Soon to leave this wonderful place and say farewell to these unforgettable characters

Jinghong is a strange and beautiful place that I have come to love. The people here are so incredible, both the lawai(foreigners) and the locals of which I have met many. I think of Jinghong as a magical place full of mystery and superstition... maybe that's just me and Alex. Soon I'll be leaving here since my teaching job is over now. Alex invited me to bike with him to Kunnming which we figure should take about 2 weeks with our slow lazy biking style pace, so we'll have a crazy wonderful adventure with Jiay his 1 year old black pup. Today I found a bike in a second hand market that's just right for the trip, but when I tried to find someone to pay there was no one around. So 1 free bike later I'm almost ready to go. I also found a big pot so that we can cook enough food to keep us energized.

I'm going to miss Sunny my first friend here who invited me to live with her in Banna College dorms. My first day back from Laos I had somewhere to stay with her. Sunny found me a job teaching with Jung Xiao Dong(my boss) at Zhou Nong Xiao(agricultural college). She's a spontaneous girl only 18, from Dali North of here. She works so hard everyday to pay for her education and I respect her so much. On Valentines Day a bunch of us went out to dinner and Alex offered all of my Chinese friends a drink of Baijo(56% alcohol) and me and Sunny were the only ones who had some.

I'll miss Vicky my other roomate for a week. She's a bit shy and has a bigger build than most Chinese girls but I'd say normal for in Canada. Vicky blushed easily and asked me to show her how to do make-up and what clothes to wear to a party. She doesn't like dancing like me and Sunny and is very methodical. She was so curious about foreingers though and really bright too. She learned english so quickly and eagerly. On Chinese New Years Vicky and Sunny cooked me a meal in their dorm room at 1AM because it was the only time that they had free after work and all. It was so sweet. Vicky is the same age as me, 20 so I gave her a year of the rabbit necklace and she gave me a vile with good luck pills in it that mean 'meet someone'.

I'll miss Sarah, we could spend more time together because she didn't work everyday. We'd go biking around Jinghong, eating ice-cream and sugar canes. Her boyfriend Jason would come with us, we'd exchange english and chinese, ideas and dreams. Sarah is so cute and girly, very patient. I'll remember the way that she spoke english, opening her mouth very wide and speaking so slowly. Her and Jason want to buy a boat and float down the Mekong River from Jinghong through Laos and then into Thailand after they're done school and can afford it. They said they'd give me a call and we could all go together maybe I can bring someone too.

Mark is a lawai from Britain but he lives here and has a local girlfriend named Yubu. He's a really nice guy and I want to keep in touch with him. Last night we went out to have a few drinks and then went back to his place and listened to music sharing our travelling experiences and looking at pics.

Fee my student is so nice. She'd bring me and Jung food that her mom would cook at the beginning of class sometimes. mmm so delicious! Fee wants to run her own Hotel one day and is really smart and devoted to getting her education. She's even more methodical than Vicky, and dresses clean and crisp. Something that's hard to do everyday in China. Fee invited me to her house for dinner a couple nights ago and I helped her Jo Jie(friend) and her mama to make Jiao-ze or dumplings. It was so nice because they made them especially for me and waited until I got back from a bike trip to Mengyang with Alex to have the dinner. It took us 3 hours at least to roll out all of the dough and make hundreds of dumpling circles then fill them and close them. Her mama was so good at it, me and Fee made a jumbled mess of the matter. Soo delicious though. mmm.

Jung Xiao Dong my boss, will be missed as well. He's a speedster, "let's go!!" when we're on a bike ride. He speaks a million miles a minute and all that he wants is to run his own successful business. He's studying Tai language and wants to go to Thailand to find work in a few years. His voice is pretty unforgettable, high pitched and airy sometimes. I wish I could record it, but my memories will have to be enough. They'll bring a smile to my face for certain. "No way", "No I don'ta think so"(with laughging in between), " Oh you must be crazy", "Where are you?", "Let's go baby", "What's the matter baby?", "How much it cost you?" He was always concerned with money and stuff. I brought Jung to a poker and pizza party at Mark's house and taught him Texas Hold'Em. He learned so quickly and won so many hands, we were there until 4AM and I left before him. I asked the next day who won and he told me the American. Mark told Alex that Jung won though. I"ll never really know, but Jung for sure is a trickster when it comes to business and money. I just think that it's funny really.


