Heroes

Peter: I don’t understand, how is this happening? You’re alive. Is this a dream? Am I time traveling? Are you doing this?

Charles: Doesn’t really matter what it is does it? Only that you’re here now.

Peter: But I saw you speaking to my mother, you know about the bomb, you know about everything.

Charles: You came here because you needed to. You needed to hear the truth before you could save the world.

Peter: I save the world?

Charles: You’ve had the power all along Peter. You just needed to learn how to use it.

Peter: Why me?

Charles: Because there has to be one that’s good, there always has. And you’re heart has the ability to love unconditionally. Like I told you, in the end, all that really matters is love.


I love that Charles says how "there has to be one that's good, there always has" and that it has to be one who can "love unconditionally." I think it's especially fitting as we go into the Christmas season, that we remember the ONE who REALLY came into our world and has LOVED us UNCONDITIONALLY since time began, LOVES us UNCONDITIONALLY now, and will continue to LOVE us UNCONDITIONALLY forever. Praise the L for all He has done for us, no matter how much we hurt, deny, disown, neglect, forget, or reject Him. He will always love us unconditionally, and He is continually offering His GIFT of J.C. to give us eternal life. [Rev 3:20]

Hot Water

About 3 years ago, I worked as a buser at a restaurant called The Galley. As the buser, my job was to take peoples' drink orders as soon as the sat down (etc. etc. etc.). I remember one day when we had an Asian family eating with us, and one of the ladies wanted hot water. I looked at her a little blankly. "Do you want tea?" --- "No" ---- Pause----- "So....do you want coffee?"--- "No"----- Pause-----"So, just hot water??" -----"Yes, just hot water."

At this point, I must admit, I was a little confused. I wasn't sure if it was okay to serve "just hot water." I mean, isn't water's destiny to be drank cold, or to be flavoured hot? Would water be okay knowing that it was going to be hot and unflavored. I think that, if I were honest with myself, I thought this lady was a little bit of a nut case.

A little later I found out that this was apparently what they do in Asia.....drink water... hot.. with no flavouring. Okay,... so there's a very large continent of nut cases.

Well, it's official. I just went over to the water machine in my office to fill up my water bottle. Being that the weather is now turning cold, and I needed something to warm me up, I, without thinking twice, filled my water bottle up with hot water. And no, I'm not going to flavour it. HA! So, it's contagious. :)

Diligent Little Helper

Everyday after English class is over, all of the children flood into the bathroom to "xiao bien, xi shou" (go to the bathroom and wash their hands). As most of the children are between the ages of 2.5-3 years old right now, this whole going to the bathroom on their own thing is relatively new. Additionally, their parents like to dress them in 500 million layers, therefore they generally need help pulling their underwear and pants back up. Usually, one of the Chinese teachers sits in the bathroom, and when they waddle out with their pants and underwear around their ankles, they line up in front of the teacher, where they wait for her to pull up all of their bottom layers before they go wash their hands. Every once in a while a student wanders past the "re-dressing station" and makes it out into the general classroom still wearing half a birthday suit, and in a state of caring less that they're flashing everyone.

Recently, the Chinese teacher hasn't been quite as quick to man the "re-dressing station"–and I am less that eager to fill her spot–so one of the students has been diligently taking her place (she's quite the director even during class). Like a traffic guard she stands watch, the other children line up in front of her, and one by one she makes sure that their bottoms are properly (or even improperly) pulled back up. She is diligent and dedicated to her job, and tomorrow I hope to catch a "kodak moment" of the happenings. :)

C-Land Year Two is off and Running!

The Typhoon Wipha (that wasn't)

Not having come from a part of the country where there are Typhoons, (or in our case Hurricanes), I had mixed levels of worriedness when it was announced that a Typhoon was coming our way, and that school would be canceled the next day. [School was of course only canceled for the students as apparently it's okay for teachers to be at school during a Typhoon.] Now, call me crazy, but I feel like everytime I heard about a Hurricane on the news, it involves flooding, fleeing, and general destruction. I pictured ending up in OZ, or at least ending up very wet. So, for a little bit I thought that maybe I was just confused about that fact that Typhoons and Hurricanes are the same thing (while yes I know, Dorothy went to OZ because of a tornado, which is in fact different form a Typhoon OR a Hurricane----I don't know why I keep capitalizing them, but I think it adds to the seriousness of it all.)--I've also forgotten how many colons I've used.. so I'm sorry if at this point you're very confused.

Onward!

Typhoon day.

The night before Typhoon day was the USA vs Nigeria, Women's World Cup soccer game that a large group of us had planned to go to. Many dropped out of the trip not wanting to risk being out in a Typhoon (at this point the weather outside was that of a mild storm at best), and others (*cough*Andrea *cough, cough*) packed their backpacks with extra clothes and a toothbrush in case we got stuck in Puxi for the night.

Some of us brave souls attended the game (which was supposedly originally sold out, but who's bleachers were sadly around 30% full). We donned our rain ponchos, and cheered the US to victory.

In case you were wondering... in the end Typhoon Wipha never hit Shanghai, and got downgraded to a tropical storm. But, out of it we did get:

•Typhoon low-attendance-World-Cup

-Soccer-game
•Typhoon no-kids-at-school-so-teachers-can-relax day
•Typhoon special-lunch-at-Johnny-Moos
•Typhoon teacher's-volleyball-game-time
•and Typhoon LQ-security-gaurds-come-and-check-everyone's-window-shades to make sure that if the storm did hit, and glass did fly, it wouldn't fly into our eyes. (cause somebody could get an eye poked out that way!).

