Cakes, Monuments, and Brides: 4th of July Round-Up

For our 4th of July party, two of the PC volunteers had a special cake made. They wrote down the message they wanted put on the cake and asked a Chinese bakery to make it for us. I'm not going to post the picture here because some of my readers might be offended by profanity, but if you want to see it, click here. The best part is, when they went back to pick it up, the bakery had placed it in the front store window! Obviously there were no English speakers working at that bakery. (And yes, those are cherry tomatoes on the cake; tomatoes are eaten as fruit here.)

Speaking of America, I took this picture of the Washington Monument in D.C. the evening before I left for China. I felt I needed to make a connection to my hometown and home culture before I flew away for two years, so while the rest of my group went out to dinner/drinking, I went to the monuments to take pictures. The guy who spent the weekend in D.C. with me also likes photography, so I'm glad he didn't mind going with me, it's a nice memory I have of spending time together that weekend. (If you want to see more of my D.C. pics, you can click here.) I've been to the monuments countless times, and I love them every time. I had prints made for my Chinese apartment walls. They are comforting when I feel homesick.

And here's a picture I took in Vegas the year before that I just think is funny: a bride at a bus stop on Las Vegas Blvd at 2:00 AM. Ahhhh, Vegas.

I'll be back to talking about China tomorrow.

Thoughts about Washington D.C, Friendship, Fate and Coincidences

I've been thinking about fate vs. coincidences. Do you believe in fate? I don't. But I have been thinking lately about coincidences.

July 1st is my one year anniversary in China. Before arriving, I spent three days in Washington D.C. at a Peace Corps preparation meeting. Usually this meeting is held in San Francisco, but this one time, they changed it to D.C. And because it was held in D.C., a male friend came to spend time with me that weekend before I left for China. In fact, he was the last person I saw before I left for the airport. But after that weekend, things were never the same between us. It's sad to me things changed. I still miss how things were before. And so I wonder: what if the Peace Corps had not changed the meeting location? What if I had gone to San Francisco instead? Would things between us be like they used to be? Or was it inevitable this would happen, regardless of circumstances?

As a non-believer in fate, I believe this coincidence is just one of those things that happens sometimes. I still have regret for things I didn't do and say that weekend, so at least I've learned what to do differently the next time I'm in this situation. And I'm sure the regret will fade with time. But I'm curious: do you believe in fate? Why or why not?

Roller Queen

I've loved roller skating ever since my little sister Mishka brought me roller skates from heaven when she was born. (Thanks mom and dad, you're right, I don't hate the new baby now!) I lived across from Arlington National Cemetery as a kid, and I spent hours and hours skating along all those paths. I can't walk worth beans, I sorta fall over for no reason, but on skates? I am Kira in Xanadu, even without the awesome knee high boot skates.

So during the recent weekend of shenanigans, when we found out their small town had a skating rink, of course we had to try it out. It was like nothing I've experienced before. (Shocking, I know!) First of all, they give you two plastic bags to wear over your feet.  Do skating rinks in America care this much about foot hygiene? No, they don't. Here's a picture of me putting on my foot bag:

The rink itself was fully lit, which discouraged any sort of skating rink romance, so disappointing!, but this I could overlook. The problem was, it was also super tiny, so your hip got sore quickly because you were constantly turning. And the skates hadn't ever been oiled, so not only could you hear every turn of the ball bearings, but it added about 20lbs of tension. A good work out, but not so much fun. I lasted about 15 minutes and was done. But now I can say I've been roller skating in the Chinese countryside, and really, how many people can say that?  (And it was Friday night and we were the only ones skating, so I don't think even a lot of Chinese people can say that.) Here's a shot of the rink:

John, in the middle, wasn't skating, but he came out so we could do tricks with him. P.S. I haven't written a lot about the weekend of shenanigans, and it is not an oversight.  Not all things belong on public blogs. ;)