lady came in, yelling and waving a book. I thought she was another crazy, so I tried to mind my own business. When she was done yelling, she came up, stopped just in front of me and shook my hand, saying in English, “thank you.”
As she went into the next car to yell again, I realized the book she was waving was the Bible. I was a little disturbed that she thanked me. I guess she thought that, because I was white, she owed me something for bringing Christianity to Korea. That’s not particularly good for Korean Christianity if they still think its that white man religion.
The next morning was my last day in Korea. I double checked to make sure that I was going to the right station. I bought my ticket, and in fifteen minutes, I was at the right station. But, when I got to where it was supposed to be on the map, it wasn’t there. I asked around, but no one seemed to know where it was. I walked across the street, anxious, but then I noticed a sign for Coffee and Doughnuts.
Found it!
I bought half a dozen, for $7 (more than my accommodations the previous night). At first, she just grabbed them from the pile of glazed doughnuts, but I quickly let her know that I wanted the hot ones. After I scarfed down the six doughnuts, I went and did the only healthy thing you could do after eating KK: I climbed a mountain.
Korea was a pretty cool place. I was surprised at how much it was like Japan, where I had spent a summer in 2005. I meet a lot of cool people, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, American. Also, during my ten days of travel, I spent a grand total $30 on accommodations because I stayed in these Jjimjibangs, airports, or at the dorm of a Chinese friend. Pretty good for a country where a cheap motel costs about $30.
Best,
Lee
'He will tell you history and no lies.'" Book 3, line 24, Homer’s Odyssey
Hey Yall
I left Gyeongju and went to a city called Daegu, where I had to transfer on his way to Sokcho and Seuranksan National Park. Nothing interesting in Daegu, but while I was trying to find the right bus station, I saw a women hurrying off to work. As she scurried down the subway stairs, I noticed she was wearing Krispy Kreme uniform. Before I could ask here where the Krispy Kreme was, I was accosted by a Korean Jehovah’s Witness, handing me “The Watchtower.” Before I could get away, the girl in the uniform had disappeared.
Sokcho, the place I was going to, is a small city on the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula, too small to have a Krispy Kreme. Sokcho is quite close to North Korea. In fact, it was a part of North Korea before 1950, but it became part of South Korea in the deadly back and forth that costs the lives of millions of Americans and Chinese at the end of the Korean war. While there, I went to hike in Seuraksan National Park.
Originally, I wanted to hike to the top of the mountain and sleep in a shelter in the park, but it was raining, so they actually closed most of the park. Instead of climbing a mountain, I climbed into a gorge and then climbed a smaller mountain. The park was really pretty, mostly made up of a series of prominent granite mountains surging out of the Sea of Japan.
When I started the hike, I meet up with these two local taxi drivers who also happened to be hiking the same route. They couldn’t speak much (any) English, so we had to communicate through charades. Nevertheless, they were really cool and let me share in their lunch (kimchi and rice) while the cold rain sprinkled down on us.
That night, because I couldn’t sleep on the mountain, I decided to stay in a Jjimjibang. A Jjimjibang is kind of like a spa or a sauna attached to a clubhouse. When you arrive, men and women are separated into two different locker rooms. Here, you strip down butt naked and put your things in a locker. Then, you go into the main room which is filled with showers, several jacuzzis, an ice pool and a couple of saunas. I would sit in one jacuzzi for ten minutes, then jump into a hotter one for another ten minutes. The trick though, is to go from there to the ice pool, which is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, leaving your body totally numb (and comfortable) after a minute or so. Then it’s back into the hot jacuzzi.
After about half an hour I would pop out of the pool room back to my locker, put on the pajamas they provide and go into the common area, where men and women can come together, watch tv, play games, sit in the common saunas, go online or sleep. It’s here that I would lay down on a mat in the middle of the floor and get some sleep. The next morning I would get up, do the jacuzzi thing all over again, and then head out to do some sightseeing. The pools and the place to stay cost about $6 for the whole night, so the way I looked at it, it was a cheap hotel with an awesome bath.
