Sugar shock

Merry Christmas everyone!

I’ve had a super long weekend – we got off at 1 p.m. on Thursday – and am quite ready to get back into the swing of things.

But it’s been nice, if overly social for my tastes. I spent Christmas Eve at one colleague’s house, then Christmas Day at another event with about 20 people. Boxing Day was with yet another group at someone else’s apartment, then today I went to the All Things Made in China place with someone else.

It’s now 5:30 p.m. and I’m just so ready to chillax.

And not eat sugar. My gosh, I have OD’d on all things sugar the past week or so. My desk, which is at the main door of a long office, has been the gathering place for all the stuff that people have brought in to share. If you stand and talk to me, you inhale so much sugar you might as well eat some of it.

I’ve been in the gym as usual but the sugar wins. It’s just been everywhere.

The weather is finally changing here, and the gym has been crazy. I’ve been freezing and sweating from cold and heat in the same 2-hour visit. I don’t understand how they do the heating and air in this building, honestly. The management here asked if they could turn off my air because apparently I share a unit (or something) with someone who’s ready to crank up the heat. Meanwhile, I am roasting under my cozy comforter. I wound up opening a window in one room but having the heat on in another. It’s bizarre.

Coming down to the wire of 2015. I’ve decided to go ahead and suck it up and go to Hong Kong next weekend to see Star Wars. I’m only going for the day, so it’s a rather expensive movie but I want to see it. It’d be more expensive if I stayed overnight, but it’d be a lot cheaper if I could wait until Jan. 16. I’m going to HK then, too, to see a shoulder specialist. But I figured if I waited until then to see it, then I should just see it her, and I didn’t want to do that. It seems my only option for movies here is 3D, and not only is that expensive, I don’t like the experience so much.

So I’m off to Hong Kong on the 8 a.m. train on Jan. 2 and returning again on the 8 a.m. train the same day. I hope it works out. I might not go alone; I mentioned it to a couple people at work and someone may tag along. I’m OK either way, though.

The shoulder appointment is something I wish I could speed up time to get to. I’m really in pain, and my desire to suck it up and put it off until Florida blew my shot at a medevac. And because I deemed the doctor I had been seeing a crook, I start over again in Hong Kong midway through January. Fortunately, I have the MRI from January and I hope that will stand; I just want to get whatever over and done with. It’s starting to affect my day-to-day in a much more major way. Screaming in sudden pain has kind of become a norm, and not a really fun one, you know?

But I am still trying told hold out until Tallahassee to deal with the hip. That’s chronic, not the result of an injury, and it’s just more nagging than anything else. So we shall see. Lord knows I have enough other specialists I want to see in Tally. Home leave – what fun!

So now I am trying to find hotels and such in Hong Kong for the doctor weekend. I’m headed down on Friday because my appointment is Saturday morning, so I’m staying in a hostel that first night but will switch to a hotel and split a room the following two evenings. (It’s MLK Day.) The plan is to go to Disney on Sunday and come back Monday afternoon. I bought a total of four train tickets today, so the plan better come through for me!

Jam-packed weekend

Winding down on a Sunday night, and boy, did I get a ton of stuff done.

Honestly, as much as I like Christmas, the holidays themselves suck. Not to be a Scrooge, but I just get tired of one party after another, and having to make stuff for all of them.

Tonight, I turned down one. Felt bad about it, but I’ve just been slammed. I had a  ton to do this weekend and, if I survived to the night, knew I’d just want to veg out. And that’s what happened.

My big highlights, beyond Christmas prep, I mean, were a birthday party for a 6-year-old and two movies. As busy as I was, these were things I had penciled in.

The brunch Saturday morning was not. I didn’t find out about that until Friday night, at a going-away party. But it was a person I like, so I woke up and hit the gym before 6 a.m. in order to squeeze everything in. Even before breakfast, I’d made the first of the Christmas sweets – a vat of Rice Krispy treats for stocking stuffers.

The nonstop Saturday wound down with a movie with a friend. We went to see Mockingjay, which I recently learned was showing here. While researching that, I found out that Point Break was also showing here and I’d made time to do that on Sunday.

But Mockingjay was a cool one to see not because it was in 3D (which it shouldn’t have been, but it was my only option) but because seeing that here meant that I’d seen every movie in the franchise in a different country. I started in Indonesia with the first one, then Catching Fire was how I spent the day before my deployment (that an Chick-Fil-A). I saw the first installment of Mockingjay in Hong Kong, so this was No. 4.

Today I went to see Point Break. I’d seen the previous before, possibly in Hong Kong during that Mockingjay showing. I remember watching it and them highlighting the extreme sports and the “bag guy” gang and me sitting there thinking, how is this not Point Break? I’d heard nothing of a reboot, and really, the highlights showed things like snowboarding, base jumping and motorcross – not surfing. But I swear they called one guy Bodhi and the other Utah and I was really, really confused. How could it not be point break? But eventually, they flashed the name on and it was like, oh, they DID reboot it.

And it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t have heart and I didn’t buy the whole reason the little bag guy gang was committing the crimes, but it was enjoyable. It didn’t seem to rip off the Swayze/Reeves version at all – that’s the classic. It did not interfere with the presence of that one at all. And since it was in 3D and featured extreme sports all in exotic locations all over the world, the scenery was fantastic.

The rest of Sunday has been spent baking. I’m on the hook for not only Rice Krispy treats and a side dish (which I did Saturday before the movie), but cookies for two parties this weekend, plus Marine stockings.

We have some party on Saturday at the Big Boss’ house and for some reason, even though 120 people and their spouses have been invited, it’s the junior employees who have been asked to make cookies. Sigh. I don’t know if we’re supposed to be flattered or what, but I’m just not.

I made mint chip (from mint chips someone gave me) and sugar cookies, plus brownies. I’m just covered in baking goop and cannot wait to take a shower and just crash.

I did finally pull out some Christmas decorations. I thought about it earlier this month but was out of town last weekend. At that point, I figured I’d bypass it totally but decided today that I should toss out some jingle bells or something. So now I have a few modest decorations – two Nativity scenes, a couple little wooden trees and a snowmanny-like thing outside the door. I have another little wooden tree and a snowman heading into work tomorrow to accompany the reject brownies. No one can turn down reject brownies.

