California Weekend

It was a very California weekend. Yesterday, Kevin and I went around and looked at rich people houses. Not all of them, obviously. There are a lot of rich people here. There are a few normal, not-so-rich people living here, but I am still perplexed as to how they are pulling it off. It must be frustrating to be rich in California, though. You have to be rich to afford a small, normal house or a decent apartment. You would have to be super rich to live in one of the fancy houses and disgustingly wealthy for one of the mansions. Yeah, I don't think I could handle being rich. Too much pressure. You'd have to think about money all the time. And people would expect you to wear $500 purses when any old bag would do. Still, there's a lot of nice houses (and a disproportionate number of Ferrari's) around here.
We interrupted our tour to stop by the nearest In-n-Out, a really good burger chain that had about a dozen cars in the drive-thru even though it was 3:30 in the afternoon. It was the first place my friends took me when I came to visit them in California two summers ago, and it will probably be one of the first places we will take my sister Anna to when she comes to visit next month.
Tonight we watched the Oscars with some friends. I had never watched the Oscars before, so that was kind of interesting. I bet all those rich famous actors and actresses don't have to get up for work tomorrow morning. They'll be partying the night away not even dreading the fast approaching Monday. I'm jealous of them for that. Please tell me - does anyone have any salve that makes Monday less jarring? I'm thinking that we really need to start some kind of really good Monday tradition so there is something to look forward to.
Un-California-like was the weather of the weekend - cool, rainy, foggy, cloudy, blah. Southern California, you are letting me down. Fortunately the forecast calls for a return to sunny 70 degree days. That's more like it.

Pollution, Steroids, and the Internet

These are several interesting article segments from ZG Briefs, an email China news update.

[I figured they would do this. Don't worry, though, I'm sure it's only temporary. After the Olympics, I'm pollution will be back to normal.]

China to Shut Factories to Cut Air Pollution Before Olympics (February 9, 2008, Bloomberg News)

China will shut coal-fired power plants, cement factories and chemical manufacturers near Beijing to reduce pollution before the Olympic Games in August. Operators of these sites have been told they will be closed 30 days before the Olympics begin Aug. 8 in Beijing, said energy newsletter publisher Platts, citing unidentified people. Ten ``major polluters'' have already been shut and more than 15,000 old buses and taxis in both Beijing and Tianjin have been pulled off the streets, the State Environmental Protection Administration said in a statement on its Web site dated Feb. 1. ``The Olympics are the main theme this year so all the companies will go in line with the government's directives on the environment,'' said Zhou Xizeng, an equity analyst who covers steel companies at Citic Securities Co. in Beijing. ``Summer is a good time to cut supply because it isn't a peak season traditionally.''

[ Sometimes I think I'd like to get into the organic, no preservatives, limited processed foods thing. But I know that I'm just going to go back to China and who knows what will be in my food. Since I don't have much control over it anyway, maybe it's better just not to think about it too much.]

Wary US Olympians will bring own food to China (February 9, 2008, The New York Times, by Ben Shpigel)

When a caterer working for the United States Olympic Committee went to a supermarket in China last year, he encountered a piece of chicken — half of a breast — that measured 14 inches. “Enough to feed a family of eight,” said Frank Puleo, a caterer from Staten Island who has traveled to China to handle food-related issues. “We had it tested and it was so full of steroids that we never could have given it to athletes. They all would have tested positive.”

[It's just interesting how fast things are developing and expanding.]

95% of villages to have access to broadband service in 2008 (February 10, 2008, Xinhua)

China's information industry authority plans to expand broadband service to more than 95 percent of the nation's villages in 2008. Some of the central and eastern provinces will have all their townships and villages covered by broadband service by the end of this year, according to the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Telephone service will be expanded further in the rural areas, the ministry said on Sunday, which vowed a more extensive Internet connection to the rural areas with better quality. Of late some 99.5 percent of the country's villages have access to telephone links, and the broadband connection have reached 92 percent of the villages nationwide. Last year, 73 million people were added to the nation's total netizen population. Of the increment, 29.17 million, or 40 percent,lived in rural areas. This brought the number of rural Internet users to 52.62 million at the end of 2007, up 127.7 percent year-on-year. The rate was much higher than the 38.2 percent for urban areas.

January

My sister Anna just sent me a kindly suggestion that I should update my blog. I would like to let her know that I was already planning to that, so she can't really take credit for this. It's already February thank goodness since January was a little bit of a blah month. It always is, except when you are hanging out in tropical Thailand drinking fruit smoothies. We missed Thailand this year. In the absence of Thailand, this is what has filled our time in the past month.

1. Work. There's always somebody's little kids to take care of. I have finally stopped dreaming about changing diapers and tying shoes. Kevin, however, had a nightmare last night that he had to take care of all my kids. Recently it has been the season of sickness. I was quite proud to stay healthy for three weeks (it's got to be a record) until yesterday when I was one of maybe four teachers out sick. I'm feeling a good deal better today (despite a 7am staff meeting) so hopefully it's not a long lasting thing.

