in laos and loving it. its a bit, surprisingly, like the artic but we are dealing. we've been staying on this organic farm which thrives of the mulberry plant and the community who lives there teaches englishs to the village across the street and together they have built a youth center, a community center and a library (which is quite an accomplishment, there are only 3 universities in Lao and only two have any kind of library......) more to come, pictures etc. when i am not paying one million dollars a minute to use the internet. love yall.

FromJackie'sBlog because I am too lazy to write:
Recent activities: Hosting my first multi-cultural Christmas partyLocation: Cammie's apartment (I insisited I would help her clean up afterwards...little did she know)Highlights: Realizing that inviting 50+ people under the assumption that only half of them will come is wishful thinkingHearing people from ten different countries, (none of them Hispanic,) attempt to sing "Feliz Navidad."
8th Annual International Ice FestivalLocation: Harbin-city of 5 million on the Russian borderHighlights: Surviving the 30 hour train ride en route to Harbin. Aside from sleeping and wandering the higher priced areas of the train where we were not supposed to be, much of our time was spent teaching our fellow passengers how to play "Go Fish."Climbing ice sculptures-the tallest was more than ten stories high- This year's festival featured replicas of Notre Dame, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Great Wall, a Korean City Gate, and....Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
Journey to the Matriarchal Society of Lugu LakeLocation: Yunnan province, Southwest ChinaHighlights: Leaving the tour group in attempts to discover any remaining fragment of "the real China"...land away from hostals and internet cafes. After hours of disappointment and wandering at high altitude, we tracked down a local Mosuo man in a cowboy hat (think "Marlboro Man") and convinced him to drive us over dark mountain roads so we could drink fermented apple-beer with a local family. The tour guide seemed extremely surprised when we staggered into the hostal, hours late for dinner. "Hmmmm" he smiled. I can imagine the hundreds of foreign tourists who must still be wandering near Lugu Lake, freezing and woozy with apple beer.
Gorging on all of the wonderful food we can't get in China!(Present) Location: Chiang Mai, ThailandHighlights: Auntie Annie's pretzels, mango ice cream, papayas, spinach lasagna, Mexican food, avacados, microwave popcorn, assorted juices, Ben & Jerry's, french bread, real hot chocolate, lime shakes....the list goes on.
Why can't any of these things make their way across the border? After days of high altitude and unheated hostals (I've never slept in a hat and gloves before!) We were overjoyed to descend into Thailand-current temperature 78 degrees at 8:43pm, home of palm trees, tuk-tuks (3 wheeled bicycles), elephants, mountain villages, and Asia's largest night markets. Aaaaaahhhhh, vacation. The next few days will include jungle trekking, trying not to get my hand bit off while feeding elephants, and as many mangoes and papayas as I can eat before heading to Bangkok on the 23rd.

Hey everyone, this is Katie, Cammie's sister. She wants you to know that she is unable to access Xanga right now due to the earthquake in Taiwan which supposedly interrupted internet lines b/w China and America. She will be traveling for the next 5 weeks, but will stay in touch as much as possible. Happy Chinese New Year!

While travel planning for this year's spring holiday (ie looking up 7 flights at one time) I encountered this helpful remark: "If you can accept the way turn in other airports,The following is the Hangzhou that we recommend for you to fly to the Lijiang of in turn(onward flight) the flight path.Please choose you feel quite the cheese in turn the city, we will search the service for you "

Since cheese is rare in China we are looking forward to this flight......I think..........

Someone pinch me. Worlds colliding....my Bob (my Chinese friend) just told me yesterday that the Newsboys (a Christian band from my golden high school years) performed at the largest university in Hangzhou. Well slap me and call me Franklin.
In other news......my new bike is completely safe. Too safe...so safe I can't even ride it. After being convinced by my classmates that the only way to keep my bike was to use two locks, I bought a second one. One bike ride later, the second lock refused to open. It won't even budge. I need to find a strongman to pick it up and take it somewhere to have the jaws of life clamp the lock off, but I've almost decided to roll over and call "uncle". I am quite sure my hypothetical fortune cookie proclaims: "A wise man say: stay the heck away from bicycles."

