March 9, 2009
A weekend of new experiences just ended and I had a great time. First, I traveled down to the capital city to visit my friend Lisa. She used to live in the countryside, but recently moved to a large city further south. When I arrived in the capital city I stayed with some American friends and we got to play Settlers together, which was so fun! I really miss my game-playing friends who have returned home to the States. It was great to have some English-speaking fun together.

The next morning I met Lisa and we spent the entire day together. We had lunch with my American friends, and I'm glad they hit it off, because Lisa doesn't have any friends in this new city, except for her boyfriend. Lisa and I heard rumors about one place in the city that has an indoor rock climbing wall and I really, really wanted to go check it out. We ended up spending the afternoon climbing and I was so happy! Lisa had never done this before, but she's an athletic girl and was a natural at it, even though it was scary for her.
       
          

We spent most of our time bouldering, but then we put a harness on and climbed the vertical wall. I had so much fun doing that! There was one run with a big overhang and I gave it a shot even though I haven't worked these muscles for years, and I knew there was no way I could pull myself over the lip. I gave it a shot at the encouragement of Lisa and the worker.
               
About this time I stopped and told them I couldn't make it any further.

They were very insistent that I just try, and the worker guy was really encouraging and helpful in telling me where the good holds were. So I pressed on and eventually made it!
            
      
I made it all the way to the top, and was celebrating on my ride back down the wall.
      
I really enjoy rock climbing. I'm not sure what makes it so much fun for me, but I have always enjoyed climbing on stuff. I think part of it is problem solving, which I also really enjoy. I like logic puzzles like Sudoku, and enjoy figuring things out like the best way to put my hands and feet on the wall to give me leverage to the top. Who knows why this is so fun for me, but it sure is!   It's really great exercise and it's one of the many things I'm really looking forward to when I return to the States this summer. I'm going to find myself a decent rock climbing gym and go there regularly. I just hope I can find a friend or two to do it with me.

When I returned home from the capital I got to attend my first Asia wedding.  Do you remember my friends Sunny and Ruby? They were students at my school, and graduated last summer. Ruby is pregnant and has been going through the many ceremonies of getting married, which basically means having a wedding dinner in her family's hometown, her husband's hometown, and every other city where they have family or friends. I think the one this past weekend was their third wedding so far. The whole ceremony is very different from weddings in America. The first thing a couple does is register for marriage with the government. At that point they are officially married. Then a few weeks later, or up to several years later, they have their wedding.  The wedding consists of them picking a restaurant (usually inside a hotel or other nice building) and then standing at the entrance of the building for a couple hours while their guests arrive.

Lucy agreed to go to this wedding with me. I was afraid I wouldn't know anyone there, and no one would be able to speak English. The wedding invitation said 6pm, so Lucy told us to arrive shortly before 7pm. It was good advise because we waited another 30-40 minutes after arriving before the bride and groom came up to the dining area where everyone was hanging out. They had candy all over the tables, so we were munching on snacks while we waited hungrily for dinner.
   
My friends from Scotland were there, which was a great surprise. They are teachers at our school, and Ruby invited several of her favorite teachers to attend. We had a good time catching up. Another surprise was Sunny. Ruby had told me that Sunny wouldn't be there because she had moved to another city far away with her family. But apparently Sunny didn't like that place so she's returned to live in my city for several months. It was fun to see her, but sad to hear that she has not had any relationship with Dad since I last saw her. She acted very flaky and silly while we talked, and I could tell she didn't want to be serious about anything in our conversation. I hope I can meet her for lunch sometime soon and get a better idea of how things are really going for her since she graduated and moved away.

When Ruby and her husband came in, they walked up on a small stage and had a 5 minute ceremony. Lucy translated it for me. They bowed several times to honor his parents, who were in attendance. The bowed to each other several times. They each had a shot of liquor to toast to a future of happiness and good luck. The groom made a very short speech welcoming us and inviting us to enjoy our dinner. Then they sat down and we all ate a huge dinner with about 15 plates of food for each table of 8-10 people. I was stuffed! Throughout dinner the bride and groom walked from table to table, the groom having chugging contests with some of his guests. The tradition is for the guests to try to get the groom very drunk. Ruby told me later that they secretly replaced the liquor in their bottle with water, so the groom was holding his liquor very well. Ruby eventually came to my table and sat down to eat dinner. The groom continued to wander around the restaurant the whole night chatting with friends. It was a very interesting time.
     

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March 24, 2009
Earlier this month I met up with my friends from Scotland. Gordian is an English teacher at the college where I study language and Hilary is his wife. I first met Hilary when she sat in on a few of my language classes, as we both arrived in this country about the same time. She gave up pretty quickly though, as her tone-deafness made the language much harder to learn. They have had a big adventure living in this country for the past year and a half, and I enjoy visiting with other Westerners. When I saw them at the wedding a few weeks ago, they invited Lucy and I to have dinner at their home. We met this past weekend and had a great time.

Gordian and Hilary live in the teacher's dorm on campus and it was a small and tidy home. Hilary prepared a wonderful meal for us, with lasagna, salad with olive oil, and coleslaw. I was so happy to eat homemade Western food like this. It really reminded me of home when my mom would make meals like this every day. I rarely make a meal like this for myself, but it was very enjoyable to share it with my friends.

   

Throughout the meal Gordian and Hilary were giving suggestions to Lucy about how to eat with a knife and fork. Some of their dining rules are different than ours in America, which was interesting to learn about. And they kept teasing me for saying "really fun" and other "American" expressions that I didn't know where American expressions. Gordian was telling me that you can't use "really" before a noun and I countered with the argument that in America we use "fun" as a noun or an adjective. It's not as interesting sounding when I type it out right now, but we did have a delightful evening together. I ate more than my fill of food.

