I Miss My Ear

Hi World!
So a couple changes in the world of me:
First and foremost, my right ear seems to have deserted me for gentler climates. I, and the mountain of medications I'm taking, sure hope it comes back soon.
Second, for those not on the Russian parent grapevine, I will be spending my next year in Berkeley eating tofu, greens, and being an intern (mostly ald/+ other "projects" haha) for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Remember when I was talking about this three years ago? Yeah. Me too! I am being housed and paid enough to eat (hopefully, we'll see how much more food prices go up in the next year). I've been researching all sorts of slightly insane and delightful smaller theatres in the area that I plan to ingratiate myself with any day now.
Three! I have a website. I didn't really make it. My dad made it. I did some...data entry. I'm a master of html cut&paste. Anyhow, I'm still getting stuff on there, but it's coming along: www.mashald.com

For anyone on the east coast, I leave you with this envy-inducing image of my daily breakfast: Really I just want a picture of an avocado to look at, at all times. Let's not lie.

drip drip

nothing makes me feel more like an expat (and less like a tourist) than grocery shopping in the rain in some foreign land. On another note, I've been laying about watching lots of movies...so far this week: Casino Royale, Darjeeling Limited, a little Indiana Jones, Atonement, and City of God. I will probably never get this much sleep again.

Waaaaaaaaat

Things That Thailand Doesn't Have:
- Toilet paper in bathrooms (Chiang Mai, Bangkok was better)
- Meals that cost more than $2
- Sidewalks/Crosswalks/Pedestrians
- Fixed prices
- Assigned airplane seating
- fat people
- a love of feet.

Things That Thailand Does Have:
- Wats. So many wats. (Buddhist temples)
- Buddhas.
- HUGE centipedes. And frogs. And rats. And lizards. And bats.
- Delicious things. Vegetarian delicious things too.
- Galleries full of art about elephants. Only elephants.
- Smiles.
- A constant stream of people interested as to where you're from, where you're going, and whether they can graciously offer you a ride there for a nominal price.
- Tuk tuks.
- Crazy escalators
- Rain
- an affection for toast
- Germans/Dutch people. A lot of them.
- $5 dollar a night guesthouse rooms
- Dirtiness
- Monks! Everywhere!

For photos go here

I'm Alive, It's Ok.

So there was an earthquake. It wasn't here. We're not dead. In other news, Stephanie is here! So the other day we went to go look at the sights in Macao. All three of them. At least one of them is pretty impressive though...The remains of St. Paul's Church or Cathedral or whatnot. Just the facade is left. We then went to the fortress around there AND to the Macau Museum. The Museum was something else. We watched a very informative video...made in the late 60s about the lives of traditional Macao fishermen in the 50s. Their lives were full of tradition. On their boat. And when they were in port, they were on the boat. And their weddings were just like traditional Chinese weddings except...on the boat. They were moments of joy in an existence full of unhappy moments...in a beautiful traditional lifestyle. On the boat.

Also we got to listen to the pronunciation of the word "tea" in many different languages! Very informative.

And then we went to Pizza Hut, which was in fact a five star restaurant with a very extensive non-pizza menu. I got chili curry! It was ok. There were a lot of baby carrots everywhere.

That night we went to the island of Coloane, which is the third after Macau and Taipa, and probably the most unspoiled in terms of...industrialism or whatnot. There are no casinos on it, and a lot of greenery. We went to a traditional Portugese restaurant for dinner with some Cirque folk. I ate too much shrimp.

Monday, we went to Hong Kong. We took the superfancy ferry..the CotaiJET. yup. The first thing we did was go up to the Peak, which as the Lonely Planet book tells me, is the place to live for the superrich. They are super. Anyway, we took a completely vertical tram up to the top, and viewed all the crazy skyscrapers of Hong Kong. There is also a Burger King. And a mall. Plus some jungle!

After coming down we went for some much needed lunch/dinner at Wagu, a very nice fusion-y type place. I think it's in the Soho area of Hong Kong. The streets are so steep there is an entire system of escalators going up between them. I like it, a whole different way of organizing a city. So from what I gathered Soho was the area of art galleries and lots of nice restaurants (coincidence?)...I need to go back there on a day that's not a Monday, so that the galleries will actually be open.

After eating, Eric was on a mission to find the synagogue. Apparently the richest synagogue in the world is in Hong Kong. So we wandered up to the top of Soho and lo-and behold, here was this giant gated compound...which had a huge modern, glassy, high rise, plus an old-fashioned looking temple squeezed in. We weren't sure how to get in, so after loitering around for a bit, a security guard came up to us and asked us if we were Jewish. Yeah. So Eric said yes and asked if we could go see the temple. We went up to the security desk behind the gate, and went through a brief interrogation as to where we were from, whether we were Jewish, examining the passports...etc etc. They let us go in (even Jim & Steph, those crazy gentiles). We went to look at the temple, which was built in 1902, so very traditional in its set up, and then rode the elevator between different floors. This place was ridiculous. They have a kosher mart! And a swimming pool. And a sauna. It's actually called the JCC...but like...exorbitant. It was a little crazy.

Aaand now we're off to thailand for four days. Two in Chiang Mai and two in Bangkok.
Wheee. Flickr is being a jerk and won't let me upload any photos except these two:
Hong Kong. Steph & Jim...true to form.

Adrift in Macao

So here I am across the world. So far I have seen: a lot of casinos, dried mystery foods, sad animals, mosquitoes, a baby that managed to scream through an entire 17 hour flight, and a lighthouse! Macau is a pretty funny place. There's a lot of contrast going on. Most strange I think, is the fact that generally everything is in Cantonese characters, except for street names and building titles...which are Portuguese. Curious. Eric and Jim's apartment is in Old Taipa, which has a lot of slightly decrepit stucco and red shingle buildings/bungalows, with soviet bloc style high rises peeking out in the background. Yesterday we went to this park/zoo that goes up a hill and culminates in an unlikely lighthouse. The lighthouse was closed, but I did see peacocks, monkeys, group exercises, and a sad bear. He did do some great posing for me though. Again, this was interesting, as we were in this densely green and jungly zone, surrounded by very urban and neon-ed Macau. Today I experienced the wonder of the biggest casino in the world (Venetian). Very impressive food court...if you know how I feel about food courts. The whole place gave me a strange sense of deja vu. Oh that's right, it's literally a magnified copy of the other Venetian. Quite silly. Since today was somewhat less suffocating and humid, though more cloudy and polluted, I decided to wander around a bit. I stumbled upon a wedding taking place by a swamp which, I'm told, is populated by birdies that I can't touch (avian flu...). Next I went into "food alley" which is a little street of food shops/stalls where nothing has completely coherent english labels. I indulged my sense of adventure and bought some dried Bergamot fruit. True to form it does kind of taste like spiced, freeze dried, chunks of Earl Grey tea. Hmm. I've also been attempting to get Eric to try strange fresh fruit with me. So far we've tried Jackfruit. He seemed to be mildly allergic. Next on the menu: rambutan.
Later, I retreated back into the air conditioning and finished watching Lives of Others...socialism, spies, interrogation, and theatre artists. What more could I want in a movie? It hit the spot. Tonight Steph is getting here! For more photos go here: Flickr