That time of the year

Sorry for the silence of late, but, as it is said, when you haven't anything nice to say, it's better not to say anything at all. In the couple of weeks approaching spring break, I'd been experiencing the frustrations of what our middle school math teacher calls the "dog days of school"... 

• not feeling like an effective teacher when choice ELL students opt not to do homework, care not for their failing grades, and put no effort into showing interest in learning English, and perform poorly on projects, presentations, and exams,
• feeling inept in my inability to get through to certain students, 
• lacking energy and feeling run down by my allergy and general health issues,
• having more than enough heaped on my to do list (between regular classes, teacher observations, language skills benchmark testing, grading, grades and narratives to submit with the aggravating inconveniently-scheduled upcoming end to the Quarter 3 term, teaching the SAT Prep ASA course, and more),
• being vexed at the plight/predicament that faces us and all our fellow teachers in being forced to move apartments mid-school year, with only a quarter left, uprooting our community and causing us unnecessary logistical strife in moving and resettling,
• and what's more, feeling frustrated with my predicament of being basically powerless to affect change in the foundational inadequacies of our school, primarily due to the AIAN's School Board. Grrr. A good friend recently shared a quote with me, 

"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."

- Mark Twain

I'm at the point where things are continually happening and busy (it's not that I'm bored or have a lack of things to write about)... it's just that I don't feel motivated to write about the daily happenings in life, even though I realize many of you are curious as to what daily life in China is like. I always want to post about the little things that happen on a daily basis, making note of the "TIC" moments, especially now that my time in China seems to be fading into that transitionary period of the "before I leave..." mindset. Sometimes I'll post a photo and status to Facebook about moments like the typical "Can I have a photo with the token laowai?" incidents when I'm grocery shopping, or when people roll down their windows to stare at me biking with my dog. But most of the time, I just share an eye roll, a face palm to the forehead, or a deep sigh with a fellow foreigner when I relay the happenings. Commiseration. (But REALLY, how do the Chinese expect to be received when THEY travel/move to a foreign country? Oh look! Chinese person! Nihao! Can I have a photo with you? *flash the peace sign at them, while imposing an impromptu photo op, repeated about 5-6 times with ALL the friends in the group* Sorry. Excuse my rant. This is the sort of stuff I'm talking about having happen, but not wanting to blog about it, because it just comes off as negative and perhaps culturally insensitive...)

I'm thinking that for the last quarter of school and as my departure from China approaches (July 2nd I'll be Stateside again, friendlies!), I want to start an Instagram hashtag line, or whatever those are called... I didn't understand the connection until just recently as to why people are throwing out hashtags all over Fb these days. (I'm new to Instagram, so I'm still figuring out what I can do with it.) Search the hashtag "#TIC_LarasLens" and I'll try to post pics with anecdotes whenever I snapshot something that is a part of daily life (or at least MY life) in China. (I'll postulate that these photos will also be shared on the Facebook too, for those of you who, like myself, have been slow to jump on the Instagram bandwagon.))

Speaking of photos, I've just uploaded more recent photos of the last month or so to my Facebook album of China 2013. Check it out.

So I'm about a fourth of the way through my spring break right now, and I've opted not to travel this break (the first break in a while that I haven't). Instead, I'm laying low with the pupperz, enjoying some alone time while Kari has been in Xi'an with our friend Fan (originally, I had planned on going as well, inviting Fan initially, but then backed out for a number of reasons). Really, it's a good thing, and I've been quite productive and successful in getting some R&R to rejuvenate from my school woes, because I have had few breaks in my life during which I've actually opted just to take a rest and veg (to quote a fave Julia Roberts movie, "Be still like vegetables. Lay like broccoli." And I have, btw, been eating my fair share of broccoli these days). So far, I've thoroughly enjoyed the long 4-day weekend that has been a prelude into the coming week off that lays ahead. My list of productivity includes: planning/purchasing

Taking a bone break in a plaza,
around the Beilun port area of town.
The halfway point during our leisurely
12km Saturday-morning bike ride.

airfare for when school gets out (Dad is coming to visit!!!!!), taking bike rides to enjoy the rare sunny patches, exploring more of Beilun with my boba-Jett by my side, working out (to old Zumba and dance aerobics DVDs, thank you very much, as well as playing around on the Chinese workout/exercise machine contraption equipment in nearby parks, on Wellness Walkways and such).

