农村

There are only a couple of posts that, during a normal person's life span, only occupy one or two people. The queen of England, the Dalai Lama, Fidel Castro, and the Pope are all examples (well, actually it seems I'm wrong on this, apparently some Popes' only rule for a couple years called 'transitional' Popes) but anyway, in my lifetime there has only been one Pope.
I'm not Catholic, or religious at all, I've never seen the Pope as any kind of shepherd, I disagreed with a lot of John Paul's acts (ie. condoms and Africa), and when I was in Rome chose to nurse a hangover with a Jew rather than see him give mass. However, it was a bit saddening to see the only Pope I've ever known die. Thus, MSG FX mourns the passing of Pope John Paul II.

On the bus ride to Shanghai last week I struck up a conversation with the women next to me to see when the bus back to Lin'an was (yes, I happily left Lin'an without checking to see if there was a way back.) Anyway, the woman turned out to be the wife of the bus driver. She got really excited when I started talking to her, offered to give me a ride to my hotel (I declined), and somehow in all the excitement she got my number.
Anyway, I mostly forgot about the event until I received a call on Thursday asking if I could tutor her daughter. I agreed to meet her and talk about it, which is why I ended up drinking exotic teas (they also own a tea shop) and watching multi-colored fountains on Friday.

Today, as planned, they called me up to climb a mountain. This weekend begins the Ching Ming Festival; I think next weekend is when people visit their ancestor’s grave's to make offers to their ancestors. Anyway, we ended up on a 45-minute drive out into the countryside to their family home. I spent the day amongst the terraced hills, bamboo chutes, plum blossoms, and rice patty hats (I don't know what they're called) of China. Apparently, climbing a mountain to this family means driving to the top and then walking down to meet the car at the bottom. We flew kites and had dinner with their extended family. It was a huge feast. I watched them prepare it, measuring out the msg with a spatula. It was very good - duck, chicken, eggplant, tofu, etc, etc - but I'm going to have some good dreams tonight (hopefully, msg dreams are either really fun, or perversely disturbing.)

Anyway, the family was a bit traditional, they had a ceramic statue of Confucius in their living room and burned incense and bowed to pictures of their deceased relatives before dinner. I watched as the men lit fireworks with their cigarettes. The children screamed, the women covered their ears, but all the men just stood, statuesque and stared as the fireworks exploded into the electrical wires. We ate until we were full and then ate some more. After dinner the men sat around talking about cars while their cigarettes gradually burned down, dangling from their mouths. They never took out their cigarettes to ash, just kept them in is as they spoke and listened.

I had a really good day in the countryside, away from this suburb. It may just be the msg talking, or perhaps the baijiu I had with dinner, but underneath it all - the spitting, yelling, pushing, bluntness, smell - I may actually love China. Just when I lose all hope in this country, I have a day like today, and it's alright again. That's why, when I make plans to leave, I look at graduate schools that offer China programs. That's why I may never leave. It's got me, China's got me good.