sophy's pokeylotta adventures!

Vancouver's festival of lights: fireworks over False Creek

2011-08-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

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Spain rocks purple spirals,
smiley faces,
hearts pierced with arrows
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my first batik! (nirvana studio, ubud, bali)

2011-06-29T10:05:00.001-07:00

my teacher's Ubud studio: www.nirvananaku.com

embroidery: young urban indonesian male art form (denpasar, bali)

2011-06-29T10:01:00.003-07:00

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dude with killer skillz
embroiders "young weezy" on
a black baseball cap
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daily offering ingredients (payangan market, bali)

2011-06-29T10:01:00.001-07:00

balinese cooking class (payangan village, near ubud)

2011-06-29T10:00:00.001-07:00

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this is the way tempeh
is meant to be eaten!
so so delicious
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(tempeh chunks grilled over a coconut husk barbecue with peanut sate,
tempeh deep fried in coconut oil and braised with lemongrass, kefir
lime, chili, veg bouillon and coconut milk, tofu kare -curry- and a
vegetable salad with fern tips and sprouts)
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pura taman ayun (garden temple, mengwi, bali)

2011-06-29T09:57:00.001-07:00

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rice terraces (near jatiluwih, bali)

2011-06-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

early morning swim? (villa sabandari, ubud, bali)

2011-06-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

daily offerings (sanur, bali, indonesia)

2011-06-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

heaven on earth (villa sabandari, ubud, bali)

2011-06-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

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a rainy june day
enjoying afternoon tea
over the rice fields
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indonesian oolong
with fresh apple crumble
white herons glide by
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freshness of washed earth
mingles with plumeria
this perfect moment
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ass-skin gelatin (hu qing yu chinese pharmacy, hangzhou, china)

2011-06-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

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take two of these
and call me in the morning
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highly decorated high-rises (chongqing, china)

2011-06-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

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sichuan art students
paint several city blocks
incredible designs
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chinese propaganda-graffiti: then and now (chongqing, china)

2011-06-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

haba snow mountain from tiger leaping gorge, china

2011-06-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

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hike, eat mountain farm food
play angry birds at night
what more would i want?
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french kids trek in chucks
we come in technical gear
naxi wear sandals
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this motley crew
converges on the mountain
to enjoy fresh mint tea
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po po hanging out on a cliff at tiger leaping gorge, china

2011-06-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

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naxi grandma chills
mid-day on a cliff over
the world's steepest gorge
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jade dragon mountain at the black reflection lake in lijiang, china

2011-06-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

grass is napping in lijiang (yunnan province, china)

2011-06-22T19:07:00.000-07:00

lijiang old town (yunnan province, china)

2011-06-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

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a beautiful dog
languidly watches the crowds
of tourists pass by
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chinese noods!

2011-06-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

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who knew you could buy
chinese noods for 4 bucks
at the siem reap airport
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khmer cooking class at le tigre de papier, siem reap, cambodia

2011-06-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

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the wonderful smells
of lemongrass, kefir lime
mix with coconut
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khmer cooking class- banana flower salad

2011-06-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

man vs. nature: nature wins, ta prohm temple (cambodia)

2011-06-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

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a strangler fig takes
hold of a
rooted in a door
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bayon temple (cambodia)

2011-06-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

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sending compassion
equanimity, joy, love
in four directions
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banteay srei, citadel of women (cambodia) - naga (dragon) detail

2011-06-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

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fierce and intricate
carvings tell a bloody tale
so beautifully
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banteay srei, apsaras at the citadel of women (cambodia)

2011-06-09T03:29:00.000-07:00

wat's up? (angkor wat, cambodia)

2011-06-09T03:23:00.000-07:00

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Angkor, that's wat
sunrise over the temple
that began the end
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(wat means "temple" in the khmer language)

aki ra, cambodia landmine museum (siem reap, cambodia)

2011-06-09T03:21:00.000-07:00

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former child soldier
now deactivates some of
the 3 million mines
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the road to siem reap, cambodia

2011-06-04T05:12:00.000-07:00

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motos carrying
bamboo cages filled with pigs,
kids walking to school
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our bus, white cows, trucks,
men carting plastic jugs on foot
all share the highway
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the best $1 i ever spent on a meal

