Hot & Spicy Girls 重庆麻辣女人

I'm taking advantage of the MacBook Pro I use for work and putting together some movies of my pictures and videos from China. Between that and the book, it's one reason I haven't been around here much.

I keep finding treasures in the crevices of my picture files, like this picture of a 'ma la' skirt. In Mandarin, 'ma' 麻 means 'numbing' and 'la' 辣 means 'spicy', and 'ma la' is a phrase commonly used as slang to describe Chongqing girls; the weather and the food are numbingly hot and spicy, and so therefore are the women. This is an adult woman's skirt. As you can see, it's about half my size. I can't imagine getting even my butt in this thing, let alone my legs.

Chongqing style is very ma la: short, tiny, tight, bright, covered in sequins and embellishments. Chongqing is sort of the Rio of China, I guess. I had a girl once tell me, while dressed in tiny panty shorts and a see-through shirt: "I am a traditional girl. But it is very hot here." Indeed.

We still use 'ma la' to describe things, i.e. "That is a very ma la outfit/dress/girl" etc. (One thing I loved about being with my China friends in Boston and NYC was using Chongqing slang with each other. 'Ma la' made several appearances.) Here is another ma la girl:

We are Chongqing girls now. We are ma la. We embrace it. At least, that's the excuse I tell myself for having purchased these shoes (although I am sure it has more to do with my Spanish blood than anything else):

I can't help it. I love them.

Clothes-es, and Other Chinese-isms

Chinese students almost uniformly make the mistake of pluralizing 'clothes' into 'clothes-es' and we are the kind of teachers that mimicked our students most common mistakes when talking to each other, so now I say 'clothes-es' all the time in my head. Other things we said:

Deeleeciours (delicious)
Advices
I wish you happy every day!

I miss speaking Chinglish on a daily basis. Luckily I still talk to folks in China so when they say things like this, I write them down. You think you won't forget, but you do!

Did you know in Chinese culture it is normal to wear the same clothes for several days in a row? (Not underwear, that I know of!) You wear them until they are dirty, then change into new clothes and wash the ones you've been wearing. It was really hard to get used to at first, but then I loved it. It's much easier than having to choose new outfits every day. My students thought it was really strange Americans change our clothes every day. I don't know if they thought we were showing off how many clothes-es we own, or being impractical, or just weird. But they definitely noticed the foreign teachers changed their clothes all the time. I started wearing the same thing several days in a row to fit in, and because: lazy. I miss it.

However, when I was in college, this was my favorite sweatshirt of all time; I got it for $10 at the GAP and wore it constantly. I was Chinese and didn't know it!

My students often told me that Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) was very special when they were growing up because it was the only time they got new clothes; now that people have more money, people own more clothes, and Spring Festival is not as special.

Traditional Chinese Comb Gift, Neat Thermos

I didn't know before I lived in China that wooden combs are a traditional gift to give to girls/women, especially as a goodbye gift.

At the tourist neighborhood of CiQiKou in my city, there were shops selling decorative wooden combs and hairpins, but I didn't think much of them, I thought it was just a tourist trap item. But in the days before I left Chongqing, I received several nice wooden combs as a going away gift.



They’re made of wood and painted with enamel. All the combs I received came in these nice boxes and were made by the same company; I’m not sure if this company is well-known for combs, or if they are the ones who sell in my area of China. One student wrote cute little messages for me all over on the box itself:



The combs are often stylized, such as this yellow comb I use on a daily basis and is carved to look like a fish:



All of the female volunteers I know were given combs as gifts, so I think it’s a pretty common practice, but one I’d never heard of. I asked someone why a comb was a traditional gift and she said, “Because it’s useful and beautiful.” Yes, they are both of these things! I find the wood makes my hair look more smooth than using a plastic comb, too.

