How did we miss that turn??

On Wednesday we had a fairly quiet day, spending most of the time getting things set up in our apartment and doing some administrative stuff on the computer.

Before we left the hotel, I took a photo of the bathroom…..….notice the shower and drain in the floor. We always had flood!!!!

We walked the last suitcase to the apartment, hoisted it up the stairs and sat down for breakfast…..a cup of tea, a cup of instant coffee (made with THREE times the suggested amount of coffee) and some wonderful Butter cookies…….

At lunch, Jialin asked if we would accompany her to a restaurant on the campus of the Kunming Institute of Physics. We, of course, said yes and she urged us to hurry along because there was only a limited amount of food. We needn’t have worried!!!! This is a cafeteria style place where you pick up a metal divided tray and ask (or point in our case) for different foods starting with rice. There were 5 or 6 vegetable and/or tofu dishes, several meat dishes and lots of fruits. We each had cucumbers in a spicy sauce (this has become a favorite) and some sort of greens. Michael went entirely vegetarian while I chose to have a BBQ chicken wing.

Jialin suggested that we have one specialty….sticky rice cooked in a banana leaf.

She told us that we could only get this dish for another few days as it was made specially for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival (on Monday). It is made from a certain type of rice that is steamed in the banana leaf until it gets gluggy (for want of a better term). It is served with granulated sugar and you pry a hunk of rice off and dip it into the sugar. It is REALLY good!!!! The hardest part is getting the banana leaf removed. It was messy and our hands got sticky, but interestingly they did not stay that way….guess it was magic!!!

It was much like a feeding frenzy in the room. You pick your food, pay for whatever you have chosen and then EAT, EAT, EAT!!! As soon as you are finished you jump up and let someone else have the table. We were there toward the end of the lunch time so it had almost completely cleared out before left. An older woman came in carrying a plastic bag and proceeded to scavenge scraps from the trays. Jialin told us that “Auntie” (as they call older persons) comes in and gets food to take out and feed the stray cats.

We laughed at one sign that said “No Spitting”!!

The next stop was Carfour AGAIN to get yet a few more things that we needed. As I mentioned, the store is on 3 different levels with moving ramps between the levels. We were interested that when you push the cart onto the ramp, it sticks in place and will not move forward or backward. We haven’t figured out exactly how it works, but it appears that the wheels somehow fall into the cracks on the ramp. We also noticed that they have goods for sale beside the escalator so you can pick up various small things as you travel along. Mostly these were sweets or snacks.

By the way, 1 Yuan is 15 cents US.

Oh yes, while checking out we received a coupon…..dont know what it is good for but nice to know that we are shopping thriftily!!!

I had asked Jialin for a map of the city and the only one that she could find was huge and coated with plastic so that it was hard to fold. I had the idea to simply cut out the area that we needed…..about a 2 mile radius around our apartment. It worked great and I can fold it into fourths and it fits neatly in the pocket of my notebook!!

We decided to put the map to a test and see if we could find our way to Salvador’s, an American run coffee shop and restaurant. We made it there without a hitch, although it ended up being a longer walk than we had expected.

We ordered a plate of nachos, a Tsingtao beer, Coke Zero and Espresso! Sounds like a horrible combination but we enjoyed every bite/sip of it!!!!

We walked around the corner and found the shop that my friend, Aling, owns. She is a wonderful fiber artist but also has jewelry, paintings and drawings. I am looking forward to going back there for some intensive shopping therapy!!! We spent a bit of time talking to her and also met her partner, Chris. He is a part owner of Salvador’s, along with Aling’s husband Colin.

We had said all along that we were too tired to walk back to KIZ and that we would catch a taxi, but, when the time came, we decided to walk anyway. And then the unthinkable happened…..we turned one street to soon and ended up in an entirely different part of town. The biggest problem is that we didn’t figure it out until we had walked about half a mile!! It was hard to decide where we were on the map because the street names are all written in Chinese characters so we had to do it based on where the cross streets were. We were finally able to figure out where we were and make our way back home, but you do NOT want to be lost, on foot and already tired. It is not a good combination.

Needless to say, the climb up the NINETY FOUR steps was not a happy event!!

We spent some time relaxing and listening to music and then fell thankfully into bed!!!

The day we ate bugs!!

We had a VERY early start to our Tuesday morning as I woke up at 1:00am and Michael at about 3:00. Obviously we were going thru our “2nd day in a foreign country” jet lag!!

For some reason we both woke up a little bit discouraged this morning, mostly because we were looking at everything that we had to do to get set up to live for the month. Also, we both had splitting headaches from lack of caffeine!!

We finally got up about 4:00, had showers and were ready to leave the hotel at 6:00. We walked to the apartment, taking one of the suitcases with us. Because the sidewalks were pretty rough, Michael found it easiest to walk in the street….actually in the motor scooter lane. It was interesting to see all of the bikes and scooters move quickly out of the way to avoid Michael and the suitcase…..

When we reached the apartment (and lugged the suitcase up the stairs), we put on a load of clothes and began to get everything organized.

