...and then there was China.

TIBET pics: Lhasa!

2010-09-29T17:28:00.010-05:00

Lhasa, Tibet is the capital and one of the most holy cities of the Tibetan Plateau. Today, it's streets are an odd mix of Han Chinese capitalism and Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims making the rounds of their pilgrim circuit, called a kora. We spent about 4 days here, seeing the sites and getting used to the elevation. Then we moved on in a slow journey to the Tibetan-Nepalese border. Here are some of my favorite photos from the city. If you'd like to see the whole album of Lhasa photos, click here. It will be a few days before I can post the rest of the journey, so I hope you enjoy these for now!

The best way to get into Tibet from China is by the new train. This train was finished around 2006ish (I can't remember) and is considered an engineering masterpiece. It runs from Beijing to Lhasa and is the highest rail way in the world. We took it for 24 hours from Xining to Lhasa.

The train helps give you even more time to adjust to the high altitude. Many who fly into Lhasa suffer from altitude sickness immediately. We felt a little fuzzy, but were really ok in Lhasa. Our altitude problems came later in the journey, at Namtso Lake and Mount Everest (which you'll see pics of!) Anyway, the train cars are equipped with oxygen that's pumped into the cabin, plus if you're feeling the height too much, you can put your face in front of an outlet and turn it on to get a nice shot of O. I woke up w/a headache in the middle of the night and took this pic of how high we were: 4,920 meters or 16,141 ft!

A shot from the train. We passed amazing scenery of green hills and blue lakes, sheep and yak grazing nearby, shepherds and nomads staring at the train as we passed. It was lovely. You're so high up that it really looks and feels like you can just reach up and touch the sky.

The family sharing a cabin w/me on the train. It's WONDERFUL on long train rides to have nice, polite travel companions. I was very blessed. They were sweet.

The Potala Palace, the winter residence of the Dalai Lamas, including the current one before he had to flee the country. It's one of the architectural wonders of the world and is so beautiful. My tour mates and I all gasped in joy when it came into view as we drove into the city.

Little boy on the pilgrim circuit, called the Barkhor Kora, in Lhasa.

Tibetan Buddhist pilgrim completing a kora near Jokhang Temple, the most holy temple in Tibet. This mast is covered with prayer flags. She would have been chanting "Om Mani Padme Hum" as she walked.

a monk inside the courtyard of the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa Tibet.

The amazing skies from the rooftop of the Jokhang Temple! One of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen in my life. It made me want to run and jump and try to fly.

View of the Potala Palace from the rooftop of the Jokhang Temple (and me posing...)

a stall along the Barkhor. This pilgrim kora is lined w/similar stalls, selling prayer beads/flags, and all sorts of other Buddhist trinkets. It's really fun to do some shopping in!

the deep blue sky above

We asked our tour guide to take us to a local shop for souvenirs, and it was located beneath this artists' workshop. Here they are making Thanka paintings, a style of art special to Tibetan Buddhism. It was really neat to wander about and see them working.

So...it turns out that being so close to the sky also means you're closer to the sun! Even though I put on sunblock that morning, I forgot to reapply and was toasted by the end of my first day. At least I wasn't the only one, all of us in my tour group were red for several days!

climbing up to the Potala Palace

a young monk placing a money offering on a tree outside the Potala Palace.

Pilgrims outside of the Potala Palace

Yak Burger!!! We ate yak in many forms, mostly tried to find the traditional Tibetan food, but sometimes you can't help but fall for the silly tourist offerings...like a yak burger. Ignore my ridiculous burn lines.

This was at Sera Monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa. Each afternoon, the monks studying there gather for debate. We were concerned that it was part tourist spectacle, but from what we've heard afterwards, it seemed to be the real thing. It was really interesting to watch them debate doctrine! They would slap their hands together when they made a point in a special way, and flick their prayer beads at each other when they disagreed!

a view of the Potala Palace rising above Lhasa from rooftop of Sera Monastery.

So we wanted to do a little exploring while we were there...this is me sneaking into a temple...respectfully.

Sometimes it amazes me how similar we all are. These three guys were soooo funny; they all seemed to be friends, were just hanging out, shooting the bull, laughing at each other and making jokes w/passersby. Their laugh was one of those cute old men "hee heees" kind of laughs. They reminded me of the men you'd see hanging out in a front lawn in New Orleans.

This is one of my favorite pics. This is inside of Norbulingka, the summer residence of the Dalai Lamas. Unlike the Potala Palace, several Dalai Lamas built their own residences (instead of it just being one big building), and so you can go inside the residence of the current Dalai Lama. It was finished being built only a few years before he was forced into exile, but it feels like such an honor to walk through the halls where he once walked as a young man, to see his study room, and to think about the great changes that came in such a short time.

Here is a pilgrim in the gardens of the complex.

These are two of my lovely travelmates; Sara and Phil. Sara is half British, half Italian and Phil is French--but they are both living in the UK. They were a wonderful couple and have become some of my favorite people. Here they are showing off our lunch menu, which had full roast lamb and full roast pig as options.

On the last night in Lhasa, Phil, Joe and I braved the pouring rain to go get one last look of the Potala Palace. The palace is shown on the back of all Chinese 50 yuan bills, so I took a pic of that. It was a fun night.

Phil, me and Joe (another travel companion) in the rain. Their significant others stayed dry back at the hotel...more pics of my travel mates will come later.

Last days of travel

2010-09-29T17:20:00.003-05:00

I'm spending my last night in Germany...trying to stay up late so I can sleep through the flight. Tomorrow I land in NYC to spend some time w/my dear friends Adrienne and Marcus, then finally home to Tennessee this weekend!

So far, I traveled to:
Xinjiang, China (Urumqi, Turpan, Kashgar)
Tibet, China (Lhasa, Namtso Lake, Shigatse, Gyanste, Shegar, Mount Everest Base Camp, Old Tingri, Zhangmu, etc)
Kathmandu, Nepal
Frankfurt, Germany (also Mainz, Germany on a day trip)
Dublin, Ireland
London, England

I've taken 10 flights so far, with 3 more to go (I have a layover on the flight from NYC to TN). It's been a lot of up and down time in the air.

I can't believe that this epic journey has gone so well, and I still can't believe that it actually happened! I've been on the road for almost 2 months and am happy to be on my way back home.

final pics post of Xinjiang

2010-09-24T17:25:00.005-05:00

Ok, I've indulged quite a bit on the sharing of Xinjiang pics....but after months of not being able to post pics from China, it's all I can do! Coming soon will be a post of my trip with my sister to DUBLIN and LONDON, and gradually pics of Tibet, Kathmandu, Germany, and the Ireland/England trip.

These are all lame pics of me among these amazing places. For this last post on Xinjiang, my final thought: The amazing thing about Xinjiang was that it's so far off the current backpacking beaten path and the culture is so rich and vibrant. Staying with a local family who I dearly love really allowed me to get submerged, however briefly, in the culture. At a time when discussions of Islamic/Christian relations were raging in the States, I got to see the celebration of Ramadan begin in a mainly Islamic culture with a lovely Muslim family. My friends were so open with me about their faith and we got to talk for hours about what we share and how we differ. I love them so much for this, and for their great hospitality to me. I love the deep flavors of Uighur food, the fierce spirit of the Uighur people as they try to maintain their culture in the midst of difficult issues threatening both their language and their heritage, the stunning beauty of Islamic art and architecture, the still visible links to their past on the Silk Road, and the amazing warmth that they extended to visitors. I love the sound of the wind in the desert and the early morning calls to prayer. I love the arid dry heat and the ice-capped mountains on the horizon. I love their dances and music.

Although soon I will move on to gushing about Tibet, I must say that despite being in some of the world's most beautiful locations and loving every moment in the high altitude of the Tibetan Plateau--Xinjiang holds the deepest place in my heart due to the connections that I was granted with it through my friends. It was really a wonderful part of my journey.

Me in the night market in Urumqi

Me and Yultuz goofing off in a restaurant

Me (tiny at the bottom) in the night bazaar in Urumqi

Me with Yultuz and Kunduz in the night bazaar in Urumqi

Being cranky that a french supermarket was set up in the oh-so-cultural night bazaar in Urumqi. Blah to globalization.

In the Jiaohe ancient ruins

at Flaming Mountain

in the Taklamakan Desert (oh yes, this pose will reappear throughout the journey...might as well have some consistency to the "look where I was" silly posing pics)

sitting for hours watching the sun slowly rise in the Taklamakan Desert after a night of camping.

resting in the Taklamakan Desert

Pics: Xinjiang, China FOOD

2010-09-23T05:53:00.003-05:00

Xinjiang has some of the most flavorful food in China. Everything that I ate was absolutely delicious...even if it was a little surprising when it arrived! Here are some of the best pics!

Uighur bread is called Nan and is AMAZING! Probably ties for my favorite bread internationally (tied with Indian Naan). The crust is hard...and the middle becomes thin and cracker like, while the outer ring is soft inside and chewy. Many are sprinkled with sesame seeds or dried onions on top. Sometimes they spread a spicy sauce on top...but I like mine plain.

In the night market in Urumqi....lamb for sale...allll for sale! Makes you appreciate our nice plastic wrapped trays of meat at the supermarket!

Nuts and dried fruits are big for snacks...sooo yummy.

Where they cook their lamb kabobs...these are attached to all the Uighur restaurants and often really decorative.

A Uighur specialty...lamb kabobs. These are sold by Uighurs as street food all over China, but were especially delicious in Xinjiang.

This is lamb intestine stuffed with rice and peppers (surprisingly quite good--tasted like jambalaya), and lamb lung (the white chunks).

Breakfast at the Sidik's home. They were so nice to me and breakfast was so lovely every morning.

Uighur tea is served with cinnamon and in really pretty porcelain bowls.

Uighur bagels! You can't find bagels anywhere in China and then I came to Xinjiang and they were EVERYWHERE! They aren't quite like bagels...not as chewy..but they're still delicious in their own way!

In the night market in Kashgar, these lamb bones are considered to be incredibly curative for any medical problems you have...especially if you have back problems, you're supposed to get some of these.

This was funny to me...it's their Red Bull drink...but as Red Camel!

Pics: Xinjiang, China LANDSCAPES

2010-09-23T05:34:00.004-05:00

Some of the scenery in Xinjiang! Again, if you want to see all my pics from Xinjiang, click here.

On the road from Urumqi to Turpan...icy capped mountains

At Flaming Mountain in the Turpan Basin: the left side of the mountain and surrounding desert

The middle view of the Flaming Mountain (my camera doesn't exactly have a wide angle)

The right side of Flaming Mountain

The view from the top of Flaming Mountain

In the Taklamakan Desert!! I spent the night out here!

I took a billion pictures of sand...and more sand...and then my footprints in the sand! But the desert just holds so much beauty and is a landscape that I've never seen before, so it was special to me. The amazing thing about the desert is the sound. The wind blew nonstop and made this rushing sound in your ears...there was no silence except for a few moments when the wind died down for a second or two. When that happens, you feel like you're deaf, because it's so quiet.

Coming up next are pics of food and me amongst all of these wonders.

Xinjiang, China: The PLACES

2010-09-21T15:03:00.005-05:00

Below are some of the places that I went on my journey through Xinjiang. I've separated the photos into those that are places, and those that are strictly landscape. The landscape pics will come tomorrow. Again, if you want to check out my whole album, click here.

IN URUMQI

This is the bazaar in Urumqi, where they have a bunch of shops and now is pretty touristy. But I thought it was beautiful at night.

This is my cute little bed pallet at the Sidik's house in Urumqi. It was so comfortable and so wonderful of them to open their home to me!

The night market in Urumqi--just wait for the "food photos" post to see what they sold there!

THE TURPAN BASIN

I took a day trip to the Turpan area, a basin that is supposedly the 2nd lowest in the world. It has also recorded China's highest temperature. I toured the grape producing areas, a Uighur cultural museum, the ancient Jiaohe ruins, and a beautiful Mosque. It was really lovely.

scarves for sale in Turpan

grapes grown alllll over the place...really yummy to munch as you walk along beneath them!

The ancient city of Jiaohe.

A mosque in the Turpan region...the Uighur people are predominantly Muslim.

Gorgeous minaret done with Islamic patterns. I think Islamic art is my favorite in the world.

In the desert of the Turpan basin...near Flaming Mountain

This is Flaming Mountain. There is an ancient story of a monster who was coming to eat children, so a poet was given a brush to paint a wall of fire as a barrier for the monster. The flame he created became Flaming Mountain...

We had a little extra time on the tour, so I got to climb all the way to the top of Flaming Mountain...it was incredibly beautiful at sunset.

the view from the top of Flaming Mountain

KASHGAR

I didn't take many pictures of actual places in Kashgar because my camera ran out of batteries while I was wondering around the old city. The best pics from there are in the post below of people from the market town outside of Kashgar. But this is a shot of icy mountains from the plane I took from Urumqi to Kashgar!

TAKLAMAKAN DESERT

Most of my pics from here are landscape pics, so wait one more post and you'll see them. But I figured a tent counted as a place! To reach the desert, we rode 4-5 hours away from Kashgar. I joined a tiny tour of 3 Spanish girls around my age and our guide. We wandered around the desert barefoot and watched the sun set, slept well with the desert wind blowing nonstop and then watched the sun rise over the desert in the morning. It was a truly amazing experience...but I'll write more about it when I post the next set of pics!

That's all for now...the next posts will be landscapes, food and me in the midst of it all! Then comes pics of Tibet!!!

PICTURE POST!!! Xinjiang, China: The PEOPLE

2010-09-20T07:38:00.009-05:00

Ok, I'm trying to sort through the billions of photos I have to show you my amazing trip through Xinjiang, China. I'll try to keep these posts from being waaayyy to long by showing you just the cream of the crop! If you'd like to see my whole facebook album, you can click here -- you don't even have to be on facebook to see it, it's open to the whole public, so feel free to check it out!

I'll divide my pics for you according to the following: The people, the places, the landscapes, the food, and me in the midst of it all.

What you need to know first:

During my trip, I was able to visit: Urumqi, the most landlocked city in the world. It is the city farthest from an ocean or sea and is the capital of Xinjiang; Turpan, located in the world's 2nd lowest basin and known for its ancient ruins and grapes; and Kashgar, an oasis city once a major stop along the ancient Silk Road (a trade route that stretched from modern day Turkey to Xi'an, China).

Xinjiang is the home to the Uighur people (pronounced "wee-gur"), an ethnic group quite different from the Han Chinese. Going there feels like you are traveling to a different country. They speak a language derived from the Turkish family that is written in an arabic alphabet. They are predominantly Muslim and are known as excellent businessmen, merchants and traders...probably due to their geographic home being between major nations. I found that everyone I met was extremely kind, and more warm and friendly than I had met in most of my other Chinese travels. I was so grateful to be there.

The PEOPLE

At a traditional Uighur restaurant in Urumqi. The restaurants all have a space for Muqam, traditional Uighur music, to be played during the meal. It is also accompanied by dancing.

A Uigher man in Urumqi showcasing a traditional dance: the thing I found amazing here was that this is just a normal Uighur restaurant...it's not a tourist destination. So this dancing is not put on for show...it's just the ACTUAL current culture!

In a city park in Urumqi, Uighur Muqam players

Market day in a small village outside of Kashgar

This boy is selling large blocks of ice at the market...the people used them to place under the slabs of meat they bought for their rides home...most of them came into the village on donkey carts.

Dinner party in Urumqi

Yultuz and Kunduz's mom, Mrs Sidik (standing in the center, red dress), graciously invited me to join a dinner that she hosted for her oldest friends. These women have all been friends for over 30 years and get together to catch up several times a year.

the kids table: These "kids" are like extended family to each other and all dutifully come along to the dinners their moms host. I think it's fun to guess which kid goes with which mom!

After dinner, the tables were cleared and they took turns showcasing traditional Uighur dances. It turns out, they are almost all professionally trained dancers. This woman is a cousin of the Sidiks and has traveled around the world dancing, has been on TV, and is famous for her dancing. Needless to say, it was an incredible gift to get to watch all of them perform.

Me with Yultuz (standing) and Kunduz (next to me) and one of their good friends. I met Yultuz and Kunduz during my first year through a mutual friend, and they have been extremely dear friends to me during the past 3 years. They've shared so much with me about their culture and faith, and now their home with me. I adore them so much and can't wait for them to move to the States (they are trying to apply to study abroad) so I can see them again!

Sweet Germany

2010-09-11T17:03:00.003-05:00

I am now resting sweetly in Frankfurt, Germany after an incredible trip through Tibet and Nepal. Tibet was amazing; I have delayed in updating my blog because there are simply no words for the astounding beauty and once-in-a-lifetime fun that I had. I saw some of the world's most beautiful landscapes, the kind that make the photos for computer screen desktop backgrounds; got to observe a local culture so delicate that within a few generations it might be extinct; really connected with my international group of travelmates; felt swept away by a perfect sunset at Mount Everest; felt squished and feverish by the extreme lack of oxygen (but was spared from any REAL altitude sickness thank heavens); braved the worst toilet situations that one could imagine; ate countless quantities of yak products; walked the koras of amazing monasteries and temples; grew in knowledge and respect for Tibetan Buddhism; spent hours people watching in the hippie enclaves of Kathmandu; surrendered my water bottle to a gang of monkeys at the Monkey Temple; and in all had a wonderful trip.

Since arriving in Germany, I've given in to the exhaustion of the previous month--never has a bed felt so sweet and a shower seemed so clean as my spot at my sister's! It's been great catching up with my sister and brother-in-law and just having a chance to slow down and relax. They've treated me to great food and some lovely afternoons in the city, plus while they're at work I've had time to catch up on some tv shows and computer time!

But, the road calls to us again, and tomorrow Laura and I will leave on the cheap flights Laura found taking us for a few days to both DUBLIN, IRELAND and LONDON, ENGLAND!!!! I cannot express (once again) how excited I am to check out these two cities. The tickets were only 20 euros TOTAL... so we can splurge on some shopping and great food! Plus, it will be a joy to travel again with my big sis!

The next post will be a photo post, so stay tuned!! And if you're interested, I added a few pics here and there to old posts from the past semester...it's nice to be able to use pics now that my words have totally failed me!

On The Top of the World!

2010-08-18T08:41:00.000-05:00

I don't have much time but had to update that I am currently sitting in Lhasa, Tibet!!! And it is amazing!!!

The trip so far has been wonderful: stayed with my friends and experienced local culture to the max in the world's most landlocked city of Urumqi, roamed around ancient desert ruins in the old city of Jiaohe, ate grapes from the vine in the 2nd lowest city in the world of Turpan, climbed around clay colored desert mountains in the Turpan basin, watched the sun set and rise over the sandy dunes where I CAMPED with three great Spanish girls in the Taklamakan Desert...surrounded on all sides by nothing but sand and sand and sand and heard nothing but the sound of the wind sweeping across the dunes, shopped in the old market in the oasis city of Kashgar on the Silk Road...

Then took the 24 hour train up up up into the Tibetan Plateau and watched shepherds herd sheep and yaks along the bright green grasslands edged with magnificent ice capped mountains and turquoise blue lakes. Now in Lhasa, the world's highest city..already ate some yak meat and it truly is the rooftop of the world...the sky seems so close that I could reach up and gather it in my hand...it looks like the mountains literally support the sky and i've never seen clouds so stunning.

The altitude is messing with us only a little so far...we feel a little blurry...but other than that it's ok. My tour companions are kindred spirits, we have a French guy, and Italian/British woman, a Japanese woman, a Chinese Canadian, and me. Quite an international group. Traveling alone has emboldened me and I've made some really fun friends along the road...the night before the train I was out until 1:30 with the Tibetan owner of the company we used for our tour agency and his friends. I'm thrilled and having the time of my life!

I'll post pictures and describe the places and people when I have time...but for now just had to say that I am actually HERE...it's real, it happened, and I still can barely believe it! Love to you all!

...and then there was...?

2010-08-05T12:14:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is my last day in Wuhan. I was delayed on my grand exit by a prolonged visa renewal process, but I've moved out of my lovely apartment on the 20th floor and am slumming with my great friend Bonnie (in her lovely apartment on the 15th floor) for a few days until I leave. Then I am embarking on a 2 month excursion covering: Xinjiang, a province in northwest China; Tibet, a province is western China (with the trip including a stop at MOUNT EVEREST BASE CAMP!!!); Nepal; Germany; and anywhere in/near Europe with cheap flights.

I am most looking forward to spending time with the people who will join me along the way. Xinjiang is the home to two of my closest friends in China, Yultuz and Kunduz, and I can't wait to discover their hometown with them. Then, in Germany, I will be living with my sister and her husband. I haven't seen them since before they were married and desperately miss my big sister. I can't wait to reconnect and travel together!

I'll try to update when I can, otherwise, I'll post excerpts from my travel journal COMPLETE with pictures when I return to the States in October. Also, if you feel like checking back then, I'll be able to update all my previous posts with their appropriate photos as well!

And after that? Who knows! I'll update once I know for sure what I'm doing, but after many twisting paths, it looks like I MIGHT be moving to India to work for about 7 months before returning to the States for grad school. Nothing is set yet, and my plans seem to have changed a million times at this point, but I'll be sure to update when I know more. See you again from the open road!!

And I'm always glad I came

2010-07-22T09:18:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it, but I have only a week and a half left in Wuhan. It feels totally unreal. This city became my Chinese home. I look back to three years ago and I still marvel at how right it felt to be here, how sure I was from the beginning that this was where I belonged. I am equally sure now that this chapter has come to its end, but it doesn't change the surreal feeling that I get when I think of saying goodbye. The likelihood is that I will never come back to this city. I've moved plenty of times before, but always with a feeling that I'd probably see some of the people in my life again, or come back to visit, and that it wasn't a forever goodbye. But with Wuhan, I feel like melodramatically quoting Shakespeare as I walk around these days, "Eyes look your last, arms take your last embrace..."

Because the truth is, as with any place, you can't go back once you leave. This city has torn itself down and rebuilt itself already in so many places during the last three years; it's a totally different Wuhan than it was when I first came. It will go on transforming itself once I leave. So even if I do make it back to China and stop through, it will be another Wuhan. And that's life anywhere and everywhere, so I'm saying my goodbyes to this crazy hodgepodge place that has become so dear to me.

So on a positive note, I've been thinking a lot of the ways I've changed, or grown, during the past three years. Here are some of the main ones:

-I've become more sure of God's providence:

I could never have made it here and thrived here if He hadn't given me, from the moment I was born, the tools to do this. And every step of the way, He has been there...even when I ignored it, ready to guide me through this life over here step by step. He's taken me through the thrilling steps when I was learning so much and doing so much and through the more exhausting steps when I was tired of being here and felt ineffective. He's been there during the steps when I was selfish and just wanted to do my own thing without His interference just as much as the steps when I was so on fire and excited about being totally His. I've learned a certain balance in my relationship with Him where I don't beg for the high highs and don't sink into the low lows as quickly. He's held me when I felt sad and lonely from heartbreak and he's held me when I felt invincible and strong. I knew that He would when I came over here, but now I trust that He's going to take care of my next steps more than ever. I used to worry so much about being used by Him, afraid that I'd never get to serve Him in any big way...and now I only have thankfulness that He let me come over here and that He's going to keep using me where ever He leads me.

-I've become more sure of who I am:

I didn't come to China to find myself or anything like that, but what has happened is that living here has given me the opportunity to BE more of who I really am. I've gained confidence in myself and I've lived as the flawed, free-spirited person who I always have been. I used to hear stories of people who did crazy things like backpacking for months or climbing up ancient temples or jumping off of cliffs into water and it would light up a part of my soul, but I wasn't sure if I really had it in me to do it. Now I have proven to myself that I do. I left the security of America and came out here and have made a home, had adventures, made friends who have become family, and lived vibrantly. I've learned to speak about what is most important to me, to be more honest about who I am, to trust my instincts and to allow myself a flexible future that is not hemmed in by a traditional path. It's not the path that everyone is called to, but I am. And I trust that now.

