As promised, here is the video of the old gentleman serenading those who passed.

We were enamored with his serene countenance and his little dogs attention!!

On Sunday we  basically had a “rest and recuperate” day!!!     I spent most of the morning reading (by the way, we LOVE having the Kindle’s with us).

We were both having some stomach issues and, due to our semi-functioning toilet, spent a bit of the day going up and down stairs (6 flights!!)  to the bathroom in the Science Building. 

We did take a walk to Salvador’s and had an enjoyable lunch and walk back home again.   That was about it for the day!!!!

We took a photo of this video store……

…..and to quote “Money” magazine……”This store might be selling pirated DVD’s!!!  (this was seriously a caption on a photo that I saw)

The highlight of our short outing was this gentleman sitting with his dog and serenading the passing public……  We have a 30 second video of him and I will try to get it up on YouTube (and linked here), but I am not promising anything!!!

I laughed at this sign in the Kunming Institute of Zoology Building……

….maybe I should visit there a few times before we return home!!!

OH….and on the “Hello” count, we had two young girls shyly say hello to us!!!

Finally, our friend, Simon,  who has spent many years in Asian countries sent this information about “The Four Plagues” from yesterday’s post…….

“The Four Pests”, this public hygiene campaign was started by Mao in 1958 as a campaign against mosquitoes, flies, rats, and sparrows. (Sparrows were included on the list because it was believed at the time that they ate grain seeds). By early 1960, Chinese leaders realized that sparrows ate more insects than grains and Mao ordered the end of the campaign against sparrows, replacing them with “bedbugs”. The later revival of the Four Pests campaigned against cockroaches so the current “4” are mosquitoes, flies, rats and cockroaches.

…..Good to know!!!!

On Saturday morning we awoke to some plumbing problems as the toilet was draining very slowly but we knew that it was the start of a three day weekend so nothing could be done about it.

We set out about 10:00 and headed to the Green Lake area.  This was where our hotels had been located on the previous two trips and we knew that it was a beautiful and relaxing area.

First we stopped by Aling’s shop to say hello and I saw a wonderful art piece that she had made.  As we walked to Salvador’s (where her husband works)  we basically decided to purchase it.  We spoke with Collin and asked about having it shipped to us.  He said that Aling is doing a show in Denver in July and, if we didn’t mind waiting a month, he would ship it over with the others for the show and then UPS it to us from Denver.  We are very excited about the purchase and hopefully I will have a photo to show soon.

After a cup of espresso (for Michael) and a bowl of ice cream (for me), we walked over to Green Lake.  As we stepped across the street, Michael looked up and said “look at the street lights…..were those there last year?”…… …..each one had three ducks/geese on them.   They were cool!!

We crossed the street to the lake side and were immediately met buy a man trying to sell us something.  We did our usual wave-off and then I realized that he was asking if Michael wanted his shoes shined.  We had talked just that morning about the fact that we should have brought shoe polish with us.   So, we turned around to catch up with him.  A woman overhead (and understood) our conversation and ran ahead to tell the man that we did indeed want a shoe shine!!

Michael sat down at a bench and the process began.  He first put guards around his socks to protect them and then tucked in the shoe laces.  Next, he used a cream soap and a soft toothbrush to clean the shoes.  Then came polish put on with a brush, and rubbed in with his hands.  Next was another bottle of dye to color the heels and edges of the shoes.  Then it was buff, buff  buff!!!  He took out a small brush and proceeded to “paint” the stitching lines.  Next he put more polish on, this time just using his hands to rub it in.  Finally, there was the final buff and voila…..Michael had shoes that looked like new!!!!

The gentleman was very intent as he worked and obviously wanted to do a good job.   When it came time to pay, I held out a flashcard that had the numbers 1 thru 10 and then 100 and 1,000 on it.  He pointed to the five and to the ten (2 times) indicating that the cost was 25Y…. $US3.67.

We continued walking around the lake and came to an area that had intrigued me last year.  There are tons of little booths set up with sheets and sheets of papers hanging from ropes.  Everybody is standing around excitedly reading the papers and talking to one another.  We REALLY need to figure out what is going on!!!

The park was filled with kids, parents and grandparents.  One set of twin girls came toward us and were looking intently at us and smiling.  Michael smiled back and said “Hello” and he was rewarded with “twin hello’s”.  This was a highlight of our day!!!

It was interesting to watch the reactions of people  seeing us here.  One grandmother obviously wanted us to interact with her granddaughter and we had a fun few minutes pointing to things and watching her walk around the bench where we were sitting. 

We found a beautiful spot to sit and look out at the lotus pond with bordering willow trees.