And that my friends is the Typhoon that Wasn't

Epilogue: less than 2 weeks later we had wind and rain 10X worse that than brought by Typhoon Wipha, but there were never even murmurs of titling it as a Typhoon... apparently it didn't have the right connections.

The Uber Winston
If any of you can remember the story of spotting Winstons in Xi'an, you can remember that a Winston is a thing to behold. Until now, I thought that the Winston was the ultimate find. That was until recently when my friend and I spotted the Uber-Winston. The Uber-Winston doesn't even try to pretend like it isn't. It doesn't hide itself behind the pretense of fabric. It is not meek nor conservative. The Uber-Winston lets itself shine forth with all it's glory. It is like a Pop star which has taken the stage. Not only does it fully expose itself, but it does so with a blinding burst of fireworks and lights. A mind-numbing, epileptic fit inducing, flashing extravaganza. The Uber-Winston is proud of who it is and is willing to flaunt it. The Uber-Winston looks more like an apron than a jumber, and uses the most minimal amount of spagetti strap fabric to secure the front to the body of the displayer. The Uber-Winston is so far a rare breed, but it is out there, and it's not holding back. The Uber-Winston was recently modeled by a young boy inside the Jin Mao Tower of Shanghai. The Uber-Winston was photographed, and it's evidence is displayed below. Fear not Aunt Linda, I can find you an Uber-Winston outfit too!

A Bushel of Cherry Tomatoes
Our local grocery store, LianHua, is pretty amazing. It's about the size of a large 7-11, but it has everything from household supplies: pots, pans, plates, to produce, to a frozen foods section (which housed my dad's favorite China treat the Magnum Ice-cream bar). If you buy anything from the produce section, you usually pay for it separately with the Produce-Man who is there, with whom I have become quite good friends over the last year... I introduced him to my parents when they came, we say a friendly Ni Hao whenever I go in in the morning to get my start-the-day cold coffee drink. He's quite friendly and helpful, and it helps me to overlook the fact that his young daughter relieves herself squattie-style out in front of the store on the sidewalk every morning (mostly I'm just glad that she actually goes outside, and doesn't just do it on the floor of the store).

Recently I went in wanting to buy some salad-fixings. I pointed to the basket of cherry tomatoes to let him know that I wanted some. (I'm never sure if I'm supposed to get the stuff myself, or if only he's supposed to actually touch the food since they hide the plastic bags behind his cash register)--so I just let him bag up my fruit and veggies. He happily started scooping cherry tomatoes into the bag, and I got distracted talking to a friend who was also in the produce section. After quite a few moments I look over because I remembered that I had been getting tomatoes, and Produce Man has the bag 3/4 filled and isn't slowing pace. He looks as if he could go on scooping happily forever. An uncontainable gasp suddenly emitted from my mouth, at which point he seemed to be wakened from his tomatoe-scooping day-dream. I looked at the bag, he looked at the bag... we both realized just how many cherry tomatoes had migrated from one place to another, and I said (in English) oh! I don't need that many! He started laughing (as he had scooped in enough to feed a small army of Garden Gnomes), I started laughing because that was a LOT of cherry tomatoes... and he hurriedly scooped about half the tomatoes back out to where they had come from, while continueing to laugh and say dui bu qi (sorry), I continued laughing saying mei guan xi (no worries). I could see that those tomatoes felt a bit rejected, but there was just no way that I could help THAT many to fullfill their digestive desitinies.

Ahhhh Hepititus... I'm Glad I'm Vaccinated Against You
For October Holiday I went to Kunming, China. Kunming is located in the very west of China...and is just a hop, skip, and a jump from Laos, Vietnam, Tibet, Thailand.... and loads of other cool places. Without getting into the in's and outs of all the fun things I did in Kunming (including spending a day sick and sleeping on my friends more-comfy-than-the-hard-red-futon comfy purple couch) we went out to eat at this great little Korean food resturaunt. If you look closely at the picture you can see that before the sign for Korean Food was put up, another sign had previously occupied that wall, meaning that another type of business had previously occupied the Korean Resturant. And just in case you're wondering, yes I was sick BEFORE I went here to eat ;)

Also pictured is a bin of grubs? that I saw at this "pet" market.... gROsssss!

Summer is Officially Here

If such a term as "official" can be applied to the season of no school, outdoor frolicking, swimsuit escapades, long-lasting sunlight, warm nights, and a general lightening of the spirit--whether you actually have a lightened workload or not. In any case, I hold to my statement: Summer has officially arrived in Shanghai. The humidity has pushed it's way in with a vengeance, the adorable biting bugs have wiggled and multiplied in their quest to take over the airwaves. An instant stickiness pervades whenever you step out of an air-conditioned environment. Daily showers are a must... i mean.... of course.... I showered EVERY day even in the winter .... soo... that's.... And it means that it's still short sleeve or tank top weather, even at night :) Most of all, it means that summer vacation is almost here, and I"ll be able to escape Shanghai for the worst of it.

Speaking of summer vacation. For those of you who haven't heard, I am indeed returning to the overpopulated, funny-architecture wielding, city of Shanghai for another year. As of right now I'll be working half-time in the Kindergarten, and half time doing design type stuff. I can't believe how quickly a year has flow by! and I'm not sure if I could imagine leaving just quite yet, but most of all, I feel that G still has plans for me here. While I'm not in love with the city-ness of it all, I am looking forward to another year with the kindies.. and another year with our Youth Kids... they're the BEST!...and another year of seeing G do amazing things. :)

I'll be home between July 14th-ish, and August 12th-ish. I plan on being down in the SLO area during July, with a few shoots down to the lower reaches of CA, namely: la la land (L.A.). Sooooooo hopefully I can see most of you! I can't wait for a summer at home... with clean air.. and outdoorsy-ness.