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My Chinese friend Cassie gave me this neat little pale pink/gray thermos as a going away gift; she knows I took a liking to the Chinese custom of drinking hot water and tea, so this was a really thoughtful gift. It’s extremely lightweight, well-sized for your hand and the thermos lid has this neat screw-off compartment for holding dry tea, instant coffee or any kind of mixer. Ingenious! It’s made by Tayohya, but I couldn’t find any stores selling these in the U.S. online. Maybe in Chinatown I’ll come across one. I use it constantly, it’s very well-suited to being carried around.

Gratitude And Socks

You guys, let me be honest for a minute: the past month has been tough.

I gave up my apartment in San Antonio to go to China, and just before leaving I moved all my stuff to my mom’s. So that’s where I am while I job search, at my mom’s. This is not a bad thing at all; I’m closer to my brother and sister and extended family, and my mom is easy to live with. BUT, it’s certainly not where I want or expected to be. I’ve had to change my attitude the past week or so; I’m choosing to be grateful for gifts and opportunities I have in my life right now, rather than focus on what (I think) I lack. One of the great things is that my mom lives in a colder climate than San Antonio, so I get to indulge my love of socks.

I LOVE socks—cute and versatile and less expensive than buying shoes and purses. In San Antonio I hardly ever got to wear socks because it’s just too warm most of the year; I had an extensive collection of chanclas, but hardly any socks.

In Chongqing, I wore tall socks all winter long because it was so bitingly wet and cold and I didn’t have indoor heat. My sister sent me some great thigh-high gray socks, and I had a nice collection of argyle over-the-knee socks. It was popular in Chongqing to wear thick ‘skin colored’ (meaning, Han skin coloring) footless tights with socks over the top; I did this look with skirts and chunky heels mostly:



I wore through most of my socks and threw them away when I was packing to come back. Now, with winter approaching, I get to replace them!

Some of my favorite socks I get at REI; Smartwool socks are very warm and long-lasting—these were the only socks I took with me to China that made it back with me. I highly recommend them, and they come in both cute and functional. This pair is now on my wish list:



You can see some more here.

The Joy of Socks and Amazon also carry great over-the-knee and knee-high socks. Target, too, but I couldn’t find any online today.

Happy socking!

Autumn Can Change Your Life

Caution: this is kind of a girly post.

For those who don't know me personally, I am half Chilean, half American. I inherited my mom's darker Chilean coloring and my dad's American features. I'm a mutt! And all my life people (salespersons, friends, etc.) have been telling me my coloring is Winter, because I have dark hair and dark eyes. Winters have pink undertones in their skin and look great in lots of white, black, navy blue, cherry reds, purples, etc... And gray. I LOVE gray. My mom would always tell me I looked like I was constantly dressing for a funeral because I wore so much black, gray, and white. But I noticed in lots of pictures, I looked kinda terrible. I thought I just really didn't take good pictures.

So one day I'm in China innocently looking something up on the internet and I read that many Latina and Asian women are not Winter, they are Autumn: dark hair and eyes but with gold undertones to their skin, not pink, and that a quick way to check if you are Winter or Autumn is too look at the veins in your arms and legs: are they blue or greenish in hue? I checked: totally green! I've been an Autumn all along! So really, I should be wearing browns, golds, brickish reds, and warm colors, not cool. Changed my life, y'all. I started replacing all my blacks with browns, whites with creams, and cherry reds for warmer hues. It really did change the tone and reflection of my skin. I looked much healthier and less pallid. The gray is really hard to stop wearing, though. I still love it.

Two related stories:

1. I emailed my mom and said, "Guess what? I'm an Autumn, blah blah blah" and explained to her the whole theory. My mom is very fashionable from her days as a singer, so she likes this topic. I got back an email in all caps that simply said, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO WEAR SO MUCH BLACK." Touché mom, touché.

