feeling the movement.

there is a movement going through this city and it is powerful, greater things are yet to come. today we went to the oldest part of town and took pictures. we went through some very poor villages and played with a bunch of kids. i love the children here, i would love nothing more than to move into their village, live with these kids and play with them everyday. one little girl went and got her barbie doll when she saw us, she wanted to show her to us. it was precious. the little baby in the picture kept following me, smiling at me and wanted me to hold him, it was adorable. 

the first picture was from dinner tonight. we went to a place on the street and had hot pot! it was so yummy! most of the smaller places put toilet paper on the table for napkins and the nicer places charge you 1-3 yuan for a package of napkins. so, i thought the toilet paper amongst the many sauces was a nice picture. 

after dinner we went out with a new friend of ours to get coffee and we got to share the story with her. the coffee from this area is strong, yet really really good. 

today i had my first feeling of sickness, and get this, after eating at pizza hut. go figure huh? i have been eating dinner off the streets every night and brushing my teeth with tap water and the "western" food makes me sick. haha i guess i can just say its a sign that i should stay here and only eat chinese food. :-)

man, i do not want to leave here. i have come to love the noise, the traffic, the smells, the random "hellos" with a very strong accent when i walk by. i just love this place. china has a very distinct smell and i know i will miss the smell once i get back home. 

well, i need to go to bed now because our wake up call will probably earlier than we expect tomorrow.

check your feet and make sure they are being beautiful!

 

hairy red fruit.

this is my new favorite fruit, the name translates to "hairy red fruit".

it is kinda sweet and sour and is soooo yummy! if there was a way for me to bring some home i would for sure, but international customs says no. oh well, i will go on a hunt when i get back home to hopefully find some. 

yesterday we went through some back ally villages in the outer parts of the city and met a lot of people, i met an adorable old man who is 72 years old and when he and i started talking he offered me his chair. that may not seem like very much, but in chinese culture for an elder to offer his chair to a younger person and a woman at that speaks volumes. i told him thank you, but he could sit on it and i would be happy to sit next to him on the floor. he even invited me to dinner at his house later that evening, but i was not able to go because of logistical reasons. i felt so very honored to even be invited. i will try to go back this week to see him. 

we went walking through the neighborhood and met tons of people, and one time we had about 30 men, women and children following us. we were the first americans to go through their area and they brought everyone out to see us. i bought some cookies earlier in the day and i shared them with the children. mothers were coming out to show off their babies and let me touch them and everyone wanted their picture taken with me. as i walked to streets i made the most of my time, i love these people, i would love to spend every day among them. they showed me their neighborhood god/protector and i got to see his little temple. these people have my heart and i will not be settled until i am here. i am planning on coming back to study chinese over the summer. i found a nice apartment building and i know that being in the culture for so long would really help me learn. peter taught me how to write eight chinese characters today and he said that i did a very good job, but i have a feeling he is just trying to make me feel good. 

every night setting up our morning wake up call takes about 30-45 mins. first we call down to the front desk, then they call us back and say a time back to us, normally it is the wrong time and then finally they send someone to our door for us to write the time down for them. well last night i called the front desk and talked to someone who only speaks chinese and then hung up, and expected a call back within the next 10 mins or so. well about 5 mins later a guy calls and here is the conversation: 

chinese man: "Hi"

crystal: "Hi"

chinese man: "giggle....nigga"

crystal: "giggle..."

chinese man: "morning call six sirty?" (thirty)

crystal: "yo"(yes)

chinese man: "giggle...click"

well, "nigga" is the chinese version of "umm" or "uh" so he was just nervous talking to me, it was so funny though. i have started to notice it a lot now and it really makes me laugh, it would not go over well in the states that for sure. oh and of course, they called us with our morning call at six am instead of six thirty....oh well, we are on china time, it can differ an hour or so in either direction and its totally acceptable.

today we found a very old village in the middle of the city and we explored it. we met some kiddos who quickly latched on to us. we went and enjoyed tea at a little place on the side of the road and sat there drinking our pot of tea for an hour or so and it only cost 2 yuan total, which is about 24 cents american. after tea, we followed the kids through their village and got to meet some immigrant worker families. they come from all over china to help build the huge buildings that are going up all over the city. their live in what would be small storage buildings in the states with the rolling metal garage door and everything. we got to sit and talk with a family for awhile and sow some seeds.