We didn’t know where to go for breakfast, but had been told that there was a KFC by the Carfour and that they had coffee so our plan was to go there. Unfortunately they didn’t open until 9:00 so we were truly hungry and caffeine deprived. Unfortunately the entire menu was in Chinese so we weren’t sure how to order. The server finally reached under the counter and pulled out a well worn menu that had pictures and a few English words on it. They didn’t really serve breakfast, but we were able to get a cup of coffee, a Pepsi and a box of popcorn chicken. ……

….maybe not the greatest meal, but one that sure helped us to feel better!!

As we walked back to KIZ we came across this gentleman with his grandson. We smiled at him and he proudly showed off his charge. He was very pleased when we asked if we could take a photo……

We have seen so many older adults taking care of young children. We asked Jialin about this and she commented that her Mom was living with her to help take care of the baby when it is born in August. She made one very interesting comment that originally everybody felt that the young people should be taking care of the elders, but that she thought it was going to end up being the other way around.

Speaking of babies, we asked Jialin if she knew the sex of her baby and she said that people are not allowed to find out. The reason is because people only want to have boys so they are more likely to terminate the pregnancy if they know it is a girl……very sad!!!

We met Jialin at 9:30 to go register our presence at the local police station. I had seen a notice in the airport that, if you were not staying in hotels (who copy your passport), then you needed to register. We arrived at the “Residential Registration Service” and started filling out paperwork. Jialin did most of the work and we just smiled and tried to look pleasant!! She told us that moves have to be approved by the government. They are currently wanting to greatly increase the population of Kunming, so everyone is allowed to move there, but some other more populated areas are not accessible.

We had one good laugh when one female officer answered the phone and then turned and yelled to someone in another room. We decided that this was their answer to an intercom!!!

We had been invited to have lunch with Wan Wen, another professor at KIZ. We walked to a nearby restaurant and had a very enjoyable lunch with he and 8 others. We have laughed at how many different dishes they order for a meal. In the US, we always use the “n-1” principal…..one less meal than the number of people eating. Here they seem to use “n+++”. This time we had a huge variety of dishes, including BBQ Ribs (spicy and fantastic), Bitter root, Fried Lettuce (excellent flavor), Eggplant, a mixture of Hominy, beans and celery, Rice Soup, Tofu and egg yolk soup and rice soup (didn’t try either of these). There was also a spicy meat with lots of bones which I recognized as Bullfrog….we had eaten it before.

All of the dishes were beautifully presented, but I was very taken with this wonderful Bass……

It was almost too pretty to eat.

We were offered a fruit drink and were expecting a juice of some sort. Instead we were given a warm, creamy drink made from sweet corn. It was really good!!!

After this magnificent lunch, Michael had a meeting with Wen, so I headed back to Carfour to buy a few more things that we needed.

The first thing that I tried to purchase was a hot pot for boiling water. I had picked one out and realized that it was designed to be used on a hotplate and would not work by itself. I then found a very cheap one that had it’s own heating unit. At this time a clerk came forward to help me and was trying to tell me something. I couldn’t understand so a very nice young woman stopped to help. She told me that the one I wanted was sold out so I picked another one. The clerk got it off of the shelf and asked (with the help of the shopper) if I would like her to plug it in and show me that it worked properly. I said no thanks and went on with my shopping.

I spent a long time looking for instant coffee and tea bags. There were lots of boxes with packets of “soluble” coffee and I finally picked one to buy. Fortunately I looked at it further and realized that it had milk and sugar in it too. Michael would NOT have enjoyed that. I finally found a Nescafe version that was black coffee. I had almost the same problem with my tea bags. There were hundreds of different types of tea, but most were green or Pur. I finally found a box of Lipton “Yellow Label” and bought those, hoping that it was the right stuff.

I was able to find many of the things on our list, but had to stop short because I knew that I had to carry the packages UP the stairs!!

I met Michael after his meeting and he ended up helping me up the stairs…hooray for husbands!!!!

We spent an hour or so at the KIZ office. They very kindly set up a desk for both us, complete with nice chair, internet connection and power strip.

Wan Wen invited us to go for dinner as well, taking us to a restaurant that specializes in mushrooms. I am not a huge fan of mushrooms, but these were absolutely wonderful. Most were fried in some manner and were crispy and tasty. There were 7 dishes in total, including a mushroom soup. The first one served had beautiful carrots that were shaped like butterflies!!! One of the dishes was a grilled Goat Cheese that was scrumptious!! Wen ordered this one because the cheese came from his home town. I loved it just the way it was, but couldn’t help thinking how nice it would be a fresh loaf of French bread.

Wen then asked if he ordered some fried insects, would we eat them. We said that we would love to try them so out came a dish containing bamboo worms and fried wasp pupae.

They were deep fried and were crunchy and salty. I liked the pupae better, but Michael preferred the worms. As Michael said….”Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus”!!! Wen was very surprised that we were willing to eat something so different and commented that we were not like normal Americans.

Here is the table at the end of the meal…..still lots of food left…..

