LeahAndMark.com

I’ve been letting Mark do most of the posting since he’s also using the computer for work. But! I have a lot to say, too! So, we have some time while we’re in Lijiang waiting for our 3:00 appointment with China Construction Bank, and I’m ready to do some posting.

You might be wondering why we have an appointment with China Construction Bank. Well, Bank of America has some kind of partnership with CCB whereby BoA customers (me and Mark), don’t get charged a $5.00 fee for withdrawing Chinese money from Chinese ATMs. But only CCB ATMs. So we’ve made a huge Where’s Waldo type game of finding the CCB ATMs in all the cities we visit. Sometimes we are successful, sometimes we are not. And sometimes we succeed in finding one only to have our card rejected for an unknown reason. And then, sometimes…well, actually only once so far… sometimes the China Construction Bank ATM machine decides American cards are so very tasty and it EATS them.

When my ATM card got eaten this morning, I was not a happy camper. I kicked that CCB machine and cursed my bad luck. But fortunately we are back at Mama’s Naxi Guesthouse and Mama and Baba came to the rescue. Baba walked me to the big main CCB branch in the new part of Lijiang, and I think he got things straightened out. We’re supposed to go back at 3:00 and I will show them my passport and they will, hopefully, give me my card. *Fingers crossed*

Tonight we fly to Chengdu, home of spicy Sichuan food and the Panda Bear Research Center! We spent the past day and a half in the absolutely gorgeous Tiger Leaping Gorge. What a beautiful place…about 2.5 hours north of Lijiang, and 2 hours south of Shangri-la. So we stopped there on our way back to Lijiang and we hiked for a couple hours on Wednesday, spent the night at the Naxi Family Guesthouse with awesome mountain views, and then hiked a few more hours on Thursday before heading back to Lijiang via the bus/taxi stop in Qiaotou.

If you come to China and want to see the gorge, your first stop should most definitely be the Gorged Tiger Cafe in Qiaotou. Run by Margo, and Australian lady armed with an incredible wealth of knowledge about the gorge and all the options for trekking, sleeping, eating, etc., a visit here will be invaluable before heading into TLG territory.

Pictures don’t do it justice, but the gorge was indeed impressive and we wished we could stay longer. Alas, our time in China is too-quickly coming to a close- we have today in Lijiang, a few days in Chengdu, and a few days in Beijing before returning home. And then I’ll have way more to post! All the stories and reflections are easier to write when I’m in a quiet place and not distracted by all of China around me. Mark is better at focusing than I am…. so be patient, my friends! We also have 3,000 pictures to sift through…and a fast internet connection will enable much more media on this site. For now, China calls and I just can’t ignore it for very long. Zai jian!

Yunnan province has many different minority groups, and Lijiang is home to several, but primarily to the Naxi people. The Naxis are ethnically Tibetan, speak their own Naxi language and use a pictograph writing system- the oldest still in use, in fact. They are a matriarchal society, whereby the women inherit all property, can have multiple lovers, and are responsible for supporting their children, moreso than the fathers.

We’re at Mama Naxi’s guesthouse and have been lucky to experience Naxi hospitality and nurturing. Mama, who fills the main building (Bldg 3) with her loud voice and great food, has been awesome at scoring us the cheapest plane tickets ever, as well as arranging our transport to Shangri-la/Zhongdian today. She cooked a 7-course meal last night and we all sat around stuffing ourselves silly. And it only cost 10 yuan- that same meal would have cost over 100 at a restaurant! And it was so great. Picture!!

That was taken before the last dish came out. It was broccoli, wok-fried and flavorful.

Baba lives at the the building we’re staying in. He’s a much quieter, meeker, but just as hospitable, version of Mama. So, if you ever come to Lijiang, Mark and I absolutely recommend this guesthouse. But do try to get a private bathroom- the shared bathrooms aren’t very nice. That’s really my only complaint. Everything else has been wonderful here- great food, our laundry was done super-fast and cheap, all our travel arrangements were made in like 10 seconds and for a much cheaper price than I had budgeted, our room was even way cheaper than we had anticipated. It’s just been a great experience here!

