Wazungu Get-together

On Saturday, February 29th, we had a get-together of all of us Americans (and Canadians) here in Monduli, Monduli Juu, and Kisongo.  I had been thinking of having it, and I organized it, but the Allisons offered to host since they have more seating for guests and I accepted, especially as I was pretty sick most of the week before so didn't have the energy to clean and prepare much beforehand; the day of the get-together was really the first day that I felt really well.  

We try to get together every now and then, especially for things like American holidays (Thanksgiving) that no one here cares about, and just to sing in our own language together for a while.  This time, I wanted to have a gathering so that Tammy and Deborah could see everyone while they were here without having to take up a lot of time visiting each family individually, and also because the Duncans (missionary family who work on the school of preaching farm in Kisongo) are moving back to the US in March, and so it was also a good chance for us all to see them one last time, and also for them not to have to take time to visit everyone individually as they're busy with a lot of goodbyes. 

Deborah was a huge help at my house preparing food to take.  The onions we chopped were so strong that we kept having to leave the room, despite the open window and blowing fan! We did a taco bar, which is what we usually do at these things (other than Thanksgiving).  We all miss good Mexican food, and it's such an easy thing to split up for different people to bring different items.  I brought some flour tortillas, shredded chicken, chopped onions, and sauteed peppers (I like my tacos as close to fajitas as possible), and others brought salsa, cheese, lettuce, more flour tortillas, corn tortillas, ground beef, a wonderful spicy corn dish, guacamole, cookies, etc.) 

I didn't get many pictures of the gathering itself, but here's one  I did take of all the kids playing as we sat around talking between dinner and singing time. 

"Wazungu", by the way, means 'foreigners' in Swahili, and it's what the locals call us.  

One of Those Days

Life is the same no matter where you live... today was one of those days with all sorts of things going wrong.  I arrived at the Shorts' house about the same time as Beth and little Emmy, but it took us awhile to get anyone's attention to let us in the gate.  Emmy found a stick to try to pick the lock...unfortunately, she is much too short to actually put the stick anywhere that might actually be useful, but it kept her occupied.  We were just laughing that she's already caught on to how to get in the gate without a key.  Beth and I might have managed it, but we don't like to do it while the kids at the daycare across the road are watching (and they were), and besides we were just waiting on the Shorts anyhow to go to Arusha, so we might as well wait outside as well as inside.

 Speaking of leaving for Arusha... The car had been driven out of the gate and parked outside, and we finally got everyone out and settled, and then the car wouldn't start again.  Albert tried to jump it off the landrover, but no luck.  We finally had to call a mechanic to come out, and he got it going.  But it died again right after he left.  Two hours later, we finally gave up and took the old blue car instead, which we try to avoid but it guzzles gas.  (Tammy kept driving the silver car over the next few days and we kept having to rescue her when it broke down all over town; finally with a new battery and some other electrical work done, they finally got it behaving again.  Also, turns out those jumper cables don't work.)

With our late start, it was well after dark before we got home from Arusha.  We arrived to a commotion in the yard--the cat had escaped from the house, got into a fuss with the dogs, and ran further up into a tree than was wise. Lewis ended up on a ladder on a cat-rescuing expedition while we stood around holding lights and yelling various helpful suggestions that he mostly didn't appreciate.  

First Morning in My New Home

Good morning, everyone!  Today was the first morning I woke up in my new apartment. As it works out (and this was part of my reason for moving the day I did), it's exam week at school, and I'm not scheduled to proctor any exams today, so I have the day to settle in and unpack. Here's a few pictures from my day:

(Above) The view of my driveway (not that I have a car to park in it) and my gate, from just outside my kitchen door.

My front porch.  I'm still not sure why the wall is a different color on the porch.  

Looking back towards my kitchen door from the gate.

The view from just outside my gate (above and below).  The main roads in Monduli are paved, but the neighborhood roads are all dirt roads.  I have to walk around the cornfield (currently freshly plowed) to get out to the main road.

The view the other way from my gate.

My building from the outside.  The open door to the left is mine. There are several connected apartment and an (unused) shop.  

 An unfinished house across the road.  I like the structure of it, though.  You don't see too many two-story houses around here, and you can see the structure of a spiral staircase inside.  Half-finished houses are a common sight around here.  People don't tend to take a loan to build a house here, or if they do, can't get a big enough loan to do it all at once.  They save up money and build a foundation, or possibly even all of the concrete block part of the house, and then it sits for a year or two while they save up more money to build the roof, run electricity, etc.

The electric pole on my street is a bit concerning.

