gritty teeth and great breakfasts

erin just fixed me the most amazing breakfast of our entire trip. no joke.
after weeks of granola bars and pigs in doughy blankets, we have arrived in Xining, and much to our advantage, we have a stove at the ready.
imagine: a hearty scramble comprised of eggs, fried lamb wonton/dumplings, and muslim curried fried potatoes. and we have ketchup. it's the stuff dreams are made of, and i think we're ready to begin our day.
our lovely friends jeff and carrianne have opened their home to us here while they are staying in Beijing, and together with their housesitter Cathy we are forging a convincing family.

it is such a blessing to have a place to call 'home' for a piece of time.

our last few days in Beijing were spent lolling about a bit, but we did do a few things worth mentioning:

-we left jeff and carrianne and our fort building friends caleb and jacob on sunday, as their family had arrived to care for the kids. we had a great time with them, it was really nice to be around children and a steady family after just being with travelers and tourists for so long.

-we went back to our hostel, and were welcomed by our friends who remained.

-i am so proud of our last few days in beijing because we figured our the subway and the busses. beijing is really spread out, so it is easy to wait till the last minute and take a cab (they are really cheap compared to american cabs, but expensive compared to other beijing transport options). the last few days we took the subway everywhere! it made us feel really accomplished.

-we went to the summer palace, home of elaborate chinese gardens, man-made lakes, a marble boat, and tons of history. i think erin's favorite part about the summer palace (and maybe mine too) was that they had drained most of the lake, and the few feet that remained froze to a slippery surface, so we spent a few hours sliding around on the lake. also, we almost snuck into one of the temples that had closed for the day.

-we went back to our favorite place in all of beijing. a small park near the forbidden city with little hiking trails. at the top of the tallest hill there is a temple that houses a buddist shrine. outside the temple though, is the most amazing view of beijing. we got there right as the sun was going down, and we spent about an hour just sitting and looking over the city. we could see down into the forbidden city, we could see the bell tower and the circular city, and we could see into a number of hutongs, which are perhaps my other favorite part of beijing. it was really peaceful, and probably the best way to end our time there.

on wednesday we packed up, checked out, and hopped on the train to Xining. it took about a day, and i think i may have slept seventeen of the twenty six hour ride. we took the hard sleeper again, and met some really nice girls from our compartment.

we arrived in xining on thursday afternoon, and erin got us to the place we are staying. she's pretty much a pro at Xining busses because she spent a few weeks here last summer.
so now we're safe, happy and well. we're meeting up with the orphanage on monday, and we're really excited to see how we can help there.

xining is dusty and diverse, and i think i really love it here.
i'll write more about it later, because it is deserving of an entry for its own.

the pitter patter of little feet...

I'm looking at erin right now, and she looks drained.
we met up with our friends Jeff and Carrianne on wednesday, and have been trying to keep up ever since. they are in beijing right now because Carrianne is due to have her third child in early february, and their choice of hospitals is here. they have two younger sons, caleb and jacob, and these boys are amazing! we're kind of trying to 'baby-sit' and make their lives a bit smoother, because pregnancies are tough, especially in a city that isn't your home. hanging out with their family is a really nice change after a few weeks of traveling, mostly because we've been getting into a homey routine for a change, and because families just feel nice.
*hey mom*
erin and i have gotten good at a few things, mainly building forts, going to bed before eleven, wiping noses, and pouring juice. tonight we made crepes (thank you for teaching me allie) and watched a movie called cars. i've seen it twice now, and i still love it. so, consider it recommended.

before we started living with the fam though, we were in our sweet hostel in a hutong (or, old part of the city... mostly smaller houses and lower class living situations, all government owned, which makes them very temporary) close to the forbidden city. it was super lovely, and very rustic. we met a ton of really nice people at this hostel. most of them were australians, but we also had two very fantastic roommates from the UK: fiona and natalie. we liked them a ton.

so, the author of beijing's most recent lonely planet guide is named damien... and he has little 'damien tips' posted throughout the book....
for instance: 'damien says "if you go to beijing and don't eat peking duck, you must be mad!"'. so we ate duck. and it was really quite delicious. it was really fun because a group of about nine from the hostel went to the most famous peking duck restaraunt in beijing... all of them were Australian except for erin and me.

