East meets West

"So how long have you been here?"

Sinus Infection or Bird Flu?

Taken longer than anticipated to get some of these postings up and out to the masses. My people. My people. My people. As you read this please be humming: Gloria Gaynor 1970's Classic - I will Survive.

Every time two polarized cultures tried to cohabitat an area, someone got sick and normally died. Pilgrims/Indian, Spanish/Mexican, French/American, British/African, British/Egyptian, British/India. During all these explorations when two try to become one there is germs to mix and mingle that can be not so gooda. (Chinese cannot say good - it comes out gooda.)

Also please don't grade me on my history of invasions/settlements. My point is that when you go in a foreign land your body is not acclimated to the various germs and people get sick. They infect you and you infect them.

For our little experiment that someone is going to be me - minus the death part. Thank God for modern medicine. All I know is a sneezed really hard on Monday night and felt things plug, too bad it wasn't my bladder. Too much information. Sorry. Tuesday, I had a meeting at Derek's school at 830 by noon, I had fever and couldn't breathe. Wednesday, more of the same but I found the Vick's Dayquil I brought from the US and some nasal spray Bill got from the local doctor. Wednesday night, fever broke but still cannot breathe. Thursday (today) no fever, but nose is running like Niagara Falls. My nose is so red from wiping, snorting and blowing that I look like Rudolph's Cracked Out Sister.

Funny thing is that when you are not at "home" and you know there are things in the air that you would rather not come into contact with you freak out a little. Thus sinus infection or raging case of bird flu. Damn Tango and Cash.

Lurking from the 6th Floor

I spend a large percentage of my day just observing my new community. There is a simple rhythm to life in our complex.

Most families are up and moving around 0600. You can usually find numerous grandparents out in the play area with the little ones till 0900. Some of the elderly are doing their morning exercises which can be walking, tai chi or an elegant dance movement to the sounds of morning. There is one elderly lady that tickles my fancy, she walks around the courtyard forward and then walks the courtyard backwards. I am assuming it is a balance exercise. While the families are out and about the gardeners start there day – there are a team of maintenance personnel in the complex. Men and women that spend their day taking care of the building and the grounds. There are hundreds of trees from maples to palms. Most I do not recognize but if I read Chinese many of them have plaques about their species. We also have dozens of water features and bamboo groves. It is truly lovely to walk around here, especially at night when everything is lit up.

The common areas in each building are cleaned daily. The lady that maintains our building is a robust woman that speaks no English. I laughed one day because she got in the elevator with me just to see what this white woman is doing. I say hi - she says hi and then she was embarrassed. Yes, women here do cover their faces when they get embarrassed. Every day this lady cleans the stairwell, elevators, apartment doorways and the entries. She wipes down the walls and the mailboxes.

The Gardeners: Masters of Adaptation

The other day, while on the phone with Travis, I heard a generator running. Strange. I go out on to the balcony facing the play area and there is a gardener with a tricycle that I do believe Hitler himself rode, it was that old. Behind the seat was a large trashcan full of soapy water and behind that was the generator. Someone had rigged a pump into the can to spray the water onto the higher areas of the trees. The trees were getting a bath. You think why not just use the hose. Sorry, no spigots here. Really, the things we take for granted are not the norm. At some point and time some little Chinese dude sat in his shed and made this thing. Wise man.

I am sitting on the balcony, again, several days later. One of the gardeners brings out this ladder. OSHA never approved of this thing, I promise. People don’t make “real” money here. We have already covered this. Employers don’t spend money on equipment either. This guy made his own ladder. It looked to be made from pallets. Tiny steps and a burlap bag as a “holding area” between the steps, he took some more substantial boards and nailed them diagonally to give more support to the structure. Up and down he went never once not trusting his creation. What he was doing though was more of a concern to me then how he was doing it….he stripped all the leaves off of two small trees in front of my building. What is that about? Best guess is that the leaves never shed on that type of tree so if you make it shed it will grow back fuller. (Uncle Johnny if you have better idea – let me know.)
And we won’t even discuss the guys that were hanging off the roof by one rope and a piece of wood for a seat to paint the concrete slabs around the windows. Did I mention our buildings are 12 stories high? Those dudes were like Jackie Chan!

