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