Post Chinese New Year Letdown

I've realized what my problem is. I mass email and blog at the same time and I seem to be alternating between the two. Hmm, must find a way to reconcile and meet in the middle somewhere.

Anywho.

Chinese New Year was interesting.

Fireworks were indeed all that it was promised to be, although prices are jacked up for dumb Westerners because they know we'll pay it and pay it gladly because we like blowing stuff up THAT much. We paid too much without a second thought. But we enjoyed the heck out of those fireworks. There was only one incident that I have been made aware of involving a smile pile of gunpowder released from its oppressive firework casing, a cigarette, and a lighter. He ended up making a trip to the hospital with burns to his hand. You do the math. Memorable, yes. Smart...maybe not... (Shout out to my friend the Bash Brother!)

Other than that, things have been relatively quiet on the Eastern Front. Kate has left us and I miss her somethin' fierce. There is a wedding in October for some friends from here and I plan to be at that wedding. Especially as it is in Atlanta, a mere stone's throw from the Dirrty South that I hold so close to my heart. Alright ya'll, start preppin' for the homecoming festivities... I want a banner and everything, but will of course inform you the minute something definite happens. It is just talk right now.

A field trip has been planned for Guangzhou (read: gwongjo) the first weekend in April. Weekend for us = Wednesday/Thursday. Silly theater schedules. But the point is we're getting away. We'll have breakfast as a group in the morning, taxi to the border gate, take a 2 hour bus ride to Guangzhou, and THEN we'll have fun. Just kidding, I simply wanted to illustrate how close we are to mainland China. There are heaps of things to do including a giant amusement park that some say is the second largest in the world, a zoo, a water show with reportedly no water - I wanna see THAT!, among others. Our friend Andy is travel agent extraordinnaire, he's even taken care of my Chinese visa for me. I need to travel with him more!

Now I need to venture out to Macau and see if I can't find a package that should be here by now. The post office has been slacking in sending package notices and they send them back to the States after a month. Hard to pick up a package if you don't know it is here. On the bright side, I also ordered a new dress. Can't wait for that to come in!!! Yay. Ok. Everyone have a GREAT day. It's my day off, so point for me!

xxx

Well, There it is Again.

We're not 100% positive, but it seems I may have strep throat again. I have 10 new meds in my possession to treat the hives and the strep.

Oh happy day.

Not exactly the start to my action filled weekend I had hoped for. Stupid antibiotics and itchy rash...

Chinese New Year

I am sitting in my bed, waiting for 330 to roll around because I have a doctors appointment to see about the hives that have taken over my body and I just caught up on Christina's blogs (my aunt is currently spending two months on a couple wildlife reserves in South Africa), so it inspired me to write an update. (No worries, I will be sure to post what the results of the appointment are...)

Chinese New Year starts this week. I am reminded of the Bible stories about going to take part in a census in your home town becuase that's a little bit like what Chinese New Year is all about. Except you make that epic journey home to visit your family and have dinner with all your relatives. There is red and gold EVERYWHERE and everyone is really going all out for the festivities. About a month has been spent constructing the fireworks stands on the waterfront and all of the various temporary shacks to go with it. There is a huge barrier that separates the freshly cleared area for fireworks from civilization, so surely that makes it safe from the drunken idiots promising to invade, right? Yeaaaaaaaahhhhhh.

Anywho. It is the Year of the Rabbit, for those who don't know, and for those of you born in the Year of the Ox, don't read the horoscope for us this year. I made that mistake and it is forecast to be a grim year at best for us. Ah well. You win some, you lose some. But in case you are interested, the Year of the Metal Rabbit is not going to be pleasant for anyone, apparently. Just go out there and make it best you can, I suppose. There are giant bunnies decorating every roundabout Macau has to offer and sometimes they just look downright creepy. Sort of anime, sort of cartoonish, all the way unappealing. This culture constantly baffles me. The lights, on the other hand, are magical. I am a sucker for Christmas lights and these New Year lights are no different. They are strung lining the streets in Old Taipa and are just lovely.