  We were  wondering why this area was open since people were everywhere else.  We realized that we were sitting in the sun and that is something that Chinese people simply do NOT do.   They believe that a lighter colored skin is preferred and they go to great lengths to stay covered.   We saw numerous people riding motor scooters with the man in the front and the woman in the rear holding an umbrella over their heads.   The funniest one that I   saw was a grandmother chasing after her grandson with an umbrella trying to keep him covered!!!!

We came to one area where there was a performance going on.  This is what we saw…..

As we were strolling around the lake we came across a group of University aged kids having a picnic.  One of them ran up to us and asked if she could have her picture taken with us.  We of course laughed and said yes.   Then, another 2 ran up, then one guy, then two or three more  and finally one single girl.  When this girl stood between us, one of the others gestured and started laughing at the difference in our heights!!   We walked away with a smile on our faces.  After walking a few yards, I went back and asked if I could take a photo of them.  They formed a Semi-circle and laughingly posed for us……

I am not sure what this tree was, but I LOVED the flowers……

These women were in ethnic dress and getting ready for an impromptu performance.  When the one woman saw me taking a photo she gave the most sincere smile and waved……they were beautiful!!!

There were kids riding in cute little boats…..

…..kids riding motorized animals …street vendors selling food and everything else that you could imagine….

We finished off the day with a plate of Salvador’s Chicken Nachos…… 

A good day was had by all…….

Finally, I will leave you with two of our “artsy” photos of the day……

Today (Friday) is the beginning of a three day holiday weekend and you could feel the excitement of the people around us.  WE are also excited as we are looking forward to experiencing a Chinese festival!!!

The day began with Michael working and me trying desperately (and unsuccessfully) to catch up on the blog.

We stopped for lunch at 11:00 and walked to the Physic’s Cafeteria, but arrived a few minutes too early.  Apparently the opening times are as fluid as their traffic lanes are!!!!  However, we soon saw a HUGE vat of rice being brought in, followed by lots of dishes of other items so we joined the line to be served.  Many people brought a large bowl with them and had all of their food placed in the bowl rather than on the tray.  Michael paid for our food, at a cost of 17 Yuan ($US2.50), got our “papers” (we call them napkins) and chopsticks and we headed to the table. 

We saw this sign and wondered what the four “pests” were….feel sure that one of them are Americans!!!

I am getting better with the chopsticks, but still have a really hard time with rice if it is not globby…..

I start out with a sizeable amount balanced on my chopsticks but only end up with a few grains in my mouth.  No wonder it takes me so long to eat !!!!

Today, I had pumpkin, greens, eggplant and a chicken wing.  The flavors are subdued and fairly bland, but after last night’s meal that is probably a good thing. …….

As we were walking out, we passed the “bakery” counter and motioned to the older server that we wanted two cookies.  He handed one to us so that we could taste them first.  We LOVED them and proceeded to buy 6 instead of two…..guess that shows why Sams Club always has samples!!

Michael headed back to work and I struck out for……you guessed it…..Carrefour!!!  We are a bit concerned that stores and restaurants might not be open this weekend so we wanted to stock up on a few things.

I approached from a different direction and passed an interesting shop that appeared to carry all sorts of stuff…..just my type of place!!!   I went in and realized that everything on one side of the store was one price….  9.9 Yuan.  So, as I found the British Pound Stretcher store in Edinburgh, I found the $US1.4559 store in Kunming.  I spent a full 30 minutes wandering around and looking at the treasures, and ended up buying a hammock-type metal basket that is used to hold fruit.  It will work great on our frig at home.  

The other side of the store held clothes, shoes, electronics, etc.  I had realized that the purse I had brought was not working well…..it didn’t have enough external, zippered pockets on it so it was almost impossible to find my cell phone or ANYTHING else when needed.    I found the perfect bag for only 39Y ($US5.74)!!!  It even has a cute little “blingy” thing hanging from it……

I realized as I was heading to Carrefour that I couldn’t take my new purchases into the store, but I remembered seeing storage lockers in the mall area and I decided that it was time to learn how to use them.  I “read” the directions (fortunately there were pictures), and then watched a young woman open her locker.  She saw me watching and offered the locker to me, but I motioned her off.   I then went up the to same keypad, pushed the button that was supposed to give you a locker ….and…..nothing happened!!!!!.  The young woman had waited to watch me and now came over to help me.  It appears that the reason that it didn’t work was because there were no more empty lockers in that section, so we moved to another keypad……nothing happened again.  OK, I wasn’t feeling quite so stupid!!!!    At the third keypad (note the number 23 above it), she pushed the button and door number 8 popped open.    At the same time I small paper ticket emerged from the machine bearing the number 23,  the number 8 and a bar code.

