My last days in China were busy with giving away most of my things, tutoring a friend in German to prepare her for spending 2007 in Germany, shipping four boxes of goodies home, and savoring the food and friends and bustling streets that I'll miss. The morning of my departure from Zigong, several friends came to see me off. The foreign affairs office provided a driver to take me to Chengdu, where the Peace Corps doctors gave me a final exam.

I flew from Chengdu to Ko Samui, Thailand, via Bangkok. Here I stayed at a health spa and experienced a 7-day colonic cleanse. I've never gone without food for 7 days, and it was an experience I'll never forget, except for maybe a few light-headed low-sugar moments! The people fasting that same week became a fasting support group of sorts, meeting at the dinner table for our soup broth - hmm with or without herbs? - it's almost like food.

After I finished my fast, fellow PCVs Maria and Rick came to stay at the spa and to eat lots of their yummy, super-healthy food. Together we enjoyed the wonderful food at the spa and did some island touring, including a day of birding (Rick brought a Birds of Southeast Asia book) and hiking to a famous waterfall. Fellow faster Kerrie and I went snorkeling at Ang Thong, the island where The Beach was filmed. My island tour continued with yoga instructor Mike, who took me on the temple circuit.

After two and a half weeks, I flew to Seattle, where I spent a week at my friend Amy's house, touring the city, hiking, kayaking, etc.

1. Good-bye Zigong!

2. Sunrise view from my bungalow.

3. Downed a detox drink of psyllium husk 5x per day.

4. Only veggie broth and coconut water for 7 days.

5. Took acidophilus and fiber capsules 5x per day.

6. Malaysian friends at the detox bar.

7. Enema setup

8. Fetching our last morning coffee.

9. Friendly dogs joined us most mornings at the yoga sala for meditation, and sometimes yoga

10. Broke our fast with mango softie and a fruit plate - yum.

11. Happy to be eating food again!

12. Swimming at Na Muang Waterfall #2.

13. Went snorkeling at nearby Ang Thong Island, where The Beach was filmed.

14. An unheard of site (Wat Sumret warehouse) - a left side-reclining Buddha.

15. Yoga sage Mike pontificates about the wheel added behind Big Buddha.

16. Big Buddha

17. Cousin Alison and I, Snow Lake, Seattle.

18. Picnic at Snow Lake.

This semester the university asked me to teach English classes for the foreign language Department, rather than continue to teach environmental protection to Environmental Engineering Department students. This involved me moving to an apartment on a campus closer to the Foreign Language Department office, and closer to the other foreign teachers, allowing more opportunity for collaboration.

Highlights from the semester are listed here and shown below in photos.

- An American Football Superbowl (I served as photographer)

- Meeting with some Foreign Language department teachers about establishing a teaching methods exchange network

- Each of my students gave a 7-minute English lesson to their classmates

- Student teams planned and guided me on tours of Zigong

Here are results from the end-of-semester evaluation of "How will I use the knowledge and skills I got from this class?"

In my future job (as a teacher, tour guide, etc.) 53

To speak freely with a foreigner, help a foreigner 43

Work on a team 39

Guide a tour in English 37

Plan an active lesson 33

Make a plan before taking action 28

Deliver an active lesson effectively, in English 21

Plan a tour 19

Plan an interesting, active, flexible course - incorporate assessment, small group work, and projects that require planning 17

Speak English with classmates and teacher more confidently 16

To research about, apply for a job, perform well in interview 10

To perform well in future classes and graduate school, study with others 9

Make a travel brochure 5

Make a travel itinerary 1

Always learn from others 1

Improve development of China by giving tours 1

Understanding English newspaper articles 1

Get on well with others 1

Volunteer at the Beijing 2008 Olympics 1

Write a report 1

Be a good citizen

1. Superbowl -- the winning team

2. Superbowl -- all participants, including sitemate Daniel

3. Teaching Methods Exchange -- Talking Turkey

4. Teaching Methods Exchange -- Happy happy first(?) meeting!

5. Lesson Plan Structure

6. Student teacher helps student with an activity

7. Brochure - Old Street

8. Brochure - Miao Guan Temple

9. Local Traditional Hand Crafted Arts Store

10. Rollerskating (!) at the Sports Stadium Grounds

11. I learned to cha-cha at the "Palace for Youth"

12. Temple Tour

13. Salt mining well on Old Street

14. Local antique shop - is it real or a fake?

This semester, I was involved with several activities that addressed women's issues related to development. The United Nations website has a lot of good information, if you're interested in browsing http://www.un.org/womenwatch/.

