Cranberries (I think)

I realized that I haven't blogged to tell you that I'm back in QHD. I am and safely. The trip was educational and interesting and fun, but it's also really good to be back. I appreciate a normal sized bed (no more sleeper buses!) and a kitchen and my own couch to sit on. It's great to see my friends; all the teachers are back safely. It's really good to talk to them and be in their lives again. 

I've been working on job applications for next fall; it's been rather a hassle. I couldn't print the forms at our campus because the print shop isn't open yet. I tried another place that didn't work and finally went to another campus to print some of them. After I filled them out, it was time to scan them in to send them back. I went back to the little phone/fax shop and mimed out scanning the forms; it took more work to explain that I wanted to get the files onto my flashdrive.(By the way, one of the things that is so different about China from the US is that many people who have shops live in/near them. When I entered, the family was eating lunch at the desk/counter, and you could see through a curtain to another small room with a bed.) Eventually, the owner had me sit at the computer and do some of the work myself. He seemed happy to see me and started chatting.  I couldn't really follow him (even though he kept repeating certain key words). Many sentences sounded like "-- food China----  ----- good." I usually get some of the words, but not all of them. However, this didn't stop him. He kept talking. From what I gathered, he was talking about China nand America and food. I tried to tell him I like Chinese food, since this is one of the most common questions we get, but that didn't satisfy him. I think he told me that Chinese people eat beef, and he kept asking me some question. After we finished the scanning, he had me open up the Oceanspray website and he kept clicking on different parts of it. It still wasn't clear what he wanted. I did manage to tell him that cranberries are good for your health - actually, I think I told him that cranberries are good for your muscles and eyes - best charade I could manage for health. I then think he told me that cranberries are why Americans are taller than Chinese. He then asked me how much the different products were and was surprised at the American prices. If I understand, he then asked me to get him some cranberries from America. I tried to mime that I would try to get him cranberries, but I don't know how to say this. Finally, as I was attempting to pay and leave, he wrote down a symbol that I thought was cranberries, so I translated it for him (I still wonder why Chinese people think that if you can't understand what they're saying, it will help to write it down in characters.) However, I've since realized that I think I told him the way to say "friend" in English is "cranberry." Oops. 

This hasn't taught me a new lesson, but it has reinforced something in my mind. The Chinese are persistent. I must have said, "Ting bu dong" (I don't understand) seven times, but that didn't stop him; this whole transaction and conversation took about an hour. 

So I think I've promised to try to get cranberries for the shop owner. I don't know what he's going to do when he realizes they're not making him taller. 

Back in China, but still on the road

Hello from China again! I am still alive and safely back to a country where I speak a LITTLE of the language. Again, I've had little internet connectivity until now - sorry for the long silence.
On the 9th Bobby, Tim and I left Mike in Hanoi to fly home to the US, and we took the bus to Nanning, the biggest Chinese city near the border with Vietnam. That took about 9 hours, and they dropped me off at the long distance bus station in Nanning, where I took an overnight bus to Dongguan, where my friend Elaine lives (it was an adventure, but I'll have to tell you about it later). Elaine and I had a great, but short visit together. She's awesome, and I loved visiting her school, where they made me feel so welcome! I also read her copy of an amazing book, Captivating, that I highly recommend.
After Dongguan I headed north again, this time taking the overnight train to Shanghai (another adventure, this one invovling a nefarious taxi driver), another 20 hour journey, this time mostly reclining, as I had a sleeper on the train. There are six of them to a "compartment", so they're too short to allow you to sit up. I did get some nice naps. Amazingly, in the massive city of Shanghai, I immedately ran into my friends and fellow teachers Evie and Hannah, whom I was planning to meet. We had a great brunch where they let me talk their ears off since I had spent the previous month with 3 guys and really needed to talk ... and talk ... and talk. (By the way, the guys were great; we decided that I now have 6 brothers instead of 3. But they don't talk like girls.) That night they left and I got together with another friend who lives in Shanghai. Yesterday we went to the Shanghai Museum, which is great, and I came to Hangzhou to meet yet another friend. A day here, then off to Suzhou, famous for its gardens and silk. On the 17th, back to Shanghai, and on the 18th I'll take my last overnight train ride of the trip back to QHD. I am looking forward to my own bed and my own kitchen and my own computer, and even, EVEN my own washing machine. No, that's going too far. But I am looking forward to having different clothes to wear!
I'll post sometime after I get back with more pictures and reflections about the trip as a while. I've learned and seen alot, but I think I'm still processing it.

Good morning, Vietnam!

I know it's been a while since I posted: I've been having trouble getting on to this site, but I'm currently at the nicest hotel of the whole trip, with a computer in the room!! (Also a bathtub, which is thrilling, since it's one of two I've had access to since September. The other was in Japan. Mostly, I just shower in a corner of the bathroom and it drains into a hole in the floor.)
We have made it to Hue in central Vietnam. Let's see ... last week I was in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia. I got to see my brother David and visit his work, which was great. However, overall I wasn't very fond of Phnom Penh; the architecture wasn't very interesting and it wasn't very clean. In Phnom Penh we also said good-bye to our new friends Amelia and Jocelyn from Australia and Mate from Slovenia.
From Phnom Penh we took a bus to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, where our Vietnamese adventures began. The Cambodian bus dropped us off at an apparently random spot of town and we decided to take a taxi to the bus station to look for a bus north. Well, we picked the taxi with the super-speedy meter, and ended up getting out and walking after about 3 km and $10, an outrageous price for Asia. After finally finding the bus station, we learned that all that was availabe from there were "local" buses (not the air conditioned tourist buses) and that the ride to Hoi An was 20 hours. Straight. We decided to take it, however, since we weren't sure about funding other options. We arrived in Vietnam on Tet, Vietnamese New Year, when much of the country travels about, making transportation potentially problematic. However, when we prepared to board the bus, the drivers wanted money to load our luggage - not a good sign! Tim and Bobby were two seats in front of Mike and me, and it turned out that they had the "good" seats. Shortly into the trip, the seat in front of us broke and skewed to the side, taking almost all of our foot room. The back of my seat was broken, so the woman behind me pushed on it every few minutes for several hours until she screamed at teh driver to fix it. He did - with a piece of rope. Now I was wedged between a rope and a falling seat, making it impossible to move. I did not sleep! In the morning, when we stopped, we realized that the bus was so dirty there were black streaks on every exposed surface of our body. Don't ask about the toilets.
Finally, about noon on the 30th, the bus dropped us off 10 km from where they were supposed to leave us and sped off in a cloud of honking (Vietnamese drivers LOVE to honk!) We negotiated with moto (motorbike) drivers to go to Hoi An, and finally made it there and found a hotel.
Once we had a chance to look around, I decided that I really liked Hoi An, its ambiance, and its architecture. Hoi An is famous for teh number and quality of its speedy tailors, so I spent the next 1 1/2 days wandering around the city and ordering clothes and then having them fitted. I've never had something made specifially for me, and it was very nice to have things that fit my arms and my shoulders and my torso and my waist all at the same time! I now own my first suit!
Yesterday we took the bus to Hue, a city 4 hours further north. We'll look around today and go to the citadel, then take the sleeper bus to Hanoi tonight. I'll try to post more pictures soon.