Livejournal returns

I've enjoyed my stint at Blogger, but now that I'm back in the States I'm going to switch back to Livejournal. I'll keep my Blogger for the next time we head back to China (as LiveJournal is blocked in China.) I have no idea if I picked up any readers here, but if so, feel free to go to my livejournal site to read. I'll update it much more often than I did Blogger. Hope to see you there!

The Monkey king

There are always plenty of opportunities to pose with some sort of wild/tame animal at these touristy spots in China. This little guy is dressed as the fabled monkey king. After the boys posed with him, we noticed that his butt looked red and swollen. Yuck, funky monkey butt! Luckily I carry anti-bacterial hand santizer in my purse, so everyone slathered up with it.

I had a wonderful Mother's day. Zack folded the laundry for me, and Petey built me 3 lego spaceships as well as drew me some Kirby pictures. Chris made sure I got a long nap (my favorite Mother's day tradition). It was a peaceful day, all and all.

We are still waiting to get our ticket situation straightened out. We're wanting to return to the States earlier then planned, and hope to change our tickets today. I'm trying to sort through our stuff, what to take back and what to get rid of. How did we amass so much stuff in only 10 months time!! Amazing.

rural bathrooms

Although this bathroom may strike you as primitive, it was very, very clean. The stalls are only about waist high, and door-less. With the combination of no roof, one gets the unmistakable feeling that anyone walking by outside can simply peek over the wall and take a glimpse of you doing your business. The way this works is to straddle the trench and squat. Simple and effective. I don't mind squatting anymore.


We stopped at this bathroom on our drive from Dali to Lijiong. It was at the top of a mountain, overlooking a very scenic spot. Perhaps you can tell from the pic that there were no English signs or pictures depicting which was the women's side and which was the men's. I'd learned the characters for both in my Chinese class, but well, they hadn't quite stuck in my mind like they should have. I was fairly certain which was which, but not certain enough to boldly walk into the one that I thought was women's. I just sort of wandered-drifted towards the one I suspected to be women's and looked back at the bathroom attendant, hoping she'd point me in the right directions. She did :)

Speaking of the attendant, there was a lone woman sitting outside by the bathroom. We suspect her job was to make sure people didn't come and help themselves to the water intended for handwashing. This was a rural area, and somewhat arid. Water is a valuable commodity, and she's there to make sure people don't steal it. I wanted to take her picture, but I felt silly enough as she watched me photograph the bathroom.

I really enjoy playing Mahjong, although my understanding of it is pretty elementary. Nanny Zou says that I play the "old people's" version :) That's ok, because it's still pretty complex. I've been learning additional rules little by little. I'll miss playing it when we leave China. Perhaps I can find a Mahjong group wherever we end up next? This guy in the picture actually has a really good hand.

strolling in dali

Although Dali largely caters to tourists, it was still a wonderful place to visit. I really enjoyed my time there. I'm trying to overcome my shyness about photographing strangers. After all, we , as foreigners, are often photographed by people who don't ask our permission. These are a few of my attempts at such.

Jims guest house

Jim's Tibetan Guest House

Jim's was the coolest place we've stayed during our whole China adventure. The kids favorite part, of course, was the courtyard complete with bikes and skateboards for them to play with. There was also a swing, and a sandbox. This place was so kid friendly, which seems to be the exception in China (as there are less kids then adults).

It was a bit chilly at night and no heater in the rooms. However, each bed had a gigantic heating pad which could be turned on and quickly warmed up the occupants. I woke up sweating more than once, switching the heat on and off all night long. The breakfast there was also quite yummy: fruit, yogurt and muesli.

We loved Dali.

I don't feel motivated to blog any longer. Perhaps it is because I miss LiveJournal, or maybe I just have other things on my mind. A large part of me is focused on returning to the States. Sometimes it seems like I can't think about anything else. All my problems will be solved when we get home to the States!

As if...

I need to remind myself that we've been very happy here. Money has been a non-issue while we've lived in China, for the first time in our 10 years of marriage. We are already stressing about money problems once we return, primarily because as of now we will be unemployed come August 1.

