just when i thought i was safe

so, i went back for another round of accupuncture yesterday afternoon. this one was even more exciting than the last.... as i mentioned before, when i went into the room where they do the needles, i was greeted by two chinese men's butts... soon, i was in the same position with bottom exposed for all to see....
yesterday, my butt was much more exposed than i had ever imagined
so, the doctor i'm going to is a little famous here and was asked to go to turkey to treat the premiere.... now they call him the "premiere", but i'm not sure what his position is exactly so i can't use an official name.... i looked up possibilities, but none them were called a "premiere", so i'm not sure who it was he treated... anyway, its unimportant... what's important is that he went for a month and did such a great job, they asked him to stay for two more months to treat other people in the "premiere's" family. sooooo, he has just returned from turkey and when i went into to be treated yesterday a newspaper and video news reporter were interviewing him. his wife is a doctor there as well, so she took me to do the needles and said the doctor would do the massage when he was done with the reporters.... well, once again i have to expose my butt so they can put the needles in and this time it wasn't so bad i felt like an old pro.... as i'm lying there trying to relax, lu haibo comes in and asks if the newspaper reporters can interview me as well... i say sure thinking when i'm done someone will sit me down and talk to me... not the case... 2 minutes later i'm bombarded, ass fully exposed, by three photographers and a man with a video camera! the woman doctor had not but the herbs on the end of the needles, so this of course was a great photo op... to get the doctor treating the american patient.... i'm on my stomach trying to relax even thoug there are cameras all around me and the photographers are like look at me, look at the camera, can you smile????? i'm thinking i have about 15 needles in my ass, no i don't want to smile and if i move too much it hurts... but smile i did and i can't imagine what a ridiculous photograph that will be!! after they were done with the "photo shoot" and the treatment was complete, they set the video camera up to finish the interview. however they set up the shot, so that the doctor was standing in front of my face, but you could still see me and another woman with our needles hanging out.... i'm not sure how much you could see on any of the video or in the photographs. i had dinner with a student last night and didn't get home till after the news was over... the newspaper reporter however said he would email me the pictures he took.... after some consideration i may or may not post them here or on flikr... i don't want to scare anyone, my butt is awfully white these days... in the end, the doctor gave me an extra bit of massage and back cracking for free.. and a chinese medicine patch to stick on my back where it is sore. i'm just wondering why no one here thinks it is odd?? anyway, i'll keep you updated on the fame and misfortune of my buttocks and the doctor who cures all.
on a more normal note, i had dinner with a student last night. she wanted to ice skate, but i told her i was having trouble with my back and couldn't do anything to active or that could result in my falling very, very hard on a very, very hard surface... so anyway, we just decided on dinner. her parents drove us and on the way she says, "i remember that you like mexican food so we will go to eat mexican... i've never had it before" so sweet! and i was really excited to be with her for her first time eating it... although, its kind of crappy food. anyway, we had the quesadillas... that's the only vegetarian thing they have on the menu and she got hers with beef.... she said it was "so, so"... i felt the same way but the salsa is quite good and i was tempted to just do shots of it, but thought better of it since i was with a new friend... she did comment on how much i liked the salsa cuz i was using so much.... she thought it was too spicy.
well, i must close now i have to go eat lunch and then pack and then teach and then to hong kong for the night and to bali tomorrow!!!!! i will write more from bali...........
"one's destnation is never a place, but a new way of seeing things"~henry miller