The students in this semester's Women and Leadership Workshop helped guide two discussions, one about sexual assault and domestic violence, and the other about balancing career and family. At the sexual assault meeting, my sitemate, Daniel, and I gave a self-defense demonstration. At the career and family meeting, a leader from the Foreign Language Department, who is also a mother, joined our discussion.

At the beginning of June, volunteers from around China gathered at two meetings to talk about the women, gender, and diversity issues and activities at their site. Several Chinese friends joined the discussion. We generated a list of actions that the group wants to take to help new volunteers adjust to life here, and to help volunteers guide activities at their site. Our first action was to have dinner together after a long day of talking. We ate at a restaurant along a river in Chongqing that overlooks one of the city's five downtowns. The population of the greater metropolitan area is 33 million.

1. Sexual Assault/ Domestic Violence: Open Conversation and Awareness are Critical

2. Sexual Assault - Group Reads and Discusses News

3. Self-Defense Demo - Twist and Escape

4. Career and Family Discussion - Read and Discuss Article

5. Career and Family - Mother and department leader Pearl shares her experience

6. Career and Family - Students share information from their research

7. Women/Gender/Diversity volunteer gathering – meeting

8. Women/Gender/Diversity volunteer gathering - dinner

One of my English teacher friends is from a Zigong prefecture city called Rongxian. Rongxian was the first city in Sichuan to declare it's liberation, as the Kuo Ming Tao was driven out and the Republic of China was born.

Fan Min invited me and two other teacher friends, Guo Yung Ping and Wang Xue Mei, to spend the weekend with her family and enjoy Rongxian. We ate dou hua (tofu specialty in peanut milk), saw the 2nd largest Buddha in Sichuan, took a boat out into a large reservoir (notice me rowing while the boatman kicks back with a smoke - lol).

1. Me rowing around the reservoir while our boatman takes a smoke-break

2. Buddha at entrance to the big guy (Buddha up stairway in back)

3. Buddha face (needs a little cover-up for those acid-rain blemishes!)

4. Buddha from top of first staircase

5. Friends and I share a meal of dou hua (literally tofu flower) in peanut milk - so yummy!

6. One of my student friends is an Yi minority; the other day she brought over her traditional festival clothes to show me (after the trip to Rongxian)

7. Walk with eyes close, arm extended from 10 meters away; if you touch the characters, you'll be lucky

Hainan Dao, or Hainan Island, is a large tropical island off the southern coast of China. I spent most mornings on the beach, reading and swimming on a beach frequented by Russian tourists. Hainan is the "Hawaii of Russia," they say. Mid-day I escaped the hot sun in my hostel's movie room, and spent evenings walking and eating seafood or (one night) making jaozi with other hostelers.

These photos show a day-trip I took with some Brits who teach up in Xian Province. We hiked up to a summit in the Jianfengling Nature Preserve. I flew back to Chongqing, where I had a chance to hear fellow PCV Jens perform live at a bar before catching a bus home to Zigong.

1. Jianfengling Summit

2. Scorched and Smiling

3. One of two houses we saw at the nature preserve

4. Cheers - we made it!

5. Sweet sounds

Yang Ning (aka Emily) is my Peace Corps' cordinator here in China. In January, she went to Goshen, Indiana USA to take a four month course at Goshen College along with four other college administrators from various Chinese Universities.

Over Easter weekend, Emily and Juana (one of the other Chinese women) took a train to the Chicago loop where my Mom and stepfather Larry picked them up. They visited the Chicago Art Institute there before driving to my Mom's home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

They toured Milwaukee and shopped for computers. They also ate at the Alpine Village Restaurant which had been owned many years by my Grandmother Millie, Grandfather, and his brothers.

My family were impressed by their Chinese guests and enjoyed the visit. Their guest's English was excellent.

1. Larry and Mom pick up Emily and friend Juana in downtown Chicago and visit the Art Institute

2. Dinner at the Alpine Village Restaurant with Uncle David, Larry, Mom and my Grandmother Millie

3. My Mom and Grandmother Millie enjoyed music provided by my Cousin Ferd

4. Emily relaxing in my Mom's home

5. Juana's new laptop. Yes, it was made in China

6. Last picture before returning to Goshen, Indiana - a great visit!

A six-day trip to Guizhou Province, just to the east, was a great chance to see some other volunteers, and to sample some minority culture. Kaili, two hours east of capital city Guiyang, is home to the most dense population of Miao people in China, and therefore the world.

It was a wonderful coincidence that the weekend I could travel was the same weekend Kaili celebrated it's biggest festival of the year, Sisters' Festival. We began by helping a very generous Miao family celebrate the recent (the Wednesday before that weekend) tomb-sweeping festival with fire-crackers, card-playing, and feasting and drinking home-brew alcohol at mountain-top graves. The Sisters' Festival offered dancing, shopping, and riverside bustle.

