The DongXi (东西 dōngxi) Shop

All over China there are these amazing shops that I like to call DōngXi (东西) Shops. DōngXi literally means "east and west" and basically means "thing"—and that's exactly what these shops are full of—things. From socks, to pots, to snacks, to tools, to floor mats, to phone cards—these shops have it all. If there is ever some random thing that I need, I immediately head to the DōngXi Shop that is just outside the apartment complex I live in. Generally speaking, the people who own these shops have created the shop out of their personal living space, leaving them a small room behind or above the shop as their actual living area.

Now don't get confused. As many of you who know me well know, I like to make up words and make up meanings for words. I have begun to do this in C-Land as well, coining the phrase DōngXi Shop. I have no idea what these little shops are actually called, or if they even have a name, but it makes my heart happy to know that there are a handful of people walking around Shanghai referring to them as DōngXi Shops.

The second most amazing thing about these shops (behind the sheer variety of items it supplies), is the quantity of the variety it supplies. In a very small footprint the owners create aisles barely large enough for one person, and proceed to stack items on shelves to the ceilings. Things poor off the shelves, and out the front door of the shops as the sidewalk becomes fair game for extending your shop space (also fair game for expanding your apartment space, restaurant space, etc). At night, after the shop has closed, I can only imagine how much more crammed the inside is as it struggles to hold not only what was already in the shop, but everything that once resided on the sidewalk as well.

These shops are one of the closest things I've found to garage sales in C-Land in that you just never know what you may find in them—and in that what you find is usually pretty cheap.

The DongXi Shops are also especially useful to the crafty mind. I never cease to confuse the shop owners as I evaluate the use of wire mesh for displaying photographs, or piping to act as a flagpole or to be made into mini hurdles.

To me, these shops are one of the jewels of C-land and always the first place I recommend looking when a friend says "Do you know where I could get a _________?"

Below: The aisles of the local DongXi Shop across the street from my apartment. I still haven't had a chance to truly discover everything it sells.

Help Fight Hunger Now!

Did you know that a child dies from hunger-related causes every 10 seconds?

This is A Call to Arms

On April 28th the youth group I work with will be participating in something called the 30 Hour Famine.

What is the 30 Hour Famine?
Students around the world loving God and fighting hunger. It’s that simple. Every year, thousands of students unite to do the 30 Hour Famine. They learn about hunger - and then they do something about it. They raise funds. They experience hunger for themselves. Best of all? They help save lives.

If you would like to find out more about the 30 Hour Famine go here.
If you would like to learn more about World Vision, the organization that runs 30 Hour Famine go here.
Most importantly if you would like to sponsor me for the 30 Hour Famine go here. Every penny you donate will go toward fighting hunger! :) THANKS!

NZ-Land:: A Family Adventure

So I finally did it! I got all of my NZ photos uploaded. There are a plethora of ways for you to access them if you so desire:
North Island via Facebook here.
South Island via Facebook here.
It all via Google Picasa here.




The trip was amazing! And it was a TON of fun to meet my family in New Zealand for the break! :) I think the photos give a pretty good overview of the trip. So I'm just going to do a quick "Highlights" of things I learned/liked.

ONE.
I don't so much like traveling alone. The first 10 days I was on the North Island by myself before my parents and brother were to meet me. Sometimes it wasn't so bad. It meant that I could spend as long doing the things that I wanted, and as little long not doing the things I didn't want. It also meant that I became quite adept at using the auto-shutter-release on my camera:



TWO.
If you ever do decide to travel through NZ alone, be encouraged, you don't have to be alone alone... STRAY is here to help! Stray tours are an AWESOME option for those who are traveling alone, but don't want to be completly alone, but don't want to be on a really restricting type of tour either. :)

We got to ride in a really red van-bus...


...and you have people to sand-board race against...



So to re-cap. Traveling alone + Stray Tours = Much more fun!

THREE.
NZ-landers like weird fences.


Unfortunentally this is the only one that I got a photo of. But in passing I also saw one with:
Old bikes.
Shoes.
and Shayne found one online with
Old toothbrushes.

FOUR.
Anyplace with Garden Gnomes is awesome! Thank you to the Waiheke Sculpture Walk for making my day!


FIVE.
I can jump higher than my brother the Iron Man :)


SIX.
NZ-Landers either hate Opossums or don't know how to stuff animals..... or both.

....creeeeeepy.

SEVEN.
You can still use the fun auto-shutter-release even when you're united with your traveling buddies!


EIGHT.
NZ loves their coffee with milk and sugar as much as I do! Every place we stayed offered us a mini-sized bottle of milk for our coffee in the morning :) They also provided coffee each morning for drinking :)

NINE.
Sometimes rain is NOT cool. Like when it cancels your ice climbing excursion and re-makes it into a glacier walk.


TEN.
Sometimes rain IS cool. Like when it makes millions of waterfalls all along a 5 hour drive!


ELEVEN.
NZ is beeeautiful. No matter where you go!

