Cooking-
I would like to formally announce that my cooking has digressed since being here. Now, we all know my cooking wasn't all that good to begin with so to get worse means its basically inedible. However, in self-defense, I have the best excuse EVER.

My mother has always said, "If you can read, you can cook."

I can speak Chinese well, but my reading and writing pretty much sucks. HA! I can't read ingredients, recipes, instructions or anything beyond timing...so therefore I can't cook!

hahaha

Global Nomadism

I am, at this point in my life, what you would call a global nomad. All my worldly possessions are either in my head or what I can carry easily in a suitcase. I hate the idea of being tied down by furniture or anything else that hinders my need to explore. I, like all global nomads, have this insatiable curiosity about the world. We have this need to simply ‘check it out.’ ‘It’ embodying everything besides what we are doing at that very second. Being a global nomad is exciting, fun, and culturally enriching. There is nothing like moving around the world, seeing countries and ways of life different from everything you know.

I was not always this way. For a long time in my short life I was content to stay where I was and not scrape the globe looking for experiences. My mentality changed about 1 year ago when I realized that I couldn’t let life pass me by without seeing all there is to see. My mundane routine became unbearable and that ‘itch’ to travel and discover the world became too strong to ignore.

Global Nomadism is not as easy as it sounds; just as I discovered this deep rooted need to leave, the rest of life seemed to fall into place. Being in New York City, with my friends and boyfriend was the most enjoyable, and entertaining few months. Moving to China was incredibly difficult. I questioned if everything I was leaving would still be there when I got back. However, I rationalized, at 23, if I don’t travel now, I don’t know when I will. I didn’t have the career I was looking for and the ‘itch’ was overwhelming…and so I did it. I took the risk of leaving everything I knew. I sold all my furniture, shipped my remaining items to my parent’s house, and moved into a suitcase- a very tumultuous way of life. I drifted between NYC, my boyfriend’s apartment, Europe, Chicago, Cape Cod, NYC again and then finally to China.

Despite its difficulties, global nomadism is a miraculous way of life-one that I am glad to experience. It is fulfilling, thrilling, interesting, fun, and challenging. It is freedom- beautifully pure and an unconditional freedom. You are who you want to be where ever that is in the world. Nations and cultures become exotic dishes- there for the tasting. You have no schedule and your only restraints are self-inflicted. We are the gypsies of the world…and I have never been more alive than I am now.

I am now ‘settled’ in China-though I’m not sure that’s what you could call it. I refuse to move into this apartment. I will only buy the necessities because when I move back home-yes, NYC is my home-or travel to another destination, I won’t be bringing anything with me (save for the shoes). Whatever I can't squeeze into my suitcase, gets left behind without a second thought.

And so you see before you, the necessities of my global nomadism- a travel clock, an MP3 player with travel speakers, some kind of scented candle, a pack of matches, and a picture of me and Jeff. You won’t find anything else that remotely defines my dwelling as home. I am here temporarily-even if it means a year or so.

Yoga~
Ok, my trial month at my phat studio has come to an end. I have renewed for 4 more months (it was buy 3 months, get one free).

Cutie pic of Lanny-one of my awesome fem friends- and me at our local expat hang-out.

Lanny is from Australia (though she lives in the US) when she isn't in China...and no, she's not Chinese (though everyone thinks she is). Infact, when people start talking to her in Mandarin...she gives them a blank look and points to me.

random-

You know pig meat is Ju Rou (pronounced jew row) haha...i wonder if someone did that on purpose.

I think you all should know, I officially set my kitchen on fire while attempting to boil water-ONLY I could manage that. Don't worry, it was just my paper towels and I managed the contain the flame in the nick of time.

Sunday~

The crazy social schedule came to slamming halt as I rolled out bed this morning. Instead of spending the day shopping and running around like mad, I opted for an afternoon of cleaning (yes, occasionally, I will do my own cleaning), yoga, reading, grocery shopping, massages and prepping for my language exchange party.

