Farewell to thee, Oh Christmas tree
Okay, I was wrong. We
did find out exactly what was going on. According to Thad, "Tent Mall" is simply a traveling trade fair--kind of a legacy of this place's rural past. I guess this group of vendors regularly roll into town and set up shop for all the locals. It makes sense in a rural community where the local Sears is hours away. Here, however, it's a bit superfluous. Everything they offer can be had at one of the local shops. But the vendors came anyway and people are browsing. Oh, well.
Anyway, on to my post. It does seem like Christmas is over, even though this is only the sixth day of Christmas. (Let's see, that would still be in the livestock section of that song, right?) Grandma and Auntie are getting the full overseas experience. They were originally scheduled to fly out tomorrow morning, but on Wednesday, somebody decided to cancel all of the morning flights to Kunming. So, in order to make their connection to Hong Kong and beyond, they had to leave this afternoon. "You gotta be flexible and adaptable," they told us in training. Having helpful, experienced friends who can speak Chinese is useful, too. Anyway, the kids were quite bummed--well, all of us are rather subdued this evening. But a good time was had by all and the in-laws can take a nice, luxurious bath before tomorrow's trans-Pacific journey.
Tomorrow, life returns to... well, I don't know if you can call it normal. Our company is gone, but it's the end of the term and things are changing. Classes and English corners will be over. The girls and I will be starting a new school schedule. People will be taking off to various places for winter break. (We're doing a week in Thailand, but have to wait 'til the end of January.) Will this be an interesting time or one of winter doldrums? Guess we'll have to wait and see.
To your tents!
I was going to post about Christmas Day, but the mood passed before I could write. Suffice it to say that the carolers finally did manage to perform for Grandma, who enjoyed it very much, and that the party/talent show was quite fun.
And life goes on. Over the last couple of days, a tent city has sprung up on Shiji Lu, the road that leads to the college. On Saturday, there were a few makeshift tents on the side of the road, which I thought belonged to migrant workers at the construction site there. On Tuesday, there were more "tents" on the other side of the road and they started setting up frames of metal pipe in the middle. By evening they were putting on tin roofs and stretching fabric across the pipes. I thought a whole labor camp was springing up. They left two narrow lanes for traffic to pass. It really put a curb on the street dancing--we had to squeeze the circle into a space about half the size of what we're used to. And, of course, traffic could no longer divert to the south side of the road. We had a couple cars join the circle that night. Today the construction continued. In a couple of completed stalls, people started arranging merchandise like clothes and shoes. So now I don't know if "tent city" is really "tent mall" or if this is a very organzed labor camp. Like many things around here, we'll just have to wait to see what happens and will probably never find out exactly what's going on.
No room in the inn
No, seriously. Christmas Eve, far from home. We go to the hotel and... no room. Of course, we were only going to the hotel restaurant for dinner, and we ended up going to a different restaurant instead of a stable. But the parallel amused me.
We had our Christmas weekend all planned. Yau Neih's family was here already. On Saturday, Christmas Eve, we would do a nice little family hike in the morning. We'd then have a light lunch and relax a bit in the afternoon. Thad had invited us to dinner and then the English department had planned a Christmas party in the evening. On Christmas Day, we would go to church, have lunch, open presents and then at 8 pm, some students were planning to come over and surprise my in-laws by singing some Christmas carols for them. Perfectly planned.
The first snafu was when we realized we had a communication error. We were told that the party was on "Christmas Evening". We translated that as Christmas Eve. The folks around here don't know from Christmas Eve. They literally meant the evening of Christmas Day. We found that out on Friday. But, hey, no problem. Yau Neih had one of the students announce a rescheduling during English corner. The announcement, of course, was in Chinese, given while my in-laws were sitting there, clueless as we schemed under their very noses. We would be expecting the kids at 8 pm on Saturday instead of Sunday.
Our second change was also minor. Saturday morning was rainy and foggy, so rather than taking my sister-in-law up to see the fog from a higher altitude, we decided to take her on an "urban hike" and show her some of the commercial streets instead. Come the evening, we gussied up a bit and rolled Mom down to the L. Road Grand Hotel. The hotel was quite tastefully decorated for Christmas and was bustling with guests. We beat Thad there so hung about the lobby. We had inquired about going upstairs to the restaurant, but were told that the place was holding a special event and we would have to have a ticket. We patiently waited for Thad and the tickets. Well, it turned out that Thad had no ticket nor inkling that there was a special party going on. But he and Mr. Zhou, the department's Party secretary, handled things and took us to a different restaurant. They told us that this place would even serve turkey, which was a quite pleasant prospect.
