Blue Seagull

The DongXi (东西 dōngxi) Shop

2011-06-06T13:57:00.011+08:00

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!

2011-04-07T00:08:00.002+08:00

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

2011-04-06T23:42:00.005+08:00

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

2011-01-09T21:39:00.006+08:00

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

2011-01-02T14:59:00.006+08:00

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!

The Best of L.A.

2010-07-29T04:17:00.012+08:00

Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a fan of L.A.. That's right Zhi, I said it, I don't like L.A.. However a recent prolonged visit (my brother now lives in La La Land) made me think a little more about the things I can enjoy when in the area. The things will make for my list of:

If you have to be in LA you have to see/do this!

1. The Getty Museum
Not only does it house great artistic exhibits, but the building designed by Richard Meier is also architecturally beautiful. Entry into the museum is free, but be prepared to pay $15 for parking.. haha. Check out an exhibit or two (Shayne and I saw the work of Jean-Leon Gerome because the advertisement included a Gladiator, and my friend Jon had recommended it), take the "Architecture Tour" then spend some time just relaxing on the grassy knoll and enjoying the view.

2. Diddy Riese in Westwood

My friend Debs first made me aware of this, the best ice cream sandwich shop around. For only $1.50 you get to create your own ice-cream sandwich. Simply choose any two amazingly soft and freshly baked cookies and a flavour of ice cream. Wha-La, a delicious melt-in-your-mouth summer great. Don't wait... go there now! Yummmm... just thinking of them makes me want to jump in my car forthwith.

3. Hennessey + Ingalls Art & Architecture Bookstore (in Santa Monica)

Specializing in all forms of artistic publications, this is the place to go for any creative. I set aside at least an hour to peruse the many offerings of this amazing bookstore. Photography, Graphic Design, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Interior Design, Architecture, and More! This bookstore has it all. And since I'm teaching a Graphic Design elective in the high school next year, I finally have an excuse to buy! :D

4. Six Flags Magic Mountain

If you are a lover of roller coasters, six flags is the place for you. Rider be warned, dress with zippered pockets, only bring what will fit inside, otherwise you'll be stuck paying $1 each time you go on a ride to rent a locker to put your stuff in. Otherwise, amazing roller-coasters! Stay late so you can get the short lines :D

5. Small Concert Venues
One thing I can say for certain is that L.A. has music. Whether you like the big bands or the small bands, you can find them performing at sometime, someplace. A few great small venues to check out are: Hotel Cafe, The Knitting Factory, and The Troubadour.

6. Disneyland
Who can resist a trip to the "happiest place on earth"? Well, I went two summers ago, so actually this time I resisted a trip there (it was replaced with magic mountain), but really, you can't leave it off the list of L.A's locations.

7. Beaches
Of course the coast of California has TONs of beaches. Beach volleyball, surfing, etc etc. Go crazy, just don't forget the sunscreen.

And there you have it. Seven things to make sure you do in LA. :D

Felix my Muse

2010-05-28T00:34:00.004+08:00

It's amazing how as soon as I start riding scoot scoot (aka "Felix") through the streets of Shanghai, I suddenly get flooded with blog ideas. It must be something about the pureness of smog-filled air blowing through my helmet, the constant honking of other scooters, bikes, and cars, the low-rumbling fear that an oblivious pedestrian will suddenly step in front of my bike causing me to be flung onto the sidewalk—that clears up the mind and allows it the safety to roam. Everything strikes my brain in this state, and if there were a typewriter in my head, this blog would be updated far more often!:
"Look, the camera attached to the traffic light just flashed at me as I scooted by. Is Big Brother tracking my every move? Maybe the same technology they used at the Olympics is being used here... face recognition, real Jason Bourne stuff!"
"Why are all the scooters, bikes, people, AND strollers, in the bike lane, while the side-walk is empty!?"
"How am I going faster than that gas powered scooter."
"Look at all these HUGE villas that are being built.... where did all the people who used to live here go?"
"Does a disc break lock really stop someone from stealing a scooter?"

And if non of the above ideas seem worthy of a blog to you, remember, of course, the above ideas are just the floaters... the ones that aren't smart enough to hide again as soon as the scooter-ride is over. The best ideas remain hidden in the recesses of my scooter-powered imagination, only allowing themselves to come out when my mind is truly free to contemplate all the things in life—when the honking and bustle of Shanghai rattles them free into my head where I can once more ponder them, and think about how, if only I weren't busy not crashing, I would type it up forthwith!

StoryPeople.com

2010-05-04T00:42:00.002+08:00

I discovered the artist Brian Andreas in a little shop called Hands Gallery in downtown San Luis Obispo, and have LOVED his work ever since. He combines quirky sketches with short dictums about life, love, adventure, coffee, chocolate,...anything! Many times they are completely random (which is probably why I love them so much) but in some way they will always remind you of yourself, or someone you know. They also help to remind me about the little jewels of LIVING which we can so easily let pass us by if we're not careful to notice them.

I've recently subscribed to his "Story of the Day" e-mails, which means each day I get a new Story delivered right to my inbox! If you've seen me on buzz or gchat, you've probably seen more than a few of the particularly great ones posted.

I'll share this Story in honor of my Kunming host Amber. She can eat more chocolate than anyone I know, and rarely feels any repercussions from a chocolate eating spree at someplace like Whisk (which never ceases to amaze me). I'm pretty sure that she eats it just because it's yummy, and that it's not doing anything to make sure the wind doesn't blow her away (another amazing feat).

My favorite thing is the wind, she said, & my second favorite is chocolate but I just do that so I don't get too skinny & blow away

World Expo Opens in Shanghai

2010-05-02T23:11:00.004+08:00

photo from guardian.co.uk

Today I got an e-mail from my mom saying that she saw the fireworks for the opening of the World Expo in Shanghai on National News, and asked if I had seen them. unFORTUNATELY, I was not actually in Shanghai for the opening of the World Expo---Which led me to investigate via the world wide web what the opening was like----which led me to this and this article, in which I discovered some interesting information:

1. "Temperatures in Shanghai today reached 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit)"
What!? Before I left it was not "freezing" at worst, and almost "warm" at best. Ok, so that may be exaggerating a little. The day we left was almost nice. But I'm saddened to think that we may have had only 1--ONE--day of spring :(

2. "The broadcaster, a unit of government-owned Shanghai Media Group, also called on visitors to obey rules set out by expo organizers as it showed footage of people cutting in line, trash littering the grounds and visitors circumventing a barrier to pick flowers off a tree on display."
This just makes me giggle to myself. People not standing in line? People not using trash cans? People ignoring barriers to take flowers from a display? None of this would EVER happen in day-to-day C-land, I can't imagine why it's happening at the Expo. I'm just wondering why they left out "kids peeing on the sidewalk."

3. "China’s richest city estimates 70 million people will visit the six-month long World Expo, more than 10-times the number who traveled to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. To ensure smooth operations for the fair, Shanghai has deployed armed police to patrol the Expo park, restricted sales of knives and given local residents a five-day holiday through May 4, during which they’ve been asked to say at home as much as possible." Yeah! that's me, we got our holiday extended by 2 days... Happy World Expo... I'm in Kunming....... woops... I must have missed the part where we were supposed to stay home as much as possible.

4. "Six people who protested about having their homes destroyed to make room for the Expo have been sent to labour camps, the Hong-Kong based Chinese Human Rights Defenders were quoted as saying by AP." It is amazing how C-land is able to "get 'er done." The Expo site is along prime property along the huangpu river in the center of Shanghai, not exactly "open" land. Very convenient for those attending the Expo, very inconvenient for those who used to have a home.

5. The expo breakdown:

Theme is "Better City, Better Life"

70 million visitors expected, mostly Chinese

192 countries and 50 organizations on show

20,000 cultural performances

First Expo in a developing country

Site is 5.3sq km, twice the size of Monaco

China says cost is $4.2bn - others say costs reached $58bn

Standard day ticket costs 160 yuan ($23: £15)

Runs from 1 May to 31 October

In related news. My roommate and I are thinking that this is prime time to do some apartment letting and pay of any remaining student loans. :D We think that we can beat the quality of "The Olympic Experience Hostel" in Beijing!

C-Land :: Journals!

2010-05-01T22:48:00.003+08:00

One of the things I love about C-land are their journals. Actually, my roommate Andrea and I agreed that this is on the top of both of our "Things we like about C-land lists". Andrea, (who actually journals and has a little bit more of an excuse to buy said objects) frequently comes home with some new journal "finds" which she always eagerly shows me. Many times the journals have funny little sketches or images throughout the inside pages, and of course, no C-land journal would be complete without the Chinglish sayings.

Today, while looking through a bookstore in Kunming, I came across a whole table of little journals, calendars, notebooks, and the like. I spent quite a bit of time picking them up, flipping through them, reading the Chinglish, and commenting on each one, then came home with all of the above (it was hard to even widdle the ones I liked down to that many). These ones are "tame" as far as C-land journals are concerned, the inside pages are blank, or simply lined, and only the two with the travels scenes have any sort of ditty. This one reads:

Europe Tour
Like a great travellers
I have seen more than i remember
and remember more than I have seen

Ahhh precious.

The Uncomfortable Incident of Chinese Picture Takers

2010-04-30T23:56:00.003+08:00

Today, Amber, Elizabeth, and I went to the Yunan Minority Village. By this time, having lived in C-land for quite a few years, we are quite accustomed to the "sly" walk-by photography... where a Chinese person tries to make it look like they're not taking your picture, but the sudden camera flash in your face kind-of gives it away. We're also accustomed to people asking to take pictures with us as they hand the camera to their friends and snuggle in close for the picture like we're old friends. But, today, while trying to watch the Elephant Show at the Cultural Village, was a new experience.

We were sitting in the stands watching all the people taking pictures of their friends sitting in an elephant's trunk, and people teasing the elephant with bananas before letting them throw it into their mouths; when, three ladies appeared beside us on the stairway. Without saying a word to us (either verbal or charade-y), one lady was taking her time, laying out the perfect picture of us with her camera from roughly 1 foot away. Amber and Elizabeth tried to hide their faces in a (we-don't-want-our-pictures-taken sort of way), after the lady had obviously taken a few pictures, I decided to humour her and make a funny face.

Next (still without saying any word to us), one of the ladies sat down in front of us, while we made confused what-are-you-doing faces, and the other lady took another picture. I tried to ask the lady sitting in front of us posing for the picture if she wanted a picture with us (all in chinese), but she completely ignored me, and just posed for the shot. Next she took the camera away from her friend, and her friend sat down right next to Elizabeth and, still without saying one word, or even doing one half-charade, put her arm around Elizabeth to pose for the picture. Elizabeth sat with a look of confused horror, as Amber finally said "look, if you want to take pictures with us, you at least need to ask!" (also in Chinese).

At this point, we decided that maybe the Elephants weren't entertaining enough to sit through random Chinese people hugging us for pictures while acting as if we didn't exist.

Other than this rather odd experience, the Cultural Village was quite nice, partially due to it being almost devoid of people (something hard to accomplish in C-land), and also because we had a beautifully sunny day to walk around in. :D

May Holiday!

2010-04-30T01:03:00.005+08:00

This blog post is coming at you from Kunming China (also pictured in blog header) because I'm on VACATION! :D Labor Day Holiday= 5 days off of work. Back in the good 'ole days the Labor Day Holiday consisted of an entire week vacation. However the C-land government recently decided that they wanted to cut down on the number of times throughout the year 1.8 billion people were all trying to travel at the same time. Their solution, take away the week long holiday, shorten it to 2 days plus a weekend, and spread the other days out to create a bunch of short 3-day holidays so that 1.8 billion people were all traveling then instead. So, originally my holiday was 4 days total. But, roughly 2 weeks before the holiday was to begin, in classic C-Land last-minute style, They decided to allot everyone an extra 2 days of government holiday to celebrate the opening of the World Expo (Better City, Better Life). Yippeee!