I thanked he, placed my previous purchases into the bin, closed the door, pocketed the slip of paper and headed to the store.   When I returned, I held the paper up to the scanner (note the red laser light) and Bin number 8 popped open again.  What a fun system!!!!!

There are signs showing that you shouldn’t take photos inside the store, but I pretended not to see those and used my I-phone to surreptitiously take photos anyway.  Here are a few things that I found……

The Chinese LOVE colors whether it is dishpans…..

…..shoes……  …..or bras!!!

They often accomplish their duties while squatting on the floor……..

There are hundreds (an exaggeration, but you get the point) of types of toilet paper to choose from, although ironically you are not allowed to flush it down the toilets…… …..equally as many types of toothpaste…….

The same holds for noodles……

…..rice  (those big bags in the background are bags of rice) …..and mushrooms…..

Here are two grades of minced pork……the one on the right was lean, the left one was medium fat.  I cant imagine what the lower grade looked like!!!!! 

I was amazed to find a loaf of French bread in the bakery and also found some New Zealand Butter which became our meal for the evening……it was delicious although the bread needed some salt so we sprinkled a few grains onto the butter!!!

I picked up a few different types of snacks (still dont know exactly what they are but will report back as they are opened.  I even bought some Apricot “cakes”, which are really just a thick cookie.

All in all, it was a fun and profitable trip.

The evening was relaxed and we enjoyed sitting in our living room and listening to the outside sounds including kids playing, dogs barking and construction trucks loading dirt and rocks.   There is a large apartment complex (go figure) going up a couple of  blocks over and the men were still working hard when I went to bed at 10:00pm!!!

Thursday started fairly quiet, but had a VERY spicy end to it!!!!

Michael spent much of the day working in his office while I made yet ANOTHER trip to Carrefour (just found out I have been misspelling it).   The main object of my desire was a fan for our bedroom.   Last night we slept with the windows open so that the room would stay cool.  The only problem was that we spent the night with our faces under the covers to avoid the buzz of the mosquitoes!!

I found several fans and decided, as usual, to buy the cheapest one since it didn’t have to last very long.  This ended up being a really bad idea since it only worked for about TWO hours and I have no intention of trying to return it.  Fortunately it only cost about $12!!!!

This shopping experience was pretty normal, however I did encounter a mob scene as a fresh batch of cabbage was delivered to the vegetable area!!!   Also, the “escalator” was broken so I ended up having to push my loaded cart UP to the top level.  I am glad that it was UP and not DOWN since I think that it might have been hard to stay in control on the downward slope and I would not have wanted to take out some little old lady with her freshly fought for  cabbage!!!!

We had planned to go to the Physics Cafeteria for lunch, but Michael was getting a lot done and didn’t really want to stop to eat. So, we decided to try one of the experiments that I had bought on a previous day.  We had seen people eating these in airports and all around campus and had laughingly called it “the mother of all cup-a-soups”!!

When I opened it this is what I found…..

I cut open the four packets (garlic, powdered spices, dried herbs/vegies and chili/soy sauce) and poured them into the bowl.  Next I added boiling water, sneezed a few times as the chili vapors infiltrated my sinuses, and let it sit for a few minutes……

It was delicious and spicy.  We shared the bowl and were barely able to finish the entire dinner.  I cant imagine how one person could eat all of it!!!

Michael stayed in the office and worked while I went up to the apartment for a bit of quiet time.   I did a bit of sewing and listened to some podcasts that I had saved on I-Tunes.

****For the quilters out there*****   Have you checked out toginet radio at http://toginet.com/ ?  There are hundreds of radio shows, including some from American Patchwork and Quilting  (with Pat Sloan as host) and also one from Mark Lipinski (Creative Mojo).

Thunderstorms had been forecast and showed themselves about 2:00pm.  It was quite impressive to see the torrents of rain coming down in the KIZ courtyard!!

At 4:00 we met with Wang Wen and drove to the Kunming Institute of Botany located in the Botanical Gardens.   Michael was meeting with Li-Zhi, another researcher who is at KIB.   He has spent quite a bit of time in Athens and we had the privilege of hosting him there a few months ago.

While they met, I had the opportunity to stroll around the Botanic Gardens.  Kunming has had a lot of rain this year so the gardens were lush and beautiful.  I had a wonderful time wandering and photographing some of the plants….

It started to rain again, but not hard enough to really get  wet, so I opened the umbrella and kept on going.   It actually made the photos prettier to have the leaves covered with droplets of  water!!

 

And no, this is not the Nimbus 2000 prototype, but just one of the brooms that workers were using to clear off the paths.   It is incredible the amount of work that is done by manual labor and with the simplest of tools.

