asian peregrinations

hoi an .... coastal vietnam

2008-06-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

ok ... ariel and i are no longer in hoi an...we are in bangkok about to fly home, but i thought i'd post this blip i wrote two weeks ago anyway. i think i will be blogging this trip in retrospect.

old news:

ariel and i are now in hoi an, a city on the central coast of vietnam. we took the train here from saigon, which for me was a lovely experience, but i think for ari, it was a little less relaxing. we got the hard sleepers, just like in china. the train is divided into little compartments, with six beds: a bottom, middle, and upper. we both had middle bunks but because we bought our tickets so late, we were at opposite ends of the train. in china, there is a one person per bunk strict limit....not so, apparently, in vietnam. i had lovely people in my compartment and they smiled at me and tried to talk to me. i tried to speak back to them in chinese (because it is now my instinct to do that every time there is no english), but they didn't understand me and i didn't understand them. a nice lady wanted to hold my hand and share food with me. ariel, however, shared her compartment with 5 rowdy kids and a hamster in a paper bag. oh, and the mothers of the children. i could hear the kids in my compartment, and we were at opposite ends of the train. ariel loves kids, but these kids? maybe hard to tolerate on a 18 hour train ride.

hoi an is a lovely city on the coast, spared from bombing in the war and many old houses are preserved. it is a unesco site and while ariel and i so far have had the best of intentions to see the traditional houses, we have been unable to focus on anything that doesn't involve the beach. the beach here is lovely. looking to the northwest, we can see the mountains of central vietnam and looking to the east there are beautiful islands poking out of turquoise islands that very clearly are ringed in white sand beaches. the beach is 5 km out of hoi an on a very busy road. the first day we walked, but since then we've been renting bicycles to ride back and forth. i was extremely hesitant about this at first, despite living in asia for two years i never encountered the traffic as anything other than a pedestrian. i guess we rented bikes once in guilin, but we rode through rice paddies and had to contend more with mud than oncoming traffic. oh, and there was the failed motorbike attempt in thailand, too, from which both kellee and i still carry scars.

the bikes have turned out to be enormously fun. the ride to the beach has been relaxing and beautiful along rivers, canals and rice paddies. traffic is very heavy, but we've been here for two weeks and i just about have it figured out. tonight we stayed on the beach for sunset and rode home in dusk and then dark. the bikes have no reflectors, and no bells! with traffic zooming by, ariel and i had to act as our own horns, imitating the large trucks to make ourselves sound more intimidating. at one point, just as it was getting really dark, we passed two brush fires on the side of the road. as we passed the first one, all the mopeds ahead of us swerved and two motos full of girls shrieked and thew their feet in the air. why? a four foot snake writhing in the middle of the road!!! ariel practically rode her bike up a coconut palm to get away from it.

mekong meanders

2008-06-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

i love the mekong! ariel and i spent the day on the main branch of the river and a number of its tributaries as we traveled from the capitol of cambodia to chao doc in vietnam. our trip to asia is short, only a month (other travelers we have talked to express outright shock that we are only traveling for one month!) and so we aren't going to have as much time in the mekong delta as we'd like. rather than taking a bus from cambodia to saigon, we chose the slower route and took a boat.

we learned a fascinating thing about the mekong and the river's effects on cambodia: at phnom penh, the tonle sap river meets the mekong. normally, the tonle sap river drains the tonle sap lake (the largest fresh lake in southeast asia) into the mekong. however, in the rainy season, the mekong swells and actually causes the tonle sap to change the direction of its flow, so it is flowing back into the tonle sap lake. when ariel and i were standing on the riverfront in phnom phen (once again, waiting out a monsoon rain under a ledge) we thought the river looked like it was flowing the wrong way. fascinating!

the tonle sap is a very important fresh water resource and spawning area for fish. we heard that fish migrations from lake tonle sap restock fisheries as far away as china. the worry here is that dams upriver will alter the level of the mekong's flow to the extent that the rainy season will not reverse the flow of the tonle sap river, and thus the tonle sap lake will not swell to the necessary level. the lake is also suffering from increased use of pesticides by farmers around the lake and silting as more forests are cut and erosion increases.

we followed the mekong (or actually, we followed the lower branch, the bassac, as it splits after phnom penh) into vietnam on a very, very loud wooden boat with a handful of other toursits. twenty minutes in, it started to pour and tarps dropped down over the open sides of the boat. ariel and i, by luck, had the best spot. despite the tarps, everyone else got soaked. the border crossing went smoothly and we had lunch with a lively girl from the netherlands we'd been bumping into since angkor wat. after lunch we boarded another boat and left the mekong to travel down a maze of tributaries and canals, eventually dropping us in chao doc.

the life along the river was beautiful and simple. many people lived up on the steep red banks above the river in simple wooden houses. the houses were brightly painted and while some were on stilts, most were on the ground. we saw children and old farmers bringing their water buffalo to the water, a very steep descent for the buffalo. a lot of life takes place on the river, but there are no floating homes of the main branch of the mekong in that area because the water is too rough and changes so dramatically. looking down any of the side streams or canals, we could see houses overhanging the river on stilts and floating homes. along the edges of the river were fish traps.

we saw a lot of fish farming (catfish) and people raising hundereds of ducks and geese. little girls played on boats and washed clothes in the river and the boys had volleyball nets set up away from the edge of the canals. they strung huge fishing nets between their playing field and the river so as to not loose their ball.

arriving in chao doc we saw row after row of floating homes. they looked like they were floating on empty metal drums. ariel read that under each house, the people have suspended metal nets and raise fish under their homes. they toss their leftovers to the fish and the fish get to live in the natural water beneath their houses until they are dinner.

sightseeing in phnom penh

2008-06-13T05:03:00.000-07:00

ariel and i are back in phnom penh for a few nights before heading to vietnam. phnom penh is a charming city and we are both really enjoying it. the streets are crazy, filled with tuk tuks, bicycles, cars, giant suvs and hundreds of thousands of motorbikes. motorbikes are by far the preferred method of transportation. we decided to stay at the same guesthouse as the last time we were in the city (because we enjoyed it, and because we had left our passports with the woman to get vietnamese visas) and they picked us up at the bus. everywhere in asia there is a press when tourists get off a bus or boat. people are screaming to see if we want a tuk tuk, hotel, taxi, another bus...it is crazy. the chaos that meets us every time we get off a bus in cambodia is the worst i have ever seen. india is legendary for this kind of stuff, and it isn't half as crazy there as it is here. we have to push our way through the people trying to get us to go with them as quickly as we possibly can because, inevitably, someone has already taken our bags and is walking away from the bus with them so that we have to follow them. it is madness. we arranged to be picked up by the guesthouse to avoid this, but they only sent one moto (moped) for the driver, ari, me, and our giant backpacks (each the size, if not the weight, of a human themselves). we stood in shock for a moment, amazed that they thought we'd be able to fit on one moto, and then we swallowed our reservations and hopped on. for years in china i saw entire families commuting on a moto, often 5 or more people. the driver put ari's bag in front of him, she climbed on behind him, and i climbed of the back, still wearing my pack. the logic? at least if i fall off the back of the bike the pack helps protect me from spinal chord injury?!! i don't know, but the dirver was safe, the ride was a lot of fun and we reached out guesthouse safely.

we got our vietnamese visas without issue and although the woman told us we would have the same room as last time, she put us into a bigger room (with hot water!!) that could sleep three. ariel and i were pleased, but very soon it became clear as to why we needed a room for three and we were only two people. the room had a resident roach, one of the largest i have ever seen. clearly, the extra bed was for him. he crawled all over our stuff for days and would retreat to sleep in the sink.

first thing in the morning we got up and went to the wat phnom, a temple located on top of the only hill in the city, overlooking the u.s. embassy. locals go there to pray for good luck in school or exams. we went and made an offering for ariel to get into the nursing school of her choice and to give me success and concentration for law school. if your wish is granted, you are supposed to go back to the temple and make another offering. we also visited the royal palace and the silver pagoda in central phnom phen. the buildings are magnificent, with tons of gold paint. the silver pagoda even has a silver floor! it is covered in carpet, but you can see it in places. the buildings are oriented along the tonle sap river which meets the mekong less than a mile south of where we were standing. so we had our first glimpse of the mighty mekong. both rivers seem very high because of the rainy season and they are the color of coffee with cream.

we walked up and down the river front where there are tons of restaurants serving western food and bars for foreigners. a man handed us a flier advertisiting the screening of two films that evening. both were under an hour and we decided we'd like to see both. the first was on pol pot and the cambodian genocide. the second was on landmines, a real issue as cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world (along with angola and afghanistan). the video covered a lot about landmines that i'd never thought about before. there are an estimated 4 - 6 million mines still in cambodia. the video said world wide, a mine detonates and either maims or kills every half hour. everywhere in cambodia there are signs warning people to not leave established paths and trails. the video said that the mines come in three different types (the first kind is stepped on and explodes beneath the person, the second is triggered by a trip wire and sprays up to 10 meters in the direction of the trip wire, and the third shoots into the air and explodes approximately in the persons face) and can be buried up to 9 cm below ground. to detonate, most need only 3 - 5 kilos of pressure. mines are designed to maim and not kill. they were used in cambodia to protect the borders and slow the advance of enemy troups. for this reason, the heaviest minefields lie along the borders, especially the border with vietnam, as the vietnmaese were using land in cambodia to travel through as a supply route. eventually, too, the vietnamese invaded cambodia and so more mines were laid.

mine removal efforts seems to be making good progess all over the country, but the best way to remove them is manually and it is a very slow process. around the tourist sites and museums in phnom phen and siem reap are homes for those who have been disabled by landmines. it is very sad to see and cambodia will take many more decades to recover from the khmer rouge and civil war.

waiting out monsoon in the temples of angkor wat

2008-06-13T04:27:00.001-07:00

angkor wat is amazing! yes, it was crowded and touristy, but our tuk tuk driver, hindar, did a great job of keeping us away from the crowds. we visited the main temples of angkor wat, the banyon, the jungle temple of ta phron, the 12th century monastery of benteay kdei and the prasat kravan. what neither ariel or i appreciated before coming to angkor was the huge influence hindu culture has had over southeast asia, especially cambodia. in fact, the cambodian language is a derivative of hindi! the temples are both hindu and buddhist and depending on who is in power, they switch back and forth. hindu culture came to cambodia through trade. boats would put into ports along the vietnamese coast on sea trade routes from bengal to china. the temples are filled with buddhas (or, the buddhas and pieces of buddhas that survived the khmer rouge) and the walls are covered in carvings of scenes from hindu mythology. the most impressive was 'the churning of the ocean of milk' which we saw depicted again and again. i am not sure if i have the details right, but i seem to remember that the gods and the demons are tugging on opposite ends of a long serpent who is coiled around mt. mandala. the tug of war between the gods and demons produces an elixir of immortality that everyone wants. we could recognize vishnu, hanuman and shiva in the carvings. i guess the gods win, but if that is depicted in the temples, we missed it, all we saw was the 'churning'.

the level of preservation is amazing, considering many of these temples are 1000 years old. all of the temples that we visited are being restored and preserved by cambodia in partnership with international ngos and non-profits. at the front gates to many temples land mine survivors played traditional music to raise money. the music was beautiful and set a perfect atmosphere to explore the temples.

the most famous pictures of the temples of angkor come from ta phrom, the jungle temple. here huge trees grow right out of the temple and huge vines encircle the statues. we have some amazing pictures off my camera, but i can't get them off right now. the above pictures are ariel's and cover only angkor wat. even with so many tourists the temples were large enough that we could explore on our own, away from other people. we sat in the temples and read, talked and thought.

in the afternoon the monsoon clouds piled up again and we got stuck in the entrance of a ruined monastery while we waited out the downpour. some of our happiest times in south east asia so far have been spent waiting out the rains. the rain fell in sheets outside and dripped steadily through the limestone blocks above us. the only ones there, we felt so alone and ancient. it was powerful and we had a great time waiting out the rain.

the woman who ran our guesthouse in phnom penh told us it was a crime to spend only one day at angkor. for us, it was perfect. we ended our very long day back at the three spired temple of angkor wat to watch the sunset. we stayed until the temple closed, the monsoon clouds reflected the light beautifully. more pictures soon, i hope.

giant, hairy spiders....

2008-06-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

first of all, hot pot was wonderful. ariel and i got to have hot pot in cambodia, and i know the temples at angkor are going to be amazing, but if we leave cambodia having only had hot pot, i will be happy. it was just like china (including large fish tanks up and down the walls) and i spoke chinese and got everything we needed ordered perfectly. love!!!

currently we are in siem reap, the gateway city to see the temples of angkor. we will see those tomorrow. this morning was spent in phnom phen and the whole afternoon was taken up by the bus ride to siem reap. this morning we visited a former khmer rouge detention/interrogation center. pretty heavy stuff, i will have to cover that in another post. actually, we are going to go back when we get back to phnom phen. i didn't have quite enough time before we had to get on the bus.

again, we spent many happy hours observing the cambodian countryside. it is just so beautiful! the road we were on was lined with houses continuously, for the six hour duration of the trip. behind the houses stretched miles of rice paddies, for as far as we could see on either side of the road. the houses were the same as we saw in south western cambodia, on stilts, built out of anything and everything. each house has a yard, and then, basically, a moat between the house and the road. in many of the yards we saw large sheets laid out with food drying in the sun. lots of chili peppers and corn. some of the houses had water underneath them, and i saw many pigs tied to the stilts wallowing in the shady mud. it was dry under most of the houses, and people hung hammocks between the stilts. a lot of family life happens beneath the homes. the actual houses are dark, and none of them had any electricity. we happened to be driving through the villages in the evening and watched as dusk fell over the homes and rice paddies. at 5:00 children in blue uniforms (very similar to the kind i saw in india) began to make their way home from school, walking and on bicycles. a half hour later, just before dusk, the road filled up with cows and water buffalo, driven home from the fields by 10 year old boys. the animals were tied under the houses for the night and for a while, the people and the animals spent the evening together. next to the cows, among the stilts, cooking fires lit up under each home.

none of the houses had running water or electricity. even with the building materials, the place might have looked largely the same 1000 years ago. we saw a number of different rainwater collections systems, including a large piece of plastic hung between two sticks that would catch the sheets of rain. the rain would then drain off the plastic into a plastic lined hold dug into the ground.

the bus ride was like many in asia. we were on the local bus and so we were treated to a lot of cambodian music and movies on the tv in front of the bus. mostly we tried to ignore it and look out the window. they do the same thing on chinese busses, i just don't understand how they can listen to music that loudly!! for about an hour the music was really frantic and with the bus honking incessantly i thought we were going to loose it. we finally pulled over at food stalls and everyone got off to get food. there was a young couple sitting across from us and they got back on the bus with bags and bags of food. our window was a little dusty so we were staring across them to look out of their window. it was then that we noticed that they were eating the largest spiders i have ever seen. no exaggeration, the spiders were 6 inches long. they were huge, hairy, and roasted. the couple pulled the legs off first and nibbled.....yum? when the legs were gone they broke the head, abdomen, and thorax off and ate those separately. i don't even know if the music was still on, we were captivated. they also consumed about 4 cups of roasted grasshoppers, but i've seen that before. the spiders??? wow.

so far, cambodia and i are in love

2008-06-09T03:31:00.000-07:00

sorry i haven't been very good about updating this! i could make a bunch of excuses but the real reason is that, until yesterday, there wasn't very much going on. ariel and i took a few days to get on our feet in bangkok. we walked around through the neighborhoods and back alleys, but for the most part, we were getting over some wicked jet lag like none i have ever experienced. we snaked at cafes and laid out a basic plan for the month that we have here. once we did all of this very hard work we rewarded ourselves by going to the beach!

koh chang is an island in the gulf of thailand, east of bangkok. it wouldn't have been our first choice for beaches, we'd both like to get back to the andaman coast, but it is on the way to cambodia. it has the requisite coconut palms, white sand and turquoise waters so i guess we couldn't have asked for much more. we spent a number of days there in the sun, relaxed and content. we had a lovely little bungalow and in the evenings dined at tables in the sand. one night we had dinner right at high tide and the waves went past us and we found that we were having dinner in the ocean! the surf was really gentle so there was no reason to move and it was nice to have our feet cool. our tables and chairs sunk deeper into the sand with every wave and by the end of the meal we rose from a little kiddie table.

yesterday we finally got the real traveling underway. on previous trips to thailand i'd always appreciated the tourist infrastructure. i'd come for a week here and there on vacation from china and it was nice to have a tourist district and everyone speaking english. now, it is frustrating me and i want nothing more than to be far away from it. the prices are so high, ariel and i are really burning through our funds and we are surrounded by westerners. i find it suffocating. unfortunately, we do want to do some of the most touristy things around - visiting angkor wat and halong bay in vietnam. the trick of the trip is going to be getting away from the southeast asia backpacker's circuit.

we are currently in cambodia, having crossed a lesser used land border from thailand yesterday afternoon. i was thrilled to be using local transportation and have long hours spent with no other westerners in sight. we are traveling in monsoon and while there is plenty of sun, there are huge thunderstorms in the afternoon. all day dark clouds were gathering, and as we skipped away from the border with our beautiful cambodian visas tucked into our passports the wind started to pick up. the moment after we checked into our hotel the clouds broke with by far the most impressive monsoon rain i have ever seen. it rained in sheets for more than an hour. at our hotel the thunder shook the wooden floorboards of our room. off the back deck the family running the hotel had gigantic jugs, both ceramic and plastic, that they rotated under the downspots until filled. tubs with laundry were thrown into the courtyard when the rains started to let the power of the storm do some of the work.

cambodia is magnificently beautiful. when we got up this morning we boarded a bus headed for the capitol, phnom phen. we planned to head for the beaches of cambodia, but we do have limited time and we are both feeling the pull of vietnam. the road was in wonderful condition and we had a magnificent ride. cambodian houses are built on stilts, of any building material available. a single house can make use of wood planking, courregated metal, bamboo and thatch. the huts we passed were in the middle of rice paddies and fields, with dogs and water buffalo wandering near by. we saw a number of waterfalls off the side of the road and swollen rivers that looked remarkably lazy and still. the mountains were covered in dense jungle, the kind that once you step into it, all light is blocked out within 5 feet. dark, dark jungle.

as we were arriving in the outskirts of phnom phen another brief monsoon rain fell. again, in sheets, and every moped on the road retreated to the overhangs of gas stations and small shops to wait it out. we passed on gas station that must have had nearly 100 people gathered around the pumps waiting out the rain with their bikes outside. once the rain stopped, like an army, they all hopped on and took to the roads again.

tomorrow we are going to hit the museums in the morning and take a bus to siem riep (to see angkor wat) in the afternoon. we've been told that it is amazing, but we have been also told that we can skip it. i expect the experience will be similar to visiting the taj mahal or the great wall, so i am excited, but i know what to expect in terms of commercialism and tourists. no romantic jungle explorer fantasies here, we know we are going to be in the middle of touristville.

tonight we are going to hot pot. yes, that is right, HOT POT! i am addicted. when i was in western china it seemed to me as if i had a 6th sense for finding hot pot, and my luck has carried to cambodia. we were walking from our bus to the hotel, i look up and see the familiar chinese characters. i nearly jumped out of my skin. ariel and her family had hot pot with me a number of times last winter, and so i know she is just as excited as i am!

we're here...

2008-06-03T04:51:00.001-07:00

ariel and i arrived in bangkok around 2 am last night. all with the flightes went well and we have had not a bit of trouble. we must seem like we know where we are going!

we have to go get something to eat, as we haven't eaten in nearly 20 hours. we are both feeling a bit under the weather (probably just colds from the airplane) and have been sleeping for most of the day. it is 7 pm here so we decided to stay in bangkok for another night before heading out to...where? yeah, we still haven't really planned anything. we keep promising ourselves we'll do it over dinner, so let's see if that happens. right now we are just happy to be back in asia.

yay!

it is traveling time again!

2008-05-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

for the next month my dear friend, ariel borden-deal, and i will be traveling in southeast asia. it will be my first international trip in almost two years, and i am really ready to see asia again. our plan is to visit four countries: thailand, vietnam, cambodia, and laos. i am not sure if we will end up getting to all four or not. we’ve done very little planning and so we are free to stay anywhere as long as we like. this, to me, is one of the best parts of traveling.

with that said, we have talked about hitting the beaches in thailand, cambodia and vietnam. i want to go snorkeling. we’d also like to see the temples of angkor wat in cambodia and i really want to see halong bay in northern vietnam. halong bay is pretty close to the rail link into china. sadly, we aren’t able to include china on this trip (with the olympics in august, chinese visas have become difficult to get and expensive) and i am a little reluctant to go so close to the border. i’ll want to run across like crazy and hop a train to wuhan, but i’ll have to restrain myself!

my greatest interest on this trip is the mekong river. as we travel the region we’ll cross over the river many times. i am fascinated by river systems and loved living on the yangtze in central china. the mekong starts in the tibetan plateau and flows for 2700 miles before entering the south china sea. i’ve heard we may be able to see river dolphins in laos and cambodia, and if we are really lucky there is the rare siamese crocodile and manatees! i never got to see the river dolphins in china. they were believed to be extinct in the yangtze but there have been recent reports of a sighting.

the mekong flows from the tibetan plateau through yunnan province in china before heading into burma, thailand, laos, cambodia and vietnam. occasionally the river acts as the border between the countries. my great interest comes from the international cooperation necessary to manage such a resource and use it sustainably. i read that over 90 million people rely on the river for food (the mekong is famous for HUGE catfish) and irrigation waters for rice paddies. with lasting peace and stability, the countries of southeast asia are developing economically and demands on the mekong grow. the river is increasingly polluted by the use of pesticides and industrial waste. china has built a number of hydroelectric dams on the river and has more planned. while these dams and the electricity they produce benefit many chinese people (even outside of the mekong watershed), the impact of their existence is felt downriver. other dams exist along the river south of china and more are planned as demand for electricity grows. dams are traumatic to the environment of a river, many species do not survive their construction and existence. in addition to these problems, the mekong river delta relies on annual floods. when the floods come, sediment brought downstream replaces the land lost through natural erosion. the sediment is also rich in nutrients and therefore important to agriculture in the delta. other practices are changing the flow of the mekong as well. traditionally, the river was shallow with many rapids and difficult to navigate. to increase navigability and therefore trade, rapids along the length of the river are being blasted. all of the development and modifications to the river’s natural flow effect the people living on or near the river, both positively and negatively. yay for this opportunity to see the mekong!

i’d better stop there for now. i am visiting my sister and her two kids in san diego and we are off to the beach! tomorrow, ariel and i meet at the l.a. airport and our flight leaves for bangkok tomorrow afternoon. next time i check in, we will be sweating in thailand!

loki love!

2008-05-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

who's been keeping me busy since i have been home:

2006-08-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

to making it out alive

2006-08-20T16:03:00.000-07:00

i am very pleased to report that both sean and i are alive and well.....in america!! toasting 'to making it out alive' as we drank beer in delhi must have done the trick. our flights went well, other than delays, and we are luxuriating in american food and i am quite reluctant to leave my comfy, soft bed.

i am moving kind of slowly, but i am looking forward to talking to everyone. my phonebook in my cell phone disappeared so e-mail me your numbers, or better yet, just give me a call. 513-519-7996.

and now, it is time for a nap.

love!

k.

there are new photos!!

2006-08-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

duff has put more photos on his photo site from our trip. please follow the link to the right. new albums include hainan, kashgar, kashgar to lhasa trip, kathmandu, lhasa, lhasa to kathmandu, monastaries near lhasa, urumqi to kashgar, and wuhan to urumqi.

there is a really great photo of duff's chinese nephew in the urumqi to kashgar album.

enjoy!!

...in which sean and i have an amazing experience in batala

2006-08-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

sean and i spent two amazing days with some very kind people in batala, india, visiting the school that my great aunt lilly started as a methodist missionary. it will take a number of posts to share about the school, program, and the things we have learned.

amritsar is the big city south of batala in the punjab. the punjab is an amazing region with a sikh majority. the state of punjab has been split on two occasions. first, partition in 1947 when india and pakistan split, and then again in 1966 when the new hindu speaking state of haryana was created. in the punjab they speak punjabi. the area surrounding the city is farm land, and very green and clean looking. we saw a lot of rice and wheat growing. we caught an evening train, 5:30 to batala. we have been trying to communicate with the school in batala, but this has been difficult. i sent a number of letters while still in china, but the chinese mail system is not good, and the indian system worse, and none of them made it through. i have been trying to e-mail through my grandparents and the bishop in delhi, but was never able to make direct contact with anyone at the school. as a result, sean and i had no idea what was waiting for us. after being crammed with 6 people to a bench in 100 degree heat for an hour we stopped in batala. we hopped off the train for our fist major shock: we hadn't stopped at a platform! with my hurt ankle, and our heavy packs, we took a minute to stare at each other in shock, looking up and down the rows between the trains hoping none of the decided to move before we found a way out. eventually some kind people directed us to hop through another train and we found our way to the platform. we climbed up and down the trains from the gravel, pushing my pack ahead of us.

we took a moment to collect ourselves and it was clear that our communication efforts had failed and there was no one to meet us. we struck out from the train station looking for a hotel. we got a lot more stares than normal, i can't imagine foreigners are a common sight in batala (which i am told has a population of about 200,000, but seemed a lot smaller). when sean and i bought our tickets in amritsar the ticket agent thought he had misheard me when i announced our destination. i had to yell three times before he said, "you mean batala? you want to go to batala?!" yes!!

we found a hotel, and then decided we didn't like it and found another. by this time it was dark, so we camped out in the restaurant for some amazing chicken tikka, paneer tikka, and a beer. while we were there a little boy came in and said his father invited us for breakfast the next morning at 9:00. we accepted the invitation and went to bed feeling excited and welcome.

the next morning was the dawn of the 59th indian independence day. it was cool and rainy and we went to wait for the boy downstairs to go to breakfast. he never showed up, so sean and i started walking to find the school or breakfast, which ever we found first. i was worried that we would find no one at the school, no school would be open in america on the 4th of july, and we didn't realize that august 15th was independece day when we planned our trip. sean and i walked for a while and found kahnuwan road, the address we had for the school. after wandering around for a while, looking extremely lost, i am sure, a man helped us find the school. as soon as we showed him the address he knew exactly where we wanted to go. he led us past the church, and pointed us down a road. at the end of the road we saw a sign:

lilly swords methodist college of education

we found it!! it was a white sign with blue and white lettering and the methodist cross and flame. the school did look deserted, however. we asked a group of little boys where we could find the head master the pointed us to the assembly hall. when we got there, we realized we had arrived right in the middle of an independece day assembly. we met miss alka hamid masih, and the principal of the high school. we explained to them who were were and were warmly welcomed. they had no idea we were coming. no idea. we felt badly, like we were crashing their party, but they were quick thinkers and made us feel very welcome. we were seated in the front of the hall and listened to the pastor speak. the children were sitting cross-legged on mats in rows all the way to the back of the room. there were 30 children per row and perhaps 25 rows or more. it was hard to count. i was particularly struck by how well behaved the children were, peace and quiet and attention like nothing i could ever expect out of my students in china. even the tiny little kids, 5 years old, were paying rapt attention. miss alka made an impromptu announcement of our visit and introduced us. we stood at the front of the room and waved at the children and i said a few words. this, and we had only arrived 5 minutes ago! then, they welcomed us with garlands of sparkling something, which girls came and placed around our necks like they do in hawaii. i wish i could remember what they were called, but i didn't catch the name. we finished up the ceremony and went to have a snack with the staff.

they explained that indian independence day is really celebrated for 2 days. on the 15th the students come to school and there are presentations and festivities. we missed most of the morning program but we were invited to attend the afternoon program at 5:00. it was a cultural program put on by the hostel students (the children who live at the school, 425 residents in all). more about that later. on the 16th, there are no classes and teachers have the day off.

sean and i need to get going, but next time i write i will recount our tour of the school. we had an amazing tour filled with great information and history. before we go, though, i will give some basic facts. the school was started by my great aunt, lilly swords, from germany, educated in america. she and another german missionary, hildegard grams, are largely responsible for building the school into what it is today. miss grams enlarged the school substantially. miss swords was involved in the purchasing of the land, the school has 13 acres and even grow their own rice and wheat, which they process on the school grounds. they also grow some vegetables. the school now has about 1600 students, from the ages of 5-20. of these students, 425 live in beautiful hostel accommodation...more on all of this later. classes are taught in three different programs, in the punjabi, hindi, and english languages. sean and i were very impressed by the peace and serenity of the school grounds. india is a very chaotic place, and at times the noise and dirt can be overwhelming. these children are very lucky to have this safe and beautiful school. the grounds are amazingly well-cared for and there are many trees with green, healthy grass. birds sang and chipmunks ran around. the paths connecting the brick buildings are all brick, too. the campus is extremely beautiful and seems a whole world away from crazy batala, right outside the gates.

i will write more later, but if you had questions or specific details you would like me address, please leave those comments so i don't leave anything out.

also: the site for the school and their newest project, the lilly swords methodist college of education, is:

www.lillyswordsbatala.org

amritsar and the golden temple

2006-08-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

sean and i are closing in on the end of our trip. now, after 30 hours of train travel from jodhpur, we are in amritsar. today we saw the magnificent golden temple. we both agreed that it is far more impressive than the taj mahal. the golden temple is a large complex that is a holy place for sikhs, and it was so amazing to see all of the people worshiping. pilgrims can stay in the dormitories there with no charge and eat for free. one of the cafeterias serves 10,000 people a day and can seat 3,000 people at a time. there were that many people wandering around the temple and gardens, it was so crowded. the complex is mostly white marble, and buildings surround a pool of water where people were bathing. in the center of the pool is the golden temple, amazingly golden. the bottom part of the temple is white marble with pietra dura, which is the italian for the type of inlay. beautiful, precious and semi-precious stones are set into the panels of marbel. the scenes are so delicate and beautiful and the detail is fascinating. the stones are all colors and they have the most brilliant blues and teals and the deepest reds. most of the panels are flowers, and they were at the taj mahal, but here there we also scenes with delicate birds and peacocks, holy men, tigers, and all sorts of amazing stuff.

inside the main temle there were three holy mean singing prayers and playing instruments that are amplified by speaker throughout the complex. the halls and stairs were crowded with people relaxing, reflecting, and praying. many were reading small books. the ceilings were elaborate, raised gold backed by blue, green and red paint. there were amazing garden scenes painted along the walls. the ceilings had mirrors with dazzling effects.

in a few hours sean and i head on to batala. we don't know what awaits us there, if someone will meet us, or if we will even be able to find the school, but we are armed with all the information we have, and we are are ready for adventure. we will spend indian independence day there, and since i was foolish and scheduled our visit on a national holiday when the school is most likely closed, we may spend a half day on the 16th before heading back to delhi and then home. wish us luck, we are out of cities that start with 'j' because those places and sean and i don't mix.

enchanting gujarat countryside

2006-08-10T12:43:00.000-07:00

yay!! sean and i finally got into the countryside a couple of days ago. we hired a driver from the tourist office in bhuj, wildly expensive, but worth it, and set off into the gujarati countryside surrounding bhuj. i told the driver that i wanted to see some people and handicrafts, but i mostly wanted to see nature and wildlife. there are flamingos in the area and i thought it would be neat to see them in their natural habitat. the driver heard me, i guess, but didn't listen because we went in the opposite direction. he told us that it was monday and there is a market in anjar on mondays and all of the desert tribal people come. this sounded amazing, so i will leave the flamingos for another trip.

the driver took us to the homes of local people so we could see the handicrafts of kutch. we saw block printing, silk weaving, woodworking, and the most amazing embroidery ever. it was neat to see the people working, most of the work was done out of private homes and we got to sit and chat with the people, mostly tribal rabaris, and have tea with them and ask them about their work. it was a really neat experience, and i am now obsessed with block printing. when we were traveling in nepal there were carved wood blocks everywhere. duff encouraged me to buy some but i couldn't really see any use for them and i didn't want to carry them so i didn't. now i wish i had, i would love to make my own blockprints. i am keeping an eye out for the blocks.

the villages that we visited were so quiet and peaceful, and remarkably clean. many homes were destroyed by the earthquake and we visited a group of houses built by the government, one or two rooms to each one story home. we went into one where there were more than 10 women leaning up against the walls in a room with concrete floors and no furniture. they spend their days sitting there embroidering the most amazing stuff. mostly saris. one girl showed us how she sews the tiny mirrors they use onto the cloth. sean and i ended up getting some amazing embroidery to use as wall hangings. all the places we visited showed the crafts they wanted to sell. i hate this because i always feel forced or guilted into to buying something and the prices are generally really high, but when we saw the embroidering we were both eager to get to the part where they would try to sell us stuff. we were ready to buy.

