Asia 2012 - postcards

Ah, more photos for you!

I was in Korea for just under a week, mostly in Seoul staying with a friend from high school, but we also traveled out of the capital city and into a smaller city called Yeosu along the coast, and from there took a boat to a small island, Sado, to spend the night and check out tiny island life in Korea.

Waiting for the boat.  Boats make the trip between a string of small islands and Yeosu, a couple times per day.  Takes those weekly grocery shopping trips to a new level, eh?

Inside the boat.  Dan and I sat in the part of the boat with seats, but the front half had bamboo mats and a cubby to store your shoes, and the women who occupied this space sat on the floor, traditional style, or, on the early morning boat, some of them lay down to rest.  Although as you can imagine, they spent so much time gossiping with one another that it wasn't really possible to rest!

You are looking at the total number of houses on the island of Sado, I kid you not.  It was incredibly peaceful and quite beautiful.  Dan and I each had a New Yorker to read, and by 9:00 we were both out cold.  There's something really comfortable about traveling with somebody you've known that long, you know?  Like, you don't have to try to make sure the other person is entertained, if you feel like lying down at 8:30 and drifting off to sleep, nobody's offended.

When planning this trip, I really wanted to see Korea and also parts of China I had never been to before, but I also wanted to take it easy and spend some time among nature, since I find I reflect and unwind best when amidst greenery, trees in particular.  So I picked out a couple small towns in the western part of Guangxi province in China to visit.  A Chinese acquaintance I made years ago on the road had said that visiting this string of tiny towns had been one of her favorite trips.  It was just what I needed.

On their way home from school.

Some days I was up early and sightseeing and then came back for a nap.  Other days I woke up and wrote for half the day, grabbed lunch, and then headed out for an afternoon hike or bicycle ride.  One of the luxuries of traveling solo, just listening to whatever you feel like doing that day and going with it.  I had no idea how I would take to being alone for two entire weeks, but I will honestly say that I loved almost every minute of it.  I was lucky enough to make a couple friends, very funny, generous, interesting people.  Seriously, I think I had the best luck on this trip!

Not sure if you can tell from the different scenery, but I visited 3 different small towns in Guangxi Province.

I sandwiched my time in rural China with trips to 2 large cities, Chengdu and Beijing, which I think was a smart way to mix things up.  I have a friend from my China days who is in Beijing now, and spending Saturday afternoon and evening with her and her boyfriend was truly the best way to wrap up my trip.  Beijing is a city quite close to my heart, and if I could have it my way I think I'd take a month sabbatical and just plop myself back into the city and take each day to reacquaint myself with just one different part of the city.  Like when we met up, we headed down to the little neighborhood that specializes in tea and teapots.  Who knew there was part of Beijing devoted entirely to tea?

What a trip!  Truly, one of the best I have ever taken.  Sometimes I close my eyes and reimagine myself back into a moment in the trip, that feeling of contentment and happiness, adventure and exploration, an entire day stretched out in front of me with no obligations and untold stories and laughter and scenes and people watching ...

Hear Me Out

When I worked as a health coach, I worked with clients across the country -- entirely by phone and email. Some of them had wonderfully grandmotherly voices, I could just imagine a silver haired school teacherly looking lady sitting at the other end of the receiver. Others spoke in gruff tones and Minnesotan accents, making me think of wild beards and brown hair and twinkling eyes (although I'm not sure why Minnesota = wild beards in my mind); upbeat optimism as they spoke of the shared diet and exercise plan they and their fiancee had embarked upon with my help; a chatty cook who slowly lost 20 pounds over the course of 6 months of working together.

And I'll never forget the man who confessed he had no real health goals in mind, but he liked that I called him once a month making no request of him and that I would listen, no judgments, to whatever he had to say. I always imagined him as a freckled middle aged redhead, and remembered how resistant and uncooperative he had been in our first conversation, although I realized later that it wasn't personal, his medications gave him some horrible side effects. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I was only supposed to make the calls if we were working through health goals together, but I called him monthly and jotted various progress notes into my files when we were through, for the benefit of any supervisor trawling my records in their spare time. I've always loved listening to the stories of others, and if I were to catalog and categorize the compliments I've received in life, being a "good listener" generally tops my list.


