Visting Star Star

2009-05-11T11:43:00.001-07:00

Thanks everyone for being part of this blog. I had so much fun sharing with you all, I looked forward to adding to it and seeing your comments every day. When I took photos and asked questions it was often with you in mind, thinking, oh, they'll enjoy this - I know I am.

I'm back state-side, our return trip was easy and uneventful. Trev and Kari and Dylan met us at LAX and took us out to dinner to help fill in the 4 hour lay-over I had before the hop to Phoenix. They took us to In-and Out, a move inspired by their many trips out of the country and consequent understanding that there is nothing like an American hamburger anywhere but here in the good old USA.

It was right under the touch down pad for the jets too, and we sat outside so both Dylan and Guy could be entertained while we ate. Guy stayed the night in Santa Monica and drove over this morning, while I caught a flight and got back just before midnight.

Leeannette and Haven greeted me this morning with joyous hugs and kisses and Jerome and Olivia left roses in our room. Amazing homecoming. Olivia was busy while I was gone cleaning our carpet and making our "nest" as Guy and I call it, beautiful. When Leeannette saw the room this morning with my suitcases flung open and dirty clothes on the floor she creased her little eyebrows and addressed me with a stern look.

"Mommy cleaned your room once. She's not going to do it again, you know." Haha.

We were sad to leave Sky and Yue Li and little Star Star, but two things console us. One, we know now they are not so far away and the trip is easy and pleasant so we will be back. And two, there's no doubt in our minds that little Star Star will be fine for awhile without us. :) Sky and Yue Li are excellent parents, and baby Star is surrounded by people who adore her. Her far away relatives here, and the ones who never put her down in China.

Check out these photos. None of the ones where she is being held are posed. It's just every time I turned around someone was cuddling her. They literally fight to hold her, and Yue Li often has to say no, because she's nursing or the baby is sleeping and she doesn't want her to wake up. Honestly, they line up to wait their turns. Now that's a loved baby.

Huong Xing Xing Star Star Gail Rose Shelton

2009-05-09T19:07:00.001-07:00

Grandma and grandpa.
Cousins.
Auntie's and great-aunt.
Family at grandma and grandpa's.
Uncle holding Star Star.
Auntie (great-aunt) holding Star Star.
Aunt.
Uncle.
Papa G.
Nana. And this clip below. She loves music so much even at six weeks it's a guaranteed smile if you sing to her.

Performing arts theater at the Red Cave

2009-05-09T19:01:00.001-07:00

This was a special treat Yue Li took me to Friday night. The theater I took photos of earlier in the blog runs a ballet performance that Yue Li was in prior to Star Star. It tells the story of three love affairs set in three different time periods of Chong Ching history.

The manager, a good friend of Yue Li's, got us front row tickets and here Yue Li takes me for a backstage tour and shows off the baby at the same time.

Hot Pot

2009-05-09T05:50:00.001-07:00

Hot Pot, which originated in Chong Ching, is, um. A unique experience that I think you have to come over and experience yourself.
Briefly it's boiling oil filled with peppers and spices in which you dip and cook various foods. The bowl on the inside is boiling oil without the spices. And for children and people like me, you get a bowl of water in which you can bath your food of the hot spices before you eat it.
Here is Guy trying to understand it all. He gets very serious when trying to understand food.

Summing it up, it's a whole cultural experience that takes place in echo-y restaurants filled with large groups of people having a really good time which makes the sound deafening and really fun because people are laughing and fighting over food that they put in the pot and lost to someone else and Yue Li informs us when we're done that she always has to wash her clothes when she gets home due to the grease smell. Haha. Kind of like going to McDonalds only a lot more fun.

Meet May May

2009-05-09T05:46:00.003-07:00

This is May May, Cuddle's Chinese cousin. I promised her a spot on the blog when I heard that she takes the bus by herself. When she spends time with Yue Li's dad, he often lets her trail along (that is, without a leash) when he visits friends and shops to which he takes the bus. One day May May went missing, and since she was in the habit of escaping to the bus stop Mr. Huang started his search there. After checking two of his customary stops, he found her. Apparently she'd been hanging out with some of his cronies, coming and going on the bus at will.

She does the same with the elevator in the kid's building. Each floor has an open trash can for the tenants to put their trash that May May is especially fond of raiding. Yesterday Yue Li reported that she had gotten off and on the elevator at the 15th, 22nd, and the 32nd floor. How did Yue Li know? She went downstairs to the office and watched the security cameras.
Best friends. When baby Star cries May May paces the floor with me as I console the baby and barks at me. "Do something!" is her clear message.

She does frog dog like all Bichons.
Checking out the second delivery of eggs from Yue Li's auntie. 200 this time.
The black poodle belongs to Mr. Huong. All the dogs love him.
And of course there is Gwi Gwi, who, although he does not take the bus by himself is interesting for his own reasons. I can't think of any right now but I will tell you he has his own bedroom under the couch.
It's a tight squeeze which requires him to slither in on his belly.
And he has to really push hard with his hind legs to get the rest of him in.

But once he's there no one can bother him - not even May May who is too big to fit.

Sign language and toilet paper.

2009-05-09T05:45:00.003-07:00

When I first arrived in China Skyler told me (very casually, I thought) I should learn the finger positions for numbers and to always carry toilet paper.

I learned my lesson about carrying t.p. in the worst way (and I thought Mexico was bad), and soon thereafter realized my mistake in not learning how to convey numbers. (No, I wanted 10 eggs, not 10 kilos of eggs.)

This clip shows Sky demonstrating the finger positions for numbers.

Tao Bao

2009-05-09T05:45:00.001-07:00

Ok so Skyler and Yue Li get a majority of their things on Tao Bao, the Chinese equivalent of e-bay but a lot bigger. Sky explained that when China opened up and became more capitalistic the Internet was blossoming at the same time. Thus their shopping here is done by the younger generation in equal proportion between real hands on shopping and via the net.

Anyway, Sky shops online for stuff he can't get here, like a few months ago he almost purchased a humongous chunk of cheese. They usually correspond with each shopkeeper about the product quite a bit before they purchase it, but in this case they were not online so he just had the info posted to go by. He was about to get it (apparently the price was incredibly low) when Yue Li pointed out that the expiration date was 6 months prior.

This clip shows him looking for one of the things he misses here, ranch dressing.

Random photos, random thoughts.

2009-05-09T05:38:00.002-07:00

Meet the bong bong guys, (named after their stick) originating from and possibly unique to Chong Ching. Because of the mountainous terrain, there is a notable lack of carts and bicycles. Instead, for transporting goods, these men and women abound in the city and will carry your items for less than a dollar, two if it's the better part of the day. It's a bit nerve-wracking at first to have them carrying your purchases around the market as one, I was always afraid they'd take off with them and two, they come right into the little stores and clothes boutiques with you and wait while you browse, even if it's for an hour or more. It turns out they are trustworthy and patient and after I got over feeling like some kind of royalty from a long ago exotic land I adjusted.

Above Yue Li nurses the baby while I shop - our bong bong guy is to the right, his arm on a game board we bought, the rest of our bags are behind that.
Here a pineapple vendor uses the bong bong stick to carry his wares.
We're at Metro, Chong Chings equivalent for Costco, a Belgium company, and Skyler discovers slip-ons. We have a laugh for old time's sake.
Oh whoops! How did this adorable boy slip into the China blog? Well, as long as he's here, let me introduce our handsome grandson, Dylan. Dylan, did you find the pictures of the bugs Papa G took for you?

