10 Things to give a traveler

During the holidays, we like to remember our friends & family with cards & gifts. But what do you do when there is a traveler in your life? They might not stay in one place long enough to receive anything you could send through the mail. It might seem hopeless to include them on your holiday card mailing list.

But there is still a way - the internet is a wonderful thing. There are so many digital gifts & e-cards out there. Besides, your traveler probably doesn't need any more stuff. Here are ten things you can give a traveler without weighing down their luggage.

1. Credit at Amazon.com for Kindle e-books, digital music & more
2. Virtual language lessons - a couple of my favorites: ChinesePod, Lo Más TV
3. Online exercise classes - MyYogaOnline.com
4. Netflix membership - the streaming only option
5. A membership at Hostelling International
6. A donation to their favorite charity - I like Kiva.org 
7. Your unused frequent flyer miles
8. A tour in or around their current location
9. A visit - meet them somewhere!
10. A phone call - Skype.com

Wishing you a happy holiday season & a new year filled with adventure.

The New Kindle Fire!

It was only a matter of time.

Kindle announced today their new Kindle Fire, Amazon’s answer to the iPad. I can’t tell you how excited I am! I’ve only just seen the announcement, & have not actually held one in my hands, but I can see that this new device is going to be awesome.

Of course, the best thing is that it has the same touch technology that an iPad or iPhone has. It runs on Google’s Android software, making Android-compatible apps & games available for download on the Kindle Fire. Also, it’s smaller & cheaper than the iPad. Its 7” display makes it much lighter & more portable than the iPad, & at $199 it’s so much more affordable.

Still, reading on a backlit screen is not ideal. One of the reasons I love my Kindle is because I can read on it for hours without getting tired. Kindle thought of that, though, & along with the Kindle Fire, they also have announced the new Kindle Touch, which has touch-screen technology combined with the very readable e-ink, but it’s available only in black & white.

Although the Kindle Touch is available with 3G technology, the Kindle Fire does not have it yet. So you can use it to play games, watch movies & listen to music, but you can’t browse the web without a wi-fi connection. It also doesn’t come with a camera or a microphone, so you can’t call anyone or take any photos.

Even though it’s not the iPad’s equal – yet – I’m really excited to see this new alternative. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great start. I can’t wait to see the second and third generations of the Kindle Fire. Oh! The possibilities!

E-Reading

I read a lot. Books are like food for my brain. I especially enjoy reading in bed before I fall asleep. There's something about curling up with a good book that comforts my soul. I love the feel of a book, the smell of a book - new ones, old ones, musty ones, crisp photographic ones. I love them all.

I love browsing through stacks of books at the secondhand shop - stumbling upon titles I never knew existed, shelling out 25 cents each & carting them all home. I love passing them on to friends once I've read them & talking about what we liked & didn't like about the story, the plot, the characters. I love everything about a book.

But a couple of years ago, I decided to change my lifestyle - to minimize my possessions so that I could move toward a vagabond life. I reluctantly got rid of three tall shelves of books, saving only a handful to take with me when I left the US.

My first stop was Vietnam, where I was naively surprised to find that reading material in English was a rare luxury. It wasn't long before I began to feel desperate. Friends & family started sending me care packages of books to help feed my need to read. I coveted a neat little e-reader stocked with thousands of titles at a single click.

When I moved to Shanghai, my reading horizons happily expanded. There are a several cheap sources for books in English here, including Shanghai Secondhand, expat cafes and the copy book carts that appear in the foreigner neighborhoods after the sun goes down. I had an endless supply of read-feed again.

Even so, I still thought from time to time about getting an e-reader because it fits well with my long-term goals of reducing my material possessions. Besides, books are heavy & difficult to lug around as I move from place to place. Having them all in a neat little digital package would be a load off. 

So when I got a Kindle as a birthday gift earlier this year, I was delighted & excited to start exploring the world of e-books. Since then - in just a few month's time - my reading life has completely & irreversibly transformed into an almost exclusively e-reading life.

