Cameron Highlands... Malaysia

Jungle friends from Thailand

The beaches in Thailand are GORGEOUS

My Xmas video

I realize it is a little bit past Christmas, but better late than never. Here is the link to my Christmas trip to Hong Kong. We tried to make it as much as a traditional Chirstmas as possible with a tree and stockings and all the fun stuff. Anyways, enjoy the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYqffHnWdII

You should be able to copy and paste the link above.

Pee Pee Island

Our first beach stop was Krabbi where we stayed at Railley Beach. We then went to Phi Phi Island (pronounced Pee Pee). This island was one that was hit hardest by the tsunami, but is also one of the most beautiful places ever. The water was so clear and gorgeous. There were green hills on the island and the weather was warm. I was able to play beach volleyball, and I was in heaven!!!

Anyways, I will stop about the beauty because I will post pictures later. One night we (Jackie, John, Tarah, Amber, and I) were walking around. It was our last night as a family (since Tarah, Amber, and I would be leaving for Malaysia the next day). I wanted some dessert, something sweet. I decided to be healthy, so instead of gelato I would get mango. I found a stand and waited to be served. As I chose my mango I felt something on my foot. Considering there were bugs everywhere, and getting a mosquito bite was not uncommon I figured it was a bug, until I realized it was wet. I admit, I was perplexed, so I looked down to see a 3 year old Thai girl in a cute little dress squatting. I jumped back, realizing that she was squatting and peeing, not just on the ground outside her mom's shop but also on my feet! Everyone was else was laughing, so had to laughed. How do you respond when a little girl pees on your foot? The reality is it is kind of funny, although completely gross. A couple walked by and thought it was "Cute." Cute? Funny maybe, but not cute. Oh well, I guess it puts a new meaning to the name Pee Pee Island.

Bangkok

"One night in Bangkok makes a proud man humble..." as the song goes. Well, we spent two nights in Bangkok. We got in to Laosan street (which is a huge backpakers street) at like 9:30 at night. Having travelled all day and walking with our huge packs, we only needed a room for three people. As we trusged up and down the street with our Lonely Planet as our guide, we realized that we would not be finding any places suggested in the book, so we wold have to stay at the first place we found. Our room was a one bed cement crap whole. We did have a toilet, but to flush we had to fill a bucket up with water and pur it into the toilet. It was above a bar and it was a little loud, but it was a place to stay. The next day we would set out to find a better place, but we were hungry and wanted to put our packs down.

The next day we realized that finding a reasonably priced room for three people would be hard, so we settled for a room that had a bed the size of a double bed and was no larger than a lrage closet. THe highlight of the room was the tv where we watched the news update on the 2008 presidential candidates. The low was the tv in the room next to us and the the walls were paper thin so none of us slept at all because we were crammed into a double bed listening to the tv next door till after three in the morning.

The highlights ins Bangkok had to be the food. The street food was amazing. There was mango and sticky rice which was to die for along with pad thai (sp?) and skewers and plain mango and these fried crepe like pancakes with banana... During the day we walked around and found this park. The park was so cool and there was a path that weaved itself around. There was a pavillion where a band played and there were dancers. However, instead of listening to the music I joined in witht hese Thai guys playing a soccer type juggling game. The ball was this woven platic type ball which was kicked around in a circle. After the music stopped the pavillion was cleared for an aerobics class.

Overall Bangkok was alright. The people were cool, but just another city.

It has been a long time

Right now I am in the middle of Chinese New Year. Before I thought Chinese New Year was a crazy street party with dragons and the sort, and while there are probably areas with these parades, what it really means for China is a national holiday. So, I get three weeks off of work!!! Yes! Anyways, Our break started on Feb. 3 and goes to the 25th. Since I get some much time off I have decided to travel with my friends Tarah and Amber (well, my friend Jackie and her boyfriend John were with us for half of it). Our original plan was to go to Thailand (the islands, then Laos, Cambodia, and come back through North Thailand); however, we realized that we would not have enough time, so we chose to go to just Cambodia and Thailand... but since plans always change, the week before we changed our minds and would do Thailand for half and Malaysia for the other part.

