So Crafty It's Scary

Here's a sneak peek at my latest craft project - paper mache! A little hint of haunted fun to come...Mwahhahaha...

Flat Bread

This has to be the best bread recipe ever... I mean, ever.

In one bowl mix 2 c flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix 2 tsp olive oil and 3/4 c warm water.
Add oil/water mixture to flour mixture 1 T at a time, mixing with a fork. ( I don't know why, but this may be the secret).
Knead dough, adding flour if the dough is too sticky (and it always is, so why don't recipes just increase the amount of flour?)
Cover with a damp towel and let rest for 20 min. Read a book.
Divide dough into 8 golf ball sized balls. Cover and let rest for 10 min. Check your email.
Roll out each ball on a floured surface into thin tortilla shapes.
Bake on a griddle or skillet (sprayed with Pam) for about 30 seconds on each side. When one side begins to bubble, it's ready to be flipped.
As soon as they come off the griddle, place into a gallon bag to keep soft.

Perfect with any kind of dip...also good for fajitas...or just to eat.

Fear

Fear comes from thinking we'll lose things that aren't ours to begin with...

Request

A few weeks ago one of the Indian students here was in a motorbike accident. He was in critical condition and has been in a coma for the past few weeks. His mother and cousin flew here to be with him. Each night Family would lift him up and encourage his family with singing. Sadly, this morning he passed away. So please remember his family, especially his mother and cousin here. Not only do they have to deal with this loss but have to try to figure out arrangement and getting his body back to India. And nothing here in China is easy; it's often about money. So please remember them...

Creativity Gone Awry

Today I taught some students how to make Western food so they can teach it at English Village tomorrow. I taught them peanut butter and banana sandwiches and garlic mashed potatoes since both of those are very easy. They seemed to like both. One girl asked if she could make another sandwich. I went in the kitchen and she was making a mashed potato and banana sandwich! She swore it was awesome and made me try it. Not a fan. Takes me back to the peanut butter and jelly ham sandwich I had last year at EasyWay. I just feel you shouldn't mess with the classics!

Blessing

I'm reading J-s-s for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, and it's taking me forever to get through, in a good way. The part I read today was about blessing. So often we think of a blessing as something we're supposed to receive from above, but most uses of blessing in the OT refer to us blessing Him! And in the NT the word bless often means "to speak a good word" which is different from the meaning I had in my head, but helpful when looking at passages like "bless those who curse you" and "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse."

This quote really struck me:
"So often we do things that make sense to us and ask Him to bless our actions and come alongside our plans, rather than looking at the things He promises to bless and acting alongside of them. For we know that His blessing will inevitably follow if we are with the poor, the merciful, the hungry, the persecuted, the peacemakers. But sometimes we'd rather have a Father who conforms to our logic..."

Tuba City Randomness

So just the other day I was recounting to Brad the tragic and dramatic tale of how I passed out in Jackass Canyon on a youth group trip in Tuba City, AZ. I hadn't really thought about it or talked about it in a long time (I realized it happened nearly 10 years ago! Geez!) until we were in Inner Mongolia. As soon as we got back, I heard from Steve, my old youth minister and leader of that trip, which was random especially considering I'd just been thinking about all that.

Then tonight I was talking to new Katie and she mentioned a trip to Tuba City! What! She met Paul and Anne, and even my long lost friend, Deseree! She hiked Jackass Canyon (and loved it, unlike me). She did sweat lodges!

What a small, small world. And how strange that all those things happened within a week's time.

Laser Tag

A few weeks ago I mentioned playing laser tag in Wuhan over Mid Autumn Festival...here are the pics!




































And then we ate mooncakes of course.

Inner Mongolia...the end.

After the desert, we took a bus to a taxi to a bus to the bus station and realized we couldn't make the last night bus to Hohhot. We found out the earliest bus the next morning left at 7:20. It's a two-hour bus, so that would put us there just in time for our 9:54 train. We crossed our fingers at such a close time constraint but were all relieved we could stay in BaoTou one more night instead of going back to dreaded Hohhot.

