Sea View with Bonus Pony Picture

Our town is located on the water. Combined with the fact that we also live in a sub-tropical climate, this might conjure up images of dazzling white beaches, swaying palm trees, and lazy days on the beach. Well, it did for me, anyway, before I arrived here.

In reality, our "beaches" are a bit drearier (see photo).

Lovely brown water (I've never seen anyone in it). And that sky? Similar to CNY -- but overcast from pollution rather than clouds.

When the sun shines here, it is pretty. But unfortunately, we rarely see the sun through the haze. And this is one of the cleanest areas of the country (we are told).

But where else could you see a pony being ridden down the sidewalk for no apparent reason??



These are the little surprises that make our days fun.

Can You see my Pictures

A quick poll: Are the photos in my posts appearing for you guys? I've received reports that some of the photos are blank.

Lemme know :-)

How to Live in China and Not Eat Chinese Food

Ominous title for a post, I know, especially since we live in China and are pretty much at the mercy of Chinese food. This wouldn't be so bad if we lived in a province known for good food (e.g., Hunan). But we don't. So D and I have found ways around The System. Our "ways around" includes large infusions of US-style fast food (which I in no way feel guilty about eating as it is by no means the worst health risk here).

Exhibit number 1: KFC redeux. So, you know that we already visited KFC and were completely underwhelmed by it. The chain has redeemed itself in our eyes -- or perhaps we're just more used to the chaos of the place -- because during our last KFC visit (this past Saturday), I had a good time.

The place was packed. They always are. KFC reigns supreme here as the Fast Food King. I managed to find us a seat while D ordered our food. His task was no small feat given the fact that while there were 60 or so people waiting to order food, there was no line in evidence. It's all "elbow, push, move - elbow, push, move" to the counter. I suspect that D's size gave him an advantage in this regard.

He arrived at the table, triumphant, holding aloft a tray laden with a bucket of chicken and a litre of some Pepsi (Yuk, but at least I could read the label) product. I should note that he was only able to find me in the crowd because I guided him in via cell phone.

Photographic evidence:


We were surrounded by children celebrating their birthdays, and in the background "Happy Birthday" was playing -- in Chinese, of course. It was kind of surreal -- like being trapped inside of the "Small World" ride at Disney.

Exhibit #2: McDonald's Chinese-speaking success. I have no photographic evidence for this, but it nevertheless needs to be recorded. D's successfully ordered a large coke at McDonald's, but instead of doing it by pointing to the picture menu (the menu they hand to stupid foreigners like us), he ordered it in Chinese. And the workers understood! Totally cool. We spend entirely too much time at McDonald's, and I love, love, love it there.

Exhibit #3: Pizza and hamburgers. We got turned onto a new pizza place by a colleague, an expat from Atlanta (he is known in these parts as "the Colonel"). The place, called Dynamics Pizza, is a chain. The franchise we visited is owned by a South African. Here's what we ate:


That's Carribean Chicken Pizza, a burger, and a Coke. The pizza was serviceable (kind of like Digiorno; I've had to exponentially lower my standards for pizza since coming here. I am millions of miles away from a real slice of pizza [a.k.a. New York Style]). The burger was a Chinese-style burger in that it wasn't pure beef -- tasted like a beef, pork, chicken mix. But at least it looked like a real burger. And we could order our food in English.

Exhibit #4 -- Fried fish balls from a street vendor.

Okay, so these aren't Western, but they're not really Chinese, either. They remind me more of Japanese food. They're a mix of cabbage and onions, fried in little pans, covered in shaved bonito and wasabi, and served up with these stabby little chopsticks. They cost 2.5RMB for three, and they are tas-tee.

Exhibit #5: Gourmet Wu (of course).

The point of all of this is that we are finding ways to enjoy Chinese food in moderation without having it forced down our throats.

Of course, I would still kill for Mexican food (damn you, brother, and your all-you-can-eat Mexican buffets ;-)

When Irish Eyes are Smiling

Tonight's Gourmet Wu dinner: Irish Stew (beef in a yummy onion-tomato sauce), mashed sweet potatoes with black sesame seed garnish, and garlic bread.

Incidentally, Gourmet Wu is soon to be my Chinese teacher, too. He's from the North, so he's got a good Mandarin accent (at least that's the particular bias here).

More from Gourmet Wu

I don't know why I keep telling you what I eat for dinner . . . but here's tonight's Gourmet Wu meal: Seafood pasta, marinated celery salad with pumpkin seeds, and (yay!) garlic bread.

My Mum ROCKS!

I have always loved the US Postal Service. When I was a kid, my favorite building in Greenville was the post office in town. So big, so cool, so efficient and quiet. But now that I'm overseas, "snail mail" from the USA takes on a whole new value. I have to say, I really love seeing these boxes with my name on them:



Today, I received the above box in the mail. It's a carton of goodies that my parents mailed to me about 4 weeks ago, and it is a nice physical reminder of home. My mum picked out the goodies -- all kinds of treats. Jolly Ranchers. Chai tea mix. Tom's of Maine toothpaste. My favorite decongestant. Gummi Worms. Peanut Butter Cookies (Keebler Brand). And, best of all, CoCo Wheats!!!


