(every time i leave the usa, i realize that there are two things that no one does better: a readily available, wide variety of 1. americanized foreign cuisine, and 2. music)
or maybe, it's because i need to tell you that in chinese instead of saying "cheese" to take a picture, they say "qiedzi". translation, "eggplant."
so, "eggplant!"
or maybe it's because i've consumed so much MSG that i'm starting to fall off my rocker. when i lived in montreal, i made a rule about no chinese before bedtime because the MSG in my favorite meal would always give me crazy dreams and i'd usually wake up in the middle of the night in the midst of an anxiety attack and have a hard time falling back to sleep. well, i can't really abide by that rule when i'm in china. so i've been having crazy dreams and been waking up in the middle of the night feeling all anxious and squiggly. i keep having these recurring nightmares about being in a falling elevator to the point that i'm kind of afraid of elevators now. happily, there are none on the farm. as soon as i leave the farm i'm going on MSG detox: again, only fruit and nuts for a few days. this is probably a good idea, since as soon as i leave i'm going to hike a three-day mountain pass notoriously inhabited by large-ish monkeys and i'll need my wits about me.
besides food related observations, working on the farm is great. i've learned some new chinese and can tell time now, to the amusement of the ladies i work with. i discovered i can still recite the entirety of "the little mermaid", including songs and voices, though i think i'm missing large chunks of "when harry met sally". i spend hours at a time without speaking or being spoken to. it's really peaceful: i just listen to the ladies talk about stuff and wrap stuff and put stickers on stuff, and i listen to the cars and buses honk at each other on the road outside.
sometimes the ladies and i try to communicate: sometimes we hit the mark, sometimes we miss big time. for example, i sneezed one day and i thought one of the workers told me since i sneezed i should take a shot of alcohol. well, emily came down a bit later and translated and it turns out she was suggesting i go see a doctor and get some medicine. same same.
also, final story, a few days ago we were wrapping pumpkin flowers to ship to the supermarkets. when you pick them, they close up a bit, and one of the ladies was showing me how you need to open the flowers and check inside them before you wrap them, what for, i wasn't sure. but that's easy enough, so i started checking and wrapping away:
#1. nothing
#2. 2 ants
#3. nothing
#4. oh wow! two big beautiful snails, complete with a set of pointy-feeler eyes and everything!
it was so cool. i pulled them out to show to my wrapping buddy as they slithered along my palm. oh they were so cute! well, she made a face and grabbed both of them and threw them on the ground and stepped on them! nooooo! you crazy woman you don't step on snails! they made a big loud crunchy noise and i couldn't even look at the damage that was left under her shoe. i held out there for as long as i could, trying to sneak any other snails that i found under the table in the hopes that they would escape to safety before they were discovered, but they were discovered and met the same fate. now i don't help with wrapping pumpkin flowers anymore. it's too tragic. and i've taken up a "save the snails" campaign whereby i collect any snails i find and put them in my pocket, take the long way to lunch, and dump them in the grass along the way, poor things. i know, i know. it's a farm and snails are pests (maybe). but the wrapping area isn't anywhere near the farm, if you're a snail, so i feel okay about setting them free.
finally, i posted some photos of the farm here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eeking/collections
1 comment:
i'm sure my 9 year old daughter would join your campaign as she adores snails. shudder.
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