There was a wall that contained all of the mushrooms that the restaurant used and it was interesting to see them in their natural state…..

Wen was truly a connoisseur and enjoyed telling us about each of them.

We returned to the hotel and CRASHED!!!!

Kunming…..Day 1

On Monday morning I realized that we had been traveling for 2 days and I had yet to take a photo……SO unlike me!!! I did find a quilt pattern on the floor of the hotel lobby…..

…..and this interesting “Telly-Tubby”-esque television show……

We left our hotel and took a hotel bus to the airport where we caught a flight from Beijing to Kunming. The flight was delayed for a while because of heavy traffic in the area. A young girl sat next to us who was from Inner Mongolia. She was traveling to Kunming to attend one of the Universities and was studying Japanese. She could speak FIVE languages….puts me completely to shame.

We were met at the airport by a waving and VERY pregnant Jialin. She ushered us to a taxi and took us to the hotel that we were staying in for the night. We quickly organized our stuff and set out with her to see the apartment that we would be renting for the month.

Michael is working at the Kunming Institute of Zoology and the apartments are located on the KIZ compound. There are two blocks of apartments, the first for students and the second for Post-Doctoral Researchers and Professors at the Institute.

It is a 3 bedroom flat with a HUGE living room, and exactly 7 pieces of furniture…..3 beds, one couch, one coffee table, one desk and one chair!!! Fortunately, that is all that we will need!! The kitchen does not have a stove as many people here use a small electric range that sits on top of the counter. Oh and did I say that it is on the 6th floor and there is no elevator!!!!

By now it was time for dinner, so we met Jialin and Professor Dong at the KIZ front gate and walked back to our hotel and had a wonderful dinner at the restaurant there. Jialin handed us the menu and said that we should practice. The problem is that the menu was about 20 pages long. We tried looking at the pictures to decide, but it was very hard to figure out what was in the dishes. In the end, we picked one that we wanted and let Jialin pick the rest.

Our dish was a potato with a spicy dried beef and it was very good. We also had cucumbers in a very spicy sauce, green beans with some root vegetable and peppers and Goose liver with a very rich sauce (we both just had a bite of this as it was SO rich).

Then came the dessert. Now, if you were reading the blog from our second trip to Kunming, you would know that we haven’t had very much luck with Chinese desserts, so Michael and I both gave a wan smile when they appeared. But we were greatly pleased when the desserts had an excellent flavor and texture. They were a fried pastry with a Papaya filling and were a perfect mix of sweet and savory. They would be wonderful to eat at breakfast with coffee or tea.

Even though we were tired, we decided that the first order of business should be to walk to Carfour (the equivalent of a Chinese Walmart) and begin purchasing the things that we would need, including sheets, towels etc.

The store is on three levels with the check-out on the top level so you just keep going up and up and up. We didn’t get a cart at the start which proved to be a big mistake, but one of the store clerks took pity on us and brought one to us.

The first item that we bought was a clothes dryer (something to hang wet clothes on). When we were at the apartment in Rome, this was the type of clothes dryer that we used, so we knew exactly what to look for.

Next came towels and sheets. We did ok with the towels but were having trouble figuring out which size of sheets to buy. Here they only use a bottom sheet and then have a comforter over the top. We, of course, are used to having 2 sheets so we were trying to find a matched set…..it cannot be done!! We ended up with a pink sheet and a white one with purple flowers on it. The pillow cases are a peach color. Our bed will look like a princess palace….glad Michael is secure in his masculinity!!!! _6012567

We also needed to buy a comforter. By now we were attracting the attention of several store clerks and they all came over to help us pick out what we needed. One of them figured out that we were buying the least expensive of items and proceeded to point out which would be best for us. Once we had picked one out, she unzipped the bag and pulled it out so that we could see the quality. This is a scene that has played out several times so far.

We knew that we were going to need a bunch of additional stuff, but had two worries at this point…..firstly, we had to carry it back to the apartment and secondly, did we have enough cash to pay for it!!! I did a quick calculation and decided that we had barely enough cash so we stopped buying things and instead headed to the checkout. While standing there we realized that we did not have any bags to put the stuff in and they dont use plastic ones. I saw some garishly decorated bags just above the cash register so we grabbed one of those….it cost 15 cents!! By now I was REALLY sweating that we were not going to have enough money!!! As I stood adding it up while the clerk rang it up, Michael said….”I wonder if they will take my bank card?” So, he handed him the card and it worked perfectly…..WHEW…..crisis averted. By the way, we would have had about 30 yuan left ($4.50)!!!

We carried our treasures back to the apartment and stood horrified as we realized that we would have to carry the bags up all SIX flights of stairs!!! We had an even worse moment when we realized that we would also have to carry our 50 pound suitcases up those stairs as well, but at least we had a day or two before that event and as I like to quote Calvin and Hobbes…”a day without denial is a day you have to face.”

We unloaded our bags and contemplated starting to wash the sheets, but decided that we were too tired so instead we walked back to the hotel and hit the sack!!!

…….ONE day gone and a whole bunch to go!!!!!