Bei-to-the-Jing

After much trial and tribulation, a few of us decided to head to Beijing (and get the heck out of Shanghai) for our 3 days off. A little tricky, seeing as how we only have a week's worth of pay left, and the holidays are coming, and some folks in the cast are straight up broke. But the bottom line is that a trip to China without seeing the Great Wall is total bunk, right? Right.

So we hopped in a cab, then in a plane, then in a bus, then in another bus, and we were in Beijing. We stayed at Beijing Downtown Backpackers' Hostel, which I totes recommend for all you future Beijing-ers. It was fantastic, and in such a cool part of town. It's on a hutong, which is an alley that's packed with cool little shops, bars, and restaurants. Do it.

So the Forbidden City was awesome, the pandas at the zoo were awesome, Tiananmen Square and Mao's embalmed body were (totally creepy and weird...) awesome. But the Great Wall was something more than awesome. Awe-inspiring? Amazing? I don't know. I guess I overuse awesome and amazing, because the Great Wall was both, in their literal meanings.

Anyhoo, we hiked the Jinshanling to Simatai section, which is the hardest section open to the public near Beijing. It's unrepaired, so it's pretty treacherous, and it's about 7.5 miles of either extremely steep stairs and ramps going up, or extremely steep stairs and ramps going down. Which is almost worse than going up. Ouch, my knees...

But in spite of the tough hike and the (ridiculous!) cold, we made it. It was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had, and I was so proud of us all by the end. It's such a feeling of accomplishment, and it's so inspiring to be all up in the middle of all that history. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Keep it Positive.

So rather than go on a rant about how ridiculous, incompetent, untrustworthy, and out-of-touch with reality this company that I'm working for is (didja see how I slipped those in there anyway?), I'm going to make a list of things that I'm looking forward to when we return to the States in 2 weeks. Because our show is closing.

-my Blackberry
-tap water
-ice
-English
-nice people who smile and don't spit everywhere
-Mexican food
-family
-air that doesn't pollute your body and make you feel like you're dying
-a lack of MSG
-being able to trust people
-Christmas
-normal, un-censored internet
-root beer
-being able to cross a street without risking my life
-Starbucks chai
-a large fluffy couch
-a soft bed
-moving on with life!

xoxo

Lost in Translation

To entertain you, here is a sampling of the horrific translation that our Chinese audience reads on the supertitle boards, as our cast is singing American theatre classics.

English: "That's why the lady is a tramp."
Chinese: "That's why the woman is a hooker."

English: "Forget your troubles, c'mon get happy! Get ready for the judgement day."
Chinese: "Get ready for the apocalypse."

English: "Anything goes!"
Chinese: "Everything means nothing."

Another addition to the long list of things that are all so very backwards in China.

xoxo

"Experts."

One of the things highest on my list of pet peeves (perhaps second only to eating with your mouth open) is a self-proclaimed expert. These days, I feel surrounded by numerous people who feel that their opinion and information on just about any topic under the sun is the be-all, end-all. And I just can't deal with that.

Need to know how to cook an egg? Ask the expert. Need to know how to do a double pirouette? Ask the expert. Need to know how to solve world hunger and create world peace? Ask the expert. The SAME expert for all of these issues, mind you, because people these days are "experts" on stinkin' EVERYTHING! I mean, surely you are not telling me the answer to a question that I asked the person next to you, who actually knows something about the topic of my inquiry? But time and time again, I'm proved wrong. The expert always likes to show you that they know. Whether they're right or wrong.

Maybe that's the answer. Maybe the "expert" doesn't care if he's right or wrong. Maybe he just wants to talk. Just to hear himself and prove to himself that he's still there. Just to reaffirm that he's important enough to know something about everything.

Well, here's what I say to that: BE AS YOU ARE. It's good enough. It's smart enough. And it doesn't annoy or offend people. If everyone was just as they are, people would be so much more comfortable. We wouldn't have to smash people down to build ourselves up. We wouldn't have to hurt other people in an effort to feel important. And we wouldn't have to run our mouths on topics with which we're only vaguely familiar, so that we can feel like we're needed and intelligent.

Dudes. Know what you know. Learn what you can learn. Don't force it on anyone. And just be as you are.

xoxo

Oh, China...

So... Guess who's leaving China early? WE ARE!

I would love to divulge all the dirty details about why we're leaving, but suffice it to say that this production company has more than a few things to learn about doing business. And it would just be bad karma to put all their dirty laundry out into the world via my little ol' blog.

In any case, we're leaving in six weeks, which means that we'll be home for Christmas! And in honor of this joyous occasion, Ryan bought me the tiniest fake Christmas tree ever at a 100 yen store in Japan, complete with mini decorations.



Put the kettle on kids, we're comin' home! Happy Holidays!

xoxo

Turning Japanese

It's kind of a cop-out, but Japan can best be summed up by copying and pasting an email I sent to my parents. Ta-daaaaa!

so here's the deal. japan is waaaaaay cooler than china.

first of all, it's cleaner. china is smoggy and messy and always under construction because they just want everything to be bigger and better. also, there's this huge Architectural Expo in Shanghai next year, and they're rennovating all of these buildings, even ones that are old and beautiful. did you know that almost a quarter of the world's construction cranes are in shanghai? there's a crane everywhere you look. but in japan, the air is clean and the streets are clean, even though there are no garbage cans anywhere. people don't eat or drink on the subway because it's impolite. and they certainly don't litter. (there's not a lot of litter in shanghai, but that's because they have street sweepers everynight. everyone has a government job, even if it's dusting the shelves in a tourist souvenir shop.)

second of all, everyone is so much nicer in japan. they don't shove, they don't judge you for not knowing the language, they smile, they're welcoming, and they just have a much more kind and gentle vibe. chinese people are all about what gets them ahead personally and they don't really care who they mow down in the process.

also, japanese people seem so much more interested in preserving their traditions and cultures. there are still people in the adult generation who wear kimonos on a daily basis, because it's their heritage. we saw plenty of them. (we've never seen anyone in traditional chinese dress.) they don't knock down their older buildings, they let them be or turn them into a museum or whatever. but there are still plenty of new, city-like areas of tokyo. there's nothing old in shanghai. it all got burned down or changed during the cultural revolution, from what i've read and researched. there are a couple of temples left, and a couple of gardens, but even those were burned down and then reconstructed.

also, (and this is totally superficial), japanese people are beautiful. and every last one of them is fashionable. they take so much pride and care in how they look. it was interesting. and the shopping is way better. :)

xoxo

Blog Guilt and Spooky Fun

Gah. Worst: not blogging and then feeling bad about it. I mean, probably no one really reads it anyway, but I still feel guilty. Moving on!

Gonna try to take the latest piece by piece. Lots has happened in the last few weeks, so we'll try to cover it all in a few posts.

Halloween happened! We were flying back from Japan (where they actually celebrate) on Halloween, so that was a little tricky. They don't seem too into the Halloween thing in China, but thanks to my sis, we had some excellent decorations waiting for us in our Shanghai hotel room. And to make up for the fact that we were traveling, we watched Nightmare Before Christmas before getting on the plane. Side note: we first tried to watch Hocus Pocus (only the best Halloween movie EVER), but it was accidentally in Italian. Long story.

Moral of the story: blog more, check languages on the movies that you download, and always have a jack-o'-lantern punching ball handy.

xoxo