30 October 2010: Family and the Fall Harvest in North East China

30 Oct 2010

Greetings all and Happy Halloween..and All Saints Day!

I'm now almost over the jet lag, and ready to get another update together!  It was a long trip, but glad to be back home now!  The best part of the trip was to see 2 of my sisters and 1 brother-in-law while I was in SC.  They drove up from FL and we had a grand day together in Summerville, SC.  Such a nice treat. Thank you Trish, Tom and Martha for making that drive!

Patricia Hurley, Martha Caldeo & Sarah Miller...3 of the Tollner girls Oct 2010 in Summerville, SC

Patricia & Tom Hurley

Patricia Hurley, Martha Caldeo, Sarah Miller

Patricia Hurley & Sarah Miller

Patricia Hurley & Sarah Miller

When I got back to Shenyang, the chill was in the air...and with the cool air came the power generators to make the steam heat...and here, most all of the power plants are coal-fired..but the systems don't seem to have a lot of particulate remover for air pollution...this is a picture from our apartment window in the evening...note the black smoke coming from every smokestack.  These are power plants in the city...they are everywhere, and unfortunately, so is the pollution...worse in the winter than the summer seems to me.

Shenyang in Autumn when the coal-fired power plants are huffing and puffing

Shenyang at dusk in Autum

Today, Rod and I went into the country to a place called Xi Hu (West Lake).  It's a place that is undoubtably gorgeous in the summertime when the water lilies are blooming...but this trip was more about finding the place and seeing the big rice, cabbage, leek and pepper harvesting along the way...it was a spectacle for us!

Rice standing in shocks in the field, with a man stacking the rice in a circle with the rice heads inwards

Rice in the field at harvest

A large rice harvest

Cabbages being cut in the field...looks like all women to me.  Reminds me of growing up on a tobacco farm, back-breaking work!  Cut, then stacked, then hauled to a "Processing station" where it looked like to me the leaves got stripped, then stacked on the truck ready to go to market.

Chinese cabbages being harvested and processed in the field

The family harvest...note the little one's pants has a slit in the back...no pampers here!

Leeks being harvested

Roadside market where some of the harvest is sold

more cabbages than you can imagine

Leeks going to market

The biggest Cabbage processing center in the world...all outside, all manual.  Not a tractor in sight!  They loaded up trucks with license plates from all over China.

The biggest open air, along side the road cabbage and leek market...the trucks, wagons, 3-wheel trikes etc were all bulging from the weight.  It's hard to tell how many leeks and cabbages changed hands today alone!

Corn harvest in Shenyang

Corn harvest...not sure who is more tired...the man or the donkey

Sarah standing in front of the peppers drying on the road

Peppers drying in the road

The peppers were drying along side the road at Xi Hu.  It was quite beautiful actually...like a red carpet.  I doubt we could do this in the US!

This is Xi Hu (West Lake).  It's a large lake that I'm sure is beautiful with the water lilies blooming in late July & August (now that we know where it is, we'll go next year!).  All of the weeds in the lake are the now frozen dead water lily plants.  There is a bazillion of them.  They harvest the seed pods and sell them.  Sometimes we see the empty seedpods in the US in dried flower arrangements.

The Lake was an eerie type of beautiful today with a lone fisherman on the lake. 

A look at the catch of the day...lots of minnows or sardines, not sure which, also some eels, small fish, and not sure what all else!

Xi Hu Lake in autumn

Catch of the day

Fisherman on Xi Hu lake

Thats about it for today!

Thanks to all of you who continue to write us emails...they are very important life line...we've been here 7 months now...hard to believe, but true!

Sarah & Rod

9 October 2010: East and West all in one trip!

9 Oct 2010

Greetings all,

I write to you today from Clermont-Ferrand, France, but still talking about China and a little view of France!  As many of you know, I'm in the middle of a long business trip (2 weeks in France, 1 week split between Canada and US (SC)).  I brought my personal computer with me, so I have my address book etc.  As many of you know, I've been happy to get on Facebook!

Last week before I left, Rod and I went out to the construction site where the new plant will be built.  Here's a photo of me at the entrance to the industrial zone where the plant will be built.  That is the Phoenix bird circling the sun.

Sarah Miller at the entrance to the Industrial zone where the new plant for Michelin is being built

Sarah Miller standing in front of the construction site entrance to the new plant in Oct 2010

Sarah Miller standing small in front of the billboard advertising the arrival of Michelin

Sarah standing in front of the entrance to the new industrial zone for Shenyang.

On this same day, Rod and I went to a market and Rod found a musical instrument that needed help...so he bought it.  It's tuned like a violin, but the frets make the scales not the same...so it's another challenge.  I have no doubts that Rod will master that one!