Around 3.15 in the afternoon, I stopped what I was doing and sat perched on my bench starting out my window. I realized today that my chaotic social schedule was not so much to imitate or recapture my life in New York, but an attempt to fill the void made vacant by my displacement. Moving to China, as amazing and wonderful as it has been, has not been easy-I know I have mentioned this before-but I feel like talking about it again. The better my Chinese gets and the more accustom I am to my daily trials and tribulations, the less exotic this nation becomes. The initial thrill has worn off and now I'm left with the reality that I have changed my life. Not to say that I regret any part of my choice, but I had, until today attempted to distract myself from accepting the consequences of my actions. I used work, shopping, and yoga as a means to fill the time until Jeff gets here or I return. At first, I thought this was merely homesickness, a natural sadness in response my transcontinental move, but it was going beyond that-I was getting used to missing my former life. Now, I am actually embracing my situation and am making the vow to enjoy each day as it comes.

Now that I'm done yabbering about that, I thought I would mention that I'm toying with the following ideas while I'm here.

1) Fashion/etiquette training for the upper class Chinese women. The fashion is awful and people wouldn't know western manners if they slapped them in the face. My idea is to take my natural flare, gift for style and my rigid etiquette upbringing and introduce them to the ladies of Shenzhen. Ranajit thinks I've missed my calling and should begin to develop this idea. I'm working on it.

2) Writing a book about Shenzhen People-I'm not much of a novelist, but you meet some very interesting people here and I have some downtime to kill...

3) Hosting a speeddating event for all the foreign expats and fluent Chinese peeps-a must once Jeff gets out here.

Any thoughts?

Saturday-

My day of fun was somewhat disappointing. Instead of the opera, I attempted to get some culture by going to an art show-I went to the place that was supposed to have it...only to discover they were showing bad movies instead. I then went to Starbucks for some coffee (thank G-d for this coffee house-its like a window into civilization), decided I needed some holiday fun in my life (hence I yoinked the christmas tree from another table), went to dinner at the northern food place with Ranajit and Long, and then meandered down the street to Ibiza. The bar was so crowded that we couldnt walk or move and kept getting bumped/pushed into. Hate that. Around midnight, I accepted the fact that my night sucked and decided to go home. Fell asleep and had 8 hours of pure beauty sleep.

The only scary/interesting thing about the night was the begger walking around with his begging monkey. He would walk up to randoms, the monkey would mope around, and he would shove his pan-handling basket in their faces. I turned to my friends and was like, "No way. The monkey probably has AIDS...lets go before they spot us." I ran off, but not before I could take a picture.

Saturday morning-

This crazy social schedule is intense!!

Its Saturday morning and I'm half way through.

Next up...opera, dinner, and more dancing...followed by yoga, shopping and a party at my place.

Oh man...

Wingwoman~

I'm very lucky to have guy friends that respect me and my relationship with Jeff. Because they are so cool, I get to go out with out the fear of 1) them hitting on me and 2) being left to wolves .

In return for their protection (and I hardly ever get approached by weirdos and we made a hand single if I need to be saved), I'm pretty much the most awesome wingwoman ever!

Last night, while dancing at our fav bar Terrace, my friend Long and I saw a bunch of hottie Chinese girls. Long looked at me and smiled-I told him the cutest one was in red. He nodded in agreement and started 'showing off' on the dance floor. The only problem was, he was facing me.

I was like, 'Long, you dummy, don't dance with me!' I turned him around and pushed him into 'red'. He smoothly made the transition from me to her. He danced with this little number through out the night and scored her number. I guess they ended up making out, but I didn't get to see. This def rivals the time I introduced Aaron to a table...yes a full table...of the hottest Swedish (blonde, blue-eyed, and gorgeous) ladies ever.

Thanksgiving~

Yes, I had thanksgiving in China. It was...interesting....

kidding, it was fine. It was actually surprisingly normal. I went over to a friends house (the first jewish family I met) and they had about 20 people milling around drinking wine and snacking on trader joe's food-black bean dip and chips-it was amazing. After about an hour of kibitzing with other La France people (the man of the house is head of the China operations), we walked down the street to Casablanca-a French restaurant having turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, stuffing, and corn!! We piled in (all 22 adults and 8 kids) the restaurant and filled the seats. The wine and gravy started flowing, turkey bits went flying, and corn went rolling down the table. It was pure family-oriented anarchy. It was awesome. Some of my friends work at this company but I still only knew maybe 5 people. Luckily, my years of etiquette training and growing up around adults, prepared me well. I smoothly incorporated myself into the party (I was one of three people not an employee of this company) and had a blast. Several hours later we began fighting over the dark meat and the remaining cranberries. The meal ended with apple cobbler-to which I taught one of the guys to say 'jia yi ge' (add another) so that he could get seconds. Well fed and no longer thirsty, my friends, several randoms, and I wandered over for some after dinner music. We listened to rock and danced until about 11.45 and then headed home for some rest.

