tips for speaking to someone who is obviously just learning your language:

1. speak slowly. If they are looking at you blankly, chances are their brain is trying to catch up to what you just said, but you said too many words too fast and something is short circuiting. One word at a time, please, and put pauses between them. The first thing a language learner needs to figure out is how to hear where one word ends and another begins. (That's when they unlock the skill of asking "what does ___ mean?" or looking words up for themselves.)

2. repeat yourself. and slooooowly. If you said a bunch of words and they didn't understand, chances are they won't understand the next bunch of words you fling at them either, especially since they are probably still trying to catch up to the first thing you said and won't even register any of the new words. Give them a chance to re-hear the words you first used before you move on to new ones. They might already know what you are saying, but it often takes a couple tries before a language learner can recognize a familiar word in an unfamiliar context.

3. use simple sentences. Subject, Verb, Object. Stop it with all of the extra words you use to make yourself sound like a normal person. Sound like a baby and start small. Subject, Verb, Object. If you don't know what those are, look them up, and then give the language learner credit for probably knowing more about the structure of your own language than you do.

4. use gestures. Subject (point to the thing), Verb (mime the action), Object (point/draw/mime/whatever you need to do. Just repeating a word that the language learner doesn't know will never teach them what that word means. Help them along with a visual. It might jog their memory about vocabulary they've been studying or you may teach them something new!

5. be patient. People trying to learn a language are brave and also scared. Don't act out your frustration or stress with the situation--they were already frustrated and stressed when they were persuading themselves to talk to you in your language. Smile encouragingly at them. If communication still doesn't work, gesture apologetically and try to find someone to facilitate your interaction. Remember, an experience doesn't have to be perfectly successful to be a positive boost in this person's language learning process. You are helping them be more fearless in their trying, which is the most important part.

To Blog Or Not To Blog

Three weeks ago I moved to China.  Two weeks ago I visited Tibet.  Now I'm visiting India.  I've been posting some things on Facebook because it is quicker, more universal-reaching, and simpler than "keeping up a blog", but I also feel like it is a bit more fleeting, for all that.  I don't like constantly posting new links for my blog posts, and I get the feeling that most people don't really care about the long versions of my stories.  So I'm going to try something new.  I'm going to post brief things on facebook and either copy and paste them on my blog or expand them into larger blog posts, as I see fit.  I'm not going to worry about integrating pictures into my blog posts anymore, since google photo is soooo much easier.  I'll post google photo album links where needed.  This may alter completely later on, but lets see how it works.

First order of business?  Taking all the long fb posts and copying them here:

Sept 27th

Just wrapping up day two of China times :) I'm happy. Also tired. Also I build a bookshelf today. And watched the presidential debates. And I got my security briefing at the consulate, my metro card, my registration at our housing complex... Oh, and I think I accidentally bought a bitter melon yesterday. Eric Dowdle, you will have to tell me how to cook it (if there is a way to make it more better than bitter??). Joel refuses to have any part in my culinary experimentation.. but the mango flavored potato chips were tasty! He's totally missing out.

Sept 28th

Day 3 of China: my bags are all unpacked, finally. Its a very unfortunate thing that I can't open the windows for fresh air 

:(  apparently the Chinese all do, but we have four air purifiers as it is and I start coughing if I'm outside for too long. the air conditioning is driving me nuts; now its a little too cold, now its a little too hot... maintenance ppl came in and hung something on the wall for me. it took them an hour. not sure why. i'm going to apply for a job at the consulate--once I start the process of getting cleared, I can sign up for private Chinese tutoring! I have all my chinese textbooks with me, but I haven't opened them at all... I think it is because, while Chinese is a foreign country, being married is the more foreign place and it is taking mental priority. but I WILL learn chinese! I must. this place is too different, there would be too much of a gap between me and the rest of this world, to not be able to communicate. as it is, i feel like i'm in a bubble and only French words come to mind (most recent other language studied). well, that's my brain space in a nutshell. also, i still haven't taken any pictures. i'm not thinking that way yet. tah tah! xx

Sept 29th

Day 4: today my new friends came to visit (we've seen each other every day) and we went swimming, watched Despicable Me 2, and went grocery shopping. also the 4 year old really wanted to try on my lipsticks, so we did. now i've made dinner way too early; i wanted to give myself time to re-acclimate to the (stupid) induction stove top and turns out i figured it out right quick! now i'm waiting for Joel to get home, practically fainting with hunger... maybe i'll read this cooking magazine... oh! last night we found some feral kittens at the playground and they were adorable!! after some discussion, Joel convinced me that we shouldn't adopt one (or both). well, more like he put his foot down about it.. but when we checked on them later, they were gone, so maybe their mommy got them back, which is the happiest ending to the story. and gradually this apartment is starting to feel like home. part of it is puttering around. part of it is picking things up and putting them back down, to get the feeling of complicity in how things are. part of it is putting removable hooks on the wall by the stove to hold the spoons and spatulas. yup, it's definitely feeling cozy tonight.

