Secrets

After having read "Wild Swans" and while traveling in China, I was constantly thinking about the Cultural Revolution (CR) and what it must have been like to live through a time where there was little to no rational rule of law. Of course Chinese culture does not encourage discussion of feelings and emotion--especially about the CR. Many experiences are also too painful to re-live anyway. The torture so many people (especially intellectuals) suffered through caused me to wonder over and over what kinds of secrets the elderly Chinese people were carrying around with them. I'm sure I drove Anne and Andy nuts with my random CR factoids.

Here are two pictures of elderly Chinese people that I love and that made me wonder what kinds of secrets they were keeping from me. This lady was resting at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing and just looked so peaceful. The man below was doing TaiQi at FuXing park in Shanghai.

I can't sleep...

Aside from suffering from the effects of traveling and having to deal with jet lag, I have a very annoying cough. I woke up an hour or so ago coughing and haven't forced myself to try to go back to bed yet. While in China, I was constantly attacked by dust storms from Mongolia, cigarette smoke (everyone there smokes like a chimney!) and general big-city pollution. After a couple days, it really started to get to me (my asthma didn't help either) and I have been coughing for over a week now. It's one of those annoying, dry coughs that tend to send me into coughing spasms for no reason at all.

(Mom, lest you be overly concerned, I have already looked up the symptoms for Tuberculosis and SARS and I'm fairly confident that I have neither of those. I don't seem to have a fever and I'm otherwise feeling ok. I'm pretty sure it's just a result of the dirty air getting the best of me.)

So today, now that we're back in the land of 'reliable' medicine, I asked Andy if he would stop by a drug store on his way home from work to get me some cough syrup. He called me from Walgreen's and we discussed the benefits of expectorants and suppressants and he read off a label for a non-drowsy cough syrup that promised to relieve congestion while suppressing a cough. Good enough, I thought. Out of curiosity I asked him what it was called and he said "It's a generic". Oh, I thought, "What is it a generic brand of?" Andy says, "Robitussin. It's called Wal-tussin." To which, I immediately started laughing hysterically! I laughed so hard I coughed and drove myself into another coughing frenzy! I couldn't get over the goofy-sounding name, "Wal-tussin". Then Andy goes on to say, "There's more, for every brand name medication on the shelf, there's a Walgreen's generic...Wal-fed, Wal-tap, Wal-bourne..." I couldn't stand it. Andy was kind enough to snap a picture or two to further entertain me.

I thought I left the land of shameless product piracy a few days ago!!!

Xian

We arrived in Xian this morning. We took an overnight train from Beijing. We we're with Anne and she just got us a great deal to go see the Terracotta Warriors. Internet access here is free, so I will write more later. Gotta Run!

--Update--

In order to get to Xian, we took an overnight train on Friday and arrived early on Saturday morning. We were lucky to get the "hard sleepers" (which means that the beds are out in the open and there are 3 bunk beds on each side of an aisle). On the way back, we will have "soft sleepers" where we essentially have our own room. That will be nice because we will hopefully not get as much cigarette smoke in our room. People here smoke like chimneys. It's mostly the older generation, but it's pretty bad. I've had a hard time breathing with all the pollution and cigarette smoke.

It's now Sunday morning and we're in Xian. We were able to see the Terracotta Warriors yesterday. It was very impressive. There were about 6,000 soldiers made when they buried the emperor. He must have been a very vain man. The soldiers were intended to help defend him in the afterlife. The most amazing thing is that each soldier is supposed to be unique. Aside from the different uniforms and hairstyles indicating their rank in the army, their individual faces are different as well! I just can't imagine the number of hours that went into the whole process.

We also went to the Big Goose Pagoda. That place was so cool--well, the surrounding park was a lot more interesting than the actual pagoda attraction that you had to pay to see. The surrounding area is a park where they have fountains coordinated to music just like the Bellagio--although the scale of these fountains was even more impressive. There were children running through the fountains playing and huge crowds gathered to watch.

We are quite the novelties in Xian. In Beijing and Shanghai, I guess it's no big deal to see a foreigner anymore. When I was here 8 years ago, people would stare and stare and stare. Now that we're in Xian, where there are fewer tourists, people will not only stare, but I even overheard one old lady, as she was pointing to Andy, tell her grandson to look at the "foreign uncle". I had to laugh.

Today we are going to explore Xian a little more and then we'll go back to Beijing tonight. Our plan is to go back to silk alley (where you can get stuff for really cheap), buy the pearls for those who have given me orders and we will attend Anne's English class and help her conduct job interviews. Her students are going to flip out to see two actual foreigners in their class. Incidentally, Andy is really good at bargaining. I have decided that it's because he really doesn't care if someone sells him something or not. He's fully prepared to walk away if they don't give him the price he wants to pay. Me, on the other hand, by the time I start bargaining, I have decided that I really really want the item. So it's been fun to watch him bargain and make the sales people angry by the time he walks away.

