It is Thanksgiving and I have finally gotten all my emails and post put on this site for you to see. There is a lot of reading here and it brings back memories… I want to thank all of you for what you guys did for me, what you allowed to be worked in my life.
Thank you.
As for this site, I am planning a trip next fall. Maybe Africa or South America.
I have to put my pajamas in one of my packs, put my laptop in my daybag, see what else I can steal for gifts, grab my bags and go. Go home.
Home, where my bed awaits, my dollar is not as strong, you can’t haggle prices, women don’t spit on the streets, you can’t cross a street anywhere and walk through speeding traffic. Where I can’t hop in a taxi and get where I am going for $1.20. Or in a bus for 65 cents.
I am going to miss this culture, where the people are a different type of polite, and though at first they seem rude, they are nicer than at home. I am going to miss waking up and eating strange things like fresh meat packages, baconian, fried greens, and noodles. I am going to miss serving myself out of the dish with my chopsticks that I put in my mouth.
I am going to miss China.
When this day starts over again, I am going to have to get my tires changed, order a head gasket kit, and eat all the meals I already ate.
But, home is home. And I am going home.
But we don’t want our beliefs. God of Peace, we want you.
Last night I went shopping for myself. I spend something like 60 dollars, and you should see what I got.
We went to this street next to a hostel with shops lining it. All types of shops, from clothes to trinkets to tea and food. Most of the shop workers speak english, and that is a good thing. ‘Cause they start out really high. So what I wanted to buy, just one of the articles, starts out at 2200 yuan. Then you bicker and banter back and forth to you get to a price that you like. You buy your article and move on. Everyone is saying “Hello!,” and trying to get you into their shops. It smells like China, and urine in some places, and it is dark.
I am going to miss China.
That is how many emails I have. I am Beijing, and I know how to write Beijing in Chinese. Ah… Fun!
Took some pictures at the Summer palace. I could have a lot of fun there. Since it is the end of the trip we are on a tour, and for the first time in my life I am a tourist in a foreign country. So strange.
‘Kay, dinner time!
Listening to Ku’u Home ‘o Kahalu’u and reading emails from home. Such a pretty song. “Last night I dreamt that I was returning, and my heart called out to you.” You should listen to it. It is about returning to a place/person after a long time, after you/they/it may/probably/inevitably has changed. That it is just not the same. “And I will greet you as I find you, with a sharing of a new song.”
And emails that make me wish I could talk to the people face to face. To give them a hug, slap them playfully, or just watch their faces while they talk. Don’t get me wrong, email is great. It gives you time to think of how you want to say something. It gives you the chance to pick the right word, the one that gets your meaning across the best.
Speaking of emails, thank you Laurie for the update on your son. Could you send them to my yahoo account? I would like to have them there.
Jordan- Thanks for all the info and tying up some loose ends for me. I feel better now. And I will tell everyone “Hi.”
Anyway, today was normal. In fact, there was a time while I was sitting down, inside a bright, clean, new restaurant, listening to Hawaiian music and hearing English spoken, that I had to remind myself that I was halfway around the world in China. But I am and I should be getting to bed. It is rather late and I am tired.
-Andrew!
PS. But I am so small, I can barely see, how can this great love be inside of me? Look in your eyes, they are so small but they see incredible things
At night and the only foreigner there. I got off the bus and pretty much jogged across a six lane boulevard. That’s three lanes in each direction. Then I chilled at the diner for a few minutes, just long enough for it to start to rain. Packed up and biked back to the hotel. China is awesome.
Not much new news today, Kind of a slow day, talked to a few chinese and got asked “What is your major?” more times that years Julie is old.
Anyway it is late and I should go to bed.
Night,
-Andrew!
Now I long for yesterday. Not all that much, I haven’t said anything wrong either. That song just keeps coming up. Love was such an easy game to play.
Anyway, I didn’t get to send out this email yesterday so I am going over it to combine it with the stuff that happened today. But I am not sure how well this will work out, since today was the match to yesterday.
Yesterday I did my laundry; it got done about 10:30. I was wondering if my socks would be dry in time for me to wear. They weren’t. I just put them on wet and waited for them to dry on my feet before putting on my shoes. It all worked out. I didn’t have to mircowave them to dryness(my original plan). I am still wondering if that would work though.
Yesterday, I was wondering what food I was going to eat first thing back in the states. On most trips, you know what you want to eat first thing back in the states. Last night I came to the conclusion that I wanted Hawaiian pizza. I have been eating Chinese food every breakfast and I was getting tired of it. For lunch and dinner I have been eating western diner food, greasy and french fries. Now, both of those types of food are good (Both favorite), but I am getting tired of them. I thought long and hard and Hawaiian pizza was my choice to eat once home. But I just had Hawaiian pizza tonight for dinner. So maybe some home made potato soup… or something…
Today, we went shopping. Lots of walking, and not a lot of cool stuff. I did find some jackets that were nice and I would have like to buy, but it is really sad when you don’t fit into an extra large. Now, I am not huge, but I am some what on the large size with broad shoulders. It is just kind of depressing going to a store where you want to buy something and nothing fits. Anyway, on to happier subjects.
