Trip to Johannesburg, South Africa

At the end of May I had to go on a trip to South Africa. I had never been to Africa before, so I was a bit giddy. I had to take two flights. The first flight was 2.5 hours from Shanghai to Hong Kong. The second flight was 13 hours and was from Hong Kong to Johannesburg. Jo'burg looks very much like America. Above is a residential neighborhood in the big city. 

After arrival, they took us to a mall for lunch. On that day, the mall had a rooftop market going on, and I got a latte there.

Next to the mall was an "African market" that sells local handicrafts. I picked up a few souvenirs.

Later in the day, a bus took me and my group to a conference location a couple of hours away from Johannesburg. We passed by a black township, and I saw these people standing beside the road waiting for rides. A township is similar to a Chinese village (as I view it), although I'm no authority on life in Africa.

During my trip, I was able to go on two jeep safaris in a game reserve. I'll soon post photos from that, so come back soon! 

Random Summer Summary 2016

HOTNESS

You know it is hot when you have to travel to Thailand to cool off.

The heat index got up to 126 degrees Fahrenheit one day here where I live in the Middle Kingdom. Most evenings the heat index has been at least 100 degrees. Not every summer is this hot. For instance, any summer I am not here, it is not that hot. It wasn't that hot here last summer.

THAILAND

I am not in this picture and I did not wear a swimsuit, so don't be wondering which one of these Russian exhibitionists is me. 

Some day when I am full of energy, I will get the good photos off of my good camera instead of just showing you my phone photos.

Honestly, while in Thailand I saw the beach for about five minutes every day, usually just before the sun set, but I wasn't at the beach much. 

I have been on three trips this summer. I have been to Taiwan, Thailand, and a desert area of China. I did fine on each trip, but when I got home from the trips I had trip recovery issues. Maybe when the weather cools down, I can recover more quickly. My health still drags me down. 

FRIENDLY MUSLIM LADY

One day near the end of Ramadan, on one of my trips, I was out in a public park and the Muslim lady above invited me to her house for dinner. She was very friendly and insisted. I told her I would visit her house, but I wouldn't eat because I'd already eaten dinner. I got there and she started cooking, because she didn't believe I'd really already eaten. I wasn't really planning to eat her food, and she wasn't planning to eat it either because she was still fasting. So finally we just took photos and laughed and talked about things. Here she is at the sink washing the food she planned to cook for me. Her hat is what Muslims wear. Sometimes they wear scarves, but the purple hats are easier to throw on. 

She told me that her husband was staying with their daughter for a few weeks, because he wanted to eat and his daughter would cook for him. So this lady was willing to cook for me but not for her own husband.

UNFRIENDLY MUSLIMS ... OR NOT?

One day, in my own city, I went to eat at a Muslim restaurant. The Uighurs who work there are very conservative, cover up with scarves, and are very unfriendly. You can say hello to them and they won't even acknowledge your existence. People go there to eat because the food is good, not because they want to be acknowledged as human beings. 

So imagine my shock when I went to the restaurant one day and one of the women came over to TALK TO ME. She wanted schooling help for her children and thought I would have information to help. Her husband came over and we exchanged contact information. I texted a Chinese friend to say I was at this restaurant, and that Chinese friend wrote back asking if they were being mean as usual. I wrote back and said "NO, WE ARE FRIENDS NOW!" My Chinese friend thought I was being sarcastic and didn't believe me! Haha.

I've been back several times. The last time I was there, a torrential thunderstorm came up. The sidewalks became rivers. I had to stay at their restaurant a really long time. I thought I could chat with them more, but they were busy running the restaurant. 

COFFEE SHOP IN THE RAIN

When a mild break in the rain came, I ran across the pathway to a coffee shop and hung out until the storm ended. It was one of the most beautifully decorated coffee shops that I've ever been in.

                  

I felt bad that Mimi was home alone during the storm though. Poor dog child.

IN CONCLUSION

Besides going to the doctor for appointments, these are the sad little highlights of my summer so far. Thank God I've been able to do this much!

I've tried to write blog posts more often, but the internet always seems to cut out when I have time to write. Thanks to the Great Firewall of You-Know-Where, I have to use a VPN to write on this blog, and VPN slows down the internet and doesn't work at all sometimes. I do the best I can with what I have.

Please pray for good health for me and my family (my parents in particular). And, as always, please pray that cancer stays away from my body forever, please.

Welcome to spring!

