Chillin'
Date: Oct 8th, 2007 11:57:01 pm - Subscribe
Mood: delighted
as in the weather is turning cooler and the heat is not on yet.
Funny thing about life here, you get used to, and even come to enjoy some of the odder things about life that you would NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS put up with in the States. For example: State controlled heat. In the fall, one pays for the winter heat all at once. The earlier you pay for your heat, the cheaper it is. (which reminds me...) BUT the heat doesn't come on until November 15. That is all well and good, but the temps here are already below 60 for the highs. Needless to say, long johns are out of storage and getting washed, waiting for the day of truly mind numbing cold. Once the heat is on, I come home and strip to my skivvies because the heat is so hot and DRY! Seriously, you can hang a pair of dripping wet blue jeans up in my bedroom and they will be dry in a matter of hours. I keep a bottle of saline in my room to spray up my nose to avoid nosebleeds.
"Okay", I hear you say, "I thought you were gonna talk about how you enjoy this!" I do, really. The summer was long, hot and humid. I hate hot and humid. I much prefer the way I feel when I am burning calories trying to stay warm. I'm about delirious with delight at the fact that I have to sleep with a blanket! I like that cozy feeling. I also love the fact that the street vendors are selling outrageously cheap winter clothes now. Picked up two awesome zippered hoodies for about ten bucks. I like zippered or buttoned sweaters and sweatshirts for the winter here, easier to adjust to differing temperatures. I have not purchased any longies this year. Last years are still in good shape. I love getting up and having coffee and then sipping hot Chinese tea (wu long is my fave) the rest of the day. I like the way my hands are nearly always warm and I can put them on people's faces when they are expecting them to be cold.
Tianjin is dreary during the winter. Not unlike most cities. But I love it anyway. The river freezes over and there is skating and ice fishing. A wonderful lack of Christmas commercialism. Tho', last year, there were more lights and trees than previously. I think Christmas is catching on here, at least as a commercial holiday. The religious significance is still lost on most Chinese.
The hard part of winter in China is spending the holidays away from my family. Both the Western Holidays, and Chinese Spring Festival. Spring Festival is the big family holiday here. My students will ask me what I will be doing since I have no family here. I don't really make plans for Spring Festival, I know that one of my Chinese friends will invite me into their home to celebrate with their family. It always makes me feel loved, welcomed and honored.
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planes trains and automobiles
Date: Oct 7th, 2007 12:21:02 pm - Subscribe
Mood: rested
October 1, 1949 Mao Ze Dong stood on the Tian an men Gate and declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Fifty eight years later...it is a national holiday during which the traffic is heavier than at any time of year other than Spring Festival. So, what does an intelligent world traveler like myself do? Join the lemmings.
At five o-clock last Sunday morning, two friends and I got in a cab and went to the Airport. We got on a plane to the city of Harbin, where we got on a bus that took us into the city to the train station. At a pharmacy across the street form the train station we met up with the aunt of one of our colleagues who was going to help us get tickets to a still smaller city farther north and west called Zalantun, where my friend, M, is a teacher. Well, we were told that there were NO tickets to be found anywhere, no bus, no train. So we checked into a hotel, had a nap and went to lunch. on the way back to lunch we found a place that looked like a rail ticket agent. we didn't think much about it, but went to visit this absolutely incredible hundred year old Russian Orthodox church that has been semi-restored and turned into a museum. Really spectacular.
After dinner, we went past that ticket agent again. We looked at each other and thought, "Nothing to lose by trying" and went in and got three sleeper beds to Zalantun leaving just a couple of hours later. So, we ended up in ZLT about 22 hours after we left Tianjin. Had we been able to get train tickets from Tianjin, it would have been closer to 26 hours and we would not have had the chance to walk around Harbin. Really, I want to go to Harbin again, it is a really nice city, pretty, clean, major Russian influence. You can buy amazing bread there.
So, we finally get to ZLT and the skies there are clear and blue and chilly. I was expecting it to be colder, but all in all I was pretty comfortable the entire time. My friends were cold, but I am my own personal portable heater. Zalantun is a small city, about 20,000 and is nestled in a small valley surrounded by hills. Cars are not terribly common yet, and there are still donkey carts going up and down the streets. The donkeys are obviously valued by their owners. they are fat and gentle. No Mc Donald's, No KFC. There are some spectacular local dishes, (mostly made of meat) and milk tea. Milk tea can be salty or sweet. I prefer mine sweet. there is really not a whole lot to do there, so I got in a good visit with my friend, and spent some great quality time with those I traveled with.
