Ma La Girl Adventures: Hot Pot At Home

Ma La girls like hot pot. I had a hot pot dinner party at my house this past week, with spices I brought home from Chongqing. (I saved the wrappers and I'll be taking them to the Asian market to see if they can order more for me.)

Here is the food table, next to the eating table. In China the plates of food for hot pot come out on a multi-tiered cart, but because I don't have one of those, I used a card table. There are meatballs, little smokies, lotus, rice sticks, quail's eggs, noodles, squids, and two kinds of tofu. (We also had golden mushrooms and chicken pieces but those were already on the table.)

Here is a shot of the table set up. I bought an induction cooker to use in my apartment, because that's the kind of cooker I had in China and I found I prefer it to the convection cooking more popular here in America. I used it that night for the hot pot; not only is it portable to the table, but inductions don't get hot like convections so no one was going to burn themselves. It worked really well.

Hot pot tables in China are built into the table, like this:

I wonder if they would be considered a fire hazard here in America, due to the open flame below the table? I'll have to ask the next firefighter I see. I'd love to build a hot pot table for my house.

 The small white bowls on my table are filled with the sesame oil/garlic/cilantro/msg mixture you dip the cooked food into before eating. They all loved it!  I was really happy to be able to share this part of Chinese culture with them, and of course eat deeleeciours hot pot.

Just the smells of hot pot brought back so many memories! My most memorable hot pot was when I ate bull penis, and my second most memorable was eating it at 4 AM with friends after leaving a club. I knew I was a real Ma La Chongqing girl when I could eat hot pot at 4 AM.

Giving Back In Your Honor

It is not an exaggeration to say I would not have made it through my Peace Corps experience without the support of folks back home. So many people did so much for me. I'm putting together this week care packages for Thanksgiving/Christmas for some folks over in China; it means a lot for me to be able to give back for all the kindness shown towards me. It's so fun picking stuff out, knowing it'll be a treat for them. Thanks again to everyone who supported me, with packages and warm thoughts and kind words. I'm paying it forward in your honor.

Fish Sellers and My Block in Chongqing (Yangjiaping)

I’m going through pictures and videos I took while in China, and I’ll be posting the ones that I think share a lot about what it was like to live in China and Chongqing and that I hope will be of some interest to you. They’re all short videos, 2 minutes or less.

This first one was a common sight on the sidewalk at night; small sidewalk restaurants sold fresh fish pan-broiled in hot spices with veggies. As you can see, there is a basin of oxygenated water keeping the fish alive. You pick out the fish you want and the guy weighs it on the scale; you pay by weight. As you can also see, the fish was flopping around too much. It really shocked me to see this the first few times, and then I got used to it. When he chucks it down the sidewalk, he’s throwing it to the person who will cook it. I know we think it’s gross to kill and eat meat on the spot, but without access to good refrigeration, this was the safest way to eat meat in China for a long time, and now it’s tradition.



This second video is of the block where I lived; it begins as I step through the main gate where my apartment was located, and continues to the end of the block. The thing I remember most is all the noise of this street. This was during the lunch/naptime block, so there were fewer people on the street.

This block is where I caught buses to go to the train station, bus station and to V's house and the entertainment/shopping district of Shapingba, where a few other friends lived. (I had to cross the street and walk a ways further to take buses to R.'s and T.'s homes.) This block is also where I bought beauty items, tea drinks, street snacks and other misc. items. Crossing at the end of the block led to the subway station and the Yangjiaping (my 'hood) main entertainment/shopping district, where we went for the big grocery store, bank, movies and nicer restaurants. I spent a considerable amount of time walking this stretch of my city, and I made friends with some of the sellers who set up on this block.



If you have any questions about anything you see in the videos, please ask and I will answer in the comments.

Racial Profiling, Bad Manners, and Baffling Technology: A Day In The Life of a Returned American

1. Over the weekend I had to wait for something and there were very few places to sit, but two seats were open: one next to a Caucasian guy, and one next to an Asian guy. And it was really crowded, so I sat next to the Asian guy, because I thought he might be better with me being really close to him. This is awful, but true. Also, he didn't flinch at all when I sat right next to him.