Chinese Medicine

for those of you who don't know, i herneated a disc in my lower back a few years ago and still have problems with it from time to time.... something has seriuosly aggrivated it and i have been in about as much pain as when it first happened....usually the pain doesn't last as long as it has this time and i thought it would go away, but it hasn't so i decided to rely on the ancient art of traditional chinese medicine... i did accupuncture when i first hurt my back in colorado in 2002.... it was such a plesant, peaceful, relaxing experience and if anything, it certainly calmed me down enough to not think about the pain... at the clinic in colorado everything was quiet, sterile, serene... i was in a private room that was dimly lit with relaxing chinese music in the background. i assuming i was even lying on clean sheets.... now, why i thought it'd be the same in china i'm not sure, because it was quite the opposite experience... pleasant, but not entirely peaceful....
my contact teacher lu haibo took me as he was having neck pain and was going to be treated as well.... so he tells me knows a good doctor at an army hospital and will be happy to take me along and have the doctor take a look.. so, we arrive at the hospital, that i as i mentioned is an army hospital, so all the docotors and nurses are in army uniforms and shiny black shoes.... as we enter the clinic i have a rare moment where am i completely aware of being in china... because i've been here so long and have become accustomed to most things, i rarely think to myself, "i'm in china"... well the army uniforms and loud construction thrust me into this state of mind where i was completely aware of being in china and of all things that were different from home... the army uniforms were of course different, i've never been treated by a man who is neatly pressed and ready for battle... but the hospital itself was so different.
i believe the hospital was built during the culutrual revolution, in the early 50's, and they have just now decided to or found the money to rennovate... so instead of moving the offices during rennovations, the doctors stay where they are amongst the noise and smell of paint of chemicals.... the clinic was noisy and dusty, and smelled of fresh paint and dust... the rooms were dirty and old and so were the sheets.... the doctor was incredibly nice and comforting, but at the moment i sat down to talk with him i realized i was living in a third world country.... he couldn't find a bed for the first part of the treatment, which is a massage, so he had to do it while i was sitting in chair, which wasn't exactly comfortable, but man was it the best massage ever!!! my neck has never felt so lose and free.... i didn't even have to say much about my problem... i told him i had hurt a disc in my lower back and couldn't really move... he touches a point on my neck and i try desperately to hold back screaming in pain... and he says, "i know exactly what's wrong"... so he massages my neck and then says he'll do needles in my lower back.
after the massage he put a heating pad on my neck for about 20 minutes before i went for the needles... he leads me into a room with four beds, two occupied by men with their bare butts pierced with needles and burning herbs at the end of the needles... the room smelled wonderful.. they put a small bit of chinese herbs on the end of the needles and burn them.. this heats the needle which stays warm while in the body and smells good.. not sure if that has any effect, but it was certainly better than the caustic paint fumes. after seeing the bare butts, i realize that i too will have to bare my ass for him to put the needles in the proper place... i'm a little uncomfortable with this not only because there are strange men already in the room, but because lu haibo is there and will see my butt..... i got over it pretty quickly cuz i just wanted the pain to go away, but for a brief second i wanted to run away and pretend i was ok. anyway, i lie down on the table which is still warm and sweaty from the patient before me (they do not change the sheets) and i'm a little disgusted, but am quickly distracted by the pain of the doctor pressing on the points he thinks need to be worked on... in chinese medicine if you have a pressure point that is sore, it indicates an imbalance somewhere in the body, so the doctor works on the painful point to try and correct the imbalance.... anyway, the needles did not hurt, but him pressing on the point certainly, in the words of marvin gaye, made me wanna holla...
in the end it was quite pleasant, just not as sterile or serene as being treated at home..... these doctors do really understand something different about the human body....i think western medicine and science are amazing, but chinese medicine is a different kind of understanding....it helps to correct the entire body and to maintain health. i'll let everyone know how today goes and if i start to feel better.....
going to bali on friday!!! can't wait to do some hiking and lounging on the beach and visit some hindu temples.

thieves strike again! my friend marla had her wallet stolen on thursday which had 1400 rmb in it because she was on her way out of town for the weekend...........................
on our way to the doctor on monday lu says to me that until one visits a country you don't really know what goes on or how the culture truly is... he said there is often much propaganda by our own countries so that we will believe on country or the other to be our enemy or weaker than our own nation. (this isn't a direct quote, but pretty close, chinese english and all) but, he said, when he finally visited america he didn't find these to be true and that america seemed like a quite a nice place to be... however, (he is laughing quite hard at this point, he's a jolly guy), i come to china and our first outing his friend's stuff was stolen right in front of us and then i've had many things stolen from me as have my friends..... this was a huge, i mean huge thing for him to admit this... basically that this is a huge problem in china... very difficult and strange for a chinese person to admit that china has problems... very noble on his part to recognize this... especially to say that he didn't have many problems in the u.s...... (the u.s. has many problems as well, but i'll step up and admit it) anyway, just a side note.........hope everyone is doing well.
"one's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things" ~henry miller
p.s. the spell check never works and i don't proof read, so i apologize for any grammatical and spelling mistakes

my new friends

my new friends
Originally uploaded by morningmilk8.

