Saturday's Shopping Successes and Failures

    It's been too long since we've posted but you haven't missed too much.  The last post discussed seasonal affect disorder and since then about three weeks of school turned into what seemed like one long grey day.  Last week we had about four days of sunshine and the change in everyone's attitude was unbelievable.

   After watching March Madness from about 6-10 am Saturday morning Bri and I headed out to do some shopping.  We each wanted to get a hat for our trip to Boracay in two weeks.  I tend to sunburn on top thanks to poor genetics and Bri...likes to buy hats.  We've found that in Shanghai there is a market for most anything.  Pearl market, glasses market, pet market, fabric market, electronics market...  After asking a friend whose lived here for five years for a little advice we were off to the "hat market".  It wasn't exclusively a hat market but there were definitely more hat stalls than the average market and within about 25 minutes we had each bought a hat.  The bartering process was really quick compared to the normal drawn out process.  I didn't even know what to offer when the man told me the hat was three dollars (20RMB).  After contemplating his offer for a moment I couldn't see stressing him by offering one dollar and then settling after a long standoff for two and half dollars so I probably got "ripped off" by paying full price.  My reward was getting to check the Kansas basketball score on his laptop while Bri finished her hat shopping.

    It was interesting to see all of the "foreigners" at another larger market we were walking through later.  I whispered it to Bri and then we laughed at the irony.  Bri went on to purchase a couple other items but was happy that each person told her she was very tough because that means that she got a good price.  On the other hand I rewarded myself with a steamer of pork dumplings and enjoyed conversing in novice English with a young girl and her mother sitting at my table.  Afterward, I wandered the booths trailing Bri working on my Mandarin numbers vocabulary and trying to get a pair of $300 headphones for less than $25.  Unfortunately, I had to be happy with my hat and my dumplings because I could not get the hawkers in any stall to go below liang bai woo shir ($40).  

I'm always happy to find dumplings to try.  These were below par but I find dumplings are like pizza, even bad pizza can usually satisfy a pizza craving. 

My table mate is enjoying rice noodle soup with some fried tofu cubes.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

    February is notoriously a rough stretch of each school year.  This year has not been an exception.  I've been immersed in work.  Ayi, Bri and I have found a good routine.  My students are great and remind me daily why I want to be a teacher.  The main factor making me feel blah the past week few weeks has been the weather.
   
    For the most part since we've arrived in August the weather was better than we had anticipated.  We came too late for the hot and wet July.  August was hot and humid as expected but nothing you wouldn't experience in Kansas City about the time football two a days were starting.  Then fall came and we had sunshine and cool but pleasant temperatures until the December holiday.  Except for smoggy days here and there we thought the dreary weather was just an exaggeration.
 
  Here we are in February and I'm beginning to feel like I'm stuck in the film Ground Hog Day.  Everyday its cloudy and gloomy.  It hasn't rained a lot or been too bitter cold but is just a plain flat grey sky the whole day.  This isn't a cloudy sky or pretty sky with all sorts of shades of grey.  There is very little wind to give life to trees.  It just looks like someone put a grey tarp over the city.  Last week on Wednesday I was walking to the market after school and I looked up and saw the sun through the clouds.   It looked like the moon and you could just make it out as its brilliant rays were nearly all blocked by the clouds.  I grabbed my camera to take a picture so I could prove to Bri the sun still rose and set each day.  In the seconds it took me to turn the camera on....the sun was gone.
    
    Last Friday was forecasted to be partly cloudy.  Teachers starting talking about the forecast on Monday!  It was like if your team was playing in the Super Bowl. (Not that I would know about that personally)  The possibility of sun on Friday was all I could think about...yet I didn't want to talk about it too much for fear of jinxing it.  Friday morning the sun broke through and I felt like a puppy ready to leave its crate.  I literally smashed my face against my classroom window as my students chuckled.  I guess some of them have grown used to Mother Nature's attack on Shanghai each January and February.  One of my classes joyously received the days lecture from the back of the room.  I drew on the windows with dry erase markers so we could all enjoy the suns rays shining in to the room but still get our work accomplished.  Saturday and Sunday I walked all over Shanghai because the high pressure front had cleared all of the clouds for TWO WHOLE DAYS! 

    I just needed to be outside in the sun so I found excuses to go somewhere and then I'd walk.  I suffered the affects Saturday afternoon.  Not shin splints, bubble guts.  I have this problem when I walk, I see food or smell food and I eat it.  I look at it as stimulating the world economy.  Four breakfasts later....bubble guts.  It was worth it though.  That's a price I'm willing to pay for sunshine and too many dumplings. 

    As if the world were mocking us, Monday brought back the grey sky.  The mundane grey sky is all we've seen this week and all we're planning to see in the 10 day foreseeable future.  At least there might be rain...
 

    In high school I always thought it would be fun to live in the northwestern U.S. for awhile.  Rainy days were so pleasant and relaxing.  The air smells so clean after rain.  Wouldn't living in Seattle be neat?  I'd sit in coffee shops, read books and watch it rain.  I've changed that tune.  Oh what I would do to walk out the door to the school in Bethune and get pierced with some 30 mph wind and a -1 F windchill.  I'd rather have my breath stolen in an instant than have it seep out of me slowly, dreary day after day, like a week old balloon.  I miss the Eastern Colorado winds that you need to lean into before walking out the door or else they knock you over when they hit you.  I miss having to check the weather daily because you don't know what to wear or when to pray for a snow day.  I've gone weeks without checking the weather here because it never changes, but now I check daily just so I'm ready if the sun peeks through.

