The mystery guest

I (JM) have been playing my violin a bit more since our return, having purchased a new violin bow over the visit back home. Lately, one of the spare bows in my violin case seemed to be losing some of its hairs: after opening the case, some of its strands would be dangling away from the stick. I examined it on a few occasions, and thought perhaps it was catching on some edge inside the case, snapping a few of the hairs in the process.

Today I again noticed this problem, and it became obvious that these latest hairs were snapped a few inches down from the edge of the bow stick. I looked again, and there on the underside of the bow hair was a small larvae, complacently grazing on my horse hair!

This is the first time something like this has ever happened to my instrument, so of course I thought “Only in China.” Somehow the little critter worked its way inside my case, perhaps while it was open during my practicing, and found its way to an unlikely feast. It had been shearing the strands of hair for the last week at least, getting nice and plump in the process.

My immediate concern was that he might have found his way inside the wood of my violin- worm holes are an unlucky and expensive repair to need on an instrument. But so far no other signs of damage.

So I’m reminded once again that our life here in China is much more in tandem with the flora and fauna around us, welcome or unwelcome. At least the fall will bring lots of great produce at the markets, and a break in the summer’s heat. I don’t look forward to the chill of winter coming ahead, but we’ll enjoy this cool weather while it lasts, along with whatever critters it brings along with it.

But other would be bow-munchers beware, lest ye suffer the same fate as poor little Wormy!

All hail!

Hmm…

You know something is a little strange when your two year old’s first choice for a bedtime story is Mao Tsedong’s Little Red Book of sayings.

Better have that chat with his nanny again.

We’re back

Yes, we made it. We’re back in our home in Nanjing. How do we know we’re really here?

1) Within 3 hours of landing, four people asked to take Leo’s photo.

2) The unmistakable aroma of China air.

3) Having to figure out how to break the Great Chinese Firewall again to surf our blogs and Facebook.

4) Personal space? Is there even a word for that in Chinese?

5) Dumplings, and more dumplings, yum!

6) Jet lag has us awake at 3am every night.

7) Within 3 days of arrival, having the first bout of stomach.. discomfort.

8 ) Squat pots, no Western toilets in public spaces (and no hot water or soap!).

9) Cheerios are $10 a box again.

10) We can’t read the news anymore!

Shanghai excursion

The other week we made a brief trip to Shanghai at the invitation of a good friend who was traveling through on a concert tour. He let all three of us spend the night in his 5-star hotel room. Wow. We never knew a bed could be that soft!

Shanghai is a lot bigger than Nanjing. A LOT bigger. And we thought Nanjing had a lot of people! By the time we came back, we were happy to be in a city without heavy traffic jams. People in Nanjing walk a lot slower too. Shanghai is nice to visit, but here is where we’re happy to live!

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Happy Labor Day!

Here in China, today is labor day – a national holiday. We celebrated the day off by joining all other parents with small children at the local zoo. A large percentage of China’s 1 billion people seemed to be at the zoo with us. Luckily, we are fairly accustomed to the crowds at this point.

To add to the excitement, the zoo has 3 new pandas, and no animal is more exciting to the Chinese than a fat and happy panda. The pandas didn’t disappoint. JM even got interviewed by a reporter for a news article. This is not the first time this has happened, since he is tall and white and very easy to spot in a crowd here (lucky for me, as crowds are common – I haven’t lost him yet).

Leo seemed most interested in the tigers, he even ventured a tentative, “Meow?” in their direction.

We ended the day by celebrating the fact that we officially found a new apartment for next year. The best part is that it’s on the 3rd floor (instead of the 7th) and that means there are only 36 steps to hike up, instead of 96 – yay!

What are you smoking?

I just finished up my second appointment at the Jiangsu Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, and now I know why so many people love Chinese Medicine. It’s because all you do apparently is smoke marijuana and you subsequently feel much better about whatever is ailing you .

Seriously though, as I entered the hospital, I was overwhelmed by the powerful smell of pot everywhere. I turned to my friend, a Syrian woman who is studying Chinese and Western medicine here, and asked her if I was smelling what I thought I was smelling. She laughed and said, “NO!” but agreed that the place does reek of pot. She explained that TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) uses many herbs to induce healing in the body, and they are often burned over certain parts of the body to promote healing. Ahhhh, that makes sense. I was relieved and amused all at once.