2. T. and I were sitting talking when a Chinese girl told him out of the blue, "You look like a Brazilian soccer player, but that shirt is wrong for you." He looked at me and I said, "Yeah... she's right. Let me see your arm." Blue veins! He was wearing green, an Autumn color, and he is definitely a Winter. I had a chance to color code a few of my American friends in China; I know they are all SO grateful for my help. (I'm pretty sure things like this are the things they tolerate about me.) I also share this example because I love how in Chinese culture, this was totally normal for her to say. I don't know if I'd ever tell someone I didn't know well and wasn't being paid to help that their shirt color was all wrong for them. But in China, it's totally fine to do that. Your business is my business, mi amour.

In China most people are Autumns, and I noticed that the clothing for sale reflected that: lots of yellow and green and brown and warmer colors. And I've noticed here in America, it's all white, black, blue and red. It's harder for me to find those warmer colors here. Just an observation.

Check your veins! It might change your life. (Spring is the fairer version of Autumn, Summer is the fairer version of Winter.)

Culture Clash In Seat 46C

The last time I flew to America from China I took Air China, which has a Chinese flight crew. This time I took United, which meant we had an American flight crew.

The young Chinese guy in the row ahead of me brought a lot of carry-on luggage, and I watched through culturally enlightened eyes the way the flight attendant tried to deal with him. She was being so American! And he was being so Chinese! She kept telling him that it wasn't fair for him to have three bags, because it meant that someone else wouldn't have space for their luggage. And he kept answering in a very Chinese way: "But my bags are already here, and they fit." And she kept right on with her very American line of reasoning that the fair thing to do is to check some of his bags. And he wouldn't give an inch, because he didn't see why he should. In China, if you're first, you win. And that's that. And I'm watching this go on for 5 or so minutes and I want to tell this woman, "You're in charge! Just tell him you're checking some of his bags. You're the boss. He won't challenge you." And sure enough, after about 10 minutes of this back and forth culture clash, she finally told him, "I'm checking this bag." And he didn't protest at all.

An appeal to fairness rarely works in China. Hierarchy and rank, these are the things people respect. There is no such thing as 'fair.' It means you have to shove your way onto a bus, but there is a certain freedom in things not being fair (when it's in your favor, that is. So learn to throw those elbows!). Being a teacher in China is just about the easiest teaching job in the world as far as discipline goes because your students pretty much fall in line with just a mean look. You're the teacher, you have the power. Early on I confiscated students' ringing cell phones and took them home with me for a few days. This got the message across, and I rarely had cell phone problems after that. In fact, there was a Chinese teacher who threw a student's cell phone out a fifth story window! I never had the guts to do that, but if I had, it would have been totally okay.

I wonder if next time, the flight attendant will just take the bag.

Currently reading: The Gita, translated by Irina Gajjar
Currently watching: Seinfeld reruns
Currently cooking: artichokes
Currently shopping online for: work clothes and a cool, not-too-formal briefcase-type bag

I need to rename this blog, but I'm not sure yet what it'll be. Stay tuned, so exciting!

New Dress, Special Gift, and Buddhist Mountain Friends

I decided to have a traditional, formal qipao made for me before I left China. It's black with gold dragons, and ankle length. I picked out the fabric and the style and a local tailor made it:

And here it is from behind. See what I told you about my butt?? Oh well, I'll soon be leaving you behind, Chinese stairs:

The teacher at my school assigned to help me the last two years also became my friend. His father and grandfather survived the Cultural Revolution and have a collection of Chairman Mao pins from that era. It was important to show your allegiance to Chairman Mao, and one way to do that was to wear these pins. He gave me a pin from his family's collection as a going away gift; I was incredibly humbled by his generosity at giving me part of his family's history. I will treasure it always.