-I got a second chance at youth and a greater comfort with imperfections (my own and others):

China gave me a chance to experience both youthful zeal and youthful folly. When I was in high school and college there was a lot of instability in my life, so my reaction was an overly firm conviction in the need to be perfect, successful and stable. I worked hard. From the time I was 16 until I was 22, I was employed, often by several jobs at once. There might have been a few weeks when I wasn't actually working and was in between a hometown job and a college job, but not a day went by from 16 to 22 when I wasn't on the payroll somewhere. This was a HUGE blessing during that time, and I still had a LOT of fun in both high school and college. But I had very black and white judgments on what the right kinds and wrong kinds of life were, and I wasn't the least bit forgiving of those who fell short of my version of the right kind of life. I was arrogant and busy for a large portion of my youth. And I didn't make mistakes.

Then when I got a job where I had to act like a 40 year old on a daily basis, I realized that I was missing out on something that was important to me. So when I lost that job and had to decide my next step, I knew that I wanted to do something that lit me up on the inside. And China was it.

Teaching in China has given me a chance to be lively and silly on a daily basis. I have had fun with my students (for the most part). I've laughed. And the job is honestly a part-time gig. I've never worked less in my life, even during this past year when I worked for a more "professional" company with more hours. And in all that free time, I've been YOUNG! I've gotten to live as a 20-something...with spending money. And it's been so fun. I've danced, I've had great friendships, I've laughed like crazy, I've traveled, I've dated, I've made all sorts of good and bad decisions, I've tried new things, I've been lazy and hard working, I've failed at times, I've thrived at times...etc. Overall, I feel that during the past three years I've had a chance to be my own age, and I'm so grateful for that.

-I appreciate international nuance more than ever

The world is a really cool, fascinating place, but it's also a mess. My worldview has grown, thank heavens, and I can't even come close to quantifying all the things that I've learned. I'm NO expert on China, but I understand it in a way that I would have never imagined. I know more about what questions to ask about so many different topics and I have a greater understanding of the way that my American background affects my view of things. It's been a field education in politics, sociology, anthropology and history and I've loved almost every bit of it.

-I am more comfortable with not knowing my future

I mentioned this earlier, but I think it deserves its own bullet. I have no clue where I will be five years from now, much less 20, and I like that. And I'm more thankful than ever for the people in my life who accept that about me.

-I'm more thankful for my family and my upbringing

I couldn't have done this without the independence, curiosity, and homemaking skills that I learned from my mom. I'm so thankful that I grew up in a home where my mom cooked dinner from scratch so often and could give me advice when I lived the first year without an oven to cook with. I've made my apartments so homey, and that's entirely because my mom taught me how by example. I've never felt more Southern than when I hang out with my coworkers, and I'm proud of that. Southerners are NICE, and polite, and a little tacky (ok, redneck is probably the better word for it). I like it. My family has been there for me in so many different ways and I've been so glad to have them there unfailingly on the other end of the Skype calls.

-I know more of what I need (or really really LIKE) in life to be comfortable

Hot showers, western style toilets (at least in my own apartment...I don't mind using the squatties around town, but in my house, I like to sit, not squat. It may be too much information, but it's a part of life here), cold diet cokes, and some access to potato dishes. Moderately fast internet. Heat in the winter. DVDs of American tv. Books. Coffee in the mornings. Everything else is GREAT, but those are the most important to me here. If I can have these things in a living situation, I'm a happy camper.

-I'm more comfortable with a lack of sanitation in food situations

One day as we were eating in a street restaurant, I pulled a long hair out of my food and we all laughed, remembering when that would have stopped us cold from eating another bite. China's just...different. One of the things I'll miss most is street food...which is nothing more than a table set up on the curb with a wok and open baskets of food to be thrown into it. You stand and have your food prepared for about 50 cents as cars drive by, birds fly overhead, babies pee on the corner, people spit as they walk past, dust flies in the air, etc. Who knows what goes on the greasy kitchens of the actual restaurants. My favorite restaurant has a case of rats. Big ones. But the food tastes good and we block out all of the many worries that once came to our minds. Yes, I've had plenty of food poisoning. I've even gone to the hospital for it. But, that's life and it's not that big of a deal.

-I've lost whatever small sense of fashion that I ever had

I've never really been able to judge how to match clothes together...in college my best friend teased me that I bought outfits based on what the manikins were wearing and then never deviated from their fashion examples once I brought the outfits home. But now, with the crazy collections of clothes that are worn over here, I have absolutely NO IDEA of how to dress fashionably or what makes an outfit nice or not. I'm pretty simple myself and I like what I like, so I'm ok with it. But I really will be unable to give any fashion opinions once I get home...I have no clue.

In so many ways, China has changed my life. I know that it might actually be years from now when I finally grasp the full extent of how deeply it changed me, but I know for now that I'm eternally grateful for the life I've had here and will always treasure it. I'll be writing more as I get ready to leave, but this post is already too long and I'm getting overly emotional, so for now I'll say goodnight.

Where Everybody Knows My Name

2010-07-12T04:56:00.001-05:00

So much has changed over these past three years. When I first came, there were about 3 Western restaurants other than the ever present McD's, KFC, and Pizza Huts. Now, we can choose from 7 or 8 good Western places, plus sushi, Starbucks and Papa Johns. And the best of these is Helen's.

About 2 months ago, a friend and I were chatting in the elevator of our apartment when a Chinese girl tried to hand us a flyer. Nearly ignoring her, we said "bu yao" (don't want) and were about to continue our conversation when she began speaking pretty good English and told us that her aunt was opening a Western restaurant nearby. The flyer advertised macaroni and cheese, hamburgers and other good things. When they opened, we were some of their first customers.

Me and Susan, the girl who first told us about Helen's

I've mentioned many times that there are plenty of places that claim to have Western style food, and many Chinese people think that they are eating Western food...but for the foreigners, it's the equivalent of a "Chinese Mandarin chicken salad" from Wendy's...not quite Chinese. Not quite good. The "salads" come with mayonnaise as dressing. The "sandwiches" have Chinese "ham" and fried eggs on them w/cucumbers and carrot slices as toppings. The "chicken pasta" comes with bones.

But Helen's is real. Real hamburgers, real cheese, real nachos, real salad dressing. And it's at the base of my apartment. So for the past two months, it's been our clubhouse. Helen is one of the sweetest Chinese women I have met and I am now part of the family. I call her my auntie. We go so often that we often get free food and always get 10 percent discounts. I've had two big parties there so far and brought plenty of friends there to bring her business, so it's a good trade.

Helen and Ping (Ping is wearing a wig for my wig party!)

Now when I go in, they usually know what I'll order. The servers have become friends with all of us; a coworker is teaching two of them how to play guitar, we have met their children, they come to hang out with us after work. It's amazing. I feel so close to all of them that it's making it even harder to think about leaving.

It's funny how I feel so connected to China through food. When I first lived here, the man who I went to for fried rice learned my name. The little restaurant on campus where I would eat my Kung Pao Chicken and fried potatoes knew exactly what we liked and treated us like family. Now on my new street, I have a fried noodles lady who likes me to hold her baby girl and teach her English. They call me "The pretty American with emerald eyes"(at least that's what my Chinese friend told me) and they always add extra green onions and cabbage to my fried noodles. My market lady knows that I usually want 3 bananas, 4 carrots, several potatoes and 2 onions. She knows that I like eggplant and broccoli and don't like peas or soy beans. And the vendor on the corner knows that I'll always buy diet coke or coke zero from her whenever they have some.

It's these little things that I'll miss so deeply. Street food is amazing, but even more amazing are the connections with the people. They smile and praise me any time I learn more Chinese to use with them, they notice if I've done my hair differently, they tell me about their kids. There's nothing like it anywhere in the States, and I'm trying to savor every last moment of it. Who would have thought that on random streets in a random city in China, I'd feel so at home.

The end is in sight

2010-06-23T02:55:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I was actually committed to blogging, but there are a few things from this time in China that I want to remember, so it's time for a good ol' random bits and pieces post!

1. There comes a day in every girl's life when she must realize that she will never be a professional ballerina:

For me, that day was about a month ago. In early childhood I had grand aspirations to become a famous ballerina. And I suppose that there has always been a TIIIINNNNY part of me that believed that, if the opportunity came along, I could still be trained a la one of those reality shows where they take a nobody and teach them. I'm not ashamed that the delusion lasted a full 26 years.

Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to stick with my day job. A month ago our school decided that for their big 8-year anniversary celebration, all the teachers in the department would have to perform a traditional Tai Chi dance. Schools around here do this often, they hire you to teach English and then you discover that on random occasions you will be required to sing, dance, act, announce, and various other forms of playing monkey for the entertainment of the students. We gathered on the first day of practice and I was optimistic...I thought it would be cool to come away from China knowing a traditional dance and having video of performing it in full costume in front of a couple hundred people. Then we saw the dance.

This thing involved full body lifts, swooshy-swoosh dips, crazy leg loopty-loops and all other forms of whatnot! The above terminology, by the way, is how I defined all of our moves, "now we lean back for the swirly-swirl, then the high hoopa, now a wooshy-tuck thingy." You can imagine how much my instructor loved me.

We spent two hours practicing and only mastered 12 SECONDS worth of the entire 8 minute dance! At first the instructor patiently took the foreigners through the moves, but eventually tired of the language barrier and our obvious ineptitude and gave up after the first hour, spending the second half of class speaking only to the Chinese staff. In turn, we foreigners quickly gave up too...throwing out suggestions that perhaps the performance would be better served by giving us Ribbon Dancers and letting us frolic among the real performers.

In the end, the performance was skipped by all of the foreign teachers for one reason or another. I don't think anybody really minded either. But after feeling my brain go all fuzzy by watching the instructor, trying to mimic his movements, and failing sooo completely, I had the coming-of-age realization that professional dance is, after all these years, not for me. Thank God that my "day job" is teaching English and having adventures in CHINA....not to shabby. So I'm still happy.

2. THE EPIC WIG PARTY

Last year for my 25th birthday, I donned a wig and had the time of my life. This year I wanted to extend the fun to all my friends. Wigs are for some reason, surprisingly plentiful here in China, so to kick off the summer and also to have one last, great, epic bash before we all leave China for good, I gathered my friends together for a wig party about a week ago. It was amazing. My only requirement was that everyone had to wear a wig and that they also preferably wear a monochromatic outfit to match whatever color they chose. We all met at a great new Western restaurant near my apartment, where the owner was so thrilled for the business that the staff all wore wigs as well and gave us huge discounts. We danced and sang karaoke and had a great time before moving on to another place and dancing the night away. All in all I think about 15-20 people came and we all had soooo much fun. When I am back in the States, I'll post pictures. I was in monochromatic pink for the night and will remember it forever.

Some of the wig partiers at Helen's

Bonnie, Tara and Bob, some of my awesome coworkers and friends

Chen, our favorite waiter at Helen's, and now a great friend, showing off one of his many wigs!

Me and Josh being wig fabulous

Nico, Bon, Louis and Me and all the wonderful colors

3. THINGS I'M LOVING

It's getting to the hard part of the year, and of this whole China experience: saying goodbye. I've lived here for three years, and the people I'm here with are family. We've celebrated Christmases, Thanksgivings, Easters, loves, anxieties, tiny triumphs and everything else together. So we're saying goodbye to each other and also having to say goodbye to all of China...which is something I really haven't come to terms with yet. I REFUSE to do the sappy-senior-year-"Oh my gosh this is our last cafeteria lunch, and this is our last locker visit, and this is our last blah blah blah" business...but it's hitting the emotions nonetheless. Sooooo....in denial, here are some things I've been really enjoying:

--My favorite music: I have decided that for me, there are 4 characteristics that make a song wonderful. I have yet to find a song that combines all four traits in one track, but if you know of it, please share. These 4 must-haves in Lucy music are: handclaps, countdowns/countups, harmonica, and electric fiddle. Handclaps and countdowns lately are the best...they never fail to put a smile on my face! ...TWO THREE FOUR...

--Chinese fashion: for some reason, it is fashionable for 30 year old women to wear Minnie Mouse barrettes. My students come to class with fuzzy teddy bears on their tshirts. And they are in grad school. It's hard to find heels that don't have pretty pretty plastic sparkly bows pasted and bedazzeled all over them. Yeah...on some days when I'm tired of China it repulses me, but lately I just find it hilarious. I love it. It's so random and out of place and weird...but it's what they wear.

--I found episodes of David Letterman online that aren't blocked...it's on China's version of youtube (which is still blocked) so it's not uploaded alll the time, but I'm still able to catch a little here and there. I miss late night TV so much, so it's really cool to have it now.

--Dragon Boat Festival: I had a few days off last week for Dragon Boat Festival. I may have written about this earlier, but here's one of the origin stories of the festival--there's another one that explains the boats, but I only heard this one (as I was told by my students): There was a nobleman/poet in ancient China who was really innovative and introduced a lot of reforms to the land. Other members of the royal court didn't like change, so accused him of treason. He was found guilty and was so depressed that his loyalty had been questioned that he drowned himself in a river. To honor him, during Dragon Boat Festival, the people go drop rice or bread or zongzi (the traditional food of the festival, it's meat or raisins wrapped in sticky rice which is then wrapped in a bamboo leaf and steamed...not bad) into the river SO THAT THE FISH WILL EAT THE FOOD AND NOT THE BODY OF THE SUICIDAL POET! It's so dark and creepy of a tradition...the students all laughed when they were telling me...for some of them it was the first time they had viewed it from an outsiders perspective and actually thought about the tradition. I love it. We have plenty of creepy nonsense traditions too with our holidays, so it's fun to find the ones from other cultures. These days, very few people make their way to a river to drop in rice...but it's funny anyway.

Ok, soon I'm sure I'll pull myself together to share what all of this experience has meant to me and whatnot, but for now this will have to do. I have about a month and a half left of living in Wuhan, then will travel for a while. None of it seems real yet, but this weekend one of my best friends returns to the States, so I'm sure I'll have to face reality soon. Until then, enjoy your summer everyone!

Turns out, Soccer is pretty fun!

2010-06-18T02:25:00.001-05:00

I haven't blogged in a while, mostly b/c it's a chore using these proxies and also b/c I've had plenty on my plate, but I had to take a break this afternoon to share what's been happening among the foreigners here in China. It is, obviously, THE WORLD CUP.

It started last week and I didn't really register that it would be anything significant in my life. Or in China. But I was wrong.

Although China doesn't have much of a soccer league and isn't participating in the Cup, the country seems pretty jazzed about it. This year a large number of Chinese league soccer officials were fired on charges of massive corruption, and there is a small whispered hope in some editorials and among some of my students that next year might hold a chance of reform, leading to the hopes of one day joining the world in competition. There's also plenty of cynicism that it will never happen...but the conversation is there.

Mostly, however, the World Cup as I've experienced belongs to the ever growing waigoren (foreigner) population in Wuhan. Wuhan, over the past year especially, has turned into one of China's newest boomtowns as China invests capital and infrastructure development into more central Chinese cities. I'm not sure if it's due to this or to the fact that I have larger exposure to the hangouts and enclaves of foreigners through my company and new friends, but Wuhan has blossomed into a place with a few great bars and restaurants catering to the foreign students, teachers, researchers and businesspeople of the city. And they all seem to know the importance of the World Cup to this displaced population.

And so, despite the fact that the 3 daily games of the World Cup are shown live at 6:30 pm, 10 pm, and 2:30 a.m., these places are staying open all night, and it seems, each night, are filled with people watching. I honestly don't know how these soccer fans are going to keep this up for a month, but several of my friends have loyally attended each night of the first week! I've been to two nights so far, and tonight will be up until 4 or 5 in the morning to watch the US play at 10 followed by England at 2:30.

So here's the thing, I know absolutely NOTHING about soccer except that it doesn't hold a candle to my favorite sport of FOOTBALL. I'm skeptical of any sport that allows games to end in a tie on a regular basis and in which one fluke shot could determine a winner even when the shot is made by a team that is consistently inferior throughout an entire game. I like a narrative to my sports, a systematic drive towards a goal, and a confidence in the outcome being based on the events of the ENTIRE game, instead of chance or luck or whatever. And soccer doesn't seem to fit these needs. Plus, Americans aren't very good at it.

However, I'm a sucker for any type of communal passion. I think it's one of the closest secular experiences of the Kingdom. Well..sometimes. And I have several British friends, so it was worth getting into the Cup just to bring out some Revolutionary War era trash talk during the US-England game. When else can you call someone a redcoat and so frequently reference the Boston Tea Party, right? I even got in a few jabs at Churchill while I was at it. Hilarious.

So I'm on the bandwagon. And it turns out, soccer is fascinating. I started reading up on the World Cup just to store away enough knowledge to a) not look like a total idiot, b) find a few clever conversation starters--"they sure don't make em like Pele anymore these days" "yeah, but what about the loss of a Brazil's artistry in all of this?" and c) find more ways to trash talk my British friends.

A note on objective b: it's AMAZING when you find one-liners that get people all riled up! It's like magic, you utter one sentence in a crowd and they all go crazy about the topic, carrying the conversation and you just sit back and enjoy what you started. With Canadians, all you ever have to do is say, "So, how bout those Albertans, eh?" and they're off like rockets! Seriously, try it! You will not need to speak another word for the next hour while they share with you all the ways that the people of Alberta are either destroying or saving their country. With soccer fans, so far, a few lines have been: "But what about this new ball they're using?" and "so if Argentina doesn't win, will you still think Lionel Messi is the greatest player in the game" and "Does it really matter WHO the coach is during play?" So far, these lines allow the people who really know what they're talking about to go on and on...while you sit back and eat their french fries.

Moving on-- so I've been reading up on "football" and after a few podcasts, and cursory readings of ESPN and the NYT World Cup section, have more of an idea of what's at stake, how teams advance, and the amazing endurance that it takes to win a tournament like this. This is a MONTH and soccer has to be one of the more totally-mess-with-your-head games that exist. I will say that I truly feel that soccer requires more actual SKILL than any of our major American sports. But for all that skill, the element of luck plays a greater role than any of our sports as well. It's incredibly frustrating. And fascinating.

So I'm hoping that the US can hang in there for a few more games and actually have a shot at advancing to some of the quarter finals at least. I doubt that we will, especially b/c our tie w/England was based solely on the British goalkeepers error (not much pride there). But I want us to. Then, I'm moving on to pull for either Argentina or Brazil. Anything could happen. I'm enjoying the camaraderie for now...but I will say...I return to the U.S. this year just in time for NFL season. sooo....Go Titans!

Josh, Me and Anney dressed up for the US game in the World Cup

My nails all done up for the US game in the World Cup

The dreaded visit

2010-04-17T08:16:00.001-05:00

I made it nearly 3 years before I finally caved. Millions of speeches to concerned Chinese friends or coworkers, countless explanations and feelings of superiority have passed...until this past month.

I went to the hospital.

Every time that I've had just a cold, or a stomach bug, or even been feeling just a little "down", I've been told that I should go. And I've refused. I've spent many cell phone minutes explaining that "sometimes we just get sick" and that all we need is rest and maybe some OTC wonder. I've even called a doctor friend in the U.S. to confirm that I was correct in my home remedies (thanks Dr. Watson!). And I've been fine!

I've been through food poisoning, parasites, a kidney stone, countless colds, allergies, a huge allergic reaction to some shrimp hidden in my food, and whatever else with nothing more than my bag full of meds that I brought from America, sometimes picking up some prescriptions from a pharmacy (you don't need written prescriptions from doctors to pick up what you need, and since many have the english (is it english?) name, you can find out what you need and pick it up on your own), and lots of water.

But yes, our friends and coworkers over here are usually quite insistent that what we should really be doing is going post-haste to the hospital. And after a recent spat of bad health, I finally gave in.

The "hospital" here is also what we would call "the doctor's office." I'm not sure, but from what I can tell...there aren't really "doctor's offices" over here....the hospital is the only option.

Two weeks ago I came down with a cold and an intestinal bug simultaneously. After 2 days of whatnot, I realized that no amount of drinking water was keeping me from dehydration, and no amount of pepto was fixing the problem. With the cold and cough I was worried that the flu had got me, so I finally shrugged my shoulders and followed a Chinese friend to the hospital.

Then again yesterday, I came down with the same stomach bug and was worried that it was a recurring thing. After a day of vomiting, I again called up a friend and made my way back.

The first thing you notice about the Wuhan hospital is the level of you-it-yourself efficiency. This cuts the wait time in half, but if you're shaky and nauseous, it's also a chore. First you register and get what looks like a credit card with your patient number on it, and a little booklet for the doctor to write you diagnosis in. They don't keep records themselves and the only patient files are the booklets that you carry yourself.

Then you see the doctor--in both cases I was sent to the emergency room, though I'm assuming that might be because I'm a foreigner? I was seen immediately in an informal setting...a small room with about 5 other patients waiting. The doctor heard my symptoms and sent me for blood work (and a chest xray the first time). The doctor prints out a list of the procedures that you need, then you walk to the cashier and pay for them. They swipe your card and you walk to the blood station, or the x ray room or whatever.

When your results are ready, you go to a little electronic station and swipe your card, and the station prints out your results. I was given my xray to keep--it's now decorating my refridgerator. Then you walk back to the doctor and let him/her read the results and write in your booklet the diagnosis.

From there, it's back to the cashiers to pay for your prescription, then to the prescription station to swipe your card, which is like placing an order because they immediately pull it together from behind the desk. You pick up your prescription and then head to the dreaded transfusion room for your treatment.

This was why I've avoided hospital visits since I began living here. In China, the doctors all prefer to put patients on IV drips over prescribing pills. From what I've heard, the Chinese (generalization) don't like taking pills, and often stop taking them as soon as they begin to feel better, instead of completing the full round of medication. This can lead to the creation of superviruses or superbacteria or other horrible things. So they get IV treatments here instead. Sometimes the procedure can be completed in one day, but sometimes the patient must return for 3-7 days in a row for an IV treatment every day. Ugg.

So yeah...I get a little squeamish about IVs. It's just weird having a needle stuck into your arm. My first trip, I begged the doctor for pills instead. My translator just kept saying "IV is better. Doctor say IV is better." The second trip, I didn't even bother.

After walking all around the hospital, swiping cards and picking up test results, you get your prescription and take it to the transfusion room, which is a large room filled with about 100 chairs with metal poles mounted to the sides of them. The dead and dying sink into the chairs languidly and stare into nothingness (dramatization). You wait your turn while they mix your meds into an IV bag and sit at the counter while they inject you, then follow a nurse through the maze of bodies, filled with terror that someone will trip and rip the cord out of your arm. You are placed in a chair and your bag is hung from the metal pole above you, while an old man gapes open mouthed at you, the foreigner across the aisle. And then you sit, for an hour or longer (two and a half today), while a nearby tv showcases an American Idol style show with girls in glittery too-toos singing Beijing opera.

When your drip is done you press a little button next to your chair, the nurse comes and removes your needle, and you go home. I will say that the drip did work wonders with whatever intestinal bug I've been getting. And that the whole thing is AMAZINGLY cheap...I think I spent the equivalent of $40USD for a chest xray, blood test, and IV drip the first time, and about $20USD for the blood test and IV drip this time. It was also fast...from entry to transfusion room, I never had to wait in line for longer than 5-10 minutes.

