Category Archives: Vegetarianism

Day 291 in Beijing: Whip It. Whip It Real Good!

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I was running by the canal near my apartment a few days ago and noticed some people with their whips.

This is fairly common to see and I wanted to take a picture of them but didn’t want to interupt my run.

However, taking a 30 second break isn’t really going to hurt anything and it was worth it to me to get the shots.

The man also said, “Ni hao” to me and I responded in kind.

He seemed to be having a great time and I loved his dance that he does in the video.

He did more jumping at other times but I wasn’t close enough to catch the shot since I was just running up to him.

I guess people practice whips around here as that is what people used to use and it is a nice tie to the past.

I used to think it was a gun shot, and was confused since guns are illegal in China, and then noticed that the sounds are almost exactly the same.

Both are breaking the speed of sound so that is part of the crack that one hears.

He seemed to really enjoy the event and I hope to see him again and maybe I’ll learn how to whip it good from him at some point.

By the way, if you notice in one of the pictures, the man on the far left is on his phone.

Technology will not be stopped.

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and if you want to see him in action, here you go!

Day 290 in Beijing: Xalapa!

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Xalapa is a restaurant that Jill and I visited when we were hanging out with our friend, Nick.

I wrote a very nice blog post about it but it seems to have disappeared.  I have no idea why, I have no idea where it went, and I have no idea what I actually wrote.

I have to say I’m a bit bummed out about it but as Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “So it goes.”

And so it does.

So, I will post some pictures and let you see if the atmosphere, food and fun was worth your looking at it.

It was for Jill and I and we will definitely return again!

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Day 288 in Beijing: Push Ups. One Month Later.

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As you might remember, I was able to do 15 push ups on February 4 and 41 on February 19th, my 45th birthday.

I’m striving for 100 by June 1st.

Honestly, I’d like to hit it before that time but that is the “drop dead date” that I’ve set for myself.

I could tell you how many I ended up doing today but that would ruin the video.

See what you think and I’ll update this again in a month.

Excuses are nothing.

Day 281 in Beijing: Addictions.

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Many people have addictions of one type or another.

Most people know, even if they won’t admit it to others, if they are addicted to something.

It affects their daily life, their work, their free time and their state of mind.

I’ve got a bit of an addiction also.

I’m trying to break it.

I like reading comments on articles from e-news sites.

I used to be very addicted to my righteousness and telling others how to live their lives.

It seems most of the people posting comments on these sites also feel the same way.

Let me be specific, they don’t feel the same way I do about how someone should live their life, just that the person commenting knows better than the person living their own life how to live it.

It is a confusing sentence but that is what it is.  I’m okay with that.

I’ve been attempting to break this habit with very little success because I haven’t put a lot of effort into it.

Mostly I look at the comments and think about how serious, mean and judgmental they are and then ignore them.

I’ve been wondering, in the last week or so, why I even look at them.

I think it is an addiction to the self-righteousness that I had before dying a slow death.

I can remind myself that I’m, mostly, not like that anymore and also feel somewhat superior to the people that are commenting.

This is, actually, rather self-serving and yet very destructive.

I’ve decided not to read the comments for the rest of the month and note whether I feel more positive or less positive about my state of mind or if there is no change at all.

Life is an experiment and I’m going to run one on myself.

I’ve also noticed, on social media sites that I’m a part of, that people seem to want to pull me back into the persona I was before I made this change to be more positive.

It is another test of my strength against the addiction of hubris and self-righteousness that I have learned to check myself on and agree with them and then move on.

Agreeing with someone, and finding even a tiniest bit of truth in what they are saying, tends to negate almost any argument.

When I first started praticing this about 7 years ago I found this quite difficult to do in the moment.

I learned a very simple way to set my mind to agree with someone from my supervisor, Brac Selph.

I don’t think he even realized he was doing this, but anytime someone said anything to him in our group supervision, he would immediately answer with, “You’re right.”

I noticed this and started doing it also since when I tell someone, “You’re right” I then choose to find something to agree with them and that reduces their desire to argue with me because we have just agreed.

You may choose not to do this, or you may think I’m incorrect in my assumptions, and you might be right, but for me, it just makes sense.

