1. paris hilton announces she plans to stop "acting dumb".
2. astronaut group-hug takes place miles above the earth.
3. american university student works on farm in china.
click here for more details from one of china's national newspapers.
:)
12 June 2007
10 June 2007
why are all my posts about food?
maybe because i've reached that point. the point where i would cut off my left foot for a burrito. oh, a beautiful, bursting bean burrito. with some chips and salsa and a nice cold margarita (no salt). i would even forego the margarita if it meant a tasty panchero's treat. and boy howdy, i could sure go for a hunk of cheddar cheese right now. mmm . . . cheese . . .
(every time i leave the usa, i realize that there are two things that no one does better: a readily available, wide variety of 1. americanized foreign cuisine, and 2. music)
or maybe, it's because i need to tell you that in chinese instead of saying "cheese" to take a picture, they say "qiedzi". translation, "eggplant."
so, "eggplant!"
or maybe it's because i've consumed so much MSG that i'm starting to fall off my rocker. when i lived in montreal, i made a rule about no chinese before bedtime because the MSG in my favorite meal would always give me crazy dreams and i'd usually wake up in the middle of the night in the midst of an anxiety attack and have a hard time falling back to sleep. well, i can't really abide by that rule when i'm in china. so i've been having crazy dreams and been waking up in the middle of the night feeling all anxious and squiggly. i keep having these recurring nightmares about being in a falling elevator to the point that i'm kind of afraid of elevators now. happily, there are none on the farm. as soon as i leave the farm i'm going on MSG detox: again, only fruit and nuts for a few days. this is probably a good idea, since as soon as i leave i'm going to hike a three-day mountain pass notoriously inhabited by large-ish monkeys and i'll need my wits about me.
besides food related observations, working on the farm is great. i've learned some new chinese and can tell time now, to the amusement of the ladies i work with. i discovered i can still recite the entirety of "the little mermaid", including songs and voices, though i think i'm missing large chunks of "when harry met sally". i spend hours at a time without speaking or being spoken to. it's really peaceful: i just listen to the ladies talk about stuff and wrap stuff and put stickers on stuff, and i listen to the cars and buses honk at each other on the road outside.
sometimes the ladies and i try to communicate: sometimes we hit the mark, sometimes we miss big time. for example, i sneezed one day and i thought one of the workers told me since i sneezed i should take a shot of alcohol. well, emily came down a bit later and translated and it turns out she was suggesting i go see a doctor and get some medicine. same same.
also, final story, a few days ago we were wrapping pumpkin flowers to ship to the supermarkets. when you pick them, they close up a bit, and one of the ladies was showing me how you need to open the flowers and check inside them before you wrap them, what for, i wasn't sure. but that's easy enough, so i started checking and wrapping away:
#1. nothing
#2. 2 ants
#3. nothing
#4. oh wow! two big beautiful snails, complete with a set of pointy-feeler eyes and everything!
it was so cool. i pulled them out to show to my wrapping buddy as they slithered along my palm. oh they were so cute! well, she made a face and grabbed both of them and threw them on the ground and stepped on them! nooooo! you crazy woman you don't step on snails! they made a big loud crunchy noise and i couldn't even look at the damage that was left under her shoe. i held out there for as long as i could, trying to sneak any other snails that i found under the table in the hopes that they would escape to safety before they were discovered, but they were discovered and met the same fate. now i don't help with wrapping pumpkin flowers anymore. it's too tragic. and i've taken up a "save the snails" campaign whereby i collect any snails i find and put them in my pocket, take the long way to lunch, and dump them in the grass along the way, poor things. i know, i know. it's a farm and snails are pests (maybe). but the wrapping area isn't anywhere near the farm, if you're a snail, so i feel okay about setting them free.
finally, i posted some photos of the farm here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eeking/collections
(every time i leave the usa, i realize that there are two things that no one does better: a readily available, wide variety of 1. americanized foreign cuisine, and 2. music)
or maybe, it's because i need to tell you that in chinese instead of saying "cheese" to take a picture, they say "qiedzi". translation, "eggplant."
so, "eggplant!"
or maybe it's because i've consumed so much MSG that i'm starting to fall off my rocker. when i lived in montreal, i made a rule about no chinese before bedtime because the MSG in my favorite meal would always give me crazy dreams and i'd usually wake up in the middle of the night in the midst of an anxiety attack and have a hard time falling back to sleep. well, i can't really abide by that rule when i'm in china. so i've been having crazy dreams and been waking up in the middle of the night feeling all anxious and squiggly. i keep having these recurring nightmares about being in a falling elevator to the point that i'm kind of afraid of elevators now. happily, there are none on the farm. as soon as i leave the farm i'm going on MSG detox: again, only fruit and nuts for a few days. this is probably a good idea, since as soon as i leave i'm going to hike a three-day mountain pass notoriously inhabited by large-ish monkeys and i'll need my wits about me.