The residents of Renheng Bamboo Gardens, my complex, disappear till around 4pm. The little ones and families started arriving in the play areas, the water fountains are turned back on, the business people are coming home and out walking their dogs. The dogs here are mainly small breeds; Pomeranian, Poodles, Pekingese, Shelties with the occasional Lab, all of which look exactly like the pictures in the AKC books. Some of the families are walking to the local eateries or the grocery store to pick up dinner. The fridges here are tiny, like dorm room tiny. The mass wanderings go on till 9 – 10 then all is silent till the following morning. Unless you need to have fireworks, last night, one building over, had a huge firework display for whatever reason that went on for 15 minutes nonstop. In china you use fireworks for everything, new job, boom, new home, boom, new baby, boom, new furniture, boom, kid made poopoo in the potty, boom, just damned happy to be here, boom.

Weekend Report: Aug 22 - 24, 2008

Friday night was dinner at this hole in the wall local place, four tables in whole main dining area. Golden Fish is a rough translation of the name. Food was good. Spicy fish soup - not as bad as it sounds. Dinner consisted of beef with veggies, chicken with peanut and spicy peppers, green beans with onions, mushrooms and garlic, tofu and noodles with sweet spice glaze, rice and a couple other dishes. You can go to places like that and eat like kings for next to nothing. Dinner for 7 cost 345RMB which is less than $50. Amazingly, $14 of that was on Coke, if we all drank the hot tea it would have only been $36 for dinner for seven. Prior to dinner we walked the Fugimiao area for shopping for Dan (New Dan) to bring back to his family in Michigan.

Sat. Bill and I went to the bank, which took over an hour. It is not like American banks were you just stand in line. You take a number and wait. We were 30 numbers back and it took nearly an hour add time to get there and back. Once we got back home we took off again to go stroll through this gorgeous park which translates to White Egret Garden. It is close to our house and walking through it put us into a street market for locals, not tourist. Bill and I bought some odds and ends (hammer/nails)-$2, beads $12.50, an old kaleidoscope - $18, a couple house plants - $9 and two birds with all accessories -$21. You have to counter offer on everything. They see that you are western and jack up the prices. Sometimes I just pay it....Like the house plants - for that price I got two huge potted plants that flower. They are both health and unique. I know it is more than a local would pay but really, $9. I can buy a one half dead plant in a 2" peat pot for that at Wal-Mart, not a big nice plant in a clay pot.
The kaleidoscope started at 300RMB which is around $43. I thought it was cool and you can tell it older but not $43 cool. I got him down to 200 but still too high. We kept walking. I picked up the beads, they are some type of green stone hand carved with Buddha face on each side. He started out at 180 and I got down to 100. The birds I paid full asking price. As we are walking back through the market to catch a taxi, guy with kaleidoscope comes running up to us and dropped the price to 175, me-100, guy 160, me - 100, guy - 150, me - 125. Guy goes ok ok ok. Negotiations are funny that way. If they see you walk away - if they follow you down you know you got some leverage. I probably could have got him down to 100 but really 25rmb is $3, you feel crappy sometimes because by our standards - these people are poor.

The birds names are Tango and Cash. (1980's Kurt Russell/Sylvester Stallone buddy/cop movie.) I finally found what breed they are on the internet; both are Java Rice Sparrows/Finches. This is weird......they guy who has the website that I was finally able to match up their markings is in....wait for it.....wait for it.......NEW IBERIA, La. (my hometown for those of you that didn’t know) Really, he is talking about how when he was a little kid (70’s) his mom and him would go the TG & Y to shop and he would go back to the pet section and look at the Java Rice Birds. I am going how bizarre- MawMaw and I used to do the same thing, she’d shop and I would go to look at animals. From what I have read the breed was outlawed from importation in the 70's due to their ability to destroy rice fields. They like to eat the rice. New Iberia = Konrico Rice. I don't anticipate them living as long as I plan on being here and if they do I will give them to someone. They chirp off and on all day and I like the company.

