Lip Gloss Soup (8/24)

From cool and rainy Pingyao to 100-degree-heat in Hangzhou—quite a contrast. One more free day and so my host Tonny took me to Xi Xi Park in the morning to enjoy a boat ride on the lake, a stroll around the park, a chance to soak in the natural beauty and feel summer in its full blaze. The air was sauna-temperature without the relief of jumping in the lake, the boat gratefully covered, the walk from one spot of shade to the next. It would be a lovely place to re-visit when the temperature is some 30 degrees cooler!

 

Spent the afternoon holed-up in my air-conditioned hotel room preparing for the 5-days of teaching ahead. Already the dreaming had begun in the park, with me jotting down inspired variations of old material and thinking about the order and sequence of moving from one happy activity to the next. 

 

Then I met Tonny and other helpers to go to a most beautiful lakeside restaurant, lotus flowers outside the window while eating lotus root appetizers, boats drifting by, temples on the distant hillsides. The usual assortment of remarkable dishes came to the table, including a soup with slender green strips. I asked what it was and Tonny’s Google translator answered, “Lip-gloss soup.” We all laughed at this “lost in translation” moment, but it turns out that it actually is a plant called a lip gloss plant and has the look and texture of little lips. I joked that I don’t usually taste things that could taste me back. But I did and it was delicious!

The sun set while we dined and I asked what latitude Hangzhou is. Turns out to be similar to San Francisco, yet it begins to get dark some 90 minutes earlier here, around 6:30. “Why is that?” I wonder and then let the question hang, somewhat happy to return to a time when everything is not immediately answerable on Google (because access for me is blocked). Don’t love keeping up with e-mail on my phone instead of my computer, but otherwise, kind of refreshing to be away from Facebook, WhatsApp and such. Good to know I can still live without them. I miss getting these Blogposts posted, but happy to be able to keep writing them. And I will post them when I’m home. A little deferred gratification never hurt anyone. 

 

Tomorrow the teaching begins. Let the wild rumpus start!