besides food related observations, working on the farm is great. i've learned some new chinese and can tell time now, to the amusement of the ladies i work with. i discovered i can still recite the entirety of "the little mermaid", including songs and voices, though i think i'm missing large chunks of "when harry met sally". i spend hours at a time without speaking or being spoken to. it's really peaceful: i just listen to the ladies talk about stuff and wrap stuff and put stickers on stuff, and i listen to the cars and buses honk at each other on the road outside.
sometimes the ladies and i try to communicate: sometimes we hit the mark, sometimes we miss big time. for example, i sneezed one day and i thought one of the workers told me since i sneezed i should take a shot of alcohol. well, emily came down a bit later and translated and it turns out she was suggesting i go see a doctor and get some medicine. same same.
also, final story, a few days ago we were wrapping pumpkin flowers to ship to the supermarkets. when you pick them, they close up a bit, and one of the ladies was showing me how you need to open the flowers and check inside them before you wrap them, what for, i wasn't sure. but that's easy enough, so i started checking and wrapping away:
#1. nothing
#2. 2 ants
#3. nothing
#4. oh wow! two big beautiful snails, complete with a set of pointy-feeler eyes and everything!
it was so cool. i pulled them out to show to my wrapping buddy as they slithered along my palm. oh they were so cute! well, she made a face and grabbed both of them and threw them on the ground and stepped on them! nooooo! you crazy woman you don't step on snails! they made a big loud crunchy noise and i couldn't even look at the damage that was left under her shoe. i held out there for as long as i could, trying to sneak any other snails that i found under the table in the hopes that they would escape to safety before they were discovered, but they were discovered and met the same fate. now i don't help with wrapping pumpkin flowers anymore. it's too tragic. and i've taken up a "save the snails" campaign whereby i collect any snails i find and put them in my pocket, take the long way to lunch, and dump them in the grass along the way, poor things. i know, i know. it's a farm and snails are pests (maybe). but the wrapping area isn't anywhere near the farm, if you're a snail, so i feel okay about setting them free.
finally, i posted some photos of the farm here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eeking/collections
06 June 2007
on the farm
so i'm on the only organic farm in all of sichuan province. nice, huh? the chinese family i live with own the farm. father, maybe around 55, retired from the government and opened the farm four years ago. daughter, emily, lived in canada for 7 years, went to a university some place in toronto, met her chinese husband, chris, there. they moved back to help with the farm one year ago and got married and now run the market side of everything. maybe about 10 farmers and 10 packers on the farm each day, when it is not busy season. now is busy season, so a few more farmers. and one iowan. :)
the women who work on the packaging side, which is most of what i do, call me "mei mei". this means "little sister". i like that. they don't speak english, only emily and chris do, and they stay in their office all day. so today, in the packaging bit, we exhausted the extent of my mandarin while i explained my family, everyone's job, and how i'm not married and how that's really okay. then, i found out whether they were married and had siblings or children. other than that, i welcomed them to beijing and asked if they were going to the olympics, and that's about all i can say.
well, i can also say "vegetarian" and "toilet" and when i say them they sound very similar. so imagine me walking up to a street vendor and saying: "pardon me, this looks very tasty, but first, could you tell me, is it a toilet?"
i would also like to thank mr. stiles, for teaching me how to say "poo" in chinese. the word for "poo" in chinese has the word "bian" in it. but this is pronounced like "bien" in french, so in a fluster to say "okay, okay, that's okay" at a street food vendor stall, i instead said "poo, poo, poo". i think i was probably grasping for "c'est bien, c'est bien, c'est bien." at that point i just gave up and hopped on my bike and left. you should have seen that guy's face, though. partly horrified and partly tickled.
anyways, back to the farm. i already said how it has helped to increase the income in this area considerably. it's a good place, and the veggies are very good here. i have packaged many of them. and cleaned them and whatnot. every day is a little different. well, the two days i have been here anyways. for example, today i worked with string beans, peanuts, chilis, squash of all kinds, lettuce, bamboo, green onions, turnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and probably some other things that i can't think of and don't know the name of. also, i'm the sticker woman. i put stickers on things, probably because it doesn't require a lot of explanation.
my favorite is packaging the chilies. since they are organic, some of them don't grow straight (or so emily has explained). some of them grow in a spiral or get a little wonky in some other way. as long as they are not broken or partly eaten by bugs, we want to package them. we put them wonky ones at the bottom and lay some of them straighter ones on the top, then cover them in celophane like anything you have ever seen at a grocery store in usa or canada. now, emily says that people don't want these wonky chilies, so we need to kind of hide them at the bottom, otherwise people won't buy them. but the crooked ones and the ones that grow in spirals are my favorite vegetables on the farm! i think they are very cute, fun, unique, i don't know . . . i just like them. and they taste just fine. i only put one or two of the very spiraly ones in each batch. that way, if the customer hates the spiral ones, they don't feel to put out, and if they happen to be like me and like the spiral ones, well, we can't spoil one family with too many. but it's really too bad we can't package them separately: "boring straight chilies" 3 yuan, "renegade chilies" 5 yuan.
