back in the usa

family and friends,
thanks so much for reading our blog and experiencing our 4 months in china with us. we are back safely in MN and are enjoying catching up with family and friends that we missed so dearly. what a beautiful time to be back in minnesota - we love the fall colors and cool temps! we plan to continue blogging about life, work, our love for china...and anything else exciting going on in our lives, so feel free to continue tuning in.

love, jon & elissa

bust a move

people dance here a lot - ain't no shame in that.

breathless

in so many ways, this word for me describes the entire 5 day experience we had up near zhongdian. as i get older, i realize just how much like my mother i am...the 6 hour drive had me ducking under the seats, clenching the seat in front of me and leaning away from the cliffs we were driving along, to make sure the van was tilting the right direction. i tried to sleep, but at almost every bend, i jumped awake into a frenzy thinking for sure we were up on two wheels. breathless. 

once i got my feet back on solid ground, i thought i was home free. at the start of our long trek, there were donkeys available to ride up the trail, or to haul your bags for you. hah! are you kidding? we're way too tough (and proud) for that. we're athletes, we're americans, we're perfectly fine carrying our "lightly" packed backpacks. we even walked past one local donkey owner who said to us in mandarin "you DO want a donkey" ... but we laughed it off. we hired a local guide so not to get lost up in the mountains, and off we went. jon & I, our friend windy, and our tibetan guide. the air was cool & slightly crisp, and there were faint drizzles dropping on and off. we were about 20 minutes into the hike, when windy & i stopped & looked at each other with glassy eyes, bright red cheeks and hands on our hips...completely breathless. our guide (cigarette in mouth) turned around and looked down at us (because we were lagging behind him already), and insisted he carry windy's bag for her. she quickly obliged and she and i began 30 minute rotations of carrying my backpack. the transport donkeys continued to walk past us, some heavily loaded with hikers bags & some loaded with hikers themselves. i began asking every single one of them if i could rent a donkey for the rest of the (7 hour) hike. but to no avail. so i changed my tactics and started asking windy to translate, "how much to buy your donkey?!" still nothing. i was knee deep into this hike and i was going to finish it, donkey or not. 

i can't even explain how steep this trail was...it was muddy, there were 'land mines' of donkey poo everywhere, so you had to really watch your step, and if i stopped and leaned back a bit, my backpack would most certainly tip me over and i would tumble downhill for an hour. it was intense. after the first 2 hours, we approached the ironically named 'Easy TeaHouse'. it took me 10 minutes just to feel like i could breath normally again...i guzzled a bottled of water, we ate some dove chocolate, chatted with a couple fellow hikers, and just when i was thinking, 'i honestly don't know if i can make it', our guide jumped up and prompted us on. this continued for about  3 more hours. uphill.  

in the midst of my suffering, however, i began to stop and look around. though i watched my feet as i walked, i began to stop frequently so i could appreciate the vast expanse of beauty that surrounded us on all sides. i had never seen in person, anything like these sights. the mountains literally engulfed us and begged us to stare at them. closer to us, there were patches of every color of green you could imagine, and in the distance, stood boldly, and often covered by passing puffs of bright white clouds, meili mountain & her family. snow capped and touching heaven, there are two tall, almost perfectly cone shaped peaks, which are the mother & father...and between them are their 5 'children'. the sky was blue with ocassional clouds moving slowly across the sky. we just had to stop and soak it in. even between my gasps for air, i was almost brought to tears at the beauty God had plopped us in the middle of. it took my breath away. 

so we climbed up for about 5 hours...and finally hit a spot of level ground! it was quite a sight actually - the trail is part of a pilgrimage that buddhist monks make annually...so it was draped with prayer flags of every color. it felt almost like a celebration for us to enjoy this 45 minutes of flat walk...which ushered us into 2 hours of downhill!! praise the lord. as we approached our destination, i realized we had hiked to the very top of one mountain, and then down the back side, to reach our place of rest for the night - lower yubeng village - at the foot of meili mountain. our tibetan style guesthouse welcomed us happily and for a moment, we just stood there and looked at the view. it was outrageous. it was breathtaking. and that's when i fell in love with the mountains. 

what followed was two more full days, and many more hours of uphill battles, downhill reprieves, and views that couldn't be painted more perfectly. i will never forget this experience. the valleys, the mountains, the green, the snow covered peaks. the struggle it took to get there, and the reward that outweighs any sore muscle, or struggle to breath, that i could think of. check it out for yourself...

