the china experience

update - in Guilin

wow. WOW! WOW!!
britt and I flew to Guilin today and as soon as we got off the plane, we just looked at each other with a huge grin over how WARM it is here! and CLEAN! and the people are so FRIENDLY! it's all so beautiful so far. a little man on a bicycle took us on his cart to a restaurant on the river and we had a great meal -- some of the things on the menu were (none of which we ordered!) boar reproductive organs, duck tongue, bamboo rat, and a bunch of other horrible sounding stuff. tonight was a great night to be a vegetarian! then we walked back to our cute little hostel and kept oogling over how beautiful and clean the city is! I think since it's a river city, we automatically felt a connection that we haven't felt in Tianjin. ok. Tianjin was a great experience, but from what we've noticed in the past week alone, Beijing/Tianjin is not known for its beauty.

while we're in Guilin, we're going to visit Elephant Trunk Hill, Reed Flute Cave, Diecai Hill Cave and whatever else we find along the way. our agenda is pretty open to exploring whatever we get into. we'll be here for 3 days, then we river cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo. I'm sure I'll post again before then... hopefully with a few pictures! ;)

And now... my sweet SWEET husband is waiting for me in the Lounge of the Flowers hostel, with pijuo and a beautiful smile... see ya!

guilin

wow. guilin is SO beautiful! it's everything a city should be and more! the metro area is clean and friendly, and it's surrounded by an intricate weaving of waterways, mountains and caves. britt and i walked around all day, oohing and ahhing at everything. we climbed to the peak of DieCai Mountain where we had a brass lock engraved with our names on it and locked it on a chain wrapped around the peak. we saw amazing caves with age old sculptures of Budhas and poems. we saw the 100 Bird Garden and hand fed the funniest birds that climbed all over us, squaking in our ears to make sure we observed their existence. we walked along the river and saw the boats (one of which we'll be taking tomorrow night around the twinkling city) we ate lunch at the sweetest little hole in the wall, we walked in and told them we were hungry and they prepared a little of everything for us to taste! they were so sweet! a meal we'll never forget. we discovered a new fruit 'youza' that seems to be a cross between an orange, a grapefruit and a pear. mmmm!

yep. guilin is amazing! and we still have 2 more days of exploring this area before cruising on to yangshuo!

update - cruising to Yangshuo

and we're off! tomorrow morning we'll be on a river boat, cruising downstream towards Yangshuo. our stay in Guilin has been absolutely heavenly! we explored caves, climbed mountains, walked miles of riverfront pathways and had a great time breathing fresh mountain air! ahhhh... it's so nice to be sitting in the lap of Mother Nature! and from what we hear, Yangshuo is even nicer -- terraced rice paddies, more mountains and caves, small villages, rivers and a sense of relaxation we so warm heartedly welcome!

the journey continues...

update - yangshuo & the yao people

wow. we just got back from yangshuo and all I can say is... wow. we spent a few days at the Culture House Hostel where we were treated like family, with home cooked meals, conversation, and a wonderful host full of info about what to do in the area and how to get around. we bamboo rafted the Li River, rode our bikes through the winding mountains and small villages where we were greeted by huge smiles along the way. and yesterday... was our 1 1/2 year anniversary, so we stayed in a very sweet balcony room overlooking the river, listening to the sounds of the waterfall. *sigh* isn't life delicious? ;)

today, we visited the Lengshung terraced rice paddies and met the Yao people. we were sweetly greeted by the tiniest of ladies with the longest hair you could imagine, all wrapped up in a pretty little bun on their foreheads! they took our arms and helped us, each step of the way, up and down and through the terraced mountains. oh they were so sweet! they sang to us, laughed with us, and held our hands the whole way. I'm anxious to upload a few pictures! we ate lunch in their common room area: yummy bamboo, cabbage, soup, tomatoes & eggs, eggplant and tea. the little ladies huddled in the corner of the dining area, sewing, the whole time we ate. they're SO incredibly cute! and you could fit one in each pocket! the ride there and back was incredible and it was definitely a stone-stepped walk we'll always remember.

