Northern Ireland, Tuscany, and Siena

We took a friend up on an offer to stay at a working farm in Northern Ireland, about 90 minutes outside of Dublin.  Mind blown ONCE.  Gorgeous plantings everywhere, quirky, ancient cottages restored with whimsical decorations, great company.  PICS HERE.  We hated to leave, but Tuscany called.

We arrived in Tuscany on Friday evening. Mind blown TWICE.  Immediate beauty everywhere, once we figured out how to get the hell out of the Florence airport, which took some time.  Italians, we found out last night when trying to get home in the dark from Siena, are not so interested in road signage.  Our house rental is a restored mill home with fantastic art work and antiques everywhere, lots of space for everyone, 3 or 4 terraces (I can't find them all) and very quiet and tranquil.  The WIFI is nonexistent, which is annoying, but we can drive into town about 15 minutes away and see if the world is turning without us.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Siena.  Mind blown THRICE.  I have to give a shout out to AK in Iowa City for telling me it was a highlight of her trip in March.  Was she ever right.  I could go back there every day, explore a different street, and be perfectly content.  The duomo alone was unbelievable.  When you walk into the cathedral square you are sure the Montagues and the Capulets just finished a sword fight nearby. Siena is the place that hosts the wild and crazy horse race known as the paleo, where various neighborhoods come waving their flags (very cool) and ride like lunatics around the town square until someone wins or everyone else has fallen.  I wasn't sad to miss it, but still, it's impressive to know they have that level of spirit.  PICS HERE.

Today we had a well-deserved rest day, where I was able to unpack, sort out the winter clothes I needed in Ireland (great country, awful weather), and restock with very light clothing, a la India.  It is extremely dry and pretty warm here during the day.  I also started a list of places in Tuscany I want to see, and added some as I read through the guest book of the house.  I figure if I stay here about 2 years, I can definitely do it all.  We will have a family meeting this evening over local pizza to discuss bids for ideas of how to make the most out of this incredible experience.  Part of me wants to stay inside the beautiful house and cook with the luscious produce of Tuscany, like God intended me to do.  Part of me wants to motor to every small town's morning market, go on as many winery tours as my body will allow, and go to Florence about 10 times, along with San Gimingano, Arrezzo, Greve, Siena again, etc  The only bad thing about traveling with my family is that we all have our own ideas, which we tend to think are pretty swell, so I must prepare diligently for the negotiations on what to do and where to do.  I wish all readers the chance to see this beautiful country.

Ireland, Part One: Dublin, Kilkenny, and Dingle

In a country known for its hospitality, I am still pleasantly surprised by the affable, chatty Irishperson.  From taxi drivers to people you encounter by chance, they have a way of being charming yet still a little smart aleckie that I aspire to.  Highlights of Dublin were an incredible historied and well curated bookstore (Hodges & Figgis, even the name sounds august, doesn't it?), an outstanding scone at Queen of Tarts, and the Little Museum of Dublin, where they featured a room full of U2 memorabilia and other rooms told the story of their venerable newspaper, the Irish Times, and much other history focused.  I enjoyed the Guinness storeroom because of S’s enthusiasm for the product, and was smitten with the beauty of their many parks.  We took a walk through Merrion Square, a green space that rivaled any for its choice ancient plantings, including trees that stopped me in my wet shoes.

Take away:  this weather is not to be taken lightly, nor is it constant.  Hope for sun, count on rain, and ignore whatever is beyond your control, which is all the weather.

Kilkenny:  “There once were 2 cats from Kilkenny….”  I never got tired of working that into the conversation, but S did not share my enthusiasm for the oft-heard limerick.  Add to that the fact that I saw 2 cats under a car as soon as I hit the town, and it was destiny.  The castle was pretty cool as castles go, but the definite highlight was the farmer’s market going on outside its gates, and even cooler, an incredible rose garden behind the castle that rivaled anywhere I’ve seen roses grow.  I guess all that rain does some good, but I didn’t see any signs of the normal foliage disease that accompanies high precipitation.  Must be the luck of the Irish, because those roses were “deadly” in the vernacular of the Irish. Here is a parade of the best of the best roses.

