OMG, did I tell you it was fucking HOT here? Don’t believe me? I have lived through both NC, FL, AND Taiwan summers, and I think this is the worst. And I have Sue Lee Bauerbach, a FL native to back me up. Mostly, I’ve realized that central AC makes all the difference. For example, in FL you are only exposed to the sweltering heat in the few minutes it takes to walk outside, get into your car, and crank up the AC. All buildings are cooled to refrigerator temps. I’m serious. I remember in grad school, I always wore long pants and long sleeved shirts, even during the summer. Though I certainly appreciated the instant relief crossing the temperature threshold, the rest of the day I was a frickin’ slab of meat in the fridge. So back to Shanghai… John calls our bedroom the Oasis. We climb into our netted bed, turn on the AC room unit, turn on the mini ceiling fan under our tent, zip ourselves up, and hang out by the campfire with the wild animals (Rem and Martin) pacing around outside. When we leave the oasis to use the bathroom or get something from the kitchen, we get jolted back to our senses. The rest of the house is a goddamn sauna. Yeah, maybe some people pay to relax in the sauna. Well, there ain’t no relaxing in ours. It’s as if we’re part of some insane gameshow where you have to grab the items you need and then hurry back to the safe zone or homebase. Potty, wash hands, back to the room. Shower, towel off back in the room. Grab bread, a can of peanut butter, a spoon, back to the room. I know, pathetic. But feel free to give this a try at home.

In other news, I’ve been paralyzed since Tuesday. Earlier this week, I was on my laptop. All the sudden, colors started looking funny. On the desktop, all my icons had a trail of red striations going across the screen. At three years old, my laptop has display damage. Mother fucker. I chatted online with my nemeses HP, and they sent me through the hoops– reinstalling the driver, adjusting display settings, blah, blah. Pain in my ass, those “service” people. In the end, I took it to a local Compaq repair shop. They said it’s definitely hardware and will have to send my unit in to the factory for repair. In other words, I’m out of a fucking computer for at least 4 business days. So one would think, “Ok. No big deal. Just a few days. I’m not DEPENDENT on anything. There’s no addiction problem here.” Wrong. I can’t stand being without. For one thing, I rely very heavily on my laptop for work. So here it was Wednesday, and I had my SABIC business writing class in the evening. I still had to edit pieces, write pieces… argh! I ended up waking up at 6 am to bike over to the internet bar. Yeah, so I was there with all the hardcare gamers. It wasn’t so bad though, thankfully. There were actually only a handful of people, and each station has headsets. I had a variety of issues accessing my files, which I took in on a USB thumb drive. Then there was the MS Word in Chinese issue. Fortunately, I’m a big fan of shortcut keys, so I was able to get most of the formatting/functions done. Still, the level of efficiency just wasn’t the same as with my good ‘ol laptop baby. Good news is that the class went fine. I’ll likely be heading back to the internet bar many more times this week. It costs about 2 yuan/hour = 24 cents. My ayi thought that was expensive. I didn’t tell her how much a laptop costs.

So I’m coming clean. I can’t live without my computer. No apologies though. I’m a victim of the technological revolution. So be it.

Oh, you may be wondering why I don’t use John’s computer. First, he uses it for work. Second, it’s a mac and though he always touts the cross compatibility of the two platforms, he’s wrong. It’s inadequate. And I hate macs. I’m not cool enough for them.

I picked up a local magazine today: inside was an article about Chinese parents sending their kids to the plastic surgeon “for their own good.” Here’s their rationale: In a country where the worker pool is so vast, getting the job often boils down to appearances. English is no longer a surefire way on and up the professional ladder. You not only must sound the part, but you also have to look the part, i.e. Chinese women have to possess the Western beauty features. Yes, you heard me right. Forget charges of discrimination– employers here are perfectly free to make such demands, especially for jobs that require “face time”. Image is part of the job, they say.