Whew!  Leah here.  It’s crazy how a few short days without internet leaves me feeling totally out of touch with the rest of the world.  But we’re here in a Guilin until 1:00 today when we leave for the airport to fly to Lijiang by way of Kunming.  Hopefully the tickets actually are booked….getting them took way too long!  Avoid the China Souther Airlines counters in Yangshuo, people.  Head to Robert’s TravelWorld booth instead!

So, Yangshuo has definitely been overrun by tourists, but the villages surrounding the area are full of amazing scenery and very friendly farmer folks who still plow the fields with water buffalo.  There is a lot of development going on, though, and it’s starting to encroach on the farmer’s land.  One thing I liked about the Giggling Tree was that they employ locals, buy as much food and whatnot from the locals, etc., to support the village as much as possible.  The guesthouse has just 20 beds, so it can’t ever get as packed with tourists as the nearby hotels that cater to insanely large groups.  Being in Yangshuo was a big wake-up call as to my responsibility as a traveler, because tourists can have such an impact, and definitely not always a positive one, on the places they visit.

Mark has already talked about all the super awesome people we’re met, and I’d just like to second that.  Staying in hostels makes it that much easier to meet people, too.  The staff members have great suggestions of things to do, they’re so friendly, and the hostel guests are great, as well.  At least at the places we’ve been to thus far.  I love hearing about people’s lives, where and why they’re traveling, etc.

I’m so glad that Mark is enjoying his first trip abroad, not that I was ever really worried that he wouldn’t.  I used to like traveling by myself, but getting to travel with my best friend is even better!  Especially since he’s up for whatever.  And he has an awesome sense of direction that comes in handy when I get all turned around.

This was a funny restaurant…we sat on little tiny stools at a little tiny table.

Okay, I’m off to wander the streets in search of breakfast.  I think I’ll make Mark do all the talking, though.  Haha.  He needs to practice speaking Mandarin.  Tonight- we head to Yunnan province for more adventures!

Pengyou = Friend, and yesterday was a friend-filled day.  First we went to the Dirt Market, Panjiayuan.  This place is only open on weekends and it is packed full of vendors, shoppers, and pretty much any Chinese art, souvenir, antique, etc. you could ever hope to find.  Some people get uncomfortable with the constant shouts of “Look here, I give you good price!” and by the sheer notion of having to haggle.  But these are people who have not yet discovered the pure joy of a truly great bargaining session.  So, here’s a lesson in Chinese Bargaining 101:

1. Learn the numbers.  Yes, the vendors have calculators.  You can use that, as well, for emphasis or to cover up your crappy pronunciation.  But you need to understand what they are saying, and you need to at least attempt to speak.  Always say your offer out loud FIRST, then show them on the calculator.

2. Learn these basic Chinese phrases:  “Tai gui le!”  (Too expensive!)  “Wo bu keyi”  (I can’t!)  “Qing gei wo pianyidianr”  (Please give me cheaper.)  Use these phrases each time they state their price, and be as animated as possible.  But in a lighthearted manner, never serious or angry.  This is supposed to be fun, remember.

3. If you, like me, are blessed with a youthful appearance, you can also use this phrase, which almost always brings the price down about 1/3 more than the vendor would regularly offer: “Wo shi xuesheng, wo meiyou qian!” (I am a student, I don’t have money!)

4. In order to determine how much to offer and how much to settle on, follow these guidelines: the first price they say used to be half as much as what you really should be paying.  But Beijingers have gotten used to foreigners and they are ready for the Olympic Onslaught.  They’re now saying prices as much as 3 and 4 times as high as what you should pay.  So, when they name their first price, depending on how high it is and what you are trying to buy, go low, low, low.  Example: they say 300 kuai for a pocket knife, you offer 25 or 50.  Yes.  Really.  They will act shocked and dismayed, but they will lower the price to around 270. 