Guy had me take this. It is for Carlos. I don't know why.
We see these trucks frequently - they're armored trucks that carry cash and the guards are the only people allowed to carry weapons except the military. What is interesting about these is that the Chinese pay cash for most things - including cars and houses. So when they buy a car, for example, they will hire one of these to transport the money to the car dealership.
There's one guy that goes around at these restaurants pouring tea this way.
The money and Sky showing me the finger positions for numbers. The red bill is 100 quay, RMB, or yuan, all meaning the same thing. The exchange is 7 to 1, so the 100 equals just under $14.00. That will buy three or four nice t-shirts at the market. The green bill is ten RMB, about $1.20 (doing this in my head) which will buy a bowl of noodles with meat and vegies and a soda, the purple one is 5 RMB which will buy you a taxi ride uptown.

Daily Living Concerns

2009-05-08T03:17:00.000-07:00

An update to my laundry dilemma. When Guy arrived he took it over. lol. That's it. Plus, after taking a closer look at how other people dried their laundry I lost (most of) my concerns about publicly displaying my underwear. Nobody cares.

We visit Yue Li's school. Her old neighborhood.

2009-05-08T03:16:00.001-07:00

Yue Li takes us to the acrobat school she grew up in. The neighborhood is only a five minute taxi ride from where she and Sky live now. She started the school at the age of nine when she and 24 other girls were selected out of 500 competitors. There she lived full time until the age of 16, when she moved out but stayed with the acrobat company until the age of 23.

The following videos are of the girls in the school, and Yue Li showing us some of what she does in her shows. I apologize for the poor video-taping - and the sideways viewing, which I couldn't figure out how to correct. Not my deal, normally. Still isn't, haha.

We visit Yue Li's school: The girls

2009-05-08T01:12:00.000-07:00

We visit Yue Li's acrobat school - upstairs, the boys.

2009-05-08T00:37:00.000-07:00

We visit Yue Li's acrobat school. Pictures on the walls.

2009-05-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

We visit Yue Li's acrobat school. Pictures in the hallways.

2009-05-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

It appears Yue Li is famous even at her school, she and her troop's photos dominate the walls. We are pointing to Yue Li as a youngster.

Here the kids have posted some of their homework. It is an essay about feelings, Yue Li tells us.
Check out these characters.
We're leaving the school.
It takes us twenty minutes to get one block. Shopkeepers and neighbors come running out to see Yue Li and the baby. Most of them know her from a young girl and tell stories of her buying treats and food from their shops. Here, this shopkeeper advises Yue li to rub ginger on baby Star's eyebrows to help them grow full and shapely.
We eat at a resturant Yue Li ate at growing up and often returned to with Skyler before the baby was born. The owner is teary-eyed when she sees them and the baby, it's obvious she feels very maternal toward "her little family."

Somebody's got my number...

2009-05-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

So I'm packing for our flight in two days and feeling a little mournful. Then I open my email and Olivia has sent me these two photos. One is of her garden, the other of Leeannette and Haven. She says "I wanted to send you one of the flowers because I don't know if they will still be so pretty when you get here." The other photo simply says, "We love u nana."

The bench on the right is where I sit to drink my coffee in the morning on my day off.

The one of the girls? Heart-stopping. Thank you Olivia.

Pets of Chong Ching

2009-05-07T21:54:00.001-07:00

Pets like these are relatively new. Yue Li remembers seeing her first dog as a pet in Chong Ching when she was 15. I didn't get as many photos as I wanted - I saw plenty dressed up, more with shoes, and several with dyed hair.

Hooked on majong and tea houses; Yellow Dragon road.

2009-05-07T09:14:00.002-07:00

We're off to find a tea house to play majong, now that we've got the hang of it. We hire a taxi to take us out of the city and onto South Mountain, a rural community perched on one of the mountains that surround Chong Ching. Here we're winding up Yellow Dragon Road. In case you can't hear what we're saying, we're discussing the name of the road and what animals we are according to the Chinese calendar.

Hooked on majong and tea houses; the gravel road to nowhere.

2009-05-07T09:14:00.001-07:00

So the kids tell us there are all sorts of tea houses up here on this mountain where we can also play majong. We drive and drive, while they try to remember where they'd come before, both of them getting quieter and quieter as we go along making comments like, "I don't really remember this part." Finally, they tell the taxi driver to let us out. We don't see any structure at all, just a truck loaded with plants and four guys carrying a pallet of plants down into what looks like a nursery. They're singing in rhythm to their steps and it's beatifual and surreal at the same time. The kids, meanwhile, are "discussing" which way to proceed, favoring a long gravel road that appears to go nowwhere. They ask one of the nursery workers (Guy and I look, it is, indeed a nursery) if there is a tea house down the gravel road. He laughs and says yes.

Hooked on majong and tea houses; the nursery.

2009-05-07T09:13:00.001-07:00

While the kids decide what to do, Guy and I go back up to the top of the hill to video the singing nursery men but they're done with their deliveries so we decide to take a look around. Check this place out, Corks and Elaine!

Hooked on majong and tea houses; Some good-ass tea.

2009-05-07T09:11:00.001-07:00

Pretty self-explanatory.

Hooked on majong and tea houses; Sorry for the rules, Guy.

2009-05-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

We finally stop at what appears to be a private residence - and is, in fact a private residence. And a tea house. And a small hotel. Actually, more like a bed and breakfast. What Guy and I did not realize was that many of the homes here double as just that. The front of the home was unimposing, but here in the back it's lovely.

Yue Li picks out this shady spot for our afternoon's entertainment. The owners bring table and chairs, majong game and incense to keep the mosquitoes away. Skyler wins three games in a row, and Guy starts to get suspicious that he and Yue Li are making up new rules to confuse him. (And cause him to lose.) He flips his pieces down, certain that he's won. But no, Yue Li tells him, he needs five in a row, not three, or, he could go with two threes-of-a-kind, but either way, he hasn't won. "You never explained that," he protests. Yue Li looks very sympathetic and sad, and says, "Sorry about the rules, Guy. Sorry." It becomes our by-line for the rest of the day whenever he gets frustrated. Sorry about the rules, Guy, really...

After Skyler wins the fourth game Yue Li thoughtfully considers this. She tells him he will have to move if he wins again. "What do you mean, move?" he asks. "Well, probably it's the chair that is lucky," she tells him. We laugh, but she doesn't. She's serious. We switch, I get his chair, I win the next game. Haha. Have to love my daughter-in-law.
We get hungry, so the kids ask the owner if he will start cooking our meal. I sense they feel it might take awhile. Good planning, I think to myself. Something I would have done. After all, the hosts didn't know we'd show up for dinner, probably they will have some lengthy preparation ahead of them.

Lengthier than I guessed. Here Skyler watches the owner catch our dinner.

And, well, yeah.
Nothing goes to waste. The blood is used to make one of our dishes, blood soup.
Plucking the poor little dear. Sigh.
In the middle is the entire chicken. We were a little hesitant, until Sky explained it was part of the "balance" of the food, like presenting an entire fish, the way Guy likes his cooked. You don't necessarily eat every single part, although people certainly do. Along with this we had a sweet and sour cabbage dish, very good, dark greens, a little spicy, stringed potatoes in a salty broth, rice, and the blood soup.
Here Guy tries the chicken foot, which he says was tasty.

