This morning, I was sitting downstairs outside of my apartment eating my breakfast- a funny pastry filled with strawberry filling and a pumpkin cake-type thing. While I was eating, I was reading ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’. Underneath the building, there is a garage for motorbikes and bicycles. A couple came downstairs and went to leave on their motorcycles- the woman got hers started and headed off. However, the man was having a bit of trouble; he couldn’t seem to get it started. Eventually even the guard came over and was trying to help him out, but it was no good.
I just found it particularly ironic that I am reading a book that talks quite a bit about maintenance and repair of motorcycles (as well as many other things) and there’s a motorcycle in front of me that’s having trouble and I don’t know a thing about how to help.
In church this morning, I took a closer look at the bulletin for our weekly service. At the bottom, I noticed some addresses and websites. One of my freshmen students also goes to church and he happened to be sitting next to me. I turned to him and asked what those were.
“It’s an email address,” he said.
“Right, but for who?” I asked.
He looked at me and said very confidently: “Jesus Christ.”
I probably should have just taken that in stride, but I’m sorry, I couldn’t. I burst out laughing. He quickly corrected himself and said that he meant to say the Chinese Church.
It was certainly the most amusing point of my entire day.
So apparently the church in Yizhou has a website. I’ve been checking it out; it’s really quite interesting. Granted, I can’t read much. I’ve used Babelfish Translator to get some of it, but the translations are fairly inaccurate and comical. It’s certainly worth a look though.
I’m currently listening to a podcast that Kyle sent me. It’s a discussion between John Mackey (One of the founders of Whole Foods) and Michael Pollan (author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma). (I’ve linked John Mackey’s blog Michael Pollan’s site there, but Pollan’s doesn’t seem to work working- maybe someone outside of China can tell me if they can get it)
It’s an incredibly long podcast- nearly two hours. However, I thought I’d mention it because it’s incredibly interesting.
Personally, I’m a fan of Whole Foods- I really enjoyed shopping there when I lived in Philadelphia. I felt much more informed about what I was eating and where it was coming from when I shopped there compared to the grocery stores back home.
Anyway, I won’t bore you with details. If you’re interested in listening to this (I suggest that you give it a try), you can get it on mp3here.
It actually talks a little bit about organic food from China, which is something I’ve been doing a considerable amount of online research on lately.
Unfortunately, despite my strong feelings on animal rights and organic food production, there’s not a whole lot that I can do about my food choices in China.