You need to up your counter-offer, but just a little.  Employ one of the phrases I mentioned above, and then offer 75.  More shock and dismay, slightly lower price offered.  250.  Use another phrase, be extra-animated, and offer 90.  They will give yet another counter offer, this time even lower…maybe 200 or 190.  This is when you do the WALK AWAY.  You say “Wo bu keyi, tai gui le!” and slowly start to turn away.  They will grab you and give you an even lower price.  175.  You are SO CLOSE now!  Offer 100.  Use hand gestures to say that you really can’t afford more than that.  They will either give it to you for that price, or they will give you one final counter-offer.  Go 10-20 kuai higher than the 100, and they will agree.  Boom!  You have successfully haggled in a Chinese market.

Mao and I are proud of you.

So, yes, yesterday at the market I had a fabulous time and I even made a new friend, Wang Da Wei.  He’s already sent me an e-mail, in fact.  Yay for new friends!  These friend cards Mark ordered are coming in very handy.  So, the next time you are in Beijing and it is a weekend, please go to Panjiayuan and look for Wang Da Wei’s stall.  He sells lovely silk-covered journals, chopstick sets, fans, purses, and a variety of other items.  And if he doesn’t sell it, he will go and find it for you and the best price.  Tell him Leah sent you.  He’ll be a little scared at first of you superior bargaining skills, but he will certainly appreciate the business.

 Shout out to Wang Da Wei: Ni hao, pengyou!  Wo gaosu wo.de Meiguo de pengyou zai Zhongguo lai kan ni!

We also went to the cool artsy 798 area to meet my aunt Jill’s friend Alonzo Davis.  He’s a very nice guy, incredibly well-traveled, and also happens to be a magnificent artist.  We also got to meet his friend and Beijing guide, Claire, who is also an artist and has lived in Beijing for a year.  Hi to you both!  We really enjoyed meeting you yesterday, and checking out all the art galleries!!

Now we must prepare for an almost-28-hour train ride to Guilin/Yangshuo.  I love trains.  Woohoo!  Who knows what new adventures await?  We’ll be out of touch for a day or so, but don’t worry…we’ll be back with more stories and pictures!

Much love to all of you, thanks so much for reading and commenting!!

~Leah

8:00am

Ok! We’re flying out today! Just waiting for our airport transport (Leah’s mom) and then we’ll on our way to the airport… where we will sit until the flight takes off at 1pm - we have to check in our luggage by 11am - and the  wait.

So yeah. We’re hanging out at the airport for a while.

However, we both have our own regular handwritten journals and a plethora of other things to keep us entertained until then. Does the airport have free WiFi?

These last few months have been really, really awesome. We actually decided to have some form of a social life with the network of people on Yelp.com, AND we even like a good number of them. Sure we love each other but come on, how is anyone else going to know how great we are unless we hang out with them so we can let them know?!

My job has been super great. Leah’s job has been super great. Our pets (One-Two and Three-Four) are wild and crazy and loving as always! None of that hiding in the closet stuff, they’re right on top of you no matter who you are.

Our next apartment is getting redone, and Leah’s starting her Master’s program this August. I’m finally gonna graduate with my Finance degree next year in the spring and ummmm… everything else is just still coming at us. It’s kind of like all of the dreary/boring/hard times last year are behind us and 2008 is just being totally, totally awesome.

We hope that you can all come to our China-SlideShow Party in July at our new place.

Sunday morning and we went to Pastries-A-Go-Go for a small breakfast. This has become our go to place for breakfast on the weekends, mostly because it’s a no-brainer and going there is practically like stepping out our door and into the restaurant. Sort of.

I think some of the servers are beginning to recognize us too - they’ve always have the same people working there - so you know it’s a good place for servers too apparently.

This is Leah. She’s reciting Chinese phrases and tragically failing at getting me to repeat and learn much more than the little that I know at the moment. But I guess I’ll load the Pimsleur lessons I have onto my .mp3 player and just listen to that for part of the 20 hour flight to China and re-activate the little bit that I do know - at least it’ll acclimate me to listening to the language again.

