Christmas & Babies

Christmas is an interesting topic that I've spent quite some time thinking about recently (as may be obvious). Some think Christmas is a Christian religious holiday, and right they are, but in my family we don't really celebrate anything religious with it. In my family Christmas means something different. It doesn't mean stories of Jesus or going to mass, or any other religious things. It's simply the one time of the year that's really special because we get to go see my mother's side of the family. Despite the fact that I do argue with them quite a lot I love this side of my family and I love family in general. If I had my way I would always be around family, but since I only get two times of year for that (Thanksgiving and Christmas) these two times of year are really special for me. As I learned this year Christmas is also a very special time where we teach our children some very valuable lessons. These lessons are about giving to others, thinking about others, pausing a minute to not think about yourself so much, be happy with what others give to you not because they are things that you really want (because sometimes they aren't) but because they were things that someone else spent time thinking about you for. These lessons came up for me this year because it seems for my husband this is something he hasn't ever learned (as he doesn't celebrate Christmas). He is good about thinking about me and getting me wonderful gifts, that's not it. He just doesn't want to stop buying things for himself or thinking about himself at the same time. He doesn't mind buying things for others but he doesn't understand that this is the one time of year when we don't buy things for ourselves because we hope and imagine that those things will be given to us by those around us. I'm not sure if that really makes much sense but I think it's a special gift that Christmas teaches us.

As for babies I've been doing a LOT of thinking (as you can imagine). I really like the way Dr. Sears talks about bringing babies up. Attachment parenting, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, having the birth that I want, these are all really important things for me. But Dr. Sears is good about explaining to me that I have to wait to see if these are things that work best for me and my baby. Even if they are ideals for me they may not be ideals for my child and I have to remember that. Don't worry, I know I won't be having children any time soon but that doesn't mean I can't think or do research.

Babysitting

So apparently Chinese men don't baby-sit and consider it an insult to even be asked to baby-sit. This is not something that I knew before and while I don't know many American men that baby-sit I do know that it would not be considered rude to ask one to baby-sit and I do know some American men who do baby-sit.

I just asked my husband if he would be willing to help a woman out who needs a Chinese teacher and baby-sitter from 3-6pm on Mondays (she would be willing to pay). I can't do it due to time constraints and didn't think it insulting to ask as it may even help his English.

So this is the explanation that I received (written by a Chinese woman so excuse the English):

I have to say it Chinese men will not be paid to do baby sitter. Usually in North men don't do house work and don't do baby sitter. They think it's a thing wowen would do. Even if they don't have a job they would not chose to be a baby sitter. But if the kid is their own kid it's different, they might take care of their own kid. In South men do house work and take care of their own kid. but they don't do baby sitter.

Yemeni & Traditional Indian Women

"Although outside Muslim countries women are ostensibly free to wear what they please and go where they wish, the truth is that if women do not conform to particular norms of dress, weight, behavior, and location, they risk being harassed and even harmed. We don't see the boundaries on women in our own culture, because we have grown up with them. That's just the way things are. The same is true in Yemen; most women are not particularly aware that staying inside and wearing a veil are repressive; that's just the way things are and to try to change things is expensive, dangerous, and impossible. Better to find ways within the boundaries to achieve a measure of freedom and contentment." (Worthless Women by Anne Pyburn)

This is exactly the same that is true in India, at least in Banaras where I used to live.

Running commentary on babies

So I decided there are a bunch of things that I can really talk to anyone about until I actually have a baby of my own (if that happens which I hope it does one day). This is going to be a running commentary of my thoughts. Maybe none of these things will happen, maybe all of them will. What's more important is that I write them down.

