I am not sure how to approach this, but I just found out my dearest friend here, Zheng Si Si's father is dying from a stroke. She is a single mother, unemployed, looking after both her parents who are living with her and her 8 year-old daughter. In her free time, she basically looks out for the poor and underprivileged of this entire nation (mainly Tibet and Southern China, as well as local folks). She is completely reeling. I've never actually dealt with a crisis situation in China before. I never know what to say in America, much less when someone is hurting here. "Comforting" words hold even less meaning.
All this to say, I have to do something. Si Si is my entire lifeline here. /She helps me survive everyday though she has so many worries. I hate to ask this, but can anyone contribute any money? I have some to give, but it won't even come close to covering the cost. Among foreigners here, it is discouraged to just come to the rescue with cash......as it is dangerous to the social structure, personal development and responsibility, and international relations(mainly, westerns have the money, so let's just let them do it). But I don't have time ethical squabbles right now. If anyone reading this could just send 5 dollars to my parents home, they can deposit it in my account and I will withdraw it in kuai and give it to Si Si as a gift of love from my dear community. It is so little for us but so much for the Chinese (average employed wage is about 5 dollars a day) All I can do is give you my word that I will do with the money what I have promised and hope you will trust me.
And, if you are a praying person, please do that. Si Si has been a Christian for about 2 years and I am afraid I see rocky times ahead for her. If you are a praying person with a great phone plan (tel3advantage for example...specifically kt and chris, jane, kristin etc. etc. etc.) you could call her at 8613958014443 and pray for her in person (her English is great, but speak slowly with no special Christian language). She really gains strength through prayers spoken to her and I am unable to do that right now. Or, if you want, email her with a word of encouragement <sissy_zheng@hotmail.com> and just let her know you are a friend of mine and wanted her to know you were thinking/praying for her. I know it might be awkward, but all I can do is ask for some help. Please.
Thanks for listening and helping if you can. LOVE!
email me for my parents address if you need it cammiebrennan@gmail.com . i don't want to exploit their home on the internet.
ps the pic is of Si Si at my halloween party as a mummified chicken.......don't ask.....

confessions of a veggo

At heart I am a vegetarian. In theory too (I've been reading for Buddhist theories and Gandhi's take on the subject lately) but I had a break-down in Bangkok. I am not really sure what happened, and I was so nervous to tell the truth. I started feeling really bad...just lethargic and irritable. In the 7-Eleven, I passed the tuna. After I passed it, I couldn't stop thinking about it, it just sounded SO good . Two days later, I gave in and bought some. After that, there was no stopping me. I was out of control. Tuna everyday. I am done now. My holiday is over, and I must return to being an honest vegetarian. I just had to let you know.

I'm slowly transitioning into real China life....first Singapore (which was clean-out-of-control) and now Hong Kong. I could do without Singapore, nothing to fabulous there but a lot of laws...oh, but the merlions were great........and Hong Kong is wonderfully entertaining. I am also with 5 other aimless lower-twenties people and that is encouraging :) It feels strangely wonderful to be back in a smoke-choked net bar listening to the manufactured sounds of violence from the PC gaming and the blaring Chinese rap.

I am coming to the end of my rapidly fraying rope, mentally, physically, spiritually and ecumenically. (can anyone name the two movies I just quoted in that one sentence????) Cambodia makes me tired. I gave blood at a children's hospital today (which was another horror show of its own inside.....remind me never to get sick outside the united states). There is a Dengue Fever Epidemic and sort of a blood crisis. A Greek girl came in shortly after me and we were chatting it up as we reclined with needles in our arms (I must say, I have never started a friendship in a blood bank before, and on top of that, when it was all over, we found out we had the same blood type......fate.......). She told me she loved Cambodia to the point of obsession; the energy of the place she said. I almost fell off the blood donating table in disbelief. Maybe it is because I am tired of traveling, or maybe I just can't deal with the country, but I will be glad to get out of here on Tuesday. Glad I came, but glad to leave.

At some point this week I told Jane, ":I have to get out of here!" The oppression, pain and poverty are suffocating, every time you go out, people are literally pulling you in a million different directions at once. I mean, I have been to Third World countries before, I currently reside in one for that matter, but I have never seen such desperation. People pleading with you to separate with your money. I felt so trapped.

Jane reminded me that that is exactly the point, poverty is trapping. And how lucky are we to be able to escape it. I just can't take it.

