Since We've Been Gone from China...

This Thursday there was a ‘new’ Chinese holiday, V-J day, or victory over Japan Day.  Chinese officials geared up for a huge public display/parade in Beijing, which included thousands of troops, and a brand new missile.  I got the day off from school, but not the following day.  Most Chinese companies let their employees have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off, but then people have to ‘make up’ their holidays by working on Sunday.  Not my idea of a real holiday, but it’s what shakes down here.  By far the most amusing preparation for the holiday is one I read somewhere, and have copied for your amusement.

Date/Time: 9/1/2015

China has drafted a team of 5 monkeys to help keep the skies clear for the upcoming Victory Parade in Beijing this Thursday.  Alongside the huge procession planned for the victory parade, about 200 aircraft will also perform fly-bys and maneuvers.  The air force has recruited the monkeys to help protect the state-of-the-art planes from potentially dangerous bird strikes.  The monkeys, all male (apparently easier to train), have been trained to destroy bird nests, avoiding a possible avian assault on jets from the trees.  The monkeys have all received three months of training, resulting in an efficient, low cost, low risk solution to the problem.

One other preparation was the temporary closing of several factories that usually belch pollution into the air, and the resultant sky was dubbed as “anti-fascist blue”.  Gotta love that spin.
There are some changes to the Chinese landscape since we were here in June.  One amusing fad is some plant-like things are all the rage to be clipped on the top of people’s heads.  At first I thought it was an homage to my favorite Japanese animation, Totoro, since one of the characters from his movie has a lotus blossom leaf over his head as he walks around, rather like an umbrella. The lotus blossom does figure large in this fad, but I’ve also seen women and men with mushrooms, assorted leaves and ferns, and, as a colleague put it, “some people have clipped a whole garden in their hair.”  No idea what is up with that.  Check out the selection in a "garden-hair-clip" stand as well as how one woman was sporting her look at the museum.

There is also a new new mall in Suzhou, not to be confused with the new mall that opened down the street from us in June.  This mall is very high-end, and the good news is there is a place that serves a good rotisserie chicken.  However, the best news is that Din Tai Fung, my favorite dim sum place which has chains all over China and specializes in the Shanghai delight known as shao-long-bao, is coming to Suzhou!  I can only hope it opens before we leave Suzhou, as there was no sign that gave a date, or at least not one we could read.  This is going to make Suzhou at least 2% better to live in, and the added bonus is that it’s just down the street one block from our gym. Exercise first, get a tasty treat after, that’s my plan.

Finally, to cool off hot summer days, my favorite spot in town, the Suzhou Museum, has had a temporary exhibit dedicated to ancient paintings of winter scenes in blue and green.  They are gorgeous; here are a few to cool you off. 

Oh, and our white egrets are back in the swamp between our school and our apartment.  I was very glad to see them, as I thought all the building had changed their migration patterns, as in they weren't coming here anymore.  

We still only hear 1 bird cheeping/day, which I call our rental bird, but it does make us want to get out of the city in the future.

We’re in our fourth or fifth week of schools (seems like several months since I started) but the important date is 3 weeks from last Friday, which is the start of our week-long October national holidays vacation.  We’re headed to Guilin and some other beautiful area close by for hiking, viewing of scenery and casual biking.  Before that happens, I’ll be spending 3 days once again at “Cowboy Camp” with the entire 4th grade.  Yippie–i-o-kai-yeh?

Addio, Tuscany, senza rancore

When Wordsworth penned his famous poem “The World is Too Much With Us” I think he was talking about the feeling that teachers get the night before the school year begins.  I’ve decided to take the denial path and recap some favorites of our recent trip to Ireland and Tuscany. 

It was all wonderful, every place we went. Ireland was beautiful to see, fun to interact with the locals, and so relaxing. Dingle was our group's favorite, for the scenery and the music. The weather there was ridiculous, but we were forewarned, expected nothing, and got very little in the way of decent weather.  Some days the sun did shine, and it was very pleasant. 

Italy was incredible, too, including the wonderful house we rented, which had several rooms to ramble through, lie down for a nap in, and 3 or 4 terraces to sit and read at, and view some beautiful scenery of olive groves, vineyards, and lots of green. 

If anyone is planning a trip to the Tuscany area, I would always tell them to not miss 3 places (in addition to Florence, which is most people’s reason for going).  (1) Greve, a charming small town that is the epicenter of Chianti country and has a wonderful buthcher shop that takes great pride in its offerings, (2) Siena, which we barely were able to explore in a day but were dazed by, and (3) Ravenna, which isn’t really in Tuscany (it’s in Emilia Romagna) but is an easy day trip.  Ravenna had fantastic food and gorgeous mosaics sprinkled around its charming village.