Riddle me this: How are these contraptions to be properly used??

Huginn and Munnin "kick boxing" in their bouncy chairs

I should probably mention at this time my Easter Sunday activities, for those who would be interested... I went to my Beilun-home church, surrounded by a gathering of multi-national, racial, lingual, (fill in the blank with diversity-related words). I left the service feeling refreshed and energized, having met more Spanish-speakers, gotten to fellowship in an atmosphere of positivity, uplifted by a Common Belief that pulls such a beautiful mix of people together. I was also instantly invited to teach at a school in Mexico, after introducing myself in Spanish to a surprised newcomer. She was so stunned and pleased that I spoke "español tan bueno" (such good Spanish). Then I took my whole-grain, honey cornbread muffins and some fruit with me to have brunch with my Beilun family (Matt, Julie, their babies, and another friend, Adolfo). I got to play with, feed, and hold the ever-growing twins, Huginn and Munnin! Always a pick-me-up! Then I took a long stroll with Jetterz in the evening colored-haze of fireworks (Tomb-Sweeping Festival is this week in China), with the addition of closing my evening watching rad, colored water fountains in the park, 28 stories below my kitchen window.

Yup, this week ahead is gonna be grand. I have a couple books to read, good music to enjoy, and friends! Now to get this issues of a recurring rash/hives and acid-reflux checked out by a professional... that's on my to do list for tomorrow! (TMI? I'm sorry...)

These roads are dangerous...

Just a couple weeks after my first driving experience in China (during our move; it was very uneventful and a fairly straightforward stretch of driving to and from the old and new apartments), on that same stretch of road, we had quite an eventful morning.

And what a way to start the morning it was! After narrowly escaping two head-on collisions with e-bike/motorbike riders:

1) a policeman riding on the WRONG side of the street who didn't make an effort to move to one side or the other for the TWO of us bicyclists on the correct side of the road to carry on, and

2) an oblivious man who was smoking AND texting at the same time and furthermore didn't even look up when I rang my bell, even as I was shouting HELLOOO!? NIHAOOOOOOO! directly in his oncoming face, and ultimately had to nearly hit a parked car in swerving to avoid HIM!

... and then...

Kari was actually HIT by a car whose driver failed to yield to her, as she was making the final left turn into Li Ren, the gated neighborhood where our school is located. The unyielding driver failed to stop and check for traffic (ahem, including bicyclists! of which there are many in China!) before making his lefthand turn into oncoming traffic, thus smashing into Kari's left side as she was already well into her turn. Most importantly, Kari is safe and unhurt. (She pulled her left leg up just in time, and popped up immediately after being toppled over!) Her coffee didn't even spill a drop in the fall, until the shaking, nervous Chinese man tried to pick it up to hand it to her, all the while saying, "Sorry, sorry!" From what we can survey, the bike suffered hopefully only repairable damages. But really!? I was soooo ticked off. Later, Kari realized that the case of her laptop had been damaged in the fall.   :(

...and the best part was that the collision happened RIGHT IN FRONT of the neighborhood's guard station, with at least half a dozen men on duty... and not a single one of them came out to help. As I was in front and didn't see the collision happen, when I heard the crash and Kari's little scream (not the first scream of the morning, due to narrowly avoiding the previous two collisions), as I was getting my bike out of the way and turning around to come to Kari's aid, I glanced up at the guards, who were stone-faced and looking on, showing not the slightest inkling to get their fannies outside and help with the matter in the least! Grrrr!

What is up with Chinese male drivers this morning!?! This is China, people, TIC.

As an additional visual tidbit, here are a couple images I snapped on my phone yesterday as I was biking home from school. About five minutes of the bike ride is on a street that borders much construction (primarily new buildings in business and residential sectors). Safe, right? 

Oh, and happy Pi Day from this side of the world (March 14=3.14)!

Changes

Spring is budding in warp-speed at school,
due to high temps in the last week.

I received a few flowers on Friday,
in honor of International Women's Day.