1. Guiyang's Qianling Park - Walk with your eyes closed toward the wall. If you touch the Buddha�s belly, you'll have good luck!

2. Park 2

3. Singing ladies at the park

4. Our Taijiang guesthouse hostess

5. John, Kathryn, and I at a quick lunch stop in front of a wood stove

6. Miao woman dons pesticide tank

7. Erosion control on mountain side

8. Climb up to graves for tomb-sweeping celebration

9. Mountain air and cell phones and card playing

10. Tomb offerings (after clearing brush from tombs)

11. A feast for us all at the gravesite

12. Dinner feast

13. Two Brits and our host - a toast!

14. Miao traditional dancing

15. Miao woman shopping for traditional clothes

16. Early morning fishing

17. Miao peasant

18. During the Sisters' Festival, young women wrap multi-colored rice in a scarf and give it to a man (I think one they admire)

19. More Miao women shopping

20. Miao kids dressed for the festivities

21. Miao teens

22. Back in Kaili - traditional Miao noodle dish fired in individual casserole pots

At home in the U.S. I don't think I even knew that International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8th. At my university here in Zigong, Sichuan, China, all of the teachers had the afternoon off and the school held a competition between the women of each department at games like jumping rope and hoola-hoop. In China, many organizations, public and private, give women the day off from work.

Well, Peace Corps volunteers are encouraged to give a campus-wide lecture on Women's Day. My half-hour PowerPoint lecture was followed by a discussion between attendees and a panel of local foreigners. The panel consisted of me, Daniel, a social worker and teacher from Tennessee who is also a PCV, Linda, a chiropractor from Michigan who is pioneering chiropractic in China, and Anne, a retired (Berkeley) professor of theology who teaches at our university. Right after my lecture, each panelist introduced a question or statement to fuel the discussion.

Students asked great questions, and even offered some affirmations about recent, positive changes in China. Their questions spanned the gamut from women balancing work and family to relationships between men and women to women's job opportunities and discrimination to choosing a last name for your child (father's or mother's?).

Many questions, from both male and female students were directed at Daniel, and it was pretty clear at the beginning of the discussion that many were wondering what he was doing there. The question Daniel posed before the discussion, "What is the role of men in empowering women?", drew a lot of laughs from the crowd, and I smiled to myself. The ensuing discussion showed that a lot of young Chinese are trying to sort out the answer to this question. Our answers about the need for talented women to be active in our societies, and how that does not threaten men like Daniel, but only enhances the quality of his life, resounded in the corners of the hall.

1. Rebecca introduces Anne's books

2. Daniel asks "What is the role of men in women's empowerment?"

3. Lots of student questions

4. Lots of guys asked questions

5. Panelists photo op

Southern Thailand has a number of sunny, beautiful beaches where it's easy to forget about your worries. If you start itching for some activity after a few days (or weeks) of lounging on the beach and reading and enjoying delightful Thai food and drink, there's plenty of opportunity for snorkeling, diving, swimming, and paddling. Ton Soi, the beach I decided to go to, offers all this and also attracts rock-climbers from around the world to its many limestone faces.

1. Limestone Formation

2. Arrival

3. More Limestone Formations

4. Ready to Paddle

5. Paddlin' Fun

6. Happy Paddlin'

7. Longtail boats transport tourists from one beach to another

8. Rock Climbing

9. Rock Climbing Classes

10. Sunset - oooh! ahhh!

Bangkok serves as a travel hub for Southeast Asia. At our guest house, we could book cheap air fares, buy train and bus tickets, bus trips to the airport, send emails, all, while sipping on a decent beer - finally (Thailand's beers beat China's beers hands down)! While quite commercialized, we didn't have to wander too far to meet locals and sample some food besides the common, albeit delicious, rice curry. What's more, if we brought something we didn't need, there were lots of sales stands that bought and sold everything. Here's a few photos:

1. Bangkok Environmental Education Center

2. Chao Phyra River view from Commuter Ferry

3. Music school near my guest house

4. Water, pop, or coconut milk?

5. Wat Phra Kaew - Grand Palace - Making an offering to the Goddess of Mercy

6. Grand Palace is surrounded by 112 of these bird warriors wrestling with 2 Nagas (evil snakes)

7. Bird warrior guard entrance of Royal Palace

8. Chinese statues, thought to be from merchant ships, guard many Grand Palace buildings

9. Wat Po - Another Temple grounds

10. Wat Po - 46 m long reclining Buddha

11. Wat Po - Reclining Buddha's feet bottoms

12. Wat Po - Statue on temple grounds

The cultural/historical highlight of my winter vacation was definitely the three days spent at Angkor Wat, the largest religious temple in the world. Ankor Wat and surrounding temples were the hub for the Khmer Empire that ruled much of Southeast Asia between the 9th and 12th centuries. "Angkor" means 'capital city' or 'holy city,' and "Khmer" refers to the dominant ethnic group in modern and ancient Cambodia. At it's height, Angkor capital area contained more than one million people and vast waterworks and grand temples.

