April 2004

At first I didn't realize it was April Fool's Day. I told Karjam when I got back from the elementary school (they knew what day it was). He'd never heard of the day before, but as soon as I finished telling him said "Oh, ya? I just didn't make it to the bathroom and poo-ed in my pants a little a couple minutes ago." My eyes got really wide, before I realized he was just responding to the April Fool's day explanation.

I was really happy when all my classes were over for the day, but then when I went to the photo studio they were being idjits, and at the DVD place I couldn't find any good DVDs. I bought a boxed set of something like twelve Jackie Chan movies for Karjam, who loves Jackie Chan. I bought a few other things, too. When I got home Karjam was watching "Chicago". After that, when I'd gotten done making dinner we watched "Whale Rider" together, which was -really- good.

Morning classes were annoying. I made SUCH a big deal last week that they needed to do research before today. I had it typed on the syllabus, and I showed them where it was typed, showed them where their broad subject title was typed, and then showed them how we'd be writing the paper for four weeks of class until it was perfect. But, somehow even though my Wednesday students mostly prepared, these Friday students were completely lame. The first class had perhaps three students who had prepared, and it's my very biggest class. The second class had about two that had prepared, but at least it was a topic they could write outlines on (today's assignment) without needing to do tons of research in advance, since they are more familiar with it.

Today was super busy. After classes finished, I came home and -of course- Karjam was deeply involved in watching a Jackie Chan movie. So I went and bought a fried sandwich for me and noodles for him, and after eating worked on the computer a bit. At 2:00 this student of mine from the Botany Dept. came over. I had read and corrected a paper he wrote for international publication last weekend, and asked him to bring it back to me after he'd corrected what I'd found. We still found a few things this time through. While he was still here Cai Yun came. She taught Karjam for one hour, trying to teach him third person singular 's' and the spelling peculiarities like after 'y' or 'ch'. When they'd been at it an hour Cai Yun and I talked, but while we were talking three of the little girls from the elementary school appeared at my door. They aren't my students, they are only in third grade. But they wanted to 'play'. I foisted them off on Karjam, who mostly put up with them for half and hour, they left right before Cai Yun did.

My photo marketing site has a new thing they are doing, they are called Niche content pages- where they create a page that might more specifically meet one search of a client.. the example given when they started it was "winter snow sports". Each Niche page has 24 images, not all from one photographer. Today I checked to see how the pages others had built were coming along and was very gratified to see that people were frequently using my photos on the pages they built. With perhaps three cat photos on the site, I still got listed on the "cats and dogs" page, and I was all over a "Buddhism" page (of course).

Part of the hurry to do the legal marriage was if he goes to Korea (which has too many illegal Chinese workers and is desparate to avoid having more) the easiest way for him to go is on a dependent family member visa (no working allowed, but of course there are ways to get around that...). However, he kept complaining and complaining about going to Korea. He never said I shouldn't go and he always said he should go in order to support me (emotionally?) while I am going to grad school and working... but he sure wasn't happy about it, or approaching it with an open mind. So I finally said "Look, if you don't want to go to Korea, just do something in China that doesn't make me think you are wasting your time, and I'll be happy." What I meant (and I did explain) was a lame ass English program in Beijing in a class with 50 students and a Chinese teacher with crappy English was not going to cut it, but starting his Bachelor's Degree, or going back to work for his dance troupe would be just fine. After a token restistance, he agreed that he should stay in China.

So, that takes the pressure off getting married quickly. I'll go back to Korea, that'll be easier without having to be responsible (or feel like I am) for someone else's happiness. I'll study and work hard, and I'll have to take my next vacation to come to China... but that'll keep my Chinese from dissapearing on me or something. And then it'll be pretty easy to say to him "Do you still feel like you want to get married, and tell the truth!" If either of us feels that (without frequent sex, or the complications of living together) that we aren't really that much in love, it'll be easier to end it. So, I think that solves the whole problem, really, I feel much more relaxed about things.

Karjam and I had a real waste of a day. Karjam had no energy or motivation, so he kept watching DVDs, and where I am at on preparing for my speech on Tuesday is needing major concentration on the computer, something I can't do with a DVD playing behind me (though I did do a bit more research, hopefully the last of it). I ended up reading through a lot of my students papers out on the balcony in the sun. We ate dinner in a new restaurant, woo-ee, and bought some of the same stuff as usual at Home World. But I remembered to buy lemons so I can make some hummus out of the mix my aunt Barbara sent me.

This morning getting up was hard, but I had the incentive of we'd made a date to meet this TV/newspaper guy at the main gate at 9:30. Only he was 40 minutes late. When I was about to give up and go home Karjam admitted they might have been a bit unclear about whether it was 9:30 or 10, so perhaps you could say the guy was only ten minutes late. We had breakfast with him and talked... teaching English, learning English. I will go with him to some school in a rural area about three hours from Lanzhou and give a speech on how to learn English at some point in the future, date yet to be decided.

I think the position that Michael occupies in my life is a bit complicated. In the absence of any other person from my culture who I can reguarly converse with he's taken on the position of "Best Girlfriend" though he is definitely not a girl. On a professional level I think he fills the function of "Two Heads are Better than One". I talk to him about stuff, ideas for my classes, or brainstorming on an aspect of my speech, and if the two of us get thinking together I know I come up with something much better than I can do on my own in the same time period.

American Music is much too big a topic to cover in two hours, especially if part of your time is taken up by playing cuts of music to illustrate (is that the right word) what you are saying. Before the speech, in the afternoon I was walking back from the last time that I printed out the speech and decided to check the poster. There is one place they always put posters like that up, that's next to the South Gate. Since I didn't know the location until Monday at nearly lunch time I'd told many people- if you come to campus 15 minutes before the speech you can see the poster and find out the location if you go to the South Gate. However, when I swung by the South Gate the two huge bulletin boards there showed no evidence of any poster. One bulletin board had nothing on it but half torn off advertisements and such, and the other had a giant plastic tarpaulin style advertisement about fifteen feet long across it. Sure enough, peaking underneath I found my poster. So why was the advertisement put up over my poster (which had the date on it) rather than on the other board? Why are advertisements spread willy-nilly across my campus anyway? I was pissed off and I took hold of the tarp and ripped it down for 2/3 of it's length until my poster was visible (the tarp was not destroyed, if they came back they could staple it up again). Then I went home and called Mina, very unhappy. How can anyone know about my speech with only a couple lousy posters (and I had to bug her to make sure they'd make more than one poster!). Why does Landa require me in my contract to give a lecture to the community if they don't properly advertise? That speech could be mentioned on the school PA system, or it could even be in the newspaper... but no! I was so pissed off. Karjam told me to calm down and said it doesn't matter if there is one person in the audience, you still have to sing or dance just as hard.

Karjam and I went out to eat with his friend Dorchi Rinchin and another guy who is perhaps a classmate of Dorchi Rinchin. Then by 6:30 I was outside the door to the classroom- still locked. Amazingly there were already a half dozen people waiting there, including Jim who told me later he'd told his night class (administrators of the college) that class would be in a new location only this Tuesday, and that they'd also have a different teacher. That accounted for fifteen or so people. There were also some of my students, past and present, some of whom came because of my announcements in class or my emails. But, amazingly enough, there were about 135 people there total! Wow! Some poster obviously must have been seen... who knows! But, really, it was impressive. Every chair was full and lots of people were standing in the back and the aisles.

I thought of trying to put together a sort of rocker outfit. I can't though, I don't have access to all my clothes here. I was well attired in a tailored light blue button-up blouse, a black velvet-esque jacket and matching skirt (falling to right below my knees), white nylons and black conservative shoes. I looked great, my hair was in place, swept up, twisted and pinned with a large barrette and some smaller pins to help keep it in place. I was also wearing make-up (eye make-up which I usually skip and lip make-up which despite Karjam's urging, I usually don't skip) and conservative earrings and an even more conservative necklace. I looked properly professorly, in a hip "I know how to dress" sort of way.

The classroom did come equipped with a computer which would play CDs. Jim was a godsend and assumed the role of DJ, though it gave him some stress. Each time a disc was changed a "register your software" message would stop the new CD after it had played a few moments of the song. I'm sure it was also a bit difficult as we listened to 18 different performers. I had actually picked out 19, but due to the tight schedule and improvising, I had to lose the Grateful Dead from the line up and go directly to Jimi Hendrix. We figured out how to run that system, and I taped up my seven large white pieces of paper (each one is about one yard wide and two yards long). I had a flow chart for the influences of different kinds of music on each other. I had a music history time-line and a sheet that showed names of styles of music (Heavy Metal) with artists (usually American, but an occassional super famous Brit) so that the students could have more of a visual to understand. I had the entire speech outline, and I also had a list with the names of each person whose music we'd listen to in order. Last of all I had lyrics from songs, including "Suicide Solution" by Ozzy Osbourne (the song was blamed for the suicide of a boy in 1985 and his parents sued Ozzy) and other songs that were very representative of types of music. Some of them were songs we also listened to, some were not.