If you haven't had CoCo Wheats, they're coco-infused farina.
Totally yummy with a bit of sugar.

And being the good grandmum that she is, she didn't forget Jameson. The kitty got soft cat food and Special Kitty cat treats.

The only casualty in the shipment was the peanut butter cookies. By the time the box arrived, they looked like they'd tried to cross a busy Chinese street and failed:


But, I am still gonna eat them anyway. That's what spoons are for!

Tonight's Dinner

Fish-n-Chips. Prepared by someone who trained in Ireland. And yes, I think that I will have a beer with it! Not pictured: Jameson circling like a shark below the table. She knows that when Gourmet Wu comes to visit, she usually gets some bits of chicken or fish.

Team Yonker on the Run. . . Again

My dear friends Academom and Queen of the Pattermooses are gearing up to run yet another marathon. They will do the deed on Sunday. I am sad that I will not be able to join them -- missing out on these adventures is truly one of the things that I regret about leaving CNY.

But, there is much cheering on to be done. So, head on over to Academom and show them some love.

Go Team Yonker! Whooo hoooooo!

Day Trip: Kowloon

Kowloon is a specific part of Hong Kong. I don't quite understand all the politics and history yet, but I've kindly linked you to Wikipedia for an explanation. I do know this: people who live in Kowloon don't really refer to themselves as living in Hong Kong. Sort of like the separatism that you see with people from the different NYC boroughs.

Let me just say this: Kowloon is fantastic. It feels like NYC mixed with London mixed with New Orleans mixed with, well, China. It's worlds away from our little cow-town.

U.S. citizens do not need a visa to visit Hong Kong/Kowloon. Even though it's part of China, it is designated as a Special Administrative Region, which means that the city has some autonomy over its own governance (it means a whole lot else, too, but I don't want to go into too many details). Of course, you do have to have a visa to get back into China (if you are a U.S. citizen). Otherwise, you are screwed. FYI: Mainlanders (Chinese people from the mainland) do need a visa to visit Hong Kong.

To get to Kowloon, we took a ferry. We bought economy class tickets (160 RMB one way), but the person selling the tickets didn't seat us together. While I was in the middle of moping about this, a nice English woman came up to me and asked me if I wanted to swap my second-class ticket for her first-class ticket. I, of course, was suspicious. Was she seated next to someone smelly? Was her seat all rickety and broken? But no, she didn't want to lug her bag up the flight of stairs that takes passengers to first class, so she wanted to swap with someone in economy.

I'm no dummy; I took the deal. D remained with the other proles in steerage.

First class was cool. Not crowded. Spiffy red seats. Free bottled water, danish butter cookies, and peanuts (odd combo, but hey, it was free). Plus, there were great views from first class because it was on the upper deck of the ferry.


Photo taken from my seat in on the ferry. See
how sunny and cheerful? The fake daisies add
a nice ambiance -- tasteful.

During the 70 minute ride, hostesses circulated, offering motion sickness bags to anyone looking green. I only saw one person tear off to the bathroom -- a kid of about 9. The motion sickness bags had this instruction on them: Please make donation here. Ha!

When we arrived in Kowloon, we headed off for our main task: shop, shop, shop. While there is plenty of shopping to be done in Zhuhai, it's all crap. Crap shoes. Crap clothes. Crap food. We were craving indulgence.

We managed to find our primary target, a GIANT shopping center stuffed to the gills with hundreds of high end stores (filled with legitimate merchandise). Anna Sui, Yves Saint Laurent, Brooks Brothers, Kate Spade, Lush, Paul Smith, etc. But also more pedestrian brands like Levis (which are viewed as a luxury item over here), Michael Kors, Aveda, Starbucks, and so on.

After our lack of consumption opportunities in Zhuhai, I was a bit overwhelmed.

D came away with shampoo (Aveda and Lush), chinos and belt (Ralph Lauren) and music. I came away with this:


Perhaps I have described before the utter (and by 'utter,' I
mean 'utter') lack of Mexican food over here? Well, I found
these "import" items at an upscale grocery store in this shopping center.
Of all the fabulous items for sale (food from all over the globe), I came
away with beans and hot sauce (and books [from a bookstore that had tons of
titles in English!!!!-- that slim volume is The Great Gatsby; the dictionary
is for the classroom; the Atwood is my incentive to finish Chapter 5 of the diss).
Sometimes the runningburro just needs a bit of comfort food and easy reading.

And of course, now that there is Heinz Ketchup in the house, it's safe for my dad to visit :-)

Just remember folks, those 98 cent can of refried beans you take for granted at the grocery store are a fancy-schmancy import item over here. I paid 3.00 USD for each can. I paid 6.00 USD for corn tortillas (not pictured). The real luxury was the Benefit 'Honey Snap Out of It' scub. For fear of having my working class street cred ruined, I will not tell you how much the scrub cost.