as we were driving towards anjar and the market the driver stopped and proclaimed that we were very lucky tourists because we could see gypsies. having had not all together positive experiences with gypsies in ireland, i was a little wary, but we went and talked to the people. finally, people who were willing to stare at us as openly as we wanted to stare at them! they were fascinated by my watch, as everyone we met that day was, and i got a lot of questions about it. these families are nomadic and move everyday, according to our guide. they were rabari and each day pack all their belongings onto camels and move on. they belongings include a huge wooden bed, which we assumed collapsed, but doesn't. the camel walks around with a huge platform on its back and the children ride on it, oh, and lambs. later in the day we saw another group of nomads on the move. in the camp there are only elders, women, and children. the men herd sheep and goats and they are off wandering with their flocks. the rabari are beautiful and striking people. the women wear all black and sport huge gold jewelry and amazing tatoos, especially on their feet and ankles, arms and necks. i am wary of tatoos as it is and the thought of getting a home tatoo on my neck gives me the chills. still, they are very beautiful. we saw one older woman who had giant gold bars as earrings, her earlobes stretched out so far the bottoms of the holes in her ears were brushing the tops of her shoulders.

when we got to the market in anjar we were emboldened, having visited a few small villages of rabari and anhir people. i think it is anhir, i couldn't really understand the guide. the anhir women wore these very beautiful shirts with open backs, completely open backs. they were long sleeves and full coverage in the front, but there was no back to the shirt. it was a really beautiful effect and they wore a long piece of cloth over their head which fell down their backs, covering them for the most part, all the way to the ground. they also wore long embroidered skirts. at the market we saw all manner of people selling all kinds of stuff. at one point we wandered into a vegetable market and i was shocked at how empty the stalls were. vegetable markets in china are overflowing with really healthy looking food, but here it seemed that there was very little, and what there was didn't look very good.

at the market we also saw men, and boys in red turbans. our guide told us that those in red turbans will get married within ten days. they wore white (as rabari men do) and had high-heeled leather shoes in addition to the bright turbans. some of the boys were amazingly young. we asked the guide about it and he said people get married at all ages, as young as 10 or 11. the bride is generally the same age as the groom. wow.

in the afternoon, we stopped at a bird sanctuary to try and satisfy my craving for nature. there weren't any birds, apparently migration isn't until next month, but we got to relax for a while near a lake that comes just from monsoon. the waters were light brown and we were told that in a month all the sediment will settle to the bottom and the water is a brilliant blue. nearby sean and i visited a tomb, which struck us as a really neat place to hang out as a teenager and the caretaker gave us a blue plastic bag of sugar. this we were to eat, or to give away to children.

after our short visit to bhuj we caught the overnight train back to ahmedabad to get our stuff from the tailors. it all came out beautifully, but we were in a huge rush and didn't have any time for alterations and it is all too big. how this happens, i have no idea. they take our measurements!! sean had a dashing navy blue suit made and even though we got it taken in it is still too big. my tailor didn't even want to deal with my alterations so we will try to find someone in amritsar who can take my kurtas in. the fabric is mostly gujarati block prints and it is so beautiful.

we are now in jodhpur and will be here for a few days resting and healing (i fell down the steps at the train station yesterday morning) and then we move on to the punjab. to amritsar to see the golden temple, and to batala where my opa's sister lived and taught school.

prag mahal: pigeon sanctuary

2006-08-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

sean and i, having left cloth at tailors all over ahmedabad, have moved on to bhuj. katie's recommendations have proved to be wonderful recommendations indeed. thank you, katie!! we are now in the region of kutch, completely fascinating. i can only wonder what it looked like when she was here, now it is green and there are puddles everywhere. sadly, we only have two days in bhuj (this trip is flying, we have less than 2 weeks left!). today we spent in town sightseeing and tomorrow we are off on a tour of the countryside. i am really excited about this: we have been doing all of our traveling by train and at night and so i have no idea what the area between the cities we have visited looks like. the countryside is the most interesting to me. we told the tourist bureau we wanted to see the wildlife, people, and handicrafts of kutch. we'll see what we get.

today sean and i visited the prag mahal, the aina mahal, and sarad bagh palace. most impressive by far was the prag mahal. in 2001 there was a huge earthquake in gujarat, 7.7, and the epicenter was in kutch. evidence of the earthquake can still be seen everywhere... or maybe it is just typical less-developed country rubble, but the signs of the earthquake are obvious. since the earthquake destroyed (leveled) a lot of the town, city planners took the opportunity to make some changes. the streets were widened. today walking in the old city we could see where buildings would have extended into the road, but now they just end where rooms used to be. the earthquake killed 20,000 people, including 400 school kids who were marching in a parade for republic day (this year duff and i were walking the hills around ooty for india's republic day and some kids road by on bikes with indian flags attached to the handle bars and gave us little paper flags). the buildings that fared the worst were the newly built highrises, but the buildings we visited today suffered obvious damage.

there was far to little information about the prag mahal. it is a huge building that can be seen from all over the city. the area is abandoned now, and the walls are crumbling and the surrounding area is overgrown. only a handful of rooms in the huge castle (basically) were open and it KILLED me that we couldn't explore all of them. the place had a really ghostly feel to it and was completely inhabited by flapping pigeons. the main room visitors see is the dilapidated durbar hall, which looks like it is right out of a haunted house movie set. the walls are crumbling, there are 11 crystal chandeliers in the room, caked in dust and pigeon droppings. they also are set with large red stones. lining the walls are european classical statues and TONS of taxidermy. i mean tons. there was a taxidermied hippo as well as dear, bears, and all manner of big cats. like everything else these were covered in dust, and pigeons perched on the heads on the dead animals. it was so creepy and fun! the rooms was filthy and a little light made it in through red and blue stained glass windows. i am crushed that we couldn't see the rest of the palace. we did get to visit another room to the side of the main hall, filled with large mirrors and more taxidermy with carpet worn through to the floor. there were absolutely no protective measures engaged here, it is one of the most fascinating buildings i have ever seen.

interestingly, there were some automaton statues similar to those that sean is familiar with from his work with the magic collection. there were two, apparently one from france in terrible condition, and another of an indian man sitting cross-legged smoking a hooka. when we went next door to the aina mahal, which is a museum, sean got into a neat discussion with the curator about their collection. the curator had a passion for the history and culture of kutch and showed us a book and a number of articles he had written on the region, all pre-earthquake. he talked about the challenges of running the museum and preserving the collection because the building was so damaged by the earthquake. apparently they have a very large collection but most of it is in storage because the whole second floor was destroyed. monsoon also seems to cause a problem for the collection, now housed in a non-secure building.

the sarad bagh palace was the home of the maharaja of kutch but the entire third floor of the structure disappeared after the earthquake. the man only died in 1991 and it was neat to see the artifacts of his life which included a number of taxidermied lions and tigers with photos of the kill when he shot them and their measurements (all over 10 feet).

early to bed, our driver picks us up at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

back on track...where everyone thinks sean looks like harry potter

2006-08-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

sean and i stalled out for a few days in jaipur. i guess monsoon is cold and flu season here, and we caught the bugs. the illness hit me a lot harder than it did sean (since illness generally hits him harder in life, it was a fair trade-off), and for a few days i stayed in bed. luckily, we were in the beautiful town of jaipur at an amazing hotel with hot water and a.c. there was no better place to be wretchedly ill anywhere else in india.

our second night in jaipur, sean and i went to the cinema to see our first hindi bollywood movie, fanaa. i hear it got mixed reviews, and none of it was in english, but we both really enjoyed the film. the storyline was remarkably easy to follow, and interesting. it is the story of a blind girl from kashmir who goes to delhi for some kind of dance performance and falls in love with a tour guide. they court and love and the parents, i suppose, approve of the match and come to delhi to meet the guy. while on their way, the girl and guy go to the hospital to get retinal replacement surgery in hopes the girl can see. while the girl is recovering, and before she can see, a bomb explodes (at a gov't complex near the hospital) and she is told her boyfriend has died in the explosion. she's crushed and goes back to kashmir with her parents. it turns out, though, that the guy was leading a double life and was actually a kashmiri freedom fighter planning with his grandfather and other kashmiri soldiers to pressure india, pakistan, and russia to let their kashmir regions go. oh, the "pressure" was with a handheld nuclear device that could destroy delhi, or islamabad. the story gets complex, and i recommend you see the movie, so i won't go into it anymore, but it is a beautiful movie with amazing scenery and really fun music and dancing. sean was laughing at some of the cheezy parts and now i know that i have spent too much time watching chinese movies because it didn't seem that hoaky to me.

laying in bed watching the news i learned that everyone is getting sore throats now because of monsoon. they showed throat exercises and yoga positions to help your throat heal. and the tv told me to eat lots of yogurt.

sean and i are now in amedhamad, in gujarat, plotting our next move. our next immediate move will be to the tailor. and then, hopefully, out into the countryside a bit.

interestingly, traveling with sean, people here tend to think he looks like harry potter, and more than once we have been walking down the street and they will say "harry potter" over and over again, and point, and tell their friends. we were walking behind a guy on the way to the internet cafe today who told the people we passed, "hey, the guy behind me looks just like harry potter!" how cute.

race through agra....

2006-07-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

sean and i hit agra, the formal capital of india during the mughal period, in a day. we saw the amazing taj mahal and the stunning agra fort. both were beautiful, but agra and varanasi are both cities in which we didn't want to linger. thank goodness katie has confirmed our suspicions in her comment of our last post, agra and varanasi were filthy and hectic and, frankly, really unpleasant. the sights in both cities are breathtaking, but the stress level involved to see them is far too high.

we are now in jaipur, an expensive town with a subway sandwich shop. yes, we went. yes, i had a chocolate chip cookie. yes, i am VERY happy. jaipur is the biggest city in eastern rajasthan, the land of the kings, and one of the more touristy states in all of india. from here, we are deciding where we will go next. we want to visit gujarat, western rajasthan, and the punjab. now we are balancing the political situation along the pakistani border and a lot of flodding in gujarat. sean and i are both feeling a little under the weather after our agra marathon, so i think we'll take it easy here for a bit and poke around the old town, known as the pink city, because everything is painted pink.

the taj mahal was amazing. it didn't take very long to visit, there is the one main chamber and two side buildings, all very beautiful. it rained a little while we were there, and at the agra fort, and since all the flooring in marble, we spent a lot of time concentrating on maintaining steady footing. the back of the complex overlooked the yamuna river. from various parts of the city, and from agra fort, we could see the taj mahal with the river flowing alongside it. so striking. all around the area people were trying to sell postcards, and get us into one rickshaw or another, or a horse cart. it was overwhelming, but not as bad as varanasi. the auto rickshaw drivers do a thing where they try to get you to trust them by 'coming clean' with you, and telling you what they make, and where they will get commission, and generously bad-mouthing the other drivers. all of our guys have said they have been in the business for 20 years, and now there are a lot of young guys who don't know what they are doing, and they won't cheat us, etc. etc.... all they want is for us to think they are the only guy in town who will be straight with us and so we'll hire them for a full day tour. our driver in agra went so far as to tell us that all the restaurants around the taj mahal deliberately give food poisoning to the tourists, implying he was the only person who could keep us safe. luckily, we ate twice in agra, and we are just fine.

ugh. i am ready for this cold to go away, i feel really fuzzy.

reportedly, there is a theatre where we can go see a bollywood movie. sean and i hope to do that tonight, we aren't really up for anything more active. compared to agra and varanasi, the weather here is beautiful, blue sky and a nice breeze. it isn't rainy at all, but really sunny. it isn't even that hot. we are really going to have to watch sean for sunburn, though. i'll write more when my head clears.

cobra

2006-07-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

sean and i are finishing up our time in varanasi. we have been really busy because we wanted to see the ghats leading down to the ganges river at all times of day. we hear that the morning and the evening are the peak times, when most people gather to bathe in the holy waters of the ganges and sing and pray. now, we are happy to say, we have seen the full spectrum of activity at the ghats.

varanasi is a city of about 2,000,000 people. i am interested to see it in a time that is not monsoon, because now it seems like a very hard place to live. i don't know if my conclusions are accurate, but from what i have observed, it is a poor city. much poorer than anything i saw in the south when duff and i traveled there in january and february. the people don't look happy, no one smiles at me, and their clothes are really worn. the women, especially, look as if they have had very difficult lives. varanasi is a holy city, and has a long history. over the years it has been known also as kashi, and benares. the current name, varanasi, is from the varna, and assi river, with both join the ganges here. i hope i am understanding this correctly, the rickshaw driver who told me had a really thick accent and i realize that i have almost a complete inability to understand english with any accent other than chinese. i have only seen the asi river while here.

the city itself is a mess, the power blacks out frequently. i knew that i had been in asia long enough when it blacked out at dinner the other night, and without even stopping my sentence, reached into my bag and pulled out my book light and set it on the table.

sean and i spent our first day looking for anyone who would exchange chinese money at a fair rate. we haven't found anyone, so i guess i will hold onto my kuai for a while. we also went to surnath, which is held to be the birthplace of buddhism. this is where the buddha gave his first major sermon after attaining enlightenment in the deer park in 528 bc. we visited a variety of temples and stupas, including a chinese temple and a japanese temple. there was also a tibetan temple, but it was closed. on the gate, however, there was a information board, outlining the 'chinese atrocities in tibet.' interestingly, our boatman this morning was talking about the area of the largest countries in the world. he said something to the effect of, well, china is bigger than india, because they got tibet. really it should belong to india. what? i haven't ever heard a case for tibet being a part of india, but only for it to be an independent nation. interesting.

the ghats are amazing. the area is basically a developed riverfront with steps leading down to the water. i am not sure how the river level changes during monsoon, but with two or three exceptions when we had to climb up into the old town, we were able to walk the 3 km stretch of river front. most of the ghats have names, and some have statues, and buildings, palaces, or temples above the flood line (not that they are safe, our boatman pointed out some remarkably high places the water reached in floodtime). we visited all the ghats, but the ones that held the most interest, obviously, were the ones where funerals were taking place.

there are two funeral ghats that we saw. at the largest one, a man who runs hospice care spoke to us. he wanted money for his time and information, and we didn't have a lot to give, so we didn't speak to him that long, but he told us some interesting things. he is involved in running three houses for people who want to come and die near the river. the total capacity is 95 people, and i believe they are at capacity now. he wanted to take us into the houses, but we declined. he told us about the funeral customs, and basically went through a number of the steps with us. we saw the eternal flame, where rushes are lit and carried to the body. we say over 12 pyres while there. the entire area has wood stacked in huge 20 foot piles. i didn't know what it would smell like, but there was no aroma of burning flesh, just wood and incense and smoke. women aren't allowed down to the ghat because in the past, when women weren't allowed to remarry, there were cases of widows throwing themselves on the fires. also, people don't cry, it is bad for the funeral, or the person. people shave their heads and wear white, the hindu color or mourning.

the guide also told us that there are 4 kinds of people who don't get to be cremated. they are: children, pregnant women, people with small pox and other similar diseases, and people who have been bitten by cobras! yikes!! at the time, i digested the information, but by 2:00 in the morning, the cobra had revisited me a number of times in a nightmare. there are goats everywhere, and the long and the short of the dream, is that i had a baby goat in my bed, which attracted a cobra. i was with a bunch of people i didn't know, but in my dream, i ended up squeezing the cobras head with my hand and milking 2 garbage can-fulls of venom from it and then, while i was trying to throw it out the window, it swung around and grazed my arm and my wrist. i woke up, covered in mosquito bites. the mosquitoes here are bad, you can neither see them or hear them and yet i am covered in bites. i spent the rest of the night occasionally checking under the bed for snakes with my book light.

we are heading to agra tonight to see the taj mahal. things are going well, but i will be glad to be out of varanasi. it is expensive here, and difficult to get fair prices. the ghats were at times frustrating because there are so many people trying to sell you things, or get you to go in their boat, there was little opportunity to observe or relax.

sorry for the disjointed and rushed nature of this post. i have been trying to get it out a few different times at the internet and the power keeps cutting out. i am frazzled.

now, if i can only stop speaking chinese to these people!!

my my monsoon!

2006-07-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

it is so rainy here! after a brief 45 minute flight, i arrived in varanasi from kathmandu, the holy city for hindus on the ganges river in india. it is monsoon in india, and we'd been observing the effects in nepal and as far away as tibet, but this city is SATURATED. it is hot, it is humid, and i have never been so thankful for a cold shower. amazingly, i have no rain coat. since sean and i are heading west to the desert, i don't know that i'll get one. i don't know that i need one, it is so humid, my clothes are drenched as it is.

the trip from kathmandu went very smoothly. i discovered a hoax, too, that the kathmandu taxi drivers have been playing on unwitting foreigners. they have been turning the meter off in the cabs and tell the tourists it is broken. the guy tried this on me today and i happened to see him switch it off. he told me 400 rupees to the airport and i said i wanted to use the meter. he said it was broken. i countered with, surprising myself, "no, it isn't. i saw you. turn it on and we'll use the meter." he looked at me, and began to reassert his lie, and i conjured a look, a look i didn't know i possessed. the look said something like, "don't try this," or "how stupid do you think i am?" or, perhaps, "i pity you in your dishonesty." i started him down and he popped the meter back on and we were on our way. too bad we didn't figure that one out earlier. the taxi to the airport, metered, was 100 rupees.

our flight was late leaving, and for a while i thought that i was going to be the only white person on the whole plane. not only that, but one of 2 women. oh, i flew cosmic air. who has heard of them? the flight, i guess, was delayed to wait on a huge group of spanish tourists who ran into the terminal. ah ha, more white people and women.

the flight went really well, but we flew in through some huge thunder clouds. china seems a million life times away from here, i felt odd writing that i had even been there on my entry card. the only similarity that i have seen so far is the giant water buffalo, just like the chinese kind, wandering the streets of varanasi with the other cows.

i must get going, i don't want to be out after dark. tomorrow morning starts the great quest for sean. we must meet up, but it will be an adventure.

a monk swats a monkey...with an umbrella

2006-07-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

duff and lindsey just left for the airport, and now i have a few hours in kathmandu. the last few days have mostly been spent sorting out travel plans, but we have had some time for fun, too. yesterday morning, duff and i spent 3 hours at the airchina office trying to talk some sense into those people. yet, the chinese argued as the always do: around the issue. yesterday afternoon, and a scary amount of this morning while duff and lindsey were rushing to the airport, was spent trying to get me on a flight to nepal. after serious amounts of research, we decided that the bus and the roads were unsafe, and i would be much better off flying. sadly, the ticket went up in price three times, but the longer i am in this city, the more stories i hear of buses dropping off cliffs, and i am glad i have the ticket. yesterday, the headline in the newspaper was about a bus crash on the road from tibet that killed 23 people (this of the 60-some people on the bus). not encouraging. plus, it is monsoon, and that makes bad roads worse.

so, even though we have been super busy, duff and i found some time for a few neat little experiences. for lunch we found a great little tandoori place with two guys who cooked amazing food. it was the first truly local place we'd gotten to eat, away from all the tourist junk. the food was so amazing, we went back that night to get takeout vegetable briyani to have with the amazing bottle of white wine that duff was so kind to treat us too.

just before sunset, duff and i decided to go to the amazing swayambhunath stupa. the stupa is situated on a hill overlooking kathmandu. from the top, you can see the whole kathmandu valley and the mountains that enclose it. it was so beautiful. we had an awesome cab driver who took us to the top because we wanted to see the sunset from the top and didn't have much time. he was a really talkative guy and duff had a great time talking to him. he talked about nepal's past political trouble (yes, they say it is past, and i believe, largely, the violence is, but on sunday and monday we witnessed many demonstrations. these demonstrations blocked traffic. the one we got closest to was students, probably high school or college age. i am guessing high school, though, because they were wearing uniforms. the were yelling something we couldn't understand and then started to sit down in the street. there was a huge banner in nepali. oh, and about 15 minutes later we saw a parade of monks). according to our driver, there are very many reasons to be unhappy with the government but one that he talked about, since we were driving, was the condition of the roads. duff had read earlier in the day that only 2/3 of the roads in kathmandu are paved. i believe, of the unpaved, 1/6 are gravel, and 1/6 are mud. also, the highways are notoriously bad. the government wasn't doing anything an people we tired of it. in the papers and magazines, roads seem to be a major issue, and after our bus ride from kodari and taxis in kathmandu, i can see why. they are dangerous.

the taxi dropped us almost at the top of the hill, and we got to walk the rest of the way accompanied by monkeys. esp. a lot of moms and babies. the stupa is famous for the large number of monkeys living there, i believe some call it monkey mountain (we have one of those in wuhan, too!) there weren't many other visitors at that time of night, and so i feel like the monkeys were really close. at the top, the stupa was amazing. i will have duff put up pics when he gets home. the stupa has a tall golden spire and on the base, the eyes of buddha are painted. i believe they call them the 'benevolent' or the 'compassionate' eyes of buddha, and they watch over the kathmandu valley. we watched the sun set, lit up by the monsoon clouds, and the pilgrims do their circumambulations. after sun set, monks started around the stupa, in height order. little boys in saffron robes were jostling each other at the end of the line, tossing the ends of their robes at each other and jumping to spin the prayer wheels. eventually, the stray dogs living at the top of the hill started to circumambulate with the monks. it was amazing. the lead monk was carrying an umbrella, and he was gently swatting monkeys out of his path, and away from his head with it. the monkeys were crawling all over the stupa.

duff and i stood, gazing over the kathmandu valley, as the sun set and the city lit up. behind us were monks and dogs circling a stupa with monkeys falling all over the place and in a nearby temple, another group of monks were chanting. it was neat to hear their voices carry. it was one of the most peaceful moments i can remember.

when we decided to go home, we descended the long steps that lead up to the main temple. at the bottom, it was, again, chaos. just on a whim, duff and i stopped into the shop of a woman selling bangles. we asked how much, and she said 2 rupees. since we get 74 rupees to the dollar, we went for it. we picked some out, but i worried my hand was too big. the bracelets are plastic and you must make your hand really small to get them on. the woman broke three trying to get them on and then did some odd massage that felt good and popped my hand a few times and the bracelets slid on (i still popped about 8, throughout the experience). the woman, the little girl helping her, and duff and i were all so excited, we got a little carried away. i am now sporting 24 plastic bangles on my right arm, and 12 on my left. they are red, yellow, navy, peach, teal, purple, and clear, all with a little gold. i can't get them off, so we'll just have to see how long it takes them to break. i think this is how the nepali women do it. the girl in front of me on the bus from kodari broke 2 that i know of from the intense bouncing.

yay, nepal! i will certainly be visiting again when the roads improve.

dropping down the himalayas

2006-07-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

kathmandu is an amazing city, and as we are figuring out what exactly is happening with duff and lindsey's flights back to china, we have a few days to explore it.

it took us three days to get here from lhasa, and they were three of the most amazing days of traveling ever. from lhasa, we hired a jeep for two days. on our second day of travel we drove through a pass over 16,500 ft. it was amazing. we were driving most of the day through the qomolangma (the tibetan name for mt. everest) nature preserve, but we saw very little wildlife. the land, in large part, is protected for the nomads who depend on it. there were signs asking drivers to stay on the road, and not take shortcuts through the hairpin turns. twice our driver didn't listen to our requests and drove off the road down hills far to steep to attempt walking. we were polite, but made it clear we'd like him to stay on the road.

at the 16,500 ft. pass, we had an amazing view of the snow capped himalayas. the mountains were mostly hidden by clouds from the indian monsoon. we decided to forego an attempt to reach everest base camp because at this time of year, with the monsoon clouds, there would be very little chance that we could see the mountain. that, we will leave for another trip. at the pass, there were millions of prayer flags set up across the road with stupas and prayer wheels. i read that tibetans hold mountains as holy, but they don't believe in walking on the mountain because it disturbs it. instead, they set up religious spots in view of the holy mountains. at our highest pass, i don't know what mountains we were looking at because of the clouds, but the little we could see was amazing.

at the end of the second day in the jeep we started our descent to the kathmandu valley. the driver was taking us as far as the chinese border town of zhangmu, dram in tibetan. zhangmu's elevation is 7550 ft. so, down from 16,000 we went. we pulled into nyalam to check the tires and allow the driver to jump around and revive himself and then we were off on one of the more startling descents ever. all day the climate had been semi-arid, and the road largely flat. the mountains were brown with animals grazing, we saw little vegetation and almost no green. after nyalam, all we saw was green. we descended the himalayas towards the subcontinent and monsoon. we clung to the side of the mountains, driving on a narrow, very wet road. the steepest mountains i have ever seen dropped down to a rushing stream with milky water (full of silt). had we dropped off the road, we would have looked forward to a drop of 500 ft., 1000 ft., or more. the area was really foggy, we drove into a cloud, and often times we couldn't see the tops of the mountains, the stream, or 20 feet ahead of us. our driver was really careful, and other than one near miss with a big blue truck, i felt really safe. he kept himself awake, and us amused, by listening to a tape of english songs he had. they included a number of songs by bryan adams and rod stewart, and other favorites, such as 'i just called to say i love you' and 'last christmas'. he loved it that we sang along.

after a month in the desert and the arid tibetan plateau, the greenery in the valley was amazing. it looked like the olympic peninsula. waterfalls cascaded down the sides of the mountains and swept across the road. we drove through rivers, waterfalls, and over areas where there had been major landslides. our books tell us that the road between lhasa and kathmandu is called the friendship highway and the chinese built it all the way to nepal's capital city. while this may be true, the road wasn't paved, and on the nepal side, all that remained was the idea of a chinese road, as most of it has disappeared since the 1950s when it was built. for the first time in a month we saw trees, not as part of a desert oasis, or planted by the chinese in lhasa. they were beautiful deep green evergreen trees. there were ferns and huge bamboo, too.

zhangmu is the border town and is built high on the side of a mountain on a series of switchbacks. buildings do not last long in this town. we thought the town would be small, so we let the driver take us to a hotel, he must have switched back about 15 times when we got to the bottom (not of the mountain, but of the town, the mountain dropped down thousands of feet more). about 20 feet from chinese customs, he showed us two hotels at over 300 kuai a room. the most we have spent for a room before this was 150 kuai. as duff was checking out the rooms, lindsey and i waited in the jeep. ten people crowded around us trying to get our attention to change money, hire a jeep to nepal, take their hotel and a million other requests. we had been driving all day, and it was already 5:00, but with the super high hotel price, and the demands of the hawkers, we decided just to go on to nepal.

the border crossing is the first i have ever crossed on foot. last year, when kellee, duff and i were crossing into china from mongolia, we hired a jeep, although we now know it would have been faster to walk. to get to nepal from china, you pass through chinese customs and walk 9 km to the nepalese customs. having sat in a jeep for two days, a walk sounded great, especially since hiring a jeep to take us that far would have been as expensive as getting a hotel in zhangmu. we were some of the last people to pass through chinese customs (now i am out of china for a while, i wonder when i will get to go back), and we started the walk to nepal. it was cool and raining and felt like hiking in washington in the fall. most of the trail was unpaved, and very rocky, but it was mostly downhill through switchbacks. we had a great walk, gradually descending through the clouds towards the friendship bridge that marks the border. we walked from 7550 ft. to 5800 ft. in kodari, the nepalese border town. we needed a visa to enter nepal which we were supposed to be able to get at the border. however, when we got there, the border was closed and no one had the key to the immigration building. one of the agents told us to come buy our visa in the morning and took us to a great riverside hotel for the night. the room was 250 nepalese rupees per night, which is about $3. the room was clean and the food was excellent, and there was no hot water. ah, yes, now we are in the subcontinent. goodbye, hot showers.

in the morning we got our visas and got on a bus heading towards kathmandu. we had to change busses once in another town barabise(?) 90 km from kathmandu. the bus from kodari was the most terrifying of my life. we started out from town, and having not gone 5 feet, hit a child. i have no idea what happened to the kid, or how they resolved it, but we drove on. the road was narrow and mostly washed out, unpaved, rocky, or so muddy we left tracks more than a foot deep. the bus lilted dangerously from side to side. i spent almost the whole ride wondering how i should best brace myself when we fell off the cliff, or if i had time to try and jump out the window. that was more adventure than i needed. luckily, on both busses there were amazing people to watch and great music to keep me calm. if i had asthma, i would have had an attack, i haven't ever been so scared. katie told me that people say the bus ride to india is one of the worst in asia, it can be nothing compared to the terror from the chinese border.

we switched in barabise and it took us 6 hours to do under 90 kilometers. mostly this is because the bus was so overloaded and the roads so bad, but we stopped a lot too. we also experienced a lot of rip off the foreigner. we had to pay 30 kuai baggage fees in addition to our tickets that we know they just made up. it bothered duff, but we were passing through such poor areas that giving away 4 dollars, even under a ruse, didn't matter.

nepal is a beautiful country, and not at all what i expected. it is humid, and cool, and very hilly. houses and shacks cling to the hillside. there is a lot of terracing here as well, and we saw men and women working in the fields growing rice. in china, when i see people bent over in the fields working methodically they never straighten up and stretch. the people we saw yesterday were all stretching. i wonder why, for 2 years, i have never seen that in china? people in the countryside are very poor, children haven't clothing and even the adults looked pretty rough. most houses were made of wood and on the roofs people were drying chilly peppers and corn. higher in the mountains the roads were lined with the scraggliest corn i have ever seen. duff commented that it was tall, but not particularly well-yielding.

on all of the busses that we passed there were boys sitting on the roof with goats and luggage. they offered us a seat of the roof, but we opted to sit inside the bus. when the sun was out, umbrellas popped up to protect the guys on the roof, and when it started to rain, they all scurried under tarps. on our bus, the whole back was taken up by a motocycle owned by a chinese guy who is from beijing but going to school in sweeden. for his holiday, he wanted to bike across nepal, but his motorcycle broke down three km from the border and he had to load it on to various busses to get it kathmandu to get it fixed. luckily, he had already ridden across china and tibet and spent a number of weeks in amdo. we also had a terrified goat back by us, and a chicken stuffed into the upper luggage rack in the front of the bus.

that's all for now. i am off to try and find a bus to varanasi to meet sean and start phase two of my summer trip.

himalaya highway

2006-07-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

duff and lindsey and i have left lhasa and are on our way to the neaplese border. we have a wonderful driver and we are caravaning with another car with a tibetan woman who speaks english. we left lhasa a 8:00 this morning and stopped in lhatsa at 6:00. lhatsa is a tibetan truck stop, there are karaoke bars and wildly expensive restuarants lining the largely unpaved main drag. all day we have been surrounded by rain and it finally caught up with us. there isn't much to do here, so dinner tonight will be accompanied by a thunder storm. last year in wuhan we had a thunderstorm every other day, but this year i can only remember one. i miss them a lot.

the scenery today was amazing, and completely different from the country side we saw before. today we traveled in a valley surrounded by tall brown mountains. perhaps it was because it was cloudy, but it seems to be the most desolate part of tibet we have visited. we passed tiny little towns with mud brick houses and hundreds of people working on the road living in tents. the sky and the mountains communicate wonderfully. today the mountains reflected purple, green, red, and yellow light. the drive was spectacular, and the people friendly. as we passed through small towns, duff and i occupied ourselves by waving at the villages. everyone smiled and waved back.

the mountains and bridges are covered in prayer flags, with the prayers set into motion by the wind. we saw a few monastaries set high up in between mountians, and all the homes have branches sticking from all corners with prayer flags tied to them. the doors and entry ways to the homes and buildings are painted beautifully, bright colors with a lot buddhist images and lovely long dragons.

please visit lindsey's blog and leave her some well wishes. she has been sick for the last few days and today she is feeling really icky. she'll be fine by tomorrow, we hope, i think it is a head cold, but i am sure she'd love some comments.

there are two little boys behind me whispering and i think they want this computer. we are looking for indian food.

lhasa pictures

2006-07-17T23:45:00.000-07:00

kate and me at the top of the jokhang in lhasa.

front gate of the new palace complex, the norblinka, lhasa

a door

the potala palace, lhasa

morning in front of the jokhang

prayer flags on the roof, lhasa

the outer wall of the norblinka, lhasa

the new palace, built in 1954, on the grounds of the norblinka, lhasa

ta da tibet!