The speech itself, honestly, was not perfect. My conclusion drew some applause, but it wasn't as convincingly "conclusion-esque" as I would have liked. I know they are second language speakers, but I would have preferred for them to all to know it was the end without me saying, "Okay, it's over now." Also, as I already mentioned the topic was FAR too big to address in two hours. On the other hand, considering the English of most of my audience, it was probably for the best that it was a more surface level speech without going into too much detail. That might have been harder for people to understand.

I'm not a gung-ho American, patriotic to the hilt and blind to the many faults of my country. However, if there is one thing I can confidently say about America it's that American music has positively influenced the music of the whole world.

1. Roots of American Music

When you think of American music, remember that American music did not spring from an empty slate. As each group of people immigrated to America, they brought with them their own musical traditions. Over time those musical traditions evolved and became uniquely American but way back there at the beginning the Western European settlers brought their folk songs and music based around a guitar. Spanish, Italian, Irish, and French music folk music are very distinct from each other even today, but in America, unlike Europe, it was common for people from these different musical traditions to be living and working in the same communities. The mixture of these sounds influenced the growth of American music. However, the thing which makes American music most unique, and set it on a path vastly different from that followed by European music through the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries was the musical influence of the African slaves. The slaves came from a variety of highly musical West African cultures and they truly created the underpinnings of American music, visible even today.

4.Jazz

A. Early Influences

Jazz has been called the finest art form to develop in the United States of America. This musical form grew out of a mix of folk blues, ragtime and European music, particularly band music. One of the key influences on Jazz was the Blues. Band music was important because many early jazz musicians made money by playing in marching bands- the sort of bands where brass instruments such as trombones and trumpets; reed instruments such as saxophones and clarinets and drums played the major parts. Since the musicians were already familiar with those instruments, they used them in their jazz ensembles as well. Jazz from it's early stages used trumpets and saxophones in a whole new way.

5. Rock and Roll

Rock and roll emerged as the dominant and most popular form of music in America from the 1950s. As I've mentioned both blues and jazz influenced rock and roll. Early rock and roll combined elements of blues, boogie woogie, jazz and rhythm and blues. It was also influenced by traditional folk music, gospel music and country and western music. The term rock and roll itself alluded to dancing, sex and the sounds of the music itself and quickly stuck in the minds of the listeners. Many rock and roll acts, such as Elvis Presley covered songs originally sung by Blues artists.

Rock and Roll has many names, but pop music, a mutable term derived from the word popular, has been used to describe the mellowest version of rock and roll, in my speech I will use the term rock and roll to refer to all kinds of rock music, from the lightest pop to the heaviest metal. Rock and roll is music using generally electric guitar, bass, synthesizer (or electric piano or organ) and drum sets (like those used in Jazz). Rock singing is almost always amplified by a microphone.

A. The Birth of Rock and Roll

In the minds of many historians Rock and roll was the natural result of the end of the doctorine of separate but equal. When Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruled that racial separation was inherently unequal, the next thing you know a musical form clearly combining black and white music became the hottest thing in America. It was still hard for black performers to get on the airwaves, so many white musicians covered black songs, such the music of Little Richard and Fats Domino, covered by Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson respectively.

C. Rock and Roll as a Social Movement

Rock and Roll cannot be merely described in terms of its effect on entertainment. Rock and Roll was a social movement and a way of life by the mid to late 60s. Rock and roll artists were using lyrics to send messages, particularly about social justice. The emerging counter culture (much of it in opposition to the Vietnam War) was largely influenced by the use of recreational drugs, such as marijuana and acid (LSD). Artists such as Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane (later Jefferson Starship) became hugely successful.

Though rock started out as having a huge social consciousness, by the time that the punk influence was felt, rock became as much about shocking people and being different from your parents generation as anything else. Originality and finding your own sound and style were the hallmark of rock in the 80s, but unfortunately due to marketing and censorship, many of the current top rock and roll acts seem to be a bland, banal identical group with little thought to issues outside their own lives.

F. MTV

MTV was created in 1981, originally seen as a way for the music industry to increase exposure and sales. In general, in the minds of almost all music afficonados MTV has done nothing positive for the music industry. While it boosts the sales of a few highly marketed acts, in general it has created a climate in which musical talent and originality take a back seat to a pretty face and a slick video. Artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna have been able to use MTV to their advantage, and their flashy videos and actions increased their fame. Other artists have struggled because of MTVs hesitancy to anger conservative action groups by airing controversial videos.

B.Hip Hop

Hip hop is a musical movement that began among the urban disenfranchised (primarily Afro-American) youth in New York City. Though western Africa has a tradition called griot which is somewhat similar to hip hop, the real origin of hip hop in America was Jamaican dub music, or reggae, mixed with funk. In Hip hop the beat is constant, and that beat is often reminiscent of R & B and funk music.

Hip hop includes both MC-ing (MC= Master of Ceremonies) and DJ-ing (DJ= Disc Jockey)(and break-dancing and graphiti art are also integral parts of the Hip Hop cultural experience). In the 70s the multiple turn-table style of DJ-ing was first developed. MCs began to speak along with the beat, often just introducing themselves or the audience in a creative way. At first this was called MC-ing, then it became known as rapping. By the late 70s hip hop and rap were becoming known allover the United States.

Non-listeners often think that rap and hip-hop are interchangeable terms, but they are not. Hip Hop developed as DJs gradually became more creative. From their origins as someone who chose the music to keep the mood of a party going, they evolved into musical artists respected for their originality and ideas. The advent of technology like drum machines, that let them program their own beats, and gave them a solid beat to base their turntable work around. Later the digital sampler was introduced, which further enhanced the creative aspect of DJ-ing.

Many male Hip Hop artists and rappers were and are known for chauvinistic, sexist, even degrading lyrics, but today there are many women recording artists in this field, and they are making plenty of money from their recording careers. An example of female artists includes Salt-N-Pepa, Lauryn Hill, and Queen Latifah. Music by female artists has greatly increased the staying power of both Hip Hop and Rap, by creating music that appealed to a wider group of people.

Censorship is ancient. One of the most famous cases of censorship, of course, was when Jesus Christ was crucified more than 2,000 years ago. Why was he crucified? He was causing trouble, he was agitating, he was inciting people to think about things the ruling powers did not want them to think about, and above all, he was aquiring power himself, taking it away from those who wanted to hold onto it. However, curiously enough, today the largest force for music censorship in America comes from the forces of the Christian right.

C. Parents Music Resource Center

In 1985 a boy committed suicide and his parents sued Ozzy Osbourne, a rock star who had an album and song called "Suicide Solution". Spurred by such tragedies the PMRC or Parents Music Resource Center, comprised of the wives of twenty influential politicians most notably Tipper Gore, was established. The PMRC dneied a desire to censor expression. The stated goals of the PMRC were to get warning labels posted on the front of albums with explicit content, to have albums with questionable cover art in an adults only section or under the counter in music stores, to institute a rating system for music and to have a nonstop media watch of concerned citizens to monitor the actions of performers.

In their first year the PMRC managed to institute mandatory lyric sheets in albums released to radio, so that the broadcasters would be responsible for the content of the songs. The PMRC initially targeted 15 artists that they considered the most damaging to young people, including Madonna and Black Sabbath. Within six months the recording industry struck a deal with the PMRC to create a universal parental warning label on all albums with explicit content. This agreement contractually applied to 80% of the recordings produced yearly in the entire world (not just the United States).

D. The Changing Face of Censorship

In the past most censorship was focused on using regulatory techniques. However, with America's much vaunted freedom of speech, this is more difficult. The techniques used today are sometimes hard to immediately interpret as censorship. One of the biggest ones is market censorship. Through the lobbying of vocal groups usually from the religious right market-censorship has become a major factor. Large retailers with outlets all over the country and even the world, for example Wall Mart, refuse to sell certain recordings or work by certain artists. This sort of censorship works not only to reduce sales of albums and profits by artists but most notably it discourages record labels from producing work by artists who might not sell as many discs. On the level of getting a contract with a major recording company, a necessity for becoming really successful, a company will balance the likelihood of sales against potential negative controversies that can hurt the reputation of the label. Today special interest groups have made record companies very gun shy about releasing controversial material.

Although rock and Hip Hop are still criticized today in much the same way rock was in the 1950's, very little evidence has been found to justify calling music evil. The battle against controversial music is an attempt to silence the voice of a section of society that has the right to be heard. Music is the voice of America, not the political or historical one we learn in textbooks, but the voice of the blue-collar worker, the drug addicts and the inner city teenager. Rock and roll, Hip Hop and rap have been key players in bringing these separate worlds together. Although music has not completely dissolved racial intolerance, it has significantly blurred the lines separating blacks, whites and Hispanics. Music, especially rock and roll is an open forum for all people to shout out their individual and varied viewpoints. It is a showcase of American life and a true reflection of American society.