Xi'an

On the Search for Winston's in Xi'an

Toward the beginning of my sojourn in China, my Crazy (ever since our teacher's field trip where Regina--boss John's wife-- constantly stated the fact that I reminded her of their "crazy aunt Maria", I decided that it was the plight of all families to have a "crazy aunt," Aunt Linda, you're obviously the natural choice, but, not to despair, as each family must have a "crazy aunt" I've decided that as Shayner is invalidated by the simple fact that HE can't be an aunt, I might as well begin to live up to the future name now..."crazy aunt Janai" it has a quintessential ring to it :) )... my Crazy Aunt Linda asked me if the kids here still wore splitty pants. The answer is yes, though I'm not sure I'd seen the quantity of them displayed in Shanghai as I saw in Xi'an. Recent attempts to purchase said pants for said aunt have come to no avail, so i figured the next best thing is a picture right? I enslaved the rest of my May Holiday in Xi'an traveling party-- Joanne, Eric, and Sarah-- in the task of helping to spot Splitty Pants. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of peeing on the ground wherever you want, may also be unfamiliar with the concept of donning children in such clothing as makes it convenient to pee on the ground whenever They want. Enter splitty pants. Take a normal pair of pants, shorts, what-not, and forget to sew up the crotch, and you've got yourself a pair of splitty pants. Sarah suggested that we apply a code word to our search... apparently the fact that we made up the term Splitty Pants, and were saying it in English, in China (where in case you didn't know, they speak Chinese), was not stealth enough for her. So I decided that we would Code Splitty Pants by calling them Winstons. It can be applied in the following ways: Look a Winston! Winston alert! or ( in the unfortunate condition a mom holding a Winston brings him within bodily contact closeness) You Got Winstoned! After many Winston spottings not lining up with proper camera readiness timing, we finally had camera timing, and Winston showing connect into a magnificent Winston picture. :) And the crowds rejoiced.


The Poop Your Pants Trail:
It all began with this link that my Uncle John Again sent me: http://www.bond-diamonds.com/fark/chinese.htm
Tho, this link didn't necessarily send me on a mission to figure out where in China this was, and then pursue it with all my might, it did pique my interests. :) As my friends an I were researching things to do around Xi'an, we came across Hua Shan mountain. The pictures reminded me of something I had once seen, and then it hit me... THE POOP YOUR PANTS TRAIL (aptly named because just the look of it made me want to poop my pants (if only a little) and then of course.. to hike it). We found out that in fact, not all of this trail was in fact on the "main drag," and that the scariest parts (the parts where you're walking on a narrow wooden ledge thousands of feet in the air) you actually GOT to pay extra money to go on! :)

Hua Shan as a whole could have been considered a mini-poop your pants trail by some. With the intent of helping you to reach the top of sheer cliffs, the whole trail was blazed with cement steps, some of which reached such a verticalness that you felt as if you were climbing a ladder, and were sure of the fact that if you happened to fall backward, death or injury could most certainly occur. After 2.5 hours of straight stairs, we reached "base camp," also known as North Peak... or something else that starts with a 'B'. Another 1.5 hours of climbing brought us to West Peak (the one seen in many of the above links pictures), which was the 2ND highest peak in the hike. South Peak, which we summited after lunch with a view at West Peak, was a short walk later. As the hike was less than a simple walk in the park, I was amazed to once again see women, dressed to the nines, and hiking in nice dresses and heeled shoes! (I also saw this when we hiked up the Bamboo Mountain during the Teachers weekend trip.)

After hiking to the West, and South Peaks, we began our hike back to "base camp", North Peak. We had not yet seen the Poop Your Pants Trail, and we didn't know exactly where to find it :( But suddenly, as we came around a corner, there it was "Poop Your Pants Trail. This Way" (or that's what it would have said had I designed the sign.) The excitement quickened, and Sarah and I realized that we were ACTUALLY going to complete the famed Poop Your Pants Trail. Our mother's were going to kill us! haha.

After scoping out the trail, finding that it was indeed a barely constructed wood platform, but finding that you got a chest harness to keep you safe, we took a deep breath, paid our 30 kuai, put on our harnesses, and began the decent to the platform.

Once down to the platform we had an absolutely AMAzinG view of the surrounding peaks, and the multi-thousand foot drop to the valley below. As we gained more confidence, I think we also began to worry the Chinese people around us more and more. There of course WERE NOT any impressions of spiderman made.... hehe... hehe.

Other things the HuaShan Hike afforded were:
• The top 2 WORST squatties I have ever encountered in China
• ..... and well.. that's about all I can think of... besides everything listed further above in more detail.

On the way up the trail from the North Gate.

A view of West Peak from the trail on the way to South Peak.

Joanne had had enough of Sarah. Sarah liked being "on the edge."

Me, on the "poop your pants trail." Don't worry, I've got that sweet harness on!


