My ode to toilets

Having just been to China, I had the privilege of experiencing the evolution of the toilet system upon my various excursions in the country. So right now I would like to share my toilet encounters with you all.

Dirt Hole
The first toilet consisted of nothing more than a dirt hole in the ground. This toilet system can still be found throughout the Chinese countryside, at my relative's farms, and anywhere that a person "cannot hold it in" anymore. Below is a picture of me leaving from such an instance where the dirt hole system had to be used.

The wooden squatty potty

Next came the wooden squatty potty. It was an improvement from the hole in that you were guaranteed to avoid the "pee on yourself" folly that happens with the dirt hole system. However, the wooden squatty is also the breeding ground for diseases. This wooden squatty happen to be built in between 2 pig pens.

The ceramic squatty potty

This is the most common squatty potty found in China. I also encountered this toilet system in Narita International Airport. The advantages of this toilet is that it is easy to clean and is often times flushable. Also, the user avoids contact with any part of the toilet system, making this the preferred toilet system in public restrooms in China. A disadvantage is that not all people are capable of squatting as age and obesity can make this a difficult, if not impossible, way to use the bathroom.

The Porta Potty

The next generation of toilets came with the invention of the porta potty. Here, a sitting toilet is created and used but must be emptied out on a daily basis. The toilet is stored inside the house, usually next to a window. My aunt and uncle currently still use a toilet such as this. When I was little I was fascinated by their toilet and sat on it everytime I visited their place. A similar looking one can be seen below.

The wooden toilet

Next we have the wooden toilet. It's a toilet that is part ceramic and part wood. The toilet seat is made of wood and to flush the toilet you pull a lever and water comes charging from the plumbing. The disadvantage of this toilet is great, the greatest being the inability for the flush to generate enough water power to flush simple things like one sheet of toilet paper down the drain. This toilet can be found at my grandma's house. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the toilet while I was there, so your imagination will have to do.

The Plastic Toilet

Next came the sitting toilet with plumbing and a plastic seat. Although this is better than all the previous systems, it still leaves something to be desired. Mainly, when sitting on this toilet it is difficult to determine whether you are actually sitting on a toilet seat or the rim of the toilet.

The Ceramic Toilet

Finally we have the toilet that most Americans are familiar with today. The ceramic toilet with a nice firm seat. Having used all the above on my last trip, the ceramic toilet is a little like finding candy amist a sea of vegetables.

China: more pictures

Here are more pictures from my trip to Szechuan, the rest are going on my Facebook....

Here's me climbing through a bunch of trees to use the bathroom. Well, its not really a bathroom I was trying to reach so much as a place that was out of sight so that I could do my business with out people watching since I couldn't hold it in anymore...I know, big shocker. All I have to say is, Tony's little threat of pulling over to the side of the road no long scares me!



Here's some pretty scenery.





Here's more pictures of the extended family

Everyone in my family has the same eyes as it turns out, so it was a little scary seeing people I've never met and having them look like me. These are my cousins.

China Pictures

Here are some pictures from my trip to Szechuan...

This is me with some of my cousins

This is me and the extended family.

This is me carrying a basket...because of the hilly terrain, the basket is how people carry stuff from place to place. (the thing weighs a ton!)

This is the house that my relatives live in. The house is over 120 years old...my great, great grandparents used to live in this house. It's made completely of concrete and wood, has no heat, and only recently was the floor cemented down (before it was made of dirt). It's probably one of the nicest houses in this village. The weather in Szechuan is very similar to the weather in southern Iowa, so in the wintertime the place gets really cold.

Here's a picture of my parents and me. This is here simply because I love my parents (and they sometimes check my blog) :-)

China: Last Sunday

Do you ever do things that at the moment you do it, you know it's embarassing but you decide that the fun of doing the thing far outweighs the embarassment that you will feel afterwards?

This year and last year I made a few music videos with people from Navs. At the time it seemed like the funnest idea ever. However, the consequences have been rather embarassing. For example, last year's video fell into the hands of my friend Mike I. (actually my friend Mark P. is probably the biggest culprit) and a few other people. And let's just say, I've made an impression on almost every person to step into Mike's house. This year's video went to my parents, and once again, everyone that's been to my parent's place has witnessed my music video debut. I suppose I should be thankful that no one recorded Hill, Anne, Jerry's, and mine performance of a Celine Dion tune from last year.
I bring this up because my parents are showing my music video to my relatives right now and I am too embarassed to sit in the same room as the music videos unfold (yes, I say videos because I think they have a collection of at least 5 songs)
Sadly, I will probably make my self embarassed in similar ways by year end.