A really excellent day, the owner called a loaf truck taxi for us, which I think might have been his neighbor, and we arrive back in Chong Ching around ten.

Yue Li's dad holds a dinner for us.

2009-05-07T04:50:00.001-07:00

Yue Li's dad, arranges a family dinner at a famous Peking Duck restaurant. Above, her dad and step-mother, both very gracious and welcoming, pose with us.

Yue Li's aunt and uncle.
Two tables full of these very good dishes - we spin the lazy susan around and pick food out at whim - Yue Li's uncle, a chef, chooses our dishes with care, I think. Only one is unpalatable to our western tastes - duck feet. When Guy unknowningly selects a pair, Skyler tells Guy, discreetly, that he probably won't care for those and to transfer them onto his plate. Shortly thereafter, Sky transfers them to Yue Li's plate.
Yue Li's cousin and her husband and daughter.
Yue Li's cousin and his wife and son.
The Peking Duck is carved.

There is a toasting tradition here very different from ours. People or small groups are toasted individually - the night is filled with guests walking over to each other and toasting them - several people came to Guy and I and said many nice things to us - Guy then picked up the idea and went around the room toasting others, as was Sky. It's a good way to express admiration or gratitude or fondness toward people - I thought it very touching.

Sky's day off: We go for a boat ride.

2009-05-06T02:36:00.000-07:00

First of all let me say this. The above piece of paper is all I got concerning the boat ride, and, as you can see, it's all in Chinese. So, what I know is what I see and what Sky tells me. Who has proven to be very well informed, so that's something anyway.

The left fork is the Yangtze River, the right fork the Jia Ling (pronounced Geya Leeng). I have penciled in North, South, east, west as per Sky's direction. The black dot is where we started. We proceeded up the Jia Ling river first. Sky and Yue Li's apartment is located at the end of the first bridge on the Jia Ling, north or right side. We turned around not too far after that bridge, went back to the Yangtze and headed east. The current there was very strong and we didn't get too far before we turned back and headed to port. The return was swift.

The downtown and where Sky works is located in the fork of the two rivers.
As we were casting off, headed east. Note the stairs on shore. There's another set of these beyond the structures at the top of them. When we were descending, and descending, to get on the boat Guy kept up a muttered litany about the stairs. "There's a lot of stairs, there's a s---- load of stairs, there's a lot of ------ stairs," etc. Yue Li and Sky were ahead of us and weren't listening, I'm sure, as when we arrived at the bottom of them Yue Li looked back up and said cheerfully, "There's a little bit of stairs, I think."

The Cable Car. This is the south side of the Jia Ling, the buildings are part of the downtown.
This is the north side of the river. In the background is the new symphony hall to the right and the new natural history museum on the left. Both are nearly completed.
I'm not a boat person so I took most of these with Guy's instruction. You will have to figure out what is interesting about them.
Same here.
Above is the structure I referred to in an earlier blog as "The Cave." Apparently it is called "The Red Cave." Warning. If you haven't already figured it out, none of my facts are referenced, all is hastily and poorly edited, spellings and errors (as in, VistingStarStar) abound. Excuses? Um, I have to fight for computer time with Sky and sometimes Guy, lazy, just want to have fun and not work hard at it, I figure you can look up most stuff yourself if you want, it's a blog, not a news article, etc. I'm just happy that I get to share this stuff because, well, according to "Stuff White People Like," that's what white people do. Haha. Something else for you to google.
Looking north.
The middle structure below is notable only because on the roof is a nightclub called the Ci Ci park which Sky and Guy hung out at.
The two black high rises in the middle are the ones the kids live in. They're to the right. They live on the 25th floor, our little apartment is on the 17th.

Men at work.
More men at work.
Ok, note the ceramic barrels on the bottom level of this floating restaurant. That is Byjoe, the local brew. It is clear, like vodka, and Guy reports it tastes like turpentine with other stuff mixed in. Like all regional alcohol, I'm sure one has to develop a taste for it.
This lone fisherman was interesting because it brought up the fact that there are no private craft on the river, besides this inflatable. Apparently it is against the law to own your own boat, unless you are very rich and find a way around the law.
Sky points out the good feng shui on this group of buildings.
Here is a fisherman who is visible from our apartment building. Not that I had ever noticed him, but when we passed him Guy yelled and waved then turned to us and said, "There's my fishing buddy." I was amazed - it is his want to make friends wherever he goes, especially those men who share his interests, but when did he have time to make friends with this guy? No, he explained to me, he hadn't actually spoken to him, but he watches him every day during those early morning hours that I sleep and he paces the floor. It made me think. Do we begin the process of friendship before we even meet people? Of course, I suppose we do. I'd just never thought about it.
Coming back down the Jia Ling, getting ready to turn the corner and go up the Yangtze.

This is a front view of the opera house, which faces the junction of the two rivers.
Going up the Yangzee, this is the south side of the river.
South side of the river.
Coming back down the river, facing the north side of the river and the downtown. In the middle you can see the building with the steeple which is Sky's work building, the one that is built after the Sears building in New York.
This is a river cruise boat that takes a week to go up to the Three Gorges Dam. Guy and I will take this the next time we come out.

And we have arrived. P.S. Guy survived the stairs just fine. I was the one who got winded.

Baby Star

2009-05-06T02:00:00.000-07:00

I've had some requests for a few more photos of the star of Vis(i)ting Star Star. Always happy to oblige those!

Dylan, these are for you.

2009-05-06T01:53:00.001-07:00

Dylan, Papa G said you were studying bugs at pre-school so he took these photos for you. He asked me to post them on baby Star's blog so you could look at them. He did not tell me the names of them so maybe mom and dad could help you with that. love, Nana

Two day road adventure. On the way.

2009-05-05T04:34:00.000-07:00

Skyler rents a car and we head out of the city, making several stops on the way. Here, Guy wants to explore one of many caves we see in the mountain-sides. Sky explains that during WWII Chong Ching was the world's most bombed city by the Japanese. In order to escape, the people hid in these caves surrounding in the mountains surrounding the city.
Here we stop for a noodle lunch, and next door is a...
dry-cleaners! Haha. The people there freak out when we come in to inspect it, even after Sky explains why we are interested. They hide in the back while I take pictures. This town we are in is even less used to foreigners than Chong Ching.

We choose a hotel situated in the middle of the bamboo forest. Yue Li and Skyler are excited to sleep a night away from the noise of the city. I wake up in the middle of the night and look out our window to a fairy land of soft rain and mist drifting through the bamboo. I feel blessed.

Two day road adventure: An afternoon at a tea house.

2009-05-05T04:02:00.000-07:00

We spend an afternoon at the hotel's tea house. Each one of these rooms (on three floors) are private and semi-private gaming rooms. Here you spend the day playing majong or cards, ordering up lunch and dinner, beer and tea, of course. They come equipped with couches for the in-between games nap.
The tea house wraps around this coy pond.
Looking from our balcony across to the main floor.

