"Anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible."

Micah and I just spent a week living in the lap of luxury. Not only have we been spoiled with an apartment to ourselves, bikes, cell phones, computers and endless movies, we got wined and dined and taken on tours by Terry and his friends. And when I say dined, I mean DINED. China is known for its amazing, if slightly exotic, food. They even came up with a 5^th taste category, savory, to add to the big 4: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. We had 5-course meal after 5-course meal. Monday night was 2 for 1 night at the burger joint in town. Naturally we went. The burgers were divine, a small taste of heaven for two Texas (I’m actually Oklahoman) girls having gone without good beef for months. It even came with a pickle! Since we were going all out we ordered chips and salsa too! The entire trip we have been craving chips and salsa and hadn’t found it anywhere, even South America. You know when you get so hungry you start daydreaming about food and it turns into a depressing game as you list one unobtainable food after another? We play this often. My list always goes as follows: chips and salsa, beef, pickle, fried okra. With one meal I knocked off 3 of the 4! Still looking for okra… I think Micah’s top four is: ice cream, cereal, cake and bread. We managed to knock all those off in Shanghai too!

While most of the food was good, some was just downright creepy. On Tuesday we went to a water-town on what ended up being a thoroughly entertaining tourist trip. We thought we’d just bought roundtrip bus tickets, but found ourselves marching behind a lady carrying a giant pink flag with a bunch of Korean, Japanese and Chinese tourists, average age: 65. We were officially the only white people in the group and quickly found we were somewhat of a tourist item ourselves, as people would slyly try to snap pictures as we walked by. Anyway, the day was quite adventurous. We ate miniature puffer fish (non-poisonous kind), fish with scales and eyeballs, and pigs’ hooves. The hooves were delicious and were supposed to be very good for our skin as they contained lots of collagen. Done. All in all, not bad except for the puffer fish, which was like sucking on a bouncy ball rolled in dirt. From here the day just got better. We marched back and forth 3 times over bridges with our fellow tour mates as we were told it would get us a promotion or raise at work. We had to be careful though because it was bad to cross more than 3 times! This made it vitally important to remember which bridges we had already crossed and how many times. On top of spring-boarding our careers, I’m pretty sure we heard the entire history of China. Unfortunately this history was presented in Mandarin, so we just followed the pink flag, clueless as to what ANYTHING was, but taking such talking moments as opportunities to pose in goofy pictures. Complete success.

Thanks Terry and Jessie!

"All things change, and we change with them."-Chinese Proverb

4-14-10

Coming into China, I had convinced myself I would not like the country. To my unaccustomed ears, the language sounded like rocks clinking and clanking down a metal tube. I was not used to seeing communist signs displayed openly throughout cities, and while I did go to A&M, seeing soldiers march past in the middle of the city still sent chills down my spine. My outlook on China was still tainted by their past, a country that not 50 years ago was in the middle of the Cultural Revolution. As much as I try to hold these things against it, after only one week I am beginning to be won over. Don’t get me wrong, I still have MANY reservations, and the loud and angry manner in which every conversation is screamed still tries my last nerve. But, from my limited observations, China is nowhere near the same country it was during the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution. While many things like facebook and blogs are still blocked, the country is slowly becoming more open.

Shanghai is really quite amazing. I couldn’t even tell where downtown was because the whole city, consisting of 20 million people, is a continuous series of skyscrapers. The city is constantly teeming with energy as buildings, subways, and parks pop-up overnight. Each night as we walked around town Terry would comment on all the new things he hadn’t even seen because they had just popped up (One of the perks to not requiring the peoples’ input on anything. No one mentions who was kicked out of their homes in order for the new construction…).

The city was fun, but the people were what finally won me over. Yes, the people who obnoxiously squabbled back and forth, slurped their noodles, hawked loogies, and absolutely refused to even guess at our failed attempts at charades. I realized, apart from their politics and government, the people were PEOPLE, full of goofy quirks and mannerisms just like us. They were kind, generous, funny and hardworking. They also had a pride in their country, much like us, and this is something I have missed in many of the countries we have visited. It wasn’t until I’d seen the absence of such pride that I realized how much I respected it. I have no political opinions on China, but if you are going to judge a country by its people, China deserves a place among the best.

Chickity China the Chinese Chicken

An old journal entry:

4-8-10

Sitting here freezing my booty off in Shanghai. We flew out of Nepal yesterday around 2 pm and after a layover in Bangkok we arrived this morning at six. In Bangkok there was some miscommunication. We did not follow the proper procedures to get our connecting boarding passes. In a last minute scramble we were able to get our tickets and make the plane. Our bags did not. We did not make this unfortunate discovery until today as we hopelessly waited by the baggage claim in Shanghai…

A Thai airline provides bright purple blankets on flights and by fortuitous foresight we took a couple. ALL of our jackets and warm clothes are in our bags lost somewhere between Bangkok and Shanghai. For now we are left to roam the streets of frigid Shanghai looking like royal gypsies, possession less, wrapped in our purple blankets.

From the airport we made our way to the apartment where we are staying. Terry, my old soccer coach who is now a teacher in Shanghai, is out of town but left the keys at the front office for us. After 2 hours of charades, phone calls and a cameo appearance by the English teacher summoned from the school next door, the keys were still not found. Exhausted and freezing, having not slept in more than 24 hrs, we dragged ourselves to the nearest restaurant. If our charades incident is any indication, few people in China speak English. Fair enough. If you came to the US how many Chinese speakers would you run into on the street? We have just been spoiled everywhere else on our trip with English-speakers…

In the restaurant the menu was in Chinese and there were no pictures, so we were left to google images of chicken,rice and vegetables. It was quite comical as we soon had the entire restaurant staff gathered around our table in a huge guessing game as we wrote, drew and googled what we wanted. Finally, to our horror, one of the boys left the room and came back with a huge grin and a live chicken in his hand. He left and a few minutes later our chicken reappeared, not so alive, chopped up in a giant stew, feet popping out. We later learned this was called “hot pot”. Talk about fresh! What an introduction to Chinese cuisine.

We finally got into the apartment! Everything is great. Terry left us notes, maps, bikes, movies, a cell phone, food. Fantastic! We are set on hibernating, eating popcorn and cereal, drinking hot chocolate and watching movies for a few days!