Sunday, 2/24/2008

I thought it would be better to go by date, rather than just entry, since they will post according to date anyways.

It's been a really long day, and it's hard for me to imagine that all has taken place in JUST a day! Mark and I have been crashing, dead tired, by 9 pm, but then waking up around 3 am, seemingly wide awake....but able to stay in bed and fall back asleep...then waking up several times between then and morning...between 7 and 9. Last night was no different, and we knew we'd have to get up on the earlier side for all of us to be ready to go to a meeting in the larger neighboring town (G2). We were able to get back to sleep, but woke up early...and got going to meet someone at the bus station here, who knew where the meeting was at. We all took the bus together, about a 30 minute ride, and walked from the bus stop point to the home where the meeting was being held.

It was funny, as we approached their home (an apartment, like most here have) several kids were coming by on skates saying hello to our "guide". I didn't realize that there would be so many kids there....or so many people...from all over the world. It was quite nice, a few hours long, and then we all went to lunch together (not everyone came to lunch, but there were 16 of us!) We had great food, and conversation, and it was fun to be challenged in new ways (like J2 getting 3 roasted peanuts, which have the shells on and are a bit slippery) on his chop sticks...and actually to his mouth!!

After lunch, one of the newer young couples joined J/J, Mark and I and we took other buses to another section of town, to the Bird and Flower Market. This was a much larger marketplace, and in addition to the food vendors we had seen closer to their home, this market had animal vendors (cats, dogs, birds and fish...as well as rats, mice, snakes, turtles...and a few we're not sure of!!), lots of floral vendors, plants, medicinal people who sold herbs (and mixed them according to your ailment), teas and other dried foods (mushrooms, herbs, etc), tofu (LOTS of tofu!), nuts, seeds, and other hand crafted items too...baskets, wind chimes, jewelry...and of course other manufactured things like tools and stuff.

The market was really large, and it was quite a site to see. We'll likely try to get back there one day later this week.

From there, we took other buses and went to one of the Walmart stores to get some items for around the house. Then we came back home (around 5:30??) on a CRAZY bus ride (Mark filmed parts of it, and will post it later this week). After putting groceries away at the apartment, we went over to a larger Muslim restaurant that is near the bus terminal, and we had a great meal of lamb on skewers and cooked over a fire (some of it quite spicy), seasoned bread, and a spicy noodle and vegetable dish. Sorry, I haven't gotten the names of those dishes yet. :)

J/J said that these people are from a different area than the others are, and they seemed more of a Mid Eastern group...their music, and even facial features were less Oriental than the other group. The food was really tasty, and it was good to sit down and eat after such a long day.

I'm working on posting the photos that we've taken so far, but I won't have much time to do editing yet...so bear with me on that. I'll get it sorted over the next few days, and if not then, once I get home. photos are at: http://picasaweb.google.com/MnMgo2

The weather has been really mild, and surprisingly warm (I figure if I continue to wear long underwear and my down coat it will stay warm the whole trip) :) Much of the mud has turned to dust and dirt, and especially in the city, where you feel it grip your lungs. Between the dust, car exhaust, and the coal smoke, I'm a mess at the end of the day and oh so grateful for my allergy meds.

That's it for now...I have no idea what tomorrow holds....guess we'll all have to wait and see...

marina

corrrections and forgotten thoughts....

Ok, these will be misplaced in timing, but they were too important to not mention at all....

1. The restaurant we went to on campus is not really for the students here (too expensive for every day) but more for the people who live on campus, or in the area of it...including the administrators, employees, professors, and the foreign students (generally of better means than the locals). It was yummy, and inexpensive in comparison to a dinner out in the U.S.

2. Signs of the times.... :) In the airport at G there is a sign in the Mc D's that shows the international symbols for "no photos", next to "no pets" and then "no smoking". But it was the LAST one that caught our attention.....a piece of cake in the circle with a line through it...."NO CAKE???" After sharing it with J2 he figured out it likely meant no outside food...but the way they showed it was so funny :)

OH, AFTER we took the photos in the airport in G, we saw "no photos" signs everywhere.....so although it is one of the most AMAZING structures that I've ever seen, they don't want us to take pictures of it. You may want to google it to get a real gander of the terminal building (and they are expanding!)

You'll often see a sign around here that shows the circle/slash with a trumpet in the center of it....can you take a guess?? "no horns" is close....as it's for no car horns in that area (which are used as common as the brakes around here!).

J and J have gotten to work with a team of people in the area to better translate the signs around the town. Some of the ones that they had seen said things like "slip carefully". It will be fun to see if they've been updated yet....