We got up super early to go to the bus station to ensure we got tickets since the lady couldn't sell them to us the night before. We got our tickets, got on the bus. Yes we're going to make it! Nope. The bus driver waited for at least 20 minutes to fill up every seat in the bus. So much for leaving at 7:20. I was supremely stressed the entire two-hour bus ride just knowing that we would miss our train, or worse in my mind, I would be too slow and cause everyone to miss the train. And if we missed the train that would most certainly mean standing tickets for 26 hours the next day which would be completely miserable.

We arrived at the bus station with only 15 minutes to make it to our train. We ran next door to the train station, through security, up stairs and down stairs, and finally to our train. We just made it. I was so thankful for my sleeper bed!

We were fortunate to be bunking with two very nice ladies who kindly informed us that it was stupid of us to risk the bus, we should have taken a train. Aiya! We made it out of Inner Mongolia alive, and that's what counts.

So here's some excellent Chinglish to end on a bright note:

Papyrus box or a toilet paper holder?














Don't forget to divide your trash into recyclable and organism!














Caution: Risk of pinching head!



















And lastly, this is Peach eating a banana. We thought this was hilarious. Who in the history of the world has ever eaten a banana like this? Peach.

Singing Sands Gorge

From BaoTou we took a taxi to a bus to a taxi to the desert area (nothing is simple). As we were nearing Singing Sands we looked around disappointed. Where is the desert? Just as we were saying that, we rounded a corner, and lo and behold...desert! It came out of nowhere!











To get up to the desert, you have to hike up a huge sand slope, or you could take the cable car like I did. I was a little annoyed at having to take yet another cable car while my friends hiked something, but as soon as I saw clearly what they were hiking up, I was thankful for the car!














At the top there was all kinds of fun stuff...paragliding, four wheelers,archery, all-terrain sand vehicles, and CAMELS! Camels are the strangest, coolest creatures ever. We took an hour camel ride around the desert area (which is much more comfortable than a horse, by the way) after I wisely donned the ugliest cowboy hat ever. I knew I was going to the desert yet didn't bring sunscreen. Smart. So I wore the ugly hat.































Once you were done playing at the top, you could slide down the sand slope (for a fee of course) which to me was better than the cable car.
















Peach, Brad, and I decided to go all out and take a ride in the "Amphicar," a car developed by the US military that goes on land and water. That was super fun! And yes I look like an old lady tourist in this picture :).














One small downside I realized from not taking the cable car back up to the main entrance was the not-so-small sand mountain you had to hike up to get to the top. It is here that I learned I probably have exercise-induced asthma (thanks to Brad and Google!).

We headed back to BaoTou to try to get a bus back to Hohhot since we were leaving from there the next morning...

BaoTou

We had low expectations of BaoTou because our travel books had said it was basically only good for spending the night en route to another place, for us, the desert. Our plan was to grab a hotel, get some dinner, and head out early the next day to Singing Sands Gorge. The bus dropped us off not at a bus station, but seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Undaunted we pressed on, searching for a hotel.

We came across a pharmacy and decided to stop and have someone look at Brad's hand. It looked like someone had shot him, but really it was just a blister from the horse riding excursion. And there we met the first nice person in Inner Mongolia! The lady at the pharmacy was NICE! She smiled and politely asked us where we were from. She cleaned up Brad's hand for free and told us where to find a nice hotel. We love BaoTou!
















The first hotel we went to was recommended by my travel book. We'd already established a routine for this trip. In anything dealing with money, Brad and I would hide somewhere while Peach went to make the deal. It's the only way to survive this brutal bargaining game. So Peach had everything settled, Brad and I showed our faces, and the woman at the register said, oh, sorry, no foreigners here. I guess they didn't have the specific codes or regulations befitting a foreign guest establishment. Pretty funny considering my foreign guide book suggested it...

Meanwhile fireworks are going off directly over our heads in celebration of National Day. They were pretty to look at, but were so loud! If you closed your eyes it felt like you were in the middle of some terrible war...booms and crashes and car alarms going off because of the noise. But they were pretty...

