The Portfolios

Everyone,

Listen, please! Cool Down, please!

2007 is not the golden pig year, is the year of the SOIL PIG!!

The golden pig year was in 1971, once in every 60-65 years of four kinds of every single symbolizing, they’re like golden, wood, water, soil. I borned in 1983, that year was the year of the wood pig, so I’m a wood pig.

okay, Soil pig is great too, I hope it means that everyone can get lot of lands and properties.

GOOD LUCK!

Georgetown is finally back where it belongs in the basketball world: on top.

The Hoyas have won eleven in a row, their longest winning streak in a dozen years, and after beating Pittsburgh the other day, they are are now number one in the Big East conference. Led by big man Roy Hibbert and the powerful Jeff Green, Georgetown is looking to make waves in this year’s NCAA tournament. But first they must finish off Syracuse and UConn in the final two games of the season.

If only I was back in New York, I would be trying to score tickets to the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden!

All week, we’ve been doing little besides eating, sleeping and reading. I finshed one book and started another. Xianyi has been in a blissful mood for days as she constantly feeds on her mother’s cooking. And this little computer and wireless internet are keeping me from getting too bored in between meals and naps.

One of this year’s blessings has been the weather: Chengdu is pleasantly warm and dry. The first year we visited Xianyi’s parents for Chun Jie (2004) was a cold, wet nightmare. It rained every day. The cold was biting, especially since they don’t have any heat except for an electric blanket. In fact, the following year, they bought a space heater just for me because it was obvious how miserably cold I was the first year. And I used it all the time, though it didn’t help much. But this year, it’s been great.

Despite the warmth, however, Xianyi’s mom still implores me to “Chuan yifu!” (put more clothes on) every chance she gets. And her life comically revolves around food. Her last words before going to bed every night are, “If you get hungry, boil some eggs.” One night, after she had retired and we were still watching TV, she called out from the bedroom, “Are you guys hungry? I can make you some rice.” Her food is delicious, though. And she certainly can’t be blamed for her food-centric ways; as a child, she was poor and food was a constant concern. Not an uncommon thread in China.

The other night we went out to see Dan and Tenzin, though we only caught up with Dan. He has been DJing at a local club, which, as it turns out, was one of Fang Bian Mian’s stops on the infamous Tour. It has been completely re-done since then, however. When we walked in, the first thing we saw was Dan at the controls:

Besides us and about 50 staff, the place was dead. Such is life on the Tour. The manager, Nick, introduced himself and showed us around his very large, very nice, and very empty nightclub. We had a drink, chatted a bit with Dan, and came home.

Spring Festival is upon us, and so the Portfolios have embarked on their annual journey back to Xianyi’s roots in Chengdu.

2007 is the Year of the Pig, and it is a special Pig Year, in that it bears the additional quality of being Golden. This makes it a twice-per-century event, and that means only one thing in China: people are lining up to get married and have babies. The pig is already considered a prosperous zodiac sign for a child (perhaps because healthy babies are fat? or maybe pigs are perceived to have good lives because they just wallow around content all day?), so the added Gold status just makes it even better.

Xianyi happens to be a pig, so this is her year. When I first learned about the Chinese zodiac, I assumed that this was an auspicious thing; in fact it is the opposite. When your year rolls around, you are supposed to be wary of evil spirits. How do you fend them off? By wearing red underwear, of course.

We arrived in Chengdu around dinner time yesterday. The city looks much the same as I last saw it a year ago - in fact, it looks much as we left it when we moved to Kunming in 2003. The only major distruption to the cityscape we noticed on the ride from the airport was the massive construction on Renmin Lu, where they are building Chengdu’s first subway line, to be completed… someday.

Mom and Dad had dinner prepared and we pretty much got right down to eating and drinking. Dad and I had fiery baijiu while the ladies sipped orange drink. It was a sumptuous feast of all Mom’s specialties: cold spicy chicken, twice-cooked pork (???), fish, various vegetables only available in China and hence lacking English names (to my knowledge), ??? (basically pork fat laden with sugar and sweet bean sauce, which sounds kind of nasty on paper but which tastes like sweet heaven), and my personal favorite, bamboo with fried beef.

We had planned on going out to the temple at midnight to pay our respects to Buddha, but we were too tired and went right to bed.

