| I live in a part of China where the staple is noodles instead of rice. When I first arrived in this town, I loved noodles, ate them all the time, but now I am tired of noodles because there is nothing nutritional in them except for whatever nutrients come from white flour. Very little meat or vegetables are added to the noodles here. |
| Photoblog theme for a few days: Food eaten in China I am not exactly sure where this muffin is baked. I rarely see ovens. It is not a soft, doughy type of bread like Southern yeast rolls, nor is it muffin like. It is kind of crispy and dry somehow. Reminds me of crackers or maybe a type of flat bread. It crumbles quite easily. There will be no cutting this bread into slices. Today has been hmm... just one of those days. Teaching was tough. Sometimes lesson plans just don't work. Chinese corner was tough. Other than shopping and ordering food I haven't had to really communicate in Chinese for a while, so my head was slow with the language. This week though I have scheduled Chinese tutor interviews. It is time to get back to improving my language skills. After 6 hours of teaching and Chinese corner, I crashed and took a nap. I wonder if I am getting sick. Then the Tree House was full of students, a good time, something nice for such a tough day. |
| With an 8 am successful class on a Sunday morning, my body reacts funny to the day of rest being a work day. Tree House was hopping busy tonight, first meeting of writing club and tons of new students just wanting to visit. |
| Here it is the jacket I bought yesterday. Do I look like a Chinese grandmother? I like the jacket because of the buttons and the high collar. I decided to buy this jacket rather than the male jackets because it would hopefully be easy to give away to a student. Plus it was the cheapest warm jacket I could find at 120 RMB ($17). I had a conversation with my favorite yarn shop's boss lady and asked her if she could teach me how to crochet the sturdy house slippers that everyone wears here. You have to first buy a plastic thick rubber like sole to attach the yarn to. Unfortunately she doesn't know how to crochet, and said I should go next door where the lady will teach me for free. Hmm... The next door lady isn't as nice to me as this lady though, but if I want to learn a new craft I don't have to like my teacher right? Right... Maybe we will grow to like each other through the experience. |
| We were given free tickets to tonight's rehearsal performance of the opening ceremony of the Gansu Province Sports Meet. The ceremony was modeled after an Olympics opening ceremony except there weren't many athletes in attendance. I hope they arrive tomorrow otherwise it seems like an incredible waste of money and time to build a new stadium and to spend the summer rehearsing. The mass number of performers, probably over 5,000 people, were all students from my city. Wednesday I spent the day trying on jackets. Women's coats, the XXXL size, are too small in the shoulders and arms. I would not be able to wear many layers underneath except maybe one long sleeve shirt. Men's coats fit well and look great; however, after the dean of my department commenting twice on my boy's haircut and how it makes me look like a boy, I am not sure it would be wise to even look more male by wearing a man's coat. So then I tried on grandmother's coats, and they fit fine with plenty of room for lots of layers. I think I will buy a cheap grandmother's coat at 130 RMB compared to the more expensive men's coats 160-300 RMB. |
| Do you know anyone in China who has an electric clothes dryer? I haven't met anyone yet. Tidbits: 1. Sewing a knitted dead rat together is like being a surgeon and an artist. Often whenever I finish an oil pastel coloring, I instantly think ugh... But later when I come back to the picture, it looks better. It is the same with the rat. Everything has been assembled except for one leg and the inside organs. At first I thought it looked lopsided, weird, and strange, but now after putting it aside for a while, it looks a lot better. The pink tail definitely makes it look more realistic. 2. In my sophomore listening class we are studying current events and placing news item tidbits on a world map. When I first handed out the unlabeled maps, I was surprised that several students tried to find Pakistan on their maps with the orientation upside down from the way I am used to looking at maps. 3. There is a new delicious Muslim restaurant in the back gate. They serve a Chinese dish poured over freshly made noodles. 4. All of the departments except for the English department have canceled classes for a week because of a Gansu wide sports meeting that is being held in a newly built stadium. According to some students, the other departments have more boys which is why they are participating in the opening ceremony, but because the English department has a student majority of women, we aren't participating and therefore have to attend class. |
| During the last weeks of being in China, my previous sitemate was packing, throwing stuff away, and filling boxes to donate; however, in my city, we did not know of any donation drop off sites where we could give away re-usable nice clothes. There were no Goodwills or used clothing stores we could sell our clothes to. So what did my sitemate do? She filled a cardboard box full of her good clothes that she didn't want to take back to the states and left it on the first floor in front of the trash chute hoping someone would come by and recycle her good clothes. She left for the supermarket. When she returned, all the clothes had been dumped on the ground and the cardboard box had disappeared. In China, people do not wear used clothing. In America, I was so happy to be eating refried beans for breakfast covered with cheese and was super happy when my friend made a refried bean yummy soup. In China, there are dried beans, but it takes like four hours to cook them. Often I can't wait and am eating crunchy beans. I don't often cook beans because it is a waste of gas when I can just get my protein from meat dishes. In Africa I would often use up the gas to cook beans. I needed a variety in my diet, but in China this is not necessary. My new favorite drink is blended beans. The cafeteria has bowls of black eyed peas and white beans. The drink maker takes a spoonful of beans, dumps it in a blender, and adds some hot soy milk then whirls away making a delicious hot bean drink. It is almost as good as refried beans; although, you can't really eat refried beans through a straw. Beans through a straw, Yum. |
| After living in China for two years, I assume that there is nothing new that I can see. How wrong I am. While searching for a pitch instrument, at a massage place, I saw the masseuse standing on the table with his toes in the small of the back of another man rubbing in circles. Then I ran into this moving bulletin board. |
| Is this how your Christmas tree looks? I found a $3 pitch instrument, so I think I am ready for my first two hour English songs class. The music store also had a small keyboard that you use air to blow into to make a note come out. It costs about 180 RMB ($26). Not sure if it is worth the money. |
Boulder, Colorado was a cool city where I could bike from the main drag to an awesome hiking spot. After hiking to flatiron 1 and 2 then to the royal arch, I found these ferocious little animals. After pulling out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I thought I would be covered with these tiny rodents like Veruca Salt in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
When I was in graduate school, I would always visit the Henry Art Gallery on the University of Washington's campus. It was free for students. I wanted to go again, but felt it was kind of expensive for a Peace Corps volunteer so I bargained down the price to half. Well I guess I didn't really bargain since the entrance fee has set prices but also has the footnote- admission is by suggested donation. I suggested something else and got admitted.
Because I was traveling I was unable to keep up my photo blog, but now that I am back in China I have more free time. I did take a few pictures from each of the places I visited; however, not all of them turned out really nice. I will only post the USA photos that I find visually pleasing, then back to photos from China.
Picture 1: sister, Jen, dad 
Recently a tenant stopped paying rent and eventually after $2,000 of debt told my parents that he would move because he couldn't pay anymore. We spent the morning cleaning out the house. I filled five garbage bags and the pregnant girlfriend of dad's worker filled the back of dad's truck with kitchenware and furniture. There is still a ton of furniture and boxes of books left. Things that my mom felt were valuable and usable entered our house like shampoo, body wash, vitamins, Christmas decorations, clipboards, coins, and a piano. I felt like I was in a show that my parents talk about, "Hoarders: Buried Alive." 
Owning a lot of rental properties, my mom has to run a lot of business errands driving all around town, dropping off receipts, collecting rent, visiting the bank and the utilities. I spent 2-3 hours in a car accompanying her the other day. Most of the time we could just use a drive through like at the bank or at fast food restaurants. Going to the utilities though, we had to get out. Aren't bubble gum machines cool?
