LORIBANG! and Acupuncture!

Soju is evil, but not as evil as some alcohol I've tried. Last night was the first night of our winter vacation. We have five days off before we start teaching again. Yay! So, last night the president of Ding Ding Dang (but we will furthermore simply call him the president, because no one in their right mind wants to be called "the president of Ding Ding Dang" out of context) took a bunch of us out to BBQ and kareoke. It was pretty great, as the president likes to get everyone to drink as much as possible and pay for all of it. We drank several bottles of soju at our table, which left me feeling a little strange this morning. Afterwards, we all went to a loribang (which I am probably spelling wrong) and sang kareoke---hilarious. I think my favorite of the evening was singing 'Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns n' Roses with another English teacher, Jack, who works for the same company, at a different school. The president started the singing off with a heartfelt 'Hotel California', for which I joined him in dance though unable to sing the actual song. Lindsay and I sang a fabulous rendition of 'My Sharona' and I seem to remember everyone ending the evening on a terrible show of NKOTB 'Hangin Tough", to which no one knew the words. I was a little wary about renting a room with people you know to sing terribly to each other, but it was great. The president ordered some interesting snacks, including chips that were shaped like french fries but tasted like squid flavored cardboard, as well as an actual entire fried squid which somehow ended up all over the sofas but otherwise seemed to remain untouched....strange.

This morning, despite funny left over soju feelings, I ran my first ever acupuncture clinic out of the apartment. It was fantastic to be actually working again, though last night I was asked by a Korean "So...you're an acupuncturist? How does that work? I've never seen a white person who could do acupuncture." While slightly put off, I did not let it affect my performance. I'm hoping to continue practicing on whomever may need it while I'm here and will drink tonight to a continued morning 'clinic' in my very own apartment.

While it's just turning to New year's eve in the states, here we are all dressed up with everywhere to go, once our party gets here. I might try to avoid soju tonight and stick to something else, but we'll see, it is vacation after all.


Happy 2009!

Holidays in Korea

xmas biscuits
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

Way back in November, Timber and I decided that since she doesn't really like the holidays, and I'm not really christian, we should probably celebrate some other holiday besides Christmas this year. We'd be away from all the Americanization of the holidays, all the shopping and carols and lights and anamatronic reindeer, but somehow we got sucked into it anyway. Working at an English School, we not only celebrated Christmas, but we skipped preschool for it. The kids went and made Christmas cakes one day (shaped like barbie and Louis Vuitton bags, apparently) and we did Christmas word jumble worksheets and sang "Jingle Bells" all week. By the time Christmas eve came around, it was truly maddening. All the same, we woke up on the 25th and had presents and ate too much and all around did Christmas, and I loved it. I guess I didn't realize how important it is to me, how the colonization of Christmas has made it a very non religious tradition in my family. (Not to dismiss the midnight mass I sometimes attend with my Mom.) I threw wrapping paper everywhere, the cat went nuts and I probably ate my weight in butter. We got the day off and spent it lounging around, downtown eating dinner and at another English teacher's house playing monopoly (I came in 2nd--go railroads!!!). Timber's biscuits and gravy were great, and I got the best earmuffs/headphones ever (see flickr page for pictures).
I think Timber liked her presents. (Ok, I just asked her and she said 'yes'). The cat, Fu Zi Miao loved her new toys and especially the wet food.
Though it was pretty good, I also missed my family and in realizing how important the tradition is, I also realized why it's so important. It's the only time of year I am pretty much guaranteed to be around at least most of them. My sister makes excellent cookies and my Dad usually has something up his sleeve. If I spend the Holidays with my Mom, we go to midnight service, and have the most elaborately ornamented tree of all time, as well as her birthday celebration, since it's on Christmas. I missed all of that this year, and though learning how to say "Merry Christmas" in Korean has the benefit of making me sound very worldly, I'd trade in saying "melle chhristemassee" for holidays at home anytime.

Daegu National Museum

relief from iran
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

Made our way to the museum today to see what was to be seen. It was actually pretty great. They had an exhibit on "The Glory of Persia" about Iranian history pre-Alexander the Great invasion and slightly after. There were some beautiful architectural things and some really old jewelry and a video about the huge palace in Persepolis built forever ago pre romanization. We got to make stamp replicas in fimo which will be hung on the wall once they dry and pretend to be archeologists in the kids' playroom. It seemed like the sort of thing you would never see in the states, because we're all about celebrating those Greek and Roman guys, when really they got all their ideas from Asia and the Middle East via the silk road. After we were museumed-out we went shopping at E-Mart and got a million things we needed and a few we probably didn't (except the tortilla chips---needed those). We had an amazing dinner of mushrooms, broccoli and steamed mussels by our very own Chef Timber by the glow of the Christmas tree. I like Saturdays.

Fu Zi's first tree

Fu Zi's first tree
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

Yesterday I trekked out into the surrounding mountains of Daegu and brought home a tiny tree. Ok, not really. I walked about two blocks to the left of our apartment and bought it for 15,000 KRW at a plant shop. The cat was so excited that she jumped onto the table and sniffed it like crazy. I'm excited to put presents under it next week and have Christmas day a day earlier, here to the east of the international dateline. We get the day off, thank goodness. Plans are: after a breakfast of biscuits and mushroom gravy (hopefully, if we find a toaster oven) and hot cocoa spiked with whatever we find at the "Family Mart", I will go back to bed and read until I decide to get dressed up all fancy to go downtown to the Holy Grill for turkey & champagne dinner with Timber and new friends. This is my first holiday away from family and it'd better be a good one. Fu Zi is getting special kitty wet food and some new toys since she keeps losing them under the sofa and beds and I can only find 1/3 of the toys she started with. But don't tell her. Timber is getting a bunch of awesome stuff that I can't write about because she might read this. And your presents will probably arrive sometime in February, because I'm halfway across the world.

Back in the spirit of things

Gatawbi Buddha 4
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

This weekend was full of medicine. After being sick all week, I decided to have my first acupuncture appointment. Timber (she's been sick, too) and I went to a clinic not too far from our house where we saw an acupuncturist who spoke some English and more importantly, gave us really nice treatments. I had my first experience with Korean hand acupuncture, which was great. He put three needles in my right thumb and I felt my sinuses start to clear. We were sent away with instructions to have a good rest and not to watch T.V. So, we went downtown. After wandering around for a while we made our way back to the oriental medicine market where I found a shop that sold needles, moxa, cupping sets and loads of books on acupuncture in Korean (darn).

Today (Sunday) we took the bus an hour outside town to hike up millions of stairs in the freezing cold to see the medicine Buddha. I don't think that's what the doctor meant when he said "have a rest", but it's been three plus weeks since arriving in Korea, and dammit I wanted to see something.

The bus cost about a dollar, 45 minutes and my digestive integrity and we arrived at Gatawbi rock. After two plus hours of very steep hiking we met the Buddha and his very funny hat. It was a miserably cold walk up and a shaky legged walk down, but the hot cocoa from the vending machines at the top was delicious and the Buddha himself was fantastic. How many places in the world can you live where that guy (see above) lives a bus ride away? Rad.

Prayers at Gatawbi

Prayers at Gatawbi
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

The best letter I have ever recieved

This is plagerism, sort of, but I'll change the names. My student's composition homework was to write a letter to a friend.

Here is Bobby's letter (names have been changed to protect the children)

Dear (Teacher)

Hi! my name is Matt. how are you?

Today is vary cool.

I eat dinner after eat heDDdung

I read books prearrangement

present time My mom is watch T.V.

present time My brother is cries

What present time now. theacher? (this is my favorite line. how dramatic.)

I present time do my homework

good bye theacher. see you tomorrow.

I like theacher. I love you.

you are good theacher. Name: Bobby

Korean healthcare rocks

I came down with the flu yesterday and have spent an unpleasant two days with a fever, chills, full body aches, a stuffy nose--the works. I don't have my alien registration card or health insurance yet, so I didn't think I could go to the doctor, though everyone was encouraging me to go. As luck would have it though, it is easy to borrow someone else's number and my coworker took me over to the doctor this afternoon. In twenty minutes I had an examination and a prescription for about $5.00. Within an hour and a half I was feeling worlds better. I have little packets of 5-6 pills to take three times a day for three days. I have no idea what she gave me and normally am not a fan of little packets of pills, but considering I have to be at work no-matter-what I'm happy for the quick fix. I've been told that the standard remedy for anything here is a shot in the butt of some sort of steroid, and consider myself lucky that I avoided that this time.
Hello meds, goodbye sickness.