2. Rain. We got an abnormal amount of rain. We essentially live in the desert, but we got full weeks of rain. While I am happy to see everything greener than normal, I have developed a particular dislike for rain. When it rains, the kids have to stay inside all day and they start getting stir crazy. They have no where to release their abundant energy except on each other. Plus, I can't bike to work when it rains. I have to leave an hour early and take the bus.

3. Football: The season finally ended. :) Kevin was very disappointed with the loss of the Cowboys. I was disappointed too because if you have to watch football, at least it's better to have someone to root for. I believe this was the first Super bowl I have actually watched. I did learn much more about football this year than ever before. Like, I never realized just how many games there were.

4. Duke! Almost three years since my last college basketball game, I watched my first (and second) Duke game. It was quite a joy. The players have all changed, so I'll have to reacquaint myself with them, but they are still the same Duke.

5. China. We got all kinds of information and paperwork about returning to China that we've started working on a little. I'll talk more about that later. Kevin has gotten to cover several Chinese related stories. We are hoping to connect with a foreign student in the area (I'm not sure if they'll be Chinese or not).

6. Lost. We are still mourning the loss of The Office, whose humor and sarcasm gave us relief in many times of stress and tension. We don't ask for much out of TV. After losing our one TV show, we were particularly glad for the return of Lost and all the new mysteries it brings.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. Like I said, it wasn't a super exciting month. And now I need to leave for work, so that's all.

The General Update

Another day, another cold. Actually, it's more of an alternation (is that a correct form?) between a good week and a sick week. Frustrating. That's what I get for working with little kids. If I were to be entirely pessimistic about my job I would summarize my days like this:
Changing diapers
Potty training
Tantrums
Mediating toy conflicts
Wiping runny noses
Incessant noise and movement
Putting on and taking off shoes, socks, coats, and dress up clothes
Knee high sinks and tables, tiny chairs, and lots of bending over
Semi-constant smell of poop (and I thought I had left that behind with my China plumbing...)

So surprisingly, besides the sick factor, there are a lot of days when I like my job. The kids are cute. There are several kids who just go around smiling almost all the time. Others run up and grab your legs. I like rubbing their backs to calm them down at nap time (anything to make them fall asleep!). Sometimes they wake up all sleepy or a little bit sad and need somebody to hold them. Sometimes they need you to run around and bang drums with them. And they are funny. There is one kid who tries to throw tantrums and he's just really bad at it. He goes off into this fake crying thing and then pauses to see who's watching or gets distracted by a toy before he remembers he was supposed to be upset. We have to laugh at him sometimes. They ride around on their tricycles with perfect displays of road rage. When one person gets hurt, everybody wants an ice pack. They expect you to be super excited when they use the potty, and you are (excited that you didn't have to change wet clothes). They wave at airplanes, lovingly harass insects, and fall down for the fun of it. They listen to story after story. They are all crazy about trains, princess dresses, and crackers.
At the end of the day, no one dies and everyone goes home to their parents. There's something satisfying in that.

Besides my job, the rest of life, besides the sick factor, is going well. We got to go back to Georgia to be with my family for Christmas. From there, we drove up to Kentucky for my friend Mallary's wedding. I had a fun time seeing a lot of college friends. We also got to spend New Years Eve with my family, after our original flight back was canceled. Now we are back, as you might have heard, it has been raining in California. We didn't get too much of the flooding and bad storms in our area, but it was still quite an event. Our Christmas tree, which survived our week-long abandonment, is quietly morphing into a January tree. January is kind of a blah month. I think more people should keep a tree around for company. Kevin and I have been married for three months and we still like each other a lot. I am best friends with my crockpot. I have a year's supply of Airborne. And there are just a few more weeks of football left.
So, yep, besides the sick factor, things are pretty good.

2 Year Olds

I'm almost finished with my second week of work. After a month of being stuck at home all day, I was starting to get pretty antsy. I was glad to finally (it seemed like finally) get a job. It is in Pasadena, conveniently only 3 miles away. It takes me an hour to get there, though, thanks to taking the bus. Public transportation isn't quite as useful here as in China. Fortunately, Kevin works nearby and can pick me up in the evenings.
I'm working with two year olds. When I told people what I was going to be doing, most of them responded with something like, "that sounds terrible." I never really imagined I could work with kids that young either, but there are advantages and disadvantages to any age. Despite the alleged "terrible twos," there are actually only a few kids that throw tantrums. There is a lot of diaper changing. I am becoming an expert diaper changer. And there is the whole potty training thing. There are a lot of noses to wipe and shoes to tie and jackets to zip. I feel like I'm bending over, squatting down, picking up, sitting on the floor, and jumping back up all the time. I am quite tired at the end of the day. Still, it's a pretty interesting age.
For one thing, they are really cute at that age. That is smart on God's part, if you ask me. Their vocabulary doubles about every week. The early twos may only be saying single words while the later ones might hold a whole conversation with you. They are so eager to observe and experience everything. Their world is still simple enough that you know why they're crying, and two minutes later they're ready to go back and play. Sometimes they just need someone to hold them or to intervene in a fight or to recognize they are a dinosaur.
There are infants through five year olds at the center, and the five year olds already seem incredibly old to me. Old and worldly and rough. Interesting how that is. I used to think I could never teach kindergarten because they are too young. I wouldn't want to stay with two year olds for the rest of my life, but it's okay for now. Meanwhile, the length of time before I could visualize being ready for my own kids gets longer and longer. I like being able to hand them off to their parents. I still need to be able to come home at the end of the day. Yes, that's a very good thing.