The hospital itself is gorgeous, a stark contrast to the Children’s Hospital we visited a few months ago. And the treatment is incredibly cheap and efficient. Many people here prefer TCM to Western Medicine, and I can appreciate this. Thus far, it seems very holistic and concerned with getting at the root cause of an ailment and treating the entire system affected rather than simply prescribing medicine to treat a symptom. I’ll be going back for more, and am really interested in learning more about it, so I’ll be sure to update you all about any new findings.

Life without insurance

A couple of weeks ago, to make a long story short, my naughty little boy stole my house key off of the kitchen table, and hid it in his clothes dresser without either me or his nanny seeing him do it. Thus, later that day, after returning from a run outside, I found our nanny, Cheng Ayi and Leo waiting for me to get into the house (because she thought I had taken the key off the table). At this point, we thought the key must just still be on the table, and with JM gone to school, we had a predicament on our hands. Leo was hungry and in need of lunch and a nap, I was sweaty and in need of lunch and a shower, and all of us had no intention of sitting outside of our apartment for any longer than we had to. Ayi’s sensible first thought was simply to call JM and have him come home to let us in.

Of course, being as impatient as I am, I could not think of waiting that long, and quickly brainstormed a way to break into our house. We have an outdoor patio attached to our top-floor apartment and so I ran up to the roof and looked down to see how far I would have to jump. One story down suddenly looked somewhat daunting. But, if I could successfully make the jump, I would save loads of time and I would be able to get into our house via the patio door (the patio door key is kept outside on the patio in case the door slams locked from the outside while we’re out there).

Usually, I am a pretty sensible person, but my willingness to take physical risks is, for the average person – perhaps a bit higher than normal. I grew up in the country, so as a kid I skittered along high rafters, ran across patches of ice, swung on barn ropes, climbed tall trees, rode our horse as fast as he could go, amongst other things… so I figured I could take this one story jump. However, I now had to contemplate the reality that if something were to happen, I would have to go to a Chinese hospital to get treatment. This was a VERY scary prospect, and certainly made me take much more pause than normal before making the jump. Not having insurance or access to a Western clinic here has made me a more careful person in general, as I really don’t want to step foot in a Chinese hospital unless absolutely necessary. It makes me think that having insurance (while admittedly this industry saves many people from financial disaster) may in fact cause people to be more risky as a result. I wonder if anyone’s ever studied the impact of having insurance on risk taking behavior…

The risk of having to go to a Chinese hospital was outweighed by my desire to keep my son on his normal nap schedule and by my own desire for a hot shower after a long run, and so I made the jump. I lowered myself off the roof and onto the overhang (which I was praying the entire time would hold my weight). After that, I sat for a few minutes figuring out my strategy. I figured I needed to get myself as close to the ground as possible, and so with Jason Bourne as my role model, I flipped my legs over the ledge and used my arms to lower myself another few feet close to the patio floor. I made the jump, and got away with just a couple of scratches. I think Cheng Ayi thought I was a bit insane, but everyone stayed on schedule. Later on, we found the key and realized that our little imp Leo was the cause of all the trouble.

So, the moral of the story is, don’t leave your keys on the table anymore, and proceed carefully if you need to jump off your roof. Life without insurance made me pause, but didn’t stop me. I’m not sure if that makes me brave or stupid, but I’m glad it all worked out.

Hot dogs.. and so much more

China does sell hot dogs! There are some local stores that feature them, and even some traveling hot dog carts just like you’d see in New York. Well, almost like New York. They gather in the high traffic areas of town, which is pretty much everywhere.

The most ubiquitous hot dog carts in town in fact do not sell hot dogs. These mobile wagons are run by local fix-it workers offering services of many kinds, from tinkerers to bike repairmen, locksmiths, even one making hard candies in the most fantastic shapes imaginable.