I went to a Unesco World Heritage Buddhist mountain site near my city. It was a very Chinese adventure! It took me 3 buses to get to the mountain top, and I was 'adopted' by an old man who was fascinated with talking to a foreigner; he even got on the mountain bus so he could keep talking to me, but the other people on the bus kicked him off so he'd leave me alone. It was such a Chinese thing, and something that would have freaked me out two years ago, but now was just what happens here. The old man turned me over to the care of the young guy in this picture, a random guy from Beijing who didn't speak English but spoke really good Mandarin (as they do in Beijing) and was backpacking across China. He was really cool! The two ladies are English teachers from a city southwest of me called Kunming and they approached me because I speak English. (Do you see how HUGE I am compared to Chinese ladies? No wonder I now have body dysmorphia from living in China.) They were so nice, and we all became mountain friends. Thus is the magic of the Buddhist mountain.

A few pictures of the mountain carvings:

Does This Mean It's Possible To ‘Manistrate’? Plus, My Favorite Chinglish T-shirt So Far

A few recent adventures in my Mother Tongue:

1. My friend G. said, “I demanistrated him. Wait, what’s that word I mean? You know, make him less of a man?” It took us about five minutes to pull it out of the deep recesses of our English brains: emasculate. But ‘demanistrate’ is so poetic, is it not? And I think if you can defenestrate, you should also be able to demanistrate. (Okay, I know fenestrate and defenestrate are not actually opposites. But still. It sounds nice.)

2. T.’s parents were here from California this past week to visit him, and it was really fun to meet them! His dad and I were talking and he asked me, “How much longer have you been here than T.?” And my subconscious brain said “Say wha’? That’s a much more complicated grammar structure than I’m used to hearing!” And my tongue said, “A year ago.” Which is, of course, not the right answer. His dad had a brief, ‘Oh, so you’re a little bit slow, aren’t you?’ moment I’m sure. At least I recognized my mistake right away and corrected myself, but I had to do it by giving him the date I arrived, which is how this question is usually asked and answered in Chinese. I couldn’t quite get my tongue around the correct English grammar of saying ‘a year longer than T.’ (Writing is so much easier than speaking! Time to think.)

2a. However, at karaoke last week, we did the full Empire State of Mind and NAILED it; you would have clapped, thrown roses, etc. So at least I still speak a form of English very well, that form being the one where they give you all the words.

3. This isn’t really a Chinglish t-shirt in the traditional sense, but it is culturally very Chinglish, in that it makes no sense for all of this to be on a t-shirt. But that last line is definitely my new go-to insult phrase: I hope my bike takes you straight to hell!

Video Log: Chinese Products

A short video I made of some...interesting products I have come across here.

I made a few English mistakes, oops! I know you still love me, even though my English can be crappy these days.

Pajamas As Fashionable and Cool Daily Wear

A recent article in the New York Times about the attempt to curb the wearing of pajamas as daily wear in Shanghai tickled my funny bone and made me realize how much I forget to write about here. (Click here to read the article.)

You see, it is very common to see people in their pajamas at all hours of the day walking the streets of my city. And it would appear, other cities in China. And it is so common place, I've never written about it, because it has ceased to surprise me.

My first year here, I was sort of in mini-meltdown mode 3/4 of the time. And a lot of the wonderful and strange things about China I should have been writing about then, I wasn't. And now...I forget they're remarkable. I have failed you, my dear blog readers, for bringing you the thorough reality of life in China!

But here's one: people wear pajamas as daily clothes. I suppose it is not so different from running around in gym clothes/track suits? The most popular pjs here are quilted. They do look very puffy and comfortable, I admit.

By The Time We Got There, It Was Dinner At Tiffany’s*.

There is a phenomenon of giving directions in China that I still don’t understand: people will only give you directions to the next block. For example, “Go straight ‘til the next intersection, then turn left.” Now, you as a Westerner might think that means that after you turn left, you’ll be there. Oh no, my friend. This is just the beginning. If you don’t see what you’re looking for after you turn left, you ask someone else, and get the next set of directions. You will keep doing this, block after block, until you arrive at your destination.