The obsession with Westerners’ white skin, big eyes, and tall noses is nothing new. Still, it doesn’t make the phenomenon any less disturbing. What’s shocking, however, is the growing trend among children. According to the article, parents are rewarding good grades with a trip or two to the plastic surgeon. In Guangzhou, three area hospitals report that 90 percent of plastic surgery patients are under 16, with the double eyelid surgery being the most popular. The cost can run as low as 1000 yuan or $120. And the parents just chalk it up as another investment into the child’s future: “If getting the surgery gets her a good job, maybe it’s not such a bad thing for a better life.” ARGH!! Yeah, I hate to be judgemental, but this is just too fucked up.

Goodness, these last two days have blown by! A few memorable clashes with the exhausting Shanghai summer heat and bam, the precious weekend is gone. Well today was a good deal of fun. John and I stayed cooped up in the sanctity of our A/C’d office. Actually, we weren’t that lazy: Lenni came over to tutor John and Wu ayi’s daughter Carol came by for her English lesson. The Wu and I are working out a trade: I tutor her daughter and her family watches Remy and Martin next time we go out of town. No more pick-ups and deliveries to the kennel that’s about an hour away. Remy and Martin survived puppy prison just fine, but Jialiang’s services are getting a bit pricey, and they’re never giving me a good deal (without me having to haggle for it every damn time!). Anyway, Carol’s level of English is decent, particularly her reading and pronunciation. It just goes to show– working for a foreign company and being forced to use a new language every days plays a key role. Carol’s pretty young– I think she was born in the 80’s, but she brings a nice energy without any bullshit. For example, she told me that they live with her maternal grandmother. And she said as a matter of factly that she didn’t have much of a relationship with her grandmother. Her gma had wanted Carol to be a boy, so ever since her birth, she wanted little to do with the disappointment. See what I mean? Just another example of women getting the shorter end of the stick. In arguing about “extinction” of the Gou legacy, my father tried to argue that despite my marriage (after which, most Chinese would consider me an Eshleman), I was still a Gou. He said my kids would count as descendants to the Gou line (does it sound like we’re talking about royalty or what?). More over, my father insists that Johnny and I were treated equally and fairly. I’ll admit, the gender preference wasn’t extreme as it could have been, but Johnny certainly wasn’t subjected to curfews post-high school. Nor has he ever been pressured to improve his cooking and cleaning. Nor has he been criticized for being too direct or assertive. Ahh but that’s all water under the bridge right?

Anyway, speaking of why feminism remains relevant today, check out this article on Virgin Airlines’s plans earlier this year to install urinals shaped like a woman’s mouth in their executive clubhouse at JFK Airport. It’s an old story but I’m still fuming about it. Believe it or not, the designer was a European woman. She claimed people were overreacting to her creation, which was intended to be fun and quirky. The public uproar was yet another example of people not having better things to do with their time, she claimed! She then insisted that the picture of a man urinating in a woman’s mouth never even crossed her mind when designing the piece. Meanwhile, Bathroom Mania’s marketing materials stated, “Kisses, the sexy urinal, makes a daily event a blushing experience! This is one target men will never miss!” These people have some nerve!

In happier news, can I tell you that Jaime Oliver is my new hero? I’m not one for cooking (though I am one for eating), so his recipes and cooking tips are of little interest to me. Still, he writes a nice blog– it’s simple yet honest. And after reading about his charity Cheeky Chops and his new restaurant Fifteen, I felt so inspired. From the Cheeky Chops website, “Jamie Oliver had long been thinking about helping unemployed young people by offering them a leg-up into the world of catering. ‘Having not been the brightest banana in the bunch myself, I realized that my biggest weapon in life was the determination, enthusiasm, hands-on and “actions speak louder than words” approach my father taught me, and I wanted to get this across to others, especially those interested in food.’ Jamie’s ideas got whittled down to one main one: ‘to train a team of unemployed kids with an interest and passion for food and to open a new first-class restaurant in London to be run by them.’ And so, the charity Cheeky Chops was born.” Cool dude, eh?