2006-07-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

the moment we got into golmud we were approached about a jeep to tibet. we were planning on taking the bus, but as getting to golmud was a 4 day affair, rather than one day, we knew we needed to get there as fast a possible. as we talked, the price went up and up, and we finally agreed to pay almost a third of our monthly salaries, at 1000 yuan per person. ouch. lindsey, duff and i crammed in the back, i was in the middle, what luck, and a really nice chinese woman sat in front. the details of us entering tibet in this way are a little sketchy. there is a tibet permit that foreigners are supposed to need, but we have only heard of this in guidebooks, and none of our chinese friends mentioned anything. plus, with the qinghai-tibet railway opening, the regulations are all up in the air. we got a weird little man to be our driver, and we set off at 4:00 in the afternoon. they told us that we would drive all night and it would take about 16 hours to get into lhasa. i was not crazy about driving all night, i am super wary when it comes to the combination of asia and motor vehicles, but i figured if i stayed awake all night with the driver we'd be fine. plus, the road just climbs the plateau, it wasn't steep or curvy.

only a half an hour out of golmud our jeep broke down. i was convinced we were getting taken. i'd gotten a little suspicious of our driver in town when he ditched his uighur hat immediately after getting out of golmud. cultural thing, i guess, and not religious. still, it seemed a little weird. in the end the break down was actually a bad batch of gas and a fuse problem, but we endured 4 hours of stalls, slow hills, the driver poking under the hood and muttering, and repairs. we did return to golmud, but even after the repair the car didn't work all that well. it was only after we got new gas that we really started to move. not that i know anything about cars, these are all duff's assertions.

most of our drive was in the dark, it might have been boring but there were electrical storms all around us. we saw some of the most amazing lightening. the night was long, with the three of us playing games in the back to stay awake. at one point i was making up excuses to go to the bathroom because we were about to loose the driver to sleep. the woman in front helped a lot keeping him awake. the only time i dozed off all night was when the two of them were singing, quite loudly. sometimes they sang the same song, but most of the time they were both yelling different tunes at the top of their lungs.

after the sun came up, the driver was still pretty tired, and he continued to yip and howl all the way into lhasa. i have a video of him, wildly entertaining. i will put it up if i ever figure out how.

we drove into tibet from the north, through the amdo grasslands. i desperately wanted to stop and ride horses for a few days, but that will be another trip. as the sun was rising we could see snow capped mountains in the clouds. the mountains dropped down to an amazingly green plain, with lots of grazing animals. it was so refreshing after weeks in the desert. many tibetans are nomads and we saw white tents dotting the grasslands surrounded by yaks, sheep, goats, and some seriously large dogs. other people lived in small towns of mud huts. everything was so beautiful, blue sky, green grass....so often china has a reputation as a very polluted place, but after traveling the west, i realize this is largely a problem in the east. people were drinking tap water in xin jiang. there is very little industrial pollution, but where there is industry, like the towns we followed on the southern silk road, the area is destroyed. parts of yunnan, tibet, inner mongolia, qing hai, and heilongjia are truly pristine. sadly, i have no idea how long this will last. any time our jeep driver or the chinese lady in front had a bit of trash, it went out the window. duff's chinese nephew from the train to kashgar thought it was funny to throw trash out the window. everyone else thought so too, we were the only ones not laughing.

along the road were stupas, covered in prayer flags. the prayer flags are stamped with prayers and they are activated by wind. we say so many pilgrims along the road, prostrating themselves. they go from full standing to lying on their stomachs, foreheads to the ground. the motion slides, and the wear paddles on their hands to help with the slide. many also have their knees tied together.

we have a lot more to say about tibet, and the people and amazing spirituality, but we have to climb the steps of the potala palace (winter residence of the dalai lama) tomorrow. i am a little worried about that with the altitude. duff and i were running to get ready for tibet, but i think i have still been mildly effected by the elevation. yesterday we visited the jokhang, the holiest temple in tibetan buddhism, and the norbulinka, the summer residence of the dalai lama. posts to follow, after we get a good night's sleep.

thank you, mrs. duffy, for the wonderful tibet guides!! they have been very helpful.

southern silk road, in pictures

2006-07-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

watermelon: a southern silk road traveller's best friend

the bleakness that can be the roadside in western china

the roadside desert in the southern silk road

hussein's camels in yarkand. we were walking by and noticed them in a courtyard, and he let us in to see them and their babies.

people, who our bus picked up in the middle of nowhere, playing cards on the bus to qiemo

crude oil coming out of the ground

kate on a mountain in huatugou, with me taking a picture from just a little higher

the five loves of the uyghurs

2006-07-17T23:20:00.000-07:00

hats. the easiest way for us to tell if an area of a city is more han chinese or uyghur is the number of hats. since uyghurs are muslim, every man has his head covered with some kind of hat. they range from baseball hats (rare) to white or decorated skull caps, to 1920s-era newsboy caps. some of them are very detailed and have many colors in the patterns, while others are a simple white.

knives. for sale everywhere and really well decorated, knives are found on the belts of almost every adult male. they are used a lot too, since there is so much bread, fruit and meat that needs cutting. they are mostly handmade and really intricate.

meat. always lamb, but always good. due to the large amount of grassland around the desert areas, there is a large supply of lamb in xinjiang. the lamb is put into bread pockets, diced and mixed with noodles, eaten as kebabs, served on top of rice and hung all over city streets like flags.

watermelon. as i've said before, the desert is very hot. while the locals drink the tapwater, since there aren't too many industrial polutants, we cannot for fear of stomach bugs. since the locals don't drink bottled water, it's a rather pricey commodity. the best way around this problem is to eat your water in the form of one of the millions of melons for sale in every market. often, there will be a crowd of people buying melon by the slice rather than taking it home. thanks to the abundance of knives, we were able to enoy melon in the street and at the hotel.

bread. large flat breads the size of tires, bagels, herb and garlic bread, plain, stuffed with lamb, several inches thick and as big around as a dinner plate. given the lack of bread in the rest of china, western china's abundance of it is amazing and the carts are never lacking for business.

hot pot puddle jump, or where foreigners dare not tread

2006-07-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

so, if you read this blog, you know duff, lindsey and i are great lovers of hot pot. sadly, it is not one of the healthiest meals one might consume, so we were all relieved at the thought to be leaving it behind in wuhan. how can you keep lovers of hot pot away from hot pot?! we have eaten hot pot in every city on our trip, except, perhaps, khotan. the restaurants seems to appear everywhere i look, and i make sure lindsey and duff know. at the mere mention of hot pot, we all begin to crave it, and by the time dinner rolls around, there is no question as to where we will go. the hot pot has been very different according to our location, and we have tried many great new dishes. last night, we had lhasa hot pot, by far the best since we left wuhan. i only hope the chinese markets in seattle have the right spices...and nian gao.

our trip to golmud took 4 days longer than we anticipated. what seemed like a really easy route turned out to be a desert with no roads. the guide book didn't mention any busses, and said something to the effect of transportation being spotty. they didn't mention there were no roads at all! after our last post, we took the bus to a town called da cai dan. we had hoped to take a sleeper bus direct to golmud but there were only 2 tickets left. another traveler at the bus station recommended to duff another route which we hoped would put us into golmud a day early. we were pressed for time, and still are, so we took it. we arrived in da cai dan expecting to catch a bus to golmud (200 km away) the same night. wrong. we tried to hire jeeps, but no one would take us. finally, duff and i left lindsey with the bags and went to a hotel to see if they could help. the woman couldn't, no one would go to golmud in the dark, apparently the roads are too bad. that's fine. if no drivers will go, we aren't meant to go, and decide to stay the night in da cai dan. the desk fuwuyuan was very kind, but she wasn't all that great about slowing her chinese down to our comprehension level. all we understand is that we must wait. we assume they are cleaning a room for us. in actuality, the woman called the cops on us! when the psb (public security bureau, chinese police) guy walked in the hotel, we smiled at him and went back to our business... until we realized he was there for us.

there are many areas in china that aren't open to foreigners, and we have been avoiding these quite well. in choosing our route we didn't even think about it. the police man told us that the town was closed to foreigners and we couldn't stay. we explained that we were sorry, and didn't know, and we were trying to leave but there were no busses and we couldn't get anyone to drive us in a jeep. he understood, and after a few phone calls, and passport photocopies, we were allowed to stay for the night. he was so nice, we are so happy he let us stay. the fuwuyan was told to call them as soon as we left the next morning, but we are sure we were monitored. the oddest thing is that we weren't allowed to leave the hotel. they told us that we must stay inside, and if we even left the room there was a flutter of fuwuyuan activity...the foreigners are on the move! we hadn't eaten and so we asked if we could go out for that. there was a very reluctant 'yes'. we put our bags in the room and went back to the front desk to tell the fuwuyuan we wanted hot pot. joy filled and eyes alight, she told us that we don't need to leave the hotel. they have hot pot in the hotel restaurant!! she was so relieved that we didn't need to go out and were hotel hostages for the evening. people in the town were great, and it will be one of the most memorable places we have visited in china. so, accompanied by three excited fuwuyans, we went to dinner.

....and so the hot pot circle continues....

silk stepping stones

2006-07-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

***this is duffy, not kate***

the silk road is not a very continuous, well-defined route. it was not 2000 years ago, and it most certainly is not today. desert sands do a good job of hiding many parts of it.

after our unexpected stop in a mining camp last night, we awoke this morning to see what else awaited us on the path to golmud. we knew that a vehicle of some sort would be coming at about 9 am and that it would be heading some amount of kilometers towards golmud. about 9, we started looking around. outside of a nearby brick cabin, two men, one in a skull cap and long beard, were loading huge rocks into a wheel barrel. they then rolled them outside the gate of the compound and sat down in the dust by the road. i asked them where they were going and they replied 'golmud'. after doing a brief dance of joy at my luck, i asked them when the bus would come and they said soon. lindsey and i went and got kate and the packs and went out to the road. sure enough, 5 minutes later, through the piles of dust, a minibus showed up. as soon as it was in sight, the man with the beard began to scream that the bus was coming, and people started to pour out of what we thought were deserted cabins. we, the other men, and their hundreds of pounds of rocks, boarded and were off.

the first sign that this bus was not going to be making the 1000 km trip to Golmud was the fare: a whopping $1.50 per person. an hour and a half later, our suspicions were confirmed when the bus reached Huatugou and stopped for good. there were only 2 tickets left on the bus to golmud that day, and despite our pleas, we were not allowed to fit 3 people in 2 seats, and neither kate, lindsey nor i were up to staying behind solo. so, the hotel search began again. luckily, the selection was better than 'this crumbling cabin or that crumbling cabin.' our hotel choosing method has improved greatly since arriving in western china: we flag down a cab, ask to be taken to a 'san xing bin guan' (3-star guest house) and trust the driver. in western china, all cabs are a flat 5 yuan, so there's no worry about being driven in circles while the meter climbs. this method worked again: we were taken to the 'petroleum guesthouse'. the building serves as offices, a restaurant, and a hotel for the qing hai oil companies. the rooms without tvs and windows that open into the restaurant are even half price. the facilities all work, however, which after last night, makes the hotel feel like a paradise.

after getting situated, kate and i went for some jiaozi and a walk. we found excellent places to have both. the town is a giant grid with mountains to the east. we kept walking east until we left town. next thing we knew, we were in a sandy, hilly area with what looked like tar everywhere. kate quickly identified it as crude oil. the area was filled with patches of crude oil. it was easy to see why an oil company would want to build a town here.

as fun as dodging oil slicks was, we decided to head for higher ground. gradually, we got higher and higher into the hills. normally, the mountains we've seen look like they are close by on a flat plain, but due to an optical illusion they are actually pretty far away. these mountains, however, seemed to come closer and get bigger with amazing speed. before we knew it, we were into a maze of gorges, canyons, and dry river beds. we kept picking our way to the top of one of the high peaks, and looked down over a plain, a lake and an amazingly geometric city. all the apartment complexes were the same, the blocks of stores were the same, and the streets were all perpendicular to each other. the combination of the city and the surroundings were as opposite as possible.

tomorrow, we go to another city on the 9 am bus where, according to a fellow traveler, there are frequent buses to golmud. this should, cross your fingers, put us into golmud about 8 pm tomorrow night, then early start and the bus to tibet.

wish us luck.

roads? where we are going we don't need roads.

2006-07-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

we love western china. everything is unexpected, and nothing is easy. everthing is beautiful, the busses have been great. they have also been hard to figure out. i think duff left off in qiemo, where we had a very wonderful break for a few days. when you travel as we are, i find it very helpful to log some serious downtime. to some, it may seem as waste, but traveling here is such a shocking experience. we have to process all the new things we are seeing, sort through what we understand and what we do not, remember all the new words we are learning... we need the down time to really have time to appreciate and ponder what we are experiencing. qiemo was great for that...and laundry.

on this trip we are covering some huge distances (consult your atlas). we moved from qiemo to ruoqiang, on a very uneventful bus. short, but we still weren't able to get same day tickets out of ruoqiang. from ruoqiang, we saw that golmud was 1000 km, with luck, we thought we'd get a sleeper and be there....yesterday. the bus stations ticket agent was wildly engaged in whatever ming dynasty daytime drama (there are very few tv shows set in modern china, most of the tv shows are old china, which is fascinating. i wish we could understand them) was on at the moment and was not interested in answering any of our questions. we gathered that we would get the bus to golmud the next morning and buy tickets on the bus. the next morning, though, there was no bus. we hired a landcruiser for 100 kuai, and thought we'd struck gold. sadly, this was not the case. in the car there were 5 proper seats. there were ten passengers in the car! i have terrible luck with bus seats, always have, probably always will. no one wanted to get in the back seat (which wasn't a seat, not even bolted to the ground, i have no idea wven what to call it), but i was sick of no one taking any initiative, so duff and i hopped in the back. ouch. we left the bus station with 8 people, including a little girl who sat on her dad's lap. a mile from the bus station we picked up two more guys (i assume the bus stations would not have let us leave with so many in the car). i'd had the worst seat on the bus to qiemo (i threw up out the window the whole time) and i wasn't giving my seat up, so one of the new guys climbed into the trunk to sit on another seat not intended to be part of the truck. since duff and my seat wasn't bolted to the ground, there was barely any room in the back, and it made for a pretty uncomfortable ride. the guy in the back wanted everyone to know how unhappy he was and tried to bring the rest of us down with him. he was sitting sideways, directly behind me, with his legs stretched out behind duff. because he was so busy elbowing me in the back, and screaming at us to lean forward and not actually sit in our seat, he wasn't using his arm to brace himself against the back of the seat, and was getting the brunt of all the bumps in his ribs. i have never heard more annoying whining. and from a 30 year old man! finally i couldn't take it anymore, and climbed into the back and practically kicked him into my seat. he immediately pops around and tried to start a conversation with me! never said thanks, though.... needless to say, my bus ride from them on was in no way pleasant. i kept thinking someone would switch seats with me, but no one did. getting seats on busses and trains is very cut-throat here. i haven't ever seen people on wuhan city busses give up their seats to elderly or disabled people, and it always makes a huge fuss when duff or i do. it is one of the more sad aspects of china that i have observed. the head of the guy in front of me and my head were about 3 inches apart, and when he'd fall asleep he would let it flop around and would wake himself up because his head would bump mine. at one point, he put his head back over the seat (which was my lap) and tried to sleep with it there. i asked him not to do this, and the whining started again. my goodness.

the trip was beautiful, and the benefit to being crammed in the trunk was that i had the back window and the side window to view the landscape. there wasn't any road, but i am now quite use to this. we passed through beautiful and deep canyons and flat deserts and saw ranges of snow covered mountains. i even saw a desert nomad with a caravan of three camels. it was a wonderful trip, but all to short, for we never reached golmud.

we stopped in a desolate and dusty town around 4:00 pm. we turned off the main road, and i allowed myself to dream that we were going to drop the rude man in this wretched little town and leave him and continue on our way. no such luck, for we were also dropped in this town. surprise!! and we thought we were going to golmud!! i have never seen such a place in my life. the town was involved in some kind of mining, and it was evident they experience very harsh winters. even in july, the night was cold. the buildings were like bunkers. they were in long rows, none more than one storey. the inside of each building was like a cave. dark, and dank. if there was a window, i have no idea when you may have been able to see through it. everything was covered in a fine gray powder and smelled of coal smoke. there was no running water in the whole town. fortuantley, people were very kind. the woman who ran our "guesthouse" was from wuhan, and the woman who ran the general store has a son in wuhan. we met a lovely woman who took us into her hovel, which doubled as a mahjhong parlor and beerhall and cooked us a wonderful meal. food, i am sure, is very hard to get in that area. we hadn't seen a single green plant from the landcruiser in hours. power must have also been a valuable commodity. as the woman cooked our food, she wouldn't leave the lights on, she'd just switch them on and off as she needed them. the tv did as well, with the power. it was the oldest tv i have ever seen, and was showing a program about chinese soldiers in the korean war.

all the buildings not on main street were demolished. we walked around a bit, but there wasn't much to see and one can only breathe in so much gray dust. we trucked it back to our cave (all the doors had heavy felt hanging over them, the buildings were surprisingly well insulated) and sat on our beds knitting as a trickle of chinese people walked in and out. someone must have been telling them, "there are foreigners in room 12!" and they would say, "no, can't be. there wouldn't every be foreigners here!" and then the first guy would probably tell them to go have a look, and sure enough, there we would be, like a diorama. it was kind of fun, we are always a novelty, but people couldn't believe that we were there. it was pretty unlikely. i can't imagine many other travelers have done that trip.

duff will catch you all up on wherever we are now, hua-tu-something, and the amazaing hike we did today.

arrival in qiemo

2006-07-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

***this is duffy writing, not kate***

for those of you following along on the atlas, we have arrived at the next major city along chinese highway 315, qiemo. there is no bus leaving until july 10, so we will be here for a couple of days of relaxing, unwinding, and general recuperation before setting out on the stretch to ruoqiang, then on to golmud, and into tibet. we will be writing postcards, so send us addresses via email. we will also be giving our upper backs a much needed break from carrying packs, and our lower backs a much needed break from bus seats.

the bus ride into town from khotan was some new and different scenery. there were fields of sand until the horizon, portions of the road were washed away, and the sky was hazy all day. there were also many large, marshy areas, and gigantic piles of soil and sand. in many areas, there were pastures with sheep grazing surrounded by enormous sand dunes. the roadsides were deserted, and every so often there would b a group of people beside the road who we would stop to pick up. by the end of the trip the bus was a lot of fun. there were so many people who seemed to be complete strangers when they got on the bus who were laughing and playing cards and singing together by the time we arrived in qiemo. upon arrival at the bus station, there was a large crowd waiting to pick up friends and family members.

qiemo is a very sprawling and short town for china. the buildings are all one or two stories, and the distances are much greater. luckily, all the taxi rides are a flat, 5 yuan fee. we know nothing about the town, as it is not covered by any guide book, except as a stepping stone on the silk road, so we get to be the guide book and decide what to see, where the best places to stay and eat are, what to do, and how to get around. after being in tourist oriented places that are busy and bustling, a little down time is going to be much appreciated.

the southern silk road

2006-07-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

greetings from khotan, the largest city we will see in a while. duff, lindsey and i are now traveling the southern silk road. we have hit two towns since kashgar, yarkand and khotan. both have involved beautiful bus rides and great people watching. we have turned back on our loop of xin jiang, kashgar was our furthest point west. it is a good thing we have a strict itinerary we need to keep to because if we didn't the temptation of traveling part of the karkoram highway may have proved too strong. we are skirting the edge of the great taklamakan desert. it is a huge basin surrounded on all sides by mountians. we have now gone through the mountains to the north, west, and south.

we have seen some amazing things during our bus rides. first, the bus speeds up and slows down a lot as it weaves its way between donkey carts and motorcycles that share the road. we have also seen 5 or 6 camel carts. i wonder what the difference is if your family has a donkey, as opposed to a camel. is there more prestige attached to one or the other? do you have a camel if you live further from town? camels in rural areas? donkeys in the suburbs? these are the matters i puzzle these days.

the people on the busses have been neat. there are very few han chinese, perhaps one or two on each 20 person bus. there are lots of filthy but very happy little kids (the dust here is so intense, it would be impossible to keep a child clean). all the men have had hats. two pakistani traders sat in front of us on one bus, and spoke a little english. i have been knitting a little on the busses and this always interests people. yesterday i dropped my ball of yarn while we were going down hill and it wound up under the driver's seat (i was in the second to last row). it took a community effort to get it back to me, i was thoroughly red in the face, but people laughed and were kind. on our way from kashgar, two girls watched me knitting for a long time. they were covered almost completely with only their eyes showing. at one point, one of the girls leans over and says, my name, and doesn't say any more. i decided she is asking my name, so i repeat 'my name is kate'. i ask her hers, but she is too shy to talk, and a second later i discover her english isn't at comprehension level because she turns to her friend and says 'iskate', which with her accent sounds more like 'bisket'.

from the road we have passed dust devils and experienced out first sand storm. it wasn't very severe because all we did was close the windows. our packs, though, on the roof, have dirt caked on them.

check out lindsey's blog, she is posting about yarkand and the mosque we visited our last day in kashgar. i am slacking on posting because i have become obsessed with finding knitting patterns to make us more warm clothes for tibet. this afternoon we are going to see the silk factory in this town and learn more about silk production. first, though we must figure out the busses and how we are getting out of here. the towns here are few and far between and there aren't a lot of busses. it is a good thing our chinese is getting so good. we haven't seen any other tourists in days, this is definately not an area that you could travel in with no chinese.

it is hot here today, but we are glad we aren't in wuhan. we have heard on the news they are having a record breaking heat wave. as if it wasn't hot enough already.

my chinese 'nephew'

2006-07-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

***this is duffy writing, not kate***

all of you who have travelled in the same vehicle for any extended period of time know this feeling. you get on to a train, plane, bus or other motorized vehicle and see a small child. your stomach jumps a little and, no matter how much you try to avoid it, you get a little nervous. sitting for 6, 8, or 24 hours can be a trying experience, even for well-travelled adults. many times, it is simply too much for kids and they lose it. for those of you who have taken young children on trips, especially my parents, thank you for your patience and hard work. travelling is an important experience, especially for children, and those willing to make that happen deserve a lot of credit.

our car on the train from urumqi to kashgar there happened to be a boy who was, as he proudly informed me later in the trip, 3 years and 8 months old. about 2 hours into the train ride, kate, lindsey and i were sitting by the windows admiring the desert and the mountains and reading when a small head poked out of the door two compartments down. the boy saw us and his eyes lit up. he jumped into the aisle, did a few kung fu kicks and chops, and jumped back into his compartment. we all chuckled and went back to reading. a few minutes later, he reemerged and walked a few steps closer before chopping and running back to safety. this action repeated itself and each time he came closer and stared at us longer. i decided that this would be a fun way to pass time on the train, so the next time he came out, i did some blocks and chops to counter his. this was wildly funny, and he ran back to his bed to tell his mom. his mom stuck her head into the aisle and told him not to bother me since i was reading. i told her it was fine and the next time he came back out, he had a bag full of dates that he dropped on my table, said 'thank you', and ran back to his mom. the next hour went like this: him bringing food, me talking to him a few words at a time in chinese, and him running back. then the head-butting started.

chinese children love to practice their kung fu moves and powers, and this one was no exception. after seeing that his hits from a distance were not defeating me, he decided that he needed something more drastic. he walked up to my chair, looked me right in the eyes, and said something in chinese. the only words i understood were 'tou', which means head, and 'bi', which means you want to compare two things. while i was trying to figure this out, he bowed slightly, grabbed my head, and started trying to push it with his. now, i don't mean to sound arrogant, but i have a big head, so this was not nearly a fair match, even though he tried pretty hard. i pretended to fall out of my chair, which he thought was wildly funny and this game went on for hours.

around dinner time he was getting very brave. he walked into my compartment and proclaimed that i should come with him. he led me back to his compartment and introduced me to his mom. he gave me some more food, and then started pointing to things out the window. he was asking me what all these things were that he was seeing, and when i would answer in chinese with basic words like 'mountain' or 'river', he would look disappointed and demand his mom tell me to speak english. amazingly, she would tell him the english word. she never tried to speak english with me, but she had an amazing vocabulary. by the end of the evening, he was able to jump up to the window and yell 'hos' whenever we passed a horse. by about 8:00, kate and lindsey were getting hungry for dinner, but every time i left the compartment to make noodles, the child would come and inform me that i needed to come back to his. finally, the people in the compartment moved over so that we could all fit in there and eat together.

one of the funniest parts of the afternoon was when he asked what my name was. i decided to try my chinese name, and i told him 'da fei', and that my surname was 'jian'. this caused him to go running back to his mom screaming 'jian shu fu, jian shu fu', which means 'uncle jian, uncle jian'. i guess it surprised him that a foreigner would have a chinese surname.

the next morning, as soon as a climbed out of my bunk to go put my contacts in, before i even hit the floor, i here this tiny voice yelling 'shu fu, shu fu!' after a few minutes of head butting to prove that we were indeed men and we were in fact very tough, his mom walked by us to go wash up. she told him to go back to the compartment and sit with uncle jian. we spent most of the time having a very intellectual debate about whether it was raining, if we had or had not arrived (i maintained that we hadn't), if the mountains had snow, and if there were monkeys in kashgar (he had gotten the english words for donkey and monkey confused), and of course, head butting. his mom took a while coming back, and eventually, he began to wander out into the hall and yell for her. it seemed like it was going to be a page out of the kids' book 'are you my mother?' when he asked the conductor where his mom was. unfortunately for both him and me, the conductor told him that his mom had already exited the train at the last stop. i have no idea why this should have been funny, but the boy did not think it was either. his lip started to quiver, even after she explained that she was joking. i think it was only by head butting for the next ten minutes that we avoided a major scene on the train.

when we arrived at the station in kashgar, he got ready to exit the train. he could barely stand still because he was going to go see his grandfather and kept yelling 'ye ye' over and over. he was wearing his sunday best, too. a pair of black gym shorts, a red tank top and a blue aloha shirt, topped of with a visor that had an attached pair of mirrored sunglasses that came down from the bill.

the trains in china have been a lot of fun. i've learned to play card games, gotten to talk to a variety of people, watched a man eat a whole chicken that came out of a bag, seen eight hundred and sixty one ways to make tea, and become a connoisseur of instant noodles. this experience was kind of the pinnacle of all of that. i really want to thank amy, kate and my chinese teacher, as well. without her hard work, i know i would have missed out on this and many other unforgettable experiences that have let me really get to know china these last two years.

so, moral of the story, next time you see a little kid while your travelling, don't worry too much. it may turn out to be a lot of fun.

hao bazaar

2006-07-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

first of all, thanks for the birthday greetings!! i had a nice calm birthday on the train. lindsey, duff, and i went out for a western breakfast at the fabulously luxurious xin jiang hotel. we needed it. there was coffee and bacon, as well as lots of fruit and cereal. uigur food is largely noodles and mutton. not that this is bad, we love this, but coming from han china, where we eat about 10 heaping plates of vegetables a day, nomad food is a big change. tonight, even, we have stepped back into the chinese district of kashgar to have chinese food. a girl can only eat so much lamb! and....lindsay, i have no idea how you did the chinese, but thanks. shockingly, duff and i could read the message. is this official? i can read basic chinese now? it was fabulously exciting.

today we spent the day at the sunday market in kashgar, one of the most famous markets in all of asia. it was amazing and completely lived up to our expectations. in our daily lives, we normally see only han chinese people, no other foreigners or minorities. today, we saw no han chinese. the diversity of people at the market made my head spin, and since they were pushy and shoved quite hard, my body spun as well.

to get to the market we walked through the old quarter of kashi (kashgar, in chinese). having just arrived, we were shy to use our cameras, but after the market we are more bold. we'll go back tomorrow and fill up a memory card or two. the old town seemed like it must have been in the middle ages. we saw carpenters and blacksmiths. we saw an old man pounding out donkey shoes (we have only seen 2 horses, but everyone has a beautiful long eared donkey with a soft grey nose). since i suspect we will go back tomorrow, i will leave the description until then.

we got to the market early, and so we weren't totally sure we were in the thick of it. we crossed a little river and passed piles of animal parts on the sidewalk. carts drove by piled high with fresh, and i mean fresh, skins from goats and sheep. there were goat heads, and lots and lots of feet. i guess hoves... but not the rest of the animal, we say them further in. the market sold everything. millions of food vendors vied for the attentions of buyers with sellers of knives, rat poision, brooms, wodden pitchforks, fabric, paper, beauty products, carpets, utensils (metal blacksmited spoons...), hair adornments....it goes on and on. at the end of one road there were people selling dogs and cats, but in no way did it compare to the pet markets of yunnan. then, after purchasing a cat, the people carried the sweltering cats around in bags. food was everywhere, especially piles of all kinds of melons. i have no idea how central asian people get their vegetable allowance, but the eat melons. we had a slice of some of the best watermelon! there are lots of peaches and cherries, apricots and nectarines. we saw piles of huge red peppers, as long as my forearm. in wuhan we have tiny little red peppers. there were sheep carcasses hanging everywhere, and men hacking at them with knives. hacking. we stuffed ourselves with the lamb and onion puffs, which duff claims are so good because they dip the meat and onion mixture in blood before they wrap it in the bread shell and toss it in the oven. there are bbq stands every ten feet with lamb kabobs and congealed blood. we had rice for lunch, like pilau. it had strips of some yellow vegetable and a hunk of lamb the size of my fist so tender it could be cut with a spoon. the street vendors also sold milk, which the had in a huge basin with a giant block of ice. they ladled the milk over the ice to keep it cool. we also had amazing yogurt with bagels. we stick out a little from the other foreign tourists. we hunkered down on the curb under a tree and used the bread to scoop curd into our mouths. not that we think this is odd at all, but we drew a crowd.

we didn't buy much, other than food, we mostly walked around and gaped. prices were high, and didn't lower quite enough in spite of our proclimations that we are teaches from wuhan. throwing in that we live in wuhan always works to get a few more kuai of discount. it is widely know for being a rather shoddy city. we bought three pillows that fit just under your neck that we hope will bring us 36 hours of relative comfort on the bus from golmud to tibet. duff and i each got a knife. mine is little itty bitty and will be great for slicing apples and the like in india.

things we will take away from the kashgar sunday market: everyone in their traditional clothing, and all the styles. the scarves and headcoverings, robes and birkas, caps, beards, really elabroate eye makeup, high heels, men with green eyes and sharp knives, a little girl riding a sheep, smiling old women, the watermelon seller who chased a yellowjacket away from me, the crouched women selling curd out of big pots, the nut and dried fruit sellers, three men holding up a giant bad of cheese, goat heads, the heat, the variety, the crowds, the smells.....pictures will come.

the ruins of jiao he and other news

2006-07-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

last time duff and i sat down, he was intending to write about the ruins we saw in turpan, but got a little distracted. i will cover that today. we are in kashgar, after a 24 hour train ride from urumqi. i am 24, having turned yesterday. wow. traveling in xin jiang, by train or by bus, has been pure pleasure. we have had such an amazing set of beautiful rides! the desert is variable and dramatic. amazing to me are the many oases that we pass. we will be in the middle of what seems like endless flats of gravel and sand, occasionally piled up by the wind with mountains in the background, and then we will roll by farms and a town, looking as green and fresh as ohio. there are tall, thin trees between all the fields for windbreaks. all the houses are adobe, and they have courtyards with lofts and beds inside the front gate. there are so many beds outside, with people napping, elderly people relaxing in the shade, and children squatting on them playing cards. sometimes, further out of town, we have seen herds of sheep and goats in the houses, and black and white spotted dairy cows. we have seen some long haired yaks, too. in most of china we see the water buffalo, and it has been amazing to see dairy cows grazing in green pastures beneath snowy mountains. the light here is amazing. it hits the mountains, bounces off the clouds, shines off the mineral desposits and irrigation channels...xin jiang is perhaps the most beautiful place i have seen in china. we will take busses from kashgar all along the southern silk road, and i am really looking forward to it. we will also take the bus from golmud in qinghai province, into tibet, even though the qinghai tibet rail line opened TODAY. we watched a little of the coverage on the english language news station, cctv-9. the train runs from golmud to amdo, the tibetan grasslands where i desperately want to stop. they have coverage about what effect this will have on tibet, and han china, and the environment and endangered species. mostly they talked about what an amazing engineering feat building this train was, and how the world told china they couldn't do it. at one point the announcer said something like, and now china has the biggest buildings, the tallest dam, the highest railroad, and men in space. ha, china. there is no chance that we will be able to get tickets on the train, which has showers (!) and oxygen bars in the luxurious sleeper cars, but i will gleefully climb on the bus so i can see all the scenery up close.

tomorrow we will get an early start and attend the legendary kashgar sunday market. the city is riming for it already, i can tell. we walked around a lot today, and ended up buying a lot of fruit. we'll hit the sack early after eating our fruit and sampling some of the local wine so we can get an early start tomorrow.