Still, I can't help but daydream about driving myself to the grocery store, being allowed to take the cart out to my car, and driving my groceries home right to my front door. This is not to mention the plethora of good eats that will abound in the store. No more turtles, bullfrogs and cuttlefish stinking up the whole meat department. I won't have to look at pig brains, hearts and intenstines when I'm looking for pork chops. No one will be pointing at me, staring at me, saying "look, a forienger!" I'll just blend in with all the other oddball Americans. No one will gawk when I buy $50 worth of groceries (*gasp!*) Heck, no one will gawk if I buy $200 worth of groceries! The fact that I have three kids will be commonplace, and no cause for comment. And no matter how crowded the store is, whether it be the 4th of July or Christmas Eve, it will never, ever be as crowded as the Nanjing Wal-mart is every single Saturday.

Yes, I know. I'm looking at the States, and grocery shopping, with rose colored glasses. I don't care. It will be a joyous occasion.

Returning from the Stone Forest

A hillside tomb
Water Buffalos in a truck
A herd of goats on the freeway
Tour guide dressed in traditional minority costume

Stone Forest

The Stone Forest is my favorite place that we went during our whole vacation. It was beautiful, and so different from anything I've ever seen before. The grass was lush and well cared for, although it carried the same restrictions as all grass in China: keep off! We played dumb, as the signs were all in Chinese, and let the kids on the grass anyway. No one said anything to us.
These rocks are called the Flames. When taking a photo of them, it's thought very important not to include any people in the picture. It's considered bad luck for a person to be in the same photo as the Flames.
Chris, being attacked by a random arm sticking out of the rocks!
Peek-a-boo Pete
The rock formation that Chris is jumping up and touching is a Tooth. If you can jump up and reach it, it's thought that you will have good dental health for the rest of your life. Chris had a large crowd gathered to watch him when he jumped. They all applauded when he touched the Tooth.

school yard

This pic was taken in Kunming from our hotel window. These are school children out for their morning exercise. I think it's very interesting how perfect their formation is.

A walk in the park

Saturday we went to Jianpu for a stroll through the city. I borrowed a digital camera so I can finally post some recent pics (versus ones from over a month ago). I'm always hesitant to take pictures of babies in split pants. I want to preseve their modesty, but on the other hand they are just so cute with those butt cheeks peeking through their pants. I thought this was a relatively harmless shot. I also like it because it shows a professional ear picker. This woman cleans ears for a living. For a small fee, you can sit in her chair and have your ears completely cleaned out. I wonder if ear infections can be transmitted this way?
Jump Zack, Jump!!
This is an Engrish sign at our local grocery store. I think we should take a black marker with us one day and add some well placed puncation. We can change it to something like "Watch out! The Head!!"
Please keep your legs, it would be a shame for you to arrive at the bottom of the escalator with out them :)
Petey, floating through the air with the greatest of ease.

In other news, I watched "The Bridge to Taribethia" tonight. I really didn't know what it was about, having only seen the trailer. Wow, imagine my surprise when I ended up crying for 15 minutes straight. What a dirty trick.

I taught RS today AND gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It was stressful to have so much responsiblity for one Sunday, but I'm glad I had the chance. I learned a lot studying for today.

After church as we were walking along, I was accosted by an unusually agressive beggar. Let me set the scene for you: it had rained earlier that day so there were mud puddles all over the ground. When walking in the city, I have to constantly be on alert to what is happening around me. Scooters, bicycles, people who try and pick up my kids--these are all the dangers that lurk around every corner when strolling through the city. While I was walking today, I held both Zack and Josh's hands. I was paying close attention to steering them around the mud puddles when suddenly a beggar came up very close to us and grabbed Zack's arm. His other hand was missing, and the end of his arm was wrapped in a dirty rag. He proceeded to hit my arm with his stump, over and over again, while he asked for money. I had no money on me at all, but I didn't even have time to consider that fact. I was so upset that he had grabbed Zack and tried to be so forceful with me. I yelled "Hey, hey, hey!" (typing that it looks like I was doing a Fat Albert impersonation, but I assure you it was much more forceful and not as jolly.) We rushed away and he didn't follow us. It was very unsettling. I feel bad for such people, and normally I try to give them something. When a beggar is as aggressive as he was, I feel much less inclined to help. I know, its not for me to judge. Still, grabbing a child's arm? Not cool.