When I left that job to start grad school, a couple of my clients wished me well, most didn't say anything but just accepted the transition to a new coach, and a few took it hard. "Noooooooooooo!" shrieked the chef, which was heartwarming but odd at the same time, as she'd made such incredible progress and could be counted as one of my true "success stories." Another one of my "success stories" who used to email me long rambling weekly updates - I probably functioned as a diary to him - wrote back that he was sad but not surprised, since he didn't see how somebody like me could want to spend the rest of my life "telling fat old people not to be fat and old." (You can see why I didn't mind the long rambling weekly updates)

A couple went so far as to send over photos, a bit of a farewell but perhaps out of curiosity as well, wondering about this disembodied voice that floated into their voice message box or telephone once every week or two. One I even reciprocated and sent a photo in return, since she was one of my first clients and had been with me since the start. I think both of us were shocked, since neither of us looked as the other had imagined from our voices alone. I'm sure I looked much younger in the photo than I was, and she didn't have silver hair but chestnut brown, and smiling eyes but smaller than I'd envisioned, and somehow I'd assumed that her years of cycling 60 or 70 miles on weekends would have produced a gaunt frame, but she looked just as my maternal grandmother might have.


On the blogosphere the tables are turned a bit; you all know what I look like, but except for a couple of you out there, not many of you have heard my mellifluous coaching voice -- haha, have heard me speak (it's true though, I pulled out my "customer service" voice whenever I coached).

Until now! I'm pleased to report that I have published a short piece of non-fiction in an online audio literary magazine, and you can hear it for free online! The piece is called Coming Up For Air and can be found on the Drum Literary Magazine website. If you have a chance -- take a gander! As with my former coaching clients, I'm sure I sound different than you'd imagined! My piece is less than 5 minutes long, but they have pieces up to 20 minutes, which is a perfect little snippet if you're searching for something to listen to as you sew. They have fiction and non-fiction, which I love because I can mix it up with This American Life and random TED talks.

The trip home and then back to the motherland

So this is stupendously long and mostly for me so that I can remember my fantastic trip home and to the guo. You've been warned.



Wednesday: arrive home!!! Oh man. As I was waiting for Caltrain to take me back to my parent's place, I couldn't help but notice ... the people here talk like I do, say phrases I find myself saying, talk about the types of things I'd talk about. Yes, the pace of life is noticeably slower than the East Coast, but who cares?!?! Home, baby.

Thursday: BART/Caltrain up to the East Bay to hang out with the e. twin ~ we crafted, CAFT'd, chatted and I love-love-LOVED seeing her new place. It is so Berkeley. She is so Berkeley. I miss that. I miss her. Then we had dinner with Jenni and Jordan, and Jenni and I BART/Muni'd to her boyfriend's place in the Cow Hill/Marina place. It was really nice to see my 'little sister' again and have a proper catch-up chat, plus I've heard so much about Karl and was happy to meet him for the first time :-).

Friday: Jenni and I wandered Union Street, where we spent a ridiculous amount of time in Ambiance and I spent an even more ridiculous amount of time trying to decide whether or not to get a peacock feathered headband. It looked so glamorous on Jenni, I couldn't help but wish some of that glamor would rub off on me if I bought it, and so I fell prey to wishful thinking. Then I met Anna and Jamie for lunch at Lee's, which we took back to Anna's place. Then Anna went back to work and Jamie and I had a nice stroll by the Marina and a long chat in a cafe, and then Rudy drove over from Oakland and we had gooooooood food and a really nice chat in our impromptu 'cafe' - a.k.a. the kids section of Kinokuniya! That was some blockade of the children's aisle we had going on there, us three big monsters crouching on the tiny stools meant for people a third our height. Ahem. And then we played card games at Anna and Henry's and laughed at all the random silly inside jokes we've collected through the years.