This last week has been very busy for me: I’ve tutored almost every night. No complaints here. My assignment with Cissy wraps at the end of this month, so I’m on the lookout for the next gig. Fortunately, someone heard about me through JobWeek (yes, that publication back from January). On Friday afternoon, I had an interview with a Dutch-Chinese company called Rainbow Consulting. Their managing partner Ms. Zhu Dan is interested in hiring me as an English teaching consultant. Basically, Rainbow does HR consulting– executive assessments to help HR select appropriate workers for their needs, competency training, and organizational management. Dan has an interesting background–born in China, earned her masters in education from Emory, got her MBA in the Netherlands, worked in jewelry sales in Europe, and now heads this training group. We got along quite well during the intereview. We both blunt kinda women. Hopefully, this will materialize into a good opportunity. Dan said she’d get back to me in the next week or two.

Today John and I hit our fave local Chinese restaurant– Dynasty. Had our usual four dishes: fish-flavored eggplant, kao fu (spongy tofu), fried beefchops, stir-fried noodles. AFterwards, we biked to Xiangyang Market– yeah the fake market, the place we try our best to avoid. Well I had to get a watch to replace my Skaagen watch. I love my silver Skaagen, but 1) I can’t read the damn thing– I’m always off by an hour because of there are no ticks on the dial; 2) the mesh band got cut and one of the wires kept catching on everything–including my skin. John and I followed some sketchy dude across the street into an old house, where each room was a fake boutique, so to speak. Anyway, I got myself a fake Omega watch. Nai would be proud– that’s her favorite watch brand. Of course, Nai would think it real– even if the 100 RMB price makes betrays any logic of it being authentic. Needless to say, John was a tough bargainer. They asked 480. I think we could’ve gotten it down to like 60, but I’m ok with 12 USD. I warned them that I would return if I had ANY issues with it. The watch is functional. Not the most stylish, but I’ve learned my lesson. This one has bright, silver big-ass tickmarks against a dark gray face. Hope the thing lasts me a few months. 🙂

After Xiangyang, John and I dropped by Ka De Club where we get DVDs. They actually had Nip/Tuck, which made John very happy.

My god, it is still so damn hot these days. My face is all red from biking today. I wore my hat, but I had trouble keeping it on the whole time. Now I’m sitting here trying to update Goodbers, but my mind is distracted. Sweat beads are running down my face. I know, just turn on the damn AC. But John’s here too, and it’s a competition to see who crumbles first. I know, our silly little games.

My good friend Sue Lee and her family were in Shanghai July 4-5– part of a two-day stopover during their 2-week China/Thailand family vacation. They arrived late in the afternoon on July 4, and the tour had their schedule packed with activites upon arrival. I googled the hotel number she left me to find the hotel name and location. We then trekked northeast on the chiggy (ching gui–elevated rail) to Hankou district. The hotel room was a refrigerator– with the temp set to probably 68 degrees. It’s been so long since I’ve experienced A/C like that, I swear it made me sick the next day.

So we hung out some at the hotel… caught up with ol’ times and then headed out in two taxis to Xintiandi. I know, I’m always bitching about how Anqian loves that damn hoty place, but we had little choice. They were dying for some real American burgers and unfortuantely our top choice, Rendevous, was too far away. So KABB in Xintiandi it was!

John ordered the burger (off the menu), Troy had the chicken quesadilla, Andrew got the steak burrito, and Sue and I shared the pita wedges (mediocre at best). An expensive meal for SH, but hopefully it hit the spot.

The next day, John and I got up early to meet the Lee’s at their hotel. We spent the day with them on the tour bus, shuttling around town. We drove around the French Concession area and visited the White House, which houses SH’s Institute of Arts and Crafts. I was very impressed by the exhibit– a lot of miniature wood and ivory carvings, embroideries, knitting crafts, as well as papercuts and lanterns. Compared with all the shit on the streets, this stuff was very delicate and beautiful. The grounds were nice tool, with a nice garden. Some Englishman named Sassoon used to live there.

