20 April 2008
My belly did not feel good at all today. All around my belly-button and below felt tender and I felt nauseated. This morning, I could not imagine eating ANY Chinese food today. I ate peaches-n-cream oatmeal I had brought and felt as though I had accomplished a major feat. Andrew couldn’t get through the receptionist today and this shortened our conversation time as he did call on the cell phone. Just what I needed, feeling crappy in a foreign country and I can’t even whine to my safety net. What’s more who knows how much we will pay for that 8 minute phone call. Oh well, it’s worth it.
I balked all morning, eating pepto bismol tabs and wishing for Campbell’s chicken noodle soup. Nothing seemed to help. I needed to drink my coffee as I was getting a headache, but the thought of drinking coffee soured my stomach, too. I forced myself to get up and shower and get ready for XiaoPan and Summi. Considering if anyone of us students is sick here, the whole hospital knows about it, I didn’t want to miss our trip to the silk market and have to fend off inquiries for the remaining time about how my stomach is doing. The oatmeal settled things enough to go.
The silk market was quite expansive and there many things I liked. However, we walked away from many things as XiaoPan suggested my counter bargains be about half of the asking price. Sellers got quite angry, glared at us and wouldn’t even counter. So, I missed out on some things. However, I was able to purchase things for others, too. Oh well, I have enough stuff. Some of the funniest articles of clothing were silk mu-mus like Mrs. Roper wore on the show Three’s Company. There were also fabric shops to buy silk for making your own stuff. I was wishing Andy was here and we had measurements of windows as there was some nice material for curtains.
Summi was quite conversant this time, telling us about her big test on Tuesday and that she’ll be taking high school level English next month. She’s also excited about a trip to Shanghai to go shopping – she plans to buy something from Zara, a Spanish store as well as jeans. She and her mother made inquiries into American life, such as how we paid for education and relationships with parents. It’s much different in China, as the parents generally still give their kids money while in university and the children live with parents for much longer than we do. Summi’s parents may be sending her to a boarding high school, which Summi isn’t sure if she will like
We once again went to the wonderful restaurant just behind out apartment and they made wonderful selections. Though my stomach had calmed quite a bit, it was still feeling unsettled. I avoided the spicy chicken that the girls wanted and tried to not eat too much, but alas, I still feel overfull and uncomfortable. I think I’ll take more pepto and hope that I don’t need TCM, as they’ll definitely have a case when they see my black tongue (from the pepto)!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Hike and Sing 4/19/08
19 April 2008
It’s Rob Swan’s birthday today. I’m not going to make it to the internet today or probably tomorrow, so he’ll have to read this and know I thought of him.
We met Cat and her friend Jessie at the Mao Zedong statue at Zhejiang University to go for a “hike” this morning. The weather forecast was for sunny skies and about 15 minutes into the 20 minute walk to the statue, it started to sprinkle. I didn’t take an umbrella or wear my waterproof soft shell as I usually do here. By time we figured out which way we were going, the rain became more persistent. Jessie shared her umbrella with me and Cat shared hers with Shannon. Trish was the smart one and had brought her own. In America, unless we were already out on the trail, we probably would have said, “Oh, it’s raining. We’ll climb the mountain some other day.” But, we kept trekking.
Cat was wearing flimsy, but adorable, little flat black shoes. I questioned her comfort, as I had on my heavy duty, Gortex hiking boots. After all, she said we were going to climb a mountain. She assured me she would be fine and as we found our way to the trailhead, amid a zillion other people, I learned why – there were concrete steps all the way up the mountain. The irony of it is that I found climbing the steps to be more physically exhausting than climbing a mountain without steps. The mountain was not that high, just over 600km, I think. But if it were a clear day, which it was not, there would have been a great view of West Lake and the rest of Hangzhou. We could see some, but not much.
We started down the other side of the mountain and the trail was a little rougher with some slippery rocks. This made slow going, especially with the umbrella situation. We came to a small covered pavilion and learned we had gone too far and continuing the way we were would take us far away from the university. So we turned back and took another path downward, to end up in the Hangzhou Botanical Gardens, which we paid to walk through, but didn’t stop to smell the roses, so to speak. By this time everyone, except me had wet feet and everyone but Trish had at least one shoulder completely soaked. We were cold and hungry and wet.
So, we kept going and passed nearby Lingying Lu, but went back to the University. We walked longer than I thought we would until we came to a restaurant on campus that Cat knew. There, she ordered us a feast fit for Chinese royalty and we were grateful for the rest and the food. Jessie, could eat a lot, it was great to see such a healthy appetite.
We parted company for the midday rest, with the promise to meet back up at Mao at 7pm to go to the dance again. We all slept about 2 hours and were dragging a little. I was still full from lunch so didn’t eat dinner. We made it back to Mao about 7:15pm. At the courtyard in front of Mao, many students were gathered and Cat explained that there was going to be music played. So, we stood around and listened. Some boys offered to share their plastic drop sheet so we could sit, and we took them up on the offer. It turned out to be a sort of sing-in, which was quite fun. They sang mostly Chinese songs, but a couple we had heard before. They also sang a couple of American songs. It was fun and the boys were perfect gentlemen, seeming to be out of the fifties with their kindness. There was a little boy going around and collecting everyone’s glow-sticks, which was amusing. I took a picture of him and he spit on us. Then he started hitting other people. After that, he was on his own and no one would give him anymore glow-sticks.
