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Archived Thoughts
Beijing buzz (June 5, 2008) emotion in China (May 25, 2008) what 1 Euro could buy you if you came to visit (May 11, 2008) on visa-runs and escaping hotel fires (May 4, 2008) recent observations & discoveries (April 30, 2008) on ordering water and near tricycle collisions (April 16, 2008) on learning Chinese and on how to catch a bad flu at the park (April 10, 2008) highlights (April 9, 2008) Foreign media must have Facebook access during Olympics, IOC tells China (April 2, 2008) Home Sweet Home (March 26, 2008) Then and Now (March 26, 2008) stranded bags! (March 8, 2008) on visas, weddings, how to get free food & funny hair dos (March 4, 2008) Warm greetings! (February 12, 2008) A Whole New World (February 5, 2008) Newness in the New Year (January 6, 2008) The Feast of Life (November 23, 2007) Our Paris (November 11, 2007) A Freezing Wilderness Retreat (October 22, 2007) Reflections from a Recovering Bride (October 8, 2007) Mr. and Mrs. Brumme (September 29, 2007) One Month and Counting (August 22, 2007) Everything French (July 19, 2007) Open Wide Your Mouths! (July 9, 2007) Learning from Trees (July 3, 2007) A City of Lights - The Paris of Central Europe (June 25, 2007) Brumme's Descend on Europe (June 8, 2007) I Said Yes! (May 13, 2007) Liaisons and Goodness Abound (April 22, 2007) Gourmet Cuisine Catastrophe (March 21, 2007) It Really Has Been Too Long This Time (March 15, 2007) The French Postal System, V-Day, and Other Tidbits (February 21, 2007) Celebrating in Paris, Working in Oxford & Relaxing in the Alps (January 29, 2007) With Ma Petite Amie at Last! (January 11, 2007) Hanging on for the Ride (December 31, 2006) A New Life (December 18, 2006) I've Gotta Go See About a Girl (November 23, 2006) On France (November 10, 2006) Liberating Love, an Awkward Transition and Christmas Candy (November 1, 2006) The Western Bible (October 20, 2006) The Whole Church Gathered (October 3, 2006) On Steve Irwin (September 7, 2006) Lewis on Happiness (August 10, 2006) The Tragic "Unthinkable Crisis" (July 27, 2006) Not My Life (July 6, 2006) The Two Year Reunion (June 10, 2006) A Fishy Story Set Right (May 26, 2006) Response to "The Wedding Planner" by Sagers (April 30, 2006) White Bunnies and Bloody Lambs (April 14, 2006) Flexing Our Political Muscle (March 22, 2006) For Your Viewing Pleasure (March 7, 2006) Come to Our Church! (February 21, 2006) Peanuts and Airplanes (February 15, 2006) Confessing My Ignorance (January 30, 2006) The Jewish Kid Jesus (January 16, 2006) Friends...A Dime a Dozen? (January 9, 2006) Old Test Article Here (January 2, 2006) So Much to Say...That Others Have Already Said (December 23, 2005) Narnia - at last! (December 8, 2005) Lewis on our Eating Disorder (December 1, 2005) North Korea - Revealing the Darkness (November 20, 2005) Shining - Like You've Never Seen it Before (November 15, 2005) Are You Emerging? (November 3, 2005) emotion in China (May 25, 2008) what 1 Euro could buy you if you came to visit (May 11, 2008) on visa-runs and escaping hotel fires (May 4, 2008) recent observations & discoveries (April 30, 2008) on ordering water and near tricycle collisions (April 16, 2008) on learning Chinese and on how to catch a bad flu at the park (April 10, 2008) highlights (April 9, 2008) Foreign media must have Facebook access during Olympics, IOC tells China (April 2, 2008) Home Sweet Home (March 26, 2008) Then and Now (March 26, 2008) stranded bags! (March 8, 2008) on visas, weddings, how to get free food & funny hair dos (March 4, 2008) Warm greetings! (February 12, 2008) A Whole New World (February 5, 2008) Newness in the New Year (January 6, 2008) The Feast of Life (November 23, 2007) Our Paris (November 11, 2007) A Freezing Wilderness Retreat (October 22, 2007) Reflections from a Recovering Bride (October 8, 2007) Mr. and Mrs. Brumme (September 29, 2007) One Month and Counting (August 22, 2007) Everything French (July 19, 2007) Open Wide Your Mouths! (July 9, 2007) Learning from Trees (July 3, 2007) A City of Lights - The Paris of Central Europe (June 25, 2007) Brumme's Descend on Europe (June 8, 2007) I Said Yes! (May 13, 2007) Liaisons and Goodness Abound (April 22, 2007) Gourmet Cuisine Catastrophe (March 21, 2007) It Really Has Been Too Long This Time (March 15, 2007) The French Postal System, V-Day, and Other Tidbits (February 21, 2007) Celebrating in Paris, Working in Oxford & Relaxing in the Alps (January 29, 2007) With Ma Petite Amie at