Dancing

Today a friend called me and told me to come outside because there were dancers performing in my apartment complex's courtyard. I never figured out the reason these people were dancing or if it was some sort of holiday. But it was fun sitting around with my neighbors watching. They wore colorful robes with all sorts of jewelry. Their sleeves were extra long such that they flapped gracefully when they were waved their arms.

Rain, Rain...

It's hard to say 'go away' to the rain, as it rarely rains here. But tonight as we were walking home from dinner it started to rain. It's such a dry and dusty town, we could use a lot of rain to wash things down.

Not much is going on these days.....

My New Class

I switched school classes last week. My new class is a pure conversation and listening class, which is exactly what I needed. Now I'm with the Korean class (the university usually separates the Western students from the Korean students, as different text books and learning styles are used). It's extra challenging, as the teacher and the text books do not use any English. Reading characters is stressed and used over the phonetic alphabet. It will be a work out, but should be good. And today they added two more students, so now there are two Koreans, two Japanese, one Mongolian, one Hungarian, and me. We chit chat in Chinese because it's our only common language!

Peep Hole

We have this HUGE peep hole on our front door. It's good because I can clearly see outside our door and into our neighbors apartment. But it's bad because outside people can see into my apartment. So today I covered up the peep hole, but not without Ben first taking a picture.

Flowers

I was invited to attend a baby shower today. I decided on taking flowers, as I had no clue what to bring or where to find baby stuff. There's a whole sale flower market located down the street from my house with discounted flowers. It was an easy decision to go with Orchids, as they were only 60 Cents per stem! I got four overflowing stems, two purple, two white. Check out the picture on how pretty these flowers where. It's nice to have a husband that knows more than me about flowers and arranging them.

Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
one ha' penny,
two ha' penny,
hot cross buns.
If you have no daughters,
give them to your sons,
one ha' penny,
two ha' penny,
Hot Cross Buns


I ate some for the first time today because somebody told me it was tradition.
I think I'm turning British.... I even ate it with a cup of tea....

Home Cooking

Ben's been cooking me breakfast and dinner recently, as I've been tired of cooking. The other night we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, glazed carrots, and watermelon for dessert. Last night we had tuna fish sandwiches (it's not easy to find tuna or bread in this town!) with an array of fresh veggies. Breakfast I usually get hash browns, fried eggs, toast, and oatmeal. Ben often makes me milk shakes too...tonight I got one with a little bit of chocolate in it. It's funny to eat so much American food here, but I'm not complaining because I sure am eating well!

Swimming

A friend took me to the local gym to go swimming. Everybody in that pool swimming laps only did breaststroke! I guess it shouldn't have surprised me because last week I asked my teacher to translate the different stroke names (freestyle, backstroke, butterfly) and she only know how to say breaststroke. I thought that was odd, but I guess if that's all people do in this town, then it makes perfect sense...

Holiday

Monday was a holiday. I think it was something similar to veterans day / memorial day. Then Tuesday our teacher had some important matters to take care of and canceled classes. It was nice to get a little break.

I used the break to get caught up on my grocery shopping. There is only one store in town where I can find decent beans and a different store to buy spaghetti noodles. Both of which happens to be located on the complete opposite side of town.

Different Cultures

Being here not only exposes me to Asian culture, but also to many other cultures from all over the world.

Last night I had dinner with some friends from the UK. The discussion turned toward how the British love their tea. Stories then went around of traumatic events and how tea soothed their shock.

- a water pipe in this girl's dorm room broke and her hall mates rushed in to help her get her stuff out of the room and stop the water. Afterward the British girl made a big pot of tea and had her hall mates over for tea.
- there was a terrible train wreck in the UK a while ago. The neighbors in the surrounding neighborhood rushed out of their houses with tea pots to serve the victims tea.
- a lady in the hospital was just diagnosed with cancer. A nurse rushed in, after the doctor left, to serve the patient tea.

I was told that people from the UK grow up learning that tea w/ sugar helps prevent a person from going into shock. Plus it is a practical way of doing something helpful during a traumatic time.

It just made me wonder if any other cultures had such a strong and common item for dealing with stress? I like tea and all, but I think I would want food too...bring on the soup and rice!

The language learning continues...

Most of the time learning the language is pretty intense. The teacher usually only speaks chinese and only writes characters on the board, unless we are at the end of our rope and have no clue what is going on...which maybe happens daily.

We sometimes unknowingly say offensive things in chinese and the teacher pretends she is offended, until we correct our word choice / tones to our intended meaning.

The other day was the best, as one student was so excited that he understood the teacher, but didn't think about what he was saying to her. Below is the dialog. This day in the class room, our teacher wrote some new words on the board and was using the words in sentences until we figured out the meaning and proper usage.

This dialogue took place all in chinese.

Teacher: Eternal.

Teacher: The mountain is eternal. *long pause*

Teacher: See the mountain outside our class window, that mountain has been there and will always be there eternally. *long pause*

Student#1: Yes!!!! I eternally love you!!!

Teacher: No! *turns around and write on the board* I love you eternally.

Student#2: Really???