We left with plans to go to KTV (karaoke) tomorrow, though a bit confusing because we’re going with XiaoPan tomorrow to the silk market and don’t know when we’ll get back home. Also, the students kept asking us if we thought 130 yuan (almost $20) was too expensive for 3 hours of karaoke. We didn’t think so, but are suspicious that it is too much for them. We’ll see.
It’s Rob Swan’s birthday today. I’m not going to make it to the internet today or probably tomorrow, so he’ll have to read this and know I thought of him.
We met Cat and her friend Jessie at the Mao Zedong statue at Zhejiang University to go for a “hike” this morning. The weather forecast was for sunny skies and about 15 minutes into the 20 minute walk to the statue, it started to sprinkle. I didn’t take an umbrella or wear my waterproof soft shell as I usually do here. By time we figured out which way we were going, the rain became more persistent. Jessie shared her umbrella with me and Cat shared hers with Shannon. Trish was the smart one and had brought her own. In America, unless we were already out on the trail, we probably would have said, “Oh, it’s raining. We’ll climb the mountain some other day.” But, we kept trekking.
Cat was wearing flimsy, but adorable, little flat black shoes. I questioned her comfort, as I had on my heavy duty, Gortex hiking boots. After all, she said we were going to climb a mountain. She assured me she would be fine and as we found our way to the trailhead, amid a zillion other people, I learned why – there were concrete steps all the way up the mountain. The irony of it is that I found climbing the steps to be more physically exhausting than climbing a mountain without steps. The mountain was not that high, just over 600km, I think. But if it were a clear day, which it was not, there would have been a great view of West Lake and the rest of Hangzhou. We could see some, but not much.
We started down the other side of the mountain and the trail was a little rougher with some slippery rocks. This made slow going, especially with the umbrella situation. We came to a small covered pavilion and learned we had gone too far and continuing the way we were would take us far away from the university. So we turned back and took another path downward, to end up in the Hangzhou Botanical Gardens, which we paid to walk through, but didn’t stop to smell the roses, so to speak. By this time everyone, except me had wet feet and everyone but Trish had at least one shoulder completely soaked. We were cold and hungry and wet.
So, we kept going and passed nearby Lingying Lu, but went back to the University. We walked longer than I thought we would until we came to a restaurant on campus that Cat knew. There, she ordered us a feast fit for Chinese royalty and we were grateful for the rest and the food. Jessie, could eat a lot, it was great to see such a healthy appetite.
We parted company for the midday rest, with the promise to meet back up at Mao at 7pm to go to the dance again. We all slept about 2 hours and were dragging a little. I was still full from lunch so didn’t eat dinner. We made it back to Mao about 7:15pm. At the courtyard in front of Mao, many students were gathered and Cat explained that there was going to be music played. So, we stood around and listened. Some boys offered to share their plastic drop sheet so we could sit, and we took them up on the offer. It turned out to be a sort of sing-in, which was quite fun. They sang mostly Chinese songs, but a couple we had heard before. They also sang a couple of American songs. It was fun and the boys were perfect gentlemen, seeming to be out of the fifties with their kindness. There was a little boy going around and collecting everyone’s glow-sticks, which was amusing. I took a picture of him and he spit on us. Then he started hitting other people. After that, he was on his own and no one would give him anymore glow-sticks.
We left with plans to go to KTV (karaoke) tomorrow, though a bit confusing because we’re going with XiaoPan tomorrow to the silk market and don’t know when we’ll get back home. Also, the students kept asking us if we thought 130 yuan (almost $20) was too expensive for 3 hours of karaoke. We didn’t think so, but are suspicious that it is too much for them. We’ll see.
Hike and Sing 4/19/08
19 April 2008
It’s Rob Swan’s birthday today. I’m not going to make it to the internet today or probably tomorrow, so he’ll have to read this and know I thought of him.
We met Cat and her friend Jessie at the Mao Zedong statue at Zhejiang University to go for a “hike” this morning. The weather forecast was for sunny skies and about 15 minutes into the 20 minute walk to the statue, it started to sprinkle. I didn’t take an umbrella or wear my waterproof soft shell as I usually do here. By time we figured out which way we were going, the rain became more persistent. Jessie shared her umbrella with me and Cat shared hers with Shannon. Trish was the smart one and had brought her own. In America, unless we were already out on the trail, we probably would have said, “Oh, it’s raining. We’ll climb the mountain some other day.” But, we kept trekking.
Cat was wearing flimsy, but adorable, little flat black shoes. I questioned her comfort, as I had on my heavy duty, Gortex hiking boots. After all, she said we were going to climb a mountain. She assured me she would be fine and as we found our way to the trailhead, amid a zillion other people, I learned why – there were concrete steps all the way up the mountain. The irony of it is that I found climbing the steps to be more physically exhausting than climbing a mountain without steps. The mountain was not that high, just over 600km, I think. But if it were a clear day, which it was not, there would have been a great view of West Lake and the rest of Hangzhou. We could see some, but not much.