C. Inclusion

The most striking thing about rock music at this point is the stylistic diversity of the music. In a single year the most popular albums are as diverse as Carlos Santana, who became famous in the early 70s, the rap/metal mix of Limp Bizkit, the gangsta rap of stars like Dr. Dre and Eminem and the techno musician Moby (not to mention the glop produced by artists like Britney Spears and N'Sync. The wonderful thing about America is that it's all possible. Music stores carry classical music, opera, jazz, swing, blues, ragtime, rock, pop, R & B, rap, Hip Hop, glam metal, heavy metal, bluegrass, dixieland, folk, swing and dozens of international styles from reggae to zouk, soukous to rai and even Chinese traditional.

Today America's music does what it has always done, bring people together. Every aspect of life, ethnicity and culture is merged, mixed and highlighted. Music reflects American life and American life reflects music. This music is the story of the country, of a nation alive with change. It attracts and entices the world because it truly is the best of all that is America.

Conclusion

Music in America is the most original, most varied, most exciting musical expression in the entire world. America has produced most of the well-known important musical styles in the world today and influences the music of all the other nations of the world. Many people, even governments complain about the influence of American recording artists, their racy videos and the meanings in some of their songs. But no one forces Chinese performers to copy American styles. Many countries today are creating their own pop music heavily drawing on traditional rythms and instrumentation. Algeria, India and Brazil are just a few of the countries that are producing such popular local music and their local musical performers do not feel a need to copy American styles. China would do well to adopt the same attitude. I'm sure musical innovation here would produce marvelous results.

down down down. fought today because he told me I was lying when I repeated (as near to word for word as my Chinese will come) a phone call from Michael:

First: Michael tells me about a visiting chef at a big 5 star hotel's restaurant. Italian. Michael goes, and it's great. Either Karjam and I go today, or I go without him today, tomorrow or the day after, cause after that the chef is gone. He can't go after today cause Tsemphel is supposed to come over.

I plead with Karjam to go. He doesn't want to. I call Michael and ask if Woojing wants to go again cause Michael has already said he wants to go again. Michael says she does. I ask Jim to go with me. He already has plans. I go back to pleading with Karjam.

Michael calls back and says "You can go with Woojing and I. You won't be a third wheel, I promise." Karjam asks what Michael said. I say "He said I can go with him and Woojing." (I can't explain third wheel in Chinese, so I don't try).

Karjam says I am lying and Michael and I are going without Woojing. (In which case I'd just tell Karjam that, since he'd suggested I go with Michael in the first place). I get really angry to be told I'm lying.

Karjam packs up -all- his stuff (how many times has this happened?) He walks out the door, but then comes back in, cause he's "too embarrassed, he'll leave after dark." He has nowhere to go, and no money. The small amount of money he had in his own bank account got spent (at his own urging). He doesn't want to tell Wanma (who is moving to Beijing, anyway) that he's fought with me again, or Tsemphel or Dorchi Rinchin. Trust me, if I was him and Kimberly was in the same country as me, I'd be there as fast as I could. Or any of my real friends, actually. What the fuck. If you are -right- to leave someone, it's not hard to go to your friend's house and say "I was right to leave, though."

In the evening Karjam came back, but I was at the Wushuguan. That was a wise choice on my part. I exercised super hard, I think especially in the beginning I looked pretty fearsome. That Friday class has basically all the kids I interact with in it, but until about halfway through they didn't talk with me at all. We practiced the one long and complex form I have learned, then we practiced the one I have had just a little teaching on (three months ago), then the stick form (most of which I've forgotten, and the kids have now learned the whole thing, but I only learned about 2/3 of it). However, when everything was done the teacher helped me through the first major section of the second form... now I think I can do that part competently at any rate. I guess I just need to bug her to teach me. That's the first time in 2004 that she has taught me.

When I got home Karjam was there. He obviously didn't want to leave me... but couldn't say that. I got tired of listening to him, and being emotional makes me tired anyway, and I fell asleep on the couch. He fell asleep on the floor next to it and about 1 AM I woke up and moved to the bed.

In the morning I woke up and grabbed a stack of student papers and crawled back in bed, shortly Karjam (without saying anything) came and crawled in with me. He talked a lot and I didn't say much. He mostly said how he knew it'd be wrong for him to leave, and how he knows he loves me and if he left he'd be miserable without me and regret it, and that's why he can't go. He also said a lot about not wanting me to be unhappy, and not being able to face his family and friends and how he knew my mom was coming... etc. etc. He had had a dream. In his dream, he's making love with me on top of a mountain and it's all fresh and beautiful, and no one's around, but then these people appear- men with guns- he knows they haven't had sex in a long time, and they're bad and dangerous, and he has to save me.

"This is the worst period in our 2000 year history. This really is the most serious period. At this time, now, there is every danger that the entire Tibetan Nation, with its own unique cultural heritage will completely disappear. The present situation is so serious that it is really a question of life and death. If death occurs, nothing is left."

What has happened to TIBET since 1949:

The Tibetan peoples' struggle has been non-violent for over forty years and their courage in the face of sustained persecution and world-wide apathy truly deserves the support of those with the freedom to do so.

The Yellow River went just great. We had 17 people, which is funny cause we have had 17 people now on three of the five times we've gone to the Yellow River. We also had two reporters/photographers from Lanzhou Evening Newspaper there making a story out of us and our efforts. I think they took a few too many photos of me. We went back to a place we'd already been the very first time, but found lots more garbage. Karjam went with, so did Na La, the eight year old with the great English, and another student brought his niece and nephew (who are in third grade). They might be two-egg twins (Arundhati Rai, "The Beauty in Small Things" or something like that). We worked really hard and hauled a ton of garbage out. We even had two boys, about ten, get involved and work with us a bit at the end. Their mothers looked on very approvingly.

When I got back I finished reading the Academic Writing papers from last week. The assignment was to write a guide book entry (we read a sample copied from Lonely Planet) about your hometown, about Lanzhou, or about some other area you'd recommend me to go. I am going to type in the ones I am most likely to go to here:

Travellers who visit Guilin would definitely go to Yang Suo, an attractive small town not far away from the center of Guilin city. It is a really ideal place that first you imagination in every way and it is a paradise for foreigners.

It is a typical Chinese traditional town, no tall buildings, no noisy cars and crowded people. It reserves the original country characters and it is a place far form modernization. Just imagine yourself to be wake up by the beautiful songs of not-knowing names of birds early in the morning, you step out of the little wooden house and is greeted by the cool, gentle breeze. In front of you is a clear river and some fishing boats float ideally on it. All things around you seem to be in sound asleep and you could not feel the tempo of time.

Yangsuo is a small town full of surprise. There are many hills with strange shapes and if you are keen on adventures, high-rocking would be a good choice. Also, foreigners tend to enjoy themselves by a bycicle ride around the town, the farming fields, the poors and the clear air and the beautiful, natural scenery are just very agreeable. There are also two natural parks in this small town: one is called the Moon River and the other called Old Man's Hill. Some rare animals could be seen and with the help of the workers of the park, you could enjoy a long trip by boat along the LiJiang River, just from the small town down to the center of Guilin City.

The center of Yangsuo is the West Street, a real street where you can have delicious food and beautiful things to buy. In fact many foreigners who do not prefer the wooden house of countryside stay in the homelike hotels of the West Street. Those homelike hotels are inexpensive but comfortable. In the West Street you can eat all kinds of delicious food. You can eat your lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant to enjoy some special Chinese food, then go to have real Western food in another return where is also provides good coffee and snacks. If you are a shopping lover, you could certainly get your desire satisfied for you could nearly get whatever you want here.

You could easily get a plane from any city to Guilin or by train if you want to save money. Then take a one hour trip from the city center of Guilin and arrive at Yangsuo still in good state!

Come now, do not hesitant to enjoy those, most of who foreigners that come and just settle down. It is a place that could satisfy your dream, we promise!

The following student got a note of reprimand for writing a first person style essay instead of a somewhat guide-book-esque piece, but I think the location sounds interesting, and I can go there from Lanzhou.

Hi, today I will introduce you a beautiful and insular scenic spot, it's Lotus Mountain next to Lintao County. This spot lies at the joint region between Lintao County and Kangle County. Less visitors has been there because its transportation is not inconvenient (sic), but I assure you that its charms is never discounted by its transportation if you get that charming spot.

You can take long-distance bus to Kangle County at Xizhan (West Station), then change the buses which will take you to Lotus Mountain,when you reach Kangle County. Then you have to wait for the truck or farming cart which is not frequently seen because these transportation vehicles are not arranged for transporting guests. if you are lucky to take them, you will get to the gate of Lotus Mountain before it's getting dark. All this distance wills takes 10-15 hours. Then you have to check in at a simple and decent guesthouse, which is quiet like the apartment of monks, where candles are used to light. Foods are maily made with mushrooms and some plants, I guess some of plants you never eat before. It's a refreshing experience to enjoy these foods really from Lotus Mountain.