Furthermore, every time I open up my email box I am driven to tears by either good news or awful news from my community. I loathe being away from it. How I ever managed to find such amazing amazing people is beyond me and I hate hearing of their hard times that I can't help them with. It also hurts to miss their celebrations as well.

I am finally out of Phnom Penh.....a place I never want to go back too....ever.......Jane and I visited a few typical tourist spots like the National Museum, the Silver Pagoda (the floor is all silver!) and the Royal palace, but we also made it too some horrific sights. With the Khmer Rouge reign in the 1970's over 2 million Cambodians (one in every 5) were executed in the name of fanatical communism. We went to an old high school that had been converted into a prison and torture center for Pol Pot's prisoners. Over 17,000 prisoners were taken to this center (called s-21 then, Toul Sleng now) and only 12 survived. The Khmer Rouge would arrest the entire family of a wanted "criminal"and then in due time, execute them all after several months of torture.

They documented every part of the process with written biographies of the prisoners, pictures of their arrival and then their deaths. The Khmer Rouge abandoned it quickly as when the regime came to an end in 1979 leaving evidence in abundance of their horrific crimes. The museum left everything almost exactly as it was.....chains, torture weapons, blood stains....and has also taken effort to display the pictures of every prisoner; man, woman and child. Pictures line room after room. Pictures of people alive, and pictures of people with their entire heads blown away, or bloated from being purposely drowned, or with bubbles coming out their nose from the acid poured down their throats.
I've never been to Germany, but I am sure the concentration camps must be like this too. We also went to a place outside of town known as the "Killing Fields"; acres of land filled with mass grave after mass grave of intellectuals, professionals, and enemies of Pol Pot where over 200,000 bodies of men, women and children where discovered. There is a stupa in the middle, filled with hundreds of thousands of skulls arranged by sex and age. In the sunken graves scattered across the field, bones and pieces of clothing still protrude from the ground.

Ironic, that these museums are made to honor the dead and to encourage the living to never let this happen again. Tourist file through and murmur their horror and shock, shaking their heads......and in a few decades, the same thing will repeat itself in areas like Sudan, Rwanda, and Bosnia....our children with file through the museums, murmur their horror and shock and shake their heads at the terrific tragedies that we are allowing in our current lifetime.
To see a better picture (and to be really depressed), rent the movie "The Killing Fields"

We left Phnom Penh by boat....roof of boat actually. We traveled up the Mekong River on the roof of a passenger boat with 50 of our closest Cambodian travel friends for 6 hours until we reached Siem Reap, the site of the largest worship complex in the world, Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, the sunburns Jane and I recieved yesterday are unforgiving and we decided to spend the day out of the sun and resting. Angkor Wat has waited for some 800 years, it can wait one more day.

I don't know what they are calling it these days. (I was going in a completely different direction, but when I typed that phrase, I thought of coming into our guesthouse last week and seeing a cluster of people around a ground floor window. They were looking at two people practicing massage on some mats and pillows..."I guess that's the activity room," said Jane....."'Activity,' eh? We call it something different these days," I replied.)

Anyway, I don't know what they are calling it these days, but Katie and Chris have decided to live their lives in way that is somewhat in communion with the poor. When they talk about it, I always think that it sounds so great, like something I want to do someday too.

I have changed my mind. I have no desire to ever live in poverty like they do. I know it is dreadful and selfish to say. If this trip has taught me anything, it is that I love my luxuries. I love my bed. I love having heat in the wintertime and a-con. in the summertime. I hate smelling myself and dirt-encrusted nails make me nervous after a few days. I like soap bubbles and I love hot water. I must floss before I go to bed and I secretly revel in getting to visit the dentist. I don't always have to have complex, expensive food......but I like organic and fresh, and sometimes I must have to have pizza or something ridiculously unhealthy and delicious and cheesy (mmmm, cheese). I long to have technology at my fingertips (with a diet coke on the desk). I am possessive of my free time, I like to have an aesthetic environment, and I think it is fun to put together weird clothing combinations. Travel makes me think, makes me smile, makes me hope; but it is such a luxury. So many of my students have never been out of their hometown, much less their province.

I am not saying that I would die without these, but I want them. I really really really want them. But maybe that is the point......that which we love becoming a distraction.

I don't know what the answer is.

