Art Openings and Pig Slaughters

All in one day. We were invited to our first art opening (perhaps ever) in a nearby Naxi village. There is a small organization that offers a residence program for international artists who want to use the local environment as their subject. Today a woman named Emily was showing photography of minority culture love rituals and video of love songs that girls and boys sing to each other. This organization has rented a Naxi style courtyard house for the artists to live and work. In honor of her opening the local villagers slaughtered a pig ('tis the season). We listened to traditional music, ate grilled pig hot off the grill, looked at pictures and watched the locals drink Bai Jiu (local moonshine with the aroma of turpentine). After awhile we moved next door to the neighbors house for lunch where as far as we can tell the owners fed the entire village. Our table was covered in dishes using ALL parts of the pig. Li wandered around serving people baby tomatoes and watching the intense games of Mahjongg going on around us. A good time was had by all.

Fun Facts from China

1. Li has her first loose tooth!

2. Each year in China 25 million trees are cut down to make 45,000,000,000 pairs of disposable chopsticks. Yikes.

3. For balance: In US, to produce each weeks Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be used.

The Little Bus That Thought it Could

And we hoped it could. After Thanksgiving we decided to head to Zhongdian at 10,500 on the Tibetan Plateau. Zhongdian is famous for its large working Buddhist monastery, it's old town and the surrounding countryside. It is a slice of Tibet not actually in Tibet.

The first portent of adventure was when our somewhat rickety old 21 seater bus died while backing out of the bus station in Lijiang. This is not all that unusual, but we knew we had to climb 2,500 feet to get to our destination. It turned out to the be the first of about 15 unexpected stops during the next 5 hours. Some of our stops were designed to onload and offload passengers and things. At one point Li looked out the window and reported that they were onloading large marble slabs under the bus. No passengers arrived with the marble, so we wondered whether they were simply ballast. At another point we offloaded some passengers and their luggage, only later to discover that someone else's luggage had been offloaded by mistake!

We made at least two stops to pay money or report passenger numbers to an official. We aren't sure whether the passengers that get on and off at points other that the official departure and destination get reported or whether their fares are extra pocket money for the driver. Regardless, the driver was committed to filling every last seat on the bus.

At one point the driver stopped, opened the window right by Li's feet, reached inside the bus for a hose which he connected to a hose from a small house and started flowing liquid into the hose inside the bus. We wondered and worried since there was a man smoking a cigarette just outside where this liquid was spraying. We later decided that this was simply water that helped cool the engine during the climb.

The real fun began as we began chugging our way up the valley to the Tibetan Plateau. We were worried enough about driving on a road that was bounded on one side by a sheer cliff tumbling down 1000 feet to a whitewater canyon and on the other side by steep rocky cliffs whose metal cage retaining walls had been breached numerous times by rockfall. We drove by teams of workers without any protective gear diligently shoveling piles of rocks off the road. Not long into our upward climb the bus stopped. I would say it pulled over to the side of the road, but of course it didn't. The driver climbed out and headed under the bus. He emerged a few minutes later and ejected a passenger from her seat so he could find some tools. After a few more minutes under the bus he put the tools back, climbed into the driver seat and we set off again. There was a strong smell of gasoline everywhere. We deduced that maybe his first tank had run out of gasoline and he had to manually switch tanks to use his second tank. From that point forward we stopped every 15 minutes or so, under the bus went the driver, out came the smell of gasoline and off we went. After about the third or fourth time he emerged with a 5 gallon plastic jug of gasoline which he brought into the bus. After a complicated series of maneuver's he had a plastic syphon hooked up to the 5 gallon jug running into the engine and a passenger diligently keeping the gas jug upright. 30 minutes later or so when the first jug ran out, he went underneath, refilled it and off we went again.

Meanwhile, the tarp he put over the heavily loaded roof rack full of luggage kept unhooking itself and the metal grommets banged incessantly again the windows. Three times he "fixed" the tarp, three times it quickly loosened itself and flapped around threatening to crack our window.

Of course the entire time our driver chain smoked and talked on his cell phone.