Sorry for the silence on this end. It has been a while. Things have been hectic, to say the least. In the last couple of weeks, Kari and I have had a lot on our plates, with classes to plan for and teach, and ASAs (after-school activities) in full swing as of the week we returned from Chinese New Year break vacay in Cambodia and Thailand (Feb. 18/19). My new ASA (after having finished with my Eco-Team ASA during Quarter 2) is teaching an SAT-Prep Course. Yay for the unpredictable, unreliable services that the mediocrity of the entity known as the College Board provides (...or fails to...). Excuse my tangental rants. I might be in over my head with work and a bit stressed with all the activity of late. My hair is actually falling out.

"Grrrr," just about says it all.

We dog-moms all dressed up as
"Who teachers" for Dr. Seuss' birthday.
It was a big deal at our school last week.

This is the obligatory Chinese-laowai "foreign friends foto"
that was snapped when we went to Yangsha Mountain beach yesterday.
(We're always asked by Chinese to take photos with them, wherever we go. 
We were the only foreigners on the beach that day.)
And no, that is not a condom in the foreground;
it's a plastic cup from a jello-yogurt snack that's very popular around here.
It is representative of just 1/1,000,000th of a fraction 
of the trash that litters, well, EVERYWHERE around these parts. 
Shame to not be able to walk barefoot in the sand. TIC.

We're also in the midst of Teacher Observations, prepping and catching up on lesson planning and grading, and during this first week of March, spring seemed to send us a hopeful tease of tantalizing 70-85ºF weather... so out came the skirts, biking shorts, and spring fever (working inside is hard to do when the out of doors calls, Vitamin D levels need a boost (thus optimistically boosting the energy and moods), and white skin longs for the sun's kisses!). Tennis, hiking, biking, even a day at a nearby beach have all been good, temporary stress relievers and an opportunity to get some fresh(er) air out of the city's filth, construction soot, and according pollution.

So to fill ya'll in...

For more reasons than I want to fully go into at this point in time, we had to move apartments because the leases were up mid-school year on the apartments that the school had for us. So, with less than four months left in the school year (and our contracts), in addition to our daily school duties, we also proactively and diligently prepped for our impending change of apartments during the upcoming weekend of March 2-3 (being proactive is very, very uncharacteristic around here). There were many details to be secured before that point in time, which entailed much (attempted and only occasionally successful) communication, struggle, and rationalizing with ungracious powers that be.

Packing and moving out of the Li Ren apartment,
to the newer ShiMao apartment complex.

Kari packs in her room

I'm trying to jam bedding into a
dust-protector case for the move.

At least needing to pack up everything and move
meant that we finally packed up our Christmas decor!

To make a long story short, with much time and energy sacrificed (and still being sacrificed), Kari and I moved, with our dear pupperz Jett, to a 20-25 minute walk (10 minute bike ride) down the road from the Li Ren Garden apartment complex and where AIAN school is located. Thanks to help from gracious friends, the move was made easier. Though not all is resolved (fires still burn on the school front regarding many, many other issues), and we continue being "squeaky wheels" and incendiaries,  not letting injustice pass us by without a struggle, at least we are more or less settled in the new apartment, and adjusting to the new location and lifestyle that this move brings us.

Driving in China!
A Chinese friend lent us the use of her car on moving day,
to do the little errands driving back and forth
between apartment complexes and such.
I miss driving!

This is the view from the playground in our new apartment complex.
Our building is a total of 31 stories high.
Our apartment is on the 28th floor.
You can see our windows towards the upper-right side.

28 floors down, and looking to the apartment below us.
We hear construction sounds every day.
Those windows in their laundry room were just installed yesterday
and some workmen knocked on my door just as I was writing this,
delivering window screens that I assumed to be for the apt below
(of which we have none, so I should've just accepted them!)

Looking down, all 28 stories,
to the center of the ShiMao apartment complex.
There's the tennis court (only half the lights worked
when we asked to turn them on for an evening match)
and the playground is the other little green patch.
Off further to the right there are ponds with fountains and an indoor gym,
as well as some weird little statues and a peace pond with stepping stones.
A river borders the far edge of the complex.

See that blue inset lighting above the dining room?

Yeah, that's just a taste of the mood lighting

perks we have all around the apartment.

Super flashy and all for show.

Too bad they went all out on the lights

and not the practical things,

such as, say, hot water and 

a functional washing machine, showers, flooring,

or just doing anything in a QUALITY manner...