2011-06-04T04:44:00.001-07:00

...was in phnom penh's toul tom poung (russian) market
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cut fried taro rolls
fresh wide rice noodles
in coconut milk
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chewy
fragrant
filling
$1
nuff said
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rice paddies, en route from phnom penh to siem reap, cambodia

2011-06-04T04:44:00.000-07:00

choeung ek killing fields near phnom penh

2011-06-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

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this stupa contains
the skulls and bones of thousands
of Cambodians.
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1975
in a former longan field
the khmer rouge killed
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people they feared were
a threat to their power-
teachers, doctors, monks,
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farmers who resisted
and their entire families,
tortured and bludgeoned to death.
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khmer rouge leaders
were just like the people they killed-
teachers and monks...
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3 million dead
20% of the
Cambodian population
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genocide shows how
power and fear turns brothers
and sisters like me
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against each other
while other nations armed and
fueled the destruction.
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tuol sleng S21 prison and torture center, phnom penh

2011-06-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

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(above: mug shots of prisoners at tuol sleng, some taken just before torture and murder)
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21,000 people imprisoned and tortured at this high-school-turned-prison, electrocuted and water boarded, mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, politicians, farmers, doctors, teachers, laborers, lawyers, people who talked back or at the wrong place at the wrong time.
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i easily could have been there too.
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gate at royal palace, phnom penh

2011-05-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

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mix the khmer empire
with buddhism and french rule
get killer design
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royal palace, phnom penh

2011-05-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

guan yin, the bodhisattva of compassion

2011-05-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

at the top of Kadoorie Gardens, a training center in Hong Kong for sustainable organic farming and enviromental stewardship in Asia.

honoring my late father

2011-05-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

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my dad's high school friends
hike with me to a hilltop
oasis garden
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guan yin provides rest
in sweltering hong kong heat
a lotus blooms
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we form a circle
our loss brings us together
and builds new friendships
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finding refuge in hong kong

2011-05-27T03:21:00.001-07:00

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a giant buddha
visible from our airplane
hidden in city

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blast off!

2011-05-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

慢慢来 (little by little...)

2011-03-30T22:51:00.001-07:00

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pole pole
we said in Kiswahili
mantra for social change
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patience is vital
for sustainability
clear and sure-footed
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small shifts in practice
can save thousands of lives
making it all worthwhile
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(above: community health workers Xiao Fei, Zhan Fei and Zhang Aiyi, me, Director Shi of the HIV/derm department at Hangzhou Number 6 People's Hospital, Dr. Yu, head of the inpatient unit, and Dr. Yu's 9-year-old son in front)
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delusion

2011-03-30T22:49:00.001-07:00

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a man with a knife
squats outside the hospital
"give me medicines!"
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he yells at doctors
and anyone who'll listen
"i have HIV!"
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problem is, his tests
are all negative but he
doesn't believe it
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when being yourself and grasping chinese tradition don't mix well

2011-03-30T22:48:00.001-07:00

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a young man dying
of end-stage AIDS infection
tells us he is gay
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as his wife sticks by
his bedside, fiercely loyal.
she's known all along.
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(and she still hasn't been tested for HIV)
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chongqing hot pot

2011-03-28T08:18:00.003-07:00

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boiling red pork fat
passed on for generations
of feasting diners
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so spicy my mouth
is first on fire then loses
all its sensation
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i can't refuse food
from head of hospital
next day: diarrhea!
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a spent bloom

2011-03-28T08:18:00.001-07:00

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it is spring outside
magnolia, plum blossoms
pink white firecrackers
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yet i spend all day
with sick, dying, angry folks
absorbing their pain
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i know things are bad
when i don't have energy
to write my haikus
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mini red bean mochi buns! (my new fave snack)

2011-03-22T06:03:00.000-07:00

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thin delicate shell
airy, moist, chewy inside
ate 12 all at once

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Get 'em fresh out of the oven at a bakery in downtown Kunming called 'Just Hot' which most people here including the workers pronounce as "Jess Hao." Check out their philosophy in the photo. I got hooked the first time trying them after a 2 hour massage nearby (for less than $20 in a clean, private room!), and then went back 5 times only to find them sold out each time. Finally, i waited an hour on my last night in Kunming for a fresh batch. It was worth it. I want to figure out the recipe for these (rice flour, sugar, red bean, and squirt onto parchment paper with a pastry tube and bake?), so if you have any ideas, let me know!
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ancient modern (kunming)

2011-03-21T06:45:00.001-07:00

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the mosque silhouette
sunset over jinbi square
reflected in glass
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xi shan (west hill)

2011-03-21T06:33:00.001-07:00

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climbing red clay soil
highways, high-rises below
not a soul in sight
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organism

2011-03-21T06:31:00.001-07:00

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just in case you have
small animals or microbes
to get off your hands
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haiku from the 30 cent glitter makeup case

2011-03-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

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gather noble grace
enthusiasm seduce
the integral whole
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"It's vegetarian!" the saleslady said.