So I'm a little over my fear of the hospital, but am also hoping that those two experiences will be the only ones I have. And despite the fast service, I will say that I miss being assigned a room and being able to sit and wait while the doctors and nurses gather my test results for me and bustle in and out. It was pretty difficult having to stand and walk all around from here to there....but I can see how it speeds things up.

According to the doctor, my first visit was a stomach virus and my second one was food poisoning. All in all, I'm thankful that I haven't had any more serious troubles and that I've had Chinese friends to join me and help translate for me. I feel like a pro at living in China now--the thing I was most hoping to avoid has come and gone and come again...and I'm still ok! And now able to share with all of you the experience! I wish I could post pics because I took a couple today...maybe when I return to the US I'll have a couple a picture posts to finish out my Chinablog existence!

That'll show 'em!

2010-04-11T10:15:00.000-05:00

So I was reading China Daily, the main english language newspaper published over here and had to laugh at this story.

One feature of fast food in China that I'll miss is that both KFC and McDonalds offer home delivery. You call and within 30 minutes, a guy on a little electric bike with a heated box on his back appears with your food. It takes laziness and gluttony to new levels.

So apparently last week, KFC had an online promotion where customers could go online at 10 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m. (or something like that) and print off coupons to bring in for what must have been a pretty good discount. But after the 10 a.m. promotion time, the stores began seeing the coupons for the other two times showing up in the stores, despite the fact that they hadn't yet released those coupons online. Since they were unable to discern between authentic coupons and the counterfeit coupons, the main KFC office told all stores to discontinue the promotion and stop accepting any coupons. The KFC stores posted signs on the doors saying that they wouldn't take any coupons for the day but didn't explain the reason behind the change in plans.

Customers in one city were apparently pretty peeved that their coupons were rejected and found what I consider to be a pretty clever way of showing their displeasure. After not finding a satisfactory response for the rejection, about 18 customers took seats inside the KFC and waited...

for McDonalds delivery!

That's right, they called McD's for their meal, had it delivered to the KFC down the street, and sat there eating in protest. It's just so catty and shows such gumption that I wish I were there. As Katera put it, it was a KFC Sit-In!

If only we could direct the righteous indignation towards more worthy causes...but for now, it was a story that made me smile.

The little quirks of language

2010-04-03T00:36:00.001-05:00

Some of my students at one of our school picnics (Tomorrow, West, Alice and Anita)

Wendy, Alice are two of my favorite students

Josh and I hanging out at a company function

I do a great deal of co-teaching with my new company, which is a nice feature that combines a native speaker with a Chinese teacher for the class. At its best, it's a really helpful combo--if I can't explain an idea, the Chinese teacher can translate for me, if they need added cultural references, the native speaker provides it. The operation reminds me of the adage, "A natural baseball genius shouldn't coach." There are some tweaks of language that are really difficult for a native speaker to explain...because we just DO it, or SAY it...and we don't know why. A Chinese teacher who has studied and mastered the language can explain why to students who are going through what they went through to grasp English.

However, at its worst, sometimes co-teaching involves the teacher delivering the whole class without making any use of the native speaker. (Or visa versa, I'm sure) As part of the idea of "saving face," the native speaker is NEVER to correct a Chinese teacher in front of the class. This means that if you are co-teaching with a teacher who doesn't see the need for a native speaker in their class, you must sit back as countless little errors make their way into the English speaking world. Ultimately, it doesn't matter much--the kids will improve anyway and it's not helpful to nitpick. But the other day, I was bored sitting in a class and not teaching...so I started making note of some of the errors. Some are not actually errors, just over-thought explanations for usage. Here are some of the things my students were taught:

AGAIN, let me say that this is not a big deal AND that many of these teachings stem from the fact that we native speakers have the innate ability to choose one word over another...while the ESL teachers are forced to come up with some REASON or METHOD to explain WHY. And OBVIOUSLY from a quick scan of this blog, my respect for the sanctity of English grammar and vocabulary is somewhat lackluster. This isn't to make fun of the Chinese teachers, it's just to laugh at how hard it is to teach a foreign language:

-Do not EVER say "you choose"...instead say "it's up to you"

-softball is baseball played with a cushy ball

-when a "love triangle" includes more than 3 people, you must call it a "love rectangle," "love pentagon" etc

-when describing a "3rd wheel", you can also have a "5th wheel" or "7th wheel"

-say "I need some minutes" when you need a break

-If referring to 50% of people, do not use the word "some," instead choose the word "many."

-Americans never eat vegetables, and when they do, there are only 5 that they eat, and they are always boiled

-say "office worker" instead of "business person"

-you must always open a conversation with a British person with a comment on the weather.

-pronounce "hurricane" as "hurri-cun" and "volcano" as "voe-can-a"

-calling someone "skinny" or "thin" is always an insult

-it's okay to describe someone as "fat," but you should probably say "obese" instead...which is pronounced "obase"

-explaining a body-type as "pear shaped" or "apple shaped" can extend to whatever vegetable/fruit you happen to think that person resembles..."potato shaped," "carrot shaped," "cucumber shaped," were some examples

-Finally (and this falls more under "ESL Students say the darndest things), students gave a presentation on marriage customs and throughout the presentation referred to "firecrappers" without being corrected by the teacher. I mentioned to them after class dismissed that it was "firecrackers" instead. The 4th grader in me was giggling though.

Wow--I'm here again!

2010-03-25T06:37:00.001-05:00

A little shot of my favorite part of Wuhan, public dancing in all the main squares and intersections across the city every weekend evening

If anyone still checks this blog, I'm still here in China! The internet proxies we use to access blocked sites keep getting shut down and then new ones pop up just as fast, so it's a whirlwind when it comes down to it. This one is working NOW, but who knows, maybe by the time I finish this post, will have disappeared. Still no pictures.

Things over here are great, winter has passed and all of Wuhan is blooming. I live near the famous Wuhan University, which every Spring is inundated with photographers and tourists for its huge assembly of blossoming cherry and plum trees. I also live near East Lake, the largest city lake in China (or something like that), which also has a park of blossoming trees and beautiful scenery. This means on sunny weekend days, this side of the city is teeming with more crowds than I've seen during my whole stay in China. It also means traffic gridlock.

So for all the wonders of the weather, I've been doing A LOT of walking! Ahh, Wuhan. The city is in the middle of major bridge and tunnel construction, building a subway and elevated highways all over the place. Since it is doing this construction simultaneously, shutting down or narrowing major boulevards for future glory, we're all in a bit of a funk, traffic wise. It seems that at any gathering of friends, we all arrive disgruntled and tired from crammed buses, insane taxis, and aggressive foot traffic. I miss the days of a Sunday stroll!

pic of some ever present Wuhan construction

But, China is still worth it! I'm mostly just updating in case I don't have a chance in the future, so I'll leave you with an edition of "ESL students say the darndest things!" (some of these might be altered by my memory)

-- A few months ago I invited a student over to my place for brunch. However, I didn't realize that my text message spelled brunch as "crunch" until the student replied that she'd love to have "crunch" with me and really looked forward to it! I imagine her searching the internet for the explanation of the Western "crunch".

--Also a few months ago, in class as I was teaching, my whiteboard marker dried up. A student raised his hand and said he would go get me some "extraordinary markers." "Wow," I thought, looking forward to having a marker deemed extraordinary. China is a nation of superlatives, but I found it puzzling. The student brought me two normal markers, and needing to move on with class, I forgot. Until after class, when the student showed me the supply closet stocked with "extraordinary pencils, extraordinary markers, and extraordinary stools." I almost didn't want to correct him, after all, wouldn't it be nice if we viewed all "extra" items as "extraordinary"! Maybe we'd see life in a much more positive light!

--A friend had to cancel a meeting with a student. When she apologized for the schedule change, her student replied that it was ok and that "Maybe it's my patience that will lead to our great meet!"

--After class, I joined some students at a city park that has some amusement rides. The students were so excited that we were going to ride the "multi-touch cars" or the "touch each other cars" or the "touch touch cars". Finally, I convinced them that it was Chinglish and to start saying "bumper cars" instead. They must have misheard me, because later that night I got an email from a student saying that she had so much fun on the "touch-and- bump-her-cars".

--In a culture class discussing the words for dating and relationships, I asked my students what we call a woman who is "with" a married man...ready to teach "mistress" and "the other woman." Students yelled out in unison "Second milk!" which is the direct English translation of their word for it. Except for one student, who instead yelled out "Sl_t!" I know it's inappropriate, but it was pretty funny.

--I teach a video class where I show a DVD with actors from the early 90s showing various scenarios; ordering food in a restaurant, asking for directions, etc. In one video, a man is at the office and has a cold. We pause the video to practice the English words for his symptoms. For some reason, all of my students told me he had a "snoofy nose and cottled throat." I still can't figure out where that came from!

That's all for now! We'll see how much access I have in the coming days and I'll try to update when I can! Take care and enjoy the Spring!

Racket and Red Glare--Happy New Year

2010-02-13T13:45:00.001-06:00

fireworks exploding against my apt building

Happy New Year everyone! It is 2:45 in the morning and the festivities have finally quieted for the night--though wait....nope, there are some firecrackers going off now.

It's a sound not unlike a giant bowl of Rice Krispies, or demolition crews,...or intensive ground assault warfare, depending on how you look at it. And it began at 7 a.m. this morning--New Year's Eve.

In case you don't know the story, Spring Festival, a.k.a. Chinese New Year, holds the myth of the Nien, a monster that would visit villages on the first day of the new year and eat children. The villagers learned that the Nien was blinded by the color red and was scared away by loud noises (he sounds more like an untrained puppy to me). So now each year, the new year is ushered in by fireworks, firecrackers, red coats for children, red door frame banners, and red lanterns.

I slept through the morning racket by turning up my space heaters and allowing their hum to overpower the outdoor barrage. Then later in the day, after coffee and bundling, I walked out to see the city. It was barren--empty streets and shuttered shops, only perpetuating the war zone atmosphere. Snow fell softly all afternoon but the air smelled of gunpowder.

In the evening I sat in my window with the windows of the opposite building showing families sitting together at huge meals or gathered in front of the tv. Beijing televises a big countdown to the New Year...sans Dick Clark I'm assuming. The firecrackers ringing from all sides of the city sounded like rain popping on a tin roof. Every 30 minutes or so a large cannon shot sounded and for some reason I kept wanting to yell "The British are coming!" after each blast shook the glasses in my sink.

In the hallway outside the door, children periodically took a break from their family time to throw those little poppers that I loved and hated during all the old fourths of July. Tiny packets of explosives the size of fingernails--it made me remember all that fear and exhilaration of crushing them between my palms on a dare from the neighborhood boys.

To give an example of the ongoing onslaught, I took a log for about 30 minutes of the intervals of explosives, there were maybe 2 minutes of quiet, but mostly noise overlap:

5:33 p.m. --quick round of firecrackers
5:34-5:42 --long round of firecrackers directly below my building
5:42-5:46 --distant firecrackers
5:43 --fireworks join in, one round to the east and another from the south
5:45-5:47 --firecrackers directly opposite my building
5:46 --firecrackers now under my window
5:48-5:56 --distant firecrackers in waves
5:56 --cannon boom
5:53-5:58 --fireworks a block away
5:58-6:10 --firecrackers on and on and on

Finally, at 11:45 the real show began. I rode the elevator to the top floor but the roof had been locked. When I got to the ground, I could see why. Fireworks came shooting from the square in front of my building and exploded somewhere between the 15th and 30th floors. I could see the sparks shooting into my own window. Thank goodness I wasn't sitting by it to see the sights!

For one whole hour, the fireworks shot up from every block, bursting like Wuhan was sprouting Spring flowers in the sky. The blitz had no pause or ebb. There was no regard to proximity of people, buildings or foliage--360 degrees of explosives. It was like the whole country was full of overzealous teenagers showcasing their bravado by betting who could shoot the fireworks closest to the building without setting it on fire (a betting contest I witnessed during my misspent youth). The sky was that weird orange that occurs when city lights are reflected off of a haze of smoke.

I watched the grandparents show their gkids how to light sparklers and watched the children jump up and down at every new string of firecrackers lit. So many windows glowed with families watching from behind glass. The apartment security guards made sure that some of the fireworks were set off from our main square, but eventually gave up when it seemed that every corner had a box shooting in rapid succession a stream of fireworks. I stood mostly in the street and then joined some crowds with a coworker before finally returning to my warm apartment once it seemed that the skyward celebrations had moved somewhat away from my building.

Tomorrow is New Year's Day and will probably feature much of the same--big family meals and general auditory bombardments. I think it's all pretty lovely--though I realized today that prolonged firework displays of any kind make me crave a good grilled hot dog and a coke. American girl to the core.

Pics of US and Canada: Holidays 2009-2010

2010-02-09T06:18:00.000-06:00

Because I can no longer post pictures here on my blog, feel free to follow the below link (you'll have to copy and paste it into your address bar) to see some pics from my trip home to the States and Canada. It's open to anyone, so you don't have to have facebook to be able to see it.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051349&id=147800610&l=6c0f56474d

Included are pics of home and our award-worthy Christmas tree, snowy snowy Tennessee, an AWESOME trip to Canada to spend time with my brother and check out his new northern life, a New Year's Eve concert at Niagara Falls headlined by the oh-so-rockin band STYX, and various other fun times. I didn't take my camera along for many of the other fun moments of my trip--coffees with so many old friends, revisiting my favorite mountain spot in SW Virginia, basking in the aisles of WalMart and Target etc...but these are enough to remember what a blessing it is to come home from time to time.

Chinese New Year (called Spring Festival here) is coming up this weekend and all of Wuhan is getting ready: the supermarkets are full, red lanterns and red door banners are hung everywhere, and every night for the past few days has been filled with fireworks here and there. Spring Festival features annually the largest human migration in the world as the migrant workers of the southern factories make their way back to their hometowns to be with family on this important holiday. I passed the long-distance bus station on the way to work yesterday and it was a teaming sea of people.

This is my first year to stay in China for the holiday. As a university teacher, I previously took advantage of our month-long winter break to head south--backpacking through Southeast Asia. This year, the private English-training company I work for gets most of its students during the month of the festival as college students sign up during their break to improve grades or prepare for tests. So we've all been pretty busy with classes.

A student today asked me if I was hoping for a lot of luck in the coming year. It made me think back at all the "luck" ...a.k.a. "blessings"...I've already had. I've walked down quiet paths with the light of the Eiffel Tower ahead of me, I've scrambled up ancient temples and jumped into jungle waterfalls. I've seen the sun set and rise from the Great Wall. I've sat for hours with friends at dinners and over coffees laughing until my sides hurt. I've seen the World's Largest Buffalo statue in North Dakota, the World's Largest Public Square in Beijing and the World's Largest Buildings (well...at the time) in Kuala Lumpur. I've felt snow formed from the mist of Niagara Falls fall on me while listening to STYX ring in the New Year. I've sunbathed on beaches, whitewater rafted through gorges, and roadtripped through mountains with my awesome family. I've had adventures. I've had young love. I've danced. I've seen Bruce Springsteen in concert.

Anyway--I use this blog too often to ramble about all the cool things I've been able to do. It's just bizarre. It's bizarre that I get to have a life that is so much more than what I've ever imagined. I'm just feeling really grateful this week! :)

I'll update some more about Chinese New Year as the week progresses and once I get a few days off work. Hope you are all staying warm wherever you are!

Back to the future

2010-01-22T21:39:00.000-06:00

Welp, I'm back. Sitting in my semi-warm apartment in Wuhan, listening to various construction noises that are pounding their way through my doors and windows despite the fact that it's a Saturday morning. Jetlag has mostly worked it's way out of my system, but I'll confess that every time I cross the Pacific I swear that I NEVER want to do it again. I think I actually enjoyed jetlag my first year in China--it was a new experience and I was amazed at how it effected me and my body. Now, well, I'm over it. It's tiresome and boring and makes me feel soo discombobulated and icky. I suppose a little of the magic is gone for me! hahah.

All grouchiness aside, I'm very grateful to be back here. This is my final round in China, and after a great rest at home I feel much more ready to seize it, enjoy every moment (ok, maybe every moment sans jetlag!) and really live it up while I'm here. I love China, I love my friends, and I love being here. I'm really thankful for the life I've been given.

I don't have much to share...am actually wondering if this blog has become a bit redundant. I've lived here for so long that it sometimes feels as if there's not much new to reflect on in this online diary. But here are a few things:

I brought home a bunch of my books and exchanged them for some new ones to bring back with me. I've been flipping through some of them, and it's funny how being far from home in another country makes you value silly things. Like a receipt for stamps that I found stuck into an old book as a bookmark. It's from the Green Hills post office in Nashville--I bought a book of first class stamps for $14.76 on July 12, 2007. In the States, I'd just toss it into the garbage--but for some reason here, I find myself getting melodramatically nostalgic and poetic, holding it in my hand like a treasure; "This is from America. This is from my old life." hahaha--I'm TOTALLY exaggerating, but it's a tiny bit like that for a split second when I find these things! I never end up throwing them away, just placing them back where they were found and realizing briefly how unconsciously there are so many little things that I miss.

This year I didn't bring back my usual suitcase packed with a year's supply of U.S. goodies: toothpaste and favorite candy or tea, lotions, beauty supplies, cooking supplies etc. I just kind of figured that I've learned to "make do" fairly well without so many of the items I used to "need" from the States, that I might as well keep it up. Plus, and this is the more likely explanation, I didn't want to bring back so much luggage this time!

I've discovered that when I'm feeling out of place, my coping mechanisms are 1) must-see TV and 2) driving/riding around aimlessly staring out of the window. My dvds of Friends, The Office, and 30 Rock are lifesavers--I'm not one who likes a tv going at all times, but when I am going through anything emotional, I'll admit that my first reaction is to have shows that make me smile and laugh running whenever I'm hanging out in the living room. They help pull me out of my own head. Also, I already shared that my primary activity when I was first back in the States was just driving around...and now that I'm back in China, I've spent a few of my spare hours riding around on the buses, just staring out at all of Wuhan and reorienting myself. I like this. Maybe I'm a bit more introverted than I thought, because these solitary activities help me to be more ready for social time with people--it clears up all the wandering thoughts crammed into my head!

Finally, I've noticed that I've totally stopped trying to decipher all the ways in which China is different from the U.S. Maybe I'm just bored with the activity, or maybe I've just gotten to know it well enough to know that there's no real comparison. Stupid cliche: it's apples and oranges. Or apples and green beans. Or apples and doornobs. Whatever the case, it seems I'm done with trying to attempt it.

Those are my random thoughts from my first week back! I'm excited to share over the next months what the Father will do with my final term in China and what He reveals as the plan for the next chapter of my life! Please Lift me Up if you read this, that I can be focused while here and that I can have the eyes to see what should come next!

PS...in case you wondered, the back to the future reference is just because Wuhan is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time...so I'm always in the "future" while over here. It's silly...but it's a joke I never stop using. ;)

RED

2009-12-24T22:23:00.007-06:00

I'm busy enjoying my Tennessee Christmas, which came complete with a snowstorm that kept us at home for several days (though it was a few days early...I'm still glad that we had a White Pre-Christmas, if not a White Christmas). It's been great to see all the old ornaments and enjoy time relaxing with family and just getting that much needed rest. Many Christmas Blessings to any of you who still read this!

In keeping with one of the colors of this season, I thought I'd post some pics of China that I've taken lately. The theme is, quite obviously, RED.

Boats on French Street, Wuhan

Photo Shoot at Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Child playing at Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Everyday construction, Wuhan

On the street where I live, Wuhan

Everyday construction decked out for 60th Anniversary, Oct 1, 2009, Wuhan

Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of PRC, 10/1/09.
On the street where I live, Wuhan

10/1/09, Wuhan

Photos from Xi'an!!!

2009-12-16T20:50:00.006-06:00

As promised, I'm FINALLY adding some pictures to my overly-wordy blog. Here are some shots from my last trip to Xi'an. Enjoy!

This little girl was flying kites near the Drum Tower. I love her

A pillar inside the Great Mosque in the Muslim Quarter. The Great Mosque is really interesting in the way it combines Chinese and Islamic architecture.

The Big Goose Pagoda. Xi'an was the end point of the Silk Road and you can really see the influence here...the simplicity is of this pagoda is unique in China.

Trying out the local cuisine...this is Yangrou Paomo. It's a soup with lamb and bread pieces and tastes really good.

Finally on our way to see the Terracotta Warriors. They take you first to the workshop where they make replicas. Soooo fun.

Warriors, warriors, all around...

but not a drop to drink.

This is the farmer who ACTUALLY FOUND the Terracotta Army...he was just digging a well and pulled up a head. Now he comes into the museum whenever he feels like it and signs copies of his book.

Seeing the warriors for the first time. This is Pit 1, the largest.

I had a picture of this guy in my 6th grade history book.

Like I said in my post about the trip, I was most fascinated by the pits where the warriors had not yet been restored. Notice the warrior buried up to his shoulders...

Notice the lone face emerging from the mud in the middle.

Xi'an is one of the only cities to still have its old city walls. We spent a little while walking around on top and I got this shot of this guy napping in the shadows of the wall.

Katera and I on our way out of the city. We got a motorized tuk-tuk to get to the train station when there were no free taxis.

More photos of China to come!

Home again, home again, jiggidy jog.

2009-12-13T13:27:00.003-06:00

I've been back for a week now and am finally feeling able to rejoin the world. Jetlag this time round has been much more pronounced than I remember it last time. It's getting better bit by bit, but man, I've been sleeeeeeeppy!

My first week back has been all that it needed to be. I began the week at my aunt and uncle's house in Charlotte and was able to catch up with family and with Katie and David, a couple who I worked with in China last year who are now dear family to me too...then mom and I "bopped" down to Atlanta for a day. Mom's a huge fan of this blog where the blogger has now made a cookbook and was doing a book signing tour around the South, so we went to see her and to check out the shopping in ATL. I was too wiped out to go to the book signing, but did manage to do some damage in Macy's and Bloomingdales the next day. When you've been surrounded by Chinese fashion and have been wearing the same clothes for 2.5 years, it's amazing the pull that shopping now has! Then we drove back to my hometown and I've been resting and enjoying the couch and the driving for a few days.

Here are a few random thoughts from the first week back:

--I may have mentioned this last year, but the feeling when you first arrive in the airport in San Fransisco or LA is o.v.e.r.w.h.e.l.m.i.n.g. After alllll that time living among people who speak in a language that you have no hope of understanding, suddenly your ears are FILLED with the english-speaking conversations of everyone around you. It's like when you get glasses after going for a long time with fuzzy vision--all of a sudden you can see EVERY leaf on EVERY tree and EVERY blade of grass. You cannot tune out the conversations of those sitting on the other side of the waiting room, much less those right beside you. It almost makes me feel like I'm going mentally insane...all those WORDS...all around...that I understand.

At first it's kind of fun, but it quickly becomes annoying...because, you know what, people can be obnoxious. They say dumb things. I do not exclude myself from this category of "people"...but yeah, sometimes being able to tune people out is a good thing. And it takes a few days to regain that ability.

--Speaking of obnoxious, I have an impulse to tell EVERYONE that I've been living in China for 2.5 years and have been gone from the States for 1.5 years. And to repeat it many times. In an obviously showing-off way. Some times it's out of joy...at the counter of the sub shop in San Fransisco when I was about to eat my first authentically American-made deli sandwich in a year and a half--I was so excited that I was grinning from ear to ear like an idiot and felt the need to explain my ridiculous joy in the corned beef and rye that I was ordering. But then other times, like when I'm standing in line at Kroger, there's no reason to tell the person behind me in line that this is the first supermarket trip I've made in so long...it's absurd. I do restrain myself alot of the time, but sometimes the obnoxious comment pokes through anyway.

