AlSo: Carfree Islands!

Rick laid out yet another wonderful Turkish breakfast complete with tomatoes, olives, fresh bread and cheese. Yumm! Thank you, Rick! Thus satiated, we took a ferry to Buyukada, a carfree island near Istanbul proper. We waited for the others to join us and found Bas, Justin and Sarap, who has the coolest hairstyle, sipping tea. When the others finally deigned to show up, we walked along horse- and bike-filled streets to the municipal building for welcome and questions. Markus asked a really good one about why there were sidewalks cut on a carfree island. Answer: codes. A group of us got bikes and roamed around the island with Milan, Corey, Joerie, Joroen, Sylvia, Kostos, Thiago, Andre, Eduardo and a few others. we had formally met Joroen and Joerie at lunch who told Corey that he should turn his cap around lest he be confused for an American. Titter. Around the top we spotted a restaurant near a cliff that happened to sell beer. Well, of course with two Belgians present we just had to stop. We headed back down, dropped off the bikes and headed to the rocks for more beer. It felt like a Portland ride!

Oddyssei: Three Countries and Counting

Corey woke up fresh as a daisy, must say!

we hung wıth the gang as long as their schedules would allow and then got to some web searching for tickets to Istanbul by train or bus or whatever. after some failed attempts onlıne and by phone, we decided the best policy would be to just head to the train station in Mons.
we got on Shawn and Beccy,s bıkes and took off for the open road. wow, there really isn,t a shoulder on the main road from their house to Mons, must say. however, what it lacks ın road infrastructure it makes up for with landmarks. the SHAPE area. what is SHAPE? how,s thıs for a title: the SUPREME Headquarters of the Allıed Powers of Europe. who can beat that for a name?

we got into Mons and swung by the tourist center, whose proprietor promptly told us how foolish it would be to ride that stretch of road on bikes. too late.
we continued on to the train station after some puttering around Mons and asked the ticket booth agent about train reservations from Budapest to Istanbul. she first tried to get us a reservation from Budapest to Vienna, and when we described our route again to her, she blinked a few times, looked a little flustered, and then said, "most people fly". yes, we know. so that didn,t work out, but we were able to get tickets for our bikes for the train from Mons to Jurbise (why not?). we discovered that just because you have tickets for your bike doesn,t mean YOU have tickets, but the conductor took pıty on us. in the meantime, we enjoyed some great framboıse across from the train station.

had a few moments wıth Matt, Becc and Shawn before heading to the Charleroi airport with Shawn at the healm (John Cleese dıctating dırections). a fare thee well and we were on our way to Budapest. the only thing that held us up was the passport agent who looked through all of my visa stamps twice and the security check guy who made Corey slam a bunch of water.

on the plane, off the plane, a 30 second bus ride to the terminal, customs, bus, metro line, train station, running around for international ticket booth, nail-biting wait, tickets in hand for Sofia, sigh of relief, snatched plastic cups from Burger King, harried wait, and we were on the train to Bulgaria via who knew what route.

we met Alex the Spaniard who was going to work on the Serbian border at a zoo for an undisclosed period of time and Laura of LA fame who happens to live on an off-grid community and, by the way, knows the band TOOL personally on the way to what we learned was Serbia. Alex kept thinking he was getting off the train and was again and again repelled by the border police swarming the train. we started referring to him as the Spanish Boomerang and were rather suprısed (though happy for his ultimate success) when he didn,t come back. no sooner dıd Alex exıt than Mısha, the ınebrıated Austrian, grace our compartment wıth nothing but spontaneous and devoted love for Laura. quite an adventure overall!

Oddyssei: flirting with Jurbise & Soignies

woke up fresh as a daisy at 6:30 with the rest of the family. i'm telling you, don't sleep for two days but for hour-long naps, and jet lag shudders away.

as everyone else had work or school, i wiled away a good part of the day with emails and tried to figure out how the heck we were going to get from Budapest to Istanbul in time for our presentation on the 27th. i'm thinking Budapest to Sofia by train and Sofia to Istanbul by bus, but anything could happen from now until then to change minds.

took Shawn's mountain bike for a spin, which was like a whole 'nother world after riding Bill's bike. when one rides a road bike for years, one forgets the slow hum that accompanies the tread of a mountain bike on pavement or the cushy way it tackles road irregularities. i have to say, i missed Sparky something fierce this afternoon. it's also strange to be without the ram horn handlebars; one feels so upright that it's easy to imagine oneself to be royalty. crouching over ram horns, i tend to feel like i'm trying to outdistance the cars behind me that would sooner run me over, while upright today i felt like i was graciously allowing other cars to use the space to the immediate left of my mobile throne. strange. their house in Mons is just on the borders of Soignies and Jurbise, so i put a few toes and at least one wheel in each of those municipalities on my relatively short ride.

when the rest of the gang got back, we got to hear all about everyone's day, then a small road trip to Mons for dinner. what a swell Grand Place! there is a fountain on one side that gushes straight onto the cobblestones and is collected by storm drains immediately downhill. plenty of road signs with bikes, and even one cameo silver cruiser with ape hangers. we stopped at the Excelsior for brew and salad, though for future reference the Copenhagen is said to have a nice rose wine. before the meal, the Three Musketeers suffered me to read a poem from "Archyology". good times, good times. i seem to remember more French than i thought i knew . . .

