our holiday 'hike'

Why is 2010 going by so quickly?! We can hardly believe it is already March, but as we look back at the first few months of the year, I guess we have been busy. We talked about Chinese New Year in our last newsletter, and how it was a sweet little re-start of the year. We had a pretty cool time celebrating New Year’s Eve with some of our friends, watching fireworks light up the sky all over town from the 27th floor. The fireworks continued every night for the whole week, so it was loads of fun.

We also had a chance during the holiday to take a little hike with some of our friends. What we are learning is that we need to get more involved in the research and planning of these hikes, rather than letting all of our Chinese friends plan them. At first, we were supposed to go camping for a couple nights, but then it went down to one night, and eventually was reduced to an afternoon hike…which was really like an afternoon walk…in a park…with a restaurant...where we played mahjong and ping pong before and afterwards. So again, our dreams of really ‘getting out there’ turned into something so very different. It’s always a fun time, don’t get me wrong…just usually never what we imagined. Next hike, we will be the leaders and there will not be a restaurant for at least 25 miles around us.

happy valentines day...everyone!

We are just wrapping up our first experience of the week long celebration of Chinese New Year. It has been really fun to see the joy and excitement of our Chinese friends during this time as nearly everyone travels to their hometown to visit family, share extravagant dinners, give gifts and light lots and lots of fireworks. Because of the great Chinese migration to big cities like Kunming for work, when Chinese New Year happens, all the workers go home to their villages leaving things really quiet around here...by China standards at least. With the exception of a few markets and grocery stores, nearly every other store, shop and stand has been shut down for about 10 days. We were so amazed by the ghost town feel on New Year's Eve (February 13) that we let ourselves be fooled into thinking that New Year's Day (aka Valentines's Day this year) would be quiet as well. Not so fast, silly foreigners! Clouded by visions of ourselves lounging on a big blanket in a grassy park around Lake Calhoun (Minneapolis), Elissa and I planned a romantic Valentines Day picnic around Green Lake (Kunming). "We may have the whole park to ourselves," we uttered in sheer blissful ignorance.

As our pictures can attest, we were not on a blanket, there were no patches of grass and we were definitely not alone. All in all, though, it was perfect. We laughed a lot, loved being together and had a great Valentine's Day picnic with all of our friends.

the journey back to china

After a really great time in the US with our family & friends, we began the journey back to our beloved China. Mom dropped us off at the airport in plenty of time, and as we said our tearful ‘see you later’s’ (we don’t like goodbye’s), we were just about 2 hours away from departing Minneapolis….or so we thought. We savored our last Starbuck’s as we boarded the 747 and got all situated for the 11 hours to Tokyo. It’s a whirlwind of emotions to drop in and out of the people’s lives that you love so much, and leaving is just never easy.

After many announcements and a couple false starts, we were informed that our plane had some mechanical issues, and we would have to spend one more night in Minnesota. We lugged ourselves off the plane and back inside the terminal where we began waiting in lines to re-book, get meal and hotel vouchers and make plans to spend one more night in MN. People were not happy. We generally were not thrilled with the delay, because we had mentally prepared for the big trip back. But we quickly turned our misfortune into a wonderful memory, as we planned one final evening together in America. Complete with one last trip to the MOA, one last night of NFL football, and one more morning Starbuck’s latte, it really wasn’t too bad a deal after all.

efficiency, kunming style

1:52 remembered that i need my passport to pick up an international package. ran back up 5 flights to our house to get it.

1:57 scooter fully charged, postal slip in hand, ready to find this place! excited that it’s not all the way to Beijing Rd. where we usually pick these up.

1:59 asked my first traffic cop if he knew the address on my package slip. his short and unhelpful response was, “nihojjrrrrrnnr”. after the third try, moved on.

2:09 asked two nice gentleman on the street if they knew. one pointed north and one pointed east. felt good that at least i had a quadrant. they could have pointed north and south.

2:18 chose north and lo and behold there in front of me was the post office! feeling good until i was told by the mail carrier that I should have gone east.

2:27 asked a grandma who knew the place. gotta be close now.

2:33 found the place and handed them my slip. was asked to show my passport and sign the slip. obliged and was promptly given new slip. asked where my box was. apparently the slip I had was only the slip to get my new slip.

2:39 back on the road, headed all the way to Beijing Rd. where we usually pick these up.

2:59 arrived at the Post Office and finally received our package...yes! back on the scooter, package in hand.

3:17 giddy with success, stopped to pick up cash at the ATM. card didn’t work. moved on.

3:25 home at last, package in hand, swimming in homestyle popcorn, riesens and coffee!

btw: thanks mom and dad!

the new "familiar"

We just got back from a quick trip down to Sapa, Vietnam. Many people in Sapa spoke English, but of course we also found ourselves in situations where nobody did. Naturally, we attempted our Mandarin on the Vietnamese people...didn't work so well. Just because they share a border with China, doesn't mean they all have to share languages. We laughed at ourselves as we continually thanked people, said hello and tried to get prices in Mandarin. After just about five months of living here in China, we actually feel like we're getting along really well with our language and communication. And although we really enjoyed the incredible time we had in Sapa (see photos...there was much to enjoy!), as we made the walk back across the bridge to the Chinese side, we felt a huge amount of excitement to get back where people could understand us. It was definitely good to be back where things are familiar...almost immediately got hit by a big gob of spit, the bus we wanted to take was broken down so we had to wait 2 hours for the next one and lots of people were staring and calling us 'foreigners'...home sweet home.

joe

I am typically a starbucks guy, but the other day i had a longing for Caribou...i had just brushed my teeth and took my first sip of black gold (coffee, for those of you who aren't joseph fehlen) and WHAM...Caribou Mint Condition.

We love a lot of things about China and for the most part we do not lack, but we do miss our coffee drinks, so today reserve one sip of your grande 1 pump vanilla latte for those of us who regularly go without.

kunming commutes

When we lived in minnesota, driving to work was rather uneventful for elissa and me. On our 10 minute commute we would typically see 15-20 cars as we leisurely rolled along. If it was a crazy, day we might have to slightly adjust our steering to avoid a stray garbage can that some 7th grader forgot to bring back to the garage. (gasp!) I am aware that city commuting is a little more intense than that, but Kunming commuting is in another category altogether. Sometimes we scooter riders just smile at each other after a close call as if to say, “aren’t you just glad we’re all still alive!” You have probably heard the saying that getting there is the adventure. In Kunming it’s definitely true.

How bad can it be? Well, do you drive on the wrong side of the road in a continuous game of chicken with 4-6 million potential opponents? Do you have to doubletake at kids peeing and pooping on the sidewalk? do you jump up curbs and slide down make-shift ramps on your way through construction zones? Do you dodge big loogies as they whiz past your face? Do you lose sight of the road for seconds at a time when busses spew out enough carbon to use up all of Al Gore’s credits with a single shift?...we do.

Enjoy some of our recent photos from Kunming commutes!