That was one surprise that turned out well. I mean, first we foreigners were ushered into a dining room and we were given steamed buns and sunflower seeds to eat. They also put a charcoal brazier under the table to keep our tootsies warm. Eventually dinner was served and we joined our Chinese collleagues. Instead of nice slices of turkey breast served with stuffing and gravy, we were given some brown meat with bones attached--typical Asian style. But it was quite tasty, and along with the other dishes, it filled our tummies nicely.
What didn't turn out well was the rest of our plans. Instead of sitting down at the buffet at 5:40 pm, we ended up eating much later. The joy of having a nice dinner was offset by us looking at our watch and slowly realizing that we wouldn't be home to receive our carolers. When we finally did get home at around 9:00, we found a number of Christmas cards stuffed into our door frame along with a note saying that our carolers were there, but we weren't. Yau Neih felt like a Christmas rat. While the rest of us started getting ready for bed, she went out and about on campus to find some students, tender apologies and try to reschedule back to Christmas Day.
The road not taken
We missed the chance to attend a wedding banquet yesterday. Two days (!) before, one of Yau Neih's fellow English teachers knocked on the door and invited us to the bash. Unfortunately, we already had plans to attend a party at Joan and Michael's at 6:00. The invitation was for 4:30, but I was pretty sure that Yau Neih wouldn't want the hassle of trying to attend both events. (That's one of those areas where we differ.) I tried to give the excuse that our in-laws were going to be in town, but the bride-to-be just said to bring them, too. Ah, you gotta love China. Anyway, I mumbled maybe, and she went on down the hall to invite Joan and Michael. While I waited for Yau Neih to return home, I pulled
Encountering the Chinese off the shelf and looked to see what it said about turning down wedding invitations. Of course, it had no advice on that particular subject. ("Turn down a free meal? Why would you do that?") When Yau Neih came home and confirmed my suspicions, and voted to decline the invitation.
She went over to consult with Joan and Michael. According to them, the polite thing to do is to show up at the bride's flat earlier in the day and give them a gift along with your regrets. So, that's what we planned to do.
Come Thursday, we were visiting with my jet-lagged in-laws. Yau Neih had two classes in the morning, but between them, we were going to deliver our well-wishes. I was doing something in the kitchen when I heard the firecrackers go off nearby. (Hearing firecrackers is an almost weekly event here, but this was the first time I knew what they were for.) Immediately afterwards we heard a lot of laughing and shouting down the hall--probably the wedding guests heading up to the sixth floor. Later, Yau Neih arrived at home and we headed up there, too. The stairwell was strewn with confetti and flower petals. Outside of the apartment were a handful of plastic stools circled around a stove that was made to look like a campfire. The door to the apartment was open and as soon as we were seen we were invited in. There were quite a number of folks in the flat--in one room, a game of mah jong was going on. They offered us some candy and cigarettes, and the bride came out decked in the typical red wedding dress. (Wish I had known about those when I was getting married. I might have tried talking Yau Neih into wearing one of those.)(Yeah, I know, like there was any chance of that happening...) We expressed our regrets and she right away figured it was because of Joan and Michael's bash. Ah, well, what can you do? She didn't seem to be miffed or anything. So we went back home, followed by one of the bride's friends, who wanted the phone number of one of the other Americans here.
I have mixed feelings about the whole event... or non-event, as the case may be. There's a bit of a double standard in my mind when dealing with the locals or with my fellow expatriates. Chinese folks rate a higher level of politeness, as I feel obliged to honor my hosts. The ex-pats, I more easily take for granted. Whether this is an attitude that needs changing or not, I don't know. Of course, I suppose it really doesn't matter so long as I have a wife to handle my social calendar.