so now, we're back in rainy, drippy, cold-ass guilin for the night until we fly back to Beijing tomorrow. we're a tad bit frazzled because our ATMs cards haven't worked for the past few days and we're on our last few yuan. (gulp!) we're going to try to haggle with the bank people to let us use our cards to manually withdraw money through the teller. my sweet mom has been searching through my office trying to find my long forgotten PIN number -- she said "it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack!" -- i can only imagine what condition I left my office before leaving for China! sorry mom!

then, it's back to Tianjin to pack up the apartment and catch the ferry to Incheon, South Korea. whew! what a whirlwind it's been this past few weeks! I loooove it!

and check this out!! britt was the featured artist on an orlando radio station!! www.wprkdj.org a show called Filtered Sunshine, 6-8am, they did a 30 minute Batsauce feature at 7am and played 10 new tracks from the new yet-to-be-released album! we're a bit slow on the email thing while we're on vacation, so we missed it... but WOW!!! go baby!

wow! what an incredible Universe!

update - back in Tianjin

ahhh. what a WONDERFUL vacation! it feels like we did so much in such a short period of time, yet we feel incredibly relaxed. i just uploaded a TON of photos from our trip.

so, we came home to a slightly flooded living room. it seems a radiator pipe exploded or something and some of our stuff is a bit soggy now. welcome home, huh? the next 2 days will be scrambling to pack up the apartment, preparing for our ferry ride to South Korea, where we have NO idea what to expect! a whole different culture is waiting for us on the other side of the sea. I love it!

not much energy to write tonight. it was a long day of travel from Guilin: planes, buses, taxis. you name it -- we rode it. but we got here safe and sound and JUST in time for a delicious hot pot dinner with Joe and Patrick! the University is a ghost town now because everyone went home to their little villages for Spring Festival. But it's sweet to have such a warm welcome from the boys. we sure will miss those guys!

and now, my sweet husband is nodding off on the couch, watching a slide show of the photos he took on our journey. he really does have an amazing eye! and I'm so glad he has his very own camera now. he'll have his very own Flickr site uploaded soon. but not tonight.

tonight - we sleep.
tomorrow - we pack.
the next day - the journey continues...

south korea, here we come!

when researching a country, it's always fun to start with the food! i found a great website with maps, culture, language, food, holidays, everything you could possibly need to know! even though it's only a 2 hour plane ride (note: the ferry tickets didn't work out, so we're flying instead) and it's still East Asia, it looks like a totally different experience than we've had for the past 6 months here in China. the food looks exciting, music and events are everywhere, and it seems to be sweet balance of big city and... nature!! (a tragically absent concept in Tianjin!) we'll be there for a day shy of 1 month, to avoid visa hassles. keith marks already has several gigs lined up for us! go keith! we'll be seeing you in less than 14 hours!

and once again -- the journey continues...

south korea, here we are!

keith met us at the airport yesterday and wow! it's so neat to see a familiar face on the other side of the world! he has a GREAT apartment. I mean, really great. The floors are heated, the lighting is nice, sliding wooden doors, lowriding tables and cushions on the floor. It's sweet. He lives in the art district part of town 2 blocks from the Art Academy in Seoul, with a similar vibe to that of the Village in NYC. Cool shops, little cafes, art supply stores, hip people walking around. The food here is fantastic! and not only does it taste good, but it's fun to eat! everything comes in fun little pots with wooden lids, and you get to mix it all together yourself a certain way. we drink out of little silver cups and use silver chopsticks! I have to say, wooden chopsticks are far easier to use, but the silver ones have a certain class about it. I'm sure we'll get used to it in no time.