back at the home ranch, i started to learn Turkish and to make flashcards while Shawn played WoW (World of Warcraft). Matt let me read him part of his bedtime story, a Terri Pratchett novelette, but i fear we got a little rambunctious about what was supposed to be a bedtime story. i think i've been fired as a post-dusk storyteller.

then Shawn showed me a little treasure of Warcraft culture: the Leeroy Jenkins video on youtube. amazing that there should be so much notoriety and buzz from such a small video. it was hilarious! i don't know how, but the conversation then morphed to teaching. why do politicians try to micromanage the school system? will something similar happen to hospitals if health care is nationalized? from there came the topic of how to keep respect among students and parents, and how to quash potential problems before it starts. we have similar methods, which makes me happy!

Oddyssei: Arcadia & Palm Springs

about 20 minutes after Brian so graciously dropped me off at Aunt Jan's, Jan and i were off again in another car heading for Palm Springs to see Bill and Rita. on the way, we swung by Kevin's new workplace, Game Stop. this was the first time i'd seen Kev in his natural habitat; usually our visits have been relegated to some wedding or other.

on the 2 hour drive to Palm Springs, we passed by a huge wind farm in the valley. AMAZING!! what a beautiful form of energy production, but why haven't they been painted more pinwheely colors, one wonders? think of how candylandish the desert would look.

the four of us kibitzed through the evening, and Bill and i plotted our bike ride the next morning. i admittedly felt a little anxious when i heard about his 60-mile per saturday habit, wondering whether i would just be slowing him down. however, the second he showed me what i'd be riding, all other thoughts left. it was a gorgeous and nimble carbon frame road bike with shimano shifters. i think the skirt i was wearing weighed more than that bike.

sorry, Sparky, but i'm getting a mistress. no offense.

we got up the next morning and were out the door at 6:15 to beat the heat, which was expected to top 110F that day. he showed me where the original Cheetah (from the B&W Tarzan tc show) lives as well as Al Jolson, whose music i adore. of course, who doesn't love "Alexander's Ragtime Band"? there were only a few hills (we hit 40mph on one of the downhills) with beautiful views of the canyon; the rest of the 25-mile ride were straight stretches. we had a great talk about comparisons between bike use and culture in Palm Springs v. Portland. Palm Springs needs bike culture! lycra-clad racers just don't count. and the bike was totally yare!

we got back to his house about 8:00am in time for Shelly's, their turtle's, breakfast and to get back on the road to meet with two of Jan's college friends. i think we convinced Rita and Bill to come up to Portland to ride bikes down the Springwater Corridor Trail with mom and i.

brunch with Molly and Linda, Jan's friends from college, was like something straight out of a Wendy Wasserstein play! i mean, three women who went to college during the women's lib movement meet to catch up with each other a number of years later and talk about how the roles and rights of women have changed or not since college? it's Act III of "Uncommon Women and Others". they all have such dynamic lives and rich insights. it was just heavenly. also, being at a table with 3 good friends to whom one has recently been introduced and not to feel excluded is rare, indeed. i chalk it up to Jan's great hostessing and Linda and Molly's graciousness.

after this, Jan and i went shopping. i haven't been shopping in years, and all of my clothes are supported by safety pins. Jan, you are a paragon of patience. we talked and talked until it was time for me to nap in preparation for an all-night workfest. all-nighters before a long flight is the only way i know of to combat jet lag. let's see if it works. the workfest commenced, Kevin came home, we hung out for a couple of hours, and by 8am it was time to head to the airport. thanks, Jan, Ed and Kevin! couchsurfing with you is just the bees' knees!

Pedalpalooza RideReport: Road Witch

RoadWitch.07

NAME of Ride: Road Witch Ride
LEADERS: Michael Jones and "the other" steph
CO-HAULERS: Dan Miller, "the other" Matt P., Donna, Flow, and BenFoote

DATE: 14 June, 2007
START time: 6:40pm
DURATION: 6:40-10:00pm (ish)
DISTANCE: <1km for sure!
NUMBER of riders: 20

SYNOPSIS of ride:
road witches are creative ways of traffic calming. WE WANTED TO CALM TRAFFIC! i mean, we wanted to c . . .a . . .l . . .m traffic.

we met up at Col. Summers Park and had a brief intro. to types of road witches that have been created the world over. a little discussion later, we (accompanied by Dan's portable tunes) waltzed our furniture- and astroturf-laden trailers over to Alder Ct. where we picked up a chair and loveseat lovingly donated/loaned for the occasion by the Jasper/Carl contingent. our caravan had just begun heading up the street when lo! what should we find but a coffee table and easychair set out for the taking! manna from heaven? you decide. a few bungee cords later and off we were in search of a fitting place on Belmont.

