There’s one tree in particular in my home garden that i have always loved, it’s called a cherry blossom. When it comes into flower, its beautifully absorbing, there’s nothing but flowers on the tree, no leaves just these delicate baby pink flowers, they look like flowers that have been made out of crepe paper, so when the street along my apartment was lined with them it brought a huge smile to my face. The walk back to my apartment every day was calming, being surrounded by these beautiful trees of pink flowers made my worries float away. One morning as i left my apartment the ground was a blanket of pink, hundreds of petals had been ripped from their trees to coat the pavement and also float aimlessly on the wind, i was showered in baby pink petals, i felt like i was in some dreamy movie when all of a sudden this little piece of floating cotton enters my eye and temporary blinds me rudely awakening me from my day dream. The other tree that blossoms along with the cherry blossom is called a bombax ceiba or cotton tree, and yes it releases cotton, these miniscule cotton balls float harmlessly on the wind until of course it lodges itself in one of your orifices, no pleasant.

Regardless of the walk to school being a gauntlet, I’m glad i don’t have to avail of the public transport system in the mornings. I see busses pulling up beyond packed to capacity and see people attempting to board, the people are literally spilling out of the bus, but that’s no deterrent to these city workers. That’s not saying i haven’t been on one of these dangerously packed to capacity busses, i have and it makes you question the necessity of your travel in the first place. I see the older generation get on the bus and rarely does one person move to offer them their seat, in another instance the driver never fully stopped the bus for an elderly man to climb on board, instead he coasted along and the man had to grab and jump walking stick in hand, no wonder the elderly are so active here.....they have to be!! When i come across the adult playgrounds or adult jungle gyms if you please, whatever you know them as; it’s always elderly people who populate them. It can be quite entertaining and motivating to watch, i once seen a man cigarette clamped between his lips going hell for leather on a cross trainer. Most have their legs thrown up on some piece of equipment stretching, others are rubbing their backs against the chest press or dragging their legs along some of the metal bars giving themselves a massage or scratch im not quite sure which!?!  

My body has slowly adapted to the food, although some food it still out rightly rejects and i can’t blame it. The custom is soup and a meal, every meal time it’s the same soup and solids. Most of the meals im served at my school are distinguishable, rice, tofu, celery, tomatoes, eggs, cabbage, one day i was dished out a bowl of cabbage, just lonely old cabbage, the irony wasn’t lost on this Irish girl, i thought the kitchen were having a laugh but the Chinese humour doesn’t work like that. Now these soups, well if you ate food solely on appearance then you’d starve, you’d think twice about saying how hungry you were. It’s mostly clear liquid with something floating around in it, iv had black fungus, white fungus, mushy rice and sweet potato noodles (which looks like clear spaghetti) just to name a few, because other occasions iv just not tempted faith tasting the soup. The first mistake i made was tasting the hot and sour soup, well if i didn’t projectile vomit then and there, i should have known by the look of it, it had everything and anything in there, im pretty sure the kitchen went ‘jeez, we sure have a lot of food left over from the week, let’s just bung it all together and add a bit of spice’ hay presto hot and sour soup!! I couldn’t name all the ingredients, im not sure i wanted to know all the ingredients. At the coaxing from the teachers, the incessant ‘try, try, try’ i took a sip and immediately regretted it! The black and white fungus looks exactly as you would think, like fungus, it has a rubbery slimy texture so it felt alien in my mouth, nevertheless i chewed and swallowed, it had no taste truth be told. One of the teachers then told me she does not like to eat it but she does so regardless, intrigued i asked her ‘why?’ and her reply was ‘it good for woman!’ it seems specific food is good for woman and other food specific for men. Im pretty sure its all hearsay tho, no one actually knows the nutritional value of these food items but they’re mothers have told them it’s good for woman, therefore they will tell their kin the same and it just gets passed down. Having said that i have seen some spritely old men and youthful looking elderly women so maybe it’s more than here say. Im happy i don’t eat most types of meat, although it’s difficult because meat is the key ingredient in every meal, but what i see been dished out is gristle, bone and fat, considered scraps in my upbringing. I ventured to buy a duck in the supermarket, it was all nicely presented in its plastic wrapping, finely sliced but when i got it home and removed the packing it soon became apparent it wasn’t just the meaty bits i purchased. They had kindly chopped up every bone in the ducks body, including its skull, how i figure it, they cook the bird whole, pull out the cleaver and just chop, chop, chop, ‘a la canard madame’!! I can imagine in a Chinese household not one bit of this carcass would go to waste, but my household isn’t Chinese so a rather large portion of it went into the bin. Nevertheless every trip to the supermarket is like a safari trip, you just never know what you’re going to see or meet for that matter.