This photo actually wasn't supposed to be here but for some reason my "delete" won't delete. Sigh. This is really the next morning at the tea house - Sky and Guy and I came down to buy some tea - we were treated to a tea ceremony given by a delicate young woman who spoke to Guy and I like we understood her all the way through. It was enchanting and lovely. We did get some really good tea, too.
An "artsy" photo taken from the pond level. Haha.
Here we are in our room. This is a really fancy table where-in the tiles are shoved underneath, then mechanically sorted and ascend up all stacked and ready to go. Guy and Sky aren't bored or unhappy here, they are concentrating. The three of us had never played the game the right way, and Yue Li was very patient teaching us this game that every child here can play.

Once we got the hang of it we loved it. We couldn't wait to play it again.

Two day road adventure: We visit a national bamboo forest

2009-05-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger! Yeah. Well, anyway, this is apparently the forest they filmed it in.
After driving up and up a winding road (we estimate we're at about 4,000 feet) we see these stairs and decide to stop and have a look-see.
Looking down toward the the car - forest and rows of tea bushes.
We continue on, meandering through the forest. Guy shaking a bamboo tree. Yue Li tells us to "listen to it's voice, its so pretty."

Here we pop out of the forest into hills of tea groves. (plantations? farms?)
and happen onto this magical little lake and pagoda.
It is a new experience for me to be surrounded by nature that has been civilized for hundreds of years or more. We don't see one other person here, and yet evidence of husbandry is everywhere. Even the lake is stocked with fish.

Sky and Guy take a stroll while Yue Li feeds the baby in the pagoda. We loved this adventure. So peaceful after the city.

Two day road adventrue: Dazu Rock Carvings

2009-05-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the Dazu Rock Carvings, a World Heritage Site, a couple of hours from Sky and Yue Li's. I'm not much of a site seeing person so forgive me for my brevity - basically, they are carvings done by Buddhist Monks some 800 years ago into the sides of cliffs. They are impressive, and for further info you can google it.
See that smile on Sky's face? It's about to be wiped off. Shortly after this picture was taken Yue Li and I found a quiet lobby of a small hotel to rest and nurse the baby. The proprietor's wife hovered about and asked the usual questions (how old is the baby) and made the usual comments (she's too young to bring out of the house). The proprietor just sat on a chair and looked unhappy. After we were done, the woman approached Yue Li and spoke to her in Chinese, obviously distressed. Yue Li frowned and asked me to get Sky, curio shopping across the street with Guy. After a brief "discussion" Sky and Yue li walked back across the street and entered one of the stores, Skyler looking most annoyed. They emerged with a bag which they handed the hotel owner then joined us.

Guy and I said nothing, pretending all was well in newly-wed land, and we all continued on down the street. Suddenly, loud explosions sounded behind us, and turning around we could see some serious fireworks popping off, louder than m-80's and creating a huge smoke cloud. No one paid a lot of attention except Guy and I.

"Those cost me 30 RMB," Skyler told us, still wearing a sour expression, "Apparently, nursing a baby under two months in a hotel lobby is bad luck. I had to buy those fireworks for him so they'd chase off the evil spirits just poised to haunt his hotel."

Guy and I laughed so hard we eventually got some smiles, then laughs from the kids. Oh my gosh, I'm telling you, that really made our day.
We all liked this chair.

No, I'm not touching it. I didn't touch anything, in fact, I didn't see anyone touching the carvings, although most of them were not roped off.
Our group were the only foreigners I saw that day. People took more photos of the carvings than they did of us but not by much. Here a girl is admiring Xing Xing.

Skyler curio shopping. Below; Guy finally gets his rickshaw ride. (guy not shown, haha) A couple of days ago Guy asked Yue Li if she knew of a place where he could get a ride in a rickshaw. She didn't recognize that word even after we tried to explain it so I drew her a stick figure of a man pulling a cart. When she saw it, she laughed so hard it was awhile before she could answer us. "Yeah, I've seen those before," she told us. "In the movies!"

Apparently people on foot don't pull these anymore but at the tourist places you can rent the ones pulled by people on bikes.

LOL. I love these - everyone uses them.

2009-05-02T06:22:00.000-07:00

Guy has arrivied!

2009-04-30T04:30:00.000-07:00

Yeah! He's finally here! Our apartment.
Dad, Sky and Yue Li plus Gwi Gwi and May May
Trev, this one is for you. Dad took it and said it's to make you feel better about your wires????
We take a trip to get dog food. Which turns out to be the pet section of Chong Ching, or rather, a pet section. The kids say there's a bigger one.
Puppies for sale.
...with its ears dyed yellow and its tail dyed pink, how much is that doggy for sale...
These two poodles were actually putting on a show, barking and strutting across the stage.
The pet, um, area? Section? Part of town, continues. Here are birds, I'm sorry I don't know what kind, they dart back and forth, very high energy, about the size and form of a small blackbird, and are trained with flags to do tricks in the air. Sky says he sees the "old people" (probably my age) with these pets in the parks in the early mornings. (No, they're not tethered, apparently they also return to their owners when signaled with a flag motion.)
We descend and descend, still in the pet section of town.

We continue descending, now passing through the an outdoor area providing services for folks. Here you can get dental work done.
Get your shoes repaired.
Or get your hair cut.
The people are consumed with curiosity about Star Star. However, they politely do not come to look unless we stop. Here Guy is watching the shoppers watch baby Star.
And two minutes later she gets more admirers.
We continue to descend. Here is what Skyler calls a "wet" market. We try to pass it by but Guy will not let us. His curiosity is all-consuming and he needs to stop every few steps to examine things.
So many vegetables and greens in China the variety is mind-boggling. I absolutely cannot identify half of them. Here are some I recognize.
Ok. I just had to take these photos of the egg selection.
We i.d. the ones on the left as pigeon eggs. (we think) The wrapped ones are duck eggs. The ones in the center that look like they are covered with dry mud, are, we think, covered in dry mud. This is a mystery that even Yue Li cannot explain. So, Guy buys one of each. Later we will watch him eat them. Sky will too, he eats EVERYTHING. He's amazing.
Yes, it's every concievable part of the pig. Note the nostrils in the front left, tounge in the middle front. Um, sorry, I wasn't really listening too closely to what Sky was telling Guy about all the other parts. Really, I just wanted to move on.

Random photos

2009-04-30T02:24:00.001-07:00

Oh whoops! How did this one show up in my China blog? Oh well, guess I have to show off my other three beautiful daughters... L to R: Olivia, Lizzy, Kari taken just before I left - Easter
So I go to buy Guy two pillows and I get one bag not even the width of a pillow. Yes, there's two in there, I'm assured. (The package is not see-through) So, I get home, and they're shrink-wrapped. The one on the left, not yet released from it's vacuum pack. The one on the right, liberated.
Not everything in China is inexpensive. Here we visit an upscale grocery store with imports from around the world. Skyler shows me an imported apple from Japan - priced at $8.00 U.S.
We were trying to flag down a taxi with no success. Yue Li decides she's hungry so we take a break here to get a bowl of Chong Chinqs signature noodle bowl.

Daily living concerns

2009-04-29T01:09:00.000-07:00

Check out the door thresholds here. These things are three inches high. If I sound resentful, I am, as it's the first thing I tripped on in China and they continue to challenge me. I spent some time mulling over the purpose of them - keeping out floods from the neighbors, keeping out the cold, keeping out the bugs (which I haven't seen many of by the way), and so on. Maybe even something to do with containing a fire.