Sept 30th

DAY 5: today my friends came over again and we experimented making cookies in my oven-cum-microwave. there were weevils in the flour, but i worked around them. and the cookies worked! its amazing! next oven test: roasting. after that i got out lots o' cash to pay to this guy who runs a tour company who are taking me and Joel to the permitted-for-diplomats part of Tibet tomorrow!!! We *were* going to be in India on Sunday, but Joel's Indian visa was only granted yesterday, and he won't get it in hand until next week (familiar, eh?), so we'll be in Tibet instead. *grinning* i wore my Target sandals today and they rubbed my skin unhappy :( i can't figure out how chinese ladies wear such fancy clothes all the time. okay, any ladies. but chinese ladies have such interesting fashion... i want to do a street clothes photo shoot one day. and they are all so slim and petite. but i'm just going to have to look vaguely frumpy in my practical shoes. strange, how i want to look cool but i draw the line at pain in my feet.. the evening was wrapped up with watching last week's women's conference with the ladies from church. they were all excited to finally meet me :) and now, i just changed my name on fb and put that i'm married to Joel. now that we are together, it actually feels real :) goodnight.

Oct 1st

Day 6!! Early early!! I just had a terrible nightmare-dream about organizing another wedding reception. The cake was week-old whopper jrs and everyone drifted away from the party before I could hike them out to the dessert area.. so stressful.. 😰 also I think I'm going to have to put my maiden name back in the middle of my fb name, but fb wouldn't let me type it with the correct capitalizations and spaces!! The injustice!! 😫 Anyway, we are up so early bc Tibet today!! And I will be out of range for fb but will show you all my pictures when I get back 😁 Well, the interesting/super beautiful ones at least. Oh man, I can't tell if I'm experiencing a lingering cold or if I am allergic to something in China 😪I wonder where I can get local Chinese honey.

Oct 7th

Day Whatever It Is. Day...12! Wow, twelve whole days! Today I am rewriting my resume to apply for a job at the consulate. It is hard work, since I'm basically changing careers (if this future of temporary jobs might be called a career) and my museums career had only barely become real. I've got to merge Museum Experience and Child Care Experience into some skills that a Security Interviewer Person (not real job title) would need... After the resume, I get to write a Cover Letter, yay!! sigh. I can't complain; this project gives me something concrete to work on and achieve. I'm in the process of reinventing myself, you see. I have some sewing projects with me, I have some books, but I also want to go out and take full advantage of living in a foreign place. Also, real life has never consisted of sewing and reading and sight-seeing to my heart's content. I need something to be expected of me. Maybe if I turn sewing into a business. Maybe if I find some tutoring to do. Maybe if I get this consulate job. Maybe learning Chinese will give me structure. I'm starting to research meal plans for dinner, too. (Cooking dinner gives structure!) I've never had to cook for someone other than myself every night and I suspect that Joel will get bored of my pasta diet before long. I am lucky and happy to be here. I like new things. I also like responsibility and productivity. I'll figure it out. Right now, I think I'll heat up a pizza slice for lunch. and maybe some pasta. Mmm..

Oct 8th

Day 13 was spent mostly watching Stranger Things and I have no regrets, though you might since that means this post will be boring. We ate American food brunch at an Irish pub near the consulate. It was pretty much deserted and it still took forever to get me my biscuits and gravy. We played a game of pool and Joel only *narrowly* won. Then I picked food off of Joel's plate o' pancakes and was hardly hungry at all when my breakfast finally came. Shame. We took a taxi home, and have I mentioned how the Chinese drive? Basically it is every man for himself. There are some rules, like 'drive on the right', and 'pedestrians have right of way', BUT rules are obviously made to be broken. Every driver must assume that every other driver is a wild card. It's nuts! I went shopping and found some weird Oreos. China is THE place for strange flavor combinations. These Oreos, for example, were raspberry/blueberry and peach/white grape. The first weren't bad, but the latter tasted chemical. After heating up dinner, I shattered a glass tray in the oven when I tried to close the door and it was still sticking out. Oops. Weekends are awesome bc Joel is home to snuggle with ALL DAY! Plus tomorrow is our conference Sunday, and then Joel and I must pack for our next adventure; we are off to Mumbai on Monday!!