Packing a little today - but mostly doing all the laundry that we need to do - which is quite substantial since ummmm… well, it just is okay? We were going to do some yesterday but it rained the entire day yesterday and well… we have an odd setup at this current house.

See… this is the back of our house. We rent the upstairs and no one lives downstairs. Anyways, downstairs is setup for a stackable set of washer/dryer however, have you seen the prices for stackables? Insane. So we have a regular set.

Except the washer is upstairs, and the dryer is downstairs. Yes. I wash the clothes, load them up, walk down the stairs and throw them in the dryer. Then bring them back up when they’re done.

On the side of the building there is this long plastic pipe I bought from Lowe’s and hooked up myself so that the water could drain all the way down to the ground since it wasn’t originally set up that way - I can be handy in a half-assed sort of way - I’ll make it work… but it won’t really be pretty and definitely not correct for sure (most of the time).

So it rained all day yesterday and it’s pretty wet and gloomy today but there is no more time - we must battle the laundry!

Oh yeah. Today is ummm… the ING marathon and our friend Deanna J. is running the half marathon, 13.1 miles! Wow! I ran 8 miles once - but I didn’t really train for it - and then I slept for the next two days and didn’t really feel good for 2 more - ha. Yeah.

We crossed the street and went over the railroad tracks to check them out.

First of all, I would like to say that I am Awesome. And that Superman Dean Cain is really just the less asian version of ME.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s run down the events of this morning. First we woke up, then went down to the BofA and got our traveler’s checks and some cash. That was pretty easy and painless - swipe your bank card, sign here, and there and everywhere else and here ya go!

So we had some time to kill before we went to check out our potential living space and we decided to stop by Dancing Goats Coffee for a second. They have great coffee and the space is big and open and OMG. They have some of the most best (yes I know) plain sugar donuts.

And then after that we went to go check out our possible new apartment. It’s located deep in the historic Inman Park district and deep in the area where the Inman Park Festival occurs. Like literally right in front of our house. These are some of the houses next door to where we’re gonna live:

Apparently this is the house they used for the fortune teller’s house in that um, awesome movie Love Potion #9. But Yeah.

Below is the view through the dirty kitchen window into the neighbor’s back yard - apparently this was one of the primary Woodruff homes for a long time. (Inman Park has a lot of history that I have no clue about - but if you’re not from Atlanta, just know that the Woodruff family are like the Carnegies - except for Atlanta.)

Oh yes. Here’s our apartment! Isn’t it $&$(*#*# Awesome!

…no just kidding - it’s that apartment in the back over there. hahaha. We live behind this house. Here’s our actual place.

We basically live above a three-car garage - but we get one of the car spaces so that’s cool. And even then, if I have to park on the street - no big deal. It’s a one bedroom with washer/drier, central heat/ac, a dishwasher, AND they’re repainting everything, installing new bathroom fixtures/sink, two walk-in bedroom closets, AND they’re putting down all new WOOD FLOORING. It’s insanely awesome.

How does that compare to our current place? Well. Take away the washer/drier, central heat/ac, dishwasher, insulation, painted walls, a vanity sink in the bathroom, walk-in closets, did I mention insulation? and add rotting wood frames around the windows and you basically have the current place we live in now.

So yeah. Big upgrade and seriously for only $150 more a month. INSANELY good fortune.

We’ll be moving in July - two months after we get back from China. So look at all of these happy occurrences. If I was a less confident and deliriously positive/stubborn person, I would think that something bad is bound to happen now - except this ride that Leah and I have been on together ever since we met has never stopped and although many ups and downs have occurred, nothing can possibly stop us.

Even during the hard times or the worst moments, when brought down to a realistic perspective - we’re way better off than many - but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t worked insanely hard - and will be forced to continue working even harder - because obviously life, the universe and everything else that moves you will keep raising the bar and Leah and I definitely don’t have time to think about anything other than how to beat those expectations.

Ah, and now a cat picture - hey, I’m not gonna see my cats for a month, don’t make fun of me!