I take the 90 minute bus ride home from our other campus ever Tuesday afternoon. I usually entertain myself with my ipod, making up possible dialogues between Chinese people on the bus and sleeping. Last week, however as we got closer to the city, I passed a familiar university, but it had a new bright red banner stretched across the main gate proclaiming in yellow Chinese and English letters "Welcome to the 16th annual conference of alternative reality and teleexistance." If only I had a camera. After being in Hangzhou for a year and a half, someone finally let me in on the secret and welcomed me to an alternate reality........it explains so much....it's all clear now.

I am like a horse that needs to be put down, for her own good and the good of the others. I have impressed myself. I lost bike number 5 in less than a week. How can I even show my face at the bike shop? I swear they should just give me one out of pity. Speaking of horses, maybe I should just buy a horse instead. A horse would be a lot harder to lose than a bike......maybe....i guess horses can run away.

On the way to work, I lost one glove on the bus. (I bought them Sat.)

On the way home from work I tripped with my hands full of 90 Christmas boxes that my students made in front of a guy I am actually working to impress not earn his scorn.

On the upside, however, I have a new cell phone. Same number. Fiasco of course. The phone was registered in Ann's name and passport number because last fall my office took my passport to work on my visa. I hoped they wouldn't realize that my passport and my phone papers were different.....I mean, all foreigners look alike, right? Ann was just in Hangzhou with her passport until the day I lost the phone. A few days later she had the chance to send me an email attachment of the passport. I took it to China mobile. The girl pondered the paper for awhile and announced "Its too big". "Excuse me?" "The copy isn't the right size, it needs to be the size of a passport." "But look, here is Ann's name, her picture, her number the United States seal.....its all here." "It's the wrong size." "Why?" "It's the rules." "Can't you just skip the rules this time?" I asked getting close to tears of frustration. "No." "So, if I walk down the street to a copy place and get it resized, I can bring it back and it will be fine." "Yes." I leave and walk 4 blocks to the copy place, accomplish the goal and then return. Upon my return, the lady finds my copy satisfactory; she gets up and proceeds to make a copy of the copy at the machine behind her desk. My mouth just dropped open. Now why couldn't she have just resized it herself! i put my head on the table and answered in monosyllables until i got my phone reactivated. Honestly, I think sometimes the Chinese think of THE MOST DIFFICULT way to do something and then proceed accordingly.....mainly to keep everyone employed. Someone shoot me.

Notice: In case anyone was thinking of calling me, my phone has be absendated from my possession so I have no mobile phone access until further notice. Don't take it personally. You can always email :)

The phone was the last in a long line of possessions gone awry this month. I declared November to be a money saving month, but so far I have lost my keys (twice), lost my bike (I am now on my fifth one), broke my camera, broke my phone (got it fixed the same day I lost it), broke my toilet, had my atm card eaten and finally the phone the other day. So much for saving money....

Jackie makes me laugh. She is a fabulous writer and I am lazy so, please enjoy her blog:

"Who was I to question the guidebook? I had never expected to find monkeys in Tokyo-but there it was "Nikko National Park, 2 hours outside of Tokyo, filled with wild monkeys." Naturally, following the short description of the park's shrines, temples, and hiking trails was a list of cautionary guidelines: Don't touch the monkeys. Don't feed the monkeys. Don't approach the monkeys. Don't provoke the monkeys. Mrs. Kimura (the mother of the family we were staying with) was quick to agree, noting that "monkeys can be very dangerous" and rattling off a long list of monkey-instigated destruction stories. "They break into stores!" she exclaimed; "they'll jump right into your car-and they Bite!" Absorbed in paper-crane folding, we disregarded her warnings. Though an excellent cook and wonderful hostess, she's probably just not good with monkeys, I thought. Before heading to bed, I grabbed a bunch of bananas off the kitchen table...We rose bright and early the next morning, folding our Japanese-style beds and stashing them in the closet. After a quick breakfast of salmon, soup, bread, and salad with eggs, we set off for the train station.