Kunming: Western Mountain

Western Mountain outside of Kunming is famous for the stairs, passageways and diety sculptures that were carved into it's cliffs by Taoist monks around 600 A.D. We rode a ski-lift type thing to the top. It was scary, but fun.


In other news, I'm really glad I've learned some Chinese. It's nice to at least have a general idea of what people around me are saying. For example, today one of my neighbor ladies was trying to talk to me. Another lady said to her (in Chinese) "She can't understand you." The first woman replied "Yes she can." And then she turned to me and said "Do you speak Chinese?" I said "A little." She then said something to me that I couldn't understand, but I was able to deduce what she was saying by her body language so I gave an appropriate answer. She smiled a large, beautiful smile in return. It's nice to actually be able to converse, however little, with my neighbors. I hope I'll always remember how hard it is to live in a foreign country and not know the language. I hope I can always keep empathy in my heart for those in the same situation living in America.

my lovely boys

While visiting Shanghai a couple months ago for the LDS Area Conference, we made a stop at China's first Toys R Us. Wow. The prices were outrageous but we still had fun. Here's Josh with a transformer about 5 times his size.

This was also taken in Shanghai, right outside the Provincial museum. I love how Zack looks as though he is floating in the air. I try and try to get a jumping picture with all three of them in the air, but we can never seem to coordinate such a venture. This one turned out quite nicely, nevertheless.
And FINALLY a Josie picture. She's about as twice as big now, but she still has that same sweet face.

Kunming

These are all pictures that I took in Kunming. Pineapple is in season and it is quite common to see carts of it in the streets. You can buy a peeled pineapple by the slice or whole. The vendors have special wedged knives to cut out the part of the peel that is deeper into the meat of the fruit. After the pineapple has been completely peeled, the result is a beautiful, spiraled work of art. Of course, the fruit is always sweet and delicious.


Here's vendor selling cherry tomatoes from baskets on his bike. The tomatoes are tiny, much smaller than any I've ever seen before. Also, tomatoes are always considered a fruit here. They are in the fruit section of the produce department, and they are served in fruit salads.


I'm fairly certain that these women aren't throwing this cabbage away. They've chopped up mass quantities to be used in their restaraunt later that day. The woman off to the side who is looking at the two workers is a rubbish woman. The burlap bag she has in her hands is what she uses to collect recyclables all day long.


I found a store with my name on it!

Josie's new home?

I think we've found a home for Josie. Remember the mean dog that barked at Petey and knocked him down? The people who owned him got rid of that dog shortly after the incident and we heard that they had the dog killed because of our anger over it's aggression. I've felt badly about the whole thing but perhaps we can make up for it. Our nanny and Mariannette's nanny talked to these particular neighbors and explained to them that we were looking for a home for Josie. They said they'd be glad to take her!! Now we need to decide when we will hand her over. Honestly we feel the sooner she's out of our house, the better. However, if she's only moving up the road from us, I think it will be confusing for her. She'll want to run back to our house every chance she gets. Maybe we should wait until we leave? I take her for her final rabies shot on Friday, so we won't do anything before then.

These people live a very simplistic life. They collect cardboard to recycle for extra cash. They raise their own chickens (which Josie is scared of) and they often have slabs of meat hanging up on the tree outside their home. I think this is to cure the meat. They always have the door to their home wide open, so I've seen inside plenty of times. It's always extremely tidy but also pretty sparsely furnished. What will they think when we hand over Josie, with her accompanying bed, toys and dog food? Will they think it's absurd if they knew we bought a space heater just for her? They probably don't even own a heater. As for dog food, most people just feed their dogs table scraps around here. We can't even buy dog food in our little town. We have to go to Nanjing to get it. It will be a very different life for her, but a good one. These people love her already and always say hi to her when they see her out and about. Sometimes I look at her and I think she's such a loving, happy dog and I can't imagine getting rid of her. Other times, like tonight, she constantly attacks me (playfully) while I'm trying to read peacefully on the couch and I find her so frustrating! She deserves a better quality of life than we can give her right now.

