Tag Archives: home

Moving Up

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September! Did I miss August? I started my new job in Houston, teaching International students art and worked the entire month of August. Whew! I am enjoying my Chinese boarding students. They miss their family and home towns. I can relate my overseas experiences and watch them smile and “light up” hearing similar stories. It seems to me life is about familiar experiences and feeling accepted. It is good to be in Texas teaching! This girl is happy to be back on American soil and near family and great friends.

My house hunt has been exhausting, looking close to 150 condos, apartments, town-homes, single family homes, and multi-family homes. I put bids on four different places, with competition on three. This last bid on a town-home I was fortunate to have accepted. The Heights is an extremely popular neighborhood and is transitioning into a really wonderful place to live.

The town-home is three story and three bedrooms, one of which I will use as a studio. It has everything I wanted, from a dreamy kitchen with granite, a bathroom with a soaker jetted tub and a space to create art. There are any windows with interesting views of Houston, including the train tracks—toot toot! I know I will like the Urban environment and richness of diversity. It will be wonderful to finally get my gear out of storage and in one location, where I can continue my journey from my very own new home.

When I get settled I want to have my first art opening and feature a retrospective of my art. My home will be a lovely setting for this event. If you would like to attend, let me know and I will include you in the festivities.

Life is about boundaries

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“Life is as life is,” my new mantra. I am searching for a home to plant myself in and it doesn’t seem to be surfacing. So I wonder, is this where I am suppose to be? Alone, but not lonely, I search for my hearts desire. I know what I like and what I don’t like. I can sure draw a boundary when it comes to things I don’t like.

Boundaries are those lines that limit you from certain objects of your desire. I am noticing my wonderful American culture does not really understand boundaries or they have “blown them off.” Can American’s say no? Not really, they want bigger, more expensive, and an unending craving for more. Our society is feeding us with commercials that make us feel we need to spend to be fulfilled. But are we? No, of course not. But when your boundaries have been compromised by commercialism it causes you to forget what you need is surprisingly very little.

I am noticing people have more stuff than they need, they have filled their homes with so much there is no longer space for people. It is unbelievable how many homes I have visited and there is just no where to sit or sleep due to pillows. Yes these fluffy little squares have taken over all the free space. Their closets, drawers and cabinets are filled to overflowing, It has become overwhelming. No wonder Americans are laughed at by international countries. We are in-debt because we buy too much to fill up our lives. In theory it would be better to fill it with good relationships. Quit buying junk. Learn to cook and stop indulging in processed packaged products. Walk and bike ride, know your neighbors, get off the iPhone, iPad and become a person connected to real life. Set a boundary, it would do you good.

As my life goes from day to day, I cook, paint, write and meet new people. My life is different now, I realize I can have boundaries and say “No, thanks!” I learned from my Asian culture experience, “Less is really more and Life is as life is.” Life is really good.

Homeless… without ocean and art studio!

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A week with Hurricane Debby and you realize how noisy, windy and wet nature can be. Storms can be challenging, especially if you have a ring side ocean view from your hotel window. I taught a week of IB art classes in St. Pete, Florida and saw only one day of sunny weather. I love the beach and living on the coast would be the most wonderful opportunity to experience sand, surf and sun.

Storms and sunny days, are like the ups, the downs of life. We all have challenges, I suppose how we handle them is the key. My stormy days have subsided and now nice sunny ones are on the horizon. I want to live by the ocean, but with my new job I will be sixty miles to the surf. Now what? Deciding on a second best scenario is difficult. Should I live in a high rise, suburban home, older home in a more trendy location or even an apartment? For me, this is too many decisions. I make my mind up quickly, now I am weighing options. I decided the other day that an art studio was the most important for me. Did you ever try to find a home with an artist area? After looking, I find the art studios as a part of a home are over a half a million in cost. Tell me how is an artist going to afford that? What an oxymoron!

Life is throwing me a curve ball, no ocean, no artist studio….. What do I do?

My brother-in-law humorously calls me a squatter, I am sure they would like me to move on, but where do I go? Anyone in Houston got an artist studio I could buy, rent or squat at?

Home in Texas

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TEXAS — Land of Large! Large state, large people, large voices, large portions, large, large, large! I am home! I bought a “small” car and already been flipped off and honked at to move on, not once but three different occasions. GEEZ TEXAS what happened? You are so rude and it is so unacceptable. Why are you in such a hurry?

