What's Making Me Happy!

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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #30 on: March 13, 2021, 08:13:17 PM »
I've been busy on weekends preparing things for my birthday on the 26th.  I'd already made the homemade ricotta and was planning to shred the other cheeses and make the sauce this weekend.  Then next weekend I'd put everything together so I could enjoy my traditional birthday lasagna.

But I've I canceled my birthday plans.  No lasagna on the 26th.

Oh wait, that sounds like bad news.  amamamamam

Except that something better came up.

One of the girls I sponsored in FengHuang has a best friend who was sponsored by one of our friends in the charity.  The friend is getting married on March 26-27.  I have zero clue about why this will take 2 days, but I'm throwing my birthday plans out the window to find out.

Even better, the visit to schools in FengHuang is now scheduled for the 22-25th. ajajajajaj

Even better than better.  This won't be a typical wedding.  It's going to be a full-scale bury the bride under 5-10 kg of silver jewelry Miao ethnic wedding.  ajajajajaj ajajajajaj ajajajajaj

Even better than better than better.  There will be traditional Miao singing - real singing for fun and celebration, not a performance for tourists.  akakakakak akakakakak akakakakak akakakakak akakakakak akakakakak akakakakak

If I cancel my birthday, does this mean I don't get older? mmmmmmmmmm
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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #31 on: March 16, 2021, 05:50:59 PM »
Intriguing.........

I've seen pics and videos from a wedding my girl attended.  I was WeChatting with her friend, the bride-to-be, and found out something.

My girl's village goes for red outfits with massive amounts of silver.  Her friend indicated that her village didn't go all red.  Also, they often skip or minimalize the silver headdress.

I knew Miao outfits varied geographically, but didn't expect to find a variation this significant inside one county.  My planned book on Traditional Miao Weddings in FengHuang just got longer.  I'm going to need to attend a LOT more weddings to make sure I've got all the details.

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AMonk

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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #32 on: March 16, 2021, 08:53:06 PM »
I'm going to need to attend a LOT more weddings to make sure I've got all the details.


 agagagagag
Couldn't happen to a better person  akakakakak Make LOTS of notes and take TONS of photos (for your book) agagagagag
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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #33 on: March 17, 2021, 04:32:05 PM »
This one gets a special place in the book.  My first chance to see a traditional Miao wedding.

Now I just need enough free time to spend a few months attending weddings and asking thousand and thousands of silly questions in villages around FengHuang.
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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #34 on: March 29, 2021, 05:35:40 PM »
What a week it was.

More school visits than I can count.  Got to see 3 of my current sponsored students at their schools.

Then there was the wedding on Friday. akakakakak akakakakak akakakakak

It was AMAZING.  Every time the women wearing the silver moved, the jewelry made very pleasant sounds.  Quite a bit dangled, so it was lucky my cats weren't there.  They've have interpreted all the jewelry as cat toys. ahahahahah

I was slightly surprise the bride wasn't wearing silver jewelry, until the groom and his family and friends showed up.  They brought her jewelry with them on a large tray suspended beneath a bamboo pole.  (sadly, this wasn't put on until late in the evening, so I had to settle for pics and videos).  There were piles of other gifts, including a couple of thoroughly tied up geese also suspended from a bamboo pole.

My limited Mandarin was useless, since most of the talking, shouting, singing, etc. was in the local Miao dialect.  Songs were sung, questions were asked and answered, the groom and some of his friends had to try playing jump rope wearing their socks on a slightly spiky rubber mat.  Finally, after the groom and his friends had to down several rounds of alcohol, he got down on one knee.  It looked like the ceremony was going to end quickly.

Instead, the one of the bridesmaids shoved a phone in front of his face and demanded he start reading some lengthy text.  From context, it appeared to be a detailed and highly amusing set of wedding vows (there didn't appear to be any vows required from the bride).  He finally finished and tried to present flowers to the bride.  She pushed them back and extended one hand, with her ring finger slightly raised.  Once he gave her the ring, he was finally allowed to give her the flowers and complete the ceremony.

We all then wend around to the courtyard beside the house for the wedding feast.

I waited until the wedding feast was wrapping up and some people were leaving before sending a message to the bride and to the girl I sponsored (she's now graduated and is also the bride's best friend) thanking them for the most wonderful birthday present ever.  My girl was missing at this point and we were walking back to the cars.  She wrote back to ask what I meant.  I told her it was my birthday, and that I didn't say anything earlier since I didn't want to hijack a wedding.  She told me she was dropping her sister off and that she'd be back in 10 minutes.  Then the bride and groom showed up where we had the cars and also congratulated me.

My girl's skills are impressive.  Somehow, in a tiny little village that's in the middle of nowhere, she found a small birthday cake for me.  There wasn't time to eat it at that point.  We walked into a field across the road to take a few pics and 4 older Miao women from the groom's family decided this looked fun, so joined us.

