Lame Duck

I've been feeling a little bleh about my blog lately.  It's not that I haven't had ideas to write about, I've taken tons of pictures of interesting things with an idea to blog about them, but....  I don't know.  I just haven't wanted to write.  Part of the problem is that the weather has turned cooler and also grayer.  I think another problem is that we got our next assignment.  (USA 2014 BABY!) The Foreign Service lifestyle is good and bad.  I have many expat friends and it seems that knowing a year out approximately when you are going to leave, and where you are going is a rarity.  In some ways it's awesome to know that they are not going to tell me to be out of China by the end of the month (or in 2 weeks as I have heard happening).  It is also awesome to be able to plan for tricky assignments; read up on schools, figure out what we should take, do some seasonal shopping, etc.  

On the other hand, I KNOW that a year from now I am going to be in Washington DC (well, maybe).  So Wuhan no longer holds a great deal of attraction.  It's like having senioritis, but it happens every two years.  I could make new friends, but I'm leaving in a year, I could go explore a new part of the city, but I'm leaving in a year....  See how that could become a problem?  It also tends to make me negative about the place I'm living.  Ew, I'm glad I'm leaving, look how they.....  

This kind of thinking is a trap.  If you do this, especially in the foreign service on a two year rotation, you never end up liking where you are, but are always looking forward/back.  It is very important to live in the here and now, and not focus on where you were 6 months ago, or where you want to be 6 months from now.  

One of the reasons why I write this blog is to help me remember to keep an eye out for new experiences. This lifestyle is a gift, and I should try to keep my sense of wonder about the world around me.  

Walking in Wuhan

I saw this at Wuhan International Plaza.  I think it was a new shop, offering fur (or fake fur, I didn't go up to feel) for ladies and their pooches.  Babes got a huge kick out of the display and wanted to get a cloak for Honeydog, but, as I pointed out, Honey already has fur (plus the shop looked REALLY expensive).

I don't think they were too pleased about me taking pictures, but they were too afraid to come talk to the foreigner.... Yay for me!

The Wuhan Botanical Gardens

Last week Babes was out of school for the National Holidays.  I was pretty excited I had a whole week with my cutie patootie, all by ourselves (not only was it a holiday, but DH was out of town)!  I had plans to be girlie, but first we set out for exploring.  I've been wanting to go to the Botanical Gardens for awhile now, Babes loves flowers and it seemed like just the place for her.  After checking on my trusty Google Maps, I decided NOT to take the bus (2 1/2 hours!  YIKES) and decided to drive myself (24 minutes!). Well, let's just say that between construction and non-existent roads it took us 3 hours to get there.  Babes was great, she was pretty patient, only pulling out her old lady of endless suffering routine once or twice.  What was so endlessly frustrating is that we were really RIGHT THERE, circling around it for over an hour!  A left instead of a right and we could have saved ourselves so much pain.  But that's neither here nor there.

The gardens are stunning!  We were unfortunately not in the right season for a lot of flowers, we must have just missed the lotus blossoms, and were a little too early to smell the Osmanthus, but the gardens were quiet and ethereal none the less.  I wish I was a better photographer, the late September light, as it slanted through the trees and sparkled off the water was inspiring.  I kept expecting to run into a fairy or sprite as we wandered through the trees and across the bridges.

And oh!  The bridges, if I were a painter I'd exclusively paint bridges.  I love the symbolism of the bridge, spanning the space between.  You are not on water, you are not on dry ground, but somewhere in between.  Every bridge, every pavilion we came across seemed prettier than the last.  I can't wait to go back again (hopefully this time with better directions).

Oh, and one good thing about getting lost, we found this awesome bridge just outside of the butt end of the Moshan park.  Supposedly a rebellion was put down on this spot with a skillfully placed arrow, and they built a bridge to commemorate it.  The archer though is impressive, it looks as if he is rising up out of the water to fire an arrow into the heart of the mountain.

Walking in Wuhan Zhongshan Park edition (Bonus-SMURFS!)

Hi All!  Here are some shots taken while walking through Zhongshan park.  Despite the fact that it's pretty close to our house we have never been there before.  It's a decent sized park, and it even has a small amusement park inside it, complete with fun houses, roller coasters, and creepy kid rides.

The Smurfs were not a Zhongshan park, I just happened to come across them one morning on my way to buy bagels at Wuhan Tiandi.  I think they were set up as part of a promotion for The Smurfs 2.  Imagine my surprise when I came across a (what I imagine to be) actual sized smurf village.  I wanted to go inside and play with them, but there was security posted, so I refrained.

The Fabric Market

As an amateur crafter and prodigious window shopper I am always on the look out for new places to go see, or places to buy things.  Which makes being in China that much more pleasurable because China LOVES it's markets.  As far as I can tell there is a market for everything.  Need, a pet?  There's a pet market.  Need electronics?  There's an electronics market.  Need shoes? there are shoe markets.  Need a door?  There's a door market (note, I know that this exists, but I haven't found it in Wuhan, yet).
Last week, I took a journey into Wuchang for the fabric market (or tailor street).  It wasn't an easy journey.  Getting there required, trains, buses, and my chevrolegs, but it is totally worth it.

 There are bolts and bolts of cloth of all different types of materials; cotton, denim, silk, polyester, chiffon, you name it, they seem to have it.  Be sure to bargain for your material, but be aware, they will only come down a RMB or two per yard (at least for me, maybe someone else has had better luck?).

I wish I could get down there more often.  The colors, patterns, and textures of the fabric are amazing, just walking around got my creative juices flowing.  

I especially love the Chinese silks.  If I was a hoarder (and I'm trying not to be) I would buy some just to have it on hand.  But really, silk is not practical for a lady with a 6 year old and a dog.  I can't imagine what I'd do with it that wouldn't be irrevocably ruined within the year.  