We started down the other side of the mountain and the trail was a little rougher with some slippery rocks. This made slow going, especially with the umbrella situation. We came to a small covered pavilion and learned we had gone too far and continuing the way we were would take us far away from the university. So we turned back and took another path downward, to end up in the Hangzhou Botanical Gardens, which we paid to walk through, but didn’t stop to smell the roses, so to speak. By this time everyone, except me had wet feet and everyone but Trish had at least one shoulder completely soaked. We were cold and hungry and wet.
So, we kept going and passed nearby Lingying Lu, but went back to the University. We walked longer than I thought we would until we came to a restaurant on campus that Cat knew. There, she ordered us a feast fit for Chinese royalty and we were grateful for the rest and the food. Jessie, could eat a lot, it was great to see such a healthy appetite.
We parted company for the midday rest, with the promise to meet back up at Mao at 7pm to go to the dance again. We all slept about 2 hours and were dragging a little. I was still full from lunch so didn’t eat dinner. We made it back to Mao about 7:15pm. At the courtyard in front of Mao, many students were gathered and Cat explained that there was going to be music played. So, we stood around and listened. Some boys offered to share their plastic drop sheet so we could sit, and we took them up on the offer. It turned out to be a sort of sing-in, which was quite fun. They sang mostly Chinese songs, but a couple we had heard before. They also sang a couple of American songs. It was fun and the boys were perfect gentlemen, seeming to be out of the fifties with their kindness. There was a little boy going around and collecting everyone’s glow-sticks, which was amusing. I took a picture of him and he spit on us. Then he started hitting other people. After that, he was on his own and no one would give him anymore glow-sticks.
We left with plans to go to KTV (karaoke) tomorrow, though a bit confusing because we’re going with XiaoPan tomorrow to the silk market and don’t know when we’ll get back home. Also, the students kept asking us if we thought 130 yuan (almost $20) was too expensive for 3 hours of karaoke. We didn’t think so, but are suspicious that it is too much for them. We’ll see.
It’s Rob Swan’s birthday today. I’m not going to make it to the internet today or probably tomorrow, so he’ll have to read this and know I thought of him.
We met Cat and her friend Jessie at the Mao Zedong statue at Zhejiang University to go for a “hike” this morning. The weather forecast was for sunny skies and about 15 minutes into the 20 minute walk to the statue, it started to sprinkle. I didn’t take an umbrella or wear my waterproof soft shell as I usually do here. By time we figured out which way we were going, the rain became more persistent. Jessie shared her umbrella with me and Cat shared hers with Shannon. Trish was the smart one and had brought her own. In America, unless we were already out on the trail, we probably would have said, “Oh, it’s raining. We’ll climb the mountain some other day.” But, we kept trekking.
Cat was wearing flimsy, but adorable, little flat black shoes. I questioned her comfort, as I had on my heavy duty, Gortex hiking boots. After all, she said we were going to climb a mountain. She assured me she would be fine and as we found our way to the trailhead, amid a zillion other people, I learned why – there were concrete steps all the way up the mountain. The irony of it is that I found climbing the steps to be more physically exhausting than climbing a mountain without steps. The mountain was not that high, just over 600km, I think. But if it were a clear day, which it was not, there would have been a great view of West Lake and the rest of Hangzhou. We could see some, but not much.
We started down the other side of the mountain and the trail was a little rougher with some slippery rocks. This made slow going, especially with the umbrella situation. We came to a small covered pavilion and learned we had gone too far and continuing the way we were would take us far away from the university. So we turned back and took another path downward, to end up in the Hangzhou Botanical Gardens, which we paid to walk through, but didn’t stop to smell the roses, so to speak. By this time everyone, except me had wet feet and everyone but Trish had at least one shoulder completely soaked. We were cold and hungry and wet.
So, we kept going and passed nearby Lingying Lu, but went back to the University. We walked longer than I thought we would until we came to a restaurant on campus that Cat knew. There, she ordered us a feast fit for Chinese royalty and we were grateful for the rest and the food. Jessie, could eat a lot, it was great to see such a healthy appetite.
We parted company for the midday rest, with the promise to meet back up at Mao at 7pm to go to the dance again. We all slept about 2 hours and were dragging a little. I was still full from lunch so didn’t eat dinner. We made it back to Mao about 7:15pm. At the courtyard in front of Mao, many students were gathered and Cat explained that there was going to be music played. So, we stood around and listened. Some boys offered to share their plastic drop sheet so we could sit, and we took them up on the offer. It turned out to be a sort of sing-in, which was quite fun. They sang mostly Chinese songs, but a couple we had heard before. They also sang a couple of American songs. It was fun and the boys were perfect gentlemen, seeming to be out of the fifties with their kindness. There was a little boy going around and collecting everyone’s glow-sticks, which was amusing. I took a picture of him and he spit on us. Then he started hitting other people. After that, he was on his own and no one would give him anymore glow-sticks.
