short visit?!?!

Hey all, heads up!! I may be in for a few days next week or the week after. I may come in for some quick training in my NY office. To be confirmed in a day or so!!

We are heading up to Beijing next weeked!

Sightseeing, visiting old friends, showing Jeff what China is REALLY like, antique shopping, and good food.

I'll post more soon.

M-

1 year~

Last Thursday marked our 1 year anniversary. Dinner and wine-yum!

Thanks Brandon! The wine was delicious!

It is official.

Jeff and I are going to the Philippines. We purchased our tickets today and are planning for 6 days of snorkeling, cave dwelling, rock climbing, horse back riding, and sightseeing....

More on the plan soon.

Seder.

It has been decided that we will be hosting the second Seder- 8+ people.

What does this mean, you ask?

Given that I have a table for 4, plates for 5, spoons for 1, and not a real cup to speak of, the stories from this event will be extremely amusing.

Alas, I will be serving my hummus from Tupperware.....

I woke up last night around 4.30am and realized that I had not traveled enough around China. I have been here for almost 6 months and during this trip, I have only made my way to Shanghai. Even though I've already visited Beijing (2X), Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Beidaihe, and Dongguan, I still find this unacceptable. Starting tonight I will be planning a weekend trip once a month and a full out expedition when my father gets here.

The list:

Beijing (for Jeff)
Xinjiang
Guilin
Hainan
Qingdao
Xi'an

Tibet
Mongolia

Dad-I'm thinking for our week+ of travel, I will take you across the northish from West to East: Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, Xi'an, Beijing....

maybe we will even make our way to the Himilayas...

On display-

One of the most challenging aspects of living in China is being on display, relentlessly stared at as if in a cage or an a pedestal. One might think that most annoying or difficult things of living in this foreign country would be the language, or the food, or the hacking sound or the fact that you can't drink tap water...but for me, the deepest source of frustration comes from the constant staring. In general, I like being the center of attention and having people look at me, but this pushes the envelope. In an elevator, walking down the street, sitting down at a restaurant...the location is irrelevant because the staring never ceases. It is everyday, every moment when I am not at home or in my office...at first I thought I would get used to it, but truth be told, I can not seem to adjust. In Chinese culture, it is not rude to stare and so they do it...they ALL do it. Sometimes they even call out 'foreigner!' or point.

On occasion, the persistent gawking lends its way to anger and I'll lash out, 'WHAT!? (in chinese of course)' but they just get confused that I can speak their language and continue to eyeball me. I'll also stare at them until they look away. People will stare, I'll stare back, they'll look away, I'll turn my head and then they will look back at me and when I catch them looking at me again, they will turn their heads to avoid eye contact. I often continue to stare to ensure they stop.

Other times, I am afraid to cross the street because when a person stares in a car, I get worried that they will forget they are driving and smash right in to me.

I realize that in America, we are spoiled by our diversity and the richness of our differences. Being white, black, asian, indian, or whatever else, doesn't phase us. We are used to the streets made colorful by our multiple ethnicities.

In China, its so different, so mono-culture that being of non-asian decent, i constantly feel that I'm a walking, talking, breathing exhibit silently beckoning for everyone to look.

I wish they all would just think about it for a moment; if they are staring, chances are that everyone else is too and maybe, just maybe I don't like it. They could sneak a glance and be done with it.
But they don't, and one glance turns into 30 seconds, which turns into a few minutes.

Perhaps I should start charging a 'staring-fee'.

5 RMB per minute to look.

10 RMB to touch my arm and check that I'm real flesh and blood and not a mechanical wax model.

St. Patty's Day-

All is status quo on the China home front. Jeff and I have settled into a routine more or less---
working, running, cooking/going out, and watching random TV shows (we just finished season 1 of 24 and I want those hours of my life back it became so stupid!!) .

St. Patty's day in China is the same as what you would expect in the states...a bunch of people cramming into the local Irish pubs covered in green with Guinesses in hand. Being in Shenzhen does not make us an exception to this standard.

You will notice the hack job to my head...well, its not that bad. I decided that it was time for a little shape and a trim (the hint was that the ends of my hair were breaking off at the slightest tug). Being the daring, adventurous creature that I am, I went to the local salon armed with a picture pulled from a magazine. 25 minutes later, the mop on my head did not resemble the stunning woman in the photo, but it is cute and fun none the less. The mod-80's style is somewhat standard in this part of the world. Although it almost looks like a wig, i'm glad for the change.

Thursday is one year for Jeff and I (though we didn't label ourselves officially together until April-Mayish...but who's counting?)

Updates:

Hi all, long time, sorry for the delay!

There is some, not much, to report:

1) John, my friend that held all the wonderful Shabbat dinners, has moved to Australia :(
2) Sarah, my good friend, is thinking of moving :(
3) Ranajit, another friend is thinking of moving :(

BOOO, you guys suck!

ok, on to good news:

4) Jeff has met almost everyone and is getting settled.
5) I have another vacation to plan- May 1st. It is labor day and everything in china shuts down for a week. We are considering the following options: Israel, Bali, Singapore, Philippines, some random island in the South Pacific.
Any tips? suggestions?

6) Jeff and I are frantically watching TV series...24, deadwood, six feet under, scrubs...OMG so much drama!

7) My dad has purchased his ticket...we are meeting in Japan in July and then he will hang with me for a few weeks in Chin-chin. I'm going to take a week and show him my hood (all of china).

8) I got locked out of my apartment (which was really annoying). I'm not exactly sure what happened, but all of a sudden my key just stopped working. So glad Nancy was there to sort us out.

OK, thats all for now.

sorry to be short, but there isn't that much to say!

Thailand~

Hey all, my vaca rocked and its great to be with Jeff again. I don't have any crazy stories but basically it went like this:

1) Bangkok-totally sucked. city was dirty, smoggy, and smelly. We spent one day wandering around and riding a boat up and down the unusually brownish-green river. I don't remember too much of this nasty city, because Jeff and I spent most of the time talking and catching up.

2) Chiang mai-fun, but also dirty. This city was certainly interesting. The night market was fun and the massages were relaxing.

We did take a 'tour' which I would argue was the WORST tour ever...we rode elephants that seemed to be mistreated, took a hike in the wilderness, rode a truck to which someone fell out of, stopped in a orchid farm, ran through a butterfly room, visited a run down, destitute village, sat in an uncomfortable OX cart, and then floated down the river listening to the woes of a messed-up relationship.

The night market was fun and being the insane shopper that I am, I couldnt stop looking at all the stuff. I didn't buy that much as it was the same sh*t over and over, not to mention Jeff kept whispering in my 'cheap crap for sale! get your cheap crap!'

One day we hired a took-took-basically a motorcycle with a cart on the back and went on a whirlwind of visiting temples, temples, and more temples, and then to see some jewlery. The took-took became our private car and waited for us at each location. He even picked out a resturant spot and waited while we finished our meal. He was a little crazy and kept laughing...regardless of if we said/did anything or not. He was very amusing.

3) Once we finished in this haven, we jumped on the tiniest plane ever and flew to the tropics!
Koh Samui was gorgeous and we went fishing, snorkeling, swimming, hanging out, drinking rum, wandering around and getting Jeff outfitted in custom clothing.

Overall, Thailand was fun~