My not so secret passion for the ridiculous and pop-y

Does it count as cultural exploration? It's (mostly) in Korean after all. My vote is yes.





She is totally Mariah Carey:




This one made me do the roger rabbit in my living room. 10 points if you can tell me why. The really stellar argyle sweater is for someone in particular. You know who you are.




I wasn't able to embed this one, but props to the healthy thug lifestyle. Quarts of milk all the way, baby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDDiHM_iALk

The end of week 2.5

Yesterday was snowflakes, another round of ghostbusters, and Soju.

We woke up to snow falling in 20 degree weather, big thick snowflakes accumulating on telephone wires and quickly melting on the ground. I danced around the apartment like it was Christmas and tried to take some very unsuccessful pictures out the windows. I decided to get back to something familiar by typing up notes from my observations in China. It was good to remember the things I saw, and something about the medicine, but it mostly made me sad that I'm not doing anything with it right now. I got to school in a pretty depressed mood, but playing with the little preschool kids helped pretty quickly. Rounds of "Teacher, finished!!!" as they proudly displayed their spelling blocks arranged into words like "box", "cloud' and "rainbow" helped me get my smile on, and the glue that kept it there was an excited round of the "Ghostbuster's" theme song. I swear, I'm taking halloween all the way into new years. Screw "We wish you a Merry Christmas", I think I'm going to teach them "Thriller" next (I seriously might, it's on the school's Halloween mix CD). The rest of the day zipped by in grammar patterns and the stickyball game (sort of like darts for 8 year olds). After work we went out with two coworkers for pork bone soup (see below) at a nearby restaurant. It was a bitterly cold night and somehow eating meat off swine's spine seemed appropriate. We talked, again, about being vegetarian and how difficult that might be here since there is meat in just about everything you order. I've been trying to keep it to a minimum, but a complete ban would be difficult. Over dinner I tried Soju for the first time. I have been both encouraged to try it and warned against it, but the final verdict is that it's fun! We shared a small bottle between three of us, so about three shots each. I felt silly, but never drunk and just fine this morning. In excess, since it's basically rubbing alcohol, it would probably do a number on anyone, but three shots seems to be just fine. It's worlds better than Hight beer, anyway. We stopped at the bakery where we got the thanksgiving walnut pie on the way home and the lady gave us free cookies with our loaf of bread and little French pastries. It reminded me of when I would go grocery shopping with my Dad when I was little and the bakery department would give out free cookies to little kids, but better because I'm 27 and she's just doing it to be nice and not because it's store policy.

Today we had planned on leaving town. We were going to go to a Buddhist temple just outside the city, in the foothills of the mountains that make Daegu a valley, but it's currently 26 degrees and feels like 17, according to the weatherchannel.com. We might find something closer and warmer to do for the rest of today, and try for the mountains and the temple next weekend when it's supposed to be about 50.

Oh, and my favorite quote from one of my kids this week:
"Teacher, what's this?" (pointing above his own eye while looking at my mole)
"It's called a mole, Marcus." (and I write m-o-l-e on the board)
"Is it a period?"
"Like, period '.'?" (I draw a period on the board)
"Yeah!"
"Okay, yes Marcus, it's a period!"

I laughed for a good few minutes and if I'm ever asked again about my mole, I'll definitely say it's a period. I'd been thinking about getting it removed, especially since I'm somewhere I could get it done cheaply if not for free with my health insurance, but now I'm keeping it for sure.

How it's going

Today was a little rough. It started out fine, did a bunch of nothing this morning and went in a little bit early for a weekly meeting with the other native English teachers. Classes went fine, yadda yadda yadda until Timber asked me if I was still glad I’d come. I am, I really am, but I miss home and my friends and family, and more than even that, I miss medicine. I didn’t think I’d be saying that so soon, but it’s true. I’m actually motivated to study, and glad I have so many notes on my computer to print out and review. I’ve even looked on amazon to see if I can have some books shipped to me once I have some money. I want Dr. Tan’s especially (I think the systems are really fun to play with) and have a whole list going on a variety of subjects. I figure if I can stop watching the “style” channel on Korean T.V., I might fit some learning in before I go into school at 1pm. On Saturday, Timber and I had to go to this seminar about how to teach English with all the other foreign teachers at all the DingDingDang schools around Daegu (there are about four). It was generally uninteresting. At one point, they had us all “drilling” phonics. About twenty English speaking adults, 21-29 years old, saying “A, a a apple, B, ba ba boy, C, ka ka cat…”. I looked over at Timber, rolled my eyes and wrote on her seminar handout “I’m (almost) a doctor.” She smiled and wrote on mine “I’m a head chef.” Then we continued “D da da dog, E e e elephant…” So that’s about where it is, we are teaching incredibly basic English to students who mostly don’t want to be there for the sake of their very proud parents who are competing with other very proud parents to try and get their kids the most (not best, mind you) education possible. Some of the kids go to school from 7 or 8am to 9 or 10pm, sometimes even midnight. They go to regular school, then several different academies: art academy, English academy, music academy and so on. I really do love language, and if I could share it with the kids who do want to learn, it would be a great job. Mostly though, it is 40 minutes of book after book. “Ok everyone, grammar books out!” “Are there any apples? Yes, there are some apples. No, there aren’t any apples. Grammar books away! Phonics books out!”

So after Timber asked if I was still glad I came, I got discouraged, sad and maybe even nostalgic though it wasn’t all that long ago, about needling people and actually helping them. Last year I used an hour of someone’s day to dramatically change their perspective even if it was just from being in extreme pain to being in moderately less pain. Now, I am using 40 minutes to have kids monkey “dialogue book” back to me. So, I went on a walk during one of my infrequent breaks. I realized a few things that I hope might help me in my time here. First, my intuition or whatever you want to call it, brought me here for a reason and I need to figure out what that reason is. I do want to learn the language, and something about the medicine, and simply live in another country, but I know there is a larger lesson for me somewhere in all this and I will be happy to find the a ha moment when I do. I’m looking for something, but I’m not sure what. I also realized that I can use this time to plan next year, and see if I can’t do something really spectacular with the money I should have saved in Korea and that fancy national license I got in the mail. While I was in school, I didn’t feel that I had adequate time to discover what I really want to do with this shiney new profession of mine. I’m relatively certain of its capacity to heal and where it can be taken but not entirely sure of where it is I personally want to go with it. I got a fancy new gadget, read the manual and am overwhelmed by its variety of functions. I was telling my sister before I left that living abroad and teaching English was my last plan in what used to seem like a long list of plans. Now, I genuinely have no idea what I want to do next. I used to think I was a planner, and now I think I’m not so much a planner as someone who likes to have a lot of plans lying about. That last three years of school just zipped by, and now here I am in Korea, drumming my fingers wondering what to do next. Not having something specific to look forward to makes grammar book pretty intolerable, and this is only week two. Something that OCOM definitely taught me was to seek opportunity, and perhaps instead of planning my next step I can learn how to do that in a larger way here. When we do acupuncture or prescribe herbs, we are looking for that space in the pattern that is slightly amiss and then toggling with it to redefine perfection—we seek these spaces as opportunities to heal. Maybe I can expand that microcosm to seek opportunities in my life now that will help me to figure out what’s next. Or, you know, I can just take suggestions.

Introducing....

Fuzi Miao and I on the bed
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

Everyone, this is my new kitty, Fuzi Miao. dun dun dun dun!!!

We inherited her half by accident, and she is a super sweet kitty, though this portrait may have you believing she is mildly evil. There will be thousands more kitty pictures I am sure, this is just the first.

The people we replaced, Brian and Celia left her behind when they moved. They had given her to some other teachers at another Ding Ding Dang school who didn't really want her. She wasn't happy at their house and rarely came out from under the bed. They played a lot of loud music and weren't really cat people. When Celia and Brian asked us if we liked cats, I lit up like a Christmas tree and basically from then on, the cat was going to be mine. Last night, Timber and I went over to their house with our neighbor Danni to bring her home. She is super happy to be back in her old house and is currently cuddled up with me on the sofa while I type. We all get along very well. I hope I can bring her home with us, but we'll have to see what the next year brings.

