Sometimes, I just like a good story

I hope you do, too.

Elusive L.A. alligator nabbed after years on the lam

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- For months, the city's most famous reptile eluded paparazzi and faithful fans who gathered at the edge of a park lake to catch a glimpse of the A-list alligator.

But when "Reggie" decided to come out, the gator did it in true Hollywood style: Swarmed by fans and photographers as it sunned by the water, the reptile was whisked away with a police escort as TV helicopters gave chase and broadcast live footage of the cagey critter's freeway journey to the zoo.

"We were petting him, talking to him," said City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, whose district includes the park. "I feel like I know him because I've invested a lot of time and energy in him."

The 6½-foot alligator believed to be Reggie, who lurked in Harbor Regional Park's Lake Machado for two years, was wrestled into captivity Thursday. The wily beast became a celebrity as it eluded would-be wranglers and managed to disappear for 18 months until it recently resurfaced.

Bad timing may have ruined Reggie's free rein at the lake.

The alligator was spotted on land around 3:30 p.m. -- just as officials and wildlife experts met nearby to find a way to snag the gator.

"We were about to talk about strategies for catching him when somebody called and said 'He's out of the lake,"' Hahn said. "So we said, 'Let's go now, let's get him."'

The cold-blooded creature was sunning itself in an area fenced in several days ago in hopes of corralling it. Park officials closed a gate, and Los Angeles Zoo reptile expert Ian Recchio put a hook around the gator's neck.

Five or six men wrestled to restrain the thrashing alligator until its jaws could be duct taped shut. Hahn was certain the gator was Reggie.

Firefighters strapped it to a board and loaded it into an animal control truck for transport to the zoo. A police car escorted the truck as news helicopters followed.

The zoo planned to keep Reggie in quarantine from 30 to 60 days and then eventually introduce the animal to other alligators.

Reggie was an illegal pet allegedly tossed into the 50-acre lake by a former policeman when it got too big. The officer pleaded not guilty in April to 14 misdemeanor charges and awaits trial.

When the animal was first spotted in the murky lake in August 2005, it became a sensation as crowds gathered to catch a glimpse. Locals named it Reggie, though it's not clear whether the reptile is male or female.

Gloria and Danny Gutierrez said they would go to the lake several times a week and watch for Reggie. Gloria Gutierrez wore a white T-shirt decorated with the words "Welcome back, Reggie."

"We'd bring our chairs out here and a bag of fruit, and we'd talk with people we didn't even know," Danny Gutierrez said.

The gator inspired a zydeco song, two children's books and innumerable T-shirts. Students at Los Angeles Harbor College next to the lake adopted Reggie as a second mascot.

Snakes!

So, MySpace is down again. It's really not a very well-run site. But check out this exciting news!

Snakes on a Plane!

For real!

Man with 700 snakes arrested at airport

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Customs officers at Cairo's airport have detained a man bound for Saudi Arabia who was trying to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane, airport authorities said.

The officers were stunned when a passenger, identified as Yahia Rahim Tulba, told them his carryon bag contained live snakes after he was asked to open it.

Tulba opened his bag to show the snakes to the police and asked the officers, who held a safe distance, not to come close. Among the various snakes, hidden in small cloth sacks, were two poisonous cobras, authorities said.

The Egyptian said he had hoped to sell the snakes in Saudi Arabia. Police confiscated the snakes and turned Tulba over to the prosecutor's office, accusing him of violating export laws and endangering the lives of other passengers.

According to the customs officials, Tulba claimed the snakes are wanted by Saudis who display them in glass jars in shops, keep them as pets or sell them to research centers.

The value of the snakes was not immediately known.

People said a lot of bad things about that movie, like, for example, that it was a bad movie, but it definitely had its moments. The idea of being trapped on a plane with a bunch of angry poisonous snakes is definitely scary!

Today

Today was surreal.

I didn't sleep well and woke up from a dream where I was living in Russia as part of the upper class right before the whole system crashed. I was at a picnic with all the upper crust, and a blue god came in his chariot and handed out bows. He gave a special bow to one man who was destined to kill the big-bad Russian dude.

The Big Bad's wife laughed when she saw the bow in his hands, thinking he didn't know how to use it, then he shot her husband in the eye. I watched, and was pleased, partly because I knew it would happen, and mostly because I knew he was the Good Guy.

Then we all got on a bus and the bus driver could fill the tank because there wasn't any fuel left in Russia. We were all trying to get out. I remember thinking, "Why does everyone keep pretending that there will ever be another Christmas?"

With that, I woke up.

Then Dylan and I went to print off our resumes before going for a job interview at a private high school. My Chinese tutor set up the interview, but she didn't know exactly where the school was. It turned out to be on the distant end of town, far from anything I've ever seen, and far from anything to do. Not much in the way of restaurants, shops or even bus stops. It was desolate.

The interview was brief. Clearly they are desperate. They had one full-time position that they would be willing to split into two part time jobs. The pay wouldn't be great either way.

The offered us "housing" on campus. This is a bording school. It is the affiliated high school of Beijing University for Yunnan Province. The teacher "apartments" are really just student dorm rooms, only that you don't have to share them with five other people. They were gross.

I started to get depressed.

Then, a miracle! Dylan and I were both offered jobs at YunDa today! We still have a lot of details to work through, like how much we're getting paid, if we'll get medical insurance, housing stipend, etc., and also how many hours we'll be working and what we'll be teaching - but I'm just happy I get to stay here!

Summer

Dylan and I will be returning to the US on July 12th. I do not know how long we will be in the US or what we will be doing, but if you want to hang out some time, drop me a line, and I'll see what I can do!

So, I guess that would be a no . . .

Here is the email I got in reply from my father. I think it means that he doesn't want me to come, but he doesn't actually say that. My family can be very confusing.

Ruty,

It is good of you to offer, we appreciate that, and we will be calling you, but the responsibilities here are for Danny especially, as the son, and Ima. You can remember Safta as you knew her. She enjoyed your letters and was proud of them. Ima and Danny will also have some legal formalities to deal with after the first week. The actual process for the next week is not set, so I will have to write again later. You are only 6 hours different from us now, so we will try to call, possibly tonight or tomorrow after Danny arrives.

Daddy

Family News

I got an email today from my father telling me that my grandmother died. That's about all they said. I guess once she stopped eating, things went downhill pretty rapidly. My uncle is flying to Israel, but I don't know about my sister. I asked them if they wanted me to come, and I'll wait for the reply. I'm guessing they'll say no.

Most Expensive Baby in China

Man fined $78,000 for second baby

BEIJING, China (AP) -- A private businessman has been fined 600,000 yuan ($78,000) for breaking China's strict one child policy, state media reported.

Xinhua News Agency said family planning officials in Anhui province handed out the fine. It did not identify the businessman or say how he broke the law.