Related: the first time someone here apologized after bumping into me, I almost laughed out loud. I hadn't even noticed they did it.

2. I had dinner with a friend of a friend at a Chinese restaurant, and we decided to order family style. This is how pretty much all my Chinese meals in China were eaten so I am very comfortable with this. But I guess to him, family style meant "sharing" not "eating out of the same plates of food." So I inadvertently grossed him out by sticking my own chopsticks in the plate of Kung Pao Chicken. I guess I'm not ready to be taken out in public yet.

Related: he said, "You can use chopsticks really well." I thought I had left this observation behind in China. I guess not. And yes, I do use chopsticks really well! I lived in China for two years! If I couldn't use chopsticks really well by now, I'd be an idiot! (I have wanted to say this soooo many times. Thank you.)

3. Most of my part of China still functions on a cash-only basis, and the electronic payment system, when there is one, is very uniform. Have you noticed that almost all gas stations, stores and gas pumps use a different setup for debit card payments? I have. It takes me a minute to figure out what I'm doing. And today I didn't have to enter a pin number, but I didn't realize that and just stood there waiting to be prompted until the guy said, "That's all. You can leave now." He said it in a nice way, but I still felt a little silly. It's a lot to remember!

Related: advice my friend J. told me when I explained I was having a hard time with reverse culture shock: "When you feel frustrated, just think about how nice the bathrooms there are." She's right: public bathrooms here are amazing. I could eat in there!

Good news: I enrolled in a Mandarin course at the local University and it's been nice to have a reason to speak Chinese again. It's very uplifting to have something to do while I endlessly job search.

Home Is Where The Paper Plates Are

I made my way back to the USA this past weekend; I didn’t go straight to America after leaving Chongqing, but had a great final week with friends. I cried A LOT. Some people got the brunt of this, and because they are of the man variety, I feel a little bad. But the tears were in part because I would miss them so much, so hopefully they at least felt flattered I cared so much. 

Reverse culture shock? Yes, absolutely a real thing. Not just for me, but for my family having to deal with me. I’m sure at times they are thinking,”Who ARE you now?” It’s the little things here driving me crazy: personal distance, driving with RULES, small talk, concepts of time, American germaphobia, and the utter lack of people everywhere I go. I feel like I’ve survived a plague. Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful to have so much calmness around me, but it’s also really weird. I feel really socially awkward right now. I’m pretty sure I’ve been rude to a few people because I got all Chinese on them in the store. But hey, when it’s your turn next in line at the cashier, go! 

(Things I love about America: access to any internet site I want, clean food I don’t have to scrub before eating (although I keep forgetting and scrub it anyway), and unlimited corn tortillas and salsa in my belly. Yum.)

I’m staying with my mom temporarily. This morning I used a waxed paper plate for my breakfast and it was only a little dirty, so I told her not to throw it out and I’d use it again later in the day. A few minutes later she came over to where I was sitting: “You’re not in China anymore, you can have a new paper plate whenever you want it.” Me: “But I don’t need a new one, it’s still useable!”

To my mom’s credit, she didn’t throw it away. But I know she doesn’t understand why I’m hanging onto a paper plate.

I’m about 72 hours stateside; jet lag is a pain! Thank goodness for bad TV at 3 AM.

Seaweed Pringles and The Power of Cod

A few random pictures I took last week:

Seaweed Pringles:

Eating 4th of July 'American Potato Salad with Chinese Characteristics' with chopsticks:

The NBA is super popular here; this is a kid's team practicing on my campus, outfitted in Lakers jerseys. Licensed by the Lakers? I have no idea...but I'm guessing no:

Guy sitting across from me on the subway; his t-shirt says "Cnly Cod Can Judge Me":

Puking, Falling, Toothbrushing

Last night I got a bad case of vertigo, which brought on some serious nausea, which meant tossing my cookies in a little garbage can next to the couch. Have you ever had vertigo? It's a beast. And I hate throwing up. I'm a groaner, moaner thrower-upper. It's just not normal for your insides to want to become your outsides, you know? I was with T., so he had the fun job of watching me puke (and helping me out). Friends who help friends when they puke are real friends.

