dalat,vietnam

well, we are still in vietnam, but getting close to the end. after hue, we went to hoi an and then to nha trang and now we are in dalat. nha trang was good, we spent one day on the beach and the other soaking in mud and hot springs. so relaxing, but soooo resorty!!! i think i was glad to move on, but have dalat to be a bit resorty as well, except its in the mountains and so beautiful.
the man who owned the hotel in nha trang was extremely friendly and one of my favorite mornings was chatting with him. he and his family had quite an interesting life story. he not only wanted to share his life, but was interested in ours as well. its so great when you are traveling to meet someone so genuinely kind. for the most part vietnamese people are wonderful, but many are out to get our money and its a constant hassle in the streets. its also nice to have such a nice, stable, and sane place to sleep, because the lady who works at the hotel we are at now is psycho!
so we arrive and she tells us $8 (american) for the room and we say no $5 (this is why it is so exhausting to travel and live in asia, you have to bargain for everything!). we go back and forth and i insist that $5 is the most we will pay. (yes $5 for both of us!! so cheap here...) anyway, she shows us one room, but after deciding on $5 she puts us in another room. the room is the same, however its on the first floor right by the door and the lobby where people sit and chat. i make a comment to susan that i hope it isn't too noisy, but for $5 we'll take it. the lady leaves and we begin to relax for a bit before we head for the day. 20 minutes later there is a knock on the door and the woman asks us to move rooms, in fact, insists that we do because it'll be much to noisy where we are..... ??? k, so we move.
all the while, she is pushing us to buy a tour that the hotel offers. we have only been in town for like 10 minutes and keep saying, we haven't decided, we'll look later..... oh yeah, on our way into town we met a guy selling motorbike tours and he was an "independent agent" we'll say, so we were interested in patronizing the local man rather than this huge tourist maze they have going on here. soooooooooooo, we've changed rooms and are extremely irritated with this pushy woman, but are ready to settle in and go explore.
"side note": not only is this woman pushing her damned tours, but there is meek little woman following her offering to do our laundry..... really, every 5 minutes she says she can do our laundry and every 5 minutes we have to say no, we just had it done. i saw this woman 4 times today and she asked me every time.... white people, we all look the same.......
ok, so we leave the hotel, but not without this woman attacking us once more. we finally escape to do some errands and decide to go back and talk with the man on the square. i once again bargain a price (not a very good one, but i think i'm catching on to this negotiating crap) and he says he'll pick us up at 8:30 at the hotel. great! deal is done.(this is how things are done here, you have to be careful, but its really safe) we go back to the hotel and get our key from the front desk hoping that crazy lady won't notice us, but she comes running to the front desk and insists that she'll have 2 motorcycles pick us up in the morning we just have to tell her what time. i say, sorry, we've already made plans. and she says "with who? why didn't you buy one from us?". she has this disgusted, sad, insulted look on her face, and i think who the hell is this lady? i try to make it sound like we were meeting another friend and they had already booked the trip, but i couldn't lie, so i just said "its ok, it doesn't matter, its no big deal".... now, i'm not sure why i said that, because i couldn't tell what emotion this lady was feeling. i come to find out, it insult and disgust, because every time susan and i have seen her since she gives us this disapproving look and makes us feel totally uncomfortable.
the story doesn't end there.......................
we get up this morining about 7:30 to get ready for the day and there is a knock on the door. susan and i look at each other with confusion... i answer the door and its HER. i'm really, really pissed off, cuz i'm sure she's going to either try and sell me something or tell me off for not booking a damned tour with her or she's kicking us out.
nope, she asks us to move rooms again...... she gives us some story and walks away in a hurry, scared i'm sure that susan and i will check out right then or not pay at all. so anyway, we move rooms and whose in their cleaning? the laundry lady!!! she's so sweet, but come on, you have to know that we are the girls who have been 3 different freakin' rooms and that you've already asked 50 freakin' times about the laundry. apparently not, cuz she proceeded to ask me four times today. ugh! so that's my rant on vietnam. not bad for 10 days of traveling so far. there definitely have been other annoyances, but similar to those in china, so i'm better able to overlook them. if you ever come to dalat, vietnam DO NOT STAY AT THE PEACE 2 HOTEL. the woman is crazy and she will hassle you and make you crazy..... oh, and the moto guide we had was so great i'm so glad we went with him. he even took us to a com chay or vegetarian restaurant afterwards and bought us persimmons from the roadside.
today we also met a monk they nicknamed the "crazy monk" because he lives in a pagoda by himself and is an artist. an amazing artist actually. its been one of the highlights of the trip. we went in and immediately he sat us down and had us help him translate a poem from vietnamese into "good" english so he could better explain it to people. we took quite a while and he told us that if we were poets, we would understand and know the words right away... ha! anyway, he was really great and not actually crazy. most of the money he makes from his art he gives to charities and he has art shows all over the world. i have pictures, i'll try to get them up soon. the internet here is really crap. whooooo, this is long and i'm tired... i'll write again soon, probably from cambodia!!!! hope all are well.
peace nrj

