Seeing a fascist cry made me want to blog.

Hot, hot, hot!

2010-10-12T04:21:00.000-07:00

Not really. This is China.

Last week Dan and I had the week off. It started off in the best way possible. We had gorgeous blue skies from Friday until Wednesday. Dan and I took advantage of the weather and biked as much as possible. It was wonderful to have time together, as a family and as a couple. I think I can safely say that both of us feel better about life right now.

Positive attitudes aside for a moment, every now and then I am bombarded with reasons to leave this country. I don't because in spite of the inconveniences, which I love to elaborate on, we live a very comfortable life here, and it somehow manages to redeem itself right as I reach the brink of tolerance.

On Tuesday, Dan and my (and every other Bank of China customer's) bank cards stopped working. No cash, no debit, no banks open because of the national holiday. It wasn't fixed the next day or the day after that. We had to wait until Friday before our cards worked again. I would feel safe betting that they knew in advance that the cards wouldn't work and didn't feel the need to notify people. All I could think was imagine we had an emergency and they didn't take foreign cards! We would have been very, very sorry.

On Wednesday, the pollution kicked in again and we risked suffocating Olivia every time we wanted to go outside. It was absolutely disgusting. We could barely see a block in front of us. That lasted until the end of the holiday. And, on Monday morning I woke up to sparkling blue skies, and work.

The real kicker, though, is that on Friday, when our bank cards started working again, the hot water stopped! Of course there was no warning, because this is China. It's been five days now, and nobody has any idea when we will have hot water again. What really kills me is that someone had to have thought, "Hey, it's getting cold out. You know what would be a good idea? Let's fix the hot water pipes, now."

Yeah, let's.

Ahhh, Vacation!

2010-10-02T04:31:00.001-07:00

So, I'm on day two of ten days of vacation. Does it feel good? Yes. Have I done much? Absolutely not! School ended early on Thursday, and so did I. I think I was asleep by 6:30 or so, just after Olivia. On Friday, barring our usual morning walk, we stayed home most of the day. We only went out for a few hours to buy Dan a new bike. He was a bit reluctant to get one, thought maybe it would be a waste of money, but it turns out he's pretty happy to have a bike.

Today Olivia and I took Da Mi for a walk early, and then came home to drop of the dog and pick up Dan (who needs his beauty sleep). We went out for Chinese breakfast for the first time in a while. It wasn't as good as I hoped it might be, and the donkey meat sandwiches (we passed on the plate of donkey eyes) we had at the specialty hole in the wall were better than anything we had at the bigger place. The highlight, though, was actually the weather. It was another clear, only lightly polluted day in Beijing!! It rained last night so our lungs got a reprieve from the cancer-causing fine particles, but by 8 a.m. the sun was drying things up!

This little, or actually, relatively big guy was pretty cool, too. I found him in the middle of the sidewalk and decided that I would save him in spite of the giant horn on his butt. It's o.k. though, I used Olivia's snack tupperware. A little caterpillar juice never hurt anyone, right?

After breakfast we went home, and I was thinking Olivia might take a nap. Unfortunately, it only lasted about 40 minutes, so just as Dan and I were getting into an interesting conversation, she started crying. It's really annoying because she never used to cry when she woke up, but she always does now. She's not my infinitely happy morning sunshine anymore!! I'm not sure what happened. Judging from the amount of drool that's been leaking out of her mouth lately, she might be getting a tooth or two. Or maybe she's got some sort of saliva regulation problem and she's crying because it really is disgusting to wake up with drool all over your face.

Anyway, she played for a while and when she got tired again, around lunch time, she refused to go down for another nap. So, Dan and I did what any good parents would do. We strapped her in her stroller and took her out for coffee. Nothing quite like caffeine to get a kid to pass out. I suppose it was technically the ride in the stroller that helped her pass out, but I would like to give Starbucks credit because I really enjoyed my latte. She was asleep for so long that Dan and I actually got to read books, at the same time! It was nice to just sit and sip coffee together. That never happens anymore.

After coffee, the weather was still beautiful so we decided to take a bike ride to a park. I sort of had an ulterior motive, but we'll get to that later. We packed up and strapped in, and off we went. We sort of took the long way there, going through some hutongs and ending up on the second ring road, but we made it just as the skies were clouding over. Oh, but here's where my ulterior motive comes in. We weren't actually at the park... we went to a restaurant near the park that has really good chocolate milkshakes :-) We had a late lunch and then went to the park. Unfortunately, by the time we got in the park, went up and down some stairs about twenty times with Olivia, and walked a few meters, the clouds started to get a bit darker and the wind was blowing a bit harder. We decided it was probably time to leave, so we headed home.

Now, Olivia is in bed and we have some time to ourselves. It's wonderful knowing that Dan doesn't have to leave tomorrow or the next day. I'm really enjoying this whole "same vacation" thing.

Bad, bad girl!

2010-09-27T04:59:00.000-07:00

I should probably be punished, but I'm grateful that I won't be. What's the infraction, you ask? Twice, in as many days, I forgot my camera. I can see my dad wagging his finger at me from here! It seems impossibly hard to remember essential things these days. I think a scan of my brain would reveal severely reduced function in all areas and perhaps a few lost toys would show up as well. I'd get a scan but getting pre-approval from my health insurance is just not worth the hassle (I know, their evil plan works!). Where was I going with this? Oh, yeah, the camera that I forgot on my walks. I walk the dog every day (the baby gets a walk too, but I'm not sure she cares). There are plenty of days that I don't see anything particularly spectacular or even moderately photo-worthy. Yesterday and today I was caught off guard and, of course, sans camera.

Yesterday, I walked down a road that didn't exist a few hours earlier (no, that is not an exaggeration, the blacktop still smelled fresh as we walked over it--less than a year ago it was a walled-in overgrown migrant worker toilet zone and I have pictures to prove it). I saw some workers wearing bright orange vests but no hardhats, no goggles, no masks. This isn't uncommon in China. In fact, I was actually surprised to see that they appeared to have flame retardant gloves. Now, you might wonder, how on Earth would she know if they were flame retardant? See, the workers were laying down pipes, pretty big ones, and one of them was apparently too long. So, what do you do with a pipe that's too long? You cut it! The thing is, when it's an insulated pipe, that gets a bit tricky. As soon as the saw began to screech and spark against the metal, the insulation burst into flames. So, while worker number 1 managed the saw, sparks flying scarily close to his unprotected face, worker number 2 (or maybe just a really good friend) continued to beat out the flames with his gloves. When worker number 1 successfully cut through the pipe, he joined number 2 in beating the flames. Finally, after what I can only assume was the substantial inhalation of toxic fumes, the fire was out and the men retreated. It's visions like these where all I can say is "This is China."

This morning was a different story. Nothing crazy, no lives or body parts were in danger. I simply woke up at 4 a.m. (and yes, I know it's an ungodly hour), did some yoga, and went for an early walk when Olivia woke up. There was almost nobody out yet, and the weather was perfect. It was actually a bit strange because it smelled more like spring than fall. Maybe it will get warm again before it gets cold. The courtyard is lush and green right now, which is beautiful in and of itself, but the moon was absolutely stunning! It was oddly high in the sky and super bright. It was so clear and bright that I could see the texture caused by the craters. It's hard to explain actually. A very blue sky, orange at the eastern horizon and this bright moon looming overhead. I will bring my camera tomorrow, but I can pretty much guarantee that I will never see anything like that again. In spite of my attempts to show her, I'm not sure Olivia truly appreciated the moment. I'm pretty sure, actually, that all she wanted was for me to continue moving.

Tomorrow, I WILL bring my camera. (And, of course, I won't need it.)

And So This Is China...

2010-08-23T05:02:00.000-07:00

Being back in China is bitter sweet. I'm far from family and back to work, but I'm also back to my dog, my house, and my routines. Walking a dog probably gives you a different feel for any place, but here it has exposed me to so much! I see so many strange and funny things. And, with a dog and a cute baby, I'm guaranteed that at least three people will talk to me in the course of an hour walk. I get a lot of Chinese practice that way. Granted, it also means that I've become particularly adept at speaking about dogs and babies, but I learn the occasional new word too. And, I have to say... I really missed the Chinglish.

I'm glad to be getting my weekly organic veggie delivery too! I realized on Saturday, that I hadn't had a single Chinese meal until then (compliments to my friend Jin Bo and her awesome jiao zi making skills), but I sure have been enjoying a good deal more plant-based food than I was in the States. When Dan gets back, we'll probably get out for Chinese food a little more often. I've just been too tired and lazy to go with Olivia. She started walking a week ago and I have been busy ever since! It's so hard for me to believe she'll be a year on Friday!

I feel so tired, but so lucky to have the life I do. Dan gets back tomorrow, and then it will really feel like we're home :-)

Woo Hoo!

2010-07-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

So my Chinese New Year's resolution lasted about as long as most things made in China. Almost six months have flown by! Oh well! Maybe next year ;-)

Today has been an awesome day! I handed in the last paper and gave the last presentation for my master's degree. It's been about three years since I started the program, and I only recently realized how much it was hanging over me. I can't get it into my head that it's actually over, that there are no more classes to take, and that I'll get a nice raise with my next contract! I feel so free!

The day only got sweeter when I came home after our celebration and got to see Olivia take her first step! It's amazing how quickly she's changing. I can barely keep up with her now. She moves so fast and is constantly getting into things. And whether or not she's getting into trouble, she is almost always jabbering away in her own little language. I love her little personality-she's got such presence!

Unfortunately for me, that presence is evident from about 5:30 in the morning, so I really ought to get some sleep. I may be done with school for a while, but there's no rest for the weary. Tomorrow, we've got plans for brunch and maybe Olivia's first trip to the zoo.

Since I can't upload any of my photo's from this summer, yet, here's a recent one I took with my computer when my dad was visiting...

About time...

2010-02-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

It has been ONE FULL YEAR since I last posted, so if you're still following this, wow! That little fetus in the previous post went from that to this...

to this...

to this...

to this...

I could keep going, but I will spare you my infinite photo collection... for now. It has been an amazing year! I can't believe how lucky I am to have Dan and now Olivia in my life. So much has changed for me that it seems a silly proposition to try to recount it all, instead I will leave you drooling over the cutest baby in the world with the promise that I will write again... soon.

So, here it is, my Chinese New Year's Resolution: I will blog at least once a week! (You may now start taking bets on how long this will last.)

Xin nian kuai le! Happy Year of the Tiger!

Three Months

2009-02-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

It's been almost exactly three months since my last post. As it turns out, three months is a pretty significant number. I began getting sick over the Christmas holiday and went to the doctor not long after to confirm the expected, that Dan and I are expecting! Knowing that I was pregnant was exciting, but it didn't totally outweigh the fact that I felt weak and sick all the time. I felt so bad at times that I considered canceling my trip to Spain (planned before Christmas). I'm glad I didn't. In spite of it being short, Madrid, some old friends, fried calamari and Spanish ham were exactly what I needed! I had quite a bit of all of them, and I am grateful for that. It was wonderful to walk in warmer weather, go rowing in Retiro (O.K., so it was Dan that did the rowing, but I thoroughly enjoyed the sun and water), and speak a language that I know! But, now I'm back, and back to work and school. This past week marked my 12th week of pregnancy and, thank God, what appears to be the beginning of the end of being sick. Today was my second visit to the doctor and second ultrasound.

It was amazing to see last time because I could see the heartbeat. This time, I couldn't see that, but the fetus was moving all over the place. The doctor laughed and said it was getting some exercise. There was a lot of arm flailing and back arching. Little signs of just what we've got ourselves into :-)

Any Given Sunday

2008-11-09T04:15:00.000-08:00

This has been my shortest, most painful weekend in recent memory. Last week was equally painful, but long. The muscles in my back reached a level of cramping that became unbearable by Monday. So, Tuesday evening I went for a Chinese full body massage. I don't know what it's called in Chinese, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was called something like "expensive pain."

Face-down on the massage table, I wanted to scream, but the pain was so strong that I could only gasp for air as the woman pushed, prodded and smacked my body. The height of pain came when she began to work on my back. Using my own body against me, she rolled the tensed muscles over my shoulder blade. She must have done this a million or so times to each side and I felt like I was going to pass out from holding my breath, waiting for it to end. When it did end, I felt fine. If I had the memory of a fish, I wouldn't have known that some small Chinese lady had just beat the crap out of me.

The next day it felt like someone had punched me in about a dozen different places in my back. As I went about my day, though, it seemed to get better, so I had another brilliant idea, YOGA! It felt good to get a little exercise, but my back still felt tight. Massage, ibuprofen, yoga, it all helped, but didn't solve the problem, so I had to go with the last resort. I went to the doctor.

Friday morning I headed off to the hospital where the doctor took a whopping 10 minutes to talk to me and inform me that I had twisted my vertebrae. My guess is that I did it about three weeks ago in yoga. Why did I wait so long to go to the doctor? Because I thought my discomfort was related to stress, not an injury. As it turns out, I was wrong. So, she prescribed me some medicine, including a muscle relaxant that I insisted I didn't need, and sent me downstairs to a Chinese physiotherapist. She looked at me far longer than the other doctor, poking and prodding to find out exactly where it hurt, and boy did it hurt! Then, she gave me an adjustment.

Saturday, my back was feeling a lot better, but I woke up with a nasty sore throat and runny nose, the exact symptoms Dan had a week ago!! It was downhill from there, in part because I had to go to work. We had a professional development day, and I was miserable. I left early because I started to have a fever. At home, I couldn't get comfortable or warm. My nose ran and my throat was hard and dry, making it difficult to swallow and breath.

Today I am not feeling much better. I was well enough to get some work done, but I still feel like crap. I'm hanging on to the highlights of my week, Korean food and a haircut on Friday with Marty. Originally, Dan was going to come out as well, but he was still sick with his cold, so just the two of us went. When we got back, we decided to get our hair cut. We tried the "new" place by our apartments.

Ushered in by our hair washers we sat down and they began our half hour head massage. It felt wonderful, but it was clear that my hair washer had never washed hair like mine before. Twisting, pulling, and rubbing long hair into a ball may not be problematic for the smooth straight hair that most Chinese people have, but I was expecting my hair to be one big nest. It was. After rinsing, it took three people to comb my hair, a half an hour to cut it straight across, and another 45 minutes for a moisturizing treatment. The last part was the best. They literally beat the conditioner into my hair, rolled perfect ringlets and attached me to a steam machine that looked like a shower cap attached to a vacuum hose. The steam came out from two little holes on the top, making me look like an angry cartoon character, think Yosemite Sam. Two and a half hours after stepping into the shop, I stepped out with some fabulous hair.

Another Relaxing Weekend (for me)

2008-10-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of yet another somewhat relaxing weekend where I didn't get much of anything done. The weekend before last was the end of my week-long holiday and I spent it recovering from a pretty nasty cold. This weekend, I was healthy, but not very focused on what I needed to do. I spent a lot of time snuggling with Dan and Da Mi. We watched some movies and played outside a bit, but nothing very far from home. The farthest I went was actually to the vets to get Da Mi her first round of vaccinations. I was a little disappointed to find out that I still won't be able to take her outside for another three weeks! Apparently canine distemper and parvovirus are really common in Beijing because few people vaccinate their dogs. I can understand not vaccinating if you live in the middle of nowhere and your dog isn't exposed to much of anything, but in the city that just seems irresponsible and mean. Anyway, one shot down, three to go. Da Mi didn't like the vet. She peed on him twice and wouldn't go near him unless he pulled her close. I can't say I blame her. If the first thing someone did was to stick a cold piece of metal in my bum, I might not be very happy either!

I missed my Sunday posting!

2008-09-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

I thought for sure if I picked one day a week to blog I would definitely do it. I failed. Fortunately, I feel it was totally justifiable because of what happened yesterday. It started off with a lazy morning, then coffee and work in the early afternoon. I wanted to get as much work done as possible on my paper that's due Thursday and I wanted to do my regular classwork as well. My goal is to have at least two days this week where I have absolutely nothing that needs to be done. It doesn't look particularly likely, but I'm still working for it.

After a couple of hours spent working on my paper, I headed home to let the puppy out. I didn't want to leave her alone for too long because she has had some trouble digesting some of the food I gave her (to put it lightly). Everywhere I read said it would happen, and she doesn't look like she's suffering, but I still feel bad sometimes. I went home, let her out. She peed and pooped on the newspaper and then everywhere else as well. I basically followed her around with toilet paper and a mop. Sometimes I think she just likes to watch me mop. I am so close to hiring a full-time ayi it's not funny. I don't really need a full time ayi to help care for my dog, but cleaning my house three times a week for about 10 dollars is certainly worth it!

Anyway, I did some work and played with the dog and Dan came back from yoga around 5:30. He sat down on the chair, put the dog on his lap and proceeded to let the dog fall off his lap, and not in any gentle sort of way. I usually get really pissy when I feel like he's not being gentle enough with Da Mi, but this time I was hysterical, because she was actually hurt. She was screaming and refused to walk on her right, hind foot. She wasn't very good at walking on three feet either, so she just kind of scooted to the washing machine (where she often goes to hide or sleep). I freaked out and was in tears, yelling at Dan, that I couldn't believe he just let her fall off his lap like that, and so on. He was being very patient and probably feeling more than a little guilty.

We basically rushed her out to the vet across the street, where they looked at her, but couldn't really help us because their x-ray machine was broken. They sent us to a different hospital where we paid 80 kuai (about 12 U.S. Dollars) for a visit with a doctor and x-rays. On the way there and the whole time in the hospital, Da Mi was so calm it freaked me out even more. She just wanted to snuggle and sleep. I had a massive headache, thought I was going to puke, and came really close to punching some people out. I slowly forgave Dan, and had a lot easier time of it when the x-rays came back and there was nothing wrong. Her bones looked strong and she had probably just bruised her foot. The doctors did ask what the heck she was eating, though, since her poop showed up in the x-ray. Turns out Chinese people don't think dogs should eat whole eggs or bones. Maybe they're right, but they also shouldn't eat toxic chemicals, so I'll pass on the dog food, thanks. When we got her home last night, she was already starting to walk on the foot a little (and continued to poop and pee everywhere). So, maybe I overreacted just a little...

This morning Da Mi has been fine, though clearly still hurting a little. She chewed her nice smelly chicken neck on some of our clothes to thank us for last night (they were dirty, but still). We even left her alone for a little while to go out to lunch. We had really delicious meal at an Indian place. We each had about 5 small dishes, plus bread and dessert for about 10 dollars. The food was well-prepared and the service was amazing! Now we're at the bookworm having some coffee. I was going to try to finish writing more of my paper, but I am too full and sleepy. It just isn't going to happen until I have a nap, and a snuggle with Da Mi!