We left with plans to go to KTV (karaoke) tomorrow, though a bit confusing because we’re going with XiaoPan tomorrow to the silk market and don’t know when we’ll get back home. Also, the students kept asking us if we thought 130 yuan (almost $20) was too expensive for 3 hours of karaoke. We didn’t think so, but are suspicious that it is too much for them. We’ll see.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Dancing 4/18/08
18 April 2008
Second day of acupuncture, rather boring again. It’s interesting though how many people come in for insomnia, especially men, it seems. I didn’t have acupuncture on my knee today either. The doctor asked me if it hurt, I said yes and that was the end of it. No treatment, today, I suppose. I left at 3:30 to go to the library to check email and for some reason, they kept Trish until almost 5pm.
Tonight we went dancing with Cat, one of the acupuncture students at the student center at Zhejiang University. This was a very different experience from going dancing in America, where there’s usually too much alcohol and groping involved. Rather this was much more akin to a middle school dance, except people can actually dance and the boys really do ask the girls to dance. The amusing part is the great distance left between partners, at least 3 feet if it’s a freestyle dance and only marginally closer for couples dances . There were many waltzes and one older (~40) guy kept trying to teach me, it was funny as I wasn’t picking it up so well. However, I needed saving from my friends as then he decided he wanted to talk about his job, teaching computer programming and how good he was at programming. Thank goodness, Shannon walked by looking for me and I had an out. I also learned a line version of cha-cha, which was fun and the feel of their salsa is much more graceful and fluid than what I’ve experienced in Syracuse. I had a hard time following the lead. Trish wasn’t feeling so well and left early, but Shannon and I stuck it out and decided we’d like to go again and also maybe take ballroom dance lessons back home.
Afterward, we walked to the bar, “HOD,” that’s just down the block. We had a couple beers, listened to the Chinese band and had some magic tricks from the bartenders. Also, it’s funny that just because we’re not Chinese, the men bought us food – peanuts, fruit and popcorn. It was a nice relaxing evening after trying to be so pleasant and accepting through a rather low-activity week.
Second day of acupuncture, rather boring again. It’s interesting though how many people come in for insomnia, especially men, it seems. I didn’t have acupuncture on my knee today either. The doctor asked me if it hurt, I said yes and that was the end of it. No treatment, today, I suppose. I left at 3:30 to go to the library to check email and for some reason, they kept Trish until almost 5pm.
Tonight we went dancing with Cat, one of the acupuncture students at the student center at Zhejiang University. This was a very different experience from going dancing in America, where there’s usually too much alcohol and groping involved. Rather this was much more akin to a middle school dance, except people can actually dance and the boys really do ask the girls to dance. The amusing part is the great distance left between partners, at least 3 feet if it’s a freestyle dance and only marginally closer for couples dances . There were many waltzes and one older (~40) guy kept trying to teach me, it was funny as I wasn’t picking it up so well. However, I needed saving from my friends as then he decided he wanted to talk about his job, teaching computer programming and how good he was at programming. Thank goodness, Shannon walked by looking for me and I had an out. I also learned a line version of cha-cha, which was fun and the feel of their salsa is much more graceful and fluid than what I’ve experienced in Syracuse. I had a hard time following the lead. Trish wasn’t feeling so well and left early, but Shannon and I stuck it out and decided we’d like to go again and also maybe take ballroom dance lessons back home.
Afterward, we walked to the bar, “HOD,” that’s just down the block. We had a couple beers, listened to the Chinese band and had some magic tricks from the bartenders. Also, it’s funny that just because we’re not Chinese, the men bought us food – peanuts, fruit and popcorn. It was a nice relaxing evening after trying to be so pleasant and accepting through a rather low-activity week.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Acupuncture and America 4/17/08
17 April 2008
Today was my first “official” day of acupuncture. I really didn’t do much again. I watched a few cases, many of them repeats, and then spent most of the time talking to the doctors and students about America. However, I did learn that all of yesterday’s pain during my treatment was associated with activation of the Qi and was thus a good thing. I’m not so sure, but my knee does feel better now.
We talked about average doctors’ salaries and buying houses in the U.S. I showed photos of the house Andy and I are buying and one doctor, who has a son in Cincinnati, wanted copies of them as she wants to buy a house in the States. I’m not sure how having pictures of our house will help her, but I obliged. Through the boy student I tried to explain the variation in house costs depend on the state of repair, location and age of the house. We tried to look at realtor.com, but the internet delay made it impossible. Apparently, when you buy a house in China, you can only live in it for 70 years. It seems an odd prospect to me, but I suppose it helps somehow with a housing crunch. The Chinese were equally surprised that you could live in your house as long as you wanted in America.
We also talked about sports teams and Thanksgiving dinner. Here, a turkey apparently would cost 300 yuan or about $44. They seem to like Haagen Daas ice cream as we were asked about it a lot. It’s a special treat here that costs 50 yuan or about $7. Overall, I think they have a healthier approach to food. They say, yes they like McDonald’s, but eat it rarely as it’s not good for the body. There are many KFCs here and the students are surprised that it’s not as popular as McDonalds in the U.S.