i really enjoy the packaging part of the farm. for one, it is fairly simple, considering my mandarin is kind of "poo". i think it's easier to watch and learn the packaging part than to watch and learn the farming techniques. but also, i like to think about the families in chengdu and hong kong who are going to unwrap what i am sending to them: a lovely package of delicious organic veggies. and they'll never know i was the one who did the work. i feel like putting a bow on each batch! instead, i leave them with a simple green sticker that says "organic farm". after this experience, i will probably think more often of where my food is coming from and the people who package what i eat, every step of the way. i'll tell you something else, i'm also going to wash my food like a mad person. i know i wash my hands after the toilet, but i can't speak for every vegetable packager on the planet. also, we dump the veggies on the floor a lot for sorting. the floor where the dog sleeps. the floor where people walk after using squatty toilets and not changing their shoes. people of hong kong! wash your veggies!
the women who work on the packaging side, which is most of what i do, call me "mei mei". this means "little sister". i like that. they don't speak english, only emily and chris do, and they stay in their office all day. so today, in the packaging bit, we exhausted the extent of my mandarin while i explained my family, everyone's job, and how i'm not married and how that's really okay. then, i found out whether they were married and had siblings or children. other than that, i welcomed them to beijing and asked if they were going to the olympics, and that's about all i can say.
well, i can also say "vegetarian" and "toilet" and when i say them they sound very similar. so imagine me walking up to a street vendor and saying: "pardon me, this looks very tasty, but first, could you tell me, is it a toilet?"
i would also like to thank mr. stiles, for teaching me how to say "poo" in chinese. the word for "poo" in chinese has the word "bian" in it. but this is pronounced like "bien" in french, so in a fluster to say "okay, okay, that's okay" at a street food vendor stall, i instead said "poo, poo, poo". i think i was probably grasping for "c'est bien, c'est bien, c'est bien." at that point i just gave up and hopped on my bike and left. you should have seen that guy's face, though. partly horrified and partly tickled.
anyways, back to the farm. i already said how it has helped to increase the income in this area considerably. it's a good place, and the veggies are very good here. i have packaged many of them. and cleaned them and whatnot. every day is a little different. well, the two days i have been here anyways. for example, today i worked with string beans, peanuts, chilis, squash of all kinds, lettuce, bamboo, green onions, turnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and probably some other things that i can't think of and don't know the name of. also, i'm the sticker woman. i put stickers on things, probably because it doesn't require a lot of explanation.
my favorite is packaging the chilies. since they are organic, some of them don't grow straight (or so emily has explained). some of them grow in a spiral or get a little wonky in some other way. as long as they are not broken or partly eaten by bugs, we want to package them. we put them wonky ones at the bottom and lay some of them straighter ones on the top, then cover them in celophane like anything you have ever seen at a grocery store in usa or canada. now, emily says that people don't want these wonky chilies, so we need to kind of hide them at the bottom, otherwise people won't buy them. but the crooked ones and the ones that grow in spirals are my favorite vegetables on the farm! i think they are very cute, fun, unique, i don't know . . . i just like them. and they taste just fine. i only put one or two of the very spiraly ones in each batch. that way, if the customer hates the spiral ones, they don't feel to put out, and if they happen to be like me and like the spiral ones, well, we can't spoil one family with too many. but it's really too bad we can't package them separately: "boring straight chilies" 3 yuan, "renegade chilies" 5 yuan.
i really enjoy the packaging part of the farm. for one, it is fairly simple, considering my mandarin is kind of "poo". i think it's easier to watch and learn the packaging part than to watch and learn the farming techniques. but also, i like to think about the families in chengdu and hong kong who are going to unwrap what i am sending to them: a lovely package of delicious organic veggies. and they'll never know i was the one who did the work. i feel like putting a bow on each batch! instead, i leave them with a simple green sticker that says "organic farm". after this experience, i will probably think more often of where my food is coming from and the people who package what i eat, every step of the way. i'll tell you something else, i'm also going to wash my food like a mad person. i know i wash my hands after the toilet, but i can't speak for every vegetable packager on the planet. also, we dump the veggies on the floor a lot for sorting. the floor where the dog sleeps. the floor where people walk after using squatty toilets and not changing their shoes. people of hong kong! wash your veggies!
05 June 2007
fun with food and stories of rabbits
1. people in sichuan would like to think that they have the spiciest food on earth, similar to how people in montreal think an iowan has never seen -20 weather in the winter. both are wrong. iowa is cold, and korea has the hottest, spiciest, make-your-face-burn-off food i've ever eaten.
2. in china, they eat loofa! did you know that loofa is a gourd? i didn't know that. i don't really like it, the texture is strange. other than that, it tastes like cucumber. i've got a dried loofa that i received as a gift from the village which i'm going to try to bring home without destroying. i get lots of smiles when i wander around with a dried loofa gourd hanging off of my backpack next to my asics.
