Dentistry, smentistry

I realized shortly after getting back from China that the chip in my front tooth is back. Argh! All those dentists who insist that their cosmetic reconstruction will be permanent have got to be kidding themselves. Well, it's not too noticeable. This being the second time that a filling has failed to stick in the chip. It gives my smile character! It also means I can seriously tear up meat with a single bite. I wonder what it was that broke it again... Lamb skewers? Steam boat ox stomach? Ah well, back to the dentist. I can also threaten potential attackers with my bite. Come at me and I will take your finger off!

Greeting the pellucid dawn with spongy egg.

The flight back was almost odd. I sat next to a thirteen-year-old girl from Sichuan. My Chinese was so terrible and her English so piddling that I'm still not sure where she was headed for her English summer camp. But Disney was in there somewhere. Anyway, she kept asking me what was great about America. Short of launching into a historical critique of race relations, I tripped out that we had many kinds of food and our students are lazy. I asked her what she liked so much about the US. All she could really say was "I like America. America is good." Then she launched into Chinese using vocabulary that I did not know, so I can only assume she was commenting on the American entrepreneurial spirit and ideals of democracy. Though I did catch something about liking Coca Cola. The flight also fed us cup-o-noodles and a egg dish that looked something like a gray log. The girl was like, is this what Americans eat? Ha, are you kidding, we eat much crappier things than this. She also kept calling me big sister, which totally weirded me out. Almost as weird as when a guy called me ya tou.

Hmm, there is actually much to fill in as to activities accomplished before leaving China.

this room is enormous! they built a hanger to contain these guys

we are coming for you!

kinda cool looking hairdo

an acrobat, but he looks about ready to karate chop someone, kee-ya!

- You can't, of course, go to Xian without seeing the Ching Shi Huang Di's tomb. Or at least the soldiers he buried with his tomb. His tomb is actually still a mound that the government won't excavate yet for fear they don't have the technology to destroy the greatest archaeological find they have. So there are 3 sites and a fourth that was never completed. It is crazy how much enslavement can create. I guess I couldn't get over how much death it took to build all these clay dudes. And how all the workers and craftsmen were later killed to keep the site secret. The best craftsmen made the generals then on to the lesser clay figures like the acrobats. And I guess if you made something sloppy you were conscripted to be wall filler. The sight itself was actually a bit underwhelming for me. Hm, I think not the usual reaction. Death in the ground!

ah, piece of cake...

big mountain. itty bitty cable car

lady in our cable car. she's been on this mountain like 100 times!

locks on chains. so what does it mean if your lock rusts?

ah, so many itty bitty people. climb those steps!

the razor's edge

Ecotope!

gotta love that bad English!

little finger peaks

a little temple on a mountain peak

Scary cliff thing requiring wire clips

Taoist statue with a crouching creepy dude behind him

kittie on the mountain with a swollen toe

- Spent the day climbing the peaks of Mt. Hua. We took a 2 hour bus ride out of Xian to where the famous Huashan stands. I guess the mountain is famous for once serving as home to Taoist hermits. It was also made legendary in recent times as the setting for popular kungfu novels. In any case after a series of ticket purchases we took a cable car up to the North Peak. From there we tried hiking around to the other peaks, a total of five. I think we maybe only hit 3 but that included trekking up stone staircases on razor cliffs and little pockets of food stands. The mountain was pretty crowded, mostly with Chinese tourists. In fact, we rode up on our cable care with a couple that said they have visited the mountain dozens of times and the wife said that she first climbed Huashan from base to top when she was 13. In 3.5 hours. Crazy! Really to get the full experience you have to start your hike from the base in the afternoon so that you catch the sunset on the west peak. Then spend the night in one of the 6 or so hostels on the mountain top. Then catch the sunrise on the easter peak. Also the thing to do if you are a newlywed couple is to have a steel lock carved with your names, which you then lock on one of the supportive chains on the peaks for luck. An excellent full package honeymoon! There was also this additional sheer rock pocked with metal bars, wooden planks, and holes cut into the mountain that we were only allowed to climb with clips and harnesses connected to a wire. It was freaking awesome! The flimsy cheap life insurance we had to purchase was a nice touch.

- Xian happens to be one of the few, if only, Chinese cities with its original city walls intact. They form a big square in the middle of the city. And, this is the coolest thing, you can rent a bike and ride the entire wall in about 1.5 hours, which is what we did. Of course it was also blazing hot and many of the stones are all potholey which made for some rickety riding on our rusty rented bikes. But super fun! Great to stop at different food stands to grab ming bean ice cream pops. My friend was trying to launch a business idea of marketing the solar panel water heaters we saw dotting the tops of apartment buildings.

- Hm, and then there was the fact that I mistaken the departure day and took an hour long bus ride to the airport to realize that my plane left yesterday so I had to take the bus back to the hostel to purchase another ticket, at which point a worker at the hostel just came with me b/c my Chinese was obviously doing me no good in getting me a new ticket. Um, yeah. But i did end up making it back to Beijing in time for my flight back to the US despite all. I did have a physical tussle with the hostel lady trying to give her some money for her trouble and travel back to the hostel and she ended up physically restraining me and pushing me toward the security check. Ah, that's what being Chinese is all about.

- Met my mom's cousin and his wife in Beijing for my last night. Got to stay at their apartment. It was so nice to meet nice relatives! And fun too to see the inside of someone's house in Beijing. The sense I get is that everyone lives in pretty cramped apartments megaplexes. Their little neighborhood overlooked a cute park though with like public exercise equipment. So like yellow and blue painted public elliptical machines. I was like wow, the playground here is for the seniors, not the kids. There were also some middle age ladies totally tearing up a pingpong table. Oh yeah, in Xian I also had a change to wail on a Canandian playing badminton. Rock on with the only sport that I have any skill in! Damn, that is about as Chinese as it gets...