and now for the ruins in jiao he:

after duff and i escaped the creepy, over-aggressive tour guide, and decided to leave for urumqi the same day, we decided we would spend the day riding bikes and trying to see some of the sites of turpan. sadly, we were a little confused, as was our guide book (why can't rough guide get its maps and directions right?!) and so we ended up only seeing the ruins of jiao he. we rode bikes we rented to the site, along a road 11 km outside of turpan. the bicycle ride was amazing, we passed donkey carts (which pull flat boards, and 15 people or so pile on and are pulled by one donkey, and there are no seats, the sit on an oriental rug. some are covered, some aren't), farm fields, irrigation canals, bakerys, markets, fruit hawkers, and so much more. when we got to the ruins we were spinning in the 42 degrees C heat. i have spent more money on water this trip, and it is triple the price it is in wuhan!! the ruins are on a plateau, described as leaf shaped. on either side there is a small river, and small, small scale farming. the plateau is 2 kilometers long and a city began there around the 2nd century b.c. the buildings were all adobe and have since crumbled but we can see the outlines and the foundations of some. the temples are still very distinct. there are 3 temples that i can clearly remember, and they were all at the north end of the plateau. you could still see some very worn buddha statues. the city had narrow streets, and we ducked behind the ruins of one building to eat a cucumber in the shade. we peeled it, how very chinese of us. the city apparently reached its peak from 640-840 ad, but was abandoned in 1400 after a war. this was shortly after islam was introduced to the region. it wasn't clear whether the buddhist jiao he converted or if that was the religious conflict was the cause of the city's decline. interestingly, a lot of money has been donated by the japanese to preserve jiao he. we have seen many historical and cultural sites in xin jiang where a majority of the funding is from the japanese. i am interested in this effect on chinese and japanese relations. i think the japanese are giving money where ver and whenever possible to improve their image. oh, and did i mention this is a unesco site?

in urumqi we saw an amazing museum (the best i have been to in china, aside from the shanghai museum of art) that outlined the many minority groups in xin jiang. they covered uighurs, kazakhs, tajiks, russians, tartars, kyrgyks, hui, manchus, mongols, tibetans, and i am sure i am forgetting someone. the exhibit was put together beautifully, detailing the history, housing, festivals, culture, and dress of each group. katie would have gone nuts for the costumes. at the museum we also saw some mummies, eerily preserved in burial sites along the southern silk road. with the climate, and so little rainfall, the mummies are estimated to be 4000 years old. they had painting on their faces, and they still had their hair...i have never seen such amazingly preserved bodies.

okay, time to go outside again and experience amazing kashgar. we have become slightly addicted to these little pastries filled with lamb (kellee, like the ones we had last year in mongolia, at that stand where we waited for the camping gear) and onions. we must find more. i haven't time to proof read, or check spelling and typos, sorry. the keyboards in these net bars are completely destroyed by kids playing computer games and they are really hard to type on.

the desert is very hot

2006-06-28T02:07:00.000-07:00

*** this is duffy writing, not kate***

hello from turpan, tulufan in chinese.

we arrived here yesterday and are planning on leaving this evening. the plan had been to spend the night here, but the atmosphere, both societal and climatalogical, has changed our plans. turpan is a desert oasis on the northern silk road. it is a small city that has not been an important destination for most of the past 600 years. recently, the city has had a concerted effort to increase tourism, which has been very successful. the city's main street has been covered with grape vines, which makes for very pleasant walking in the day-time heat, and there are numerous ancient ruins and beautiful natural scenery nearby, which makes it a very attractive draw.

that being said, the tourism aspect of the city has proven to be a double-edged sword for us. there is no train station in turpan, so one must take a bus for about one hour to get here from daheyan, the nearest stop. immediately after leaving the train station, a chinese-speaking guide approached us and offered us a bus to turpan. the price was right, so we took it. on the ride out of town, she gave us her tour company's brochure, and the name and number of a hotel in turpan. so far, we were very pleased with how well things were going. outside of turpan, a gentleman who had distinctly un-chinese features flagged down the bus and got on. he started talking to us in english and told us that he had a good hotel at a good price that we could look at in turpan. we agreed, and soon after entering the city, but before the bus reached the final stop, he told us to get off and flagged down a taxi. the hotel was fine, so we agreed to stay for one night, and then the man who met us on the bus introduced us to a tour guide. the tour guide was the first sign of trouble. the usual route for tourists in turpan is to buy seats on a set tour on a bus to 8 sights around turpan. everyone we've talked, including our book, said that only 2 or 3 of these sights are worth seeing, and even those are barely worth the high entry fees. the guide kept expalaining his tour to us, but never told us the cost, even though we repeatedly asked him how much, in both english and chinese. the one sight we did want to see was not on the tour. it was a trip to a salt lake that is about 90 km south of turpan that is the 2nd lowest point on earth. he told us that we could work something out, but, agian, would not say a price. we finally told him that we were very tired, that we did not want anything today, that we didn't know how long we'd be in turpan and that we would call him. he then told us calling him was not possible, even though we'd seen him on a cellphone, and tried to make an appointment for that night. we said that wouldn't work and finally he gave us a card for a tour company with, suprise suprise, his phone number. we went to our rooms to have a nap, and about one hour later, the phone in my room started ringing. sure enough, it was the same guide. once i hung up, he called again. the calls continued until i finally unplugged the phone.

the next morning, on the way to breakfast, he was waiting outside my room. when you travel in china, aggressive guides are normal, but they usually get the hint when someone isn't going to be a big spender and leave, especially in a tourist town, when there are much bigger fish. this time, the pestering was bordering on stalking. he asked again what we were going to do. we told him we'd decided to get bikes and go to the one anicent city that everyone says is worth it, but that we'd be willing to talk about going to the lake. we bargained down to 160 from 180 yuan, which matched the guidebook, but he told us that the road has been washed out and the trip would take 4 to 5 hours. he then told us that we couldn't go that afternoon, even though we could take the same car and the same driver and go on the prepackaged tour that afternoon. we then agreed for the next morning, at which point he asked for a deposit. this is beyond bizarre. no one, ever, asks for a deposit on a car tour. hotels do, but they give you keys in exchange. drivers ask for them, but only halfway through the tour. bike rentals do, but they give you a bike. every traveller here knows that giving a deposit without getting anything in return is just a good way to lose money. we flat out refused, and he began telling us how the people at the hotel knew him, so we should trust him. somehow, that didn't reassure us. he finally agreed to no deposit. he then asked if we were checking out. we said no, since we had previously agreed with the hotel that we could stay one day, then, if we wanted to, stay another. at that point he spoke quickly with the hotel desk clerk, who then told us that there were no room availiable for that night, even though the hotel was deserted the night before and that night was a tuesday, and she then pulled out 100 yuan to return us our deposit. again, quite a shock. we then said that we needed to pack our things before leaving, and that we would be out by the noon check-out time. convinently enough, the guide who was doing a very successful imiataion of my shadow, told us that he had a hotel for us, and that he'd be happy to set us up, but it wasn't as nice and a little more money, since there was a big festival that day. we told him to start looking while we went to pack. on the way back upstairs, we decided that all these coincidences had just been too much and that going 90 km into the desert, where there wasn't even a road, with a guy this desparate for money and clients, in the height of tourist season and during a festival, was probably a good way to get robbed. our visions included some kind of party of bandits hiding behind desert rocks in a canyon. this seems a little weird and paranoid now, but so many things that had never before happened to us had happened with this guide in the bargaining process, and since we'd never been beset by bandits, we thought that this may just be one new experience we were about to have.

I went back and politely told the guide that we did not want to go to the lake, we did not want a hotel and that we were going on to urumqi to meet our friend that afternoon. he told me that he had seen my friend in turpan and that she hadn't left yet, so we didn't need to leave for urumqi. he then preceeded to say 'she is a very fat girl, right? who is also a teaher?' i were about to say 'no, she isn't fat at all,' but then i realized his statement had other flaws, like the fact that my friend was 3000 km away. he agreed that he had made a mistake. finally, as i was walking away, he ended with 'oh, do you want my car to take you to urumqi?'i told him we'd take the bus and that was the last we saw of him. his driver however, we saw 2 more times, once waiting outside as we left the hotel and once at breakfast.

in short, turpan seems to be a tourist town woefully short of torists. we spent the rest of the day renting bikes and riding 5 miles out of town to a really nice ancient city that was a lot of fun. we are about to go on the bus to turpan, so we need to get moving.

while most of china and travelling is a lot of fun, it's nice to have situations where you avoid close calls to remind you to keep on your toes.

and i saw a herd of camels....

2006-06-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

i saw a herd of camels on the side of the road. ten of them staring at our bus as we passed.

duff and i have had the first successful sightseeing of our trip! today we went to see the mogao caves, the third largest complex of buddhist cave paintings in china.

getting to the caves wasn't easy, but it worked out very well. we spent a night and a half of the train from wuhan and disembarked at 2:30 am. it was a pleasant train ride and amazing to see the scenery change as we traveled. i started to knit another sock, and another chinese train employee came by and ripped it out. she was very friendly, though, and knit almost as much as she ripped out. we had an odd experience with some guys in our compartment. there are 56 minority groups in china, and three of the people in our 6 bed berth were minority. one guy was really friendly, i think he was traveling with his mother, but the other 2 guys were a little confrontational. the guys were huge, especially compared to han chinese. they were strong and had central asian features. many of the uigurs and western chinese have tatoos, as well as purposeful scarring on their forearms. the guys overheard me tell a fuwuyuan we were american and the smaller of the two guys tried to get into it with us. it was frustrating to understand enough to know he was badmouthing us and americans, but we couldn't understand all of what he said. he talked about foreigners coming to xin jiang and not knowing the language, he was derisive of tourists, and kept saying muslim. he went into a lot of bombing and shooting noises and got the whole car involved in this discussion. duff and i climbed into our bunks and ignored the guy. the knitting woman stuck up for us, calling him down and saying we were teachers. the guy tried to pick a fight between us and a pakistani guy on the train, who wouldn't even give the mean guy the time of day. when things died down, the guy from our compartment satisfied hiself by singing loudly in arabic for a few hours. after that the han chinese were really smiley with us, i think they were embarassed.

we arrived in liu yuan in the middle of the night and checked into a hotel for a few hours. this morning, we took a three hour bus to dun huang. from dun huang we hired really persistant little cab driver to take us to the caves. the caves were first carved in 300 AD, and the most recent in 1100 AD.

there are over 700 caves in the complex, of which we saw 10. the entrace fee was really steep, 120 kuai, but included in the price was an english speaking guide. her name was jessie and she studied english in lan zhou. she was amazing. the caves are locked, to protect them, and there are no lights inside. she took a flashlight and pointed out important features. they are set into a cliff face and have been really well preserved. they were discovered in 1900 by a monk named wang who took it upon himself to restore the caves and preserve them a a holy site. many expeditions have been to the caves and took with them many of the caves historical treasures. these are now housed in museums in england, russia, japan, france, and harvard. some of the scrolls, paitings and sculptures were sold by wang to finace his excavation. the greatest loss was the work contained in the hidden library. it was a cave honoring the work of monk hong bian, who worked in the caves, translated religious works and had a great impact on the area. hong bian's family and followers sealed the greatest works in a cave with a statue of him to protect them from warring minority groups in the south.

we saw the third largest statue of buddha in china, at 35.5 meters tall. the other two are in sichuan. in the complex there is also another 29 meters tall buddha and a 15 meter long reclining buddha. the reclining buddha is supposed to be after he reached nirvana and is placed in a coffin shaped room. there are 72 statues surrouing him with various expressions on the faces, indicating these people's different comprehension of nirvana and buddhisim. our guide talked about how as buddhisim was introduced, it fused with daoism, making it easier for the people to accept into their lives. they share many of the same dieties. we saw paitings of the daoist/buddhist dieties of thunder, lightening, wind, and rain. thunder had numerous arms to bang on drums, lightening had a metal knife, wind had a bag from which the wind came when he opened it, and when rain blew, there was rain. there was also a depiction of the tallest man in buddhism, whose feet touch the bottom of the ocean, and whose head passes the tallest mountian and he holds the sun and the moon.

the mogao caves are one of the best sites i have seen in china. i wish it had been one of the first places we visited!! it ties asia together, because it was such an important site on the silk road. in a few minutes we'll get on a bus back to liu yuan and get the train, again at 2:30 am, to turpan.

the travels begin....

2006-06-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

duff and i are getting picked up to go to the train station in hankou in 1/2 and hour. amy and the international office have been giving us a wonderful send-off. we had lunch at amy's apartment today with her family, it was the first time we had ever been there. the food was so good, too!!

our friend lindsey has set up a blog (in a round-about way, we helped) and you can follow the link to the left for "mississippi misstepts" and read her reactions to our travels and get a different perspective. we are excited for her. she is meeting us in urumqi on the 29th of june, just in time for my birthday.

okay, now i have to take the trash out and unplug everything in the apartment.

when are you coming back?

2006-06-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

l to r: (back) harrish, lindsey, sandrine, katrina, me, duff, brad, johnny. (front) meghan, happy, carol, wendy.

never have i left a place that i have loved so much and not had a plan to come back! last night, lindsey and harrish got everyone together for a farwell dinner for us. it was so thoughtful of them, and duff and i are really flattered. we never would have gotten that together on our own and our goodbyes would have been scattered. so many people have asked when we are coming back, and one of the worst parts of leaving is i have no answer to that. always before i have. leaving alaska? back next summer. leaving seattle? back after china. leaving cincinnati? back asap! here, it is different. i have never been so completely torn about leaving a place. i wish i could say that i will be back for a visit and say when. that would make leaving here a lot easier. it is so great that for the rest of forever, i can come to china to see wonderful friends.

bye bye, everyone, and thanks for a wonderful 2 years. we will miss wuhan very much.

chinese turkestan

2006-06-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

duff and i thought it would be wise to give a little introduction to the travels we will attempt in the next month. we will visit a region of the world that fascinates me. it is remote, of course i am interested!! it is china, technically, but it is not. this is a land of arid salt flats, mountains, basins, grasslands, camels, the silk road, the end of the great wall, the furthest outposts of chinese civilization, minority peoples.... we get to visit central asia without leaving china. i will try and paint a little introductory picture:

we will travel out into the desert of western china. there are a number of very large provinces in this region that we will visit. we tell the students we are going to xin jiang which is apparently the size of alaska. xin means new and jiang means territories. the region is properly known as the xinjiang uigur autonomous region. the uigurs are the chinese muslim minority people. many uigurs have left xin jiang and now live in all parts of china. there are so many in wuhan (which probably helps explain why a train leaves for far western china daily). in the big cities, uigurs open noodle stands and bbq places. they have a trilling call to draw attention to their roadside stands. there are 4 or 5 different guys who set up by the south gate of our campus. i am excited to go to xin jiang for the food. i love the muslim noodles here, they are hand pulled and dropped into a soup pot. my favorite is liang mian, a cold noodle with a lot of spice on top and fresh cucumbers and tomatoes. perfect for the hot hot weather (wuhan has been wildly hot recently, we have a heat index of 119 degrees F. they say xin jiang is the hottest place in china, but checking the weather reports it is about 10 degrees cooler and less than 1/2 the humidity of wuhan. wuhan definitely lives up to it's reputation as one of the furnaces of china).

the biggest draw of western china is the opportunity to travel parts of the old silk road. we will hit northern silk road oases like turpan and kashgar, and travel the southern silk road from kashgar to golmud. from, golumd we will go overland to tibet. the silk road really started in 100 bc, and items traded included silk, jade, cucumbers, figs, sesame, walnut, grapes (and winemaking), porcelain, paper and so much more. in turpan, they grow grapes and make reportedly good local wine. to fight the heat, they have trellised the streets and shaded them with grape vines. i am excited about that.

we will go to the sunday market in kashgar were it sounds like we will be in the middle east. this market is one of the most famous in the world, and not only chinese people but people from all the neighboring counties come to it. . the market apparently has 100,000 visitors each week. many of these people are villagers who come in from the country. many people in the area still live a nomadic life, and live in gers (yurts) like in mongolia. there is a large kazakh population in the area who are nomads and live in gers. the minority peoples can be identified by their different head coverings, i only hope i will know enough to appreciate all of this. they sell animals, clothes, wine, fruit and vegetables, knives, pots, carpets, spices.... i have a feeling lindsey and i are going to go shopping crazy.

we have a lot of big sites we want to hit, like the second lowest point on the planet (the tarim basin), outside turpan in taklamakan desert. we want to ride camels to city ruins on the southern silk road. our first stop will be the mogao caves in dunhuang. the silk road passed through here and the temple caves have paintings that are important to chinese buddhism. monks, pilgrims and scholars would stop here as they traveled the silk road to translate religious texts. i can't remember when the first temples were built, duff remembers reading they have been painted over a period of 2000 years. during the cultural revolution the caves were not harmed because they were under a direct protection order from zhou enlai.

there is so much more, i won't even attempt to explain tibet at this point (xi zang in chinese. this translates as the 'western treasure house.' interesting, eh?). i need to concentrate on western china now. we planned to leave today, but we haven't been paid by the school yet, so we hope that we can leave tomorrow. as we travel these areas we will keep up the blog and provide a lot more detail.

we are getting really excited and ironing out the last details. we are finalizing our plans when we will meet up with lindsey (she has to stay at work a tad longer than we do), and i am getting ready for an amazing trip... and getting ready to live out of my pack for the next two months. it is a good thing i am so strong. hee.

where is the green fish?

2006-06-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

final exams are over. i am 1/2 way finished with my final grades, i should finish them this morning. i am packing up and moving out of my apartment, and preparing to travel for two months (yikes!). i am getting ready to move to seattle and looking for a job there. i have been so busy, it has been relatively easy to push the fact that i am leaving wuhan out of my mind. it is not an easy thing to think about, i will miss everything here so much. i can't believe i have lived here for 2 years. i have really built up a life here, and it is going to be very difficult to leave.

i have taught at the same university for the past two years. foreigners are celebrities here because we are such a novelty, but if you stay around for more than 6 months then everyone at the whole school knows who you are. i have been very fortunate to be here because i have built up a wonderful community and amazing friends. i don't know how i am going to leave this life behind. duff and i certainly have a large community of foreigners (not nearly as large as last year), but this year we have spent more time on our campus and with chinese people. there are people (esp. office workers and food vendors) i have dealt with everyday for two years. i will leave my friends and my students and neighbors.

the little girls that walk me home from school everyday, i will leave them. i keep forgetting that we are leaving in 4 days, and i think to myself that i should invite them over, or we could play in the park. when they met me, i had my hair down and i was wearing a green necklace. when i came to china, i was worried that i would never be able to tell my students apart. when you aren't familiar with a culture, people can tend to look the same. while this is no longer an issue for me (i know everyone uniquely by their appearance and their personality) the little girls who i meet are still thrown. they always run up and yell my name. sometimes they don't believe that it is me. if my hair is up, they make me take it down, then they start believing. then, the secret question: where is the green fish? i guess to them my necklace looks like a green fish, even though it is just a large green bead. if i am not wearing it, i put it in my bag so i can prove my identity to them.

we will have to say goodbye to all the food vendors who have kept us alive, and most who have never given us food poisoning. we go to the same people, the same restaurants every day. i have been going to these people for two years, and for duff, a year. i fondly remember the reception i got at my favorite restaurants when we came back in the fall. i shouldn't have been surprised that they remembered me so well, but i was pleased and flattered. i have my favorite fruit seller, and vegetable people, and there is the person i always buy tomato paste from.... there is the bao zi woman who i would swear worries about us if we don't come for our breakfast. in town, there is the beer lady, who has a restaurant by the bowling alley. last year, the bowling alley didn't sell beer, so we would buy it from the beer lady (for 25 cents) and take it in to the bowling alley. then, the bowling alley started to sell beer, but for quadruple the price. now, they also sell 2 kuai beer, so we don't go to the beer lady for beer anymore, but we eat at her restaurant once a week.

saddest to leave will be our chinese friends. my chinese teacher, amy, i know i will miss the most. i think she is having a little bit of a hard time with it too. i want to come back and see her soon, and someday i will have her come to america, but that doesn't make leaving now any easier. amy is certainly my best friend here, and she has done so much for me. she has taught me everything i know about china's people and language and culture. she has helped me out of a million jams. she has taken care of me when i was really sick (a few times), and shown me some amazing and beautiful places in wuhan. and so much more.

last night, she and her husband and son took duff and me to the asia hotel in hankou. at the top of this famous hotel there is a revolving restaurant. we got there just before sunset and we could see the chang jiang (yangtze), the han river, and the three parts of wuhan. we watched the blazing red sun set (thanks to the pollution of a rapidly developing city of nearly 10 million) and the lights flicker on around us. it was beautiful and wuhan's size never ceases to amaze me. it is hard for me to remember how big this city is, i am so involved in my own little life with my friends and students on our campus at the far south end of town. we tried, but failed, to show our gratitude with gifts. i am terrible at presents, but they loved them. we gave long long a frisbee, a flaying plate. i guess he's been asking amy to get one for him for weeks, so we got her off the hook.

i guess it still hasn't sunk in that i am leaving. i really don't want to. i could be very happy here for another year, or even longer. if i had had the same students this year that i had the first year, i am almost sure i would have stayed. my first group of students and i were so close. there were only 47 of them and i saw them for 24 hours a week. i could really make them work and we made so much progress together. if i had had them again this year i am confident we could have made that much progress again. some will go to canada soon. i love seeing them on campus. they call me kayt-he, and always say it twice, really fast. even though, by the end of last year, the could say my name perfectly, they all still say it they way they did when we first met. this year, teaching was far more frustrating and not nearly as rewarding. i am thankful i had my first year, had i only had this year i don't know that i would recommend teaching in china. this year i had 400 students and saw them for 2 hours a week. they never come to class and when they did their behavior was terrible. i don't feel that i have made much of a difference in their lives, but i have noticed improvement in their english. still there are a few star kids who i became close to and i will miss very much. thank goodness for e-mail!

i realize that i won't be able to do everything i want to one last time before i leave. there isn't enough time to see everyone that i love, and not enough time to eat all my favorite foods. leaving snuck up on me because i was just living here, and now i have to go. i guess i will just have to come back to china!

AND....happy father's day, dad!!!

the world cup....too bad it is the same week as final exams

2006-06-13T00:25:00.000-07:00

how can you come to a final exam and not bring a pen? especially when you have been reminded that you will need to bring a pen repeatedly? why did I have to give 5 students pens so they could take their final exams?

we have just started exam week here at 湖北工业大学. i am giving 10 exams this week, 8 of them are for my listening and speaking classes. my exam is split into two parts. the first 45 minutes assess the students' listening comprehension and vocabulary. for the second part of the exam, i assess their speaking. because we have a limited amount of time, the students were supposed to come to class with 1 minute of speaking prepared. memorized. i told them i wanted it to be like i was watching cctv-9 (china's english language tv station, not that i have a tv, i have only seen it in hotels). the students are allowed to speak about anything they want. i got a lot of flattery, but a great number of kids talked about the world cup.

the world cup is huge here. advertisements are everywhere, and everyone is talking about it. during the speaking exams today, i had three kids tell me they have been staying up until 5 in the morning to watch every game. it is too bad that final exams and the world cup are the same week. that's going to hit the kids' scores hard.

the whole country seems to be in a giddy party mode. last night, we met at drunken river moon for the birthday of jennifer paradise. this is a huge restaurant and we sat on the 2nd floor balcony overlooking the main dining hall. in other words, we had front row seats to witness amazing foolishness. the restaurant was showing the pre-game on a huge 8X10 foot screen. many groups (largely men, university-student aged to 60s) were having dinner and watching a little of the game. competitive drinking is a visible part of chinese culture, there is toasting and cheering and a lot of puking. it is an important exercise, or so we are told, because you gain a lot of respect from your peers if you can keep drinking and challenging others. it doesn’t matter if you throw up. you drink, and throw up, and drink again. we regularly see people throwing up under the table at restaurants, no one even seems to notice. oddle, they never seem to get very drunk because few people can keep it in their system. sorry to get a little graphic, but if you have been to china, you will surely have seen this. i have always wondered how this works with when Chinese and American businesspeople meet. as a woman, this doesn’t come up, we are served lovely watermelon juice, but for men it can be a different story. last night we watched two tables abuse their bodies like it wasn't a monday night. i had a student, spring, tell me this morning as part of her speaking, that her uncle was so drunk watching the game, he called her and told her germany had lost when it had, in fact, won. or so she says. we all know i am not following this in the least, and am totally clueless regarding sports in general. advice to anyone coming to teach in china: know about the nba and football.

vampire beach.

2006-06-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

this is the off season at hainan, or so the guide book says. it is just the beginning of the rainy season, like it is for all of south east asia. last year, we were in thailand, malaysia, indonesia, and singapore for monsoon and really didn't notice much of a difference. the beaches here, though, have been deserted. all day, it is like we have a private beach. there are a few other tourits, but we are really spread out and all of them are russian. interestingly, this must be a huge place for russians on vacation. there is more russian in the town than english (menus, signs, etc.). it is good we can speak a little chinese.

the beaches have been enormously pleasant and relaxing. there is a lot of trash, but there are people cleaning it up all day as it washes ashore. this is the terrible result of china's wanton littering. i am swimming and covered in bits of plastic wrapping. lying in the sun, styrofoam blows across the beach and sticks to me. there are plastic baskets and shoes and pieces of discarded clothing washing up on shore. all day the big hotels send workers to the beach to sweep up, but they don't get the garbage out of the water.

last night, duff and i decided to take an evening walk on the beach. we had come in from the beach around 3:00 to cool down and get out of the sun. the day before we had food poisoning (which i have now had on beaches in two countries!) and didn't want to overdo it. we brought our instruments to the beach and lazed away the afternoon playing fiddle and bodhran, at which duff has made amazing progress. at sunset we headed back down to the beach. there were thousands of people there! all chinese. we'd barely seen 10 other chinese people on the beach up until now, and now the water was thick with them. if this is off season, i can't even imagine how crowded the beach must be during the peak. people were loving the waves, and swimming in their underwear, which apparently is okay here. kids up to 10 year old needed no suits at all. everyone had blow up innertubes to hang on. chinese people don't really learn to swim. amy can, and it is a really big deal for her. we always joke she should put it on her resume. the big hotels had huge spotlights on the breakers illuminating the beach.

white skin is highly prized here. girls and boys use skin whitening products (which make them break out terribly), and if it is sunny, no woman goes anywhere without and umbrella to protect her from the sun. they are shocked that we don't use them. last year, when i returned from spring festival in thailand, proud of my tan, the students and amy, scandalized, exclaimed that i had become "so black!" no wonder the beaches are deserted during the day and packed at night.

luckiest of the lucky.

2006-06-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

never have i ever....had a vacation start off this smoothly. duff and i safely arrived on hainan island last night, after a brief (2 hour flight) from wuhan. since then, everything has been going enormously well. the plane didn't crash. we immediately found a great hotel with bus from the airport. slept well. early morning bus to sanya. we flew into haikou, at the north end of the island, and easily got an express bus to sanya, the resort area, at the south end of the island. the drive was beautiful. it looked like southern india, palm trees dipping over canals and small waterways...lush hills....oh, and rice paddies. we very easily found an excellent hostel in sanya, a 100 kuai answer to the 600 kuai resorts surrounding us. the hostel has great services...towles, and straw hats and mats for the beach, balconies that overlook the ocean....and wireless internet. it is true. duff brought his computer so i could finish up the very little i have to write of my final exams (i am writing a different exam for every class to cut down on cheating, but that means i am writing 10 exams). i cannot believe our luck. it was going to be a lot of time at the internet cafe. it is hard to be away from internet while planning a huge trip, trying to find jobs, and moving away from somewhere we have lived for two years.

this afternoon we spent three hours on the beautiful beach. the waves are HUGE (like sri lanka huge) and fun to play in. i am all tuckered out. we are off to catch dinner and the sunset at an outdoor restaurant.

lindsey jackson: if you can make it down here this weekend, do.

hainan....here we come!

2006-06-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

last minute, duff and i have decided to take a beach vacation next week. since coming to china, i have wanted to visit hainan island, in the south china sea, almost to the vietnamese border. it is called the hawaii of china. i hope it isn't as expensive.

we have next week off because our students will be preparing for their final exams and the cet-4 english exam. if you have been reading the blog, you know that we have been talking a lot about cheating in our classes. the students have to pass the cet-4 to graduate. one student told me to pass the cet-4 you can pay another student 3000 rmb ($375) and they will get you the answers. there are various methods for transmission during the exam, mostly through cell phone. she also mentioned that in all of the bathrooms (there is a lot of grafitti in china), there are phone numbers to call if you are interested in getting a wireless earpiece for about 400 rmb. i also learned that to pass the cet-3 in high school, you can pay 1500 rmb, and for assistance on the cet-6, students pay about 6000 yuan. i cannot believe that students are able to come up with this kind of money. when i said this to my student, she said 5 or 6 kids will go in on it together. amazing. and i finally figured out why the kids all write the same answers to different test forms: camera phones. someone in the first class snaps a picture and it ruins a week of testing.

duff has finished writing his final exams, and i hope to finish mine today. it is cool and rainy, a great relief from the 100 degree heat we have had in wuhan. if i can get my exams finished and copied, i am basically done with school. we give finals in two weeks, and grades should be pretty easy to tally. tentatively, we leave for western china on 23 june.

we'll be gone sunday to sunday, but we'll post from hainan. they weather may not be that great. it is typhoon season.

happy june!

2006-06-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

some photos of shawn and jazmine to start june off right.

hut one, hut two...

2006-05-29T00:36:00.000-07:00

***this is duffy writing, not kate***

hello everyone. kate has gone to beijing this weekend to drop off her indian visa application at the 'Visa Hut' outside the indian embassy. this is actually what their website calls the place where you drop off and pick up visas. you'd think that the two most populous countries in the world would have enough visa requests that they couldn't use a 'hut', but they don't.

anyway, i'd thought i'd take the opportunity to talk about another 'hut' on our campus. this year, a pizza hut has opened here. not the international chain restaurant, but an actual hut that sells pizza. not only does it sell pizza, you can make photocopies, print, and use the long-distance phone center. this restaurant, and others like it, are probably the best feature of living at the campus. there are an amazing amount of boiled, fried, and steamed dumpling stands, noodles, boiled and fried, fried rice, large pieces of steamed dough, a rice-stuffed, egg-wrapped food called a dou pi, and a lot of different deep-fried pieces of dough all for less than a quarter. there are a lot of places in wuhan that are nicer to eat, but very few campuses have the variety that this campus does. our chinese friends who visit from other campuses have commented on how great the food prices and selection are for us. sadly, many of the small food vendors are being forced to move as the campus expands. those construction cranes in the background are a few of about 15 on our campus. however, the vendors are very clever. as soon as one area is turned into a 15 story building, another food area springs up. now that it's summer, there are also a lot of night markets opening, but more about them another time.

*unfortunately, our pizza hut doesn't deliver, or have cheese.

introducing.....our chinese names

2006-05-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

our chinese teacher, amy, gave duff and me chinese names a few weeks ago. aren't they beautiful? at the top is my name, below it is duff's. most chinese names have two or three characters. the surname, or family name, comes first.

my chinese name is BAI YA LI. the first character, BAI, means pure or white. amy picked it because my name in english (katharine) also means pure. bai is a really common surname. the most common surnames in china are li, wang, long, zhang, and chen. sound familiar? the second character YA means elegant, and the third is LI, beautiful. everyone i have told it to has praised it as a very beautiful name. i think the elegant part is amy's wishful thinking. i have a very complicated name, according to amy.

duff's name in chinese is JIAN DA FEI. his surname, JIAN, means simple. DA means arrive or achieve, and FEI is fly or high. together these mean something like duff will achieve great heights and accomplishments through simple means. amy chose DA FEI because it sounds like duffy, which she thinks is his given name. people here are floored when they discover duffy is his surname. people don't really go by their surnames here. the surnames are so common, we'd be calling 10 out of 40 students in a class by wang.

committed

2006-05-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

i bought a ticket back to america! unlike last year this was no last minute operation. no panic. i will be arriving in cincinnati on 19 august 2006 from....new delhi. yes, i am going back to india. i am committed. my great friend sean owens is going to meet me there at the end of july. i have known sean since high school and i am looking forward to traveling with him. the last time we traveled he drove with me from seattle to cincinnati, delivering all my stuff to my parent's house before i came to china a year and a half ago.

i have an ambitious summer trip planned. duff and i are going to start out in far western china. we want to see parts of the old silk road and the uigur people (china's muslims). then tibet. duff is heading back to america at that point. his cousin ben is getting married in san diego and he is a groomsman. then, the real adventure starts. we are coordinating with other teachers from wuhan for the trip (lindsey jackson, jennifer paradise, and jessica lester) but i don't yet know their plans or route. i may well be crossing the himalayas solo (although i don't think that will end up being the case). it is an 8 day overland trip from lhasa to kathmandu. i hear it is amazing. then, i'd like to fly from nepal to delhi, i'm told the bus ride between the two capitol cities is more stressful that it is worth.

sean and i have a month in india. i will use some of that time to learn more about my opa's sister, lilly swords. she lived most of her life in india and ran a school in the punjab for the methodist church. i have written to the school, and a woman in germany who knew aunt lilly, but i haven't heard anything back yet. katie and lindsay report the indian mail system to be wildly unreliable, so even if i don't hear back, sean and i will go to batala and see what we can find.

it is a beautiful day and duff and i are done with class. as soon as i am done with a load of laundry (there are no dryers in china and washing must be done on nice days to hang in the sun) we'll go fly kites in the park near my apartmnet. happy friday.

a problem in america too....