Stuffed stockings
Christmas came early this year. Yau Neih's mother and sister arrived to spend the holidays with us. They have never spent Christmas apart before and decided to keep the tradition. (And I thought they were crazy to come all the way out to Chicago! ;-) ) This afternoon, I was busy doing that last minute cleaning and the kids were continually monitoring the time. (Yau Neih had an afternoon class.) About 3:55, I sent them out to the 2nd floor balcony to watch for our ride. I could hear them chattering all the way in our flat. At 4:05, we got a call from a friend in Kunming who had just escorted them to the plane. The kids squealed with delight. Five minutes later, our friend Marty showed up to give us a ride to the airport. More squeals. (from the girls, not Marty) We loaded our borrowed wheelchair into the back of the truck and drove up the hill to the classroom building to fetch Yau Neih. She came hurrying down the stairs and ran to the truck. She climbed in, handed me a pile of books and they drove off. (There was only so much room in the truck, so I stayed behind.)(Now that I think about it, I could have had a ride in the back of the pickup. Rats.)(Or I could have hitched the wheelchair to the back of the truck and... nah, it's only a borrowed wheelchair.) Anyway, A bit more than an hour later the truck returned and we got the in-laws settled. After supper, they opened their suitcase and brought out all sorts of American foodstuffs that they had brought along. The kids were oohing and ahhing just like they were opening presents. But then, I guess that's what they were.
Children and fools
The saying goes: God helps three sorts of people: fools, children and drunkards. I can't vouch for the drunkards, but He was mighty nice to the fools and our children this Saturday. I haven't been writing much about the weekly hikes up the local mountains, but we've been joining in rather faithfully. For the most part they've been scenic but uneventful. So, it was bound to happen that one would get interesting.
This past week we decided to hike up ol' Qi Shan, since we hadn't done that in a number of weeks. Michael suggested the trail along the irrigation ditch. That's a regular jaunt where we head up into a village, turn left and follow the ditch to it's end. Since we're always interested in something different (and were planning on taking my sister-in-law on that easy hike this coming Saturday), Yau Neih suggested we take a right in the village and follow the ditch in the other direction. She and I had done that one on our own a couple of weeks back. It was just as easy, though not as interesting. This would be especially true for the students who, after all, live here and prefer conquering mountains over gawking at Chinese farmers and architecture. Anyway, to overcome that drawback, we suggested exiting onto a prominent trail that headed upwards from the ditch route. The trail started out quite steep but eventually we had a break as it curved around a hill. As we started snaking upwards again, the path became more overgrown. We had a large group of students and a couple of them took the lead, if not blazing the trail, at least flattening the grass and breaking off obstructing branches. We finally took a break in a grove of pine trees and those who brought snacks broke them out.
Our family had planned to turn back early, so that we could get back to the cafeteria by noon. There was still time left to go further, but Ga Dai was tired and Siu Wan was fed up with walking through tall grass. Yau Neih and I decided to let them rest in the grove while we ventured up another ten minutes or so. In this stretch the trail was quite steep and extremely overgrown. I was beginning to suspect that Charles, the student in the lead, was actually blazing this trail for us. Anyway, we eventually reached something that looked more like a trail and after a few minutes, it was time for Yau Neih and I to bid farewell to our companions and turn back.
I had noted when we emerged from the jungle to this stretch of trail that the trail had also gone off in the other direction, so I tried to make sure that I wouldn't miss our exit, so to speak. I did, of course. We left the trail at the spot I
thought we should and were soon tramping down grass and pushing aside branches. It soon became obvious that our group had
not passed this way. It was about then I started kicking myself mentally. Soon the wrong trail turned into no trail at all, so we turned back. About this time, I stepped onto a pile of grass and my foot kept going down. Kind of like when I stepped on a rotted board in an old hayloft back on the Edecker farm. Except this time I had to work a bit to stay on solid ground. After that I paid closer attention to where I was about to step. Soon we reached a point where we could see the hillside and valley below, so we hollered for the kids. They yelled back and, thank you Lord, I could see them in the grove a number of feet below us. We hollered that we were coming and Yau Neih added that we were lost. At the time, I didn't think it was a good idea, but it was hardly the time for criticism. Anyway, I now had an idea of our relative positions and could walk with some sense of direction. We eventually found ourselves on our original path and made our way along. A couple of times we tired to give a confirming holler. The first time we didn't get any response. The second time we could faintly hear Ga Dai crying. It's bad that the child was upset, but perhaps telling her that we were lost had some value after all. Anyway we were soon reunited and happy again...
