Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival, which commemorates the suicide of ancient Chinese poet and statesman Qu Yuan, who jumped into a river because he was upset with the government. He was so well-loved that the people threw zongzi into the river so the fish would eat the zongzi instead of his body.
So what is zongzi? A glob of sticky rice triangularly wrapped in reed leaves, cooked in boiling water for ten minutes.
On Monday, my boss/the headmistress of the kindergarten, Fanny, knocked on my apartment door and gave me four zongzi to "put in the ... bingxiang?" (refrigerator). So I tried the zongzi for dinner on Monday. I didn't really like them actually. Too bland.
But then on Tuesday, as I went for my walk, I saw a group of older ladies sitting on wooden stools around tubs of rice wrapping zongzi.
Curiously, I stopped to watch. I had never met them before, but they knew I was the kindergarten teacher. They asked me to sit down, and asked me all the typical questions, like whether I understand Chinese (yi diandian, a little), where I am from (Mei Guo!) , and where I live (Jiangbin Dadi Youeryuan). They also asked me some questions I couldn't understand, but I think one of them was asking me what my salary is--very Chinese :).
They asked me if I could wrap zongzi. I tried, and couldn't, but it was fun! I just sat there watching for a while. Taking two large leaves in one hand and folding them into a cone, the women scooped up rice with their hands, and poured it into the cone, packing it down tight. Then, they wrapped the leaves around, adding more rice to the center and another leaf or two when they came to the end of the original leaves. Finally, with one end of the string in teeth and the other end in hand, they tied the zongzi up and tossed it into a tub full of completed zongzi. I enjoyed watching the old ladies wrap zongzi.
Later that afternoon, I went down to the part of street where I can buy this green onion flatbread and I saw one of the ladies I had watched earlier, selling her boiled zongzi.
Speaking of food, last Friday I went to a hot pot with a Chinese girl named Catherine and her "brother." I met Catherine in the Nanjing train station one Sunday, and then saw her again on the bus in Zhenjiang. She is very sweet and excited to know a foreigner. She invited me to dinner with herself and her "brother" who turned out to be a good friend she calls her "brother." He is trying to get a visa to come to the US and study at Louisiana State University in the fall, so he was very eager to practice his English. Aside from the hot pot, we had a hei yu, black fish, which Catherine's "brother"--I never did ask him what his name was!-- picked right out of the tank, yao rou (some sort of meat famous in Zhenjiang, I don't know exactly what it was), a sweet rice porridge, and pumpkin cakes. I was so full, but Catherine's "brother" kept eating, and eating, and eating.....:) We had a good time.
This weekend I am going to Shanghai and Suzhou so I have to pack now.
I love you all!
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