The train ride home was gloriously uneventful. we had a first class sleeper so we got to lie down the whole way. In a second class sleeper there are six bunks to a compartment so sitting can only be done on the lowest bunk. In a first class compartment there are only four bunks so all passengers can sit or lie down at will. So we chatted and napped and napped and chatted and snacked. I think we had one official meal and the rest of the time simply munched on crackers, dried fruits and nuts and drank tea or instant coffee. It was cozy. When we got to Beijing, we had to travel from the North station to the central station which is on the far side of the Subway loop line. Fortunately for us, I am quite familiar with the Beijing Subway, and we got where we were going without incident. we were able to get tickets on the new high speed train from Beijing to Tianjin and were home and in bed by eleven.
What a great vacation!
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A day in the life
Date: Sep 29th, 2007 1:38:53 am - Subscribe
Mood: nonchalant
Someone said that there is not enough about my daily life in my blog. Well, that can be difficult. There are days that seem like a rich tapestry of colors smells and sounds, and other days which are really quite dull.
Typical day:
Roll out of bed at whatever time Destructo-Kitty wakes me. Usually about 4:15. Toss him out of my room and go back to sleep until about 9:00.
Shower, coffee, online, household duties, maybe some TV or a DVD. Go get food from the street vendors in the next block...fried rice, chicken strips, these amazing little sandwich things, marinated vegetables. You can get ANYTHING on the street. Or nearly so. Fresh produce, Spicy lamb kebabs, Bejing Duck. Then off to school. I try to get to the school where I teach by about 2:00. Plan lessons, interview prospective students, grade papers, practice my Chinese, Practice the song I'm teaching my class. Dinner at the School Cafeteria at 5:30, Class at 6:30. Home by 9:15. Online, phone calls, blogging e-mail you know, stuff. Then, just before bed, food, water and cleaning out the litterbox for Destructo-Kitty. Then a game of Tag. He's a good little tag player. Then
around midnight, off to bed.
On my day off, I usually sit on my duff and watch TV or do my shopping. Weekends are spent with friends
More on life later, right now, I have to pack for my trip to Inner Mongolia where I am going to visit a former roommate. Promises to be fun, and COLD.
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Silly cat
Date: Sep 28th, 2007 3:59:04 pm - Subscribe
Mood: dizzy
Okay, I have this really handsome black and grey tabby cat with buff colored highlights. He is truly a gorgeous cat: symmetrical markings, big amber eyes that turn kind of greenish. He's my first cat. Up until a year ago I was a "dog person" I still love dogs. And I am not so sure I am really a cat person yet. This cat is hilarious. He will do the silliest things, and then, as if to cover for his silliness he bathes. "The Dignity Bath". He's also kind of schizophrenic. ya gotta remember, dogs are whatever their personalities are. You have to provoke a mellow dog to make him aggressive, you have to sedate an aggressive dog to make him mellow. Destructo-kitty goes from mellow to manic in .02 seconds. Good lord, I wish my CPU was that fast. So tonight he is playing with one of his favorite toys. It's a sock, filled with catnip, on a string. He LOVES this toy (could it be the kitty herb in there? possibly). He runs across the room on the backs of all the sofas and chairs and bookshelves and roommates and kicks off one big, overstuffed chair with enough force to make it rock back on it's back two feet before hurling himself to the floor where the sock is. The hard ceramic tile floor that is slicker than greased ice to furry little feet. He wipes out with this awesome 360, and looks at me to see if I saw it and begins to lick his fur. Nothing like a bath to restore your self confidence!
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trying on a new blog
Date: Sep 27th, 2007 6:31:08 am - Subscribe
Mood: carefree
I don't know what it is that I have such trouble with blogs. For some reason, some of the blogs are blocked. I'm guessing that because this is a blogging community that has yet to be noticed by the Chinese government the content has not been blocked yet. not much to report. I suppose, had I been able to GET to my other blog that I would have migrated all the cool stuff I had written. But, I could make entries, not actually SEE any blogs. But I was on Blogger and that is run by Google which has an censorship agreement with the gov't.
As an American, I am sometimes offended by such actions on the part of the government. but then, I choose to live and work here so I guess I don't have much room to whine, do I? I's a case of putting my money where my mouth is. I have no real idea where this blog will go. I am too far removed to make a whole lot of political commentary.
Hehe. I just wrote a long treatise on my political views and just deleted them.
Maybe on another day.
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