Dasvidanya

Love this picture for many reasons, one being it was taken on my second favorite street. Two...it's classic. The hustle and bustle at all hours, the varied signs delivering an assortment of goods.

I've talked about "stalls" before, but I can never accurately portray them. A lot of people run their business' out of the back of their 'modified trucks'. I don't know what this guy does, but he certainly hasn't been bitten by ambition. Notice the knee pads and expired military coat, these are all Chinese staples.

Mike is marvelous. Do you want to know why? Because he cleaned the dirty dishes, knowing exactly how much I hate to do it. And this is how we work. He does the dishes, I do the floor. And yes, he does them in his manties so the water doesn't get his clothes dirty.

I have a whole new appreciation for teachers. Coming up with creative lessons that both educate and entertain can be exhausting...and stressful. Because I think its fun to stress out about the little things. So when I knew that last week was going to be the final week of the semester, I was doing a little cheer dance inside my head. Just a little one. Another part of me was really going to miss getting to know the students. Hearing about their lives and seeing their excitement and they learned and tried new things.

This is one of my English classes. I tried to post my other English class but my computer was being a poo. I also have three other classes but they are 100 % MALE. Yea, as in120 guys taught by a foreign white women. Talk about being thrown to the wolves. Not a single male student dropped the class.

For the last day of class I brought candy to pass out to the students as sort of a going away present. At the end of class I posed for pictures with every single student, and then in groups, and then with the girls, and then with the boys, and then a roommate shot...you get the point. A LOT of pictures. But what really touched me were the gifts I received and the thank-you notes I was given. So a big THANK-YOU to all my Chinese students who made living in Jinan, feel like home.

This is just one of the letters, but you get the idea. Tell me this doesn't make you want to stick around!

I am both a touchy-feely person and a klutz. Combine the two and you can get dirty pretty quickly. The first things to get dirty on my outfit are generally the sleeves, you know, dragging my arms across the chalk board as I erase the lesson. So what better gift than SLEEVE PROTECTORS to give me!@# These were farewell gifts from my students. I am also holding a traditional Chinese knot. What I'm supposed to do with it, I don't know. It's supposed to bring me good luck and God knows I could use a bit of that! The sleeve protectors are actually really common and all of the students wear them, just so you know this isn't some sort of fashion statement.

All ready, already?

Mike and I are leaving...soon. We discovered that our second, more relevant visa expires much sooner than we anticipated. This just means that our base will be much more mobile and include a lot more adventures. How exciting. Our (and by our, I really mean MY) first adventure was packing. In all fairness, I am somewhat obsessive compulsive. Everything has a spot and if it's not in it's spot, welll, we won't go there. As I am packing I am again realizing how insane I was to bring this many clothes. No, I did not need those three pair of running pants, and yes, I did get by without needing thirty pairs of panties. And yes, Mike, you told me so.

But, I have mended my ways and am back on course. After consolidating and agreeing to ship all unnecessary items back to America we are back to one bag and one backpack! When I was deciding which two pairs of pants would win an all expense paid vacay to Southeast Asia I came across these...

These are my wonder-woman pants. The pants that I put on when I'm feeling fat, ugly, tired, or adventurous and they transform me into that woman who can do just about anything. They are THE most comfortable pants in the entire world. They have been worn in 15 different countries and through some of the most incredible adventures of my life. And the seamstress lady ruined them. BAAHHH! I asked her to hem the bottom of my pants because they had become frayed. (Kind of an understatement, they look like I had just escaped an attack from a lioness) But they came back like this....guess I'm going to need some new wonder woman pants when I come back.

Mark is one of Mike's good friends here in China. They met when Mike was here in 2005 and have kept a remarkable friendship. We went to dinner one last time to say good-bye before we leave for Mongolia. We took him to this FABulous riverside restaurant that specialized in South Korean food.

Mike even tried squid for the first time! It was a great time and we are going to miss all of our wonderful friends in Jinan.

So, for all two people that read this blog, Mike and I will be heading first to Beijing then to Mongolia for two weeks. Internet connections might be close to nill, so don't hold your breath for the next post.

Ever-day

Qustion: What do you do when you can't afford a car but don't want to walk..... shelloo, ride your bike of course! Bikes are cheap, convenient, and most of the time faster than the bus or a private car (traffic is horrendous, don't even think about going anywhere during rush hour!) I think if "Pimp My Ride" started working on bikes more people would want to ride.

This is Mike's death trap: it has over 25 pounds of steel, no brakes, and is operated by a man with a need for speed.