I think I surprised the kids with my enthusiastic aha when I noticed this threshold at the Belgium waffle cafe. Here was a decorative, and functioning door set-up fashioned after ancient Chinese architecture (assumably) wherein the door slides open and shut on these runners. Or thresholds.

That's my floor of my apartment, by the way, which is another housekeeping skill I'm trying to get a grasp on. Floors are to be kept very clean - whenever the landlord comes to my apartment (with the workers) he spot cleans my floor. Truly. He goes about with a damp rag and looks for smudges. It's a race for me when they call to say they're coming to get there first and mop the floor - it's become a point of pride for me that he only finds a few places to get fussy about.

It's all achieved through the skill of shoe changing. You change your shoes when you come in, but you also have shower shoes you put on before going in the bathroom because that floor is usually wet and when you come out you will get footprints on the floor so you have to change back into your house shoes before you leave the bathroom. I haven't figured out the laundry balcony protocol - unless I mop out there twice a day I can't keep it clean enough for my house shoes so I've taken to going barefoot or just leaning out to put clothes in and out of the washer.

The building's matriarch

2009-04-29T00:44:00.000-07:00

I keep forgetting to introduce you to the apartment building's matriarch. She was the one who helped Yue Li and Sky find my apartment here on the 17th floor. The real estate here works like this: Individual people buy square footage in these new buildings and it comes to them as a shell. They then go in and divide it up as they wish - in the case of the kid's apartment and mine, making them two bedrooms, one bath with kitchen and laundry balcony. Both apartments are remarkably different from one another, both owned and designed by two different landlords.

The matriarch keeps an eye on everyone and knows the building's resources and gossip. I say resources because commercial is mixed in with residential - for example - an estitition has a shop on the 6th floor. Our woman in the photo, whose name I obviously don't remember or I would use it, lives on the same floor as I do and is the full time caretaker of her 10 month old grandson. Her son-in-law was recently transferred to Beijing to work and her daughter flys back and forth to live with him and here with her son.

It is important to note that she has the best drying spot on our floor for her laundry. It is from her hanging laundry that I first saw the gigantic hangar they use to dry blankets and sheet. I immediately went out and got myself one also.

My landlord recently brought up a brand new washing machine. Apparently these apartments are expected to come furnished with washing machines, televisions, and air conditioners. I got my air conditioners installed last week, and I was fascinated to see that the workers wore disposable booties and not only swept after themselves but mopped also. Skyler says this is normal.

When I asked Sky how these landlords can then turn around and rent these places for 200.00 to 400.00 dollars a month he said they are looking to just offset their mortgage payments. Sounds familiar....

A visit to "The Cave".

2009-04-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

After two weeks of entering into and descending down through the sides of hills and under the ground I have this aha - These people have a burrowing mentality. Entire malls, business centers and most of the "outdoor" market (only part of which is outdoor - the rest is underground or carved out of the side of a cliff) is the result of burrowing. Skyler furrows his brows when I share this epiphany with him then says, "Well, yeah. They needed the room. Before they went up (the high rises, all less than 18 years old, remember) they went down." He explains it's unique to Chong Ching, the rest of China being relatively flat. Then he takes me to "The Cave".

"The Cave" is new - Skyler watched it being built, and it crystallizes the building habits of the Chong Chingers (haha, I made that up, don't know if it's used or not) in one large structure. The face of this eleven story, multi-purpose structure is nearly flush with the cliff it is built into - and the top of it emerges onto the top of the cliff where an existing road and other businesses are. The Cave, as they call it, houses stores, businesses, a performing arts theater, restaurants and a hotel, and is graced with patios and balconies overlooking the river.

This day we go we shop for some sunglasses and shoes for Sky. He is on a never-ending quest for a pair of dress shoes to replace the ones he has. (Somewhat frayed from chewing dogs). I say never-ending because he wears a size 11, or 12, I can't remember, I just remember the shop keepers laughing when he asks them if they have his size.

We stop at a small restaurant owned by an acquaintance of Sky's, a Belgium. Who has, very appropriately, opened up a Belgium waffle place. The kids enjoy their rare treat while I get the world's smallest cappuccino, well at least in my world it's the smallest.

A visit to "The Cave"

2009-04-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

Looking from the 6th level to the 4th.

Standing on the fourth level looking up to the top, or 11th level, which is also the top of the cliff.

Views of the river Chang Jiang, Yellow Flower river. (Looking to the left) Sixth and seventh photo down, Sky and Yue Li's apartment building is located at the end of the bridge, same side.

Looking to the right where the sky car is, the river joins the Yangtze. In the upper left corner of the same photo is the new symphony hall, not yet open.
Here we are at the top level of "The Cave", resting while baby is admired. Below is one of the many food booths in The Cave's "food court" area, and below that the theater which is located on the 4th level. Yue Li was performing here (as the opening act to a play) when she and Sky first met. He said he got to sit in on the rehersals as well as the performances.

Smiles from baby Star

2009-04-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

Baby Star gets her first shots.

2009-04-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Waiting our turn. The medical care the kids got for the birth of the baby was not free, but government subsidised. The pre-natal visits, the c-section plus the three days Yue Li was in the hospital cost around $1300.00, as I understand it. Yue Li's father paid for this, she tells me that is customary for the woman's parents to do that.

Daddy stands in line with the paper work.

One of four sets of daddy-mommy-baby-grandmas that I saw, not including us. With the one child per couple policy here, each baby here in China is cherished.

Daddy reassures baby - it'll be over in a flash...

Check out Skyler's face - YOU'D BETTER NOT HURT MY BABY!

I don't take the final picture for fear the flash will make the nurse jerk - you all know the ending to this story. Baby wails, parents console.

Visiting Skyler at work.

2009-04-24T04:05:00.000-07:00

1. The school Sky teaches at, Web International English School,
is located in the New York, New York building of downtown
Chongquing. (A smaller replica of the Sears Tower) Here we are in
the lobby of the building.
2. The school is located on the 19th floor. The reception area.
3. Staff and students flock around Xing Xing.
4. Sky teaching one of his small classes. He also teaches
in a classroom which holds 30+ students as well as one
on one sessions.

Visiting Skyler at work

2009-04-24T03:01:00.000-07:00

The door to the classroom (straight ahead) with the students is missing. A few nights ago Skyler was teaching in this classroom when a clap of thunder shattered the door. He said after everyone got over the initial shock he wasn't sure what to do so he evacuated the room and very sensibly cleaned up the glass

Below is the staff office. Sky's desk has the monitor on it. The school also has a computer lab for the students with around 25 learning stations.

Girls Day Out

2009-04-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

It's grooming time and Yue Li, baby Star and I take a taxi to the downtown area where we've been several times before. The manicure shops are situated in the middle of a mall, somewhat like the kiosks that we set up in the central walkway of our malls. Each shop is composed of tables set up in a rectangular shape and chairs arranged around them to accommodate several customers at once. Baby Star sleeps next to Yue Li on the chairs.

The service is not much different than our Vietnamese shops at home, minus the fancy chairs, and the cost, of course, is less. $15.00 for two manicures and one pedicure. I'm really tempted to try a hair-removal service that is done with a piece of string and some kind of snapping motion (explained to me by Yue Li but not demonstrated, so I'm still confused how it's done). But on close examination of my face, both Yue Li and the manicurist decide whatever hairs I insist I have are too light-colored for them to see. I want to argue but realize how foolish that would sound. Curiosity can take me to places I don't want to go, I remind myself.

