An update on Max

In spite of all the research we have done on raising a puppy, life after one week with Maximus is full of surprises. Suprise #1 is that in going from 4 to 5 weeks old, he has grown a lot. Like, at least 40% bigger than he was a week ago. According to Pedigree's bag instructions, it was supposed to take 7 days to go from mush to hard puppy chow. He did it in 3. And he eats the stuff 4 times a day, and then begs for more 30 minutes later. It must be the yeti in him.

Shel and I planned on crate training Max as soon as possible. Up until now, he has slept in a cardboard box with some towels, and he loves it. Only, he is quickly outgrowing it. So today I went to the dog market to get a crate for Maximus. I thought we would go with a medium size, but the medium size was about the same size as the box, so I had to go large. Unfortunately, they are color coated by size, so if you wanted large, you got purple. Not so great for a dog named Maximus, but once he gets all his adult teeth, I'm sure he'll chew the purple right off and reveal the steel bars underneath! High hopes for the little guy I know... I also purchased a new bed for him which fit perfectly in the large sized crate. The crate is a little big for him right now, so I am hoping the bed discourages him from segmenting a spot of his crate for doing his business. The idea in crate training after all is to speed up the house breaking process. He likes the crate, and it fits all his toys:

Another thing about Max growing up so fast is that he gets into more and more every day. In the past couple of days, he has discovered the power of his nose. Now on walks, he gets distracted every 5 seconds. He used to run 20 feet and get tired, now he runs 20 feet and gets distracted by a leaf, a piece of construction tile, or a trashbag. Right now, he can't reach the coffee table yet, but at this rate of growth, its only a matter of days. First the coffee table, then the trash can, then the kitchen countertops. As I am typing this, he is trying to eat my computer. Here is a video of a minute and a half with Max.

For all of you dog experts, no worries. We learned the newspaper room technique from the internet, and everything on the internet is 100% reliable. When we are gone, his toys, treats, water, and crate will all go in the bathroom with him. We don't leave our dog to to starve and wallow in his own urine and feces, at least without first giving him several other entertainment options. We love our dog!

christmas 2009 more pictures

Jarred with all his gifts from Rusty and Kathryn. That is a Dwight Schrute notepad.

This is the new IKEA loveseat Tim and Jane got us for Christmas!

And Pop gave us money for Christmas, which we are using part of it to buy plants for our house. Here are the first couple that we have purchased.

New Earrings from Kathryn and Rusty!

And Christmas socks from Rusty and Kathryn!

And my new scarf. Thanks Kathryn and Rusty!

disclaimer: i didn't go out of the house like this, i promise. i changed into jeans and i think i added like 4 layers. the shorts were just for sock-modelling purposes. disclaimer finished.

christmas 2009

Merry Christmas everybody! We wanted to give you an update on our Christmas here in East Asia. We spent all day yesterday just the 2 of us- sleeping in on our 1st of 2 days off (yay!), talking to my family, zipping around our little town, and baking/cooking for dinner. We spent Christmas Eve with our friends/neighbors and enjoyed dinner and exchanged gifts. I made corn pudding (it can't be Christmas dinner without it, even if some substitutions have to be made!) and mashed potatoes, and Jarred made a from-scratch peppermint red velvet cake for dessert. The homemade peppermint-cream cheese frosting was to die for. You see, Jarred is an incredible cook, which I benefited from greatly when we were here before, however since we got married his skills haven't been used quite as frequently for some odd reason. So, I and a few others were greatly blessed by him baking this. It was awesome!

We had a turkey dinner complete with stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. Jarred is outspoken in his love for canned, jellied cranberry sauce. He didn't get any for Thanksgiving, but his Mom sent a package in which I removed the special can of sauce and wrapped it for him. He opened it right before we went over to Josh and Danielle's for dinner, and enjoyed sliced jelly cranberry sauce along with his turkey. I'm pretty sure everybody else besides us ate the real stuff, but it didn't make a difference because he almost ate the entire can by himself. Danielle had set the table so beautiful, and we had a great time eating together. Danielle and I had bought a frozen turkey a few weeks ago, and she cooked it in a bag she had from America. It was an incredibly successful first-go at a turkey. It was like being in America for Christmas dinner.Even Max was given a personal invite to dinner (Josh and Danielle's is like his second home), and showed up clean after a bath, with even a Christmas bow! He spent the night trying to scratch it off. After dinner, Max got to chew on a turkey bone Josh gave him, and I think it was the greatest thing he had ever tasted. After dinner, we had a time of praising- reading Luke, lighting the last candle on the Advent wreath we have been doing all together, and singing a few songs whose lyrics are simply divine and capture my heart anew every year I celebrate this holiday so rich in precious meaning. I loved it. So grateful for these people around me, and even more so for the One whom we celebrate! We then exchanged gifts according to the person's name we had drawn. Grace gave me an awesome calendar, a book cover, and a bag of tortilla chips from one of my favorite western restaurants in the city. Josh gave Jarred a National Geographic DVD about Mount Everest, which he is currently watching. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve celebrating together!

We woke up this morning truly grateful that after a brief awakening at 5:00, Max slept until 7:30. Jarred and I spent our first Christmas morning just the 2 of us and it was awesome! We read the story of J's birth and spent some time chatting together. It was such a sweet time for the 2 of us together to really celebrate Christmas. Every year I learn more and more about the Christmas story and am touched and changed by a perfect king coming to earth and being born in such a humble way, and this year has been no different.

We then opened our presents from Kathryn and Rusty, which we are so thankful for! We will put pictures up soon modelling our new gear, and our presents that we already have from Tim and Jane and what we have gotten with gifts from others! We then opened our gifts to each other and it was really fun. Jarred connived with Kat and Rusty to get me lots of my favorite things from America including chai mix, york peppermint patties, southern season coffee, and caramel coffee. He also got me a tea kettle that I love. My Uncle Rob got us a really awesome one for our wedding, but it was too big to bring over here, so I am so so glad to have one here now! Thanks to our friends Chris and Sarah and Amy for helping keep it out of my sight :) I got Jarred a few things that had been on his wish list including a weight bench, p90x, and some crocs shoes. i am pretty proud of myself for accomplishing (ok, josh and danielle graciously helped!) online shopping in east asia (think all characters) because jarred's shoes were $85 in the store and i got them for about $7.

then our friends/neighbors came over for brunch that jarred and josh were making for us. we had a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy, omlets, and fruit. and then we just hung out at our house for a long time, enjoying time relaxing and playing cards. now we are getting ready for them all to come back over for leftovers followed by a very special birthday party tonight with some very special friends. and that may be my most favorite part of all.

and we plan to end our night calling our families in america when it will be christmas day for both of us. we miss our families with our whole hearts right now more than ever and wish we could be there to celebrate with you! talking to you will make our day :)

so that's a short summary of the last day or so. i love christmas and being here always helps me remember truly why it is so powerful and important.

merry christmas, from our house to yours.

meet max

so this one night my husband brought home a stray dog. it sounds like the start of a bad joke or something. or something i might tell about a crazy family down the block or something. except "this one night" happened to be last friday in my life. and the scary part...we decided to keep the dog. clearly there is a lot to fill you in on...

we'll start with the night that will now forever be etched in my memory. last friday night we were at the school where jarred studies with a bunch of friends celebrating the coming holiday and everything was going great (and completely normal and ordinary). but one of jarred's friends happened to show up with a little puppy. and by little i mean really really little. and cute. irresistably cute to my husband, who spent pretty much the whole night holding the dog. jarred's friend had been given the pup from a friend who found him on the street.

