Mannequins

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Birmingham, England

I've actually taken quite a few photos of mannequins on this trip, starting with my very first stop in Peru. Some street near the Barrio Chino in Lima specialized in suits and had a bunch of scary looking mannequins. Mannequins are strange; large, idealized figures meant to represent humans in an odd, overgrown barbie-like fashion.

To Ethiopia!

It's 2 AM and I have a flight out of London to Rome in 5 hours. I arrive in Rome at 10 AM and then have about 12 hours to roam around Rome, then I will take a midnight flight to Addis Ababa, arriving in Ethiopia around 8 AM local time. So 2 days without any real sleep.

Ciao, Europe!

Liverpool England

Here are some photos of the Liverpool Chinatown celebration



This last one is the president of the Chinese freemason society having a ceremonial lunch with the mayor of Liverpool.

Happy Chinese New Year

I'm writing from Liverpool, the only, and incidentally, the oldest, Chinatown in Europe to be celebrating Chinese New Year today. Today is actually Chinese New Year Eve, and almost all cities have their official celebrations on the first Sunday following Chinese New Year.

I rather like Liverpool. Whereas Birmingham was simply postindustrial, Liverpool is charmingly postindustrial. Apparently the Chinese arch is the largest ceremonial arch outside of China. You get the feeling that Chinatowns are competing for the biggest, the oldest, the goldest, the most expensive. Wing Yip -- the richest Chinese person in the UK, who made his fortune in groceries -- had a pagoda built in Fujian and shipped piece by piece to Birmingham, where it was then gifted to the city, and is currently at a rotary in the city (have pictures, but not here)

Liverpool Chinese gate

This is my mom's ancestral hometown (although my mother grew up in Guangzhou), "Hai yan," 海演, in Mandarin.

Lakes district, England

I know I haven't posted project-related photos recently, mostly because the 12 megapixel photos tend to clog my computer's memory. As a result, you get mostly "fun" photos, when I'm not taking out my fancy schmancy camera, but my little camera. These are from England's Lake district, a beautiful area about two hours north of Birmingham in northwestern England that I visited over the weekend. Mom also complained that I wasn't posting enough photos. So here.
Cold and windy in the Lakes district

You didn't tell me about second dinner!

I'm now in Birmingham, the "armpit of England," the second most populous city in England and definitely one of the most ethnically diverse. The city looks like how I might imagine a stereotypical English city -- rather grimy, post-industrial, gray, old pubs on every other corner. I came to England for about six days when I was in seventh grade, and all I can really remember is some famous tower in London and my pilgrimage to Legoland, also known as Heaven.

I'm too tired to post anything substantial (again), but, I just had two dinners, with a very nice family friend of a family friend who I address as "Uncle" and "Auntie." I may or may not have been cajoled into singing "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. I chose "I want you back" by the Jackson freely, however.