Lots of Hip Action!

This past Monday night I went to my first Cuba Salsa, Caribbean Merengue dance class! Because I didn’t want to be the only 40-something there....I invited my best friend Tammy to come along. :) My friend Nana also joined us. It was a ton of fun! There must have been 50-60 folks there (mostly students) and I’m betting there were at least 20 countries represented. For me, it has easily replaced contra dancing on Monday nights, which I enjoyed but I love the much faster pace of the Latin dancing.
Tonight it’s Indian Culture Night at the I-House. I’m looking forward to some great home-cooked Indian food and my first henna tattoo. No worries, though. I’ll definitely be home in time for "Lost." :)
Update a week later: The hand above is not mine but my artwork looked much the same. Now, mine is nearly gone. But I did enjoy it and I may have to purchase some henna and create my own now. :)

An International hike

On Saturday, September 10th, the Interna- tionals (see add'l entry of today) and I went on a hike to Abrams Fall in Cades Cove of the Smoky Mtn. National Park. I brought a cooler of bottled water and everyone packed their own lunch. The 2.5 mile hike up and down the rolling hills to get the falls was easy for everyone. Well, I may have huffed and puffed just a little. :) We arrived at the falls right around noon and everyone decided the best place to eat would be at the top of the falls (about 30-40 feet) so we climbed up the side (ignoring the warning sign) and spread out our lunch. Five people would hardly be able to eat all the food that everyone brought. There was homemade sushi, cold cheesy potatoes, turkey sandwiches, bologna and cheese sandwiches, chips, salad, carrots, peaches, bananas, crackers, etc. We had a wonderful time talking and eating. After lunch we waded around in the water. Ruihe managed to catch several "creek creatures" and was very proud of himself. I collected 5 small, smooth river stones and put them in my pocket; my way of remembering the day with my four friends. On the hike back to the car, we continued working on pronounciation of everyone’s name. As we passed folks on their way to the fall, everyone said "hi" or "hello" or "hey" as hikers always do. One time, however, we decided that the next hikers we saw would be met with a smile and "nee-how" which is hello in Mandarin. Those poor folks. :)
Later, I took them to see the Old Mill where they still demonstrate corn and wheat being milled into meal and flour. They found that very interesting and Nana said that there are still working mills in Georgia. Liyin, who is the only one who has a driver’s license (not International, Taiwanese), and Ruihe, who said he also knew how to drive, wanted to practice their driving skills so I let them. Ruihe only drove the few miles out of Cades Cove on the one way road. He said he had not drive in four years so this was nice and easy for him. Liyin turned out to be a much more accomplished driver and ended up driving my car from Cades Cove all the way back to Knoxville. It was a wonderful day and we were all pleasantly tired by the time we returned home. Photos coming soon!
A nice quote: Sometimes when we want to achieve something very dearly, we need to close all the doors behind us and then proceed towards that thing.

Give Directions, Gain Friends

A couple of months ago, I was walking back to my office and a young Chinese student asked me for directions to Payroll. Instead of trying to explain the quirky way to get there I told her I would take her there. Her name is Yeheng and she is a doctoral student in Political Science. She had only been in Knoxville for 2 weeks. Since that "coincidental" meeting I have helped Yeheng by arranging for her to borrow bedroom furniture and a desk (she had none) for her apartment, taking her to get her social security card, explaining U.S. income taxes, and even the meaning of crazy word usages such as "going Dutch" and what it means to "drop the ball." Yeheng has told me over and over again how very lucky for her to have met me. The pleasure is all mine, I keep telling her. After all, I’m only doing for her what I would hope someone might do for me if I were a young doctoral student studying in China for the first time. Since that meeting, however, it is clear to me that I am the lucky one. Because of meeting Yeheng and helping her out, I now have a circle of friends I call the "Internationals." They are Liyin, who is from Taiwan. She is a doctoral student in microbiology. Ruihe is also from Taiwan. He is also a doctoral student in an area of biology. Nana (pronounced like the word "knock" without the "ck" at the end) is from Georgia (as in the former "Republic of Georgia") and she is a master’s student in business marketing. Yeheng, Liyin and Ruihe are in their later 20's. Nana is in her mid 30's. Already, we have had great times together and my world perception has been broadened. Yeheng came to my house one evening with dumplings she had made. I loved them! A few weeks later, all the Internationals came to my house and the five of us made Chinese dumplings with Yeheng "directing" the cooking show. After she put the pork into the bowl, along with oil, ginger, bok choy, seasonings, etc., she explained that you must only stir the mixture in one direction. I thought this unusual. She was very stern when she again said, "only one direction." I asked "why" but I never received an answer and I assumed it was perhaps because she had just been brought up to believe it was better luck to only stir in one direction or something. :) Lo and behold, however, after some research on the internet, I have learned that stirring the mixture in one direction helps the meat fibers stay together so that when you form you small mounds to go inside the dumplings, everything sticks and stays together much better. Ahhhh.
The Internationals and I have already had many good times together. I have learned several words in Mandarin, along with the proper way to pronounce them (something that is not easy given the many different "tones" that are used in the Chinese language) and also a few words in Georgian (and I don’t mean words like "ya’ll" but words like madloba which means "thank you" and is pronounced "ma-da-low-ba").
From a chance meeting.....a new circle of friends. Lucky? Indeed.