We found another hotel and settled in, found some dinner (it might have been duck intestines but even if it was, I liked it), and breathed a sigh of relief. BaoTou was just a normal city, with normal people, much like our Yichang. It was exactly what we needed for a night.

Next stop...the desert!

Inner Mongolia - Pushing our way to BaoTou

So we survived the "fight" and made our way to the train station. We crossed our fingers and hoped we could get any kind of ticket because that day happened to be Oct. 1st - National Day (also International Milk Day :)) where everyone and their mother would be traveling. After looking at the masses of people and standing in line for a few minutes we realized we might have better luck at the bus station. At the bus station we got to the ticket counter and the lady told us they weren't selling tickets, but you could just get on a bus to BaoTou and pay on the bus since they came about every 20 minutes. Sure, no problem. We turn the corner to see the place to get on a BaoTou bus. Swarms of people. Great.

As I've mentioned before, the concept of forming a line is very foreign. Actually, that's not true. About 60% of the population will make a line. But the other 40% see the line and think they are special and can cut in or go around thus frustrating the previous 60% who then proceed to form a mob and stampede toward whatever the goal is. In our case, a BaoTou bus.

We waited through about 3 groups of people. People would push and push and push, the bus would fill up, people would stop pushing but were then stuck in such close quarters you couldn't move. Finally Peach made it out of the "holding spot" to the bus but Brad and I had gotten pushed back and couldn't make it. We were of the first 10 people in "line" in the mob for the next bus yet once we were released to go to the bus somehow we were one of the last people on the bus. You've really got to learn to throw your elbows up and charge. Sweet grandmothers and caring fathers will mow you over in no time. But at last, we made it on the bus. Happy National Day.

Inner Mongolia - The Fight

As tales from Inner Mongolia continue, we come to the low point of our trip.

We had been at the grasslands and experienced all that drama with the horses and disappointment with touristy "Yurt Land." We had a taxi take us back to the bus station. Our next destination was the desert. Sadly, we discovered there was no direct bus to take us to Baotou (desert area), so we had to take a bus back to Hohhot (2 hrs) and then would have to take another 2 hr bus to Baotou later in the day. Sigh.

We decided since we had to be in Hohhot anyway, that we might as well eat another delicious lamb hotpot at Not the Same, the restaurant we had been to previously. On the way to the restaurant we saw a shameless pickpocket in broad daylight. We were appalled a) that when people caught the guy's hand in their purse, the just held their bag closer and kept walking. No screaming. No scene. No police. And b) that the pickpocket wasn't phased by defeat and just carried on to the next person. Brad, being the action-taker that he is, trailed the guy several times trying to thwart his attempts at thievery, but in the end, what could we do? Follow him all day? He went in a different direction than us, and we walked off in shock.

At this point every person in Inner Mongolia had stared at us, screamed "Hallo" like that was our name, tried to rip us off at every opportunity, and we were just feeling defeated by corrupt Chinese business "ethics." Oh, and did I mention that Hohhot is China's toilet? Truly, it smelled horrific, and I saw at least 3 grown men peeing on on the street while we were there. Avoid all puddles.

So all we wanted was a nice relaxing meal...to stuff ourselves with lamb before taking yet another bus. Nope. The table beside us was completely drunk and obnoxious. They began their "Hallos" but we just ignored them, trying to eat our meal in peace. I guess that wasn't the most hospitable response, but we were weary. The men continued mouthing off in Chinese, foreigner this, foreigner that. Midway through our meal, one of the losers threw a paper ball at Brad. Are we in elementary school? Apparently. Brad just looked at them, like "Are you kidding?" At some point in the meal the guys got Brad's attention enough to "cheers" and "make friends." They were still super annoying.