2006-05-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

below duff and i have copied an article that was in this morning's new york times. timely, eh? i think duff, who teaches reading and writing, may have his students read the article as part of the class. sadly, he's conflicted. he doesn't want the kids to read it and get any new ideas.

i had no idea that cheating was such an issue at home.

May 18, 2006

Colleges Chase as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech

By JONATHAN D. GLATER

LOS ANGELES — At the University of California at Los Angeles, a student loaded his class notes into a handheld e-mail device and tried to read them during an exam; a classmate turned him in. At the journalism school at San Jose State University, students were caught using spell check on their laptops when part of the exam was designed to test their ability to spell.

And at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, after students photographed test questions with their cellphone cameras, transmitted them to classmates outside the exam room and got the answers back in text messages, the university put in place a new proctoring system.

"If they'd spend as much time studying," said an exasperated Ron Yasbin, dean of the College of Sciences at U.N.L.V., "they'd all be A students."

With their arsenal of electronic gadgets, students these days find it easier to cheat. And so, faced with an array of inventive techniques in recent years, college officials find themselves in a new game of cat and mouse, trying to outwit would-be cheats this exam season with a range of strategies — cutting off Internet access from laptops, demanding the surrender of cellphones before tests or simply requiring that exams be taken the old-fashioned way, with pens and paper.

"It is kind of a hassle," said Ryan M. Dapremont, 21, who just finished his third year at Pepperdine University, and has had to take his exams on paper.

"My handwriting is so bad," he said. "Whenever I find myself having to write in a bluebook, I find my hand cramps up more, and I can't write as quickly."

Mr. Dapremont said technology had made cheating easier, but added that plagiarism in writing papers was probably a bigger problem because students can easily lift other people's writings off the Internet without attributing them.

Still, some students said they thought cheating these days was more a product of the mind-set, not the tools at hand.

"Some people put a premium on where they're going to go in the future, and all they're thinking about is graduate school and the next step," said Lindsay Nicholas, a third-year student at U.C.L.A. She added that pressure to succeed "sometimes clouds everything and makes people do things that they shouldn't do."

In a survey of nearly 62,000 undergraduates on 96 campuses over the past four years, two-thirds of the students admitted to cheating. The survey was conducted by Don McCabe, a Rutgers professor who has studied academic misconduct and helped found the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke.

David Callahan, author of "The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead" (Harcourt, 2004), suggested that students today feel more pressure to do well in order to get into graduate or professional school and secure a job.

"The rational incentives to cheat for college students have grown dramatically, even as the strength of character needed to resist those temptations has weakened somewhat," Mr. Callahan said.

Whatever the reasons for cheating, college officials say the battle against it is wearing them out.

Though Brian Carlisle, associate dean of students at U.C.L.A., said most students did not cheat, he spoke wearily about cases of academic dishonesty.

He told of the student who loaded his notes onto the Sidekick portable e-mail device last fall; students who have sought help from friends with such devices; students who have preprogrammed calculators with formulas. Some students have even deigned to use the traditional cheat sheet, he said.

"One of the things that we're going to be paying close attention to as time goes on is the use of iPods," Professor Carlisle added, pointing out that with a wireless earpiece, these would be hard to detect.

The telltale iPod headphone wire proved the downfall of a Pepperdine student a couple of years ago, after he had dictated his notes into the portable music player and tried to listen to them during an exam.

"I have taught for 30 years and each year something new comes on the scene," Sonia Sorrell, the professor who caught the student, said in an e-mail message.

At the Anderson School of Management at U.C.L.A., the building's wireless Internet hotspot is turned off during finals to thwart Internet access.

Richard Craig, a professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State, who caught students using spell check last year, said that for tests, he arranged the classroom desks so that the students faced away from him but he could see their desktop screens.

"It was just a devilishly simple way to handle it," Professor Craig said.

At the University of Nevada, Professor Yasbin, the dean, was not the only one upset by the camera phone cheating episode there, which occurred in 2003; honest students were appalled, too. They suggested that they police one another, by being exam proctors.

"The students walk around the classroom, and if they see something suspicious, they report it," Professor Yasbin said.

Amanda M. Souza, a third-year undergraduate who heads the proctor program, said her classmates had decidedly mixed reactions to the student monitors.

"The ones that aren't cheating think it's a great idea, " she said. "You always see students who are really well prepared covering their papers. But the ones that aren't prepared, probably don't like us."

At Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, N.J., students must clear their calculators' memory and sometimes relinquish their cellphones before tests. At Brigham Young University, exams are given in a testing center, where electronic devices are generally banned.

In some classes at Butler University in Indianapolis, professors use software that allows them to observe the programs running on computers students are taking tests on. And some institutions even install cameras in rooms where tests are administered.

To take a final exam last week, Alyssa Soares, a third-year law student at U.C.L.A., had to switch on software that cut her laptop's Internet access, wireless capability and even the ability to read her own saved files. Her computer, effectively, became a glorified typewriter. Ms. Soares, 28, said she did not mind. "This is making sure everyone is on a level playing field," she said.

Several professors said they tried to write exams on which it was hard to cheat, posing questions that outside resources would not help answer. And at many institutions, officials said that they rely on campus honor codes.

Several professors said the most important thing was to teach students not to cheat in the first place.

Timothy Dodd, executive director of the Center for Academic Integrity, said creating a "nuclear deterrent" to cheating in class, and perhaps implying that it is acceptable elsewhere, "is antithetical to what we should be doing as educators."

www.nytimes.com

just how stupid do they think i am?

2006-05-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

my students must think i am an idiot. sadly for them, i'm not. chinese students cheat a lot, and we have our midterm exams this week. it is basically a very easy quiz. for the past three weeks we have worked on a set of vocabulary words to describe emotions. there are only 36 words!! and we have worked on them in class for three weeks!! and they still think they need to cheat!! ugh.

the student's grades are based largely on attendance and participation. we also give a midterm exam and a final. last semester i gave a lot more quizzes, but it was so frustrating i decided to give less this semester. the students still don't take them seriously, although it is pretty clear that failing either the midterm or final would bode very poorly for passing the class. i still have had less then half the students in each class show up for the midterm.

yesterday i gave the quiz three times and failed 14 kids for cheating. one kid had the answers taped to his arm. others used cheat sheets, or tried to trade papers with their friends, text each other the answers with their cell phones, or talk. i wrote 8 different quizzes this time for all the classes i have. in the afternoon, i got a kid who didn't even take the quiz, he just turned in the answers to the version of the quiz i had given that morning. i had another kid, who i hadn't managed to catch cheating during the test, accidentally turn in his cheat sheet with his test! zero.

the students in the class i had earlier today aren't close. in a lot of the classes, the students are great friends and sit close together. in this class, they spread out. they never sit in the front two rows. today i get to class and the 15 out of 40 that have showed up are crammed, side by side, in the first three rows. when it came time for the quiz, i told them to bring everything to the front of the room. this is my standard rule. no paper. no notebooks. no cellphones. no glasses cases. nothing. they all sat in the first three rows and would not relinquish single sheets of paper. i told them to spread out, and i would give them paper. still no one moved. ah ha. i looked under their papers and they all had the answers written on the desks. bad kids! i finally get them spread out, and i think i have all of their stuff at the front. still, before i start the quiz, i did one more check. i caught 3 more cheat sheets under test papers before the quiz, and another during the quiz. in my class, if you cheat, you get a 0. the kids know this, i am very clear on this point. and yet, the don't learn. there are a number of kids who have, by midterm, assured they have no way to pass the class.

on the bright side, duff and i have made some spunky new friends. yesterday, as i was walking home from my last class, i was charged by three little girls from 9 to 11. they accompanied me all the way home and we practiced their english and my chinese. we sang 'xiao yan zi'...a song amy taught me about at swallow. it was so much fun to be skipping along with three little girls singing chinese children's songs. they are sharp kids and quick learners, and by the time we got to my apartment had mastered a number of new vocabulary words.

this afternoon, duff and i saw them again in our school's dirty alley (a food street with small restaurants and vendors and a lot of trash). they ran up again, and asked me my name. i told them and then i realized they didn't recognize me. they were saying, "you aren't kate." my hair was tied back. i took it down. instant recognition. we talked to them for 15 minutes, and in the process, halted activity on the street. everybody stopped and watched these three brave little girls talking to the foreigners. linda, sue, and mary are the little girl's english names. yesterday, mary's name was yuki.

no chinese lesson for us tonight. amy is putting in long hours at her office. she was at work until 3 a.m. last night, and plans to do the same thing tonight. i haven't any idea what she is preparing for.

mulan lake

2006-05-16T03:38:00.000-07:00

***This is Duffy writing, not Kate***

The weekend before Kate and I went to Phoenix, our students told us, on Sunday night, that there were no classes Tuesday and wondered if we could go with them on a spring outing to Mulan Lake, which is about 2 hours from Wuhan. After confirming that this was a school event and not just a way to play hookey, we agree and Tuesday morning, instead of preparing to teach for 8 hours, we were both getting on a bus at 730 am.

Mulan Lake is near Mulan Mountain, both of which are in Hubei, near Mulan’s hometown. For those of you who haven’t seen the Disney movie, Mulan is the story of a girl who steals her father’s armor and pretends to be him after the emperor drafts one man from each family into the army. The girl’s parents don’t discover the truth until it is too late, and Mulan serves bravely for 10 years in the army, without it being discovered that she is a woman. She rises to the rank of general, and as a reward for her service, the emperor says he will give her anything she wants. She chooses to go home to Hubei, where she takes off her armor and returns to the life of a traditional Chinese woman. Later, her comrades are shocked to discover that their hero is a woman.

The first thing we saw when we got to Mulan Lake was . . . rain. It had started to rain about 5 minutes before we got there and would continue to rain off and on all day. Somehow, it seemed we were the only ones who didn’t bring a disposable poncho. It took us about ten minutes to locate the man who was selling them and we bought 2 for 4 RMB each. About 10 seconds later, one of the students came running over and asked how much we had paid. We told him, and he quickly turned and demanded that the salesman give us back 2 RMB, since we had apparently been taken for all of 25 cents. However, the salesman quickly agreed and, despite our objections, refunded us 2 RMB. It was nice that the students protected us, but a little embarrassing.

Immediately after entering the park, there is a large pond at the bottom of a hill with a statue of the famous cross-dressing general. Right behind this pond is a series of trails, bridges, paths and small waterfalls that go up into the hills. There is a path to the top that follows a small river that flows over large rocks most of the way. It was really fun to be there on a rainy day. The mist added a kind of mystery to the place. The weather made the landscape seem very much like a set from a medieval movie. Much like in Phoenix, it was nice to see the beautiful, natural scenery that you see so much in Chinese artwork.

There was also a distinctly manmade feel to the area. The paths were laid out, the wilderness looked trimmed and well kept, there were steps carved into the rocks, and even the thorns on the plants had been dulled. The influence of people became most apparent at the top of the hill. There was a reservoir at the top of the trails that was held in place by an earthen damn. There was a food court, walking paths, pavilions, a newly constructed but not yet flooded riverbed, boats for rent, and a zip line. The students had warned us not to take a boat ride because we would be taken to the other side of the lake and forced to buy an expensive lunch there before we were brought back, so Kate and I decided to explore the dry riverbed and rest on a pavilion near the end of the zip line while some of the students went to get in line to go across the lake on it. The riverbed was fascinating. It was at least 20 feet wide and about 7 feet deep and was made of stone tiles. There was a worker putting up a net, so I guess there must have been fish in the lake that they wanted to keep there. This reservoir was not very large, and it looked like the river would drain it relatively quickly, so maybe Mulan Lake is about to become Mulan Puddle. Yet another item on the list of things that don’t make sense here. The students had a lot of fun on the zip line. They went for about 100 yards over the water before being caught by a workman at the other end. There was only one minor injury, a boy hit his shin on one of the poles holding the end of the line, but he was kicking and showing off, so he kind of earned it.

The walk to the top of the mountain took about 3 hours, and the hike down took about half an hour, so you can imagine how steep it was. The steps were about half as wide as my foot was long, so it was a little tense, especially since it was literally a half-hour-long walk down a staircase. I don’t know if you’ve ever gone down stairs that long, but it is tough.

Once we were down the hill and back on the bus, we thought we would be back pretty quickly. Until our bus ran into a 1 hour and 30 minute, dead-stop traffic jam. There were about 80 dump trucks that had all stopped at this toll booth for some reason and they were not moving and no one but foot traffic and three-wheel carts could get through. Finally the police came and cleared some lanes and we were back on our way to Wuhan to end a cold, wet day with a nice warm meal of hot pot.

the kids in southern california

2006-05-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

for your enjoyment: new pictures of my niece, jazmine, and new nephew, shawn. alison sent them a week ago. cute.

and the whole neighborhood turns out for a game of flying plate....

2006-05-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

last night our friend lindsey came over. she brought ground beef and cheese. this is a huge treat for us. these items are sold at a huge german supermarket (the german version of walmart. the french version is carrefour, and we have walmart here, too). this german supermarket is almost a 2 hour bus ride away from us, so we rarely make it there. lindsey lives very close to the market.

we made mexican food.

it was amazing. duff brought taco seasoning from home. we made tortillas, and attempted chips. we made pico de gallo and salsa. and margaritas. it was lovely, and it made me really ready to come home and descend upon a grocery store and buy hundreds of avocados. i am ready.

before we ate, and after we had done a lot of the prep, we went outside to play frisbee for a little bit before it got too dark. i live right across the street from a little park where people play all day. there are babies, and little kids, teenagers and college students sitting under the trees, elderly people on the exercise equipment, and parents riding by on motorscooters and bicycles to call their kids home for dinner. because it was saturday, there were a lot of people out. many had bags from the market, and would stop and talk to friends and neighbors before continuing to their apartments.

normally, when duff and i play frisbee we attract a small cloud. three weeks ago, i threw the fribee through a fence, and immediately a man ran up with a long stick and helped us get it back. we are foreigners, everyone is watching us. never has anyone played with us. they just watch and smile.

yesterday, was different. three little girls asked lindsey if they could play, at first they were hesitant, but with a mixture of chinese and english, we got a game going. once these three were in, our circle quickly grew. at one point we had 13 kids playing with us. 3 boys (and duff), the rest girls. it was so much fun to watch the kids interact with each other. there was one really bossy girl who had a little boy following her around. she said 不要 bu yao (don't want) every time someone tried to throw them the frisbee. the little boy wanted to play, but she wasn't having it. every time i spoke to her, she responded with 我听不懂外国话 wo ting bu dong wai guo hua, which amounts to 'i don't understand your foreign speaking.' she was so dismissive.

most of the kids were probably about 7 or 8 years old. the oldest was 12 or so. parents and grandparents surrounded us, watching, cheering the kids, and constantly laughing at my frisbee fumbles. in chinese, fribee is 飞盘 fei pan, which means 'flying plate.'

tonight, for dinner, we will either make chicken noodle soup, or attempt gyros. my kitchen sink doesn't have hot water. now that it is warmer, i will cook a lot more. the water is no longer ice cold, and i can wash the dishes. this winter i dreaded dirtying a dish because the water to wash it was so cold.

bouncing along the roads of yunnan

2006-05-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

**this is a post written during our trip, it just never made it to the blog**

thank you, amy, for working so hard with us on our chinese!!

we have just spent a few amazing days in a part of china very few foreigners get to experience. it would have been impossible without being able to speak the little chinese that we do. mostly, we can thank duff and lindsey jackson's excellent listening skills. i have no idea how they do it. i am still having trouble with english listening.

we left lijiang after katie, duff, and i went trekking looking for bus tickets back to kunming. lijiang and kunming are both amazing cities. they feel, if at all possible, like cities in the western u.s. they are newer and beautiful, surrounded by mountains, and the streets are wide and clean, offering good views of the hills. the six of us caravaned to the bus station and attempted to get tickets to shi gu. we wanted to go to a small town north or west of lijiang, where we were certain to climb in elevation and experience more dramatic scenery. i tried to get tickets, but as far as i could tell, the woman was telling me they hadn't any more. i sent duff back into the line to ask, as his listening is better, and he confirmed. we pulled the book out, looked at the map, and picked some other likely destinations. no tickets. it seemed like we should hire a car. duff and i traveled in a car hired by our friend carol in hunan province. she hid us while she was bargaining, hiring a car for foreigners would cost loads more than doing it for chinese. we expected to pay a bunch. i asked the woman at the information desk and she said if i went around the corner i could find small vans to hire to take us to shi gu. this is my crowning moment of chinese listening to date. i cannot believe i understood her! yes!

we hired a car, and went to this beautiful small town nestled in the hills. the trip wasn't long, and the roads were good. we were comfortable as we wound our way along the mountains. the air was so fresh and clean, and at our elevation, it seemed to sparkle. we stopped to see the first bend of the yangtze, it's a lovely spot with a temple nearby.

we got to shi gu and easily found a hotel. i was shocked at the price. we paid 15 kuai a night for the most beautiful rooms. the hotel had a rooftop area where we hung out later that night and looked at the stars. what? is this still china? air so clear we can see the stars?! it was late afternoon by the time we got settled, and we set out for a short walk before dinner. the walk we ended up taking i hope to remember for the rest of my life. the town is built up a hill from a valley where the chang jiang flows. all around the town, the surrounding hills are terraced into fields. they don't grow rice, there isn't really enough water in the area, but they grow a lot of wheat and millet, i think. grains. we were walking through the town, and along the dividers of the terraces with golden afternoon sunlight. i could spend hours describing this, but i'll just add some pictures. i hope they do it justice.

we saw people living their lives. they town had rarely, if ever, seen foreigners before, and it was a sight to have 6 of us trekking through, grinning. the people who lived in the town were obviously not han chinese, a fact very apparent to me, duff, lindsey and meghan. we were traveling in an area with a lot of tibetans and ethnic minorities. people in the town were wearing traditional dress. especially, as always, the very old and the very young. old women sat on stoops of houses chatting, old men crouched against walls peacefully smoking their pipes.

the next morning we attempted to get an early start, but with 6 people, that can be a bit of a challenge. i think we were all a little groggy from the altitude. i never thought that i would get any form of altitude sickness, but i believe i was suffering from it just a bit. i need to do some cardio-vascular prep before i got to tibet this summer. lindsey and i went out to try and buy a map, a task which proved to be impossible. we did get cookies and mulberries. yum.

we decided to go to a town called weixi. it is mentioned in my guide book with the words 'for the more adventurous.' warning: if you are reading a 4 year old copy of the rough guide, and it says 'for the more adventurous' proceed with caution. the rough guide is notorious for having incorrect distances and travel times, and this was no exception. we expected a trip of 80-100 km, on a paved road. we figured that was a good length for a day trip. what we got was a 5 hour drive there (amazing!!!) and a six hour drive back to shi gu (stressful!). we hired a driver, who, while he was good at driving, had absolutely no idea what he was doing. we weren't far out before we realized he hadn't ever been to weixi before. we were in a pretty remote area, and they signs weren't good. i think a lot of the additional hours we spent in the car were due to the driver's total lack of knowledge and navigational skills.

the scenery on the way to weixi was breathtaking. all the hills were terraced, and there were people bent over working in the fields. behind the hills were snow covered mountains breaking through fluffy white clouds and we could see glimpses of brilliantly blue sky. small villages sat on hills with the houses crowded together. the fields were in rotation. some showed brown and other light green and dark green. some were yellow. the road was lined with wildflowers, we followed clear streams with monks washing. we passed groups of young monks in saffron robes, holding hands, walking in this beautiful environment. we saw children playing and old men and women herding goats on the street. we saw water buffalo and donkeys pulling carts. every time we rounded a bend we would gasp and exclaim with the wonder of what we saw. the five hour drive was amazing, the best money i have paid while in china.

at one point we stopped at the edge of a tiny little town to use the restroom. the driver told katie and lindsay to go into a school. after about a minute, the rest of us realized that we should go too, at least to see the inside of the school. the children were wild about the foreigners. they were, as all children in china seem to be, fascinated by us. they screamed 'hello' and crowded around to take pictures. the kids are from the surrounding towns and villages, the school had dorms for them to stay when their homes are too far away. these children were young, but it made me think of how many of my students went to a boarding school for high school. some of my students have never lived with their parents. they were raised by their grandparents and then went to boarding schools for high school, and sometimes junior high. early on in my teaching career, i realized it was useless to ask about the student's parents. i would get much further asking about their grandparents.

when we finally got to weixi, we were shocked. from the guidebook we had all been expecting a sleepy little backwater town. rather, we burst into a metropolis of 200,000 or so. and it was so developed! there were beautiful shops, and nice stores. also, there was a few outfitters. i think it is a stop for chinese tourists before they head up into the mountains or into tibet. it was getting late, and i was nervous about the driver getting tired and being on the bumpy roads at night. we had an amazing lunch of vegetable dishes and hit the road again.

the trip back was far less pleasant than the trip out, so i'll not elaborate. the driver led us to believe that he had driven the scenic route to weixi, but he'd take the direct route back. in the end, it took longer. the road, if you could call it that, was terrible, and the sitting in the back of the van was truly a challenge. i still have bruises from all the bouncing. the driver had to ask for directions a number of times and when we turned around on the narrow roads, i was sure our back tires would drop off the end of the cliff. we returned to shi gu exhausted and rattled after midnight, but with fond memories of the early part of the day.

whirling around yunnan

2006-05-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

duff and i are now back in wuhan. we have been back for almost a week, we are sorry to have been out of touch.

i'd like to recount some of our adventures from the may break trip. we went to yunnan province in southwestern china. all the teachers we know who have been there have marked it as one of their favorite spots in china. the guide books tell readers if they cannot go to tibet, they should go to yunnan. everyone is right. yunnan is a fascinating place.

when duff last wrote, we were in lijiang. lijiang is a city a lot like phoenix, in hunan. there is a really well preserved 'old town' surrounded by the modern city. like in phoenix, a lot of lijiang's city has been rebuilt, so the 'old' really refers to the architectural style and not the actual age of the structures. in lijiang, i believe, a lot of the rebuilding has taken place because an earthquake destroyed a good portion of the town a number of years ago. and it is a unesco site. surprise. china has so many of these. i think italy has more, but that's about it.

lijiang was a tourist paradise, for foreigners and chinese alike. we were only there for a day, but it was plenty long enough for me to get the feel of the place. there were six of us traveling together, and i honestly think we could have stayed and relaxed for the rest of the week, but we were ready for some adventure.

luckily, through amy's efforts, our chinese is getting functional. because of this, we are able to attempt more ambitions traveling. it is amazing to me, especially after having lindsay and katie here, how much english there is in india, and the very different traveling skills one needs to develop to explore these places. the six of us decided to get a bus to a town called shi gu, which in chinese means stone drum. it is in a fascinating area, and very important to china. it was while driving to shi gu that we saw the first bend of the chang jiang (yangtze river). this bend is so important because it is what keeps the river in china, rather than having it flow to south east asia. imagine what a different place china would be without the chang jiang. it would be like taking the mississippi away from the u.s.. without the chang jiang, central china would be without hydrologic distinction, and dry, maybe like mongolia. living along the river, we feel how everything in the area, and central china, depends on it, and is effected by it (in some ways now much less, though, since the flooding has largely been controlled by the three gorges dam). the first bend of the chang jiang is a hairpin turn, a very picturesque site. the chang jiang at this point is still muddy and brown. it is so much narrower than in wuhan, and you can see how quickly it flows as it winds it's way through the mountains. by the time the river reaches wuhan, it has even more silt suspended in it, and the water seems thick and heavy.

the other important historical site in the area is past shi gu, where the red army crossed the chang jiang in 1935 as part of the long march. we didn't make it to the actual site, but being in the area was enough to make an impression. it is a huge site for chinese tourists. the surrounding mountains are high and snow capped, and the valleys are deep, with streams along the bottom. these streams are diverted to flood terraced rice paddies, and irrigate other terraced fields that climb the hills, as they have done for 5000 years. the long march was very difficult for the communist party, and it was difficult terrain upon which to fight of the guomingtang. after crossing the yangtze, the long march only got more difficult as the soldiers passed through snowy mountains at high elevation, and trekked across the tibetan plateau, and the the area between the chang jiang and yellow rivers. the long march ended in yan'an, in shanxi province, a year after in began.

i have another post describing shi gu and environs that i wrote while we were there, i will get that up next.

from shi gu we returned to lijiang very briefly, and headed back to kunming. from kunming we caught the train to wuhan (thank you thank you lindsey and meghan for getting us tickets!). the trains in china are a luxury experience. this train to wuhan wasn't as nice as most, but it was still comfortable. while on the train, i started to learn to knit socks. katie, duff, lindsay and i had gone to a market the day before and bought some beautiful (and cheap!) yarn. i have never knitted anything more complicated than a scarf before (one time my grandma helped me add tassels to the end, but that is the pinnacle of my knitting career). i must have looked troubled because one of the train employees sat down next to me and asked me what i was making. i told her i was going to knit a sock. no. she grabbed my knitting from me and ripped out my work and informed me i was not making a sock, but i would make a scarf. she started me on a scarf, and spent the next 45 minutes directing me. luckily i hadn't gotten very far on my scarf, or i would have been really frustrated. the train employee, and another young lady passenger, monitored me as i knit the scarf. when the train employee left, i heard her tell the young woman to watch me, and make sure i didn't screw up (one of the benefits (?) of knowing a little chinese. i can catch what people say about me, but it isn't always good. sometimes i'd rather not know). the girl looked over my shoulder. sometimes she would look at me in reverse and loose it because she thought i was doing a stitch wrong. sometimes i could prove to her that she was looking from the wrong angle, but sometimes she'd take it from me and knit it again, or make me go back and do it over. it was a neat experience, and someday i will finish a scarf that two chinese woman instructed me to make on a train. when the young woman went to the dining car, however, to get lunch, i'd had enough. katie was going to be with us for a very short time and i was determined to make socks. i knit my communally-created scarf from the needles onto a chopstick. the young woman was shocked to see me finishing this when she got back lunch. at first i think she thought i was stupid and just grabbed a chopstick, rather than a knitting needle, by mistake. a language barrier can be difficult sometimes. when you don't speak the same language, occasionally it can be hard to remember that just because the person speaks stupid chinese (or english, we go through this with the students), they are not stupid. i was monitored for a while longer, but eventually the woman lost interest in my sock. they train lady never came back.

and so we are back in wuhan, and looking ahead. with the may break over, we are winding down our second (and my last) year in china. my mind is occupied with classes, seeing friends, studying chinese, and preparing for my ambitious summer travels.

happy may day

2006-05-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

*** this is duffy writing, not kate***

hello everyone. kate and i are in lijiang, in yunnan province, in the p.r.c. right now. our may day vacation has seen a lot of time on the move.

we picked up katie and lindsay in macau, and managed to meet up with our friend nicole in guangzhou, pick up train tickets, meet up with meghan and another lindsey in kunming, yunnan, and catch an overnight bus to lijiang. thanks to a large amount of prep work by kate, this has all gone really well. if geography doesn't work out, she can always be a great travel agent.

kate and i have been travelling since april 26th, when we left wuhan for guangzhou, then went to macau to pick up katie and lindsay who were coming in from bangkok after being in india for 8 months. after a small amount of trouble trying to decipher the bus schedules in macau (they use traditional chinese characters, not simplified), we got back to the guest house and had some of the best dumplings i've ever eaten.

since it rains a lot in macau, we spent most of the next day indoors, drinking coffee and eating baked goods. this doesn't sound very exciting, but since mainland china doesn't offer these things many places, it was a nice treat. dinner was nice, too. blending portuguese wine making, southern european spices, and seafood from china is a great combination.

the next day, kate, katie, lindsay and i met with nicole (a woman who worked in my office last year), and picked up train tickets to kunming. the train was 25 hours and was one of my most memorable train rides. a group of chinese people in their mid 20s shared our cabin and spoke excellent english and managed to teach me a chinese card game called catch the king. while i was playing cards, a girl from two cabins down came with her mother and began to practice her english with kate. soon her father came over too, to take some pictures. it was a lot of fun.

after arriving in kunming, which is a lot larger than we expected, we met up with lindsay and meghan. the next day, we left on an overnight bus to lijiang. we arrived at about 5:30 am and wandered around, a little tired and a little in awe, until we found a noodle and dumpling stand that opened early. lijiang is a beautiful city in the mountains that has a remarkable old town that is really well preserved and not as touristy as other places like it in china.

that's all for now. today we are going to the village of shigu (stone drum) in an attempt to see more scenery and get into a really rural environment. kate or i will try to post again soon, hopefully with some pictures.

on the road again....

