The Dog Wars

Meet Toby. Toby is a Bichon, 3 months old. Mimi is a Pekingese, 3 years old. They look rather sweet in this photo, so you would never guess that they are mortal enemies.

I have some American friends who live in my city. During December when I went to America for a month, they kept Mimi at their home. So since they got a dog a few months ago, it is only fair that I help them out to return the favor. Unfortunately, Toby is not house trained yet; this is really not the biggest problem; I have a mop and don't find it any big deal to clean up after him. The BIG problem is that the two would like to kill each other. More specifically, Mimi doesn't like Toby swatting her face, and Mimi would like to eat Toby for lunch. So, for two weekends in the past month, I have played referee to the two little mutts. I've tried separating them in different rooms, which leads to whining like you can't believe. When I took Mimi for a walk by herself, I could hear Toby crying from two buildings away and five floors down; Toby sounded like he was caught in a meat grinder; I'm sure the neighbors thought I was beating him. I stepped on Toby's foot, and he wouldn't use it for hours, so I had to take him to the vet on my motorbike in cold, windy weather. Nothing was broken. Anyway, the drama was rather overwhelming, and both times when he left, Mimi and I have collapsed. I didn't tell Toby's owners any of this drama though (just the vet visit)...I have to return the favor. They kept Mimi for 30 days, I've kept Toby for 7 days, so I figure I owe them another 23 (although I should get a discount for the fact that he's not housebroken and I have two dogs to contend with at once). :-)

I Tell The Funniest Jokes!

Mimi dies laughing at my hilarious jokes!

Or, uh, she's yawning. :-)

The Lantern Festival

The fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year is celebrated as The Lantern Festival (if you are speaking English) or The Yuan Xiao Sweet Dumpling Festival (if you are speaking Chinese). It is also known as The Holiday I Hate Most. This year, The Holiday I Hate Most, that marks the end of the 15-day Chinese New Year holidays, fell on February 21st. For the holiday, the local park is decked out with lanterns that come on after dark. These lanterns are not the lanterns like you think of when you thinking of camping or from Little House on the Prairie. These are huge lanterns made of paper or plastic, the size of floats in parades, and are all lit up with electrical lights from inside (see photo for an example). The local city parks are FULL of these huge lanterns, some floating on the lakes in the middle of the parks, and the parks are also so full of people that you might get trampled. This is one reason not to like the holiday. Another reason not to like the holiday is the traffic caused by all the rich people driving cars trying to get to the park which is next door to my apartment building. The music blaring out of the park until midnight for weeks prior to the actual festival doesn't exactly endear this holiday to me either. However, the very worst thing about this holiday is that every single individual Chinese family apparently spends their entire savings (I exaggerate a bit, I'm sure) on FIREWORKS. I don't just mean loud firecrackers, but I also mean those pretty exploding lights in the sky. They were going off in front of my kitchen window, my bedroom window, my balcony window. All day, all night. They were all over town. Honestly, it sounded like the bombing of Baghdad, and though I was not fearful as I would be in a war zone, I was so stressed out that I could not stand it. I got my freaked-out dog and we got under the covers to drown out the noise and went to bed early. It was horrible, and it is the same every year. And THAT is NO exaggeration!

Trip to the Tropics

I spent two weeks in Thailand (January/February) and here are some photos of that trip. It was nice and toasty there. You may have heard of the horrible winter storms in China that stranded travelers by the hundreds of thousands, and did billions of dollars of damage to lost livestock and infrastructures. Well, to get to Thailand, I too had to traverse through some of those pretty annoying weather delays, ice on the roads, snow storms, and the like, but I count myself as one of the fortunate ones that had enough cash on me to get out of the biggest of the messes. Poor farmers did not fare as well.

Village Visit

Last week Mimi and I went to visit a friend of ours who lives in a village on the outskirts of town, near the river. Here's a picture of my friend taking Mimi for a walk. It was really cold (no heat in the village, and the electrical wires won't support electric heat), so that's why Mimi is wearing two layers of clothes, a dress and a pullover sweater, to stay warm. Village life is WAY different than city life. You have to be tough to live in a village. Next is another village photo taken from inside the house. My friend adores my dog, and has taken care of Mimi when I had to be out of town. Unfortunately, without a heater or air-conditioner in their village home, Mimi can't stay with her during the middle of winter or the middle of summer. Mimi, and I, are not quite tough enough for that!

Winter Blast

It hasn't been above freezing for about two weeks, and on Saturday it finally snowed! I was in town when the snow started around noon. I took a picture of myself in the local city square (left and below left). Then when I got back to my apartment building, all the kids (of all ages) were out having snow ball fights, building snowmen, and all the things that we do back home. Apparently the fascination with snow and what to do with it is pretty much the same worldwide! The funniest thing I saw was these little girls about ten years old having a snowball fight with the guards at the gate of my apartment complex.

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!