On the way to Dingle we stopped off at the Rock of Cashel, another historic site, and had a great tour guide to show us around the very blustery hill and ruins.  Beautiful graveyard!

Dingle:  Jaw-dropping scenery, intense wind, cold, and rain, terrible weather, but still lovely to hike outside when it’s not too rainy.  Great trad music, long hikes in the most beautiful of settings, peaceful, friendly.  Here’s an attempt at a description of the pub scene there.

We were tipped off my our incredibly helpful hostess, Barbara from Milestone House, that the best “trad” (traditional music) happening in Dingle that evening was an early session (Hurrah!) at Courthouse Pub at 5:30.  We were to arrive at 5:00 to get a seat.  We arrived around 5:10, and the pub was empty except for the owner/barkeep.  When S asked about the beers on tap, he got quite an expansive review of each of the 6 beers, and then was guided to a decision.  No hurry and lots of encouragement from the owner.  We got a ringside seat for the musicians, who were having some business in the back (read:  beer).  Soon enough the place started to fill up, particularly with a “hen party” of some 8-9 ladies who were celebrating the birthday of one of their posse.  They squeezed in in a tight circle in front of us and clucked away.  The musicians appeared about ready to start, but no hurry there, either.  There was some disparity in what the hostess said the start time was, what the barkeep said, and what the musicians told some people when they came in, but no matter, everyone was happy with an approximation. There was a bar dog, a Jack Russell terrier, who politely strolled between groups in the pub, occasionally begging at the bar, or greeting any newcomers. Even the dog was friendly, what?

Just as it appeared they might start a kind-looking happy lady with wispy white hair wearing an apron blew in with a large grin and a larger trophy and red ribbon, exclaiming she’d won the bake-off for the area for her scones.  There were hurrahs all around. She had a plate of scones in the other hand for the band, who promptly put down their instruments, buttered and jammed the 6-7 scones and passed them to the hen party as well as themselves and enjoyed a snack, washed down with more beer.  The lady swept back out and returned with some sponge cake tucked into her apron to keep it warm, destined for a couple of women at the bar she knew.  Oh how I wished I were her friend at that moment, because the appearance and the smell was brilliant. Abba grabbed her card from someone at the bar (that’s my girl!) and when I asked our hostess about her, I learned she was a very accomplished visual artist as well, and was directed to a large painting of the Great Blasket Island above her mantel.  The hostess also filled me in on the woman’s life story and woes, gratis mind you.  I wanted even more to go to her café and gallery but we had to leave early for Galway, so there’s another reason to return to Dingle.  The whole pub scene could have as easily taken place in someone’s home, it was that familiar.  Oh, we also had an American couple sit beside us and we respected each other’s privacy, not wanting to do the “What state are you from” blah blah blah, but listen to the great music, but eventually she asked me a question and when she and her husband found out we were from Iowa City originally, they shared that they, too, had once lived in Iowa City, and she was related to about everyone in town.  We knew many people in common. It doesn’t even impress me anymore when these things happen; the world is just one big small town sometimes!  Dingle pictures here:  the weather did not cooperate for optimal photos, but the scenery is completely stunning.

Back in the U.S.A.

I’m back!  After several months’ hiatus from blogging, I’ve returned.  I’m inspired by my American friends and families who actually DO read the blog from time to time, so thanks for the affirmation and don’t forget, you asked for it.

We recently visited family and friends in the U.S. for 10 days and here are the most salient recollections.

1.     It’s nice to breathe fresh air, and see blue sky and the sun.  We’ve missed all those items while in Suzhou.

2.     People are still very friendly in the Midwest.  When I was running in Iowa City or suburban Chicago, people greet one another naturally and sincerely.  That’s nice, too, and even though I would certainly not characterize the Chinese as unfriendly, there is the matter of the language barrier, and I still hold that Midwesterners are the most friendly. Which leads me to #3.

3.     It’s nice to speak the language where you are.  You can have sustained conversations with people in shops, or just about anyone who’s game. Here in Ireland I have had some occasions where I’m not sure if I’m being spoken to in English or Irish, but either way, accent or another language, I’m not getting it.

