Cheerful Robbery

local newspaper story

2009-08-29T22:03:00.001-07:00

I'll try to put up a copy of the article from the local newspaper. Many people have seen this article and I have become somewhat of a local celebrity. Last night we were stopped by a family in a restaurant after eating. They had recognized us from the news article and pictures which had been sent to them in the text message version of the newspaper which was sent to their cell phones. Here it is (sorry it's only in Chinese).

美国小伙中式婚礼迎娶渭南姑娘
www.wnnews.cn	来源：	渭南新闻网	时间：	2009-08-26 09:10:46	作者：

图为身着凤冠霞帔的新郎母亲（左）为儿媳打伞迎亲时的情景。记者宗公平摄

　　（记者宗公平通讯员强智勇薛明黎）8月19日，渭南姑娘孙婧一和美国小伙罗伯特

李・肯顿举行仿古婚礼。新郎官身穿宋朝状元服，新娘子着凤冠霞帔，双方父母均着宋代官服，从渭南城区朝阳大街喜庆而过。

　　迎亲队伍中，新郎官坐在高头大马上，面带微笑不时向人群抱拳施礼。轿中的新娘也偷偷掀起盖头，向大街两边不时地张望。

　　记者了解到，新郎是渭南师范学院的外教，在英语角遇到了热爱英语的新娘子，两人慢慢地从英语角中的搭档成为了恋人，最终携手走进婚姻的殿堂。

　　大街上看热闹的人越聚越多，大家都在议论着这对新人的传统式婚礼，脸上的喜悦表达着对这对新人的祝福。一位头发花白的老太太更是满脸笑容地对记者说：“现在交通这么便利，只要两个人能合得来，嫁给中国人、外国人都一样！”

　　婚礼庆典上，有新郎新娘过火盆、跨马鞍、新郎官用箭射天射地射远方、双方母亲为儿女点亮龙凤烛等古典仪式。

more wedding photos

2009-08-29T21:57:00.001-07:00

My friend Joe has some of the most stunning photos of the wedding on flickr I'll try to put a link on here, but it may not work since I have to post these with my e-mail. the photos should be here . If the link doesn't work just copy and paste this ... www.flickr.com/photos/akira2506/ . Some of his great photos can also be seen on his blog "Sweet and Sour Wimp". There is a link to his blog on the left.

Wedding day!

2009-08-29T18:37:00.001-07:00

The wedding was amazing. More than 400 people attended. It was very traditional (lots of red instead of white). I put lots of pics on snapfish and Joe has some on flickr, so I'll try to provide links soon. I'll write about it here on the blog in the next couple days when I get some time.

执子之手与子偕老2

2009-07-31T08:05:00.001-07:00

执子之手与子偕老

2009-07-31T08:00:00.001-07:00

zhi zi zhi shou ,yu zi xie lao ! That's an old chinese idiom, means "hloding your hands,shows that I want to grow old with you !" Rob and I both like this sentence a lot.here are some pictures taken by Joe.we are very happy about them!

so busy!

2009-07-26T03:13:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry we have been out of touch recently. It has been crazy. For example, yesterday we posed for wedding pictures for 5 hours, shopped for lighting, purchased a new bed, and a new sofa. We also took some friends out to lunch, went to the new place to take some measurements, and met with a wedding planner that we will probably hire. And that was my only day off from work this week! I want to thank my friend Joe for taking our pre-wedding photos. He has spent hours taking photos of us and will, no doubt, spend many more editing photos and photographing our wedding.

marriage certificate

2009-07-07T01:02:00.001-07:00

here's what a Chinese marriage certificate looks like. It looks sort of like a passport.. This picture shows the outside of Cheer's and the inside of mine.

这是我们的结婚证！打开的是ROB的，我们开始新的人生旅程……

demo class

2009-07-07T00:51:00.001-07:00

Today I taught a promotional class at the school. It was open to the public and was supposed to be for students age 12-18. Cheer took some pictures and made some video clips. I'll keep the video to myself since I act like a real dork when I teach.

the new apartment

2009-07-07T00:35:00.001-07:00

The new apartment is really coming along! They've got the tile done in the bathrooms, kitchen, and balcony. The ceiling details have been built. The bookshelves in the office are done, and the master bedroom closet has been built. Here are some pics that my friend Joe took. There is a fish eye photo of our book shelves in the office, one of the checkerboard wall/ door to our bathroom (our designer is standing in the doorway). There is also a pic of me holding one of the tiles we chose for our floors, and one of the view from our living room (until they build a 9 floor building in front of us).

