Clothes Drying

People who live south of the Yangtze River tend to hang their clean clothes outside to dry; they do not do this in the north where I live. I think modesty would prevent me from hanging my longjohns out to dry like these people did. This apartment building is in downtown Shanghai, one of the largest and most modern cities in the world!

Party Pooper

Here is a picture of Mimi sulking under the Christmas tree to protest the wearing of a Chinese silk outfit. As soon as I took it off of her, she perked up again. She's so funny!

Me in the Airport

Hi. Here's a photo of me taken in the gate area of the airport in Bedrock on December 3rd. I took the photo myself...I was the only one in the gate area! After six and a half hours, my flight was finally officially cancelled due to fog that refused to dissipate. Everyone else had given up a lot earlier than I did. I eventually had to hire a driver to take me to another airport 4 hours away where there was no fog.

Winter Vacation

The airline I use most threatened to "delete" my frequent flier miles if they were unused, so I decided to use them to come home to America for Christmas. I arrived back in Texas on December 5th, and will leave to return to China on December 27th. Sorry I didn't have much time to let everyone know. Mimi is back in China, staying with friends. I am staying at my parents' place. More later!

The Oddest Thing

I was sitting at lunch today, and it was a little too surreal. Could I actually be sitting in a restaurant in BEDROCK and yet be eating at a PIZZA HUT????? It was just too much for me to take in. Yes, today is the first day of Pizza Hut being open in Bedrock. To most of you, this is no big deal, but you have no idea how huge this is. When I first set foot in Bedrock eleven years ago, I felt as if I had stepped back in time about 300 years or so (except for the occasional car). Now in just a few years, we've gone from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. I remember thinking in 1998 that if all went well, by 2050 Bedrock would have a grocery store. Now it already has grocery stores, KFC's, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut. Donkey-pulled carts have been replaced by rich people driving BMW's. (Don't get me wrong, there are still poor people, but you cannot begin to imagine the changes this place has seen in the last eleven years. No place I have ever been has changed so quickly.) So today when I sat in Pizza Hut, it was just the oddest feeling. Everything has changed.

I was sick twice in October for a total of 3 weeks. That's why there were no more blog postings.

I'll try to post some pictures of things other than my dog in the future, but I think she is just SO CUTE that I like to show her off. The weather has turned really cold here, so I put a sweater on her when we go for walks. The children in my neighborhood just think this is the cutest thing they ever saw, and shriek (in their language), "Mom, look at the doggy wearing clothes!"

A Dog in a Box

Mimi likes getting packages. It means new toys for her. I don't mean that people send her toys (although some do), I mean the BOX becomes her toy, or her bed, or whatever. Isn't she lovely? :-)

Silent Holiday

Today is a traditional Chinese holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival. It comes at the mid-point of autumn according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Some folks liken it to American Thanksgiving, as families gather together in the evening for a traditional family reunion meal. (Most people work until noon on this holiday, and kids go to school until noon.)

Well, for the past few weeks, there have been roosters taking up residence on the grounds of my apartment complex, waking me up at 4 a.m., and driving my dog crazy on walks. Suddenly, today, the roosters are silent. They are tonight's dinner. I like Thanksgiving much better, when we go down to the grocery store and buy a frozen Butterball, and the slaughter of dead birds' blood isn't on the grass where my dog plays. I pity the poor roosters who were so beautiful and friendly just yesterday when I saw them. (See the photo of my neighbors cleaning the birds on the grass a few hours ago.)

Which brings me to the next topic. All my neighbors are Beverly Hillbillies. No kidding. They were all poor villagers a decade or so ago, and came into money. They moved to the big city, bought a nice apartment, and bought a Mercedes or BMW...but mentally they are still poor villagers cooking their possum soup and killing roosters for family dinner. My neighbor on the second floor is the absolutely worst, and I've called her Granny Clampett for years now. She builds fires on the driveway (I haven't figured out why yet), dries food on the driveway, cooks up potions and brews, the whole bit.

Sometimes I feel like my life is a pilot for a TV sitcom.

Emotional Grass

Sign seen yesterday at the public park that just planted new grass: "Grass also has feeling, it will sob when you hurt it." Who knew grass could cry?!

Everything Changes

The seasons are changing, and I am so glad of that! I love all the seasons, but I love autumn the most and wish it would last longer than the other seasons. In early fall, we have all the beautiful greenery of summer without the pain of oppressive heat.

