In our neighbourhood, no garbage bag makes it out of the garbage can without first being plundered for recyclables, which are collected and sold by legions of local recyclables collector-sellers. Even these folks are feeling the impact of Wall Street misbehaviour and the global financial crisis.

Just a short post to update on the goal that I had set back in August of running a 10k on the treadmill at my gym by mid-November. The “race” was last Friday, November 14th…so this post is a little overdue.

Anyway, running the 10K (that’s 6.2 miles for you non-metric users) went really well. I’ve definitely gained a lot in endurance and stamina throughout this training process, even if my overall pace for the 10K is a bit slower than for the 5k I did in August. I’ve also been quite excited to realize how well having a specific goal and training plan really helps me stay motivated on a day to day basis. Other than a few days that I was out with a cold back in October…I really didn’t miss any runs! But the biggest surprise of all for me is that somewhere between the end of the 5k and the completion of the 10k, running actually became very enjoyable for me…and something that I would look forward to!!! My time for the 10K was 55 minutes 25 seconds…for a pace of 8 minutes 56 seconds per mile. I’m very satisfied with my time, especially since I had set a goal of 55 minutes or so for the race. Overall, I do believe that would be slower if I were running outdoors…the treadmill really helps me to push it and keep up the pace more than I might if I were pacing myself on the ground outside.

My friend Nicole, who also ran the 5k with me in August, kept going with the goal for the 10k and completed it on Saturday the 15th. She finished with a great time of 1 hr 7 minutes and 8 seconds. I’m totally impressed, as the area she runs has lots of hills and gradual inclines! Best of all, her wonderful husband and daughter cheered her on…they stopped at a few of the places they knew she would run by and cheered for her, and then when she arrived home they had stretched a “finish ribbon” for her to break through. I just thought it was so awesome to see the ways that they encouraged her throughout the process.:D I can’t wait to visit her when we are back in North America for the spring and go for a jog together…I can just imagine that the smell of the fresh air and pine tress will make the run even better!

Now…there were a few others who had planned to participate…but I’m not sure if there were any others that completed the 10K over the course of that weekend. If you did, just add your time and a bit about your run to the comments!!!

46 years after his death, John Leighton Stuart’s request to be buried in China is finally granted.

The Tarim mummies unearthed in Western China, an ethnically contentious and politically disputed region, are one of the world’s most fascinating recent archeological finds. But they’re also controversial. The oldest is 3,800 years old, and not East Asian.

Time made a deal with Google to put thousands of images online, many never before published. See here for some great examples.

An unqualified nightmare.

A five-year ‘bridge-blogger’ on how the Chinese internet changes the millennia-old, near hopeless system of peasants petitioning the central authorities against their local overlords, who usually have the power to suppress all news of their misconduct.

We saw two Chinese movies recently that might be worth watching for the cross-cultural issues they bring up.

Pushing Hands / 推手 / tuī shǒu
Pushing Hands is a family drama in which a successful Chinese immigrant, along with his American wife and their young ABC son, bring the grandfather from Beijing to live with them in their New York suburb. This sparks family cross-cultural tensions as the main character struggles to balance his roles as husband, father, and son simultaneously across two different cultures. The viewer gets an introduction to the issues faced by Chinese-American cross-cultural households, imported Chinese grandparents, and the struggle of Chinese Americans to uphold Chinese family values (filial piety) in American society. There’s quite a bit of English dialogue, as the wife only speaks English, but you’ll still need subtitles.

The Gua Sha Treatment / 刮痧 / guā shā
Gua Sha is a family/courtroom drama about a successful, well-adjusted, Chinese immigrant couple in St. Louis with an ABC 5-year-old boy. One day the grandfather, who doesn’t speak any English, etc., gives the boy a harmless traditional Chinese medicine treatment that leaves terrible-looking red marks on his back. When a Western doctor in the hospital discovers the welts the couple loses custody of their son and ends up in a legal battle. The story highlights cultural differences, particularly where Americans misunderstand the Chinese.

About half the dialogue is in English, but you’ll still want subtitles.

Aside from one scene where, in their grief, the couple gets plastered and calls themselves obscene names in English, there’s not much offensive in the movie, if you don’t count some occasional over-the-top writing and acting.

Dozens of thousands of factories have already closed, with thousands more expected to follow. Al-Jazeera reports in a short video.

Shannon teaches English on a university campus in Tianjin. One of her fellow teachers assigned students homework where they have to talk to a foreigner, and Shannon is under attack.