Category Archives: through the looking glass

Bucket list. Checked.

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It’s only January 4 and I’ve already checked an item off of my bucket list. Take that, 2017!

 

Hamilton did not disappoint despite all the hype. It’s everything it’s said to be and more. The book, lyrics and music by Lin-Manuel Miranda is a masterpiece and will withstand time to be one of the classics decades from now. When you have something like this to work with, especially the vividly drawn characters, whether it’s the original cast or whether it’s in New York matters a lot less.

It’s great theatre in all aspects: the entire cast, the ensemble, the stage/set/prop/costume design, the lighting, the orchestra, the choreography. There’s not a single lull throughout the show. Every number is engaging (and sometimes simply brilliant) as written, spectacular as choreographed, and breathtaking as performed.

It’s everything. 

It may also be the last musical I’ll ever see since Hamilton has in effect ruined all future musicals for me.

Here’s to Hamilton being, hopefully, the beginning of a new life for musical theatre.

 

 

 

Kinder Surprises are the surprise I learned about the U.S.

Surprises from Germany!

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Kinder Surprises are the surprise I learned about the U.S.

 

Best find in Germany: Kinder Eggs (Kinder Surprises). I was indeed pleasantly surprised that the toy is a Lufthansa plane. And the pieces all fit together nicely. (Remember those horrible experiences with your sobbing, disappointed kid because the cheap toys broke or could not be put together even with Super Glue?) My son said, “Duh. That’s called German engineering!”

You can’t find these in the U.S. because the toys inside pose choking hazards. I just learned of the brouhaha of Kinder Eggs in the U.S. – Not only can you not find them in the stores, the U.S. Customs will confiscate them if they search your luggage and see them. Sometimes even a fine is imposed: My Google search turned up a 2012 story of $2500 fine per egg.

It’s overblown and ridiculous esp. considering how we refuse to even talk about stricter gun laws here in the U.S. The irony is killing me right now.

They say when you are from outside looking in, you learn new insights about yourself. Kinder Surprises. Yup.

Der Rambling über Berlin [sic]

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I spent 7 Euro for the privilege of going inside the Berliner Dom. Money so well spent.

From the top of Berliner Dom
From the top of Berliner Dom
From the top of Berliner Dom
From the top of Berliner Dom

 

So… This happened. I walked into the hotel and there’s this giant aquarium about 25 metre tall in the middle of of the lobby.

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Aqua Dom. I found this extremely amusing. Spent $15 Euro so I could get this pic.

 

A room with a view.

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What happens when a German, an Italian, a Dutch, an Asian Indian, an American and a Chinese walk into a traditional German cafe/bar/restaurant?

Have beers, lots of beers of course. Then make fun good-natured of each other’s country and other European countries that were not represented at the table.

#ProTip: For a greater does of fun, shout into the table “How about football?!” when with a European crowd and watch them ribbing each other.

When in Berlin. Muss man Bier und Schweineschnitzel haben.

When in Berlin. Muss man Bier und Schweineschnitzel haben.

We really enjoyed the food and atmosphere at Schwarzwaldstuben, a great, casual bar/restaurant specializing in Swabian food. Rothaus beers are really good. I don’t usually enjoy beer (gasp!) but I happily had 4? 5? I had Schweineschnitzel at almost every meal on this trip and none tasted as good as the gigantic one I had the luxury of polishing off on my own my first night in Berlin at Schwarzwaldstuben.

Of course, I paid the price of having Schweineschnitzel (basically fried porkchop) and beers at every meal for three days…

 

The Berliner Dom at night.

Berliner Dom & the moon

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Flying home from the Berlin airport was a very interesting experience. I marveled at it while at the gate area…

PSA: you’re to find out which gate your flight is departing from on a huge billboard while driving into TXL, ordered by departure time. Each gate has its own custom (2 windows) and there is always a long line. This is when status makes a huge difference. Once you pass custom, you’re in a tiny room with everybody. One pretzel stand. One tiny duty free shop that looks like it’s from the 70s. That’s it. No bathroom. I’m sitting here wondering what do we/they do when someone needs to go?!?!

When boarding came, a shuttle took us on a LONG tour of the airport and deposited us in the middle of the airfield, next to the runaway. My jaw dropped.

 

Thank you for the tour of the runway Air Berlin

Help! Cuteness is everywhere.

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I had the privilege of flying on one of Eva Airlines’ Hello Kitty planes today.

Here's a screenshot so you know what I'm talking about

 

Everywhere you turn on the plane, you see signs of Hello Kitty: from the pins on the flight attendants’ uniforms, their pink aprons, the pillow covers, to the air freshener in the lavatory.