Last! (January 11, 2007) Hanging on for the Ride (December 31, 2006) A New Life (December 18, 2006) I've Gotta Go See About a Girl (November 23, 2006) On France (November 10, 2006) Liberating Love, an Awkward Transition and Christmas Candy (November 1, 2006) The Western Bible (October 20, 2006) The Whole Church Gathered (October 3, 2006) On Steve Irwin (September 7, 2006) Lewis on Happiness (August 10, 2006) The Tragic "Unthinkable Crisis" (July 27, 2006) Not My Life (July 6, 2006) The Two Year Reunion (June 10, 2006) A Fishy Story Set Right (May 26, 2006) Response to "The Wedding Planner" by Sagers (April 30, 2006) White Bunnies and Bloody Lambs (April 14, 2006) Flexing Our Political Muscle (March 22, 2006) For Your Viewing Pleasure (March 7, 2006) Come to Our Church! (February 21, 2006) Peanuts and Airplanes (February 15, 2006) Confessing My Ignorance (January 30, 2006) The Jewish Kid Jesus (January 16, 2006) Friends...A Dime a Dozen? (January 9, 2006) Old Test Article Here (January 2, 2006) So Much to Say...That Others Have Already Said (December 23, 2005) Narnia - at last! (December 8, 2005) Lewis on our Eating Disorder (December 1, 2005) North Korea - Revealing the Darkness (November 20, 2005) Shining - Like You've Never Seen it Before (November 15, 2005) Are You Emerging? (November 3, 2005) A Life of Profound Significance (October 26, 2005) The Earth at Your Fingertips (October 18, 2005) A Surprise Appointment (October 15, 2005) Wars and Rumors of Wars (October 3, 2005) Laughing in the Rain (September 20, 2005) Random Tid-Bits and Happenings (September 15, 2005) Life and Death and Terrorists (August 30, 2005) Girls and Boys and God (August 25, 2005) Feasting and Worship (August 17, 2005) Blogger's Block (August 6, 2005) The Harvest in China (August 2, 2005) Counting the Cost (July 24, 2005) Absolutely Outstanding Bit of Writing (July 18, 2005) Burning Alive (July 14, 2005) Jesus and the Glory Golf Balls (July 10, 2005) Those Things We Hold On To (July 7, 2005) Grape Juice, Poured Out for the Forgiveness of Sin (June 30, 2005) He Will Ruin Your Life (June 28, 2005) A Bit of Perspective (June 25, 2005) The Wedding Planner (June 22, 2005) A Lesson in Patience Amidst Absurdity (June 16, 2005) Fans of Hitler (June 15, 2005) Crash and Stories (June 12, 2005) Pastors and Leaders - Different Views (June 10, 2005) Senior Pastors (June 5, 2005) Ask and You Shall Receive (June 2, 2005) What If (May 27, 2005) The "Bible Study" (May 24, 2005) The Future of Pixar (May 19, 2005) The Mess We Christians Have Made (May 14, 2005) Narnia Coming to the Big Screen (May 10, 2005) Europe - Through the Lens of My Camera (May 7, 2005) Same Sex Families (May 6, 2005) Photos of Mercy (May 3, 2005) Across an Ocean... (April 21, 2005) The Picture, The Pope, and The Past Few Days (April 12, 2005) In the Car with My (air) Guitar (April 6, 2005) The Pope (April 4, 2005) Resurrection Day (March 27, 2005) Killing People (March 23, 2005) Weekend of Surprises (March 22, 2005) The Fray - Listen to this (March 12, 2005) Akiane....This is Amazing (March 11, 2005) Jesus Christ (March 8, 2005) Worthy Thoughts on The Passion (March 7, 2005) Dream Days at Church (March 3, 2005) Peace Amidst Ambiguity (March 1, 2005) A Verse I Hadn't Noticed Before (February 25, 2005) McLaren and Hotel Rwanda...another perspective (February 19, 2005) Brother Andrew is on to something (February 16, 2005) My Valentine (February 14, 2005) Homecoming...strange (February 13, 2005) Hotel Rwanda (February 10, 2005) The Update (February 6, 2005) Malibu...Thailand...Palm Desert (January 1, 2005) Get Ready Thailand...I'm Coming! (September 25, 2004) God Speaks? Really? (May 29, 2004) Life Beyond Graduation (May 1, 2004) God's Faithfulness in Morocco (October 8, 2002) |
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Erratum in the previous post – Please read “[incredibly] exciting have been the bus rides into town each morning”. THAT shift came when the weather at last started to change from grey to blue. On such days, there are better chances people will want to cycle to work, usually leaving seats for non-cyclists like us. Too, since the last post, it has often become a 2 kuai source of entertainment - from the boy throwing up all over the bus and observing his mother feeling no sense of responsibility for clean-up once they left, to the man who insisted on reading the text Andrew was studying aloud, to the young girl who studied English next to me this morning as I headed to class. I opened my book