we eschewed a few mere 15-minute spaces until we came upon our new erstwhile parking spot in front of Tao of Tea. we rolled our bikes and trailers into the parking lot and unloaded our goods. within a minute we had moved into our new streetside living room and backyard, complete with carpet, floor lamp, table, chairs, and plant pots. the parking sign indicated that we could spend as much as an hour there, so we got comfortable. Donna got tea service from the Tao (their jasmine tea? highly recommended). theatre-goers who were on their way to see "The Wonder of the World" or "Uncommon Women and Others" stopped to ask what we were doing. one woman came up and said that our setup was just fabulous and that there should be more of this. grapes and tea and kudos from passersby made us feel quite at home, and the BC bikeazine reading material provided by Ron, our Canadian Ambassador to Pedalpalooza, allowed us to pass the time in relaxed fashion.

perhaps 45 minutes later, we packed up and headed to Hawthorne to spread yet more traffic-calming cheer. the Parking Fates smiled once again, and we found ourselves with free real estate in front of the Bagdad on 34th. according to the sign, we were allowed to be there until 5am! we moved in to our little humble roadside bungalow, and Guy immediately ordered pizza (for future reference, the Bagdad delivers to curbside residences). we stayed until a little after dusk and then packed up. Dan's sound system and Team parkXbike meandered back up to NoPo.

HIGH points: Dan's portable sound system! no house is complete without music. Flow stepped up to haul the TimoTrailer, and a few unwanted furniture items found a home. the company was great, too! a lot of good discussion and good times. everyone who passed by seemed curious but then appreciative of our parking job. you were all wonderful!! it was such a pleasure to park with you all.

LOW points:
it ended.

WOULD you do it again? If so, What would you change?
heck yes! in fact, some folks were talking about making this an event through the summer in different locations and using different themes. there was talk of starting a discussion/action forum in the future.

Some places included:
*Woodstock area
*West Burnside
*Alberta
*Stark
*Farmer's Markets

Road Witch ideas:
*Interior design exhibition streetside
*Children's reading hour with fenced carpeted area and pillows, preferably at a sunday brunch location populated by younguns
*More rooms! More locations!
*Knitting circle

Small Background on Road Witches
a road witch was originally a scarecrow-like affair with a traffic cone hat:http://www.wormworks.com/roadwitch/pages/whatis.htm
examples of road witches:http://www.wormworks.com/roadwitch/pages/trialcontents.htm
PARK(ing): http://www.rebargroup.org/projects/parkingday/images.html
Walk to School Week:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/walk_to_school_week_takes_crazy_twist_in_england.php

thanks to Jacque, Jonathan and Michael for online examples!

zixingche - bikey chinese lesson

i am nuts about chinesepod and can't help myself. yesterday's brand new intermediate lesson was all about fixing a bike. to listen:

	中级78 A Flat Bicycle Tire
	Visit ChinesePod.com

and some additional vocab from listeners:

brakes 刹车 (shāchē)
cable 刹车线 (shāchē xiàn), 闸线 (zhá xiàn)
pedal 踏板 (tàbǎn)
reflector 反光板 (fǎnguāng bǎn)
handle bars 龙头 (lóngtóu), 车头 (chētóu), 手把 (shǒubǎ)
bike parking shed 车棚 (chēpéng)
to have gotten rusty 生锈了 (shēngxiù le)
“The handle bars are crooked.” 车头歪了。 (chētou wāi le)
mountain bike 山地(自行)车 (shāndì (zìxíng)chē)
安全帽 (ānquánmào) and 头盔 (tóukuī)
坐墊 zuòdiàn seat
尾灯 wěidēng taillight
坐杆 zuògān seat post
坐杆夹 zuògānjiā seat post clamp
反光板 fǎnguāngbǎn reflector
飞轮 fēilún rear sprocket lit. “fly gear”
后轴 hòuzhóu rear axle
后拨 hòubō rear derailleur
链条链贴 liàntiáo/liàntiē chain
气嘴 qìzuǐ stem
前拨 qiánbō front derailleur
牙盘护盘 yápán/hùpán front gear
曲柄 qūbǐng cranks
申轴 zhōngzhóu middle axle
脚踏 jiǎotà pedal
水壶架 shuǐhújià water holder
车架 chējià frame
钢线 gāngxiàn spokes
车圈 chēquān rim
外胎 wàitāi tire
碟刹 diéshā disk brake
前轴 qiánzhóu front axle
把立 bǎlì stem
码表 mǎbiǎo odometer/spedometer lit. “number meter”
碗组 wǎnzŭ headset lit. “bowl group”
横把 héngbǎ handlebars
指拨 zhǐbō shifter
刹把 shābà brake handle
前叉 qiánchā front fork

monthly gazette

so much to recall since the last posting! portland is a whirlwind of wondrous activity, leaving it difficult to participate and still allow time to sleep. here are some basic updates:

CASTAWAYS
we've started up the arduous yet hopefully successful venture to gain sponsorship, which could take us to china and hawaii. i only have eyes for china, myself, for reasons that are not difficult to ascertain. thoughts of visiting Rebecca wherever she is (and since her daughter is marrying a man with a different passport, so this could be anywhere) fill idle timed thoughts. more soon. in the interim, we've taken to asking everyone for bios which i get to collect and, oh yes, READ! you think you know a person after paddling in the same boat with them for a year . . .

PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY
the bus project met their goal of registering 15,000 young voters. they did over 16,000 young and over 20,000 cumulative. way to go! it took thankless tasks like pub crawls, post-concert sifting, line hustling, pioneer couthouse square trawling, and a host of innovative questing i can't keep track of. just before the 5pm tuesday deadline, i hustled the street where i work downtown. 10 voters in 25 minutes. very cool, and yet quite sad. i wonder at a mail-in ballot system that disenfranchises the often-moving youth vote and negates the cultural aspects of the voting process even as it increases overall voting participation (and when the average age in the last primary was 62?)
Alex and i went out on the sunday before the tuesday deadline and headed up the:

Voting Bike Brunch Brigade - sunday morning a few folks met at Bus Project HQ and whirled out to southeast p-town to attack the unsuspecting, unregistered brunch-munching hopefuls on belmont. Alex and i registered at least 10 in a couple of hours with time to stop for coffee in between. today (tuesday, 17 october) is the last day to register voters. deadline 5pm. just thought i’d mention.

Candidates Gone Wild - Ben, Corey, Lauren, Adam and i sat in the audience for this little ditty, an evening of discussing the dense (of either meaning) ballot measures and heckling gubernatorial candidates. sadly, the republican abd democratic candidates felt unable to make an appearance (boo hiss), so we were treated to lambasting Saxton and Kulo's absenteeism as well as a better spotlight on the other candidates. Joe Keating is a wonderful fellow who's talent show entry included a headstand on a yoga mat.

PTT
i met with Mark Lear for an hour this past wednesday to discuss my "road user's manual" project, and he suggested as an alternative to research delivery truck and intra-city freight trainings which drivers are required to take every few years. this would be a great way to learn how the hell insurance companies work to ameliorate their liability risk. personally, however, i have to admit that individual drivers are less-than-adequately trained with ped and bike roadsharing laws almost nil, and these are the roadusers who are at highest risk of plowing into traffic that's not enveloped in tank-like cradles.

yesterday we went to our professor, Rick Gustafson's, house, and he took us on a tour of traffic calming installation in the portland metro area. fascinating! and there are some great people in the class, i tell you! we went back to his house afterwards where his wife had kindly laid oiut some nibblins for us, and we drank beer on his porch and kibbitzed for longer than we politely should have. he's going to sagrada familia in barcelona next week, which arouses a tinge of jealousy. gaudi! what a guy what a guy.

BIKEYNESS
a group of us are exploring the possibility of starting an umbrella nonprofit. don't want to say any more than this because the nuances of such a potential organization is rife with differing vision and questions. a good group of people and an interesting process.

Africa Women’s Bicycle Initiative at Mississippi Pizza saturday evening - i actually got there a little early because i was supposed to meet a friend whose sickness prevailed in the end and couldn’t attend. all the better for eavesdropping, my dear! the folks who were organizing the event sat next to me in the parlor and talked about last minute details. as with many events, there is an equal fear of just too many and too few people turning up. but it was definitely a baby bear event with the attendance “just right”. some bike helmets in the audience, small packs of “the youth”, some world travelers - a healthy mix. great music. i didn’t stick around for the auction and wonder how they did.

that's all i have time for today! trying to get a junk to funk submission ready and don't know whether i'll be able.

thank you, two devoted readers.

PTT: statement

just about to swing out to our second Portland Traffic and Transportation class, a joint venture by p.s.u. and the p.d.o.t. wonderful!
last week we got to meet Sam Adams, portland's transportation commissioner, who spoke for about an hour about the responsibilities, limitations and current proposals presented by his office. we have the greatest transportation manager on the planet!
our homework for today was to provide a statement of a possible final project we want to pursue. here's mine:

(nonbinding, preliminary, quite possibly logistically impervious)

Project Statement

AREA OF FOCUS

I would like to focus on road-sharing education, primarily between bicycles and motorists. Laws affecting bicycle/motorist usage are changing with far greater rapidity in the State of Oregon than most road-users can track. Misunderstandings in regard to rules of the road are one of the most frequent causes for frustration and collision between bicyclists and drivers. By promoting legal transportation education, we can create safer streets.