The city where I live keeps changing too. Last week I was in taxi between the local airport and my apartment. My dad called my cell phone, and for a minute or two I was so speechless that I couldn't even talk to him. In the taxi, we had come across a huge area about the length of 15 blocks square that used to be villages a few weeks ago, and now was a pile of rubble waiting to be hauled off to make way for new high-rise apartment buildings. I was gone for less than two weeks, and within that time the government had flattened the entire village area (east of the river, for those who know the city). This happens around here a lot, and every time it happens I feel shocked, and also a little annoyed that I didn't know so I could have taken before and after shots! Most of the people who have their homes leveled are happy to have a better place to live, but for others, a lifetime of memories is torn away, and there is deep sadness.

Another change to come our way is Pizza Hut! I can hardly believe that this "middle-of-nowhere" place that ten years ago earned itself the moniker "Bedrock" now has three KFC's, one McDonald's, and one Pizza Hut. I was just thrilled when they got their first grocery store in 2000, so getting a Pizza Hut is almost overwhelming for me. Anyone who saw this city in 1996 and then again today would think they had come to a different city.

Everything changes, but for now I'm still here by the grace of God. Life is good.

Mimi says to say "hi" for her.

The End of Summer

This is, by far, my favorite part of summer...the END OF IT! I got up before sunrise this morning, felt the cool breeze from the open windows, drank a pot of fresh coffee--Starbucks beans freshly ground--my dog by my side on the sofa with her mouth all scrunched up like a person who hasn't quite woken up yet--wondering why we had to get up so early this morning--just to write to you. We are not quite up before the roosters, as I heard them before I got out of bed. The temperatures are in the 60's right now, with the high today in the high 70's or low 80's. The children went back to school two days ago. I just LOVE this time of year.

It was a really long, hot summer. Summer here is rainy season, so the humidity is always really high. I feel like I sweated all the water out of my body every day. We ran a summer English workshop at the university for two weeks in August, and I was up there all day every day in an administrative role, without the benefit of air-conditioners (but we still had to wear teacher clothes and hosiery, so it was uncomfortable and made the heat even more unbearable). There were severe thunderstorms on a daily basis that lasted about an hour each time; some days we had three or four different thunderstorms scattered throughout the day. There was a four-day taxi strike during the English workshop, so getting across town was really, really difficult. We have bikes, but due to the thunderstorms, it was dangerous to ride them. It was so hot that even my dog who LOVES to go outdoors couldn't bear the heat and neither one of us could bear to drag ourselves up to the 5th floor on the stairs after her little walks. At the end of August, I traveled to Thailand which is in the tropics, and it was much cooler there than where I live in China. When I got back from Thailand, the summer weather had turned a corner (as it always does this time of year), the humidity is gone, and I feel like a real person again. I wish I could bottle this weather. God is Lord of the weather and has a reason for it all that supercedes my individual tastes, but I am thankful for the reprieve.

I'm so glad the children have returned to school and life will settle back in to "normal." The downside to a return to classes is that in the two-block distance from my apartment to the main part of town there are at least four major schools, and the traffic jams last for up to 8 hours a day. Parents drop off their kids in the morning, pick them up for lunch, drop them back at school after lunch--there is a 2-hour lunch break, then pick them up later in the day (five o'clock-ish). Due to traffic, the students schedule is staggered so that first graders get out first, then second graders, etc., making the congestion go on for hours and hours at a time. There is no other way for me to get into town though. I try to plan my trips down those two blocks for times when I know the kids are in class. It doesn't always work though.

The photo is of soldiers at Tiananmen Square (Beijing) protecting the first lady of Sri Lanka who was in town in August.

Well, I better run for now. I'll be in touch again soon!

Waking Up in Thailand

It has happened before that I have woken up in a hotel room and for a split second had no idea what country I was in. This morning though, I threw open the curtains and knew exactly where I was as I viewed the pre-dawn beauty of northern Thailand where I am staying for a week. (The jaw-dropping fact that I was up before dawn was due to minor jet lag...a one hour time difference.) This summer has been a little hectic, with visitors, projects, basket orders, melting, sweltering heat, and now a trip to Thailand. Everything is going well though. Mimi (my dog) is still a great joy, except for the dog hair she leaves all over the wood floors. I am SO HAPPY to have her back in China though; she's the funniest bit of joy to ever drop into my China life. When I return to China, I'll try to send a few pics of things I didn't have time to post during the summer...I'll try to catch up on the blogging news. I hope this finds all of you well!

Happiness

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!

