this is little yang-yang. his name means sunshine.
lemons, turtles, chine-apples, and cannibals.

the stories of hungry childhoods, binded feet,
marriage, death, murder in this land of jujube trees.

i can't help but feel connected to these strangers
who experienced the same famines, wars,
winters, revolution, and hopes for the future as our family.
they are "lao xiang" ('old familiars')

mops howled like a wolf today. he pointed his nose
to the sky and ho0o0wled. he's never done this before.
perhaps a big natural disaster is coming and he felt
the need to make some instinctual remark to alert us.

one day, I was desperate to find a bathroom (i drank a lot of tea)
and le le finally pulled over so we could all pee. after coming out of a
grasshopper infested restroom, I noticed something very blue.

everything here is so untouched, natural, undisturbed.

a little park with flowers.

i found a rock with a strange texture in the Gobi desert in Erenhot
at the China-Mongol border. i stuck it in my pocket and forgot about it.
later, i was informed it was an asteroid.

i put it in my "box of things found in nature"
(along with the vertebrae, fossil, pretty feather, sand dollar, etc)

butcher central in a xi'an morning market.
heads. pig heads. hanging pig heads.

he remembered my name and the next day said:
"lin der, go upstairs to use the internet."
some ginseng for liu lao yie.

sunflower fields and dirty sheep.

fresh was the air, clouds, and sky.

yulin & shenmu, shaanxi province.

like fermina daza, i now like eggplants.
however, i still really hate eggs & tofu.
but they are still nice to take pictures of.

xi'an, shaanxi province.
visitors are allowed to visit 3 separate tombs.
however, the entire site is dispersed and spans over several kilometers.
emperor qingshihuang must have been pleased with the results.
what a luxurious afterlife he must have had.

it was massive.

this michelle, is jiaoken. a traditional mongolian breakfast food
made with the freshest dairy products!
i tried 'salty milk tea' but did not like it, so i added
spoonfuls of sugar to neutralize the taste. this made it even worse.

this place had grassland wolves, ostriches, peacocks, camels,
and a little pyramid of giza.

smokers in beijing. smokers in xi'an. smokers in shenmu.
smokers in xilingol. smokers in hohhot.
smoking in restaurants. smoking in trains. smoking in stores.
smoking in morning markets.

MONGOL EXPRESS.
we decided to take the day train from hohhot to beijing
so we could view the scenery of china's countryside.
we sat on wooden benches during this 12 hour ride.
i must have inhaled enough 2nd hand smoke to permanently
damage my lungs for good.

scale kitty.

whose house am i in?
whose daughter is this?

you can drive for an entire day & the grasslands keep stretching on.
cows, cows, and more cows. no bathrooms; just grass.

we took a road trip from xilingol to hohhot, inner mongolia.
we stopped in zhang jia kou, hebei for lunch.
i almost adopted a stray chicken wandering on the freeway.

the grasslands of inner mongolia are so beautiful. we visited the site of Kublai Khan's(Genghis Khan's grandson) Xanadu and walked through the remains of the city wall. long ago, the city was actually a trap, luring the unfortunate inside its walls, then they were shot with arrows. this pretty mongol girl was there and when she spoke, i became mesmerized by sound of the mongol language.

pan jia yuan is the largest flea market in beijing. i searched for cloth but ended up buying a woven necklace from a girl of the miao minority group. i went back to the stall where i bought my bag last year and the same lady was there. she recognized the bag and smiled.

injured dragonfly.

'Dear Linda,
We are pleased to offer you a place as a full-time student in the C O P (1 Trimester), commencing Trimester 1, 2012.

Victoria International
Victoria University of Wellington,
PO Box 600, Wellington 6140,
New Zealand'

xilingol, inner mongolia.

this is where they used to behead people.

i went to the aviary at the beijing zoo for the first time! i saw so many exotic beautiful birds. it was magical.

children in the US put their fallen teeth under their pillow.children in China throw their lower teeth onto the roof & bury their upper teeth.children in Lebanon throw their teeth into the sea.

my first student :)

i hope when he grows up, he'll remember these days. i sure will remember him.

cherry and i went to the supermarket after teaching today.
i found this leaf shaped dish in the ceramic section! it was 3 yuan!
Blue Earth gave me a jade cicada necklace.
now the buzzing of the insect can always ring in my ears.

i spend quite a lot of time with children these days. although some days i go pretty crazy, overall i really enjoy interacting with them. i've come to the conclusion that children everywhere, are ultimately the same: playful, crazy, entertaining, and say the funniest things.

my 6 year old student said to me: "you draw the animals, and i'll draw their blood veins, okay?"
"my grandma agreed to buy me a squirrel"
"my tooth itches"
"i'm growing a bean sprout at home. i also have a pet crab"
& my high school student asked me: "teacher, what does 'shit' mean?"

every summer, it seems like beijing kids have a new toy fad. this summer is this little device with a LED light and propellers that you launch up into the sky with a rubber band sling-shot.

so after playing with it by the cathedral in wangfujing street, i went home and had a photoshoot with it.

now, i work part time (hehe) so after teaching 2 classes in the morning, i have time to do other things! for example, sew a shirt:

everyday, these ladies (& gentleman) sit here and soak up the sun.
the 3rd one from the right is apparently my great-great aunt.

these days.