Merry Christmas !!!

I’m just recovering from a feverish night. I don’t know if it was food poisoning or what but it had been a long time since I had felt that bad without the aid of alcohol. I’m feeling better now and I’m taking advantage of that forced rest to wish you all a merry Christmas! Here Christmas is not really celebrated at all even though commercial centers are working very hard in the attempt to remedy the situation.

Things are progressing slowly. Some days I feel like that I’ve come a pretty long way in only three months. Yet, some other days, I feel the exact opposite. I must stay positive... I started to wander the streets once again looking for images and stories to submit to Reuters. Nothing conclusive so far but there again, I must stay positive, the moment will come. I also keep giving and receiving my classes. I continuously make new friends and acquaintances which is very interesting and stimulating. I learn and discover a little bit more everyday even if it’s not as intensely as it was in the beginning.

I stumbled upon that old lady in a hutongs neighbourhood. Hutongs are narrow bordered by old traditional houses even if more and more they are being reconstructed anew but while retaining their style. Oftentimes older people tend to be more reticent but it was all to the contrary with her. She kept hanging me of kite toy (I don’t know how it’s really called, if you know please tell me) so that I could try it. She was giving me lessons and all. People that were passing by were quite amused to see us both playing and laughing together.

Here we can see the contrast in food hygiene. On the one hand you have a kitchen that looks like a surgery room and on the other you see pork’s stomachs and split up heads lying around on an outside counter. The way they manipulate and treat the meat can be rather disconcerting at times. Often it is not even refrigerated and is lying around for people to shuffle through by themselves in the search of a good piece like we do with fruits and vegetables. So even if the kitchens might seem totally sanitized you simply don’t know where the food comes from.

They are making dumplings here. They are a very popular kind of food. They come in all sorts of sizes and feeling, boiled, steamed and pan-fried. I quite like them myself too but I prefer them with hot sauce whereas people here have them mostly with dark vinegar and/or soy sauce.