Frog Dumplings, Terracotta Warriors and Omelets
We leave Beijing and head for Xi'an. Xi'an is one of those destinations I have always wanted to get to. When I was in grade seven I lived in Ontario and I can remember going to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The big display at the time was a handful of figures from the Terracotta Warriors Museum in Xi'an. I fell in love with the idea of archaeology as a career choice. The Indiana Jones movies that came out in the following years helped cement it when I went to university. My BA in anthropology was the first in a long line of thoroughly unemployable degrees (or so I thought – thanks for hiring me FBC!!). All of them can be traced back to a group of clay soldiers from central China.
We head out for dinner at a restaurant that is four floors high and specializes in dumplings. We choose from meals named 18, 20 and 24 Dumpling. And true to the name there is a steady stream of dumplings. Admittedly the western palette loses its ability to distinguish the differences after the first 14. Of note are the frog dumplings and walnut dumplings and one we aren't entirely sure whether it is [Monkey Head] Mushroom or Monkey Head [comma] Mushroom Dumplings.
Our hotel in Xi'an is incredible – the service is wonderful. We wake up to a buffet that includes western and Chinese foods. After eating, we head off to the Terracotta Warriors Museum. It is a fascinating trip as we snake our way through the streets of Xi'an. We are quickly learning that China has a set of Traffic Guidelines (loose suggestions in the rural areas) more than Traffic Laws per se.
The day spent at the archaeological sites is marvelous – it was all I could do to keep from climbing over the railing and inspecting the digs a little closer. The presence of flesh and blood soldiers keep me from getting too close to the terracotta ones.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Forbidden City and New Friends
We wake up and head off for downtown Beijing. It is early, but day and night are irrelevant categories when you have just crossed the International Date Line. We crowd into two taxis and hope that we all wind up at the same place – I have to admit I am less worried than the other cab because I'm riding with Michael. We squeeze into a Beijing Subway. It is not as crowded as usual because the heat has been so extreme that employers are rotating days off to conserve energy – there's a good news bad news in there somewhere, but my brain isn't working so well.
We seem to move from one crowd into another as we surface at Tiananmen Square. There are thousands of people queuing in serpentine line that stretches back and forth across the square. As we move around the square we run into an English School from Mongolia visiting Tiananmen Square – we talk to the teachers for a bit and pose for pictures with the students. We soon make more friends as people come up to sell us little Red Books in Chinese and English!!! One particularly dedicated salesman is relentless until he is told we believe in "the wisdom of another book." Undaunted he puts away the red book and pulls out a set of Mao watches – apparently even we Christians need to know the time of day!
We wake up and head off for downtown Beijing. It is early, but day and night are irrelevant categories when you have just crossed the International Date Line. We crowd into two taxis and hope that we all wind up at the same place – I have to admit I am less worried than the other cab because I'm riding with Michael. We squeeze into a Beijing Subway. It is not as crowded as usual because the heat has been so extreme that employers are rotating days off to conserve energy – there's a good news bad news in there somewhere, but my brain isn't working so well.
We seem to move from one crowd into another as we surface at Tiananmen Square. There are thousands of people queuing in serpentine line that stretches back and forth across the square. As we move around the square we run into an English School from Mongolia visiting Tiananmen Square – we talk to the teachers for a bit and pose for pictures with the students. We soon make more friends as people come up to sell us little Red Books in Chinese and English!!! One particularly dedicated salesman is relentless until he is told we believe in "the wisdom of another book." Undaunted he puts away the red book and pulls out a set of Mao watches – apparently even we Christians need to know the time of day!
Putting on the Dog
The hotel we are staying at is the Guizho Mansion and it serves up Guiszho foods. Michael, his wife Sally (who is returning to Calgary in November to defend her M.Eng.) and their daughter Julia host us for supper. It is good to join together and talk about people at FBC. When Michael heard we were coming he said "I'm glad our church is sending a team to China." It made me realize that our membership reaches further than we think – there are a number of people in China that still consider themselves to be part of the Family at First – and they are.
