H is for Herbal Candy

I don't care much for herbal candy but I cannot resist a good tin box. So I buy them, empty the contents in friends' handbags or pockets, and keep the containers.

I wish I could post a photo of my collection. I keep all sorts of crap in these containers. They are so beautiful my friends love them, and I've been known to gift them as birthday presents. What's inside them is appreciated, but the little metal box even more so.

I only gift these boxes to people who will get as excited about them as me. And with time, they have become a favourite souvenir from China.

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Afterthought: I realise the content of my post is quite unrelated to its content. But that's what herbal candy is for me: a gorgeous tin-box opportunity ;)

G is for Great Wall

When I was a child, my grandfather Dido used to express his amazement that the Great Wall of China was the only man-made structure that could be seen from the moon.

I have never bothered to check the veracity of that fact. And I think that the clouds of smog over China would make it impossible to see the ground even from a twin-engined plane.

This is fact: When I went to the Great Wall for the first time, I had already been in China for six months. However, it was when standing on those stones that it dawned on me that I was in China. And even though I seldom pose for photos, I had this one taken for my grandfather.

I sent him the photo by email (via my one of my brothers). The next time I visited Buenos Aires, I went to see my grandfather in a rehabilitation clinic. He was there to recover from a hip replacement at the age of 92. And everyone knew me as the grandchild who was in China. He had had the photo printed (A4) and it was there with him. I know he had gregariously travelled with me, which makes total sense, as he is one of the people I carry everywhere.

The Great Wall has always been one of his places to me.

F is for Friends

I love my friends so much, that if I blogged about them I could make you vomit. I started this post several times. And although I generally don't mind getting personal, it got a bit out of hand in length.

It seems that not content with having many friends, I know them in detail. 

Then I tried to think of my friends "in bulk". Inconvenient. Because what group of friends should I focus on?

Probably my friends in China. They open the doors to welcome me; they store my crap so I can travel light; they lend me books; they get me maps; they dine and wine with "my" storytellers; they recommend restaurants and cook me home-made meals; they let me tuck their kids in bed; they wake me up for early coffee;  they lend me extra clothes; they get me beauty products and salon discounts; they give me business advise and introduce me to awesome people. They are my home away from home and I love them. And I'm blogging about China this month.

But while I was in China, my school friends were also constantly with me. How so? We exchange a gazillion messages on a daily basis. While I am on the opposite end of the world, my good friend G. in BA, recovering from the removal of a tumor in her breast, and facing a year of intensive chemo and radiation. Our girls have become drivers, delivery women, company, personal shoppers, meditation coaches, logistics operators and such. If you must ever to go through hell in this life, make sure you count on a group of women like them to support you.

Or else those other friends that are present because they were part of my life in Shanghai and are now elsewhere in the world. So bits of my heart are scattered in a few parts of Australia, in Winnipeg, in Philippines, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Thailand, London, Buenos Aires, Liverpool. Plus the ones who have nothing to do with China and are also far away.

And there are the new friends. And others I carry with me constantly.

So it is truly impossible to write about friends. Here or there or anywhere.

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Robin is also blogging about Friends! http://startingfromzed.blogspot.hr/

E is for East meets West

"Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet"

by Rudyard Kipling

I thought this would be a long post, but I was wrong. East does meet West, and I know exactly where: it is in the hearts and minds of those who can sense beyond the senses.

East meets West in the hearts of the best people.

D is for Dumplings

Robin arrives in Shanghai saying that all she wanted to do in China is eat dumplings. This turns out to not be true in that this is really not all she wants to do. However, eat dumplings we do. Dumplings with a story.

On the first morning after her arrival, Robin and I go for morning coffee and divergent (oh so divergent!) conversation. A lazy Saturday. In between coffees, I leave her to dash to the ATM and buy her dumplings. The type that come in soup.

A mere 15 minutes later, I come back to Costa Coffee to find Robin sitting with a young dude. They have struck an instant friendship, despite the fact that he has approached her with something in the lines of "you-smell-awesome-what-shampoo-do-you-use". Far from freaking her out, they acknowledge each other as kindred spirits and sit for coffee together. (Robin drinks tea, actually, so I use "coffee" as a concept).

And I find them engaged in intent conversation. Hunter is his name. So in the time it has taken me to get some cash and dumplings, Robin has already learnt that Hunter's been educated in an international school in China; that he speaks perfect Chinese; that he is a consultant of sorts; that his dream is to become a workshop facilitator; that in consequence he is passionate about storytelling; that he is originally from somewhere weird in the States, considering his cosmopolitan background; and that he knows the BEST place for dumplings in our area.

