three stories

1. it's festival time! dragon boat festival (duan wu jie) all over china. where i grew up (lil' ol' dubuque, iowa) dragon boat racing was a big event every summer, and yet, i never learned the history. so here's the history:

once upon a time (over 2000 years ago) there was this poet in china whose poems weren't all that popular. also, for political reasons, he was chased here and there by the government. he was fed up with something, be it his never-ending flight from the government, the poor reception of his poetry, or, so it's told, the plight of the chinese people and his inability to save his country, and so he threw himself into the river and drowned. the people of the surrounding towns threw "zong zi", this tasty treat made of sticky rice and jujubees (chinese dates):

into the water to keep the fish from eating his body while they searched for him in dragon boats. so now each year at dan wu jie, the chinese eat zong zi (oh, so good!), throw some into various rivers, and have dragon boat races. and people in dubuque just have dragon boat races.

2. there isn't much to do around here after the sun goes down. emily and chris and emily's dad play cards for money, and i dink around the computer (while you are all sleeping) and sometimes watch tv. the english language channel is tediously repetitive, and there's only one, so sometimes i stare at chinese television. the commercials are fun. oh, but twice i caught english language concerts on the music channel. one was sade and one was air supply. whoa, air supply is getting old. it took a while for me to realize who it was and then i remembered where i knew them from: maybe 10 years ago, actually probably longer, i saw them in a free concert at six flags great america. the guitarist gave kevin his pick at the end of the show. i left early to go bunjee jumping.

so anyways, a few nights ago i was watching this chinese tv and i caught the beginning of an old black and white movie. as much as i could make out, plot is as follows:

poor street boy with very large nose and straggly hair tries to fit in in china. he is beaten and starving on the streets. his friends are also poor a ragged. he is kicked out of a parade of kids dressed like boy scouts. he tries to march with them again and gets beaten. he makes his own parade and gets arrested. the police harrass him. he has no shoes. he passes by some man on the street who drops his wallet, so he calls out to the man and hands him back his wallet, only to get beaten again: the man thinks he stole the wallet. another man comes and stops the beating and invites the boy back to his home for some food and clothes. the boy then discovers the man is himself a theif and makes the boy become part of his ring of theives, though this boy wants no part of anything so immoral. he escapes only when he is being forced to steal silk at the store and purposefully lets the police see what he is doing so the man and his wife flee. the cops catch him and take the silk for themselves and the boy gets away. then he gets adopted or bought or something by some rich chinese couple, very fat rich chinese couple, who live in a western style home and eat with a fork and have fancy western clothing. he is forced to parade about for their friends and then finally leaves after he and his old street friends ruin one of the couples' parties. so he's on his own again and life is tough, until he passes by the main square and sees a new parade. this parade accepts him and let's him march along with them, and the boy is very happy. this parade is for chairman mao. then the movie ends.

i would place this movie probably some time in the early 1950's. it was a very, very interesting movie to watch, and that's all i have to say about that.

3. things that i do that make people laugh at the farm:

sneeze, talk to the dog, pet the dog, carry boxes by myself, wear a hat, wear sandals in the rain, remove splinters with a needle (i'm now the official splinter remover), peel a tomato in one long curly strip, say "mmm-mmm!" when something tastes good, be taller than the rest of them, tell the time in chinese, say i don't want babies, yawn, and , of course, sing.

the ladies i work with will, on occasion, burst into song. so i thought it was about time for me to share some american classics. now i sing about three songs a day, to a very appreciative audience. i have shared disney classics from the lion king and the little mermaid, songs by jewel, brak (they especially like "what happened to the water"), john denver, the outfielders, johnny cash, n'sync, and several campfire songs. it's a good time round these parts.