One of the specialties of the house is dog so we try it. I am a dog lover – and I always will be – so it is hard to think of eating dog. I set my jaw and decide that if my mom could raise animals on the farm to eat, then I could certainly eat some puppy I have never met. Throwing caution to the wind Russel announces that if we going to eat dog we might as well just get to it – and he digs in…it is at this point that Michael assures him it tastes better if he waits to cook it!
Before the meal started the waitress bought a bag with a live fish in it – Michael explains that this is to show that it is fresh. I am sure glad they didn't do that with the dog!
The hotel we are staying at is the Guizho Mansion and it serves up Guiszho foods. Michael, his wife Sally (who is returning to Calgary in November to defend her M.Eng.) and their daughter Julia host us for supper. It is good to join together and talk about people at FBC. When Michael heard we were coming he said "I'm glad our church is sending a team to China." It made me realize that our membership reaches further than we think – there are a number of people in China that still consider themselves to be part of the Family at First – and they are.
One of the specialties of the house is dog so we try it. I am a dog lover – and I always will be – so it is hard to think of eating dog. I set my jaw and decide that if my mom could raise animals on the farm to eat, then I could certainly eat some puppy I have never met. Throwing caution to the wind Russel announces that if we going to eat dog we might as well just get to it – and he digs in…it is at this point that Michael assures him it tastes better if he waits to cook it!
Before the meal started the waitress bought a bag with a live fish in it – Michael explains that this is to show that it is fresh. I am sure glad they didn't do that with the dog!
I'm a Foreigner!
As we go through the Chinese customs we queue up in the lanes marked 'Foreigners' we are now officially Lao Wei!!! But even though we are foreigners we are not alone. As we come through the baggage claim we see a very familiar face. Michael Wang used to work at CILC and attend FBC is waiting for us. The heat and humidity wraps itself around us like a winter sweater as we step out into the streets of Beijing. Michael talks to a taxi driver and then tells three people to hop in. He then has a similar conversation with a second and tells us to jump in. My mind is swamped – everything is new, everything is different and yet familiar because the billboards boast suburban living in places with names like Central Park, Palm Springs and Eagle Vista; McDonald's still reminds me that "I'm lovin' it" and Pepsi is still "the choice of the new generation."
As we go through the Chinese customs we queue up in the lanes marked 'Foreigners' we are now officially Lao Wei!!! But even though we are foreigners we are not alone. As we come through the baggage claim we see a very familiar face. Michael Wang used to work at CILC and attend FBC is waiting for us. The heat and humidity wraps itself around us like a winter sweater as we step out into the streets of Beijing. Michael talks to a taxi driver and then tells three people to hop in. He then has a similar conversation with a second and tells us to jump in. My mind is swamped – everything is new, everything is different and yet familiar because the billboards boast suburban living in places with names like Central Park, Palm Springs and Eagle Vista; McDonald's still reminds me that "I'm lovin' it" and Pepsi is still "the choice of the new generation."
A Familiar Face
At the Vancouver airport I found a clerk who could understand my feeble efforts at Poutonghua (standard Mandarin) and so I overstayed my welcome and nearly miss boarding the flight to Beijing. When we get on I am ready for some much-anticipated sleep. I settle into my seat and talk with one of the team members going to Heqing (a village of 100,000 in Yunan) and a student from the U of A that is returning to Chengdu for the summer. Sleep comes and goes – exhaustion and adrenaline do a dance for the first few hours of the flight as I fall into and out of sleep.
Brian comes to talk about some paperwork with me (and stretch his legs) and when he moves forward a voice calls out "Brian?" As Brian later notes when traveling in a country of 1.3 billion people you would expect to know somebody! The voice belongs to Ocean, a Chinese man who was among our very first conversation corner regulars. His wife and daughter are also on the flight and we spend a good amount of time catching up – there will be opportunities for sleeping later.
It is good to be reminded that we do not orchestrate this trip. It is also good to remember what we are doing now (teaching English in China) is a direct outgrowth of what we started doing in a corner of the Ladies' Parlour.
