Tackling the Tiger

Hiking makes me a little schizophrenic.  I love it.  I hate it.  Last fall I came to the conclusion that really I love it, as long as I can take whatever time I need to do it.  After visiting Taktsang Monastery, the iconic Tiger's Nest that Bhutan is well known for, I'm not sure that I can still say that.

The day started out well.  After a light breakfast of an omelette and coke (because you need the protein for a long hike, as well as that crazy burst of energy that coke gives you to get you started.  Don't you agree, Coca-Cola company???) we were on the trail by 7:30 a.m., before the horses could even get up there.  Not that that was even an option...my family is full of outdoorsy sort of people and there is no way I was taking the easy out.  I never have, although there have been moments when I kind of wished I could (usually about halfway up, to be precise).

The ascent to the Tiger's Nest is gradual.  No, really, it is!  The trail consists of a LOT of switchbacks, but very few stairs, at least until you get to the very end.  It's not until you come to a break in the trees and see how high you've come that you realize it.  And THEN you'll see how far you still have to go, and you'll cry a little bit, if you're a wuss like me, anyways.

Still, the forest is lovely, and even though you are sweating buckets, the sun is not out, and there are lots of things to take photos of.  And if you're lucky, your guide will be supportive.  Mine was.  Sree kept telling me how well I was doing and that she appreciated me.  Maybe two-thirds of the way up, she wanted to know if she could ask my age.  I told her I was nearly 34.  "Oh, that explains your good walk.  The driver and I were talking, and even though you are fat, you have a good walk."  Oh.  Um.  Thanks?  My size has been discussed and pointed out a LOT while I was traveling this summer, in spite of my effort and some success in getting it under control.  Sree went on to explain that they agreed that my size suited me, that unlike some people, who are only fat in their faces or their stomachs, that I am fat all over, and I said that I was lucky to be tall, and that in spite of being fat, I am really healthy.  She said that she could tell that by how I walk.  All this would, I guess, serve to help me accept myself, which is also part of my current mission, but it's still a topic I'd just as soon not talk about.  Guess I have a ways to go.

And speaking of having a ways to go...man, but does that hike go on and on!  The closer we got to the Tiger's Nest, the more we saw of these.  They are little tiny stupas made of human ashes and clay, hidden in the hollows of rocks.  Knowing that the Bhutanese follow Tibetan Buddhism, I couldn't help but ask about sky burial...do they practice it still in Bhutan?  Sree said no.  They used to, but now people get cremated.  And apparently turned into tiny stupas.

Finally, after what seemed like forever we came to the Tiger's Nest.  Peppermint's been lying low this trip, although she did pose for me at the Potala and Everest.  She's been threatening to start her own blog, but since she's a cat, I have serious doubts that she'll get further than the first post.  She likes her naps too much.  At any rate, we finished climbing up to the monastery and had a look around.  A famous statue of Guru Rinpoche, one of Bhutan's holy men, is up there, and there's a legend of how it has spoken in dreams, twice now.  There is a hole in the floor that you can look down in, and see where he stabbed a demon with his three-bladed dagger.  And in case you were wondering, there was once a tiger's den up here.  The monks used it as a meditation cave before the monastery was built.

And those monks?  I gotta say they were a helluva lot more pious than me!  Heck, Sree is a dedicated woman - she must do this hike once a week, and she hardly broke a sweat.  When we got to the car, I was more like, "I am never hiking again."  By the time we were on our way down, the sun was out, which I was not happy about.  When you go on vacation during rainy season - and it was, I checked my forecasts in Lhasa, and every damn day said, "cloudy with a chance of rain" FOR THREE STRAIGHT WEEKS! - you expect a lot of clouds.  Instead, I came back with a bloody tan (remember what I said about being paranoid about skin cancer?)  And you know that saying (that I hate) about how getting there is half the fun?  Well, when said sarcastically, it's true...the other half is getting back down again!  Which is less work for your heart, but more for your knees.  One of the things I remember about hiking Ulsan-bawi in Korea is how wobbly my legs were afterwards.  The morning walks and occasional hikes this year must have helped me a lot, because my legs were okay, but my feet hurt like hell!

Still, I made it, and I think I am as proud of that hike as of just about anything I did on vacation.