3. back to spicy food, i've had hot pot twice now. a very traditional sichuan food, hot pot originated in chongqing, which is a city here in sichuan province. the sailors would eat it to keep warm and dry on the boats in the winter. it is hot spicy and hot temperature hot, and it is so good. you put everything into this boiling hot oil, kind of like fondu, and then you pull it out and let it dry in a bowl of sesame oil. the first time i had hot pot, it wasn't too crazy. but last night i had as a welcome meal at the farm, and my host family ate basically every part of an animal that you have ever heard of but have never eaten, except maybe in a hot dog: cow stomach, chicken stomach, duck intestine, something liver, something kidney, something heart, and a big ol' pig brain right in the center pot. i had tofu and potatoes and lotus root and different kinds of mushrooms. "wo chi su" (which means--i am vegetarian, sorry, i can't eat any of those brains, thanks) is one of my several decent chinese sentences. although there were some brains wrapped up in my tofu; afterall, they were all cooking in the same pot. so, what the heck, i ate some bits of pig brain last night. yum!
4. this farm feeds me way more than india wwoof farm, and way more often. whew!
5. kind of unrelated to food, but the village where i am now, called xichong, before this organic farm started up, the local people made only a little of $100 a year. in an entire year, only $100! now, with the farm, the local people make more like $5,000 a year. still, not very much, but a considerable improvement in only 4 years. the organic farm, which is the only one in sichuan currently, brought with it developments to the area, irrigations systems, good jobs, and they buy food from the local farmers to send with their supplies to hong kong and chengdu, as well as other local markets in the area that are too far for local farmers to get to on their own. cool, huh?
6. so yesterday when i arrived at the house where i am staying with my host family, i began to enter the first floor bathroom, and was steered away. reason: there was a live chicken living in the bathroom. emily, my host sister and farm director told me it had been given to their family two days before and had been living in their bathroom and had sort of taken over. i don't know why, but i thought, "oh, now they have a pet chicken." we had that chicken for dinner with mushrooms. i found it floating in a bowl of water this morning in the hallway. also, out my bedroom window this morning had appeared the drying carcass of a rabbit, just bones, feet, and ears, kind of. it was reminiscent of fatal attraction. the carcass was boiled in the turnip soup we had for dinner along with our former pet chicken. i'm not a vegetarian because i think that meat tastes bad. i like meat. but i am an american in the sense that i can't eat something that i've seen living, or with it's head still attached drying outside the window of my bedroom. okay, now that i've said that, i know it's a total lie, because i do eat what i catch when i go fishing. but still, even thinking of it now . . . it really made my stomach turn.
7. so this guy brian i met in chengdu told me a story about one time when his friend's dog brought a dead rabbit into the house. the dead rabbit belonged to his friend's grumpy old neighbors. it seemed the dog had killed the rabbit, so they cleaned it in their sink and placed it deftly back into the neighbors' backyard so they would think the rabbit died of natural causes. the neighbors came over later and said that the strangest thing had just happened because their rabbit had died and they had buried it but then it ended up in the middle of their backyard--clean and smelling like soap. also makes me think of fatal attraction. isn't that the best story?
8. the food here really is good, even if they can't out-spice me! the absolute best is gong bao dofu (= kung pao tofu in usa? i think, maybe?). oh so good.
9. the chinese people i have asked have denied the existence of brown rice.
10. the farm is wonderful. i spent the day today packaging vegetables, sorting peppers, putting stickers on things, and walking around with some government officials on a farm tour. all is well. tomorrow we do some picking and lots of smiling because more government officials will come tomorrow, too. the farm is in it's organic review process where they have to prove to 8 billion people who don't really know anything about organic farming that they are an organic farm to get an export licence, or something. should be a good time.
2. in china, they eat loofa! did you know that loofa is a gourd? i didn't know that. i don't really like it, the texture is strange. other than that, it tastes like cucumber. i've got a dried loofa that i received as a gift from the village which i'm going to try to bring home without destroying. i get lots of smiles when i wander around with a dried loofa gourd hanging off of my backpack next to my asics.
3. back to spicy food, i've had hot pot twice now. a very traditional sichuan food, hot pot originated in chongqing, which is a city here in sichuan province. the sailors would eat it to keep warm and dry on the boats in the winter. it is hot spicy and hot temperature hot, and it is so good. you put everything into this boiling hot oil, kind of like fondu, and then you pull it out and let it dry in a bowl of sesame oil. the first time i had hot pot, it wasn't too crazy. but last night i had as a welcome meal at the farm, and my host family ate basically every part of an animal that you have ever heard of but have never eaten, except maybe in a hot dog: cow stomach, chicken stomach, duck intestine, something liver, something kidney, something heart, and a big ol' pig brain right in the center pot. i had tofu and potatoes and lotus root and different kinds of mushrooms. "wo chi su" (which means--i am vegetarian, sorry, i can't eat any of those brains, thanks) is one of my several decent chinese sentences. although there were some brains wrapped up in my tofu; afterall, they were all cooking in the same pot. so, what the heck, i ate some bits of pig brain last night. yum!
4. this farm feeds me way more than india wwoof farm, and way more often. whew!