The best photos of this temple and the temples and pools that surround it for miles around are at http://www.angkorwat.org/. I also caught a few unique shots...

1. Sunrise at Angkor Wat

2. Entrance to Angkor Wat

3. She sold me fabric

4. Don't stand on the toilet! (some Asians have never used a western toilet before)

5. Terrace of the Elephants

6. Faces of Bayon Temple (37 towers each having 3-4 faces)

7. Trees melting over Ta Prom, another temple

8. Coiled serpents of Neak Pean temple

9. Doorway carving of Pre Rup temple

10.View from Pre Rup towards Angkor Wat

11.Bas Relief at Ta Som Temple

This winter vacation I sought sunshine, warm weather, historical places, water sports, and an escape from China, where I've been living for the last year and a half. Cambodia's capital city Phnom Phen and Siam Reap offered a good introduction to this poor country. Fellow Peace Corps volunteer Michele and I flew into Phnom Phen and then took a boat up the Ton Le Sap River to Siam Reap, a small city that caters to tourists who visit Angkor Wat, the largest religious temple in the world.

With only one night in Phnom Phen, I found myself wishing I had more time to explore local neighborhoods, the Russian market, museums, the Royal Palace ... Siam Reap is the most commercialized city I've seen in Asia, and given that Siam Reap is the largest city for miles makes the place a western-priced oasis in a very poor place. Us volunteer-back-packers-on-a-budget really had to look for inexpensive guest houses and local restaurants. Regardless, the visit to Angkor Wat was worth it. What I neglected to take into account was that the three days we visited Angkor Wat coincided with the three holidays given by the Chinese government for Chinese New Year. So, my Great Escape from China was thwarted! Wat's with that?!? haha Ok, here's another "Wat" joke I got some laughs from: Jews worship in a synagogue, Christians in a Church, and Thai's in a Wat?

Michele visited the local Landmine Museum in Siam Reap, where she learned that there are an estimated 6 million land mines still in the ground in Cambodia. Cambodia was a refreshingly undeveloped land, except for Siam Reap. We heard it wasn't safe to be out in the evening, which gave it an inaccessible feeling at night. Still I left the country with memories of a beautiful land, a history of intensely powerful Khmer empires ruling from the 9th through 13th centuries, delicious food, friendly faces, and a curiosity for more.

1. Settling into my sleeping berth on the train ride down to our city of departure

2. Seven serpents hiss from a fountain near Phnom Phen's Independence Monument

3. Phnom Phen's Independence Monument

4. Saleswoman at Phnom Phen riverfront

5. Michele and I ride tuk-tuk's to the market

6. Eating my favorite Cambodian dish: jin jun

7. Cambodian family I picniced with one day - she and I could communicate in German

8. Cambodian Countryside

9. Cambodian abode. Most are on stilts to stay above water during the rainy season

10. View from a local restaurant

11. Gam, our wonderful guest house hostess in Siam Reap

In early November the Environmental Education Peace Corps Volunteers met in Chengdu to attend a lecture by Jane Goodall about her Roots 'n Shoots service learning program. The lecture hall was packed with maybe 300 attendees, and some who could not get a ticket stood by the doorway. Most of the attendees were Chinese, and about 20 anglo-looking foreigners attended.

On New Year's Eve, a fellow PCV and I traveled to Chengdu. During the day we saw a Picasso exhibit at the Art Institute. In the evening, we met a Chinese friend of mine and her husband, who took us out to a northern Chinese food restaurant. After dinner they went on to see a Russian Ballet performance of Swan Lake. My friend and I tried unsuccessfully to scalp tickets to Swan Lake, but the prices were too high. So we joined some fellow foreigners and a few Chinese friends to bring in the New Year at a bar called the Shamrock. Friends, new and old, from America, Nigeria, France, Spain, Nepal, China, and Australia joined us there.

As the New Year begins, I think about what kinds of wishes and goals I have for my life here. Winter mornings are sometimes spent too long under cozy covers, arguing with myself about whether to stay in bed or risk getting up just to have the power go off (and thus have no heat). Morning rides on my stationary bike (no small task to assemble) are spurred on by a kind of nervous energy, hoping that the water will stay on until after I have a chance to take a shower.

