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!