Movies watch on airplane:
- Nim's Island - cheesy but sometimes your just gotta watch a kiddie movie, you know
- The Spiderwick Chronicles - sometimes a kiddie is just not watchable...
- Definitely, Maybe - is that Breslin kid in all the movies right now or what? she was in Nim's Island too. movie was entertaining but the ending was not.
- Be Kind Rewind - kinda cool movie actually

Total books read on the trip:
- Blink - Excellent!
- Lady Chatterly's Lover - The copy I got was published by the Foreign Language Press and rife with horrendous typos. Great book though, I can see why it is a classic.
- The Hummingbird's Daughter - Really, really good book! Weaves the story of revolutionary Mexico with the story of healer girl, who actually existed. The book moves so beautifully.

So now I am home again. Just putzing around my apartment in a stupor of jetlag. Gah, I have to go to work tomorrow like this?

China! Refuel!

There it is. Can you see it? The white lady waiting to light her torch. I had to get on a guy's shoulders to get high enough to see over the crowd. How did all those Chinese people in front of me get so tall?

So you think this kid is cute now...

This much cuteness should be illegal!

Oh yeah, they'll put you on tv if you're white!

So this morning we got up at 6 to join some hostel-mates in the streets of Xian to watch the Olympic torch go by, which in China means a lot of sweaty ppl in the streets. More than the usual amount of sweaty people. But it was actually really cool to see so many people of all ages excited and out. Lots of hawkers with the "I love China" shirt that everyone was sporting. Lots of Chinese flags and Beijing Olympic flags. The torch bearing and passing wasn't actually that impressive. I saw a Chinese guy light the torch for white lady who then lit a torch for another Chinese guy. That was pretty much it. The did have like party trucks that preceeded the torch bearers though with like cheerleaders and dudes dressed up in rubberized Chinese armor to drum up excitement. Wee. We had a big white dude from Arkansas in our group who was getting into the Olympic spirit with a "I love China" shirt, red band around his head, and a bigass Olympic flag. Various locals asked to take pictures with him and a local news crew came up to film him yelling in Chinese, "Zhong Guo, Jia You!" (essentially "China, You can do it!"). The other highlight of the experience being this very cute Chinese boy decked out patriotically and holding a little white puppy. Off the cuteness charts.

Ah, I haven't really commented on the Olympics. Here and there different ppl in the tourist industry have complained about the slowing of business because of the new restrictions on visas that were just added for the Olympics, though it appears to have affected some countries more than others. The price for a US visa pretty much doubled in April. A lot of travelers are trying to tour parts of China then hunker down in Beijing for the Olympics, but it is pretty surprising the scarcety of foreigners right now. No doubt most tourists are waiting for the Olympics. I really can't imagine the craziness that will be Beijing come August. The public transportation and taxis seem pretty maxed out now with the locals. I think the city will probably shut down once the Olympics start. As if there are not enough people here. But I think the general feeling is that people are excited and proud that China is going to showcase Beijing to the world. I'm just glad I will not be there to be robbed, crushed, or ripped off.

Zai Xian...

Our Xian Hostel. The nicest and helpful people ever. Met some interesting travelers too.

The street outside out hostel with lots of artisan carts.

And calligraphy materials.

The main gate of Xian's great mosque. No nails used. Not very Arab looking.

I seem some Arab script! Maybe this isn't just another Taoist temple.

This is a mosque?

The date on this inscription says this was made in 1365.

The main prayer room. Amazing that still mosque has been in use for centuries.

Mao watches! With severe chopping second hand! Get to work!

Artist man himself displaying his woodcut wares.

Ugh, just laying low in our new hostel in Xian, home of the start of the silk road and home of the terra cota warriors. The weather is way hotter here and my bowels have decided to rebel from a diet of spicy oil noodles and lamb kabobs. Oi. And the diet, heat, and sweating has reeked havoc on my face which is now sprouting a pimple that looks to be something of a third nostril on my nose. Oh, and now that we are not in Beijing where people were quite flattering of my broken Chinese, Xian-ers have made no bones about my crappy Chinese. Conversations have proceeded as thus:

- Oh, you speak Chinese!
-Yes!
- Wow, it really sucks. Your friend's Chinese is so much better. What's up with that?
- Oh, I was born in the US. My parent are Chinese. He grew up in China.
- Oh ok.

Then communication commences through my better-Chinese-speaking friend. I'm able to get around, but can understand about 60% of what people are saying. And then throw in some funky accents and it goes down to like 10%. But all told, Xian is really a nice change from Beijing. Not nearly so crowded and full of architecture that retains some character and continuity within the city.

We went to see the Great Mosque in the Muslim district. It was quite peaceful and is still actually used today since is it was built in steps centuries ago. The funny think is that al the buildings are very Chinese. If not for random Arabic script on signs, the ribbed roof tops and pagoda disguised minaret makes the place look like a Chinese Taoist temple park. Weird! But the food too in the shops were fantastic. And in the souvenir tents that swarmed the walkways outside the mosque we came across some beautiful woodcuts. The artist was there too and started to show us his exhibit books and articles that had been published about him. He was thoroughly proud of his work and excited to show it to us. It really was beautiful stuff and we ended up with our first mass souvenir purchases. I think I may need to upgrade the size of my apartment to accommodate my new woodblock scrolls. Pictures of the Chinese countryside and workers. We did a bit of bargaining but really the prices are amazing anyway with the exchange rate. Wee, i'll post pics as soon as I can.

Time to nurse my aching feet and roiling bowels!