She'd had several names over the last year, so we decided to give her a new name. I'd had one picked out since the China trip and bestowed it on her. Fuzi Miao means a couple of things. First, Fuzi is a Chinese herb, Aconite which is used to warm you up, basically. it can be toxic if used improperly or in doses that are too high. Miao is well, what cats say. Fuzimiao is the name of the big shopping market we went to a lot in Nanjing. So there you have it, her name means a lot of things that mean a lot to me and I think she likes it.

She's pretty young, though we will probably never know for sure how old she is. She plays a lot with the toys we got her and has a sweet little voice and a silly demeanor. She's getting used to us being affectionate people and likes to bump her head on our legs a lot to say hi. In the summer, I'm thinking we can probably take her up on the roof with us when we get our patio together. There's no way she can be an out door cat. For one, there's no real outdoors and for two, Koreans don't like cats much.

So that's the big news so far. Now that I have the internet at home, I hope to blog at least every other day, and I'm taking pictures like nobody's business so be sure to take a look at the flickr site.

I miss all my friends and family, especially now that it's officially the holidays. I'll be excited to send everyone presents home through, the street vendors are great, and will be sending my mailing address out soon, hopefully tonight, if you want to send me christmas cards or what have you here.

Fuzi Miao!

We got the kitty!!!!!


Fuzi Miao came home this evening and is instantly happy. We love her. Pictures to come (as soon as I find my camera cable.)

hurray! internet!

This morning the internet guy came over to our house to "install" the internet that was already half working. He didn't ask for any money, which was good because I don't really have any money to give him, especially since I didn't break the internet in the first place. It took me a minute to get it to work on my computer, since he installed it on Timber's. After much cursing and throwing around of ethernet cables, it finally worked and I logged on to "KT MEGAPASS!!!".

I was all excited to load all my pictures, but now I can't find my camera cable. There aren't too many places it could be, my apartment isn't that big and if I could find it, I could show you how not that big it is. Hopefully this situation will be remedied this weekend, and if it's not, more cursing and throwing of things will probably be happening, which I also will not be able to post pictures of.

But, onto more pleasant things....

Last night we had "thanksgiving" with two other teachers from our school, a brit and a guy from Texas, and a Korean woman who I think assists my boss, but I'm not sure. We went to a restaurant called Moogtick or something equally entertaining, and had galby, which is the Korean barbeque that you may or may not be familiar with. So, you know, pork/turkey, kimchee/mashed potatoes, whatever. On the way home though, Timber and I stopped at a little french bakery by our house and found a walnut pie! We didn't know what kind of pie it was, and the lady at the counter insisted on finding an english translation for us other than "Pie, pie!" which she kept repeating until we emphatically shook our heads and repeated "Pie!". She searched my little phrasebook and then on the internet for about ten minutes until Timber said "OH! Walnut!" and we purchased our pie and went home. It's not pumpkin or pecan, but it was pie anyway, and pretty good for Korean street bakery pie at that. I took pictures, but it's honestly not that interesting. It looks like pie. It helped it feel more like thanksgiving though, and thats what counts.

I've decided that I like teaching for now, but am really glad that it is not my lifelong career choice (sorry, Mom). Overall, the kids are really great. Some of them have behavioral issues, and I've had to do my fair share of demerit giving and stern glancing, which I have to say I'm not very good at unless I'm in a poor mood to begin with. Mostly I just think they're funny when they act out, unless they're shouting which tends to give me a headache. Some of them really do want to learn English well for various reasons, and those are the most fun classes to teach. I learned last night that one of my students, Chongwoo wants to be an acupuncturist, which is pretty great. I'm not sure how to incorporate that into what I can teach him this year, but I'm sure I can come up with something.

I am slowly learning Korean words for things. I learned that yogio is for "stop, here" when you're in a taxi and that 'sawpa' means sofa, which is easy. Timber is talking about taking Korean classes one night a week and I might join her. We'll see how far I get with just immersion learning. I think for a week and a half I've done a good amount of learning, and as long as it continues at this pace I should be OK. I've made some connections in terms of finding an acupuncturist to observe, and offered acupuncture of some of my co-workers, who are generally impressed with the fact that I can poke them with needles. It feels like far more than a week has passed, especially with how sore my throat is from talking so much.

For the words I don't know, I've been pantomiming a lot which makes the Koreans laugh. I pantomimed "suction cup" to a lady on the street when we were trying to buy hooks from her and she gave me a hug and now waves to me every time I see her.

Well, now I don't know where the morning has gone and I need to get ready for work.
I will try to get some pictures up soon.

Blogging Hiatus

Hi there....

Just a quick note to apologize about not blogging since arriving in Korea. I (we) am (are) all settled and learning how to be awesome teachers. I'm learning a lot about classroom management and that kids in Korea don't know how to whistle, but love Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. Weird. My skype works, so you can call me if you have the number (and if not email me and I'll give it to you), but the internet at the apartment won't work until friday (thursday for you in the States). I'm sure after then there will be non-stop blogging and photo updating. Until then, sit tight.

I'm here

Today might have been the longest day of my life. We got into Daegu last night at 11:30pm, and were off to school this morning at 9:30am for an eleven hour day.
I'm going to bed in a minute, but before I forget:

The preschool kids' favorite song is the theme from "Ghostbusters". They absolutely went wild when we played it.

The 15 year old Alice wrote in her composition: " Second, I can read books everywhere. Think about it. Can you watch rad movies in a subway? Probably not. But you can certainly read books everywhere."

Now Alice is famous, and we are all entertained.

The sign above the toilet read "Please sit for stooling".

Also, there's a gym at the top of our school's building, and there is an excellent possibility that we will be inheriting a cat! YES!

It's time to go!

This is my last night in the states before a year in Korea. Tomorrow at 9:05am, I take the Whidbey shuttle to Sea-Tac airport. Then to Tokyo (again), then to Busan with Timber, then to Daegu by bus. It's going to be quite a trip, but I'm looking forward to watching 3+ movies on my personal TV on the flight to Tokyo and rice for breakfast. I'm nervous, but mostly excited. It kind of feels like Christmas. It feels like I'm leaving so much here, and I am. At the same time I am looking forward to so much unknown. I hope I can share the new with the now, tomorrow with the yesterday. I hope I can live each moment to it's fullest, I hope I get enough sleep and enough leafy greens, I hope to learn how to be a better acupuncturist, I hope I learn a new language, hope to become a better writer, hope to discover new joys in etymology as I teach little bits the weird language I call home. I have so many dreams for this trip, but also so much grief in knowing that I can't take everyone and everything I love here with me. It's just a year, and it's going to fly by, I just hope I can fit it all in. I have had such a beautiful opportunity to say 'see you later' to all my dearest friends, nothing could have happened more perfectly in the month between China and Korea. But at the same time it makes it all the harder to go. I have never felt such love for so many people, and never felt so loved by so many people. Homecoming is going to be awesome, but now: into bed and onto the plane!

Tuvan throat singers quotes of the night

"This song is about beautiful horses, and nice girls."
(really, what song isn't?)

and also

"When you hear the car horn, help us to make sheep sound."

Tuvan throat singing is not a new passion or hobby, but it sure was different.

What is it about clamshells

yay for macro
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

There is this, lets call it a trend. I'll be generous and call it a trend, but I think that it might actually be an ingrained habit, or custom, or tradition even of modern day coastal peoples to turn clamshells, much like this one---perhaps even one day this very shell, into soap dishes. Most often this is for the guest bathroom, or the kitchen sink. Sometimes it is for every water spigot in the house. Sometimes, the glory of the clamshell goes beyond just holding soap, and will hold other things: buttons, paper clips, push pins, peppermints. My question is: what the? What on earth inspires SOAP DISH! when walking on the beach and coming upon these monstrosities of calcification now hollowed by clammy death? And how is this inspiration so seemingly the universal inspiration of every beach comber with a house down the street? Something in me gets it, understands this collective experience, but I think I'll have to dig deeper to find the root, because really, it's weird.

