Thur May 29 – Okay We’re Baby Stepping Through the Crosswalk

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It continues to remain an adventure. Anyway, we had a little switch around in our schedule today. Instead of the Chinese painting class we practices some calligraphy. I think it worked out for the best as we learned more about the brush strokes with the calligraphy lesson which we also used in the painting class. Our practice was just some “simple” strokes horizontal, vertical, diagonal curving, and hooking. Creating the general stroke shapes is easy. Anyone can make move the brush across the parchment in a straight or curved line, but getting the shape correct is where the art of it comes in. That includes the getting the varying thickness along the stroke length, getting rounded ends to the strokes, and making sure to get all the accents of a single stroke. Like for the straight line it’s not just round ends and a straight connecting line, there are special characteristics to the stroke at the beginning and end. You can see in the second picture, the one on the board is done by the professional. I tried by best to do the same but as you can see I have a ways to go before I would be deemed a calligraphy master.



For dinner tonight I went a mix of people to the nearby Culture Street where there are a number of small restaurants, small shops, and convenience stores. We ended up going to a Korean style place, where we mostly order these cast iron pot meals. It was pretty small but good. I will say also I got the one with rice, chicken, and egg and there was so little chicken I was almost convinced I had been given the incorrect pot till half way through eating it when I found a few respectively sized pieces to merit its inclusion in the item description. When it was first served the cast iron mini pot was still keeping the food inside sizzling and you quickly mixed it all up to break up the egg on top and get it all jumbled up with the rice, chicken, and sauce. It was also the first time I’ve not used chopsticks to eat my meal as it was just served with a soup. Our trip chaperon likes to joke using chopsticks so much is giving him carpal tunnel, but that also with this one meal using western cutlery he’s going to regress and loss all the chopstick skills he's fought so hard to pick up with each meal. Besides all the slippery noodles I like to think I’m pretty advanced with my chopsticks, I’ve been sniping out single peanuts and even some items on moving dishes around all these lazy susans.

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