Yesterday, I saw myself ride a bike. How many of you can say that? Luke and I were rather bored so we went on a bike ride. We decided to go left at the end of the street (actually we asked some nice old Chinese man who didn’t understand us, and ended up pointing is some direction), and we came to where the sidewalk ends. It doesn’t end in some scary precipice made of crumbly concrete some children’s book wants you to believe. It ends in mud and a truck. Then a cement road. Which kind of looks like a sidewalk, but isn’t. It leads to some place that looks like a village and reminded me of Mexico. Not the fun, cute kids side of Mexico, but the lets not go there, cause will get shot kind of Mexico. Luke wanted to go. I said no. Luke said, come on. I said lets see where the other end of the sidewalk is. So we turned back around and rode.
We rode all the way to Jum-bai, or JK mall. There we checked our bikes, which is really hard when the only things on the sign that you can read are “20.00”, “50.00”, “0.10”, and “0.50”. It ended up being the last one, or which is something like six and quarter cents. For two bikes. Got to love things like that.
After drinking our drinks and stowing our gear, we rode around outside Jum-bai, while I filmed Luke doing things like wheelies and stoppies. After getting enough weird looks we rode on. (This is where I get to see myself ride a bike. See after we left Jum-bai, Luke rode pretty much the whole way filming. See, I did get to see myself.) We took the long way home, stopped at a dock and I saw a huge fish jump. This thing could have eaten a duck. In three whole bites. Yeah, big. Got back to the diner and bused. And kept track of whose table was whose, and helped seat people. Rather fun.
So that was yesterday and today. More of how today was the second half of yesterday, and yesterday in general.
So here is a shout out to all my work homies. Miss you guys and send me emails.
Well, tonight wasn’t that funny in an outside kind of way. But long run on sentences that you think are funny when you write them ‘cause you are tired when you are typing are somewhat funny in a sad sort of way.
Night peeps.
-Andrew!
PS. The light in the attic is just a light with a string attached to it.
That is what time it is at home. Just wanted to say that. Here it is… 10 pm? Wow, this is late for me. I am still waiting for some laundry to get done. Then I hang it up and hope it gets dry by morning. If not… I don’t know. Can you microwave socks to dryness? Ten more minutes before I go down to get them.
On most trips, you know what you want to eat first thing back in the states. On this one… I still don’t know. I have been eating a whole lot of western food and Chinese food. I do know that the meal isn’t going to be chinese, it isn’t going to be anything with french fries, or anything made in a diner. Hmm… Maybe pizza? Hawaiian pizza? I haven’t had that in a long time. If it is cold enough, potato soup… Anyway.
Tomorrow we are going shopping. Again with the not knowing and the me… I am not really in the mood right now to go shopping; I am not really sure what I am in the mood for. Swimming. Yeah, that sounds fun. Tomorrow I want to go swimming. Snorkeling, diving down deep to see what I can find. Maybe Oar’s mate. It is okay now, while I am waiting for the girls in a store somewhere I will pretend to be swimming. It might just keep me through.
I saw myself ride a bike today. How many of you can say that? Luke and I were rather bored so we went on a bike ride. We decided to go left at the end of the street (actually we asked some nice old Chinese man who didn’t understand us, and ended up pointing is some direction), and we came to where the sidewalk ends. It doesn’t end in some scary precipice made of crumbly concrete some children’s book wants you to believe. It ends in mud and a truck. Then a cement road. Which kind of looks like a sidewalk, but isn’t. It leads to some place that looks like a village and reminded me of mexico. Not the fun, cute kids side of mexico, but the lets not go there, cause will get shot kind of mexico. Luke wanted to go. I said no. Luke said, come on. I said lets see where the other end of the sidewalk is. So we turned back around and rode.
We rode all the way to Jum-bai, or JK mall. There we checked our bikes, which is really hard when the only things on the sign that you can read are “20.00”, “50.00”, “0.10”, and “0.50”. It ended up being the last one, or which is something like six and quarter cents. For two bikes. Got to love things like that.
After drinking our drinks and stowing our gear, we rode around outside Jum-bai, while I filmed Luke doing things like wheelies and stoppies. After getting enough weird looks we rode on. (This is where I get to see myself ride a bike. See after we left Jum-bai, Luke rode pretty much the whole way filming. See, I did get to see myself.) We took the long way home, stopped at a dock and I saw a huge fish jump. This thing could have eaten a duck. In three whole bites. Yeah, big. Got back to the diner and bused. And kept track of whose table was whose, and helped seat people. Rather fun.