At the Vancouver airport I found a clerk who could understand my feeble efforts at Poutonghua (standard Mandarin) and so I overstayed my welcome and nearly miss boarding the flight to Beijing. When we get on I am ready for some much-anticipated sleep. I settle into my seat and talk with one of the team members going to Heqing (a village of 100,000 in Yunan) and a student from the U of A that is returning to Chengdu for the summer. Sleep comes and goes – exhaustion and adrenaline do a dance for the first few hours of the flight as I fall into and out of sleep.
Brian comes to talk about some paperwork with me (and stretch his legs) and when he moves forward a voice calls out "Brian?" As Brian later notes when traveling in a country of 1.3 billion people you would expect to know somebody! The voice belongs to Ocean, a Chinese man who was among our very first conversation corner regulars. His wife and daughter are also on the flight and we spend a good amount of time catching up – there will be opportunities for sleeping later.
It is good to be reminded that we do not orchestrate this trip. It is also good to remember what we are doing now (teaching English in China) is a direct outgrowth of what we started doing in a corner of the Ladies' Parlour.
The first day
It is exciting, thrilling a coming together of plan I thought I would never see come true and at the same time it is overwhelming. I spent the last few days in Canada trying to finish up some proposals for CILC and FBC- South Gate and trying to track down information on my grandfather's family that lived in Shanghai (one of the cities we will visit). In effort to follow the advice given us to sleep on the way over I have been awake for the last 48 hours. As we say goodbye to family and friends at the airport my mind drifts back to an even earlier memory of going to the Brandon Exhibition as a kid. After a day of foot-long corndogs and tilt-a-whirl rides, my friends decided it would be fun to go to the haunted house. I hated the idea, but went along. Within two minutes of entering a man in a poorly fitting gorilla outfit jumped out – it was enough for me. I turned and ran out. Luckily I was the last of my group to enter so they weren't among the people I knocked over as I went 'out' through the 'in' door. At the end of the day no one was any wiser (I hope my brother doesn't read this blog). At the beginning of big trips and new ventures I still feel like that kid in a cheap haunted house - I always want to at least check for a place to run. But I don't.
It is exciting, thrilling a coming together of plan I thought I would never see come true and at the same time it is overwhelming. I spent the last few days in Canada trying to finish up some proposals for CILC and FBC- South Gate and trying to track down information on my grandfather's family that lived in Shanghai (one of the cities we will visit). In effort to follow the advice given us to sleep on the way over I have been awake for the last 48 hours. As we say goodbye to family and friends at the airport my mind drifts back to an even earlier memory of going to the Brandon Exhibition as a kid. After a day of foot-long corndogs and tilt-a-whirl rides, my friends decided it would be fun to go to the haunted house. I hated the idea, but went along. Within two minutes of entering a man in a poorly fitting gorilla outfit jumped out – it was enough for me. I turned and ran out. Luckily I was the last of my group to enter so they weren't among the people I knocked over as I went 'out' through the 'in' door. At the end of the day no one was any wiser (I hope my brother doesn't read this blog). At the beginning of big trips and new ventures I still feel like that kid in a cheap haunted house - I always want to at least check for a place to run. But I don't.
Friday, June 17, 2005
Thursday, June 16, 2005
I guess I should introduce myself and the general scope of the future rants posted here. My name is Jeff Logan and I live/work/play in Calgary Alberta. I have had the opportunity to travel and work various places around the world. No matter where I am though I still remain that Chinese-Japanese-British-Norweigian Kid that grew up in a First Nations Community in rural Canada...I will always remain a Glocal Yocal, aka a well travelled hick.
Mostly this will be a place where I can talk about random thoughts that make there way into my head but don't fit as a sermon illustration that week (I am a pastor at First Baptist Church in Calgary) or books I am reading. I will also put up some stuff from my travels - I will start with my recent trip to Sichuan China where I taught at a medical university.
Migwec
Jeff
Mostly this will be a place where I can talk about random thoughts that make there way into my head but don't fit as a sermon illustration that week (I am a pastor at First Baptist Church in Calgary) or books I am reading. I will also put up some stuff from my travels - I will start with my recent trip to Sichuan China where I taught at a medical university.
Migwec
Jeff
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