2006-04-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

we're off! next week is the week-long may break in china. we get the week off school, which is excellent, because we need a break! in two hours we are getting an overnight train to guangzhou. hopefully we can meet up with our friend nicole for a little bit before heading to macau. thursday evening we'll pick up katie lennard and lindsay theo at the airport. they are coming off 8 months traveling in india. we are excited to show them what little we know of the most populous country in the world. it's a good geographic superlative: we'll all have been to the two countries in the world with over 1 billion people.

we will get two days in macau with lindsay and katie. i love macau and i am excited to go back. it is an old portuguese colony, and people still speak portuguese there. we have been studying our mandarin hard, but it won't help at all in macau. the island is peaceful and has great architecture. it feels like europe. a vacation from china while still in china!

on saturday we hop on a 25 hour train to kunming, the capital of yunnan province. we are going to be on the southeastern side of the tibetan plateau. all the travelers we have met say that yunnan is the next best thing to tibet. if you cannot get to tibet, get to yunnan. we are meeting up with two other teachers from wuhan, lindsey jackson and meghan pigott. so we'll travel for a week with two lindsa(e)y's, a katie, a kate, a meghan...and one boy. i hear a rumor of mexican food at one of the hotels in kunming. yum.

yunnan, 云南, by the way, has a beautiful name in chinese. it is the southern cloud province. 云, yun, means cloud and 南, nan, is south. very picturesque.

i am so glad to be done with classes this week! since i am missing thursday and friday i had to make all of those hours up with the students. in three days i have taught what normally takes a week. i have all but one of my classes made up. the students are really excited about the may break, so excited, in fact, they have already left. attendance has been wretched. seven kids out of forty show up. today i taught a class that was observed by the department. i have 6 observers and 4 students. and none of the students brought paper to class (their homework wasn't done either).

so, here we go. we've got to catch the bus to the train station. we'll be posting, i hope, as we travel this week. we'll be back in wuhan late on may 7th. if anyone wants to call katie and lindsay then, try our cell phone, 86-27-6137-8517. we are 12 hours ahead of est.

phoenix; china, not arizona

2006-04-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

***this is duffy writing, not kate***

hi, everyone, i know it's been a while since kate or i has posted about anything really fun or interesting, but we've been really busy. we've realized that we don't have too much time left in china, so we've started really trying to soak up everything we can. expect a deluge of posts over the next few days as we try to catch up.

about 3 weeks ago, kate and i ran into one of our chinese friends at dinner. she said she was putting together a trip that was leaving in a few days and that she and 3 of her friends would be going to hunan province and asked if we'd like to come. we said sure, we'd love to, but forgot to ask where we'd be going. carol got all the plans together and a few days later, we met at the train station to go to the town of 'phoenix', feng huang in chinese. the group was kate and i, three students, and a german history student that they knew.

since the details of the trip had been vague thus far, we didn't know that we were in for a 13-hour train ride followed by a 3-hour bus ride into the mountains. the train was fine, like it always is if you have a sleeper, but the bus ride was chaotic. the bus was so full that people were sitting on plastic stools in the aisle for all 3 hours. also, it left at 7 am and this particular bus was outfitted with karaoke equipment, which the driver enjoyed at full volume. the ride was through beautiful hills and steep, terraced farmland, but the roads were also very curvy. by the end there were 2 kinds of people on the bus: those who were asleep, and those who were motion sick.

the town of feng huang itself is in the middle of a gorge and most of the town is next to a river that, while beautiful and lined with ancient looking buildings, doesn't seem to move. when we arrived, the first things we saw and heard were dozens of students drawing and painting the scenery, a drummer and dancer on a pavilion in the middle of the river, and a large number of gondola-like boats on the water. it was very beautiful and gave a great first impression.

after winding our way through narrow, tourist-shop-lined streets, carol and her friends found a great guest house for all of us. the place was a steal at $2.50 a night. it was a newly built hotel, but had walls, doors and windows that were frosted plastic in carved wooden frames. the interior was all wood and all the walls were windows, making the place really airy, which was nice, since there were amazing thunderstorms every night. the thunder and lightning felt like they were coming from in the building.

feng huang is in western hunan province, an area with a large population of the miao minority group. for those not familiar with chinese minorities, about 93 percent of chinese people are 'han' chinese. the other 7 belong to one of 56 'minority nationalities.' the miao are one of the largest groups, with a population of about 9 million, and they are found all over southern and western china. the miao have turned feng huang into a large-scale exhibition of their 'traditional' culture. the entire city is built with traditional chinese houses with the corners of the roofs turned up and thick clay tiles for roofing. our daytime activities in feng huang were hiring a driver and going into the countryside to visit miao villages and see traditional dancing and singing. there were women in traditional costume, and the show was interesting and colorful. the scenery was beautiful and it was a lot of fun to just get out into the country, whether driving or walking.

there's more to talk about with regards to phoenix, but that's enough for now.

keep checking the next few days. we're going to be writing a lot.

busy busy bees

2006-04-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

i am so sorry it has taken me almost three weeks to post again. i have been so busy. china is like that. activity comes in waves. i think i am again, easing my way off the crest, and into a trough, but i can see the next rise. i have been occupying my time with classes and students, learning chinese, spring cleaning, learning to cook chinese food, travel, and trying to plan a week long trip for the labor week break.

chinese class recently has been challenging. i am really getting a handle on the reading and writing, but my listening and speaking isn't very good. the biggest problem i have is that i don't need to say a whole lot. i have been dealing with the same people for two years now. i have my favorite food stands, stores, and restaurants on the campus, and i have been going to them since the very beginning. i didn't speak any chinese in the first few weeks so we worked out a system of communicating and nothing has changed. i could say more, but since i am a little shy, i am content to leave things as they are. but not really. amy is really having to force me to do listening and speaking. i'd like to think i am not as reluctant and difficult as my students, but i am resisting some. duff's listening comprehension and speaking is coming along very well. i think we should strike a deal where i do all the reading and writing and he does all the listening and speaking.

amy has started teaching 1/2 the class in chinese and 1/2 the class in english. i can tell i am getting a lot better. my brain hurts when i leave lesson. she is a really fantastic teacher and i will miss her and her instruction terribly when we leave.

in the next few days i will provide an account of our trip to phoenix city in hunan province. we had an amazing time, and relaxing travel thanks to carol, our friend who took us.

we have one more week of classes and then we start the may break. the may break is a national week-long holiday in china. it is their week-long version of labor day. i am always getting frustrated with my students because they haven't a very good concept of the individual, they always think of themselves within a group. this is great in many ways, but when it comes to tests and copying homework.....

china has a very uniform society. we can see this every day. everyone does the same thing at the same time. this makes traffic easy, and the high hours at restaurants. everyone gets a two hour break at the university in the middle of the day. from 12:00 to 1:00 the restaurants are packed. everyone is eating. from 1:00 to 2:00 they are deserted. everyone is taking a nap. everyone goes to work and comes home at the same time. this makes traffic a nightmare, but the timing of traffic jams is very predictable. the whole country is on the same time zone. everyone goes on vacation at the same time. this makes planning a trip a horror.

katie and lindsay are stopping through china at the end of their india trip. we are going to spend the may break together. our plan is to go to yunnan province in southwestern china. getting tickets has proved almost impossible. the air tickets seem to go up exponentially in price day by day. we cannot afford them, so we are going to risk getting train tickets. the problem with purchasing train tickets in china is you cannot purchase tickets departing from any city unless you are in that city. we meet katie and lindsay in macao, and we want to take the train from guangzhou to kunming. we cannot buy tickets departing from guangzhou in wuhan, so we are trying to get a chinese friend of ours who lives in guangzhou to buy them for us. the most challenging part is going to be finding tickets back to wuhan. oh, china. you are so complicated! yet so much fun.

the pretty places in wuhan

2006-04-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

there is always something interesting to see in wuhan, but it isn't always pretty. over the last two weeks, though, i have seen some of the most beautiful parts of wuhan and hubei. yesterday, duff and i went on the spring outing with our students to mulan lake and mountain. i'll get pictures up of that soon. for the last two saturdays, we have gone with amy to see the spring flowers in wuhan. two weeks ago we went to the cherry blossoms at wuhan university. last week we went to the wuhan botanical garden to see the tulips.

wuhan university is the largest university in wuhan. everyone calls it wu da for short. the full name of our school is hu bei gong ye da xue, but we are known as hu gong. much easier. thousands of people come to wu da in the spring to see the cherry blossoms. university students from all over the city come to stand in front of the trees and get their pictures taken. the cherry trees, amy told, us, were brought to the school when it was young (wu da is over 100 years old) by japanese exchange students. the trees are planted all over the camps. it is a beautiful setting. wu da is on the shores of east lake and the buildings are all in the old, traditional chinese style.

i guess amy's 5 year old son, long long, had a good time with us, he wanted us to come on the next weekend's outing, too. he thinks we look really funny. he will sometimes look at duff and just start laughing. duff often teases him and makes faces, but long long laughs at us without the prompts. he loves to take pictures with amy's digital camera, of the flowers, and especially of duff. he also likes to quiz us on our chinese. he will throw out simple vocabulary and we tell him the word in english. amy, amazingly bilingual, keeps track of the points, and who is correct. long long knows a little english, and we quiz him on his vocabulary.

the wuhan botanical garden in a huge area along east lake. i believe amy said it is 1000 acres. the tulips were in bloom, so we went to see them. the whole place is beautiful, and very well labeled. we saw a knot tree, where lovers tie the new branches into knots as a symbol of their love and commitment. the most interesting was the opium exhibit. opium and drug use is still a big problem in china, and i gather from amy, has become much more serious recently. there was a mini-exhibit with gruesome photos about the effects of using opium. sadly, it was in chinese, and i couldn't read it. the pictures were enough, though. they showed arrests, dead movie stars, deformities, babies with opium related problems....and then the pretty flowers. across from the exhibit there was a cage, inside were opium poppies. they haven't bloomed yet. apparently they are legal if you plant fewer than a certain number. lining the cage on either side were the legal poppies. i want to go back when they bloom later in the year. i love poppies, they are my favorite flower.

this weekend duff and i are going with our friend carol to a city in hunan province known as phoenix. i don't know much about it, other than people say it is largely untouched by western influences and from there we can get a glimpse of old china. we are canceling classes on friday and leave thursday night. and we have a sleeper on the train, yes!

congratulations to mark and helen on their engagement!! mark and helen were part of the big group of foreigners we knew last year, and taught at the neighboring university. they are living in olympia, washington, where mark is working on his master's at evergreen. best wishes to them.

we are made of dreams and bones....

2006-03-29T09:06:00.000-08:00

i have been teaching my students to sing 'the garden song' this week. i love doing songs in class, and most of the students have been enjoying it, as well. i had one class on tuesday afternoon clapping along and swaying in their seats. bravo.

the words to the song are:

inch by inch, row by row,
gonna make this garden grow,
all it takes is a rake and a hoe,
and a piece of fertile ground.

inch by inch, row by row,
please bless these seeds i sow,
please warm them from below,
'till the rain comes tumbling down.

pullin' weeds and pickin' stones,
we are made of dreams and bones,
i need a place to call my own,
'cause the time is close at hand.

grain for grain, sun and rain,
find my way in nature's chain,
tune my body and my brain
to the music from the land.

plant your rows straight and long,
temper them with prayer and song,
mother earth will keep you strong
if you give her love and care.

old crow watching hungrily
from his perch in yonder tree,
in my garden i'm as free
as that feathered thief up there.

besides being a fabulous song for spring, the lyrics give me an avenue to discuss some important topics with the students, as well as lyrics and slang. ‘cause, gonna, ‘till, pickin’, and pullin’ captured their attention. we have a river (a moat?) that circles our campus and that of the neighboring university. one of the reasons i wanted to come back to hu gong this year was to organize a volunteer project. in class, and in their journals, they students often mention that they have lots of free time and they don't know what to do with themselves. i know what they do, they go to the net bar, and all forty of them show up to class with no homework.....time management is a big issue here. high school is so strenuous for chinese students. they are often in classes from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm. i thought it was an exaggeration the first time i heard it, too. the students, i believe, barely have time to digest the material, and they are exhausted. college entrance exams are a really big deal, and the students are devastated it they don't do well. hu gong isn't a top university, and i have had so many students cry to me that they wish they had done better on the exam, and they and their families are ashamed that they didn't get into a better school. admissions, as far as i can tell, are primarily based on the exam results. there must be other factors, but none that the students control. they are basically told where they will go to school and what their major will be. when i came here, i thought that sounded almost nice. if you score really well on the english section of the test, you are an english major. there is something to be said for matching people and their skills. i think the logic is, that if you score really well on english, you have obviously been interested enough to learn it so well, and you may enjoy further studying english. the international business students i had last year were not happy with their major. we did an exercise about what career you were interested in. very few of the students were in the proper major. i had one little girl, daisy, tear up. she wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, and now that was impossible, she said. lots of kids wanted to go back to their hometowns and work in the banks, or be OG or OL (office girl, or office lady. i haven't any idea where the term came from, but all the students use it).

okay, i'll get back on track. students in university still have classes 40 hours a week, but i thought, since they claim to have so much free time, we could organize a volunteer project to clean up the river. it desperately needs help. the banks are a wall of trash, and the water stinks. in the summer, every teacher dreads having a class near the river because the smell is so strong. the water doesn't move, and it helps the trillion mosquitoes on the campus thrive. it is so sad to see such a polluted waterway, and what could be such an asset to the campus, a garbage dump. i am afraid of this river. when i dreamed of the project one of my concerns was protecting myself and the volunteers from the toxins. duff and i did resume building with the students last year, and it was so difficult. in china, the only way i know, for sure, you can get jobs is through family connections. i think that is how the majority of job placement works here, but i thought volunteering would be an excellent resume building project. maybe it wouldn't help them with jobs, but it would help them with visa applications to western countries, and...oh, yeah...it is a good thing to do for your campus and the environment.

last year i brought the idea up to a few people, and gave me really odd looks. they weren't great english speakers so i assumed i was communicating my intentions poorly. this year, the weeks after i arrived, i brought it up again to a woman with near perfect english. she laughed so hard, she fell out of her chair. so, my idea is ludicrous. when she finally stopped crying and realized i was serious, she said, why should the students do this? do you have the money to pay them? How will you pay them? and i explained that, no, i wouldn't pay them, it was a volunteer project, and they would do it to beautify the campus and protect the environment. we kept talking, but you know how the conversation ended. i have never posted on this blog about the great strides we have made in cleaning up the river.

i brought my idea up a few days ago, again. the school is getting ready for a huge inspection next year, and the whole campus is getting polished. i said, hey, what's going on with the river? let's clean it up. again, no. but won't the inspectors be appalled? they are planting flowers and trees at an alarming rate (some forest and a nursery in rural hubei must have been completely cleared out and all the trees and flowers moved here), building three new buildings, and painting everything in sight. all the teachers and administrators are working over time. again, no. i was told it is the city's responsibility. and it was clear that it was time to drop it.

i used the song to open a discussion with the students about environmental stewardship. this is not a concept that many people get here. one of the biggest problems i see is trash. it is everywhere. people don't bother to find a trash can, they just drop it on the ground. on our campus, there is a small army of elderly peasants who walk around with tongs picking up discarded bottles, chopsticks and plastic bags. the kids, running to class, all fashionably dressed, with cell phones and mp3 players, run right by the stooped old men and women, without seeming to give them any thought. duff told me a story about a grandmother and a little boy he was walking behind on his way home from school. the little boy had garbage, and there was no trash can around. he looked at his grandma, and she glanced for a trash can, too, and then shook her head. so he tossed the trash on the ground. duff says the two smiled at each other, shrugged, and continued on their way.

largely, my students were unresponsive, but i continued to talk. they know 'nature' as a vocabulary word, which my students last year did not. we talked about 'nature's chain' and how everything is connected in nature, and what happens when you break the chain. i introduced them to the concept of mother earth. take care of the planet and it will take care of you. i used the river, and other lakes around here as an example. if we care for the river, it will give us healthy fish that are good to eat. everyone around here loves to eat fish. the foreigners, largely, refrain, because of the water pollution. we are worried about bioaccumulation. i jumped, i made class exciting, and i drew happy fish, and dead fish, and sewage and trash. i at least got the front row in each class thinking. we talked about paying closer attention (i just learned to say this in chinese, a useful tool) to the land. i think we made some progress.

most of the students loved the songs. the chinese really work together. in an american class, i imagine, i would have had a lot of difficulty getting students their age to sing, but everyone did, even the boys. it was really fun. i did have one class that flat out refused to sing. there were only seven kids in the class, out of 40 (at what point should i cancel class?), and they were too shy. heaven, the ringleader of the class, told me if we did john denver, he would sing, even if he was the only one. deal. he asked for country roads. i also got a request for 'red river valley'.

i love to teach the students songs, and i would love any suggestions any of you may have. we don't have any instruments, just me singing. i have done rounds with them before, and that works well. please, if you have any thoughts for suggestions leave them here. we'll do a lot of songs this spring, i hope.

dinner with the students

2006-03-26T20:07:00.000-08:00

THIS IS DUFFY WRITING, NOT KATE

well, ok, not a real dinner. you know, the kind with food, and at a restaurant, but the kind that students pretend to have in their oral english class. the kind with plastic cups and bowls and disposable chopsticks with paper fork, spoon and knife heads taped on them. and in one group's case, the kind of dinner that involves a large bottle of hennessey.

last week, after explaining the finer points of eating in america, i assigned my students to write and perform a skit about eating at an american restaurant. after giving them vocabulary words such as "valet" and "dessert cart", and explaining etiquette such as standing when a lady leaves the table, i gave the students a week to write a performance. i got better results than i could have ever imagined.

the rules were simple: one person must be a waiter, a chef, a hostess and at least one boy (since some groups were all girls, this turned out to be very interesting). other than this, the students could rearrange the classroom and write the skit however they wanted. here are some of the most memorable results:

-the first group had a party of four all arrive in a fake car, with all of them jogging in place around the edge of the room. the car was "driven" by a boy holding a bright red trash can lid as a steering wheel. upon arrival, he tossed the lid to the valet like a frisbee, along with his keys.

-all nice chinese restaurants have between 2 and 10 people who stand by the door, and when you enter who bow and say in unison: "Welcome to our restaurant!" the students' fake restaurants were no exception. what was interesting is that one group had their hostesses say "welcome to our seafood restaurant", and then had customers order steak, peking duck, and mutton.

-in keeping with the stereotype of chinese restaurants in america being order by number, whenever a customer would order steak or mutton, the waiter would ask "what number would you like?" this was usually followed by "6 or 7". i was never able to figure out what this meant, but it was included in most presentations.

-one group had actually brought a bottle of whiskey so that their presentation would have more realism. given the amount of drinking that takes place at many chinese meals, it shouldn't have been that surprising.

-by far the most interesting part of the presentations was watching the students hold the chairs for the girls. chinese boys are usually very doting on their girlfriends, but for the presentations they had the hardest time remembering to help the girls into their chairs. there was plenty of running back and forth around the tables, and in one case a boy actually sat down first, remembered that he should help his "date", and promptly pushed her chair out from under the table with his foot. the rest of the class found this hysterical.

-the best script came from a group that included a side plot in their skit about a boy and girl on a date. the boy was rude through dinner, and got the busboy fired for spilling something. after dinner the girl said she was tired, and that the boy did not need to give her a ride home. the recently fired busboy left the restaurant at the same time, and offered to buy the girl a drink, which she accpted and they both pretended to hop onto a moped and drive off into the night together.

i know it doesn't seem like much to get excited about, but after so many weeks of students just going through the motions, it was nice to see them put some work into something and actually have it come out well.

joy!! friends come to china

2006-03-24T12:03:00.000-08:00

yay! it is friday! it has been a long week, for no other reason than it has been beautiful and the kids have been dying to get out of class and play outside. the kids are rowdy but everyone is in a great mood. i always smile at people when i walk home from class, and today for the first time, i got everyone to smile back at me! we have a lot of elderly people in our neighborhood, and sometimes they are shy of foreigners. i got two older women to giggle today when i grinned at them, and an old man tipped his hat. have you every noticed, traveling, that the people of some countries smile back at you more than others? when i went to india, everyone was really smiley. i would grin at people and they would always smile back. especially high school aged girls waiting for the bus in their school uniforms. in china, we get far fewer smiles in the city. where we lived last year, we got a lot of stares because we are foreigners, but no one ever smiled back. walking home from work last year, i caught an elderly man on a bicycle off guard. he was so busy staring at me he fell off his bike. luckily, he wasn't hurt, but this kind of thing happens a lot. i was flying a kite last monday, and duff said i almost caused a traffic accident because people were staring. i wasn't even in the street, but got, and held, the attention of two bicyclists, and a motorcyclist. yikes.

and great news: katie and her friend lindsay and coming to china!! they have been traveling in india since last september. they both have blogs that are absolutely amazing. i keep up with their adventures as much as i can. they also have an amazing photo page, well worth a look. if any of you have a chance this weekend, visit their blogs and leave a comment with all the great reasons they should come to china. i know they both love comments. duff and i are terribly excited to have visitors. katie and lindsay will fly into macau from bangkok, and then we will go to yunnan, in southwestern china, for the may break. we have a week. i am looking for flights from guangzhou to kunming. yunnan is supposed to be amazing, with a lot of ethnic minority groups. everyone i have talked with who has visited yunnan says it is the best place they went in china.

katie's blog has been linked for months: whereiskatie.blogspot.com. everything sounds so exciting and exotic the way katie tells it. it will give you the itch to travel. lindsay's blog (indiaorindiana.blogspot.com) is so well written and insightful. an amazing read. their blogs compliment each other well, it is wonderful to read them both to get a good grasp of their experiences. they have just returned to india from a few weeks in sri lanka. i am excited to talk with them about their experience. they mentioned that they hadn't heard much about the civil war. duff and i were only there for a week, but we heard a lot. the tsunami and the war were the two biggest topics of conversation. our second night in ambalangoda, in our guest house, we were chatting with the owners and the tv was on in the background. the news report switched to to footage of explosions in the north. the owners talked passionately night after night about the conflict. i am going that have to address this in a different post, we spoke a lot about the politics, and the feelings of the people, the involvement of the u.s. navy, and the effect of the tsunami on the conflict. we were in an area with lots of billboards and signs with warnings to the tigers. and we were really far away from the north, where the fighting is.

in other news, my friends ariel and eli are off on an amazing trip to europe. you can follow their progress at eliwaite.blogspot.com. ariel's mother and youngest brother, dylan, have been living in edinburgh, scotland for the year. dylan is going to the waldorf school, i believe, and getting scary good at the fiddle, so i hear. i can't wait to hear him play when they get back to seattle. ariel and eli will travel in ireland and scotland, and then tour eastern europe.

oh, and a tree update: they are all dead, or at least really pathetic looking. they have been pruned to death by the workers. i hope they recover. the chinese tend to mess with their trees a lot. they are always wrapping them in ropes, painting the bottoms white, and transplanting them. some of the big trees only have a dozen leaves left, and they were really lush.

we are going to have salty cauliflower and fish-flavored egg plant for lunch.

tree mania

2006-03-20T11:45:00.000-08:00

overnight our campus has become a green space. things change just as quickly inside the gates of our school as they do outside. on saturday night, duff and i were in a cab, coming home from our friend lindsey's. we got back by the new-b, a bar we frequented last year, now closed, and discovered a road, on which we have traveled for the past year and a half, is gone. it surprised the taxi driver, it really surprised us. a whole road, gone. we had no idea how to get home, but the cabby retraced our steps and managed to figure it out. it was too dark to see what new thing was taking up the space that was our road, but i bet it is another high-rise apartment building. we were on that road not two weeks ago when we went to the post office to get duff's bodhran!

our school is getting ready for some kind of inspection next year. i have talked with administrators and office workers about it, but i don't have a good understanding of exactly what it is. i understand the national government is checking out the school, and it is a BIG deal. it is probably related to funding, but everyone is in a tizzy. as a result, construction and campus beautification has gone into over-drive. we already have two huge buildings going up. it is often necessary to yell over the sounds of heavy construction in class. luckily, by my apartment, there isn't any building. i can year pile drivers in the distance, but i live in relative peace. i even saw a bird today.

in the last two weeks, the hospital and post office have disappeared. gone. probably a lot more on this campus has vanished, but if it isn't on my usual route it escapes my notice. in the teacher's residential area, the vegetable market is being upgraded. stalls have been built for the fruit vendors (who normally have shanties and tents, with tarps strung to protect against the rain and the wind). some of these stalls will be small restaurants. i was looking at the diorama of the campus plan the other day, and trying to orient myself using familiar buildings was impossible. in the diormam's future depiction of our school the food street where we eat every day is gone. i suspect if these people are able to keep their businesses, they will move to the teacher's residential area into the new stalls. the new campus plan includes parking lots, too. this is really amazing. i have seen parking only a few times in china. i know of only one place in wuhan with street-side parking meters.

so many buildings and small structures have vanished over the last few weeks, but if you didn't live here, you may not notice because of the mind-boggling number of trees that have been planted in the last week. and these aren't saplings, the trees are 20 feet tall, or a little more. on our walk to school, a forest has grown overnight. perhaps 60 trees have been planted. the tallest of these is almost 20 feet tall, but most are 1/2 that size. i never noticed the area before they cleared in and started trucking in soil. i thought they were getting the ground ready for a new building, but no.... i waited a day and there were trees!! in another spot, huge trees have been planted on both sides of a street, turning an ugly pot-holed stretch of road into a lovely, green, avenue. there are 25 trees in this spot. planted sometime between thursday afternoon when i walked home from class and friday night when we went out.

when i came to china the first time with huxley i remember hearing something about the people and mandatory tree planting. i have remembered this tidbit of information from time to time, but i have never asked any one about it. in beijing, the whole area has neat rows of newly planted trees. beijing has some serious air quality issues, and the trees help a lot. also, the 2008 olympics are supposed to be the green olympics, and they are trying to present an environmentally conscious olympics and beijing to match. beijing, historically, has trouble with air quality. the winds and weather come from the northwest, from siberia, across mongolia, and inner mongolia. these areas are naturally very dusty and dry. the winds pick up sand from the gobi desert, and in the dry conditions, beijing can suffer. i remember looking at a diagram of how people can tape up their windows and doors to protect themselves in a dust storm. it is hard to imagine this happening in beijing, but last year in ulan baator, mongolia, we experienced a dust storm and i can see how serious these storms can be. beijing's air quality issues are not wholly natural, smog from cars and industry contribute greatly, i just wanted to point out the natural conditions. the air quality in beijing has come a long way. i believe i notice and improvement every time i visit. perhaps this is just relative to wuhan, though.

so, yay, now we have a lot of trees on campus. i love this, it makes every so green and beautiful, and it will be great this summer to keep cool. last year, kellee and i would walk from our office to the food alley to get lunch, darting from one shady patch to the next. the trees will make a great difference.

duff and i have a fun and relaxing weekend. on friday night we went to a party at our friend bill's. i still have no idea where he lives because we experienced the densest fog ever. the taxi never drove faster than 25 mph. we couldn't see the lines on the road, students and pedestrians would pop out of the gloom right on the front bumper of the car. it was bad going to bill's and still worse leaving. it took us forever to get home, and duff and i were so turned around, we were almost at our front gate before we figured out where we were. duff got some amazing pictures of the fog, i'll post them someday.

our friend lindsey's mother is here from corinth, mississippi. we have had dinner with them the last two nights. and lindsey's boyfriend, harrish. after drunk river moon last night, we went bowling. i have included a picture of duff from a few weeks ago, boasting 5 strikes in a row. i don't ever do nearly as well, but i have gotten 3 strikes in a row before! we don't bowl nearly as much this year as we did last year, now it is like a special treat.

i must plan my lessons for the week. i tried to teach the students 'simon says' under the guise of listening and responding to commands, but they fail to care. i thought something active and fun would capture their interest, but i was wrong. i try simple commands, such as 'stand up', and 'sit down', and 'touch your knee'...and i am met with blank stares. we have worked on the vocabulary for a while, so i know that isn't the issue. i have had simon says work very well with other students, last year it was my class' favorite game. not so with these kids. ah, well, if they don't want to do anything more exciting we'll work on listening comprehension. fun.

shawn and jazmine

2006-03-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

meet baby shawn. a few days ago i got new pictures of my niece and new nephew from my sister. baby shawn has really dark eyes. perhaps it is just the pictures, but they look really dark. and pretty. baby shawn is about three weeks old now.

it sounds like everything is going well for alison and her family in sand diego. her husband, ken, who is in the navy, is getting ready to go out to sea for a number of months. a very busy time for alison is on the horizon. my mom will go and spend some time in california to help out. jazmine's hair isn't sticking straight up anymore. i am glad i was able to see her dandelion look when i was home, it was terribly cute.

our day to day lives in wuhan have been very busy for the last few weeks. we have put a lot of time into our classes and teaching, so there isn't a lot of exciting news to report. many of the students are preparing for an english speech competition. i don't know what this means for the rest of the foreign teachers, but for me it means that i am stalked by eager students who want me to edit their speeches. when i am through with that, they will pull out a digital recorder and ask me to read it while they record. then, i can only imagine, the will hole up in their dorm rooms and listen to my voice over and over and study my inflection. speaking in just the manner of a native speaker is a big deal here. when i am working with my friend amy on her english she is always asking me to read passages aloud, and will copy my inflection. she thinks i read very beautifully, like a story teller. this must be related to how the chinese recite poetry, and how important it is to say some words quickly and drag others out. there is a lot that goes into speaking chinese with the proper inflection, never mind the tones.

duff and i haven't had a chinese lesson in many days. amy works in the admissions office and they are giving an exam to over 1000 students this afternoon. our classes are cancelled (yay!!) because of it. the friday afternoon class is always the most difficult. amy works very hard at her job and it is common for her to put in 12 hour days, or more, when she has a big project coming to a close. in addition, business meetings, business trips, and banquets are an important part of the chinese working environment, and her presence is required at many of these. when amy is finished giving the exam this afternoon, she must then go to a hotel (as best i understand. she said resort, i thought she was getting a vacation) where she will remain for the rest of the weekend marking papers. i would go mad. i ran into her while she was running to her office this morning. she said that she is so excited to give us our lesson next monday...it is a type of relaxation to her. yes, this is a woman who works so hard that teaching a 2 hour class twice a week, in heels, to two inquisitive foreigners who interrupt every time they have a question, is relaxation. we love having her for our teacher. she is most excellent. she is such a great teacher, though, i can see how our lessons are relaxing. it is a lot of fun to do something you are really and truly good at.

this weekend duff and i were going to try to go out of town, but the weather is not so good. we have had wild weather fluctuations for the past two weeks. it snowed, and then it was hot and sunny, and now it is cold and rainy again. washington weather. ireland weather. i love it. tonight, for st. patrick's day, we will go to a party at our friend bill's. this is the first year in many that i won't play any gig for st. patrick's day. just me, playing tunes in my apartment. if my hands don't freeze to the finger board due to the lack of heat. still, i'd much rather have this weather than the suffocating heat we will have in a few weeks.

happy st. patrick's day!

the last great race on earth

2006-03-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

it is march, and so it is time for the iditarod! if you want to follow the race, as i have, they have a lovely website to help: www.iditarod.com. i have long been fascinated by the race, and still want to run it. i caught myself, once last year, telling my class in an introduction that my current job was a teacher, but my dream job was dog sled racer (i decided not to get into musher vocabulary). a team and sled are still on my list of things that i want, along with a kitchen aid mixer, and a library (with spiral staircase and fireplace).

the mushers are about 1/2 way through the race now. i have a reputation for not being much of a sports fan, but what people don't realize is that i am a passionate sports fan! but the sport i follow takes place once a year, in the snow and over the mountains from anchorage to nome, and it only lasts 10 days to two weeks. i could go on about the iditarod and dog sled racing for days, but i'll let you follow the link if you are interested.

back to china, now. this morning, while walking to the breakfast alley, i encountered cherry and her posse. cherry is a little girl who lives in the next apartment building. she is probably 7 or 8 years old. she always has 4 other little girls following her around. she is the leader of the pack, and they run, playing, all over our little neighborhood. cherry, when she sees us, waves, and yells, "HELLO, MY NAME IS CHERRY!! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" ...and the runs away screaming, and the whole pack follows her, shrieking. she has been doing this for months. last week, on friday afternoon, she found my classroom, and peeks her head in the door. "hello, my name is cherry! what's your name?" ...and again, runs screaming down the hall. after i got out of class, she was sitting in the grassy-type area in front of the library with her posse. i waved, and she, again, greets me. this time, as often happens, her posse repeats her, or they just jump up and down saying "cherry, cherry!"

whenever we see cherry, we answer her question, but it never sticks. i am not sure if it is because she only knows the question and doesn't know how to listen for the response, or if she's just to busy laughing hysterically because she has spoken to the foreigners. the other little girls are younger and haven't started their english classes yet.

this morning, though, we had a break through. i responded as always, at times i've tried bits and pieces of the general message, "hi, cherry. my name is kate, it is nice to meet you." the little girls all giggled and i continued on my way. walking back to my apartment the girls were still standing in the street. cherry ran up, and so i braced myself for the usual barrage. instead i get, "hello kay-a!"...and then she ran away screaming. i praised her, and tried to talk to her a little more, but she was laughing and running in circles. good job, cherry!

how fun to be a kid.

international women's day

2006-03-08T22:23:00.000-08:00

happy international women's day! this is my second fu nu jie in china. international women's day is celebrated as a mini-holiday in china. most women get a half day off work, some get the whole day off. people celebrate with their friends and family. i was supposed to have an english lesson tonight with amy, my chinese teacher, but she is celebrating with the women in her life. except for me. duff and i were instructed to go out for dinner. we see amy three nights a week for chinese and english language classes, we welcomed the chance to have a late dinner.

the students celebrate with cakes and flowers, and i almost wonder if it isn't like another valentine's day for the girls. international women's day was first celebrated as national women's day in america in 1909, and then spread to europe. it wasn't always on march 8th. lenin made march 8th a holiday in russia, to celebrate the 'heroic woman worker'. in 1975, the u.n. started to sponsor international women's day. now, i believe it is mostly celebrated in developing countries. it was, i am sad to say, completely off my radar while in america. in china, the surrounding days are filled with workshops, speeches, dinners, and exhibits.

the evolution of women's rights in china is closely linked with that of the communist party. the communist party has campaigned for greater rights and equality for women since it was first founded in shanghai in 1912. duff tells me his writing students from last year would often write: 'chairman mao has said: let women hold up half the sky.' in 1949 women were granted sufferage, and polygamy was outlawed. women, from this time, were supposed to have free choices as far as marriage and to have equality in their political, economic, cultural, educational and social life. women's rights have come a long way. experiencing modern day china, i can hardly imagine it is the same country as the one i read about in 'wild swans,' by jung chang (an excellent book that follows a family from 1890s in northen china to the modern day), where marriages were arranged, and the women's feet were bound.

the united nations and international women's day use march 8 to remind and promote awareness of women's rights issues worldwide. i pulled the below off a u.n. web page, i closed it though, and lost the link. sorry.

Some of the issues the U.N. and International Women's Day have focused on include the following:

* About 25,000 brides are burned to death each year in India because of insufficient dowries. The groom's family will set the bride on fire, presenting it as an accident or suicide. The groom is then free to remarry.
* In a number of countries, women who have been raped are sometimes killed by their own families to preserve the family's honor. Honor killings have been reported in Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other Persian Gulf countries.
* According to the World Health Organization, 85 million to 115 million girls and women have undergone some form of female genital mutilation. Today, this practice is carried out in 28 African countries, despite the fact that it is outlawed in a number of these nations.
* Rape as a weapon of war has been used in Chiapas, Mexico, Rwanda, Kuwait, Haiti, Colombia, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere.

yikes. i have more comments about what i have observed in china, but i will wait to share those, and i have lessons to plan. i'll close with the words of james oppenheim's poem, 'bread and roses'. i fondly remember singing this song in girl scouts.

Bread and Roses. Words by James Oppenheim, music by Caroline Kohlsaat.

As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: "Bread and roses! Bread and roses!"

As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for -- but we fight for roses, too!

