The Cocks Fight on Sunday

Soon we'll be on our way back to Urumqi. And tomorrow to Chongqing. It's supposed to be cool there this week so I'm relieved. And then back to teaching in a week. Ugh.

Today I went to the animal Sunday Market - pictures to be put up soon. What a lot of character studies. Sheep, goats, cows, horses, and donkeys were for sale. We watched deals being made. Someone asked if I wanted to buy a donkey. I went with Alim, who was my guide earlier in the week. Then we took a delightful ride on a horsecart to the outskirts of the other Sunday Market. We saw cats and dogs for sale - kind of sad. Piles of watermelon. Watermelon goes for about 1.5 yuan each. Incredibly cheap! We went to the big indoor market and looked for some tea I had had at the teahouse yesterday with Gulkiz. That was NOT cheap, so I only bought a little. I also bought dried mulberries and local honey. I love buying local stuff. It's special, I think. Alim has taken me to several local eateries. Today I had some mix of noodles and lamb. A lot of lamb in this part of the world. I was buying a coke because I needed the sugar, and Alim said "But you're very fat!" and I said "I still need something to drink!" He told me Uyghur men don't like fat women, but I've noticed a LOT of fat people. Even women as big as me, or bigger. Alim said that's because they just stay home and eat too much lamb meat. He said it was unlucky to marry a fat woman. I told this to Gulkiz, who had never heard this. She thinks she's fat. Of course I don't think she is. The funny thing is that Alim is a little fat himself. At least by Asian standards. Apropos of nothing - Benjamin has been wearing paper underwear the entire trip. I had never heard of paper underwear before. I've heard of edible underwear, but that's another thing altogether. In any case, he bought them because it was too inconvenient to wash underwear. They looked sturdier than I thought they would be. Anyway - he ran out the other day and so after the teahouse I told Gulkiz that I needed to buy him some underwear, and she said "You two are really close, aren't you?"

On the horsecart today we took the back roads to the other market. So we passed through dusty villages, courtyard houses somewhat like the Chinese have (or had, a long time ago in cities but still have in the countryside). It reminded me that in the Old Town if both doors are closed, that means there is a woman at home alone and you can't visit. If one door is open and one open, there are both men and women and you can visit. If both doors are open there is a guest in the house.

In terms of Muslim dress Kashgar runs the gamut. There are veiled women, but also women who wear totally modern dress and don't cover anything. Gulkiz is the latter, but of course she's very young. The most common thing is to cover your head with a scarf and wear long skirts and long sleeve shirts. No one ever looks hot. When I visited mosques I covered my head but other than that I've been totally comfortable with just my usual dress.

The last place Alim took me to today was a cock fighting place. I was the ONLY woman in the entire place. I wasn't allowed to take pictures - so sorry. Alim said it was legal in the sense that rich men invested in the place and the government turns a blind eye. A lot of betting, of course. The fights themselves go on a lot longer than I thought they would. I wasn't too into it, needless to say. Do you have to train the cocks to be like that? It's cruel.

No Pictures on this Post

How do you like the pictures?? Some are pretty good, eh? I'm getting braver about taking pictures of people. I figure that if they don't like it they'll yell at me and then I can erase them. So far that hasn't happened.

Kashgar is hot and dry like I thought it would be. In the shade it's really quite bearable. Five days here is probably too many, but I have relaxed somewhat. We had plans to go to Lake Karakuli and a trek into the desert. But several things happened. I ran out of money. And then we found out that these places were closed to tourists because of the terrorist activity here. Now we found out we can go, but we have to get a permit and possibly go as part of a tour. I've had enough of tours. And besides, no money. I don't know if I'll ever get here again, but those are some places I would come back for.

On the first day here we went to the main mosque in town, Id Kah. We were walking around and doing some shopping, but Benjamin was so miserable we had to return to the hotel. Since then he hasn't ventured out at all. He's terrified of a terrorist attack. Unfortunately Chinese people in northern Xinjiang when they found out we were going to Kashgar usually exclaimed "Are you crazy?" They said so many bad things about Kashgar and Uyghurs in general that Benjamin has worked himself up into such a frenzy that he doesn't want to do anything. But truthfully I think that's only part of it. Benjamin is a product of his own culture and comes with the same prejudices of other Han Chinese. He doesn't like Uyghurs, doesn't trust them, thinks they are out to get him and me. Ever since I've been in China I've heard people say Uyghurs are criminals. It's the only ethnic group I've ever heard disparaged. Moreover, Benjamin has never been in a foreign country, and this is really a foreign country. He's out of his comfort zone. It didn't help when one vendor told me he would give me a discount because I was a foreigner, but he wouldn't give me one if I were Han. Prejudice goes both ways, of course, and a lot of the Uyghurs don't have anything good to say about the Han.