for our regular morning cram session and eventually got bored of memorizing words such as “celery” or “white radish”. Culturally sensitive as always, I edged myself to the right and cautiously peered out of the corner of my eye to read what my Chinese peer was learning in her English book. Just about as obvious as everyone else is at observing what I read, I noticed she was learning the word “inhabit” in its gerund form: “inhabiting”. Here is her one and only textbook example listed. I read it and jotted it down in my book of thoughts: “Until now, American soldiers haven’t yet found where Saddam Hussein is inhabiting'”. (How exceedingly ridiculous it seems to make students of basic English learn such an obsolete verb (what about “lives”?) and even more to learn a clause with a present continuous + gerund. Reading her book and mine, I almost feel an urge to offer my services for free to the ministry of education - see spelling of "Englishh" in the image above, for example! Not sure I'd want to learn to write using that book!). 
I have started to imagine our bus rides as a moving test tube continuously engorging a sampling of the population. I imagine people’s stories, which are no doubt wrong. Still, I attempt to create patterns of what I observe: behaviors, dress, accessories (bags, chickens, food) and secretly enjoy my fictitious world: ‘That’s Wanfang with his massive bags of rice. He’s late to deliver goods to the market stall. And over there, there’s Ping Ping, who bought those 4 chicks in that tiny box to give to her grandchild and his friends.’ And then there is the odd confirmation of our observations. Last week, deeply absorbed in memorizing, Andrew turns around to me: ‘Look at the street, I think something ran into a water pipe, bursting the water mains!” Sure enough, the rest of the bus gasps and yelps as we wade though the chaos on the street, definitely more resembling a river than a street. Police with rolled-up trousers, bikes caught 
in a sea of water, shop keepers attempting to keep the wet out and scores of hard hats working at repairing the problem, now engulfing several streets. As we’ve noticed previously, Paris of the Orient is a city of many hands and one of rapid change: Sure enough, we returned through the same streets several hours later to discover everything was bone-dry!
On Saturday, the weather seemed at last nice enough to head to Hángzhōu. This was our fourth attempt out of the city after weeks of bad weather or sickness. We got up early and arrived just in time to book our tickets at the South Shaanxi train station. Hundreds were doing the same meaning by the time we got to the counter, no seats were available. How frustrating! Not wanting to give up, we booked our tickets for the next day (Sunday). Clouds weren’t going to be an issue this time, and we actually made it to Hángzhōu for a hot day out of the city. Funny to me, this concept of going to the countryside, really meaning a city the size of Paris, but still, a lake and mountains almost distracted us from the scores of people strolling along Hángzhōu’s Xī Hú lake (one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China) for the same purpose as us. I don’t know what we were thinking by bringing our picnic blanket – probably thought we’d discover a Chinese Divonne-les-Bains. Still, we got a good read in before the grass police came by and shoed us all away from under the shade of our tree. We’re guessing by the number of secret snapshots taken of us ‘waiguórén’ there, that foreigners aren’t as numerous as in Shanghai. Not quite possible to make a discreet outing into the countryside! From our perspective, it was fun to watch the many only children (toys, clothing, behavior), bringing up my questions of the face of future China’s society.
Amongst the many other things we’re reading, Andrew has started River Town and I have started China Road. Fascinating accounts of Shanghai and China, which are growing our understanding of our new world. Alongside dreaming and discussing a key idea about our future, we hope to take our reads and sunglasses along with us to the Philippines. Since this is a big holiday weekend in China, we leave this evening on a red-eye to Manila for our ‘visa run’ and hope to be on the beach tomorrow, coconut juice in hand in Puerto Galera (in the Filipino province of Oriental Mindoro) until Sunday. We’re starting to be more flexible in regards to our plans so nothing is a definite anymore. So, we’ll see where we’ll be tomorrow! 