he's sitting on the window sill now, staring out at mom's trees, his little nose zestfully wriggling.

our adventure started on tuesday. i was up at 5am to take christian to the airport at to drop him (and my two packed bags) off at the airport. then i returned to the apt. to clean and get things sorted. around 4pm, i waved goodbye to XISU, hugged chris, john, and andrew, who gathered to walk me to fetch a taxi, and drove down chang'an lu. louie and i had our bus at 5:30. we got checked in at the bus station, no problem, and went out to see if we could board. we found the bus and straight away i had an argument with the driver about whether or not i could have the cat with me. he wanted to put louie in the cargo hold under the bus. "不是!" i yelled, "不是!" (bu shi = not to be/dont want). he relented and told us to come back at 5. so we hung out in the crowded parking lot, crouched in the shade. everyone stared. we climbed aboard a little after 5 and tried to get settled. the "seat" on a sleeper bus is akin to the backseat of a compact car sloped up like a chaise lounge. there is a cubby hole beneath one's head space for shoes (no shoes allowed on board), and a foot hold for personal items and, er, one's feet. it is not a spacious venue. i put my shoes, louie's water dish, and his quasi litter box (a tupperware box with snappable lid) in my cubby, my camera by my feet, and my knitting/cat supplies/food bag squashed next to my legs. louie's carrier was on my lap. and that's how we remained for 16 hours. we got into beijing around 8:20. louie was protesting for the majority of the trip. loudly. it was a hellish experience and i did not get much sleep at all. it was odd on the bus. unlike my yunnan sleeper experience, this time there were two women on the bus who spoke a little english. they were nice but sadly sitting next to me. early in the trip, one of the women said, "you cannot take your pet on the train so you have no choice. you must take the bus," and i agreed and apologized for the kitty. we made a brief pit stop around 8:30pm and the nice lady watched louie while i used the trough (bathroom). louie had been quietly protesting until then. he was clearly upset, but the night was young. on the bus, our entertainment was a horrible variety show followed by some karaoke videos and horrible action movies. i tried to tune them out but found it to be impossible. while i was sitting by the window, and could avoid looking to the center aisle where the screens were mounted, the image reflected perfectly on the glass. even if i tried to look outside, i saw the television. plus it was loud. as the night went on, louie's mrwwws continued, growing louder and angrier. he was even banging his body against the sides of his carrier looking for a weak spot or a way to break out. he stuck his little paws out the cage front and gave some furious tugs as if to break out. and all the while, he was giving me a Death Glare. i tried to reason with him, soothe him, pet him... but he wanted none of that. sometime in the night, a man decided to get out of his bed and sleep on the floor next to me. why? i'm guessing he wanted to be close to his friend. i have no idea. but he blocked my cubby. at one point, louie's howls became high pitched and urgent. i had to wake up the guy to get him to move so i could get into my cubby and get the litter. he wasnt happy about it, and there wasnt much room. but c'mon, fella, you decided to sleep on the floor. i mean... really. i got the tupperware into his box just in time. poor guy really had to go. i snapped back on the lid, which thankfully muffled the smell of cat poo, and put the box back in the cubby. louie calmed down a little, and i think i got some sleep at this point. but not for long. he finally ran out of steam around 7:30am and, while i was delighted to get off the bus, had a difficult time waking up. i had just settled into a beautiful sleep when we arrived at 8:20. i called christian and oliver and let them know we had arrived and hailed a taxi. he wanted to put louie in the trunk of the car. 不是! it was a long taxi ride and we got to oliver's house a little after 9. during our jaunt, the cat continued to announce his displeasure. this annoyed the taxi driver who was so happy to drop me off. we set the cat up in oliver's sun room and gave him wet food AND tuna. after scarfing down his culinary treats, he sulked and reminded me that he was Really Pissed Off. christian looked at me and i burst into tears. i had tried to hold off collapsing but i was a wreck. my body ached from having the carrier on my legs for so long, and i was completely worn out from trying to unsuccessfully assuage the cat. i slept for an hour and then the swede called. his work hours are strange so i had to wake up to visit with him because who knows when i'll have the chance to see him again. we visited him for a while, had lunch, and went back to oliver's place. another friend of oliver's was staying at the apt. as well so it kind of strange. the guy was not...really friendly. i tried to repack my bags. one of the bags was deemed overweight at the xi'an airport, so i crammed some heavier items into my backpack. i was hoping to avoid overweight charges. i hung out with the kitty, who finally decided to take a nap, and told him that i was sorry for the suckage but soon it would all be over. i was not looking forward to the flight. i was thinking if it was anything how the bus ride was, i was going to lose it. christian and i went out for a beer. we didnt necessarily want beer but we wanted to be out of the apt. or at least have some space. we sat outside and people watched until oliver joined us for dinner. the friend also joined us. i had tried to suggest to oliver to take him out to a nice dinner, since it was my last night in china (for now), but he was stressed about work and the message didnt get through. i guess he thought i was staying another night. i didnt have the energy to counter when he suggested we just stay at the street food place. some street food is the Best Ever. but my noodles were rather unsatisfying. and the conversation equally so. oliver has been having a rough go since he and lin broke up. and his apt. is falling to pieces too. no light in the bathroom, hot water is broken... there was no relaxing hot shower for me. and, while i wasnt expecting a parade, i didnt feel as though there was a great deal of warmth extended. i know oliver is stressed with work and such. but....