Like I said, Sarah likes to be on the edge. Don't worry, she's wearing a harness too. :)
This is where we got to sit for our 19 hour train ride home. Needless to say, we didn't get the best sleep that night, and played a lot of games. And no, those are not giant, soft, comfortable cushions you see covering our "hard-back" seats. :)


Permeate : Acts 17:28 For in Him we move and live and have our being
At the beginning of our May Holiday, we had a retreet for the Youth. It was really amazing. We were very blessed by our speaker, and I feel like the youth and leaders alike walked away changed and more knowledgeable in Him. We recorded all of the messages, and I made a video, slide-show for the end. You can check out all of these here: www.permeate07.blogspot.com.
I really recommend listening to the messages if you have some time... the basic idea was living for G everyday, and in all parts of your life.

Winston! we have a spotting!

Here are some pictures and stories from our May Holiday vacation (1 week off from school). We took the time to have our April/May Youth Retreat, and then Eric, Joanne, Esther, Sarah, Trey, and I headed North to Xi'an, home of the Terra-Cotta Warriors, and the infamous Poop Your Pants Trail! :)

I'll post stories as they come, so keep checkin back! :) And leave a comment to let me know you passed by :)

May Holiday in Xi'an

The Bamboo Forrest: A C-land hiking extravaganza

As our bus wound it's way up the side of a mountain I was both surprised and excited. I was excited because: 1. we were seeing mountains covered in trees and bamboo!! (this is a far cry from the forever flat, cemented streets of Shanghai). 2. We were on our way to go hiking, which I dearly love and haven't gotten quiet enough of while living in a city of 18 million people. I was surprised because as our bus sped it's way up slope, I noticed that there were actually guard rails between the road and the sheer drop that didn't level out for many hundreds of feet.

After much climbing, our bus pulled it's way nearer to a parking lot. Judging by the number of other buses, and the sheer mass of people I should have known what lay ahead. However, for the time, my mind was aglitter with the prospect of hiking in an uphill direction.

Making our way through the parking lot, and up to the entrance our guide informed us that there were 3 levels on the way up at which you could cross over from the upward path, to the downward path. We were told, if we were "very strong" we could make it to the third level. We had 1.5 hours to make it to the top, and make it down (we were shooting for the 3rd level) so we headed up the path in earnest.

We quickly came upon a wall of people. Apparently all of China had come to this same hike on the same day. As we wound in and out, between, through, around, making our way up the man-made sometimes cement, sometimes rebar, path and stairs.

As we hiked up, dressed in running shoes, shorts, and a t-shirt-- and, became overall more sweaty than we were when we started, I was amazed to see Chinese women and men, dressed to the nines, and wearing dress shoes.. or even... high heels.

Chris caught these great shots of a couple anonymous woman hikers:


Hiking in China sure is different than hiking in the US.

In other news:
• We made it to the very top-3rd level- strong hiker- level in our allotted time.
• We were hiking in what was considered a "bamboo forrest," so it was no surprise when I came across a wonderland of bamboo sticks that had been chopped down. Well pole vaulter mode kicked in, and my excitement for using one of the original pole vault poles kicked in:

Ahhh gude times.

China-Land Spelling Bee

I found out today, that China has a Spelling Bee! This was a pretty amazing discovery, since not two weeks ago I had decided that China was one of the few countries that absolutely could not have a Spelling Bee. Fact. I mean, how do you spell a character?! This is about the point you can color me....pink (I've decided that the color pink shall represent being stoooopid, as I don't like the color pink, and I wouldn't want to demote any other colors' status with the relation...sorry April). I've found out not six hours ago, that China CAN and DOES have a spelling bee! Fancy that. Apparently, you can "spell" each part of a character. I'm in the process of looking for a technical definition... or Proof that is not also written in Chinese...but so far no luck. :(

For now, you can marvel at the idea of a Chinese Spelling Bee :)

What's coming out of your headphones?

So this is a survey. Being in China, and not having a job where I can listen to music throughout the day, I've fallen behind on my new-band finds. So I'm asking the masses (or at least the few that read this page) what's your favorite music right now?

I'll start:
Juanes : Mi Sangre
and some "bests from the past":
Death Cab for Cutie
Counting Crows

your turn :)

The Jaws of death...

I just wasted about 2 hours of my life surfing this thing we call the world wide web...sad I know, but I did find some funny, if not interesting time-killers:

It all started with a link my Unkie Gunkie sent me for a YouTube video...



I then somehow made it to another YouTube video...again, quite funny...



Next I embarked on a mission to see more videos by said videographer, which led me to...


...yet again, pretty funny. Especially with myself being a Mac user. My next mission: find out who this current.tv is. I think their website is worth visiting. You'll have to read the "about" page yourself to really get a feel for what the websites purposes are, but I'll give you some hints in the direction that it's to help people get their voice heard, and it was launched by a certain influencial someone who's name I will chose to keep hidden in the interest of you actually visiting the website and not blowing it off because of political loyalties.

Of course while I'm waiting for all these YouTube videos I want to watch to load, I continue checking my e-mail and find that I have a new "friends request" on Facebook! Two Kudos and a candy bar for me. Ussually I just delete the message and let the person sit in anticipation as they flip flop over whether or not I "love them not" or just havn't responded yet, but this time the Jaws of Death take hold and I take one step into the co-bane of evil (myspace being the bane of all evil)...I click on the blue "confirm friend here" url....ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Once in facebook my heart slows a bit, the evil bane methane kicks in, and I start to think "hey this place isn't so bad"... their new "newswire" feature is kinda creepy and stalker-esque, but besides that there could be good times. I'll look at my friends posts.

It was then that I found out my friend Nate had possibly one of the coolest stories about seeing a celebrity that I've ever heard.