Oct 11th

TIBET PHOTO ALBUM HERE

Oct 12th

I ventured forth alone today. Forth from the safety and air conditioning of our hotel and into the crazy of what they call the "suburbs" of Mumbai. Ps, we are in India now. In preparation for this trip, I've gotten all kinds of warnings about wandering in Mumbai by myself (solo woman), so my nerves were all warmed up. I've also read that where we are at, there isn't much to "see". But I needed some things from the store (makeup remover for me, hair gel and deodorant for Joel), and I wanted to stop by The Yoga Institute for information on classes. It was just a twenty minute walk with a brief detour, so I figured I'd be fine. I sketched out a quick map to follow (the data on this new sim card hasn't kicked in yet), I packed some bottled water, and I went. First of all, I don't care if they call this a suburb, it ain't nothing like no suburbs I've ever seen at home. (Duh.) 1. aren't suburbs where people life and commute to work in the main city? These people weren't commuters. They were all still here! 2. there are no street signs. Its a good thing I drew a map and didn't just write down a street list. 3. no one walks on the crappy sidewalks, everyone walks in the street and all the cars and scooters honk to warn ppl they are coming. 4. as far as I can tell, the population of India is 97.8% men, since I only saw a woman, like, ten times. Three of those were scaling and filleting fish on the sidewalk. and 5. If Chinese traffic is bad, it was just a warm-up for Indian traffic. Walking across the street was like playing Frogger. And just the sum chaos on the street was immense. The sense of being watched, of being noticed, of standing out was very strong. Taking a wrong turn meant turning around which meant looking vulnerable, so I tried my best to forge ahead even when I wasn't sure. I needed to not look like a noob. I needed to have a blank face: not friendly, but not judgmental; not happy but not disgusted. I'm not sure how well I did that. I maneuvered through some tough spots and had been walking a while when I started to get nervous that I had missed a turn or had walked too far when I finally saw a sign for yoga and found this peaceful green garden with all the information for yoga classes and even a bathroom to pee in. As I sat and wrote and sketched and regrouped, I realized that my return trip would be very different. Knowing where I am going is more than half the battle. Suddenly the men on the street were part of the pedestrian environment and not primarily menacing threats. The dirty crazy shop fronts could be looked at in curiosity rather than rushed past. The streets themselves were my co-conspirators, my slowly unfolding red carpet home, instead of my labyrinth. All in all, I felt much better. Turns out that there is PLENTY to see in this so-called suburb. Not temples or museums or anything, but people and clothing and traffic patterns and stray dogs and weird adverts and flower garlands and all those fish-monger women. And I'm heading out for a yoga class in the morning!

Oct 13th

so last night I got all congested. and then I got all achy. and then I slept terribly. Joel and I read the symptoms of Dengue fever, because I got a mosquito bite on Tuesday and I was nervous, but there's an incubation period of six days or so, so that's not it. Here's the thing, though. When I first got to Chengdu three weeks ago I started sneezing and sniffling. When we stayed in Tibet last week I had to take nyquil to sleep and dayquil to hike. And now my sinuses are filling up again! I don't usually get sick, so I think its the change of climate, change of recycled air, change of altitude, change of food. I'm going to stay in bed this morning. Read some Ramayana. Watch some food TV. Meet Joel for lunch. Maybe go visit a nearby temple in the afternoon. Take it easy. I really should've brought my 'quils on this trip..

Have you ever heard of Beyond The Beautiful Forevers? Its a journalistic book written about a slum in Mumbai called Annawadi. I haven't read it. Yet. One denizen described the slum and its surroundings: "Everything around is roses. And we are the shit in between." The tiny slum is ringed by the new international airport and expensive hotels. I just realized that I am staying in one of those rosy, expensive hotels. Maybe a neighborhood south or so, but still. That's a weird thing.
I also found out today that there is a word for the row of slapdash tarp lean-tos and the families that inhabit them that I passed on my walk yesterday; pavement-dwellers. There's a Wikipedia article on them. About the Mumbai ones in particular.
(I think this is the closest I've been to famous poverty. <- I'm not sure how I feel about that sentence. Or about this post as a whole.)