Almost everyday we ride through what are referred to as 'villages'. They consist of tightly quartered homes and business with very narrow streets.

It's hard to acurately describe villages and these pictures don't do it justice, but I hope they help. The villages are very traditional and actually being phased out by the government and replaced by high-rise apartment buildings. While this may seem terrible, I can't imagine that the cramped quarters are very comfortable to live in and most are very old and in terrible condition.

The communities within these villages are very tightly knit. They all support one-another both emotionally and financially. They could probably subsist on their own for quite some time. I caught this picture of three generations and thought it was so typical. People sitting out in front of their home enjoying the weather, life moves at a different pace here.

Real men play chess. Chinese Chess is soo incredibly popular here. They have little 'gaming corners' all over the city where men gather and compete, or just watch. This is an average sized crowd that has gathered on a Sunday afternoon to watch two people duel it out. Notice the stools they are using, they are huge here. They are cheap, easy to make, and portable.

Construction is everywhere and you can never guess what's going to be gone next. The other day Mike went out to get water and the same place we've gone since September. He came back saying that the entire street had been torn down and was no longer there. It's crazy, where do these people go?

I consider myself a candy connoisseur, and it's under this title that I make it my duty to try all things that look good...at least once. I found these a few weeks ago and have been DYING to come back. They have a crepe-like exterior and a creamy filling that comes in three different flavors: red bean, white cream, and a vegetable-type filling. The lady thought I was a total freak for wanting to take a picture with her but whatev. What can I say, I dig Asians.

Surprise!

Over the course of our four month stay in Jinan we have made some wonderful friends. Two of these are students we met on campus: Emily and Angela. They are so fun to be with mostly because of how excited they get about everything. 'Oh we are going to the restaurant' (screaming and laughter!#@#) 'All-RIGHT!!' LOL, it's makes even the simplest things entertaining.

Just a side-note, things run like clockwork in China, everything has a schedule. Breakfast is 7-9, lunch from 12-2, and dinner is 6-8 and after a few months of being here it's begun to catch on. Shortly after arriving home from my Friday evening class I asked Mike where he wanted to go to dinner. He said that we should just ride our bikes and find a new place. It was freezing and windy out so I hesitated...only for a minute. Mike picked a restaurant that had big windows and was very busy, and knowing they wouldn't have English translations at a place like this I mentioned as we walked in "I guess we can just pick at random off the menu."

When we got in the waiter escorted us to a booth where Emily and Angela had a huge birthday cake and home-made card waiting. 'Happy Birthday!' I know, my birthday is still a month and a half away but because we will be leaving soon, they wanted to celebrate it with me before I left. Both of them come from rural villages with a limited income and the cost of the dinner and a cake was a big expense and I was touched by their thoughtfulness. Mike has never orchestrated anything like this before either so I appreciated his efforts to make sure I had a good birthday.

As per Chinese tradition, a bowl of noodles was served to the birthday guest. The noodles (because of their length) symbolise a long and happy life to be lived.

The cakes are so cool here! The frosting is more like a whipping cream but compliments the airy consistency of the cake. The crown comes with the cake and MUST be worn! They even had a candle in the shape of a flower and operated like a firework, as the petals unfold on the flower/candle it sings 'Happy Birthday'. It was a great night with lots of delicious food and great company. Best birthday ever!

Pizza Hut

Have you ever walked into a Pizza Hut and felt like they recruited for employment at the local detention center.....yea, Pizza Hut in China is NOTHING like that. In fact, they turned it into a sit down restaurant where even the electoral sockets are decoupaged, high-class huh? Mike and I can be financial Scrooges when it comes to splurging, so every time we would walk by the store, with the costume clad waiters beckoning us to enter we would look at each other and say.....'maybe next weekend'. Well, last weekend was that weekend. It was soo delicious!

We ordered this Japanese Terriyaki Chicken pizza...delish!

Mango ice-cream smoothie...mmmm...

Someone left home without spraying on their Cling-Free.....Mike thought it was HILARIOUS.

The leftovers bag was strategically placed in the center of the table.

Remember when?

It's not so much that I'm getting old, but my memory has never been that great.Mike and I are coming up on three years (well, it's really closer to six, but I'm just counting the consecutive). We have been through SO much! We don't have a lot of pictures to document our travels, and without writing this down I'm afraid I'll forget the wonderful, crazy, weird experiences we've been through. Just remember, we can't be classy all the time!