Rod and the Pi-Pang

This instrument is called a Pi Pa (I think I've got that right!). You can take the boy out of the music...but you can't take the musician out of the boy!

As I left Shenyang, bound for Paris, I found out the hard way that the travel agent had changed my itinerary (without my knowledge) and I missed my flight from Beijing to Paris.  So I had to spend the night in Beijing.  It would have been fine if I had planned it and Rod was there..but helas, I was there alone with hotel rooms at a premium since it was in the middle of the Chinese National day holiday (this is another 3 day event!).  Anyway, I got a room not too far from the airport and it happened to be at the site of the 2008 Olympic village!  The place is huge!  As usual, another zillion people walking around the venue.  I didn't walk around too much, but enough to get a couple of good pictures.

The Olympic Torch tower in Beijing, China

The "Bird Nest" stadium in Beijing

Flowers at the Olympic stadium in Beijing

I eventually got here in Clermont OK, albeit a day late, but I recovered!   After a very busy week, I had visions of sleeping in today, but jet lag thought differently!  So, this morning, I got up early and saw the sunrise.  I grabbed my camera and captured the sunlight hitting the ancient volcanos around Clermont and some church spires.

Clermont-Ferrand, France at sunrise. View from the "Hotel des Puis"

Clermont-Ferrand, France at sunrise.  View from the “Hotel des puis”

That's about it for this update...a mix of East and West!

Take care and thanks for keeping those emails coming!

Sarah & Rod

30 Oct 2010

1 October 2010: My birthday party and more food market photos!

1 October 2010

Dear friends and family,

I write to you today as a 50 year old woman!  Yes, my 50th birthday was yesterday, and Rod ensured that we celebrated in high style!  He planned and pulled off a surprise party for me here at the hotel.  There were several work colleagues and their families with us the help me pass the important milestone.  Of course, now, after the fact, I find the whole story and I'm amazed that so many people knew, but no one blabbed..no one, and in fact, I know now, that at least 3 people on this list were in on the planning and execution of this little affaire!    I was totally and utterly surprised and so humbled by a wonderful party, spending my birthday with our Shenyang family.   Rod has pulled off many "firsts" for me, but this one topped it all!  I've never (until now) had a surprise birthday party!   He pulled out all the stops and made it very memorable.  There were so many wonderful gifts and memories that will last a lifetime...who knows, maybe the next 50 years! (I was voted most likely to live to 100 back in high school)!  Here are a few of pictures...makes me tear up and smile at the same time just to see them today!

The birthday room before everything started...all unbeknownst to me!

Sarah trying to make a speech and Rod laughing!

Some friends sitting around the table

David Davis and Rod sitting at the table

Sarah Miller and Benoit Heubert (my boss) at the end!

Dorthy & Michel, Helmut and Elizabeth, Sarah & Benoit, Joe & Karen...a very nice night out for my 50th!

The gifts so proudly displayed the morning after!  They are still like this right now as I type...I just love looking at it all on our dining room table! All of these gifts mean so much to us and have already garnered a special place in our lives!  Thank you!

The gifts for my 50th birthday party in Shenyang, China...wow, amazing!

So hard to top that!!

Today is a holiday here in China.  It's the 1st of October, the Chinese National Day and actually it's a 3 day holiday, so the fact that it falls on Friday this year, means that we will move the 2nd and 3rd day to Monday and Tuesday of next week...so most everyone gets a 5 day weekend.  We went to a market today, I saw no sign of "National Day" here..no parades,  no extra flags...Rod said he thought it was more like "National Cash Register" day..lots of marketing and selling looks like to me!

I always love taking pictures of the food in the markets...here are some more!

Fresh Green vegetable market...very pretty to look at, and I'm sure tasty to eat

Hows that for some big onions, squash and leeks?

You want eggs...we got eggs..chicken, quail, goose...all kinds

How about some fresh mushrooms and ginger root to go with your greens?

Rod's dipping out something...hard to tell what!

parts are parts in these chickens..or turkeys or whatever they were!  Necks, breasts, feet, gizzards..you got it!

How do you like your eggs?  

Would you like white meat or dark meat for your chicken..now about some feet, or a good neck bone, or something a little more in the organ family?

So, that's about it for now here in Shenyang.  We're going to relax today and tomorrow...I'll probably just continue to bask in the great memories of my 50th birthday party!  Thank you my dear Rodney...it was the best birthday party a girl could ever have!

I’ll be taking my computer with me on my business trips, so next week I’ll be writing from France.

See you soon,

Sarah