Oct 14th

FEELING BETTER! I went to yoga today. At first I was nervous to walk again bc it was a different time of day than last time and who knows what the pedestrian demographic will be! Well, the pedestrian demographic at 7:45 am is lots of little uniformed school girls walking themselves to school. I felt a lot better to be in that crowd. Soon I'll be confident at all times and in all places. Because I haven't done a ton of yoga before and I don't speak hindi, one of the teachers gave me a private lesson. The class that I looked in on was full of Indian women, most of them dressed in the Indian female "three piece suit" of cotton pants, tunic, shawl. No spandex. My teacher was in jeans. Turns out this kind of yoga is the super peaceful kind that focuses on breathing and light stretches. I think I actually sweat the least during that hour of yoga than at any other time during the day, including while sitting in air conditioning. I also got a ton of bug bites on my arms during class. Did I mention that its Dengue Fever season? I'm going to invest in some bug spray. After class I went to the ISKCON temple, which is a really beautiful building of white marble designed by a Dutchman (yay, Dutch people!!). I got approached by an Indian family to take a picture with them. They even tried to get me to hold their baby for a picture, but she (the baby) wasn't having it. She didn't even smile at me, not one little bit! A monk in orange t-shirt and robes approached me as I was wandering around and reading signs. He told me about Hare Krishna, the god, and how he has revealed Eternal Truth and Real Yoga and other spiritual things to various spiritual leaders over the years, including His Divine Grace Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, (have you tried actually pronouncing that or did you skim over it?), who founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in New York in the 1960's. There is a tiny plant in the courtyard that is very special somehow (it was a 'she' and sometimes they worship her) and when the monks make food for the idol of Hare Krishna they always have to include a leaf from this tree, or Krishna won't accept it. Seeing as how they cook meals for him every day, and this plant was small and not stripped bare, I have my suspicions about the truth of that claim. Then this monk gave me a tour through His Divine Grace's quarters, now turned into a museum. Then he tried to sell me some books. I didn't want any. But I thanked him anyway. Now, after delicious lunch at the consulate, I think I am going to sit in the steam room and then finish watching Ghandi. 

Now you are all caught up!  Onward!

Look At Me Now

I'm moving to China.  As Joel's wife.  Well, I'm not his wife yet.  Nor am I exactly moving to China at this time.  I'm moving all of my stuff to my parents' house in anticipation of moving to China.  Which will happen only after I am his wife.  Which will happen in five weeks.  Well, five weeks from this morning.  :)

I just reread my last post (here), and it's amazing to see where we are now!  Getting married in five weeks.  I suppose a few things needed to happen first.
a) We both needed to recover from the fight and week-long break we had taken the first week of February and remember how much we like each other.
b) I needed to decide NOT to move to China without more assurance from him that I wouldn't have to move back to Boston and start my life over from scratch.
c) He needed to decide that he wanted me in China enough to
d) ask me to come with him permanently--in the form of a proposal.
All of that happened.  It's basically a miracle!

So.  Now I am sitting in my adorable Belknap Street dining room, packing up my costume/history books.

And I'm thinking deep thoughts to myself, about myself.  Existential thoughts.  I haven't looked at any of these books in a year.  I didn't teach this semester; the last time I taught was a whole year ago.  Isn't that odd.  Years are passing faster.

I know I love these books and the knowledge contained within them.  But it's like I am looking at that part of myself from the other end of a long, dim hallway.  These books are dusty.  My packets of research from grad school are relics from another epoch.  There was an Alexandra who could have made this her life.  Is she still inside me?  Has the daily grind of the 9 to 5 covered her up?  Or smothered her?  Has the constant thought of my love far away distracted me permanently or for a moment only?

What about this new life I am headed for?  What kind of Alexandra will I shake out to be when I am a stranger in a strange land with little-to-no life structure?  Will this latent interest spring again to life?  Will I follow the scholarly or the more hands-on path?  Will I excavate what I loved and dig even deeper?  Or will all the newness lead me further down the hallway of life, away from the passion of my past?



I wonder all of this as I pack sturdy liquor boxes full of my hard-won collection of niche knowledge.
There is only one way to find out.

Now I Wait For A New Emotion. It'll Be Along Any Minute.

I'm thinking of moving to China.  It's very scary.  But also very exciting.  Joel is there, and I'm tired of long-distance.  Like, breaking up tired.  But no matter how confusing our relationship is right now, I have never given up on a love until it has given up on me.  And I choose to be the type of person who takes risks.  It seems to me that my options are as follows.
A:  "Well, I stayed in Boston, and it didn't work out."
B:  "Well, I moved to China, and it didn't work out."
C:  "Hey!  I moved to China, and it worked out!"

Honestly, I don't really think that moving to China is going to save our relationship.  I feel like we are teetering on the edge of "I don't care anymore."  I'm not sure why.  I don't know what happened.  Or if it happened to me or to Joel.  Or both of us.

That is a very depressing paragraph, up there.

I feel quiet and sad.

Who are we?  Are we not meant to be together?  Am I holding on by my fingernails for no reason?

I just don't know what we would be if we were in the same place.  Is that a good enough reason to try it?  Would he make me feel.... ?