I find it is not always easy, especially with someone I tend to disagree with strongly, but it saves me energy, time and other problems that come up because of disagreements.

Also, if the other person is incredibly argumentative, they tend to get tired of talking to me because I don’t give them much to argue with.  They go find other people that fit their way of thinking and being.

That used to be me.  I decided on New Year’s Day to try to be more positive, constructive and caring when I comment or speak to people.

I think I’ve succeeded greatly.

And this is just one more step in my journey towards a more fulfilling and wonderful life.

Feel free to join along when, and if, you decide to come along!

 

Day 280 in Beijing: Hot Pot. Without the Hot. Or the Pot.

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The lovely Jill and me.

The lovely Jill and me.

So, my dear friends Gordon and Sarah took us out to a delicious Yunnan Hot Pot restaurant.

They had a combination of meat and vegetables while we just did the vegetables.

I’d love to show you some pictures of the food, but we were so hungry, we forgot to take any pictures!

We did get a few cute pictures of ourselves and of Gordon and Sarah.

Gordon has become my closest friend and Sarah is fantastic.

They are both from the states and just fun, warm, and outgoing people.

Sarah and Gordon. So cute!

Sarah and Gordon. So cute!

 

I swear that Gordon and I are basically like brothers from another mother.

Which, if you think about it, the last thing the world needs is someone just like me, running around Beijing, causing havoc.

Or, maybe that is exactly what the world needs.

A little havoc and fun can go a long way.

I’m thankful I’ve met Gordon and Sarah and look forward to a very long friendship with both of them, no matter where they, or we, end up.

Day 276 in Beijing: The Experiment 1.0.

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The Experiment's menu.

The Experiment’s menu.

As you have probably noticed, Jill and I are pretty outgoing people.

We have made a lot of friends in Beijing and we are loving our life here.

One of our favorite restaurants is Big Smoke.

Big Smoke is not only an amazing restaurant but it also houses our favorite brewery, Jing A.

The story of how I became friends with this group is a bit long but, I think, quite interesting.

I arrived in Beijing in June.  I was trying to figure out how to make friends and build a community.

I always loved beer, wine and going out so I looked online to see if there was a beer festival anytime soon.

Luckily there was a Beer Geek brewer’s festival that weekend.

I decided to go by myself and make the choice to meet new people and see how it would go.

Well, it went wonderfully.

I met Kris and Alex, who are the head brewers at Jing A, and talked to them and we became friends.

Kris is from Canada and Alex is from the USA.

I also met Eric, who is a writer for the China Daily, and Kat and Mandy, who are (or in the case of Kat, were) editors for the same publication.

About a week later was the Craft Brew Festival for all of China.

I actually met the brewmaster for Boxing Cat Brewery, Michael, who had worked at Pyramid Brewing Company in Berkeley and now lives in Shanghai.  He used to work with my buddies, Dave and Brian, who now own Elevation 66 in El Cerrito and it was my hangout before I moved to China.

A small world, indeed.

I also met Richard Ammerman who ended up being the third part of Jing A Brewing Company.  He was incredibly generous and showed me around, introduced me to new friends, and made me feel incredibly welcomed.  I owe him a lot.

After a month or so, I went to The Big Smoke to try the food and have a bit of Jing A from “their home base.”

I was blown away.  The food was amazing.

I took Jill there for her first meal when she arrived in Beijing.  Nothing like a little home cooking after a 12 hour trip!

I also met the manager, Gordon Kutil, and I knew I was home.

Gordon and I have become incredibly close and we are almost like family.

We joke around, hang out, and have a world view that is extremely like minded.

He is from Tennessee originally but has loves to travel and experience new things.

I later met Che Che, who is from the Philippines and is the matre di.  She wonderful, sweet and always smiling.

At one point, Gordon introduced me to JP, who is the chef and is from Juarez, Mexico.

Finally, I meet Kris, who owns The Big Smoke.  He’s originally from Australia but has lived in China for over 17 years and has owned a few different, and all successful, restaurants.

On top of that, the staff is all Chinese Nationals so there is a huge mix of cultures at one small restaurant.

I love how all these different nations come together to make a community.