So now I'm in my old summer stomping grounds of Kunming, sitting in my friend Amber's newly remodeled kitchen/dinning room area.

Our (Elizabeth and my) trip began with an excited walk to the subway stop that recently opened only a block from our apartment. Also new, was that the subway went all the way out to the airport! Cutting the cost to get there from about 100RMB by taxi, down to 5RMB! As we walked down the narrow still-under-construction pathway that went to the subway entrance, I asked a guard where the entrance to the part of the subway that went to the airport was. He mumbled something about "closed" "4pm". I asked again, not wanting to believe what I was hearing. Who would close the subway to the airport at 4pm!?? I asked again, he answered again, I looked around then finally expired: "Why!" At which the guard laughed to himself heartily. So, we were back to the normal routine, and 1 100RMB taxi ride later, we arrived at the airport per usual.

Who knows what the week holds. Relaxing is on the list. And per my commitment (which I'm rather starting to enjoy) so is blogging. :D

Over and out.

Israel :: There's a HUMMUS among us!

2010-04-28T19:12:00.005+08:00

One of my favorite parts of Israel was the food! It was gloriously tasty :D

My friend Danielle and I arrived in Israel roughly 5 days before our "official tour" started, and on our first day in Jaffa, we went on a search for what the Lonely Planet called "the best Hummus in Israel." We considered this a very high proclamation for Hummus and decided that we must see if it was true.

After much weaving and winding (we thought we'd take a "short-cut" and I think it ended up being a "long-cut"), and after much confusion over street names (the Lonely Planet would say Dolphin Street, and the actual street name would look something like akdaulfeen street) We finally found the tiny little corner restaurant with a busy flurry of locals waiting outside. After a short wait, we found two seats open at a rectangular table where five people were already sitting happily eating. [This part reminded me of China, where it doesn't matter if you know people or not, if there's a seat open at your table, someone might get sat there! I was glad to already be familiar with the practice of squishing in next to a table full of strangers... haha]

Looking around the small restaurant, it seemed to have a very short menu as everyone appeared to be eating the same exact thing. So, we went with the flow and moments later the best hummus in all of Israel appeared. Our meal consisted of what's seen in the picture above: two different styles of hummus, a plate of bread, and the somewhat unusually bet even more unusually tasty part: sliced onion and an olive oil sauce to dip it in.

Danielle and I dug in. Thoroughly enjoying what would be the best hummus of our entire trip, even if maybe my taste buds are too "low" to really be able to tell the difference.

At one point in our conversation the people that we shared the table with said "you're lucky, your first day in Israel and you've found the best Hummus anywhere!" So the Lonely Planet wasn't joking, even the locals flocked here for lunch.

To my great joy, upon returning to Shanghai, I realized that the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs has a whole slew of "typical" Israeli food recipes on their site. I've cooked my way through almost a dozen of them, and have been happily fulfilled each time. Along with the hummus, I highly recommend the: shakshouka, the baba ghanouj, and the falafel .... to start :D

A Committment: Part 1

2010-04-27T13:20:00.003+08:00

Dear Blog, Friends, World,

I have neglected you terribly :( And today, as I blended up my fresh fruit GIANT smoothie that cost about 1$, and thought about my friend Mette and the amazing things she always seems to be doing with design, and thinking.... WHY am I not doing some of this?? Well time is one, but focus is another.

So then in my head, I thought, Janai, what are the things that you want to focus on no matter what? Or what are the things you want to get better at? The things that came to mind were:

1. My relationship with Jesus

2. Keeping in better contact with Friends and Family (step one. e-mail updates)

2.5 Physical activity of some sort: running, ultimate, soccer...

3. Improving Design Skills

4. Learning to play the guitar (yes mom, still)

5. Well the list could go on and on.

So then, thanks to ideas from The Minimalist Blog I decided. "Self, you just need to choose a few to focus on!" So, in my attempt to keep in better contact, I've decided to do 1 short blog per day.... for 1 week. Yes, I have short-term goals.. haha. I was about to head over to the google music China site to continue downloading TONS of legal AND free songs... when I reminded myself, if I don't act on my commitment now, I never would. So, I stopped myself from opening said google music page, and instead proceed to type into blogspot forthwith!

So here it is. :) My commitment to you. 1 blog each day for 7 days. Maybe after that I'll renew my commitment. :P

Above is a photo of all the wonderful ladies whom I some-what recently traveled to Israel with. The trip was AMAZING, and will hopefully be the focus of at least a few of my post-per-day-for-a-week posts. :D [pictured from Left to Right: Danielle, Susannah, Elizabeth, Su, me, Chrissy, Angelia, Tiffany]

For now, I must return to my smoothie lunch.

See you tomorrow.

Janai

Google.....Interesting

2009-09-10T21:53:00.003+08:00

So, I was about to search Google for "how to install a new battery" to find out the best way to start out with the new battery for my MacBook Pro. Do I let it charge, then let it run all the way out? Can I just start using it? Do I need to charge it, then I can use it without letting it run out? If you have answers to these you can let me know. But this post isn't about that. It's about what automatically popped up under the Google toolbar (I guess they have a new function where they try to guess what you're searching for and give you the option before you can tell them. Maybe Google wants to be a criminal profiler for the BAU of the FBI and it wants to show off how much it knows about other people... I don't know. BUT what automatically popped up.. made me laugh... and cry... laugh and cry.

I type "How to"
Google suggests
.....lose weight
.......lose belly fat
.... smoke weed
.....get pregnant
....burn fat
......learn Spanish
....quit smoking
......whiten teeth
....clean hardwood floors

In that order. I don't know what this means. Does this mean that out of all the "How to's" typed into Google... the 3rd most common is how to smoke weed? or that the 9th most common is how to clean hardwood floors?

Elbow to Lip Style: The Unfortunate Incident of Hospital Trip Number 3

2009-09-08T21:44:00.003+08:00

I had made it through my entire life without breaking, dislocating, or needing to stitch up anything.
And then I moved to C-Land...

This story begins on a bright sunny afternoon. The summer temperature was cool for Shanghai. The type of weather that is perfect for getting a group of people together to play a lively game of Ultimate Frisbee. So, that is of course, what we did:

The frisbee was thrown high in the sky. It was sailing... it's whiteness sparkling against the midday blue...whizzing along...a perfect throw really...it was just waiting for the perfect time to float down and be caught for a score!....

BY THE OTHER TEAM!

Well, I wasn't about to let that happen. So, glancing down the field and seeing that the opponent (Ryan) was running to catch the frisbee and had left his defender (I suspect Aaron) behind, I started running toward the frisbee, hoping that I could get to it before Ryan, jump higher than Ryan, have a stronger grip than Ryan––and successfully bring down the Frisbee for MY team, and for an interception.

We reached the point where the frisbee was beginning its descent. We jumped. Our faces were pointed upward, eyes locked on the frisbee, fingertips reaching. It was right there.....

and then,

I was on the ground. Blood dripping from a throbbing lip.

I had landed with my back to most of the other Ultimate Frisbee players. So as they came over, they asked "Are you ok?"

Me: "Yeah, just hit my lip, there's some blood."

Then, as another ultimater (Suzanne) came around to face me, all she said was "Oh... That's bad."

Me: "How bad?" (I've been to enough hospitals in C-Land to last a lifetime.)

Suzanne: "Bad, stitches bad....Hospital Bad"

Me: "Dang it!"

And thus ensued Trip 3 to a hospital in China.

But, this time I had people with me who cared what my face may one day look like without proper attention, so they made sure I went to a nice hospital with foreign trained doctors. I was off to see one especially trained doctor: a plastic surgeon! (when I came away, I even felt like I had gotten Botoxed).

The irony is that i was supposed to be going back into the hospital that weekend to have someone look at my pinky which still woouldn't bend past 90 degrees.
I tried to get the first doctor (the non plastic surgeon doctor) to look at it (my pinky) while they looked at my lip, but he said that I had to go to the Shanghai Number 6 Hospital which apparently specialized in bones, and so he wouldn't look at it. For the rest of the trip (I had to go to another hospital further away to see the Plastic Surgeon) I stopped worrying about trying to "double-dip" with my pinky.

So,
After one amazingly painful anesthetic shot to my upper lip (no lip rings for me!!!)
8 Stitches
1 week with a band-aid that made me look like I had a Charlie Chaplin mustache,
A trip back to the hospital to have the stitches removed....

and my plastic surgeon doctor is leaning over me with tweezers and a miniature scissor-knife, ready to rid my lip of any stitches when he notices that my fingers are "buddy taped" (because I had been playing tennis) and exclaimes:
"What happened to your finger?! ...(I explain) ... Why, I am a hand speciallist also! Yes, a plastic surgeon and a hand specialist! (he was a very happy Chinese man whose smile almost ate his head) We'll have to take a look at that....(starts feeling finger)... Oh! but first the stitches! Yes, first we will take out the stitches THEN we will look at your finger!"(goes back to removing stitches from lip).
Yeah for Hospitals!
Let's hope that I can go an apparent record 2 months without having to return to one again.

Oh! and the most important part of the story:
I stopped Ryan from catching the frisbee :D
Mission Accomplished.

Pinky.... why so Angular?

2009-07-24T12:07:00.003+08:00

My most recent adventure came yesterday while playing basketball with some visitors, some local foreigners and some local C-landers. we had 4 teams, and my team was on our way to winning our 3rd straight game. My teammate gave me a bounce pass that ended up being a bit to low to the ground, and when I went to grab it, it jammed (or so I thought) my pinky on my left hand. With my pinky throbbing I tried to take a shot with my right hand. Then, thinking... Man! I jammed my pinky, I chanced to look at it and notice that it was at an exact perpendicular angle to the rest of my hand. Ironically enough, we were playing basketball at the Kunming Medical University, and the hospital was just around the block. So we walked down the block, and commenced the circus that is a Chinese hospital:
1. Go to entry window and pay 6rmb for the initial consultation.
2. Walk inside, see doctor 1. Doctor 1 recommends X-Ray and fills out a form.
3. Take form down the hall to x-ray room.
4. X-ray room fills out a form for how much it will cost.
5. take form for price of xray down the hall to window 2 and pay 100RMB for the x-ray.
6. Go back to x-ray room. Have attendant try to flatten dislocated pinky against table for x-ray. Pain. Attendant gives up. Takes 2 x-rays. wait 30min doe xrays. Get x-rays. Friend Neil gets squirmy.
7. Take x-rays back to Doctor 1.
8. Doctor 1 sends us to Building 1, Floor 4. the "bone department"
9. Bone department doctor 2 looks at finger, massages back into a straight line.
10. Doctor 2 & 3 suggest putting finger in "plaster" .
11. Amber, Niel, Alan, and I in chorus: "plaster!"
12. Doctor 3 makes me sign waiver that just a splint is ok.
13. Sign waiver, Go to another room to have finger put into a splint.
14. Realize that Kunming doesn't have "american dislocated finger splints"
15. Doctor 2 tries to make a "splint" out of what we can only guess is possibly a urin collection container.
16. We decide that maybe plaster is better.
17. Get cast-like splint thing put on my pinky, along with about 5lbs of something that resembles pre-wrap. (see photo)
18. Look silly.
19. Doctor 3 give me form.
20. Take form back down to window 2 on floor 1 of building 3 to pay for plasterizing,
21. Bring receipt for payment back over and up to Building 1 Floor 4.
20. Leave.

