Commencement 2007 525 Reads
	This time around, my Law School Commencement and College Fifth Year Reunion came rolled in one, and the weather was perfect. All in all, it was a wonderful few days, spending time with law school friends before we part ways (although the parting is not so painful since so many of us will be in New York next year!), and catching up with many old college friends as well. Lots more photos are here. Posted by: jillian on Monday, June 11, 2007    10 Comments

	Seven Days in Tibet 2000 Reads
	Potala Palace A slew of pictures from our recent trip to Lhasa and Tsedang in the Tibet are up on the album section. This was a fascinating trip and more about it will be posted soon. Tibet Album Posted by: will on Monday, September 18, 2006    6 Comments

	Deep Fried Tofurkey 3228 Reads
	This Thursday, I decided to adapt the gourmet Thanksgiving classic deep fried turkey with everyone's favorite holiday vegan meat-substitute Tofurkey and simultaneously make the stats more appealing to the comfort food connoisseur. For those who want to try this at home, remember to wear goggles and oven mitts like I am. For more help there are more details and photos here. Must give credit for the seasoning to the these world class deep fried turkey enthusiasts. After a brief Google search it seems no one has attempted docmentation of my Tofurkey adaptation, and that I am infact filling a void. Posted by: will on Saturday, November 26, 2005    98 Comments

	The Other Stone Boat 1309 Reads
	The entrance to the Stone Boat pub In spite of missing out on the more well known stone boat in Beijing, we did stop by at lesser known one. One with a much warmer atmosphere. This primarily ex-pat bar is actually a stone boat in the lake at Beijing's Ritan Park that stays open much later than the park itself (making getting to the boat a bit of challenge in itself). Awhile after a couple from Denmark sat down with us and the conversation turned to comparative experiences in China (and the band Boston, which surely we were intimately familiar with - being from there). What seemed like about an hour or so had actually been about four, we realized. Would definitely recommend this place to anyone traveling through Beijing in need of draft beer, and international camaraderie. More Pictures of the Stone Boat Posted by: will on Sunday, July 24, 2005    80 Comments

	Summer Palace in the Rain 944 Reads
	View through the rain, across the river from the palace gates So after finding out that the train station in Xi'an was out of weekend train tickets to Beijing, and springing for plane tickets instead, then making it 45 minutes outside the city for a 9am flight - we landed in a torrential downpour. The rain continued all day. We opted out of trying to make it to Tiananmen and the Forbidden City in the rain, and opted for the Summer Palace, which a friend had told Jillian was "beautiful in the rain." It was beautiful, as well as extremely wet, and to my surprise still crowded. Apparently the "beautiful in the rain" epithet had gotten around. Unfortunately the boat tours had closed early due to the storm and we were not actually able to make it across the lake to see the famous Stone Boat built by the Empress Dowager. More Pictures of the Palace in the Rain Posted by: will on Sunday, July 24, 2005    6 Comments

	The Man Who Dug the Well 662 Reads
	Yang Zhifa at his new job The second stop on the tour was about an hour and half outside of Xi'an proper to the what is undoubtedly the most well-known attraction of the area and reputed as the Eighth Wonder of the World: The Terra-Cotta Warriors of the Tomb of Qin. After several "fascinating" government mandated stops at what essentially amounted to three different gift shops, the first point of interest before the actual pits with the warriors in them was an elderly man by the name of Yang Zhifa who in 1974 , two-thousand years after the sealing of the pits, was part of a well digging project and after being lowered in to the ground to send up more buckets of dirt, found an intact terra-cotta warrior and loaded into his bucket so it could be hoisted up and seen in the light. As the popular story - or at least the one told by our guide - goes the other members of the project were so taken aback by the discovery that they fled the scene with the head of the figure back to the town to show the chairman, who instructed them to first return to pit and fetch Yang who had been left in the tomb he had accidentally discovered. At any rate, he now has a new job that doesn't involve digging wells in the scorching Xi'an sun, but signing copies of the book he helped compile on the warriors and apparently being compensated quite well. He drives an Audi 6. Looking over the contents of Pit 1 The sheer quantity of the warriors, spanning over 4 large pits, is breathtaking, but not nearly as impressive as the level of detail and uniqueness of each life-sized figure. Every face is different. These faces are thought to actually be the faces of the artisans to who crafted them, motivated to immortalize their visages by the knowledge that they would most likely not survive the process. At the time of Emperor Qin's actual death, 3,000 concubines were buried with him along with the craftsman that completed the inner part of his tomb. In the end, man of these latter craftsmen whose charge it was to complete the tomb did die, but not in exactly the way they foresaw. Read More | Many More Pictures of Terra-Cotta Warriors Posted by: will on Friday, July 22, 2005 Read more...  1068 bytes more 7 Comments

	The Wall 613 Reads
	Inside the wall It's a small Frequent Flyer Miles world after all. Yesterday Jillian got a call from one her college Friends, Shaki, who has been touring China with her mother and father. They were headed to Xi'an for the day to see the sights on a private guided tour. As I hadn't yet seen that much of the city outside the downtown area and the neighborhood surrounding the University, I wasn't opposed to coughing up the yuan to go along (and it would mean foregoing a two hour standing bus ride sans air conditioning to the famed terra-cotta warriors outside the city). The first stop on the tour was the wall around the city. Xi'an, the capital of Xi'an in antiquity, is unique among Chinese cities because the wall surrounding is still intact. The view from on top of the wall (see More Pictures below) was an interesting way to see downtown and the approximately 5 kilometer pathway around the city atop the wall makes for an excellent public bike track and space for morning runs. More Pictures of the Xi'an City Wall Posted by: will on Friday, July 22, 2005    6 Comments

	Beautiful Anachronism 651 Reads
	Entertainment at the event This past Tuesday, we encountered what seemed like a complete anachronism in downtown Xi'an: a beer festival; a beer festival specializingin German and Belgian beers. In a city and region where both blondes and stouts are unheard of and the main choices of beer are light pilsner and light pilsner with bitter melon juice in it, this was quite a find. Jillian enjoys a Leffe with GaoNa The festival is slated to last all month, with entertainment ranging from skits and audience participation to new chinese rock music; it seems to be quite a draw. More Pictures of Ginwa Beer Festival Posted by: will on Friday, July 22, 2005    8 Comments

	Positive Interaction 1880 Reads
	The incredibly succinct title of the conference This evening I was able to attend a conference held just outside the Northwest University of Politics and Law in Xi'an where Jillian is interning this summer, which went by the zippy English title of "International Academic Seminar on Positive Interaction of Judicature and Media". Continue reading | Pictures from the Conference Posted by: will on Sunday, July 17, 2005 Read more...  1873 bytes more 3 Comments

	The View from Dayanta 1071 Reads
	From the fifth story window I arrived in Xi'an, PRC, a couple of days ago to meet Jillian for a slightly delayed anniversary celebration. The first site I've been to see is the Dayanta or Big Wild Goose Pagoda where the monk Xuan Zang brought many of the collected Buddhist texts he studied and translated form India as an integral part of the movement's spread to China. The site is very near where our housing is for Jillian's summer internship here. This picture is from the fifth story (there are seven) looking out over Xi'an. The weather here is significantly hotter and more humid than in Boston, which is what I blaming not taking any other decent pictures of the site on. Posted by: will on Sunday, July 17, 2005    4 Comments