hue,vietnam

ok, this is the third time i've tried to post something, so its gonna be short. vietnam is great. hue is amazing!! the weather is warm, it smells good, and the food is great. i highly recommend traveling here. wish you all were here.
peace,love, and vietnam

Han Oi, Vietnam

Susan and i are having a great time in Vietnam. Han oi is so great! it smells better, the bathrooms are cleaner, and nobody stares at us cuz we are foreign. i imagine that has to do with the mass amounts of foreigners here, but its nice to blend in...... han oi even has teeeny tiiiny cats in teeeny tiiiny sweaters. no joke! wish i could've gotten a photo, but wasn't quick enough. in fact there are many teeeny tiiiiny cats tied to strings here. we went for a tour of halong bay yesterday and today, and then are getting on a bus in a few minutes to head south to Hue. can't wait for warmer weather!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! too tired and not enough time for the deatails. will write more when we are stationary for a couple of days.
peace, love, and baguettes p.s. because of the french influence in the north, there are baguettes
and amazing pastries everywhere. i love vietnam!

susan and i are on the road

on the bus
Originally uploaded by sbucha004.

this is susan the girl i'm traveling with.....
we left shenzhen saturday night at around 7 p.m. and arrived in nanning,china at around 5:30 am., oh yeah it was an overnight bus. we stopped at the most amazing and the cleanest rest stop i have ever seen!! even in the u.s. a far cry from the hole i had to pee in a couple of months ago, before getting on the wrong bus...
anyway, we had to get to nanning to get a train to vietnam. there was no train yesterday, so we've been hanging out here for a couple of days. our train leaves for han oi, vietnam tonight at 9:15..... more overnight traveling!
last night we were bored and seeing as our room is as freezing as it is inside we decided to go for a walk and get some tea. we got tea and walked to a park nearby to watch some people ballroom dance. it was so nice to watch everyone fluttering about....
people in nanning have proved to be soooo much nicer than in shenzhen, so some people began chatting with us. in chinese of course... susan fortunately speaks chinese, so pretty soon, we had a crowd around us. it was like "hey they're foreign and they can talk to us". it was so fun. people were really nice. i can't believe how absolutely different people are here than in shenzhen. people back there are mean and angry and in a hurry... nanning is much more laid back, much less worried about who they are screwing over to get more money. (i really need a break from shenzhen).
so far so good! can't wait to get to vietnam where it'll be warm.
i'd also like to say hello to patti who is in australia right now. i hope she can get a chance to read this, since i can't. hope you are having a great time!
hope everyone is well. more later.......

rooster heads

chicken head
Originally uploaded by sbucha004.

this is a display at a calvin klein store somewhere in hong kong... as i mentioned before we are approaching the year of the rooster and apparently calvin klein was feeling festive and thinking their clothes would look really good on manequins with rooster heads... i'm a little frightened actually, but i'm all for being festive.
i leave on saturday for a glorious month of traveling.... i'm traveling with my friend susan (she's the one behind me in the escalator picture). we are doing it true travelin' style by taking a bus across southern china to nanning in guanxi province and then taking another bus or train to vietnam. i was a little annoyed by this decision this morning, however it is much cheaper and really overnight bus trips in china make for the best stories...... we will be meeting up with people from our program on the way, but no set plans....
i will update this along the way and will hopefully be able to see it myself. have i mentioned that the powers that be in beijing will not let me view my blog, but i can still post!?!?? big brother watches my every move here. (mao's chilren in this case)
no developments in the broom closet case. did i mention that they have moved out? the room is still locked but the stuff is gone including MY MOP AND BROOM. that's all for now, i'm going to my apartment and unthawing in front of my heater. its cold again and raining!!!!!!!!!! hope everyone is doing well.
all my love
nrj
"a good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving"~lao tzu

hooray its the lunar new year!!! (feb 9th)

abstract escalator
Originally uploaded by sbucha004.