So Benjamin stays in the hotel room all day sleeping and watching TV. He eats at the western cafe that is part of the hotel complex. It's frustrating for me, but I feel sorry for him. I feel a little out of my comfort zone as well, which is inevitable when you travel to another country. I hired a guide one day to take me to Old Town and the Sunday Market. I really enjoyed myself. The guide also works in the internet bar where I spend a lot of time, and there's also a young girl, Gulkiz, who works there. Yesterday she took me to a Uyghur restaurant which was really fun. We had pidgeon soup, which she assured me was very good for women, and on the side came a roasted pidgeon. As we tore off pieces with our hands I fervently hoped the pidgeon hadn't come from the park across the street, or been caught shitting on someone's window sill. Then we had lamb kabobs. Then noodles. Then Uyghur bread that you dipped in icy yogurt. Then fried chicken. And sauteed green vegetable. By the time the chicken came I was already stuffed. Maybe the best part of the meal was the tea they served, as well as cold cherry juice. I had two glasses. Delicious! Today she is taking me to a tea house. Tomorrow I will probably go with the guide again to the animal part of the Sunday Market, and the "fighting chickens" market. Tomorrow night we have a late flight back to Urumqi. We'll stay the night and then return to Chongqing in the morning.

A tomb built for a Uyghur "peacemaker" by Chinese standards, a "destroyer" according to Uyghurs

Me coming from a Mosque

Bread vendor in Kashgar

Figs for sale

17th century detail on the tomb

A Uyghur girl
A veiled Uyghur woman selling doppa hats
Lots of doppa hats at the Sunday Market!
Wares at the Sunday Market
The labyrinthe that is the Sunday Market

A potter at work in Old Town

Baby Uyghur in Old Town

Me as Uyghur/Uzbek girl

Street in Old Town

Uyghur kids

In beautiful Old Town houses in Kashgar

Heaven Lake - I didn't go but Benjamin did
Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar
Into Old Town in Kashgar
Me with a drum in an Old Town house
The dark mystery of Old Town

Kanas River
Benjamin in Kazak garb
Kanas Lake
At the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar
Kanas again

At the Flaming Mountain - 60 degrees celcius

Captive on a truck - the goat

Benjamin at Kanas. See what I mean about the water?

Kazak kids with their goats at Kanas (had to pay for this picture of course)

Molly on the Silk Road

You'll have to wait for pictures - I don't have my line with me and I'm in an internet bar in Kashgar now. I'm having an interesting time in Xinjiang. It's Wednesday now. We're in Kashgar until Sunday night and then back to Urumqi for one night and home on Monday. I don't know if I can write everything now. It's a jumble in my mind. But I'll try to tell a little, so I won't be overwhelmed when I get home.

If the truth be told, travelling isn't always fun and certainly not easy. I think most people in their heart of hearts know this. Americans put such an emphasis on having fun that when you say you're not having fun you feel a little guilty. So I'll be honest - a lot of this trip has been hard. I've decided that I've taken my last organized tour. I've decided that travelling is a time of deep introspection for me, and a time for facing my own demons. I've decided that culture shock still knocks me off my feet, and I don't mean the exoticness of Xinjiang but rather the testing of long established and deep friendship. But enough of myself for now.

