Okay, I'm having a hard time keeping up the desire to write. My 500 words a day is not happening, even if I average out all that I write in a week. But here's a quick post b/c I know I need to write.
I love how green it is here. West Texas just can't compare in the department of naturally green grass (no one is watering their lawn here), trees that bloom into all shades of pink, and tulips that are just vibrant in color. Logan and I took a walk yesterday evening around 6:00, and I was amazed yet again by the colors and beauty of spring. Plus, it isn't incredibly windy here. And, the humidity is nice...my skin isn't cracking and my allergies aren't out of control in a humid environment.
On the other hand, this has a flip side of what I haven't enjoyed about Louisville...it is just now getting warm. When we finally hit 55 degrees a few weeks ago, everyone was just gushing at the beautiful weather we were having, and how warm it was outside. Granted, I know that temperature is all relative, and when its constantly hot, you long for 55, and when its constantly cold, you also long for 55. Regardless, I was not warm, or convinced that 55 was beautiful. Yes, it was better than 32....but I was still comfortable in long socks, a scarf and a coat...in the house. Coming from living in a climate for two years where it was at least 80 in your house most of the year makes 55 seem not incredibly warm.
Anyways, there's really no point in comparing two different places on the planet. There's naturally not going to be a lot of overlap in what is the same, and inevitably you find things you like and dislike about the place. Making comparisons also shows me just how discontent I can tend to be in any situation. Contentment is something that is learned I think, and I am an incredibly slow learner. I do hope to say one day soon that in whatever circumstance I find myself in, I am content...even little silly circumstances like slightly uncomfortable temperatures.
--da
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
What I like about Louisville...#1
Texas isn't so recycle friendly. Growing up, I remember having loads of paper that we would have to hold onto until my mom and I would take our every 6 week trip to Plainview to buy groceries. At that point, we would load up our paper and drop it off at the only recycling collection place in Plainview. (There may be more locations..but not that I know of.) Friends in Lubbock who I know recycle keep 4 or 5 big plastic trash cans in their garage so they can sort and then carry their own recycling to a collection place in Lubbock. Its a lot of "mafan" as we say in Chinese (trouble, inconvenience) to recycle there.
In China, you can recycle (have to take it to a recycling place yourself) but we never did. People will walk around and go thru the public trash cans, and the trash cans in apartment complexes, and take out plastic bottles and bags, aluminum cans, cardboard, etc. Mostly we saw homeless people or retired people doing this....the latter out on their morning/afternoon/evening walk w/ a big bag to carry their finds back home. Eventually they will go to the collection place and actually sell by the weight what they have. I figure that in this case, we don't have to worry about sorting, and someone else who might need that cash benefits. Win/win.
--da
(Kentucky/Louisville are, obviously, different from Texas/Lubbock. Some things I really like...some things I, well, don't. So here's the beginning of writing about a few obvious differences that I've noticed.)
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Book Preview
One thing I would like to do at the blog is review (or suggest) books I've read. Of course, not all books, but there are some out there that I've read and thoroughly enjoyed, and think you should therefore know about them. Problem will probably be that those of you who read the blog will have already read the same book...b/c I know pretty much who my audience is and how our interests are similar. Or, there are those of you who read the blog, but will have neither the time nor the interest to read what I review/suggest. Oh well. I'm not really blogging, about books or any other topic, to please my readers.
Anyways, I've read 10 books so far this year. Which is maybe a little low for me. I read 47 last year. (Yes, I keep a log. I started it in July 2007. First book on the list was Mao: The Untold Story by Jung Chang.) Of these 10 books so far, there are at least 5 that deserve mentioning...and of the 47 last year, there are probably 20 worth writing about. So...there you go. Look for some stuff throughout the year (or however long I keep up this writing thing) on books.