Zhongdian Trip (Part 1)

We will never be able to express (in a way that feels adequate) how amazing our latest trip to zhongdian and beyond was, but you can bet we will try!  There is no better place to begin than with the journey there.  First, we took a 7am flight that lasted all of 45 minutes to the city of Zhongdian.  This city and it’s mystical mountain ranges are thought to be the fabled paradise of Shangri-la. (For more about that, read the 1933 James Hilton novel, Lost Horizon.) Anyway, it is a sleepy mountain town at an elevation of 10,500 ft. and served as our launch point into the beautiful Mei Li Snow Mountains, the natural border with Tibet and home to Yunnan’s highest peak, Kawagebo (22,112 ft. unclimbed virgin peak).  The drive there was an adventure passing through mountain ranges and the deep gorges formed by the yangtze and mekong rivers.  Here’s a video from the journey with more about the hike to come. 

hello dali

we just returned from spending a couple days up in beautiful dali. we took the 7 (was actually 9) hour day train on the way there, and soaked up the gorgeous scenery on the way. we rumbled through countless tunnels, practiced chinese with fellow passengers that we were cozily seated next to, ate noodle bowls (of course), and played some handheld yahtzee. it was a great way to start our exit from busy city to relaxing dali. our guesthouse was nestled between the cangshan mountains and the enormous erhai lake. a close walk to the (touristy, but inviting) old town of dali made our place just perfect. we are certain we found the best breakfast (a bakery run by a german woman), and the best pizza we've had yet in china. to be honest, we did not have a single meal there that was not western! the options were so great we just had to indulge. the weather was impeccable our first day there, so we rented bikes and leisurely made our way down to the shores of the lake. it could not have been a better day. any direction we looked held a view worthy of a framed photo...we could hardly capture it. of course, jon also dragged me along on some shopping time, and we found countless cups of yunnan coffee to keep us going. time well spent.

chewing the fat

most of you have heard the phrase, "chewing the fat". for me, the phrase used to conjure up images of friends sitting around at a coffee shop discussing issues and talking about life. since living in china, the phrase has taken on a new and much more literal meaning.  it takes some getting used to as evidenced by the pictures of elissa and me enjoying a pork barbecue with friends. the longer we're here, though, the more our culinary boldness increases.  lately, we have found ourselves eating more hot pot and tofu, more spicy lamb kebobs and lotus pudding, more duck and chicken parts, more bitter roots and mystery stuffed dumplings.  and as we frequent more street-side restaurants, i'm beginning to realize, there's a reason why people eat this stuff...most of it's pretty darn good! 

the garden of kunming

most of our days here are filled with studying chinese, meeting with people, prepping for our next english lesson or just taking the extra time it requires to get normal things done here in china...but last friday, we had a little bit of time to go out and enjoy a fun site in kunming - the Expo Garden. flowers everywhere, a fantastic bonsai garden that even mr. miyagi would appreciate, and dozens of wonderful little corners to sit and enjoy the great day together in kunming. jon especially enjoyed the beautiful hanging baskets (see photo). and it didn't even rain...until we got home.

cheapa

although it is quickly becoming more and more expensive to live in china, there are some things that are still so cheap that i do a double-take every time i hear the price.  take for instance this bunch of flowers that elissa is holding.  these 3 dozen roses put a real dent in my wallet at a whopping 8 yuan! (that's a buck twenty-five for those of you without a currency converter handy.) at that price every man can be a hero!  Anyway, in case you're interested, here's some other notable cheap stuff...