Xinjiang is a geologist's paradise. I've seen more interesting and varying land forms here in one province than I have anywhere else. There were low rolling mountains made out of black sand on the way to Turpan. A giant's sandbox. There was the Flaming Mountain (said to change color from a distance) that was a deeply etched beige close up - it was also 60 degrees celcius at this juncture. On the way to Kanas Park there was a place called Ghost City that looked like something out of Egypt - large sandy rock formations - vestiges of an ancient civilization (and was also used in some very famous Chinese movies including Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). And there was Kanas itself - called "Little Switzerland" in Chinese. I've never been to Switzerland, but this place was spectacular. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Majestic mountains partially covered with fir trees, birches at lower altitudes. I never thought I would see a birch tree in China! I love birch trees - they remind me of Minnesota. There's a large lake in Kanas (Kanas Lake) and a meandering river that runs into it. And both are the most incredible shade of blue. Or blue green. Kind of a turquoise. When I asked about it Benjamin said it was the reflection of the sky. So did someone else. But I said look at the color of the sky and then look at the color of the water. They are not the same. The sky, incidentally, was beautiful too - we've had perfect weather the whole trip. Bright sun, dry, hot and sometimes not too hot. Turpan was outrageously hot of course - but I expected that. I stupidly thought that I wouldn't sweat in the dry heat but I was wrong. But I didn't pee the whole day, in spite of the gallons of water I was drinking. It was so hot in Turpan that many of the local people put their beds on their roofs. We ate luscious fruit - melons and grapes. And fresh grapejuice made right before your eyes. The hills in Turpan had brick structures with lots of holes to dry the grapes. Xinjiang raisins are famous. If you think you've seen one raisin you've seen them all you are WRONG. We had a little lesson in raisins. Delicious. And so many varities and all so different. Some with medicinal qualities.

One tour guide complained to me that she hated her job - not because of high maintenance people or the amount of details you have to take care of or the long hours lack of sleep and food - no, she could handle all of that. It was that her company required her to take the groups to shopping centers - usually places selling jade or other high end products. She would get some money, of course, if anyone from the group bought something. All the same she found it awkward. One place we went to was a place selling Chinese medicine. During the presentation I was popping Advil for a headache and some men in the group were smoking. I found this funny. I never bought anything, of course. Actually I think one tour guide was disgusted with me because I didn't spend any money at all - Kanas was a playground of white water rafting, horseback riding, going to the border of Krygstan - all of which cost extra money, some of which found its way into the pocket of the tour guide. So I played the American and gave her a big tip at the end.

Kanas is a national park established around 20 years ago. It is so well done you would think you weren't in China anymore. I'm not kidding. While in a bus on the way down a mountain I actually heard someone say "Put on your seatbelts". Even the bathrooms were nice - not smelly like they are everywhere else in China. It is carefully managed, and YOU are carefully managed while you are there. Kanas has its own transportation system - buses that take you from place to place. No cars or buses are allowed from the outside. There were no hiking trails. The one place you could hike was up a mountain (over 2000 steps) - for 40 yuan. Everything cost money. Personally I was into just hanging out and soaking it all in. I was an anomaly. There are people who live in the park - the Tuwa people, and the Kazak. Tuwa people live in ramshackle log cabins - all with satellite TV. The Kazak live in yurts (and they make terrific yogurt). The variety of people in Xinjiang is dizzying - 49 ethnic minorities here alone out of a total in China of 57. Kanas, surprisingly, is not mentioned in my Lonely Planet guide. Maybe because it's difficult to get there - you either have to join a tour or have your own car. There's an airport there but I don't know what you do once you land. But Kanas never advertises because it doesn't want too many people to come, and word of mouth suffices. And it's true that at least when I went it wasn't overcrowded.

We are watching a lot of the Olympics at night.

Toilet Trouble

As many of you know by now, I have issues. I have issues with poop. I don't know how it got started. Something in my childhood, no doubt. And you would think I would grow out of this, but no, it gets worse as time goes on. I am becoming more neurotic as I age. Or maybe it's living in China, or a combination of aging and living here.

So small problems are multiplied when faced with difficulties. The truth is, I plugged up the toilet one day in our new apartment. Of course it was a big production because Benjamin had to call the owner, who had to call the plumbers, and in the end two of them came with a plunger and in 10 seconds had fixed the problem for 20 yuan. The plumbers told Benjamin that I had big boobs. Then they said I had big poop. (They also guessed my age - 24!!!). Now, the boob comment doesn't trouble me because I have been resigned to this for some time now. But the poop comment really wounded me. And it was compounded when Benjamin told me that a plumber at Nanfang had said the same thing - that I plugged up the toilet because my poop was too big. So - I can't buy clothes in China, I can't buy shoes in China, and now I can't poop in China? I suffer anal retentiveness already (in the literal sense, not the psychological), I don't need anything to add to my troubles. Are they telling me that laowai have bigger shit than Chinese??? This is very troubling to me. However now we have a plunger so at least I don't have to be humiliated in front of the workers. Just Benjamin. Maybe Korea has better plumbing (and yes, I do blame it on the half-assed plumbing in this country). One can hope.