Before the Kindle, I used to spend hours browsing the shelves in a bookstore. Now I browse Amazon, where I've created an ever-growing wish list. I used to buy five or six books every time I saw a copy book cart. Now I don't even stop to see what's on offer. I've gotten rid of almost all of my physical books & downloaded the e-books that replace them, plus hundreds - not kidding - hundreds more, cheap or free (one of the perks of living in China).

I never thought the change would be so quick, so complete. As I said, I love the feel & smell of books, turning the physical pages, perusing the spines on my shelf, the beauty of a well-rounded home library.

You don't get any of that with a Kindle, it's true. But what you get instead is infinitely better. I carry a full library in my pocket everywhere I go. When I hear of a book I'd like to read, I can download it instantly. If the book I decide to read on a long flight doesn't grab my interest, I can simply forget it & switch to the next title on my list. It's like the doors of Pergamum have been flung wide & I can take anything I want any time I want. It's a traveling reader's godsend.

(Full disclosure: I do not work for Amazon, nor do I sell Kindles. I *do* get a few pennies in commission if you click on one of the books in the little box in the left-hand sidebar. Over the past year, that commission has amassed to the lofty sum of 35 cents.)

Spanish Language Book Club

A few weeks ago I discovered a Spanish language book group here in Shanghai. I contacted them & they told me where to pick up the book, which I did with astounding success.

I spent the time between then & now engrossed in a travel memoir written by a Spanish man who traveled to China in the early 1990's - when China had just opened its borders to foreign tourists. I finished reading the book the day before the book club meeting.

I was excited to join the club, not only because I loved the book & wanted to talk about it with the group, but also because I haven't had much opportunity to speak Spanish since I left Arizona, & I'm feeling a bit rusty.

When I got to the cafe, everyone was warm & welcoming. Siéntate y placticar con nosotros. We had a great discussion about the book & shared some yummy Yunnan food together. It was delightful.

At one point someone asked me where I was from. The US - Arizona. "But have you lived in a Spanish-speaking country?" they asked. No - well, unless you consider the US a Spanish-speaking country. They were surprised & told me I have a Mexican accent. Ha! Of course, right?

But that means that all is not lost as far as my Spanish-speaking abilities. They say that one way to know that you speak a language fluently is when people stop complimenting you on your ability to speak it. No one at this book club meeting said anything about how well I spoke.

On the other hand, every time I utter anything in Chinese, people all around ooh & ah: "Your Chinese is soooo good!" It's great to have the encouragement, but it looks like I have a long way to go before I can say I'm fluent in Chinese.

Room

The Shanghai Dolls Book Club is reading two selections represented at the Shanghai Literary Festival for April (Emma Donoghue's Room) & May (Chris Tsiolkas's The Slap). This week, we went together to listen to see Emma Donoghue speak.

Donoghue's latest novel Room is about a woman who is kidnapped & held prisoner in a backyard shed for seven years. The story is told from the perspective of her five-year-old son, born of the continuous rapes that she endures while she is imprisoned. It sounds frightfully heavy, but because the story is told through the eyes of a naive child, it is actually quite digestible.

The author started her talk at the Literary Festival by reading a short passage from her book & then took questions from the audience. She was warm & engaging with a great sense of humor. It made me want to start reading the book right away, so after the talk, I downloaded the e-book on my Kindle (zap!). Once I got home I spent the rest of the evening engrossed in the story.

The boy who narrates the  novel describes everything that's inside the Room as real, & everything that's outside the Room as TV, fantasy. As I flipped the pages (clicked?), I started thinking about my life here in China. I often feel like life here is not altogether real, like I'm watching it happen through a lense. I live in a kind of bubble - or room - of my own, moving through Outside but still separated from it.

When I'm at home, I'm alone in my 10-foot by 10-foot bedroom, reading or studying or chatting with friends on Skype. When I'm at work, I'm surrounded by Westerners - people like me. (Since we're writing English language learning materials, we're all native speakers of English.)

