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Published: March 30th 2008
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Yes, back to freezing weather, snow still on the ground (although thankfully, the 14 inches that fell here the week before last has melted), toppled shelf in the garage (Dan was here and cleaned up the gas spill, thankfully), but house otherwise intact, plants thriving thanks to the careful attention of Carly Madry and Dan. Thanks also to Dan for leaving the house immaculate after more than a week here over spring break.
What I want to know is, everywhere else we have been, the cherry trees, plum trees, peach trees, and magnolias have all begun to bloom within two days of our arrival. That happened in Shanghai, Xi'an, Beijing, and even in California. So why aren't our crabapple trees even budding yet?
Last day in Beijing we went to Temple of Heaven Park, photographed the iconic Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, and a variety of other structures used for rituals in the Ming era. (see
for more information.)
This huge park was planted with a grid of cypress trees, some going back to the building of the structure some 500 years ago.
One part was filled with people doing exercises, playing Chinese folk music, dancing, playing cards . . .
Then downtown to try to eat at a "snack alley" but it hadn't opened yet, so we had an early dinner of Peking Duck at a restaurant across the street. We then toured the snack alley with very full stomachs--good thing, because I'm sure the barbecued centipedes would have been much more tempting if I were hungry.
The "hamburgers" need some explaining. One of the few bits of Chinese I learned from my Dad was a song that road workers would sing while pounding pilings into the ground. He called it "Da xiang den," which means "hit the big stone," or so he said. The chorus went:
Da xiang den (ah!)
Yo diohhhh, hi-YA! Then there would be a one line verse, with the Yodio line afterward, and everyone would hit their hammers on the end beat of each line--much like "Po' Lazarus" from O Brother Where Art Thou? One verse was "Da ge, er ge kan
"Nine Dragon" cedar
(Looks like nine intertwined dragons climbing the trunk.) (ah!)" which meant "big brother, little brother watch us" (because he and Harald were standing on the side watching them work.)
Anyway, one verse I remember was "mo mo ri jian (ah!)" which he translated as "the hamburgers are cooking in the pan," which always put me in hysterics because it made no sense. "Mo mo" he said were like rolls that were sliced and had meat filling, tha twould be cooked or steamed or fried, and he thought they were kind of like hamburgers. The closest I can find in the Chinese pinyin dictionary is "bo bo".
I asked everyone, especially at the dinner table, if they knew what "mo mo" were. At first they'd seem puzzled, but when I would explain a little, someone would nod and say "mo mo" and agree that they were a kind of food with bread and meat. It may have been a regional thing. I can't find an equivalent yet in the pinyin dictionary.
So, at the snack stalls there were several places with the items shown in the photo. When I asked, "mo mo?" I got nods. So maybe these are "mo mo" cooking in the pan.
Trip to Beijing airport was made more exciting by the fact that our car driver (Angela's uncle) didn't know how to get to Terminal 3, the new terminal. At one point we went past the original airport building from about 1932, which is now at the edge of the airfield and is where they wash their cars. He stopped several times, often in the middle of traffic, to get out and ask directions. We made it though.
We took a two day layover in SF to hang out with Lynn's mom, sister, niece and nephew in Millbrae, and then flew back to O'Hare on Saturday the 29th.
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anonymous
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welcome home!! i can't wait to catch up in person-- what an amazing journey you 've had-- the part about grandpa and the "hamburger" song was so poignant to me-- I had never heard that story. I'm sure this trip inspired many memories of him... love, Jennifer