Travel Bug Repeat

My friend Kathy was just talking to me about an upcoming trip to Australia and about where she might like to end up. A) I want to go to Australia, too! B) I gave her my top choice cities of where I would live if I had the choice: Chicago, New York City, Denver or Salt Lake (maybe for the skiing), Copenhagen or Stockholm. The last choices may seem outlandish, but they are 100% true and extremely live-able to the average Westerner.

The point is, it got me thinking about where I want to live someday (although I'm loving it here in Chicago) and where I would want to re-visit. Now, I'm not the kind of person who re-reads books because I always want to read something new, I don't have time to "go back" . . . but there might be some places that my travel bug would "allow" me to visit again, even though, for the most part, I want to jump to the next brand new experience.

I've loved pretty much everywhere I've been, but these are worthy of a re-visit:

*Copenhagen, Denmark

*Moscow, Russia

*Cinque Terre, Italy

*Beijing, China

The Inevitable

We all do it . . . use the bathroom that is. And recently a friend of mine was talking about how she likes and dislikes some restrooms and it got me thinking of all the crazy toilet experiences I've had around the world:

Now let me say that we have encountered many "sqauatters" while in Russia and China and in some places in European countries. This is different from my trough or dirt hole in the ground since this toilet is actually a flushing toilet, it is just in the ground and requires one to squat down over it. It also requires you to be very careful where you walk since we are involving aiming into a hole in the bathroom equation now.

Top picture: Sarah at a rest stop squatter, about 6 hours into her China adventure, on the way form Shanghai to Hefei. This is also the place where Leslie peed on herself using the squatter, which all of us would do eventually, and Jeff sad in some melted chocolate. That was our first impression of them. Bottom picture: Squatters at the school. 

The tie for the worst toilets ever (so far, that is) go to two different locations in China. The one  was along the road side as we took a bus up to the Yellow Mountains. I could smell it far before we got into the little building and when I got to the door and saw the filth filled hole that I was suppose to squat over; I opted for the near by bush along with another girl. The bush was much better than our other choice, although the semi-distant rice farmer definitely saw what we were doing. Oh well. The other one was a dirt hole in Beijing at the Great Wall that is too gross for words. So gross. No door even: just dirt, potty business and lots of Chinese people watching you.

Another great one was when we had to use a weird trough thing that we had to straddle over - also in China along the road side. 

In most of Russia we had to pay to use the bathroom and had to get toilet paper from a communal role before you entered the stale. One time I forgot to get the toilet paper ahead of time. It was an interesting experience to call for help in English to a bunch of Russians who already think you're dumb for not knowing how to use the public bathroom properly. 

It was exciting however to say that I've used the potty in the Vatican or Neuschwanstein castle. The bottom line is: we all do it, its part of life and it has the potential to make traveling much more interesting. 

I'm American! (sometimes Canadian, too??)

So having just celebrated the 4th of July, I was thinking of all the places that Robbie and I have been. Nothing really makes you appreciate home like being away from home. I'm really glad to live in the good ol' US of A, even though its not a perfect country; its ours. And even though we we were tempted to say we were Canadian a couple of times while we were abroad (but never actually did) we were still proud to be Americans, overall. (Like I said- we realized we are FAR from perfect.) 

The beautiful thing about America is our government system is set up to change and change again without civil unrest. So although we are nowhere close to perfect, we can work towards perfection in a peaceful way; having the right to express ourselves all the while on our pursuit to happiness. 

SO- God Bless America. Bless us to be wiser, more peaceful, and an America we can always be proud of. :) 

Naked Chinese Folks

So, I was reading a friend's blog (Allison's) and she was recounting her adventure buying fake purses in China town in NYC and being trapped in a basement (almost like R.Kelly) until she relented and bought some fo-Prada or something . . . this reminded me of a wonderful experience I had in China. Some of you may know this story- but here it is for the whole world aka: the handful of people that read out blog :)

So while in China we had home visits. We had the opportunity to stay with one of our student's families for a long weekend. Maile and I were partnered up and went to Mao Yu's house (and actually he wasn't even really our student, he just went to the school where we were teaching). 