Keith lined up several gigs for us already! And the club scene here is incredible! He took us to one last night that had the laid back feeling of an opium den (minus the opium, of course!) it had a shallow pool in the middle of the room, with candles, lowriding tables, cushions everywhere, incense, beads, feathers... i could live in a room just like that! (I'm forever taking notes for "our house" when that day comes)

This morning, Britt and Keith took the train to Busan to work a 1 week English camp. which means, I'm Seoul Searching on my own. Keith hooked me up with a list of all the Korean dishes and how to pronounce them, money, subway maps, phone numbers, everything I need to know to get around for the next week.

It hasn't even been a full day yet, but I miss my sweet husband! we haven't spent the night apart since we got married and I just know it's gonna be a cold, wintery 4 nights without mi amore!

today

today was an odd day. besides Britt still being in Busan and I haven't seem him all week, which throws me off entirely... I taught class today. (something I agreed to do, thinking it was a part-time design job! ooops!) I really had no idea what to expect, what age group? is it written English? oral? nothing. just "go teach" -- but GETTING there and back was really quite a task! I had to take a few subway transfers along the way: green 2 line to blue 4 line at the bomgey exit (which, by the way, isn't written in roman characters everywhere, mostly korean, so I had to play "match the characters" to figure out where I was going and I hope I got it right!) the way there wasn't so bad, although I didn't understand what Mr. Ticket Man was asking me, so I wound up getting the wrong ticket and had to jump the gate! I was about 15 minutes late getting there this morning. then on the way home, I took the shorter route with 3 transfers instead of only 1. that went okay until I got off at the wrong stop. now each subway "stop" has several "exits" which put you on different corners of the block facing in different directions, so each "exit" spits you out into a completely different street-scene world of its own. I tried all 8, up and down the stairs, to the street & back down to the subway, to the street & back down to the subway, and nothing looked familiar. it was a weird and panicky moment, completely NOT knowing where I was, being so disoriented and not knowing who to ask, or how to ask it. I really didn't even know the address where I needed to go. i was just looking for something familiar. it all hit me at once and I lost it. I just sat on the curb and had a good cry. once that was out of the way, I decided to pick a direction and walk. why not? it just MIGHT be the right way... and you know what... it was! I was back at the apartment about 15 minutes later -- and haven't left since.

Sometimes you just have to let out steam...
to clear the mist from your mind.

Most teas require boiling water, but "flower tea" is best if you let the water boil and then let it cool down before pouring it. It just tastes better that way.

Today, I felt like flower tea.

------
Britt comes home tomorrow!
I can't wait to throw my arms around him.

seoul searching

ok. seoul rocks.
it's really truly an amazing city and we're realizing more and more each day that we really REALLY like it here. it's nice that we're here for a month because we get to chill and just *be* rather than having to run around from site to site. britt and i have been casually checking out coffee shops, walking around, admiring the architecture, the people, the way of life. the food here is amazing. we've been eating out with keith and his friends every night (the food here is so cheap and delicious there's just no point in trying to make it all ourselves!) and every meal has been light and healthy and out of this world! and unlike china, they make GREAT coffee here! naturally, we're right in the middle of the design university district, so everything is ultra hip, but it seems like a great city to plant ourselves for a while. we kick around the idea of teaching abroad again and Seoul would definitely be our first choice. they're really big on private education here, so there are lots of teaching jobs. but the thing I'm digging the most is the style of living -- sliding glass doors, heated floors, yo's (floor mattress cushions), cool bowls and plates for everything, paper lamps, tiled rooftops, tiny alleys, little shops. it's such a simple life, yet acquiring that simplicity is so difficult! why is that?

