I have a Bunny now !

Today, at the outdoor market, I impulsed shopped a bunny when I was supposed to be buying some fruit. I was playing with him and then just thought "Yes, I will buy!" So then I carried little wubbybunnyfoufoufermen (name pending...) home in his little cage and then we got home and I tidied up my sun room porch thing (a wonderful little place where I eat breakfast and make collages and draw pictures and read and flip though my growing collection of picture books). So now he lives there and it is a fabulous home with nooks and crannies and sun and ample room to hop hop hop. Yeah! I love him. And as I type he is peeing little dribbles on me. awwww......


Nibbling on collage makers.

 

Sam's Club China = Value + Love

Today my school, Aihua, was making it's marketing appearance at the ShiJingShan Sam's Club way out by the freeway (gross). I was there in full red polo shirt regalia to hand out flyers and look Foriegn and Happy. In reality, I putze around and played pianos and fiddled with digi cams and snuck away to get samples, which were on the whole way too small to deliver any impression upon the taste buds, but whatever. Samples are always fun. Also I treated myself to a starbuck's simulacrum iced espresso, which was BY FAR the best simulacrum I have ever tasted! Plus I got to wait 15 minutes for it! Plus I think I am gonna have to ride my bike to Sam's Club every weekend to behold their amazing Talent and Beauty Spectacles of Love.

Wedding Love "Photo" "Graphy"

(that's how chinese people say photography, its cute.)

"I probably don't show it at times, but I do love you dearly"

Here is where I should mention that Western Style weddings are all the rage in China. Families spend thousands of RMB on extravaganzas. That shouldn't be shocking, here things are done to the Hilt if at all possible. 'Tis why I love!

Matt and I, told them we were a couple.

Not! I would never joke about that. Never.

What's up?! Its a fashi-ma-Show of Horrible Dresses!

I stay and I stay and I cannot be moved.

Factory Fun!

So I've been teaching factory workers in a big kind of far away NEC factory. And everyone is real sleepy by this time of night, and thus real silly as a result, and don't really care about learning english because the factory is making them do it and they have to go, and hey whatever let's have fun my sleepsillies! And here are the results.
I could touch those buttons and no one would know cuz everyone is sleepy. shhh...

Window screen used in the prevention of Despair (i.e. War on Despair). Though we all agreed that the landscape was not only topologically impossible, but had the opposite effect of inviting despair, maybe a even a lit'l madness. But why? (Winner gets a postcard!!)


They like talking about funny things like hating their jobs and bosses!

20 questions is hard.
But fun!
Book is sux.
factory workers = snzzz class.

They looove Charades. OMG!


Yes, you will climb. This is what we must and will do.

more "War on Despair"
Clawing my way to Heaven and the Beyond...

Can you tell me how to get, How to get to Snaa-ack Street?!

 

Zilch Electric Juice Card

So last night my electricity went out because there was confusion about how much electricity I actually wanted to pay for. See, here in Chiner, you pay for everything (save food thingies) with swipie cards. Phone, internet, gas, electric, long distance, cell phone, everything. You buy a card and either insert it in a machine (fun!) or call a number and enter a recharge pin (boring.). Well, with the inserting-type of electricity card all you gotta do is go to the bank (and there is only a few of these special Industrial Banks of China‘s that do this) and wait in a long long line to have the lady swipe it for you, thus rechargigrafying it. Convenience!! Well, last week my nice neighbor pointed out to me (on my meter in the stairwell for everyone to see), that I was dangerously low on electric juice. So I called up my landlord’s daughter (speaks English) and said Now hows do I do this? And so Mama Landlord (no English) met me at the special bank and gave me candies and tissues for my purse and waited in line with me and we discussed (I thought) that I wanted 100 kuais worth of juice. So as we approached the swipe lady, she stepped aside proudly, metaphorically unclipping my wings, and allowed me to complete the transaction as we had practiced 20 minutes earlier at the end of the line. It worked! Kind of, but of course, not really. After handing the swipe lady 100 kuai I received like 56.78 in change and was all “Huh I gave you 100 kuai for 100 kuais worth of juice“ But no no no no twas not the arrangement, apparently. See I really only wanted but a mere 100 units of juice at a reasonable price of 43.22. So today, the 100 units at 43.22 kuai ran out, because I (and my neighbor) wasn’t paying attention. Its okay, because I still have a little juice in my lap top and in my semi-juicy digicam. So there are these as evidence that I can rock it with no lights:

The Kitesmen et al.

Kite bike

 

The pleasant short cut to the subway.

And on the other side and up a bit on the trail is the CRD "Cyber Recreational District", which I don't know what that means because its just a regular non-cyber street, except there is the subway.

He was dancing her back to her wheelchair.




