Scenes from Chiangmai

I recently took my first trip to Chiangmai, Thailand!  We first few into Bangkok- below- and then went up to Chiangmai.

Here are some scenes from the "Sunday Market"

And the famous "night market"

Our favorite way to get around was on a "song tao", or as my dad calls them "suicide busses" Haha!

Song tao by day...

Song tao by night....

More scenes from the hopping night market:

My favorite:

 

Hand-made Shoes

When we first came to China, I was surprised and a little disdainful at their "fashion sense."  Plaids are often mixed with stripes, red and pink are commonly mixed together and socks are always worn with heels.  Boys often wear pink and girls wear reds and blues.

I love all of our daughters clothes.  As an American, I am endowed with the idea that kids MUST have cute clothes.

 I find myself getting exasperated at having to put a bulky coat over a cute outfit- but if I ever leave the house without putting a coat on her, I get eaten alive by old ladies in the court yard-- and more than once, have been pushed back inside and ordered to "put more clothes on that child!"

I brought back a cute pair of shoes from America that are thin with a little velcro strap and have sweet little flowers embroidered all over.  

They are unacceptable. 

So unacceptable, in fact, that my friends went out and bought these shoes for Joelle:

They are not black with sweet pink and purple flowers on them.  No. They are bulky, red and the shoelaces are made from scrap fabric.  The sole of the shoe is made from layers of fabric glued together and then enforced with stitches- the same way they were made during China's cultural revolution.

But the more I put them on and get nods of approval from the judges who sit stoicly in my courtyard and wait for me to come out of our apartment to give inspection, the more I adore the sweet, fuzzy hand-made shoes that don't match one single piece of clothing Joelle owns.

Fashion does not reign supreme here- warmth, health and comfort are all that matters when it comes to your child...  industry and resourcefulness beats "cute".

I'm also amazed that these shoes are handmade!

What do you think?  I think she rocks the red cloth shoes.

Happy Dragon Year!

Last night we rang in the Lunar new year with our beloved neighbors, Joe and Violet, who you may remember from last year's celebration.  At this time last year, we were brand new to this city thought we'd be spending Chun Jie (Spring Festival) alone, but we met Joe and Violet in our neighborhood and  they asked us to join their family for Spring Festival.

Spring Festival is the biggest holiday in China: it's the celebration of the new year according to the Lunar calendar.

Violet came to pick us up at 4 o'clock and we all piled in her mother's car to head out to the celebration.  It is about 35 degrees F and although homes have heating units, they don't turn them on.  To keep warm, I had to dress our daughter in 5 layers of clothing.  Although I thought she was plenty warm in these clothes, my Chinese friends were mortified and begged me to put on her heavy coat.  After the sun went down, I obliged them and put on the coat.  She couldn't even reach her hand to her mouth, she was wearing so many clothes.

Most Chinese babies, unless they turn 1 year old in the summer, are very late walkers and seldom ever even learn to crawl because they wear so many clothes as an infant.  Most moms here don't let their babies crawl because there is no carpet in their home and the tile floor is quite cold.  They are absolutely terrified of the cold and I am scolded often because I don't put enough clothes on Joelle!  I find myself explaining, "Chinese fear the cold... well, Americans fear the heat!" and they shrug their shoulders as if to say crazy foreigner!

Violet's mother and cousin did almost all of the cooking themselves- for more than 20 guests.

This green vegetable is called Wan Dou Jian, we only eat it in the winter.

This is the kitchen where all the cooking took place.  They had one light bulb sticking out from the wall, one counter top to chop and slice on, and about 5 hot-plates going at once.  Unlike in America, there is no way to keep the food warm if it is served all at one time, so by the time we sat down to eat, most of the food was cool.   At a restaurant, we just eat the food as it comes out... but this being a special holiday, it was proper to sit down to a table full of dishes.  Hot or cold, it was still delicious!

Notice below how bundled-up everyone is!  It was so cold-- even inside the house.  Most families keep windows open all year long to prevent mold from growing.  Many of them also believe that stagnant air makes you sick.