we're playing a few gigs this month, thanks to keith marks and his social magic! we played last friday (the day britt returned from Busan) and it went really well. it's been 6 months since we gigged, and it felt so good to be doing our thing once again! it was well received and we picked up several fans who are anxious for our next show, this weekend coming up. everyone tells us our music would really hit it off here in Seoul. we were told they would "eat us up" because of the "cute couple in love" factor! it's really inspiring! I've been designing the batsauce and heavenly noise cd covers and if all goes well, we'll have them printed here for much cheaper than they would be in the states. seoul is quite a creative city, in every aspect: music, design, architecture, theatre, etc. all of it! it's nice to be in a big city with such great energy!

and now... I'm going to rest my little head next to that sweet husband of mine and get some Zzz's. tomorrow's another day!

the return

well. We officially booked our flight back to the States. *sigh* So much to say, but not sure how to compose my thoughts. I sure will miss floating around, getting lost, the challenge of doing the simplest things. Britt and I have both really learned a lot in the past 6 months. Most importantly, that we travel really well together! Which inspires us to do this again... soon. We've met so many people, from all around the world, and for each person we met, we realized how totally possible and *easy* it is to travel. The hardest part is just saying "okay, let's go!" Now, we want to see Thailand, India, Cambodia, Turkey, Spain, float around East Europe. All of it!

But for now, it's time to go home. Back to our home. Back to our friends and families, anxious to hear our stories! Back to our little dog! Back to our little garden just in time to plant for Spring! Back to a scene which was once so familiar, yet now, will feel a bit foreign to us.

But BEFORE all that... we still have 2 weeks in Seoul, a couple more gigs, more sights to see, people to meet, places to go! We fly (or ferry) back to Beijing on Feb. 21st, where we'll bounce around our old stomping grounds for a few days.

And then, on February 25th, the journey continues...

gigs, cops and temples

it's been an interesting week. lots of gigs, lots of walking around taking in the sights and sounds of the city, and the highlight of the week was keith getting hit by a car. First and foremost, he's okay. Totally 100% okay... but wow! What a night! we were walking across the street and a car decided to run the red light. Keith took the hit like a stunt man and gracefully rolled off the hood without even falling down, but shattered the guys windshield. the first words out of keith's mouth were "Wow! I just got hit by a f**king car! (pause) Where are my shoes?" and we all looked down at keith's feet to realize both of his shoes flew 30 feet down the street. we stood around for a couple of hours, talking to the driver, witnesses, cops, etc. What a night! We're all so glad he's okay. It almost doesn't seem possible that someone could get hit by a moving vehicle and escape ANY damage whatsoever. He must have some kind of protective bubble around him or something. a reminder that every moment is precious...

We played a few gigs and love the music scene in Seoul. Lots of experimental drumming, improv stuff going on everywhere. The musicians here are pretty tight with each other and book shows together so there's 4 or 5 bands playing per night. It's nice, instead of playing 4 hours, you only play for 1 hour... more variety and higher impact that way, as far as I'm concerned. We really wish we had some of our cds with us, but oh well. Next time.

Keith, YoungHe, Britt and I went hiking the other day. It was beautiful! The snow was melting and the path was covered in what totally looked like the thickest yummiest fudge! I just wanted to roll around in it, but my better senses told me that wasn't such a great idea. At the top of the mountain, we could see the whole world. All of it. It's amazing how packed Seoul is, so it was really nice to see a birds eye view of the city. It just went on for miles and miles in every direction. Along the path down the mountain was the Bongwongsa temple... beautiful! It's one of the few orders where the monks can marry! Makes sense to me! i personally never understood why some religions make their people choose between spiritual and physical love. it seems to me we should experience BOTH to wholly understand love and all it has to offer. plus, life is far more satisfying when you have someone to share it with, someone you can talk to (someone who will actually respond in words, rather than rainbows)

Yesterday we went to Insadon, the handmade paper and art district (RIGHT up my alley!!) and we stumbled upon the most amazing street festival! It was the first full moon of the lunar new year, so the party was ON!! there were people colorfully dressed, dancing and playing drums. they pulled britt and I into the mix and we found ourselves right in the middle of it all! It was such a treat! and remember the New Year wishes we wrote and tied on the rope on the lunar new year? well, they burn all of those on the first full moon (yesterday) and we saw them burning it in the street. it was cool seeing that, knowing our wishes, too, were coming true.