A few days ago Skyler took me to a very nice massage place here in the downtown area. We donned pajama-like clothing and shared a room while I got one of the best deep-tissue, combo Thai massages I'd ever had. I thought it would be odd to share a room with my son, but it wasn't awkward at all, we chatted for most of the two hours and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I also received a nice compliment from Sky afterwards - he confessed that the masseuses told him I was more hard-core than he was. Thus inspired, he decided he wasn't going to let that happen and quit his protestations. I did tell him the more deep tissue you get the less it hurts, and I've had plenty of them.

I'm explaining this because after the manicure I thought it would be nice to go back for another massage. I define an excellent massage more for it's after-benefits than how it feels while it's done, and this one had managed to clear all the swelling out of my right arm that I'd hurt last June, enabling me to close my hand into a tight fist for the first time in ten months. So, any excuse for a massage as my philosophy, I asked Yue Li if she could walk me over before she went home for the afternoon. Instead, she decided to stay and nurse the baby and maybe nap in the same room.

This time I had one of the worst massages I've ever had. That's not to say I didn't have as good a time as I did with Sky, maybe even better. What we had was more of a party. The first hour a steady stream of visitors filtered through the room to see the baby and ask questions and make comments. Hostesses (dressed in skirt suits and demure heels) masseuses, and I'm-not-sure-what-they-do women dressed in old fashioned Chinese clothing. (I know the place is clean and legal, Sky was careful to point out all the signs to me stating this, including showing me the characters for "no" and "prostitution".) The questions were specific (did I eat rice in America) and general (is the nursing going well) The expected (I can't believe you're taking the baby out before it's a month old) and one of Yue Li's and mine favorites - the baby looks exactly like her father. Our favorite because we hear this often from people who have never even seen Skyler.

Meanwhile my masseuse is working only until she gets caught up in the conversation at which time she forgets and takes a break to join in. The second hour, after everyone had had their looks and their says, Yue Li and I and the masseuse watch t.v., commenting on the news story covering the abandonment of a four-year-old boy, (how could anyone do that, ever?) and the young girl who jumped to her death off a high rise due to depression. (Such a preventable disease, and my auntie's friend had a friend who did that and...) All in all a fun-filled afternoon and well worth the cost ($10.00) for the room rental, tea and fruit, and entertainment. Oh, and a really good foot and a half massage.

For Dylan, Leeannette, and Haven

2009-04-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

Check it out, my darlings. This fruit is called "Dragon's eyes", and they really do look and feel like eyeballs. The fruits grow on a branch like grapes (you can see them, unpeeled, on top of my head) and their peelings are simi-rigid but easy to take off.

They're a little bit sweet and literally burst in my mouth when I bite down. I imagine just the way eyeballs would.... :)

Love you and miss you, Nana

2009-04-21T23:51:00.000-07:00

2009-04-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

Up and out early again today, our destination, the furniture district. My apartment came furnished with only a bed and Yue Li's futon, so I've offered to buy Sky a much-needed computer desk and chair if I can use it at my place until I leave. Right before we left Yue Li's step-mom came for a visit with more chicken soup - she brings a potful two to three times a week for her. Yue Li has one living grandparent, her mother's mother, who lives in the country. She raises (15) chickens and after the baby was born she sent 300, that's three hundred, eggs for Yue Li. Along with the chicken soup these are her post-baby restorative foods. Anyway, Yue Li elects to stay home and visit - she wasn't keen on going anyway, she described the furniture store as "being too big and where Sky looks at everything and says 'this is way cheaper than the states'".

The furniture store turns out to be the size of a convention center - five stories high. It is filled with mom and pop owners who rent a section of the floor to display their goods. Dining sets of glass and wood, apartment size, sell for $300, chairs included. Dining sets of "stinky wood" literally translated (it didn't stink to me and looked like cherry wood) the six chairs with carved backs and leather seats and absolutely gorgeous sell for $800.00. I walked around saying "this is way cheaper than it is in the States."

I get a Skyler-style history lesson as we lose ourselves in the maze. "This furniture all mimics the Yuan Dynasty," he tells me. And this the Ming Dynasty. I point out one large section that looks Japanese - yeah, he says, that style was around about the time the Japanese-to-be left China. The Japanese haven't really changed a lot of stuff since that time. He laughs and adds, "that's why nobody here can figure out why they're so rich."

One small computer desk and chair later (that will be transported to my apartment this afternoon in a "loaf truck" for six dollars) we leave the center and stroll past a car that someone has written on it's dust-covered trunk, "wash this, pig" in English. "Calling someone pig is different here," Sky tells me. "The pig here is like the cow is in India. Well, except they eat it. But it's held in high regard - they don't think of them as dirty, and they consider them intelligent. Intelligent and cute and naive because they go along all happy with life until one day out of the blue they get slaughtered. You know the Chinese are tough, they lead really hard lives, so to them, that's pretty naive, being happy all the time with that inevitable end. "

"I have to fight the students all the time to stop calling each other pigs in English. In Chinese, they say it affectionately, not so much like an endearment, but not an insult either. More like, silly, or ignorant, in a nice way. When I first started teaching they called me pig all the time, partly because my nose turns up, like this. (He shows me and laughs) Man, I'd get sooo mad, until I understood better. Still, I don't let them call me a pig."

"Look, this is the character for house. If you look at the top of it you can make out a roof, see, it looks like a roof. Everything else underneath it is the symbol for pig. So home means, a roof over the pig."

He's distracted by another car while I absorb the whole pig thing. "Here's the car Yue Li and I want to buy. The father of one of my students owns this car factory. The model is called "The Antelope." Look at the Chinese on it - you can see the antelope horns here."

I give it my due admiration, really thinking now about how hungry I am. "Are you going to feed me before you go to work?" I ask him. He's looking for a taxi and isn't giving me his full attention. "Skyler, can you tell me where I can eat around your apartment?" He laughs and tells me I don't want to eat anything around his apartment. "Just tell Yue Li when you're hungry," he says. I explain to him I'm not going to get his recovering wife up to cook for me every time I'm hungry and I can't do it myself because the only thing I recognize in his fridge is peanut butter and it even has chocolate swirls in it which I've never seen before. There's no bread to put it on, either. "Yesterday I ate a roll for breakfast and didn't eat again until you got home at 9:30 and Yue Li made curry." That gets his full attention and he laughs uproariously. "Ok, you want some noodles? Here's a noodle place."

Day eight, Monday, Sky's day off

2009-04-21T04:07:00.000-07:00

Today we went back to the maze market otherwise known as Chao Yian Men market. We cannot move a foot out of Sky and Yue Li's apartment foyer without being beset by well-meaning women who want to see the baby and give advice. It appears Yue Li and I have been quite neglectful in not dressing the baby in socks and hat, so to avoid future criticisms (and it is getting sunnier) we've decided to get her a bonnet. Skyler also needs a hat, he says, so here we are in the clothing section of the market.

Yue Li is known here as she did some of her purchasing from them when she owned her own clothing store. They call her the acrobat and it's walk and stop past the stores as everyone comes out to congratulate her and Sky. These shops are quite small, very artfully displaying the clothes, there are so many I know I would lose my way alone. The market place sells everything from furniture to electronics and Yue Li estimates there is somewhere around 1000 stores in all.