After 5 hours we literally coasted into Zhongdian on fumes, at the scheduled arrival time!

Our weekend improved from there with visits to the Songzhangling Monastery, walks around the old town and a hike to the world's largest prayer wheel. No heat anywhere of course so we winter camped in our hotel room and drank lots of hot drinks!

Thanksgiving Without an Oven

Let's see...Chicken with rosemary, sushi, blue cheese cauliflower soup, mashed potatoes, stuffing (not stuffed in a turkey), green beans, chicken soup, wine, apple crisp, sake, and local pastries rounded out our abundant dinner. We celebrated with friends from Japan, France and Germany. It's a bit trickier to create dinner with one burner, one electric hot plate and no oven, but we all seemed to manage. Li decorated everyone with hand made earrings stuck on with a glue stick. We looked beautiful.

Thanks to all our friends and family-we miss you!

Haikus Bridge the Language Barrier

I have had great success getting my students to be creative with Haikus (given some good brainstorming structure). Thinking if my students can do it, my daughter should be able to. Here are her results:

Children
Love mommy daddy
Swing and jump on the playground
Nap with Little Cow

Silk
Running in silk clothes
Feel shiny, cool, beautiful
Thank you to the worms

Our First Visitors

We felt so special to have our first visitors, even if we did have to share them with Heather and Patrick, the other foreign teachers placed by the Colorado China Council. Part of the overall program support provided by the Colorado China Council involves a personal visit from the Director Alice and her Assistant Ellen. Ellen and her husband taught in Lijiang two years ago. We met them and their 6 year old adopted daughter from China at their home in Laramie, WY this summer.

We were spoiled with some excellent meals and excellent company. Our eating highlight of the weekend had to be Ellen's birthday dinner at a vegetarian restaurant that got excellent reviews. The first task was finding the restaurant, the second task was convincing them to let us eat. All of the lights and light fixtures were missing and the restaurant was completely empty. We found ourselves seated in a beautiful alcove and the staff placed about 20 candles on our table. We ordered to the best of our ability and were most amused by the faux chicken feet made out of a tofu product. Steve bicycled by the restaurant today and discovered it had moved! I guess you take your lights with you when you leave.

In addition to eating we spent time wandering the markets, visiting Lashahai Lake (where Steve finally saw an Upupa Epops-a bird that has been on his life list-and Shana stepped into mud up to her waist), and debriefing the idiosyncracies of the Chinese education system.

We promise to treat all future visitors nicely, so come on over!

The Ice Cream Truck?

A word of caution to those who associate the sounds of a singing truck with memories of summer ice cream treats. When you hear that sound in China, watch out for the locals coming outside to dump their garbage in the singing garbage truck. It still gets me every time.

Beijing 2008

We found out this week that we are one of the lucky few who received Olympic tickets in the lottery. We did not get everything we asked for, but now possess tickets to some: Gymnastics, Wrestling, Beach Volleyball, Fencing and Table Tennis. We also managed to book lodging in Beijing (at 8x the normal price, pay in full please). We are also going to try for tickets available only to Chinese residents and foreigners living in China. We don't hold out much hope though. Apparently China's official purchase date was Monday. People were lining up all night to get tickets. Within a few hours of opening they had to close down sales around the country because the computer system was overwhelmed and crashed. They are working to fix it and will try again on Monday November 5. Even if we don't get more tickets, we are excited for the 7 events we will attend. The whole thing is going to be a madhouse!

Picture Site Address Update

After an afternoon of frustrations with technology, we have modified our picture site address slightly. From now on you can use: http://picasaweb.google.com/sltsjp. Check out the new pictures from our Lugu Lake adventure.

Lugu Lake and New Brakes

At least we hope the vans we rode in had new brakes. It is possible that they wore out their current ones on our 7 hour drive. Imagine bad shocks, poorly padded seats, multiple thousand foot cliffs, cobblestone roads with hairpin turns and, of course, no seatbelts, and you will get some sense of what travel is like in this part of China. About half of the road is paved which is convenient for the local farmers. It is harvest season and an asphalt road makes an excellent surface to dry your corn or hay. It also reduces things to one lane of traffic, but apparently this was only considered an issue by us. Fortunately we avoided serious mishap and spent a wonderful weekend at Lugu Lake.