Today though is more about a book that I read about, and will probably buy on the kindle here shortly, that I look forward to reading, tearing apart, and then writing about it. Reading other blogs this morning, I found a review/article on Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua at Dr. Al Mohler's website. Briefly, Mrs. Chua's book is about how the Chinese way of parenting is better than the undemanding form of parenting often found in the West (America). She argues the proof is in her two very successful and intelligent daughters, who she has pushed to succeed and seemingly deprived of a warm and loving family environment. Below is the link to Dr. Mohler's article, and having not yet read the book, I will refrain from commenting on it now. However, living in an Asian culture for just 2 years, I already have lots of arguments and questions for her, and one can only wonder if her worth is found primarily in the success of her children.
Okay, I have to stop pretending like this is my job and unload the dishwasher now.
--da
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Anyways, I've read 10 books so far this year. Which is maybe a little low for me. I read 47 last year. (Yes, I keep a log. I started it in July 2007. First book on the list was Mao: The Untold Story by Jung Chang.) Of these 10 books so far, there are at least 5 that deserve mentioning...and of the 47 last year, there are probably 20 worth writing about. So...there you go. Look for some stuff throughout the year (or however long I keep up this writing thing) on books.
Today though is more about a book that I read about, and will probably buy on the kindle here shortly, that I look forward to reading, tearing apart, and then writing about it. Reading other blogs this morning, I found a review/article on Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua at Dr. Al Mohler's website. Briefly, Mrs. Chua's book is about how the Chinese way of parenting is better than the undemanding form of parenting often found in the West (America). She argues the proof is in her two very successful and intelligent daughters, who she has pushed to succeed and seemingly deprived of a warm and loving family environment. Below is the link to Dr. Mohler's article, and having not yet read the book, I will refrain from commenting on it now. However, living in an Asian culture for just 2 years, I already have lots of arguments and questions for her, and one can only wonder if her worth is found primarily in the success of her children.
Okay, I have to stop pretending like this is my job and unload the dishwasher now.
--da
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Friday, March 25, 2011
What? Two posts in one week?
I know. But I promised. :)
So, let me fly over the past 5 months of life. This is like the 35,000 ft. view from the air.
We finished up our time there in JH mid January. We were uber busy from October to January...w/ fun stuff like hosting friends and making a trip to BJ and SH, an awesome welcome home to some of our teammates right before Thanksgiving, a great Thanksgiving complete w/ mad Wii Dance parties, Logan making a two week trip to Thailand to do some research and have some dental work done, a Christmas that was good but not traditional at all...we ate Chinese food for lunch, Logan spending a lot of time w/ our supervisor building an aquaponics system (more about this another day), and then us packing up and heading back to America. It was busy and good.
We arrived in TX January 17th, and it was a fantastic homecoming. We spent a whirlwind of two weeks visiting friends and family in the Lubbock area, and then made our way to Louisville, KY so that Logan could attend Southern Sem. for the semester. We are settled and enjoying our time here, but...we're looking forward to making it back to TX in May and then BACK TO ASIA in July! Its all official now and we'll be heading back for a more long term position. We are very thankful for the opportunity to go back, and we're very thankful for the opportunity to be here too.
Anyways, that's the fly over of what's going on in our lives. More about life in Louisville later....
--da
So, let me fly over the past 5 months of life. This is like the 35,000 ft. view from the air.
We finished up our time there in JH mid January. We were uber busy from October to January...w/ fun stuff like hosting friends and making a trip to BJ and SH, an awesome welcome home to some of our teammates right before Thanksgiving, a great Thanksgiving complete w/ mad Wii Dance parties, Logan making a two week trip to Thailand to do some research and have some dental work done, a Christmas that was good but not traditional at all...we ate Chinese food for lunch, Logan spending a lot of time w/ our supervisor building an aquaponics system (more about this another day), and then us packing up and heading back to America. It was busy and good.