So yesterday afternoon my buddy Matt and I were driving up to SLO and some jerk in the car next to me starting blaring his horn at me and shaking his fist out the window...I opened my window to see my favorite musician of all time in the passenger seat of a Lexus SUV yelling "nice sticker bro!" I remembered the "Fight For Your Mind" sticker I had just put on my car a month ago and had a quick conversation at 65mph with an amazing artist. He told me as he drove off that was headed up to big sur for the weekend and I was left thinking what a cool guy for making a fan's day like that!

That was Ben Harper he had a casual freeway conversation with by the way.

I found out that Cal Poly is ranked as the 6th hardest school to get accepted to, right behind: Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and Columbia (see article here); and, that April has a list of about 200 things that make her something called a "Porteno." I've obviously failed the "you know you're a Porteno if..." challenge.

So now you've been filled in on my "new finds" of the night. It's about time I put a stop to this insaine rate of productivity. I think it's time to nestle down with a good book: Wild Swans, and pay a visit to the great study by Wanda Beth Moore: Breaking Free.

Goodnight and Goodluck!

That Was Me

Recently, our widely known cousin Erik of the long hair has joined forces with the not-so-widely-known-in-California, but-possibly-widely-known-in-the-land-of-strategery we-all-know-as-Texas, goatee yielding, Jeff. Together, joining the forces of their musical knack and teaching zeal, the two have embarked on an adventure of educational sound. Be ware hooked on phonics adicts, there's a new kid in the house, and their name is That Was Me. Here are some of the first recorded sessions of That Was Me at work...

Song: Questions -- because everyone has them, we just don't always know how to ask.


Song: Adjectives
Need a way to describe something? Never fear, That Was Me is here to help you find that missing word.



Song: Verbs
Keep the learning going. Don't stop with knowing how to ask a quesiton, or how to describe something! Soar to new levels as you learn about verbs. :)

...questions

1. Grab the book nearest you, turn to page 18, line 4?

"chamber; the wings on the two sides were for the servants.." Wild Swans by Jung Chang

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch?

a computer speaker, and empty can of Lime n' Chili Almonds, Calcium Citrate vitamins, cell phone, water bottle, Wild Swans book, fa piao, 2 pens, a hair tie (man my desk is a mess)... am I supposed to only reach to the left.. yeah..we'll stop there, the right hand side of my desk is an even bigger mess.

3. What's the last thing you watched on TV?
ummmmmmm, part of the first Lord of the Rings.

4. Without looking, what time is it?
11:50pm

5. What time is it actually?
11:53pm ... ahhh i should be in bed!

6. Except for the computer what can you hear?
the slight hummm of my heater...wind?...or maybe it's water running through the pipes...

7. When did you last step outside and what were you doing?
coming back from getting my $1.25 hair wash, neck-shoulder-back-and-arm massage with Laura.

8. Before you started this survey what were you doing?
checkin' e-mails, chattin' with Petra girl, looking at blogs

9. What are you wearing?
black pin-stripe pants, grey long-sleeve shirt, black colared polo, black zip-up with cool graphics on the front, black and grey argyle socks.

10. Did you dream last night?
I think so..... maybe.....

11. When did you last laugh?

today...we were making fun of Suzanne's newfound vacuume packing knowledge for the 500th time....

12. What's on the walls in the room you're in?
The Beetles Abbey Road poster, a Chinese scroll with 100 storks, a white board... man .. my walls are kinda bare...

13. Seen anything weird?
there's probably something wierd growing under the pile of stuff on my floor... JK .. i think..

14. What do you think of this quiz?
ummmm... it's not as exciting as I hoped it would be...

15. Last film or video seen? part of Lord of the Rings (the 1st one)

16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight what's the first thing you'd do?

I've been thinking a lot about Invisible Children, and Blood Water Missions, and getting my parents to travel ;)

17. Tell me something I don't know about yourself?

well I don't know, who are you? hmmmmmm... contrary to popular belief, I'm not a closet vitamin fanatic.. though recent events may lead one to think thusly.

18. If you could change one thing about the world regardless of politics what would it be?

I would put some sort of safe-guard on sueing....

19. Do you like to dance? yes

20. What comment would you like to make to George Bush?

ummmm, I have to think of some strategery first.

21. Your first child is a girl what do you name her? Addison

22. Your first child is a boy what do you name him? Phineaus

23. Would you ever consider living abroad? word, word, and JAM! considered and done.. i'm currently in Shanghai

an exerpt from Wanda Beth Moore's "Breaking Free"

[Isaiah 40:12-28; 45:5-25; 46:1-13]

"As I read over these passages, I am sobered and humbled once again. Sometimes what we need to cure our fat egos is a strong dose of G'd. Long before a certain visionary "discovered" the earth was round, G'd sat enthroned above the circle of the earth. Long before men were so "enlightened," G'd formed the light and the darkness. Long before the first billion dollars was invested in exploring space, G'd's own hands stretched out the heavens. Long before there was a "beginning," G'd had already planned the end. Like Peter on the mount of tr'nsfiguration, we're so caught up in the t'bernacles we want to build that we sometimes miss a fresh revel'tion of G'd's glory right before our eyes.

If only we could realize that we make life so much more complicated when our approach to life is "all about me." Do you know why? Because the rest of the world never cooperates. No one else appears to have gotten the memo. When we see ourselves as the center of the universe, we live in constant frustration because the rest of creation refuses to revolve around us.

Life vastly simplifies and satisfaction greatly amplifies when we begin to realize our awesome roles. G'd is G'd. Frankly, it's all about Him. Thank goodness, He is the center of the universe. So how can we live with such a G'd-centered mentality? Freely! Because with G'd, it's all about us. We seek to please Him. He seeks to perfect us–and life works. Not without pain, but with purpose.