Do I fit here, good question? Driving around in my little gecko green VDub Bug, with a sunflower in the vase, I am just enjoying the view, the sun and the climate. 500 miles later maybe I should have bought a tank with a driver! There are new streets, new places the old GPS can’t locate. I got lost driving to a Post Office, where my GPS directed me. Turned out fifteen miles later I was in a wheat field. I need updating!

The Apple store on Knox-Henderson was my next stop. Randy says I need an iphone4S. After two hours loading info and trying to figure out apps, I am technology appropriate. Ha, but can I use the thing? Someone call me and let me see if I can answer it. My cute little pink flip phone is now gone and I have a 3 inch miniature flat screen computer-esque phone. I believe I need to purchase glasses to read the fine print. I am savvy but do I really need this much stuff?

Life overseas was about “Less is More!” Life here is “more is overwhelming!”

Fitting in, may be harder than I thought.

Forbidden City

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The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.  Located in the middle of Beijing it was the home of Emperors and their households (including concubines), as well as the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government, for almost five hundred years.   The complex covers 7,800,000 sq, ft. consisting of 980 buildings with 8,707 rooms.  It was built around 1406.  The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture.   When I walked in I noticed the buildings were brightly painted and rambling to the end of the horizon.  One building after another.  It was just the most amazing place, I kept imagining myself as a little emperor playing on the stairs, hiding behind walls, and climbing the most delightful shaped trees.

One of the trees had gnarled elbows with long branches hanging downward which looked like dragon claws.

I love this tree and want one in my yard!

I found a couple artisans, one carved me a chop mark that says su san, maybe su shan.  Su means family name.  San stands for the number three and they seem to prefer Shan which means mountains.  Personally it means family of twin peaks, my play on words.   Then I meet a teacher from the local art university.   He was selling his work along with other professors to help generate money for scholarships.  I am a sucker for helping kids go to art school and  bought a black and white oil panel with the four children holding red yarn stars and a traditional tiger painting.  Love my art finds.

Inside some of these rooms we found mini-museums of pottery, jewelry, weaponry and ceremonial attire.

Then a trip to the hutongs or alleyways of Beijing to eat and shop.  I ran out of memory on my card but here is my find at a propaganda store.

My OBaMao T-shirt “Man who serves the people!”

Dumpling making

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In the last couple of weeks I visited the homes of two families and they shared their dumpling making precess with me.  My Pre-IB student Moon invited me to her home, where her mom showed me how to create them.  A rather easy process, you start with round or square wonton wrappers and a combination of your favorite diced meats and vegetables for the filling.  Since I am vegetarian my hostess made a special batch with chopped spinach, garlic, bamboo and other tasty ingredients.  The meat version has the same veggies but included pork.  We were allowed to create our dumplings by spooning a dallap on the wonton, sealing the edge with water, and pinching or pleating the edges  with our fingers.  You would line up the half moon shaped crescents until enough were ready to boil or steam.  Moon’s mom boiled them about ten minutes.  You eat them with soy sauce or a chili sauce.  If you have left overs you can pan fry them in the morning for breakfast.

Moon and my other art student Karen in front of a portrait of Moon as a child.

At my colleague Stephen’s home his mom also prepared dumplings and a wonderful Mushroom soup, the best I have ever had.  It had a combination of four different types of mushrooms chopped up with garlic and simmered into a nice rich soup broth.

Steven’s mom          Steven and Paula     Isabella, Steven, his girlfriend, niece and mom

“Little Rock” is born.

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This is Sophia’s new baby boy, Alice is holding.  I was able to visit her home and see the baby on Thanksgiving day, what a blessing.  The birth of a baby is quite exciting here.  You are not allowed in the hospital to visit the mother or baby like in America.  The mother and mother-in-law move in with the mom and dad for a month or longer.  They have interesting customs and expect the mother to follow.  Sophia’s mother-in-law is very much a take charge A-type personality.  She won’t let Sophia or the baby bathe for a month, that includes washing hair.  Sophia can not brush her teeth, she can rinse them with a tea and salt combination.  She is not allowed to eat veggies or fruits only meats.  The house is dark and the baby is wrapped in a bundle, not letting the eyes be in the light.  Taking pictures with a flash is not allowed.  I got one on the sly.  Talk about a miserable mother!  She said these are old traditions and must be followed but she doesn’t like it.  The mom’s won’t let her use the computer either.  The baby is darling, with dark pensive eyes, so wise looking.  His nick name is “little rock.”  At this time they still haven’t chosen a real name for him.

