Tag Archives: bamboo

Snow on plum blossoms, an auspicious omen

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Plum Blossoms in the winter snow, an auspicious Chinese omen.  Have you ever seen flowers bloom in the winter?  I must admit this is a first for me.  These lovely blooms I photographed today on campus after the snowfall.  In China this is one of the “Four Gentlemen”  or one of the four plants that represent the four seasons in Chinese tradition ink wash art.  The plum blossom represents winter, the orchid for spring, the chrysanthemum  for autumn, and the bamboo for summer.

I photographed bamboo from Tonglu and chrysanthemums from a traditional Chinese ink painting a 16 year old student created.  Now I need to find orchids!  My spring quest!  I am so ready for spring.  Today was the end of our fall semester.  What is spring festival?  I am about to find out.

“Tacos,” a Massage and bad mushrooms!

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“Tacos” is the name of the cafe I walked to yesterday, thinking some Mexican food would be great.  A western name for a more Chinese style cuisine.  Yes I did see an enchilada looking meal on the menu.  I am thinking does this waiter understand me well enough to explain to the chef I am wanting a vegetarian enchilada with a taco?  Probably not!  So I say I am vegetarian and he points to the pizza.  Ok a pizza it is plus garlic bread, lots of carbs.  There is reading material next to the table on a display rack, I check it out and some is in partial English.  I read there are five churches, and ten museums.  There is an article about local westerners not losing weight, cause the food is so good!  Yes, I can agree.  Pizza arrives, and it has corn on it, just like at S.I.T. (Sculpting in Time cafe)  This must a traditional recipe.  Cheese is blah, can’t even tell what kind it is, no Parmesan or mozzarella.  Oh well, it is still tasty.

Then I decide to walk to my fitness center to wear off the carbs.  Nice walk and a beautiful sunny cool day for a change.  I find the massage/spa area and ask if there is time for a massage.  Of course she speaks no English, and I somewhat show her I want a full body massage with hand gestures.  She points to 68 yuan.  Deal!  She hands me this Chinese cotton PJ outfit to put on — ok the top wraps around and ties, can do.  The pants are another thing, they look like a kids size 12 and I didn’t even attempt it.  Hopped on the table with a towel, underwear and Chinese top and in walks this young skinny Chinese male masseur.  Never had a male massage, first time for everything right?  My colleague Peter, had said he got a great massage the other day and it was “legit!”  So we will see!  No oil, and no skin to skin, ah that is why the PJ outfit.  Hope he can handle the no PJ bottom part and he seems ok with it.  He has a small sheet and works my back with his palms till I think every bone has cracked a few times.  Then we does some thumb pressure points and pushes a second time real hard, that can be painfully interesting!  I think he even tried to straighten my bowed legs by bending them entirely the other direction, wow!  Finally he rolls me over and massages the wrinkles off my face and then does the same to my ears and head.  Massage is over, it is legit and a mer ten American dollars for one hour.  I am calm and ready for a nap.  Head back to the hotel and sleep for hours.  Delightful.

Woke up to the TV running and a guy painting with  ink and a bamboo brush.  Wow, I can learn this easy enough.  He shows his mixture for ink and then starts with the bamboo stalk, then the branches and lastly leaves.  It was a great art demo and easy to follow.  I have ink and a ton of bamboo brushes at school, think I will give it a try tomorrow when I am teaching on Saturday.

Then the news showed three sick little children in the hospital, unconsciouses, on air and hooked up to an IV.  Now what is this about?  There is a peasant looking mom, bad teeth and tired eyes speaking.  Then mushrooms show on the screen.  Did she pick bad mushrooms and cook them for these kids?  OMG yes!  The newscaster is on the scene in the woods with her and she shows them the four kinds she picked, a yellow tree fungus, white toadstool , brown and one with polka dots on the inside.  None of these look edible to me…only hallucinogenic.  The scientist on the show, take four white lab rats and make a concoction serum  of each one of the mushrooms and inject into the poor little rats.  The clock ticks away two hours, four hours, ah at six hours we have some unsightly little rats!  There tails and feet are different colors, no longer sweet pink!  And one is spread out on all fours like a pancake, with eyes bugging out, I would say he is “tripping!”  Ah ha the mushroom that is the culprit was the plain white one.  Although the other three they marked with a big X too…….  The story ends happily, kids get treated and are smiling again.  Mom gets a lesson in mushroom picking along those of us who watched the story and the rats had an exciting day tripping in the lab!

Ji Ming Buddhist Temple and meeting a “Leader!”

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September 5 2010

Today was a special day.  I inquired about the Ji Ming Temple last week and Alice the Chinese economics teacher said she would take me.  Today we meet up and walked first to her friends Ceramics Art Gallery.  I was able to see all kinds of ceramic and porcelain tea pots, cups and jewelry made by local artisans.  They had throwing ribs made of bamboo, that was very unique, and durable.  What fun I had there.  Ended up with some sweet gifts and earrings for me.  Figuring how to ship small items may be interesting, will have to check into DHL.  Alice’s friends have a bamboo caged little pet in the shop, named “Leader”, like leader of the government so Guli the owner calls him.  The pet is a large grasshopper.  It makes the funniest noises while you shop.  I want one!  so Guli said he will keep an eye for the woman vendor who sells grasshoppers on the street.  He said he saw her with 200 caged grasshoppers.  His is a month old and eats pumpkin and cabbage.  I got to touch it’s foot.  Alice bought a teapot and got a lotus pod.  They said the word for seeds means children. So the lotus flower has many children, I can relate!

Alice’s husband met up with us after his Tai Chi class and we took a taxi to the temple.  It was many flights of stairs.  I threw coins in a giant tripod container — if your coin goes in you become wealthy. Took me many tries to get that darn coin in that hole.  At the top of the temple you can eat Vegeterian food and it was very crowed today.  We got a seat and I finally ate “mock meats” instead of just vegetables.  We had a vegetarian beef meat and a bowl of noodles with mock shrimp.  It was very good, similar to Sumi Veggie in Richardson. I tried Plum Juice, very tasty.  We looked at all the Buddha sculptures, very large, colorful and quite impressive.  I saw only four real monks, all bald, even the girl.

We then strolled  Xuanwu Lake Park next to the temple.  The temple has a huge pagoda and a great wall around it and continues down to the next pagoda and another temple probably a mile or so away.   It is similar to the Great wall in Beijing.  These walls were built to keep the enemy out, the Mongolians.   It is quite old, but in good shape. The entrances have arches and are magnificent.  On the lake was hundreds of small boats similar to paddle boats.  It was a colorful site to see.  In a park area, the senior citizens dressed in yellow Chinese old fashioned clothes were preparing for the fall festival, by practicing their music.  Another group was singing Chinese opera.

As I am writing this I hear opera outside my hotel window.  A student is practicing his singing too.  Occasionally I hear piano coming from the music building.  It’s all very soothing and delightful.

Another good day and tomorrow, school.  Maybe I will figure out how to do laundry in the morning, since my class starts at 11:20.

I need a “Leader!” and I shall name mine “Obama!”