Lugu Lake straddles the Yunnan/Sichuan border and is quite stunning. The locals are mostly Mosuo and Pumi-both Tibetan. We stayed at a wonderful guesthouse on a small island run by a family of three brothers. The two younger brothers enjoyed singing, dancing and beer, while the older brother was the responsible role model with his wife and two small children. A Tibetan monk was staying with the family as well. We spent many hours with them eating, drinking, singing, laughing and rowing across the lake. The language gap was significant, but nothing a good natured cheers! couldn't fix or a resounding "beautiful!". The brothers and monk were fascinated by our UV light water purifier.

Morning and evening meals begin with yak butter tea. We decided this was similar to drinking buttered popcorn. Li loved it. Both nights we ate barbecued vegetables, lake fish and yak meat under the full moon not 5 feet from the water. The brothers joined us for after dinner drinks and singing.

On Saturday we watched the sun rise from above our guesthouse and were treated to a traditional ride in the "pig trough"-a wooden canoe with all the maneuverability of a barge. We paddled out to a small island with a Tibetan temple perched on top and a lone monk, dog and cat in residence. Li and I hung out by the water for the rest of the day to the amusement and wonderment of the locals. Li built castles from rocks in the water and I answered the ubiquitous inquiries about yes, she is Chinese, no her father is not, yes she is my daughter. I really should learn the word for adopted.

Our trip home was delayed by an overloaded truck that got itself stuck in the mud on a hairpin turn. The apparently uncoordinated efforts (at least to us) to get it unstuck, deal with the line of buses and minivans that were backed up and avoid hitting one of the many gawkers was quite a feat. The other three stops we made were clearly to support the relationship the bus driver had with a local restaurant owner and with fruit vendors at a bridge delay crossing the Yangtze.

Pictures to be posted soon. Technical difficulties at the moment. Grrr.

Cha Cha in China

To clear our minds of the incessant rain trapping us indoors, we followed a few of our students downtown to sign up for Cha Cha lessons. Why not? After two lessons we realize that the range of motion of our hips is significantly less than that of our tight-jeaned Chinese instructor and that our oblique muscles need some serious exercise. But the teacher is excellent and we have made incremental progress and can now hum the cha cha beat while walking to class. It really is a small world!

Thoughts and Activities

Thoughts:

Many different ideas stream through the brain as the days go by. Also good advice is heard and should be recorded. I figure here is the best place since all those little pieces of paper seem to get misplaced.

A friend recommended that if we see something unique to take a picture of it then. The next time we see it, it may not seem very unique and almost appear normal. This is true especially as we start to travel the same roads and pass the oddities regularly.

I saw a shirt today that was interesting. Interesting because it was in English and that they were actual English words. Many of the clothing we see will have English sounding words but not make sense at all. The shirt said, 'An ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory." I should have taken a picture then, but am culturally aware enough to know that photographing a random woman's chest is not allowed.

We continue to be amazed at how poorly the local towels and sponges absorb water. I used to think it would be impossible to actually make a 100% cotton towel not absorb water. The sponges work if there is enough surface area to spread out the spilled water until it no longer exists, but Chinese sponges do not actually hold onto water. Our new analogy: Li is learning Chinese. Her parents are also learning and their brains are like a Chinese sponge.

Activities:

Returned to Baisha past weekend (10/14) and found those amazing frescos that we missed the first time. Visited a big temple that a local ruler built for his Mom. Do not know what he made for her on her next birthday. Timed the lunch and coffee while it poured rain. The streets were almost dry again for our bike ride home.

Earlier we posted a picture of Li next to the Chinese character for her name. Li's name has the same character as in our town, LiJiang, Beautiful river. Li means beautiful.

That is all.

