Thanksgiving

Since tommorow is Christmas, I thought I should at least put up my pictures from Thanksgiving before I get even more behind. I had originally planned to go "home" to Connecticut for Thanksgiving, but decided to wait until Christmas when I would have a few more days off. I didn't think I would be sad to be in America and not be spending the day with my family, but I was wrong. Thankfully, I had two great families take me in. Just as we were praying for the meal at Aubrey's I felt the tears start to come and thought...maybe I am sad I'm not with my family. And in the same thought overwhlemed with gratitude for the friends I have who love me like family. And in some ways, sharing a dorm room for 3 years makes you as close as family. So here's my shout-out to the Billingsley and Chapin clan. I think you guys are great! Thanks for your hospitality and friendship. And I have told the Laney's breath story so many times. so funny. Jill and Aubrey above, the whole family belowMy dear friends Molly and Feng were in town from New Jersey for the holiday too. I got to go with them to their friends' home for another delicious meal. The Punjabi family, who I had never met before, also welcomed me as one of their own and made me feel right at home. They have 3 beautiful, well-mannered children who made the evening even more entertaining with games and ping-pong. Molly and Feng...I miss you! When will you be in Oklahoma again?

Jill and Molly
We were partners for Scrabble...taking it pretty seriously apparently.

Feng, me, Molly, and the Punjabi family

Maine

While I was with my parents in Connecticut I took a trip to Maine for a few days to visit some of the most wonderful people I know. I spent two summers during college living with the Lawrences in Massachusetts. Now they have moved to Maine and the timing of my visit was great because I got to see some of the leaves beginning to change color.
Even more wonderful was getting to kayak on a glass-smooth lake with views much better than these photos in every direction. The embarassing part was being out-kayaked by someone the same age as my mother. I had to ask a few times, "Can we stop and take a break...my arms hurt."

How Connecticut is like China

It's been too long since I've posted. I'm working on a long, reflective-type post about my past year in China, but haven't finished it yet. And since I may not any time soon, I might as well move on and update about some other things.

I'm back in America! I arrived on September 24 and spent my first few weeks back with my family in Connecticut. They live in Norwalk. It's close to NYC. I was surprised at the number of ways my family's new home was like the place I had just come from. Here are a few examples:

• I heard a foreign language almost every time I left the house. Mostly that language was Spanish, but at Linens and Things I overheard a Chinese couple arguing about what kind of rug to buy.
  
• You can't drink the water. Maybe you can, but my sister has convinced my mom it's not ok so I too resisted the urge to drink a glass of water directly from the faucet.
  
• It was loud like China. I didn't hear fireworks, but loud traffic, honking, and sometimes yelling were quite common.
  
• I felt like a foreigner. I didn't get stared at like one, but I felt foreign sometimes.
  
• Just like in China I didn't drive. I don't particularly enjoy driving, so having my mom, dad, sister, or brother-in-law chauffeur me around was a nice treat. It was like the privilege and convenience of Chinese taxis, without having to pay and being able to speak English.
  

My dad and I drove around and saw some great coastal scenery. I enjoyed looking at the houses. Each one seemed to be so different from each other and have so much character. And I loved being close to the water and seeing all the boats:

And my mom and I went to a National Park for a walk and wading in the ocean:

I don't have a picture, but I enjoyed going to the farmer's market each Wednesday and buying delicious fresh fruits and vegetables that became our family's dinner each night.

But maybe the best thing was my last day there when I got to accompany my sister to her doctor's appointment and see the ultrasound and hear the heartbeat of my future niece or nephew!