Notice the necklace-I got 3 requests for one. Damn I got style.

Also, thanksgiving marked 8 months for Jeff and I. Thanks for giving me 8 fab months honey!!

Got a call from my girlfriend in NY-Juliet-you rock!! thanks for calling girl! Miss you!!

Balance-

Since moving to China, I have been faced with the overwhelming challenge of balancing work with play. I spent the greater part of the last two months, getting settled, floating between home and work, cooking-sorta, reading, watching mediocre movies and dreaming about returning to New York. Don't get me wrong, I love my work and being in China...but when things aren't perfect, I tend to focus on that one point that is dragging it down. For me, thats not having New York here in China. While in the Big Apple, I had a daily social life that often accounted for what most people did in a week (a month even!). I would pack 4 or 5 parties in one night, meet tons of people, make new friends...and enjoy the hell out of the city. My location in Shenzhen is not ideal and often hinders my ability to get around easily. There is a subway, but I have to take a bus to get there...very annoying..and when it gets late, I have to take a taxi back...taxi travel wouldn't be that bad, but I find it a waste of money and usually 40 wasted minutes in a car. I may need to accept the fact I won't go out like I used to during the week (thats ok because I have yoga)...but when Fri, Sat and Sun roll around...I need to embrace those days with a little more vivacity than I have been doing.

Today is the start of Maddy getting back on track.

Expected social calendar:

Today:
Lunch with Hiromi
Dinner with new French girl I picked up (you all know how i make my some of my best fem friends via this method)

Tomorrow:
Thanksgiving-
1) party and dinner with my 20-something friends at LaFrance
2) dessert at another party with Jewish friends
3) possible hitting of the bars after

Friday:
Yoga
dinner
partying at the bars with my friend Long

Saturday
work
Lunch
meeting up ranajit to go cantonese opera
dinner
possibly hitting wine tasting party
def hitting the party at Ibiza

Sunday
yoga
shopping with new Chinese girlfriend
dinner
Party at my house

Am making plans for a weekend trip to Japan in the next few weeks

Am making plans to stay in HK during New Years...

Thanksgiving-

have you ever tried to explain Thanksgiving in Chinese!? Well I did today...It came out like a garbled monologue of: you know the indians...like indians from india but american-before the white people from England came, there were people, Indian-Americans that were not white-they were farmers and the white people tried to build relationships the 'indian'-americans and they ate dinner and said thanks..alot...very important holiday in America.

I don't think I really want to explain the blank, confused stares I got from my coworkers. They nodded in fake understanding (though the baffled expressions were quite apparent) and I left the dialogue muttering something about 'important American holiday.'

Anyway, family and friends-I will, in the standard Maddy-way, be attending two parties back to back stuffing myself on turnery, cranberries, and any other thanksgivingy food that can be found in china.

Oh and total side note-met a girl from France that plays Tarot (my fav card game ever). We are having din din tomorrow night-will report more soon.

Fashion~

There is something about dressing like your significant other that rubs me the wrong way. Its extremely popular here in China-the matching shirts (see orange tops for example)-and to be frank, I don't get it. Why would I want to match Jeff? I mean he dresses cute and all, but I prefer to have my own identity. Either way, regardless if its these shirts pictured here or others...people love matching-even if the message doesnt make sense.

Its the weirdest thing ever.


I think perhaps when the boyfriend gets out here, we should try it.

Jeff, you are the Jewish 'live long and prosper' to my 'hang ten'.

Saturday~

I had an awesome day.

9.30-12.15-Arrive at the office, get off work.

12.30-dropped my laptop off at home, headed to meet my friend Ranajit. We decided today was the day-We were going to get clothing custom made. Oh my goodness…this is bad…I can basically bring in a picture of anything I want and have it made to fit my body. After my many hours of yoga (when you have nothing to do but workout, it’s amazing how in-shape you’ll get), none of my clothing fits!! I need everything. To start I am having two pair of pants and a bustier made. I brought in a picture of these grey wide-leg pants and the Prada bustier, handed it to some seamstresses and asked if they could it.

‘Of course! No problem’

Trouble on the horizon.