Pandas, The Opera and a $2 Haircut

We and about 500,000 of our closest friends chose Chengdu, Sichuan Province as our travel destination during the Chinese National Week. We were allowed to take 7 days off because we made up Thursday and Friday's classes the previous Saturday and Sunday (the entire country does this) which completely messes up which class is getting which lesson but no one else really seems bothered by this. National week celebrates the day China became a republic and adds the American "Day after Thanksgiving" element of a huge shopping holiday (remember, China is working on its market economy). Fortunately we found ourselves a nice guest house tucked in an alley to escape the hoards of people at the end of each day.

One of the undoubted highlights of our trip was a visit to the Panda Preserve. It's hard to understand why watching 4 large bears lounge against a log and eat massive quantities of bamboo is so enthralling, but it truly is, even in a downpour. I realize I can see that kind of mess made at breakfast time right in my own apartment, but somehow it is not the same. The seven baby pandas in a crib were remarkably helpless and darn cute.

As indicated in the title, we also found our way to the Sichuan Opera which combines acrobatics, elegant costumes, vaudeville, and some astounding musical solos on the Chinese Erhu (2 string)-which should put the players of 4 and 6 stringed instruments to shame. Li liked the fact that they gave a 4 inch cushion to sit on so she could see!

We decided to travel to LeShan one day to see the famed Giant Buddha since we couldn't quite imagine what 71m of carved godlike creature might look like. It's not that we didn't remember it was a holiday week, but our brains couldn't grasp the enormity of the crowds. We had a quintessential Chinese experience of "standing" in line for hours. As we discovered, the Chinese are incapable of waiting for anything. So though we were in a narrow line with metal railings, you had to guard your position fiercely lest the people behind you elbow their way past you to get a few spaces ahead in a 3 hour line! It was both amusing and annoying. So we simply began to rest our hands on the railing on either side of us to prevent people from pushing past us-this made us unpopular, but gave a brief respite from the constant shoving and pushing from behind.

Most of the rest of our week we spent wandering the streets of Chengdu and stumbling on adventures like the Chengdu Amusement Park. We went there looking for a geocache, which was no doubt removed when the overgrown bamboo was cleared away, but enjoyed ourselves on vomit inducing spinning cars and a log ride. We spent a lot of time in the parks people watching and holding tight onto our backpacks. Our map wasn't exactly to scale so we also spent a lot of time bribing Li to keep walking "just a bit more" to find a bus stop or a destination. She averaged 4-5 miles a day of reluctant walking. One day we ended up in the center of the city when the fountains began their dance choreographed to music under the watchful eyes of the Mao statue. Though there were hundreds of kids, Li was the only one soaked by the end of it. Her fatigue dissipated as she twirled and sang and jumped among the water spray, until the walking resumed that is.

We ate Sichuan hot pot, giant fruit cake, burgers at our guest house, and admittedly, drank some Starbucks (same prices as the US!). One night the owner of the guest house took us and two Danish families out to dinner at a local restaurant (8 adults versus 9 children, you guess who won). We saw Buddhist and Taoist temples. We all acquired a few new clothes and purchased the first Harry Potter book to begin reading to Li. And of course we people watched.

Shana got a haircut the day were were departing. For $2 I got a 10 minute head and scalp massage, two kinds of shampoo and conditioner, 4 "stylists" talking about what to do with me, a 45 minute haircut of incredible detail and precision, lots of photos taken by the stylists and more attention than I have ever had in a beauty salon. I may end up bald by the time I come home just to keep getting the scalp massages! Steve meanwhile, unwilling to give up more hair, read Chinese beauty magazines and watched the soap opera and infomercials on TV. Li watched the stylists.

The pictures tell the rest of the stories.