When I'm pregnant I would like to
- have Cam read Chinese to the baby (even while in the womb), doesn't matter what he's reading
- read to the baby (even while in the womb), doesn't matter what language
- Massage your abdomen and talk to the baby as if it were already out of the womb
- listen to a lot of different kinds of music: rock & roll, classical, jazz, anything really (again even while in the womb)

Halloween

A witch, a ghost, a baby, Data from star trek, a hooters waitress, a wolf.... What were you for Halloween this year? I was a woman in a wedding. Because I literally was in a wedding this year. This one was extremely different from my own. Aside from being a Jewish wedding all of the first dances were choreographed, which I personally didn't much care for. All of the music was from a swing band which was nice but mostly entertaining for the elderly more so than for those the bride and groom's age. We did get to dance a bunch though! I'm not sure if this last difference is due to the fact that our wedding was nondenominational or what but all of the vows and readings were read or repeated and written by someone else, not the bride or groom. I was a huppa (spelling?) holder which was interesting cause we just stood in front of everyone with our hands on this thing and smiled. I was trying really hard not to cry because Margo's mom was bawling right in front of me. It only partially worked. At the reception I knew some of the adults from having baby-sat their children so we got to talk. Cam was there until just after dinner when he left with Will and Brandon to go to Franklin St.

Last year Cam wore a suit with a mohawk. This year he wore a suit with a different hairstyle and carried a cigar. He went with two Chinese people and a Japanese person who were in their regular clothes. In order to get to Franklin St they had to park a ways away and walk there. After a couple hours of hanging out there one of the Japanese realized she didn't have her ID and they left. What I've always learned is "when in Rome do as the Romans do". So when it's required to take your ID places I do it, when it's not I don't. But for some reason Asians seem to think they're still in their countries so why should they do it our way. (please note this idea was started by not bringing her ID but that's not my only example)

understanding language

I think I'm well on my way to discovering how I can understand languages that I have never studied. While this feat has probably been performed by many others I am in no way a neurologist so what I'm saying here may not be 100 percent accurate. In my anthropology class I read an article entitled broca's area, wernicke's area, and other language processing areas in the brain, which can be found online. In this article it states "it is the left hemisphere that formulates and understands the meaning of words and sentences, while the right hemisphere interprets the emotional connotation of these words". The right hemisphere must be easy to train the more languages one learns. Thus the more languages one knows the easier it is to grasp the emotional connotation of languages one does not know. Therefore while the interpreter does not have the strength of the left hemisphere, as one isn't able to understand the meaning of words and sentences, one can still grasp the general gist of the conversation through the understanding of the right hemisphere.%

Anthropology

It's shocking to me that so few people understand what I mean when I say I am applying to get my PhD in anthropology. "Did you hear about the new anthropological finding?" "Yes, actually I did hear one today that was really interesting but which are you talking about?" "They found that Lucy isn't the closest primate to humans." "Oh, right." "You do know Lucy, don't you?" "Yes" but that's not what I'm going to be doing. "So what did you hear?" they ask me. "That Obama is finally recognizing the Lumbee Indians as an Indian tribe." "Oh, that's interesting, I used to know some Lumbees."

After saying I'm interested in architectural anthropology people said "So, what will you be doing, excavating buildings?" Yes, actually I will be. Just buildings. If they find anything else in the ground I will refuse to dig it up.

"Oh! I LOVE Anthropology!" (By this time I'm thinking to myself, really?) "I love finding old artifacts and would have loved to study Hebrew and dig for old relics!" Ah, yes, me too. Absolutely love digging. When I was 3 years old. The person then goes on to explain how they love finding all of these artifacts and bones and how they loved when their street was dug up because of all the things that were found that they got to see.

I feel some moral obligation to start my explanation off with "I'm going to be studying anthropology. It has four subfields of which archaeology is the most common, but I will be studying cultural anthropology." And then if they say anything about digging or excavating "Actually that's archaeology."

