The Blog is Back

OK, yes, I admit I am way, way behind on the blog.  After numerous people encouraging me to start back up (including Peter Hoe…he’s a big fan) I have decided to repent of my literary sloth and get everyone back up to date on my oh-so-thrilling comings and goings.  Now, catching up on several months at once will be impossible, so I will do my best to hit the highlights since Auckland:

Summer

 While I had planned a very relaxing, low key summer, it didn’t exactly work out that way.  I left it all on the field at work last year between kids, committees and end of year loose-end-tying.  Summer was well deserved.  So I thought I would take it easy.  What really happened was I was on a plane at least every 10 days.  Funny how that happens…

Planes – on 2 of 3 trips, I had flights cancelled overnight.  Fortunately I have friends that like me enough to let me sleep at on their couches in a sprinkling of cities across the USA (thank you Amy and Darik…)

Cities – I spent time in Nashville, Bowling Green, KY, DC, Chicago (stranded over night) Nashville, Salt Lake City, St. Anthony, Idaho, back to Salt Lake City (stranded again overnight), Nashville, and Bethlehem, PA and in 3 days, I visited Pennsylvania, New York State, Vermont, New Hampshire (where I climbed Mt. Washington.  If someone tells you climbing Mt. Washington will be “fun” don’t believe them.  They are either a) delusional or b) lying), Maine, New Hampshire (again)Massachusetts, New York (again), New Jersey and back to Pennsylvania before flying to, you guessed it, Nashville.  If you are tired reading this you can only imagine how much I needed a vacation at the end of my vacation.  So, after flying back to China and losing my luggage in the process, I got on a plane the next day in a typhoon and flew to Phuket, Thailand to recover. 

Food Poisoning – This did not figure in to my plans, but alas, it happened.  Green curry chicken has lost it’s gleam, as 2 days of my body unpleasantly purging of said meal did not a happy person make.  At least I was at an awesome 5 star resort.  Sadly, I was too sick to eat the croissant bread pudding served for breakfast all but one of the days I was there.  Curse the green curry chicken served at “Surin Beach’s best Thai restaurant.”  I beg to differ.  I also met a really unpleasant man at the hotel that literally threw my towel off my chair onto the pool deck when I got in the pool for about 45 seconds.  He broke the leave for 30 minutes and your stuff will be cleared away rule and blamed me for not telepathically knowing that I was in his lounge chair.  Clearly he needed a hug, but I wasn’t about to give him one as I think he may have had rabies or distemper. 

 

Fall

 I don’t really remember much of the fall. It’s kind of a blur.  I came back to China, and fell into my routine of work, Mandarin lessons and going out for dinner on the weekends.  See, my life is really not that exciting.  I spent October break in Singapore with my good friends Amy and Phil.  I went to the night zoo.  I hung out with their awesome kids.  I went out for great sandwiches (hard to find in China) and generally enjoyed living in society where I never had to worry about getting gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe.  I spent the rest of the fall preparing for the visit of my parents to China during the Christmas holiday.

 

Mom and Dad Visit China

 I admit it, I was really nervous about having my mom and dad visit me here in the Middle Kingdom.   They had never travelled overseas before and I was worried that either A) they would get lost on the way here and stuck in an airport somewhere for days B) I would lose them somewhere and they wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone C) they would hate the food and starve for 10 days.  Fortunately none of those things happened.  Mom and Dad loved China.  I dragged them all over Guangzhou.  I took them to the elementary school Christmas program, introduced them to friends, including my Mandarin teacher Kevin, who took us on a tour of the city and introduced them to the many cuisines of Guangzhou.  I managed to break my toe the first Saturday of the break, which probably turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it slowed me down to Mom and Dad speed. 

On Christmas Eve we hopped on a plane and headed to Beijing.  I had not been to Beijing before (fortunately we got there before the black cloud of doom that hit this January) and were picked up at the airport by Charlie, the most wonderful driver ever.  He took us to our B&B in a hutong area inside the second ring road.  Cindy, our B&B host provided us with a map and several useful hints.  That was great.  We decided, even though mom was skeptical, to go out for Peking duck.  This was a great plan.  If only I could read a map.  If only my dad could read a map.  We wandered around the neighborhood for about an hour in 15 degree (Fahrenheit) weather trying to find the right road.  We finally found the duck, and it was delicious, but all of us had lost the feeling in our extremities by then.