With just our plane tickets in and out of Bangkok, we set off from Shanghai for a travel adventure. Right now I have been travelling for about 12 days, and have seen and experienced amazing things. Of course we have encountered the realities of travelling: gross bathrooms, overbooked hotels, paying too much for things, realizing that where we want to go is not open b/c of the season, and things like that, but I have realized that this is the experience of travelling and exploring. I have taken many pictures, but cannot post them till I get back, but I will share random moments for our trip.

Some more Hong Kong pics

Sorry for the longness (is that a word?) of my last post... I didn't think I would type so much about the the fiasco that went on the last day. Oh, and I realize I should have titled in Merry Xmas or something like that b/c I didn't even talk about New Year's and my New Year's was awesome (and it wasin Shanghai). Ok, enjoy these pic/

Happy New Year

Well, it is officially 2007! I cannot believe that another year is done and a new one is starting... wow, time flies. This time last year there is no way that I would have ever thought that I would be in China, but here I am. It has been awhile since I have posted anything, so I do not know where to begin, so I will start with Christmas.

Christmas was surprisingly wonderful. This was my first Christmas away from my family, and I have to admit that I kind of missed the craziness of my family, but all things considered my Christmas was great. 9 of us went to Hong Kong. We split up into two groups: the hotel group and the hostel group (I was in the hotel group). There were four of us girls (Tarah, Jackie, Laura, and I) that hung out the whole time (except for Christmas day we met up with everyone else). Hong Kong was such a breath of fresh air. When we first got there and had to take a cab it was fun to learn that they drive on the wrong (well, I guess it is right for them) side of the road since they were ruled by Britain. I felt like I was in Toad's Wild Ride everytime I was in taxi; it was so much fun. Our hotel was a four start hotel, but standards are a little different in China when it comes to room size because while we did order the "bigger" room, the room was not "big" and we had four girls to two twin beds needless to say it was a cozy room. Thank goodness we all like each other and nobody was kicked out of the room. But, it was so much fun because we brought all our Christmas presents to our room and a small Christmas tree and we all made stockings for eachother. On Christmas morning we opened our stockings and our presents and drank coffee and it was perfect. Even though my family was not there I felt like they were in the room when I opened my presents. Oh, and I got three stockings this year... I felt so spoiled. I love stockings, they could possibly be my favorite part of Christmas, and I got three of them!

I think the best part of Christmas was my excitement for my "american" bought presents. OK, I admit I LOVE the glasses my sister gave me and the slipper shoes from my grandma are awesome, but I havenever been so excited in all my life for Quaker Instant Oatmeal and Starbursts and Hot Tamales and Xmas M&Ms and gum and Soy Vay Teriyaki suace and Uptown Coffee. It is funny to think that oatmeal would make me so happy, but it is the small things in life.

Christmas day we met up with everyone else for lunch and watched the Nutcracker. After the Nutcracker we went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Man, do I miss steak. I really am not much of a meat eater, but who doesn't like a good steak?

Some other highlights in Hong Kong include but are not imited to: shopping for 3 hours in the Esprit Outlet, eating nachos two nights in a row for dinner, being in a city where people do not spit and pee on the streets (yes, they do that in Shanghai), being able to walk aimlessly with not agenda for 4 days, the bakery at our hotel with these apple pastries that were absolutely to die for, being able to get another stamp in my passport...