Petey
Zack

We did this one afternoon at a mall in Nanjing. Super cheap, super fun. The employees who run the jump-a-thingy were perfectly willing to let Josh do it too. However, Chris and I decided he was too little. Although Zack and Petey had a great time doing it, they were both quite scared initially. The looks on their faces flashed between terror and joy as they first began to jump. After the the first few jumps they decided it was the greatest thing since Nintendo came up with Yoshi. Whenever the kids complain about living in China, I have to remind them of all the fun things they've had the chance to do here that they'd never get to do in America. Something like this would cost at least $10 a person, right? It was about $2 :)

We've bought our return tickets home and it has wiped out our bank account. Back to the good ol' days of being broke again:) I've begun to think about getting rid of stuff that we can't or don't want to take back with us. Books, for example, that I've already read so I see no point in taking with us. I've heard there is a used bookstore in Nanjing, although I have no idea if they buy Foreign books or not. This is something we need to check into.

We've decided that we are definitely not taking Josie the pup back with us. Even if we were staying in China we wouldn't be keeping her. She's not the right fit for our family. She still (STILL!!) bites Josh's ankles. She doesn't bite anyone else in the family, only him. I think it's because she knows he's the youngest and she's trying to assert some sort of dominance over him. We talked to Mr. Du to see if he had any ideas for helping us find a new home for Josie. He told Chris there are two ways to get rid of a dog: We can take her to the country and drop her off, or we can can give her to someone who will eat her. Yeah, neither of those are viable options for us. I'm hoping the vet we take her to will be able to help us find a new home for her.

This morning the kids, or more likely Josie the pup, ripped open a travel pillow. We now have a plethura of teeny, tiny styrofoam beads scattered all over our house. They won't sweep up, they won't mop up. Oh, for the luxury of a vaccuum cleaner! The only thing that works is to wipe them up with a damp cloth. Of course, they scatter every which way with the slightest breeze. The boys have them in their hair, in between their toes, and all over thier beds. I have a feeling the residents of this apartment will be finding these sytrofoam beads for many, many years to come.

I hope never to take conviences such as vaccuum cleaners for granted again. All the comforts of the States, I hope this experience will always help me remember what a blessing they are. Automatic dishwashers, clothes dryers, having my own car and being able to drive it myself. All these are things I've missed so much while we've been here.

Only 6 more weeks!

I know I've been slacking on updating my blog lately. I'll blame this on the fact that I have a lot of other things on my mind. We've been told by the bosses that Chris won't be needed to come back here and teach next year. Student enrollment is too low. Therefore, come August 1 we are officially unemployed. It's a stressful postition to be in, to realize that we have no set plan for our family in the fall. Chris has applied for several jobs, and has had a couple of interviews so far. One of them took place as we were driving through the mountains. Thank heavens for Skype! Here we are driving through mountan passes and tunnels, yet somehow he is able to participate in an interview with a committee sitting half way around the world. Technology is amazing. As we haven't heard anything from yet, we taking the stance that "no news is good news". If we aren't able to land a visiting professor job, it looks like we may have no choice but to head back to Tucson. At least there Chris can work as a TA and get free tuition. Ack, I can't stand the thought of living on that tiny salary again. Food stamps, WIC, Medicaid, all that goes hand in hand with being a TA. I don't want to go back to that life again.

Accompanying this uncertain future we're facing has come a fair amount of stress. It's odd, because I don't feel stressed mentally. I keep telling myself we'll be ok, something will come along. I truly believe that too. I know we'll be ok. However, although I tell my mind that everything will be ok, my body is still exhibiting all the signs and symptoms of extreme stress-outed-ness. I have a cold, the third one this winter. Maybe this is due to the pollution, but usually I only get one (if that!) cold per winter. Also, I've had a sick tummy for about a week and I find myself getting lightheaded on a pretty regular basis. I've taken to walking every morning to try and combat this stress. Exercise always does wonders for my mental well-being. The walking is already making a difference.

We told the kids we are moving back to the States. They're very happy. That makes me happy.

An evening at the Confucian Temple Market

sugar artThis is a beautiful snack that is available to buy at the Confucian Temple market. The vendor has a wheel which the customer can spin to help him decide which animal he'd like made for him. I've never bought one because I think they are simply too beautiful to eat. It's made from melted sugar candy that cools and sets as soon as it is swirled into the image of the animal.

Pounding rice This man is using a huge mallet to pound rice. When we first began watching him, the rice looked like it had just come out of a rice cooker: just normal, steamed rice. However, after about 10 minutes of pounding, it had been transformed into a solid, starchy mass. The individual grains were no longer distinguishable. This is how "glutonous rice" is made and it's delicious. Earlier this week we had figs stuffed with glutonous rice. Yummy!