But before I could go sightseeing, I wanted to try to get to a Krispy Kreme. I had found one on the map, just outside of Sinchon Subway Station. Just two more days left in Seoul, so I decided to try and hit the hot now then. I bought a ticket for Sincheon Station, traveled about 45 minutes, changing trains twice, but when I got to Sincheon I couldn’t find the KK. I asked someone, they looked on my map and informed me that I was at the wrong station. I had gone to Sincheon Station, the KK was at Sinchon. Damn Dipthongs!
Despondent, I regrouped, eating breakfast at a bakery and deciding to take the subway to the southern suburbs of Seoul to see a giant fort. On subways, people regularly come by and try to sell things, sometimes the crazy people just come and yell, only to leave a minute or two later. This time, an old lady came in, yelling and waving a book. I thought she was another crazy, so I tried to mind my own business. When she was done yelling, she came up, stopped just in front of me and shook my hand, saying in English, “thank you.”
As she went into the next car to yell again, I realized the book she was waving was the Bible. I was a little disturbed that she thanked me. I guess she thought that, because I was white, she owed me something for bringing Christianity to Korea. That’s not particularly good for Korean Christianity if they still think its that white man religion.
The next morning was my last day in Korea. I double checked to make sure that I was going to the right station. I bought my ticket, and in fifteen minutes, I was at the right station. But, when I got to where it was supposed to be on the map, it wasn’t there. I asked around, but no one seemed to know where it was. I walked across the street, anxious, but then I noticed a sign for Coffee and Doughnuts.
Found it!
I bought half a dozen, for $7 (more than my accommodations the previous night). At first, she just grabbed them from the pile of glazed doughnuts, but I quickly let her know that I wanted the hot ones. After I scarfed down the six doughnuts, I went and did the only healthy thing you could do after eating KK: I climbed a mountain.
Korea was a pretty cool place. I was surprised at how much it was like Japan, where I had spent a summer in 2005. I meet a lot of cool people, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, American. Also, during my ten days of travel, I spent a grand total $30 on accommodations because I stayed in these Jjimjibangs, airports, or at the dorm of a Chinese friend. Pretty good for a country where a cheap motel costs about $30.
Best,
Lee
'He will tell you history and no lies.'" Book 3, line 24, Homer’s Odyssey
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Korea
So I had wanted to email yall earlier, about something that had happened while I was still in Nanjing, China. Unfortunately, that email will have to wait until I can find the video of what happened online.
As my subject title may imply, I'm in Korea. There was a break throughout China for a little over a week. I wanted to do some traveling, but this is the busiest time of travel for China. For one week, almost half of the country is on break, and anywhere that you might want to go is going to be crazy busy, oceans of Chinese people at every tourist spot.
So I decided to leave the country. I've been in China since June, so I kind of need the break anyways. China was starting to get to me too, so its probably best that I left.
So, I left Nanjing on October first with just three shirts, two pairs of pants, three pairs of socks and three pairs of boxers, along with a few other things, some books and my ipod. My flight left from Shanghai only, 2.5 hours away from where I'm living in Nanjing. Unfortunately, I had an overnight layover in Beijing, so I had to stay the night. I found a comfy spot to sleep and got to Korea the next day.
Korea's a pretty small, but there is a ton of stuff to do. Since I've only got nine or ten days, I'm having to split my time carefully. I'm doing three places: Seoul, the capital and the center of Korean culture. Gyeongju, a city called the "museum without walls" because its scattered with so many relics from its time as the first Korean capital in the 6th Century. And finally, Sokcho and Seodraksan National Park, a cool collection of granite mountains shooting out of the ground not far from the East coast of Korea.
Flying into Seoul I spent a day there, seeing some palace or something. Like some many things in this country, the palace looks like they were trying to copy China (60% of Korea's vocabulary comes from Chinese, 20% from English and 20% from Korean). While exploring that palace, I ran into some cool American teachers, so I tagged along with them for the rest of the day.
The American teachers and I went to eat at a little back-alley Korean place, and then, they took me to this park in Seoul where jam bands meet semi-legally most nights. That night, it was one of the most famous bands on the circuit, a reggae-tapdancing band. I know it sounds crazy but, it was one of the cooler things I saw that day. I thought the band's bongo drummer looked higher than a cloud flying a kite for most of the songs, but then I saw him tap dance the rhythm section on a Bob Marley song, and it was a lot of fun.