while we were walking the streets of this village, we saw a small store that sold all sorts of snacks and candy for children, so we told the kids with us they could all pick something out and we would buy it for them. their eyes lit up and they were so very excited! most of them picked these big lollypops and one little boy picked a package of cookies. i taught them how to say "lollypop" and "cookie" in english. they were so adorable. i think there was about 7-10 little boys following us around. 

at one point we had to use the restroom and so we asked the boys where the closest one was, and they took us about 3 blocks away to some strange place where we had to pay an old lady 30 cents (chinese, only about 4 cents american) to use the squatty potty. 

one thing i have seen here that i have never ever seen before is the pants the babies wear. the chinese children are potty trained by the time they are one to one and a half years old, and to help them learn is they wear these strange pants that are totally split open from the top of the butt to the front side along the seam of the pants. the babies bottoms and family "jewels" are there for all to see. it is not uncommon to see babies going potty in the stores on the floor, on the streets in the market or going "number two" in the park. also the little boys seem to just prance around with their little "thingys" showing to everyone...it is so funny.

i have been making a dvd of all the pictures i have been taking here and i am so excited to show it off to yall. i made the thing and it makes me cry! haha!

anyway, it is getting late and im pretty tired from all the walking on beautiful feet.

remember, as you go sow....there is no excuse not to make the most of every opportunity.

a bit early today.

hungry anyone?

i had to share this culture treat with yall, out of all the westerners only cameron and i were brave enough to try these lovely little feet. we called it "taking one for the team".

i know i look a little "special" in my picture, but i accredit that to being sleepy, having unruly hair and walking around 3-4 miles a day in flip flops. :-)

the realization hit me today that i have to go home, i do not get to stay here forever like i want to. last time i left china i left a piece of my heart behind and i have been living with a hole in my heart for the three years. this time i will be leaving my whole heart behind. i walk down the street and i have such a love and admiration for these beautiful people. i want to be with them, i want to learn from them, i want to walk with them, i want to ride in their crazy taxis. it is more than the food, the crazy shopping, the smells, the sounds, the culture, it is so much more. i love the people of china. they have captured my heart and i have a sense of urgency and i am excited where i will be walking on my beautiful feet.

i challenge you today to take a walk on your beautiful feet and as you go, sow.

more along the journey.

the journey continues.....

i hope you enjoyed some pictures i took today....the last one is a lil sad...poor lil piggy. the middle picture is of dried snake skin, and no joke it is food here...mmm...anyone hungry? haha!

so today i went through a meat market and got to see so many strange things for sell...pretty much if it is alive or crawls it is eatable. i saw cages of cats, bunnies, chickens, birds, turtles and my favorite one, the large mesh bag of live snakes. we went through the seafood market as well, again if it lives in the sea they sell it, everything from sea cucumber to blood worms and sea horses by the ten gallon bag. it was memorable for sure.

once we worked up our appetite walking through the market we had a nice lunch of jousa or in english "dumplings" and noodles. it was so good....i love the food here, i have only wanted to gag once and it was not because of the taste, but because of the texture and that was today at the tea shop with some new friends i met today. they ordered a plate of chicken feet, i have seen them many times and i knew i would try them....and today was the day! they came out looking just like chicken feet, with the nails/claws and all, it was covered in this sauce that is a mixture between soy and sweet and sour sauce. they taste was not bad at all, but the texture was terrible, there is no meat on the feet at all, only the skin, so the object is to rip the skin off the bone and enjoy! the part that got to me the most was the bottom of the feet, it was just too strange. 

tonight i went to the market with a couple of people and we met a nice lady who served us lots and lots of tea while she chatted with us. i have been learning as many words in chinese as i can, i would love to one day be fluent. "Ho ha" means "its good to drink" "Ho" means "good" "jigga jigga" means "this" "booya" means "i don't want" and of course "ni how" means "hello". so there is your chinese lesson for today. :-)

i have found my favorite street vendor and i am planning on eating street food the rest of the dinners here, this guy makes these fold up things with peppers, egg, chives and lettuce in them. peter and i got them for dinner and ate them in the market while we drank tea with our new friend. i also found these yummy fruits that are soooo cheap! 5 of them for only 5 rmb which is less than a dollar american. yum yum yum!

haha so this has been a very long post about the food of china, what can i say...i love cultural food! haha 

the seeds are being planted and we have already seen some harvest, so my time here has been good. tomorrow we are thinking about going to the sea and we will see how things go out there. i will be coming home in a week! i miss you all and think of you daily. 