This happened to V. and I when we were in Chengdu for training. I needed to get to Tiffany & Co.* to get some jewelry cleaned, and he came with me. I didn’t know where Tiffany was exactly, but I figured it was downtown near the other big shops. Turns out it was in a new shopping plaza built a little zig-zaggy ways away from where we were. It took four sets of directions to get us there. Yup, that’s about right.

Also, be aware: you will always get some directions, even if that person has no idea where you should be going. Saying, “I don’t know” is a loss of ‘face’ in Chinese culture, so even if they have no idea, they’ll still give you directions. The next set of directions might send you in a totally different direction. It means one of those people has no idea. Have fun deciding which one!

By the by, there was a Victoria’s Secret near the Tiffany, the first one I’ve seen here. Bras were over a hundred USD, and even those cheap little $5 dollar thongs were the equivilant of $60 USD. Say wha? It’s like they’re trying to turn Victoria’s Secret over here into an Agent Provocateur or La Perla equivalent. Ridiculous.

After our luxury adventures, V. and I stopped for dinner at a “Western” style chain restaurant out of Taiwan. Here’s a picture of what our meal came out like:



Yes, that is fried chicken steak (w/ pepper sauce), spaghetti w/ peas and a fried egg, all on the same plate. So don’t feel bad when American Chinese food is nothing like what you get in China; they get it wrong, too.

*This is a brand new Tiffany & Co. store, the first in this region of China. Also, why is the name in the novella/movie possessive? I’ve never noticed before that that is weird. But it is.

The Taxi Driver Who Tried To Hand Me Over To The Police

So the other night I’m taking a taxi home from dinner with friends in another part of the city, and we pass a cluster of policemen off to the side of the road, and my taxi driver says, “I need to stop because you are a foreigner.” At least, I think that’s what he said, his dialect accent was pretty strong. I said, “What? Why?” He said, “You are a foreigner, I have to stop.” WHAT? So he stops and pulls up to the police and the police look at him like “What the hell are you doing?” and motion for him to keep moving. They actually yell at him, “Don’t stop here, drive on!” Um, taxi driver? I have no idea if that was some sort of joke on your part and you thought it was funny?  Or you just don’t know that foreigners don’t have to stop and talk to all policemen they pass? Whatever it was, that was weird. Please don’t do that again.

We had dinner at a Korean barbecue place, all you can eat. The funny thing to me about Korean barbecue is, you pay to cook your own food. Part of the reason I eat out is so I don’t have to cook! It was pretty good, though. They had quail’s eggs, so we made the tiniest fried eggs ever:



Here’s a shot of our table:



I’m showing you this because it was one of those recessed-into-the-floor tables, where the seat is floor level and your legs hang down below the floor, and at the end of the night I was climbing out and fell over and crashed onto the table. I was near the back so most people were out of the room, but my friend Erin and I laughed for about 5 minutes straight. Luckily the grill was off and I was not hurt. I have balance problems, I fall over all the time. Just another night in China.

And oh, I can’t forget this picture! I took it at the train station on the way home from the dentist:



This outfit is pretty standard for China. Proportionately, she looks great: the length of the jacket and shirt, the tight pants and boots, it all works. The colors and patterns were cracking me up, though. It just doesn’t matter here what combinations you wear. It’s awesome.

I got my temporary crown put on. It took three hours. Is that normal? It was not fun. I go back in two weeks to get the permanent one put on. I hate traveling that far to the dentist!

Random Eclipses Are My Life Now, Plus Food and T-Shirt Pics

Yesterday there was another eclipse here; I had no idea it would be happening, so it was quite random to look up in the sky and see the moon partially blocking out the sun. R. and I were on the bus going to meet up with folks for dinner, and I noticed people along the side of the road taking cell phone pics of the sky. I thought maybe a new building had been lit up or something. Then we happened to pass empty air space and see it, briefly, mostly obscured by smog of course. It was pretty neat, and pretty random. But too many buildings and too much smog, so no pics this time. It didn't get fully dark or cold like the full eclipse last summer, though, which is still one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed.

