We returned from July's China adventure a little over a week ago. It is a misery to try and publish blogs through the Great Firewall, I will try to remedy the lack of entries sometime. A summary: It was wonderful to be in China again. I found a new luscious dried fruit tea. I rode a camel. I had few hours of really good sleep. Mattresses even in high end hotels are like bricks. Our test if we can go it alone in China while in Beijing was a mixed success. We need to take a basic course in Mandarin. We still haven't figured out how to contact the church community. We ate too much. We walked the skin off our feet. We visited places where few Western faces have ever been seen. We survived the challenge. In other places we were hosted generously. We saw amazing things; we traveled overnight on a train. We saw 1000 years of Buddhist art tucked into mountain grottoes. We saw the edge of the Gobi. We got upgraded to business on the way home and had possibly the worst food and beverage service ever suffered. Himself had a royally wonderful time science wise and is all fired up about Sabbatical planning.
Since I finished every last bit of the washing and ironing yesterday, and had a wonderful trim found in Beijing for next to nothing that was asking for a linen to go with it, I bused in to Amersfoort to the market as a little treat for myself today. Amersfoort has a rather good number of fabric and notion merchants on Friday morning. For once the sky was clear, the sun was out, it was dry, not too cold, so I packed my little shopping cart on wheels and set off.
I love walking Amersfoort. It is an ancient walled town that has enjoyed the bustle of trade by water for centuries- though I don't know if it was on the Hanseatic route. It still has canals and walls and robust number of preserved ancient buildings to delight me.
But it was when I passed through the shadowed pathway to the market square that I realized again how I appreciated my adopted country and it's lifestyle. The bells were telling the hour from the churches nearby, and the carillon from the city hall added more music. Rainbow flags were in abundance because it's that week again, and the coffee and tea establishments were busy; the outside tables were full of folks enjoying the first decent day we have had for a while.
The fruit and veg stall-keepers were vying with one another; their bellows competing with the belfries. Flocks of customers lined up for fresh fruit, veg, bread, and cheese at one section of the market square, others crowded through the clothing stalls looking for a bargain. Still others rummaged the fabric stalls for just the right bit of stuff.
Into this bustling cacophony went I gladly.
So interesting, so Dutch, so....home.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Sunday, July 5, 2015
And Away We Go Fourth of July 2015
Someone asked me what I was doing to celebrate the Fourth of July. My answer: "flying to China. " And so it was.
Preparing for this departure was different in that I was so organized that we did not have last minute meltdowns, although it was so blasted hot in Cheeseland the last week, I did have my moments where I thought the weather would win. The biggest challenge, because we will be traveling internally on smaller airlines, trains and cars, was packing small. We packed about 4 kilos of food, water purifiers, hot water kit, extra medicines and heath care needs none the less. We are going to be in places where we have no idea what is available, nor if we can communicate adequately. On the other hand, most of the time, we will be in the academic community, so our needs are all arranged for us....but we plan for contingencies.
Jade House will have caretakers in and out. We locked, barred, cleaned and cleared our way out the door. I just have to trust the gods to protect our place from evil, but there is a new hasp lock on the car port just in case. I see a day where we actually have a full security system, especially if the plans for a new housing community goes forward across the street. Summer holidays in Cheeseland is when the burglars strike.
Saturday morning Himself took the last load to the dump and fetched the Boy at the station. Boy was our driver to the airport. We even left early- the Tour de France and the heat affected traffic patterns so we erred on the side of caution. As it would happen nothing awful happened, and we were in the KLM Lounge with hours to kill.
The Schiphol lounge is comfy, quiet, and allows Himself to work uninterrupted, Also has decent free food.
We chose fancy economy to fly out, which seat had a laarge empty space in front of me, so I could stack my bag with a pillow to stretch my legs. I was happy, alhough 10 hours in an airplane is one long flight.
Our layover was in Hangzhou airport. By this time, the time difference was kicking in. We both were looking forward to a little food and a comfy place to wait for the next leg of the journey. UGH. Let's just say the toilets were clean and the seaing had padding. Not in the top 10 gold class flyer's lounges of the world. Then the plane was delayed an hour.