The boys need to rest after all our wanderings through the market.

Jump!I always love a good jumping picture:)
Would you like some fruit with your fly?\ This is a pic of fruit kabobs, a common and popular snack sold by street vendors. The fruit is candy coated. When we first arrived here, I told Chris I wanted to try one. He told me they were coated in pigs blood. I've since learned that isn't always true, but I still haven't had the desire to eat one again.

And We're Back

Whew! What a crazy 10 days that was. I think we did/saw/traveled more in those 10 days than most people do in a year. It was amazing, as well as very, very difficult. I'm glad to be home and looking forward to some nice, uneventful, peaceful rest.

Our flight home was delayed until 1:20 a.m. Although Josh fell asleep early on, Zack and Petey played their Gameboys until we boarded the plane. We didn't arrive home to our front step until almost 5 a.m. We were all so exhausted.

I got up at 8 the same morning to let Nanny Zou in. I'd already decided to go grocery shopping because we had nothing. We'd told the student we hired to take care of Josie that she was welcome to eat whatever she wanted, and she took us at our word :) Zou decided to come with me to the store, as there wasn't really anything, besides laundry, for her to do around the house (she'd come while we were away and the house was still very clean.)

I've realized something about myself lately. I've become accostumed to life in China. Events that used to strike me as bizarre or noteworthy now just seem commonplace. For example, at the store yesterday our cart tipped over on the movator (again). We had to scramble to pick up our groceries off the floor while people walked all around us. Another time a woman tried to steal our grocery basket and I had to snatch it back right out of her hands. But neither of these are why I started writing this blog entry. These things didn't even come to mind when I sat down to express my feelings about yesterday.

My main reason for writing this is to vent about another event altogether. After we finished up at the store we had to take a taxi home. When we arrived home, Zou asked the taxi driver for a receipt. I heard her and spoke up and told the driver we didn't need one. Under normal circumstances, the program does not reimburse us for taxi expenses. The driver had already turned off the car and it was going to be a hassle to get the receipt. I didn't want to bother, and we didn't really need it anyway.

Later that day at lunch, I told Chris that we had to take a taxi because the program driver was "unavailable" to bring us home. For various reasons that I won't go into now, this made Chris upset and he declared he was going to submit this taxi expense for reimbursement. He asked me if I had the receipt. I said no and left it at that. I didn't see the point in explaining what had happened with Zou, the taxi driver and I. Well, silly me, I didn't need to tell him because Zou did it for me. What both Chris and Zou don't realize is that although I can't speak it well, my understanding of Chinese is coming along just fine. This is what Zou said to Chris:

"I asked the driver for a receipt, but Teela (she calls me Teela, not Tina) told him no. She said no, we don't need one. I wanted to get one but she said no."

Uh, ok. Thanks, Zou, for tattling on me to my own husband right in front of me. And she kept saying it over and over "Teela said no, we don't want one". It was really quite ridiculous. Of course, Chris doesn't care if I got the receipt or not, he can still submit the expense. While Zou was tattling on me, Chris and I looked at each other and just had to laugh. The whole thing seemed too obsurd.

Dali

We left Kunming early Sunday morning and took a 5 hour bus ride to Dali. Dali is famous for it's old town, as well as being close to many ethnic minority villages. We decided to only spend one night here and head on to Lijiang today (Monday). We really enjoy the hotel we're staying at. It's run by a Tibetan man and the whole thing has been decorated in Tibetan theme. All the rooms open up to a walled courtyard. The courtyard has grass, a pebbled walking path, and several picnic tables to sit at. Also, there is a sandbox, a swing set and a paved area with several children's toys (bikes, skateboards, etc.) The kids love it here and have played outside non-stop. It's refreshing change to be somewhere so kid friendly. Not that we've ever encountered any "kid hostility" here in China, but most places cater to the adult traveler.