I had a job interview there also and it went really well. But, I turned the offer down in order to come back to Oklahoma. That's where I am now and I'll update the rest another day.

good-bye

traveling Phoenix-style

It's no secret that I didn't love everything about my job. But, one thing they do well is plan very fun trips for the staff every year. This year we went to an area with beautiful mountains, streams, gorges, caves, and trees. It was nice to be out of the city and surrounded by green! The first day we arrived at the destination in late afternoon and stoped first at a site that has nine waterfalls. We then went back to the hotel for dinner, a performance (that I decided not to go to then later regretted because everyone said it was great), and sleeping. Day Two we went to a famous mountain gorge and hiked around for the whole morning. After lunch we went river rafting. I left out "white-water" on purpose. It was actually more like river floating, but still very enjoyable. After dinner there was a bonfire party. It didn't go so well so my friends and I left early. The next morning we hiked through some pretty impressive caves before making our way home. Here are the pictures:

An added bonus was getting to spend 2 1/2 days with my coworkers, outside of work and having a blast. We were 2 of the very few staff who were willing to pay 70 RMB for the cable car to take us up to the top of the mountain. I was feeling lazy, but the view going up and coming down was well worth 70 kuai and I was glad I wasn't tired and sweaty from the hike. view from the cable car I admit I was being lazy, but look, it would have been quite a hike. view from the topmore scenery

one of the nine waterfalls...I realize it's not that impressive. The high season for the water had already passed, but it was still fun to enjoy nature.

Oh, the English. Such a reminder that my Chinese sounds like this all too often.

early September trip to EGB

classic scenery of the province

camel riding

another go at the sled

This area has been developed by Japanese investors doing all sorts of de-desertification projects. I think this particular vineyard was planted by locals, but the others we saw were planted by the foreigners. The grapes were tasty!

I'm not sure if these birds are ostriches or emus. Either way, there's an exotic bird refuge that has all kinds of crazy birds, including these guys.

top picture in 1990, bottom picture in 2004 after the foreign investment

Everyone who comes to plant a tree in the area gets to engrave their name on a rock on this wall. Both sides are almost completely covered already. That's a lot of people...and a lot of trees.

guess who I am

a slight change of plans

I will be arriving home on September 24th. I now have a ticket home and a visa that doesn't expire a day before my ticket. So, 9-24-07 it is. I still don't know how long I will stay in CT before going to OK, but will keep you advised.

I spent the past few days with a friend in a small town a few hours out of town. Pictures of camel riding and other desert fun will be posted soon. I won't see her again before I go home so the trip was also my first real good-bye. I hate this part of leaving.

pictures from the Nadam festival (other than the fake starfish)

UNEMPLOYED

I am officially finished with my job at the hotel! My last day was Friday. I had a dinner with my coworkers from the Front Office Department. The Human Resources Dept gave me a gift on behalf of the hotel. That's what the picture is. At first I thought it was just a bag, which would have been a good gift. Then I opened it. It's a picnic set. 2 plates, 2 cloth napkins, 2 sets of cutlery, and 2 glasses. I realize this isn't funny or surprising to those of you in America. However, the only people I have ever heard of having a picnic here were other foreigners. And, the set is complete with Western silverware, which is also not easy to come by here. I truly do like the gift, I just thought it was odd for them to find it and give it. I have no idea where one would purchase such a gift here.

The ending of my job at the hotel also means that I am unemployed with no job prospects. I am looking and applying and trust that something will happen in the next month. Let me know if you hear of something.

And to be honest, not having a job has some great advantages. Like not having to be anywhere at any certain time. I am really excited to have this month just to hang out with friends. I'm going back out to a village to visit a friend on Wednesday. (I think I'll take my picnic bag with snacks for the road) I have a friend getting married and another having a baby (today maybe!) and am so thankful that I can be here for both of those events.

I am still having some issues with my visa even after 6 trips to the visa office. The process has made me want to write multiple letters to Hu Jintao but I haven't followed through on that emotional impulse yet.

the view from my kitchen

Between my building and the next building there is a row of sheds. The roof of the sheds is like community property where folks hang there laundry, little girls play hopscotch and jumprope, and this guy raises a chicken. No kidding. I saw that make-shift cage contraption for a while and would see him and his wife putting food through one of the holes, but I never had any idea what it was until the other day. It's a chicken. In a cardboard box cage on the roof of a shed in the middle of the city. Right outside my kitchen window.

Starfish and Nadam Fun

Last weekend I went to a Nadam festival. It's a mix of a sports event (wrestling, archery, horse-racing, etc) the state fair, and the never-ending, always fun game of "stare at the foreigners." These festivals are a tradition among one of the minority groups in the area and happen every summer. This one was open to the public, which meant I too could have entered the women's wrestling contest, but there were some pretty hefty ladies. And, I was doing nothing but standing and already getting stared at as if I were an attraction, so participating would have sent me over the limit as far as the staring goes. My American friend, never having shot a bow before, got 14th place out of 128 archers though, and I think that's pretty good.