my student and her friends i hung out with on sunday... my student is blythe an is in the middle

springtime fun

i feel like my posts are sometimes too negative... since i can't read them and i don't remember everything i write, i can't go back and check, but i've decided that for every complaint i have about china, i need to include at least one positive note... i think i use this as an outlet for some of my frustrations, which happen to be quite funny sometimes, so its easy to write about... anyway, today i will start on a positive note.


the rainy season has begun again in shenzhen.... this means umbrellas are absolutely necessary. it hasn't rained since october, so i haven't needed an umbrella. back when it was the fall rainy season i, being the absent minded lady i am, left so many umbrellas behind and bought so many new ones, decided i wasn't going to buy another one.. the rain would stop soon enough and i wouldn't need it anyway. in the mean time my contact teacher mr. lu haibo, gives me an umbrella. this umbrella sat in my apartment until a few weeks ago when it began to rain again. i brought the umbrella to work one day and it begins raining pretty hard before lunch and lu haibo asks me, "is this your umbrella" and i say "yes it is" and he goes on without it..... well, i take the umbrella with me to lunch and since its not raining when i leave work that day, i leave it behind.... i come to work the next day and its not there. a few minutes later lu comes in carrying the umbrella. no big deal, one thing i like about chinese culture is that everyone shares everything, even answers on tests... granted someone might not always ask and your desk will be slightly different in the morning than when you left the night before, but no big deal, cuz i use people's stuff without asking now too. anyway, he brings in the umbrella and i think no big deal i'll just take it with me this afternoon when i leave. to make a long story short, lu and i go back and forth with this umbrella for a couple of weeks. i of course am trying to keep it, but because he is chinese, i think he might have just been "sharing"..... one day when i'm on the defense with the umbrella i decide i'm just going to take it and keep it next to me at all times, i'm tired of trying to decide who gets to use it what day. however, it was raining pretty hard when i was leaving for lunch and since he had brought it in the morning, i couldn't take it. i thought it would be pretty thoughtless to just take it in such a down pour.... now this is an extremely long preface to a wee story of kindness, but in the end, i lost the umbrella fight... i had bought another one while traveling in yunnan province but at the time i didn't realize that cheaper umbrella was actually a child size one and although it is functionable, it is teeny tiny and parts of me stick out when i use it. now this is all leading up to one of my positive experiences, i promise. so, it was raining a couple of days ago and of course i don't have an umbrella. luckily it was cool enough in the morning that i had a scarf on.. as i get closer to my office it starts to rain harder so i put the scarf over my head. a teacher sees me and runs over to me with her umbrella saying "lai le, lai le, lai le" meaning, "come, come,come" and motions for me to jump underneath the umbrella and then walks me to my office so i won't get wet!!! it was so kind and thoughtful.... now, this makes me excited not just because someone was kind enough to care that i was getting soaked, but because many of the chinese teachers don't speak english and aren't exactly "open" to patti and i... i think alot of it is the language barrier and some is shyness, but i also just feel that many of the chinese teachers are so unimpressed with having foreign teachers that they go out of their way to make it known... nothing horrible, but just general unfriendliness, like not responding to a hello... or ni hao i should say. so anyway, it was a bit of a breakthrough with my american-sino relations.....
this brings me to my next inspiring and heart warming story of the day.... patti and i started teaching a class of senior 2's this semester. (chinese high school is senior 1,2,3)... they are "english majors", so there english is good and most of them are 18 or 19, so they are much more mature than my senior 1's... anyway, one of our students "blythe" who is named after these scary looking blythe dolls, asked patti and i to morning tea on sunday morning. which is dim sum to us westerners.... anyway, she and two of her friends took us to dim sum and then we had these super chinesey teeny bopper photos taken... i really wish i could post them.. we did one that looks like we are on the cover of "teen plus" magazine.. ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wasn't even this teeny bopper when i was a teenager. anyway, after pictures we went shopping a little bit and then they wanted to go ice skating at the new indoor rink.... so we head towards the mall it is in..... we decide to take the new subway, which is another story in itself and finally make our way to the rink... once we get there, there is only an hour left before closing time, so we decide to just hang out a bit longer at the mall!!!!!!!!! yes, i was a mall rat, with tiny teeny bopper stickers in my pocket, while sipping on some super sugary fruity frosty drink thing.... it was so great!! my students were so kind and they paid for everything!! they insisted on it and would not let patti and i pay for anything. and the whole time we were walking hand in hand or arm in arm :) chinese people are quite affectionate with each other. it is very common for women and girls to walk arm in arm or hold hands and the same goes for men.... but not men and women together (sometimes)... so anyway, they held on to us the whole time and made sure they had our hand if we were crossing the street or holding on to us if we were getting on the bus. not only was it the greatest most funnest most awesome day ever (this is my inner teenager), but these girls were everything i love about chinese people.... if you are there friend, they really take care of you and want to do their best for you and show you kindness....
so on that note, i let you reflect upon the chinese way................................................... i can really ruin a sweet moment, so i'll just stop here... hope all are well!!! i will be posting pictures of the weekend today as well.
peace,love, and dim sum

