Bulgogi, Bibinbab, et al.

As I sit on my spring-laden bed at 2:30 in the am typing this blog to keep it current, I'm digesting a wonderful korean meal put together by the Mira, the wife of my friend and colleague here in the Geography Department, Jae Youl. Korean food is one of my favorite ethnic genres of cuisine, and Mira did not disappoint. Wow! And then I stayed and chatted until 1 am (I showed up a bit after 6 pm.) Not a bad night at all.

As promised, here's one of my classic travel emails. This was sent on 4 October, 2000, during simpler times, while I was on Semester at Sea and visiting Shanghai. Hope you all enjoy.

Greetings from the Middle Kingdom!
So here I am, sitting in the Peace Hotel on the famous and chaotic Nanjing Lu and emailing in Shanghai, China. This hotel is aptly named, as it is a tranquil spot in a sea of absolute bedlam all around it. This is the craziest place that I have ever been. I have never seen so many people. There are so many people on the streets that traffic cannot get through. And there are soldiers everywhere, People's Liberation Army. But they all seem pretty friendly. People are hustling you all of the time, trying to get you to buy something and beggars and everything everywhere. It is unbelievable, and probably the most interesting place that I've ever been.
You see, it just so happens that Oct. 1 is was the 51st anniversary of the Communist Party defeating the KMT and taking control of China, so there is a weeklong celebration. So in this, the 5th or 6th largest city in the world, there are even more people in town, and all of them are out on the street.
Japan was wonderful. I split off from the group with which I went to Tokyo and went to a place called Kamakura all by myself to see the world's largest outdoor buddha (yes, even bigger than mine.) It was pretty cool. Then I had a university stay with some japanese students, and after touring around Osaka for a day, we went back to their apartment and I taught them some American drinking games. I got some great pictures of these Japanese students passed out everywhere. They don't have much of a tolerance.
Today in Shanghai we visited an artist's village, a flower and bird market, and the Shanghai Supermarket. The supermarket was absolutely insane. You can buy a live duck or chicken or snake or fish or a really large toad or turtle or just about anything you can think of, and they kill it for you right there and you can take it home and cook it up. We also had lunch in the home of some people from Shanghai, and they fed us an absolute feast. Brady would have loved it, even more than his China buffets.
I've been buying up all of the communist paraphenelia that I can get my hands on. I now own my very own copy of Chairman Mao's little red book, as well as a cool lighter with Mao's picture on it that plays "Red Sky Over China" when you flip the lid open. I'm on a hunt for posters on Friday. CDs are very cheap here. They cost about 12 yuan, which is equivalent to about $1.50, so that's pretty cool. Everything here is cheap-far cheaper than Japan or Vancouver or Grand Forks.
Keep on rockin' in the free world (since I won't be in the free world for a while,) and I'll try to write you again from my next stop, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
aei