Without the Potter, clay is just dirt. 'The L'rd G'd formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being' (Gen. 2:7)."

Gopher anyone? Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang

After returning from a relaxing night spent in bungalows that overlooked the beautiful river Nam Ou, and mountain surroundings of Muang Ngoi Neua, we returned to NongKhiaw, with the hope of catching an open air truckxi (truck-taxi) to Luang Prabang. As we hiked up from the river, we saw two truckxi's awaiting passengers. One was stuffed full with people lining both bench seats, and people sitting in the middle. The top was laden with backpacking bags, and it looked set to go. The other, stood empty, save 3 Israeli's who were sitting near the opening. Guess which one we decided to join. We threw our bags up top, and jumped into the bed settling ourselves into our bench seats. Slowly more people came, okay.. filling up. Oh wait, now they are pushing large sacks of........seed? gumbo? penuts? into the back of the truck bed–we slide them under the bench seats. Okay...more people? G_ERROR_13">Hmmmm i don't know where they're going to sit, Oh.. okay .. right there, in that 1.5" of space that was peaking it's little head out between two sets of legs. In the extended cab, 4 locals had already folded themselves up and packed themselves in, the two French girls had the front seats, and we had 3 more locals who were scooting their way in to sit in the meager aisle space that ran down the center. Finally, we were all loaded and ready to depart: people were sardined in, packs were loaded–and even tied down!, and we had more people that I had ever seen fit in one of these trucks–24! The truck's engine roars to life... we slowly take off up the dirt hill. Slowly, we pull our way to the top, turn the corner, and...park! It is currently 10:30 a.m. We are told that the other truckxi (which looks just as sardined as ours) needs 5 more people to be full, and that our truckxi will not be leaving until 3 p.m. Well lets just say that there was lots of unloading and loading, bargaining, yelling, bargaining, unloading, loading, and finally our truckxi was on it's way, with occupancy numbers reduced to around 18, sometime around 11:40.

So here we are, cruising down this windy road at quite a pace, with a Laotian boy who looks to be about 13 behind the wheel. We pass through Dai communities where all their houses are up on stilts, beautiful scenic overlooks of rolling green hills covered in a tropical array of foliage, wave hello to the children as we drive by, and suddenly come to a very complete stop and begin to back up. We roll back to a group of boys (who look to be between 7 and 12) who are standing on the side of the road, and one is holding a gopher up in his hand. There is a quick exchange of 40,000 kip, and we are on our way, now with a gaping gopher staring through the back window of the truck at us. He didn't look all too happy to be the newest member of our Southward trek, and he was non to shy about showing us his mouth full of little, white, shiny, teeth. Through a bit of clever charades, we discover that the gopher will be a tasty treat later in the day. For 40,000 kip, that little guy must have been one tasty morsel!

Na Toei, Northern Laos

Our first morning in Laos. I awoke in my bed to the sound of someone loudly hawking a loogey--"I thought I was away from this," was my first thought, as Laos had already proved to be much cleaner than China, and we had only barely snuck into the northern part of it. It was almost 7:30 before I was able to pry myself out of bed into the chilly morning air. Although my room was dark, I could see light pushing itself in through the wooden window shutters, and, at various spots where the wall met the roof. I realized that our Natoei Guest House owners must have turned out the electricity to the whole building last night sometime after I fell asleep. Around this area, they seem to only even turn the power on around sun-down. During this time, all the lights in the house remain on--no matter what (people using a room, not using a room, etc), and after this time, you can't turn a light on even if you want to. (I haven't decided if this is better for energy than if one were to only use the light one needs when one needs it.) The night before I had gone to sleep with my bedroom light on, as even standing on the bed, I couldn't jump high enough to reach the toggle switch on the bare light bulb that hung from the center of my ceiling, and have enough "hang time" to actually toggle it, before ripping the whole contraption down from the ceiling.

Now, that it's morning, the town is coming alive. Vehicles (which seem much nicer than one would expect to see (Toyota 4x4s, cruisers, etc) roar to life. I hear the cock-a-doodle do of roosters (and wonder what roosters say in Dai, the Lao language), and kids that look to be about middle/high school age are walking by in groups of 4-5. The girls all have on a mid-calf length grey skirt which has a white stripe across the bottom--the Laotian Sarong style. I hope that they are all headed to school.

Most the houses have stoked up fires out on the front veranda, and the mothers, and young children have begun to gather in a squat around them to help warm off the morning chill.

As we stayed in a guest Hotel on the main street–well let me clarify, the town is made up of 2 main streets, one that goes to Luang Nam Tha (east) and the road that continues down to Luang Prabang (in the center of N. Laos, but South of here)–so this town is located right in the fork in the road. Anyhow, as this is a "main" road–concrete being slowly invaded by the prominent red-clay–a motorcycle, car, or tractor-truck frequently pass.

Today we will try to catch a bus toward Luang Prabang; but, as we don't speak dai, and we haven't necessarily found a "bus station," this may involve hanging out in front of our Hotel, at the ready to flag one down as it drives by, and hope that it has space for 5 people aboard.