China; day-I've lost count

There's this store called Carrefour by my parents place. It's a glorified Super-Walmart and I have managed to go to this store at least once a day since I've been in China. There's nothing special about the store, but I guess it shows how bored I sometimes get.

I've also had 2 facials and massages since I've been here and will probably get one more before I leave. The good thing about living in a city with a lot people is that labor supply always exceeds demand so things requiring people are always really cheap. I've never gotten naked in front of someone before and I can't say I really enjoy it. Only a towel of seperation between me and my massuer (sp?) doesn't seem like enough. I've never gotten a massage before and I must say, the awesomeness of it definately outweighs my self-consciousness, especially since I almost fell asleep the last time because it was so relaxing. I definately recommend it.

After reading what I wrote I realized that it's a rather boring entry. But just now I found 20 bucks next to the computer. The end.

More stuff on China

Ok, so I've lost count as to how many days I've been in China, but I know that I have less than a week left.
I just returned from Szechuan (totally mispelled) yesterday. I went to a city that is about 2 hours outside of Chengdu, meaning, I was literally in the middle of nowhere. The city that I went to has some of the most incredible scenery that I've ever scene. The place is pretty much all mountains and streams and I guess pandas oringated from the region that I visited. It's incredible because techinally Szechuan is no longer considered to be the foothills of the Himalayas, yet the effects of the Himalayian mountains can be totally seen and felt. Anyways, enough about mountains and such.
I can't remember the name of the city that I just went to, but it is suppose to be my ancesteral home. And it turns out ALOT of my relatives live there. When we got to our hotel last Sunday we were greeted by over 30 relatives, all of whom I had no idea even existed. And as I later found out, over half the people in city are named Gao (the other half are named Yang), and are in some way or another related to me...apparently, transportation and travel is still in its infancy in this part of China.
Here are some other interesting tidbits from my trip:

1. My great grandparents used to own alot of land, infact my great grandfather was a landlord and got killed by bandits when my grandpa was fairly young. I also found out that during the Cultural Revolution my great grandmother was tortured and beaten to death because our family owned lots of land.
2. My relatives are also really, really poor. My family now only owns enough land to cultivate and feed themselves with not much left over, the rest were taken by the government and divided among the other villagers. In terms of poverty, I'm not really sure how to explain the depth of which poverty exists in this part of China. For instance, I make more money in 2 weeks than most of my family makes in a whole year...its amazing how much waste we have in our lives and how much we take things for granted and can live without when forced to.
3. Chinese people are also very collective and familar. Everything my family and I did while in Szechuan was done with the WHOLE family, we never spent any alone time other than to sleep. My relatives even followed me into the bathroom, which is really uncomfortable when its one of those open squatting things. On this trip I remembered how indivualistic I can be at times. For over 4 days I had absolutely no time to myself and I could feel the energy drain from me earlier and earlier each day. But I also realized how important family is and how strong my relatives hold that bond between kin to be true.
4. I also ate more unrecognizable food on this trip than any other time in my life. My relatives raise and grow all their own food and don't waste anything. And since I didn't want to be rude, I put things down my stomach that I had no idea where it came from or what part of a something that it was. Although I did pay for this as I got a mild case of food poisoning towards the last couple days of my trip.
5. It also turns out Chinese people hit on girls in pretty much the same way as Americans. For our trip we had a driver drive our family around to places and the driver kept wanting to talk to me. First, he said really bad things about Bush and our war on Iraq which made me really upset, but I didn't really want to say anything (see point number 6) and then right after that he said something to the extent of how fate has brought us together and so we're now friends or something like that. Then I went for a walk on my own (refer to point 3) and the driver followed me and was like, "follow me." Of course I was really hesitant, but since I had no excuse for saying no, so I followed him to our car and he started playing music for me and asked me if I knew what the words meant, which I didn't. (Thankfully then my dad and some other people got worried about me and started looking for me.) So that was the first full day in Szechuan. For the rest of the trip he kept saying how we're not so different, asked me if I had a boyfriend, asked me if I thought he was overweight (which translated in English is the equivelant of if I thought he looked good), making general conversation I didn't understand, and also took a picture of him and me together (and put his arm around me)...I don't think I've ever looked more uncomfortable than in these moments of correspondence.
6. I also understood about 15% of what people around me said. It turns out the language barrier was huge for my whole family as the dialect in Szechuan was really different and not everyone knew how to speak Manadrin well. So most of the time I just smiled and nodded, which was awkward at times because I should have responded during some key nod moments.