Lunch was difficult as I tried to order on my own. They understood “miantiao” for noodles, but did not understand my zhurhou for pork. A little old lady ended up helping me order -- she’s 80 and has been retired for 20 years. She says her husband is here in the hospital and she’s a director or maybe a doctor in the past. Noodles are really hard to eat with chopsticks. Here it is completely acceptable to shove them in your mouth and slurp as much as you please. However, I find I end up with too little in my mouth or too much and thus end up exhausted from trying to eat. Today, I ended up buying cookies at the convenience store at the hospital entrance to fill in the gaps. The cookies were at least familiar, too – strawberry flavored wafers.
Tonight’s dinner was at our usual noodle house by the university. I had my usual chaofan. The fried rice is good, but I am getting tired of it. We are in the stage of discussing what foods we want when we get home – brownies, bacon, salad and chicken without bone in it are all on our list.
The girls have gone out to a internet bar and I have stayed in to work on writing. I used the internet today and had some success in making web posts. Now, I am eager for Andrew’s voice, though he has texted me that he hasn’t got past the receptionist this time.
Today was my first “official” day of acupuncture. I really didn’t do much again. I watched a few cases, many of them repeats, and then spent most of the time talking to the doctors and students about America. However, I did learn that all of yesterday’s pain during my treatment was associated with activation of the Qi and was thus a good thing. I’m not so sure, but my knee does feel better now.
We talked about average doctors’ salaries and buying houses in the U.S. I showed photos of the house Andy and I are buying and one doctor, who has a son in Cincinnati, wanted copies of them as she wants to buy a house in the States. I’m not sure how having pictures of our house will help her, but I obliged. Through the boy student I tried to explain the variation in house costs depend on the state of repair, location and age of the house. We tried to look at realtor.com, but the internet delay made it impossible. Apparently, when you buy a house in China, you can only live in it for 70 years. It seems an odd prospect to me, but I suppose it helps somehow with a housing crunch. The Chinese were equally surprised that you could live in your house as long as you wanted in America.
We also talked about sports teams and Thanksgiving dinner. Here, a turkey apparently would cost 300 yuan or about $44. They seem to like Haagen Daas ice cream as we were asked about it a lot. It’s a special treat here that costs 50 yuan or about $7. Overall, I think they have a healthier approach to food. They say, yes they like McDonald’s, but eat it rarely as it’s not good for the body. There are many KFCs here and the students are surprised that it’s not as popular as McDonalds in the U.S.
Lunch was difficult as I tried to order on my own. They understood “miantiao” for noodles, but did not understand my zhurhou for pork. A little old lady ended up helping me order -- she’s 80 and has been retired for 20 years. She says her husband is here in the hospital and she’s a director or maybe a doctor in the past. Noodles are really hard to eat with chopsticks. Here it is completely acceptable to shove them in your mouth and slurp as much as you please. However, I find I end up with too little in my mouth or too much and thus end up exhausted from trying to eat. Today, I ended up buying cookies at the convenience store at the hospital entrance to fill in the gaps. The cookies were at least familiar, too – strawberry flavored wafers.
Tonight’s dinner was at our usual noodle house by the university. I had my usual chaofan. The fried rice is good, but I am getting tired of it. We are in the stage of discussing what foods we want when we get home – brownies, bacon, salad and chicken without bone in it are all on our list.
The girls have gone out to a internet bar and I have stayed in to work on writing. I used the internet today and had some success in making web posts. Now, I am eager for Andrew’s voice, though he has texted me that he hasn’t got past the receptionist this time.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
LingYing Temple
6 April 2008
Tonight I am exhausted, though it was quite a pleasant day. My body is still arguing with the time change and I only slept from 1am-5:30am local time. This morning, Waipo and I went to church. We took a bus downtown and she told everyone I was a doctor, I bet. I came down from my room early or so I thought at 8:20 and she quickly whisked me out the door. I didn’t have time to go back up and get money for the bus, and for this I feel inadequate as she paid my bus fare of 2 yuan (29 cents) both ways. Mass was amazing. Of course, I have no idea what the readings were or what the priest said in his very long homily, but the people sang boisterously and the church was full. The rejoice resounded so much more than at home. All I understood was Alleluia (we sang a lot off those), Amen, and Yasua (Jesus). The order of the mass helped and I just responded in English. Despite it all, I was rather moved by the whole experience.
Afterwards, Waipo reigned in those she thought spoke English. I spoke with Tony, a photojournalist who was very shy and worked so hard to help. He let me know there is an English mass on Saturdays and he offered to send a bus schedule by email so that I could get there. Maybe though, I will just take Waipo next week and pay her bus fare.
This whole process took 3 hours, getting there, mass , talk afterwards as well as a stop at a traditional medicine store for glass spheres with round wholes on one side that Waipo will use for “cupping” as I surmised from her demonstration of their purpose. I was to meet the girls at 11:30 and I was here at the villa at 11:30, but when they came in I was in Waipo’s house with Waigong, her daughter and great-granddaughter as they invited me in for lunch and wouldn’t take no for an answer. The food was great, it seemed to be the home version of many of the things we have eaten over the past few days at restaurants. Conversation was funny. The great-granddaughter can read Chinese characters and thought it amusing that I couldn’t pronounce the words. However, she served to help me get my meaning across as I think Waipo doesn’t read well and her daughter only is a little better. Despite the communication barrier, we shared photos of our families, mine on the computer and hers as hardcopies that Waigong had taken. The girls ended up having lunch out while I stayed in. I felt uncomfortable with this as it was not my place to invite them, but I didn’t want to leave them out. Fortunately they were cool about it.
