Camel Dreams

I'm up way too early this morning, so what else do you do when you wake up at 4 AM for no good reason?  Dream-shop online, of course.

I am so unfashionable these days, and how I knew this would happen and I was willing to be unfashionable for the sake of being in the Peace Corps, but still: sometimes I feel like a blob. I like dressing up and wearing pretty clothes and shoes; it isn't a burden to me to wear 4-inch heels everyday. So when I came across these two photos online, all I could do is stop for a moment and sigh. I love camel boots, how great would these look with a chocolate brown coat?

And I don't love living where I have to wear a coat, but if I DO have to wear a coat, I want it to be this one:

I want one day where I get to be "me" again, and I go out on a date with a guy I'm really into, to a place where I get to wear entirely inconvenient footwear, and have a wonderful time. I promise this time, I'd even wear the right bra. But then again, with a coat like this, who cares what's underneath it!

Camel coat, Martin Grant

5 Things I Won’t Miss About China

Let me say, this list is far smaller than the things I WILL miss. But there are a few things that have been the most difficult for me to adjust to and/or live with:

1. People blowing loogies out of their nose and onto the street next to my feet. (On the bright side, I have lightening fast snot-avoidance reflexes now.)

2. People trying to rip me off because I'm a foreigner and they think I don’t understand.

3. People telling me I am too fat to shop in their store. And even hiding clothes so I can’t buy them. (Yes, that last part really did happen.)

4. Train station waiting rooms!

5. Chinese is hella hard, y’all. Even after a year and a half, I don’t understand nearly as much as if I'd lived in a Spanish speaking country. I won’t miss the language barrier I constantly run up against.

The next '5' list will be the things I am looking forward to most about returning home.

Train, Skin, Flu

I’m home from my visit to the other city to see the doctor. A few things:

1. The train was indeed fast (200 kph, or about 125 mph for you Imperialists), but not pressurized, so my ears popped about every 10 minutes. It’s like they get so close… There was a storm on the way home so it was a little easier because the barometric pressure had dropped. I know this courtesy of my 5th grade obsession with weather reports.

2. The skin appears to be non-melanomic. I was given some medicines to put on it twice a day and see what happens. If it doesn’t clear up, they’ll send some off to the lab. I kinda wish they had done that lab thing now, just to be safe, but I’m sure it’s fine.

3. While I was gone, I got a text message from someone at my school that 13 students had been quarantined for (possible or confirmed? No one has told me) H1N1 flu. What they didn’t say is that at least some of them had been quarantined downstairs from my apartment. For those who don’t know, I live in my university’s hotel. (Note: this not like living at the Marriott. Please interpret the word ‘hotel’ loosely*.) There are 3 wings, and I live in the 3rd, most remote, wing. Floors 1-3 are hotel rooms, and we have a separate locked staircase that leads to the 4th and 5th floor foreign teachers’ apartments.  Turns out they are housing the quarantined students on the 1st floor. There’s a rope sectioning off our wing and masked, armed guards at the entrance. As of right now, no one is allowed in who doesn’t live there, so no guests for me for a while. So far, though, WE have not been quarantined, which is very good news. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

*My apartment is very nice, though, much nicer than I deserve. The school works hard to keep them nice for the foreign teachers.

A Tribute To My Attributes

I can't speak fluent English anymore. I can WRITE fluently in English, because I can take time to think about the words and fix the ones that are wrong*. But speaking? I suck at speaking right now. I didn't even realize how much I sucked at speaking until my friend Renee had a friend visitor from America, and he was super cute and we were having a nice conversation during which I said about 10 times, "I can't remember how to say it in English." Charming. No really, catch me a year ago, I knew how to talk about complicated things then, I swear! Oh well. (I also never noticed how many straight-up Chinese words I use now even when speaking English, until I was speaking to someone who doesn't know them.)

When I do speak English, I'm speaking to my students or to other volunteers who also right now suck at speaking English, and we don't notice that we are using 'Special English' English-- that is, English without complicated words. But speaking to a native speaker? Forget it. I sound like one of the characters on Sesame Street. And not one of the human ones. I had to laugh the other day because I was having a conversation about oldest and youngest children and I said something about taking-charge being "a tribute of oldest children." And neither of us noticed immediately that I said anything wrong.