As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler -- ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!

rapidly changing wuhan

2006-03-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

one of the most pleasant weekends i have ever spent in wuhan has come to a close. i am sad, but i look forward to more like it. after four inches of snow a week ago, the weather is now sunny and in the mid-70s every day. this is wuhan's very brief spring. i can't remember when summer set in last year, but it was brutal. sun, humidity, smog, and temperatures over 100 degrees every day. fellow wuhan dwellers: enjoy spring while you can. in a few months we will be dragging home from class, dripping, and panting to lie under the air conditioner until it is once again time to leave.

duff and i took advantage of the excellent weather to explore more of our surroundings on foot. friday night arrived with most of our friends out of town. we decided not to venture into town and took off in search of a restaurant. last year, i taught at the same school as i do now, but i did not live on campus. five of us came with a group out of olympia, washington, that was placing teachers in wuhan. duff, nick, jon, brain, and i lived in a house in the red light district right by wuchang's long distance bus station. reflections of that experience could fill a book. i took a taxi to work every day. when i first started the year the smog was so bad i wasn't entirely sure what we were driving through. when the cloud lifted for a brief time in the fall, it was clear that i was driving through a war zone. or, at least, that is what it looked like. all year i watched an area turn from agricultural fields to construction tents. there were no roads in many places. the city had paved a grid of roads before they started to develop the area, but with the heavy construction trucks, they were constantly torn up. we passed through pot holes bigger than the taxi i was riding in. as long as the taxi, but sometime they were deeper than the taxi was tall. always an exciting jarring ride to wake you up in the morning, in lieu of coffee.

china's development is amazing. i am often amazed here how quickly the landmarks i use to orient myself disappear. things change here very fast. the area i drove through on the way to school is being developed into upper-income high-rise apartments. last summer, when we left, the skeletons of buildings were up. friday was the first time i returned to the area, it is not on my normal route. duff and i walked two hours in search of a restaurant called the 'shrimp king' i would pass last year on my way to school. we found the restaurant, one of the first in the area. we had a really enjoyable dinner of shrimp and rice. they gave us a pot filled with about 50 shrimp (heads, creepy legs, and all), with a wonderful sauce. The meal took forever because we had to peel them all, but it was so much fun. duff removed the heads, and then i would go at it. even though mom, dad, and i got a taste of shrimping while in south carolina last summer, i still have no love for pulling off the head of a shrimp.

the area with the restaurant had completely changed. surrounding us were high-rise apartment buildings 30 and 40 stories tall. most of them were yet uninhabited, but it will not be long until they are filled. the street level is full of shops, all fit into little nooks. walking in, we passed these shops and small restaurants. since the apartments are uninhabited, the restaurants were filled with camouflage-clad construction workers and their families. the stores didn't sell a lot of groceries, mostly alcohol and cigarettes. people migrate in from the countryside to work on these huge construction projects. their families come along, and for the year or more that it takes to finish, they live in a camp of tarps and tents, or in the unfinished buildings. last year, i could see the buildings going up, but already there would be cots, and sheets hung as walls, and laundry everywhere. when the high-rise residents move in, some of these people will stay on other unfinished construction sites nearby, but many will move on to the next big project, further south or west, as wuhan expands into the countryside.

the rapid pace of china's development is so often discussed. china's economic growth has averaged 10% a year for the past decade. when i visited china with huxley college in 2004, every meeting we attended touched on the topic. i'll never forget standing at the top of the oriental pearl tower in shanghai. there are sky scrapers and high rises as far as you can see. the huang pu river has the most boat and barge traffic i have ever laid eyes on. also, the largest ships i have ever seen. i remember hearing an estimate, and i cannot account for my source, that asia has 80% of the world's construction cranes, and 80% of those are in china. i have also heard that shanghai has 20% of the world's cranes. wow. wuhan is developing rapidly as well. i can think of 8 cranes just on our campus. and then there is the campus next to us, and the new high-rise developments, and the new bridge.... more and more. i can't even remember the last crane i saw in america.

china is huge, and it is just getting bigger. there are more than 200 cities with over million people. on saturday, duff and i took another walk, and visited what will be urbanized wuhan in another 2 or 3 years. our university is on the city fringe, so walking 30 minutes, we are out in small villages and agricultural fields. there are one lane roads, and carts, and rice paddies and orchards connected with dirt paths. take a bus from our campus in the other direction, and you couldn't be in a more urban area. not where we decided to spend our saturday walking. we crossed over railroad tracks on our walk, and we could have been 100 miles or more from the city. in places, the transformation from city to countryside can be pretty abrupt. already, there is a lot of development in this area, but not urban development. in the little village-like settlements we passed through, farmers are building nicer houses. where they used to live in a small, one or two room, one-story brick houses, they are now building a two-story structure. instead of one layer of bare brick, the houses have brick, tile on the outside, and dry wall within. money is creeping into these once remote communities. we were walking through the area that provides our campus with food. people here still do all their farm work by hand. the xiao bai cai we eat (chinese cabbage, but similar to spinach) is picked by hand, placed into a huge basket, carried to the road, loaded onto a cart (probably pulled by a motorbike, or bicycle) and eventually winds its way to our vegetable market. we have some pictures, and a lot more exploring to do in wuhan's hinterland.

after our dusty walk, we continued our weekend by dining with our friend lindsey and her boyfriend harrish. harrish is from mauritius and is a wonderful cook. he also had another friend there from mauritius, his country-mate, but i never mastered the boy's name well enough to repeat it here. harrish made a green curry and a yellow curry with fabulous salads (with tuna!), and fresh cucumbers, and pineapple for dessert. thank you, harrish! his food is amazing, and a great break from our daily fare. duff and i are going to have a dinner party for our friends in wuhan. we brought spices back from india, rather than souvenirs for everyone. duff and i are about to start experimenting with indian cooking, but harrish is going to help us preparing our feast. i can't wait.

sunday was a continuation of the best weekend ever. i sat on my balcony in the sun all day, reading, and catching up on school work for my 10 classes. for dinner we went to hot pot with a katrina, our wickedly clever chinese friend, and two canadian teachers from our school. now, all i have to do is figure out what lesson i am going to teach this week.

bodhran joy

2006-03-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

for a week now, duff and i have been playing with the greatest thing ever. duff's uncle denny and aunt barb have sent him a bodhran from ireland. it is a beautiful drum, from malachy kearns, and it sounds great. it has been so much fun to have it, and duff is getting good, fast. last friday we got a text message, in chinese, on the cell phone, and were able to determine that there was a package waiting for one of us at the wuchang train station post office. we sent it to a chinese friend, who confirmed what we suspected. this means that it has been a week since our first, functional, and practical reading of chinese. how exciting. the office worker who helps us was going to the post office on monday, but we couldn't wait. we took the bus and ventured back into the deep, dark, places of a chinese post office to retieve the package. the box said 'the bodhran: the pulse of irish music.' i love that. i have no idea what the post office people must think of us. between the two of us, this year we have gotten mail from ireland, india, france, and the u.s.. and a lot of it. it doesn't seem like they'd notice, but we are foreigners, so i know they do. i can't imagine that there is a huge volume of post from county galway, ireland, to wuhan, china. irish music is popular in japan, but, to my knowledge, it hasn't taken off in china. i haven't found anyone to play with here. wuhan is a huge city! there has to be someone else other than me (an now duff) who plays.

duff is an extremely quick study. the drum came with three tippers, or beaters, and he's getting a feel for all three. we have been working a little every day. we have been working on jigs. most of the tunes i have on my computer are far too fast for him to accompany. i couldn't keep up with the music playing bodhran, and we haven't attempted him accompanying me while i play fiddle, so i sing. i have been lilting, trying not to run out of breath, while he practices keeping the rhythm. i bet by the end of the weekend, i'll have the fiddle out and we'll be playing jig after jig after jig.

spring is the perfect time to learn a new instrument. we can play outside in the park across from the foreign teachers' residence building. when katie, and blayne and lindsay (hopefully!) come in may, we can all have a session together. blayne has how many instruments, now? traveling india and sri lanka with a mandolin, a sitar, and a drum! yay, fun. we'll have to try our luck busking in town. perhaps two foreigners playing irish music will attract a few kuai dropped into our hat.

throwing snow with the students.

2006-03-02T20:07:00.002-08:00

so i am a little late with this announcement, it's been a busy week. today is friday, and sunny, and in the mid-50s, but on monday and tuesday...it snowed! i have no classes on monday, and duff and i went into town for lunch after duff's morning classes. it was raining, but by the time we left mcdonald's (yes, i just had to go), it was snowing! i have seen snow a few times in wuahn, and i am always amazed at how large the snowflakes are. we decided not to linger in town and went home and curled up in my apartment and made hot chocolate. when i fell asleep, it was still snowing, and it had accumulated. i fully expected it to be gone by morning. however, when i woke up for my 8:00 class on tuesday, it was still snowing, and we had about four inches.

wuhan rarely gets snow, and it is neat to see everyone so excited. the streets were clear, it really wasn't that cold, but i missed many of the usual morning faces as i went off to the breakfast alley. there are usually a group of women set up to sign shoes, a tea vendor, and a key cutter. gone. a lot of the fruit tents hadn't opened yet, but the breakfast alley crew was there in full force. all of the vendors had rigged big umbrellas to protect from the snow, and steam from their cooking poured into the air. i wish i'd had the camera out, but i was almost late for class. class took longer than normal to get to, shuffling carefully through the snow. the students were gleeful, and there were plenty of snow balls being tossed around. my attendance in class was far better than i had anticipated, and i managed to hold the student’s attention. at least, until i got distracted staring out the window at the falling snow. from the classroom window we could see two girls building a snow man and a big group of boys rolling a huge snowball. it must have been 4 feet tall. when it got to the curb, they all climbed on top, two-by-two, and took pictures with their cell phones. comical, every boy had an umbrella.

i taught 8 hours on tuesday, and by the end of the day most of the snow was trampled. when i got to my last class the kids were really excited. one of the girls, lesley, and some of the boys were pegging each other with snow balls. i taught class, 8 kids (out of 40) were present. we have a break half way through class and one of the students, heaven, asked me to come outside and 'throw snow and take picture.' okay. i was game for a little 'throw snow.' we had a blast. the snow was soft, wet, and great for packing. all the students in class played. my aim isn't really good, but i got a couple good shots in. the kids were not shy at all about pelting me. people were really considerate about hitting in the face. it was sweet. they would wait until the person had turned around and smack them in the back of the head :) heaven proved to be least angelic of all the students, an aggressive snow fighter. we hadn't any gloves, and our hands were bright red and stiff when the bell rang calling us back to class. we continued the fight, however. all of us brought at least two snow balls back to class. i placed mine on the podium and started class again. in china, there is no heat in the classrooms, and the windows don't really shut anyway, so no one removed their coats and hats. the students paid rapt attention, were diligent in their pronunciation exercises, and occasionally tossed a snowball at one of their classmates, or me. i got the three boys in the front row (i have no idea how) with one of my snowballs. i dodged another and it smacked into the board, eventually melting and washing away a few lines of the dialogue we had been practicing. we had a wonderful class, and i think it sets a good mood for how active i wish the class to be. when we were outside throwing snow, the kids were using an odd mixture of chinese and english. they definitely had "look out!" mastered by the end of our 10 minutes. now, if i can only get attendance to improve.

perhaps the only creatures upset by the snow were the chickens who roam and forage all over campus. i passed a large group of them on the way home, pecking in the snow. i saw one extremely disgruntled chicken who hoped onto the sidewalk, wings flapping, and squawking, stamping its feet to get the snow off of them.

the snow had all melted by wednesday morning, and i think spring is here. it is great to have the sun, and i have done a lot of laundry. we even have blue sky, if you look straight up and not straight ahead.

the picture below is of the snow in the teacher's residential area. we live in a building similar to these, but a lot older. all of the teachers, and their families, have apartments here. i think some teachers are allowed to live off campus, but if you are unmarried you must live in the south campus. everyone one we know lives on campus.

welcome baby!

2006-02-27T06:03:00.000-08:00

i have a new nephew. my sister alison and her husband had a new baby a few days ago. he was born at 4:07 am, pst, on 25 february 2006. ken and alison have named him shawn timothy marshall. he weighed in at 8 pounds, and is 20 inches long, so i am told. i haven't seen a picture yet, but i will be sure to share when i do.

so, jazmine has a new baby brother. here's her picture. i took this last october when i was home and alison and jazmine visited cincinnati. i think she has pumpkin all over her face, or perhaps it is carrot. either way, she is a terribly cute little girl, and very pleasant to be around. i look forward to getting to know her a lot better when i am not several thousand miles away. yes, this is one of the difficult things about living in china.

congratulations alison, ken and jazmine!

a very belated account of kate and duffy's time in mysore

2006-02-25T21:15:00.000-08:00

We were in Mysore from Friday, January 27th until Sunday, January 29th. The bus from Ooty to Mysore was fascinating. After numerous switchbacks and several very sharp turns, near head-on collisions, and more than one occasion where the bus had to back up to avoid on-coming buses, we were out of the mountains and into much more level terrain. While dangerous, the mountain roads were also very interesting. We were able to get another look at the endless rubber and teak plantations, hillside, terraced farming, and large tracts of land that were, for some reason, being burned. Irrigation in the hills near Ooty is unique. Instead of sprinklers, teams of men using a fire hose were common sights from the bus windows.

The “road” to Mysore amounted to 2 tire tracks in several places and many times road work was symbolized not by bright orange and white barricades, but by a simple pile of boulders making that section of the road impassable. Luckily, our trip went through several wildlife refuges, so we were able to see elephants, peacocks, monkeys, wild boars fighting with monkeys, and deer. After sunset, however, the road became more boring than interesting, with the exception of the nearly constant stream of carts pulled by teams of oxen. We arrived in Mysore at around 8:00 pm, took an auto rickshaw directly to a hotel with much needed hot showers, room service and an excellent restaurant that would become like a second home for the next 2 days.

Mysore’s basic attractions are a large, relatively new palace, large market area, and cathedral. We decided that our first stop would be the palace. The amba vilas palace was built in 1897 for the wodeyar monarchs. The palace grounds are large and open, with several parks, plazas, and temples. The main building is a massive series of reception halls and throne rooms, each lined with paintings, floors of marble, and massive stained glass ceilings and windows. Every surface is covered in bright blue, red, green, and gold paint. One of the more interesting features of the palace grounds is that visitors need to remove their shoes. Since there are hundreds of visitors at any one time, the check room for shoes is one of the more unique and chaotic scenes I’ve ever witnessed. The grounds are also home to two elephants and two camels. And what could be better than riding an elephant around the former maharaja’s palace? The ride was only about 10 minutes, but it was a lot of fun. Somehow, elephants are even bigger than you imagine them to be.

After several hours of wandering the palace, and a delicious pizza lunch, we headed to the north side of town to visit the cathedral. As we headed towards the cathedral, we noticed more and more women in Islamic dress, mosques, and other signs of a Muslim community. We were nearly convinced that we were lost, when suddenly two massive spires appeared in front of us. It turned out that the cathedral was right in the middle of a predominately Muslim area. Another encouraging sign of India’s diversity.

The church was the most tourist-oriented one I have ever seen. There was a brief synopsis of the Catholic faith on the inside front wall, and placards to explain each aspect of a cathedral were placed all over. There were several large shrines and a grotto outside, but the most interesting sign was a two-part history of the world according to the Bible, from Genesis to some future time labeled “Eternity”. It was interesting to see the entirety of Christian past, present, and future neatly arranged on two flowcharts. We left the cathedral shortly before sunset since we had a long walk back and Kate had recently notice several wasp nests a few yards long near the tops of the stained glass windows.

The next day, we headed into the market. I’m not sure what your vision of India is, but mine involves lots of smells from different spices, incense, and flowers, endless rows of stalls selling fruits, nuts, beads, and basically anything else people try to trade, and, of course, elephants. A very Marco Polo-type vision, and we found it in the Mysore market. As soon as we entered the market, we walked past an endless corridor of onions, bananas, and oranges on one side and row after row of vendors selling powder that could be mixed into paint on the other. After wandering around for about 10 minutes with our jaws on the ground and our eyes wide open, a young man began to talk to Kate and next thing we knew, we were at his incense and oil stall. He claimed that he had handmade incense sticks and we, being the shrewd customers we are, were immediately skeptical. He seemed to sense this and told us to come behind the counter where he proceed to sit down at a cutting board and make incense by mixing a paste of gum wood and water, rolling it out, wrapping it around a stick, and sprinkling it with essential oil mixed with colored dust. Needless to say, we were impressed. We bought a few bottles of scented oil each, figuring that in Wuhan, we would need all the good smells we could get, and were about to leave when the salesman thanked us and started handing us about 100 free incense sticks. We also proceeded to buy cinnamon, cloves, curry, masala mix, and a few other spices. It was one of the most memorable mornings of our time in India.

After lunch we headed outside the city to one of the “7 most scared hills in Southern India.” As we’ve said, southern India has a lot of hills, so we thought this one must be pretty impressive to be ranked that high. The view of Mysore was impressive, and reminded us of the fact that while India doesn’t have high rises, it still has a lot of residents. From the top of the hill, all we could see in every direction was city. Our fascination with the view was quickly ended, however, by a passing group of monkeys. A monkey that is 10 feet away is usually much better at holding attention than a landscape.

That night we left Mysore, but not before heading over to the palace one more time. Our friend at the fragrance shop had informed us that at 7:00 that night, all the lights at the palace would be turned on. This interested us greatly, because we had noticed the day before that the palace had more light bulbs than a mid-sized airport. Just before getting on the bus to Hospet, we lugged our packs to the palace just in time. At 7:01, the entire palace started to glow. It was amazing. The grounds around the palace were basically cast in daylight. With that encouraging sight, we shouldered our packs and headed to the bus station for another tooth-shattering night on the road.

have we discussed the brilliance that is hot pot?

2006-02-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

last night's hot pot feast. l to r. meghan, jennifer, jessica, sandrine, brad, lindsey, duff, amy (completely hidden by the fu wu yuan), the fu wu yuan (waitress), erin, and everett.

for me, one of the definite highlights of china is hot pot. in chinese, it is fire pot. i had hot pot my second meal in china when i came on the sustainable transportation study tour with huxley college my senior year at western. we visited the great wall, brilliant, but cold, windy and polluted, and then pulled into a small town for lunch. around a large circular table, we each had a personal pot, there was a cylinder in the middle filled with burning charcoal, and a moat of broth around the outside. you cook your own food in the broth, and immediately i was hooked. perhaps it is not the best meal if you aren't used to using chopsticks (it can be quite challenging, and that may detract from the pleasure), but it was fun for a group of university kids to struggle with our food.

after that first meal, it was a long time until i had hot pot again. a few weeks after i arrived to teach, our chinese friend nicole took us to a hot pot dinner. months later, duff and i had a crazy hot pot experience in harbin. we had a book that my chinese teacher made me with different foods, written in chinese, and english with pictures. as we were flipping through it, the waitress though we wanted EVERYTHING in the book, and the two of us wound up with a ridiculous amount of food. the whole restaurant cheered duff to the finish line. i really didn't get hooked, though, until we went to visit nicole in her home town. in a hot pot, there is boiling broth that can be seasoned with no spice up to extreme spice. a variety of raw food is put into the pot, and when it is ready, you grab it with your chopsticks. then, you can dip it in a variety of sauces (my favorite being a sesame butter, zhi ma jiang, or garlic and oil), let it cool for a moment, and eat it. delicious. the best part about hot pot is the frozen sliced lamb. we went to lunch with nicole at her friend's house. they had known each other from high school. duff and i sat down to a hot pot lunch with the two girls and the friend's parents at their home. we had some spinach, and a garbage bag full of lamb. i am not kidding. next to the father there was a plastic bag three feet tall filled with frozen, shaved lamb. the father, who didn't speak english, would grab huge chop stick fulls in put it in the pot. and there was never ending sesame sauce. the best hot pot i have ever had.

we enjoyed hot pot so much, duff and i begged nicole to take us again. she introduced us to a fancy chain of restaurants by the name of guo jia guo. this means pot inside pot. there are two pots, set into the table over a burner. the outer ring is spicy, and the inner in just broth. fortunately duff and i have a great group of friends, most of whom enjoy hot pot as much as we do. last night, we had a feast. it is always fun to go with a big group of people because of the variety of food we can get. these include lamb, beef, tofu, crab, shrimp dumplings, rice sticks, mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, potato, braided bread sticks, tofu noodles, hot pot noodles, spinach, cabbage, bean sprouts, and probably a half dozen other things i am forgetting. it is amazing. there are also other choices on the menu: brains, hearts, pig's blood, and the like, but as we don't know how to order them....we are pretty safe. one time, lindsey, jennifer and i went to hot pot and the table next to us had a cut up eel served to them which was still flopping. flopping a lot. and the couple who was dining took a while to drop it in the pot, and it just kept flopping. there is also a dog hot pot, that i am excited to try (i have to do it soon, the chinese eat dog mostly in winter to keep warm), it is a little more expensive. and i want to make sure it is shaved, or something. eating dog meat off the bone is a little too out there for me.

come to china, we'll take you to hot pot. it is fabulous. jennifer and jessica, i believe, say they will open a hot pot restaurant in america, and when they do, i'll be there far too often. i love hot pot.

first day back to work

2006-02-21T01:29:00.000-08:00

i have just finished my first day of my last semester of my last year teaching in china. i am teaching 16 hours each week this semester, it will be the fewest hours i have ever worked in one semester. gladly, i am back to teaching listening and speaking. i have taught a large variety of courses in china. these include oral english, newspaper reading and writing, the society and culture of major english speaking counties, reading and writing, and listening and speaking. i love listening and speaking. it can be a very exciting and active class, especially with the right group of kids. i also like it because more than the other courses, i am able to get to know the students personally.

each class that i am working with has 40 students. i see 8 of these classes a week. on the one hand, it is good, i only have to write one lesson plan. on the other hand, i have to teach the same lesson plan 8 times. i taught the same lesson plan four times last semester and was bored. i wonder how i will do with this. each class is an hour and a half long. we start on the hour and work for 45 minutes. the students then get a 10 minute break (when total pandemonium normally takes over my classroom), and then i attempt to control them for another 45 minutes. often, because the break can be so disruptive, i work them for an hour and a half and let them go. i think they like it better, and i do too.

the students all have english names. after having been this long in china, i wouldn't have any difficulty with their chinese names, but for a new foreign teacher, it would be extremely difficult. most of the names are pretty average, but there are those who stick out. i have a student named firewolf. he's a great kid. i have kids named rain, sky, write, flick, heaven, and robot. a lot of boys pick the names of sports figures. i have a beckham and an iverson in every class. sometimes they have a little difficulty with which names are for girls and which are for boys. of the eight classes i have, i taught four of them last semester in reading and writing. duff taught the other four classes. now, i have everyone for listening and speaking and he has taken over all of the reading and writing. all of last semester, duff and i compared our classes. the consensus was that my students all came to class and then misbehaved (riotously) and none of his came, but those who did were well behaved and did their work. i am curious to see if this is true, and if it changes this semester. i have only taught two classes so far. duff's students (12 out of 40 showed up) were so quiet!! i couldn't get them to interact with me at all. the kids who i had last semester (38 out of 40 showed up) were boisterous and talkative. i have about half of my classes now in media rooms. this is great for listening and speaking. i took in a slide show for the first day with pictures from our trip. i told them about what we saw in sri lanka, they remembered the tsunami. i showed them some of the more amazing pictures from india. the one of us on the elephant, one of some monkeys, the one of a cow about to knock me over (i was bumped hard, from behind, by a number of cows during our travels. one made me fall over. in hampi, this had happened a number of times. it is a small town and i guess people noticed, because by the end of our time there, people were warning me when a cow was approaching me from behind. duff thinks some of these incidents could be due to my bright red backpack). the kids in class were calling out, demanding to know what items in the picture were called in english, and shouting out words i asked for in chinese. i now know the chinese for elephant, monkey, laundry, and coconut.

overall, a great first day back in class. oh, and we have no night or weekend classes this semester. joy! the night classes last semester were really rough.

perched atop an elephant

2006-02-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

duff and i got to ride an elephant at the palace in mysore. i can check elephant off the 'animals i want to ride in asia in 2006' list. now, i just need horses and camels. i don't think i have been on an elephant since i was about 4 years old, at the corner of ridge and highland (i have a picture, and a vague memory).

enchanting ooty

2006-02-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

one of my favorite spots from the whole trip was ooty. ooty is known as the 'queen of the nilgiri hillstations.' we didn't visit any of the other hill stations, but i hear the are all amazing. ooty, also known as udagamandalam (check you maps), is high in the western ghats. our elevation in town was around 7350 feet. like so many high elevation spots, the air was crystal clear and all the colors were so sharp! india is a colorful frenzy compared to gray, industrialized china, but all the colors were even more pronounced in ooty.

the bus trip up to ooty was one of the most stressful of the entire trip, but also one of the most interesting. before we left for ooty we read that ooty was a resort town, kind of like aspen, and a favorite of european vacationers during colonialism. we forgot all of this when planning our trip. apparently there is a really nice scenic railroad. it is a miniature railroad, too, which would have been neat. when coming up to the mountains from the west, they rise straight out of tropical coconut palm forests. we were weaving back and forth on roads with hairpin turns, driving straight up the side of the mountain. one of the most fun things for me was to see the changes in our environment as we gained in elevation. we passed from tropical forests to bamboo forests. it was the thickest and tallest bamboo i have ever seen. we came through southern china on the train on our way back, and all the bamboo here looks so puny! i bet it is bigger in yunnan province, where i will spend the may break (with duff, AND katie lennard, AND (hopefully) lindsey and blayne, too!!!). ummm...oh, and then we drove through beautiful tea and rubber plantations. at the highest elevations were either no trees, just grassy hills with sheep and cows grazing, or eucalyptus forests. we had a wonderfully scented bus ride. especially when the bus (the road wasn't wide enough for two busses) had to swerve dangerously to the side of the road to avoid oncoming traffic and hit branches, knocking fragrant leaves into the bus. before arriving in ooty we passed through many small, sun-drenched, brightly-colored towns. the humidity was gone, and people were out enjoying the cool sunshine. in the grassy hills, occasionally, there would be a very distinctive dr. suess-looking tree.

in ooty we got off the bus and thought we were in the most remote place we had ever visited (we forgot about ooty being a resort town). we checked into the cheery raja hotel (a roach resort, we discovered, when the lights go out. they literally climbed out of the walls, and down from the ceiling) and started to walk. people come to ooty to go trekking, we didn't have enough time to trek, so we planned to walk. hiking, or, like the irish say, hill walking. both days we were in ooty, we grabbed some water, walked to the edge of town, and wandered all day in the hills. we were completely free, we didn't follow a map, we just went. it was the most amazing feeling. the first day, we walked up into the hills, and on our way back in found the tourist center of ooty. it was completely shocking to me. i thought we were in a tiny town in the hills! oh, well.

the second day provided the most interesting walking. under brilliantly blue and cloudless skies we walked through small towns and villages. the roads were so dangerous we left them completely and walked on the foot paths that connect the villages. we got to see, close up, the lives of the people of the nilgiris. most everyone was farming, we saw a LOT of carrots being grown. the hills are terraced, and we wandered in the maze of houses and fields. the houses were all brightly colored. mostly white, and light pastel blues, yellows, purples and pinks. chinese small towns that we have seen are gray. the hills were just beautiful, and we got some great views. at one point, we walked up a hill, passed through the village, and entered the forest. there was practically no underbrush. the canopy consisted almost exclusively of eucalyptus trees. we met some boys, playing on the bikes and celebrating republic day. they were flying flags and gave each of us a little indian paper flag. we talked and played with them for a bit. we have discovered that indian kids love the digital camera. love it.

in the afternoons, we saw women laying bright saris out on the grass in the fields to drive. they also laid them on their roofs. every available surface was covered with vibrant clothing drying in the sun. duff and i went photo crazy, once i get a photo site, we will be able to share these better. we walked by a dozen or more churches, and a number of graveyards. animals grazed everywhere, and we saw a giant herd of sheep working their way through the tombstones in one graveyard, nibbling grass as they went. we saw a few people riding horses. we had come to ooty with the intention of riding horses, but i have become an overly cautious traveler (not a good thing), and i didn't find a place i really trusted. so we walked.

oh, all through the nilgiri hills, there were signs requesting no one bring plastic to the area. it was really neat. i am not sure how much people follow it, water in plastic bottles was sold everywhere. but we did notice a lot less plastic, and a lot less litter and trash.

in the town, we enjoyed wandering the streets and alleys. every shaded alley had a bright ending, a colorfully painted doorway, or laundry blowing in the breeze. we passed one amazing three story building with balconies. we could see none of the building's facade because of all the huge pieces of cloth hung to dry. the tea in ooty was better than anywhere else in india, that we tried, and the food was excellent too. at night, it got really chilly, and it was fun to see everyone bundling up against the cold. the indian answer to cold, at least in the nilgiri hills, is just to wrap more and more fabric around one's self. saris were covered with more and more wraps. and hats. everyone had really cute woolen hats.

our time in ooty was far too short. we left and took off for mysore on a bus just 2 days after arriving. the bus to mysore was just as incredible as the bus to ooty. we passed through a number of wildlife refuges, and saw a lot of wildlife. peacocks, especially. immediately after leaving ooty, we passed through an area of grassy hills, like those backing the badger pocket bison ranch (one of my favorite places in the world!). we went through scrub and brush areas, like in central washington. then, we dropped down into forests and streams, and eventually, back to coconut palms and banana trees.

photos!!

2006-02-14T23:27:00.000-08:00

duff has some photos up! he has them in albums at his photo website. follow the link under 'photos' to your right.

the new albums include hong kong, sri lanka, kanyakumari, kovallam & varkala, ooty, and mysore.

enjoy!

happy valentine's day!

2006-02-14T04:49:00.000-08:00

happy valentine’s day, everyone!

i’d love to tell you what the chinese do for valentine’s day, but i haven’t left the apartment once today...so...

we had a pretty low-key day, duff cooked his amazing spaghetti sauce and garlic bread (a challenge, because no one has ovens in china. it is the kitchen item i miss most, other than the blue spatula alison gave me for christmas a few years ago. oh and then there is my great love of the kitchen aid mixer). we are both fighting off a month’s worth of indian germs, and i am doubled over with doubled over with stomach cramps. we’ve watched 4 episodes of the ‘dick van dyke show.’ this must be how 80-year-olds celebrate valentine’s day. it is super fun. next, we’re going to watch ‘singing in the rain’ which duff gave me for christmas.

india updates coming soon!

a snow day for kate and duff

2006-02-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

duff and i are back in wuhan! and we have our computers back, so prepare yourselves for photos and updates. our apartment is great, and it is nice to be back. it is amazing how much dust settled in it during the month we were gone. it is nice to be back, and it is great to see all of the same people. like our breakfast lady. i think she missed our reliable every morning business as much as we missed her food.

we were supposed to start classes today, but the office hasn't yet finalized what we are to teach or when we will teach it. as a result, we have all of this week off. i feel like a little kid with a snow day. i have been on a very definite snow-day-high for 2 days, and it will continue tomorrow when i don't have to get up for class! and it feels like christmas. today i got a 'baker's dozen' addition to my '12 days of chrismas' presents from my parents. this one was HUGE. i carried it home on my head like the indian women carry laundry and buckets. all of the presents have been fantastic, and this one was filled with every available kind of hershey's kisses. and a million other great bits. thanks, mom and dad!

okay, we are going to get started sorting through the thousands of photos we took in the last month. we will share them with you all soon.

oh, and the problem with my hotmail account has still not been fixed, so ignore any messages from KateRiker@hotmail.com. thanks.

Almost home (well, as home as Wuhan can be)

2006-02-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

***first of all: if you have received an email from kate's hotmail address (kateriker@hotmail.com), do not open it. it's some sort of virus. best we can figure, someone has hacked into kate's email account and is using it to commit evil e-deeds. to email kate, the real kate, use kateriker@gmail.com***

hello everyone. kate and i are about to begin the long trip back to wuhan, to cold weather, cloudy skies, and, sigh, work. we have also fallen far behind on logging our travels.

we've spent the last 3 days in goa, visiting old goa and pololem, which is a beach area in the far south of goa. old goa was really interesting. it's a unesco world heritage site and was portugal's administrative center back in the 1600s. over the last few hundred years, as the river has silted and the major commercial areas have moved westward, the area that was once a rival of lisbon fell into disrepair. many of the buildings were abandoned or just kind of left to rot. recently, though, the area has been restored and it looks like there is still a lot more work being done. we did the fairly typical 'walking tour' of old goa, which takes about 4 hours and covers only a few kilometers, but it's full of 500-year-old monasteries, convents, basilicas, and cathedrals. it seems like there are 5 portuguese cities worth of massive religious buildings in this small area in western india. most the chapels and churches were undergoing renovations and didn't look like they were used as churches, but the paintings and tile work were still in place and as beautiful as ever. the basilica de bom jesus was the one of the most impressive i've ever seen. there are about 16 chapels and altars on the sides, each with beautiful paintings, statues, and ornate wood carvings. it's also the largest church in asia, and houses the tomb of st. francis xavier, whose body has yet to begin to decay, even though he's been dead for 500 years. sadly, they won't be displaying the body until 2014, and we just can't stay here that long. there are also the ruins of a cathedral that collapsed in the 1800s and excavations only began in 1989. it's so strange to walk through the ruins of such a massive structure. it was also fascinating to watch the excavation going on. there was a group of three women by the main altar that were arranging pieces of broken tile to be cemented back onto the walls.

so, after 4 hours of walking from one church to the other and seeing carvings and woodwork as good or better than that in europe, we decided to head for the beach to meet up with katie, blayne, jacqui, and lindsay (friends of kate from america). after a few hot, stinking hours of trying to change money in margao, which, again, is really difficult when you've got chinese money, and finding everywhere closed because it was friday afternoon, we finally got on the bus to pololem.

arriving in pololem was interesting. we had been expecting a beach area that was a little less crowded and touristy than the beaches we'd been to before, but, for better or worse, the area seemed more tourist oriented. we quickly found bamboo huts back in the coconut trees and sent word to our friends where to find us, and then sat back on the porch with an ice-cold glass of kingfisher beer to wait for them. they arrived, no probelm, that night and after 2 days with them on the beach, that went way too quickly, and some of the best mexican food i've ever had, we had to drag ourselves away from the beach to catch our train to trivandrum. this was made all the more difficult by kate having a case of food poisoning, but she toughed it out, got herself to the train station, and onto the train, and in the process has earned herself a definite spot on the iron-woman indian travel team. this trip away from the beach was not an easy one, since our taxi driver skidded off the road and insisted on playing indian pop, which is not what one needs to hear with an upset stomach.

the train was hot, but uneventful. we bought water, rice, soda, chips and such from the swarm of people that invade the train at every stop. the mantra that you encounter in nearly every station is probably the most unique part of the indian train experience. the one that always made me jump a little was the man who walked by every 10 minutes yelling 'coffee', since it sounded like he was saying 'duffy'. we're still undecided on what's better, the train or the bus. we are now back at kovalam beach for the day, our last in india, and tomorrow we take the flight to sri lanka, then through bangkok, then to hong kong, then the overnight train to wuhan. if all goes well, we should be home by march, kidding, at which time we can fill in some of the extremely large gaps, ie ooty, mysore, hampi, etc, where we haven't had time to use the internet.

the elephant count continued...