christian and i left. not too soon after, jason and oliver returned to the apt. as well and stayed up. they were loud. i didnt get much sleep. i was terribly sad. while i am done with china in many ways, at least for now, i still love the place. and i will miss it terribly.

the next morning, oliver asked how i was, and i replied "well, i'm breathing." oh, he replied, how melodramatic of you. i starting assembling my things and he acted surprised. "you leave today?!" yes, oliver, yes. "oh... wow, well i guess last night was not a great night for you... i'm sorry" i said it was fine and continued to get ready. oliver is not a cat fan. but he said that louie was awesome. and even held him in his lap! he left for work and christian and i left for the airport.

things went rather smoothly at the airport at first. i had to buy another carrier for louie, and then had to pay an extra fee to have his old one checked, plus i had to pay overweight charges on both bags (how? i know not. each bag was 2K over. we knew the bag i had rearranged was over in xi'an cuz i had to pay an overweight fee on tuesday morning. but the woman had checked the other one through so i thought it was ok. oliver didnt have a scale but we guesstimated and thought both bags were the same weight. so i can at least say our estimation skills were dead on).

christian and i parted and louie and i took the airport subway to our gate. poor lil guy almost got squashed by the people as they crammed into the car. "cat!" i called out in chinese. i was weighed down by my camera bag, laptop bag, backpack, cat supply bag, and cat carrier. louie and i waited in the immigration queue for ages. we finally got through and approached security. first thing, the security guy tried to put louie through the xray! machine. i screamed out and leapt for the bag. this is my CAT. he does NOT go through there. he is ALIVE. in my broken chinese this came out, "cat dead bad." i shoved louie past the metal detector and xray machine. the guy tried to grab him and i turned and gave him a solid look. he retracted. i got my pat down (in china, they pat down everyone though you dont have to take off your shoes like in the US), repacked my computer, and started to get my things arranged on my body. the guy who tried to put louie through the machine had my cat supply bag open. "what's this?" he asked and poked at the kitty litter. he asked me to eat it. i balked. i said, in chinese, "cat bathroom." he looked confused and asked me to eat it again. i then pantomimed cat bathroom behaviour. "oh," he said, "ok" and let me through. then we got led to the special pet heath inspection place. i got hung up there for quite some time. we were waiting for a guy to arrive and sign some papers. the people there were nice enough. i introduced them to louie and we made small talk. i asked how many cats go through. "well," said the lady, "today there have been 4!" it was then that i noticed what time it was. my flight started to board at 11:15. the flight was scheduled to leave at 12. it was nearing 11:35. i said something to one of the guys there. "um, my flight is leaving soon...?" don't worry, they said. when he gets here, he'll walk you and your cat to the gate. he arrived and signed the papers and told me to follow him. he took off and was way ahead of me. i also noticed he was not walking towards the gate. but, i thought, maybe louie and i have to go through some other thing...? maybe there's more to come...? we circled around and were back at the front of security. i called out to the guy. HEY. he turned and was shocked to see me. he said "i told you to go!" no, i said. you told me to follow you. and my flight is leaving. they made me go through security again. all the while i kept saying, "i already did this! he made me follow him! my flight is leaving! call someone, do something, please!" and then i burst into tears. the pat-down lady tried to calm me down but i was having a meltdown. the guy who told me to follow him grabbed louie and the kitty supply bag and ran to the gate. they let me through. i started down the ramp tube and there was another station set up for security. and they went through my things. again. i finally got on the plane. i was not there long when we started to taxi.