China's family planning policy, implemented in the late 1970s, limits most urban couples to one child and rural families to two in an attempt to control population growth and conserve natural resources in the world's most populous country.

Rising incomes mean some newly rich can afford to break the rules and pay resulting fines. But last month the government said it would crack down on rich lawbreakers with bigger fines.

China has about 1.3 billion people, 20 percent of the world's total. The government has pledged to keep the population under 1.36 billion in 2010, and under 1.45 billion in 2020.

My Chinese tutor told me about this. It was making headlines because it is the most any person has paid to have a second baby. It’s not really a “fine” so much as a “fee.” You often pay the fee before the baby is born. It is completely legal to have a second child if you pay for it. The fees/fines are based on a percentage of your income. This is why my friend Xie Ping cannot have a second child even though she really wants one. I feel bad for her. I can understand wanting a second child. I mean, she has a brother, it makes sense that she would want her son to have a sibling. I wonder what the rules are on adoption?

The Latest Sentences - Hot Off the Press!

On the one hand, you are beautiful. On the other hand, you are stupid.

On the one hand, I love my boyfriend very much. On the other hand, he is very poor. So we must say good-bye.

On the one hand, it’s wonderful to have a beautiful girlfriend. On the other hand, it will cost you too much to pay for you two in the life. So it is hard bat funny to choose.

I don’t have any boyfriends on the Internet, so I am different from thousands of girls.

He wanted to build either a gambling casino or a convent.

Neither her mother nor her father wants to bring her up.

You’re boring, aren’t you?

My uncle bored us with his laugh.

Some people bored me with their scream.

It is boring that the cup is full of ants.

Don’t make any noise to bore the sleeping baby.

Neither disk is delicious.

When he makes me so boring, I always want to beat him.

The boy always gets in to trouble to bore his mother.

The Olympic Games are funny.

The psychopath bored the doctor.

Email from Lucinda

I got the sweetest letter from this student in on of my classes. Check it out:

Dear Ruty,

Thank you very much! Your explaintions about the two words are particular and easy to understand. I have taken your suggestions and corrected the letter. And I sent it to Prof. G.Dhanarajan. I beleive he will give me some reply.

You looked serious in the classroom, but actually you are extremly glad to help others and very patient. I like you!

Sincerely yours,

Lucinda

That's the sort of stuff that makes my day!

Anti-Mao Angst

BlogSpot has returned to China! And much excitement has been happening here. Check this out:

Vandal defaces giant Mao portrait

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A vandal defaced the giant portrait of China's late Chairman Mao Zedong that hangs over the Forbidden City on Saturday, prompting police to clear the area and adjacent Tiananmen Square, witnesses said.

Most of the picture was intact, but workers could be seen in a crane cleaning the lower left part of the portrait, which appeared damaged by soot after the vandal apparently hurled a burning object at it.

Police were swarming the area.

Traffic could pass by, but Tiananmen, the symbolic heart of Communist China, was temporarily cleared of the visitors that normally crowd the square on weekends and the tourist-clogged entrance to the Forbidden City was emptied.

Police later let visitors back onto the square, which remained under heavy security.

An official at the Tiananmen Administration Committee confirmed there had been an incident but said he had no details.

Calls to the Beijing city government and the local police went unanswered.

Tiananmen is considered especially sensitive since it was the site of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations that were eventually crushed by the military. The area usually swarms with plainclothes security who quickly stamp out any signs of dissent.

China's leadership brooks no challenges to its authority, and defacing Mao's portrait could meet stiff punishment.

Chinese journalist Yu Dongyue was jailed for more than 16 years for hurling eggshells filled with red paint at the Mao portrait at the height of the 1989 demonstrations.

He was mentally ill by the time he was released in February 2006.

Despite leading the country in a series of violent political movements that led to millions being purged or killed and left the economy moribund, Mao is still revered by many in China and is seen as a symbol of its strength and unity.

This article comes across as extremely pejorative and biased to me. All this smack-talking about the Chinese Communist Party and how it “brooks no challenges to its authority.” People are always harping about shit like that, what they often forget is just how much good the Communist government has done for China. Admittedly, most of the good things they have done took place after Mao died.

All the same, I really hope that whoever vandalized that portrait is safely out of the country by now because there is no power in the universe that can protect him/her should the Beijing police ever get that poor soul in custody.

Final Observation

The other thing I noticed from looking out the window was the village architecture. Almost all the villages looked the same. They had the same baked-bricks used for walls and the ceramic roof tiles on the slopping roofs in the traditional Chinese style. A lot of the villages we passed were very small, and maybe had 20 families from what we could see from the road. Other villages were larger. In villages where they could afford to have one special building, one building that was nicer or more beautifully built than any of the other buildings in the town, do you know what that building was? It wasn’t a school or a clinic or a community center. It was a mosque. At least, I think they were mosques. They had the onion-shaped dome and the crescent moon emblem on the roof. I wasn’t expecting that.

It is true that this region once belonged to a kingdom known as the Sultanate of Dali which was independent of China for a long time. There are many Muslims in this area. I do not know if the mosques I saw predate the Cultural Revolution, but they looked new enough that it wouldn’t surprise me if they were built fairly recently, now that the Communist Party is finally easing up on the practice of religion.

MySpace Down

Now MySpace is being blocked here in China. Who knows how long that will last, but at least Blogspot is currently unblocked. If China ends up blocking Livejournal, Blogspot, and MySpace, does any have any other ideas about where I can go to blog?

Local Agriculture

There were also a lot of things I noticed while gazing out the window of the bus. First, the agriculture around here is completely different from what I’m used to. They do almost everything by hand. I saw people harvesting wheat by hand! I come from one of the most productive wheat growing regions in the US, and it is all mechanized farming. I didn’t see a single combine.

You might be wondering why on earth they were harvesting wheat in May, and that I honestly cannot tell you. My knowledge of wheat is very limited. Maybe I should email Mary and get her to ask her dad.

The plots of land were small and irregularly shaped, making mechanized farming impossible. Every plot was growing something different. I recognized corn, wheat, rice and tobacco, but there was plenty of other stuff. Judging from the important role potatoes play in local cuisine, I’m guessing there were potatoes out there too. There are a lot of local vegetables I do not know by name nor would I necessarily be able to recognize them in a non-cooked form.

I’m not sure if it is possible to mechanize rice cultivation. The rice has to be transplanted, which is a delicate process, and it is hard to imagine designing a machine to do that.

Agriculture here isn’t entirely without tools, to be sure. There were plenty of ox-pulled plows and even a couple of tractors, but the majority of the work was done by hand. I even saw people doing controlled field-burns in these tiny patches all by hand. They were turning over the soil using hoes!