Spring is here (yea!) and I caught a cold (drats!) -- I hadn't caught a cold in a really long time, so I didn't see it coming. I would spend my days resting in bed, but I can't breathe if I'm lying down. Plus there's no T.V. in my bedroom. So I'm spending my days lounging on the sofa, feet on the coffee table, drinking coffee all day, watching NCIS and Sell This House. Hopefully this won't last long so I can get out and enjoy the good weather.

Lunch view

January and February brought uncharacteristically fabulous weather. But now winter's rainy season is upon us and we have day after day of dreary wet cold weather. Today though, the sun came out, and so did I. I had lunch at a chic coffee shop built into an ancient structure along a famous canal. I took this photo from my spot at the table. I live in such a culturally rich city; I love it! 

Don't love the high price of coffee shops in this city though. You know it's bad when you go to Starbucks because they sell the cheap coffee. Yeah, really.

BTW, the color of the water in this canal? It looks somewhat more icky-colored in the photo than it does in real life. It's brown, but not caramel brown. It's kind of like the color of most rivers in Texas. I still wouldn't go swimming in it or anything, that's for sure. I give it points for being quaint and ancient, but it is not clean.

Cute Coffee Shop

My city has a gazillion little coffee shops, and this one is so cute I couldn't resist taking lots of photos to keep and look back on. Enjoy the photos!

Crossed the line

I had a goal in mind when I was in the U.S. over the Christmas holidays.

I almost forgot about it in the rush of the holidays, but then a few days before I returned overseas, I borrowed my parents' car. My dad reached into his pocket and pulled out some change. He knew I didn't need the 53 cents, but he wanted to pay for this momentous occasion, to be a part of it.

I drove to town, pulled into the drive-up window at McDonalds, rolled down the window, and said these words for the very first time:

"I want a senior coffee."

Because, you see, I am now old enough to get a senior discount at McDonalds!

I have looked forward to this day ever since a decade or so ago when I discovered my dad could get McDonalds senior coffees for 27 cents (in another city where the price is lower).

People younger than me will not understand why it is such a good thing to get older. People my age and older totally get it though. It is an honor to say I lived long enough to be a senior.

At least by the standards of McDonalds.

It is a proud moment.

Office decor

Here is my office for today. All Starbucks should look so beautiful, right? When I arrived before lunch, I staked out my desk in the far back corner on the left (see my computer-carrying backpack on the table). I was the only one here when I arrived, and a few quiet people came in later. Classic Christmas music is playing on the speakers -- Frosty the Snowman was on when I first arrived, and it got classier after that. :-) I bought my hot black coffee for $2.83 for a small cup. (Starbucks costs more here than in the U.S.) None of those fancy Christmas coffees -- candy in a cup -- for me, but not because of price -- I just don't drink sugar. I've been here four hours, and now I feel guilty for leaving Mimi home alone for so long. So I'm about to pack it up and head back. It'll be dark in two hours. I'm trying to get in the Christmas spirit, and that's hard in this country. Starbucks is the one place I can go away from home to get in the spirit. And lucky me, there are fifty gazillion Starbucks in the city where I live, very few as quiet as this one.

Why would anyone do that?

I was passing by a lot of cute coffee shops today when I ran across one that had some chalkboard advertisements out front. This one says: "Come have a cup of coffee that is more expensive than Starbucks." Then it tells you that they are using Lavazza brand coffee, and they tell how much the coffee beans, milk, cup and service cost that add up to be more than at Starbucks. Are these people CRAZY?! Is it now a matter of pride to have prices higher than Starbucks? Starbucks in China is already higher than in the U.S. (it has been in the news here during the past week). I bought a small thermos today. I'm not handing my wallet over to these greedy coffee meisters!

Magical day in the Kingdom

 I got up early today to meet my friends for coffee. It was a beautiful fall day.

The part of town where we met was full of coffee shops, restaurants, and art shops. I just love it here, and I don't know why I don't go more often. It is not that far from where I live really.

It's a trendy part of town. It wasn't crowded when I arrived, but when I left at lunch time it was so packed I could hardly get out.

Based on what I've seen on Facebook, cute food decorations are the "in" thing in the U.S. Seems they are popular here too. These are meat buns (or maybe instead of meat they have something sweet inside, but that is definitely steamed bread surrounding some kind of filling). They were for sale on the above-mentioned trendy street.

