Picking a mango in Mother's garden

The days have been hot and humid in Kuching, Sarawak since I arrived.  If we are lucky, there will be a strong but brief shower in the afternoon, and the day cools off for a little.  The evening tends to be more pleasant.  Mother has a mango tree in her front yard, and some of the fruits are ripening quickly.  A few even had worms eating them.  Here are a couple of pictures of us picking our mangos.  There is nothing ladylike about our actions!

Mother getting ready with her picking bag

The mango fruits were too high for us to pick without a little stool and mother's picking bag.  Actually, this "picking bag" is my brother's fishing net, which he uses to scoop up his fish when he wants to clean their tank!  In my mother's house, a gadget can have many uses.  Here is another picture of my mother in action!

I can tell you that it takes skills to keep that sarong from slipping from your body, and she did not have a belt.  Here is one of me and I found it too hot to wear a blouse.  A bra is definitely out of the question!

The following pictures are much older than the ones above but you may find them interesting.  If you are bored, please surf to another blog.  Here is one of Rowena and her grandmother.

Rowena is in Lubbock, Texas for work but she will be visiting Jasmine in Arlington soon.  I will not be seeing her again before I leave for China  :(  I think this is enough for now.

2013 Changchun Auto Show

I have been in Kuching, Malaysia for about a week now but I want to post a note about the 2013 Changchun Auto Show before posting anything about Malaysia.  I keep forgetting to save my posting as I write and then losing my work ...grrr..rrr..  On Saturday, July 13, Pam, Nancy and I went by the light rail to the auto show.  The light rail was crowded but Pam and I got seats because of our gray hair--an advantage to enjoy because of our age!  It is not often that aging brings any advantage!

 This is me in a CMU t-shirt and a Chinese truck.  I was hoping that I would see someone who would recognize the CMU t-shirt.  We three collected several shopping bags although there were many bags we did not get.  Below is the Buick which is a very popular car in China.  

An ordinary black car

A Chinese character and me with my CMU-student signatures

You can see the bags that I was collecting.  These bags will come in useful when I go grocery shopping!  One thing I did notice at the auto show is that individuals were encouraged to buy the cars they like.  There were car salespersons around who would take your orders.  I never saw that at the Detroit auto show.  Anyway it was a fun outing and something different to do at Changchun.  I understand that in late August there will be an agricultural exhibition and show.  I am looking forward to seeing that.  In the meantime, here is a picture of the lilies at Jilin University.

Okay, what shall I write about now?  There is so much to see and record but then I always have second thoughts about posting my comments on the web.  Thoughts posted on the Internet never go away.  

The above was a plate of boiled dumplings that Nancy and I made a few weeks ago.  The fillings were eggs and chives, meat and Chinese cabbage.  We ate them with a sauce made up of vinegar, soya sauce and chillies.  You know me, I always add chillies to my food.  The wrappers were made with bread flour with yeast, and then waiting for it to rise a little before rolling and wrapping with the fillings.  The dumplings were then put in boiling water, cold water added again, waiting until the water boiled again.  This process was repeated three times.  Then they were ready to eat.   Yummy!  A couple of weeks later, I started dreaming about steamed buns.  Yes, I can buy them from a street vendor for one Yuan each.  However, I want to make some myself.

Mixing the filling for the steamed buns

Steaming the meat buns

So come another weekend, we made steamed buns.  The fillings were meat with Chinese cabbage, and vegetables with scrambled eggs.  The dough was made with ordinary flour and yeast was used to make the dough rise a little.  Because we did not cheesecloth, we used Chinese cabbage to line the steamer.  After the buns were cooked, we ate the cabbage as well!  Double yummy  here.

 

Here are more pictures of food.  The first was five green-bean ice lollipops.  They were one Yuan each, and so these five cost five Yuans (less than USD 1).  I do not have the picture of another one but one Yuan will also buy a green-bean and a red-bean lollipops, all in one wrapper.  I love to eat one of these bean lollipops when it is a hot and sunny day.

 Enough about food.  I am going to leave you with a link to a blog about going to the hospital in Changchun.  He wrote an interesting posting about his wife's visit to the hospital in Changchun.  Yes, medicine in China is a community business and the patients always need someone with them in the hospital, http://lifeinchangchun.blogspot.com/2012/03/dees-appendix-editorial.html#comment-form.  Enjoy.

July 4th, 2013 at 6:11 pm (Changchun Time)

There appears to be no fixed time for noise to stop at night or to start in the morning.  There is a building remodeling project going on night outside my bedroom window.   The man (I am assuming it is a man) is cutting metal until about 8:30 pm.  I had to close my bedroom window in order to shut him out a little. Luckily, by the time I get into bed, he has stopped—usually about 9:15 pm.  It is now about 5:31 am on July 4 (China Time) and he has not yet started his work.  I hear some other noises though—someone is spitting again, people talking, cars honking because they are being blocked by another car.

Spitting in China has been reduced since the authorities ban it.  The older people tend to spit more than the younger ones.  However, enough of it goes on that the foreigners complain about it all the time.  Okay, enough about foreigners’ complains (I am not sure why they are in China when they are not happy with what they are experiencing).

Here are a little more about my apartment.  I have a small radiant-heat stove, a microwave and a small refrigerator.  Last year I bought a small rice cooker and a crockpot from another foreign teacher who was returning to Canada.  This year I bought a toaster oven from Taobao, China’s equivalent to Amazon.com.  

My kitchenware

If you need something that you cannot find in the stores here, you go to Taobao.  Actually it is more convenient to buy things online because often there are no shipping charges.  You also do not have to get a taxi home with your purchases.  It is difficult this year to get taxis because of the road constructions.  Besides, you may have to struggle with the size of your packages.  When you order online, the packages come to campus in a van, and the driver calls you to collect your purchases.  You can also track your orders online and figure out when they would arrive.  Alibaba, the big internet company in China, has a vast logistics project that will deliver packages in rural China within 24 hours.  This logistics project is supposed to be completed in five years (?).  I will have to do more research on this for you.  My doctoral professor used to tell me not to be "preachy" and I am trying very hard to post rational, unbiased news about my stay.  However, it is very difficult when I have to listen to foreigners, who do not understand China, give their opinions.  However, sometimes the Chinese themselves do not understand what is happening to China right now.

Today is July 4th and Canada Day was July 1st.  Some of us ladies are hosting a combined celebration at 1:00 pm with a potluck.  Everyone has to bring their own plate, cup or glass and silverware.  That way we do not have to buy paper cups and plates, and, therefore, will not create any unnecessary trash.  At first, we wanted to do a BBQ but that was too much hassle.  We do not have a grill and we would have to buy charcoal, yah de yah dah....  I have a class at 8 am and so I have to go now.

Happy July 4th celebration.