I really did have a good time, despite being the first foreigner most of those folks have ever seen. We watched the wrestling, played some games, and watched a performance.

The performance was at the town square. They were also selling these plastic star-shaped things....and telling people they were starfish. They were even kept in water. I suppose if I had lived my entire life in one of the most land-locked places on the planet, I might believe it too. At least they were only charging 2 kuai or something.

The Suburbs

A month or so back I went with my good friend to her uncle's house in the suburbs. Their house is near a famous tourist site that is the tomb of one of China's "Four Beauties." After eatingmy favorite food for dinner we went to the site to hang out for awhile. We took this pic at the top of the hill that overlooks our city. The little witty 13 year old cousin made some comment about us being the four beauties. He was quite a character.

September 26th

That's the date so many of you are asking about...the date I will be flying home to America. I'm flying in to New York and will go "home" to Connecticut first. I have no idea yet when I will be in Oklahoma. I'll keep you posted.
I have 8 more days of work and then almost a month of hanging out and taking a few short trips.
I have some pictures to post and stories to tell, but they will have to wait for another day.

one of those weeks

I've been out of touch. My home phone is not working, so if anyone's tried to call, I don't know about it.
My computer has died. Gone. Never to be used again. I'm sad it couldn't have made it just another 7 weeks or so, but it didn't. It did survive a semester of college, 3 trips around the world, and being hitby a bus so I guess I can't ask for much more.
My bike was stolen again. Good-bye number 4. It's not worth it to get another for the short time left, so I'll just walk and ride the bus.
I also pulled out my first gray hair on Friday.
I'm ready for a new week to start.

another thing I love about this country...

Anything can be fixed or repaired.
I really do mean anything. As an American, when something breaks, my first response is to throw it away and buy a new one. My motivation isn't because I like being wasteful, but because there isn't an option to repair most things and if there is, it's often more expensive than getting a new one.
Yesterday I had the blinds in my bedroom repaired. For less than $5. One of the strings broke at the top so they were all hanging crooked and couldn't be pulled up or down. I called Tracy to go with me to buy some new ones. On the way there she asked me why I don't just get them fixed. I really didn't think it would be possible to replace that string so we went to a few places. I realized quickly buying new ones was more than I thought....all of them have to be custom measured and installed. But the lady at the shop asked what was wrong with mine and after I told her....she gave me the phone number to a repairman. It saved me about $40.
As we were on our way home I was trying to explain to Tracy about this cultural difference...we as American being affluent and at times, wasteful, so our first response is to buy a new whatever and how we don't typically even think if something can be fixed. I tried to affirm how much I appreciate that they re-use things here, but she said they only have to fix things all the time because the quality of everything here is so poor. This factor is definitely part of it. The highest quality items are shipped to countries like ours and those that don't make the "export quality" cut stay here. But even still, there are things here that can be repaired for so little and I really think all the repairmen here are very skilled individuals.

Some other examples...
Bikes. You rarely replace bike tires or tubes or brakes or anything really. The old men who sit on the side of the road and repair bikes can almost always repair the tube or tire or rim or whatever isn't at its optimum performance. If you want a new one you have to do some pretty serious convincing.

Jeans. There are some ladies who sit outside on the main strip who must be the most skilled menders in the world. When your jeans get a hole, you take them to the ladies. When you get them back, it looks like the hole was never there. They don't just sew up the hole, they actually re-stitch the tread of the clothing so that you can't even see where the hole. It's amazing. And even more amazing when they sit there and do it without gloves on in the winter when it's -20.
digital cameras. I had two fixed. That guy actually made me angry because he charged me the foreigner price and not what the price should have been, but still, it was way less expensive to repair two cameras than to buy a new one.