It reminds me of when I went off to India and my father warned me that I may have to start telling people I'm from Canada. What I ended up doing was going into an explanation of the fact that a lot of people in the US were not Bush supporters if I ran into people who were angry at Americans. I didn't run from them, I didn't ignore the fact that I'm an American. I didn't let them think whatever they wanted to think. I just tried to educate them. Now it's my job to do that again, educate people as to what an anthropologist could mean so that next time they don't assume that someone who is a physical anthropologist is going to be excavating or thinking an archeologist is going to be studying culture.

Touch

"What do you mean we don't dance close? Have you seen the way they dance down south? It's the same as here."

This is Cam's reaction to me trying to explain to him that they don't dance quite the same way we do here in China. The problem is he's right, there's no way for him to be able to tell that their dancing isn't the same as here. The reason for this is because it's the men dancing that's different, not the women. And being of the male sex means that he has no way of knowing that the men dance differently with the women in the two countries.

I just took one of Cam's Japanese classmates (Yuki) home from dancing. She thanked me for helping keep her away from the "dangerous" men. She told me that she likes dancing just not with the dangerous men and she doesn't know who is going to be dangerous and who isn't. That made perfectly good sense to me simply because I understand the difference in dancing between American/Western men and Asian men (we're not talking Asian American). Japanese women and Japanese men have their own space when they dance together. There is no opportunity to feel any part of the male body when you're dancing with a Japanese man. As Yuki pointed out to me, if they try to dance with any part of their body (we're not talking hands here) touching the women, they are quickly responded with "Are you serious? Are you okay? What's wrong with you? Are you drunk?" A bantering that quickly tells the Japanese men that they are out of line. So to Yuki anyone who dances like that is "dangerous" because she doesn't know how to tell them "no".

The problem is that the majority of western men are used to dancing like that, that's just how we dance here. Every male here is going to try and dance with you like that. And we have some mechanisms that are our ways of telling the men "no" which are innate to us but have to be learned by the Japanese and Chinese women. These ways which we use are several - turning one's body away from the man (which often doesn't work as the man just moves with you), dancing around someone else or somehow getting another person in between you and the man, stopping dancing and do something else, get a drink or something, and the last one that I can think of right now is to simply lead a friend into your dance. If I'm with American friends and we're all dancing alone and someone comes up to dance with me, all I have to do is grab the hand of another guy OR girl friend of mine and they immediately know "hey, I need some help" or "hey, I don't want to dance with this person" and start dancing with me, taking me away from the man. I got into trouble in China once because my Chinese friends don't understand this, so when I tried to grab one of them they just ignored me and let me keep going with the guy.

So I guess in a way it's a little "dangerous" for me to go out with Yuki & Cam dancing. I end up having to dance to keep Yuki out of the way of a "dangerous" man and if I get in a situation I don't want to be in Cam doesn't understand that I don't want to be in that particular situation and there's no one else around to "help". I end up going back to the other ways for telling a guy "no". But to answer Yuki's question about how to find out which man isn't "dangerous" unfortunately the answer is every man in the west is "dangerous".

Sometimes

Sometimes I don't know why I do this.
Sometimes I don't know why I'm here.
Sometimes I don't know why it's here.
Why ARE we here?

Sometimes it makes me angry
Sometimes it makes me frustrated
Sometimes I just don't want to help

Sometimes I want to give up.

But what I want more than that
is for it to get better.

complaining

We all do it and everone knows that, we all complain. But being around Americans complaining and being around foreigners complaining is two totally different things. When a fellow American complains about their doctor you know that they're complaining about that individual and while you can see similarities maybe in that doctor and your doctor, or in a friend's doctor you know that the fellow American isn't making a generalization. Foreigners, on the other hand, have a problem with one doctor or one hospital and assume that the entirety of the American system sucks and that their countries' is obviously better.

