year of the dragon

singing K and dancing to Super Junior's "Sorry, Sorry"

so for those of you that don't know....I live in Shenzhen, the 4th largest city in China, it is in Guangdong Province and my apartment overlooks Shenzhen Bay and across the water is Hong Kong SAR.

more Sorry, Sorry dancing

On the second day of Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year I found myself in Hong Kong visiting friends, singing karaoke, meeting new friends and eating Filipino food.  PS I did sing some AWESOME k-pop songs. Then I watched fireworks....now I have actually been on the Mall in DC for Fourth of July and these Fireworks in Hong Kong definitely gave them a run for their money...they were not as beautifully coordinated, but they sheer number and length of the show was impressive.  That being said, I will be completely satisfied if I don't see or hear another firework excluding a few short hours on the Fourth of July for the rest of my life.  My apartments rest on what used to be water, that's right I'm living seven stories up from landfill.  With waterfronts on either side, it makes for fireworks on both sides for about three weeks, before during and after Chinese New Year.  And these aren't the piddling little things your older cousin would drive to the Indian Reservation or Wyoming to buy.  These things are serious business, I am pretty sure that there is a huge factory for weapons grade fireworks in my province and everyone knows someone that works there - and they all come to my water front area with ample concrete embankments to launch it all over the water on.  Needless to say we haven't been sleeping well lately.
The Chinese Zodiac follows a twelve year rotation, you probably learned what year you were when you were in your early teens by going to a Chinese restaurant and reading the education paper placemat that told you which years were which.  If you were like me, you were teased mercilessly by your younger brothers for being the year of the Rat, or Mouse in Chinese(even though Rats and Mice are from completely different genus, in standard Chinese speech they are the same...so I prefer Mouse, because mice aren't ever known for cannibalism...unlike Rats) something about Mice: it is the most prominent and first position in the Chinese zodiac, mice are clever, inquisitive, witty, imaginative, talkative, charming, and motivated by challenge.  Mice can be aggressive and honest to a fault(my family definitely knows about this).  Mice are known for good health(definitely not true for me). Mice get along well with Ox, Dragon, Monkey, and Snake, can also be alright with Tiger, Dog, Boar or another Mouse - don't get along or avoid Horse, Rooster and Sheep.  I am a Wood Mouse, so I am not as confident on the surface as I appear and I have a perpetual fear of failing, and I enjoy being surrounded by friends and family, and luckily the feeling is mutual(this seems especially true, although I know I can annoy family.) According to the calendar, Water Dragon is supposed to be a good year for weak Wood Rats - but for my personal weak Wood(yang) Rat status, I won't actually see luck completely in my favor until my mid 40s or so.  
Enough about me though, this year is the year of the Water Dragon, a very auspicious year to be born.  Dragon is the mightiest sign and characterized by ambition and dominance.  Hence many, many Chinese people are trying to have children this year, a baby boom means the price of natal and post-natal care is on average double or triple the price for a normal year.  In Chinese culture, women don't leave home or do much for a month after the birth(limited showering, exercising, stress in general), so the use of "post-natal" nurses for in-home care is very common and this year, in high demand, so the price goes up.  My friend Doménica has Chinese roommates that are a married couple and they are pregnant for the Dragon year.  Anyways, this year is a big deal in the zodiac calendar.
It's kind of a big deal for me too, finish my Chinese program, travel with my sister, get a job in China hopefully that doesn't involve teaching English.  Here's to the year of the Water Dragon!