--It's insanely gorgeous here in East Tennessee. Yes, it's the beginning of winter and yes, the trees are bare, but this is seriously one of the most beautiful places I know. There are soooo many colors...even with the leaves already fallen, there are just sooo many colors. And the sky is SO BLUE. Even this morning with cloudy skies and rain, the clouds were grey and bluish...it's just so different from the dingy smog-covered skies that cover Wuhan. Even when we get days with "blue sky," they don't compare to what we have here. Apparently, I'm one of the only ones who sees all of this...I keep telling mom, "Oh, that's so pretty." and she replies, "WHAT are you looking at?!" and I point out some random hillside or patch of woods that are probably nothing special...but I'm happy to be looking at it.

--There's a lot of junk available here. Now, I have a few qualifiers to this comment: there is very possibly JUST AS MUCH entertainment industry junk in China, I just don't understand it. Also I enjoy some basic celebrity gossip and cheap junk food as much as the next person. For heavens sake, I've watched all the seasons of Gossip Girl! So I'm not superior about this one...but goodness! There are soooo many different outlets for just plain junk over here. Whether it's food or entertainment or just stuff....the shear VOLUME of it all is overwhelming. It makes me want to not get a tv when I come back to the States. But I'm sure I will. And I'm sure that I'll sit with the rest of the masses and watch all about Tiger Woods and his many mistakes. But I wish that I wouldn't.

Here's the thing, right now, I'm on vacation. So yes, I'm going to watch some of the junk, and I'm going to eat some of the junk, and I'm going to buy some of the junk. And I'll feel ok about it because I'm about to return to a much less junked up lifestyle; where the TV I watch is what I buy on DVDs, where the food I eat is made from scratch and fresh vegetables and high fructose corn syrup is much less present, and where I don't buy many things because most of the things I would want to buy aren't sold in Wuhan. BUT--the REAL challenge is for all of you who are here, and for me when I return to the States to live.

In China, it feels like you have to make an effort to FIND the junk: I have to actively search to read the internet stories of celebrity misconduct, I have to go to the import stores (and walk quite a way to get to the bus or taxi) to buy the unhealthy snacks (ok...not totally true since I CAN now order some fast food for delivery...but it's more expensive so there is still some personal prohibition), and I have to actively search for junk that I would really want to bring into my house.

Here in the States...it's all THROWN at you!! All this junk is SHOVED in your face all the time everywhere! Why read a book when you could watch E!? Why buy fruit and cut it up and serve it with yogurt when you could have it already blended into a "healthy smoothie"...although the smoothie comes with massively high levels of sugar and dye and artificial flavoring? Why conserve and save the environment when you could buy millions of throw away one-use items for oh so cheap!? It just feels like it would be sooo much harder to live simply here. My mom does a good job of it though, and I'm grateful for her example. I just hope I can show such discipline when I return. And again--this is not coming from a "judge-y" place...it's coming from a perspective of knowing how easy i would give in to it all and quickly have a life that it just filled up with junk. I'm grateful that China has taught me so much about a more simple lifestyle.

--I can't stop driving. Seriously, on the way home, when I'm supposed to turn right to go home and park the car, I can't. I love it sooo much that I end up circling the house twice before I can actually stop. Driving is one of my favorite things in the whole world. And I love being back in my hometown, this little place full of so much of my personal history, so many memories of friends and loves and fun times on these roads that I just keep circling them and laughing and singing along to my music again. It's really lovely. I'm so glad to be back.

quick update

2009-12-09T21:30:00.002-06:00

I'll write a real post soon, am currently just trying to recover from jetlag and alllll that travel! But since I'm back in the States, I've finally been able to add some photos to facebook...will try to add some on here soon! While you're waiting though, you can check out this album of my trip to Xian and the Terracotta Warriors here! Hope you enjoy!!

We keep on goin...

2009-11-30T09:20:00.000-06:00

Another Thanksgiving in China has come and gone...and the mood of the day seems to be "good riddance."

The problem with holidays in English language learning is that by the time they finally come around, you've been teaching culture class lessons on the day for so long that you're sick of it! For example, in the weeks leading to Thanksgiving, I spent one hour-long class teaching the food vocabulary, another hour class of "Thanksgiving dinner role play," one Q&A session (2 hours) on the history and culture of Thanksgivings past and present AND attended a 3 hour, school organized Thanksgiving party for our students...which included teaching 3 groups of students the craft of making a turkey out of their handprint. Then, my boss took all of the foreign teachers out for a Thanksgiving Brunch complete with round-the-table "What I am Thankful For" speeches. All of this was before the actual Thanksgiving day. Then, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, our group of foreigners in town always gets together for a traditional meal, so that was another round of thanksgiving!

Anyway...I AM thankful for all of it and DID enjoy it all thoroughly. There was great food and fellowship throughout the events. But I can honestly say that I'm perfectly comfortable with moving on.

Especially because Thanksgiving was the last big thing to do before coming home! Now the path is clear up til Flight Day!

I still feel a bit in denial that I am about to go. It doesn't seem real to me, that so soon I will be back home. Someone asked me what I missed the most about America, and besides my friends and family, I can't really name anything specific. It is as though I have forgotten that the things I once missed exist. There is just this vague haze of memory of the things in the US that I don't have here...cheese, milk, little debbies, Chili's, citywide sanitation...and I can't quite FEEL anything specific--longing, desire, anything--about them. They all just comprise this blur called America. I just know that it is good. That I like it. That it is home. I'm ready for my vacation.

Nothing to tell!

2009-11-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

In China, at least in my life, sometimes the lack of a story is a story all its own. Every week is filled with possibilities of disaster or adventure or both. What are routine errands in the States become massive quests here in Wuhan. A recent expedition to a friend's house for dinner, for example, involved a bus, a taxi, two long walks, a case of roosters, and a sweet potato.

With so many opportunities to be waylaid by some random bizarre detail, you begin to prepare well in advance of an errand for the fact of unforeseeable detours. For example, you need a needle and thread to repair an undone seam: you state that on Tuesday you will MAYBE go to the fabric market. You don't make any other plans for Tuesday and you don't even try to guess at how long it might take. You gird yourself for the adventure and hope that whatever comes, you will 1) get the supplies you need and 2)that the adventure will at least have a smidge enough humor to provide some good laughs in the retelling.

Anyway, I say all this because I've begun to complete all the large and small tasks that must be done before my upcoming trip to the States. I wanted to get my teeth cleaned and buy new contact lenses--both tasks that are much cheaper to do here in China. I also needed to buy a few Christmas gifts and exchange some money.

All of these tasks require preplanning. There are locations to be found, appointments to be set (except not really), Chinese friends to be requested as translators, dates made etc. After hearing friends' stories of dental or optometry visits, I was sure that I'd return with some excellent tales of culture clash. I spread out the trips and secured 4 free mornings to finish it all. I was prepared to be exhausted by the end.

I don't know if it's because I've lived here for long enough that I'm too comfortable to notice the issues. Or maybe Wuhan's massive growth has caused the city to become more globalized and efficient. Or maybe the stars all just aligned in my favor....

Because I have nothing to share! I completed all of my errands with the help of a friend in one day. It's all done! There were no delays, no surprises, no frustrations. My teeth are clean and healthy. My contacts are supplied. My gifts are purchased. My money is American. I feel nervous...it just all seemed too easy!

All that's left now is for me to get all my laundry done and pack! But since those initial errands went so smoothly, I have some extra time on my hands...so I suppose the procrastination can begin now! I'm sure by the time I board the plane, I'll have some sort of near disaster to share. I am still me, after all!

First Snow and I couldn't wait...

2009-11-16T06:57:00.000-06:00

Wuhan is all snowy today. The snow was mixed with sleet and slush yesterday, but this morning we woke to a light frosting and all day it's been coming down. Though the accumulation has remained as nothing more than a dusting...I couldn't help but get the Christmas music going!

In class this afternoon I taught my students to sing "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow." All day I've been rearranging my Christmas songs into the combinations that I like best.

And never before has the song "I'll be home for Christmas" made me sooo happy!! Just thought I'd share!

Disaster Highs

2009-11-14T12:40:00.000-06:00

It's 3 a.m. and I can't sleep. The world just ended 3 years from now. It was awesome.

I'm speaking of the new disaster flick 2012. I blame the fact that my first kiss followed a viewing of the movie Armageddon, but I'm a huge sucker for a good full-on disaster film. The more ridiculous and formulaic, the better it is in my book. Aliens, asteroids, nuclear warfare, perfect storms, volcanic eruptions, sinking ships, mountain avalanches, splintered freeways, tornadoes throwing cows around... you name it--if it's on the big screen, I'll be joyfully there, gnawing on twizzlers in stressed out rapture.

The big screen is the key though. I don't care for any of these once out on DVD...the mildly witty humor, obvious deadpan comments, vague moments of semi-scientific explanations, absurd escapes, heroic sacrifices and human togetherness need to be seen and heard in massive proportions to be any fun...a tv screen amputates away all the mindless vibrant joie de vivre of the genre.

Over the past few years, one of the things I've missed most was having great, mild date nights of food and movie. It's plain and routine and I love it. The movie theaters in Wuhan seldom show anything in English...so when they do, we usually make a point of trying to go. For this reason, in the past year, I have seen 3 movies in Wuhan theaters (and 2 in Beijing...which gets a bunch more of the international movies...so it doesn't count in this discussion): Valykrie (or however that one with Tom Cruise as a German was spelled), Transformers 2, and now 2012.

The first two were obviously duds, and it is a testament of Americans' innate love of a movie date that we all went at all. AND WE ENJOYED IT. The joy of movie theater movies is that if the movie is crap, you can laugh and make fun of it together while enjoying the atmosphere. The AWESOME joy of CHINESE movie theater movies is that you can also mess with peoples' minds. A row of foreigners draws attention....and so when that whole row of foreigners laughs simultaneously, everyone's going to notice. When those foreigners all laugh at a dramatic moment on cue from a pre-agreed-upon signal, everyone's going to get confused and wonder what their subtitles aren't telling them! And maybe they're even going to laugh along, pretending that they get the humor as well. It's wrong...but so fun.

Anyway, as soon as I heard of 2012, I knew I desperately wanted it to come to Wuhan. A review mentioned that the scientist character would utter "My. God." NOT JUST ONCE....but TWICE! And that the director...whatever his name is...is the type who's perfected worldwide disaster to the extreme...he's not just going to crush the White House, he's going to crush it with the USS John F. Kennedy battleship! He's not just going to have water flood some mountains, he's going to have it be Mount Everest! How could you ask for anything more!

And obviously, it did open in Wuhan. Disaster movies do well in China with only subtitles (not the usual redubbing) b/c you don't have to worry about everyone understanding the plot for it to be enjoyed. Plus, China actually has a role in the plot of the movie, so when we arrived, the first 2 showings were already sold out. We had to wait till 11:30 to see it, and the theater was packed! The movie did NOT disappoint! Cars drove through buildings!, airplanes brushed mountain peaks!, limos jumped cliffs!, California fell into the water!, the President was noble!, the expendable bumbling idiots met their end!, families found the love!, humanity found the love!, my heart raced and lots of cola was sold!

Without giving anything away, the movie is much more enjoyable if you:
1. Play your own version of a drinking game anytime there's obvious foreshadowing
2. whisper "dead dead dead" to your partner anytime a new character appears who will obviously not make it
3. Insert the line, "Wanna procreate?" into the dialogue any time the couples who will obviously be united by the disaster speak.

Ok, I'm finally coming down from the rush that was 2012 and will finish this up and go to bed. I don't know if I would ever recommend this movie in the States...the point of all of this is that I've lived over here for almost 2.5 years, so anything English in theaters is a drop of water in a parched land.

In closing, I'll share the line that got the biggest laugh in the Wuhan theater (foreigners and Chinese alike....though I think we the foreigners laughed harder at it):

Character 1 to hero as they fly in a small bush plane away from disaster (paraphrased for understanding): "So, where does this secret map that you just almost died to retrieve tell you the secret location is where we must go to save our lives?"

hero opens map to reveal the PRC with the word "CHINA" written in red across the country

hero: "We're gonna need a bigger plane."

Remembering the Summer Commute

2009-11-04T00:46:00.000-06:00

I wrote the following during the summer, but somehow in the haze of heat and work, I never posted it. Now that the weather is chilly and descending into cold, I thought it might be appropriate to pause and remember what was. I mostly write these descriptive posts for myself so that I can remember the little details when I'm back in the States. Not sure if they're as enjoyable for the readers though...oh well! Hope you're all enjoying the scarf weather wherever you are! ~LucyP

The Summer Commute

There is construction noise at all times, without end. First comes the sound of hammers and drills, then a welder and you can see sparks falling from somewhere above you. This morning, they are replacing something outside, dangling from windows and scaffolding that you can’t quite tell without leaning out the window—which is a bad idea. It is 7:30 and the noise will continue in various forms all day. Later, they will replace cabinets next door. Then it will be the building that’s going up down the street. Horns and the wail of the cardboard cart passing far below. You wake to urban life. The bed is hard and the sun is partially obscured by the adjacent high-rise.

And so you brew your favorite tea and play the music that reminds you that God’s grace is sometimes just moments of peaceful breathing in the midst of chaos. Morning is for tea and coffee and toast and fruit and responding to emails and reading news headlines and whatever else comes along.

But then the hour comes and you must step out into the blazing street, radiating heat stored from years of summer and dust that smacks your eyes while your nose can now smell only the putrid puddles tossed from the street vendors along the curb. And you merge into the pedestrian traffic of all mankind and walk the twisted jittery line of fitful bump and dodge and halt and speed-up that is the daily walk to the bus stop. There is the hobbled man collecting plastic bottles out of the trash bins, the grandmother holding a toddler by both hands as he walks in wobbling half-steps, his baby genitals on proud display framed by the traditional split pants found everywhere here. There are the stands jutting out with jiaozi and baozi and zongzi, smoke envelops you briefly passing Xinjiang shaokao, the lamb skewers heating over open coals and somehow it always smells like dirt even when it tastes so good.

Now you pass the hair salon and this gets dangerous as they claim all sidewalk space in front of their shops blasting with Korean pop music and you skirt onto the road with the motos and bicycles and whizzing taxis and buses. Don’t swing arms too wide and look before you venture further away from the curb to avoid the grate that is clogged with strips of cabbage and corn husks and green shoots from nowhere in particular. Now you cross the street and look both ways regardless of the lane you are crossing because there are cars around you on all sides with no solid yellow lines seen in the eyes of these drivers. It is frogger but it is life, so you do it now with everyone else and without blinking and forget that it is a strange thing to see cars use the sidewalk as a lane, or to watch a bus form its own lane between two streams of oncoming traffic.

And then jump onto the bus as inches forward, never actually stopping because a full stop seems to make it stall. It just slows to a crawl at the stops, so you learn to hit the ground running. Wedge and squeeze your way to the back and maybe find a seat while now the heat of the street is replaced by all too many bodies crammed together. The windows will be open in the back and on the 2 kuai buses the a/c will be running weakly, so there might be slight relief enough to wipe your brow of the grit that is everywhere. Lurches, jolts, screeching brakes, the bus gets more and more packed along the route. Flashes of life pass blurred: a family of 6 all on one moto, a bicycle loaded with full 5 gallon water jugs so high that they hover over the rider’s head, a peasant carrying a splintery wooden yoke on his shoulders with sheets of glass wrapped in plastic hanging from both sides, so many women wearing tight cheap heels on the broken jutting tiles of the walkway, stores overflowing with chintzy plastic jewelry, blankets spread out on the sidewalk filled with parasols or rubiks cubes or knives or zip drives or watermelons, all for sale by the peasant squatting beside, idly fanning themselves with a feather fan.

Then it’s your stop and you know without sight because the stinky doufu (a fried toufu that’s known for it’s gag-inducing smell while being cooked) vendors congregate here all day every day. Wedge and ease your way off the bus and it’s the jigsaw dance of the pedestrian sidewalks again. The buildings are taller here and giant outdoor screens loom above you, casting their luminous digital tech or LCD colors onto your face advertising lexus cars and whitening cream and wahaha pure water.

The streets are busier and you use the crosswalk, but you must control yourself because the crosswalks are tiny battlefields over and over again all day long. The ranks stand shoulder to shoulder on each side waiting for the light, and at the signal of the flashing green man, they advance upon each other, banners waving the in wind of passing traffic. A wall of humanity marches straight for another wall, closer and closer and you wonder if you might all pause and begin yelling Red Rover Red Rover. But no, everyone keeps walking, a game of chicken, who will turn aside first. And something of a warrior or just an American rises angrily in you and you ask why you must be the one to make way for them to cross, why they can’t figure out that there are walking lanes just like traffic lanes and everyone should stay to their own right-hand side of the crosswalk instead of fanning out like an old-fashioned infantry. And so depending on the day and the goodness in your heart, you either swoop your shoulders to the side and walk sideways through the onslaught, dancing to the right then left then far right and making way for them to pass you as you pass them…or…you steel your face and square your shoulders and set your jaw and look straight forward with head held high and eyes of fire and you march. March! You march and you dare them to barrel into you or brush your shoulder. They do the same.

And then, after all the fury of the street, you are standing in front of another nondescript skyscraper of 60 floors (maybe) and walking through the revolving doors that are always too slow for you because you’re always so close to being late. There’s no a/c in the lobby but it’s cooler in a dark cave kind of way. The elevators on the left take you to the 10th floor. The office is modern with glass walled classrooms and new computers. You go first to the washroom to wash your hands and tidy your face and try to cool down, grab a water, and finally, it’s time to teach.

Xi'an and other things...

2009-10-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

I don't know if it's because I've lived in one place for over 2 years now, or if it's because living in a city of public transportation means you pay more attention to the weather, or if Wuhan just has more predictable weather patterns than what I've known before, but I've become a Wuhanren Farmer's Almanac.

For the third year now, I've seen fall arrive all in one day...or well, week. There is always a slight push and pull for a week or so, and then, one day, it rains. It's a miserable cold rain that is really nice if you can stay inside and drink tea and read, but if you have to go anywhere, it's soggy and drippy and runny-nosey. And then the rain clears and the next days are breezy and nice, cool in mornings and evenings and shade, and fall is here for a little while. The sweet potato vendors pop up here and there, the markets slowly but surely begin to overflow with oranges, and short sleeves completely disappear, not to return until after May 1st next year. It's really lovely--and this year, it was a neat experience KNOWING that this is what would happen. The first year, I experienced it all with new eyes and the second year I wasn't quite sure if it would be the same...and then it was. This year, I knew. Fall came and we greeted it like a friend we'd invited over for dinner. We knew it would arrive. It did.

And now, right on schedule, we all have colds.

So I'm up sniffling and coughing late at night, waiting for the tea I drank to kick in and clear me up enough to lay down. It's always a shame because the weather is so great that you want to be outside enjoying it, but instead your stuck inside a cocoon of sinus pressure and sleepiness. Blah. Oh well, it will pass. I know this too.

Last weekend I got out of town for a quick trip north(ish), to Xi'an. Katera and I took a 13 hour night train there and spent a day and a half exploring the ancient capital before returning on another 13 hour night train. It was a really really great trip. I was itching to get out of town for a little while and Xi'an was the last major city that I absolutely HAD to see before leaving China.

Best known to foreigners as the home to the Terra Cotta Warriors, Xian was the capital of China on and off well before Beijing hit the scene. There is a saying in China that "if you want to see the past 50 years of China, go to Shenzhen. If you want to see the past 500 years of China (or maybe 100? I forget), go to Beijing. If you want to see the past 5000 years of China, go to Xi'an." And it's true. There are several really fascinating elements of the city and we were able to see just about everything in our short time there.

Besides the Terra Cotta Warriors (which are actually located outside of the city), Xian was the final point on the Silk Road and there's a thriving Muslim Quarter in the city today. It's also one of the only Chinese cities that still has a surviving city wall that surrounds the inner section of town (The wall even has a moat! So cool.).

It's a city filled with history. And it's the kind of history that makes you excited to be walking on the dirt of the place. To be stepping where people have been stepping for thousands and thousands of years. Since before Jesus.

For some reason during the weekend, I kept coming back to that point. It's funny growing up in the US, because we don't have much geographic reference to really really old things. Our history is a drop in the bucket, a mere couple hundred years. Although the Native Americans may have trod where our feet now tread, we don't have much remaining from their time. And so it's hard to comprehend how OLLLLLDDDD the old things are here. And thus, my mind goes to the best/easiest reference point that I know. The BC/AD split. Somehow, it helps my mind wrap around things....that what I'm looking at is older than Jesus. That if He had felt like traveling, he could have seen these same things that I am seeing now. Maybe He did (up on the rooftop in the temptations...the kingdoms of the world...). It's random and I'm not trying to make any religious point...I'm just sharing that it's one of the ways my mind works.

Anyway, we saw all the major sites. The Bell Tower (where a bell was rung every sunrise) and the Drum Tower (where drums were beat each sunset), the Muslim Quarter (where we ate the local specialty, yangrou paomo, a soup that has lamb and crumbled up bread in it and was really filling) and the Great Mosque (which was really cool and combined Chinese and Islamic architecture/decor in a really beautiful way), the Wild Goose Pagoda (which looked more Arabic than Chinese and was gorgeous in its unique simplicity), the famous water and light show that is the largest in Asia (and reminded me of Opryland Hotel..sorry culture! Globalism got me!), the City Walls, the Subway restaurant (where we had lunch...again, sorry culture! I miss America!) annnnnnnndddddddd......

The Warriors.

What can I say. They take your breath away. Well....err....mostly they do. All of the travel tips about the warriors mentioned that some people come away disappointed from their experience because the access is so distant. You do have to push and shove a little to get a front row view, and you're at a bit of a distance. It's different than the pictures that you see of them. And Chinese museum etiquette is quite "different" (there are other less-nice things I could say here). So, that said, I was prepared for it to be neat, but not great. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised by the awesome grandness of the first pit, the detail of the soldiers and the shear idea of it all.

The discovery is one of those that all little boys (and girls!!!) should read about, because it sends your imagination flying. In 1974 a farmer was digging a well in his fields and his bucket pulled up a terra cotta head. The PRC gave him about $10 (USD) and took over, uncovering one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the century. (Ok...maybe the kids shouldn't get too hopped up on the story because then everyone would end up with big holes dug in their backyards! I seriously kept wanting to walk out into the nearest field and start digging myself!)

The farmer who found the head was ACTUALLY THERE the days we toured. He is really old and now a multimillionaire, he comes into the museum and signs copies of his book for tourists when he feels like it. So although he was initially jipped, he's doing well now. We didn't buy his book, but we were able to get a few clandestine pics of him signing. I can't post pics here on blogger w/this proxy--but I think I'll be able to put them up on Facebook soon.

Anyway, the details of the Terra Cotta Army are well known: no two faces are the same, they were likely made to guard the first Emperor Qin from enemies in the afterlife...or at least, Qin assumed that he'd continue ruling the afterlife just as he did the living, there were probably over 8000 soldiers, most of which are still buried in the pits, they were made around 210 BC etc. If you don't know, wikipedia it.

Mostly, I think I was most fascinated by the story of the discovery. It's just effing exciting! Nearby the pits, you can see the hill of Emperor Qin's burial mound. It is currently impossible to excavate because there are currently no archeological techniques that could ensure preservation and also there's a possible mercury poisoning issue. (again, wiki/google it for more details). It's exciting that there's still more to be found, it's all just waiting there underground.

Next, Katera and I both noticed that the faces of the warriors do not seem similar to the faces of those who we are constantly surrounded by. I have yet to mention this to my Chinese friends, I'm curious if they see a resemblance. But I suppose I don't see many similarities in the portraits of Rembrandt with today's caucasians either.