No vacation for another three months-it just doesn't seem right!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

Tuesday night all of China celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival. Traditionally this day, which occurs on August 15 of the lunar calendar, celebrates the harvest. It is also associated with a legend about the beautiful Change E who drank a potion to become immortal and she flew to the moon where she lives forever with her white rabbit. The reasons she drank the potion vary depending on the legend, but they all revolve around the fact that her husband Hou Yi was never home and she was tired of being alone. It doesn't seem like it really helped her much as there is not much entertainment on the moon. Mid-Autumn Day is similar in many ways to our Thanksgiving. Families travel from far distances to their homes to be together, eat a large meal and then spend the evening outside making wishes on the full moon and eating beautiful mooncakes and fruit. Our small apartment is overrun with both items at the moment. If I only had an oven or sugar and cinnamon I could do something with 10 pounds of apples. We find the moon cakes hit or miss-a bit like Bertie Bots Every Flavor Jelly Beans. Sometimes you bite into one and it is sweet bean paste with an egg, other times meat other times mint. I have to admit to being a bit gun shy!

We celebrated the Moon Festival by venturing into the other old town and having dinner. After dinner we joined the crowds (many of them our students) dancing around the bonfire in the main square. It was part primitive and part U2 concert.

Happy Mid-Autumn Day, and we thought of you all under the full moon.

Don't Be Fooled by the High Heels

When our liaison Barbara invited us on a hiking trip on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain we thought sure, what a great way to see the mountain and to get to know more of the Chinese teachers. How hard can it be? They wear stockings and high heels everyday and shade themselves from the sun with an umbrella. As we were soon to learn, Barbara is a hiking machine, even in a nice sweater with faux pearls on it!

Our party of seven took off from a small Naxi Village at about 8,800 feet. We were passed by a string of chain smoking Chinese tourists riding donkeys. Their guides, also smoking, seemed rather bored of the trek. There were a few resting places along the way where the horses and tourists could get a break from one another. We doggedly climbed our way through the forest until we were funneled past some small shacks where the locals demanded our 100 Yuan entry fee (each). Being local teachers helped cut the price a bit and Barbara's fluency in the local Yunnan dialect helped even more. After 5 minutes of heated exchange we paid 20 Yuan total-a far better deal than 700 Yuan.

From here we made our way up above treeline. Our next resting area was a small stone hut littered with garbage and used oxygen bottles. These small portable bottles are sold all over and are generally right next to the large surplus Army parkas that are rented to climb the mountain. At this point our party divided in its goals. Steve, Li on Steve's back, Barbara and I humped our way up some steep alpine terrain and called 13,198' (Just over 4,000m) our summit for the day. The mountain exceeds 18K. We were happy no one incurred grievous injury on the steep descent. Finally, after 9 hours of hiking, 9.2 miles and 3637' of gain, we have learned that looks can be deceiving. Never underestimate a woman in heels.

We also learned that the best thing to have for dinner after such a day is a recently slaughtered chicken in a pot of bubbling broth-also known as a traditional hot pot dinner. If you could get over the "parts" floating in the broth, it was wonderfully delicious. Barbara and our companion Judy both complained that they do not like to buy chicken at the market because they cut the feet off and they love the feet. They also both agreed that the stomach was by far the best part. We were generous enough to let them have those delicacies and the heart and the liver and...

Today, we rested.

The Jade Belt Walk

We decided to test our language skills by purchasing bus tickets and heading south for the weekend. Luckily Steve managed to buy tickets for the right bus on the right day to get us to Dali on Friday afternoon. The bus ride was in and of itself an experience. Our driver must have been paid more to arrive early because he spent the three hour drive passing every car, bus or object on the road with great vigor and liberal use of the horn. Most of the time you couldn't tell if there was oncoming traffic in the other lane because of the sharp corners on the mountain roads-I suspect he figured we had the mass to win whatever collision we sustained. Li vomited twice.

We arrived in Dali in a downpour and the moment we walked away from the bus we were hounded by people trying to get us into their taxi or wanting us to stay at their guesthouse. This is ubiquitous in Dali. As foreigners we were magnets for people trying to sell us things. It was fairly unpleasant and made us reluctant to spend much time wandering the streets. After a 30 minute walk in the rain through town we found our quaint guesthouse and had a nice quiet meal and a well deserved rest.