I brought mango sticky rice for dessert because I've been craving it ever since I had a vacation in Thailand a couple months ago. We had that, then Hilary brought out coffee and we just enjoyed talking until it was pretty late. I haven't had such easy relaxing conversation for a long time. Although I love my local friends in this country, it is usually pretty draining after spending a few hours with them. The effort to communicate across language barriers and the cultural differences really wears me out. I didn't realize how much until I had no problem staying up talking with Gordian and Hilary until late in the night. Normally I get pretty tired and need to call it a night around 9pm if I'm hanging out with local friends. I just get mentally exhausted. Last night I hung out with some newer American friends that have moved to town. We spent the whole night talking and never even thought about getting out the Settlers game I had brought to their house. I miss opening up with friends and just being comfortable in conversation as the time passes quickly.

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March 29, 2009
Spring has definitely arrived in my city. I know the States are getting hit hard with all sorts of crazy weather this week, but things have been pretty nice around here. I have a habit of going to McDonalds to have breakfast and study my book on Sunday mornings. When the weather is nice I enjoy walking home, which usually takes me well over an hour. Today was perfect for walking and about half way home I thought I'd take some pictures to share with you.

A while back my hard drive fried and I lost a ton of pictures and other sentimental things from 2007. Many of the pictures I took during the first few months I lived here were of common sites around town that were strange to me the first time I saw them. Of course this place is my home now, and nothing is really strange to me anymore. I still notice certain aspects of life here that is extremely different than life in the States, but many things are completely normalized to me. So today as I walked home I tried to take pictures of all the things around me that I might be taking for granted as "normal", which are actually unique to this culture.

So I invite you to join me on my walk home:

The downtown area was full of people today, and I wish I would have started taking pictures there, but after I crossed the bridge out of downtown I noticed how pretty the new park is looking. They have built this park as landscaping for the new main government offices.
    
     
   
      

Across the street from the government offices is construction on a Ramada hotel, which is going to be a huge step up in luxury from everything else in this city. How exciting! I think there will also be a new Pizza Hut! Too bad I'll be long gone before this is completed.
  

I continued down the street which follows the river. There is a park area down this whole road, and many people were out and about on this pretty afternoon. Below are men selling sugar cane, which are those long sticks in his bicycle basket. People buy a stick, he strips off the bark with a knife, and then they tear off pieces of the sweet wood with their teeth, suck on it for a while, then spit it onto the ground. I have never tried it.... for many reasons.
    
 
  

Some things I see remind me of a Dr. Seuss illustration. Do you see what I mean?
   

Most of their landscaping is done by transplanting stripped tree trunks and then letting branches and leaves begin to re-grow out of the top.

People always take a nap after lunch. Offices shut down and everyone goes to sleep. Many people like to find a small grassy place and crash out right there.
    

Of course people ride bikes a lot in this country. Many times 2 or more people will ride together. I saw people riding bikes and scooters in regular fashion today.
        
    
        
    

As I continued on my way, I turned off the river road and headed away from the beautiful landscaped parks that always surround government offices and housing. I quickly started seeing more "normal" apartments and buildings.
    
   
  

As you can see from the way people transport their kids on scooters and motorcycles, safety precautions are looked at differently here. It's more of a "watch where you're going" philosophy. And you can carry anything on your scooter as long as you don't tip over.
       
       


Our city has a new style of taxis this year. Kinda cool. And here is a shot of what lines almost every street in the city; an endless row of small shops, mostly selling the same things. Either variations of spicy noodle soup, snacks and drinks, or notebooks and pens.
 

I continued walking past the different apartment complexes and made a quick stop by my American friend's house to drop off a book. Their apartment has a really big rock in the entrance. Our city is "famous" for their strange looking rocks. So to have such a large one is really special. They pay insane amounts of money for these rocks, from tiny to huge.
  

Most of the buildings in this city seem to always been under construction. That means that they're surrounded by a jigsaw of bamboo strapped together, and then covered with a green netting to keep the birds out (I think). Here are more street shots as I walked home. You can always see our unique mountains everywhere you look in this city.
   
   

Here's a man with a bike repair store which is located on the sidewalk. He's here every time I pass this street. Very conveniently located, and rent free!

I was walking past the park full of exercise equipment, ping pong tables, sports courts, etc. I heard my friend calling to me and turned around. It is the family who used to have a small shop at the entrance to my apartment complex. They have three kids and are a sweet family who have had a very hard life. It was fun to visit with them for a while.
  

The ping pong tables use bricks for the net. And people are always playing on them.
  

Across the street is a huge sports arena. I watched an international soccer match there when I first came to live here. I walk by it all the time. I think kids live inside of it who are being trained as athletes for their high school education. Interesting....
 

I don't know if they have these in America, but kids here love to play on these skateboard things. They are segmented, and only have one wheel in front and one in back.

As I turned onto my home street I saw some other typical sights; some construction men, some more strange rocks, and a man dragging his dog along by a chain on his scooter.
    
       

Here are the sights from the entrance to my apartments.
   

Here is the lady I buy vegetables from.... although I've been no stranger to food poisoning...
   

It wouldn't be a walk home without some Chi-nglish to make me chuckle.

And here's my building. I park my motorcycle right in front of the entrance. It's certainly not a luxury townhouse. The rats are big, and run around so frequently that it stopped scaring me a long time ago. It doesn't always smeel great, either. My living conditions are probably what took the longest to get used to. But it's home to me now.
   
Home sweet home.....

So I hope you enjoyed walking home with me today. I am glad to share it with you.