We went to Lingyin Temple this afternoon and walked a ton. There’s so much to see, and we only saw a sample as we’re all exhausted. There were thousands of Buddhas both inside the temple and outside carved into the hills and caves. There were also many Chinese people at the temple, burning incense and bowing at the waist before many of the Buddhas with such rhythm and precision. Inside the buildings of the temple we were not allowed to take photos, so sadly there are few, except what we could take from the outside. There was a hall of many golden or bronze Buddhas of many shapes and descriptions. Another had the largest sitting Buddha in China, with giant warrior like statues standing around the edges. The Buddha of Medicine Temple also had a large thinner Buddha with other large statues in attendance. There were many other buildings of Buddhas that we did not enter. I did find a four leaf clover on the way out. The buildings had the stereotypical curved edges which I found appealing. Also, it seems that “temple” is a little different than “church” in that the temple encompasses a bit of land and many buildings, not just one building. It’s a larger space.
There were monks all over. We got a picture with one and another walked with us part of the way home. Sadly, my camera battery had died by this time, but he let us touch his cloak and showed us his pants under the cloak. He also gave us a prayer card with a Buddha on it and lots of Chinese characters. I was surprised to see the monks laughing and talking very relaxed with one another – my imagination of them was of great solemnity. Yesterday, we saw some of them at Walmart, too. I suppose they need stuff just like anyone else.
On the way to Lingyin, we stopped at “Cloudy Pine Sanctum” which seemed it would be a quiet place. Inside however, people were playing cards, eating and kids were playing – much noisier and active than I thought it would be. There were many buildings and one had many books in it as well as some paint brushes. This seemed to be a room of display rather than of use. There were many quiet spots and fun detailed decorations.
Once we came home, jetlag has caught up with me and I’m going to bed at 7:30. The girls are going out for dinner.
Tonight I am exhausted, though it was quite a pleasant day. My body is still arguing with the time change and I only slept from 1am-5:30am local time. This morning, Waipo and I went to church. We took a bus downtown and she told everyone I was a doctor, I bet. I came down from my room early or so I thought at 8:20 and she quickly whisked me out the door. I didn’t have time to go back up and get money for the bus, and for this I feel inadequate as she paid my bus fare of 2 yuan (29 cents) both ways. Mass was amazing. Of course, I have no idea what the readings were or what the priest said in his very long homily, but the people sang boisterously and the church was full. The rejoice resounded so much more than at home. All I understood was Alleluia (we sang a lot off those), Amen, and Yasua (Jesus). The order of the mass helped and I just responded in English. Despite it all, I was rather moved by the whole experience.
Afterwards, Waipo reigned in those she thought spoke English. I spoke with Tony, a photojournalist who was very shy and worked so hard to help. He let me know there is an English mass on Saturdays and he offered to send a bus schedule by email so that I could get there. Maybe though, I will just take Waipo next week and pay her bus fare.
This whole process took 3 hours, getting there, mass , talk afterwards as well as a stop at a traditional medicine store for glass spheres with round wholes on one side that Waipo will use for “cupping” as I surmised from her demonstration of their purpose. I was to meet the girls at 11:30 and I was here at the villa at 11:30, but when they came in I was in Waipo’s house with Waigong, her daughter and great-granddaughter as they invited me in for lunch and wouldn’t take no for an answer. The food was great, it seemed to be the home version of many of the things we have eaten over the past few days at restaurants. Conversation was funny. The great-granddaughter can read Chinese characters and thought it amusing that I couldn’t pronounce the words. However, she served to help me get my meaning across as I think Waipo doesn’t read well and her daughter only is a little better. Despite the communication barrier, we shared photos of our families, mine on the computer and hers as hardcopies that Waigong had taken. The girls ended up having lunch out while I stayed in. I felt uncomfortable with this as it was not my place to invite them, but I didn’t want to leave them out. Fortunately they were cool about it.
We went to Lingyin Temple this afternoon and walked a ton. There’s so much to see, and we only saw a sample as we’re all exhausted. There were thousands of Buddhas both inside the temple and outside carved into the hills and caves. There were also many Chinese people at the temple, burning incense and bowing at the waist before many of the Buddhas with such rhythm and precision. Inside the buildings of the temple we were not allowed to take photos, so sadly there are few, except what we could take from the outside. There was a hall of many golden or bronze Buddhas of many shapes and descriptions. Another had the largest sitting Buddha in China, with giant warrior like statues standing around the edges. The Buddha of Medicine Temple also had a large thinner Buddha with other large statues in attendance. There were many other buildings of Buddhas that we did not enter. I did find a four leaf clover on the way out. The buildings had the stereotypical curved edges which I found appealing. Also, it seems that “temple” is a little different than “church” in that the temple encompasses a bit of land and many buildings, not just one building. It’s a larger space.
