Nanluoguxiang

I am writing this post from the subway station, where I am crouched down, as if in a bunker during an air raid. Apparently it hails in Beijing over the summer, and the tin roof above us sounds like a drum--no, a machine gun--as bullets of ice are raining down. The wind is blowing cold rain into the station, so me and a bunch of others are squatting by the corridor, avoiding the blast of wind, water and ice that is coming in. I don't think I ever complained in these posts about the heat of the south--it regularly hits the hundreds. I can deal with heat, I love the heat. But the cold--that's an entire other story. I can devote pages and pages to complaining about the cold. But I'll spare you.

I returned to Beijing last night, and my friend took me out for crawfish. The crawfish here may be better than in New Orleans, and I know that is a bold statement to make. I love Cajun, but the Chinese are good with their spices. There is szechuan style, black pepper, garlic, ginger and scallion, five spice, and more. The crawfish also come in different sizes. The ones were ordered were huge. However, after being in the South for so long, I found myself unaccustomed to spicy food, and couldn't handle a lot of it. 

This morning, I went to my favorite cafeteria, and had my usual fare. Suzhou left me just a bit obsessed with pork leg and feet. I had that for breakfast, and it was great. Unhealthy, although the chinese say the tendon and sinewy stuff is good for women because it makes the skin plump and bright. I have had more pimples in China though, more so in Beijing--it might be the climate. 

Today I went shopping at silk street, tying up some loose ends and picking up some last minute things. People say that things come when you are not looking for them. I hate when people say that, because I'm a fairly goal oriented person who tends to look vey diligently for a long time. It's not quite in my nature to give up and just wait. But, in the case of my scarf I figured it would not be at silk street. I had scoured other markets for it, but by accident, I came across it while browsing the stalls at silk street. I like dragonflies because it really makes me think of my trip down South--looking up at the sky in Nanjing and seeing all the dragonflies, and again the the gardens of Suzhou. I think dragonflies are under appreciated. While searching for the scarf I had asked many vendors if they had scarves with dragonflies, and most replied that they did not, but they had many with butterflies. Searching for dragonflies in a world of butterflies. But it found me in the end; I got the scarf for half price here too. 

My scarf

After finishing up with purchases at silk street, I went to Nanluoguxiang to say hi to my friend, the tarot card reader. We talked about family, women and men, until two women came in. Apparently they had come in earlier, but she hadn't been in. My tarot friend lost her puppy last week, and was super sad, but she had bought two new ones. They were really cute, but it's sad that her other dog got lost. 

Of these two women, the first one asked about love. Apparently she is having a tough time, and the cards did not give her good results either. The second asked about career. The second had been skeptical originally and said, "my friends told me there is a tarot card reader at Nanluoguxiang who is very accurate." The second then asked about when she would settle down and have a family. The result she got was less a prediction, but more advice. 

My tarot friend said that there are a lot of sad stories. Usually, people come in with their vulnerabilities and weaknesses on their sleeves, because they want to ask about them. They are in a place where they are confused and do not know what to do. Most people ask about love. Each of the girls had two readings done each. My friend said it is not good to do readings too often--the future must have mystery, and when you ask too much, it is not good for your fate. At the end, the skeptical one said, "it is fun to play tarot cards."

My friend sad, "this is not a game. This is a [some word in Chinese I didn't understand]." When I don't understand a word in Chinese I just fill in the blank, so I assume she said something along the lines of a teaching, or a practice.

The first girl, the sad one, said, "you told me what I knew in my heart, but was too afraid to say out loud." 

My Chinese friend said something very accurate about dating. She said it was like finding my qipao. It's not about the most beautiful or the most handsome person. It is the right fit. There were plenty of qipaos that I thought were prettier than the one I bought, better value, etc etc, but in the end I bought the one that fit me best. In the end, there is no sense in purchasing a qipao that doesn't fit you, no matter how great it is, and there is also no point in chasing a person that doesn't fit you, no matter how good they are. The problem for the sad tarot girl though, is that the guy she asked about is her husband. Or it's a man that she is having an affair with and has a wife. Here was where my Chinese listening skills escaped me a bit, so it wasn't clear to me as to whether she is in an unhappy marriage, or having an affair with a married man. Either way, she is in an unfortunate situation and the future between them is very bad.

My tarot friend gave me a fan as a gift, and I gave her a selfie stick. I also tried some Japanese snack, though neither of us knew what it was or what it contained, since neither of us could read Japanese. A friend had given it to her as a gift. We concluded that it is some type of fish mixed with cheese, since the character for fish is kanji so in Chinese, and it tasted like there was cheese. She plans to travel again, and she opens up a new tarot store wherever she goes. I told her she should try New York, though may be hard because rent is expensive and she doesn't speak English. It must be very interesting to be a tarot card reader, and listen to all of these problems.