You say ‘curves’, I say ‘ladies’. I celebrate girl power wherever I go 
More information about this and other photo challenges can be found here.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Curves
Mad for Magnolias
Recently, I posted on a few species of magnolia that graced the concrete of my college with its early spring blooms. It’s now the end of May, and other beautiful things are on parade.
Magnolia grandiflora, the Queen of the magnolia family, is now in bloom. I have special memories of these gorgeous and fragrant flowers. When I was a wide-eyed 23-year-old, I took a trip down to Virginia and North Carolina from a frost-bite cold, icy, snowy, northern Ontario winter to check out the grad schools I’d been accepted at. These flowers were in bloom everywhere. Guess why I turned down the U of Minnesota
Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Background
Living in China as I do, I never exist in the background. I may consider myself an observer, but I am frequently part of the foreground for many people whether I like it or not.
To provide an example, take a look at the following photo.
I lived in a small town in rural China a few years ago. Across the street from my workplace was a small outdoor breakfast area. I’d gone for an early morning walk and as I was returning, I saw a camel at the breakfast area. That particular region was not home to camels, so it took me by surprise, and I snapped a photo. You’ll notice though that other onlookers were not interested in the camel. The camel was my foreground, the onlookers my background. And for others, such as that woman staring disapprovingly at me, the camel was background fodder.
Ah perspective…
This and other photo challenges can be found here.
The Wrench
In my last post, I announced that I have a new job. Yes, it is true, and I have signed a contract with a university in southern China. But there is a potential wrench to be thrown in the works. I require two things from my evil former employers in order to seal the deal. One is a letter of reference (even though I only worked for them for 3.5 months and even though I have already submitted two stellar letters). The other is a ‘letter of release’, which states that I am no longer working for them and comments on my awesomeness or lack thereof.
So far, my three requests for the letter of release have met with nothing. And I have submitted a fourth request, this time to the head of the international department who can neither read nor speak English, interestingly. I have also asked for a letter of reference from someone who said yes, but then never did it. I already missed the deadline on one university job offer because I couldn’t get that letter to them on time.
What are my chances of getting a good review from same people who wouldn’t take me to the hospital when I called them to ask for help in getting there and who have forged my signature a few times? Maybe not so good, in my opinion. Honestly, I am not sure what the future holds here. Being in this country has always been and continues to be an ordeal.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape
I’ve done numerous posts over the last 5-6 months describing what I’d like, but have been unable, to escape from, so for this post, I’m happy to say that as of a few days ago, I finally have something to escape to.
I have a new job starting in September, and for visa and paperwork purposes, next month, I’ll be relocating to Guangzhou, the city where I’ll be working. Good bye bad-news, law-breaking employers, foreigner-hating colleagues, and isolated college campus. Hello central and accessible university campus, welcoming and efficient staff, and snow-less, tropical city.
I will say that I am going to miss my current little crowd of students here in Nanjing immensely. I always do when I leave a school. On the positive social side, though, I will soon be reconnecting with some of my former high school students from Hunan province who are now university students in Guangzhou. I haven’t seen them in two years 
The photos above were taken when I visited Guangzhou for 3 days two years ago. There is a gorgeous botanical garden in the city, and I was in heaven.
More about this and other photo challenges can be found here.
Chinese Chess and Cha
And by ‘cha’ I mean 茶 – or tea, in English. In this case, it was an oolong-like green tea. Subtle, subdued – like the silent strategizing of a master chess player. I am not a master chess player… but I do like tea.
The other day, one of my favourite students came over for the afternoon. He is also my self-appointed Chinese culture teacher intent on schooling me on history and tradition and some of the nuances of life in China. Needless to say, I’m interested and grateful. He is a delightful young guy, really into life and learning, and I quite admire his attitude. If only all teachers were like this! Anyhow, he arrived at my door carrying several things. He had a small, beautiful teapot and cups from his collection that he keeps in his dormitory for tea-fueled gatherings with fellow students (who said the young are not sophisticated!?!), as well as some of the above-mentioned tea. He also had with him a chess board.
There are many forms of chess, and the one I was to be introduced to was xiàng qí (象棋) or Chinese chess. First, the game board:
The game represents a battle – typically, the period of time following the fall of the Qin Dynasty where the Han and the Western Chu duked it out for supremacy back in 206 BC (red pieces represent the Han, and black, the Chu). Dividing the board is a river separating the territories – the characters written are often 漢界 – or ‘Han border’. In this case it is 河界 or ‘river border’. Among the pieces used in the battle, there is no Queen – a sharp contrast to international chess where the Queen is the most powerful piece. I won’t go through all the moves and intricacies of the game – there is a perfectly adequate basic description on Wikipedia, and plenty of rule and strategy books out there. But I’ve included photos of the pieces below. One of the hardest things about learning the game is remembering which pieces are which after they’ve left their original position on the board. Further, the Chinese characters, even after I memorize what they mean, are much less satisfying or potent to me than the figurines of international chess – but I would say that about any board game that uses recognizable, three-dimensional tokens as opposed to chips.
 The Generals:Black – jiàng ( 将= general) Red – shuài (帥 = marshal) |
 The Advisors:shì (士 = scholar, gentleman, officer) |
 Elephant / Minister:Black – xiàng (象 = elephant) I don’t know what this character is Red – xiàng (相 – minister) |
 Horse:mǎ (馬 = horse) |
 Chariot:jū (車 = chariot) |
 Cannon:pào (砲 = catapult) |
 Soldier:Black – zú (卒 = pawn, private) Red – bīng (兵 = soldier) |
I must admit, I’m not fascinated by chess (or most games, for that matter) as some are. I like learning about the cultural and historical significance of things, and thus talking to my student about his belief that this game is one of several metaphors for life was infinitely more interesting to me than playing the game itself. Cognition is interesting, but the meta-cognition is way cooler. And if you are drinking tea at the same time, what could be better?
The Case of the Mystery Meat
[Continuation from last post: 'From Above'.]
Same photo, different questions. Take a look at my tray. Looks like some white rice, some greens, some kind of vegetable stir-fry, and what the heck is that in the top right corner?
I’d noticed it on other occasions in one of the hot trays in my college canteen, and I wrote it off as animal innards of the intestinal variety. Trust me, I ate my share of guts when I lived in Taiwan. There are some foods that take getting used to – you might not like them at first, but they grow on you, and you wonder how you avoided it for so long. Goat cheese was like that for me. But not guts. Nope. My brain tells my mouth that guts are not food, were never meant to be food, and that are mostly designed to process and/or flush waste products from bodies.
A few days ago, I met up with one of the students I’ve become friends with for dinner, and I asked him, “So, what do you recommend?” And he pointed out the very thing I’d been avoiding for months. And as if reading my mind said, “It looks like meat, but it’s not.” And then it dawned on me that it must be some kind of tofu-related dish.
Bingo. My young friend called it dòupí (豆皮 pronounced ‘doe-pee’), which roughly translates to ‘tofu or bean curd skin’. I have tried looking it up online, and the doupi I see doesn’t look quite the same – perhaps this was a regional variety. Basically, the skin is the film that is produced on the top of boiled soy milk. In this dish, the thin skin is rolled and there is a beautiful sauce that it is cooked in. It is absolutely delicious and decadent. Soft and juicy, your teeth are cushioned as they sink through the multiple layers. There is a slightly sweet taste and upon chewing, a spicy tang. It is quite difficult to describe, but it must be tried. It is also really filling. Take a look at some close-ups below.