Fwd: Cheer's family

2009-06-22T06:07:00.001-07:00

Here are some picture's of Cheer's family at a big lunch together. The oldest people are, obviously, her grandparents. The rest are aunts, uncles, cousins, and her mom. They are eating out of a big pan with a fish and some vegetables simmering in it.

Farewell Beitang School

2009-06-22T02:14:00.001-07:00

Friday was my last day teaching at Beitang Primary School until the fall. Here are some pictures of me with the students. These students are second graders. Each picture has half of a class in it. I couldn't fit all of the students from each class into one picture without going outside. Some of the pictures include their other English teacher. They have a regular English teacher that they see every day, and then they see me once a week.

Exhibit A

2009-06-22T02:02:00.001-07:00

I said in my previous post that my dad has taught me how to do many things. Here are some pictures of one of the most recent repairs that I have made. I had to fix a giant hole that my dog made in my bathroom door. I think I did a pretty good job. It is amazing to Chinese people that I can do something like this. To be honest, it's amazing to me too. I am so lucky to have a father willing to teach me useful things. He was always quite patient (though I may not have realized it at the time). Thanks Dad!

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-22T01:51:00.001-07:00

Here are some of the things that I love about my dad.
1. He is one of the hardest working people I know. He has taught me what it means to work hard and he is a great example. 2. He loves coffee as much as I do and is always willing to treat me to a good cup. 3. He is always supportive of me and my choices, even though he encourages me to think twice sometimes. 4. He challenges other people and often will encourage people to consider a broader range of options or opinions before settling on something. 5. He knows so much about so many things and has always encouraged me to try to do things myself! (this is something that my friends have said about him too. They are also thankful to him for teaching them how to do so many things.) 6. He gets excited about things. I know so many other people's parents who are always so subdued and don't seem to ever really get excited about anything. There are so many things that I love about my dad, I just wanted to share a few. I am lucky to have such a great dad!

Pinky

2009-06-15T05:57:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of me with my good friend Pinky. He is the one who took me to his hometown.
这是一张我和好兄弟pinky的照片。就是他把我带去乡下老家的。

photos of my visit to the country

2009-06-15T00:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures I took with my friend's cell phone. They're not very good, but you can see the brick making set-up. The big oblong structure in the valley in a giant kiln for firing the bricks. It is surrounded by bricks stacked to dry before being fired. Then they haul the finished bricks away with tractors. As you can see, we also picked peaches and hiked around. It was great. I especially like the picture of the kitten in the kitchen. It is a very "country" style kitchen, and the kitty has the responsibility of catching mice.

我用pinky的手机拍了一些照片，效果可能不是很好。但是还是可以看到，这是一个大砖窑。巨大的烧砖生产线，周围被正在晾干并等着烧制的砖。已经制作好的砖则被拖拉机运到很远的地方。你们还可以看到，我们还在农村的果园里摘了很多桃子，在周围逛了逛。真棒啊，特别是这张有小猫咪的厨房，这是我见过最原始的厨房了，猫咪的责任就是把老鼠全都消灭掉.

new apartment pictures

2009-06-10T06:53:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of the new apartment. Ours is the one on the top floor, far left. Here is also a pic of the view from our enclosed balcony, and one of cheer inside the apartment. As you can see, there is a lot of work to do (there isn't even a road built to the building yet...just lots of dirt).

Huzi

2009-06-10T06:36:00.001-07:00

I miss him already, but hopefully he will be happier at his new home.
Read below for details.

calm before the storm

2009-06-10T05:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I just had an amazingly relaxed couple of days in the countryside with my friend Pinky. Unfortunately I forgot my camera! There were so many interesting things I could have taken pictures of. We stayed with my friend's grandparents about an hour and a half from Weinan. They produce bricks on their property. It was an interesting and dirty couple days. There are millions of brick everywhere there. Some are wet, some half dry, some ready to be fired, some finished.

I spent my time relaxing. I hiked around with Pinky in the hills, we picked peaches, and just sat and drank beer. (it was extremely hot there) There was always something going on there. There are workers doing stuff 24 hours. Most of the workers are migrant workers from other provinces. I managed to take some pictures with Pinky's cell phone, so I'll see if I can put some up here. I'm not sure why I love visiting them so much, but I think it's because it reminds me of summer camp. No real toilets, no heat or AC, nothing to do or worry about, food is provided for me.

