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Letter 13
Saturday 24.04.10 Kunming
I've set the alarm. In the telephone that is. I'm done with the alarm in the
watch, maybe I won't hear it. I wonder if I'm going a bit deaf?
There are no problems hearing this one. Sophia gets up at 7, so I'll do the
same. After a shower and breakfast I'm ready to take the bus to Di Tai Si.
That's the name of the stop close to where she lives, then I send a sms when I
get there and she'll be there in a minute.
I had forgotten the name during the night and I can't find or remember where I
wrote it down. So all I have is a cross in my rather lousy map. I just remember
it ends on 'si'. I succeed following the route in the map and when the voice in
the loudspeaker says 'Di Tai Si' there's no doubt in my mind even we've still
not reached the cross in the map.
We have a nice day together. Walk around the area where she lives and in her
university.
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| From our stroll in the park in the morning | And here I am |
When we part, she takes me to the stop where I just have to take the 98. I don't
get on the first one - just get my foot on the step. So I decide to walk back. I
don't find the right spot to turn, so I have to ask a bit which is not so easy
as I don't know exactly what the square is called. But the street name I know.
At 15 o'clock I start out again. Once more the first 98 is full. But I do get on
the next one. We take another walk and pick up her different classmates and walk
to the restaurant, because I'm invited to a dinner party, Hot Pot, which is the
number one for foreigners here and in Sichuan. And I've agreed to try.
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| Here my trousers had a repair | From the university area |
We're shown to a 'private room', which is common in China. But this has glass
walls, so that's about how private it gets. In the middle of a round table is a
gas burner which is lit and the big pot put on. There's a smaller round part in
the middle, no it's not the hot one, that's the big one around it.
It's actually more spicy than I had thought. The different dishes comes in bowls
and are dumped in either the hot or the not so hot part. Each of us has ordered
to bowls with something you dip in. Sophia has ordered one for me, a QUITE spicy
one and one that's not.
I don't recall the dishes so clearly except tofu of 4-5 different types,
something that reminds VERY much of "cocktail-pølser" and in the end the most
spectacular: pigs brain. It's one of the last to be put in. Sophia asks me if
I'd like to try? Yes, sure. Well SHE is not going to, she tells me.
I don't think I'll try this another time, but it's not so bad. Only is the
consistence too watery to my taste, and it has some kind of after-taste - or
taste if you like.
It's a fine dinner party even I concentrate a lot to avoid the most spicy stuff.
I'm sitting between Sophia and Rita. Rita is from Sichuan and speaks fairly good
english, her pronounciation is maybe a bit better, but knows less words.
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| Here we are around The Hot Pot - it's not so spicy in the middle | Different sizes of bowls to dip in |
There are four boys with whom I mostly talk when we're finished and are walking
homewards in the neon lighted darkness.
It's a nice experience for me even the eating part is more interesting than
actually palatable - but now I've tried hot pot.
When we reach a certain street and they want me to take a bus I reject. I can
see where I am and will find my way home easily.
I walk too long for the second time, but get back home alright - and NEXT time,
I won't walk too far!
My stomach is a bit out of order when I get back, but it's not the evenings meal.
I have felt a light pain from time to time the last couple of days. After a
quick visit to the toilet I can go to bed after having set the alarm. I have to
be at the bus stop at 7.30. I've invited her for a trip to The Stone Forrest,
which is more than 100 km away and she has arranged with a tour bus, so that we
don't have to go by public transportation, which will take a l - o - n - g time.