Then, this afternoon I was walking down a road under construction in a long skirt when I tripped on the uneven ground and fell out of my 3-inch heeled sandal, but couldn't get my legs far enough apart to stabilize myself because of the long skirt. Bags in each hand, I crashed to the ground in a totally clumsy and ungracious fall. A bunch of construction workers saw me, but no one came to help me. I scrambled to get out of the road so I didn't get hit by the big dump truck coming up behind me. On top of my ruined sense of pride, I sprained my ankle. Maybe high heels are not so practical for the uneven pavement and dirt roads of China. Or, long skirts are a bad idea. One of the two.

This is a picture of an anonymous man's sink:

There are six toothbrushes in this picture (including an electric one and travel one that are hard to see). In case you were wondering why anyone has six toothbrushes at one time around their sink, he did have a good explanation, but I thought it was pretty funny nonetheless. If I ever need a toothbrush, I know where to go.

My Buddhist Scroll and Other Weekend Pics

In the past I've only purchased souvenirs for friends and family, so this weekend I splurged a bit and bought something for myself. I need something to remember China by, right? I found this beautiful Buddhist icon fabric wall scroll, and I couldn't resist. I'm so happy to have this to bring home with me. It's just perfect for me.

Just for comparison's sake, this scroll cost the equivalent of $40 USD. I have no idea what something like this would cost in America, but I am guessing more than $40. This scroll and really good oolong tea will be my two splurges to bring back with me to America.

J. came down for the weekend, so we had a little get together last night with friends. Bugles on the fingertips never stops being funny, right? (My hand-- I'm silly, I know.)

And here is what we had for lunch yesterday, a Uyghur dish called Chao Mian Pian 炒面片. It's a tomato based spicy sauce, with freshly made noodles, tomato, green pepper, onion, cabbage and beef chunks. Soooo delicious. (It doesn't taste like Italian food at all, the spices are different.) I had no idea Uyghur food existed before I came to China, but it is now some of my favorite Chinese food. I gotta find a Uyghur restaurant in America, I can't go a lifetime without it! (Uyghurs are a Turk ethnic group in China, and many are from XinJiang province in Northwestern China. The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon desert scenes were filmed in XinJiang. It's beautiful up there.)

Klutz, Butts, Nuts

Have I ever told you I am a klutz? I am. A big one. Here is a hematoma I acquired on the train ride home last weekend. When Andrew saw it, he said, "How on earth were you walking that you hit THAT part of your arm?" Good question! But I was holding a heavy bag in one hand getting on the train, so my arm was akimbo. It doesn't hurt so much today, and is a lovely green-ish purple.

I have a theory I should have been taller or shorter because I seem to not have internalized how long my arms, legs and head are. I hit them on everything. The other day I hit my head on the street phone booth while climbing out of a taxi in the rain.

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Speaking of proportions, I was talking with R. this week about butts. Specifically, how ours have changed thanks to climbing literally flights and flights of stairs and hilly streets everyday for the past two years. The LAST thing I needed was a rounder butt, but here I am. (Muscle, not fat, but still?) I heard that if you have a round butt, you shouldn't work out on stairs or inclines; that's for flat butt girls. I live in the wrong city for my body type. Also, for my lungs. I shouldn't be embarrassed about my butt, but I am. Mostly because it's hard to find pants that fit. Hence, I wear a lot of skirts.

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Did you know Chinese-produced pine nuts can change the taste of all your foods? I recently came across this article. Interesting. We often joke about needing heavy-metal detox after living here, but honestly, I don't think it's such a bad idea. I wonder how much lead, mercury and other assorted metals are swimming around in my bloodstream.