Seeing this left me feeling very conflicted. This area is a huge, flat floodplain. If it was all one field, you could farm it much more efficiently, get much higher crop yields, and reduce the amount of human labor necessary. It would require switching to some kind of mono-culture, and it would mean that all the land would have to be centrally owned and managed. I can think of a lot of reasons why that might not be a good idea. On the other hand, China is importing food. Increasing crop yield may be not be so much of a “good idea” as “absolutely necessary.”

Environmentally speaking, I am not sure whether the kind of farming they do in the Palouse region is better or worse than what they do out here. I really don’t know about the environmental impacts of farming here in China, but I do know about what’s happening in the Palouse. I know that they are losing topsoil every year wind and water erosion. I know that the soil is getting leached as a result of planting the same crop on the same land every year. I know that they use tons of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers every year and that this stuff is getting into our groundwater.

Using heavy machinery, when possible, probably does save time and human labor, but machines don’t come for free. They have to be built somewhere, which takes energy and resources, and human labor of another kind. Also, tractors and combines run on gasoline, and have the same associated problems. Fossil fuels are in increasing demand and decreasing supply, and the exhaust from burning gasoline does pollute the air. Machines are expensive. Gasoline will soon be expensive.

Dylan pointed out that having solar-powered farm equipment made a lot of sense since farm equipment is used outdoors and in sunny areas it would be an easily-accessible source of energy. Farming machines are also not used year-around (generally) and so a group of farmers could invest in one tractor together, or something like that. In the U.S., most farmers don’t own their own combine. They are part of farming co-operatives and they share the combine with other farmers. Combines are extremely expensive, so I understand why I didn’t see any out here, but I still don’t know how you farm without them. I mean, cutting the wheat, I watched them do that, so it’s easy to see how that’s done. But how do you separate the grain from the chaff? Do you just thrash it for a long time? Ugh! That is labor-intensive and I can’t imagine wheat is enough of a cash crop to be worth the bother.

That may explain why I saw so much more tobacco than wheat. People might be growing the wheat purely for their own consumption, while the tobacco is the cash crop that they grow to sell. It would be interesting to learn more about this.

The Return to Kunming

The bus trip back was considerably less interesting (thank goodness!). We almost missed the bus, which gave Dylan and I both a heart-attack, but it turned out ok. We bought our bus tickets through the hotel, but then the lady tried to explain to us where to pick up the bus, and neither one of us really understood what she was saying. We asked if we needed to go to the long-distance bus station, which is where we arrived the first time, and she said yes. We were running behind that morning and se we were already cutting it close when we grabbed a taxi and headed for the bus station, only to find out when we arrived there that this wasn’t the place we needed to be. We had to take another tax back to a different location to find the actual place with the bus, and though we were late, they had waited, and it turned out we weren’t even the last ones to arrive. We were pretty freaked out, though.

This time it was a regular bus, not a sleeper, and pretty classy. They had a steward as well, who went around giving everyone bottles of water and little trash bags. Early on there was a shouting match over whether or not some people were leaning their chairs too far back, but other than that it was cool. They showed two movies. The first one was the “Curse of the Golden Flower” which I had seen before and really liked, so I enjoyed watching that again. The second movie they showed near the end of the trip and it was really weird. It was a comedy making fun of a bunch of movies, some of which I knew, but a lot of which were unfamiliar to me so I missed a lot of the jokes. It was all in Chinese with no subtitles, but certain kinds of humor transcend language barriers.

Lijiang: Part IV

I suppose I could have posted everything about Lijiang all at once, but I like pacing myself.

- A piece of advice from my last trip here: when shopping, don’t get too obsessed with the fear of being ripped off. Yes this place is a bit of a tourist trap, and the goods people are selling may not be unique or original –don’t worry about it. If there is something you like and you want to buy, decide what it’s worth to you, and then begin negotiating. How much is a hand-woven scarf worth to the woman who sits in a shop making them all day? Probably not much. Is she selling them to you for more than they are worth to her? Definitely. Does this mean she is ripping you off? No. Ask yourself, how much would that same item cost back at home? Could you even get it where you come from? Thus, the scarcity factor for her is clearly different than that for you, ergo the difference in value. So don’t be pressured into spending more than you want, but remember that the handicrafts being sold here are actually much cheaper than the same items even in Kunming and are of better quality.

- Dongba papermaking. Dylan took a paper-making class back at Whitman so he had a special interest in the paper-making workshop, which is located just off of the big Sifang Square. Even if you don’t have an interest in paper-making, it’s a cool place to heck out and they sell cool stuff. No bargaining.

- Dongba script name stamps. I kind of wanted one of these, and I still do, but I ended up not getting one, which is good since we have more or less used up our money. They are super-cool and reasonably priced, and, to my knowledge, you can’t really get them anywhere else.

Overall, I had a very good time! I think we will probably return. Unlike Chengdu, I don’t feel like we’ve exhausted the place and run out of things to do. I have gained a lot from this trip. Not only have I gained some cool stuff that we bought here, and a lot of pictures that I took of local dogs, I also have one helluva story from the bus ride, and I have the confidence to buy bus tickets and take long-distance bus rides. That means a lot to me. It’s amazing what a little confidence can do for a person! Now I’ve already started thinking that Dylan and I could take a trip to Dali! After the 9 hour bus ride to Lijiang, 4 hours to Dali sounds breezy. Who knows? Maybe next time I won’t be so nervous and anti-social that I might even manage to strike up a conversation with someone maybe make a friend. Life is full of possibilities!

Lijiang: Part III

- Shopping is interesting. After wandering around the area, everything starts to look the same. Also, some of the shopkeepers can be very pushy sales-people. One way to deal with this is to only go into shops that are crowded, as this keeps the shopkeeper from focusing on you too exclusively. However, most shopkeepers understand if you tell them “Wo zhi kan kan” (I’m just looking).

- If you decided there is something you want, comparison shopping for almost everything is not only possible, but a good idea. Dylan and I decided that we wanted to buy a wood plaque, and we looked into several shops before making a purchase. Though on the surface, they may all look quite similar, as with anything handmade, there is a perceivable difference in quality which is worth looking for. There is also generally a correlating difference in price.

- Bargaining. Unless there is a sign stating otherwise, always bargain. My general practice has been to start by offering half of what they demand and then working in from there. The wood carving we bought, for example, started at 200 yuan and we got it down to 140 yuan. Dylan thinks the price may have started higher because we’re foreigners. This may be true. ON the other hand, it is quite possible that to a Naxi person, even Chinese people are perceived as outsiders, and those who travel to Lijiang for vacation are probably substantially wealthier than the Naxi who live here. Also foreign tourists (mostly the backpacker crowd) have been coming to Lijiang much longer than domestic tourists, so in a way, Western tourists are more old-school. I don’t know if that would result in a different price, but it certainly makes the situation more complex.

