last summer, i made this garland and taped it on the fridge at my grandma's country house. i cut out a bunch of triangles, drew designs, and then laminated each one with clear packing tape. it was probably one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life (really!)

i found a picture of myself.

rice in bags. noodles in bags. meat in bags. everything in bags.

where the lotus flowers, yellow dragonflies, and bamboo shoots are.

school days are here again. except this time, i am the 'teacher.' i teach english at a summer school for 2 hours every morning, have lunch with my boss/co-worker/friend cherry (we usually get noodles at an 'OLD BEIJING' resturant) then we part and i walk home.

this is my student. when i met him, he didn't know how to read a single word; now he can read 3-4 letter words and attempts to sound out new words. 'teaching' isn't the hard part, but trying to retain his interest, curiosity, and attention is FAR more challenging... there were times when he would refuse look at the book and instead kick the wall, climb on the window, roll around, etc.

one time, he refused to talk and spoke through a 'pants puppet'.

yesterday, he said he had something stuck in his teeth. so we went outside to look for a twig he could use as a toothpick. he likes maze puzzles, xi-yang-yang, and pets. once, a machine slammed on his middle finger and broke it. he has a henan accent and his laojia has orange trees. when he giggles, he always covers his mouth with both hands.

i thought it was a miracle, that egg-baby(purchased at the kunming flower market in yunnan last summer) finally hatched a seedling within 7 hours! however it was just my grandma who secretly stuck her own plant in it.

halfway through my 3rd book this summer!

i think if there's any creature capable of understanding humans, it would be a homeless cat. this one and i peered into each other's eyes for a long time. a pair of blue orbs containing mini universes searched into my eyes with such clarity. if sally was reincarnated into a real living breathing cat, she would be this one. a crowd of little children were gathered around to look at the kitty. suddenly, one peed all over himself and left a puddle underneath his feet.

underground eatery.

i sit here and doodle, fold red envelopes, play with water colors, and look at teaching materials for the next day's class. there is a mint colored lamp phone; it sometimes spins around by itsself...

'this fridge smells like a dead animal!' i dug through some drawers and sure enough, there was a dead animal: a whole chicken buried under popsicles -feathers, head, eyes, beak, legs, etc.
i can handle extreme heat weather, but when there is humidity involved, i feel like my organs are melting and my nose is being stuffed in a steamer. this weather is poisoness; my heart starts beating all funny when it's this hot outside.

on my way to the NAMOC earlier today, i passed by an old woman selling calligraphy paintings that her husband drew. they were very pretty. i normally dislike these kinds of paintings..because they've become redunant and all look the same to me. but i stopped at looked at them and chatted with her. i liked her, so i picked one with birds, bugs, leaves and gourds and bought it. "little girl, you are so nice" she said to me.

WORDS WORDS LET'S MAKE WORDS. i taught my first [trial] class yesterday. there were 4 boys & 2 girls. they are all about 10 years old. i invented a curriculum a few days ago and started teaching them what i thought they should be learning. afterwards, we played a game to practice forming english words. the boys in the class fought over the chalk as they were all ridiculously eager to write their answers on the board. they were all screaming and laughing. the class became pretty chaotic. i tried so hard to encourage the two girls to go up and participate but they wouldn't. one of them speaks in whispers. writing on a chalkboard is actually a lot harder than it looks. my hand doesn't seem to want to tilt that way.

"curiosity's like a fun friend you can't really trust" i sat on my grandma's bed and ate a bunch of dragon fruit this morning. i said it was like eating ants. my aunt was disgusted and preferred me to say they looked like sesame seeds. i read 100 pages into ishmael, and gave up. so i'm attempting to read murakami again(i stopped after 60 pages last time, last summer).

my grandma kept a dress from when i was little. i tried it on, it still somewhat fits! there was also an old suitcase filled with clothes i used to wear. they are doll-sized.

indigenous wild berries & onions grow all over these mountains.my dad showed me numerous edible plants and ferns. he ate these growing up.

this is the yellow river. both jia jia gou and zhang jia ta lie somewhere along the river. it used to be full of sailing traders and merchants.

i ate donkey meat yesterday. i didn't want to be a rude guest and refuse. plus, i was curious..

there are old watch towers and fortresses all over shenmu & neighboring territories. they go back to during mongol invasions. we stopped at one on the way to my grandma's. there was an archery range, so i shot an arrow for 1 yuan. (i missed). that's my uncle & cousin, feather.

i met my little 2nd cousin for the first time. we became friends right away. we laid on a big bed and i taught her english for 3 hours. we had a fun little sleepover and then in the morning, we strolled the meat markets and watched monkeys perform on the street.

