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.

my class

1 Fin
1 Frenchman
1 Mexican
1 Kazakh
1 Jordanian
1 Uzbek
1 Tajik
1 Korean
1 Japanese
1 Ghanaian
1 Turk
2 Columbians
2 Pakistanis
2 Dutchmen
2 Ukrainians
and Me

I'm the only one in the class whose native language is English (although many grew up learning English), yet the class is taught English to Chinese.
One Pakistani for sure doesn't understand English the way our teachers talk, I think it is a little fast for him. So this morning(before class) in the cafe downstairs the Ukrainians were helping him through their broken English to help him practice. We have a really interesting dynamic in the class. Right now we are still getting used to each other, although the Ukrainians and I are already chatting all the time, the Turk speaks English and ok Russian. Regardless it is really nice that the only other girl in the class and I share a common language(she's one of the Ukrainians, her and her boyfriend are in the class together).
As we become more comfortable I hope we get less formal with each other. There are three in their late thirties I think...but most seem to be in their 20s.
Bonus! in our classroom building the restroom has western toilets, hand soap, paper towels and a hand dryer! Now this sounds like a lot to get excited about I'm sure. But Chinese public toilets are squatters and are devoid of hand soap, paper towels and often toilet paper. So it isn't really a mystery why the most advanced strains of diseases develop here, because the sanitation is poor, no one washes their hands properly after the toilet, and it is densely populated.
Anyways, I don't know if toilets like this are standard on campus, or if they are just like this in our building as a courtesy to us. Seeing as how we pay WAY more than the Chinese students to be there, and if that is what our tuition gets us...AWESOME.
So far I haven't learned too many new words, but I'm sure it will get difficult soon enough, over the weekend I need to ask our close Chinese friends to give me a Chinese name, we are supposed to pick one by next week or they will assign us one, but they said it is better to have someone who knows you pick a name for you, or help you pick a name. So for those of my friends that know Chinese, any suggestions?
PS - Also, I found Jelly Bellies at Toys R Us in Hong Kong...good day!

Back to School

So, less than a year after I graduated I'm super excited to be back in school, granted I'm just studying one thing, but I'm studying that one thing in earnest. Being around people my age is nice too(I'm mostly around children or people my parents age, or just my parents)
First I need to detail a little bit of the drama that I'm still going through to get my student visa.
A week ago I registered for classes, I was given a list of documents that I needed to get in order to get my student visa, I wasn't told where to get all of them, or that I would need an assortment of other documents from other places in order to get the listed necessary documents. The list doesn't look so bad, only 7 items if you are over 18 years old, and they give you one to start with. Not so bad right?
1. The Original and photocopy of your valid passport and Chinese visa.
2. A form of Application for Visa and Residence Permit which you have filled correctly, and one of your recent passport-size 2 inch color photos(full face without hat)
3. The Notice for Residence Permit and Records of Conversations with a Foreigner Applying for Residence Permit(Students are required to apply for such documents by themselves from the Nanshan Branch, Shenzhen Public Security Bureau if they apply for the first time)
4. A Registration Form of Temporary Accommodation for Aliens issued by local street police station.
5. The original Admission Notice issued by the Teaching Office for International Students.
6. Your Health Certificate issued by Shenzhen Port Hospital.
7. Form JW202 (form of Chinese Visa Application for Foreign Students)
Ok...which one do you think the International Student office already?
if you though #5, you'd be wrong.
#5, when I asked about where I get #5 they said "here, of course" and I said, "well, can I have it?" my only answer "it is not here"
#1 - easy
#2 - was given this form at the Security Bureau, but then told at the Police Station that it is the wrong one, and I must get the right one from them
#3 - still have no idea what this is, and no one is telling me
#4 - finally got this on my 3 trip to the police station, they kept sending me away telling me I didn't have the right documents, and even on the third visit they told me to go next door and make a copy of the page in my passport of my last entry stamp, which they hadn't told me I needed before.
#5 - this mysterious document the International school is missing or something
#6 - This I went to the hospital, they checked me all over, even swabbed my gums - and in a week I can go back to see if I can be admitted to the country...only I'm already here.
#7 - This is the form that they did give me in the International Student Office.
So I'm missing a few important pieces to my Student Visa puzzle....and Thankfully I have 30days after my start of study to complete the process, but knowing the way bureaucracy works in China, I will need all 30 days.
Second thing, less that 24hrs before classes start, I finally found out where and when my classes are, and who my teacher is. This occurred after 2 hours of mind-numbing "Opening Ceremony" then in no particular order it seemed, different classes were called out and then you had to listen to see if your name was called and then go to the front of the auditorium and meet your teacher, or someone who is meeting you on behalf of your teacher, and get your schedule and then are lead to your classroom. It was chaos, the names of the classes were read off in alternating English and Chinese, which mish-mashed pronunciations, mixed with a echoey auditorium and the chatter of students and the distraction of the heat, it was chaos. Efficiency is not the name of this game
Document hassles aside, I got a cable on my electric scooter repaired today and I'm set to scoot all the way to school tomorrow.
I bought pencils, notebooks and a stylus for my iPad to enter the characters by stroke function easily.
Yeah, that's right...I'm excited.