Our trip thus far has included:
•Plane from Shanghai, China to Kunming, China [feb 3]

•Kunming - stayed the night in a hostel. Awoke the next morning to catch a "8-9 hour" (it was actually 12.5) bus to Jinghong. [feb 4] Since we were taking a bus during the daytime, we assumed that we would have normal, upright, bus seats. Ones big enough for Chris and Dan's unussually lengthed legs as we pointed out to the ticket how long they really were. :) So we show up to the bus station in the morning, to get taken to our bus and find that we have a sleeper bus! Hmmmmmmm...... the beds look kinda... short--to say the least. The guy is very excited that there are exactly 5 of us... he has JUST the place for us. Stretching across the back of the bus in all it's splendor is where we will spend the next 12.5 hours.... all in a row like sardines. You can't tell, but there's actually one more "seat" to the right of Chris, which is where I spent the journey gazing out the window as the scenery changed from Kunming to closertoLaos, and generally trying to ignore the guys' excited comments about stripping down to their boxers, playing dance music through a boom box, and making it a partay in the back. HA.






























•Jinghong : Stayed the night at College Hostel.
•Jinghong to Mengla : 5 hour bus [feb 5]

•Mengla: looked for a place that could take and print passport sized photos for us to use at the China/Loas boarder. Found a place that took photos. The photographer dressed Dan up in a pretty blue blazer, and helped me to fix my hair and symmetricize my collar–I don't think he understood that we just needed them for our Laos visas, and am rather afraid that if I return to the booth later, we'll be some of the "whiteys" that appear on his display board as a show of his photographic talents.



•Mengla to Boten (China/Laos boarder) : 1.5 hour bus. Most of the way was on a nicely paved, but windy road–except for when the driver decided to take the, still dirt, in-the-process-of-being-constructed, new highway. We slowly lost 1, 3, 4 people at small towns along the way, until it was just us whiteys continuing on to the Laos boarder.

•Boton, Laos : arrive to get our Laos visas. Played wicki ball with a couple of locals for a short time, then caught a taxi-van-open air truck type vehicle down to Na Toei.

•Na Toei, Laos : Already noticeable cleaner than the Southeastern China cities and towns we just left. I think I feel okay about walking around with my sandals and no socks on here. We found a Guest Hotel to stay at: front veranda area with tiled table and benches (reminds me of the good-ole days when people would sit out front and say "howdy" to their neighbors as they walked by), clean rooms with cement floors. House bathroom: squatty and shower in one.... sink outside. You have to flush the squatty by pouring water from a basin down the squatty hole.. and of course.. any toilet paper goes in the waste basket.

Things keep striking me about this place: the openess of the houses–most houses have an open front area which acts as a small store, a restaurant, a Guest House; the friendliness of the people–neighbors go from house to house visiting and helping each other; the fact that every house has a TV and a satellite, and our Guest House owners' phone keeps ringing; you get cell reception out here, and most people seem to have cell phones. In the veranda next to me, a lady is getting a pedicure.

The Great (non)Escape

This afternoon, the phrase "I'd rather owe you than cheat you out of it," sprang from my mouth like a disobedient lab--one minute it's sitting docile at your side, the next it's chasing after a rabbit. It was at this moment that I realized..."Heavens to Betsy!" I'm my parents. Of course I've had these thoughts before: while watching a movie, when the little byline comes on "this show has been formatted to fit your television" and you say "How did they know what size of a TV I had?!" and "If a frog had wings, it would bump it's butt when it jumped." Mostly, these are things which my dad said, and, as a child, I immediately cried out: "Dad, you're such a Dork!" Well, I always knew that I was a dork, so, no surprise, I think it's knee-slapping funny when I use these same overused idioms today. I even throw a little snort into my laugh when I say them (which, I've decided, also came from my dad, and not from when my roommate Vicki and I would snort just to laugh about snorting like I originally thought). So here's to carrying on the "dumb" sayings of our parents, and gravity never pulling the apple just a little further away from the tree. :)

C-Land: Holiday Madness

Wow! It's been so long! Boy are you all in for it.. I mean you're going to have a novel to read by the time I'm done with this... hehe.. maybe.

Lately our internet has been really really really snail stuck in glue speed slow :( So through our phone people sound like a robot whose hard-drive keeps skipping.... and I've had more than a few e-mails get lost in the www after I pushed send and they didn't, but they didn't get saved anywhere either. But enough of that..... I'm going to ramble enough without you all having to listen to me talk about snail speediness etc.

I'll try to make this as interesting and painless as possible.

Christmas New Years Eve Style

A group of us headed down to Hong Kong for Christmas. We were leered by the promise of shinning, flashing, (because if it's a light in China, it's flashing) Christmas Lights, stuffed santas, running elves, fake snow, and the Chinese teachers' gasps of SALES! A group of 5 of us played hostel hot potato the first few days as we tried to find a hostel that didn't have prices sky high because of the Christmas season, that didn't feel like a jail cell, and which didn't have un-identified flying odors. By the second day we had secured a slightly soft bed for only 80 kuai (10USD) per night for 3 nights of our stay. It was located in a GIANT building, up a maze of stairs, next to "the best Indian food in Hong Kong" a restaurant I don't think many people knew how to find, let alone found and thought it was "the best." The perks of our lodging? A central location. Kiosks that sold yummy on the go Indian food. Kenny--the guy who ran the place--who was always willing to loan us tape, or help us find the rest of our group. Separate beds. Private bathrooms (which by the way went RV style where you have a small 2.5 X 2.5 foot box with a toilet and sink squished in...... and a shower head... just remember to remove the toilet paper before you shower!).

But,, onward. Hong Kong was a lot of fun. They had buildings decorated from ground to top floor with Christmas Lights dancing and twirling to form waving santas and messages of "merry Christmas" or "happy holidays." On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day they had a special lights show over the river that runs between Honk Kong Island and the Kawloon side that involved fireworks from boats and laser beams and spotlights shinning from the tops of buildings on both sides of the river.

