What's Making Me Happy!

I pack my bag last night preflight
Zero hour 9 AM (actually, I've got until 9:30 to get out the door and head to the train station - must run!)

 
Bon chance et Bon voyage 

I got back in time for lunch.  XiangTan (yes, I finally got the name of the place) is only about 3 hours away by HSR.

The first evening, we were seeing a few sponsored students in one of the teachers office areas in a high school.  As we were leaving, I saw a few faces poking out a classroom door.  I stepped a little closer and waved.  The teacher didn't seem to object (and some helpful colleagues already had phones out to take pics and were shoving me forward), so I went in.

One girl had a full scale fan girl meltdown (in English!).  "Ican'tbelieveit'saforeigner!  I'veneverseenoneandhavealwayswantedtotalktoone!  Whatsyourname? CanIshakeyourhand?" and on and on.  I talked to her quite a bit, answered some questions, shook everyone's hand. (Except the teacher disappeared.  She probably decided this was a good time to grab a snack.)  Finally I escaped after giving about half a dozen autographs.

(Remind me to tell you about my "magic chop" next week. I just epent a few hours catching up on work and have a bunch of other things I need to do.)

About the magic chop.  My first full scale kid swarm had second graders shoving notebooks and pens at me wanting autographs.  Of course, the pens were point first, so not only did I get jabbed, but I also had ink marks all over my arms.

So, I arranged to get a self-inking chop made with my name (in English and Chinese) and a short line in Chinese telling them to study hard.

Every time I remembered to have it with me, NO ONE wanted an autograph.  But, when I didn't have it with me, I'd get at least one swarm coming in for autographs.

In Xiangtan, I forgot it on day 1, so had to sign by hand the first evening.  I put it in my pocket the next day.  Several autograph-free swarms happened and finally on the last day, I got to use the chop with some high school students.

So, for good or bad, the magic chop that prevents children from wanting autographs has lost its ability (or was just overrun by so many students).

I'm doing a separate post for this.

While I was in Xiangtan, one of my favorite sponsored students FINALLY picked her wedding date.  The wedding party in her village was held on Sunday, November 26th.  My darling wife and I jumped on a train on Saturday to attend our dear niece's wedding.  By odd coincidence, it turned out that the groom is from Xiangtan.

The groom was Han, but he couldn't escape the challenges to pass the Miao red ribbon.  (Yes, there's a red ribbon between the bride and her family and the grooms family.)  He was allowed to ask his relatives to do some of the challenges, but had to do the pushups, some drinking, handing out bribes hong bao to the bridesmaids himself.  I think he borrowed one of the bride's relatives for one of the singing challenges, since she ended a song in a way I've only ever heard Miao do.  His first cousin impressed everyone by opening a beer bottle with her teeth and chugging the whole thing for one of the other challenges. 

The bulk of the women on both sides wore traditional Miao clothing (one of my niece's family had a pile of spare outfits that were made available).  Even Mrs. Lunatic dressed up.

The wedding meals (a late breakfast around 10 and a mid-afternoon meal) both featured beer and baijiu.  Those were held in another relative's courtyard.

There was another party at the groom's house on Monday, but sadly I was on a train getting back to DG.  I needed to get back to work today.  Also, His Imperial Majesty wasn't feeling well when we left and my daughter checked him into the vet's office on Saturday morning.  Happily, the vet was ready to give him back on Monday, so we grabbed him on the way back home.

I glanced at my watch this morning.  Something about the date caught my attention.  Could it really have been 17 whole years ago.

On December 6, 2006, I was on a one way flight to Hong Kong, followed by a bus ride to Dongguan China.  That was the first of 3 expeditions to China before I moved here permanently.

How time flies, my friend. Glad you're here.

And today is my other Chinaversary.  I first arrived in 2006, but on February 26, 2010, I arrived with only one plan.  To stay in China forever.

 

His Imperial Majesty, Stripy Emperor, has declared today to be a public holiday.

8 years ago today, His Majesty was ransomed from a very dishonest cat dealer.  He then quickly conquered his new "owners" and took his rightful place on the furry throne as Emperor of all Kitty Cats.

congratulations, Stripy Emperor! And felicitations to Mr and Mrs Lunatic for their years of service! May long your catnip grow!

We have our own 猫蛋, whose gracefully permits Mrs Late and myself to share his bed. (He usually tickles her nose with his tail, not mine)

(He tickles her nose, not mine with his tail. He doesn't tickle anyone, SFAIK, with mine)

Since Bronze Kitty got promoted from outside car/guardian of the front door to inside cat/guardian of all entrances and exits, there hasn't been an official guard downstairs.

Then an orange and white kitten showed up and started guarding not only my prior house's front door, but also the front door of my building and the building on the other side of my prior house.  Bronzy and Stripy agreed to let him have the job (official title is Guardian of the Front Doors), so he was taken to the vet and got "fixed", plus an ear trim.  Someone next door even put a box by the door for him to sleep in.  A few weeks later, he was looking slight ill and the next day he didn't have the energy to get out of his box.  He also had a younger kitten in the box with him suffering the same thing.  It turned out to be the dreaded cat plague/cat parvo, the same disease that almost got Stripy Emperor and that ended poor Penguin's chances of recovering from his injuries.

My decision making shifted from picking a name for the new cat to which internal organ will I sell to pay for this.  They both spent a couple of months in isolation at the vets.  Happily, both survived.  The vets sent multiple pics and videos every day.  Since the big one was orange, they sometimes referred to him as Mango.  The other is mostly white and was occasionally referred to as Pear. 

It was touch and go the first week and then a long slow recovery.  Sadly, both also have a lung infection that will give them congestion and sneezing any time their immune systems are over-challenged, and there's no cure.  So, as much as I'd love to have 2 more balls of fur inside, they are permanent outdoor kitties now. Finally, we brought them back and gave them a new box. I decided we'd just keep Mango and Pear as names (with approval from Stripy Emperor, of course).

And the very good news.  They've been happily living outside and spend a lot of time sitting in the box.  Both got their final does of cat-parvo vaccine on the weekend.  So, they may have cold-like symptoms from time to time, but they won't be able to catch or spread parvo any more.

Now we're waiting for Pear to get a little bigger before he goes to the vet for neutering and an ear trim.  Pear was also appointed as Assistant Guardian of the Front Doors.

Since resuming his post, Mango has been given 2 commendations for killing rats.  Rumors that he found them already dead and was just carrying the corpses around are just lies spread by one of the dogs in the neighborhood.

Thanks for the cat update!

I am both allergic and adverse to cats (itchy hives and having a cat climb up my face when I was 10) but I miss the kittens in our compound in Beijing. They were adorable and I could play with them without getting itchy or getting my face climbed.

A neighbor twice saw Mango with dead rats.  Either or both may be overlaps of the two prior confirmed kills, or they may be separate.  Street sweepers come by several times per day, so there may be additional kills that were not reported.

And Mango doesn't appear to be killing all by himself. 

My lovely wife spotted Mango and Pear playing around her scooter and running under its cover and out again.  A bit later, we went out and there were fresh blood stains and a rat corpse next to the scooter.  Closer inspection revealed multiple blood stains inside the scooter's cover.  It looked like a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie scaled down to rat size.

Rats are much more rare in the village as they were when I first moved in.  If these two little bundles of rodent-murding cuteness keep up their killing spree, my section of the village will run out of rats pretty soon.

Stripy Emperor and Bronze Cat spent some time consulting before giving Mango and Pear a commendation for their action and also granting them both the additional title of "Slayer of Rats."