We've shoveled fertilizer in Malaysia, picked leaches off each other in rice paddies, had the best coffee of our life in Singapore, broke a hostel bed in Luang Probang, threw up while leaning my head out the window....for an entire bus ride in Lao, ridden camels through the sand dunes in India, had total strangers take pictures of us and play with our hair, had butt sweat in every country of south-east Asia, been followed by the local mob in Cambodia, smuggled my dog onto a train in China, ridden double dutch on a motorcycle in Thailand in the pouring rain, experienced paradise in Phuket and Karabi, the hidden mountain utopias of the Cameron Highlands, hiked with only one shoe around Rainier, had my arms eaten so badly by mosquito's the locals thought I had leprosy, had our camera stolen twice#@!, had my boob grabbed by a disgusting Indian man trying to throw colored chalk on me, climbed more mountains than I can remember together, hiked with only one shoe around Rainier, slept in the creepiest hostel in Bangladesh, laughed about having a lot of 'dong', seen a naked man covered in ash and a funny hat in Varansi, been smuggled onto the bed of a truck by a priest in Poipet, only to be surrounded by 18 locals a whole lotta durian, just about got lung cancer from a hostel in Cheque republic, almost dropped our camera on an elephants head trying to take a picture of a rhino in Nepal, watched our car blow a cylinder while trying to sell it, viewed the awe inspiring architecture of Austria, sworn one day to live in Germany if only for the food and the incredibly chill people, hitch-hiked from St.George to Kansas and back, sat on my luggage in more trains in India than I care to remember, almost got kicked off the beach in Singapore, know where to find 'Plain of Jars' on a map, been laughed at by tiny Asian women, taken more pictures than the paparazzi, spoken openly about travelers diarrhea, missed the last bus out of town, been chased after by wild dogs, then bought a naked one, suffered through ant bites in Florida (never lay on the grass!), been lulled to sleep in hammock on the beach, hidden our luggage in the hills like the homeless for a week, had a crazy old man grab my leg in a dark alley way of a foreign country, lived out our car for a significant amount of time, witnessed the beauty of the Taj-Mahal, slept on a train, had crazy Indians scream in our ears, went on a booze cruise in Vietnam, taken a boat through the exquisite foliage covered islands of Halong bay, swallowed a silk worm in Jinan, tubed down a river in Vang Vieng after flying off a gigantic tree swing, sat next to a pig on a bus, almost suffered claustrophobia in the caves of Lao, had an old man kick my trash running, eaten McDonald's in every country except India (don't judge), had a wild bear try and break into our apartment, been spoon fed yogurt in Vientiane, had an almost happy ending to a massage, had our car stolen, bought a new one, only to have it broken into and crashed by a drunk driver, know what it means to be 'watted out', used a tropical plant as a Christmas tree, wished upon a star while sleeping on the dirt in a desert, gone longer than a three weeks with out a real shower, wiped out a ninety year old lady on my bike, been held by baby elephants in Chiang Mai, witnessed first-hand the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge and the wonders of Angkor Wat, am still trying to figure out the secret ingredient to the smoothies in Vietnam, think that the only reason to wake up early on a Saturday morning is to make banana-nut waffles, was beat by an eight year old in tic-tac-toe in Siem Reap, been lost more times than we can recal......(DEEP BREATH!) and I'm really just getting started.
I think blogs have a tendency to portray fairytail lives. You have to remember the good, the bad, and the ugly if only to have a good laugh about it one day. We are each others best friends, motivators, and partners in crime......love you!

Suedo Children

Mufasa peed in his crate a few days ago and I would have been a little more sympathetic towards the situation considering he hasn't done anything like that since being in China.....but I just gave him a bath 2 DAYS AGO!! And let me clue you in on something......Mufasa HATES bathing. Aside from looking like the most overgrown drowning rat when wet, he shakes so violently you want to check his vitals half-way through to make sure he's not going to die on you before your finished.

You'll notice the picture above was not taken in shower, where Moof was supposed to be at that moment, but in the bedroom where he managed to squeeze between my legs as I was struggling to put the shampoo back up on the shelf in exchange for the conditioner. He's totally got the guilty look.

The finishing product is FABulous! This is Moo, doing the most masculine pose he's capable of. He is a wonderful dog though, and we love him!

He won't even sing in the car...but...

You ever have that nightmare where you are singing Chinese in front of a thousand screaming Asian fans dancing to one of their hit tunes.......yea me neither.....but Mike does.....

Against all reason Mike agreed to take part in one of our schools 'talent shows'. They asked him to sing.....in Chinese while coordinating moves with the belly-dancer he was going to share the stage with. It was one of those things where you don't realize what you got yourself into until its too late. Like when cliff jumping seemed like such a great idea when you were the one looking up....until you were the one looking down....

