Transition

We packed up our house and put it in storage in China. We are currently in TX visiting family and will travel to Yellowstone on Wed. to go to a Bayles family reunion. We'll visit my sister in Spanish Fork, UT the 2nd week of August and then who knows after that. Scott has been interviewing at a few different companies and we think something will come of it this week. We'll see....

China Team Building

Scott's office consists of one American (Scott) and about 20 Chinese. They did team building last August where they went on a river trip and then ended up at a farm with deer. There was a nice lady who gave a presentation about the incredible properties of deer products (all in Chinese, of course). This is the kind of thing that makes it so darn fun to live in China. Below are some comments that Scott sent to me from his Blackberry during the presentation.

"So we ended up at a farm that has deer. The lady is pitching the benefits of eating thinly sliced horns, how to tell which are good quality and things like that. She just said not to put them in the refrigerator. She said in the fridge they only keep a year and a half, but in the cupboard they keep 5 years. Wow, that's special stuff. Maybe we should put some in food storage.

"Next to discuss: Lu4bian1 -deer you don't want to know what part of the male anatomy. I guess they put it in alcohol like the worm in tequila."

He ended up learning that men love this last part because it increases their libido. :)

Depeng Fortress

I finally found some historic places in Shenzhen that are interesting! Shenzhen is such a new city that it is hard to find old places that show the great China architecture and history.

Below is me at a Hakka Enclosure. The Hakka minority migrated to southern China hundreds of years ago. Their name means "Guest people" because of this. They are very numerous and have since migrated to Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US and many other places. It would not be surprising if some of the chinese people you knew were Hakka.

They built their homes in clusters. Some were round and some square. The round ones remind me of stadiums because they are 3-4 stories tall and are open in the middle to a courtyard. The one below is square and held many families. It had room after room of old tools and furniture: baskets to sort rice, simple grain grinders, typical chinese 4-poster-type bed, wooden wedding chair, and even a raincoat that was made of feathers and bamboo leaves sewn together in a cape to be worn over their shoulders.

Here I am at Dapeng Fortress. This is an ancient walled village with the arched entrances on each side with a tower and drum. I love the view of the roof tops from the tower.

Next, in true Chinese style, I wrote a wish down on a paper, hooked it to a mandarin orange for weight, and now am throwing it into the wishing tree. Only if your wish lands in the tree without falling to the ground does your wish come true.

I had a great throw. My wish went in towards the top of the tree, but continued to fall down through all the branches. Luckily, it caught on the very lowest branch! My wish is the one on the right (not the withered one on the left).

Here are two super cute girls who were running through the town playing. We stopped them and chatted with them for a while -- all in Chinese of course! The little one on the right finally smiled at me as we turned and left.


Some ladies in the town were sewing the tops of fabric shoes. I asked if they were for sale to tourists or for their own use. They said they were for their own use! So interesting. All in all it was a great day.

Obsession with Cute

Asia has an obsession with 'cute'. Or is it that we westerners have a complex about what is 'cool' or 'macho'?

This is from a blog I was reading but it captured my exact thoughts on the matter.....

"Do you all know just how darn cute everything and everyone is here in Asia? They all have a thing for what we would consider little girl stuff, that includes adults, teens, & kids of both sexes. It is a weird cultural aberration that I don’t get. Reason I bring this up now is the packet of paper napkins we received at the restaurant - they came in a plastic folder decorated with cutesy Hello Kitty characters. It is common to see, dangling from a backpack or purse, a colorful trinket or two. Truck drivers line up stuffed critters and toys on their dashboards. Good luck charms dangle from rear view mirrors. T-shirts abound decorated with spangles and ever so sweet sayings. Squeaky shoes for toddlers are hip. Restaurants have whimsical names like Dumbo or The Hystevical Wave or The Happiness Cafe. Are Westerners just too serious? Did the Puritans strip away our fun loving souls? I think I wear too much black. " http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-15376.html