So I'll go on calling lacquer 'liquor' and attributes 'tributes' and my teapot a 'hot water maker.' And when I'm back home and I accidentally say something to you in Chinese, just nod and smile. I'll get over it soon enough.

*I hope I catch them all.

Chinglish Notebooks, Plus Time and Happiness

I love the notebooks in China. I don't know why, but almost all of them have some kind of Chinglish phrase on the cover. Here are a few I saw in a school supply shop near my campus:

I love the 'My baby grows up in this way' tagline:

For when you need to announce your life strategy: 'I never really try to be positive.'

Nothing says 'Season's Greeting' like a stack of folded towels. Btw, a candle that close to the towels is a fire hazard.

'Goes the sound which the balcony listens to spend.' HUH?

No really, I love these. But this one is still my all time favorite:

In other news, I have to go out of town to this weekend for a medical test. I have two spots on my back that keep scabbing over and won't heal, so I have to get them checked out. Sunshine, I love you so much, why do you hurt me like this?

And in still further news, I only have 9 months left in China. 9 months! Where has the time gone? I feel like I have survived a lot the past few years: my dad's cancer and death, the guy who crushed me, and just the experience of living here in China. I almost feel like because I survived these things so close together, and can still smile, I can survive anything. (I don't want to test that theory, though!) I hope the next few years bring more joy than sorrow. Pretty please, with sugar on top?

Shake Shack

I was just asleep, but now awake due to my shaking bed: a  mild earthquake, which probably wouldn't be felt in a building with Western construction standards, but is very noticeable here. And the shaking itself doesn't freak me out, but these things do:

1. No fire escapes in Chinese apartment buildings.
2. My front door opens onto an outside balcony, not a secure hallway.
3. I'm on the 4th floor.
4. The past few days, and I am not making this up, I've been thinking about earthquakes and what I would do if there were another big one here. It's been a year and a half since the big earthquake hit this area, the likelihood of another big one isn't high, but still...am I paranoid or psychic? (The answer is: paranoid. I hope.)

UPDATE: I checked the USGS website this morning and yes, there was a minor earthquake last night centered about 200 miles from where I live.

You know how it's hard to sleep after an adrenaline rush? Yeah. So because I'm awake, here's a funny picture Tristan took on our day in the village:

Is it just me, or is that a really awkward way to hold a cup? Why am I twisting my wrist like that? I have no idea.

*Shake Shack is of course the awesome hamburger shop in NYC.

5 Things I’ll Miss About Living in China

1. Being able to walk the streets at all hours of night without worrying about crime. There IS crime here, but it’s mostly petty theft. No guns and no weapons in general means a safer walking environment.  I fully support our constitutional right to bear arms, but coming home at 4 AM, it is nice not to have to worry about someone attacking, mugging or shooting you.

2. Being able to end a conversation you don’t want to have by saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand you.”

3. Prescription medications sold as over-the-counter.

4. Tea at every meal.

5. Not having to hear about all kinds of people famous for being alive and/or doing stupid things. There is no Chinese equivalent of the Gosselins, for example. I keep track of American culture, and I am increasingly disgusted by what passes for “news.”

Coming soon: 5 things I WON’T miss.

The Shhh....Peeing Strategy

Most babies in my part of China don't wear diapers; instead, they wear split pants like this, and their parents hold them over a street grate, toilet, or even just a sidewalk to pee and poop. I wondered how the parents keep the babies from peeing and pooping all over them, and I learned that as soon as babies are born, the parents begin potty training them. When the babies are peeing or whatever, the parents whisper a sound like "shhhhh...." in their ear. After a few months, the babies will only go the bathroom when their parents prompt them to do so by shhhhing in their ear. The babies are considered "potty trained" by about 6 months old.

Babies wear split pants like this even in the winter; they're cute butterballs running around with layers and layers of clothes, but their little butts and penises etc. are hanging out there in the cold. I bet graduating to underwear feels good!

You can imagine what our Chinese students think when we forget and shush them in class using the "sshhhhh...." sound. I've tried to train myself from doing it, but I still slip sometimes.

Unamused

Me and T. at the goddess statue lake. I had no idea our friend was taking a picture, and I can't remember what was being discussed, but whatever it was, it appears I was not on board with it. Stealth photography never lies.

p.s. T. is not super tall, I'm sitting on a bench.

