Okay, yesterday I posted about how I came across some pious Buddhists releasing some sparrows and a fish back into the wild.  I said that I did not have my camera and that I wasn’t able to catch any of it to share.  It is true that I didn’t have my camera, but luckily, Phil had his iPhone on him, and even though the quality isn’t that great, I was able to catch some of what I saw.  When I posted yesterday, Phil wasn’t home, so I wasn’t able to get the video off of his phone to put it in with that post.  It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing, I suppose.  They had already released some of the birds when Phil said I should just use his phone.  I guess I was complaining the whole time that I had forgotten my camera and he finally got annoyed!  Me?  Annoying?  No way!  Well, here we go – enjoy!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_H4Ux-iW9s[/youtube]

And I don’t have a picture or a video of it because I didn’t want to lug my purse around when Phil and I took Meili for a walk.  Never again will I leave home without it.

Our community is really nice. We have a lot of trees, ponds, grassy areas, and part of the complex borders on the river.  We decided to take Meili down to the river to see how she would react to the water.  As we strolled down the boardwalk, I started hearing some commotion.

It sounded a lot like chanting, so I said to Phil, “Are we interrupting a cult meeting?”

“It’s sounds like they are worshiping Jesus.”  Cult . . . religion . . . what’s the difference?  And I seriously doubted they were worshiping Jesus, not if they wanted something like this to go down – click me to read about an underground Beijing church that got busted.

Then I started to hear a lot of birds chirping.  Too many for it to be a coincidence.  As we rounded the corner, the people came into view and so did the cages they were standing around.  “Then what are all the sparrows for?”

About 20 people were standing in a circle around 8 cages full of sparrows.  And by cages, I mean large boxes with lids made of wire.  Each box probably contained 50 sparrows each.   Almost everyone  there was holding a small, flimsy book and reading the passages out loud.    Most of the people were dressed in normal everyday clothes, but one was dressed like a monk.  I decided to take a seat because I had to find out what they were doing.  Were they going to sacrifice the birds?  Were they going to let them go? And what about the single fish chilling in the over-sized cup?  What are they going to do with him?

The chanting went on for several more minutes, and then finally, without warning, everyone started to sing.  The song sounded a lot like chanting, too, and they sang the same 4 or 5 verses over and over again.  At this point, I would have been really happy to understand Chinese.

The monk went to a table and picked up a green water bottle.  He shook it up, and then preceded to spray the sparrows with it.  The birds did not like this.  They fluttered and tried to run from the water, but of course, there was no where for them to go.  Another person went to the table and grabbed what appeared to be bird seed or some sort of grain.  A few others took notice and did the same.  Slowly, they sprinkled the bird seed over the sparrows.  I couldn’t tell if the birds liked this aspect of the ritual or not.  They were still fluttering like mad because of the water. The singing, the spraying of the water and the tossing of the food continued for sometime.

Without any indication, at least, not that I noticed, some of the people started to walk away.  A few others stayed behind and picked up the cages.  The birds were really starting to freak out now.  Everyone was still singing as they walked passed me, Phil, and Meili.  One woman stopped and crouched next to Meili.  I have no idea what she said, but I would almost swear that she prayed over her.

The group then moved over to a grassy area and sat the boxes of birds down.  As they continued to sing, they began to open up the boxes.  The birds, stressed to the max, all tried to escape at the same time.  The sky was a torrent of feathers.

Some of the birds knew it was best to fly far, far away, but others decided that the ground was a comfortable place to hang out.  I waited around to see what they were going to do with the fish, but I lost track of him.  Maybe someone already took him down to the river and I just didn’t see them.  He’s probably dead now, and the river probably killed him.

As we walked Meili around the area a little longer, the population of sparrows seemed to have quadrupled.  They were everywhere.

Well, thanks to the internet, I think I know what happened and why.  If I am right, the people were just being pious Buddhists.  According to Wikipedia, “In East Asian Buddhism, and particularly in China, the release of animals, particularly birds or fish, into their natural environment became an important way of demonstrating Buddhist piety. In China it was known as fang sheng. This practice is based on a passage in the Mahāyāna Sūtra of Brahma’s Net, which states that “…all the beings in the six paths of existence are my parents. If I should kill and eat them, it is the same as killing my own parents. … Since to be reborn into one existence after another is the permanent and unalterable law, we should teach people to release sentient beings.”‘

I’m still mad that I didn’t have my camera.  It was so interesting to watch.  Maybe I’ll get lucky one of these days and be able to capture  the memory in a different way and not have to rely on my brain to explain exactly what happened.