Going to Cambodia tomorrow...another uplifting journey......for information on the recent reign of Pol Pot see http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/

"the elephants got out just in time"

I am entirely toooooo sleepy for my own good. All this good weather and smiling people can make me want to nap. I miss the nap. It was such a staple in my college life. This week, we went to the rainforest to ride elephants. Our elephant was most amiable and sooooo big. I was quite surprised. I guess from afar, they seemed much smaller.

We also went to the New Life Center here in Chiang Mai. The New Life Center is a shelter for girls that are either at risk for prostitution or are ex-prostitutes that have been taken/sold from their villages into brothels and then rescued by Thailand Social Services. At the Center, the learn a trade as well as an academic education and they are also protected from brothel owners/ fathers who want to get them back to their detriment. It was a good but really really hard visit. The manager of the Center gave us a tour. We got to meet the girls and she told us their stories. The stories where unimaginable.......families abandoning or selling their girls, the conditions in which the brothel owners kept the girls----having to service 30-40 men a day combined with very little food, sleeping on the floor and being abused. It seemed unbelievable that these girls were standing in front of me, strong and smiling. I can't imagine living through that pain (physical, mental, spiritual, emotional) and not simply dissolving into little disposable pieces in some dark corner and disappearing. It gave me a passion for wanting to work with those girls in the future (I have to get an emotional grip first).
for more infomation on the new life center see: http://www.newlifethailand.org

Don't tell my mom I went to Burma........

I went to Burma this weekend. One of my life-time goals has been to go to Burma. I may have only spent about 15 minutes there--but I was definitely there. Jane and I left Phuket for Bangkok and then took a night train to Chiang Mai. Jane has friends that are church planters in Chiang Mai who have been working with Hmong (sounds like "mung") minority people about six hours southwest of Chiang Mai. After a quick shower we piled into three trucks and took the long journey through the mountains to Mae Sot. It we spent three days in the tiny village that the government has set up for Burmese refugees.

The village was having its church-opening ceremony and a Hmong wedding. I loved it because we traveled with Hmong, Thai and Laotian students from Chiang Mai to Mae Sot and once we were there, they helped us meet the villagers and tour the village. The village (called "village 9) is located about 2 kilometers from the Burma boarder and you can see the majestic Burmese mountains towering in the not-so-far distance. It is saturated with Burmese, Hmong and Karen people who have fled the terror of the "State Peace and Development Council" ruling party. On Saturday, I piled in the back of a pick-up truck with 15 other Hmong and Thai students and we headed to the amazing waterfalls in surrounding mountains. We spend the day wading through the cold water, splashing each other and climbing the falls. (Thankfully, a 12 year-old Hmong girl attached herself to me and saved me from tumbling down the rocky falls to my watery grave multiple times.) Saturday, I also went to Burma with two other Americans who needed to renew their visas by re-entering the country.

On the day of the ceremonies, the village men slaughtered to cows for the communal lunch (I refrained), and over 400 people gathered to witness the goings-on. It was an absurdly wonderful trip, but also sickeningly difficult. It is hard for me to imagine the terror and suffering under which these people must have lived in Burma, their courage to slip over the boarder, and now the hardships which they deal with in their village (horrible water sources, rampant disease, exposure to the elements, discrimination by the Thai government...) We held a 2 hour "clinic" in the afternoon. Seeing villagers with health problems. There is a nurse from America who has also been working closely with Village 9. It just seemed so ridiculous. Malnourished children being giving 10 multivitamins. Women with wrists swollen with arthritis being given 5 Tylenol. The people here are doing everything in their power to relieve what suffering they can, but the options are so limited and temporary. Just a band-aid on a deep, festering wound. I am so overwhelmed with the futility of humanitarian efforts that I could scream....or just take a nap.

I was further frustrated by the ingrained sexism in the village. I don't know what my problem is. I consider myself an open-minded person...but when I see others' differences that I don't agree with I get so angry. So so angry. In Thailand men have a higher status, but in the village, the breach in status between women and men is extraordinary. Men get to sit while women stand. Men eat first always while women watch. Men are permitted to have multiple wives. I don't know if I feel frustrated because I am a women and therefore feel sympathetic, but if you could just see how hard these women work in these villages. Perhaps they marry at 16 or 17 and start having children right off (no birth control of course) until they have 8-10 children. They will carry one on their back, one on their front, one on their hip and have the hand of another. In this position,they will assist their husbands in the fields, be responsible for the sewing, cooking and cleaning as well as their millions of children. I am not saying the men don't work hard. I just feel frustrated that these amazingly capable, intelligent and gentle women see themselves as second-class...their value only seated in their childbearing capabilities.....I could just dig a hole and climb down in it--frustrated with people and myself; I don't know where the line is between tolerant and taking a moral stand.

