can i get an encore?... sans linkin park

so as midterms week looms near, thus signifying the semester's, well, mid-term, my life here in hangzhou has developed a cute little rhythm-damnit, i don't think i have ever spelled that word correctly in a first attempt. this is great, this is exciting, it means that i have finally settled down in china, something, that a few months ago seemed like another world away. this, however, also means, that in some ways, my everyday life has now developed a...hm, boring's not the right word..maybe regular? (no insult to regs a.k.a 'students of typical september matriculation'--definition provided by a mr. hank rosen)..sorry, has developed a regular routine. i wake up, sometimes early enough to swim, check my email, read the front page of nytimes.com and bbcnews.com, eat oatmeal, go to class/do work, putz around/play dopewars--i had to download it again, eat lunch, take a nap, ok, y'all get it. it's great, though, because now, the smallest things make me reaaaally happy. for instance, this weekend, i discovered npr's live concerts from 'all songs considered' podcast. it's incredible. they have over 60 live concerts, for free. seriously though, heaven sent.

in continuing with this new independent lifestyle, last friday night i ventured to the hangzhou grand theater to see a piano/violin duet. while waiting for the bus, a little old man asked whether i was going to the concert, and we hit it off from there. we rode the bus together, where he asked if the u.s. was going to split any time soon and how many different ethnic groups we had--somebody's got ibetay and aiwantay on their mind, no?. when the bus driver got lost, luckily he was there to set his course straight, and once inside the theater, he invited me to browse the theater's various performance photos with him. the concert hall was pretty sweet, followed by a great concert that ranged from carmen's fantasy on themes to a chinese traditional piece. the best part, however, was the encore. let's just say, the complicated encore procedure was not received well by the chinese audience. the first encore was preceeded by the duet exiting and returning the stage two times. at this time, about ten people awkwardly stood and then sat back down, slightly confused and embarassed. after that, however, about half the audience stood up to leave, and were completely baffled when the performers did the whole process, again. it was great. people were all over the place, not knowing what to do, but this time it was apparent that they were frustrated. yo, word up, when the hell is it actually going to end? stop fucking with us like we're experimental lab rats, damnit. so yeah, about half of them left. and i was in bed at 10:30 on a friday night.

whoa buddy...front row.. that's ballsy

why is maeve awake at 6:20...am?

so. yesterday, i went to the college pool (olympic size, not too shabby) to buy a swimming card. my swimming career began a few years back, and even though i'm no conor stinson, i still get by with your basic crawl. sometimes i feel like ben covington releasing all of my angst against my estranged father, or sorting out my fickle feelings for felicity porter--whoa, sorry, it's just that i discovered that you can find just about any tv show on chinese websites, so that's been my main leisure activity recently.

anyways, being my father's daughter, i bought the morning 30-time-use card, as it was half the price of the regular one. i can only use it from 6-7:30am...looks like maeve's going to become a morning person....who wants to start a pool of how long that will last. so yeah, this morning, i bucked up, woke up early, and rode 'tad' to the pool. when i walked by the front desk i saw a tv monitor, which at the time i thought was a real-time video of the pool. i looked at it and thought 'score. nobody's there'. wow, i was a fool. this country has 1.3 billion people, no place is ever that empty. as soon as i walked out of the locker room, i was taken back to those summer nights at the high ridge ymca, except less children, and more elderly--which probably is a good thing...i'm thinking less urine? ew. that's gross, sorry. half the pool had lap lanes, except, each one had around eight people slowly getting their butterfly on. after one lap, which took fooooooorever, i decided to move to the open half. yo, swimming laps has never been so exciting. i felt like mario in the underwater worlds, as i maneuvered around each kicking foot and outstretched arm. yes, yes. it was a video game and i am the master.

dalai la...whaaaat?

i need to be verrrry cautious here...dealing with sensitive material.