Total time at Hospital fun-park: 2 hours.
Total cost of stay at Hospital Fun-Park 182RMB : $26.64
Seeing Neil get all squirmy from looking at my finger or the x-ray: priceless.

2,582 Stairs

2009-07-23T14:01:00.003+08:00

My most recent adventure was the Great Wall Half-Marathon in Beijing, China. Yes, I went up to Beijing to run in it (for some reason they couldn't bring the wall to us in Shanghai) and yes i had FUN! completing the course in 2:45:00. I'm already planning for next year.... how to get a faster time (start in front, every man for himself). The run started. 4.5 kilometers uphill on a winding paved road (to get up to the level of the wall)..... once your legs were sufficiently jelly-ized, they threw you onto 3.2 km of steep up and down stairs as you tried to enjoy the view while also trying not to fall to your death off the wall. It wasn't until almost 8km into the race that we finally got to run on something approaching a level surface. The race concluded by winding through a local village where Chinese ladies and kids clapped and chanted: clap clap clap Jia You! clap clap clap .... gude times for all except another girl from SMIC who acidentally took the half-marathoner's turn-off and ended up running an extra 3 miles or so above her FULL marathon :( oh well... besides the extra time, i don't think she actually minded the extra distance. I ended up finishing 87th overall (women) and 22nd in my age-group.

Love At First Scoot

2009-07-23T13:24:00.003+08:00

I got a scooter! Her name is Sasha.... and I can't believed I've gone 3 years without her! haha. And now that the weather has turned warm, we'll be virtually inseparable. She was born on the first day of spring, being one of two paternal twins..... the other being "Danny Boy". She has since competed in one official LQ 100m drag race, and many other informal races (one with a gas powered scooter,,, but really, that's not a fair match up). Of her many races, she in the undefeated champion (even against her brother Danny Boy, but not against mr. Gas). She likes to sing when she scoots... so sometimes I sing with her so she doesn't feel silly, and recently she has had some feelings of insecurity (that she's an electric scoot scoot and not a gas powered scooter) so I've started making high-speed, engine-reving, gas-powered noises for her wherever we go (to the dismay of my roommate when she rides on the back and has to be seen with us). Scoot scoot has even proven to be a "guy-magnet" as roomie Andrea and I had a car-full of Chinese guys rolll down the window and whistle at us as we were scooting home! haha. I think that's one perk of scoot scoot's that I could pass on.

Jumping: Kids, A Pineapple, and ME

2009-03-21T12:13:00.004+08:00

When I got to Tanzania, I found out that it was actually almost illegal to take any pictures, and that most the people didn't like to be photographed unless you paid them. Therefore we could only really take pictures: on Joy in the Harvest property, very quickly without anyone noticing, or when there was nobody around.

As Donna and Neil and I were taking our dirt road shortcut between town and the Guest Houses, I took the opportunity of the path being empty to have Donna take a jumping picture of me. The scenery of Kigoma was beautiful, and I wasn't about to go back to China without any pictures of it! As I was taking my jumping picture a group of five kids came up from the houses along the path. One little girl held a baby brother half her size on her hip. They crowded behind Donna and Neil and quietly peaked around their waists as I counted "one-two-three" and Jumped into the air. They whispered to each other smiling. I must have been quite a site.

When I had finished my jumping picture I looked at them and, motioning for them to join in, asked if they wanted to take a picture too. Four of the kids eagerly ran forward. I got us all lined up across the path, and we practiced counting to three and then jumping. We did it a few times, and thanks to the fast action shuttering of my Nikon D60 (love it!) and the amazing ability of the kids to jump at the same time (my basketball girls could take a tutorial from them) I ended up with this picture, which has become one of my favorites of the trip.

Hairmet

2009-03-20T12:56:00.001+08:00

Since I haven't had a chance to take a pic of my new scoot scoot during the daytime... or to name her, or to post about her. Here's my newest wish list item :D a HAIRMET! haha

Tanzania: PhotoGallery

2009-02-26T10:44:00.005+08:00

Tanzania: The Imaginary Picture Girls

2009-02-25T22:00:00.007+08:00

The first day I went to help with the Kimberly's House Feeding Program, I took TONS of pictures of the kids. They loved seeing themselves in the camera, and soon I was causing a small riot because they all wanted their picture taken multiple times. The girls all smiled prettily, or shyly, while the boys gathered together throwing up a hand sign, or posing with the spoon of food halfway in their mouth.

The next time I went back, I left my camera at home, figuring I had caused enough of a commotion the last time I was there. As I walked down to the site there were two girls sitting at the first picnic table with bowls of beans and rice waiting patiently in front of them. As soon as they saw me, one of the girls put her hands up holding an imaginary camera and took a picture. I spread my arms out, shrugged my shoulders, and said "I don't have my camera today"... :( sad face. But having come straight from a Kindergarten in China, I knew what to do. I took out my own imaginary camera, held it up to frame the two girls in the picture, paused, and said "CLICK." The girls laughed a bit. I then brought the "camera" over to them to show them their "picture." At this point they threw back their heads in hearty laughter....That was just TOO silly. I took a few more imaginary pictures of them, each time getting a your-funny-taking-pictures-with-an-imaginary-camera laugh. Pretty soon I had to put away my imaginary camera lest it cause a riot as well.

Kimberly's House: Feeding program
Three days a week—every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday— 250+ kids and 50+ adults converge at the Kimberly's House Feeding Site located right next to Joy in the Harvest site 2 (where the Guest Houses and Computer school are located) and overlooking Lake Tanganyika. Anyone who wants to can come and get a meal. Full bowls of rice and beans are handed out, along with drinking water. A local evangelist gives a short talk and leads the kids and adults in prayer. The kids have to wait until EVERYONE has a dish until they can dig in! I was amazed to see the ones who got served first dutifully waiting until the last had received their bowl and they were given the okay to eat—even more amazing since some of them may not have had a good meal since the feeding two days earlier. The kids would be sitting shoulder to shoulder at the long picnic tables. Some of the smaller children sat under the picnic tables facing outward. At first I thought that this was because the tables were too crowded, but then I learned that it was because they were used to protecting any food they got so that it couldn't be stolen and eaten by a bigger, older kid. Many of the children are orphans, losing their parents early to Malaria, Aids, etc, and they learn early to fend for themselves. I went and helped at the Kimberly's House every chance I had.... who can pass up those cute kids?

Kigoma, Tanzania : Arriving

2009-02-22T15:42:00.008+08:00

When I left for Kigoma from Shanghai, my prayer for the trip was a simple one from the song "Hosanna" by Hillsong:

"I see the King of Glory
Coming down with clouds of fire
The whole earth shakes

I see His love and Mercy
Washing out all ou sins
The people sing

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Starting as we pray and seek
We're on our knees

Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest Heal my heart and make it clean,
Open up my eyes to the things unseen,
Show me how to Love like YOU have Loved me.

Break my heart for what breaks Yours,
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause,
As I walk from earth into Eternity."

I would be working with an organization called "Joy in the Harvest" run by Lowell and Claudia Wertz (reletives of my China desk-mate Kendra). I didn't know what to expect, or what I would be doing–but my hope was that God would, as the song says, Open my eyes, show me how to love like Him, and break my heart for what breaks His. I feel like God granted this prayer. I was able to see the ministry that the Wertz's have, to help with some of their ministry areas, and to see what kinds of needs this part of Africa had, and glimps into God's heart for the future of Kigoma, Tanzania.

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ~ James 2:15-16

I love how the ministries of Joy in the Harvest really target the needs of the people of Kigoma and fulfill God's exhortation to us in James 2:15-16. While I was in Kigoma, I was blessed to be able to see many of these ministries at work. Over the next few weeks I will try to post stories and memories about the many ministries and my trip to Kigoma.

Slides: A picture of our trip to Harbin

2008-12-31T10:52:00.002+08:00

As told by Mitch Hedberg:

As an adult I'm not supposed to go down slides,
So if I end up at the top of a slide,
I have to act like I got up there accidentally.
"How'd I get up here?!? Boy Howdy!!"
I guess I just have to slide down.
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"
That's what you say when you're having fun,
You refer to yourself, and some other people.

Harbin was full of slides. I referred to myself and some other people a lot! :)

Holiday Shopping Guide: Gifts that Keep on Givin'

2008-12-17T14:37:00.000+08:00

For you early planners, this is probably too late; but for you procrastinators here are some Holiday shopping ideas: places that have cool gifts/clothing/etc, and when you buy, your gift keeps giving to the various causes they support :)

To Write Love on Her Arms : Clothing, Jewelry

To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

Invisible Children : Clothing, Jewelry, Movies

Who We Are: Motivated by the unseen war in Northern Uganda, Invisible Children was created by three young filmmakers with a singular mission:To use the power of stories to change lives around the world.

Invisible Children improves the quality of life for war effected children by providing access to quality education, enhanced learning environments, and innovative economic opportunities, for the community.

Suubi Africa Hope : Jewelry

What we do...
In addition to buying each week (and tripling their usual profit), the Light Gives Heat volunteers also run weekly Literacy and English classes for the women of Suubi and simply spend time with the women. The majority of the 120+ women are Acholi widows who have been displaced from Northern Uganda because of an over 20-year-long war that has directly affected their tribe and homeland.

If you have any other sites you'd like to suggest, just give me a shout :) Or leave it in a comment :)

It's Dark in Here: Why I'm so Angry...

2008-12-15T00:55:00.001+08:00

A Follow-Up to: Pendy, Why so Angry?

I sat there for years upon years, precariously balanced between Large Intestine and Small Intestine, doing nothing. Have you ever felt purposeless? It is not a happy feeling. I didn't want it, but there was nothing for me to do. I wasn't made to work, I was just made to sit there. For 26 years I sat, while everyone around me excitedly worked, processed, produced, planned, moved, transferred.

Useless, I was useless.

The inside was also a hot, dark place. Too hot really—for everyone, which meant that everyone was always complaining. It was also wet, which means that sound that your feet make when walking in sneakers that are soaking wet, was constantly happening, all around me–surround sound. That same squish squish squish over and over and over. It drove me crazy.

Then something began to grow on me. It made me hotter, it made me itchy, it made me bloated. I got more and more uncomfortable but nobody cared—they were too busy...doing something. Finally I began to put up a fuss, it simply was NOT okay for me to be THIS uncomfortable. Plus, the itchy stuff had spread, I had become even more bloated (which was wreaking havoc on my already low self image self-esteem), and I let out a little scream. I pushed and pushed, and screamed, and hoped the outside could hear me, or at least could feel me.

Something was wrong. They must know. They must KNOW!

Every once in a while something from the outside would poke in at me, as if telling me to shut-up. When they poked at me it made me feel like I would pop, which made me scream even more.

The bloating continued. I felt like a balloon. I felt that even if the outside didn't poke in at me anymore, I might pop anyway, I couldn't help it, the itchiness was making me do it.

Suddenly stars appeared across the sky. Three tiny spotlights that shone in on me. I saw a substance I'd never seen before. Indeed, it made the darkness go away. Moving through it were different types of substance, and they made a loud noise.

I was ripped out. Squeezed out. Popped out. Slapped on something cold. Too cold. And hard. Very hard. I began to shiver. I rolled back and forth as the cold thing jolted this way and that. I was scared. The others were gone. The squish-squish was gone. I was still bloated. And this bright haziness was surrounding me, and constantly changing, always changing. It was too much to try to watch, so I shut my eyes.