4.     Friends and family are very comforting to be around. I felt myself unwinding daily with each friendly encounter; it’s a mighty advantage and not something I take for granted. 

5.     I still love Mexican food.  Thank heavens for Rick Bayless’s genius idea to put small kiosks in O’Hare; it’s been the best thing to happen to O’Hare since the planes started flying.

6.     The health care situation is officially out of control in the U.S.  A few quick examples.  At one of the local hospitals when I told them I needed to pay cash for my visit, they were so flummoxed that I had to give them 24 hours to generate a bill.  Then there’s the pharmaceutical industry.  I should have been suspicious when two different doctors in the same day warned me about comparison shopping once they learned I was paying for the drugs myself, but I was shocked to find out the range of the differences. One drug I needed was over $900 at Walgreen’s, and the winner was Costco at $204.  Not exaggerating even a little.  I had a similar experience with another drug that is unavailable in China, but still had to pay way more than I wanted to, or about 3000% more than I paid for the exact same drug from the same company when we lived in India.

We’ve been in Ireland for a few days now, so it’s difficult to focus on what we were doing last week, but one last point:  Target is not something one should take for granted.  It is a national treasure and oh how I wish they had conquered other continents the way I see Wal-Mart going after those markets. Shopping at Target is an incredible time hacker.

WOLF TOTEM: Movie Review

I was reading a review in the NY Times of a Chinese movie that was recently released (Wolf Totem) and enjoyed a couple of laughs and learned a little more about the new very pragmatic Chinese Government.  First, the funny.

From what I could gather about the movie, based on a novel that has been wildly popular, a large feature is the behavior of wolves, both real and allergoric.  The response by the Chinese to the book… 

“The book, which is semi-autobiographical, quickly resonated across the demographic spectrum in China. Political dissenters found anti-Communist messages in the novel, for example, while corporations gave it to employees to encourage them to work together like wolves. The book has also been translated into 39 languages for 110 countries.”

 Ok, I hope you think the corporate response was as goofy as I did.  Perhaps I’m just not in-the-know about wolves, but I don’t seem them as a particularly social group of animals, or at all friendly, for that matter.

Second, part of the reason this movie is a reported story is the Chinese movie company approached a French director  to work on the film whose previous film, 7 Years in Tibet, is banned in China because it "...hurt the feelings of the Chinese people".  [Who comes up with this stuff the government releases, Woody Allen?] The producers told the director: “China has changed and we are practical people. We don’t know how to do what you do, and we need you.”  Now that is savvy talk, and I believe typical reasoning of many of the government’s decisions when there is a liberalization or new thinking. 

But back to the funny stuff.  Several Chinese directors were first approached about making the film, but it seems they declined, "...citing their reluctance to work with wolves.” The author of the article then intimates that perhaps they were really afraid of the politically sensitive content.  I’m thinking they might really have been afraid of working with a pack of wolves myself, but heh, what do I know? 
I have seen posters everywhere for this movie, but never had any idea it was based on a wildly popular Chinese novel.  I think a trip to our friendly local pirated-DVDs store is in order to see if I can find a copy of the movie that might have English subtitles, since it’s being released in France.  Wait, they probably wouldn’t subtitle the movie in English for the French, would they?  I might go anyway, because it’s very much potluck at the DVD store regarding languages of the movie and the attendant subtitles.  Last week we bought a DVD produced in Russia, dubbed in Chinese, and subtitled in Turkish.  We didn’t get very far into that movie.

Xi Nian Kwai Le!

Happy Chinese New Year from the Middle Kingdom!  The fireworks are ongoing, the stores are closed, and although our streets are pretty deserted here (most people travel to their "hometowns"), we hope to see some celebrating tomorrow at Tiger Hill.  I'm on a 2-week hiatus from work, so I'm thrilled for the holiday.

Making Hanging Decorations from red Envelopes

At school there were several events leading up to our last day at school.  On Monday last the Chinese staff provided an hour of fun cultural activities for us, including making a hanging from the hong bao (red envelopes used for gifting money), making dumplings, paper cutting, and painting Chinese couplets to decorate either side of your doorway.

