On the Fringe

The sky is clear blue, not a cloud in sight. The temperature slightly cool in the shade at 25 C. A light wind stirs the trees outside in the garden and although I am fighting off a cold (damn airplane air), I am very content. We are here in Logroño at the DH’s brother’s house. We spent Friday afternoon in the Medieval town of Medinaceli, the DH’s childhood summer playland, and Saturday morning in Guadalajara, at the DH’s sister’s house.

Why must travel be such a pain? I would love to just drive to the airport, get on a plane, get off a plane and arrive at my destination. Instead, we subject ourselves to 14 hours in airplanes and days of travel. We flew from Qingdao to Shanghai, occupied ourselves for a few hours in downtown and then flew to Madrid via Munich on Lufthansa. Economy class is so unfair. One good thing I can say about Lufthansa at the Munich airport - they give out all the free newspapers, coffee & tea that you want.

We’ve rented a car and here is a valuable tip - reserve your car from the US website with a US credit card and it will be a zillion times cheaper than renting directly in Spain. Our plans are not concrete but we hope to visit Asturias for a few days and then head south. Actually, I have no idea what we are really going to do, and I am not even worried about it. You see, I am the one who always plans our vacations, down to the very last detail. The DH just tags along. This time I put my foot down. This is his country. He is making the plans. But honestly, how can you plan badly in Spain? The food is awesome no matter where you go. As food is obvioulsy the most important thing in life, that is our primary concern. Our first meal in Medinaceli, I think we shocked the waiter by uncharacteristically ordering everything on the menu instead of going with the normal “menu del dia,” which gives you an appetizer, main course and dessert. We had to be rolled out to the car.

My first observation: There are a lot of Chinese in Spain and it is slightly strange to hear them speak Spanish.

My second observation: The staring here in Europe is not the same as the staring in China.

My third observation: Why do I always forget that Spanish women dress up so much?

My fourth observation: The sky is amazing here.

More observations: It is difficult to write in English after being completely submerged in Spanish for a few days now. Spanish is no longer the DH and I’s secret language, now when we want to talk about the people at the next table, we have to do it in a mix of English & Chinese. I really need to dedicate more time to refining my Spanish, I am not nearly as fluent as I like to think I am…

I’m in Spain! I’ve already eaten my way through two cities! Lots of observations coming soon!

Visible moon (a rare thing) and Olympic lanterns on the road to/from the Qingdao Airport

I work at an airport. I’ve lived at an airport. I’m in the process of traveling from one airport to another. I’m not too sure how it will feel to land at Barajas Airport in Madrid tomorrow after news of the tragic Spanair accident that has killed more than 150.

I will be in Spain for the next two and a half weeks. More soon…

Continuing the eating out theme, here are a few pictures of a little feast we had last night in downtown Qingdao - Mushroom Hot Pot.

Start by selecting mushrooms - there’s all shapes & sizes! (the middle black ones were so incredibly delicious I can’t even put words down about them!)

Like these

And these

Boil them up in a rich mushroom flavored broth

Enjoy them with a few sauces (this was a strange mushroom with a lace-like texture and nutty flavor)

And be creative at cooling beers (It is quite common for the beer to be served warm)

Mushroom feast for 4: 380RMB ($55 or E 37.5)

Shanghai was a fun respite from Linyi and the uncertainty associated with Olympic security there. The highlight, of course, was all the delicious international meals we had.

The drive to and from Shanghai (8 hours on fairly good expressways) was a bit like visiting a foreign country. Watching the countryside pass by, I constantly had to remind myself that I was in the same China as before. The vistas were very different from Linyi. Closer to Shanghai, it is greener. There are many canals and fish ponds, kind of like a Chinese Netherlands. The houses are different, too. They seem larger, two to three stories with roof top decorations and they’re perched right on the edge of the canals. Back in the Shandong countryside, the houses are all one story and more humble in appearance and construction.

