Autumn...kind of

so I know it has been another 5 months since my last post....shameful I know. I have traveled China a bit more. I was in another city for 7 weeks at an internship that bored me to sobs(even though the people were excellent and I really learned a lot), and I have started school again. At the end of my spring semester I did a little traveling with a lovely pal named Laura from church. We went to Xi'an and saw the terracotta warriors, we went to the Shaolin Temple in Henan Province, and I revisited Beijing and saw more that I hadn't seen last time, and some that I had. Xi'an is an interesting interior city, large and growing - developing at China-speed. However it is still experiencing many of the growing pains that all other areas of China seem to be struggling with.

The Shaolin Temple is actually one of the more interesting Buddhist Temples I have been to since coming to Asia. I have seen MANY buddhist temples since coming here, but this one was more diverse. We even got to see a little kung fu performance. I got to see more of Beijing, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, the Great Wall again.

At the beginning of May I bought a Giant road bike(OCR3500) and I've been adding some kms to it pretty steadily this summer. I was really dedicated while I was at my internship in Guangzhou(for lack of anything else to do really) but I've slacked off a little since returning to Shenzhen. Now that school has started again and I need to budget my time better I'll have to see what I can do to adjust my schedule appropriately to make room for daily 45km rides. Here's the sunrise from Shenzhen Bay as seen on a recent ride.

Coming Home

So last night my plane arrived in Hong Kong.
I was supposed to stay the night at the airport Marriott, but my Mom accidentally made the reservation at the Novotel, and I didn't have anyway of contacting her, or knowing that so I rushed to get the last coach to the HuangGang port border.
I started coughing as my lungs inhaled the polluted south China air.
As I entered China I had to haul my Christmas present laden luggage across a pedestrian bridge, with gypsy cab drivers and "luggage helpers" bothering me, pulling on my clothes and luggage. I finally make it to the taxi queue and turn around as I see a kid trying to nick something out of my hand bag.
I get in the taxi, tell the driver where to go. I doze off, wake up - not at the right place, give the driver directions to my house, street by street.
Get home, and can't sleep.
But I go to class the next day. I feel right at home...it's hard to believe that 30hrs prior I was in Salt Lake.
I go to lunch with Jade and Letizia, I have the Xin Jiang(Uighur) hand pulled noodles with spicy beef and potatoes that I was craving the whole time I was in America. So, so good.
I go home, and go upstairs to the Ho's(family in our Branch) I play around with their awesome kids awhile, planned Christmas dinner with Elsa. Returned home for an hour nap that lasted almost 5hours.
I woke up to my Dad watching some movie in the living room.
Now I'm awake, thinking that I'm home from home now...such a weird sensation.
I loved being back and seeing everyone, it felt natural and right. But it was the strangest feeling, that it wasn't home anymore, even though it was full of people I love and miss. My home is far away in another place now.
Maybe it's because I've moved so much.
Maybe it's destiny.
But at least for right now, I'm home.

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.

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.