These cute little gifts are from different parents to share in the birth of their child.  Eggs are always auspicious.   Some are filled with candy and some are real, dyed red and pickled.

This egg has the married characters on it.  It was given to me from a friend whose niece recently married.  It is fun to get these little gifts from newlyweds and new parents.   You give them gifts too.  Sharing in the joy is the tradition.

Painting with a Bamboo Brush

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It is about time I painted something!   I’ve been studying Traditional Chinese Ink Brush painting and find it intriguing.  I want art lessons from a real brush painter now.  It is harder than it looks.  I painted this bamboo picture using a liquid ink and bamboo brush on typical Chinese student drawing paper.  It’s simple and big.  Ink dried fast and looks ok.

Then I was given some bamboo paper from a colleague.  She brought it back from her home town one weekend for me. I unrolled it to find the sheets are 5 x 2 feet…  Large paintings!  The paper is as thin as tissue paper and I am wondering how this is going to take to ink.

My ink is in stick form and you grind it in a circular motion in a special vessel with water called an ink stone until you get your desired value.  Making gray in a variety of values is fairly easy.  I looked at some Landscape paintings on line to get the jest of painting.  The paper adsorbed the watery ink rather fast and dried real slow, something I am not accustomed too.  But the grays were really nice, just figuring out how to control the bleeding is gonna take some time.

Eating, praying, shopping!

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Saturday I spent the day with Alice and Sawyer.  We started our day eating, what else would you do?  Eating is so much fun here.  Maybe shopping is as fun, but will save that for later.  My new favorite place is the JiMing Temple, today we light three incense sticks, put them in the sand table and said prayers.  We prayed for each other.  It’s raining so we scurry up the steps to the top of the temple where the restaurant is and order our vegetarian meal.  Today we have dumplings (like a bread ball with veggies inside) fake duck and beef, fried rice and their delicious plum juice.  Another wonderful meal with my new Chinese adopted grown children.

Sawyer says now we must have Coffee, so off to “Sculpting in Time” the western Coffee shop.  We order our Cappuccino and Lattes.  I notice a John Lennon paperback for sale and bring it to the table to ponder over.  It is philosophical sayings by John in Chinese.  Alice opens the book and translates to English for me.  It is about Communism and how John didn’t really believe that there was Communism.  The three of us have a long discussion on the Beatles and politics.  Off we go to a mall called MUJI, somewhat like the Galleria in Dallas.  So many cute and very fashionable outfits and hundreds of shoes.  At this time I realize sizes run small – if not tiny and many won’t fit my size 9 body.  I need to be thin as a pencil to wear Chinese fashion.  Shoes are hard to fit, Chinese feet are thin, I can find the right size but not wide enough.  Later Alice shows me a shoe shop by the University that carries Merrell’s’ and Timberline, American walking/hiking brands. (John Garrott you would be proud!  You trained me well about good walking shoes, thank you.)

Take the subway to a bus stop. Not so bad, but then I have translators with me.  The University street has many cute shops and I find a  jacket and sweater to layer with my T-shirts.  Then on the bus we go to Alice’s mom’s home.  Jump off and walk into a bakery.  Alice wants to order a birthday cake for her mom, will be ready in 15 minutes, so we walk up a back street and eye food while we wait.  I find a woman selling live frogs to eat.  We see all kinds of cooked meat to purchase, including feet,stomachs, colons, duck heads, gizzards and livers.  There were other  parts I couldn’t even guess where they came from.  Sawyer wants meat, so he gets a sampling of things boxed to go.  Up four flights of stairs to Alice’s mom home.  Mrs. Wong  is simply daring with chopped short hair and teeny tiny reader glasses half way down her nose.  She has lived in this home twenty years, where Alice grew up.  The kitchen is small but she has every space utilized, chopping all shorts of vegetables.  Sawyer’s favorite is a bitter gourd, which is bright grass green in color, long like a cucumber but has warty bumps all over it.  Xiao Wong slices it in half and then in thin pieces.  She pours boiling water on top and lets it soak, drains, adds salt and vinegar and that magic powered spice I saw Sarah use last night.  She stir fries snap green beans with a bit of chilies.  A second dish of sliced carrots mixed in a variety of mushrooms including a fungus mushroom is fried.   The last stir fried dish is a fresh chive like plant with long thin sliced mushrooms.  All of these were tasty except Sawyer’s favorite dish the bitter gourd.  I just couldn’t enjoy the taste like he did and he proceeded to eat the entire bowl.   We had a lovely bottle of 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon to toast to Xiao Wong’s birthday and new friends.

