grown ups have all the fun...

seriously. i've been paying bills and being depressed about my finances for a few hours now, and i'm having the time of my life!

the joy of ease...

i have a bed every night.
i have seen erin once in the past week. for twenty minutes.
we sleep in heat controlled rooms and our meals are found by our mother's or on menus that seem to take forever to read.

we've both made it home.

it was an important trip.

fruit gummies and second hand smoke...

i'm a procrastinator... all of you know that. and if you don't, let this be your lesson.

i've been putting off writing a blog for two reasons of late:
1. i haven't wanted to take the time to make the time and would rather spend my time that is unclaimed wandering the streets and replying to the 'hello' s of this city's children, most of whom are learning the basics of english (hello, goodbye, what is your name) in their schools.
2. we've been utilizing our friend's laptop, which has the temperment of some of the shower's we've found, and every time i've tried to write something long, it has been mercilessly deleted through some crash or freeze.

so now i find myself in an internet cafe, or as they are known here; internet bar, which i found by saying (with a questioning and idiotic look on my face, because i can't do tones) "Na li you wang ba?" then following pointing fingers and the heels of kind chinese friends. the guy next to me has been chain smoking and playing internet poker for the past hour or so, and he shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. behind me, there is an entire group (about eight guys) who just came in to play world of warcraft. they're intense.

we're still in xining, and we still love it. we just put in the request to Tibet yesterday, which means we'll be leaving to go to Lhasa on friday night (hopefully).

we're getting really good at filling our days. i have so much to write about. i'm trying right now to decide how to organize it all, either by day, by event or by category. i think...

CATEGORIES!
i reccomend taking a break while reading this, i'm afraid it's pretty lengthy... sorry.

Xining

Xining (say it: sheening) is amazing. it is on the edge of the tibetan plateau, and it is at a higher altitude (about 7200 feet) than the rest of the places we've been to. it is the largest town in Qinghai Province, and the city erected by the two million who live here lines a valley in the eastern corner of the province between barren mountains of varrying shades of brown. The difference in the people here is astounding, and we noticed it as soon as we walked out onto the street. There is a ton of diversity here, due to the location of Qinghai and the promise that xining offers as a living destination. In Beijing and even HK we were aware of hordes of people, but they all (and yes, i am slightly generalizing) had black hair, small stature and asian style. but here there are Tibetans, Tibetan Monks, Muslims (of many colors), and a variance of Chinese. I'm not claiming to be able to tell the difference between tribes or clans, but there are different sounds, colors of clothing, worship and skin, and it is refreshing.

one thing that xining does not have is a large population of foreigners, so we are a bit of anomalies and points of interest here. Currently (like, right now) there are two guys who work at this internet bar looking over my shoulder while i'm writing and sounding out the words that i am typing. they say they have never really seen anyone type in english. i'm just having to get used to having a lot of attention paid to small things that i do.

So, one big plus (besides having a change in visage scenery) of having a diverse population is more types of food, and erin and i have been fully partaking in that (okay, almost fully partaking, but i'll write about that later).

It is really nice to be in a smaller city (compared to beijing and hong kong) because we are more able to feel like we know our way around. We're starting to recognize people, we can walk almost anywhere, and when we need to reach destinations speedily we've figured out how to take the right busses (with only a few mishaps).

One of the deciding factors behind our choice to spend time in Xining is the children's home that they have here. Our friends who live in xining got us some contact info, and we've been able to volunteer a bit of our time there.

Children's Home

This orphanage is amazing. i am really excited about it. it started about ten years ago as the only orphanage in Qinghai province, and it was extremely necessary. It is run in tandem by a non-profit organization out of HK and the chinese government, and is the only home of it's type. it may or may not come as a suprise to you, but most of the orphans (like 80 percent) in this area (and in the home) are either physically or mentally disabled, or a combination of the two, and these children are often abandoned at birth. Unlike what you may have seen on BBC's "Dying Room" documentary of chinese orphanages for the handicapped, the Xining Children's home (web site, if you want to check it out http://www.christian-action.org.hk/child/2nd.htm ) is doing an exemplary job of caring for the children of this area. they have one of the first physical rehab centers of any orpanage in all of china, and from what i've seen, they are doing their best to love these kids and help them overcome the trials their bodies and lives have presented them with.