Anna: I can't believe you're 25. That means we have a history together.

Saturday: Wake up late, finally straggle off for dim sum [yum! Henry read my mind EXACTLY], a bit of wandering along Baker Beach, they drop me off for home, I drag the parents out for sushi, some light packing and drowsing off to the TV.


Sunday: fly to Beijing.

Monday: Michael picks me up at the airport.

Tuesday-Wednesday: Reacquaint myself with the city I am obsessed with in all realms of China Meets America Meets Jessica's Life. Throughout my stay here, various interactions with the public health system in China proves that China is more on top of its game than I gave it credit for, and that I am possibly slightly less compliant with public health quarantine efforts than a public health grad student should be.


Thursday-Tuesday: In Yunnan [southwest China] with the brother and the parents. 14 hours on the bus, plus another 4-5 in a taxi, in less than 2 day period, affords us food poisoning, spectacular views, and several close shaves with car sickness. Also, way too much goofiness to be confined to one family, but there you go. Also, I can't tell what draws more attention: our English, our various Chinese accents, or outrageous inside jokes and the laughter that ensues, or the fact that we are a family of 4 in a nation with a one-child policy.

Haha. I think my favorite are the 2 on the bottom right. You'll notice the intergenerational difference in the interpretation of the word 'fierce.' My brother and I were going for 'Channel your inner Korean superstar' fierce, and my parents were going for ... 'We are Korean royalty you will now be beheaded' fierce. Of note, there is no actual Korean blood in the family, Korean TV/movies is just all over the Chinese-speaking world so this is our faint interpretation [and probably misinterpretation] of the phenomenon.

Wednesday: fly back to the US.

Thursday: putz around, see my high school friends for a nice dinner and to celebrate Derek's birthday. J-S, Ted, Amy, Jeff, Rachel, Sarah, Emie, Derek, Adam + Jamie. We get gelato, yum.

Friday: Mumble goodbye to the parents as they head off for Toronto at the crack of dawn. Drive myself up to Berkeley to hang out with Alex in Peet's Coffee [and crack up the woman sitting next to us:

Jessica: Ooooh! You're the Love Doctor.
Alex: ...
Jessica: The Dating Consultant?
Woman: *Looks over at us but says nothing.*
Alex: It's the type of love that is defined by ... what do you call it ... there's a word for it ...
Jessica: Criteria?
Woman: *bursts out laughing* I think the word you're looking for is 'prostitution.'

Then we ramble around Berkeley and find me new parking and chill in my parked car with the seats back and the windows rolled down as the meter maid rolls by about 5 times without stopping, until Rita calls and says she's back from work. Then I hang out with Rita and she shows me all the amazing stuff she's been up to. Like I get to see this and this and this and this in person, and it is even more beautiful than on the computer screen. And she bowls me over by giving me this and this as well. Rita!!! You're were supposed to keep these for yourself!!! And I meekly hand over my postcard and a very small amount of blue and green fabric, for variety, after which I pour through her scrap pile and haul away hordes myself [I am terrible with large pieces of fabric]. And then we get dinner and I am very sleepy and slightly jetlagged but make it back to Palo Alto in one piece.

Saturday: Drag myself out of bed but am late anyways for a morning hike with Amy and J-S at the Dish. Meet Rachael and Trip for lunch - vegan Indian, sooooooooo good. There's a Japanese market in the plaza as well, which should be perfect for my parents: she shops, he eats.




Food count: Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, dim sum, Japanese, Indian, more Thai ... I am ONE HAPPY GIRL.

China fooding count: jian bing, jin yin man tou, donkey meat, turtle, pearl tea, fried goat cheese with tomato, a ton of bottled green tea which I love, that chocolate-covered taro popsicle I love, the carrot and egg fried dumplings at that dumpling place I adore, zha jiang mian, and of course, several rounds of BREAKFAST. Oh, the breakfast.