Below is stir-fried snap peas and ham

The top white-ish dish is "Ou",which is lotus root.  Below that is sliced pig parts, behind it is spicy "machete chicken".  We call it machete chicken because they don't separate the bone from the meat, they take a machete to the entire chicken until it's in bite-sized pieces.

Below is the bowl of pig parts before it was all cut up.  The biggest piece is the pig head, the long pieces are pigs tongues.  Also in the part are pig hearts, pig ears and pig skin.  It is cured with salt and then torched with a blow-torch to give it a nice crisp.  Call me crazy, but it's good if you can nibble around the cartilage!

Here is Violet and her son, John.  They gave us the honor of giving him his English name, so I named him after my brother :-)  Last year he was with us in his mommy's tummy!

Can you see the fireworks through the window?

This is Violet's nephew.  He's three and loves the fireworks!! 

I love my new Sony a580... I had fun playing with the shutter speed while everyone played with sparklers.

This is my favorite sparkler picture because the sparkler looks like a dragon... and according to the Chinese zodiac, we are now in the year of the Dragon!

Chinese lanterns are hung everywhere- especially in door frames- for good luck.  Red is considered the "lucky" color... in fact, people who were born in the year of the dragon should wear red underwear this whole year to bring good luck!

This is my sweet neighbor who accompanied me while I took my camera and tripod on a search for fireworks.

My absolute favorite picture of the night:

One of the more popular kinds of fire cracker is the long string of exploders-- it is deafening if you are within a hundred yards and because it's about 8 feet long, it explodes for about 5 minutes!

Of course, at midnight, the sky was lit with fireworks.  Would you believe our daughter slept through it all?

An interesting tid-bit about the Dragon zodiac: being born in the year of the dragon is enviable, because the dragon is the mightiest and luckiest of all the signs.

Happy Spring Festival!

Yi Minority Torch Festival

On the 24th day of the lunar month of June, the Yi people gather together for three nights to make large bonfires and light torches.  At the time, our Chinese was not proficient enough to understand complicated things like festivals and traditions.... so when we were invited to come out one night, all we could really understand was "wear shoes that cover your feet!"

We later learned that this festival is a celebration of the end of a tyranical leader's rule.

Zhaotong, a remote city in the north east corner of Yunnan, in 2010 was about 10% Yi people... and yet it seemed everyone, Han Chinese and otherwise, turned out for this event.

Above are three of my students who met in our home during one summer. Neither John, "short round" nor Lindy are Yi minority, but joined in the festivities anyway!

Scott is throwing some powerd on the fire that makes the flames burn extremely bright for a split second.

Fireworks, bonfires and paper lanterns everywhere!

Lighting our own paper lantern took quite a long time, but we eventually got it flying high out of sight.

I would love to return and celebrate this festival again one day when my understanding of Chinese is much greater!

Famous Zhaotong Apples

Apples from the rugged orchards of Zhaotong

(North-eastern Yunnan province) 

When we first came to Zhaotong, people who were eager to proudly introduce us to their home-town repeatedly bragged on these apples and urged us to try one fresh from their orchard.

This was a fascinating place... each leg of the journey up the mountain brought a new surprise.

We started by taking the city bus to the edge of the city. From there we rode a little "bread truck" further away from the city and into the country... when the bread truck could no longer make it up the winding dirt roads, we got out and rode on motorcycle taxi's up up up the mountain. My sweet little dog rode tucked inside my coat!

Finally, after the motorcycle dropped us off at the orchard, we hiked a little ways up to the farmers house - which was made from mud bricks, concrete and a hand-made clay roof.

To my left are Heidi and Lisa, my fun-loving friends who provided almost all of our adventures the two years we lived in Zhaotong.

Having mud-brick walls, they put this plastic wrap on the walls to keep dirt clumps from falling and making a mess everywhere!  Also, as you can see, they needed to have something that pictures could be hung on!

Here (above) Lisa manages to steady me because I almost took a stumble into the ditch while trying to pass by a tree.

Our LOOT!  So many apples... the next month we had lots of apple pie, apple cobbler, apple butter, apple sauce... and mostly just plain apples.

And you know?  The locals are right-- they were the best apples I'd ever eaten.