You end up telling the same story over and over again. One foreigner tells you "American passenger train system sucks" and you say, hey, you're right! The second foreigner comes by and says "the American passenger train system sucks" and you say yes, but we are doing our best to try and fix it. The third foreigner comes by and says "the American passenger train system sucks" and you say yes, and this is the reason why, and Obama is trying to fix it. Sheesh!

sayings

When two people live or work together they learn to compromise. That seems like a very basic saying that everyone knows and understands. That is maybe unless one is married, or maybe it has more to do with the fact, once again that he's Chinese. You see in Chinese culture, and many others, there is no such thing as compromise. Women obey and men do or say. There is no need to compromise.

"Put your toys away when you're finished." becomes "let the girl put it away" or if there is no girl "don't worry mommy will put them away"

Women

After reading a section in Dancing Skeletons about the Mali belief in circumcision for both male and female children and their surprise that Americans don't circumcise their females but do circumcise their males I became curious. Do Christians believe in circumcision? I asked and was told that originally the apostles all believed in circumcision except Paul who fought them and believed against it. I was also told that in Africa circumcision helps prevent against AIDS in male children so they sometimes do it for that reason. What about Jews? I asked and was told that of course male children are circumcised but when asking about female children I was told that that was considered genital deformation. Why is it considered genital deformation for females but not for males?

Upon meeting with Krisztina today we started talking about things like circumcision. She told me in Hungary they aren't religious and don't believe in circumcision for either male or females, believing that it doesn't help or harm so why should they do it. She also told me about their ways of childbirth. She said that the woman goes to the hospital at least 3-4 days before their due date and in cases of high risk up to a month before the due date and live there. They are allowed to be visited by family members but no family members are allowed to stay with them in the hospital and the partner and family members are only allowed to view the birth from afar. There's a camera in the delivery room that connects to a waiting room where the family and partner watches the birth. The mother also stays in the hospital for a week after the child is born during which time the mother is taught how to breastfeed and what to do if the child gets a cold/cough/fever. They don't do very many shots. She believes that they take the same shots we get here in America as children and spread them out over the years so the child doesn't end up getting as many shots at once. She said that in the first couple of months the only people allowed to visit the mother and child are the mother's family members. Friends are not expected to come visit the mother, in fact they find it strange if the mother invites them over in the first month. Also the mother doesn't take the child out in the first few months. Both of these are done to prevent the spread of germs from the general public to the child who is more suseptible to infections and disease in their first couple of months. Also in the first year the child is not expected to eat certain foods like broccoli because they are too difficult to digest. She said in Hungary no one gives their infants formula because the majority of people breastfeed and if they can't breastfeed they can go to a milk donation center and get breastmilk from other mothers which they believe is much better for the child than any formula could possibly be. They also don't believe in going out to buy baby food and start making their own baby food (by boiling apples and mashing them into applesauce or mashing bananas) one or two months before the baby is born. That way they can store their own baby food, by freezing it or putting it in the refridgerator and won't need to buy baby food unless in an emergency situation. They also believe in boiling everything that the child is going to put their mouth on. This reminds me of the belief of not eating the skin of fruits and vegetables and boiling everything in India because the skin and the outside is dirty (a belief mostly held by foreigners).

This stuff really fascinates me. I remember being in India and noticing after noting the every day behavior of one family that every now and then certain women wouldn't cook and wouldn't eat with the other women for a couple days every month. Noting this I asked them and they said that they were having their period, a way of being punished by the Gods for being a woman, and cooking food would make it dirty for everyone else. This family had obviously grown from the belief of keeping the women in a small hut away from the family while the woman went through her period but they still hadn't grown away from the belief that they were being punished by the Gods and hadn't grown from the belief that their cooking at this period would be dirtying the food for everyone else.

"Don't forget to put that back when you're finished!" I can hear it echoing in my head. My mother has said it so many times in my life I don't even have to hear it to know when she would say it to me. Hearing her voice echoing reminds me to do just that. But apparently there are others that weren't brought up to do that. Others that had servants, or employees or maids either at their workplace where they spent most of their time or at home while they were growing up. They got used to not putting things away and never had to worry about it not being there when they went to find it because they always had someone going around after them and putting things where they were supposed to go. I can't find the cooling rack! Where are the scissors?! Ok, I'm all ready for work just have to dry my hair .... WHERE'S THE HAIR DRYER?!?! These are the problems with living with someone who was brought up like that when your household runs on individuality.