The CRI (China Radio International) Building

Landscape Banners masking construction sites

 

A Walk with Grapes

I strolled around a neighborhood 3 minutes walk from my apartment. I took pictures of the loveliness. A women walked by and randomly handed me a big bushel of freshly picked grapes. So I walked with the grapes drapped in one hand and the camera in the other. Glory.

(I highly recommend, as with all of the fotos I put up, that you click on the ones you like to enjoy them in full force. Details are the clues in this narrative, especially!)

Here's the part where I get the grapes!

Gersh dern plastic flowers in real dirt!

Blurry, but you get the point.

Locust Hunting with Gramps

Locust on Gramps

Workout Playground

This Weeks Win Yerself-A-Postcard Challenge!

I accepting submissions* for the Hows and/or Whys of the above photo. Short answer please. Spelling counts!

A little background:: I was riding down a street and passed these poor ruffers. They couldn't really move much and they seemed fine other than being connected somehow by the legs or tails or butts (??). After taking their picture a few times they got a little scared of my flash and tried to run away but awwwww they failed! I asked a man What? and How? in chinese and instead of answering me in Chinese (thinking I wouldn't be able to understand) he grunted and squealled and made a hack hack gesture with his arms.

*Bonus* postcard thrills for postulations upon what I should have done for the doggies besides take their picture.

Last Week's Postcard Contest: The Answer/The Winner

The Answer to last week's challenge is ::: >

What did I freely associate while watching the dancer girls? ....They are Ballerinas..... "Ballerina Girl".... That's a song by Lionel Richie.... Lionel Richie is possibly the most beloved english songwriter in all of China, by far in tallies of KTV plays. Totally, by far.

No one wins again, except for Benny who didn't really "win" but sorta did b/c he internetmastered the name of the really obscure Chinese song sample that I put up and came up with Lionel Richie being a chart topper as some part of the answer.

He will receive a postcard made out of interesting pieces of paper I find in the garbage at work and also in this wonderful bookcase in my apartment that's full of old Chinese mags and personal letters/photographs and diaries from the former tenants! Congrats to Benny!

I'm Learning from *Them*

I am always surprised by a clear day. But even before I knew it was going to be blue, I knew, it was, admittedly, (potentially) going to be surprising. Or at least today’s class, or at least from “their” perspective. That was the day’s small Hannah challenge.

A friend had remarked in a message that maybe many people back home are baffled as to the everyday of China, its landscape, the clothing people where, all those things that I remember thinking, “like what’s it like over there with that.” So it made me think, yes, people back home don’t know. But what do my teenager students think of our places. Surely they see enough of our world through imported television shows like Friends and Growing Pains, but we know the usual deceits of life on film. But how do they envision the landscape where people are living and moving? Here the streets are never without bikes, pedestrians, or automobiles of some kind. Its impossible to go without seeing a person somewhere. Would they project those preconceptions of boisterous “daily life” onto our “daily life”. For instance, would our pristine, and barely used, suburban parks, in their mind, be as bustling with multi-generations doing hundreds of varieties of activities as they are here? Would our barren suburban playground be beautiful to them? Landscape of the Spare. I wonder, wonder.

But I could not ask these questions today. Not to this group and not directly. The ideas were stewing in my head, and this is usually enough to teach a class, but I couldn’t rely on words and games today. In my usual last half-hour rush to prepare my days lessons I forgo-ed the book chapter (as a treat to both myself and them) and perused my personal photo album that I had brought with me. I just wanted landscapes and cityscapes. I had only a few, but what I did have sufficed to make a learning point, at least in my mind.

Here was the class, in short: I gave them a short passage to read about the different characteristics of cities in Mexico, Japan, and Australia. (which I guess are fairly reflective of developing and developed cities, western vs. eastern, old vs. new, etc.) Anyway the reading was just a way of introducing new words like modern/traditional, urban/rural/suburban, industrial/agricultural/residential. These were hard, hard words for them to not only pronounce but to arrange in an intelligible way with the limited vocabulary that would typically accompany with them. But I knew they could get them eventually. J I’ll skip ahead: I passed out 5 photos and asked them to get into groups and describe the places in the picture. Is it Rural? Are their traditional buildings? Etc. Is it rich or poor? Then I asked them were they thought it was. I never mentioned whether they were taken in China or elsewhere.

The photos were: 1.) Orchard in Provence, France. 2.) Old Mountain Village in France 3.) Me in Tucson, Arizona on a parking garage with the Catalina mountains, city lights, and buildings in the background. 4.) Dad and Keum-Shin standing in front of a bombed Opera House in Dresden, Germany. 5.) The Cote D‘Azure, boats, and the cityscape along the beach in Nice, France.
Again, I’ll skip ahead:: They thought all of them were in China

Whoa.