The following day you walk in this great mountain, it's the only choice to get its peak. When you walking along it, you can hear the sound and resonance of the Mountain spring at the foot of it. Because less people have visited here, you enjoy a feeling that's you the owner of Lotus Mountain, no one will spoil your fun. Surely you just come across one or two people along your road. After about five or more hours, you will get to the base of peak. Before you eyes, a hill is quite different from the mountain you have walked through. Little trees or pants are covered with this hill. It's very cliff and rock-exposed. After a good rest, you can resume your journey to overcome this hard hill. The higher you climb, the harder your breath becomes. After three or more hours, you will finally get to its peak, where you can have a bird view. You're able to see very clearly its surrounding. By that time you feels you're a successful challenger.

Well, we went to the Italian buffet, though honestly many of the foods offered were not so Italian.

We dressed up, I wore this long dress I have (Karjam likes me in long dresses) and Karjam wore a pair of trousers instead of jeans, with a button up shirt under a sweater. We looked pretty darn good! The hotel, Sunshine Plaza, with the fancy restaurant is a bit past where I'd get off the bus for the Wushuguan. It was obviously five star, as soon as you walk in you can just tell. It's not an imitation, it is the real thing. I didn't even think of checking the buffet first, to decide if we wanted that or a menu item, we just informed them we'd be having the buffet and went over to load plates. You can't imagine how excited I saw when the first station next to the plates that I came to was a man standing behind five kinds of sashimi. The sashimi was not of the highest quality- Canadian surf clams, Norwegian salmon, Japanese Octopus, Tuna and I forget what the other was- I didn't eat it. However, let me tell you, I haven't had sashimi since I was home in Korea in January, so I was excited. I twice loaded up a small salad plate, I mean -heaping- loaded with sashimi. If you have to pay 138 for your dinner, you damn well want to get your money's worth you know, and not eating meat, it's not so easy for me! There were many other interesting things in the buffet. There were cold slices of barbequed eel, a baked Italian style cod dish, lemon squares in the dessert section, mussels, five fruit juices (including a really good grapefruit) and oysters on the halfshell. Karjam naturally concentrated on the meat. There were stuffed pork chops, pepper fried steak, roast duck, shark's fin soup with bacon in it, cheese and bacon oysters, slices of proscuitti ham, etc etc. There was also a section where you asked them to cook you some meat. I had little bitsy calamari grilled, and mushrooms on saute skewers. Karjam had meat on a stick, of course. That section also had pasta, but I couldn't figure out how you ordered it, and I was happy with the calamari, oysters and sashimi. I ate more seafood than I've had in the last several months combined in one meal.

While we were eating our first plateful Michael and Woojing showed up, though I had thought they wouldn't cause Michael had told me he was in the bathroom all day. Michael and I kept exchanging quips- Michael made a lot of jokes. I think Woojing was a bit annoyed. Face it, girl, you have no sense of humor and your English isn't good enough. So, Michael, who loves jokes, naturally likes to express himself to me. When they first came in, we didn't see them until all of a sudden Michael was at our table to say "Is everything to your liking, madam? If there is anything we can do, please let us know." in a simpering waiter voice. They had real coffee, too. So after a cup of coffee and one last grapefruit juice, the four of us shared a taxi back to Landa.

Karjam and I talked about May break and where we'll go, had sex on top of the map of Sichuan Province and then watched "Wild Things" which is a kind of campy movie, but Karjam loved the (what was it- quadruple?) plot twist. Now he wants us to buy more DVDs like that. Well, I was getting tired of buying him romantic movies.

Wanma came over about noon while Karjam was singing and I was trying to get through the stack of papers from my different classes. Last week -every- class wrote, since even the AmCult students took that test. I haven't looked at the tests, yet.

Zhangye by Sang Fengqin (the student I know as "Eyebrows" since she has the most extreme arched line of plucked eyebrows)

Anciently named Ganzhou, Zhangye was a famous commercial port on the Silk Road and one of the biggest international trade markets in China. Merchants from the west kept coming here for trading. Irrigation from the Black and Shandan Rivers makes agriculture here quite developed. It gains the reputation for "Lush Southern-type fields in the desert."

Zhangye is a municipality in Gansu Province northwest of China. It is about 500 kilometers from Lanzhou, capital city of Gansu Province. In Lanzhou there are buses in the Eastern Bus stain which go directly to Zhangye, or one may takes train 347, Jiu Ganghao etc. to go there.

Things to See: When you go to Zhangye, you should have a look at the Black River, which is called the lifeblood of "Golden Zhangye". Because it is this river that irrigates all the farmlands in this area. There is also Drum Tower, which stands in the centre of Zhangye. Wooden tower constructed in Sui Dynasty (582 AD) and Giant Buddha Temple are two places that you will find amazing.

Besides the above-mentioned places in the centre area of Zhangye, there are also the Thousand Buddha Cave in Matisi Grottoes in the south of Zhangye. Inside the temple lies a statue of Sakyanmuni in nirvana, 345 meters long, and it is the biggest indoor recling Buddha in the contry.

Places to Stay: When you get to Zhangye, you may find it convenient to stay in Zhangye Hotel which accommodates you double-bed rooms with TV. It may cost you 20-25 Yuan one night.

Places to Eat: Zhangye is an ideal place to have snacks. There are many famous places to go to. For example, you may go to Ganzhou Market. There you may find all kinds of noodles, beans, soups and muttons.

Yes, I know, looking at this and the previous papers, some of the spelling errors and grammatical problems you think "ugh" but trust me, this is pretty good writing for a first draft by someone from a non-English speaking country. You understand what they are saying.... that's a pretty major step!

If you are bored with city life, you can come to my hometown- Jingning County. Jingning is a small county in Pingling area, Gansu Province.

Almost no foreign visitors go there, but just because of this, it's a place worth-visiting. The air there is so clear and fresh. One can walk on the beautiful grassland with the blue sky over him or her. The dogs are running on the streets. It's such a beautiful picture and I'm sure everyone who wants to lead a casual life will think Jingning is a paradise. There are a lot of delicious food in Jingning. One can buy roasted chicken in Chenguan, which is famous in the province. If one prefers to eat Guokuai, which is a kind of hand-made bread, he or she can buy it almost on every street. There aren't many tourism attractions in Jingning. But if you really want yourself get relaxed, you can go to the Fengtai Mountain, north of the country, where not so many people go buy it's very peaceful and calm with lots of beautiful flowers and grasses. Whenever you go there, you will have a pleasant feeling.

You can go to Jinging only by bus from Lanzhou. You can go to the East Bus Station in Lanzhou and buy the ticket there, also take the bus there. Usually it takes you 40 Yuan and 5 hours to get there.

Such is Jingning, my hometown. It's not such a beautiful and rich place, but it always gives you a pleasant feeling. If you are full of pressure and feel life is so boring, come to my hometown- Jingning. I will invite you to my home to taste the famous roasted chicken and Guokuai.

Tiemu Mountain lies in the middle of Gansu Province, the name Tiemu, is originated from an empire in Yuan Dynasty.

Information: Tiemu Mountain is a very steep mountain. The bus can reach its foot. There is no bank nearby. There are many small hotels.

Things to See: There are many steps on the mountain. On the steps always runs squirrels. They often stop the travellers for food. The most mysterious thing is a huge rock. The rock lies behind the oldest temple. When it rains, all water on the mountain will come to the rock. Strangely, water will disappear immediately it reaches the rock.

Places to Stay: There are plenty of inexpensive places to stay here. The hotels are cheap. Many peasant's houses are prepared for travellers. Many travellers stay in the bush all night long. They hear various insects singing at night.

Free Mining Fountain Water: Many fountains can be easily found on the mountain. Travellers can drink whenever they want. So travellers needn't take water or buy water.

Things to Remember: There are many snakes on the mountain. At night it is very cold and often rains.

Okay, I really shouldn't have taken the time to type those in, but I have to hand the papers back to the students, and the place Cai Yun talked about sounds super interesting, and the others are places in Gansu I haven't been yet... so I don't want to lose the information.

In the afternoon Karjam and I went out to buy newspapers and go to Home World. We knew to buy newspapers because Michael had come knocking and said "I think I know who this is!" holding up a newspaper- front page, above the fold, approximately 5 x 7, there I was walking up the stairs carrying five bags of trash and an old tire, with Karjam, one of the kids and two students also visible, the Yellow River as our backdrop. It's not a very flattering photo, but it sure shows what we were doing. We bought two more copies, one to send mom, and one to send Jabu (Karjam wanted to), plus the one Michael gave for my files, and we also bought another newspaper, cause we made it in two!

I slipped out in the early evening to go buy DVDs, trying to find one specific one, but I couldn't, of course I couldn't help but come home with eleven others. Two of those I was really excited about- I found Chihwaseon a Cannes Film Festival special award winner from Korea about the life of a poet a couple of hundred years or so back (I haven't seen it yet) and Oasis, a Korean movie that won the Venice Film Festival (two awards, I believe, best movie and best director). It shook me up so badly when I watched it the first time I was almost screaming and I pounded the floor in frustration. And fountaining tears of course. It's one of the best movies that's ever been made, in my opinion.