It was the last that I'll see of Huzi for awhile. If you don't know, Huzi is our half-doberman dog. He was driving us crazy, chewing up anything in sight. We figured he just wasn't happy living in an apartment in the city. it didn't matter how much we walked him, he was still destroying our apartment. So, I took him back to the country to see his old home. He saw his mom (who didn't remember him and snapped at him). Now Huzi has a new job. He is in charge of protecting some sheep for a relative of my friend. I was shocked when they put him in a big burlap sack and tied him to the back of a motorcycle, but they assured me that they were just transporting him to his new home. I like the idea of him having a job. He was like our unruly child, and now he is at military school. They will whip him into shape and force him to take on new responsibilities.

Now I'm back from my little break in the country and I already feel the pressures of daily life again. So many decisions to make and so much to do. I probably won't have much time to relax until after the wedding in August. They just finished the electric and plumbing in our apartment. They should be doing the in-floor heating this week. Next week our new tile floors will be installed. I'm working overtime to fill in for one of our teachers who is on vacation. When summer intensive term starts I will be working 7 days each week until the wedding...arghhh!

I promise I'll post some pictures soon.

We're home owners!

2009-06-05T01:53:00.000-07:00

Well Cheer and I have finally done it! We bought an apartment last week. It's pretty big and in a great location. It's 130 sq. meters, has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an office, spacious living room, dining area, small kitchen, large enclosed balcony for washing/drying clothes, and a large storage room in the basement.
Unfortunately, it's going to cost us a fortune to build the interior to our tastes. We have been negotiating with a company for about a week, and have finally decided to hire them. They will coordinate the workers to do the ceilings, walls, floors, heating, etc. They will also help us design our bathrooms and kitchen. It's pretty exciting, but more work that I had hoped for. I would include pictures, but they're not very interesting...just bare concrete walls right now.
We are going to be so busy this summer trying to get our apartment done, planning the wedding, and working!

On a more exciting note, I managed to escape a fight in a very movie-like way this week...A man backed into me with his car the other day, and I hit the back of his car with my hand because I was upset. A few minutes later, he found us on the road and stopped his car to try to start a fight. We could see that he had been drinking. He followed us to one of our favorite restaurants. We went inside to order food and he stood outside and called his friends to come beat me up. The owner of the restaurant tried to reason with him but couldn't, so he took us out the back door to the alley. We escaped, but didn't get to have dinner there :(

I will try to take some good pictures of our new place to post soon!

Missing Cheer

2009-05-26T04:41:00.000-07:00

Cheer was only home for like one day in the last two weeks. I miss having her around. Huzi isn't very good company either. He just tries to bark at me when I want to sleep. He tries to bite me when i want to pet him. His #1 favorite thing to do...........he waits until I'm not looking and tears up my stuff.

Blogger Blocked in China

2009-05-20T02:57:00.000-07:00

Well, now it's official. My blog and every other in existence is blocked by the Chinese govt. This is so annoying. I had to get creative to post on my own blog. I never thought I would learn so many ways to get around firewalls and the like. It's so funny to me because the Chinese must know that they aren't stoping anyone from viewing "illegal" content. They're just making it more difficult (slow) to get to.

In the countryside

2009-05-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics. from late last month. We went out to the countryside to take pictures of Fang Fang and her husband in their wedding garb. I managed to get into a few pictures myself. We all had a lot of fun, and after the "photo shoot" Joe and I walked around quite a bit. Joe gets credit for all of these photos and I want to give a shout out to Joe for coming up with the name of this blog!Notice the puppies in the background. I like this photo. You see people dragging carts like this one around town every day.
This is a typical small village.
I love this photo, too.
Joe was trying to take a picture of me with my mean farmer face on, but Fang Fang jumped in on it.I'm sorry there is no Chinese on this post. Cheer is out of town, and it would just take me to darn long! Here are some more photos of the country just outside Weinan.

Kung Pao Chicken

2009-05-14T04:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, I now have a t-shirt that says "Kung Pao Chicken." It sort of baffles Chinese people who read it.