 We have quite a few of these huge black and white birds in my neighborhood.  They're rather noisy.  My doorbell is a very loud and insistent version of this bird's call, which is maybe not the best because I have to figure out if it's the doorbell or just one of the actual birds on my roof.

Deborah rode her bike over to help out a bit.  She washed the rest of my dishes and helped me unpack a few things. She also hid under a curtain. :) 

I stepped back outside of my gate at sunset, as I can't see much from inside my high walls.

Look What I Found!

Okay, I know you might think I'm weird getting so excited about random bits of American food that I find, but it really is fun to have have something from home that I can't find in Wuhan.

And look what they had in a little grocery store on the island! My favorite! 

Look! Look! Look!

Guess what they have here in the airport in Bangkok! 

Now, every once in a while I'll come across a Dunkin Donuts, in Shanghai or Xian...but they just can't compare with Krispy Kreme.  Even though I really didn't eat them that often in the states, that has been one food i've missed. Nothing else has that particular chewy sweetness.

I wasn't even hungry, and if I had been hungry it would have been for something solid, not sweet. But you can't pass up an opportunity like that.  Even not hungry my donut was pretty good.

Here I go again...

...on my own...Going down the only road I've ever known... I love that song by Whitesnake. 

I'm sitting on a plane at the Wuhan airport. I know I'll have to turn my phone off soon, but I figured I'd get started. A couple of funny things already...

First, there are evergreen boughs with festive red and gold ornaments strung up over all the check in booths. I mean, it's only August.  The Chinese are adopting Christmas because it looks like fun, but they have a poor understanding of some parts-particularly the part about when to stop celebrating it. Mom and I heard Christmas music playing in the McDonald's in Beijing in July.

Another thing that amused me is,I know, common at airports and a liability matter...but we took a bus about thirty feet to the plane. It took us far longer to load and unload the bus than it would have taken to just walk a few extra feet.  We got on, the bus made a u-turn, and we got off. Everybody was giggling a bit as we got off. The picture shows both a bus in the original position as well as where we got off. 

Thanksgiving in Wuhan

Since a few people had to work on Thursday, we had our big feast today (Saturday). I got up early this morning (well, relatively, at eight...but I didn't go to bed until two, so it felt really early...) to get started cooking. Micah came over mid-morning to bake his pumpkin pie; he doesn't have an oven.  Meanwhile, I got the carrots going and mashed my sweet potatoes.  We were about twenty minutes later leaving than we meant to be, and then had trouble getting a taxi, but we still ended up being some of the first ones there.

The Myers and the Lus hosted--they live across the hall from each other, so we could use both of their kitchens and living rooms.  We split the cost of the turkey--they are quite expensive here; chinese people don't eat turkey, so it's a specialty item at Metro (a bit like Sam's club; caters to foreigners).  The side dishes we brought potluck; I took glazed carrots with bacon and sweet potato casserole.  They both turned out even better than I expected; you never know because sometimes ingredients are a bit different here.  I have a few carrots left, but the sweet potatoes were cleared out fast.  I should get some more pecans while they have them and freeze them so that I can make more later, maybe for Christmas.

There was so much good food...two or three kinds of dressing, green bean casserole, bread, turkey, ham, tacos, deviled eggs (which I'd never eaten much of before, but am starting to like), sweet potatos, and plenty of other stuff. I had a piece of Micah's pumpkin pie for dessert--I love pumpkin pie. :)  Later, I snacked on a bit of Eric's no-bake cookies.

There were probably thirty to forty people there; of course the best part of Thanksgiving is spending time with family and friends.  While I am far away from family, I did get to talk to my grandparents and to my mother over skype, and having such a big party today with friends made it truly seem like a holiday.  I got to spend quite a while catching up with Ron, who I worked with in Jingzhou, who is visiting in China this month.  I also spent time with several of the workers who live at nearby campuses; we really need to get together more often to shop or play games.

After we ate, several people started up a big game of the card game golf (ask my mom or Sue if you're curious--they're experts.  Well, you could ask Dad or Doug, too, but you're more likely to get a good explanation from the first two :) )  I didn't play this time, but I watched the game as I spent some time talking with others.

It was a wonderful day.  The only problem is that now I just want to curl up with a blanket and look at my Christmas tree--but I need to get busy writing exam questions for the final for my writing class.


Edit: Alright, sorry for the rather haphazard placement of pictures.  The internet is being cantankerous tonight, and if you only knew how long it's taken me to get them on here at all...