2011-03-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

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Ingredients:
Beef Foam,
Cow liver germ powder,
Edibility.

i am not convinced.
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the bright side of jet lag: early morning dim sum, the breakfast of Champions.

2011-03-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

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getting in at 3
wide wide awake at 7
dim sum feast at 8
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(The photo shows a bowl of wild fungus with bamboo pith and a plate of xia chang fen, steamed rice flour roll with shrimp, the handmade specialty at Federal Palace, the dim sum house next to my hotel in Hong Kong. Not bad for US$2.50. The two big floors of Federal Palace are packed with chatty women and dudes reading their morning papers by 8 am on weekdays.)
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is there a doctor on the plane?

2011-03-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

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O, those dreaded words
at 35,000 feet
makes my pulse quicken
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a middle-aged man
completely unresponsive
for 2 intense hours
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we tried everything
naloxone, D50...
then, a miracle
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slowly he came to
squeezed my hand, said "OK"
everything's OK.
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ramen at the end of the tunnel

2011-03-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

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diverting the plane
for emergency landing
a hard choice to make
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adding 8 hours and
2 stops to refuel, exhausted
good Samaritan
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Cathay Pacific
staff grateful, treats me to a
bowl of hot ramen
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the hong kong temple night market at yau ma tei

2010-12-24T12:28:00.001-08:00

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enjoying street food
then a killer foot massage
perfect city night
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beijing duck flavored pretz!

2010-12-22T20:49:00.000-08:00

this is proof that china
is modernizing

a small sideways tree

2010-12-20T05:07:00.000-08:00

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finding a quiet spot
west lake is still, so i see
this life reflected
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chinese nationals don't seem to notice anymore

2010-12-20T05:05:00.000-08:00

fancy hip hotel
communist propaganda
a contradiction?

the requisite classic picture of west lake

2010-12-20T05:03:00.000-08:00

who prevails at Hangzhou wan song academy

2010-12-20T05:01:00.000-08:00

yang mei versus me
face off between a scholar
and troublemaker
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west lake in december

2010-12-20T04:58:00.002-08:00

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a warm winter day
west lake is filled with people
forgetting they're here
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exhausted

2010-12-20T04:58:00.001-08:00

i know things are bad
on a week without haikus
no space to ponder

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1.3 billion
scrambling to get to first place
get me outta here

porcini mushrooms in China

2010-12-20T04:51:00.000-08:00

chinese porcinis!
called bovine liver fungus
can't wait to try them

hunting for gems

2010-12-20T04:46:00.000-08:00

a hidden corner
in midst of city bustle
happy folk market

the seagulls of Kunming

2010-12-20T04:35:00.000-08:00

seagulls from russia
flock here in winter
paradise is relative

winter in China

2010-12-10T18:47:00.000-08:00

it's sad to return
to find that a young woman
died from PCP

a man with lung mass
surgeons refused biopsy
couldn't get treatment

folks die of stigma
in summer of the corporate state
winter of compassion

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Kunming Third People's Hospital: a crash course in HIV medicine

2010-12-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

22 year olds
in charge of 2k (HIV!) patients
a little scary

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soy kawaii

2010-12-10T05:17:00.000-08:00

magical soymilk
happy loving studying
can't get more asian

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hong kong dim sum

2010-12-08T16:10:00.000-08:00

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chillin' with old dudes
better than hotel buffet
real hong kong dim sum

happy memories
of my father hanging out
for hours, relaxed

turnip cake, pumpkin
fresh handmade chewy chang fen
fat buddha belly

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the urban monk (sounds better than nun)

2010-12-08T16:09:00.000-08:00

5 am yoga
facing the hong kong skyline
stillness and movement

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biz classy!

2010-12-06T11:14:00.001-08:00

After innumerable long-haul flights, I am flying business class for the first time in my life.

Check out my feet, lounging in a chaise recliner with my laptop, facing the snack and wine bar with sandwiches and dim sum.