Enjoy the pictorial tour of some parts of the apartment, and I'll try to upload a video tour of it soonish, once we finish completely decorating (which means sticky-tacking and Command-Stripping pictures and art to the walls, since you can't put nails in the walls on rentals here, or the "damages" are paid out of pocket). In all reality, we have more space than is necessary (the third bedroom is our "suitcase room," and has a hole in the wall where another aircon unit should have been installed). Good thing our Ayi (housecleaning, dog walking "auntie") will return this week (we hope!) to help us clean all the dirty messes that were left from construction and not cleaned by the landlords before tenants moved in. We are going to have to have a disco, electro-techno, Margaritaville, granny-doily and fake-flower arrangement housewarming party. We (facetiously) loved what our landlords did with the decor in the spacious place... I mean, there are LED lights that sparkle above our bathroom mirrors, just for funsies, and iridescent neon blue and green mood lighting insets in the dining and family rooms. 

Take a look at Kari's post about the new apartment for more details as to the status... to her credit and applauding her optimism, Kari's list of grievances concerning our new apartment isn't even the full list of complaints we have regarding the whole situation.

Our kitchen...

...where the best part are the Margaritaville-esque tropical shades,
which were the landlords' idea of "quick fix" for the fact that the wind
blows through the ill-fitted sliding windows. The room is quite breezy,
the cheap shades flapping in the "breeze."

The view of Beilun from the kitchen window.
Construction and development and industry galore.
A metropolis on the horizon...
:(    resulting in pollution (air and water quality sacrificed)
and a host of other negative repercussions. Growth is not always the best solution!

Can someone please tell me what we're supposed
to do with this built-in sliding drawer-rack?
We're confused by the strange spaces and bars...
(We made due by haphazardly cramming our
dishes and tupperware into the racks)

Kari's bathroom,
where the shower leaks
into the other sections of the bathroom

Laundry room

This is the washing machine side of the laundry room.
Glad that, after a week living here,
some issues were finally resolved with basic physics,
and the machine is now functional!
(Check Kari's blog for some insight on that story)

My bathroom shower, before the shades were installed.
Hello, world! Here's my naked body!
It still leaks, and the door's runner comes off,
but hey, TIC.

Only about a gazillion unnecessary light switches,
when the hot water tank won't even last for a full 5-minute shower!
Let's get our priorities straight in the bathroom now!
(First-world problems/TIC)

A view of my bedroom (Kari and I switched, and I get the Master now!),
from the doorway. The bathroom and a walk-through closet way
are accessible, via sliding doors, to the right.

That's all for now. As I said, more photos and videos are forthcoming (check the Facebook album for updated photos within the week). I'm trying to catch up on day-to-day life here (my to do list is from here to Timbuktu!), and I'm gradually able to start fitting in catch up Skype date convos here and there. Spring break (Chinese Tomb-Sweeping Festival) is coming up too (March 28-April 7), so hopefully that will be a chance for relaxation and catching up... say, filing my taxes and exploring the new area in which I live?

Thoughts and prayers are appreciated during these days! Much love to you, friends and family!

We didn't miss CNY after all...

For those of you who were concerned that we would miss Chinese New Year celebrations because we spent (part of) the holiday in Cambodia/Thailand (where many also partook in plenty of firework and parade and boozie celebrations as well)...

This is my French-Canadian colleague, Line,

and one of our secretaries, Shirley,

with 4th grade students as backup dancers.

They are singing in the style of Beijing Opera,

and were actually asked to share the performance

at the community's Lantern Festival, 

but Line was unavailable at that time, regrettably.

The general public would have ADORED a foreigner singing so well!

Well, in addition to the festivities pre-CNY break at AIAN (our school), we also got to participate in some of the closing festivities of post-CNY. You see, the CNY holiday typically lasts about 15 days prior to and 15 days after the lunar new year. Many Chinese nationals take up to a month off from work (sometimes even more, depending on their jobs). Chinese New Year fell on February 10 this year. We were in Cambodia. Even though we may have missed mega-celebrations, entailing fireworks that ceased to explode for an entire weekend straight, as well as some decorations and loud music, we didn't miss out on the closed businesses and shops (because the majority of Chinese nationals choose to travel and spend the time with their families). And we were welcomed home on February 16 to a fair share of fireworks... (see video below)