5. kind of unrelated to food, but the village where i am now, called xichong, before this organic farm started up, the local people made only a little of $100 a year. in an entire year, only $100! now, with the farm, the local people make more like $5,000 a year. still, not very much, but a considerable improvement in only 4 years. the organic farm, which is the only one in sichuan currently, brought with it developments to the area, irrigations systems, good jobs, and they buy food from the local farmers to send with their supplies to hong kong and chengdu, as well as other local markets in the area that are too far for local farmers to get to on their own. cool, huh?
6. so yesterday when i arrived at the house where i am staying with my host family, i began to enter the first floor bathroom, and was steered away. reason: there was a live chicken living in the bathroom. emily, my host sister and farm director told me it had been given to their family two days before and had been living in their bathroom and had sort of taken over. i don't know why, but i thought, "oh, now they have a pet chicken." we had that chicken for dinner with mushrooms. i found it floating in a bowl of water this morning in the hallway. also, out my bedroom window this morning had appeared the drying carcass of a rabbit, just bones, feet, and ears, kind of. it was reminiscent of fatal attraction. the carcass was boiled in the turnip soup we had for dinner along with our former pet chicken. i'm not a vegetarian because i think that meat tastes bad. i like meat. but i am an american in the sense that i can't eat something that i've seen living, or with it's head still attached drying outside the window of my bedroom. okay, now that i've said that, i know it's a total lie, because i do eat what i catch when i go fishing. but still, even thinking of it now . . . it really made my stomach turn.
7. so this guy brian i met in chengdu told me a story about one time when his friend's dog brought a dead rabbit into the house. the dead rabbit belonged to his friend's grumpy old neighbors. it seemed the dog had killed the rabbit, so they cleaned it in their sink and placed it deftly back into the neighbors' backyard so they would think the rabbit died of natural causes. the neighbors came over later and said that the strangest thing had just happened because their rabbit had died and they had buried it but then it ended up in the middle of their backyard--clean and smelling like soap. also makes me think of fatal attraction. isn't that the best story?
8. the food here really is good, even if they can't out-spice me! the absolute best is gong bao dofu (= kung pao tofu in usa? i think, maybe?). oh so good.
9. the chinese people i have asked have denied the existence of brown rice.
10. the farm is wonderful. i spent the day today packaging vegetables, sorting peppers, putting stickers on things, and walking around with some government officials on a farm tour. all is well. tomorrow we do some picking and lots of smiling because more government officials will come tomorrow, too. the farm is in it's organic review process where they have to prove to 8 billion people who don't really know anything about organic farming that they are an organic farm to get an export licence, or something. should be a good time.
02 June 2007
recap of the past two weeks + pictures ^--^
so. we had a lovely time at the orphanage and around nanchang. this guy didn't enjoy audiology so much.
this guy really enjoyed it.
then, off to chengdu. not by 40 hour bus ride (whew!). i met dani, an old friend of oliver's, who studies at a university/hospital in chengdu, which has a very nice audiology set up. here we are galavanting around a riverside park.
dufu lived in chengdu.
anyone know who dufu is?
it's this guy.
then i had the amazing, amazing, amazing opportunity to visit a local village outside of chengdu along with a few english teachers i met.
THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE HAD NEVER SEEN A FOREIGNER BEFORE. **********
some of the children thought we were japanese.
first thing we did was teach a few english classes at the school in the village.
the kids were so excited. we signed autographs all afternoon.
this is a noodle factory in the village. see the noodles hanging to dry with the laundry? it was pretty awesome. you can see a video of the noodle-making on my youtube site.
possibly one of the best videos ever.
the second-to-last character says "born".
that's all i know.
more gratuitous shots of kidlets.
note the fashion of the village, a red sparkly bindi.
this is kind of cool. the lunch table.
the character on the wall is the character for "luck". but it's upside down. the word for "upside down" sounds similar to the word for "arrival", so they put the luck character upside down and it has this fancy "good luck on your arrival" meaning.
food. good.
do you have a tissue handy?
part of our lesson was that the kids would draw a picture of their dreams for the future. there were several drawings like:
i want to be a doctor
i want to be a police man
i want to be a soldier
i want to be a japanese cartoon character
i want to live in a big house
i want to be an astronaut
this little boy wants to be a man who digs wells so that the people in his village can have enough water. this village is downstream from chengdu and for the past few years has been suffering from serious droughts. so he wants to grow up to dig wells.
another little boy wanted to own a swimming pool that was clean where anyone who wanted to swim could always swim for free.
they were all so fun.they thought we were fabulous, only because we showed up. i felt a bit sheepish, because i didn't really do anything all that fabulous.
the students who took us to this village were high school students who wanted to do something good for the people of this village who were suffering so badly from the drought. i'm told that this is almost unheard of in china, where high school students work so so so hard on their school work and have very little free time.
i'm a big fan of these kids.
last but not least, and i don't have a photo, was a 100-year-old woman we met. her feet had been bound when she was younger. she was alive during the last dynasty of china. her legs were broken, and had been for a while, but she didn't have enough money to go to the doctor, so she rarely left her bed. she got up to meet us. her voice was tiny and dry and soft and she had really long grey hair pulled she pulled back into a bun to meet with us.
she cried as we left and said that we were very special to have come so far to meet her, she had, of course, never met a foreigner before.
she said that we were good people and for that she blessed us to live to be 100 years old, like her. i wish we could have stayed longer to talk with her more. this woman blew my mind.
so i ate good food, slept on a grass mat, learned to play chinese cards, sat around a terra cotta deck sharing stories by moonlight in chinese and english, met unique folks, was treated like an absolute rock star, and even played a game or two of simon says.
it was so, so good. so good. so good. so good.
just a few blogger housekeeping notes before i sign off:
1. i can't view my blog, i can only post. if you're leaving comments, and i still really hope that you do, i won't be able to read them or respond until august.
