Another week...

Well, I’m almost half way finished with my time in China! I. Can. Not. Believe. It.

For so many reasons, I am glad that I came to China. The people are beautiful, curious, family-oriented, and without a doubt very hard working. I have never been around Asians and the unknown was unsettling. Diversity is something that was not a part of my childhood. My elementary school in Rogers had its first non-caucasian students when I was in the 4th grade: the Esparza brothers. I remember them not only because they were great athletes, but also because they were the first Latinos I had ever met in my life. Here, I am constantly bombarded with diversity I never even imagined. For example, a Chinese guy who was raised in France and speaks English with a French accent. Or the Chinese news castors broadcasting with an Australian accent. Or the wide variety of bands I saw on Friday night: a Dutch Jazz Band, a garage band comprised of some Chinese kids and a middle aged American (appearing) man, a story telling band that had two Mongolians (Tom and Jerry), a Chinese guy, and an American (who touted himself as “the conqueror”), and finally a French hard rock band. Shanghai truly is a city of the world and I am LOVING interacting with everyone and observing the colliding of cultures between and within people. Every day, it truly is something new.

This week… I saw the CHINESE ACROBATS!!! The flexibility, strength, poise, balance, focus, fearlessness of the acts they pulled off was DAZZLING! The craziest part was the huge globe cage they stuffed 8 crazy guys (and GIRLS! YEAH!) on motorcycles in and drove around!!! I was so nervous for them! I’ve never seen Circ’ d Sole, but I imagine that it was very similar! I would have taken more pictures, but there was no photography and I almost got kicked out for the couple photos that I took! The picture below is of a little man flipping through a tiny hoop!

I also went to several gallery openings this week. The most entertaining was the Australian whose work was a collection of illustrations that told the story of a fictitious group of indigenous people whose way of life was soccer. Here he is.

He also made a collection of pens for the World Cup!!!!!!! Don’t worry my male friends… I gave the artist a hard time for making the American man look like that!!!

Lots of people ask me what I am going to miss about China. The following picture is an example of something that I will desperately miss. (The misuse of the English language over here is endlessly entertaining.) This was in the stall of a bathroom in a museum. A facility that actually had toilets as we know them in the states and provided toilet paper!!!

Number one: How is going to the bathroom like that even possible?!
Number two: Does standing really sound like STAMPEDE?! (I think they meant… NO STANDING…)
AHHHHH…. I LOVE IT!

And… THE WORLD CUP! I am LOVING the energy and excitement that has come with this event. The games are on every TV in town, and it is all that people are talking about. And how about the good ol’ USA!!!! Calling a draw with the BRITS! NICE WORK TEAM! Mircha, Trenia, and I stayed up last Friday night to watch the game. We headed out at 1am to a bar with TV’s that Mircha had scoped out ahead of time. There were about 10 Americans in the bar. We painted USA on our faces and were ready for the game. The bar played Bruce Springsteen “I was born in the USA,” prior to the game… which if we weren’t pumped enough… we were after that. It was a great great night. Here is a pic in the cab after Mircha bought Trenia and me roses. What a sweet guy. :)


(Pretend this is a really funny picture of Trenia and me... it wouldn't load... for days. Literally.)