louie was amazing on the flight. he mrrowwed a little, but not much at all. the screaming baby was much louder. he slept most of the way. i like the zipper on his new carrier because it made it easier to scritch his head. it was also easier to give him water. the flight attendant gave me two cups of water--one for me and one for him. i wouldnt say louie was happy, but he was, thankfully, calm. i think he was too exhausted to protest. but still, i didnt really sleep on the flight. the lady next to me was nice. she had lived in china for a year and so we swapped some stories. she was an older woman, about 70. she thought louie was just beautiful. i kept talking with him and petting him. i was pleased with how he was and unpleased with how the morning went. and i was nervous about how things were going to go in san francisco. we landed, i got all my bags plus his old carrier (which someone had labeled NO CAT), and we headed towards customs. louie was wide awake at this point. the whole time we were waiting for my bags to appear, he was full of conversation. he's quite a chatty guy. i kept calling him my little immigrant. we got to the customs area and i had his papers ready. three big men approached and turned into squishy greeters as they bent down to louie and said "oh kittyKITTYkitty! oh!" and made funny squashy noises at him. it was hilarious. they let us through....

and i sighed a huge sigh and just started to laugh. i continued to talk with louie as we walked down the corridor. "my little immigrant! you've got a kitty green card!" i told him about the short car ride and that everything would be alright soon and that he was so good and we were almost there.

i was expecting my mom to fetch me and was shocked, SHOCKED! when the doors opened and instead of my mom was another face i knew very well. LAURA! she picked me up and swung me around and i just laughed and called her an asshole. she and my mom had been planning this for weeks. it was a delightful surprise. he was a good boy in laura's truck. i know she was so excited to see him as well. we got home and mom gave him some wet food and water and a shiny new cat box. PLUS a new scratcher toy. he is a happy guy.

and now things are great.

and holy wow. im in the US of A.

with a CAT.

we're here and safe and full of stories.

it's amzing how painfully long a simple 16 hour trip can be. but louie and i have succesfully arrived in beijing. so tired, we are. so tired. i had a long day before i even climbed on board the bus.

but we are here. got here this morning. and, after a few cups of coffee and a short nap, and a lovely lunch, and then more coffee, i feel almost human.

louie is Pissed Off.

but he got tuna and wet food. so really. he's going to america. realising the american dream.

lucky lil twirp.

he'll thank me someday.

i took photos along the way--in the taxi, in the bus. will take more tmorrow. will post them when we're in america. my flight leaves tmorrow at noon. i arrive tmorrow morning at 9am. oh, international date line, how you will mess with my head.

thankfully the flight is shorter than the bus ride. and maybe louie will realise there's no point in screaming and he might as well sleep. maybe.

im just glad we're safe. christian also arrived safe, and so did my luggage.

i think it's time for a beer.