1.5 there a few emails i know have been sent to me that i haven't received. if you think i should have responded to you, and i haven't, please email me again.
2. i'm about to leave chengdu for an itty-bitty town, where i just bet i won't be able to get on blogger at all.
3. that's okay because, hooray!, i've got a picture site now!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eeking/collections/
and there's a strong possibility of more frequent posts on flickr than on blogger in the coming weeks.
it's been a wonderful but exhausting week.
i'm off to bed.
i need my sleep before the farm.
and last night i stayed up late watching starship troopers.
also a beautiful, life-changing experience.
29 May 2007
they're on to me!
eep!
i was blocked out of my blog for a few days. yikes. it seems as though maybe in small towns i'm going to have more trouble getting stuff posted. if i ever have to abandon ship completely, i'll have no way of sending word. and on monday i'm off to a smaller town again for three works to do some wwoofing work. wwoof stands for world wide opportunities in organic farming, so you can sign up and go live and work on farms all over the world, and in return you will get fed and have a nice(?) place to sleep while you are there.
i wwoofed in india last summer. i was pretty interesting. under the wwoof contract you are only supposed to work 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, but i was working more like 12 hours a day -- every single day -- and, i'm not joking, all i had to eat was bread and water and some cashews, which i had brought along with me. that was by my choice though: i sort of refused their milk straight from the cow and the spicy oil soup that were making me sick. i was so buff by the end of those two weeks. and it was in the middle of nowhere india and no one for miles spoke any english and the women i worked with were all over 50 (i think, i couldn't ask them of course) and i wasn't about to peeter out --oh no-- i was strong. i held in there. and i had a thing for the little old grey-haired shepherd who wandered around the villages and we found a cobra and had to call a snake charmer to come collect it.
i don't expect this experience to be quite so trying, since it's in a larger city, the workers speak some english, i'll be sleeping in a house with electricity, and i plan to eat more than just bread and nuts. the work will involve something with vegetables, that's all i know for now.
and, good news, feast your eyes on this:
that's right. it's the trendy, new, e-kingo car.
but more than that, it's a picture!
and so is this!
and this!
i'm going to set up a photo website later tonight.
i just realized i've been on the computer for way too long and i'm burning daylight.
so off i go to play in chengdu, eat lunch with some monks, and hang with oliver's friend, dani, who will show me the hearing center in chengdu, where oliver used to work.
and p.s. note to derek stiles: when i was at the post office a few days ago, two workers behind the counter were playing spider solitaire . . . two-suit spider solitaire . . . that's right.
i was blocked out of my blog for a few days. yikes. it seems as though maybe in small towns i'm going to have more trouble getting stuff posted. if i ever have to abandon ship completely, i'll have no way of sending word. and on monday i'm off to a smaller town again for three works to do some wwoofing work. wwoof stands for world wide opportunities in organic farming, so you can sign up and go live and work on farms all over the world, and in return you will get fed and have a nice(?) place to sleep while you are there.
i wwoofed in india last summer. i was pretty interesting. under the wwoof contract you are only supposed to work 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, but i was working more like 12 hours a day -- every single day -- and, i'm not joking, all i had to eat was bread and water and some cashews, which i had brought along with me. that was by my choice though: i sort of refused their milk straight from the cow and the spicy oil soup that were making me sick. i was so buff by the end of those two weeks. and it was in the middle of nowhere india and no one for miles spoke any english and the women i worked with were all over 50 (i think, i couldn't ask them of course) and i wasn't about to peeter out --oh no-- i was strong. i held in there. and i had a thing for the little old grey-haired shepherd who wandered around the villages and we found a cobra and had to call a snake charmer to come collect it.
i don't expect this experience to be quite so trying, since it's in a larger city, the workers speak some english, i'll be sleeping in a house with electricity, and i plan to eat more than just bread and nuts. the work will involve something with vegetables, that's all i know for now.
and, good news, feast your eyes on this:
that's right. it's the trendy, new, e-kingo car. but more than that, it's a picture!
and so is this!
and this!
i'm going to set up a photo website later tonight.
i just realized i've been on the computer for way too long and i'm burning daylight.
so off i go to play in chengdu, eat lunch with some monks, and hang with oliver's friend, dani, who will show me the hearing center in chengdu, where oliver used to work.
and p.s. note to derek stiles: when i was at the post office a few days ago, two workers behind the counter were playing spider solitaire . . . two-suit spider solitaire . . . that's right.