I thought you might like to see one of the Chinese dishes I make here for myself. This dish is chicken, tiger prawns (which are like a cross between a green pepper and a jalepeno and I love them), green onions, garlic, Sichuan-pepper infused oil, french-fry cut potatoes and spicy chili black bean sauce. I think it's very good, and super easy. I've learned that stir fry is so popular in China because it uses very little fuel; small pieces of food cook quickly. For so long people have not been able to afford much fuel, so stir-frying evolved as a solution. Baking a potato or a cake is a luxury here, because it requires a lot of energy.

I leave tomorrow for training at Peace Corps headquarters, held in a neighboring province. It's a chance to see people who are assigned to other parts of the country, so I really enjoy going. Of course, we also have city pride, so we wanted to make a t-shirt for those of us here in Chongqing. I made this design in Photoshop and had it printed up yesterday. This t-shirt cost $6.00 and took ten minutes to make at the t-shirt shop.

A few in-jokes in the design:

• We call Chongqing "The Chonx." 
• Posh Corps refers to the fact we get hot running water, unlike many other Peace Corps volunteers in the world. (However, we also deal with psychological hardships they don't, but that is another post.) 
• 1415 refers to our program year designation: I'm a China 14, meaning I came in 2008, the 14th year of the program. The volunteers who came in 2009 are China 15s. (When I leave, I'll be replaced by a China 16, and so on.) 
• The 'yellow glow' is, of course, a joke about our lack of sunshine. 
• The gray background is supposed to be smog. 

I like making t-shirt designs, it turns out. I'll probably make some more before I leave.

I think I'll have internet access while I'm training, but I'm not sure. If I go MIA, that's why.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

The Best (Weirdest?) Christmas Pageant Ever

Hope you all had a nice Christmas; I ate lots of foods I am not used to anymore (read: dairy and processed meats and sugary treats sent by our various fams) and got a tummy ache, which made it seem like kid Christmas all over again, so that was kind of awesome. I got together with friends and bought myself some lavender/silvery eye shadow, so it was a great Christmas! And yes, I now get excited about eye shadow, it's a luxury purchase for me here. China: helping you find joy in the little things all over again.

Andrew and I hosted the Christmas pageant on Wednesday night. Here is my report:

-I didn't get to wear the dress! And the reason is very Chinese: they told me the shop had made a mistake and didn't reserve the dress after all, and someone else had rented it out. But I was not asked to go pick out another one instead. So I think they went over budget and no longer had the money to pay for it, but they couldn't admit that to me, it would be 'losing face', so they made it the shopkeeper's fault. I'm 100% certain if I went to the shop that day, my dress would have been hanging on the rack. I wouldn't have minded paying for it myself, but then it would have shown them up as liars and really caused 'face' problems, so I had to let it go. (This is a pretty standard Chinese way of taking care of problems.) Andrew suggested I could rent it and just wear it around the house for a day. Haha, he has no idea how close I am to doing this. But if they did run out of money, it was more important for the kids to have their nice clothes/costumes. So I didn't mind not having the dress.

-The pageant was sponsored by Pepsi and included an outdoor stage with a Pepsi background (shilled here by Chinese popstars), professional lighting etc. The opening number was a dance to a High School Musical* song. So, I'm in China, celebrating Christmas with a pageant sponsored by Pepsi, watching kids dance to High School Musical. Welcome to modern China.

-They assigned one of my male students to be my 'handler'; that is, to help me walk offstage, down the stairs, hold my coat while I was onstage then help me put it back on when I was done presenting, etc. I felt like a boxer coming out of the ring all night long. But it's a good thing he was there, those stage lights were blinding and I couldn't see anything for a few seconds after walking offstage. I'm pretty sure those stairs would have been the death of me. It also confirmed my suspicious that what I really want for Christmas is a cabana boy. (And a cabana.)