The airline staff and security people acted shocked and had to check my boarding pass twice to allow me to enter the special biz class lines (much shorter with nicer staff) and the special first/biz class lounge- and they were all Asian women about my age.

It's really weird to be a part of this ridiculously elite group of people (not just able to travel internationally but to be able to pay a lot extra to travel comfortably). I feel like I'm in some satire film, like the vagrant who somehow snuck into this world of rich people and am pretending to fit in. I will enjoy this fun adventure while I can!!

garage remodel adventure!

2010-12-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

check out our before, during and after photos, transforming our water damaged garage into a studio-office-fun-house-she-cave!!

forbidden people in the city

2010-09-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

autumn afternoon
enjoying a bean pop in
forbidden city

forest frog oviducts

2010-09-22T08:46:00.001-07:00

coconut juice sweets
with forest frog's oviducts
what the hell is this?

phoenix rising in beijing

2010-09-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

out of the Wuhan ashes...

tofu, shrooms galore
organic greens, local farms
not cooked in pork fat

... Wow!

generic shop

2010-09-22T08:21:00.001-07:00

tell it like it is
don't even try to stand out
fire the marketer

Mid-Autumn Festival at Wuhan airport

2010-09-21T22:40:00.001-07:00

stormy afternoon
ramen, moon cake, juice for lunch
watching planes take off

a bird in Wuhan

2010-09-21T22:38:00.001-07:00

amidst soot and noise
a bird issues an urgent song
remember, i'm here

the inconvenient truth

2010-09-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

in Wuhan twilight
tree leaves collect toxic dust
heavy red sun sets

street scene in Wuhan

2010-09-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

[above: the street scene right outside my cheap hotel. Note the Wuhan Dude look at the trunk of one of the turquoise taxis: t-shirt or tank pulled up to the nipples and belly hanging out. It's very popular these days.]

heat index 110
i can feel my brain melting
trapped in hotel room

Wuhan alleyway

2010-09-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

through an alleyway
i saw the rest of China
crumbling concrete walls

one-room families
young boys smoking cigarettes
grandmas sorting trash

amidst smoke and stink
irrepressibly human
people laugh and play

squat n knit

2010-09-17T23:06:00.000-07:00

waiting for small shifts
in this giant human mass
gives meaning to time

from Inner Mongolia Prairie regards

2010-09-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

mongolian beef
a gift from the TB ward
dead weight in my bag

haiku pen

2010-09-17T19:25:00.001-07:00

good time! lies run sprints
but the truth runs marathons
haiku from a pen

(watch out: i found the cute stuff store in my hotel's 'hood in Wuhan!)

on a stick

2010-09-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

street food in Wuhan
sweating over a hot grill
all for 20 cents

warmly greeting from Wuhan

2010-09-16T02:20:00.001-07:00

Wuhan Infectious Disease Hospital

i am super squirrel
storing it all in my cheeks
leaping tree to tree

here i come to save the day
PPTs are on their way

(too bad squirrels are mostly ignored)

Hangzhou No. 6 People's Hospital HIV department

2010-09-16T02:17:00.000-07:00

after a workshop
Hangzhou 6 HIV crew
i'm the one with teeth

Hangzhou traffic at 6 am

2010-09-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

rainy september
one of the four furnaces
Hangzhou wet and hot

noise never ceases
men yelling at phones
cars honking at 4 am

China is busy
creating work for work's sake
taxing the spirit

he cha guan: afternoon tea

2010-09-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

a hot cup of longjin tea
eating lotus seed
births some interesting talk

amateur scholars at the classical west lake in Hangzhou

2010-09-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

my cousin QingQing and me
wannabe poets
admiring fall lotus patch

my mobile office

2010-09-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

I know that I am traveling too much when I have a specific "office desk" at SFO. You can't beat the North Food Court (in front of Emporio Rulli and before the security check point)... it's got a working electrical outlet, free wifi, a nice big clean table, decent chairs, snacks nearby, and is reasonably quiet.

I am sitting here now, typing this up with the bluetooth keyboard you see here. I took the photo with my iphone, which is why it's missing on the table (hopefully i won't get yet another iphone stolen!). Very handy... everything I need for hyper-american-productivity with less than one minute of set-up.

tomato jungle

2010-09-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

It's a jungle out there, folks. Here's what grew out of those tiny little seeds we saved from farmer's market salads last year...