The cold thing paused. Out of the substances came a VERY loud noise. It scared me. So I opened my eyes. But there was more loud noises that scared me. I closed my eyes. The cold thing began jolting again. Made a sudden clang. And stood still.

The coldness. The coldness. I would give anything to be back in the warmth. To hear the squish-squish. It didn't matter anymore that I was useless. I liked it in there. My friends. All that they would have left is The Space. The Space is even more useless than me. But the coldness is too much. It is too...

Pendy Why So Angry??!

2008-12-04T20:58:00.000+08:00

So before I begin this story, I must tell you two of my bigger fears in life:

1. Having one of those diseases where you just think it's normal flu symptoms etc etc, but then it ends up being something that untreated can kill you in a matter of days.
2. Having to have emergency surgery in China

I think most people can relate to number 1, especially after watching a movie like Outbreak. And anyone whose has had to go into a Chinese hospital knows that (especially compared to American hospitals where people are like OCD about them being clean) they're not the cleanest of places.

So, with the stage set: enter Angry Pendy.
The night before Halloween, I went to sleep feeling GREAT (Tony the Tiger Grrreat). Well, by 3am, I had been woken up by an incredible pain in my abdomen. I tried sleeping on my back, on my side, I went to the bathroom, I tried sleeping on my couch, on the floor, back up to my bed. By 7am the pain hadn't subsided for one second (even in my dreams I was trying to figure out how to get rid of the pain), it had also moved down to the right side of my abdomen, and I decided that something was really wrong. My roomate googled "abdominal pain", and she went through the symptoms of each. "Do you have this?" "No." "This?" "No." "This?" "Yes." "This?" "No." "This?" "Yes,.... yes.....yes." :( All things pointed to Appendicitis.

After a call to my boss's wife, and a call by one of her Chinese friends to other Chinese friends, and a call by me to a fellow teacher who had also had appendicitis in China (and had a considerably worse experience), we decided on which hospital I should go to..... by taxi :)

Interesting Discovery #1: Apparently in China, hospitals are split up a bit more by what kind of care they give, and what kinds of things they treat... unlike hospitals in the States where–save very specific specialties–they are prepared to treat everything.

So, I went to the hospital with Regina (boss's wife) and Alice (another Kindie teacher who's Chinese, and also speaks English). They did this test and that test and Declared.... That I must have surgery. But they did it so passively that I looked at Alice and said... are they sure? When Jenny (another friend who spoke fluent Chinese) came, she pressed the doctors on how sure they were that I REALLY needed surgery, to which they apparently exclaimed.... "It's about to pop! yes, she needs surgery! Don't worry about how I know, I'm the doctor, let me worry about it." To which she said, "well.. WHAT are you waiting for???"

So, very soon I was placed in a wheel chair (which was weird because I could walk) and wheeled up to the 12th floor VIP/International wing. I got a very nice hospital room, and then I waited, and waited, and Jenny kept pressing them saying.... she needs to get in quickly! and they'd say... I know I know, don't worry, she's on the emergency list, and as soon as XY and Z surgeries are done, she'll go in. In the meantime I signed at least 8 forms, all in Chinese of course, that pretty much provided for any number of things to change or go wrong. One was for just plain old laproscopic surgery, one was in case that wasn't enough and they had to make an incision, one for if they got inside and found out that it wasn't appendicitis but was instead a tumor, and another and another.... I imagined that some said "if I have a healthy extra kidney you can have it, and any other organs you might need for that matter." So after many more pressings of the doctor by Jenny, and many of my signatures on unknown Chinese medical forms, the doctor came in with a gerny and said "it's time" (but in Chinese of course).

So, I was strapped to a green gurney... quite well (i'm talking heavy blanket and three 5-inch thick pieces of velcro), and I was wheeled through the hospital, the whole time having scenes from Scrubs (the only hospital comedy or drama I watch) running through my head, and thinking... so this is what it's like to be strapped to a gurney and wheeled through a hospital. All I could see were the ceiling lights (but in my head I could see all the Chinese people staring at the mei guo ren who was being paraded through the passageways.) When we reached the doors to the surgery wing, Jenny and Regina had to stay outside, and then I was alone with the doctors and nurses—most of whom didn't speak any English. As I lay in the middle of the surgery room–which was quite large, and actually had quite a few people standing around waiting and laughing, and every once in a while saying "lao wei" (which means foreigner) excitedly. Yes, I thought, you get to operate on a white person today. Have fun, but do a good job!

As they got everything ready around me, and hooked me up to an IV and put little suction things around my heart to make sure it was beating, the anesthesiologist came up and was one of the few people who could speak some English. She asked me if I had had anesthesia before, and then, just before she put the mask over my mouth to put me under she said... "You just...have to... trust us." I smiled and said a short prayer.

When I woke up (the first time I remember being awake anyway... as opposed to how Regina said I was "awake" and mumbling as they wheeled me out of the surgical room) I felt like I had had a really good nights sleep. I had missed all the "fun" of sugery, and I didn't even get to see Pendy before they took him off to the lab for testing.

Apparently in Chinese hospitals if they remove an organ a family member has to verify that they removed the correct organ.

This meant that while I was still "in surgery" one of the doctors came out into the hall to talk to Jenny. She came over thinking that he had to tell her something about how my surgery was going... suddenly the doctor flung a tray in front of her face.... with my appendix on it! She screamed and called Regina over whilst hiding her face—I'm sure the image of my appendix isn't what she wanted burned into her brain.

My surgery and recovery have seemed to go off without a hitch. They said my appendix on the scale of good to Pop-happy was about a medium-pop. They were able to do everything they needed to do with just the laproscopic surgery, but at the same time, there was quite a bit of "contamination" that they had to clean up... and they thought that if I had had to wait even a few more hours it would have ruptured.

So, this brings me back to the two fears that I voiced at the beginning, and how because of the fact that I a) knew that something was wrong wrong.... wrong enough to go to the hospital wrong, and didn't just brush off the pain with a few meds and b) that my experience of having surgery (like I said I don't like surgeries..well.. who does...and I don't like hospitals) and how well it went... I have to thank God for his protection over me throughout the whole process, and also for the amazing caring friends He put around me the whole time (I had uber visitors, and my wonderful roomie even stayed the night at the hospital with me on the couch in my room for the weekend!)

I know that my parents (especially my mom) felt really terrible that I had to be in a hospital, in China, and that they couldn't be there with me... and while there's no one quite like a mother (and a father) when you're sick, God made sure that I had the second best---many friends and other mother types and people to make me fresh soup.. yummmm!

So now I'm out... and Brian (the guy that I coach Basketball with) has even allowed me to start playing a bit during our practices... haha. After 3-weeks I kept telling him it was ok... my holes were healed, it was good for me... but he made the girls vote about weather I should be allowed to play or not.. and they voted no, and he smiled and said.. maybe next time.. .it's for your own good. HA!

Alright, that's all for now. The-Space-Formerly-Known-As-Pendy says that he wants to share his side of the story... so maybe i'll let him post it on the blog later. :)

Here is a picture of me with Wilbur the IV. After him following me to the bathroom multiple times, I decided that we should be on a first name basis. He was fun for a while, but then he just got plain mean... always poking me with needles, never coming just to hang out.
Some of my first visitors: (this is my room before my new roomie moved in)

Yes, my mismatched hospital top is on backwards. They made me change it before surgery, and weaving my IV through one sleeve and out the other was hard enough to do once, let alone a second time after surgery. So I just left it the way it was.. the height of steeelo!

The deadly cult of Joseph Kony - Africa - Independent.co.uk

2008-11-26T08:28:00.002+08:00

It is a war that is waged by heavily armed soldiers against unarmed villagers and its casualties both living and dead mark the rebirth of Africa's most feared guerrilla group – the Lord's Resistance Army.

read more | digg story

Yet another wonderful use for Duct Tape

2008-11-06T18:35:00.000+08:00

McGeiver would be proud:

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- An airline crew used duct tape to keep a passenger in her seat because they say she became unruly, fighting flight attendants and grabbing other passengers, forcing the flight to land in North Carolina.

The tape of 1,001 uses now has another one -- keeping unruly airline passengers in their seat.

Maria Esther Castillo of Oswego, N.Y., is due in court Thursday, charged with resisting arrest and interfering with the operations of a flight crew aboard United Airlines Flight 645, from Puerto Rico to Chicago.

Castillo, 45, struck a flight attendant on the buttocks with the back of her hand during Saturday's flight, FBI Special Agent Peter Carricato said in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte.

She also stood and fell onto the head of a blind passenger and later started pulling the person's hair, the complaint stated.

Ankle cuffs kept slipping off Castillo, so the flight crew and two passengers were forced to use duct tape to keep her in her seat, the complaint states.

She calmed as the pilot diverted the flight to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, but became disruptive again when authorities boarded the plane to remove her, authorities said.

Carricato states that a passenger saw Castillo having drinks in an airport bar before boarding.

She bought another drink on the plane. Flight attendants stopped serving her alcohol because of her behavior, the complaint states.

United spokesman Jeff Kovick said Wednesday that safety during air travel is the company's top priority and that it's cooperating with authorities.

FBI spokeswoman Amy Thoreson on Wednesday declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

A message left seeking comment wasn't immediately returned by Castillo's attorney, Julia Mimms.

America Choses Obama by Roxanne Wieman

2008-11-06T16:12:00.000+08:00

Originally posted by Relevant Magazine
By Roxanne Wieman

Well, here we are on the other side. A watershed moment. An historic election. And we, the American people, have made our choice.

Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States, and the nation’s first black president. And in elections across the country, Democrats won their seats in the Senate. When Obama takes office in January, he will do so with a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

“The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly,” McCain told his supporters in Arizona after the results came in.

But what about you? Those of you who took our RELEVANT poll yesterday favored McCain: 47 percent of you voted for the Arizona Senator and 33 percent of you for Obama. So, are you disappointed? Will you hang your heads today? Do you fear for our nation’s future? I’m not so sure.

So many of us—members of the widely contested “young evangelical voters”—were divided about this election. Not just as a group, but even in our own hearts. I know which candidate I chose, but it wasn’t an easy decision. And, to be honest, I didn’t really care who won. I agreed with both. I disagreed with both.

What I’m wondering now is where do we go from here?

While the electoral vote and popular vote strongly favored Obama, our country is still largely divided. This was a hard-fought, personal and passionate race. There are wounds on both sides. Can Obama and the Democratic congress heal those wounds? Can we help?

Yes and yes.

Obama ran as a unifier. He condemned our party divisions and championed cooperation across party lines. Many of the Democrats who won seats in the Senate ran with similar platforms. If Obama and the Congress majority maintain that position and “reach across the aisle” in the years to come, that will certainly go a long way in healing our wounds and unifying our country. Karl Rove has already expressed his own wish that the Republicans would do the same, "I hope we will support [Obama] when we agree with him, persuade him when we think his mind is open, and oppose him when we think he is wrong."

Whether unity happens in Washington or not, the question still returns to us: what can we do to help? As Francis Schaeffer so famously put it, “How shall we then live?” Now that the election is over and Obama and the Democrats have so clearly won, how shall we then live? I believe that we, the young Christian voters, can uniquely answer this question. I believe, in fact, that this is the very question we are so primed to answer. Because this election and its profound life issues has galvanized us to true action.

