'We ate at the Bluebird Cafe in Kunming on our first night. Here's Chase enjoying his curry and yes, I drank one beer. Come on, I was on vacation!
So here's the official start of my diary from this trip. I couldn't keep up so while this is written in present tense, you will see in a couple of days that I will switch and just give you summaries.... with pictures.... yeah!
It’s the 2nd official day of our vacation and we are sitting in our hotel room in Kunming, Yunnan watching the Super Bowl with Chinese commentating. We don’t get to see any of the commercials, though. At least it’s better than our home where we don’t even have Chinese cable television and we would have to watch it streaming from our laptops. We went down and ate a yummy Chinese breakfast which for me consisted of a make-it-yourself noodle soup and they were kind enough to go in the back and get me some boiling water instead of pork broth.
So yesterday we got on our flight in the afternoon which we almost missed because we couldn’t get a cab on time and the one we did get was not a regulation cab and tried to scam us. (People around Chinese New Year will do anything to get themselves more money so they can go back to their families in the countryside and look good.) On the way down, we were able to see the mountains come into view and the plateau in which most of Yunnan is located. The hills are definitely barren, no more trees from years of deforestation hundreds of years ago, but nevertheless, we could see clear skies and that made us both happy. A baby began to cry during the descent and wouldn’t stop because his ears were plugged. The mother, tried to talk over it and made many attempts to soothe the baby. After about 10 minutes of the wailing, she became frustrated by her efforts and began spanking the baby on the bottom, shouting at it, and shoving it in the father’s hands only to take it back after a minute to repeat the cycle. It was a poor display but an accurate one of many Chinese parents. They have babies because they know they are allowed to have one according to law. But they have no nurturing spirit or sense of what it takes to be a loving parent and most of do not have the patience required. I just kept thinking that all she needed to have prepared was a bottle of juice or, if a child is old enough, a piece of candy to suck on. And if that wasn’t possible, at least massage the sides of it’s jaws. One of the main purposes of my work with parents in my classroom is to help counsel them on parenting issues like this one. However, I think that it’s common sense and I couldn’t believe she was not able to help her baby. Furthermore, her insults towards her child were purely to “save face” in front of all the other passengers who at this point were beginning to take notice of this tiresome situation. I hope that in my work here I can at least affect some parents to treat their children respectfully and with love.
Kunming is really pleasant. The air is so clean here, the trees and foliage are lush and the town seems really laid back. We went to dinner at Thai/Burmese/Chinese restaurant then took a walk and spent some time in two bars. One was a tavern-style Chinese bar with live musicians. The first one was singing jazzy Chinese favorites and after the DJ came on for a few minutes to play hip-hop, and then that was followed by a female singer. During her set, the lights went out and while we thought it was a fuse that was blown we later found out the whole city was in a blackout. A blackout! The only other place I know that happens is India. So it just reminded me how close we are to the developing world.
But honestly, Yunnan seems more “free” than northern China where communist rule and fervor is still imprinted in the culture. So people here seem to have more freedom and don’t see us westerners as such a spectacle. Tourism is their most important industry, so maybe they are just used to us.
Alright, it’s time to get back to the Super Bowl. Chase has begun to commentate play-by-play so that he doesn’t have to listen to Chinese for the three remaining quarters.
So yesterday we got on our flight in the afternoon which we almost missed because we couldn’t get a cab on time and the one we did get was not a regulation cab and tried to scam us. (People around Chinese New Year will do anything to get themselves more money so they can go back to their families in the countryside and look good.) On the way down, we were able to see the mountains come into view and the plateau in which most of Yunnan is located. The hills are definitely barren, no more trees from years of deforestation hundreds of years ago, but nevertheless, we could see clear skies and that made us both happy. A baby began to cry during the descent and wouldn’t stop because his ears were plugged. The mother, tried to talk over it and made many attempts to soothe the baby. After about 10 minutes of the wailing, she became frustrated by her efforts and began spanking the baby on the bottom, shouting at it, and shoving it in the father’s hands only to take it back after a minute to repeat the cycle. It was a poor display but an accurate one of many Chinese parents. They have babies because they know they are allowed to have one according to law. But they have no nurturing spirit or sense of what it takes to be a loving parent and most of do not have the patience required. I just kept thinking that all she needed to have prepared was a bottle of juice or, if a child is old enough, a piece of candy to suck on. And if that wasn’t possible, at least massage the sides of it’s jaws. One of the main purposes of my work with parents in my classroom is to help counsel them on parenting issues like this one. However, I think that it’s common sense and I couldn’t believe she was not able to help her baby. Furthermore, her insults towards her child were purely to “save face” in front of all the other passengers who at this point were beginning to take notice of this tiresome situation. I hope that in my work here I can at least affect some parents to treat their children respectfully and with love.
Kunming is really pleasant. The air is so clean here, the trees and foliage are lush and the town seems really laid back. We went to dinner at Thai/Burmese/Chinese restaurant then took a walk and spent some time in two bars. One was a tavern-style Chinese bar with live musicians. The first one was singing jazzy Chinese favorites and after the DJ came on for a few minutes to play hip-hop, and then that was followed by a female singer. During her set, the lights went out and while we thought it was a fuse that was blown we later found out the whole city was in a blackout. A blackout! The only other place I know that happens is India. So it just reminded me how close we are to the developing world.
But honestly, Yunnan seems more “free” than northern China where communist rule and fervor is still imprinted in the culture. So people here seem to have more freedom and don’t see us westerners as such a spectacle. Tourism is their most important industry, so maybe they are just used to us.
Alright, it’s time to get back to the Super Bowl. Chase has begun to commentate play-by-play so that he doesn’t have to listen to Chinese for the three remaining quarters.
1 comment:
Have nice food already yop..to much3@
Post a Comment