The faces of joyful children light up the streets and villages of China. This one giggled and posed for the camera before breaking into fits of laughter. What a day brightener this little one was!

But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful. Psalm 68:3 (NIV)

Trivia for Today

This picture has nothing to do with what I'm writing about today, but I thought you'd like to see that my dog "collects" things around the house and puts them in the middle of the floor. She feels comfy when surrounded by as much "stuff" as possible.

Here's my trivia story for today. I get paid in America by money that is put in my U.S. bank account. To get my money over to China, I have to use an ATM machine. Every transaction with the ATM machine costs me $7.31!!! It used to be that the most I could get in one transaction was $250, but now they've raised it to $300 per transaction. I think that is rather high, don't you? The only other option is to wire myself money, which is $50 per transaction. The cost of living keeps getting higher and higher over here. I'm not really complaining, just thought you'd be interested in knowing how much things cost over here. Food? Cheap. Banking Fees? Atrocious.

Wheat Harvest

The spring wheat harvest was in June, and here I am posting a picture that shows part of it. The wheat is cut down and laid out in the middle of the road so that cars can drive over it and break down the different parts of the wheat. (Okay, I don't know any terms related to wheat, but I'll describe it the best I can). Then they use shovels to throw the wheat up in the air, and the usable and unusable parts separate. Then they lay the usable part on the side of the road (to dry maybe?) and then scoop it up along with rocks and dirt into bags to sell. I can't really tell you what these farmers are doing with their little air-polluting contraption, but it looks like something Granny Clampett might enjoy working with. In the countryside, every road in every direction was covered in wheat for a full week, maybe longer. In the city we saw no such thing, but it was kind of funny seeing BWM's driving through the city with straw sticking out from the bottom...there was no mistaking that they had been out in the countryside during the day! Hey, check out those farmers' hats...aren't they cute?!

Mid-Summer

I got out of the house today for the first time in six days. I was out of Kleenex's, so I had to go to the store to get some more. I have had a bad cold since last weekend. (Uh, well, I did take my dog downstairs to the grass twice a day even when I was sick, which is technically being out of the house since I live on the 5th floor, but that's as far as I got all week.) Even though my voice doesn't work well, I was glad to get out this morning and go into the town. It feels like I just wasted a week of my life.

Prior to getting sick, some friends and I went to visit the Venice of China, Suzhou, for about five days. It is just beautiful and quaint there. Suzhou is about an hour from Shanghai. Suzhou also has a couple of Starbucks Coffee shops and TGIFriday's restaurant, so that makes it an even more attractive destination! It is one of my favorite places to visit. The bad news is that we went during monsoon season, and most of our planned activities got washed out. We can go weeks at a time without seeing the sun around here during the summer monsoon season. It is usually really unbearably humid, but today there is a cool breeze blowing and it almost feels like fall. The apartment complex mowed down the foot-long grass blades and my dog enjoyed romping on it for a change. I don't want to get a relapse with my sickness, so I'll probably lay low for a few more days and watch a few more American TV shows on DVD. Hopefully next week I'll have something more meaningful I can do.

Summer

Thoughts of summer evoke different thoughts depending on where you live. You probably think it means that school is out, but here school doesn't end until July 16th this year! You think of fudgesicles, and here people eat green-bean-sicles. You think of baseball games, and here they just work, no time for games. You think of barbeques and the 4th of July (for my American friends, that is). Here they think of staying indoors out of the rain...it is rainy season here. One thing is certainly the same...HOT WEATHER! We get temperatures that are often hotter than those in tropical locations, and it is humid like Houston. The really hot, muggy weather in my city only lasts 6-10 weeks though, so it's not too bad compared to some places. This summer I'll travel around this country some, and I'll also make a trip to Thailand later in the summer. Take care!

Old Red Bit the Dust

My old red motorbike has died. I got it in March 1998. I was hoping to make it last until March 2008, when law mandates its' retirement, but it just couldn't make it that long. I took the motorbike to the vegetable market Saturday, and it was sputtering as it has for quite awhile, but it died at the market. I had to push the thing back home (which no doubt explains my backache and why I couldn't get out of bed the following morning). You may wonder about the law...after 10 years, cars, motorbikes, etc. have to go to the junk heap or sold for parts. They don't want a lot of bad vehicles on the road. There is not much of a used vehicle market around here as a result. Old red is gone. She and I have had quite a decade of memories together. I'm sure my neighbors will be glad not to see old red anymore, as the motorbike was becoming quite an eyesore and they were probably embarrassed--or afraid that I would lower their property values by riding it around here. :-)

