No sakura for me =(

I had this lovely trip planned out for Easter break: 6 days in Japan with fellow ETAs Susan, Emily, and Amy, touring Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara. Even better, I was hoping to meet up with two Yale ’09 friends, Kunmi (studying in Tokyo) and Garrett (studying in Kyoto). Best of all, we would be going smack in the middle of cherry-blossom season, but we had managed to scrimp down to a budget of $1000 US including round-trip flight from Macau to Tokyo, hostels, transport within Japan, admission to various sights, food for the week, plus a little for souvenirs. In anticipation, I even changed my Firefox persona to a cherry-blossom theme!

However, it was all too good to be true…things began unraveling the morning before our flight was supposed to leave at 2:30 PM. I was actually at the UM office finishing up a few things before heading to the airport when I got this call from Amy:

Amy: Uh Jen, Viva Macau is going bankrupt or something.
Me: WHAT?!
Amy: Yeah, check it on Google.
Me: …

I quickly checked Google News, and while Viva Macau wasn’t technically going bankrupt, it might as well have been. The Macanese government had abruptly pulled its operating license as of March 26, citing that they needed to repay 200 million MOP in loans and hadn’t been keeping up on fuel payments. All flights were subsequently grounded, with no idea of when they would start again. Susan and I went to the airport anyway, on the off chance that our flight might still take off, but if not, to figure out what to do next.

At the Viva Macau counter, we were met by two officials from the tourism bureau, who took us to a sort of crisis headquarters in the China Hotel across the street. There, we realized that at least we were luckily to be leaving from Macau, rather than stuck in it. We registered our “case” with the tourism/consumer complaint bureau, hoping it would increase our chances of getting a refund since it didn’t seem like Viva had any sense of corporate responsibility. That night, we sadly canceled our reservations for the hostels and the overnight bus trips.

The next morning, Amy, Susan, and I headed for the Viva Macau office in the AIA Tower, just behind the Grand Emperor Hotel. We had heard from some local friends that Viva was giving out refunds there, but apparently, plenty of other people were waiting for the same – we got there before the opening time at 9 AM and there was a already a waiting area set up in the courtyard behind the tower.

Sign directing us to the courtyard

There, we waited for another half hour before this guy came out:

The Viva employee is the one in the striped sweatshirt

Unfortunately, he was there not to let us into the office, but to hand out numbered slips telling us to come back later. Apparently, there were still lots of people from the previous day that hadn’t been processed, so those were the ones who had first priority. We were annoyed (though not as clearly miffed as the people in the photo above) but took our tickets for an appointment at 1:30 PM. Clearly, this was also some of the biggest news to hit Macau in a while – there were at least 3 video cameras rolling to capture the 20 or so of us waiting in line.

When we came back at 1:30, we were smoothly escorted up to the office, where we filled out a few simple forms and received an apologetic letter stating how sorry Viva was for the inconvenience, but refunds would be processed in the next 2-3 weeks. That being as much as we could do, we went back home and started thinking about where else we could go on such short notice without spending too much money…

UM Iron Chef...sort of

Last week, a student named Bryce came to the office asking for two ETAs to serve as judges for the Dormitory Students’ Association (DSA) cooking competition. Susan and I ended up going, which worked out well considering Susan is the biggest food critic and I am the most experienced chef among the four of us heh. We were joined by two UM students, Ben and Ian, who could also have been considered “impartial” since they were from Mozambique and the teams were mostly cooking Chinese dishes from various regions =P

Putting up the banner for DSA "Dormitory Week"

Originally, the roster included an intimidating twelve teams (I really didn’t think I had the patience/stomach capacity to try twelve different things), but there were enough no-shows that the final roster was whittled down to eight or so. The judging criteria were taste, presentation, creativity, and nutrition, each out of a possible 25 points. As the students were preparing their entries, Susan and I walked around to chat a little…

Semi-ironically, the dorm was having fire safety training in the courtyard right next to us