However, all good things have to come to an end. The last day Tarah and I were leaving on an earlier flight so we had to go to the train station first to cross over the Shenzhen (which is technically China b/c Hong Kong is not). Anyways, the bell hop was putting our stuff into a taxi, but our bags wouldn't fit in the trunk, so he pulled them out for us to take the next one. Well, he pulled almost all of them out because he forgot Tarah's duffel bag which had all her make up (and let say American bought products are not easy to find here, even if the label says "Made in China"), toiletries, books, oh, and her ticket. So we are 3 hours before our flight, but by the time we leave the hotel, get to the train station, cross the border check, and get to the airport it takes just over 2 hours, so we were already pushing it. The hotel is calling the cab company and trying to view the tapes to see if they can get the number of the cab, but no luck, while I am freaking out about our flight, and Tarah is just trying to not get too pissed. We decide that Jackie and Laura can file the police report, but Tarah and I need to leave, and just hope that her passport will be enough for her to get her ticket. Now we have less that 2 1/2 hours... time is ticking. So we get on the train, and now we have to go across the border crossing, declare everything, blah, blah, blah. We are running dow the halls with our huge bags, manageme to get in all the slowest lines, but we make it through. Now, it is 6 pm, our flight leaves at 7:30, but it takes at least30-45 min to get to the airport oh, and we have to find a shuttle. Luck would have it that as soon as we get into the parking lot a man sees our huge bags and assumes we are needing to go to the airport. He grabs my hand and we are not running, dragging our bags, and he takes us to this car. Now, I know that we should not get into random, umarked shuttles, but now it is 6:10 and we have to check our luggage by 7. Oh, I forget to mention the ridiculous price they were going to charge us, so we had to bargain some, but we decided that we had no other options. As we get on the road we are hit with traffic and the slowest driver in China. Usually they dart and swerve, but not her. Usually I would like this type of a driver, but not when you are late and we were still unsure about Tarah's ticket. As I look at my watch that now says 6:47 I can only think that there is no way... but alas, an airport sign. We pull up to the drop off zome and are sprinting down the terminal. We go to a window, but of course it is the wrong terminal. Crap! We take off sprinting... 6:57 as we get to terminal B the clock reads 6:59. I run to a windwo (Tarah has to go to a different one). As I get to the counter, the clock changes to 7, but I get me ticket; I look over and Tarah has hers too. Yes! There is a God! Our panic turns to dilerium which turns to laughter. Oh, but we still need to board. We get to our plane at 7:15... 15 minutes to spare. Finally, as we sit down a sense of relief falls over us.

When we finally get into Shanghai I can only think about how happy I will be to be in my bed. We get in line to get a taxi. When it is our turn to get the taxi the driver pulls the line that he doesn't know where we live, which is bull. Drivers say that b/c they don'tlike driving us b/c we don;t live far enough away to make it worth while. Luckily one of my students happened to be on our flight, so his parents help us out and reluntantly the driver takes us home. Oh, but he is the one driver that wasn't lying and really didn't kow where live so he missed the exit and it took us about half an hour longer than it should've. When we finally arrived to the living quarters I was so happy but so exhausted from the craziness of the day. Then a thought crossed my mind, "I don't think I ave my key." Normally not a big deal, but since my roommates were on the later flight kind of an issue. I drag my 60 lb suit case up two flights of stairs to my apt, and my assumption was right... no key. I try to get a guard to help me, but he doesn't know English and I don't know Chinese so I call a friend to help, but of course my battery dies (and it is now 11:45 pm). I debate whether or not I should go to Tarah's, which would require me to carry my bag down the stairs of my apt and up 5 flights of stairs to hers or to just sleep at my door. I decide to not be a bum, and I somehow managed to get my bag upthe stairs and crashed on her couch. As soon as my head hit her couch I was out.

Well, I made it back to Shanghai, woke up the next morning and started back to work. While the ending of the trip was a little crazy, Hong Kong and Christmas were perfect.

A passage from a book I am reading

So, I am reading the Raggamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. Anyways, I really liked this passage so I thought I would share it:

There is one barrier to love that deserves special mention because it is so crucial to the second call of Jesus Christ- Fear. Most of us spend considerable time putting off the things we should be doing or we would like to do, but are afraid to do. We are afraid of failure. We don’t like it, we shun it, we avoid it because of our inordinate desire to be thought well of by others. So we come up with a thousand brilliant excuses for doing nothing. We put off things, waste the energies of life and love that are within us. And the judgment of the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado on the girl who perpetually procrastinated falls on us: ‘She’ll never be missed; no, she’ll never be missed.’

Each of us pays a heavy price for our fear of falling flat on our faces. It assures the progressive narrowing of our personalities and prevents exploration and experimentation. As we get older, we only do thing we do well. There is no growth in Christ Jesus without some difficulty and fumbling. If we are going to keep growing we must keep risking failure throughout our lives. When Max Planke was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of quantum theory, he said, ‘Looking back over the long and labyrinthine path which finally lead to discovery, I am vividly reminded of Goethe’s saying that men will always be making mistakes as long as they are striving toward something.’”