The grocery stores here are busy busy with people getting ready to cook fantastic meals. New Year lasts for 3 days, because it is based on the lunar calendar. We get double time because we work all three days and we also recieve three days in lieu, so I don't mind working. We will still get to partake in festivities because of the late nature of the culture here. Things never really get started until 12noon at the earliest, so they last much into the night. That is a bonus when you work in theater and do not get off work until 10pm. Bamboo plants and what appear to be miniature daffodils are plentiful right now and I am thinking of purchasing one soon. I am intimidated by caring for living things after the fish incidents, but hopefully this will go better. {In case I failed to mention, I managed to kill 2 batches of 6 fish. No clue how. But they only lasted a week at most, so I claim they never stood a chance. Diseased when I got them, likely...}

On the other hand, I have been caring for two cats and a chameleon for a week now and they are still alive. I also kept two puppies alive for two weeks in November. Maybe I am a better pet sitter than owner. Hmmm... The chameleon, Tony, has a bad eye and I have been giving him eye drops and I must say, he appears to be improving. I am hopeful for his not-so-speedy recovery, as the exotics vet I managed to find promises that chameleons take infinitely longer to heal. The example I was given: "Puppies take maybe...one or two day to heal. Chameleon take maybe one month to heal." It's all a waiting game now.

My friend Kate is leaving to move home tomorrow and I will miss her terribly. She is a bright spot here and has been my sanity in this out of control environment more than once. To celebrate her going home, we have three days of events and outings planned. As she says, she plans to "go out in true Macau style...Messy". Ah Macau, what have you done to all of us?

Kate and I had a lovely conversation last night about this place though. We came to the conclusion that the people here are truely amazing. Some of the most incredible people I have ever met and people like that are not so easily found in this day and age. The drama is easy to get lost in, but if we stop and think about it, the people more than make up for all the hard. And we will forever be bonded by sharing the Macau experience. That is not something to take lightly, as we all know. I am very lucky to have had this adventure to meet these people and I want you all to know that.

Enough with the sentimentality. I have to take the sheets out of the wash in the hopes that they will dry before tonight. China, you and your silly hang things up to dry rule. What I wouldn't give for a dryer and some dryer sheets. Living here makes me grateful for the little things in my real life, like full size washers and dryers that work, and fabric softener that makes thing smell nice, and normal toilets that aren't a hole in the floor. People, do me a favor and appreciate those things for me until I get back...

More on Chinese New Year and my rash to come. Promise. : )

Love and Misses. xxx

Happy Holidays, a little late...

One month and some change later...

Well, here we are again. Crossroads. I'm reminded of a classic 80s number by The Clash that asked "Should I stay or should I go?"

Life here is fairly ho hum and mundane. The only excitement is the inveritable drama that working in theater seems to beg. I could do without all that nonsense at this point in my life. Seriously.

It would seem that things around here are cyclical. Some weeks are better, some weeks are just plain painful. All I know is I don't have to deal with all the drama, but I also don't want to be bored, which I sort of am. Let's just say I am keeping the options open.

In other news, I bought an iTouch. It is keeping me very busy. My new favorite app: the one that helps you learn Spanish. I am on the beginner level and doing quite well so far. You never know when one day those years in Spanish might come in handy... Other than that, Angry Birds consumes my breaks. Great fun to be had by all. I also picked up my knitting again. It's hard to do all three at the same time and prioritizing can be difficult, at best. Sometimes I do not know how I manage.

I was able to go home for Christmas, to surprise the family, and let me just say it may have been one of the best things I have ever done. They were surprised and we were all very happy. It was not a very relaxing vacation, as I spent most of it running around like a crazy person and spending somewhere in the neighborhood of WAY too much money. BUT. I will not complain because I missed the States something fierce and that was a lovely little break from Macau. Made it a bit easier to come back to work. And then work started it's drama again. We may have to have a come to Jesus meeting in a couple of days if things don't abate.

It's cold in Macau right now. Apparently it was 6 degrees the other day. I'm not exactly sure what that is in Farenheit, but I believe it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40. To this girl, that is cold. Especially when we walk everywhere. Sigh. The trials and tribulations of living in an exotic tropical climate with no central heating.

I hope to post again soon.

Love and misses. xxx

Brownies and The Little Mermaid Cure Everything.

Rough few weeks. Keeping your head above water is very difficult when the tide is coming in and you've retreated as far as you can. I recently found this out. BUT. We're on the upswing, people, so never fear. It can't get worse than the past few weeks I don't think. That's good news for the future.

In between dramatic episodes at work, there were some epic weekends. A couple in Hong Kong (One was titled "Girls Weekend... Aaaaaaand Pete" - we love Pete), which always makes for good times, and American Thanksgiving, which was more like a gathering of representatives from the United Nations over a barbeque grill that ended at a Karaoke bar in a room with red velvet chairs and fake rock walls. It was amazing. We had Americans, Brits, an Italian, a Russian, Canadians, and Southerners. Oh and lots of adult beverages. I made cornbread dressing (improvised, of course); while I thought it tasted off, everyone else loved it. Success!