PROJECT

Driver and bicycle user manuals are two independent DMV publications with very little commonality, and I would seek to change that. We can provide an updated, integrated road manual offered by the DMV that can be used by all users of roadways in order to create mutual awareness of road-sharing rules. This could also involve developing an easily implementable system for continuing education, and here is the wishlist:

*integrated DMV Road-User Manual to replace Bicycle and Driver Manuals

*bicycle rule integration into DMV tests;

*requisite bike legal clinic attendance for all parties in bike-car collision cases;

*optional fine waives/reductions for bike-borne fines in return for bike legal clinic attendance;

*law change updates provided to media to be mentioned during traffic reports.

hmmmm . . . a little too bold? dependent on swiftly moving bureaucracy? and again i say hmmmm . . .

linfield debut

friday was one heck of a crazy day! i woke up at about 5am, and Sparky and i snookered our way to downtown in just enough time to get hot water for Breakfast on the Bridges, voter registration cards, and signs made such as "exercise . . . your right to vote" and "are you registered to vote at your current address? reg. cards available here!". on the way to work, Sparky and i telepathized to finally name our lovely bambina trailer. so next time you see that three of us, kindly tell Minerva what a cute trailer she is. she likes that.
so anyway, we got to the bridge, broke out some hot water and plums that Joan our FABULOUS volunteer brought to the office, registered folks to vote, then busted away to prepare for Green Empowerment's Board of Director's meeting. five minutes before the meeting, i called Gwen Leonard to say that my voice still wasn't back (curses!), and she informed me that i was already on the program for the dedication to the Vivian Bull Music Building at linfield. this is my fault, as i didn't call her the day before. luckily, Gwen suggested that i could sing a little chinese ditty, which is about all my voice could handle.
just after the Board meeting, mom called and agreed to drive us to mcminnville. we arrived just in time for the earlier concert to hear the glorious personages of Brian Bartley and Joe Theissen sing (they're performing in ragtime until oct. 25th, and they are not to be missed). one person couldn't make it through the parking lot of dundee in time for the concert, so i pinch hit. it turned out much better than i was fearing! i asked for the audience's forgiveness and offered in trade an introduction to the songs in chinese. thankfully made it through "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wode Xin" and "Mai Tang Yuan" without too garish a passaggio.
everyone was there! it was a reunion of about an entire town that i had been missing! Wynn and others from the first baptist church, Donna Root, two Susans, Tiff, Tom Gressler and the Marshalls (sounds like a great band), a number of other professors, a lot of alumni with whom i share fond memories, they were all there. i think i hugged everyone on the planet. after the dedication and second concert, Gwen took any performers who could stay out to sushi. what a great conversation. what an utterly fantastic day! mom and i were glowing all the way home, and i couldn't stop gleaming all saturday.
more about saturday soon, but i don't want to bore my two readers any longer.

famous for a week

i'm blushing, positively blushing!

TOUR DE VOTE: ROUND 4

Stephanie Routh: Tour de Vote victor of the week!

Stephanie was a continually awesome presence in Building Votes office last week. On Monday, she showed up at the office with registration cards. On Wednesday, she helped-out with our captain training. And on Sunday, Stephanie ran into BV staff member, Alex, at Red and Black Café and handed him three more registration cards!

It was absolutely wonderful! For all her hard and persistent work we are happy to award Stephanie with a $25 gift certificate to Coventry Cycle Works on Hawthorne Blvd.

HAVE YOU JOINED THE TOUR? Register now to let us know you're participating -- and get to work! Opportunities abound. Register your friends and neighbors.

a near miss

the following is an emailed rampage i unleashed on two of my hapless friends, Corey and Nicole, after a near miss between my beloved Sparky and a car in northwest portland. a few edits have been made to protect innocent eyes. it is a testament to Nicole and Corey's copacetic nature that they are still speaking to me at all. i am also ashamed to say that i posted something FAR more benign on bikeportland.org after some guilt and shame caught up with me.
here we go:

okay, i must vent.
i was on my way to REI (they have a clearance sale, and i needed a floor pump), and there was a road closure in front a few blocks. a subaru came up and drove past me on my left (i was in a bike lane) and then turned right in front of me and then stopped directly in the bike lane. i mean dead stop for absolutely no reason. i skidded to a stop just before flying into her rear window.
i was so angry i slammed my hand on her rear window before riding around her (she was STILL parked in the bike lane, by the way). she rolled her window down and told me "that's what blinkers are for. you should be more careful". i replied that it's hard to see the blinker when the person's coming from behind and cutting you off in your lane, and she snottily made a few comments and then said, and here's the clincher:
"you give bikers a bad name". i was speechless, mesmerized by her audacity and her unbridled assurance that her driving was completely flawless (when in fact had she done the same with a car she would have a great deal to answer for). that speechlessness, of course, lasted about a nanosecond. needless to say, i pointedly invited her to get out of her car, but she was already starting to drive off.

i hate drivers sometimes. not all, not most, actually. just brunette former cheerleaders who think that the tonnage around them gives them license to drive whatever way they choose regardless of traffic law (and had she stuck around i . . . well, first i would have rearranged her pert little nose . . . but THEN i would have graciously offered her my copy of "pedal power" with all traffic regulations regarding bicycles therein for her perusal and, one hopes, her ultimate enlightenment).
but i got to REI. and i got my pump at 25% off. it's orange. and makes me happy. or will make me happy after i'm done with murderous rage.
give bicyclists a bad name. the impertinence!