On Christmas day our whole group met at the Charlie Brown Cafe, ate lunch, did a secret santa gift exchange, and took lots of pictures of Chris Brown next to the Charlie Brown pictures and statues :). We then proceeded down to the Performing Arts Center to watch The Nutcracker Ballet performed by the Hong Kong Ballet. We capped off the day with the fireworks/lights show over the river, and dinner at Outback Steakhouse :)

Hong Kong was much more like a little UK instead of a part of China. They had little red British taxi's, drove on the wrong side of the street, had "mind the gap" signs at the metro, most everyone spoke English (and any recorded English was in a British accent), and there was much more diversity.

There were so many people there for Christmas, it reminded me of what I would imagine New Years Eve in New York to be like.

We returned from Hong Kong to the LQ at 1am Monday morning (yes we had to work the next day) to find the LQ adorned with hundreds of (yes flashing) colored Christmas lights. It was actually quite comical to see our normally quiet LQ path creating such a spectacle (I wasn't so sure if the classical piano music that big brother plays would agree with such pomp and circumstance by the colored lights). Just tonight we were discussing which was our favorite of the decorated trees. I seetled on one, which due to it's height, looked like someone had just thrown the lights up into the branches (which is actually probably what happened) until all the lights had been used up. The result? A tree that actually has more lights hanging below it's branches, in the open seclude created before the ground invaded, than in the actual branches of the tree. Non-the-less, the belit path gives me just that much more joy when I walk down it at night.

New Years with a Bang (literally)

For New Years, a group of us went to The Blues Club. They had a blues and jazz band from Australia playing. There was a group of German's with us whom had purchased a few big Chinese fire-crackers, so at midnight we went out onto the street outside of the club to set them off. Chris or Erik successfully convinced them of my pyromania-ness, and I got the honor of lighting the fuze. We stood back as the whole line of firecrackers exploded preventing a few taxi's from passing. As our wee-little fire-crackers finished, Trey and I heard the sound of larger fireworks exploding down the street. We ran down a block or so to see a round of fireworks, about the size of a large tractor tire, sitting in the middle of the street, and shooting fireworks high into the air. Well, most of them were being shot into the air, some of them, not achieving their height destiny, exploded right near the ground and came propelling toward us. Don't worry we kept our distance. After a little more time at the Blues Club, we came back to the LQ area and got meat-on-a-stick from the street vendors across the way. Disappointingly, we weren't able to find any of our own Chinese firecrackers to set off :( I would say maybe next year, but really, in China, you don't need an excuse to set of firecrackers or fireworks... so ... maybe next week. :)


Ahhh the Kindies!
So right recently the Kindies learned the phrase "What are you doing?" and answers such as "I'm eating, swimming, reading, watching tv...etc." As a morning warm-up, I've started "calling" a few of the Kindies with our fake phone. I go "ring, ring......ring, ring"......"hello Teacher Janai"......"Hi Tony HOW ARE YOU?" (you have to emphasize this so they don't answer: I'M SIX! thinking that you asked 'how old are you?')....."I'm fine thanks"....."oh, that's good......What are you doing?"......"I'm Pushing" (hmmmm not a normal response)..."You're PUSHing??"...."yes"...."what are you pushing?" ...... "I'm pushing ......chairs!". So now they all think it's hilarious to say that they're pushing chairs or tables. Hmmmmm we might have to find a different warm-up activity.

Food?
The other week, all of the English and Chinese Kindergarten teachers went out to eat at a Hot Pot (a restaurant where you have a grill and bowl of boiling soup water at each table, then order whatever you want to put in your soup, or cook) Place that is one of the Chinese Teachers' favorites. Trey and I squeezed our way into a table with 4 of the K2 teachers. They were offering us tongue, stomach lining, and my favorite, cooked blood. Actually I think I only took one very small bite of the blood before I got a mental block and just couldn't eat the rest. I also learned a very interesting thing about the Chinese style of eating: they like to intermix the dessert with the food. The balance of something hot with something cold. Only part-way through the meal Jane (a K2 Chinese teacher) asked me if I wanted to go see their ice-cream... I exclaimed that she was already done eating... only to find out about the whole hot/cold balance thing. Afterward a group of 11 or 12 of us went to a KTV (karaoke place where you get a private room for your group and chose whatever songs you want to sing). They had both Chinese and English music, so we just alternated throughout the night. I was able to get a good taste of Chinese music.... which I then asked our Secretary Sharon (who was there) to make me a CD of. So now I'm sitting at my desk listening to all my new Chinese music... it's quite fun. :)

Chinese New Years... YEAH
In about 4 weeks it will be time for yet another traveling adventure. At the beginning of Feb we begin our 3 week long break for Chinese New Years. We are planning a trip through Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. I'll be sad to miss so much pyro-action over the holiday, but am sure that our travel plan will more than make up for it.

Well, I'm sure that you are all tired of reading.... and I think that I dried up most of my interesting stories for the time being. I hope that all is well where you are. Drop me a line and let me know what you're up to! I love hearing from everyone!

Grandpa

a grey bike,
with fury seat,
and spokes that sang,
as down the street,
in delight I rode,
my feet held out,
my hands wrapped tight,
'round Grandpa's belt.
cousins smiling,
stood and watched,
with bated breath,
and whirring thoughts.
until their turn,
it came to ride,
Grandpa's super,
soaring, pride.