All good vacations must come to an end, unless you can figure out how to make vacationing your life, I guess.  We couldn’t, so we packed up reluctantly and drove to the airport. When we got to our gate, I noticed a long line and a shop stuffed with customers.  I’ve seen people intent on getting their duty free on before they hit the skies, but this level of clamor over, what else, the wines of Tuscany, was a sight to behold.  Actually, I hurried to get my bag and join the line, remembering how expensive bad wine costs in China, and how little good wine costs in Tuscany.  Mission accomplished.  It rested in the bag with the 3 triangles of parmigiano and the 2 huge hunks of pecorino and they made the trip quite well, except for the small mishap in the boarding line when our carry-on bag tipped over, with said bag attached and a breaking of glass occurred.  I rushed into emergency mode and hit the bathroom with my bag leaking the most delicious smelling wine ever.  Fortunately the wine bottles were bagged separately, so I just drained the bag, dried off the outside of the cheeses, which were securely wrapped, and away we went. 

We’re back now in the scorching heat of Suzhou, and went to a supermarket today to stock up, putting on our best faces while walking by the “cheese” selection, and focusing on the really excellent (and cheap) mushroom selection one can get here.  We are negotiating on when we should consume the wine and the cheese, but I don’t give either of them much of a chance of seeing cold weather.

WOOPS: I forgot to post some pictures from L'Accademia, perhaps the most famous of Florence's museums after the Uffizi.  Michaelango's David is the star of the show, and what a star.  It was show stopping, as were his other unfinished statues in the same wing.  The other art in the collection was interesting in that showed the clear progression of the Renaissance from century to century, but the reason people keep showing up in throngs is thanks to Michaelango. It was a wondrous sight.  Have a look HERE.

RAVENNA…City of Mosaics and terrific food scene

Yesterday we took a day trip to Ravenna.  Actually, we were on our way to Lucca (opposite direction) but missed a crucial turn-off so decided to head to Ravenna, which is where we originally decided to go the day before.  Plans change quickly, what can I say?

We were looking for the famous food of Emilia Romagna region, and Ravenna’s famous Byzantine mosaics, and everyone’s best dreams were realized.  We had one of the top 10 meals I’ve ever had, made by a friendly cook in a very small osteria.  I know I’ve said that about more than 10 meals, but I think this is a meal that will hold it own against some mighty contenders. Emilia Romagna has in its corner the fact that Parma ham, parmigianno reggiano, balsamic vinegar, and pasta all originate from this region.  How could the food be anything but stunning with such raw ingredients, I ask you.  I opened with a plate of cheeses from the area, then shared a plate of polenta topped with beef ragu, and then the piece de resistance, a dish for which this area is famous, small cappellitti en brodo, small pasta “hats” filled with ricotta and parmesan, floating in a beautiful broth. 

This is a dish I have labored over for Christmas occasionally, and I must honestly say mine isn’t even close to what this chef offered.  Well, maybe it was close, but this was definitely superior, mostly because of the local cheeses so well flavored. I had a glass of the famous San Genovese wines, which was super smooth and flavorful. I finished with a lemon mousse/tort that was made with yogurt and that everyone ate like the fox family from “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”.  We had to order another immediately and then cut it into fourths so no one got panic stricken.  Others had similarly good meals, and our bill was so reasonable it felt like cheating them.  Both the waitress and the chef in this tiny place made very sure we were happy and had everything we needed, which was about half of their short menu, all plates revealed.  

The mosaics were so plentiful they became overwhelming at times.  We visited 7 of the 8 or so main places, and left one to return for.

I once again was reminded how useful history can be when traveling, as much as I hate to admit it.  Having a poor knowledge myself, I relied on my companion and a book on Ravenna’s art to fill in the blanks. In the 1^st century A.D., Caesar Augustus set about reorganizing his empire [which apparently was falling apart] and chose Ravenna as the port for his East Mediterranean fleet. In 493 Ravenna was occupied by Theodoric, who ruled wisely and had many of the fine buildings with extravagant mosaics built.  [Side note:  Daughter #1 remembers this historical factoid because of paper dolls she had some 25 years ago of one Theodora, wife of Theodoric. You never know when your imaginative play of your youth will come in handy, I guess.]  That’s all the history I needed, except to know that after about 525, Ravenna went into a tailspin and is just now coming out of it.  It makes for a very sleep, slow, quiet town that still revers its art of old.

We toured a still-being-completed museum of mosaics and saw some wonderful modern mosaics, then hit the motherlode at several places, until at 5:00 we called the game because of eye and brain exhaustion.  It was a 2.5 hour hike in the car, but it was well worth it, for both the meal and the mosaics.  PICS HERE.