It is something I was preparing for, but was again surprised by. Its out of the blue, this realization of difference in perspectives striking again. If it is old is it poor? Apparently. If it rich is it good? Absolutely. The modern buildings were in Shanghai in their head. The beach was in Hong Kong in their mind. The provencial countryside was the “poor” Chinese countryside. When I told them where the pictures had come from they all seemed both blown away. They laughed and jumped up a little from their seats. They buzzed a little in Chinese. France is poor? No, its just a country that still has a lot of old and traditional buildings. Are they tearing down that building in Germany? No, they are actually rebuilding it. They were projecting their values on our landscape, culled from their landscape and recent past of divergences, contradictions, and black and whites. Perhaps, any student their age anywhere in the world might think the same way, but if their is anything to learn from this it is that, It's all just kinda the same world, you know? Again, I was surprised. And so were they.

I left the class feeling pretty good and I had the clear blue twilight, for once, to look forward to. If only my camera was working properly I could have taken all the pictures that I kept seeing. How was I feeling? Illuminated, maybe?

Up with People in the People's Republic

I am working on a portrait project, that should in theory be interactive. My hopes is that I can convince people (Chinese people!) to visit their photo on my site and leave me blurb (or maybe answer some optional questions) about themselves or whatever. It shall be in both Chinese and English. I am working out details. I can't officially start the project until the site is ready, until I get some business cards, and until I get my camera fixed or replaced (which shall be payday activity numero 1), and until I get me a Chinese translator (Lilly?) But click on the picture collage for a sneak peak.

http://www.upwiththepeoplesrepublic.blogspot.com/

Not carrying home the Melons

 

I Went to Mountains.

I bought a ticket. Here we go!

I listened to Mp3 player. People getting on the bus! Goin! Goin! Goin!

I gave him my money and he gave me a ride. We went to the mountains!

This other man said give me a little money and you can go up this road to the mountains.

We all went to the mountains. Bumpity Bump!

I said see you later to the men (they were gonna wait for me to finish going to the moun....

Here is a rope bridge. I don't go on it. Would you?

Lookin good. Nice rocks!

Oh yes!

Hot mountain made me dripper. hahaha

Putting some drinks and the cucumbers in the cold mountain water. We're so hot and there so cold . brrr!

Toys and guns and firecrackers for the mountains! Having fun up there!

Eatin' the stuff you brought!

Sitting on the rocks with no shoes! Taking shirts off to feel the breeze!

Lady and her snacks right up there in the mountains on some rocks next to a waterfall! Hey Hey Hey! Making some money and having a nice time!

Looking up at them mountains! The sky is kinda too bright in the eyes. Don't wanna look too long!

New Hannah'll-Send-You-DIY-Postcard-from-Chiner Contest!!

"Lionel Richie" is the answer, but what is the question??

Listen to this while you ponder because it kinda sounds like what the little girls were dancing to, yet its inches shorter than what I had to endure....uh, I mean enjoy!

Monday, the way Devendra Banhart would sing it.

the way Devendra would sing it... (right click and open in a new window)

Winnie

the undeniable sam

the test.

birthday presents in my locker.

Matt's homemade flashcard comics.

Matt's students comics about Matt.

from whence I play Ken Nordine's Colors during the break.

my teaching toolbox.

ice cream because Teacher Hannah is the best.

GIFT TO SELF

A PROJECT ON THE CITY: GREAT LEAP FORWARD (200 RMB, $25 USD )

by lots of people

The red pattened leather cover with it's gold stenciling is giveaway mimic of Mao's famous Little Red Book of communist ideology, once carried around by all comrades and anyone with survival wits during the Cultural Revolution.

But instead of Mao's cherubic face, A Project on the City: Great Leap Forward features the gold stencil of coins, the symbol of China's new dictatorial ideology.

The New China's heart is in its Special Economic Zones, where factories and multinationals are as ubiquitous as the rice paddies they poured concrete over. China's Pearl River Delta (PRD) is estimated to grow to 34 million inhabitants by the year 2020. It encompasses the major Special Economic Zones of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, cities (namely the 1st two) that had but scant development until the recent 2 decades, most of it occuring in the last 10 years. The PRDs size alone will garner it nominations for the Most Outstanding Impact on Everything in the 21st century Award. From the editors:

"Special Economic Zones 'laboratories for the contained unleashing of capitalism' - have hastened an unprecedented experiment in urbanization on an astonishingly large scale. Great Leap Forward contains essays that explore, in a theoretical and statistical context, the results of this rapid modernization, which has produced an entirely new urban substance."

So it is with this impetus that some students at the Harvard Design School set upon a big old fashion grab everything and sort it out later, documentation effort. That project is called, harking back to the disastrous original, "The Great Leap Forward" (circa 1985, not the GLF of late 1950s when they melted their cooking utensils for iron and steel in back yard furnaces and rushed to industrialize so haphazardly in some cases that they left crops withering in the field, resulting in one of the worst famines ever ever).