May 5th- last day in Beijing

2009-05-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

We didn't feel like doing much on our last day in Beijing. We had planned to go to the Great Wall, but decided to take it easy instead. We walked around some more interesting alleys and got more tasty tea ice cream. I think I ate three ice cream cones! We had dinner at an amazing Chinese restaurant featuring food from Yunnan.
在北京的最后的一天，我们本来打算去长城和十三陵，但这天，我们实在懒得不想动。我们步行过一些胡同，到了王府井，吃了更多的茶味冰淇淋。我想我吃了3个！我们在一家叫做茶马古道的云南餐厅用了晚餐。在琉璃厂的胡同里，我看到了玩沙子的孩子们，立刻想起了自己的小时候。在这个现代的都市里，找到这些残留的80年代气息，让我觉得惬意。多想再次拥有那些缓慢的时光。In the alley, we saw some children playing with sand. It reminded me of my childhood. In such a modern city, I still found something that reminded me of the 80's. It made me happy. I wish I could go back to those slow times again.北京的旅行在我们踏上火车的一刻宣告了结束。从王府井回火车站的出租车上，正好太阳落山，我们幸运的看到了降旗，弥补了那天的遗憾。国旗缓缓降落，伴着夕阳，像是北京在对我们说再见。
我们坐的是火车的“头等舱”，非常舒服的软卧，有独立广播，早上醒来有咖啡。Stepping on the train, for us, signaled the end of our trip to Beijing. In the taxi from the shopping street to the train station, we saw the lowering of the Chinese flag in Tiananmen Square. It's just as if Beijing was saying goodbye to us.
We had first-class beds on the train and were able to get on the train early. We had a very comfortable journey and were served coffee in the morning.

May 4th- U.S Embassy and stuff

2009-05-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well, we went to the U.S. Embassy on our fourth day in Beijing to get my Marriageability Certificate. Security was tight (as expected). I couldn't even take my phone or camera into the compound. After that we walked around the East part of Beijing quite a bit. We found a Texas barbecue place where Igot some tasty beef brisket! In the evening we went out with Cheer's friend to a "snack street" so they could eat all the parts of the animals that I won't touch.我们去了美国大使馆，领到了我们结婚需要的证明。我甚至不能带手机和相机进去。后来我们在北京的东部到处走了走。我们找到了一家德州的餐馆，吃了浇着barbecue的烹饪了6个多小时的小牛肉。晚上，我们和Cheer的朋友一起去逛了小吃街，她们吃了我从不碰的动物的脖子肚子等。
见到熊熊的时候，是在王府井，如我所料，她穿着黑色的一身。她还像大学里一样，带着我们去吃他们公司的茶冰淇淋，去东来顺吃铜锅涮羊肉，胡乱逛，在小吃一条街上吃爆肚…… 我听着她的生活，觉得她孤独…… 后来她要坐地铁回家了，她一转身，我就止不住眼泪……我怎么脑子里一副，她坐着地铁流眼泪的画面……我知道，她和我一样，有朋友在身边，笑起来会很明媚，一大堆事情弄得自己很忙，但藏在心中的孤独感却挥之不去……我们，是散落在人间的孤单种子……When I met my friend Xiong Xiong, it was at Wang Fu Jing Street. She still wears black like she did in college. She took us to try her company's tea ice cream, and she took us to try a traditional Beijing hot pot (lamb) We walked around and ate stomach on snack street. I listened to her talk about her life. I feel she's very lonely....Then as she went to the subway station to return home, she turned around to look at me and I couldn't control my tears. There is a picture in my mind of her sitting in the subway wiping the tears from her eyes.