We spent yesterday walking around the old town. So much to buy, so little time (and money). We could just spend and spend here. Every time I see something I think "OH! Chris' dad would love that" or "OH! I have to get that for my sister!" We restrain ourselves for the most part but we have bought a few interesting pieces. I am getting more confident in my bargaining tactics, which makes it easier for me to spend money with out Chris' help. Yesterday I bought two large medallions, one jade and one turquoise. They both have silver detailing on them and are meant to be worn as jewelry. I think they are much too big and too old to wear as jewelry, but I thought they'd look pretty framed together.

Dali is peaceful and beautiful, but it's time to move on to the next leg of our journey. I know the kids are already tired of traveling, but we still have two more cities to visit. We're trying to make this a painless as possible for them, but at their age they can only take so much. They really miss Josie :)

the first of the vacation updates

a long email I wrote to friends and family that I'll post here for posterities sake...

Right now we are still in Kunming. We flew here on Wednesday night. On Thursday, we went to a nearby mountain and road a cable car up to the top. That always scares me, because it seems so unsafe. All that's keeping us from falling out is our own common sense! It's like a ski lift, and I'm always nervous that the kids are going to jump out or lean over too far. Thankfully, they have more sense than that :) At the top of the mountain are several Taoist shrines that were carved into the face of the mountain by Taoist monks. It's simply amazing. The kids liked it ok, but it was a long day for them and they were full of complaints. We had dinner plans that night to meet up with Chris' study abroad advisors from when he was here in 2001. They took us to this really cool place called 1923 and it is decorated in an old, traditional style. We ate outside in a glass house and we had to walk across a small stream on stepping stones to get to it. Zack whined and whined and whined the whole dang time! Not just Zack, but mostly Zack. Meanwhile, Chris is talking shop with the husband. Chris is trying to get a lot of details worked out for his summer teen adventure trek that he's in charge of (with the broadreach program). Since he will be bringing the kids here to Kunming, and since his advisors have years of experience running study abroad in this area, they are a very valuable resource to him. I didn't begrudge him talking business, not at all. However, the wife and I were just sitting there sort of left out of the conversation. I was trying to appease my grouchy kids, trying not to offend them with my rude kids who refused to eat any of the food they ordered. I was feeding Josh his noodles because he can't feed himself these super long noodles without making a complete mess. Meanwhile Zack and Petey won't eat a think and just sit there saying "can we go now!?" Ack, it was horrible. To top it off, we were an hour late meeting them for dinner because traffic was so bad coming back from the mountain.

So, despite the fact that Chris and I were very upset at the boys, we resolved to have a better day the next day. We realize that vacations are hard for everyone involved, and especially for children. Eating dinner at a fancy restaurant with people they don't know isn't exactly the best time for a kids good manners to shine through. We had a good family prayer and we all determined to be more patient and loving with each other tomorrow (which, as I write this, was yesterday).

In the morning we got up early to get ready to go to the Stone Forest. When you have time, do a google search for photos of the stone forest in Yunnan province. It was so amazing. We had a wonderful time there and took lots of amazing pics of our own. We planned on having McDonalds for breakfast because the hotel here serves mainly a Chinese breakfast (noodles, veggies, basically same food as dinner). Unfortunately, McDonalds isn't open for breakfast and we ended up having dumplings and noodles for breakfast anyway. The drive to the stone forest was pretty long, almost two hours. Still, I loved it. I'm getting to see rural China, finally! The part we live in, Nanjing, has been very populated for thousands of years. There really isn't much "rural" left. But now I'm seeing it and it's beautiful, so rustic and amazing. As Chris says, just think these people have been living this way for hundreds of years. They are happy and content to live this way. You should see their beautiful smiles. Once we got to the stone forest we just went in and explored. We pretty much let the kids determine which paths we would take and ended up getting somewhat lost in the maze of stones. It's almost like a cave but outside. I've never seen anything like it in my life. However, we couldn't really get "lost" because the places was way crowded with tourists. Zack got quite upset at one point when he wandered away from us and a Chinese woman grabbed his arm and tried to pull him with her. He told me he had to push her away and run away really quickly. He was pretty upset by that, and who can blame him! We had several personal space invasions while we were there. However, we had some neat experiences too. For example, a man reached out his hand to Zack to shake hands. At first, Zack didn't want to and he walked away, but then he thought better of it and went back to shake the guys hand. I was proud of him for being so friendly.