but then the night ended and we were getting ready to head out. jarred mentions to me that his friend can't keep the dog (i mean, seriously, what college student living in a dorm could?) and said he could have it. we go back and forth for a few minutes debating. on one hand, we have been talking about getting a dog since 1. before we were married 2. a lot in the past couple months. we had pretty much decided that we would get a black lab (i voted golden retriever, jarred voted weimereiner, somehow we agreed on a lab) and that we would probably get one in february when we had some more time. we also though had also discussed at length wanting to get a rescue dog that would otherwise have no home and probably die. and that would probably mean not a studly and beautiful black lab, but would have such a deep meaning that we loved. and kat and rusty's dog brooklyn is a rescue and (apart from attacking a few other dogs in her life) she is one of the greatest dogs ever! i sometimes think jarred misses brooklyn as much as any of our actual family members.

but all of that to say, i don't make rush decisions. seriously, my parents told me the last week of april my senior year of college that i couldn't go to my soccer tournament in new york until i decided where i was going to go to college. i think decisions to death. but this decision, jarred and i have talked to death. we had considered every possible scenario and situation. we had talked through a dog fitting in our budget. we talked through when we would have kids and the pros and cons of a dog before kids or after. getting it back to america whenever we move home. laws about having a dog here. where the vet in our town is. what to do with it when we travel. as i said, i think decisions to death. i am a planner. and that night, bringing home a dog was not in the plan. however, jarred makes rash decisions. i use the word rash lightly because it usually implies not thinking or poor decisions. but jarred's decision are great decisions, just fast. super fast.

so anyways, back to the story. jarred catches up with his friend who has already started to walk away. and we (and our neighbors here) spend the next 20 minutes talking about the dog and debating whether or not to take him home. and then jarred decided we would and we got in josh and danielle's bread van and drove home.

we said 1 night. and on saturday afternoon one of my teachers was going to help jarred take the dog to the vet. if it didn't have horrible diseases and wasn't going to be a normal ea squat dog weighing in at a grand total of 10 pounds we would discuss keeping him. we both want a dog to run with us, and i am determined any dog i ever have will swim. and since our house was totally unprepared for a dog, we turned a paper box into a dog bed and he ate rice and water friday night.

saturday afternoon, jarred loaded the dog up in his backpack and hung it on the front of our scooter to go into town to the vet. and he screamed the entire way. and then, lo and behold, the vet was closed on the weekend. so the dog got to stay until at least monday morning when he would return to the place canines dread most. and it meant that our neighbors had 2 more days to wear us down into keeping the dog. josh even said that if we didn't keep him he would, but danielle squashed that in about 2 seconds. the most he got was a "we would maybe consider it." monday morning jarred returned to the vet. after being sent to the wrong place, searching for an hour, and waiting for 30 minutes on a street corner where a vet worker was going to come meet him to take him to the right place, jarred and the pup (we said we weren't going to name it before we decided if we were going to keep it or find it a new home) made it to the vet. and the vet was all great news! no problems at all. great health. 4 weeks old. 4 pounds. will grow up to be a medium-sized dog.

and so that afternoon we decided to keep him. that's right, we now have a dog. well, right now, a tiny puppy. who walks with us around the complex, runs about 20 feet and is tired, nips our toes with his puppy teeth, and eats a mixture of chicken and rice mush and purina puppy chow.

then it came time to name him. jarred has always wanted "his" dog. and in his dream his dog would be named maximus. strong, studly, gladiatorial maximus. and i was fine with that. before we got a dog here. i mean, we live in east asia. i could just imagine the conversation:

asian: what is your dog's name?
me: max
asian: mahxs. oh so great!

i just couldn't handle the whole town thinking the foreigners had named their dog marx. not ok. i voted xiongmao. east asian for panda. he is black and white and kind of looks like a bear right now. it's a cute name. i thought it fit. and we live in asia, i thought an asian name was appropriate. so we have 2 great asian friends here who are excellent sounding boards and both told me xiongmao was a bad name, really bad. after that stunning blow, i soon caved and made jarred's dream come true. we now have a dog named maximus. i call him max. but if a local ever asks, it's maximus, only maximus. and i'll end with a last note that jarred thinks he is 3/4 part black lab and 1/4 part yetti/beast. not sure what that means, but pretty sure it's not true.

we already have lots of stories, which will be shared very soon, i am sure. but right now i am exhuasted, so i will just leave you with come pictures and head to bed.

meet max:

Education education education

In America, education is important. In East Asia, education is everything. From the time a child reaches the age of kindergarten, the parents or grandparents are desperately searching for the best kindergartens that will get their child into the best grammar schools that will get their child into the best middle school to get their child into the best high school so they can be the best prepared for the most important moment of their life- the college entrance exam, so they can get into the best college. Stories are rampant of government officials and the wealthy bribing officials at notable universities to let their child in with extravagant meals and money. Children from age 5 are in school from 7am to 5 or 6pm. I have been walking through an apartment complex at 10:30 pm, seen a light on in a house, and a child no more than age 7 at a desk crashing the books. Some parents in America dream of their children going to Harvard, some dream of them becoming a notable musician, others dream of their child becoming a sports star. Here, millions and millions of parents all share the exact same dream, for their child to be admitted to a narrow list of four or five universities. On the day of the college entrance exam, temples are full of parents and grandparents towkowing and burning whatever fake money can be burned. Taxis give free rides to students. Families who usually can't afford meat at every meal slaughter a hog to make sure their one hope in this world goes to bed with a full belly. Competition is rampant, and in a culture where parents expect to have their dreams fulfilled, the stress on students is unimaginable.

Now my parents also valued education. My mother started me reading at age 3 (and she's not even of the Asian half of my family background). I had a dream much like these parents have for their students. I wanted to go to UNC. I realized that dream. It was great. However, never did I feel the pressure, stress, and competition that these students feel.

So, being a student in the midst of this student culture is quite an interesting experience. Mostly because I am not trying to graduate from my school, nor am I even trying to get a grade. My goal is simply to become proficient at the language. Teacher, however, expects me to be like any other student. Sometimes I believe she thinks I am supposed to have all of my hopes and dreams riding on how I perform in my class, and her opinion of me as a student. For instance, today, I was reading a text in characters, and I said a character in a wrong tone. I always say this character in the wrong tone, and she always corrects me, each time a little angrier than the last. Today was the last straw. I committed the foul crime only once, and she told me "Jie Rui! If you say this word wrong one more time, you will have to write it 100 times!" To the average East Asian student, this would strike fear into their heart. To be shamed like this would be too much to bear. They would bring shame to their families. It is a pretty common practice to punish students in this way in a shame based culture. Grammar school students are beaten on the hand for writing with their left hand to break them of the horrible habit. Even when they learn to write English letters, they are punished if their letters aren't written in the standard way, so in college, every student has the exact same English handwriting. One time in class 2 years ago, I was writing my name on the board for my teacher in English. I write in all caps, as many adult males do. It is neater and more legible, and our handwriting is notably bad otherwise. When I wrote my name, she actually said "Please write your English correctly. This is incorrect, your R should look like this." MY EAST ASIAN TEACHER CORRECTED MY ENGLISH HANDWRITING! I have even heard stories of students who are late to class having to stand in a corner... in college. The punishments just don't strike the same chord with me, probably because I am 27 year old and have obtained a college degree without ever having had to fear standing in a corner. So threats about writing a character 100 times makes the fleshly side of me want to write it only 98 times... just to spite my teacher for treating me like an 8 year old (or 18 year old depending on what country you are in.)