Starbucks Rocks the Milk Scandal!

2008-09-21T01:48:00.000-07:00

I came to Starbucks to work, because I know I will want to sleep if I stay home. It's a wonderfully rainy day. Since there is less pollution in Beijing still, there continues to be evidence of real weather (i.e. rain, sunshine, and clouds) as opposed to the usual monotone grey sky and dust storms. But I digress. Starbucks no longer offers milk here, period. They don't even let you choose if you mind dying a painful death or not. Instead, it is soy milk for everything, and they've got advertising telling you how wonderful it tastes too! There is a sign that says "Try our new vanilla soy latte!" as if you have a choice! In spite of myself, I actually like the soy latte. In different times, I would not order it, but times are tough, and I guess I should be grateful that some companies still believe in somewhat ethical conduct.

In other news... there is no other news. I continue to be swamped with work and school, but I can't complain. My life is wonderful. My boyfriend still loves me in spite of me and my puppy is growing big, though maybe not as tall as Dan would hope. I only wish I was closer to my family.

A Walk in the Park

2008-09-14T03:14:00.000-07:00

The only thing easy in my life right now was brunch and the walk in Chaoyang Park that we took today. It was a beautiful day and Dan and I just sat on the edge of the lake for an hour and a half. In spite of the fact that school has only been going for two weeks now, I really needed this three day weekend. I have been working hard to teach, working hard to study for two grad classes, and spending a lot of time with my new puppy. I am exhausted and trying not to get sick!

Last night we said goodbye to our friend Matt, who is heading home to coach swimming before taking a job in Germany. We went to Hatsune for some really delicious Japanese food and tried to make plans to see each other again soon. Soon, I've found, seems to get further and further away as I get older. Soon used to mean a couple days from now, or next week. Then I went to college and it meant in a couple months. When I left the States, soon started to mean in 6 months to a year. Now, it often means two years, maybe more! I'm not sure where the time goes.

Today we had brunch with Filipa and Stan before our escapade in the park. Delicious food and good company makes me smile. I ate bread, which I haven't done in about two weeks, but it was totally worth it. As long as I'm going to eat something with wheat in it, I might as well binge. So, binge I did! I haven't been good about keeping the corn out lately anyway, so bad skin is to be expected. I'll just have to be extra careful this week!

It's far easier to control my diet than it is to control stress. I have a lot on my plate right now, and I am constantly preoccupied with my puppy. Something about actually managing to save her, with a LOT of help from my friends has made me worry even more. She's about three and a half weeks old now and appears to be really healthy, so there's not much to worry about. Oddly enough, I find things. Maybe she's a little sleepier or not gaining as much weight or fell off the bed, and I worry about every little thing. It's stupid, I know, but I can't help myself. I feel like it's my duty to protect her! I've also been struggling with the fact that she's looking like a big dog. At three and a half weeks, she's about four pounds. Beijing doesn't allow dogs over 35 centimeters or 14 inches, so unless she's just going to stop growing up and start growing out, I might have a problem. I'd be willing to pay the 5,000 RMB fine if that means that I can register and keep her, but I'm not sure that's the case and I don't want them to take her away and kill her. And they would. They are pure evil!

A long, long time ago...

2008-07-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

I can still remember how... I used to blog here now and then. And I can't be sure what my excuse is this time, but I'll bet it's the same old thing. Life happens and I haven't been organized or dedicated enough to keep going with this regularly.

Tonight is my last night in the D.C. area for this year. I have spent five very short weeks here, and I'm just a touch reluctant to leave. Classes, and with them all the stress, just ended Friday. I finally have time and mental energy to do what I want, but it's time to move on.

In spite of the work, there were some highlights. I saw friends that I haven't seen in years, lots of them, though not all of them. I met a lot of great people that I hope to keep in touch with. Most astonishingly, perhaps, I ran without suffocating! I'm a fresh air addict and it's near impossible to get a fix in Beijing! To offer a small glimpse into the reality of Beijing pollution, I will tell you that I can run for about 10 minutes there before I feel like my lungs are crusting over. Here I can run for half an hour. Yes I break a sweat, but no I don't feel like my chest is imploding. It's funny because I was starting to think I was just getting old, but this break from bad air has been reassuring!

The good stuff just kept on coming this summer, so I have a lot to be thankful for. I know a list doesn't quite cut it, but it's what I've got. In no particular order, I'm utterly grateful for...

...my friends from former lives who still make me feel like I belong, even though I keep abandoning you to go on my fantastic voyages.

...my awesome roommates who made me laugh and kept me sane.

...all the cool people in the program (FAST TRAIN, not AA) that shared stories and ideas.

...Screen on the Green.

...Dan, who has an uncanny ability to just appear places.

...crab.

...sun, blue skies, greenery, and the smell of fresh air.

...crickets.

...and, why not, vegetables.

My summer isn't over, though. Tomorrow I head to Kentucky to visit family, before going back to New York, and visiting more family, for a couple of weeks. I'll get to spend time with people I care about and do a lot less work than I have been. Life is good!

Spring in the City

2008-03-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

It's the time of year where I feel like I could be in any major city in any part of the world. It smells like spring, it looks like spring, and the big buildings and hustle and bustle aren't particularly distinctive. There are moments where I could be anywhere and then I am reminded that I am definitely in Beijing. The following things help bring me back to reality:

1. I see a bank guard. He doesn't have a gun, but instead he has a long stainless steel baton with spikes on it that make it look like an instrument of medieval torture. As an aside I was going to take a picture of it, but I didn't want to tempt him into using it.

2. I'm walking along one of those could-be-anywhere streets when all of the sudden I run into a wall of sewage smell with an unidentifiable origin.

3. More and more people are out and about after hibernating through the winter, but I don't look like any of them.

4. The smell of paint thinner is in the air in all major shopping areas. I still haven't figured out where this smell is coming from or, frankly, what it is, but it seems to be everywhere. Maybe people are doing all of their toxic renovations now that the weather is nicer and they can open the windows and doors and poison us all.

5. CNN has blacked out twice in the same news sequence. I had to look online to find out why, and I had to use a proxy server to see the pictures. I don't know how they managed to block only the pictures on a site. It's pretty amazing and mildly disturbing!

6. Our taxi driver stops en route to our destination and asks us to wait in the car while he goes to the bathroom. I let him know I wasn't inclined to do so, so he punished us by driving as slowly as possible the rest of the way.

7. Two police officers showed up at our hutong trying to tell us that we needed to re-register after going home for Christmas holiday, when it is not the case. They insisted, however, that we would not be able to stay there the next night if we didn't do this. It turns out they were probably looking for a bribe. I'm sure you're shocked.

8. The police officer waits for me to tell her if I will tutor her child in English before beginning to do the paperwork I need from her. Of course I told her yes, but I may not answer my phone for the next few weeks!

9. Blue skies and real clouds are not the norm.

10. There's so much dust that spring cleaning is a weekly event!

Chinese Lantern Festival

2008-02-21T04:44:00.000-08:00

Today I ate boiled sticky rice dumplings with a sweet filling in honor of the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations, and as a consolation to myself as I will most likely find it difficult to sleep tonight. There are, by far, more fireworks today than there were on the first or any other day of the celebrations. The amount of gunpowder dispensed could easily put the American Military to shame! As much as I hate the noise, it is, at least, prettier than what our people do with similar resources, and it might mean that China has sold fewer munitions to Sudan in the past few weeks. I am grateful that I don't live in a place where all of this noise would signify people dying. And on that happy note, a video of fireworks for your viewing pleasure.

http://american.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=528204047765 (I had trouble uploading it and since the error message is in Chinese, I'm out of luck for now)

Oh, and just for the heck of it, here's a great picture of the metro the day I couldn't bear to take it!

One too many excuses.

2008-02-16T05:35:00.000-08:00

I think it's been about two months since I last posted, but I'm afraid to look. I decided, about two weeks ago, that I was going to do a "highlights" posting to avoid feeling overwhelmed with the task. Unfortunately, there are quite a few highlights considering that the two months of blog neglect include almost a month and a half of vacation! So, maybe you understand why it took me two weeks to psych myself up enough to do the abbreviated version.

I'm not sure where I left off, but I'll start with my Christmas holiday which started on December 14, because, quite frankly, I don't remember anything in the two weeks before that. I'm sure the vague memory has something to do with working too much, but I have no details to give on that front. Back to the point, Christmas was a godsend.

I flew back to the states on the 18th. Dan decided on the 17th that he would join me, and managed to get a direct flight, round trip for about 900 dollars. My flight, on the other hand had a layover in San Francisco. Needless to say, my flight was delayed and my time in SFO was an absolute nightmare. While going from the international to the domestic terminal I was harassed by the guy who shuffles people into various security check lines. He claimed I had too many carry-ons. I was annoyed because I had just found out about the delay and knew I would have to take my shoes off in about three minutes and I almost started crying. "Well, I have already checked my bags. What do you expect me to do?" He made me go talk to the 'managers', a group of women chatting in a corner. They suggested that I shove everything from one bag into the bigger one. Thinking this was stupid, because this didn't actually reduce the size of the stuff I was carrying I said, "Why?" "Just do it and trust me." And that was it. I was just dumb enough to have small bags instead of the enormous ones that some people take as carry-ons. Oh, wait, this is supposed to be a highlights post, isn't it? Sorry.

Highlight number one, Dad, Katie and Ezra waiting for me at the airport. Ezra was rolling around on the floor because he was so tired, but I was glad to see him, even if he didn't have a clue who I was. I got to see my grandparents and enjoyed every bit of it. And what better than a picture of the motley crew to prove it!

Getting back to Bath was great! It was nice to be home, and even nicer knowing I was going to be there for Christmas. Time flew, though I did spend exorbitant amounts of time lounging around and eating. Dan was with us through Christmas, so we did some last minute shopping and the like. I also took my turn dirtying mom's brand new kitchen, but I left staining the brand new sofa to my brother and stepfather ;-)

Christmas Eve with dad was yummy as usual. We had yogurt curry chicken and lentils. It was awesome, but a LOT of food. Christmas morning was busy, like always, though our guests seem to arrive for brunch a bit later than they used to. Not having small children who wake them up at 5:30 a.m. probably helps.

Aside from Christmas and general quality time with my family, I would qualify my two highlights as my night out with Kate (See scary picture below), and sledding with Ezra in the backyard. We actually went sledding a second time because he went poopy in the potty. I was cold long before he was, both times, but he was so much fun I didn't really mind!

I also finally finished the masterpiece I started a year ago. Yeah, I know, it's been done before, but gosh darn it I'm proud I finished!

I got to bake a cake (dirtying the kitchen one last time) and sing "Happy Birthday" to my mom before I skipped town. And having had about 3 hours of sleep between Thursday and Saturday, I started my journey back to Beijing. Dad drove Philip and I to the airport in the morning and Phil had been kind enough to get the earliest flight possible meaning we had to leave at about 4 a.m. You will not live that down, brother!

Back to Beijing and back to work. The downside of three weeks of vacation is that eventually it is over :-( The upside of going back to work was that it would only be four weeks until my next week and a half of vacation. Unfortunately, that vacation is now over to, but I digress.

Back in Beijing I focused my attention on trying out my new pasta roller (thanks mom!) and learning the fine art of making bagels that taste and feel like bagels. I made pasta once and rolling it was harder than I imagined, since I had the machine and everything, but the end result was wonderful! It was the fluffiest pasta I've had in a long time, if ever. It was delicious and easy on the stomach. The half of the batch that I dried was not as good, but it was still far better than what you get in a store. The bagels were another story. Recipes for bagels are deceptively easy and the first one was absolute crap! They were the breadiest bagels ever! Not to be discouraged, I tried the recipe for Bronx worthy bagels and it turns out they are worthy. The first time I made them, they weren't spectacular, but they were a bunch better than the first recipe. The second time, I can honestly say I almost did it. I guess the third time's the charm. I'll post pictures of that when it happens.

So after four weeks of suffering, my Chinese New Year holiday started off (and continued) with a bang. For those of you who are unaware, Chinese New Year is a week and a half of non-stop fireworks in Beijing. Everybody and their mother gets the urge to blow stuff up this started around the 6th and it is still going on today (albeit slightly toned down). Some people were kind enough to set off some bombs, er, I mean fireworks, right outside the window of our hutong. Dan and I have learned what it must be like to live in a war zone, and we are glad it's almost over. I can stop shielding my eyes and running for cover, now. We did really enjoy the holiday though, especially since we finally got heating in our hutong. We did discover that the pipes were frozen, but our landlady kindly came and helped us fix the situation. So, we spent the majority of our time in the center of the city. Ignoring the fact that we were both suffering from nasty colds (lovely timing), Dan and I made the most of our week. We went to a different set lunch (read cheap food at expensive restaurants) every day and to two different places for brunch on Saturday and Sunday. The food was awesome in general, but the overall winner had to have been Assagi. It's an Italian place that normally costs an arm and a leg, but they have a great lunch menu. For 100 kuai each we got a starter, an entre, dessert, and coffee. The food was delicious and the service was amazing. I will never go there for dinner because I can't afford it, but I will be back for lunch! The second best was easily Alameda, which was also a great deal. It didn't end up being as cheap as the Italian place, but the food was equally delicious. We will, most definitely, go back.

In retrospect, I wish I had taken pictures of each of the meals. On the other hand, I wouldn't want you drooling all over your keyboard, so I suppose it's for the better.

Stuck...

2007-12-18T13:23:00.000-08:00

I should have known better. The first half of my flight was too good to be true. I had two seats to myself and no crying babies. The second leg is more than making up for that comfort already.

I hate United Airlines. Their service on board isn't great, but what's worse is that they are always running late! Today, my flight is a ridiculous 2.5 hours late (if it arrives at the predicted time). I tried to change my flight to an earlier one, but since I had already rechecked my baggage, they refused to help.

I'm jet lagged and I am getting pissed off really easily. It doesn't help that people go out of their way to make traveling difficult. The guy routing people into various lines for the security check insisted that I had too many bags, but as long as I held some of my stuff in my hands without a bag, THAT was o.k. WHAT?! IT'S THE SAME AMOUNT OF CRAP YOU MORON! Needless to say, it only gets better when you have to practically strip naked for the security check. Take off all of your coats and sweaters (in winter this is a feat in itself), take off your shoes, take your laptop out of the bag and your toiletries too. And, don't forget that you have 15 seconds to get it all back in order before the next person's crap will slam into yours. I don't know anybody that can get their shoes on that fast!

I have been awake for 24 hours now, and I still have at least 7 hours to go before I can sleep well.

35/60

2007-12-14T03:52:00.000-08:00

35 out of 60. It looks like a barely passing test grade, but it is way better than that! 35 out of 60 is how many channels on my cable that show the same 7 o'clock news! Dan and I noticed this before, but tonight was the first time we counted, 35! This new information adds to my love of Chinese Cable Television. Is it not just a little ironic that CCTV also stands for Closed Circuit Television?

A little too much holiday cheer...

2007-12-09T04:09:00.000-08:00

Or perhaps just a little too much wine last night and too much whining this afternoon. Last night was the staff Christmas party. Though I'm not usually a big drinker, I did have a tad too much. I blame the waitresses who refilled my glass when I wasn't looking. In all honesty, I would be talking to somebody and poof my wine glass was full again. I'm not good at staying sober if I can't count. In spite of my excesses, I had a good time. I danced like it was going out of style, and my legs haven't stopped thanking me for that. I did eventually figure out that the food was downstairs, but it was a little too late to balance out what I had already drunk.

When I got home from the party, I discovered the true disadvantage of not being able to drink water out of the tap. If you're thirsty and have about 10 ounces of water per person to last till morning, you either have to be thirsty or boil water. I was too drunk to be hanging out by the gas stove, so I went thirsty.

Dan and I slept away most of the morning, and at 1:30 I headed over to school. I had the priveledge, yet again, of working on a Sunday. Granted, I enjoy coaching, but I don't enjoy the hour and a half of down time when the kids aren't playing. I don't generally mind hanging out with the kids because I really don't feel that much older than them. I can joke and play around with them and they don't treat me like an old lady. Yet, there are times when all they do is winge. Today was one of them. They complained that one of their friends wasn't allowed to play, they complained about the refs and the scores, they complained about each other, and on and on. I am a complainer, but come on, it's soccer! Have fun, play the game and don't worry about whether or not the refs made a bad call. I'm not sure how some of the kids even knew what a bad call was since they haven't played a whole lot of soccer. The bus ride back to school was also trying as kids insisted on spilling things, yelling and cursing at each other and, you guessed it, complaining! Andrew asked me if I was planning on having kids. I told him I wasn't really sure how anyone could reasonably say yes to that after spending an afternoon with the kids on our teams. A father of one of the boys piped in and said, "Two is manageable, it's just that you have too many." Perhaps.

Why Chinese People Love Hitler: A very long post.

2007-12-07T01:13:00.000-08:00

It's been exactly a month and four days since my last post. I am ashamed. At this point, I'm going to have to personally notify people that I've blogged again because they may have assumed me dead. I'm baaaaaaack! I've been seriously overworked, but the semester is almost over and three lovely weeks of rest and relaxation will soon be mine. O.K. so there might not be much rest or relaxation for that matter, but I will get to spend massive amounts of time with friends and family, and that makes me happy. Needless to say, my lungs could use the trip out of Beijing. They scream for clean air every time I find myself running to work.

Not a whole lot has happened in a month, actually. I started studying Chinese characters and stopped again. I'm sure you're surprised. I worked, coached, worked some more, ate and slept a lot. I haven't had a single work-free weekend since October holiday!

Last weekend we met up with the Aleonards (Dan's parents' friends from Carriers) and their friends for dinner. It was fun. I spoke French till my head was about to explode and then had trouble switching back to Chinese. It's sort of reminiscent of my sophomore year of college when I had trouble keeping Russian, Spanish and French in their proper places. I have also noticed my Spanish waning, but there isn't a whole lot I can do about it at the moment.

This past Wednesday I bussed my butt out to Changping to visit Dan and our village people. It was not an average visit with them! As a matter of fact, I think I got more of a cultural education in two hours than I've had in the past six months. I'm well aware that there is so much about Chinese culture and people that I don't understand, but this was pretty jaw dropping.

To start the night off right, it was just Song Bo and I chatting. For some reason I asked her if she didn't have much time to rest because of her job. Her response was to tell me she was pregnant. Uh, congratulations? I wasn't quite sure it was a good thing since she spent the whole last year telling me how she didn't want kids. But then, maybe that's just what Chinese people say. So she told me exactly how many days pregnant she was, which took me an absurdly long time to figure out. I think I was expecting her to talk about months, but she was telling me 45 days. Since the word for days and money sounds pretty much the same, I was a little confused. She talked about how she felt fine and had lots of energy and that she was planning to work until she was seven or eight months pregnant. I said I thought that was a good thing... at which point Dan arrived.

