What a normal day, yet so full of different experiences.
The ball really got rolling when Dave and I left our classes’ joint party with his student Elise, who wanted to copy the Wallace & Gromit video. As we chatted before parting ways, conversation naturally turned to he nan da bing, which they translated as a seed cake. I jumped at the opportunity to have Elise show us he nan da bing today, just on the other side of campus.
Then one of my students, Wendy, strolled by. Of course, Wendy. She and I bump into each other around campus all the time. She is the one who once proclaimed it as, “We are destined to meet again and again.” Her voice is very deep, her demeanor very calm, casual and, to tell you the truth, comforting somehow. Her eyes, behind Ira-Glass-type thick, black glasses, are big pools of liquid dark chocolate. A mesmerizing type of gal.
I was thrilled to see her, and extended her the invitation to come with us in search of he nan da bing. She’d never had it, either. Okay, plan was to meet up at 2:30.
Got home, ate lunch, set Xander up on an architecture-building website that he loved, and crashed for about an hour myself.
Met Wendy and Elise in front of the 1st cafeteria close to 3:00. A downright expedition-sized party were we: Dave, Jane, Xander on red wiggle-scooter, Zekey on bike with training wheels, Ysa in stroller mostly, Jiang A’yi, Wendy, and Elise.
We made our way over to the other side of campus and the students treated us to the flavorful flat cakes. They are thicker than crepes, thinner than pita bread. Three versions are vegetarian: one with egg mixed with the dough; one spicy version, one kind-of plain, maybe with onion and really buttery-tasting, even though there’s no butter here. So warm and good!
Then the students showed us SWINGS! Two, real swings that my kids could swing on! There is no such thing in China as children’s playgrounds such as Americans generally know playgrounds, so this was a real treat. Next to the swings, there were lots of simple, outdoor-style exercise machines the Chinese love to have - “exercise parks” - in this area, and about 72 ping pong tables, all full of students playing ping pong.
Since we'd earlier talked about knitting, Elise had planned to teach me how to knit. Elise is a real pro, but when I asked her to show me the completed scarf she said was in her bag, she said, “No.” She explained that if she were to show me, she might be embarrassed. I still didn’t get it. She further explained that others might think that she’s showing off. Us, sitting on a low wall in a corner of a playground, and her hesitant to show her work! In my teacher way, I said that this was a great opportunity to show the differences between our two cultures, that Americans are generally eager to show something that they’re proud of or do well, and Chinese people are very hesitant to do so. I suggested, “Let’s just try it the American way for a second, ok?” And she produced an exquisite white scarf with many different patterns, or whatever they might be called, knitted into it.
And then I learned how to knit! Elise was a great combination of having me watch her, and letting me try it, with her guiding my hands, even my fingers.
It was an emotionally beautiful experience for me. At one point, for several minutes, Wendy, who’d been sitting in front of me on the kids’ red scooter-type toy, was resting her hands on my knees. A real Chinese touch exchange! Chinese women hold each others' arms or hands or touch in some way publicly all the time, and usually I can’t get beyond thinking, “How Chinese! Cool.” But today I experienced it a bit myself, and it was very calming and natural.
Wendy’s fingers have red blisters on them, like she’d been recently burned. I inquired, and she said it happens every winter. She doesn’t like to wear gloves all the time (I understand, neither do I), so her fingers simply get too cold. I know it’s because people’s daily life involves being so cold all day and all night. These two girls further said that many of the students have blisters on their feet, as well. I was incredulous about these kinds of blisters on people’s feet, as feet always have socks and shoes on them. They said that some shoes just aren’t warm enough. That’s what you get when your life for months reaches a high 52 degrees for a couple of hours a day, and is therefore in the 40s, day in and day out. No indoor heating can really get you.
Anybody know of any good anti-blistering cremes out there?
It came around 5:00, getting colder, speaking of cold, so we set back home. As these things go in China, though, you always run into more people, so we ran into several of the boys’ classmates. They were ingeniously dipping paintbrushes into a plastic cup of water, and practicing writing characters on the sidewalk. Really, how smart, because you write all over one area of the sidewalk, it dries, and you have a clean surface again. Xander was so excited, begging them to teach him more, saying how much he needs to learn more Chinese characters. Zekey was trying his best to meticulously copy the character for “to have.” Even Ysa’s scribbles looked like Chinese characters!
I went away to go and buy dinner: our favorite wraps, oranges, apples and bananas. One sure-fire way to seal a great day in China for me is to wander outside the university gate by myself to see the latest in vendors, sights and sounds. Wasn’t disappointed today either, as a brightly-dressed, obviously non-Han-Chinese woman was squatting at the front of the outdoor market, selling what looked like huge hunks of blue cheese gone bad. She whacked off a piece to let me sample it, and from the crack of her machete on the substance, I could tell it wasn’t soft like cheese, but hard as a rock. Sugar! Sugar whose outer coating of the hunk of it had little green-grey strings, like Spanish moss. Of course! I bought a chunk to give the kids maybe tomorrow, and to see if Jiang A’yi can explain it more to me.
Wandering back home, seeing people carry bundled-up Chinese babies on their backs, noticing groups hanging out in street-culture fashion, enjoying the mix of trendy students, older generations, hard-working farmer/vendor types, I reflected on this amazing, yet normal day here. Good to have these kinds of days and feelings at least once in a while.
