Kimonos

Japan has some of the most beautiful textiles that I have ever seen. The patterns on traditional clothing are breathtaking.

Cherry Blossom Festival

I'm know I've been very lazy about posting to this blog. Hopefully some more pictures from Japan will make up for it.

Each year the Japanese come out in swarms to celebrate the arrival of the cherry blossoms. The parks are filled will people relaxing under the trees and enjoying a few drinks (or sometimes a few too many) with friends. It is really quite an event to witness. I was great to see people appreciatie the beauty of nature. Everywhere you turned you saw someone taking a picture of the blossoms. If you ever get the chance to travel to Japan, try to plan it for the festival.

Food in Japan

More Thailand Photos

Images of water

When you think of any travel postcard from a tropical island images of aqua water, white sand, and palm trees may come to mind. You may also think (if you're a graphic designer) how many hours of Photoshop did it take for the postcard to look that good? After visiting Phuket, I can now say those type of places actually exist. It's really not photoshop magic afterall!

Thailand Animals

This past week David and I had a time off from school for Chinese New Years. After spending part of it in Shanghai, we flew to Thailand for the rest of our holiday. We stayed in Bangkok and Phuket, each for a few days.

I fell in love with Thailand. The country is beautiful, the people are kind, the food is amazing and their animals are awesome. I can't wait to go back. Instead of giving day by day details about the trip I figured it would be easier to break my posts into themes. This first one is all about animals.

We interacted with a variety of local animals while in Phuket. During our second day there David, Jackie and I decided to take an elephant ride up a small mountain. Jackie and I sat in a seat laced to the elephant's back, while David rode on its neck. (Can you imagine the amount of strength their necks must have?) The ride up the mountian was frightening at times. I was on the side of the elephant that was closest to cliffs. So with every slow step the elephant took it looked like we we just a few inches away from tumbling into a ravine. (I'm sure we were in no actual danger. I'm sure it was the perspective that just skewed my view.) On the way back down, it was Jackie's turn to be on the side the closest to the cliffs. Jackie, who had previously reassured me that we were in no real danger saw what I was freaking about about. We both were very happy when we go back to the base camp. I was so pleased to still be alive that I insisted on taking our picture with our elephant guide.

Later that afternoon we took a tour to James Bond Island. I will post about it at a later point. On the way there we stopped at a cave temple. Outside were tons of monkeys swinging from the trees and eating bananas out of your hands. I had never been that close to a monkey before. They are so cute! They really are like small little people.

On another day we took a snorkeling and swimming tour of other small islands. (Sorry no pictures) We were able to explore several coral reefs. The colors of the fish were unbelieveable! It seemed like every fish was irradescent. Stay away from the pink and brown ones if you ever go. They bite!

Year of the Pig

Xin Nian Kuai Le!!!

For our first Chinese New Year in China, David and I expected an evening of non-stop craziness. With about 70% of Shanghai's population leaving the city to visit their home villages, all we got was an evening of blissfully traffic free roads, great North Eastern Chinese food with friends, a lion dance, and a few days of solid firecrackers.

Orphange visit

The Middle School and High School community service clubs volunteer their time on Saturdays mornings at a local orphange. This weekend I decided to join them. I was surprised to find that the orphange is very close to school. I've passed it several times a week and never knew it was there. Now, I can't help but think about the kids every time I go by.

I had never been to an orphange before so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was actually a very nice orphange. It's one of China's model facilities. It was large, clean, and well heated.

I volunteered in the infant/toddler section. The room had about 20 babies and two woman taking care of them. All the kids, even the really young ones, were in those rolling seat things. (I'm not sure of their exact name.) When the volunteers came in all the kids started rolling towards us all at once. The smarter kids started crying so that they would be picked up right away. The other ones just passively waited their turn for some attention. After playing with the kids for about an hout it was time for lunch. The women brought in two large pots of a rice/soup/veggie/egg/pork mixture. Every child got the same amount of food, even the really little ones. They were definately not lacking for food. The bowls were big enough for adults to eat out of. After you shoveled food into one child's mouth, and I do mean shoveled, you moved onto the next. After lunch it was time for bed. All the beds were in the same room. I can't even imagine what it must sound like when one child wakes up from their nap. It must be a chain reaction of cries.