It seems that I can wish to leave immediately and stay here forever in one moment. The uncomfortable-ness, the inconvenience, the dust and pollution in the air, the lack of empathy and hugs - how can I stand it? And then I wonder, How will I be able to leave? The lack of judgment, the smiles, my movie-star status, the way people will invite you to their homes for dinner after just meeting you, how things just take as long as they do, the way some people work so hard under miserable conditions: cold, long hours, really hard physical labor (even for older folks), etc. Most weeks, my goal is to not get mad when people laugh at me and/or refuse to speak Mandarin to me and/or are just afraid to speak to me at all.

Another goal I have set for myself lately is to embrace my student's China, or at least give it all a try. Until recently I've resisted certain aspects of life here. I'll never love shopping, but I did finally learn the words to the Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More." My students sing this song, along with another favorite, the theme from the movie Titanic.

They celebrate Christmas in a way that for a long time bothered me because they seem most interested in Santa's face and some Charlie-brown-branches-missing poorly decorated Christmas tress. Why borrow from someone else's culture in such a superficial way (most of them do not understand the religious story behind Christmas)?

But lately I see a new layer to it all: another reason to sing and dance, warming bodies and spirits, when it's 38 degrees Fahrenheit, inside and out?; or simply a way to bring more cheer and beauty, or maybe romantic memories, into a world (and recent history) that seems so much bleaker than the movies and photos from the west? Or maybe just another reason to be able to ask the lumbering (all 5'4" of me) foreign teacher to "give a performance"!

Picasso Print

Here are some photos that show some of the measures I've taken to keep warm this winter.

The Winter Solstice gathering drew a huge crowd of students and teachers despite chilly temps in the high 30s F. Remember, most people here have no way of heating buildings, so that means 35 deg inside and outside. The Environmental Student Association posted a sign inviting all to gather at 8pm on the Solstice, instructing each person to bring an unlit candle.

On the evening of the Solstice, after dinner with some teacher friends, we headed over to the designated location. At 8:05 I lit my candle and passed the flame to some friends surrounding me, who passed the flame back to others in the crowd. Once we were all "lit" we sang songs. This merriment segueled into the bunny hop and some dancing - the 3 step (waltz-like) and something called the 35 step which is very similar to the hustle. A number of students were still teaching each other dances when I left at 9pm

I imagine the students are a bit restless, with finals approaching, and also because the huge theater/movie hall and the dance hall buildings were both condemned in the last year. Their smiles and enthusiasm warmed my heart!

1. Students at Winter Solstice Gathering

2. Solstice Circle of Candles

3. Dog slippers for my "dogs" - plus a snuggly dog who I sit for

4. Holiday Lights

5. Portable radiator (left), space heater (right)

6. 3-layer insulation on study window: emergency blanket, rice bag material, curtain

7. Air conditioner in bedroom - warm clothes

Some volunteers organized a Thanksgiving potluck, followed by football the next day, in Chongqing. It was my first chance to visit the heart of this mega metropolitan area that is inhabited by 33 million people. About 15 volunteers and 10 other foreigners gathered at the bar designated for our potluck, where we dined on turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin bread, apple crisp, and other scrumptious goodies. I brought bread that I made in the oven I bought in September.

We drew quite a crowd of on-lookers the next day playing American football. The China 11s (new volunteers) beat the China 10s (volunteers who have been here about 15 months, like me). Wait until those China 11s have been here a year! $%#^&*!

Later, with my tail between my legs, I joined some other volunteers in a trip to Walmart to stock up on spices, olive oil, pasta, etc.

1. Birthday Cake with frosting sculpted goat on top (my Chinese year-sign)

2. Eating one of my favorites, Da Pan Ji - Big Plate of Chicken - at Muslim Restaurant

3. Light Rail 1

4. Light Rail 2

5. Walmart

6. Making mashed potatoes the old-fashioned-way

7. Kay and Thalia - Happy Happy Thanksgiving!

8. Linh and Thalia sample sticky, sugary fruit

9. We ordered a Turkey (not Daniel, my sitemate, carving a slice - he's pretty cool)

10. Marisa and new puppy "Chet" (yes that is a real dog)

11. Happy campers Jen and Jim and Katherine

12. Best smiles from Mel and Anna

13. Hosts brought a microwave

14. Offensive line ready to go!

15. A tough day on the field for Ian

16. Mao knows American football

17. Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut are downtown

Sichuan's 12,000-acre Bamboo Sea is about 100 kilometers south of where I live. The forest contains about 30 types of Bamboo, along with the requisite food stands, restaurants, road signs, and several hotels. It does contain some fairly large stretches that show now evidence of commercialization except the trail under your feet. However, we didn't explore any of these (next time) because we were on a Chinese Day Out.

