The Great Procrastination

It's 11:30am Thursday morning.  We leave for USA early tomorrow morning.  I should be packing and cleaning but instead I'm sitting here in the front of the computer writing this blog.  I'm just taking a brief moment to comment on my procrastination habits.  I hate preparing for a trip, but who doesn't?  This time though, I'm extra stressed because we will have someone staying here while we are gone.  It's a mutually beneficial arrangement but it means I have to prep my house for someone else to live here for six weeks.  So, in addition to the usual cleaning, I also have to organize and make room in the extra bedroom closet for someone else's clothes and stuff.  Currently that extra room and closet are being used as a place to store coats and pretty much everything else.  Basically it has become a junk room and I have waited until the very last day to prepare it for company.  Did I also mention that I need to buy gifts, pack our luggage, try to dry one more load of laundry, and do the other cleaning stuff? Why did I wait til today to do all this? ACK! 

 

 

"Clothes won't dry" weather

When Sam and I lived in West Sacramento we didn't have washer and dryer.  My weekly routine was to bring baskets of dirty clothes to my parents house, separate the lights and darks, start a load of wash and then come back in a day or two to pick up baskets of clean laundry. (Thanks Mom!)  I used to tell Sam that I would be happy when some day I could do a load of laundry anytime I wanted.  Well that day has come and yet I've found I something else to complain about. We have a pretty good washing machine but no dryer.  Actually no one here has a dryer.  Almost every apartment has a section or small room with lots of windows and a place to hang clothes.   There are also no laundry mats you can go to use a machine to do your laundry.  There are dry cleaners but if you don't have a washing machine at home most people wash all their clothes....by hand!  It sounded crazy to me the first time I realized some people wash  ALL their laundry by hand.  I used to think that you only wash things "by hand" if the label said so, and even then my "hand washing" was really just the washing machine on delicate cycle. So I know I'm already a little privileged just by having an actual washing machine in our apartment.  Still, I long for a clothes dryer.  I tried explaining what a dryer was to one of my english students and she couldn't understand why anyone would need it.  I suppose in the colder months when the radiators are going full blast and your clothes dry in less than an hour its not that necessary. But in the rainy summer I dream of  clothes fresh from the dryer.  Yesterday I did a load of clothes in the morning and when I came home in the evening they still weren't dry.  When they finally were dry they had that slightly sour smell and so I had to start all over again. I may have to use my hair dryer or plug in my electric heater for the second round.   I know many of the chinese here have this problem as well because sometimes I smell the same sourness on people I'm next to on the bus or subway.  I guess slightly sour smelling clothes is just a part of life when its what I call: "clothes won't dry" weather.

Mosquito food

Last Saturday night we had the closest thing to an outdoor barbecue that you can get in China.  We barbecued chuar (lamb kabobs), chicken wings, and bread in a small park next to one of Sam's students apartment.  The boy's mother invited us for dinner and we were both pleasantly surprised at the informal setting.  As usual when we get invited to a barbecue, Sam ended up doing lots of the barbecuing.  It was good practice for him. We took note of the spices used so we can try to duplicate it for our friends and family when we go back to the states.  My only complaint is that I was practically eaten alive by mosquitoes!  They must have been very stealthy because I don't remember seeing even one but I woke up the next day with my legs and feet covered with itchy red bumps.  Altogether I counted eleven, plus one on my forehead.  I was wearing capris.  Can you imagine how many bites I would have now if I had been wearing shorts?  They really itched so I looked up some remedies for mosquito bites on the Internet.  The first remedy I tried was rubbing fresh garlic on the bites.  Although the smell was strong my legs still itched.  Next tried making a paste with baking soda and water.  That helped the itching, but my legs look really funny with red bumps and white paste all over them. So I guess I'm stuck wearing long pants in hot rainy weather for the next few days.  Hopefully this experience will help me to remember to bring mosquito repellent to the next barbecue I attend.

Chopsticks

Last night Sam and I went to dinner with a couple of chinese friends.  We ate one of my favorite meals, just sauteed vegtables and rice.  Sam didn't finish his rice (he says its too filling) and he stuck one of his chopsticks straight into the rice while he was talking.  Then he left it there.  The girl sitting next to me was obviously disturbed by Sam's chopstick (he only put one in) standing straight up in his rice.  She quickly told Sam it was bad luck to do that and Sam's reply was "It's okay I don't care about luck".  So, I said to Sam "Yeah but it's also rude so please don't disturb our friend."  He took out his chopstick with a smile.  I've learned a few things about chopsticks lately that have to do with superstition.  My Chinese teacher told me if you drop one of your chopsticks then your friend needs to quickly hit you to counteract the bad luck.  She also told me about some strange ritual people used to do with chopsticks that was supposed to lengthen a loved ones life by one year while shortening your own by three years.  While we don't care for superstitions its good to be familiar with the culture of the country you live in.  I'm just happy no one here says "God bless you" when someone sneezes. 

Who's cuter?

Sam thinks his students are cuter than mine.  I, of course, disagree.

Last day of School

Yesterday was my last day of teaching at my elementary school. Summer is officially here!  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Adjusting back to everyday life

After flying to Sacramento for the weekend and then easily (if you don't count the jet lag) slipping back into Chinese life I've started wondering :Just what is normal life for me and where is my home? Sam would quickly say that China is his home.  He was happy to come back even after just a weekend away.  I on the other hand am not so sure. In Sacramento I felt like I was home but coming back here I feel like I'm home too.  Some vacation huh? I went from "home" to "home" and back again.  It's all comfortable and yet it's all a bit uncomfortable too.  Its scary how quickly I can forget the Mandarin I've learned and yet its strange how familiar it feels to start hearing it again.  It was like music to my ears after hearing so much Japanese on our flight.  I know what you're thinking - It was just a four day trip!  Sorry, I can't help but speculate and even more so because we have another longer trip coming up.  For all of you who don't know we will be back in California for six weeks this summer.    By the way, at the wedding I really enjoyed meeting some of the friends who have commented on my blog.  It encourages me to keep on blogging! 

 

Now, back to business.  On our second night back we were dying to eat tofu and chuar (lamb kabobs).  In China I love to eat tofu and in California I love to eat salads.  Sam and I find that everywhere we go there are foods that we must eat.  People here love to push fish and seafood (Usually jumbo shrimp cooked with their heads still on so their beady black eyes can look at you as you choke them down with a smile for your host who ordered or prepared them for you.) I like the fish...... especially the spicy dishes of it.   We overheard one foreigner tell another that the Chinese just eat the fish bones along with the fish.  This is not true!  I think they were confused because some fish bones are soft enough to eat and people will tell you to go ahead and eat those.  But one of Sam's student's Mom recently had to go to the hospital to have a fish bone, that she accidentally swallowed, removed from her throat.   Actually she had to go to two hospitals.  The first one didn't have the proper tools to remove it.  She couldn't talk or swallow and she said it was very painful.  In the end they had to go through her nose to get it out.  She told us all this while she was eating fish with us not even a week later.  Needless to say I was chewing my meal very slowly.