Finally, my favorite part was a bit macabre...but I really enjoyed looking into the pits where many of the soldiers hadn't yet been pieced back together. Emerging from the dust/mud would be an arm, or a lone foot, or a face. In one the soldier was still mostly buried, but with his shoulders, neck, and head uncovered, and the rest beneath the dirt. It was weird, but all those little bits here and there, broken and strewn about...those were the pits that I couldn't take my eyes off of.

Overall, when I get to see these amazing sights...the sun rising in the mists of the Great Wall, the trees literally devouring the ancient temples of Angkor, the mysterious stone jars jutting up here and there in the plains of Laos, and the hundreds of warriors standing tall and firm together side by side in the orange mud of their pits...I'm just stunned. Stunned that I am seeing it with my own eyes, stunned that I am here, stunned that these sights are now a part of my story. It's extraordinary.

I can access blogs again!

2009-10-04T00:24:00.000-05:00

Hello again. I had planned to post updates more often last month, but the internet is blocked in many many different places, and the blocks are playing "pop-a-weasel" with the proxies that we use to get around it all. I just downloaded a new one yesterday, we'll see how long this one works!

It's the day after Moon Festival and the streets and market were quiet this morning; people all moving slowly after a night of feasting under the full moon. There are still countless moon cakes filling the shelves, and it is strange to see them without hordes of shoppers sifting through them all so possessively, trying to find the box that will earn them the most guangxi from the recipient.

National Day came and went too. October 1 marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. Beijing apparently went all out with pomp and spectacle while simultaneously tightening it's icy grip on internet and security in the rest of the country to assure control of the news cycle. In the days before National Day, a man peddled slowly down the main avenue of Wuchang with a crookety wooden wheelbarrow piled high with Chinese flags and each tiny shop along the way paid their due and proceeded to mount the ol' red and yellow in whatever way they saw fit: some dangling from twine, some placed in old buckets and then balanced precariously on the doorframe, some just punched into drywall. The cities were told to limit their own celebrations to give Beijing its deserved attention, so as far as I know, Wuhan had a fireworks display along the river and that was all. My students slept in and went shopping. I did too.

And now I'm sitting in the sun of my window seat, drinking coffee and trying to ignore the sounds of a neighbor practicing his recorder and the car horns blaring 20 floors below. Red beans and rice are simmering on the stove and cornbread is warming in the oven for lunch. I bought several art books a few days ago and have been practicing pencil sketches, so the coffee table is strewn with crumpled up papers of mediocre attempts at perspective or shading. My Book is open next to them and soon I will spend some time outlining upcoming Studies for the semester.

I always hear married couples use the line that they can't imagine life without each other. Then parents say that they can't remember what they did with their time before they had children. I always imagined that I'd someday say the same things. I've been thinking today though as I look around at my peaceful apartment and think of my future, that I won't be able to accurately say either. I am 25 and single, which isn't a big deal at all...but I can and must imagine my life without someone else being there. Now hopefully, if I get a husband someday I'll be able to say all the lovely cliched things about how much being together changed my life and allll that..but right now, yes, I CAN imagine my life without whoever he is. It's a good life. I have really fun daydreams of my future, and if no husband comes along to change the plans (which...lets face it, I'm still hoping that the plans DO get changed by someone!), they'll still come true and my life will still be really cool.

And similarly, in these quiet moments with my blog and my coffee and cooking things from scratch and my Book and my silly drawings, I KNOW how I am spending my time before children. I'm trying to revel in it, to enjoy it to its fullest while this chapter is here...because someday when I have kids screaming around me and only have time for Zatarans boxed (or microwaveable) red beans and rice and I don't get to sit and drink coffee because it's time for soccer practice or whatever...I will hopefully know then that I've had my time to myself and that I didn't take it for granted.

I don't know who instilled it in me, probably my mom, but I'm really grateful that someone taught me to not take things for granted. When I bounce up the stairs, I sometimes remember to take a moment and be thankful...right then and there...for knees that don't pop or creak yet and muscles that don't ache from stairs. So I feel that someday, when my knees and muscles don't work quite so well, I'll know that I enjoyed them while I had them. Right now, I can tell that allergy season is on its way, so I try to take deep deep breathes of air and to actively enjoy being able to breathe without difficulty, because once the leaves start falling then colds and allergies will likely come, and I'll miss breathing with ease. And maybe someday, my time will no longer be so much my own, and this chapter of life so luxuriously filled with time and peace and reflection will be passed, and I'm hoping to say that I appreciated it to its fullest.

So yeah, to close this post up: take deep gulps of air, climb some stairs, stretch, draw, read, drink coffee in the sun, cook, blog...do whatever you do...and enjoy.

Round Three

2009-09-13T23:35:00.003-05:00

With two years of life in China passed, I now find myself experiencing cyclical moments for a third time and I cannot help but pause and mark the reality of this. Somehow, me…this normal, average person…is beginning a 3^rd year of existence in China. Bizarre. Here are my random thoughts:

The simple fact that someone lives in China does not make them intrinsically cool or open-minded or fun. We get treated really special over here, our students give us a lot of attention and typically act as though they might kiss the ground that we walk on…but it doesn’t mean anything. We are not that cool. Some people are very cool people, some people are very interesting people, but moving to China does not automatically grant you any personality value that was not already there within.

I miss our puritanical compulsions towards sanitation and order sometimes.

I still miss driving.

I care much less about the workings of Western pop culture (or did until everyone just came back from a summer in the US and are referencing movies and songs that I didn't know existed!).

Yes…but. In a nation of so many billions of people, it is impossible to generalize. For every statement that I have probably ever made (or will make) there is always an exception. Sometimes the exceptions to a generality compose an entire province, sometimes the exception is still larger than the entire population of the U.S., sometimes it seems like an exception simply because “I know a guy who…” Anyway, we all make these statements all the time about “China,” or “the Chinese” as explanations for something or other…and we’re always immediately partially incorrect. There are a billion angles to this harmonious nation, and two years in Wuhan have revealed a few of them…but only a few. Nothing on this blog can give a definitive view of The Great China…just like a foreigner spending 2 years in Kingsport, Tennessee would be not fully equipped to comment on all of America based on that experience.

There’s a line in one of my favorite “songs”…it’s an inspirational speech set to music that came out in 1999 or so called “Wear Sunscreen” that says, “live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.” I think about that sometimes as I find my interactions with some veering away from the southern hospitality and gentility of my upbringing. Wuhan is not NYC, but it has more people and is notorious in China for being a city of tough, hardened personalities. The dialect even sounds angry. Though my friends who I’ve met from Wuhan have all been so kind and giving and lovely in every way, a case study of street scenes alone would show a sharp-edged urban environment of people driving hard bargains on the street, working any angle to get ahead, pushing, shoving, and yelling at those who get in their way. Perhaps this urban mentality has worked its way into my thinking, or maybe I’ve just lost patience with some of the more intrusive aspects of being a foreigner here…but I find myself forgoing southern gentility in favor of blunt, direct, forthright assertions these days.

My first year, strangers would walk up to me on the street and ask to “make friends for to improve my englishes.” They’d follow this request with persistent requests for my phone number. Back then, I would politely offer my email address instead, or explain that I’d love to be friends but I’m very busy but maybe they could come to the school’s English corner and see me then, or that my phone was not working so I couldn’t share it with anyone...etc. Now, I just say No, Thank you. If they persist, I say No, Thank you. If they persist louder, I turn, stare them in the eye, and say No. Thank You. (ok, ok…it sounds really bad—but I’m only really really direct when they get really really up in my face—which does happen on a semi-regular basis)

I have to fight harder to keep a humanistic worldview sometimes. US and THEM gets into my thinking too often…. it’s just harder putting it all into practice when you’re such the outsider here.

Absolutely everything that is done in China can be partially…sometimes fully…explained by the following: There are a lot of people in China. When new foreigners move to Wuhan and are filled with so many “Why?” questions, I'm sometimes tempted to just repeat each time as a response, “There are a lot of people in China.”

I’m very very very American. And Southern. It’s deep down in me.

This is my last year in China. Of course, nothing is certain, but I feel highly confident that this chapter of life is coming to a close. I’m ready for this to be my final round of things in China and to start considering where the next chapter should be…right now it’s looking like India!

The truth is that along the way, there are days when I am absolutely confident that this is exactly where I am meant to be, there are days when I feel so utterly exhausted by the struggle of life here that I can’t remember why I came, there are days when I think I could stay another 3 years, there are days when I think that it might be best for both me and China if I just quit it all and leave tomorrow.

Before I first came to China, I went and sat on a cliff overlook in SW Virginia that has been a thinking spot for me through the years. I tried to take a moment and enjoy who I was at that precise time, the Lucy-before-China. Because I assumed that moving to a land so completely opposite would have to change me somehow. I didn’t move here for that change, I wasn’t searching for anything; I was just following where I felt I should go.

And now two years in, I’m not sure that I did change all that much. I believe much more in the possibilities of alternative lifestyles (uh….meaning, lifestyles that vary from the typical school-college-work-marriage-mortgage-kids-retirement path that so many of us are taught is the way of life), I am more confident in myself, more sure that it has been His Hand all along doing something with my life, I know myself more… I’ve learned a lot, I’ve practiced a lot, but in all, it’s not something that changed me so much as it’s been something that forced me to put into practice all the things that I have always been. Sometimes I’ve failed at that. There are some weaknesses that have come out in the process that have been given too much time and nutrition that I have to eliminate. But overall, the past two years have been vibrant, crazy, lovely, absurd, and wonderful.

And now I have one more year—round 3—to seize and try to do to the fullest all the things that I came here to do. I have one final year here in China to try to be someone who brings joy into this spot of the world, who reflects light into dark places, who learns to give her time and energy to others. We’ll see how it goes!

This was funny

2009-08-26T21:45:00.002-05:00

This is a funny post from Wired.com...which I don't normally read but was intrigued by the title:

100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About

posted by Nathan Barry on the blog "GeekDad." I'm not sure if the link I just made is working (our internet is still royally blocked in all sorts of ways over here)...so if it doesn't...copy and paste this:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/07/100-things-your-kids-may-never-know-about/

I found it pretty funny and related to a bunch of these...though I'll confess that many of them were just from my days in elementary school before the changes came about. Here were my favorites from the list:

-remembering everyone's telephone numbers
-not knowing who was calling you
-laserdisc (we had one of these in our middle school classrooms....hilarious)
-Waiting for the television-network premiere to watch a movie after its run at the theater.
-Taking turns picking a radio station, or selecting a tape, for everyone to listen to during a long drive (in our family there were no turns....just NPR alllllll the way from Virginia to Texas)
-Using a road atlas to get from A to B. (ok...I still do this sometimes...but yeah, mostly I'm all mapquest when I'm home)
-Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time (when electronic things don't work, including my cell phone and macbook, I still try to blow on them...it works sometimes!)

This concerns me:
-Hershey bars in silver wrappers.
Are Hershey's no longer coming in silver wrappers??? What's going on over there????

Anyway...it made me smile. Hope you enjoy the bit of nostalgia. Any additions of your own?

Summer whatnot

2009-08-20T06:08:00.003-05:00

So the summer is finally beginning to wind down and I finally had a day off after a round of 21 straight days worked (most of them being 7.5-10 hour days too!). I have 4 days left of work for this month, then hopefully settle into a more regular schedule in September.

It's been a crazy summer but overall one that was what I needed. I'm mostly settled into my apartment, though I still have one box and one suitcase left to unpack...we'll save that for my next day off...3 days from now. Here are some comments from life on the 20th floor:

--I get deeply, irrationally pissy when people from floors 2-5 use the elevator. After two years living in a 5th floor walkup, I've become a bit critical, I know. But seriously...if they don't have bags and aren't infirm, quit holding me up! Not that I wouldn't have used an elevator to get to my 5th floor apt if I had had one, but come on...I paid my dues.

--my complex has these great walking paths all over the place, a pool, and I have roof access with a view of the lake. It ALMOST makes up for the fact that my windows directly face the building across from me..very limited view.

--speaking of the view, I suppose there might be an age where being able to see naked people when you glance out your window might have been a funny thing...a novel thing...something. But 25 is not that age. It's annoying and gross. From my couch, a glance to the right gives me view of 9 floors worth of communal dwelling, windows lighted at night, curtains never closed to hide away any intimate moments that may need to be hidden. Sometimes this is amusing...seeing a couple fighting in a hallway and then seeing both sides of a closed door as the woman inside waited for the man, who was leaning hopefully against the outside of the door, to leave. Other views...well...they aren't so amusing. I don't want to see all that business...but I also don't want to close up my own curtains either...it's just too dreary with them shut. (although I at least have the courtesy to close them before I shower and whatnot...oh well.

--another note on the view: *before you read: I need to share--this is NOT as bad as it seems it's going to be. Just follow it through* Ok, so one afternoon I was watching 30 Rock and enjoying a cup of mint tea when I saw, hands down, the most awful thing I've ever almost seen in my life. I had been looking at the liveliness of a plant that sits by my window when the corner of my eye caught something white and about 5ish feet long hurling downward past my window. I screamed one of those nightmarish inhaled screams/gasps/shrieks and froze, pulse racing, knees and arms beginning to shake. I really think I've never been more terrified--as one of those out-of-body, primal forces moved me to the window to make sure of what I thought I saw. Thank God, literally, what I instead saw was a striped white and pink towel, that though once was falling downward had now been lifted again by the wind and was floating around somewhere near the 8th floor now. It must have been hanging to dry up on the roof when the wind set it free, letting it fall past my window and causing the deepest shock that I've felt in a while. Maybe it hadn't even been falling so fast ...but out of the corner of my eye, the glimpse I saw was enough to make me think the worst. It's made me add a request to my YARPs at night...please let this building never experience the thing I thought was happening...

On to more pleasant topics:

I went and got my hair cut today. Over a year ago (May 2008), I had my hair chemically straightened here in China. It was ok, nice to not worry about humidity and whatnot, but my hair always looked really lifeless, so I decided to let the "perm" grow out. It's been weird because as my hair grew, the top part grew in curly/wavy, but the bottom lengths were still stick-straight. Today, my hair had finally grown enough that I was able to get the last of the permed hair cut off. It's nice to be back to natural. Anyway, at the hair salon, I really liked the product that we used to curl my hair, so I bought a bottle. The back of the bottle is so classic Chinglish that I had to share. Beware, there is randomly placed, nonsensical cussing underneath:

Funny Hand
Characteristic: The special shape formulation
canbe made alive with texture in curly hair,mo
re Imply to moisten the formulation speciallyc
an be quickfor fuck of Curly hair compleme
' humidity,is lustrous and vivid and bright
the curly hair.It still imlles to do not gl
ue toget fed up with the formulation s
-pe cially making your show hair it is
clear diy todo not glue to get fed up
with increment luster, increment cu
-rly haira degree.

*spacing, spelling and grammar left the same....ohhhh China.

Cooking Cereal?

2009-07-23T07:48:00.002-05:00

Ahhh...the awesome stories that we collect while teaching English in China.

For the past few weeks, one of the courses I teach features coteaching; I am paired with a Chinese English teacher and together we share the teaching responsibilities for our class. During the course, my coteacher, Maggie, shared this story from her first week in America (she lived there for about a year):

One her first day in America, Maggie was introduced to her home and town by a fellow Chinese citizen living and working in her her town. This new friend took Maggie to WalMart and helped her find items to get settled into her new American life. One of the first items she showed Maggie was a box of cereal...saying that it would become one of her favorite American food products. Maggie bought a box or two and went on with shopping.

The next morning, Maggie prepared her first American breakfast. She poured the cereal into the bowl, boiled some water, added it to the cereal and began to eat.

At this point in the story--I began to laugh uncontrollably. Maggie joined the laughter. Our class waited, confused. No one understood why this might possibly be funny.

Maggie then went on to explain the joke. After trying her first bite of cereal, Maggie called her friend and asked how she could love it so much. The friend didn't understand. Then she asked how Maggie had prepared it and also began laughing.

Anyway--we then told the class about cereal and how we eat it for breakfast. I thought we did a good job explaining, until I recieved this email tonight. I thought you guys would enjoy:

I bought the kind of oatmeal you and Maggie mentioned in our class when she told us her first breakfast in America . I think I cooked it according to your description. I put some in a bowle and poured some cold milk into it . I waited for about 5minites. But it seemed the oatmeal stayed the same as it hadn't been cooked. I sure I bought that kind which can be cooked with cold milk . so ,what's wrong?

Tomorrow's the big day: Eclipse 2009

2009-07-21T08:23:00.002-05:00

Sorry it's been a month since I last posted...I'm on the 10th day of a stretch of 16 straight days in which I'm working 7.5-10 hours a day...so blogging isn't exactly on my mind! But with all the excitement, I had to update:

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- The longest full solar eclipse this century, lasting 6 minutes and 39 seconds in some areas, will plunge cities, including Shanghai, into darkness as it passes over India and China tomorrow.

OH YES, my friends, I'll be experiencing the wonder of TOTAL ECLIPSE 09!! Tomorrow morning we'll be experiencing the darkness of a total eclipse, and WUHAN is right in the line of shadow.

Ok so, of course, I was one of the last to know about the eclipse...well, except for the poor farmers who have never heard of such a thing, and will probably have a major freak out tomorrow morning! Anyway, for about a week, I've been noticing these "3D" looking paper glasses being sold on the street. I guess I've been in China for too long, because for quite some time I just walked past them without thinking much of it..."Oh, China's into 3D now...maybe it's like when the SuperBowl halftime show was in 3D and we all got the glasses attached to Pepsi bottles...whatever." I really just figured that there must be a hit 3D movie out or something...

But no, they're not 3D, they're SOLAR VISION glasses. Wearing these foilish covered glasses will allow all the Chinese to stare safely for about an hour and a half at the slowly diminishing and reappearing sun. This definately beats the "pinhole in a cardboard box top" method that I remember from my childhood.

I think that there was actually a full or almost-full eclipse when I was in kindergarten or first grade in the US. I'm not sure and I'm too tired to look it up... Anyway, all I remember from it was a SEVERE distrust in the people who told me I'd go blind from looking at the sun ("But I stare at the sun all the time....like this!!" "NO LUCY!!!"), and the annoyance of looking at the shadow of a pin hole in a shoebox lid waning and waxing when we could've just looked up and seen the thing for real.

Anyway, I'll be teaching tomorrow morning when it hits, but I'm sure such a momentous occasion will call for a break from classes....so I'll be sure to take pictures of the fun. For now, pray for our retinas and sanity as we experience TOTAL ECLIPSE 09!!!!!

When it rains, it pours

2009-06-24T11:21:00.003-05:00

Sometimes it all seems to pile up.

When I logged onto the internet today--I quickly found that all Google-related web services are now blocked over here. This means Gmail, Gtalk, Google Search, Google Translate and a billion other services that I use on a daily basis.

So--to keep count, here's the roundup of items blocked by our lovely Great Wall:
-Google and all its wonders
-Blogger (ok--that's through Google, but I'm still listing it separately)
-YouTube
-MySpace (occasionally, when they're in the mood)
-Twitter (I don't really care about that one)

the list probably goes on and on--these are just the ones that I've noticed. I'm not placing any personal feelings about this blockage on here--just sharing that it's blocked. Also--that I obviously am able to function despite the block.

Finally--I received this warning from the US Embassy yesterday. I thought I would share:

June 19, 2009

The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens to the quarantine measures imposed by the Government of China in response to the 2009-H1N1 pandemic that may affect travel to China. This Travel Alert expires on September 30, 2009.

Current quarantine measures in China include placing arriving passengers who exhibit fever or flu-like symptoms into seven-day quarantine. Although the proportion of arriving Americans being quarantined remains low, the random nature of the selection process increases the uncertainty surrounding travel to China. The selection process focuses on those sitting in close proximity to another traveler exhibiting fever or flu-like symptoms or on those displaying an elevated temperature if arriving from an area where outbreaks of 2009-H1N1 have occurred. We have reports of passengers arriving from areas where outbreaks have occurred (including the U.S. and Mexico) being placed in precautionary quarantine simply because they registered slightly elevated temperatures.

In some instances, children have been separated from their parents because either the parent or the child tested positive for 2009-H1N1 and was placed in quarantine for treatment. This situation presents the possibility of Chinese medical personnel administering medications to minors without first having consulted their parents.

The Department of State has received reports about unsuitable quarantine conditions, including the unavailability of suitable drinking water and food, unsanitary conditions, and the inability to communicate with others.

Travelers to China are reminded that all foreign travelers, including U.S. citizens, are obliged to follow local procedures regarding quarantines and any other public health-related measures. The U.S. Embassy will be unable to influence the duration of stay in quarantine for affected travelers. The Chinese government will not compensate people for lost travel expenses. Travelers to China are urged to consider purchasing travel insurance to protect against losses in the event they are quarantined.

For more information on U.S. Government policy during a pandemic, and for travel safety information, please see the State Department’s “Pandemic/Avian Influenza” and “Remain in Country” fact sheets on www.travel.state.gov. Further information about 2009-H1N1 Influenza, including steps you can take to stay healthy, can be found at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control website at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/, the U.S. Government pandemic influenza website at http://www.pandemicflu.gov, and the World Health Organization website at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html.

I guess I'll just say that I'm wondering if maybe I should've come home for the summer after all. It's gonna be a long day!

Worth a thousand words

2009-06-12T15:14:00.000-05:00

Everything is still blocked up over here, so I can't post pics to my blog. Maybe eventually we'll get access back, but I'm not holding my breath. If you'd like to see pics of my latest adventures, use these links to see my facebook albums:

Hiking and Camping on the GREAT WALL!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044098&id=147800610&l=b2d0fb06ff

My Birthday:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2043302&id=147800610&l=abf4e2c99f

Change and other things

2009-06-08T01:39:00.000-05:00

The rain has been falling all day and outside it smells like swimming pools and cigarettes and weed-wacker exhaust; although as far as I can tell, cigarettes are the only legitimate odor present. I've been living for the past weeks under my mosquito net--which comes in a tent-like structure with pretty pretty cheap purple lace as an accent. Now that climbing in and out of bed requires an extensive zipping and rezipping process, most of my day-to-day belongings are found sprawled at and around my feet--my laptop and camera, a book by Capote and another by E.B. White, two thin theology books by Bonhoeffer and Barbara Brown Taylor, an orange highlighter, the second season of 30 Rock dvds, a "Survival Chinese" pocket dictionary, a few socks, a few one yuan bills, a packet of tissues, my cell phone, three pens, a ponytail holder with two bobby pins attached, and an empty water bottle. Strange bedfellows, I know...but I'm most comfortable with a moderate level of clutter surrounding me.

Summer is only just beginning to pull its punches and show its hand. I keep the refridgerator stocked with water and jello, fresh fruit and yogurt...because the idea of actually cooking anything seems a little overly ambitious these days. As I've mentioned many times before, Wuhan is one of China's four "furnace cities"--and the heat is a wet, heavy, humid, air sapping heat. It hasn't totally hit yet--only strong hints of the summer to come. So far I've kept my goal of no a/c--but the fan has been spinning at full speed for a few weeks--so it's a relief to turn it off for a few hours as the rain pours down outside.

The school year is finally winding down and I'm preparing for another change in pace. A few months ago I began looking around Wuhan at the other employment options here--after two years of teaching with my university I wondered if I should consider the jobs in town that offer a higher salary or a different type of work. After considering several different options, I have finally accepted a position with a training school here in town. It's a company that provides English language learning for students, business people, and anyone else who wants to improve their English ability. I'll be working a little bit more than my schedule at the university--but I'll earn a salary that allows me to totally support myself and forgo the fundraising I've been dependent on for the past two years. With the economic climate being what it is in the US (and everywhere), I'm really blessed to be able to do the Work that I do and still earn a living.