27 May 2007
dajia hao
hooray! i got a train ticket and didn't have to walk to chengdu! i was in a closed cabin with three chinese men. one who would sing and whistle along with the extremely loud chinese techno music that played, basically, for the whole 24 hour journey. ouch! he and his friend offered me a portion of whatever they were eating, and "wo chi su" (i'm vegetarian) only got me out of so much, like the vaccuum sealed chicken legs. i did help myself to a few spoonfuls of canned chinese congee, which as far as i can tell is puffed wheat, rice, beans, peanuts, and something the can said was "Job's tears" mixed together in a semi-thick sugary sticky white sauce. i just couldn't eat the whole can, or drink warm carton of grape-milk. maybe it had to do with the constant loogie-hawking into the trash can right under my seat. i have to get used to all this spitting again! i think they felt badly for me since all i had was dried fruits and nuts, but that's all i wanted, i swear! and my bag of goodies was very tasty. really though, i think it is just chinese custom to share train food. it's been my experience in the past. they bought me bananas and some kind of candy, too, along the way, and i shard my chinese fruit roll-ups with them. the chinese invented fruit roll-ups, did you know? it's true. my two travel companions were memorable characters, very nice, and helped me fight the hustle and bustle out of the train station. the third guy just slept the whole time and smiled on his way out the train.
i sped right out of chengdu into leshan via bus to see what have proven to be some awesome sights.
now, let me just say, it makes me so sad to write in my blog and not have any pictures to share. :( sniffle.
but imagine, if you will, the world's largest carved buddha. carved from rock over a period of 97 years in the cliffs overlooking the perilous junction of three roaring rivers. the monk who started building it ran out of money halfway through, so he blinded himself to convince the government to give him more money to complete his project. i don't know if it was like "i'm blind, now you have to give me more money to survive and i'll just spend it on the statue" or if it was kind of a threatening effect like, "look how crazy i am! give me money now!". it was most likely a sign of his devotion to the giant buddha. it was meant to protect those who traveled past, yet i think it would have distracted me something fierce and i probably would have lost control of my ship drowned in any case. but it was a nice gesture and it's cool to visit now, 1300 years after the fact. some day i will post pictures, i swear.
while touring the giant buddha, i met a study abroad group from u georgia, who were all text messaging photos of the buddha back home. wow. times are a-changin'. also, i met a very nice and "hen shuai" fella from france who just got done doing study abroad in hong kong and will travel for a while before he goes home, and a group of chinese freshman university students who toured around with me for the rest of the afternoon. they invited me to their english corner, though i can't go because it's on thursday and i'll be back in chengdu by then. however. hmm. this english corner thing seems quite common. i think i will drop in on universities i pass by during this trip and see if i can land myself at a few more english corners before i go home. they are pretty fun.
i'm off to chengdu tomorrow to meet up with two friends of some friends. i'll spend the week there, where i plan to pass the mornings at teahouses, eat very spicy tofu dishes, see a chinese opera, and then leave on monday for the farm.
i sped right out of chengdu into leshan via bus to see what have proven to be some awesome sights.
now, let me just say, it makes me so sad to write in my blog and not have any pictures to share. :( sniffle.
but imagine, if you will, the world's largest carved buddha. carved from rock over a period of 97 years in the cliffs overlooking the perilous junction of three roaring rivers. the monk who started building it ran out of money halfway through, so he blinded himself to convince the government to give him more money to complete his project. i don't know if it was like "i'm blind, now you have to give me more money to survive and i'll just spend it on the statue" or if it was kind of a threatening effect like, "look how crazy i am! give me money now!". it was most likely a sign of his devotion to the giant buddha. it was meant to protect those who traveled past, yet i think it would have distracted me something fierce and i probably would have lost control of my ship drowned in any case. but it was a nice gesture and it's cool to visit now, 1300 years after the fact. some day i will post pictures, i swear.
while touring the giant buddha, i met a study abroad group from u georgia, who were all text messaging photos of the buddha back home. wow. times are a-changin'. also, i met a very nice and "hen shuai" fella from france who just got done doing study abroad in hong kong and will travel for a while before he goes home, and a group of chinese freshman university students who toured around with me for the rest of the afternoon. they invited me to their english corner, though i can't go because it's on thursday and i'll be back in chengdu by then. however. hmm. this english corner thing seems quite common. i think i will drop in on universities i pass by during this trip and see if i can land myself at a few more english corners before i go home. they are pretty fun.
i'm off to chengdu tomorrow to meet up with two friends of some friends. i'll spend the week there, where i plan to pass the mornings at teahouses, eat very spicy tofu dishes, see a chinese opera, and then leave on monday for the farm.