"Ha, cookbooks are for people who don't know how to cook." You may think a professional chef was saying these words but you'd be wrong. Instead it was a Chinese man to me as I was making casserole. Of course at the time I got upset with him for saying that and it hurt me to not really want to cook much any more. But now I understand. After all the majority of all of this Chinese man's cooking is stir fry. Stir fried once you know what you're doing and it's true, you don't need a cookbook to throw things together and stir fry them. But you do need a cookbook to make bread, or cookies for that matter. Both of which, as being part of the baking area, are not things that this Chinese man has ever come across. So slowly I get to understand the meaning behind his words, what he's not saying to me is almost as important as what he is saying, if not more so.

confusion

So I really am stuck. I'm trying to, as I have been for a while now, figure out what I want to get my graduate degree in and thus ultimately get a job in. I really enjoy architecture and while I can't see myself as an architect I can see myself doing something with critical regionalism. For those of you who don't know critical regionalism is essentially a fusion of anthropology and architecture. I really like the idea of teaching people how to include anthropology and the importance of anthropology in architecture. Also I am currently taking anthropology and the textbook I am currently reading has esl teacher, international business consultant, cross-cultural trainer, public school educator, immigration counselor, and environmental impact specialist all under possible professions for anthropologists. All of which I have thought of doing at one time or another. So do I quit studying architecture and get a masters in anthropology? This doesn't sound ideal especially if I want to ultimately combine anth with architecture. But I am stuck, what do I do?

art

It's an art
Not an obvious one at that
An art that takes many skills
An art that is different for everyone
A beautiful art.

So what happens when that one
Doesn't know the art?

hugs

I used to be a hugger, I used to hug everyone when I saw them. If I went two days without seeing Nick or Claire or Diane or Zach I would give them a big hug. And I loved it, I loved hugging people, as long as they didn't have their significant other with them I would give them a great big hug. Whether it was because I needed a hug or because I thought they did I'm still not too sure. But what I do know is now I miss that. Now I have no friends that I can really hug like that, at least of those who live near me. And it's almost considered a social faux pas to hug a man now that I'm married. Last time I got a hug from a guy it was one of those I haven't seen you in a REALLY long time hugs where you practically run into each others arms. And it was true, I really hadn't seen him in that long. But there was social awkwardness around us the whole time, not because his girlfriend was sitting next to him at the time after all she was his girlfriend practically the whole time I'd ever known him. It also wasn't awkward because he was drunk, after all that's what's expected of drunk people. It was awkward because I am married and my husband was right next to me.

Now I have to ask what's wrong with hugs? Especially good-bye or I haven't seen you in forever hugs? Why does a married woman gave to all of a sudden give up all the non-sexual touching, like joking around and hugs, as soon as she gets married? Where is that written into the books? Because I for one need my hugs, for emotional support and to keep my sexual drive with my husband alive, I need touches from others!

hugs

I used to be a hugger, I used to hug everyone when I saw them. If I went two days without seeing Nick or Claire or Diane or Zach I would give them a big hug. And I loved it, I loved hugging people, as long as they didn't have their significant other with them I would give them a great big hug. Whether it was because I needed a hug or because I thought they did I'm still not too sure. But what I do know is now I miss that. Now I have no friends that I can really hug like that, at least of those who live near me. And it's almost considered a social faux pas to hug a man now that I'm married. Last time I got a hug from a guy it was one of those I haven't seen you in a REALLY long time hugs where you practically run into each others arms. And it was true, I really hadn't seen him in that long. But there was social awkwardness around us the whole time, not because his girlfriend was sitting next to him at the time after all she was his girlfriend practically the whole time I'd ever known him. It also wasn't awkward because he was drunk, after all that's what's expected of drunk people. It was awkward because I am married and my husband was right next to me.