Eva Airlines is seriously dedicated to Hello Kitty

 

I started chuckling as I stepped onto the plane. It’s cute and adorable. But soon I grew weary. [Yes, I tend to overthink. Are you even surprised?]

There are obvious social and cultural reasons that girls, and in fact, women under 50, are encouraged to be cute, to find cutesy things desirable, and also to screech in delight whenever such cutesy things are encountered: In a patriarchal, male-dominant society, men prefer women that are dependent and docile (or at least seemingly so) and find them to be more attractive.

A nation of young women marching to the drumbeat of cuteness. Some critics have even gone so far to call it the “infantilization of women”.

There is the voice that many women here speak in. High-pitched and nasal. 

The facial expressions: eyes blinking deliberately with eyelashes a-fluttering, better yet if they appear to be watery & starry. Verisimilitude of manga characters.

I imagine myself a reject from the Hello Kitty factory.

I’ve never been able to be cute – partly because I am 5’7″ and not starving myself. By Taiwan standard, I am enormous. I also cannot fake Jennifer Tilly’s voice. Just imagine Lucy Lawless feigning cuteness. That. Did you throw up in your mouth too?

That being said, I begin to lean towards + on the cuteness scale when I arrive. It’s as if when I speak in Chinese, I assume a different personality. Or maybe they’ve spiked all the food here.

I tilt my head. I blink my eyes. I smile vacuously.

I know tomorrow I will start making a bunny sign when having pictures taken.

This is like an emergency note written by a survivor before the inevitable Borg invasion.

 

 

 

 

Flying home. Musing.

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On ASIANA plane less than 5 minutes I’ve Already noticed vast differences. First of all: Flight attendants’ smiles & willingness to help. 3 flight attendants offered to help me with lifting my carry-on to the overhead bin despite the fact that I’m bigger than all 3 of them combined!

They’re also all very young, thin and pretty. If I were some dumb Westerner with yellow fever, they happen to totally fit into the stereotypical images of Asian females. So I’m conflicted in how much I’m enjoying this. Should I give it some feminist and cultural critique as I enjoy being catered to by people who are pleasant to look at and who see customer service as their job and not some inconvenience?

Welcome to Chicago!

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My previous post was a fine example for #FirstWorldProblem.

The kids and I survived. Of course. More than survived, we had a grand old time taking it easy playing really layback tourists in Chicago. The kids apparently inherited my love for hotels: we spent one morning inside the hotel watching the History Channel.

http://instagram.com/p/b9zjkBn01m/

http://instagram.com/p/b91H1ZH04X/

http://instagram.com/p/b-MVUpH0_r/

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As I lay on the lounge chair watching the kids frolicking in the pool on the top of the hotel under the moon and surrounded by city lights, I had to admit, with embarrassment, that I could no longer complain.

 

I am going to be staying at yet another hotel tonight. BlogHer 2013 is here in Chicago. I hope to see some of you in 3D. Be warned: I am hashtag awkward.

 

The ABCs of OBX

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A is for the ABC stores in NC. After having come here every year for 10+ years, I finally realized on this trip that 1) in NC, you could only purchase hard liquors from the ABC stores, 2) ABCs are not open on Sundays, 3) ABC is not a random acronym that many businesses have adopted because they want to be on the front section of the Yellow Pages. ABC = Alcoholic Beverage Control. Mind blown.

B is the Beach that can’t be beat.

C is for Chinese restaurants as in “They’ve lost the only Chinese restaurant around here and the closest one is 20+ miles away!”

D is for Dairy Queen.

E is for Electronics which I will never swear off.

F is for fish tacos.

G is for go fly a kite.

H is for horses as in the famous wild horses of the Outer Banks.

I is for I am on vacation.

J is for jealous, you, I know. Sorry for bragging!

K is for Kindle.

 

A perfect beach morning.

L is for Lighthouse Bagels and Deli. No kidding.

M is for Me Time, too.

N is for North Carolina style pulled pork. The best one we’ve tried is from Corolla Village BBQ.

O is for OBX, of course.

P is for pelicans!

Pelican

 

Q is for quality time with family. Just the right amount.

R is for restroom breaks I am no longer afraid of. See “T” below.

S is for sand that gets into everything, everywhere. I miss a bar of soap without exfoliating power.

T is for Tankinis. I finally got myself into a Tankini. You gals have been holding out on me. Wearing Tankinis makes being a beach bum so much more convenient. Those and coverups have been my daily uniform since day one. Thank you, Tankini!

U is for under the water shenanigans captured by the underwater camera. I highly recommend getting one if you could swing it.

http://instagram.com/p/bsAznyn07t/

V is for Verizon reception, poor.

