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.