Now I have to ask what's wrong with hugs? Especially good-bye or I haven't seen you in forever hugs? Why does a married woman gave to all of a sudden give up all the non-sexual touching, like joking around and hugs, as soon as she gets married? Where is that written into the books? Because I for one need my hugs, for emotional support and to keep my sexual drive with my husband alive, I need touches from others!

most traumatic experience of my life

There's a bird lying in the room across from mine chirping in a very high pitched way every now and again for the worms her mother is about to feed her. Her name is Samantha Grace Whiteaker and she was born on April 30th at 11:11PM weighing 6 pounds 1 ounce and a total of 17 inches long. That night she started changing the lives of many around her. She made my best friend a new mother and her husband a new father not to mention new grandparents. But she changed more than those lives too. She changed my life forever. Now don't get me wrong, I have no blood relation at all to little Sammie and I have done just about any job involving children you can imagine. But nothing can compare to seeing your friend who you have known for a long time being your first ever friend to have a baby and become a mother. Not only that but actually see your friend go through the pains of child labor, both at the hospital and after the baby was born. There is no question about it, before this I loved children and always wanted to have a child. But now its real, I'm hooked. Sign me up! I want to have a child!

Now keeping this in mind I still want to go to graduate school in architecture and maybe even become an architect so I will definitely be waiting to have a baby, maybe even wait till Sammie has a little sister or brother waiting to be born but now I know what I'm waiting for and I can't wait! I'm excited and ready!

Happy New Year!

As usual we had a pretty awesome time in Taos, NM for Christmas. It was snowing a lot there so we got to have a lot of fun playing outside. Of course I always wish we could spend more time there as I really enjoy being with pretty much that whole side of the family. But c'est la vie.

After renting a car Cam and I drove from Albuquerque, NM to Flagstaff, AZ where we stayed in a somewhat shabby hotel called the Inn Suites. Cam had a difficult time getting over the fact that it "wasn't safe" in the beginning but at least we could both use the internet, which for Cam means a lot as he uses it practically every single night. On the 28th we had a pretty awesome day going to the Grand Canyon. I had decided it would be better to take a shuttle there than to drive, even though the roads ended up being perfectly safe (until you got into the park). For some reason the government had decided it would clean the snow off of all of the roads around the park, just not the ones in the park. We saw cars and trucks sliding and struggling the whole time we were in the park, which made me glad that I didn't drive there. Unfortunately, Cam and I didn't really have snow shoes so we didn't get to climb down much of the Grand Canyon, but we did get to go around a decent portion of the South Rim so we got to see a lot. We started at Bright Angel Lodge, where there were quite a number of lodges, restaurants and little shops (gift and a museum or two). Right at Bright Angel it was a bit hard to walk around because there were so many people that the snow had melted into ice. But after we passed that area it turned into nicely packed snow that was really nice to walk on. Cam and I got a bunch of pictures and got to see a lot of people from all over the world there. We talked with a few people but mainly walked alone. We also got to take the shuttle around a bit of the park, which was nice. We had lunch at one of the cafeterias that we took the shuttle to. After a good wait for the shuttle driver to come back Cam slept on the way home and I talked with the driver most of the time. He was an interesting guy who if I had to take a guess I would say was Native American, he was quite a talker. We ran into a bit of traffic going back into Flagstaff for some random reason. That night we had dinner at an awesome Thai restaurant connected to Hotel Monte Vista. It was a bit of a wait but everyone there was super friendly and the food was really good too. If I had to stay in Flagstaff again I would definitely choose to stay in Hotel Monte Vista or Hotel Weatherford as they're downtown and I wouldn't have to drive nearly as much, all of the restaurants and bars are downtown.