love,
-s

okay, so there was the rage-stricken biker that you see on the news (i can still work up into a lather when i think about it for too long). just would like to follow up with a tale of coming together through adversity that happened the following monday morning. Sparky and i were waltzing around ladd's circle on our way to work when a silver economy car turned in front of me. i veered as much as i could without hitting the parked cars and ended up getting hooked by her passenger-side rear-view mirror and taken along the front of her hood for a few yards (still riding my bike). she stopped, i landed on the pavement, then got up to check on Sparky and my paddle, expecting another lambast from another haughty motorist, to be honest. instead i heard a bashful, "i'm so sorry. i didn't see you there." the driver was out of her car and shaking a little with her hands out to me. she asked if i was alright, and we ended up hugging each other a lot and asking if the other was okay. we talked a bit about how it's difficult to see bikes, that the laws are always changing and so it's difficult to know where to look or what to do, that we'll both be more careful next time. she didn't even LOOK at her car for damage until she was about ready to get back in. i don't know who that woman was, but i hope good luck is strewn before her like rose petals for the rest of her life! it was such a reversal from the near-hit the week before that i was able to appreciate her candor and generosity of spirit even more.

. . . and who could forget cambodia?

how could i forget in the last entry to at least mention our trip to cambodia? perhaps it was a subconscious decision to create a space just for the experience. and it was certainly an experience unlike any i have ever had before.

alfy and i had 8 days vacation time during which we opted to visit angkor wat in cambodia. to this end, we attained the requisite re-entry permits so that our non-immigrant b visas would not be null and void upon our return, our tourist visas to cambodia and our bus tickets. the going was good from kao san road in bangkok just up until the border.

and then we reached poi pet. poi pet is described in the "lonely planet" as the armpit of cambodia, and far be it from me to disagree. it seems the place where wayward souls congregate to pull the hair and coerce the minds of hapless foreigners hoping to visit the ancient wonders of the former khmer kingdom. after weaving our way through the labyrinthian border checkpoint and casino clusters, we were ushered into a delapidated van captained by a smiling octagenerian bent on finding and experiencing every road deformity. because alfy's legs are so much longer than the average thai's, we sat in front with me next to our fearless driver.

after bumps and scrapes and a close call with the transmission, we finally arrived in siem reap, the closest city to angkor wat. alfy and i found a cheap guesthouse with a swiss couple who were so cool that we spent the rest of our time in cambodia travelling with them. we rented bicycles for three days and were on our way to great adventures.

i don't mean to build it up for anyone who has not yet experienced angkor wat, but nothing prepared me for the majesty and wonder of it. there is a scaled version of one of the main temples in bangkok's grand palace, but i had no notion of the whole complex's sheer size until alfy and i pedaled around it with sweat and dust coagulating on our tired bodies.

the first morning, alfy and i got rather lost as we "navigated" (i use that word loosely) through microscopic villages and little pathside markets. having finally spilled onto the road to angkor, we rode up to angkor's main gates and asked where we could procure a three-day pass. after some confusion, one shocked and rather worried guard asked how we had managed to miss the checkpoints on the road. apparently we had missed all four checkpoints during our rural trek, which no foreigner had ever done before. cambodia is not the safest country in the world due to strife and landmines, so the guard did some hand-wringing while we tried to assure him that we never strayed from the path (which at least protects some against landmines).
after an eventful morning and a swell conversation with the woman who processed our passes, we continued on to our original destination - ankgkor wat.

the actual wat is beyond description. i won't try to describe, but only to say that you must go and experience it for yourselves. some temples have been restored while others have been left in the manner in which it was found, the jungle creeping into and becoming a part of the stone structures.

sacha, dorian, alfy and i decided after three days that we should see at least one other city before departing cambodia. the bad road experience from poi pet to siem reap had made us bus-shy, so we took a boat to battambang through floating villages and beautiful countryside. gorgeous! upon landing, we were informed (well, we deduced from the activity around us) that we had to climb on a pickup with our luggage and drive the rest of the way through into battambang. so much for avoiding the roads. as it happens, poi pet to siem reap was a cake walk compared to the treacherous mudlands optimistically called a road. a few times the pickup swung up to an embankment on the left tires and down into swamp on the right side, nearly tipping the truck over in the process. the cambodian passengers didn't seem overly concerned, but all the foreigners had heart palpitations and jumped off to walk until the road evened out again. i have never been so afraid or dirty in my life. we had wondered why one cambodian insisted on bringing some cardboard and a scythe with him. the answer was cardboard for traction and a scythe for brush if the actual road proved impassable. it was a shock and surprise to actually reach our destination. we stayed one night in battambang and drove in a car to poi pet the next day. alfy and i spent two days on koh chang, which has been built up beyond all recognition. still, a beautiful area is a beautiful area, and we returned refreshed and ready for the classes and schedule craze that lay ahead.

that's the trip! sorry it was so long. best to you all, my two devoted readers.

a KTV christmas

well, it's still bone-crackin' cold here in northern china with a high today of -4 celsius. happy unthanksgiving to all and hope those of you who indulged in post-thanksgiving consumerism were not trampled into wafers.