im taking a moment with a cup of coffee and some swiss chocolate before i become a whirlwind and spin for the next few days. i was supposed to leave yesterday. didnt happen--louie's paperwork wasnt processed like it should have been. in theory, i should have had it over a week ago. but i didnt. and due to cultural nuances. for example, kat, the woman who was helping me with the cat was supposed to pick up the papers for me when the gov't people called. they didnt call. and she didnt try and contact them. i called her when we got back from shanghai and asked if the papers had come in. no, she replied. well, i said, what did they say when you called? oh, i didnt call them. err... i mean, ususally when one is expecting an important phone call and said party doesnt call, shouldnt one call them? she said, i will call them first thing on monday. i knew right then i would be postponed. and i was trying to think of solutions of what to do with louie just in case. i said to her, i am going to beijing on monday. she said "and when are you coming back from beijing? uuuh... im leaving the country on thursday? the whole reason why im having to do all this cat business? *forehead smack*

christian and i had already arranged his flight to arrive tuesday morning, coordinating with the arrival of my bus. so he's off to beijing already this morning. me, well, i'm leaving this late afternoon and will arrive in beijing tmorrow morning. he is staying with my friend oliver and i'll catch up with them in about 24 hours. im thankful we left a time cushion. things went smoothly for christian at the airport. we didnt have to pay for the extra bag! however, we did have to pay for excess weight for one of the bags. oops. it wasnt too bad. 500Y. could be worse.

yesterday was a hellava day which is why im so tired. i crashed hard last night, and pretty early too, but all this added stress has made for anxiety dreams which means i dont get the rest i need.

the morning went fine. i cleaned the apt. and made sure things here were in order. i have some misc. stuff to deliver to christian's apartment, like my linens and towels and things, but am otherwise pretty well squared away. we met with chris and john for lunch, stopped by homeclub for some last minute items (treats for the cat, spices for me, a tupperware box to serve as a mock litter box during the journey). kat called and said the paperwork was finished but, because this is china, we had to wait until 2 to take care of it. she texted me the address of the place and we got a taxi and set out. but the taxi didnt take us to the front of the place so i didnt recognize area. i thought we were in the wrong spot and was quite confused. we got anotehr taxi, called a friend, and got driven around the block. pathetic. when i expressed to the first taxi guy, hey, is this it? why didnt he say, sure thing lady, just walk down past this building and you'll see your destination. bah. then we had to find the cat-lady. no problem. they gave us the papers and a smile and i relaxed a little. next stop was the long-distance bus station. well, one of them. xian has three. we went to the one by the train station which we thought was The Place to Go. it took us a while to find it too. we knew it was "across" from the train station. so after some wandering around, we found it. it seemed like a small station and we didnt see a ticket kiosk. we found some men in a room so we asked them and were told there is no bus to beijing from xian. i know this is not true. in china, it's better to give some sort of excuse rather than just admit you dont know something. more wandering. i called my friend tony. he popped on-line and found the information i had desperately tried to find (in english) with ease (in chinese). while on the phone with tony, i had a lovely view of a young kid shitting into a plastic bag on the street. my thoughts? well, at least he was using a plastic bag. tony was able to tell me when the bus left and everything. so i was confident.

it was taxi shift change time. why do all the taxi's have to run on the same shift cycle? so frustrating. it was a struggle and we finally got a cab. we had just settled ito the seat and relaxed, thinking, yes, finally, all is good... when the driver pointed. the other bus station was just across the freeway. again, why dindt someone just tell us that?! we could have walked.

we found the ticket kiosk, and got my ticket. no problems. i said, i'll have a cat with me, and the lady smiled and laughed. i hope that means, sure! ok! no problem!

we went to find a taxi home and, because it was shift change time, had a hard time. sometimes they dont put up the shift change sign so you pop into a taxi only to be chased out. we flopped into a car and the driver shooed us out. i stepped out of the cab and was hit by another. he got me on the hip. not bad though. but now i can say i was hit by a taxi. im not hurt. it was just scary. it was more like a gentle nudge. but the sound scared christian. it did make a lovely THWUAMP sound.

we got home and met with andrew to move my washer into his place. then we had dinner. and then collapsed.