(Mao Yu and his little brother)

His family was very nice and they took us all around Hefei, bought me clothes, and even took me to get some Glamour Shots- China style (maybe I'll scan some and post them later). Then they invited the entire extended family over to watch us eat dinner. Apparently we were very entertaining. No one really spoke English, except for 11 year old Mao Yu's broken phrases he memorized out of book or something.  

(Dinner with Mao Yu's family)

So after dinner, on the second night we were staying with them, Mao Yu began to tell us that we were "Going to taxi. Shower". Hmmmm, we thought. We knew something was lost in translation (there was no way we were showering in the taxi, right??) But there was no arguing with him, and the family was clearly waiting for us. We grabbed our entire bag because we didn't know what to expect- and got into one of the over crowed taxis with Mao's family.

(Out on the town with Mao Yu and some of his family)

We arrived at a building and were forced to take off our shoes first and foremost. We put on some sandals and then the boys went down one hall ways and we girls went down another. So this put Maile and I with Mao Yu's mom and the rest of the women in his extended family who spoke NO English (and we spoke just a little Chinese). We soon realized that we were going to be seeing China in a whole new way. The naked truth was about to revealed to us.

We were shown into a locker room with tons of naked Chinese ladies, all staring at the Americans who were about to join them. Every eye in the place was on us as Mao Yu's mom tugged at our clothes and pointed at the lockers. Maile's eyes were huge and she was clearly petrified. Around the corner was a giant shower room, complete with bath for children. And let me just emphasize that everyone was staring at us, waiting to see what the Americans looked like naked. I don't think they meant to be creepy- they were just genuinely curious, but it was still weird. (We were in a town where there were hardly any foreigners, so we were use to the staring, but just not when we were suppose to be naked.)

We tried to turn around and explain in our horrible Chinese and hand gestures that we weren't into the whole naked group shower/bath thing . . . but Mao Yu's mom only thought we were confused and just scooted us right back to the lockers. We were handed a towel that was 3 inches by 4 inches and again had our clothes tugged and shown how to put our clothes in the lockers. Mao Yu's mother guarded the door and we both realized that we would have had to plow her over to get out of there . . . so with 50 naked Chinese eyes glued to us, I began to strip. Maile started to freak out a little and was like, "What are you doing??" I looked at Maile, and spoke the words of encouragement that would soon become the motto of our trip: "It's all part of the China adventure!"

We came. We stripped. We were stared at. We conquered. :)

Happiest Place on Earth

Top Ten Reasons We Love Denmark:

10. Everyone speaks English- how nice of them.

(and I mean everyone! From teachers, to businessmen to 

the 7-Eleven clerk . . . oh yeah, they have 7-Eleven, too)

9. Where else can you meet THE Little Mermaid in person? 

*You can even buy post cards that describe some of the vandalism that she has experienced that say, and I quote: "Sometime she lose her head"

8. Views like this! I mean, this is Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark- 

the heart of the city- and it looks so cute you want to move right in! 

7. Old, awesome, beautiful castles all over the place. 

Welcome, Prince Robbie and Princess Sarah

6. Delicious soft serve ice cream with this super yummy 

chocolate topping and chocolate marshmallow-like stuff

5. Denmark is about 1/4 the size of Pennsylvania, and I totally do not 

mean this in a patronizing way, although that's probably 

how it sounds . . . but, isn't that just so cute!? A tiny little country just for us!

4.  The Danish are totally crazy patriotic. They decorate everything 

with flags, all time, all seasons, all year long. They use Danish flags 

for store sales, brithdays, graduation- everything.  

3. It's SO clean there. The trains are clean. The streets are clean. 

Even the trash is clean and all recycled and eco-friendly. 

Go Green! Go Denmark!

2. Vikings. Or if, you were Danish, you would say Wikings. 

(One of the only things not perfect with the Danes' English)

1. NyHavn (New Haven), Copenhagen. The cutest harbor in the world. 

Love at first sight.

It's easy to see why Denmark is so lovable. The country is beautiful and the people are so kind and  friendly. I know that sounds clique, but it is really true. 