Another practice common to education worship here is making up missed class. Schools are required by the government to have their students in class for a certain number of hours. In America, we have to be snowed or stormed out for weeks before we start cutting back on our holiday vacation days to make up class. Here, they go to school on weekends to make up class that is missed because of their already scheduled holiday vacation days! So today, my teacher saw that I had missed 5 days of class because of Shelley being sick, and I'm going to miss 5 more because I'll be out of town. Apparently, the foreign student office looked at my attendance rostrum (yes, I actually have to sign one of those each day) and saw my missed classes and told my teacher that the classes must be made up or I will have visa problems. We are still going to have a final exam (yes, I actually have to take one of those too) on the same day as before, December 31st, but I will proceed to go to class for 2 weeks after I return to town in January. Yet again, another reminder of how lost I am in this culture sometimes. I'm just glad I never inherited my mother's left-handedness.

Christmas decorations!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas decorations that you can actually see!

On top of our tv cabinet:

Our growing collection of Christmas cards from friends and family on a shelf in our kitchen:

Our nativity scene that I am obsessed with:

Our stockings that replaced pictures on our wall above our couch since there aren't fireplaces to hang them over in East Asia. I just saw that these were our old stockings before ours from America got here a week ago. I'll try to put a new picture up, but I think I just killed Jarred's camera with a virus, so that might be a problem.

Our Christmas tree!

In the corner you can see our advent wreath. I just took a picture of it up close, but the aforementioned camera virus has posed a dilemma for posting it.

christmas-time

christmas is here! well, not quite. but in our lives over here christmas lasts for a month. and i love every minute of it. so, in honor of this being the season now, i thought i would share my top 10 favorite things going on right now:
10. christmas movies- we kicked off the christmas season watching elf on thanksgiving. it takes the cake as the funniest christmas movie ever, i'm pretty sure. and let's be honest, home alone is now a classic. i have watched it so many times i can quote it, but i laugh every time. and i like telling the story of my whole family seeing it in the theater when it came out and my little sister yelling out that she too could sled down our staircase and out the front door. and now she lives in chicago with the snow to actually do it.
9. christmas music- it has been playing pretty much constantly in our house since Dec 1st and i really love it. and new accomplishments in my life include becoming a professional singer. granted, i'll use the word "professional" loosely. nonetheless, in the past 2 weeks i have sung christmas carols in front of probably over one hundred students in classes. thankfully, each time i had at least 1 partner with me. this isn't ironic at all, unless you fully understand what a terrible singer i am. the only thing i have going for me is volume. and the only preparation in my life i have for this sudden thrust into vocal performing is 2 years of high school chorus, and the only reason i took it was because i had to have an art credit to graduate and i am even worse at art than i am singing. i am glad it is the heart that counts. and that people here don't really know the exact notes the christmas carols are supposed to be :)
8. christmas drinks- i kicked off this part of the season like a month ago with our first pot of apple cider. and since then have had lots of hot chocolate, spiced coffee, and tea. and living near danielle, i benefit by getting to drink her peppermint mochas and egg nog. yum.
7. our christmas tree- granted, it is fake and that's definitely not as cool as a big, beautiful, real frasier fir, but we have a good looking fake tree. every morning the past 2 weeks, i have sat in our living room reading with the tree lit up and it has been so beautiful and peaceful. i also love it at night when it is sparkles and i get to sit on the couch with jarred. last year when we were engaged, jarred bought a ton of ornaments for our christmas tree for once we got married as a surprise for me looking ahead to this year, our first christmas together, and they make our tree simply wonderful!
6. packages- this past week we got our first package in the mail! and our 2nd and 3rd and 4th! we have been so blessed by our friends brian and kelly who sent us an awesome package with lots of christmas presents and goodies like candy and coffee and christmas socks; jarred's parents for sending us a netti pot (i've used it twice and it is awesome~i'll blog about this crazy thing soon probably) and all of the christmas ornaments jarred bought me last year for our tree here; for my mom sending these awesome bracelets from some friends in norfolk that we will get to use to bless many friends; and for my sister kathryn sending us a box of incredible things that only a good big sister would know to send (and beef jerky- i think that was from rusty to jarred), including the only christmas presents currently under our tree! thank you, thank you, thank you!
5. christmas parties- these make me love being here. i am literally giddy with excitement every time friends come over, exhausted when they leave, and always looking forward to the next time.
4. our advent wreath- after picking up some candles and grabbing some holly berries from the bushes near the lake across the street, i made us our very own advent wreath in asia! it is on our coffee table, and it has been sweet time to light a candle as a family every monday night as we start our week together.
3. our nativity scene- jarred and i went to a christmas fair in town last weekend and my favorite purchase was a nativity scene. the store that made it employs deaf and disabled east asians which is the first reason i love that place. and their stuff is just awesome. one of my favorite things about our nativity set is that you (whoever you are) don't have one like it. very few people in this world probably do. yes, it has a sheep and a camel. and baby j is the same. but the wise men, shepherds, even the angel have black hair- they are all east asian! i think that is pretty awesome. i'm not saying j was east asian, but he certainly wasn't american or white. i just like it.
2. my first christmas with jarred- it is an absolute blast to go through this season married to jarred. it just makes everything more fun! it is an adventure to talk about traditions from each of our families, and plan new ones for us as a family
1. every day i have been picking a verse to meditate on throughout the day that goes along with the christmas story and it has been so sweet. definitely my favorite thing right now.

i'll post pictures of everything soon!

Life update

We realize it has been too long since we have posted, and much has happened in the meantime, so here is a quick flyby of the past 3 weeks:

The week before Thanksgiving saw the arrival of the coldest weather we've ever experienced in our city. And to make it worse, we had to ride our little scooter to class all week. You know when you're driving down the road in bad weather and you see the guy on the motorcycle and you think "He must be freezing!" That guy was Shelley and I, only doing a maximum speed of 30 mph downhill, which makes it windy enough to freeze anything that isn't covered by 4 layers, yet slow enough to prolong the misery for a good 30 minutes. To make things worse, buildings where we live aren't built for sub-freezing temperatures, or sub-60 degree temperatures for that matter, so they are all-concrete buildings with no central heating. We were living in a refridgerator. Literally. I opened our refridgerator one night and though it was broken, only to realize it was just the same temperature inside the fridge as the rest of our apartment. The only protection is to cover up with as many layers as possible. Here is an example of our outer wear for the week. In this picture, we are about to ride on the scooter. It has literally just snowed one of those cold, wet snows that doesn't stick, but just makes the roads slicker and everything more cold. Very similar to NC, except this 5 minute flurry didn't shut down school for 3 days.

The following week was Thanksgiving, week, which started with a return trip to the hospital for the return of Shelley's sick bug. We took her to get the magical IV on Tuesday night, and ended up just sleeping at the hospital on Tuesday night because A. It didn't cost anything extra, B. It was 11:30PM by the time the started the IV, C. The room had heat. We returned Wednesday to rest Shelley while I tried my hand at Thanksgiving food preparation. We spent Thanksgiving with our friends in a meal complete with turkey and gravy. On Friday, we traveled to a larger city to spend the weekend with some friends. This is where the famous "Turkey Bowl" takes place. I love the Turkey Bowl. It pits many ACC alum against many SEC alum in a flag football game that is rarely competitive yet always entertaining. I had been excited to play, only to twist my ankle on the second play from scrimmage. Being the blitzing linebacker comes with its risks. I hobbled off the field, tightened the laces, and went back on. After the game, while accompanying Shelley on a trip to IKEA, I realized that walking was difficult and painful only to look down and see that I couldn't see the top of my shoe through my right swollen ankle. The motto of the week is rest, ice, compress, elevate. I'm hoping to back at it in a couple of weeks. Overall, it was an exhausting Thanksgiving week in which we missed being home with family very much.