In Gyeongju, the 'museum without walls,' I biked around the countryside, passing by tombs that were a millennium and a half old, climbing up to see giant stone buddhas and a giant temple. While there, I stayed with a Chinese exchange student from Nanjing, who I meet on couchsurfing.org, a site that lets you meet up with people while traveling and stay with them for free. I'm practicing my Chinese more here than in China.
I'll tell yall about my rainy hiking with some Korean cab drivers and the rest of my trip later.
But there is something I should mention. Some of yall may know of one of my other loves, a love that my fiance puts up with with only a slightly disguised disgust: hot-now Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I generally don't eat them in the US, because I'd get crazy fat, and when I'm in Asia I don't generally have the opportunity. But Korea has about 50 KK's and I've made it my mission to scarf down a dozen hot one's before I leave the peninsula. Dunkin' Doughnuts are all over here, but I haven't yet seen a KK. The closest I came was I saw a lady with a KK jacket on, but I didn't have time to find the store as I had to catch a bus. I'll update yall on my search.
As my subject title may imply, I'm in Korea. There was a break throughout China for a little over a week. I wanted to do some traveling, but this is the busiest time of travel for China. For one week, almost half of the country is on break, and anywhere that you might want to go is going to be crazy busy, oceans of Chinese people at every tourist spot.
So I decided to leave the country. I've been in China since June, so I kind of need the break anyways. China was starting to get to me too, so its probably best that I left.
So, I left Nanjing on October first with just three shirts, two pairs of pants, three pairs of socks and three pairs of boxers, along with a few other things, some books and my ipod. My flight left from Shanghai only, 2.5 hours away from where I'm living in Nanjing. Unfortunately, I had an overnight layover in Beijing, so I had to stay the night. I found a comfy spot to sleep and got to Korea the next day.
Korea's a pretty small, but there is a ton of stuff to do. Since I've only got nine or ten days, I'm having to split my time carefully. I'm doing three places: Seoul, the capital and the center of Korean culture. Gyeongju, a city called the "museum without walls" because its scattered with so many relics from its time as the first Korean capital in the 6th Century. And finally, Sokcho and Seodraksan National Park, a cool collection of granite mountains shooting out of the ground not far from the East coast of Korea.
Flying into Seoul I spent a day there, seeing some palace or something. Like some many things in this country, the palace looks like they were trying to copy China (60% of Korea's vocabulary comes from Chinese, 20% from English and 20% from Korean). While exploring that palace, I ran into some cool American teachers, so I tagged along with them for the rest of the day.
The American teachers and I went to eat at a little back-alley Korean place, and then, they took me to this park in Seoul where jam bands meet semi-legally most nights. That night, it was one of the most famous bands on the circuit, a reggae-tapdancing band. I know it sounds crazy but, it was one of the cooler things I saw that day. I thought the band's bongo drummer looked higher than a cloud flying a kite for most of the songs, but then I saw him tap dance the rhythm section on a Bob Marley song, and it was a lot of fun.
In Gyeongju, the 'museum without walls,' I biked around the countryside, passing by tombs that were a millennium and a half old, climbing up to see giant stone buddhas and a giant temple. While there, I stayed with a Chinese exchange student from Nanjing, who I meet on couchsurfing.org, a site that lets you meet up with people while traveling and stay with them for free. I'm practicing my Chinese more here than in China.
I'll tell yall about my rainy hiking with some Korean cab drivers and the rest of my trip later.
But there is something I should mention. Some of yall may know of one of my other loves, a love that my fiance puts up with with only a slightly disguised disgust: hot-now Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I generally don't eat them in the US, because I'd get crazy fat, and when I'm in Asia I don't generally have the opportunity. But Korea has about 50 KK's and I've made it my mission to scarf down a dozen hot one's before I leave the peninsula. Dunkin' Doughnuts are all over here, but I haven't yet seen a KK. The closest I came was I saw a lady with a KK jacket on, but I didn't have time to find the store as I had to catch a bus. I'll update yall on my search.
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