Slumber Party Weekend, Plus the Awesomeness of Pulled Noodles

This weekend our Peace Corps regional director came to Chongqing in anticipation of the big meetings going on this week in Beijing, so several volunteers from nearby areas came into town to have dinner with him. A few of them crashed at my place. I'm not a woo girl, but, WOO, so much fun! It was just one big slumber party, and I love playing hostess, so I had a great time having them here.

Saturday lunch we went for noodles. I don't think I've posted pictures before of how delicious pulled noodles here are, so here goes. First, the cook prepares the noodles by pulling the freshly made dough like taffy, pounding it down, then pulling again and again until it strings up into noodles. It's magical. Here are a few pictures (notice the tables and chairs--these places are very casual):

And a close up of the dough-- he's smiling because he's shy:

The noodles are put into big pots of boiling water standing by:

And then the freshly boiled noodles are added to a bowl of beef broth, spicy oil, beef chunks, onion and cilantro:

Not very healthy, but delicious!

Reason #362 I'm Gonna Miss China

#362: The conversations I have here that I will have no place else. For example:

T., holding out to me the t-shirt he wants to wear that day: "Does this shirt smell too much like hot pot*?"

And I love that he doesn't ask me if it smells like hot pot, but if it smells too much like hot pot.

I take the shirt. I sniff.

Me: "It smells a little like hot pot, but unless someone buries their face in your chest, it'll be okay."

T.: "Cool." (Throws on the shirt.)

I'm really gonna miss China.

*I routinely shower after eating hot pot, because yes, the smell somehow permeates everything. 

Hiking and Biking In The Countryside

This past weekend I went to T.'s and we spent some time in the countryside. We biked to a mountain, then climbed up the mountain with the bikes, then stashed the bikes and continued over the mountain into a farmer’s valley. I felt so like Maria Von Trapp!  But I didn’t sing anything. There was a lake at the bottom of the valley, so we headed down there for some drinks and relaxing before hiking back out.

Here’s a picture of the valley we hiked into:

 

It’s hazy from humidity, but you can see the lake down there in the bottom, and white farmhouses dotting the mountain side. It’s amazing to me how they can farm on the steep slopes of the mountain.

We hiked past a farmhouse and the owners met us and brought us into their home. They gave us fruit soup to drink out of a pan— frozen apricot-like fruit that had been made into a sort of compote, then watered down and boiled. You could drink the fruit broth and eat the little fruits with a spoon. We sat on tiny chairs and took turns with the pan. I tried to get the name of the fruit from them, but they didn’t speak Mandarin and didn’t write, and I couldn’t understand their Chongqinghua name for it. Sad.

They wanted us to stay for dinner and spend the night on the farm, but we told them we needed to get home. That is just such Chinese hospitality, to invite strangers to stay at your home just because they are passing through. I am in awe of how giving people here are.

Here’s a picture of T. with the farmer’s dad hacking up greens with a machete-type knife. We’re not sure what they were going to be used for. I said I hoped not eaten, as they were all over the ground, but who knows! You can see T. holding the fruit soup pot:



They live in very humble circumstances. I felt like I was in another era of China, it was so different than life in the city. We stayed there with them for a little while, then finished hiking back out.

The path up the mountain was very muddy, and I must be part piglet, but it was this gorgeous, thick red mud and I wanted to lie down and roll in it! But I sort of got my wish because I kept colliding with my muddy bike tires, getting mud all over me. And on the downhill ride home, all that mud came flying up off the tires, splattering all over me. I took a shower when we got back, and T. was teasing me that it looked like Pig Pen had been in there. Ah, I was a happy little piglet, though. Here’s a picture of me when we got back to T’s apartment, many hours later. As you can see, I was wiped out, but it was a good feeling to have worked out that hard. And I’ve got mud splattered all over my face and clothes. It’s a good look for me, I think!



I slept like a dead person that night. It was a really good weekend.