A Chinese Day Out is similar to a traditional Chinese meal in that you never quite know when it's going to end. We were lucky to have generous hosts to drive us here and around this vast park, showing us the highlights. Among our hosts were my fellow volunteer's tutor's grandparents. They are members who visit about once per week.

The day began with several stops at key vistas. After a gondola ride across a steep gorge, we walked for about an hour before a late lunch. Little did we know, lunch was so late because we were behind schedule. The rest of the afternoon became a race to see the last of our 7 planned stops before our designated departure time - there was no discussion of omitting a stop. Grandma and Grandpa led our group of 12 on a jog through the park's museum and we never did end up finding the bamboo wares shopping district, despite picking up a woman on the side of the road who was to lead us there. Beautiful sights, cheerful group, entertaining day!

1. Bamboo Sea entrance gate (made of bamboo)

2. Bamboo Sea hosts (Grandma and VP of local school district)

3. Bamboo Love (Fellow PCV couple who's tutor arranged our trip)

4. Bamboo bedrock inspection

5. Tall Waterfall Glides Through Bamboo Sea

6. Buddha of Safety at Jade Corridor of Bamboo Sea

7. Reclining Buddha at Jade Corridor

8. Scenic Waterfall 1

9. Scenic Waterfall 2

10. Bamboo Sea Trip Hosts

11. Rice Steamed in Bamboo

12. Friends and peacocks next to bamboo bridges

13. Linh and Ian providing the "waterfall effect" in lieu of the biggest waterfall we didn't see because time ran short

14. Bamboo trash can

15. Bamboos leaning towards the sun

16. Bamboo ticket booth

Li jiang means "pretty river in Chinese." During my visit to Lijiang, the Jin Shan Jiang (golden sands river) was among many beautiful sights. I'll let the photos do the talking...

1. View of Zigong "Fu Xi He" River as I wait for my bus to the airport

2. Naxi Traditional Music and Dance (ala boom box)

3. Naxi Old Town Rooftops

4. Li Xiou Ju - The Carnation Guesthouse Proprietor

5. The Carnation Guesthouse Courtyard

6. (Ubiquitous) Mao

7. Making Friends

8. En route to Tiger Leaping Gorge, the bus driver purchases three bags of la jiao (hot pepper)

9. First day hiking at Tiger Leaping Gorge with Brittish trail mates

10. Mountain Flowers at Naxi Guesthouse - first night on the mountain

11. Edelweiss?

12. Fellow hikers Yannay (Israili) and Siddharth (Dutch) carried full packs!

13. Don't miss lunch at the Tea Horse Inn - they have the best Naxi Sandwiches!

14. Lunch Menu

15. Lunch table overlooking the gorge

16. Forgot my jacket back at the Tea Horse Inn - this helpful horseman helped me retrieve it

17. Trail Warriors!

18. View from the endpoint of our trek

1. Traditional Banquet

2. Mom and I and Foreign Affairs Office Friends

3. Yang Ning and me

Here's a poem I wrote, for Mid-Autumn Festival, which I celebrated with some friends on September 18th.

A circle of bowls and chopsticks set for four.

A circle of smiles share Mid-Autumn lore.

The lady in the moon gazes down at our feast

As her jade rabbit brews celestial remedies.

A walk ‘round the campus reveals rings of candles and song.

Surrounded by moonlight and bright voices, we relish our “yuan.”

NOTE: In Chinese, yuan means circle and unity and also money.

Mid-Autumn Festival

While waiting for our flight from Kunming to Dengguan, mom and I saw some interesting sights.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

We took some photos of the campus during mom's last days in Dengguan during the first week of July. Her month-long visit gave us time to do some great traveling and for me to show her a little bit about my life on campus. We made some great meals together and charted new territory with rice-cooker recipes! We cooked in often after my mother discovered that virtually all Chinese dishes, while often very tasty, contain a lot of oil. Some of her parting words to me were about food: "I'll never eat vegetables for breakfast again!"

1. My Apartment Building

2. My Office Building

3. Campus Walkway

4. Student Dormitory

5. Green Beans & Pumpkin - two of our favorites

At the end of June, my mother and I visited a tailor's shop in Kunming to have some silk clothes made for her. Next, we set out for Kunming, known region- and world-wide for it's flower exports, grown year-round here because the temperature rarely strays beyond a 17 deg to 25 deg C range. I'll let the photos tell the story of our week of adventures in Kunming. Here's a journal entry I made about a walk I took in Kunming one morning.

