I was in China for the last two weeks of April. 老婆 and Julie went two weeks before me because the plan was mostly to relax around 老婆's village. From what I've heard, 老婆 was pretty bored during her two weeks alone before I arrived. For the week I was in the village, things were still fairly boring. After the week, we moved on to Wuwei for four days and spent the last few days in Shanghai. Besides the following, it was an uneventful trip.
老婆's grandmother is 91 and in poor health. One of her daughters decided that the end was really, really near and summoned the family back to the village for the funeral. Reports of the grandmother's death were greatly exaggerated. The grandmother is aware of little around her but she knows that everyone is waiting for her to die soon. Countless times she's said she will not die any time soon and, if she does go, she's taking everyone with her. I hear she was very tough and stubborn throughout her life and it seems she'll carry these traits right to the end. I did get to see a few preparations for a traditional Chinese funeral though. Once she passes away, there will be a large procession with her body. Every family member is required to wear a cloth hat; the colour of which indicates your relationship to the deceased. As the grandson-in-law, I would get to wear a white hat. The hats are now made of small hand towels since you can get them in a variety of colours and you can pull out the stitches and use the towel afterwards. I would have enjoyed participating in and photographing a traditional Chinese funeral. I realize it's a bit of a weird thing to look forward to since someone has to die in order to have the funeral. There was one up side to 老婆's grandmother's poor health: there was a large family gathering to celebrate Julie's first birthday a little early. It was nice to see some of 老婆's family who were out for our wedding but have since moved away from the village.
The second bit of excitement was helping 老婆's parents move. They borrowed some kind of three-wheeled, electric wagon (pictured above) and I was the only one available with any kind of driving experience. 爸爸 rode along and pointed where I needed to go as we covered the 15 km between the village and Wuwei. The road near the village and the streets of Wuwei were fine but there was about 7 km worth of the worst potholed road I have ever seen in the middle. For that section, we slowed to a crawl and bumped along. At one point, a teenage girl riding leisurely on a normal bike passed us. I guess I could have gone faster but I didn't want to break the in-laws TV and dishes. On the return trips, we went a little faster but the bumps knocked the chain off a few times. I regret not getting a picture of me driving the thing. It was fun driving in Chinese traffic though. When you turn left, it's best to turn early and spend a little time in the oncoming bicycle lane before crossing over to where you should be. No one seems to obey traffic laws and there are all sorts of bikes and vehicles on the streets. My favourite was an old man on a bike riding slowly through a red light and in the middle a busy intersection while all the cars swerved around him. No one seemed upset by this either.
The other note of interest was the beds. At the school, 老婆, Julie and I shared a bed which was composed of five benches pushed together with a 3 cm thick mattress on top. During the day, one bench had to removed as it was needed for the students. In Wuwei, we had a proper bed but no mattress. We did have some blankets under us for padding but, on my side, they stopped progressively further from the edge of the bed. Since 老婆 and Julie are always trying to push me out of bed, the slope towards the edge created by these blankets made my sleep a little more treacherous. I usually pulled the top quilt over and tucked it under me to prop up that side of my body and prevent any rolling out of bed. My next bed was a folding couch at 姐姐's place. If I slept on my back, I had to sleep spread-eagle since I'm 1.76 m and the couch is 1.765 m between the arm rests. Add in a little bit of pillow and blanket on either end and there wasn't quite enough room for me. The mattress also folded flat but the seat and back weren't flat themselves. There was a comfortable groove to sleep in though. The last bed was actually two single beds in a hotel. They were a bit hard but the best beds so far. Julie slept in one and 老婆 and I shared the second. In the middle of the night, 老婆 brought Julie over for a feeding. Julie fell asleep like usual so we left her in that bed and moved to the other one.
No comments:
Post a Comment