Well. I need to run. We're about to start our day. ZaiJian!

China

Andy and I are in China and are having a wonderful time. On Sunday, we arrived really early and went to the Chinese branch and then met up with Anne. She is teaching English at Beijing University. She took us to the "Dirt Market" where you could buy all kinds of knicknacks. It was fun.

Yesterday we went to the Forbidden City and to the Temple of Heaven. The weather has cooperated with us and I'm not too cold or too hot. It's great.

We have to get going. We're going to the Great Wall. I'm so excited! That is my favorite place ever!!!

Wilmington Weekend

I had a wonderful visiting with Emma in Wilmington North Carolina last weekend. We went to Hanover Stables in Castle Haynes North Carolina and Emma had her first horseback riding lesson. She rode flash and learned how to lead him out of the pasture, comb his fur, clean his hooves, prepare the saddle, mount the horse, ride and trot. We had a lot of fun and Flash was a great horse. Flash won second place in a large competition the next day.


One of our favorite activities is the Children's Museum. Emma loves dressing up in the customes and performing on the stage or karaoke.


Since I will not see Emma again until her birthday and Spring break we celebrated Easter and had an egg hunt both inside and outside. Emma was ery clever and hid some eggs in the wheels of the car.

Wild Swans

I just finished reading "Wild Swans" by Jung Chang. Shelley sent me this book for Christmas and I've really enjoyed reading it. It's a little long, but parts of it are so appallingly interesting I just couldn't stop reading. It's about 3 generations of Chinese women and their struggles with growing up in China. The first part of the book talks about the grandmother's story and how she lived in Manchuria when the Japanese had occupied China and how miserable her life was. She had bound feet and was a concubine until her 'spouse' died. What do you call the 'owner' of a concubine? ...that's appropriate to say out loud, that is. The struggles of the time included a lack of food, people were forced to work hard and long hours and punishments for disobedience were...severe.

The mother grew up in a time where the Kuomintang and Communism were at odds. Eventually, as Communism took over, she became an official in her region. It was so interesting to read about the realities of Communism and the trials of living under a dictator. In the late 1970's, the Cultural Revolution came about and high-ranking Communist officials were punished....for being high ranking. Chairman Mao (and his wife) felt that peasants were more obedient because they weren't smart enough to question his authority. He wanted a nation full of people who depended on him. He also felt that when people were in conflict, they were more reliant on him as a leader. So he instigated various ridiculous rules and movements that stirred up a lot of conflict. Due to Mao's authorization, a lot of intelligent people were tortured by government-authorized "rebels" because they were teachers, land owners, officials in the Communist party etc. The rebels felt that in order to prove their loyalty to Chairman Mao and his various 'movements', they tortured the previous government officials and generally frightened people into submission.

The one I really can't get over is how Chairman Mao, during a famine, came to detest swallows because they would eat all of the precious grain. He therefore made everyone (kids and adults) go outside and bang pots and pans to keep the birds from landing in trees so they would eventually drop dead out of exhaustion.

As the daughter's account of her life unfolds, I came to realize how lucky I am to live in the US where we have simple freedoms that go unchallenged. The daughter, Jung Chang, eventually learned English and when she read the Declaration of Independence for the first time, she was struck with the concept of inalienable rights...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. She memorized the entire Declaration of Independence.

When I think of the atrocities that took place under Mao's rule, I can't help but think that the same thing must be going on in North Korea and other places right now. We know so little about North Korea and what's happening to those people. It just can't be good.

I ordered another book by the same author off of Amazon.com hoping to take it with me to China. When it arrived, I was saddened to learn that it's about 700 pages long--not good for throwing in a backpack to go places.

Anyway, thank you for reading my book report.

What a Crock!!

So my sister recently sent out an email asking for some new and different recipes. I really enjoy crock pot recipes--they're easy and delicious. I'm making one of my favorites for dinner tonight: "Sweet Aromatic Chicken" (by Anne Townsend--whoever that is). I figured I'd share the recipe with everyone rather than just sending it to her. Try it out and let me know what you think.

1/2 cup coconut milk (you can add more, though)
1/2 cup water
8 chicken thighs, skinned
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
2 garlic cloves, minced

1. Combine coconut milk and water. Pour into greased slow cooker
2. Add remaining ingredients in order listed.
3. Cover. Cook on Low 5-6 hours.

What to do with the leftover coconut milk??? Pour 2-3 Tbsp. over vanilla ice cream. Yum.

I really like slow cooker meals. I think they're the bomb! We also really like edamame (soy beans). So I'm making chicken, garlic mashed potatoes and edamame. Mmmmm!