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- You never leave someone behind, you take a part of them with you and leave a part of yourself behind. x
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Updatee
Friday, Sep 17, 2010 9:35AM / Standard Entry
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Pledge. x
Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 11:40AM / Standard Entry
Greetings to the humans on Earth!
Earlier on in June, I did an interview for Shark Saver's new and upcoming film. They were interviewing people of all age groups from around Asia and the world to tell people to stop eating shark fin soup.
And now they have a teaser out and I'm in it :)
Check it out!
Video: http://vimeo.com/13354705
I pledged not to eat shark fin soup.
Join me already, will you?
-Sharks loving Emz
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One Year on AnD! + Dali Expedition Day 1&2. x
Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 12:56AM / Standard Entry
Salute :D
My blog just passed the one year mark on AnD and surprisingly, I'm still using it!
So as a treat; well not really a treat, I'll post the first two days of my Dali Expedition in this entry as well. I promise to add the pictures that come with it sometime in the next 48 hours. x
July 13, 2010--Afternoon
The Dali Expedition has finally begun! Right now, I’m sitting at the airport in Kunming awaiting my next flight to Dali. I was the last passenger to get on the plane from Hong Kong because the employees at Starbucks took a long time to prepare my venti Java Chip Frappuchinno. I got on the plane just in time before the gates closed. I wonder if I would have been like that lady on Youtube who missed her flight if I had missed mine. The flight was pleasantly quiet but the food was honestly awful. I didn’t really know what I had put into my mouth; I think I heard the flight attendant said something about pasta and beef but I can’t be sure if I heard her right.
I can’t believe I actually fell asleep during the landing. I think this proves how much better the quality of the flights has become because my ears usually can’t stand the pressure. When it was time to pick up my luggage, I was thankful that I had put a label on it because I seriously didn’t recognize my black suitcase. My other piece of luggage, which my dad had suggested that I should hand carry but didn’t, had been left at the Hong Kong airport and is due to arrive in Kunming at 6pm. Nice. To make matters worse, I was pretty much mute during the entire process. Why? I couldn’t really speak Mandarin and they couldn’t really speak English. I think I will stick to English for the rest of the trip. I mean, I understood what they said…it’s just that I didn’t know how to reply. I have an hour until I need to be back to pick up my luggage but I don’t know my way back since it’s a one-way only terminal. How am I supposed to claim the bag now? Did I mention that bag contains all of my clothes for the trip? I seriously need that bag back! Guess what? I will make sure that I carry that bag onto the flight with me this time around. I cannot afford to wear the same set of clothes for all 9 days.
When I got out of the customs area, people surrounded me asking me whether I wanted to rent a taxi. I got so freaked out but I had to keep walking. The airport was very different from what I imagined. It’s cleaner, less crowded and a lot smaller! I didn’t know where I was supposed to stay for 5 hours; luckily I found a café with a nice view of the take off zone. The short buildings that are not that far away from the airport keep reminding me that China sure is different from Hong Kong.
So how did I spend the last two and a half hours? I ordered a pineapple sorbet at the café and watched the first two episodes of this Taiwanese drama called “I Do”. I still haven’t figured out the plot because I had to keep repeating parts of it since I missed a lot of their dialogue. What should I do now? Read another chapter my non-fiction novel? Watch another episode of I Do? Explore the airport to find the counter for my next flight? Order another drink? Buy souvenirs?
*Looks out window, sees plane landing* Wow…
July 14, 2010--Morning
The other Climate Champions are on their way to Dali from Kunming. They will arrive at approximately 1pm and I can’t wait to see them! They’re taking a coach that will take about 5 hours whereas if they took a plane, it would have taken them a little under 2 hours from Kunming to the place we’re staying at. But hey, the carbon emissions for a plane are much higher than a bus!Back to last night: after I left the café, I wandered around the airport and then guess what? I got bored (typical Emily) so I went back to the arrival hall but it was overcrowded with people so I slipped into a “tea bar”. I had to order another drink so I decided on a rose tea but again, it was a disappointing drink that cost RMB$32 which means I spent almost RMB$80 just on drinks at the airport! I stayed there for a while and then decided to check if my luggage arrived yet. Nope, it hadn’t. The plane wasn’t even in Kunming yet. So much for six o’ clock. It was almost 7 when the conveyor belt started moving. There it is! It came back a bit dirtier and the handle broke but it’s mine! After doing a brief examination of the bag I found that nothing was missing except for the zipper. Luckily, the contents inside didn’t explode because that would just be plain embarrassing.
