Orient Express

This blog has been silent the last few weeks because I have been, quite literally, far away from home.  From July 10 to 27 I was in China.  I spent most of my time in the city of Suzhou, helping to lead a best-practices workshop for Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers. For many reasons (my gentle readers' attention span not least among them) I cannot give a full, or even particularly thoughtful, account of my trip right now. I'm still pondering the weight of our very beautiful-baffling-busy time abroad, so until I have longer stories to tell or deeper reflections to offer, I give you (in order of increasing profundity) a few of the lists I have been making as I look back on my time as a foreigner.

New Culinary Experiences

• cow stomach
• spicy frogs
• chicken feet ("Bite the toes off first," they told me.)
• sow's ear
• Peking duck
• jellyfish
• duck tongue
• donkey meat (the entree was advertised as "Griddled Ass")
• "stinky tofu" 
• eel

Just some of the tea-related
 paraphernalia I bought in Suzhou. 

Reasons China is Awesome for People Who Love Tea

• hotel rooms come with a hot water kettle and tea bags (not a nasty, coffee-tasting coffee maker)
• entire gardens are devoted to tea
• even small supermarkets offer a wide array of loose, bagged, and instant teas
• milk tea can be ordered with tapioca-pearl "bubbles"
• hot tea is served with nearly every meal

Tea!

Our room in Suzhou came ready for tea.

Much fancier tea service at
our Beijing hotel.

An enchanting tea garden!

Words I Learned Either to Read or to Say (But Not to Write) in Chinese

"Tea" again! I can read!

• white
• red
• gate
• bridge
• horse
• mother
• eggplant
• hello
• tea
• mouth
• "I don't want [it]"
• "I don't know"
• "See you later!"
• "How are you?"

Forms of Transportation We Used During Our Trip

See the boats?

• airplane
• gondola (both motor-powered and hand-rowed)
• bullet train (the same day and the same line as the July 22 crash)
• subway
• bus
• taxi
• personal car
• cable car
• ski lift

Miscellaneous Things I Loved about China

• inexpensive, delicious food
• family-style meals
• readily-available public transportation
• not freezing from overly air-conditioned buildings 
• cheap, high-quality fountain pens 
• melon-flavored candy

Miscellaneous Things I Did Not Love about China

• over-crowded buses and subways (especially in Beijing)
• having to brush my teeth with bottled water
• humidity 

Genuinely Beautiful Sights

One of Suzhou's smaller gardens

Tiger Hill, one of the most famous sites in Suzhou and UNESCO World Heritage Site

We had a beautifully clear view of the mountains
surrounding the Great Wall at MuTienYu.

People I Came to Know and Love 

• Dennis, Agnes, Erin, and Sarah
• Ken, Jean, Elaine, and Grant
• Jon, Shelley, and Janae
• Jody and Amanda
• Sherry
• the teachers in our two-week workshop

Questions I Have Not Answered

• What does it mean to be a "foreigner"?
• What is the best way to learn Chinese?
• Have I grown too complacent in the familiar communities and relationships that are home to me?
• Does the idea of a settled home ever become an idol for me?