I woke up nauseous with the galloping runs... pretty severe. I couldn't even smell food till the evening, and spent too much time moaning and running to the toilet. I didn't get half as much preparation as I wanted to get done for AmCult and I couldn't leave the facilities to go buy my mom's ticket from Beijing to Lanzhou and back to Beijing. (She's sent me her flight information, I'm so excited!)

I woke up and ate like a pig. No problems at all. I guess that was a weird 12 hours stomach thing... who knows. China!

I don't often check my old email account- but that's the address I tell students. I got an email... let me just point out, this student is about the most annoying fucking student I have. He's an English vampire with intensively bad breath. What happened was we had the sentence in our reading "During the occupation of Japan by America and other..." and I made sure they understood occupation (not as "job" but as in what one country can do to another). This class on Friday is my quietest and least participatory. I quipped (thinking only the student I'm talking about and one or two others would understand) "Right, just like China occupied Tibet." but during break he wrote on the board "Tibet belongs to China (and it's only a province)." Then he left class! Without saying anything to me! However, cause he's gone to the Yellow River before, I had his phone number, so I got home and called him and said "Are you angry?" "Did you write that on the board? Did I offend you?" and he said "Oh, no, I felt sick, so I went home, sorry!" Lying dick-head propagandized idiot! Anyway, this is the email I received after last Friday's lesson...

I'm very sorry for your last class,Maybe"China occupies Tibet"is just your personal opinions,I should have not written that sentence on the blackboard.If I hurt you ,I apologize sinercely.You know that China is our motherland,Like a baby loves his or her mother we all love our motherland deeply,All Chinese people love to have an unified and peaceful and powerful motherland.So it's not appropriate for a foreigner to talk about some sensitive issues(such as Taiwan and Tibet) in formal occasions.You can talk about it in some informal occasions(even at English corner).

Chinese people have strong national dignity,Please do not touch the bottom line of the national dignity.

A piece of advice,You'd better not talk about the sensitive problems in your class any more.

We all respect you very much,Maybe you don't know it.Before you come in classroom,we are always waiting for you.But Chinese tradition of politeness is different from American.For example,there is no "Thanks,Sorry,Excause me"in Chinese familyes and seldom between friends.Once you understand the difference,Maybe you will find that we are so kind and friendly to you.

I'm very proud of being your student,I've always been admiring your knowledge in English,I really like to be not only your student but also your good friend,Do you like me to be your friend ?

This list is a fairly complete one of universities in China, or at least ones that teach math... http://www.icm2002.org.cn/L/university.htm I'm trying to find Northwest Minorities University and whatever the school is called in Chengdu. Neither of which are on the above list.

Morning classes went just great, I like my two Wednesday classes just fine. We are not writing this week, instead we had a long discussion in small groups about love... I had multiple questions on the chalkboard to start the discussion. After class was done I took the campus bus home and made a fantastic salad lunch with stirfried potato (like cubes) and shitake mushrooms, raw carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers and cooked cold rice with a dressing of lemon juice, soy and rice vinegar. Karjam found it too sour (he's very sensitive to sour and not fond of it) but I was in seventh heaven.

Interesting site by the number one biggest foundation that's on the ground helping Tibetans here... http://trace.org

Wish I'd found this site earlier for my American Famous People research: http://www.indianchild.com/famous_people_biography.htm It doesn't have tons of people, or tons of Americans, but the biographies it has are of a good length... not too long, not too short, and contain the important details. You'd be amazed how many sites you can look on and not find the important stuff. And why didn't I just think of starting with Wikipedia? The online encyclopedia, duh!

Teaching famous Americans... in three hours you can't get the surface scratched as I discovered to my dismay as I tried to run through the last 25 or so names I'd researched in the final 40 minutes or so... did a shit job on the Native Americans... I started with "activists", and "Native Americans" came right after "miscellaneous", which didn't get good coverage either. The early categories... the "activists", "authors" and "business people" got better coverage, but I was already going really fast by the time I hit "great minds" and "entertainers" not to mention "leaders".

At the elementary school I decided to take the kids out for a walk to name some objects we can see easily. Gate, lock, street, trash can, trash, etc. All three classes behaved. During the break between the first and second group, the English teacher at the school told me this morning the principal broadcast on the PA and read the newspaper article about our clean-up (the shorter one) and told all the students to look to my good example. Then the second class, I didn't do anything different than the first, and they picked up the trash every time we saw it, they didn't just say "It's trash." Wow! I felt great! I told the principal, too. 5-1. Little angels, every one of them!

Tried to go shoe shopping for Karjam. Looked in about twenty-five booths in the shopping center downtown... all the shoes were the same. A bit wide, usually black, leather, and with too thin soles, esp. in front. He didn't like any but I think the prices contributed. The cheapest were about 180, not many of those, average was around 550 (400=50 USD) and some were 4,000!

Things with Karjam are generally quite good. We are, in case you can't guess, one of those sickly sweet couples a lot of the time. We both prefer to spend time at home, we spend all our time together, walk together, talk together, in step, I give him little percussion bits (vocally) for his songs, we wear the same clothes (when I'm not working) so that gets balanced out by the fighting, I guess. Kim H. wrote me the FUNNIEST thing, she said "Karjam is just like Chinese food when you're hungry, it doesn't stick with you." or something of that effect. I laughed really hard.

I apologized to the whole second class on Friday I said "If anyone was offended, I'm sorry. My opinion is mine, and it's only an opinion. The last thing I want is to make anyone uncomfortable." But... Zhang Xinfeng, who stirred up the whole hornet's nest was not present... odd, in a way, since he's never been absent before, but not in a way, since when I wrote him back I pointed out that what he did made the whole class aware of what I'd said (which otherwise they wouldn't have been), and disrupted the energy of the classroom. I also pointed out that though I may be wrong, at least I had not been educated in a country without freedom of speech. Last of all I told him if he wanted to be my friend, he'd have to show that he respected me, which would have meant coming and talking to me about his feelings.

I oh so love Friday. Karjam and I went to a restaurant we usually don't go to, and were disappointed. But then, (yay!) he went off to his Photoshop class. So I totally vegged out and I watched "Oh, Soojung" a Korean movie. It's modern (about four and a half years old) but in black and white, and it tells most of the story two times, as though from different points of view. It was a bit slow, but very very well done. Then we met after his class to go to buy mom's ticket, we got as far as calling from the travel agent to the airline... but I don't have mom's passport number and without it... no luck. It will cost me just over 2,500 RMB for mom to fly to and from Beijing. Karjam was then annoyed at me, claiming he'd told me in the past I must have my passport number to book my ticket, therefore several months later I am supposed to remember to get mom's from her. However he got over his pique when we walked into the garden strolling area on campus which is flowers, flowers, flowers on all the trees and smells like heaven. You just can't be angry in late afternoon sunlight surrounded by flowers and buoyed by their perfume.

Shortly after I went to the Wushuguan which was average... nothing special. There is a two day competition next weekend, I'm going to take some photos there if I can.

This came from one of my two time Yellow River crew members and current students. I wrote them to say thank you.

She is in my Friday morning class, and she's the one who got us newspaper coverage, cause she is also a part time writer at one of the newspapers, and got one of her fellows to come along. This next email is from the guy she brought, the one who wrote the really long newspaper article.

I made sure to sleep late, as late as I could being 8:30. Karjam for once got up before me and went running. After a small breakfast and some house-cleaning we went back to the travel agent and bought mom's tickets. Now I just have to brave the post office to send them to her. Argh!!! I hate the post office. We got the ticket, jumped on a bus, and arrived three minutes early for Hooze's baby girl's "I have a new baby" party. Kind of like the equivalent in Korea of the 100 days event. He had the party in a big fancy restaurant, the banquet kind. There were twenty rooms of his guests! And his wife's mother and father's guests, too. He had asked Karjam to bring his mandolin, and Karjam had practiced songs. He went around from room to room singing to the guests, usually two or three songs per room. The baby, an adorable sleeping wee wee wee black haired thing, also went around from room to room with her mother and the video camera which recorded the whole event. Or should I say TV camera. It was NOT a little hand holder, but a big big on your shoulder dealie. You remember, Hooze works as a TV cameraman. The food was typical cold meat-laden banquet fare and I was just as hungry when I left as when I came. Mostly I ate this peanut dish... roasted peanuts in a sour vinegary sauce. At first I was a bit put off by Karjam going around singing while most of the guests continued to talk or whatever. I felt like Karjam and I were little badges of how "interesting" Hooze was. "See, my Tibetan singer friend and his American girlfriend!" However, when it was close to time to leave Hooze was talking to me, and he communicated that most of the guests (200 +) weren't really his friends, they were associates, useful people, co-workers, etc. However, he said, we were his personal friends who he enjoyed spending time with and had asked to his house and wanted us to come again. So then I felt more comfortable.

We were really close to the center of town, and we ended up buying Karjam two new shirts (which look good together, a white short-sleeve v-neck and a looser black cotton button-up short sleeve shirt). It'll make him feel really spiff when his friends/former co-workers come to visit. After that we went home, and on the way Karjam bought me a big bunch of dahlias- red with one dark pink and two light pink in the bunch. Very pretty. Later he bought me a vase, it's really ugly, imitation cut glass... oh well, it holds the flowers.