-Chinese students also think it's hilarious for men to dress in drag for skits. A few of their sketches had men in drag, and the final performance was an all male ballet, with the guys dressed in female ballerina outfits. I could have been watching any skit at an American high school assembly. It's always funny for me to find these cultural touchstones we share. Drag: popular even in China! Who'da thunk it?

*I've never seen High School Musical, they told me this is where it was from.

A few cultural notes on Chinese Christmas:

-It isn't celebrated here by the parents and grandparents, only by the current youth generation. And it's just a day to exchange small gifts with friends. The traditional gift is an apple in a cellophane bag tied with ribbon. So on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, there were tables of wrapped apples in the street markets. I compare Christmas in China to Cinco de Mayo in America: a holiday you don't really know (or care to know) the history or significance of, you just celebrate the fun parts. The dean of our department gave a speech at the pageant, in English, about how Christmas is now a worldwide holiday of peace and love. A very interesting speech.

-I tried to explain to my students that not every American celebrates Christmas, and they couldn't wrap their minds around this concept. Because Chinese is such a homogeneous culture, the idea that not everyone celebrates a major holiday is unfathomable.

-My students think Christmas is like New Year's; at midnight on Christmas Eve, I got a flurry of text messages wishing me Merry Christmas. And I found out the current mayor is trying to discourage the tradition they have here of beating people with inflatable bats in the public squares on Christmas Eve. I wrote about this phenomenn last year. He cleared out the square downtown, but on the side streets it was still going strong.

Chinese Pageant Dress, Plus KTV Lights Up My Life

That Christmas Pageant Andrew and I are hosting? Turns out it's a much bigger production than I anticipated. We'll be doing the introduction and closing, as well as making commentary between each act. Watch out, Dick Clark??

Pageant hosting in China is a really big deal, so yesterday my school took me to a dress rental shop to find a ballgown length pageant dress to wear. We found a beautiful cranberry gown that actually fit me (I am a giant here), I was shocked. And happy. I love wearing beautiful dresses! It's being held outdoors and I can't wear a coat while I'm onstage, brrr, but even so, I'm pretty excited to get to wear the dress. (And because my gown is floor-length, I'm totally going to be rocking some legwarmers. Shhh...) Definitely a new experience in my Rebecca Life Handbook.

Btw, a cultural note: variety shows are extremely popular here, and the girls who host the shows on tv are known for being charming and beautiful. If you are a variety show hostess on tv, you have probably the same cachet as a flight attendant in the 1960's in America. It's a very interesting subculture of Chinese culture, and I'm still trying to understand why they are so popular. At any given time on local tv, you can find a pageant or variety show.

So anyway, I'm sure you want to know more about my dress, right? It's a heavy, thick, satin-type material in deep cranberry with silver embroidery details. Here's the hemline (the red is the lining, it won't show when I'm wearing it):

Here's a shot of the bodice detail:

We'll take some proper pictures that night, I'm sure. I have to wear four inch heels to keep the hem from dragging too much, good thing I've been doing my foot yoga high heel practice. And as I told Andrew, I'll so be wearing hand warmers in my underwear, ha. (Note: I have since learned this is a bad idea, it burns. Nixing this.)

Two of my students will be on stage to translate for the audience, a girl and a guy, and they get to dress up too. Here is her dress. How cute is she?

We had a lot of fun picking out the dresses. If my life were a movie, it would have been a great montage scene.

Last night we had a birthday party for one of the T.'s, and I shot a short video while we were performing to Prince's "Cream" at karaoke, known locally as KTV. I watched it today, and my first thought was, "Why did we think it was a good idea to leave the strobe lights on in our room all night? Hello, epilepsy!" On the other hand, it kept us awake. I love that you can do all night karaoke here. Hope you've all had a good weekend!