Yes, we voted. But it’s more than that. Through this election, we’ve become aware of the major social issues of our day. And now we want to do something about them. We recognize an election will not change everything. We do not rest our hopes for change on a political party or candidate. We vote, we hope, but we don’t stop there. Tomorrow and the next day and the next and in January when Obama takes office, we get up and we continue our sojourn to follow Jesus. We live our votes for life, for justice, for peace, for equality.

We comfort our friend who tells us she’s considering abortion. Then we gently tell her why we believe life in the womb is precious. We help her find alternative options … and we stick by her side all through the pregnancy and birth and after. She is not a statistic or a faceless evil to us.

We love beyond racial, gender and sexual lines. We reject stereotypes. We embrace individuals. We work for reconciliation.

We do not talk about “that side of town,” we live there and work there and mentor there. We are a part of educational reform, and ESL, and rehabilitation.

We recycle. We reduce our imprint. We consciously make our purchases, recognizing the global implications. We strive to “live simply that others may simply live” (Ghandi).

We personally pray for our soldiers in Iraq, for the citizens of Iraq, for our leaders who are making tough decisions that affect millions of lives. We really do pray, and we believe our prayers matter.

We continue to work hard in the jobs God has given us, saving our money and stewarding our resources. We tithe. We donate. We volunteer.

We continually challenge each other to deepen our understanding of whole life ethics and Jesus’ call to follow Him.

I believe this is who we are. I believe this is who you are. I believe we can be the change we’ve voted for—no matter who we voted for.

First Word: Leading the Charge

2008-10-29T12:16:00.001+08:00

by Cameron Strang of Relevant Magazine

Posted on September 16, 2008
Filed Under Cameron Strang |

| Reprinted from the Sept./Oct. issue of RELEVANT
For more politics coverage, visit our politics page

Let's get this out of the way up front: I'm not a politically motivated person. Which is why I felt a tad out of place meeting with Barack Obama this summer. And talking to John McCain. And doing countless interviews about the faith and shifting political views of our generation.

Yet I have unwittingly found myself thrust into the political arena, a place where people are vehemently passionate about their ideologies and platforms. It's an entire industry built around being right and proving your opponent wrong, and winning at any cost. It's a continual power struggle and—from my humble vantage point—seems a bit flawed.

I'm someone who tries to think independently and objectively, rather than simply follow what the pundits tell me to think. Because of that, I've realized I cannot fully embrace either political party. Both sides of the aisle have some great ideas and goals. But both also have areas where they simply get it wrong.

I know the power of politics and the importance of the process in our world. But I also know that, historically, real, lasting change has started first at the grassroots level long before it was ever legislated. Cultural mindshifts influence Washington, not the other way around.
Many Christians traditionally have voted Republican because of their justifiable conviction to protect the lives of the unborn. Now, many younger Christians are voting Democrat because of their justifiable desire to see our nation, the most prosperous in the world, address issues of poverty, global aid and the environment.

The problem is, many Christians vote these convictions, but that's largely where their personal involvement in the issues stops. Are the government leaders we vote for meant to do our job for us?

If God has given you a heart for the poor, or to see a reduction in the number of abortions, or to promote peace, or to help the sick, or to stand for strong moral values, or to be a better steward of the environment, then your personal focus needs to be on that—whether or not the President shares your same values.

The Bible reminds us to pray for our leaders, but it also talks about praying for those who persecute us. Though I can't foresee any situation where this would be the case, what if one day every value Christians stand for, even religious freedom itself, was legislatively removed? Christians in China and many other parts of the world face this reality every day. Would it change us?

Dare I say, it might actually spur the Body of Christ here into greater action. Could it be that the loss of religious freedoms would ultimately be the best thing for American Christians because it would cause us to stand on our own feet rather than relying on the government to legislate our faith and values for us?

I've heard that only 5 percent of people who attend church regularly actually serve in any way. I've read that if every Christian in America actually tithed 10 percent of their income, we would have enough financial resources to wipe out global poverty.

There's more power lying dormant in pews around the nation than any government could hope to provide, and that's where our focus should be.

Many Christians want to overturn Roe v. Wade, but I don't hear nearly as many leading the charge on a national adoption movement. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, where are all of those babies going to end up? Christians should be focused on personal action regardless of legislation, not just waiting for the right number of Supreme Court justices to come along.

I'm not saying don't vote. Do. Vote your convictions and let your voice be heard—that's one of the perks of living in a democracy. But don't let politics breed division, or make you see people in a different light.

If you have a passion for an issue, rather than judging someone who doesn't share that passion or viewpoint, just go do something about it. Give your life to it. Be the change you want to see.

We need to pray for our leaders and our country, but always remember that our leaders and country do not define us. We are the generation that will shape the direction culture, government and social action will take in the next 50 years. It's not up to Washington, it's up to us—and I say it's time we step up and lead the charge.

But that means with our lives, our finances and our actions every day. Not just Nov. 4.

Posted from www.relevantmagazine.com

Inspired to be Unplugged

2008-10-11T00:20:00.001+08:00

Time to reminisce about the good 'ole days... of the retreats of yore, in a far away land called Aurora.

Sarah Palin

2008-10-06T09:40:00.000+08:00

Here is an interesting article I found online. Apparently it started as an e-mail from a lady in Alaska, and quickly progressed throughout the world wide web. It has now been posted in full and with her permission at an Alaskan paper's online site.

Read the original post here.
or continue reading the article below.
Thoughts?

"I have known Sarah since 1992..." (Updated, 9/9)

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: September 4, 2008 - 12:11 pm

We'd appended an update from Kilkenny at the end of her original post.

From David Hulen in Anchorage --

The e-mail below has been bouncing around the Internet since Sunday. It was written by Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla - stay-at-home mom, letter-to-the-editor writer and longtime watcher of Valley politics. She's a registered Democrat. She was one of the delegates to the Conference of Alaskans in Fairbanks back in 2004. Her bio from the conference is here.

She e-mailed this letter over the weekend to family and friends Outside, and (despite her request not to post it) it went viral on the Internet very quickly, showing up on blogs and Web sites all over. Since then, Kilkenny has been inundated with phone calls and e-mails. She said she stayed up until 3 a.m. last night answering e-mails, and found nearly 400 new ones waiting when she logged on this morning.

It's posted here with her permission.

***

Dear friends,

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

Thanks,
Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT
*"Hockey mom": true for a few years.

*"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since.

*"NRA supporter": absolutely true

*social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).

*pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.

*"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation

*"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

*political maverick: not at all

*gutsy: absolutely!

*open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

*has a developed philosophy of public policy: no

*"a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

*fiscal conservative: not by my definition!

*pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.

*pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents

*pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history.

*pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that's life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.

Anne Kilkenny
August 31, 2008

***

Dear Readers,

As I write, it has been more than a week since the email I wrote to friends and family about Sarah Palin began to ping-pong around the country. In that time I've received over 9,600 emails. I've lost track of the number of journalists--maybe 3 dozen?-- who have challenged me to provide sources to substantiate all that I mentioned in it. I have cooperated fully with everyone, providing all the information anyone has requested, and offering all the help I could.

It is a strange thing to have your words echo back to you from around the world. If I were to write my email today, I would make the following changes.

1) If I could change one word, it would be the word "hate". I said Sarah Palin hated me. That was inappropriate. I should have said that Sarah knows that she lost my support when she sought to remove books that she didn't like from the library.

One of the great things that America has given the world is the tradition of irenic debate: the understanding that we can agree to disagree, that there is a difference between disagreeing and disliking. I failed to demonstrate that important concept when I used the word "hate". Sarah has always been polite and gracious to me in public. I don't know how she feels about me, and it was inappropriate for me to use that ugly word to describe her feelings.

2) I wrote: "While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed."

I should NOT have written ". . . because the Librarian refused . . . " . I should have written " . . . .after the Librarian refused. . . . "

3) If I were to write my email today I would add that I have no recollection of what specific book titles Mayor Palin wanted removed from the library, or if she even named any. There is a list of books out there; I know nothing about that list! It looks bogus to me.

4) I wrote: ""PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since".

This appears to have been a somewhat inaccurate statement. Sarah Palin has referred to herself as a "PTA mom" for so long that I just assumed it was true. Having been active in PTA since 1996, I assumed that she was an officer before that. Even McCain, when announcing her as his running mate, referred to her executive experience in PTA. But the Alaska State PTA office says it has no record of Sarah Palin ever having been a PTA board member; they do record that she paid dues.

5) I wrote: "Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans."

I should have capitalized "native", as in: Eskimo, Inupiat, Athabascan, etc.

For your information, I do not have a website, and I don't blog. So if you see my name out there attached to anything besides my original email and this, it's somebody else trying to smear me.

The response to my email has been totally unexpected and amazing. I am SO impressed and heartened! My inbox is full of story after story of generous, courageous, everyday people who have made personal sacrifices for the common good: stories of quiet courage. We are a nation of unsung heroes!

And ours is truly a Christian country. It is obvious to me that people are really trying hard to practice the Christian faith that they profess. I am so pleased by the thoughtful, respectful arguments that people have put forward for why they have chosen one ticket or the other. The vast majority of the people out there reject the Karl Rovian politics of personal destruction and wish that campaigns could be free of "spin" and "image".

I am pleased to know that the overwhelming majority of the readers of my email found the information helpful.

Dozens of journalists have researched what I have said. They have found nothing else to be inaccurate.

Anne Kilkenny
September 9, 2008

More Great Political Cartoons

2008-10-06T09:36:00.000+08:00

from: www.worldmag.com

OBAMA & MCCAIN Saddleback Church Presidential Forum

2008-09-29T16:08:00.000+08:00

In case you missed it here are the videos for the the Presidential Forum that took place. Obama and McCain were each asked the same set of questions separately.

Here are some questions/comments I have after watching the videos:

The Question of Evil in the World:
Does it worry anyone else that the only place McCain sees evil in the world is in the middle east, while Obama is able to see that there is evil all around us, on street corners, in child abusers, in genocide. I think that this was one of the many ways that McCain continued to slip the war in Iraq into ansers.
Overall, I feel like McCain gave answers, while Obama gave solutions. I agree with McCain that abortion is wrong, and that life begins at conception; however, this is obviously something that we're not going to get all of America to agree on. In that view, while Obama's answer may not be what concervatives want to hear, his end focus is still the same: reducing the number of abortions... to top it off, he has a way of doing this. McCain mentioned nothing about exactly how he expected to reduce abortions, and judging by the fact that abortions have continued to grow over the past years, simply having a conservative president that can quip "at conception" isn't going to cut it.
The Question of wealth. McCain side-stepped this question all over the stage saying that he didn't want to raise taxes on anyone. Yet he wants to continue a very expensive war, not to mention put in place quite a few other things that require having money. So where are we going to get it?
War and Stories and Stump Speaches: McCain was able to fit The war, his time in war, or a story about war into every answer. Does this country really need someone so focused on war? The candidates were asked not to give stump speaches, but instead to have a conversation. Obama had an intelligent conversation. McCain used stump speaches.

You can read the full transcript of the speach here.
Or start watching the debate below. To continue, just go to YouTube here.

Priceless.

2008-09-25T11:40:00.000+08:00

Sometimes it's the comedians that speak the most truth:

From: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14472

Olympics pictures

2008-09-14T00:55:00.000+08:00

Okay, so I've finally gotten some pictures from the Olympics up! :) Aren't you proud?? Enjoy!

Did you get fired??!!