STRANGE SIGHTINGS
Acrobats--four high school students were seen travelling on one bicycle last week.
Hazy Shade of Winter--a few weeks ago the snow started up, and all us shivering inhabitants fell asleep to the glow of a white world only to wake up the next morning to an orange one. occasionally the wind direction changes and we get a visit from the gobi desert's more nomadic elements. the change in hue was, to say the least, notable.
Michelle's Restaurant--okay, this one is second-hand. michelle, another bai da wei teacher, lives above a restaurant which formerly belonged to a friend of ours. as she was walking home last week, she noticed one of the cooks take out some garbage to the dump in back, remove some meat on top of his bag, sniff at it, shrug, and walk back into the kitchen with sniffed meat in hand. despite this invitation to avoid eating there, michelle tried their fare and, shockingly enough (sarcastically), it wasn't very good. shockingly enough (sincerely), she didn't get retchingly ill from the experience.

GANENJIE ("THANKSGIVING")
everyone at bai da wei had america's thanksgiving day off for which we were all very thankful. the restaurant on the first floor affiliated with the school was also closed, and we were able to prepare a thanksgiving meal for 45 people in the kitchen. greg was in charge of the lamb, turkey and stuffing, nell in charge of pavlova, shea in charge of buttermilk biscuits, new michelle in charge of gravy, and i heading up the mashed potato front. the turkey was about a 35-pounder (according to my conversion from jin to kilograms to pounds) and came with claws, head and brains. sadly, my vegetarian self was not around to see the dead bird with head and feet intact, but shea tells me it was quite a sight to behold. the head and brains were on display in the fridge for all to see, and the claws were cooked with the rest of the carcass. serving the food had only one hitch, being that most of the chinese guests had any idea what stuffing or gravy were.

the pavlova was a hoot! pavlova is a baked australian
confection covered with fruit and whipped cream. nell the australian opted for kiwi as the fruit of choice, and she was in the process of slicing up the kiwi when kim the new zealander entered the kitchen. as you probably know, new zealanders are often referred to as kiwis since both the bird and the fruit are native to new zealand. so greg the south african told kim the kiwi to see what nell the australian was cutting up, and poor kim ran away screaming in outrage or fear (couldn't tell which). i won't belabor recounting our thanksgiving, but it was quite a gas and salved being so far removed from american freinds and family.

A KTV CHRISTMAS
so i guess i'm going to be on a nationally televised christmas program in china. david, the headmaster of my school, is directing the show and asked a bunch of us teachers to be in the special. nell and old michelle are performing a snowman dance (i'm looking forward to it) and the chorus is doing a few numbers in chinese and english. i am doing a solo and a duet in addition to the chorus stuff. the solo is "mai tang yuan," a vendor song about a kind of soup used to celebrate the lantern festival, and the duet is in catalan with a kick-ass woman named roser (her hometown is not far from cardona, marc torres-gual's hometown). none of the music is live for one reason or another, so we recorded the solo yesterday and are recording the other music today. during the solo recording, we went through it once straight and david then said to add character. "imagine you're missing teeth and have the clap." i'm looking forward to seeing the costume. perhaps the most interesting guy in this whole scene is robert, whom i will hereafter refer to as "mr. star search." during the intial organization meeting, mr. star search asked repeatedly when prospective soloists could expect a call and what opportunities for extra numbers there were and could we expect to be on national television more than once and could we receive individual copies of the program. i hear that one of his desired solos was sinatra's "my way." sadly, this wasn't deemed christmasy enough.

DINNER WITH KATE
i had dinner the other evening with kate, an english teacher at jilin university, and her friend darlington. after hearing about her students chronically cheating and her hardships with learning the language due in part to knowing so many chinese students who speak english well and in part to living on campus, i am beginning to rethink teaching at a university. my kids may not know much english but they are cute as hell. plus, i live in a small hutong and have to use chinese on a regular basis. decision pending.
darlington is from southern china, and he tapped two fingers on the table after i poured beer into his glass. i told him i had never seen anyone say thanks like that before, and kate asked me how i knew what that meant. i finally remembered that neal stephenson had referred to it in "the diamond age". the man does his homework.

sweet god, this entry is long!!! sorry. i'll finish by relaying that my mensa class (they're my smartest class) loves "you're older than you've ever been" by they might be giants. hope your thanksgiving was marvy and talk to you soon!

hot rocks with maple

CROWDED CAREENING
it occurs to me that i have forgotten to relay a swell bus tale from a few weeks ago. Robin, a swinging chick who is also a teacher at bai da wei, has occasionally accompanied me to my swimming hole at xian guanchang. the first of our tandem submerged exploits began with the single most crowded mode of transportation i have ever been in. many buses in changchun are actually glorified (i use the term glorified lightly) minibuses that have no maximum capacity. on this particular occasion, there were so many people on the bus that no one budged as we careened around roundabouts and plunged into stophood at red lights. there is usually a person to take money at the door, and his task on this venture was to jam people in and yank people out of the bus. at one point there were so many people that he could not rejoin the bus' swelling population and the door closed on him. the bus driver, oblivious to his comrade's screams over the din of his disgruntled cargo, started driving on. the money-taker/yanker/pusher banged on the door to little effect, since the occupants were so crammed in that they could not reach the handle to pull the door open. he finally had to rush in front of the bus to get the driver to stop. i wish i could have gotten to my camera.