We arrived in TX January 17th, and it was a fantastic homecoming. We spent a whirlwind of two weeks visiting friends and family in the Lubbock area, and then made our way to Louisville, KY so that Logan could attend Southern Sem. for the semester. We are settled and enjoying our time here, but...we're looking forward to making it back to TX in May and then BACK TO ASIA in July! Its all official now and we'll be heading back for a more long term position. We are very thankful for the opportunity to go back, and we're very thankful for the opportunity to be here too.
Anyways, that's the fly over of what's going on in our lives. More about life in Louisville later....
--da
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
5 months since the last post....
Whoa, five months. That's ridiculous. Did you think we had given up the blog? I did. Let's just say we're not very good at this, but you've realized that by this point.
There were lots of times in the last 5 months that I wanted to post something. Seriously. But I didn't for multiple reasons....let me name a few. For one, there's the time factor. Not enough time, or already wasted so much time that I felt guilty for getting back on the computer, or the time I feel like it takes me to post about something (more on this in point 2). Two, my writing is not that great, and it usually takes me way too much time to organize my thoughts and get everything written out in at least a decent style. Three, I don't ever know what you want to hear about. There is a constant tension in my mind between what I know would be an abnormal thing for you to read or see, and what is very normal for me to see every day...i.e the market, where meat that's not refrigerated is normal to me, but very abnormal to you. Lots of cultural experiences and things that made up daily life began to be very normal for us, which in many ways is a very good thing for us, but it led to a lack of what I considered worthy blogging material. Plus, I'm not one to really think that you want to hear all about what Logan and I do...I mean, sometimes we are just not that interesting. We don't jump out of planes or anything like that. Yes, we lived in Asia for 2 years. But overall life was very similar to what life looks life for you.
Anyways, there are a lot of other things I could say about not keeping up the blog. We burned out on it, honestly, which is sad b/c it wasn't like we were blogging every day. But really, from the bottom of my heart I want to continue the blog. I really desire to develop my writing a little bit. And so now I have a semi-goal of 500 words a day. Not 500 words a day on the blog, but just in general 500 words a day. Most of the time it will be my own personal journal that I put those words in, but hopefully over time I will be quicker to reflect on my surroundings/life/what's going on, and see how I can write about those things. And, I hope the more I write, the easier it will become to sit down and crank out a blog post in a 10-15 minutes.
This is not a commitment to you, our readers who have not given up on us (which would probably only be my mom and dad), but hopefully I will find this post to be the one that starts us over again on this blogging thing.
One other reason for the desire to blog: sometime in December or January, Logan and I watched The Social Network (movie about facebook) and it made me really despise facebook. Now, I'm not trashing it or the creators of it, and I know that the movie had an element of drama to it that probably wasn't present in the real life story of the creation of facebook. Before we watched the movie, I seriously was playing around w/ the idea of deactivating my account. After we watched the movie, I was done. That was it. It took me a while to actually follow thru, but around the first of March, I was sitting in front of the fireplace, reading Wendell Berry, and then I grabbed my computer and deleted my account. Completely done. It has been the most freeing thing in the world really. And so w/ the deletion of facebook from my life, I realize that this could become one good way that I still have random communication w/ those of you who I don't see daily/monthly/yearly. (By the way, there will be more on Wendell Berry, facebook, and what we're up to in later posts. I promise.)
Anyways, here's to trying to write more consistently.
--da
There were lots of times in the last 5 months that I wanted to post something. Seriously. But I didn't for multiple reasons....let me name a few. For one, there's the time factor. Not enough time, or already wasted so much time that I felt guilty for getting back on the computer, or the time I feel like it takes me to post about something (more on this in point 2). Two, my writing is not that great, and it usually takes me way too much time to organize my thoughts and get everything written out in at least a decent style. Three, I don't ever know what you want to hear about. There is a constant tension in my mind between what I know would be an abnormal thing for you to read or see, and what is very normal for me to see every day...i.e the market, where meat that's not refrigerated is normal to me, but very abnormal to you. Lots of cultural experiences and things that made up daily life began to be very normal for us, which in many ways is a very good thing for us, but it led to a lack of what I considered worthy blogging material. Plus, I'm not one to really think that you want to hear all about what Logan and I do...I mean, sometimes we are just not that interesting. We don't jump out of planes or anything like that. Yes, we lived in Asia for 2 years. But overall life was very similar to what life looks life for you.