On the 29th we drove from Flagstaff to Las Vegas through a pretty hellish traffic jam, Cam and a bunch of people were out walking cause we were at an almost dead stop with the cars. I was a bit worried that I would run out of gas as I only had 1/4 of a tank left but I that ended up not being a problem. Turned out the reason we were at a dead halt was because we were going through the Hoover Dam, almost literally there is a road that swerves directly through it. I had seen the signs on the road and wanted to stop to see the Dam but it turned out that I didn't have to stop to see it at all. It was a nice sight but the traffic jam definitely didn't make it too nice. Also on one side of the Hoover Dam there are tons of parking spaces, but as soon as you pass the bathrooms and get to the other side there is absolutely no where to stop which was a problem as Cam had gotten out to go to the bathroom. Fortunately he managed to find me! That night we went to what I would call a formal strip show. It was a nice show with audiences where you paid for seating and everything, but the women were almost completely naked. I'm definitely glad that I got to see a show like that rather than going to a strip joint. The lights (being off on the audience and dramatical on the women) as well as the music made it much nicer and more artsy which was really good. Not too much for me to see, although there were two breaks where some actors got up and did a bit of performing. We got back to the hotel after taking the monorail at about 2am.

So we didn't get up yesterday until 11am or so. We spent most of the day walking from MGM Grand to the Venetian, which is quite a ways. We took pictures the whole time, got to watch the people and some of the shows that the hotels were having out front on the Strip. We had scheduled a 5:45pm dinner at Tao which we had been to before in New York. It's an asian restaurant with a HUGE Buddha sitting on one of the walls, really nicely decorated in a mix of Asian blends with Sumo wrestlers behind the sushi bar, asian knives in colored boxes on one wall, and pictures of Tibetan monks on the walls as you walk back to the bathroom. The Las Vegas version of the restaurant is definitely more expensive than the New York version, but it's in one of the most expensive hotels on the Strip (The Venetian) and is very well advertised so I guess that's expected. The New York Tao is more behind 5th Avenue and we just happened to walk past it and make reservations for it while we were there. Cam and I had a really nice dinner - we split a plate of red curry cocunut chicken and a side of chinese long beans which were both really good. After such a long time with no Chinese food Cam ate 2 whole bowls of rice (much more than he usually does). We ended up sitting right next to a couple that was speaking English the whole time, a Chinese looking woman and a man. The woman ended up being from Shenyang (which is about a 3 hour train ride from Dalian - the capital of the province that Dalian is in). She complimented me on my Chinese and told me she has been here for 12 years (so her English is almost like mine). After dinner we scheduled ourselves for another show - Stomp Out Loud, which is a music show where they use all kinds of weird things (like broomsticks, keys, newspapers, and plastic bags) to make music. We decided to do a bit of window shopping at the Palazzio before taking the monorail over to the show. They got the audience going a little bit which was very enjoyable and there was a funny little man in the show which was quite comical. I think I enjoyed it a bit more than Cam did but he did enjoy himself. We then took the monorail back to the Palazzio and went to a club there called Lavo. Unfortunately we had to wait in line for about half an hour before paying 20$ for Cam to get in (ladies were free with a card that we had picked up while we were there earlier). But it was a really great party, there were a TON of people there including the San Francisco 49ers and a bunch of other famous people that they were randomly greeting on the microphone. I think it was Cam's first time where you had to dance against people and people were pushing you the whole time cause there were so many people, although he claims that that's what Canton is like (I've never seen it like that and Chinese people are not known to dance close to each other as they have a much larger personal space bubble than even Americans do).

Now I should go get dressed, it's noon but Cam went to bed at about 5am so I decided to let him sleep some as it will be a crazy night tonight here on the Strip. We're staying at Circus Circus which is almost at the end of the strip but has the monorail right next to it and is a nice large casino that's huge. We're up on the 20th floor so we can see a lot of the city too which is really nice.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you have a great one!