So, to make a long story longer, The Big Smoke guys and the Jing A guys decided to do a beer pairing dinner.

It is called the Experiment 1.0 because it was the first one they had done and there, “An experiment.”

It was amazing.

My friend, Eric, who writes for China Daily, also came with a friend of his, Mike.  Gordon’s girlfriend, Sarah, showed up with another friend also and we sat with Richard and enjoyed every minute of the dinner.

You can actually see Eric’s wrist, wearing a beaded bracelet, in one of the pictures below.

The food was incredible, and since Gordon and Kris know we are vegetarians, they changed our menu to not have any animal products and we were blown away.

The beers were great and everything was paired perfectly.

All I can write is that this is how a life is made: Great food, Great drink, and most importantly, great family.

Not friends, but family.

Because when you are an expatriate, your friends become your family.

You become very close to them and are also cognizant that they will leave at some point in the future.

The knowledge that this death is imminent makes the family you build even more important than one could imagine.

I’m glad I have my family, all over the world, that allows me to connect to them and they to me.

And, each day, my family grows larger and larger.

I’m thankful you are a part of it also.

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Day 259 in Beijing: Fit and Forty Five.

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Yep, it is that time of year again:  My birthday.

I’m 45 years old as of today.

It has been an incredible ride.

This last year has probably been my favorite year of my life.

Actually, I’m sure it has been.

And it just keeps getting better and better.

A year ago I had just quit my job at Family Service Agency of San Francisco/PREP Alameda County, where I had worked for almost 6 years.  I originally worked for them in San Francisco as a social worker for geriatric clients who were on medicare and/or medical.  I was enjoying the San Francisco Rueda Festival as a semi-goodbye to my previous life.

I moved over to PREP Alameda County for the last 5 months of employment with Family Service Agency and worked with 18-24 year old people that were recently diagnosed with delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia.

I learned so much at both those jobs but had decided to take a break and travel around the world for a year.

Little did I know, that when I put this plan into place, I’d end up in China.

My brother Robert has lived in China for the past 7 years.  He knew I was taking a break and wanted me to come visit.  He also heard that there was a job opening for a therapist at an international company here in Beijing.

After he told me about it, I sent in my resume.

A few weeks later, I was asked to do a skype interview and was hired on the spot.

My plans to travel around the world, learn Spanish, visit Cuba and then go to Europe and finally see my brother in China were flipped upside down!

I actually did go to Mexico, to visit my cousin Michelle and her wonderful husband, John, for 2 weeks before the preparation to move to China happened.

I then spent the next few months dealing with passport and visa issues, saying goodbye to friends and family, and just soaking up the San Francisco Bay Area and everything it has to offer.

And, 8 days before I came to China, the San Francisco Carnaval was happening and I realized this would be my last chance to dance with some of my dear friends and experience the pleasure of salsa dancing and mi familia.

I arrived at the San Francisco Carnaval parade early and, since it was quite empty, I left to grab some food.  An attractive woman was sitting where I had been sitting so I asked if I could sit by her.  She agreed.  We talked for an hour or two before my other friend, Jon-David, showed up.

The three of us spent the rest of the day together, drinking good beer, eating good food, and talking.

I found out that she has a website that is dedicated to all things San Francisco and has done an amazing job building it.  This is a link for the 2014 Carnaval parade but she has over 400 pages of things to do in San Francisco.

It would be a present to her, and me, if you would click this highlighted link and “like” her San Francisco Tourism Tips page on Facebook or just subscribe by email on that page.

Trust me, you won’t regret it!

Anyway, around 10 hours later, I asked her out on a date for the next day.

She agreed.

Jill and I then spent the next 8 days together and she took me to the airport to see me off.

1.5 months later, she arrived in Beijing and has been here ever since.

My life, in pretty much every way, is perfect.

So, to celebrate, I recently decided to start working out and try to get in better shape.

About three weeks ago I started doing push ups.

I could only do 15 at one time.

I’ve been progressing, running, lifting weights and trying to gain strength.

My goal, when I did 15, was to do 45 on my 45th birthday.

Here is my attempt:

Day 258 in Beijing: Geographer Cafe.

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Welcome to the Geographer Cafe!