The bike repairmen are the most numerous cart business in town. Every single street corner seems to have one at the ready for a broken chain, flat tire, or rusted axle. All of the bikes in town (some number in the millions) are old, weather-worn rusty hunks of metal. The idea is to own the worst-looking bike possible, so the thieves will not steal it. ‘They have all the keys to the locks anyway,’ my students have told me.

Today, however, I did not need bike repairs. My favorite windbreaker has had a broken zipper for the longest time, but I have insisted on wearing it anyway. Walking down a side alley to get home after class, I passed another hot dog cart worker, this one streaming with pieces of cloth, ribbon, thread, and presided over by a jolly looking woman at a portable sewing machine. There was even a bundle of new zippers strung across a bar that normally would have been a station for condiments.

Showing her my zipper I asked, “Can you fix this?” “Sure,” she said. “How much?” This was where I got skeptical. Being a foreigner, I have many times been given the standard 1000% markup on prices, leaving me in the position of bargaining hard or simply walking away.

“Only 3 yuan.” Wow- this sounded perfectly fair. Less than 50 cents for a new zipper, repair cost included! I agreed, and out came a jar filled with spare zipper clasps. She found one my size, and with a pair of pliers and a few minutes of wiggling, my windbreaker was rehabilitated! I gave her the three coins, thanked her, and went on my way.

Only in China, I was thinking to myself, do you follow a blind instinct leading you down an alley, thereupon finding the exact sort of cheap, reliable labor you’re in need of.

I will keep an eye out for the next hot dog cart when need arises. If only they had a remedy for not being able to read Chinese characters!

The weather outside is STILL frightful

It’s been raining for over a week, pretty much non-stop, and we’re not so sure when it’s supposed to stop. The rain is accompanied by some pretty cold temperatures, so we’re all a little chilly these days.

We thought the worst of winter was over when during Spring Festival, temperatures were truly Spring like! It was only a brief reprieve though, and now we are back to winter.

JM was saying the other day that he used to really love winter – the cold runs outside followed by a hot shower and a warm living room to hang out in. These days though, our reality looks a bit different. We have persisted through winter here with what for us is a bare minimum of heat (and sometimes below what we would consider the bare minimum). We’ve struggled to dress our son warmly enough (he really does look like Ralphie from The Christmas Story right now!). We’re entirely grateful for having brought along two down sleeping bags, and we sleep each night in them when the temps really drop. The toughest part though, is when evening comes and we need to sit and do work – this also usually entails being zipped up as much as possible in our sleeping bags surrounded by our books. It also entails drinking copious amounts of hot water. We’re thankful for these things, and they make life bearable.

We’ve had our moments of fatigue with the cold, when enduring another day of seeing our breath in the kitchen and dining room (which have no heat whatsoever) is just a bit much. Or when our water supply freezes entirely for the morning (this is thankfully very rare and we’ve figured out to run the water at a drip all night to keep the pipes running). It’s at these times when we do long for home, for the ease of turning on endless supplies of hot water and effortlessly being warm. It takes up energy to stay warm here in the winter, and I’ll be grateful for Spring. Neither of us would say that Winter is our favorite season anymore, not even one we remotely like – at least in China.

When I was young, I read “The Long Winter” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It chronicles her family’s very tough winter in Minnesota – they experienced bitter cold, tremendous snows, lack of food supply and firewood, amongst other sufferings. Although I’d never compare our situation to the Wilder family’s long winter, I do feel like I understand the harshness of cold more after having been through a winter in China. Growing up in Wisconsin, I’ve always considered myself rather accustomed to the cold. But that was with quality furnaces and plenty of energy to run them all winter long, and cars to take me where I needed to go. I know I’ll appreciate the suffering of cold more now than before this winter.

We’ll also be looking for a better apartment with more reliable heating for next winter! I’m not going through another winter like this again on purpose .

With March having arrived, I know Spring MUST be on it’s way… I can’t wait!

One year and counting!!

Today is our one-year anniversary for arriving in China! We are thrilled, and also amazed at how quickly the time has gone by. A lot has happened in a year’s time. We arrived here not even knowing how to order a bowl of noodles. Now being able to chit chat with vegetable farmers in the market represents a huge step forward.

We’re excited to begin our second year of residence here in Nanjing. All potential travelers, please look us up!