For my Dad. :)

Hi All,

I am so horribly bad at updating this, so hopefully a few of you are still following along in between my long writing droughts. So let's see...two Friday's ago was the last events I mentioned with the high table dinner, and much has happened since.

First off, I would like to send a shout-out to my Dad. Hi Dad. You know you have very effective parents when you hear their voices in your head even though you are half-way across the world. My mom's voice usually sounds something like, "I miss you honey." or "Be good and have fun." My dad's voice usually sounds something more like, "Wow, take care of yourself when you're so far away." and “Have fun, but be safe." These past two weekends I found my Dad popping into my head a lot, so this blog is for him.

So two weekends ago, Mal and I traveled to Macau. Mal only has a thirty day visitor's visa so every month she has to leave the mainland and go to either Macau or Hong Kong, so that weekend we decided to go and check out the sites at Macau. Macau is the gambling epicenter of Asia, and it is more importantly a Western oasis away from most of what is China. So we took the hour bus ride to the border between Macau and Mainland, and then we had to go through customs and finally we made it to Macau.

So a quick background on what exactly Macau is....Macau was originally a Portuguese colony in China and was only given back to Mainland in the recent decades. This means that Macau was spared the upheavals of the last 100 years of Chinese history and so it is much less crowded and much more developed than mainland. The older buildings and structures are very influenced by Portuguese architecture, and combined with the huge construction of giant casinos, and Chinese people everywhere, it creates quite an interesting atmosphere. So although Macau is a part of China, (just like Hong Kong as well) it is actually a mixture of the Portuguese and Chinese cultures, and so walking into Macau felt as though I was walking into a much more familiar planet.

So Macau, yes. This is where my Dad's voice comes into play. Here me and Mal are, all alone in a new city, where there is a new language, (in Macau they speak Cantonese, a complete different language from Mandarin Chinese) and no real plans for the next day. The only plan we have is a number from a friend Mal met online through couch-surfing. Couch-surfing is an online network of people who agree to host visitors in their homes for free. It's basically like a free hotel room. Yes, Dad, it sounds pretty risky. That's what you told me in my head, too. Haha. So we decided not to stay at this guy's house that Mal met online, but we did decide to meet up with him at a local cafe, and take a walk around with him to tour the city. Now it might at first seem a bit sketchy that this guy would want to meet up with us, but once you are in China with only Chinese people and Chinese culture everywhere around you for months at a time, it is quite easy to understand why this guy would be interested in talking to some foreigners.

So we met this guy at a local cafe, and despite my questioning about meeting a stranger in the middle of a city I know little about, he was awesome. So we ate some bread and drank some coffee and then walked around the main areas of the city where he told us about some of the history and architecture. It was awesome.

So then Mal and I did some shopping and ate some dinner and checked out some casinos. They are ridiculously huge and in my opinion ridiculous. So much money spent on a building where people can just walk in and play stupid mind-numbing games and spend all of their money. We ran into an elderly couple on vacation, and they mentioned that many of the peasants from rural China will travel here and bet all their village's money to try and win big. How sad is that? True misuse of China's fascination with luck.

Then later the guy gave us a call and invited us to meet up with him and his good friend and go to a fun bar. Again, Dad, this is where you came in my head. "Be Careful." So we agreed to meet up with them. It was an old but clean bar with a relaxed atmosphere and Portuguese people mixed with some Chinese. Inside, the bar was hosting a Bollywood Dance Party. For those of you not familiar with Bollywood dancing, it's what they do at the end of Slumdog Millionaire, where tons of people will all line up and do the same simple moves and dance to the beat. AWESOME. Me and Mal pulled some truly sweet moves on the dance floor. So we danced and then had some drinks. Not too much tho, Dad.

By this time it was past eleven and I was ready to head in, but Mal and our new friends wanted to go to a concert that was playing at Grand Lisbon Casino, so I agreed. There we listened to some live American pop music, (which doesn't sound any better live, haha.) But the highlight was when the main singer asked people to represent their country and Mallory yelled out MINNESOTA. It turned out that a bunch of the band members were from MN, so they invited her on stage to dance a number with them. HILARIOUS! So by this time it's pretty late and we head for our hotel, (always making certain that our surroundings are safe, Dad.) Fun (and safe)night.

Ok. Gotta go. The pool closes in an hour. The pool is gorgeous, it's outside set against a backdrop of mountains and trees and big fluffy clouds. Awww...

Take Care, Miss you all, and I miss your worrying, Dad. :)

Oct 22, 2009

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