Thinking our previous conversation was something to be excited about, I blurted it out first thing. "She's pregnant!" Dan turned to her and asked in Chinese and she got all weird and said, "No, no, no..." And I was wondering if I really missed something in our conversation during the last half hour. So, I asked, "You're not?" "Bu hao yi se (It's embarassing)," she said.

Ooops. Apparently, only women can talk to women about that kind of thing and men to men. Yeah. HUGE faux pas. So, in an effort to down play my aweful social skills Dan CONTINUED to talk about it, until I told him to shut up, he didn't know anything. And he told Song Bo that he didn't know anything, but I think it was lost in the cultural translation.

Later in the evening, when Luo Mo Cong came back, we were just sitting around chatting and the news was on. It was something about protests in Taiwan. The conversation that ensued was long, so I'll get to the salient points. Basically, both of them thought China should just go to war with Taiwan. They insisted that it is Chinese and that it cannot exist appart from China. Luo Mo Cong seemed to think the best course of action would be to just bom the crap out of the country. Dan made the point that if you kill all the people and flatten the country, there won't be any Taiwan. "Mei wen ti (No problem)," was his response. It was at about that point in the conversation that our jaws dropped, and we didn't think they would go any lower, but they did.

This led to a conversation about rulers and who were great rulers. His list consisted of Deng Xiao Ping, Napolean, and... HITLER! I don't think I've ever seen Dan look so stupified. See the dramatic recreation below.

Luo Mo Cong talked about those three people for about half an hour. Deng Xiao Ping was great, according to him, because he was a good leader. When Tibet wanted independence he went in and killed them all (this proud nationalistic outpouring was accompanied by gestures in case we weren't sure what he meant by killing). Napolean was great because he killed people and presumably Hitler as well, though to be completely honest both Dan and I were in a fuzzy state of shock. Dan's jaw reached its lowest point when Luo Mo Cong said, "Wo hen xi huan Hi te le (I really like Hitler)." At that point we decided it was probably appropriate to tell him he shouldn't say that to foreigners. He explained that Chinese people didn't care if a few thousand people were killed and we felt he had missed the point. "Yeah, but, you can't say you like Hitler." He still didn't get it. "It's like if we said we really liked the Japanese, they're really great people." "Oh, bu, bu, bu... (no, no, no)." Chinese people dislike the Japanese, to put it lightly, so he understood.

After all of that, I was starving. Dan and I went to a restaurant and I ate a pound and a half of dumplings! What's weird is that I didn't even feel full after that. The next morning I had a stomach ache, but details.

The rest of the week has been far less interesting. I made truffles last night, gave end of semester exams at school and visited my first dentist outside of Bath, convinced I had cavities. I was wrong, according to the dentist, but that doesn't change the fact that my teeth are sensitive. Her advice... don't eat sour, hot, or cold... and pray tell, what shall I eat? Melted ice cream ought to do it... or perhaps room temperature lettuce... mmmm! Anyway, I'm glad there's nothing to be fixed. It had been four years since I'd been to have a cleaning, but she said she couldn't tell. God bless whoever invented those spinning toothbrushes!

Signing out from an absurdly long post, but before I do I'd like to let you in on a little bit of news you might not get in your part of the world. There's a crisis in Thailand. There aren't enough pink polo shirts! Seriously, this made CNN news here. The Thai government actually produced 40,000 pink polo shirts to avoid a price increase. Why pink? Because the king wore a pink vest when he left the hospital a week ago. Wow. I mean, they have good food, but wow.

So much, so little time

2007-11-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

Time flies. It's already been about two weeks since my last post. Since then, there have been visits with the village people, parent-teacher conferences, ick, a bike race, some bitterly cold days, a soccer game or two and a halloween party. I just got home from said party.

I have been so busy, and so, so neglectful of my friends and family in other places. I feel like the work never ends, and I guess it never really does! I've been coaching soccer, doing a climbing activity, reading, posting (for my class), trying to figure out wikispaces, trying to get some exercise, trying to stay warm, trying to spend some quality time with Dan, and trying to stay at least a little bit social. Oh, and occasionally I sleep, it just doesn't feel like it's ever enough!

So, there was this bike race. I knew it was mountain biking, but thought, "I can hack it!" Oh, how I have so much to learn. Dan and I went with borrowed bikes, thinking we were going to do one 3.3 km lap. It turned out to be three. I still only did one, in large part because I was scared out of my mind. I had never gone down such steep hills on loose dirt, and the fact that these were followed by 90 degree turns didn't help. So, I sucked big time in that race, not even finishing. Later I picked up a little slack in the team relay, a different, significantly safer route. Our team didn't finish first, but we definitely didn't finish last either. What follows is a great picture of me looking as unathletic as humanly possible. If I look like I'm not really enjoying myself, it's cause I was way behind everybody else. There I am though, sporting a lovely hat my granny made me!

The race was last Saturday, and since then, I can barely remember what happened. I ate, slept, and worked some and on Friday I finally got to spend some time with Dan. Today was beautiful, so of course, I spent it inside!! It wasn't by choice, though. I had signed up for a first aid refresher course a while ago, thinking it would be a morning or an afternoon. Afterall, if it's a refresher, I would imagine it's basically some practice. WRONG! We were there from 9-5, but it was so unnecessarily long! I suppose there's no point in crying over it now though. It's done, and at least I'll have current certification.

Tonight we went to a Halloween party. It was fun, I just dressed up and I made Dan be a candy man (we used double sided tape to make his jacket very sweet). It was a few people I knew, and a lot more I didn't. I had a couple of drinks, some food, and danced my booty off for a few songs. It was the most gay men I've seen in one place since college. Ah, the good 'ole days. For pics, see: http://picasaweb.google.com/RLMohr/Halloween?authkey=wZ3jhgqB81E

And now I'm going to bed. Here's hoping we wake up in time to get some brunch somewhere!

Green what?

2007-10-19T06:02:00.000-07:00

Starbucks is proud to announce their new drink, the creamed spinach latte, served up HOT for your drinking pleasure! O.k. so maybe it's a green tea latte, but it looks like creamed spinach and it smells like creamed spinach. It tastes o.k., sort of, but it's hard to get past the sensation that I might be part of a new government initiative to get foreigners to do their part in cleaning up toxic waste. A color that bright (the photo really doesn't do it justice) is most definitely hiding something!

I'm at Starbucks now. It's a nice way to spend a Friday evening out of the house, but not really doing anything. This week has been pretty busy for me. I've been doing testing at school, which means I've spent a lot of time grading. I've also had the typical workload and master's course work on top of that.

On Monday, I did absolutely nothing to celebrate my birthday. I did, however, received a package from my dad (he has impeccable timing), and that was really nice. I got some jewelry from Dan, but we weren't actually able to spend the day together because Mondays and Wednesdays are the nights we spend at respective ends of the city. I also got a little Piglet snow globe from one of my Korean students. It was a typical Monday birthday, not good, not bad.

Tuesday, my girls' soccer team won their first game! It was great, and I was really proud of them. I don't have the winning photo to post at the moment, but I will add it later. They were all really excited to have won as well, especially since they won against girls who were way bigger than them and they played the whole game without substitutes. I really love coaching, I love being able to share that sense of accomplishment with them.

Yesterday, I played in our first two club football games. I'm playing soccer with about 9 or 10 other people from the school and it's really good fun. We got trampled, but I enjoyed every second of it. I actually played fairly well, especially considering it's been so long! We lost the first game 3-1 and the second game was a very high number-1 (I actually did lose count of how many goals they scored, but they were really, really good). My proudest moment was the assist I had in the second game. I would even say it was pretty and it led to a very pretty goal.

And today, today was Friday, thank everything holy. Work was rough and I didn't have much in the way of downtime, but it's over. At the end of the day, I did some line dancing (we're doing it for our school's International Day) and had some pizza. I love the slow moments like these, with Dan and my green tea latte. Life is good!

Wrecked!

2007-10-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

I am soooo tired. I'm including a picture of me, right now, at Starbucks. O.k., I'm not actually sleeping, but I wish I was. I feel so overwhelmed right now. It's report week, which means that I still have about five comments to write by Friday afternoon. I also have school work (for my graduate class), which is mostly done, but then I have to prepare for next week. I have to hand in a statement of my goals by Friday as well, which is a hassle mostly because I'm just too busy right now. They could have waited until the week AFTER reports, couldn't they? I'm also doing a virtual seminar which is from 3-4:30 a.m. thanks to the time difference. I've arranged to go into school an hour late, but I still think I'm going to want to die. I have planning that needs to be written and I need to get my next unit planned as well. All of this probably doesn't even seem like that much, but I feel like I don't have a good hold on it anyway.

Aside from floundering in my professional life, things are going pretty well. I am enjoying the time I get to spend with Dan, even though it's not always restful. We do our best to do nothing. This week (from last Friday until this one), we've had guests from France. They've been staying in the Hutong and we've seen almost nothing of them, so hopefully we'll get a chance to spend some time with them tomorrow. They're really nice, and they have a very cute baby. I'm totally going to want one of my own someday!

Last week, when we went to visit the village people, they took us to an amusement park. I use the term very loosely because Dan and I were only really amused because it was so horrible. Think county fair and then take away all the fun rides and the cotton candy and the fried dough. You're not left with much. There weren't even any animals. I'm not really sure why Chinese people find these things fun, and we don't.

We went on three "rides", only two of which actually qualify by definition. The first was a very slow moving roller coaster type ride. All of the cars were connected and they went through a series of rooms with neon fish and under the sea themed plants and monsters. The music was different in each room and ranged from watery to the music they play when something bad is about to happen. There were some very mechanical mermaids and dragons along the way, and the cheap decorations were usually lit up by black lights. It's really hard to describe how crappy it actually was. It was so lame it was actually kind of funny.

The second "ride" was the aquarium. There were quite a few different kinds of fish and even some sea turtles. The thing that made the aquarium visit different from any other I've had was the fact that everybody and their mother tapped (or banged) on the glass in spite of the signs that said in English and Chinese "Please do not tap on the glass." The only thing I can figure is that maybe when it's written in Chinese people read it and think "Oh, we shouldn't tap, we should bang on it!" It's also interesting to note that the fish they get most excited about are the biggest ones and they often make a comment along the lines of "That one would be a good meal!" Sadly, I didn't get the impression they were joking.

Later that night we took them out to dinner. It was Dan and I and five of them. The beginning was a bit awkward because nobody would order any dishes worth more than 8 or so kuai ($1). I figured it was because they didn't want the bill to be too high. So Dan and I went ahead and ordered some of the most expensive things on the menu: pigs feet, duck and fish. We also ordered a whole bunch of beer, maybe 10 litre bottles. The grand total for the bill, including the 6 or so vegetable dishes, less than 200 kuai (about $30). I'm not sure how I'll ever survive in any other country again! Anyway, the highlight of the evening was getting everybody to sing, a couple of them were really awful, but we had a great time!

BUGS!

2007-10-02T03:02:00.000-07:00

I didn't get a chance to blog until now (liar) because the voice in my head told me it was time to take a vacation (LIAR!). No, really, I've been lazy. I meant to blog about Experience China Week, but we all know what they say about good intentions! And now that I'm in a disgusting internet cafe, typing on a keyboard that some slob spilled Coke all over (fingerlickin' fun!) I have found the time in my busy vacation schedule to write.

Experience China Week was an experience, that's for sure. I wouldn't say most of my experiences were related to China as much as they were to the psychology of whining 12 year olds. Oh, and I experienced bugs, and the impact they have on the volume of a twelve year old girl's voice (it's a positive relationship for those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure of experiencing it). The kids experienced China, and complained about almost every minute of it! They didn't like the food, they wanted a snickers bar or more pringles (I don't know whose genius idea it was to provide them these snacks in the first place...), they didn't like hiking and they definitely didn't like bugs!

Actually, the trip wasn't bad. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it (and a little bit sick), but I really enjoyed getting to know some of the kids and I LOVED the hiking! The trails were not easy, but they were beautiful, and I saw some really neat things that I wouldn't have seen elsewhere. In general, it was just nice to be outside of Beijing for a week. I will post pictures of some of the places when somebody gives me some. I didn't take any myself because Dan's memory card was full and the usb cord seems to have gone missing between three apartments.

So, now it's October holiday. I have a week off for "National Day" which makes me really like this country. We have no plans. I thought about leaving, but then I took a smart pill. Dan's ankle is still recovering from an injury almost two weeks ago now, so he's still not up for much walking. Tomorrow we're going out to Chang Ping to hang out with the village people. Neither of us have seen them very much lately, and I'm starting to feel like a total loser for not being able to maintain contact with people so physically close to me! I don't even want to get into the dozen or so postcards that are waiting to be sent.

AAAAHHHH!

2007-09-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

At a pretty high octave, that's as close as letters come to representing the sound I made in the hutong last night. Dan and I opened the door and were instantly appalled by what smelled like poop somewhere in the hutong. It is not a large place, but whatever the smell was coming from was well hidden (presumably behind the furnace since we still haven't found it). I walked in and flicked on the patio lights the doors to the bedroom and living room were closed, but the bathroom and kitchen doors were open.

Thinking, quite logically of course, that a poop smell might be coming from the bathroom, I stepped up to flick on the light when... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! I screamed like a little girl. Something rather substantial had run by and hit me in the leg just before I could switch on the light. Not having seen anything, I turned to Dan, panicked. He had this funny look on his face, somewhere between disbelief and amusement. At this point, I don't remember the words exchanged, but he did inform me that it was just a cat, with a look that said, "Why on EARTH would you scream like that about a cat!" Of course, I didn't know it was a cat.

In my life, there have been plenty of bats in the house, and mice and even rats, but never cats. I can assure you though, had I seen what it was and that it was coming, I wouldn't have freaked out like that.

So, the cat scared me. I think, though, that I just might have scared the cat a bit more. It ran for the door, which leads us to believe that's how it must have come in in the first place, but the door was closed. I went to try to open the door, but then, of course, the cat ran the other direction (back onto the patio). It stood for a few seconds on the table, beautiful orange and white hair on end, tail enormous and then whoosh, it ran into the kitchen and as far as possible under the cupboards where it would stay for a good portion of the evening.

At this point, I felt like a real idiot for not having shut the kitchen and bathroom doors before going to open the patio door. All of those times we had a bat in the house haven't prepared me for anything!! I still forget to shut the door! In the hopes that the cat would leave on its own during the night, we left the hutong door open a crack. I insisted on leaving it open because I didn't want to have to torture the cat in the morning to get it out (it had already been in our place for at least a couple of days without food). Unfortunately, I'm paranoid, so leaving the door open meant that I didn't sleep well at all last night. I started awake about every half hour or whenever there was any noise. At a couple different times I got up to see if the cat had left yet so I could shut the door. It wasn't the case.

So, today's been a bit rough. I sort of feel like I have a hangover or something. On the up side, classes were super easy and there were no major happenings after school. I came home, had two sips of red wine and crashed for about an hour. I'd like to just go to sleep now, but I have work to do :-(

So, until the next incident...

Another busy week.

2007-09-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning. The weeks are flying by now. Last Sunday, we went to brunch at Frank (the upper school principle) and Louise's (humanities teacher) house. I was a little nervous about it at first, because I wasn't sure who else would be there, but it turned out to be great. Dan spent a great deal of time talking to Delinda (a Chinese teacher) about the origins of French. She claimed French was influenced by Chinese and Dan argued stubbornly that it wasn't possible. For whatever reason, he was convinced (and wrongly so), that an alphabet couldn't come from a character based language. I'm really not sure who was right or who won in the end, but the argument lasted a while.

I spent some time talking to several different people and eventually, when most people had left, Dan and I stayed a little while longer to taste whiskeys with a couple of other teachers. It's odd, because I was convinced that I didn't like whiskey, but whatever Frank had was really good. They were all single malt and I guess that makes a huge difference and we tried three different kinds. I think both Dan and I were surprised that we actually liked it!

Tuesday, I had climbing club again. It's getting a little more interesting, but the kids are still kind of a pain in the butt. There is one child who cannot follow anything we're doing and neither Bruce nor I can figure out exactly why. When I tried to teach him how to tie the knot for his harness, I showed hime 6 to 8 different times, using different techniques. He still can't do it and this is the third time we've had climbing. Apparently he was no more of a whiz with belaying. It doesn't seem to be a language thing, but I have a hard time believing it's spatial either since he's in fourth grade.

Anyway, after climbing I went to the hutong. Dan and I went out for dinner and then to the police station. Apparently, letting somebody stay with us wasn't a great idea. A cop came by the hutong when just Peter was there and told him that we all needed to register (let the cops know we're living there). I had been under the impression that because we were registered elsewhere in Beijing, we didn't have to register there as well. I was wrong. So, we walked down to the police station and asked several different cops whether we needed to register or not. They were all soooooo nice and it is so painfully obvious that cops in China don't have much to do on a regular basis (aside from pushing paper work, anyway). They even had a sign on the desk that said, "Please speak nicely to us" in Chinese. Softies! Long story short, they didn't seem to think we needed to register, but they took my phone number and said they'd call me the next day. Imagine cops in NYC doing that. "Hey, I'm not sure, but I'll find out and call you, ok?" Yeah, right! They did call, though! Not the next day, but the day after. They told us we had to register and what we needed to bring. So, that's what we have to do today.

Wednesday, I had soccer practice. It was fun, and I have a great group of girls. They're really keen to learn and they're always willing to try something new. They had their second game on Thursday. They only played six on six, which was good because that's how many kids we had for the game. The girls totally outplayed the other team, but lost by one unlucky goal. We had more shots, but since we were playing with really little goals, it was tough going. I'm really proud of them! Our next game is Tuesday against WAB, though. They're supposed to be really good, so I'm just hoping we don't get creamed!

Oh, yeah, and this week I did something really cool. I figured out how to simplify the reports that we have to do for midterm and end of term. It took me all afternoon on Wednesday to figure it out (I had no idea what I was doing to begin with), but when I finally did, I was estatic! Basically, I created short cut keys for fillng in a grid. It isn't too complicated, but I got a lot of praise for it (and, more importantly, I was proud of myself)!

Friday and Saturday Dan and I didn't do anything other than exercise really. I made chocolate chip cookies to totally undo all of the good things that we did, though. Today, we're planning on going in to the hutong to register and then hopefully do some climbing.

Being a busy bee...