Ci Qi Kou Pictures

There's a restored neighborhood/tourist trap in Chongqing called Ci Qi Kou (pronounced 'sih chee ko'). This past week was my first trip there since I moved to CQ last year. I took these pictures more toward the outskirts of the neighborhood, where the shops end and the homes begins; this part is not as restored, but I thought it was more interesting. As always, click to enlarge!

Ci Qi Kou hillside view:

Little boys playing hide and seek in an alleyway:

I covet this chest!

My friends:

Dragon decorations:

Please don't ask me what this means, I have no idea!:

Btw, Chongqing is pronounced 'chong ching', so whenever I read about people imitating the Chinese language by saying, 'Ching Chong China' I always think, 'No, but there is Chongqing, China!'

Bathroom Roulette

Well, this has been quite a week. I guess what happens when you actually start having fun in China is that you lose the time to write about it. It's Saturday night here and I am blissfully staying home and going to bed early. It was a great holiday week, but super-busy. I'm glad for a night off from the fun and frivolity.

So many parts of my Chinese life that were different and unexpected are now normal to me, to the extent that I forget to write about them!  But here's one I was reminded of today: in a public bathroom with multiple stalls, instead of waiting at the head of the stall line for the next available stall, you have to go stand in front of a stall and wait for it to become empty. And it seems like I always choose the wrong stall and have to wait longer than someone who came in behind me. I have bad bathroom stall karma! There must be some secret to determining which stall will be empty next, but I have yet to figure it out. Maybe by the time I go home next year, I'll win bathroom roulette.

I have some more pictures to upload, but I am just too tired tonight to do it. However, here is one taken on the day we went biking. Aww...aren't I cute with eyeliner raccoon-bag eyes? NOT! Yikes, next time we go biking, NO MAKE UP! It got all over my face.

Pictures From A Day At A Chinese Village

Tim lives on the edge between Chongqing and the countryside, so he invited us to his house to go biking and spend the day in the fresh air we never get in the city. We got there in the morning and rented mountain bikes; I haven't been on a bike since I was about 13, so this was quite an adventure for me. We did some off-road biking and I was in last place, but I did make it up the hills! Here's a picture of me on my bike (yes, I did wear a helmet, just not for the photo):

Tim has a Chinese student friend who grew up in a small village near Tim's school, and one of the villagers was having his 30th birthday party. We got invited to the party, so we biked to the village. It was pretty incredible to spend the day there and see what village life is like. Their village is a collection of homes built around an old temple that was bombed by the Japanese during the Chinese/Japanese conflict in WWII. Two families now live in the old temple, and the rest built homes surrounding the temple. There is electricity, but no running water. I forgot my camera (I know!) but Tim and Tristan both had theirs. (Click all pics to enlarge.)

Tobhiyah at our table full of food:

Our host and his mother:

The village babies:

The lunch chef in the cooking area:

Men playing majiang after lunch:

Me helping grandma with baby lunch:

Group shot, from l-r: Tim, Tobhiyah, me, Tristan, and two friends. Tristan has more pictures of me, when he gives them to me I'll post a few.

Sharing rounds of toasts before we left:

After the party, we rode our bikes to see a goddess statue in the middle of a nearby lake:

After the lake, we biked back to Tim's university, then Tristan and I took the bus back to CQ. An exhausting day, but also wonderful!

Baby's First Abacus

I saw this while shopping for school supplies. I love that the dog appears to be blow-drying its hair. In my city you can see people using an abacus to calculate payment in places like the post office. It's pretty cool to see their fingers move those beads around so confidently.

By the way, is the plural of abacus 'abacuses' or 'abaci'? Hmm.

Friends and the Missing Sandwiches

I'm been slacking lately on taking pictures, so I planned to take some photos of our excursion today. I went with friends to the special market to buy oh-so-rare-and-precious salami, cheese, fresh basil and western style salty bread to make panini sandwiches for dinner. This is how we are celebrating our holiday: eating stuff we'd never think twice about back in America, but is a real treat for us here. (One of them was cooking when we took this picture.) But after we made them, I forgot to make pictures before we scarfed them down. We were just that hungry and excited to be eating them.  It was the first time I've felt really full all week. (Insert joke about Chinese food here.)

Afterward, we played Uno, watched old-school rap videos and hung out chatting. Some other friends came over later, they drank wine, more chatting. This is my life in China.