When we finally found our way out of the stones, we went to the closest Chinese restaurant to eat and had noodles and duck. Noodles and duck are always a safe bet for the kids. They ate pretty well. While we were there, another man came up to shake Zack's hand. After Zack shook his hand, the man went back to his table and then came back with a bottle of beer. He wanted to give Zack some! We said nonononono! The guy just laughed, but he looked surprised at our objections.

On the way home, we went on back roads for half of the way. This was sort of an accident as our driver missed the turn off to the highway, but once again, I didn't mind at all. In several of the hillsides that we drove past, I saw tombs. At first we thought they were shrines to the land gods, but we soon saw they were tombs. They were all really well taken care of. I wonder how old they are? It's so neat how Chinese don't forget about taking care of their ancestors graves. It turned out to be a really good thing that we took the back road home. It ran parallel to the high way some of the time, so we could see the high way. Often the highway was above us. On the way to the stone forest, we had passed a horrible car accident. Multiple trucks, SUV's and cars were smashed together. We even saw a man (most likely dead) hanging out of his truck. People were just standing around. I'll never forget the sight of that man. Traffic was backed up for miles. As we were returning on the back road, we drove past the accident site and it was still there! This was 5-6 hours later and traffic was still jam-packed together. Thank goodness we took the back roads!

We had another business dinner that night, but we were determined to make it much more bearable. We fed the kids McDonalds before we went to the dinner. I think our hosts were a little surprised, and baffled, as to why we had fed the kids ahead of time, but that's ok. At least the kids were very well behaved. I also took crayons and lots of paper and worksheets for them to work on. That went really well, too. Also, one of our hosts had brought her 7 year old son, so they had lots of fun playing with him too. All in all, a much better day. Oh, btw, the business dinner that night ended up being at the same place we'd eaten the night before! We made the boys promise not to say anything about it, and they didn't. We ate inside this time, not in the glass house. The inside was a traditional style Chinese house, with the rooms all opening to a common courtyard. Very cool. Also, I ate pig feet. I didn't like it, and it was way too spicy for me. But I tried!

We were scheduled to leave Kunming today and take the bus to Dali. However, we've decided to stay another day. There's a museum in town with 5 dinosaur fossils that we want to take the boys to. I want to go to the Buddhist temple, as well. We're on vacation, right? There's no need to rush around from city to city. We're just going to take it easy and enjoy ourselves as much as possible.

Kunming is so much more "Chinese" than Nanjing. In Nanjing, it's entirely possible to never eat Chinese. There are so many western restaurants everywhere. Not here. It is actually quite hard to find western food and it's just going to get worse as the vacation goes on. The next two towns we travel to are much, much smaller. If we lived here our boys would be eating Chinese food like champs because they wouldn't have a choice.

Cotton candy at the Confucian Temple

We leave on our vacation this afternoon. I'm really looking forward to visiting new parts of China. We've hardly even left this province since we've moved here, except for our one trip to Beijing. It's time to see new things, go new places!

This morning I spoke with my parents. I don't speak to them nearly as often as I'd like to, thanks to the time difference between Nanjing and Alabama. Zack spoke with them to and they asked him if he was excited about taking this trip. He said "Not really, we go on trips all the time." I suppose traveling is traveling is traveling. And, for an 8 year old kid, it's hard to comprehend the difference between a 3 hour train ride to Shanghai and a 3 hour plane ride to the other side of the country. I hope the kids will have fun. I tried to pack light, but we are going to be gone for 10 days and it's hard to pack light for that amount of time.

We took Josie to the vet yesterday for more puppy shots. Afterwards we went to a Korean restaurant for lunch and they kindly let us bring Josie inside. We ended up taking her all around town and no one stopped us from bringing her inside anywhere we went. She was in a duffle bag with just her head peeking out. She was very well behaved but I think she was also quite overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the city. It's nice and quiet out here at our country home.

One more thing: my kitchen sink has been leaking ever since we moved in here. I've had the guys out many times to fix it, but they just keep doing quick fixes and not resolving the true problem at hand. The real problem is that the pipe under my sink is a cheap, flimsy, plastic pipe. It's bendable and the plastic is so thin that I can see the water flowing through it. A couple nights ago my sink wouldn't drain so I opened up the cabinet and took a look at the pipe. I could see that it was full of water, so I proceeded to bend up the pipe to help it empty. As soon as my fingers brushed the pipe, the whole thing fell apart, dumping gross water all over my kitchen floor.Chris called Li Weiping and asked him to get it fixed. The pipe fits back onto the sink, but it can fall off again with just a light tug. Li Wieping explained that this was simply and design flaw (his favorite excuse) and nothing to be done for it. Chris told him, yes, something can be done and please get it done.