One of the vegetable beds our tomatoes are growing in (the one that is hidden in this photo by the tomato super-growth) was built by Young Whan this spring!

saving and growing tomato seeds

2010-09-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

We're already saving seeds from this year's tomatoes in preparation for next year's round. You can see our seed baths next to our garden's tomato basket in the photo. It's super easy and fun!

Here's how to grow your own tomatoes from tomatoes you eat:

1. use heirloom seeds: if you can, make sure you have an heirloom tomato. That means that the seeds are fertile and tends to be related to its parent plant (which you are eating), plus you'll be preserving the natural tomato genetic diversity... and growing super tasty tomatoes. Hybrid tomatoes like sun golds, sweet hundreds/millions, and early girls do not have seeds that will produce a tomato exactly like the parent tomato, though they are mighty fine tomatoes anyway, and worthy of buying seeds for every few years.

2. pull out seeds and put them in a water bath: before you chew and swallow the tomato piece, use your fingers or a spoon to pull out the little seeds (avoid pulp) and put them in a little cup to allow them to ferment in a water bath for 2-3 days.

3. strain and dry the seeds: pour the water with seeds in it into a fine mesh strainer (or cheese cloth), and then allow them to dry as is or wipe them onto a paper towel to dry

4. save for next season: once dry, store the seeds in a clean, dry and dark location. I usually pull them off the paper towel and put them into little plastic baggies with labels (when you have 30+ tomato seed varieties it can be easy to mix them up if you're not careful!)... and then store them in a closed glass jar in a closet.

5. get ready for magic next season! I usually start my tomato seedlings indoors in February, transplant them to larger pots in late March, and then plant them outside in mid to late May. Last year my tomato plants were small and purple and spindly in March and April... and finally after fussing with their light, water, etc., I realized that they didn't have enough nutrients in the soil I used to sprout them in. They promptly grew into a tomato jungle after I added organic tomato/vegetable food. And voila! After that initial scare, we now have a wonderful bounty of delicious heirloom tomatoes every day! It's amazing how responsive plants can be.

totally tomato!

2010-09-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

Tomato season is finally here, about half-a-month late because of prolonged spring and strangely cool summer in the East Bay.

This is the year of the Great Tomato Experiment: I saved 20+ varieties of heirloom tomato seeds from tomatoes I ate last year from our local farmer's market and grew 15 varieties of tomatoes in our garden. (Props to Happy Boy, Lucero, Tomatero and Surly Girl farms - sorry, didn't know that last farm's name so I made a name up in honor of the slightly cantankerous woman who works the market.) People tend to be mighty impressed when they find out our tomato jungle originated from tiny seeds from last year's salads, but lemme tell ya - it's a lot easier than it looks. See my next post for instructions.

I tried to choose tomatoes with lots of color diversity... it's my way of being a graphic-artist-garden-nerd. I've also decided that cherry tomatoes do especially well in our short growing season, plus they pack a flavor punch in a small package. What you see in the photo here includes pretty much what we're harvesting every day now in early September:

-currant tomatoes: tiny orange-red bright sweet little thangs
-super snow white: lemon-white sweet cherries
-green grape: yellow-green when mature, a very gourmet umame, almost porcini mushroom taste to it!
-black cherry: a deep purple cherry with a mellow sweet taste
-isis candy: a very deeply sweet cherry tomato
-sun golds: bright orange hybrid with a complex but still clean flavor, and an amazingly productive plant - we're getting hundreds of these tomatoes!
-sweet million: bright, clean red cherry tomato flavor, also a worthy hybrid (that means you have to buy seeds from people who especially hybridize two parent tomatoes to create the sun gold and sweet million seeds)
-moskovich heirloom: a regular-sized red tomato on the smallish side, but with an amazingly bright and complex umame. This is our favorite regular-sized heirloom tomato.

galavanting in France and Spain - July 2010

2010-07-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

Young Whan and I had a wonderful time at Plum Village in the Dordogne region of rural-Central France.

... and Paris!

fast food takes over China

2010-05-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

Hallelujah, my diarrhea has run out of steam!

Back to eating all sorts of funky things...

I am trying out this new way of posting to my blog via email... This
helps me bypass the web restrictions while I am traveling in China,
and allows me to post on the go from my iPhone. Boy, technology sure
is cool.

