MKB - Recording Supastar!

Part 3, 1:

W: Let's go see the elephants, Bill. I like elephants they are cute and clever!
M: No, I don't like elephants. I think they are ugly.
W: Oh, Bill! What would you like to see?
M: I like pandas, I think they are cute and friendly!
W: I love pandas! I think they are cute and shy.
Q: What does Bill like?

Text 2: I like elevators. We owe a lot of our city's success to elevators. It it weren't for elevators, we would not be able to have such tall buildings....

on and on and on for hours!

Yup, you are looking at one of the newest voices on English tapes to be distributed to schools throughout China! Awesome. I guess that this guy has been working with VIA volunteers for the past five years or so, so one day he just called the apartment and asked if I was the new American VIA volunteer.

So, I went down for a voice check and have been called back several times to record those delightful English dialogues riddled with mistakes. I have a good time doing it even if the sessions drag. I guess that he had had trouble getting good female voices because many are too high pitched and not throaty enough. Lucky me and my throaty (increasingly so with the lovely Beijing air) neutral American accent!

I don't know if I will ever be able to get a copy of my recording work, but if I do, rest assured, you will all get copies of my dialogue brilliance!

New Teaching Methodology

My dear friend passed this along to me as a new classroom technique since what I have been doing in Yan Qing hasn't really been working very well. I'll all for experimental teaching, but I don't know about this....

Is it art? Teacher strips in class
POSTED: 0806 GMT (1606 HKT), September 28, 2006

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A Chinese culture ministry official has denounced a university professor who stripped naked in front of students and teachers during an art class, a Chinese newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Mo Xiaoxin, a 56-year-old assistant professor at a university in Changzhou, in eastern Jiangsu province, shocked students by stripping during a lecture on "body art" to emphasize the "power" of the body and to "challenge taboos," the Beijing News said.

"There are no taboos in the field of research, but to do this directly in the course of teaching is obviously not appropriate," the paper quoted Tian Junting, a culture ministry official, as saying.

The lecture was part of a course within a newly established "human body art and culture" research institute -- China's first -- at Jiangsu Teachers University of Technology, the paper said.

Mo arranged for four other models, including a man and woman in their 70s or 80s, and a younger couple, to strip naked in front of the class while he lectured, the paper said.

During the nearly hour-long class, Mo also invited students to take their clothes off.

"Professor Mo appeared emotionally excited at the time," the paper quoted a student as saying. "As he was talking, he undid his belt and took off his pants, and stood naked in the middle of the lecture podium."

The naked lecture made many of the 30 or so students feel "uneasy," the paper said. "Some kept their eyes trained on the ceiling, some awkwardly bowed their heads and stared at the ground".

Tian, the culture ministry official, said the course was still in a "research phase" and it wasn't yet known whether it had produced "positive or negative effects."

Defending Lady Day

So, 30. Rock on! I didn't tear it up or anything over my birthday, but hopefully will be able to do some things this weekend. I did get to go to a great, new Indian buffet with Matt, Adam and Naree and that was good. I stuffed my face with pakora and had my birthday kheer. So, all good. Didn't really do much anything else though. Saturday was kinda grey and Matt and I were BUSY with class stuff all weekend. So, we postponed birthday activities.

Anyhow, teaching has been going better. My Yan Qing Monday is getting a little better. The combination of kicking kids out of class and making sure they understand that attendance is not required, has cut some of the classes down a little bit to the people who want to be there. Even if it just a few people missing, those are usually the ones who are causing the problems.

So, I have been doing a series of lectures related to racism and the Civil Rights era in the United States. The most recent lecture was on songs of protest - past and present. One of the songs that I shared with them was "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday (if you have not heard this song, please do! It will give you chills). She has a very distinctive voice and I have loved listening to her for many, many years. But not something that my kids were used to hearing, so they laughed. A lot. Yeesh. So, I had to school them. I can't force them to like her music, but I can try to get them to appreciate the artist. Anyhow, who are they to judge, have you heard Beijing Opera?

Now I just have to find some more pictures of people being lynched to drive it home. The shock tactic seems to work well with those kids. But I am happy that they have at least attempted to do the homework that I have given them and even happier that some of them are choosing not to come to class.

Anyhow, not much else going on. I have started my time with Hui Ling. I think that will be good. I don't know if I will be able to do exactly what I would like to do with them, but I'll try. If any of you have any good ideas for craft/art projects that don't involve the use of sharp objects, please let me know!

So, I will be throwing some other random things up soon, so keep checking back in!

Getting Older. Ugh.

I'm still sick, but at least the computer is feeling better. Had to bring it to the emergency room, but now back up and running.

No real reason for this post, but I will turn 30 this weekend. Scary. 30 always seemed so far away. Anyhow, now it is nearing and I plan on drowning myself in raita and kheer at a newly opened Indian restaurant, which will be, conveniently enough, having an Indian lunch buffet on my birthday!

So, this milestone will be celebrated in China, my 21st was in Indonesia, so where should 40 take place? Eeek 40! Not quite ready to wrap my head around that one yet!

Anyhow, 30. 30. 30. Not so bad. I plan to be mid way through a block of cheese and on my second Dr. Pepper around this time in about 3 days. My birthday wishlist for this year? Cheese, Dr. Pepper, a Snapple, and a box of Post Selects cereal. Ah, the simplicity of my birthday wishes, stemming from my base desperation amuses me. I guess I'll throw in a pendant (from an awesome bookstore!) that I have had my eye on just for good measure and so I will have a little keepsake from this milestone.

I guess that about wraps it up for me right now - I have some other random things I will be posting up soon - a little more from Mongolia and some other brain tidbits.

30.

30.

30.

Ah-ah-ah-choo!

Hello everyone. I'm sick. Kinda a little welcome home gift. If you email, I will be a little slow to respond as I am not the only one with a Chinese virus. Yes, my trusty laptop has come down with a nasty one too.

So, if any of my computer geek friends have any advice on how to get my little silver friend up and running again, I would be most grateful!

The problem: I can't access my desktop. All of my antivirus programs are blocked. All of my system functions are blocked can't do anything in safe mode either. Can't roll back my computer, can't do anything! ARRRGH!!! I can still get to my program files, but that is about it. I spent some good time with a support person on the phone, but, alas, no luck. I can't access the internet anymore either.

Any advice?

The Reno of Asia

Gerbils - check
Sand - check
"Recreation" of Invading Mongol Horde - check

Alrighty, so, these post are things that I was writing out long hand during our trip to Mongolia. Enjoy!

So, speeding back from Mongolia on the train and I wish I was still there, but the train is pretty cool so I'm happy about that. It is strangely liberating to not be afraid of the toilet facilities and therefore able to eat and drink however much I want. The time in Mongolia went way too fast and I didn't get to see nearly enough of the country! We were both really tempted to play hooky from school and continue on over to Moscow. But, alas, we are still responsible (more or less).

So, I have a lot to tell, so I'll get to it!

First the beginning...

The train ride up. We got stuck in Beijing traffic the last 200m or so to the train station, but were told we couldn't get out in the intersection. The time we needed to catch the train was whittling down, so finally, seeing that we really needed to go, the cab driver gave a little nod and we bolted from the cab into the jammed intersection. Poor civil planning! All of the traffic going to the train station has to make a U-turn into oncoming traffic. Being that there is not a dedicated turn light, this is nearly impossible. Ah, yet another Chinese feat in half-baked planning!

Anyhow, we were expecting the mad rush and frantic "queuing" like other train experiences, so we booked it to the station waiting area. To our surprise, it was very easy. Shockingly easy. Uncharacteristically Chinese easy! We were right away directed to the first class waiting lounge and international train transit lounge and then only a quick ticket check (no line, no shoving) and we were on the platform! Not only were we on the platform, but we could board the train immediately - no waiting! I do think that the mad rush to the gate is merely to entertain some sort of sadistic party paper stamper in the back office. Anyhow...(stay on track, Molly).

So, on the train we go!

We stowed all our stuff (once we figured out the storage places) and were really pleased with the cabin arrangements - only 4 beds per cabin on a hard class sleeper ticket! Thank you Russia! I never thought that I would have so much praise and adoration for Russian engineering and products, but Хорошо сделанный! The cabin was nice! LOTS of room and a heavy, lockable door. We settled into our bunks and I was suddenly overcome with how quiet it was. So, so, so quiet. No bad pop/shrill flute music or electric piano versions of Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. There was some soft (emphasis on "soft") music in the corridor, but not in the individual cabins. Ahhhh, I found a little slick of heaven on a Russian train.

We had the cabin to ourselves for a few hours. Matt checked out the facilities, came back and informed me of a real-to-life toilet in the WC. Having that mobile toilet was liberating! We could now eat and drink as much as we wanted! When I visited the toilet, I was so happy. I think a "happy Russian toilet" song might have escaped my lips. It even smelled clean! And then, push a lever and, flush! Onto the tracks! Bye waste! With the bathroom facilities checked out, I felt confident to eat, so I did. We both got some food from the dining car - not great, but tasted better and better as we sped farther and farther away from China.

Eventually, a couple of Mongolians joined us in our cabin. They were great cabin mates! Sure they played with their phone, but did so quietly. Eventually we went to sleep. It was nice. Each bunk had its own light so we could determine our own bedtime. It was quiet. There was no one trying every single ring tone on their phone, no one yelling/singing loudly, no one sitting on you, no one using said cell phone as a flashlight to see who you are... Ahhh... solace! I was able to sleep. Sleep well.

We reached Erlian (boarder in China) where the wheels of the train had to be changed because the tracks were of a different gauge. So we got off and went to the little duty free shop - it was madness! People were grabbing and buying up cases of fruit and just throwing elbows left and right. We had about a 2 hour lay over before heading on.