I couldn't have been more excited to find this heavy-lifter, lap-layer of a Geography Art book about my current fav place, China. LPC collects essays and ruminations, newspaper articles, poems, diary entries, arias, and arials mixed with a heavy dose of big beautiful color photographs and a unique use of maps, blueprints all of which will tell the story, or at least try to make some "heads or tails" (get it because of the coins on the front) of the Pearl River Delta's exponential economic and physical development.

Each section is set upon the task of studying the urban condition's six most operative phenomena:

INFRASTRUCTURE{}IDEOLOGY{}ARCHITECTURE{}POLITICS{}LANDSCAPE{}MONEY

pg.29 CITY OF EXACERBATED DIFFERENCE (COED)

"The traditional city strives for a condition of balance, harmony, and a degree of homogeneity. The CITY OF EXACERBATED DIFFERENCE," on the contrary, is based on the greatest possible difference between its parts-completmentary or competitive. In a climate of permanent strategic panic, what counts in the COED is not the methodical creation of the ideal, but the opportunistic exploitation of flukes, accidents, and imperfections."

I am at most times Baffled/Encouraged/Enamored/and/or Heartbroken by "the City".

Waiting to be elucidated. Thank you me.

Sheng Kuai Le is Happy Birthday.

Me at 25. I'm in front of a neat broken pottery wall randomly exposed in a stairwell at the Wukesong Station shopping district.

Below is my new dazzle scrunchy. Any girl who's any girl with a ponytail wears a scrunchy in China. So Jackie and I perused the shops for scrunchies and other such niceties, such as fanny packs. I bought a funky green and orange one for "bike riding," but promptly slung it over my hips and made a transfer of priority easy access items. Purse & fanny pack. Style Maverick!

( or click on the foto!)

Shopping Districts::What they look like.

Feet of Amazement. Allured tantalized by the spectacle, enamored by a possible free toothpaste giveaway.

Demos and Giveways on little stages are fairly common. And they tend to draw relatively large and eager crowds. The M.C. and giveaway girl will tease the crowd with toothpaste, but for those loyal gawkers promise more treasures. If you can stand to watch 45 minutes of a cheap disposable camera being flipped around and dissected and banged against the microphone to demostrate the strength and quality of the plastic, even you could have one thrown at you, free of charge. Obviously, he threw me some toothpaste over the crowd. (B/C obviously I waved my arms and jumped up and down)

Some pets you can't pet.

Nice Pet Guy hamming it up for me. His friend kept hovering a turtle over his head as if were really wacky. It wasn't really, but we ha-ha-ed anyway. It drew a small crowd. But crowds are easily drawn.

Bellagio is a schmancy and popular embassy area restaurant that serves Taiwanese food and bean-derived desserts. It's so schmancy all the waitresses (everyone working there) have the same sophisti-funky short hair cuts.

Taiwanese food :: what it looks like.

My Birthday Cake replacement, the Bellagio Breeze.

Despite its visual peril, its structurally airy and guilt free! Ingred:: softly shaved ice, vaguely flavored like condensed milk, slathered in delectably sludge of pineapple, lychee fruit, tapioca pearls, and red and green beans. It was easy to get through due to its watery melty interior. It was fun, but we both agreed we wouldn't necesarily do it again.

Jackie and the "Breeze".

Breeze Me!

Then we went to The Bookworm, because it's what we do.



Sanlitun ::what it is.
Eww...

Broken Pocket Rocket

The deadlines passed and unfortunately no one was able to guess the correct answer. The answer I was looking for is my gyro MARTIN PARR....I'd like to thank everyone for your particpation in my "Guess who took the Pictures on my TV Win a Postcard Contest."

NOT!!!

You didn't even try, what else is new. I can count one years worth of comments on my toes. I'm allowed a little playful indignation because we are in the vicinity of my birthday.

Not a soul one of you (whoever you are, and even I don't know you I would have sent you one) is getting anything from me homemade recycled Chinese Reader's Digest postcard wise!! I'm just gonna have to go and send all my rad DIY to my new internet friends.

BYE-yuh!

p.s. Last week when I went on my bike ride to and fro (anyone read that one?) Anyways, my already crap digi-camera fell out of my half-zipped pocket when I was overcoming a speeding bus on my speedy red bicycle. The bus, thank the ghosts, pulled out of the bike lane just in the nicholas of time to have mercy on my sole reason to blog. But its all mussed up now, like the lens won't close properly and have to trick it by taking the batteries in and out a couple of times before it turns off. But it still kind of takes pictures. I will now keep it in my bike satchel for ubiquitous bicycle use. Just one more thing on my list before a new travel-sized violin and guitar, that I must (painfully) save up to purchase to satiate my well deep need for extra-curic activities.