Next we went to Xiangyang market. John and I usually avoid that place at all costs, but it’s a standard tourist stop. The Lee family bought a bunch of stuff– Adidas sneakers, swatch watches, a chess set, and Oakley sunglasses. They had fun bargaining. Believe it or not, I’m not into bargaining and shopping that much anymore. I mean, bargains are tough to resist, but as my mother says, “It’s always cheapest not to buy anything at all!”

Afterwards, we had lunch at the Yangtze Hotel. It was Andrew’s birthday; surprisingly, we had a pretty tasty Chinese cake. It was still lighter than what American’s are used to– a sponge cake with a fruit layer and whipped cream frosting. Christine’s brand. I’ll have to remember that. After dessert, I was off to tutor Keiko’s kids. We parted ways as the Lee’s headed for Pudong airport. It was great seeing them, but I wish they could have seen our place and the pups. We’ve still had zero visitors. Sigh. Anyway, next stop on the Sue itinerary? Thailand. Yup, they’ve seen more of China in the last week than John and I have seen in six months. 🙁 Ok, not wholly true. But yeah, we gotta get going on some domestic travel plans.

I’ve been pretty busy this week. Classes resumed full force… and them some. Actually, because of all the courses I missed with Cissy last month, we’re making them all up in July. So Cissy’ll have 15 sessions with me this month. I returned to SABIC this evening–first time in over a month. It was great fun. We went over five writing samples in class. I enjoy that class very much. I brought back a box of Andes chocolates for my students. They devoured the entire package during class. I guess there are not mint/chocolate candies in China. Missing out over here! But at least now I know what to bring back on the next trip to the US.

Speaking of traveling to/from the US, I think the airfares are going back down… at least a little. Heads up buddies: SFO-Beijing is $700. I know, it’s not to SH, but BJ-SH is only about $100. Screw Travelocity and Orbitz on international flights. You gotta check FlyChina instead. Trust me.

Ok well I just got home and am starving. More later.

So I was all eager to get back to work for my first full week back. Unfortunately, as my luck would have it, Keiko cancelled class Monday and Cissy cancelled class Tuesday. Consequently, I was left to non-class activities. I guess I shouldn’t complain… John and I certainly needed several days to overcome jet lag. We’re such wusses with that. The first four days back, we fell asleep around 4-5pm and awoke 12 hours later. But hey, we weren’t the only ones. The dogs were off schedule too. Martin was stopped up for DAYS. Plus, neither dog bothered to wake us for food or trips outside. It was a bizaare few days.

Still, the upside of waking up early is you meet a whole different community. A bunch of retired folk get up for their morning exercises and then there are also a bunch of people who get up for work–delivering produce to the open markets. The street vendors get going early! Bicycles loaded with fresh fruits and veggies flooded the open market. The breakfast people also got going– chopping their onions, kneading their pancake dough, preparing for the morning rush hour lines.

On the other side of town, the streets were barren and peaceful. For once, John and I actually stopped to take pictures. Gorgeous old trees line the streets in central SH and form a beautiful, lush canopy. Breathing the “fresh” morning air was like popping a caffeine pill– we felt so energized. The air was so much better than the usual bus/taxi exhaust during the day.

I’ve started doing yoga in the mornings. An effective jumpstart to the day– not as rigorous as running/going to the gym but still an intense experience. Unfortunately, mybody doesn’t flex like it used to. 🙁 No more nose-to-the-knee skillz. Then again, undergrad was a DECADE ago. Sigh.

John and I returned to some bad news: most of our American friends are leaving China. There’s some kind of mass exodus going on. My friend Em quit her job as an event planner for a British company. She decided she’s just burned out with China. Been here about two years and just needs a break. Her solution? She’s moving to Africa in December. Her boyfriend Zack wraps up his residency this fall and will return to Zambia. He’ll be stationed in a village where he will do community medicine. My friend Anqian, whose been griping about SH since he arrived (against his will) 8 months ago, finally has an escape plan. He signed on with the World Bank and is moving to La Paz, Bolivia to do international economic development. Lastly, my Duke classmate Bill Yen is nearing the end of his post-grad architecture fellowship… I haven’t talked to him in a while but expect he’ll be shipping out as well.