May 3rd- 798 Art District ,邱志杰的艺术展在798

2009-05-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

不知情的，被Rob拍了。我走累了，坐下休息，谁知坐的是最烂的一根，坐下去地动山摇的，我还惊呼，地震了……
喜欢798，相信喜欢的人很多，我不想矫情说自己是喜欢那些艺术，说实话，有些所谓的艺术，我是看不懂的，有些店挤满了各名家的画，像嘈杂的集市，各个画作争鲜斗妍，我都听得到它们叽喳的争吵和互相的贬低。我喜欢的，这里的街道，安静得；这里的餐厅，可以在太阳落山时看着夕阳，一边在露天咖啡喝到正宗的韩国海鲜汤和加着真正柠檬的科罗娜；还有，那些摆着小书摊的游击队，我们在这里买到了心爱的Vitamin D和Vitamin PH,只花了380元，在王府井外文书店，一本都卖到了710。还有什么呢，恩，看到了邱志杰的艺术展，关于长江大桥的，像一场洗涤心灵的雨。I didn't know what was happening when Rob took this picture. I sat down and felt as if we were having another earthquake because the bricks were wobbly. I liked 798 art district even though I didn't understand some of the art. Some places had many paintings hanging like a market. Each painting was clamoring for my attention. What I liked best were the quiet tree-lined streets and the nice outdoor cafes. We sat at one cafe and had good food. I had Korean fried rice and a Corona with fresh lemon. Rob had a bagel with cream cheese and was very excited about it. We found a man selling art books out of a bicycle-cart and got some great buys. We bought two art books called Vitamin D and Vitamin PH for only 380元. Later, we found the same books at a book store for 710元 each. We saw an incredible art installation by a well-known Chinese artist. It was so big and was incredibly complex/ well thought out!

May 3rd,颐和园的夏天

2009-05-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

颐和园是避暑的好地方，有山有水，风水还很好。故宫的御花园那么小，合颐和园简直不能相提并论。Rob倒好，一进门就被几个小女生叽叽喳喳叫去合影了，哎。。这个世道……
右边的这只动物是龙的其中一子，叫做饕餮，食量惊人，古代的容器上总雕着它，意思是祈求五谷丰登，年年丰收。这里放着这个，大概也是希望百姓生活兴旺，衣食不愁吧。
The Summer Palace is where the emperors would spend their summers. There are hills and lakes, so it has very good feng shui. The garden in the Forbidden is very small. It cannot compare with the summer palace. As soon as we went in, some young girls asked Rob to have their picture taken with him.
The animal here is a son of a dragon named Taotie. He can eat a lot, but he will never get full. Containers in old times always had him carved on them, which meant that they would always have a large harvest and have enough to eat.
我和何仙姑的合影，这是慈禧看戏的地方，慈禧可真是个老妖精，我看戏台右边厢房里有很多她的照片，都是一样的坐姿，我还纳闷，她把同一张照片放那么多干吗，后来仔细一看，她坐的位置一样，表情一样，背后的摆设都一样，只有她身上的衣服不一样，我都可以想象，在那个时候，她是怎么样换一身衣服让别人给她照一张相……
下面的这张就是慈禧太后的三层戏楼。
This is a picture of me and Hexiangu (a very famous fairy in old China). We are standing in a place where the Empress Ci Xi used to watch operas. She was very self-absorbed. There were a lot of pictures of her in one room. In every picture she was sitting in the same position. I wondered why there would be so many pictures of her like this, but then I realized that in each picture she was wearing different clothes. Everything was the same from one picture to the next except for her outfit. I can imagine what it would have been like with her changing clothes for each picture all day and ordering people around. The picture below is a three storey stage for Ci Xi to watch her operas.

逛了几个庭院，我们就来到了昆明湖边，和世界上最长的长廊。长廊上有14800幅画作，分为春，夏，秋，冬四个主题。After walking through a few courtyards, we arrived at Kunming Lake and we saw the longest corridor in the world. This beautiful corridor is covered in 14,800 paintings. With Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter as the theme.

我和Rob，背靠着昆明湖和万寿山小憩。万寿山有100层阶梯，长命百岁的意思吧，我们爬完了这100层阶梯，到了山顶，风景真好啊，可以看到空空的藏喇嘛转经阁。下了山就到了苏州街。

Rob and I are sitting by Kunming Lake with Wanshou Hill in the background. There are 100 steps to the temple atop Wanshou Hill, which symbolizes a long life. We climbed up the 100 steps and saw some beautiful scenery at the top. We could also see a neat temple with large turning towers which functioned as giant prayer wheels. When we went down the back of Wanshou Hill we saw Suzhou Street.
The giant prayer wheels of Wanshou temple with dieties on top.
这是慈禧的寝宫，她过着奢华的现代生活，她有自己的摄影师而不是画师，有华丽的吊顶电灯。她不爱用熏香，喜欢水果的香味，所以她的房间里总有一个巨大的果盆，放着南方运来的香水果，比如芒果，木瓜之类。这些水果，她从来不吃，熏房间一个星期后就换掉。奢侈……
下面是苏州街。
The palace of Ci Xi. She lived in style and had very modern stuff (notice the electric lamp!) She had a large table piled high with fruits (which she didn't eat) just to make her room smell good.
The picture below is Suzhou Street (called that because it resembles the architecture in the famous Chinese city of Suzhou)
Here are pictures of Cheer and I with this little dragon dude. He is the 9th son of the dragon king and has no butthole. His name is 貔貅（Pixiu). He supposedly eats jewelry, gold and other treasure. One day, the king of heaven had a meeting in Heaven. Little Pixiu was there too. He wanted to take a dump because he had eaten so much treasure that day, but was trying hard to hold it during the meeting. Finally, he couldn't hold it any longer and he let loose all over the meeting hall. The king was so angry that he spanked Pixiu and permanently plugged his butt! Now he has become a lucky symbol for businesspeople who wish to gain wealth.