My contact with Chinese life is short & intermittent - the morning commute on the subway, a 10-second conversation with a shop keeper, giving directions to the taxi driver. Often I feel I'm invisible - life happens around me & I'm only an unseen observer. Other times I feel I'm on display as people stare & point & snap photos of me, the foreigner - for many Chinese people, I'm not entirely real. But either way I'm mentally separated from it all.

Every once in a while, I have to remind myself that I live in China. China! CHINA?! How did that happen? It's not an altogether real part of my life. My job is real, my room is real, my Western friends are real. But China? China is just TV. Fantasy.

Shanghai Literary Festival

What a great month to be in Shanghai! Both the Literary Festival & the Jue Music+Art Festival are going on right now. All of my free time is filled with books, music & art. Life is good.

I was in Shanghai last year during the Literary Festival, but wasn't able to go to any of the events because of my teaching schedule. English teaching jobs generally require you to work nights & weekends, which is just when all of the author lectures & events were scheduled. But now that I have a Monday to Friday office job, I'm free to rub elbows with all the other bookish people in Shanghai.

I got tickets for seven of the events, including the Literary Death Match. I don't know what that is, but the name is enough for me. I was also lucky enough to get a ticket to see Peter Hessler, the famous author who wrote River Town & Oracle Bones, both fascinating accounts of life in China.

I went to my first festival event this weekend. The atmosphere was comfortable & the audience was chummy. I passed around my new Kindle for all to ooh & aah over. Then I downloaded a few of the books whose authors I will see in the coming weeks - one click & I had the e-books in the palm of my hand. The best thing of all is that all those books are still just one thing :)

ESL Book Club

A couple of my students have started reading the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. They heard about it because the movie is to be released in China soon. They were intrigued by the story & thought it would be an enjoyable way to practice their English.

When I was talking with them about it, they both made the comment that they had never read an entire book in English before, & although they were excited to try it, they were a bit uncertain about their ability to finish the book. Without any motivation to continue reading, it's likely that their fears would become reality.

So I suggested that we create a book club. I'll assign a chapter or two a week, & when we meet we'll discuss any problems they have with the language, as well as what they think of the story. They enthusiatically agreed, & as soon as we decided on a day & time, word spread around the school. Soon several other students wanted to join the club too. One of the other teachers even joined the group just for fun. Awesome.

We had our first meeting today. I could feel the excitement among the students as we introduced the book, talked about the movie a bit, & finally assigned the first 20 pages to read for next week. The most common comment was "Why didn't anyone think of this before?" 

I'm really excited about the new book club. Not only will a weekly meeting keep the students motivated to read, it will also be interesting for me to hear their thoughts on the book - divorce, gluttony, world travel, religion, finding yourself - all topics that Chinese people see much differently than we do in the US. I'm sure we'll have plenty of fascinating conversations as a result.

Bored Laowai

I’ve been reading Rachel DeWoskin’s Foreign Babes in Beijing, about her experiences working on the set of a Chinese soap opera. She tells her story with wit & charm, & I find myself smiling & nodding as I read because her story is more about life as a foreigner in China than about being a soap star, & I can relate to a lot of what she says.

I was sitting at Starbucks on my day off, quietly chuckling to myself as I read her take on conversations with other foreigners:

Expatriate small talk ran a predictable gamut. There was “How long have you been in Beijing?” usually accompanied by the subtext “I’ve been here longer.” Or the more direct “How is your Chinese?” which carried with it the thinly veiled “Mine is better.” Finally, I dreaded most the “What are you doing in China?” and my embarrassed response that I was working in public relations.

I’ve had this same conversation with countless foreigners. Of course I substitute “teaching English” for “working in public relations”, but I feel the same condescension from other expats as DeWoskin did.

