Happy Mother's Day!

I may not be home, but that doesn't mean that I can't celebrate. Many people say it, but I know I have the greatest mom in the world. Really, who else can put up with me for this long and still have a sense of humor? But seriously, she came halfway around the world to see me and boy did we have a time.

My mom has seen a lot in her day, and continues to give me reality checks on a regular basis. Couldn't have turned out as well as I did with out those. I wish I could be home to cut tulips out of the flowerbed and make my attempt at breakfast like I used to (it is so hard to wake up before her!) but I'll leave that up to the little sis. If everyone could give my mom a hug for me, that would be great. That or make sure that we don't have a planting breakdown. I'm sure that they would be equally appreciated.

And, not to be forgotten, Grandma Ginny. I think it's great that she's been able to do all the worrying for me, it's freed up some time for me. But really, I can never express how lucky I have been to have her just down the road from me for so many years. When you want to run away from home when you're little, where do you go? Grandma's house, and mom doesn't really have to worry much. She's got the best nuggets of wisdom and I'm still waiting for the pigs to eat my little sister so I can have that much fun. She's always had great fashion sense, as demonstrated by the fact that I still wear her clothes. Grandma, you're just simply great and no one will ever argue otherwise, especially when I have my friends ask about you all the time.

So a Happy Mother's Day to all and do something nice for your mothers and grandmothers. I love you and think of you often.

I can only "stay alive" unti 10pm and that's it...

Weird title right? Well it has nothing to with my life, just music. One of the guys from the Bee Gee's is having a concert. In Shanghai they have this lovely form of bus advertising. A bus drives around with music at high volumes as a way to get people's attention. It's probably really effective, but the street that I live in is a very popular driving route. At night many cars want to drive down Huaihai Road and that means traffic, e.g. it doesn't move very fast.

So 3-4 times in the past few evenings, a double decker open topped bus that pumps "Stayin' Alive" at maximum volume passes right below my flat. (Second floor flat that faces the street). And when it comes by at 20:30 at night, well I get a little perturbed.

Email issues...

Anyone planning on coming to China in the near future with a Hotmail account:

http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20040205_does_hotmail_work_in_china.htm

If you send things to my Hotmail, know that I won't get it. Please discontinue use of that address. It's interesting but a supreme pain in the keister to be caught in the war of two evil empires.

Did you see or touch any monkeys?

The answer is Yes! This was taken at Mount Emei (uh MAY) and these monkeys are vicious b*stards. They steal things from tourists, will attack you if they think you have food, and are generally pissed off that there's a bunch of humans on their turf. The only thing they're afraid of are the ladies that patrol the "Joking Monkey Zone" (actual name) with big sticks and will actually throw rocks at the monkeys if they are not behaving.

Pandas!

These were taken at the Panda Breeding Center in Chengdu, Sichuan province. And yes I am holding a panda, not a raccoon.

Why am I not holing a baby Great Panda? Expense, plain and simple. To hold a baby panda would cost 150 USD, to be in near the adult giant panda would be 50 USD and to hold the red panda was about $6.25. Now holding a Giant Panda would have been really cool, but that's a chunk o'change.

Discount pandas and much turbulence...

As you may or may not know, last week was a major holiday; International Labor Day. In China it's one of the three week long holidays of the year so the people of the country. Nearly everyone in the country travels and shops. I joined in as I had Monday through Wednesday off. My intention was to go somewhere in SE Asia, but that didn't happen so I consulted one of my colleagues and we met up in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan (Szechuan to some but that's not the correct spelling) province.

Sichuan is know for a few things: HOT food, pandas, hot weather. I was able to hit all off it.

**HOT Food**
Now many of you may think that I can't eat hot food. You used to be right, but I've made an effort to eat more hot food since moving to China. This unfortunately was way too much. The smell just about knocked me over and caused a few coughing fits. I did manage to suck it up and eat some spicy meat on a stick. For some reason it made the beer taste really really good.

**Pandas**
We visited the Panda Research/Breeding Center. I really think that the Chinese don't understand how popular pandas are all over the world. I've also heard that China tried to give Taiwan a panda called "Unification." For some reason Taiwan refused.

**Sun***
It was great to see the sun as Shanghai has been pretty gloomy. At the same time it was sunny in SH so not that I missed out on anything, but it's been rainy pretty much since I got back.

I really enjoyed Chengdu and it was great to escape the bubble of Shanghai. This city is so different from the rest of China that it does a person good to get away once in a while.