In other news, I got my official time from the race – 1:16! I was pretty happy with it. I mean, I know it’s slow but ya know what? So am I. I was not built for speed, but stamina I got.

Aaron Tippen gets partial credit

Back from my first (and, let’s face it, last) 10k! I don’t know what my time was because I didn’t know you were supposed to look up at the clock, but for me, it was decent. I’d hoped to finish before they scraped you up off the road and really hoped to finish in 80 minutes. I realize for real runners that’s a joke, but when you’ve never done it before and are not a runner, it’s not bad.

The way it turned out, I think I beat it, but I’m not sure. A little while after I’d finished – I’d talked to some people I knew, gotten water and took the little clip thing off my shoe and traded it for me “finisher” medal – another friend came up to me, all smiles, and said she’d finished in under 1:20.

Internet photo, not mine

Sunrise at Angkor Wat is phenomenal. I didn’t take any photos, but it looked something like this, but a heck of a lot more crowded. Haven’t seen the numbers this year, but last year’s race had about 2500 people, so it was a tad more crowded, too.

And it was rough, but honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. As it was, I probably ran half and walked (really fast) half. I’m more of a stamina person – after the 5k mark, I felt a lot better. But it really got to the point where I was like, you know, I can do this, but do I really want to? Even having been there before, I was wowed by the scenery and decided to enjoy it and not kill myself.

And I did good. I kicked up the headphones and tried to enjoy it. I’d picked some upbeat songs to try to keep pace, and had a good time. I tried to hit t rhythm of walking for a few minutes, then finishing out that song and the next at a jog/run, but that ended around 6k, when I went into some Barenaked Ladies live versions – those went on forever.

Around 9k, Aaron Tipped kicked in. If “Working Man’s PhD” doesn’t get you moving faster, something is wrong with you! So I give him partial credit for my finish!

 

Honestly, in my little crew of about 10, I think I was the third to finish. And those were the two real runners in the 10k. (We had a crew doing the 21k, too.)

And it’s not like we took it really seriously. A friend finished after the sweep-up time (although they didn’t actually do this; the clock just kept running.) armed with pictures and videos of monkeys she’d seen along the way. She said she took a 10-minute detour and shot photos. I mean, the area is just beautiful – it’s a UNESCO site.

In my training – if you could call it that – I finished it up at a level of walking at 6.something kilometers and hour for two minutes, then finishing out the K at a pace of anywhere between 9.5 and 10.5 kpm, and at an incline of 6-8. So stamina I had, but speed I will never, ever have.

The rest of the trip was not great. The night before the flight, I got little sleep, and the night before the race, I got none. As in not a minute.

On Saturday after we arrived, we wandered around town, and Siem Reap is hot and dry. I’d drunk water and tea, but by the end of the evening I had a migraine coming on. That usually isn’t a huge deal because normally they go away when I get some sleep, and we were headed back to our little guest room for the night at 8:30 p.m.

(As an aside, the hotel we stayed at was a hotel school for underprivileged Cambodians. It was a really nice place to stay at, and it only cost $26.)

I could not sleep. One bit. I tossed and turned, the migraine growing. It was awful. I’d check the time and think, “Oh, OK, it’s midnight, but I can still get 4:30 of sleep.” And it just went on and on. I  thought I was doomed.

But the next morning, when I got to the race, it went away. Thank you, Jesus, for that one!

The rest of the day was also good. After cleaning up, my little group went to get massages, ate lunch at a Mexican place (though I had Cambodian) and then took a near-perfect flight home.

What a great weekend!

Happy camper

Still on a New Zealand high. I went to my fourth Thanksgiving meal in four days last night and was extolling the virtues of the trip to anyone who would listen.

I did get a belated scare while watching the news on the hotel TV last week. A blurb on a New Zealand helicopter crash caught my eye. After doing some researching, I found out it was a group of tourists headed up to fox Glacier, the same place I’d been two weeks before. The outfit was a different one than I’d used, but I remember seeing their helicopters. It was very jolting to me; all seven people aboard died. So sad.

And yet another reason to be thankful, for sure. There but by the amazing grace of God go I.

And go I do. Next week is the 10k. It’s in Siem Reap, a direct flight from here, at Angkor Wat. I’m not taking any time off or doing much touristy because I’ve been there. My flight leaves Saturday morning and arrives around 11 and the race is at 6:30 Sunday morning. The flight out is at 6:30, so there’s an afternoon.

About 20 of us are going, several on the same flight. I’m rooming with someone who’s doing the half marathon, but I’m only in for 10k.

 

This weekend is the last chance to really practice and yesterday I did 14k and today I did 13k. I would have made it to 14 but I had to cut it short to get to the Gator game on my Slingbox. I’m exhausted and sore. I have no idea what I was thinking when I registered for this thing.

Usually on weekends after the gym I come back, shower and take a nap but yesterday I got back and Skyped and today I turned on the game. While watching it, I’ve gone ahead and done laundry and cooked for not just one but two weeks since I’ll be out of town next weekend. I’m looking forward to a nap.

After next weekend, I’m in town til Christmas for sure; I have a birthday party and then a Christmas party. I’m considering Hong Kong over Christmas weekend just to see Mockingjay and Star Wars, but we’ll see. Right now I’m not into it.

But New Zealand … amazing. I’m posting a few more photos.

I went with a tour group, Flying Kiwis, which I’d totally recommend. I never intended to do a camping trip, but I had specific dates I could work with and wanted to stay X number of nights or so. Once I found out I had to be back at work on 11/12, that narrowed my options. It was camping or nothing.

And for me, New Zealand was one of those places I needed a set itinerary. There are just way too many options to choose from. Like Greece and its “mainland or islands?”question,  you have to decide which island you want to do first, at least unless you’re staying for weeks and weeks.

The north island is more cultural (and Hobbiton) and the south is more adventure-oriented. It’s where bungee began. I have no interest in that, but the hikes and stuff were more interesting to me. Someone told me Queenstown was where you needed to go, so I put that in my tour requirements.

I wound up with the “Wild West” tour from Flying Kiwis, and it was perfect. I met the group in Queenstown and we worked our way up through to Nelson, Picton and then over to Wellington. Basically, it’s sort of the equivalent of U.S. 1 in Florida – up the coast, except there are mountains on the other side.