Update

Hi! I think I would write on this blog more often if I didn't have to re-set my password every time I used it. I don't forget my password, but the blog program can't seem to remember it. Anyway, since I last wrote on this blog, I got my dog back! She had a hard, long trip in the dark underbelly of an airplane (24 hours with no pit stop) followed by a 7-day prison stay in quarantine in Shanghai. I think she got overheated and not given enough to drink in quarantine, because she was very dehydrated when I got her back. Otherwise, I think she was probably treated well. I was able to bring her from Shanghai in a car for an 8-hour ride. The poor doggy has been through the wringer! She quickly adjusted back to her life here...you would think she had never left. She seems a lot more tired (getting old maybe?) and sleeps a lot. She doesn't steal my shoes as often. She is starting to remind me of that dog on the Beverly Hillbillies that sleeps on the doorstep all day long. I never thought I'd live to see the day when my hyperactive dog slowed down. I'm just glad to have her back.

If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again!

Thanks for your prayers for getting my dog back. My friend Sara is coming to visit here on May 22nd. She is going to bring my dog to me! We called the airline already and they have typed up a note on Sara's reservation saying that the paperwork we have is the correct paperwork (as you may recall, the United ticket agent on March 1st thought our paperwork was wrong and barred my dog from flying with me; wow, that sure caused a lot of trouble). Now we just have to pray that the USDA office in Austin gets the certificate sent to our vet in Texas on time, so he can get it to my parents, so they can get it to Sara. There are a lot of details involved in getting my dog here, so please pray EVERY LITTLE THING works out with God's intervention. And pray that my little pup won't get depressed during her 7-days of quarantine upon arrival in this country. I'm afraid she's spoiled rotten and may go on a hunger strike if forced to eat dog food. Truthfully, the transitions will really be stressful for her.

Building Contractor

People often ask what I do in a typical day. In the 30 days of April, I didn't do the same thing any two days. But a lot of what I did was get an apartment ready for some co-workers. I negotiated their rental contract, which was a headache, but turned out to be easier than almost everything else. Their apartment was EMPTY. I had to pick-out kitchen cabinets, sink, hot water heaters, doors, tile, mirrors, towels racks, shower, light fixtures, window sills, etc. and arrange for each individual thing to be installed (had to get phone lines, broadband lines, cable TV and all that installed too). It was fun for about the first 8 hours or so, but the fun soon wore off as I had to haggle with a bunch of blue-collar local men. I was the only woman in an apartment with a dozen or so local guys running around half in fear and half in amusement at having a green-eyed blonde telling them what to do and where. Of all the things I get to do in my job, this was surely the most bizarre!!! But it is over now, and my new co-workers are settling in. It was worth the effort. Check out the air-conditioner installation guy as he's about to crawl out the window with the air-conditioner.

Twenty-two Dollars and Fifty-Five Cents

I went to the grocery story yesterday. This is what I got for $22.55:

8 screw-top bottles of Diet Coke
2 screw-top bottles of Sprite
2 bottles spring water
3 "boxes" of milk.
Celery stalk
2 bell peppers
4 hot peppers
3 bunches of bok choi
4 potatoes
4 red onions
2 tomatoes
4 cucumbers
2 large zucchini
3 half-pounds of sliced pork for stir-frying
4 orange muffins
2 packages cookies
3 packages crackers
1 big bag of bulk peanuts, flavored
3 loaves of bread
1 jar blueberry jam
1 bag of pickled vegetables - Chinese style
1 jar of Sesame Paste
6 sweets (glutinous rice balls)
10 Kleenex packages - purse size
2 Snickers bars
1 package of dried red chilies

I am thinking that most of you couldn't get out of the grocery this cheap, am I right? Everytime the grocery clerk rings up the cash register I think, "IS THAT ALL?" Most things here cost the same as they do in the USA, but food and clothing are cheaper. I don't buy clothing here though, so I get my kicks out of grocery shopping instead. :-)

Self-Portrait at the Beach

Hi. This is me at the beach today. I took the photo myself (in case you can't tell). It was cold and windy, but sunny and bright. The water was VERRRRY cold! I didn't get to stay there very long, just about half an hour, long enough to enjoy a picnic with my co-worker and our driver for the day; picnic catered by KFC. I don't get to the beach very often, but had to be near the beach for visa purposes and took advantage of the good opportunity. I get to see another beach in another town next week!