Here's my cup of coffee and one of my friends. Despite how it looks, the cup of coffee was not really bigger than my friend. When we finished visiting for a couple of hours at the coffee shop, I had to detour to go home, because of all the crowds. What a lovely detour it was, because if I hadn't taken it, I would not have discovered this:

Marks and Spencer!!!!!!! It's a British department store, in case you're not familiar. I LOVE this store. I used to make trips to Hong Kong, with visits to this store in mind. I can't believe one opened in my city!!!! It just opened. They have clothes that are normal sizes, unlike most stores in town that carry size zero as the largest size. I went in this store and I had to contain myself. I wanted to jump up and down like an excited 5 year old, but wisely and quickly determined it wasn't appropriate to display my emotion publicly at my advanced age. So I jumped up and down inwardly. You do remember last week I mentioned that there is nothing I like to shop for in this country? I so happily can take that back now.

Marks and Spencer also carries food items (lots of packaged goods, canned goods, coffee, etc.), and they are generally very good, cheap, and packaged beautifully. And they have a cafe too. The grocery section and cafe aren't opening until December though, but it will probably be my favorite hangout once it is open.

And you know what? They have a brand new Gap store here too, just near Marks and Spencer! (I took a picture of it, but somehow I lost it when downloading the photos). Gap has normal sizes too. I haven't seen a Gap store in China before, although I'm quite sure we are not the first city in China to get one. Beijing and/or Shanghai are usually always the first.

You probably can't imagine why clothing stores could make me so excited. So let me tell you. I am not trying to promote materialism; but I have for years lived under a certain kind of stress. I usually ONLY buy clothes when I am in the U.S. I would love to buy clothes here, but the size zero thing just makes it impossible. I have a great collection of shoes, socks, purses and scarves that I bought in China, but not clothes. When in the U.S. I have to buy 2-3 years worth of clothing, both under and outwear, and hope it will last. And I can't buy much because too much won't fit in the two suitcases the airline allows. All of a sudden, my clothes-buying-in-America intense pressure has been relieved. My life has changed, to tell the truth! I'll still buy stuff in America, but I don't have to depend on those infrequent trips to supply all my clothing needs. Wow, shopping has become fun again, all in the blink of an eye! I had to drag myself out of these stores today after I had looked at everything 2 or 3 times.

I was proud of myself too, because last night I went through my closets and threw away lots of old junky clothes. There's not much left in my closets; I bought one thing today to help re-stock it. (Yeah, after all that excitement and chatter, I just bought one sweater. I practiced self-control.) :-)

Then I went back to my place and went out for a jog as part of my SBP (shrinking body project). There's a beautiful, well kept park right next to where I live. It has a walking track with a soft track-like surface (that's it on the bottom left). I like how it has trees and bushes near the track so it feels more like a stroll in a park -- a football field track is a bit less enticing!

I made some new friends (a family) while I was jogging. (Yeah, they stopped me during my jog, so it interrupted my attempt to get aerobic benefits.) But I think it will be worth it. We exchanged contact information and I am happy I got a chance to meet them.

Later in the day, I got an email out of the blue from some former co-workers thanking me for helping them adjust to the culture when they arrived six years ago. They were laughing among themselves about their initial mistakes with the culture and decided to write and thank me. How nice of them to take the time to write!

And then my mom had a surgical implant procedure last week to relieve her back pain, and it worked! She is currently pain-free for the first time in recent memory (her pain was so severe before that she could hardly move/walk ... she broke a vertebrae last year). She and my dad are really happy (we all are)! Things are looking up, and that makes my heart glad.

Today gets an A+ in my book. From start to finish, it was a beautiful, perfect day. Thank you God for the gift of today.

Sippable vices

One month and one day ago, I said good-bye to a longtime friend, a friend who was never more than an arm's reach away, a friend who assisted me on a daily basis, a friend who pumped lifeblood into me. I said good-bye to coffee.

A full week before I said adios to the java, I parted ways with Diet Coke (and any soda for that matter). The soda thing was based on the possibility that artificial sweeteners and bubbly stuff might be damaging my body in some way. The only bubbly I've had since then was when I had some Alka-Seltzer this morning.

The coffee thing was about the caffeine and its dehydrating effect ... which may be a source of some pain issues I have.

Where I grew up in west Texas, the tap water was fairly impossible to drink. I think this is where my penchant for consuming non-water tasty drinks got started.