Denmark was voted the Happiest Place on Earth to live! That's crazy- out of the whole world?! (Eat that, Disneyland!)

On a political note, socialism totally works for Denmark, which its' size helps to facilitate. Poverty is almost non existent; whether you're the garbage man or a doctor, you can easily have a comfortable life. Taxes are high, but the government totally has your back on health care, great public transportation, welfare, quickly fixed pot holes and any other social needs. 

If I had to pick another other place in the world to live . . . in a heartbeat- Denmark! 

(Or at least somewhere in Scandinavia- Loooove it) 

(Reading Rainbow Theme Music) But don't just take my word for it ;)

ABC 20/20 New Article- Denmark: Happiest Place on Earth

The Independent, UK Article- Denmark is the world's happiest country

Chi-town

Chicago, the Windy City, Chi-town, Second City, Chicagoland, City by the lake . . . whatever you what to call it- we live here. A lot of people ask us, "Why Chicago?" I mean, it wasn't really an obvious move. I'm from Pittsburgh, Robbie's from California- with family in Kentucky (just moved to Seattle), we met and went to school in Utah, then taught in Russia . . . I mean, Chicago obviously comes next, right? 

Well, actually, when Robbie was applying to grad school, we both decided if he didn't get into the University of Utah (we thought Salt Lake might be cool) he would apply to "big cities". California was too far from our families (and too expensive), New York just seemed a little crazy (and also expensive) and Chicago was pretty close to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh (closer than Utah at least) and just seemed really "cool", for lack of a better word. He ended up only applying to Chicago schools, I got a job in south side teaching and here we are!

One of my favorite pictures I've taken since living here- 

The Chicago Theater on State St.

Chicago River that goes through downtown

Love at the Giant Bean 

As I always point out: "Perfectly Seamless"

We live here . . . and I don't just mean Chicago, 

this is a few blocks from our place

Great shows to see!! 

(We've seen Wicked 3 times, because our family keeps coming 

into town and wanting to see it, plus we love it!)

Color Purple- I liked it a little better than Robbie, though

One of the best shows we've seen! (Twice!)

Giant face fountains are always a hit!

Gongheguo! (China!)

I'm currently reading Wild Swans right now, and China has totally been on my mind. (A lot of my friends read it while we were in China teaching, but I seemed to never get around to it. I did however read Life and Death in Shanghai and LOVED it!) What I like about Wild Swans, though, is that it spans Chinese history over three generations; most of my knowledge about China was more current, from the Cultural Revolution onward. So, anyway, it's just really interesting and I love it.

One of the many things I love about the book is that it brings back memories from when I was in China. I was recently reading and thinking Mao Zed0ng's rise to power (um, how often do you say that?) When I was in China in 2004, he was still very much "apart" of Chinese culture- or at least as far as Beijing tourism was concerned. He has a portrait about the size of 10 billboards (my over estimating strikes again!) hanging on the Forbidden city, tourists can buy his "little red book" on the street, and you can see his cryogenically frozen body (snow white style) for a few bucks.

I would have loved to chat with some of my native Chinese friends about what they thought about "all of that" (like I was able to do in Russia, talking with a lot of people about communism and Stalin and politics and what not). However, even besides the language barrier, people tended not to want to really open up to us about anything other than sights to see and kids to teach and things to sell us. Nothing negative really ever seemed approachable. Not that the Chinese people weren't very friendly towards us (like insanely friendly, wanting us to marry their sons and take pictures with their babies, friendly) but definitely not wanting to talk politics with us; although, that could have had to do a lot with the environment that we were in as volunteer teachers.

In front of Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square in Beijing

(see the picture of Mao in the background? he's there)

Me and Karina inside the Forbidden City
Giant picture of Mao on Forbidden City in Bejing
(compare to the guy you can see standing above it)
Mao's Little Book of Quotations or the "Red Bible"
(cost me about 1 dollar, I think)

Tiananmen Square

(different angle. differnet season, too)

Outside Mao's "snow white" (as I like to call it) Mosolium Memorial