Christina, how could I forget Christina!! She's been so great, I met her through Alex because she was one of his students. She's so outgoing and hilarous! She has a dog that matches her completely. Christina is like a bubble of happy loud energy that I'll sincerely miss. We loved singing together, busting out to Whitney Houston while driving around town in her company car. Also, since she has her own place it was our home base for everything. :)

Goodbye Jinghong, until we meet again.

A midnight poem

I woke up early a few days before Chinese New Years after having a dream about mom. I immediately set to writing this poem.

The moon illuminates my thoughts
It reflects your face on the river,
the stars shine bright like your soul
your enormous heart that filled the deepest crevases.
Your music that brought the dead sea to life,
your laugh now echoes between the Himalayan Mountains like
a yodler in all her glory.
Your wisdom is a secret whispered in the wind.
I feel my memories of you, senses electric.
Your love given to me so patiently
Will always be in this world, my heart.

Chinese New Years

So today is the big day:).

I've been really lucky... in that last night Vicky and Sunny (my old roomates) cooked me a really nice meal and we had a sleepover at their dormroom. This morning they made me breakfast before work. At Zhou Nong Xiao, or the agricultural college where I stay, Jung Xiao Dong my boss and friend cooked up a huge lunch feast and we shared it with some friends. Then tonight for dinner, I was invited to my new friend Alexandro's(talk about him later)english student Christina's house! All of her (Christina's)family will be there and it will be a really delicious slice of culture. Also, tomorrow morning my other student Fee(I named her that) or Fan in Chinese invited Jung and I to have breakfast at her family's house and that will also be so much fun and so yummy! MMM. It's strange, but in China everyone knows how to cook. I think that they must have been taught from a young age and why not? It's such a fundamental skill in life. Plus, when there are big meals to be cooked, it's the men that cook them and not the women. Tonight Alexandro invited me and some friends to a New Years party that his friend Mark (a British bloke) is holding. I'm so excited! Vicky and Sunny will come with me and Jung as well. It was overly cute this morning because Vicky who doesn't get out much, asked me to show her how to put make-up on and asked me what she should wear. Vicky doesn't drink and doesn't dance, but Sunny and I do both and so I think that by the end of the night we'll all be dancing our worries away:).



Lifestyle:

Showers
Up until today I had been taking my showers by dumping warm water(the pipes heat up the water in the day) over my head while standing in between two squat toilets and trying to avoid floating toilet papter. Today though, I found out where the showers were and forced myself into freezing water for a quite refreshing shower actually.

Cooking
I cook with a wok and am learning quite a bit from Jung and Sarah about how to cook and what to cook and for how long, how much oil etc. The only thing is I occasionaly electrocute myself, and the heating pad has only one level EXTREMELY high. When I first started cooking a couple weeks ago, Jung said "Holly my God, if you lived in China and had to cook for yourself you would starve to death!" He was right, everything I cooked was burnt, one time I put in this mystery spice and my whole mouth went numb. Now though, I'm learning the secrets of Jalapeno peppers, ginger and of course garlic! I love making fried-rice, it's so delicious on of my favorites! Tomatoes work a wonder for that dish!

Chinese
Every day I learn at least a new word. I am still so horrible at Chinese but it's so satisfying when I understand a few words being spoken to me or between others. I had given up hope on learning Chinese, it just seemed so hard, but Laurent my french friend helped to rejuvinate my passion to learn some more and now almost all of my friends are Chinese and so they help me out as well:).

Alexandro
K so I met Alexandro a few days ago at Mei Mei Cafe on Manting Lu, the tourist street. He is a really interesting fellow. He is 40 years old and has been travelling for 20 years now. He started when he was 20, my age. He has been to about 135 countries and is originally from Brazil. He rides his bicycle everywhere which he made especially and has a basket in the back for his dog. Alexandro is really nice, and good to talk to. He's my only foreigner friend here in Jinghong now since Laurent left. He lived in Tibet for 2 years and has been in China for quite a few years now. He left his hotel the other day and is sleeping in this field in his tent with his dog now. I think that he's really good to talk to because he's chosen to live an alternative lifestyle and decided to go for what he wants in life even if it's not socially accepted, or what people usually do. Also, I can think about his life, is that really what I would want? I want to be able to afford to buy a sleeping bag if I want one, or a new shirt for New Years. What if my back hurts when I'm 40 and I don't want to sleep on the ground? So meeting him has been good for me to think about lifestyle choices and he tells me about his friends who lead alternative lives. This couple he met work for the REd Cross managing things and they get to move camp every year. They are together and they get to travel all over the place while doing their work. I think that that is pretty cool.