Last weekend, we went to Lamma Island (out in Hong Kong) which is quite touristy but had delicious food and was very quiet because there are no cars on the island, literally. Much different from the hustle and bustle of Macau's polluted atmosphere. We spent the night on the beach in a quaint motel after an evening drinking wine out of paper cups on the beach - where I saw a star!!! - and getting bitten by mosquitoes, then shopped in Hong Kong the next day and Pete and I went to see a ukelele concert at Hong Kong Polytechnic College before trekking back to Macau. Epic. We had a blast.

I live for the weekends these days. My friends are starting to leave the show to go back to reality and it makes me sad. But these people are favorites and one day, we'll all get together to hang out in a random location that is thousands of miles and life times away from Macau and we will laugh about our misadventures and shared experiences. I love them for that. In the meantime, we'll have to take lots of pictures and make fools of ourselves more. Work is more bearable when you're laughing at yourself!

I am 25. Wow.

I turned 25 two days ago. And when you turn 25 a LONG way away from home, turns out home is what you think about most of the day. Working 8-530 is a long day and it started off well. I walked into work, clocked in, made the elevator just in time and when I squeezed in, everyone wished me a happy birthday, which was nice. Work was OK. Slow. Long. After work, I ran home to shower and open my birthday cards from my mother and sister and the couple presents I got in the mail and loved them all. My mom and my aunt know me so well! Then we went to Mexican. The Mexican restaurant here is pretty delicious for being in the middle of China and I'll take what I can get. As Mexican is my favorite, we had Mexican and margaritas. All of my friends came, except for a few who are on vacay. I felt loved and it really was a wonderful evening. After all of that, we went to the pub and had a round at the local watering hole, where they know me and celebrated for another hour with friends. We called it an evening early because 8 am comes much too fast if you stay out TOO late.

All of this was not to dwell on how much I missed my Totem Polers and my Majayjay crew and my ATLers and my St. Tim's kids and my Wesley family, or my LSU theater kids, or my family back home. I do. Every last one of you crazy people. It was to let all you loved ones know that I was well taken care of here on my birthday in the land of far far and away. Days like that let you know that you can make it work if you keep people like these close.

Cheers, or as my Scottish friend says, "Up your bum!" (I am told it is a legit toast.)

Epic Fail.

And, of course, I am referring to my ability to keep up with something as involved as a blog. I told ya'll I was terrible at this sort of thing.

Let's start with this evening and work back:

Tonight (being that we got off work at 530pm because we are currently dark - translation: no shows for the next two weeks while the technical crews do maintenance on the theater), we went to the Venetian - casino complex across the street - and had chocolate martinis and free steak sandwiches for happy hour. Two was PLENTY for me - vodka is SO not my thing - but the steak sandwiches were AWESOME. New favorite in Macau.

This weekend was productive. It is still warm here and yesterday, a friend and I spent the BEAUTIFUL afternoon at the Hard Rock Hotel pool. They had an all you can eat BBQ buffet and I ate all I could, trust me. Then we spent the evening in the pool, which was heated because it did start to get chilly after awhile.

During the dark so far, I have spend copious amounts of time in the bottom of the drained pool which entertains me no end because I think looking at all the mechanics of this monster is fascinating. We have replaced many of the lights in the lifts (stage floor) that have been flooded and ruined even though they are supposed to be waterproof and we have also cut out some bad lights that the divers use to light their underwater work. Hopefully things run smoother when the dark is over at the end of the week. It's really nice to have the theater to ourselves to get some work done, but by far my favorite things about the dark is that the artists are gone and sometimes the elevator goes from B1 (low level) to 8 without stopping. It's the little things...

I thought I could make it a year without trekking home, but I now realize that was an unattainable goal. I am lonely and homesick and I miss my family and the South. Four months have gone by and even though I love people here, I find myself missing my friends and family more and more. I've missed an entire season of football and that is just unacceptable. Especially with Thanksgiving two weeks away. Time flies, but I wish it were flying by at home.

That being said, the show is going really well. The response is fantastic and we're sold out until Christmas. It's a great thing and hopefully that means good things for the company because I would love to stay with them and try this experience in a new country. Maybe slightly less than a 23 hour trip from home. I love you all and miss you more. Will write more sooner than the last gap.