...for a while anyway. We ventured downhill into the undergrowth and once again the trail vanished. There was a line of small trees that looked like they had been planted to prevent erosion. I followed them, hoping that there might be some sort of ledge that would serve as a service path. There was, but it ended at the edge of a gully. A few hundred feet further I could see some terraced fields and a downward path. I tried to make my way there, backing up and trying a lower "trail" and then having to back up again. It was quite frustrating as we could see definite trails--some complete with buffalo pies--but then have them peter out on us. Eventually I gave up and tried to retrace our steps back up. This also was fraught with confusion. After much tramping about, I finally recognized a small water hole that I had avoided earlier. I followed the trail past that and, lo and behold, the path kept going.
After that, the hike was boring again. The biggest challenge was where to go for lunch. It was about half past noon when we had found the trail and the cafeteria was sure to be closed by the time we got home. Yau Neih didn't want to cook and I didn't want to try and order food at a restaurant without my phrasebook. Heck, I wasn't too keen on ordering
with my phrasebook. I dearly wished that there was a Burger King nearby. There wasn't, of course. But Yesterday Once More, the restaurant with bilingual menus, was. Despite the relative expense, we headed there, picking the burrs off our clothing and trying to make ourselves look somewhat presentable.
Later we learned that the rest of the group also had a challenging time getting home, though nobody got quite as lost as we did. Now all that's left is to tell the tale and figure out what lessons we've learned. I mean, God may help fools, but we don't want to push it.
Silver bells
Shall I do another Christmas post? Ah, what the heck... 'tis the season. I've commented in my letters to people that this place is quite barren when it comes to Chirtsmas trappings. Whereas in the States I would have seen decorations up before Hallowe'en and been fully saturated with holiday lights, music and advertising throughout December, here in our little bit of China it's been mostly business as usual. Oh, we noticed one place that had a picture of Santa on it's door back in November, but I suspect that's a decoration that's up all year. Kind of like the tinsel garland I used to have hanging in my bedroom.
Anyway, one of the exceptions was a restaurant we patronized last week. Actually, it's a bar--the one Western themed joint in town. We first went there in desperation during our first week here. They did have a menu with English on it, but they were all out of hamburgers. The fried rice, however, was quite tasty. Anyway,
they were decked out for Christmas. They had a tree and tinsel decorations amidst the beer ads. They were also playing what I suppose you could call holiday music. Soon after we sat down we recognized the tune of "Silent Night". They were singing in Chinese, so at first we didn't know if it was actually "Silent Night" or if they had just lifted the tune. However, they then sang an English verse, the first one. And then they sang it again. And then once more to be sure they had it right. I wonder if the CD wasn't a karaoke disc or something. Anyway, we were quite delighted to have some Chistmas ambiance, even if the music was played in that wimpy, pop music style. (When overseas, one develops tolerance for things that are normally annoying) The next song that came on we recognized as Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his ninth symphony. Not quite Christmas, but we thought maybe it was some religious CD since there is a hymn that uses that tune. Then came "Oh, Susannah". No, really. And we
knew that it was "Oh, Susannah" because we recognized the words "Alabama" and "Louisiana" in the Chinese lyrics.
At this point, I started taking notes. We managed to stay all the way through another playing of "Silent Night". That playlist contained three songs that we did not recognize, two songs that Yau Neih placed as European folk tunes, three Christmas tunes, two songs from
The Sound of Music, "Auld Lang Syne", "Ode to Joy" and... "Oh, Susanna". For the life of me, I can't figure out what the theme of the CD was supposed to be. Maybe it was something like "Emily's favorite tunes" or something. Hopefully this analysis of background music doesn't become a habit. I'd hate to see myself sitting in Burger King, waiting to guess one more song before I leave.
You're a mean one...