HOT ROCKS WITH MAPLE
this past tuesday was spent in the company of Shea and Maple, a new friend of Shea's and hence a happy acquaintance of mine. many teachers have been on the lookout for a bona fide bathhouse/sauna that didn't peddle more services than one would care to explain to mother. Maple knew of such a place and was kind enough to invite Shea and myself to attend. such bliss! we got white pajamas and unlimited use of the milk sauna and oh-so-warm showers. one room had a pile of hot rocks and a stretching session led by an instructor. there was another room with hot pebbles that you could pour over yourself and sleep on, with an adjacent area for sleeping or swinging under heat lamps. the wooden swings under red light seemed so dreamlike, so peaceful and quirkily well-placed. when we were all taking a final shower before joining the clothed world (shea took a sauna), i happened to have a conversation with a woman who was stunned by my white body. she asked if i was married, complimented my chinese, and asked if i would like her to introduce me to a good-looking boy of hers. she asked Maple the same thing about 5 minutes later and i wondered if it was the same boy or if she had a list of eligibles somewhere in her purse. it has to have been one of the most memorable afternoons in changchun for its other-worldliness. the feeling lasted just up until the time that my wet hair froze upon contact with the outside air. the best part was that i saw no flesh-peddling (if you don't count the woman tring to marry maple or myself)! woo-hoo! anyway, i believe a group of us are planning to go next time. will keep you posted.

i was planning to talk about learning chinese chess and discussing the triathalon in chinese during a recent swimming escapade and a televised christmas program i am probably going to take part in and the new teacher whose pluck is immeasurable, but i suppose this will all have to wait. time to study a bunch of characters and prepare for the next day of slinging english with a bunch of aspiring young minds. hope all is well.

long promised, now delivered

so here it is - the long-awaited (well, at least long promoted) story of the motorbike, followed by the russian-speaking chinese grandmother.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH VELOCITY
i acquired my second bike about a month ago after the first one had been stolen from my chicken-saturated hutong (this more or less means tiny street in chinese) in april and was again becoming accustomed to "riding euphoria". anyone who has ever tried to navigate a borderline anarchic road system such as new york, bangkok or china (to name a few) will readily appreciate the courage and detachment involved in bicycle navigation. so armored, i was returning from a swell swim and peddling to my heart's content around a roundabout (dastardly things) when a motorbike ripped around like hell on wheels and pounded into my poor unsuspecting front tire. i flew like a superhero and landed on my backpack (blessings be to towels and soggy suits) before i even saw the feller's shirttails whipping in the wind as he accelerated away. now i should not have taken offense. the ways of the chinese street are as yet still foreign to this waiguoren, and i should know better than to curl my fist in the air. but the fact that it was a BRAND SPANKIN' BIKE (i named it clyde), that he was most definitely going the wrong way around the intersection, that he sped up expressly to hit me and then didn't stop to see if i was alright really got my goat. and i don't even have a goat (though my neighbors do). the rest of the day was spent as a transformed me, from contented swimmer to anger ball. this feeling subsided as soon as i took my much-abused clyde to an able bike mechanic for a 20-minute overhaul. the fellow, like most bike mechanics in this area, have a set of tools and a chair or two. this guy had a deluxe setup, with added features such as large umbrella and two chairs for waiting customers. for 8 yuan (referred hereafter as kuai), he tightened my spokes, set my handlebars to rights, straightened my wheel, realigned my brakes and filled my tires. and clyde shone like my blue steed again. all was mended. ahhh!

THE ALLEGED RUSSIAN
as i become more and more acquainted with this wacky language of mandarin (aka hanyu aka putonghua aka zhongwen aka . . .) i understand more of what people say about me. as it happens, i am finding that everyone and his chicken, goat and donkey thinks i'm russian. considering jilin province is within a discus throw of russia, this is not an unwise assumption. and since most people over the age of 35 were compelled to study russian in school, some feel it a great opportunity to exercise their linguistic skills in my general direction. my ignorance of aforementioned language is met with disappointment or suprise, but in a few cases with blinking disbelief. and so it happened one evening that my friend, michelle, and i strolled into a store ("shangdian") with every intention of buying chocolate. during our perusal, i noticed an elderly woman staring at the two of us, and once she caught my eye she started touching my arm and spattering off a line of speak that met my ears as jibberish. it took a few solid seconds to realize she was speaking russian. no matter how hard i tried to tell her that i'm american, not russian, she would not stop. her daughter behind the counter even joined my plea to dispense with russian, but she was not budging. i felt so ashamed that i had not spent more time trying to learn russian from stacie or my brother, but i figured that regardless of my desire to communicate, the few words and phrases known to me (hello, how are you, out the window there's a church choir) would be of little sustained use to a woman bent on lengthy communication. and so i left the store bereft of chocolate and with a greater sense of how very much in this life i have to learn.

anyway, that's the news from here. sorry for the length, hope you slogged through, and thanks again to those of you who have been reading this! so marvy to know that my meanderings aren't sputnik. as perhaps can be seen, i have realigned my last email to its true temporal state.