Back from Japan

I had an awesome vacation in Japan, much needed to get me rested and relaxed before school started.
I have much to thank Kats and Sarah and Bill Bockman for being such awesome gracious hosts during my stay there.
Thanks to the Japan Rail Pass I travelled all over Japan, and I got to see many things. I have lots of pictures posted on Facebook, and I'll put a few on here.


I First went to Tokushima on the island of Shikoku to visit my High School friend Bill, and I came just in time for the Awa Odori Dance festival, which I got to dance in.
We also visited a Sea Turtle Museum while I was there.
The Awa Odori Dance Festival is held every summer in Tokushima and is the city's biggest claim to fame. Many tourists from all over Japan and the World flood the small coastal city for the festival every year, and university, local business and social groups prepare dance groups for weeks to showcase in the festival. Festivals are prime locations for fair food - Octopus balls or Takoyaki - are a festival favorite, and a favorite of mine as well...so delicious.
I was able to dance in the Festival with the Tokushima International Association thanks to my friend Bill, and it was great fun - we even had our photo in the local newspaper!
The Sea Turtle Museum was awesome, unfortunately almost all the information was only in Japanese, but there were lots of tanks of sea Turtles which you don't really need translation for. The Museum is situated right on a beach that the Loggerneck Turtles use for nesting, unfortunately every year fewer and fewer turtles show up, and this is a phenomenon that is going on worldwide at large sea turtle nesting sites.

Then I went to Hokkaido, where I visited Shiretoko National Park and Sapporo briefly. Hokkaido is Beautiful and if you get a chance to go to Japan, Hokkaido is a must.

The Photos here are of the Old Government Building in Sapporo, Hokkaido was one of the areas that Japan opened up for Western Trade after it's period of isolation. This building reflects the Western Influence in its design and function.
Shiretoko National Park is on the far Northeastern Peninsula of Hokkaido, and borders the Sea of Okhotsk, it is mostly wild untamed forest and mountains, with breathtaking views and diverse wildlife.

During the winter months the Sea of Okhotsk is home to many times of seals, and the local populace on both sides of the sea (Russian and Japanese) have traditions of hunting the seals, however due to climate change and species endangerment the hunting has been curtailed.


While I was in Shiretoko, I saw a great many deer, and foxes. I was repeatedly warned against bears, but I didn't see any, even though I went hiking on animal trails. I did see a rare stag which I have a photo of posted on facebook, I hiked a great deal and it was really nice to be out in nature, away from the stench, pollution and noise of the city.
As you can see the wilderness in Shiretoko is relatively untouched, not many people go hiking here because it is so far removed from not just Hokkaido, but all of Japan. Shiretoko-go-ko is a spot with 5 lakes all really close together up on a high valley that gives great vistas of the park and the Sea of Okhotsk, it is well travelled by tour busses, and for the enthusiastic hiker, the trails are easy and congested with tour groups with inappropriate footwear, but it is beautiful.

Next I hit the Japanese Alps, Narai and Matsumoto.
Narai is a small former post town on a road that connected Edo era Tokyo and Kyoto. It is a cultural heritage site and has been preserved well.
In Narai, there were many Temples for the travelers of the old road to rest their tired souls, the main street also still has many inns and guesthouses, the town is busier in the fall season when the leaves change color, then it is a romantic destination for the city folk of nearby Nagoya and Kyoto. But there were relatively few tourists on the hot summer day that I was there, I was the only one staying in the Minshuku(guesthouse) that night, and it looked like I was the only one for quite sometime.
There was a statue of the Virgin Mary in the town that had it's head forcibly removed and the statue was renamed after the god Jizo, protector of children, a ghostly relic of the lives that secret Christians led in Japan for many centuries.

I was planning on staying in Narai two nights, but you can experience it all in one day pretty much. So I left early in the morning for Matsumoto.
Matsumoto was in the midst of their summer festival, most Japanese towns or cities of decent size have a festival of some sort in the summer. Matsumoto's is a music festival, there was a lot of activity in and around the castle grounds while I was there, in fact there was a High School Band festival taking place on the Castle grounds while I was touring the Castle. It is a strange sensation to be in a 400yr old Japanese Castle, and all of a sudden being treated to Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillips Sousa. I missed 4th of July in America and I guess this was my reward!