I started this post with the intent to convey that moving to China would fulfill me in so many ways, even if Joel and I don't end up together.  I suppose I find myself in the midst of expressing the idea that it feels like we are already done.  And I still want adventure; I want a reason to do something crazy.  But maybe I need to clean out the baggage I've already got so that I can travel lighter.

Yi Ge Ren For The Day, Part II

I was feeling all kinds of bold after my zombie hide-out climbing adventure.  I struck off for the Buddha with wide-open eyes, ready to notice all of the things. 

There were not very many people at this place at all. Lots of stanchions were set up to guide lines in long winding paths, but the few of us that were there got to bypass them all.  On the path up to the Buddha itself, I saw some hilariously translated signs:

The one on the left means don't throw stuff off the cliff and the one on the right

says "no scribblings" but means "don't carve stuff on the rocks".  More or less.

There was a little pool of water with a carved dragon curved around it:

And then a jade tiger.  The dragon and the tiger are supposedly guardians.  Some Chinese boys (one of whom totally took several surreptitious pictures of me) took some pics for me *of* me on the tiger:

(I like the first two, but my hair looks cool in the last two...)

They and I kinda kept pace as we walked up the mountain (while the camera happy one engineered his selfies to capture me in the background ((I know I sound vain, but I'm not making this up))).  The other guy was the only one to say anything to me and all he said was, "Yi ge ren?"  That means "alone?"  And I knew that!!!  So I said, "Uh huh", in true non-Chinese fashion. 

The Buddha was cool, but I was a bit underwhelmed.  Maybe because I had been reading hyperbolic accounts of what an amazing feat it had been to build.  It took 80 years, back in the year 1000 or so.  A hundred people can fit on one of his feet!!  Turns out that a hundred people just don't take up that much space.  I mean, he was big, don't get me wrong.  He just didn't seem very...colossal. 

That's okay, it was still really cool.  You start up by his head and then there is a very narrow very steep stair case that zigzags down the cliff beside him.  There are little grottos with other Buddhist figures carved into the cliff face on the way down.  I wonder if the workers made those on their breaks from carving the big guy.  Maybe they finished his head and carved up some mini vignettes on the side before cutting further down into the rock and freeing his shoulders. 

There was a Chinese girl in a yellow coat in front of me who was evidently afraid of heights.  She went slowly, with a bit of squealing and holding onto the girl in front of her. 

Once at the bottom, the Buddha loomed quite impressively.  They say his toenails are big enough for someone to sit on them.  I might even say that someone could dance upon them.  There was a cute fluffy pigeon parked in front of one of them:

purple sticks of incense

 Once you've seen the Buddha, you can leave or you can keep going towards the "Cave Tomb Museum".  Who can pass up that kind of invitation!?  I kept going.  It was quite a climb, with interesting vistas.

Another girl very definitely took my picture.  It was a little awkward because she stopped in the middle of the path and was taking a picture back the way she had come.  I was trying to get past her quickly to get out of her way so she could take her picture in peace.  Turns out I was her subject.  I was probably all blurry.  She should have just asked and I would've stayed put and maybe even smiled for her!

At one spot you walk down some stairs and end up in a gaggle of women in aprons and sleeve-cover things.  Obviously trying to sell stuff.  I breezed right on by until one woman came up to me and said--in English!--"Did you eat lunch?"  I was super surprised, so my default defense of brushing off any and all hawkers was overridden, and I answered her truthfully: "Not yet."  Turns out *her* restaurant has an English menu, and I ended up following her through the gauntlet of dingy food joints to her place. 
(On the way, I noticed all of this buckets of live fish swimming around.  Lunch on parade for the buyer, I presume.  Some of the fish had twine tied through their back fins, and as I watched a women reached in and pulled one of these fish out by the twine.  It writhed and wriggled in the air and I pulled out my phone to capture it's out-of-water-beauty, when suddenly the woman lifts it into the air and SLAMS that fish down onto the sidewalk!  One, two, three times and the last time she lets go of it and that's when my phone actually captured an image.

Poor fish.  Stunned, if not dead, it didn't flop around anymore as it was hung on one end of a scale.  Fascinating.

The place I ate also had buckets of fish.  There was one HUGE fish and I inspected it.  Poked it.  I think it was already dead.  Anyway, ever since our hotpot tastes-like-dirt fish fiasco, I haven't really wanted to eat fish around here, so my lunch was roasted eggplant!  Quite tasty, though I ate it wondering if it would end up making me violently ill.  I watched the woman who led me down and took my order "wash" her hands in one of the fish buckets.  Granted, the water was pouring in and running through.  Granted, she may not have been the one to cook for me.  But that bucket did have a dead fish in it...