Are you a quilter?  Their selection of cottons had me thinking about making another quilt even though I swore that I would not ever do it ever ever again....  (It's only a matter of time before I make another one, you know it, I know it, everyone knows it)

The fabric market (tailor street) is located on Yanzhi Lu 胭脂路 in Wuchang.  

Walking in Wuhan - Flower and Bird Market

The weather here has cooled down slightly.  You know it has been hot when you think a 90 (33 for you Celsius users) degree day is cooler.  I was therefore determined, to get out of the house and go see something.  I have been hearing about a big flower and pet market in Hankou, supposedly not too far from Wuhan Tiandi, so I decided to find this place and go there.  I had a hard time finding anything about it in English on the web, though.  The best I came up with, was that it was about 200 meters away from the Wuhan Changjiang No. 2 bridge.  Adding that to the knowledge that it was near Tiandi, I decided to give it a try.  

 Using my trusty Google Maps app (more on this Friday) I plotted a course to the nearest bus stop to the No. 2 bridge.  Once I got off the bus though, I realized where I had gone wrong in planning.  I just figured I could ask around once I got near enough and go from there.  Unfortunately, the area was pretty deserted.  And the few people I did see were not likely to speak enough clear Mandarin for me to be able to understand.  So I used my Chevrolegs to see what I could find.  Surprisingly, I did find it after 30 minutes or so of walking (it turns out, that despite the fact that it felt cooler 90 degrees is still actually pretty hot), and it turns out that I got off the bus right there, but walked right past it.

 I also brought the big camera, but forgot to put the memory card in it, so I had to take the pictures with my phone, again.  But I guess I should be grateful that I didn't wander about all that way only to have no camera and nothing to show for the walking.... I guess.

 I was expecting something much bigger, this was more of a medium sized market than a BIG market, but interesting none-the-less.  It immediately brought to mind the phrase used to describe the Muppet Show-- it was filled with dogs, and frogs, and pigs and chickens.  (actually I didn't see any frogs, but I did not look closely at the aquariums).

If you are looking for this place it is on YanJiang Ave, 200 meters North of the Changjiang No. 2 bridge.  And the sign for the place looks like this:

The characters aren't super clear so here they are again:  花鸟市场 

 

 And the entrance looks like a parking lot entrance (which it technically is):

Walking in Wuhan, parking and crazy car edition

This guy figured his car wouldn't fit in the space, so he just parked half on the sidewalk.  

Aside from the fact that this car is full on parked on the sidewalk (perfectly legit to do) it is the color of a purple Christmas ornament.

Last, but not least, the crazy Mini.  

I apologize for the short short post, but I'm still trying to get back in the groove.

Worry and visit vets

I know, I know, it's been weeks and weeks!  I expected to be gone for a week in our Spring trip to Japan--actually I thought I might get to post at least once from there, but no, the internet was way too spotty for me to get anything online.  But when we got home I took one look at Honeydog's face and freaked out... About two months ago we noticed a small spot on her face, could have been a bump, or a bruise, so I thought, well let's wait and see.  Right before we left, it STILL hadn't gone away so I took her to a vet who looked at it and said tumor!  I thought, really?  Tumor, no test, no real look, just a glance and a poke.  So we went on vacation, praying all the while that this lump would just go away.  However, this is one time where my wait and see policy did NOT pay off.  When we got back I could tell right away that this was not just going to disappear, and I began to worry, and visit vets.  And worry, and visit vets.

Have you ever tried to find a vet in a country where you can't read internet posts, or phone books?  Well, it's hard.  For the past week I've been basically wandering around Wuhan with my smart phone, google maps, and my bus pass visiting vets.  Here's the thing, they have vets here, but they are scary.  Most of the time they are dirty; imagine dog paws and people shoes tracking mud and dust but only sweeping once a day.  Add to that cigarette ash and people trash on a white linoleum floor (or what used to be white).  Now picture steel trays as examination tables and dingy walls.  Put all this in a room the size of a fast food bathroom and you will have most of the vets that I've visited.  And the vets themselves; most of them had this haughty attitude and would only talk to you through an assistant.  I never once saw anyone wash their hands, even when they went from examining an animal to eating their lunch.  I was scared (I think it gave me another gray hair!) I couldn't leave Honeydog in the hands of these guys.  I just couldn't.

Finally, with the help of DH and his co-workers we found a place that wasn't some dude and his assistant.  It was still a dismally depressing place to go to, but it was clean (ish) and the vets themselves were clean, and most importantly it didn't smell bad.  As with everything in China, there was no privacy.  The doctors examined Honeydog in the waiting area, she got shots, an IV lead put in, and had her consultation without moving from where we first came in.  Not that there was anywhere private.

  Even when they took her in to operate (yes, they put her to sleep, and cut out a huge chunk of her face) people came and went from the operating room ALL THE TIME!
But she is home eating, drinking, and resting well.  She has to wear the cone of shame for the next two weeks, but it's a small price to pay for our Honeydog to be ok.

2 Museums

When Babes was off for the Chinese New Year, we took the opportunity to visit some of the museums Wuhan has to offer.  The first, The Wuhan Art Museum, is actually a very nice art museum, empty, but nice.  I've seen two exhibits there and I thought both of them were very well done.  But the museum itself is very very empty.  I think it has the capacity to hold 4 or 5 exhibits, but only has 2. 

The science and technology museum, on the other hand, was nice at some point.  Babes had a good time, but I thought the place was starting to look a little dingy.  Most of the exhibits looked frayed or dingy, and about half of them were out of order or not really working.  But, I thought it could have been a very nice Children's museum with just a little bit of work.