Beach on the strait of Juan de Fuca

shining strait 2
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

Seaweed from the strait

sexy seaweed 3
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

There is something disturbingly sensual about this seaweed. It was all over the beach, in huge bunches, washed up on the shore along with a ton of whole trees, driftwood and agates.

even the decaf is delicious

even the decaf is delicious
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

Down the street from my sister's house is this coffee place, Mukilteo Coffee, where they roast their own blends and serve some of the best coffee around (so I'm told). I like coffee, sure, but don't know much about it and really couldn't give you a better suggestion than 'stumptown good, starbucks bad'. But, this is delicious, and the people are great, and it's pretty much a coffee shop in the middle of the woods and that can't really get much better.

Brunch Sendoff

breakfast club 2
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

On November 10th, I left PDX for the next year (at least). An easy collection of some of my favorite people from the last decade of my life had brunch with me at the Cup and Saucer (cute dyke), and kept me from crying into my scramble by keeping me giggling for two hours. I don't know how I got so lucky to have such amazing people in my life, but I am sure I'll spend the next decade (at least) appreciating them.

Saying 'Obama' is like an entire song in my mouth, a holiday in my soul

sweet....

"Francis Nyamnjoh, a Cameroonian novelist and social scientist, said he saw Mr. Obama less as a black man than “as a successful negotiator of identity margins.”

I love negotiating identity margins! What a beautiful way to sum up the challenges going on right now.

waaaatttteeeerrr

waaaatttteeeerrr
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

I went to Bend this weekend and hung out with these girls (Kate and Maggie), and also Amy C and Crystal and Beth and had an awesome time. I love oregon, why am i leaving again?

squash! from Sauvie's

squash! from Sauvie's
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

mmmMMMmmmm fall

October fall leaves, PDX

October fall leaves, PDX
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.

I am so happy and so blessed to be in Portland right now. China was great, Korea will be fantastic, but Portland right now is breathtaking.

peace out, China

This is the last picture taken in China on my camera, after the last shopping excursion and the last group dinner. We got the awesome hats shown in the picture. Mine has a black vinyl brim and Christine and Justin's say "China loves me and #1 China" Love you, China! Love you China friends!

Back in time to Portland

On the airplane back to Portland….


This trip has been so good for me. I feel so solid in my person, in my feelings and plans. I feel infinitely healthier and happier and more optimistic. I feel more secure about my relationships and their future, and feel all right about leaving the past in the past. I feel ready to reaffirm my friendships in Portland and build new ones elsewhere—abroad and in the states perhaps. I feel open to whatever will happen, and that is a fantastic feeling.

China was a challenge, for sure. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. A mysteriously sprained and then kindly and miraculously healed ankle. Then “travel sickness”, then the flu, then more travel sickness, then gastritis, then deep and incessant phlegm that I am bringing home with me on the plane as I type.
I am changed by this country, I am changed by China. She has made her way into my body for sure, and also my spirit. I am unable to even outline all the ways in which I think I’ve been affected, it is infinite. I feel so deliciously blessed to have been there, to have graduated and then to have contextualized everything I have learned about Chinese medicine with clinical experience IN China. So much of it is so much more clear having seen where it comes from, and also extreme ways in which it can be used. Having talked about a patient with ‘yang type’ jaundice and then needling a patient who is the color of orange juice are completely different things. To have talked about using herbs and acupuncture for cancer and to have seen herbal IV drips for a pulmonary cancer patient and then needling her are worlds apart. My confidence in the medicine and myself have increased exponentially, as has my inspiration. I have thousands of ideas swimming in my head of not only what I might be able to accomplish in my practice, but also how I want to accomplish that. I now know that it IS possible to have a desk, a prescription pad and a pulse pillow and write fifty formulas in a morning—and have patients rave about what a great doctor you are---all using Shan Han Lun modifications. I know that with the right spirit, a smile and genuine concern, patients in the most dire circumstances will not only benefit from acupuncture, but consider you a friend and partner in their healing. I was so impressed by the doctors I met and worked with. Their true compassion, wisdom and joyousness shined through with each interaction. They work hard and long hours, but they love what they do and I can see why---it is so gratifying. The OCOM clinical experience was wonderful, but nothing like what I have seen and done in China and I can’t imagine starting a practice without that reference point.
I am so grateful. And I will read and re-read this post many times throughout the years as I pay off my student loans and grumble about the cost.

Yesterday, we were in Shanghai having our last day in China—which was perfect. I started out with a leisurely breakfast of fruit, tea and toast in the dining room. I think I lounged there for about 1.5 hours. Then I went off myself on an erhu search. An Erhu is a 2 stringed Chinese instrument that is played similarly to the cello, but is much much much smaller. After nearly being pick pocketed for my umbrella and sunglasses by this younger Chinese guy who looked incredibly strung out on something or other, I took the metro three stops to Huangpi road and Huaihui lu, one of the major shopping districts of Shanghai. I had 2 hours before I was supposed to meet some friends for lunch, and I was on a mission. I walked down the major street for quite a while and saw lots of fun stuff, yoga dancing and the fancy shopping mall and lots of amazing Chinese fashion. I decided I probably wasn’t going to find an erhu in times square, so I turned down a side street that looked relatively promising as far as cheaper items go. I found a sock shop where I got some great stuff, and after a great exchange with the shop lady (who told me my very limited Chinese was good!), I asked her where I could find an erhu. She pointed me exactly to it and even wrote down the name of the street in Chinese. I walked just three or so blocks and found a fancy instrument shop with everything from erhus to baby grands. I had limited myself to a rather small erhu budget, so I wasn’t sold on the spendy instruments and after a brief demonstration; I kept walking and told myself I would think about it. After winding around a few corners and seeing a few more things I decided that it would be silly to pass up the instrument over a couple hundred kuai, and made my way back to the street I had been on. Just when I thought I knew where I was, I saw an instrument shop on the other side of the street and crossed to check it out. I thought perhaps I was more turned around than I thought and that it was the same one I had been in. It was not though, and their erhus were a little bit cheaper! Hurray! So I shelled out and bought it and was thrilled with my purchase. I was right on schedule, so after hailing a cab I made my way to “Face” or “la visage” as I would rather say. I think my favorite thing about Face was that it is international and could probably be called the word for “face” in any language. We had a fantastic lunch that was about $40 US, so given that price in CHINA, you can imagine how delicious it was. We got the thing on the menu that said you “have to try this dish!” and I was so glad I did. It was leisurely and breezy and loungealicious as the four of us sat by the open window and chatted casually about medicine and travel and watched the children play on the lawn.
Then three of us went to the yuyuan gardens, which were definitely more structure than garden and perhaps more fish than people if that is possible considering the thousands of people that were there.
It was also the busiest shopping square/open market I have ever seen. I’m still too overwhelmed to even think about it.

Then cab back to the hotel to quickly shower before our last dinner all together for Beijing duck. The meal was all in all pretty good, but I don’t think that duck is my thing.

A few of us walked around the street the restaurant was on to do some last minute shopping and blow the rest of our kuai. I found the best hats ever and got matching ones for Timber and I for 3 kuai each---that’s like .50 cents! I’m wearing mine on the flight home and can’t wait to give her her’s. They’re black and have off black lettering in what I think might be Portuguese, but the best part is the opaque black vinyl rims. I was going to buy one, but when they rang it up and it was 3 kuai and not 9 like the sticker said I ran downstairs and got a second one. Between that and the iced tea I bought today in the airport I successfully spent most of my kuai.

Then home to re-pack, and an excited and light sleep. I was up with the morning call at 6am feeling like it was Christmas, and now here I am flying to Tokyo and then home. I have loved every minute of this trip but would not have wanted it a day longer or a day shorter.

Day one in Shanghai

So I am in my hotel room and the power has gone out in the building. This would have been less of a big deal in Nanjing, because I would have known where the staircase is and simply gone down the 4 flights of stairs and outside to see what’s what. But, I’m in Shanghai and it’s a little scary. But, I won’t write about that to validate my fear because I have this strange feeling that situations like this is where Stephen King gets his inspiration and I would like nothing to do with that. I am just thankful that my computer still works and that I have a full battery that should last until I decide it’s time for bed. I don’t think I did justice to the acrobatic show in my last post, so I’ll start with that. It was the perfect end to a hectic feeling sort of day. After trying unsuccessfully to hail a cab for about 20 minutes, we decided to hop on the bus and bus/walk to the theater. It was a largish theater, I’d say Schnitz size.

Whew…ok, the lights are back on. That was fast, thankfully.