OK. I'm good for the next 6 months. I think.



And finally, I snapped this photo before I uploaded my pictures. It's my "fabric combination inspiration" for the Spring Blooms swap:


Rita dear, notice anything familiar? The mini-quilt has since been sent and opened [and she's even uploaded a photo already!] but I am being a tad bit lazy and will get around to it soon, I promise you! Probably with more '11th hour sewing' stories to share.

It's good to be back!

We return to our [ir]regularly scheduled programming!

I'm back!!! SO sorry to have disappeared like that, I can explain, really ~

-Moving apartments took WAY longer [and more people] than I expected, plus I have no internet at the new place at the moment
-Flew back to CA, squeezed ridiculously large friend-catch-up into a ridiculously small number of days
-Flew out to Beijing to see my brother!!!

I had the grandest plans to update you all while I was there, but the very first night I landed in China I realized that the Great Firewall of China does not currently like Blogger, and has it on its black list. Why? I have no idea, but this explains why my brother's blog has been silent for the last few months. I've told him to email me his blog posts and I will post for him.

There was speculation the site blockage had to do with the [then upcoming] 6/4 anniversary - you know, the one that is one month after the 5/4 anniversary that marks the beginning of the revolution that eventually tumbled China into civil war and ultimately into the hands of its current political leadership, and also the anniversary date of Tiananmen.

But anyways. After much traipsing through China [and oh man, about 14 hours on a bus in a 2 day time period, PLUS 5 additional hours in a taxi] I'm back and can't wait to share past adventures and current! Plus I've got lots planned for this summer :-). In the meantime, though, I'm fighting to stay awake to fight off jet lag [hm, like when that 1.5 hour nap suddenly exploded into a 3.5 hour one? hehe], but when I upload photos I'll be sure to share! Especially since I received some ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL mail that I CANNOT WAIT to share!!! Thanks Zonnah!!! I love it so much, it is going with me EVERYWHERE from now on!!!

OK, but to make this a non-pictureless post ...


Digging in ... and seeing how well Denyse Schmidt's fabric lines play with each other ...

The coming of spring

Awhile ago I signed up for a swap over at the 6 o'clock stitch. The guidelines were to create something 8" by 10", that had red and yellow in it, around the theme Spring. I was paired with the lovely Ky and was super excited*, as this is only my second sign-up-for-a-stranger swap ever.

I was stumped for a bit on how to interpret Spring. I mean, it was still frigid when I signed up for this, it was hard to get myself in the mood. But then I remembered Spring Festival, otherwise known as Lunar New Year, where red plays a prominent role in all festivities because we do love red. And gold? Well, gold is probably the second most prominent color in the festivities. This had promise.

One of the many ways we welcome in the new year is by hanging up large red couplets with auspicious sayings on them. Some are 4 or 8 word sayings, others contain a single word, like spring or good fortune:


These are then hung upside down [usually] to welcome in springtime, because in Chinese the word for "upside down" and "coming, arrival" sound the same, so its a nice visual/audio pun that tickles the Chinese love for puns. It's an annual tradition that I look forward to each year, to spend time with family and friends for the lots and lots of food that is always consumed.

So anyways. Off I went.


I repeated the word "spring" 4 times in the diamonds and inserted them upside-down, in keeping with tradition. This is one of those designs that made itself up as I went along, the only element I had predetermined was the characters. And I have to say, for someone who swore off sewing triangles about a decade ago, and, around that time, also swore off tiny bits of patchwork, I really enjoyed putting this together.

How fitting that as I type this, we're finally getting spring here in Boston!


*So today I ran into a friend from Japan out on the grass in front of the medical school. He was writing up a report for a trip he'd helped to organize over spring break, I was just lying on my stomach and gazing off into the grass. As he was staring at the evaluations forms he asked me, "Is there much difference between 'awesome,' 'amazing,' 'incredible,' and 'unimagineable'?"