There were monks all over. We got a picture with one and another walked with us part of the way home. Sadly, my camera battery had died by this time, but he let us touch his cloak and showed us his pants under the cloak. He also gave us a prayer card with a Buddha on it and lots of Chinese characters. I was surprised to see the monks laughing and talking very relaxed with one another – my imagination of them was of great solemnity. Yesterday, we saw some of them at Walmart, too. I suppose they need stuff just like anyone else.
On the way to Lingyin, we stopped at “Cloudy Pine Sanctum” which seemed it would be a quiet place. Inside however, people were playing cards, eating and kids were playing – much noisier and active than I thought it would be. There were many buildings and one had many books in it as well as some paint brushes. This seemed to be a room of display rather than of use. There were many quiet spots and fun detailed decorations.
Once we came home, jetlag has caught up with me and I’m going to bed at 7:30. The girls are going out for dinner.
Introduction to Hangzhou and West Lake 4/5/08
5 April 2008
Today’s adventure started with the quest for coffee and breakfast. The owners or caretakers of the villa, sent us off with gestures of eating and they laughed when Shannon motioned drinking – maybe they thought we were going to get drunk. Without much direction, we just walked out onto the streets and started looking. Our villa is near a park with ponds and many trees. The area for walking under the trees is often too low even for me at my meager 5’5” height.
People stared at us a lot, especially after we entered a side street and bought breakfast from a woman who was cooking food outside her home to sell. We bought this for 3 Yuan or 43 cents. Interestingly when we entered the queue, if there was such a thing, there were 6 Chinese people in front of us. Only one person came behind us. The others cleared out rather quickly. While we waited our turn an old man came up to us and started talking in Mandarin. He seemed to be saying something about Shannon’s nose and Trish’s face. As far as the food, it was delicious. A thin batter was spread across a stainless grilled and quickly cooked, an egg was spread across this and the whole thing flipped. Sauces were added as well as green onions and a sweet pair of bread-like cylinders joined side by side. This was wrapped almost like a burrito and served in a plastic bag. As we allowed our meal to cool, we walked further down the street and when we returned, the crowd around her little shop had also.
“Kāfēi” or coffee drove us to McDonalds as the tea seemed to be more prevalent in the local shops. We also returned to the “supermarket” (which is a Wal-Mart, judging by some of the brands it has, known as Trust-mart) we had visited yesterday. There were many interesting things, including individual eggs for sale and Beijing Olympics souvenirs. Trish bought an alarm clock that came with batteries. Shannon bought a watch that ended up not working. In the process of figuring this out, she had lost the receipt. We returned anyway and despite the language barrier, walked out with another watch. Pointing to “broken” to explain her problem and “lost” when asked about the receipt, and a trek upstairs and down to change the battery ensued. Realizing this wasn’t going as well as hoped, Shannon pointed to the word “exchange” and she walked out with a different watch which was about 10 Yuan more (that she didn’t have to pay) and a bit uglier watch.
Despite this fun, we still made it back in time for our 12:15 meeting with our previous day’s escorts, “Summi,” age 14, and her mother, who doesn’t claim an “American” name as does Summi and whose Chinese name is so hard to pronounce I cannot keep it in my mind. The plan was to go to lunch and then walk around West Lake. We had some trouble getting seats at a restaurant, partially due to the number of Chinese tourists who came for the weekend and partially, I suspect, due to our foreign presence. “Lăo Ma” or “old mom” as Summi calls her mother, sent us away to walk around the lake while she secured us seats. When I asked Summi about my suspicions, she told me not to worry about it; I wonder if this was an act of “saving face.” Recalling the morning’s activity at the woman’s griddle as well as Shannon and Trish’s story that they seemed to clear out restaurants in Shanghai the two days prior in addition to this, I am suspect that I am correct.
Lunch was great although a little different than what we perceive as “Chinese food.” A salt-pork like dish started us off, accompanied by rice. We had steamed chicken, that, though delicious, was very small compared to the chickens we buy. There was also “shrimp” that were fresh water and I suspect may have been what we call crawdads. “Lăo Ma” taught us to eat them by biting off the bodies from the heads and tails, allowing those to drop to the plate. The odd part is that where we peel and eat shrimp, we ate the shell; however, it was much softer than that of our shrimp. We also had shredded spicy potato and fish soup, the latter with which bones were a manageable hazard. We asked for miàntiào (noodles) as they seem quite palatable to us. All was very tasty, but VERY unlike anything I had ever eaten, except the apple that ended the meal.
Before we left for lunch, we encountered again the owners/caretakers and asked if we can use the bicycles in the common room. Apparently there are only 2 we can use, which is not convenient for 3. However, the old lady noticed the medal I wear around my neck that Nan gave me. She then signed herself with the cross, spoke a bunch of Mandarin and made motions of question if I were Catholic. I shook my head, yes, and she a flurry of more language came forth. She told Summi to tell me she would take me to church tomorrow and transmitted the time of departure at 0830 as well. As other conversation swirled about, she went off to gather a prayer card to show me. Mary adorned it and through Summi, she explained that it was Jesus’ mother. She seemed very happy that I would go to church with her. As we were leaving for lunch, I said “Zàijiàn, Wàipó. Wàigōng” or “Good-bye, Grandmother. Grandfather.” I’m sure my pronunciation was horrid, but they seemed to understand, repeating the correct pronunciation and laughing.