Dali is nestled at the foot of the Cangshan mountains-a spectacular series of sharp peaks and steep valleys full of waterfalls. We were able to take a chairlift (Made in the USA) from town up to the Zhonge Temple on the mountain. From here we walked 10K along a path known as the Jade Belt Walk. I still cannot fathom how this path was constructed. The terrain is ridiculously steep and muddy. This walk took us in and out of the valleys. It was a misty day so the clouds played up and down the slopes and occasionally we would get a peek of Dali below us. At the halfway point we found a group of Chinese tourists at the Seven Maiden Dragon Pool. This is a series of seven clear pools set in the bedrock. The granite slopes are steep and wet, so steps have been chiseled into the rock to provide purchase. Nevertheless we saw a woman in three inch spike heels trying to jump across a small waterfall. She missed and was only kept from sliding down the falls by three people who caught her. We decided we should leave before more interesting things happened.

The hike ends at Qingbi stream which forms the "Grand Canyon" of the Cangshan mountains. Li walked all but the last mile! From here we took the Gondola (made in Austria) to the base of the mountain. After being pursued by a van driver for 10 minutes we walked down to another Temple 45 minutes away. This Temple is built around a large stone. Legend has it when Dali was being invaded the Goddess of Mercy turned herself into and old woman and appeared before the invading army carrying this large stone. The army panicked and retreated thinking that if the old women were this strong, the men must be ferocious. Needless to say we all slept well after a long day of hiking and exploring.

On Sunday we braved the markets and the hawkers buying some small pieces of local Dali marble. More interesting are the thick city walls which surround the old town and the gates that guard the entrance. The most prominent local ethnic minority group are the Bai people. Li was very excited to buy some traditional clothing as a souvenir and didn't seem to care as much as I did that it was white!

Our bus driver on the way home was clearly in league with our first bus driver, but Li only vomited once. Steve did have to help the woman sitting next to him who was very green and sweaty and was trying hard to avoid using the "motion sickness" bag he offered her.

We called the weekend a success.

Your Daughter is Beautiful, Only 100 Yuan for the Bracelet Please

The theme of our last two adventures is the incessant aggressiveness of the local vendors trying to sell us everything from jade jewelry (which Li loves and wants) to pomegranates (which Li also loves and wants). Lijiang has become such a tourist attraction that a large part of the local economy is built upon the tourism trade, specifically the souvenier side of things. Though we are being increasingly recognized around our local shops as here for the duration, when we go into town we look just like all the other foreign tourists who couldn't possible live without scarves and bracelets. (That's not to say we won't end up with scarves and bracelets of course!) Li's insightful comment was, "I think that man wants you to buy everything on the table."

We spent many hours last Friday wandering the streets and alleys of the Old Town. Lijiang is divided into two distinct halves, the Old Town cobblestone lined streets made with traditional mud brick construction (that survived the 1996 earthquake remarkably well) and the new town which is a rapidly expanding sprawl of concrete buildings. The Old Town is full of delightful restaurants, guest houses and small shops. It is easy to wander for hours. Li is an immediate attraction to many people and we are becoming more adept at explaining that she is our daughter, she is 5 and she was born in Guilin, Guangxi. Li is usually very shy during these interchanges. One of the women merchants tried to coax her 6 year old son out of the back of her shop to say hello to Li and he insisted on hiding under a blanket and peering out occasionally. I guess we are not the only parents forcing our children to do things they don't like!

On the weekend we pedaled our bikes 5K to BaiSha, a small traditional Naxi village. Somehow we missed all the touted sites, like the BaiSha Frescoes, and instead found ourselves pushing our bikes along muddy tracks in search of an elusive temple. At one point we were "redirected" by two stern looking Naxi women, we were clearly on a path towards someone's home! We finally called a halt to our search when faced with miles of uphill switchbacks on our one speed bikes. We retreated back to the village and bounced our way along cobblestones through multiple small villages until returning back to our apartment. Having missed the main sights and having been unable to find the old landing field used by the Flying Tigers (my grandfather was a supply office with the Flying Tigers) we have decided BaiSha merits a return trip.