we befriended a few Australian guys with whom we formed a cool kid club. together it was marty erin dan and amy... meda...or dame...or mead...or made... anyway, we were cool, and together we explored the hutong's, found the perfect street sweet, ate multiple dinners of street meat and parata, sang, laughed, and also...
CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!
and well, it's just a wall.
that is a complete lie. it was amazing. call me a sucker for dynastic power, but the Chinese accomplished a lot with the wall. it's even better than how it's depicted on mulan (i know it's hard to believe), and my imagination totally geeked out while we were there.

i could just imagine all of the guards hanging out in their different towers, shouting to each other, abhorring going to certain areas because of the steep steps... it was so enthralling to have so much history under my feet. and we saw donkeys! three of them!

maybe the best part of the great wall was that the four of us noticed a ruined guard tower (because they've rebuilt sections of the wall) and somehow found a wooden ladder to climb down from the current wall. from there we forged a trail to the old tower, climbed it, and had our lunch looking across mongolia. we got some really cool pictures, which i hope to be able to post soon.

the past week or so has been exhaustingly busy. both erin and i are now getting over sinus/throat colds that reached their peak on tuesday and wednesday. we're kinda phlegmy, but we're making it. talking about things, we're feeling like our trip has been going really fast, and it feels like it should be over, and we realized that we still have something close to five weeks left. i think it's mostly because we aren't used to taking more than two or three week trips.

we also went to the forbidden city, which was really neat. this was erin's place to geek out. especially in the throne rooms, she (and i ) were really impressed. seeing the place where the emperor’s wives lived was slightly eerie, and i'm not quite sure why, i think it's because this place was being memorialized, and well- they were just people. but wow, did they live in splendor.
our favorite though, was the park/garden across the street. after hiking up a number of steps, there is this gorgeous view from the pavilion of a temple. we didn't really pay attention to the temple, but from the ledge we could see for miles. it was a really clear day in beijing, and we were both struck by the enormity of the place. we could see down into the forbidden city, and the intricacies of it were apparent even from our bird's eye view.

we've been having a great time in beijing, and will do our best to post again before we leave next week. we love you all, and hope the weather in your part of the world (snowy snowy washington...) is safe.

french toast and kiwi juice!

so, apparently an earthquake in Taiwan a bit ago has destroyed even the idea of highspeed internet. but, patience (and 6 browsers at a time) has allowed us to persevere, and another copy paste blog will come through.

this is a slight recap of the last few days. i hope you like it. if you want to email me (amy) my email is gibsona2@cc.wwu.edu or my myspace is www.myspace.com/buildingdreamsofclay

and erin's is spikenard04@hotmail.com or www.myspace.com/thebonafidesweatervest

so, do it, make us feel loved.


korea style cooked dog meat

my darlings , even you could have this menu option if you travel to Beijing, China. To get here, all you have to do is the following:
Fly to Hong Kong (17 hours in the air, 2-12 in the airport)
THink china is really easy, without realizing that in HK everything is made for the ease of tourists (especially americans, because they are the fattest)
get thrown into a creepy guest house
sleep there
find a really neat guest house, stay for about 5 days meet cool people from neat places
miss your friends who get your humor, and even encourage it
get tired of HK, because china is big, but HK is busy
ride a subway to shenzhen
go through customs
get into mainland china, where people cut in line, spit on the street, and babies all have holes in their pants
ride a train for 26 hours (just a tip, get the middle bunk on hard sleepers)
feel smelly, claustrophobic and slightly schocked due to your inability to talk to anyone here in less touristy china.
miss your friends
try to learn mandarin really fast
sleep instead, it is a sleeper train
read The Alchemist and feel a ton better about the whole world, especially about travelling in unknown places
get to Beijing
stick out like a sore thumb because you're tall and white with red curly hair
Have an old woman take you under her wing and get you to the right bus
get off the bus (after being stared at, because not many people backpack here)
look around for a bit
get lost
get cold (because it's frickin' cold in beijing, no more sunburn)
get found by some nice chinese travellers who all speak english and take you where you need to go
hang out with them for tea, then realize tea costs Y570 (about 100 US dollars) after you've drank it all.
decide it was worth it
find the nicest hostel ever
get stoked
get hungry
get meat pockets and feel ill
read lots of menus
find the slowest internet POSSIBLE (seriously, i'm almost sweating blood because i'm so frusterated with this internet)
but the internet is free, so it's kindof okay.
find out that your hostel has not only clean showers and good beds, but the best breakfast buffet ever...
eat a ton
finally get access to your blog
appease your parents, who you know are really worried when you don't post blogs

and... part two


your mom has copy watches and handbags...