Yesterday and Today

Today actually started yesterday.
Friday in Hong Kong I bought a new skirt from the Mong Kok market, at H&M a new coat(it will get cold here), a scarf, sweater, green corduroy skirt, and a wool muffler. At Uniqlo(a Japanese chain, that I’ve fallen in love with) two pair of legging pants, and a smock shirt/skirt. If you didn’t already know this…I have a shopping problem. I actually decided to go to HK because I needed a new pair of loafers, my awesome pre-mish white leather loafers finally wore through on the heels, and I conceded I needed a new pair, I had already checked the big markets here for shoes…alas most were made of plastic and just awful. So I headed to Mong Kok, and started looking for Sperry Top-Siders. After seeing a few, and their price tag – I started looking at other options. I found a pair of Sanuk’s that I really liked and definitely thinking about my friend Randy Hurd and his fondness of these shoes, I bought them. Anyways, heavy laden with shopping I returned home late to Shenzhen, the border crossing I chose was packed with people, and people who kept cutting in line. 200+ people and only 5 open checking terminals to exit Hong Kong. Then to enter China, only one Terminal for foreigners and the guard was getting trained. I nearly threw my shopping down and turned around. But I couldn’t because I needed to return home to stay at someone else’s apartment that night.
I slept at a Branch member’s apartment because both parents were going to be out of town and they asked me to just spend the night, so I watched The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with three of the kids, and slept there. I awoke early to get back home and get showered to head to the Temple in Hong Kong with my Dad. However, when I got down to the parking garage, my scooter would not start, either the cables or the batteries are bad again, or something else. Who knows, it was made in China, not for export….
So, it isn’t yet 6am, and I’m trying to get a piece of machinery to work so I can go to the Temple. It won’t work, so I start walking(I hadn’t brought any money with me at all and I was locked out of the apartment I slept in). It’s about 3km home, so I walk as fast as I can. Even though I speed walked it was really pleasant, the streets in the dusk before dawn in Shekou蛇口(my neighborhood) are peaceful, don’t smell like they do during the day, and they aren’t full of loud spitting people. A few breakfast carts were out early for bus and taxi drivers, smelling of steaming bamboo and warm soy milk. As I pass the wharf on the way to my apartment, it doesn’t smell as strongly as it does in the afternoon, and most of the ships are still out busy over-fishing the Pearl River delta. In the distance I can see trullers out checking the oyster beds on the Hong Kong side.
I get home and my Dad isn’t even awake yet. I hurriedly shower and get ready in a new skirt I bought in the street market in Hong Kong the day before(so awesome, that I’ve lost enough weight to buy things in the South Chinese markets that fit me…even if it is the largest size they have). So I’m rushing to get ready to get in a taxi and head to my Dad’s favorite border crossing(Fu Tian Kou An). I’m about ready, and my Dad knocks on my door saying he was up most of the night throwing up(bad bacon) and isn’t going. I was going to go anyways, but remembering the state of the apartment, and my broken scooter, I decided to stay at home. I sleep a little more, wake up and walk to the import market a km away, get treats for my Dad, and cheese to make quiche for a Young Women’s service project in my Branch. I walk home, do my Dad and I’s laundry as the quiche bakes. Not my usual crazy fancy fare, but I hope it did me proud. I take the quiche to the school, catching a ride with the “Black Taxis”(Gypsy cabs) that wait outside our apartments and the guy driving me drove me once to University when I was running late, and he remembered me, and we were able to talk a little bit, we talked a bit about the weather, about Minnesota, about where he’s from in China(also a cold place) and about how the wharf smells bad. I didn’t even realize it till now…but that’s probably the longest conversation I’ve ever had in Chinese.
After I drop the quiche off, I decide to walk home. Shekou at night is a completely different place. Cafes are open and teaming with people. Men are squatting or sitting on stools on the side walk playing cards for small bets, there is this one restaurant(still have no idea what the big deal is) with huge crowds waiting outside, sitting on chairs waiting to eat there. I side stepped bike shops repairing cables and inner-tubes on the sidewalk. I walked past the Shekou theatre where a movie was playing outside, I don’t know exactly what it was about, but the subtitles I could read kept mentioning Beijing. I bought a sugar cane/aloe/lychee fruit drink and it was bit too sweet, but really refreshing as I walked. I found a restaurant down the street from our apartment complex(across the street from my bus stop and right by the future metro station) that has parts of dogs hanging up to be ordered and eaten. The streets are full of people strolling, and smoking. The site of the future metro station is so interesting. As soon as there were no gaping holes in the ground, the barriers were pushed aside and people have been walking through the construction site to get to their destinations more quickly. Something completely unthinkable to me a few months ago seems obvious, “well of course I would walk through an active construction site to get home faster.” As I walk the song “South China Moon” by Bishop Allen starts playing on my iPod. I look up, and the sky is smoggy and I can’t see the moon. I realized I had made a list in my head of places to go and see all around my neighborhood. Even though technically most of the foreigners in the city live in Shekou, it is still China, and Shekou is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Shenzhen, so it is teaming with nightlife and character. I can get a drink at Starbucks and then walk down the street for dog BBQ. When I got home, my Dad had Mexican take-out waiting for me, and it was still hot.