Welcome to the Geographer Cafe!

After walking around for a while, we decided to grab a bite to eat.

We love Malaysian food and we decided, on New Year’s Day, to start being vegetarian.

This is somewhat difficult in China because we can’t speak Mandarin and there is so much meat in the food in most restaurants.

However, in Malaysia, where English is a primary language, it is quite simple.

We walked into the Geographer Cafe and thought it looked like a good place to have a nosh.

So, we ordered up some vegetarian spring rolls and some other Malaysian food that was delicious.

As we looked around the place, we noticed how it was a “world traveler” kind of cafe and we asked to go upstairs and into the closed areas of the restaurant.

The staff smiled and agreed.

We really enjoyed checking out this place and definitely recommend stopping by if you ever get a chance.

Heck, they even had an tango floor upstairs!

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Day 256 in Beijing: How to be a vegetarian in China.

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Buddhist Beads=Vegetarian

Buddhist Beads=Vegetarian

This may sound easy to most people not living in China, but it is quite difficult to be vegetarian in China.

Obviously, Jill and I speak very little Mandarin so that is a major issues in our trying to order food here and help the servers to realize we don’t eat meat of any type.  We also don’t eat fish, shrimp or any shellfish.

This makes it very hard to eat at any restaurant that isn’t a Western based restaurant because so much of Chinese food has loads of meat in it.

There are the customary pictures on the menu that usually provide some relief but many of the sauces have animal or fish sauces and so our vegetarian ideals are crushed.

On Chinese New Year, we happened to run into a 7-11 type store here in Beijing as we were hungry and the party we were going to attend wouldn’t start for another few hours.

Almost every restaurant was closed and a 7-11 rip off store was all we could find at that time.

It was an auspicious start to the Year of the Horse now that I look back on it.

There was an America order a steamed bun and he was speaking fluent Mandarin to the clerks.  They were laughing and joking around as Jill and I bought some potato chips and nuts to eat.

He left and then came back in.  I asked if he had forgotten something and he said, “Nope, these buns are just delicious!  I want another one.”

We told him that we also wanted some but are vegetarians and don’t know what to say.

He laughed and said, “I’m vegetarian too.  I have tried to get people to understand that being vegetarian means no meat at all but they usually tell me, ‘It is just a little bit of pork’ after I’ve started eating.  It is hopeless to try to use Mandarin to tell them what you want.  They just don’t get it.”

We asked him how he does it and he responded with, “Buy a set of Buddhist prayer beads.  Wear them on your wrist.  Then, when you order, point to them and they will immediately understand since Buddhists don’t eat any living creatures.  You won’t even have to say a word.”

We thought this was genius and started laughing at the simplicity of it.

I’ve a firm belief there is almost always a new way to “hack they system” and figure out a more efficient, and inventive, way of doing things.  It is only when we get stuck in a linear thought formation that we stop ourselves from seeing the other possibilities to change.

We exchanged information and thanked him for his help.

By the way, we each had one of the vegetarian steamed buns and he was right, the were amazing!

We will now be able to order more of them since we know how to order and not get steamed buns filled with meat!

Day 255 in Beijing: Welcome To The Gun Show!

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The lovely Jill with her presents.

The lovely Jill with her presents.

So, if you read my previous post, you know that I hadn’t actually given Jill her presents by the time it was written.

Here is the end result of our first Valentine’s Day in China.

I bought Jill a flower, a teflon wine bottle stopper in the shape of a Chinese woman, and a handwoven scarf.

She really liked them and seemed to be quite happy.

However, the gift she really liked was when I gave her two free tickets to the GUN SHOW!

Step right up and redeem your tickets to the GUN SHOW!

Step right up and redeem your tickets to the GUN SHOW!

This is meant sarcastically but since I’m turning 45 in about 5 days, I decided to get into shape and I’m hoping to do 45 straight pushups next week after only being able to do 15 just 2 weeks ago.

Simply stated, Jill inspires me to be a better person just by being the person she is each moment.

I wish everyone reading this the same type of relationship I have with her.

Don’t give up until you want.  Even if it takes 45 years.

Or longer.

You may not realize it yet, but, you are worth it.