However, as I was destined not to feel my feet for the next several days, it didn’t really matter.  We traveled to the Great Wall on Christmas Day.  It was  5 degrees.  And while it was beautiful covered in snow and ice, I am a creature of the tropics, or at the very least a creature of the sub-tropics.  It was really cold.  I warmed up a bit when we got back to Beijing for foot massages.  I had to tell the massage guy that my toe was broken, which I was able to do in Mandarin.   I chatted a bit with the entire foot massaging crew and when I told them I lived in Guangzhou, one of the guys made the comment that he then realized why I spoke like someone from the south.  So, while 20 years of Florida didn’t give me a southern accent, I certainly speak Mandarin with a twang.  I’m kind of proud of that. 

We hit the rest of the sights in Beijing including but not limited to the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace (visit in the summer, winter is too cold), Tiananmen Square, Houhai, 798 – a fun neighborhood of galleries and shops, the Bird’s Nest, the Lamma Temple, the pearl market and a bunch of other stuff that Charlie, the best driver in Beijing, took us to see.  It was a great trip.  So great in fact, that Mom and Dad decided to stay an extra day.  Well, Mother Nature and United dictated that they stay an extra day.  I really enjoyed having them visit and I am glad that they were able to see that life in China is pretty good and that I don’t live under a bridge or anything. 

 

Ho Chi Minh City

I left Beijing and traveled to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon , for the last week of winter break.  I was able to thaw out, which was wonderful, and to spend time with my friend Andrea, who flew over from Kuala Lumpur.  We ate great food, saw lots of museums and I bought a quilt.  I have been kicking myself for the last year for not buying a quilt from Mekong Quilts when I was in Hanoi last year.  It’s a community development project for women and allows them to generate an income by teaching them to make quilts.  The one I bought is stunning.   Hand stitched, meticulous detail. I probably would have paid 5 times the price had I bought it in the US.   And it’s super warm.  I have not been a popsicle this winter, largely thanks to my beautiful quilt (and learning how to turn on my heaters, that helped too…)  I also saw the Hobbit, which I have some issues with.  Why, I wonder, did we need to make one book into 3 movies, Peter Jackson?  Starts with G and rhymes with weedy perhaps?  Hmmm…not a huge fan of that. 

 

And we're almost caught up….

 OK, that ‘s most of the interesting stuff.  And, now that I am back on the horse, a full report on my trip to the Philippines is coming soon.  And then I plan to start documenting Chinese fashion.  You have to see it to believe it.

Skydive Pics

This is probably the coolest thing I have ever done. And I've done a lot of things...

Don't Worry Mom, I Didn't Go Bungee Jumping...

OK, confession – I have always wanted to jump out of a plane. I remember being a student at UF and looking longingly at the flyers for the “Falling Gators” skydiving club. I’m not sure why I didn’t do it. Money? Fear? Whatever the case, it never happened much to my regret.

So, as I arrived in Auckland and sought activities with which to occupy my time a brochure for Skydive Auckland caught my eye. And I thought about it. And I checked out the website. I had no real intention of actually sky diving. Until I called the number and booked an appointment for this morning. I was told to meet my driver at the base of the SkyTower to await my delivery to the airstrip.

I arrived and was greeted by Stacy the driver from Wales and Allison and Liam from Australia, my skydiving companions for the day. Stacy related that he came to Auckland 13 years ago on his way to Australia, jumped out of a plane, was hooked and never left. He’s been working for Skydive Auckland ever since. Allison and Liam were teachers from Oz on a two week break. They had been out the day before, but it was too windy and had to re-schedule for this morning.

There was surprisingly little paperwork when I arrived. I wrote down my parents’ number (just in case the chute didn’t open) and signed that I realized there were serious risks involved like death or being flattened by the rapidly approaching ground should something go wrong. I signed happily. I also bought the DVD and picture package. How many times do you sky dive for the first time? Once…I needed proof.

Within 20 minutes we were on the plane. There were two benches in the back parallel to each other, no seatbelts. We all squeezed in. There was also a handle above the windows to hang on to. I wasn’t strapped to Sam from Brighton yet (the guy that I trusted my life to; I wouldn’t jump out of a plane with just anyone…I have my standards) and we continued to climb. After 7 or so minutes he announced that we had reached 9,500 feet. You know 9,500 feet doesn’t really seem like a big deal on a commercial flight. It’s a lot higher when you know you will be exiting through the roll back door on the side of the plane. At this point, as Sam strapped on my oxygen mask, I thought about my breathing. Meditation, I decided might be good in a situation such as this. I thought about the irrationality of what I was doing. It was comforting that if I decided not to jump, I still had to pay the full price. It was good incentive not to chicken out.

