Excuse me.

I have a few brief questions for you folks stateside.

A) Why is it that when i log into the LAtimes.com to read up on the sanctioning of same sex marriage in my home state that within the last month i find one meager article?

B) Why is this man allowed to be any city's assemblyman, let alone one so close to my hometown?

"Marriage should be between a man and a woman, end of story. Next issue," insisted Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia). "It's not about civil rights or personal rights, it's about acceptance. They want to be accepted as normal. They are not normal."

Wanderlust

I am turning into my father.
Evidence at the end of this post.

Before that, though, a quick concern;
I bought a pinky ring last night.
It fits not only my pinky, but my middle toe as well. Is that abnormal?

Anyway.

Last weekend I had a business trip down south to a different province.

We left Beijing Friday night at midnight, spent the night sleeping on an uncharacteristically uncrowned train. My train ride was a thoroughly refreshing seven hours. The rattle of the undercarriage beneath my head eased my concious into a deep and renewing rest. No joke, no sarcasm. I was enamored. That one night’s sleep was enough to make the entire weekend worthwhile . Glimpses of unadulterated mobility assalted me, tantalizing in their simplicity. It awakened an echo in me of nomadic experiences before this incarnation, packing up moving on and starting new with the dawn. There was something so sexy, so alluring, overly familiar, about the prospect of a transient existence. Sleeping with no worries because as each track passes below my head I slip farther and farther from all my conflicts. No matter how fast they run my issues can’t quite grasp the door of that last train car.

I fancy it.

I woke in the morning time in the province of Henan (河南 ) in one of it’s two large cities, Shang Qiu（商丘). I spent all of Saturday at a elementary school talking to and playing with little Chinese kids, testing the English level of each. Most had no English experience at all and they were all so cute and sweet! We all know Jessie’s weakness for little asian kids (eclipsed only by her weakness for charming asian men and sesame seeds), so there way really no way I could have disliked my work. On top of it, my boss (who accompanied me) took me out to the best lunch and dinner I have had since I’ve been in China.

There is one thing I can’t describe to you though. Remember how I said the Great Wall was indescribable and then took it back? I’m about to tell you that henan’s night markets were indescribable, and I’m not reneging on this one. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes. The night markets were crammed with so many tiny mobile stalls of so many tantalizing foods I am salivating just thinking about it. They were multi ethnic and multi talented.

Some of them had minature clay ovens on the backs of horse drawn carts filled with red coals from which sesame encrusted rounded baguettes emerged, ashy and piping hot.

Some of them had carts where, in tidy lines, bowl after bowl was filled with different pickled, steamed, or fried vegetables, which were then wrapped in huge crepes to make a southeastern Chinese style burrito.

I can’t even describe to you to how sexy it all was. All I know is I became more and more excited as I came upon each new edible wonder, and I ate some of everything (almost everything- most of them were vegan!). It made me feel complete, and happy, and renewed my faith in the world.

The fact that food can do that to me, and just how much food I packed away that night, is what makes me know I am my father’s daughter.

All in all it’s not such a bad thing to be.

Love you poppa.

Rubbish

Usually what I'll do when i blog is write up a rough, go out to class or tea, and then the following day or so edit and subsequently post. I'm always concerned about the tone and subject matter, and my ability to grasp your guys' interest.

Usually the first bit of what i write is rubbish.

That being said, tonight you're going to get unadulterated rubbish, as i'm in the mood to just post something up.
I've got a few already edited posts sitting in the wings, shiny and pretty (all dolled up and tricked out with witticisms and criticisms) but they'll have to wait till tomorrow to take center stage.

I'm listening to Atmosphere for the first time in a few weeks right now. (4 weeks, nearly)
Tomorrow i'm going to start on a whole foods diet, and i'm also going to start working out more.
My goal for my time in China is to gain five pounds in muscle. (biceps, thighs, abs, triceps)
Another goal is to improve my flexibility, physically and mentally.
(Verbally too, obviously.)
I was described earlier, in passing, as unwilling to show my emotions.
I've got a gnarly scar from where i fell in the river before i left honolulu.

Chicks dig scars, right?
Maybe I can get a girlfriend.

too bad i'm too busy working on myself to work with anyone else.
famous last words.

love&luz
(this past weekend was exciting, so look forward to details on the morrow)

Minidate

Our blog post today comes courtesy of The Dragon Boat Festival.

