MMMM - Lunch!

At the restaurant I went to today, the dishes were presented on a buffet table all ready to be selected and cooked. We had shrimp with cucumbers, a deep fried turnip concoction, duck, almond milk, and, of course, the ubiquitous dumpling, this time a seafood dumpling which was quite delicious.




Here are some of the dishes I didn't select:

Ducks Heads



Chicken Feet


Pigs Ears


and the ever popular Fried Pigeon

Beijing Opera

When I first arrived in China, I promised myself I would attend the Peking Opera while I was here despite the negative feedback I had gotten from almost everyone I asked. The opportunity finally came this Sunday when I attended a matinee performance at the Lao She Teahouse near the South Gate of Tiananmen Square with my Chinese friend, Laura. Although the program was in Chinese, Laura was able to give me an idea of the story. There were excerpts from three famous operas.

Like Western opera, Chinese opera has dramatic stories, elaborate costumes and well-known arias. The performers use hand gestures, facial expressions, roll their eyes, and even use their costumes to effectively convey the meaning of their actions or their song. The music, though seemingly discordant, is well synchronized with the singer's aria and gestures, alerting the audience to the importance of a particular scene. The audience will occasionally sing along during well-known arias and during the less important scenes will talk, socialize, eat sunflower seeds and drink tea.

I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon at the opera and regret I won't have time to attend again during this trip.

China Reflections

It's been two weeks since my last update and I now have two weeks before I leave for home. The plan is to stop over in Tokyo for three days beginning March 29th and then on to California on April 1st. I will leave Tokyo at 4:25 p.m. and arrive in Los Angeles at 10:10 a.m. the same day! Therefore, I will arrive in Los Angeles six hours before I left Tokyo, or something like that!

Nothing much has happened over the last two weeks as I've been resting a lot so that my leg will heal up. It's much better now and I hope it will be fine by the time I get to Tokyo. I've had to miss several day trips and pass up on a trip to Shanghai due to this injury. Oh well, maybe Bob and I will get to visit other parts of China someday.

Now that the holidays are over and the kids are all back to school, my classes have dwindled a bit so I'm not very busy teaching.

I have, however, been reflecting on my experiences in China.

YOU HAVEN’T BEEN IN BEIJING LONG ENOUGH IF …

YOU’RE SHOCKED AND SURPRISED WHEN

The taxi driver
• hawks and spits out the window
• picks his nose while waiting for ten minutes to get through the intersection
• gives you change with the same hand
• refuses to take you because either the traffic is too heavy or you’re going in the opposite direction of where he wants to go

The store security guard …
• refuses to let you have a basket from the pile stacked next to him so you have to walk to the other end of the supermarket to get one.
• refuses to let you enter because you have a backpack or you are carrying items purchased in another store at the same mall so you have to walk back up the stairs and try another entrance where the security guard doesn’t notice you have a backpack or shopping bags.

YOU STILL GET UPSET WHEN …

• the person who’s been walking in front of you in a straight line for two or three blocks suddenly turns and crosses your path just as you come within two inches of him/her
• the person walking behind you passes you and then cuts in front of you within two inches
• the person walking towards you suddenly turns in front of you and crosses your path, you guessed it, within two inches
• people entering the subway car push you to the side as you’re trying to exit

YOU’VE BEEN IN BEIJING TOO LONG WHEN ….

• you watch idly as the person in the next car picks his nose or hawks and spits out the window … same on subway, same on bus
• you no longer clean your hands with an anti-bacterial alcohol wipe after touching and putting away the change the taxi driver hands you
• you start counting the clumps of spittle along the sidewalk on each block
• you stop noticing that people are always yelling at each other
• squat toilets are no longer cute and exotic
• neither is putting your toilet paper in the basket instead of down the loo
• you’re no longer surprised to see a bicycle laden with about an acre’s worth of produce pedaled by an 80 year old man on the entrance to the 2nd ring road
• you don’t notice when someone stares at you
• you simply can’t eat another dumpling no matter how hungry you are
• you’ve seen all the major sight-seeing attractions listed in Lonely Planet two or three times
• you no longer think haggling over the price of a fake cashmere pashima is exciting
• you speak in abbreviated, slowly enunciated, English sentences to everyone, not just your Chinese friends
• the driving patterns start to make sense
• that hacking cough that’s been with you for five months suddenly disappears


YOU WONDER WHY …

• a civilization that’s 5,000 years old, hasn’t invented a better toilet and sewage system, especially in “rural” areas
• they think a squat toilet (including those that don’t flush) is cleaner and better than a western toilet
• at least four or five people get up to use the toilet right after the pilot’s final announcement that we are about to land
• upon touchdown, and while the plane is still taxiing to the gate, people start collecting their luggage from the overheads
• bicycles, cars and buses have the right of way