I had to laugh. Apparently, we're quite taken to overexaggerations in this language, but in Japanese there really isn't the same extremity of expression the way we throw those around in English.

"Hm, which do you think is the most extreme then?" he asked. And when I couldn't reply, he said, "Well, what about AMAZING? Do you think that counts?"

"Did they put a bunch of exclamation points after it?" Which is something I would do. "Then yes, I think that counts as the most extreme."

***
So hm. Super excited, eh?

Cross-cultural communication

[Zhejiang Province, China, July 2006]

One of the things about being a foreign language major is that there is really only so far you can go, in terms of language proficiency and cultural nuances, before you must experience that culture yourself. I say that as someone who never studied abroad as a Chinese major, and as someone who later lived in China for a year after graduating. You can hit the books, dictionary in hand, all you want, but there is something about living and breathing in the context of your language and stories that imbibes you with a different understand of the fluid, lifelike nature of language.

So anyways, one of the [many!] expressions I learned last year deals as much with language and usage as it does with cultural connotations:

'你穿， 有点老.'

Which literally translates as ... 'when you wear it, its a little bit old.'

Or actually, 'when you wear [implied object], [implied somebody] is a little bit old.'

[oh, vagaries of the Chinese language. You and your implied subjects/objects. It makes the language so beautiful and so difficult to translate.]

In other words, there is something that I'm wearing that makes me look old. Which actually means that there are certain clothes and certain clothing colors that are expected of different ages of women, and if you're wearing something that's a little bit outside of the expectancy, then they would say something like that.


Like when I was looking for a calf-length down jacket, [weather so cold your boogers freeze in your nose ... and weather so dry they're impossible to get out. I'm sure you appreciated that one] and I was deciding between fire engine red and khaki, the neutrals-loving practical voice in me was screaming 'pick the khaki!' and the whimsical side was screaming back 'but wouldn't red be FUN?' And the saleswoman finally said the magical phrase, '你穿， 有点老,' meaning to say that I should choose the red one. And I did. And I loved it. Fire engine red happens to be the second most popular down jacket color of choice, just barely behind black and barely beating out yellow, lime green, bright purple, orange ... not a whole lot of blue, for some reason.

In a city that is as grey in winter as Beijing is, of course you would try for as much color as possible in your winter attire.

So anyways, when I bought that mustard-yellow long sleeve t awhile ago from Target, I vacillated forever and a half on whether or not to actually keep it or return it [safer to buy what you're wavering on and return it later ... and yes, I am very good about returning things I decide that I don't want, and I'm also very good about deciding I don't want things]. I mean, I really like the mustard yellow. And since SF has very little in the way of an actual spring or summer, it is only with layering that I can really wear any short sleeve t-shirts whatsoever.

'你穿， 有点老.'

Because I had the sneaking suspicion that this was a '老' looking color on me. Wasn't I supposed to be falling in love with babydoll tops or something? [ick, doesn't work on my body, though I love the look]

But anyways, I decided to keep it in the end. To heck with colors being '老' and all. Probably nobody was thinking that but me anyways. And I do love layering colors.



And of course, it wouldn't be me if I didn't make goofy faces at the camera now and again. You can't really see it, but this is my 'Sheeba: Queen of the Nile!' shirt, purchased in Wuhan [central China] two Mays ago. I love crazy China clothing. It glitters and sparkles and usually has a few too many details for its own good, but this one, I happen to like.


And I'm sure this is rather season-inappropriate, but one thing I definitely miss about Asia is the way that women carry sun-umbrellas around. Which actually double as regular umbrellas, if you should happen to get caught in a sudden summer storm. It makes walking cooler and protects your skin. And of course, it wouldn't be China if the umbrellas weren't ridiculously pretty colors, and best of all, embellished with cute characters on them.

