Answer: We
clean the chapel. Our building is a rented home, and we share it with
the Chinese
National Branch. Due to the rules of the government, the
foreigners (us)
cannot intermingle with the locals (them).
So we trade off
cleaning--we do one Saturday a month and they do another.
And we turn it
into an event--bringing a pot luck luncheon and cleaning from
top to bottom
(there are 3 floors). We even clean the patio and
pull some weeds.
As we were working outside, Ellie mentioned that the
cement work on a
post was just like a jigsaw puzzle.
It won't be long
before something falls off and the good
looks will be ruined.
But if you don't look too closely,
every thing is beautiful.
As we were
finishing up, the branch president asked me if I'd been to the big
flower market--he
was going to buy some plants for his wife and
we could follow
his car. I'm ALWAYS up for seeing a new plant market!
As we pulled up,
I was dubious.
This is a big
plant & flower market?
But then we
walked through one of the doors.
The building was
huge inside, and with every kind of flower (in season).
We ended up
buying a couple of these orchids (Y20 each, or about $3).
We just oohed and aahed over the
selection.
We also ended up buying a small
lemon tree. The vendor wanted Y150, which wasn't a
bad price, but we decided we didn't really
need one, and so walked away.
The vendor ran after us, asking only Y100
($18). So we got it. It has a few
blossoms on it still (which smell
heavenly), and 10 green lemons that should be
ripe in a month or so.
We stopped at a grocery on the way
home. We've been seeing these
little fruits for the past month or so in
the markets and wondered what they were.
I had tried one, and it was crisp and
sweet like an apple, but had a pit in the middle.
So it isn't a crab apple, which would have
been my first choice.
Well, I finally found out!
They are red dates that are ripening.
Red dates are a big deal here. If
you are looking for raisins, you'll find several
types of dates, and maybe one package of
interesting-looking raisins.
They sell a lot of yogurts, and you can
find the flavors of
strawberry, peach, and red date, which is
actually quite good.
In France, hazelnut was THE French flavor.
It looks like red date is going to be THE
Chinese flavor.
Red dates? I wouldn't have guessed! That's so interesting. And I thought that Green Tea was THE Chinese flavor--is that just for things you don't want to eat, like toothpaste?
ReplyDeleteThat plant market is wonderful. I would want to spend hours there with a deep pocket and a large truck waiting to take everything home. Everything looks so pretty. It sounds like you exercised amazing self-restraint!
I love the pictures! I'm so glad you are finally going to be able to add a little greenery to the patio!
ReplyDeleteYes, I suppose green tea would be THE flavor--but since we don't drink it, and try to avoid all the products with that as the flavor, I'm ignoring it.
ReplyDelete