Do-it-yourself. Susie-Homemaker

As many of you know I'm not exactly the Julia Childs–Susie Homemaker type. Roomates, youth kids, and friends alike have witnessed my running frantically around the kitchen as the pasta pot boiled over (or the pasta out because I decided that THAT much pasta COULD be cooked all at once), garlic bread burned in the toaster oven, and pasta sauce blurped and spurted all over the stove.

Yes, pasta is one of the easiest and most beginner recipes, but I've yet to master it, and I'm relatively certain at this point that my brother has far surpassed my cooking abilities (girls he's single... :D ).

However, cooking western food in C-Land has forced me to spread my baby cooking wings and fly, lest I crash on the cliffs of highly priced import items or migraines caused by shopping-at-crazy-small-aisled-too-many-peopled-Carrefour.

These test flights have led me to a few discoveries:

1. Bisquick is over-rated—pancakes ARE easy to make.... and so are biscuits for that matter. However, as silly as it may sound, I may never have discovered this unless I moved to a place where Bisquick (or the like) is improbable to find, and expensive once found. I've since found an amazing "Easy Homestyle Biscuits from Scratch" recipe that is as easy to make as the title claims, and tastes great too. (Since they've obviously already passed on the award for most succinct recipe title they should just re-name the recipe: Easy and Delicious Homestyle Biscuits from Scratch.)

2. Hummus is a quick, easy, and cheap appetizer to supply to any partay. Make your own Tahini (ground white sesame seed and Sesame Oil) and save yourself the trouble of searching the stores (US or C-land) for the canned stuff.

Most recently my cooking-bug-test-flights have been set off by a recipe that I've received through the AllRecipes.com "Daily Dish" email. Inevitably this email leaves me wanting instant recipe gratification, which also inevitably leads to me having to figure out how to make something from scratch rather than go to the store (refer back to migraines caused by shopping-at-crazy-small-aisled-too-many-peopled-Carrefour) to buy it.

The first instance of this was this Baked Oatmeal recipe. The "healthier" suggestion was to replace some of the butter with applesauce. Healthier is good I thought, and proceeded to the internet to find out how to make applesauce (which is terribly expensive here and also requires a trip to afore-mentioned supermarket). I then proceeded to the wet market (a small collection of stalls that sell vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts, and meat) across the street to purchase apples. Then back home to make applesauce, followed by the baking of delicious Baked Oatmeal bars.

My most recent cooking escapade was started by this Pumpkin Pancakes recipe.
Who can resist this picture!? Plus the comments raved about it while mentioning my weak spot—breakfast for dinner. They had me at hello; however, first another adventure. How to acquire Canned Pumpkin? Once again I turned to the internets for a cheaper, closer-to-home option (actually, as this was already past November I was dubious of finding canned pumpkin in even the most import-y of import shops, a home-made option was necessitated beyond the simple desire to avoid the supermarket or a trip in a taxi).

Happily I came accross this recipe for making your own pumpkin puree. More cute pictures, and a semi-morbid description had me hooked. The cherry on top was that pumpkins were "Fēicháng piányi"–very cheap—at the wet market across the street. That night I proceeded to make pumpkin puree (easier than applesauce). Mine even matched her picture:


Then, this past weekend, I made my very own Pumpkin Pancakes. Cooker beware! These pancakes require LONG time on LOW heat so that they don't burn :( many a little pumpkiny pancake was trashed in my trials. I have been told that the non-burned ones tasted great! :D haha

I feel my cooking wings are growing stronger. However, don't give away my secret. I'd prefer to maintain anonymity and continue to be invited over to others' houses for THEIR delicious home-cooked meals :D

A Sunday Bike Ride

A few weeks ago the weather was still marvelous considering it was mid-December. The sunny, mostly warm days were nothing to scoff at if you've ever experienced a Shanghai winter. Wanting to make the most of the unusually great weather, myself and a couple of friends (Mark and Alex) decided to spend our Sunday afternoon on a wandering bike ride.

Our first stop was an old Daoist Temple hidden in the recesses of Chinese side streets and housing. It took us a few tries, but we finally wound our way back and through to where the old operating temple stood. While the incense burning and chanting to giant statues that were flipping us the bird (literally) was a little much, it did offer some fun photographic opportunities.

We continued to wind our way up wooden flights of stairs and narrow hallways until we came across this bell:

And this drum:

Alex couldn't resist the temptation to at least pretend to hit the drum.

He walked away before his urge to also strike the bell got the best of him.

After the temple, we continued down a small street/canal-side frontage road that my friend John A says you can follow all the way to the ocean. Well, as the sun was setting and the day was turning cold, we never made it all the way to the ocean, but I was able to capture a serene photo of this barge heading up the canal. I was actually surprised to see a boat this large traveling along it.

We made it back to the LQ just as dusk was setting in and the novelty of a warm winter day was turning into the reality of a cold winter night. What a great way to spend a day off!