compare and contrast - zoos

this semester we are teaching our sophomore english majors how to write comparison and contrast essays. i thought i'd do a little ditty on american zoos versus zoos in asia. so here's my scoop.

1. i'd like to start with the giraffe exhibits. this summer we went to the zoo in nc, which was super cool and very nice - that being said, they just opened an special area to view the giraffes. we got there and the giraffes were a mile away and we could barely see them. here's a picture of mavis and sam, the giraffes were supposed to be behind them, but you can't really see them.




the zoo keeper made us whisper and told us that they may get within 100 feet of us so we could see them. blah, blah, blah. here's the real deal lady. go to thailand where you can pretty much touch those guys and feed them bananas and beans for less than a dollar. and we didn't have to whisper.


point goes to the thailand zoo.

2. hippo exhibit. the zoo in nc had some hippos really far away, i didn't even take picture because they were too far. now let's look at the hippos in thailand. here you see the exhibit featured 3 gi-normous hippos who came right up to the side of the enclosure and we could feed them and touch them. we paid 50 cents to throw sweet potatoes and carrots into their mouths and grab hold of their teeth. i know, awesome!!!!


you can see how jude's little hand can reach over the railing and grab those little guys.

point goes to the thailand zoo.

in conclusion, the zoos in thailand are cheaper, but dirtier, and you may leave feeling a little bit sorry for the animals. in the end you get over it, cuz the awesomeness factor of touching animals is way better. why do americans care so much about safety anyways? asia doesn't and look at the cool things you can do. sure that hippo could rip my arm off or that giraffe could bite my hand, ehhh, but who cares? i got to touch a hippo!

VPNs are swell

Ni hao internet world, i'm back online. there is probably no one that reads this wonderful blog anymore, but that's okay, i'll try to resume updating. i recently bought a VPN so that i could access my blog, facebook, youtube, and other sites. so now i can surf freely (take that china firewall).

in other news:
1. i'm hanging in siping with sam while rachel is in america for a wedding.
2. while in siping with sam, sam stuck a sunflower seed up her nose and i had to take her to the hospital to get it out. it was the chinese new year's eve, so there were no taxis and the school official had to get a fancy school car to take us. i was slightly embarrassed because those two guys (the official and school car driver) had to be taken away from their families on one night where all you do is spend time with your families. so to wayne and the car driver: "sorry again - 不好意思 ".
3. on chinese new year's eve there were more fireworks all day than i've ever heard in my whole life. 4th of july is so lame now. i've never been in a war, but i can now imagine what constant gun fire sounds like.
4. because of the chinese new year, no restaurants and stores have been open, so i've been eating pb&j and ramen noodles for a week. sure wish they had mac and cheese here.
5. olympics being broadcasted in chinese on chinese tv aren't really that exciting. thank you sling box.

that's all for now.

here's a shot of sam from the pool in thailand.