I started drinking coffee in an addictive kind of way when I lived in Colorado. It was pretty cold in the Rockies, but coffee kept me a little warmer on the inside. I continued drinking coffee when I moved to Hong Kong, then to China. Even when I couldn't get coffee, my parents mailed it to me. Then when Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts came to China, I was able to buy my own coffee beans (even though it cost twice the price for half as much coffee).

I started drinking Cokes in China when I realized it was probably much cleaner than the water. I drank a lot of Cokes in the early years. I could boil water, but there would be so much sand at the bottom of the kettle that heat could not eradicate, that it just didn't feel like a wise decision to consume it. Later, Diet Cokes and then Coke Zero arrived on the scene. Bottled water in big dispensers also arrived, but rumors persisted about the cleanliness of its source. Carrying sodas up five flights of stairs was not easy, but since it had to be done whether it was water or soda, and the price was about the same, I went with the tasty option (soda).

In the past month, I drank more water than I have ever before in my life. I should feel extraordinarily healthy -- right? -- but for some reason I feel just the same. What's up with that? I'll give this experiment a little longer, maybe until the end of the year. If I don't detect health benefits by then, I might re-unite with my steaming little coffee beans. I think I will permanently forego the sodas though (which I don't miss).

P.S. I had several weeks' worth of caffeine withdrawal headaches in the past month, in case you were wondering.

Salon day

I was dull and lifeless. Or maybe it was just my hair that was. Agua fixed all that when he cut my hair last week. It's still a bit long in back, with layers.

I can't remember ever seeing a woman cut hair in China before. It seems to always be trendy young men in this line of work. This hairdresser's name sounds like the Spanish word for water, but it is really the Chinese name "A Guo." He has a nice salon ... check out those mirrors and chandeliers in back! Agua's adorable little two-year old son stuck his hand in my cup of cold coffee while I was getting my haircut. That's always special. 

Afternoon at the coffee shop

Gifts from Mike and his "girlfriend" -- the flowers were from them a while back, the homemade goodies in recycled jars and the wooden goose basket were from today.

I spent the afternoon at a coffee shop talking with a 25-year old young man I first met a few years ago. (He says he is 27 years old, but based on his actual date of birth, he is really 25). Let's call him Mike. Because it wouldn't be cool for me to give you his real name.

Warning: This story doesn't have a plot or anything, I just thought some of you might want a glimpse into everyday life.

Mike, a reserved type, is nice looking, is a mechanical engineer and has a good-paying job. 

Back in December he introduced his girlfriend to me and I quickly discovered they were living together, planning to get married at the end of 2013. He expounded on that today. 

Turns out they are already legally married, and plan to hold their wedding ceremony with invited guests at the end of 2013. (In this country, the act of marriage registration makes the marriage legal, not the ceremony itself as it is in America. Lots of Chinese married couples choose a later wedding date after they are registered.) 

I don't know why Mike introduced his wife to me as his girlfriend in December though. Why not just say "this is my wife?"

Mike's wife only had one week off for Chinese New Year, so she's back at work this week. Mike himself has three weeks off. He is bored sitting at home out by the quiet lake, so he wanted to visit someone. So he called me up. He wanted to practice his English as much as anything. We met at Starbucks. Fortunately, there are lots of Starbucks in this city; unfortunately, we initially went to different ones, postponing our meeting for half an hour or so. 

He brought me some homemade snacks his mom had made. She made sugar-coated peanuts and sesame toffee squares. He and his wife also picked up a souvenir for me while visiting a tourist mountain on their trip home for the New Year. (They drove home for the holidays, because they have a car.) I am so touched -- I feel unworthy that they thought of me during their trip. 

Mike didn't come from money. His parents are poor farmers, growing their own food. His mom has 10 chickens, a cat, an ox and used to have a pig. We looked on Google maps to see where their plot of land is several days' drive to the west of here.

Mike's worldview is so different from mine. For example, he was excited to tell me he had a dream and Einstein was in it. Yep, he dreams about Albert Einstein, the scientist. I can't even imagine having a dream about anything to do with science. Or about anyone with a bad hairdo for that matter.

Mike wishes he could go to England to meet wheelchair-bound scientist Stephen Hawking, and he was carrying a biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs with him today. It seems much of the world is in the business of building heroes that have nothing to do with Jesus, though He's the only one who will remain standing when all else fades away. I am so unimpressed with just about everyone else the world tries to sell me on as a hero. But I didn't want to ruin it for Mike, so I just winced smiled as he talked about them.