Stand Up

I had four hours of classes today. My feet hurt, my back hurts. The first class was a pain in my ass. Mostly high school students who would rather be on vacation but instead their rich parents want them to spend their afternoons harassing a foreign teacher. I exaggerate. They weren't harassing me, but they certainly talked (in Chinese) too much. There's a fat girl in my class who compensates for her physical shortcomings by being a smart ass and getting the class to laugh at her. When push comes to shove, as in me getting her up in front of the class to actually speak English, she can't do it. When I had her in my class before I walked into the room, said something, and she immediately proclaimed, loudly and in Chinese "Ting bu dong" - "I don't understand". I replied to her in English, "Oh, you don't understand? Am I speaking too fast?" She was a little chagrined. But she gives up on herself. She doesn't even try. I want to tell her it's possible to be fat and at the same time have some dignity. When her and her partner had finished not being able to speak English at the front of the class, I found myself disgusted enough to ask them all "Do you really want to go to England?" (the purpose of the class is to get them to pass the interview section of the IELTS exam - equivalent to the TOEFL in America). "Do you really want to go to England? Or Australia or wherever? Because at the rate you're going you'll be staying right here in Chongqing. I've talked to students who've taken the exam. They didn't pass the test. It's hard. My students at Nanfang always ask me - how can I improve my English? And I tell them there is no magic formula - it just takes practice. A lot of practice. No magic. And that's what this class is for, although you don't need me to practice English." They were temporarily quiet. After class the fat girl came chasing after me to ask me my phone number. I forget that bad behavior in class is seldom personal. I think they always like me. Or maybe she just wants to prank phone call me. Who knows.

My old foreign teacher friend Dave, who left a long time ago, always referred to his classes as stand up comedy. That is certainly how I've approached my job this summer. I just let the coffee do the talking.

My second class, the evening class, is much more mature and easier to teach. They give thoughtful answers. They try hard. I'm getting tired of just asking questions and just doing the same basic thing, so I had them play a game at the beginning of class. The subject was shopping (yeah, pretty stupid but it's on the list of subjects for the interview), so I had them play the game "I'm going to England and I'm bringing with me. . ." You say something, and then you have to list all the things that have been said before your turn. In a big class it's a little challenging. But they were game, so to speak. Yesterday I had them play a version of Taboo. The subject was animals, so I typed up lists of animals and then for each animal had a small list of words they couldn't use to describe that animal. The class had to guess the animal. I gave out cookies for the correct answer.

Benjamin got a tattoo tonight. On the back of his neck. It's a picture of wings, with the word "wing" in old English lettering. This is for his great love, Xiao Yi. Another meaning of "Yi" is wing.

One MoFo Hot Saturday

I am using a computer in Shi Qiao Pu, the crazy electronics place. They are trying to fix my computer - or rather reinstalling the whole damn thing to get rid of the virus. I'm losing everything so I'm trying to remember if I put everything on my U disk or not. That could be trouble. I know my book is on it, but there's other stuff I desperately need. Blah. I know I shouldn't be mad at Benjamin for using Chinese (corrupt) websites, but I can't help it. I know I should have had an antivirus thing on it. A hard lesson to learn. it's crazy in China- viruses ar ethe norm, not the exception. People here create viruses for fun. Godless, Harry would say. It makes me appreciate American websites, that's for sure. So hopefully tonight I can finally call home.

If one more person asks me if I've seen Kung Fu Panda I'm going to scream. Very popular here. It would be a stereotype to say that everyone in China knows kung fu, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration that people here can't get enough of kung fu movies. They all look the same to me. I went through a Hong Kong kung fu phase in Boston because my roommates were into it. That's why Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger didn't do that much for me. Anyway, I think kung fu Panda is just one more anti-fat movie. I saw a preview. All the fat jokes, the fat guy who is the joke. Not really very funny. I'm starting to be angry with Oprah, too. She has more anti-fat quacks on her show all espousing some new anti-fat miracle. Then they show up as junk on my email.

I got a job offer from Korea. I'm thinking very seriously about it. It would be teaching something from my Masters like public management combined with an emphasis on English. My dad's friend thinks I would be perfect for it with my background. It would be something new and different, and I think I need that. It would also come at a good time - after I finish my contract here and not knowing what to do with myself. I could finish my book. The salary is $38,000. I don't know how good that is in Seoul. But I'm thinking about it.

I heard from Alice in Dubai. She's doing well in that crazy place.