We camped, which, really, was a first for me. Yes, I camped twice at Disney, but that’s hard to count. This time, it was legit – in some places, we didn’t even have showers, although we always had flushing toilets. (Which, as mentioned before, ALWAYS had TP.)

All the tents – mine was named Evil Knieval (yes, that was the spelling they used), our tables, stools and cooking equipment got pulled in a trailer behind our bus up the highways and byways. The bus was pretty good, too, with a sound system that was decent although I got tired of the kiddie music. (By that I mean 20something, not Sesame Street.)

When I signed up, the brochure indicated I would be sharing a tent but it ended out not being the case, so between that and the fact I spent WAY more money than I intended, I did not bother upgrading to a bunk when I could.

Honestly, the tent wasn’t bad. I’m not up to the point where I’m ready to strike out on my own, “Wild”-like, but I got pretty darn good at putting it up and taking it down.

The first night was brutal, though, because it was super windy and started to rain. Someone showed me how to do it, which was good, and I took two sleeping bags because it was going to be really cold that night. I was glad because I really was cold, and I could hear the wind just whipping. It took me back to the RV at Hope Village, just wondering if the wind would flip me over. In this case, it didn’t, although some of the tent pegs got bent during the night. But it didn’t cave in like one person’s did, so that was a win.

I got smarter as the trip went on, picking locations that were closer to the bathrooms or next to a distinguishing feature, like a bush, so I could find it easily in the dark. We had about 15 tents and they were all exactly alike, so at dusk or whatever you didn’t want to crawl into the wrong one and freak someone out.

Our days started fairly early, with breakfast around 7 or 7:30. We’d, pack out and hit the road, stopping in an hour or two for our first break or hike of the day. Sometimes, we’d spend a few hours in a city or something, where our guides loaded up at the grocery store for the night’s meal.

That’s what this one town, Hokitika, was – just a stop on the road. I bought a pair of gloves there, and then a meat pie, which I took with me down to the beach to eat. The chair, made of concrete, was just sitting there, a la Kenny Chesney. It was fantastic.

Say no to crack

I have plenty of time to write this weekend because I am working an event for work. It’s some international trade meetings that happen every year and I guess we just got lucky. Usually they’re in Beijing the every other year they’re in China.

My job consists of babysitting a room that’s sort of an adjunct media room/lounge for the U.S. governmental offices. It’s really not bad. Of all the assignments, my personal belief is this is the easiest. The main show is about a 30-minute drive (no traffic) away, so I have the residuals. I’m on the day shift; it’s busier at night, I think, because some of the people are staying in this hotel. Since that’s waking hours in the U.S., my guess is they’ll be working a lot at night.

That’s a guess because even though this is Day Five of me sitting here, it’s only the first day of the actual event, which ends on Monday.

It seems that everything with the State Department involves a lot of planning, calendars that cover minute details and countless “countdown” meetings.

And lots of emails. Lots and lots of emails. And since I am in an adjunct facility, and the fact that none of these meetings take part in our office, I have to get the emails off site.

All this, in turn, means that I’ve been issued a Blackberry. It took seven seconds to hate it. It probably took seven minutes for me to establish a password that fit all the requirements, then type it – twice – with my fingers and/or thumbs.

Now, I feel like Pavlov’s dog with the damned red blinky light. I completely understand why they call these things “crackberries.” They are the devil’s idea so far as I’m concerned.

The emails come two and four at a time, with relays of “such-and-such car started its engines” and “such-and-such car left the site” and goes on to it being 10 or five minutes out, arriving or whatever.

And that’s just one example. All kinds of emails go back and forth. The first day, when I was bored, another bored person at a different location and I had them flying back and forth as to how bored we were.

It’s not healthy. I swear, I do not understand why people love their smartphones. This thing is a tether. I don’t want it and cannot wait to give it back.

Hopefully, that will be Wednesday. Let’s just say that Thanksgiving is going to be awesome. Everyone is looking forward to that here.

At this point in the post, I was going to change the subject to New Zealand but then a wonderful illustration of “overstaffing” just meandered by.

A new person from one of the agencies just arrived and she said something about, with some change, she was unsure of her role. The guy she was talking to said, “you just need to stand around.”

That’s your tax dollar at work, folks!

New Zealand’s tax dollar (how’s that for a segue?) is really at work for tourists. The place is fantastic. The beaches are fantastic. The ferns are fantastic.

Ferns are the national plant (or something) of New Zealand, with good reason. They’re everywhere. The silver fern is used in the logo of the All Blacks rugby team (I think it IS the logo). And on all the hikes you do, ferns are everywhere.

They’re not like ferns that I’ve seen before, either. They can be HUGE – like, the leaves are the size of my leg, which ain’t tiny. They also grow into what look like trees. I waffled and wondered if they were palm trees because they were so big. Are ferns and palms related?

The beaches are just wonderful, not that you swim in them. It’s too cold, for one, but mostly the surf is too rough. I’m not even sure that anyone other than Bodhi would tackle them.

The juxtaposition of the beach to the green (or white, as in the case of the glaciers) never ceased to amaze me. I think people got tired of me saying, “It’s just so beautiful.”

It was.

How cool is this?

New Zealand, with all its previous volcanic life, has some amazing geological stuff going one. One particular day, I spent the morning on a glacier and then, that evening, camped out on a beach. The day’s travel was no more than 20 miles – and in between the two, we’d passed through a rainforest-like bush.

“Bush” is Kiwi talk for “forest.” I have to say, I love Kiwi talk. I picked up three words I need to work in my vocabulary:

• “Fiddley” – a little unpredictable or wonky, as in “if the bike acts a little fiddley, let us know and we’ll check it for you to make sure it’s safe.”
• “Flash” – impressive, as in “When Peter Jackson saw the area, he knew it was flash enough to be in his film.”
• “Smash” – get it done quickly, as in, “It’s going to rain, so let’s smash out tomorrow’s lunches before the skies open.”

The last one is my favorite. I’d really like to work it into daily usage. “On Friday, I smashed out the annual budget.” It just sounds so cool.

 

NZ in general was just amazingly cool. I’d never really camped before (twice at Disney), and I have to say NZ does it right. I’ve no idea of their tax structure, but they’ve spent a fortune putting in trails everywhere, plus facilities left and right. It seems everywhere you drive, there’s a hike available, and all the paths are clearly marked. If there’s water or swampy land, they’ve built boardwalks, complete with chicken wire on the boards to make it non-slip.