same shit different day

luckily things have been calm here. i say this, because if there is excitement here, its not always good excitement. my favorite chinese proverb (actually sayings of all time), is "may you never live in exciting times"...... this is very true as excitement can manifest itself in many different ways, not always good, not always bad either... sometimes it may seem like indifference, but really i think its a way of coping... not getting too excited that is... anyway, i rambling and my point is that things are just normal here. as normal as it gets in shenzhen. last night we went to eat at this middle eastern restaraunt... its so amazing. its run by chinese ethnic Uyghers that come from xinjiang province in the northwest.... xinjiang has a large muslim population and borders many middle eastern countries, therefore the food more closely resembles this than that of chinese food.... its so amazing and a nice change from chinese food. they have amazing hummus, falafel, yoghurt, pita, olives, etc..... its so good, it makes me want to cry. ha.
after dinner, my friend micah and i went to a bar nearby... its a korean influenced bar called WA bar. i've never been, but its not too far from my house so we decided to check it out.... there weren't many people there, but suspiciously there were many, many girls sitting at the bar... i say suspiciously because my first thought was that they were prostitutes, turns out this is true.... now, i can't explain how i know, but they weren't drinking alcohol, they all had a cup of liars dice in their hands (a popular chinese bar game, that consists of rolling dice and guessing how many of a certain number are showing).... liars dice seems to be the link between sitting innocently and making the deal. i watched as these girls sipped their tea and non chalantly shook the cups of dice. they seemed quite aloof and bored and certainly distant... i've aquired quite a fascination with prostitution in asia (as i've mentioned before), because its everywhere and fairly accepted and it makes me so angry.... prostitution is how many (not all of course) chinese men solve disputes or clench the business deal...they offer each other "massages" which result in what we all so affectionately call "happy endings". after realizing that these girls were prostitutes i began to feel so sad for them as they watched each man carefully as he walked in the bar. and then i became more sad and angry when i realized that i can spot a prostitute or a thief here from a mile away..... is that a problem?? is that normal, that i now know who wants to steal from me and which women are selling themselves?
maybe not, because at home, it may not be as prevelant, but its certainly obvious. here however, it is any girl that i'm sitting next to on the bus.... its the eyes with the thieves and aimless wandering around the bus stops and at the train stations. but the girls blend in with the crowd, they are just more forward with men than most chinese women..... anyway, this is quite a downer of a post, but i'm surrounded by thieves and prostitutes and its hard not to think about it......
on a happier note, we have a may vacation coming up and i'm going to be traveling again. i'm not sure where this time... maybe malaysia... maybe taiwan.... somewhere outside of china, because when there is a holiday, a national holiday that is, everyone travels and everywhere is sooooo crowded.... so, i have this to look forward to. but like i said at the beginning, things are going well, not great, but not bad and i have no complaints..... (just observations of theft and sex).....
i can't wait for my sister and brother in law to come!!! happy birtday to ben (bro in law) and my sister becki!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wish i could be there to celebrate with you guys... maybe for my thirtieth??? ha!
hope everyone is well.

Modern China

Chao Zhou
Originally uploaded by morningmilk8.

