Blogs from Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, Asia - page 29

Tag 1 Samstag Bis jetzt hat mich die chinesische Gastfreundschaft wirklich überzeugt. Wurde vom Chauffeur meines Chefs und einer chinesischen Praktikantin vom Flughafen abgeholt. Dann gings direkt mit ihm und seiner Family zum Japaner essen (er meinte, ich werde schon noch genug chinesisches Essen abbekommen). Nachdem ich mit meinen ersten Stäbchen Essversuchen 5 min maßgeblich zur Erheiterung des Tisches beigetragen hab, hats aber dann auf einmal super geklappt. Der erste Abend war eigentlich gar nicht chinesisch, schon durch das japanische Essen, und dann sind mein Chef + Family auch noch Deutsche, so dass ich mich fast heimmisch gefühlt habe. Chef schimpft sich laut Visitenkarte "Vice President Siemens China". Wollte bei Essen jetzt nicht nachfragen, aber hört sich für mich danach an, dass er der 2. höchste chinesische Siemensianer ist, wobei ich aber gelesen hab, ... read more

A few months ago, all of the foreign teachers at Nanjing No. 1 and I got invited to Ms. Gu's wedding. Ms. Gu is a Chinese English teacher at my school. She was marrying an American named Carlos. The wedding was very interesting for several reasons. First of all, I've never been to a traditional Chinese wedding, so that was obviously quite a treat. Secondly, Ms. Gu had met Carlos in a rather taboo fashion: over the internet. In fact, they met while Carlos was in New York and planned on going to live in New York after the wedding. Finally, the wedding was interesting because I think that Carlos had no idea what the hell he was getting into (in terms of being the groom in a traditional Chinese wedding). They had notified the local ... read more

After Xi'an, Sally and I spent two half days seeing parts of Nanjing. Wu was kind enough to go with us. Jan. 30 we went to the Nanjing Museum of Art. As always, it's traditional art, not modern art. It's a new museum with rooms for different types of art: painting, ceramics, brocades, sculptures, etc. We moved slowly, but we saw a lot. I liked the ceramics especially. I'll include some photos. One bright room had a sculpture display by a current artist. I'm adding a few of the sculptures here. Here is the preface to the room. People make history, and over the ages famous cultural figures are outstanding representatives of the people. The Nanjing Museum is by nature a museum of history and art--the art it houses reveals history to the visitors, who in ... read more

SO FAR AWAY Oh, I feel so far away from all the people I love. Christmas brings all those memories and emotions. Many people have asked me if I’m going home for Christmas. I wonder if I should have planned to go home. But I’m here for only one school year. But you, dear family and friends, are bso far away. Since I’m missing my family, international visitors in the U.S. are probably just as lonely. If you know any international visitors staying near you, please reach out to them. They are probably feeling very lonely. Consider inviting someone to dinner, if not at your house, at a restaurant. Take them to church with you; to the movies; to a museum or cultural event. I’ve made resolutions to work with more international visitors when I get ... read more

Winter pictures and I’m well The big dose of penicillin seems to have cured my throat. I feel great. I think the bamboo jars were cupping. I didn’t smell anything unusual like mugwort used in moxibustion. Wang, my masseur, didn’t use the glass jars, but the principle was the same. Here are two web sites with some info, http://www.geocities.com/altmedd/cupping.htm, http://www.itmonline.org/arts/cupping.htm After reading about this, maybe the cupping helped cure my sore throat. He did put on an even number of cups, first one on the left, then one on the right in a parallel place. Probably a ying and yang balance. It was 6 or 8 altogether. It was all done really fast. I was lying on a table face down with a face hole in the table. Since he speaks Chinese and a few words ... read more