Also tonight was the first night that the ladies made some Mexican food. I didn’t have any, I left it for the people who don’t get to eat Mexican every other day at work ‘cause there is not better place to go eat and we like supporting the cause.
Speaking of that, here is a shout out to all my work homies. Miss you guys and send me emails.
Well, tonight wasn’t that funny in an outside kind of way. But long run on sentences that you think are funny when you write them ‘cause you are tired when you are typing are somewhat funny in a sad sort of way.
Night peeps.
-Andrew!
PS. The light in the attic is just a light with a string attached to it.
And the other people that read this! You do too!
I didn’t really know who was all getting these awesomely awesome emails that I have been writing (still don’t), but my audience is a little larger than I expected. So I guess I am going to have to check my spelling a little better and explain more of my inside jokes and my off-the-wall humor.
So I was writing an email to my good friend, and I thought it was getting too long. She can’t have all my creative juices, and I used a lot on her. Since I am trying to “trim the fat” out of my budget at home, I have become a little more thrifty. Which has spread to other parts of my life, and Miriam will soon attest, emails included.
Chinese Chinese food. Mexican Mexican food. The Chinese at home is different than here. The restaurants are just so different, there are different eating customs.
So a place setting consists of a small plate (the small plates that you might be served a piece of cake on) a tea cup, a small bowl, chopsticks and spoon and one of those really cool holders for them. Well the plate is actually for garbage. That is where you place the bones or shells that you don’t eat. You eat out of the bowl. To put food in the bowl you use the chopsticks, you just grab what you want and place it in the bowl. Then you eat, and use the same chopsticks to grab more food. You just kind of push that thought out of your mind… You normally don’t get rice or noodles. I haven’t had any chow mien here, and I am kind of sad.
And serving is different here, once the food is on the table (family style, if you didn’t catch that before) the oldest or the most honored takes food first. So if I was out with my family, my dad would be first. He isn’t the oldest in the family, but he is the head of the house. Now if my dad wasn’t there, Cindi would be the one to take food first. Now if I wanted to show my dad how I thought he was a really good dad, I would put food into his bowl. It would be kind of expected for him to say that I am a really great son by putting food in my bowl.
In restaurants, you can get a table or a room. The rooms are great, cause you avoid the stares as you try to eat shrimp in the shell using chopsticks. (Tip: They are split in the back, you kind of eat all the flesh you can reach with your teeth and throw away the rest of it. Something rather hard for a mountain boy who loves seafood to do. Such waste). When you have your own room you usually have your own server girl, waitress person. They will come and take off all the pretty folded napkins off the plates and the covers off the chopsticks. Oh, yeah, some places charge you for napkins. Rather strange, but this is halfway around the world. So the girl pours the drink that you bought (you buy a big bottle for the table and share it, there is no “I’ll have this, and she will have this” thing going on). They get embarrassed if you pour your own drink. I really wonder how much of this is due to not knowing what they heck anyone is saying. There is much more, but I don’t really want to talk about it now…
Chinese is a hard language to learn. It is so tonal. I am pretty good at repeating things I hear, when people try to teach me, but I can’t remember any of it. And understanding writing is even harder. I have learned something like 8 characters, thought I was doing pretty well. Then someone mentioned that there are over 3000… Yeah, I was saddened.
Well, good night all you people!
-Andrew!
PS. Remember to stay away from any Vegemite, and slap the Aussie that says it is good. So gross…
I bought a bike today. It is a nice one. Cheap too. I bought it without a translator, that was different. I don’t know enough Chinese to eat or to find a restroom, but I can point. And xie-xie is a good phrase to know. I can also tell the taxi driver “fagua jia” (french street), which will get me to the diner. But I am not going to need that anymore.
But back to the bike, it is pretty. It is a lot like the bikes I rode at OOR over the summer two summers ago. So far people either think I am rich to drop almost 800 on a bike for 8 more days, or that I am going to end up staying here. I, myself, am not even sure. Since I have a plane ticket back already, I think I am going to end up giving the bike to the diner. The owners have to provide housing for the employees, and the boys house is about a half an hour walk away from the diner. So they really could use the bike after I have had my fun.
Now about my subject (if it the there), does generosity breed generosity? And am I really being generous? The money for the bike was given to me, so giving it away isn’t really costing me anything besides money that was never really mine. I could say that the bike came out of the money I paid myself for the trip. But once all my loving friends, family, and others gave me the money for the trip, it became mine. I could have spend the money that, say, my dad gave me and then thrown in the same amount of money I worked for. But that really isn’t the point here… I don’t know what the point is.
I guess what I am saying is that I could have used that 800 RMB to buy souvenirs, or saved it for the next trip I am going to go on, but I decided to use it to bless the people here…
What do you think, did I misuse funds entrusted to me? Or should I just buy it with my personal money as a really big souvenir? It is pretty nice…
-Andrew!
PS. Or I could just stay here for a few more years…
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