This is anohter photo from my weekend in ChaoZhou.... There was a huge agricutural area right in the middle of the city. It was really amazing to see to the contrast between agriculture and city life.
In other modern chinese news, if you haven't heard there have been many protests in Shenzhen (where i live) against the Japanese. Many chinese hate japanese and with the publication of a textbook in japan that glosses over japan's aggressive and violent past, chinese are pissed. there was a demonstartion last week and another this weekend, right near my house. i was on a bus yesterday on my way to meet friends for lunch and i saw a huge group of policemen and military if front of a japanese owned mall.... we made it through and i didn't see any protestors, but my friends were coming from the shoppping area near where the protest was and they had a hard time getting through the crowds. they said people were yelling at people driving japanese cars as well. i heard today that some cars were damaged, but i don't think anyone was hurt.... tensions are incredibly high here!! its a strange dynamic with china-south korea-japan-taiwan-u.s.a.... china and south korea don't like japan, japan doesn't like anyone except they are supporting the u.s. in their support in china vs taiwan....its quite a mess, but i think i'm pretty safe....
i've had students tell me they want to kill japanese and one of my friend amy's students told her that he wanted to join the chinese army so that he could kill japanese...
other than that, things are great!
patti and i caught a little boy stealing the other day. i ran after him, but his friend ran in to me to stop me and the boy ran off, i then, unlike chinese people, ran to the man he stole from and told him what had happened, or i motioned what had happened.... dunno what he did, but at least i told him.....
congratulations to my friends tracy and bart ellingson, their daughter emma jo was born on april 6th! she's so beautiful and everyone is doing great.... as i hope all of you are.... till next time

Drunken Masters,Tea Farms, and Bath Houses

Drunken Master, Chao Zhou, P.R.China
Originally uploaded by morningmilk8.