check out http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107808.html for little summary-roo of Burma's government and geo-political relations

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

Thursday, January 26, 2006
Back from the beautiful ocean. It would of course rain our first day in a resort town (when I went to Santorini, it snowed for the first time in 15 years) I suppose that is what makes my travels unconventional. Aside from the rain, I still got a sunburn, which I am loving in January and also got a lot of time to relax, read, and listen to music on the beach. I certainly can't complain!! I also learned a lot more about the destruction and terror during the tsunami. Due to my overdeveloped sense of motherness to the world's children, I spent much of the grieving for the children and families I didn't even know that must have suffered so much, I just can't imagine being responsible for a child in that situation, and being unable to hold on. I was glad to see that so much had improved in the past year (homes, business etc) but I know that in Pakistan, and even New Orleans, people are still suffering silently from natural disasters now that the media spotlight has shifted. It seems like such a hopeless situation.

The last few days in Bangkok have been wonderful! This country is nicknamed the "Land of the Smile." It is incredibly true....moving from a country where people are often kind but intimidating or avoiding to a place where the street sweeper looks up at you with a brimming smile has been a welcomed changed. Ying has taken us everywhere from night bazaars to floating markets, temples and galleries to the red light districts. We have taken ferries, tuk-tuks, taxis, motorcycles and the subway. The food is AMAZING. Tomorrow, Jane and I are going to the resort city of Phuket to see where some of the aid from her church went during the tsunami. I am excited to see a new part of the country and maybe some beach and margaritas!

I leave tomorrow to begin my Spring Festival holiday travel. I will be going with another teacher, Jane. We plan to go to Guilin/China, Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai/Thailand, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap/Cambodia, Singapore and Hong Kong. There is no chance of me being prepared before I leave, so I thought I might as well post. I hope when I come home from this journey, I have some sort of clarity about what I should do for next year.
There is a canal that runs in front of my apartment. Between the canal and my building is a small park running the length of the canal. Every money while I put together breakfast, I can see elderly men and women doing their morning exercises along the canal: tai chi, aerobics, stretching and jogging. In the afternoon there is an old man who comes everyday--bringing his birds. He carries two large black birds in separate cages. He stops at a small pavilion directly in front of my door and settles. He begins to methodically clean the birds cages; unfastening the bottom and placing the open-bottomed cages on the grass so the birds might hop about and explore through the grass. He cleans the bottom of the cage off in the canal and talks quietly to his birds while he waits for them to dry. The whole process takes about three hours. I think he must love those birds so much. It is strange, I don't even like birds, but it is one of my favorite parts of the day to see him so carefully taking care of the little creatures.
I hope to post while I am traveling, but I am not sure what sort of resources I will encounter. In the meantime, feel free to ponder and reflect on this sign we found in Suzhou:

"Today, was one of those days where I have that certain ache, where I'm full to the brim with love and anxiousness for my students-- where I try so hard to catch each particular pain, eagerness, fear, hope or grasping for connection, so I can flash recognition into their eyes. " My friend and fellow teacher,Jen Sullivan, wrote this on her "pieceofmyself" blog (hope you don't mind if I borrow it, Jen). I read it a couple of weeks ago and feel like I couldn't begin to express the way I feel about my students right now any better.

I had individual oral exams with each of my students this week. They are so wrapped in curiosity and earnestness--I would do anything to draw out any discouragement or unnecessary pain they have and fill the void with love and encouragement. I don't know what makes me think I have anything better to give them, but I want to (though I'd like to wring a couple of their necks first.........).

The rest of my family left today . Well, theoretically. We actually (keeping with the theme of the past three weeks) had a bus station mishap and missed the right airport bus---meaning they left one hour later during rush hour. The bus driver acted like it would be an act of the Buddha to get them there before their flight left, much less the suggested two hours before. Otherwise, they may be back. In fact, I selfishly wish they would miss their flight. I have surprised myself once again in being very sad by their departure. It isn't that I don't love them, just I just imagined I was an independent adult that needed her own space. My wee bit of an apartment has gone from 5 people to one person and a sleeping cat so briskly. I feel lonely. They say that is supposed to be good for you, feeling lonely......it just seems like I am coping with leaving home all over again. I know I will adapt eventually...I have so far.
Thanks for listening.
ps my students are fascinated with Christmas cards. If you still have the old ones people sent you this year or in other years, if you could send them to me, my students would love it. Thanks!
Cammie Brennan/building 11 apt. 102/Hangzhou Teachers College/no. 222 Wenyi Road/Hangzhou, Zhejiang/China 310012
cheers!

