Goodbye, China!

Zai jian, China!

Today the kids and I leave for Seattle. Permanently and prematurely. This isn't the ending to the China experience that I had planned. Or wanted. Or dreamed of for myself and the kids when we set out on August 17th.

However hard this ending has been, here are all the things I am most proud of...

1. Our attitude! I am so proud of my kids and myself for having such a positive attitude about moving to another country. Another country whose language we don't speak or understand. There were some rough patches--like people making fun of us or staring at the kids for being mixed race. Strange, unfamiliar things often appeared on our plates or unwanted at our table. But we made our way through it all...and mostly with big smiles.
2. Our created communities! The kids made so many good friends in China...as did I. The people here--both locals and expats--have been nothing but wonderful and welcoming and so incredibly interesting. I am personally thankful for all the good people who have taken care of us--from Stacey and Richard (Seattle buds) to Emily Minor (wonderful blogger) to Yucca to my college BFF Shelli to my neighbors Barbara and Pam to Zhang Shifu and Sue Ayi. To new friends like Meg and John who remembered a story I was telling them weeks ago about a real Chinese cutting board...and then sourced one for me!!!! I am especially grateful to awesome kids with enormous heroic hearts who befriended my kiddos: Sophie, Martha, Olivia, Colleen, Matthew, Orion, and Mason.
3. Our sense of adventure! We might not have known more than a handful of words to start, but the kids and I ventured all around Shanghai together--from ancient water towns to city parks to neighborhoods. We ordered local food at dives. We negotiated like pros at underground markets. We rode the subway. Heck, we rode camels on the sand dunes in the outermost reaches of China!

We leave China with our heads high. Our hearts full of love for all the good people who have surrounded us with care. And our minds ready for our next adventure.

Shanghai: Photo Essay on Mops

As I was out and about photographing the city several weeks ago, one of my Shanghai turnSTYLE interviewees challenged me to begin a photo essay on mops in China.

Mops? I thought. You've got to be kidding.

But as I looked more closely at the fabric-strung mops, I realized there really was something to her idea. Suddenly, I saw the grand ubiquity of mops everywhere in Shanghai: propped against windows, doors, trees. On sidewalks. Inside homes. Alongside shopfronts. And I noticed the grace of their bedraggled Medusan hair. And I saw a story unfold...

Wallflowers pretending to take a much-needed respite...


And looking pensively out the window for her prince to come...

And finally draped over her beloved in a passionate embrace!

Today I am thankful for people who ask me to look closer at the world.

Goals: Checkpoint Two Months

We have been in China for two months now. And that means...it's check-in time on the goals I posted on August 22. I just don't want a year to slip by and then at the end of it wonder: what on earth did I do with my time?!

1. Acquire some basic Mandarin language skills!
Well, I still speak Cave Man Chinese as in Me. Want. This. (cue: pointing finger) But I have hired a Mandarin tutor and practice as much as I can (to the chagrin of my pre-teen son who is mortified every time I speak and Chinese people cock their heads at me as though I'm channeling some foreign language. Which I am.)

2. Write my next novels!
I finished 5 weeks of plotting my YA fantasy series and I am officially starting the rewriting process. YAY! This took much, much, much more time than I thought it would. Hopefully, this prewriting exercise will pay off in the long run.

3. Throw myself into the China experience!
I've set aside every Friday to explore the city and I'm gadding about town...although at a slower pace than before. My big dilemma is this: I started my Shanghai turnSTYLE project where I committed to interviewing 100 cool people here. I'm well on my way with that goal. But...I see a novel idea formulating. I wonder if I should abandon turnSTYLE (weep) to focus my interview time... I hate not completing projects. But my time is limited. (Note to peeps: THOUGHTS? Advice?)

4. Take exquisite care of my family, friends, and self!
I am exercising every single day--whether it's running or biking or popping on the elliptical. I've decided that driving an hour to yoga each way wasn't worth the bliss. Every Friday night is Pizza Night with the fam where we plop in front of a movie and chow down on pizza. And, yup, I have committed to being the writer-in-residence at an international school in Shanghai. Lucky Son, he gets to live with one of his teachers. Hee. And best of all? I've reinstated date nights with my hubby.

So...for those of you who made 2008 New Year's Resolutions, how are you doing with them?

Camels & Caves & Forts...oh, my!