-Brennan Mannning in The Ragamuffin Gospel

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

A classy martini for a classy girl :)

Strike a pose

Here is my mean face

Here are some pics of Jackie and I at the Marriott. The bar is on the 40th floor, so there is an amazing view of the city (even though you can't see it in the pictures). Oh, and this is my straight hair. I really do like it... the change is fun and it's easier to manage than curly hair.

My hair

One of my biggest concerns with coming to China was about my hair and what I would do when I needed to get it cut. To begin, curly hair is hard enough to cut back home and I have gotten some pretty bad hair cuts in the past when people don't know how to cut curly hair and comsidering Chinese women do not have curly hair I admit I was concerned. Oh, and there is the whole language barrier and wondering how the heck I would tell a hair dresser how I want my hair to be cut. Anyways, I am now going on four months of being in China (yes, it has been that long) and my hair was definatley needing to get cut. Since I was hesitant about what I would do with my hair, I put off doing anything until today.

So, you may be wondering how my mari cut experience went in China, and to be honest it went well. I had to call friends to talk to the hair dressers for me to make sure they knew what I wanted. Oh, and what I mean by what I "wanted" what I decided (and I decided this yesterday) was to avoid having to worry about my curly hair in China and I got my hair straightened. So, as of today, I no longer have curly hair and my hair is pretty much as straight as straight hair can be. To be honest, I love it!!!! I cannot wash it for three days or pull it back for a week, but I am excited for straight hair. What's crazy is how long it is now because my hair now goes do to just below my shoulders and above my shoulder blades. And yes, I will send pictures (I just don't have any yet).

Anyways, that is the big news of this week, I know that I am excited. I do admit, I was freaking out a little before I got it done. I had a few phone conversations with my friends for some support because this is a big deal for me. Now that it is done I really like it and do not regret it. Sure I will miss my curls, but they will grow back.

My video from Yangshou

I finally made another video of my pics. This one is from my October break in Yangshou... I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPQtikBAT3Y

Pics of the fabric market

I know that you all have been dying to see what the fabric market is like. Last weekend I went to pick up my coats and they were too big so I had to get them altered, which meant that I had an hour and a half to kill but luckily I had my camera, so like any good Fudge would do I went around and took pictures. I know my skills do not compare to those of my family members, but they do show you what the fabric market looks like.

Shanghai Half Marathon

Today I ran in the Shanghai Half Marathon. I now can say that I have ran one in China (I will also be running another one in May on the Great Wall... yes, I do know how awesome that sounds). Anyways, moving on. For the first time I decided to run a 1/2 marathon with plenty of time to train. Considering there isn't soccer for me to play a few times a week or beach volleyball, I have been running quite a bit since I got here. I usually run between 3-6 days per week for about 45-90 min. I assumed that this would help me to be ready to get my best time EVER. Anyways, the past three weeks I have been fighting a cold and it has been raining, so my running got cut a lot. I think in the past two weeks I ran like 3 or four times not to mention, the week or two before I didn't run too much and when I did I felt like crap, but such is life. Long story short, my "training" didn't go as planned.

Friday night I picked up my race packet. It is the best race packet I have ever gotten. Not only is the shirt the cool running material, but we got a Mizuno backpack type thing. In the bag there were also lots of booklets and pamphlets, most of which were in Chinese, our numbers for our shirts, and our timing chip for our shoe. This morning the bus came at 5:30 am to pick us up, yes it was ridiculously early considering the race started to 7:30. I decided to plan ahead and started to get everything ready last night. Soccer taught me that it is always smarter to prepare the night before because otherwise things get left behind. As I was packing my bag with my wallet, banana, watch, Ipod, etc. I remembered that I needed to get my number. I went to the table only to remember that I threw away the race booklets and most likely my number and my chip. CRAP! no number, no race. Just my luck too, earlier yesterday I decided to take out our trash, something that happens about once a week. Considering it was 10:30 pm when I discovered this I decided to not go dumpster diving, but luckily my roommate decided to not run, so I was able to run under the name of "Janai Wallace" (oh and this also means that I would be out of my deposit for the chip).