Anyways, there are a lot of other things I could say about not keeping up the blog. We burned out on it, honestly, which is sad b/c it wasn't like we were blogging every day. But really, from the bottom of my heart I want to continue the blog. I really desire to develop my writing a little bit. And so now I have a semi-goal of 500 words a day. Not 500 words a day on the blog, but just in general 500 words a day. Most of the time it will be my own personal journal that I put those words in, but hopefully over time I will be quicker to reflect on my surroundings/life/what's going on, and see how I can write about those things. And, I hope the more I write, the easier it will become to sit down and crank out a blog post in a 10-15 minutes.
This is not a commitment to you, our readers who have not given up on us (which would probably only be my mom and dad), but hopefully I will find this post to be the one that starts us over again on this blogging thing.
One other reason for the desire to blog: sometime in December or January, Logan and I watched The Social Network (movie about facebook) and it made me really despise facebook. Now, I'm not trashing it or the creators of it, and I know that the movie had an element of drama to it that probably wasn't present in the real life story of the creation of facebook. Before we watched the movie, I seriously was playing around w/ the idea of deactivating my account. After we watched the movie, I was done. That was it. It took me a while to actually follow thru, but around the first of March, I was sitting in front of the fireplace, reading Wendell Berry, and then I grabbed my computer and deleted my account. Completely done. It has been the most freeing thing in the world really. And so w/ the deletion of facebook from my life, I realize that this could become one good way that I still have random communication w/ those of you who I don't see daily/monthly/yearly. (By the way, there will be more on Wendell Berry, facebook, and what we're up to in later posts. I promise.)
Anyways, here's to trying to write more consistently.
--da
Friday, October 15, 2010
Another video...
The people group we live and work among are closely connected to the people spoken of in this video.
Check it out.
lh
Sunday, October 3, 2010
A video!
I have finished up the story part of our trip to the village and want to take a little break before sitting down to write a bit more explaining certain things. In the mean time, enjoy this short video! :)
--da
--da
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Village Trip--Part Four
After we returned from the temple, the women once again set to work on cooking food. Logan sat downstairs w/ the men where they had set up the grill to cook some pork. I went upstairs into the house and tried to be of some assistance, but pretty much just got in the way. YH's dad kept telling me and Logan to watch tv or take a nap, and Logan eventually made his way into the house to sleep for 20 minutes or so. They finally let me peel and slice cucumbers, but SY didn't like the way I was using the knife, so that job didn't last long. (Chinese and Americans seem to use knives differently. I've experienced this twice here.)
Around 11:30, a few of Mr. Luo's co-workers arrived from the school. Logan and I sat under the house w/ them in the shade and talked about what it would take for them to go to America. Almost any conversation w/ new acquaintances goes this way....how much does a ticket cost, do you need a visa, how much does the visa cost, where does the plane land, how long does it take to get there, and so on. The night before we had the same conversation w/ three of Mr. Luo's other friends, and one of them declared that if he ever had the chance to go to America, upon arrival he would get off of the plane, eat a bowl of soupy rice noodles, and then get on a plane to come back to China. At this, his friend replied that he surely would not be able to find soupy rice noodles in America.
The women called us all into the house, and we were all able to sit down to eat. That is, everyone but Yi Han, her parents, her brother and sister-in-law. They kept cooking and replenishing bowls of food and sliced cucumbers and DL hot sauce. (Which is delicious.) After I had eaten enough food and had sat there for a long enough time to be polite, I excused myself to go sit w/ Yi Han and her brother and sister-in-law at the entrance of the house. Her dad and mom were nowhere to be found, and in fact when we left about an hour later, they still weren't there and she did not try and find them to say good bye. (Perfectly normal I'm sure....)