The Scent of China

I think my enduring memories will ultimately be the rich and varied aromas of China. Some come from the restaurants, some from the streets, some from the people, but the most interesting ones come from the grocery store. I had to resist the temptation to buy garlic scented dish soap and hand lotion fragranced with the smell of sheep placenta. Yes, I sniffed it, and it didn't smell too bad.

Kindergarten

Li is surviving and and perhaps even thriving in kindergarten. Monday, our "driver" picked up Li and Shana at the front gate of the University to take Li to school. Li was pretty nervous and broke down in tears during morning exercises with 200 kids shouting in Chinese around her. Shana spent the morning trying to get comfortable sitting in small plastic chair with Li and little cow on her lap. Lots of the little girls were vying for the opportunity to sit next to Li. Even the big rough and tumble boy wrestled a pear from other kids and brought it over to give to Li. She did loosen up during snack time, no surprise. We opted to leave right before nap time when she was in a reasonable mood-we didn't want to push our luck. Tuesday Shana and Li again were driven to school and Shana was able to leave Li in her classroom while she went to pay the bills. Approximately 9 hours later Li arrived at the front gate of the University riding in the front seat of the mini-van with no seatbelt. She was all smiles and happy. A big sigh of parental relief. Her driver in Mr. Zhou (Joe). He smiles a lot and we pull out our phrasebook to communicate.

Li's description of kindergarten included the following highlights:

Li says "I'm good. Today at Kindergarten I had a good day at school. My favorite part of the day is eating. I met Amy, Lucy, Linda. (English names)" She said that she spent nap time in a tent with a girl named Linda and they talked the whole time. The teacher kept telling them to go to sleep but they kept talking. We asked what they talked about and Li said "I don't know, she speaks Chinese." That somehow explains it.

Wednesday we decided to put her in the minivan by herself to go to school. She was scared and wanted one of us to be with her. Steve decided a little bribery went a long way so offered her some gum tonight if she went alone, she said she didn't want gum, he offered her some extra dessert, she also declined, then she grabbed his ear and whispered "money"! We think it stems from the little pockets on her pencil case that are just right for small change... I guess she's an American after all!

The Art of Bicycling

I thought I knew how to ride a bike. But no one ever taught me the art of weaving in and out of buses and taxis. Some streets have what passes for a bike/cart/motorcycle lane, others, well, not so much. The taxis and buses are kind enough to honk at you shortly before they run you over. As Steve describes it, you simply begin into an intersection and then maintain your speed. If you change speed to avoid obstacles (like pedestrians) it throws everyone else off. The most challenging obstacles are the British style round-abouts. Two lanes of traffic constantly entering and exiting the circle mixed with people and bikes. Li thinks it is all great fun and sits on the back of Steve's bike in her child seat eating sun flower seeds and shouting "faster sled dog!". Shana appears to enjoy the chaos of the round-abouts in that periodically she will go around one and a half times. Li is ever watchful saying, "Where is Mommy going?" I think biking also has a little similarity to winter driving. There is a time to be plodding and a time to go for it, still with the a sense of overwhelming caution. It is also amazing to see the variety of bikes, loads and people pedaling around. I am not surprised to see a biker on a cell phone holding an umbrella while navigating the streets. I wonder what the locals would think about a stationary exercise bike.

A New Definition of Leadership

Always on the lookout for ways to define leadership, we came across the following from Owen Fashion:

"We always keep the intonation of appearance, supremacy of quality and the self nobility, are all the distinctions of a modern leader's confidence."