Pizza and Shopping with Friends

It was a dark and stormy night...well, not quite.  It was a drizzly, cold afternoon...no, it was still morning when the story begins...It was a drizzly, cold morning...that's a bit better...Anyhow, Micah had invited Kevin and me to meet up at Papa John's for lunch, and I called Tammy and invited her along. The plan was to leave at eleven to take the bus, but of course I was running late, and then we had a bit of a mix up when Micah was waiting for me at one gate and I was waiting for him at the other.  On a side note, he's already caught on to my tendency to run late; he says we're going on Katy-time. He's also realized he should tell me to be somewhere ten minutes before I'm really needed. I really have improved some, though--I have got myself in the habit of being to all my classes ten to fifteen minutes early.  But meeting friends at a specific time still eludes me.  Especially before noon.

Anyhow, we finally did get on a bus and we did finally arrive at Guanggu.  Across the roundabout from the mall is, well, another mall--this one has H&M and C&A (some of my favorite European clothing stores), as well as a Papa John's.  I had brilliantly forgotten my umbrella yet again, so I wore my scarf Muslim-style (it seems somehow derogatory to put it like that, but I'm not sure how else to describe it).  Micah tried to share his umbrella, but it wasn't a large one and it's difficult winding through a crowd, up and down two flights of stairs.  Fortunately it was only a steady drizzle at this point.

We found Tammy easily at the entrance to Papa John's, and Kevin came in just a few minutes later.  We ran into Matt and Autumn Moore, who just happened to be there that day, too.  The food was pretty good--they do have the garlic-butter sauce here, and we orderd a bunch of it to drown everything in.  Another nice thing about both Papa John's and Pizza Hut here is that it's a regular thing to order pizzas half and half; they even advertise doing it.  So, we got a large pizza half Chicken-bacon-ranch, half Supreme.  We got a small half Italian sausage, half vegeterian.  It was nice to try several different things; I wouldn't have ordered the Chicken-bacon-ranch just for myself, but it turned out to be really good, and I'll definitely order it in the future.  Tammy also pointed out some fine print in the menu which offered free refills on drinks, so we all got coke; we bugged the waitress for refills of the small glasses they tend to use here so many times she just brought the pitcher and left it on the table.

Kevin had to leave for a meeting right after we ate, but Micah, Tammy, and I stayed and shopped for a while.  Micah shopped seriously; Tammy and I are built very differently from Chinese women and thus can't really buy clothes, but we looked at shoes, scarves, hats, and bags, and partook in my favorite shopping activity when I can't fit into the clothes being offered--making fun of ridiculous things.  Chinese fashions being a bit different from American, there's always plenty of material.  Yellow snakeskin leggings?  Bright orange slacks for men?  Green, purple, and orange patterned sweater (for men!) that American men would only wear to one of those most-horrific-holiday-sweater parties (even though it wasn't holiday)?

Tammy had already bought a pair of shoes before we met up with her, and while we were in H&M I found a pair of yellow tennis shoes (men's, but they don't look masculine) on clearance for only 70 yuan (ten dollars ish), and a white toboggan for only 30 (five dollars ish).  Tammy's shoes were also mens; Chinese women tend to have smaller feet on average than Americans, so anyone who wears a nine or above in America often has a hard time finding women's shoes; fortunately, many of the men's shoes are pretty androgenous, so on occasion you find something wearable.



We then went up to C&A; they had tons of great scarves, but I have to limit myself--I already have more scarves than any one person really needs.  It's a bit of an addiction.  Micah tried on jackets, while Tammy and I drifted between giving him our opinion and being blinded by a display of women's sweaters and jackets in violent shades of construction-cone orange and not-quite-ripe lemon.  With a bit of purple mixed in.  As we wandered up by the register, we hit the jackpot--they've murdered cookie monster, big bird, and some orange muppet and made bags!

We headed home soon after; it was too rainy to stay outdoors, Micah announced he was shopped out, and I needed to get back to get everything ready for the evening's English party.

A Day with Friends

One of the great blessings of living in Wuhan is that I am not alone.  Now, living in China, with 1.3 billion and some odd people, "alone" is relative--but even though I surrounded by people and students on a regular basis, it's different to have people with the same background and the same language and the same goals to connect with.  I'm grateful for the family I meet with on Sundays, and I'm grateful for the larger family here that meets once a month or so.