- A cool place to check out (and which is not listed in the Lonely Planet or marked on any of the maps) is the copper workshop. Dylan and I stumbled upon this place by accident, and I’m not sure we could find it again if we went back, but I’m very glad we did find it. The man was selling really cool stuff, all of which he made himself, and it turned out his prices were quite good. He didn’t really bargain much, because I think there were some limitations on how much he was allowed to sell. In Lijiang Old Town, there are certain houses designated for craftsmen to come and do their work for people to see, and they are paid to do this. They are allowed to sell the things they make, but I’m guessing there are certain limitations, which I think the guy tried to explain, but that I didn’t really understand.

- This leads me to my next tip: wander. Don’t spend too much time pouring over guidebooks and maps looking for specific, recommended locations. Go where your fancy takes you and you’ll probably find a lot more cool stuff. The “Lonely Planet phenomenon” is strong in areas like these. Something place gets their name into a popular guidebook, and as a result it sees an enormous increase in business. This is good, but it also causes said business to raise its prices and perhaps change its style somewhat, thus altering the reasons why it was chosen in the first place. Ergo, if you see something listed in a guidebook, chances are that no matter how recent this guidebook is, by the time you get to that place, it will have changed, and maybe not for the better.

More on Lijiang!

Here are my observations of Lijiang at the end of our stay:

- Naxi baba and Lijiang baba, two local varieties of fry bread, are not the same thing

- Both are good, but I think Naxi baba is better.

- Bring sunscreen; Dylan and I both got burned, though Dylan’s burn is worse.

- The Black Dragon Pool has a 60 yuan entry fee, not 20 yuan as listed in the Lonely Planet. This was too expensive for us so we wandered around outside the park; it was also clearly too expensive for other people as well because there were many people wandering around as we were. Personally, I think this is an example of tourism gone bad because now this beautiful park is inaccessible to locals, and the only people who can afford it are rich out-of-towners who will probably not return to the area again. They don’t have a stake in the park or keeping it beautiful or taking pride in it, and the people who do have that stake are kept out by the unconscionably high fee.

- There are only two things to do in the Lijiang Old Town: shop and eat.

- The food was not overwhelmingly impressive. Aside from the baba, there was nothing here that was new or different from what we eat in Kunming, only a lot more expensive. The Western food was rather uniformly disappointing, with the exception of the French toast at the Prague Café. I don’t like French toast so I didn’t try any, thus I cannot speak from personal experience, but Dylan thought it was excellent.

- The apple pie at the Prague Café was terrible

- The Well Bistro, which was listed in the Lonely Planet as having tasty desserts had no such thing. I tried the chocolate cake, which was dry, full of nuts, and not chocolaty. Dylan got the cheesecake which was also no good. It was too cheesy, if you understand my meaning.

- Overall, the food was expensive.

The Journey to Lijiang!

The bus ride was a bit more exciting than I would have liked. Like I said, this was a 9 hour bus ride, and somehow Dylan and I managed to get on a sleeper bus even though we weren’t going to be riding over night. This meant that instead of a seat, we got a bunk, which was much more comfortable. I think if they made sleeper airplanes, they would be a hit! You can stretch out your legs, relax, look out the window, and just chill.

The bus was full. Before we left the station, a woman wearing a red banner draped across her like Miss America came in and checked that everyone had tickets. It was a fairly examination, but that was it. Dylan wasn’t on the bus at the time, he was off buying Oreos, but I had two tickets, and the lady checked them both off. I was a little bit nervous but she didn’t ask any questions, like why one person would need two bus tickets.

As it turned out, there were two bus drivers and they took turns.

About 4 to 5 hours into the drive, the bus driver who wasn’t on duty (and who made a total ass of himself by the end of the ride) came to harass the man sitting directly in front of me. The man was traveling with his wife and daughter. The girl was about 5 years old, and they hadn’t bought a ticket for her since she just shared a bunk with her father. Apparently the asshole bus drier had a problem with that. I couldn’t follow everything but he sat on the bunk where the mother was sleeping and seemed to act as though she wasn’t there. He only ever addressed the father, and he did so in very loud and angry tones. The driver seemed to be demanding money from the father on account of the child. Why he hadn’t brought up any objection back at the station is unclear. All I could tell was that they were arguing about the child.

Eventually, the father (who had kept his voice down the whole time even though the driver was shouting and gesturing in a most expansive fashion) tried to give some money to the irate driver. The driver jerked away from the money as though he were being offered a poisonous substance. I saw the father increase the amount of money he offered, and soon the bus driver returned to his seat at the front of the bus in the co-pilot position. I didn’t see him take the money, but I’m guessing that he did.

I don’t see why the jerk cared. The little girl wasn’t bothering anyone. Maybe he was just trying to get some money out of the father (who probably didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of his wife and child) or maybe the guy was just bruising for a fight. Based on later events, I think this latter analysis might actually have something to it.

Eight hours into the trip, the “on” driver pulls over, and stops the bus. Both bus drivers go the back of the bus and confront a man there with having not bought a ticket. Again, why they didn’t check on this back in Kunming remains a mystery. I couldn’t follow all of what they were shouting back and forth, but it wasn’t very complex. At one point, something was said that triggered several people located back there to get up and move to the front of the bus. Shortly thereafter, both bus drivers grabbed the angry man and tried to pull him off the bus. The man resisted, but eventually the two bus drivers were able to overpower him and get him off the bus.

The woman he had been next to followed them outside. The two bus drivers were swinging wild punches, and the angry man was swinging back. The woman was getting in between the bus drivers and the man and trying to push them away. As far as I saw, neither one of them made a swing at her or pushed her. I guess they didn’t see her as a threat. They just kept going after the man they thought was a stow-away. Finally, the woman pulled out a wad of cash and started handing bills to one of the drivers. I guess they must have eventually concluded that they had received enough money, and then everyone (including the angry man) came back on the bus. The angry man was still angry and as he walked behind the woman he pushed her several times. She didn’t register a complaint. Maybe she was aware that in other hand he was carrying a large rock. I don’t know if the bus drivers were aware of this.

Everyone got seated and the bus started moving again. We had gone for two minutes when Mr. Angry-Man-With-Rock stood up and stalked to the front of the bus. The woman called after him to come back, but he ignored her. He demanded from the “off” bus driver (the asshole who harassed the father in the first episode) that since he had paid, the driver should give him a ticket. The driver wrote something on a piece of paper, and Mr. Rock went back. But he still was not satisfied, and he walked up to the front of the bus at least two more times demanding something. All I ever saw was the paper, no money or any other object traded hands. At one point, Mr. Angry brought his pet rock with him, and other people on the bus started to freak. I couldn’t really see, but I think he threatened the man currently driving the bus and then a lot of people screamed, and the bus driver pulled over. Whatever the problem was, it seemed to be resolved at last, and the man returned to his bunk for what was left of the trip.

