TIC (This is China)

I haven't been feeling well lately so I went to the Intel Medical office to see the Doctor. The Western Doctor ran a test and said "Well, the test results came back fine, but I wonder about the machine, I don't think it's been working well, I think it needs to be looked at, so I'm going to treat you with antibiotics anyway if you're okay with that." He then gave me the name of the antibiotics and gave me this:

TIC...

Farmer's Lunch

Last week my good friend Cindy asked if I wanted to have a farmer's lunch with her and some friends. The "restaurant" was at the farmer's home. We actually ate on his bed (not a Western bed, but a traditional Chinese wooden platform bed which is heated underneath in the winter by a fire). We had a whole chopped chicken stew, corn bread, tofu, potatoes, a whole fish and fresh vegetables. It was quite delicious, except I wasn't much into the whole chopped chicken, the flavor was good, but the chicken claw threw me off. 

Una, Nana & Cindy eating lunch on the farmer's bed.

Me & our driver Zhao.

The food

Chinese Dance

On International Women's Day (yes, there is such a holiday, Russian's even get the day off of work to celebrate, see Wikipedia) a local women's group sponsor an event to recognize local women. Local officials join in the festivities, TV crews tape the event to highlight it on the evening news and of course a banquet dinner follows. Of course, in Chinese fashion, there are typically performances and this year I was part of a performance. Yes, that's right me.  


About a month ago a friend asked if I'd like to participate with eight other Western women. We were told we were going to perform with a group of Chinese dancers. I thought hey, why not dress up in a Chinese costume and do a dance in front of 100 people. For four weeks we practiced twice a week with a Chinese teacher who doesn't speak any English in preparation for our big day. 


When the big day came,  I'd say we were much less impressive than the cute 10 year-olds dancers and the drum corps, but I held my flute and smiled while I twirled on stage in celebration of International Women's Day. 

Ready to perform sans the wooden flute.
(The costume is really flattering, I know.) 

Chengdu Can Do

Andrew and I traveled to Chengdu, a city of 10 million in southern China, last week. Intel has a site there and Andrew had a week of meetings and I, having plenty of time on my hands, joined him for half of the week and the weekend. 


The area's top two tourist attractions are the world's largest Buddha and a panda park (pandas being the favorite animal of the Chinese). Although for us, it had much more to offer... legit Mexican food @ Peter's Tex-Mex. For us, that was definitely the highlight of the trip. It also has a larger array of Western restaurants including a chic place owned by an American couple called the Lazy Pug, where we enjoyed a delicious pulled pork and buffalo chicken sandwich. It was a fun trip.

Sewing 101

My dear friend Di is a master of everything crafty; knitting, sewing, crocheting, card making, quilting, cross stitch. You name it she can do it and do it well. This winter she's taught me how to knit, and a scarf and hat later I'm a knitter (maybe not a great knitter, but a knitter nonetheless.) Since I've learned how to crochet and knit I was thinking it may be neat to also learn how to sew. Then, when I was last in Minnesota, my sister had my mom's old sewing machine out on the dinning room table and was sewing my nieces skirts to wear for Christmas. It reminded me of how each winter my Grandma sewed all of her granddaughters a dress to wear for Christmas and how much we loved those dresses made especially for us from Grandma. I was inspired. I was inspired for the sentimental reasons and probably because I'm thrifty (why pay $10 to hem a pair of pants when I can do it myself for free) and, I'm continuously looking for things to do to occupy my time and challenge me while in China being a stay-at-home wife.


Since my time in Minnesota, I've spent some quality time reading online sewing blogs and I've become more inspired. There are some very talented sewers who thankfully blog about it. As a result, I've decided sewing is a life skill I'd like to learn and thanks to the magnificent Di it's a skill I can learn while I'm in China and have a lot of time on my hands.  


So this past week we visited Er Qi, which is an enormous sewing warehouse. Mostly consisting of stalls and stalls of material and tailors which can make anything from curtains to winter jackets. This is where I found a small stall to purchase a sewing machine and material to make my first projects. 

Me & the Chinese man who sold me my first sewing machine.

Hopefully more photos to come with my finished sewing projects...

Company Holiday Party... Sort Of

In China, it is expected that employers will have an annual party around Chinese New Year. I was thinking the annual party was similar to an American holiday party, which it is, but I found out that there are several major differences:

• Spouses aren't usually invited to annual parties
• Extravagance is key in planning an annual party, i.e. lights, music, an MC and involved
• A sort of non-competitive talent show/performance where employees display their artistic talents, dancing or singing, is part of the event
• Management is expected to participate in the talent show
• Some of the outfits worn by participants may be deemed inappropriate for a strip club company event by our modest American standards

As an Intel manager, Andrew was strongly encouraged to participate in a performance. Needless to say, he was less than elated. Many of you may know Andrew isn't much of a dancer. Usually if I see him dancing, it's a sign that he's had too much to drink. But, he's a trooper and he put a smile on his face and participated. After the event he was told by a number of co-workers that he was given the title of the worst dancer. I don't think that's possible... 

Because I'm Married

Andrew wore this on the way to and the way home from the Philippines:

When I questioned this suspect fashion decision he said "I'm married. I can wear whatever I want." So I guess the honeymoon stage is over.