Apparently the repair man came yesterday while I was in class. I noticed today that the flexible pipe has been tied to the sink pipe with yellow string. Ok, I guess that works too...

Mmm, yummy pigeon head

Ok, so I didn't really eat it, but it makes for a fun picture, right?

This was taken at the Red Star restuarant, the one with the Cultural Revolution theme. I just finished reading an amazing book entitled "The Good Women of China" by Xinran. It's about women living through the cultural revolution, mostly in Nanjing. It was so eye-opening and made me regret patronizing the restuarant. The Cultural Revolution is not something to celebrate, not in the least. Some people I spoke with about this issue told me the reason it's "ok" is because the CR is something the Chinese people did to themselves, verses (for example) the Nazi crimes that were commited by Germans against other nationalities. Still, it's disturbing to think that so many people are ignorant about the CR that this type of celebration is seemingly acceptable.

Bubble boy

Zack walking on water!
Zack in the bubble as they are filling it with air

Zack had a blast, although he said it was very, very cold. Petey was also going to do it, but once he got enclosed in the bubble he started to freak out. He was crying and so upset. Suddenly I remembered his tendency towards claustrophobia. The workers saw that he was upset and they started pushing him off the ramp and towards the water anyway! I stood in front of the bubble and blocked it with my body, yet still the guy tried to push it into the water. I'm yelling at the guy, "Let him out! He doesn't want to do it!" I suppose the worker thought Petey would be fine once he got into the water, but I was not going to let him "force" Petey into doing something he was so afraid to do. Finally, when the guy saw that I wasn't going to move, he opened the bubble and let Petey out. It took Petey several minutes to calm down. Poor guy. It's times like this when I'm proud of myself for standing up for my children.

Chris went in a bubble with Josh. Josh was scared too, but he was soon ok since Chris was with him. Chris later told me that the reason Josh got upset, and probably Petey as well, was because the pressure changes rapidly and causes your ears to pop. Chris had lots of fun, as did Josh, and of course they attracted a large crowd who gathered to watch the crazy foreigners :) There were plenty of Chinese playing in bubbles as well, but they were all children. Chris was the only person out there older than 12.

Plum Blossoms at Nanjing City gate

Josh's birthday was a success. He was so happy and proud to be turning three. He told me "I'm a big boy now, not a little boy anymore." Petey asked me in bewliderment why Josh hadn't grown bigger on his birthday. Turns out Petey remembers himself as much bigger at that age, lol. How Petey retains so many memories of being three is beyond me. We had birthday cake at lunch and invited a some friends over. All of them were adults, but that didn't seem to matter to Josh. Pangeline, Gao Lao Shi, Mariannette, Rene and Sailing all stopped by to wish Josh "Happy Birthday." In return, they all got a peice of cake mix cake and loved it. Chinese bakery birthday cakes are very different from American cakes. They have fruit layered inbetween the cakes and are much less sweet. I'd venture a guess and say that the frosting is made mostly of lard as well. I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, both bought in the import section. It cost about twice as much as back home, but it's worth it for a birthday as important as turning three.

We went to Papa John's for dinner. We never ate Papa John's back home and now it is pretty much our favorite place to go.

Today we are going to a rock climbing gym in Nanjing. We have no idea if the kids will be allowed to do it or not, but we're just taking them on the premise that usually nothing is off limits to kids here. When I took the kids to the water park last summer they let Petey go down even the steepest water slides. It scared me, but he loved it. I figure rock climbing will be fine, as long as they are strapped into the safety harnesses.

Our vacation starts in less than a week! I'm so excited to travel to new parts of China. Unfortunately we only have 10 days and we have 4 different cities to visit. I'm hoping this won't turn into a horrid vacation because we're running ourselves ragged. Hopefully we can take it easy and enjoy ourselves as much as possible. We're going to Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, and Chengdu. The last leg of the trip, Chengdu, is for the boys. We're going to the panda preserve.