Pamela 的个人资料Una Latina en Asia照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
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2月20日 Qingdao - Chinese New Year!For lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, my friend Nevada and I took the hour flight from Seoul to Qingdao, China.
 We arrived to a relatively small airport with friendly people who stared a lot at my 6"1' blonde friend and I.  People did not speak English and our attempts at the information booth to find a Qingdao tourist map led us no where. The Qingdao information desk will forever be known as the world's most uninformed information booth. Please note... the information booth is located at the departures gate to provide information for those leaving the city as opposed to being at the arrivals gate for people actually looking for information about the city. Again... world's most useless information booth.  In good spirits, we hoped on a bus after asking the lady where we should go if we wanted to be in between the new Qingdao and the old Qingdao. She smiled at our attempts of explaining what we meant by 'old', 'new' and 'between the two.' Let me just say that no one can beat me at charades anymore!
 We watched as old and decrepit buildings gave way to new and modern buildings in the process of being developped for the multiple numbers of Koreans buying property there. The sky was dark and gloomy covered by a thick haze from the number of industries pumping out smoke and debris from their smoke stacks.
 Not too sure where we were headed, we hoped off the bus in a neighbourhood we thought looked active and safe. We walked a little ways and found a clean, modern and cheap hotel on the corner. It was along a main street with lots of shops! Perfect! We checked in, dropped our stuff off and headed out towards the pier which was created in 1891. On the city bus, we passed through old Qingdao which is full of German architecture. At the time, we were completely unaware of the city's history and surprised to see the brightly coloured houses, government buildings and businesses in a Bavarian-type architecture. It turns out that Qingdao was taken over by Germans in 1897 who heavily influenced the city's architecture. Hence, one of China's biggest exports, with a German flavour, comes from Qingdao: Tsingtao beer.
With Chinese New Year came firecrackers, galore!
 They were being sold on every street corner for dirt cheap. There were big ones and small ones, quiet ones and loud ones. They were fabulous. Some were so loud that they would set off car alarms and all the sounds ricocheted off the tall buildings. Children, women and men alike enjoyed the festivities - included Nevada and myself!Since it was Chinese New Year many things were closed - like shops and museums. Looking for an outdoor market proved unfruitful except for the shell & pearl market near the water. The same things were being sold left right and center and all were telling us that their pearls were "vely good." Qingdao is known for its pearls - pink, white and black - and all vendors were sratching the pearls with knives or scissors to show us that they were real. Who knew you could buy a real pearl necklace for less than $3? Tee hee :)
 On our second day, we went to a park where we were told we'd be able to find Chinese New Year festivities, complete with Lion Dances. Sadly... we were lied to and a lovely family we met in the park told us that Chinese New Year is usually spent at home with the family. At the park, there were rides and both Nevada and I thought a haunted house ride would be loads of fun. We invited the kids to come along with us and paid about $5 to have the ride to ourselves with about six different kids. A little boy sat with me the whole way through and was in complete awe of the scary animals and ghosts coming towards the cart. Once he saw the light at the end of the tunnel, he burst into tears and I felt extremely bad for him. I have officially traumatized a little Chinese boy and he will forever hate westerners and haunted houses. Poor little guy!
 On our last day, we did a little shopping, ate some more wonderful Chinese food and then headed to the only open foot massage parlour we could find. An hour's worth of foot rubbing and lathering up was great. We then headed for some last minute cocktails and met two lovely children. Nevada calls it "communing with the buffalo" or "scaring the natives." These kids were great and I have a lovely picture of them.
Our three day mini-holiday was great. Although we didn't go dancing or have a serious drinking fest or see any museums - we got to see different scenery, mingle with the locals and eat plenty of food. There are a number of North and South Koreans living in Qingdao and were were able to meet some of them. The children begging on the street were content with packages of cookies we had or left over strawberries in a plastic bag. The city would probably be a lot more hustling and trendy on a weekend without a holiday and I strongly recommend visiting it in the summer for the lovely beach.  2月12日 Seoul Speed DatingAs many of you know, I have a little company I like to call PamPR. The title may not be original but a friend of mine gave me a pen a few years ago with Pam P.R .engraved on it and it's just kind of stuck. Anyways... as part of Pam PR I have done some consulting work for various organizations - usually in the way of "volunteering." Regardless, I'm my own company and I represent myself. I have now branched out to include Seoul Speed Dating (event planning) under my PR umbrella. Phillip, my co-worker, and I thought up the concept and he was kind enough to let me stick my logo on the poster.
The first International Speed Dating event was yesterday afternoon, February 11th, and what a day it was. People showed up promptly at 4pm, which I was very surprised about, and the last dater showed up a few minutes before starting. There were 64 people in the end... or 32 couples. Daters were from all around the world: Chile, USA, Australia, Wales, England, Pakistan, France, Thailand, Canada, Phillipines, Austria, the Netherlands, India, Korea and South Africa. It turned out to be a really fun afternoon and a great opportunity to meet people.
Here is some feedback we got about the event:
"I am really glad you set this up. I have quite a few friends who will be interested in attending the next event, so I am looking forward to hearing from you. Really, I think you did an outstanding job! [...] I think that you provided everyone with a space that they would not normally have access to anywhere else. This is a valuable service. Congratulations on a successful event!"
So, I'm a happy girl today and I think the universe is bringing me good things.
Bye for now everyone! |
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