My Current Hero

My friend April Klaussen is my current hero. Why? Well, I checked out her blog this morning, and it turns out she is trying something new every week in 2008. Her latest blog is about how she tried a trapeze class while she was in New York recently. Basically, if you know anything about me, you know that I am adventurous, but ONLY at things I have a pretty good idea I will be good at ahead of time--athletic things, or anything else I have a good chance at failing at, I DO NOT DO. I like success, and I am nearly paralyzed by a fear of failure and/or embarassing myself. So, keep that in mind and check out my friend April's blog--she might just be your current hero too!

Tang Dynasty Glamour Shots

In August last year, I received 2 gift certificate to a local photography studio specializing in Tang Dynasty Glamour Shots. Oh yes. We're talking ancient Asian style hair and dress (about 1000 A.D.) and a makeover. Who could resist? So, finally last week I went to have them done. (For some examples of Tang Dynasty costumes, go here.)
I really never thought it would me more than just a fun, funny experience, but when I arrived to the studio, I was impressed by how fancy the decor was (red velvet curtains, and red and gold carpets, etc.) Above you can see the selection of dresses you can choose to have your picture taken in.
Above shows a case of jewelry you can choose to wear to compliment your costume.
These are the makeup stations where you receive your makeover. The package I chose included 2 outfits, 2 makeovers (they re-do your hair for each outfit) and 2 photo sessions. The most interesting part by far for me was the hair! In the first set of pictures, I chose a pink and purple dress that was very soft and feminine. For my hair, the stylist used 4 different hair pieces to create a very elaborate hairstyle, which was topped off by two chopsticks with sparkly things dangling from them, 8 bobby pins with glittery butterflies, and a gigantic pink flower. When we were taking the photos, I kept having to take breaks because my head weighed so much that my neck would get tired. In the 2nd set of photos, I chose a regal gold dress with red trim, so they decided to do me up like an empress. This time I had 6 different hairpieces, a golden crown, a large red flower, 8 gold butterfly bobby pins, and a set of dangly gold earrings hanging from my hair! The whole thing took around 4 1/2 hours, and I was completely exhausted by the end, although I must say it was an amazingly fun experience. I should get the photos back soon, and I will definitely post them here for all to see!

This might prove advertising really is evil.

At first I thought this might simply be an image that people in the culture I live in might find cute or appealing (I have reasons for this--a recent heard of small children I saw running around with red, light-up devil horn head-bands on), but my teacher explained what the advertisement meant and cleared things up. She said this is actually available ad space--a billboard which is currently unrented. The sign says something like, "You can sell anything here, you can even sell your soul." Clever, but slightly disturbing . . .

Driving Distraction?

A couple of weeks ago, David and I went to a nearby, wealthier city for the weekend. Many of their "modern" taxi cabs include this:

The reason is that the little TV runs advertisements aimed at the passengers in the cabs, and the drivers recieve money for installing them in their cabs. But is this a valid way for drivers to supplement their income, or just a safety concern? I have seen drivers play movies on these things, and "listen" to them as they drive. Maybe its just me, but seems like a bad idea. :)

Unexpected Cultural Differences: Animals

Recently through my language class, I have come across a couple of interesting facts about the culture of the Asian country I live in. The first was the fact that different languages and cultures perceive (or at least imitate) the sounds that animals make differently. For example, in the States when we make a sound like a dog, it is something like "Woof woof" or "Ruff ruff." Here where I live, they say, "Wong wong." Seriously. As David and I explored with our teacher the sounds various different animals made, we found that almost all of them were totally different from the sounds we would have attributed to that animal. I will ask my teacher again today, and follow this up with more Asian animal noises.

The second interesting cultural difference I came upon recently was a difference in what insects people find scary or intimidating. I was studying a passage in our text book recently, when I came upon this sentence (my translation): "While the countryside has many attractions that cannot be found in the city, you may also encounter some very frightening things, such as spiders and catepillars." Catepillars? I asked my teacher and, sure enough, she said she was terrified of catepillars. The main thing seemed to be the hairiness (the literal translation of the word for catepillar is "hairy hairy worm"). I told her that, generally, people in the West thought catepillars were cute and kind of charming. She was appalled.

She assured me that certainly not all people in the West could like catepillars (that's fair), and in her opinion it must be a personality thing. She said people with more easy-going personalities were probably afraid of spiders (referencing me), while people with more "sensitive" personalities were afraid of catepillars. She said we should test this theory by asking my friend Erin-Ashley (whom my teacher knows and has deemed as having a "sensitive" personality) what she thinks of catepillars. EA, if you read this, throw in a comment. My teacher said she was "absolutely sure" Erin-Ashley is afraid of catepillars. :)

Poker Chip Bewilderment

My mom gave a great suggestion the other day to help me get in the groove of blogging. Since interesting stories or events don't exactly happen EVERY day of my life, I can use this forum to share with you guys funny stories of things that have happened in the past as well. This weekend, David and I went out of town, and flying reminded me of a funny story that happened last year.

So, David has been really into Texas Hold 'Em poker for the last 3 years or so. When we were in the States a couple of years ago, he purchased a pretty nice poker chip set at Wal Mart. It has nice, heavy clay chips and they are stored in a silver case with handles that looks a lot like a gun case for a small handgun or something. Anyway, traveling with it in Asia has proved to be interesting on a couple of occasions.

Last year we had the following incident when David carried the poker set onto a plane, so we had to bring it through security. Of course as soon as it came through the scanner, they confisgated the bag it was in and took it out to examine it. I saw the image on the screen--basically 6 dark, solid cylinders (the rows of chips) encased in a metal case. I would agree it looked suspicious! So, the security guards took it out, opened it up, and immediately all looked very perplexed.

I, trying to be helpful, said, "It is a game. Maybe you have seen this in the movies? It is called poker."

The security guards were 3 males and 1 female. The female answered, "Oh yeah! She's right! I have seen this on the movies. It is a card game!" She was ignored.

So, the head security guard goes and gets his boss to come and look. More head scratching, grunts, and general confusion. This guy goes and gets another guy, same thing. Lots of taking out individual chips, examining them with head cocked, like they were looking at alien technology or something. This guy goes and gets someone even higher up, same thing. All the while, the lowly female security guard is saying that she knows what it is.

Finally, the highest level guy (whoever he was) decides that whatever it is (he is still not listening to the female guard) it is probably safe and allows us to go on through. Thankfully for David, we were able to keep the poker set which he is very attatched to. We were very afraid it might face the same fate as some very suspicious refrigerator magnets I tried to bring through security here once that were immediately confisgated. :)

Hey, at least we know they take our safety seriously.

This morning David and I watched the never-again-to-be-mentioned-in-the-Dean-household Final Four game, and saw a few pretty cool commercials. One in particular made us and all our friends laugh, not because it was especially clever, but because after we saw it, several people said, "That is JUST what you and David's kids will be like!" So, yeah, judge for yourself. Is this little man a prediction of what future little Deans may be someday? I personally think he is more like the offspring of Robbie Dean than David, but I will let you guys decide.