I think that's all I want to write for now as I'm sick of typying, I haven't used this much English in almost 2 weeks and its starting to exhaust me :-)

China: day 2-4ish

Here are some interesting tidbits from my last few days in China...

Yesterday I went with my mom and a few relatives to visit my grandpa's gravesite. This is apparently a big deal in my family because they only go once a year and waited for me so that I could go with them. My mom and I left the house at around 7am to pick up my aunt because we had no idea where we were going. We got to the my aunt's place via a taxi and decided that since we were running late to take the taxi to the nearest subway station. It turns out the subway statation was on the other side my parent's house so we literally drove around in circles and wasted 25minutes. We took the subway to downtown Shanghai, which was supposedly by the bus stop that we needed to be at. It took us 15minutes to walk from the subway station to the bus stop. At the bus stop we waited for about 30-35minutes in the rain because buses in China runs late on rainy days. Then it took us another hour and 15minutes to get to the actual gravesite. That's 3 hours total. We were the last to get there and so we went to the gravesite, said some few things to a cement marker in the ground, put some flowers in a plant by the grave, and bowed our heads 3 times (didn't really understand this part, but I guess its what Chinese people do). We were at the gravesite for at MOST 20 minutes. We then waited 10minutes to get dropped off at the bus station and took an hour bus ride to one of my other aunt's places to have lunch. And then afterwards my mom and I walked 20minutes to catch a bus and road for another hour on a bus, then took a taxi to get home. In all I spent over 5 hours on the road and 20minutes at a gravesite. I did, however, manage to sit next to a smelly man on the bus and also caught a cold. Woohoo.
So the lesson from yesterday is this: transportation in China stinks! Walking, taxi, busing, it doesn't matter...it all takes forever.

Other actual highlights so far include seeing my little cousin (who thinks I'm like the best cousin the world), my senile grandmother (who at first didn't recognize me but then when she did hugged me and wouldn't let me go), being taller than most women and men, and spending time with the fam. I've also had my eyes reopened to the meaning of poverty but I will wait until after I get back from central China to talk about that.

Crappy highlights include having a "2nd hand smoker throat" (the pollution here is so bad that I have developed a continual scratch in my throat), having people stare at me all the time (apparently I look different), having a sore back from sleeping on a mattress that has the firmness of a wooden plank, not understanding what people say, not being able to read and therefore look stupid when I ask (which could explain why people keep looking at me funny), and catching a cold the 2nd day I was here.

I have however watched X-Men I and II, and bought Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which I'm hoping will be able to be played in English), and will try to find and watch a pirated copy of the Da Vinci Code before I leave.

Finally, I have also learned that propriety does not exist in China. Don't ask me how I know, but trust me, I know.

Day 1 in China

Ok, so I don't think I'm allowed to read blogs in while in China, perhaps its a security issue. It's about 7am here in Shanghai and I already have been up for at least 2 hours...gotta love jetlag. This morning I realized that Chinese television sucks. I don't understand what any of the shows are about, and the only channel that's in English is some dumb business news station. I found 2 stations that showed cartoons but the cartoons weren't that great either. My mom and I are going to go for a walk in a little bit to buy breakfast and I think I'm going to buy some English movies this afternoon so that I'll have something to watch in the mornings.

So here's a review of my long flight to China: I landed in Tokyo last night and had to use the bathroom. As I was walking in the bathroom I noticed 2 girls walking from stall to stall, I followed them to the back part of the bathroom and they went into their stalls. I looked left and I saw a sqauty-potty, with a nice picture drawn on the side on the stall to show that its a squatty-potty. At first I had thought I walked into the wrong bathroom, but then I realized that I was in Asia and people here use squatty-pottys. But do not worry...there were normal toilets on my right so I used those. My goal is to not use a squatty-potty the entire time I am here.

