The first topic is traffic. I have heard the expression “stay off the sidewalks” because a certain teenager just got their license; or just got their license back. Well here it doesn't matter if you are on the sidewalk or front yard, center of the road, or the curb. You are fair target and it may come from any side. Or for that matter the front or behind you must watch for a hit. The size of the vehicle doesn't matter (typically not a semi; they are seldom seen.) The cement truck is probably the heaviest, good thing that he has a loud horn so you have time to get out of his way. Next would be a 3 wheeled dump truck; they are a single cylinder diesel with lots of gears. They don’t need a horn because you can hear the distinct sound; engine speed at the most is 100 RPM, travel speed maybe 10 or 15 MPH. But they have carry capacity more than 2,000 bricks. Add this together with a driver that is paid by the mile; well you know that he couldn't stop even if he wanted to.
The next step would be a bus. Their income is by the number of passengers; so he goes where the people are. It is a cheap ride; only 2 RMB or about 12 cents. It is kind of a toss up if there are more taxis or motorcycles but we will start with taxis. They are from a small car and smaller 3 wheeled cars and are usually red. You also have the choice of bus style body (seriously you thought the old Volvos were square.) 3 wheeled motorcycle or 2 wheeled with a rumba seat type taxis. The cost is by the mile with a base rate of 5 RMB. That means that the faster they get our out the quicker they can get another fair. They all have working horns although the 3 wheeled cars are more of a hum. The same driver that stops in the lane to let you out or in will also toot if someone stops in front of him so don’t know if the horn is for you; look out coming through or another obstacle.
I think it is a toss up between the private cars and the motorcycles or E-Bike (battery powered scooter) as to what is the most dangerous. The motorcycles far out number the private cars and are quite maneuverable in a crowd that they pass through but the owner of a car is an elite group and therefore should have the right of way. In both cases the horn is used to advise that you are in their way and should move. The greatest problem is when you have multiple horns; you get no time to guess if left or right instead allow your instinct to help you.
Our next topic is food and what goes with rice or noodles. Most of you know I am not a big fan of vegetables and less of a fan of green vegetables, and even lesser fan of cooked green vegetables, and I really really do not like cooked to mush green vegetables that I don’t know what they were / are. But as you would guess that is what goes with rice and noodles.
Allow me to ramble a bit. We found some snack type foods for example ketchup flavored French fries o-boy; I like ketchup on my French fires; well they were crunchier than potato chips and I don’t know what is used for the ketchup taste but they missed it and I had the unpleasant taste for more than an hour. We found microwave popcorn; hurray then noticed it is strawberry or chocolate flavor; we are a bit skeptical; what happened to butter flavor; I don’t know. We found Lays Potato Chips. . .but they are chicken, beef, cucumber, and of course ketchup flavored. If you think that America has too many choices of breakfast cereal; wait until you shop here for soy sauce. The saltines crackers come pre buttered; my nephew Samuel would like that.
We discovered that Tofu comes in many different shapes, color, and consistency but no matter how they cook it (and they do use several varieties) it still tastes like nothing and does not need chewing.
Bought a barbecue chicken on a stick from a street vendor. . . it wasn't chicken. Sue bought some bacon later to discover it is lamb; that will be part of today’s supper.
The “meat” that is served on campus; after 2 weeks of eating it we are still only guessing, most times we guess it is duck. Someone suggested that we should bring coffee with us. We did and the 2 canisters will last all year (we don’t think so.) We haven’t found a coffee pot yet but Lidia is coming to visit up during Chinese New Year and she said she would bring us one. We think we found hamburger but will have to verify with our interpreter. We found out yesterday that the meat we thought was hamburger was really ground pork or ground lamb so the search continues.
The bread is sweet; the salt is powdered.
***IF you are skirmish skip to the next part. While in the street market in the “meat” section; they have ¼ of a cow hanging and whack off some for you with a butcher knife. You have your choice of live or dead fish; (seriously it is belly up in the tank.) Chicken or duck live or plucked and something in a pail with water, maybe something from the sea or maybe something from the chicken or duck. I have traveled and try to experience but I think I will pass on the nose from a pig.
The mushrooms are some type of a black fungus. The broth of a soup is sometimes similar to jelly fish; it can be scooped up with a fork but expect it to slide off.
A few other tidbits: Today we had to squint when looking into the sun. We were advised that it will get to freezing. Well there are icicles handing off the mops.
Mid-size 3 wheeled motorcycle pickup carries about 45 cases of book each more than a carton of reamed paper.
After a week of classes…we will tell you more later.