*sigh* I have been told I need to up date. Demanding audience............ so, here is my cuteface Xiao Mao. She loves Christmas too, especially while I am wrapping presents!

the neys have it, I am not a yogi

I am back home. Home. So strange to call this place home. While I was gone, I missed it terribly. Of course it was brilliant to be away, but coming home was good (minus the dishes that I found molded in the kitchen sink...). I remember that was the first time I loved Jewell after hating it for over a semester. I went to a get together of some of my high school friends, and I counted the minutes until I could go back to Jewell.
Soon I have a yoga lesson. I have been going with Zheng Si Si lately. Which reminds me, I never told the story of my first class. We were late coming in. The class participants all stopped in their various contorted positions to stare at the foreigner (not to mention I was by far the youngest). As we slipped mats into the back row, I quickly realized I was at a disadvantage. Being in the back, I couldn't see the instructor and of course couldn't understand her. Soon, her assistant noticed the floundering foreigner in the back row and came back to put my body in the positions. The problem lay in the fact that, while I knew what positions my body should be in, I hadn't stretched for ages and all of my muscles protested loudly at the thought. The assistant, however, thought I just had no clue what I was supposed to do, so she took it upon herself to force my limbs into their proper place. For example "bring your knee to your nose" (while laying on our back) Well, my knee wasn't coming anywhere close to my nose so the assistant started sitting on the back of my thigh to force it down closer to my face. Unfortunately, I don't know the Chinese vocabulary for "get off of me". "Put your palms flat on the ground" instructed the teacher, once again, my finger tips touched, but my palms refused to lay flat........so the assistant tried helping me with that one too. All the while, the rest of the class is turning around fascinated at the complications going on with the foreigner in the back row. Furthermore, Niuniu (who came to watch the class) had given me a piece of candy on our way to the class. Without thinking I just put it in my bag. During class, she realized she actually wanted to eat the candy and remembered me putting it in my bag so she started rooting through the contents of my bag to find it. While I am concentrating on not punching the assistant in the face....I hear a rustling noise coming across the floor. I look up to see Niuniu, walking toward me while concentrating on getting my tampon open. She comes over, asking me to open it so she can eat it. (Tampons are not available in China, most Chinese don't know what one looks like). Horrified, I told her, no! it is not food, you can't eat it! My Chinese friend who had come along to help translate for me, said "can she look at it, even though it isn't food?" I tried to explain to my friend what it was, but unfortunately I don't have the Chinese vocabulary to talk about menstrual periods and she doesn't have the English vocabulary. So, finally, after some curious pantomiming (that was definitely not part of the yoga routine and was driving my assistant out of her mind) I got the message across. The look of horror that crossed my friend's face threw me into a fit of giggles which echoed around the quiet room with it's relaxing music. I have a habit of having laughing fits in completely inappropriate places at inappropriate times. I couldn't get a grip. So I laid down on my mat (my assistant finally threw up her hands and left me) until I could look Xiao Yun (my friend) in the face without losing it again.
Hopefully, this class, is more relaxing than last.

japan pics

Here are some pics from Japan, my sweet J-niece, Aoi-Chan, and my J-niece/nephew to be, Oka-san and Yoppie and I at the shrine festival with our lucky rakes (yes, I said lucky rakes) and one of some of the J-sisters together.