Immigration and customs was really easy (especially as the official came to us - i.e.: no lines). The Chinese officer looked at Matt's passport picture and called him "fat". We all got a good laugh at that! I was a little scared to fork over my passport, but just got the nod, and I was good with that. The official on the Mongolian side gave us each a quick once over and stamped our passports. Hooray! Land of Kahn, ho!

We all went to sleep. I think I must have slept until 9 or 10 AM. No shrill flute music to wake me at 6/7 AM. Thus no swears. This overall was a pretty swear free vacation for me - with an exception for the multiple mental and a couple of vocal "hot-damns". Around brunch our cabin mates started eating the Mongolian man was very friendly and funny. He sliced off some excellent Mongolian sausage for me to try. YUM! He told me that it was Mongol with a big happy face and thumbs up. Oh, sooo tasty! Then he sliced off a little Chinese sausage and made sure to make the distinction with a big frown - he was right, not too good.

So, we coasted on into to Ulaan Baatar - the UB, the capital city of Mongolia. Matt and I realized that we didn't have any Mongolian money for a cab, so we were happy to find a guest house representative who offered us a free shuttle to his guesthouse
which was close to a money changer and ATM. On the shuttle we met some other travelers who told us about a couple of SE Asian countries we were looking to visit this winter.

The UB Guesthouse. Owned and operated by a South Korean man and his Mongolian wife. We decided to just dorm bed it for the night (well, that was decided for us as there were no private rooms available - so dorm bunks it was!) The guesthouse was crowded but cozy. We all got our stuff settled and went to go get some togrog (Mongolian currency). After, we decided to check out a monastery, the Gandantegchinlen (Gandan) Khiid (roughly means, 'the great place of complete joy') which is Mongolia's largest monastery. We were joined by 2 guys, Robert, American student studying Chinese in Beijing and John, Australian who had been traveling for the past 7 months. We got out to the temple to find out that it was closing (of course, we find out after they take our admission). So, we saw one chapel.

We decided to head back to the guesthouse and try to find a place to eat. While walking to the restaurant, many homeless boys approached us for money or food. One even latched onto my arm and wouldn't let go. Many of the children live under ground in the winter as it is the only place warm enough. In our LP (Lonely Planet, for those of you not in the know), it mentions that many of the kids are abandoned or run away from abusive homes. Many of the girls get sucked into prostitution. Initially we thought that by giving them food, that would encourage them to ask for more or latch onto you. Nope. They were just hungry. I gave one my half full 7UP and he took it and ran. Same with some leftover food I had.

Anyhow, we all went to a place called "El Latino" (Cuban food) for dinner. Matt and I weren't too hungry as we had a late lunch at a fabulous Greek Restaurant (feta, mmmmmm!) But we enjoyed the company and native speaker rate of English conversation. So, after dinner, we all headed back to the guesthouse to pack or figure out excursions. On the way back Robert was remarking how he thought that the city looked like Reno. The rest of us, who have never been to Reno, had to go on his word. I wound up chatting with John (the Aussie). We were both pleasantly surprised to find out that we were both in school in Indonesia at around the same time! He was in Yogya and me about 3 hours away in Salatiga. Tried speaking in really rusty Bahasa, squeaky but still functional. His was a lot better than mine, but he admitted that he was just there and was able to embarrass himself (practice). So we swapped stories about the archipelago and talked about our favorite cities. Great fun! He had been traveling around SE Asia and told me a little about Vietnam and Cambodia (really excited about going there over winter - fingers crossed).

Matt and I decided to tour around UB on Monday and take a trip out to Karakorum (Genghis' - "Chinggis" old hood) the next day. We visited some museums and shops - Mongolia was more expensive than we thought it would be (almost US prices). We went to the Winter Palace of Bogd Khaan. We snapped a couple of photos outside before being taken down by the photo taking enforcement squad - err, woman who helps clean the compound. We assumed that the photo fee was just for taking photos inside the buildings but we were wrong and had to shell out $15 USD! to appease the descendants oh Khaan. So we took a lot of retribution photos. With flash. Indoors. Take that (concentrated flash of UV) Bogd Khaan! What a dork revenge, but mwahahahahaha all the same!

Anyhow, we went to a couple of art galleries which were cool and the Victims of Political Persecution Museum which was interesting. We enjoyed looking around town. I enjoyed the consistently clean bathrooms (not smelly, pedestal toilets, toilet paper and sink with hot water and soap)! Later, we reconfigured our packs so we could just take one pack on the road trip.

Okay. Enough for now. How 'bout y'all take a quick break, get some water and I'll continue a little later.

Jerboa-con 2006! Hooray!

Yeah, yeah, Chinggis Khaan (blah, blah, blah), Kublai Khaan (blah, blah, blah), Golden Horde (blah, blah, blah). The real reason for our Mongolian excursion was...

...to see us some gerbils in the wild!

Mongolia has several species of jerboa. For me, I have wanted to see where my childhood pets came from. We were not disappointed. Because of the time limit, we couldn't go down to the Gobi. Oh, well some other time.

I did get to dune romp in the little Gobi, so, that filed the sand void for now. I like the desert. But I'm getting ahead of myself once again.

Gerbil town #1: We stopped off at a place for lunch. I went around to snap a few pictures. When I walked back I saw Matt staring at the ground. Gerbil town spotted! They were so cute! Poking their heads up from their little holes and scampering around. Perfect! I was so happy! As far as I was concerned, I could go home a happy girl. So, we (Matt, Temple and Reuben - fellow teachers in China and I) all had lunch at the little roadside diner. The food was good, but we were all surprised by the food presentation. The plate at this little roadside stop had a very eye appealing arrangement. Rice was molded with decorative ketchup dollop on top, and the vegetable salad was nice and colorful. The noodles were al dente and the meat was tender - not too bad! I finished eating quickly so I could go out on the gerbil watch a little longer before hitting the road once again.

Part way to the little Gobi, our driver met up with some friends of his. This was cool by us, but when they pulled out a bottle of vodka, not so cool anymore. So were all watched to see what he was doing (y'know, watching, but pretending not to really watch). But our driver just dipped his right ring finger in the glass that was offered to him and flicked a little once to the sky, once in the air (to the wind) and once to the ground. Then put the glass to his lips, but didn't take a chug.

Next Stop: Little Gobi. So, I needed a little desert fix so the little Gobi was pretty perfect for that! Kicked off my shoes, rolled up my pants and ran out to the mini dunes with Roy Chapman Andrews on the brain. I didn't discover any dinos or anything, but found plenty of broken glass (shoes back on), plastic bottles, poop and animal bones. So no great adventuring excursions through the Gobi on camel back, but making my way through the mini dunes, tripping on the sand, dodging poop is basically the same thing, right? Didn't stop me from striking some nerdy poses in my Beloit College gear (er, vintage T)! Ah, ol' Roy would have been so proud! Especially with this Beloiter! So, I was kneeling down on the side of a dune to take a picture and I started to tip over. My planted foot was deep in the sand. So, well...I just kinda went with it and log rolled down the side of the dune. Another proud moment was running on the sand and tripping on, well, nothing. Another, squatting in a prickly bush and all of this is a span of less than an hour. Ahhhh, good times!

So, after the dune fun, it was back in the car for bumpy road. The trip out to Karakorum was about 7 hours one way, most of that time was dodging pot holes - I think there was more hole than road. I remember looking out longingly at the dirt trail next to the asphalt. Anyhow, we arrived at our ger at about 5:30/6 PM. Dinner was to be served at 7:15, so we had some time to walk around the old Khaan stomping ground. We all made use of the cleanest pit toilet we had seen in quite awhile and set off! Temple and Reuben set off in one direction toward the flour factory and us in another.

We, of course, went out on the gerbil hunt. We saw many holes, but, alas, no gerbils. A gerbil ghost town. So, we got to work and bad-assed up a one of the gerbil domiciles we happened upon. Yup, grande nerds of the steppe. Then, um, "reenactment" time - I'll post that up later. Feeling satisfied with our lame wrath we unleashed, we headed back to the ger.

Dinner was small but good - buuz (dumplings) with mostly vegetables and just a little meat. Not quite enough for everyone, but quite tasty. Eventually one of the ger owners came and started a nice fire for us and we settled in for the night, swapping China stories. My favorite, "honey, I think I just ordered a prostitute." The stars were amazing at night and I slept pretty well, especially after I covered my head.

In the morning we had biscuit cookies for breakfast and I bought some hand sewn camels from the woman who ran the ger (who had one of the cutest daughters with huge cheeks). The little girl was all smiles and super happy as she toddled around with a box of Toblerone. Hey, I would be pretty too if I had some Toblerone! We left the ger and headed off to see Erdene Zuu Khid (first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia). Sooooo cool! It is in the middle of nowhere - just so neat to look out on nothing and see this huge, walled monastery. I was just drawn to the starkness of the area. We looked around the complex for a little bit and headed out to walk with the Great Khaan. Driving out to a turtle rock marker, I saw what looked like an excavation, but wasn't too sure, it looked like a foundation. We stopped over at penis rock. Guess what it looks like? Legend has it that the rock was placed here in an attempt to stop frisky monks, filled with lust by the shapely slope, from fraternizing with the local women.

Um, after that...we went up to one of the turtle rocks. There are 4 turtle rocks and they mark the boundaries of ancient Karakorum. The turtles act as protectors of the city (turtles are considered symbols of eternity). It was just cool to be standing where, perhaps The Man stood. The man of the millennium. Awesome!

Then, steppe fun was done, so we piled back into the car and headed back to UB. We had fun watching the wildlife and domesticated animals. Lots of cows, sheep and goats. Also, horses, a fox, golden eagles, vultures, camels, and course, gerbils! We only hit one animal scurrying across the road - a little gerbil :( But it was fun to watch then run across.