July 1, 2005

On this morning's walk, I watched the city of Kunming come alive. I headed west out of the hotel gate. Mom walked with me just past the bridge that crosses the Pan Long Jiang, which runs north-south through the city.

Yesterday, mom and I walked north along this river to visit a zoo. We strolled through seemingly endless corridors of wonderfully landscaped, wide paved walkways and boulevards through stands of fir and bamboo trees and open spaces that sometimes offered tables for playing majong. While some of the living spaces for the animals looked cramped and dingy, the animals looked health. The coyotes looked the worst, with a pack of 3 to 6 in a cage smaller than my Dengguan bedroom. The peacocks' freeroaming area was a new experience: albino and regular peacocks strutting around or lazing on the grass, head lolling in a peacock's slumber. Not sure I've ever seen a peacock sleep before! Just beyond the peacock park was a butterfly park. We saw the pinned-and-framed who butterflies and designs made from cut wings and opted not to go into the butterfly house. On the way out of the zoo, we caught the last few minutes of a circus-like show with tigers and horses, including a tiger riding a horse!

Continuing west on Dongfeng Lu, I met the signs and sounds of a Chinese city slowly stretching out with it's first yawns and eye-flutters of the day. On my right, old men chatted amid the din of their caged birds. Several groups of women flowed through Tai-Chi-like forms, some with a red fan in one hand and a red cloth in the other. In Sichuan, groups of women who practice morning Tai Chi typically carry swords. These Kunming women held fans and handkerchiefs and ornate red drums that brought back visions of the previous evening's minority performance that mom and I and a fellow traveler, Bethanie, attended. The venue was located next to our hotel. We stopped to check the menu for dinner and ended up enjoying a splendid evening of colorful ethnic minority song and dance, dazzled by the skills of tea-water pourers, who refilled tea cups from about 5 feet away by pouring hot water from a long-necked container. They never spilled a drop!

On another part of the sidewalk, workers were painstakingly inserting small mum-like flowers into a street decoration about 10 or 15 feet tall that was probably for the Greater Mekong (River Basin) Summit. All of the SE Asian countries in which the river flows sent representatives to meet with Chinese to discuss the health of the river, and the economic viability of the communities in it's basin. The source of the river lies in China

I soon came upon a part of Dongfeng Lu where the traffic headed underground and the street gave way to a large pedestrian-only plaza. To the right, an arrow points hungry strollers to the local McDonald's restaurant. To the left is a Super bookstore and some other modern, Chicago-looking department stores. The mall also offered several outdoor coffee stands and lots of tables, tented from Kunming's daily (light) rains and searing mid-day sun. Their signs advertise that they carry Nescafe.

Up ahead about a half-mile, the mall became a road again and I continued on the sidewalk to a pedestrian overpass. The overpass delivers me to the pale-golden-yellow Yunnan Provincial Museum building, shining like a heavenly beacon that marks the end of Dongfeng Lu. On the way back I passed a very large Bank of China building and then saw the Chinese symbols for flowers and birds - I'd found what I was looking for. Kunming's famous flower and bird market is famous for it's variety of minority craft shops and other more generic jewelry and gift stores. Strolling into the alley I saw most shops still had their steel, wash-board "garage" doors down. Continuing on, the alley became a network of alleys. At restaurants here and there, people were having a breakfast of noodles. I turned east into an alley that I could see met up with a thoroughfare. On my left colorful, animated faces perched on little bodies gawked at me from the wall of a shop. Their exaggerated genitals reminded me of the well-endowed elephant we saw at the zoo the day before!

At the end of the alley, I turn right onto another pedestrian mall with trees and bushes planted in rows on a mostly paved way. It leads me back to the Dongfeng Lu mall. To my relief, the only time I've felt crowded in here was when we took a cab through heavy traffic back to the hotel from the zoo. My lungs expand in a deep breath, taking in the roomy Kunming streets as a turn left and head back to the hotel.

