21 August 2010
Greeting all from wet & rain-soaked China,
I spoke last week about the landslide and flooding here in China and as you may have seen in the news it has continued. God bless these families. To my surprise today, watching CNN, I heard the Liaoning Province (like a state in the US) mentioned showing pictures of flooding over by the North Korean border. I can assure you that while it's rained a lot here today in Shenyang, there are no mountains in view from which mud can slide...and even though we drove through some backed up water today going to the grocery, I don't think there is any risk of us washing away! I do admit though that it is getting closer to home when you see your Province's name on CNN!
This week has been relatively quiet! Rod has started Chinese lessons, and I'm continuing them. I've gotten kind of excited about starting to learn the characters. The stories behind some of them is fascinating. Some have evolved from the ancient scripts and graphics like the one I try to show below for early morning. Others have their meanings in myth and legends, others are strictly for pronunciation. There is an order and direction in which to draw the lines (typical top to bottom from left to right). I don't know many characters yet, but I now believe that they are possible to learn (which of course is the 1st step!)
OK, I'm really in the basic level..not even kindergarden, but it's a start! (And I did this from memory..not looking at my notes or anything!)
Otherwise, as you have seen in some of the other updates, shopping for food is always an adventure. Rod does all of the shopping here, so he typically gets to see all the "weird stuff", (live turtles, fried duck carcasses, fried duck bills, fish getting whacked in front of your eyes in the seafood section of your friendly grocer etc) unless of course he waits to go on the weekend! This week, he saw some interesting food in "your frozen food section" which is relatively tame by Chinese "weird" standards...he said he was afraid they wouldn't have it when he went back and he didn't have a camera, so he bought some. I'll let you read the "fine food" label yourself..interesting they put the contents in English too! Now who out there is secretly importing this stuff? He did assure me that we weren't having any of this...he'll "regift" to one of our Chinese friends!
Rod's interesting find in the local grocery store frozen food section!
The other event that happened this week was Chinese Valentines day called "Qi Xi" which means Double Seventh because it occurs on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. There's a legend about two lovers being separated and who could only meet each other on this day. There's evidence that this special day has been around since the Han Dynasty (206BC - AD220)...now that's a long time to keep track of a legend! Rod and I didn't observe it...mainly because we didn't know about it until it was over...that's one for me to remember next year!
That's about all for China...now, back to vacation and Venice!
I took a bazillion photos in Venice...but I've limited myself to just 3 to not do the "travel log" too much! One of the obligatory things to do in Venice is to take a Gondola ride...and we did it early evening so that it wouldn't be so blazing hot!
The Goldola drivers in Venice have to take a test and get a license to drive around Venice, and of course if they want to earn a tip, they have to be a good photographer!
The architecture in Venice is quite amazing...of course when you have water at your foundation and buildings that have been around for ages, and a city on water is a main tourist draw, the Architectural Review board for any changes is quite powerful..consequently, it's beautifully preserved. It is a very romantic place, but be warned...there is almost no place to sit down...unless you want to eat or drink...and the restaurants know all you really want to do is sit down...so they really hike the prices for everything in the big tourists areas...we saw an 8.00 euro Coke on the menu at St Marco's square...so we kept walking instead of sitting!
A view from one of the many pedestrian bridges in Venice, Italy...definitely NOT a handicapped accessible town!
Of course, no spot is complete without a stop to the gift shops!
Well, that's about it for us. Hope all is well with you all and thanks again for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! The adventure continues...next time, the Swiss Alps and the Bernina Express train across the Alps For those of you who mentioned that your images of the Alps was more like the movie "Heidi"...you'll be right at home in the next update!
Sarah & Rodney
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