Dismembered Jaws, Plus Shrimp Antennae at Dinner: Discovering Where I Draw The Line

It has been raining every day for almost two weeks straight in Chongqing. I don’t do well without enough sunshine. I feel really blah and sad. There is a reason I love San Antonio so much: abundant sunshine and delicious food. I miss home. And rain makes my sinus problems flare up. I would not have done well on the Ark.

Okay, enough whining, onto the topic of the post: I took this picture on the street over the weekend. The man tried to block my camera, which normally doesn’t happen here, so I figured something must be up. I asked a student, and she said it’s illegal to sell teeth on the street like this. I asked her what animal this is, and she didn’t know. A Google search revealed that teeth from Tibetan wolves are thought to be good luck charms, but I have no clue if these are the jaw bones of Tibetan wolves. But the little jaws in a pile like this made me feel queasy. 



Queasy story #2: We ate a big bowl of Xiang La Xia (香辣虾)“Fragrant Spicy Shrimp” for dinner last weekend. In this dish, shrimp are mixed with onions, garlic, ginger, potato and lotus root in a big bowl and served hot, and the flavor is very spicy and good. (Btw, shrimp here are not beheaded or shelled before serving, you have to do it yourself. I’m used to this.) The shrimp were roasted in their shell, so you could eat the shell, but I still had to remove the head. So I’d pick up the shrimp in my chopsticks, bite the body off, and discard the head.  But in the middle of the meal, I noticed lots of red shrimp antennae loose in the bowl, and it started to gross me out. And then, I felt something in my mouth, and fished out a dismembered red shrimp antennae. This just really put me over the queasy edge. As soon as we got back to V.s apartment, I brushed my teeth to erase any shrimp antennae sensation or taste. I still feel queasy when I think about it. Bull penis? That’s okay. Dismembered shrimp antennae? That’s crossing a line. As delicious as Xiang La Xia is, I don’t think I can ever eat it again.

Have you ever been grossed out while eating something rather innocuous, and can never eat it again?

Body Image and Female Peace Corps China Volunteers

When we join Peace Corps, we get a little booklet about life in our country of service. Our China booklet had a little blurb about some female volunteers struggling with body image because of the cultural beauty standards of China.

I remember thinking at the time, ‘Who cares what their beauty standards are? I’m 35 years old, I’m happy with who I am. Only really insecure girls have this problem, and I am not one of them.’

But, I was unprepared for the reality of living here.

Two years later, I still think I have reasonably good self-esteem, but it has been a challenge at times to live here and not feel bad about my body, or myself. It doesn’t help that I put on some weight when my dad got sick, the result of hours I used to spend running or working out now spent in hospitals or at his home. And not taking care of my health due to grief and worry. If there is any time in your life when you shouldn’t be concerned about your weight, it is when a parent has terminal cancer! But then I come to China and get told I am too fat to shop in the dress stores. I asked a Chinese friend to help me find a tailor to get a qipao made, and she said I should wait a few months until I am thinner. (The standard of beauty here is to weigh about 90 lbs.) Most foreign men who come to China want to date Chinese girls, and Chinese men are scared of American girls, so you are almost socially undateable for two years of your life. These things might start to affect you when they happen all at once. I was humbled to have to ask myself, “How good is my self-esteem really?” (Sometimes, not where it should be.) I’m on a program to get back to my personal healthy standard I was at before my dad got sick, but these things take time when they’re done right. So in the meantime, it’s a good opportunity to think about where and how I maintain my self-esteem.

We have a new peer counseling program, and the leaders of the program are developing a wiki page. They asked me to contribute something about female volunteers’ issues and possible advice, so this topic has been on my mind as I prepare my submission. I don’t know yet for sure what I’ll say for the wiki page, but I’m glad they’re taking the time to talk about it. It’s something we female volunteers talk about amongst ourselves, but that’s a small circle. I hope future volunteers will come to China a little more prepared than we were, with some good solutions for the hard times. I hope I can leave some wisdom behind for them.