Seoul is really cool. Fun. Lots of things to do. The food is great. The people are wonderful. Art & music everywhere. It's everything a city should be. And we leave in 8 days. I wish I could kick this "end of the journey" sadness that permeates me. It's overwhelming.

hmmmm...

wouldn't it suck if everything made perfect sense ALL of the time?

part of the fun of traveling, I think, is trying to do the seemingly simple things, like buying tickets, going to the post office, taking the subway, etc. -- I love how everything is such a challenge. yet, if you really think about it, it's only a challenge because I'm completely illiterate outside of the US. What a weird feeling. I like it.

our final days in Seoul

our final days in Seoul have been absolutely action packed! we played a great gig at Club Aura in Hongdae, (loved it!) did a photoshoot for Nike at the World Cup Stadium, had a great full-page full-color write up in kscene magazine, had amazing dinners, met amazing people, even Miss Monica came up to visit from JungJu. we successfully purchased our ferry tickets and got our China visa taken care of, and tomorrow, we're floating over to China for our last few days in Asia. We'll be staying with Joe and Patrick in our old stomping grounds (Tianjin) which is a great way to cap off our journey -- full circle.

the heavenly noise write up is great! we did an interview last week, but had no idea it would be full-page, full-color in the James Brown issue of Kscene! Sweet! I like the pull quote "We like to write songs for each other" says Lady Daisey. "It's so much better than getting flowers or a diamond ring" So we snagged several copies to bring home. :) Funny, we don't even get press in our home town...

And yes, we did a photoshoot for a Nike ad for Bling Magazine. Keith called us up and said "hey, we're doing a photoshoot for Nike at noon, meet me at such and such" We had no idea what we were getting into. Apparently, they wanted *foreigners* -- and ANY foreigner would do. So we showed up at the World Cup Stadium, they dressed us up in some sporty Nike gear and sent us out in the cold to cheer for an imaginary team. Go team!

tonight, we're having dinner in Itaewon with a few friends... one last hurrah before we take off. we're looking forward to the 24 hour ferry ride back to Tianjin. we were able to get a private room, so we're treating this as a 1-day cruise, rather than a shuttle ferry. :)

the journey STILL continues...

home sweet home

*sigh*

I cried the whole way home. Sad that the journey was coming to an end, not wanting to go home, overwhelmed by the excitement of it all. But now that we're back, it almost seems like it never happened. The first couple days, in between comatose sleep at odd hours, Britt and I just walked around our house saying "wow" at all the *stuff* we own. We just don't need all this *stuff* and after being away from it all for 1/2 a year, this is a great time to box it all up and have a yard sale. We'd like to lighten our load for many reasons: 1) we'd like to simplify our lives. we've been living out of suitcases for 6 months and had everything we needed to live... quite happily, at that. 2) we definitely want to live abroad again in the future, except next time we'd like to NOT be paying rent on a house back home. 3) a yard sale can always earn a few extra bucks. and now that we've had a taste of China prices, we're in absolute shock of how expensive everything is!

We went to the grocery store... we gawked at a $5 block of cheese and wound up NOT getting it because it was so expensive. or was it, really?

We've been home for 5 days and STILL haven't driven the car anywhere. We've been riding our bikes everywhere.

Our dog is even more adorable than I remember him to be. He lost a lot of weight and looks like a brand new dog. It's nice to have him back in our lives.

My grampa died yesterday. It made me realize that our journey still continues, we're still alive and experiencing life... no matter where we are.

the journey continues...

at daisey.com

Our china experience has come to an end, and so has this journal. It will still be here, but the ink is dry and it's going into the archives of our hearts. If you're curious... I'll be writing in my daisey.com journal, as always.

Ja Jhen!!