One of the girls takes Ranajit and me to the fabric store. Its row and rows upon endless rows of fabrics of all colors, patterns, and materials. I was in Candyland. For the first time, I decided to go with the vendor’s fabric dealer. I selected grey and black cotton for my pants. Ranajit picked out his shirts and pants and we headed back the tailor booth (there are hundreds). (Jeff-I’m soooo taking you here and adding customizing your wardrobe…) The seamstress took our measurements, handed us our bill and off we went. The tailor one couldn’t handle the bustier for any less than $30USD-too much work for her-so I had to find another one. I randomly walked into another shop and handed the lady my vogue rip out of my top. She nodded and I asked how much-$18-SOLD.

There was another woman there from Hong Kong and she told me that she had been using this lady for years…good sign.

The new tailor measured me, handed my receipt and off I went.

Total cost for 2 pairs of custom pants and a fitted bustier-$40USD

If this goes well, I will be throwing out my entire wardrobe and building a custom-fitted stylish collection of garments. Its unbelievable…you can bring in pictures of chanel, prada, whatever, and they will make it! I can’t wait to see how it goes because I think I may have found my newest hobby-collecting a portfolio of cloths I want.

5.30pm-Ranajit and I head down to the 4^th, 3^rd, 2^nd floor of this garment shopping super center. I need some bling and a leopard print purse if possible. We drift through the rows of shops trying on sunglasses, purses, and hats. The annoying thing is that the vendors, EVERY SINGLE F-ING ONE OF THEM-say ‘missy, lookie, missy come look. You want pursie, belt?”

After a while of this repetitive babble, Ranajit and I start harassing back, saying things like, “yes! I want a belt…but not your belts” or give a confused look and say “I already have a purse!”

On one occasion, I found the Gucci horsehair leopard print bag-

“How much?” I asked the vendor.

“800” she says.

“wow. Too much!” I retort.

Ranajit, “that’s a really expensive horse!”

The vendor looks baffled and says, “yes, expensive bag. It’s horse hair”

‘No, not the purse, the horse! Must be an expensive horse if the purse costs so much!” Ranajit argues.

The vendor catches on, smiles and says “yes, the horse was expensive too.”

“Yeah, and only if it didn’t have the Gucci logo on it. Would be much better.” Ranajit jingles the hardware of the purse and points the big ‘GUCCI’.

The vendor stares inquisitively-buying a purse with the logo is the whole point-She obviously doesn’t pick up on Ranajit’s dry sense of humor.

After hours of harassing the vendors and get harassed back, I leave the mall with layered strands of gold seed beads and an amber-bling-ring.

7.15pm-Ranajit and I head for Grey Wolf, a north-west Chinese food place that has been decorated to reflect that of a cave. I would have taken a picture, but wasn’t allowed. The waiters all have painted moustaches and soul patches that kind of look like an Italian pizza man. Not sure how that fits into the southwestern themed cave, but it was very interesting regardless.

9.30pm-Ibiza..no, not the island off of Spain…the bar! Just down the road is a very popular bar that foreigners frequent. Ranajit and I sit in the many open seats-its still early-and order a beer. The woman behind the counter is extremely stylish with her 1920’s bob.

“I like your haircut!” I say to her in Chinese.

“You speak Chinese! That’s amazing! You like my hair!? Thanks. Where are you from?”

‘New York.’

That was it…that’s all I had to say.

Turns out the woman was the owner of the bar and was absolutely in love with my former city of residence. The next thing I know I’m being given free shots, beers and am introduced to every single regular in the bar along with her designer and DJ. I am handed a personal invitation to her 2 year anniversary party and she continues to check on me throughout the night. At one point, while I’m dancing, she tells me to wait for a moment and comes back with a gold clutch! A gift for me! Wow…I knew being from NY was cool but…WOW!

10.15-1.45am-Ranajit and I dance the night away to a mixture of 70’s disco, bad techno, and hiphop (I have a lot of calories to burn from my many beers). I love to dance and when I hit the floor, it’s an interesting experience because:

1) Being white, from the USA, and the only decent dancer in the whole city, I get a following of Chinese girls imitating and fighting to jig with me.

2) I won’t dance with any guys unless they are friends-so I end dancing either alone, with the cute Chinese girls who are imitating my moves or other foreign women I see on the floor, which is fun because the guys all stare in amazement at the fact that I’ve gotten all the hotties on the floor. Shout out to Crystal-my friend from Iowa state-Thanks for teaching me to dance!!