So it’s back to just the two of us– introverts sliding farther toward the anti-social extreme. I know, I have to fight it. We have to build people skills. Add it to the to-do list. Actually, last night I met some friends of Anqian’s. This guy Francis is a co-organizer of ORIENTED happy hours– some global networking group. He said I should attend the next event. I already signed up as a member online so hey, that’s a step in the right diretion. We’ll see what happens.

When we were back in the US, John and I had dinner with some of his coworkers. At one point during the evening, we got to talking about the Myer-Briggs personality test. I figured this was a good opportunity to get reacquainted with my true self. My test result? ISTJ: Introvert, Sensing (vs. Intuitive), Thinking (vs. Feeling), Judging (vs. Perceiving). Codename? Trustee.

Interestingly, the results were even presented on some kind of scale. Supposedly, I was strongly S, T, and J. So nothing’s wrong with the Trustee personality– it describes someone who is orderly, stable, practical, dependable, and faithful. But couldn’t they have selected a more appealing label? I mean, consider some of the other options: journalist, architect (John: INTP), scientist, artisan for crissakes! Yeah, all you other ISTJ’s out there: we got shafted. Big time! And to top it off, check out some of our “suitable” career options: tax auditor, accountant, librarian, mortician! Uh, BO-RING. Boy do I feel terrific about myself.

Well if anything, this led to further interesting discussions. I’m proud to say, I correctly guessed John’s personality. Guess that’s no huge accomplishment when you’ve been with someone for eight years. I know, can you believe it? Summer of 1996. That’s right, both of us taking Engineering Dynamics at UMCP Summer School. Great stuff. Anyway, back to the personality types. You know, I don’t really think I’m that strongly judgemental. I try to empathize, I try to see others’ points of views. I’m not totally closed off to opposing views… What do you think? Friends? Colleagues? Email me your comments. John disagrees with me. He thinks the test is right on. 🙁 And he told me that the test’s creators say you have to wait six months before re-taking the test. Damnit. There goes my chance of getting a better label. Geez, artisan sure has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Like Bubs said, we were due. It was time for us to suffer a mega-pain-in-the-ass experience. As if the 20-hour bustrip to Beijing in May wasn’t enough, our trip back to China was HELL. Luckily, some pleasantries did precede Hell. Generally, things in the US wrapped up for us easy enough. I spent a week frolicking with friends in NYC and in Raleigh. Upon my return, I worked up to the wire and got everything with our townhouse squared away–mostly anyway. I made another stop to see the parents. We went through the usual motions, arguing about Johnny, intentional childlessness, life in China. Fortunately, our heated discussion was cut short by yet another episode on the Wipe Johnny’s Ass Show. Moral #1: You never have to grow up when your parents insist on treating you like an invalid. Needless to say, my stay in Frederick again fell off schedule thanks to continuing computer woes. My parents’ laptop kept abruptly shutting off in the middle of typing. As if I hadn’t suffered through enough customer service nightmares with my own laptop, I got to call Best Buy. I guess it’s partially my own damn fault. My parents would have been fine restarting the computer each time after emailing, but I just couldn’t deal with the major flaw. Plus, I knew they were on some 3-year warranty, so I just had to get it taken care of immediately. Thankfully, the rep quickly deemed the issue a hardware problem so I was actually able to bypass all the bullshit phone troubleshooting. Just in case the laptop would be out of commission for a while, I backed up files and updated my dad’s desktop with hospital access software. Well the updates screwed over the operating system and in the end, my schedule was delayed about 5 hours because I had to reformat and reinstall everything. To make matters worse, I didn’t have my software discs so I had to do the manufacturer’s restore. The desktop is now running Windows 98. FMF flashback! Happy for me, the system is up and working. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

On Thursday, I made it out to Long Beach, CA on JetBlue (so NICE!). Can I tell you the security line at Dulles was backed up along the entire length of the terminal? At 5:30 am?! Thankfully, our pitstop in CA was relaxing. We stayed at a bungalow at the Fairmont in Santa Monica. So nice. We considered it our belated anniversary celebration. Palm trees, white sand, access to a pool and hot tub. It was awesome! Which turned out great because LAX was a nightmare and a half.