Shoes. There are also old men who set up shoe shine/repair shops on the side of the road. My "shop" I mean they have a trunk with their supplies, a stool for themselves and a stool and a pair of slippers for the customer. I think one pair of shoes could almost last the rest of your life here. They can just keep repairing the sole over and over. These guys can also sew up your luggage when the airlines in Vietnam rip it up. I need to visit one of these guys today to sew a couple of straps back on a bag for me. (The one I was wearing when I got hit by the bus still hasn't been fixed).

I was riding my bike to work yesterday looking for a shoe guy but because it was still nap time no one was out. But, I saw a guy with a sign that said "Furniture Repair." I'm just trying to reiterate my point that ANYTHING can me fixed. It's a great thing.
我们应该向他们学习！

the day we didn't see the lunar eclipse

This is a story from back in March that I didn't get to post because of internet issues and then forgot about. This post includes a shout-out to JFJ. And now you've made the blog twice.

March 24, 2007

It was a Saturday night and I was having dinner with the guys. I mentioned that I thought there was supposed to be a lunar eclipse in the morning but I wasn’t sure when since the article I read was from America and listed the times for the US. With some help from the internet and some math skills to figure out what time it would happen here, we decided to get up about 5:00 to try to watch it. We called other friends to invite them, but rising that early to maybe see an eclipse didn’t interest anyone. The 3 of us decided to go anyway.

We live in a city. Lots of tall buildings block the view of the sky. We decided the best place for viewing the eclipse would the Racetrack. The track itself is a big wide open field where we will have a clear view. And it’s on the outskirts so the lights won’t be as bright.

So it’s around 5:00 am and I’m in a taxi on my way to the Racetrack. The guys have called to see if I’m still coming because of the clouds. They think we’re not going to be able to see anything. I live in the city so leaving my house I couldn’t tell if it was cloudy or not, so I’m already on my way. We still decide to meet up to attempt to see what we can.

I arrive first and am trying to find a good place to wait for the gentlemen. The Racetrack is a Mongolian horse-racing track and has a restaurant where you can eat in Mongolian yurts. The complex is large with some Mongolian statues, a small grasslands scene with fake sheep and such, a large stage for performances, all the yurts, and the bleachers and track. It’s not a scary place during the day. Before daylight, however, it’s quite eerie. The statutes look kind of creepy, everything is dark, and there’s a guard dog. This is the really scary part. I can hear him barking like he is ready to eat me, but I can’t see him yet so I don’t even know how to plan for an escape. I go to the gate of the track and it’s unlocked, which is great. But it’s not at a very visible location so I need to find a better place where the guys can see me. I walk more towards the restaurant and that’s when I see it….the dog. It’s huge. It’s like the dog from Sandlot, only scarier. It’s a Mongolian dog. World Domination and a desire to ruthlessly conquer all enemies are naturally coursing through his veins. He is on a chain, but he is jumping around and barking like crazy. This is the part of the story where I start contemplating what I will do when this Khan of All Dogs breaks loose from his chain. On my left are the stairs to the stadium, but he can run up stairs too, so that’s no good. In front of me is the big stage that he’s chained to, but it’s not tall enough. He could jump up on it with no problem. There are the yurts on my right, which would provide refuge from the monster, but they are all locked up tight with padlocks. However, they have a small window with an air conditioner that could serve as a starting point for climbing on top of the yurts in case of chain-breakage. Yes. That’s the plan. I decide that I can indeed scale the yurt quicker than the dog could run from the stage to where I am standing. Then I start laughing at the thought of actually having to climb up on the yurt to run from the dog and how long I would have to stay there before some form of help comes.

Enter: racetrack night security guard who interrupts my little daydream. “What are you doing here?” he asks. He too has heard the beast going crazy and has come to check things out. I answer, “I’m waiting on friends.” I know this is going to be a difficult conversation. I don’t know how to say “eclipse” in Chinese.

“Why are you waiting for them here?” he asks. Here we go. “We want to look at the moon. You can see the sky clearly here.” That’s as close to “We hope to have a good view of the lunar eclipse” as I could get. He looks confusedly at me, then motions to the sky and says the equivalent of “You can’t even see the moon.” He’s right. And I’m sure he’s very confused about why some crazy foreign girl is at the racetrack at 5:00 am. I then try to explain “eclipse” by making fists with my hands and saying, “You know if the moon is here and the sun is here and the earth is here…” This isn’t working so I just stop talking. I’m just glad there’s now another human so help me fight off the beast. We finish our conversation (if you could call it that) and I continue waiting.