Around 1.45am-the music has changed from the pleasant mixture of Beyonce and YMCA to crappy techno. Ranajit and I head out and call it a night.

2.15am-Arrive home, drunk dial Jeff to tell him how much I miss him.

2.22am-crawl into bed and try to ‘read’-pass out

5.45am-wake up, move my book from my face, turn off the light, pass out again.

8.30am-up and making coffee—

After the night of partying-today’s schedule consists of:

1) organic green tea

2) full two hour body massage

3) 1.5 hour yoga

4) Mani-pedi

5) Cooking

6) Movies

7) Shopping for more outfits in the newest vogue

Elevators-

China is the only place in the world that I have ever seen the 'close door' buttons in elevators work so well-It never working in the states! But here, when you see an elevator, the 'close' button is an absolute necessity.

People ALWAYS push it-wether you are getting on or off. Once pressed, it lights up and sure enough, the door closes within a second. In fact, the fucking doors will actually close on you (yes I have this happen to me and my laptop on numerous occasions) if you don't get out/on fast enough. The person guilty of closing the door on you feigns embarrassment and scrambles to push the 'open door' button. If getting on, I usually send an angry glare and watch to see how many other people the culprit does it to.

I know they were hoping I, or anyone else, wouldn't make it on. Every new person in the lift means they have to push the 'close door' button one more time. What a hassle. I mean, honestly, the amount of seconds saved by that mangnificient command button could add up to a whole minute!

This thing is so important that people will cross the elevator to man the button station. If the damn thing ever stopped functioning, the entire building would be thrown into a state of panic and confusion and there would be rioting in the halls.

Lets play:

what's wrong with this picture?

1) Wellcome-> should be welcome-with one 'L'. Not sure where we are going with 'WELLCOME'

2) Wellcome to second floor...wait...isn't there supposed to be 'the' in this sentence?

And the fact that you have to be enticed up to 'second floor' sends up a red flag. what's wrong with the first floor??

3) 24 hours service-first, its '24 hour'-without the 's' and second, 24 hours of what exactly?

The funny thing is, I think this actually a legit place...and not a 'special' massage parlor. Its in a very 'chic' part of town which means they need to work on the sign-just a little bit.

Today I had lunch with a new friend. Hiromi-a Japanese expat. Our relationship is interesting because she doesn't speak English and my Japanese is limited to "1,2, 3, 4, 7,/that is a watch./ is that a car?, thanks, good morning and do you speak Chinese?" Thus we communicate solely through our mutual second language. She has been here for 4 years and has another 4 to go.

Through our combined broken Chinese, we get along very well. She, like me, understands the limitations of conversation with our Chinese friends (i.e world events, politics, etc) and appreciates having an open-minded female to talk with. We come from very different backgrounds in the grand scheme of things, but in China we are more alike than not.

I find this to be true with most expats. You are either Chinese or not. The 'not' category is globbed together under the 'laowai' (originally meant foreign devil, now just means foreigner) title. At first, I thought laowais were white people, but the more I asked, the more I realized it was everyone who was not Chinese.

Anyway, so Hiromi and I bonded over the fact that we were both 'laowai' living in Shenzhen. We talked about our families, our upbringing, Chinese fashion, sushi, and North Korea-a refreshingly diverse Mandarin dialogue. Together, we connected over how different our respective cultures were in relation to China and how similar they were to each other.

Laptop Bag-

There is one thing that does not exist in China: personal space. I think its because there are so many people in a confined area...either way, people don't think twice about standing right next to you, running into you, or sitting halfway on your lap...its just the way things are. I accept that, but not without my passive aggressive attempt to make a difference. I have a 15lb, 15"screen, heavy duty laptop. I carry this monstrosity back and forth between work and home everyday. Strapped on, this huge piece of luggage becomes a ramming device that typically knocks people off balance and when it strikes its absolutely hilarious.
When walking around in large crowds, I do not alter my course or attempt to avoid the massive bodies coming at me. If they are staring (which is typical), they often don't notice the large, lumbering bag strapped to my side.

'BAM'-My laptop has struck again!

