I have been working like CRAZY lately… if it isn’t report cards it’s some sort of parent meeting or team brainstorming session about writing next trimester.  I know, wah, wah, wah… But my point is, I haven’t even had a minute to think about Istanbul and I leave this Saturday.  Me, Miss Make a List and Check it Twice traveler doesn’t even know what she will wear on the plane (which is something more people should consider, college hoodies or sweats with ‘Juicy’ on the rear don’t count as travel wear – I don’t care how many hours you are in the air – we all have to look at you).  I digress.

Like I was saying… my hours working are looooong, and the other day, I left the small, top, most important piece because it’s what plugs into the wall to charge the computer part of my charger in the extension cord at my favorite coffee place while writing the above mentioned report cards.  Now I am not sure if you are aware, but Apple rarely gives any sort of discount. I remember when they used to package the chargers with the iPods and now they sell them separately… so when I, meaning my Chinese speaking TA, called the cafe the next morning and they said they had it (smile), but then I went in that afternoon and they said they didn’t have it (frown), I wasn’t looking forward to buying a new charger in Hong Kong.  I thought it would set me back about $40US.  I wish.

I get to the new Apple store and it turns out they charge $588HK – that’s about $100US for the small, top, most important piece because it’s what plugs into the wall to charge the computer part of my charger. Ugh.  But then a miracle!  The guy at the Apple store actually gives me the Hong Kong version of said piece – for free! Although I live on main land China, my landlord has Hong Kong style outlets in the apartment.  I know, it’s complicated but at least I can charge it at home now.

So today as I am walking home from my other favorite coffee house, one of the waiters at the place I lost the adapter runs outside and hands me my original, small, top, most important piece because it’s what plugs into the wall to charge the computer part of my charger.  I swear I almost hugged him!  Another miracle!

Look, it may not seem like one to you, but man, I was thanking everyone at that moment.  I could have danced home!  Sometimes, China just surprises me in the best ways.

Living in China is great because you can get pretty much anything delivered.  But like most things, there is a trick to it.  Take for instance the delivery of my beautiful armoire.

The warehouse where I bought my new love doesn’t deliver – they contract that part out.  About an hour after paying, the owner calls up the delivery guy and they tell us it will be delivered tomorrow (Sunday).  It’s a perfect excuse for me to stay home and just veg. Great, right?  Well, hold on.  On Sunday, the call never comes; the truck never gets to my place (even though we called the store and they said the stuff had been picked up).  Oddly, I don’t panic. I just go to bed and sleep like a baby.  Living in China has taught me loads of patience.  So I go to work Monday with the understanding that I (meaning my friend Jen who speaks Chinese) will call the furniture store to see what’s happening.

Suddenly, I get a call in the middle of a lesson. The delivery truck is ready to drop off my furniture.  Teaching is different than most jobs in that I just can’t drop everything and leave.  So a very long story, several phones calls with my TA translating for me, recess duty, me teaching, with my students asking me questions later, the delivery guy actually says that my cabinet is really heavy and he can’t deliver it to my apartment.  Ummmm, you are the delivery guy.  That’s why I am paying you.  It turns out there are two types of delivery people in China. The ones who take it to your apartment, and the ones who don’t. I had the ones that don’t.

So now we have Jen’s husband involved because he speaks fluent Chinese trying to get all of this coordinated.  Within about an hour and a half of thinking the guy was just going to drop off my armoire at the bottom of the steps, to getting someone to cover my after school activity, I was feeling stressed but things were looking up.

I finally get to Jen’s house, her items delivered, so I ride in the delivery truck back to my place, paying two guys off of the street to help me, Yves (les Bleus should have won), and Yitzchak (Jen’s husband) carry it to my apartment… all I can say is, it’s a good thing I absolutely love this cabinet.  It just feels like it is home after a long journey away from me.  Weird, I know.  But that’s the feeling I get.

Note to self: next time there is a delivery, make sure to get the guys that go to your apartment.  And, I’d better LOVE it.