Quickly we reached our altitude. Liam and his dive guy went first. Then it was my turn. I thought as I slid off the bench and onto the edge of the plane that it was much less scary than a lot of things I have done. Easier, say than jumping off the high diving board. Perhaps knowing that I didn’t really have to do anything made it easier. I knew Sam was going to do all of the work. It was a rush sitting there on the edge of the plane with my feet dangling three miles above the ground. And, before I knew it we were falling.

You only get about 6 seconds of free-fall feeling when you skydive. Once you hit terminal velocity, that falling sensation goes away. Then you are just flying. For 75 seconds. And words fail to describe what that feels like. The feeling is simply impossible to label unless you have experienced it, which I highly recommend, by the way. And, as we sailed through a cloud at 5,000 feet, Sam pulled the rip cord and we soared back to the airstrip.

Suffice to say I am in one piece after the experience. Apparently it’s safer than a host of things, probably safer than getting in a car or using a toaster. But, you definitely don’t get that kind of a rush from making toast. At least not in my experience; maybe if you make toast while taking a bath and accidentally drop the toaster into the water, but that I am not willing to try. Skydiving…I’d do that again in a minute.

Auckland Pics

Just a few snapshots from my trip. I spent some time this afternoon on a lovely hill in Devenport overlooking the harbor. It was quite the spot. The other, more rugged picture is from my jaunt up the volcano. It's certainly a beautiful city.

Auckland Observations

One thing that I have noticed while here in Auckland is that things are on the expensive side. For example, here are a few items from the hotel restaurant menu:

Toasted Muesli with honey, yogurt and milk - $12.50

Fresh Fruit Salad $12.50

Delicious Omelet on Toast with bacon and cheese $17.00

I realize that the prices are in New Zealand Dollars, which is worth about

$.80 on the dollar, but it’s still pretty pricey. If I’m going to pay $17.00 for an omelet, there had better be gold flakes in it.

One thing I have enjoyed is catching a couple of movies. I have yet to go to a movie in China as I generally find DVD man and watch things at home. A movie costs about as much as an omelet, but that is a price I am willing to play. I’ve seen the Hunger Games and a British film called The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It was delightful – Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, and a bunch of other British actors tell the story of a group of British retirees that move to Jaipur, India as an inexpensive retirement solution. It doesn’t make me want to visit India, but I enjoyed the flick. Worth seeing.

Yesterday I decided to take a ferry to a volcanic island here in Auckland for a little hike. It was about a 30 minute ride to the island and all of the signs told me that it would take about an hour to climb to the summit. There were all manner of ill dressed tourists with handbags and impractical shoes. I blew past all of them, as I wanted the trail to myself. I kept passing signs and noticed that I was well ahead of pace. All in all, it took me about 30 minutes to climb to the top. I made it down in time for the early ferry. When I got to the bottom, I noticed an Arab family that were on the ferry over. Two parents, three boys. One of them, he looked to be about seven, was crying inconsolably as we waited for the ferry. I thought about asking him what was wrong, but he was clinging pretty tightly to his mother. The boat stopped at Devenport on the way back to Auckland to let off passengers and as we disembarked, I heard one of the crew members say to someone up the stairs “have you lost your family?” The boat turned around. I was expecting to see the crying boy. The crew member came back down and I was surprised to see not the boy, but the mother. Her family was waiting for her on the dock. The crew member said to her as she got off, “Next time stay with your family.” It was amusing.

Life's Little Ironies

I decided today that I would get a haircut while in Auckland, as it’s an English-speaking city. I’ve avoided getting a hair cut in China as my Mandarin is good enough to get a double cheeseburger without mustard, but not good enough to explain how much to take off the top and the sides. So, I found a little salon and booked an appointment. When I arrived Tom greeted me. He was obviously Asian. Chinese, in fact. We started chatting and I was relieved that his English was much better than my Mandarin. I asked him how long he has been in Auckland and he told me “7 weeks.” He just moved here from Beijing. What are the chances? He was awesome. Great head massage, fantastic clipping skills. I’m sure I could get a great cut in China if I learned some haircut words. I’ll make Kevin teach me a few of those when I get home. Until then I guess I’ll be flying to Auckland for haircuts.