It was quite the nice treat to wake up friday morning and walk to class only to realize that there was no class to be had. yahtzee!

Since I owe my newly found free time to said festival [it having freed up my friday for study time and opened weekend time for leisure], i suppose i should take a moment to talk about it. What is the dragon boat festival, you wonder? Well, first off, it's today, Sunday June 8th. It's a holiday whose festivites take place mostly in Shanghai where, amongst various other festive things, they race dragon boats. Why? I don't know. I've gotten lots of answers to this question, mostly pertaining to a poet who, a long long time ago, tried to warn the emporer about dangers to the country but, when ignored, threw himself into the river and drowned. Kind of a downer of a holiday, except for the whole no class part. That part rocks.

Whats going on in Beijing besides holidays? Lots more construction. The kind that starts outside my window at about 2 in the morning and continous, uninterrupted, till about 2 in the afternoon. Yay for that.

What else? Well, I'm hungry. I went out thursday night with Mongolian homeboy who apparently has a plan to open a restaurant with lots of vegan options. Whether he is genuinely interested in presenting healthier, kinder, enviornmentally concious food or is just attempting to get into my pants through my 'religion' (as harumi would call it), i don't know. It really could be either. Or both. Or neither, for that matter.

I digress.

Mongolian homeboy is a nice guy, but the majority of our conversations take place in english [with some chinese interspersed]. This is not optimal for the improvement of my Chinese, however, and next time i see him im going to tell him that we have to speak more chinese. Which actually might be today, as he wants me to go and buy his car with him, and eat zongzi, which are sticky rice triangle things wrapped in bamboo leaves and filled with savory meat or sweet fillings. Theyre really, really good, and part of the whole dragon boat festival thing. Not that people dont eat them everyday, which they do. Why theyre special festival food if they are sold everyday in the cafeteria anyway, i'm not really sure, but who cares cause theyre tasty. Back to the Mongol and his friends. I'm a pretty firm believer in the idea that you are who you surround yourself with, you know, the whole 'lie down with dogs' thing. The mongolians i've befriended are all very sweet and very motivated (and talented- we all watched the matou playing video from a few posts ago, right?) so it makes me happy to have found positive friends. In fact, all of China so far has been really good to me, but thats going to take a long time to detail and will be mused upon at a later date.

love you guys!

Just a little in between class quickie.

It's raining right now in Beijing
Cool Calm Pete's spittin game on my laptop
Open bag of almonds to my left
Hot tea to my right
Interview at 5 oclock
Dinner with these guys? Perchance.

Love you guys.

(pictures of the lama buddhist temple and mongolian homeboys up on flickr)

Great.

I really like dried apricots.
This post is about the Great Wall.
A few days ago, I traveled there. I bought dried apricots, and they are tasty.
[edit: I started this post yesterday and have since finished all of the apricots. I am sad.]

The wall itself was amazing. Breathtaking. It really cannot be describe in words.
Scratch that, were that true, my writing this and your subsequent read of it would be wastes of time. It can be described, albeit poorly, in words.

Mao’s famous quote about no Chinese man being a man until he has visited the Great Wall may be stretching it (we all know how I feel about gender related heteronormative generalizations), but something definitely resonates when you get up there. It is a truly amazing, mammoth construction. As far as you can see along the mountainsides, the wall continues. And the view. Amazing. The Great Wall is about an hour and a half outside of Beijing but it seems like much longer. The landscape is still very wild and peaks recede into the distance as far as you can see. After living on an island for so long (the panorama of my hikes on oahu concluding in endless cerulean blue) it was really powerful to see such a gorgeous untamed mountain landscape. The wall is also outside of the grey woolen bowler hat (which is how I have decided to henceforth describe Beijing’s smog, GWBH anyone?) and the air is crisp, clear, clean. Parts of the mountain side could be the Pali. Parts could be up Chantry. Parts could definitely be out near Rock Creek. (I think I hit up all the hoods I’m beholden to, with those three wilderness references). It’s pretty fucking awesome.

All in all, honestly, I really wasn’t that stoked on going. I had images of tourists and touristy things on some wall that thousands died to erect. And we all know how Jessie feels about touristy attractions. She loathes them. I envisioned one more marker of mankind’s desire to draw a line in the sand between what is ‘mine’ and ‘yours’ (which, honestly, it was, it was held more of tangible impact than I imagined). Plus I had heard there was a Starbucks, and that I think would have been too much for me to bear (there wasn‘t one, thankfully).