And so at the end of this month I'll be moving from my shady green neighborhood and my cute apartment at the top of the stairs to somewhere new. I'll be looking at apartments soon, but am guessing that I'll be much closer to the center of town in a much more urban setting. I'm both excited and sad. I love my little apartment here, with the preschool/kindergarten below and the trees rustling beneath my window. I love the sounds of the street sweeper in the mornings and the wail of the recycling man pushing his cart down the alley. All the birds in the trees on the hill. Even the radio broadcasts projected every afternoon through the campus PA system. I'll miss it here.

But, change happens. I'm really thankful that I'll still be in close contact with my students and will still be able to Reach Out to them--maybe even more effectively since I will no longer be an employee with their school and can have more freedom to Hang Out with them. I'll still be doing exactly what I came here to do--just with a different job to pay for me to do it!

My mom used to say that I had the hardest time with change. And of course it was true. If we changed the type of twinkle lights on our Christmas tree, it would bring tears. I got moody if our furniture was rearranged. I cried miserably each time we moved towns or houses, each time we changed schools, each time life shifted. I hated the instability of my early life.

I think about that all the time now. I used to pray so often that Father would give me a life of stability. A life where I could get married and settled and never move again. Never make my kids move. And now I laugh when I think that I've moved in and out of places every year for the past 7 years. (ok ok--last year I didn't move apartments, but I had to pack up all my things for the summer and move them out--and for four years of those 7 I was in college and just moving dorm rooms--but it all counts) I laugh when I think how I'm so grateful for it all now--the changing houses and schools and churches and lives--so grateful that my habit of clinging disparately to one set thing was over and over again challenged.

Don't get me wrong, I still struggle with change in a big way--I don't even live in the U.S. but I feel really sad that Conan has moved from New York to L.A. and has a new set and new time slot!

But there is a difference in the tears that I once cried over change and the tears that I now cry. I still feel it deeply--but no longer despairingly. Because I know that G_d took all those changes in my life and gave me strength. I know that the adaptability I was given through each change eventually brought me here to China. I know that He blessed me with this awesome life that I lead--full of changes and an unknown future--that to many seems quite unstable. I accept all this change because I know that He DID answer those prayers of my youth, not quite with an unchanging way of life, but with an unchanging Presence. The stability of His Spirit. The stability of His guidance. The stability of His Purpose.

The reality of life--or at least, the reality of the life that I've been Called to in this moment--is that in order to grasp the stability of my Father, I have to give up the stability of location. I have to be open to the new places and changes He brings my way. I have to detach from these Things I've come to love--my apartment, my schedule, my neighborhood--in order to stay attached to the One I love. I'm ok with that now. I know it's worth it.

So I've committed to a third year here in Wuhan--and it should be quite interesting. Right now I'm letting myself be a little sad over moving and changing--but I'll be sure to update you when the sadness passes and the excitement hits! Because I begin teaching in July, I will not be returning to the U.S. this summer. Instead I'm planning on taking a month long vacation around Christmas--after two years away from my family during the holidays, I'm ready to return to a Tennessee Christmas! So please keep me in your Thoughts--this means that I'll have spent a year and a half in China without a trip home--which is an emotional adjustment to make when most of us come for 10-11 months and then go home each summer. I know I can do it--I just need His help as I do. A year and a half is a long time to go without seeing your family at all. But I think that knowing I get to be with them for Christmas will make it worth it! (although I'm going to go crazy if I don't get to see my sister and brother-in-law SOMETIME in the next year or so--if y'all read this--I'm coming to Germany if I have to sell everything that I own!!!)

End note--I still can't post pics or links via this proxy site--Blogger is still shut down over here (along with YouTube, Myspace, Twitter, and countless others). So if it ever comes back I'll fill up my blog w/pics. Until then I'll just have to be really really descriptive! Love to you all!

Updates of Spring and Youth

2009-05-31T08:53:00.000-05:00

Sorry to any readers who I may still have out there...blogger has been shut down over here and I'm only now finding a way to post (assuming that this DOES post!). Alot has happened since my last update, so I'll try to take some time in the next few days and give summaries of life over here. For now....

Spring: Wuhan had a few miserably hot days, but mostly our Spring has been lovely, with breezes sweeping through the apartment and enough rain here and there to slow you down and make you drink tea by an open window. I've kept my windows open for about a month now and have loved waking up to soft winds and the sound of children playing in the kindergarten below.

Birthday: I turned 25 last month with allll sorts of fun and am continually reminded of how blessed I am. The day before my birthday, my Reading Group students came for Study at my apartment and brought a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of coke, a cute wooden fan with pandas on it, and a gorgeous plum blossom ink painting. I was blown away because I didn't even think that I had told them that I had a birthday coming. My students are SO considerate and sweet to me. I really can't express how glad I am to have them in my life. We had a great study that night that really encouraged me for the Work that we can do here.

The next day I made the trip across the Yangtse River to eat at my favorite restaurant in town, Aloha. This place has the best western food in Hubei--hamburgers and mexican options and incredible milkshakes. After lunch I returned to my side of town for our weekly ladies YARP meeting--at which Katera surprised me with a REAL American birthday cake with REAL icing. In China, the cakes are really decorative, but they taste more like a very plain shortbread cake and the icing has little to no sugar--so they're not my favorite. But Katera had a western coffeeshop in town make me a real cake and it was one of the best things I've eaten all year.

After YARP, it was time to be young and frivolous. For explanation of what occurred, you need background: Blue is my all-time favorite color. I am also a big fan of monochromism--my favorite paintings, outfits, housewares etc are typically always just different shades of one color. I've noticed that when shopping I'm always drawn into the stores that group their clothes together by colors. It's one of my things. Finally, I've always wanted blue hair. I've toyed with the idea of dying it blue many times, but either didn't want to bleach it first or felt that it wouldn't be a good career move or have just been too lazy. Some have asked me why I would want blue hair...as in, what type of statement would I be trying to make with blue hair. Rebellion? Punk attitude? Unconventionality? No. I JUST. THINK. IT. IS. BEAUTIFUL. I love blue hair.

And so, upon turning 25, the stars aligned and all my wishes came true. I found a blue wig in a streetside shop earlier this year, I found a sparkly blue tank top on the day of my birthday, I got a manicure with bright blue polished topped with blue sparkles, and loaded on blue eyeshadows in many shades for a night of beautiful blue fun. The outfit was complete with fake eyelashes and my wig securely on and me and some of my favorite girls went out for a night on the town. We danced it up like we would be in our mid-twenties forever. I can certainly say that I've enjoyed my youth!!!

The Great Wall: And now I have just returned from my second trip to the Great Wall. We spent two days on the wall, camping overnight between. I'll write more about this tomorrow--but it was one of those moments in life. We went to a section that is less touristed and so for long stretches had much of the wall to ourselves. We saw the sun set over the wall and woke up in time to see it rise, with wisps of fog and mist rolling over the wall and mountains as the light filled the sky. Incredible. One week into my 25th year, and I was spending the night on the Great Wall of China. During the rest of our trip, I was in Beijing partaking of la vie americaine -- all of the Western restaurants and shops that the capital of this country has to offer. I saw two movies in the theaters, Star Trek and Wolverine, and ate hamburgers, sandwiches, mexican, and indian and even had a quick spa stop. It was lovely. More to come on that.

So--assuming that I am still able to access this site to post, I'll have the complete Great Wall tale and others soon. I don't think I can post pics currently and it's not letting me hyperlink--so I'll put my pics on facebook and you can see them there until the web returns to normal--if it ever does. Stay tuned for more as I have time...

Talk show...

2009-05-10T10:03:00.003-05:00

I'm often asked to judge/host/visit all various forms of English-speaking activities...and am never quite sure until I arrive of how formal these events may be. This a common occurrence for those of us teaching English in China. It's usually fun...or at least interesting...and I enjoy this part of the job most of the time. So a few weeks ago some young ladies appeared in one of my classes to ask if I could attend a talk show that they would be hosting as part of the International Study Abroad week in China. It was a week of campus activities designed to encourage studying abroad.

I assumed that this would be another typical low key event--until I googled my name one afternoon and came across the below poster (which I now have hanging in my apt!!!! I love China!). This gave me a clue that this event might be a little more serious! I appeared to a packed room and shared the stage with a professor from our school who lived/studied/taught in the US for about 17 years and a young student who has been accepted at the University of Illinois (or Indiana). The program was entirely in Chinese except for my part...

Anyway...it was odd because I realize that after being here for so long, it's hard to quantify in a concise manner an answer to the question of "how are US students different from Chinese students?" and "what are the differences between the US education system and the Chinese system?" and "what might be the greatest surprise to a Chinese student who studies abroad in Amercia?" With China...when you've been here for a while, you find that there are few quick and easy answers. Sometimes it feels that there are even fewer non-controversial/PC responses to some questions. It all seems to require oversimplification and a reenforcement of propaganda and cheese. I'm not implying that the true answers to these questions are neccessarily negative, but they are complex--or perhaps too involved to place in a conversation requiring very basic conversational English. Maybe I'm just too caught up in my own head though...

All in all, it was a fun night. I'm envious of those who were able to understand (it was all in Chinese) the responses of the professor who taught in the US. He spent time at UC-Davis and UC-Berkely before returning to China. He and his family were neighbors of mine for a little while and they're so good-humored and incredibly intelligent and kind. It's fun to watch him because it reminds me that though I may be a "professor" here in China....the reality is that I'm just this 24 year old kid with a bachelor's degree. He, on the other hand, is a real bonafide professor with multiple honors and incredible qualifications. It's good to be reminded of my place in such a cool way! Anyway...here are pics:

Mi Casa

2009-05-08T00:54:00.007-05:00

So these pics are incredibly late in coming...but better late than never. I have a lot of posts in mind to update on here...haven't had internet in my apt for about 2 weeks! After a long and ridiculously drawn out ordeal, I finally have it back! Anyway, stay tuned in the next few days for updates about my life! Until then--these are pics of what my apartment looks like after 2 years living here. It's been pretty much the same all year....these pics are just being posted late! Enjoy!

LIVING ROOM 1: BEFORE

LIVING ROOM: AFTER

The "wallpaper" is actually wrapping paper that I bought in America last summer....about $8 for the amount on these wall. It's held up w/double sided tape. The colors are a robin's egg/tealish blue and copperish brown.

The school gave us a bookcase this year...and cushions for our chairs.

LIVING ROOM 2: BEFORE

LIVING ROOM 2: AFTER

On the wall is a painting I bought in Laos and framed is an antique ad poster I found in Beijing. I got it framed for about US$7.

I brought acrylic paint in the US that matched the color of my wrapping paper to decorate accent pieces. Here are some candles that I painted while watching movies one day...

HALL/LIVING ROOM

Again using the paint from America to decorate plain frames to tie in with the wrapping paper. These frames were about US$1.50 each...found here. The pics are some favorites from my travels...Paris, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, and China.

This is a beautiful antique wooden hanging that I found in Yangshuo and had to buy. It's probably my favorite purchase from China...

figuring out how to space everything at the beginning of this year.

KITCHEN: BEFORE

KITCHEN: AFTER

Not many changes here--the school removed our gas heat so we only have an electric eye to cook with--and I bought some shelves for my ingredients...

The bottom is my "oven." It's one of the largest oven options found in China...not many ppl use them so it's rare to find them in kitchens. Mine was inherited from other Americans who bought it years ago and passed it on when they moved back to the States.

BATHROOM: BEFORE

BATHROOM: AFTER

We returned from the summer in America to these AMAZING GLISTENING bathrooms with BRAND NEW SHOWERS!!! We definitely have the nicest bathrooms in all of Wuhan! Notice the three spray options for the faucet: handheld, side spray, and what I call the "overhead waterfall/rain music video" showerhead. The new tile makes a huge difference too.

Would you rather....?

2009-04-25T01:31:00.002-05:00

Lately, inspired by the wonderful Tara Stephens, we've been playing rounds of "Would You Rather?" with some frequency. For those who don't know, "Would You Rather" is just a typical conversational game....a car game...whatever you call it that consists of someone posing two odd choices to another to see what he/she'll say. It calls for some creativity in order to have fun.

I've been wanting to bring out some of my students' creativity lately--get their heads out of the book--and make them stretch their imaginations a bit. So we played the game in class. After they played in their groups, I had each group choose one question to ask me. Here are some results--I'll include my responses in red:

WOULD YOU RATHER:

-marry a man who is most ugly during the day and most handsome man in the world at night OR marry a man who is the most handsome man during the day and the most ugly man in the world at night?
(handsome at night...I'm a night owl anyway)

-run on campus naked during lunch hour OR kiss the world's most disgusting guy ever for 5 full minutes?
(run naked--no question.)

-have a Chinese boyfriend OR have an American boyfriend?
(no way to answer this one diplomatically in this style game...so I'm pulling a SKIP)

-be extremely beautiful in the face with the fattest body OR be very very slim with the ugliest face?
(I guess the ugly face, slim body--fewer health costs in an age of bad health insurance...)

-marry a man who is very ugly and old but very rich OR marry a young, very handsome man who will always be poor?
("it's all about the personality..." but yeah...young, handsome and poor...this girl can earn her own $$$)

-be single all your life till death OR marry a person who you don't really like?
(single till death...apparently true to life.)

-have a head that has only one side with hair OR have a head with no hair at all?
(hello Sinead O'Connor...I'm all for the baldy)

-marry a foreigner (non-American) but live in the USA OR marry an American but you must always live in a foreign country?
(this was a good one...I'm gonna say marry the American and live internationally)

-be a very fat woman with 600+ pounds OR be a skin and bones woman?
(the obsession w/weigh continues.....I chose skin and bones...)

-live with a ghost OR become a ghost?
(get ready to be haunted with really random and lame pranks--I'd be a ghost)

-marry a Chinese man OR an American man?
(you've got to be kidding me...)

-live in a place with earthquakes OR live in a place with floods?
(yikes....I guess floods...I always liked houses on stilts)

-have many boyfriends who like you but don't love you until the end of your life where you are sort of happy most of your life OR live a very boring life for most of your life but find one true great love very late at the very end of your life?
(I'll always choose non-boring over boring: bring on the boyfriends.)

-fall in love with a Chinese man OR an American man?
(oh good grief-this question is asked to me on a weekly basis with or without 'would you rather' as the pretense. And once again...since I live in China and don't want to offend anyone...I'm not going to answer.)

Perfect Rainy Saturday

2009-04-11T10:35:00.003-05:00

I think the photos speak for themselves as to the kind of day I've had. I love China. To help you have as lovely of a Saturday as mine, I'm sharing an excerpt from the book pictured above: E.B. White's "Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976". I related to his message. Enjoy.

Unwritten
4/26/30
SOMETIMES WE REGRET OUR FAILURE to write about things that really interest us. The reason we fail is probably that to write about them would prove embarrassing. The things that interested us during the past week, for example, and that we were unable or unwilling to write about (things that stand out clear as pictures in our head) were: the look in the eye of a man whose overcoat, with velvet collar, was held together by a bit of string; the appearance of an office after the building had shut down for the night, and the obvious futility of the litter; the head and shoulders of a woman in a lighted window, combing her hair with infinite care, making it smooth and neat so that it would attract someone who would want to muss it up; Osgood Perkins in love with Lillian Gish; a man on a bicycle on Fifth Avenue; a short eulogy of John James Audubon, who spent his life loafing around, painting birds; an entry in Art Young's diary, about a sick farmer who didn't know what was the matter with himself but thought it was probably biliousness; and the sudden impulse that we had (and very nearly gratified) to upend a large desk for the satisfaction of seeing everything on it slide off slowly onto the floor.

--E.B. White

Success is not an ointment...

2009-04-11T00:25:00.002-05:00

I meant to post this weeks ago but am only catching up now. Last semester, I initiated a little challenge to Katera at a speaking competition and....well...you'll just have to read her account of the hilarity that ensued. It's a pretty fun story, so I hope you'll check out her post on China Times and enjoy the tale! Happy Easter!

Limbo

2009-04-05T13:31:00.003-05:00

A friend once said: "Come to China for a week....and you write a book. Come to China for a month...and you write an essay. Come to China for a year...and you put down the pen."

Looking at my blog over the past year and a half, I'm finding it to be true. Sorry that my posts have been dwindling lately--I'm just livin. Everything continues to be really really wonderful. The THINGS that I really WANT to share with you--I can't. I'll tell you all that when I get home!

Also, I haven't been writing because I'm in a limbo waiting period right now. March and April are the Months of Big Decisions for those of us over here as we decide if we will return to China for another year and where we will work/live if we do, etc. I have a few things up in the air and some decisions that will be made once those things come down from the air and settle into my lifescape--but it's best to share those once it's all fallen into place. Please Lift me Up for guidance and discernment as I consider next year!

Until I start writing again...pictures:

Playing with Geno, Katera, and the twins on a night out!

Starbucks w/friends

Kunduz, me, and Yultuz at hot pot. I LOVE these ladies!

At a monthly Wuhanren gathering--this was right after our SE asia trip so we're still tan.

At a St. Patricks day party w/Tara and Julie--all of us have green eyes!

A trip to the Factory

2009-03-28T04:39:00.003-05:00

This is how discovery happens in China: a storefront catches your eye out of the bus window, you call up a friend, and you go exploring. Sometimes it's nothing, a flop. Sometimes though...it's magic.

our YARP for Jon and Laura

2009-03-25T03:22:00.004-05:00

A dear friend from my Kingsport youth group, Jon Ross, was diagnosed with liver cancer earlier this year. In high school Jon had struggled with an auto-immune disease that attacked his liver. During that time, our Father revealed Jon's incredible artistic talents to everyone, and Jon began a path of using his painting skills to reveal the Father and JC to everyone. He now travels the country to different groups painting The Message. You can see his work here and here.

The amazing part of this story is that when Jon was diagnosed with cancer, he had been married for less than 6 months to a beautiful wife, Laura. This awesome young lady donated half of her own liver to her new husband in a transplant that took place earlier this month. Both Jon and Laura have been through surgery and painful recovery, but the news seems to be really positive that Jon is going to recover after such a long time of bad health. We are all waiting anxiously to hear that their time of pain has passed and that their days of healing and happiness have arrived. You can keep up with their story at their CaringBridge website here .

Anyway, Jon and Laura, we've been Lifting you Up over here in China. Every Sunday I attend the International Christian Fellowship--an approved worship service for all holders of non-Chinese passports. Wuhan is filled with brothers and sisters from India, all parts of Africa, some Europeans and some Americans. As strangers in this land we come together each week in a really lovely time of fellowship. We've been YARPing (spell the capitalized word backwards and you'll catch the meaning) for you during the height of the transplant news--the first part is a YARP right after the transplant--though I think the speaker misunderstood that we needed to YARP for the new liver and not the cancer...but our DAD understood anyway, I'm sure. The second YARP is our rejoicing that Laura's liver 'made it over the hump' and our continued YARP for healing for you both. We've all been inspired by Laura's selflessness and love and by Jon's patient strength. Anyway--in many tongues you have both been lifted to Him who can heal all things. We love you.

Similes

2009-03-23T09:42:00.001-05:00

Shared with me by The Great Julie. They are fabulous. As is she. ~LucyP

**************************

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.

The door had been forced, as forced as the dialogue during the interview portion of Family Fortunes.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer.

She caught your eye like one of those pointy-hook latches that used to dangle from doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond, exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the centre.

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left York at 6.36pm travelling at 55mph, the other from Peterborough at 4.19pm at a speed of 35mph.

The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.

The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red crayon.

Even in his last years, Grandpa had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

The plan was simple, like my brother Phil. But, unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from "I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter".

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a lamppost.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free cash point.

The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.

It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a bin lorry reversing.

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

Two Little Nothings

2009-03-11T03:17:00.002-05:00

Two anecdotes for the day:

1. A student shared a "joke" with me today:

God was talking to a Chinese, a Brazilman, and an American and asked them, "Who do you want to live with most?"
The American replied, "A dog."
The Brazilman replied, "A football."
The Chinese replied, "My family."

Uhhh.....hahaha?

2. All day I've been trapped by an undefinable nostalgia--something tugging at the corners of my memory at every turn of the walk to and from class. At first I just thought I was melancholy with the lack of sun...but that didn't quite hit it...until finally I realized that it had something to do with the smell of the air. I'm sure I looked a little silly walking to class sniffing here and there...but I knew it reminded me of something....something familiar to my childhood...something that was once a part of my life on a daily basis. I was sure of it. It finally hit me:

The air smelled like cross-stitch.

All those days of patient stitching when I was a kid--copying my mom and pretending to be a finishing-school student of the Colonial era (like Felicity from the American Girls)--all those trips to the embroidery aisle of the craft store, choosing among 36 varieties of green threads. The prick of a needle. The cramped fingers. Choosing patterns with mom. It all came rushing back to me in an instant. I don't know if it's the embroidery floss or the hole-y fabric or both--but there was an obvious cross-stitch smell...and for some reason, it filled the air of Wuhan today. It made me miss my mom.

Alive again

2009-03-09T20:37:00.003-05:00

Revival: one of the greatest of graces. Every morning a new start, refinding our footing, reclaiming our path--in the great humility of the Journey that we all share.

It's been a rough couple of weeks. After weeks of warmth in Southeast Asia, the return to mostly-unheated rooms of my apartment was pretty difficult. We returned to Wuhan in the midst of a dead-to-life rainy season--only 3 days of non-rain out of 15 before I quit counting. I say non-rain because they weren't necessarily sunny; just absent of rain. And then came a vicious head cold that nearly did me in. I'll be the first to confess that I'm a wimp when it comes to winter and colds/flus anyway. All of it combined with personal frustrations to create a perfect storm of homesickness and winter blues!

In addition, after 22 years of living in the American Eastern and Central time zones--my body seems to keep trying to return to them with a pattern of nighttime insomnia and daytime narcolepsy here in China. Although I've lived over here for a year and a half, I keep finding myself in weird sleeping patterns where I stay up all night long and then barely make it through the day without crashing into an 8-hour "nap"....and the cycle continues! Now that DST has switched in the US, I'm exactly 12 hours ahead of Eastern time--so when I'm pulling these unnecessary all nighters, I'm essentially just returning to Eastern time schedules!

Note: I choose to believe that I'm not complaining, just sharing. hehehe.

But now the sun has returned with crisp spring-like weather for two days in a row! And I stayed awake for 24+ hours on two different occasions to kick myself back into a Chinese time pattern of sleep--so I've been waking up in the mornings and getting sleepy in the evenings like a normal human being once again! And it's all been so lovely that I feel a little silly for the despair that I slipped briefly into!

It's so funny the mundane things of life that get us down. Rain, cold, mildly imperfect health, long boring nights...if this is the worst I have to complain about I am among the first to recognize that I'm incredibly lucky. I'm really thankful that I have such good friends in the US who were really there for me when I was down, and really glad that I have the gift of sweet and awesome students who lift my spirits no matter the weather.

So now's a time for fresh starts. I'm back to nearly full lung capacity and clear sinuses, I'm sleeping when I should and even though the forecast calls for more rain, it's not going to last forever. I'm excited about another week in China. :)

The Jonahs that aren't

2009-03-05T17:34:00.002-06:00

I’ve been thinking about Jonahs a lot lately. Well, not necessarily Jonahs perhaps—these we might just call “those lost at sea,” or “victims of a whale attack” or something like that. Those who, after G__ has put all cards on the table saying, “You should REALLY follow My will!” still don’t get it, still don’t repent, and die in the belly of a whale.

Or even worse, those who are in the boat as the storm rips through the planks and sails, as the lots are drawn and a crowd gathers to toss overboard the one who has angered the L__D, use powers of persuasion or deception or manipulation to stay aboard, clinging to the mast as the waters claim the boat and everyone in it—all the time saying, “It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault.”