After Yi Han had finished eating and we had all talked for a little bit longer, we gathered our things to leave. We were given left over food to bring back home w/ us, and then we loaded up into a van and headed off to the bus station. We found a bus and arrived back at home 2 hours later.
And just like that, our weekend in the village was over. We are hoping for a chance to go again soon!
--da
Around 11:30, a few of Mr. Luo's co-workers arrived from the school. Logan and I sat under the house w/ them in the shade and talked about what it would take for them to go to America. Almost any conversation w/ new acquaintances goes this way....how much does a ticket cost, do you need a visa, how much does the visa cost, where does the plane land, how long does it take to get there, and so on. The night before we had the same conversation w/ three of Mr. Luo's other friends, and one of them declared that if he ever had the chance to go to America, upon arrival he would get off of the plane, eat a bowl of soupy rice noodles, and then get on a plane to come back to China. At this, his friend replied that he surely would not be able to find soupy rice noodles in America.
The women called us all into the house, and we were all able to sit down to eat. That is, everyone but Yi Han, her parents, her brother and sister-in-law. They kept cooking and replenishing bowls of food and sliced cucumbers and DL hot sauce. (Which is delicious.) After I had eaten enough food and had sat there for a long enough time to be polite, I excused myself to go sit w/ Yi Han and her brother and sister-in-law at the entrance of the house. Her dad and mom were nowhere to be found, and in fact when we left about an hour later, they still weren't there and she did not try and find them to say good bye. (Perfectly normal I'm sure....)
After Yi Han had finished eating and we had all talked for a little bit longer, we gathered our things to leave. We were given left over food to bring back home w/ us, and then we loaded up into a van and headed off to the bus station. We found a bus and arrived back at home 2 hours later.
And just like that, our weekend in the village was over. We are hoping for a chance to go again soon!
--da
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Village Trip--Part Three
12:45 am. I need to go to the bathroom. Bad. The house is completely pitch black. If I got up, would the door be locked? Is there another door at the base of the stairs that lead up into the house that might also be locked? I didn’t pay attention enough yesterday to know the answer. What if I got up, and woke everyone up, and Yi Han had to find the key to let me out of the house? I decided to risk it and not get up.
So I prayed. “Please God, let me make it until morning!”
Off and on throughout the rest of the night I would wake back up….because I still needed to go to the bathroom, and also thanks to the fact that Mr. Luo snores. Big time. The fact that he smokes like a freight train and had a cold on top of that probably aggravates his ability to breathe at night, and I had to wonder if he was just going to completely stop breathing at some point during the night.
6:45 am. Its light enough that I can make it outside now, and Yi Han is building a fire in the kitchen stove. Walking out to the bathroom her dad meets me and says, “You’re up early.”
The food starts again as soon as I walk back into the house. Yi Han’s mom offers me some sticky rice and as much as I love sticky rice, I couldn’t manage to eat it all….still so full from the night before. There would be a special noodle dish this morning as well for breakfast. Stinky Noodles. Those of you who know me in this Asian context know that I’m not big on noodles for breakfast….much less ones that will be stinky.
The sister-in-law was in charge of the whole noodle making process. There was a bag of some special type of homemade rice flour that had undergone some special process and was then steamed in banana leaves before she added a lot of water to it to make a very sticky dough. She kneaded and kneaded the dough and then used a type of press to make the noodles.
The dough and the press.
Sister-in-law making the noodles. Notice the turtleneck and pants. I was wearing a light cotton
skirt and a t-shirt. People here start to think its cold if its less than 75 degrees outside.
Much to my surprise, the noodles where not as stinky after being cooked. Logan and I were encouraged to add chives, cilantro, pepper, salt, and MSG to our noodles, and they were really pretty good.