So this morning I woke up super early ready to go. It was awesome, the start was on Nanjing Lu (one of the big tourist roads) over looking the river and the Pearl Tower. It was not raining, and the temperature was great. This was setting up to be one of my best runs ever. Well, until I started. The full 13.1 miles I never felt like I hit the runner's high and my legs felt heavy the entire time. The good news I finished, but with my second to worse time of 1 hr 59 min and 40 sec. The good news being that anyone under 2 hours got free ghetto shoes, bad news being I was bummed about my time. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. BUT, I can now say that I have ran a half marathon in China, pretty cool! Oh, and about the shoes, luck with have it they didn't have any my size, oh and my time won't show up under my name since I threw my chip away, but I do have a shirt and a bag to prove it (and a couple pictures).

More Hangzhou pics

It was just too beautiful... I needed to add more pics

Hangzhou

Last weekend I went to Hangzhou. Hangzhou is a city about 2 hours from Shanghai via the train. I went with my friend Jackie and other friends from the British International School. Hangzhou is a perfect picture of East meeting West. It is famous for its beautiful lake, and by the pictures you can see how beautiful it is. It is also one of the few places in China that survived the Cultural Revolution so there are many temples and relics from the past that remain in tact. The Lake is know as West Lake and on one side of the lake are the areas that contain the temples, pagodas, etc. and on the other side a city has been built up with high rise buildings, Starbucks coffee shops, Porche and Mazzarati dealerships, and other stores and buildings showing how commercialism has crept into China. However, the lake was gorgeous. It was the first time since I have been in China that I got to actually see the sun set. It made me realize how much I miss sunsets over the ocean. In the morning I got up early and walked around the lake. In the morning the locals wake up early for their morning exercises. The exercises were fun to watch because groups of young and old gathered in groups of two to twenty people and did thai chi, sword moves, aerobic type routines, etc. Also, a few men did water calligraphy where they had these sticks with a rag or brush on the end and they would writed the calligraphy on the cement. I got pictures of one man (I actually kind of made friends with him and he took pictures of me taking pictures of him doing calligraphy and he gave me a tissue with calligraphy on it) but I am waiting to get the pictures back form my friends camera because my battery died.

Over all the weekend was perfect. It was fun and relaxing and beautiful with some crazy moments mixed in. I think the highlights included watching the sunset, going to this crazy dance club that had techno trance music and a bouncing dance floor, and then the next day going to Starbucks and having coffee while just sitting at the lake and people watching. Hangzhou is a place where is anyone visited I would be sure to take them there.

Whipped cream and jackets...

"What the heck is up with this subject title?!?" you are probably asking yourself. Well, the answer is simple... my weekend was awesome due to whip cream and jakctets (or should I say coats?). On Saturday my friends and I tried to go to the Shanghai Aquarium, which didn't happen, so we ended up cruising around the Bund area (you may have eariler seen pictures I posted of the Pearl Tour and this is the same area). Anyways, moving on, it was a perfect day: the weather was warm, the sun was out, and we were walking around. We ended up going to this placa called the City Market whihc sells Western food. There really has not been anything that I have been dying to eat, but when I saw the whip cream canister I knew I has to get it. Sure it was 6 bucks for the whip cream, but the thought of putting whip cream in my coffee made me so incredibly happy. How can whip cream be worth 6 bucks? Oh, but trust me, it is. Now I sit at my computer drinking my coffee with whip cream, maybe tonight I will put some on my hot chocolate... this is so great. I was so excited that yesterday morning I had a coffee/hot chocolate and whip cream party so I could share the goodness. I love simple pleasures.

And coats. No, I did not put whip cream on my jackets. Yesterday was the day that I went to the fabric market to pick out my saving graces for the winter, meaning my winter coats. If you want to talk about feeling overwhemed, try going to a fabric market where they can make just about any coat in any style in any color and fabric. I wanted to get so many, but limited myself to only two: one is black and white w/ toggle buttons and a hood (supposedely a Burberry remake) and the other is is this blueish color with on row of buttons and over sized pockets. Anyways, these words do not explain their awesomeness. I am soooo excited to be able to pick them up in a week or so (and yes, of course I will take pictures).