There are also campsites, some with showers, on the public property and some spots also have these really big dorms that you can rent. Like, not a hostel-sized one, but a hospital-sized one. And they also have private campsites, which have a better chance of having showers.

There are no campsites on the glaciers, thankfully, but they offer day hikes via helicopter. I’d done heli-hiking in Alaska, but it was on a frozen tundra and not a glacier. The glacier hikes are different, because the glaciers shift daily. What was safe yesterday might not be safe today.

My group of 18 didn’t all do the heli-hiking, but I think 8-10 of us did. Once we got up there, we were so bundled up I really couldn’t tell who was who.

The glaciers are really amazing, and to walk on them, you had to wear boots with these cool massive spikes called “crampons,” I think they said. It was sort of a roller skate frame you laced over your boots and had these mean teeth – like 2 inches or something like that. We were advised to keep them in the ice at all times, otherwise, we would have slipped down the glaciers.

And it really was that slippery. In one of the ice caves, I was trying to scoot along on my back (this was how you were supposed to do it, pulling yourself along with a rope) and I slipped down to the foot of the cave, even though I was still hanging onto the rope. It was just that slick.

There was a waterfall up on the glacier, too, and it was pretty amazing. Just the amounts of snow and ice were incredible. More than North Dakota!

This is me on my back, sliding through. My version of a selfie.

We hiked for a couple of hours, and it was quite fascinating to watch the clouds. The weather turns quickly, and we’d been warned that the trip might not go due to low clouds. We got up there and the clouds came in, but we were able to still hike the whole time. By the time we went back down, the clouds looked like they’d shifted, but it was raining on the way down, so I don’t really know for sure.

New Zealand is probably the fifth place I’ve gone to where I’ve heard the line, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes and it will change.” The funny thing is, everywhere I’ve heard it, the people think it’s unique to them.

Traveling’s an ordeal

I’m back from New Zealand and man, it’s everything it’s billed to be. I mean, beyond the beauty, every single public toilet I went into was clean and had toilet paper. How can you top that?

Getting there is never half the fun. I swear, as much as I love to travel, I hate traveling. If that makes any sense at all.

The Guangzhou airport is a beast, and this time around I thought I’d pull my hair out before wheels up.

First, it’s time for the annual Canton Fair, which is this huge event and people come from all over, meaning the airport is crowded. For the first time in my travels through the airport, there was a massive line just to get to the security line. As in, a complete standstill for 10 minutes.

After getting in, I did this new trick I learned and went to the first-class line and waved the black passport, which saved oodles of time as the immigration line was backed up beyond the quarantine and customs sections, which are both before. So no telling what kind of time that saved, but once to that line, I didn’t move up in the line for 5-10 more minutes, and in all, spent about 20 minutes in line.

Seriously, every time I hear someone complain about security in America, I want to choke them. In Guangzhou, it’s a full pat down for EVERY person, which takes awhile. A long, long while.

But it, too, passed and I went to my gate. I arrived in plenty of time so I just read one of the three books I’d brought.

Finally, they called my flight, but not after a gate change. This really isn’t a big deal, because how they do it, the gate is merely a false start anyway. You don’t actually go down a jetway into a big plane; you load up on a bus and get driven to what seems like a tarmac in the next county over, and then you board.

This doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens far, far more often than not. I’m so sick of little buses on either end of the flight. You come back, get off the plane and think you’re done, but then you have to wait on everyone to cram on a bus and then get driven for a solid 5-10 minutes to a building that’s forever away from your landing spot. And that’s not even counting the 10 minutes you taxied after landing.

Anyway, on both ends of my Auckland flight, I was subjected to these annoying bus rides. I swear the departing flight ride was close to 10 minutes. Then, to add insult to tiring injury, we got off the bus and THEN climbed up a staircase to a jetway. God knows where we were, but it appeared to be at a gate. What the purpose was for us to go to one gate, only to be bused to another to enter a second jetway was beyond me.

And the same thing happened on the way back. We pulled in after a long, long taxi and I saw the building and thought I’d struck gold because the little jetway thing came out. I got off quickly – somehow I’d been upgraded to economy plus – and thought I was going to make a beeline to the immigration and baggage claim areas, but no sooner had I stepped into the jetway than I realized everyone was stepping right back out on another staircase, which led to the road, which led to yet another van.

But all that’s history. I’m back now and will get to posting about New Zealand, but right now I’m really exhausted and want to get laundry done before crashing.

My first stop there, though, was the Hobbit place, so I’ll start off with photos from there. It really was cool, although I’m not a huge Hobbit fan. The guide guy kept saying, “You know how in [enter name of one of the movies], [enter name of character] [enter verb for character] and  then he [enter another verb/scenario].” Well, other than one, I didn’t know any of them.

The one I did know was the yellow door. That was the home of Sam Wise, Frodo’s best friend. At the end of the LOTR series, Sam returns to the Hobbit and is greeted by his wife and daughter. He sees them, smiles, and walks into his hobbit hole and shuts the door, closing out the trilogy.

34-17

Greetings from the land of the World Cup winners!

I was in Auckland the morning of the game, conveniently awake at 5 a.m. to watch. I had to catch the bus into town and boy, do they take the All Blacks seriously.

In the quiet downtown, I found a TV showing the final live and watched some bits with some people, mostly taxi drivers whom the casino staff kept trying to move along. No one really did.

Watching the game, I realized I have no idea how rugby works, or when the game would end. It had been something like 16-3, All Blacks, when the Wallabies went on a tear and suddenly, it was close.

Having no idea when time ran out or anything like that, I hung on with the crowd and saw some more points going up for New Zealand. I don't really understand how, honestly, but, hey, the home  team was winning, so I didn't care.

At some point, it became final and I only knew because the group around me exploded.

All of a sudden, the volume turned up and the city came to life. Everyone had been hiding out, watching the game somewhere, and it took about three minutes for those people to get to the streets, their horns, etc.

Everything became loud and things started blaring. Everyone was sober, though. It was still 7 a.m.!

Anyway, I'm in New Zealand now, getting ready to meet my tour. I'm in an internet cafe as I own no devices and the little red light just came on, so that's the sign for me to get off.