sooo, due to 'heightened activity' in a place that starts with a 't' and ends with 'ibet', the governing body of a large, panda-loving country, lets call 'shinah', has disallowed access to a certain popular video-sharing website...if you don't understand what ima sayin, it's time to crawl out of that paper bag you are living in. i know what you're thinking...how the hell am i going to live without phil collins music videos? do not fear. i have great friends. a mr. richard kenwyn saunders--not to be confused with richard saunders, the director of the middlebury college museum of art and walter cerf distinguished college professor--has supplied me with hours and hours of fun, found here: http://www.nobodyhere.com/toren.hier.....ten minutes, and i've already forgotten the url for youtube.

i leave you with some photographs from our camping trip this weekend...

old school...
i had to...

annnd...they're back. ALRIGHT!

last night i was warped back to 1999. to the days of bar/bat mitzvahs, y2k, the legendary 6 9's math test--whooa, ms triplett, that was a little dirty!--'going out' with bob mccormick, etc. how did this happen? you might ask. well, it was as easy as stepping into the hangzhou dragon gymnasium for the backstreet boys 2008 'unbreakable' tour. yes, i did it. i bought tickets and went to see the backstreet boys--sans kevin--live in concert, and let me tell you, it was worth every penny. after an enthralling 'larger than life' opening number, set in a boxing match (see video), they raised the mother-fucking roof with a sweet mix of new--actually, not so sweet--and old--un-flippin-believable--songs. they sang about life's sorrows through 'show me the meaning of being lonely' over a poker game, and what true love is all about through 'all i have to give' over a warm fire-trashcan on a staged cold winters night. for one song, they displayed a heart-warming, albeit irrational, monotage of harlem. a few of them even gave us a taste of how shitty their solo work is. 'backstreets's back' left us screaming for an encore--a few fools actually left at this point...come on--and ended the evening with the joyous 'shape of my heart'. all in all, it was a ridiculous experience.

but there's more...

after the concert, a mob of girls approached us and asked if we were friends with the backstreet boys. after foolishly setting them straight, we talked to them for about ten minutes. the highlight was when one girl asked what chatrooms i like to go to, because recently she's been having a hard time finding ones with 'good' guys. the chatrooms she currently logs into are filled with 'bad' guys who like to say 'sexy' a lot. i was very apologetic i could not help her out, seeing as the last time i was in a chatroom was in 1999 when i dumped billy warden's sorry ass because my heart truly belonged to bob mccormick. annnnnnd we've come full circle. SCENE.

for your viewing pleasure:

i had to.

howie d? is that a fu man chu?

this dude knew every word.
even the songs off the new album

nick....? really?
i, personally, am more of a brian girl

they really are larger than life.
check out my fine cinematography that is synced with the music.
skills, i know.

wings and orange short-shorts...yeah, you know what i'm talking about...

i'm sure you've heard about it. yellow fever, asiaphilia, jungle fever, yellow plague. call it what you want, it's a phenomena that has swept the western hemisphere since the implementation of the open door policy. i remember the first time i encountered it. ah, yes, 'twas the summer of 2005 when i was working at mamacita's mexican restaurant (r.i.p.) in boystown. a few hours after the gay pride parade, this short white dude walked in and asked for a table for eight. after seating them i noticed that the group consisted of the aforementioned white man and seven asian men, and that the baller's shirt read: once you go asian, you never go back to caucasian. it was an earth-shattering moment.

i digress.

since i started studying chinese i have met a lot of guys with 'yellow fever'... not a surprise there, but then there's my friend luke. i guess you could say luke has 'yellow phobia', in that, he is actually kind of scared of asian temptresses. when around them he gets awkward and nervous, it's really quite entertaining. so, we thought, what better way to celebrate his big 21st birthday than take him to 'hooters hangzhou'. below is a video from our celebration. it speaks for itself. i leave you with this: as the wise michael scott once said, "why do i like hooters? well i will give you two reasons, the boobs and the hot wings."

what you should know before watching the video: luke is wearing red. our waitress' name was shakira. and nik wears his hat like my father.

make me a mixed tape?

no, but seriously. somebody, please?

Maeve W-W
Middlebury College School in China
Zhejiang University of Technology
Number 6, Zhaohui District
Box #1026 CET
Hangzhou, P.R.C. 310032

i'll be waiting....

also......

he doesn't know it yet, but we're getting married.