This weekend supposedly "concludes" Chinese New Year festivities. It is the Lantern Festival, as can be observed on Google (and described on Wikipedia). We were enthusiastically encouraged by surrounding neighborhood communities (Yulan, LiRen, etc.) to participate in the grand lantern parade and festivities last night. The celebrations consisted of: 

• Dragon Dancing, Lion Dancing, Snake Dancing, Lantern Parade: The Parade Route walked through entailed--
• Yu Lan Community, which is about two blocks away from our Li Ren apartment complex
• TangWan Ren Jia, which is the area in between Yu Lan and our apartment complex, crossing the Xin Da Lu ("Sheenda" Road) intersection and blocking traffic along Minshan Lu as we walked and danced slowly. (This was the point where we decided that Jett had had been on stimulation overload long enough; he can handle fireworks, but not banging drums, cymbals, loud music, scary costumes, screaming kids, AND fireworks all at once! I took him home. At least he got out again!)
• Li Ren Garden (our apartment complex)
• Sports Park, which are the basketball fields on the other side of the river that borders our apartment complex (the fireworks that were filmed in the above video clip with Jett sleeping were set off from that very Sports Park, as the basketball players were completely unfazed and carried on their game, while bombs were bursting all around them)

• Performance: The Yu Lan community had a stage (really, a red carpet) laid out in Sports Park for a performance of:
• singing (from both old and young, talented and, um, NOT. Off-key!)
• the Zumba-esque dancers who practice nearly every night in their jingling little skirts, withstanding the winter's cold and wind

• dancing crustaceans, fish, and a snake of course (since this lunar year is a Year of the Snake; last year was the Dragon)

• guards singing (I have a video of it, but it is too long or large or not in the correct format to post directly up here, I'm afraid)

• Floating River-Lanterns: Yu Lan Community prepared River Lanterns, passed around to each guest, to write hopes/dreams on papers to put in them, then the security guards floated them along the river (so that children and many hundreds of guests attending the event will not be in danger of falling into the river, as it is slippery after all the rain we received this week)

Setting lanterns afloat, down along the banks of the river

It was beautiful, clear scenery, with no breeze, which made the night air not nearly as frigid as Kari remembers the celebrations last year. (We had our cocoa spiked with Baileys, as well as hand-warmers to keep us warm as well!) The lack of breeze seemed to cause issues in the end, when, guards began to set the lotus/lily flower lanterns afloat on the river that borders our apartment complex in LiRen Gardens; I think it's called the Zhong He River? You see, without a breeze, the water is stagnant, and the lanterns didn't really float... away. They just stuck to the shore. The first guard to set a lantern adrift actually slipped and fell into the river! (Which is NASTY!) 

Even amongst the colorful plum tree blossoms,
Kari's red head still stands out! ;)

Today, Sunday, February 24, with two Chinese friends named Lisa and Fan (who are ladies who work part-time jobs at Cup o' Joe in order to practice and improve their English skills), we engaged ourselves in rigorous hiking of the Jiu Feng Mountain (pronounced like "Jew-Fung")... as did hundreds, if not thousands, of Chinese nationals as well. This weekend marks the end of the Chinese New Year month-long celebrations, so the Chinese jam-pack as many holidays and festivals into this interval of time that begins the onslaught of "Spring Festival" (which has a "Golden Week" of its own when the Tomb-Sweeping Festivals happen, during the first week in April this year). 

Honey purchases at the Jiu Feng beehive shack!

This weekend, in addition to the Lantern Festival, the Plum Tree Festival is being celebrated at Jiu Feng Mountain, thus drawing even larger mass-hoards of people to picnic, hike the mountain (at an elevation of 1630 ft), and enjoy the fruits of the scenery (many waterfalls, fruit trees, and beehives). I purchased some fresh honey from the beekeepers there (side story: in early winter (November/December?), Kari and I had biked the 20-minute ride from home up to the beekeepers at the base of Jiu Feng Mountain, but we were told that they were closed for the winter, and the shop was only open during the mornings of weekdays. So we were out of luck on getting honey any time soon, with our work schedules). I was very glad to get not only my fresh honey this time, but also a taste test of all the varieties of honey they had, as well as a translated education from my Chinese friends who had accompanied me!