A few examples

Pagoda along the road

This trip was mostly about food. We started off the trip with a night out at a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant. All you can eat Teppanyaki, including sashimi, drinks, etc. for 180 RMB per person. Our chef Jerry produced delicious grilled steak, shrimp, lamb chops and mushrooms. We had tuna sashimi and other little side dishes.

Delicious!

The DH & I happy with the food

The second night was all about luxury, as we ate at M on the Bund, an upscale Western style restaurant located front row on the Bund, the area of Shanghai that borders the Huangpu River. We had a posh multi-course meal, including wine, appetizers, main entrees and a dessert I will never forget - baklava and pomegranate ice cream. Sublime! We finished the evening with champagne (why not!? Decadence!) at Atica, a club also on the Bund.

The view from Atica’s terrace across the river to Pudong

The Pearl Tower & barge on the river

Day three found us wandering around the French Concession area, trying to avoid treacherous looking thunder clouds. We stumbled across an antique/souvenir shopping street, DongTai, and spent hours browsing. The market covers several streets and includes both proper shops and street booths. The shops are located on the ground floor of old two to three story buildings, the kind that the people of Shanghai have been living in for decades. The kind that are rapidly disapearing in favor of modern high-rises.

Juxtaposition - old & new

DongTai Street Market - typical view of man collecting recyclable material

A pair of DongTai residents

Street booths with houses behind

Bamboo poles are used for all construction here

For dinner, we found a great restaurant called The Spice Market, located close to DongTai road. The Spice Market features cuisine from India and Thailand. We were hungry and enthralled by the menu choices. We chose pakoras, poppadoms, paratha, palak paneer, lamb vindaloo, lamb madras and Thom Yam soup. I highly recommend the lamb vindaloo - an intensely colored red, vinegary sauce sure to awaken your tastebuds.

Day four was our final day in Shanghai and we decided to take the metro north of the city to a “cultural street” called Duolun Lu. The local government had decided years ago to reform the street to an example of a 1920s Shanghai neighborhood. Evidently a great deal of writers and artists lived in the area at that time. Now the street is lined with art galleries and souvenir shops. While not exactly a must-see, it is interesting if you are in the area. What is even better is the side streets off of Duolun Lu, where real life is happening among tiny lanes and small shop-houses.

DH in front of the Duolun Lu Gate

Duolun Lu View

Selling fruit

The street is lined with bronze statues of all kinds

A few street scenes:

Shanghai’s only Christian church done in a Chinese Temple style

Old Film Cafe - famous for showing old Chinese films

Good to know! Ha ha

Our final meal in Shanghai was, again, Indian. We returned to a great little Indian restaurant that I first ate at with my Mom, Sister and Sister-in-law, Kaveen’s Kitchen. We had pakoras, naan, paratha, chicken korma, lamb curry and lamb vindaloo. While we preferred Spice Market’s vindaloo, Kaveen’s Kitchen’s lamb and veg pakoras were top notch. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

DH admires the menu under the watchful gaze of a Bollywood babe

Our time in Shanghai was too short, although our waistbands will probably appreciate the break.

I’m www.expat-blog.com’s blog of the month for August! I am featured in the August newsletter and in the blog of the month section. Thanks to Expat Blog for interviewing me and sharing my blog story with everyone.

We just returned from Shanghai and I’ll be transferring to Qingdao tomorrow, but look for a few posts about Shanghai and a possible trip to an Olympic event coming up soon!

Don’t ask me what’s going on, because I don’t really know. All I know is that China is currently experiencing nuttiness, and it has nothing to do with peanuts or cashews. For quite a while now, we knew that our flight school would not be allowed to fly during the Olympics, since we are located in the same province as an Olympic city. Fine, okay. Then we learned we could not even go near the airport to work. Okay, whatever. I don’t really think of myself as a security risk, but whatever. Now, I’ve been told I can go to Shanghai with the other instructors who were scheduled to go there for an exam, instead of staying in Linyi to teach English classes. And when I return, I’ll have to pack up my stuff and leave Linyi until the Olympics (and Para-Olympics) are over. Because of the Olympics, because of security, we’ll be relocating to Qingdao, an Olympic city. Yeah, I just don’t get it either. Olympics-Shympics.