It took Jonah three days to give up. I imagine him reciting all the things he should have said to the oarsmen and fellow travelers—the perfect pr phrase to help them understand that he had nothing to do with storms, with disobedience or with greater callings. I imagine him cursing them as murderers. Murderers! I imagine him kicking and screaming and moaning and causing terrible indigestion for that big fish.

I imagine that if someone asked him on day one why he was there—he would have no clue. He is a victim of malice, of stupidity or ignorance, of unintelligent seamen believing in myths and fairy tales. On day two—he would have more understanding, but it’s all because of a disease that he struggles with. He can’t help it—it’s a psychological imbalance—he really should be on meds but he doesn’t like the way they keep him up at night…

And sometime during day three he gave up, gave in, sighed and said, “Ok.” And “Yes L__D.” And “Forgive me.”

Jonah's story--would G_d have done it all if Jonah wouldn't have eventually yielded? When we read the story--I am struck by all the lives hanging in the balance of Jonah's pride. There were the people on the boat and a whole massive city of Nineveh. How long would the storm have lasted? How long would the whale's digestion remain on hold? If we believe in free will, then we must believe that Jonah could have remained angry, petulant and unrepentant. We must believe that those boatpeople could have been persuaded by his savvy insight of the scientific nature of storms at sea, trying to convince themselves of his wisdom even as the water aboard reached higher and higher. Ultimately the book of Jonah is one that shows G_d's will winning out against all odds--but what if it hadn't?

I don't know--maybe He wouldn't have reached out to someone like that in the first place. Maybe He knew that Jonah needed an extreme lesson in obediance and understanding simultaneously with the Ninevites needing a prophet to speed their repentance, and so He decided to pair the needs together and let them fix each other.

But I wonder today if there are Jonahs out there who would rather be eaten by a big fish than let go of their pride. I suspect that there are. And I suspect that there are real lives brought down by their faithlessness and disobediance. And so today I Ask "thy will on earth as it is in heaven" with all the more urgency. Amen.

Just an interesting thought...

2009-03-03T07:53:00.003-06:00

I was listening to a podcast that I've grown to really enjoy, 'Speaking of Faith' with Krista Tippett (you can subscribe for free on iTunes if interested), and this caught my interest--especially given the economic climate that has descended upon us. It's from the podcast titled "The Buddha in the World."

Adam Smith, the economist and social theorist, is best known for his work on unregulated, free market enterprise in Wealth of Nations (1776). However, before he published that well known work, he wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). The podcast referenced a passage from that piece (emphasis mine):

The poor man's son, whom heaven in its anger has visited with ambition, when he begins to look around him, admires the condition of the rich. … It appears in his fancy like the life of some superior rank of beings, and, in order to arrive at it, he devotes himself for ever to the pursuit of wealth and greatness. … Through the whole of his life he pursues the idea of a certain artificial and elegant repose which he may never arrive at, for which he sacrifices a real tranquillity that is at all times in his power, and which, if in the extremity of old age he should at last attain to it, he will find to be in no respect preferable to that humble security and contentment which he had abandoned for it. … Power and riches appear then to be, what they are, enormous and operose machines contrived to produce a few trifling conveniencies to the body, consisting of springs the most nice and delicate, which must be kept in order with the most anxious attention, and which in spite of all our care are ready every moment to burst into pieces, and to crush in their ruins their unfortunate possessor. They are immense fabrics, which it requires the labour of a life to raise, which threaten every moment to overwhelm the person that dwells in them, and which while they stand, though they may save him from some smaller inconveniencies, can protect him from none of the severer inclemencies of the season. They keep off the summer shower, not the winter storm, but leave him always as much, and sometimes more exposed than before, to anxiety, to fear, and to sorrow; to diseases, to danger, and to death.

This is from the guy who later advocated the free market economy to the world.

Southeast Asia Pics

2009-02-19T11:48:00.005-06:00

For Pics like these below from my trip in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand: Click here.

Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Railay beach, Thailand

Longtail boats, Thailand

Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand

For pics like these below from Vientiane and Vang Vieng, Laos: Click here.

Monument to Buddha's Breastbone--I'm looking for it inside there..couldn't see anything.

Buddhist Temple, Vientiane, Laos

Big Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos

For pics like these from Phonsavan (Plain of Jars) and Luang Prabang, Laos: Click Here.

Plain of Jars, Laos

Kuang Si Waterfall, Luang Prabang, Laos

Wasting Time

2009-02-19T00:32:00.000-06:00

I was tagged by 3 ppl with this on facebook--but I don't do facebook notes--so here's my response:

Whoa--these turned out to be oddly appropo! It kinda creeped me out!

Directions:
1. Put your iPod, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song name down no matter how silly it sounds.
4. Pick ten or more random friends who like music as much as you do and tag them.

1) IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
"Lions" by Lost & Found (weird)

2) HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
"You've got to hide your love away" by The Beatles (I'll talk to a therapist bout that one!)

3) WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A MAN/WOMAN?
"Two Hands of a Prayer" by Ben Harper (WOW--nice one iTunes!!)

4) HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
"I don't know what it is" by Rufus Wainwright

5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE PURPOSE?
"Lucy in the sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles (Again...this game is freaky!)

6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
"Electrolite" by R.E.M.

7) WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
"Poor House" by Traveling Wilburys (hahahaha)

8) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
"Idiot Wind" by Bob Dylan (Oh No! At least it's one of their favorite musicians of all time...so I can't be that much of an idiot!)

9) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
"Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses

10) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
"'e' strano!'...'Ah, Fors'e Lui'" from the opera La Traviata (apparently my best friend is a prositute dying of TB)

11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
"No One Like You" by David Crowder Band (perfect--since the 'person' I like is God!)

12) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
"In the Real World" by Roy Orbison (niiice...but kinda sad!)

13) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU GROW UP?
"Bring the Funk" by Ben Harper (Oh Heavens Yes!)

14) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
"Only a Northern Song" by The Beatles

15) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTERESTS?
"Sunday Morning" by Maroon 5 (eeekk...title sounds good....lyrics make me seem a leeetle bit trashy!)

16) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
"Jokerman" by Bob Dylan (FOR REAL!!! Annnnddd...I'm getting to be afraid of iTunes' eery knowledge of me!)

17) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
"Fortune Teller" by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss (The Truth finally comes out...)

18) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
"All the Heavens" by Third Day

19) SONG THEY WILL PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
"Empty Sky" by Bruce Springsteen (Whoa--this is a song ABOUT death! Apparently I died in 9/11 though.)

20) WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
"Wasting Time" by Jack Johnson (OH MY GOODNESS---can we say honest!!!!)

Back

2009-02-16T09:06:00.003-06:00

And so we are back. Back to an ashy gray Wuhan, pouring down rain and drizzle and now ice onto us. No sun since our return. Goodbye summer, hello again winter. With a sigh and a shrug of the shoulders.

After a month of the near constant presence of Katera and Megan at my side or in the room, the silence is now defining. After a month of repacking my lowly backpack almost every other morning, I feel like a queen sleeping in my bed and finding my clothes waiting for me in the closet and on the shelf. A place for everything. These are glorious luxuries.

We spent approximately 100 hours on a bus.
Slept in 12 different hostels and on 4 night buses and one night train (numbers vary for Katera and Megan).
Received 12 entry/exit stamps in our passport (4 for Maylasia, 2 for Singapore, 2 for Thailand, 2 for Laos, 2 for China) and one visa sticker (Laos).
Did laundry once.
Attacked by bedbugs once.
Saw 3 movies in a theater.
Lost ZERO passports.
Traveled to the southernmost point on the SE Asian peninsula.

To recap the close of our journey in Laos:

We loved Vang Vieng, with it’s river tubing and bamboo bridges crossing the river and Friends’ bars (on the main road, nearly 1 in 3 restaurants is equipped with a tv that shows episodes of Friends from open to close. Walking down the street, you are greeted by the sounds of Ross, Rachel, Joey and the whole gang and refrains of “I’ll be there for you..” It was so strange! But I’ll admit, after a day on the river, we didn’t mind one bit enjoying the ol show while munching on a pineapple pancake!).

Moving on from there, we took the less frequented path to Phonsavan and the mysterious and ancient Plain of Jars. This was possibly the most bumpy and curvy road in the history of the world. I’m really not exaggerating. You must cross a range of mountains and they’ve built the road winding back and forth along the upper shoulders of the mountains—6 to 7 hours of constant, unrelenting switchbacks and jolts. Seriously—I’ve spent my time in the back roads of mountain Virginia and in jeeps along cliffs in Tennessee—and I’ve never experienced anything like this. I was grateful for a strong stomach—but on the ride out I had to avail myself of Dramamine to survive it. That said—the sights were incredible and stunning as we passed tiny villages and beautiful vistas.

Once in Phonsavan, we joined a tour to the Plain of Jars. This is exactly what it sounds like! There are fields throughout this area of Laos filled with 2000-3000 year old stone jars. Researchers have hypothesized that these jars were used to keep cremated remains—but there is no definitive explanation for them. The local tradition says they were used to make lao lao, rice whiskey. It’s really neat to see the jars.

Unfortunately, the Plain of Jars area was also the hardest hit by US bombs during the Secret War in the 1960s and 70’s. For years the US dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos in an effort to combat Vietcong forces from the neighboring country of Vietnam. Many of these bombs never exploded, leaving Laos filled with UXO’s—highly volatile unexploded bombs. Now in 2009, only a tiny percentage of the land has been cleared of these US bombs, and over the years countless local people have been killed or injured by coming across them. Restaurants and hostels in Phonsavan use old bomb casings as decorations (the ones that now longer contain explosives of course). At the rate that these UXO’s are being cleared, a dangerous and slow process, it will take 100 years before Laos is free of them.

So although there are dozens of sites in Laos featuring the ancient jars—there are only three sites that are actually safe to visit—only these three that have been cleared of UXO’s. Everywhere that you go, there are markers indicating where it is safe to walk and the boundaries of the land that has been cleared. Wandering past these markers means risking your life.

Our guide told us how his parents evacuated his village when the bombings began. When they returned, their fields were filled with skulls of soldiers (Vietnamese and Laos). For so many years after, while villagers were preparing their fields for rice, walking in the hills or forests, there were accounts of people “having an accident,” --coming across a UXO (the words of our guide). And then, as poverty settled in on the nation, more were driven to look for the bombs to drain the explosives or gather the scrap metal to sell for a profit, often “having an accident” in the process.

In our tour group, we were joined by other backpackers--a woman from France, from Chile, from Slovenia, two from Germany and one from Japan. I’ll confess that at points when we were asked where we were from--it took me a second to answer. Wishing we could somehow make penance with the people of this country.

******

After Phonsavan, we hit the winding road again for Luang Prabang, our final stop in Laos. This bohemian village is filled with delicious cafes, roadside stalls and a bustling Hmong night market (the Hmong are a minority that originated in China and over thousands of years eventually moved into the highlands of Laos. Many fought for the US during the Secret War and were forced to move as refugees to the US after the takeover—there are now large Hmong populations in the US). We enjoyed the sun and some final chances to eat the Indian food that we’d become addicted to over the course of our trip.

Megan and I spent an afternoon out of town at the Kuang Si Waterfall—hiking/climbing hand over foot again up one side of the waterfall and jumping into the swimming hole on the second tier of the falls—feeling the rushing water overwhelm you with its power and the throb of the water falling down right next to you—it was exhilarating! The water in the pools along the tiers and at the base was so vividly blue that you would think it had been artificially colored! It was literally turquoise! I just kept blinking and saying again and again to myself “I am swimming in a waterfall in Laos.” I still can’t believe it!

And our final bout of good luck came on our bus ride into China. We went from travel agent to travel agent in Luang Prabang trying to get details on how to get back into China. Our options were taking a bus 10 hours back to Vientiane, spending the night, and then taking a flight into Kunming—or trying our luck on the bus…which we were told would be anywhere from 26 to 33 hours. 26 to 33 hours. Quite a window for change there, we thought. Explanation? Uhhh….sometimes the bus takes longer than other times. Greeeaaaattt.

So travel weary, we climbed on the bus and hoped for the best. It wasn’t looking good when we discovered there was no toilet aboard and then when we found our bus taking breaks from the road at an interval of every 1.5 to 2 hours! Ack—the lack of efficiency was about to break our American minds down to insanity! But to our surprise, we arrived in Kunming after only 23 hours. It was a travel miracle!!!

From Kunming, we made a beeline to the nearest airport and booked the soonest flight to Wuhan. The price wasn’t much different than the cost of a train…and in this final leg of the journey, we were not interested in adding 25+ hours of rail to our homeward path.

And so we are returned to our China homes. Safe and sound and hopefully a little wiser and a lot tanner.

Pictures will come soon.

From Laos...

2009-02-06T05:08:00.003-06:00

I have lost all concept of time, date and money spent...so I think I've effectively assimilated into the SE Asian culture! Since my last update, we traveled from Railay to Koh Phi Phi and then Bangkok and into Vientiane, Laos and are now in Vang Vieng, Laos.

I spent so many days on the beach that I lost count. Days blended together in a sublime mix of white sands, warm sun, pad thai and fresh fruit. One afternoon we hiked for about an hour through the back cliffs of the Railay peninsula--lush green jungles and looming cliffs and incredible views. We scrambled over rock formations near the water with near vertical climbing-- holding onto roots and rocks while trying to keep flipflops on our feet! Another afternoon I spent away from my travel companions sampling the world-famous rock climbing of the area. Climbers come from all over to experience the rock climbing of Krabi...so it was a joy to take on 4 of the beginner/intermediate cliffs along one of the beaches. I haven't done much rock climbing since a few stints in college, but it all came back pretty quickly and I had alot of fun. I was amazed at how HIGH I went!!

After Railey, we moved on to Koh Phi Phi (PP Island) for a few days. Another paradise island, this one is where they filmed the Leo Decaprio movie The Beach. It is also well-known as one of the islands most decimated by the tsunami. Now, the island is largely rebuilt/restored and is literally swarming with vendors and tourists/backpackers. After the laid-back peace of Railay, we were surprised by the commercialism of PP and mildly put off by the "spring break" vibe.

Silly moment: The night before the Superbowl was to take place, many of the sports bars on the island were claiming that they would open in the early morning to show the Superbowl LIVE. So...like the good Americans that we are, we dutifully woke up at 4:45 AM to go for the 5 a.m. start. I got worried as soon as we wandered bleary-eyed out onto the street. The sun wasn't yet up and the streets were deserted, except for a few bar hoppers who were ending their night and a few who seemed to be making the Walk of Shame back to their own bungalows. Coming to the sports bar, the place was silent. I was SURE that it was all a huge prank...the brits and aussies who ran the bars decided to see if they could trick the Americans into an early morning to shame us for not loving their precious "football".

We finally found someone at one of the bars who told us it'd be another hour till they got things going/running. We went back to bed, and exhausted, I slept till about 11--missing the whole thing. It was dissapointing, I really miss American Football in China and was hoping to enjoy an early morning Superbowl experience. Megan managed to wake up in time to go back and see the end of it and recounted the fun to us over lunch!

Bangkok, Thailand-- We were hoping to avoid Bangkok this year, but had to pass through in order to move into Laos, so we spent about a day and a half there in a stopover. It was actually a great stop! Last year in Bangkok I spent all of my time in the international hospital with my friend Jeremy, who was then recovering from an elephant attack. The city seemed dirty and ugly and overwhelming to me then. This year, we slept in a great area and found our way over to the Grand Palace--which must be one of the Wonders of the World it's so glitteringly stunningly beautiful. We had our share of street-side shopping, exploring and temple-visiting as well. We ended our time there with a movie--Yes Man w/Jim Carrey--which might have been only so-so, but we LOVED it--so that shows how much we miss entertainment!

Finally, it was a night bus through northern Thailand into Laos. I'll write more later--but staring out of a bus window as Southeast Asia passes by outside will always be one of my favorite life memories.

Vientiane, Laos--This is the capital city of Laos, and yet paved roads resemble backcountry Virginia more than anything else. Dusty and rural feeling, you really get away from the tourism appartatus of Thailand and embrace the backpacker feel that I've been missing. It's incredible here--and already Laos is my favorite leg of this journey. We spent about 24 hours in Vientiane and visited about 3 buddhist temples, one city monument, a park and the Mekong River. I'll write much more about Laos later when I can reflect--but it is such a joy to be here.

This morning we took a winding 4 hour bus ride north to Vang Vieng, a sleepy tiny little river village that is a jumping off point for outdoor treking. We have a cozy bungalow near the river with hammocks right outside, bike paths nearby and views of the karst cliffs rising up among more rice paddys. Tomorrow we're hoping to go tubing down the river and maybe will explore on bikes or climb through caves after that. It is strange to be away from the dry heat of Thailand--today was the first cloudy day that we've seen since leaving China!

Then it's onward north as we begin to think about getting back to Wuhan. Being around all these backpackers with their multi-month/year journeys reminds us of how conditioned Americans are to only taking week-long vacations. I was beginning to get really travel-weary--but since we've crossed into Laos, the wonder of the country has given me a second wind...I'm just hoping it will be enough to stay energetic till we get home! From Laos...Love to you all!

Highlights from the worldwide road

2009-01-25T09:33:00.002-06:00

Three days into the journey I gave up on keeping my travel journal. Our days were so long and full that it was only possible to fall into bed each night and grab as much sleep as we could fit in with the travel. In these first eight days, we have toured Yangshuo (China), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Singapore (Singapore), and now Krabi (Thailand).

I am now resting for a time in a net bar and trying to come up with some way to post despite all the distractions of the scene around me--so at best this will be a fragmented update. Here are some of the memorable events, thoughts, experiences from the past week:

Yangshuo, China: Always a joy to go here. I went last year and will never cease to be awed by the mountains rising up like great haystacks here, there and all around. Layers and layers of these karst peaks popping up among rice paddies. We were there for only about 24 hours but were able to fit in a bike ride through the countryside rice paddies and villages.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: A truly international city. Too many nationalities or races to quantify. The city has that delapidated post-colonial grime that is both charming and overwhelming. In the middle of the city, the Petronas Twin Towers rise up in glistening splendor. We had some bad luck during our attempts to see all of the city. A trip to the Islamic Arts Museum was deflated when we were taken to the wrong place and then a torrential, monsoon-season downpour prevented us from making it to the actual location in time. This same downpour restricted our entrance to the National Mosque because we were too soaked to respectfully tour the site. When the rain continued, our backup plan, a walk through the city gardens, was also nixed. So finally, we cut our losses and found a Mexican restaurant for dinner (!!!) and caught a movie (Australia!!!!!). Both were fabulous treats that are not part of our China lives. It was a joy !

My favorite moment in the city: returning to our hostel late at night, we arrived just in time to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama on CNN International. The lobby had a big screen tv and we sat transfixed with a gathering of other backpackers of various international backgrounds, listening to our new president's address. It was lovely. Everywhere that we go, when the inevitable question "where are you from?" is responded to with "USA," we are greeting with smiles, high fives and excitement as the person exclaims "Ah! Obama!" "Yay!" we reply and enjoy the international goodwill!! Hearing President Obama's remarks to the Muslim world while sitting in a predominantly Islamic city was an interesting experience. I felt proud. And hopeful.

Singapore, Singapore: This clean, modern, mulitcultural, beautiful city makes me feel that even America has a lot of work ahead to avoid looking a bit decrepid and ragamuffin when it comes to infrastructure and development. The city is a marvel. Over and over again, Singaporeans announce proudly that their city-state is peaceful comprised of four different nationalities; Malay, Chinese, Indian and Eurasian. In the housing zones, the government requires that each area houses equal parts of all four peoples--so that there is no concentration of one group living in one area. The city has a distinct Chinatown and Little India and Muslim quarter--but that is where those people work and hang out--living areas are equally distributed percentage-wise with all the nationalities mixed together. Crime is incredibly low. The city is developing at an incredibly rapid rate. Everything seems so new and clean and well thought out! Though Singapore shares the same post-colonial background as Malaysia, the remaining architecture of that period has been preserved--keeping the charm without the crumbling destructed feel. We took some open-air bus tours through the city, had a great hostel where we met fun people, caught another movie (can you tell how much we miss going out to the movies!?! This time we saw "Rachel Getting Married"), and ate some great Indian and Malay food.

Then it was off to Thailand! Getting from Singapore to our Thailand destination took about 24 hours of buses and travel--traversing 3 countries during that 24 hour period! Some of that time
was in "layovers" between switching buses--but it was quite a day!

Railay beach, Krabi, Thailand: I was here last year during our trip--but it's so beautiful and we've been told by so many that it's the best spot to stay on the Andaman Coast that we had to come again! We're soaking in as much sun as possible and I might do some rock climbing on the cliffs that surround the island once I'm satisfied with my tan...but in general this leg of the trip is one for rest and rejuvination. It's simply wonderful. I'll write more about it later as we go on...We'll leave at some point for some of the other islands of Thailand but for now I'll just say that I'm glad to spend a few days here without having to pack up and go again every morning!

That's all of the update that I can think of for now! Hope you are all well!

It's TIME to return!!!

2009-01-16T10:03:00.004-06:00

The time has finally arrived for our trek once more into Southeast Asia. Last year I spent 35 adventure-filled days working my way through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, before flying back to China and catching some time in Hong Kong at the end of the journey. This year, we're beginning in the south and working our way back up to China. We'll start in Kuala Lumpur and explore Malaysia with a side trip into Singapore for a while and then begin the journey north with pit stops in the paradise islands of Thailand for some sun and then find our way into the jungles/rainforests of Laos. When we finally return to China, we'll be in the southern province of Yunnan, the province that borders Tibet and has just as much charm and cultural diversity.

Of course--this is all an estimation. We have about 4 weeks and our Chinese salaries to live off of--so we'll see what happens! The fun of the Southeast Asia trek is that there is so much that you discover along the way--so many possibilities and wonderous things to see--and so planning for it is at best a guess! It's incredibly difficult to pack for a trip like this! Especially to fill a bag with tank tops and short sleeves when the weather here requires thick sweaters and long johns! The relief is that there are great clothes that can be found at the markets of Thailand...so I'm guessing I'll be fine!

Please keep Katera, Megan and I in your Thoughts during the next few weeks. I'm sure I'll be able to update from time to time when I escape into a web bar! And....ok....I'll throw in only one gloat for today....enjoy your cold weather!!!

New Year's in Shanghai!!!

2009-01-09T20:28:00.004-06:00

I rang in New Year's this year in Shanghai--the classic port city once overrun by the British, the French, the Japanese, and gangsters and pirates. Now it's glittering, modern, urban and wonderful. We were hosted by the wonderful Dawson, who lives and works there now. We had a great time--we didn't eat Chinese food once, we shopped, we saw the sights and most important, we hung out enjoying friendship for the new year. Here are a few pics.

The Pudong skyline at dusk

An old church that's in the midst of renovation that we found and snuck into--I think it was Episcopal

The dust of the unused--or of renovation...

INCREDIBLE--sandwiches in China are rare--so this was probably my favorite meal during our trip! We also ate Greek, Indian and TexMex!

This was my favorite museum stop--it's the Propaganda Poster Museum--a collection of propaganda posters from the 50's-70's. It's pretty interesting to see how they portrayed their enemies (uhh....errr....that's us.) and their goals. The museum is hidden away in a collection of apartment buildings--you have to want to find it. First you find the complex, then ask the guard at the security gate, he gives you a card with a map on the back to find the exact building, and then you go into the basement for the poster exhibit!

This is my patriotic fist

A glimps of some of the posters

ahem....it just reminds us of how cool it is that we can all live here and be friends now!