After I saw the cool cave tomb museum, I spotted a really cool- looking covered bridge from afar, but when I got there and tried to cross it, some guy cut me off and chattered at me in Chinese.  I caught "Chengdu" a couple times, but I was otherwise completely confused.  I breathed deep, ready to immerse myself in the figure-out-what-the-heck-this-guy-wants mode, but then, heaven-sent, some friendly faces popped into view and asked, in English, "Do you need any help?" 

Turns out they were a Chinese who have been living in Australia and they were super nice.  Told me that guy was trying to sell me tickets for a bus back to Chengdu.  Um, no thanks.  But they were headed in the direction of the train station, would I like to tag along?  Yes Please!  I longingly looked over my shoulder at that tantalizing covered bridge and whatever mysteries lay beyond it, but fate had brought me some English speakers and I was not about to look that fate-gift-horse in the mouth.  They helped me out, getting me a little rickshaw to the bus stop, and then commandeering a quiet young man at the bus stop to be my guide.  Thank you!!

Now, before I get bored with telling this story...

sigh. It may be too late. 

There were some adorable old old ladies on the bus.  I gave my seat to one of them and then my young chaperone gave me his seat.  ^^ so cute.

There was a flushie toilet with toilet paper at the train station!

And I read the Wheel of Time all the way home!  Tah dah!

(it was a really fun adventure)

Yi Ge Ren For The Day

Yesterday I went out into the wide wide incomprehensible Chinese world all. by. my. self.
I am so brave.



There's a huge Buddha statue carved out of a cliff face in a place called LeShan.  It is one of the must-sees around here, so I decided that I might as well check it out.  Joel was going to get me a driver (i'm such a vip) to make the trip easier, but the finding of a reputable driver that didn't cost a million dollars was taking days (we just weren't very motivated about it), and in the end it was decided that I'd just take the high-speed train to LeShan and then the bus to the Buddha.  Plus, during our driver search, someone said, "a driver shouldn't be hard to find, but if you are adventurous, it's not a difficult trip with the public transport".  Am I adventurous...  As if I even need to ask myself that!  Pride alone ("See World!? I am Adventurous!!") might be enough to account for my lack of motivation in finding a driver. 

In the end, I went on public transit, and I lived to tell the tale, though at times it seemed like a near thing*.  It was hard enough just getting out of Chengdu!  The East train station was so weird...  There's an East Departure sign and a West Departure sign.  No clue on my ticket (at least, no clue in English) which one I needed, but someone pointed me to the East, so East I went.  You have to make your way all the way outside and then stand in line to get back in!  Someone has to check your ticket against your ID and then you have to put your bags through a scanner.  It was like the airport!  I managed to figure out which 'gate' to stand at until they scanned my ticket again and let us all onto the platform where the train was waiting and we got on.  They super regulate who goes where around here.  I looked around for a sign that this train would stop in LeShan--an itinerary, an announcement of all the stops, anything--but I just had to trust in the Chinese bureaucracy this time.  They wouldn't have let me through if I was in the wrong place, right? 
Right.
I made it to LeShan.

The LeShan train station is smallish and looks like it's in the middle of an industrial park (like all of the other train stations we stopped at, as far as I could see).  Everyone getting off the train seemed to be locals or people visiting locals... No apparent tourists...  No white people either.  With my red hair, I really do stand out.  I got on the right bus, but without any clue how to know when to get off.  I tried to look like I belonged, since that is what I always want to do in a foreign country, but in China its a hopeless case.  There wasn't even a Chinese tourist crowd to gawk with and follow around!  Tuesday mornings in January are apparently not when most tourists think to check out this super cool spot.
Oh well.  I found a seat, ignored the stares, and tried to look cool and not anxious at all.

My anxiety about being in foreign places has changed a lot over the years.  Uncertainty in a new place used to feel like any misstep would mean death.  Or maybe taking a wrong turn would mean never being seen again.  Not only that, but I would look stupid and out of place and everyone would know I didn't belong.  Which would be even worse. 
This time around, though, I already looked out of place and there was nothing to be done about that.  And I've learned that almost any misstep can be fixed.  Don't know where to get off?  Ride to the end of the line, turn around and try again.  Miss your train?  Buy a new ticket.  And if ALL ELSE FAILS, walk.  I'm good at walking.

I got off the bus at a likely looking stop.  It was likely looking because it had signs with "Tourist Year 2015" on them.  Turns out it was a long, empty, pedestrian path with Chinese-y buildings on either side that supposedly would house souvenir shops and food stalls in the tourist season.  At this time of year, it was a ghost town.  Random lone people wandering along.  One mother with a baby playing with bubbles.  Happily there were a couple food stalls to serve the oddball tourists like me. 

