The Forbidden City

Good Eats and Snack Streets

Here are a few of the foods we tried in Beijing and a few that we didn't.

Round Two!

And, we're back! Hopefully, we plan to stay another 10 months to a year. Our visa situation and other things are different this time, so we will see. Our first stop, Beijing, a huge bustling city with alleyways that swallow you up. We ended up staying in a hostel instead of with friends and it is inside a labryinth of hutongs (alleyways). Everyone seems to know where we are going somehow and many have offered their services as guide, even walking us down the streets to our destination,. One old man just beckoned to us without words and when I asked him where he was taking us, he just waved again as if to say, don't worry, I know where you are going, its this way. Sure enough, after 3 or 4 right turns, there was our hostel, just as he had promised! Last night we came out of the subway at what we thought was the right exit. It was marked B downstairs and C on the street. A couple of teenagers saw we were perplexed and stopped to help us, even calling the hostel for us. They were not locals and said they often got lost here so wanted to help someone else. Sure enough, we were only just around the corner. We have visited the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the Night Market with all its strange offerings to eat. I am not able to post pictures right now but don't worry, we will not let you miss the fried silk worms and snake on a stick or the scorpians, crickets, and seahorses skewered for your eating delight! We only have 1 more day here and want to go the Great Wall. We have been a little lazy today and yesterday, laying around to get over jetlag and then walking all evening to sleep the night through. So far, I have not had a bad time of it. We really enjoyed our time at home, it flew too quickly past. It feels as if we have never left China. Except for the food, we did miss the food. Last night we had braised cold rabbit and country style pork with peppers, basically fried bacon with hot green peppers and salty black beans, with the best broccoli and oyster sauce Frank had ever tasted. I never saw him ooh and aww over vegetables before. He couldn't get enough! Wednesday morning we head for Korea for a week before returning to our city. I will post pictures as soon as I can! Here we go again!
mandy

And miles to go before I sleep...

We leave Thursday at 6 am. I can't believe how well I have handled leaving this time. Emotionally stable even at this late hour. Now, don't get me wrong, I have had plenty of moments but even my friends noticed how much I have progressed. I really do want to go back.

Ok, that was written Wednesday morning and I was fine. Wednesday evening was another matter entirely since I was around many of our friends and they were all saying goodbye. I bawled like a baby. At least I lasted up until then. I still call that progress. Having such close family and friends who encourage you and support you means that leaving feels like your heart is being ripped from your chest. It will take time to adapt all over again. Just bear with me, ok? I told Frank that I couldn't possibly be the only person who has to deal with this. His response? I might be, since most people who have such strong attachments to home, don't leave. Hmmm. Anyway, here we are at the Toronto airport awaiting our 3:00pm flight to Beijing. Our journey begins again. Perhaps I am too tired at the moment to be very excited. Check back tomorrow once the China experience begins in earnest and I have some sleep under my belt.

Thanks from the bottom of our hearts for all the support and encouragement, the gifts and the time you made for us while we were home, and for what we know we can depend on through e-mail and Skype while we are gone. We will carry it with us to recharge and continue our assignment.

Mandy

Eight Days To Go!

We visited with some friends tonight around 7:30. This was our first week with no work and we only have one week left. (sniff) It was so nice to be with them and they were so supportive and encouraging. I seem to be handling this departure a lot better than the first one. I know in my heart that going back is the right thing to do and it doesn't hurt quite so much this time. Don't get me wrong, it hurts! But the fear of the unknown is one less thing I have to face and the extra trip to Korea for a teacher's conference, and seeing old friends and new goes a long way to easing the pain of separation. Last time we just jumped into real life and didn't get to see much of China at first. Instant Assimilation. Ouch! This time we might even get adjusted to the time difference easier since Korea's time is a little off China's and we will have less flying time. Anyway, just wanted to check in with everybody and let you know I am still hanging in there emotionally, so far anyway.

mandy

Angel Oak

We visited some very special friends along the coast of South Carolina. We grew up together and every time we are together, I hurt myself laughing. This visit was no different. Milissa is addicted to a game called Phase 10 so we played often, with strange rules and loads of laughs. She took me and her boys to John's Island for a day on the beach. We watched a thunderstorm roll in across the sky and left at the very last moment, stopping only to visit the oldest living thing east of the Mississippi River, east of the Rockies. The Giant Angel Oak has shaded John's Island for an estimated 1400 years or more. The pamphlet I read said 400 but I looked it up online and the historical site said 1400. Either way, it is a really old tree. It is 65 feet high and provides shade for an area of 17,000 square feet. The branches are the circumference of regular oak trees and the weight of some of them has left them touching the ground. Severe damage from a hurricane named Hugo moved workers to put in cables to support some of the lower branches. I think I was the only one totally stoked about this tree but it was pretty awesome! My parents took us to see it when I was a little girl and mom's parents took her many times. It was nostalgic, historic and very beautiful! It is amazing that trees can grow and thrive for so long and yet much more intelligent creatures only survive for 100 years at the most. Something to think about huh?

Mandy
“It is a curious emotion, this certain homesickness I have in mind. With Americans, it is a national trait, as native to us as the roller-coaster or the jukebox. It is no simple longing for the home town or country of our birth. The emotion is Janus-faced: we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.”
Carson McCullers

Small Town, USA

Small towns, especially in the South have a different culture all their own. People know you, your family, and all of your business. Everyone is a neighbor and someone will always wave at you as you pass, or say hello. Traffic is slow, especially on Sunday when elderly couples go for their Sunday drive, which is more of a crawl. You may have to stop to let an entire house go down the road or to let a herd of deer cross in front of you. Many roads are still dirt and maintained by tractors that scrape a layer off every few weeks, piling it high on the side of the road. Tractors are everywhere, even downtown. There is plenty of tacky artwork to enjoy as well, like the hotdog in front of a local convenience store. It just screams "classy", doesn't it? Life is slower in small towns, some people never leave. Children grow up, graduate, get a job in town, marry their high school sweetheart and grow old from the front porch of their parent's old place. I have always lived in small towns, one had a single traffic light in the middle of town, I think it might have two now. Here, history is maintained and many times, relived over and over again, whereas big cities can swallow up culture and speed up the pace of life so no one knows their neighbor or goes for Sunday drives. There are negatives too, of course, people set in their ways, prejudiced against change or anything different, sometimes with an accent so thick, you can't distinguish the English. Wherever we live, no matter how far from where we grew up, can be home, if our heart is there, but there will always be a place in mine for Small Town, USA.
mandy

“The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you're doing, someone else does”