Xi'an, an ancient Chinese city, true!

I went to Xi'an with a bunch of people I know. It was fun. Here are pics, and I really need to stop reading I can haz cheezburger? because I starting to want to talk and type in LOLspeak. 

The sign was funny. Not as funny as some of the stuff on Engrish Funny (Guess what I've been doing! On second thought, don't.), but the random capitalization ought to more than make up for that. It says: 

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE DACIEN TEMPLE AND THE DA YAN PAGODA

The dacien temple was built in 648 AD to honour the empress wende by the tang crown prince li zhi.the temple with 13 yards and 1897 magnificent roomw was broad in scale. It occupied an area of more than 24 hectarew who lived in the temple. It was the most famous temple in Chang An city during the tang dynasty. 

A buddhist and pilgrim Xuan Zang who studied buddhism in india was waslcomed to preside over the temple affairs in 653 an Xuan Zang arranged for the building of the Da Yan Pagoda to preserve the hundreds of wolumes of buddhist so riptures which had been brought back from Inida. 

The original pagoda was constructed with five stories in India style.It was rebuilt to seve storeys in 701AD--704AD during the period of empress Wu Ze Tian. 

Today, the Da Yan Pagoda is 64.5m high with seven storeys. The body of the pagoda is a square brick pagoda in the range of chinese national character and the tang style. It is a model place of boddhist architer ture. In 4 march 1961 the state council declede that the Da Yan Pagoda must be protected as one of the most important historical monuments. 

Note: Chang An is the ancient name for Xi'an, and the spelling, punctuation and capitalization have been typed up exactly as they appear. 

There were pretty marble carvings. They looked imposing. I'm not sure they were supposed to. 

There were other pretty things, and a neat, gnarled-looking tree. 

And painted ceilings and eaves galore! 

Have I mentioned how awesome I thought those trees were? I have? And you think I've been talking too much about plants? Sorry, it's a bit of an obsession. 

This was the pagoda. 

These were chickens in the monastery gardens. Are my comments getting a little too obvious? 

The gate to the monastery. It was imposing too. I felt very much imposed upon. 

This was the view from the top of the city wall. I love the guardhouses next to the skyscrapers. 

This was in a mosque near the city center. The whole group spent ages trying to guess what the sign meant without looking at the Chinese. 

There were more pretties. 

And neat roofs. 

This was the bazaar near next to the mosque. I bought lots of stuff there, including two paintings, an antique (and awesome) Chinese lock, a hairstick, a little clay pot, a pair of old, adorable, embroidered, lion-shaped baby shoes, and some Men Zi (some species of pachyrhizus as far as I can tell, stir-fried and then smothered in balsamic vinegar, soy-sauce and spices). 

China is not for squeamish people. Note the cart of garbage above, as well as what comes next. 

Okay, this stuff doesn't look gross, but it doesn't taste as good as the skewered stuff either. 

Dates, we haz them. 

Meat, we have it too. If you have a weak stomach, are vegetarian or might otherwise be disgusted by the sight of lots and lots of meat, please avert your eyes while proceed to the next picture. Thank you for your cooperation. 

And this is a picture that came out funnily, and is only included so that we end on a nicer note than dead animals hanging everywhere. 

P.S. The title of this post is a reference to the BNL song 'Crazy ABC's' from their album Snacktime. 

yeah, I can't count.

This post comes to you in four parts. 

Part one: hay-fever, or getting sick

This is what I have/am. I've been exhibiting hay-fever-like symptoms for the past two weeks. Blergh. They make me irritable. And now I think I may be getting sick. Not fun at all. 

Part two: pleasure boats

When we were in Hangzhou last weekend (did I mention that I went to hangzhou with my mom and one of her friends?), we took a 'pleasure boat' to the island in the middle of West Lake. The name made me giggle incessantly, especially after my mom brought up The Love Boat. So then we all started making bad puns about being on the 'Pleasure Luuuuuurve Boat' to some mysterious island. It was fun. 

Part three: durian roti

We went to the Banana Leaf restaurant one night, and I finally tried something with durian in it. Not going to again. Ever again. Everyone (including my mom) said that it didn't taste at all the way it smells. I'm sorry, but for me it tasted exactly the way it smelled. But at least I can now say that I don't like durian on good authority. Though I don't want to get close enough to stinky tofu to even find out. 