Sat. night we were taken out to eat by some locals to a fancy shmancy place. It was beautiful with the koi ponds and lighting. The food however was not so good. There was a green bean dish that I really liked and a squash dish. I really could become a vegetarian here. Thank god for rice and fruit. The guys that invited us out to eat are great though. Mr. Hu and Sean. Mr. Hu works in restaurant supply and Sean works with the government I think. Bill met them at the 77 Club which is a great hang out with great music. The guys took Bill under their wing and have been very gracious to our family. It was a fun evening followed by drinks at the 77. Nice, good people.

Sunday all of us went out with the Garza family that lives upstairs. We went to a different street market. (Yes, I love it. I hate "mall shopping", street markets are a blast.) I haggled over a couple shirts. Finding stuff to fit me is a problem and you know we don't try on clothes. I didn't want to do that in the states in my nice air conditioned stores why would I do that here......no air conditioning, no amenities, no freaking way. If I pay for a shirt and it don't fit then my loss and Aye’s (the cleaning lady) family gain. Aye is going to be the best dressed residential technician china has ever seen.Bill was on a mission to find me yarn for knitting. I brought a bunch of needles and hooks but little yarn. Bill knew he had seen a yarn store or two in one area but damned if he could remember where it was exactly. So we spent six hours wondering in the general area on Sunday. We stopped for lunch of tenderloin and veggie rice for two was $5.00 - drank the tea. We found this underground clothing market that was four levels of clothes for the family and one level was nothing but shoes, glorious shoes. I will definitely be spending some time wondering through that during the week. Yes, ma'am. Then out of know where - WE FOUND THE YARN. I bought 8 balls which I know would have cost me at least $40 for $15. Then we found a fabric store that had this really neat fabric but I have no sewing machine. I played charades with the girl working there and she got that I liked it and wanted a skirt so she and I folded the material a couple different ways. Agreed and she went to a back room and made my skirt for me in about 20 minutes. BAM, new skirt for $20.

Dinner for Thirteen

Birthday Dinner at Aladdin's: August 16, 2008

Left to Right:

Mrs. Li (coworker living in Nanjing, been great help to our family),

Brock (coworker from Michigan here for a month),

Bill, Me, Derek,

George(son of Olga and Jorge),

Olga (wife of Jorge, will be in Nanjing till next summer),

Irving (son of Olga and Jorge),

Jorge (coworker living here in Nanjing),

Priscilla (daughter of Olga and Jorge),

Alan and Helen (Husband and Wife, locals to Nanjing, I am helping Alan with English comprehension so he may continue law studies in the US.)

Mr. Li (tour guide/interpreter/great guy)took the photo.

Great meal, Great Friends, Good Lord - I am 40.

Forty the New Thirty?

I had the thrill of turning 40 a couple weekends ago and I am here to say that 40 is the number after 39. I don’t feel any different or any younger that is for damn sure. The knees still ache and the ass is still heading south. When did my jaw line start to resemble a basset hound? Isn’t there a law that you are supposed to receive a memo or something when you start to sag? You know the guys from Extreme Ass Makeover show up at your door like Publishers Clearing House and say, “Darling, you are not defying gravity. You must get it together before you look like Jabba the Hut, honey.”
Yes, I have seen myself in a mirror. Wonderful thing about a delusional mind is that you see what you want to see. I know that I am storing extra pounds in most available compartments. I know that my hormones are making hair where it shouldn’t and graying hair where it needn’t but one word for you, denial. Pluck and Deny.
China will be the new weight loss gold mine. I assure you. The food is not so great most of the time – when it is good you don’t eat as much because your stomach has shrunk and you wonder how your body is going to react in several hours. You take it easy and don’t eat like you do in the US. You get an extra heaping of exercise. I have no car, just my little scooter. You park and you walk, a lot. Up and down stairs, you carry everything you buy or need like a pack mule going through the Grand Canyon. So stretch, bend, lift and walk. Walk, walk, walk.

My goal is to stay like the Basset and not end up looking like a Shar Pei.