the day before, it rained. but yesterday was hot. the rain was a bit bothersome, although it felt wonderful, because that was the day i took my boxes to the post office. i had planned on going the day before but also encountered a bit of a problem. they had sold me the wrong boxes. only certain boxes can go abroad--the white boxes--and they had sold me a brown domestic box. so new boxes had to be purchased and everything had to be repacked. woke up ready to march down to the post and it was raining. blargh. it took a while, but all was taken care of. 2000Y to send 5 boxes on the slow boat. not bad.

and now i should continue to clean and make sure everything is organized. i also need to give my little immigrant some hugs. he's wondering what the hell is happening to the world around him. im wondering if he's remembering what happened last time his human started moving things....

but this time, he wont be abandoned.



oh, xi'an, i'll miss you.

we're back from shanghai! and we almost got to see the eclipse too as our flight was delayed for 5 hours. hahaha... we got home at 4:30am. were supposed to be home by 11.



they tried to make us happy be feeding us pineapple cakes and water:


it was cold and they had no blankets. we finally got to board the plane around 11, i think.

and then, once on the plane, they fed us snacks straight away. one knows one is in trouble when they do that.



we entertained ourselves in the airport by watching a "rap" on the pig flu. for hours.




...and these last few days, i've been SERIOUS about packing. almost done. small snaffoos, but all is well now.

and monday night, louie and i shall take the night bus to beijing...

a few nights after the riots, i went to my favourite xinjiang restaurant.

ive been hanging out here in my apt. for a few days trying to get things done. one corner of the living room is stacked with Things i am Not Taking with Me (there's a please-dont-reinvent-the-wheel box for the new humboldt college writing teacher, who has yet to write me back [though i have written him several times. you'd think he would want to know what i have to say...? i did help design the pgram], and lots of random stuff for the 3 new humboldt teachers who are coming) and another corner is stacked with boxes and suitcases and stuff that Needs To Go Home. save the kitchen and the bathroom, both stocked with things not coming with me (mostly; i am keeping a few of my coffee mugs and some of my toiletries are returning with me), im more or less sorted. now comes the deciding what to ship and what to take with part. obviously, the cat is coming with. har har har. he's been watching me pack with keen interest. when he's not sleeping.

we went to the vet last week. i LOVE how pissed he is at me (i hate you so hard):


he was SO GOOD. and he was fine in his carrier too. he loves his carrier.

( cat and pagoda adventures )
today im going to see:


and remember kids, there's no such thing as a free lunch, but there is free luggage!:

ive narrowed down thousands of pictures to a hundred pictures to 20 pictures.


im going to make some print to frame.

some of these i want to be large, even poster sized.

and maybe when i get home, i can commission to have prints done for a show at art's alive or something...?

i havent been to the muslim quarter in a while... but it's one of my favourite places in the city. i took christian there today only to discover that... it wasn't there. i mean, it's THERE, but it wasn't there. why? construction. we arrived and went to turn down the usual ally way leading into the shops and met a funny sign instead:



so we walked down the main road and turned down the other side street. that half was there. although my usual snack people were gone. this was not cool because i was hungry. there were still lots of other snack people, but i like my snack people. who have my favourite snacks. sad! one of my favourite muslim quarter snacks is a fried bread thingy stuffed with greens and egg. so greasily good. there's another snack that tastes just like the inside of a butterfinger. my tea lady was still there, thankfully, and we kept walking down the street. we turned into the other usual allyway and things were fine. things were under construction, but still... still. we got to the great mosque and, where there are usually shops, nothing. this is what we saw:



my usual shops are all on the half of the allys that arent there. i was so disappointed. we had made the trip mostly to buy some art from my favourite guy, professor ding. i had told christian all about him, and was so excited to show him professor ding's shop. professor ding does amazing wood block prints. it's different than the standard ubiquitous chinese art.