We finally arrived in Lijiang.

I must say I was rather traumatized by the whole thing. Dylan was on a top bunk, so he managed to miss most of it. I haven’t witnessed many physical confrontations, but based on this experience, I’ll be happy never to witness one again. It was really scary.

A Planet! A Planet Like Earth!

Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet

There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is learned about it. But as galaxies go, it's practically a neighbor. At only 120 trillion miles away, the red dwarf star that this planet circles is one of the 100 closest to Earth.

What they revealed is a planet circling the red dwarf star, Gliese 581. Red dwarfs are low-energy, tiny stars that give off dim red light and last longer than stars like our sun. Until a few years ago, astronomers didn't consider these stars as possible hosts of planets that might sustain life.

The discovery of the new planet, named 581 c, is sure to fuel studies of planets circling similar dim stars. About 80 percent of the stars near Earth are red dwarfs.

The new planet is about five times heavier than Earth, and gravity there would be 1.6 times as strong as Earth's. Its discoverers aren't certain if it is rocky like Earth or if its a frozen ice ball with liquid water on the surface. If it is rocky like Earth, which is what the prevailing theory proposes, it has a diameter about 11/2 times bigger than our planet. If it is an iceball, as Mayor suggests, it would be even bigger.

Based on theory, 581 c should have an atmosphere, but what's in that atmosphere is still a mystery and if it's too thick that could make the planet's surface temperature too hot, Mayor said.

However, the research team believes the average temperature to be somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees and that set off celebrations among astronomers.

Until now, all 220 planets astronomers have found outside our solar system have had the "Goldilocks problem." They've been too hot, too cold or just plain too big and gaseous, like uninhabitable Jupiter.

The new planet seems just right -- or at least that's what scientists think.

Look out! It's a pregnant cow!

Pregnant cow runs riot across city

HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) -- A pregnant cow being chased by police and fire fighters caused 25,000 euros ($33,900) of damage on a three-hour rampage through the German city of Hanover.

Uschi escaped from a farm late on Monday and became increasingly violent as she encountered shocked drivers and pedestrians in the city.

Pursued by the farmer, television camera crews and 30 police and fire fighters, the Charolais cow lashed out at cars, benches, garden fences and whatever else got in her way during the 5-km chase, authorities said.

After more than three hours on the loose, Uschi was brought down by tranquilizer darts, without harming her unborn calf, fire services spokesman Martin Argendorf said on Tuesday.

"She probably won't remember any of it when she wakes up again. But the farmer will, because he's going to have to pay damages of about 25,000 euros," he said.

Poor cow. I hear that being pregnant makes you crazy. Or maybe the cow was just crazy anyway. Or maybe the poor gal was fine until a bunch of people started chasing her!

For Lisa Volkening

Arrrrr, maties -- Pyratecon hits New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- The costumed pirate wore a plumed hat and held a squat bottle labeled "rum" in his hand. Inside the bottle, dark liquid sloshed and fizzed.

"It's Coke. I didn't think rum would be appropriate at a school," said Capt. Arrrghdee (pronounced R.D., with "emphasis on the arrrrrrr"), otherwise known as Richard Reid of Deer Park, Texas.

He's among at least 750 people attending "Pyratecon," a New Orleans weekend of piratical dress-up and lore. The weekend gathering also includes good deeds, such as giving supplies to a school re-emerging from Hurricane Katrina.

Pirates are hot these days, thanks in part to Johnny Depp and "Pirates of the Caribbean." But pirates have had a place in popular culture at least since Captain Charles Johnson (or was it Daniel Defoe?) published "A General History of the Robberies and Murders Of the most Notorious Pyrates" in 1724.

Mark Heimann, a potter from Estacada, Oregon, said he began decorating wares with skull and crossbones motifs a year or two ago, and his earnings from "Quicksilver's Pirate Pots" now about equal the rest of his sales.

Pyratecon, billed as the first indoor pirate convention anywhere, is at least triple the size originally envisioned by lead organizer Rudy Arceo, a sheriff's deputy in New Orleans.

"We were trying to do a little conference, a couple hundred people. But the word spread throughout the country," through reenactment groups and pirate-themed Web sites, he said.

Whitney Fernandez, working a Barnes & Noble table at the meeting, estimated she had 90 pirate-themed books, CDs, DVDs and games to sell. The books ranged from a picture book titled "Pirate Girl" to a biography of Pierre and Jean Lafitte, who sold slaves from captured ships in the Barataria swamps near New Orleans.

George Choundas, a corporate attorney and former FBI agent in New York, said he used 20 films, 13 television episodes, an amusement park attraction and 41 books to glean the words and phrases he incorporated into his new book, "The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers & Rogues."

His pronunciation guides, sometimes longer than the phrases themselves, lean heavily on the dialect popularized as pirate talk by Robert Newton, who played Long John Silver in the 1950s movie of Treasure Island and left "arrr" as part of his legacy.

Pyratecon participants are quick to say they have no sympathy with the real, modern pirates responsible for hundreds of attacks each year on ships around the world.

The focus here is on swashbucklers, who had some admirable traits, Goren said: They elected their captains and women and people of all colors could join them.

I have respect for pirates. As we all should.

Gun Control

After the terrible shooting at VA Tech, many people are starting to think that maybe the U.S. needs to enact tougher gun control laws. By “many people” I mostly mean people outside the United States since Americans at large, and American politicians especially, have shown no real interest in making guns less available to the general population. The fact that there is a mountain of evidence showing that “unsuitable people” (read: crazy and/or criminal) are acquiring weapons in large quantities, and inflicting serious damage with them, does not seem to trouble most people.

To be entirely honest, it doesn’t really trouble me. One of the main problems with the lax gun laws in America is the almost pathetic regulation of the gun industry. The guns that are produced and sold in the US are often of shoddy quality, likely to lock up on you when you try to shoot them at something, and then misfire when you aren’t trying to shoot anything at all. People are remarkably likely to be injured by their own guns, which really shouldn’t be the case. And that is the thing that has bothered me the most. I sort of assume that if a person is determined to get a gun, he or she will do so no matter what laws are in place.

However, there is a factor I did not take into consideration. It seems only fair that lame gun laws in the US should cause a high rate of gun-related crime and violence in our country, but it seems that our cavalier attitude towards gun safety has a very negative affect on the world at large, and this I cannot abide. Check out these statistics:

Mexican authorities reported that 80 percent of guns in the country came from the U.S., 50 percent of handguns seized by Canada's gun crime task force were also smuggled across the U.S. border and 30 percent of guns recovered by Japanese authorities originated in the U.S., the IANSA found. (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/17/gun.epidemic/index.html)

For me, this information really changes things. As much as I savor the image of stupid-ass rednecks shooting themselves in the foot with weapons they are truly too incompetent to operate, allowing that sort of Darwinian approach to guns really isn’t fair to those countries trying to keep their citizens alive as best as they can. Poor Mexico! They send us their hardest working sons and daughters, and in exchange get crates of death-inflicting appliances. And how the hell did so many American-made guns make it to Japan?! Japan has very strict gun laws, but I guess the Yakuza has got to be using something.