First i'd like to tell everyone that my friend tracy ellingson and her husband bart are having there first baby!!! (or she's already had it and because of time differences i don't know) it is a little girl that they are naming emma jo..... its the first one of my friends to have a baby and its so crazy and exciting! can't wait to meet her.
next, i should talk about the picture, my entire weekend actually!! it was so amazing. my friend jesse and i went to chao zhou which is northeast of shenzhen, still in guangdong province. on the bus on our way, we met a man from hong kong, who actually lives in holland now. he was very nice and a little eccentric as well. he spoke english with a dutch accent, it was great! anyway, he told us of a bathouse type place that we could also sleep at for only 48 yuan/ night.... (about $6 US)... he told us you could do a hot tub, sauna, steam room and then sleep all for 48 yuan and that they also did massages.
i'm of course skeptical because of the rampant prostitution in asia.... well, we find the place and it turns out to be amazing!!! (i'm still not convinced of the no prostitution, but there was nothing blatantly going on) so we first go to our seperate quarters, men and women are of course seperated. so i go into the changing room and there is someone on my ass the whole time... this was service like i had never experienced and to be honest i was a little uncomfortable with it...also, they speak another language in chao zhou, chao zhou hua or chaozhounese and so the communication was very difficult. anyway, i'm trying my best to speak mandarin, but don't understand their responses. and i'm also not sure what i'm supposed to do because i know that the men soak naked, but i'm not sure if the women do. i'm pretty sure they don't cuz chinese women are generally very modest, but i'm not certain. luckily two women come in and i've stalled long enough to just watch and learn...
but when you are in a changing room, watching isn't exactly what should be going on. i'm pretty sure i made one of the women uncomfortable before i realized that i was watching too intently...oops, better look away and just follow the hand gestures, because that is what my communication had reduced to with the women helping me.
so i scramble for the word bathing suit in my chinese book... just to be on the safe side, i'll be clothed. after asking and communicating it quite beautifully i must say (which actually means that they understood me), they lead me to the showers. one must shower before and after the hot tub, sauna, steam room, etc.... so i'm in the shower, which do not have doors or curtains and feeling a little exposed when someone gently and discreetly hangs a bating suit out for me to wear.... at least i thought i had asked for a bathing suit, not a full body suit... which is about what this swimmingsuit was. as i'm pulling it on, i'm thinking, is this ever going to stop? how long is this thing and chuckling to myself at how absurd i'm going to look...finally i have the thing on (i'm sure it was the biggest size they had as well, it was quite large, even on my fat western ass). i catch a glimpse of myself in a marble reflection and can't stop laughing to myself. to top off this swimming suit that goes almost to my kneess all the way to my neck, they hand me a plastic shower cap to cover my delicate golden hair... i'm feeling so ridiculous at this point, i don't even know what to think. so i go out into the hot tub, which is actually a huge pool with warm water and different "stations" with insane water pressure for massage. so this whole time a girl is following me taking care of my every need. she doesn't get in the pool but follows me from the outside and turns on each water thingy as i walk by... i finally decide to go to this one that looks like a chair submerged in the water. i assume that you rest with your back to the back and rest your arms on the U shped arm rests... so i position myself and the woman turns on the water. suddenly there is intense water pressure going up my butt and i'm very uncomfortable thinking, this can not be healthy, who thinks water thrusting up their ass feels good... so as not to look like a total idiot, i play it cool and shift so that the water is massaging the back of my legs and not my bottom... which actually feels quite nice, but is a little awkward to stay in this position. two women move from these reclining chair things with many jets in them that you can lean back and it massages your legs and back. i walk over and get comfortable, knowing exactly what i'm supposed to be doing and feeling relieved cuz its the first time all night that i have.... the woman who were reclining in the chairs go over to the butt exploder that i had been sitting at. however, they have their chest down and i realize that it is actually a "bossom massager" that the brochure i read before going in had talked about. not butt massager, bossom massager.... wow did i feel cool. i'm chillin in my bathing suit from the 1930's while wearing a shower cap with water shooting up my butt.... the other two nights were fine though, i actually knew what was going on...
after the hot tub, steam room, sauna, they give you these disposable underwear and nice pajamas (not disposable) that the women helped me get into. i haven't had someone dress me since i was what 3? very weird, but thats just the treatment one gets at this place. next they take me up to a room with about 100 plush chairs and foot rests. here you can get free drinks, tea, fresh juice, etc... and foot massages while watching tv on a huge screen. it was so nice and so comfortable. all for 48 yuan!!!
after our first fabulous nights rest we go out exploring in the city... there was a lot of traditional acrchitecture, a temple, an old city wall, etc... there was also an old pagoda from the 1500's that was about 9 stories tall and had an amazing view of the city. everyone was so kind to us and treated us so well.... including the man and the boy in the picture. the boy was a student named eruc who translated for the older man, that we'll call "drunken master" not because of his kung fu style, but because he was beligerently drunk on bai jiu (chinese rice liquour). he was however a historian at heart and gave us a run down of chao zhou's history... eruc the student stumbled upon us and translated. eruc had never met foreigners before and was quite happy to use his english with us. after how history lesson, i took this picture... the man busts out the kung fu pose and after the picture is taken, breaks into a full on kung fu show! it was hilarious, he was so funny and probably worth the whole trip there.
after exploring the city on saturday, we went to a nearby mountain town on sunday... the bus ride there was amazing! so beautiful, with tea farms and rice paddies everywhere. more like what we think of china rather than the modern cess pool that is shenzhen, i mean the town i live in. jesse and i step of the bus and its like another world. the town has modern buildings, but very small and people begin staring and we realize that most people have never seen foreigners before. people were screaming for their relatives when we would walk by, when we bought water, we attracted a crowd, when we talked to anyone we attracted a crowd! we decided to walk towards the older part of town with more traditional architecture. we start walking some tea plants when a farmer spots us. this a farmer with gold teeth and black toenails. he tells us it is his tea farm and shows us some plants and then invites us to his house for tea.. it was so kind and great! he lived in a small concrete house with his son, his wife and their daughter. after alot of tea and a wicked caffeine buzz we decide to walk around some more before we make our way to this old circular structure that was once a village...very romanesque, but in the middle of china. anyway, we start walking around only to have more people staring. eventually we run into a local english teacher from the high school.. as we begin talking to him a crowd of about 30 people gather round us. the teacher invites us to the school to speak to his english classes! so we go and speak to one of his classes who know no english whatsoever. the kids get a kick out of it though. we were surrounded by kids and stares and dropped jaws, it was quite surreal... after we left the school we made it to the circular village which was actually still occupied. one of the men living there, showed us around, and of course offered us tea. he was so great, as were most people in hengfuang (the small tea village) and chaozhou. tea is such a part of the culture in hengfuang that beginning this last monday was a 10 day holiday to go and harvest tea! on our way back to chaozhou people were drying the tea leaves on tarps draped acrossed the road. it was beautiful!!!
it really was a great weekend. it was nice to be in china and have people be so kind. not that chinese are unkind, but it is a rarity in shenzhen...
the weekend before last i went to hong kong. there is a film festival going on right now and i saw the hong kong indie film shorts. it was four short films done by directors from hong kong. it was soo great. quite different from the experience in chaozhou....
in one of the films was some great indie music from hong kong called "My Little Airport"... if anyone is interestd you should check them out. quite good!
that's it for now, hope all are well. more pictures from this weekend coming soon. i have to get them from jesse, it was my first excursion without my precious camera :(... luckily jesse is an amazing photographer!
all my love
nrj