White Elephant

It was truly a memorable Christmas! I taught all afternoon, but I decorated and listened to Christmas music in the morning. We had a small dinner for those who don't teach in the evening, at my apartment. There were two wok-ed and stuffed chickens, sweet potatoes with pecans (OMG!), mashed potatoes, Mexican squash (by yours truly), and steamed English pudding (which is really cake, but calling cake pudding is ok on Christmas).

Then I had a small party. I still have wine and tons of leftover sweets suitable as bribes to get my students to come to office hours on Sunday. We even had White Elephant presents under the tree. The presents were great. I gave a coaster, which I crocheted. I received a roll of toilet paper, embedded within which was a little gold statue of Mao.

This week we are doing oral presentations in class. We have class on Saturday to make up for Dec. 31st, but Jan. 1st is a freebie. My students asked for a review instead of a film on Saturday. It's craziness!

-吴佩芙

Oasis

On Friday night I went to eat Buddhist food with some of my distinguished colleagues, one of whom teaches in the English department here, and she is a vegetarian. It was completely wonderful because all of the Buddhist food is vegetarian, made with texturized vegetable protein that tastes like meat. So the entire menu was "safe," and we ordered a set meal for three.

After dinner, we went to the old standby: WalMart. I couldn't find an ice pack, but I got a few other necessities. We also went to the coffee shop, where we can buy coffee and Twinnings tea and a small assortment of Western goods, including sprinkles.

Then we went to our English dept. colleague's apartment in the city. It was so beautiful, just like an IC professor's house. Bookshelves, huge CD collection, art...things I haven't seen in a long time. On top of everything, she has an oven and she had made brownies. It's been so long since I ate brownies that I had forgotten what they were supposed to taste like, but they were such a treat, and I'm sure I will remember it for a long time.

- 吴佩芙

Fishbowl

The small fish dart about, weaving in and out of every nook and cranny. Bigger fish are slow and more controlled, enjoying the occasional trick. Then there are the fish who swim, get tired of swimming, and just drift on the current.

It was my first time skating at the rink on campus and my second time on roller blades, but it felt kind of like we were in a fishbowl. I was the drifter most of the time, with elementary kids whizzing by me and asking me in Chinese if I was French or Canadian. "Danny" the president of the skater club, who also sold me the skates, came over and strapped some knee and hand pads on me, and he and one of my students hoisted me up. I didn't fall even once. I was able to skate pretty well after a few minutes of practice, so Danny looked up "center of gravity" in a cell phone and explained how to stop and how to turn on a dime.

When I was in college, I went with Allison to the community center for roller skating. It was a service that was frozen in time. We were the only ones there, and we rented skates for $1. It was some of the most fun we had in college. That and log-rolling down the Pentacrest hill. She was my crazy friend. She was like Maude from Harold and Maude, with an eccentric collection of knick-knacks, art, and music. I was reminded of roller skating, and that pleasant throw-back from my university years.

-吴佩芙

Don't Wag at Iowa...

Yes, I saw this written on a shirt yesterday, while I was walking down the street. I didn't have a camera, so I thought I would go back today. (I wanted to get my hair cut anyway.) I went back to the shop, and the shirt wasn't in the window anymore, and they wanted 189 yuan for it, and they wouldn't let me pay them to take a picture.

I had a great day. I went to Coffee Language downtown. I had coconut black tea and pumpkin-seafood soup. I had my book The Changeling, which I haven't read for a long time. It was very relaxing. They were playing really great music too, Neil Sedaka, Skeeter Davis, Sinatra, and one that sounded like a Sinatra song, but it was in Chinese.

I got a massage and a haircut. The massage was as good as usual. The haircut was my first one in China, and can I just say: These guys are good...These guys are very good. At first, I had to wait because the place was busy. It looked busy enough that if I was in the States, I would have to wait for an hour. The great thing about businesses here, is that they always have a huge staff on hand. So, I waited for 15 min, watching some fish in a fountain and drinking complementary green tea. They took me to a basement area, where they had set up some bed-like implements over wash basins. There are mostly men down there, and their jobs are to wash people's hair. American salons could take a lesson from Chinese salons because in Chinese salons your head is not supported by your neck in the wash basin. There is a little rubber square attached, which supports the back of your head. They massage your head for 30 min, very thoroughly. At the end, they clean your ears. I mean they put a swab in your ear, and it was so creepy. I was like, "I don't even know you!"

After that, I went back upstairs for the main event. I said "yi li mi-one cm,' and he got it. I think he checked the work of my American salon, and just followed the basic idea of what I had done previously. Another observation is, I don't speak much Chinese, but the stylist actually only cut off 1 cm, as I asked. I don't think I have ever succeeded in getting such a small amount cut in the States, where I enjoy stylists who speak my language, and I can tell them the "I'm trying to grow my hair out" story.

-吴佩芙

I don't get it, but thanks for the free nutmeg...

Another successful trip to town ended with me and my bags full of bread, Campbell's corn and mushroom soup, dried mint (that's right...), a fleece hoodie, and a 10-yuan Christmas tree and garland.

I had a goal, though. It was to find nutmeg. I had done some sleuthing, and I found out that nutmeg is used in Chinese medicine, for all kinds of crazy things, including for abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting mostly. It also has hallucinogenic properties. Anyway, if it's used in Chinese medicine, I figured I would be more likely to be able to find it. The supermarket didn't have it, but I found a little pharmacy while I was walking down the street. It was a Western pharmacy with TCM herbs in the back. I asked for rou dou kou, and the clerk took me to the back, and opened the huge jar filled with nutmeg. The scent was delicious, and there, among the Chinese clients getting their odd mixtures of herbs wrapped in white paper, I asked for 3 nutmeg seeds.

I got them wrapped in a plastic bag, and they were handed to me. I asked "Duo shao qian?--How much money?' The answer was "Bu yong, bu yong--It's not necessary." "Zhen de ma?--Really?" She was serious. Maybe it was the Laowai discount; maybe it was so little that they didn't know what to charge; or maybe it was a sample, and they're hoping I'll come back to buy 100 next week.

Christmas isn't Christmas without custard/eggnog or gingerbread, so I'm gearing up to make them in my crock pot. Nutmeg figures prominently in both, so in fact, one could argue that nutmeg itself makes the season. My colleagues grandma sent her some biscotti, flavored with nutmeg, which she shared with some of us, and I've been craving the warm, homey feeling of nutmeg ever since.

-吴佩芙

I'm from out of town...

The house is quiet again. DBF's parents and cousin stayed for one night, visiting from Guangzhou. It was a good visit. I met them after the Friday meeting at the Front Gate. We went to my place, to get settled, and then we had dinner at East Gate. The English Festival opening night performance was held on Friday night, so there was some built-in entertainment for the visit as well. We also watched and looked at or exchanged digital photo presentations of our travels.

They brought some very useful gifts, including Chinese chestnuts, peanuts in shells, mandarin oranges, pears, dried sweet potatoes, and a bag of hyacinth beans, which they thought were lentils. I looked online to find out how to cook them, and it looks like they might be poisonous. Well, poisonous if you don't cook them and change the water many times.

We ate at the student cafeteria in the morning. Then we walked around the campus, saw the reservoir. Then the cousin's friend from the city came to pick us up, and we went to the fort on the seaside, which according to the sign is made out of granite, glutinous rice, brown sugar, and lime. It was interesting, and there were some photo ops.

We had dimsum for lunch, and I tried fish balls. I didn't like them, but I managed to swallow 7 of them, since it took so much effort to get the fish ball soup without meat floating in it.

-吴佩芙