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.
Monday, May 28, 2007
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.
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
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.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
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 :)
I'll post stories as they come, so keep checkin back! :) And leave a comment to let me know you passed by :)
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| May Holiday in Xi'an |
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