i was so distraught i didnt even want to purchase any schlock (you can get almost anything at the muslim quarter.). i was there for art. and my usual people--the people i have bought treasures from over the years--were just gone. i'll go again. i promised josh a mao watch, after all. and at least next time, i'll be prepared. china is like this. things happen so fast. restaurants change all the time. one can never expect something to be there. but the muslim quarter!?







ive got my last month nearly arranged. christian is leaving soon for traveling with his family. they'll come through xi'an for a few days, so i'll probably go out to see the terra cotta doods one last time. i hear they have some new ones, recently unearthed.

i'll spend some time packing up my beloved apartment. Chris and John and Oliver will all be stopping by xi'an and i'll have a chance to see them one last time on our old stomping ground.

i'll then fly to meet christian in shanghai. there i hope to meet with Humboldtian 1.0 Claire, freshly graduated from HSU. christian would love to see hangzhou, and since it's close to shanghai, i'm returning there with him for a day or two. then we're off to Xiamen. we'll return to xi'an and i'll cover the city with kisses and then louie and i will take a sleeper bus to beijing. christian is a kind person and is flying to beijing with my bags so i dont have to try and wrestle with too much on the bus journey. we'll meet up and stay with oliver, harass the swede, and the next thing i know, i'll be on my way to california.

last night we met up with tony mu, the panda pimp. we watched him play some basketball and then went to the Good Dofu Place for dinner.


louie, thankfully, likes his pet carrier. he's been playing in it on his own volition. i still need to get him shots and certification.


im concerned about how he will be during our travels. i cant exactly go down to Fin and Feather (or < enter name of favourite local pet shop here >) and fetch him some kitty happy pills, so i just hope that things work out. if anyone has any tips about how to sedate a cat, it would be appreciated. vets here can be sketchy. one of my friends tried to get a sedative for her cat* but the dose was too much and her cat almost died. scary.

this week i give finals. and then... FIN!

right now im going to finish writing a final and bake some banana bread.

*this is my friend, sati, who was a teacher here last year. she happened to return to china for a visit and helped me get louie his carrier. we tried to get his shots organized at that time, but encountered a great deal of hassle (ma fan) instead. she was kind and wrote out how to say things like, "im taking my cat to america. i need the following things..." i really appreciate her taking time out of her vacation to help me out. im lucky she happened to stop by xi'an. two students from humboldt 1.0 and humboldt 2.0 have offered to help too, so i think things will work out just fine.

it was wonderful to see my old friends, chris and john! chris and john, expats from australia and the US respectively, had returned to australia last winter (er, summer as it were, since they were down under) but struggled to find work what with the economy being what it is and all. so, they decided to return to china, but not xi'an--wild and crazy kids!--because they wanted to try something different. john first came to china 15 years ago, and chris is no stranger to the middle country either, so it seemed a logical choice to return to their other home (australia and the US not withstanding), and to a new city just to be adventurous. they've been in changsha for about a month, so the city is still quite fresh to them. this being the case, divi, christian, and i got to help them explore their new turf. and thus we had a whirlwind of a weekend.



( chang-sha-cha-cha! )
remember kids, if you see a pig, RUN!

we learned from this Public Service Announcement posted at Mao's school:

when you last met your hero, school had started. and laura was here with me.

you'll forgive me if this post is a little disjointed. that's what happens when one is trying to write about 4 months in one go ;)

i took her to the banana temple.


and made her eat pickled garlic.


( adventures: February through the present )

remember kids, make live, not war.


and, kids, no scribbling!


this weekend, we're traveling with divi to visit chris and john in changsha. they had a difficult time landing jobs in australia, so they came back to china. since my goodbye to them was rushed and not really what i wanted (i did, afterall, leave china in a hurry last time), i cannot wait to see these wonderful friends of mine.