After　considerable delays, I finally made it to civilization. I went to Shanghai on Friday with Seth and the Hewitts. It was great, but really a shock to be in such a modern city. The trip was mostly a culinary tour. We ate Mexican, pizza, diner food and lots of coffee. While we weren`t eating, we visited the Shanghai People`s museum. On Saturday night, Seth took me to the Bund and we went to the top of the 4th tallest building in the world to have drinks. It was incredible to sit so high up, looking down on a city of 16 million. (see pictures of Shanghai from the bar and from across the river) Sunday I flew out to Osaka then Tokyo. Coming here has been like coming home....my room, my chopsticks, my sisters, everything is familiar! Everything is clean! And I can`t get over how accessible coffee is!!　　Lately, we have spent a lot of time with Eriko and Aoi-chan. I can`t believe it, she is going to have another baby! She is so brave! We also went to this amazing shrine festive in Shinjuku last night. The shrine`s grounds were packed with people buying lucky rakes to bring them fortune for the upcoming year.
Unfortunately, I heard two days ago that Anne Caldwell`s best friend died in a car accident. I never met Kristy, but I know how important she was to Anne, and I can`t imagine losing someone like Sarah or Susan...I would be devastating, I can`t imagine. I hurt for Anne and wish I could do something. It makes me never want to go far from the people I love again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

communists, I tell ya what.........

A spiritual/theological paradigm (para-dig-mm) shift occurred in college, wreaking my life permanently....I am afraid I am about to have a post-college social-philosophical paradigm shift. Yesterday, in my newspaper class, we were talking about poverty--particularly poverty in urban areas--I was encouraging my students to get angry about the mistreatment of migrant workers in the cities. They looked at me blankly. "There isn't anything we can do." They proclaimed. "Yes, yes of course there is!" I said. We argued and discussed for 40 minutes. I felt like the naive child encouraging the hardened solider to pursue utopian ideals.

After class, I talked to two students for a bit. "How can we help? What can we do about poverty?" They asked. I encouraged them to take action in small ways....writing to their government, educating their friends and family about the problem, and long for social volunteer programs that provide services. They looked back at me disappointed. "It doesn't matter if we do those things....it won't make a difference.....we can't do anything by ourselves...."

I was speaking with Jim on the way back home. And I realized the difference lays in that from birth Americans are told they can accomplish anything.........one person does matter....one person can make a difference.......but here, communism says that the group is the only thing that can make a difference.......the individual is just part of the group.....alone, nothing can be accomplished. So here we are, I think I am right, they know they are right. It is strange, for the first time, I realized it could be a lie--I don't know why I never thought about it before. Maybe one person can't really make a difference without the strength of the group. Just like theological constructions crumbling, my ideas of purpose in life.....my reasons for believing that I can do something, anything to ease the pain in life shattered.

In the midst, I felt the disappoint of not being able to fit into this society in a way that brings relief, brings love, brings meaning, brings true community. Foreigners are so limited in their ability to volunteer here....and even if I could, my language is so limited, I wouldn't be able to communicate on a level that matters. I am afraid I never will be able to.

In response to a request for more pictures......I always forget to take pictures of things, but here is one of my two babies, Niuniu and Xiao Mao and another one of my dearest friends here, Zheng Si Si, Su Jian and Wu Fang......I need Corrine or Susan here, my favorite obsessive-compulsive photographers. Life is good right now......better than last week anyway. I am getting very very excited about Japan on Sunday! Ahhh, civilization....family......cheese........

......

I want to update, but I have absolutely nothing interesting to say.......any suggestions? questions? comments? By the by, I can see my blog now (for no obvious reason in particular, so feel free to post)

Halloween............

Well, the Halloween party of the century is over. About two hours before the party, I remembered that I have social anxiety, and I absolutely hate people coming over in mass expecting a good time. So, naturally, I freaked out and burned the apple crisp and just prayed for the night to be over. I think the other American teachers saw a new side of Cammie as she flipped out. In the end, after bobbing for apples, pin the little pumpkin on the big pumpkin and a game of who-can-dress-your-partner-like-a-mummy-using-toilet-paper-the-fastest, the night turned out to be a success. I am glad I had the chance to give a tiny something back to the Chinese who have helped me so incredibly the past few months. Here are some pictures.....Zheng Si Si (she was a rooster) bobbing for apples, the mummies altogether and my cat as a mummy (Wu Fang and I think we won, we were definitely the fastest mummy wrappers), a cute little mummy and my friends Zhang Dan and Yvette as cats. In other news, Ann came to Hangzhou for a day. She brought me a suitcase full of wonderful American treats (thanks to all contributors). Also, there was a small flood in my kitchen tonight as the pipe underneath the sink became unconnected. On the downside, I went wading for about an hour, on the upside, my kitchen floor has never been this clean!

By the by, thanks to dear ol' daylight savin's, for those of you in Central Standard time, we are now 14 hours apart.......just add two hours and switch the am/pm part and you've got it right............but you can call anytime!