Photo of the Day--February 19, 2012--Macau

So I've been to Macau three times in my life now, the last time being yesterday/this morning. I must say, this time around I really got a lot more feel for the culture and mindset of the place than I'd gotten on my previous visits. Among other things, some fairly interesting things I noticed:

1) The last two times I was in Macau, they had a pretty awkward situation with their currency, the Macau Pataca. Essentially, 2 years ago when I was there last, the Pataca was rarely, rarely used. Rather, the de facto currency is the Hong Kong Dollar, which is constantly pegged at a 1:1 ratio with Macau Pataca. The last time I was there, I withdrew money from an ATM in HKD due to that being the only option (though mind you, it would be idiotic to withdraw in Patacas--it's just a completely useless currency). Anyway, this time around, I noticed a lot more wide usage of the Pataca. I only had like 1 transaction where the change was given in HKD, everything else was given in Patacas. Fairly interesting, I'm not entirely sure why they're using this currency system, it would probably make more sense to just say "OK, we're going to make the Hong Kong Dollar our currency, the Pataca is no longer valid", or say "OK, we're going to have the Petaca be our currency, we no longer accept HKD". This would eliminate the really awkward getting/giving money in 2 different currencies at routine transactions, and just make things much easier. Could this acknowledgement and embracing of their own currency be an indication of enhanced nationalism by Macau? It would be an interesting thing to look into--I would imagine it would be that or alternatively just really strong encouragement by the Macau Central Bank, I doubt it's just incidental. Anyway, something to think about.

2) Macau is not Vegas. Obviously I already knew this to a certain extent, but I really noticed this time around that Macau lacks fun. Between my last trip to Macau and this one, I spent a week in Vegas with my friend Dan, and I just noticed that everything there was fun. Even when you're in the poker room, the banter is fantastic, the dealers generally pretty talkative/casual, and just a generally merry atmosphere. In Macau, people are not there to have fun. They are there to gamble. The Chinese take gambling more seriously than anyone I'd ever seen--and really I didn't care for it. Whether you're winning or losing money in a casino, it will almost always be more enjoyable if there's just a cheery, friendly atmosphere. In Macau it's sort of like "well thanks for your money, if you don't have any more then you're welcome to leave right now". This assertion is reflected in a statistic that I recall which said that in Vegas, about 40-50% of casino revenues come from gambling. In Macau, that number is >90%. And Macau being 5x the size of Vegas in terms of overall revenue anyway (~$40B to ~$8B....incredible!), this just means the amount of gambling going on in Macau is insane relative to Vegas.

3) Poker is not an option in Macau. Jeff and I got on 4 different lists for 4 different poker rooms, and the shortest of them all was about 2 hours--this meaning that we had to wait 2 hours before we got into a poker game, because there were like 40 people on the list. Now I'm not 100% sure on this, but I have to assume that in Vegas, when the list gets to like 6-7 people, they just start a new game with those stakes and have those people sit at a new table. Apparently this does not happen in Macau. Pretty disappointing, given that I just really prefer poker to literally any casino game--and I'm better at it (that is to say, it's not a losing game, in general). So kind of a bummer on that front.

Ended up losing a fairly substantial amount of money--a few hundred US$--but eh, what can you do, and I suppose a good lesson that I should probably never play craps while on about 4 hours of sleep and you've just learned the rules of the game. So goes without saying, I will not be gambling again for awhile, with the exception of sports bets/prop betting with friends.

Anyway, the trip back from Macau ended up being really bizarre--we finished up playing about 6:00am, and found out the first boat back to Shenzhen wasn't until 9:45am. So we went to Hong Kong. Ended up catching a 7:15am boat to HK, then from there taking the metro into Shenzhen--lots of completely unnecessary passport stamps! (So it's a good thing I'm not quickly running out of passport pages for the 2nd time in the last 18 months...or that would be inconvenient!) I ended up getting home shortly past 10:00am, and am currently about to go to bed for a couple of hours. But first...the Photo of the Day from Macau....

This photo is of the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, a cathedral built by the Portuguese (Macau being a former Portuguese colony) in the late 1500's. The cathedral was destroyed in 1821, but the facade is still there (and in remarkably good shape!) At the time it was one of the largest cathedrals in Asia, and is still a pretty impressive sight.

And just because I have a few more, here are some extra, non-photo-of-the-day photos from Macau :-D

As I said, Macau was a former Portuguese colony, and as you can see, signs are bilingual Portuguese/Cantonese. Interesting note about Portuguese...I feel like I could learn the language fluently in like 6 months of living in Brazil, given how decently I know Italian and Spanish now. I was able to read most of the street signs, as well as a fair bit of menus, pretty freaking similar to Italian/Spanish. But anyway, yes, some tricycles outside the Casino Lisboa

This photo is of the downtown-ish area of Macau, taken from the facade of the Ruins of St Paul's. Notice the Grand Lisboa at the far left, as well as the pretty vibrant, Southern-European style colors of the buildings. Really really interesting mix of Chinese and Southern European, Macau. It was, after all, the first European colony in Asia, and the last one in Asia, with the Portuguese establishing presence there in 1557 and not leaving until 1999. But anyway, whether it's the abundance of Vespas or the very Southern European style food or the cobblestone shopping streets, it really reminded me quite a bit of Italy, which isn't too surprising given that I assume Italy and Portugal are pretty similar in terms of lifestyle/attitude.