We had quite a fun English corner the other night. I forget if I mentioned it before, but the neighborhood English corner, which is put on by some of the other Americans in town, has been showing movies for the past few weeks. I've had mixed feelings about the change to "movie corner", but I have to admit it is a chance for the students to get exposed to an English language environment. Anyway, in honor of the season, last Saturday's film was
How the Grinch Stole Christmas. That was followed by a dramatic reading of
Green Eggs and Ham, and then we broke into small groups to give everyone a chance to read a Doctor Suess book aloud. The whole program struck me as a great idea, one that probably wouldn't occur to me. At English corner you have the problem in that you are dealing with people with adult, or at least teenage, maturity, yet who also are limited to a child's level of English. One doesn't want to offer up childish content for fear of boring or offending the student. Many Doctor Suess books, however, are quite entertaining at any age. And should anyone take offense at being given a children's book, you can always claim that you're just giving some cultural literacy, because
everyone in America has read Doctor Suess.
Actually, the cultural literacy aspect was another thing that caught my attention last Saturday. Just like when you first share your childhood favorites with your kids, presenting
the Grinch to the students made me think about it in a whole new light. I hadn't watched the cartoon in years. So in one sense I was being reintroduced to it. But in another, it was chock full of my culture--from all the Christmas customs and trappings to Chuck Jones' style of animation. Every frame of that cartoon was familiar for me. Once again I was thankful that I have this opportunity to step outside my culture and see it from a new perspective. I was also pleased that the Chinese folks in our audience seemed to enjoy it, too. It's nice to be able to share a bit of fun.
We'd love to see you again
We just heard this morning that a friend of ours, Gladys, died last Thursday. I wondered if this was going to happen. Not Gladys passing on, specifically. But rather that one of the farewells we said this past summer might be the final one. I suppose that question has been in the back of my mind since July of last year, when we lost three friends to sundry deaths. I suppose I should be used to it, since I've been living away from my Midwest home for over a decade. I've missed many a funeral, wedding and baptism. Living in China just means that I'm living away from a greater number of people. Still, it's times like this that one really feels the separation.
But what does this have to do with Gladys? Nothing much really. She's gone and the world is a poorer place. Ah, now isn't that a glib phrase? For those of us who knew her, the ripples of her passing touch our hearts with sorrow and fond remembrance. For those who never knew her, it's just another day. Heck, for me the last couple of days was like that, as I was ignorant of her death. Is the
world truly poorer for her passing? Well, it's not logical, but I think so. There's billions of folks who never met Gladys, but she was a wonderful person to be with. In a perfect world, one without death, wouldn't they have eventually had a chance to meet her? To enjoy the pleasure of her company? And how many millions of wonderful folks have died before I had a chance to meet them? I have a sneaking hunch that I am indeed poorer for their loss. ... Aw, maybe I'm just being a dreamer. Or, like Gladys would have put it: it's crazy. But that's Heaven, too, and I hope Gladys is enjoying it now.
Be afraid...
As of this week I am officially the father of a teen-ager. Help meeeeeee!
Blinded me with science
Nertz. For some reason I can't access
Flickr. I suspect the government is blocking the site since I
can see it Anonymousely. The problem is, I can't log in or update pix Anonymousely. sigh. Now where did I put that info for uploading pix via e-mail?
Update 12/9:Um, never mind. This morning I was able to access my pix just fine. And posting via e-mail worked as well. Now I should check to see if they unblocked blogspot as well...
Lazing on a Saturday afternoon
Field Trip Report, Part IIAfter our brewery tour, we were treated to dinner at a nice little restaurant outside of town. The architecture out here is slightly different than that back home. I mean, besides the little curves they used to put on the corners of the roof. Things are a lot more open to the air. The shops, for example, generally don't have front windows or doors--just a large garage type door. You roll it up and you are open for business, with your entire shop open to the elements. I suppose it's a tropical thing, though I haven't been up to northern China to investigate this. Anyway, the restaurant had that same open air feel. Like many restaurants here it's a series of rooms situated around courtyard. In the courtyard of this place were little patios with a vine covered trellis overhead. We went there first and were treated to sunflower seeds, tea and playing cards as we waited for our lunch to cook. A few of the teachers offered to teach us to play cards. It was an odd game that used a double deck of cards. It was similar to pinochle in that you had a trump suit and one set of partners tried to get more points than the other. But I couldn't quite figure out which cards counted for points or even how the cards were ordered. Were face cards high or low? I didn't get much of a chance to learn as dinner was soon served.