much love.

a fire ignited.

looking back over the days i have been in china today has been the most monumental for me, even though it was our "tour day".

we have been studying buddhism and taoism and today we were able to go to a taoist temple. the design and structure of the buildings was amazingly beautiful, the gods were so ornate and very well taken care of and the incense was stronger than in any 1970s hippie van. as soon as we walked through the "middle gate" of the temple the whole mood/aura of the group changed. we started walking with purpose and knew we had business to do while we were there. 

our tour guide was a very friendly college student who is a taoist and is very passionate about what he believes, he was very eager to tell us about what each and every god did and how important ying and yang are. i was brought to tears many many times on the tour. i found the god that is supposed to be my "protector" according to the chinese zodiac and peter and i did some business with him. the air was very heavy in the temples and it was not because of the incense, everyone could feel it and our views of the taoist religion will never be the same.

after our tour, we climbed to the highest spot in the whole area above the temple and did business up there. it was a very hard climb, i would say it was the great wall for this area. we got to the top of the mountain and we read from a Book, talked and planted seeds. on our way down from the temple we got to meet the oldest monk there, he is 98 years old and we were able to talk to him and give him a few seeds. 

i know i have promised to put some pictures up, and i am sorry i have not been able to yet, but here are a couple from yesterday for your viewing pleasure. i love yall and i would love to talk to yall, so give me a call sometime....tomorrow is a free day....hint hint!

much love, enjoy the pictures....

very yummy fresh coconut milk...mmm....

everyones favorite squatty potties! and i took a picture of the cleanest one (in KFC).

peter and me eating food from his hometown.

my favorite soup, 5 or 6 different types of mushrooms or as they say in china "fungus"

goodnight and stay tuned for more updates.

over and beyond.

as i sit in front of my computer i feel tears on the brink of spilling over my eye lashes. 

today was intense....i will start from the beginning...

my two closest friends here and i (we call ourselves team boston) felt like going to the beach today to see if maybe their was some fertile land there to plant a few seeds in. when we finally got down there we saw an amazing site, a 3 person bike! so being the great tourist we are we rented one and headed out for a nice bike ride...well not only do i attract a lot of attention for being white, just put me on a 3 person bike and all of asia is sure to show up to watch me make a fool out of myself! as we three climbed on the bike and attempted to ride, we kept falling, laughing, screaming and just looking like total goof balls.

we finally realized why we could not ride the huge bike, it was the bikes fault...so we got a new bike and off we went to see the wonderful beach.

we found the water and i got to touch the sea. it was pretty chilly!

we met up with a nice girl we met yesterday and we went to get dinner at a place that specializes in serving all the best dishes from Chairman Mao's hometown. it was very very tasty and spicy! we got cucumbers chilled with chilies and ginger, glass noodles with ginger and cabbage, beef ribs with chives and ginger and warm corn milk to drink. our dinner was lovely and we got to talk with our friend. i told her about my many travels and we talked about life, love, peace and happiness. i wore my shirt that has "peace" written all over it in many different languages, the Chinese one written across my chest for a reason.

while we were talking i felt sick and my heart started beating very quickly. my team member felt it as well, we felt a strong force coming on and we had to counter it quickly. all in all we know Who wins in the end and until then we keep on doin what we are doin.

i love each of you very much and know that when i get home you will get to hear (as paul harvey says) the rest of the story.

black friday or red thursday?

when i was in new york city, shopping on times square in december i thought i had seen the most crowded place in the world...until i saw new years day in china. today is chinas version of "black friday" today at 7am people were waiting in line to buy the latest flat screen tv or the highest quality steamer for their clothes. it was amazing. people had tables set up and were standing on make shift stages with microphones so they could show off their products. 

stores have huge balloons flying, music playing and even face paint on to celebrate this crazy shopping day.

we went walking with a purpose and did some fishing and even caught a fish! not only am i practicing my agriculture skills, but also my fisherman skills, i guess one could say i am exploring all different skills, trades and paths of life. i am learning so many things and at times i feel like my head in spinning, but it the end result will be so very worth it.

i met a nice girl today and we went to dinner and then she took me shopping. it was so very fun, she held my hand the whole time and said it was amazing how we met and i told her it was divine.

i am sorry todays posts is not very long, but i am very sleepy and drained in every way, and in the best way. there has been a lot going on that the eyes cannot see.

much love to each of you.