This was on the inside of the Venetian Hotel on Cotai Strip, just an absolutely ridiculous building. Casino can be seen below.

Anyway, so that's about it from Macau. Lot of passport stamps, petacas, and Portuguese.

Interesting song shown to me by my friend Sabutai the other week--it's called Mole by an Indian band called Baageshri, not bad at all, I would highly recommend giving it a listen. Other than that, will see all 6 of you tomorrow, with another photo of the day.

Photo of the Day--February 17, 2012

So I was speaking a couple of weeks ago with my friend John about why we were in China. That is, what the hell had motivated us to, unlike 99.9999% of our friends, colleagues, etc., just pick up and move to China? It's an interesting question--I would say the simple answer is "well it's a nice combination of adventure, resume building, and having a good deal of disposable income", but I think I came up with a more accurate and insightful answer during our conversation.

Basically, if I wanted to live an easy life, I would have stayed in the US, taken a job with Allstate for around $50,000 per year, and just hung out around Chicago saving money for a few years. It would have been good, I would have had close friends and family nearby, been in a familiar environment, and would have just blended in with everyone else.

None of these are the case in China. Therefore, why am I here? I believe that I am here not because life is easy here (though really, it's not bad at all), not because it's a good resume builder, not even really to learn Chinese. I am here precisely because living in a place like China allows you to really appreciate life. I put it this way to John--living in China, there are many, many instances per day where I am inconvenienced in some way. Whether that means I have trouble because I speak horrible Chinese, get stared at by people on the subway for being a big white guy, or just buy something that I assume is some sort of known food, only to have it be some feral concoction of fish, red bean, or something similar, there are a lot of inconveniences about living in China. And the pollution kind of sucks. None of this would be an issue living in the US.

HOWEVER! It should be noted that in China, every single day, generally several times per day, I see something that just makes me say "wow, I love living in this country". Whether that means I see 4 people balancing on a single motorbike going down the highway, a guy doing heavy-duty road construction wearing like a full suit, or the subtly beautiful architecture of this bizarrely well-planned city, not a day goes by in my life without something about this place truly amazing me. And that, friends, would not be happening if I were living in the US.

So in summation, yes, living abroad (particularly in a developing/really freaking foreign country) does have inconveniences. But I believe that facing these inconveniences and taking them with the unbelievable and incredible things you tend to see, allows you to get a better understanding of yourself and the world in which you live. And so therefore, I guess I am living in China not because it is easy, but because it's just so much more intense, polarizing, and generally fuller. And so for those of you who are thinking about relocating abroad, consider that--odds are you'll have to take a lot of bad with the good, but I sincerely believe that it's well worth it.

Anyway, so without further ado, the photo of the day!

Kind of a weird/random/terrible photo, but I was intrigued/amused by a few things about this, most notably the fact that there is a box next to the truck's front-right tire just labeled "TROUT". This was taken just outside my office, in one of the nicer parts of town, and apparently these mad-dogs had just set up a vegetable/trout stand on the sidewalk.

Looks like tomorrow I'll be heading to Macau with Jeff and a few others, staying Saturday night and coming back Sunday afternoon. Plan at the moment is to gamble through the night and do some sightseeing Sunday. Having been there twice before, I suppose I'm the de facto tour guide. Presumably the photo of the day(s) from Macau will be substantially more interesting than the above one.

Showed Scutt the most insane and mind-blowing TedTalk I've ever seen last night--Richard Dawkins on the Queerness of our Universe. Would absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in not being a complete philistine in regard to human evolution, subatomic particles, and a host of other topics covered by this brilliantly atheist man in a 20 minute span. So yeah.

That's about all for now, another photo to come tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, etc., until I either get bored of it or end up on an airplane for a 24 hour period (which will be occurring on February 27th, so there's a chance I won't be putting up a photo that day. Just so you can all plan in advance on how else to take up 7 minutes during your work/school/unemployed and have nothing to do day).

Macau, Finnish People, Shark Fin, Pig Stomach, and "The Netherlands???"

