Kapok: Hero Tree

Earlier this spring, I noticed a sad tree outside my window. While the HK orchids have kept their leaves and continued to bloom throughout the winter months, this tree was a naked stick with no leaves. It was that tree that prompted me to write about Atreyu and the quest to save the Empress.

A few days later, the tree began to grow huge buds, the size of golf balls. There were no leaves, but the buds gave us hope that the leaves would be coming soon. A few people commented on how quickly the tree was progressing, when it had been completely dead before.

Before long, the buds started to pop, not with green foliage, but with huge, bright-orange blossoms. The bare tree looked silly, but we were delighted with this surprise.


As I looked at the trees today, I realized that they are a sign of Easter, coming out of the dead of winter, suddenly alive and vibrant.

Now the blooms of the Kapok or "Hero Tree" are falling, and decorating the streets and bushes below.


-吴佩芙

La Jiao

It's Friday again, which makes me think of chocolate milk and delicious food. I woke up, washed my hair, checked email, and went on a mini-quest to find la jiao, bananas, and broccoli. In the end, I got what I believe to be a close semblance to la jiao, bananas, leaf lettuce, carrots, bok choy, and fresh water chestnuts.

Fresh water chestnuts are the thing I will miss most from China. When I see a bowl of them, ready-to-eat, at the vegetable stand, I can't resist buying a few handfuls. They are sweet and crunchy, and the canned variety tastes nothing like the fresh. The ACC hotel dining room makes the best water chestnut dessert. It's made from shredded water chestnuts and a few peanuts, fried in the form of a big flat patty, and sprinkled with sugar. Come to think of it, I haven't had water chestnuts in a stirfry or in a salty dish, ever since I've been in China. Truly, Heaven must be filled with fresh water chestnuts!

La jiao is usually translated "hot sauce," but Chinese hot sauce is really in a league of it's own. Jalapeño peppers and wimpy picante don't compare to the type of flavor la jiao can provide. For one thing, the pepper affects a different part of your mouth, and, if it's really good, it will contain "prickly ash," a Szechuan pepper, which comes in buds that numb your mouth when you bite them. When we were in Dengfeng, we ate local cuisine, which had the most prickly ash I've ever eaten. It was enjoyable at first, but then I was actually starting to feel worried that the numbness wouldn't go away.


I ended up getting the famous "Unhappy Woman" brand, which I don't know the real name of, but it has a recognizable yet unhappy woman on the label. It was a mini-quest because I had to walk to East Gate to get it, and then I had to ask what it was in Chinese, and interpret the Chinese answer. I saw one of my students on the way back, and she translated the ingredients for me. She said it would be too hot, but that's quite all right with me.

I lost my memory stick/thumb drive/jump drive, whatever you want to call it. I've had some students on the "search and recover" job, like little ants, since Monday, but we probably won't find it. All I can think is that I might have left it in my classroom last Thursday. So on Monday, my students checked the lost-and-found, put up internet messages, and signed ad sheets that are hanging around campus. One of them knows someone who works in the student union office that has lost-and-found, so they put the word out too. However, it's seeming unlikely that I will get it back. Fast forward to Thursday this week: My students are going to hook me up with a student agent who deals in computer parts. Many students have mad hook-ups, and they can get things to sell on campus, which the other students find to be very convenient, better quality, and cheaper than buying at Wal-mart. I'm waiting for a call today from my student who will be the language mediator between me and the agent. It all sounds very under-handed, but that's how things are, and it's totally legit.

-吴佩芙

Easter in the East

I just returned from a very fun St. Patrick's Day party. I spent the afternoon with my upstairs distinguished colleagues. They have a little oven, and they had all this random caraway and no place to go. So...Irish Soda Bread for the party! Then we were bored waiting for the bread to cook, so we mixed up some brownies from scratch. (I usually make 1/4 of a brownie recipe in my crockpot, which requires 1/2 of an egg. It was awesome to make 3/4 of a recipe, which didn't require such minimal amounts.)

It was while we were leaving that we realized that tomorrow is Palm Sunday, which means there is one week until Easter. In the States, the stores are full of Cadbury Eggs, Cadbury Robin's Eggs, Peeps, and all of those candies associated with Easter. I must say, the high sugar of all of these treats no longer sounds appetizing. There are other things about Easter that we will miss: Tenebre services, dying eggs, brunch... The worst about Easter in the East is that it is generally not mentioned and unacknowledged, except in passing. I don't know whether the students know about Easter. I don't know whether it would be good or whether I would be a Dancing Bear if I tried to go to a church service next week.

Incidently, today is a Chinese holiday, one in which certain families go to the graves to honor their family members. There is some disagreement about which family, but we guess Zhong because...just because it seemed as logical as any other. Anyway, I left at 8:30 to go "climb mountains" with some colleagues. As we approached the mountain beside our campus, which leads to the Tao temple, we began to realize that the normally deserted road was suddenly taken over by buses, motorbikes, cars, trucks, and motorcabs. Makeshift refreshment stands were set up to sell water and other drinks to the hikers. People brought food and crowded the road to the extent that we were suffocated by people and exhaust fumes. None of us knew that it was a grave-related holiday, but we changed our route and ended up going to the Tao temple and walking up the stairs that lead to the top of the mountain. We stopped in a sandy quarry to take in the view of a nearby village, before we went back down to face the hoards of people still carrying food and offerings up the hill.

-吴佩芙