My First Video Chat: Chinese Snacks

Here is the video I talked about yesterday. I forgot to mention, yogurt is popular here, but not cheese. I'm not sure why one kind of dairy but not the other is so popular.

I hope you enjoy it.

Stuff I’ve Learned

1. Any food you eat in bed tastes exponentially better.

2. It’s okay to admit you hate camping. When I was younger, I sort of made myself believe I liked the outdoors because most of the guys I was interested in were mountain men on the side. The truth is, I like hot showers and seafood buffets and soft hotel beds, so sue me!  On the plus side, when you admit that out loud, you find the people who feel the same way. Amazing.

3. Something more expensive that will last over time is a much better deal than cheaper and easily broken. This is especially true of shoes and appliances.

4. The question is not “Are you single?” The question should be: “Are there any girls who you know think they’re your girlfriend?”

5. Sometimes what is holding us back is the fear of our own success, either because we don’t think we deserve it, or we don’t want the responsibility that comes with it.

6. A guy who wants to help you carry your bags or pay for things doesn’t necessarily think you’re incompetent or needy; it’s sometimes just how he learned to show he’s interested in you. It’s okay to accept these things graciously. And to give back. 

7. A man who makes you laugh is 90% of the way to smoochville.

8. We don’t always know what people have been through in their lives. It’s okay to feel forgiveness and compassion when they’ve let their past influence them to be someone who hurts you.  It’s also okay, if the situation warrants, to not let them have access to hurt you again.

9. First Class? Very often, worth the extra money.

10. Cheese is really, really, really, really good and eating it while you ponder can help you solve a lot of problems.

Fit To Strip, And Other Things I Love Right Now

Those of you who read here before I left for China know it used to be called “Stuff I Love.” In memory of times gone by, here are a few things I love right now:

1. Fit To Strip, the workout DVD by Carmen Electra. I know, I know, it sounds lame, but disc 2 is a calisthenics routine that has nothing to do with stripping and everything to do with building strength in your core, legs and upper body. I used this DVD before I ran a half marathon a few years ago and was the most toned I’ve ever been. I let myself get chubby after my dad died, so I’m back on a strength training/toning regime, and this DVD is part of my new routine (along with running, weights and yoga). It kicks your butt in a really good way.

Amazon.com, $12.99

2. Community, the tv show on NBC. One of my friends in the U.S. prodded me to watch this show, and it takes the place in my heart that used to be occupied by The Office until The Office turned kinda lame. (Sorry, but you know it’s true.) Abed and Troy crack me up; long live their Donde Esta La Biblioteca rap! Also, Joel McHale naked is so much yummier than I never imagined. Thanks, ratings ploy! It totally worked.

Community recaps, nymag.com

3. My new panda wrist rest, advertised on the packaging as glow in the dark, but it’s only those little floaty thingies that glow and they’re hard to see inside the plastic. So, glow fail, but panda win! Sorry, I don’t know where to buy this outside of China. But if you’re in China, I got it at Sanfu.




4. WeiEast face cream. Katie at Scattered Starlight introduced this product to me, and it’s a new favorite. I’ve mentioned before how serious the Chinese take their skincare*, and I’ve gotten compliments from Chinese girls on how good my skin looks after using this. As an added bonus, it’s not actually made in China, so it’s free of skin whiteners and other ingredients you don’t want to know about.

WeiEast.com

5. Tostitos Queso. This is junk food, and I love it. Judge me if you must, but a bowl of warm cheese and warmed tortilla chips is a little bit of heaven in my mouth. I brought some back with me to China in my suitcase.

I think you can buy this at pretty much any grocery store in America, you lucky dogs!

6. Undergear.com. Warning, this website is not suitable for the faint of heart, or maybe those at work. It’s men’s underwear and pajamas and workout gear, and my friend sent this link to me, and I sent it to a few friends here, and we all spent a good hour on gchat, sending each other links from the site and cracking up and drooling. I never knew there were male equivalents to push-up bras, but now I do! This guy’s pretty handsome. I’m not recommending the shorts, just the guy.

