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!