big dinner for 2 with plenty of leftovers - 4 dollars

one hour hair wash, head massage and haircut - 2 bucks

new pair of kicks - 5 big ones

16oz Coke - 35 cents

cab ride across town - 2 big d's

tenwest english camp

Originally, we were going to bring a team over here to run this camp, but since that didn't work, we basically had 3 teachers, and the two of us to run the whole sha-bang. so jon and two other american guys shared the classroom teaching, while i managed all the afternoon & evening activities (of course i recruited jon as my sidekick).  with our past castaway camp and youth camp experiences to glean from, we created some memorable moments for the kids - our own tenwest olympic games, an afternoon of relay races, and of course an amazing race around camp. we also had a movie night, a game night and a chinese favorite, the talent show - complete with fashion show of the guys dressed in the girls clothes...very interesting. the weather cooperated every day, and it only rained our last day there. we are so thankful for some small seeds that were planted as well - and hope to maintain those relationships. 

 

  

tenwest

picture with me for a minute, if you will...large stones as chairs, old cardboard boxes balancing on knees as desktops, no chalk boards or projectors and early morning classes by candlelight ...this is NOT tenwest! Many of you have been here, so you can picture the big orange logo outside the door, those blue desks that threaten to bust every time you sit down, and the packed elevator on the way up to the 20th floor. So for those of you that haven't seen, here are some pics of the place we teach our english class every thursday morning. (pics: views from the bottom, view from the 20th floor, and my fav student. her english name is Go-Go, after her favorite chinese cartoon character. she is actually albert's niece.) it's a wonderful facility and we love our students!

 

taxi

after teaching last night at tenwest, liss and i were just planning on taking a regular taxi home, but when we walked out of the building there were a bunch of three wheeled motor scooter cabs there.  it had been a while since we'd seen one and it only took us a second to remember that these are the little things that make living here an adventure.  So we agreed on a price with the driver and off we went on what basically amounts to a garden cart pulled behind a motorcycle.  I was giving our driver the benefit of the doubt when at first he took a different route than i would have, but then when we took the freeway on-ramp, I knew it was time to spring to action!  i told him to turn around and that i knew the way.  He agreed and quickly turned us around and headed back down the on-ramp in the dark playing chicken with real cars!  Our little adventure was really seeming like a bad idea...and it only got worse when he went back up the off-ramp on the other side and hit a biker at the top.  No biggie though.  we just kept plugging away and eventually made it home safely.  just got us thinking though...maybe the regular taxis here are adventurous enough.   

sorry!

hey, don't lose faith in us!  we are gonna get back on track with the blog again.  we have had an action packed 10 days or so with my parents visiting from PA.  it has been so much fun to share life here with them.  we have been all over kunming and even made time for a 4 day mini-trip to beijing to see the great wall, forbidden city, summer palace and of course shop in good old hong qiao market!  In between the meals and travel and work and shopping we have definitely slacked a bit with our writing.  sorry! We intend to change that so keep checking!!  it means a lot to hear that people are interested in what's going on with us and reading!  peace and love to you all.

cafe

I closed the silver spoon tonight as the "veteran".  It's funny how coffee shops always throw people into closing before they fully know how to close.  I think it's the "experience is the best teacher" theory because as much and as good as they can train you, it all goes to mush when you're on your own.  No big deal though cause I figured it out tonight without a whole lot of issues.  I must admit there is something about slinging drinks (one for me, one for the customer, one for me, another one for me), dishing out desserts, closing the register, doing dishes, mopping floors and cleaning espresso machines that makes me a bit nostalgic.  I can't help but think back to espresso royale on hennepin and 13th.  I absolutely love that shop and thinking about it always brings to mind two people...Elissa and Kip.  I met them both there.  One will be in my life forever, the other was there for a season. I really hope i was a factor in Kip's life for that season. anyway, here's your pensive cafe thought for the day: you really never know when people are going to move in and out of your life...be a factor and make a difference while you can. 

just like home

this past weekend we had a night on the town with a few american (and one cali-british) friends. we met at the movie theater downtown to see Hancock, in english!  It was wonderful, and just like home...except the A/C was broken in the theater, and our bucket of popcorn was soaked in sugar instead of butter. After the flick, we walked over to McDonald's for some grub. Burgers, fries & cokes, just like home...except the double fish fillet sandwich was smothered in wasabi. We needed to finish the night off with something sweet, a McD's soft serve ice cream cone, just like home...except they wouldn't serve it to us. (they had cones, they had vanilla ice cream, but for only china knows, they wouldn't put the two together. we could order the ice cream in a sundae form, or a cone with kiwi swirl gel ice cream on it.) Ah China, just like home...except not. 

anniversary

we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary last week here in china with cinnamon rolls for breakfast followed by an hour long hair wash and head massage, quesadillas for lunch, pizza for dinner and an hour long foot massage to cap it all off.  The funny thing is the most expensive thing that day was the quesadillas at 3 bucks.  while we're on the anniversary, I have to say that i feel like the most blessed man in the world to be able to share this whole china experience with my best friend who also happens to be the most incredible wife anyone could ask for...here's to elissa.

english class

we taught our second english lesson at tenwest this morning.  we are really having fun with our students.  last week we gave one of them the english name, "peter" (you're welcome hallstrom.) we thought we were doing a pretty good job of teaching until we started an exercise where we showed the students pictures and had them describe what they saw.  we showed them the following picture of our friend chris bechtel and the two sentences they came up with were, " he is very strong." and "he is wearing a beautiful and cool hat."  apparently, we have to work a little harder teaching them vocabulary cause i'm just not seeing it.  

land of eternal...rain.

we've gloated about kunming being the land of eternal spring with clear skies and sunshine, but so far, the joke's been on us. the past couple weeks have been very seattle-esque, minus the city drainage system to handle the water (see photos). however, on a good note, today the sun was bright, warm and wonderful.

the destination of our journey

you've seen the journey we took to get there...now we want to tell you the truly meaningful stuff. our hike took us to a village of about 20 people, all infected with leprosy. in addition to these people, there is one female doctor and one cook who live there that care for the sick. it was such a beautiful thing to see people who were once tossed aside by their communities, friends and even families, finally be cared for and showered with the love they so much deserve. our friend that works for habitat for humanity led us there, as they have re-built homes for the village. we cooked lunch for them, spent time with them, sang a few songs, and just sat and smiled with them. it was an afternoon of joy and we loved every minute of it. jon gained a buddy (photo) who stuck with him most of the day, i helped the women cook enormous bowls of tofu ball soup (photo), and the guy in the 3rd photo was the funny guy of the group - he liked to make goofy faces for our camera, and had us all laughing at his precious sense of humor that he's maintained through all of his trials. not to mention that the doctor & cook who care for these people full time, do it all voluntarily because they are just that amazing. True heros. What a spectacular day.  

> Read a great article here about the village (written by our friend windy!)

saturday stroll

Although we have only had 3, this weekend was the best yet!  It started out with a really great hike to a village about an hour and a half north of Kunming.  the village was a very special place and we plan to share much more about it in our next post.  The hike itself was quite interesting and we put together a little video to share the experience. Notice all of the different people pointing in the pictures...that's cause nobody knew where the village was!  What was supposed to be a 20 minute hike up the path turned into an hour of bushwhacking and trapsing through corn fields.  We did make it and had a great time with our new chinese hiking buddies!

small victories

Liss and I both feel like we are generally pretty efficient people.  Liss especially can whip up a task list and start blazing through it, crossing things off before you can blink.  We're finding that the China version of Jon and Liss is a little less productive, though....at least for now. Little things that should be so simple, take forever to check off of the list because of the uncertainty that comes with doing things for the first time.  "Buy a notebook" is part of an easy Target run in the states, so we can't figure out why it made itself at home on our to do list for 2 days.  I guess that's life though, when you try something new and different.  Even though we are not quite up to speed, every day we are learning and expanding our experience.  For now, we invite you to celebrate our small victories with us....grocery shopping at the market, charging the scooter, ordering (chinese) food, finding our way across town, making our first meal at home, locating a tennis court, buying a map, finding the park, learning new words, making friends, and of course...buying a notebook.

lost in translation

last night liss and i decided to go out for dinner.  you might ask us if we had fried rice or steamed vegetables or chicken and cashews or smelly tofu, cause hey we're in china, right? Well, after considering our options, we decided to really spread our culinary wings. We strolled right on by the street vendors and two-butt kitchens, past the tiny one room restaurants and straight on to...pizza hut.  yep, i'm sorry to say, it's true. The funny thing is i think we actually have done better ordering in the chinese restaurants. We were ok until our waitress came back to inform us that there were no more "pan" pizzas available.  That sent us and her into a semi-communicative frenzy of menu pointing, page flipping, broken chinese, blank looks, nervous laughs, and "ting bu dongs".  (that means i hear but don't understand.) With a degree of success, we waited anxiously to see what would come from the kitchen.  To our amazement we got the pepperoni pizza we ordered! Upon further review, though, we realized that through all of our antics, we are pretty sure we ordered a pizza with exactly one solitary piece of pepperoni on each of the 9 slices...snobby foreigners.  

transportation

we don't have any kids yet, so the minivan just felt wrong. hot red scooter just seemed right. we've already ventured around town and jon hasn't dumped me off the back once yet!

  

let's get physical

these are just a few highlights from a 2 hour experience that we will not soon forget...

1. blood test: anyone that knows me well, knows that i have a problem with needles...giving blood in the US is a bad experience...i don't even have a category for this one. they took not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR vials of blood in one shot. i almost passed out.

2. EKG: reminiscent of a jack bauer torture scene - stark white room, one doc, 6 probes around your heart, and metal ankle and wrist clamps...chloe, help!

3. urine test: you try carrying a lid-less plastic dixie sized cup full of pee down a hallway past other people and sliding it across the counter...makes the spoon and egg camp game feel like a walk in the park.

4. X-Ray: doc playin solitaire upon entering the room...nuff said

...and i grew up 2 miles from the world famous mayo clinic. 

New Territory

Wednesday we took sam and katy to the airport and said goodbye. It was kind of surreal because so many times it has been the other way around.  I could only dwell on the strangeness of the moment for about 4 minutes though because of the task at hand...driving their van home from the airport in kunming traffic!  Sam told me to use the third ring road because it would be the easiest and have the least traffic and all i would need to do is turn right out of the airport and bada bing bada boom...we’d be home.  It seemed easy enough, plus we had an ace in the hole.  Paul, a chinese friend of sam’s came with us just to be safe.  So i turned right after leaving the airport and bada bing bada...what the?!?...Paul didn’t know where we were either.  We eventually did make it home a few wrong turns and tense moments later, but not without vowing to park that car for the next four months and lose the keys.   Anyway, when we got home we were both struck with how absolutely quiet the house was.  I am not sure we were prepared for the lonely pangs that silence could bring.  Liss put it best when she compared it to the feeling you have when your parents leave after dropping you off at your college dorm freshmen year.  You know it’s gonna be incredible, but it takes some adjusting.  

We're here!

Hello from rainy Kunming. We arrived here safely this afternoon and we're just trying to stay awake a couple more hours so we can sleep well tonight! It was a smooth trip over here and we've already had our first latte from the Silver Spoon Cafe! 

checks and mates

Our last few days have been a strange combination of frenetic last minute preparations and meaningful goodbyes. It seems like we are constantly dancing back and forth between checking off the lists in task mode and enjoying our incredible friends and relatives in people mode. People mode is way more fun and Liss and I have enjoyed lots of great time with family and friends...Thanks! We love you all.

take off: june 13th

loks like we will be taking off on friday, june 13th - one week to go! We'll post regular updates here to keep you up to speed on what we're doing in china! write us any time - we will miss all of you dearly!