Sorry, we found a way to post despite the block but can't seem to get photos posted. Here is something I wrote last week.
Walking out to get breakfast this morning, I noticed the return of our favourite fruit lady. She had been absent from the street ever since Spring Festival and I had to resort to some of the other vendors on the street. Since we liked to buy from her as often as we could I stopped by on the way home. It really is a shame that I can’t ask her where she’s been so I settled for my normal “Ni hao”. She didn’t have a huge variety of fruits for sale but I noticed a display of something I hadn’t seen before. So I asked her what they were. Yes, I can ask “What is this?” Of course, all the guidebooks really miss out in the “What you could hear in response?” department so when she went off on a detailed explanation, I was lost. What I managed to understand was that she wanted me to try one. You can see from the photo why I might have hesitated. With Don’s recent attempts eating from the bug kingdom, I really wasn’t sure if I’d be trying fruit or bug. If I looked more carefully, I would have seen the stems but I was trying to be polite so I bit in. Thankfully, it was fruit. I learned later from Don that this was mulberry. The other funny thing, while I was enjoying my sample, she went into the benefits of the fruit. I know this cause she was gesturing to her stomach :)
Friday, May 29, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Rainy Day
We just got home from dinner and had to wade through a flood. This is the second time since we've been in Jinan that this has happened. It's normally quite dry here but then every so often we get a downpour. This is an occasion when we can teach the expression "It's rainy cats and dogs."
We had made a date to go for dinner with Sunrise and were looking forward to catching up. Then the rain started. Since it rained heavily, we knew we would be in for a flood in our neighbourhood and our street. The drains are just not made to cope with such heavy rains. We had no choice but to go outside because I can't even remember the last time we were in a grocery store. We've lapsed back into our habit of going out since I've been feeling better. So it was out with our least favourite shoes and umbrellas.
After a very pleasant dinner, it was time to tackle the walk home. Thank goodness that it's dark out! I really don't think I could walk through the water if I could see what was floating on top. It's bad enough that I know the amount of garbage that is usually on the street and the funky odor in the air didn't help either. Suffice it to say that our shoes and umbrellas are in the hallway drying and we've just had a good wash. Ah, it's all part of the experience and doesn't it make for a good story :)
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Linyan Temple Road Trip
Sam took the foreign teachers on another road trip last weekend. Yay! So off we went in our little bus for a drive in the country. We started out early Sunday morning at 8 a.m. and were quickly met by another wedding cavalcade. It was another auspicious day to get married!
We only had to drive for about an hour to reach Linyan temple, a historic Buddhist temple. It was one of the four most famous temples in China and still attracts many pilgrims. It was one of the first places we've visited where we found some pockets of peace. We didn't miss the crowds and tour groups!
Since putting many photos into a blog here is a bit hard, check out my album on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=79045&id=571108357&l=7c258e47b0
Saturday, May 2, 2009
May Day 2009
We had the day off yesterday. Don suggested we get out and do a bit of shopping. Unfortunately, we forgot that going shopping seems to be THE favourite pastime here.
Before we got on a packed bus, we saw this at the gate of our neighbourhood.
Apparently, May Day 2009 was an auspicious day to get married. We found out later from Yoshi that it was his friend's wedding. We think that this is a rather unusual sight even for the locals because they were taking advantage of the photo op too. We think, because we didn't stay around to see, that the horses were for the groom and his attendants. The sedan chair would have been for the bride.
So back to our adventure downtown. We crammed ourselves into a bus and then quickly found ourselves in a traffic jam. Anyone who is claustrophobic would not have enjoyed our bus ride. Thankfully, there was a breeze yesterday!
We saw a couple of more wedding parties along the way. The entire bus, including me, tried to get a glimpse of the brides in the back of the fancy black cars. Sadly, they were always tinted so the most I saw was a shoulder.
When we got downtown, we stopped for a bit of brunch before we headed into the crowd. We found a nice quiet KFC and found a seat by the window. Here was our enterta
inment as we ate. There was a kid's birthday party upstairs. We were just in time for the "get them all wound up" outside part. A KFC employee led the kids through some dances and then gave them a treat. As the kids were lining up, they spotted Don in the window. When we both whipped out our cellphones to take a photo, one of them posed for Don. They were very cute, a bit uncoordinated but cute!