Paper cutting...I skipped this one, not my forte.

 We collected money for our cleaning people, our room assistants, and our bus drivers and presented them with their hong bao with a sincere thanks and "Xi Nian Kwai Le".  It's the year of the goat/sheep/ram, so people decorate their doors with symbols of the year, ghosts to ward off evil spirits and all around cool signage for the event.

My studentsI

prepared poems about spring for a parent program on Friday before break, and I was part of a group of teachers who performed the opening act for the secondary assembly, Taiko (Japanese) drumming.  Catch our act on this YouTube channel:  http://youtu.be/-egjUPy7pFI
We had acrobats and a dragon dance in our main foyer on the last day before break, and they were good.  There are random bright pink plastic trees around the city to mark the celebration of the "spring festival" which is what Chinese New Year was originally called.  It's only 40 degrees F today, so someone needs to tell the weatherman about the spring part.
There were lots of boxes of various food items for sale, and people were buying as much as they could carry.  We went down an alley with a local market and I saw some puzzling items for sale, which I present the pictures of for you to ponder.  My favorite is definitely the fish;  Welcome to China, people, where you know it's fresh because we just killed it and the blood is still on the knife!

Notice the camouflaged penguins and one elephant???

We heard the air quality should improve dramatically in a day or two because it's the one time of the year where the factories are closed down.  I look forward to that. Right now outside it sounds like we're in a battle zone, lots of booms.  I hope tomorrow we see some of the colored stuff in the sky, but that may be all for export.  More to follow.

no idea...

eels, I presume.

Only a buck...I thought frogs were a sign of longevity???

cute cart for some type of kabob

very orderly kabobs, not sure of what

Massacre on the street, weapon left at crime scene.

pretty toasted somethings

not sure if you string them and wear them, or crack and eat.

Looks like parts of a fish?

China's Recent Crackdown on Technology

The New York Time's lead editorial in today's newspaper is :  China's Self-Desctructive Tech Crackdown.  It's worth a read; here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/opinion/chinas-self-destructive-tech-crackdown.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0

On a personal note, it makes me a little crazy every time I forget I'm in China and expect my requests for various Internet sites to be answered smoothly, or at all.  I have been paying monthly for a VPN (virtual private network) to use Google, and most other American sites the Chinese government has deemed as impure, including my beloved New York Times.  Using a VPN slows down the already slow connections we have, because I have to pretend I'm really in Denver, or Los Angeles, or anywhere but China, and the routing has to go through that server and then to me.  I've gotten somewhat used to it, use the Internet less, try to download anything at night so it won't take 30 hours, etc.  But recently, in the last few weeks, Astrill, the most popular VPN in China is playing a cat and mouse game with the government, and it's currently losing.  Astrill has sent messages out to all its users asking for their patience as they try to further encrypt their system so the government techies can't access Astrill and shut it down, but it's going to take time.
This is perhaps the most irritating thing about living in China, to be honest.  I just want to use my computer, and I would personally attest to President Xi that the information I get and give has no impact on the national security. I fear that China's international image will suffer, but it is curious to me that the Chinese officials don't seem to care about their image, or are willing to infringe on their citizen's privacy in spite of the downside.  I do understand that the Hong Kong protests were pretty much run by social media, and so I get the threat, but sometimes I think the Chinese head honchos suffer from not enough time with the proletariat.  Not being able to access my e-mail might make me take to the streets, maybe, if I were a citizen.  

