Gentle Reader,
Right now, we are enjoying a somewhat leisurely Sunday morning, catching up on the blog, responding to student journals, eating our peanut butter and bread breakfast, and maybe playing a little Tai Chi before we shower and kickstart the afternoon adventures. Did I mention that we ran out of breakfast peanut butter a few days ago? When we asked for more, the man who delivers our liquid yogurt each morning copied down the name on the peanut butter jar. The next day we were given two jars of Kewpee Mayonaise, which we have no idea what to do with. If we were in the city, our breakfast would surely be spicy noodles from one of the street stalls. Since we are out here in the lockdown compound, we muddle along with peanut butter, bread, and the occasional very juicy apple. Scott has taken to making peanut butter sandwiches with a slab of Dove chocolate.
Update... Li, one of Scott's Chinese Dudes from the 2008-09 academic year, arrived on Friday afternoon. He travelled from Foshan City, which is very near Guangzhou. He came through Hunan Province, his home area, and then over to Guizhou Province, where we are. By train, it took him 21 hours. He didn't even look all battered and bruised when he arrived and was actually eager for some exploration of Guiyang, the big city about 30 minutes away by bus. He got a grand amount of giggles out of seeing us on the massively crowded buses here in Guiyang. Once we arrived in the city, we found a reasonable hotel for him and then proceeded to trot all over town, exploring along the way.
One of the oddest finds was a very large video game establishment, which clearly brought out the "inner boy" in both Li and Scott. They raced cars, played shoot 'em up games, and generally had an absolute blast with this video bonding. The place was packed, largely with males, but there were some females racing cars and doing the Dance Dance Revolution kinds of games. There was also a drum set front and center when you enter the shop. This, too, was set up like Dance Dance Revolution, with a rapid scroll of drumming patterns geared to a combination of drums in the actual drum set. Lots of loud Lady Ga Ga music, along with many other popular American songs blared through the place. Another curious fact about this video game wonderland was that there were "no smoking" signs posted everywhere, but no one enforced this rule at all.
We ended up eating at a sit-down restaurant, which was relatively fancy compared to the other restaurants we've visited thus far. Had a marble staircase with a white grand player piano in the lobby, which seemed a bit out of place. Li ordered, wanting to try some local specialties, as this is his first time in Guiyang. We had the following: a slivered root vegetable dish that was pickled, pastry BBQ rolls, venison meat with peppers, dry fried tofu with sauce and spice rub, and sparrows legs in a BBQ sauce with hot red peppers. Okay, I've never been a fan of pickled anything, the tofu smelled horrific and tasted worse, and the sparrows legs were actually a bit tasty after you gnawed around the little bird's bones. Overall, not one of my favorite meals. Li wasn't even that impressed, as he likes much hotter food, being from Hunan Province. Scott will try anything and everything, and he wasn't that keen on the dinner, either. I ended up eating a bowl of rice laden with some of the sauce from the tofu... along with lots of green tea.
We found another coffee shop, amongst the many tea shops. Li wanted to take us there because he knows firsthand of Scott's penchant for coffee. He also told us that a place like this coffee shop, with several little self-contained sitting areas, is often used to conduct business with clients in China. I had an iced latte, Scott had Venitian coffee, and Li had a coffee with two sugar cubes soaked in brandy and then set on fire!
Li, like my former students and Tian, came laden with gifts. Several types of snack foods for us to try, like pineapple cookies and dried cherries. He also had a calligraphy scroll especially made for Scott, which has his name on it in Chinese characters, as well as a Chinese saying which translates "welcome to all friends from many places around the world." It is absolutely beautiful, and Scott was very touched by this beautiful gesture.
Wishing you a day filled with friends that you hold close... and time to make many new memories, as we are doing here in Guiyang with both new and treasured friends.
Namaste,
Bai ling
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