Seal School: Day 28
Monday 28 November 2011
6:00 AM – The water for my morning shower is barely warm today.
7:00 AM – I have breakfast in the dining hall with Kenichi and Suishin:
- congee with pumpkin?
- large flat bread folded over with green onion inside and some fried something or other
12:30 PM – I have lunch with Miki and Katy in the dining hall:
- rice
- a kind of pumpkin
- celery and dofugan and carrot?
- meatball
After lunch Miki, Katy, and I go back to my room and I help them carry my “leftovers” to Miki’s room and whatever they don’t want we then take to the classroom. Miki and I make two trips to the post office to send three boxes home ($229.72 total postage); mostly seal stones, books, and art supplies (some wrapped in dirty clothes). When we get to the post office with the boxes we’re told that no newspaper is allowed as packing material so we have to unpack and rewrap everything. The woman postal worker takes over this job and is a real pro at it. Miki puts her name on the boxes for the return address in case anything goes wrong in shipping.
4:00 PM – I call Wang Gongyi to check in and then spend the rest of the afternoon packing my suitcase.
Dongpo Pork
5:00 PM – I walk with Miki to a small nearby restaurant she knows of that specializes in regional dishes since I want to try the famous Dongpo Pork before leaving Hangzhou. While we wait outside for a table I notice that the thermometer says 73 degrees C, which would be over 163 degrees F (although it could easily be 73 degrees F). I don’t think it was that hot. After a short wait we get a table inside the crowded restaurant and order:
- Dongpo Pork
- spinach with sesame oil
- tofu with tree ear fungus
- blueberry wild fruit juice (made in Suzhou) with small berries in the bottle. They might be blueberries but they’re so small I can’t be sure.
In the evening I go to the Lavaza Coffe shop for espresso ice ($5.55) and to use the wifi and send a last email from China to my wife.
It smells like wood smoke all day. It’s been a warm and sunny day, but not clear. Every day here there’s always been a smoggy haze over the sky. Even though it’s the end of November I’m comfortable all day today in just a t-shirt.