And to cap it all off, on Monday of this week, we decorated the house for our first married Christmas together! This morning I commented that I actually enjoy chick-flicks that are set around Christmas because I like the combination of love and Christmas. Shelley asked me "like which ones?" I could not think of a single example in my head. Maybe this idea of the Christmas chick flick is something I dreamed up, but I could have sworn that a lot of romcoms have Christmas themes. Either way, I'm excited to spend Christmas with the love of my life in our first apartment together. Here are some pictures of our decorations. Our tree is a little pitiful right now as we are awaiting the arrival of our ornaments kindly sent by my parents in America, and a strand of light blew out right on the middle of the tree, and I haven't replaced them yet.

Coming to the rescue

Today in class, I received this text message from Shelley:

"Do you have plans for lunch tomorrow? That girl texting me is a boy! Again!"

It is not unusual for students to get our phone numbers and text us to ask if we can teach them English. We typically try to hang out with same-gender students to avoid "sending the wrong message" which is more important at this stage in our lives (married) than ever before. Today, Shelley was fooled by the asexual nature of text messaging in a second language. This is the second time in 2 weeks that this has happened to her. This is the downside of being the only blonde head in a sea of black. Students see her, find someone whom she has met before, and get her number because they want a foreign friend or want to practice their English. Last week, Shelley was texting a student. They had been texting back and forth for a few days. Finally they found a mutual time to meet up, and Shelley told her she would call when she got out of class. When she called and he answered, she did what all rational people do, promptly hung up. It then dawned on her that even if she wanted to avoid this student, she couldn't because she sticks out on campus like Kim Jong Il at a United Nations summit. So, she promptly called me and asked if I would join her, then called the student back and set up a meeting time. Some guys dream of rescuing their wives from imminent danger. I actually get to live that out. If you consider awkwardness to be imminent danger.

This week, a student starting texting Shelley in English telling her that they got her number from a friend. The student wanted to get together after class for lunch to meet a foreigner. Shelley was really excited, even telling me about her new friend. They were to meet soon for lunch, and then she received this message:

"I must tell you I am a boy and not handsome. It is very kind of you to eat with me. It is very cold outside so wear more clothes and pay attention to winter protection to avoid having a cold!"

This is a very humble culture. You generally don't accept complements here. If someone says "your language is so good", you respond by saying "no, it isn't very good." If they say "you are too kind" you say "no no, it is my duty." Sometimes this cultural humility doesn't translate well. This text message would be one of those situations. Imagine if you introduced yourself to someone like this in America:

"Hey, apparently the boss wants us working together on this national account. Let's meet for coffee tomorrow. The Starbucks on Main Street. I'll bring my notes. Oh by the way, I'm a guy, and I'm pretty ugly. Yeah, that's how you'll know me. I'll be the ugly guy waiting at Starbucks. Oh yeah, and be careful... it's pretty chilly outside."

So my wife has been duped into meeting with dudes for 2 straight weeks. At least this week he made it clear that he carried a Y chromosome, and I'll be joining them for lunch in a few days. Jarred to the rescue again.

fall (and winter) in asia

yesterday afternoon i made homemade pumpkin butter. and this morning i sat in our living room sipping pumpkin spiced coffee as i read. i am 25, caucasian, female, and american. i fit the stereotype. i love fall. however, that is american fall. and i clearly don't live in america. however, i also really love fall in asia. we don't have leaves that change color, we don't have fireplaces that crackle, and we don't have scarecrows that hang in corn mazes. but we do have these:
and let me tell you, these little things about make up for everything else. these little mandarin oranges (known as "baby oranges" around our house) are the most delicious fruit i have ever tasted. i came home screaming in mid-October when i started seeing them at the market. once they were out in full force, jarred told me to buy them every time i went to the market for the next 3 months. don't look to see if we already have some. no need to put them on the list. just buy them. every time. and i do. i have my baby orange lady who sees me every monday now and usually gives me a good price. i always say i want a kilogram. surely 2.2 pounds of oranges is enough for 2 people for a week. but without fail she always gives me more than a kilogram. i think i got like 3 pounds yesterday. (this is pretty common: yesterday i handed a man the 2 bunches of spinach i wanted and he added 2 more before weighing them, and when i told the banana man i wanted 3 he gave me 5.) but anyways, as you can clearly tell, just a day later, there aren't close to 3 pounds in our fruit basket (which since october has only held our baby oranges and i have another bowl for the rest of our fruit). we are seriously obsessed. potentially addicted. and very, very happy! i, who would normally take vegetables over fruit any day, could truly live on these things alone. i mean, who can name a bad time of the day to eat a delicious orange? i dreamed about them in america last fall and i will probably cry come the end of january when the baby oranges boxes at the market begin to dwindle. oh, the fall in asia is wonderful.

however, today is not fall. i am not sure when winter actually begins here, but in my book it started today. every evening i get a text message with the next day's weather report on it because with our phone contract we had to sign up for some daily text message and this seemed the most practical. i actually think this text message is an ingenious idea and think america should have it because it would save my mom a lot of time waiting for the "local on the 8's." and so every day when i get the message, my eyes usually drop straight to the temperature (i mean, it is the easiest thing to read on it). and yesterday evening, i about fell out of my seat when i read a low of 5 and a high of 9. luckily this is celsius. but still, a high of 49 degrees?! so last night we plugged in our space heater. and this morning when i got dressed, i pulled out my long underwear, under armor, and thorlos wool socks. i was taking no chances sitting in concrete buildings with no insulation or heat. on campus, hats, scarfs, and throwback ear muffs were out in full force. people on their scooters looked like they were in siberia. and my teacher for tomorrow called me to see about changing class because it will be even colder tomorrow. winter came in 1 night! it isn't even 8 o'clock and jarred and i are already under the covers working (though both still in our long underwear!), the rest of the house shut down for the night except our bedroom with the heater. it was painful to take my winter jacket off for the first time all day. i am still holding out hopes that this is just a spell and fall will be back in a few days, at least for a brief encore. i will be sure to keep you posted. nonetheless, there are many things that make me excited for this weather: hot chocolate and chili to name a couple. i am sure i will drink countless cups over the coming months, and tomorrow night we are having chili for the first time of the season. and snuggling with jarred, but he would probably be embarrassed if i wrote that on our blog. seriously, who doesn't look cute in long underwear? just kidding. welcome, winter. just don't stay too long.

Sales Pitches

I want to share with you 2 sales pitches I have recieved in the past 2 days, East Asian style.