Stir-frying on a hot plate hehe

Kneading dough o_O

Two teams hard at work

To be honest, the whole thing was rather disorganized. There didn’t seem to be any preset rules about what kind of food the students were supposed to cook, or any pre-arranged focus ingredient as there is in the real Iron Chef. We had everything from appetizers (e.g. chicken wings) to main entrees (e.g. noodles or spare ribs) to dessert (e.g. cake covered in whipped cream), so it was clearly a bumpy playing field. Some photos of the entries below:

Spare rib pieces with sweet 'n sour sauce plus pineapple chunks
(sauce way too sweet, plus overcooked broccoli = yuck)

This won my top ratings for creativity (counting effort) and nutrition: hand-made noodles (that's what the aforementioned dough was for) plus veggies and tomato/egg sauce

A crock pot-made broth with carrot and red dates

The cake smothered in whipped cream (it was supposed to be chocolate but it wasn't the least bit chocolaty...at least the strawberries added flavor)

It doesn't look like much, but this got top ranked for taste: spare rib stewed in an anise-flavored broth

At the end of the night, we handed in our score sheets – Bryce would tally them up and announce the winner at the end of the “UM Dormitory Week” on April 10, so we actually don’t know who won =P We made some suggestions for improving next year’s competition, e.g. informing all contestants that they have to prepare a certain type of dish (e.g. an appetizer) or feature a specific ingredient (e.g. eggs), as well as simplifying the scoring (just rank the best to worst for each category). Still, it was a pretty fun way to spend a Wednesday night, and now I have more ideas for things to cook (or avoid cooking!) on my own =D

Macau's newest house of cards

And no, I don't mean yet another new casino (although two have opened since I've been here) =P

In this case, I'm talking about a real house of cards...officially the largest one in the world!

The Guinness Record certificate

The creator of this huge thing is Bryan Berg, a "professional cardstacker" who has been doing this since he was 17 years old and has broken his own world record multiple times. This structure replicated parts of the the Venetians, Sands, and the Plaza Macao. It took about 45 days to finish and used over 200,000 cards o_O

Calendar keeping track of the days

Berg at work

Work in progress

An idea of what the final thing should look like

Ta-da!

Perhaps the most interesting part is that after 10 days on display, Berg has to come back and knock the whole thing down to prove he didn't use any tape, glue, etc. That's scheduled for March 20, so I may just mosey on down to the Ventian Saturday to watch the fun.

P.S. I know, I've failed at trip-blogging, but the photos from Shanghai/Suzhou/Hangzhou are finally all up on Facebook, so I'll get to the narrative eventually...

Haibo invades Macau

Earlier today, there was a bulletin from the UM Information and Public Relations Office proudly stating: The mascot of World Expo Shanghai Haibao has now landed on UM!

"Dear staff and students,

The World Expo 2010 Shanghai China will be held in May, 2010. To promote this exciting event, the mascot of World Expo 2010 Shanghai China, Haibao has come to Macau in advance and has landed on University of Macau!

The name Haibao means the "treasure of the sea". Created from the Chinese character "人", which means people, the mascot embodies the character of Chinese culture and echoes with the designing concept of the emblem of World Expo Shanghai.

When you pass Block 3 (location shown in diagram below), you may notice Haibao inviting you to the World Expo Shanghai with his with his welcoming arms and confident smile."

Map pinpointing Haibao's location on campus

Hello there!

However, it should be noted that UM is not the only place where Haibao has "landed" in Macau. He's literally in every possible public space: the Macau Tower (where there are multiple, actually), the ferry terminal, Tap Seac Square, Plaza of the Golden Lotus, Sintra Square, etc. I haven't seen one yet at the airport or in Senado, but that doesn't mean they won't be coming in the future...after all, there are still 41 days until the Expo opens!

He really does look like a dumber version of Gumby...

Macau Tower lobby (there are two more in the plaza outside)

In case you hadn't noticed, Susan doesn't like Haibao =P

In Sintra Square (from across the street)

At the Border Gate to Zhuhai