Sitting by the Roadside

Here are some highlights from my "regular life" on the other side of the world (April 2017)... Loaf of bread-cake (as we call it) my sister made for my mom's birthday. Two lemurs my siblings saw on their trip to the Beijing Zoo (an expedition I chose not to attend). Our PM2.5 smog tester (the number in the middle row (118 here) is the amount of PM2.5). A delicious dish, one of my favorites.  It consists of nian gao pian  (the white stuff), vegetables, and onions. A magnetic Chinese Chess (a game I do not  like to play) board we acquired recently.  There are small magnets on the bottom of the pieces, so the board is easy to use when travelling.  The game is somewhat similar to chess.  You have a general (when he is captured the game is over), two of his shi , two elephants, two horses, two cannons, two cars, and five soldiers. Our friend gave us this Chilean Rose Hair tarantula a couple weeks ago.  We had some trouble finding...

The Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday in China.  Most students have a three-week break, and everyone returns to the place they were born to celebrate the New Year together.  This year, my family and I spent the New Year in FuZhou with my grandparents (on my dad's side). We had planned to take the high-speed rail (eight hours at least) there, since it was way  cheaper, but tickets ran out.  So we ended up flying a plane. Living Quarters Our flight was in the afternoon, and we arrived somewhere in the evening.  Since our grandparents had two apartments in FuZhou, they lived in one and let us stay in another. Even though the apartment was a little small and situated on the fifth floor of an elevatorless building, I had always liked the feeling of wonder I experienced every time our family stayed there. I loved the (as I called it) "ancient" sugar pot, the clocks that wouldn't run unless you wound them, the desk drawers, and closet drawers...