this is my new year celebration pose. i'm not only excted for the lunar new year(it be the year of the rooster), but i;m off for 5 weeks and will be traveling around southeast asia soon. today was my last day of "work" which entailed giving a speech to the entire school, inviting them to my new office for english conversation and cultural exchange. so many people! not sure i'll ever speak in front of a crowd that large ever again. everyone seems pleased though and i wore my cui yuan uniform proudly! have i mentioned that we finally got our uniforms? the pants of course don't fit, but patti and i are now ready to take on corporate america. our suits alone can get us a good job.
a new mexican restaraunt opened up here last week. oh sweet cheese and salsa!! its amazing how much i miss mexican food. its quite the hot spot for all shenzhen expats.
i met with an american professor and his wife and a chinese man last night, to help with a guide book they are writing. they saw my picture in the paper and called the school to ask if i could give any suggestions for their book. it seems really great, but is in the very early stages, so i'm not sure if it'll get published before i leave............ not sure what credit i'll get either, but maybe a mention under contributors?? the chinese man also designs mirrors for this glass company that makes lead-free mirrors (hooray for environmental and health safety). he gave me some mirrors and asked if i could give input on some of his designs sometimes. their biggest market is europe, so he wanted a western pointt of view. mostly i think he wants to practice english, but i got a free mirror out of the deal. anyway, this entry's a lil dry, but i'm really tired and pre occupied with making travel plans! (my life is soooo horrible) maybe something will happen today that's more exciting...... i'm eating mexican food, that's exciting right?

morning exercises,stolen purses, forgotten broom closets

morning exercises
Originally uploaded by sbucha004.

this photo is of morning excercises at a primary school my friend susan teaches at. (i've stolen all these pictures from her website, i'm still trying to figure out this techno crap) anyway, they do this at every school every morning, including the primary school i live next to.... the one that plays "jingle bells" as their bell to change classes everyday, all year long, even on saturday and sundays. have i mentioned that?
now, for the sad news, i didn't mention this when i wrote before about the wedding, but my purse was stolen at the wedding! right from the very chair i was sitting in. it was the end of the evening and everyone was leaving. i turned around to take a photo and reached back to grab my purse and it was gone!!!!! luckily, i had my camera and my keys in my coat pocket. the purse was very small, more like a little pouch, but i had 200 rmb in it and my chapstick... i can't decide which one i miss more???
never fear living in china will always provide comic relief and the more i think about this, the funnier it is. patti and i live on the top floor of our building. if you are facing our front door, there is a wee staircase to the left and at the top is a wee room that is(was) quite disgusting, but was a good place for storing our brooms and mop and bucket. (our school gave us about 10 brooms, so they really needed a room of their own). anyway, one day i start cleaning and get everything ready to be swept and mopped. i of course need the broom and mop/bucket, so i walk out the front door, up the tiny staircase and notice there is a padlock on the door, which wasn't there before and there are only two apartments on each floor and i know the family across the hall doesn't use the room. anyway, i'm mad cause i'm all ready to clean, but i pull on the lock and it comes open... i open the door, look inside and find.............................................................. the room had been cleaned out and someone is living in there!?!?! what the hell? the room was so tidy and there was a cot, a small table with a lamp and house shoes next to the bed. AND they gotten rid of our broom collection only to be using the one they kept and the mop and bucket which was full of water. i couldn't believe it!
so, since this is china and nothing is private, i decide to use MY mop and broom and such. i take the broom, sweep the apartment and go back up to get the mop. well, when i scoot it towards me to pick it up, i accidentally slosh the water everywhere and spills all over the floor.... eeekkk. oh well, they shouldn't have comadeered my broom closet! so i kind of mop up the excess water, but think if i leave some maybe they'll get the hint.... well they haven't and actally i've never seen or heard anyone up there, so i'm not sure they still live there. i haven't been up since, but my apartment is nasty so i'm thinking of making a trip this weekend... i'll let everyone know how it turns out.
i told my contact teacher and he started cracking up.... "someone is living there?" that is the foreign teahcers room, not someone's house"... not sure what he's gonna do about it. i don't want them to be kicked out of their closet house, i just want a clean apartment.

chinese hip hop

at true colors
Originally uploaded by sbucha004.