Sales Pitch #1- It was 8:30 PM on a Monday evening. Shelley and I were relaxing and reading, when someone rang the doorbell to get into our apartment building. We have several migrant workers living in a vacant unfinished apartment below us. Because they don't own the apartment, or rent it, they don't have a key to get into the building, and they often ring up to our apartment to let them in because they know that strange white foreigners live in 502. So, it is not unusual for me to answer the bell and hear someone speaking the local dialect which I don't understand, to which I push the button to let them in. So I didn't expect this particular "ring up" to be any different. When I answered the door, a lady yelled in the microphone and I couldn't understand a word she was saying, so I just pushed the button to let her in assuming that she was headed up to 401 and went back to reading. A few minutes later, she knocked on our door. I answered the door to which she immediately yelled "HELLO, I WANT TO LOOK INSIDE! OH, YOU ALL ARE WESTERNERS! WHERE ARE THE TOWELS? I AM GOING TO CLEAN." She then proceeded to invite herself in, walk right by me, put her shiny pleather purse on our table and pull out a spray. I was stunned, like that scene in Saving Private Ryan at Normandy where everything slows down into slow motion and he can't do anything. Finally everything sped back up to normal time and I realized she had grabbed our dish towel and was spraying spray on our oven hood. Shelley wandered out and looked at me and I looked at her, not knowing what was happening. I told her to get the camera, I wanted video of this. And here is what happened:

In the beginning of the video, she is saying "its simple and convenient!" as she proceeds to disassemble our oven vent. She then asks "Do you have a plastic bag used for purchasing vegetables?" Still stunned, I hesitate to answer to which she yells at me "DO YOU HAVE A PLASTIC BAG USED FOR PURCHASING VEGETABLES" In a daze, I still couldn't believe what was happening, and couldn't process East Asian in my brain, so I just said "No, no I don't have a plastic bag for purchasing vegetables." I honestly at the time had no idea what she wanted, but I wasn't giving it to her. It turns out that she was going "door to door" selling a spray used for cleaning oven vents, and was demonstrating this to us. We politely told her we didn't care to purchase any, and then gave her a mini loaf from our current pumpkin bread surplus and sent her on her way. She should work for Kirby or Rainbow. Forget the appointments, she'll just vacuum your whole house whether you want her to or not.

Sales pitch #2- A couple of weeks ago, I received a phone call from a student at the school where I study. He said that he saw me in the cafeteria, and wanted to meet with me. I said sure, but I was busy, and when I had more time, we could eat together. He then asked me if I liked rock music, which was strange, but I replied that I did. Throughout the next week and a half, he proceeded to text and call on a daily basis and would ask me "where are you now?" "I'm at home." "Come to the cafeteria." "I live off campus, I'm far away from the cafeteria." "Ok, if you have time call me and we will eat together." He did this at least 4 times and all 4 times I had to remind him that I live off campus far away from the cafeteria and couldn't come right now. He called on Sunday and I finally set up a time to meet. So, Tuesday after class, I went to the cafeteria to meet him. He had 2 friends, and was wearing tight jeans, a tank top with an unzipped leather jacket and thick black framed glasses, looking very much like a rock star. He proceeded to treat me to a fine lunch of unidentifiable meats and vegetables while directing this conversation:

"Jierui (my East Asian name, which I still don't know how he got), we love rock music." "Yes, you look like a rock star." "Yes I do. Jierui, what instrument do you play?" "I don't play an instrument." "But you said you liked rock music." "Well I do like rock music, but I don't play an instrument." (Confused look on rock star's face) "So you sing." "Yes, I can sing, but not well." "But you said... you like rock music." "I do like rock music." "Well our band cannot attract people because we are all East Asian. We need a foreigner, and we want you to join our rock band." "But I don't play any instrument or sing well." "Jierui, you should join us. We will be more popular." "I'm sorry, but I don't have the time to be in a rock band." "But you said you liked rock music." "I do like... okay, when you ask a foreigner if they like something, and they say they do, it doesn't mean that it is their hobby." "But you said..." (At this point he looks really really sad.) "I'm afraid I have a different lifestyle than college students. I am 27. I'm married. I have a wife and responsibilities. I don't have the time to join a rock band." "But it is only a few hours a week." "I understand, but I just don't have the time." "Jierui, do you have children?" "No." "Will you have children?" (Really confused as to where this is going) "We would like to someday." "Well you should learn to play an instrument so you can be in our band. Then you can teach your children to play music." (I am picturing my future child dressed like this guy...) "I am afraid I don't have time to be in your rock band. I am so sorry." "But you said you liked rock music."

East Asia has very pushy salespeople. Usually they just follow you around a store asking you what you need every 5 seconds. Sometimes they approach you on the street. Sometimes they play really loud music outside of their store and stand and clap as if that makes you want to buy their shoes. Sometimes they push a cart around and play a really fuzzy recording really loud over and over again, or bang 2 pieces of metal together repetitively to attract attention to their tofu (anyone who has lived here for an extended period of time knows what I am talking about). These sales methods would never work in America, but then again I don't live in America. There is a good chance that this lady sold a number of bottles of cleaner spray, and that if I was East Asian, the student would have convinced me to join his rock band, despite having no rock music talent whatsoever. It just goes to show how different this place is, and how much I still have left to understand.

my crazy teacher

with a title about a crazy teacher, it is probably surprising that this is by shelley, not jarred. apparently, crazy teacher stories are in no short supply here. a week ago one of my teachers called me and asked me if i could change my class time from 8:30 in the morning to an afternoon sometime. since our class time had worked for a couple months now and she comes all the way out here for the whole day everyday anyways, i was a little confused by this sudden need to change. she clarified that she finds it extremely important to change our class time because she assures me that if i ride my scooter all the way to class that early in the morning, i will surely become very sick. granted, the mornings and evenings here are cold in the winter, freezing cruising down the road on a mini-motorcycle. this morning, i wore a 3/4 length shirt, a sweater, a sweatshirt, a fleece, gloves, and a winter hat ("tobOggan" for you southerners; "tOboggan" for my husband) to class; and this afternoon when the sun was beating down on us at 6,000 ft i delayered down to just my 3/4 length shirt. however, it's not snowing and i am pretty sure it won't make me sick. but i politely told her that i would consider and talk to my husband about it.
and i did. but we decided it just wouldn't work- we share a scooter, have things in the afternoon, etc. so monday i texted my teacher to tell her that it just wasn't convenient to switch classes. and while this may seem strange, this is a perfectly acceptable answer here. anything can be done or not done simply because it is "not convenient." also a perfectly good response is "no solution." throw a "i'm sorry/embarrassed" in there and you are good to go. so when my teacher countered my message with "but it is so cold in the mornings, you will certainly become sick," i pressed my luck and threw in all 3 of these sayings and replied. "i know, but it's not convenient, i'm sorry/embarrassed, no solution." after multiple more messages, she relented, and we kept our class time the same.
and let me explain that the rest of the world operates here on a normal schedule no matter the season. all students have class every morning, including my husband who has class the same time as me. people go to work early in the morning, many on scooters, and the majority aren't hacking as they scoot down the road or pulling over to throw up. and in a place where myths spread like wildfire and hold more weight than they should, if this cold 8 am weather would make the whole world sick, people would definitely change. i decided that my teacher just thinks i have a completely defective immune system.
so i got to class yesterday morning and began to climb the 5 flights to the dorm room where we study. as i trudged up the last flight i heard my teacher call out my name, only to look up to find her sitting in a chair drinking tea on the open-air landing with a comforter spread out over the balcony railing (still not sure what that was actually doing). she informed me that she thought it would be better for us to study not at the desk in the room, but sitting in chairs next to each other out on the landing where we could maybe get a little more sunlight. really? this had gone to far. so i went and got a chair and lugged it back to where she had constructed a make-shift classroom, curious why she thought sitting in a place where the cold wind blew through, people walked through, and a roach was crawling around, could possibly be our best possible solution? i then decided that i think she just didn't want to have class in the mornings, despite the fact that she is at campus anyways. i shall keep you posted on our classroom changes. no solution.

the market

Living in Asia before, I didn't really plan dinners farther ahead that the morning of bc 1. I was single and it didn't affect anyone else and 2. right next to our apartment complex was a little market that didn't have much of a selection but could provide everything I needed. Moving out here, I now have a HUGE market, however it is a scooter ride away. This does not bode well for me, the queen of always needing a last-minute ingredient. So I have gotten really good at spending time on Mondays planning meals for the week and heading to the market. For the last month I have thought about how I needed to take pictures of our market to share with those that have never been here, and so today I enlisted my personal photographer to come with me and capture the experience.