We got up to leave and the drunkest of the group through a cup of tea at Peach. Yes, threw a cup of tea at Peach. At that point, she switched over to "attack mode" as is the Chinese way...to cause a verbal scene. Meanwhile the guy that threw the tea started throwing stuff off the table and breaking things. The other customers got scared and left. We moved to the other side of the room while Peach was talking to the drunk guy's friend and the boss.

In the end we saw how futile it was to trying to reason anything with the drunks or the boss. The boss wouldn't take any action against these guys, I guess because she didn't want to lose their business in the future. Or maybe it's just the Chinese way to sort of "take it". I dont' like to continually bring up the "in America" line, but truly, in America we would have been apologized to, gotten a free meal, the guys would have been kicked out, maybe the cops called. None of those things happened.

Then we came to the dilemma of who was going to leave first. The drunk crew insisted we leave first, but I didn't feel safe with that. I was afraid they'd follow us. One of the guys was threatening to beat Peach up if we didn't leave first. It was so ridiculous. In the end the boss agreed to hold the guys at the restaurant while we left in a taxi. We ended up waiting forever. We were all so distressed and frustrated. Maybe Hohhot has nice people, but we didn't meet any of them...

Freeze

Our friend Felix has been obsessed with some sort of Freeze game that he and his friends saw online. The one we watched was in Grand Central Station. A group of 50 or so just "froze" at a certain time and stayed that way for several minutes. Watching people's reactions were hilarious. Apparently they've done it in Beijing too. So a group of us gathered in Yiling Square one night to try it out. The first time there weren't many people around, so we tried again in the underground passage area where tons of people walk, and it was pretty funny. You can check out the video here. Here's our "freeze" group...

Inner Mongolia - The Grasslands

The next day we got up early to take a 2 1/2 hr bus to the grasslands. Once you're to the city closest to the grasslands you have to hire a taxi to take you to the actual place. We were all pretty excited about the grasslands. We'd heard you could visit or stay with an actual Mongolian family, try Mongolian milk tea, ride horses, stay in a yurt. We knew we wanted to avoid tours because we wanted a peaceful, authentic experience. I now agree with Lonely Planet. If you want to experience Mongolian culture, just go to Mongolia. China has hit Inner Mongolia. Our guide book had said that 70 % of the people living in Inner Mongolia are Han Chinese, only 30% are of Mongolian ancestry. But we held out hope...

There are several grasslands you can go to. Some are super touristy, some are more remote. We were aiming for remote, so we went to Gegentala. We were a little out of prime season for the grasslands so the grass wasn't very tall or green, but it was still beautiful wide open space.

When we arrived at Gegentala, we were immediately alarmed. This looked nothing like an authentic Mongolia grassland...it looked like a theme park: Yurt Land. But after talking to several people we realized this was our only option because of time constraints and the season. Yurt Land it is. We did see horses, and we did see yurts, so we figured we'd make the best of it.

Horses.
Now, coming to Inner Mongolia, I knew I'd be presented with the task of horse-riding. And I wasn't so much scared of the horse as I was perplexed with how to get on the horse. But mount the horse, I did, though without a bit of grace, and off we went. Being in China, and especially Inner Mongolia, we knew bargaining was a must. But we had our precious Peach so we didn't worry too much. The sad part about being in a tourist trap is just that, it's a trap. No bargaining because all the other yuppies are gladly paying the high price. Because of the price, 150 yuan, we decided to get the most out of our horse and do the three hour ride. But after coming to the first "stop" I realized I didn't want to get off my horse and try to get back on, and I wasn't exactly loving the whole riding experience, so Peach and Brad went to look at the altar/temple thing. So there I was left alone with three Mongolian horsemen. One of them was a supreme jerk, and after some rude gesturing and comments, I decided I wanted to head back rather than face two more hours of his presence. So I went back, led very slowly by another rider (since they didn't teach us what to do with a horse) and enjoyed the surrounding grasslands.

About 30 minutes later, Peach and Brad come back steaming. The aforementioned jerk had gotten even jerkier. He took them barreling down a hill at full speed (did I mention no one taught us how to ride a horse?) even though Peach asked him three times to slow down. He just kept going faster. By the end, Peach was crying, Brad had open blisters on his hands and legs, they had been refused milk tea (which was supposed to be included), and they definitely didn't get their money's worth since the ride was less than an hour.

