"So how did it feel to live in a communist country?"

Once again, it has been quite some time since I last updated. Since then, I have done some (perhaps noteworthy) things:
1) Graduated
2) Came home (Houston)
3) Had my aunt and cousin visit from China (they are still here)

My aunt and cousin came about 3 weeks ago, and have been living in our new house since. It's been pretty fun; my aunt is a great cook so we've been having fantastic noodles almost everyday. Mmm yum!

Yesterday, we (parents, brother, aunt, cousin) decided to go to San Antonio for two days. The joys of Sea World (in almost-100-degree-weather), fast food, and Natural Bridge Caverns (and the Safari next door) were unmatched. Yesterday, we spent more than seven hours at Sea World. My brother acquired yet another stuffed dolphin, and I acquired yet another attractive sunburn.

Today we visited the Natural Bridge area, including the safari and the caves. The safari went well; there were too many deer, the ostriches were surprisingly fearsome, and the goats were smelly. The caves were a welcome escape from the heat. My dad and mom decided not to go down since they visited the same caves last year, and didn't feel like wasting $26.97 per person again. So it was my brother, me, my aunt and cousin who went into the caves. My aunt and cousin do not know English, which makes translating a whole lot of fun, especially when my Chinese vocabulary does not extends to such things as 'stalagmites' and 'stalactites;' needless to say, a lot of round-about phrasing and gesturing were used. Two ladies who were behind us on the tour decided to strike up a conversation with me. Once again, as with almost 80% of the conversation I have with strangers seem to go, the ladies were interested in my 'Asianness.' The typical benign questions emerged: where are we from, how long we've been in the US, if we like Yao Ming, etc. Then the awkward questions come up, like "is it true you can't have more than one child" and the ultimate question: "So how did it feel to live in a communist country?" It was odd that a sense of fear emerged from her question. I'm not sure if she expected some sort of tearful answer of repression and tyranny, but she seemed surprised (and not fully convinced) when I told her it was fine.

Actually, the 'communist' factor isn't too noticeable in day-to-day lives. Seems like a lot of people think that since China has a communist government, there is only one brand of toothpaste, one national bank, etc. Somehow the idea of communism has become a restriction on choices at every level of society, but that really is not the case. Not sure if it's leaky thinking from the Cold War era, but it's a new century now, and commerce and internationalism are both huge in China. Of course there are limits on personal freedoms - there are things you can't search for on Google if you're in China and any news is pretty skewed, but there are easily ways around such things, and people are more aware of history and current events than 'other people' (e.g. people in the US) think. I think as you go higher in the hierarchy, politics dictate more (unless you're in the 'unreachable' realm of the hierarchy, which includes famous people and the uber-rich businessmen from Shanghai and the like). Corruption and political power go hand in hand in China, but that's not a defining aspect of 'communism,' it's that way with every political system. Sometimes, when I get into arguments with strangers over Chinese politics, it seems to end up being more about derailing the idea that communism means corruption and tyranny. One can easily look at democratic governments too and see that those two 'red evils' exist there.

Well anyways, better get off a topic in which I'm not an expert...

Back to the cave story. When we got out of the caves, we were greeted by my parents, who have the uncanny ability to show up at the exact time and location of the tour exit. Perhaps they lo-jacked my brother (I've always suspected this). When we went into my dad's car, I noticed some grocery bags, and asked my mom what they were. Apparently, while we were touring the caves, my dad dug out cacti from national park grounds and put them into grocery bags to take home and plant in our yard. I quickly looked around to make sure no park ranger was wandering around just to catch unsuspecting cacti-thieves. We were lucky this time.

In light of the fact that I leave the US in 3 days, I should probably start packing...well, first I would need to unpack the boxes and suitcases from May/June...

Watch out for future posts! They will soon contain numerous pictures and (hopefully exciting) stories from Chile!