Goat Cheese and Nachos, yum!

Hey, how many places in the world can you spend your morning with Norwegians, English and Austrians, and your night with New Zealanders, Australians, and Americans? Well…. yes, that’s right, it’s actually the Expo, good guess. Yesterday was my day off (!! so few and so precious) and so I thought, of anything I could possibly do in this huge city what should it be…hmmm...why the North Korean Film Festival of course! So that’s exactly what Tine, Lars and I did (Another good guess! Lars would be the Norwegian). Honestly, I’m not going to say that the chance of free goat cheese (free goat cheese! Can you imagine??) and beer didn’t play a large factor in my attendance, but North Korea has been weighing heavily on my mind lately, so this was the perfect chance to give in and indulge myself in everything North Korean. That’s right, I used North Korea and indulge in the same sentence. North Korea is just so utterly fascinating. I’m a little obsessed, not gonna lie. You know that North Korea has a pavilion here at the Expo? It’s named “The Paradise for People.” I’m supposing this particular paradise consists of stolen liberties, concentration camps, propaganda, and famine, but to each his own. Anyways, back to the film festival, if you could just take a wild guess (just a wild guess) at the quality of North Korean films, you know are they exciting, adventurous, humorous, romantic, what would it be? You’re exactly right: none of these things. Basically they were proto-type propaganda: fighting the evil Americans, sacrificing your life for your country, encouraging your countrymen to daily sacrifice for your country. Women dressed in severe uniforms were running around shouldering stretchers one handed, throwing their bodies over their comrades, and yet still managing to pour the perfect cup of tea and saying no to cigarettes at the end of the day. Sexy. But lord, I mean, I already groan when one of my friends breaks out a violent, war movie for Friday night fun, but can you imagine if that was all you had available? Welcome to North Korean Friday nights.
In other news, the world cup is what it’s all about this summer. I mean, you get 204 countries all together in one city, and you’re gonna see a world cup fervor like no other. Signs everywhere advertise beer deals, times of the games, free fries! Not to mention this is seriously messing up my sleep cycle since all the games seem to be at 4 am Shanghai time. So last night was world cup time, New Zealand against Italy, whooo. What a game. And I watched it with a New Zealander, and a half Italian (if that even counts), so, yeah….things got a little tense. But it all ended well, because despite a rather humiliating tie for the Italians with a New Zealand team, the other American present knew just the cure, and ran out and got nachos. And who can remember a soccer game when facing cheesy, beef and bean laden nachos with a side of Guacamole and Sour cream, a little bit of salsa on the side with- I’m sorry, what were we talking about again?

A few shout outs:
Carson, I can’t facebook you back because China doesn’t let me. Sooo email me at hmj@clemson.edu and we’ll get skype set up.
Michael, I’m saving the North Korean pavilion for when you come to visit. Exciting, huh?
Dad, Happy Fathers Day, I love you so much.
All friends, Miss you all more than you know…..