One Week Ago

We were frantically finishing our last minute packing enroute to Lijiang. It is somewhat surprising that after a week we almost feel like we have a routine. Unfortunately we cannot seem to figure out the inconsistent hours of the cafeteria and have eaten a lot of "ramen". You would not believe the walls of ramen at the store with interesting pictures. We have tried to avoid the ones with the pictures of chili peppers. We made our first foray to the vegetable market yesterday and bought some beautiful looking veggies. There were plenty we could not identify. We don't yet have the fortitude to buy whole dead chickens lying on plywood at the meat market. All the chicken dishes we have eaten include plenty of bone and gristle. We wonder how people would do here without some basic camping skills. The beds are about as soft as granite and without any hot water to do dishes we rely on our dilute bleach rinse. We are meeting more teachers, both Chinese and foreign. We stick out on campus so students and teachers routinely approach us to talk and a student we met in the store today helped us find a place to buy speakers. We will continue to update the Picassa picture site. We have added a bunch from our trip to the Black Dragon Pond two days ago. We didn't add the ones from all the men in their bright red skivvies bathing in the reservoir! Li is becoming quite skilled at the art of the squat toilet and loves the popsicles we found at the corner store.

Teaching the Old Fashioned Way

When is the last time all of your students automatically responded "Good Morning" in unison? It's a bit disconcerting from adults! Our first lesson as teachers was to be careful how we dressed. Black pants show the chalk dust! Our students are eager and polite with mixed skill level. Steve chose to draw maps of the United States and our travels while Shana made her students write personal ads and letters to advice columnists. Both took pictures of all their students to begin the process of learning the names of our roughly 200 students. The English names chosen by the students are fascinating. Mixed in with the mainstream are names like: Eleven, Unique, Feverwort and Cinderella. Unsurprisingly, we both received the advice to slow down our speaking...Luckily we made it to the weekend!

We Made It!

Though long, travel was remarkably uneventful. We were picked up at the airport by our gracious Liaison Barbara and driven the last 40 minutes to the Tourism and Culture College of Lijiang. As it is the tail end of the rainy season, the tops of the mountains have yet to reveal themselves, but the views are likely to be stunning in the winter. Our apartment is utilitarian and college cinderblock sterile. We have been sprucing things up with some fabric wall hangings, maps and a liberal dose of bleach.

Our first few days have been a whirlwind of setting up the apartment, tours around town and prepping for teaching. We are thankful for the number 11 bus which routinely takes us the 4 miles into town. The Old Town promises to be a wonderful place to explore and get lost in the maze of alleys and canals.

As predicted, we received our teaching schedules about 12 hours before classes were slated to begin. Today Shana found out that she begins teaching on Friday though she was originally told September 10. Our internet was finally connected last night and has made a huge difference in feeling connected.

Today's adventures included buying bicycles ($85 for two brand new one speed bikes complete with baskets and locks), buying a printer/copier/scanner, and a visit to the one yuan store (the equivalent of the dollar store, only one yuan is about 13 cents) and then biking back with all of our treasures.

We visited Li's kindergarten which she described as loud. It seemed quite nice and they will arrange for a driver for her each way. Kindergarten goes from 7:30am-7pm and includes three meals a day, numerous hygiene breaks and 2.5 hours of napping. We'll have to see how that goes!

So far I think Li's happiest moments have been the purchase of her new pink umbrella (giant with blue tulips), eating 2 foot long green beans and floating on a pool of water in a giant plastic bubble!

We'll post some pictures on the Picasa site.

Thank you for the bon voyage!

Many thanks to all the friends who came to wish us a fond farewell last night at the Lander City Park (and even more thanks to the organizers!). We were delighted by the number of people who promised to show up on our doorstep in China. We have no idea in what style we will be able to host you, but we will roll out whatever serves as a red carpet. Bon Voyage!

How to send us mail and other goodies

September 1, 2007-June 30, 2008

Steve Platz/Shana Tarter
LIJIANG TOURSIM AND CULTURE COLLEGE of Yunnan University
Yuquan Road, Old Town District
Lijiang City, 674100 Yunnan
P. R. China
sltsjp@wyoming.com

We have tickets!

In spite of the credit card company's best efforts to thwart our travel, we managed to purchase one-way tickets from San Francisco, CA, USA to Lijiang, Yunnan, China. Purchasing one way tickets is not a true statement of intent rather an indication of the unpredictable nature of our year's schedule. Sadly, though we are flying on three different airlines, none of our mileage accounts will be credited for what will be a very long journey.