Shopping or I should say, bargaining in China takes practice.  The last time I went to Zhuhai, I wasn’t sure what a good price for something was. I mean, as soon as I walk into a store, being a Westerner, the prices go up by half (or at least it feels like that sometimes).  It helps to have a good background on what things should cost, what you are willing to pay, and what you are willing to walk away from. Plus, you always hear the stories of people saying, I only paid 50RMB for some marvelous cabinet… like I said before, those days are loooooooong gone. However, yesterday in Zhuhai, I fell in love.

My friend Jen, or should I say my light in this dark town of Shekou (just for you Jen) and I planned a trip to Zhuhai and we invited Yves and Emmanuelle (Allez les Bleus!) for some furniture shopping.  I was planning on purchasing some knick-knacky stuff for gifts; plus I am saving my money for Istanbul so I was just kind of hanging around helping out when suddenly, I had a vision.

I saw myself in my future home, pulling out linens from this fabulous piece of furniture that I saw from across the warehouse; telling one of my interesting future friends that I got this stunning cabinet when I lived in China.  I could almost smell the food cooking, see the candles on the table, and hear the conversations from yet another successful dinner party in one instant of seeing this beautiful piece of wood. They say that men shop for things and women shop for situations.  So true.

Both Jen and I decided that we are in the wrong business.  We should be restoring furniture and selling it for heaps of money.  Trust me, I am going to look into this immediately.

Now, I am just waiting for my lovely new cabinet to be delivered.  In the photos below, it’s the big, black piece with the yellow flowers.  Simply gorgeous.

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My parents know how to throw a party. Anyone who is invited to my parent’s for any type of fiesta, understands that they are in for a treat. Their house is very warm and welcoming and the food… well the food is always fantastic and even a bit unexpected at times. Plus, any type of dessert is ridiculously heavenly. So like any offspring of an artist, I have learned from the greats.

If you read this blog on a consistent basis, you may have noticed that I complain a bit about the social scene around here – so yes, Baby Claire decided to put on her big girl pants and do something about it. Dinner party!

The folks I invited are people I consider good friends. They are the people that I want to stay in touch with, like, forever. I am so happy they are in my lives. They inspire me to be a better person.

The thing you also need to know about my parents and their parties is that they cook all of the food. Yes, my sisters help but it’s all Susan and Dan. For instance, my parents threw an Oktoberfest party this weekend. Seventy people were invited. Seventy. Food and drinks for seventy people… the storage for the plates and glasses alone is amazing. So my dinner party of seven with food being delivered is like the kitty pool compared an Olympic size pool, really. With that said, Baby Claire’s party was a success and now I feel confident for many more.

Plus, I bought some folk art and had it framed – I just picked it up today, my friend Jen found the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War for 15RMB, we finally found the cool pottery place we had been looking for, got a mani/pedi, and I have leftover Indian food in my fridge. Life is good.

So I started up my Chinese lessons again. I feel that if I don’t do this, I am really wasting a good opportunity. Plus, I feel much more a part of China when I can speak the language. I was feeling all good about myself after my first session back, so I head down to Old Shekou to pick up some things… I go to the frame shop and in English the lady tells me, “Two day.” And with all the confidence in the world I say back to her, ‘Xing qi wu ma?’ which essentially means Friday, yes? and then she replies, ‘blah, san, blah she, blah, blah…’ I freeze. Confidence vanished. Dang it. I guess I do have to study after all.

On a lighter note, I just picked up my new clothes from the tailor. I had downloaded several pictures of some dresses from Anthropologie with prices ranging from $250 to $295 and had them samed samed for about $20 US each. And for the record, every girl should have a gold, sequined short skirt. Everything I had made looks great… I am getting this tailor stuff down. And dang it, I look good!

Sometimes, China is alright.

I stayed over in Hong Kong last night. My friend had a conference so it was a free hotel room for Claire!  I hadn’t been back to the Konger since before summer break but I have to tell you, it’s like riding a bike.  I had no problems finding my way around the city and even pushed my way out of crowded metro cars several times.  I was all over it.  I even found some 120 film to go with my vintage camera – yeah me! Walking around the alleyways of Central is a great way to see Hong Kong… away from the Taco Locos and Organic Hamburger restaurants.

As a quick side, the Sundaram Tagore Gallery is showcasing a photographer named Robert Polidori.  Beautiful and inspiring… worth a look… http://www.sundaramtagore.com/exhibitions/2011-09-15_robert-polidori/selected-works/.