We went to complain to the boss (other families experience the same or worse treatment, but the Chinese way seems to be to just take it.) out of principal. Peach got the job done, and after probably an hour of going back and forth, we got our money back and the boss offered Peach and Brad a personal ride (at a slow pace) with a nice horsemen. I politely declined (my butt was sore from the first ride) and went to hang out in the yurt. Then the door blew off of the yurt and Chinese people continually stared at me in my own yurt!














We were all tired and not thrilled with the place. We went to have dinner and were outraged at the prices for one dish. It was truly robbery. But we had to eat, and we were stuck at Yurt Land. After our terribly disappointing, overpriced meal, we were told there was a traditional Mongolian dance performance. Of course, we had to pay for that too. And it turned out to be more of a talent show by Mongolian people, not a picture of traditional Mongolian culture.














So we retired to the yurt, which turned out to be an excellent pallet, the most enjoyable part of Yurt Land.














The next morning we took a taxi back to the bus station and found out we had to go two hours back to Hohhot in order to catch a bus to go two more hours to BaoTou. Sigh...if only we knew what was in store...

Inner Mongolia: The Beginning

Peach, Brad, and I decided to go to Inner Mongolia for the National Holiday because we thought it sounded awesome and thought it might not be quite as crowded as the rest of China. Usually this week is a nightmare to travel because the entire country plays "fruit basket turnover" since this is one of the only times people are allowed off work to travel home and visit their families. Brad and I took a bus to Wuhan (5 hrs) to meet Peach. Then we took an overnight train to Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia (27 hrs). 32 hours! Geez!

We got in late that night, so we settled in our hotel and set out to find some food. All we could find was noodles. The next day we decided to explore Hohhot a little, but first we had to buy our train tickets to return home (you can't do it ahead of time or from another city). Buying tickets took the whole morning because the train station was overcrowded. Policemen tried in vain to hold back the crowds and create lines, but the system always fails and we ended up stampeding past the police who just laughed.

We finally got tickets and made our way to the Inner Mongolia Museum. It was actually very aesthetically pleasing and well put together, but it lacked in actual museum-ness. I guess it's just because I am highly skeptical that anything is really authentic here. There were several cool displays set up modeling traditional Mongolian customs and nomadic lifestyle. Little did we know this would be the only glimpse into true Mongolian culture we would get...

After we went to the museum, we went to look for lunch. We’d heard of a good lamb hotpot place, but once we got there we saw it was too expensive for our taste. By that time it was late afternoon and we couldn’t find any other restaurants, so we had noodles. Again. (Without meaning to, we became very Northern, eating noodles all the time instead of rice like in the Southern part of China.)

We only had time to visit one of the temples in Hohhot because they all close around 6. We went to DaZhao Temple, one of the most famous in Inner Mongolia. I feel that once you’ve been to one temple in China, you’ve been to all of them. They all have incense and tons of statues and Buddhas. We tried to ask some of the monks there questions about Buddhism to try to understand some of the background of our Chinese friends, but none of it really made sense to us. And I don’t think it makes sense to many Chinese either. It’s just something they’ve always done.

After we left the temple, we went to the Muslim district to walk around. We couldn’t look at the temple there because it was their time for prayer, so instead, we enjoyed some street snacks from a Muslim vendor and walked around the area.

For dinner we were set on finding a place to try the famous lamb hotpot, so Peach called around and we found Not the Same restaurant. It was delicious! They bring out a hotpot with two sides, one spicy, one not. Then you order whatever you want to put in it. For us, lots of lamb, tofu, potatoes, and spinach. Yummmm!

Inner Mongolia...

Well, Peach, Brad, and I are safely back from Inner Mongolia (yes, it's a part of China). But after about 100 hours on buses and trains, tales of grandeur and ridiculousness will have to wait 'til tomorrow...