Kittehs of Walla Walla

My Dad Sent Me This One

Walla Walla tries to get cat problem back in bag

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Unfixed felines are banned from prowling outdoors here under a kitty curfew aimed at curbing the feral cat population.

The curfew, enacted last month by the City Council, applies to cats 4 months and older. It also prohibits leaving pet food outdoors overnight.

Violators can be fined up to $500, and three citations could lead to a larger fine or even jail time, City Attorney Tim Donaldson said. The city's animal control officer also can seize at-large cats, he said.

While not ideal, the new rules are "baby steps in the right direction when it comes to responsibly dealing with the problem," said Sara Archer, executive director of the Blue Mountain Humane Society.

Officials aren't sure of the exact number of feral cats in the Walla Walla area, but colonies of 60 to 70 in the city probably are not spayed or neutered, Donaldson told the Tri-City Herald.

Some other U.S. cities have enacted cat confinement rules, leash laws, or spay-and-neuter ordinances, according to the Cat Fanciers' Association, the world's largest registry of pedigreed cats.

California lawmakers also have considered a bill that would ban anyone from owning or possessing an unfixed dog or cat older than 4 months, unless the owner has a permit from a local government.

Archer said she hopes Walla Walla eventually will develop a program to trap, neuter, spay and possibly vaccinate feral cats.

Such a program, which she said has growing support nationwide, works because spayed or neutered feral cats will prevent unfixed cats from moving into their territory, Archer said.

That approach would quickly help reduce the number of roaming cats in Walla Walla, said Kate Sullivan, president of the nonprofit Save Wonderful Animals Team.

A similar program has worked across the state border in Milton-Freewater, Ore., said Lyla Lampson with Pets of Milton-Freewater.

The group started a sterilize-and-release program in Milton-Freewater in 2003, and it gets about 600 feral cats spayed and neutered each year, she said.

"Within a year, the police were already telling us that the nuisance calls for cats had much improved," Lampson said. "Now they say cats are not even on the radar screen."

Grrrrrrrrrr!!!

Somehow, I’m just not reaching people. Today in my first class, I had 4 students come up and tell me that their assignment shouldn’t count as plagiarized because they hadn’t copied the sentences. Instead, they had simply memorized them. You see, if you memorize something, then it is in your head, and you didn’t copy.

I tried to explain that the purpose of the assignment was to get practice writing in English, but I’m really not sure any of that got through. I just don’t know where the communication broke down. They would respond with things like, “this was a very good sentence, that’s why I wrote it,” and I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. I said something to the effect of, “I don’t care if it is a good sentence or not. It is more important to me that you write your own sentences,” but that seemed to leave them confused. I seem to be running counter some kind of current in Chinese education that is so deeply instilled in my students that they are having trouble comprehending the alternative.

What really made me angry was the way the students crept up on me with their scared, puppy-dog eyes trying to say, “please, teacher, I can’t fail this class!” I almost expected them to say, “My mommy will be so mad at me if I fail!” Honestly! These people are at least 24 years old, they are adults, they are responsible for their own lives and their own education and they should act the part!

You know, there are a lot of bad things about the U.S. We have high rates of alcoholism, child abuse, drug abuse, violence, organized crime, not organized crime, a sky-high murder rate and divorce rate, our prisons are packed, guns are easy to get, people get shot by accident, we don’t have universal health care, Medicare and Medicaid suck, social security doesn’t really provide any kind of security, etc. But I’ll see this for the good ol’ U.S. of A., our lifestyle may be violent, disorganized, unsafe, and without any social safety nets, but our adults act like fucking adults!

Sometimes I get the feeling Chinese people remain perma-children their whole lives. They live with their parents until the parents die, and with people popping out children at the age of 26 or younger, and life spans increasing, that means you could spend a solid sixty years under the aegis of your mummy. I’m not sure that’s the kind of environment that fosters independent thought and action – or individual responsibility.

Relationships

Sometimes I can’t decide which bothers me worse: seeing skeezy white men come to China to pick up “hot Asian chicks,” or listening to my foreigner friends say in hushed tones, “Well, I’d never date a Chinese person.” Both Shoshannah and Collin have made the latter statement to me. Shoshannah was more blunt about it. “I’m not in to the ‘yellow fever,’” she said, “I just don’t find Chinese guys hot.”
Just as a point of order, there are 1.3 billion people living in China. In the Chinese diaspora, there are probably several million more. That means that total world population of Chinese people, or people of Chinese decent, may be close 2 billion. How can anyone generalize over such an enormous population? Beyond the logical problems with her argument, is the underlying racism which I find offensive in the extreme. Why did she come to China if she has such a racist attitude toward Chinese people?
Collin bothers me somewhat more. I was having a chat with him in which he talked about how happy and comfortable he is being single. Then he said that he hasn’t met anyone here in China who he really wants to date.

“There are a billion people in this country!” I laughed, “You’ve got endless choices!”

“Ah, yes,” he said, his voice growing quieter, “But you see, I don’t want to date a Chinese person.”

Why not? I didn’t ask the question and I didn’t push the issue because it didn’t seem tactful at the time, but it bothered me. I can understand not being comfortable dating someone if they do not speak your language. Talking is an important part of dating, so if you can’t talk to someone very easily it would be hard to date. But there are plenty of people in China with excellent English, and they are easy to find since they are always hanging out with foreigners. And that’s not what Collin said. He implied it was a person’s nationality, not their language skills, that ruled them out as potential dates.
I wonder what it’s like on the other side? Are there Chinese people out there who specifically seek out foreigners to date because of the exotic appeal? Similarly are there people who are utterly repulsed by the idea of dating a waiguo ren? Oddly enough, neither of these ideas offend me at all. When it’s a skeezy white guy picking up young Chinese girls, it’s disgusting.
Also it makes sense to me that a Chinese person, who spent their entire lives in China, lived only among Chinese people, and entirely within a Chinese cultural milieu, would naturally desire a Chinese partner, and it would never occur to them to seek out a foreigner for romance. But if an American were to say to me, “I would never date anyone who wasn’t the same race as me,” I would say, “So you’re a bigot then?”
What does this double standard say about me? Is it a double standard? Is it wrong to assume that in a white/non-white relationship, the white person is being exploitative?

Grading Woes

Today I handed back my first assignments, which means the first group of plagiarizers was informed that they had been caught and were being punished accordingly. I got some weird excuses, but I generally always do.