In the evening, my charity group did the most unsubtle surprise party ever.  After we got back from the wedding, I went for a walk in "Old Town", which is the tourist area around the river.  One of the charity's office girls started texting me on WeChat wanting to know when I'd be back.  I didn't have a specific plan (other than relaxing and eating some VERY rare reduced-fat Cheez-Its while sitting somewhere with a nice view).  I told her I might stay another hour or so, unless there was some specific plan for the group to go do something.  She said there was no plan, but also kept saying I should come back ASAP.  I did stop to enjoy the view from one of the bridges while finishing my Cheez-Its and then started working my way out of the maze of streets in Old Town.  As I was coming back, she kept wanting to know how much longer I'd be.  I could have shared my GPS location, but by this point, I'd figured out what was up.  Instead of GPS, I  sent an occasional picture of the shops I was walking past (she was a sponsored girl from FengHuang before moving to Dongguan, so knows the area).

There was no chance to sneak into the hotel.  She was waiting in the doorway.  In the elevator, I told her I needed to run to my room to use the restroom.  Even before getting my door open, I could hear the crowd 2 doors down in the room the charity's founder was in.  Since it was a long walk in a drizzle, I took a moment to change my shirt, but not before sending a message saying "I think I'll take a shower, see you in 15 minutes" - just to hear the anguished reaction from down the hall. ahahahahah

As expected, there was a crowd wedged into the founder's room.  They also had a bigger cake.  After blowing out the candles, I ran back to my room to grab the cake my girl had given me.  I should have brought it with me when I first entered and said - "Does anyone want cake?" while walking in, but only thought of that later.
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AMonk

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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #35 on: March 29, 2021, 08:32:42 PM »
 agagagagag agagagagag agagagagag akakakakak


 axaxaxaxax axaxaxaxax cecececece :respect:





Thank you for sharing
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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #36 on: April 26, 2021, 06:02:26 PM »
I have an appointment to be stabbed er, jabbed. 💉

Dose 1 is on Thursday.  Not yet sure if its Sinovac or Sinopharm.

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Nolefan

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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #37 on: April 28, 2021, 10:29:59 PM »
congrats!!!  agagagagag agagagagag

here in the land of pasta and pizza, the missus and i might get our turn in september if we're lucky.
alors régressons fatalement, eternellement. Des débutants, avec la peur comme exutoire à l'ignorance et Alzheimer en prof d'histoire de nos enfances!
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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #38 on: April 30, 2021, 04:14:20 PM »
All jabbed with Sinovac.  agagagagag  Second dose is supposed to be taken in 4-8 weeks.

Citizens get it free.  Still waiting on my paperwork, so I had to pay the pretty nurse 100 RBM to stab me. ahahahahah

No sign of side effects.  She injected it VERY slowly and I don't even have a trace of a bruise or sore spot.


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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #39 on: July 16, 2021, 04:30:08 PM »
I'm currently selling a piece of property back in the US.

All the initial docs, from the listing to counter-offers and final acceptance of an offer would previously have required physical signatures and initials.  As a side effect of Covid, all of that's done online.  I email back and forth with the realtor.  Once she's sure we agree, she send me a link.  The docs are there, along with "select your font" and buttons to put signatures and initials in all the right places.

I'm in the final phase and thought I'd need to have them mail the contract here for me to sign and send back, or else I could print one here and send it back.  The realtor wasn't sure, but the title company said I can just get on a video call and do a remote notarization.  No sending any actual paper that might get delayed and cause me to miss the closing date.

If nothing goes wrong (goes wrong, goes wrong, goes wrong, . . .) we may even be able to close the deal early. agagagagag
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AMonk

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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #40 on: August 06, 2021, 02:12:39 AM »
 agagagagag agagagagag agagagagag
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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #41 on: August 06, 2021, 07:36:06 PM »
And I believe it's done.  For some reason, someone involved needed my driver's license (which I managed to find a few weeks back - lots of stuff is hiding after the move).

Now I just need to visit the US and get my online banking going as well as getting a new ATM card.  Not much point in having the cash if I can't spend it.  ahahahahah
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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #42 on: August 12, 2021, 01:00:11 AM »
Moderation....in most things...

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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #43 on: August 16, 2021, 07:40:40 PM »
Assuming the virus doesn't wreck things, my previously delayed trip to XinJiang is back in the agenda for September. agagagagag

Now comes the fun part.  Most of the charity group is planning to take trains there over a span of 2 days.  My job sort of needs me to have reliable internet access and I can't risk falling off the map for too long.  So, in the midst of travel sites that can't keep up with ever-changing flight schedules, I have to figure out how to get to the correct remote corner of the province.

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Re: What's Making Me Happy!
« Reply #44 on: September 08, 2021, 05:08:19 PM »
Bad news, good news.
The town in XJ is right on the border of Something-Or-Other-istan.  Evidently, it takes considerable time to get a proper permit to let a foreigner wander about there, and they didn't realize a foreigner was part of the group until too late.  ananananan

I've already let the coordinator of permit things know that I plan to go to that town in XJ sometime during the Spring semester, so there should be more than enough time to get all the paper work down for that trip.

In related news, those going to XJ will then move on to Qinghai.  I've already got flight booked for Friday morning and will get there before them.  That will give me time to play tourist for a day or two.  It's quite a mix of groups there - Hui, Tu, Tan, Mongol, and more minority groups.

And it looks like my Hunan trip got moved up to the end of September.  Things will be busy.
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