returning from Bangkok

So, my parents and I went to Bangkok. It was National Golden Week in China and my Dad needed to get away. So we got cheap flights to Bangkok and planned a lovely trip. A following post will express all my love for Thailand, and have photos and anecdotes. This post is dedicated to our return trip that we made today.
The morning started off with me still recovering from too much delicious green chile laden Thai food...I'll leave it at that.
We arranged for our bill to be paid, but my Dad like all great Jews wanted to get rid of as much cash as possible while settling our hotel bill. This prolonged and complicated the process, he also declared that he lost his debit card, because it wasn't in the stack of cards he kept in his pocket. This was the same man that claimed to have been pick-pocketed the day before, only to find the money in another pocket the next morning. So that dilemma aside, we get in our taxi have a few monetary and lingual fumbles with the driver over the payment of road tolls and arrive at the airport. I started to lift suitcases out of the taxi and the driver grunted and me sternly and made it clear that I was not to lift the luggage, which annoyed me greatly - being the strong, proud, able-bodied woman that I am.
We get checked into our flight, move through passport control and get to security at which point my Mom holds up the line a few times, not understanding that yes, an iPad is a computer and must be scanned separately, yes you have to remove your fanny pack/bum bag and it must be scanned. She makes it through and they ask to look at her carry on roller suitcase. She then opens it, and starts taking things out and explaining what they are, what her c-pap machine is etc. mind you there are people piling up behind me(not to mention the back up of items shooting out the x-ray conveyor belt) and I tell her, "Mom, he just wants to test your bag, go over there with him, you are holding up the line" she goes over there and somehow convinces them to let her keep her over-sized Crabtree and Evelyn perfume bottle she thoughtlessly packed in her carryon. I love my Mom, and she is so accommodating that she sometimes doesn't understand what is being asked of her.
We have over an hour till our plane boards so my Dad and I find a bookstore with lots of newspapers, magazines and books to peruse. After about 10min my Mom announces from outside the shop that she is going to get a drink. I said "wait!" and she was off. We get to the check out counter with our over-priced foreign newspapers(the guardian, because I'm a raging liberal and the IHT for my snobbish father) and we realize that she walked off with all the money. So we go on a hunting party for her...but she has vanished down a long terminal lined with one place to procure food and drink and the rest places to purchase any duty free item you could want. After speed walking in heightening frustration and desperation like McCallisters in the O'hara - we find her at very end of the terminal staring at a leader board trying to find our gate number. Still needing a beverage my parents spot a Dairy Queen(wth!) and I head back to get my newspaper.
When we head to our flight my Mom keeps asking me if I need help with her tink roller hand luggage. Finally I tell her, "I don't know if you know this Mom, but I am an adult that has paid her taxes by herself for the past 7 years, I'm a quite capable highly functioning adult and a testament to your skill as a parent. You really should be very proud because I'm quite fantastic." Rarely to I get to toot my own horn so sardonically, but we all have our shining moments.
We make it all the way to the gate(after following a labyrinthine ram and stairs that were make out of metal with a bumpy pattern that didn't really consider what it would sound like with a battalion of roller luggage parading down it) to get in line to have our tickets checked yet again, and right as we get to the front of the line, a Chinese fellow who is standing off to the side, greets his family who have just arrived, and pulls them all in front of me completely cutting in line, in my terrible Chinese I say, "what are you doing?! I am here!" my Dad turned around and in English got rough and angry and said "NO! get in the line! are you children?!" he pushed them physically off to the side and pointed at the end of the line, and they were yelling and I tried to say "rude, it is rude - must begin over there" that only made them yell at me more.
We arrive in Hong Kong, make it through - decide against taking the ferry home, and opt for a "limo van". Limo vans are really nice vans(roomy comfortable etc) that are a bit spendy for most to hire to take them through the border, but you don't have to get out of the car, or be jostled in line by Chinese trying to cut in front of you, you can read and make your way through the border, and they take you all the way to your house if you pay a little more. Each van seats six passengers and the driver. My parents and I were half the passengers. First my Mom had an unholy fight with the seat-belt. Then as we made our quiet journey through the SAR I started hearing fart noises. We are on leather seats, makes sense. Move around, adjust your weight in the seat, and the unfortunate noise comes forth. I noticed them more and more, coming from my Mom's seat...only she wasn't moving. Farting noise + no movement = actual farting. I couldn't believe it. I mean I really could, my Mom feels really free about passing gas, in a vulgar uncouth way, but in a car! A confined space with strangers?!
As we are waiting at the border crossing my Dad starts making this awful lip-smacking, saliva sucking sound. The poor Taiwanese guy next to me looked disgusted. "Dad, what are you doing?!" his reply, "There is something stuck in my teeth."
"So, wait until we get home to get it out, like a civilized adult."
Thankfully he stopped, mostly. Every now and then he'd make an attempt.
We get home and my ability to open the front door is questioned before we get inside. And I escape to my room. Before long I hear my Dad's cackle as he watches his favorite middle-american show Two and a Half Men. I never should have bought him all 6 seasons from the DVD stand on the street for $4. It's probably where he is picking up bad social habits.
Seriously though, I love my parents.