May 2nd -Hutong tour

2009-05-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

After going to the Forbidden City (see below) we decided to take a tour of the Hutongs (alleys) in a pedicab. The guy said he would take us around for 40 minutes down 8 Hutongs. He totally ripped us off. He took us down one and the let us off. He said it would have taken us 40 minutes if we had toured the old Eunuch's residence that he stopped at briefly. I wasn't in the mood to argue (for once).出了故宫，有很多招揽胡同游的人力车，我们决定试试，就是下面照片里的这个烂人，把我们给骗了。他说，胡同游，40分钟，8大胡同。结果他骑着车子把我们拐进了一条小巷，问我们愿不愿意进一个太监住过的四合院看看，门票25一张，我们说不去了，结果他把我们拉出了小巷，说逛完了。我们问他不是说40分钟呢吗，这哪够啊，他说进四合院就够了。。。晕死，还好，这一次逛故宫逛的精疲力尽的Rob没有发作。We decided to walk around on our own. We saw some good Hutongs on foot and found a great Vietnamese restaurant...........我们到处自己走了走，倒是发现了很多不错的胡同和名人故居，还有旧时的文化社团。有一个意外惊喜，就是，找到一个很棒很棒的叫做“西贡在法国”的餐厅。Rob点了小牛肉和来自南非的红酒，我点了西贡烤虾和产自法国的白葡萄酒，（葡萄的种类忘掉了），喜欢越南的汤，加了柠檬草，淡淡的鸡汤喝起来很舒服。dessert 我点的是一种像布丁一样的越南菜，Rob点了樱桃口味的越南咖啡，越南的咖啡总是浓缩的很重的咖啡，然后加很多糖，我啜了一小口，然后决定也要一杯。这顿饭吃得价格不菲，让我想到了安妮宝贝在西贡的生活。 Rob一直说想要去越南小住，这下，我也提起了兴趣。Rob had the beef with a South African Syrah. I ordered grilled shrimp with French white wine. We loved the Vietnamese soup with lemongrass and Chicken. It was light and delicious. For dessert we ordered flan and had vanilla espresso with lots of sugar. We also ordered a cherry espresso...what a great meal! It was a little expensive, but it made me think about Annie Baobei's (a famous writer) life in Xigong. Rob always says he'd like to try teaching in Vietnam for a year, and now I'd like to go too.

May 2nd-Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City

2009-05-11T06:22:00.000-07:00

On our second day in Beijing we went to Tiananmen square in the morning. It was really crowded and security was tight. They x-ray everyone's bags before you approach the square and there are soldiers and police everywhere!
We walked around a bit and then headed for the Forbidden City (or Palace Museum as the call it in China). It was so crowded and hot that it wasn't very pleasant trying to buy tickets and get in. Once we got in, we were overwhelmed by the size of the palace complex. It was vast...by the end all of the buildings looked the same. After a few hours we were hot, hungry, and tired of walking around, so we headed north to get a meal and take a Hutong tour. 国旗在太阳升起时升起，在太阳落下时下降。我们去的时候是8点，已经是我旅行中史无前例的早了，但还是一个看不到升旗也看不到降旗的尴尬时段，
但就是这样一个不讨好的时段，照样人潮汹涌，摩肩擦踵。
在人山人海的作用力下，我们被挤到了故宫的售票处，拥挤，炎热，Rob用收到的小传单为我当太阳。进了故宫，我们在诺大的故宫里迷路了，所到之处，都是一样的宫殿，琉璃屋顶，红墙金瓦……
几个小时之后，筋疲力尽的我们买了一大堆书和DVD逃出了这座老院子……

Above were some of the nice pics of Tiananmen square. Below are pics of the Forbidden City.

click on pictures to enlarge

The "double happiness" character is used for weddings
This is a detail of a roof beamHere is us totally worn out after walking around.