View of Beilun from the top of Jiu Feng Mountain

Waterfalls galore

Though we knew it was going to be busy, we nevertheless decided to take Jett along with us, for the exercise (even after our two-hour long bike ride up to a nearby dam/reservoir, Xinlu'ao Reservoir, yesterday morning). But we also thought it would be good exposure within the context of a more hectic atmosphere; he needs to overcome the point of sensory-overload and learn to stay focused on the leash, our commands, and not freak out in noisy crowds. Though he only barks and would never bite (even around other dogs he's afraid of), he does get quite afraid and backs away or tries to jump into our arms for protection, even though he's far to large now to be carried for any distance. 

We didn't even know the three Chinese
people on the whole left half of the photo

We hiked for about two hours to get up the mountain, took lovely panoramic photos with our friends (as well as had the typical laowai "foreigner photos" taken OF or with us). Then we headed back down the mountain (whew--jelly legs from all the steep stair steps up and down!). Per usual, I received comments and many photos for being a laowai (I do believe that Kari and I were the only foreigners I saw the whole morning-excursion!), but all the more because we had Jett on harness-lead. It was great exercise and training for him, but he received his fair share of pats (Chinese-style, which involve a scared-sort-of touch-and-run on the top of his head; again, Chinese don't really quite understand the idea of domesticated dogs as pets yet). Jett was called (in Chinese and limited, broken English), "cute," "beautiful," "strange," "scary," and evoked many screams and skittish skirting around him on the pathways, from those unaccustomed to dogs (though there were several other dogs on the trails as well).

All in all, it was a lovely hike and good exercise, even with the crowds of humanity, getting to know more Chinese friends, learning more Mandarin, and having the opportunity for a good training sesh for Jett and us as his on-lead handlers, reacting to his behavior amongst a crowd... so it was a beneficial experience for all, I'd say!

CNY vacay conclusion and trip highlights...

Since my last post from Kampuchea (Cambodia)...

We got busy on our last day of the tour in Cambodia, which was fabulous (cycling about 100 km ~ 60 miles; I'll go into more details later). Then we went to Thailand after our six days in Cambodia. The end of that long travel day rewarded us with a beautiful sunset, Thai cuisine, rum and cokes at the side of a placid infinity pool all to ourselves, and skinny dipping under an umbrella of glorious fireworks, in the Bay of Thailand (whoops, did I just reveal that intimate detail to my entire blog readership!? It was a really lovely bathwater-temperature, hardly any waves, and so inviting, though that sand was obnoxious!). That's all to say, that in our couple days of R&R on one of Thailand's many beaches, exploring, and playing with elephants and fuzzling a tiger, I got lazy and opted to stop blogging. I did, however post little pictorial updates on Facebook, so I apologize to my Fb friendlies if anything that follows in this blogpost is repetitive.

So, I'll backtrack a bit and fill in some more details in summary of day two on the cycle tour of Siem Reap/Angkor Wat and ancient temples in Cambodia, which I believe I briefly blogged about while in Kampuchea... the cycling around in warm, breezy weather was great, getting to experience temples (including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom communities), sighting elephants, and enjoying well-seasoned Khmer food on a dinner date (as well as classic cultural fish-coconut-curry soup for lunch!), and closing the night with a Khmer massage. Absolutely lovely. We were ready to get back on our bikes for another fantastic day of temple touring!

On day three of our cycle tour (day five of our vacay), we went returned to Angkor Wat (the temple, not just the general region), to revisit the temple and it's third level ("Heaven"), since it was not open on Sunday, marking the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday. Dressed in appropriate clothing that covered our shoulders and knees, we got a top-notch view of the surrounding area, and got to see the water lilies, their pink blossoms opened to the morning sun's rays. Gorgeous. Exiting on our own out the south entrance, we met up with Vireak, our tour guide, and Vannak, our driver, remounting our bicycles for the day. Off we went in the direction of Banteay Srei, visiting more ancient ruins of Hindu and Buddhist temples, learning how to harvest and make palm juice sugar-candies, and 

Angkor Wat and the lily reflection pool to its north.