This past Saturday, one of the American teachers, Susan, hosted a Halloween potluck get-together on her campus; although not everyone could come, I enjoyed catching up with several people that I had met before: Tammy, who I met in training; Brian, Alanna, and their daughter, Abby, who I met in Memphis last spring; and several of the Harding grads who I was stuck in the Beijing airport with in August. I wore a costume to the party, but there were only a few of us who did.  (My lazy, requires-little-
effort costume this year was as a fortune teller, except I didn't have a crystal ball, so mostly I just looked weird.) Laura made a great Chinese popstar--complete with Chinglish lyrics, Alanna had borrowed a dress that looked like a Roman goddess, and of course among the children we had Minnie Mouse and a princess.  Anyhow, we played cards, ate, sang, and talked.

After we left the official party, we drifted outside. One by one most people headed home until a group of eight of us were left.  I had my Settlers of Catan set in my bag, just in case we found someone to play with, and sure enough there were some like-minded people in this group.  We sat on the ground out in an open concrete area at the end of the soccer field near some people roller-blading.  We had eight people and a four-player game, so we played partners.  Finally, playing Settlers in China!  I feel like I'm really back. To make it even better, Tammy and I won.

By the time we'd played one game, the sun was getting low and the ground was getting hard, but nobody was ready to go home just yet.  So, we made plans to meet again in about an hour to eat and go bowling. That gave us just enough time to catch a taxi, rush home, change clothes, rush out again, catch another taxi, and meet up.  To tell you the truth, it almost wasn't worth trying to get home.

We met on Ming Zu Da Dao, a nearby street.  Da Dao means 'avenue', and I just learned how to pronounce it correctly.  We, surprisingly quickly for such a large group of people, decided to eat a quick supper at McDonald's so we could get on with bowling.  Only things are never quite so simple in China.  It wasn't finding a McDonald's--we chose it because it was within sight just down the street.  No, once we got in line, it came out that they were out of buns.  Completely.  A McDonalds. Without buns.  We held a quick conference outside about going elsewhere, but there wasn't anything else quick nearby.  So, chicken nugget night for everyone! (Except those few brave souls who ordered wraps and regretted it).

Next, we followed Eric, who's lived her awhile and knows his way around, up to the sixth floor of the Seven Days Inn building.  Through the open doors, we could see a skating rink in full swing, but when we got to the ticket window, we found that for some reason the bowling lanes were closed for the evening.  Eric, who speaks a lot more Chinese than the rest of us, could understand they were closed, but he didn't understand the explanation of why.  Oh, well.

At this point, Micah, who was fighting a head cold, gave up and went home. That left seven of us still looking for something to do.  Skating got voted down, so we split up and took two taxis and a bicycle to Guanggu, the big huge wonderful mall I've mentioned before.  Turns out, there's an arcade there.  So, we all got ten yuan (about $1.40) worth of tokens and played for a while.  There were car racing games, mortal kombat type games, those things with the claws that tempt you to try to get some rather ugly stuffed animals, dance dance revolution, etc.  Most of it looked like it was installed in about 1998.  Or maybe earlier.  And, being China, there were of couse a few bizarre games.  One that I remember particularly was a small round table attached to a hinge.  The video behind it showed a story going on; the scene was a wedding reception in a hotel ballroom.  At a certain point, you (playing the bride), must flip the table as hard as you can.  You earn points based on how much damage and disorder you cause--the cake goes flying, the waiters duck for cover, the table dominoes into the next two, dishes breaking everywhere.  At the end it turns out the reason for the bride's table-flipping tantrum was that the groom is discovered in a closet with a bridesmaid.  The entire game is just that one flip of the table, but it was worth watching just for the oddity of it.  Matt, one of our group, got a score in the top ten of all time.

Laura and I left around ten; the others were about out of tokens, so I figure they left soon after.  It took awhile to find a taxi, being a Saturday night, but I made it home eventually. It was a good day.  

My (Short) Life as a Morning Person

The first week of adjusting to the thirteen-hour time difference between U.S. Central time and China time is always an education experience for me—I get to see what it’s like to be a morning person, something I haven’t been since sometime around middle school.  My natural rhythm is going to sleep at two and getting up at ten; my normal real-world adjustment is going to sleep around midnight and getting up around seven; but this week I’ve been going to bed around ten and getting up about five-thirty.  And not just getting up—getting up with energy and being productive.  Normally it does me no good at all to wake up early—I accomplish nothing I’m not getting paid for (powerful motivator to wake up, that) until at least noon.  

The last few days, six to nine in the morning has been the part of the day when I was most productive.  Usually, it’s about two to four in the afternoon and eleven until two at night; I can get more done after midnight than the whole rest of the day put together.  Anyhow, it’s nice seeing how the other half of you people live…by next week, I’ll be adjusted and hitting the snooze button four times again.  