24 May 2007
photographs and lessons in the flow
you can click here to view miss melissa's photos of the trip so far.
i'm still trying to figure a way to share my photos that doesn't involve uploading each individual picture because that takes too long.
and today i'm regaining my going with the flow, as all the train tickets for chengdu have long since been booked and it looks like i can either pay out the arse for a plane ticket, take a 2 day bus ride, or walk. options or no options, of course i will take the 2 day bus ride. sigh. one year ago this would have been nothing. in fact it happened to me. several times. and it was nothing. but a year in america can soften a person up a bit. i going to take this as a sign that i had better book my ticket to lhasa as soon as i pry myself from the sweaty, stinky bus-fest that will be this coming weekend.
one more day in nanchang, complete with a ride on the world's largest ferris wheel.
bet you didn't know that was here, eh.
i'm still trying to figure a way to share my photos that doesn't involve uploading each individual picture because that takes too long.
and today i'm regaining my going with the flow, as all the train tickets for chengdu have long since been booked and it looks like i can either pay out the arse for a plane ticket, take a 2 day bus ride, or walk. options or no options, of course i will take the 2 day bus ride. sigh. one year ago this would have been nothing. in fact it happened to me. several times. and it was nothing. but a year in america can soften a person up a bit. i going to take this as a sign that i had better book my ticket to lhasa as soon as i pry myself from the sweaty, stinky bus-fest that will be this coming weekend.
one more day in nanchang, complete with a ride on the world's largest ferris wheel.
bet you didn't know that was here, eh.
23 May 2007
babies and babies and babies
we're really busy here during the day and just exhausted when we get back to the hotel, so i don't have time to post pictures yet. we'll be leaving on saturday and i'll write a whole lot more and put up some pictures before i go to chengdu.
the orphanage is amazing though. amazing, and so sad. we've been able to fit a few hearing aids (yay!) and tested a lot of babies, but the OAE machine has been on the fritz, so it's taking us a long time. the nursery can just break your heart, but the women who work there are amazing. the only thing is that the orphanage is so hot and they put the babies in five layers of clothes and wrap them in warm blankets! i asked about it and they said it's important to keep babies warm, but then i'm all "for real?" and they're all "word erin, warm babies are best" so then i'm like "whatevs." that's how it is here i guess. can't argue with that. and then they laugh at me for wearing a hat in the warm weather. take note: only babies can be super warm in nanchang.
last night we went to "english corner" at one of the universities with one of our translators from the orphanage. so cool! it was so much fun! we ate at the "cool beverage" diner. michi and molly split a plate of four chicken nuggets. i've got a great photo of that, believe you me. the diner had swings for seats. then we were bombarded by 8 bajillion chinese students asking us questions like:
could you tell me how you keep such beautiful skin?
do you want to marry a chinese man?
can you dance while you sing?
why are you wearing a hat when it is so hot?
why have you never worked in the public society?
what is the meaning of life?
and others which i will not put here but which you should ask michi about later because they are fabulous. i was so hot i thought i would keel over. it was my best night here yet.
then i called my mom and she was on a bus tour of broadway in new york city. and that made the day complete.
the orphanage is amazing though. amazing, and so sad. we've been able to fit a few hearing aids (yay!) and tested a lot of babies, but the OAE machine has been on the fritz, so it's taking us a long time. the nursery can just break your heart, but the women who work there are amazing. the only thing is that the orphanage is so hot and they put the babies in five layers of clothes and wrap them in warm blankets! i asked about it and they said it's important to keep babies warm, but then i'm all "for real?" and they're all "word erin, warm babies are best" so then i'm like "whatevs." that's how it is here i guess. can't argue with that. and then they laugh at me for wearing a hat in the warm weather. take note: only babies can be super warm in nanchang.
last night we went to "english corner" at one of the universities with one of our translators from the orphanage. so cool! it was so much fun! we ate at the "cool beverage" diner. michi and molly split a plate of four chicken nuggets. i've got a great photo of that, believe you me. the diner had swings for seats. then we were bombarded by 8 bajillion chinese students asking us questions like:
could you tell me how you keep such beautiful skin?
do you want to marry a chinese man?
can you dance while you sing?
why are you wearing a hat when it is so hot?
why have you never worked in the public society?
what is the meaning of life?
and others which i will not put here but which you should ask michi about later because they are fabulous. i was so hot i thought i would keel over. it was my best night here yet.
then i called my mom and she was on a bus tour of broadway in new york city. and that made the day complete.
20 May 2007
fatty mcfat fat fattums fatto pants
more nostalgic moments in asia: fun with shopping.
in two separate stores today, i was told that i was waaay too big for anything in the store and not allowed to try anything on. one woman in a third store was kind enough to bring me a single large ugly black frock to try, though. sigh. memories.
the shoes fit though. oh yes, do they ever. :)
so today we went shopping and toured the town temple and had a fabulous romp in the grocery store. hooray for jackfruit chips and dried papaya!
in two separate stores today, i was told that i was waaay too big for anything in the store and not allowed to try anything on. one woman in a third store was kind enough to bring me a single large ugly black frock to try, though. sigh. memories.
the shoes fit though. oh yes, do they ever. :)
so today we went shopping and toured the town temple and had a fabulous romp in the grocery store. hooray for jackfruit chips and dried papaya!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)