observing Kampuchea's countryside 

alongside rice-harvesters in the fields as we biked by. After a picnic lunch, we further enjoyed ourselves, playing with local kids in the dirty, low waters of the dry-season Siem Reap River. Later in the afternoon, returning to the modern city of Siem Reap, we visited a silk art and pottery-carving training school and workshop, observing the intricate arts that so many disabled and underprivileged Khmer have been given the opportunity to learn and develop as a trade. After signing a bit with some of the deaf craftswomen, we moved on to a massive gift shop, displaying the handiwork. However, one of the highlights of the day that I should not neglect to mention was cooling off with a MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM cone! Yes, you read that correctly. Mint choc chip. In Asia. Not green tea. Hallelujah! Never tasted such refreshment. We finished the day with a night on the town, enjoying cocktails and a Khmer dinner together. Not a bad day. 

...why skirts aren't allowed in "Heaven"
at Angkor Wat

Vireak explains Hindu stories to me amidst
the Banteay Srei temple ruins.

Playing in the Siem Reap River

It's mint ice cream!

In the morning, at 6am, once our van was push started (in REVERSE, might I mention), we were delivered at  a bus pickup (because "station" would be a gross exaggeration of where we caught this bus), and said our adieus and thank yous to Vireak and Vannak. The bus was at least 40 minutes late (said to depart at 7am), and decided to stop only about 45 minutes down the road at a convenience shop, for an extended period of time, for no apparent reason. We finally reached the Thai-Khmer border around 9:30am. We said, "Thanks, Kampuchea, it's been real," and headed through the logistical details of crossing this sketch Southeast Asian border into the Kingdom of Thailand.

Please click on this photo and zoom in
to see the morning treat we got to witness
while pulled over on the side of a Cambodian road,
on the way to the border

Right before the border of Kampuchea/Kingdom of Thailand,

we were getting our bus tickets exchanged for when we got the Thailand side. 

This torn banner portrays a statement that is not entirely truthful.

Try the slogan on the flipside:

"Tourism (also) contributes to the the advancement of exploitation,

distrust, sex and drug trafficking, injustice, pollution, 

and degradation of not only natural habitat and cleanly environments, 

but also washing away authentic culture, unique customs and language,

promulgating cyclical thinking of egotism, entitlement, and priviledged minority."

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?

Made it to Jomtien Beach, Pattaya, Thailand

Six hours later, having made it across the border successfully out of Kampuchea (the Kingdom of Cambodia) and into southeastern region of Ratcha-anachak Thai (the Kingdom of Thailand), with all body parts in tact, we arrived in Pattaya then by an aircon minivan, complete with ceiling fan. There, we were dropped on a street corner and had to figure out transportation to Jomtien Beach (about 5k further south on Highway 3), where we had hotel/resort reservations. We navigated our way to a large parking lot, where we communicated our need for a taxi, which turned out to be the back of a pickup truck with benches. Quite airy. We were nearly in warm, tropical heaven (as compared to coming from our present habitat known as Frozen-Over China) when we arrived at our hotel, with A/C, an infinity pool, the beach just meters away, with gentle waves lapping on golden sand, under the orangey sunset beams.

Other than the fact that that region of the world seems not to believe in towel racks, the people were friendly and full of smiles, the food was sweet and delicious (we renamed our food babies "Buddha bellies" in honor of the region's religious majority), and the drinks were cheap(er)... though not nearly as cheap as in Kampuchea.

Pad Thai done right!

The following day, we fully took advantage of a full day on the beachfront along the bay of Thailand: swimming in the sea, reading by/in the infinity pool, eating deeelish, authentic Pad Thai, playing with and helping a stray puppy (I think I'm gonna start an orphanage for stray pups in Asia one of these days...), and sampling a Singha Thai beer, receiving a therapeutic Thai oil massage, as well as doing a bit of exploring in the little town, and chatting with locals (employees and owners) of businesses for tourists in the area. And apparently we did not completely escape CNY fireworks in Thailand. There was an abundance of them set off right around midnight.

Our second full day in Thailand, February 14, we got stir crazy, so we arranged to go to the Nong 

Nooch Gardens (10km south of Pattaya, about 5k further down the road from Jomtien beach in Chonburi). In addition to seeing whimsical pottery and corn-cob displays, I realized another fanciful aspiration that will probably never come to fruition; I think I'm going to need to run away and join the circus, or at least become an elephant whisperer/trainer/co-entertainer, in my new-found love of the marvelously intelligent and kind, lumbering animals. We spent our Valentine's Day lovin' on some elephants and watching some traditional Thai shows of cultural dance, history, and art. That afternoon, we further enjoyed the Thai beach, food, and I had another massage (on the beach). Watching the sun set from the water, we breathed deeply and enjoyed the bliss.