I stopped at one with a lady running it alone.  Less indimidating to talk to than a cluster of Chinese ladies..  And this particular Chinese lady turned out to be the easiest Chinese person to try to speak Chinese to that I've found so far!!  She didn't get louder when I didn't understand her.  She helped me figure out how much more money I owed her by miming things and counting on her fingers and pointing to which bills.  And when I decided to tell her everything about my life that I knew how to say in Chinese (I'm from Boston, my boyfriend works in Chengdu, I'm learning Chinese, and that's about it), she asked me questions about myself that I understood and ANSWERED!!  She made me feel so good.  Hats off to you, Friendly Lady.  Thank you for making me feel like Chinese is not impossible!  Plus she had good wanton soup which I devoured, however spicy the skewered bread-puffs-stuffed-with-carrot-slivers were.

I wandered all the way through this deserted ChineseWorld street and along the basically empty parking lot.  There were signs in English pointing towards the Buddha, so I knew if I kept walking (Trust In Your Feet!) I'd make it eventually. 

At that moment, I happened to glance across the street and saw a cave mouth half-way up the bluff that abuts the road.  Lo and behold, there was also a stair. 

stair to the left, cave about at the top of the lamppost.  See!?

This was right next to a closed parking lot, but the stairs weren't blocked off, so I darted across the road and started climbing.  Turns out the cave I saw was only a tunnel that lead to MORE stairs!  How mysterious!!  I climbed up and up, turning corners and always finding more steps, with greenness growing all around, dead leaves carpeting the stairs, and the mist (smog?) obscuring any view. 


And then suddenly there was a cluster of abandoned houses with a Chinese gate (two posts and a roofed lintel) out front. 

I *really really* wanted to explore, but as I stared at that gate, I couldn't bring myself to cross under it.  What if it was a portal to another dimension?  What if it would change me--or possess me--as I walked through it?  What if it would set off alarms that only the Gate Keepers could hear, and then they'd come and tear me apart?  What. If.  A big spider dropped on my head? 
All of these possibilities and more crossed my mind.  So I walked around the gate instead.

The place was thoroughly abandoned.  Rotting leopard-upholstered chair.  Abandoned bowls coated in dirt.  Strange holes in the ground. 

I called out as I walked closer, hoping that if a violent hobo lived in the ruins, he would be able to keep quiet and hide (instead of attack) if I warned him of my approach.  Once I got right up around the buildings, though, I started stepping very quietly.  The place looked like zombies could be holed up around any corner, just waiting for a warm-blooded human to make too much noise and rouse them from their starving stupor.

And once that lovely thought entered my mind, I tiptoed my way around the gate and back to the stairway.  And then headed upwards once more.  There were a couple unpaved paths veering off to the left and the right, but I wanted to go to the very top.  So up and up and up..  There was one more abandoned building on the way, and then the sky!  Which, of course, was white like the sky always is here.  But the top of the hill/cliff/bluff thing was cultivated!  Little patches of garden with growing things recently tended!  I took a picture, but there was no view to speak of (silly fog/smog) and I didn't want to intrude where people clearly came, so I headed back down pretty quickly. 

Cool, huh?  I'm super intrepid, am I not?  Adventurous, one might even say?  Haha, take that, World!

(This part is secret:  on the way down, I stopped at that first cluster of abandoned buildings and took a bowl that was sitting, all dirty, in the doorway of one of the houses.  No one wanted it!  It was abandoned!  It has pink flowers around the rim!  Maybe it is covered in zombie virus, but it is coming home with me as a souvenir of how daring I can be when I am wandering all alone in foreign lands.  And to remind me to take the stairs if I'm ever curious.)


Here ends Part I of Yi Ge Ren For The Day





*The nearest near things were in the squatter toilets that don't provide toilet paper.  And there are some times of the month when that is a worse thing than others.  Yeah.  Free advice for you: when traveling in China, BYOTP.

A Positive Chinese 'Speaking' Experience

The other day I saw an adorable cat. 

She was on a leash in one of the sidewalk-side one-room shops.  See her in the middle?  Standing on all the packages on the counter?  I couldn't resist that craning little head.  I went up and let her smell my fingers and she was friendly so I petted her--she was so little with HUGE yellow-gold eyes! So cute!!  Her owner was sitting out of sight behind the counter.  What followed then was what I would call a successful conversation!  I called his cat "hen piaoliang" (very pretty) and *even* asked him if it was a male or female ("nu-de, nan-de?").  And he told me she was a she.  That was it.  She nibbled on my fingers a bit, he scolded her, I shrugged because I figured that meant she liked me.  Then I said thanks and left. 

Tah dah!  My language attempts have not been entirely futile! 

