Baseball. Really.

You may have noticed that there was never a mention of sports in my previous posts. That's definitely because I don't really like them. Seriously though, I went on a trip to go to Baseball games... Baseball games and Museums. Alex and I drove from the Tavistock Fall Fair to Boston where I was reunited with my friend Beth from Leicester. She showed us around town, put us up for three nights and got us into the museums! Of all the cities, it has an amazing historical side to it. It was beautiful weather for September and we wandered around, went on walking tours, and rented bikes. We toured the Sam Adams brewery (also for Alex) and I got to go to Bostons Museum of Fine Art and the Isabella Steward Gardener. And we went to Fenway Park. Of course we timed our whole trip so we could watch Boston beat the Toronto Blue Jays. Not that it wasn't exciting... In New York City we went to the Guggenheim (for a disappointing exhibition but still totally worth it) and the MoMA. We had one sunny day in central park and times square before the weather turned while we were at the Mets game. From then on we tried to stay inside at NBC studios. We had one day in Philadelphia where we explored the old city and walked across the new to get to the Museum of Art - the site of the Rocky steps - the only way to get Alex to run towards a museum. Our last night we watched the Philadelphia Phillies win their division - baseball here is much more exciting than in Toronto, with the stadium packed and all the noise, excitement, and fireworks.

From asia and small towns to Disneyland

Making my way home was an ordeal but I was with my family in time for Christmas and all settled in to never leave Canada again. I spent 6 whole months indulging in small town life (yeah, I'm from a small farming community of 2500 friends and neighbours). I worked at the local museum, house-sat, met a guy, caught up with friends, shoveled snow... And I was ready to go again. I'm starting off small though and sticking to North America for the foreseeable future. California... with its sunshine and warmth and its distance from all my boredom and anxieties made for the perfect summer vacation. Plus, one of my favourite people in the world lives here: Tania. I spent one wonderful week touring, exploring LA and Orange County, being spoiled rotten by my friends and my friends friends. They included me in a camping trip the first weekend in Big Sur - the drive alone was spectacular - and I ended up camping with the most fun group of people, playing horribly inappropriate board games. I saw everything from the Hollywood sign to the giant shopping plazas to the dark little mexican restaurant where No Doubt used to frequent. And then we went to Mexico for a day. Driving seems to be a huge part of the culture there, and what seems like a waste of gas and poor planning back home is the norm. So we spent an afternoon at Rosarito and an evening waiting at the border. Because no trip to LA is complete without this roadtrip, nor would it have been complete without a day at Disneyland thanks to Pedro (the same one who got me into such a mess in Scotland). Tania and Danny even took me to the Orange County fair where we saw Bob Dylan! One week of completing intruding in Tania's life, made the best vacation possible with her generosity and amazing can-do spirit renewed my faith. Now I'm living in Toronto, volunteering and enjoying summer in the big city... I'm working my way back up.

rice rice rice

So I was prepared for the worst but I’ve been enjoying the food, as long as I am selective. I am provided with lunch everyday at the museum and eat in a nearby Muslim restaurant with the staff, and eat with Nui Nui and friends on weekends. These meals are eaten family style with shared dishes, but unlike back home where you serve your individual plates you pretty much eat off the platters. Each person has a small bowl of rice and cup of tea (or hot water), with your chopsticks you take one or two mouthfuls at a time to your bowl/or mouth.

Because I don’t eat red meat I’ve kind of lucked out and am pretty much eating as a vegetarian here. The meat usually hangs outside the restaurants (so you have to not breathe as you walk in to avoid the smells) and is cleaved into pieces which usually consist of bone with skin and fat. And don’t forget, you eat these with chopsticks – some people opt for the seemingly easier option of just eating the entire piece, bone and all. Avoidances also excludes the insects, chicken feet, jellied meat and unidentifiable meats. 

Lijiang’s local cuisine is incredibly spicy. The dishes that don’t have fresh chili peppers in them have dried chilies. For example, today with my rice I had baked cauliflower with dried chilies, beans with fresh chilies (and pepper), kale, spinach and chilies, and steamed pear. The local specialties include baba (a pancake like bread made out of rice usually eaten with chilies, but the honey braised is quite good), and chicken bean jelly (a grey jell-o like slab seen frying in oil at street vendors).

Unfortunately my sugar cravings are left totally unsatisfied here. Candy here comes mostly in jellied form, and even nice sugary Canadian jell-o has kind of always freaked me out. So, always unsatisfied I continue the search, and usually end up eating anything that’s slightly familiar. Today I found Lays potato chips! Unfortunately the flavours included lime, cucumber, hot and spicy fish soup and numb and spicy hot pot. Popular popsicle flavours include corn and peas. But popcorn is slightly sweet here and I’ve now found two stores in the city that sell snickers bars.