1. xichong, the "tiny" town closest to the farm, where i live with my host family, has around 80,000 occupants. because it's so small, they only have one stoplight. washington, iowa, (population 8,000) has about 5 stoplights that i have to pass through just on my way home to ottumwa from iowa city.
one stoplight. think about that. it's not like those 80,000 people don't have cars. they've got 'em, all right. but only one stoplight.
2. a few days ago i went out with emily to get new glasses. for the bargain price of $20, i'm set up with some stylish frames, and lenses that are 2x stronger than the ones in the glasses i was wearing! 2x stronger! my eyes have really fallen apart in the past year. it's so nice to be able to see!
3. i have always thought that there should be some recognizable sign to let people know you are driving as a part of a caravan. this way, maybe it wouldn't be so upsetting if you cut someone off, or got cut off by someone else, or if you didn't wait your turn so much at a four way stop, maybe. well, in sichuan, maybe in all of china, people travelling in caravan all put on their emergency blinkers. it's brilliant! now, how can i implement this in the usa? i have a feeling people would just wave me down or think that i was a fool who forgot to turn off my blinkers or think that i thought the driving conditions were hazardous.
and p.s., one of the chinese students who took us to the village has translated the newspaper article for me. the student's english name is "jerald bodystrong." he chose it himself. he thought lance armstrong was pretty cool, but only arm-strong? why not be all-body-strong? it's a reasonable question, i guess. here's his translation:
The title is: An American Lady Is Learning In A Chinese Farm
In June 6th, an American lady called Erin was learning the techniques of organic vegetables and fruits in Guangfeng Agriculture Company in Nanchong Sichuan. The American lady who is from (here is the name of the state you come from, I don't know how to spell it) near Mississippi River was informed of the WWOOF from her classmates. So, she went to Nanchong and had worked in the farm for a month, and didn't ask for the salary. She used her body languages to communicate with the normal Chinese famers and learn the skill of planting organic vegetables.
16 June 2007
12 June 2007
in the news this week
1. paris hilton announces she plans to stop "acting dumb".
2. astronaut group-hug takes place miles above the earth.
3. american university student works on farm in china.
click here for more details from one of china's national newspapers.
:)
2. astronaut group-hug takes place miles above the earth.
3. american university student works on farm in china.
click here for more details from one of china's national newspapers.
:)
10 June 2007
why are all my posts about food?
maybe because i've reached that point. the point where i would cut off my left foot for a burrito. oh, a beautiful, bursting bean burrito. with some chips and salsa and a nice cold margarita (no salt). i would even forego the margarita if it meant a tasty panchero's treat. and boy howdy, i could sure go for a hunk of cheddar cheese right now. mmm . . . cheese . . .
(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
(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
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