Anyway.

The opportunities for conspicuous consumption were shocking. But so were other smaller things. Like the fact that people speak English in Kowloon (we've gotten used to miming our way through any encounter with locals). And the fact that the bathrooms had Western toilets, were clean, had toilet paper, and soap and paper towels. These things are absolutely absent from daily life in Zhuhai (I don't mind the squatters any more, but I do find the lack of soap in public restrooms to be a bit troubling. Especially at restaurants.).

On the way home, we both enjoyed first class seats as we decided to cough up the dough for the upgrade. Totally worth it. Here is a photo of D holding some of our first-class loot (cookies and water):



Now we're home, happy as clams, and planning our next trip to Kowloon. There's so much more to see and do there!

Made in the USA

Since I've arrived here, the trade imbalance between this country and my home country has really been on my mind. For those of you who want more information about buying goods made in the USA, check out this website: StillmadeinUSA.com.

Day trip -- Guangzhou

D and I and 4 colleagues hired a van for the day to take us 2 hours north to China's 3rd largest city. Our mission: visit Shamian Island, make a pilgrimage to IKEA, and finish off the day with some indulgent purchases at Metro, a German-based cash and carry store (kind of like Sam's club, but with fancier stuff and smaller portions).

First we hit Shamian Island. Our poor driver had to struggle to find a parking spot (the entire country is on national holiday, so there are tons of tourists around), but we were glad that he did because on the island we found . . . a Starbucks.


See how happy D is? I must admit, it was quite nice to walk into a highly air-conditioned clean and sparkling slice of Americana. And the coffee tasted like Starbucks. And was in a paper cup. And was served by people who understood my order. All luxuries to be savored.

There's a big market on the island; it's called the QingPing (Bright Peace) Market. There wasn't anything especially peaceful about it. Lots of interesting sights. Dried goods of various kinds. Crazy looking tourists and locals haggling over everything. Live scorpions in plastic buckets being picked up with chopsticks and bought (for dinner? for entertainment? who knows). Ramshackle apartment buildings looming overhead. And rows upon rows of dogs and cats for sale.

Puppies:


Kitties and Puppies:


A poor lonely kitty (who was not happy to be standing on those little bars that made up its cage floor):


After the Island, we headed to IKEA.

It was everything that I had ever hoped it would be and more (I'd always wanted to visit an IKEA, but never lived near one). The place was packed, packed, packed. We muscled our way through the cafe and ordered some lunch (Swedish meatballs with potatoes; walnut torte; salad). This was my view from my window-side table:



We did manage to purchase the bookshelves that we've been needing -- got the cheapest ones IKEA had to offer: Flarke.

IKEA was a bit draining on all of us, but we sallied forth to Metro. What a fabulous place! It has a little bit of everything -- kitchen hardware, clothes, electronics, furniture, and food. We only spent about 40 minutes there, so I didn't get to look around as much as I'd like. But I still managed to procure some treats (including a bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum for only 10 USD and a bottle of Seagram's for about 9 USD). They even had Heinz Ketchup and Hellman's Mayo. I didn't even get to look at the deli case where they had imported olives and cheeses. Something to look forward to next time!

Obligatory Cat picture

For those of you who are wondering how Jameson is doing, here's how she spends her days:



Here is a closer view of her cat happiness:

Gourmet Wu

One of the hardest things about moving to China has been the changes to our diet. It's not that we don't like Chinese food, it's just that in a small town like Zhuhai, that's all there is, really. Not surprisingly, we get tired of Chinese food sometimes and just want something different. For something different, we've been relying on fast food -- McDonald's and OK 100. This gets old, too. (An aside: there is no Mexican food to be found in all of Guangdong province. This depresses me greatly.)

I was about to throw in the towel and drown myself in a bowl of instant noodles when something revived my joy for eating: Gourmet Wu.

Gourmet Wu is the business name of my colleague's husband, a trained chef. Two weeks ago, he started a home food delivery business whereby he cooks a meal (three times a week) and then delivers the meal, hot and ready to eat, to one's door. Cost for this luxury? Appx. 13 USD per week. That's right, each meal is only around 4 dollars and some change.

What's especially fabulous is that he cooks Western-ish food. The first meal was 1/2 chicken with orange glaze, mashed taro root, and steamed broccoli and carrots. The second meal was a steamed fish with ginger/soy dressing, a small salad, and steamed rice. The third meal (my favorite, I think) was roast duck on noodles, stir-fried veggies, and salad.

Tonight's meal -- which was just delivered -- is lemon chicken with sauteed sweet onions, mashed sweet potato with sesame seed garnish, and shredded carrot salad (the picture doesn't do the food justice).*

What just thrills me is that he packages the meals in these segmented plastic containers. I love how each food has its own compartment. So neat and tidy.

Jameson has learned that when Gourmet Wu comes to the door, she gets tasty things to eat. Needless to say, she has taken a liking to him.

*Just in case Carol is reading this: yes, that is a dissertation chapter underneath the food!