We headed over to Wal-mart afterwards. We made our way through the main square which was packed full of people. There were also big groups of tourists following their leaders holding their "follow me" flags. Then there was the sea of cellphone vendors. It seemed like everyone needed a new phone.
Here are some souvenirs from Wal-mart.
On our way back, we took a cab home instead of cramming ourselves back into a bus. We had a better experience with a Jinan cab driver this time. We told him and showed him (my little piece of paper with our address written in Chinese) where we wanted to go. We headed off in the right direction but was quickly stuck in traffic. He said something and after checking that he wasn't on the cellphone, we realized he was talking to me. I told him I didn't understand in Mandarin and that was met by a laugh. We then proceeded to have a conversation that neither party quite understood. Then, at a traffic light when we were stopped he passed this piece of paper over the cage. Oh yeah, the taxi drivers are normally protected by a steel or plastic cage. WE laughed when we saw it because he thought it would help us to understand what he was trying to say. He said something else and I finally understood that he wanted to go on the overhead road that would cost more money but would avoid the traffic. We told him ok. When we got home, I checked what I could of his message on my electronic dictionary and confirmed that I understood him well enough.
We spent the rest of the day napping until it was time to go to BBQ because the Internet was very very slow. Judging by the text messages we got from the students, they were all bored and so were probably surfing the Internet.
So that was our May Day. J :)
Before we got on a packed bus, we saw this at the gate of our neighbourhood.
Apparently, May Day 2009 was an auspicious day to get married. We found out later from Yoshi that it was his friend's wedding. We think that this is a rather unusual sight even for the locals because they were taking advantage of the photo op too. We think, because we didn't stay around to see, that the horses were for the groom and his attendants. The sedan chair would have been for the bride.
So back to our adventure downtown. We crammed ourselves into a bus and then quickly found ourselves in a traffic jam. Anyone who is claustrophobic would not have enjoyed our bus ride. Thankfully, there was a breeze yesterday!
We saw a couple of more wedding parties along the way. The entire bus, including me, tried to get a glimpse of the brides in the back of the fancy black cars. Sadly, they were always tinted so the most I saw was a shoulder.
When we got downtown, we stopped for a bit of brunch before we headed into the crowd. We found a nice quiet KFC and found a seat by the window. Here was our enterta
inment as we ate. There was a kid's birthday party upstairs. We were just in time for the "get them all wound up" outside part. A KFC employee led the kids through some dances and then gave them a treat. As the kids were lining up, they spotted Don in the window. When we both whipped out our cellphones to take a photo, one of them posed for Don. They were very cute, a bit uncoordinated but cute!We headed over to Wal-mart afterwards. We made our way through the main square which was packed full of people. There were also big groups of tourists following their leaders holding their "follow me" flags. Then there was the sea of cellphone vendors. It seemed like everyone needed a new phone.
Here are some souvenirs from Wal-mart.
On our way back, we took a cab home instead of cramming ourselves back into a bus. We had a better experience with a Jinan cab driver this time. We told him and showed him (my little piece of paper with our address written in Chinese) where we wanted to go. We headed off in the right direction but was quickly stuck in traffic. He said something and after checking that he wasn't on the cellphone, we realized he was talking to me. I told him I didn't understand in Mandarin and that was met by a laugh. We then proceeded to have a conversation that neither party quite understood. Then, at a traffic light when we were stopped he passed this piece of paper over the cage. Oh yeah, the taxi drivers are normally protected by a steel or plastic cage. WE laughed when we saw it because he thought it would help us to understand what he was trying to say. He said something else and I finally understood that he wanted to go on the overhead road that would cost more money but would avoid the traffic. We told him ok. When we got home, I checked what I could of his message on my electronic dictionary and confirmed that I understood him well enough.
We spent the rest of the day napping until it was time to go to BBQ because the Internet was very very slow. Judging by the text messages we got from the students, they were all bored and so were probably surfing the Internet.
So that was our May Day. J :)
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