The first pictures are pretty self-explanatory. A whole heck of a lot of vegetables, with my favorite tomato lady, red pepper lady, the only yellow onion man, and my baking-potato lady spread among them. And, in the bottom right, more garlic and ginger than our whole town should use in a week.

Next come the eggs, which they hand me in a thin plastic bag as if getting them all home in one piece along with the rest of my food on my scooter is some kind of game. Today, I was 5 for 6. I love seafood. I grew up on the coast. Now we live nowhere near any coast. In a country lacking credible refrigerated transportation, and the nearest body of water being a lake widely considered to be the most polluted in the country, I have never ventured to buy one of these fish flopping around on the tarp. Maybe one day I'll have either the courage or the stupidity. The bottom left is my flour, tomato paste, frozen chicken lady. I must say that she is the most diverse market entrepreneur I have ever come across. We're becoming friends. Then the hanging ducks. And lastly, my new favorite, the pumpkin garage, home of my now famous pumpkin!

WARNING! These next pictures aren't for the faint of heart. Or weak of stomach. Or PETA members.










Usually I buy pork at the market when I need a ground meat because it is cheaper here, but a couple weeks ago I was making mexican pizzas and you just can't do that with pork. So I made it my goal to figure out getting beef at our market. It was kind of a process with everyone I asked in the meat section replying "No, just pork, beef over there" and waving their hand in a general direction towards the other side of the market where all of the stands just seemed to be empty. Danielle and I finally figured it out and found 1 lady that day that had beef. She cut me off a chunk and I trucked back over to the pork section to find the meat grinders. However, over the past couple weeks, I have made it to the market earlier, in time to find multiple more beef sellers, and other meats as well (as you will soon see). I'll preface this story saying that Jarred has fallen in love with yang rou since living in Asia. Yang means sheep. Rou means meat. He often gets yang rou on a stick on the street. Last week I came home talking about how our new market has so many slaughtered goats strung up everywhere, to which Josh (of "Josh and Danielle," some of our good friends and neighbors here) said "of course, yang rou." Jarred was a little perterbed to discover he had been eating goat instead of lamb the whole time! And after thinking about it for a minute he just said, "well, turns out goat meat is really good." My husband, the goat-eater. Anyways, check out our awesome meat section, where I tell them how much I want, they hack me off a chunk from the slab sitting on the table, and I head to get it rinsed and ground. We'll be eating some tonight...

American white women and the fall season

I always thought that Spring was the season of love and romance, and maybe it is for animals, but I have discovered that when autumn arrives, it is as if every 20 something American white woman comes out of hibernation and is dancing in the clouds. It really makes no sense to me why they love autumn so much, but I know that they all get excited like sorority girls on bid day. This excitement generally is centered around the availability of seasonal consumer products. Here are some things I noticed they get excited for in the fall:

1. Scented candles- mostly those that smell like apples

2. Colored leaves- in the Summer, when it makes sense to be oustide, they complain about bugs and sweat and nature. But in the fall, they have no problem walking around picking dead rotting leaves to decorate your house with.

3. Cold weather- Women who usually complain about being cold suddenly love it when that cold is associated with the arrival of fall. Forget that this change of weather also brings about the flu virus, they get to wear sweaters!

4. Christmas- I love Christmas... in December. These women turn Advent into a 3 month event and Target takes full advantage.

5. Pumpkin Spice ______ (you fill in the blank). The thing I find the most intriguing, more than anything else, is young American white women's obsession with pumpkin spiced everything. Candles, pies, lattes, fruit dip, toilet paper, beer. I am convinced that if McDonald's could make a pumpkin spiced McRib, 20 something white women everywhere would leave their hummus, run to the Golden Arches, and there would be a national shortage on whatever animal product that thing is made of and Diet Coke fountain syrup. If you hear that some company is thinking of making a pumpkin spice variety of whatever product they sell, buy stock... and futures for that matter.

I recently married a 20 something American white woman, so my life is no longer immuned to the love of fall. We cannot buy canned pumpkin here in East Asia, nor can we get lattes, so I thought I would have a free pass on this gourd obsession. However, my wife lives very close to another 20 something American white woman who told her where she could buy a pumpkin and how she could mine said pumpkin for its precious pumpkin meat and proceed I guess to "spice" it for whatever fall delight she desires. These women are like South Carolinians in deer season! Thus, I received a text message from Shelley on Monday that said "can you come downstairs and help me carry the pumpkin upstairs. It is too heavy for me." And this is what we ended up with:

Now it doesn't look like a pumpkin you would carve for Halloween, but who cares about pagan holidays when your pumpkin yields this much precious pumpkin meat? And by the way, we paid about $1.75 for this baby:

But in order to use the pumpkin meat for pumpkin spiced stuff, you first have to "roast" the pumpkin, which involves slapping it onto a baking sheet and putting it in the oven. This is the face of one very happy 20-something American white woman:

Our oven barely held the pumpkin. You literally just put it in the oven until the meat is soft, just like a baked potato. And come to think of it, this thing is about the same size as one of those baked potatoes at McAlister's:

And the result... let's just say its a good thing they don't sell Eggos here because our freezer now looks like this- those are bags and bags of frozen pumpkin:

Whoever is going to eat this much pie is beyond me, and the idea of putting that in your 4 dollar coffee is gross, but to my wife, it is downright delicious. One piece of advice I received from my old man before I was married that I have always strived to keep since being married: happy wife, happy life, and nothing says lovin to a 20 something American white woman like 20 pounds of fall obsession.

Sick days

The past almost 8 months with Shelley have been a blast. Sharing life with someone is better than I ever could have imagined it being. Among the things I love sharing are our hopes and dreams for the future, an apartment, a bed, theological musings, a love for dogs, an electric moped, and her dessert. However, I have learned that you don't always get to be selective about what you share. For example, I have to share sins and struggles, my plans for each day (basically meaning I have to have plans for each day... this is difficult for me as I don't like having many plans on my days off), the comforter on our bed, my dessert, and as of this past week, sickness. A couple of weeks ago I caught a cold. Now East Asia, there are several things that can cause a cold- cold weather, cold floors, cold water, or not eating enough vegetables are all reasons that people in this country believe you catch colds, or get diarrhea, or H1N1. For whatever reason, I caught a cold, which means that I gave a cold to the beautiful blonde woman with whom I share everything. Last Monday, Shel woke up complaining that she had gunk in her throat, and I had given her my cold. Then later that afternoon, she complained that her body started hurting, and then Monday night she threw up her dinner as soon as she was done eating it, leaving me thinking "well I sure didn't give her THAT." She was in bed shivering, her forehead and skin were burning up, and I was preparing for my first night sleeping on our guest bed. Tuesday morning came, she threw up again, and I was thinking that I would stay as far away from possible because it was obvious that she had somehow contracted the flu, and I didn't want it for fear that we would both be quarantined by the government and forced into hard labor on a pig farm for bringing the plague into their country.