We stayed home all evening. Tsemphel was supposed to come, but didn't. But I was in cook mode, so I made a huge feast just for the two of us. I made myself my favorite salad, and I made a shelf mushroom and tomato saute, plus a yak and fried green pepper dish for Karjam (we have frozen yak in the freezer), plus egg breaded fried veggies and mantou... it was a pretty good meal! Harfei came over in the evening cause I am editing a research paper she is a co-author on. She actually didn't do much of the research at all, it's her thesis advisors work, but because she is doing the English translation, seen as everyone to be very hard, she gets her name right there on the author list. It's about riverine habitat preservation and restoration, so it's interesting for me, anyway.

Rocky day. I worked hard preparing for the class (or perhaps two classes) on the Vietnam War for most of the day, but in the middle of the day we decided to go to the post office and send mom's ticket, plus a few little gifty things I had. I prepared a box, wrapped it in paper and addressed it. However, the post office (Karjam didn't come in) predictably, made me cry. First they told me go to the other window, who told me to go back to the first window. They told me my box was no good, I have to buy one of theirs, which were all the wrong size, and cutting the box down to size is also against regulations. This took forty-five minutes before and after I cried on the street and Karjam comforted me and Harfei and Jing-yi came and took us to lunch (terribly ucky noodles). Finally I sent Karjam in with just the airplane ticket and told him to send it registered mail. Twenty minutes later I became too concerned, so I went in, too. He was on his second envelope, trying to write perfectly for my mom. So then we say "registered" and they say "you can't use that envelope". So, fuck, I sent a plane ticket by non-registered mail and I know I'll sweat about it every minute until mom tells me it arrived.

This is the Pilgrim's walk, the circuit around the outside of Labrang Monastery in Xiahe. Some people prostrate themselves every three steps, full out in the dirt. This is the upper side of the walk, and it doesn't have as many prayer wheels, none along the stretch you can see here.

The guy who plays the keyboard that Harfei and I met in Minhe came to town and invited us to come listen to him, which I wanted about as much as I wanted a kick to the head, but I knew Karjam would be interested. We all went to Harfei's office place and he set up and played for over an hour, by which time I was starving. In fact, when it started I was starving, I'd understood it as a dinner date, but it was just a listen to music thing. Karjam and I went out to dinner but he was being argumentative and it took a long time to get through dinner. After eating we went to the park-like area to smell the trees in the dark. Every other person there was walking or sitting with only one member of the opposite sex. We ended up trying to have sex on a bench, but people walked by just often enough to make ultra paranoid Karjam lose his erection completely. It was totally dark, after the campus outdoor lights were turned off (eleven), and we looked like I was just sitting on his lap...

A monk friend, Indian, who I met twice in Bodhgaya has written asking me to donate to a school in rural Maharashtra. He's trying to run it (and teach), and there are 679 students there, none of whom are able to pay for their own education. The school needs donations badly to keep running. If anyone feels they have some extra money to spare for a good cause, please let me know... It's a good cause, he's a higly educated guy with a great heart, trying hard to help others.

Trying hard to be a man, but no money for a motorcycle or horse of his own. (He looks to me to be only 15 or so).

After Academic Writing class Cai Yun came home with me. I cooked lunch (miyukguk (seawee soup), rice, an egg dish, a cucumber dish and a potato dish plus kimchi and pickled garlic from the fridge. She was happy with the meal, and I was happy with my efficient use of time. Michael came up while I was cooking and we had a good talk, mostly focusing on Woojing, who in my opinion is turning out to be a manipulative little bitch. She has double standards about everything, and treats Michael like shit.

Elementary school was the usual, 5-3 is my very best class, they have good behavior and good English and 6-2 is the very worst. I nearly killed a poor girl. I was drinking some water from a (small) bottle and was about 2/3 done, and bopped her on the head with it. I could not keep myself from doing it, she was just completely out of line. I changed my lesson plan order so that 6-2 is the last class of the lesson plan, but sure enough, while the other four classes (three of which are one year younger than the sixth graders) could follow directions, 6-2 fucked off.

In the evening after we ate dinner and bought a couple necessities at Home World (which is majorly redoing everything, it looks like they are moving part of the first floor to the second floor, and vice-versa) suddenly Karjam's friend who is in the hospital in Lanzhou called and Karjam left, not knowing if he'd return that night or in the morning. He returned after midnight, I was sound asleep.

Quandry. I love my Class One students- BUT they decided they love me so much they'd all prepare their research papers outside of class, and many of the papers are seven or more pages long... in messy handwriting... and often copied word for word from the sources. On the one hand they are trying very hard, on the other hand, it's too much reading for me, and I find copying to be quite abhorent. Chinese and Koreans share the basic idea that if it's what you want to say anyway, why change the wording and screw up the grammar? Unfortunately this also extends to people copying things they THINK are what they want to say, but they don't necessarily understand and that means they aren't learning. Oh well, at least (is this good?) the final draft of the essay isn't due till NEXT week.

When I got home, five minutes later this school called "we need you to come and be a talking monkey so we can look good, right now!" Or, that's what it boiled down to. I have a hard time saying no, especially when someone is right in my face "rush rush" about it. Besides, I didn't have anything except class prep and seven page plagiarized papers to look forward to. So I wolfed my lunch, did my hair (which wasn't cooperating), changed my clothes about three times, made a game board for a quiz game, composed questions and rushed to the main gate in fifty minutes. Forty minutes later I was at this school, supposedly the best private school in Lanzhou. It has 1,300 students in the middle and high school, 500 students are boarding. The facilities weren't bad, and they put me in a real language lab (with listening posts and computers at each desk) so they could film a foreigner teaching class. Of course the students, 15 year olds, meeting me for the first time were a bit wooden. In fact, they weren't so hot, some of my elementary students are better. The class went okay, except as soon as the camera guy left some started practicing their keyboarding skills, and others passed notes and such. At the end we got comfortable with each other. I went to wash my hands to get the chalk off and met a good half dozen smoking boys. Hmmph! That's the kind of school it is, I guess! They gave me 100 RMB which I felt was a bit insulting. I super rush-rush came to help them out of a jam (they've had foreign teachers before, but now their teacher ran away from SARS and they haven't gotten a new one) and it took two hours, not including prepping for class and my hair etc. When I work at the elementary school they give me 70 an hour, but my classes are only 40 minutes long. I go there from 2:30-4:00 and get 140. So... I felt that school was being pretty darn cheap. At least they transported me both ways.

I've felt a bit sick since yesterday afternoon. When I got home I finished reading my accumulated Vietnam War info, then fell asleep on the couch.

I am SO glad it's Friday. I've felt sick, but not too severely for several days. The only problem is that I still can't really relax, because my students from every class gave me their writing, and as I already mentioned, in some classes they gave me pages upon pages. I am so looking forward to the May Day Holiday or Labor Day Holiday or whatever it's called. Karjam and I still haven't decided what we are doing, even though we'll probably be leaving in about a week. It's likely there will be no Friday classes next week. We've contemplated going to Sichuan (but can't see much in one week, and transpo will all be very crowded), going to upper reaches of Gansu (Zhangye that one of my students wrote about, and another Tibetan area Karjam never went to) or going straight north through Ningxia Province and touching into Inner Mongolia. Anyway, I still don't know what's going to happen. During the holiday, regardless of where we go, there will be photography and time for long talks and laying about. I need that.

In case you remember Zhang Xinfeng, he didn't come to class today either. Bet he's too embarassed, and if he wants to fail my class to hide his face, then that's his own choice.

Below is an email from one of my Academic Writing and AmCult students... in AmCult they have presentations worth 20% of their grade. She's been absent twice when it was her turn to give a presentation.

I am awfully sorry that my absent has taken great trouble to your teaching plan.I know any excuses for my irresponsible behavior. I gave up my first presentation because i didn't well prepare it at all. as to this chane, I am so unlucky to get viruses " TIMER" on my file, It failed to be printed in this morning, my file is be locked. my laziness results in my failure, I should print it a few days ago. since I have not attended Amerian Culture for some time, from now onI will attend your class, but not take final exam, even I take if, I am sure that I will fail because of my absent.

please forgive me!

look forwarding to your email

Yours Sincerely

Yin yali

Silly Git! I told her she'd better give me a proposal as to how she could make up for missing two presentations, that she hadn't failed yet, and that I wouldn't allow her to withdraw from the class. Incidentally, her friend Yang Yan told me she'd been up until 1 a.m. writing the presentation the night before, so she didn't have an option of printing in advance.

I went to the Wushuguan, but had to leave and be home by 8:00 because supposedly all the Tibetans in town (Karjam's friends, relatives and co-workers) would be broadcast on Gansu TV at that time. So, I left a little early and rode my bike as exercise not transpo. It was great. First I rode straight north, and crossed a bridge to the other side of the Yellow River. I discovered a foot and bike bridge to a park, and raced slower vehicles down the Riverside Road (Beibinhe Road). I got a great workout and arrived at the Wushuguan so loose I kicked myself in the face twice (that's dumb, once is okay) cause my legs were coming up too fast and easy (knee to the upper lip, both times, with my leg straight...). Zhoong-xu was there, and because of him I now know about half of the latest routine I am learning. However when I rushed home, it was all for naught, though we watched till 9:30, nothing came on.

