Saturday Stroll

Last weekend, Catherine, Bill and I set out on a random stroll. We meet for lunch and then headed out into the city. With no agenda we would arrive at a street corner at which time one of would say right or left and that was the direction we headed. We find this a great way to find something new and off the "tourist" scene.

What we found was a Buddhist temple. I don't know the name of temple or what the history is....everything is in Chinese, we are in China - you know.

***Up the steps we go....., oops, didn't pay our 10 yuan. Got to do that first.....***

***Is this the offical pose for China? Just don't look right when a man strikes the pose. Bill put your hand down. Who loves you babe?***

***Buddha alter****

***Prayer Candles***

 

 

 

***Another Alter***

***Bell Tower***

***Love the Elephants***

***I am sure this is some special monk

but don't know who he is.***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***We found another peice to the

Nanjing Wall***

 

 

 

***Neighborhood outside the temple.***

Aimless Minded

I am all over the place right now - not physically but MENTALLY.
I have been trying to figure out what I am doing with myself and where I am going? “Where are you going?” Sorry, a little Dave Matthews moment.
This is one of the down sides of the expat wife-life, the constant state of aimlessness. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it is nice not being bombarded with the chaos of my typical day in the US and I uncomfortable complaining because the reality is, my life is easy; easy and indulgent.
I don’t work. I have a cleaning lady three days a week. I workout three mornings a week with a professionally trained coach; I go out to lunch with “the ladies” twice a week, more than that most weeks. I get a foot/shoulder massage once a week and every other week a full manicure and pedicure. I go to the hair salon every 8 weeks for a cut and color.
All of these indulgences are something that I never did when we were stateside. I never had a massage before moving here, who can afford it? Mani/pedi’s were a new treat that I had just recently discovered but rarely indulged due to the price and time consumption. Working out, yeah right, no time, no energy and no money – and trust me, I have to pay someone to keep me in line with the whole exercise portion of my week. Hair treatments…..hahaha, please refer to my pictures from Pre-China and Early China Days. Does it look like I spent a lot of time and money getting my wild woman mane pampered? I was just moments away from getting it all locked. (Which if I could of found someone I trusted, it would have been done.) I MISS my hair, love the short do but still miss my wild hair.
So why am I so unsatisfied with my cushy universe?
I know part of the problem…I am bored, I am bored and oh, I am bored. Doesn’t that sound like I am suffering from the princess complex?
I am now a little more empathetic to Miss Britney Spears, if you can do most anything you want and you do….well, you get bored. You skirt with disaster till you either snap out of it and grow up or you become a train wreck and the universe watches you implode. Am I in danger of going Britney on you? No, but I did cut off all my hair…hmmmmm? No really, nothing so dramatic. However, I did hear tell of a fellow expat throwing a bag of coffee towards a security guard at the IKEA last week. She didn’t throw it at him just in his space. I must admit I laughed since it has crossed all of our minds here at one point or another. Another friend was trying to exchange a defective iron at a local home store and it took everything she had (and the thought of Chinese prison conditions) not to throw the iron through the plate glass window. A lot of this anxiety is due to the language barriers.
I do well most days and I am also aware that I am in THEIR country. I am the interloper in their world so I need to be more flexible. I get that. I also know that the Chinese idea of customer service is nowhere near as developed as well, anywhere in the world. This culture is growing so fast that they cannot wrap their minds around the changes. You have to think that WWII they were invaded by the Japanese and decimated, particularly Nanjing. Horrific experience. The Empire (horrific times for the non royals, hell, the royals were killing each other off too) ruled up till communism and then you had Chairman Mao who basically kept the country in a submissive third world state. I am not read enough on the timelines or history to speak authoritatively but this is what I do know.
The people in the developed city of Nanjing still poo in a trough. Many of the residences do not have bathrooms and they use a public loo. Many of these loos are troughs, okay, do you understand…they have to poo in a little trench where the matter is washed out by either rains or cleaning personnel. I question the cleaning personnel because you have NO IDEA what these loo’s smell like….imagine the house with 8 million cats and one kitty litter box that is cleaned once a month. Got me?
If you figure they government is still a supporter of public loo’s instead of proper plumbing, can you imagine their take on customer service?
YOU ASK WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH ME AND MY PRINCESS COMPLEX – HOW?
Doesn’t - I said I was just all over the place. My mind goes from one subject to another without even a blinker to warn you… Princess – Britney – Train wreck – Customer Service – Poo…makes perfect sense to me.
You should see me when I am out in public. It really is like….”Oh, Shiny things.” Off I go to aimlessly wander among the shiny things of life.

Weekly Highlights

The other evening Bill and I returned from errands and decided to get dinner from the Clubhouse in our compound. Bill went to the gym and I went to order our food. In the dining area there was a table occupied by 5 Chinese folks. I am guessing it was mom, dad, grandma, grown daughter and possible son in law. They had already ordered their food and was awaiting its arrival. A man and little girl walked in before me and they were ordering while I reviewed the menu. My turn came and through my limited language skills, about equal to that of a 2 year old, I ordered our food for take away. Our typical order is Kungpao Chicken, Green Beans, Sweet and Sour tenderloin and rice. I walked to the gym area to talk with Bill while I waited on the food to be done. Bored with that I returned to the dining room to wait.

The family had received their meal as had the father and the little girl, I believe she was around 3 or 4 years old. As I watch the families, since open lurking is a sport in China and no one seems to be bothered by being blatantly watch.

The father is spoon feeding the girl. Okay, get her to try it. As a parent we have all been there, no, this is more like the kid will no feed herself at all. She cannot sit still either. I mean she is all over the place to the point that she is sitting more at my table then at her own and her father is well, okay with it. She keeps jumping up and running over to the table in the corner were the condiments are placed.
I watch this will a little irritation, it seems the kids in China for the most part are out of control. I feel that this is all due to the one child laws enacted in the 70's.

A couple has a child (one child) more then likely both set of grandparents are alive. The wife's parents are the one's that have the market on the grandbaby and will spend the remainder of their years doting on this child. The father's parents will do the same but it seems the wife's family is most active. So you have this one tiny person that has 4 adults at their bidding and more than likely 6. So this tiny undeveloped human has but to grunt and people are all over them trying to make life wonderful and perfect. This creates something of a demon child. I cannot tell you the number of kids I have witnessed have a good old fashioned hissy fit, I am talking stomping, screaming, I am gonna die tantrum. While the adults just watch and in many cases, laugh. Ha Ha Ha, my grandchild is being funny. Ha ha ha, isn't he cute. Jesus people, wake up.

This brings me to this little angel of delight in the dining room. Daddy or maybe grandpa (I really couldn't tell) is spoon feeding Angel and she is now folding herself in half and sticking her head under the table. I am thinking this is an improvement to the running back and forth chattering in her uncontrolled volume Chinese babble. I was so wrong...
.
Angelic One is putting her head under the table so she can SPIT her food out on the floor. Daddy didn't get what she was doing....he is shoveling the food in faster...saying things like, "Good Girl, Yum Yum, Very Good. More More..." all the while she is smiling and showing him that it as all gone. Yeah, right.

The waitress brought out my bag a, I could not get out of there fast enough. By the time I left the food was nearly 4 inches high. I just want to smack her....

Polite disclaimer: Photos borrowed from bing.com