In China, I had to wait in line to clear customs. The line was super long so I decided to take my camera out and take a picture of the "Welcome to Shanghai" sign. A customs police than came over to me and told me I can't take pictures...oops, I now have a rare photo of a "Welcome to Shanghai" sign on my camera...perhaps I can sell it on Ebay:-)

Finally, this morning I got blasted in the shower. It was like that Sienfield episode where Kramer buys a super powerful, illegal showerhead. The showerhead was so powerful that I can only stay under the water for 10secs before needing a quick water break...crazy engineers!

So those are the happenings as of the last 24 or maybe its been 48 hours (I lost a day traveling so I'm a little confused)...hope all in well.

I'm off...

Well, its close to bedtime and tomorrow I'm off to China. I haven't really had time to think about China so I haven't been as excited for this trip as I have been for other vacations. But the great news is: in less than 48 hours I will get to see my parents, and I haven't seen my mom in almost 4 months! I get to spend almost 3 weeks in China and my parents are taking me to a rather remote village in central China, so I'm really excited for that. Lately I have been feeling extra materialistic and self-centered and I am hoping for God to put some perspective in me while I am in China. I'm also hoping to get solid sleep in the next few weeks. Lately I've been waking up around the wee hours of the morning (I'm guessing somewhere between 4 and 5am) with dreams and break in my REM cycles; so if you would like, please pray that I will no longer wake up with sporadic dreams and such and to have continuous 8-9 hour sleepomg cylces.

I will miss talking and hanging out with everyone while I am away, but I look forward to hanging out with ya'll/y'all when I come back. Speaking of which, when I come back I will have absolutely nothing to do. I'm a little nervous about this, I have never not had direction in my life or things to do; but yet I have chosen to be a vagabond for 3 months of my life. My goal during this time is to grow closer to God, not go more into debt, spend time with family and friends, and to watch lots of movies and read lots of books. I hope to not be a complete bum; however, there are no garauntees. I'd also like to take cheap road trips to places, so if anyone has a good idea, please let me know.

Some movies I plan on watching this summer include: All 3 Lord of the Rings in a row (that's like 9 hours of continuous TV!), finish off Harry Potter, all the X-Mens (I've never seen), and any other comic-book type movies and lots of other more random ones. Books I plan on reading: that I'm not sure of, so if you have recommendations please let me know.

Well, its definately past my bedtime, as its approaching 10:30 now. Signing off from Minnesota, USA for probably the last time this month,

Chen

More stuff about CSOM

So I wanted to write this down before I forget...tonight was the last night of business week at our school. For those of you who don't know what business week is, its a week long event that the business school puts on each spring where they bring in speakers and provide free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to CSOM students. The week is always capped off with a bar event. The bar event is THE main attraction of business week. Everyone whose over 21 and lives on campus goes to the event. Each year the school provides us with four free drinks, some munchies, and lots of people. Think of it as homecoming for college students. So tonight I went to our bar event and it was amazing! I saw some really awesome friends who I haven't seen all semester because of work and lack of school. We all drank together and danced together. I'm highlighting all this to point out another difference between CSOM relationships and other college relationships. Everyone at the bar knew each other or were seperated by one degree of seperation. Because of the closeness of each person's relationship with the people in the bar, things that happen in a normal bar do not happen at CSOM events. Don't get me wrong, people still get drunk; but things such as guys coming on to girls never happen...and if it does I can garauntee that its 1. Out of jest or 2. the guy is not a CSOMer. The reason for the lack of a booty call is obvious: you do not want to face the embarassment of your actions at school the next week. Just like high school, social protocals still exsist and breaking such norms would be detrimental to your social career. All this to say, if you think high school culture disappears in college, just come to a bar event and my friend Susan call tell you that high school culture is alive and well in CSOM...the only difference is that, the dress code is alot looser, alcohol is a legal substance, and your circle of friends gets bigger and more eclectic.