I'm in a crappy mood. Karjam and I were in this big up swing for a couple of weeks, but reversed. That was Thursday. What was the problem? I was tired and he was acting very high energy and rather immature, so I decided instead of being reactive I'd be proactive and I said "Can you act a little older, please, I'm tired." So he got all bent out of shape. I mean, it was nearly midnight and I'd been feeling poorly for most of the week, so how could this not be understandable? Karjam immediately asserted he wouldn't put up with me acting like a kid in the future. Uh, hello, acting young is not the problem, it's jumping all over me when I don't have the patience to deal with it. I was just trying to avoid fighting! So ever since then it's been not so good.

The worst was Friday night, when he was being such a dick. He got a nose bleed (after being a dick for most of the night, and when we were in bed with the lights off, and I was 9/10s asleep). His nose bled onto the pillow case (white, not ours), so I got up, stripped the pillow case, washed it a bit, left it in cold water and fetched another pillow from the living room. When he got back in bed after being in the bathroom washing his hand and face and stuffing toilet paper in his nose, I asked him "Are you okay?" four times and he wouldn't answer me, not even grunt! That really gets to me. I don't require that every question I ask be answered, but I DO require a reply (the difference being, I will accept "tell you about it later" or "don't worry" or "a little" when I might like a longer answer, but I don't accept mute silence. So I got so worked up, I went to the living room (well after midnight by now) cried for a bit, then watched not one but two episodes of Sex and the City, which despite my initial misgivings has me sort of hooked, now. The characters are very funny, even if I find both Samantha and Charlotte a bit, well, less multi-sided and "real" than Carrie and Miranda. I fell asleep on the couch, but was so uncomfortable around 5:30 I crawled back into bed.

Yesterday I was day before my period jittery, but it couldn't have been -all- me and no Karjam. I was feeling that choked up- can't breath- need space sort of feeling. I felt like he was trying to control every aspect of my life, my hair, my clothes, what I ate... I think that was mostly hormones, but he insisted (even though I wanted to go to the martial arts competition in the afternoon after I had already been to the Yellow River and finished reading through a huge stack of student papers. However, Karjam wanted to visit his friend who got surgery recently in Lanzhou and has to just sit around this hotel room. So we went there. On the bus he says to me (though I've already agreed, knowing full well how I have to "control my behavior" around his friends/Tibetan people and be all fakey) "Don't exhibit any bad behavior" and then he says "We have to stay there for a long time." So we go in, there are two guys there, the sick guy and this other guy, and he doesn't introduce me to either. They talk for about an hour while I just read over my Tibetan notebook, then these two girls came in. I didn't get introduced to them either. One was pretty but dressed up like a 1980s prostitute and the other was very quiet except every statement of the sick guy was met with a very loud "tsk", so whatever he was saying, it was tsk-able. Karjam left the room with the other guy, who is a relative, as if that means anything since the Tibetans seem to both breed like rabbits and keep indelible records of who is related to who. So I was left there for about another 45 minutes getting more and more irritated. When he came back I said "I want to go." But after we left he got all mad at me "They all know, now, that I don't have any power, any freedom, I just have to leave when you want to." We were there nearly two hours, and I was not asked anything beyond "Tea?", so what was even the point of him dragging me along? He says "they already know who you are, so why should I introduce you?" and "In Tibetan culture no one introduces their wife." Great... right, cause the woman isn't important, and the only reason I came was to prove that I exist, or something like that. Next time he should just take a freaking photo of me with him.

Today, this morning he has promised to go to the martial arts thing, but he didn't want to get moving, then he insisted since it was sprinkling it'd be cancelled (it's an indoor competition), so we had to call my teacher. She said "hurry here now, or come at 2:30 after lunch, but that's going to be really boring group demos." and he refused to hurry, so when we went there (about 3:00) there was nothing interesting to see, and the light was terrible inside anyway... But he got really irritated at me cause we went all that way there. (How else could I know how it was lit?) On the bus on the way back at first we weren't sitting together. I was studying Tibetan, and I have this sentence written out (by him). "Nya la doekgu yoot." I have a jacket. So I changed it to "Do you have a jacket?" and I ask him, and he says that's written form, you have to say like this ~~, that's spoken form. So I do, but ask him next time to write it down in spoken form cause I am not a Tibetan scholar, I just want to be able to communicate. So, I ask him, quiz me, ask me if I have things. So he asks me, but every time he uses what he'd just told me was a written form, so I am getting so frustrated "You told me that's written form, so ask me in the way I'll hear other Tibetans talking!". This ONE word he uses in the other way, but the other words, he uses the way it says in my notebook. I say "Why?" This is a two syllable noun, so is ring, so is necklace, so is husband, why do you say that jacket makes such a long sentence and you have to adjust the verb and not say "la~~yoot"? So after two buses (and in traffic) and the transfer time, when we get off the bus at Landa then we discover while I was saying "jacket" despite my insistence I wanted to use have/not have, he was hearing me as saying "hungry" not "jacket". As if you can ever say "Do you have hungry?" as if I do NOT know very well how to say 'hungry' (including asking if someone else is or not). Arghh! I mean, couldn't he stop to think that when I said something like "You do not have a jacket. Are you cold?." That it wouldn't make sense if I was using the word "hungry". Couldn't he stop to think I'd used hungry many of times before, and when I am tugging on his jacket asking "Really, you don't have a jacket?" that the tug might have a meaning? Or that when I am insisting that jacket is a noun (or he's hearing me insist that hungry is a noun) that he could have known something was wrong? Arghhh! He actually said it was because my pronunciation is bad. Well, when he confuses big, bed, bad and bag somehow I can tell that he's confusing the word, not that he means to say "That man is bag." or "Let's go to big." Sure, my pronunciation might not be right on, but part of teaching foreign students of a language is listening for what they -intend- to say, rather than what it sounds like they are saying. And, for your information, hungry is "r-doek" (not "doek-gu").

Yes, I'm venting. Remember, I have no girlfriend here. No one in this country can understand me and my phone bill at 1-2 long distance calls a month plus internet gets darn close to 5% of my monthly salary. When your monthly salary is roughly equivalent to your la-la spending money on Starbucks, lunch and the bus in Korea... well, you know what I mean. So, I am venting. It doesn't mean I don't love him.

On a different subject, the Yellow River yesterday went fine, funnily enough, 17 people.. that makes 4 times of 6 we've had 17. Too strange. Cai Yun came, but Lee Tau and Harfei, my two most consistent volunteers aside from Han Zhijian (who most sincerely believes in environmental action and I will ask to carry on as best as he can after I've left) did not come. Of course Han Zhijian did come. He's cute and funny and so intelligent. Yesterday we didn't talk very much, mostly I talked with Luo (forget his given name) the student of mine from last term who brought his wife and niece and nephew last time (his wife didn't come this time but the kids did). He is a student in the Aero-ecology Grasslands Institute and we argued the best way to improve the grasslands around Maqu (which is where he does his field work)... he is currently one year into a study on planting a mix of legumes and grasses (the legumes are naturally outcompeted after a few years, but legumes have nitrogen fixing rhizomes in their roots, allowing for soil replenishment). His last completed study (or maybe it's ongoing) (I edited the paper) was on loss of species diversity as you increase the application of fertilizers. So, he knows his crap. He's super smart and funny, too and I got this huge pang of envy cause he mentioned why his wife couldn't come. She's one of the scientific staff members at Gansu Wild Animal Bureau and they had some big thing come up... and I just felt all "why couldn't I find someone with a complimentary job?" It just seemed so perfect... he's a botanist, she's a zoologist... how great. How equal!

This is the group from yesterday, photo courtesy of Han Zhijian. Cai Yun is on the far right, Luo is in the white shirt behind his niece. The half red half white plastic bag contains one small dead puppy. Apparently it's not only tires, ice cream wrappers and plastic bags that are thrown away on the river bank. It was already in the bag.

Dear ----, i don't know how to explain my situation of love affairs, when you ask me why i haven't a boyfriend in bus. when i was a little girl, i failed to find freedom of life. Chinese people do their best to make a warm society .but all is false face probablly. This reflect love affairs and marriage of chinese. In my opinion, China society isn't warm but crul and narrow-minded. I need a gernerous boy who has his own ideas to many problems , but i could'nt find that one.what's more, i am not a beautiful girl in chinese eyes. Thank your praise to me ,and i know ,i am a charming woman now, my boy is waiting for me in next road .

That's a letter from the woman in the blue shirt and mustard pants, Yang Hui-qiong. I like her a lot, she's -real-. I asked her if she had a boyfriend on purpose, because I get the feeling that Han Zhijian is a little interested in her, or she is in him. So I asked when he was sitting next to her, cause they are both too shy.