A man has just been knocked sideways! A look of surprise, alarm, and pain spreads across his face as he realizes he has walked too close and simply wasn't paying attention. He looks down in shock and sees he has just been whacked by a very large and heavy object. If only he had not been walking a) directly in my path or b) been looking not at my face, but where he was going, this whole encounter could have been avoided. But alas, he, like most people don't think about such things.

After I rush by, pretending not to have noticed, a grin spreads across my face.
My laptop rocks even though its old, large, and heavy.

A side note, I do try avoid weak or small children-though the large, fat spoiled ones are subject to 'The BAG'

Lingo~

Yesterday started like every other day, I came to the office, sat at my desk, set up my laptop and began checking my email. My mind drifted through the various requests and questions.

"What up dog?" which sounded more like ,"Whar up doggah?"

What?! I snapped out my morning haze and looked over the edge of my cubicle.

"My doggah"

My coworker's brown eyes peaked over at me. A grin spread across her face.

"My Doggah", she repeated, smirking.

"huh?"

Here eyes widened as she thought she may have offended me, "means friend right?" She quickly asked in Chinese.

I laughed. "yes, its means, 'what's up friend-sorta'", I explained in Mandarin, though the cultural explanations remained buried.

She giggled, covered her mouth to fain shyness.

'Faouuur!!!'---->"Fool!!" she shouted at me.

There are certain things that simply can not be translated. I don't even know how to express the cultural meaning behind 'my dog' and 'fool'. Whatever the language barrier, that was probably the funniest thing I had heard since being in China. I vowed to fix her pronunciation and then let her loose on other unsuspecting Americans!

Hong Kong Taxis

Monday, I spent the entire day in HK. I ran from one end of the city to other carrying a 15lb laptop and a bag of samples. No noticeable problems except one cab ride, where I asked the taxi driver to take my phone because my vendor would tell him in Chinese where to go (I don't speak Cantonese). The driver practically freaked out and was like, "I'M DRIVING, I CAN'T TAKE THE PHONE. BE REASONABLE, I WILL GET FINED!!!" I said, 'yes, but you don't know where you are going yet, can you pull over?' Anyway, needless to say, he did not take me to my destination. The interesting thing about HK cabs, is they have the 'automatic door' that swings open and shuts closed. Its like the EJECT button. Anyway, the driver pulled over, popped the door open and shouted for me to get out. He then 'shut' door and crawled away (traffic was a nightmare). Its was very entertaining though at this point I was tired and hungry from consistant running around.

I absolutely love being so close to HK. What makes HK so great, you ask?!
To name a few

1) you don't get stared at
2) fashion is cute!
3) you can use your credit card if you want
4) you seldom suffer from the language breakdown
5) there are clean, new buildings everywhere!!
6) The city has tons of hip, stylish restaurants
7) fresh food
8) Import foods that aren't marked 'IMPORT FOOD!' in the grocery store.


I will keep the list going.

Also, Jeff applied for his VISA!!! Yeah!!! Chinese new years plans have changed, we are now going to Thailand.

Shabbas-

Last night, I went to Shabbas at a another American's house. Being so far from home, it is extremely comforting to find other Jews . Although I didn't grow up with a strong religious influence, I certainly identify with the cultural aspect of it. I wasn't always this way-once I hit my early twenties, I began to explore what my heritage meant to the world and to me. As we lit the candles (I only know the one prayer for the wine-go figure) and sat down to dinner, I realized that being Jewish is a gift. The people in attendance were from all over the globe-three from America, one from France, Israel, Russia, Canada, Morocco, and the Cheq Republic. Its amazing that on this Friday night, you would find all these people gathered around one table having nothing more connecting us than our history.


When I first arrived in China, it was close to our New Year and I knew that all I would have to do is find another Jew and I would have a place to go. So I did a search on Google for 'Jews in Shenzhen'. This opened the flood gate. I emailed a woman named Amy telling her about my situation. (Side note-Amy worked with Jeff's former classmate from J-school. Small world.) So even though Amy was not going to be in town for RH, she connected me to another group of Jews having dinner (and Jeff' friend from school). It was there, I met Aaron who introduced me to all the rest of my friends. In addition, I already have a place to go for Thanksgiving and after last night, Channukah.

What other culture opens its doors with out question?

China is, in general, a mono-cultural nation. There are minorities and other foreigners, but in general, it seems like 90% Han Chinese. One person told me yesterday that I was the first American girl he had ever seen. In this day and age, that struck me as sad or at least made me aware of how lucky I am to have come from my own melting pot country. When constantly feeling like an alien (hence the staring) or a perpetual outsider, nothing is more comforting than being surrounded by people who shared my culture and understand my native language. It is the only time in China where I feel like I fit in.

The beautiful evening lacked only one thing, my Jewish boyfriend (who I ended up calling).

Ok-not much new to report..little of this and a little of that...

First-Shout out to my boy!!! Jeff ran his second NYC marathon in 4:00:56....Hell YEAH BABY!! Its true, I'm with the marathon runner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NsgziUyGaE

Second-I got stopped at border control today without my passport. Thought I was going to be thrown in jail...I lucked out because my manager was there and she sweet talked me through (getting stopped, thrown out of the car I was in, going to the border control office, and getting through the 'check point' took all of five minutes).

Third-think i found the first flaw in my magical yoga studio-besides being comparable to NY prices, the classes are the same!? What!? So I took hot yoga three times in a row and each time, it was the same routine!! Is that normal? Next up, power yoga-

Fourth-my cooking is slowly turning from nasty to somewhatvaguely yummy. Tonight's delicious meal was mushrooms, bean sprouts and beef...cooked in olive oil, garlic and soy (the only 'sauces' I have in my house.

Fifth-went out with my friends this weekend and my friend Aaron decided that he was going to wear an LED headlight (the kind that you strap to your head). Aaron wore this damn thing in the taxi to which the taxi cab driver pulled out his own LED flashlight to play show-and-tell. The cab ride became even more interesting when Aaron started shining his 'head' light on other people in passing cars. He later busted it out at dinner...yes..you can see he is checking out something very important. After dinner, we met a total random who rode the bike from Cypris to Shenzhen...he welded this thing himself!! Aaron stopped, made me take a picture and ditched all 5 of us to ride this crazy contraption.

Sixth-I lost 10RMB in a bet...
Ok so what are the lyrics? "Rider IN the storm" or "Riders ON the storm"?

yeah well despite listening to the song through out my childhood, it was 'Riders ON the storm."

Seventh-Shout out to Jen-She is responsible for the Stephen Colbert agreeing with me and bringing my points about manners into the public eye!

What was that Steve? You hate the nose picking and ruthless staring too!?

Oh and can I add the sneezing and coughing WITHOUT EVEN TRYING OR MAKING ANY EFFORT TO COVER YOUR MOUTH. yuck.

..and add the 'almost hitting you with a car or other large moving object while staring'.

Yoga~

I have done it!!! After 5 weeks of contemplation, I have joined the coolest yoga studio in all of Shenzhen (if not all of Southern China-save for Hong Kong). I needed a hobby...why not yoga!? I'm working toward making myself healthier (to counter the pollution) and hotter (if that is even possible!?!?!-shameless, I know). Anyway, check this baby out...

http://www.hotzyoga.com/home.asp

I know you can't read Chinese, but this place rivals most NY studios...and trust me, I've been to a lot of them. First of all, you get 'scanned' in by your finger print! Yes, its all done by biometric equipment! There is a full locker room, clean towels, pampering, and a huge seating area with plush cushions, tea and bountiful copies of vogue (granted the Chinese version). There are 5 or 6 studios--gorgeous bamboo rooms. The hot yoga class has a heated floor...its awesome.
And I can come to just hang out!!

I should also mention that the place is across the courtyard from me (1 minute walking)...

ok, I'm off to bed...6.30am Hatha!!

Damn-I'm back to my old self...organic snacks and yoga...just like in NY...

Strange habits~

ok, there are certain culture differences that are just, well, unusual to me. Having attended etiquette school and being brought up in a home where you learned to 'dine with kings', I am extremely sensitive to manners. Living in China, I have had to lower my guard and deal with the following:

1) public nose picking (my personal favorite)
2) hacking
3) spitting
4) smoking (everywhere-including enclosed elevators)
5) kids pissing and crapping on the sidewalks
6) eating cloves of garlic as a side dish (when sitting next to me-ooh man...smelly)
7) staring
8) pushing and shoving
9) spitting out food on to the tables
10) chewing with mouth open
11) elbows all over the table
12) men wearing their shirt half way up their chest-exposing the stomach

Its amazing how after a while, you become indifferent to most...though the nose picking def gets to me...ug quit with the digging already!!