So, tomorrow I will leave for four days in Shanghai and for the weekend I will most likely be in Qingdao, until sometime in September. The good news is that Internet access is much better in both of those places. Good-bye Linyi.

Turning away from the Olympics for a moment, I felt I needed to draw attention to a wonderful article in the New York Times - Sorting Out Coffee’s Contradictions. Coffee is a good thing, like any food or beverage, in moderation. It has actual health benefits. Like red wine before it, coffee is getting rehabilitated. So drink up! Enjoy!

I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed these before. Olympic spirit is everywhere, even on the bricks of milk.

After enduring an early morning visit from the police to our apartment to “check our papers” yesterday, we decided a celebration of our non-deportation was in order. Besides, the Olympic opening ceremonies would take place at exactly 8PM and we certainly did not want to miss an opportunity to engage in harmony & good will with our fellow friends. (Harmony being the key word that would be repeated throughout the ceremony, and also our cue to drink.)

TV room at Ruin’s Pub, where we watched the ceremony

The opening ceremony was scheduled for 8PM on the 8th day of the 8th month - 8 being a highly auspicious number in China. If the Olympics had been held in Beijing in 2004, well, that would have just been awful. Four is an unlucky number because it sounds similar to the word for death. And you know what, the ceremony really was spectacular. Back in America for the 4th of July, I’d heard that there was a shortage of fireworks from China. I’m pretty sure this is because they were saving them all up for the Olympics rather than exporting them. Fireworks seemed to fill the sky! I remember arriving to China in 2005 and seeing the countdown signs - there were over 1000 days to go. I can’t believe I am still here in China, almost 3 years later, to see the games actually happen.

Zhang Yimou, the famous (and once banned) film director, did an amazing job orchestrating dancers, acrobats, musicians, and artists, all representing China’s history and “opening up” to the world. My favorite features were the LED screen scroll on the floor of the stadium, the giant red lantern with acrobats flying around it and the opening sequence of drummers producing light with each drumbeat.

The two hours of world athletes marching into the stadium was a bit dull. Instead of entering in alphabetical order, they entered according to the number of strokes it takes to write the country’s name in Chinese, except Greece, which lead as the birthplace of the games and China, which brought up the rear as the host. (A brilliant idea!) We cheered for all the countries we’d visited, lived in or were born in. (We represented China, Spain, Australia, Great Britain, Germany and the USA.) We stifled giggles over the group from “Chinese Taipei” (the politically correct way the Mainlanders decided to refer to Taiwan, officially still a province of the Motherland.) We marveled at the size of Yao Ming. Mostly, we were just killing time waiting for the Olympic flame to be lit.

I’ve always liked the design of the Chinese torch - long, slim and tubular with stylized red and white clouds, a common motif in traditional Chinese art and architecture, and I was pleased to see the flame at the Bird’s Nest stadium continued this theme. It was lit by one of China’s great Olympic heros, Li Ning, who now runs a massive sportswear company that rivals Nike in popularity here.

Harmony!!

These games have been shrouded in so much controversy - to boycott or not to boycott, to mask or not to mask, etc. While I do not deny the myriad concerns the world has over the faults of the Chinese government, I couldn’t help but feel glad that it had all come off beautifully. The security and preparations for the games have affected us personally, and maybe someday I’ll write more about that, and I know that there are many Chinese in Beijing and throughout the country who are not satisfied with what hosting the games has meant for their lives. Although one could argue whether these games were for the common man or for the greater interests of the government & economy, the local people of Linyi were certainly excited and proud last night. And you can’t deny them that. My feelings over the games are conflicted, which is a pretty normal reaction to all aspects of life in China - it’s complicated!