Part four: 'Roadsinger'

I think that for once, I'm going to go all fangirly on you. Cat Stevens has a new album coming out in May. *squee*

Part five (bonus): new template

What thinks you of it? The old one's code was a mess, and changing anything was a huge hassle. Hopefully this one will be better, even though it's quite different. This one's sort of temporary until I find one that I like better. 

Ze Tomato

EDIT: I just saw a mosquito buzzing around in my bedroom. I'm not sure I'm quite as excited about it getting warm as I was a half hour ago. 

We have a new oven! Behold! 

Yes, it is a "Tomato" brand oven. In this household, we now 'tomato' things, and pop some muffins into the 'tomato'. I made muffins in the tomato yesterday using THIS recipe, and they were amazing. Sorry, no pics of the muffins themselves. I have no self-control. 

Then I took a walk, because it stopped raining! (It had been raining almost continually for a month.) I'm glad the canals didn't flood, they were looking pretty high. 

This is a field of canola. As in 'canola oil'. The leaves are quite tasty stir-fried too. 

I'm in love with the building on the right. 

And the plants seem to think it's spring! 

The birds think it's spring too. 
I just hope the weather stays this nice. I'm tired of freezing, especially during the fast. 

bye!

Tuesday, I helped a teacher at my mom's school rent an apartment, and it's in an incredibly posh apartment complex, with a gym and whatnot, so of course we had to play hooky and look at the gym. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so you don't get pictures of the three chandeliers, marble floors, opulent but tasteless fake flower arrangements, and the gigantic frieze of Napoleon leading a charge. Also, you don't get pictures of all the gold, duck-shaped sconces that when looked at from a certain angle appeared to have an arrow sticking out of each of their butts. It was quite something. I had to duck (ha, ha) into the bathroom once, I was laughing so hard. 

On Wednesday, I burnt my left hand and lost my phone. Thankfully, my mom had this (relatively) old phone that someone had given her, so I'm probably going to end up using it until it dies a natural death. It's a fairly nice phone, the only thing that I dislike about it is the fact that it's pink. 

On Friday I went out to dinner with some friends of my mom's, and the music that was played in the Hot Pot restaurant we went to could be described as 'bad traditional Chinese New Year's music sung by tone-deaf three-year-olds who've had too much caffeine'. 

Yesterday, we went out to the Lebanese restaurant for lunch with another teacher who works with my mom. The food was, as always, excellent, and on the bus back we played our little game of 'guess which province that person over there is from', which I almost always win. The interesting thing was that we were almost completely surrounded by people from Xinjiang, an autonomous region, a part of China that borders Tibet, Mongolia, Russia and five of the 'Stans, speaks an old form of Arabic, and is largely Muslim. I don't know if they seemed to be much more in evidence than usual simply because they were the only people out on Spring Festival Eve or what. 

I promise to take lots and lots of photos, and I'll be back on the twelfth of February. 

-Layli

everything you ever wanted to know about me, and more!

Random things about me, just because I feel like it. 

My favorite cheese is pepper jack. 

I hate answering the phone, partially because when I'm at home I have no idea in what language I should say "hello". 

I'm not exactly a neat freak, I think I'm more of a cleanliness freak. I don't mind a bit of mess or clutter, as long as it's clean, but I can't stand things like dirty dishes lying around. 

I have no idea what I look like without my glasses on, because when I take them off I can't see myself in the mirror clearly. 

I know all the words to the Chinese national anthem, but I can't sing the American. I don't think I've even heard more than bits and pieces of the American national anthem. 

Besides the usual pork, chicken, beef, turkey, mutton and goat, I've also eaten raccoon, bear, horse, skunk and rattlesnake. 

I love the smell of coal burning. 

I taught myself how to swim at the age of three. 

Technically, my name should be "Laylí". 

I've never been to a sports game. 

food is lovely

A bunch of people are going to Ann's house for pie. Rational pie! Yummy! And there's a potluck Christmasy kind of dinner on Saturday, because we managed to get hold of a turkey. Mom and I are taking five-cup salad, which is our traditional family Christmas and Thanksgiving dish, because even though we don't really celebrate either of those holidays, we used to spend them with family when se lived in the States. 

Anyhow, the salad has one part canned pineapple, one part canned tangerine segments, one part coconut flakes, one part mini marshmallows, and one part sour cream. Anyhow, you mix all the stuff together in a big bowl and put it in the fridge overnight. Mmmm....