Though I have (semi-successfully) navigated metro systems in Buenos Aires, DC, and New York, among other places, I was perpetually lost during our week in Tokyo. While most cities are content with 8 or 10 rainbow-colored metro lines, Tokyo has at least 25. Since there are not really 25 distinct colors, some of the lines are "dark red", while others are sort of a "fire-engine red", and others more of a "reddish-pink." Our conversations frequently included in-depth discussion of the nuances of color-Cammie: "I think we should take the light green to the medium blue, and then dark gray."Me: "You mean medium green. Isn't that light gray?" We did meet some interesting characters on the metro...a man from Egypt worked up the nerve to approach us during rush hour, after silently observing us from the corner of the car for awhile. "I am Ahamed! I am an engineer!" he announced. Surrounding passengers, politely Japanese, tried to maneuver away from the loud foreigners in the middle of the car. "I am from Egypt!" he stated at an even higher volume. "Have you boyfriend?" His face came closer to mine. The car was now packed full, making it impossible to back up any further. "Maybe you will come to Egypt," he pondered. "Then, you stay at my house." It was a statement, not a question. He looked pointedly at both of us. "Where go you now? I am free tomorrow." "But don't you have to work?" I reminded him."It's Saturday!" he roared, gleeful. "Where go you now?"Fortunately, our stop was just ahead. Cammie, who had taken a sudden interest in the floor and walls of the metro car, was leaving me to repel the Egyptian single-handedly. We waited until the doors were just about to close, than darted out onto our station platform. We turned to look back through the train windows, smiling goodbye.

In any case, we survived all of our metro experiences, including the ride to the Nikko-bound train. As we neared Nikko, the landscape changed-from ritzy Starbucks-filled neighborhoods and edgy shopping and nightlife districts to small farms, dirt roads, and fall leaves, pine-covered mountains in the distance. The air (though cleaner than China even in the heart of Tokyo) smelled different, fresher. I pressed my face to the train window, scanning the trees for...monkeys.After attempting to buy tickets to any and all of the shrines and temples in the park, which by this point in the day were all closing, (we were sent from one ticket window to the next-"No, you must buy these down the hill. No, you should exchange your tickets at the top of the hill," etc.etc. until everything was pretty much closed) we decided to pick a hiking trail and get down to business-monkey hunting. (Fortunately-we did get to see the original monkey-themed "See no evil/hear no evil/speak no evil" carving.) As we began our ascent up the mountain, I carefully removed a banana from the backpack, peeled it, and waved it around. We passed the Vegas Buddha. "Monkeeeyyyyss!" we called. We even tried making monkey noises. I was waiting to be approached, mauled, attacked even. Where were these aggressive, vicious creatures that the guidebook had warned us about? Not even a movement in the trees. Since it was now growing dark, we reluctantly returned to the main road and set off to find a place for dinner. As we boarded the train for home (refreshingly engineer-free) I swear I could hear monkeys laughing in the distance...."

Thanksgiving just came late to Hangzhou. Friday I had a wonderful video conference party with Anne, Sarah, Katie, Chris, John and Matt in Chi-town, and today Thanksgiving arrived in the form of Ann Wilson who brought with her an amazing cornucopia of AMERICAN FOOD. Mmmmmmm, mac and cheese, gummies, pumpkin bread, cereal, cereal bars, twizzlers, popcorn, basil, velveta cheese, sunkist orange soda, kiwis, cheezits and cheesy goldfish (notice the cheese theme....). I got to spend a lot of time with Si Jie and Bob, my Chinese friends, this weekend too. Now to study and prepare for class. At some point I will tell about Japan....suffice it to say for now, that in true Cammie-travel-fashion, we missed our flight and were shanghaied in shanghai, hunted for monkeys, visited the Buddha, and extended our trip two days!