Daily Life in China, Part III: Cost of Living

When we were small I remember when someone said something that seemed unrelated to the conversation people would retort, "What's that got to do with the price of eggs in China?"  The saying itself doesn't have much to do with getting off topic either, but there you are.
Exactly what IS the price of eggs in China?  Well, for me it's a wet market purchase, so if you follow my blog regularly you'll know that I'm not quite sure what I pay for things there, because they ball up all your purchases and announce a price, all without a receipt.  But the price of things in China is an interesting topic.
Some things are much cheaper than the U.S., and others are outrageously expensive.  In the first category I would put most Chinese restaurants, and by Chinese I mean those that are serving mostly Chinese people, and also those Chinese who are NOT part of the burgeoning consumer-class of pretty well-off people who are very much into conspicuous consumption.  Just your average Chinese citizen can get a pretty good meal for a few bucks.  In my last blog I wrote about a restaurant that is probably for fairly affluent customers, but the bill was still only around 12 USD.  However, if you go to many of the very new restaurants here, Chinese, Korean, or Japanese, and all of the western menu ones, you are going to pay high end prices.  It's good food, but your bill for two is going to be similar to what you would pay in America, which is NOT what I'm looking for while I'm not in America. Today for brunch I paid 8 USD for a waffle.  It had some other weird stuff on the plate, a scoop of vanilla ice cream with unripe mango, but still, that was steep. Coffee drinks are another example of high end products.  While I'm not a coffee drinker, S is and I'm always a little alarmed at how much those fancy mocha, latte whip-creamy-type coffees are.  However, I'm pretty sure they are expensive in the U.S. as well.
Produce is another subject.  Fruit is usually cheaper, though when I buy blueberries here I pay 20 RMB, which is 3.20 USD for a half-pint.  However, I don't fuss about it because (1) they have fresh, quality blueberries for sale, which I never saw in India and (2) it's amazing that they have them fresh here this time of the year and (3) they are supposed to be a super healthy food, so I put this item under "health needs" on my budget instead of food.  Avocados, same story.  I paid 12 RMB (2 bucks) for an avocado, and I thank my lucky stars I can enjoy the luscious fruit once more.  Vegetables are cheap, extremely cheap.  Even beautiful, diverse, extremely fresh mushrooms are about 1/4 of the cost they would be in America.
Clothing is another item where racing to be Western (or just consumers) has resulted in quite expensive clothing.  I was at a gym in Chengdu and saw some great yoga pants.  They were over 100 USD. I thought I wasn't calculating correctly but the Chengdu Panda pulled me away, warning me that the price of clothing would not be Indian-like.  Not even close.  If I go to H & M or Mango, I can expect to pay what Europeans are paying for the clothes, if I can find my size, which the marketers of the stores smartly decided wasn't going to be the size of the average Chinese shopper.  High end clothing items abound, including shoes.  I found a Clarks Shoes store, and saw a shoe I bought for 50 USD over the summer; they were 240 dollars here, American dollars, not the Chinese RMB. The import taxes for luxury goods must be crazy high, or the stores think crazy people will buy them.  Which is another fact of life here; while there is a good supply of high end malls selling high end goods, there are NOT people lining up to buy the goods in the high end shops that I see.  Of course that could be because rich people don't shop on the weekends like us normals, or it could be that they send normal looking people to do their shopping for them.  I can't tell, and have no inside information on this yet.
Our apartment is 6000 RMB/month, which is about 1,000 USD. It's got 3 bedrooms, one quite small, but I wonder how much cheaper that is than a similar sized city in US.  I've not rented an apartment for a long time in the U.S. so I couldn't say.  Our utilities are probably pretty cheap, but the way in which I pay for them makes it difficult to tell. Here's how the school figured out would be easiest for us.  They assign us a realtor who helps us find an apartment.  After we have our apartment that person then becomes our life line to anything local.  We can call them with any question, and many do.  However, for the paying of the utilities, I give this real estate agent some cash.  They then receive all our bills for internet, gas, electricity and pay the bills until they are out of money, at which point they call and request more money.  When they come to collect the money, they give us all the old receipts for the bills they've paid.  That's all great but the receipts are in Mandarin, so I pretend to look them over then toss them.
Last, the price of services in China seems strikingly low for the most part.  I imagine it's due to the billion or so people who live here, but it's a good thing for us.  We recently got our motorcycle, really an electric bike, repaired for 5 kuai, which is less than a dollar.  I had to pay a guy to come put nails in my wall, and he charged me by the nail, which was 10 rm., which was pretty steep.  I'm afraid he charged me the infamous ex-pat tax.  I would have done it myself, but I couldn't find either a nail nor a hardware store.  He came without a hammer, though, so I had to lend him mine.  I wanted to charge him a "didn't-come-prepared" tax.