*during the fall of 06, i was teaching on the new campus and spied a pagoda (it was a clear day!). the students did not believe me that there was a pagoda near the new campus, even after i pointed out the window and tried to show them where it was. i knew it was out there. so, adam and i went on our annual Thursday Adventure Day to the pagoda and it was fabulous. i returned to class and told the students where i had gone. and i said it wrong. i said xiāngjiāo (香蕉, banana), not xiāng jī (香积, not banana). henceforth, the banana temple was known as the Banana Temple. even the parents of that first batch of disbelieving students now call it thusly.
**the project keeps getting stalled because as they dig, they find cool relics from the past and have to call in the archeologists. andrew wishes he could get in on that action.

hey all...

because of access *cough*cough* ive moved the journal. it's here: http://xianmazing.blogspot.com/

the first week of school ended, for me, in a blanket of white:


and this evening, laura, graham, and i are off to chengdu. PANDAS OR BUST!

laura and i are here! we left mom's house at 3am on monday (USA time) and flopped into my apt. 12:40am on tuesday (china time). that's 30+ hours of travel. but we're here safe and sound and the worst part of the whole trip was my vegetarian "lunch" on the plane: two salads, two bread rolls, and fruit. thankfully i did get a real dinner. still, if that's the only thing to bitch about, that's pretty good, no? our last flight leg was delayed by about a half hour but we had both totally fallen asleep on the plane and didnt even notice we were still driving around. i woke up to hear a stewardess announce they were "sorry for the delay and we would be taking off soon..."

louie is SO happy to have his human back. he was gifted toys and he loves them so far. he's having a good time. right now he's hanging out with me in my lap.



laura's reaction to china thus far? "it's dingy but everything seems well kept!" a fair description...

amelie is meeting us in a little while and we're going to find food and watch laura react to the Outside World.... MU HA HA HA HA...

but we're here and we're safe.

one of the most difficult decisions i have ever made was to move to china.
i didnt want to be so far away.
but i am.
so far away.

im thankful my dad got to see china.
im thankful i got to share my life here with him.



tomorrow i hop on a plane.
i need to be home.
i need to be with my family.

i'll return to china in february.

( inured yet injured )

why do students think teachers are stupid?

and now for some positive! positive! positivity!

about a month ago, amar, mary, and i went on a field trip with some exchange students from HSU. we went to see a small village--a place known for its papercuts--and a temple.

( photos from trip to huxian )

we also had thanksgiving with our darlings. since amar and i are both vegetarians, I made stuffing and gravy so we could enjoy it too. my kitchen smelled like proper thanksgiving. it was glorious. my grammie would have been proud.



the weekend before thanksgiving, the school took us on a trip to Qianling Tomb and Famen Si, both near baoji.

exotic flavor of the foreigner.



the Qianling Tomb is the final resting place for Wu Zetian (武则天), China's only empress. her story is pretty outragious. reminds me of the complexity of british royality (henry VIII, i'm lookin at you!)
( tomb photos )

it was a chilly day out


then we went to Famen Si, home of Shakyamuni's finger bone!

gratuitous incense burning photo:


( at the temple )

what else is new?
louie is cute. oh wait. that's not new.


i got a new coat:


i love jiaozi. oh, that's not new either.


it's cold:


jupiter, venus, and the moon (my view):


and ive been doing yoga weekly with divi and a few other women from our apt. complex for about a month now.

im looking forward to a H O L I D A Y.

soon im traveling to beijing. my passport needs to be renewed. but that doesnt count as a holiday. school is out mid-january.

hope all is well with everyone.




*this student is referring to unfinished work. it's common to see the students scramble to finish an assignment in class.

works cited:
Connor, Ulla. “New directions in contrastive rhetoric.” TESOL Quarterly 36.4(2002): 493-510.