Undergear.com. I recommend the sleepwear, swimwear and underwear links. Oh, and can’t forget this. It's kinda strangely hot!







7. And while we’re at it, I love gchat. I stopped using msn because of all the spam, and because Vista didn’t seem to like it and kicked me off every few minutes. Skype is great but not everyone uses it, and it takes a lot of bandwidth to run. Yahoo Messenger seems sorta 1998. But gchat? So convenient! No need to add anyone, and if you miss a chat, they email it to your inbox. I think on MSN, you had to log back in again before you got offline chats. Gmail isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty great. I deleted my Facebook account, so happy I did that, but you can pry my gchat from my cold, dead hands.

Ok, that’s it for this edition. Next time, I’ll be back with more China stories.

*Recently a Chinese friend was asking me if I knew another teacher on campus,and she said, "She's in her early 30's and sometimes has bad skin." I've never heard skin used as a major descriptor before I came to China. They aren't kidding around about their skin.

By The Time We Got There, It Was Dinner At Tiffany’s*.

There is a phenomenon of giving directions in China that I still don’t understand: people will only give you directions to the next block. For example, “Go straight ‘til the next intersection, then turn left.” Now, you as a Westerner might think that means that after you turn left, you’ll be there. Oh no, my friend. This is just the beginning. If you don’t see what you’re looking for after you turn left, you ask someone else, and get the next set of directions. You will keep doing this, block after block, until you arrive at your destination.

This happened to V. and I when we were in Chengdu for training. I needed to get to Tiffany & Co.* to get some jewelry cleaned, and he came with me. I didn’t know where Tiffany was exactly, but I figured it was downtown near the other big shops. Turns out it was in a new shopping plaza built a little zig-zaggy ways away from where we were. It took four sets of directions to get us there. Yup, that’s about right.

Also, be aware: you will always get some directions, even if that person has no idea where you should be going. Saying, “I don’t know” is a loss of ‘face’ in Chinese culture, so even if they have no idea, they’ll still give you directions. The next set of directions might send you in a totally different direction. It means one of those people has no idea. Have fun deciding which one!

By the by, there was a Victoria’s Secret near the Tiffany, the first one I’ve seen here. Bras were over a hundred USD, and even those cheap little $5 dollar thongs were the equivilant of $60 USD. Say wha? It’s like they’re trying to turn Victoria’s Secret over here into an Agent Provocateur or La Perla equivalent. Ridiculous.

After our luxury adventures, V. and I stopped for dinner at a “Western” style chain restaurant out of Taiwan. Here’s a picture of what our meal came out like:



Yes, that is fried chicken steak (w/ pepper sauce), spaghetti w/ peas and a fried egg, all on the same plate. So don’t feel bad when American Chinese food is nothing like what you get in China; they get it wrong, too.

*This is a brand new Tiffany & Co. store, the first in this region of China. Also, why is the name in the novella/movie possessive? I’ve never noticed before that that is weird. But it is.

The Taxi Driver Who Tried To Hand Me Over To The Police

So the other night I’m taking a taxi home from dinner with friends in another part of the city, and we pass a cluster of policemen off to the side of the road, and my taxi driver says, “I need to stop because you are a foreigner.” At least, I think that’s what he said, his dialect accent was pretty strong. I said, “What? Why?” He said, “You are a foreigner, I have to stop.” WHAT? So he stops and pulls up to the police and the police look at him like “What the hell are you doing?” and motion for him to keep moving. They actually yell at him, “Don’t stop here, drive on!” Um, taxi driver? I have no idea if that was some sort of joke on your part and you thought it was funny?  Or you just don’t know that foreigners don’t have to stop and talk to all policemen they pass? Whatever it was, that was weird. Please don’t do that again.