It seems that if you’re teaching English in China, you’re considered an inexperienced newbie, fresh off the fabled boat. You haven’t yet found something more worthwhile to do – like starting an import-export company or opening a bar where you can hire karaoke bands & flirt with the locals.

As I sat at Starbucks sipping my coffee, Christmas music wafting through the sound system, a gingerbread cookie warm in my belly, a good-looking guy, 50-something, sat at the table next to mine & pulled out his MacBook.

After a few surreptitious glances in my direction, he leaned over & asked me what I was reading. I showed him the book cover & he said, “Oh… Isn’t that a bored laowai (foreigner) book?” What do you mean?, I asked. “Isn’t that just like every other book about China – you know, with stories about taxi drivers & street food?” I thought of my blog & quickly looked away.

The cloud I had been soaring on because I had found a book that understood me slowly drifted back to earth & deposited me there. How embarrassing to be called out as the newbie that I am. I pretended to continue reading, but couldn’t stop thinking of what he had said.

I’ve been in China for less than a year – a newbie indeed. But for me, most of the joy of living life abroad is the newness of it – discovering things that are different from home, & gaining a new perspective on my own life while I’m at it.

Perhaps what’s really regrettable is getting over that feeling of excitement & wonder – to lose that feeling of inexperience in a foreign country. My friend at the coffee shop may be a “bored laowai” who knows more about living in China than I do, but at least I can still appreciate the taxi drivers & street food. I think life in China is fascinating, & I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Dear Monkey!

I just finished reading the famous tale of the Monkey King. What a great story!

I first heard of this mischievous creature when I lived in Vietnam, where the story was played over & over again on Vietnamese TV. At the time, I didn't know what it was all about, but after I moved to China, I found out that it's a well-known Chinese tale. Everyone in the East knows who the Monkey King is, just as everyone in the West knows who Cinderella is. So I decided that since I'm living in China, I should try reading it.

However, the story was written in the 16th century, & is more than 1000 pages long in PDF form (!), so I was hesitant to get started on it. Luckily, one of the other teachers at my school came to work one day with a copy of the story in a 350-page novel. Now that I could handle.

The book is a 1942 abridged translation of the story by Arthur Waley, the most widely available version of the tale in English, & was a surprisingly quick read. The story is full of the adventures & misadventures of the Monkey King & his companions as they travel 108 leagues (a lucky number) from China to India to retrieve the holy scriptures of Buddhism. In the end, the Monkey King reaches enlightenment as a result of his efforts.

The story is entertaining, with lots of action (fighting off dragons & the like), along with some crazy magic (Monkey can pull out one of his hairs & turn it into anything he wants), as well as a little bit of humor (they hide some Taoist idols in the outhouse). But my favorite part, at least of this version of the story, is that Waley says "Dear Monkey!" every time Monkey is about to do something amazing. Ha!

Have you ever read this story before? What did you think of it?

Books!

You may remember that I love books. When I was getting rid of all my stuff so that I could be a world traveler, the hardest part of it was giving up my books. Even after several yard sales & book donations, as I was getting ready to go to Vietnam, I packed one entire suitcase full of books. Of course, that suitcase was way over the airline weight limit, so I had to leave most of those books with my brother at the airport in Los Angeles.

In Vietnam it was really difficult to find books in English. For weeks, I read & re-read the five books that survived the book purge at LAX. I felt like I was wilting without mental nurishment - I needed more books! One of my happiest days in Vietnam was the day I got a package from my friend Debra filled with dozens of books. She knew exactly what I needed.

Here in Shanghai, it's much easier to find books in English. There are several foreign language bookstores in the city with a wide variety of current titles. However, those books come with Western prices. The average novel costs around 200 RMB (about US $30), & since I go through so many books, that's out of my price range.

Instead, I prefer to buy books from the copy book sellers that show up on the street corners at night. Their offerings are much cheaper at around 20 RMB (about US $3) each, & they're surprisingly high quality printings - you have to look close to even tell that it's a copy. But there isn't much variety on the book carts. I can normally only find one or two books there that I want to read. The rest are usually how-to books about business & marketing. Yuck.