2007-09-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

It goes without saying that I have been busy since I got here at the beginning of August. The last couple of weeks, however, have been even busier. Dan arrived on the 26th, which was nice, because I missed him, and not, because his flight got in really late and we only had a few hours together since I had to work the next day. I had him doting on me for a full week before he had to start work. He brought me a couple of awesome presents, a necklace and matching earrings and a spice rack (really great because all I had in the apartment up till that point was salt).

This week was the first week both of us were working and it was a rough adjustment. We spent a couple of nights at the hutong, a night apart and a couple of nights at the Chaoyang apartment. Rough as commuting can be, it's totally worth it, I think, to have the hutong. I've had a lot of work to do, but I've been managing. I haven't relaxed too much though.

Last night was pretty cool though, and I'm really glad Dan was able to come with me. There was a dinner for work at the Landgent Courtyard. Basically, it's this enormous, beautifully redone courtyard that the board uses to wine and dine people. We left on school busses at 5:30 and got there around 6. There were drinks ready when we got there and they spent very little time making speeches, maybe 15 minutes. We met the founder of the school, Mr. Nee, a thirty-two year old realestate tycoon who does not look like he has that much money. Then, we had a really nice dinner, buffet style, but a really nice variety of asian food. They served us wine that they were very proud of, from France, and great dessert. In all, it was a really nice evening and we were back to the school by about 8:30. Oh, and I forgot to mention what was probably the most Chinese aspect of the whole evening, the presents. On our way out, we were told to choose two presents each and they ranged from business card holders and wallets to silk scarves and ties. They were very nice gifts, but I still think it's a bizarre thing to do.

So, now it's Friday and Dan and I don't have plans this weekend. It's great! I think I'd be happy to be a slug for a couple of days. On Sunday, we have a brunch to go to, but it's the next building over, so it's hardly a task!

From good to bad and back again.

2007-08-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

This afternoon was positively awful, but then I started to feel pretty good about it. Had I written this blog around 6 this evening, it would have been a pretty upset entry. Luckily, the only thing people do fast in China is build stuff. I spent two hours at the bank. It's sort of like the supermarket where they think long and hard before lifting a finger and getting something done. That and as any Chinese person will tell you, there are too many people "Ren tai duo le!" At any rate it was probably a good thing I had the time to mull over the things that were bothering me.

Today was pretty good in general, but this afternoon was a total disappointment. When I was told I would have a homeroom, there was mention of going on the Experience China Week trip with them. I was kind of excited because I thought it would be fun and kind of nice to spend time with the kids outside of school. I know being a chaperone is hard work, but I was actually looking forward to it. When we started talking about it at school, however, I got the impression that I would not be going with my class. This afternoon, the principal confirmed that.

I imagine that at some point I will not care that I am not going (because it is a lot of work), but I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on the only chance I'll have to get to know the kids better. I am a little worried that it will set me up to be the "odd man out" so to speak. I know the school doesn't want to pay for all of the teachers to go, but it really wouldn't cost that much to have all of the homeroom teachers go. I think my disappointment is especially strong because this trip was moved forward in the year to make it a bonding experience, and I feel like I might miss out on a lot in terms of seeing the kids in a different light. Regardless of what I think, however, nothing is going to change at this point, so I suppose it's time to suck it up.

After getting all down about the trip and having that compounded by the heat and long wait at the bank, I had a really pleasant surprise. It may have been a total accident, but Huijia paid me for the last two weeks of school!! I had 2000 and some rmb in my account! I thought I had nothing, so anything would have been nice, but that's a chunk of money.

Maybe the title of this blog would have been more accurate if it was "For every action there's an equal and opposite," but I'm not sure if that's always true. 2000 rmb will certainly help if Dan and I decide to take a trip of our own during October holiday! So, it put a smile back on my face.

On my way home, with my pockets a little fuller, I stopped by the market. It was the first time I had really walked around there and it was absolutely fabulous! There were so many vendors with nice looking fruits and vegetables and all far cheaper than the local carrefour. I was a little hesitant about buying because foreigners almost always pay too much, but I'm getting better at reading and can certainly pretend to speak a few words. So, I went for it. I only bought some grape tomatoes and some grapes (which turned out to be slips kins!!), for a total of two kilos at 12 rmb. That's a dollar fifty for over three pounds of grapes, which are deliciously juicy, and 30 cents for a little over a pound of tomatoes.

It's hard to feel down when life is so cheap!! It is, however, easy to feel exhausted. Good night!

An uncomfortable update...

2007-08-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

I'm really uncomfortable right now, laying on the hard floor because my butt was starting to fall asleep. I do have a desk in this room, but my battery was low, so I had to move the computer to the floor to be able to plug it in. Obviously, I am not yet lucky enough to have wireless. I guess I should buy an extension cord. Unfortunately, or not, it's a bit too late for me to go out (Carrefour is still open, but it's almost my bedtime). It just seemed time for an update.

Last week was my first week of school. I think it goes without saying that I survived. My classes went fine and the students are really great. Everybody is as helpful as possible, though, of course, not everything is possible. I feel like my classes are off to a good start, but I am incredibly disorganized. I have plans for a few weeks, but feel like they change a little every day. I guess that's par for the course though. I'm really not freaking out about school anymore, but I do feel like I have a lot to do to catch up.

Last weekend was pretty nice because I actually relaxed and managed to get out of the city for a day. On Friday after work, I went to our school social club's "Survivor Party." It was a barbeque and drinks at a bar sort of nearby. I had a good time talking to people and the food was o.k. I probably should have had more to eat before I started drinking, but that's a lesson that's hard to learn. Regardless of how quickly I felt tipsy or why (I'd like to blame some of it on exhaustion), it was meant to be an early night for me. I caught a cab back to the apartments with another teacher and was in bed by 11:30.

The next morning was hard. I had only had a couple of drinks, but the combination of that and lack of water and sleep was killing me. I had to be up at 6 and on the bus by 7 and I made it, with a few seconds to spare! I was off to a place that I didn't even know of and I still can't tell you the name, but it's somewhere South and West of Beijing. The ride itself was nice, there were only twelve of us on the bus, so there was plenty of room. I tried to sleep a bit, but wasn't very successful. The plastic palm trees by the side of the road were just too distracting!

We arrived at the park around 9 and the good (lead) climbers started setting up the routes for us top ropers. I was a little nervous, but not so much because I thought I would hurt myself. Actually, I was thinking, I hope I can make it up at least one of those! I think there were six different routes. I did two of them, the easiest of course. I did, however, do the second easiest one twice. I think I'm ready to do better the next time we go out. I realized that while it is more of a mental challenge, it was actually easier on my hands than climbing a fake wall, and there was less strength required.

We were at the park all day, so it was easy to get a nap in there, and then headed back to Beijing around 4:30. We went straight out to dinner (PIZZA!!) and then most of us went home to crash. I went back to the hutong because I thought it would be nice to go there and easy enough. I got home and started getting undressed and... knock, knock... crap. The neighbor was at the door so I had to get totally dressed again and see what she wanted (as if I would understand anyway!). I opened the door and she handed me something to do with the water. She said there were two bills, that much I understood, but when I looked at them I was shocked. One said Y560 and the other said Y180. I freaked out, because that's about a hundred U.S. Dollars for water! I even had a nightmare about it, well, that and the water damage in the house (I'm petrified that something bad will happen and I won't be there).

So Sunday I woke up early and did some laundry. While that was happening I laid in bed and read or re-read The Diaries of Anne Frank. I am planning on using a few excerpts for class, but once I started reading, I had some trouble putting it down again. Like any good war story, it left me really freakin' depressed! I felt like crap the whole rest of the morning.

Luckily, Dan called in the afternoon, and I was reminded why life is good and why I shouldn't be depressed. Actually, it wasn't that deep. He called, I told stories, he told stories and I was happy. It was pretty simple.

Oh, and before I left the hutong I collected a few of the bugs. It turns out they are Rolly Poly bugs or Pill bugs or whatever people call them. It also turns out that Tamara wants some for her science class. Unfortunately, they're still in the school apartment because I forgot them on my way out this morning. I hope they don't die after all the crap I went through to get them here!

Today, I asked one of the Chinese teachers about the water bill. I wanted her to translate so I knew what the heck we were supposed to pay $100 for. Turns out that instead of using decimal points, they write Chinese characters, so Y560 was actually Y5.6 and Y180 was Y1.8. The stupid thing is that if I had really looked carefully, I might have even figured that out before I had all sorts of anxiety!

WARNING: I plead not guilty (for the style and appearance of this entry) by reason of (hopefully temporary) insanity.

2007-08-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

sort of freaked out last night for various reasons and didn't write because i didn't have internet access in my apartment and aaaaaaaaaaahhh, they are currently playing really horrible screaching noises over the p.a. system. anyway, i've been uber jittery this whole week and last night was just sort of the worst. i was up well past midnight reading things in sort of a last minute attempt to cram everything ib myp means into my head. needless to say, it was a failed venture and then when i did try to sleep i found it near impossible. i actually had to do yogic breathing to fall asleep.

going back about a week now (time is going by sooooo quickly!!), i didn't do a whole lot on the weekend aside from going to ikea on saturday which was not really fun to say the least. i went with a list of things i thought it would be easy to get there and managed, more or less. i bought dishes and sheets for our king sized bed :-D a cookie tray, and other random things. i had about forty-five minutes to shop and we got there right when the store opened, so i just sort of shot through the store and then didn't really have time to get distracted by things, which was good. what i did buy actually came out to a little over 1000 kuai!! the most expensive items, though, were ones like the italian coffee maker (like the old one except with spare rubber thingies in case dan forgets to add the water again ;-) and the dishes and sheets.

in the afternoon i had planned on going climbing, but i was exhausted and it looked like it was going to rain. i ended up buying some food and going home to eat and sleep. sunday i spent most of the morning doing laundry and discovered the hard way that the exit hose was out of the drain... oops. water was all over the bathroom! and it wasn't clean either, it had all kinds of lint and crap in it. it was fun cleaning that up. the washer and dryer are actually really good though, i'm super happy with them.

sunday evening i went to changping to meet up with john and jennifer. taking the subway to jishuitan, it took me almost exactly an hour and a half to get to changping. i got there around 6 and both of them came to pick me up. it was really hard without dan there. i found i could communicate some stuff, but some of it was just impossible. they were asking about his brother's wedding and practically all i could say was that it was in a big hotel and it was really fun. i tried to explain that it was jewish, but they didn't get it and i didn't know the right words. all of this while i am riding a bicycle was a bit much.

when we got where we were going to eat, john handed me the menu to pick something. i really wished i could have spoken fluently at that point to tell him that we usually just point and see what we get, but that was too hard to say, and i don't really know if he would appreciate how amusing it is to us so i just told him i could only read two things. anyway, we had chuar and some bean things that were really good and we ate some jaozi on the side. we couldn't put them on the plates because they were pork jaozi and we were in a muslim restaurant. that was probably a total faux pas i think, to eat it there in the first place. anyway, it was good food and i'm not sure what we talked about but it wasn't painfully silent. now that i think about it, they may have just talked to each other most of the time, but i was fine with that. we drank a lot of beer, of course, and by the end of the meal i was pretty tipsy.

we went shopping for a bit (by that i mean we went to buy anti mosquito stuff and look at dvds for a few minutes) and then we went back to their place. since their new place is still just one room they set up a curtain between jennifer and i and john. i ought to mention that before i came, i had no idea i'd be spending the night and it was really bizzare to me that john had to sleep on the little bed and jennifer and i on the big bed. it was like some sort of false modesty or perhaps something cultural that i, having had many a sleepover in college and beyond, did not understand.

i brushed my teeth. they have running water, but no place for the dirty stuff to go, so that was interesting. they have the sink set up to run into a large bucket which they periodically empty. of course, this means that they also have no toilet, so we had garbage cans with lids to go in should the need arise in the middle of the night. i managed to hold out, but woke up every single time they had to go because peeing in a plastic bucket is LOUD when there are no other sounds. and jennifer pees a lot during the night!

5 a.m. rolled around and it was time to get on my way. by that point i regretted staying overnight and regretted having to work. but i made it through the day on monday the same way i've made it through most of the week, with horrible jitters and a lot of nervous energy. i'm sort of wondering what's going to happen when i'm not nervous anymore. i might just stop functioning all together and have a breakdown!

anyway, since monday it's just been one meeting after another and frankly, i'm really sick of meetings. i still don't have my room decorated and new kids and parents come to see us on saturday morning. yay. seriously, i will be enormously grateful for the first weekend i have when i don't feel like there are a million things i have to do, none of which are really to benefit me. this whole teacher thing... maybe i meant i wanted to be a professor. we'll see once the kids get here. i do have one kid that i'm already excited to see because he's from madrid. he's apparently sort of a pain in the butt, but i'll deal. anyway, i need to go get food and such so i am off for now.

I hate leaving!

2007-07-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged since I've been home, mostly because I'm lazy, but also because when I have had time to write, I haven't been in the best of moods. I'm nervous about starting the new job and worried about my sister and I hate leaving!

Coming home has been great. I've gotten to see my parents, all my grandparents, some cousins, an aunt and uncle, my brother and sister, my nephew, my dogs, etc. I missed every single one of them so it was nice to reconnect. I have, however, only been able to see a couple of friends, because seeing people all over the east coast becomes a lot more difficult without a car. I'm glad I saw the people I did, but as time is running out I'm starting to feel rotten about not having seen the people I didn't. I wish I could see everybody, but that probably wouldn't be possible even if I did live in this hemisphere.

On a positive note, I did get into the FAST TRAIN program which means that I will be forced to spend some time in the D.C. area next summer and, therefore, will be able to see the majority of my friends. I'm really excited to start school again, too. I just got my textbook for the fall class I'm taking and when I was ordering it, I couldn't stop myself from ordering about five other books on teaching. I read through one of them in about an hour which makes me think I may have been a tad starved of stimulation for the past year. Not to fear though, I'm sure I'll have plenty of challenges this year! I'm not looking foreward to writing papers, but I do think it will be good for me. Over the past four years, my English has slowly declined to about an eighth grade level, so being forced back into academic writing should help a little.

Only a few days before I leave and I feel so unprepared, like always. I have my bags almost packed, but in my head I'm screaming "Noooooo, not yet, please!!!" Unfortunately, I signed my own fate. Six days until take-off.

Slacking

2007-07-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

Today I signed in to blogger only to realize that I hadn't published my last blog (probably thinking I would write more) and I hadn't written anything for over a week! I have been super busy, lately, and internet access has been fickle at best at school.

Last week flew by! I think it helped that Dan and I went into Beijing on Wednesday night and so it sort of broke up the week. We intended to go climbing, but it was raining, so we just hung out with Matt and Tamara. We ate too much and drank some wine and watched "Little Children" which was actually a decent movie. It's hard to explain without giving it away, but it's basically about the reactions of people living in suburbia when they're faced with morally unacceptable situations. If you do watch it, be forewarned that there is a slow part somewhere in there.

Friday, I had to run into Beijing to get my passport, mostly thinking I was going to start changing money. I got the passport alright, but changing money was another story. Apparently, China published something saying that foreigners would be allowed to change up to 500 U.S. dollars with just their passport at any Bank of China. So, on my way back to the apartment, I stopped by to give it a shot. It totally didn't work! The woman told me that foreigners couldn't change money. Unfortunately, my arguing skills are limited to "Yes, they can!" which isn't much of an argument, I know. So, I left, really frustrated.

Friday evening, Dan and I went to Wangfujing to watch a movie in English. It is the only original version theater we've found yet, and it only had one movie in English. So, we saw Pirates of the Carribbean III. It was actually better than I expected and excepting a few scenes, I thought it was amusing. Dan and I did laugh out loud at at least one thing, though now I can't remember what that was. After the movie, we went to a bar to meet up with Matt and Tamara. The plan was to have a drink or two and then Tam and I would join Traci and the other Matt at a club. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way because Matt and Traci wimped out and left the club by 1.

The rest of the weekend flew by hanging out with Matt and Tam and Traci and Matt. Sunday we tried out a new restaurant that has the best french fries I've had in a long time. It also turned out to be way cheaper and way less crowded than our regular haunts. We have Matt and Traci to thank, because we will be going back there every now and then.

Now there are only a few days left before I leave. As always I have so much to do and so little time. I hate leaving!

Keep going and going and going...

2007-06-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

I feel like the energizer bunny right now, and I don't think the feeling will go away until I get on that flight home. This past weekend was anything but relaxing. In spite of getting enough sleep, I still feel exhausted.

Friday, I spent all afternoon baking. I made two pretty awesome pies, but didn't take pictures of them, and two batches of banana bread. I went into Beijing on Saturday morning, carting way more stuff than seemed humanly possible. I'm not sure quite how the morning hours got away from me, but they did, and soon enough it was one o'clock. Dan and I met at the supermarket to do our shopping for the party and had a hard time figuring out how much stuff to buy. In the end, we only wasted a little bit of food, so we did O.K. A lot of people showed up, which was cool, and in general it was a good time. I think I prefer smaller gatherings, but every once in a while it's O.K. to have a big one. It was exhausting though, and I pretty much crashed after we cleaned up. The next morning, I had to wake up at 7:30 to do the tutoring I had put off. I tutored all morning and then went to the rock wall. Before I got to the wall, though, I made the mistake of eating hot pot (sticks of various things like meat, tofu or vegetables in boiling broth) at a street stand. The food was good but way too spicy! I had heartburn for the rest of the day. I still climbed a little bit, but I spent most of my time laying on the mats at the bottom.

Later, bad weather gave me an excuse to go inside and just hang out for a bit. I love the people there. They're fun and so nice to us. After the storm subsided, they took us to a restaurant nearby, but all I managed to eat was some rice. Stomach still on fire, Dan and I headed home. I passed out at eight o'clock and it felt so good! Today we had to get up at the crack of dawn to get to work, but it was totally worth the extra night in our apartment.

The good life.

2007-06-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

It seems like things are really shaping up. I added pages to my passport so that they could give me my visa, and hopefully I'll get that back soon! I also got permission to come late to orientation so that I can go to Jon and Emily's wedding! I almost feel guilty about it, but I'm glad I'll be able to see all of Dan's family now. After knowing about it for over a year, I would have been upset if I couldn't go. To top it all off, I got my flight changed so I'll be coming home a little earlier!

Last weekend, Dan and I stayed at our apartment and had another barbeque Saturday night. We were sort of celebrating his birthday and another friend of ours at the same time. After stuffing ourselves, we went out salsa dancing. We all had a great time, but Dan and I realized that we could definitely use some lessons. Any salsa teachers out there?