On the way back we stopped for breaks more at one place there was a most excellent gerbil town with the little cute gerbils that looked like my childhood pets (shout out to Slick, Scooter, Pita and Repita). So cute! One stared at me for a long time and some others kept on popping their little heads up out of their holes - like a miniature whack-a-mole game. I could have watched them for hours! But I had to pull myself away.

Along the ride home, we met up with some other travelers, form a mix of places, but wound up talking with a couple of guys from Israel. Sounds like they had been traveling for awhile (made their way to Mongolia from Russia) so they told us about some of their experiences from the road. They got hassled a little bit in Moscow (police officers wanting to get paid) and were hoping to pick up a little work in China. I think Matt and I are more interested in going to Russia than ever before, but have heard from many people (who we met on this trip) that it is a difficult place to travel for independent travelers, i.e. not on a tour.

*Sigh*

Maybe someday we'll hop the train again and go all the way to Moscow. Someday...

Lap-Dino

So, back to UB - we arrived in the late evening and checked back into the UB Guesthouse. This time we didn't stay at the main guesthouse, but a smaller apartment like place. We went to eat at the Greek place again. Baked feta! Greek Salad! Stuffed grape leaves! Moussaka! Lovely!

After dinner we met our roomies for the rest of our time in Mongolia - Nadia and Antonio. There were so awesome! She was a French Moroccan and he was a Spaniard. They both had been living in London, working for a big company. They got tired of it, so they quit and have been traveling, looking for a new place to live and work. Both of them were so laid back and interesting we had a lot of fun chatting with them!

*Oooh! I just saw 2 camels! I'm have been working on these posts as we make our way through the Gobi Desert. Pretty desolate, but I like it! Gets me thinking about the 1920 Gobi expedition and Andrews' excavation. It's really a crap shoot if you'll find anything. Kind of like, "um...well, shit, I don't know. How about digging here? Just as good as any other place." Anyhow, back to the travel log.*

On our last day in UB we had a lot to do! We talked a little more with the Aussie, who was just back from his trip out to a nature reserve - sounded like they all got a little sick. We wanted to go out to a reserve too, but no time. He highly recommended the Monastery-Museum of Choijin Lama (which was good as I was prepared to bump it if we were slim on time). The first stop though was the Mongolian History Museum.

The MHM was a really nice place - they took a lot of time with the exhibits and signage. I was really impressed with the good English signs. Pretty straight to the point and not a lot of over description. Nice! After the MHM we walked to a restaurant called, "Modern Nomads" - not quite authentic, traditional Mongolian food, but clean, plague free food which was more of what we were going for. Even with a ped toilet, we were hopping a 30 hour train the next morning.... It was good but a lot of food! I had them wrap up my leftovers so I could give it to the street kids later.

BTW (by the way), we did not eat Bodog - authentic Mongolian BBQ. First, the innards get pulled out of the goat or marmot through a slit in the neck. Then, the carcass is stuffed full of scalding rocks and the neck re-closed with wire. Then the animal is thrown on an open fire or blowtorched to burn the fur off the outside while the meat is cooked from the inside. Oh any FYI, the bubonic plague - the great Black Death can be passed by handling marmot skins. Whoohoo! Extreme eating!

Next stop, The Natural History Museum (let's see me some dinosaur)! So, the NHM was basically a creepy taxidermy affair, lots of those not quite right glass(?) eyes staring at you from posed animals that are never really quite right. There was this baby penguin that was, well, um, its neck was craned real strange like. Creeped me out. But had to go through the museums to see the Protoceratops Andrewsi!

Now, I didn't exactly know what to expect as I hadn't researched the dino before going - was leaving that to be surprised. So, I was expecting something large and fierce, further fueling this thought was that the LP mentioned that the museum had a rare preserved example of Andrewsi and a velociraptor locked in mortal combat (probably were buried alive when a sand dune collapsed). Needless to say, I needed to check this bad ass out! We walked through the main dino exhibit hall with all of the large specimens and, hmmm...no Protoceratops Andrewsi. Then, anticipating wanting to get a photo picture of the 80 million year old baddie, I paid the photo fee and took some other pictures while Matt wandered into the next gallery. Matt called out, "hey, Molly! He's in here!" Ooooh, so excited! I can't tell you how excited I was walking in to the next hall - goose bumps!

So I entered the next hall and Matt motioned, "it's over there". I look over to where Matt was pointing and walk up to it and finally was face to face with the Protoceratops Andrewsi! The bad ass dino. Um, the little bad ass dino. Err, the little, vegetarian, bad ass dino. Okay, the little, vegetarian, a little chubby, probably pretty cute bad ass dino. Let's see, so, um, the Andrewsi would kinda be like the ankle biter of the dino world. A sort of "lap-dino", if you will. But, hey, I have to give lil' lap-dino Andrewsi props as it looks like it was kicking the velociraptor's ass! That is before a bunch of sand killed them both. Oh well, go Andrewsi, go!

But the dino skeletons were really neat and pretty complete. I also really enjoyed the paintings. Y'know the paintings at natural history museums that recreate the dino/animal/what have you in their natural environment? Well, Andrewsi looked like a happy little playful tyke, all chubby and content. Definitely for the baddie I was envisioning but cute! And, hey, do you have a dinosaur named after you? I didn't think so.

After hitting the history museums we set out for the monastery-museum of Choijin Lama. It wasn't an active monastery anymore though and hasn't been since the late 1930s. I am really glad that we didn't scratch it 'cuz it was really interesting! The Mongolian's Tibetan Buddhism seemed to focus on the feminine deity - the one with all of the skull and disemboweled and tortured people. Don't know why, but it just seems fitting. All over the chapels were depiction of people being tortured and ripped apart; embroidered entrails terracing the tops of the walls. It was great! Quite different from the other temples we saw in Tibet.

Next, shopping! I think one of my new favorite animals is the camel. I bought a plush herd. We didn't make it out to the open black market though, which we were disappointed about (didn't get to experience the experienced pick pockets) because we had a cultural show to get to!

Usually cultural show are a bit disappointed and cheesy-lame. But this one was awesome! The music was wonderful and the singing was unbelievable - I shot some video and will post it up later. The throat singing was just amazing. Hard to believe that those sounds were coming from a person! The dancing was lively and fun and they even had contortionists! They were, um, flexible. Whoohoo! Kick ass! Seriously, really cool! I could have easily watched for another couple of hours.

So, after the show we went for our last meal in Mongolia. We wound up going to the Sands restaurant - Arabian and South Asian food. Mmmm-mmm-mmm! Then back to the guesthouse to pack up for the train back to Beijing :(

We were ready to go before 7 AM - I walked over to the main guesthouse to get our key deposits back. When I got outside, snow! Mongolian snow on our last day, last hours in the country. How great is that? The people at the guesthouse were very helpful with our departure and the Mongolian owner was even down at the train station just in case there were questions or problems! They were really great to stay with!

Anyhow, sunset over the Gobi, I want to try to get some "through the dirty window pictures". Talk to you later!

Kyung Khaan - The Korean Invader

So, I'm getting ill, feeling fed-up and am real nice and angry...what better time than now to blog, right (especially applicable last night)?

I'm more than fed-up, so...we're leaving the country! Hooray!

Not packing up and moving out quite yet. We're hoppin' on the trans-Siberian and going to Mongolia over the National Day holiday. With my current mindset as it is, the more distance I put between me and the school the better! I need to try to refresh or something. 'Cuz the whole teaching thing...well, I'm just not into it at all right now.

Ahhh...Mongolia! Can't wait! Our train leaves at 7:40 AM and we should be on the train for about 30 hours (hopefully not too many more than that). So, stay tuned for more stories of our adventures from the road and probably another 1,000 pictures or so. When we get back to, sigh, China.

Ahhh...Land of Kahn, Protoceratops Andrewsi (dinosaur named after Roy Chapman Andrews, you go RCA), and gerbils. Awesome! I can't wait!

So, until we meet again Zhong Guo, kiss my grits!

F-you, China, F-you.

Roast beef

Okay, Monday down, um...Thursday left to go?

Yeah, that is the hard life that I am living over here in Zhong Guo. I work 2 days a week. Well, I have a night class on Wednesday, but I basically have the whole day open until 7 PM.

So, today was the Yan Qing day. It didn't start out the best. Our bus driver hit a dog. Inauspicious especially during the year of the dog. But, then again, there were all of those people forced to kill their dogs here just a little while ago.

Anyhow, so after the dog incident, I was last getting off of the bus and I managed to kind of boff it on the stairs. Yeah, me and stairs, can you believe it!?! (Rolling eyes) So, stairs are a challenge for me in and of themselves, but I don't know how I wound up kinda sliding/skidding down the stairs, ultimately winding up in a very awkward position with my left leg kinda up. What happened next you ask? Well, let's just say that the little piggy who was supposed to have roast beef couldn't because he and two of his already hurt friends were stuck in a bus door! Yup. That's right, I got my toes stuck IN the bus AND I couldn't get them out. The bus driver had to shut off the bus, push the open button and then manually pry the doors apart so I could rescue my poor little piggies. Oh, poor piggies! If they weren't broken before, you most certainly are now. Oh well, at least I have some days off and can keep my little toes safe, maybe. My day to day activity has been rather harsh on them lately.

But, my general stance on any medical care has been NO DOCTORS IN CHINA!!! I'll just deal with it on my own.

