China brain dump

Leslea has been by far the most active on the blog up until this point; I've been snapping pictures here and there. I've had just enough time to be able to absorb and process our surroundings. It's true what I've heard-life is different here. I thought I'd share some thoughts on the past week's happenings. It's in no particular order, just as I think of it so try not to feel too lost.

People here: they are really friendly! I thought that everyone would think that we were intrusive, overassumingly indignant, and deservant Americans. Everyone from common folks you meet outside in the city streets of Beijing or Hohhot or in the clay farm fields of Inner Mongolia are totally cool! Next to none of them speak English, but that's perfectly okay. We're having a blast getting by on minimal amounts of Mandarin that we're learning from cheat sheets and Li Feng, our interpreter.

Gadgets/electronica: people from meager means to upper crust here HAVE to have mp3 players and cell phones. I suspected for a while that there was a 'special place' that people who didn't embrace such technology are banned to. I have since reversed my suspicions

Music: people here are huge into music. The teens 20 and 30 somethings have embraced the

Western flavored pop, rock, ballad, and hip-hop approaches. They are super creative and have excellent musical taste and technical prowess in my humble opinion.

Clothing: again the teens 20 and 30 something crowd take the cake on this. They're really big into clothing with random English words on them. You will commonly see young folks wearing tops or pants/shorts with the following examples stitched/screened on them: 'MASS Memory', 'Sparkling Doll', 'Overly Dogmatic', 'Kiss me, you know it's pretty'... you get the idea-it's great. I find it very entertaining. I also find it comforting that we are the leaders in fashion in these people's eyes that they take so many style cues from us.

Aviation: unless you want to be an airline pilot or agricultural pilot, there isn't any.

Traffic: talk about semi-synchronized ballet! These people consider anything more than 3 inches 'plenty of room'. I don't think a lot of the grandparents in the crowd reading these posts would really groove on the road-based transportation here. But, for lunatics like myself, I'm nothing short of awestruck and impressed. When we get a chance I'll post some video of their (not 'there' Nanner) mastery of vehicular and pedestrian maneuvering. What I/we call close-calls is and every-minute/everday occurance.

Food: bring your eastern appetite; there's no real western food here. There are many impressive attempts at things like uh... pancakes, donuts, steak, spaghetti bolangese, escargot, hotdogs, pizza, and the common like. Somehow the faint traces of curry lemongrass, garlic, and chili paste seem to follow you everywhere and at every meal.

Since the battery power is limited at the moment, I'll get back with you all later.

This truly is an experience of a lifetime (besides having a baby). We are so fortunate!

Well, more later. I hope all is as well as possible with everyone close to us (which would be everyone reading this).

Much love!

Chris Leslea and Olivia