May 1st, 夜夜夜夜夜

2009-05-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

在地铁站，Rob 再一次pissed off，事情的原因是这样的，我们拿着地图问地铁站的工作人员，繁华的市中心在哪，有没有哪里可以逛夜市的地方好推荐，她说，不知道；于是我们自己想了想，决定把明天的行程，后海之行提到今天，我们问她，后海在哪，她说，坐2号线到鼓楼大街，我们问她，那出了地铁该怎么走，她说，不知道；Rob 把地图放在她眼前，“看一下，看”， Rob 说着蹩脚的中文，她仍然，看也不看地，不知道；Rob就是在这时再一次失去控制的。。。“你是中国人吗？” “你看不懂汉字吗？”“你在这里工作是干什么？ ”“傻B!" "bitch!"
出地铁站的时候，Rob问我，是不是不该发火，话说的重了，他觉得挺内疚的，我说，宝贝，如果有人来西安旅游，问咱们哪怎么走，咱们就是不知道至少也会帮着在地图上找的，不是吗……
后来还是千方百计地到了后海，喝了超怀旧的北京罐罐酸奶，在后海一家酒吧坐高高的露台喝酒看风景听唱歌玩骰子，看到有中国女孩和外国男孩一起走就干杯…… 疯完了，又逛了逛烟袋斜街的小店铺……
In the subway station, Rob got pissed off again. This is why......We held a map and asked a worker in the subway station to recommend where a good shopping area was. She said, "I don't know." Then we decided to go to the bar street, which we had planned for the following day. So we asked the worker how to get to Hou Hai Bar Street. She said, "Take the #2 subway line to Gu Lou Da Jie Station and get off." We asked her which direction to walk from the station. She said, "I don't know." Rob put the map in front of her face and said (in poor Chinese) "Kan, kan yi xia (look at it)." She didn't look at it and said, "I don't know." This was when Rob lost his self-control. He said, "Aren't you Chinese? Can't you read Chinese characters? What's your job here? Shabi! (stupid bitch)" When we got out of the subway station Rob asked me if he was wrong in saying that. He felt bad for saying those things to the woman in the station. I said "Babe, If someone came to Xi'an and asked us for directions. We would try to help them even if we don't know where they're trying to go. Wouldn't we?
Eventually, we got to Hou Hai and drank some traditional yogurt out of clay pots. We sat outside on the balcony of a bar and looked out over the lake. We heard people singing and we drank beers. We played dice games and drank every time we saw a western man with a Chinese girl. After that we did some window shopping on an old alley called Yan Dai Xie Jie.
5月旅行的第一天，在快乐的夜色中拉上了帷幕，以下是我和Rob的你一张我一张……Here are some more photos from May 1st. This brings day one to an end.

May 1st - Lama Temple (Yong He Gong)

2009-05-06T23:53:00.000-07:00

On the afternoon of May 1st we went to an old Tibetan Buddhist Lamasery. It used to be a prince's mansion until it was converted into a temple in 1470 or so. It was quite nice. They even gave us mini VCDs with our ticket purchase. When we got inside, Cheer decided to buy incense so she could pray in front of every statue. I was slightly annoyed, but was able to take some cool pictures while waiting for her.
The most amazing thing was the giant statue of Buddha which was carved out of a single White Sandalwood tree. It stood 18 meters tall. I still find it hard to believe that it was a single tree because it was so wide!

在雍和宫我们度过了5月1日炎热的下午时光。1470年左右，这座庙宇从一个王子的宫府，变成了藏式大殿。壮观的庙宇，精致的雕花和画工，还有不可思议的唐卡。就连门票也是封好的小袋子，里面装有迷你的VCD。当我们走进雍和宫，Cheer 决定买香烧来拜佛，我知道她不是真正意义上的宗教信徒。对我来说，迷信有点无聊，但，等她烧香拜佛的时间，却正好令我有了拍些许好照片的机会。
最神奇的是，后面大殿里的佛像时用一棵巨大的白檀木雕刻而成的，地面以上高 18米，地下深埋了8米。
我始终无法相信这是真的。因为它非常非常宽。。

Cheer 说：
我不知道，真正意义上的宗教者是怎么样的，但不管是耶稣，玛丽亚，还是释迦么尼，玉皇大帝。我总相信，在很遥远很遥远的古代，是有这么一个人，做了很多不平凡的事，不一定像世人流传的神乎其神，但一定是大善事，为民造福不少，所以大家才记挂他。我走近他们，了解他们，所以要尊敬他们。敬香，是我表达尊敬的方式。

Cheer says:
I don't know, which name for god is correct, but I believe in some sort of deity. I just wanted to show my respect and reverence for the beings that have done great things for humanity throughout history. I show my respect by burning incense and kneeling.