2008-09-07T20:56:00.000+08:00

Well, I've made it through the first week of school. I guess, considering that I don't actually have classes this year, that's not as big of an accomplishment as if I had just had to spend 5 days trying to get 2.5-6 year olds to understand that their mommy and daddy love them, but they're not coming to get them until 4. Actually, I take that back. I did make a few (2) appearances in the P1 classroom. Snot and tears would be the two words I use to describe the experience. After that, I decided to fullfill my roll as the Grandparent of the Kindergarten. You know, the one that get's to go in, play with the kids, have fun, but has no responsibility to teach them anything :) So, I also made a few (2) appearances in the P2 classes to see my old kids from last year. I was attacked by shouts of "GOOD MORNING TEACHER JANAI!!!!!" Apparently, after a whole year, that's all they learned. Maybe I was a grandparent last year too. (haha)

On Thursday I ventured out to the Elementary School playground during their recess hour. While some may consider that a death wish (ball flying head high in every direction, little people everywhere, EVERYWHERE), I wanted to see my old, old kids. The ones I had taught as K1ers, and who had now graduated across the courtyard to the Elementary school. Before long, one spots me. It's Julia, one of my native English speakers. She comes running at me, flower buds filling up her hands. As she shows me how to pop the buds so that the flower springs forth we talk about the new year.

Julia: What kids are you teaching this year Teacher Janai?

Me: I'm not teaching this year.

Julia: You're not teaching? What are you doing? (she was very upset, suprised, and concerned)

Me: I'm making a magazine.

Julia: After you make the magazine who are you going to teach? (not teaching was not an option)

Me: I'm not teaching at all, I'm making the magazine all day.

At this point Julia got pensive, then, very seriously, she looked up at me and asked... "Did you get fired??"

Apparently if you don't teach, you don't work. :)

Bridge

2008-09-07T20:24:00.000+08:00

Through the center of the LQ
Runs a canal.
Over the canal
Arches a bridge.
The bridge was once
Common.
Faded white.
Dwindling blue.
Old men fished off of it.
Kids raced over it.
Bikes zipped down its ramps.

But no one noticed it.

Then it got a face-lift.
A make-over.
A re-do.

Now it screams for joy.
Flashes bright yellow.
Shines electric pink.
People will take notice of me it says.
They will thank me for the fish
They catch off my sides
They will thank me for making
A walk from here to there
Shorter.
They will thank me for my ramps
That help their bikes
Zip
And zoooo.
They will take note
As I shout out loud
Live out proud.

But then their shoes scuff it up.
But then the fish guts leave a glup.
But then the wintery
Acidy
Rains
Make the paint fade
Away

Through the center of the LQ
Runs a canal.
Over the canal.
Arches a bridge.

The Difference Between China and America

2008-08-31T16:43:00.001+08:00

The JinQiao shopping center near where I live has a large cement expanse sweeping in front of it. It even has a nice little ramp area—a haven for burgeoning boarders. In the US, this kind of inadvertent skate-boarding haven would be complete with obvious “No Skating” signs and metal pieces hidden in the concrete just waiting to flatten any boarder who dared to ignore the NO. Security guards would constantly be wagging their finger at “those darn kids” as they did tricks and weaved through the area.

Contrast the JinQiao shopping area and China. No “NO” signs. No metal face-planting rivets. And as I walked through the glass doors of the entrance I passed a lone security guard: relaxed, arm crossed, and grinning as he watched a bunch of ex-pat kids from the near-by international school show of their skate-boarding skills.

Welcome Home

2008-08-31T16:40:00.000+08:00

“Helloooooo Howww Aaaare Youuuuu?” My plane from San Francisco had just landed in Shanghai, China. It wasn’t my first time in China, in fact I was returning for a third year of battling 18 million people for a spot on the cement jungle that is Shanghai. After being gone for a month, I’m always a little worried that my Chinese won’t quite do it for the taxi driver, and that I’ll spend 10 minutes saying over and over “Long Dong Da Dao hu Guang Lan Lu!” This time the stress being on DA, and next time stressing the Dong. This time would be different. As soon as I sat down in the cab the driver croons at me four words I’m sure he’s been studying for the past year: “Helloooooo Howww Aaaare Youuuuu?”

Now, since China had been granted to show off it’s international prowess via the 2008 Summer Games, the media had been littered with reports on everything China. I had seen more than one report on how all the taxi drivers in Beijing were learning English for the upcoming Games. However, as far as I knew (or could tell from numerous taxi rides), Shanghai taxi drivers were far from being required to do the same. So, needless to say, I was surprised. I had snagged a super-excited-for-the-olympics-English-practicing Taxi driver. I did my best Chinese version of my address, and off we went, the radio babbling on and on about the Olympic games (which was one of the handful of phrases I could pull out of the jumble of Chinese words). For the rest of the ride he practiced his English. “Zhouguai—LEFT!” he would exclaim. “YoGuai—RIGHT!” “YiQiZhou—Keeep Going!” I sat in semi-confusion as I kept worrying that he had stopped practicing and had started actually asking if this is where he is suppose to Left, Right or YiQiZhou.

In the end I made it the the front steps of my apartment complex. He helped me unload my “Four bag” “heavy,” and then drove off into the Shanghai night happy that the LaoWei had understood his English.

He is...Happiness

2008-05-26T22:55:00.001+08:00

"He is....Happiness." This is how one of the Chinese teachers described him to me; and, it is a statement that although it may not be exactly grammatically correct, is the only way to describe him.

Psalm 127:3

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD

His name is Jasper. He is somewhere between his 3rd and 4th year of life. He gives the best hugs out of any of my Kindergarteners. When he is sad, you can see it in his whole body (even if his face desperately tries to be happy), and he gives even better hugs. And when he is happy, he is happy with all that he is. When he's excited, he is the most excited. Sometimes he just can't control his excitement, the will of every atom in his body to LIVE—and then he gets in trouble for not sitting nicely :( He is genuine. He tries so hard to be good. He repeats anything you tell him louder, and with a bigger smile. He yearns to be loved. His name is Jasper.

Recently, my P1 students have been learning the dialogue:
"I'm sorry!"
"That's okay!"

At John's suggestion, I had 3-4 students form a line. Starting with the first student in line, I shuffled him backwards until he lightly bumped the student behing him. At that point, he would turn around and say: "I'm sorry!" And the other student would reply: "that's okay!" We would continue down the line until each student had bumped the student behind them and put this dialogue to use.

We hadn't reviewed this dialogue for about a week (which was also about the length of time that Jasper had been missing from class) and so I had slightly forgotten about the activity. Then, one morning, as all of the students were lining up on their dots, and forming two lines, I was walking along the line and talking with the children. Jasper was stading on the dot next to me, and I saw him moving over toward me, then promptly turn, and every so carefully, stick out his bottom until it bumpped my knee. He then swung around and with his shoulders shrugged (like I had forgotten I taught them) his high pitched voice calls something to me. I look at him and smile, and then continue to talk to the other child (Jasper often says things that no one can understand—not even the Chinese teachers). But then, he did it again. I'm a bit confused, as I still can't figure out exactly what he is saying after he so carefully knocks me with his bottom. Well, the third time was the charm. Finaly, I caught the muffled words "I'm sorry!" thrust from his mouth. At this I heard a click in my head (gears turning) and I reponded, "that's okay!" Jasper, content to finaly have gotten what he came for, then moved on to the next student who he walked straight at, did an about face, carefully bumped with his bottom, did another about face, and called "I'm sorry!" the entire time, being completely overjoyed that he knew just what to say after purposely bumping into people with his bottom. :)

And that, is just one of many Jasper Stories.

Some are given...All are called...

2008-05-20T22:58:00.000+08:00

Compliments of my Study Notes :) It's kinda poetic don't you think?

Some Christians are given Divine wisdom (1 Cor 13:8)
All beleivers are called to live wisely (Rom 16:19; Eph 5:15; Col 4:5)

Some Christians are given Extraordinary faith (1 Cor 12:9)
All Believers are called to walk by faith (2 Cor 5:7) and abound in faith (2 Cor 8:7); to take up the shield of faith (Eph 6:16) and pursue faith (1 Tim 6:12; 2 Tim 2:22)

Some Christians are given Special teaching gifts (1 Cor 12:28; Rom 12:7)
All Believers are called to teach others the truths of God (Matt 28:20; 2 Tim 2:2,24)

Some Christians are given Supernatural ability to help (1 Cor 12:28)
All Believers are called to serve one another in love (Gal 5:13) and to minister to others (Rom 12:7)

Some Christians are given the gift of exhortation (Rom 12:8)
All Believers are called to exhort one another daily (Heb 3:13)

Some Christians are given the ability to give with liberality (Rom 12:8)
All Believers are called to give "not grudgingly or of necessity" but cheerfully (2 Cor 9:7)

Some Christians are given Divine power to show mercy (Rom 12:8)
All Believers are called to be merciful (Luke 6:36; James 2:13)

New Friends

2008-05-09T12:20:00.000+08:00

Not more than a block from our school/living quarters, is one of the coolest local streets in our Pudong, Shanghai area. Coming from an apartment area, and a school, that is sometimes a bit too full of westerners for living in China, this street is a breath of "fresh" air. It is lined with the types of little shops seen all over China. The ones that sell a conglomeration of different items ranging from household plumbing, to house slippers, to cell phone recharge cards, to pots and pans, to fake dvds. All of this is crowded into a space not much bigger than most people's front rooms, which is lined floor to ceiling with shelves. The pots sit next to the house slippers, the batteries site next to shower heads, and all of it looks as if, at the smallest movement, it would all some tumbling down creating a more jumbled mess than it already is. Intermingled with these catch-all shops are fruit and vegetables shops that lead back into wet markets selling grown goods along side unrefrigerated pigs legs, live fish, frogs, etc; hair salons, quicky marts (think 7-11), and small eateries.

At night this road becomes alive as meat-on-a-stick (the name says it all) sellers park their bikes along the side of the already narrow street, unfolding from the back a magically packed coal grill, complete with sticks, meat, and veggies for grilling. As the housing here generally has very small rooms, at night, after work, people migrate outdoors to relax, and hang out with friends. Fried noodle vendors and hot pot sellers park their wagons beside the meat-on-a-stick sellers, and before you know it, it's like a small street fair.

There are two small restaurants along this road that I particularly enjoy. One is the dumpling place (they sell dumplings), and the other is the Muslim Noodle place (they sell Muslim style noodle dishes). We name all the restaurants here by what kind of food they have, as we usually don't know their Chinese names.

The other day, two of the other Kindergarten teachers: Terry and Buffy, their friend who was visiting from Canada: Owen, and I, headed over to the Muslim Noodle place for lunch. It was a beautiful day, and eating at the Muslim Noodle place was a perfect chance to enjoy some cheap food (a full plate of noodles for about a dollar) and the great weather.

After snagging an available table outside, Buffy, Owen and I headed next next door to the convenience store to buy some drinks. When we came out, we found that Terry was now sitting at the table stationed beside ours (but belonging to the restaurant next door) with 3 other Chinese people. As we came over, one of the men motioned for us to pull up chairs, telling us (in Chinese) to join them, while at the same time waving down the waitress to order more food. When we protested saying that we had already ordered a full meal from the restaurant next door he waved off our words saying (again in Chinese) that it was okay, we could share, and that they had Hen hao chur --Very good food.

Buffy and Terry (whose Chinese is much better than mine) proceeded to have a good chat with the 3 Chinese people there. We found out who had kids, how old they were, where they lived, etc. These 3 strangers willingly shared all the food at their table with us, while talking cheerfully about the limited subjects we could. We talked about how China has so many beautiful places to see, and found out various places they had been traveling. Meanwhile, this whole episode also made me realize how dismal my Chinese was, and motivated me (again) to work harder at getting to a conversational level that was above "I am a teacher," "I'm from America," "It's nice to meet you."