On Sunday, we met my co-teacher, Lena, at "Computer City" (a gigantic electronics market). She was there to help us buy an electronic dictionary for Dan's birthday. There were loads of dictionaries on offer, but that didn't make it easy. We ended up getting one that you can write the characters into (as long as you're fast enough... no pretty handwriting allowed) and it shows you a bunch of options for words. You can see the pronunciation and hear the words. It's a pretty cool toy. Needless to say, Dan takes it everywhere now. On the bus, he busies himself by translating the advertisements stuck to the ceiling. Oddly, almost all of them are medical adds. Some of the gems he translated with his new toy were "prostatitis" and "can't have baby disease" (we're pretty sure that last one translates to infertility, but Lena was all embarrassed when Dan said it, so we're still not sure).

Other than that, I've been trying to do more running. I was inspired, in large part, because Trillium (a high school friend who didn't really do sports) recently ran a half marrathon. I don't know if it is possible to get back into shape anymore, though. I mean, I can still run, but it's a 10 minute mile, not 7. In spite of having run 4 mornings out of the past week, I don't feel like I've made any progress! By the end of the summer I'd like to be able to run a few miles without dying, but right now, the fourth lap still kills me. I'd like to blame it on the pollution, which probably does play a part, but it seems I really only have my fat butt to blame.

Ouch.

2007-06-13T17:17:00.001-07:00

Dan and I never made it to Beijing yesterday because it was raining all afternoon. Since climbing was out of the question, we decided to be lazy instead. We went into Changping for dinner with Matt and Tamara. The food was mediocre at best and Tamara and I still have remnants of the stomach virus we had last week. It didn't make for a very nice combination.

This morning I felt much better though. I woke up at six and went for a run. It was really nice to be outside today. The rain had made everything smell better and it was actually cool for the first time in about two weeks. Unfortunately, I may have overdone the running.

I am already sore and it's only been about an hour an a half since I finished. One of my co-workers even asked me if I hurt myself because I am apparently walking funny. I had to admit that "No, I'm just horribly out of shape." In spite of that, I think I'm going to try to do it again tomorrow! If I don't I might be too sore to walk.

Falling into place.

2007-06-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

My life is starting to settle down a bit. I completed my application for grad school and I've gotten a little more information about what I'm going to be teaching next year. Dan has signed his contract and we're both making our plans for while we're home. Yet, I can't help but feel like I won't be able to really relax for a long time.

I guess I'm pretty nervous about my new job. I know I will do well, but not knowing exactly what's expected of me is making it harder for me to visualize success. It's a bizarre sensation, really. I haven't ever been nervous about a job before. What's especially odd is that I think my perception of the job is different because of the pay, as if they can't possibly want to pay me that much money to do the job I've been doing for four years now. I've had to do massive amounts of planning, creating materials and paperwork before. I've even taught up to 32 hours a week before (which was absolutely insane looking back on it)!

There are many things I'm really excited about, such as having small classes, being involved in an active school, possibly coaching soccer (they don't have a girls' soccer team and it would count as one of the two extra activities required). It's a beautiful school with a lot of resources and a lot of community involvement. Still, it will be a lot of work and a lot of new things to learn. I just hope I don't get totally overwhelmed.

Fear of failure, anyone? Dan pointed out that not only have I never been rejected from any place that gave me an interview, but I've also never been fired. I know these are good things, but they do add to the pressure to do well.

As I mentioned before, though, aside from freaking out about my job, things are going fairly well. Last weekend Dan and I took our village friends out for dinner, which was a real treat.

We met up with them at 7:30 on Friday evening and set out in search of a restaurant. What Dan and I didn't realize is that if you invite people out to dinner, you can't just sit in the normal dining room of a restaurant. You apparently have to reserve a private room. It's not like it costs any more or anything, but it's just expected. There is also apparently no concept of having a drink and waiting for 15 minutes or a half an hour for a table to be ready. Because of this, we spent about an hour driving around Changping looking for a restaurant with an empty room.

Eventually, we found a place. We ordered a bunch of food and a lot of beer. The food was all actually good, but the beer was killing me. I pretty much hate beer now. It might just be because of the way Chinese people drink. Every couple of minutes they do a toast that requires you to down your entire class (small as it may be, it's disgusting). I am sort of exempt because I am female, but I still end up having to drink way more than I want because they keep toasting. In all, though, it was a great dinner. Dan and I went home relieved. Oh, and I almost forgot, we got a housewarming present from one of our friends. It is the best lamp ever! Dan and I were laughing so hard when we got it, but I'm not sure what we're going to do with it now. A picture will definitely be posted soon!

On Saturday and Sunday, Dan and I did some climbing, but mostly we took it easy. We woke up at 6 a.m. on Sunday to go get fried dough, but then went back to bed. It was so nice to do nothing, especially because the next couple of weekends are going to get busy!

Today we're going into Beijing to go climbing and take some more stuff to our apartment, while we're at it. It means I'll have to wake up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to get back to work, but I'll be glad to go climbing. My fingers have stopped hurting (and peeling) from what I did on Sunday, so that means it's time to go again!

Nothing new...

2007-06-07T01:19:00.000-07:00

I don't really have much to report from this side of the world. I got sick on Monday along with the other two girls that were at the barbeque. We still haven't figured out what caused the horrible stomach cramps, because nothing really makes sense. The two other girls are vegetarians, so they ate vegetables and pasta (all washed and either freshly cooked or soaked in vinegar). The two guys didn't get sick, but they ate and drank everything we did and even had double portions of most of it. My dad actually suggested it might be the potato chips, since it is the only thing that all of the girls ate and the guys didn't eat much of. Who knows. There are some leftover chips, so theoretically I could test that hypothesis, but it might not be worth the suffering.

The barbeque mystery, however interesting, isn't actually the reason I'm posting. I just got some pictures from Traci and wanted to post them. They're pictures of Dan and I trying to save a HUGE night crawler from my merciless kindergartners (they tried to rip it in half!!). In the end, Dan managed to convince them there was never a worm there in the first place by chasing them around the lawn. The last one is a good, Chinese style, victory picture. Asians are obsessed with peace... weird, huh?

In other news, I have almost finished my application for George Mason! All I have to do is pay and click send. I love electronic applications! I'm actually really excited about the idea of studying again. It's been FOUR years since I graduated! I'm a little bit nervous, though, since I have apparently lost my ability to write academically. I'm hoping that will come back to me, but if it doesn't come back quickly, I may find myself in over my head.

I signed my contract!!

2007-06-03T17:41:00.000-07:00

I am so excited! Even so, I'm still nervous that they will find somebody else they like better and take it away. I'm probably a tad paranoid, but it's just such a good thing, I really don't want to lose it.

I will be working at a real school, with students who care and grades that matter. I will have small classes and good resources. I will be able to get my master's and teaching certificate and even pay off existing debt! I am so lucky, and I know it.

Since Friday afternoon, I spent the majority of my weekend cleaning and buying some things for our new place. I kind of forgot how much stuff we use on a regular basis. Even after my shopping spree, I realized I forgot things like kitchen towels and sink stoppers. Our hutong is looking a lot better now, though, especially thanks to the intustrial strength floor cleaner (which, according to some really strange salespeople is exactly the same as floor wax) and scrub brush.

I wanted to post pictures today, but I forgot the camera this weekend, so it will have to wait until next week. I wish we could go during the week, but it's just really not practical since I have to be back in Changping so early every day. For that reason, we also decided to hold off on the plants for a few weeks. In all honesty, they would probably be fine since it seems to rain more in June, July and August here, but we didn't want to waste money on nice trees, just to have them die on us. Knowing Dan and I, it will probably be a struggle to keep them alive in the first place!

Yesterday, we went to Carrefour and bought a barbeque, and last night we tested it out. Turns out it works, but I'm glad I have a boyfriend who can light the thing. We had a few friends over for steak, for the first time since we came to china, sausages, veggie kebabs, salad, pasta and watermelon. Oh so American, except I had to use chopsticks to eat because we didn't have enough forks! It was good, but today I'm not feeling so well. I'm not sure if I ate too much or just the wrong stuff, or maybe it's because we had to wake up at 5:30 to get back to school on time.

Today, I will sleep. I will write my essay for GMU and I will sleep. I might eat, and I will sleep. I wish I could sleep now!

Too much excitement for tomorrow!

2007-05-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

I'm writing now because I might not get another chance to do so until Sunday. It's been a busy week and I can't wait for tomorrow. I will get to sign my new contract, let out a HUGE sigh of relief and move into our new apartment. I will probably spend about two hours cleaning and then I imagine I'm going to sleep the rest of the evening away.

Yesterday was much less stressful because I knew I was still getting my dream job, but I was still so busy. I've been trying to get my grad school application finished which involves a lot of pestering people (to get references and transcripts and such). At work we practiced our Chinese song for the performance tomorrow, and yesterday evening I had to judge a speech competition.

Among the highlights of the competition was a girl using what sounded like foul language as part of her speech. I'm pretty sure her pronunciation was just aweful, but I honestly had no idea what she was trying to say. One of the skits done at the end of the competition was an amusing rendition of foreigners who don't speak any Chinese trying to order food. Think hotdog + China = roast dog. What really made my night, though, was the two middle school kids who sang (if you can call it that) "That's my name" If you're too old that might mean nothing to you, but for those of you who are younger, think "Bow wow wow yippee yo yippee yay!" And, no, that song is not decent enough for a middle school assembly.

Today it's raining. I actually missed the rain, I think. It sounds so nice and smells so good! I didn't bring my umbrella to work, though.

This afternoon we don't have class, but I'm really not looking forward to more singing practice. We are just so bad at it, so off key.

As a side note, there are some weird bugs here (one of which is currently flitting around my desk). Unfortunately, there are plenty of mosquitos too, and they apparently like my blood as much as the Western variety.

Anyway, it's time for lunch, so I'm going to get some canteen goodness (and maybe a slice of leftover pizza)!

Emotional rollercoaster

2007-05-29T20:41:00.001-07:00

I have been up and down too many times in the past few days. We got an apartment (high), but we had to pay 5 months rent up front (low). I got a job (high). I didn't get a contract(low). I got a contract (high). I figured out they thought I had a teaching certificate (low). I got confirmation that I should still have the job (high), but that the contract will change (low). Right now I feel like I've been medicated.

I'm somewhere in between, but I'm exhausted. It doesn't help that I have to learn a really long Chinese song for a performance on Friday. At least they gave us more than one day to prepare though. I have about half of it memorized.

I'm hungry too, but I can't eat too much because I have yoga at 1. I think this weekend is going to be a godsend. I'll have to clean, but I'll get to spend some quality time with Dan. That is to say, time where neither of us is fretting or upset about anything. I need that! We both need that!

One down, one to go.

2007-05-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

I still haven't received the contract from BCIS, which makes me worry that they're just buying time and don't actually want me to work there. It probably isn't true, but it's just so good that I can't help but worry about losing it. I've felt rotten all day, mostly stress related, I think.

On the up side, Dan is currently signing the contract for our apartment. YAY! It will be so nice to have a place to spend our weekends. This weekend will be a cleaning marathon, but I'm even excited for that. I just can't wait to decorate!! Pictures will definitely be posted soon.

Chairman Mao.

2007-05-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

This past weekend seemed incredibly busy, but, in all honesty it wasn't even. It was just over way too fast.

Friday, I didn't feel well. I still had the head cold I started to get on Wednesday, so I felt pretty bad. I slept most of the day and then went with Dan to the village for about an hour. Only Jennifer was home, but it was good to see her. I really want to help her with her English, but it's so hard. I'm not sure if it's hard because she just isn't talented with languages or because she doesn't study enough or what. It's frustrating because I wish I could just snap my fingers and she would speak English. Of course, then it wouldn't be nearly as good for me to learn Chinese, but I wouldn't feel so useless.

Saturday, we woke up early, like usual. I keep telling Dan I want to sleep in, but I can't even when I try, so it's pointless to have a free day. We had our Chinese lesson and I went off to teach one of my little brats for an hour. Afterwards, I went rock climbing, of course. I'm addicted! I made it up two harder routes and I made it around a corner I couldn't do before... I'm definitely improving (and, of course, I'm kicking Dan's butt)!

That evening we had plans to play majong with friends, so we rented a hotel room and headed to their place. We didn't finish a normal majong game (cause it's like 16 hands if it were cards), but I won more than anybody else. Technically, it might still be beginner's luck because I had only played once before. We stayed there playing until about 2 a.m. and then headed back to our hotel.

Our cabby was awesome. He spoke only a little English, but he was so funny! To be completely honest, I thought there might be something wrong with him at first, but he got us back safe and sound so I'll never know. Dan asked him where he learned his English and I quote him directly:

"1971. Middle school. Lesson one, Chairman Mao. Lesson two, long live Chairman Mao. Lesson three, long long live Chairman Mao. Lesson four, workers, peasants and soldiers love Chairman Mao best!"

Dan and I were laughing so hard, he never got to lesson five. What's possibly funnier than hearing this guy say this stuff is that it's true. That's what they learned in middle school English class. They weren't taught how to say, "Hello, how are you?" And here I thought that my language classes were sort of off.

Sunday morning we had brunch with Dan's cousins. It was a really pleasant morning and the food was pretty good. We just sat and talked for a few hours sipping away at coffee (which I later regretted getting). Then, we went our separate ways. They were off to the silk market and Dan and I went to find an apartment.

The apartment search, up until yesterday, had been a disaster. We had been dragged all over the place to see some of the most disgusting rental properties I have ever seen. Landlords in China don't seem to understand the importance of a good cleaning and a paint job before showing a place. Fortunately, the place we saw yesterday was really nice and aside for some dust, not really dirty. It was as close to exactly what we were looking for as it was possible to get in our price range. It's a hutong house with two rooms a kitchen and a bathroom (sort of). Ok, well, it has a toilet and a shower, but it's tiny and there's no sink in the bathroom, it's sort of in the courtyard. Dan and I will be living a very Chinese life for the next year. The best part of the house, aside from double paned windows that open very easily, is the courtyard--fifteen square feet of joy, and it's all ours. That's right, it's a private courtyard.

What's odd though, is that Dan seems more nervous about taking this place than I am, even though it's everything he wanted. Maybe because it's everything he wanted he's afraid of being disappointed. I don't know. It doesn't really matter though. We're signing the contract today. We have a home!!!

An update... sort of.

2007-05-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

I got my "formal offer" of employment for BCIS!!! I'm really excited, not to mention thankful. I still have no idea what they are offering me in terms of salary or benefits. I only know that it is a two year contract (don't worry, mom, I'll be home for Christmas and summer vacations) and I will be doing exactly what I want to be doing.

I can only hope it won't take them another week to send me my initial contract!

Life is good.

A sore throat but no job.

2007-05-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

I read some of my brother's blog last night and found it ironic that the first post I saw had a whole lot to do with patience and waiting. I have been "waiting" for two months now.

Exactly two months ago, to the day, I had an interview for a position as an ESL teacher at an international school in Beijing. This is, I should mention, pretty much my dream job. I am, however, slightly underqualified (as in no teaching certificate aside from my TEFL).

So, at the beginning, I was actually waiting to be rejected more than anything. I hoped, but didn't expect to get the job. As the weeks passed, I figured it wasn't going to happen and I applied for a few other jobs. Dan and I had an interview in Shanghai, which was a total disappointment because they lied to us. They said that Dan would be teaching philosophy, but at the end of the 5 hour interview we found out that it was only two hours of philosophy and 18 hours of English or History. Needless to say he wasn't interested.

I also had a couple of interviews in Beijing. One of those interviews was seriously disappointing because it reminded me a lot of my current school. The other was for a Montessori school, which I actually ended up liking. They came in solid second to the previously mentioned international school. They offered me a good package for a job that seems pretty low stress. I told them I would sign the contract today.

So, while the job with the Montessori school was panning out, I received an email from the principle of my first choice, saying that they were going to make me a formal offer. This was last Thursday. I figured that by Friday or Monday, I would have the offer and would be able to inform the other school that I wouldn't be working for them. Apparently, however, the President of the Board of Directors was out of town until yesterday or today. Since his or her signature is necessary before they can make me an offer I haven't seen anything yet.

Hence, my dilemma. I have been waiting so long for this job, which, I'm told, is practically mine. Yet, I'm due to sign a contract with somebody else this afternoon. What do I do??

Well, first I asked as many people as possible what they thought I should do. Most of them told me to lie to the Montessori people to buy more time. A few suggested I should probably just sign the contract because the other school seemed too disorganized (and, they added, I could break the contract if I really wanted to).

Oddly, neither of these was my first instinct (you would think I would try to keep as many doors open as possible, right?). Instead, I called the woman from the Montessori school and told her exactly why I wouldn't be coming in to sign the contract this evening. I closed a door, so to speak.

In being honest, however, I think I gained even more respect from her. She told me that we should keep in touch and that if things didn't work out with the international school I should call her back and she would do what she could to offer me something. I was amazed! I honestly didn't think that she would be so kind and understanding. In taking that risk, though, I got an even better deal than I had hoped for. I have no job at the moment, but both doors are still open.

A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and even though the waiting is still difficult, it is less so. I do have a sore throught, which I'm convinced is stress related, but now i can sort of relax.

Now I suppose I should listen to my mom's advice: If now isn't the time for one thing, it must be the time for something else. I know exactly what I should be doing. So now I'm going to stop blogging and finish writing my essay for GMU.

It's been a while.

2007-05-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

The title really says it all. I've been in a writing rut. I realized, actually, that I rarely write when I'm living with Dan, not much on paper and never online. I think the problem is that he listens to me too much. I'm not complaining, I swear, but he is ruining the possibility of a writing career for me! When I can talk to him, I just don't really need pen and paper.

That said, my lack of dedication is also to blame and I apologize to all of you who might have been thinking I died on my way to Mt. Everest. I didn't, obviously, and I do plan on posting back blogs at some point in the near future. That will probably happen around the same time I figure out how to post pictures...

Recently, I've been super busy. There hasn't been a lot to do with school, in part because I realized that what I had been doing before was not only simpler, but more effective. In addition to that, after the February break, I came back to find I had a smaller course load. So, life is easy in that sense, but I've been finding other ways to fill up my time.

For Labor Day, which lasts seven days in China (I love this place), we spent most of our time climbing at a rock wall we found. It's about 18 meters high and has about 10 different faces, each with various routes. In all honesty, I actually can't remember if we did anything but climb that week. I'm addicted. Today I almost made my hands bleed because I was trying to climb routes without points. It's hard, but I love it. Here is where my mom is probably thinking, "Not only does she go almost as far away from home as possible, but she is actively trying to kill herself!" I love my mom!