Halloween Fun, Halloween Awkwardness

First the fun:

We had an expat Halloween party at a friend's house with lots of refreshments, glowsticks, cookies and candles, what could be more fun than that? Here's a picture of me in-costume (as old-school Britney Spears, with 'Rambo'):

A few of us crashed at the party site instead of going home that early in the morning. I fell asleep around 4:30 a.m., which wouldn't be a big deal except someone started pipe construction at 6 a.m., right outside the bedroom window. On a Sunday morning, are you kidding me? I hate it when Chinese work ethics collide with my sleep time!

Now the awkward:

Later in the morning, we decided to get Chinese brunch (which here is just 'lunch' early, there are no brunch foods, that's a little joke) but all I had to wear was my Halloween costume. And here's the thing I learned: Halloween costumes are like Cinderella's pumpkin carriage: good for one night only. That getup, which had been so fun only a few hours before, now felt utterly ridiculous. At least the locals learned a little something about Halloween costumes! But that was a long walk home through my campus, I definitely shoulda come home in the dark. I'm not sure if none of my students saw me, or if my students pretended NOT to see me.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

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

But What Do The Teen Sons Think Of The Cat?

Weirdest Chinglish shirt I've seen yet. And that's saying a lot.

Heat, Hair, and Frosting Love

1. This week it's been 107 degrees daily in Chongqing. I thought I was used to heat from living in San Antonio, but it turns out I am also used to copious amounts of air conditioning to make the heat bearable. Walking is much less fun that driving in an air conditioned car in this heat! But least until Sunday, we are living in an oven. (I tried using that metaphor with a student, and they didn't quite get it. No ovens here. Oops.) As one of my students told me, "Have a great week, in spite of the intolerable weather!" On the bright side, classes have been cancelled for the rest of the week because school buildings are not air conditioned.

2. I had my hair cut into a chin-length A-line bob. I cried the last time I got my hair cut here, the guy cut a bunch of layers into it that might look good on super straight, super fine Chinese hair, but not on mine! This new guy seemed to understand Western hair and gave me a beautiful cut. I wanted to kiss him on the mouth when he was done. It's kind of short, but those hideous layers are gone! Yay!

3. Last Christmas someone gave me a thing of Betty Crocker chocolate frosting, and I never opened it. Not sure what I was waiting for, but today I decided that time was over and now...I can't stop eating frosting! I'm even eating it with just a butter knife, how gross is that? (Because a spoon would be too deliberate? But a knife is just a taste? I'm retarded.) To my poor little sugar and lard deprived taste buds, it's heavenly.

So this week I am basically just sitting around in my apartment with my short hair and very little clothing, blasting the air conditioning, eating frosting with a knife. Oh, and texting a lot because it's too hot to actually go see friends. Welcome to my exciting life in China. Don't you wish you were here?

Unexpected Consequences: Chinese Foot Atrophy

I love high-heeled shoes. HIGH-heeled shoes. In the U.S. I quite regularly tottled around on 4-inchers:

I brought three pair of 4-inch heels to China because HAHA I thought I'd wear them. But I have to walk miles everyday to get everywhere I need to go, and sidewalks in my part of China look like this:

So, the pretty shoes have been in the back of the closet for most of the past year, but I pulled them out today because I have a party to attend this weekend and want to wear the awesome 4-inch silver strappy sandals and HOLY FEET ATROPHY, BATMAN!  I made it about a quarter of a mile and had to come back home to change shoes. I guess constantly wearing high-heeled shoes is like yoga for the feet? And when you stop bending like that, your muscles forget how? I'm so feet-ashamed, I've turned into a frumpy shoe wearer for the sake of comfort and safety!  This is not really who I am! So, starting today, I have a high-heeled shoe regimen in the safety and comfort of my own home: I'll be tottling around the house every day in 4-inch shoes, until I'm limber enough to venture back out in public.

I hope this is the most shallow thing I've ever posted.