There was, however, a slide. A huge sheet metal slide that you can take from the top down to the bottom. Now that, that was awesome.

Now go look at it, over on my flickr (cause I hate uploading to blogger)
Flickr.com/sinksync

Love&luz

Rewind that, once.

My belly is full.

My dinner tonight, comprised of two hot cups of fresh soymilk, one big portion of rice, two portions of bok choy with sesame seeds and one red bean bun cost me a total of 43 cents. It’s more than I usually get.

The is air warm, sticky, and damp. On my computer playing is G. Love and Special Sauce, before which was the Sound Providers (who instead of soothing my headaches now make me melancholy), before whom was Cool Calm Pete (because what else do I listen to, really?). On my mind is irritation at the dichotomy, the two sides of life in China, presented to me unmistakably by my campus everyday. This and the beautification of the city of Beijing.

Let’s start with a little rundown of my daily sights and sounds.

My campus is beautiful. The parks in Beijing do the parks in America to absolute shame. Nature here is holistic. Thriving, they exemplify the carefully studied, articulated green thumb of China. The style is overgrown and interaction between nature’s creation and man’s is the goal. Paths made of irregular stone, through whose gaps thrive lush and vibrant grass, meander through slopes and valleys while sun light is filtered through the overhanging leaves growing so low as to grace the heads of passing admirers. My brief description does these lovely parks no justice- I could go on for a good few pages at least and still tickle the top of the subject (and I’d dip into too many trite similes, so I’ll save us all). Theyre all over, easily accessible, well used. The walkways around campus are mainly wide, tree lined boulevards, shady and European inspired. They show students exactly the face of Beijing that China would most want to present to foreigners and leave a lasting impression on those Chinese students working towards travelling abroad.

What the campus doesn’t let us see are the slums and shanty towns our construction workers live in. Their sounds, however, belie their existence. At all hours (all. As in, two in the afternoon and two in the morning) the construction and repairs upon various campus buildings can be heard. Currently on campus, as around all of Beijing, a process of beautification is being pushed to breakneck speeds. With the Olympics around the corner buildings are being refurbished, fences painted, fines for loitering and littering imposed. This brings in the need for additional workers, many of whom live within spitting distance of those whose businesses and homes they work on. On my campus, the workers lodgings are often within 200 feet of any given path, though disregarded and out of view. Walking around campus they appear suddenly as you turn an unexpected corner, and vanish just as quickly as you continue on to class. These meager abodes are hidden behind the large tarp walls that do double time shielding construction areas and construction quarters. They are in the farther corners of the school, away from the main gate and the foreign student housing. They are often tents made of canvas propped over a pole, three cots to a tent. Sometimes less, and sometimes the conditions just cannot be hidden. Case in point, the view out a class buildings window:

Of course, I can see examples of this when I step into the roads around my school to buy fruit or go for a bubble tea. The streets are the homes of hawkers and laborers, squatting between jobs for a cigarette or proffering wares to all who pass. I want to make it clear that I in no way disdain these people of the city, in fact I have much more respect for them than the people who zip past in dark tinted imported mercedes and bmws. These people, they work for their living. They are the living, breathing soul of the city of Beijing. And they are unapologetic. I think one of the things I love most about Beijing is the human feel of the city. The dirty, hand built, human feel. This feeling has long since been washed away from most American cities- they’ve been disinfected, air cooled, sprayed with febreze and checked for child safety. But now that’s what Beijing wants too. The Olympics are coming, and Beijing is busy waxing away those unseemingly hairs and putting on it’s best party dress.

As this is getting lengthy (or, at least, I feel like youre probably getting tired of reading it), I’m going to treat it as the prep in an installation on my opinions of the beautification of Beijing for the Olympics. Now you have a basic understanding of the dichotomy presented everyday by my university, and the tactile flavors of the streets. Ruminate on that. Dust in your nose, hot honey textured air on your skin, and the crack sizzle of raw meat grilling over a setup propane griddle to your left- you should buy one. When homeboy closes down his 4x6 foot grease covered kitchen for the night, he pulls out his cot, business becomes bedroom, and he catches some rest before the morning starts the cycle over.

Love&luz