This post is dedicated to the Chinese Colonel (doesn't he look Asian?
Different from the american colonel, right?) and it's legions of fans
that line up to get jook (rice porridge) and yo tao (oily Chinese
fried dough sticks) every day. There's a KFC on almost every corner of
a Chinese city these days!

There are also scores of cute fast food shops popping up every where
in China. They are distinctly Chinese: or example, i had a lychee
seaweed passionfruit drink at an adorable place called Happy Lemon in
Beijing.

Hello, massive obesity epidemic!

when you're sliding into home, and your pants are full of foam...

2010-05-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

...diarrhea, diarrhea!

I have been battling some serious loose stool and bad gas cramps for the last 3 days nicely summarized by this version of the diarrhea song:
"When you're walking like CP3O
and your crap looks like radicchio
Diarrhea, Diarrhea"

I should have known that eating 3 yuan (that's 40 US cents a bowl) street food throughout the weekend would result in this mess!

I suspect that the following cold noodle dish near the Taoist Golden Temple may have been source of the culprit microorganism. It's supposed to not be spicy, but you may notice how red the sauce is! Food is *spicy* in Yunnan. Perhaps I got too brave and felt so Chinese that I allowed myself to eat raw, not-recently-cooked cold street dishes. I don't even want to imagine how long and where these noodles and pickled veggies may have been sitting before I ate them.

After 2 days of pain and waking up with a fever yesterday, I decided it was time for some cipro antibiotic for perhaps ETEC (traveler's e coli diarrhea). When I told my work colleagues about this, they all laughed at me. "Cipro is useless! It won't do a thing against the bacteria in China!"

Bad news: since people randomly take antibiotics on their own from any old pharmacy on the street (without prescription, of course), there's a ton of bacterial resistance. That's why cipro might be useless here; it has been widely available and unregulated, so resistance to this medication is rampant. I still have loose stool after 2 doses. Hmmm.

I'll see where this goes... single case study on the use of cipro against traveler's diarrhea in China.

Hopefully this won't happen (I'm still working full force while here!):
"Now you think you're feeling better
but you keep on getting wetter:
Diarrhea, diarrhea....!"

P.S. You can check out more lovely renditions of the diarrhea song here: www.diarrheasong.blogspot.com

hooray! i'm blogging in China!

2010-05-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

I made it to Kunming! As you can see in the photo above, Kunming is a large urban center with loads of people and concrete. If you squint through the smog, you can see some mountains in the background. I'm hoping to get to one of those hills this weekend. It's May Day (International Labour Day, Worker's Day) in China, so I don't have formal work duties on Monday. This is great because I have been working my butt off over the last several days (and in the weeks leading up to this trip). Yay for 3-day weekends!

Michael Pollan would approve of my breakfasts in China! Almost all of what I eat has a single whole food ingredient: bok choy greens, snap peas, soybeans/tofu, watermelon, honeydew, some fruit I don’t know the name of which has white flesh and small black seeds that come out in my poo.

I am slowly settling into life here. The downside of jet lag is that I get up each morning exactly at 5 am, and since I am going to bed at midnight because I am working late at night, that means 5 hours of sleep each night. It's not quite enough for me. The upside is that I have enough time before I go to the hospital to do sitting meditation for 30 minutes, yoga for one hour, and sometimes 30 minutes of deep relaxation thrown in. It's a great way to start my day, and I think it keeps me grounded amidst all the work intensity.

Above is one of the Yunnan special treats: rose petal cakes. It consists of dry flakey dough with fragrant sweet rose petals inside. The best part is that I bought it from a bakery next door to the apartment I will be moving into tomorrow called RAMBO Bread Works. GRRRRrrr…

In terms of work, it has already been interesting, rewarding, and a big (though good) challenge on this trip. I don’t have any pictures of me at work (since I am often running around at the hospital), but perhaps later.

I enjoy this work. I am tired from my 12 hour days, but this work definitely feels meaningful in a big way. I saw a bunch of patients yesterday, and feel more grounded to be connected with patients (who really put up with a lot here, as witnessed when the 27 year old man totally discolored and wasted from his advanced liver disease, TB in his lungs and belly, and another painful disease – MAC- smiled and shook my hand and told me how grateful he was to be examined even though it hurt like hell), and also happy that I can offer concrete, practical and real help to the clinicians. There are of course internal politics and power issues I need to navigate, so it will yet to be seen what we can accomplish. I have already a list of concrete interventions that I think we can help with, including big things like task-shifting to community organizations and small things like hand sanitizer. It's great to see it all coming together in a real, tangible way.

