New Picture Thread

A couple weeks ago, I had to the chance to go over to the girlfriend's home town in Anhui province to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival (which just so happened to coincide with the National Holiday--go go lunar calendar!). Anhui is a very pretty province--home to many a famous place (including the gorgeous Yellow Mountain I visited back in 2006). However, large parts of Anhui are also pure countryside where a large part of this trip took place. It started off with an 8-hour bus ride from Shanghai to Fuyang, Anhui. There was no way we were getting a train. The tickets had already been sold out two weeks prior. The bus was...well, it was a bus. An overcrowded bus. A there-are-so-many-people-on-this-bus-we're-going-to-put-stools-in-the-aisle-for-people-to-sit-on kind of bus. After arriving in Fuyang and meeting the folks, it was time to begin our celebrations beginning with the making of the jiaozi (dumpling). I could eat Jiaozi every day and not get tired of them.

(Spoilered for length)




First, you fill it with the vegetable/meat....stuff



Then you fold it



And then, bam! Done.




Awesome




Later. we went to a nearby park to join the festivities.




Bought our own lantern to send off into the night sky



Off it goes




A day or so later, it was time to leave Fuyang and head on into the countryside to Dangshan to see Jun's classmate's wedding. The road from Fuyang to Dangshan was one long bumpy, dusty ride. Dangshan isn't Shanghai. Heck, it wasn't even Fuyang---and that's why I liked it.




Surprise spider (now with fly eating action)




A man and his dog




Neighborhood alley



We went to the bride's home first and waited around until it was time to go to the groom's home for eats.




The groom's home was alive with activity. Music, fireworks, the squawking of chickens--you name it




There was even a little marriage goat.




Look at him! Isn't he cute? He even has a little bow!




Haha...wait...where you are taking him? Little goat? Where are you...?




Oh. Oh no. Oh no no no no no.





No. Just kidding. He's fine. He's brought along because the Chinese character for it has some relation to marriage/happiness/or some such. But I'm sure he would have been delicious.


Moving on! Chicken in a bisket! Basket! .......Box! (??)




Bride and Groom. I just love stooping over all the time because I'm too tall.





Family portrait





By this point, I was understandably hungry. Lunch time!




Food just kept coming






Oh goodness. This was so delicious. I should have savored every bite because ....




I ate this next.




I cracked it's skull open with my teeth and bit into the brains. They were mushy. They were terrible. I asked my girlfriend if she wanted any. Her answer? Of course not! Nobody eats the duck head because it tastes awful. Thanks for telling me beforehand.


Ah yes. Look at that grin. Look at it. He knows what's coming. Baijiu. A seeming innocuous drink. It certainly doesn't look like anything special. Oh but the smell. They say a man knows when a bottle of baijiu has been opened as far as a mile away. They're wrong. Its at least two. It lets you know that no matter how you end you evening, you will wake the next day with a pounding head, possibly missing your pants and that same exact shit-eating grin on your face.





Look at it. Trying to act all innocent. But you can't fool me anymore. I know you.





Case in point.




As we finally headed back to the bride's home (taking a different route this time, because taking the same route back would be bad luck, apparently) we were sent off with fireworks and music.




Passed this on the way..




When we finally got back, we were greeted, once again, with music and fireworks




This scroll thing was read..




Exchanged rings, took their bows and boom--happily ever after.




And that concludes my story. All in all, a great trip, very educational and...






Oh God.
 
Is Baijiu homemade? I keep thinking the bottle that man is pouring it out of looks suspiciously like something that should hold dishwashing liquid.
 

North_Ranger

Staff member
I think it's to keep the smell in check ;)

Also, my dirty imagination, but the heading for the picture with your girlfriend in it, Terrik...

First, you fill it with the vegetable/meat....stuff
I'm sorry, I'm sorry... That just made me laugh so hard I almost fell out of my chair. I'm a rotten, evil person but I just couldn't stop laughing.

Once I stopped laughing, I just loved the narrative you spun with each picture. The man and his dog was seriously AWWWW-inspiring.
 

Was loving this cloud formation on the way home from work!
This morning in Plettenberg Bay, overlooking the Keurbooms Estuary. The place of my childhood vacations :)
 
I think it's to keep the smell in check ;)

Also, my dirty imagination, but the heading for the picture with your girlfriend in it, Terrik...



I'm sorry, I'm sorry... That just made me laugh so hard I almost fell out of my chair. I'm a rotten, evil person but I just couldn't stop laughing.

Once I stopped laughing, I just loved the narrative you spun with each picture. The man and his dog was seriously AWWWW-inspiring.

That's hilarious :rofl:

Also, the spell of baijiu isn't bad exactly, but it is strong. There's no mistaking it.

Is Baijiu homemade? I keep thinking the bottle that man is pouring it out of looks suspiciously like something that should hold dishwashing liquid.
Uhm...I have had some homemade baijiu before in an even smaller place way up in the Northeast called "Baihe". It was aged over a year and had ginseng in it. But this particular bottle in the photo was bought. A lot of baijiu bottles are quite stylized. It's hard to see from the picture but the bottle is similar in shape to some traditional Chinese architecture. However, some bottles, like this supremely expensive and famous Maotai brand, could probably pass for a bottle of bleach.



Seriously Terrik everytime you post these kinds of picture collages I feel like I went on an amazing trip. Thank you yet again.
I'm glad you enjoy them :)
 
Suits. Lots and lots of suits. Unfortunately I've lost so much weight that most don't fit me anymore as seen below.
suits.jpg
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Some of my grandfather's art, hanging in the front hall of my parent's house:

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What you can't see are the little kitty teeth marks chewed into the paper. One of these days my mom is going to get around to putting that paper sculpture into a shadow box.

Also, kitty!

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North_Ranger

Staff member
Last Christmas, you guys cheered me up with a care package that included an Xbox 360 and Skyrim. I still haven't played it all through, mainly because I keep starting new characters ;)

The care package also included a £65 gift certificate to Amazon.co.uk.

This month, I spent it.


A nice collection of Pathfinder books:
- Faction Guide
- City of Strangers
- Cities of Golarion
- Dungeon Denizens Revisited
- Pathfinder Society Field Guide
- Land of the Linnorm Kings
- Lost Cities of Golarion

Thank you, guys and gals! You're the greatest!
 
It's so convenient to move the freshly washed chicken from the washing machine to the oven with merely a turn, and those delicates dry so well on the warm setting in the oven.
Whereas you have your dryer in the bathroom to make it easier to dry multiple children after bath night.
 
My wife had to bribe my daughter with candy to get her to put on her costume without fussing.



Somewhere in her ipod or camera is pictures of her and I in the 5 minutes I was able to scrape together out of my day to join them trick or treating...
 
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