Student#1: Oh no!! *turns red*

Whole Class: *Laughs*

Elevators

I needed to get up to the ninth floor in a 24 floor building today. I was warned ahead of time that only one of the six elevators actually goes to the ninth floor. When I got to the lobby I found a crowd of people waiting for each of the six elevators. I asked one lady which one will take me to the 9th floor...she pointed in the other direction. So I went to another elevator and asked another lady, who then pushed her way to the front to show me the small sign listing which floors each elevator goes to. That elevator only went to floors 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. The lobby finally cleared as the crowd made its way into their respective elevators. I found the one elevator that went to floor nine, only to realize that it was out of service! I hopped on the elevator that took me to the eighth floor and found a set of stairs to get me to the ninth floor. I felt like I had solved a complex math problem....or maybe this is Frogger II: the elevator challenge.

Pineapples

I was surprised to find it's pineapple season, as there are plenty of fruit vendors selling pineapples at a very cheap price. Plus the pineapple vendor peels and cleans the whole pineapple, then weighs and sells it. Such a sweet and tasty treat.

Cookout

Some Swiss friends invited us to cookout with them for dinner. Our apartment complex is located on the edge of town, and we walked less than five minutes down by the river before reaching a suitable site to build a fire. Sausages, homemade bread, potato chips, and french fries were served. So close to our city home, yet surrounded by trees we felt like we were really out in the woods on an adventure. We had just enough time to eat, chat, and enjoy before a storm started blowing in, signaling the end of our cookout. We quickly packed up and ran home, just in time before the rain started. A lovely evening.

Train Trip - Part#2

Next stop was another 24 hour train ride to Kashgar. This town was like stepping back in time, as it had the feel of an old city seen only in movies. Old style houses, small alley ways, vendors pushing carts of food along streets, men barbecuing mutton kabobs along the sidewalks, and women in colorful scarf head coverings...were all sights from this town. The people were mainly Uygur Muslim, speaking a form of Turkish. Such an amazing place.

Pomegranates were plentiful in this town and many local vendors sold small cups of freshly squeezed juice. Later we realized that these small cups were rarely washed. As we walked through the alleys of the old part of the city, many kids begged us to take their picture, not sure why, but it was a quick way to make a small friend. Visited a local Muslim cemetery still in use today. It seemed that each family owned one plot and underground there were many chambers to bury many bodies. The bazaar was a world of its own - a sea of people filled the street selling and buying just about everything. This guy was selling sliced pieces of melon. The other guy on the left was making fresh noodles. I sat and watched as he was cooking a bowl of homemade spinach tortellini for me.

Train Trip - Part#1

Before school started we caught a train up north to check out some of the sights that we long heard about but never had the opportunity to see. Our first stop was Urumqi. It was a 24 hour, non-stop, train ride to this city. It was my first experience with sleeping on bunk beds three rows high. Time passed quickly and we eventually made it. Urumqi is a much bigger and more diverse city then where I currently live. There is a lot of color and history close by. Here are a few of the sights that we saw by order of the pictures to the left: Pic#1: We first ventured to a park located high up on a hill... Pic#2: ...where we could see the whole city. Pic#3: The park had all sorts of cultural items... Pic#4: ...and cultural scenery. Pic#5: The next day we took a bus just outside the city to a small town known for their grape vines and Uygur people. It's supposed to be a fairy tale city in the summer time, but things were sort of dead and cold during the winter. Pic#6: There were plenty of grape / raisin drying houses located around the city. Pic#7: We checked out a UNESCO old city site... Pic#8: ...and posed for a group shot. Pic#9: It was the remains of a civilization a long time ago. Since it was off season, we were the only people looking at the site. Pic#10: On the drive back to Urumqi we passed by these wind turbines located in the middle of dessert.

Hot and Cold

The best and worst part of being here is you really never know what's going to happen next. This morning it was our hot water. Water runs hot for 5 seconds, then cools off, and runs cold for 5 seconds, before heating back up and repeating the cycle. So taking a shower looks like: Wet hair, stand back and count to 5, lather, rinse hair, stand back and count to 5, wet hair again, stand back and count to 5....etc. Turns out it's happening to our neighbors too. Maybe it will start working again? I don't know, but such is life.

I'm Back

It was about a 40 hour trip, door-to-door. The trip was uneventful, which is usually the best kind. It was a 3 hr flight, 2 hr layover, 15 hr flight, 17 hr layover, 2.5 hr flight, 0.5 hr ride back to our apartment. We spent one night in a hotel during the 16 hour layover. The set up of the room was like any standard hotel, BUT the shower had ALL glass walls (with pull down shades when actually taking a shower). So from the toilet, you could see straight through the shower to the bed and outside window. Such a pretty room. It was nice to be back in Asia, and in the morning when we went to the airport at 6am to catch our last leg flight- we found many restaurants open and serving hot dishes and soups. There is nothing as satisfying as a big bowl of noodles for breakfast! We arrived back at our apartment, finding it just as we left it. This week has been filled with cleaning, re-arranging our apartment, registering, signing up for classes, and reconnecting with friends. It's been good to be back.

Going Home

So I'm going home for a few months. This will be my last post until I return. I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family. Especially to get away from this cold weather and thaw out a bit. Drop me an email if you would like to get together and hear more stories in person!

Bus Ride Home

Another part of normal life is taking the bus around the city. Most of the time it goes well and routine.

But today I got on a bus going in the wrong direction. It's a common mistake. After a few minutes of riding a crowded bus, I realized my mistake, and confirmed it with the lady standing next to me. So I got off the bus, crossed the street and got on the right bus, going in the right direction.

Almost home, the bus broke down. The driver told us all to get off and wait for the next bus. Fifteen minutes later, still no bus, but the bus driver fixed the bus and we all got back on and were on our way home.

Just another day in the city.