You lose!

We have something in this line of work called a “losing post.” It looks like Guangzhou will be one for me.

A losing post is the opposite of a gaining post. These terms are used in this job for, when you transfer, your old job site and your new one.

When you plan your departure, you have about 60 days leeway and you are supposed to “negotiate” with the two to figure out when you can leave, what training you can take, and when to arrive. In these negotiations with you – allegedly on your side – is sort of a job advisor.

I’m about six months out from changing posts, so I have to start thinking about the transfer. I thought this was an easy thing, since I already had a proposed training schedule and everything.

My new start date is supposed to be May. That was back when I was to leave here in December. At that point, the higher office here that controls staffing in China asked me to stay longer. I’d been scheduled to take an 8-week language class in February, but I agreed to stay – with the backing that I would get a 6-week course in HR, which I really want. That class is scheduled to start May 2 and go until June 10. I got the OK from the gaining post that it should work.

However, that was back in May. There’s a new person in Istanbul now, and I learned this week that I am not going to be allowed to take that class, one reason of which is because I am expected to arrive in May.

And that’s a wrinkle. A really, really big one. See, I also have what’s called home leave. This is a time when Congress tells all foreign service people that they must be in the U.S., in order to stay in touch with America. Congress mandates that a foreign service officer must take at least 20 days, but I will have just over 30 days. And you know what? Since I am not being allowed to take the class I want, I want to take ALL my leave.

So even if I depart the first day I am able to from Guangzhou – April 1 – using 33 days of home leave would put me in D.C. on 5/18 or so. There is one class that I must take and it’s an entire week, so I’d have to take it the following week.

Well, that Friday is Memorial Day. I shouldn’t have to move over a holiday weekend. And if I don’t, then I can’t leave until May 31, which would put me arriving on June 1. Which, last I checked, is in June.

So I just can’t figure out why I can’t get an extra week or so of class. Even if I can’t get the one I really want, there are other classes that DC deems more appropriate for my career. (Note: The reason I want the HR class is because it would have been so very helpful in my current assignment. My new assignment is even more HR-laden, so it seemed appropriate.)

Anyway, the job advisor person isn’t on the same page as I am. This is a three-party negotiation, and so far two of the parties have coughed up a lot. My current post is willing to let me leave on April 1 – they’d like me here until April 30 – and I am forfeiting a class that I really, really want AND that the new post told me I could have. Beyond that, I gave up an 8-week language course. So far, the gaining post has continued to chant “May! May! May” and yielded nothing.

And my job advisor came up with the brilliant idea of forcing me to leave Guangzhou in mid-March. This is not something that I want, nor is it something that Guangzhou wants.

I’m trying to schedule a time to call my job advisor about it; I’m wondering if wires haven’t gotten crossed somewhere. It just shouldn’t be this hard.

Back in town

After three weekends away, I’m finally back. For awhile, anyway.

Last weekend, I went to Taipei. A group of people had gone from all over China, maybe about 30 in all. I’d been there before but this time around went to a little touristy city up on a mountain.

When we planned this weekend, we hadn’t realized that not only was it Columbus Day, but also Taipei’s national day. Last year, that wasn’t an issue because we chose to go to Hong Kong, but this time, the city selection proved a little silly. It was super crowded and we couldn’t get deals on hotels like we had in Hong Kong.

Nonetheless, we all found housing. We also found people everywhere, especially in the little mountain city. (It’s where some film, “Spirited Away,” was set. I’ve never seen the movie.) The big thing to see was a little narrow street with all kinds of cool shops. It was also filled will all kinds of people, and by that I mean mostly Japanese tourists.

We also did food and the night market, which are the things to do in Taipei. I also did my thing, which involved Krispy Kreme. Yes, so far as I know, it’s the nearest Krispy Kreme to me, and I made the most of it.

In the end, I was glad enough to have gone again. It was nice to be with people and not just go somewhere alone. I’m not as big a Taipei fan as are some that I work with and wouldn’t have gone back on my own again, but with the group, it was a good weekend away.

Having three holiday weekends also meant three less-than-five-day work weeks. We had a four-day, a two-day, and then another four-day. Quite honestly, I am ready for a five-day, which is good because those start again tomorrow.

On Friday before my weekend in Guangzhou, my department took a cruise. For mostly everyone but me, it was fun. For me, it was a logistical nightmare. For a select crew that I have not yet figured out, it was a no-go, because they missed the boat.

I’d sent out an email wherein I said “the boat leaves at 7:30” eight times. Basically it was every other line in the email. I’d arranged with the boat guy to buy me another five minutes, just in case, and what do you know but people didn’t even make that.

I held out as long as I could, but the boat guy was taking off so I left my “wave ‘em in” spot and got on. We started the engines to pull out and I heard a commotion at the dock. Looked up and there was another person, so I frantically waved her in. She made it, but started berating me, saying I “should have told them in the email” that it could take awhile to get there in a cab. Seriously? It’s a city of 15 million people and it’s rush hour. Can you not figure that out? Or, you know, ASK SOMEONE?

So basically that just added to my stress. I know of there people who definitely didn’t make it. I have no idea how they will react tomorrow. I just hope they don’t expect a refund. It was pretty darn clear what time the boat was going to leave. (Indeed, I found out later that, at 7:33 on the boat, when I was still waving in people, the folks on board were wondering aloud why they hadn’t left yet.)

But all in all it was a success. Next week’s project is to continue collections for Marine ball tickets, of which we will purchase as many as possible and then hold drawings for winners. Right now, I have collected enough for maybe five tickets (of which I purchased one). Last year, we had 11.

And now I am on the tail end of what’s been a successful weekend in Guangzhou. I did 14K on the treadmill in 90 minutes Saturday morning, then napped til 10, worked 1-4, then hit the wet market and bought veggies for the first time in a month. Also finished a book that I didn’t really like but had invested a lot of time trying to figure out, so I stuck with it.  Then I chilled out – well, sweated, anyway – in the steam room and sauna.

After setting my alarm for 12:24 a.m., I got up, remembered in a haze why I’d set the darn thing, I Slingboxed the FSU game until 3 a.m., crashed until 6, then got up and did 10k on a couple of milder settings. My hips hurt so bad yesterday it was not funny. I was limping like crazy. I have no idea what I was thinking on this 10k. I’m going to die.

