Hot pot on frigid Friday

Tonight Anja and I went to have hot pot for the first time. I’d only heard about it, but it’s very popular in China. It’s a sort of personal soup/fondue pot in the middle of your table and you select the ingredients you want to add. I’m not sure what’s in the base (dates, green onions, carrots, some kind of broth, cucumbers, other small veggies?) , but a pot of this is set to simmer and then they bring plates of whatever you’ve ordered and you put those ingredients in the soup broth and then take them out when they are cooked the way you like. The soup is not actually consumed. At least I think that’s how it works. We tried to figure it out by watching others in the restaurant. There are also 3 bowls of condiments that you dip the ingredients in after they are cooked. One was some kind of peanut sauce, another was a dark green piquant sauce of unknown origin, and the third looked like a square of some type of cheese covered in blackberry jelly – I have no idea what it actually was but it was tasty. The three together created a very unique and delicious flavor. The ingredients were a mystery until they arrived, since we couldn’t read the menu. We knew there was no meat since Anja doesn’t eat meat, and it wasn’t spicy, since Anja can’t deal with spicy. We tried to convey to the manager that we needed advice and he was a pretty good sport but eventually gave up. What we ended up with was delicious, and we both left completely stuffed. There were several plates of ingredients that we never even got to. Not bad for $8 total.

Who needs a doggie-bag?

As I was finishing my Sichuan-style eggplant and peppers at lunch, I noticed that the waitrons clearing the tables were scraping customer's leftovers into a big bowl. At first, I thought that was just part of their table-clearing routine, but when the restaurant had cleared out, the three of them sat down together and started wolfing down some food from a big bowl. Hmmm...could it be the same big bowl they were using to clear the tables? Yes, the very same, all the leftover food mixed together. Yum...But, these kids are all from poor families. This probably seems like heaven to them.

Sheme?

School. I was somewhat nervous, not wanting to be in the mopobofo (a-b-c s) class, which would be a waste of time. But I tanked on the test. Too tired, and I have studied very little in the last month. I ended up in class 2. Turns out, that is plenty hard enough. I almost laughed as the teacher continued to talk rapidly to the 6 of us (2 Korean, 1 Japanese, 1 Pakastani , 1 Turk – no other Americans in the school, or maybe even in the city). It was like dog-paddling in a choppy sea, with frothy white waves of words breaking over my head. I understood about 10%. Not enough to have any idea about her subject or what it meant, other than she was covering the rules. Great. At the end, I clarified with one of the students that we were supposed to come back the next day at 8:30 to the same room, proving that I understood nothing. Now I’m trying to wade through what look to be the most important rules. Many pages. Slow going. I think the only reason I made it to this level is that I can write characters, and I have decent pronunciation. I just can’t understand when someone speaks to me. Oh, is that all?

1000 Buddha Hill

Today I meet Stephanie for a trip to Qian Fo Shan, or 1000 Buddha Hill. She and her friend Gena and I set off for the walk to the park. It was super cold and windy, and it took awhile to warm up. I’d walked there the afternoon before, so I knew how long it would take to get there. What I didn’t know was how big the park was. We were there for almost 3 hours and I was numb with the cold by the time we left, but it was great. The view of Jinan from the top is stunning. Huge city. Huge. In all directions, as far as the eye can see and beyond. Innumerable high-rise buildings, many of them apartments, and all built within the last 10-15 years. So many people. And this is a very small city by Chinese standards. Of course there was a useless trinket stand at the top, and many along the way. Any place to stand is a commerce opportunity. Capitalism is extremely popular here.

The other noteworthy site in the park was 288,888 Buddha Cave. Very deep and long, and only one dusty trinket stand inside. The cave is full of countless representations of the Buddha, hence the name. Old musty wall paintings, worn stone carvings, a long winding branching tunnel with almost no one in it, and finally, at the very end, a cave with an enormous dusty Buddha. As I stood watching a lone man repeatedly kowtowing, I could imagine that the steady buzz of the florescent light was the sound of distant monks chanting. It was very moving. This cave was used by the monks from at least 500 years ago and there are some huge rusted doors and a number of character carvings in stone worn down by many hands. Everything seems very ancient and secret…not like the typical Disneyland treatment that cultural relics get here. It seemed as real as say, Tikal. But this country is expert at fakes, so who knows.

After we left, we went to a restaurant and had some great food. Mapo Tofu, the best I’ve ever had. Perfect degree of heat, and even the stinky smell it’s supposed to have but never does in the US. Also several other dishes I’d never heard of. And of course dumplings. Very good. I also had some new and yummy snacks from my friends. Gena is from Inner Mongolia, and had a few local specialties to share. Hen hao chi.

Later, Stephanie and her mom brought over some quilts for me to soften the rock-hard dorm bed and keep me warm. So sweet. Her mom is so warm and kind. I felt very cared for. Then I called Grace. So good to talk to her, even though the connection was frustrating. An excellent day. School tomorrow…

I made it...

Landing at the Jinan airport gave me the impression that Jinan is a very rural community out in the sticks, with fields and animals grazing right up to the edge of the runway. The interior of the airport reminded me of the airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It might have once been new and shiny, but those days are long gone. The difference is, the façade on the front of the airport is brand new and very grand. If you are flying out, the first impression will be good.

Stephanie met me at the airport and she found an unlicensed taxi to take us to my dormitory. Unlicensed taxis are much cheaper and they look like it. One of the passenger doors didn’t quite close and the interior was pretty gutted, but it cost about half of what it would have with a “real” taxi, and the driver took a much more scenic route.

For almost an hour, he drove like a maniac into the city. I will probably comment on the traffic a lot, because it is just so insane. The lines on the road are mere suggestions and are mostly ignored, and even the yellow line in the middle seems to hold no special meaning. At home, it would look like a game of chicken, but here it is completely normal. Pedestrians and bikes and motorbikes and donkey carts are all passed within inches, and at times it seems like even less, but no one bats an eye. They even drive on the sidewalk.

After crawling the last ten minutes through wild traffic, the driver found the street leading to the dormitory and dropped us off into the tussle. The school is in a very congested older part of the city. There are about 35,000 students that attend my university, and it seemed like all of them were in the street at the same time. However, I quickly realized that it wasn’t crowded at that hour, not even close.

Seoul Surfing

I was totally drained when I arrived at the airport in Seoul, Korea, and the first thing I wanted was a good cup of coffee. That seemed unlikely, but I went to the first coffee shop I saw and tried a cup. Not bad at all. That out of the way, the next objective was to find a wifi hotspot, preferably free. I checked the terminal map and saw an internet area. When I got there, I was completely shocked to discover several dozen laptops, very new, arranged in a comfortable seating area, and free for use by passengers. Free. It's hard to imagine seeing that in the US. The Seoul Airport is ranked among the best in the world, and that is just one of the reasons.