So here's some pictures of our exciting night:

This is us at the beginning of the night, and before I had my 2nd and 3rd shot of a drink called a mellonball (like I said, free drinks curteosy of our school and our student service fees).

Here's a picture of us after a few drinks and before we busted out on the dance floor to burn off all out calories:

Just like the picture, our brains were getting a little fuzzy, but even with the fuzziness social protocals remained unchanged...but just like high school there also the wierdos:

And the wannabees:

Ahhh..you gotta love dances. (I have more pictures, but for those you will have to stay tuned to Facebook and see the rest of the scandalous photots :-)

My top 10 list

The art of saying no to guys can be a very tricky thing. You don’t want to come off as conceited and mean, but at the same time you don’t want to give the other guy hope. Having been both successful and unsuccessful in situations such as these I decided to come up with a top 10 list of things to say or do when rejecting the opposite sex:

10. Whenever possible play the dancing game. When the guy leans in to talk, you lean back. When the guy looks you in the eye, look away. Always counteract the other person’s move. By doing this, you are telling the person to maintain their current distance and that any advances are not welcomed.

9. Avoid eye contact. This is obvious, but when avoiding eye contact also make sure to not be blushing or smiling as this could be taken as “playing hard to get.”

8. Be non-responsive. Keep you answers short and to the point and never ask questions back or pretend to be anything more than just “politely” interested in what the other person is saying.

7. Walk away. If you are with friends pretend that your friends are the most interesting things in the world and that you cannot imagine a moment with them by your side, even if this new person is “really cute.” (And don’t be afraid to say this either, then you can avoid the whole “mean” thing)

6. Stare at them when they are talking and keep asking them to repeat themselves because you do not understand or cannot hear what they are saying.

5. Tell them that you have smelly feet or fart in front of them.

4. Lie and tell them you have a boyfriend, are gay, or just not interested in pursuing anything right now.

3. Pretend to be distracted by another person of the opposite sex and stare at that person until it becomes uncomfortable for all 3 people.

2. Take a couple of drinks in front of the person and then blame it on the alcohol when telling them about how they are “so not even worth talking to, let alone date.”

1. Tell them the truth, that they are not attractive, not personable, not worthy, or just plain not your type.

Oh cruel world!

I have a rare allergic reaction to exercise that is often induced by the eating of seafood, and up until today it has been the only confirmed allergy. Now the correct medical terminology for my disease is called exercise-induced anaphylaxic shock. What happens is this: after cardiovascular exercise my body starts to swell and if the condition worsens my throat starts to swell up and I go into "shock" (blood pressure and heart rate drops) and need to shoot myself with an Epipen and some benedryl. I discovered this condition last April when I was running to class and passed out at Baseline, last summer I also went into shock after a step class in Boston. Since those times I have stopped eating seafood (which was the main cause of this disease) and have slowly gotten back into running.
I love running in the cities, it energizes me and, more importantly, it destresses me and takes my mind off of things I do not like or want to think about. I am suppose to run with a few things: an epipen, a cell phone, and a medical ID bracelet. I currently run with: my house keys and an IPod. Now, in order for me to carry all these things with me as I run is nearly impossible as stuff would fall out with every bounce of my step; so I chose to run at my own risk.
My doctor has always told me that certain pollens, trees, and other things natural to my environment could trigger an attack; but since each case is different, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is I am allergic to. Today, I found out that I am allergic Spring. After my run, my arm started to do the normal red blotch and swelling thing; except today my hands also started to swell (sign number 1 of trouble) and then my lips (sign number 2) and then my face (this is where I usually go uh-oh). I was still a good quarter of a mile away from home (and my trusty epipen) and without a phone. I had a few choices: 1. Run home (which would make my condition worse, but get me closer to the epipen) 2. Rub my face and body (which might as well be a literal death sentence) or 3. Walk and pray that the swelling goes down once my heart rate decreases. I opted for choice 3 and after about 10 minutes, the swelling, itchiness, and redness started to die down.
Now here is my confession: I do not scared from many physical things, but this running thing has me a little nervous. It has been getting worse and worse as I get closer and closer to summer and I am afraid that one of these days I will need to shoot myself with the Pen again...so should I stop running outside altogether? But its the outside and the act of being there in physical exertion that makes me feel good...but what if I die from doing it?