Most of all, I was amazed at the kindness of strangers, and the willingness of these people to invite us into their lives, even if it was just for lunch. At one point in the conversation, more than halfway through the meal, Owen turned to me and said "Wait, so you guys don't know these people?" Nope, we didn't. And, not only did they share their food, and pay for the lunches we had already ordered from the other restaurant; but more so they shared a meal as if we were old friends. :)

Heroes

2007-12-10T22:53:00.000+08:00

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

2007-11-27T14:43:00.000+08:00

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

2007-11-14T04:44:00.000+08:00

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!

2007-10-18T22:43:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-28T22:12:00.001+08:00

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

2007-05-28T11:50:00.000+08:00

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!

2007-05-10T21:55:00.000+08:00

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

2007-04-24T20:16:00.000+08:00

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

2007-04-16T22:35:00.000+08:00

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?

2007-03-25T23:05:00.001+08:00

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...

2007-03-16T12:33:00.000+08:00

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

2007-03-11T21:14:00.000+08:00

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

2007-03-06T23:46:00.000+08:00

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"

2007-02-28T23:00:00.000+08:00

[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

2007-02-08T22:52:00.000+08:00

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

2007-02-07T02:07:00.000+08:00

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

2007-01-22T17:28:00.000+08:00

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

2007-01-22T17:09:00.000+08:00

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

2007-01-16T15:50:00.000+08:00

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.

Because...Beloved

2006-12-18T00:50:00.000+08:00

because He gave us a choice, because we'd rather pay for glory and power than humbly accept The free gift, because you need two options to have a choice, because he is deceiving, because we think there is a price for everything, because we have to be P.C., because people arn't carefull, because life isn't fair, because we're looking in the wrong places, because we each have a different thing we're seeking, because it involves becoming vulnerable to both extremes, because we want revenge, because it's winter, because we're not capable of it, because the salt doesn't evaporate but it does run in with the rainwater, maybe we do, they were placed there, all the more to magnify His glory with, because we think that pain is a constant not a problem, because our eye percieves it as blue, because sometimes the darkness seems so thick, because it takes committing to that faith, because it means making yourself vulnerable, because it's harder to break a good first impression than it is to make up for a bad one, because everyone wants to be a rebel, because we've made God in our image instead of working ourselves into His, because they're searching for love, because it makes the plastic go a longer way, because Americans have to have dessert, because it involves becoming vulnerable, because we can be very self-centered, because we think that success is found in our jobs–our salaries– our 2.5 kids– our friends opinions, it means that we were created to be different–that we are Holy vessels–that He loved us That much, because red catches our eye over almost any other color--it's like a horn to our brain--better to be told with a horn to stop than to go.

Pictures

2006-12-17T17:55:00.000+08:00

Here are links to the web albums I'm creating through Picasa Google. I'm slowly getting pics uploaded :) Enjoy!

Guilin to Yangshuo

Yangshuo

Architecture and Beyond

Signs

How big IS this place?!!!

2006-12-08T00:08:00.000+08:00

The Urban Planning Museum
This last weekend we took an outing to the Urban Planning museum here in Shanghai. It was a lot lot lot of info about urban/city developement in Shanghai both in the past (how it became such a huge city) and in the future (how they're trying to clean it up and make it "green".)

My favorite part was an almost comprehensive model of the city. It is a model of almost the entire city as it is right now... and also throws in some of the buildings that are in progress such as the two that are going in at the area near the 'Pearl Tower' and the 'Jing Mao'. One or both of the new buildings are supposed to push their way into the top 5 list of tallest buildings in the world.

Here is a picture of what Lujiazui (spelling) will look like by I think it's 2008.

Ahhh our bridge. This is our "portal" between Pudong (where we live on the East side of the river) and Puxie (where everything is on the West side of the river). As you can see, there's a fun spiraly-bob at the end of it. You just go round and round until the taxi driver decides that it's your turn to exit, then you get off.

Here is the gargantuan model of Shanghai. The wierd looking building that's basically a spire with a big ball at the bottom & top, and a small ball at the toppest. Keep your eye on the Pearl Tower for orientation.. it's the easiest thing to spot.

Moving out. Can you still see the Pearl Tower? I live somewhere off the bottom left corner of the screen.

Even further out. Can you believe how big this city is?!

Here's a view of the model from a couple stories up. The Pearl Tower is right in the basket of the bend of the river. I live off the top right hand corner of the picture.

Here are some Fast Facts about Shanghai

Time Zone
GMT + 8 hours, same as Singapore. The whole of China, including Hong Kong, is set to Beijing time.

Holidays
2006
Jan 1 New Year
Jan 29-31 Spring Festival, Chinese New Year
May 1 Labour Day.
Oct 1-3 National Day.
2007

Jan 1 New Year
Feb 18-20 Spring Festival, Chinese New Year
May 1 Labour Day
Oct 1-3 National Day

Climate
Shanghai summers are hot and humid with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. The rainy season begins in June. Fall is mostly mild. In winter (January to February) temperatures can reach below freezing. Spring begins again in March. Click here for 3-day weather forecast for Shanghai.

Major Industries
Manufacture of textiles, garments, footwear, toys, crude oil, household electrical appliances, sports goods, telecommunication equipment, pharmaceuticals, steel products, general metalwares and coal

Teledensity
14.4 persons per telephone

Geography
China is the fourth largest country after Russia, Canada and the United States. It is located in Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam.
Land area: 9,326,410 sq. km.
Shanghai occupies 6,200 sq. km. and lies in central-eastern China, facing the East China Sea.

Population
China: 1.28 billion
Shanghai: 13.4 million

Ethnic Groups
Han Chinese make up the majority of China's population (91.9%). Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities make up only 8.1%.

Language
The official language in China is Mandarin but distinct dialects are spoken throughout the country. Shanghainese speak Mandarin or Shanghaihua, however most tourist hotels have staff who are fluent in foreign languages.

Literacy
90.6%

Socks are Yummy!!

2006-11-24T03:34:00.000+08:00

--the names of businesses or people may be changed to protect the innocent--

I recently recieved this e-mail. It's a good thing I got the warning, or i may have never known not to keep socks in the office! I also would have joined the "No Four Pest" campaign earlier.

Dear all,
Serious mouse problem caused by storing sock or fruit in office area was found in *** site recently. *** kindly reminds all ** colleague not to store any sock or fruit in office area and check before off your duty everyday to build one clean, health and no four pest (mouse, cockroach, fly and mosquito) work environment, thanks for your great supports!

Deja Vu

2006-11-23T16:04:00.000+08:00

Deja vu

Do you have music? or a smell? or a feel? that when you experience it, it's like a hyperlinked wormhole into the past? I just thought of a few:

Counting Crows "August and Everything After" album – Reminds me of the bus ride to track meets in high school. I think I listened to that CD non-stop for an entire season.

Ace of Base "The Sign," and "Don't Turn Around" – The bus ride to school in 6th grade. Man we were SOOO cool sitting in the back of the bus listening to our walkmen! When did those things go out of style anyway. Maybe Apple should make an iPod that looks like an old school walk-man and bring us all back to The Day. :)

Different smells every two blocks– When I went running with Kira down in Arizona. She was 1) really excited to be running at like 4:30 in the morning.... 2) really excited about the different flowery smells one would encounter at each house, and 3) running way too fast for me.

A bike with a carrier rack on the back – When I was little and all my cousins and I (about 8 of us) would wait with baited anticipation for our Grandpa to give us a ride on his bike. It had a soft grey furry seat, and colored plastics on the spokes that made it sing as you rode.

"Dreaming of You" by The Coral – Late nite study-break dance parties at the Buchon house. For exactly 2:21minutes my roomates and I would lift our heads from our studies and dance around the frontroom and slide around in our socks on the hard-wood floors. Our frontroom had a Giant window that looked out on the street, and in brief moments of lucidity I would ponder what our neighbors thought of us.... oh well!

Jurassic Circus and a Cheap Hair-wash

2006-11-03T13:55:00.000+08:00

The CircusFairZoo: a Jurassic Park Adventure

Recently the Kindergarten department (think 350 sum kids between the ages of 2.5 and 6) took an outing the the "Zoo". I place "zoo" in quotes because it really was more of a combination of Jurrasic Park for safari animals and the American Circus back in the 1800s(before all those animal-huggers got so pepped up on protecting their furry amigos or pungyos).

One part of our outing was a "safari drive." Instead of having people walk around to see all the animals in their different habitats, they just paved a road right through the center of them and let you drive through. The entry was seriously Jurrasic Park style with large electrified gates that opened to allow our Giant tour bus through. And warning signs that told you that "you're not allowed to tease the animals," and that "those who disobey will have to suffer any consequences" i.e. one of the lions, tigers, or bears making you their mid-day snackey. yummmmm... tastes like megwa (american). Well no kids lots any appendages, but we did have a giraffe try to stick his head through the bus window. We fooled him...it was shut!

Next it was off to the 1800s American Circus (you know the one where you could see the bearded lady?). We got to watch two bears boxing. Full on standing upright with boxing gloves on. We watched a monkey, a bear, and a deer (?) race around their circular track. The monkey's legs were moving at about 300mph and he kept looking back every quarter of a circle to make sure that he was still beating the bear----the deer type animal was way behind since it had to push it's bike while walking beside it since it couldn't ride it. There were acrobat girls who swung around on an Elephant. And a monkey who lit the "Olympic torch" (he did a very good job, and was wearing a stripped shirt).

Each of us Kindergarten teachers were assigned to one or two P1 students (they're the 2.5 to 3 year olds) for the day. They assigned me one girl, not two, because they said she was very "independent." haha. Her name was TingTing. She was pretty independent and I think was one of the few kids who didn't take a nap during one of the "zoo events," even though she did konk out as soon as we were on the bus headed back to the school.

So keeping in mind that we all had tiny little kids, with tasty tiny little appendages walking around this "zoo", it was interesting to find that they had a lion and a tiger with nothing more than a collar around their neck, laying out on pedestals along the walkway for people to come up and pet. One of the "zoo" keepers practically kidnapped one of Eric's kids to get him to come over and put his hand on the lion.

Lastly, is my most "china-esque" memory yet. While at the "1800s Circus" we were all siting in the second flight of seats with a walking aisle in front of us. Midway through the show I look to my left and see that the kid next to Eric (who was next to me) was being held in his mom's lap kinda oddly. Flashbacks came into my head of earlier in the day when the P1ers had to go to the bathroom after lunch the Aiyi's would just pull down their pants (right there on the grass where we had just finished eating) and hold them so that they could pee on the grass. So this lady was holding her kid in the same weird way. And I thought to myself (me of little faith)... nooooo... this lady is NOT going to let her kid pee right here in the stands with tons of people squished in on three sides, and another whole flight of people not far in front. About as soon as the thought had swept through my mind I see pee/water flying in an arch out of the ladies lap. Yes, apparently she IS going to let him just pee right here. As the ark of liquid flew back and forth and slowly formed a small tributary across the walkway I nudged Erik and told him to "pick up your backpack... PICK UP YOUR BACKPACK!.... The kids in the row in front of us got warned by one of our Chinese teachers just in time to pull their back packs out of the line of the river, although one boys bag had already reeked the consequences of splashage. So here we are.... the kids must have drank about 10 gallons of water because that's about how much is now sitting in the walkway..... After some chiding from the people around her, The lady grabbed a piece of newspaper that was sitting in the walkway and starts sloshing the pee up with it. Mind you this is a Single piece of newspaper, and her kid just let fly 10 gallons of liquid. We could probably pull in some simple geometry of surface areas combined with some Physics on the saturation potential of a Single piece of newspaper to come to the conclusion that the newspaper was quickly of no good.. and the lady was simply sloshing the pee into a puddle, and all over her hands. I spent the rest of the show watching in dismay as kids ran by right through the puddle of pee. My mind imagined putting a red tracking dye on the pee to monitor it's spread, and I decided that day that my roommates and I would be more committed to the practice of taking off our shoes before we enter our apartment. I've found that this practice became a cultural practice, because you have to do it in China to help prevent the spread of Hepatitis, etc.

