Never Too Old to Dance.

We traveled out to Yuxian Province this weekend, a much more rural part of China than we have been seeing. The best part of the excursion was our stop at a senior center in the town where we stayed. Really? Yes really. First you have to understand that a lot of the people in this area have never met anyone from another country before, so it was a pretty big deal that we were coming to visit. The seniors who use this facility (its basically a day center where people can take classes and play sports and interact with other retirees) organized an afternoon of entertainment for us, including dancing, singing, and baton twirling. About twenty women in their 60s-70s performed choreographed dances, Peking opera, and one even did this amazing routine with a stick (I’ve included some visuals to help explain the scene). They tried to teach some of us how to do the dances, but I was quickly identified as a lost cause and politely lead back to my chair. The whole thing was pretty surreal, but really fun. I can only hope I’m in good enough shape in my seventies to belt out an opera song and perform choreographed dance moves. 

So much food. So little time.

There’s tons of great food in China, although its nothing like Chinese food in the US. Here are a few of the highlights.

 

Chinese egg mcmuffin. This is what I get for breakfast everyday. It’s an egg and strips of potatoes on a fried roll. Delicious.

 Mangosteen. This adorable little guy can be broken open to reveal sweet and tangy white segmented fruit. I don’t know what to compare it to but its great. 

Sticky buns. They sell these everywhere on the street, and the best ones are filled with some kind of meat or veggie (I prefer not to ask what).

Basically, this was fried chicken and french fries served with Coke. The coke here is like Mexican coke - made with real sugar - so I almost like it (its no Dr. Pepper, but still). I guess some meals are universal. 

Ham Sandwich. That’s what it said on the menu anyway. I have no idea what this was, but it was not a ham sandwich. It may have had ham on top. I’m really not sure. 

Funnel Cake. Okay, I wasn’t so into this…it was like crispy fried batter filled with corn and topped with sprinkles. Maybe it was someone’s birthday? Unclear.

Hutong Pizza. Yes, we actually found a pizza place that makes excellent pizza. And serves real beer. There is cheese in China!!

Dumplings. I love these in every possible variety, although I seem to be adept at ordering 50 when I only mean to order 5. This is what happens when you can’t hold onto your dumpling with the chopsticks, and you drop it in the sauce and it splatters on your shirt. I’ve done this at least three times so far. 

Just when you thought you couldn’t be more entertained.

If you are interested in getting a second perspective on the China trip, you should check out Dawn’s blog. Its nearly as clever as mine, and you will learn new things like what “BCF” stands for.

Friday.

Today we turned in our first stories for the class website, so most of my day was spent working on that. Finally turned it in (turns out this writing thing is kind of time consuming) and I’m pretty happy with it. I’m learning more about “structure” and “direct quotes” and “writing things that people might actually consider reading” and stuff like that. Excellent. The stories are still being edited, so they aren’t actually posted yet, but I’ll let you know when they are.
We also got to take a tour of the Supreme People’s Court, the highest court in China. We met with the Chief Justice (top dog) and some high-ranking judges under him. They gave us an overview of how the court system functions (it’s a little different from ours because there is no jury system and the court does not do as much interpretation of laws). It was really cool to get access to something like that, but by far my favorite part of the meeting was the décor. We sat in a big open room with two circles of chairs. The Chief Justice sat at the front of the room, and all the other chairs spiraled out from his seat to indicate his rank. The chairs were these fat, overpadded recliner-type things, and were covered in white doilies. Seriously, like macramé was involved here. It was bizarre. As if someone’s grandma had decorated the highest court in the country. The meeting was interesting, but it was difficult to understand some of the other judges who spoke, and we were definitely getting a lot of “the-government-does–everything-right-and-we-are-all-very-happy-thank-you-for-coming-to-visit” answers that we hear quite often from officials and even from everyday people. Little constant reminders about where we are I guess. It was easy to tolerate at the court though…I just leaned back in my La-Z-Boy and crocheted a placemat.

I'll be back....

Sorry for the delay in posting. Our first story was due Friday and that consumed my day, and Saturday was packed as well. We are leaving this morning for an overnight trip to the country, where I may not have internet, but I should be able to update more by Monday night. I know everyone is holding their collective breaths, so I’ll try to get on it as soon as possible.

Just so you have some things to look forward to, here is a preview of what future posts might address: visit to the Supreme People’s Court and a rather confusing conversation with some high ranking judges; a completely surreal experience as a participant in a live studio audience for an English language competition on CCTV; pictures of food I like; how to kill a fish. 

I bet you’re on the edge of your seats now. Check back soon!

Night Market

I can’t believe I forgot to tell you guys about the Night Market. Rio took us to the super touristy/shopping part of town, where across the street from the enormous Gucci store is a row of carts selling some of the nastiest food items I’ve ever seen. Fried scorpions was a favorite, but there were also snakes, squid, silk worms, sheep testicles, sea horses, and everyone’s good friend: stinky tofu.  I know we always say that anything fried is good, but seriously, even the State Fair would be appalled.

Thursday.

We’ve had a lot of sitting/listening activities lately (which aren’t so bad because they usually involve air conditioning) and I’ve learned a ton. Yesterday we went to the US Embassy and talked to some political and media experts about all sorts of interesting things to do with journalism, politics, foreign policy, and passports. P.S. If you ever get stuck in China, the US Embassy is not a bad place to wind up. The building (more like compound) is badass. Our tax dollars at work, people, but it is N-I-C-E.

Today we met with a lawyer and some consultants to his firm, and they gave us some great background on the legal and political (everything in China is political) scene. And fed us some excellent Sichuan food in compostable bowls. My kinda peeps.

Then we were briefed (you like how I threw out that term “briefed”? Sounds like I’m fancy right?) by an environmental expert from Beijing University. He was clearly very knowledgeable, but his English was not great and I think he was nervous to the point of near paralysis, so we didn’t get as much out of that as I would like. I’m interested to learn more about those issues while I’m here.

Now I’m sitting in a coffee shop near our hotel so I can use their wireless. I’m typing on a laptop and drinking an iced tea to a soundtrack of Air Supply and Phil Collins. What country is this again? I think I’ll go next door and get a Big Mac.