Mostly we've been able to come in and help with the feeding of some of the children, and we get to play with the kids before and after the meal.

i was honestly worried that it would become depressing to be around some of the more handicapped children, just knowing (slightly) the state of their lives, and erin told me that she had been feeling some of the same trepidation, but she told me something that totally changed my mindset. on the first day, she was in a room with about 8 kids who all seem to have something that keeps them from being in much control of their limbs and actions. she said that at first she just really felt sorry for the kids, but after playing with them for about an hour, it dawned on her; their joy is real. these kids have some of the best smiles and laughs that either have us have seen in a long time. seriously, who are we to pity the fact that their joy looks different than ours. it's is wonderful to have a change of mind about that, and the peace of mind to know that they are all loved. We've seen one of the more mobile kids that we've been playing with (he has such spunk, he grabs us around the knees and dances with us) be taken into foster care in the short time that we've been volunteering, and it is really encouraging to see that the community does help this home and these kids.

we also were able to go swimming with some of the older kids from the home. we were able to teach some of the kids and other adults that went how to swim a little, and we avoided parasites (we hope) from the disgusting water. the six kids that we went with are amazing! the pool was not. but the children, they're some of the children who aren't handicapped, and they all live together in a little wing of the seven story children's home. they have a little family, the six of them, and it makes my heart jump just to think of it. they are beautiful and giving and friendly, and the girls are our friends. one of the boys is moving to washington state, and we gave him and the rest of the children some postcards and photo books of washington scenery (thank you adrianna), and then we all shared photos. some of them had photos of them when they were children with their families, and i wish that i could know their entire stories. i love them. every time we go to the home for feeding now, we stop by their apartment and say hello. there are two girls, both about fifteen, and their (english) names are cathy and jessica. they are so sweet. they sang for us and played the piano and were such lights in our lives.

all in all, the children's home is something that i hope to be involved with in the future. they are doing a great job, their staff are some of the most caring people i have met, and they are providing stability in this area of china for those who need it the most.

Bodies
would you call this yellow...or green?- this has been the question of the day, most days, and erin has been manning up regularly and answering 'umm... yellow, i think. isn't green more well... green?'
as i mentioned before, i've been sick.
i've been afraid that my sinuses would necesitate antibiotics (and an akward and lengthy doctor's visit to get the perscription), especially after we got to xining and what i think is the high altitude caused me amazing pressure and a week long headache. but i think my body (and erin's ears, thanks to my coughing, spitting(i fit in here), and yes, sometimes complaints) is persevering. it seems to be clearing up, slowly but surely it is taking me less and less time in the morning to clear everything out, and i don't think i've asked erin to do color comparisons for at least a day or two.
erin, on the other hand, is all ceared up. she did get a bit sick, but has stopped sniffling for about a week or two.
but, all isn't smooth with the body of amy.
lucky me, but i guess i needed to slow down for a day, because i got food poisening on sunday night.
for those of you who contributed to raising erin, i thank you. know that she will be an amazing mother someday. she rubbed my back, got me buckets, made me salty water and sang me lullabyes while i had the most painful night of my life. we were up until seven in the morning, with me on the cold tiles of the bathroom for most of that time. then we slept. it was awful, but i feel fine now and am back to eating this amazing food. (i think it was food that we left out that made me ill, at least that's what i'm telling myself)

Food

as you may have gleaned, we are fans of food in xining. we are staying in the muslim area of town, and we are witness to food that we've never really had access to. chinese muslims work wonders with potatoes. they make fries, chips, wedges, bread, funnel cake like things, noodle things, and a bunch of other variations that have escaped my notice or memory. my favorite are the potato rounds that are about a third of an inch thick, deep fried till cooked through, then seasoned with somthing salty and spicy. generally speaking, i am not a huge fan of hot spice in china (erin and i have decided it's due to the lack of flavor and ability to numb the tongue), but this spice is a different story. it is so good. these potatoes are so good.

we've been getting really good at going into restarants and pointing at either pictures or food that other people have on their plates and saying one (igga) or two (lianga), and we've been pretty lucky thus far. we've instituted rules to govern what places we eat at.
they must:
. have at least two parties already dining
. look clean
. not be too creepy
. have napkins
we've broken a rule or two here and there, but so far we've had pretty decent meals.

another thing that is abundant in xining is dumplings. steamed, fried, doughy, baked, crispy, small, big, they have them all. and in our part of town, they are mutton dumplings, and delicious. along with the dumplings we've been having large amounts of mienpien, a muslim noodle dish that is made with square noodles and long noodles, green peppers, zuccinin-like veggies, mutton specks and some type of brothy sauce that is pretty good. last night a friend that we met took us to his favorite spot, and i had the best mienpien thus far of our trip. erin had this stuff we call chinese spaghetti, and it was also really good.

a neat thing that we didn't expect is that we haven't even seen soy sauce since we left the states. but instead, in a little pot on every table we have been given something similiar to basalmic vinegar. we put it on our dumplings, in our noodles, and it is really rather good.

okay.... i haven't covered nearly everything, but it's getting rather late, and i need to get back to erin (we split up today, and i'm really good at losing track of time). it's almost midnight here, and food places close around now, and i'm still hungry.

i'll try to write again tomorrow or the next day, definitely befor we go to tibet.

we love you, and are becoming rather excited to see our washington friends soon.
thank you so much to the people who have been emailing us, we love hearing from you.
do take care.

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