Remembering Dalian; Words of Wisdom from the Mistress of Green Gables Herself

Oh, Dalian. What a large small city, is how Jenny and I both described it. This up there is my photo, the rest are Jenny's. We traveled up the peninsula to Dalian last year just about this time, the last weekend in March. That was a great trip. And when I look back on these photos, and I see the sun shining outside [OK, during the day at work, not right now at night peering at the streetlight coming in through the fogged-up window, still damp and impenetrable from the spaghetti my roommates just cooked], I think This is what life really is about, and everything else, all the small worries and trivial details that seem to bog me down, really, those are not important at all. I know I talk about China a lot, but it was and is quite important to me, and it helps give me perspective.

After going on this trip with Jenny and seeing how vastly different our photos came out, for all that we visited the same place, really got me started thinking about photography and how i Photograph things. How I see them. What I look for. Some people have a very bold, clean, minimalistic asthetic. I'm afraid taht could never be me.

[Like this photo, with the lines and the colors and textures and movement and direction and contrast, this is more me. I didn't snap this photo, but it is most definitely me.]

Oh my gosh, the sleeper buses. This photo probably does them better justice than any I've ever taken. They are something to experience yourself. I remember when I was in southwest China with my brother, I spotted a set of sleeper buses on my way to a bathroom. I believe I squealed, clapped, pointed and exclaimed to Michael, "I'm going to ride in one of those these days!"

Just think. Its like a tour bus, except probably narrower, and fitted with 3, that's right THREE, rows of beds. Bunk beds. And as you can see, you don't even get the luxury of lying all the way down. Nope. You're half propped up, so that somebody's feet can be tucked in under your torso. Saves room and you can cram more people into the bus, in other words. Make more money per run. I'm pretty sure these things are the biggest transportation and fire hazard out there, but in third world countries, sometimes you don't have the luxury of those types of worries.

I was super excited because they seemed so quirky and just how the 'natives' travel, you know? And there's Michael with numerous grains of salt, because he'd read about how bad they can get and frankly, come on now, we can pretend that there's something romantic about certain situations, but the reality? The reality is close quarters, uncomfortable sleeping positions, the smell of feet ALL OVER, farting and burping ... but you know? It's cheap, and that's how a fair amount of the population gets about. When you have no other choice, you adapt.

The first sleeper bus, gosh, I hated that. Couldn't sleep at all. The second one, I was so exhausted and used to China that it was beautiful. [I should mention that the sleeper bus in that photo? Much cleaner than most I've seen]. We pulled out an hour late because the bus drivers were trying to catch more passengers to raise their profit [naturally; this is perfectly normal in China]. We were supposed to get in at 2 or 3AM; 10AM the next morning and we're still on the road. I had crammed my little backpacking pack in at my feet [trust me, there ain't a lot of room] because I didn't realize you could store it at the bottom of the bus [no wonder everybody was staring at me!], and frankly the place reeked of FEET because, hello, the guy behind me had his bare feet propped up on the rails and therefore practically in my hair. But oh well! Because you get used to a certain amount of dirt when you're hoofing around the poor backwaters of a developing nation.

This boy was so adorable. Ack. The heart breaks with the adorableness of it all.

Dalian is near Japan and Russia and Korea, so there are lots of foreign influences in the city. Of course, I think this was a tourist destination built AFTER the Communists took over. But then again, that's also very characteristic of modern history in China. So ... its like doubly Chinese or something ...

Thanks Jenny for all the wonderful memories! Thinking of you on this half of the world!


Oh, and words of wisdom from Anne Shirley, of Anne of Green Gables. She is seriously one of my favorite heroines of all times. Heck, I view her as a 'role model' for myself, even to this day. One of those fictional characters I aspire towars, I'm not ashamed to admit.

Isn't it good to be alive on a day like this? I pity the people who aren't born yet for missing it.
What do you do when you meet with an irresistible temptation?
When I am grown up, I'm always going to talk to little girls as if they were grown up, too, and I"ll never laugh at them when they use big words.
Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it?
It must be a great deal better to be sensible; but still, I don't believe I"d really want to be a sensible person, because they are so unromantic.