Greetings from Camel Country! That would be Dunhuang, the oasis town in Northern China that was once the hub of the Silk Road a thousand years ago. Ever since my husband's cerebral and vivacious Aunt Barb shared her fascination with the Silk Road with me almost a decade ago, I've wanted to visit at least part of the route where caravans of traders brought goods (such as silk and porcelain) and ideas from the East to the West and vice versa. Part of the route. We're talking some 5,000 miles that traversed Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe, starting around 115 B.C.E.!

For the Chinese National Holiday 2008 (celebrated Oct 1-5 for the founding of the People's Republic of China), our family joined two of our new friends, the Roeschels and Idekars, on our modern-day caravan to China's westernmost trading town and military garrison back in the Silk Road Days.

We descended on two of the main passes along the Great Wall: one at the Jaiyuguan Pass, the other at Yangguan Pass. Jaiyuguan was constructed around 1372 A.D., and filled with soldiers to protect China from the "barbarians." This is one of the oldest surviving military forts, which included traps so that mauraders could be corralled and then shot from above.

I realize that I am displaying way too much joy in my defense lesson. Not that any invader would have to worry if I were stationed to protect a fort. My arrows flew nowhere close to the straw dummy stationed below...

Afterward, we climbed the Hanging Wall, the end of the Great Wall of China. The end! Imagine being the lone soldier stationed at this distant locale and being the one to spy the marauders...then racing down steep stairs, some sections sitting at a 45 degree incline atop the ridgeline of the Black Hills...

A long, five-hour drive took us through some of the most desolate land I've encountered in the desert from the pass to Dunhuang. Then, we happened on a small oasis which grew the region's famous Hami melon. I can only imagine how psyched those old caravans were to spot green! Fruit! Water! Hundreds and hundreds of these sweet melon (somewhere between cantalope and honeydew) were piled at roadside stands. Here are strips of the melon drying in the sun like peach-colored peapods. Yup, tasted them. Yummy.

And then we arrived in Dunhuang itself. Spectacular. That's all I can say. Truly, the sand dunes were every bit as gorgeous and picturesque and exotic as I had imagined them to be. So beautiful, in fact, that I braved the cold to watch the sun rise and set. Which says a lot since I hate being cold.

Our adventured included a camel expedition through the Echoing Sand Mountains. (Note: Camels are more pungent than I thought they would be. And they whimper like little children! Mine, however, did not make a sound. Could petting its hump help?) And then there was the sand sledding down an ultra steep, very long dune. (Note: Scary! In my feeble Mandarin, I aptly communicated that I was very scared--wo shi hen pa!!!! The guys manning the top thought I was hilarious...and then pushed me down in my inner tube.)

As wonderful as the camels were (and traumatic as the sledding was), my favorite part of the trip was our daylong visit to the Mogao Caves, possibly the most breathtaking manmade site I've ever seen.

Imagine hundreds and hundreds of meditation caves carved into the mountainside and decorated with gorgeous Buddhist paintings, all between 1,200 to 1,600 years old. Starting around 400 A.D. (did you read that year right?), monks carved out caves and illuminated different Buddhist sutras. Some of the caves were tiny--no bigger than a computer-sized niche. Others were enormous, able to house a 37 meter sculpture of a Buddha...You walk into the cave and all you see through the doorway are huge toes. And then you look up. And up. And higher up yet. And there, sitting in the cave, is a serene Buddha, perfectly proportioned, carved out of the sandstone.

The caves are now locked behind doors to protect against the elements and graffiti. Only 10 or so of the nearly 500 caves are still open to the public. We decided to pony up the moolah for a private tour in the morning where we were able to visit five caves closed off to the general public. Our guide was so thrilled to be in one of the caves rarely ever open that we stayed in it for nearly an hour as she told us story after story about the sutra illustrated within.

I have to say: if you are at all inclined to visit the Mogao Caves, one of the world's most historic sites, book your visit within the next three years. I just don't see these caves being open to the public for very much longer. (Note to my mom: Mama, you would LOVE this place. Art and spirituality.)

As for my writing... The best part of this trip wasn't just filling my creative well with what I saw and tasted and heard and learned, but it was discovering ideas that I needed for my next novel. Coincidence? Or providence?

In any case, to inspiration fueled by embracing the new and different!

China, Jai You!

Whatever language I had been faithfully practicing every day in my car to prepare for this move, it was clearly not Mandarin. People have been staring blankly at me, head cocked to the side in a mixture of confusion and amusement and irritation, whenever I've tried my few words and phrases. Embarrassing.