During our trip to Xingping located in the Guangxi province of China last summer, I got a peek of what 2012 will look like right before I blink out of existence.

I wish I had had just a little more sun light, so that the pictures would have been a bit more clear.   The pictures, of course, doesn’t do the scene justice – like almost every other picture I’ve ever taken in that area.

Everyone was taking pictures of the ominous clouds rolling in as night fell on the rooftop of our hostel.

And if I had a telephoto lens, this picture would have been awesome, but woe is me.  This picture was taken from the balcony of our hotel in Yangshuo.  As I have mentioned before, if you ever visit Yangshuo, you should stay at Riverside Retreat. It is where we have stayed both times that we have gone.  It is about a 10 minute walk from the city, but the place is clean, comfortable, and the staff is really friendly.  And if you don’t want to walk to town to eat, they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner at reasonable prices.  It is a great place to go if you want to relax and get away from the world.  The views are some of the best, too.  If my parents ever come to visit me in China, this is one of the places I am going to take them.  If I ever win a huge sum of money, I am moving to Yangshuo, and open up my own hotel/hostel.

Seems I have been a very bad blogger.  I would apologize, but I figure this sort of thing is bound to happen a lot.  I have been very busy this last month and a bit sick.  Wanted to post something, though, so that you could see a little through my eyes.

What was given to us at one of our dinners here. The white fruit with black seeds is known as Dragon Fruit and it pretty good stuff. The first time we came to China, I called it Mario Fruit, because well, it looked like something out of Mario World.

I saw this when I was walking through one of the bigger grocery stores here.  It made me laugh not only because of the picture, but because it was in the kid’s section of the store.

I had no idea all of China could fit in a box this small. I want to buy it just to see what kind of game it is.

What we were given to us for getting an account through the China Construction Bank – without the mustache of course.

If in need, the acne fighters for both men and women are here.

How water is delivered here.

This is one of the strangest Chinese birds I have ever seen.  It has white and black wings.

That is all for now, folks. I have to eat me some PB&J and go to bed.

Well it’s 6:21 AM at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport and we’ve just finished up hell week… moving and uprooting our lives to live in China…. Again.

Further status updates will come along as we continue through our journey to the far east for a second time.

Phil took this picture of me way back when it used to be warm outside.  I never realized that I actually had freckles.  And either did Phil until he took my picture.  Weird.

What is worse than being 5 years old and waiting for your parents to wake up so that you can finally open all of your Christmas gifts?  Waiting to find out where and the farkle(sorry, been playing that silly game on Facebook too much over break) you are going to be in t-minus 2 months and some change, of course.  I just want to know, man!  Patience is not one of my virtues!

As much as I liked the big ole’ black Cormorant sitting on my arm and the sweat dripping down my face in my last About Me photo, I am very glad that it has finally been replaced.  I’ve wanted a new one for the longest time, but I just couldn’t find a picture that I liked.  Since I am usually behind the camera, there are rarely any pictures with me as the soul subject.  So, this past weekend, I had Phil play photographer.  He took a handful of pictures and was able to take one that I approved of.  Of course, the one that I liked the most had a bunch of cars in the background, so I had to have his brother, Steve, photoshop the eyesores away.  He tried to give me red laser eyes, but I wouldn’t let him.  🙂  That is what happens when you let an artist have free reign.

And if you didn’t notice, there are some new additions to the header, too.  Phil changed up the title a little bit and added in some cute silhouettes of faeries and witches.  I think they are pretty cool.  What else should Phil work on?  Any comments or ideas?

I will blog again.  I promise.

I found this picture online and I think it’s a pretty good representation of Gabe as an anime character.  The representing factors of course are the look on her face (look at the eyebrows), the long hair, and the sweet looking cat in her hands.  The only thing missing is purple clothes.  I have no idea what anime it’s from, but Gabe should probably watch it.

Everyday Gabe Picture