Lately, I've been stressing out quite a bit because of my job search for next year. I am really close to having it all figured out, but I've just got a few days left to go. It's between working for a Montessori school or an international high school, neither of which would be bad, but I want to work for the international high school. I'm nervous that it's not going to work out, though. They're supposed to make me a formal offer soon (said the principal), but I don't want to count my chickens just yet. Instead, I've tried to occupy myself as much as possible, so that I don't have to think about it until the time comes (tomorrow or the next day).

In other news, my Chinese is improving! I can understand a lot of simple conversation (though sometimes with some serious delay) and read about 30 characters (which isn't much, but it's an accomplishment for me). I would be doing better if I studied some, but I am happy with what I can do so far.

I was trying to think if there was anything about China that I should write in my blog, and there probably is, but I can't think of it right now. Maybe I'm just getting so used to being here that everything seems normal. HA! Right.

There are actually plenty of stories, about Shanghai and Chinese realestate agencies, but they will come in back blogs. I promise it won't take me another three months to blog this time, so check back soon!

Mt. Everest

2007-02-05T07:01:00.000-08:00

We're going!! We leave tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. (packed into a Landcruiser with the two French guys we met on the train). We'll be making a few stops along the way, but presumably nowhere with internet, so I'll have a lot to say on Sunday! We'll actually be at Mount Everest base camp on Friday. I've got my fingers crossed that the weather will be clear and nobody will suffer from the altitude, 5200 meters above sea level!! Wish us luck or pray for us, whatever floats your boat!

The longest 7km ever!

2007-02-05T06:28:00.000-08:00

Today I decided that I wanted to walk out to Drepung Monastary, in part because it's supposed to be one of the most important in Tibet and in part because I wanted to see if I really was doing well adjusting. I didn't have to convince Dan to come with me, but by the end of the walk he was probably wondering why he had. Let's just say we didn't end up seeing the monastary. We just walked and walked, took a bus and walked some more. We also both got a bit too much sun and we didn't see much other than a gypsy camp and a shanty town.

It was a really uplifting experience. Right. Anyway, we did get to see the monastary on the way back (to be fair, it was hidden by the mountains from the other direction). It looked awesome so we're planning on giving it another shot on Sunday, but maybe we'll try biking instead.

Other than my failed walk, there wasn't much eventful today. I have, however, become a little weary of not blending in. Dan, with his beard and curly hair, doesn't help (pictures will eventually be posted). I can't tell you how frustrating it is that a good number of people (mostly kids) treat us like walking wallets. I'm even tired of people being nice (so many people yell "Hello" or "Welcome to Lhasa" as you walk by). It sure beats the people who just say "Money" but being a celebrity is just not my thing.

Anyway, now I'm exhausted. I expect to sleep like a log.

Lhasa shmasa

2007-02-04T06:52:00.000-08:00

I'm alive!

I know you're all shocked, but I made it to 5180 meters above sea level and I didn't even get sick! Well, ok, I felt pretty rotten at some points, but at least I didn't throw up (and there were plenty of people who did). I'm still getting used to the feeling of walking uphill all the time. Lhasa itself is at about 4000 meters, I think, and it's hard to imagine that a couple thousand meters could make such a difference, but it does. It feels a little like having worked out too hard.

The train ride here was, well, interesting. I was definitely glad we had gone all out and paid for the expensive sleepers, but that didn't change the fact that we were stuck in a very small space (with very little fresh air) for two days. The first few (like 12 or so) hours were fine. We got comfortable and went to bed relatively early and I slept well. The next morning I woke up to the praying of the muslim woman next to me (one of the two people Dan and I shared a cabin with). The praying was fine, very quiet and peaceful, and I was ready to wake up anyway. It was her breakfast that was a little on the loud side. Chinese people eat soup louder than you probably imagine possible.

To make a long story short, I went from fine to extremely clausterphobic as the day progressed, and the fact that we ascended at least a thousand meters didn't help. I had a headache all afternoon and didn't feel like dealing with the hordes of people coming into our cabin to visit the matriarch. The other guy who shared with us wasn't a can of peaches either, but at least he wasn't traveling with dozens of family members. To be fair, the woman's entire family was very generous and they were very nice to us, it was just a tad crowded.

Later in the day, both of our roommates got off the train, and we were left with a cabin to ourselves!! I felt better, because we had more space, and worse, because we had less air. There was an incident in the restaurant car with the waitress lying to us, and me getting perhaps just a little too indignant about it, which didn't make things any better. I have issues with people thinking i'm stupid, or that I can't do math, or that a bowl of rice costs five kuai when it says one kuai on the menu (and the menu was in English mind you).

Sleeping that night was hard to say the least. I had trouble convincing myself that I wasn't suffocating. The next day, however, was significantly better and I began to acclimatize. As a side note, breakfast was amusing because it was not unlike the incident in Besancon (where the waitress told me there was no salad when there was). The waitress who had lied to us the previous day told us there was no breakfast, so we had to ask the other one to get service. In the end, we got our breakfast (more or less) as it should have been, but I hope my life never depends on that woman because she clearly doesn't like us.

We arrived at Lhasa at 9ish and grabbed a cab to the center. We were trying to find the hostel I had reserved for Dan and I, but it turned out to be a tad difficult. We were tired and grouchy by the time we finally found it, but it turned out to be nothing like what it promised. They actually lied about the accommodation and used pictures from another hostel. The people there were really friendly though and we might have stayed, except I was dying for a hot shower, and when I saw the shared bathroom, I knew that wouldn't be happening there. A really nice Tibetan girl, who presumably wanted to practice her English, helped us find another place which was close by and not bad.

Today we finally got to see Lhasa! The old town is cool, filled with markets and pilgrims and monks and very few Westerners this time of year. It wasn't cold at all today, so we just walked and walked and ate and walked some more. We had some good dumplings, some yak meat stew, some tortilla type things (they weren't unlike your typical flour tortillas, but filled with herbed cream cheese and vegetables and meat), and I did give yak butter tea a try, but I think it must take some getting used to (it pretty much tastes like you're drinkig melted butter).

Aside from the fact that Lhasa is a lot smaller than I'd imagined (at least the traditional part), the only annoyance is that there are constantly people asking for money. The people here are poor, but they aren't lacking. It's mostly kids that come asking and the occasional monk. I was pretty sure monks weren't supposed to ask for money, but I may be mistaken. It's also worth noting that a fair number of monks have nice sneakers and/or cell phones. Dan played pool with one monk/hustler, who consequently beat the pants off him. Luckily the price for losing was only one kuai.

While we walked the "circuit" some old woman blessed me, or something like that. Ok, really, I have no clue what she said to me, but she was smiling and put her thumb up as she said whatever it was, so I have to imagine it was good. Or, maybe she was smiling at the thought of my eternal damnation and thumbs up in Tibetan means "up yours," but I have my doubts.

Tonight we went out to dinner with two French guys with whom we're trying to orchestrate a trip to Mount Everest this week. It was amusing because we went to the only restaurant in the Lonely Planet guide that was open, and so did every other foreigner in Lhasa. I haven't seen that many Western faces in one place in a long time.

And now it's time for bed. Dan and I have to wake up early to help bargain for our trip. I am getting sort of tired of bargaining, but being on a budget makes it a necessity. It's funny, though, that a theoretically communist country has one of the most capitalist economies (at least on a micro level).

On vacation, I'm off to Tibet!

2007-02-01T00:02:00.000-08:00

So, as several people have pointed out. It's been a while. I have been lazy, but I have also been cursed by unbelievably slow internet as you can see from my January 1st entry that has finally been published.

I have been on vacation for nearly a week. It's been wonderful, but I am so ready to get off this campus, and tonight's the night!

Last week we bought tickets and permission (yes, you buy permission in China) to go to Tibet, and tonight we are finally leaving. We decided to take the train to Lhasa even though it would have cost about the same to fly and the train takes two days as opposed to 6 or so hours by plane. But, come on, it's a train. We thought it would be fun, at least one way, to be able to see the Chinese countryside.

We leave at 9:30 tonight and arrive at 9 p.m. on Saturday, which reminds me I still have to call about a reservation for a hostel! We'll stay there a couple of days, but then we're not really sure where we'll go from there. It sort of depends if Dan can handle the cold or if either of us gets mountain sickness or any number of other ailments. We could try to get over to Nepal or maybe just to a warmer part of China. It will be a surprise. Our train tickets are one way, so who knows how we'll be getting back here, but we have until the 18th to do it!

I will do my best to blog along the way, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to. If I fail, you have the right to deny all knowledge of me. Either way, I promise to post a big one on the 18th, which is, consequently, the lunar new year so I will probably be making a resolution of some sort.

Wish me luck!

Bad, bad Becca.

2007-01-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

I have a valid excuse for not blogging, I swear! According to all of my sources, the reason we haven't had access to any foreign websites recently is because of the earthquake in Taiwan. Apparently some cables were snapped, seriously impeding telecommunications between Asia and the U.S. It's sort of freaky to think about how little it would take to cut us off from everybody we care about, so I'm going to change the subject.

There have been many blogworthy moments in the past two weeks, but I'm sure I won't remember them all. The weekend before Christmas was a mad rush, though I'm not really sure why. We stayed in that Saturday, but I don't get the impression we rested much and Sunday we left early for Beijing. We spent most of our morning in the cafe where we have gone a lot lately to fill up on Western style breakfasts. Although both are edible, eggs and toast certainly beat boiled cabbage and fried peanuts for breakfast.

Later in the day we headed towards Tianamen Square because we had plans to meet a friend at 6 p.m. As a brief preface, this is a friend that loves to walk, you'll soon understand why this is important. He had given us a card for the restaurant and told us it was "10 minutes away" from Tianamen. So, we started walking. We walked to Wanfujing and thought it would be a block or so north of there. We walked and walked and walked right out of that neighborhood asking, every five minutes or so, where the restaurant was. Most people didn't know and a few people just told us to keep going straight. To make a long story short, it took us from 5 p.m. at Tianamen until 6:30 to arrive at the restaurant. Only then did we find out that it was 10 minutes from Tianamen by bus. Next time I'll ask.

The food was odd, but most of it tasted good. What made the meal interesting, however, were the dances and other performances during dinner. It was an "imperial" restaurant. All in all it made for a nice evening.

Christmas was average, as usual. Without family, it just isn't Christmas. Dan and I exchanged gifts and then went downstairs to make brunch with all the others who were around. It was a decent brunch, but it was rushed because there were people going to the Great Wall for a walk. Dan and I stayed back, partly because he has a hurt ankle, and partly because it just seemed like too much.

The next day, I played hooky and Dan and I went into Beijing again (Dan actually doesn't work on Tuesdays anyway). We went to Tianamen Square and started walking north. We were aiming for Beihai park, but were distracted by Hutongs, the old dilapidated villages that have been preserved. The Chinese seem very good at letting buildings go for a long time and then "preserving" them just as their about to topple over. It seems more romantic I guess.

When we finally got close to the top of the park, we saw another park which looked interesting. We went in and climbed up a small hill (which is apparently the highest point in Beijing (not including tall buildings), hoping to get a view. It was, unfortunately, a little too cloudy to see much of anything, but we'll go back on a clear day and take pictures. So, we walked from one pagoda to another until we were back at the bottom of the hill. It was getting late, so it was time to go back.

The following day it was back to the daily grind, though when a week only has three days it's a lot easier to handle! I take that back, it was three and a half days because they made us work Saturday morning, but it was still o.k.

Yesterday, we went into Beijing with Michael and Naomi just to walk around. This time we went to Hou Hai park (just North of Bei Hai) and went chair skating on the lake. They literally put blades on chairs and give you two poles with screw drivers welded on the end to push yourself around. Two of us fit on one chair so Dan and I raced, and beat, all the little kids that would take us on. This, however, led to a snowball fight (Dan against about 12 little kids). Unfortunately, I don't think he can claim victory.

We walked around a lot more after that. It was a beautiful, albeit cold, day. By the time we got back to Huijia, we were all pretty exhausted and the rest of New Year's consisted of Boggle and movies. I feel so old!

Small but tasty!

2006-12-19T16:58:00.000-08:00

Last night the I.B. department took all of their teachers (and Naomi and I) out to dinner at a restaurant that specialized in Peking Duck. The only difference between Beijing style and a normal roasted duck is how you eat it. They give you what are basically flour tortillas, onions and plum sauce and you are supposed to wrap the duck with that and eat it. It's actually quite tasty. The presentation of the duck is perhaps the most interesting though. The chef comes out with the duck he has cooked and slices it in front of you. First they put out some of the pieces of skin which you are supposed to dip in sugar and eat (it does taste better than it sounds, but I would have preferred salt to sugar). Then they give you the slices of good meat that you're supposed to wrap and eat. Then, they slice the head open and put it on the table. It seems to be that Chinese really value the head of any animal and seem to think it's the best meat.
So, yeah, I ate it (or at least half, and somebody else ate the other half).

Be forewarned, anybody with a good imagination and a weak stomach might want to skip over the next paragraph.

As I popped the little duck brain in my mouth, all I could think of was what my mother would say and how my dad would have definitely eaten it with me. The brain was tasty, but as they say, pure cholesterol (it really coats the inside of your mouth). I then ate the ocular muscle. I left the eye there because that just seemed to be going a bit too far for me in one night. I ate the cheeks, which were delicious and then I ate the skin. Frankly, it was tasty. Waste not, want not!

And I'm still alive!

After proving that I will try just about anything, one of the people at the table (originally from Taiwan) offered to take me to try sheep's head at a restaurant down the street. If I don't die in a week from some strange duck brain disease, I might take him up on it.

China takes it's toll...

2006-12-14T00:35:00.000-08:00

I was recently reminded, very subtly of course, that it had been a while. It's been almost a month to be exact. To be fair to myself, however, I did actually write another blog in the meantime, but it turns out my computer is smarter than me and it was deleted. Since I had spent an absurd amount of time writing it, I wasn't really inclined to give it another go. So, I'll try to avoid the same fate this time and use that handy little "Save as Draft" button. Or, perhaps if I'm really smart, I'll just hit copy every once in a while!

The previous blog was an elaborate description of my Thanksgiving dinner, which I will not attempt to repeat here. I do feel the need, however, to point out a few things. First of all, it was my first Thanksgiving in three years and I really enjoyed myself. It was also the first time I have ever roasted a duck and I managed to roast a chicken and bake four pies (three apple and one pumpkin) at the same time! Any of you who have ever eaten my chicken would be glad to know it was not undercooked this time! As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure it's close to impossible to undercook a Chinese chicken because they're about half the size of a normal American or European one. But that, in my opinion, is a detail. Anyway, long story short, there were lots of people and it was fun, though admittedly not the same as celebrating with family.

The weather here has now become a pretty constant freezing. It only changes once in a while when there's a strong wind and it gets pretty close to unbearable. I find it really hard to believe that as a teenager I could brave similar conditions without a hat. Living in Madrid must have made me a wimp! It actually might be easier to deal with if the weather would stay outside, but it doesn't. Our room is a tad leaky to say the least. It seems the only remedy for that would be to seal both doors (we have a balcony and an inner door that don't fit) with plastic and hibernate until April. I'm pretty sure they would stop paying us though, so that could be problematic.

Aside from the slightly cooler than comfortable living conditions, I don't really have many complaints! There is less and less sunlight, but thanks to the fact that they don't follow daylight savings, it's at least light out when I go to work. Besides, after a couple more days it will start getting lighter again. Work is going well, though like anybody, I have my days. I am exercising and eating well. I have developed a severe addiction to milk and haw fruit roll-ups (Mom, you should have bought me that food dehydrator when I was 10! haha), but they don't seem to do much damage.

Dan and I have continued our visits to the village in spite of the fact that the original couple that we went to visit is no longer there (they should be back at the end of February). The other day we had a slight misunderstanding with a couple of the guys. We thought (keep in mind this is entirely in Chinese) that they were inviting Dan to go drinking on Friday night. They are always asking how much he can drink, so it was funny, but entirely plausible to us. However, we had a birthday party to go to first. It was for a little kid, so Dan figured he would go and meet up with the others a little later. They decided on a time which would give Dan enough time to eat first (they did say drinking, afterall). They made some joke about saying hi and bye that we didn't truly understand until much later. So, Friday rolled around and we went to the birthday party. The restaurant was awful, but Dan ate a bunch because he didn't think he would get to later and certainly didn't want to drink on an empty stomach. He left, and I stayed. Apparently, however, drinking in China means eating too. They had invited us both out to dinner and we totally misunderstood. So, not only did they think we were weird because only Dan showed up, but when he only managed to eat about eight spoons full of food, they were a little confused.

The next day, we went to visit the old mother and told her the story, but she didn't seem to think it was that funny. A friend of hers stopped by to look at us though. That was fun. After hearing that Dan was from France and I was from America, she looked at us confused for a minute and then said, "But you have the same face!" They, apparently, think all Caucasians look alike. She also commented that I had oddly small feet for a foreigner. Why was she looking at the size of my very normal feet?? We may never know.

Since I'm on the subject of cultural differences, I'd like to draw a mental picture for you. Imagine a world without diapers. It's sort of frightening. It's China. They do not use diapers. Little babies just pee when they have to (and yes, I have at least one friend who came close, too close, to getting peed on). This in itself is kind of bizarre by western standards, but it's a little weirder when you see the pants they put on their kids. Imagine mini chaps, but with a bit more butt cover. The kids have a huge and presumably drafty slit down the back of their pants (summer and winter) so that when they have to go, there's no struggling with pulling the pants down. They just squat and go. Yeah. All I have to say is that I'm really grateful they stop wearing those pants at some point.

Perplexed, proud, frustrated, sad and annoyed... one at a time.

2006-11-19T07:04:00.000-08:00

I was kindly reminded that it has been a while since I last wrote. I appologize. The past couple of weeks, I have been especially busy. Doing what? I can't say exactly. I'm tempted to suggest that there may be fewer hours in the day in China. I've been working a bunch (7:30-5), but that ought to leave plenty of time for simple things like writing and the like. My schedule seems to have filled itself with unnecessary obligations: Dan and I go to the village a few times a week to talk with our friends (and usually spend most of the evening there) and two other nights I teach a little Fillipino girl English. It seems, however, that I ought to have at least a couple more hours than I actually do every day.

