From Grits to Chopsticks

It has been wonderful to have Timothy with us in China.  Although we have worn him out meeting and eating with students, we have also enjoyed spending some time together.  Here’s a Mother’s Day visit to the zoo:

We also were able to have a meal at one of our favorite restaurants (which is scheduled to be demolished soon):

While walking back from our school campus, we stopped to smile at stray puppies:

Last week, Timothy was kind enough to teach English Corner (about American college life), giving Susan time to prepare a pineapple cake:

One morning, we took a break and hiked up a local mountain trail, encountering a few goats along the way:

After coming down, we stopped at an ice cream shop behind the school and were waited on by four workers (only one of whom had arms long enough to reach our selection in the freezer case):

Between our activities this past Sunday afternoon, we took a peaceful walk along the shore of Dianchi lake:

In spite of the polluted, green water, there are still a few fishermen trying to snag the illusive carp (a good reason to avoid eating fish at nearby restaurants):

Of course, Timothy’s visit wouldn’t be complete (or legal) without a couple of trips to the local police station for registration:

While walking around the Kunming Expo Garden on a recent Sunday, we rode a small gondola up to a park surrounding an ancient temple.

The trails surrounding the temple were nicely gardened with azaleas:

The main attraction of the park is the Golden Temple, built over 300 years ago during the Ming Dynasty:

En-route to the temple, you encounter a number of interesting brass sculptures:

On a mountain peak near the temple is a bell tower containing this huge bell (14 tons), cast in the Yongle era (1424):

From this bell tower, you can also get a good view of our city in the distance:

The view would actually be better, but our fair city is falling prey to the air pollution which has accompanied rapid urbanization all over China.  We now have the luxury of either looking out the window or checking the internet to evaluate the air quality, both of which can be a bit disturbing:

Over the recent May holiday, we traveled up into the part of Sichuan Province where a devastating earthquake occurred on 12-May-2008.  We stopped by to visit a memorial of the disaster which took the lives of over 85,000 people:

The village in the background of the picture has been rebuilt, and a new bridge was constructed further up the valley to replace this one that collapsed:

Following the earthquake, some friends of ours were involved in the construction of a relief center to assist injured and disabled people.  We were able to stay overnight there – here is one of the friendly residents:

We thought that it was interesting to see the blankets on the residents’ beds that were donated by the American Veterans Disabled for Life:

 Here are some of the residents and workers shelling peas for our lunch:

These were combined with other food from the center’s organic farm to make a nice meal:

We learned quite a bit from the leader of the organic farming initiative.  It really surprised us to see how their approach to raising pigs resulted in an odor-free environment:

In such a fastidious place, the resident pigs were interested in evaluating how bad the visitors smelled.  Click here to see -> PigSniff

Speaking of food, we stopped by a roadside market to pick up a few things.  This vegetable seller had a nice, welcoming smile:

We also talked with this proud owner of a smoked meat stand:

There were some interesting things hanging on his rack, and he was kind enough to leave the fur on a few of the heads to make it easier to differentiate the rats from the other creatures:

Although you might not like eating rats, at least he was honest about it, unlike some people (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1228960/rat-meat-sold-lamb-shanghai-police-say)

I have the privilege of eating lunch with students on a regular basis.  In order to avoid getting stuck in a rut, I always ask the students to select the location and the food.  Here are some recent photos of different foods and students this semester:

My noodles – a little less spicy than everyone else’s:

In one of our school cafes:

Selecting vegetables to include in a small “casserole” dish:

The finished casseroles: 

In a “fast food” restaurant (think McDonald’s, Chinese style): 

Hot pot – a boiling cauldron of chicken soup for cooking a variety of veggies: 

Sometimes, the meat from a hot pot isn’t spicy enough and needs a good dunking in pepper sauce:

Chinese dumplings, usually made with pork and leeks.  A student told me that he was once banished to the corner of a classroom after eating these while drinking a coke (projectile bad breath):

Perhaps you noticed a shortage of guys in these lunch pictures.  The reason for this is pretty obvious when you look at one of my classes:This was a holiday make-up class with 12 absentees – mostly girls.

Our city continues to grow and change, providing a wide range of travel options for residents of all types.  If you’re a student trying to get a ride to the train station on a busy afternoon, unregistered taxi-vans line up three deep to help you out:

If you’re rich and want everyone to know, you can buy a Ferrari or a Bently and park it in front of your apartment:

Regular people can buy a four-door Chinese mini car (I’m not sure why identical cars have different emblems…):

And just when you think cars can’t get any smaller, you see these three-wheelers (with four doors!):

Of course, there are more traditional three wheeled taxis if you want to be taken for a ride:

Here is a small scale (but “green”) school bus:

If you’re hoping to get a nice “western dinner” but don’t want to leave the house, KFC will deliver your fried chicken:

If you want to move more than a bucket of chicken, you can hire a three-wheeled moving cart and ride alongside with your family of four:

If your family is growing (but your budget is not), you can squeeze all five people (and your stuff) onto your scooter:

Yes, there are five people on this scooter (look for the shoes of the smallest one in front of the driver).