After breakfast, Yi Han took me and Logan and SY to see the temple. Yi Han had talked awhile to some of the ladies at the temple, and then we walked back to the house to start preparing for lunch.
-da
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Village Trip--Part 2
The van pulled up outside of Yi Han's house. Her mother was waiting at the gate, much like my mom and dad will walk out and wait on the front porch once they see headlights or hear my brother's pick up headed down our section of dirt road.
It was a traditional house on stilts that Yi Han spent most of her growing up years in. The house was built in 1984, and when her dad was asked how old the house was, he had to turn and look at the beam where "1984" was painted in what probably used to be a bright red before he could answer us. Or rather answer Yi Han. Yi Han's mother doesn't speak a word of Mandarin, although she understands some. Her dad speaks a little, but he relied more heavily on speaking to Yi Han in DL rather than speaking to us in Mandarin.
We were instantly welcomed and told to sit out on the patio. And as soon as we sat, the food starting coming and it didn't really stop the whole time we were there. We were served cucumbers and purple sticky rice w/ peanuts and some sugar wrapped in banana leaves and steamed (delicious). Yi Han immediately started cooking various things, catching up w/ her mom, and talking w/ her sister-in-law. We sat and sat and talked and talked, and every so often someone would yell at Little Luo to stop messing w/ the chickens. I pulled a stool inside the house to sit with Yi Han and her sister-in-law and watched them spoon a mixture of sticky rice flour mixed with brown sugar and a mixture of crushed red beans and more brown sugar into more banana leaves to wrap and steam for later that night. Yi Han said, "When I get done we can go buy something to drink besides water, I know you're thirsty, and we can go see something, or do something, because I'm sure you're bored." I replied, "Yi Han, don't you know that you are the only person who has invited me to their home? We are more than happy to be here with your family and sit and talk and just be." I don't think she fully believed me at first, but finally I convinced her that I was telling the truth. When she believed me, she then asked whether or not we wanted to sleep there at the house or for them to take us into town to a hotel for the night. I didn't want to impose, but secretly wanted to stay there, so I said essentially, "As you please. But I know that sleeping here would be a lot of fun." So it was decided that we would stay w/ her family and sleep in the living room on the floor w/ Yi Han, Little Luo, Mr. Luo (her husband), and SY--the friend who had accompanied us.
We all kind of sat around until it was dinner...well, the guests sat around, and the family worked. And then suddenly Yi Han carried out onto the patio a small wicker table full of food. Logan, I, SY, Mr. Luo, and Yi Han sat down to eat, and a few of Mr. Luo's co-workers from the school joined us. Yi Han's mom and dad weren't hungry, being used to eating around 9 pm, and Yi Han's sister-in-law and brother went out to cut the rubber trees...which is mostly done at night after it gets dark, or very early in the morning around 4 or 5 am.
We cleaned up the patio area after we had all eaten entirely too much and Yi Han said, "The girls will now go next door and take a shower where there is hot water, and the boys can stay here to shower." I didn't expect to get a shower, so we didn't bring towels, so there was a lot of 不好意思 (so embarrassed b/c I didn't bring a towel) going on until a fresh, clean, unused towel was produced and we girls marched off to shower. (It did feel good to get the sweat off, even though I refrained from washing my hair for the sake of time and trouble.)
When we got back to the house, YH's brother and sister-in-law had returned from the rubber trees, and their daughter was entertaining every one in the house. She is about 2 years old and super cute. She loves her grandmom and granddad, and followed her granddad just about every where that he went.
We unrolled our mats and blankets and hung up mosquito nets and essentially were ready for bed. Everyone was pretty tired, and I didn't have a problem going to sleep. Staying asleep was going to be a different story.
--da
Two pictures from the afternoon at the White Pagoda. I had to beg Little Luo to take this with me.
