laughable humans

So I just spent the last few days and nights in beyond gorgeous Guilin area. I took too many photos, as always. Once I purchased this digital camera I know I can crop and edit. This seems like I would take fewer pictures knowing I can alter the ones I do indeed take. However, the purchase if the camera has had the opposite effect and thus my computer's memory is being eaten much like the fruit in The Hungry Caterpillar.

My travel companions and I stayed 4 kilometers outside of the nearby town in a renovated farmhouse. It was brilliant because we were literally a few minutes’ walk from the river and had an un interrupted view of the limestone mountains that have made the area famous. They are the heart beat of the area and much resembles a pulse on a heart rate monitor. By night 3 we had all taken tons of pics of the surrounding beats and yet when me and another girl went for a late night walk, the scenery became a whole new creature.

The shades of black and grey had a bluish undertone. The stars were visible for the first time since I have left the States. The frogs filled the expanse with their croaking. I just had to laugh. As the mountains swelled with pride, mine shrunk. I felt like a true human, completely small and just one piece of His entire creation. As smart as we humans are we still cannot capture the awe and grandeur of the One and what He has made. We may make cameras and other various forms of recording devices but there is no way to capture all that was smelled, heard, sensed, felt, and seen on that short walk through the countryside of China. And for that I am truly grateful. It makes me appreciate the true value that this life has and the treasures that will only ever be held between my spirit and this feeble mind.

Fishy

If you have been following my facebook staus at all you would know there have been some rather important fish in my life recently. Here is the story, the whole story.

Sunday afternoon I called my neighbor to let her know I was home if she wanted to go play badminton. She informed me that she, her husband, and two teachers from our school were out fishing and they were having a very successful time of it. They had already caught over 30 fish. She asked if I would want any. I thought to myself, sure I can cook a fish! A few hours later she knocked on my door. To my utter shock she had a huge back sack FULL of living flopping fish. She instructed me to go get a basin. I ran to the bathroom and grabbed the cleaner looking one of the two that I own. ) They came with the house and I have no idea what they were used for.) She reached into her sack and pulled out three fish she thought were appropriate, each about 7 inches in length. Two were the same kind but one was a little wider and more diamond shaped than fish shaped. She told me to put some water in the basin and to feed the fish. I was in such a state of shock I forgot to ask her what on earth I was supposed to feed them, obviously not fish food. I thanked her and tried to hide my horror. Back home when someone goes fishing and asks if you want some they usually gut it for you. Not only were mine not gutted, they were still ALIVE!!

I carried my basin to the bathroom and set it down and filled it with water. One fish was causing problems. He was thrashing about. I decided to leave them in the bathroom because it is completely tiled and the easiest place to clean, therefore it is really the cleanest room in my house.

Because it was Sunday night I was expecting Tony, my neighbor and one of my students, for tutoring that night. He came over shortly after I sorted out the fish. I had forgotten it was his birthday! During the lesson the fish were thrashing about. Tony was so frightened. "What is that?!?” he squealed. I showed him the fish and he was rather pleased. Every time they splashed he would say, "teacher, your fish are moving". After our lesson he invited me over to have some cake. Of course I had to go. While at his home his mother came out of the kitchen with a very large dead fish on a plate. He asked if I wanted it. I said no because I already had three in my home but my answer was ignored. The fish was transferred to a plastic grocery bag and placed on the coffee table until I left. I took the dead fish, went home and placed it in my fridge. Before bed I went to check on the fish in the bathroom. One had died, the diamond looking one. I texted one of my Chinese friends and asked if he had experience killing and cooking fish. He said yes so I asked if he would help me.

The next day I took a shower with the fish still in their basin still in my bathroom. That was a whole new experience by itself.