W is for Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi in the beach house is so much better than what we have back home. Thankfully, sadly and ironically.

X is for Xyresic. “We may not be able to boast of our xyresic wit but our swords are sharp and dissected men have more to worry about than snarky remarks.” [aka I am suffering an intelligence breakdown and therefore if you have any suggestion for X please do leave a comment]

Y is for YOU. Wish you were here.

Z is for ZZZ. I’ve been sleeping IN, and also been taking a nap after lunch every day. Really, vacations do not get better than this.

New York. New York.

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The Husband and the boys are on a 4-day hiking trip along the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin. I had been thinking about taking advantage of the empty house for a long time but did not make any decision until Bugginword gave me the “open arms all system go” welcome gesture and also I found a roundtrip ticket from Chicago to New York for $220. That’s almost like an obligation when you found a fare like that. The universe was telling me something.

So I leapt into action with only one hour to pack and without a working cell phone.

Oh, I forgot to tell you here though I’ve blabbered about it all over Twitter and FBook. Yup. I have been without a working cellphone since last Tuesday. I dropped my Samsung Galaxy Nexus face down on the ground. Bye bye screen. Bye bye phone. Bye bye the limb that I did not know I had until I lost it.

Fear not for me though as I’ve successfully made one trip to Boston with no phone. Hey, I survived! How about let’s do it again? Why not right? I am all about spontaneous. These past few days anyway.

It was lovely spending time with Elly (of Bugginword fame) and her absolutely charming almost 2-year-old boy and checking out her lovely town in New Jersey. I did not realize that suburbs could be so awesome – progressive, diverse and full of cultural activities. I should not have been surprised though awesome cities attract awesome people, and Elly is simply magical. It was fascinating and comforting at the same time that everywhere I turned in her house I noticed small, creative touches that made me go, “Yup. That is Elly.”

My 2-night stay there felt like a bed-and-breakfast stay complete with popcorn popped with bacon grease.

I actually cried on the train into New York. (Yeah, those popcorns are like crack. I miss them something terrible…)

 

It rained the whole day today. I didn’t mind. I love walking in the rain and have done so many times in my life in pouring rain. Rain puts a natural framing around the world. It gives a different perspective on everything you do. When you are just wandering around the best city in the world with no plans whatsoever. Rain is like Elly, simply magical.

I whiled the afternoon away in MOMA. I don’t think I need to say anything more about my day. Wish you were here.


 

Happy 2013!!!!

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I’m sitting on the plane waiting for takeoff so I can go home to the 22-degree paradise. It figures that on the last day of my vacation the temperate finally got to Florida normal and I stopped throwing up. Hurray 2013! So as my husband and my youngest went off to see the Outback Bowl and I stayed behind at the hotel before our flight that United decided to move earlier, I figured I had two hours to have a nice vacation. So I did. I am glad I decided to start reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It was a joy reading it while lounging by the pool facing the beach with a tropical drink in my hand and some nice mahi mahi fish taco that I will actually keep down.

Sorry for whoring the unedited pictures. They are closing the gate now. Love. Bye. See you on the other side!

This is how we will end 2012.

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So the world didn’t end in 2012.

Sorry Mayans. You have been wrongfully blamed for incorrect prophesy when in fact people simply misinterpreted your calendar system. But no worries, we will probably bring an end to ourselves soon with all the sinners and the sinful things we commit on a daily basis.

In total honesty though, I have been on vacation for five days, and it’s been a long five days because I forgot to pack my hairbrush so this head of long hair hasn’t been brushed since we left home for Florida on December 27… I digress. I’ve been away with no computer, no TV, no wifi most of the time, so I haven’t been up on the news. This morning I thought, let me check to see what’s up with the world on the last day of 2012.

Kim Kardashians is pregnant with Kanye West’s baby. And people can’t seem to shut up about it. (Yah, I get the irony that I’m talking about it too. Touche.)

That’s the headline news I got when I queried the Interwebs for “Hey, it’s new year’s eve, tell me something significant and meaningful.” This speaks to why we still need print newspapers, if you ask me. So be it, world. Or, more accurately, so be it, USA. (Pretty sure the Chinese are obsessed with something more meaningful on this day… I have no idea actually so drop me a line if you have the answer.)

Anyway, I’m blogging from my Android, and this is a roundabout way to wish you a happy new year.

Think of it this way: there is no other way for us to go but up in 2013.

Love from a sick blogger on a cold St. Pete Beach in Florida.

Yes, next year is looking better already!

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(Pictures taken on Fort Desoto Beach, named Best Beach in the USA in 2005. Still gorgeous, still worth a trip here if you could ever swing it. Love always, Lin)