^^

Chinese Old People Doing Cool Things, Plus Bottle-Fed Goldfish

On one of my walks last week, I wandered through a park and came across Chinese people doing all kinds of outdoor activities.  I learned that the Chinese yo-yo is not just for street artists and that dancing in the street actually happens in China and no one gets embarrassed.  I think my favorite were the guys writing Chinese characters in water on the slate sidewalks with giant brush-shaped sponges.  Look!

And now for the amazing gravity-defying top-spinner man!!

I saw a group of old ladies in matching velour suits doing tai chi.  One of these days, I'm going to join a group like that.  It looks wonderfully centering and refreshing.

A group of old guys surrounded a cluster of benches, where some of their number were playing games.  Maybe Mahjong?  Or Chinese Chess?  The group was scattered with parked scooters and even one guy getting a hair cut on a barber chair!

Then there was a really dirty sign for what looked like feeding goldfish in a pond with a baby bottle.

Joel was skeptical but read the Chinese and confirmed that that's what it said.  And youtube turns up some supporting evidence! 

Surprise surprise!  Fish like drinking out of bottles!

Food Here Is Different (Duh)

Grocery stores are the weirdest here.  I went in this time with the simple task of finding baking soda and salt.  Just table salt.  Just baking soda.  I wandered around the store for half an hour looking for them on my own.  I found aisles full of soy sauce:

and shelves upon shelves of MSG:

all msg's

but no table salt.  Eventually someone led me to it, after correcting my pronounciation.  (I pronounced the vowel wrong, I have no idea what I said.  I pronounced the tone wrong and I said "salted" the adjective rather than "salt" the noun.  sigh.)  Salt was on the very bottom shelf in the very far corner of the soy sauce aisle.  There was only one type, one brand.  Some generic bagged rock salt--but it seems normal enough to me so now it's in Joel's salt shaker.

The baking soda... I asked someone to help me find it, but they led me to dried yeast.  Not the same.  I even had my Chinese app open with the six different possible ways to say it.  Finally the store person brought me to another store person who works in the "Imported Foods" section and she found it for me.  Joel told me that Chinese people don't bake much, but that's just crazy!

There were lots of other oddities at the grocery store...  Tanks full of live fish (some of the fish were swimming upsidedown, I'm not sure what that means), bins full of unpackaged raw ground meat (you scoop it out yourself).  Of course all of the odd bird things.  Piles of chicken feet.  Piles of chicken feet mixed with chopped raw onions and peppers.  Whole bird bodies, defeathered, flopped in mounds.  Hardly anything pre-packaged.  I'm not a germ freak, but I could've sneezed onto every single one of those meat heaps.  Strangely large fruit things.  And strangely small mangos.  Oo!  They have egg cartons, but they also *bag* eggs.  Which seems like an unnecessary risk to me..  Then they had bins full of tea ingredients, like chamomile flowers or rose buds or...other flowery tea-like things.  And TANG!  They have lots of Tang! 

I bought two tubes of stuff, one strawberry and one original flavored.  The picture on the tubes says this stuff goes on toast.  Or on fruit.  Or...to make popsicles?  It's Nestle, "Eagle Brand", and it was near the cans of sweetened condensed milk.  I'm wondering if it is sweetened condensed milk spread.

\
\
I just tasted it, and I'm so right!  Well, now I have two tubes of it. 
\
It's pretty tasty.
\
I wonder why Americans don't eat sweetened condensed milk as a dessert-y thing.  According to Huffington Post, sweetened condensed milk "can completely transform a dish, and might even transform you".  High praise.
\
\
\
Oo!  Apparently you *can* use it to make popsicles!!  Huh:  one can of sweetened condensed milk plus 2.5 cups of liquid like pureed fruit.  Sounds like a winner!  It pays to be food-adventurous!!!!

Sometimes it doesn't, though.  On my way out of the store, there was a guy with a stand selling some candy/dried fruit-like things.  I almost passed him, but then I was like, "I want to know what that is!  I want to taste it!  So the next time I pass him, I'll know what it is I'm not buying!".  So I stopped and asked for "yi ge" (one of) each.  Could it be simpler than that?  NEXT TIME COULD IT ACTUALLY BE THAT SIMPLE!?!?  He, of course, asked me a clarifying question.  In Chinese.  Because even though I'm pretty sure I asked something really simple, it can never be that simple.  In the end, I got a whole bag full of these two candy things.  Sigh.  At least it just cost a dollar.  Guess what my office-mates are getting from me when I get home...  ^^



Here follows a small photo gallery of all the weird things I have seen in Carrefour today.

 That last picture...I can't be sure, but I have a feeling that they are duck embryos.  Delicious?  :(