Marmalade Daydreams

Well, I know I've got a week of living in Chengdu to fill y'all in on, but I'm not sure I'm up for it at the present. In synopsis, met a lot of travellers at a very cool hostel, did about one cultural thing per day [saw a few temples, the sichuan "opera" (more like a circus -- will get its own post with pics), & the giant panda breeding center (ditto -- saw the keepers beating a stubborn two-year old cub who wouldn't come inside)], ate a whole bunch of good food, both Sichuanese & Western (and ran into someone from high school at a great Tex-Mex joint on the south of town), and basically relaxed as I am all too aware that summer vacation '06 is drawing to a close. And although I find myself in the strange position of actually looking forward to the new school year (been having good teaching dreams for the first time ever & I'm going shopping for some new kicks today), I've been mentally compiling a list of things I'm going to miss next week. Here goes nothing:

出 routinely devouring delicious food at restaurants until stupefied for what stateside would amount to pocket change

出 being woken in the grey dawn by the street cleaning truck blaring a medley of Christmas songs

出 having children continually greet me with screams of "hello"

出 the cognitive dissonance that accompanies the sight of a beautiful woman openly picking her nose or hocking a loogie

出 the way everyone here runs like a girl

出 having my seatmate on the bus use my shoulder as a pillow

出 meeting hardcore travellers -- yesterday i met an Aussie girl who's been riding a motorcycle all up through the mountains; two years ago she kayaked 2,000 miles from Skagway, AK to Vancouver, BC

出 the excitement of trying to figure out what exactly it is that you're eating

出 late night barbecue -- charcoal grilled skewers of meats & veggies brushed with oils, chilis, and "flower spice" (illegal in the US, it makes your face tingle)

出 pantomiming any request that exceeds my basic vocabulary

出 long-distance travel being eminently affordable, especially to those of us lucky enough to earn yankeee dollars

出 having little to no real responsibility

But, it will be nice to get back home -- despite dreading the heat and humidity of the "dog days", I do miss my Brooklyn neighborhood, family, and friends, Mamoun's and the Cyclone, and look forward to the West Indian Day Carnival. I am currently in Kunming, "The City of Eternal Spring", where, true to form, it is very pretty, there are lots of flowers, and it is raining. Tomorrow night, Bangkok, for a last dosage of Asian hedonism; Friday, providing I don't miss my flight this year, the long journey home.

By the way, in case reading this blog is your first introduction to the world of blogging, feel free to comment on any of my posts by clicking the "comment" link highlighted below. If the future resembles the past, it probably says "0 comments", which somtimes makes me feel like these writings are an exercise in solipsism...