1. Silk "Chipau" Dress - mom and her tailor

2. Statue in Kunming

3. Recycling in Kunming - as in other parts of China, trash was in both bins - my work is not done here!

4. Music & Dancing by Ethnic Minorities – 1

5. Music & Dancing by Ethnic Minorities – 2

6. Paddle Boat at Green Lake Park

7. There are many twins in China

8. Yuantong Temple

9. Street Art

10. New Friends! Meking (River Basin) Summit Emblem in Background - the source of this SE Asian river is in China.

11. New Friends Eating Muslim Food

12. View of Kunming from West Mountain

13. Western Gate Guard - Statue on West Mountain

14. Artist Carves Name Stamps

15. Street Life

16. Fountain

17. Climbing West Mountain

On June 24th, my mother and I attended a special English corner here. I coached the English Corner leaders about how to moderate a panel discussion, and they were smoother than Oprah! The panel consisted of my mother and I and of a (Chinese) English teacher friend of mine, Alice, and her mother. For the students, it was an opportunity to practice their English by talking to foreigners and a Chinese English teacher and to learn about cultural differences and similarities. I was impressed with how the "audience," always translated to English for my mother and into Chinese for Alice's mother, never getting lazy or shy about it. This made both mothers feel comfortable and, while at first Alice's mother was shy about speaking, soon she was sharing parts of her life story and her opinions.

For me, it was an unexpectedly powerful experience. I felt so proud of the interesting questions and boldness from the students who participated; many of them were in my classes the previous year. We talked about how our mothers supported us while we were growing up. My mother started her career in training and organizational development when I was a little girl. I remember going to her graduate school office when I was about 10 years old. My friend's mother's husband left when she was a little girl and her mother worked late into the night to earn the money to send her to school. This story reminded my mother and I about stories from her father's generation, who emigrated to the U.S. and struggled through the depression.

One student asked us to tell each other that we loved each other - my mother and I did this with beaming smiles and a hug, while Alice and her mother smiled, and were more reserved as is typical of the modest Chinese culture.

1. Me, my mother, Alice (Yong Heng) and her mother in front of announcement board for mother-daughter cross-cultured panel.

2. Panel

3. Mom tells the crowd what a great daughter she has :)

4. With our panel facilitators

My mother arrived for a month-long visit just before my last week of classes started. I primed my students with information about my mother and suggested they come up with questions to ask her. They covered all kinds of topics from Sino-American relations to managing organizations to guns! Some thought she was a Julie Andrews look-alike, others saw Margaret Thatcher in her. We ended several classes by singing "Edelweiss," a song that is special to us because of our Liechtenstein heritage.

1. My Mother

2. Rebecca's Classroom

3.

Singing "Edelweiss"

After a week of attending my classes, my mother was ready for some sight-seeing. Our first stop was Chengdu, where I needed to attend a work meeting. We spent a few days shopping for silk scarves and minority folk art, tasting local Muslim food and ex-pat favorites including an Indian Restaurant and the famous Grandma's Kitchen, and even (mom begged out of such a late night) attending a drag show.

Our next stop was Mount Emei. On the 1-hour bus ride from Chengdu to Mt Emei, a local professor overheard us planning to stay in a hotel listed in my travel book and took pity on us. "Your book is outdated," he said. And indeed he was right. His friend picked us up in the town of Emei in his VW Passat (just like mom's car at home), and they drove us 15 minutes to Emei mountain. They first took us to the hotel listed in my Lonely Planet, which cost 770 RMB per night, 440 with a discount, far more than the 280 RMB listed in my book. They suggested another hotel - "same quality, better price." Sure enough, just around the corner we stopped at another grand hotel, where our new friends graciously bargained down the price for a night's stay to 180 RMB!

Known for its gorgeous canyons and medieval network of monasteries and temples, Mt Emei reaches 3099 meters above sea level. During our first night at the base of the mountain, we peeked into the Emei Mountain Tourist Bus Station, only to be greeted by the smiling face of Nathan, a local restauranteur and hotel owner. Nathan recommended a suitable hike for the time and ambition we had, and invited us to eat at his restaurant when we returned. The next morning, we woke early and took a bus to the summit, and then took a bus down to the middle of the mountain to do some hiking. We fell into hiking with a group of Brits who were on a 3-week whirlwind tour of China. I chummed around with the the Chinese guides to practice my Chinese, and got some good advice about the trails. After a day of mountain-top views, peeking in temples and monasteries, wandering through breathtaking gorges, crossing beautiful bridges, and feeding some monkeys (one latched on to mom's leg, determined she would take her with us!), we checked into a monastery room for three with a hearty Frenchman named Jean-Jacque and ate dinner with our English friends. I paused to stretch my legs on the way to bed, and chatted with a former Check-now-British woman as we gazed up at the full moon through the trees.

We awoke on Solstice morning, and had a breakfast of pancakes and omelets before our hike down. On the way to checking the next day's bus schedule, we ran into two local Tibetan students who attend the local college. We spent a wonderful evening dining with our new friends, who gave us a tour of their campus and, through their photo albums, gave us a tour of Lhasa, Tibet.

1. On top (or the “bottom”) of the World

2. What a View!