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February 26, 2006
Fun in the snow
Happy Spring or Chinese New Year or just Happy Sunday! This is my team family in front of our apartment building this afternoon. We're back from China travel and Thailand and we start teaching again on Wednesday. We've got 2 more days of vacation. Woo hoo.
It's like a classy beach shot gone crazy.
It's cold up here...but the snow is diminishing bit by bit. :-)
Check out my team mate's site www.xanga.com/jenniejay for more from this photo shoot.
You can also see me at Bruce's site at www.xanga.com/bc_in_proc
And here's me when asked to pose. I like posing.
Chalice, I adore this hothot scarf you knit for me. Really adore it.
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February 24, 2006
China Vogue pictures and...
I will post travel photos soon, but today I was more interested in showing you some pages from my China Vogue magazine. Kyrie, Sienna, and Chalice especcially: 'njoy.
This is not from Vogue. I took this shot at the market today. I like the red and the grotesque sausages.
And one more random shot of me and another (Chinese-) American teacher at our ELIC conference in Thailand. He emailed me this photo and it was sitting in my inbox so it's easy for me to post. My internet hasn't worked in my room for a long while so I always have to transport photos from my computer or other computers to another computer in order to post them and it's slightly inconvenient. So this is what I look like, in case you forgot. And I'll post more later. He took a photo like this with just about every ctf-er. He is so cute and nice.
Posted by Brae at 06:43 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 21, 2006
Happy belated Valentine's Day
Cute couples in America who make me smile while I'm sitting over here in China.
A photo taken by my litte sister Kyrie of my cousin Vincent and his new Japanese girlfriend Kiko. They are standing in my front yard in Cambridge. That's his little brother Ben behind him. And another cute couple in the back: Kate and Thom Huntington. They are my parent's friends and they've always been so sweet to eachother. They live round the block. I've known them since 1st grade.
Alex Neff and Pang Hoiyuk from Hong Kong
Pretty Tacy Jane and Stephen
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February 18, 2006
body stuff
One thing I love about the east is the body/heart/mind connection thing they have going on. Because they are a litte more in touch with their wholeness, body care is more advanced and more common than in our states. Let me tell about two of my recent experiences.
Yesterday while Bonnie was in her class I walked down to a salon for a hair wash as I love to do. This time I got the usual shampoo and massage and blow dry, but the massage was more a taste of heaven than usual, and a sweet semi English speaking girl sat by me talking to me the whole time and she decided the guy washing my hair was going to clean my ears. I said 'ok.' Picture the guy washing my hair: he's tall and has funky styled long hair with a bleached section. He has a typical asian male fashion funky thing going on that I can't quite describe and wish with all my heart I could show you with a digital pic. So all of a sudden he is cleaning my ears with q-tips but in no way I have ever done it. And he was so comfortable and professional and after he cleaned them he would put one hand over my ear and tap it with the other hand. He took several minutes cleanig each ear and then he would massage each one. wOnderful. Sorry if that sounds sketchy to you. It's really not because it's a part of normal Chinese culture. Not normal American culture.
Today I went to a bath house and got a milk and honey exfoliation over my whole body. That really does sound like heaven. A bit biblical. There were also a bunch of hot spring jacuzzis with different flavors to soak in. There was a coffee bath, wine bath, saki bath, milk bath, and rose bath. The baths weren't pure coffee or wine. They were pools of naturally hot water from a spring mixed with a bit of saki or roses.
Bath houses are not for the rich Chinese. They are a way of life.
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February 16, 2006
details of my days
detail #1
This week the apartment building I'm staying in with Bonnie is frighteningly ghetto. I like ghetto, but in the elevator all day there is a sweet young girl who is the elevator operator. That's all. That's her job. She pushes the button for elevator riders. She's so pretty and young and vulnerable and alone on this ghetto elevator in this ominous looking apartment building. I gave her a rose on Valentine's day, but I wanted to give her a new job.
#2
2 nights ago while Bonnie was in her GRE English class I wrote emails in a nearby internet cafe. At 8:30 she had her friend come by and pick me up and take me to her school so we could take the bus back home together. Her friend, a short man in his 30's who spoke no English, came and got me and led me to his tri-cycle with a metal box on wheels attached to the back. I got in, and he pedaled my 150 pound self 25 minutes to Bonny's school. He even gave me his mp3 player to listen to sentimental patriotic Chinese songs. So I'm sitting in this box with grand music in my ears, looking at all the Chinese people on bikes and other bike-like contrapitions go by, and I knew I wasn't in America. I always know I'm not in America, but sometimes I know more than other times. (It was 25 minutes of funny wonderfulness.)
#3 (of today)
Today I checked out the contemporary art scene here in the Beej with Bonnie and two former Chinese students of my former art teacher, Kayb. We strolled in and out of very progressive remodeled warehouses filled with quite modern art. I was in my scene. It was a good day. Kayb's student, Kevin, told me that it's hard for artists in China because the nature of an artist is ussually honest self expression and that's not really allowed in this country. Kevin is an industrial designer. His girlfriend Viona studies jewelry design. When she told me that, I immediately responded that it sounded really cool. She said right back, "It's not as great as it sounds." I love when people can say the way things are rather than wanting to impress.
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February 12, 2006
No need for sunscreen in Beijing
I left Thailand yesterday morning. My weeks there were good, but I was in extremely touristy places and that always makes life feel slightly hollow for me. I'm in Beijing visiting my Chinse friend Bonnie for the week and it's good to be back in a place where people live and work. Thailand was vacation and it obnoxiously felt like vacation. I saw as many Europeans as I saw Thai people, and though I don't object to vacation, I don't think it's appropriate for this time in my life. Most of the restaurants and shops we went to were built for tourists. Kind of yuck. But I got some dang cool stuff.
Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. I will never be free from it.
Now I'm back in my ugg boots and down coat. No more tank tops and sunscreen.
I'm staying in a little room only slightly bigger than the size of the bed in it with Bonnie this week. The bed is extremely unChinese and comfortable and the apartment building is totally ghetto, much to my delight. It's way better than my posh Hong Kong existence. It feels real to my romantic self. In the elevator there's a girl who stands inside all day as the elevator operator. She looks so sad and it seems her job was made for people who can't find jobs. I want to bring her a flower or something.
Today I went to the famous Silk Street and got a cute traditional Chinese silk top. I got a matching one for Tamara. It started at 100 yuen ($12) and Bonnie helped me bargain down to 2 for 90 yuen. Woo hoo. Bargaining in China is a little vicious and argumentative. In Thailand it's the opposite. While bargaining at the night market, more than once the shop girl would end up hugging me and laughing while I was cracking up. I understand why that restaurant in Chatttanooga is called Thai Smile. Thai people smile more than Americans do.
In Thailand I got to experience another Eastern culture. Though worlds different from China, both the Thai and the Chinese have hearts of service Americans couldn't imagine. Kayb, I remember you telling me last year how my Chinese friends would do anything for me, and they do. It boggles my mind how naturally they are ready to serve. It makes air plane rides sweeter. The flight attentendants were so graceful and humble.
Sudden detail that I can't fit into my narrative: The Thai people always fold their hands and bow to you. Sweet Sweet.
One way Thailand is extremely different from China is how laid back the people are. From observing this, I have a new theory about southern culture all over the world. The sun makes people more chill. In Asia, southeast Asians walk more slowly, stay up later, and care less about the clock. They're a little louder and friendlier than the Chinese. It's the same in South America, Africa, and southern Europe (Italy, Greece). I've always said I like summer best because I like how it makes me people walk more naturally. In the winter you have to walk fast and the cold makes your joints rigid. I think it makes our minds more rigid too.
I like the sun.
I'll post Thai photos around the 21st when I'm back home again in my blizzard city.
I'm going to check out the art gallery scene here in Beijing this week. It's been a while since I've been to one. Art museums in China aren't spectacularly common.
(Do you the think my use of the work 'spectacularly' was distracting or pretencious?)
Posted by Brae at 07:13 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
February 08, 2006
look out for your family
I'm almost finished reading 'The Shipping News' by E. Annie Proulx. It's set on the coast of Newfoundland and it's about a broken family trying to renew their lives. Two hicks who work with the protagonist for the local newspaper say the following words.
"There's two ways of living here now. There's the old way, look out for your family, die where you was born, fish, cut your wood, keep a garden, make do with what you got. Then there's the new way. Work out, have a job, somebody tell you what to do, commute, your brother's in South Africa, your mother's in Regina, buy every g.damn cockadoodle piece of Japanese crap you can. Leave home. Go off to look for work. And some has a hard time of it."
That slightly crude passage shows me the dignity of the first way of living, which I've always looked down upon. The passage also resonates coincedentally, what with my little sis in Liberia.
Posted by Brae at 04:06 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
February 07, 2006
on a thai mountain
I've been at my organization's conference for the last 4 days. I've got 3 days left, and then back to my dear closed and cold country of China. I'll fly to Beijing on Friday and then to Chang Chun, both full of snow. Here I can check my sisters' blogs (you should too!!...links below) and wear tank tops and skirts and sunscreen. There are 600 of us servants of the king gathered on this Thai mountain spread about 4 resorts. My friend Anna and I are in a funky fun bungalow cabin.
The 3 other resorts are posh/hotelish, but ours is a place of cabins with grass roofs and sinks that don't drain and big porches with hard benches and pillows. Every night Anna and I sit on the porch and drink cold water from wine glasses and debrief about the day and whatever else. We laugh about the same things and connect...I couldn't ask for any more than that. We call it our porch culture.
Every morning we gather as a body and sing praises to him and hear a message. The singing is the best ever. These past 5 months I've been looking forward to singing to our father in English and with many who are serving him and now that I'm experiencing it, it's exactly what I need. The praise band leader is like Lenny Smith. A mature, folky, sincere man with a good voice.
The days have been rather difficult for me, but today was good. Vacations without family are slightly depressing and I'm not good at mingling. I get serious social anxiety in situations where I must meet people. I hate meeting people. I like knowing people or having met people and just being with them. So the first couple days I'd have an emotional breakdown right after lunch, and recuperate from my tears in time for dinner. Geez, I have an intense life. I didn't cry today. I got to talk to a Xian counselor for an hour 2 days ago. Anyone with an opportunity to get counseling ought to. It's extremely validating and helpful.
Today I went to a meeting with about 60 people from my region of China...the northeast. One person from each team spoke to the group about what the Shepherd is doing at our schools. I represented my team. Public speaking has always been my most tremendour fear. I got C's on all my speeches in college. And now as a teacher I am decently comfortable speaking publically. This is a miracle almost. I spoke about how he is using me to tell others about him and I specifically mentioned how my father's cancer has given me opportunity to share my eternal hope. I had everyone's attention and many thanked me for sharing. I articulated my thoughts well...something I think I've never done in front of a large group of Americans. Large groups of Chinese have been my practice.
There are gheckos all over the walls here. The bus drives on the wrong side of the road and nearly gives me a heart attack every morning. It's backwards like in Brittain. I've been doing flips into pools and reading David Sedaris and Albert Camus and the bible.
I love people and I hate people.
End of ambiguous entry.
Love, Brae
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