Cu-Chi Tunnels

     I had learned about the tunnels in a Vietnam War class in college and had to see them since we were so close.  These tunnels were used by the Viet-Cong guerrillas during the Vietnam War or as they call it the American War.  Cu-Chi was an area north of Ho Chi Minh and based on our understanding American soldiers were never really able to clear the entire area of Viet-Cong.   You can read more about the tunnels here. 

Can you see the hidden door?

There it is!

This was the second hole I tried to get into and I barely fit.  My shoulders would have been a tough squeeze but I imagine if I were being shot at I would have made it happen.

A tunnel rat.

This is the bomb crater from a B-52 strike.  There were a good number of these on the site.

     It was very interesting learning about the tunnels.  In some places they're dug three levels deep.  They would have dorm rooms, kitchens, medical clinics, meeting rooms etc.  We saw a kitchen with a exhaust tunnel that was about 50 yards away from the actual room.  The guide said they'd usually only cook in the morning when there was still fog on the ground to disguise the smoke. 

    There are over 75 miles of tunnel in Cu-Chi network alone.  The tunnels were tug by teams of four, working at night.  Two pairs would dig holes down a specified depth depending on the level they were digging that night.  Starting about 30 feet from one another they'd then connect the holes.  The dirt that was removed from one hole would be dumped in the empty hole from the previous nights dig so that only the tunnel would remain.  Also, in case you ever need to do this remember that the holes you dig to go down should be square shape not round so that when you start digging the tunnel you know which direction you are headed.  When you dig the tunnel it should have a point at the top to keep if from caving in as well.  If you need anymore help email me and I'll send you some blueprints.

    Bri's enjoyed reading and watching youtube videos about the American soldiers called tunnel rats upon our return.  It was their job to clear tunnels when American troops found them.  They were some brave/crazy men.  I guess there is a thin line between those two things.  I crawled through about a 30-40 meter stretch.  It was part of a 100 meter stretch that had been widened for foreigners to travel through.  It zig-zagged for the safety of the men in the tunnel and it was not a fun place to be if you were claustrophobic.  I didn't try it but I'm not sure I would have been able to turn around...I may have had to back out if needed.  It was quite an experience.

    We also went to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh.  Mostly there was a lot photographs and it painted a very poor perspective of the US involvement in the war.  Bri was a little surprised at how harsh it was towards the American based on the little she'd learned about it in school and on the way the Vietnamese treated us while we were in the country as tourists.  The museum was a fine place to visit and it was interesting to see that perspective but it definitely felt one sided.  The Cu-Chi tunnels felt much more authentic and we'll never forget it.

Matt

More Motorbikes

    I hope to never know what real mortar rounds sounds like when they come down first hand but as the Chinese New Year finally ends today there are explosions happening every 5 minutes and from all directions.  It is fitting however that they're coming just as Bri and I finished watching the Super Bowl.  I almost feel like now that this football seasons is gone China is celebrating the new year...the year of the Chiefs.
    One tidbit of information for anyone planning a trip to China.  Don't order french fries from McDonalds when it is being delivered.  I've tried over and over and I regret it every time.   They just can't get them delivered hot and we all know cold fries are horrible.  Bri pointed out that it is nearly unamerican to order McDonalds and not get fries and I have to agree.  That's why I think they should have the delivery man fry them on the spot upon delivery.  It would also spread the smell of fries which would make other tenants of the building hungry for the Golden Arch.  That's probably enough of my good ideas for one day.  I'm posting some more pictures of things you might see on the road in Vietnam because Bri's last post generated considerable interest on the topic.

You can use a cyclo as a cab

Yes, that is a refrigerator on his motorbike

It must be iBike by Apple.

These yellow flowers were for sale EVERYWHERE.  They're good luck for the new year.  He's hoping the lucky flowers help him drive home safely.

This guy is holding what I can only guess is a frame while the guy in front drives.  Don't worry they have helmets on.  We also saw a driver and rider carrying a 10-12 foot pipe.

When your baby just fall asleep, take her for a drive.  Works every time.

There is only four here.  An American we met who has lived in Ho Chi Minh since 1998 told us that he doesn't bat an eye when he sees five but the most he's ever seen was six people on one bike at a time.  He said the last person didn't have a seat they were just piggy backing the person in front of them.

Babies don't need to wear helmets as long as you have a high chair for them to set on

We didn't see any livestock on motorbikes except for on postcards.  There were pictures of a slaughtered cow or live pigs balanced on the back of motorbikes.  I probably don't need to go on, you're surely getting an idea of why the motorbikes in Vietnam left such an impression on us.  Perhaps this fact won't surprise you but Vietnamese hospitals are among the world leaders in very few things.  They do however rank among the top hospitals in the world at treating head trauma....I wonder why.    If you still can't get enough motorbikes check out this blog for another fellow's top ten motorbike pictures.

Matt