Things that make me laugh

Well, Erin (an English teacher here) heard my plea for baking soda and hooked me up with a tiny shop in her neighborhood that sells "Hammer Noodles". Check it, that's not a hammer, that's an AXE!















Sometimes, my cat likes to kick back with Bob Marley .......

Good friends, being that you all know sometimes it takes about two months for mail to get to China, I know you must be getting anxious about what you are going to send me for Christmas. Don't worry guys, you can just ask.....and I can just tell you so you can stop banging your head against the wall and singing "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child."
*baking soda (it makes the smells in my drains "lay down")
*Macaroni and Cheese
*Cheez-its
*Chlorox/Lysol-ish wipes for cleaning
*music

My students are writing Beth Fullbright Black's students as pen pals. The following is a compilation example letter of my students' first letters to their American pen pals:
Have you ever some interesting things when you say "trick or treat"? Have you ever meet a mean person? Well, I have once dressed up just for fun. Er, I acted a tree. Is that funny? I am a flashman in university. I wish I were an Englishman. It is a joke. I believe you are a lively boy. I want to have a look at you. Please tell me the colorful life of you. I am not interested in hunting, in other words, I have never hunt. In China we have no hunting seasons. I think animals are our best friends so we human beings shouldn't be so rude as to kill them. But there are still many people catching frogs and kill them to eat. Its so terrible. You should really improve your handwriting. I doubt I can hardly recognize it. Happy Christmas, we have Spring Festival, it likes your Christmas day. Auld Lang Syne.

Ah. Jackie and I went to Nanjing (about 4-5 hours away) this weekend. We stayed with a friend I made over facebook, and I just trusted that he wasn't a rapist or murderer. Luckily, he was neither and we had a great place to stay for free! The sole reason I wanted to go to Nanjing was in order to see the memorial museum to the victims of the Japanese massacre in Nanjing. I've read a lot about it and have heard what a necessary experience the memorial is from friends. Jackie and I waited until the last day to visit. We took a taxi and found a crowd of Chinese waiting outside closed gates. I went and pressed my face against the fence to see the sign announcing in Chinese that memorial is closed until Dec 2007 for renovation. *Gasp* I turned to the Chinese crowd and began pleading my case. I told a small lie that I had come all the way from America just to see this museum, and I was ready to offer the workers there any amount of money to let Jackie and I come in and have a look. Inspired, a Chinese woman climbed the fence and ran to find a worker. She explained the plight of the two Americans and the worker opened the gate a crack, letting Jackie and I in. The conversation was going too fast in Chinese for me to understand. But, a new woman appeared, and suddenly everyone's mood changed. She kept insisting that view the memorial was not possible. Jackie and I both had out stacks of 100 kuai bills (the highest bill) I told her we would give them to her if she just let us have a look, we had come all the way from America. No such luck, she was like a stone. We were shown back to the gate. I cried. Now, I am just angry.
We had a good time otherwise though. We went to the center of Confucian study for over 1500 years. We visited the Purple and Gold Mountains to see Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's tomb and some Ming tombs.
On the way back from the Ming tombs, we were in the middle of these deserted mountains. It was only 6 but it was pitch dark. Jackie and I hurried to join the mass of 20 Chinese waiting for the last bus out of the mountains. When it finally pulled up, people were already packed against the windows and doors. There was no way 20 more people could fit. The driver had other ideas though and began herding us in the side door. The thing is that the Chinese are very pushy to get in line, and Jackie and I aren't. We were the last people to get on the bus. It was sincerely impossible but the driver just kept pushing my back telling me to hurry up, in a deadpan voice. The doors wouldn't close, my body was in the way. There was only one solution. I wrapped my arms around the neck of the Chinese man standing on the step above me, stood one one toe and sucked in. "Ni hao" (hello) I said to his face less than an inch from mine. And there I clung for the 20 minute ride every time the doors opened or closed. I thought I had been in a crowded bus before.....I will never complain about Hangzhou buses again!
We saw the Ming dynasty city walls, made famous by pictures taken of the Japanese celebrating on top of them when they invaded Nanjing.
This week is busy with an international dinner (arranged by Jackie and myself) for our classmates, tonight (I am making grilled cheese!) Halloween part on Tuesday (also arranged by Jackie and myself, we've voted ourselves social chairs of class 1A), Chinese wedding on Wednesday, and fajita night on Friday with some foreign friends. Keeping busy!