So, one of my classes went a little better today. They really liked the tongue twister challenge and the slang exchange. But I think that keeping them motivated will be tricky. The momentum seems to die out pretty quickly. But the other class...oh geez! I have never had a kid mouth off to me before until today. I had a girl who volunteered pick the next person, so she did and I asked him to speak. He looked at me and snottily said, "Why?" This was immediately answered with a very terse reply from the teacher (me), he them had the gall to tell me that he didn't want to and didn't think that he should have to do it. Yeah. That didn't fly. Let's just say that it was "handled" and things just didn't really improve from there. MP3 players and cell phones had to be confiscated, ugh! Basically at the end of the class I told the class not to waste my time and the time of the students who were there to learn and if they were not going to participate in class and only cause trouble, I didn't want them there.

Sooo, we'll see how things go after vacation.

Cross you fingers for us - we will hopefully be on our way to Mongolia this weekend!

Things to look forward to: some sort of invading Mongolian horde on horseback type of pictures, Kyung Kahn, Molly in Beloit pretending to be a white male (Roy Chapman Andrews - dude, he has a dinosaur named after him! I mean, a dinosaur, man! C'mon, that's seriously cool.)

...and this little piggy went d@!%, s&!?, f%!?#

Hey, everyone!

First, I want to thank you all for your encouragement over the past weeks during my teaching funk. I can't say that I am out of it yet, but I have the National Day vacation coming up, so at least I will get a break from my oh so heavy workload :) I just don't have the motivation to teach yet. I don't think that is coming through in my teaching, but I am just not enjoying it right now. Things will get better with time, I know, I'm sure they will. But in the meantime, BLAH!

Our apartment is nice enough - a lot smaller than the one on Guyuan, but that one was nicer than most places we have lived in! What we really like about campus is being right next to the cafeteria. The cafeteria is great! It is 4 floors of food (the 4th floor is a restaurant), good for quick food and the taste is pretty good too! Our favorite is the third floor cafeteria. You can get made to order stir-fry as well as small hot pots. It's great! Nice to be able to just walk in, get some decent food quickly and go home.

But, now, my business English class has ended (special short term class). I am happy that I will free up an entire day for me, but I did like that class pretty well. They were all adults from a big steel company located in Shandong. They were very attentive and good sports about the things I wanted them to do in class. But now my teaching schedule will be lighter - I will teach 4 hours on Monday (plus 2.5 hours for transit), nothing on Tuesday, a 2 hour night class on Wednesday, four hours on Thursday and a free Friday. Of course they will probably try to get me to work an extra class in October and I will have volunteer hours at Huiling.

Anyhow, I don't know if I told you that Matt and I joined a health club. They are pretty new in China, so the memberships are a little expensive. But, after a year of basically no exercise, thought that it was a good thing to do. The first day at the gym was a very humbling experience. But on the plus side I am not intimidated at all to use the free weights. Usually, at other gyms that I have joined the weight pits were usually dominated by huge men who could heft a car over their heads. But not here! I was told a couple of times that I should not lift weights because I am a woman and my muscles will get too big and man like. I don't know how many times I have said, "well, I think it is good to be strong." in response. I can't believe how weak I had gotten.

But now, I haven't been back for a while because of klutziness. I hurt my toes. Specifically the two small toes on my left foot. Not just the phalange part, but down into the foot area. And, I have repeatedly hurt them. About everyday since the first injury. How? Because of said klutziness. The initial injury was the worst (kinda got stubbed and tangled with a desk), but the week plus or so of hurt that followed the first injury was not only painful but, eventually extremely funny. I would have the white flash of pain as I re-injured my toes, swear, sometimes collapse to the floor grasping said toes (swearing, of course), and, yes at times, some tears were shed. After about day 5 of repeated injury, it just began to be really funny. Hurt like hell, but funny.

Anyhow, I have a week of vacation coming up, so am looking forward to that - looking to get out of the country for a week (Outer Mongolia or South Korea). It does feel strange to be already planning a vacation after only 2 weeks of work, but for some reason, I really mentally need this one!

So, I hope all of you are doing well! Drop me a line when you get a chance - we have been a little lean on email from the US!

The Red-Headed Step Child

I don't know what happened today. I just woke up really not liking China. Yes, there were some things that happened during the week that weren't the best, but they really didn't feed into why I was filled with angst today.

So, my first week of teaching my full schedule is done and I am glad. The two hour blocks are difficult and I don't really like teaching in those long blocks of time. Yan Qing was...well, hopefully that will get better. I also had my special, short term class with the business professionals this week. Next week will be the last of those classes. Those classes are generally pretty fun and the adults are pretty good sports about them. I also got to me my sophomore classes on Thursday. I will be teaching 2 sections of English for Management Majors. Their English level is pretty high from what I can tell.

When I entered both of the classes, the students thought that I was a student. One of the students even told me that I should not close the door as the teacher was not there yet and would not be able to get into the classroom. When I told him that I was the teacher, I got quite a sound of shock from him. I don't know how these classes will go. They seem like nice enough kids. What I don't like is that they ask me to have the white teachers come and teach them. Yeah. A bit of a blow to the ego. Sometimes I feel that I have to work twice as hard to prove my value as a foreign teacher, to make up for the fact that I am not white. It is just frustrating.

Other than that, I am really not motivated to teach yet. I don't know if it is because of the attitude towards my ethnicity and lack of exotic appeal or just apathy. I just know that I am really dreading boarding that bus on Monday for Yan Qing. I'm just not feeling IT yet.

Beijing is fine. Big, dirty and polluted. But I have access to Mexican food. Did have some good, blue sky days though. To be honest, I just haven't felt like doing a whole heck of a lot lately. Pretty unmotivated right now.

The other day, I was walking home from class, alone. It dawned on me that I was alone. Alone. I didn't have 15 - 11 year olds tagging along chatting away. I didn't give out any hugs or exchange smiles. Didn't have someone dancing and singing just to make all of us laugh. No laughing. No smiling. Just walking. Walking. I miss my kids.

I know that I had some really bad days in Guyuan. No, really, really, really bad days. But, the vast majority of my kids were a delight. I'm really glad that I was able to get to know some of them and spend time with them. It was really special to me. I don't know what it will be like here for me and I'm sure it will get better. But, what I did notice was how much I missed the warmth and spirit of my little kids while walking home and how meaningful that time spent just walking home together was to me. Especially now as I walk alone.

Yup. I'm the Booby.

I really hope that Yan Qing will be good. I really, really do. I know that your shouldn't judge something on the first impression, but, ooo-ooo-wee!

Okay, I should just start from the beginning.

So, I was given the Yan Qing teaching assignment. I had some reservations - was warned about the extra time it would take to do the classes and the low language level of the students. But I was pretty okay with it as long as I would be compensated for the extra time it would take to teach those classes - it takes a little over an hour to get out to the school and then there is the ride back. So, although I am only teaching 4 hours the whole ordeal takes the entire day.

I had some questions about all of this, so I went to our waiban. I admit, I was still suspicious about the whole 10 vs 12 hours of agreed to contracted hours, but wanted to know about the teaching gig. So, after a couple of rounds of time vs money compensation she tried the "I'll just butter you up" strategy and was told that they select a very special teacher to go out to teach these kids who may be from the countryside and were not able to have as good as an education as some of the other kids (thus they scored lower on their entrance exams).

So, with not everything smoothed over, I leave with the general feeling of being lied to again.

The other night Matt and I met one of the former English teachers at the University. We all went to Mr. Pizza. Frank, who is an old friend of Adam's (our neighbor). I told him that I had the Yan Qing thing. His response? "Oh, so you got stuck with Yan Qing, huh?" followed by and a little laughing. Great.

So, Monday. THE day. I was told that the bus to Yan Qing will leave the school at 7:30 AM and that I should try to be a little early. So, I drag my groggy ass out of bed really early for me and make it out to the bus meeting place under a huge statue of Mao by 7:15 AM. Anyone there? Nope. 7:30 AM? Nope. 7:45 AM? Nope. I worry that I missed the bus or that they changed the time and didn't tell me. So I called the scheduling office. They sent someone down to hang with me and Mao. At 8:00 AM some people start to show up. I asked them what time the bus was to leave, they all said 8:15 AM. No one knew of the 7:30 AM time that I was informed of. Gee, thanks Gloria. I wouldn't have been nearly as bitter if I would have been able to get that extra precious hour of sleep.

So, now the ride out to Yan Qing. The ride was quite nice. I was able to see some of the Great Wall on the way and the hills/mountains were quite nice. Blue sky too - bonus! Right as we got to an interesting section of the wall the lady in front of me whisked down the curtain and bopped me in the head. I tried to pull it up just a little so I could see out. No dice. Stare of ice from that lady. So, I was forced to sneak peaks out at the scenery from two windows up when the wind would blow the curtain out a little bit. What is up with the mobile window treatment Nazis?

So, we arrived at the school and I was given the key to my "office". It was actually better than I had pictured. It is basically a little hotel room. I have 2 beds, 2 desks a wardrobe and my own bathroom. I didn't really have time to relax because I had to run off to class. I got lost. No one really knew where I was supposed to go. So I just wandered around the teaching buildings for about 10 minutes before a student found me and asked if I was the Chinese-looking foreigner. She said to follow her and I made it to my class just as the bell rang.

The students will hopefully be better than the first impression I have of them. From the way things sound, half of them didn't really want to work very hard in high school, so they placed low on the university lists and could not get into one of the top universities in Beijing. The other half are from the countryside and didn't have access to some of the educational advantages that their other classmates had and they are there to work, but their English level is pretty poor as usually they didn't really have an actual English teacher, just a Chinese teacher trying to teach them about English. I have two classes. One is for English teaching majors the other for Commercial English majors. I have to tell ya, I truly believe that my Senior 1 students at Guyuan had better English overall. Shoot, for that matter, my Juniors had better English. Many of these university students could not answer questions my 11 year olds could by the end of the year.

