Saturday, May 2, 2009

Chinese men wearing Lederhosen

Yeah, well. Kinda. I mean, they were lederhosen-like.

Perhaps you have surmised from the recent stagnancy of my blog that the stability of my internet connection has been questionable. I'm not even going to apologize.

Let me see if I can give you a quick summary of some interesting things that I have observed and experienced in the last week or so.

I have a confession to make. I am afraid that I have turned into 'that crazy dancing lady at the music festival with ribbons, piercings, and strategically smeared earth.' I'm sorry. It's just that one thing led to another. Let me explain: My friends and I went to the opening day of Chengdu's first-ever music festival, 'The Zebra Music Festival.' When we arrived I was already a bit of a mess from biking across Chengdu the day prior without having had a chance to wash my hair. Upon entering the grounds we encountered festival staff who were distributing bright orange and yellow ribbons. If you have ever met me, you probably know that I have a weakness for shiny and bright objects, so it was just a matter of time before I had accumulated quite a collection of ribbons which were promptly placed on all corners, fixtures, and handles of myself, my clothing, and my hair. Then I started dancing. Then the Sichuan news crew caught wind of my gyrations. Then they asked me if I would be willing to dance for some footage. So I did. Then I decided, 'what the heck so what if it's muddy? I'm going to do the worm.' Then a crowd gathered around me. Then people wanted to take pictures with me. The end.

The other day I had the honor of being invited to my student/friend's birthday celebration. We went out for hotpot. Some of the tasty treats that I was especially excited about were pig brain (who would have thought that boiling pig brains is a very delicate procedure?), congealed duck blood, and duck tongue. I thought it was really neat when I arranged the entire tongue assembly (muscles, tendons, etc) so that the actual tongue part stuck out of my mouth while I made 'quacking' noises. Would this be an appropriate instance to talk about situational irony?

Finally, Uncle Jim, I am sorry to debunk your counter-theory, but if you'll permit us to look more closely at the 'Charley Tuna' exhibit, you may be interested to observe that the aforementioned fish hero was pictured on the can of food grade tuna fish.
I will leave you with some pictures of my recent culinary adventure. I need to start carrying my real camera around with me...

5 comments:

Krista said...

MOST AMAZING BLOGPOST YET! If I were there I would want to take my picture with you too.

Phil Birkey said...

Bike tour! Can we put shiny ribbons on them?!? I'm a big fan of shiny and bright too. I think Saline solution is good for water retention but it tastes all nasty and salty. -_- I envy your ability make a public spectacle of yourself without it having a massive adverse reaction to your work.

Daniel and Natalie said...

Shelley, you never cease to amaze! Glad your finding some fun times amidst your work and culinary adventures. Miss you, Love, Natalie

Anonymous said...

I would really like to see the video of that, not for observation, but for inspiration.

You're right about Charlie Tuna being in Asia, he now gets his paycheck from a South Korean company. Few spokespersons however, with the exception of Chuck Norris, actually use, let alone become the product they are hawking. And even though their were probably more than one fish that held the position over the life of the campaign, it's unlikely that they were expiring one after another in rapid succesion after acquiring the moniker, only to be served up with rice and wasabi.
Mmmmmmmmm wasabi.
As a matter of fact, the current Tuna is alive and well and hosting a radio show on KRTH in LA.
I say name that fish.

Rebecca hedrix said...

Hi Shelly! Your adventures always pick me up when its been a long day at work. Hope things are going well_ looks like your getting into all kinds of stuff.

Just wanted to stop by and let you know that everyone misses you here. Trainees ask me everyday about my ear muffs_ it makes me smile when I tell them of Shelly!