We walked A LOT around West Lake and crossed several “famous” bridges, though the story of what made them famous was “too complicated” for Summi to explain. Still people stared, especially when we spoke. As we were gazing in wonder at how high people were flying kites, a brave young woman, who introduced herself as “Snow,” nervously came up to us in a hurry, asking to have a picture with Trish as she “had always dreamed to have a picture with a foreigner.” Trish obliged and since the woman did not have a camera, we took the photo as well as her email, with promises we will email it to her when we have internet access. Other people asked for a photo with Trish and again she was indulgent in their request. Another young man stared so much while she was doing this, we offered him one, too. He explained to Summi he did not have a camera, but we arranged for him the same deal we had for “Snow.” He is so serious in his photo. Afterwards, we learned from Summi that he is studying to be a policeman. We suspect Trish is a hit as she is the blondest and fairest of us.
After this, another young man, looking rather European (as many young Chinese people do) in dress, raced up to us and to our surprise, his voice rang out beautiful American, though quite formal, English. He introduced himself as “Daniel” and told us he is majoring in English at the #3 university in Hang Zhou: the name starts with Zhejiang, but the rest I could not understand (Zhejiang is the province in which we are). He seemed somewhat hasty at first, as though worried we would send him away, and was trying to quickly impress us. Hearing English and seeing a openly friendly and eager face was too welcome of a comfort to send him away, however and he ended up tagging along the rest of our walk around the lake. He asked many questions about American culture and I asked him many about the Chinese. He also helped me teach Summi what “slang” words were as I had been trying to do so without success. When she noted her feet were tired, I told her the phrase “My dogs are barking.”
Daniel, too, was very serious in his photos. We had to encourage him to smile for it. He did, so eager to do as we do. It’s funny as I was trying to be as formal and polite as the Chinese, though we are not so in America. He wishes to take us on a tour of his University and much to his chagrin, we will be in Beijing next week, could not tell him where we are staying for our lack of knowledge and really have no way of communicating until Monday. We did however, give him our emails and he gave us his phone number. He wishes to visit Washington, D.C., which surprised me as I thought he would like NYC best. Hopefully, we will see him again in our travels around Hang Zhou
All around the lake the trees are in blossom. Daniel explained that this only lasts about one week per year and the rains will start and wash them away. There are temples and pagodas all around the lake, none of which did we visit today. Across from a Hyatt that apparently, President Bill Clinton stayed in, there was a fountain that changed routine, making a show, to Chinese music. The sky was quite hazy all day and the late afternoon brought sprinkles which evolved into rain in the evening.
We got on a bus at the fountain, who knows which bus, where the gawking became moreintense at such close quarters. The staring has been unrelentless and has been a bit unnerving. In response, I think we smile more and I’m sure that makes us even more of a curiosity. The bus ride was very tight and more and more people got on. The ride was 2 Yuan. Children are the funniest with their gaping. They are quite surprised, but so serious in studying our faces. One on the bus soon discovered me hovering over him and his grandmother out of my need to hold on. When I said “Nĭhăo” or “Hello” to him, his eyes widened and then he buried his into his grandmother’s shirt, stealing shy glances at me after that. I smiled. Poor child must have been frightened by my continuous smiling!
Dinner was also great. I think we ate so much, though it is much healthier food than we eat in the States. There was a cold chicken dish, spicy octopus, cucumber and blanched lettuce in what tasted like sesame sauce and a spicy tofu and Chinese vegetables which are yummy. The spicy comes at the request of Shannon. Last night’s spicy did not settle too well with my stomach, and since my bags have yet to arrive, I have no pepto-bismol to allay the discomfort. There was also fish soup, which is very tasty, though I had to quickly get over the fact that my first serving had the fish’s head with its eye staring at me.
That is something of note, I learned tonight, too. The table setting is at least one plate, but maybe one stacked on another at nice restaurants, a bowl, ceramic spoon as we have seen, chopsticks and chopstick holder. The Chinese generally eat from the bowl, whilst throwing the trash (bones, etc) onto the plate. The napkin corner goes in between the two plates and falls into your lap. This does not make sense to me as if food falls, it can roll into your lap. Hot water or hot water with tea is served along side this and at higher end places, also a steaming hot damp cloth (at first anyway)with which to use to wipe your mouth and hands throughout the meal. In the more expensive restaurant, your party has its own room with its own bathroom. Two waitresses waited on us there, and they were the same as last night. They seemed amused by our poor table manners, and were fast to offer a fork and knife.
Summi and her mother left us at our villa around 7:30pm, with news that tomorrow we are on our own. The rain has thwarted any aspirations of going out to see the night life tonight, which is alright with me. I’m still jet-lagged and last night’s rest was not great. Tonight I close at 1 am in China, while my husband is probably finishing lunch “yesterday” in New York.
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