The Castle was really interesting and scary to traverse, the stairs were really steep and there a great deal of people crowding them. At risk of sounding non-PC larger people should not go on this tour. The stairs are at a steep 63 degree incline and narrow already, but made narrower, being divided in half for two way traffic.
But the Castle had a great collection of armaments and a museum just outside the castle grounds that elaborated on the history of the area. Much of the water in the area was brought in through a wooden piping system from the nearby mountain streams, diverted to supply the fields and orchards. The Japanese Alps region is known for its vineyards and orchards. The fruit from there is delicious and I'm told the wine exceptional. After my Matsumoto trip I head back to Tokyo, and spend a day lying about, then cook dinner for my lovely friends Kats and Sarah.
On the last day I can use my Japan Rail Pass I go to Kyoto, for one last Shinkansen ride.
I went to Kyoto and soon tired of the Temples and went shopping.

After Kyoto, I kept to Tokyo, and I went to the Parasitological Museum and the Pokemon Center. I really wanted to go to the Ghibli Museum but it was all sold out, and this was a huge disappointment to my trip. The Parasitological Museum was pretty cool, small but cool. I wish that more information was in English, but a lot of it was self-explanatory given the explicit photos that were frequently on display.
After the Parasite Museum I hit Shibuya(Shibuya is the big shopping area and has the famous pedestrian zone that everyone has seen photos and footage of when Tokyo is involved) for some tourism and window shopping.
Only I ended up buying some shoes...and a skirt...
The next day I went to the Pokemon center, and there were a few too many Pikachu dolls for comfort, but it was a fun experience and unfortunately photographing is not allowed there, so I only took a couple clandestine photos.
Then I hit one last Temple, and next to it was this large Eiffelesque Tower...but in the Temple Gardens were all these Shrines that were well adorned with crochet-bonnets and arrayed with plastic flower windmills, hundreds of them. It was really interesting, I don't know what they were for, but they were an appropriate ending to my trip in Japan, the stoic Shrines adorned with colorfully lush plastic accouterments, it really just summed up Japan to me, stubbornly in the past, while giddy in the in future.

I finished off my trip by seeing The Karate Kid with Kats and Sarah, that movie should really be called The Kung Fu Kid, but whatever.
If you want to see more photos of the trip in Japan, please check them out on facebook!

Japan Update

I've been in Japan for 5 whole days now. I've mainly spent my time in Tokushima on the island of Shikoku with my friend Bill from Seattle. I danced in the Awa Odori Dance Festival and visited a sea turtle museum. On the bullet train back to Tokyo today I saw the Cup Noodles factory, for those fans out there, sorry no photo, I was on a bullet train it went by too fast.
I'll have more to update later once I go up Hokkaido and see more things.

silver lining

last night there was a good old tropical thunderstorm.
My Mom and I were waiting for our bus to take us home from the school. After almost 30min our bus still hadn't come, even though it typically runs every 8min. So we are trying to get a taxi and there are no taxis available, finally a nice man in a really nice car stopped to offer us a ride for pay. We negotiated a price and got in, I had quite a mangled and labored conversation with him, but a conversation nonetheless. He was really nice and we were in traffic for a long time so we figure out what each other were saying eventually. The best part was, he put this DVD on about the life of Christ and put it in English so we could watch it. He pointed to himself saying he was a Christian and asked if we were, and I said yes. We watched the video for awhile, and I learned the word for river and baptize. But I managed to take a short video of this experience on my phone, it is sideways however....because I've never used the camcorder on my phone before and I didn't know which way to hold it.

you know, this week I started loving China, it hit me as I was riding the bus to work earlier in the week and even though I still get frustrated at the school and at the gypsy cabs that try to rip me off, this car ride sealed the deal. It was a beautiful sweet 25min, in which three people connected.
The problem with loving China now, is that I don't get mad and frustrated and prejudiced at the Chinese now...I get attached, and sad for them in this awful condescending way instead.

try this on

Today I was in Walmart, purchasing wood screws and tools to help me assemble our Ikea furniture, and I walked by a product demonstration. These happen frequently, we are all familiar with the Vitamix demos at Costco on the weekends. In China there are many product demonstrations in the Walmart and Sam's Club, until today my favorite one was demonstrating how to use a mop and bucket. Today I saw a demo-girl(attractive girls in special uniforms, with head-sets and a speaker on their waist like a fanny pack to amplify their voice) demonstrating how to use the laundry hamper that came as a free gift with the purchase of a large bottle of laundry detergent. That's right. Laundry hampers are few and far between here, and demonstrating what it is used for by crumpling and putting hand-towels and socks in it and that it can be folded and put away when not in use. Oh yeah. Just another reason no one should be afraid of China taking over the world.
Step 1: Soil something.
Step 2: Place in hamper.
Step 3: Move hamper close to washing apparatus.
Step 4: Place soiled articles in washing apparatus.
Step 5: Fold hamper conveniently when not in use.
Then the process begins again.

I never knew there were five steps to using a laundry hamper.