Today Xiao Niang (Xianyi’s aunt) and her daughter Dodo came over to hang out with us. They live in what might be called a suberb of Chengdu, QingBaiJiang (Green White River). Dodo is ten now and much taller than when I saw her a year ago. We brought some clothes for her, including my old Superman sweatshirt. We also took her out to the Metro hypermart and bought her a new jacket (as well as one for me). She also bragged to us about how she came in the top five of her class, despite her teachers telling her she was a bad student. Ha!

*This post made possible by a generous loan of his old computer and wireless internet card from my boss. So despite the in-laws having no heat or a/c, and a squatter toilet that doubles as a shower drain, I am still surfing the net. Yeah, baby!

This beautiful goddaughter of mine might be getting too close to the age when I can’t call her Baby Shea anymore. But not just yet.

Proud parents Saul and Lissy sent this update: “Shea loves to read and be read to - it is a tiring effort [hence the lack of recent updates]. She can’t wait to meet you guys!”

We can’t wait to meet her, either.

I’m watching the “O.C”on youtube rightnow, GOD! It is so SUPER BORING!

We really should safe our babies’ minds soon!

O.C, YOU SUCK!

Today is the second anniversary of our wedding!

We made plans to meet at Arch, a trendy cafe on the western side of Huaihai Lu. Xianyi made a reservation, but we arrived early and they asked us to wait. Then they seated us at a table for four, where two German guys were eating hamburgers! We already had our drinks and were wondering what to do. The place doesn’t have many tables, and all of them were full, and by the looks of it no one was leaving soon. I asked the head waitress about our reservation for two and she offered us two seats at the bar. I then asked for the manager, and politely but firmly informed him that we had made a reservation for two and they had not reserved a table for us - so we were leaving. I did not leave a dime for our half-finished drinks.

Now, standing outside in the rain with no plans, we thought about what to do. After a few non-starter ideas, we decided to go to Mesa, as we had never been before. It’s a bit fancy, but not over the top like, say, Jean Georges. And apologies to all our chef buddies, but it wouldn’t be fair to just pick ONE of you for our anniversary at the expense of the others!

In the end, we had a nice relaxing meal and watched the rain pour down outside. We had planned on playing some miniature golf later at a place I’ve heard about, but in the end we just decided to go home.

And as for anniversary presents? Well, Xianyi sent me a single rose at work, which raised a few eyebrows around my office. And I gave her the kindest gift of all - I shaved my mustache

For the love of God, I need to take a break from talking about visas. And since it’s long overdue, may I announce that 2007 is officially the Year of the Stache.

Back in December, when a bunch of us were out singing karaoke on a random Tuesday night, we came up with the idea to do something special for the new year. And that something wound up being growing mustaches.

Originally it was to be a contest with a monetary prize. But a lot of folks chickened out and so it became clear that there wasn’t enough mass to create a worthy pot. So instead, it’s just all about the pride. It began with me, Turley, Michael, and Coley. Since Coley dropped out we have added Dan and Imani to our ranks. And there are some great statements of facial flair coming out of this endeavor.

Check out the full Year of the Stache gallery.

It was my second time at La Bella Café, but it was boring like a hell. Everything is beautiful at La Bella, kind of cozy. I guess the whole design is just fine.

Many guests are foreigners. Most of them are young, stylish, a few of them are middle aged and middle class.

La Bella has a stage in the back. A guitarist played a few songs without singing, it was nice. But here comes the problem, why is it so quiet? Why does a little piece of cheese cake cost RMB35 (about $4.38) not even taste so good? And no one really talks in the entire café; you’d feel guilty if you talked or laughed. A couple (not sure) brought a baby girl with them to have brunch; they were shocked by such a silent environment, they left right after finishing their meals. I was wondering how good their meals were.

Here comes my question, how would you have fun to hang out at a silent café? You need to pretend to be calm, relax, smart, deep person on weekend at a café?! And pay ridiculous fee for something doesn’t taste good?! I don’t think so!

I deleted the name and address of La Bella on my fun list, too bad, their service is nice.  Goodbye, La Bella!

A new reader has left a very personal comment on an earlier post here, and it goes a long way towards illustrating how lucky Xianyi and I are to be together during this whole green card application nonsense. A woman named Rebecca has chosen our humble blog as the place to lash out against the American bureaucracy that keeps her apart from her husband. They are both victims of the new legislation that has been passed. Please go here to read her story. I have emailed her my support and hope that she replies.