First, we were supposed to confirm our flights 72 hours in advance. We forgot. Then, LAX was super-unorganized. China Eastern agents stood around with dot-matrix printouts of passengers taped together. There was NO ORDER anywhere. We got into a line twice that we didn’t even need to get in. Security was a joke. Some lady flipped through pages of my magazine, then the agent walked our luggage across the aisle into a corraled area. Yeah, really secure. Like people can’t just go under the ribbon and fuck around with all the un-supervised baggage there. Anyway, we were put on standby for our flight. Then all the seats were booked, so we got routed on another flight. We asked for a class upgrade and the agent said business class was booked. When we boarded, that section was completely empty. NEVER AGAIN, China Eastern.

Then we weren’t even seated together. I asked the guy next to me if he minded moving and he avoided eye contact and never responded. So I asked him again, like “are you deaf?” Didn’t want to move. Fine, whatever asshole. Yeah so you get the point. The trip back wasn’t good, but I guess we were due. We entered China through Harbin in Manchuria and then flew into Shanghai. About the only good thing that happened was that since we sat at the front of the economy section, we were first to deboard. We breezed past customs, etc. When we finally arrived in Pudong, we had a system all worked out. I waited in line at the bank (currency exchange) while John waited for baggage. That part went pretty efficiently. 🙂 We arrived home late Saturday night. I couldn’t sleep so I got started on our loads of laundry. So I was a little wired…

Today is Sunday. John and I are back to our lives here. This morning, we were up early. We went to the food market, got salad stuff, fruit. We also rode our bikes to City Supermarket to get ingredients for our veggie wraps and hit Baastian for baked goods. We had a ton of mail in our mailbox. In the afternoon, I went to pay our rent and our utilities. Took forever, but I’m glad it’s out of the way.

The dogs were delivered around 1:30. We spoiled them immediately with treats and new toys. Now Remy and Martin are totally conked out in the bedroom. The past three weeks have undoubtedly been very difficult for them. But the Gou-Eshleman nuclear family is back! and we’re (or I’m) thrilled for the start of a new workweek. Yay!

No offense to my American buds over here, but geez, can I go home already? I’m entering week three in the States and I maxed out after about one and a half weeks. I just don’t have the patience for this lifestyle anymore– suburbia madness (this NoVA, after all) that’s obsessed with cars, consumption, and waste. I remember how John and I used to spend every weekend running around town doing shopping errands and cleaning. We probably wasted half our lives buying things we thought we needed, accumulating piles of junk. My poor parents– their basement has become a storage center for our things. Fortunately, we downsized some. I think after we move back, we’re gonna have a big yard sale. Thinking about all the clutter just gives me a headache. I never put two and two together before– but a smaller living space helps keep the goods to a minimum. We’ll see. I think that’ll be the biggest challenge of living here.

So what the hell have I been doing here with all my free time? Heh, heh. I’ve actually had quite a whirlwind tour over here. I’ve seen the parentals, family, former co-workers, John’s colleagues, college friends– gone to Baltimore, NYC, Raleigh. Yeah, got the Amtrak experience (excellent– the train is soooo nice), and also flew on Independence Air on its second day of operation. I’m flying out to the west coast soon, this time on JetBlue. Gotta rack up those frequent flyer miles you know, from as many different airlines as possible. That’ll do a lot of good. 🙁

Outside of catching up with friends, John and I got a lot of logistical stuff done, the most important of which involves our townhouse in Reston. The property management company was a disaster– no statements, no response to my calls, no response to the tenant’s calls. So I spent about a week trying to obtain files on my property (the lease, listing agreement, etc.). Propman fed me a barrel of crap information, saying my tenants were Section 8 (eligible for federal subsidies) then were not Section 8, that maintenance issues would be addressed, that I would get a copy of the lease. The Larsens, whom I met and are thankfully very nice people, also had a hell of a time dealing with Propman. Apparently, the sink had been leaking at move-in and it took a week to get it fixed. I hate incompetence. Needless to say, I terminated our relationship and hired on another management company, one that is also computer savvy. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