The class is supposed to be lecture style. Two L O N G hours of lecture. Four in total. I don't want to talk that long and being that their English level is so low, I don't think that they would be able to understand (nor sit through)what I am talking about the majority of the time. So, I think that will be the first change I make, more activities and less teacher talking time. But the students, oh I don't know. I just hope that my impression of them is incorrect.

For lunch I went to a restaurant. Went being the word to focus on. Note that I didn't say "eat". We caught a bicycle thing out to a restaurant on the other side of town (not a rickshaw dealy, but a bike with a padded skid attached to the back which people sit on). By the time we got out there and the food came, I had to go back for my afternoon class. I got about 3 minutes to shovel some potatoes in my feed hole before catching the bike thing back to campus.

Back at campus had some more difficulty finding my classes - nothing is labeled which makes it difficult for me as all of the buildings kinda look the same and all of the classrooms really look similar. So, lost laowai again.

So, finally, I get to go home! Hooray!

I find the car that is going back and hop in and we head back to Beijing. We get back about at 4:30 PM. A whole day wasted for four hours of teaching and I haven't heard what the "fair compensation" is yet from the people who were supposed to get right back to me.

Crap.

I'm tired.

Ugh.

That is the way I am feeling right now.

It is 6:30 as I begin this post and I will go jump a bus to my school in a little bit.

I'm going out to teach at Yan Qing. The booby prize.

I'll tell you more about it when I get home.

...and there I go!

I start teaching on Tuesday. Initially when we arrived, we were told that we wouldn't start teaching until the 11th. But people like to lie or to give an answer without knowing if it is actually true or not. At least it is a short term class (only will meet 4 times). Even though, it is a short term class, I don't feel mentally prepared for it yet - that extra week seems to make a big difference in mental preparation for launching the school year.

Needless to say,

I

AM

NOT

READY.

Hanized Holy Lake

Watch the video

So, this is from Tibet - we went to the summer palace for the big DL and they had a framed picture of the Potala. Across from the Potala was a beautiful lake and park. We were told that the holy lake has since been filled in and now a large Chinese monument and public square is standing where the lake had once been. A bit of the lake is still there, now just a little pond.

We were walking down by the Potala at night to get some night pictures of the place, when we saw all of the blue glow coming down from the lake. I though that it was horrible looking - all of those tacky blue lights framing what is left of the holy lake. Then I noticed the swirling orange disks and wanted to get closer. "Are those swastikas spinning around?" We got closer and to my horror, they were bright orange swastikas spinning in one direction and then slowing down to start spinning around in the other direction. Ugh.

The Potala is a kind of a transition point from the east and west side of the downtown area in Lhasa. The east side has more of a Tibetan feel and as you walk west you begin to see more and more colored rope lights, neon, tacky light fixtures and plastic palm trees. Anyhow, I can finally get back into my email in less than 20 minutes, so I probably shouldn't push my luck with adding more opinion to this post.

Belgium

Sorry that I haven't posted in a little while. We have been exploring the big, bad Beijing. When we first arrived we had nice blue skies, but we have also got to experience the oppressive pollution. Yeah, I think I will have to go on the inhaler come winter - whoohoo Albuterol!

We have been trying to clean up and out the VIA apartment. It has been in use for about 20 years or so. Needless to say a good purge is in order - the closet has been primed for an full scale excavation.

We have met most of the other foreign teachers we will be working with - so far they are all nice, blah, blah, blah good and stuff. I will start teaching a short term class on Tuesday. Matt and I need to work out some of the details of our contract - there are a couple of inconsistencies between our schedule and what we thought we agreed to. Anyhow, it should be fine as long as we get paid the correct amount for any hours over our contracted teaching hours.

We have done a little sight seeing as well with Naree (VIA volunteer), Adam (former reporter from the States) and Joe (retired teacher from Guam). There is so much to see around here - we hit the Forbidden City and the big T Square a couple of days ago. What else have we been up to? I dunno. Not a whole lot. Trying to get familiar with our little part of the city, try out the buses and metro, etc. We can get pretty decent Mexican food, and an Indonesian restaurant was discovered as well. We also joined a gym. After one year of no physical exercise, our first visit was quite a humbling one. I think I was sore for the next four days. So, I think the next big sight I want to go visit will be to see Mao up close. Yup. Want see that mug as close as I can. I bet it is a little creepy.

Beijing is huge! So much different from Guyuan, not necessarily good or bad just really, really different. Hopefully we will be able to find some side projects to do here and I would like to try to find someone to give me some paper cutting tips and find out where to buy the professional tools I have been hearing about. Anyhow, we read somewhere that the size of the municipality of Beijing is about the size of Belgium! Damn!

I miss my kids. They have been writing me by email and I just got a nice letter. It will be hard to not to be able to see them everyday, I really had fun with so many of them. But then again, they could really be little shits when they wanted to!

Anyhow, I'll try to be better about updating once things settle down a little bit. I have some more pictures up on my flickr site and am working on another video post that I'll get up in a few days - it's "interesting" and a little bit sad. Oh, I'll also send out my address in a mass email, if you don't get it and want it, let me know or if you can't read the Chinese characters, let me know. Even though we have access to a lot of western goodies now, that doesn't mean we can afford them! So all care packages are still more than welcome!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

So, Beijing! Whew!

It is nice to be able to set down and have an home once again rather than strapping on my pack and riding around on the rails like a hobo. But, there is something to be said about the hobo lifestyle. But, we are officially homeless no more!

Beijing. Um. Doesn't suck as much as I thought it would. It is actually fairly clean and...blue skies! We can actually see some stars at night too. It is big though, but I expected that at least. Big, big, Beijing. I will be sending out a mass email soon with address and other contact information when I get around to it. Also, if you Skype, send me your user infomation and we can chat for free! If you don't have Skype, why not? Seriously. Go get it! I'll wait...don't just sit there staring at me, go, it's free - Skype click here!

Alright, what else...the train ride up here was fairly uneventful, cabin mates were pretty well behaved though. China turned out the lights around 11:00 PM and then promptly woke me up before 6 AM with shrill flute music. I was on the top bunk again, but no one sat on me, so I was pretty happy about that. I think I can officially give western food a little rest, I think over the past week I have consumed about 2 pounds of cheese. Not kidding and that is probably a conservative estimate.

We met with our new waiban, Chen, and she seems like she will be good to work with. Tomorrow we meet the other VIA volunteer at the train station and then head on down to the friendly PSB office for processing. I guess that there is another foreigner coming with us, so we will get to meet him as well. I still don't know what I will be teaching, but I will only have 10 classroom hours this year and the rest of my hours will be at Huiling - an organization that works with the mentally handicapped.

So, what else have we been doing? Not a whole lot. We have been exploring a little bit, picking up things for our apartment, planning a big purge of things that are junking up the place, etc. The apartment is a lot smaller than in Guyuan, but still nice. It has been the residence for many VIA vols over the years, so there is quite an excavation waiting for us in the closet.

I think I many poke my nose into the Olympic planning headquarters one of these days - we saw an ad on CCTV 9 (the international station) which said that they were looking for English speakers and foreign volunteers to help with Olympic stuff. Don't know what I would be doing, but could be interesting.

I never thought that I would be so excited to see the golden arches of McDonald's, but out here, it is like the best thing in the world. There is a little area we have been walking to where we pass a McDonalds, Subway, KFC and a Pizza Hut on the way to the subway station to go to the Walmart. International corporations are cool. Sometimes I am so happy about being able to get a sandwich, I want to cry. The Walmart is huge! Three floors with full grocery store - read, "imported cheese" - it is too expensive for a routine sort of thing, but I have a feeling that that gouda wheel will get a little visit from me come October!

Two pairs of chopsticks, and empty tea bottle and fish bones

Hello -

Matt and I are killing some more time at an Internet cafe in Nanjing. Our train doesn't leave until 10:30 tonight. Our time in Nanjing has been great! We got to eat some really good food, spent some quality time with the dumpling master and some even better quality time with a block of cheese - Gouda, very good.

We got to meet all of the new volunteers - they are a fun group and I am glad that I was able to meet them all before conference in the winter. Also, really glad to see a couple of the old vols posted here because Dec./Jan. is a long ways away! I am really happy to meet the vol going to Guyuan, besides the lack of cheese there, I think that he will do smashingly! Hopefully we will be able to work out a visit to the school when Michelle, our Program Director, goes out there. I would love to see my kids again and see how the new vol. is doing there.

Eeew, someone just hocked one up onto the floor.

Anyhow, a man just came in and kicked over the trash can right next to me, it wasn't very full, but now there are 2 pairs of chopsticks, an empty tea bottle and some fish bones next to me. Like right next to me. He didn't even think twice about not picking up the trash can of trash that is now littered on the floor. Like a lot else here, it is someone else's responsibility - probably why the cities are so dirty and scummy - always someone else's responsibility.

Anyhow, I am excited about going to the big city, but feel a little like a country bumpkin. Matt and I find ourselves staring and pointing at the foreigners as much as the locals do. I am extremely embarrassed by how much I did stare at a black guy, but I haven't seen a real life black person in about a year! I am such a dork - going back to the States will be interesting....

The fish bone thing still has a tail :P

I hate fish.

Hopefully teaching university students will go okay. I think I will be irritating to them as I am just coming out of Jr. and Sr. middle school. I am just worried about filling the time as 1.5 hours seems like an awful long time, especially if a lesson is going badly. Oh well, I'm sure it will be fine. Since I am such a huge spaz in class, it is at least entertaining for the students if nothing else.

Anyhow, we got the keys to our next home, so not homeless anymore and we will get to our new home for the next year sometime tomorrow morning.

Goodbye to blue skies and starry nights for the next year!

Later!

PS - I have been having trouble with all of my email accounts. Probably just paranoia, but I seem to have a "bug" and I can't always access either account regularly (took 20 min to open my email last time and them couldn't open any messages). Just so you know, if you don't hear from me right away. My big brother is always looking out for me, right?