3. Lucy....a brave girl of maybe 12 or 13 (maybe younger? it's hard to tell) who started a small conversation with me on the bus yesterday. When she boarded, she stood next to me (I was sitting) and I could catch her stealing glances at me...not staring as most people do...but really trying to just get some sort of eye contact to see if I was friendly or not. After several minutes, she asked in fairly good English, "where do you come from?" and I replied "the United States, and the state of Missouri...it's like a province." She smiled and took a deep breath, as though this English she learned in school would really work....and also that maybe I gave her too much to chew on her first try! She asked me SEVERAL minutes later..."do you like it here?" and I said enthusiastically, "YES!!" I then asked her if she learned English in school, and she said "yes" and I complimented her on how well she spoke, and added that my daughter (pointing to J1) went to school here to learn their language....that made her smile. Actually, at the end of every little ditty of conversation she would take a deep breath (as if this was REALLY hard for her to do) and smile. As we moved towards the back of the bus, she followed, and I thought that she might be getting off at the same stop....but she wasn't. She just wanted to come back and say "it was very nice to meet you" and I figured that it might be polite to ask her her name....which she told me "Lucy" (many students, when studying English, will choose an English name) and I gave her mine....to which she repeated several times, as if to etch it in her mind. I could tell that she was going to have quite the story to tell at dinner that evening, or at school the next day, when she told her teachers that she got to use her English speaking to "real Americans." I'll think often of Lucy and her brave spirit, to step out of the comfort zone of the culture and seek out new things.

I really can't get over the number of people that daily (hourly?) come by outside on the street, calling out their services....I have no idea what it is they are selling...but sometimes their calling reminds me of an ice cream truck of childhood days, except instead of the music echoing down the road, it's the person's voice calling out.....in their own little "signature" of a song....

J1's making pancakes for breakfast, and bacon!, much to the pleasure of her husband and Mark. :) It rained a little last night, and the roads look a bit cleaner :) but it's cooler and cloudy out now. We're not sure what direction we'll go in today....so you'll have to check back later!

OH, Mark got up early this morning and wrote his own blog....so I'll post that for him too!

~marina

friday, 2/29/2008

Yesterday ended up being a pretty laid back day...Mark and J2 went into the city (G2) to get some computer supplies, and J1 and I hung out around the apt., with her not feeling very well (and me trying hard not to catch it!).

This morning we all felt well enough to go back into town to go to the "monkey park", a place that J/J had not ever been to, but had heard about for a while now. It was a beautiful day, much warmer than it's been since we got here, and the sky was clear and blue. The bus ride to the city was uneventful, and not too crowded (unusual).

After a few transfers (or maybe it was just one...) and a short walk, we made it to the park. There were crowds of people everywhere. I'll always be surprised how busy this city is, no matter what time of the day, or what day, you think it's always rush hour! Crazy!

It was obvious that there were landscaping points we were missing, since it was the middle of winter and not spring or summer....no lilies in the ponds, or flowers in the trees. However, the park was busy, with others taking advantage of the warm, sunny day. We were not too sure where we were supposed to go, but someone told J/J to go to the top to see the most monkeys...so we thought we were starting in the right direction to do that, but ended up going through a LONG tunnel towards the lake (not where you want to be...in a tunnel...on the first sunny day you've seen in a while!)

Once we got to the end of the tunnel, the lake was before us, but not the enterance to the gondola, which we had hoped to take to the top of the mountain. We ended up taking hundreds of stairs to the top, a physically difficult thing to do, but done none the less. Oh, I should say that it was only hard on Mark and I....the kids did great. I should also mention that I lost track of how many people snuck photos of us "lao wai", and how many kids said "hello" or asked us a question in English (trying out theirs, and checking to see if we were English speaking...). It's funny, but odd sometimes to be such a celebrity...haha....

At the top of the mountain ther was a Buddhist temple, and several other areas that you could offer incense to their gods, should you choose to. J1 and I camped out on the rock wall outside this area, and Mark and J2 went on up higher to the area they thought that the monkeys would be most likely to hang out. They were not disappointed....but neither were we! :) You'll have to check out the photos, and later video, of the experience.

J2 almost lost his camera to one.

Then the long walk down all the stairs on the other side of the mountain, a walk by the gondola (which had no one riding on it...so we didn't take that chance...) and back to the bus stop, where we took the bus ride over to the area we were in a few days ago (near the Walmart store/park that was by the coffee house, and also the Sheraton Hotel where we had planned to have dinner). It's a 5 star hotel, and fairly new to the Sheraton line, and creme de la creme....and the restaurant was on the 38th floor! We got some great sunset views, excellent dinner, and a relaxing atmosphere for our worn out bodies.

We opted for the taxi on the way home, and were so glad as we drove by the buses loaded with people, and the bus stops full of waiting folks to shove on to the buses that stopped.

J1's feeling crummy, but is in good spirits, and we're relaxing now with J2 working on his computer and me trying to get this all updated....and photos uploaded too.

Saturday (tomorrow) we may venture to an old walled city (if we all feel up to it), and if not we'll hang around HX and hit the markets again. :)

More later!!
marina