Mike and his tutor put hourssss into this while she taught him Pinyin and pronunciation. It was really neat to see him dressed in traditional clothing performing a popular Chinese song. Judging from whistles, screaming, and overall hysteria that erupted from the stage upon Mike approaching the stage......I wasn't alone in thinking he did FANTASTIC!!!!

I know, I thought the same thing when he did this...'what are you doing with your hands?Apparently it's all the rage when posing as an Asian, it's just what you do.
p.s. This is performance

Mike, singing amidst a growing fan base.

THIS, is totally my favorite shot, the dance that he totally rocked!

Mike displaying early signs of post traumatic stress.

I thought I'd include some pictures of other groups that performed that night as well. I thought they reflected some of the more traditional aspects of the Chinese culture.

This is one of my freshman classes performing a rendition of their favorite Communist era song.....nah, just kidding, their costumes would make you think that thought wouldn't they?

The umbrellas were perfectly synchronized.

Mike and I totally have a group of old people who meet everyday in our apartment building to practice this!

Apparently the Americans got it all wrong. Snow White's husband was decided on amidst cigarettes and a heated card game. This performance was sooo freaken hilarious!

It's a beautiful day in the NEIGHborhood!

Yesterday was a great day. The sky was clear, the sun was shining, and you would have never guessed that the month of November was coming to a close. It was the perfect day to get out and ride your bike, which was exactly what we ended up doing. Along the way we stopped and checked out one of the natural springs that Jinan has turned into a nature park. Kind of a rip-off for $40 yuan but it WAS beautiful, and the people were rockin...

Adorable Asians... These were some children we saw dressed in traditional clothing. Bright colors and many many layers. They often wear jackets that tie in the back, much like hospital gowns. If you take a good look at the picture below, you'll notice a white bulge hanging out of drawers. This child has a diaper on, but most of the children where nothing, and everything is bared. They have this hole in the middle of their pants and they simply squat whenever nature calls. There will be the a small child in full winter garb, with his little buns hanging out...so cute!

It was beautiful at the park and we appreciated the last of the fall colors before winter shows up in full force.

Mike, taking it all in...I take FOREVER to take pictures so in this one, Mike is really just being patient with me...what a swell guy!

And of course, the trees.....and me. Everyone has got to travel with at least one piece of flair. Mine, is my Burberry sunglasses, with the obnoxiously large, I just might be a movie-star, but you'll never know look to them.

Mike among the foliage.....A vision in blue and green...Look how long his curls are getting! They build dozens of these houses right along the edges of the spring-fed lakes. Asians are really funny because they will spend a ton of money to build something really extravagant, and then do absolutely no maintenance on the building, just letting the elements take their toll.

Much of the walk-way was inlaid with these stones arranged into various shapes and designs. It's amazing to think of the manual labor that must have been needed to complete that.
I love this picture for several reasons. First, because it is TOTALLY your typical old lady. The traditional clothing, complete with flat soled fabric shoes, and not be forgotten, the walker....Asian style! Most old people have these and they use them to carry their chair (notice hers sticking out of the walker) and other goods they might have purchased throughout the day.
So, as we were getting ready to leave we found this precious girl and we had to take a picture. Presh....reaching out to touch the flower.....yellow rain boots and an eighties skirt...you rock it girl!
I wanted to post this picture, not because it shows the slums of the city, which like any city, Jinan has it's fair share of as well. But because it shows the ever changing skyline of China, the old village style houses abolished for the newer edgier sky-rises. At any given time dozens of sites around the city are being torn down for redevelopment.
Mufasa seems to still be teething and so on the way home we stopped by our local butcher for some bones....Isn't this so neat?! It's how they roll...fifty deep in sheep...

Definitely not USDA approved....Isn't it amazing more people don't die of food poisoning here?
I left out the gross part of the picture where they have the skins of the butchered animals lying on a pile for them to sell. You have to give credit for utilizing the ENTIRE animal though.

Can you guess what this is used for?

This happens to be one of my favorite locals......the fruit lady! Every day we say 'hi' and stop to buy some fruit. She hooks us up on the goods, which is great because we can always trust that she is giving us a fair price. Right now she is weighing our tomatoes.

Just one more reason to love China, because all of this, cost us less than a $1.50! Hooo-raw!

Mike caught this shot as we were pulling around the corner to our house. My sweet ride! Check out the basket with the goods! Every time I ride the bike I feel hear the music from "Wicked Witch of the West" going "danun danun danuuunun danun danun danuuun danuuuuuuunnnn"