Halloween was fun this year. i was a scary marionette:



mary had a flash of inspiration--she told me of a friend of hers who used to decorate pumpkins with sparkly things. and thus, the bling-a-riffic jack-o-lantern was born. mary wanted to avoid cutting open and gutting pumpkins, so we decided to go this route. i cleaned out the import store of pumpkins (nothing to see here people, just a white lady with 13 pumpkins in the cart, what?) and mary and i went to The World of Decorative Cloth to get things like sequins and straight pins and other doo-dads (buttons, snaps, googly eyes). we figured this would be a hit here in china, home of the shiny.
making jack-o-lanterns (BLINGARIFFIC)


pumpkin pride! clockwise from left: wei, beau, vera and jinna, panjie and yuting,


pumpkin pride! clockwise from left: mary, jinna, weiwei, donna


then we did bobbing for apples. to get enough water, we asked the students to bring in their hot water thermoses.


sword fighting witches:


i put on some halloween music--thriller, the monster mash.... and a good time was had by all. joining us that day were some new students! we're up to 15 now.

adam is sending me a package--lots of goodies in there, including a number of surprises he didnt wish to reveal. he even put in presents for louie!! when louie was a baby, and lisa found him, that was during the glorious three weeks of our friendship when adam and i realised she was nuts but had yet to discover just how nuts she was an that it was not a good kind of crazy. she never named him. adam and i did. he was named for king louie, since we jokingly called ourselves the three musketeers. she always hated that name for him. we thought it was perfect. and it is. suits him very well.

adam sent the package to me via fedex so he could carefully track it. he already had mailed me a different package that somehow wound up in thailand. he didnt wish for that to happen again. following the tracking number, he discovered that it made it as far as beijing but was flagged as... d a n g e r o u s. he was going crazy trying to figure out what was so bad. was it the cranberry sauce? the olives? (amusing side bar, evil olive is one of my favourite palindromes) ...what was so scary, he thought. turns out, it was the CAT TOY he found for louie, decorated with a fleur de lys. quoth adam, "apparently when customs examined it, it went squeak squeak and vibrated. they were not amused" (adam left the batteries in). yes. they were frightened by the cat toy that squeaked. yes, i can see how that's scary at first... but... once the box was opened, clearly a cat toy. i mean really.

the good news is, the package has been sent domestically and i'll get the rest of the goodies.

wow, i have been busy....

and how in the world is it november?! and where did the time go...??

and OH was the election so strange to witness from afar. alas, i never got my ballot. sorry, california. i tried. damn prop. 8....

using the Overseas Vote Foundation, i was able to vote for president and senator. but nothing else.

i tried a new tailor and decided her first project was going to be a chinese-styled shirt. not the most flattering for my figure type, but how could i leave china without one of these? she did alright. i will next attempt to have her copy a shirt and we shall see...

and then some jeans...

louie is with me. im still working on finding him a home before next summer. meanwhile, i do enjoy his company. chris and john are headed back to australia at the end of the term and have told me that ned would like me to adopt him.

i have a lot of stories to share. the water vacation (entries 6-9), halloween, a trip to the countryside, and my most recent adventure, a jaunt to Empress Wu Zetian's tomb, and Fa Men Si (home of buddha's finger bone!!).

i have a huge pile of student papers to read, and more quizzes to grade, and a number of misc. assignments to record in my gradebook, so i will probably write in my journal soon to give myself a break.

haha.

all is well here. i mostly wanted to say hi.

terribly scary, a score in a market in lanzhuo. how could i resist?!



the good news is, school has settled in, we think. we now have 9 students and things are rolling along smoothly. good, good, good.

hopefully i'll catch up on some writing this weekend. we shall see....

sometime this next week, ruhi is having some of us over to see her new apt. im interested in seeing the elevator of her building because, im in it! yup! there's a tobest ad. in her lift! she called because she says she sees me every day... craaazy, eh? oh, china.

and that's the news. ive just returned from chris and john's where we had a lovely game of trivial pursuit. and now, bed time!

...and now that i finally wrote about louie living with someone else...

he's coming back to me! but temporarily. i just got a call from tom. one of his friends, john, has been injured very badly and is in the hospital (it's a long story). tom and cindy are spending most of their time at the hospital with john soooo... i'm taking the lil bugger back :)

my poor plants!! they are just starting to recover... hahaha...

it has gotten very cold as of late. and it's getting dark earlier and earlier every day. i have a feeling winter will be here before we know it.