A Zhouzhuang Saturday
Trip Start
Aug 22, 2010
1
62
76
Trip End
Jul 01, 2011
Zhouzhuang, Jiangsu, China
Thursday, April 28, 2011
I've avoided writing very much about school on the blog - feeling it is not a good idea in general,but perhaps I can write a wee bit. I do know that some students look it up from time to time. I hadn't realized this was the case until after our wedding one of my grade 11's from last semester said how great the pictures from our wedding were! A good reminder that the blog is really quite a public forum and why we have been careful what we post. Having said all of that, last week at school was very busy. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I had parent-teacher interviews after school, for grades 10, 11 and 12 respectively. After such a full week, I was overloaded by the time an email arrived Thursday morning, inviting the teachers to attend a graduation ceremony and banquet dinner for the school’s GAC students. (GAC stands for Global Assessment Certificate and it is the other foreign program our school offers.) It was a classic school communication, insufficient advance warning while requesting us to give up our Friday after school time and evening. I decided I just couldn’t/wouldn’t rise to the occasion, but would stick to our social plans for Friday. Eric, our friend and foreign teacher from Quebec was to give the speech, so I felt guilty not going to support Eric, but after a full week of extra-hours commitments where we have no release time to prepare or execute the extras, I’d had enough!
So Friday after school, Leslie, John and I biked to Gu the tailors. We mulled over fabrics and magazines and picked out some items to have made for us. John’s getting a winter coat, in a black cashmere. I’m getting one in a grey. I also took one of my favourite skirts and he’s making me a matching one in a different fabric. Lastly, I’m getting a suit made, inspired by Leslie’s success in this area with Gu a few weeks ago, and getting a jacket/skirt/pant set made. It’ll be ready after ‘Labour Day’ – the name of the long weekend coming up to jump start May.
From Gu’s we biked on to Oregano’s. We’d had a great time there last Friday night and couldn’t resist revisiting. Happy hour is one appeal – they have my favourite white wine from Chile (non-Chardonnay Connie!!!) that I find almost nowhere and it’s buy one get one free! Next their pizza is pretty darn good. A statement that really shows how long we’ve been here, as all pizza is awful in China, but they do a passable job. Madonna and Jen joined in for dinner and it was great to have a social unwind after the week.
Saturday morning was given over to my iChat catch-ups. John slept in – he too is still trying to feel better. Thanks to my computer I got to ‘see’ Fred, Greg and Jeff and felt a little more in touch. When John got up we wandered over to our compound boundary to peek over the fence and check in on the neighbourhood pagoda project. John’s been taking pictures there regularly for us and he’s going to do a separate blog on this one, but it is something we’ve both really enjoyed watching. After documenting the next stages, we headed back home.
At 11 Jen, Eric, John and I climbed into Eric, our favourite driver’s car and headed off to ‘China’s most beautiful water town’. Zhouzhuang was about an hour’s drive away, and as always there was much conversation and laughter getting us there. John and I had been to Tongli, a little closer to Suzhou early in the fall, and we’d been wanting to go check out this other water town. Unfortunately, going on a Saturday meant it was packed! We were lucky with the weather, it was a glorious 23 degrees, but it seemed like half of Shanghai had turned out to take in the town. One pays an admission to enter the old town and there are no vehicles in the town core. The site is a maze of narrow lanes, mostly along canals, selling a variety of tourist stuff. A local delicacy is roast pork. Madonna had urged us to try it at Tongli and now it was our turn to urge teacher Eric to try it here. At 1 pm when the crowds eased a bit in the restaurants we picked a place alongside a canal and had lunch. It wasn’t terribly remarkable, but the pork was tasty. The sweet and sour spareribs were indeed spare – there was almost no meat on those short little ribs! John claimed he found some meat, but I thought it was strictly a bone rinsing exercise. No matter, the vegetables were fine and we had some fried rice. Soon we headed back out into the throngs and explored the town. We toured one historic home – 70 different rooms, all of different sizes, all in a traditional layout, little courtyards, raised door thresholds, shuttered windows. It was very attractive and for those who have seen the movie, evocative of the The Red Lantern. I did a little bit of tourist shopping picking up more blue and white tablecloths the area is known for. I was thinking of my mom when I bought 4 handkerchiefs, each embroidered with a different corner image, but they are a complete disaster! They are the most awful, unabsorbent, tiny icky squares of fabric I’ve ever encountered. I had planned to share them with Fred and reminisce about mom, but not with these! We’ll have to do it without props.
By the time we retreated to Eric’s car and headed back to Suzhou, we were all quite exhausted and were much quieter on the way home. It was pushing 5:30 and no one was sure what to do about the next round of eating. We decided to divert from home and have Eric drop us at Malone’s. It is our usual haunt on a Monday night, but the idea of familiar food was very appealing. We had a very nice meal there. It’s remarkable the incongruities we’ve come to hardly notice: while eating at Malone’s, I noted that I was having a chicken quesadilla, with guacamole on the side, but served on a bowl of popcorn(?). The music playing made it sound like we were in Texas, but on the two big screens were two different sports games, both with no volume. Then I looked above the table and there was a Chinese lantern with bits of Christmas tinsel still hanging from it. It is all very China. After dinner John and I walked to Tesco to pick up a ‘hostess’ gift: Sunday at 9 am. we were invited to the pagoda builder’s factory for a tour… which went very well, but I’m going to leave it to John to talk about that outing.
After our factory tour we took an item off our ‘Suzhou-bucket list’ and had brunch – Easter brunch no less – at the Shangi-la Hotel. We hosted Chemical Jenny as a thank you for her translating services all morning at the woodworking factory. Jen from Duncan joined us too. The brunch buffet was quite fabulous. It certainly had variety covered as we sampled Indian curries and mango chutney, alongside eggs, waffles, fruit, lots of sushi and seafood, all followed by great desserts. I’d had far too much before I spotted the chocolate fountain to dip one’s fruit in – it’ll have to be in another life. Part way through our meal the entertainment began – very China – a keyboard player and girl singing, in English, tunes you know, but sung in a China pop style making it hard to identify them until the lyrics of the chorus emerge. By 2 our food coma was setting in and it was time to retreat home. I biked down to school to pick up a few missing items for prep work, John rested and then headed out to tackle the Sunday shopping.
My keyboard time is running out. I hope everyone at home had a nice Easter. The weather today is glorious – it’s about 26 out…if only it would stay like this! We’re hoping we’ll have good weather to share with Ian. He’s due to arrive on Friday night into Shanghai. He has a lot on his plate before he can head to China, so our fingers are crossed that everything works out and we see him shortly. Our thoughts are particularly with his wife Renee, who lost her mom last weekend. Evelyn was almost 94, a very special soul, and she will be greatly missed.