is what i say (to erin, under my breath) everytime we pass touters on the street. You(meaning jessica, and anyone else) would be rolling with the number of your mom jokes i can tell here. imagine the best jokes ever- because that's all i've got over here.
that's pretty much all i have because the only things i can say in chinese are
hello (nihao)
thankyou (sheshe)
where is the toilet (cesua zai nar)
how much is this (do chau zien)
and a few things that i can't remember

honestly, it is so hard for me to be okay without being able to communicate with everyone, and without being able to read everything, because i'm such an english/reading/understanding geek. other than that, i'm gettin along just fine.

we left Hong Kong yesterday, and after a 25 hour train ride we got to Beijing. i like it, but it is harder for me to get around here, simply because of the language. we keep meeting really awesome people here, other travellers and also residents. kids love erin and i, because we look funny to them, and we make faces at them.

the place we're staying at is down one of the creepiest alleys, past a lot of stinky gutters and interesting meat shops, and it is the nicest hostel i have ever seen. it is part of a real hotel, but they just have a hostel offshoot, and we have huge beds, clean pillows, big showers and even clean squatty toilets. it is amazing, and after a day on the hard sleeper train, i am sooo ready for a shower.

this is what we have decided we like best about china so far.
these are our favorite things
a. bakerys
b. nice people
c. good transportation
d. just different enough to feel scary
e. just different enough for us to feel accomplished when we get things right
f. meat on a stick (hot dogs with bacon wrapped around it, from street vendors)
g. street vendors
h. neat food
i. good smiles
j. tons of amazing clothes and shoes, which we have been avoiding because we don't want to carry them around yet.

so, we are about to go start our first full day in frigid Beijing, wish us well!

we love you more than meat on a stick (and that says a ton)

We've been here for a while, but we've finally figured out the internet!

i know it's difficult for you to believe that erin and i aren't adept at everything in the world (especially anything to do with technology), but the truth is, our blog shows up in chinese characters, so it is more difficult than level 20 of doctor mario to get to the add a blog page... but now we have the know how. and you have our words. hopefully we'll get pictures up soon.

Monday, January 08, 2007

what my blog would say if i could access it right now
here's the thing, for some reason i can't get my blog to work, but as luck would have it... i can access myspace!!! so, i'm writing it here for now, and when i can find a way to get to www.rememberthisnow.blogspot.com i will utilize the copy paste skillz that i so regularly depend on.Right now I am being serenaded by 65 year old men singing karaoke. They are the upper society of the hostel that Erin and I are staying at, and they are ultimatly awesome. We are in Hong Kong, and we are having a rather nice time.

We've conquered china. I don't know what you've all heard, but that's the truth. At this point in time, we don't even know how to fail, we're taking the right busses, we're turning down the right roads, and we've met some of the kindest people.

Erin is the ultimate mom right now, she's videotaping everything, going to bed early, bathing regularly, etc. She's perfect.

We are almost the ultimate tourists on our sightseeing excursions: we've been to the markets (dad, you would cringe at and admire the meat stalls), been to the peak, taken the world's largest escalator, bartered like crazy, eaten delicious food, gone to the zoo, found a lovely mosque ( complete with kind groups of worshipping women), seen great views (ala' victoria peak), ridden a ferry, seen the light show (which is surprising in the amount of collaboration it showcases), and walked and walked and walked. I'm really good at walking, and erin... .well, she's top notch.Every morning we stretch out our legs and shower, then head down to find a bakery. In all honesty, we really like the 'sausage' buns. it's a soft bun with a hot dog inside. also, barbeque pork tarts are really satisfying in the morning.

There is a ton going on, and just realized i only have a few minutes left on this computer. hopefully we'll find a library tomorrow so i can write a more comprehensive entry.also, just to tell you, i got sunburned today, in Hong Kong, in the winter. it's rediculous. an old chinese man just said to me, "what is wrong with your face?".

you can be impressed.

love you