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It's been almost a month since I last posted an entry. I hope nobody's lost faith in me. May was an eventful month! I had my first serious Chinese tests ever, and mangosteens arrived in Kunming!
The purple mangosteen is a tropical fruit with the high distinction of being the
opposite of durian! Durian is a bad, bad fruit that smells like rotting shellfish and vegetables and tastes like stringy, overripe banana soaked in turpentine. Some people love it and find its taste to be something like fruity caramel and its smell, while still pretty rotten, delightful because of the fruit it signifies. These people are crazy. In Chinese culinary tradition, there are "hot" foods and "cold" foods, and this does not refer to the temperature at which they are served. They're more like yin and yang, where yin is cold and feminine, and yang is hot and masculine. Everybody should seek balance in the types of foods they eat, but it's generally considered good for women to lean a little more towards the cold end of the spectrum, since hot foods are supposed to make you virile. Duck is a cold food, and dog is a hot food! Anyway,
Rosebud Tea
People add lots of little bits to their tea, like goji berries and tiny dried rosebuds. I drank a lot of rose tea during midterms. durian is a hot food, and mangosteen is a cold food. Furthermore, the specified remedy for eating too much durian and experiencing the side effects of bad breath and, presumably, extreme virility, is to eat mangosteen! So I like eating mangosteens because I feel I'm sort of preemptively warding off the nastiness of durian.
I should explain mangosteens. They are a little smaller than tennis balls. They have leathery skin like that of a pomegranate, only thicker and dark purple. Inside, the flesh is segmented like that of a tangerine, but it's opaque and white, and one or two of the segments contain a big seed. The flesh is very sweet and tastes sort of like a mix between grapes and peaches. It is also sort of slimy. Some of you might be wondering why I'd eat this, since I'm kind of a fruit hater. Well, my fruit aversion started in childhood, and it seems it mostly applies to fruits of the ilk I was exposed to during my formative years. When it comes to crazy foreign things like mangosteens, I'm alright with them. This does not mean durian is okay, because that is just bad all around.
Farmer's Market Haul
For 50RMB (less than $7.50 U.S.) I got a dozen eggs, a pound of pork belly, half a pound of goat cheese, a pound of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konjac]conjac[/url], half a pumpkin, a red onion, a bunch of each fiddlehead ferns and what I am led to believe is pumpkin greens, and I also got a pair of shoes re-soled. Not pictured: pork belly and shoes The recent arrival of mangosteen season helped me get through midterms, which were altogether frustrating in the way of Chinese tests. I do pretty darn well when it comes to free-response questions, or even not-so-free-response questions, as long as they are not multiple choice. Chinese multiple choice questions can be very frustrating. Do you remember, perhaps, learning to take standardized tests back in the day, and your teacher driving home the point, "Sometimes it might seem like there are two correct choices, but make sure you pick the BEST one." This usually applied to questions where (a) was correct and (b) was also correct, and (c) was not correct, but (d) said "both (a) and (b)." This is usually what is meant by "pick the best answer." In China . . . "pick the best answer" means you might come across two entirely correct and
unrelated answers in the multiple choice selection. There will also be some completely subjective stuff thrown in there.
For example, in a story about a newlywed couple, one of the questions was "Why did the husband want to start referring to their things as 'our things' instead of 'my things' and 'your things'" and
Vegetarian Meal
I'm mostly posting this picture because I know my mom will be so proud of my for all the colors in this meal: roast pumpkin with sesame oil and chili, soybeans sauteed with red peppers, and scrambled eggs with a dandelion-ish green that tastes mildly of juniper. We were going vegetarian on behalf of a house guest. the responses were:
(a) because he is selfish
(b) because they are married
(c) because it's more convenient
(d) because they live together
So despite my nagging American tendency to want to raise arguments like "We don't know he's not selfish, this question is stupid!" I am at least willing to narrow the options down to (b) and (d), since they are both entirely valid and thorough enough answers. Beyond that, it's up to luck, it seems.
Whenever I get a multiple-choice answer wrong, I tend to argue (again, American tendency). And here's how it often goes:
"I picked (b), but you say the answer is (d). Please explain why (b) is incorrect."
"Because there can only be one correct answer, and the best answer is (d)." (At this point the teacher might go on to explain why (d) is a very good answer) "I understand (d) is a good answer, but why is it superior to (b)?"
(Teacher repeats the merits of (d)) "But, if I thought both (b) and (d) are equally accurate, how am I supposed to pick?"
"Because (d) is the best answer." I've been told before that Chinese logic is actually different
Sunflower Pills Man
One of my favorite ads I pass on my way to school. This jolly guy is all excited about "Sunflower Stomach-Recovery Capsules." from Western logic. So far, I haven't ventured to learn about this, but I kind of suspect Chinese logic has a different understanding of superlatives like "best." Because my logic is Western, I simply can't detach myself from the understanding of superlatives as being relative. If something is "best," then it's also necessary to understand the other items in question as "inferior," and one would hope to be able to defend the assertion of both positions. I wonder if maybe superlative items in Chinese logic aren't expected to be upheld on those two points.
Oh man, so all of that was a pretty heavy way of saying I
still don't like Chinese tests. More about tropical fruit stuff now.
So it's basically been summertime here for several weeks now. Temperatures in the 70s and 80s every day, except when it's raining in torrential downpour, and it drops to maybe 60 for the hour long duration. Ladies carry umbrellas as parasols when it's very sunny, and when it rains, these double as--surprise!--umbrellas. Fair skin is prized in China, so women avoid the sun, and envy me my natural complexion.
In other news, I find I enjoy the
idea of living in a place where I can live on the 29th floor of a building and still hear rooster cries in the morning a lot more appealing than the actuality, since roosters are annoying, it turns out. Another creature that has been interrupting my sleep is the nasty mosquitoes. Once again, the high elevation here saves us from the tropical horrors that may be, like giant mosquitoes, but these 6500 ft bugs are still pretty big compared to what I'm used to in Seattle. A highly effective way to avoid these turns out to be a product called "mosquito incense" (and I've got to admire the efficiency of a language that manages to convey that idea in two syllables:
wenxiang). This stuff, lit at bedtime so as to burn through the night, seems to be more effective than the citronella candles you use when camping back home, and so I'm not exactly convinced they're not carcinogenic. That is to say, whenever I encounter a useful product in China that makes me think "Now why don't we have this in America?" I try to think of all the possible reasons we
don't have it in America . . .
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Heather
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I LOVED your post about the Mangosteens', and your schooling, etc. The yin and yang of the food stuff is fascinating and I loved learning about it! My blog is looking for things exactly like that, plus travel photos, social commentaries, etc, to share with our readers. I am a total foodie and we even have a weekly "food find." I loved your post and would be happy to put anything if you'd like to contribute. If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email us at dirtyhippiesblog@gmail.com. Continued fun in China! Heather :)