In other news, I’ve done more reading in the last week than I’ve probably done in the entire last year. I read the spring issue of Ms. Magazine— it was like an issue specially made for me, with really excellent pieces on pornography, childlessness (by choice), and the global pursuit for white skin. I am also almost finished reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Such an eye-opener. I’m renewing my vows not to eat meat. In addition, I’m going to try and cut out fast food. No more McDonald’s apple pies and french fries and ice cream cones. The truth hurts, but in the end, it’s only food. I’m now looking into a macrobiotic diet, one that is generally vegetarian and consists largely of whole grains, cereals, and cooked vegetables. It doesn’t sound much different from what I was eating, especially in Shanghai where cheese and chocolates are expensive. I dunno. I have to read more about it. Anyway, I think I’m finally ready to just adopt a new program for myself. I need to be healthier.

Once again, John’s company called him back to the States. Another urgent project deadline was approaching, but John was stranded in China because he had lost his passport, which also contained his precious Chinese visa. Yeah, that incident happened weeks ago, but I’ve kept it out of the blog. No need to freak people (i.e. parents) out, right? So John had to reapply for his passport through the US Consulate in Shanghai. Took about 10 business days to get it back. The process wasn’t too bad– the main crisis regarded his Chinese visa. Because neither of us is sponsored by a company in Shanghai, technically, we can only obtain a tourist visa. Last February, we went to Hong Kong to obtain 1-year, multi-entry business visas. That really hooked us up, but apparently, once you lose your visa, the Chinese government will only issue you a 30-day max tourist visa: you have to get out of the country and reapply for your visa. A huge tedious pain in the ass. To top that off, US-China relations are in the dumps these days. The Chinese are angered that the US government has required all Chinese applicants of the US visa to get fingerprinted. In retaliation, China is tightening its issuance of visas to US citizens. Damn Bush! He’s single-handedly ruining the reputation of Americans overseas.

In a way, it was good John lost his visa. We had forgotten the toture of getting things done through the Chinese government. We had forgotten about the archaic, disjointed “computer” systems; we had forgotten about the long lines, the running back and forth to show documentation to various departments. It was a real joy going through the process again. We relearned the emotion of anger.

I guess things worked out somewhat. John had to get out of the country, and fortunately, this timed well with work. Also, several of my students cancelled class in June, so I too, was able to get away. For me, this is the first time back in the US in six months. My first impressions? Big. Everything is huge– the roads, the cars, the homes, the people, the food portions. The US is truly the land of excess. My father used to say to me, “You just don’t know how lucky you are.” Back then, it was a seriously broken record. I thought I DID know, but honestly, living out of the US, particularly in a developing country, you really come to understand that statement. I’d venture to say that even the poorest of Americans do not know the abject poverty that exists elsewhere. The magnitude is astounding. China has a population of over 1 billion people. The majority are rural dwellers/peasants. Poverty has driven many into the cities, to take on manufacturing jobs– jobs for which there are no worker unions, worker rights, OSHA regulations… but when these workers and their families live on the brink of starvation, such issues are really of little concern. The struggle for survival makes all those things that we Americans find so intrinsic to human rights, sound like fluff. Being in China makes me appreciate my extreme good fortune in life. I really have had the freedom to make choices about my life and how I want to live it. That doesn’t exist in as many places as I had originally thought. There are a lot of great comforts in the US: central air/heating, cleaner air, plenty of food, etc… But I miss Shanghai and want to go back already (after just a week in the US). There is something to be said about gaining this new perspective. We still live well in SH, but our life is less about accumulating stuff and keeping up with the Jones’. In that sense, we feel even more liberated than we did living in the “Home of the Free.”