On the train ride home--we were stuck with the top berths.

my lowly view--China in 2008

2008-12-29T14:32:00.003-06:00

The news coming out of the US during the past year seemed dominated by reports of gas prices, presidential politics and financial turmoil. I know there is so much that I probably didn't catch, but at some point along the way I had to accept I couldn't keep struggling to remain connected to the US through every headline or pop culture news item.

And I had enough to keep up with over here. There are years in people's lives that will always stand out in their own personal histories. I think all Americans will pause on the year 2001 when they are retelling the story of their lives, and share where they were and what their life was like then. Now, in the final days of December, I am sure that 2008 will be that year for most Chinese--certainly from what I've seen in the lives of my students and friends.

To recap--this has been the progression of the past year from over here (dates are based on my unofficial memory):

Jan/Feb--The worst winter in 50 years shuts down much of the country. Thousands are stranded in train stations during China's largest holiday of the year (and in a country where the major forms of transportation are train and bus and large migrant populations only get one time a year to go home and see their families--this is more significant than what you'd imagine in the US). (I was in SE Asia and decided to stay on the beach until the trains were running again!)

Feb/Mar--a situation of unrest occurs in a Western province (I must answer the question "Why does the American media, like CNN and NY Times, lie?")

Mar/Apr--The international reaction to that situation affects the Olympic torch relay and spurs rising frustration/nationalism among the Chinese people. (I learn to say "I am not French.")

Apr/May--a tragic train crash kills/injures hundreds near Qingdao (my travel plans are changed when my train to Qingdao is canceled)

May--The Sichuan earthquake brings devastation and sadness to everyone here in China

May/June--The responses of support/relief in China is overwhelming and bonds many together

July--Mass flooding in the South of China

Aug--the 2008 Olympics have a successful run in Beijing. China wins the overall gold medal count to the pride of the Chinese people. (Every question asked to a foreigner for the next two months begins with "Did you see the Olympics?")

Sept/Oct/Nov--The tainted/poison milk scandal affects nearly everyone--To a nation with a one child policy, contaminating baby formula for cheap gains is a low blow. (Fear hits me personally only when I learn it's reached the chocolate makers!)

Oct/Nov/Dec--Worldwide financial crisis hits Chinese investments/factories/lives (Maybe I'll stay abroad until I have good credit again--see ya in 7 years!)

I don't know if I can convey to you how personal these stories are to my students--even if these events didn't cause any actual changes in their personal lives. Sure, in America, we get annoyed when other countries pronounce their opinion of America's action, and sure, we have plenty of Olympic spirit every 2 years, and sure, we're all worried about finances too---but I don't think I've seen the level of personal/emotional devotion to patriotism the way that it exists over here. It is personal. A critique of China is taken as a critique of each of them, individually. It's been interesting to observe.

The earthquake hit everyone hard--as all natural disasters do. It was heartbreaking. In the days following, I began our classroom discussion by just asking how everyone was doing, how they were holding up. The air had that hush that occurs after great tragedies--we remember that quiet in America the week after 9/11 and Katrina. Nobody feels like they can or should laugh aloud. I never knew what to say so I turned to Mister Rogers for his words--and somehow that story helped us to cry a little together over the sadness of it all. We did what Mister Rogers told us to do--and we talked about the helpers. The post-80's generation came together in response to this earthquake--with hundreds and thousands of young people appearing in Wenchuan for cleanup and repair and countless students donating so much blood and money that they quit taking it. This is a generation once accused of laziness and selfishness--but they are now applauded for their response.

And after those low lows came the highs of the Olympics and the national pride that came with it. Beijing put on quite a show and the thrill is something my students still talk about. Many laugh that watching the Opening Ceremonies was better than all their Spring Festivals combined--and that that night was the first time they stayed awake that late. Though they are all 18-20 years old, they remind me of when I was 12 watching our female gymnasts in Atlanta. It's just fun.

And now we're all watching the financial crisis on all sides of all oceans. Sorry China, this one is our fault (errr....as in....the Americans'). I don't know if my students have parents who are affected--but it's something to watch. We're all in this one together.

I'm amazed to think that I have been here in China for most of this roller coaster historic year. It all hit home to me during one of the Christmas parties with my students. A student told me, "This has been a very colorful and big year in China--and you were our only foreigner we knew during the year. I think we will remember that."

There have been difficult questions in the past year. What is the difference between nationalism and patriotism? Who should be blamed after natural disasters initiate mass damage? What is the proper response as a citizen to corruption? How can we keep cultures unique and special and still accept globalization? The list goes on and on...

Some of these questions were mine and some were my students. It's been quite a year. It's too early for me to blog about how this year has changed me or changed China (as if I'd really know) or changed anything... for now I am just recapping for blog posterity the year of 2008. From here...in China. See you next year.

This year's Christmas

2008-12-26T11:27:00.003-06:00

Most of the dishes are washed now and the mess of torn wrapping paper, while not completely cleaned away, has at least been gathered from the ocean on the floor into plastic bags or piles around the living room. The tree is still up but the lights will stay off now--soon to be packed into an old cardboard box and left in the corner of my spare room. My second Chinese Christmas has come and gone.

All in all--I'm really proud of the holiday that we worked together to share and make special. It was a really lovely day. Katera and I invited some of our good American friends to spend the night with us, so on Christmas Eve, Julie and Katie and David came up (Julie is in her 2nd year here too and Katie and David are married). David made wassail, Katera provided brownies (which are a delicacy over here), Julie brought fudge (a delicacy anywhere) and we all drank warm drinks and watched Fred Claus and Merry Christmas Charlie Brown in our pj's. A little after midnight we paused for a candlelit service to think about Christmas, sing the more meaningful carols and share the Supper. It was all filled with joy and peace.

On Christmas morning, I was up early to make cinnamon rolls and latkes while Julie and Katera scrambled eggs in her kitchen. We drank leftover wassail or coffee and had a hearty breakfast and opened presents together (each person brought one generic wrapped present--all gifts that someone would want) and even had stockings complete with oranges in the toes! After hanging out for a while, everyone dispersed to their own apartments for naps or more Christmas fun.

This being China, there were of course a few potential calamities to be dealt with. Our water was turned off on campus the two days before Christmas--so washing our few pots and pans for reuse was a bit difficult, and it was annoying to ask guests to manually flush the toliets using a bucket of water! I killed the yeast in my cinnamon rolls by using hot water instead of warm water to mix the dough (all of you in America need to pause right now with a prayer of thanks for Pilsbury and canned cinnamon rolls) and my electric eye kept turning off while I was frying my latkes so the oil wouldn't stay hot enough to quickly cook them.

Despite such trials, it was a beautiful day. The dishes were washed with my bottled water jug, the toliet stayed flushed, the cinnamon rolls were just a little heavy and chewy instead of light and fluffy but still just as sweet, and the latkes managed to not get tooo soggy and tasted pretty good. We had fun opening presents and I think we were all able to savour our moments together instead of spending too much time thinking of where we weren't for the day.

*******

As I've been tidying up from a long week of Christmas parties, I keep looking at the nativity scene I painted really quickly. I told the story 8 times during the past week--and my thoughts keep lingering on Matthew's account...the wise men, specifically. Two thousand years ago, scholars from the east began a journey to find....well, something. From the east. Two thousand years ago, these men were searching for wisdom or purpose or some type of key to life and were not able to find fulfillment in any of their own culture's answers. In the east. So they gave up looking among their society and turned upward to the stars. Among those stars, they found a light to lead them to a strange land and to a newborn type of king for a newborn type of kingdom.

So here, in my Christmas in this land in the Far East, I think about that star, and those men--so empty and hungry in their own land that they would risk everything to travel long miles following a star. I think about how the answer the star brought those men to changed the world forever. And now, two thousand years later, our hope is that the wise people in the lands in the east don't have to travel far from home to find the answer of that star. Our hope is that they will find stars right here, at ground level, in the midst of life here. It is a heady thing to claim to be a star, but it is what is required of each of us. As we think about that Christmas star leading people to an answer, we must never forget that we too are called to shine like stars in the universe as we hold out....well, you know the rest....whether to those in lands to the east or lands to the west. Merry Christmas.

Gifts from my students

2008-12-25T11:53:00.004-06:00

I'm told these are muscle beaters that you use to message your muscles.

So many cute cards

This is a stuffed dog basket...

Moments

2008-12-23T14:49:00.002-06:00

Class

Occasionally a class invites us for a night out with them. These evenings are usually a lot of fun but a wee bit taxing; consisting of a big banquet dinner with scary entrees of fish heads and pigs feet and then usually followed by forced performances at a nearby KTV--the karaoke bars found on nearly every corner in Wuhan. All sorts of hilarity ensue--but unfortunately it is usually caused by breakdowns in communication which, though they make for good stories, can get old after a while.

I was expecting one of these nights when one of my Masters classes invited me to meet them in the classroom last Sunday night. I've really enjoyed working with these students because they are not far from me in age and we can share cultures as peers together. Approaching the classroom, I was greeted by Winfred, who I always think reminds me of the owl in Winnie the Pooh, who greeted me and ran ahead into the classroom, shutting the door behind him. Hmmmm.

When I got to the door, it swung open from the inside as Elton John's Step Into Christmas began to blast from the speakers. Stunned, I walked forward into a room filled with balloons, Christmas lights, a fully decorated Christmas tree, and gift bags of oranges, candy and chocolate. A powerpoint slideshow was showing glowing photos of Christmas lights and snow covered houses. Before I knew it, a Santa hat was on my head and I was ushered to the seat of honor.

The next hour was a complete Christmas program. A host of ceremonies introduced student acts, and they performed skits of a family shopping for presents, of a Christmas morning looking for Santa's gifts, and of an 'election' with Santa campaigning for president! Carols were sung, gifts were shared, games were played, and I was blown away.

The most wonderful thing about all this is knowing that my students got together, recognized that I would be 'missing' the most important holiday of my culture, and decided to create a Christmas for me here. The kindness of this is overwhelming. I'm really blessed.

Dinner

Another tradition is our annual Christmas dinner with the English department. The Dean of the department takes the foreign teachers out for a banquet style dinner. We are joined by our coteachers (each of us has a Chinese teacher from the English department who serves as a liason for us--letting us know about our schedules, meetings, requirements etc...) and any others from the department who are invited. Again, these types of gatherings are fun but can be exhausting. The banquet culture involves lots of 'toasting' and it's always a little overwhelming for me.

This year, it was an incredible relief to have a like-minded/kindred spirit friend there, Katera, to exchange shocked glances and kick each other under the table when we needed to say "did he REALLY just say that?" or "I CAN NOT believe this is happening right now." It made the evening 5 times more fun.

But nothing, nothing, NOTHING in my experiences of Chinese banquet dinners will ever top what happened towards the end of the meal. As usual, our hosts and coteachers began insisting on "performances," which is...well...it would take another post to describe...we'll leave as this: when meeting with any group of people over here, it is usual and even expected that you will be forced to play monkey with a song, poem, dance...something. It's usually a song.

Anway, the performances were demanded and we all took our awkward turns at singing a Christmas carol or whatever. Katera pulled out a song from her time in Africa, I sang my version of my ringtone (which is a popular Chinese pop song--in Chinese--so I only put phonetic sounds to the tune), and Jesse sang a carol. Somehow, the singing kept going, and the evening evolved into a singalong with everyone at the table--including songs from John Denver (a usual choice. Country Roads is taught to all high schoolers here), and THE BEATLES--seriously, we sang Hey Jude, Yesterday, Yellow Submarine and many many more.

It was just one of those times when you must stop, look around, and say to yourself, "I am sitting at a banquet table...in China...at Christmas....with the whole room, Chinese and Americans, singing Beatles songs." Seriously, this is quite a life we lead.

Street

This has less to do with Christmas, but it was lovely. Walking to class a few days ago, I noticed a couple in the distance walking towards me. They were walking close side by side, hands in pockets, eyes focused straight ahead or on the ground. Their faces were locked in grim distraction--her lips were pursed together in a tight angry line and he had the defeated look of a guy who knows he's not gonna win, and is a little annoyed about it.

As they walked briskly, something in her thoughts made her roll her eyes as she ever so slightly shook her head to herself. The tightly closed lips relaxed a little. Still without looking at him or changing her brisk pace, she raised one eyebrow and made a short comment. I didn't hear and wouldn't have understood it anyway--but I'm pretty sure that it was ironic. There was the tiniest bemused smile in the corner of her mouth--the side that faced away from him...

The silence fell back over them as they continued their walk--but his face and countanance were amazing to watch. The subtle transformation of a guy stuck in the doghouse into a guy whose been let off the hook. He never lifted his eyes from the ground a few yards ahead of him, but his shoulders and neck got straighter and higher. And his face melted into peace. It did. It melted into peace. All those muscles of anger and tightness dissolved as his smile began to spread. He didn't look at her or do anything to let her know that he was smiling, they just kept walking in silence...but it was a moment. Grace had just passed between the two of them. They were going to be ok.

Telling the story

2008-12-20T08:36:00.003-06:00

Christmas is an odd thing here in Wuhan. It's not really celebrated, but it is marketed. The shopping areas and hotels fill their lobbies with Christmas decorations--but Christmas is really viewed as a great shopping day over here--there are huge sales in most of the stores. Chinese children don't grow up waiting for Santa Claus and the origin of the name of this holiday isn't known to most.

For this reason--it's so much fun to share the Story of Christmas with our students. It's important for them to be aware of this Western understanding of the holiday, so we incorporate the lesson into our courses. This year, I invited ALLLLL of my classes to come up to my apartment for Christmas parties. This means that on 7 different occasions, my apartment has been crammed with 25 students hearing the Christmas story and making Christmas cards and advent calendars! I'll post pictures once we are finished with all the parties...for now I thought I'd show some of my tools to help teach the lesson!

my tree!!

I painted this really quickly one morning before the first party to help explain our new vocabulary word, 'nativity.'

Please Lift me Up that I'll have enough energy to finish out the week before Christmas and that my words will plant seeds in my students' lives! Love to you all!

Morning Commute

2008-12-15T22:46:00.003-06:00

The winter mornings in Wuhan are misty, when the bamboo forest and the arched bridge over the pond look less like cultural landscape marketing and more like authentic and ethereal scenes taken straight from an ancient brush painting. The first turn from my building runs along the gate of the preschool and kindergarten. In the minutes before 8 o'clock, the path is a maze of motos, bikes, occasional sedans and bundled tots following parents laden with bed rolls and backpacks. The kids are bleary eyed and flushed underneath their layers and layers of stuffing as they're hurried through the pink castle painted entrance. In the afternoons they will point or stare at my passing, the bold ones practicing their "hallo"s, but it's too early to look up or notice others in a world full of not-my-mom/dad's when all they want is to keep clinging to mom or dad. In just a few hours they will be dancing in unison to the duckie song, laughing and singing--and if I don't have a morning class I will wake to the sounds of their play--but it is 7:40 and now I am just another pair of pants and shoes to shuffle past as they give their sleepy farewells.

The next turn is to the main stretch that serves as the entrance artery within the school gates. The tiled sidewalk is lined with palm trees on one side and white-barked maple trees on the other, their brassy leaves still clinging to the naked white branches or cruntching under our feet. I dodge the bound-twig brooms of the street workers who seem to make a game of raking at my heels as I pass. The nauseous odors of breakfast foods drift through windows and I realize that even after 3 semesters of life here--there are some smells I will never quite acclimate to.

I'll learn how late I am as I approach the pond. If I am early or right on time, the old ladies will still be in the midst of tai-chi exercises with lengths of gold ribbon or red fans to accent the fluidity of their movements. If I'm late, they'll be squatting on their haunches to rest or will already have moved on with the day.

The main square is next--large open concrete resembling Tiananmen for a distance that I can't estimate--but it takes a good 10 minutes to walk from top to bottom, running almost the length of the whole campus. Here is where I noice how utterly silent the walk has been. It wasn't this way until winter hit--the cold has closed us all off into our own thoughts. But on the square, each morning without fail, students find spots to themselves and read aloud from lesson books, broken and halting English, often monotone, always with focused intensity, being spoken every 3 to 4 yards. The Ministry of Education recommended morning readings for all college students, so they receive a passage book in their classes and take to the streets/squares in the hour after the mandated morning exercises. And so for three paces you'll hear a history of an ancient Viking landing, and then it will be the proper etiquette for tea or brunch, and then a few yards away an intent young man with glasses is repeating "mechanic" as "ma-chan-ac, maCHANac, mmmmACHANac, mACANac, mAYCHANac," until he switches to "en-jeen, anjeen, jjjjj, jeen, enjeen," and in a few yards further it's vaguely recognizable Shakespeare.

One more turn to the teaching building and 150 steps to the 6th floor language labs. The clock in the lobby is 5 minutes slow, which is encouraging when I'm running behind. I live on the 5th floor and teach on the 6th and climb up an average of 380 steps a day (on good days with few errands/outings) but I still huff and puff by the final ascent. The stairwell is filled with former and current students, and though I usually recognize their faces, I am never quite sure if it was yesterday or a year ago that I saw them in my class. I'm always terrified of crossing paths with a current student and completely blanking on recognition. In a classroom setting I can remember most of their English names, but it's hopeless outside in the wide world. My labs are at the end of the hall, cold and white and uniform.

At 8, class begins.

A good ol' RANDOM post

2008-12-08T13:35:00.002-06:00

1. My shoelaces have started to get untied on a daily basis. I haven't changed anything about how I tie my shoes--the laces are still strong and clean--there's no explanation. So, at least once I day, I feel like I'm 5 again.

2. The cold has settled into our apartments. My bedroom stays warm enough--but it gets to the point where we don't want to change clothes. It just feels too cold to get undressed even for a second--so we do the locker room thing where you change clothing without revealing any skin. It's not about modesty--it's about warmth.

3. I'm obsessed with cooking soups these days. I've made creamy potato and carrot soup, savory southwestern pumpkin soup and an impromptu one-serving tomato soup in the past few weeks. My online recipe file is getting filled with more soups to try!

4. India is postponed. Over here in China, our winter break is centered around the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival. We'll be in class straight through Christmas, but get about 4 weeks of a break in mid January to mid February. I had been planning on backpacking through India for a month--stopping in Calcutta for a week or so of service, working in the footsteps of Mother Theresa, checking out the Taj Mahal in Agra, getting a hut on the beach in Goa etc.... but the recent attacks have postponed that. Katera and I racked our brains to come up with some excuse that would make it seem less irresponsible for us to go in light of the new instability--and there was just no way to make it work. We're keeping our hopes up that we can go at the beginning of the summer--which could be even more awesome b/c we could backpack our way through Tibet, cross into Nepal, then make our way into India before flying back to America for our summer break. Our fingers are crossed and our eyes are on the news. Which brings us to:

5. SE Asia is coming!!!! After many hours staring at the globe and mourning our India setback (which--by the way--we are actually saddened by on a level other than the selfish one mentioned here--but that would require another post and sincere writing to express), we decided to head back to SE Asia and spend a month backpacking around there! Megan, Katera and I will join forces this time and we're hitting the countries that Megan and I didn't make it to last year (we both traveled through SE Asia on different trips). So we're starting with a cheap flight into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and will travel into Singapore, through Malaysia, southern Thailand, and Laos and then hit the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. I'm extremely excited about it--I have two great traveling companions, the trip is dirt cheap (our budget for a month is somewhere around US$800 total), the weather will be warm, the food delicious, and I feel really comfortable getting around SE Asia after doing it last year.

6. I can't stop listening to The Cars these days.

7. I finally made it to the library!!!! Last year--in one of those wonderful moments of discovery mentioned before--I wandered through my university's library till I was delighted to find a section of English lit! I pressed the school this year to allow me a library card and after some warnings, we all received them. The selection is primarily literature classics--which works for me because I'm trying to take this time before grad school to catch up on many of the great works of literature as well as acclaimed works of recent fiction that I missed in my primary-undergrad education. Katera and I have both been in voracious reading moods--so it's been fun. This semester I've read (off the top of my head):

-The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
-Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
-Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
-Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
-Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

and currently I've opened the Divine Comedy by Dante--but I can only find Inferno and Paradiso, so I might not make it very far into it! It's a shame, because the passages I've read from Purgatory looked the most interesting. Maybe I'll find it at a bookstore somewhere though! I just feel sooo thrilled that I have access to the library now! I can only get 5 books at a time--so I'm looking forward to finishing this round and heading back for more.

8. I've got my fake Christmas tree out and will decorate it and the house this week!!! It makes me miss home so much--but even that doesn't diminish the joy of Christmas season!!! love to you all!!!

The ORIGINAL Soulja Boy ballet!--this makes me laugh

2008-12-05T10:49:00.001-06:00

I can't help it--I had to share this!! Their energy is sooo infectious! It makes me want to go work out or something. My favorite moment is second 39-40. This kid is hilarious!!!!

Thanksgiving in China

2008-11-30T09:17:00.004-06:00

Our Thanksgiving Feast: Yultuz, Katera, Kunduz, Peach and Jesse (from left to right).

My homemade pumpkin soup

Katera's delicious stuffing, some bread and the Christmas-colored salad

Peach getting some drinks...

Jesse showcasing his specialty

Happy happy Kunduz cutting the cake for dessert

Yultuz and Kunduz as we gathered round the phone (laptop) to call Fawn in America...

Our beautiful flowers from Peach!

Last year, I ran away from Thanksgiving--traveling with Fawn to Yangshuo, one of my favorite places in China. It was wonderful on so many levels: the scenery was breathtaking, the company was fun and hilarious, the weather was warm and sunny, and the activities were refreshing. It was one of the best trips I've had in China. And it helped distract me from the family-formed festival that was happening in my mother's home. It helped me to ignore the fact that my brother was home and that I wasn't.

This year I decided to bite the bullet and stay in town--and try to make a special Thanksgiving here in my China home. I invited over a few of my favorite Chinese friends and my neighbors and Katera and I cooked a feast--which turned out to be vegetarian, but wonderful. (I don't like to cook meat in my teeny tiny kitchen and I don't really like turkey anyway) Between the two of us we prepared savory pumpkin soup, stovetop stuffing, broccoli and cheese casserole, spinach salad with a homemade lemon-pepper vinaigrette, cranberry sauce and a loaf of homemade bread. Jesse shared with us his homemade hot chocolate mix from America, Yultuz and Kunduz brought a cake and Peach brought beautiful flowers!

It was a really lovely evening with our "family." The word takes on so many meanings when you've been away from your actual family for the holidays. We laughed and laughed when we were telling our Chinese friends about the 1-800-Butterball hotline--so much so that we actually tried to call it, but couldn't get through to a real person. We told stories of funny or awkward holidays passed and we all were thankful for the fact that sometimes holidays away from family can have their own special moments and joys. I had been dreading it a little--but it was ok.

I was sick for the rest of the weekend (true to holiday form--from childhood on I've always managed to fall sick for thanksgiving or Christmas or both), so I didn't get to go to the grand Thanksgiving party on Saturday that is held annually among the foreigners in Wuhan. Our extended team here rents a party room and buys up a bunch of turkeys from the import store (there's only one place in town to find turkeys for sale--in fact, many of our friends in smaller towns travel to Wuhan--sometimes 5-8 hours one way--to pick up a turkey for their own thanksgiving celebrations if they don't come to ours), and many of our very extended network from out of town come in for the weekend. It's like a huge potluck and is supposed to be great. Last year I didn't mind missing it for travel--but this year I was stuck in bed with an upset stomach--so that was a bummer. I hear that it was great though.

And now it's time for the Christmas season--and I'm so excited to share it with my students and friends again. This week I will pull out all the Christmas decorations that I managed to find last year and maybe will go hunting for some more and begin to fill my apartment with festive cheer. I can't wait!