First, someone told me that she didn’t think it was plagiarism if you copied from a book or other source, only if you copied off of a fellow student. I informed her that this was incorrect. Another student told me that she just thought it was a really good sentence. Actually, two students told me that the sentence they copied was just “really good” so that’s why they wrote it down. I tried to communicate that what was most important to me was that they did their own work, not that what they wrote was particularly good or interesting. I am not sure how much of that got through.

One of the students asked if she could make up the assignment, and I said no. Philosophically, I am not opposed to the idea of making up assignments, but logistically, it would be difficult to keep track of such things. Also, I feel that if a person failed the assignment on account of plagiarism and was allowed to make it up, then students who just made mistakes should be allowed to make it up, too. This would create a mountain of grading and papers from all sorts of sources, and over all it would make it very difficult for me to keep track of anything. So, this is something I am going to try to make clear in my syllabus next year: no copying, and no making up assignments. We’ll see how that goes.

Correspondents Hall of Fame

I have been blessed with friends and family who send Dylan and me letters and packages here in China. Here is an honor roll of all those who have made such wonderful use of the postal system:

#1 – The Brady Family

The Bradys have sent us more letters and packages than anyone else! Yay for Bradys!

#2 – The Wherland Family

Yes, my family has sent us a lot of stuff, too. Our most recent package from my parents included not one but two bags of M&Ms! I am hoping to get another package from them soon when my mother works out some trouble with one of my prescriptions.

#3 – Katie Innes

Way to go Katie! Along with 4 letters, Katie also sent me a totally awesome Halloween package, complete with candy corn! Everyone loves candy corn!!

#4 – Emily Schnipper and Lisa Volkening

Both of these lovely ladies have sent me three pieces of mail! Thank you Emily for the awesome Japanese stationary, and thank you Lisa for the totally cool postcards! Lisa also sent me a package that unfortunately never arrived. I really don’t understand the postal system in this part of the world.

#5 – Karen Young

My wonderful acupuncturist from Moscow has sent me two lovely letters that have given me much food for thought. Thank you Karen!

#6 – Mary Fellman, Michelle Mehlman, Amanda Culley, Robin Klavatsky and Peter Schaefer

Each one of these lovely individuals has sent me a letter here in China, which has brightened my day and made me feel closer to home. Thank you to all five of you awesome homies!

Japan is a place where strange things happen

. . . if you can believe CNN.com. And I’m not really saying that you should, it was just a remark.

Check this one out:

Woman dead in bath full of sand

(good title!)

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- The body of a young British teacher has been found in a bathtub full of sand on an apartment balcony near Tokyo, Japanese police said on Tuesday.

Police in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo, identified the body as that of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, who worked at a language school, a police spokesman said. Her body was found late on Monday.

"The bathtub was left out on the balcony and the (corpse) was left there in the bathtub," chief investigator Yoshihiro Sugita told reporters.

"Furthermore, the corpse was covered with dirt as if to hide it," he added.

A 28-year-old Japanese man who lived in the apartment fled when police arrived. Domestic media said the man was known to the victim.

A British woman who lived with Hawker was reported to have called the police on Monday afternoon to tell them the woman had not come home.

"We can confirm that a British national is missing -- an English teacher -- and as you know the Japanese police have discovered a body," a British Embassy spokesman said. "Beyond that we cannot comment."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/27/japan.murder.reut/index.html

The poor woman was my age. She was probably on the JET program or some other teaching English in Japan program that she thought would lead to an awesome time to travel and do fun stuff. Instead she ended up in a bathtub full of sand. Weird.

Dylan actually had a bit of a take on this. Apparently there is a very popular manga series called Naruto that involves a villain who carries around a bag of sand. This sand is the spiritual embodiment of his dead mother, and she goes around killing people from the vantage point of said sand. He is suggesting that perhaps some kinky, role-based sex play got out of control, and she ended up suffocated by their prop. I’ll have to keep an eye on this story.

Dylan does have a point. If the British people who go to teach English in Japan are anything like their American counterparts, then they are a group of under-socialized, manga and anime fanatics who somehow manage to develop crushes on cartoon characters and think that’s normal. This would be the sort of thing such-a-ones would go for. Alas, I hope it is something as innocent as all that, and not some crazed serial killer who targets foreign women. I can’t imagine the Tokyo police are too thrilled about this.

The Passions of Men and Women

Blogspot seems wonderfully designed for longer posts, so forgive me while I indulge.

In the past week or so, some excellent drama has been stirred up between my German friend Silke and her not-exactly-a-boyfriend Collin, an American economist from Chicago. "Excellent drama" is of course defined by the characteristic that it "is not happening to me."

Please enjoy!

It all started when he came on to her, she says. They started dating, but then he said they had to end it. “You’re too young for me; you’ll only end up getting hurt!” she said he said. But they kept hooking up, kept falling into bed together, kept having sex, they did it all. Is that the part that matters?

She said he said he didn’t want them to hook up anymore, that he only liked her as a friend, and the whole time he was saying this, he was holding her hands and kissing her.

Circumstances heated up! First it was Silke's anorexic roommate that was causing damage all around, and then Silke's uncle acquired cancer, and she turned to Collin for comfort. Then Collin's grandmother died, and before he could blink he was on a plane to Denmark to attend a funeral. Silke was there for him all the way, she says. They were closer than ever before.

This was at the end of November. In the middle of December Silke went back to Germany for Christmas. She returned to Kunming at the end of Jauary. Apparently that was enough time for Collin to get lonely . . .

They went to Thailand together (it was a bad idea). They never had sex, just cuddling in the hammock and skinny dipping. Shoshannah was there. When she returned, she said she was sick of Silke’s drama and sick of Collin’s bitching. She didn’t say any more.

Collin told Silke he was seeing another woman, and had been seeing her for awhile. Her name is Nele, she is from Belgium.

Silke fled to Shanghai with her heart broken. She told Collin they were no longer friends and that she didn’t want to see him ever again. He sent her an email.

When she returned from her trip, nothing had healed. Their chance encounters were not friendly.

Then one night, Silke and Nele met at a party, and they sat down and talked and compared notes. They agreed that it was time for Collin to go down.

The next day, Collin in the lobby of our apartment building. Nele came in. We were all meeting and greeting, her eyes were red-rimmed and she looked tired, she looked like she’d been crying. After a few moments of pleasant chatter, she turned abruptly to Collin and said, “We have to talk.” The two of them went upstairs together.

Dylan and I went for food. We came back to find Silke and Lisa in the lobby chatting. Silke didn’t have much time; she was in a hurry. “Where are you going?” “To Collin’s room.” “But Nele is there!” “I know.” “You have to tell me everything.” “I will,” with a wink over her shoulder she was gone.