That afternoon my friend came over at lunch to show me how to deal with my problem. He cooked the large dead fish that had already been gutted. I was kinda sad. I wanted him to "handle" one of the other ones. It was delicious but I still felt ill prepared for what lie ahead. That evening I transferred the fish from the bathroom into the kitchen. As I was laying in bed that night I heard the fish thrashing about and then I heard the sound of slapping on the tile floor. I jumped out of bed and found one the fish had jumped out of the basin. Oh brother! In the morning I tried to change their water but as I was dumping out the water in to the kitchen sink they both slipped out and went in the sink. The feisty one went bananas. He took off a few scales in the drain plug. I got them both back in to the basin with fresh water but they looked like they’d been in a fight. After my afternoon classes I came home and found the other one laying on the kitchen floor. He was still breathing but I had no idea how long he had been out of water. That night I met up with some other Chinese friends. One of them is obsessed with food. He has made fish for me before so i thought I could entice him to come over and cook dinner for me if I provided live fish. He was thrilled but wouldn't be able to come over until Thursday night. My task was to keep them alive until then. It was only Monday...

The fish that had died the previous night was unlucky. I just tossed him away. I couldn't deal with it. That night the fatter of the two died so he went in the fridge as well. That afternoon, Tuesday, I decided to be brave and do this thing. Hannah the butcher. I sharpened my cleaver and tried to remember what everyone had told me. I de-scaled and gutted that baby. I didn't even gag once! the de-scaling took WAY longer than I was thinking it would. Inside the fish I found all kinds of new and interesting things. he floating device was by far the most interesting though. I knew God was a genius, but this was truly amazing! I put the fillet I had created into the fridge and then I was off for the day.

Wednesday afternoon I cooked my fillet and ate him for lunch. It was kinda cool eating something that had entered my house alive. I’d like to think that he had died from natural causes, trauma being one of them. The second fish didn't make it through the afternoon either. There was NO way I was going to be Hannah the butcher two days in a row and my friend wouldn't have cooked the fish if he knew it died on Wednesday afternoon. "Not fresh!" he was sure to yell at me. So the fish with the most fight was just tossed out. It was kind of sad to see him go that way, but then again, he was just a fish.

Faces

Tonight I had one of my students, Tony, over to my house for his weekly tutoring. Last week I failed to remember it was his birthday. I felt terrible so I promised to make it up to him with one cookie (he says he is a little fat so he can only eat one), an easy lesson, and a few minutes watching the Harry Potter 4 (his favorite series but he has no time to watch movies so he has only seen 1-3). I delivered on none of these tonight.

I didn't know at the time of my promise that he would be having an English exam this coming Thursday. Nor did I realize that the one cookie mix I brought calls for a stick of butter, a commodity that is available to me in this town. The Chinese school system is all about exam performance. I thought our time would be better spent reviewing for the exam because he did not do very well on the last one. I mean his parents aren't paying me for nothing right, so my pride is a little on the line here too. I thought maybe we could breeze through the review and still be able to watch part of the film. I was wrong. It took more than the usual hour to get through the review I had arranged. He even brought up the cookie for the word "give". "Teacher, you will give me one of these things, remember"? So I had to deliver something. I had searched all the drawers and cupboards for my American candy stashes. All I had left was a partial box of Reeses pieces, un-crystallized sugar coated chunks of ginger from TJ's, and a few sour patch kids. Oh boy, I failed big time here!

After the lesson I busted out my findings and told him I was sorry about the cookies but I had these candies (or sugars as they say here) from America and that I wanted him to try them. First he tried the Reeses pieces which he thought was chocolate. I showed him a container of peanut butter from China so he would understand what it was. Next he popped a chunk of ginger into his mouth. He doubled over, spit it out into his hand and screamed, "what is this??” I died laughing. I went into the kitchen to grab some raw ginger to show him what it was. When I returned I found slowly trying to suck down small pieces. I just laughed and told him he didn't have to eat it and went to get him some tissue so he could discard it. Next I asked him if he liked sour things. He said "I little like". So he picked up a sour patch kid and shoved it into his mouth. Again his face went bananas as his noise wrinkled and his eyes went into extreme defensive squint. This time he managed to suck all the sour coating off and then I think he enjoyed the gummy afterwards.

I made him eat a few more Reeses just to end on a positive note even though he protested saying he was too fat and couldn't eat any more. Poor kid. He was a half hour late to the lesson tonight and I don't think he had eaten supper before he came. I hit him during the lesson, worked him harder than I ever have before, gave him two terrible tasting candies, didn't let him watch a video, and didn't deliver on the cookies. He left happy though because I showed him that I had bought the film and told him we would watch it someday. Oh Tony, I hope he at least does well on his exam this week.