2006-01-29T04:36:00.000-08:00

we've seen more elephants! on the bus from ooty we passed through a number of national parks, part of the western ghats biosphere reserve.

number 5: huge. walking through a village, with BIG tusks. most of the elephants around that we've seen have had their tusks trimmed really short. when we were driving through the parks, there were big signs along the road that said "elephant area: no stopping along road. do not honk horn. dangerous." don't startle the elephants!

number 6: behind a tree. you have to ask duff on this one, i didn't see it. but i believe that it was there, although how does an elephant hide behind a tree? duff now says it was more like a big bush.

number 7: being led down the road. with a chain around his foot. i am amazed that elephants can so calmly walk in indian traffic, which is just as nuts as chinese traffic. duff and i just finished reading 'the glass palace' by amitav gosh, and the author mentions how easy it is for elephants to get spooked and stampede. huh.

number 8: we rode it! duff and i went to the beautiful palace in mysore (much more on this later) and there were elephants and camels to ride. we did the tourist thing, and happily rode an elephant. it was so much fun! more on this later too. we have a bus to hospet in an hour, and like always, i am just trying to check in a bit before we move on. oh, and my goal in 2006 is to ride elephants, camels and horses, hopefully all in asia.

number 9: the buddy of the elephant we made friends with. also available for riding.

in the national parks we also saw a number of monkeys, a few different kinds, and 3 male peacocks (none with tailfeathers spread, though). oh, and lots of spotted deer. and i saw a wild boar and a big monkey in some kind of altercation. they fought, and then they backed away from each other. i have no idea what happened, but i prefer to think the monkey fell out of the tree and landed on the boar (i have seen a monkey fall out of a tree, in malaysia), or perhaps the boar had food, maybe an apple, and the monkey wanted to steal it.

and now it is time to go get the bus. katie and lindsey, the train? better? please teach us! the trains we have had are awful. with the busses, we are so close to everything, and the people are so nice! and i love to bounce along in the back. tonight we have a bus to hospet. in china, the slepper busses have beds, we'll see about this one.

The Venice of India

2006-01-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

firstly, sorry it took so long to post. the mountains of ooty, while interesting and fun, do not provide many opportunities to use the internet.

on the 23rd, kate and i left kollom on a boat going north to alapuzha through the kerala backwaters. the kerala backwaters are a long series of canals and rivers that are separated from the arabian sea by as much as a few kilometers to as little as a few meters of land. it is an extremely productive area, producing lots of rice and coconuts, and having more fishing capacity than i've ever seen. the area is also extremely populated, having homes, schools, churches, stores, restaurants and many other businesses along the water. the waterway is used as more of a roadway, since it is calm and shallow enough for almost any boat to cross back and forth easily.

our boat left kollam at 1030 am. it was already really hot, but we decided to sit in the sun in the front of the boat anyway, figuring the view would be better. this was a good decision. as we started moving up the rivers, we immediately saw what we would see for the next 8 hours. there were dozens of small canoes with one man rowing and one man working the nets, larger, brightly-colored fishing boats that rose at both ends like viking warships, enormous house boats with grass-thatch walls and smaller flat boats that, like venetian gondolas, were powered by a man with a long pole and ferried people from one dock/sidewalk to the other. there was also one crossing that was a bridge floating on pontoons that could be moved out of the way for boats to pass.

the banks of the river seemed to form a never-ending hallway of palm trees. where the river was wider, there were rows of traditional chinese fishing nets that ran parallel to the bank as far as you could see. the traditional chinese fishing net is basically a long lever rising out of the water with 4 poles lashed into an x at the top, and a net tied to the ends of the x. at night, a light is put at the center of the x and the lever is lowered until the ends of the poles are under the water and the light is just above water. this attracts insects, which attract fish, and then the lever is raised, pulling the net and fish out of the water. there are miles and miles of these nets about 10 meters apart from each other. i have no idea if all or only some of these nets are used each night, but based only on the number of nets, the area looks like it has to be suffering from over fishing.

we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant that looked to be set up for tourists. there were already about 50 banana leaf plates set with 4 different indian sauces on them. as we came in, waiters came around with rice and fried shrimp or fish. kate and i were seated across the table from a young chinese man who amazed us. during our short stop for lunch, he somehow managed to eat three huge plates of rice, yelling to the waiter for more as soon as he finished each plate.

at about 530, the sun started going down and the landscape changed dramatically. instead of being surrounded by palm trees and businesses, there were rice paddies stretching as far as we could see in all directions. there were also more single homes with cows and chickens around them.

we arrived in alapuzha, a little sore and sun burnt, at 630 and headed to the train station to catch the train to kochi. the station was small and so when a train pulled up at the time ours was supposed to leave, we thought surely this must be our train and got on. as soon as the train left i felt like we were going south, not north like we should have been, but credited the suspicion to the fact that we were sitting in the seats that looked backwards and that was messing with my internal compass. after about 45 minutes, the train stopped. we weren't in kochi, we were in some other middle-of-nowhere town that wasn't even in the guidebook. we'd travled 45 minutes in the wrong direction. we decided that was enough for the day and we'd try our luck tomorrow, so we bought a ticket heading north to calicut, leaving at 7 am and headed out to find the nearest hotel.

wandering the nilgiri hills

2006-01-26T23:12:00.000-08:00

i have spent the last 2 days in the beautiful hill town of ooty, in the nilgiri hills, part of the western ghats. by the bus stand, ooty looks to be a small, run-down little town. that is where our hotel is. after a long walk, though, we discovered the up-market parts of ooty, too. very different from the sleepy, out-of-the-way hill station we thought we had found. happily, the fancy part of town includes a nice coffee shop. we've gone twice.

we have spent most of the last two days walking in the hills around the town. it has been difficult to find internet, and we've done a lot since we were last able to post on the blog. we have a bus to mysore in an hour, so i'll just give the highlights and elaborate later.

we left the beach, and went to a town called kollam. from there we took a cruise on the beautiful keralan backwaters to a town called alappuza. this experience deserves a whole entry itself. we saw fishing, with traditional nets used by the chinese, and people washing clothes, kids getting ferried back and forth to school, and lots of birds. i must have seen eight brightly colored kingfishers. directly after getting off of the backwaters cruise, we went to the train station and bought a ticket to kochi. the plan was to use that ticket to get to kochi (further north), but we got on the wrong train, and ended up going south (the direction from which we had just come). fun. we found ourselves in an odd town, the name escapes me right now, in the middle of the night. the train station was in the middle of nowhere, so we got a tuk-tuk to the bus station, stayed for the night, and got on the right train at 8:00 the next morning. yes!

it took us all day to get to calicut on the train. the trains are nowhere near as comfortable as the chinese trains, but the food is much better. that morning, i think, we'd had coke and potato chips for breakfast (sorry, mom, it was all that we could find!), but on the train, we had briyani. it was wrapped in wax paper, and then in brown paper with little packets of spice and raihta. we shared one. it was unwrapped, between us, and we ate it with our hands, shoveling the food into our mouths. deliciously messy.

calicut was not fun, we had the hardest time finding a hotel. we went to a number of hotels, and they were all full. finally, we accepted the help of a man on the street who helped us find a room. he said, because the area wasn't used to a lot of foreign tourists, they were unwilling to give us rooms. the whole town was creepy (we felt the same as we did in indonesia, kellee. yes, that bad). we left on a 7:00 bus the next morning, headed to ooty.

i love the busses, i will always take the bus here, rather than the train, if i can. we have been sitting in the back of the bus, we get a lot more air, but also a lot more dust. when we arrive at our destination, we are covered in a light brown coat. it is fun to be covered in dust. the back of the bus is bouncy, we have caught several feet of air on some of the more bumpy roads. the trip to ooty took from 7:00 am to 1:30 pm, and in that time we covered a ridiculously small distance. it took a long time because the road into the mountains was so...challenging. steep, dirty, potholed, narrow, unpaved (in places)... it was a tense ride. the views from the road were amazing, but the cliffs and drop-offs were sobering. the road had cut-backs, potholes, and hair-pin turns like the mt. baker highway at the end of a long winter. i wished i were driving, the bus seemed so large and clumsy, but the driver was excellent. it was slow going, though. we went from sea level to 4000 feet, or so. i will have to check our elevation again. it was amazing to see the transition. we left the forests of cocnut palms behind, and passed into amazingly tall and thick bamboo. then, we saw tea plantations, and rubber trees with slashes in the trunks, and little semi-circular buckets attached to the tree to catch the drips. higher there were eucalyptus trees, and they smell wonderful. there are flowers everywhere, of the most brilliant pinks, purples, and oranges. the sky has been bright blue. we haven't seen much wildlife, but a group of monkeys sitting in the road had to scurry away from our careeing vehicle. in the mountains it is dry, and it is great to be away from the humidity. we have been getting a bucket of warm water with which to wash (thanks, katie) because the showers are all cold. it is cold at night, and i have been sleeping in all of my clothes.

ok, the bus will be here soon. duff and i will check back in soon and write more about the backwaters and our amazing time in ooty.

back from the beaches...

2006-01-22T02:19:00.000-08:00

our first week in india has been a huge success. the only problem is that today is sunday, again, and just like last sunday, when we wanted to do stuff, everything is closed. it is frustrating because just today we arrived in kollam, which would be fascinating if anything was open. we have been wandering down narrow streets and back alleys looking for a spice warehouse. it is still fascinating, but i'd love to see into the shops rather than the closed aluminum garage doors.

the past week has been really relaxing. we have visited two beautiful beaches in kerala, kovallam and varkala. both were lovely, with crystal clear water and fine sand. we were first at kovallam. the guide book we have had nothing good to say about it, but i had a feeling we should go, and we did. there were two crescent beaches at kovallam, we stayed on the lighthouse beach, right next to the lighthouse! we stayed at the sagara beach resort, a splurge. it was formerly a hilton resort. it had a lovely balcony overlooking the beach, and hot water. the beaches were lined with shops filled with the most beautiful fabric and jewlery. the prices, however, were sky high. katie has advised me that we can get fabric much cheaper so i'll try and do that. at night, after susnet, there were plenty of restaurants with fresh seafood. all day we could see the women carrying the freshly-caught fish in huge metal pots on top of their heads. some of the fish were 4 feet long. the prices for the sea food were really high, often more than 30 usd, so we stuck to the excellent local indian food. the beach may have been the most beautiful i have ever seen. the water was warm and clear, and there were big, clear waves. duff told me that it was similar to the caribbean, but with great waves.

when we got to varkala, we were able to observe some traditional fishing close up. we stayed at varkala only two nights. our book promised a different, younger, and less expensive scene than kovalam, but it wasn't. the business area is along a pathway, below is the beach. there is a cliff that drops down to the beach, perhaps 60 feet or so. it was daunting, and dizzying. the view was dramatic, and the first night the whole horizion was speckeld with the lights of fishing boats.

i have been rising very early since we arrived in india. before dawn, every day. in the morning, we when we would get to the beach, we would see the locals start fishing. they cast a huge net, and then groups of ten or so men pull each end into shore. it takes at least an hour for the whole process, perhaps two. first, we would see them setting the net with a boat. it almost looked like a canoe, but it was larger, and made from dark, weathered wood. not a modern vessel at all. the men pull in the net, at first it is only a rope, and then they are pulling hand fulls of net. the last man arranges the net into coils on the beach. when the net is drawn in just beyond the breakers, a group of boys wade out and splash around in the water to scare the fish and keep them in the net. i got a video on my camera, i hope it turned out. the only time i stayed to see them bring in the catch it wasn't large. i am sure it was normally much larger. there were perhaps 50 or 60 small fish (no more than 10 inches long) and at least 40 local people were down on the beach involved in some way.

at varkala, there were fewer hawkers that at kovallam. it was pleasant not to be interrupted every 30 seconds while i lay, reading, on the beach. there was a really friendly woman from whom i bought a pineapple. she shaved it with a machete and sliced it so we could pull chunks off easily. it was fun to sit in the warm sand, dripping with sweet pineapple juice. i didn't like pineapple when i was little, and now i cannot get enough. pineapple juice in the morning, a pineapple lassi at lunch (yogurt and pineapple)... cold coffee with ice cream is my new favorite afternoon snack.

after a realxing sunday morning on the beach, we decided to move on. it took us about 1/2 hour to get to kollam by bus. we found a breezy hotel room for 1/5 of what we were spending on accomodation at the beach. this makes duff happy. tomorrow we will set out on a cruise of the keralan backwaters, which promises to be amazing. from there, we will head into karnataka towards mysore. there are many national parks and wildlife refuges there, as part of the western ghats biosphere reserve. i hope to up the elephant count. while i have kept my eyes peeled all day, i haven't seen any more elephants. tomorrow's cruise will take about 10 hours and drop us in a city called alapphuza. i can't wait. yay!

the elephant count

2006-01-18T19:40:00.000-08:00

i am keeping a log of my elephant sightings. it's too much fun.

number 1: in sri lanka, outside of colombo, by the airport. in the back of a truck. yes, a truck drove down the street (a really big truck, you see) with an elephant standing in the back, and a lot of palm fronds.

number 2: at the southern-most tip of india, in kanyakumari. there was a trainer with the elephant, and the elephant was painted, standing by one of the temples. people could get pictures with him. everytime we say him he was surrounded by a crowd of black-clad pilgrims or foreign tourists.

number 3: on the bus ride to kovallam from kanyakumari, which takes a little over 3 hours. the bus careened down narrow streets, horn blaring, dust flying, passing other busses, cars, motorcycles, and... an elephant that was being led down the road. he was a big guy. our bus was fully into the lane of oncoming traffic to pass the elephant. the bus was in the lane of oncoming traffic a lot. still, though, not as scary as driving in china can be sometimes.

number 4: on the bus ride from kanyakumari to kovallam. most of the area we travelled through was continuous village. right when we left kanayakumai we travlled through some rice paddys, and palm and banana groves, with views of the mountains of the western ghats. mostly, though, the road was lined with shops and homes. and people. we passed through a little forested area, and in the trees, there was a baby elephant, with his trunk wrapped around some plants. maybe he was eating, we were going far too fast for me to see.

we have seen a lot of animals here. dogs, cats, pigs, cows, birds, goats, a snake, fish.... the goats were guarding the bus station, and the pigs and cows are just hanging around. for the most part, all the animals look healthy. it is fun to have so much life surrounding us. it is time for me to go read on the beach. we just had a wonderful breakfast at a german bakery. great fruit and yogurt.

jungle rains and beaches in sri lanka

2006-01-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

duff and i got to india a few hours ago. we flew in after spending a week in sri lanka, which was amazing. we went to the tsunami effected area along the south western coast and stayed with a family who is rebuilding their home and business. it wasn't really what we had planned on when we decided to go to sri lanka, but it was a fascinating experience.

we got into colombo after two expensive days in hong kong. the flight from hong kong to colombo stopped in bangkok, it was hard not to jump the plane. sadly, my fear of flying is still with me full force, but when i have a terrifying experience, i will choose sri lankan airlines, in the future. their service was wonderful. the neatest thing, which i have never seen before, was the forward-looking and downward-looking cameras. they fed right into little tvs on the seat in front of you. i thought seeing exactly what was happing during take-off and landing would be stressful, but it made everything easier. landing was the best part. seeing outside of the plane gave me a lot of confidence in the pilots.

we stayed one night by the airport because it was easy, and left for colombo the next morning. there was a gaint wedding at the hotel in the morning when we left. it would have been great to crawl up into a tree and perch to watch it, but as it was we didn't get that close. we took a tuk-tuk into the city, which took about an hour. it was the most amazing ride. there were cows standing along the roadside, even in the urban area, and the people were so beautiful. most women were wearing colorful saris, or other long dresses. not many had shoes, but the roads and paths were a soft red dirt. we passed briefly through the muslim quarter, but when we went south, we really didn't see many muslims. the streets were lines with shops and huge coconut trees, and banana trees. it was so beautiful, and very tropical.

in colombo, we quickly found our way to the train station, and with the help of the tourist agent decided on the town of ambalangoda. he hooked us up with a guy who's family ran a guest house there. he promised it was right on the beach, and showed us nice recommendations people had written. the train, by the way, was 80 cents, and lasted 2 and 1/2 hours. cheapest train ride of my life. the train ride was beautiful and hard. we started out going south from colombo, right along the ocean. the ocean was dark blue, and had powerful waves. about a half hour south of colombo, we began to see area that had been destructed by the tsunami. it was shocking to see. i don't think either duff or i was prepared for how bad it was. last year, we were in thailand right after the tsunami. koh lanta, the island where we stayed, had been hit, but not very badly. in sri lanka, it was so different. i think, in our minds, we just likened it to the same level of light destruction we saw in thailand. not so. before we got to the tsunami hit area, the coast was built up, right to the high-tide line. people lived right along the beach in little houses, mostly made of wood and cement. they were beautiful, and they had little yards with dogs and children. they were colorfully painted and there was laundry hanging in the sunshine. further down the coast, it was all just foundations. but for hundreds of feet back from the beach. everything was just gone.

the guest hourse where we stayed was a little more than an eighth of a mile back from the beach. even this far back from the beach, people have to rebuild their homes. they are still doing repairs with the help of some americans who come often and stay for a few weeks at a time. they used to have a beach-front resort, but now it is far from the beach. they only had two rooms (i think, out of twn before the tsunami) operational, a soft-spoken french man was staying in the other. they didn't do any work while we were there, we would have been glad to help, but i think they were taking a little break. there was a water mark 7 feet high on the walls. the family was very open when they talked about the tsunami. as far as we can tell, it was run by two brothers. both parents were killed in the tsunami, as well as aunts, and sisters and children. the list was so long, just of people in their family! one of the brothers was in colombo when it happened. it took him over 6 hours to make the journey back home. the road was washed out, and the train flipped over. i think he said 2000 people died just in the train. he talked about finding his way home, and finding his father's body, and looking for the bodies of his mother and other family members. the town used a temple as a meeting place, slighly up a hill. when they found bodies, the took them there for identification and to meet and exchange information. he talked about the government response (not good, apparently), and the international response. there were sign all over the village that said things like 'austria builds 25 houses here.' according to our host, the government fell behind when it came to aid distribution, but the people who came to the villages and made donations and helped rebuild made a big difference. he talked about the civil war, and a host of other things. he was a great host, and very interesting to talk with. the food was excellent, we had breakfast in dinner there every day.

it was interesting, walking along the beach to see what stood and what didn't. there are some structures along the beach front that are still standing, but the walls are gone, and only the floors and door frames remain. the beach, for the most part, had been cleaned up, but there were still piles of rubble. a new sea wall has been built, and there is a lot of construction. not only homes and businesses, but roads, and bridges.

okay, there is so much to say, but that is long enough for now. we are trying to decide what to do and where to go next. as much as we wanted a little beach time, it rained the whole time we were in sri lanka. i loved it. it was so pleasant to read and hear the rain falling on the huge leaves. it is sunny in trivandrum, so we'll see about a beach here. we'll keep you posted.

2006-01-06T02:53:00.000-08:00

we are going to india!!!

2006-01-05T18:22:00.000-08:00

we just found out that our tickets have gone through, and next tuesday, duff and i are going to india! yay! we will keep this as our travel log, so check often for updates and, hopefully, photos. we will be gone from the 10th of january to the 9th of february. we get to spend 5 days in sri lanka on our way in, an added bonus booked into our flight plan.

we get a month off, as does most of china, for spring festival. this is the holiday around the chinese new year. most everyone in china goes to their hometown for spring festival. last year we were very fortunate to travel with a chinese friend of ours, nicole, and she took us to see her village southeast of tianjin.

everyone around here is gearing up for spring festival. the most obvious sign is the dead animals, splayed open and hanging everywhere. there are lots of fish, strips of pork, chickens, ducks, and lamb ribs. hanging sausage. they are hanging from everything possible, outside of everyone's apartments, in stores, from trees... last year, the people who ran the house where we lived hang fish, pork, and sausages from the trees. it was so creepy, it felt like the place was haunted. there were white hand prints on the trees, too. it was one small step away from a horror movie. the animals looked to be dried and oiled, and they don't smell as bad as you would think. still, today one of our neighbors got some fish to hang on their balcony, and the aroma of our apartment has changed drastically. it smells really fishy in here. for a while i couldn't figure it out, and i was convinced it was duff. he's off the hook now, the neighbor's fish is hanging out with their laundry, and right above ours. i have some great pictures of the meat locker in which i live, but i probably won't get them posted until after spring festival.

we are going to meet up with katie and her crew when we are in india. i am super excited about that. she is envisioning a beach party, and lounging with books.... sounds most excellent to me. i can't wait.

tonight we are meeting friends for dinner at drunken river moon, one of the best restaurants we know. dinner will probably be followed by bowling. we have some friends who will be leaving in a few weeks, and this will be our last chance to see them. most missed will be my friend, and co-teacher from last year, jon roller. we have been through everything in china together. he was with me from the start at the airport in cincinnati. china will not be the same without him. sob.

we are leaving wuhan on sunday. we are going to fly to shenzhen, and then cross to hong kong. i haven't been to hong kong in over a year, and i am excited to see it again. this time, too, we will have a few days to take a good look around.

the 2006 yangtze new year's concert

2006-01-04T12:57:00.000-08:00

last night our school invited duff and me to attend a special concert for foreigners. The provincial foreign affairs office sent a few tickets to some universities in wuhan with foreign teachers. some of our friends at other schools were there as well. getting there, i had no idea what to expect. we went to a huge concert hall by the yellow crane tower. it seems to have been recently built, and it is was so different from any concert hall i have seen before. it was cold, and sterile, white and modern. from the construction it is very obvious that the weather in wuhan in warm most of the time, most everything was open-air. when we walked into the main concert hall, i was so excited. i often feel so isolated from the arts here. i know that there must be concerts and shows, especially in a city the size of wuhan, but because we cannot speak the language we never know about them. the hall was a lot smaller than i expected, and it was really cramped. the programs showed 23 musical selections, almost all of them from operas and broadway shows.

the concert started with four pieces from 'phantom of the opera.' there were four chinese vocalists, and two canadian guys. the chinese vocalists had great pronunciation, and were trained as opera singers. still, the performance had some distinctly chinese characteristics. the orchestra was crammed so tightly on the stage i thought at first that they weren't using sheet music. there was a giant screen hung behind them, and when the came up on camera, i could see the music was practically pasted to the back of the musician in front of them. they were packed in so tightly. as the vocalists sang the pieces from 'the phantom of the opera' scenes from the movie played on the screen above their heads. it was supposed to be the footage from the movie of the same song that was being performed. it didn't take long, though, until the live singing was no longer timed correctly with the movie images. the effect was really off and disconnected. during one duet, the younger male vocalist appeared on stage to sing with the phantom mask on his face. i took my eyes off of him for one second and when i turned my attention back to him he was lurching towards the orchestra, arms outstretched in a zombie walk. he was so into this bit, he almost forgot to run back to center stage to the microphone for his duet. hilarious.

the screen alternated with slides and images from 'cats,' 'phantom of the opera,' 'west side story,' and the live performance. there were camera men, in jeans and sweatshirts, crawling all over the place to get their shots for the feed. there was one camera man who tromped through the orchestra regularly. they had a camera mounted on a huge arm, which they swung around the stage for some sweeping shots, at times coming dangerously close to the performer's heads.

my favorite sequence was 'tonight' from 'west side story.' it is a pretty, slow song, accompanied, on the screen, by the fastest dance sequence from the 'west side story' movie. the best, though, was when half way through the song, the stage was flooded by sequined, feathered, hot-pink clad, las vegas-style show dancers. it was odd to watch.

there was a piece from strauss’ ‘bat,’ and another from ‘cat,’ by andrew lloyd webber. i had a great time at this odd show. oh, and they had the vegas dancers back for ‘scarborough fair’ which was billed in the program as a ‘riddle song.’

we are still working on our india plane tickets, but it looks as if things are going to work out.

the weather is wonderful today, it is cold, and rainy, and really windy. sometimes the rain turns to sleet. it is just like bellingham, or ireland. i am so pleased.

新年快乐

2006-01-02T18:05:00.000-08:00

happy new year!!

i can say "happy new year" in chinese, and it has been my party trick for days.

the week between christmas and new year's was wildly busy for me. i gave 10 final exams, and i am so happy they are all done. because the students cheat so much, giving finals is really stressful. more on that later, though, i'd rather not think about it.

new year's eve was really lovely. a group of people and i went to our friend brad's beautiful apartment. he has the most beautiful apartment of any foreign teacher i know in wuhan. duff and i have the worst one. i love brad's apartment, i want it. my apartment has a lot of character, and it is really fun, but it is old, and run down, and filthy. even if i mop once a day, i always pick up more dirt and dust. it just settles out of the air.

for dinner on new year's eve, we had salmon in sorrel sauce, and it was excellent. the best meal i have had in china. there is a huge german supermarket down by the river and they have lots of foreign food, and fresh norwegian salmon. they claim it was caught 5 days ago and flown in. it tasted so good! we also had a lovely salad, pasta and vegetables. an excellent meal on which to end 2005.

we had planned on making it to the bar for the new year, but didn't. we went afterwards, though, to vox. a few of our friends own and operate it. when it opened last year, it was supposed to be a punk bar, but every time i go there is a dj from africa and lots of hip-hop and dance music. different from what they originally set out to do, i think, but the bar seems to be doing really well. it was great to see friends there who i haven't seen in a long time. i had a little mini-reunion with two teachers i worked with last year. they are doing well.

there are little kids setting off fireworks right outside my apartment window. we have a tiny little part across the street. i thought a screaming eagle was flying into my window. i didn't see many fireworks on new year's eve, but they went off all day and night on the 1st. i stood on my balcony and watched them in between the other apartment buildings. fireworks are illegal in the city, but we are on the edges of town, and there are a lot of fireworks. i love them.

duff got back last night, rather than this morning, as i expected. his parents got him a plane ticket from beijing to wuhan rather than having him wait and then take the 11 hour over-night train. i was so confused when he got home, i had been asleep, but it was the greatest surprise. we are going to head to hot pot tonight (my favorite meal), but now, we are relaxing with the internet and warm cups of hot chocolate he brought from home. tomorrow our first order of business is to book our tickets to india. we have been having trouble figuring out how to pay the travel agent in hong kong, but since we want to leave in a week...... wish us luck!

12 days of christmas for the trash lady...

2005-12-28T21:13:00.000-08:00

first of all, i hate that i call someone the 'trash lady,' but it is actually what i do call her, and i don't know what else to call her. she is the woman who goes through my trash. let me explain.

everything in wuhan is reused. people here are terrible about littering, but there is always someone who comes along to pick up. there is still tons of litter everywhere, but it is hard to imagine what it would be like without all the people who pick up and sweep. if i am drinking a coke, or a bottle of water, there is always someone nearby, waiting for me to finish so they may have my bottle. i have seen people breaking apart blocks of concrete from torn down structures to get the tiny metal reinforcements inside. people pick through the trash cans on campus, and rescue all storts of stuff.

so, as you can guess, when i take the trash out from my apartment, there is someone there to go through it. i always take it to the same woman. last year, when my friend kellee was here, she was really upset by the idea of having someone pick through her trash. she'd take it out at night, after the woman had left 'work' for the day. at first, i felt the same way, and it is still odd, but i really like this woman. she is always so happy to see me or duff coming. we try to keep our recyclables from the stuff that we think no one will ever want again. sometimes, though, we are still wrong. i though no one would want our old used paper noodles bowls and used disposable wooden chopsticks. wrong, the lady picks them out. i still haven't figured out what she wants and what she doesn't. the trash doesn't go to a dumpster or anything, by the way. it goes into a three sided concrete enclosure. the woman sits there all day, every day, on a little stool under a tree. next to her is her bicycle. the back of the bike is a trunk, or a bin, which she fills up with everything she takes out of the trash. i am assuming she then carts it to the bottle recyclers, or the paper recyclers. who give her some money for what she brings in. even beer bottle caps are worth 2 jiao. what she doesn't fish out, is burned. i have never heard of anyone doing anything with the trash other than burning it. it is part of the reason our air quality is so bad. this fall, they normally burned in the evening, around dinner time. i would come home from class, realize they were burning, and run the last bit home to get the laudry off the balcony. the laundry gets to smell terrible anyway, like pollution, if it is left out too long. the trash burning smell is awful, and it suffocates me. it burns my throught and my eyes.

this week, the trash lady is really happy with me. last year, after christmas, i hoarded all the boxes and wrapping paper from presents in my room in case.....what? what was i every going to need that for? silly. this year, realizing that i will never again need these packing materials, i take them to the trash lady. she loves it. my parents had the greatest idea for christmas for me this year. one day i got a call from the office where our mail comes, and they said i had 7 packages at the office. when my dad called the next time, he directed me to one to open first. inside was a note that said, "on the first day of christmas....." it is so exciting, especially since i haven't opened them all yet. it is such a great idea. i am so loved and lucky. when i open one, i take the packing materials to the trash lady. it is better to take it a little at a time. if i take to much at one time, she won't be able to get it all on her bike and someone else may get it. i realize i am getting christmas presents and she is getting the wrapping, but the wrappings here are valuable, and she runs to meet me when i bring out a box.

merry christmas!

2005-12-26T17:58:00.000-08:00

i hope everyone is having a merry christmas!!

i had a busy weekend with lots of festivities. oddly, it never felt like christmas. on christmas eve, i had dinner with many other foreign teachers at an italian restaurant. the food was excellent, and the company was lovely. the restaurant is run by a chinese woman who lived in new york for ten years. the food at this place in not only good for china, but it is good food for america. they had turkey (which is almost impossible to get here), pizza, pesto pasta, salad, garlic bread, and many other dishes. it was warm and fun.

sunday, i was with friends at a few parties. they teach at a beautiful school on the shore of wuhan's south lake. they get a lot of wind off the lake (which is huge. 'hubei' means northern lake province, roughly), but it must be fun to live right next to it. the other famous lake in wuchang in east lake. i haven't been there since my first weekend in wuhan over a year ago. i will go back in the spring. they built a road that winds through the lake. it is only one lane, or maybe two. there are wispy chinese trees on either side, and old men fishing. i plan to rent a bicycle and spend some time messing around in the area.

for christmas dinner we went to a huge chinese restaurant called 'drunken river moon.' it is one of my favorite places in the world. the food is great and exciting. all of the dishes always have beautifully carved vegetables. they have excellent presentation, and very good bbq ribs.

all weekend we had to fight with traffic. even though most chinese don't celebtrate christmas in the religious sense, they do celebrate it commercially. many of the big stores are open all night. the students have a midnight curfew in the dorms, but for christmas they stay out all night shopping at the giant sales. China’s streets and sidewalks look busy normally, but this christmas weekend it was almost impossible to walk. travel times doubled. the busses were packed and it was always difficult for me to find a cab.

i am getting ready for a really challenging week. since duff has gone back to america for christmas, i am covering his classes. normally i have 20 classroom hours a week, but this week i have 34. i will be sleep-walking through the new year. i am also giving exams this week. because of the student's wide acceptance of cheating, proctoring a test here can be a stressful affair.

leave your comments, i love reading them! happy holidays!

for here or togo?

2005-12-22T00:44:00.000-08:00

i listened to mark and james' presentation on togo today. it was an excellent presentation, but the boys had a small pronunciation error. until i corrected them, they were pronouncing 'togo' as 'to go.' as in, 'would you like that for here, or to go?' darling.