I started feeling sorry for the guy. Dylan said, “He’s brought this on himself.” We went away; we came back. I got a phone call from Silke. The whole thing didn’t go so well. Maybe it went well, maybe it’s hard to say. The two women ganged-up on him, he was cornered, threatened, and he lashed out. He said some things, some nasty things, he threw Silke out of his room. Nele went with her.

Silke poured the whole story out to me – I was on the phone for an hour and a half. I had a headache when it was done. She said, “Tell everyone.”

Dylan and I went out to dinner with Lisa. I mentioned it to Lisa, but she wasn’t interested. Not her business, not really even her friends. We passed Shoshannah, I mentioned it. She got tight-lipped, and grimaced. We parted company.

Never have I heard Collin’s side of this story. It's possible I never will.

Collin heard from Shoshannah that there was smack being spoken. In his anger, he sent two nasty emails to Silke, she forwarded them to me.

Feeling guilty, Dylan and I emailed Collin to apologize for talking about his private business, somehow that seemd to cool things off.

And now Collin and Nele are "toghether"? Are they? Collin says he's single, Nele's talking about a "distance relationship" after she returns to Beligium in July.

So glad this isn't happening to me!

Names My Students Have Chosen

Here is a list of all the odd English names my students have chosen, both from this year and last year:

Tea

Sophiye

Bertha

Apple (3)

Ahua

Dark Schneider

Mahone

Youngker

Justine Quin

Merry

Peach

Soar

Alaska

Cloudy

Friday

Golden

Bosi

Tity

Jaciker

Livy

Eming

Pisces

Caesar

Xanthe

Lock

Mashell

Elva

Aimee

Sissi

Sucan

Bad Boy

Mills

Peak

Sweet Li

Puresky

Carnations

Reagan

Icey

Jojo

Having three students named "Apple" this semester is interesting, but they are all in different classes so that shouldn't be difficult to sort out. Dylan thinks the prevalence of Apples has to do with Gwnyth Paltrow and her baby, but it could just be a name that sounds cool to Chinese people. I notice that nobody took the name "Carrot" or "Celery" but it wouldn't surprise me if I did stumble upon suchaone at some point. Dylan had a student once named "Popeye". It was a girl.

Sick

I am sick. On Wednesday morning I woke up with a sore throat, and by evening I had a fever and body aches and was coughing. I decided to post-pone any travel planning until I am healthy enough to follow through with any resultant plans. It might be awhile.

On the bright side, I am not going to go to work tomorrow to teach English to small children. I like working with kids, but it is amazing how much harder 8 five-year-olds are to control than 50 Master's Degree candidates. Also, it doesn't help that my Chinese is poo.

No more news from Israel. My dad sent me an email that very pointedly made no mention of the situation at all, and I'm just going to give up on that front. He probably doesn't know much and thus has nothing to say.

Hope you all are doing well!

The Drama Continues . . .

Here is the news in email form!

From Sharon to me:

I did it!

After I talked to you I bought tickets. I fly out tuesday morning and get to Israel early wednesday. I feel like I'm going crazy right now canceling my life and putting up an art show, getting my passport back, packing my room, aaaaa

I feel really good about it. I will be in israel until April 5 then new york for a week.

more soon. Haven't been able to get a hold of aba yet.

sharon

From my father to me:

Ruty,

Please do not consider going to Israel. There is nothing that you can do there. Savta is being taken care of by the people in the nursing area of the Beth Avod. Ima says that she sleeps most of the time. You have responsibilities where you are. Savta remembers your visits and your letters. You could send her a letter about things you are doing, and Ima could read it to her. She is scheduled to come back the weekend of the 24^th. I am at work so I do not have the exact itinerary.

I just spoke to Sharon and she insists on going and has bought her ticket for Tuesday. She was able to rearrange her work and stop in New York on the way back. I tried to talk her out of it, but she insists. It will also do her good to get out of Guatemala for a while. In New York she will stay with Merriam.

Daddy

From me to my father:

Dear Daddy,

I am struggling with at the moment is what feels like a lack of information. I can only make good decisions if I have good information, and the information I am getting right now is spotty at best. Sharon told me that she heard from Ima that Savta has been asking when I will be there. For me, this is a very compelling reason to go to Israel. My plan is to go for no more than a week. It is written in my contract that I can take time off for family emergencies, and not only have several of my friends volunteered to cover my classes, the university is also very willing to let teachers make up classes when needed.

My idea in going to Israel is not that I can somehow magically cure the situation and make everything better. I am no doctor, oncologist or geriatric specialist, I am going there because it is where I want to be.

If you have any further information related to the situation that may influence my decision, I would be very interested to hear it. Otherwise, I will be meeting with a travel agent today to look at my flight options.

Ruty

From Mr. Ma, the travel agent:

Dear Ruty,

Further to your phone call last Saturday,this is what we may find for your one week trip to Tel Aviv and back:

OPTION ONE (via Bangkok)

14Mar(Wed) MU 741 Kunming-Bangkok [0805-0915]

14Mar(Wed) LY 086 Bangkok-Tel Aviv [1600-2245]

21Mar(Wed) LY 081 Tel Aviv-Bangkok [2210-1405+1]

22Mar(Thu) MU 742 Bangkok-Kunming [1015-1325]

at RMB 9140.00 yuan per seat eco class (applicable airport taxes and fuel surcharge incl.)

OPTION TWO (via Hong Kong)

14Mar(Wed) MU 733 Kunming-Hong Kong [0900-1110]

14Mar(Wed) LY 076 Hong Kong-Tel Aviv [1600-2215]

21Mar(Wed) LY 075 Tel Aviv-Hong Kong [2125-1415]

22Mar(Thu) MU 734 Hong Kong-Kunming [1210-1435]

at RMB 11560.00 yuan per seat eco class (applicable airport taxes and fuel surcharge incl.)

Please note you will have to stay one night in Hong Kong on the return trip if you take option two.

And for me to proceed booking of your flights,please kindly advise your passport details (full names as shown on passport,date of birth,nationality,and passport numbers).

with best regards

Xiaowei

I spoke to my mother on the phone yesterday and she is still firmly committed to the idea of me not coming to Israel. She said that it is depressing and that she would rather I remembered my grandmother as she was before this. She has moments of lucidity when she recognizes people and moments when she does not. Between the pain meds, the anti-nausea meds, and the cancer itself, she is pretty out of it.

I told my mother that I heard heard that my grandmother was asking for me to come visit, and she replied, "So? She always wants you to visit" and then she added a phrase in Hebrew "lo shayach" which roughly translates as "it does not contribute." Basically, it doesn't matter what my grandmother wants. Odd.

Sharon should be in Israel by now, so I am going to take Sheri's advice and check in. Israel is only six hours behind, so they should be awake soon . . .