I'll skip to the part when we actually go to Hunter's dumpling place. The type of dumpling they make here is not the small one that comes in soup, but the big (HUGE) dumpling that is steamed and then fried. Or only fried, I forget.

They are big. They are allegedly stuffed with shrimp, or pork and veggies, or whatever else. The bottom is crusty from the frying. You bite off the top and slurp the "juice" inside. Noisily, if you can manage that. Then you eat it. In a few bites, because it is a huge dumpling. Trying to balance the thing in your chopsticks. (I later noticed that those who are more savvy also take a spoon to help in the process!) That juice inside is superb.

We have dumplings every time we get a chance. All types, in fact. At a given moment I take a few days' break, but for Robin's last meal, right before going to the airport, we go back to Hunter's place.

About a week later, I go to another branch of Yang's Dumpling. (Not YAN  G'S DUMP  LING, as the sign reads!) I order my favourite. I cannot eat them. They are so greasy and disgusting.

Upon telling my friends about my disappointment, they say that all of them are greasy. Big time. In fact, they had been bewildered that Robin and I had not noticed in our first two visits. I'm not surprised, food junkies that we are.

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For what Robin has to say about dumplings check http://startingfromzed.blogspot

C is for Cats

When I was a child, cats used to be responsible for breaking into the garbage and making a mess, thus earning everybody's antipathy. Specially my brothers', whose job it was to clean up the mess. I was extremely allergic to them, so I kept as far from them as possible.

So although I typically have a lot to say on any topic, "cats" only came to be in this blog because Robin is an enthusiast, to say the least. She has two in her family and then will pour her love on any stray cat that crosses her way. The title for this blog was decided way before we first hugged at Pudong airport.

Cats love me though! Wherever there is a cat around, it will come to auntie Sonia. If they belong with someone, I let them leap onto my lap and pet them. (I know a lost battle when I see one.) Then my eyes get swollen, my nose is runny and I need to take a pill.

I thought my friends Eva and Solomon were completely nuts when they got their first cat, Paco. He got depressed and wouldn't come down from his nook on top of the AC. Not even for food. Eventually, he was prescribed Prozac and a girlfriend. True story.  Paco is still not very social, but when I visit, he comes out. We notice because...my eyes swell, my nose starts acting funny and I need to take a pill.

In Shanghai, cats earned my respect because cats equals no rats. So they are welcome around restaurants. Why they are considered lucky in the whole of China is a puzzle to me. I have managed to spend heaps of time there without ever buying one of those cats that attract fortune. Not even for a lark. Although technically, they are the safest form of cat for me.

To me, the person who's nailed the whole mystery about felines, their allure and their distant cool, is David Novak. Hear all about it in The Snakes' Disguise. I don't want to ruin it for you, so hear it from the man himself.

Check out Robin Bady's blog! We agreed on the theme (China) and titles before starting, and now we blog as a duet. http://startingfromzed.blogspot

B is for Beijing

B is for Beijing and Beijing is for contradictions.

It is the capital city of modern China and yet the most backward one in looks and logistics. Beijing is the city where you will have to pass three security check points in order to see Tiananmen Square from the opposite pavement, and then bump into a Tibetan Art Centre that boasts a not-too-subtle sculpture at the entrance. Beijing is flat and spread out, yet walking-unfriendly. Taxi-unfriendly too, for that matter. Its dialect is the most aggressive-sounding, yet its people are kind. Except when they're not. Beijing is the intellectual centre of China, and the place where it will be most difficult to find people who speak English, even working in very western restaurants.

I have found a little patch of Beijing that I am comfortable in. It has my usual hotel, a fabulous range of food options, easy(ish) access to the highway, and a big bookstore across the road.

Invariably, the highlight of Beijing to me, is reuniting with my dear friend Quynh and her lovely family. It is catching up on life, common passions and musings, and being "auntie Sonia" as much as the kids will let me.

On my last visit, Beijing unveiled to me what I now know to be its strongest suit: passionate people who work to strengthen their ties to the community and live life with meaning. Leaders and staff of NGOs that are doing incredible work. Young dreamers who are making a life in China, neverminding the bad air, or the traffic, and instead betting on what the place has to offer and what they can offer back.

My general experience of expats in China - with wonderful exceptions that confirm the rule, was that people are there to get as much as they can out of it. Beijing being different in every way it can, has challenged that notion beautifully. And I am thankful for that.



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For an overview of the people and projects I am most excited about:

Growing Home: 
http://chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/articles/growing-home-the-ngo-that-tells-bedtime-stories-to-rural-boarding-students/

Which was "handed" to me by

Roundabout China
http://www.roundaboutchina.com/

And Robin's blog, for same titles different takes on our experiences of China:
http://startingfromzed.blogspot.hr/