Then I see the security guard do something absolutely crazy. He goes over to the monster and takes it off the leash. I get closer to the yurt and prepare for my ascent. But I see that the dog appears to be staying close by the side of the guard. I’m amazed. Then I see the guys arriving in the distance. I tell them about my encounter with the dog and how glad I am to see them. They could hear the animal barking as they walked and they too saw him with the guard. One of them makes the comment that with three of us, we don’t have to outrun the dog, just the other two. I still think my plan is the best possible escape.

We proceed to the track. The only things we can see in the sky are clouds. No eclipse. While we’re at the racetrack we might as well go take a look at the horses. We can’t find them either. It’s freezing cold outside so they must be in their warm stables and not out on a cold cloudy morning trying to see a lunar eclipse.

The guys take some pictures of things that we can convince people were the lunar eclipse. They’re really funny, these guys. The pictures involved a head lamp, their head, a window with a reflection, and other such nonsense. Some of the photos were pretty convincing and all of them were funny.

No eclipse and no horses. And it’s cold. We’re chilled to the bone at this point and begin the trek home. As we near the gate I give the gentlemen a full display of my “grace” by slipping on the ice and falling onto my tailbone. It was one of those falls where your feet cartoonishly fly out from underneath you, and the moment when no part of your body is touching the ground seems like an eternity. Then, my rear hit the ice. Hard. I didn’t move for a few minutes. I just lay there, half laughing from embarrassment and half crying from pain. The guys were great. No laughter and two hands immediately extended to help me up. I just needed to sit there a minute though and make sure nothing was seriously wrong. With their help, after a few moments I was able to get up, but my hip hurt for the next week or so. I felt like I was 77 and not 27.

And that’s the story of the morning we didn’t see the lunar eclipse. Or the horses. And I fell on my rear. What a morning.

the desert

I went to visit a good friend over the weekend. She went to college here, but after graduation moved out to a village near the desert. I spent 6 hours traveling there and 5 hours to travel home just to be there for about 16 hours, but it was well worth it.
We had so much fun! We got to go boating on a lake in the desert, ride 4-wheelers, slide down the sand hills on a sled, go to an ostrich/exotic bird farm, and walk around a beautiful resort while we chatted about life. (sidenote: one of the nicest tennis courts I've seen in my life...just hanging out in the middle of nowhere at this random resort).
My friend is there because this area has some of the best de-desertification projects going on and that's an area she's interested in. Large numbers of folks come from Japan to plant trees in the area. Apparently it all started with an elderly Japanese man who moved there in 1990 and literally started bulldozing sand in order to start planting trees. He passed away in 2004 at the age of 99 but had created some foundation that continues his work. His story was really inspirational. One old man with this big dream and it's actually being fulfilled. They have a small museum about him with the pictures of the landscape when he arrived in 1990 and they in 2004 and you would never know it's the same place. I'm typically not the kind of person who can look at a desert and see the forest just waiting to waiting to happen, so I'm challenged and encouraged by the folks who can. I hope to go back in September and I'll take more (and hopefully better) pictures then.

the breakfast of champions

I just had a bowl of cereal for breakfast which isn't something that is so easy to come by in this part of the world. (thanks mom!) However, the local breakfast of choice is something called a bei zi. It's like a.....pastry. sort of. They come in all shapes-round, triangle, or square. They are basically a bread-like-things with all diffferent kinds of filling. Some are sweet, made with brown sugar. Others are salty, made with...salt, I guess? Others are very plain. The little stands that sell them are EVERYWHERE. Every other block you can see the little glass case and the bucket of eggs next to it. The eggs. That's the other half of the breakfast. They are "tea eggs" which means they are boiled in tea. I'm not a fan, but some foreigners do actually like them. So, next time you're in town stop by the little glass cart on the street and pick up a bei zi and a tea egg. I don't eat the eggs, so I'm not sure how much they are, but a bei zi is only a few cents.
Here's a picture:

Mondays

Why is it that the most annoying of circumstances ususally happen on Monday mornings? Here's what happened to me yesterday.
My toilet flooded my bathroom. Nice huh? It wasn't a flooding from the toilet bowl due to clogging...the water was coming out of the top of the tank. I took the lid off and all the parts seemed to be in the right places doing the right things. Thanks to many years on an all-female camp staff, I learned a think or two about toilet repair. But, this is China and nothing I pulled, pushed, turned, or moved made any difference. Water is still spilling over on to my floor. I'm almost late for work already and I don't have the time or energy to deal with a broken toilet. I know that a temporary solution is just to turn the water off completely and deal with it when I get back.
The problem is...the knob that turns off the water looks like it hasn't been turned in years and I can't budge it. Not even a little. I try to turn it to the right, no movement whatsoever. I know it should be righty-tighty but I try lefty just to see what happens. A little more movement than to the right, but not enough to do anything.
I don't know any of my neighbors really. (Here's where I regret not writing back that kid who lives downstairs who left the note on my door, because maybe he has a strong dad who would have been nice enough to come upstairs and turn off my water). I have seen a retired man in the stairway before and I think he lives across the hall so I try knocking on that door. No one answers. Water is still leaking onto the floor.
I know the gate man at my complex so I decide to go down and see if he will help me. I dread this because he speaks local dialect, not standard Chinese, and I can understand about one in ten words that he says. I walk down there. He's not there.
Some random guy I've never seen before in my life is washing his car. "Excuse me sir. Hi. I have a problem in my house and I can't turn off the water. Could you come up and help me. It will just take a moment." He agrees. I let the random man I have never seen before in my life into my house, give him some pliers, and let him do his thing.
I know that a great number of things in this country are backwards from the way they are in America so why I thought even for a moment that righty-tighty lefty-loosey would apply in this situation is beyond me. I watched Mr. Random Car Washer turn the knob left and watched the water stop spilling over the sides the toilet. I thank him for his service and get my stuff together to go to work.
Off to work. Because of all the rush of a flooding toilet. I forgot to bring a very essential item with me to work...a shirt. Of course I was wearing a shirt, but since it's Monday my suit had been dry cleaned over the weekend and I thought I had a shirt in my locker, but I didn't. And the tank top I'm wearing is not one I can get away with wearing according to their 4 star dress code. (This part of the story may be weird for America, but our hotel actually has an employee locker room where eveyrone changes. It's nice not to have to bike to work in a suit). I could go back home to get one, but that's at least 35 minutes round trip and I'm already short on time. I call an American friend who lives really close to the hotel and ask to borrow a shirt. Run from the hotel, to her house, and back and make it into the office only 5 minutes late.
Get off work and come home, knowing I now have to find some way to repair a broken toilet if I want to have water in the rest of my house. In all the stairways there are all kinds of numbers like stamped or graffittied, which doesn't look good, but useful in such a situation. I go out into my hallway. I see numbers for drain un-cloggers, real estate agents, and other services not useful to me. I find one that I recogize as the word for plumbing, but when I called I found out it was only for installing new plumbing. Not what I need.
I call information. They give the number to a plumber. The plumber's office give me some dudes cell phone. The number doesn't connect. I seriously need help at this point. I call a local friend. She calls the plumber number back and gets the cell phone of another guy. He can't come. But, he refers her to yet ANOTHER guy who then calls me to get directions to my house. Wow, this is getting long. He comes, looks at it, tells me he needs some part, leaves to get the part, comes back, fixes it, and we're done. Until it came time to pay. He says, "How about you not pay me for this and instead just teach my daughter English." No sir. How about you just tell me how much a 10 minute toilet repair costs. "She's a really good student." I'm glad, but I'm very busy and I have another job. How much. "I won't charge you anything. It won't even be like teaching. It will just be talking with her to practice her English." HOW MUCH?!?!? He accepts 50 kuai and I go back to eating the hummus I made for dinner and watching a DVD of The Office Aubrey sent me in the mail. That's my Monday story.

pictures

Mandy and her mom left Friday morning. It was so good to have a few days away in the big city and great to have friends see my life here. Here's the first round of pictures.