Our group was ushered into two different rooms, ours had two circular tables in it. We were joined for dinner by a muckety muck from the brewery and the vice magistrate of the county. For a change, our family wasn't seated at the "head" table--that honor was given to Sandra, the other foreigner on the trip. A much better choice, I have to say, since she is probably a much better conversationalist than we. (Plus she actually speaks Mandarin.) Dinner was delicious, of course, and to no surprise was served with glasses of Lancang River beer. The only two surprises was that one of the courses was purported to be moose and that another was Cantonese-style pot-stickers. Ironically enough, the latter tasted like home.
After dinner everybody drifted out of the dining room and sort of hung about. We had a few hours before we were scheduled to leave for home. Thad had mentioned to us the day before that he was going to introduce us to his family, but Licha was talking like everybody was just supposed to hang loose until the bus left. I was trying to think of a tactful way to check with Thad what the plans were when he showed up and started telling people to get on the bus. We drove off back to town and then walked a couple of blocks to his mother's house. A very nice place from what we could see. It was about the size of an American home, although built up rather than out. According to Thad it was only two years old and had replaced an older home. We all sat in the courtyard under the shade trees. Tea was offered all around and later they broke out the sugar cane. This was a new experience. We were handed a couple of four foot stalks and a big cleaver. Thad showed us how to hack off a section and whittle away the outer layers. Then he peeled off a little bit, chewed it for a bit and then spat the de-sugared cane onto the ground. We gave it a try, but didn't do it quite as well. One of the other teachers then trimmed a piece for us, claiming that we hadn't whittled off enough "bark". We gave those pieces a try but still didn't do quite so well. It was a cross between chewing a soft toothpick and a piece of gum. The sweet flavor (mildly sweet by American standards) soon went away indicating it was time for a new piece. All in all, it seemed like more trouble than it was worth. Give me processed candy or a piece of fruit any day. But it was an interesting experience. And now we can recognize spent sugar cane when we see it on the sidewalk.
We only spent an hour or so at Thad's ancestral home. Then some folks were talking about having a bit of a walkabout through town, so we joined them. Basically we walked back to a place near our bus and then folks wanted to get some noodles. I guess it's a local specialty. I would have liked to have given them a try but I was still stuffed from lunch. Yau Neih was eager to keep walking, so we and Sandra strolled down to the river. Despite their desire to rest, a couple of teachers pressed to escort us but Sandra finally convinced them that we were quite capable of strolling alone. Anyway, we strolled a bit, returned to the noodle shop and immediately followed our colleagues to the bus. There we were treated with yet another free sample of the bottled tea. (A welcome gift after walking in the sun.)
The ride home was quite subdued, though the scenery was as beautiful in the afternoon light as it was in the morning. It was an enjoyable time and started me thinking that it might be worthwhile to consider taking a day trip or two on our own. Of course, another language lesson or two might be needed before then.
Roll out the barrel
Hey, we had an honest to Ghandi field trip on Saturday. Who would've thought? Friday afternoon, Thad gave us a call and invited us to take a little day trip to his hometown. He said he was taking some people to check out some high-tech factories there and they would be honored to have us accompany them. I was game, Yau Neih was slightly interested, and the girls thought they were in for the most boring day of their lives. But with some skillful negotiating, we talked them into it and agreed to go along. When we told this to Thad, he told us that it was actually an outing for the whole English department staff. We would drive with him and his wife in the school's SUV while the teachers followed in a chartered bus. It would be an hour and a half trip each way, but given the scenery around here I wasn't complaining. My only regret was that I couldn't ride on the bus, where I'm sure all the action was going to be.
Saturday morning came and, as is our custom, we were out in front of our building at 8:00. This time, however, we gave our apologies to our fellow hikers rather than joining them on the weekly hike. (Actually, only Michael, Matthew and one of Matthew's students were ready to go at eight. The college students were still getting breakfast.) The bus and SUV were awaiting us. The best part was that Thad realized that the SUV might be cramped with six people and asked me if I minded riding the bus with the teachers. I have to wonder if he read my mind or if our apartment is indeed bugged, like we joke about. So I climbed aboard the bus and grabbed a window seat. The bus ride actually turned out to be a bit uneventful. The teachers did behave slightly like school kids on a field trip, but no footballs were thrown out the window or anything. Plus all the chatter was in Chinese, so I couldn't really join in. But I did get to enjoy the scenery and chatted a bit with Licha, the teacher who sat down next to me, and Sandra, a professor from Montreal who was visiting the college. Licha kind of appointed herself as my tour guide on and off throughout the day.