Anyway, I got back into the usual weekend routine by hitting the grocery store, which redefined crowded and raises your blood pressure, cooking my week’s meals and then getting a massage. I’m still sore but not limping. My other task was getting a light bulb changed, which is harder than it seems. It involves contacting the front desk and explaining what I need when I have zero language skills, but I got it done.

Basically, it’s been a really domestic weekend and I don’t mind a bit. I still have a couple more things to do, like wish Leila a happy birthday, but I’m really glad to have not commuted to or from either the airport or the train station this week.

Next week is in town, too, but the following weekend I head down to New Zealand. This has been in the works for awhile, but I haven’t done much planning beyond signing up for a tour of the south island. Now it’s finally the “next trip” and I guess I should get in gear.

Fill ‘er up in Dhaka

Banyan tree with a temple thing

 Now there is one. Coming into a two-year tour in Guangzhou, I had a whole slate of South, East and SE Asia that I hadn’t visited. Since I’ve been here, I’ve visited the Philippines, Mongolia, Bhutan and even Kazakhstan. My travels started in earnest about March 2014 (I can’t count Seoul – nice, but not exotic enough to make this list) in Bangladesh. And what do you know, with just one more to go – Brunei, and I’ve no idea how/when I can get there – it circled back to Bangladesh.

I’m not sure whose fault that was. The whole issue confused me during my entire three-day stay in Kathmandu. Yes, I finally got to Kathmandu! (And of course, I can’t get the dadgum song out of my head.) This had been in the works for awhile, but I was really kind of freaked about it.

Seriously, I tried to get there previously. I’d even bought tickets for Memorial Day, and then the April 25 earthquake happened, and China Southern canceled my direct flight. I opted to go to Burma instead. Oh, yeah, left that off the list. But Kathmandu remained on it, and I finally repurchased flight tickets, though not through Expedia – I’m done with that.

The thing is, China Southern either did away with or cut back on its nonstop flights, so I had to go indirect. Being from Tallahassee, where even if you crash you still have to go through Atlanta, this wasn’t such a big deal, but the only flight I could get was on Malaysian, that of the “go missing” flight.

Rubble from Kathmandu temple

So … Kathmandu on Malaysian airlines. What could possibly go wrong with that, right?

Fortunately, nothing. I just got back and had an amazing time. Granted, I’m dragging right now because my two-leg flight started at midnight and ended at 2 p.m., but I’ve done laundry, loaded up my photos and have eaten dinner. I’m trying to hold out to 8 p.m, after which I plan on melting into bed.

Anyway, after Bon Jovi for the Mid-Autumn holiday, I decide to do the rest of Golden Week – Chinese National Day – in Nepal. I knew I wouldn’t have time to do any trekking to Everest Base Camp or anything like that, but I figured even if I just wandered I’d be fine, assuming no other earthquakes hit.

And they didn’t. I hired a guide (got the name from the Kathmandu embassy and would recommend the guy) and we wandered through the valley for two and a half days. The rubble is phenomenal, but plenty remains. I have to say I am so very tired of temples, but I saw more temples. (Honestly, I don’t know or care about the differences between Hinduism and Buddhism, but I do find the different art interesting.)

For Zippy. I also saw Applebee and S.U.B.way.

The religions – just don’t get. And I get those two confused all the time, but we would go to one thing and Kumar would explain that this was for the god of _____, and people would come and leave stuff. In one place – and this completely blew my mind – there was a “living god.” He went on to explain this ritual where 4-year-old girls go through the equivalent of beauty and dare contests to be chosen/nominated/voted/not sure of the right verb as a “living god.” At least until menstruation, anyway. Then they do it again. But in the meantime, she is dressed up in an outfit that makes Jon Benet Ramsey look like a redneck and kept in this courtyard, where her feet never touch the ground. She’s either walking on velvet or being carried around. I just don’t understand.

Second-floor chicken

And the kama sutra. Bhutan had penises, but Nepal had sex ed carved into the temples. Never seen this before. Apparently the child brides of the past were taken to the temple to look at pictures for a how-to guide. They still stand today. And bend over, too.

But temples are the thing to do in Nepal, at least if you’re not hiking, and I did temples. I went to 3-4 UNESCO sites and saw lots of cracks in the rubble and beams holding this or that up. They really are trying to rebuild, but how do you rebuilt something from the 17^th century.

The one temple that Kathmandu was named for was completely leveled. Others still had the little deities standing, but they were facing a pile of rubble. I also saw more rats than I have since walking home from the Jakarta Globe.

Predates the fuel shortage, I'm sure

The Kathmandu valley is just that – a valley between mountains, including the Himalaya. So we had to transport back and forth between the places. Normally, this isn’t a problem, but this time it was, and from what Kumar told me, it was all India’s fault.

Somehow, and I still don’t understand this, India and Nepal are in talks about this or that (I tried to read some article, and “diplomats disagreed” popped up over and over). As a result, there are protests and holdups. One of the holdups is that India is not getting fuel to Nepal anymore. And this is where the fuel comes from, so there are few taxis. What they have, though, are lines of taxis and buses – like 20, 30, 40 – lined up, engines off, in phantom lines for gas.

The taxis that are running are gouging riders, especially tourists, because they have no idea when they will get gas again, so they have to make it worth their while. (And let’s face it, because tourists are easy prey.)

One alternative is the city buses, which reminded me of Morocco’s. And as much as I love Morocco, the transport system is not enviable. It’s downright scary, but that’s what we took.

Loved the view

The buses are very suspect, even before you realize they’re crammed with three times the safe number of people. The count includes those extra three people sitting in a two-person seat, the guys hanging on for dear life outside the open door and the ones sitting on the roof.

This was my transport for two days. My guide kept apologizing for it but it really wasn’t that bad. Again, it reminded me of Morocco. I certainly don’t miss that part of Morocco, but I lived through that and I made it through the weekend here.

On Day Three, we could only get to one other location and just couldn’t get a bus, so that was it for the trip. Kumar wound up walking home and I wandered back to some of the places I’d visited previously and started spending money. I bought two pairs of pants and three shirts for myself, but they’re not exactly the kind I can wear to work. I have a lot of trouble splurging on myself. On one pair of pants – one I’d returned to after seeing the first day – I had to, literally, sit myself down and talk me into it. They were $5.

