the usual history, food, tourism, local colour and Chinglish bits

 

The school I teach at is located 1/2 way between Shanghai and Suzhou.  I spent last weekend in Suzhou with several colleagues.  This "town" (of multiple millions) is famed for being the silk centre of China  This lovely girl is Leizu, concubine of Emperor Huangdi, who, it is said to have started silk production in China 5 thousand years ago. She is holding cocoons... 

 

And of course, what is a history lesson without a reminder of the Silk Road, that opened up trade between the East and the West?  (the caravan below is in the silk museum)

                     The old town in Suzhou is called Ming Town and we spent a nice evening there:

 

Paul, an ex-chef and married to Chinese Jessie, wanted disprove people who say there was no good Chinese food and he took us to one of his favorite restaurants and we had the amazing fish dish below.  I call it "the exploding fish dish". It is a fish deboned and turned inside out, served with sweet & sour sauce. See the tail on the left and head on the right?

 

 I could not figure out what the locals were doing raking this golden stuff around for miles on the road in front of the school, but it's rice! 

 

And to end: you know, one must put used toilet paper in a garbage container rather than flush it -  plumbing very poor, I believe.  So here is a sign to remind one of protocol:
Yup.  So long for now, Karen

Itchy Just Thinking Of It

It all began on Saturday.  At the end of our walk, Jan swallowed a flying bug.  P-tewy.  Then in the elevator I vaguely noticed a few mosquitos and I thought, "That's odd - mosquitos in an elevator."  Well, Sunday night I freaked out when I saw about 20 bit mosquitos on my white wall, in a beam of light.  Then on Monday morning I walked past several hundred on the floor of the stairwell.  This morning I awoke to this, outside my kitchen window:

These are male mosquitos - so no blood sucking.  On the drive home tonight (a 1 minute scoot on my scooter) in the dark, I was delighted to have my plastic windscreen blocking the thousands that were teeming in the air.  When I parked, with my headlamp still on, the number of bugs on the white wall was incredible:  I brushed myself off hard before I got into the elevator.  I suppose like locusts and every other biblically-proportioned outbreak this too will fizzle out.  However, I am not happy that I will be walking over to the next building in a few minutes to play Mah Jong - I will be keeping my mouth tightly sealed.

Here are a few pics of some side-of-the-road graves.  It always fascinates me to see how a culture deals with their dead.

Plastic flowers, which would last a good long time, and some drinks as offerings, I think

(rather than a boozers leftovers).  The very light and dark green behind the trees is a rice paddy - the plants go golden this time of year.

 

 Off to play MJ with 2 expat women and a Chinese girl - Paul's wife, so he will probably wander in with their baby for a feed and we will all clutch at the little bundle (Gabi). 

Cheers. KMG

 

And for Bambi, who says she enjoys the tales of tortured English: 

(again from a menu)* Crispy Cod Article

* Need a Small Charcoal Grilled Wong (no idea)

ramblings 14

...I am feeling another blog coming on....

I really get a kick out of the quirky English I encounter,  eg: the slogan on my scooter is "your any idea";  the name of a bakery: "Bread Talk";   or this large sign for a building development:

 

Say, what?...You know, the move of the Chinese country folk into the city is the biggest migration in human history.  We are talking around 100 million people here.  I thought this pic showed a nice juxtaposition of old (bamboo scaffolding) and new (pretentious, moi?) :

 

 

Yes, that front structure is someone's house.


The people living here have a BMW but it is never parked in front when I have my camera.

                                           Interesting priorities....Love the flowers, though.
                                                                Toodles, Karen

 

Lucky 13

I work with some great people.  Here are my desk buddies, and my favorites: Susan and Paul.

They both teach English.  Susan is from Nova Scotia - mother of 4 grown boys...Paul is from the UK and is up through the nights with his newborn. Yes, those are socks hanging off my desk - David Graham gave me them - moose motif - the first summer I went abroad.  When I picked my desk I was attracted to the pair of Canada-theme socks Susan had on her desk (far edge of pic).  And a friendship was struck - over socks!  David would love that.

I scootered over to the "Venice of China" yesterday: Tongli - a water town.  And what a pretty, touristy place it is!  Great shopping. 

 

 

 

I also went to a Buddhist temple (built in 1618 and now under siege by many construction vehicles transforming the rice paddies all around).  I sat in the sun  for so long listening to the chanting, the birdsong (and trying to block out the cacophony of the construction) - with my eyes closed - that a lady attendant came up to see if I needed food (!) (?)  That golden colour denotes that it is a Buddhist temple, I've been told.

 

 

Sorry to ruin the picturesque-ness but this is the reality over here: history & beauty,

garbage & rubble. 

 

I was fine getting to both the temple and the town (about 1 hour toodling along a highway, watching for - well, every damn thing coming out of left field)  but Lordie did I get lost coming home.  In the end a lovely Chinese man escorted me back to familiar territory - relief!  Thank goodness for my foresight in making a little laminated card with the school's address in Chinese (my attempts to say town names seem to baffle everyone).    

bye bye Karen