Time to cut the cutest birthday ever, with fresh fruit on top and in the filling.  I so enjoy the family style atmosphere the Chinese continue to cultivate in their homes and during their meals out.   This is something we as Americans have given up for fast food and always on the go lifestyles.

Designed by Tim Sainburg from Brambling Design

Teacher Day and a real home cooked meal

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Friday was Chinese Teacher Day, it is a  special day for teachers, when students call them, give them gifts, cards and flowers to express their appreciation.   I arrived and found a large bouquet of violet tulip like flowers, cards and gifts on my desk from various art students!  What a thrill.  I have a new coffee cup and snow globe now.   Students love telling you to have a nice teacher day, it is on TV and I think it is like a National Holiday.  I like this day.

Alice showed me how to catch a bus, ok not so hard, just lots of people, will have to keep my purse and possessions very close to me.  We took two buses to the University and it dropped us off in a nice shopping district I want to check out later today.   Time for clothes and shoes.  I like shoes, thanks to my mom!   I brought ten pair from my collection of sixty and I am missing some favorites!  Need red ones now!

I gave a call to Sarah, the mom of Filo, one of my art students.  Sarah is the lovely lady that  hooked me up with my apartment.  She was cooking dinner and wanted my company.  Yes, I will be right there.  Hopped on a Taxi and off I went back to the other side of town.  It’s dark now and the town comes alive with lights and it’s misty creating a surreal look about.  Sarah is so excited to see me, off with my shoes and on with house slippers.  I want to see what she is cooking, this is so much fun.  She has a pot of Balsamic rice in the rice cooker, sautéd tomato and fried egg dish and pork meat ball soup with mushrooms,  green chowder peas, and onions (oops forgot to tell her I was vegetarian!)  I watched her cut up some skinny green peppers and sauté them with sugar, salt, soy and some other ingredients-this was a spicy dish and very delicious.  She had fresh greens in a colander — they had red centers, never saw this plant before.  She poured a wee bit of oil in the pan and tossed these in, adding some spices and then water.  The water turned red from the plant and the plant turned dark green as it wilted.

Filo did not want to eat dinner with us, so she played on the computer in her locked room!  Sarah and I feasted with our chopsticks and small rice bowl.  Here you just pick a bit from any bowl you want and eat it.  You don’t make a plate of food.  I am getting quite good with the chopsticks and can pick up peas individually.  The rice turned pink from my greens I put on top…. and that was glorious to see.  Dinner was very good and it felt so comfortable to chat with another mom about husbands, children, our homes, our family, our life.  She had TV that was connected to a Chinese station that was in English.  ( I do not have this station at the motel, darn!)  The main news was of Teachers Day and how exciting it is for the students to make things for their teachers.  We had instant nescafe coffee and Swedish chocolates for dessert.

We admired her apartment, she has been here for over three weeks.  She and her husband live out but the drive is con-jested even though it is not far.  This is her place to stay for the week and then they travel back home during the weekends.  Many parents do this, as the high school I work for is a desired place for their children.  As we look out of her balcony the spectacular view makes me anxious to move.  I get a lesson on how to wash clothes and hang them to dry on the balcony.  Looks like I need to buy a clothes drying rack at Carrefour.

I get back to the motel, walk in and three young men students  from Nigeria, France and Morocco ask me to sit and chat.  Wow what a world talk we have about our Chinese speaking, our experiences and how long we have been here.  The cute Moroccan is working on his PhD and has been in China six years.  The other two just arrived this week and are in some culture shock but loving it.  I enjoy meeting new faces.