Jackie and I have been busy traveling lately. Last weekend, we went to Suzhou, this weekend, we planned to go to the little water village, Xitang, the place where the end of mission impossible three was filmed. I went there last year with Stephen and Sarah so I was pretty confident in my ability to lead Jackie there. First we had to take a bus to Jiashan then a minibus to Xitang. A friend wrote it in characters for me, but I've gotten a little cocky lately and didn't bring it. So, Sat. morning we headed to the long lines at the east bus station. I got up to the fiberglass window with the ticket lady on the other side, and the little microphone. "Two to Jiashan" I said. *static static mumble* shan?" she asked. "Yes". She gave us the tickets and we got on the next bus to Jiashan. I had remembered the ride only being 1.5 or two hours. An hour and a half passed, two hours passed at the three hour mark I got nervous. I was sweaty b/c there was no air and I had to pee too. I called my friend Bob and passed the phone off to a bewildered passenger who obviously wanted nothing to do with two foreign girls. The phone circled back. Bob:"Um, you are going to Xiaoshan in Ningbo." me:"but I don't want to go there! How far is it from Hangzhou?" Bob: "about 5.5 hours" me: "shoot a monkey."
There was nothing to be done. We couldn't get off the bus. around 3 we arrived in this Xiaoshan. We were optimistic (well, Jackie was) that there would be at least something interesting to look at. We wandered the unfamiliar streets and harassed the locals to tell us a place that had "lots of meaning". The people there spoke their local language and our Chinese is pretty bad anyway. We ended up at a noodle house and took the next bus back 5.5 hours to Hangzhou.

Sunday, however, we were determined to get it right. We headed off early again, this time armed with the characters for Jiashan. One hour and a friendly conversation with a Chinese grandmother later, we made it to Jiashan and then to Xitang. It was beautiful of course, and completely worth even the mistaken trip the day before. Watch out for those tricky shans.

In Korea!!

If I haven't made it clear that China is insane.......thanks to Erin and Amana, the following:
Man bites panda
Man joins ancient army
Take the time to read them, it will be worth your while....

Xiao Fu got neutered this week. I swore I wasn't going to cry, but as soon as I got to the vet and they gave him the shot to put him to sleep and he screamed like a human, I burst in to tears. I swear the attendants at that vet's office have seen me cry more in this past year than my mother has in my whole life. Anyway, all is good....despite a small misunderstanding between another teacher and myself, when he thought I was having the cat neutered at the local supermarket.....I woke up several times the first night to check if Xiao Fu was still breathing but he is kickin it just fine now, even though he is half the man he used to be. In memory of Xiao Mao, I found this picture from last year on my hard drive yesterday. I think I will keep it forever, when I look at it, I realize that things always really could be worse!!

All right, this post is dedicated to Ashley, who is, apparently, a visual learner. Today was my first day of work. Despite a few first-day butterflies, it was a blast. I am obsessed with my kids already. Here are a few pics of around my house...the campus library...







... the quad..







....the canal...







Jackie is my new friend here. Her passport was stolen her first day in China. We went to Shanghai to pick up her brand-new one this week. We welcomed the new passport into the family with the best Mexican food this side of the Yangtze river.







Saturday night, Jackie and I went out in search of some new friends and good times. It is the first sunny day in Hangzhou since I arrived. I think I'll go out and enjoy!

I eat in/on/at my bed a lot because I don't have a table. It causes a rather serious crumb problem. I used to eat in bed in college too. Sus always said in a knowing tone "you know what they say about people who eat in bed......" but she never did tell me, and I never did know.