Crackers and Car Seats

So I haven't written in a while.
I've been busy, and I haven't had access. My parents went to the States for 3 weeks and I had to teach all of the classes at my Mom's english center, and while I did that I improved my parents apartment, I made four big trips to Ikea and would spend the nights watching the World Cup and eventually the Tour de France while putting together shelves and tidying things around the apartment.
When my Dad came home I purchased a VPN(it allows my internet connection to be protected, but more importantly it makes it look like my computer is in the US, so I can experience the freedom of the internet).
Right, so new things - I ate at a Cantonese Dim Sum place with a friend from church and I had roast pigeon, which the very idea of eating pigeon is gross to us because they are dirty street birds in America, but here they are a delicious addition to lunch. Oh man, I'm a pigeon convert, a dark rich tasting bird. Fabulous.
I got a full body massage, and when I say full body...I mean my entire body, places that I never dreamed a massage therapist would dare touch. With that graphic but necessary description out of the way, it was fabulous, it felt like a million dollars afterwards, and considering it was only 40RMB(under $6) I will probably go back again with relative frequency. It was lovely.
We had a heat wave for a couple weeks, and I'll tell you. I thought I would die. I would past out and die of heat exhaustion. We had temperatures of about 35C for two weeks, it would move between 33 and 35C but the humidity is what killed, it hovered around 85% the entire time. Even the Chinese were complaining. I've started carrying deodorant with me everywhere, and applying it every hour. The Chinese don't seem to sweat as much, which I find wholly unfair. So in order to not wreak everywhere I go, as soon as I leave the house in the morning, I'm constantly applying deodorant.
Next anecdote: I was out with a Chinese friend and she was asking if I knew anyone that would like to buy a car seat, because they aren't using it anymore, and they only had it for when they lived in Australia, but because they are required to use it here, they don't. This friend is actually very western and understands that many things the Chinese do don't make sense to westerners. However, this totally blew my mind. Just because it wasn't required, would never mean to me that I wouldn't use a car seat. As soon as she told me this, I noticed that whenever I saw small children, whether babies, toddlers etc riding in cars here, they were either in their mothers arms(usually in the front seat) or bounding around free and seatbelt-less in the back. And it occurred to me, this country spoils its children rotten for the most part, they bound around like little emperors and empresses, but when it comes to something basic, like protecting their mortal safety there is a huge disparity. Crackers here are triple wrapped to ensure they don't break enroute. But not children.
Tonight I went to Hong Kong to go to a fireside of Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, he is a General Authority in the LDS Church, and he spoke to the members of the Church in Hong Kong, it was relayed to four different locations and I watched at a satellite location. A few of us from Shenzhen were there and we spoke about it on the trip back. Elder Uchtdorf kept referring to Hong Kong as China, and though he is technically correct, Hong Kong is so different from Mainland China, and in turn Taiwan is quite different as well. We all hoped that he would be able to visit the Mainland some day and see the dramatic difference. Hong Kong and China are similar in the way that New York and Las Vegas are similar.
Either way, I enjoyed my trip and not getting stared at for an evening. I loved being in an actual church building again. I always felt like the interior of our chapels were so bland and boring. But being in one after meeting in a converted private house was really nice. The atmosphere and the feel were great.

I'll write again soon. I'll try to take more photos too, not just on my phone either.