The theater was full of westerners, or laowai as they/I like to call us. It was kind of bizarre to see so many white people all in one place. I think going back to Portland is going to be a trip (haha). I’ll be excited to be in Asia again, I’ve gotten pretty used to it. So the first act was these guys jumping through impossibly small hoops. They kept building them higher and higher. Then these amazing women with these yo-yos they have here…the same kind as the one the guy is using in that video I have on my flicker. But, they were all in sync, and throwing them in the air and to each other, it was beautiful. Then some comedic knife throwing, and some jumping up in the air on a see-saw thingy. I think my favorite though, which I have a picture of, is the couple doing flying acrobatics on the pieces of fabric. They were lovely. The most impossible seeming were the women who balanced themselves on precariously stacked chairs about 10 high and then all proceeded to do handstands. I have a picture of that too. I kept saying “don’t do it don’t do it!” “get down get down!”, which is pretty unlike me for acrobatics. All in all it was great. I think cirque de soleil is better, but this didn’t have any of the cirque theatrics or music or costumes, so it is hard to compare.
I took a cab home afterwards with some other ladies and slept alllllll night, which was great as I’d had nothing to eat that day except a croissant I ate after the show and before bed. My stomach is a lot better today and I have feasted in comparison to the last few days.

Today I got up and ate breakfast (yay! Tea and toast!). Then a bunch of us set out on an adventure via metro to the Shanghai erotica museum. It was a display of relics from all through Chinese history, some amusing some lovely and some downright weird. They even had a nice little display about homosexuality and a little statement about how we shouldn't judge people. Go China! I have a bunch of pictures. If you’re not squeamish about things like large and very unsanitary ancient ahem “tools”, go ahead and look. If you’re my parents, well, you can look too, I am 27 after all. (Hi mom! Hi dad!)

Then we went through the Bund’s crazy underwater tunnel, which was this little pod-like ride through this insanely lit tunnel. There was a warning all about how you shouldn’t go through if you were an array of things like: drunk, mentally unstable, shirtless, obnoxious, pregnant, etc…”. Some of them did, and some of them did not make sense. We came out on the other side on the Bund, a collection of very out of place looking European buildings built when Shanghai was being colonized by Europe.

We finally made our way to an awesome vegetarian Buddhist restaurant where I ate more than I have in a while, GI problems or no. Even the white rice was good, and it was cheap for a meal like that! $35 RMB, which is like $5 USD.

Then an adventure with Beth to find the metro to get back to the hotel and shoshi (rest). We wandered for a while and found the Shanghai art museum which we saw the outside of. The Shanghai Bienniale is going on right now and today there was a line that wrapped around the building to get in. I might try to check it out tomorrow, but we’ll see about that line. We saw some great art on the outside of the building though, and eventually made our way back to the hotel. My long awaited shoshi didn’t happen however, as I had made it my mission at some point earlier in the day to see the symphony in Shanghai. I think it might have been when we passed the out of place looking statue of J.S. Bach. So I went down to the front desk and tried to navigate my way through language to some information about the symphony. All this was unsuccessful. Eventually I got my computer with internet back from Robynne who had used it during the day and we found a great performance that four of us went to this evening. It was called “Modern and Classic; The Oriental Angels”. It was a group of six women playing various Chinese instruments. It was beautiful! It was really nice to see because some of the Chinese music I’d seen to this point was pretty terrible. There was this one woman who was definitely “first zither” who had a solo where she played it like a possessed woman. It was great to see something played with that much passion, especially in China where all the women are supposed to be gentile, shy and lovely. The cab ride there was across the river to the Pudong district of Shanghai, all of which has been built within the last 20 years, before which it had been farmland. The cab ride itself was wonderful. Shanghai has some impressive and beautiful buildings with more lights than you would ever expect. Some of the buildings are striped with rainbow colored lights that flash and ripple and bounce off other surrounding buildings. Others have tetris-like lights stacking against their sides, some only have the top few floors lit so that it seems like it floats above the city. It really is beautiful, though it kind of inspires a “what the hell are we doing” sort of feeling.

So now I’m in Shanghai-home, with the room to myself and it is lovely. After posting this and futzing with my pictures on flickr, I might take a shower and head to bed before it’s breakfast time tomorrow and my last day in China—on this trip anyhow.



This is my favorite picture of the day. I love photos with Robynne!

Shanghai'd

So I made it to Shanghai, train station schlepping and all. Whoever designs chinese train stations is off their rocker. Carrying luggage up and down stairs is not anybody's idea of easy transport. I'm not sure what they were thinking, but I made it anyhow.

After much schlepping....

and did I mention the schlepping?...

Ok, I'll outline it for you.

from the bus at the hotel in Nanjing to the train station in Shanghai, from the lobby of the train station up the stairs to the waiting area, from the waiting area down the stairs to the platform, from the platform to the train with very little luggage space, from the train to the platform in Shanghai, down the stairs to the lobby of the trainstation, out the doors we waited for someone from the hotel to guide us on our "five minute walk" to the hotel....
twenty minutes later, after gathering quite a crowd of chinese onlookers (some of us were playing with a hackey sac--me not included), someone showed up to lead us through deadly intersections and smelly back alleys on our fifteen minute long walk to the hotel.

All of this with some of the worst stomach pain I've ever had. Not so much fun.

But enough complaining, we made it and I promptly took a short nap and a bath (in the bathtub!!! eeeee!) before going to see the acrobats (by bus and foot).
The show was really really fun, lots of Ooos and ahhhs and I can't believe she's about to....'s.
I took some pictures which I'm too tired to upload now.

and then I took a taxi back to the hotel and am about to go to sleep.
Tomorrow is the erotica museum and maybe some shopping. I might even eat something! yay!

My name in chinese...

a li

'little' oak



.

Today's forcast

"Abundant sunshine"

--thanks weather.com.....

also:
Last day of clinic
Last day in Nanjing
Last massage at "Blind Tuina"
Last day riding emily
Last night at the Jinling mansion

4 days till portland

YES!

I have to start saying goodbyes to China, I love her, but traveling for five weeks in and around her is rough.

new name!

Nothing thrilling to say about adventures, but, I just got my chinese name!

It's pronounced A li, but means "little oak", and I can even write it in chinese.

EEEEE! that makes me so happy.

Do what you want, it's China

Two great examples of doing what you want, many great lessons can be learned from the Chinese:


1. Fairly mellow clinic shift this morning. Dysmenorrhea, stomachache, the like. Herbs herbs herbs. Just when I'm getting ready to tune out and wait for the time to pass before lunch, a woman walks into the clinic room with a bag making strange noises. Now, strange and loud noises are nothing new--cell phones, yelling, things crashing to the floor are all white noise at this point. Our doctors will answer their cells phones mid-appointment, no big deal. But this sounds like chirping, and it was. This lady brought her new baby chick to the doctor with her, inside her purse, wrapped in a plastic bag. Everyone looked up to inquire about the noise, and the lady smiles and shakes her head "yes" and opens her bag to reveal a little yellow chick running around maniacally inside her purse. Hey, do what you want, it's china. After several minutes of laughter and joking we asked our interpreter if this was just rote hospital procedure. She turned out to agree that "the nurse might be a bit angry about the chicken".
I should say so. There's a chicken, in the hospital. But no one showed the patient, or her chicken the door. It continued to disturb all of the 2nd floor with it's chirping while she patiently waited for her appointment in the hall.

2. On the bike ride home there is this particularly noisy section where they are doing some building construction and half the road is covered with steel plates. The cars driving over it make the street sound like NYC subway tracks--it's loud. Today they were doing some work on this piece of road. A guy was going at it with a mallet, making a racket. I've never seen this construction technique before, but alright, what do I know. Once he bent the metal to his desired shape he whips out his welder and starts-a-welding. Mind you, there are no traffic cones or blockades or anything, just a couple guys, a mallet and a welder. As he starts welding, a shiny new white car rounds the corner and nearly runs into the welder. The driver lays on the horn, hoping to get the crew to move so he can pass, but no sir. The crew doesn't care how fancy your car is or how loud the horn. The guy just climbed under the car and continued to weld away. Eventually the car backed up and swerved around the crew, probably pretty pissed. Who needs language for a battle of wills? Your car horn and welder will do. But whatever, just another day. Do what you want.

For Emily, wherever I may find her (no, really, where's my bike?...)

A poem of mixed emotions



Oh, brazen biking through hectic city streets
My butt bouncing on your hard seat
Never have my ischial tuberosities been so sore
Oh Emily, riding with you is never a bore.

