China Day Two

China Day 2

Overall, we are certainly getting eased in slowly. The day started
out with a spectacular breakfast. In our book, a fancy hotel
breakfast means that there's a waffle iron included in the breakfast
buffet for do-it-yourself waffles with syrup, and eggs from a mix.
Now this spread was in 3 sections of the restaurant, each section
laden with a delicious fusion of Asian and American delicacies. For
starters was the appeal of the 4 kim chis next to covered chafing
dishes of your choice of steamed stuffed buns, plain buns, plain
"kongee" (watery rice soup) or kongee (sp?) with a couple red beans
and picked red sweet plums. Table 2 offered steamed a variety of hot
choices: bok choi bundles, crispy cooked amazingly-bias-cut celery and
carrot sticks, hard-boiled brown eggs still warm, roasted white
potatoes. The only less-than-amazing items were the 2 different types
of sausage links, unfortunately resembling canned Vienna sausages more
than quality meat cuts. Upon my return for more from this table, the
white potatoes had been replaced with steamed and stir-fried sweet
potato rectangles, and the boiled eggs with over-easy eggs. The rear
section had a table devoted to cold cuts: watermelon triangles, a
full-blown salad bar, a pear-like fruit compote, and your choice of
carrot or plum juice. There was a nice selection of hot beverages as
well: black tea, green tea, and the best, milk tea.

We ate inside, supplemented for a brief moment with Zekey, Ysa and I
out on the patio at an Asian-style-umbrella'ed table. We waddled out
of the breakfast space on that Floor 5 fortified to begin our day.

Our MCC country rep Kathi met us at 9:00 a.m. for socializing at her
apartment. The kids enjoyed themselves immensely with their family's
collection of small wheeled vehicles. Zekey, of course, was the
driver for 2 taxis, a school bus and several airplanes that Air China
used to give out for children on domestic flights. All the children
did a good job passing and sharing these sweet relics from when the
Sudermans' children, now teenagers and beyond, were our children's
ages. Dave and I passed the time comfortably, chatting about China,
ourselves, and learning about the Sudermans.

On the morning agenda was a stop at the market the Sudermans generally
shop at. Rod walked with us about 5 blocks through the many apartment
complexes to get there, passing much construction carried out by
migrant workers brought in from the countryside. Huge new, tall
apartment buildings have somehow managed to fit into this neighborhood
already full of tall, relatively new apartment buildings.

At the market, we had another "first": a 1-year-old Chinese boy peeing
from slit pants right onto what appeared to be carpet or fabric
stuffed between the edge of a big tent and the asphalt surface of the
sidewalk. Then, you enter through a kind of door that is what usually
separates the part of the grocery store you shop in from where they
store the food. The door with thick rubber strips hanging down all
across the doorway. No sign, not even in Chinese. But you enter, and
all of a sudden, you're in the Chinese equivalent (x1,000) of
Chicago's MegaMall at Milwaukee and Fullerton, if anyone knows of that
place. Stalls line either side of the narrow-ish corridor. Colorful
items spill out, those "Made in China" items, all in front of your
eyes. You've just absorbed this foreground, when you lift your head
to see that this hallway stretches out as far as you can see!

Rod and we had actual errands to run, about a third of the way down
this corridor: he dropped off his daughter's school backpack at the
tailor, and we purchased adaptors for our computer to be able to plug
it into the different type of outlet they have here (No converter was
necessary for our computer, even though China runs on 240 volts,
unlike in the U.S., which is 120, but our computer has a built-in
converter). Rod ably negotiated the quoted price of 16 yuen for 2
adaptors down to 12, which is about $1.75, which we gladly forked
over.

Really, the part of the day that seemed most like "China" occurred at
high noon, at the market. Imagine Pikes Market in Seattle x1,000, in
terms of packing in as much meat and fish odor as you can. There is a
reason why, I tell you. It's because the meat and fish are kept out
on counters, unrefrigerated, the occasional fly settling down for a
munch, the warm, tropical air stagnating all around. We next beheld
these oval, curved, ringed brown items about two fingers thick, piled
on a tray. All of a sudden, one moved! It wiggled, really. Then
more wiggled. Turns out these were silkworm pupa, delicacies for your
eating pleasure. We walked away somewhat stunned, only to turn the
corner and see in English the word "DOG" just as the woman below the
sign placidly clipped the toenails off the raw dog forearm on top of
the pile or raw dog forearms on the counter. More disturbed than
stunned this time, we walked away, contemplating and discussing the
newly-, viscerally-learned reality of the country we're in.

The last huge tent area sold as many types of fruit as you can
imagine. Rod purchased plums, a vendor gifted us small apples, Xander
got an up-close whiff of a spiky stinky fruit, and I barely was able
to resist the impulse to open my mouth and chomp my way down the
aisles, bursting as they were with the bounty of all that China grows.
I have a new goal, to map out on a grid "my" market in Chengdu, and
systematically sample of this bounty, color coding it according to
rating. Maybe I can get through a whole market in a year's time! I
will mathematically calculate how much there is to try, then figure
how long it'll take me. Chinese markets are an inspiring place!

Next item on today's agenda was a bus ride with the Suderman parents
and two teenagers to one of the few successful Chinese chains,
_______. Zekey fell asleep on the bus in the most adorable 3-step
fashion. I carried him and held him throughout the meal, exhibiting
mommy skill #2,341: eating noodle soup with chopsticks while holding
large, dense sleeping boy on lap. We ate from huge, deep bowls of
noodle soup with 3 small beef strips and fragrant cilantro and
finely-slivered green onion.

We dropped off our children with James, the other MCC staff in
Beijing, and their 2 boys. Dave and I met with the Sudermans at the
MCC office for a chat about MCC partner agencies and projects - many,
many acronyms - and perusal of their library. We created a reading
list of 11 books which would all be quite fascinating reads. Dave was
so exhausted from 2 nights of only 3 and 4 hours of sleep,
respectively, that his lids actually were closing. We tanked upon
Coca-Cola, then headed back to relieve the Freys from child-care duty.

We enjoyed a meal from Subway, good ol' American style, at the Freys
home and met Jessica, James' wife. After 2 of our 3 kids screaming at
the dinner table (ah, how much more "normal" could we get?), all three
of our children fell asleep at the table at 6:30. Xander actually
managed to walk a few steps over to the couch and fall asleep there.
Well, we adults sure enjoyed laughing at stories of bodily fluids
contaminating what we consider public space, of travel mishaps over
the years, of the joys of language learning, and the politics of North
Korea dictatorship and U.S. consumerism. Delightful people!

We sure didn't feel like we were in China much today. Sure haven't
done any touristy things yet. But it's been such a humane way to
transition to this place. We've had much relationship-building; we've
been shown an understanding of how real and hard jet-lag is; and we've
appreciated a gradual accommodation to a new country.