Finally on Tuesday night after taking Tylenol, her fever broke, and she was feeling much better. Better safe than sorry, I proceeded to retire again to the guest bed, when 2 hours into the night I was woken up by Shelley throwing up again. And then 30 minutes later again. And then again and again and again. By 5:45, she couldn't hold down any fluids, and I was very concerned. So I called our emergency insurance, who advised me if she couldn't hold down fluids to take her to the hospital to get some fluids in her. In our little town, lets just say the hospital isn't of the quality or cleanliness that lead to healing, and the doctors are of the type that believe her throwing up is because we didn't eat a certain type of pork on such and such a day, which of course everyone knows causes vomiting, and diagnosis are based on old wives' tales and superstitions such as these. So, I opted to take her into the big city to the international hospital there, where trained, English speaking doctors could get her back on her feet. So at 7AM, I called teacher and told her student wouldn't be coming to class today, called Shelley's teacher and told her she wouldn't be in class, and called our driver, Mr. Jiang, to wake him up and ask if he could drive us into the city to the hospital. He of course obliged, and after throwing up one last time, Shelley made the brave trip in Mr. Jiang's van. When we got there, a doctor listened to her symptoms and then took a blood test which showed that it wasn't the flu after all, but a serious infection. Aparently the cold I gave her caused some kind of infection that made her very sick. He then prescribed a course of treatment that included IV antibiotics and fluids, and anitbiotic pills to kill whatever was infecting my poor wife.

Now intravaneous treatment is generally seen as appropriate for more serious situations in America, and it probably costs $800 for the antibitoic, $400 for the hospital's precious saline, $278 to see the doctor, $93 because they have to change the bed sheets for you, and $56 for the delicious meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes, jello, and ginger ale, of which your insurance will cover approximately $43.46 of the total, unless of course you are seeking treatment out of network in which they will generously cover $2.35, leaving you wondering what they do with the other $1100 a month you pay them. However, in East Asia, the IV is the primary course of administering medicine for common colds, flus, and stomach illnesses, and the whole process costs anywhere from $10-$50 depending on how serious the illness and how much money they suspect you have. When someone here finds out you have a cold, they always say "Have you been to the hospital? You should go to the hospital. You can get the injection there." So, after 2 nights of throwing up and running a fever, a 1 hour bumpy van ride into town, and complaining that "they stuck me with a needle and you weren't here" because I ran to the bathroom, my wife was finally sleeping soundly in a hospital bed as a machine gently pumped fluids and medicine into her veins. It was peaceful and serene, and I felt like for the first time in 2 days I could rest. The nurse, upon hearing that I hadn't eaten breakfast, even brought me something to eat. It really was a great hospital experience. We went home, changed the sheets, and crawled into bed and each of us slept through the afternoon, and then after a dinner of chicken noodle soup which Danielle brought over for us, slept again through the night. It was great to share a comforter with her again. I didn't like having my own that much anyways.

We returned the next day for another round of IV antibiotic treatment, this time Shelley feeling significantly better. I have to admit that I actually looked forward to going back the second day and having 2 hours to read and recooperate myself while she got an IV. She rested at home for the next couple of days, and is now back on her feet again. To celebrate, we went on a date last night where I gladly shared my rasberry cheesecake. Praise God for driver Jiang, IVs, and getting to share life with my healthy wife and best friend in the world.

The third person teacher

Leading up to my first class day, I called a teacher who I had already met with to set my schedule and said "I don't know which room we will be holding class in on Tuesday." She said "The teacher will tell you which room when she finds out." It confused me, because all along I thought she was going to teach me. Riding a bus all the way out to our campuses is not a desirable job, so I figured maybe she had passed it on to some underling teacher. I asked "Also, can my teacher bring my passport and receipt for my visa to class on Tuesday?" She told me "The teacher will bring it with her on Wednesday. Right now she isn't at school, so she won't be able to get it by tomorrow." Afterwards, she called me back and told me "The teacher will meet you at A building, room 503 tomorrow morning at 9AM." So, I had everything I needed to start class, except I didn't know exactly who my teacher was.

Tuesday morning came, and I woke up with ambitions of a great student/teacher relationship with whoever my teacher was going to be. Shelley had some delays getting out of the house for her class, so I was trying to help her, and as a result, left a few minutes late to get to my class. Not wanting to be late for the first day of class, I biked as fast as I could. Upon arrival, I received a phone call from the lady with whom I had corresponded previously. She said "Jarred, are you having trouble finding the classroom?" "No, I am almost there, give me just one minute. I am so sorry." "Okay, the teacher is waiting for you in the classroom." I felt really bad, because whoever my teacher was was probably wondering who I was, where I was, and if the whole thing was a bad joke and I wasn't even going to show up.

Finally I arrived at the classroom door, sweaty from biking and climbing 5 flights of stairs, and a little flustered. As I approached the door it was like a moment of truth. Who would be the teacher who is solely responsible for my language development, the one teacher who would work with me 10 hours a week to perfect my speaking, reading, and writing? It was intense. Then I opened the door and walked in to... the same lady whom I just spoke to on the phone. Up to this point, I thought "the teacher" would be someone else. Actually, she just referred to herself with a third person title "the teacher." "The teacher will meet you at this classroom" "The teacher is waiting for you." The whole time she was referring to herself! And to make things worse, she continued, and continues to this day to refer to herself only as "the teacher." Let's get one thing clear... this is not an old lady, and I am not an elementary school student. I haven't found out her age yet, but I am fairly sure I am older than her. Yet, she insists on referring to herself not as "me" but as "the teacher." I asked all my friends if their teachers did this, and mine apparently is the only one with this strange power trip. Josh told me that in ancient times, the emporer referred to himself in this way, and he even had a special written character pronoun to indicate that someone was writing about the emporer, not a common person. Maybe the teacher has her own pronoun. Maybe I should only refer to myself as "the student." Imagine that dialogue
"The teacher will give you your homework now."
"The student is ready."
"Write these characters 5 times."
"The student will write them to the best of his ability."
"Ok, have a good afternoon."
"Thank you the teacher. The student will see you tomorrow."
"The teacher will see you tomorrow. Goodbye."

Overall, my first week of class was exhausting. I would give my left arm for someone else to take the class with me, to have to answer the teacher's questions so I could give my brain a 2 minute break. As it is, we have 3 hours of class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with a 10 minute break. On Thursdays, we have 4 hours of class and she is merciful enough to give me 15 minutes of break. One 10 minute rest and one 5 minute rest. Thanks the teacher. She is relentless and uses a red pen to check every assignment that I do. Keep in mind that I do these exercises right in front of her, and she watches me do them, and corrects me as I do them, so she knows as I am doing them what is right or wrong. Yet after she has watched me do them all, she still insists on putting checks by the correct answers with a red pen. She is the youngest old-school teacher ever. I will let you know as soon as she breaks out a ruler to slap me with, or demands that I bring her an apple.

check.

coming back to asia, i had high aspirations of learning to make a lot of homemade things so i didn't have to have them sent from america or buy them at import stores at jacked up prices. one of the top things on my list was spaghetti sauce. it is just so much cheaper. i knew of one lady here that did it, and i told myself in coming back i would learn how. last night was my first attempt... and the biggest spaghetti lover in the world (my husband) thought it was wonderful! so i have a new recipe that will be added to the routine. i love that jarred's favorite meal is so easy :)

i have also been baking homemade bread bc bread here just tastes a little strange, and it is delicious! so far i have made honey whole-wheat yeast bread and whole-wheat oatmeal batter bread from recipes my friend beth gave me before i left. and i made banana bread to give to my neighbors, which i haven't done yet but will i promise, bc people here love it, once they get over thinking how weird it is that a foreigner would put bananas in bread and how do they make homemade bread anyways. and my betty crocker cookbook has about a trillion recipes for instant breads and yeast breads, i have a lot of experimenting ahead of me...