So that is what made my weekend incredibly awesome: being able to get whip cream and my winter jackets. Ahhhhh, life can be so simple yet so good.

Forced Family Fun

So every family has forced family fun. You know what I am talking about, the events that everyone in the family must attend, willingly or not, all in the name of "family bonding." I am not saying that this is a bad thing, in fact good memories come from these events.. Anyways, SMIC (the company my school is under) had one of these events under the name of Company Sports Day.

Now, most of you know that I love sports but this day put a new maning to competitive. Basically there were a couple thousand grown events ready to compete in random events that should be at a fun day at the park and are not really competitive, but people were here to win. Different departments formed the teams (I honestly don;t even know what departments were w/ us except for the CEO). Anyways, the events were quite amusing. There was a tug of war competition where people were more serious than I had ever seen. A race called the Centipede Run which was like a three legged race on steroids. Basically they tied people's legs together like a three legged race but instead of there being two people there were 10. The teams practiced for this event, came out in knee pads, and there was a mattress at the end of the course to catch the forward momentum of teams. Among other events was a 100 M run, jump roping (and yes, tis was with adults), some relays, and other things that I am not sure about.

The day began with the opening ceremonies in which all the departments marched around the track in different formations. Some teams dressed up in cheerleading type costumes and did cheers. Another team dressed up in black and yellow spandex suits and did like modified arobics on the track. There was a group of grown men dressed in camo that did some serious kung fu accompanied by people dressed as bugs bunny, a bee, and something else that I forget (it was a funny combination). There were also serious marchers that has the perfect one-two-one march down and their faces had stern, serous looks to them.

The best though was that my K1'ers represented the school and marched the track. They were so cute and I was so proud. They also did a dance in front of everyone. It was funny, b/c I was so happy to see them do it that I was kind of giddy. Anyways, here are some pics of my kids (they are so precious).

To my friends and family

John Piper in Future Grace writes of a massive oak tree that stands outside his window. While the tree is visibly massive from the ground up “what is not seen is the roots. That’s the way it is with roots. They support everything but they don’t get much attention. The more massive the tree, the more massive the root system. It’s there, and if we could see it then we would be amazed. We would understand why this tree is still standing after decades of wind and lightening and hail and heat.”

Now that I have been in China I have spoken to many people who have told me that I am brave for coming and adventurous and how proud they are of me for making the step and so on. People ask me why I came and how am I adjusting to life and all sorts of questions, and I have recently realized that the answer to all these questions is my support system back home, my roots.

Being away from my friends and family physically has shown me that despite me not being able to see my support system it is there. Like the roots of a tree, I can only stand because I know that I am supported from something so deeply rooted that nothing will make me fall, no matter what comes my way. The reality is that the strength of my support system has gotten me through many hard times and challenging times. Times when I felt so much loss that I didn’t think anything could fill the void; times of confusion when I couldn’t make sense of anything; times when I was scared and times when I needed to be grounded back to reality. I have been encouraged and lifted up and prayed for more than I know and have realized and have acknowledged, and because of this I am able to be where I am today.

And I realize that it is the people who have come and gone in my life that have given my roots to be strong and to trust and to know that no matter what happens someone will be there to catch me and support, no matter where I am, even if I am in China. Despite my questioning of faith and God I have had amazing people to remind me what it is to be a Christian and the unwavering promises of God. I have had people speak louder to me through their actions and their own struggles than any words could express. Without my friends and family I know, without a doubt, I would not be who I am or where I am today. Without the support that so often goes unnoticed and unrecognized I know that I would not have the strength that I do and the sense of adventure that I have.

And so I thank you. I thank you for being my roots; something so deep that I can’t even recognize it or know its depths. And so if you want to know how is it that I am adapting to life in China, know that part of the answer is you. The knowledge of knowing that I have a group of people supporting me and encouraging me along the way makes life here so much easier. And as my roots have gotten me through so much I know that whatever comes my way across the world I will be able to handle it and grow from it.

* Sorry for the sappiness of this post... I am in a contemplative state of mind :)