TingTing didn't seem to notice this peeing escapade.. and thoroughly enjoyed the entire "zoo" experience. Well thoroughly in-as-much as I could tell as she didn't speak much to any English, and I don't speak much to any Chinese. :)

Ahh the joys of a Cheap Hair Wash
Time to walk to the Hair Cutting Place: 8 minutes
+
Definition of a "hair wash" = hair wash, hair properly conditioned; head massage, face massage, shoulder and neck massage, arm massage, and some back massage; hair dry.
+
Total time: about 40 minutes.
+
Cost: 10RMB / 1.25 USD

=happiness for all!

Hope all is well! Happy Thanksgiving to all! Amazingly enough, I'm in China and I've already had one true thanksgiving meal--and it's not even Thanksgiving yet! :) yeah! One (or two) more tomorrow. Tryptophan here I come!

Company Sports Day

2006-10-24T15:52:00.000+08:00

This weeks: Story of the Week, comes to you from the Company Sports Day
There I was standing in a line with my right and left leg strapped to 1 other English speaking whitey (Chris for those of you who know him) and 8 other Chinese teachers/ company workers. They called it a Caterpillar race. As I strapped in, I looked around at the other two teams and heard them chanting yi, ar, yi, ar, while moving their right and left legs up in perfect synchronization. I also recognized these same teams as being the ones who were practicing under the eaves of the Cafeteria and Gym while everyone else was hiding from the torrential rain under whatever cover they could find.

As for me, I had been pulled into the race last minute (MY race was the 16X200m). Okay "pulled" isn't really the best term to use maybe. I think the conversation went more like this:

Chris: Hey J, Sarah's not here, do you want to compete in the Caterpillar race
J: (not knowing what exactly a catapillar race was) Sure!!!

So I guess I jumped in with a sense of excited naivete really.

As the ref said "something, something, something, BANG" the other two teams took off down the race course at an alarming speed, their 20 legs moving seamlessly to the beat of yi, er, yi, er. They were striding like gazelles, gliding along as if they were Siamese dectuplets who had had to walk this way since birth. I was agaw!

My team on the other hand was barely moving. None of us had practiced at all for this race, we had Chris the tall German as our fearless leader calling out yi, er... or left–right... or something.... and we were taking steps the size of a caterpillars. As we slowly made our way down toward the cone that we then had to go around, only to come back the way we came, I see the other two teams go yi–ering by us .... IN THE OTHER DIRECTION... their legs still drumming to the rhythm.

Our team slowly made our way down to the cone. There were a few stops along the way for us to regroup, and try to begin again–this time on the same beat, only to be off in the next second. I felt the rope sawing through my flesh as I tried to keep my feet moving forward and backward in the same timing as the person in front of me to no avail. The crowd that had gathered was now cheering us on with a loud "giyo–giyo!" And I think I saw Jackie and her mom pointing and laughing as we passed by. Actually I may have even had a whole conversation with them as our Caterpillar slowly slanked by their post along the course rope.

We made it past the finish line to loud cheers, high fives, and a race time marked by the sundial. But our team as a whole was jovial in spirit. We laughed, I said stuff in English they didn't understand, they said stuff in Chinese I didn't understand, I then said hen hao a few times in return.... and Chris and I went jogging off to our next appearance: the 16X200m race.

Other highlights from the sports day included:

-being required to come in on a Saturday as one of our school holiday make-ups
-the opening ceremony march with people dressed in costumes that may have vaguely represented 2 mice (mickey and minnie I suppose), Tigger, and some very bright pink something that I couldn't categorize.
-a new hat for me from the flee market
-wearing the new hat with my workout cloths for the rest of the day
-getting free food from a selection of different food vendors
-seeing my Kindergarten kids perform their "morning exercise" routine
-and playing volleyball in the gym until we got kicked out by the "renting Police"

<~Here's part of the opening procension. The two in the middle are my Kindies! :) Oh! I'm so proud.. :)

This week we're taking a field trip to the Animal Safari park with the kindergartners. This includes driving a van Jurassic Park Style directly through the habitat of the lions and tigers and bears (OH MY!). All of us K1 and K2 teachers will be helping out with the P1 classes (think 2.5 to 3 year olds), since apparently the second part of the excersion requires a lot of walking.

Today I taught my Kindie's the beginning of Blondie's "one way or another" song. I think it's important that they know about the hazards of stalking at an early age.

The gang and I are trying to figure out costumes for a Halloween partay some of our kids are having on Saturday... current ideas are: Carebears, Ducktails, the Wizard of OZ. There are 6-9 of us who are all trying to dress in a theme. We'll see what theme wins.

Reporters Journal II

2006-10-19T20:07:00.000+08:00

Okay.. sorry these are so late.. but they're still entertaining.. so check it out eh?

Here are some on bike riding in Yangshuo:

and on rafting down the Li River

Reporters Journal I

2006-10-18T18:18:00.000+08:00

3000 feet in the air:

and then the landing...

"James and the Giant Peach" or "4 white girls and a crashing balloon

2006-10-17T23:44:00.000+08:00

My story of the week comes from a Hot Air Balloon in Yangshuo–Guilin

Picture yourself, a young Chinese child, living in a small farming community between two small town/cities in "inner" china. One day a giant, colorful, floating balloon comes around one of your funny looking mountians–the ones that rise up like pinnacles from an otherwise very flat land. It is odd to see this balloon, but you call hello at the 4 white girls who are hanging over the edge of it. They hollar hello back. They're floating very close to the ground, and the balloon is floating quickly toward the houses in your town.

Picture yourself in a balloon on a siteseeing flight over the mountains between Guilin and Yangshuo. You've already finished using up your camera batteries while floating about 2,000 feet in the air. There were two other hot air balloons up at the same time as you, and you can see one far down below where it has already landed and the crew has begun to fold it up. Your Chinese balloon guide who doesn't speak any english, but doesn say "Hello" everytime he wants to switch spots with someone to move to a different side of the basket seems to be in a holding pattern waiting until the right time to land your balloon in the same location as the other balloon. Slowly your balloon begins to descend toward the ground. You're moving away from the balloon on the ground in an arc around one of the mountains. You figure that you will do a spiral descent (don't worry it's a technical term) around the mountain, and land after a full loop, next to the first balloon on the ground. As you come around the mountain with camera's (that hadn't gone battery dead) at eye. You're getting pretty close to the ground, and you're about to make a pass over a small community with lots of farming fields. Suddenly you hear small voices coming from below: "hello, hello" they call! You think it's a little odd that they're so excited to see a hot air balloon considering there must be tons of tour flights that go up each week. But you hollar hello back at them as you continue your descent. Suddenly there are more and more people hollaring "hello" up at you. You call hello back and wave. The balloon seems to be getting very close to the ground, which is great for better pictures (it was slightly foggy out and the views from up high were a bit mutted), but not so good for clearing the tree that is fast approaching.

Suddenly the four white girls in the giant floating colorful balloon go crashing through a tree. They're headed downward towards the crops of your town... you run in the direction of the balloon, still calling hello!

You crash through a tree. Luckily, you're not in the front of the basket. Laura on the other hand may have come out with some leaves in her mouth. The pilot tells you to bend your knees. Okay the pilot says some words in Madarine and then makes the motion of bending your knees. You know that they told you before you took off, that when you landed you would have to bend the knees, but looking out of the basket you see only cement houses, small ponds, and farm land. You don't think that this looks like the place you're suppose to land. The pilot keeps shooting fire up into the balloon. But the balloon seems to have it's mind set on descending... it's been a long day and it's hungry. You hit down into a rice field... a rather muddy spot to land... but bounce up again.
You see the balloon appear again, rising out of a rice field. It barely clears some of the houses in your town. This is the most exciting thing that's happened in a while so you continue to run after the balloon. The balloon is rising again, but not very quickly. You see it crash through another tree. The four white girls arn't saying Hello anymore. But there does seem to be loud confusion coming from the basket. The balloon starts falling quickly toward the ground, right toward your grandma's field. You run faster to keep up.

You rise up just fast enough to clear the first set of houses. But this whole rising thing just isn't the balloons style. You crash through another tree, and by this time the balloon is determined to make it to the ground. The pilot is once again motioning for you to bend your knees. The balloon hits the ground, bounces a few times, and the basket falls sideways.

You see the balloon hit into the ground. You see four white girls and a Chinese pilot all toppled upon eachother. The four white girls are exclaiming something. Everyone in the village is coming out to see the spectacle. The four whilte girls continue to yell.

The balloon pilot is yelling at you to get out "get out 1 by 1." The people below you are saying they can't move, they're squished. You can't move, you're squished... the pilot continues to say one by one. Finally the ballon basket rights itself and you're able to pull yourself out of the balloon. The 3 or 4 people you were hollaring hello to have multiplied into 40 or more, and there are suddenly 15 children all trying to climb into the balloon. Next to you is an old lady who has one pant leg pulled up, is in a half squat position and is yelling lots of words in Chinese while pointing at you, your ballooon, and then to her crops. Apparently she's not very happy about having a giant Balloon and 4 white girls come plowing through your field and ruin your crops. Suddenly your knowledge of Mandarine is reduced to hello (ni hao) and I'm sorry (duebuche) and the numbers 1-10 that you practice with an eight year old boy who has pulled himslef into the basket next to you.
~~~~This is my story of the week from our Hot Air Balloon Ride over the mountains in Guilin County. Needless to say the kids were really really excited to have a hot air balloon to play on. Apparently the wind (which i couldn't feel) was too strong, and we were landing too quickly. Our crashing point was approximately 9 NINE miles! away from where we were supposed to land, and it took the balloon company 1 local director, and 45 minutes to figure out where we had crashed down, to come get us. Gude times in CHina! The kicker is that I realized as were were about 2,000 feet up in the air–"Hey! We never signed any kind of paper saying that we acknoledged that Hot Air Balloon rides can result in injury and sometimes death." You gotta love China-land. TG we're all perfectly okay, and we left the scene without a scratch, but with a very good story, and some fun video footage.

Along with this, our 5 day vacation in Yangshuo was amazing! It was so refreshing to be out of the city. To see mountains around you and out across the horizon. We rented bikes almost every day as our mode of transportation. One day we went on the Mud Caves tour. After walking around underground through all these caves, you end at a mud hole.... and YES you do get to go play in the mud. And by play, I mean submerge yourself completely. (Jaime Lienskers and Rich, you guys would have loved it!). Next to the mud hold was a "clean water" hole that you could go in to wash off. Needless to say, we were all finding small nuggets of dirt in our scalps for the next few days!

On another day we rented bamboo boats and floated down the Ni Long (?) river. All of us Americans were in our swim suites, jumping off the rafts and swimming, while half the Chinese people we passes had covered themselves in a full outfit of plastic wrap. Apparently they don't swim when they float down a river.

Now it's been back to work for a week. On Monday I get to tackle the task of giving Kindergarteners a test! :( and trying to explain to them that they can't look at eachothers papers, and they can't help eachother.