ordering dinner

Tonight, Shelley and I returned from a 2 day excursion into the big city. The big city has gotten a little bigger in the last year. When we came back from America in July, 2008, the city had around 5 million people. Shelley heard today that the number has increased over the last year... to almost 8 million. That is a 60% increase in a year. Traffic is worse, the people are worse, our favorite restaurants are being torn down to be replaced by apartment high rises (RIP Snowman). It is horrible. We came back to take part in this culture, to become these people, and it just gets more and more difficu.... WE HAD PAPA JOHN'S FOR LUNCH TODAY! Along with the growth in population, it turns out the big city just got a little more cosmopolitan. For $16US, we can get a 14" Meat Lover's pizza. And to polish it all off, a DQ has gone up right across the street. Green tea blizzard anyone? I had an oreo blizzard, and Shelley got her usual, a chocolate dipped cone. Only they did this artistic thing with the chocolate dip. They of course pumped the ice cream into the perfect little humps on the cone, the way only DQ can. However, they only dipped the top part in chocolate, as to accentuate its perfect peak. Imagine the Taj Mahal with a fudge top.

Let's just say our stomachs hadn't had an American sized meal in a month and a half. The pizza and ice cream combo, probably worth a solid stars and stripes' 1500 calories, put us into a food coma. On the trip back out to our home, we just kind of stared at each other. Our eyes were glazed over, and the last thing we wanted was food. However, we realized at 5PM that dinner was inevitable, so we decided to order food from our favorite little restaurant in town, and take it home with us to eat whenever we got hungry again. Ordering food at this restaurant is a process. It involves walking back to the kitchen with them, seeing which vegetables, tofus, meats, and meat parts they have, and then mentioning dishes until you get one they can make with all the ingredients on hand. Everytime you ask for a dish, you finish the sentence with a questioning tone, like going to Wendy's and saying "Yes, I would like a junior bacon cheese burger?" Tonight, we ordered 2 dishes. The first is a dish with green beans that we were fairly sure they had everything to make. When I said "I want pork fried green beans?" the fiery little waitress said "we can fry them in vinegar. We don't have pork fried green beans." I saw the pork, I saw the green beans, and I was confused why they couldn't put them in the wok and fry them together. So I bypassed the waitress, went into the kitchen to the cook standing over his wok, and said "can you make pork fried green beans?" He said "you mean the spicy kind?" "yes, like the kind from the province of your restaurant." "I can make them." So I went back and told the waitress, and she wrote down the order as if she had totally forgotten that they didn't have this dish in the first place.

Next, Shelley asked for a dish that involves tomatoes and pork slices stir fried together. The waitress replied "That dish is not tasty." We looked at each other kind of confused. Not only was this dish delicious, we had never been refused an order over the server's personal taste preference. She went off to argue with an old man over the price of his soup, and we told another waiter, this one a teenage gentleman "We want tomato fried pork slices?" He replied "Tomato fried pork slices are not delicious." Now imagine going into a restaurant, sitting down, looking at the menu, and saying "I'll have the she crab bisque." The waiter replies "I don't like sea food, therefore you can't have the she crab bisque." This is kind of what we were up against. I told him, "We like this dish. Can you cook it?" He said "we can cook it, but it isn't delicious." Then I looked at Shelley, kind of thrown off guard by this whole thing. I think they had almost convinced me that I don't like tomato fried pork slices. Shelley, being the rock that she is in these situations (and probably close to being out of patience), replied "we like it. we want it." So, he reluctantly wrote it down, and 6 minutes later, we walked out of the restaurant with 2 dishes. One didn't exist, and one was not delicious. At 8PM when we finally regained half of our appetites, we heated them up and enjoyed every last delicious green bean and tomato slice.

fall holidays

So our past week and half here were filled with holiday celebrations! oct 1 marked the 60th anniversary of the country. not too much was happening around here, but the capital was full of parades and celebrations that the rest of the country watched on tv. we watched some that night on bbc, and it was pretty impressive. granted, the military parade containing missile launchers and manless drones being marched through the capital city was a little eerie, but exploding twice as many fireworks in the culminating celebration then the olympic opening ceremony was quite impressive. most impressive, was the govt declaring an 8 day holiday to celebrate this important anniversary. so for us, no classes for a week.
and then 2 days later was mid-autumn festival, where we all eat mooncakes (or are supposed to) and go outside and look at the moon and tell this love story about the girl in the moon, yada yada. we spent the day with some friends at an old folks home (i guess retirement home would be more pc). tradition in this part of the world is that grandparents live with their children (usually their son) when they get older, so for them to be living in this place pretty much denotes that they don't have family. they may never have had kids or something may have happened. anyways, they are basically all alone in the world family-wise.
we spent the afternoon cleaning their rooms, which were really really dirty. we sang songs and some friends did performances. and we gave them fruit and of course mooncakes!
it was an awesome experience and we hope to go back!

how much does 600 sq ft of styrofoam weigh?

Driving on our scooter the other day, we flew by this little man pulling this monstrosity of a cart. It was massive. We think he was probably taking it to recycle to earn money to live on. And the most ironic part was that less than 30 seconds after seeing him we saw a Maserati drive by.

the most beautiful sight

Ok, so not the dust. But our suitcases unpacked and stored away under a bed for the first time in about 2 months is an absolutely beautiful sight to me. we are officially moved into our apartment. and we love it! nothing is completely organized, but we are home. i don't think either of us really realized how stressful being in constant transition was until we actually slept the first night in our own bed!
and the other night we had a couple friends over for dinner for the first time in our new place! and after being here for awhile one said that our apartment was "simple yet homey." and it made my night. i had never used those words, but that is exactly what i was hoping for. i pictured a place that our moms could sit down in and feel comfortable in, but also friends we make here can come into and relax in and not feel out of place. and mostly i wanted a place that jarred and i would love and that would feel like home. and we have it. what a blessing.

the mysterious trash bag

i was sitting putting on my shoes. jarred was standing 7 feet away, a step into the hallway of our apartment building gently urging me to hurry up. having filled up our trash bag after dinner last night, jarred had taken it out of the trash can and tied it closed, and it was sitting by the door ready to be taken down the 5 flights to the big trash can outside. and then it happened. the whole bag suddenly convulsed back and forth for 2.5 seconds, like whatever was inside wanted out. and then as suddenly as it started, it stopped. with looks of horror on both of our faces, we just stood frozen for a second. and nothing else happened. so in an attempt to see if we were safe or if we should run for high ground, jarred kicked the bag. but it seemed that the boxes and trash inside just shifted around. so with a great show of manliness, jarred grabbed the bag and took it downstairs. a mouse? a rat? a cat? we will probably never know. and in fact, i hope we never know. but one thing i do know is that i will probably never take out the trash.

Latest on the apartment

Our contractor finished all of his work on Saturday! We are excited to move in today. Here are some updated pictures.

After discovering that the bed we had was too small for 2, we had to get a new bed.

Now the moose lights have been replaced for something more simple

The kitchen all finished. Oven, stove top, hood, cabinet doors, and shelves all installed.

Our new shower door was installed

I purchased this bookshelf for $6 for our office.

The next time we send pictures, it will be from the cleaned, decorated, and moved in version.