this is at a club called true colors in shenzhen, we were in the hip hop room and this was one of the bands. i don't think they were so much hip hop, but the break dancers afterwards, oh man, if only i had pictures.....they were quite good.

lan kwai fong at new year

lan kwai fong at new year
Originally uploaded by sbucha004.

this is a picture of new years in hong kong. the street is called lan kwai fong.... its a popular spot for westerners, however there was a good mix on new years.... sooooo crowded and cold!! it was the coldest new year's in 20 years. there is no central heat in most places in china and as far as i know hong kong either (in the south its not really necessary,usually). we stayed at the ywca, which was really nice however extremely cold, my bones ached when i woke up in the morning cuz i was so cold. my friend amy comes by susan and i's room in the morning opens, this big cabinet and says, look what i just found this morning.....two huge extra blankets. not quite sure how i feel about that, next time i'll certainly search the room up and down.

keeping my options open

the title of this blog is also the name of the article about me that was in the english newspaper here in shenzhen. they have an expat section and they interview a person each week to feature in this section. (don't be freaked out by the title "expat" its just that, a title. they call every foreigner here an expat no matter what their nationality.... i think it also gives the chinese a sense of pride that people would leave their own country to live in china) anyway, it was in the paper a long time ago and i was out of town when it was published, so i never actually saw it. however, a man named edward zhang saw it and has been in contact with me about a couple of projects he wants me to help him with and he sent me a copy in a christmas card. its quite funny actually.... weird funny. i don't remember writing most of the quotes and i'm sure its been edited a bit, but the last part says that i may stay in shenzhen because there are a lot of opportunities for foreigners and i'm definitley "keeping my options open". thus the title of this blog entry and the article were born. whew, long introduction.
things are well back in shenzhen. it is sooooooooooooooo cold!! there is absolutely NO central heat anywhere either. i wear long underwear, unerneath two layers along with a coat and scarf at all times. its much colder inside than out anywhere you go. in fact there have been reports of teachers teaching class fully dressed in coat, hat, scarf and mittens. the students wear mittens with the fingers cut out of the tips. its a far cry from the sweaty days of september.
went to a chinese wedding on the 2nd. it was so great!! i was hoping to see one while i was here. i think its like it is in the states in that it has traditional undertones but has been modified to these modern times. it was at a hotel in a large banquet hall. the room was decorated in traditional chinese colors, red and yellow. there was a big stage at the front and the couple marched in to the wedding march song used in the west (what's it called?) and were dressed in western wedding clothes, white dress, tux. there was one brides maid, no groomsmen. behind the couple and brides maid was a woman dressed in tradtitional chinese clothes with a tradtional headdress. the couple marched to the stage and faced the guests. now, because most people aren't christians in china, there was no minister, preacher,father, reverend,rabbi,or the such, there was however an m.c. yes, a master of ceremonies. he told jokes, wished the couple well, made us laugh embarassed the bride and groom, it was so fun! then a "party" member of the communist variety came to the front and read their marriage license aloud to make it "official". then people gave speeches, only a few, but the line up included patti and i...... we were told this might happen, but of course had nothing prepared, so we had to go to the front and give a speech about a couple we don't even know while our contact teacher translated into chinese. another example of being exploited for our foriegness..... quite funny, but very weird. after the speeches the couples bowed to their parents and elders in the family (3 times each) then they had a toast, then they both bit out of an apple hanging from a string that the girl dressed in traditional chinese clothing held.... and that was it, time to eat! oh yeah, my contact teacher's daughter played the violin after the speeches.
ok, so next we eat and first they turn off the lights. then a group of waiters and waitresses line up along the carpet the couple marched down holding platters with baby pigs that are all flat on the plate but still have the head and in the eye sockets are red blinking lights and inside the mouth is the battery pack operating the lights!! i wasn't sure if i should laugh or be worried, but no one else seemed freaked out, so i kept my cool. i have pictures, i'll try to get them up on the web soon..... that was about it, it was over in a couple hours really. the bride changed clothes three times. after the white gown she wore a red silk traditional chinese dress and then she put on a what looked like a wedding gown, but was more of a seafoam color. i was so honored to have been invited. it wasn't entirely "traditional", but as traditional as things remain here in shenzhen.
well, i've been interuppted about 3 times since beginning this, so i'm going to stop here cuz my flow's been disrupted. i know there is more tell, so i'll write more later, when its not so busy here........ happy new year!