Home Decorating for the New Expat (or anyone, really)

Edited with Pixlr-o-matic

 One of the few downsides of moving internationally (unless, of course, your company moves you and provides a moving stipend and a shipping container, which has never happened to me) is that you don’t have room in the suitcase for a lot of knick-knacks, curtains, or framed art.  Now, some people don’t mind stark white walls decorated with fingerprints of unknown past tenants, but I need color.  What’s the fun of a new apartment if you aren’t going to decorate?  

Since I have neither excessive money nor space, but want to be able to cover those white walls quickly, I have to improvise.  I usually pack colorful calendar pictures, photos, postcards, etc. laid flat in the bottom of my suitcase for some quick décor without taking up much packing space.  This time around, however, I have found some websites with ideas for more unusual, but still packable, decorations.  I’m really looking forward to adding some of these to my wall collage once I arrive at my new apartment in Wuhan.  I’ve gone ahead and had some things printed at Walgreens so that I could get them in a larger size and on photographic paper, but you could also print them on regular paper on your printer after arriving.  All of the following are free except one, and it is noted.

•   Tagxedo:  This one turned out to be a bit addictive, at least for me.  First, you enter a list of words, or a poem, or a quote, or something of the sort.  I used the lyrics to my favorite songs. Then, tagxedo creates a word collage; you can choose from a variety of shapes for the collage, or even upload a new shape yourself.  Finally, there are dozens of color schemes to choose from—this is where I spend a lot of time, choosing from among thousands of possible combinations.  The end result is a unique personalized collage; you can share it, print it, or save it as a jpeg of various resolutions. (See example at the end of the blog).
•  Pixlr-o-matic: An easy-to-use photo-editing program lets you add filters, special effects, and borders to your photos.  
•  Block Posters: This is a tool to take your photo, blow it up to any size you want (the default is about two feet by three feet, but you could make it anywhere from a sheet of paper to the size of the whole wall), and then print it in sections on a regular printer.  This is the cheapest way I’ve ever seen to make some really big wall art.  Check out the gallery for some great ideas of things you can do with it. 
• Craft Jr.'s Paper Chains:  Especially useful if you have kids or like a bit of whimsy, these paper chain patterns are fun, and there’s a lot more than just the traditional children holding hands.  I especially like to owls and the rockets. 
• 20 Going On 80 :  This blog has some great decorating ideas, and she has a page of free printables that are really cute, for the walls, for crafts, and for various holidays.
•  Big D and Me's Kitchen Printables:   The blogger made a fun collage in her kitchen; some of the items she bought off of Etsy, but the ones she made herself she offers free to download.  
•  The Pretty Blog: This is predominantly a wedding décor website, but this page of free prints would work on the wall, too, as long as you like pastels. 
• Tip Junkie: Life is to be Enjoyed: A cute print of a joyful quote, available in three colors; there are a lot of other printables for all occasions on this site, but this one is most suited for a wall decoration.
•  Taidye's Printables: Really fun and bright prints, most with Bible verses; I really like the Einstein quote one, too, and the one that says, “Rock like Fraggles!”  (Or am I showing my age by knowing what Fraggles are?)  Oh, and the nest one, and…
•  Google Books (Life Magazine): Did you know that Google Books has every issue of Life magazine from 1935 through 1972? And you can print the pages?  A lot of the covers show the major historical events of the twentieth century, and if you’re into a vintage look, the advertisements are almost addicting.  A lot of the appliance advertisements would look adorable in an I-love-Lucy style kitchen, and the car ads with their mountainous backgrounds show a rustic sense of adventure.    
• Graphics Fairy: The Fairy has a plethora of vintage postcards, clip art, backgrounds, pages from old books, and other graphics available; these could be put to a lot of uses if you’re crafty.
•  Scrap Your Trip: SYT is a scrapbook supply site, but they have some incredible 12x12 papers that are beautiful photo prints—check out Italy under International Scrapbooking for some of the best examples.  Besides that, a lot of scrapbook paper has great patterns and colors, and would look great as part of a wall collage.  The paper is of course not free, but for about a dollar you can get a 12x12 print of Venice or the Cliffs of Moher or a Saguaro cactus in the desert, just to name a few.  
• Simple Crafter's Free Wall Art:  To gain access to the printables on this site, you have to register your email address, which is a minor annoyance, but once you do, there’s quite a few word art things to print, including a collection of holiday word collages. 
• The Cheese Thief: This one takes just a bit of work on your part: she offers a template to make an eye-exam chart that you can customize with your name and details. 

I’ve found so many great things this time—I have a feeling I will run out of walls to put them on in my apartment.  I can’t wait to move in!  

Made with Tagxedo, using the words to Freebird