Deep down in my heart I had a mental picture of how I hoped our meeting would go today. After discussing deep questions that his soul had pondered since my Christmas party, Mike would drop to his knees right there in the middle of the coffee shop, repent (with tears streaming down his face) and become my spiritual brother today. Alas, not today. It didn't even come up. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

After taking an e-bike, subway, bicycle and taxi for my outing today, I finally returned home. 

I'm kind of chuckling over the fact that a popular 25-year old guy called up someone my age to spend the afternoon with, but it's actually not that unusual. It's one of the things I love about this place. Anything can happen.

A busy eve

I talked to this man on one of my Christmas village visits.

It looks every bit as much like Christmas here as it does in America. Christmas decorations and Christmas music are everywhere. Lots of restaurants have special (outrageously expensive, some over $100 per person) dinner sets for Christmas Eve and Christmas. 

Most foreigners (Americans, Australians, Europeans) have fled the country to go home for the holidays. Most go at their company expense. There are not many white faces in this city for the holidays.

Young Chinese people, in their 20s and 30s, get together with friends for Christmas dinners on Ping An Ye (Silent Night, their name for Christmas Eve).

Christians flock to special Christmas church services to honor the birth of Christ. But even for them, this is not the biggest traditional holiday of the year. 

It is bitterly cold here and may snow tomorrow.

There are signs of the Christmas season, but it still FEELS nothing like Christmas. People are going about their daily routines. There is no holiday spirit, although they certainly will have their own holiday spirit in about six weeks when Chinese New Year comes along.

Today is Christmas Eve. I put on my thickest longjohns today, because on the e-bike, it can get miserably cold. I made a visit to a village where I wished people a Merry Christmas and gave them small gifts, a new kind of Christmas tradition for me in recent years. This is my favorite thing to do at Christmas now.

Then I went to a Christian bookstore. Don't even ask me how it came to be that there is a Christian bookstore in this city/country. Because that would require me to have an answer. And I have no idea.

Later in the day, I went by taxi to deliver something to a friend across town and dropped by Dunkin' Donuts for coffee beans on the way back to my place. DD's espresso coffee beans are just as good as Starbucks' and you get twice the amount for the same price!

Later in the evening, I went to a nice restaurant at an elegant hotel nearby with some friends. Then, on the way home, on e-bike, I detoured by the church to see the Christmas Eve service underway. It was a beautiful thing to see. The church was so packed that people were sitting in various anterooms and hallways, watching the service on closed circuit TV. The historic brick building was outlined in white lights, and twinkling white lights lined the wrought-iron gates outside the church. Policemen stood near the church, there for crowd control (I think that's their story).

I wanted to go in, but it was in the 20s outside, and my experience told me that it would be even colder inside. I can't sit through a two-hour (or longer) service in that unheated building without moving around for warmth, not after just getting over a lung infection especially. I wondered what the temperature was in Bethlehem on the day Jesus was born. I wonder what the temperature is in Bethlehem this year. I'll have to check the Bethlehem weather online when I get back.

I took a photo of the church and moved along. If the temperature warms on Christmas Day, I'll return for one of their other three Christmas services. 

Yes, there is some irony that Christians in the Communist country spend their Christmas Day at church, whereas in the Christian country we don't. I'm not judging, because I know it is the western tradition of being with family that we cherish on this day. It's just an interesting observation.

I sang carols on my way back to my apartment. I was exhausted, having had a bad headache all day, so I soon headed to my bed that was pre-heated by my electric blanket. I breathed a word of praise to God my King for sending Jesus to dwell among us. What a lovely, lovely thing to celebrate.

Modern Fever

I went to the doctor in Thailand on Wednesday to get a report from my earlier stay. I arrived early, and since there are two Starbucks inside the hospital, I got an extra hot latte to sip in the waiting room.

The nurse eventually came to get me. She took my blood pressure with her tourniquet malfunctioning blood pressure cuff. Ouch. She gave up on taking my blood pressure, which is fine because it is always on the low side of normal anyway.

Then she took my temperature and looked perplexed. 

"I have a fever, don't I?" I said chirpily.

She said I did. But testing my temperature was a routine measure and she knew that I shouldn't have a fever; she wondered if her thermometer was broken.

I pointed to my coffee cup. 

She sighed in relief.

Coffee and culture

I love Asian furniture and decor. I've got some in my apartment. So imagine how happy I was to encounter a brand-new beautiful coffee-drinking place just a few blocks away! Caffeine and culture, all in one convenient stop.