Always Wet

Hello from Nanjing!

Matt and I are making our way to our new home, but first, Nanjing. We wanted to meet the new volunteers and they all seem pretty cool, I think that in general this year's new vols are a little older than last year.

Not much going on though. We are always wet. Sweat - yes. Nanjing in a word is HOT. Also there has been fairly frequent downpours. So, soaking wet because of rain too. Last year it was pretty much the same. Sweat wet and weather wet. I remember wading knee deep (at times) through the streets to get to the bowling alley.

Matt and I made our very necessary McDonald's run - there is something about Mickey-D's that just tastes a whole lot better in China. Also, as I have said before, it is also a very needed intestinal cleanse for us when we are sick - something about the burgers that the intestinal parasites just don't like.

We also were able to make a very needed visit to the master. Yup, we went to see the Dumpling Master. I think that he remembered Matt. Both the dumplings and the potstickers were better than we remembered them being. But the big news is that we went to Skyways Bakery and Deli. DELI! Real homemade breads, that are good and not oddly sweet, real meat - not scary meat from a stick that never seems to expire. Sooooo good! I have been waiting for a good sandwich like that for about a year.

Also, one of our fellow vols brought us some goodies from America - THANK YOU!!! All of the treats will find a special home - in our gastro-intestinal tracts. Mexican Hot Chocolate - I can't wait (thanks again Anjali).

We will be leaving for Beijing on Saturday! Until then!

Welcoming in the Year of the Dog

SHANGHAI, Aug. 9 — It was late last month, the boy said, his voice still tinged with emotion, when he and his father were forced to march their two German shepherds to a public square and hang them from a tree.

The boy, Xia Shaoli, was not alone in his pain. Officials in Mouding County in southwestern Yunnan Province had ordered the mass extermination of dogs, pets as well as strays, after three people died in a rabies outbreak. And as a crowd gathered around a large tree in the village of Xiajiashan, owners complied one after another with commands to string their dogs up.

According to official figures, 54,429 dogs were killed during the Yunnan campaign. Reports in the Chinese news media say that some people out walking their dogs had the animals seized by gangs of vigilantes, who clubbed the dogs to death on the spot.

The events in Yunnan have been quickly followed by rabies scares in other parts of China. On Wednesday, the Chinese news media reported the killings of 280 dogs in Wuxi, a city near Shanghai, and 13 in the city of Fuzhou in southern Fujian Province.

Earlier this week, a cluster of 16 villages in the southwestern part of Shandong Province declared a rabies alert, and county officials have drafted a dog extermination plan that would call for the killing of any dog found within a three-mile radius of any known rabies case.

There are half a million dogs in the city of Jining, which encompasses the 16 villages, the official New China News Agency says. Officials there said their extermination plan was scheduled to begin later this month. There have also been reports of smaller extermination schemes in other parts of the country, notably in Sichuan Province.

As remarkable as the killings themselves, however, has been the response. With its rising prosperity, China is developing a pet-owning culture, with dogs standing out as a particular favorite. As word of the killings has spread here, pet owners have begun to mobilize — speaking out online and circulating petitions — to try to stop the killings.

In fact, discussion of the issue has surpassed the bounds of a simple conversation about pets’ rights, with many commentators sharply questioning a system that could order the mass extermination of dogs, whether or not they are licensed and vaccinated. The reaction of groups and individuals, often through the Internet, also provides a striking illustration of the emergence of true public opinion in China, unmediated by the official press or censors.

“This is just another stupid decision by several foolish officials taken in a small room, totally unreflective of the people’s will,” said a comment on Mop, a current affairs forum.

Some drew comparisons with China’s human rights situation. “We don’t have human rights, let alone dog rights,” wrote a commentator going by the name of Kui Kui Xiang Ri, on the Tianya forum. “I’ve seen too much live abuse, let alone abuse of dogs. Anyway, it’s the local emperors who have their say, and we ordinary folks are not much different from dogs in their eyes.”

Chinese humane societies have announced plans to file lawsuits against local governments that mount extermination campaigns. “This kind of thing is just too terrible, too inhumane,” said Huang Juan, a leader of the Abandoned Pets Assistance Center, in Wuhan. “They did it without any real reason, since many of these dogs are vaccinated and cannot spread rabies. But how can you speak reason with these people?”

Another group, the China Small Animal Protection Association, said it would sue. “We are meeting with lawyers the day after tomorrow, and will go to court and bring charges against two local governments,” said Lu Di, the group’s director. “I will not just try to persuade, warn or criticize them — it’s too late for that. We will sue them to make them understand that this is not merely a moral issue, but a crime.”

On Wednesday, the Humane Society of the United States offered $100,000 to China to establish a program to control rabies in Jining, The Associated Press reported.

More broadly, others pointed out that the extermination campaigns contradict the guiding ideology of China’s current leaders, who constantly invoke the need to build a “harmonious society.”

Although the extermination programs are being widely denounced here, there is no doubting that rabies remains a severe problem in China. Nationwide, 961 people died of the disease in the first six months of the year, and last year, 2,545 people died. By contrast, rabies deaths in most Western countries are extremely rare.

Experts say the persistence of the disease reflects the breakdown of the rural health care system, once one of the proudest achievements of Chinese Communism. Many poor rural provinces view canine rabies vaccinations as a costly burden. Meanwhile, an oral vaccine, which is far easier to administer, is not imported, partly because of its cost.

“Many farmers are reluctant to get shots for their dogs, because it’s not always free, whereas the veterinary system at the township level has become very inadequate,” said Luo Tingrong, a rabies expert at Guangxi University. “There isn’t much investment into the system.”

China Plans a Rare-Animal Hunt

BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Reuters) — China plans to auction licenses to foreigners to hunt wild animals, including rare species, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

The government will auction the licenses based on the numbers in each category of animal, ranging from a starting price of $200 for a wolf, the only predator on the list, to as much as $40,000 for a yak, The Beijing Youth Daily said. There are believed to be fewer than 10,000 mature wild yak in the world.

The newspaper said the auction, on Sunday in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, would be a first for China.

For the picture and article click here

Cow Smarts

Have to hand it to yaks - not only have we gotten some excellent butter and cheese products here in Tibet, but the animal is surprisingly nimble. We have seen yaks in places that just seem impossible to get to, especially for an animal its size.

Also, on our way back from Everest, I saw 2 cows helping each other get a tasty snack. One cow was holding a sapling tree down so the other could eat off of the top, while the other cow was doing the same.

Hmmm...

Shangri-la Detours and Sights

So, now I am actually back in Lhasa, but would like to tell you all about our road trip out to the Everest Base Camp and back. On the road Internet cafes were not as available, so I will have to play catch-up.

Last Friday, we met up with two fellow travelers (Lis and Ryan, who we originally met in Xining) and all went on a road trip together. We decided to save some money and go for the old 1980's Japanese built tank of a 4x4 vehicle. It had nice, roomy seats, a huge back end for packs and a cheery driver. Perfect!

We left Lhasa in the morning - probably not exactly on time, but close enough by Chinese standards. Our first stop? The exotic gas station. Wooooo! We pull into the gas station and figured out that you can fill the gas tank just a little bit more by rocking the car back and forth. So, after that exciting stop, we were ready to roll - almost. Our car just wouldn't really start. It wouldn't turn over at all. So, he threw open the hood and after about 20 minutes we hit the road. First stop, Yamdrok-tso (Yamdrok Lake).

It was a little grey out and kinda misty, but we were all thinking, "hey the road is really nice, why do we need the 4x4?" Oh, we were about to find out! Before the lake, we got to go through the first check point. Pretty low key. The driver had to pull over and the officer looked at some of the driver's paperwork and then waved us through.

We wound up pulling over shortly after at a scenic outlook. There, we met up with another tour group with a couple of Japanese tourists who we had met in Xining, a white woman who spoke Japanese and another Japanese women. We would wind up spending quite a bit of "rest time" with them on our trip the first day as our car was quite stubborn about starting up, like, all of the time. So, after the scenic spot, and waiting for the two drivers to start up our car, we were off to see the lake.

The lake, quite far from spectacular. It was quite grey out and was pretty cold and rainy. There were quite a few of people selling things and trying to get you to take a picture on their yak or next to their dogs or whatever. We had a little look around, but there wasn't too much to see and the clouds were pretty low and thick. So, we got back into the car and waited to get it started up before continuing on our journey.

It was starting to clear a little in spurts. The landscape was absolutely stunning! I am not the biggest scenery watcher, but I was completely mesmerized by the beauty of the land. Truly, there are no words to really describe just how amazingly beautiful it is out here. Both of us took a gazillion (okay, maybe a few less) pictures, but could have taken much more. Everything was beautiful and photo worthy - I think that I have at least a couple thousand images in my head that will serve me well in my lifetime. I only wish that I had bigger eyes to take in more of my surroundings. The hundreds of pictures we did take just don't do the area justice.

Our driver asked us if it would be okay to stop by the Sakya Monastery now rather than on the last day, we all agreed and we headed off to the monastery in Gyantse. OHMYGOD! The road was not so much a road as an adventure ride. I don't think my bottom was in contact with my seat the majority of the time we were on the "road". Every now and then I would catch the driver's eye in the mirror and he would start smiling as he revved up for another launching bump in the road. Honestly, he was one of the best drivers I have ever seen! Really impressive with all of the road obstacles we encountered along the way. Anyhow, next was onto the Gyantse Kunbum!

The site was interesting - a chorten packed with little rooms filled with wall murals and, yes, course, big plaster statues. Floor after floor of these little rooms that I even had to bend over to get into. Matt and I were really winded because of the high altitude, so went really slow around all of the rooms. A couple of time, Matt got the wind scared out of him by a couple of pigeons. Pigeons. From the chorten we had a great view of the Gyantse dzong (fort). After shaking off some children aggressively asking for money, we all got in the car and headed off to Shigatse.