While my love is eight long weeks away
through sapphic streets my bike and I will play.

Though not as pleasant perhaps as that greek isle
or riding Black Beauty english style,
We weave and glide through traffic galore
the daily accidents only build our rapport.

Oh Emily,
with sturdy spokes and rusty chain
the tarnished bell that will never sing again
callouses from your handlebars building on my thumbs,
I'll be distraught when our last day is done.

From hospital to hotel
the streets of Nanjing never feel like hell
When gliding on your frame of steel,
for 200 kuai you were a deal!

Though one day soon I must leave you behind,
for human adventures both far and wide,
I shall never forget my love for you
and the adventures and pleasantries you took me to.

Tire tread fading along the hard pavement
our every day was well spent.

Though bumpy rides
Though thick and thin
Shocks would have only been
added weight to your thin frame,
Oh Emily, how I hope we (never?) meet again!

Surreal

Yesterdays lecture turned out boring, but all for the best.

Afterward I ran into a doctor I met a few weeks ago, before Yellow Mountain. We chatted and she introduced me to a classmate of hers who I got into conversation with. We talked for a while and it eventually came out that she was going to start a job teaching English that night to 100 Chinese college students, and was feeling a bit lost as to what the hell to do with them, and rightfully so. So, I along with my friend from OCOM, Rik, volunteered our services and asked if we could come along to watch and help out if needed. She said that would be fine and to meet back in about an hour.

So the adventure began....

We ended up driving out, via hard-to-hail taxicab, an hour outside Nanjing to this huge university in the middle of nowhere. Literally--we're driving and driving and nothing and nothing and nothing and then BAM!--Huge buildings and university complex. I guess this is one way to make sure everyone studies.
Being that hailing the cab took about 30 minutes, we were a bit late. We got out of the cab and were immeadiatly shuttled off to a classroom by a gaggle of the professor's best students.

Walking into the classroom was like nothing else I have ever experienced, and maybe ever will.

The brightest lights, and row upon row upon row of students (100 of them) sitting attentively at their desks began clapping and cheering and taking photos when the three of us walked into the classroom. We were instant celebrities, and the smiles and enthusiasm continued for two short hours. We played some games, and went through basic words and sentences like: Can you help me find the bus station?
We went around with maps to have small conversations and ask the students to find the bus station. All conversations were peppered with "Teacher, can I take your photo?" "Teacher, we think you are so beautiful" "Teacher, where are you from"...on and on and on.

Some of them spoke very fluently, and other students couldn't understand a word of what I was saying. Though they were in college, they all seemed incredibly young and giggled madly when we taught them the word "bikini".
At the break, everyone came up and wanted their photo with me--I'm probably all over China's myspace and facebook, and at the end everyone wanted me to sign their lesson book, or photo ID, or something.

It was weird, really really weird, and incredibly rewarding, and while I don't think Korea will be quite the same I can't wait to start.

Oh! I forgot to blog about it..I got the job I wanted! Or, rather, we--Timber and I--got the jobs we wanted! We both start in Daegu, South Korea at Ding Ding Dang on November 17th. I mailed my contract off yesterday.
Now that it's all official, and especially after last night, I can't wait to start my time there. It should be lots of fun, a great adventure and good break/planning time for me before I move somewhere else in the U.S.

...and now to post a poem.

This week, in Nanjing

Well, today is promised to be "considerably cloudy", as per the weather channel. Since when do they alliterate the weather? So I'm bringing a sweater to my third day in clinic. The first day was a little hectic, as we tried to figure out where we were supposed to be and where the blankityblankblank our interpreter was. Eventually everything worked out. The doctor as well as the interpreter are lovely. We've been seeing a lot of gynecology, some lung stuff, some depression stuff and its all herbs, all the time. Yay! I love it. The doctor is a really sweet person, very compassionate and caring and smart as hell. She is also a considerably competent teacher which makes it all the better.

After Monday though, I went home and went straight to bed for a 2 hour nap, then a brief break from sleeping and back to the pillows for 8 more hours. I think it was part the exhaustion of the first day, but also the food in China and the sugar in particular. No more sweet things! Yesterday though, I got some great shopping done at the 3 hour lunch break and then came home and went to the Opera. It was a cultural experience for sure, and I took some photos. I felt a little rude, but then all the Chinese people were doing it and thats my rule, follow whatever the herds of Chinese do. The best parts were the adventure getting there, since it doesn't seem that even if a building has an address, anyone will know where that address is. We took a cab and asked and asked and asked and eventually were pointed in the right direction. The performance took place in what looked like an old government building or temple. We were late, but no one seemed to mind. After two short stories, one painfully long, the performance was over and we went outside to figure out our next move. As soon as we got out there we saw a crowd of people watching their own street opera performance. Ladies with fans and hanky covered mikes singing and dancing and a big street band. The audience was singing along to all the songs they knew and clapping. Fun! They were really into us being there too, and kept on trying to get us to sing. None of us knew the words.

So today is wednesday, lecture day. We'll see how it is, it is supposed to be on clinical application of the extraordinary vessels, but really could be on anything.

a good day in China has no plan

I started out this morning trying to find the ticketmaster place, but no such luck. The addresses skipped from 54 to 112, so there is something about the chinese address system that I am missing.
I went to starbucks to de-compress from the search and read for a while. While in the vortex, I decided to just take a bike ride down to the Ming palace remains that I had seen on the map and had been by on the bus the other day. It turned out to be a perfect adventure. I went into the gardens where the majority of the remains are. Most of it is bases for the pillars that are no longer there, one small building and a few old statues. It was really peaceful and I felt like I was in the middle of a lot of good history. There are beautiful carvings in the bases that you can hardly see because they have been so weathered Across the street is more of what used to be the palace, but what is now a garden. There were lots of older men flying kites, and I asked one if I could fly with him. He did the best he could to get me a kite up and going, but the wind wasn't good for a crap kite flyer like me, so after a few tries he took the kite back. I think we both had a good time though nevertheless. I walked around in the park a bit more, among families playing badmitton and this guy playing with the coolest yo-yo I have ever seen. I took a video of it that I've uploaded, but it's sideways--sorry!

After the park, I took a short ride down to the Nanjing Museum complex, where the contemporary and historical art museums are both located. I basically spent the day there looking at some weird contemporary art, and some gorgeous ancient art. The contemporary stuff was a lot of commentary on how China is being changed my western modernism. A favorite was the papercutting from McDonalds and Burger King fast food bags. I think what most struck me about the historical art museum was how old things were. They had jade from tombs from 2500 BCE, from just outside their own city. The U.S. doesn't have that much history, and I don't think I've seen anything that old in Europe either. This really is a culture and a people that has been around for a long time, and while so many things have changed, so many have stayed the same. Writing it like that makes it sound kind of silly, but really---it's really really old. really. Jade carvings and clay pots that were from thousands of years ago looked in many ways like they could have been made just yesterday down the street. The carvings and craft were so much more intricate and advanced than I realized they could be for that era. I bought jade pieces last week that look like they could be in the museum alongside what I saw today. So, really, the same people (in a broad sense) have been doing the same crafts for thousands of years. Are you impressed? I'm impressed.

So then home, and yummy noodles from down the street and now blog and bed. Tomorrow I start my second round of clinic shifts at a new hospital doing herbs.

Oh--I forgot to mention, after all the looking for the ticketmaster place that would hopefully get me tickets and lead me to the dance performance I want to see, I found the theater by accident. It was closed, but it's really easy to get to. I figure I'll go back one night when the performance is supposed to be happening and see what's what. The world is funny that way, huh?

So, night! I have to get my smart-rest.

I saw my life on the big screen

This morning I woke up late, and headed to the best massage I have ever had with 2 friends, just down the road. 60 minutes of incredibly skilled Tuina changed my whole physical and mental structure. We then went to a delicious hot pot restaurant, just down the road from our hotel and the Tuina place. Yum! We had fresh lotus root, fresh bamboo shoot, lamb, thinly sliced beef, wood ear mushrooms, noodels, wintermelon, cilantro--probably more things than I can remember. In case you're not familiar with hotpot, it works like this. You and some friends get one giant pot of soup broth on a burner in the middle of your table. You order a bunch of fresh ingredients and add slowly by slowly the things you want in your soup. Wait till it cooks, and eat! It was some of the best food I've had here in China, and hope to go back soon. It's really great wintertime rainy food, and I bet it'd be easy enough to build a hotpot burner into a kitchen countertop. Hmmmmmm...