Kama sutra  temple. In case you thought I was lying.

I didn’t get a yak shawl, which, now, I think is a shame. I don’t wear shawls but have several; this was my reasoning in not getting one. They were 300 rp, which is about $3. I haven’t worn the one from Bhutan once, so I decided to skip it. Then I wound up with 700 rp left over. The changers wouldn’t just give me $6 – they said their fee wouldn’t be worth it to me – so I wound up spending it in the airport, on a 5-pack of Oreos, two baby canned juices (pomegranate and pineapple) and a Twix bar. That was about $7. I would have been better off with two shawls, even if I never wore them. Sigh.

The fuel crisis lingers, and it wasn’t limited to auto fuel. Tourists restaurants were running low, shuttering them, and then on the way back I got thrown for a loop at the airport. I’d gotten a notice the day I left for Nepal that the arrival of the flight to KL had been postponed by an hour. Not the departure, just the arrival, and that confused me. But hey, I can roll with that, right?

But when I checked into the airport, I got the explanation: we had to pull over in Bangladesh to get gas. There’s no airplane fuel in Nepal, either.

80s again: Bon Jovi’s still got it

Those teeth. They’re perfect. Even from section 228, that was easy to see. The rest ain’t so bad either.

Jon Bon Jovi is something like 53 or 54 now, but man, the show last night had enough energy to prove he’s still got it.

It was so cool to see a show in Macau – the Venetian! – and having it be one of my 80s-90s favorites was a good choice.

 

Cotai Arena at the Venetian seats maybe 10,000 or so, and the band played two shows. I’m not sure what the deal was on Friday, but last night, they had some sections blocked off and the rest, including the seat in front of me, was not sold out.

Honestly, until the concert ad appeared in a newspaper we get at the office, I had no idea Bon Jovi was still around. Apparently there is new music, and of course there’s enough old stuff to fill a two-hour show.

I’d wondered about the opening act, and the show started a bit late – 8:20 or so, as opposed to 8 p.m. – and when unfamiliar music started after a bright (and often annoying) light show and a gray-haired guy in a gray shirt and black pants came out and started singing, I sat there wondering who the heck it was.

The voice wasn’t familiar at first, but once the chorus started I realize it was Jon himself. Oh, man. There’s less hair than in 1987, but that’s not a bad thing. 80s hair is not something to be proud of. What were we thinking?

And for the record, of the six members of the band, three still wore their 80s manes, including the keyboardist, whom my concert companion likened to a Muppet. He was very proud of that curly (likely permed) hair. He should not have been.

Anyway, Bon Jovi’s had work done, but man, he looks good. His teeth are perfect and the chest and arms weren’t far behind. Sadly, the behind is not something I ever got a good shot of. Every time he turned around, the camera operator would focus on one of the two guitarists instead of the jeans-wearing lead singer. Clearly, the mobile camera operator was not female.

I’d only heard about half the songs, though I did like the “newer” ones. (One was from a 2008 album, he said.) Very high-energy, although the strobe lights were a pain in my eyes. I continue to be impressed that light and sound people can choreograph so well.

My evening was amazing, but it didn’t start out that way. I’d commuted four hours to the show and I started out with a baby migraine due to dehydration. Although I’d been drinking water, I didn’t have enough of it and the commute was sunny and involved a lot of walking.

For lunch, the group of four had gone to a local diner and I’d had ramen noodles with a pork chop. As by that time, we were all famished (around 3 p.m. after an 8:30 a.m. start.)

***Obligatory TMI warning***

Trying to fend off the migraine (even though it never works), I pounded both a Coke and a bottle of water before the show. We had excellent seats -- top level, corner, three rows off the rail, on the aisle. And, importantly, a straight shot to the bathroom. By the time we sat down, I was feeling like I was going to puke. My concert companion and I were talking about our first/last/favorite concerts and, suddenly, it hit me. I said, "I'm going to the bathroom," and RAN up the stairs. Cannot emphasize the "ran" part more. Fortunately, it was mostly empty and there was a stall.

I didn't throw up. I pooped a ton of diarrhea and farted so loud/much that I need no DNA testing to prove I'm Zippy's daughter. It was awful. I don't think there was anyone else in the bathroom, though. Certainly no one who’d point fingers at me the next day or five years from now.

Went back to my seat, still feeling like I was going to toss my cookies and my companion offered me two Fishermen's Friends. I ate them slowly -- I thought the first one would put me over, but went through with the second. The vice in my skull continued tightening.

Then the show started and about 30 minutes in I realized I felt better. So I'm not sure whether it was the mints, Bon Jovi or the releasing of the gas. When I get migraines, I often feel like if I could just burp enough they'd go away, so maybe that was it. Either way, I felt fine by "Runaway" and spent two blissful hours gaping at the man's chest, arms and teeth.

I would have gaped at the tushie, but they didn't put it on the big screen.

There are just so many people here.

 I’m not home yet, but am on my next-to-last leg: I just boarded (barely) the high-speed train, which should deliver me to the Guangzhou metro (the last leg) before the Kiwi sisters on the tour finish their lunch. I should be home with a load of laundry completed by the time their flight leaves this evening.

Shanghai Nanjing St. The humanity!

All in all, I’m glad I came but am ready to go home. Shanghai is a spectacular city and although I was a little disappointed with our tour – we went to a garden and a Buddhist temple, woo-hoo – we had two free nights and I had a ball.

The pedestrian street and the riverfront were incredible and filled with more humanity than many people see in their entire lives. The pedestrian street, in particular, was just crazy insane. Kind of like a Mardi Gras parade every day and night, but with no alcohol. There were people dancing, singing, doing karaoke (obviously, this is different than singing!), playing games, eating, laughing, talking and standing in line for moon cakes.

The bull marks the stock exchange

It’s almost the Mid-Autumn festival and moon cakes are the big thing. They’re little cakes filled with everything from pineapple to pork. If you’re not sure what they are and are expecting a moon PIE, you’re in for a big surprise.

Met up with a friend here and did happy hour with him, where I had a fabulous non-Chinese burger before a little walking tour of the city with him. It’s really a fantastic place.

And teeming with people. Did I mention that?