Oh yeah, one more thing. I caught these two people taking photos as we were passing through L5P - which by the way if I may brag just a little more - is less than a quarter of a mile from our new house. Okay I’m done.

It’s tricky. Balancing everything and not getting run down or losing your head. The first half of today was quite easy and generally okay, no real problems and I since things at work weren’t working (the internet) I went home to work from there. Unfortunately, the VPN to my desktop still doesn’t work and I’ll try a last ditch effort and allow the IT people to log into my home computer, snoop around in the settings, and then also snoop around in my router just to make sure it’s nothing on my side (I already hooked directly up to the cable modem and still no go). So we’ll see.

On the reiki front, I feel it. It’s interesting. It’s much stronger when I’m giving reiki to another person (or the cats) than to myself right now. I feel it in the bones of my hands, and closer to the wrists. But I do feel general warmth and tingling from the surface of my palms. I’m going to keep it up for at least 21 days straight (as instructed) and try to notice any differences in me, and… really everything around me. Mostly opportunities that present themself, no matter what they are… things that I can truly attribute to this experience, which I’m hoping will only aid in my general goal of living life deliberately.

Okay. So these aren’t my pictures. Yet. But I can’t wait. Ok. Promise. No more pictures of China until we’re actually there taking our own. Got it? Got it. Promise.

My latest thing (this week) is listening to Pandora.com - their music genome project is pretty cool - introducing me to other music similar to the mood that I’m in. Right now my ’station’ is other artists/songs sounding like Imogen Heap. So I get Regina Spector, Jem, and som Sarah Mac - all good stuff - and then I can switch moods and throw in Our Lady Peace and again, other bands with the same sound or technique come up… it’s perfect for discovering new music similar to what you already like or are in the mood for.

It’s getting late. We’re flying out soon and I’ve still got some other writing to do. Goodnight!

Sorry I haven’t posted lately.  I’m sick!  Like, the crawl in bed and shiver kind of sick.  I’m stuffy-headed, achy, sore-throaty, sleepy yuck.  I haven’t been sick like this since the Dreaded Mono Episode of 2005.  Granted, that was way worse, but I know I have to take extra-good care of myself now because Epstein-Barr and his cronies could always come back.  And with swollen lymph nodes for two weeks, I know my body is trying hard to fight off whatever is invading it.

Still, being sick sucks.  It’s hard to even drag myself out of bed to go to the bathroom, let alone feed myself, make tea, etc.  Mark does an excellent job taking care of me when he’s home, but he has to work today so I’m fending for myself.  I wonder if I could teach the cats how to make soup?

Back to bed I go.  I promise to write a more thrilling post once I am well again.  Ciao!

It’s not that I don’t have my own family, because I do, and they’re great, but when you have a large extended family that lives close to each other… family entails many more things.

I am fortunate to be close and even included/accepted as one of theirs - and it’s an interesting experience. Aside from their family in particular, the whole ‘large extended family’ is a foreign experience for me - and one that I’m glad to be a part of. It’s partly my own fault, but my relationship with my own family is slightly distant, even though the underlying love and everything else is always there. I missed my sister’s graduation and not being able to go hit me harder than I thought it would - even though I really was struggling to get finances in order at the time… but still, that realization that ‘money’ is always keeping me from things… is frustrating. And while I wish I was fighting to push back how much not having money ’stops’ me… I know I’m only getting more money so that the lack of it can stop me only slightly less…  Paying off all my debt this year should help out considerably.

Happily, I have already purchased my ticket to fly out to Phoenix in May for a few days and attend my brother’s graduation. And even though I missed my sister’s, it does seem like this one has more weight, or rather, a different significance since only a few years ago, it was a real issue whether or not Ryan would actually get up and do something with his life…or at least… get to a point where he could go live it. Because being stuck in a depression, deep in a hole without a clue as to how to even begin to climb out… that was Ryan at times, and then one day, I’m sure with my sister’s help, he started moving forward, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t an upward climb but merely a gradual walk up an incline out of a cave instead of a deep, deep hole in the earth.

I am going to take insanely too many pictures of my family when I see them again.

-Mark