So I was excited to stumble across Shanghai Secondhand. They buy & sell everything an expat might need, from furniture to pots & pans to bicycles - & they have tons & tons of books!

The day that I went there, I realized that the address was someone's apartment. I called to confirm the location, & the owner Jane said to come on up. She kindly showed me into her home, & when I told her I was looking for books, she pointed around the corner to a room where she had three tall bookshelves filled with books in English. What a sight! 

By the time I was finished looking through her collection, I had made a tall stack of books to take home with me - 16 in all, including Foreign Babes in Beijing, which I've been looking for for a while now. The total bill came to 340 RMB (about US $50).

I should be good on books for a while now, but if I finish all of these too quickly, I know where to go for more.  

I Got a Package!

My friend Debra sent me a box full of books! I should be set on reading material for a while now.

Thanks Debra! That was just what I needed :)

Books!

Since I had the day off, I went into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) again today. In the morning I went to the botanical gardens/zoo, & I spent the afternoon in an English-language bookstore. I was like a kid in a candy store! My entire purchase cost me around $16, but at 300,000 Dong, it seemed really expensive.

I got four books:

A biography of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's beloved president
A book of Vietnamese legends - in Spanish!
A novel: Across the Nightengale Floor by Lian Hearn
Another novel: Mary Called Magdalene by Margaret George

The first two books were published by a Vietnamese company, & the last two books came from the UK.

The available books that had been published in the US were much more expensive, so I decided against buying them, leaving them at the bookstore.

The last book is 875 pages long, so it should last me a while!

Virtual Spanish

Today I attended a Spanish class in Arizona via Skype!

When I lived in Phoenix, I taught Spanish classes to adults. When I moved to Vietnam, some of the students decided to continue their Thursday evening reading class without me. They're reading a novel by Isabel Allende called La cuidad de las bestias.

The group meets at 6:00pm Thursday evenings, which is 8:00am Friday morning in Vietnam. They called me on Skype & I was able to attend the class virtually.

It was so nice to see everyone's friendly faces again!

Dos & Don'ts in Vietnam

I bought this book while I was in Saigon last Sunday. After being here in Vietnam for just a few weeks, I can see the truth in much of what the authors write. If you're considering a long-term stay in Vietnam, you might want to pick up a copy.

Kindle

What a great idea! But at $360 it's a little cost-prohibitive.

I would love to have something like this for my trip to Vietnam. I won't be able to take many books with me, & I'm not sure how easy it will be to get books in English while I'm there. Plus, it fits right into my 100 Thing Challenge because I would be able to carry thousands of books on one device. They've improved on the first version by making the image more like reading an actual page; it's not back-lit like a computer screen but "inked" like a real book. Plus you can type notes right into the file - & I love to mark up my books.

But the Kindle has so much more potential. I prefer to wait for the features that I'm sure must be coming: a color screen for books with color images; touch-screen capability to be able to scroll & "turn" the pages with your finger tip; being able to write on the screen with a stylus so that you can scribble notes on the page or do the NY Times crossword puzzle right on the device. & most importantly, I'm waiting for the price to fall under $100.

Michael Crichton Dies

Okay, so I know I'm late on this one (Michael Crichton died on November 4th, 2008), but I still wanted to acknowledge it.

I'm not usually a star-struck kind of person, but I do have to admit that Michael Crichton has influenced me. He'll probably be best remembered for Jurassic Park & ER. But one of my favorite books is his memoir Travels (1988). In it his chronicles his literal as well as spiritual travels. He admits to making a great many stupid mistakes, & details what he has learned from them along the way. The book starts with this line: "It is not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw." Awesome!

Learning that he had died made me feel sad, & surprisingly disappointed. I wondered why the death of someone I didn't even know made me feel this way. Perhaps it is because now that he is gone, he can no longer produce great works for me to enjoy. I'm not really sure. But I do know that he has been an important influence on many people. The film-making industry & the book publishing industry will surely miss him.

Here's an article about him from CNN.

Book Booty

I've added more books to my stash. I'm such a sucker for books. I realize that this might seem to go against my goal of reducing my stuff. Aren't books just more stuff? Well, perhaps to another person they would be. But for me they are food for the soul.

But in keeping with my philosophy, I do tend to get rid of them once I have read them. I pass them on so that others can enjoy them, & so that I don't have to find a place to put them. Also, I tend not to re-read books only because there are so many out there that I want to read that I see re-reading a book as a missed opportunity to read something new. If only I could read faster!

So, this weekend I took another pile of books over to Bookman's. They gave me $30 in trade, which I promptly spent. Then I stopped at Goodwill, looking for some shoes. I left with some jeans & a book. I also stopped by the Tempe Public Library in hopes of a job. No dice, but I got a couple of books from their sale corner anyway. All told, I brought home nine books to add to my shelf.

Here are my new additions:

Amy Tan, The Opposite of Fate (2003)
Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)
Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian (2005)
J. Maarten Troost, Getting Stoned with Savages (2006)
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (2003)
Robert Hellenga, The Sixteen Pleasures (1995)
Thalia Zepatos, A Journey of One's Own (1992)
Yann Martel, Life of Pi (2001)
In Search of Adventure, A Wild Travel Anthology (1999)


If you want to see what I'm currently reading, or to read my comments on books I have read, check out my book blog.

Check It Out!

In case you didn't notice, I've started two new blogs with the ever so creative titles: "My Reading List" & "My Movie List". You can find the links over there in the right-hand column. Check out what I'm reading & watching - & post your comments!

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea is the account of Greg Mortenson's efforts to educate the uneducated in Pakistan & Afghanistan by constructing schools in the very poorest of areas. I have a few issues with the book, but nonetheless, it's an interesting story. Even more interesting is that his daughter, mentioned throughout the book, has recorded a song to go with the book. Enterprising to say the least.

I was discussing the book with my friend Debra over coffee this morning. She mentioned another organization that also aims to educate those in third world countries, Room to Read, headed by John Woods, formerly of Microsoft. Apparently this guy has even been on Oprah.

I wonder if they're hiring.

Book Worm

I've been trying really hard to pare down my belongings so that I can go off into the wild blue yonder with only a vehicle & possibly a camper. With very little cargo room, I won't be able to carry along all of those useless items that seem to have wormed their way into my closet space. So far, it hasn't been very difficult to find things to put in the "yard sale" pile.

But books do not fall into the "useless" category for me, so I'm still holding onto a good many of them. I'll probably go through several books before I hit the road in my itty-bitty living space, so it's okay, right? Raaaight.

Even so, I went through my bookshelves & came up with two full boxes to take over to Bookmans, the second-hand book shop in Mesa. I left my books with the buyer & headed to the stacks to look for new books to read.

I already had $64 in trade credit from the last time that I schlepped a ton of books over there, but I wasn't too hopeful for this current load of books since it was only two boxes worth. I spent a couple of hours among the shelves, looking for specific titles, as well as just perusing what was there. I wound up with just a little bit over $60 in books to take home with me.

When I returned to the buying counter, I noticed that they had taken less than half of the books that I had brought in, so I figured I had done well with the $60 stack that I was planning on taking home. However, the man behind the counter said with a very straight face, " We can give you $69 in trade for these."

Holy moley! $69?! That gives me a total of $133 in trade to spend! Well, then I'm taking that $12 book that I passed up for being too expensive. Yay!

Here is a list of my booty:

Herbivore, Travel Issue
Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer
The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer
Lost on Planet China, J. Maarten Troost
A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut
Welcome to the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
A Wolf at the Table, Augusten Burroughs
The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson
El Cristo Rojo, Alain Ammar (about Che Guevarra)