It seems even the small towns are. We went to a “village” of 1.5 million. That’s where I had a bite of scorpion. It tasted like crunchy spice. Not bad, but I was spitting out little shells for a while afterwards.

A bamboo eating machine

The Terra Cotta Warriors, in Xi’an, were definitely the No. 2 highlight I thought they’d be. Over 600 of life-size guys (complete with infantry, cavalry, archers and command center were commissioned by some dynasty emperor to guard his tomb but subsequently destroyed when the next dynasty’s followers smashed them to pieces.

In the 70s, someone unearthed a head, which led to digging, which led to several football field-sized tracks of tunnel filled with pieces. Archaeologists have been putting them back together and in their original formation, which is pretty incredible.

So that was cool, as were Chengdu’s pandas. I’ve seen the triplets in Guangzhou, but they had more here, including some cubs and little kitten-sized babies. One guy, whom I admired greatly, managed to sleep standing up in a tree.

Catching a nap

Really, everything went fairly great and it was all it was cracked up to be. Had I gone alone, I would have done some different stuff but I went with a tour because I speak no language and didn’t want to deal with it. I think it went well, although when the tour group split – 26 went on a cruise and then 13 went directly to Shanghai – I was ready for that.

Some people just don’t need to be touring in groups, or in Asia. It was surprising to me that some don’t do any research about where they’re going. It’s no secret that Asia – along with much of the world – has squattie potties, but some people were completely shocked by this and a small handful of those refused to use them. Since they are few and far between, a 5-minute bathroom break on the road turned into a 20-minute one because people would stand in line to use the one Western toilet over the 49 squatties.

Terra Cotta Warrior army

Waiting on others is the part that’s frustrating about tour groups, and this one was no different. We had 15 minutes to explore Tiananmen Square on our own, but when 38 out 39 gathered on time and one person was wandering, the lot of us had to stand in one spot for another 15 until she turned up. We could have just had 30 minutes, which would have been ample time. How it was got frustrating.

Terra Cotta Warriors

But it’s give and take with a group, with the usual suspects doing the giving and the taking. Oh well.

And now I am going to settle down for a nap on the train We’re at the moment going 306 km an hour, which would be around 190. It doesn’t seem like it.

Another brick in the Wall

After living here since December 2013, I am finally touring China!

As I write this, I’m on Day Two of a 10-or-so-day tour within China, but nowhere near Guangzhou. I left there on Thursday and headed to Beijing to meet up with a group that’s mostly from America, but there are a couple of Torontonians, Vancouverites, Ozzies and Kiwis.

Today, we climbed a part of the Great Wall of China, which is something I’ve wanted to do since I found out I was being posted to China. I opted for the “harder” side, as opposed to the “hard,” and it was a piece of cake. I think 60 minutes per day on the elliptical has finally paid off.

Forbidden City

These are the steps I climbed today. I went to the one directly on the top center of the photo from the green building. I finished really early and then went up the other side to where this photo was taken from. I wound up pretty much coaching another lady through the end of it. She was having some trouble!

So far, the tour has been great. The mix of people is good: two Kiwis, two Ozzies, three sets of people from Florida, one group from Michigan, four people here alone and people from Atlanta and other random folks from mostly California and New York.

We do have some older people who are abnormally (in my opinion) focused on tipping. The subject’s been brought up four times. Thing is, there is no tipping in China. It’s an American thing, and other western country natives hate us for it. Let it go.

Tonight, we had a free evening for dinner on our own, and I met up with a former colleague from Guangzhou who’s now posted here. Just got back and boy, it was good. Dumplings are just awesome. Plus, it was nice catching up with the colleague, who really is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Tinnamen Square gate

There’s an early morning tomorrow – so early that I’m still debating just staying up and finding the game somehow. I figure come wake up time, it’ll be about over. The flight is at 8.

We’re headed to the Terra Cotta Warriors, in X’ian, a 2-hour flight from Beijing. This is my No. 2 highlight-to-be on the trip. The Wall is an absolute No. 1. I was not leaving this country until I saw that, and boy, it was worth it. I mean, I only saw a little part of it, but I’m happy about it.

After that, it’s Chengdu, where the panda research center is, and then to Shanghai. We fly between all those cities and I figured I’d be sick of flying by that time, so I’m taking the high-speed train home. It’s seven hours, and the trains run on  time. The airplanes, not so much.

Anyway, I am thrilled to finally be seeing China. It really is a cool country, and Beijing is just phenomenal. We’ve really only hit highlights; you could spend a week here and not see it all. Or come close to tasting it all.

I’d planned this as a swan song trip when I was targeted to leave in December but now that’s been extended. That means I’ve got more travel coming up, and it’s mind-boggling what I intend to do in the next month: Bon Jovi in Macau, Kathmandu, Taipei.

My passport is raising eyebrows on this trip. I figured Beijing would see enough of the black ones, but the ladies at this hotel were completely confused. I have 27 exit stamps and they’d just never seen that before. It’s really bizarre because there aren’t many entry stamps. I use the personal passport for travel outside of China, so my black one only shows when I left, not where I went to. (I do use it to Hong Kong, but they only give you little pieces of paper instead of stamps, which is good because I’d be out of space by now!)

When I checked in, it was late because the directions I had were bad. (I’d taken them off the hotel site, go figure.) I got in just after midnight and I just wanted to go to bed. The ladies both tried to convey something to me, which they spoke in Mandarin into their iPhones. One then pointed to my visa page and pointed to the translation, which said, “Can you put it here?” Needless to say, I had no idea what that meant.

And I couldn’t figure out why they just didn’t keep my passport – there was a collection of U.S. ones on the desk – and give me a room key. I was so pooped.

After more speaking into iPhones, the other lady (who was maybe 23), showed me the translation. Closing my passport, she pointed to the words on the iPhone screen: “Can you leave it here?” I realized she meant my passport in its entirety. She was trying to convey exactly why I had been wondering about.

The thing is, we’re so reliant on those stupid tech tools we’ve forgotten how to communicate. Honestly, had she just mimed putting my passport with the others and handed me a key, I would have figured it out, but both ladies were just so insistent on speaking into their devices for the “correct” translation that never occurred to them.

All right, I am going to upload this now. The internet is taking forever, so right now there’s no photo to go with the photo reference, but it’ll make more sense later.