After the deafening cheers in the stands during yesterday's kayaking races for the Olympics, I turned to the Chinese guy next to me and asked him what he was yelling: "Jai you!" He said, "It means, go!" Last night, I asked my friend, Alex, what it really meant, and he explained, "Literally, it translates to 'add oil.'" When you want to win or go faster, you need to add a little fuel. I love that.

So while my family slumbers on this morning, I thought it was about time that I committed my personal resolutions for the next year in China in blog. Here's how I want to add a little fuel for myself! Justina, jai you!

• Acquire some basic Mandarin language skills! While it's impractical to think that I'll be fluent in Mandarin after a year, I'd like to be proficient enough to have a real conversation. Not just a transaction of information: where is the bathroom? I would like two orders of these dumplings. You know what I mean. Exchange ideas. And really, it would be absolutely amazing to get fluent enough that I could speak with my mom. Have a true conversation with her.

Translation: hire a Mandarin tutor, make sure to get out of my expat compound and practice the language with real people!

• Write my next novels! So my agent kicked me in the rear end when I saw him in L.A. a few weeks ago, telling me it was time to Get Back to Work. The truth is, after my last book tour which lasted almost SIX months, I was burned out. Absolutely and completely burned out. I took the entire summer off of writing. That's one long dry spell, longer than any I've ever given myself. Even when I was launching readergirlz with Lorie Ann Grover, Janet Lee Carey, and Dia Calhoun, I was writing--and even finished North of Beautiful during our most intense time. As my writer-friends have assured me: I have just been filling my creative well. I think they're right. Now, I am yearning to get back to the empty page and spend hours writing. I have four (count them, four!) book ideas that I've been ruminating over the past year or two.

Translation: commit to writng 3 full days a week and 2 mornings a week.

• Throw myself into the China experience! My year in Australia with my husband flew. Absolutely flew (except for the first few months when I had to adjust to all the racism...). So I know my time in Shanghai will be fast. I want to get to know the city, the quirky neighborhoods, the secret places to eat and shop. I want to travel in Asia (and have already booked our trip to Bhutan!). And I want to meet the cool, creative people who are changing the face of China now: the architects and designers, the directors and producers and writers and artists, the entrepreneurs.

Translation: set aside a day a week to explore the city. Pick out the places we want to visit in China and Asia. And interview cool people. This is all about feeding my creative well.

• Take exquisite care of my family, friends, and self! And of paramount importance to me, I want to make sure my family is safe and happy. So I want to do what I can to help my kiddos acclimatize to their new home. (That might mean volunteering at their school as a writer-in-residence since my eldest still--so far!--doesn't have a problem with me being onsite with him. I realize this will change sooner than I like.) One of my very best friends from college lives 10 minutes away from me now in Shanghai! I definitely want to devote some great quality time with my girlfriend. And finally, the big 4-0 has proven to me once and for all that my metabolism is slooooowing down. Must work out. Every. Day. Or I will take on the shape of a round Shanghainese dumpling.

Translation: breathe.

And take new exercise classes: try out tai chi! fencing! heck, racewalking!

Geocache with my family! And just have fun.

Word Obsessed

Dreamtime is such a beautiful thing, important when writing. Integral to living. And let's face it: a euphemism for procrastination.

Without dinking around, I would never have found Wordle. Nor would I have created a few new Wordles (doodles with words). Waste of time or moment of joy?

Wordle 1: My China Year Hopes

Wordle 2: readergirlz love

Wordle 3: Sisterhood

Join me, all you word obsessed ones! Create your own Wordles and show them to me. (It's always more fun when other people procrastinate with you.) And if you're a writer, tell your agent and editor we're working. Flexing our creativity. Really.

Bright and early this morning, the moving truck rumbled down our street and parked its behemothness in front of our driveway. The truck was a tad overkill for the amount of stuff we're taking with us to China, a mansion for a mouse. But it made its point: We. Are. Moving.

Saying goodbye to my kids' friends and their moms didn't make our move real. Not even packing up the clothes and toys that we're hauling with us did the trick. The actual concept of us moving only started to feel real when my hubby broke it to me: "You can only bring 50 books with you into China."

Me: Excuse me?

Hubby: 50 books, babe.

Me:

Hubby (staring at the mound o' books I'd been stockpiling): You can't take them all with you.

Me:

Hubby: I won't pack any.

Me: But ..but...but I have my research books. And my need-to-read books. And my readergirlz books. And all of the kids' books.

Hubby: 50 books.

So as my books were hauled away, Reality Sank In. As of August 17th, it will be ziejian to the U.S. for a year. (And I really do only have 50 books... if you happen to be truly abysmal in math. Like me.)

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