Cloth World

Who needs the overhead of running a store? Why bother paying electric bills, buying cash registers, or paying rent? It's not how much money you make, it's how much money you have left over after you've paid all your bills that counts! Welcome to the fabric store of Bedrock!

Village Views

This is a photo of a grave in the countryside. Fortune tellers tell people the best place to bury their dead, and often these 'good places' are in the middle of a farmer's field. The cremated remains are placed in urns and buried in these conical mounds of dirt. These mounds have recently been tended to; this past week was a national memorial day type of holiday in which people remember their ancestors by visiting the graves, sprucing them up, and leaving decorations on them.

Utility Futility

The water went out in my apartment Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m. Apparently some poor young man who has no training was given the controls of a piece of heavy machinery, and he promptly busted the main water pipe in this part of town. I prayed for this young man, that his next job would be more in line with his set of skills, in order that we might all be happier. (Uh, surely he is not the same man who pulled this exact same stunt this time last year.)
Anyway, to repair the pipe, they had to use concrete, which takes two days to dry before it is exposed to water. So I went all day Thursday and all day Friday without water (and was told it would be Saturday before the water came back). In case you haven’t thought about it lately, here are the things you cannot do without water: bathe, wash your hair, brush your teeth, flush, wash veggies, wash dishes, cook, clean, wash your hands. It was not a happy couple of days. I finally broke down Friday night and took a bottled water shower. I bought six bottles of bottled water from the store and used them to wash my hair and take a shower. It was not easy nor pleasant nor warm. Not even 60 seconds had passed after my bottled water shower when the real water supply came back on…albeit green, disgusting, and a day earlier than what they had said. I was glad to have it back, regardless of color. So, after the water came back on, it was bedtime so I went to bed. I woke up this morning early to get ready for a trip that started early, and the ELECTRICITY was off!! What crummy luck I have. My landlord is supposed to pay the electricity on a pre-paid system, and once again he didn’t do it, and he didn’t answer his phone when I called him at some unearthly hour of the morning. I got dressed in the dark. Living in a developing country is a test of patience, that’s all I can say.
This photo was taken today in the countryside. I prefer a washing machine to handwashing in a river, but at least these ladies had water, something I couldn't say for the past two days! :-)

Last October, McDonald’s finally arrived here in Bedrock. We have three successful KFC’s, and now McDonald’s makes four “foreign” franchises in town; we have no others. I’ll faint in shock if Pizza Hut, Starbucks, or DQ make it here like they have made it to bigger cities in this country. Here in Bedrock, KFC is packed out at all hours of the day. These people love chicken. The crowds at KFC, along with the blaring music, make it an impossible place to carry on a conversation though. But for whatever reason, McDonald’s is less crowded. It is the least crowded McDonalds I have ever seen. My American friends all fear it will close due to the lack of business. I’ve only known one other McDonald’s that closed, and that was in my hometown in west Texas. If this one closes too, I’m going to feel like it’s somehow my fault. :-) We foreigners in Bedrock like to go to McDonalds, because it is quiet, has a great view of the center of town, and is a good meeting place. We also like McDonalds because it is a sign of progress in this developing nation…we live in a city that is on its’ way up.

Back in East Asia

I was in the USA from October 23rd until March 2nd...a little more than four months. During that time I mostly stayed with my parents in Texas. I traveled a few times. I went to Washington, D.C., Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. In Texas, I mostly stayed in East Texas, venturing once to San Antonio. The D.C. and San Antonio trips were to visit my brothers and their families. Mostly, it was just good to be home with my mom and dad. I got to DFW airport early on the morning of March 1st for my return flight, and the airlines wouldn't let my dog travel with me. You never saw such wailing and gnashing of teeth...mine! I had all the required paperwork, but the weird airline wouldn't let Mimi on anyway. So Mimi is still in Texas running laps in my parents' backyard while I am over here in East Asia trying to figure out how to get the little pooch back over the Pacific pond. I am not a happy camper in this matter. I would very much appreciate your prayers for me as I try to navigate this mess. If I ever get this dog back over here, she's not ever going to Texas again, that's for sure. Other than this problem with bureaucracy, I am busy trying to clean up the horrible dusty dirt all over my apartment, and unpacking. My apartment is warm (ah yes, but the government-controlled steam heat should end in 10 days and THEN my apartment will double as a refrigerator); my apartment was not this warm all last winter. Really, life is going very, very well except my DOGGONE DOG IS GONE! COME BACK MIMI!