This Chinglish bag from my hotel room contained the Ethernet cable I’m using right now to tunnel to my blog (boy, that was an interesting challenge!). It says how I feel sometimes: while the internet miraculously connects me to you from around the globe and allows me to do this international work, it is also the “Non-Gift” that keeps me from being fully present to my environment. With that said, I’m going to upload this post, turn off my computer, and go out to explore the May Day parade and the temples of Kunming!

happy tiger year!

2010-02-01T22:27:00.000-08:00

Grrrr....

food fun II

2010-02-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

OK, guess what this is:

above: a tea egg chick fetus, a Hangzhou delicacy. Yes, the chickie fetus gets eaten with the rest of the egg. Beak optional. (Is this vegetarian or poultry? Hmmm...)

below: Bruce Lee has a fast food chain in China! (Boy, is he turning in his grave?) My cousin says that it's quite well-received among the young people. They can get meals like "healthy ginger chicken stew" there. I got the red bean rice balls. Pretty tasty... for fast food.

More to come: I have a bajillion food photos and will sift through them and post more soon.

Shanghai'ed: favorites

2010-02-01T22:02:00.000-08:00

Here are some of my favorite images from roaming around Shanghai:

above: in an alleyway of the painfully hip commercial art area called the Taiking Road Art Centre

above: the view of Pudong River from my hotel room. Yes folks: that's SMOG.

above: one of the many the Mao Tse-Tung tribute sections of the Shanghai Chinese Propaganda Museum, though this one had an impressive collection of mini Mao statues that filled a wall.

above: OMG! A Smart Car in Shanghai! Modernization to the max.

above: Crazy Harajuku-type fashionistas populate Shanghai too.

the cake that fell from the sky

2010-02-01T21:50:00.000-08:00

Above: China is the proud home of the world's fastest train, which I took from Beijing to Shanghai, a 9 hour trip.

"the cake that fell from the sky and landed in my lap"

My China Pangaea colleague Thomas uses this saying when something awesome unexpectedly happens.

After working 150 hours in the last 10 days (that's about 15 hours a day for 10 days straight), sleeping 5 or less hours per night, inhaling several metric tonnes of second hand smoke and being exposed to endless gobs of public spittle, double dipping at restaurants and a society with poor hand-washing and general hygiene, I of course have gotten sick with some respiratory viral infection.

I've been hacking up some mean yellow-green-black mucus, and I reckon that some of it is pollution and cigarette smoke related. Now I know why I have a bunch of Chinese women patients who have never smoked themselves but have bad lung cancer. China is a giant lung cancer and respiratory illness factory for anyone living here.

Back to the cake. Finally I have a little break from the intense work meetings and I have a bit of freedom to work at my own pace. I find that I am far more efficient this way. I decided to take the fastest train in the world, the EMU (I think it might stand for electro-magnetic something) from Beijing to Shanghai. The train was very comfortable, and I initially slept well on my soft sleeper bunk, lulled by the hum and soft movements of the train. But at 5 am I awoke with a hacking cough that wouldn't stop, and felt terrible for my 3 bunk mates: men who were rather surly to begin with. After getting off the train in Shanghai, I carried my 45 pound suitcase and 25 pound backpack up and down several flights of stairs during morning rush hour. Passengers blocked me in on the subway train and wouldn't move so I could get off, so I yelled at everyone to give way and pushed through, throwing in a couple English cuss words along the way. By the time I reached Eton Hotel, I was sweaty in my big down coat and long underwear (good for -10 degree Beijing but not for Shanghai), tired and sick, and generally pissed at the bad manners of my root countrymen.

I expected it, but my face fell nonetheless when the man at registration told me that check in is at 2 pm. It was 8:30 am. I was dying to rest without carrying luggage around. Then the cake fell from the sky: he told me that he'd allow me to get a room anyway...and then the sprinkles came down: since the non-smoking room I wanted was not available, he gave me a free upgrade to a better room with a view of the Huangpu River ...and free breakfasts. Awesome!!!

When I arrived on the 27th (non-smoking) floor, I was greeted by a statue of the Boddhisattva Guanyin (above). I have arrived. I am home!

Hurray for cakes from the sky.