Jengdu

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Cockwork Orange: Ultimate Frisbee in Bangkok!

At the end of February, Bill and I made a blitz trip to Bangkok to play in an Ultimate Frisbee hat tournament (they draw your name out of a hat and put you on a team, so it's O.K. to show up solo). It sparked what would become a rejuvenation of frisbee in our lives, and the start of frisbee in Chengdu! We dropped off our stuff and went immediately to the first tournament party (yes, that Hoegarrden is as big as my head).

Saturday morning, we continued to be stunned by the Thai alphabet, the bustling city complete with elephants in the street, and most importantly, the SUN. We arrived at the military base where we would play and prepared to sweat our socks off.

It was by far the most impressively-run tournament I've ever attended. There were chefs on the sideline cooking up authentic Thai bbq and a variety of other cuisines. The fields were well-maintained, the folks were friendly, and there was plenty of water and beer for everybody.

My team was composed of players from all over Asia: Vietnam, China, Thailand, Tawain, Singapore... as well as some other, even farther-away places. One guy had just returned from working for a few months in Antarctica! It was so much fun to run around and play again after the cold, cloudy winter in Chengdu. My chi was beginning to awaken...

Bill and I had both been pretty inactive during the winter months, and so our bodies and brains were exhausted at the end of the day. There were women giving cheap Thai massages in the shade, so Bill partook of their kneading and digging while I played my last game.

The ladies of Cockword Orange were a pretty tough crew. We played hard and made it into the A-bracket, but some silly mistakes kept us from advancing after our 2nd game of the 2nd day. That was O.K. by me, though. It meant more pad thai and chilling out in the hot Thai sun.

In this picture, Bill is walking the disc up to the line in his orange street-sweepers hat under a bright yellow tent. Neither of us realized that this tournament would spark more frisbee in our lives here. We're planning to play at China Nationals in Beijing in May, and we've started up weekly practices here in Chengdu. Several of my co-workers have come out to play, and we've hooked up with a group of Chinese players as well!

Painting the Mountains: A Trip to the Rooftop of the World

It was a two-day train trip to Lhasa. Tight quarters on the train caused claustrophobic feelings that were slightly assuaged by expansive blue skies and dusty mountains in the distance. As the altitude increased, so did our anticipation...

Brightly painted window sills and prayer flags underscore a blue, moon-spotted evening sky.

Every night we would circumambulate the Jokhang, the holiest temple in Lhasa. Golden spires and flag-covered pillars guided us along the route with hundreds of other pilgrims.

Circumambulating in the shadows (of immense mountains and precarious politics).

Bill blends in with the monks at Sera monastery.

Nut vendors wheeled their rainbow carts down every alley and side-street. We were wary of their wares, but enjoyed their colorful displays.

The white palace and the red palace of the Potala stretch out in the distance.

Spinning an endless trail of prayer wheels, which send merit and goodwill into the wind.

At Yumbulakhang, the oldest building in Tibet, Bill and I contribute our own splash of color to the mountains pulsating palate.

We ended the trip at a mountaintop monastery.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Hilarious Signs

(Outside of my Apartment)

(A Station on the Bangkok Sky Train)

(On top of the Jokang in Lhasa)

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Respite and resolutions..!

After a wonderful, refreshing trip home for Christmas, I went back to school for three weeks of exam-cramming and grading. Now, it's time for a break. We get three weeks off for the Chinese New Year, and I have spent this first week recovering from the ringing in my ears. On New Year's Eve, the minutes sped toward midnight, and the city exploded in every direction to a degree that would be unimaginable in the States. Little kids shot fireworks off of balconies and street corners, drunken groups of adults climbed onto rooftops to blow up all of their disappointments from the previous year, and foreigners gaped in wonder at a city that seemed under seige.

Bill and I joined in a rooftop party and contributed paper lanterns that floated into the night sky like glowing hot air balloons. It was a trick getting the things lit, though! You had to wait for the flame to catch and inflate the lantern, but at first we didn't quite have the patience to allow the balloon the lift itself. We tossed it off the rooftop before it was ready, and a guard below watched our lantern plummet for a bit before willing itself into the air.

I feel good about this, the Year of the Ox, and I will do my best to update this blog more regularly (weekly, in fact!) My posts may not always be exciting or poetic, but when I was home, I realized how little I have shared about my life here. People asked me if I had any friends, what I was teaching, whether or not I really had to eat with chopsticks... I shall try to do a better job of illuminating these small facets of life and not give in to my Chinese Zodiac animal, the lazy pig.

Check out this story about how the Chinese Zodiac animals were assigned:

According to Chinese legend, the twelve animals quarreled one day as to who was to head the cycle of years. The gods were asked to decide and they held a contest: whoever was to reach the opposite bank of the river would be first, and the rest of the animals would receive their years according to their finish. All the twelve animals gathered at the river bank and jumped in. Unknown to the ox, the rat had jumped upon his back. As the ox was about to jump ashore, the rat jumped off the ox's back, and won the race. The pig, who was very lazy, ended up last. That is why the rat is the first year of the animal cycle, the ox second, and the pig last.

http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/zodiac/zodiac.html