As I walked around I could not get acclimated to the temperature.  It would rain and I would get cool so would put on my jacket.  Then it would stop raining, the sun would come out and I would get hot, so off came the jacket.

Michael called to tell me that they would be ready to leave in about 10 minutes so I started back up the path to the building.  What I hadn’t realized is that I had been walking DOWN hill for the entire sight seeing time and now I had to hurriedly walk UP hill to meet them.  I was puffing when I reached the gate again.

We returned to Li-Zhi’s office for a few minutes and he brewed us a cup of flower blossom tea.

The mixture is one that he makes himself and consisted of tea leaves and small flower heads.  It was really good because it had a nice tea flavor AND a fragrant aroma as well.  He said that these flowers have some medicinal qualities so the tea should be good for you.  So now we have eaten bugs and drunk flowers!!!

We climbed into his car and headed to dinner, with a couple of stops in between.  We first stopped at his new home.  It is mostly finished and furnished but they have not moved in yet.   It was an incredible condo with an infinite number of floors and a  sun room on the very top.  The views were spectacular and the furnishings were incredible.  I didn’t have my camera but there was one particular dividing screen that was gorgeous.  The design was a typical pot of Chinese flowers, but the screen was slightly transparent so that the art could be seen in both rooms.

We then headed to his current apartment so he could drop his car off.  On the way we passed a grand apartment complex that is under construction.  You can just see the tops of the structures……

As I mentioned yesterday, Kunming is trying to grow its population so it will have more power in the regional government and they are busily tearing down small shops and homes and replacing them with these types of apartments.  They have even made a law that they cannot build any more “single family” dwellings, including condos!!!

Li-Zhi told us that his apartment was very safe as one of the head officials in Yunnan Provence lived in the complex so the security was very tight.  This was born out in the form of two armed guards at the front gate.  We parked the car and started walking to the street to catch a taxi.  One of the guards stopped us and talked animatedly with Li-Zhi while  staring pointedly at us.  He informed Li-Zhi that we couldn’t walk in that area and would have to go a different way to get to the street.  Li-Zhi was obviously embarrassed  as he explained…. “it is because of your face”.   We thought that it was hilarious and immediately started planning the title of this blog post!!!

I told Michael later that it was the first time that I remember being discriminated against because of my race…..guess this is what it feels like to be racially profiled.

Li-Zhi wanted to take us to his favorite restaurant…..featuring Thai food.  It was a dark place, with dark wood furnishings and bright pink couches instead of chairs.  The couches were decorated with white and red pillows…..VERY colorful!!

The beautifully clad waitress brought the requisite green tea but this time it was flavored with Rosehips…..the second “flower drinking” of the day. 

We ordered a bottle of wine and I watched as the waitress uncorked the bottle and then turned to present the cork to a small Buddha statue that was on the shelf behind her.   They serve the wine differently than we are used to.  It is served in small amounts……maybe 3 or 4 sips each.  The waitress returned again and again to replenish the glasses. 

Also, it was interesting to watch the separation of duties.  The chefs would hand the food to a porter who would then accompany the waitress to the table.  Once there, the waitress would place the food on the table.

Li-Zhi went completely overboard when ordering and we ended up with 6 different dishes.  We started with a very spicy seafood soup.  I had a whole shrimp in the bottom of my bowl that I really wanted to eat, but couldn’t figure out how to peel it using chopsticks!!!  Next came a cold seafood salad, spicy pork, lettuce rolls with a spicy meat filling, an eggplant dish that had THE hottest milk-based sauce on it.  This was all accompanied by pineapple rice which was served in a cutout pineapple rind.  The final course was a gorgeous fish that had a very light flavor.

Many of the plates were lined with banana leaves which made for a gorgeous presentation.

All of the food was quite hot and by the end of the meal, we were both reaching for the cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce to try to cool off our palates.  Of course, those are the types of things that you are NOT supposed to eat (because they have been washed in the local water), but we are hoping for the best.

I was also interested in the timing of the meal.  We arrived about 7:30 and the restaurant was only about half filled.  It quickly emptied out and the kitchen turned off the light at 9:00!!   However, this particular restaurant continues serving ice cream, fruit and coffee long into the night so we finished up the meal with a fruit platter.  We could not believe the beauty of this presentation…….

  

I was especially enamored with the way that the orange slices were prepared, but was embarrassed to continue taking flash photos, so, while no one was looking, I hid one in a napkin and stuffed it quickly into my purse.   Michael died laughing when I told him but he agreed that it was worth it to get a good photo…..

……isnt it amazing!!!!!

So, another day and another set of tasty, wonderful meals!!!!  This blog seems to be turning into a food journal.  Maybe I should rename it……“Traveling in China on your stomach”