Yunnan province has recently been experiencing the one-two punch of drought and rapid development, forcing the city management department to take some drastic action.  If you open our apartment faucet between 1:00PM and 4:00PM (and at other random times) each day, this is what you get:

Nothing (but dry skin).  And we consider ourselves to be fortunate, because others we know only have water 4 hours per day.

Although the humans are finding their water supplies limited, the plants and trees are all doing quite well:

The watering trucks are still out in full force:

There are also trucks that regularly water the roads to control the construction dust:

Our city recently announced a beautification project for “Beijing Road” which will include 30,000 new trees like these:

Road improvement projects usually seem to include a large number of plants – consider these planters along an elevated highway:

While it’s not a big deal to water a few planters, I estimate that there must be at least 10,000 of them on our second ring road alone:We may not be able to wash our hands in the afternoon, but at least we’ll still have lush vegetation!

Whenever we want some fresh fruits and vegetables, we just walk out of our apartment (the white/yellow buildings) and into the decades-old marketplace:

It’s a convenient location to pick up some local produce:

have our corn man slice kernels off the cobs:

or visit our favorite “short stool” restaurant:

There is also fresh local pineapple and sugar cane:

fried potatoes (just don’t ask about the source of the oil):

and a few clothing shops with some slightly misspelled English shirts:

Well, just a few weeks ago, the handwriting was on the wall (literally):

Our market is now scheduled for demolition.  While we see rapid modernization all over the city, it feels different when it happens in your own backyard.  All of a sudden, it gets more personal when they spray paint “destroy” on the houses and businesses of people with familiar faces:

 Windows are already being removed and walls are being demolished:

In a few weeks, we’ll try to post more pictures as the process gets into full swing.

Last week, we had a pretty big group of students come to our English Corner lesson on the Easter Holiday:

Prior to the arrival of the students, we had prepared and hidden some plastic eggs that contained candy and a paper with the name of an Easter or Spring symbol:

After Susan’s lesson, she sent the students hunting for the eggs.  This is a new idea for many of them, so surprisingly, they find it challenging, even in a small apartment:

After they found the eggs and opened them, students practiced their English by describing the meaning of the symbol based on what they remembered from the lesson.  We also taught them how to color Easter eggs (with dye made in China, but purchased in the US):

Here are some of their interesting creations.  A tennis ball egg:

Faces and fruit:

A self-portrait:

The students below are from the nearby medical university.  The guy on the left has been training to do head surgery for a few months, so his egg includes his rendition of an incision:

The “bird’s nest” snacks below took an entire box of Rice Krispies and were quickly consumed:

As with each week’s English Corner, we were left with nice memories of precious students.  This time, we were also left with a few eggs:

Since we returned to China, we’ve been attempting to restock our cupboard with a reasonable amount of western food items.  I say “reasonable,” because western food is very expensive here.  A couple of stores carry the items we are seeking:

(By the way, you might recognize that this is an updated spelling of a previous blog picture of “Impurted Food”.)  We occasionally enjoy a “special treat” of Western cereal and the store above has some boxes to offer.  But the “cereal aisle” at our local Walmart is pretty sparse:

We’ve also visited our local Carrefour (a French version of Walmart) to buy some things.  It was pretty crowded that day – here are people in the checkout queue:

While shopping at still another store over the weekend, we were surprised to see some pecans in the shell, a rare item in China:

Unfortunately, the price works out to about $20/lb after you shell them.  Amazingly, we also saw a pint of Breyer’s ice cream.  Equally amazing was the price: about $54/half gallon.  Needless to say, those items are still on the shelf.  When it comes to getting veggies and fruit, the prices are lower and the lines are shorter in our local market (the sellers are also shorter):

But we did get to enjoy some Western food restaurants recently, including a tasty dinner at Pizza Hut:

and a burger at McDonalds:

and some BBQ at the local park.  Very spicy – after I took this photo, the tears started to roll down Susan’s cheeks:

Nowadays, western food isn’t really norm for us.  But our students enjoy sampling western items, so we try to accommodate them during English Corners.  Last week the snacks were green in honor of St. Patrick’s day:

PS.  No trip to Walmart would be complete without a few photos of unusual items.  We were looking for a pillow, but avoided the one filled with excrement:

And although we purchase instant Jello in the US, we chose to avoid stocking up on the instant Jellyfish:

Finally, there are times when you’re just not quite sure what’s for sale at the meat counter:

We are still amazed at the thousands of people who come to our city zoo when the flowers are in bloom.  Here is Mark buying some tickets so that we can join the crowd:

The large numbers of people can make it difficult to see if there are animals in the cages:

 Unless, of course, you’re willing to climb the fence:

If you can get a good look, you might be surprised by what you see — for instance, a rat scavenging in the monkey display: 

Sometimes, we find it more interesting to watch the people.  There are fish sticks to munch:

and corn for the baby:

You can also take photos with stuffed pandas and plastic cows:

Or dress up like a little emperor:

You will see an interesting variety of clothing, ranging from traditional with flat shoes…

… to the extremely common skimpy with very tall shoes …

… to the occasional wardrobe malfunction:

And of course, there are always a few copycats (I don’t think “Adidos” is a Mexican spelling of a famous brand):

As you can tell, we really enjoy “getting away from it all” on a Sunday afternoon.

(Click the image to see if you find Susan in this picture.)