She’s Canadian, not American!

July 28

Dr. Wang had to go into work today so I wasn’t able to go to the Chinese Medicine Center. Instead, Yang Ma Ke (her husband) took me to a different city that no one seemed to know the name of for lunch with his brothers. We had a duck, a whole duck, and cleaned every bone. Literally, every bone was left on the table sans every smallest bit of meat. At one point I looked over to the girl sitting next to me and watched her pull a purple colored row of vertebrae out of her mouth. I did just fine, until I got to the cartilidge of the joint and couldn’t go any further. I think it was ok though, because they chattered on about my chopstick skills. I couldn’t understand what they were saying but at this point I know what those phrases sound like because it happens at every meal with every different guest. Admittedly, it was actually the best meal I’ve had here. In all honesty it was incredible in flavor and the meat was as tender as anyone could ask for. The only part I disliked about it was the pinkish speckled gelatinous rectangle piece of God-knows-what that I had to choke down in three or four bites. Luckily I kept it down. Somehow I don’t think duck would taste as good coming up. Not to mention the disrespect and shame that act would conjur. I wouldn’t have picked it myself, out of the boiling pot of duck carcass and vegetables, but these people feed me like I’ve never eaten before.

It is raining now. I haven’t seen rain in I don’t know how long. It is not swelteringly hot outside now, which is refreshing. And my skin didn’t melt when I walked through it. Who knows though, I might end up with a tail or a third arm in just a few days time. If not from the polluted rain, then from the God-knows-what jelly I ate at lunch.

I walked through a Mosque this morning, Yang Ma Ke waited outside for me. It was kind of like a Catholic church in the way everything is painted in vibrant colors and ornamented with shiney fake gold all over the place. It wasn’t as awe inspiring as I was expecting. In fact, it was a little disappointing in a lot of ways. Nothing really special or beautiful about it inside. And I had to pay 10 Yuan to see it. I suppose it was worth the money, considering 10 Yuan is a little over a dollar. And as I write this, the Muslim call to prayer is playing somewhere between the sounds of chainsaws and hammers.

I’m going to admit that it is getting increasingly difficult to answer the same questions from all the people I meet. “Do you know how to drive?” “Do you have a boyfriend?” “Do you use MSN?” “Why do Americans like iphone?” “Are you hungry?” “How do you know how to use chopsticks?” “What do you think of China?” “Do you like Celine Dion?” “Why are your eyelashes so long?” “When will you come back to China?” … Yes, of course. No. No. Because it’s made by apple. Not even a little bit. We have chopsticks in the US also. China is interesting. No. Because I got good genes. Probably a very long time.

And what is it with these people and Celine Dion? Is “My Heart Will Go On” the only song they have heard from the US in the past twenty years?? And how the hell did that horse-face of a woman infiltrate the masses here??? And do they realize that she’s Canadian?!?!?!