One thing I should have mentioned that this high tech factory--the pride of the county--is a brewery. I realize that brewing beer is a craft, and like any craft there is honor in performing it well. But beer is such a pedestrian commodity I doubt if I could ever approach it seriously. Fortunately, my Chinese ability is nowhere near the level it would have to be for me to crack dumb jokes and make a jerk of myself. Anyway, I digress. We arrived in the town of Yunxian (At the time, all I knew was "云县". I was calling it "Yun Beehive" until I was able to look up the actual name.) and pulled into the lot of the Lancang River Beer company. 'Twas a nice looking place. We were escorted into the conference room, which was truly a classy place. After the obligatory introductions of the company bigwigs, we were treated to a video about the company. It was a bit of a flashback to my old a/v production days. There were a few digital effects that were new, but essentially it was the same sort of thing I might have worked on back in the eighties. I couldn't understand the narration, of course, but the visuals said that Yunnan is a great place to make beer and they ship their fine beer all over China.
After the vid, we were treated to a tour of the plant.... sort of. Now, I've been on a tour of the old Rainier Brewery in Seattle, back before the company was swallowed up by some larger corporation and the brewery was converted to a coffee roasting plant. I know how these things are supposed to go. We skipped over ll of the brewing part and went straight to the bottling. We started with the recycling center, where stacks of used bottles awaited their turn in a big machine that cleaned them for reuse. Then we saw the line where the bottles were filled, inspected, labeled and boxed. I have to admit that it was quite impressive, though I couldn't help thinking about the opening to
Laverne and Shirley, One odd thing that I hadn't considered before is that I haven't seen any evidence of kegs in China. (not that I've really looked for them) Everything seems to be bottles. Anyway, we then strolled over to the labs where folks in white lab coats are doing something scientific looking. Whether it was quality control or R&D, I have no idea. As we were leaving that area, we were treated to a nice view of the adjacent river. (I'm assuming it's the Lancang, given the company name.)
After this, we climbed back aboard the bus and drove across the street. Apparently the company, in addition to producing alcoholic beverages, also produces a bottled tea. We were all given samples of the product and then were ushered into a... big empty room. I was told that this was the room in which they stored and dried their tea leaves. Since it was not the season for tea leaves, the space was empty. Clean, too. The guy in charge of the tea manufacturing showed us this and another room filled with idle machinery. He talked quite a bit about it all and nobody bothered translating for me. Like most folks, he seemed quite happy to talk about his work. From there we went upstairs and looked over the bottling line. This was in full production and we could see the whole process from forming the plastic bottles to packing the filled and labeled bottles for shipment. According to the honcho giving the tour, one part of the system, a filtering machine, is so high tech that it could be used to create weapons. They needed to get permission from the UN to have the machine and have to pay through the nose for the privilege to use it. Make beer, not war, I always say.
Anyway, that pretty much ended the tour save for a restroom break. I think I'll tell you about the second half of my day in the next post. It was a good time and my only regret is that I never once thought to teach the teachers how to sing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." But maybe that's just as well....
Return of the bread, aye
Yes, we have once again run out of "pig bread". This time, however, there is no adventure. After our last attempt to buy flour, Thad had said that he would arrange for the mill to deliver a regular shipment of the whole wheat flour to his mother-in-law, the noodle manufacturer. Later, he said that he would arrange to have the new cafeteria baker make the bread for us. Since then, the new baker has set up shop on campus. ('Tis another branch of the Bidezai chain that baked up our last loaves.) This morning, Thad and Yau Neih went over and placed our order. According to Yau Neih, the bakery folk didn't seem to thrilled to be doing this service for us. Even so, by this evening,
voila!, four loaves of bread. Of course, this convenience has its price. They charged us 10
kwai a loaf--more than twice the cost of our last load. The first impulse, of course, would be to balk about the price. The question is, would that be in bad taste, considering that we're the only customers for this stuff? They're obviously doing us a favor by baking it. Oh, well, at least it tastes good. I can always cut back on my consumption and eat more oatmeal for breakfast. Or sneak out to the food carts and get a grease laden sausage roll and hash browns.
