Shit, I guess I forgot to post more. haha
Well, being vegan I didn't eat
all the great food, but I ate whatever I could. Lot of little hole in the wall places on corners and down back alleys in Shanghai, street vendors, malaton joints, what have you. The temple food itself at the actual monastery was really, really good. I too have seen a lot of temple food from Japan and Korea, and was curious what the Chinese spin on it would be. It was very much like what you think of as Chinese food, but with somewhat more out of the way ingredients like lotus root or bitter melon, and a lot of different faux-meat stuff that was all really good. It was ... not greasy, but saucy, I guess? Some people found it didn't agree with them perfectly, though I didn't have any issues at all and loved every minute of it. Breakfast often came with stuff not dissimilar from the other meals, but usually had rice porridge, which despite being 100% bland was really quite refreshing when everything else was so flavorful. I came to really enjoy it. We had a lot of steamed buns of various descriptions, plenty of rice, and a variety of soups in addition to the vegetable dishes. The soups were sort of odd, mostly sweeter and lighter than you'd expect, and a lot of them cool rather than warm. There was a tiny bit of cow's milk and a little egg, but by and large it was all vegan (I suspect the milk was for our benefit rather than being a regular part of their repertoire).
For pictures, here are two FB albums:
http://tinyurl.com/y94be4v6http://tinyurl.com/yc9a2f6pIt was really an amazing trip. It's hard to express in words exactly what it was, what it felt like, and the experience of the people, so I honestly haven't bothered trying most of the time. We started in Shanghai, went to Suzhou, traveled to Ningbo and Hengxi town where our temple was located, then went to Mt. Putuo and made pilgrimage up the mountain, then went back to Shanghai. Made a short trip to Hangzhou. I miss the people so much. I made a few friends, and really enjoyed the company of many, but I even miss the people who kind of irritated me a little. Living in such close proximity to people for so long and then coming back to a big, empty house with just me and my dog has been super weird. Suffering rather severely from reverse culture shock, which I didn't expect at all after only a month. But everything from fat people to food prices to not having access to reliable and quick public transit has all been weird, and it took me a good week to start settling emotionally. Such good people, and so few of them that I'm likely to be able to see again. We had folks from 23 different countries ... and thankfully many have offered up couches and guest beds for those of us who might come through wherever they are. So hopefully I'll see at least a few people again.
I fell in love with someone over the course of the month, which was unfortunate. She lives far away and is unavailable, but we spent a ton of time together that came to mean a lot to me, and had late nights in little restaurants talking to people about philosophy, love, language, Asia. That was the hardest thing to leave. I don't live in a place where I find a lot of people I'm capable of talking about that stuff with, much less people I can eat durian, drink baijiu, and smoke shady Chinese cigarettes with. I'll carry a lot of these memories until the day I die, I have no doubt. I've spent the better part of two weeks since being home trying hard not to think about some of them too much.
Wish I had more time to process it all. I start classes on the 21st, a week earlier than I thought (turns out you misremember a lot of things when you're largely cut off from the world for 28 days), so am having to dive back into Japanese stuff to prepare for tutoring at the university this semester. I'm still a bit stressed, but friends have helped relieve some of that, thankfully.
Anyway, it was amazing and a half. I'm grateful to be home on some levels (not having to hand-wash my clothes and walk them halfway up a mountain to dry them, not having to sleep directly on a tatami mat with basically no padding, not having to endure 42 degree—Celsius—weather with 100% humidity), and very not ready to be home on many others. My house feels opulent and ridiculous, not to mention empty. I'm so glad to see my dog again, but wish we could go hiking up a bamboo-covered mountain together and find friendly local farmers who are poor as dirt but still invite us for tea along the way.
China was everything I expected, plus a whole lot of things I didn't, and if I ever manage to find some extra time, I hope to start learning more of the language. As it is, about all I can say is ni hao, xiexie, and amituofo.
