On vacation, and a list

I've been away from here so long I feel as though I've been on vacation. Unfortunately, life has not been so exotic, though interesting things have been occurring:

1. PB turned 2. We are officially out of babyhood, even out of diapers. Quite a milestone for the entire family. She enjoyed her party, ate some cake, and received an incredibly noisy gift. All-in-all a success.

2. I ran the 5K portion of the Chongqing Marathon in about 30 minutes. I'm very proud. I have not run a race since my 13th year on this Earth. Pretty cool. We made it to the race just in time to begin. At the end, in classic China fashion, there was a large digital clock to show the time but it was unplugged. My 30 minute declaration is purely based on my cell phone which I believe runs a bit slow. Maybe I broke under the 30 minute mark?!

3. China is blocking everything. Internet freedom aside, internet capabilities have been compromised. I am only writing this now because we've had a good internet day. Usually, it is too slow to make going online worthwhile. At this point I am just trying to wait it out - let China do it's thing and I'll reconnect when they are done. If I seem to go on vacation again, this is why.

4. We are finalizing plans for our trip home this summer. It will be a whirlwind trip through Denver, Seattle, Portland, Taos, and Ketchikan. So much for keeping it simple.

5. We are also finalizing plans for traveling before going home. We will go to 秀山(Xiu shan) next week. It is a small (50,000), rural town in southeast Chongqing municipality. We hope to hike, breathe fresh air, and see some blue sky. I am also desperate to see uncrowded China. I know it still exists out there somewhere, and this is one place I have found. The train goes there which makes it convienent for us car-less folks. And it will be a great place for me to practice my Chinese.

In May, school is out for a week and we will travel to Malaysia, to the Perhentian Islands. 5 days of quiet beaches, amazing weather, clear water with loads of sea turtles, and sunsets, well, you get the idea. It's a tropical paradise. I can't wait.

6. My Chinese teacher has given me daily homework. I've told her that I improve faster when I write characters instead of pin yin, the latinized version of Chinese. Therefore, I am now to keep a journal every day of my goings on. She armed me with a page full of adjectives and modifiers and said 'go!' Here is today's entry:
２０１１年３月２６日 星期六 多云


今天上午我们去了市场买蔬菜。 蔬菜大。 蔬菜不忙。 昨天我们在了学校。
 
(Translation: 2011 year 3 month 26 day  Saturday  cloudy/ This morning we went to the market to buy vegetables. The market is big. The market is not busy. Last night we were at school.)
 
It's hard to know sometimes what to write about because my grammar is just now developing. I'm beginning to move past the memorizing-vocabulary stage into the this-is-how-you-use-it stage. It is frustrating, and liberating. In the market today, I told a lady in Chinese that I wanted to buy something (我要买) and she understood me! Not that I can understand anything she says back, other than the price, but it's coming!

Look what I can do!

你 好 吗？我 很 好。 我 叫 Abby。 你 叫 什么？我 是 老师。 你 从 哪 儿 来？ 我 来 自 美 国。我 是 美国 人。 再 见。

(How are you? I am very well. My name is Abby. What is your name? I am a teacher. Where are you from? I am from America. I am American. Good bye.)

And I can say it too!

Lost in translation

There's a store here called Metro. It's kind of like a Sam's Club or Costco - bulk-buy discounts with inexpensive membership. This is a favorite of expats for many reasons. First, there's a large imported section with things directly from home like, refried beans, spices, spaghetti sauce, CHEESE, and inexpensive wine. There are also just a lot of good deals. Well, sometimes. But the funnest part of going through a store known to cater even a little to expats is reading the translations on the packages. Tonight's thrill was in the bath stuffs aisle. I was looking at razors and happened to glance down to a giant bag of cotton balls. All the writing was in Chinese except for this:

Tampons.

Well, I guess you could use them for that.

Baby steps

I'm supposed to be studying my Chinese - I'm up in 3 minutes. Let's see what I can do, in pinyin (the latin version of Chinese) for now. I will figure out characters soon.

Ni hao. Ni hao ma? Wo hen hao. Ni jiao shen me? Wo jiao Abby. Ni ne? Wo jiao (insert your name here). Wo shi lao shi. Zai jian. Zai jian.
*note: All these words are missing the tone accents. I will add them later if I can figure out how.

Translation: Hello. How are you? I'm very good. What is your name? I am Abby. And you? I am (insert your name here). I am a teacher. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Not bad, eh?