Tom Petty wrote a song a few years ago on his album “Highway Companion” entitled “Big Weekend”. In this song, he talks about “crossing every border with nothing to declare”, “going to hit the bars”, and “jokes in your language not coming out the same”. This past weekend involved all of the following, and then some. Friday afternoon after classes I headed to U-Hall to hang out with the guys over there. What happened there can only be described as once-in-a-lifetime. We hung out there for a bit, and as we were leaving for LKF, we passed by a bit of an alcove near the door of U-Hall. Inside, from what we could see, was some huge religious ceremony with about 50 people, with incense, offerings, and roast pig. We walked in, and found ourselves in a once-a-year ceremony. Essentially the people here (most of which were students) were praying to their ancestors, leaving out fruit for the dead, and roasting 3 enormous pigs. We were invited in (and were the only Westerners). We all decided to partake in the ceremony, which included lighting incense sticks and bowing to their shrine. We also had to write our names on some sort of banner, and while everyone else had written theirs in Chinese, we all wrote ours in English. Perhaps a bit sacrilegious, but eh, cultural immersion can get sketchy like that sometimes. We then sat down among these 50 or so Chinese and ate some roast pork and some wonderful cake (which was actually kind of like a bit firmer version of jell-o) that was prepared by a woman who has worked at U-Hall for over 50 years. We ended up staying for about an hour and a half, it was definitely one of the highlights of HK so far. After that we went out to LKF and sort of mulled around for about 4 hours, before deciding (at Henry’s recommendation) to hit up the “3:00am Dim Sum place. For those who aren’t familiar with this (which included myself about 48 hours ago), Dim Sum is somewhat similar to Latin tapas, basically a bunch of people get together and order relatively small portions of like 30 different things. The reason this place in particular is called the 3:00am Dim Sum place is because they don’t open until 3:00am, and close at noon. We didn’t know how to get there, so we got a cab and said “3:00am Dim Sum place”. The guy knew exactly what we were talking about, and took us right there. The place defined hole-in-the-wall. It was maybe 500 sqft. of eating space, and was absolutely jam packed with Chinese people. We got a big table (9 of us) in the corner, and ate one of the most glorious meals of my life. Absolutely incredible, we all had a bit of everything for about $4US. Got back and went to bed, given that I’d need to be up at 8:00 for Macau.

Saturday morning we went to Macau. It was a real good group, myself, Elliott, Lexx, Oliver, Cindy, and Rob. We got there and walked around the town for awhile before heading to the ruins of the Cathedral there, which was destroyed by an earthquake a few centuries ago. Took some good pictures there before heading up to an observation deck sort of thing, which offered some awesome views of Macau. We then headed back into town, before going to the most spectacular building I’ve ever seen (and if I may toot my own horn, I’ve seen a good deal of spectacular buildings), the Venetian Macau. With 3,000 rooms, a mall, an enormous casino, and countless other amenities, the Venetian is truly the pinnacle of the casino world, a city within itself (kind of written like an advertisement, that was). Anyway, upon arriving at this Mecca of the gambling world, I was a bit disappointed that I was able to exercise the self-control to not sit down at a poker table, however given the negligent amount of sleep I’d had it would have just been a terrible idea. After prying my eyes away from that glorious sight, we went upstairs to the food court for dinner. After dinner we went over to the Gran Lisboa, where we were planning on just catching the bus back to the ferry. However, the girls had to use the bathroom, and on their way there they encountered some absolutely spectacular artwork that had been carved out of ivory, jade, etc. We spent a good 15 minutes looking at all these magnificent carvings, which was one of the highlights of the day. After that we headed back to HK. After I got back to the dorm, I called up Ben to see what he was up to, and he said they were at a housewarming party being thrown by Henna and her boyfriend, Ville. I headed over there and was met outside by Raphael, who showed me upstairs. It was a decent little apartment, although given the crowd it was a bit warm. I was “initiated” into the party, if you will, by having a drink of some sort of Finnish (Henna and Ville are both from Finland) liquorice-liquer. Not bad, but eh. As the party continued we decided at 3:00, we’d head to the 3:00 Dim Sum place again. This time we went with Oliver, Cindy, Ben, Alan, Henna, and Ville. So we did. I ate very little (bit sick of it by that time), but did have the nerve to try pig stomach. It was actually pretty decent. It did, however, get me sick a few hours later, I think.

Sunday I got up and hung out for awhile, then headed to U-Hall to meet Divyan, Henry, and Raphael to go to Mong Kok (Kowloon side) for a bit of shopping and sightseeing. We headed over there and had lunch (which included shark fin), before heading out to shop a bit. Raphael bought some pretty awesome shoes, and Divyan bought an F.C. Barcelona hoodie, but other than that we didn’t really buy anything. We walked around for a good few hours before heading back to HK Island. Should be an easy enough week, I’ve got an assignment due in Theory of International Trade that could be quite easy.

Additional news, got an email the other night (or day in Illinois I guess) from Dr. Varner inviting me to apply for a paid internship in The Hague, The Netherlands. €700 per month salary for a 10 week internship. Certainly not great, but not bad either, and they’d be paying for airfare and accommodation. I hate to be so optimistic, but I think I’m the forerunner, as Dr. Varner approached me regarding this internship several months ago before she let other students know about it, so that’d be pretty decent. It would, however, force me to put the SA internship on hold, but given the absolutely massive difference in cost (SA airfare would run about $2,000 and I wouldn’t be paid, Netherlands would be like $700 and I’d be paid roughly $3,000 during the 10 weeks), it seems that The Netherlands is a better option. Also, it sounds like more rigorous work and more prestige in the job, which is better for a resume I guess.

Fact (s) of the day: Macau is the most densely populated independently governed area in the world, with roughly 50,000 people per sq. mile. 0.6% of Macau’s residents speak Portuguese at home. Not all Australians like vegemite.

Sleep update: I still haven’t slept through an entire night since arriving in HK