I know what you're thinking, but I don't sleep that much!! I do take a short nap at lunch time(que la siesta no me deje!), but I also wake up at six a.m. to start my day. Life is hard :-)

Anyway, this weekend, I actually did a lot. Friday, I went to get a foot massage after work (I know, life is rough, but for 3 dollars I can afford a massage) and then we went into the village for dinner and lessons. Saturday, we woke up bright and early for the Great Wall! I'll post pictures if I ever figure out how. The wall was amazing, but not what I expected. I think it's incredible that they built such a long and intricate wall over hundreds of small mountains, without a single machine and so long ago. I was, however, expecting something a little more massive in terms of height. Obviously it's tall enough that you can't just climb over it, but it's not that high. Another thing I wasn't expecting was the incline of the hike. It was steep! The pictures I have may not do it justice, but there are some stairs you don't want to go down without holding on to the railing. After a short afternoon nap ;-) we went into Changping in an attempt to find me some markers and other supplies.

Today was "interesting". I woke up early to go into Beijing with the church bus and Dan slept in. On the ride in, I was looking at the trees and wondering, for the umpteenth time, why they paint some of the trunks white. There doesn't appear to be a pattern, but I think maybe it's a certain variety of tree that they paint. All of the trees that line the streets of Changping, for example, are painted white (but only the bottom three feet or so). Once we asked a Chinese person why they were painted and they told us it was for visibility reasons. Now, in any other country I would have thought he was nuts, but the way they drive here it seemed plausable. Today, however, I saw an entire forest that had been painted like that. So, while it's plausable that somebody might take out a few of the trees, it seemed just a tad overboard to paint the whole woods. I'm perplexed. Any suggestions?

This morning I had an agenda. I went to Beijing with a purpose. I was going to get a laminator! I found the store I was told sold them and it was ENORMOUS! It was five stories tall and each floor had at least a hundred small booths that sold electronics of all kinds. I managed, speaking almost no Chinese and in less than an hour (bathroom break included), to find a laminator and, admittedly half-heartedly, I bargained just a little. No more crappy paper flashcards for my kids, no sir-ee!

After my wild success at Computer City, I decided to try my luck in Carrefour. Needless to say, my luck had apparently run out. All I wanted was some ground cinnamon (it's hard to find around here) and maybe some other spices if they had them. So, I entered (or so I thought) the complex. It was enormous and confusing and I literally spent a half an hour just trying to find the entrance to the store. That done, I realized that it wasn't the grocery part of it and it took me another ten minutes or so to locate the food. To my utter disappointment, they didn't even have what I was looking for! So, I bought myself some chocolate and headed back to the bus, wallowing.

Back on campus, Dan had the B.B.C. on. I sat down to watch it with him, but I'm either extremely hormonal today or it was more depressing than usual. I started crying because they were talking about the forest fires in Borneo. They didn't say anybody had died or anything, just a forest burning and I cried. I had to leave the room, to do something to distract myself. I was just immensely sad for everything all at once.

We went to the village and I asked to go get my favorite soup with noodles. Dan obliged, but even my noodles were different and the restaurant people were less friendly. They gave us beer without bubbles! Towards the end of my meal a few men walked in for dinner. That in itself would have been relatively harmless, but one of them kept spitting. Mind you, he wasn't spitting in a napkin or getting up to spit out the door. He would just spit right next to himself, on the floor, for everybody to hear and see. I didn't feel ill. I didn't lose my appetite. I was just disgusted. I was annoyed with the restaurant owners and more so with the spitter. The food was fine, but the atmosphere was killing me.

Now I'm home, warm and cozy. Soon I'll be asleep. Dan killed the flies that had been haunting us, so I will hear nothing, no buzzing, no spitting, maybe just the hum of my computer.

Another week, another weekend!

2006-10-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

I made it through another week. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, but it wasn't normal either. I got the usual crap from work and caught a cold to go with it, but made it through most of my classes without any major problems.

Aside from work though, things got a little odd. On Wednesday, we found out that one of the foreign teachers was being sent home because the doctors wouldn't give him medical clearance. Whatever they were unhappy with was nothing contagious or dangerous to anybody else (he was still allowed to be around the students and us). Regardless, the school decided that they weren't going to let him stay. The school's overreaction is nothing less than typical, but it's still disappointing to have to say goodbye to somebody already.

The really annoying thing is that, according to the Beijing government, the medical exams aren't even necessary if you're staying for less than a year, but our school insists we pay the 85 dollars to get it done, and will revoke the contract if there's something they don't like.

So, we went out to dinner Thursday night to say goodbye. Afterwards, a couple of the I.B. teachers, including the one who left, participated in the "Aerobics Competition" held for the 10th graders. This was not a dance competition. All of the students used the exact same song, with only very slight differences in the actual routine, all of which resembled your run of the mill aerobics classes in the U.S. Some of the classes were better than others, but the whole thing seemed just a little strange. The highlight of the show, however, was probably the eleventh grade "club team" which performed to a different song and with a whole lot more energy.

The Chinese government puts a lot of emphasis on exercise and healthy eating, both of which are mandatory at all levels of schooling. In the primary school, the kids have mandatory group exercise for 30 minutes every morning and once a week, for twenty minutes, they are forced to listen to somebody lecture about the importance of eating well. It probably isn't a bad thing, but it's a little more rigid than what you would get in the U.S.

Friday was, as it was the week before, welcomed. The day flew by because it was over by 2 p.m. and I went home to sleep off the stress. In the evening, Dan and I went into town for dinner. On our way back we stopped by to see our "friends" at the movie rental place and ended up staying for about 2 hours! Of course, I don't understand much of what they say, but it is entertaining, and I always learn something. We got back exhausted, and I was soon asleep.

Plans for today have yet to be made, but probably include going to the village at some point, maybe even into Changping and studying some more Chinese (the language is practically painful to learn). We'll see though, it's promising to be a pretty low key day so far.

If I disappear, check the restaurants in Changping!

2006-10-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

Just order kung pao lao shi (kung pao teacher for you English speaking folks). Seriously though, I published what was previously censored, but it happens to be hiding behind the post asking for advice because it was saved earlier. All of you who know me know that I am unbelievably stubborn, amongst other things, and so I had to publish that post in spite of Dan's concerns.

To clear things up, however, I feel the need to add that I am not miserable here. On the contrary, I quite like the nearby village and the people I've met here. China is cool, the food is fine and the language is killing me. I couldn't ask for a better challenge right now!

Self-censorship. Am I nuts?

2006-10-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

I just finished a post, a rant really. It's seriously critical of this school, but not China. Yet, Dan seemed to think that we could lose our jobs for something like that, so I thought I'd think about it for a day or so before publishing it. I may be totally naive, but I honestly didn't think they would ever find my blog or bother to read it if they did. It's hard to imagine (and horribly ironic given the topic of the post I have temporarily suppressed) that my writing might get me in trouble.

Am I crazy?

You decide!

Totalitarianism is annoying after all.

2006-10-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

Not long ago, I tried to argue that a totalitarian state might not be so bad. I was, admittedly, arguing for the sake of arguing, but I partly believed what I said. Claiming that freedom of speech was overrated and rules are a necessary evil, I was pretty sure it would at least be possible to not be miserable under totalitarianism. I was right. Plenty of people are satisfied if not actually happy in this country. Where I was wrong, however, was in thinking that I too would be able to tolerate the same state of affairs with the same degree of complacency. It appears that once you have rights, it's pretty hard to grapple with the idea of not having them.

The irony of this revelation is that it has nothing to do with anything that has happened to me directly. In fact, it has more to do with the treatment of Chinese people, specifically at this school. Most foreigners (westerners, at least) seem to be exempt from real life in China. To anyone who knows me, it's no surprise that I would become enraged about something that has nothing to do with me. I have a passion for "fairness" and at times become vehemently righteous about the way I think people should be treated. That said, I will move on to the nitty gritty.

In the past few days, the seriously off balance policies of this school have become utterly apparent. I'm not feigning ignorance where salary is concerned. I knew from the beginning that I would be making two or three times the salary of the Chinese teachers at this school (not to mention about 10 times as much as local employees), and working a heck of a lot less. A meal in a restaurant in the village costs 12 rmb ($1.50) for two people and I make about $700 a month, but I digress.

Before continuing, I have to note that a job at this school is superior to many for any Chinese person. That said, I am appalled by the collective differences in treatment and disgusted by a few recent events. Not only are the teachers paid less, but they are forced to pay more. Our housing deposit was a mere 500 rmb, theirs is 3000 (or so I've been told). We have free meals, they do not. In addition, it appears that their pay can be docked for almost any reason. I've been told that several teachers were paid only 2/3 of their salary last month because they didn't demonstrate enough discipline in the classroom. Unfortunately, I'm sure these are only a tiny tip of the iceberg.

Even more disturbing, however, is the fact that a Chinese teacher was recently mobbed by a group of 15 or so students (only two or so of whom were suspended and are awaiting further decisions regarding punishment). The teacher was dragged out of his office and repeatedly kicked and punched by the mob. Needless to say, with the majority of those students still in his classroom, he has not and will not return this year. Sadly, I have my doubts that the school will do the right thing by kicking the students out of school (for good) and paying the teacher a year's leave.

Needless to say, I'm convinced that the students wouldn't have even considered doing the same thing to a foreign teacher. Frankly, they knew they could get away with it. They get away with everything. I'm not even going to get into academics here.

Everybody loves Friday!

2006-10-21T02:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I went to work dreading the day to come, but to my surprise, it turned out o.k. I might even say it was a great day. My advisor seemed to be much nicer to me, and when I asked, I was even given rags to wipe my desk with! Still no markers, but hey, one thing at a time. It is China.

The morning flew by and at lunchtime I was given a belated birthday cake. It looked a little sketchy, but turned out to be alright. On top of that, I found out that on Fridays we finish at 2:30. The day just got better and better.

So, after work, I went back to the dormitory and found the people we usually hang out with. We ate cake, some nasty meat candy and yak meat pie and talked about random stuff. And we planned to go to town a little later to have dinner.

In the end, it was only Dan and I that went. We took a nice long walk through the whole village and then found a place to eat. The people were super nice and tried to talk to us even when we (or at least I) really didn't understand. We ordered kung pao chicken and mystery noodles (I only know the word for noodles, not what goes in them). Dan got his enormous dish with a bowl of rice and I got my huge bowl of soup along with a pot of tea. We ate and ate and ate until we were stuffed, and then I fed some of my egg to the cat when I thought the owners weren't looking. As a total sidebar, there are a lot of pet cats and dogs here, which surprised me, but they are all really dirty and sort of mangy looking, well fed though, thanks to people like me.

During our dinner, the owners sat at the other end of the room watching something on television, more or less ignoring us. And a child, or perhaps a very large fish, splashed around in a tub in another room. The man who owned the restaurant came over at one point to ask us why his cell phone had an error message, which was sort of odd, but understandable, since the message was in English and he didn't understand it. Needless to say, we couldn't figure it out. And, I believe that even if we had, we wouldn't have known how to tell him.

We paid our bill and left, heading back to campus. Along the way there were puddles and a few cars to dodge, as usual. We stopped for a moment when we saw a "store" that looked like it might possibly sell books. A moment turned into an hour as they told us to have a seat and then bombarded us with questions. We found out that it was a rental shop for books and vcds and when two friends of the couple came in, we found ourselves answering even more questions. And, yet again, we were presented with a cell phone to fix. This time was slightly easier though because the language had been switched to English and he just wanted it back to Chinese. After about an hour of babble we decided it was time to leave and headed back for some shut eye.

We slept through the night!! That might not seem exciting, but having woken up at 3, 4 or 5 a.m. for the past week, it was really nice to sleep normal hours. We were in bed until 7! And, since breakfast starts at that time, I consider that to be perfect timing.

After breakfast, we left campus with a couple of friends to go for a hike. The trail began on the edge of Changping near the railroad tracks and went steeply up and down hills. At the top of the first little hill, my butt and legs already felt tired, and the dusty air seemed to be taking its toll on my lungs. Surprisingly, however, I seemed to recover a bit and get a second wind, enough to carry me over 5 or so more peaks. There were some very interesting things up there, and some beautiful birds, though looking back at Changping was not exactly breathtaking. Chinese people have not really been all that interested in aesthetics for the past few years so there are more than a few ugly buildings. I should also mention that Chinese people do not have the same respect for their natural surroundings as most western hikers would. There was trash along the entire trail. In parts, it was only a plastic bag or a cigarette pack, but in others the ground was covered. One place in particular, a pagoda on the top of one of the peaks, was especially tragic. There was trash everywhere, the pagoda was filthy and someone had even decided to use it as a bathroom! For a moment the four of us contemplated coming back someday to clean up the trash, but when we thought about hiking back with huge garbage bags, we thought it might be easier said than done. That said, it is a shame that nobody cares for the trail.

We traversed some of the steepest parts of the trail before coming to the end, where a sign warned us that the area we were coming from was forbidden. Chinese people are weird. Needless to say, we were starving when we finished, so we found a small restaurant to eat at and got lucky enough to get good food knowing only the words for vegetables, hot, meat and chicken. Afterwards we did some shopping and headed back. Dan and I crashed for the better part of the evening and only woke up hours later for some late night cleaning and blogging.

This jetlag thing is killing me!

Bureaucracy isn't bureaucracy if it doesn't defeat the goal.

2006-10-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Dan and I had a discussion about bureaucracy, and I began arguing that China was a lot like France in the way that you have to do paperwork and ask a million different people for every little thing, nobody really seems to know what's going on, etc. Dan pointed out, however, that in France bureaucracy is intended to be a pain in your arse. In China, on the other hand, it's intended to prevent you from doing whatever it was you wanted to do in the first place. Unfortunately, this is not limited to the government here.

On Monday, I got my schedule of classes and was presented with the desk and computer that I am supposed to clean twice a day (all of this gets even better when I start to factor in favoritism, so just wait). Frankly, at that point, everything looked fine. I knew I was going to be teaching kindergarten and 1st grade and I had a Chinese teacher with me in every classroom. I was only slightly disappointed that the book we were supposed to use for the majority of my classes was taught by the Chinese English teachers, and that my job was actually to come up with some supplemental materials and topics. Here is where I need to mention that the school told me I wouldn't need to bring any books or anything with me. So, it was up to me to pull something out of my arse for Tuesday.

I slept away most of Monday afternoon and evening and woke up at about 4 a.m. Tuesday. Prepared for the day, had another delicious breakfast and hustled off to school. My first class was a disaster. In spite of the fact that my co-teacher had warned me, I simply thought that Chinese kids could not be as rowdy as the French ones. Let's just say I have a new appreciation for order. Unfortunately, my schedule is set up for me to have that class twice in a row Tuesday mornings, so when class one was over, I took a ten minute break, regrouped my thoughts and decided not to do anything I had planned. The class went slightly better. Stepping ahead a couple of days, I broke all the rules my co-teachers had (about not punishing kids because it's not really useful) and laid the smack down on that class. Let's just say my co-teachers weren't exactly right. I have been putting children in corners ever since.

So, classes got progressively better, but my opinion of the job stayed sort of luke warm (when not boiling with contempt), because I have been treated differently than the other teachers. The problem is, I am the only westerner who teaches primary that did not come with ELI a religious group who "volunteers" here. As to why they volunteer at the most expensive private school in China, nobody seems sure. Regardless, they have their own supplies and their own advisors, their own, lighter schedules and office hours. So, my work advisor seems to think she can treat me like a Chinese teacher. I'm supposed to wipe off my spectacularly empty desk twice a day but was not provided a rag to do so (the ELI teachers informed me that they had been given two each), I have to be in the office by 7:45 and I can leave at 5 (which is fine, but originally my advisor told me that I was to stay till 5:50 and then return in the evening again! I politely informed her that I worked until 5), and I have 22 class periods (she tried to make it 25, but I refused) while all of the other foreign teachers have 16. Oh, and they have their own supply cupboard, but I was told that I couldn't be provided markers because the Chinese teachers didn't get them. The Chinese teachers are also paid about a quarter of what I am and work more hours. Maybe I need to remind them that I am not Chinese.

Needless to say, I'm not sure how it will all work out, but it's got to get better than this. So far, we've gotten very little of what we were promised.

Back by popular demand!

2006-10-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

Due to ever-growing popularity and at the request of my loyal reader, you know who you are, the blogging will recommence! Be careful what you ask for...

I am in China. I feel like I could end there with no explanation needed, but the entertainment is, admittedly, in the details.

After much waiting for papers and visas and last minute plane tickets, confiscation of my beloved deodorant and my first ever 13 hour plane ride, I arrived in Beijing Saturday evening safely, if not quite sound. We waited in line for what seemed like hours to have our passport stamped and then breezed through the baggage and customs areas (Chinese people are apparently only efficient when they want to be). Thankfully, there was a school representative waiting for us outside the door and we were whisked into a car and out of there.

I was glad to be in the car for about 30 seconds, while I was still figuring out that we were on the wrong side of the road and oncoming traffic really was moving that quickly. I rapidly came to terms with the possibility of dying (or maybe it was just the shock that kept me from jumping out) as we dashed around mobs of bikers and rickshaws, all the while just missing the other speeding vehicles. There was a very near miss with a bus but in an attempt to erase it from my memory as quickly as possible, I am not going to go into detail.

Luckily for me, my jetlag was starting to set in and I fell asleep for the last half of the ride. Dan woke me up when we arrived at the creepy looking compound that we will call home for the next 9 months.

We were taken directly to our "apartment" on the sixth floor (no elevator) of building 8. If it sounds luxurious now, just wait! We are told that this is temporary, for about a week, but it's China, I have my doubts. Our little one room abode is cosy, but was a tad bit dirty (I'm being nice) and a little smaller than we expected. The fact that there were only two out of six lightbulbs in our fixture was only a mild disappointment compared with the lack of flushing power in our toilet (we worked it out using a complex mathematical equation, and we can each take a dump every alternating third day--if I sound cranky, now you know why).

After being horizontal for about 30 seconds I decided the place was livable and fell into a deep sleep (at 8 p.m.) only to be woken up four hours later with about a liter less blood (Chinese mosquitos are enormous)! So Dan and I spent a few hours hunting down and killing all buzzing and flying creatures. Actually, he did all the work, but I stayed up and cheered him on. Needless to say, I've seen way creepier bugs since then, and all of the bugs here seem to be about 5 times the size of the American version (when there is one).

Sunday morning we had our first Chinese breakfast. The steamed bread with bean paste was actually quite tasty and filling, the warm milk was warm and milky, the steamed green beans were an unusual breakfast choice but certainly do-able, the flavorless barley water was a little weird and the crunchy, not so sour sourkrout was close to appalling. Overall, it wasn't bad.

After breakfast, we took a trip into town and things got interesting. There are no signs for the bus stops here. You just have to know where they are or be able to speak enough Chinese to ask. We were up the creek. We went into town with a Chinese girl, which made it easier, and she was kind enough to take us to Marymart or Merrymart (I can't remember which now) to do some shopping. I have never seen so much color before in my life! Between the color and the music on the street and the color and music oozing out of all the stores it was a little bit like Big Trouble in Little China meets Toys 'R Us gone long (if you don't get the joke it's your loss).