And here is Little Luo and Mr. Luo. No begging had to be done to get this photo. It seems like with Mr. Luo gone all week teaching, Little Luo really, really wants to spend any moment he can w/ his dad. He needs both of his parents at home, and he needs his dad to be more of the primary disciplinarian in the home, but the Chinese family and discipline practices and education system are another post for another day too.
It was a traditional house on stilts that Yi Han spent most of her growing up years in. The house was built in 1984, and when her dad was asked how old the house was, he had to turn and look at the beam where "1984" was painted in what probably used to be a bright red before he could answer us. Or rather answer Yi Han. Yi Han's mother doesn't speak a word of Mandarin, although she understands some. Her dad speaks a little, but he relied more heavily on speaking to Yi Han in DL rather than speaking to us in Mandarin.
We were instantly welcomed and told to sit out on the patio. And as soon as we sat, the food starting coming and it didn't really stop the whole time we were there. We were served cucumbers and purple sticky rice w/ peanuts and some sugar wrapped in banana leaves and steamed (delicious). Yi Han immediately started cooking various things, catching up w/ her mom, and talking w/ her sister-in-law. We sat and sat and talked and talked, and every so often someone would yell at Little Luo to stop messing w/ the chickens. I pulled a stool inside the house to sit with Yi Han and her sister-in-law and watched them spoon a mixture of sticky rice flour mixed with brown sugar and a mixture of crushed red beans and more brown sugar into more banana leaves to wrap and steam for later that night. Yi Han said, "When I get done we can go buy something to drink besides water, I know you're thirsty, and we can go see something, or do something, because I'm sure you're bored." I replied, "Yi Han, don't you know that you are the only person who has invited me to their home? We are more than happy to be here with your family and sit and talk and just be." I don't think she fully believed me at first, but finally I convinced her that I was telling the truth. When she believed me, she then asked whether or not we wanted to sleep there at the house or for them to take us into town to a hotel for the night. I didn't want to impose, but secretly wanted to stay there, so I said essentially, "As you please. But I know that sleeping here would be a lot of fun." So it was decided that we would stay w/ her family and sleep in the living room on the floor w/ Yi Han, Little Luo, Mr. Luo (her husband), and SY--the friend who had accompanied us.
We all kind of sat around until it was dinner...well, the guests sat around, and the family worked. And then suddenly Yi Han carried out onto the patio a small wicker table full of food. Logan, I, SY, Mr. Luo, and Yi Han sat down to eat, and a few of Mr. Luo's co-workers from the school joined us. Yi Han's mom and dad weren't hungry, being used to eating around 9 pm, and Yi Han's sister-in-law and brother went out to cut the rubber trees...which is mostly done at night after it gets dark, or very early in the morning around 4 or 5 am.
We cleaned up the patio area after we had all eaten entirely too much and Yi Han said, "The girls will now go next door and take a shower where there is hot water, and the boys can stay here to shower." I didn't expect to get a shower, so we didn't bring towels, so there was a lot of 不好意思 (so embarrassed b/c I didn't bring a towel) going on until a fresh, clean, unused towel was produced and we girls marched off to shower. (It did feel good to get the sweat off, even though I refrained from washing my hair for the sake of time and trouble.)
When we got back to the house, YH's brother and sister-in-law had returned from the rubber trees, and their daughter was entertaining every one in the house. She is about 2 years old and super cute. She loves her grandmom and granddad, and followed her granddad just about every where that he went.
We unrolled our mats and blankets and hung up mosquito nets and essentially were ready for bed. Everyone was pretty tired, and I didn't have a problem going to sleep. Staying asleep was going to be a different story.
--da
Two pictures from the afternoon at the White Pagoda. I had to beg Little Luo to take this with me.
And here is Little Luo and Mr. Luo. No begging had to be done to get this photo. It seems like with Mr. Luo gone all week teaching, Little Luo really, really wants to spend any moment he can w/ his dad. He needs both of his parents at home, and he needs his dad to be more of the primary disciplinarian in the home, but the Chinese family and discipline practices and education system are another post for another day too.
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