Fabric Market Fun

Please note...the next installment may be called Fabric Market Folly. See, I decided I would be a "risk-taker" this weekend. I went out on a limb and brought the leather shop a sweater, asking them to copy it as a leather jacket. Only time (approximately two weeks) will tell if this turned out to be a good idea or a collosal waste of money.

One of my favorite things about Shanghai (right after JoAnn and our new PE teacher, whom I'll call Iron Man (he is not only smart but bears a vague resemblance to David Tennant AND has an ass you could bounce a quarter off of), is the fabric market. JoAnn and I finally got into it last spring, and for the last month of school we were going every Saturday. It. Was. Wonderful. Except when it wasn't. Let me explain. There's this building, three stories tall, jam-packed with little booths filled with fabric of all kinds and tailors to go along with it. And I do mean little...this is one of JoAnn and the Sarahs' favorite tailors - it can get claustrophobic at times, and some people (ahem, myself) may wander off to check out other things.

So, as you can see, there are samples hanging up all over, and in theory, you can walk in, pick out a garment you like (some of them copies of famous designers), select fabric, and a week or so later you'll have brand new clothes. I say "in theory" because sometimes this turns out to be a catastrophe. I've done this and had clothes come out that just will not work. They fit, but they look terrible. They look fine but the fit is uncomfortable. Whatever. You try your new clothes on, and the tailors do their best to fix them, when something is wrong, buuuuuuut...sometimes there's no fixing it. And sometimes you have to kind of compromise. Of the clothes I've ordered from examples, only one dress has been right the first time. The much safer route is to bring in something you already own and telling them to copy it. EVERYTHING I've brought in to copy has worked the first time, and this is one of the reasons I did SO much shopping this summer.

Which brings us to my sweater. I got it at Lord & Taylor while I was shopping clearance racks with the Evil One this summer, and it turned out to be really flattering. Sometime since then I've convinced myself that it would be a REALLY cool leather jacket, and JoAnn had success with one of the leather shops last spring, so I decided to take a chance. They had some concerns, but we agreed on a price and leather and they took my sweater and my measurements.

However, that wasn't all I ordered this weekend. I was going to punish myself for backsliding/encourage myself to lose weight by making myself wait until I'd taken off ten pounds. Then I spent Friday morning trying to figure out what I was going to wear to school on my dress up day (ie, the day I only teach one hour of art), and I realized how GOOD new and interesting clothes made me feel. I've been struggling to find a balance between accepting my body as it is and not giving up on trying to improve it. Well, wearing nice new clothes makes me feel a lot better about the shape I'm in (as does having the doctor tell me that my blood sugar and fat are totally normal, but that's a story for another day), and when I feel good, it's easier for me to make good choices, so roll on, South Bund Soft-Spinning Market! In the end I ordered five shirts, my leather jacket, a cushion-sized fitted sheet to go on the couch-cushion in my window seat (that's the sheet/quilt store above), and a Chinese-style floor pillow made with four different patterns of silk brocade (that one was a whim, but one that I'm really excited about!)

Lazy Day

It is 3:36 PM and I have yet to leave my apartment. I talked for two hours this morning to Tori, then read, slept, read....etc, with a little chili cooking thrown in....until coming in here to look at plane tickets. Here's the score:
18 days without pop.
6 days of exercise:
Sunday: Belly Dance practice
Monday: Biking and jogging
Tuesday: Swimming
Wednesday: Biking
Thursday: Walking to the Sailing Club and back
Friday: Swimming
And we'll make it seven once the sun goes down a bit more - maybe I'll dance in here a bit before heading to the pool.

The problem is, I don't feel like anything's happening yet. The scale tells me nothing's happening yet. This is one of the reasons I didn't have any success at getting things started last year - I'd have a few really good days but it's hard to keep going without results. But I'm determined to keep going til I leave this country, so I have to get some results at some point. Especially if I add more good habits into the mix. Next on my list is to start packing my lunches again, and then to quit eating out. My mocktails experiments this past week were not wildly successful and as I've been told, juice doesn't have any less calories than coke, so I think those are out, but I'm going to keep the tang and lemon barley water, just to satisfy my sweet tooth and give me a little variety. I think I'll also fast tonight over it. I really want to be healthy again.