Beautiful kitty

Valentines on a little love boat, made out of pottery.
(Pretty sure it wouldn't float)

Seussville?

Getting on the metro in Shanghai

On February 15, we left our hotel not too early, and were driven via a private service to the Bangkok international airport, long before we needed to be there for check in. On our layover in Guangzhou, China, about 6 hours later, we were welcomed back to the land of VPN and other less-mentionable attributes this huge country presents, when we walked into a wall of cigarette smoke, inside, and then, upon going to the bathroom, saw all the seats up, with footprints on the rims (Chinese women stand and crouch over toilet seats, based on a different style of porcelain throne that is less of a throne and more of a squatty-pit). Nihao once again, China!

In the sketchy hotel

Upon arriving in China around 8pm, we were out of luck as far as getting home to Beilun that night. No more buses or trains. Buying train tickets for the first train out the next morning, we resigned ourselves to looking for a hotel to pass the next 10 hours. Avoiding a typical Chinese scam (that's another story there!), we finally came to rest on a pokey-springed mattress in a death-box of a hotel room. But it's cool. We lived to tell. If we were ever on the Amazing Race, we would totally dominate.

Adventuring our way through yet another night in Asia, we essentially conquered every obstacle that stood in our path. Watch out, China! 

The next morning, Saturday, February 16, we had successfully boarded an 8:05am train out of Shanghai and back to Ningbo. In Ningbo followed the quickest, smoothest, best taxi ride either of us had ever experienced in our time combined in China! What a pleasant way to end the travels. 

On the train ride home

Beilun's cold winter sun greeted us, as did our newly-fixed Boba Jett pupperz (complete with "cone of shame")... On Valentines, we realized the irony of the day on which Jett is getting his masculinity taken away from him. Happy Valentine's Day, Jett dear, we're gonna snip your man bits now so you can't do any puppy-makin'. Sorry, pooch. Neutering in China is a pretty foreign idea; we have to fully explain  to Chinese people why, when after staring at him for long awkward intervals in elevators or while out walking him, we would ever want to do that to our dog.

Then we just had about 1500 photos to sift through, organize, and prioritize. 

Trip reflections:

Regrets-

1. Losing my most awesome rain jacket (shell to an awesome winter coat combo). Best. Jacket. Ever. I just hope someone who needed it far more than I is now very happily using it!
2. Having heat rash (oh, AND massive bruising spider and mosquito bites)

Highlights-

Elephants!

1. 

   The perfectly-timed jumpy jumpy photos, 

   taken by our guide Vireak on his first try.

   Though difficult, seeing and learning first-hand, with primary resources at the tips of my fingers, in Phnom Penh's museums more about the Khmer Rouge of the Pol Pot Regime, the killing fields, and other tragic recent history
2. Bicycling around thousand-year-old ruins of ancient civilization, and learning more about the region's deep history, rooted in Buddhism and Hinduism
3. Jumpy jumpy photos around Wonders of the World
4. Splashing in the Siem Reap River with Khmer children and non-verbal communication with them
5. The tiny, but ever-so-strong little Khmer girl who jumped on my back, straddling me, to give me the most powerfully glorious back massage
6. Elephants and tigers. Most especially being lifted by the secure grasp of an elephant's trunk
7. The wonders of Thailand: Pad Thai in Thailand, the Bay of Thailand, warm weather, fireworks, and a good friend to enjoy it with!

That's all for now; it took me all week just to organize photos when I had the time, between being back at school and everything else in life. So that was the conclusion to one of the most awesome vacays taken to date. They just keep getting better. I feel so blessed.

Check out my Facebook photo album for my Chinese New Year holiday travels (apparently this is the public link to the album, which states, "You can use this link to share this photo album with anyone, even if they don't have a Facebook account. Anyone with the link will be able to see your photo album.")

Also, for the video tour of our trip, PLEASE visit Kari's blogpost. They truly encapsulate so much of the spirit of the trip that I would not be able to verbalize.