After a good night's rest, we all went to the Tashilhunpo Monastery. It was an interesting place to go around, I saw a lot of monks counting money during my time there. This monastery is the seat of the Panchen Lama (scholar Lama) lineage and there is some history between the following parties: The seat of the Panchen Lama, the Dali Lama and the PRC (go figure). Three guesses as to which party was trying to encourage a divide between the other two parties. So, the big rock stars of this monastery are Panchen Lamas 9 (PL with moustache), 10 (the big guy) and 11 (the disputed Chinese-sponsored PL who was a young boy). There was a little quasi-museum with a bunch of old pictures showing how well the 10th PL got along with Mao and other leaders of the PRC.

Next, our driver asked us if we would like to go to Sakya now rather than on the way back. We all agreed, so we set off for the Sakya Monastery. Our driver got a part for the car so we didn't break down as much the second day. One of the obstacles we ran into heading to Sakya was that for whatever reason, we could not always drive on the road. So he would have to pull off the road and maneuver the "detour" route. The "detour" we ran into this time was a tunnel under a bridge. Our car with luggage rack was not going to fit through. We tried a couple of times, but no go. So, Matt, our driver and the Japanese tour group driver took off the rack and carried it over to the other side. Once through, the next task was attaching the roof rack back onto the car. This became quite the spectacle.

Anyhow, the Sakya Monastery was cool! I really liked it for whatever reason. When we entered, it was really low key, nice. We went to one of the buildings to find dozens of monks sitting in the room chanting. Very cool. It was grey out, so the only light was from the butter lamps around the room. I don't know, I didn't really talk to any of the monks, but they just seemed to be really warm and friendly there. We enjoyed looking around the monastery and came across a very curious room - the chapel was of people being tortured and had limbs hanging from the ceiling and a lot of painted on blood. Right next to that chapel was a little room filled with stuffed animals - not like, taxidermy, think more on the plush side. Weird. Anyhow, we saw our driver wandering around the courtyard and figured that he was looking for us. So, we headed back to the car and continued on to Shegar.

In Shegar we didn't really do anything. We grabbed a bite at a not so great Sichuan restaurant and hit the sack. My sack had a huge crater in the middle, so I didn't sleep too well - kind of like trying to go to sleep in a belly-flop position. The next day many of us were not feeling very well from the proven not so great Sichuan food from next door. The first thing we did was to go get our permits for Everest Base Camp.

Then more driving - luckily, I was the best off, as I had only consumed my good ol' standby of potatoes the night before. So, on the way to the Base Camp we wound up taking a break on to of a mountain. There were a lot of kids trying to sell you stuff from the moment the car rolled up. A couple of little girls latched onto me. I told them that I wasn't interested and gave them a little side hug. They really responded to that. They no longer were really interested in selling me something, but, rather, getting more hugs. They were so cute! Eventually Matt did buy some prayer flags from one of them, she got so excited to get the 5 yuan! She just beamed and called out "thank you" very brightly. When it was time for us to leave, I was approached by an older man who asked me to buy a rock. I looked him in the eye and politely said that I didn't want it and smiled. He smiled and thanked me for being so kind. He told me in English that many people aren't very kind to him and don't bother to smile even if they aren't interested in buying anything, instead they act very angry. He also thanked me for loving the children because they are often treated not very kindly. Finally, time to get into the truck, all of the little girls I was playing with came over to the car and the one we bought the flags from called me her good friend - they all gave me hugs and waved as we drove off.

The last stop before the base camp was for lunch in a small town. We again had Sichuan food - really good potatoes! In our restaurant was a huge poster with Western-ish looking food - we have seen this same poster in many restaurants around the country. I don't know what it is about this particular poster, but many Chinese restaurants seem to have it.

Anyhow, now, finally, Everest Base Camp!

The road is really bumpy and we go through a nature preserve. It was a little misty out, but still beautiful. We get about 400 meters from the base camp drop off when - flat tire. We all get out, driver laughs a little (what else can you do?) and he changes that flat in about 5 minutes! So, we roll in and head up to the camp. Part way up I don't know exactly what I did - I think I was trying to equalize my ears and got a little dizzy, slid in a weird way and wound up twisting my ankle. Eventually, I caught a horse cart for the rest of the way up.

At camp, we found a really nice tent. Really nice, more like a semi-mobile hotel. They had nice, clean and comfortable benches/beds and a stove in the center of the room. We threw down our packs and went out to explore the camp a little bit. Here we ran into some more of the same travelers we had seen during various parts of our travels. We were all pretty tired. So we crashed. Me a little later than the others. At one point, while I was writing, the Tibetan man who was in charge of his tent, came over to cover Lis' eyes with the blanket. The way he was doing it or something - I don't know why, but he and I found what he was doing to be incredible hilarious! We couldn't stop laughing. When he finished he gave me a good pat on the back (both still laughing) and filled my tea cup.

The next morning, Matt and I were pretty sleepy - we had a hard time sleeping. I blame his long legs. We went out to see if Everest was going to make an appearance this morning. Nope. Cloud cover. So, we waited. and waited. and waited. Matt went to the top of an outlook and I went past the barrier (hey, I look Chinese - who's going to stop me?). The clouds started to lift and clear out and we were suddenly standing in full view of Mt. Everest. Breathtaking! Eventually, we went over to the base camp sign to take some pictures (comrade and other) and we wound up running into our driver.

After a bit, we caught a horse cart back down, only to run into our driver again and started the journey home. We decided to drive back to Shigatse. Our drive back was really quite an experience! We really got to see what our 20+ year old car was made of! The first real challenge (besides starting up on a regular basis) was one of the river detours we had to take. We don't know why we had to to take it as the road looked just fine and no one was working on it at the time. Maybe the road was just too new to drive on yet or something. Anyhow, so we off-roaded it. In a riverbed. It was fun. There was a bit of a traffic jam so our driver tried to go around it and promptly became stuck - was it the mud? the rocks? We didn't know, but we were stuck. Matt and Ryan got out of the car and started to push without much luck. Finally the driver told them to throw rocks under the tires while he floored it - front tire smoking, we made it out of that particular obstacle and were ready to face the next challenge.

A kind of American Gladiators of sorts for cars, the next challenge was the incline (to get back onto the road). We watched many attempt and fail - Oh, what was that non-4x4 bus thinking? The time came when we were up. Our driver backed up a little and gunned it and...well, you know that big Viking ship ride at amusement parks? It was kind of like that. We went really fast up and then just as fast back down. He told and motioned for us to get out of the car. He backed it way up and let 'er rip. Success! We all scrambled up the hill and back into the car. Our driver had the best laugh and the 4 songs he was able to play on the tape deck will forever be in my memory - laughing, singing and cheering we set off for the next roadside challenge. As we were leaving he slowed way down so we could watch the bus make another attempt at the incline.

The next challenge was the obstacle course. We were driving down the road when all of a sudden our driver starts to look around, like, a lot. Suddenly he stops, backs up a little and asks some locals by the roadside a question. They all nod and he pays him some money. They move some rocks and we go through. We are speeding along a little village path, normally for tractors and horse carts. We race past an official looking building. Lis asks the driver if that was a check point. The driver laughs a little and says yes. She them asked him why we are driving around it as we have permits. He tells her that "sometimes they don't like to let people through". Silent pause. He starts to laugh and points at the check station and laughs. We all start to laugh as we make our little round about around the check point through this little village. Sooner or later we were driving parallel to the main road when we see a very official looking black 4x4 with tinted windows, lights and a siren approaching us from the main road. Inside were some very serious looking PSB officials, who were not amused with something. Our driver got very serious and just plowed on. We got back onto the main road with a couple of other vehicles who took the same route we had taken. The big black car got closer to us and then passed us to pull over a rather large truck. I guess that would be more suspicious, a big truck taking the "detour" rather than a couple of 4x4s carrying no more than 10 tourists.

Anyhow, after that we all exhaled. Relief!

The last challenge was both a mental and physical challenge. We took another "detour" from the main road in which we cut through another village. Everything was going well until we stumbled across a truck that was hopelessly stuck. The back wheels were, well, screwed! One wouldn't move at all because it was so stuck in the mud and the other was touching nothing - so just spinning. Was our driver going to sit around and wait for it to work itself out? No! He's a man of action - so he and some of the locals tried a couple of things to try to unstick it, but the truck would not budge. So he gathered up some more people to push the truck from side to side and he was able to get it to budge. The truck slowly lurched from its pit and promptly slid along to the next big muddy hole, almost got stuck again, but managed to crawl out of it.

Our last night of our road trip was back in Shigatse. We wound up getting a really nice room - shared bathroom facilities, but at least they were clean (can't say the same about Everest - literally 2 feet of shit surrounding (that would be 2 feet out from the toilet and about 1 foot up) the pit toilet squatter and in front of the platform? Why, a lake a urine! I don't understand what the problem is, I mean I did not grow up with squatters, yet I have never managed to miss that badly AND if I did happen to grossly misjudge where my waste was going, I would try to just take the paper and shove it down the hole. Y'know clean up after myself. I mean, really, how did 2 feet all the way around happen? Yes, I peed on my feet and there was no one else to blame but myself (er...and the dark) for that one, but I did clean up after myself and it's not like I just chose to take a big dump 2 feet to the left of the toilet and leave it there for someone else to deal with. Also, there should be a rule that if you are unsure about how to use a pedestal toilet, do not attempt it. Anyhow, back to the story) which we didn't always have along the trip. We all went to a great restaurant called, Tashi and I had a most excellent vegetable korma and garlic naan (oooh, yummmm).