Then I went and did a little shopping for a special teacup, and headed home to plan for the rest of the day. I was going to go to the Confucius temple, but was feeling whiny and grumpy, and not so much like being in the rain that visited Nanjing today. So, I did some research and found a dance troup in Nanjing that I would love to see. Apparently they perform every night at the "Apollo Theater" (wow, really?). But, try as I might, I couldn't find an address or even a street name for the theater. I did find some vague directions to the ticketmaster office, and decided to give that a try. I figured, if I couldn't find tickets to the show, I'd go to the movie theater in the giant mall nearby, and if I couldn't go to the movie's I knew where there was a Starbucks, so if all else failed I brought my book so I could sit and vortex to America.

I got on the bus to XinJieKou station, where the mall and the ticketmaster place was supposed to be. I wasn't sure how I'd find the office, but I gave it a shot.
This is the address I had: Room e3, L7, #90, Huatai Securities Building, Zhongshan East road.

Ok. Now, which is the street address? #90? and what were the chances that there would be a big sign that said in English "Huatai Securities Building".
If there was one, I missed it. I ended up in the Nanjing International building, on various floors filled with medical offices, rooms under construction and english language schools. No ticketmaster.
Considering that "Zhongshan East rd" actually heads south, I don't think I'm too down on myself for giving up for the day.

After I wandered around looking for about an hour, I decided to give up the dance performance for the evening and give the movies a shot.
I made it to the 7th floor of the mall, and came to find that none of the movie titles at the "International Theater" were listen in pinyin, nevermind English. sigh. I wandered around for a while looking at movie posters and playing with various interactive machines, hoping for a sign that looked moderately recognizable to guide me to the right movie selection. I was just about to give up and go to starbucks, when I decided I might as well give buying a ticket to a random movie a shot. As it turned out, the ticket lady spoke a little English--yay!---and was able to help me get to a movie.
sidenote: It really stinks not being able to speak the language, really really really.

I ended up seeing a movie that started in 20 minutes, with subtitles in english! It was the perfect end to the day. I saw "Painted Skin" or "Wa Pei". It was a really random movie, based on a Chinese classic story. A little kung-fu, a little mystery, a little romance, a little horror, a little comedy, a little buffy the vampire slayer, a little fantasy, and a little weird, and I don't think it was just the poor translation of the subtitles. Apparently it's one of the author's series of stories that are about fox spirits. Ok.
I was just happy to be in a theater being entertained and out of the rain for a few hours. I might go back and pick another movie just based on start time, it's not something I'd do in the states and is kind of fun.

Ironically on the way home, I saw a bus-stop sign for Huatai Securities---I might go back tomorrow and wander around some more if it's not raining. There's some good silly clothes shops in the area, and at least I'd be by the starbucks once the throngs of people bumping into me got tiresome.

I'm doing my best to watch the debates over the internet and they keep skipping, so I might study some Korean instead. I'm determined to learn a bit more Korean before I move there than I knew Chinese before coming here.

Some pictures to entice you...

My meta-vacation. Or, I might be a Doctor, but I play an actress on T.V.

My trip in China is sort of like a vacation, despite the clinic time, but within that the whole country goes on vacation, so I did too. The first part of it was spent at Yellow Mountain, which you can read about in the previous posts, but now I am in the middle of 5 days off I had after that, before I go back to clinic on Monday (new Dr, different hospital). The day after HuangShan, I did nothing---I spent the day in my room editing photos, reading, listening to music, talking on Skype, napping and cooking food in my rice cooker. It was wonderful. That day was Erica's birthday, so a lot of us went out that night for dinner at a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant just down the street from "home". It was delicious, and not full of meat and MSG. Yay! I went there again tonight, actually. Dinner was good, and then we went to the Jazz bar again and had a couple drinks and met some other travelers. Most of them were teachers--English, Social Studies, etc, and were actually having their own get together. We actually even met a guy from Portland! I'd heard that this place we tried to go to earlier in the trip, as well as earlier in the evening, actually had good entertainment after 9:30. Ok, I'll be honest, I actually heard they had pole dancing transvestites---so--- a bunch of us decided to check that out, but can you blame us? China? Transvestites? Pole Dancing? We had to see. While there was a disapointing lack of transvestites, there was a little bit of cabaret like pole dancing, and some of the strangest variety show acts I have ever seen. They also gave us little plastic clappers shaped like hands, which were probably the highlight of my evening. It started with some high pitched singing and Chinese flag waving, as well as a hardy joke on us Americans. It was pointed out to me later that we probably deserved it, because we essentially barged in on their celebration during their national holiday week. So much for ignorance. There was some comedy in Chinese that I didn't understand, some really strange fake-violin playing which I took pictures of, some cabaret & pole dancing, and a good magician dressed like Charlie chaplain who did a lot of tricks like balancing things on his nose that you wouldn't think could be balanced there, and smoking a cigarette out of his eye. When they started the comedy in Chinese again, we went next door to the foreigner bar and stopped crashing their party. I didn't last long amoungst all the Brits and New Zealanders, and came home.

The next day I found the post office which was an adventure in itself, and then took a bike ride to the Nanjing Brocade Institute. It took a while to find, in part because I can't speak Chinese, but also because it's behind the Nanjing Massacre memorial, which thousands of people were lined up to see. I may go back there, but I know I'd find it hard to feel that kind of sad around so many tourists. The museum is pretty incredible though. The Nanjing brocade style (cloud, I think) is one of three styles of brocade in China. They had a pretty big collection of replicas of very old silks (like Ming Dynasty), and some fragments, as well as some more "modern" stuff from 1600 and on. I got my own personal tour guide from the guy who speaks English, who also happened to be an acupuncture student. I learned all kinds of things about brocade, the craft and the symbology, and got to see a demonstration in their loom room--which there are pictures of. I wish I could post pictures of the silks, but they are light sensitive and no photos are allowed. I think my favorite thing about art like this is all the symbolism. I learned about various kinds of plants and what they mean, like Reishi mushroom for longevity and peaches for health, chrysanthemum for moral character and lions for high military rank. I also learned that there are some types of brocade that can only be made by hand, and that only one cubic centimeter can be made per day. After seeing the people making it, I believe it. The tour guide showed me the shop, and I almost bought some things, but they were expensive (for China) and I couldn't decide on what to get, so I'll have to go back. After some street snacks and dinner, I went for a massage next door and then to bed. I have to say, while the massage next door isn't the most skilled, it's nice to have your feet rubbed and then tuck in. I hope Korea has pre-bedtime foot rubs for $7.00 too.

Today I went on the longest and funnest "date" of all time with Christine. We started out at Jimmy's, the same foreigner bar we were at the other night, to have pizza and burritos for lunch before Purple Mountain. We ended up staying for a few hours, making friends with a guy from Boston, Simon, and watching the VP debate and ripping on Palin. She's an OK speaker, but the nasal whine coupled with the poor logic and circular talk would put anyone over the edge if they had to listen to it for 4 years. This one New Zealander guy came into the bar while we were watching, and it only took the mere suggestion of him having to listen to her tell him to take the trash out for 4 years to convice him to go for Biden. Not that his vote counts, but he was all for the "hot younger chick" in the beginning.

We eventually made our way to Purple Mountain, where we saw Underwater World. It's like Seaworld but Chinese, and kind of tragic where the mammals are concerned. Afterwards we rode the cable car up to the top, got lost around the scenic area and eventually ran into some statues and pagodas. I took some pictures, so take a look!

We tend to make Chinese friends wherever we go who can speak about as much English as we can Chinese, but who really like to take our picture without asking. We just started telling them we were famous movie stars in the US. I'm not sure anyone believed us, but I'm also not sure they understood what we were saying. If anyone asks, I'm Nicole Kidman.

We had an adventure getting off the mountain, and rewarded ourselves with veggie buddhist dinner. Now its back at the hotel, and off to shower and bed for massage in the morning. It's hard being so famous in China!

Yellow Mountain

These small gods are crass and noisy
inconsiderate of anything but their own time and space
which is how they declare their power among the magnificence.