I didn't realize how many babies were at this facility until we left. We passed room after room of babies. Around 100 babies reside there. This really jarred me. It's really hard to imagine all these kids growing up without parents. It makes me want to take every single one of them home.

Harbin

This past weekend David and I took a short trip to Harbin. Harbin is in the north of China, about 2.5 hours from Shanghai to be exact. It gets very cold there. At times it can be somewhere between 0 and -15 degrees. Upon hearing this you may be thinking why in the world would anyone in their right mind voluntarily go to a place that cold? The big draw of Harbin is their annual snow and ice festival. Artists from around the world come to China and compete in ice and snow sculpting competitions. I have never seen such amazing sculptures, especially those made out of snow and ice. If you ever come to China in the winter Harbin is something not to be missed.

Back in China

After a thankfully uneventful flight, David and I arrived safely in China about a week ago. It actually felt kind of nice to get back. It was neat to ride back from the airport and be able to see things that I recognized. It made China feel a little bit like home. It was also nice to get back to school. The kids were all clamering to tell me about all the exciting places they went to over the vacation. The kids went to placce like South Africa, Malayasia, Japan, and most importantly, Hong Kong Disney world. This certainly isn't the States.

Not everything about coming back to China has been nice. Our Ayi (maid) lied to us about the amount of time she spent taking care of our cats. She said that she was here 24 hours a day. I highly doubt that because Oscar looked like he lost several pounds over the few weeks we were away. She also changed her story several times when questioned by my amazing classroom assistant, Michelle. So after several days of stress and drama, David and I decided to let her go. She knew it was coming because by the time we got home from school she was already packed. It was perhaps the most difficult thing I've ever had to do to another person. She was crying the entire time she was packing her stuff. It killed me, bt then again she brought these events onto herself. This was not how I pictured spending my first birthday in China.

Culture shock

David warned me about having culture shock when we returned to the States. I didn't believe him at first. I thought "Why am I going to be shocked in my own country? I've lived here for 30 years." But now all this has changed. Since coming back to the States I've learned never to doubt my husband! He knows what he's talking about (well sometimes. Sorry babe.) I wouldn't say that what I am experiencing is shock so much. It's more like noticing the differences between here and China. Here's a list of things that have stood out so far....

1. American money is green. In the Chicago airport David gave me some money to buy some food. When he handed me a 20 it looked so fake. My first thought was "Why isn't this pink? And where is Chairman Mao's picture?"

2. There are so many white people here. After being an ethnic minority for so long, it was strange to see so many white people in one place. It was even stranger seeing Hispanics and African Americans. You don't see a lot of them in China. It feels really good to see such cultural diversity.

3. Cinnabon is god.I had forgotten how sweet and luscious they tasted. Hmm...maybe I'll open my own branch in China.

4. How much material would it take to make hip hop clothes in China? You do not see hip hop styled clothes in Shanghai at all. I had even forgotten that's how some people dress. I can't imagine how I managed to do that especially since I spent two years teaching in Harlem.

5. It's lovely wearing a seat belt.There are no seat belts in the backs of cabs in China. When you get into a cab you are playing Russian Roulette.

6. It's also lovely breathing clean air. While Shanghai is supposedly working on their pollution problems, the air quality isn't always the best. There are some days where I don't want to open the windows.

7. Yes, bottled water is expensive. In the airport I paid about $3 for a bottle of water. This would be the equivalent of 24 rmb (Chinese currency) The same bottle of water in China would cost between 1-3 rmb. You do the math.

Well, it's 5:00am US time. I suppose now is a good time to try and get some sleep. Darn jet lag! Stay tuned for more examples of culture shock. I'm sure there will be many more!

I'm still here!

I know it's been forever since my last post. There have been a few technical difficulties in terms of posting to this blog. Or, actually, I should say one difficulty, China. The government has once again decided to block blogspot. Luckily, David found a solution. Yay for David!

There's not too much to report on these days. Most of my time is spent doing school stuff and runnning errands. I have been working on a website of my students' work. I used iweb on the mac so forgive the fact that the design is kind of sloppy. It's not as slick as Dreamweaver. To see my students artwork visit: http://search.saschina.org/sajan