But I Don't Even Drink Coffee...

Ever just have a whim to travel to New Zealand tomorrow? Ever act on it? Well, I did yesterday. I was in Bangkok for a teachers’ conference and as I headed home I realized that I didn’t want to spend a week hanging out in Guangzhou or Hong Kong. I wanted something a little different. So, sometime after lunch yesterday, I started scouring hotwire for travel deals. I looked just about everywhere and decided that I wanted to spend a week in Auckland. What exactly I would do during the week I wasn’t sure of, but I knew that I would figure it out as I went along and have a great story to tell about my spur of the moment trip to Auckland. At 3:30 as I was about to board my flight from Guangzhou back to China, I clicked purchase and thought about what to pack.

I rushed home from the airport so that I could swap a few things out of my suitcase and put in fall clothes rather than summer fashions. I don’t own a printer, so I was unable to print out my ticket, but I figured in a day of e-tickets, it wouldn’t be a problem. By midnight, 4 hours after landing in Guangzhou, I was up in the air again on my flight to Auckland. For the most part it was a good flight. I was in seat by myself, I had a movie screen to watch. I did wake up at one point to find that a woman had moved into the seat next to me and was practically sitting on top of me because her friend had laid down in the whole row she was in. I did some pretty wild gesturing to get across the point that it was not OK for her to sit next to me. She had her own seat. I stood up and pointed at it. She got the hint and sat somewhere else (although she sat in at least three more seats that weren’t hers taking pictures as we were getting ready to land).

As I got off the plane, I figured the fun would begin. My space invader was nowhere to be seen. I went to customs, and it was gratifying to know that they spoke English. The agent asked me what my plans were in New Zealand. I explained that I had only purchased my ticket a few hours before and I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do. I told him I may bungee jump. He asked if I had my return ticket. I told him I didn’t as I don’t have a printer and I literally had an hour at home to pack before my flight. He typed in a few more things and waved me on. I got my bag and as I approached customs guy #2 I got waved to the special line. This was getting interesting.

I went over to the guy in line 4 and he asked me the same series of questions. I explained my story again; I had been in Thailand for a conference and decided on a whim to travel to New Zealand. I was beginning to think that not too many people travel on a whim here, as he didn’t seem to think it was a romantic or amusing idea. He looked at me like I had swallowed 50 condoms filled with cocaine, as, in his experience, people who leave Thailand, fly to China and then head to New Zealand are generally drug mules. I explained again about the printer and sitting in the airport in Bangkok deciding that I didn’t want to be in Guangzhou for spring break and that maybe I would bungee jump and that really, I did just decide a few hours ago that a trip to his beautiful country was a good idea. He asked me where I worked. I told him. At this point, I was trying to open my e-mail so that he could see that I really did have a return ticket booked for Saturday night. It was taking forever. He asked if I had a work ID or something from the conference. I told him that I took it all out of my backpack when I went home for an hour between flights. I showed him my insurance card from work. I laughed a bit and explained that I’m a Mormon. He told me everyone says that in these situations (perhaps much like Americans pretend to be Canadians so that everyone will like them…tell them you’re a Mormon so they won’t think you are trafficking drugs, didn’t work). I told him he was willing to search my bags and my person, as he wasn’t going to find anything. He said he was working hard to avoid that. I complimented him on doing his job, as he was fantastically thorough. If had swallowed a bunch of drugs to sneak into the country, I would have been sweating bullets at this point, but fortunately only thing in my stomach was a terrible sandwich courtesy of China Southern Airlines. I told him he was welcome to open my e-mail as the airport Wi-Fi still had not opened, but that was against protocol. Finally, I managed to fish a business card out of my wallet. I was really glad I didn’t give the last one away at the conference as I sensed a body cavity search in my future. He looked up the address of on the card and just like that he told me to gather up my stuff and took me back to the second line and told me to have a nice trip. I’m still not convinced that someone isn’t following me around Auckland just to see if I do turn out to be a dealer, as they will be sadly disappointed. The craziest thing I have done so far is to sit in Denny’s for an hour eating a chocolate peanut butter lava cake. It’s amazing how appealing Denny’s is when you haven’t seen one in almost a year.

Moral of this story: if you are travelling to New Zealand from Thailand via China, don’t expect immigration to give you an easy time. And, even if you don’t think you need one, buy a printer. You never know when your itinerary might come in handy.