Sky puts some sunblock on baby Star, and we continue on until he finds himself a hat. Only he buys a green one, and Yue Li reminds him a green hat signifies he's of a different sexual orientation than he really is, so he goes back and gets a black one. He's not keen on drawing more comments than he already does, I think.

From the here we take a taxi to the other side of the river. A row of very nice restaurants face the river and behind them are luxury apartments, according to the kids. As we walk toward the restaurant they talk of moving to one of them one day, when they can afford it. In the restaurant we get our own private room and Sky orders up dishes of duck (without it's blanket, whatever that means) and soy beans with wasabi greens and mashed potatoes with cream sauce and on and on. The plates come in waves - just as we are finishing the first course along comes the next. It's a feast.

To end the day we visit a tea house. The kids order up tea and Sky breaks out the cards. He wants to teach us how to play a Chinese betting game called "Beat the landlord." I see groups of men playing it on the sidewalk and apparently Sky plays it when his friends want to win some money off of him. He admits he's not good at it and usually avoids playing it with them. But Yue Li doesn't want to learn the game and after a friendly argument he agrees to rummy. I taught this to Yue Li last night and she beat me, 200 to 5. Look out Lizzy, Trev, Kari, Jerome and Olivia. You have another very good and competitive gamer coming your way.

We spend almost three hours passing our time at the tea house. Back at the apartment we watch "The Yes Man" with Jim Carrey, and then to bed. A good day.

Baby Star update.

2009-04-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

Daily living concerns.

2009-04-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

Ok there's this whole issue with feet and slippers. I know to take my shoes off at the door, the clue being a a whole line-up of various slippers as I walk in to Sky's and Yue Li's apartment. But which slippers to put on? Sky says any will do, but he's not a terribly possessive person and maybe it just doesn't matter to him. I mean, are the slippers like coffee cups, where we casually tell our guests to "just take any cup" but then care, even just a little, when they chose our favorite one? If I pick Yue Li's favorite slippers and walk around in them will she care but not say anything? I think I'll watch to see what she wears and until then, go barefoot.

Post note on the laundry. I discovered Yue Li has a small washing machine and a drying window with an iron grill. Yue Li did my first load for me. Here I came to help her out and she's got more work on her hands than before. Sigh.

Day Seven - On my own

2009-04-18T04:33:00.000-07:00

I've been officially turned loose. This morning Skyler was groomed and ready to go at 9:30 AM, rushing me out the door and down into the streets of Chong Chinq. His hurry? Getting me a cell phone. With Yue Li's number programmed into it I can call her to talk to any taxi driver or shop clerk when I need directions or help. "So," I said to him in the elevator, "You're tired of chaperoning me around?" He looked a little rueful. "No, I just don't want to do it twice when dad gets here."

Fair enough. We board bus #135 and get off at the Red Bank. (There are also Blue Banks and Green Banks. I believe they have names but this is enough for me right now.) We turn at the rounded black high-rise building and descend into a supermarket, well, a sort-of wal mart. There Sky has a full-on conversation with the clerk about cell phones while I admire a plastic ball that Leeannette would like. Won't fit in the suitcase though so I take a picture of it for her instead. Then we're out and back on the street, headed up to Starbucks, his dropping off point for me. "Wait!" I look around, disorientated. "I'm already lost. I don't recognize this place." Turns out the store is located in the top part of a V formed by two roads and we entered from one street and exited on the other. "Use the black high-rise as a landmark, mom," Sky tells me patiently. A group of young people walk by, calling his name. Some of his students. He has one write in my little notebook the name of the neighborhood that he and Yue Li lives. "Just show this to the taxi-driver if you can't get hold of Yue Li, ok?"

It's almost 1 PM and I've been here at Starbucks three hours. The hiss and bang of the coffee machine is the same as the ones in the U.S. Starbucks easy listening music plays in the background. I eat banana bread and drink my second latte. Glass walls separate me from the street and the masses of people. Two security guards from the department store on the other side of the side glass wall where I sit look over my shoulder and watch my computer screen, but I'm safe here and even that doesn't bother me. In the seven days I've been here I've seen 4 other foreigners on the streets and 3 of them were Skyler's friends. I cannot read or speak Chinese and apparently here in Chong Chinq few people speak English. This gives me a taste of what it must be like for anyone going to the U.S. without being able to read a Latin-based language. Wow.

I lay out the three -or was it two? - yuan for the bus. I'll hold out three and see what the driver takes. I carefully write "181" for the bus number and "Ting", the word for STOP! on the inside of my wrist. I review the visual landmarks in my mind to get to the bus stop and the ones to get off the bus.

I think I'll get another latte before I head out... :)

2009-04-18T03:50:00.000-07:00

Today Yue Li's dad and step-mom brought over Yue Li's photo albums from her growing up years. I don't have a scanner or I'd have put a few here, what a darling child she was. I also got to spend some time with her this morning talking about her growing up years and with her permission I'll share some of what she told me. Her childhood was, I believe, fairly typical of a Chong Chinq child until age nine when she tried out for the acrobatic team at the local arts school here. This is a school which teaches children acting, singing, instruments, and dance as well as acrobatics. Out of 500 applicants 25 were chosen for her class, Yue Li being one of them. She began boarding there at that point - her parents were responsible only for her food tab, the school (government) picked up the rest. She reports being quite happy for the eight years she lived there, although after the first year she almost elected to go home. The director told her, well then, go home. This is never going to be a walk in the park. After some crying with her mother, she decided to stay. The schedule was strenuous, the little girls doing acrobats from 7 to 12 am and then again from 2 to 5. In the evenings and some afternoons they studied academics. Her biggest compliant was the requirement that they stay in a handstand position each day for one hour.

By age 12 she and her acrobat troupe were traveling the world performing. Some years that entailed being out of the country six months each year. She has performed in most of the European countries, Japan, Indonesia, Canada, the States (Washington and Oregon) Australia, all of them multiple times. Although she moved out of the school into an apartment of her own at age 17, she continued with the troupe until age 23, when she elected to perform on her own or occasionally intandom with a troupe member.

She is very content with the life she led and speaks of the close bonds she formed with her classmates and with the foster families that they stayed with around the world.

Yue Li taught herself English by listening to music. She says that all of the endless hours spent on tour buses and airplanes was passed with earplugs in and building her vocabulary! That to me is an amazing feat, not just because it would take incredible persistence and intelligence but also because she could actually understand what they were saying.

Later this afternoon Sky and I went to a museum to see a traveling art show. Yue Li elected to stay home with baby as it was cold and drizzely outside. I enjoyed the art, but enjoyed more listening to Sky read some of the captions to me and explain what he knew. I found his knowledge is wide and deep about China, as he explained everything from why this certain calligraphy was beautiful to explaining historical stories depicted in the art. I am just beginning to get a grasp of the heritage baby Star Star has inherited.

DAY FOUR: A trip to the bakery.

2009-04-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

We arrive at this western-style bakery. The pastries are not quite right, Sky says it's because of the flour available, which is probably right, it always comes down to the flour with these kinds of things, well, that, and the knowledge. I buy three things that look completely different but all taste the same. Kind of like my Mexican cooking - no matter how I roll it or serve it I use the same basic ingredients and it all tastes the same!

A trip to the bakery.

2009-04-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

We accept...