she is deathly afraid of dogs. one attacked her the other day. cats also dislike her. one scratched her eye.

this town is going to mine itself to nothingness.

if only she brought her point shoes & a tutu...

the ______game
(blank).

after a lesson on how to change car oil/check coolant levels,
we were off to the huntington musesum.
we wandered around cactus forests, bonsai courts,
and tried to figure out the camera obscura (again).

tuna sandwiches prepared by a REAL chef,
mozzarella, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar & olive oil.
cream cheese, bagels, lox,
green tea lemonade, white cheddar popcorn,
and cucumbers.

and the countdown begins.

i can finally start
~*"pleasure reading"*~

airport adventures.
i stood in line in security holding a backpack,
plane ticket, and frying pan.
my check in luggage was 1 lb over the weight limit
so i had to take something out.
they told me it was a weapon but
are still letting me carry it on the plane.

i'm going to be working at a summer school
with elementary school children in beijing!
i am so so so excited.

some joy, some luck.
but mostly some hope.

she was once mormon.

now she's a pious vegan.
may bee it's the soy.

o~o~osci~i~i~ll~a~ate wi~i~ld~dly.

"sure you can fly. If you run really fast and flap you arms..."

-D. M

wow, i will have written 57 pages worth of

papers this quarter. mchenry library is
my 2nd home! the vending machine is my friend.
!!animal crackers, dorritos, twix, & red vines!!
apparently, they are going to construct
"reading gardens" in the new wings.

we are the people.

i dreampt i was a kite last night,
soaring above the east field.

"If you imagine the 4,500-billion-odd years of Earth's history compressed into a normal earthly day, then life begins very early, about 4 A.M., with the rise of the first simple, single-celled organisms, but then advances no further for the next sixteen hours. Not until almost 8:30 in the evening, with the day five-sixths over, has Earth anything to show the universe but a restless skin of microbes. Then, finally, the first sea plants appear, followed twenty minutes later by the first jellyfish and the enigmatic Ediacaran fauna first seen by Reginald Sprigg in Australia. At 9:04 P.M. trilobites swim onto the scene, followed more or less immediately by the shapely creatures of the Burgess Shale. Just before 10 P.M. plants begin to pop up on the land. Soon after, with less than two hours left in the day, the first land creatures follow.

Thanks to ten minutes or so of balmy weather, by 10:24 the Earth is covered in the great carboniferous forests whose residues give us all our coal, and the first winged insects are evident. Dinosaurs plod onto the scene just before 11 P.M. and hold sway for about three-quarters of an hour. At twenty-one minutes to midnight they vanish and the age of mammals begins. Humans emerge one minute and seventeen seconds before midnight. The whole of our recorded history, on this scale, would be no more than a few seconds, a single human lifetime barely an instant. Throughout this greatly speeded-up day continents slide about and bang together at a clip that seems positively reckless. Mountains rise and melt away, ocean basins come and go, ice sheets advance and withdraw. And throughout the whole, about three times every minute, somewhere on the planet there is a flash-bulb pop of light marking the impact of a Manson-sized meteor or one even larger. It's a wonder that anything at all can survive in such a pummeled and unsettled environment. In fact, not many things do for long."

"why is it like this to such an extent?
even if we die, we want to die outside!
time and again, we return home,
but time and again we come back out.
not a single person doing this,
but a whole generation."
-dagongmei.

my 2 anthropology professors are neighbors.
they grade my papers next door to each other.

heather:
-is from astoria, oregon.
-escapes natural disasters right before they occur
(earthquake in christchurch/tsunami in japan).
-studies relationships between humans and fish.
-doesn't get along with her mother
(she gave up her career and is now a bitter woman).
-changed her major 8 times
(geology, religious studies, etc etc then finally anthro)
-speaks fluent japanese and explores the notion of
"serious" play in race-bending kimono dress-up games.
-enjoys indoctrinating little japanese girls
(as well as our class) with feminist thought.
-brings us cookies so we can deconstruct gender binaries
(provides vegan alternatives as well).

nancy:
-is chinese, was born in taiwan, and moved to louisiana.
-has connections with every restaurant in bhutan.
-thought it would be a "fun little adventure" to
travel from beijing, through mongolia, to moscow
on the transsiberian express when she was 22.
-conducts self-criticisms that are reminiscent of
the struggle sessions from the cultural revolution
(a popular past-time of the sent-down youth).
-likes to show us graphic videos about surgeries that
lengthen knees to promote height growth.

a fwagile game.