We had dinner at a Korean barbecue place, all you can eat. The funny thing to me about Korean barbecue is, you pay to cook your own food. Part of the reason I eat out is so I don’t have to cook! It was pretty good, though. They had quail’s eggs, so we made the tiniest fried eggs ever:



Here’s a shot of our table:



I’m showing you this because it was one of those recessed-into-the-floor tables, where the seat is floor level and your legs hang down below the floor, and at the end of the night I was climbing out and fell over and crashed onto the table. I was near the back so most people were out of the room, but my friend Erin and I laughed for about 5 minutes straight. Luckily the grill was off and I was not hurt. I have balance problems, I fall over all the time. Just another night in China.

And oh, I can’t forget this picture! I took it at the train station on the way home from the dentist:



This outfit is pretty standard for China. Proportionately, she looks great: the length of the jacket and shirt, the tight pants and boots, it all works. The colors and patterns were cracking me up, though. It just doesn’t matter here what combinations you wear. It’s awesome.

I got my temporary crown put on. It took three hours. Is that normal? It was not fun. I go back in two weeks to get the permanent one put on. I hate traveling that far to the dentist!

Eight Things That Have Happened Since Leaving America

1. Just like I’ve heard happens with the pain of childbirth, I’d blocked out just how bad the air is here. When I landed in Chongqing, I couldn’t see the ground until we were right on it. It looked like Oklahoma during the Dustbowl. The locals call it ‘fog.’ I can’t figure out if that’s a mistranslation or wishful thinking.

2. But anyway, I’m home! It just feels good to be back in my own apartment, walking these familiar streets, back into my routine of veggie market, fruit market, bus rides to visit friends, crowded sidewalks to navigate, and of course, the really delicious, spicy street food. Yum. I start classes next week.

3. From Beijing to LAX I had the best spot on the airplane that is not first class: last row in the front section of the plane before the exit, aisle seat, right next to the bathroom. Lots of space, no one kicking my seat, and easy access to the bathroom, perfect! (I always request an aisle seat.) On the way from LAX to Beijing, I got stuck clear in the back, next to the window. Ugh. It was the worst. So glad to be off of that plane. What about you, are you a window or aisle person?

4. At LAX, I got racially profiled, in a good way; a TSA agent had a Spanish man talking to her in rapid Spanish (is there any other kind, really?) and she looked over at me and said, “Hey, can you translate for me?” I thought, YES, I still look Spanish! And no, sorry, I can’t. (I probably could have, but I knew she could find someone who definitely could have.) In China, I’m just an American; I miss the rest of my identity.

5. In the gate area for my plane from Beijing to CQ, I was the only foreigner, and this kid started at me for a full three minutes. (And by kid, I mean 18 years old or so.) Ah, I’m back to being a foreigner in Western China. On that plane I was also in the back, but on an empty row next to the bathroom. This girl came back to use the bathroom but it must have been her first time on a plane because she couldn’t figure out how to open the door. I asked her in Chinese, “Did you want the bathroom?” and pushed open the door for her. She was so shocked. I’ll never get over being shocked at how shocked the Chinese are that I can speak (some) of their language. It’s not Vulcan, after all.

6. Last night I managed to stay awake for three hours in a row (jetlag, you win) and went to a restaurant/bar with friends to celebrate our friend Elena’s birthday. The bar had tater tots! So random. We were sooo happy to have tots, though, it was like we won the tot lottery.  This is what I love about China: small things make us so happy. Btw, Elena is from Palermo, Sicily, and was here for 6 months studying Chinese law. She invited me to come visit her in Palermo. Um, YES.

7. I was watching the video for “Empire State of Mind” today and tried to imagine a song called “Shanghai State of Mind.” Nope, can’t picture it. NYC is not as developed as Shanghai, but it’s got a special something these other big cities don’t. (And no, it’s not as developed, but more about that later.) I downloaded the video to show my students, they are going to love it.

8. Every day I was in America, I ate corn tortillas with melted cheese and Frank’s Red Hot Sauce for breakfast. I miss them.