5月1日：国庆日朝圣祭祀天坛

2009-05-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

Rob把本本摆在我面前，说，“it's your turn " 于是我接过了记录5月1日行程的大任。
说实话，我本以为一起开个blog，就是各抒己见的活。但，Rob,是那样一个有板有眼的人，就连写日志也要严格地要求按时间顺序进行记叙，他强烈提议，”他写英语版的，我尽可能的完全且准确的翻译，我写中文版的，他也会完全且准确的翻译，这样，我们的朋友就同时可以看懂他写的文章和我的文章“ ！！！好吧，这个提议，我表示同意。：）

火车，如预料中的，晚点；北京，如预料中的，拥挤；
我们选择在早上来到天坛，是为了体验皇室祭祀的宏大气魄，果然体验到了宏大的人山人海，只是不是华装衾袍，排列整齐而已。我高兴地发现，古时候，天坛在冬至会举行盛大的节庆盛典，那，正是我的生日。34项繁杂的礼仪项目，节前3个月便开始准备，排练的器乐仪式。难以想象，那是何等的奢华和庄严…… 呵呵，全国人民和我一起过生日！
在推推搡搡的人群中，Rob多次难以控制的pissed off, 不过，他告诉我，他其实觉得人多比人少好，找个台阶坐下来，看着那些不认识的人们的一言一行，也是很有趣的事。

Rob handed me the laptop and gave me the task of writing about our activities on May 1st.
When we first started this blog, I thought I would write my own articles in Chinese and Rob would write his in English. However, Rob envisioned us taking turns writing articles (all of which would be translated). I think this is a good idea, so I will translate Rob's writing into Chinese and he will help me translate the Chinese into English. This way all of our friends can understand everything.
The train was, as we expected, late. Beijing was, as we expected, crowded.
We chose to go to the Temple of Heaven in the morning, so we could see how the Emperor would have worshiped and performed ritual sacrifices. We found lots of people, but it didn't have the feeling of something sacred. I found out that they used to perform rituals during the winter solstice, on my birthday! These were very important rituals. There were 34 steps involved, and preparations were begun 3 months beforehand. It is hard to imagine the scale and seriousness of the worshiping. There were hundreds of musicians playing together and many sacrifices were made....haha. All of the people in China used to celebrate my birthday.
Rob often got pissed off while wading through crowds of people, but he told me he enjoyed sitting and people-watching. He said that's fun too.

April 30th - Going to Beijing!

2009-05-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

We took the overnight train to Beijing on April 30th. We had "hard sleepers" which means each room had six beds stacked three high. They were comfortable. It was fun! In our room, everyone was very friendly. There was a mother with her 3 year old boy, a man and his 12 year old daughter and a pot-bellied older man. The 3 year old was full of energy. He ran around the train most of the time and managed to hit Rob really hard in the face with a toy. It was fun playing with him, though we learned really quickly not to give him any sugar. The 12 year old girl was very smart and knew quite a bit of English. Rob could tell she wanted to talk to him, but was quite shy.

四月30日下午，我们坐上了去北京的硬座过夜车。同在一个隔档的乘客，看起来都很友好，一个母亲带着三岁男孩，一个父亲带着12岁的女儿，还有一个带着啤酒肚的老先生。3岁的小男孩，精力异常充沛，在车厢里上蹿下跳，用他的玩具狠狠地打到了Rob的脸，然后，Rob很快意识到，不能再给他糖吃了。这是让他精疲力竭，停止无可救药的调皮的唯一方法。但，总而言之，我们还是很享受和他疯玩的时光。12岁的小女孩看起来很聪明，会一些英语，Rob感觉到她想试着和他说话，只是很害羞。
In this picture, I'm explaining to this kid how to use a moist towelette. He really needed to clean his hands!