The next morning, back to Lhasa. We decided to drive most of the way through - we did stop so our driver could wash the car with water from a nearby stream, but no big challenges on the last day. He got stopped by a PSB officer about his seat belt, one time he pretended to put it on (tucked the strap under his leg) and the other time took it off as soon as we were out of sight.

We did stop at a little town as a horse festival was letting out. It was so cool to see all of the people in their traditional dress - also knowing for many of these people these are the clothes they wear everyday, not just for the tourist shows. We wandered around a little bit - the pictures aren't very good because I didn't feel like taking pictures. But, back at the car, a bunch of little kids came over and were asking for candy. I didn't have any, so I took some pictures of them. They were thrilled! They loved seeing their picture on my little screen. One of the little boys had a toy camera and started to click away at me. The kids are great!

All in all it was a really fun trip, a lot of time in the car, but at least we had the perfect vehicle and driver to make the trip exactly what I was hoping for. I really love it here in Tibet and don't want to leave. Lhasa is a really cool city, but everyone should try to get out and enjoy the scenery and people in the countryside. If you have the interest and means to get out here, do so, soon as it will change fast. We were lamenting that it really may not be too distant in the future that a deluxe hotel will pop up at base camp, complete with plastic palm tree. This place is truly amazing.

Tibetan Tongues

Hello all - I actually started this post before Matt and I left for our road trip, so it is a little dated, but wanted to post it up anyhow.

Just a quick update. Today Matt and I got our first tongue hello. We were walking back from the Tibet Museum (see below) and we passed this little older lady with a ginormous sack on her back. I smiled at her when I saw her and she gave us back the biggest toothless smile and then stuck her tongue out while still smiling. I waved at her and she kept on smiling. We were about 50 feet away from her and she was still standing on the corner, smiling at us with her tongue out. It was great.

The museum was "interesting"....They put a lot of time and money into this museum, and it shows. The exhibit halls were all very nice, good lighting equipment and displays. The text was particularly interesting and informative. So for those of you who don't know about the fascinating history, take out a piece of paper and a pencil, and prepared to get schooled by the Central Authority. Here are some snippets of the text that I scribbled down:

From the Art and Culture Room: The cultural tradition prospered down to the present in language, literature, art, medication, astronomy and calendar with more brilliant achievements under the Socialist system.

From the Jade Room: Jade seals and slips are representative objects in the collection, not only represents the Central Government's recognition of Tibetan authority, but also witnessing the effective administration and sovereignty in Tibet executed by the Chinese Central Government.

Entitled, "Tibet is Inalienable in its History": ...In 1791 the Qing government stationed an army in Tibet and from 1792-1793 the central government proclaimed the "Imperial Edicts over Administration in Tibet" which regulated the management in political, financial, military, diplomatic and religious affairs in Tibet with a view to enhance centralization. On the 23rd of May 1951 the "Agreement on Peaceful Solution of the Issue in Tibet between the Central People's Government and the local Government of Tibet" was signed in Beijing, which marked the peaceful liberation of Tibet.

From the "Tibet's Natural Resources" Room: Tibet has been an attraction of visit in its unknowns. The "no man's" land to the North of the plateau is ever more unknown. It's described as a natural treasure owing to its bright future with its particular geographical conditions and rich natural resources. Since the peaceful liberation of Tibet, particularly since the reform and opening up, by the tender care of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and by the highly concern and correct leadership of the Tibet Autonomous Region Party committee, including the help of the sister's departments, the "no man's land" in Tibet's Northern plateau has undergone remarkable change in its protection of science, and a good foundation is laid for its proper opening of natural resources.

The Exhibit Forward (right when you walk in):

Tibet - snow-clad majestically on the roof of the globe. Its celestial poise since antiquity never fails to agitate our patriotic pride.

It was on this sky-scraping tableland and with their assiduous labour and splendid wisdom that the Tibetan ancestors created the brilliant ancient civilization and left behind them a wealth of cultural legacy over history. Traversing over the space and span of Tibetan history and culture, one can't help the eruption of nostalgia and reminiscence. A probe into the remote history of Tibet, the magnitude and profoundity of its cultural tradition, the colorful variety of its artistic creations, the aesthetic appreciation of its folkloric style and customs help us to comprehend the luxuriance of foliage and deep-reaching ramifications of the grandiose tree of cultural tradition in China - evergreen and awe-inspiring!

Thanks to the cordial concern of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council and under the correct leadership of the Party Committee and the local government of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, marked success has been achieved in the construction of Tibetan economy and culture and important attention has been paid to the preservation of cultural relics. Colossal investments have been allocated to complete the building of the Tibetan Museum. And also thanks to the positive supports from all social walks of life, the collection compilation and research in cultural works, in archives and documents were smoothly streamlined. Upon the happy coincidence of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 40th annual celebration of the Democratic Reform in Tibet, the Tibetan Museum ceremoniously presents this Exhibition on the History & Culture of Tibet as a gift to the jubilee!

Entering the Exhibition, we find ourselves in an exotic holy place - history is welcoming us and we are marching into it. Across the space of history, we see the contributions made by the Tibetan people in building up the brilliant culture of the Chinese nation and in its national unification which brings us under the profound impression that the prosperity, decline, glory and humiliation of Tibet are always intimately connected to the fate of our great motherland.

Here the antique treasures unite past to the future. The lofty mountains and torrential rivers in Tibet welcome you, honourable guests!

There were signs like the ones above outside of every exhibit hall. All in all, the museum was very carefully, um, planned. The actual exhibit space was very well done, but I would go just for the writing!

So, just like Justin Timberlake when launching his solo career, now the PRC is "Justified" as well.

Okay, so I have, like, hundreds of new pictures up on my flickr site to keep you busy while I work on a new post. Later!

Lhasa-EBC-Lhasa

Hello all - no updates for a little bit because I was on the road and internet was not available. We went on a road trip out to the Everest Base Camp and some other little cities along the way.

It was fantastic! This area is so beautiful - I don't think that words could ever possibly do it justice! I promise to write a long post tomorrow (also pictures - bonus!)

Everything is just breathtaking! Or maybe it is just the lack of oxygen up here :-)

Okay, more tomorrow, so stay tuned!

The Great Tibetan Get Together

Hello all!

Another quick update from the roof top of the world. So we have officially begun seeing stuff on our mandatory tour. Today we eventually were able to see the Jokhang Temple. The outer structures are always really interesting to look at, but the inside was a lot of gold plaster statues. It was neat to see all of the worshippers add butter to the lamps as they made their rounds at the temple - all of the worshippers and the tourists really made it quite cramped some times in the little chapel rooms. Our tour guide is Tibetan which is good because then he can tell us about Tibetan Buddhism and what all of the statues are. The inside was interesting, the floor was really slippery because of all of the butter and soot like stuff. The most interesting though were watching all of the worshippers with their beads and wheels/rattles going around and adding yak butter to all of the candle lamps in the various chapels. Later today we will go out to the Sera Monastery. I will post later about that.

It took us awhile to get started today because of a mix-up that wound up pissing me off like something fierce. We went to to travel agency for our mandatory tour and wound up waiting for over an hour after the supposed start time. It turns out that there was a lot of confusion about our hotel room - we had asked the agent in Xining to try to help us pre-book a room in Lhasa as we had heard that hotel rooms were a little difficult to come by. So, she called an agency in Lhasa and told us that there was "no booking" but to stop by the travel agency next to the Banak Shol Hotel and they would help us find a room (this is what I remember, everyone seems to have a different version of events) she also gave us a number to call to set up the tour. We arrive and go to the travel agency next to the Banak Shot Hotel. They didn't have a room for us, they didn't really know what we were talking about. But they did help us find a room at a place not too far away (the Pata Hotel).

The next day we contacted the man for the tour. We briefly met him and he gave us his card. He told us to meet him at his office at the Banak Shol the next day for the start of the tour. So, we go there and he's not at the tour place that we originally went to, but there was another, poorly marked tour agency on the second floor of the hotel. So we go there and wait. A little later we find out that another guy working for that tour agency booked and paid for a room for us at the Banak Shol hotel and was demanding that we pay him 140 yuan for the room that we didn't wind up staying in. We say that what he was telling us was not what we were told and that we should not have to pay it, but because it was a misunderstanding between us and they agencies, we would pay half. He would not budge and just kept on saying the same thing. What a shyster! I can't stand people like that.

Lhasa is really a beautiful place to visit. The government has just made it such an incredible rip off for the non-Chinese tourist to visit. We decided to fly, in order to do so you need a permit, in order to get the permit you must sign on to a tour. The permit alone costs about 400 yuan, but the mandatory tour (which does not include admissions costs) costs another 1020 yuan. This includes a 4 person room and a public toilet - something we really did not want. So, we were able to get them to knock off the room cost, but still the tour is a huge rip off - an incredible racket to fleece tourists.

Anyhow, so getting here is quite expensive but I guess in the long run it will be worth it. I just hate all of the added costs - in one way or another China will make you pay.

So, yesterday we made another round at the market - Matt caught up with a couple of clingy beggars. We haven't bought anything yet, but will do so after our outing to the Everest Base Camp. It is fun to be at the market though, to see all of the worshippers making their way around the kora, all of the PSB officials watching all of the worshippers and looking up to see the cameras mounted on top of some buildings watching all of us. We also saw an uncomfortable situation with a young Tibetan woman shop assistant and an old PSB officer - a really creepy encounter in which he was whisking her away to an upstairs room area.

Oh, the title! The MN State Fair is known as "The Great Minnesota Get Together" - so, this is nothing like that, but mobs of people following an invisible path around outside while looking at booths of stuff, the butter sculptures, the food on a stick and the fried cheese curds...well i just couldn't help the analogy.

I will end this post with, yaks are awesome! Bye-bye!