They have already conquered this mountain, once sacred
through cables and stairways, hotels and marble
plastic bottles of sweet tea and bottles of beer.

There's no need to give thanks to something you own.

They do not seem humbled by their blessings as they
spit and yell
following the news on the radio
and listening to pop on their cell phones.

But however omnipotent they feel
they cannot help but give their blessings
through their sweat, or spit, or breath.
Eventually humbled by fatigue,
every one has to sit and rest and
quietly give up to the beauty around them.

Huang Shan etc

The night before last I returned from Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain), back to Nanjing. The trip was something else, and the mountain was spectacular. I took over 700 pictures, and am still in the process of editing them. The pictures will probably do more justice than my writing about it would, but I can try. This should be the link to the photo set of the pictures of the mountain. The initial ascent was probably close to 5,000-6,000 steps up, and over the course of the weekend we estimated that we probably took over 10,000 steps. For all you PNW hikers, I do not mean footsteps, I mean stairs. The mountain has staircases built into it's sides, making the climb not only easier, but possible in some places. It was the first time, I think, that I've been on a mountain that had not ever been a volcano, which was an interesting realization the second morning at the top. Both mornings I got up early to see the sunrise, which was lovely as we were above the clouds, but honestly nothing more incredible than I have seen over the bay in Port Washington. What was remarkable though were the thousands of other people up for the sunrise, clamoring for the best spot to see the show, and the laughing and cheering that ensued as the sun showed it's bright face through the clouds. I guess if you live in Shanghai or Seoul, you wouldn't get to see that much. The scenery was all around gorgeous, and seeing the mountains lit up and colored by the sun this way was certainly special. It was nice, too, to get out of the city and breathe some fresh air. As much as I am a city person, Nanjing can be a little intense. While I climbed up the mountain, and hiked around the days I was there, I decided to take the cable car down and save my knees which were a little achy. Since we had to carry up all our stuff for the weekend, my back was thanking me too by the end of the day. The cable car was it's own adventure, and while well regulated, I don't know that it would ever feel safe riding a box attached to a thick string so many feet in the air over forested granite. Luckily I was in a car with three other people, and my little freakout didn't last too long.

As for the hike itself, I'm finding it really difficult to describe. It was hard, and steep, and sweaty. The mantra is that when you hike, you hike, and when you look at the beauty, look at the beauty--otherwise you might fall off the mountain. This is very true in some places for sure. There were hundreds of porters we saw walking up and down the stairs, carrying loads of various things on their backs--from steel plates to huge bundles of plastic to canisters of propane. We stayed in two hotels at the top for the 2 nights we were there, and the enormity of the buildings, with the fancy marble (or faux marble) floors and counters was humbling when I realized how all the materials had to get up the mountain. We asked our guide, Hu, if they really carried everything up and he kept insisting that they did, piece by piece. Knowing this, and the insane amount of work that must have gone into carving and building all the steps was really humbling--in addition to being among rocks larger than I have ever seen. Despite all this, somehow the other tourists, mostly Chinese, were still really crass, spitting and yelling and playing their radios and talking on their cell phones. I'm surprised more people don't get hurt on that mountain considering all the distraction. There's a small poem in the works about it, because this might have been the most remarkable human related part of the hike.
Ok, since pictures are worth 1000 words, I'm going to do some more work on editing my photos so I can get them up. More later about the rest of the trip, and my adventures today.

Language, culture and anonymity, a jumble of ideas and feelings

I had my first feelings of "oh, i'm going to miss this when I leave" about China. It is difficult to be here, and taxing, and frustrating, and a sort of silent erosion of energy as my head tries to take in so much, but there is something really wonderful about it too. Because I (we) look so different, there is something kind of anonymous about being here. On the one hand, everyone stares with either curiousity or disgust, or on the other completely ignores us as they do everything else. It is very much a big city culture in the way that no one looks to the side or behind them when traveling, only concerned with moving forward, in both actual and metaphorical ways. Not being able to fully understand the language also helps with this, because then I can only be concerned with what I'm doing and where I'm going out of an ignorance that I'm not used to. But, on the other hand, and China is full of these Fiddler on the Roof-a la-Tevye moments, there is a lot that can be and is communicated completely without language, as long as I keep an open mind and open eyes. It helps too that I'm learning more and more every day, even just about the tones in which people communicate different things. I find that if I look at and pay close attention to what someone is trying to tell me, I can mostly understand their meaning though their actual words hold no symbology for me. Surprisingly too, the small education I have in Chinese language (Mandarin) through OCOM has served me well, as I can communicate (in a serious american accent no matter how hard I try) things like colors and sometimes foods, and since coming I have learned my numbers, and several ways to say things like "yes, no, that is correct, good, hello, goodbye, please take me to..., pain, soreness and no pain", all handy things when you are needling people in a foreign language. But in trying to understand what is being said and what is happening around me, my brain is in complete overdrive and it's hard to relax without sleeping, if that makes sense. Once I stop, I completely stop, but even my dreams are vivid. Hearing well-spoken english is probably one of the most comforting things that will happen during my day, as much as I hate to admit it. Right now for example, I have the only english TV channel on even though they've been discussing the launch of the 3rd Chinese space mission (the first one where they will leave the ship and walk on the moon--I assume it's the moon) for about 2 hours now and I kind of hate the glow of the television.
But even so, there is a certain amount of settling in that is happening that makes me excited about my next trip to S. Korea. There, I am excited to learn the language for real and become accustomed to people, places and things, all those nouns that can make you feel as if you are at home.

Tomorrow is our last day at the clinic and with the Dr. we have been at for 2 weeks (it's been 2 weeks already!?!). Then it is on to HuangShan (Yellow Mountain) for 3 nights and 4 days, and then 5 days off during which I'll stay in Nanjing and explore some more of the city.

Last night a couple friends and I took a small trip to the Confucious temple and the Fuzimiao market, where haggling is more fun than the shopping. I got a beautiful "successful acupuncturist" jacket, as Christine calls it, and a wall scroll of Kuan Yin. We didn't go into the temple because it was a little late, but I plan on going back to go inside the temple as well as take a boat ride on the Qinhua river.

Alright, thanks for reading my ramble if you got this far. I'm excited to go home and understand more of what's going on around me, and see all you lovely people.

Playing hookey and the Yangtze river

I have been feeling pretty exhausted, and after feeling like my throat was starting to swell last night I decided to take a day off and sleep in. It was delicious, and though I'm sad to have missed a precious day of clinic in China, feel a lot better about going the rest of the week. So, about 1pm, after a leisurely morning I decided to do something with myself. After hunting down both an English and Chinese map of Nanjing, I made my way via bus numbers 18 and 117 to the Yangtze river bridge park. Despite being incredibly windy and humid at the same time, it was a lovely day, and the river was peaceful and settling for my spirit, despite the thousands of cars, mopeds, bikes, trains and people crossing it. I would say it's something akin to the Brooklyn bridge in size, but perhaps more important. Apparently, due to the width of the Yangtze as well as the turbulence of the water and the enormous amount of silt the river carries, the bridge was declared unbuildable by many engineers at the time. But build it they did, and now the bridge connects Shanghai to Beijing, as well as the two sides of Nanjing. It really was pretty awe inspiring. There were beautiful parks surrounding it, where families and groups of older men gathered to spend some time, play cards and music and hang out with their cute and funny looking chinese dogs. While getting there was an indirect bus route adventure, my transit skills came out in full force and I made it there and back with no problem. I think I felt better about the trip because I was alone, and didn't have to take other people's tired feet or anxiety about the bus into account. I figured, if I got lost, I got lost, and I know how to tell a cab driver to take me back to the hotel. I went through some new parts of town that I'm excited to explore, and found a new temple and garden that I plan to visit after I get back from Yellow Mountain next tuesday or wednesday. After getting home, I used my rice cooker to cook rice for the first time, and had a small dinner that made my belly feel good instead of slightly bloated and ill. yay! Tomorrow it's back to clinic in the a.m. and a lecture in the afternoon, and some shopping in the evening for acupuncture related things as well as some fun stuff at the fuzimiao market by the Confucious temple.

Well, once again my photo uploader isn't working for this blog, so make sure to check out the flickr page (link to the right) for photos. I've organized everything into sets under a collection, so it's a little easier to navigate.

Oh! Ok, here are the two pictures I managed to upload for you, I think the one on the left might be my favorite of today.