Believe it or not I had a GOOD trip to the post office. I think it's just the fuckheads next to the main gate that are the big problem. I went (on the bus) to the main post office, and bought a small box and two envelopes, sent the box to La (you'll know what's in it when you get it, La!), RMB for airport tax for mom (in case she doesn't have time to change money) and an application to Kim H.'s school in Korea. I know for a fact they are good to work for, and the contract terms look great. So, if they'll only hire me I just have the one last hurdle of working out the schedule to not conflict with the classes I want to take (if I have to suck it up first term and take a less interesting class that will not cause a problem with my work schedule, I will. I think after the first term, no matter where I work they'll know I'm worth a bit of courtesy when scheduling time comes around). If Kim's school doesn't hire me, then I'll have to start really panicking. Or maybe I should panic, now.

The post office lady told me there IS a different rate to the US and Korea (which means multiple times I've been overcharged at the other post office) and I saw that the package (less than 1 kg) I sent to Korea last term should have been only 45 Yuan (they charged me 160). I also learned I can send (slow boat) 20 kg packages to Korea for 295 Yuan, which is not such happy news cause really, to spend twice what first class packages from Korea to Lanzhou cost to send something to Korea that might arrive after two months... on the other hand, it's not so expensive that it's impossible, which means I will send a couple boxes at least so I am not completely overloaded arriving in Korea. I am also planning to very carefully leave some items here. A lot of items. Almost everything I've bought here and part of what I brought. So the biggest difference going home will be the big unwieldy bicycle box.

In order to get a letter of recommendation from Mr. Liu for my application to Kim's school I had to tell them I'm leaving. They were very surprised and unhappy, but I told them I'd come back in two years. Who knows, I may be lying. But I wish Karjam would go to school here in Lanzhou, and then his last two years of his BA I'd come back and live here again. The new contract is 3,300 instead of 3,000 on the main campus, and they are offering round trip airfare home for anyone who renews. So Michael will renew but go to Yuzhong (4,500 is better than 3,300 after all).

Wushu annoyed me, there are these more advanced kids, and sometimes they come to any class at all, just for extra practice, for example during competition season (now, apparently). When they come they act as though the rules don't apply to them- they talk, practice the kick once when they are supposed to do it three times, goof off, provoke other students into goofing off... it's true that I sometimes think the degree of quiet in the classes can be almost unreal, but it's a GOOD unreal. It's unreal cause of the age of the kids. But these older kids, who should be setting a better example, are NOT. So, when it was time for them to monopolize the mat and practice their routines (one by one) I decided I'd had enough. I stopped by the bike shop, and met one of the younger guys girlfriend and rode most of the way back to Landa with them, as at least one of them lives nearby campus.

I made a great dinner: spinach (washed and cut), slivered and sauteed potatoes, two scrambled eggs, one tomato and a carrot all thrown together and dressed with half a lemon, rice vinegar, a bit of salt, brewer's yeast, black pepper and soy sauce. It was great.

Even though last night Karjam and I sat down and talked about where to go during vacation, we still haven't made up our minds. Karjam is kind of a homebody and is just as happy to go nowhere at all, just sit around, watch DVDs and study as usual. As for me, I'm so freaking sick of Lanzhou, I need a break VERY BADLY. I'm getting out of town even if I have to go by myself. I am heavily leaning towards the northern plan since I could visit two more provinces, and I think see some interesting stuff. Besides, it's getting warmer, so I need to go to the desert quick before it's unbearable.

Academic Writing went fine, except ALL their electronic dictionaries say "rapport" is pronounced with a T on the end. So, cause I wasn't convinced they believed me when I told them they were the ones buying the stupid made in China dictionaries and shouldn't be so lazy- good students use an English-English dictionary at their level, etc. So I went home during break and while they were preparing to debate and got my dictionary which showed the phonetic symbols for rapport correctly. The debate was fun. The first group was capital punishment and even though Cai Yun is the ONLY student in the class against capital punishment, I felt the con team did a better job arguing. Curiously they felt it was a tie. Perhaps cause they lean naturally towards supporting the pro position. The "stay at home mothers" debate was a bit boring, but the "Divorce" debate was very lively. Naturally Leng Yuhong, Cai Yun, Tao Jing and Yang Yan did the best job. I made sure that none of them were on the same team. The best was when I promised two of the guys who were squaring off against each other to say "You mean if I sleep with your wife, you still don't want to get divorced?" And the other student said, "No, I'll just kill you."

I'm at some fair, on some fairground. There is this tent that sells grapefruit juice. The grapefruits are the large pomello kind like in China. I help peel mine (before squeezing) and hand it to the young guy in the booth. He squeezes it for me. We have sex I think, but there is this big gap until I am reopening his booths curtains- his booth is more like a Tibetan tent. While I'm doing that I see this woman whose an old friend. I can't remember her name (in the dream) but I like her, and feel I need woman time. I go tell the boy (who is now helping his boss barbeque lamb on skewers like the Hui always do in China) that if he doesn't call me tonight, I'll come back tomorrow and kill him. Then I leave with this woman. The boy calls after me questioning whether I can even find his booth again. I tell him I can.

I'm squatting in this house. It's really big and mostly finished with construction. My room is upstairs on the second floor in the front of the house. I have a small boom box. Suddenly there are all these parrots, as though they'd just hatched, but they are big- really big and colorful. They immediately start to crap allover the house (we've prepared by closing all the windows). I realize I must close them out of the room I am using for my bedroom because the red carpet is now dotted with whitish grey bird poops.

I'm on the other side of a river from my squat. Someone comes along, and I tell them I am helping them but I am not. We connect their huge tractor trailer truck to the house with cables. But I attach it to something else. Will it break when we start the winch?

Karjam got a call from Tsemphel last night, he's back to Maqu today, their last chance to meet up, about an hour and a half after he went off he called and asked if I minded if he spent the night with Tsemphel in a hotel. I didn't mind, really, so he did and I cheated and watched not one but TWO episodes of Sex and the City, which is super interesting now in mid Season three. Today I told Karjam the important details as though we were talking about our friends.

Classes today were okay, but the final drafts of their papers are even longer than last week- so I am not going to have a super relaxed week off, that's for sure. It looks like we'll go to Ahwencang. I hope I can see SOMETHING new or take lots of photos. Oh well, at least it shouldn't be too stressful.

The elementary school started a sports festival today, so I went over and took photos for about an hour. One roll. Very tough cause people kept wanting to jump up in front of my lens. Argh!!!

Karjam went out with Wanma and Tserang Drashi and came home complaining of feeling sick last night. This morning it was raining pretty hard, but we'd finally decided where we were going to go, so Karjam went off to the train station a few minutes after I took my 25 minute wet wet walk to the old campus. Unfortunately he could not get the tickets we wanted. After he had a snack we went there and bought tickets to Zhoong-wei a town in Ningxia Hui (Muslim) Autonomous Region, only about five hours away. We'll leave tomorrow around 4 p.m. and arrive in time to find a hotel and go to sleep.

When we were walking to the train station we ran into Claudia, the German exchange student girl, and she asked me about buying a bike, so I said I'd go with her at 3 p.m. I did and we walked all over before she ended up deciding on the same bike as I bought at the same store, only in a different color (not a color scheme she's too fond of, but they don't have any other models). Then we took it to my bike shop and then switched the handlebars and bought a water bottle and cage. I suggested it wasn't dark yet, we should go for a spin, so we did.

First we rode down Tianshui Road and across the bridge to the North side of the Yellow River. We checked out the car-free bridge, then followed a dirt road along a sort of small stream/open sewer until we it ended at a bridge and a road. We rode around for awhile exploring, and even bought some GREAT honey from the bee-keeper. It was 5 RMB for half a kilo! Damn, totally cheap, 100% natural, and the kind I bought is the white heading towards crystallized kind- so delicious. Then we tried to head toward the hills. At last I found a road heading almost straight up, and took it. I managed to do it without stepping down partially out of determination to look tough in front of Claudia. It was a really tough climb. Then at the top we were in the hills, but with no trail. Down below us was a dirt track (not enough to call a road) along a small river. We hiked down (I had to carry both bikes, Claudia got freaked out on the descent) and biked through what was increasingly small farms in the tiny valley. A group were preparing a basket of zucchini to go off to market and after taking some shots they insisted on giving us some. The whole area was great, but the sun was almost down and in that narrow valley little light was left. I did however make good mental notes how to find my way back.

Now Wanma and Tserang Drashi are over and I am really tired and mostly just occasionally smiling politely and that's it.

I will update again when I return from Ningxia Province after 4 or 5 days (the latest would be the 7th, I have class on the 8th, yes- on Saturday).

1. Roots of American Music

4.Jazz

A. Early Influences

5. Rock and Roll

A. The Birth of Rock and Roll

C. Rock and Roll as a Social Movement

F. MTV

B.Hip Hop

C. Parents Music Resource Center

D. The Changing Face of Censorship

C. Inclusion

Conclusion

What has happened to TIBET since 1949: