Palm Sunday, Mallorca

I've got another Semana Santa post almost ready to go, but the realities of living (in Spain and in general) sometimes get in the way. So, while you wait, I offer you this portrait, which I was thrilled to capture. This little girl was posing for her mother with her palm (almost taller than her!), a traditional craft for Palm Sunday. This picture was taken after the Pollenca Palm Sunday procession, which featured a significant percentage of the townspeople marching through the medieval streets with their elaborately-folded palm fronds and traditional olive branches

A walk through Palencia, 2

Well, it's not exactly complete (no shots of the river, nothing of my school, my apartment, the cafe where I hang out far too much, the Parque Salon...) but may I present: a brief and abridged walk through Palencia.

(Now with 100% more pictures!)

The Plaza Mayor at twilight during a rare pause in raucous games of tag

Calle Mayor, 1. A Sunday afternoon, when no one is out. Any morning or evening the street is packed with people participating in the habitual "paseo" (walking) before or after meals. Here you can also see 'La Gorda'

Calle Mayor, 2, the section near the bus station.

El Cristo Otero, one of two Jesus Christ statues completed by Victorio Macho (the other one being the famous statue over Rio de Janeiro). Supposedly the second biggest in the world after its Rio brother

The view over Palencia from the Otero (which we climbed one Sunday afternoon when everything was closed)

The famous Palencia Cathedral. Unfortunately none of the photos I took of the storks that live on the spires came out well.

A blurred but lovely shot of the Plaza around the cathedral at dusk

View of the city from my 7th floor apartment balcony

Fugong Market Highlights/Christmas greetings

First off, merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. My very Jewish family spent today in Chinatown at dim sum (delicious, as always) and then at a movie. Even though most everyone in Boston's Chinatown speaks Cantonese, it's still a little bit like being back in Kunming, and I have to admit that I do miss it (especially since Xiong Li Mei called me yesterday and I realized how much my Chinese has deteriorated.)

In any case, it's clear that my blog dropped off dramatically after I got home, but I remain set on finishing it. I've just also accepted the fact that it won't be quite as in-depth as the blog I kept up until this point. I have lots of beautiful pictures to share with all of you, and I'll let those do most of the talking, a sort of narrated slide show. So here I present to you, in the first installment: the Fugong marketplace.

China's rural economy is based largely on markets. The largest urban center in a given area (and in really rural places it's not always particularly urban, just urban by comparison) hosts a market every week or so (in Fugong's case ever 5 days, with the 10 days mark being the larger market.) People from all over Nujiang came to buy and sell produce, Lisu jewelry and traditional paraphenalia, and miscellaneous interesting stuff (salt crystals as big as my head, walking sticks, cross bows). Even on the days I was feeling sickest I went to the market to watch the people and take pictures. Lots of pictures.

You said you wanted half a pig? Well, here it is.


Selling traditional crossbows


Young ladies in Lisu garb from Tengchong (an area outside of Nujiang)


Two old ladies gossip on the street corner


Bickering over the price of greens


Traditional woven Lisu baskets


Bamboo pipes (and a charming Lisu nainai smoking one)




Faces at the market






(This might be my favorite picture of all the ones I took in Nujiang)



On the last day I stayed in Fugong, I went to the market and bought a traditional Lisu headdress that I had been eying for the last few market days. There was an old Lisu lady selling it, and she didn't speak any Mandarin so whenever I asked after it I had to ask through a younger woman who wore dirty pink sneakers and bad teeth, and who I assume was her granddaughter. She kept naming outlandish prices for the headdress, and I would try to bargain but she wouldn't budge. It was clear that the piece was well-made and valuable: it had real, hand-cut bone circles along the forehead and half of the beads were clearly antique. I finally decided that this would be my treat to myself from China, but I wasn't willing to pay the Y500 (about $75) she was quoting me. As I stood in the drizzle, I attracted attention from around the market (as I was the only white person there.) People came over to try and help mediate, and they all agreed that the nainai was giving me a raw deal. "Give her a break!" they yelled in a mix of Lisu and Mandarin, but after conceding Y150 she would not yield. I ultimately bought the headdress for Y350 (about $50), with the local price being Y180-200. But I know that that nainai probably ate for months off that money, and the extra $20 was very little to me. Plus, of course, it makes a good story. Later that day I also bought a traditional Lisu skirt (as seen above) for unmarried women-- light blue print with a white stripe down the middle-- and Foster dad brought me a handmade button-down unisex shirt as a going away present. I left Fugong that day well-outfitted and slightly melancholy.

Picture Post 7: My Sideng Homestay and the Friday Market

We spent 4 days in Sideng, Shaxi valley several hours outside of Dali:
(Also, a note about current blogging practices: as I will be leaving to head back to Nujiang within the next few days, I'm currently trying to get as many pictures up as possible. If people would prefer I return to an at least partly narrative approach before I'm back in Nujiang, I'm perfectly willing. Just leave me a comment by clicking on the postcard link below, or drop me an email)

Really not doing the view of the Shaxi valley justice on the hike down Shibaoshan


The inn where I stayed in my "rural" homestay in Sideng




My Bai host parents


The traditional compound Mike and John stayed in in Sideng


"I you'sed a ho this morning!"-- working in the fields with John's host dad


The Sideng Friday market, against a dramatic backdrop


Faces at the market








Mmmm, fresh snake


My photographic obsession with Yi minority people








Beautiful children of undetermined minority descent at the market

Picture Post 6: Dali and Shibaoshan

Part two-ish of our province field trip-- a night in the backpacker haven of Dali and then a night in the only place I've ever stayed with no running water, a monastery on the mountain, Shibaoshan, where ancient grottoes in the cliffs house altars and I got pickpocketed by a monkey

A Dali street


Sunlight on the Dali mountains


The famous Dali pagodas


Temples tucked into the cliff and a waterfall at the Shibaoshan grottoes




An old altar in the grottoes of Shibaoshan


The Shibaoshan monkeys






The view across the valley from the monastery

Picture Post 3: My Yunnan Exploration Project-- Xishuangbanna

The third entry in my exhibition of pictures from this semester. I've decided I'm going to keep posting only picture posts until I catch up to Liuku, where I haven't written yet. Then I'll be able to write doing both. After, once I get to Nujiang again, well, we'll see from there. But meanwhile, I present to you my trip to Xishuangbanna on the Laos/Myanmar border during our Yunnan Exploration Project. You'd think a person couldn't take a lot of pictures in six days, but you'd be wrong.

Front porch of the Dai-style bungalow I stayed in in Jinghong, framed by banana leaves


Misty countryside outside Jinghong


Monk robes drying at a lamasery in Jinghong


Temples in a park in Jinghong


The countryside Buddhist temple we ran across on Diana's and my bike ride near Ganlanba


Images of the Xishuangbanna countryside, featuring lots of greenery, flowers, and traditional Dai-style houses






Images from the Menghun market






Diana in front of the enormous, beautifully wrought Burmese Pagoda we hiked up a mountain to find


At the Dai wedding to which Lee, Diana, and I were invited


The famous Jingzhen octagonal pagoda, the end of Diana's and my wild good chase through the Banna countryside


The treehouse where I spent my night at Banna Wild Elephant Valley


Sunrise in the Xishuangbanna Jungle






The big tree swings that go out over jungle streams. So much fun to ride!


I didnt' see any wild elephants, but I did see... elephants kneeling!


A wild monkey hanging out, so to speak


One of the Valley's tame monkeys and a baby bear! Snuggling! So cute!


The baby monkey that stole my glasses