We finally got in the air, had a miserable meal, and dozed our way to Changchun airport where we found one bag had been fairly squashed (but luckily it just looked bad.) We easily found the student greeters' big sign welcoming Himself to the conference and were loaded into a new smelling car to be ferried to the Sheraton. The driver got a little lost but we finally arrived to be greeted by more student hosts. At this point we were gone from home 24 hours. We really thought we would unpack, have a wash, ( and I was hoping room service in jammies) and a good sleep.
Our good hosts though, had planned a dinner. Starting at that moment. We had not even seen our room!
They gave us 10 minutes. We tore upstairs, tipped the porter, checked the battered suitcase innards, opened the other, rummaged for a clean dress, used the loo. freed my feet from the compression stockings, applied lipstick and flew back downstairs.
Dinner was actually very nice and quite laid back from the usual too much food affair we expereinced in Beijing. No watermelon!! In fact, after we ate, the hostess suggested we go on up so we could gracefully retire while everyone else visited after dinner.
We unpacked, and Himself went off to the pool and sauna while i took a bubblebath and soaked. I was never so glad to see my jammies.
My firt impression of Changchun is billboards. Everywhere. Tree lined boulevards. Big fancy housing development behind fences, and the miles on miles of high rise apartments. In other words, welcome to modern China.
Happy 4th of July.
Preparing for this departure was different in that I was so organized that we did not have last minute meltdowns, although it was so blasted hot in Cheeseland the last week, I did have my moments where I thought the weather would win. The biggest challenge, because we will be traveling internally on smaller airlines, trains and cars, was packing small. We packed about 4 kilos of food, water purifiers, hot water kit, extra medicines and heath care needs none the less. We are going to be in places where we have no idea what is available, nor if we can communicate adequately. On the other hand, most of the time, we will be in the academic community, so our needs are all arranged for us....but we plan for contingencies.
Jade House will have caretakers in and out. We locked, barred, cleaned and cleared our way out the door. I just have to trust the gods to protect our place from evil, but there is a new hasp lock on the car port just in case. I see a day where we actually have a full security system, especially if the plans for a new housing community goes forward across the street. Summer holidays in Cheeseland is when the burglars strike.
Saturday morning Himself took the last load to the dump and fetched the Boy at the station. Boy was our driver to the airport. We even left early- the Tour de France and the heat affected traffic patterns so we erred on the side of caution. As it would happen nothing awful happened, and we were in the KLM Lounge with hours to kill.
The Schiphol lounge is comfy, quiet, and allows Himself to work uninterrupted, Also has decent free food.
We chose fancy economy to fly out, which seat had a laarge empty space in front of me, so I could stack my bag with a pillow to stretch my legs. I was happy, alhough 10 hours in an airplane is one long flight.
Our layover was in Hangzhou airport. By this time, the time difference was kicking in. We both were looking forward to a little food and a comfy place to wait for the next leg of the journey. UGH. Let's just say the toilets were clean and the seaing had padding. Not in the top 10 gold class flyer's lounges of the world. Then the plane was delayed an hour.
We finally got in the air, had a miserable meal, and dozed our way to Changchun airport where we found one bag had been fairly squashed (but luckily it just looked bad.) We easily found the student greeters' big sign welcoming Himself to the conference and were loaded into a new smelling car to be ferried to the Sheraton. The driver got a little lost but we finally arrived to be greeted by more student hosts. At this point we were gone from home 24 hours. We really thought we would unpack, have a wash, ( and I was hoping room service in jammies) and a good sleep.
Our good hosts though, had planned a dinner. Starting at that moment. We had not even seen our room!
They gave us 10 minutes. We tore upstairs, tipped the porter, checked the battered suitcase innards, opened the other, rummaged for a clean dress, used the loo. freed my feet from the compression stockings, applied lipstick and flew back downstairs.
Dinner was actually very nice and quite laid back from the usual too much food affair we expereinced in Beijing. No watermelon!! In fact, after we ate, the hostess suggested we go on up so we could gracefully retire while everyone else visited after dinner.
We unpacked, and Himself went off to the pool and sauna while i took a bubblebath and soaked. I was never so glad to see my jammies.
My firt impression of Changchun is billboards. Everywhere. Tree lined boulevards. Big fancy housing development behind fences, and the miles on miles of high rise apartments. In other words, welcome to modern China.
Happy 4th of July.
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