Parrots, Peacocks, and Pasadena

Yesterday I looked out our window to see several parrots on the telephone wire. This afternoon when Kevin and I were at a nearby park, we were distracted from our reading of The Giver by a loud flock of birds. I thought they were some kind of blackbirds, but Kevin swore they looked green. Sure enough, when they rose from the trees and flew overhead, we realized they were nothing other than a whole flock of parrots. This hardly seems like a jungle/parrot friendly environment. Local legend says that many of the parrots escaped from a 1959 bird farm fire. Some also probably escaped or were let loose by their owners. Since then, or whenever the parrots went wild, they have formed into 5 flocks –get this—a total of around 1200 birds! (According to the Parrot Project of Los Angeles) So we have parrots in Pasadena.

But then that could be fitting. In Arcadia, the next town over, wild peacocks wander the streets. When I have gone to visit the Brennans, I have seen several wandering through yards in a nearby neighborhood. Apparently they were imported from India by the founder of Arcadia in the early 20^th century and found the town a great place to live. The city of Arcadia even puts out a pamphlet entitled “Peafowl in Arcadia: Living with Arcadia’s Wild Birds.” It includes sections like “What do I do if peacocks keep returning to my yard?” and “In the Garden: Peafowls dislike these plants.”

So yes, it’s an interesting place to live.

Foreigners on a Bus Stop Bench

The midday sun beat down with surprising warmth on the metal bench at the corner bus stop. I tossed a polite half-smile to a middle-aged Hispanic woman as I sat down next to her. She shifted her shopping bags, half-smiling back, then we politely ignored each other in the courteous way of strangers. An older woman wandered over and hesitated over the seat between us. Finally, she spread her newspaper on the seat and sat down, bringing with her a slightly musty scent of unfamiliar spices. It reminded me of how people often sat on newspapers or plastic bags in China, not wanting to touch the dirty ground or public benches. As I thought about this, I wasn’t surprised to see that the woman’s newspaper was covered with Chinese characters. It struck me as funny how her actions seemed so normal to me…but then strange when I remembered we were in America.

Every half a minute the Chinese woman craned forward to see the street. Seeing her made me feel better about doing the same thing, even though I didn’t expect the bus for another 10 minutes. A young Hispanic mother pulled her stroller near the bench and a moment later overflowed into a flood of rapid Spanish, caught up immediately by the middle aged woman. I glanced incomprehensibly at their conversation. They must know each other, yet they hadn’t shown initial recognition.

After a minute, the Chinese woman beside me spoke to the middle aged woman, and it took me a minute to realize they were both speaking English, murmuring about the cost of the items they had purchased and the wondering about the bus.

I sat outside the exchange, distant and confused. Surely these two women did not know each other. They were just strangers waiting at a bus stop. They were separated by culture and language, yet they sat beside each other carrying on a comfortable, if broken, conversation. They knew something I didn’t; they had decided that courtesy to strangers meant conversation, not silence. We were in America, but people were following different rules, and I felt the sudden hesitancy of an outsider.

I pretended to be absorbed in my book, a book conspicuously full of English words. I hoped they did not think I was arrogant or cold. But maybe I was. I had that fleeting, desperate thought that this was my America. This is where I belong. I know how things work here, and they don’t have the right to change the rules.

But this wasn’t my America. I grew up in the part of America where people drive cars and don’t wait for buses. People load their groceries into their cars and drive off alone, wary of strangers. They don’t live life in public. They rush off to their individual homes and important activities and don’t have time for people who don’t speak their language or follow their rules.

When the women finished talking and craned their heads toward the street, I was glad to gather my things and escape to the approaching bus. I hoped they realized I wasn’t trying to be superior or aloof. I was just acting by rules that no longer made sense. The probably thought I belonged here, like I thought of every Chinese person in China. They probably thought of themselves as the foreigners, still adjusting to a country they’ve lived in for a year or ten years or half of a lifetime. I wanted to tell them that sometimes in your own country, you are still the one who doesn’t belong.