A trip to the bakery.

2009-04-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

The local real estate office. Sky says when you want to relocate you go to the community you want to move to and find one of these. The rentals and for-sales are posted here. Sky took a few minutes to check out what was available while I concentrated on avoiding the crowds. (Something this country girl lacks in her skill sets). Sky reads and speaks enough Chinese to get us effortlessly through the day - I haven't found anything yet he hasn't been able to translate for me. I'm impressed.

A trip tot he bakery.

2009-04-16T22:21:00.001-07:00

Haha I so love this one. Owning dogs as pets is relatively new here, so owner behavior seems a bit odd to me sometimes. In retrospect however, this makes sense. The streets are dirty, just like any city, and floors inside homes are spotless. Put the shoes on the dog outside and take them off when he comes inside. I just thought of something - do you think they have inside slippers for the dogs too? That would be AWESOME!

A trip to the bakery.

2009-04-16T22:19:00.001-07:00

Skyler's dentist. The entire office is glass-fronted to the sidewalk.

A trip to the bakery.

2009-04-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

Sky buying a lighter.

Daily Living Concerns; doing the laundry.

2009-04-16T22:12:00.001-07:00

I look down the 17 floors to the plaza below and wonder: would I be willing to retrieve my underwear if it blew off the hangar? Probably not. I decide to think about it and leave the laundry to another day.

Daily Living Concerns: doing the laundry.

2009-04-16T22:09:00.001-07:00

I look out the utility porch's opening to the adjacent building and spot the neighbor's laundry drying. Yes, this would be where I hang the laundry.

Daily living concerns: doing the laundry

2009-04-16T22:06:00.000-07:00

My apartment provides a small utility porch off the kitchen with a sink and and a built-in ceramic scrub board. However, there seemed no place to hang the clothes. Then I spotted this rod. Mm. Could that be a drying rod?

View from Sky's office and Yue Li and Sky's bedroom.

2009-04-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

The cloudy/smoggy look is off-putting here in Chong Quing. However, if you look at a map you will see that the Chong Quing "valley" is basically a soup bowl surrounded by mountains. Coming in on the plane from Bejing it was nothing but mountains and then a vast blanket of clouds which covered the valley. Like Los Angeles, the fog, cloud cover and smog get all mixed up to form this look. Unlike Los Angles there is no outlet like the ocean for it to release into. The Chinese call this area Fog City.

Sky's office

2009-04-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

And storage area for Yue Li's acrobat equipment. She takes her table and blankets (that she tosses in the air with her feet) and umbrella and a whole bunch of other stuff with her in a taxi when she does shows. Her agent contracts her out to hospitals, schools, trade shows, weddings, b-day parties, and street events. Prior to Sky, she made enough money to support herself doing three to four shows a week. Each show lasts about 7 minutes, usually part of a 1 to 2 hour show of acting, dancing, and magic shows. She calls her company "ACTS Acrobatic Show"

Grandma Libbie's blanket in use

2009-04-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

Look grandma Libbie I found something beautiful to put under your blanket! Gwi Gwi the poodle and My My the bichon are also very enamored of it - we fight to keep them off of it.

Infant clothes, Chinese style

2009-04-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

Day Two, getting to know Yue Li

2009-04-15T05:43:00.000-07:00

It's the end of day two and these images come to mind:

Yue Li carrying baby Star Star around downtown Chongquin showing me where she used to live, where she met Sky (an outside cafe/bar/tea house) He was reading, then visiting with his ex-patriot friends. She was drinking her afternoon tea.

Yue Li fending off dozens of people with their would-be-helpful advice on NOT taking an infant out before one month. All of them curious too to see this mixed race child. (I'm the only foreigner I see today - everyone jumps to the correct conclusion I am the mother-in-law.)

Comments are on her light skin, her round eyes, her blond eye-brows, her reddish brown hair. Yue Li smiles at their praises, endures their advice gracefully. She is something of a rebel, our Yue Li. She nurses in public, unconcerned at the stares. She plans on bringing Star with her when she starts working again next month. Skyler says she follows tradition only when it suits her. She is cheerful and optimistic, speaks mostly of Skyler, the baby, and her work.

When we arrive home, the dogs (a bichon and a poodle) have gotten into the trash. When I bend down to pick it up, she brushes me aside, laughing at my concern over her bending, getting up and down after her recent cesarean. "None of this bothers me," she insists. "I'm an acrobat, remember?"

2009-04-15T05:09:00.000-07:00

Day two, evening.

We've watched a movie. "Twilight", I've brought it with me - Sky wants to read the series now, haha, always satisfying to get someone hooked on my current addictions. I'm getting ready to retire down to my little apartment on the 17th floor.

Skyler: Do you have an idea where everything is now? Our building? Downtown?

Me: Um. No. I've only been here 36 hours, 10 of which I slept.

Skyler: I'll show you on the map here. Tomorrow when we go back you can lead me.

Me: I haven't really been paying attention. To the one time we've been there...

Skyler: (Severely) You will need to know how to get around without me and Yue Li, you know. It's really very easy.

Me: (Remembering the the winding, confusing roads up the 1000 foot embankment behind us to the dozens of high rises sitting on top of the multi-tiered underground markets packed with goods and humanity.) Maybe you should take the lead one more time.

Skyler: Mmm. We'll see tomorrow.

2009-04-15T04:48:00.000-07:00

DAY TWO continued: Cokes explained: no one is drinking anything but tea.

Skyler: They don't drink much with their meals. And while we're on the subject of etiquette - never point your chopsticks at anyone and don't stab them into your rice and leave them standing upright.

Me: O.K. Why would I stab my rice? And why is he distributing bits of food into our bowls with his chopsticks? What does Yue Li think about that?

Yue Li eats placidly, cuddling baby Star on her lap.

Me: Why do you keep putting food into my bowl?

Skyler: It's considered polite for the host or the head of the household to do that.

Me: Oh. (I bite into a small rib bone and discreetly spit it out into a napkin.)

Skyler: You can just spit the bone on the floor. Everyone does.

Me: WHAT? NO! Crossed-my-line, crossed-my-line. I'm not spitting my bone on the floor and I don't see anyone else doing that either. Yue Li! Do people spit their bones on the floor??

Yue Li: Sometimes. (Smiles at Skyler)

Me: No help there, they're in this together.

2009-04-15T04:45:00.000-07:00

The Dodo-Pig Chuan-yue Delicious City Restaurant.

2009-04-15T04:42:00.000-07:00

The steps to the restaurant. Sky is buying two cans of coke from a street vendor for him and me to take in. My faith wavers in his choice of eating places.

2009-04-15T04:32:00.000-07:00

Day two continued. Sky and Yue Li take me out for lunch, downtown. Never again will I defend American food against (real) Chinese food. Mexican food is our only competitor.

And honestly, the Chinese have it all over us in the art of naming things. Check out the name of the restuarant. Dodo-pig Chuan-yue Delicious City Restuarant. The name of our soup was Mountain Spring Wild Shoot.

Skyler says: "The names of the food usually don't have anything to do with the food. It's all about how cool the name sounds. Same goes for most things, I guess."

2009-04-15T04:26:00.000-07:00

DAY TWO Downtown Chongquing. Baby Star Star's first outing. The building behind Sky and Yue Li was the tallest building in the city 18 years ago. Now everywhere you look are high-rises.