All photos and videos were taken on my iPhone and edited on my Mac using Apeture and iMovie.  RIP Steve Jobs – thanks for rethinking technology and the fantastic gadgets. 

Enjoy the photos and videos!

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Yesterday, I ventured to IKEA with my friend Andrea.  This is her first year here and I was asked to be her social buddy.  You might not know this but currently here in China, it’s the Chinese National Holiday, which is similar to the Fourth of July in the US.  As a result, I have a five-day weekend.  Go Mao.

The thing is about a holiday here is that everyone is off work, so everything is just bit busier and more crowded.  And that means more people shopping.

We get to IKEA pretty early in an effort to avoid the masses but we do have some things to purchase so the time got away from us. At one point after I stopped a woman from rifling through my shopping cart, I looked at Andrea and I said, ‘We need to get out of here. Now.’  I was suddenly very aware of the massive amount of people and noise that surrounded us.  At first, I let Andrea try to get us out of the kitchen section and I realized that’s she just a rookie.  It’s like sending an elementary school soccer club to the Olympics.  So I grabbed the front end of the cart, she let out a sigh of relief, and I lead the way. I tell you it was a battle of wills, no eye contact, that’s right, I am Westerner and I am going first type of event.  I was even a bit sweaty afterwards.  But we got out.

Shopping anywhere in China on a weekend or holiday is not for the weak.  Below is a video that I took last year from my Saturday trip to Walmart.  Now is a good time for small children to leave the room. You’ve been warned.

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About three years ago, I took a writing workshop in San Diego.  It was one of those extension courses through SDSU that turned into monthly meetings in Del Mar with some of the people from the course.  I enjoyed that workshop for a couple of reasons. Mostly because it was surprising to see what people wrote. For instance, I would have never guessed that this one woman lived and worked in Africa with her husband for half her life.  Also, it got me writing. Like photography, I don’t think I am the best but I enjoy it and people seem to enjoy it on some level.

While taking this course, there was an incident that happened with a female coworker that got me thinking about the way girls communicate. I began to write an article about it and came up with a list of rules for which I believe apply today.  I call them Girl-Speak Rules and I recently stepped right into #2 She Means What She Says (Until She Changes Her Mind) and #3 Avoid Confrontation (Let Someone Else Do the Dirty Work).

I won’t go into too many details but I had been planning something fun for some people and I had enlisted the help of two of the women that work with me because they know a lot of people and seemed happy to help.  This thing turned into a bit of a monster and several times along the way, I had asked these women if we should proceed with plans or just cancel the event – they weren’t really following up on their end.  But they just smiled and said of course, it will be fun. Well, push came to shove; I ended up canceling the event with both of those girls encouraging me to continue.  It was actually a bit of a relief.  But I just had this nagging sensation that something wasn’t right so I did a bit of diggy, diggy and I found some dirt.

Essentially, these two women had been going around town saying a bunch of crappy things about the event behind my back as the event began to become a bit too big.  And I guess for me, I find that all too often with some women.  I don’t know if that they just don’t want to be seem as uncooperative or only want to be seen as nice… or even worse, some are just that catty, but many women don’t seem to communicate directly.  With some women, it’s like a maze of signs, conversations, mind readings, and talking with others before I find out what’s really happening. If they didn’t want to do it, just tell me. And it was two other women who told me about all of this after the fact and my other question is… why didn’t they tell me this was going on?

The confusing thing for me is that one of the girls involved has texted me several times since the cancelation to hang out.  Huh?  I would prefer for us not to be friends.  It’s much clearer that way. I understand venting about someone but to consciously undermine someone behind their back while smiling at them is just weird to me.

I feel fortunate because I believe the women in my life who are very good people. I have built a very strong circle of women around me who are confident, loving, kind, and communicate well.  I feel so fortunate to have these people in my life, especially after what happened with that event.  I would blame China, but I am afraid she is free and clear on this one.

As a side note, I am sitting here a café and on the TV is a Chinese show with a masked man trapped in a gold net floating in the sky surrounded by another man with a gold face praying, a flying tiger, a dragon, and clouds.  Wait! Two monk-types just entered the scene and I think they are going to fight… Oh. And Britney Spears in on the radio. Sometimes, China is awesome.