I went back to the Departure counters figuring that it would be best if I checked in got rid of my luggage. Shortly after completing that task, I found Cathy and her family! We had dinner at one of the restaurants at guess where…the AIRPORT! I must have spent around 7 hours there by then and it’s the longest I’ve spent at ANY airport so that’s a record! Dinner was absolutely delicious with local dishes like boiled fish in a Chinese-style chilli stew, stir-fried seasonal vegetables, stir-fried vermicelli with cabbage and served on a piece of fried egg. Okay fine, it doesn’t sound very local but you’ve got to admit it does sound tasty!
When I went through the security check, the lady kept accusing me of carrying a knife because the metal detector kept beeping when it came in contact with the buttons on my shorts. She eventually figured out that those were the “knives” she was talking about and I was let off the hook. Phew! In the hour that was left before the plane took off, I finished my book. So what will I do now? I’ve finished my only source of entertainment that does not require my laptop. Oh no! I still have the trip back where I will again be stuck at the airport for 6 hours.
I was asleep for most of the flight to Dali except the landing but I kept dozing off when the plane was descending. The passenger sitting next to me was, coincidentally, from Hong Kong as well. However, I did not speak a single word to him so how did I figure that out? I’m not going to tell you. I was relieved that I had left the Kunming airport but only to arrive at another airport. It was a good thing that we didn’t stay there long; we were on a taxi in no time.
Arriving at the school that we’re staying at, I got to my room and fell into a deep sleep in the comfy bed. I woke up only to find out that the breakfast is served until 9 and it was already 8:50! Dang!
July 14, 2010 –Evening
After almost a year since I saw them, our group of YAs or the new name for the campers, Climate Champions, has finally reunited! Everyone was so excited and happy to see each other again. Not much happened today except for two somewhat significant events like…going to a Wal-Mart for the first time in over 3 years! Isn’t that exciting? The sign outside said Wal-Mart Supercenter but inside, it didn’t remind me of the store that I remember at all! Perhaps, it has asianized too much that it has lost its style so it can fit the Chinese market. I wonder if all 91 of the Wal-Marts across China are like that as well.
Other than buying snacks for the tea breaks, I also got the chance to visit the wind farm in Dali which is owned by a Hong Kong and state-owned Mainland China company joint-venture. Does that even make any sense? It doesn’t but whatever. Most of the talk was in Mandarin so I didn’t understand what it was about but I did pick up some key points. The wind farm gets sixty cents RMB for every kilowatt they produce and in approximately 10 years time, the cost of building the turbines. The construction of the entire plant consisting of sixty turbines was about half a billion RMB. I think that was all I got from the experience. What a waste of time.
The room I stayed at last night was only for one night so now I’m at one of the student dormitories. The contrast between the two is very big because last night’s was a staff’s dorm so it was much nicer than the students’. Bunk beds aren’t the problem; it’s the facts that the toilets can’t flush and the washroom IS the shower tray.
I’m going to bed now. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!
So those were the first two days of my trip :D
Not very useful but it sounded okay...didn't it?
Anyways, need to sleep now; I've got to get my Return China Card renewed tmr morning.
Peace,
Emzz
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2 more days!
Wednesday, Jul 7, 2010 9:17PM / Standard Entry
Hey!
Only two more days and then school's out for summer! Yay!
I'll be in HK until the 14th and then I'll be in China for 2 weeks. I'll be in Yunnan from the 14th to 21st and back in Hong Kong for the night and leaving to Sichuan the next morning. Sichuan and then Beijing and back in Hong Kong on the 28th. That's one tight schedule but dude, I really need to go see these places. I'm not really going there for a fun vacation but rather to widen my horizons and to prove to others how lucky our lives are. So, why am I going to those places? Going to Yunnan to see learn how the drought has affected their lives and how climate change has played a part in this; Sichuan to find out how the citizens are doing after the 2008 earthquake as well as the relief work that's being done.
One of my Chinese school classmates from Vancouver is coming to visit but I won't be here for most of the time she's here. How ironic. Coincidently, she's extremely good friends with one of my French Immersion classmates because they ended up at the same high school! I wanted to do there too. I haven't seen her for like...7 years? Well, at least since I quit Chinese school because my parents gave up trying to persuade me to attempt to like Chinese. ( Is that why I'm in Hong Kong now?)
OMG, so many people from my school are getting AnDs and they're not even really using it. So if you're just trying to overload the server or whatever, don't! This is a great site that should be kept on the internet. Oh well, so much for my escape from the devilish life of being a student at a somewhat unique school. Next year, I'll be stuck doing the IB diploma and I'll be even busier than this year. That is just plain scary. English A higher level is going to go through around 20 books next year. And guess what? I'm taking ENGLISH A HIGHER LEVEL!
OMFG!
-Emz
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Fur Products Shame!
Tuesday, Jun 29, 2010 10:04AM / Standard Entry
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