Shopping in itself was entertaining, as it always is when there are so many new items and you can't read the labels. I got so excited when I saw a jug that said "Pure Milk" that I just had to buy it! But, aside from the joys of being totally confused, there were the little things, like little children staring, pointing and laughing at us. Now, granted, Dan looks a little like Jesus at the moment, but they don't know who Jesus is! Even more entertaining were the adults who couldn't take their eyes off of us, one of which came pretty close to falling off her bike and another held up traffic with his pick-up bike in order to get one last look.

Other entertainment to be found in town included a woman flipping bowls onto her head, a machine that smacked you on the head to tell you how tall you are and your fortune for the day, and dodging traffic in the street, even if the little walking man was green. Dan cursed at a car that almost ran him over and the man behind me started laughing. I think his exact thoughts were "Stupid foreigner thinks he has right to live... hahaha!"

It took us about 20 minutes to find the bus stop for the way back (our tourguide had left us), but eventually we got on. Thanks to our western looks, I barely had to pronounce the first syllable of the town we needed to get to before the ticket woman shouted it at me and took our money. For ten cramped minutes I stood next to a little girl who may have had SARS or TB or Avian Flu, so I practically leaped out of the bus before it stopped, and I'm pretty sure the busdriver would have let me.

Today, there was sun! The dust cleared for a few hours this afternoon and I felt the first (very faint) rays of sun since I got to Beijing. I was given my schedule and met my assistant teachers, told that I would not be given supplies and basically prepared to suffer. Tomorrow I start bright and early. Dan, on the other hand has 5 class periods a week, no joke, and only teaches Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. There's no need to mention that he's earning one and a half times my salary for doing a quarter of the work. Life is so unfair!

In the middle of nowhere

2006-08-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

Gosia has kindly hinted that it is time for me to post again. It has been about a week since my last post and not a whole lot has happened, at least not much I really want to blog about.

I spent two great days with my grandparents. Papa tells some funny jokes and good stories (both of which are even better the tenth time you hear them... in a day). We were lazy and talked all day and then went to the Moose club for happy hour the first day and the American Legion on the second (they LOVE their happy hour).

Most of our time, those two days, was spent trying to escape the heat wave by not moving. If you don't move, you don't notice how you're sticking to the furniture.

I'm going to skip over my trip from Buffalo to home because it's largely uninteresting and I want to get to the part where I woke up my nephew out of his very peaceful sleep, just so I could see him vacuum. I'm not kidding. I am selfish enough to wake a sleeping child for my own entertainment.

He was cranky till he got a sippy cup full of milk. That perked him right up, and the fun began. He's 18 months old and he actually likes vacuuming (my mom's dustbuster is the perfect size)! You have to turn it on for him, but once he gets started it's hard to tear him away. My sister is so lucky! House cleaners are not cheap, and she's got one for free! Okay, so he's not free, he's freaking expensive, but he's damn cute.

He also does other things like "big man" where he does the muscle flexing thing and makes a sound like he's crapping his pants (it's supposed to be more of a grunt, but it's funnier his way), and, like all kids, he likes to play with his food. Watching him suck on a piece of peanut butter sandwich and then spit it out was probably the most disgusting thing I've seen in a while, but I guess he's allowed.

He does have some behaviors which make me wonder a little though, like how he head butts people. My brother kindly calls it nudging, but either way, it's something we're pretty sure he learned from my sister's dog (who died before I got home). When it comes to dogs in general, he's a little "different". He barks back at them and greets them with a kiss before laying his head on them. He's just a touch "feral" as my brother says.

Aside from my evening with the nephew, I didn't do a whole lot until the weekend. Friday and Saturday was like Becca boot camp. On Friday, I went on a short, but very hilly bike ride. Saturday morning, I decided to suffer through some Tai Bo, which is a registered trademark (just want to be safe), and then go on a little walk with my dad.

I should preface by saying that I called him to go for a walk. He chose the route though, and man did I suffer. He said it would be six miles each way, when we got there the map said seven, but in reality it was closer to nine (especially with our off-trail walking added in). So 18 miles, which (for those of you who work with kilometers) is more than a marathon at 28.8 km. It was fun, walking all the way up to Dresden for icecream, but my legs have never been so sore from a hike! The worst thing was I was already tired half way through. We still had to go all the way back. My dad, of course, whizzed along (as if I wasn't already feeling out of shape).

In the end, it was a really cool hike, and we got to see a lot of run down mills and wonder about how important they were once upon a time. My dad told me the names of lots of things I wish I could remember and helped me improve my poison ivy identification skills. We found fossils and crayfish in the creek and I let minnows eat off my feet. Actually, I yelped every time they did it, even though it didn't hurt. We saw lots of bugs, two turtles, a blue heron and a baby toad. Good stuff! Afterwards, we ate Chinese and went home.

I slept well.

Today was spent eating and playing volleyball mainly. My brother had a picnic with his friends and their families. So, I went, exhausted myself and here I am. I'm ready for some of that relaxation stuff again.

Riga was more than we hoped for.

2006-08-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

Riga was a relief from the moment we got in to the train station. There were people everywhere!

The first challenge, however, was already upon us. I had the address for the hostel, and knew that it was only a short distance away, but couldn't remember the exact directions. I knew we had to turn right, but after that, I couldn't remember. So, we decided to ask somebody, "Do you speak English? Francais peut-etre? Espanol?"

It might have worked out well, but Dan decided to ask a blind man! I kid you not. The man had dark glasses, one of those foldable sticks and a woman was leading him by the arm. Dan later informed me that he didn't realize he was blind, he thought he was just a little retarded or something. So, I ask you, blind or retarded, would you have followed the man around? Well, we did, but only for a block (and I think mainly because Dan felt bad for having asked the man in the first place). Then we sort of ditched them on a corner and went right. We found the street, but then when the wrong way down it. In the end it took us about 15 minutes to get to a hotel that was 5 minutes away. I'd say that's not too bad.

The hostel, was another small challenge as the owner tried to give us a six bed dorm instead of the double that I had reserved. I was irritated, but luckily it was Dan who really complained. I mentioned that we were supposed to have a double bed and the man said he would go and see if one was available. Of course, there was, and we moved in there to a big bed and a television.

We relaxed a bit and then ventured out in search of food. We found an Indian restaurant, but not in time. I had already become a raving bitch. Dan dealt with it remarkably well and we enjoyed the rest of the evening walking around the old town of Riga on very full stomachs.

The next day was spent in much the same way, walking. We spent the morning walking around Europe's biggest market, and let me tell you, it's HUGE! There were stands outside, but even the indoor part was the biggest I've ever seen. The stands sold things like black bread and black bread and honey and more honey and fruit and smoked fish and more smoked fish and loads more smoked fish and some cheese. I think you get the picture. Variety isn't necessarily the spice of life for everybody!

After the market tour, we decided to head for the beach. A half hour train ride (and some guessing which way to go) later, we arrived. Unfortunately, I don't think either of us had a really accurate idea of what it was going to be like. The beach was nice (overcast skies meant there weren't too many people out and about) but the sea was like an infinite sandbar. Dan must have walked out at least 50 meters before it was deep enough for him to swim, and due to the rivers that had outlets nearby, the water wasn't salty! What kind of sea is that? We actually enjoyed ourselves, but didn't stay too long.

On our way back to the station we took a stroll along the "strip" of the town and marveled at how American their little fair seemed (there were rides and vendors). They even had a group of Peruvians dressed up as American Indians playing flutes and things. It was funny.

That evening was also spent walking around and eating, and eventually we went to bed, knowing that the next day, the trip would be over.

The trip back to the states began painfully with a 4 a.m. wake up call. I was convinced that it was a long haired man who opened our door, but it was apparently the woman at the desk who was trying to wake us up. Where else in the world would they actually come in to your room to wake you up?!

We made it to the airport long before necessary and diddled around till our flight was about to leave. We made it to Prague bright and early and waited a painful four hours for our connecting flight. We struggled to sleep on the way to Newark and succeeded in turns. We ate horrible food and watched a pretty bad movie and a measly nine hours later we arrived! Dan was off to his brother's and I had one more flight up to Buffalo. Twenty-six hours after waking up, I arrived at my final destination.

That was two days ago, and I'm still recovering.

Vilnius to Riga

2006-07-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

We will never take an overnight bus again!

I have never been on a bus that smelled so strongly of stinky feet and sweaty people before; it was awful. It was smelly, and uncomfortable (with an intermittent snorer directly behind us and a whining little German girl in the back) so neither of us slept more than 2 hours. And the sandwiches Dan bought us for dinner were so dry that, in asking for water, a dust storm of crumbs blew out of my mouth. So, we ate candy bars instead, and for the rest of the night we twisted and turned and wished we had tried for the train.

Upon arrival, we couldn't have been more disappointed. We hadn't booked any lodging because we thought that, like in Poland, there might be people offering cheap hostels in the station. Well, we were wrong. So the search began for acceptable accommodation. We knew the prices were high there, so we did our best to get the most for our money. I'm not sure we did too well, but we did try. Going from one overpriced hostel to another, we met a French priest who helped me carry my bag (a blessing, ironically, not in disguise).

The priest was there with a group of girl scouts (in the U.S. I believe they're non-denominational, but French girl scouts are apparently linked to the Catholic church). They had spent three days in the countryside, where running water and electricity are scarce by his accounts, and several days in Vilnius. He warned us that the town had very little to offer apart from a few pretty churches and lots of fancy cars.

He couldn't have come closer to the truth. We checked in to a guest house and slept for a few hours before heading out to discover the old town of Vilnius. In our quest for something akin to lunch, we found a blyni restaurant. In retrospect, that may have been the highlight of our stay there.

We spent a good part of the afternoon walking around, noticing the fancy cars (there was actually a hummer there!) and pretty churches. It was not at all what we expected. Nothing looked all that old, and the town seemed overrun by foreigners (tourists, businessmen and diplomats). We stopped at a cafe for a little while, but it turned into a long while when an old Norwegian man started talking to Dan about American politics and social programs.

He did a lot of criticizing for a man who moved is business from Norway, which is highly taxed, to Lithuania, where labor and costs were much cheaper. He did, however, emphasize how much he LOVED the United States, regardless of that fact that there is no universal health care.

He also told us about his trip around the world when he was just 15, and explained why he didn't like Arabs. He had a really bad experience in Yemen, but he didn't go into a lot of detail, so neither will I. The man liked to talk, so we didn't manage to slip away until his mistress arrived.

Aside from the Norwegian and a couple of pretty churches, Vilnius proved uninteresting. So, we were more than happy to part for Riga the next morning, and the five hour train ride turned out to be about as interesting as our day in Vilnius.

We boarded the train and found our seats (right next to a grumpy Belarusian woman and her granddaughter). We couldn't help but marvel over the use of space on the train; where there were two seats with a table, the table flipped over to make the two seats into a bed, and another bed flipped down from the ceiling!

So, for five hours, while Dan went around making friends with people, and I slept and read.

Warsaw, Poland

2006-07-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

We took an "express" train from Krakow to Warsaw on Monday morning. Interestingly, "express" does not mean that the train does not stop, but rather that nobody gets on or off. We boarded around noon and set off through countryside that I could have easily mistaken for parts of western New York. Well, almost. I did see a really large, glass encased statue of Jesus in sombody's front yard, which I probably wouldn't find just anywhere in the U.S.

On the train we met some Canadians who were doing more or less the same trip as us through Eastern Europe, with the exception that they went to Budapest first. They seemed like really nice folks, but not great travellers. Their suitcases were so large that they wouldn't fit through the train's hallway. For a moment I considered myself a light packer! They also got off at the wrong station in Warsaw, but it's hard to say if it was intentional or not.

We arrived at Warsaw Centralna where we had arranged to meet Gosia, but like an idiot, I didn't ask where! I don't speak polish and it turns out that not so many polish people actually speak English or want to. Needless to say, their signs were rarely written in a language I know, so it took a bit of work to buy a phone card, figure out that the first phone I tried just wasn't working and eventually get Gosia on the line. It took us about 30 minutes to actually find each other there. Boy, was I glad to see her face!

She got us to the taxis where we were refused by the first for having too much luggage, but the second one grudgingly took us. In a few minutes we got to the place we would call home for the next two nights.

Time flew by as we chatted, watched british comedy (that I actually found funny!) and saw very little of the city. It turns out I wasn't very interested in seeing Warsaw (and neither was Dan). We saw the old town, but knowing that everything had been bombed and then reconstructed it felt more like walking through a Disney park (pretty as it was) than an old city. Frankly, though, I was here to see a friend so that's what I did.

So now it's time to go. Dan and I opted for the 9 hour bus rather than the 24 hour train (which goes through minsk and might, consequentially pose some visa problems) to Vilnius. It's impossible to "look forward to" a bus, but we are looking forward to Lithuania. Here's hoping it lives up to our expectations!

Prague to Poland

2006-07-24T00:45:00.000-07:00

Post number two coming to you from Krakow, Poland. I love this town. It's really cute. It's small with the potential for boredom, but we've only been here one day and we're leaving in a couple of hours to go to Warsaw.

Prague lasted too long. Dan and I both wish we had left earlier, but things got in the way and we had some trouble deciding where we wanted to go. On the upside, on Friday night, we got to see a really bad poetry reading by a really awkward guy who wrote mildly amusing poems. There were probably 12 to 15 people there and we were the only ones laughing.

On Saturday, we rode bikes for an hour and a half and made a really sorry attempt to ride up to the castle. Uphill is difficult, uphill on cobblestone is next to impossible. So we stopped at a cafe for some desperately needed water and then rode back into town. I was exhausted and sore and more than happy to give the bike back, but Dan and I decided that we should do that in pretty much every town from now on. It's a great way to see a lot with very little time.

Saturday night, we caught the train to Krakow. It was a two person cabin like the train we took to Paris, but with a commie touch. There was no air-conditioning and no shower and no little toiletries, but there was water and a sink and a big window with a sign above it (in Czech, French, German, Italian and Russian) asking people not to hang out the window. It was small, but surprisingly comfortable except for the fact that just as we were leaving the person in charge of our car asked us to please double lock our door for the evening. He also informed us that we would be woken up around two in the morning for the border crossing. At least I knew in advance that my evening would not exactly be restful. We did get some sleep, though, and I was ready for the day when we arrived at 6 a.m. (When I was trying to convince Dan that it wouldn't be horrible to arrive that early, I told him it would be cool to see the sun rise. Needless to say, I didn't realize that the sun rises in Krakow at 5 a.m.!)

We found our hostel and left our bags (because we couldn't check in until one o'clock) and headed to the center of town for breakfast and bikes. I did all I could to prevent Dan from wandering off to some grassy patch to sleep, and we finally made it to a terrace in the main square for tea.

After tea we wandered over to the bike rental shop and picked up our bikes from an old polish man. I think we were lucky that he spoke one of our three languages, because it turns out that not that many people speak English here. We went for a long ride along the river and saw some interesting things. It was nice not to ride on too much cobble stone because our bums were still sore from the previous day in Prague!

We checked in to the hostel, showered and tried unsuccessfully to nap (nobody told us it would be hot in Poland!!), then we headed back into town for lunch. We found a place that only made perogies and had a delicious lunch despite the fact that two nasty girls had stolen our terrace table and tried to cut in line (it was a self-service place).

The rest of the afternoon was spent riding around to various neighborhoods and watching Dan scale a climbing wall. We had dinner, returned the bikes and went back to the hostel to crash. The day had been wonderful and sleep was quickly upon us.

So, now it's Monday, and we're off to Warsaw to see Gosia. I haven't seen her in over a year and I couldn't be more excited!!

When fascists cry...

2006-07-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I was the blogging type till last night. I met my first fascist ever, yesterday, and he cried!! So, now I must blog. It makes sense, trust me.

At the moment I'm in Prague. I left Madrid almost two weeks ago now (after three long years!), and have been traveling a bit. We took the overnight train to Paris, which could have been lousy, but we had a private cabin with a shower! And from Paris we shipped out to meet Dan's family in the suburbs. Actually, it was more of a small town, but not far from the city.

We stayed for a week in the tower of a medieval farm. And, as always, the Mason family entertained. We ate and ate and ate some more, rubbed elbows with some very musical folks, drank lots of wine, played music with plastic spoons, went for a walk that we all thought might never end, played petanque and scrabble and had a generally good time relaxing. Unfortunately, the week was soon over and we returned to Paris on Bastille day.

We spent the weekend in Paris eating and drinking and socializing some more. We were, sucked in and it was over far too quickly. We hopped a flight to Prague and we've been walking the city since.

There are a few too many tourists, but it's charming all the same. We thought about leaving two days ago, but haven't managed to tear ourselves away. The people are nice, the food is good and if you can stay away from the main squares it's all pretty cheap.

Getting to the inspiration for this blog, we met up with a Czech friend of a friend of Dan's mom. It sounds complicated and it sort of was. We met him for lunch yesterday and chatted a bit awkwardly for two hours. He explained why he didn't like paying taxes that helped people other than himself (because he worked hard, of course) and why it was better to hire part-time employees for his business (because you could pay them much less and they didn't ask for vacation and other silly benefits) and why women should be paid less than men (if you know me you know that I am not a feminist, but even I was slightly offended) and that he actually liked Bush's foreign policy (he is the only foreigner I've ever met to think Bush is a jewel). We tried, gently, to persuade him that fascism was not the answer, but I don't think he was convinced.

In spite of our differences, he invited us to come to his house for an obviously impromptu barbecue (read on for an explanation). We said sure, we'd be happy to go, and then debated whether or not that was a good choice after leaving the bar. It had been a little awkward and we wondered if it might get worse.

We met him at the train station and just barely made the 25 minute train to his house. When we arrived we were greeted by his very pregnant girlfriend who looked like she was trying way too hard to be happy. Then she said she had to go into the city for a meeting and confusion set in. There was clearly major tension between Evil (that is his real name) and his girlfriend so when he left us with his other friend, David (a very nice musician), we figured the evening might not end up as planned. An hour or so later, when Evil returned, he informed us that he was having some serious problems and that it was a bad time for a barbecue. And, since he was crying, we decided not to complain.

We walked back to the train station with his friend and waited 45 minutes with the bugs for the train. (I had never seen so many gnats on a train!) Finally, after a painfully silent (and itchy) ride, and arriving in the center far to late to eat, we stopped at a late night supermarket and wandered home with food that just couldn't compare to the barbecued steak we'd hoped for.