Back home, but still writing a few more posts!

Greetings once again, this time from Minneapolis.  Thank you for continuing to read our ramblings from, or at least about, China!  We found ourselves busy enough that we weren't able to share what we'd like while still half a world away, and so will do a few more postings here from home.

 Barbara wrote earlier about her classes, and will perhaps add more, but I include two related photos here for the moment.  The first was the one to the left, welcoming her to the dance studio where she would be teaching in Guangzhou.  Even though this was the second time she's taught there, helping to train local folks who want to explore one of Barbara's primary fields of expertise ("dance movement therapy"), it was great to see the "welcome" sign.

Barbara's students were more diverse than the usual college-age students whom we've often taught--some were relatively young and inexperienced, but others are already practicing therapists or have college or advanced degrees and want to move in some new directions.  As in Estonia (2011), Barbara has been helping to introduce a new direction in doing therapy that's not yet common in the country, yet intriguing for a number of people.

To the right, we see the beginning of Barbara's first day of class.  In this photo she's greeting some new students (some she'd also taught last September during her first visit).  When I (Bruce) teach it's in a conventional classroom, but here we see a very open space, a dance studio with an empty floor and no chairs or desks which for me invites an even greater openness to new experience, to moving as well as thinking in new ways.  Anything might happen!  And, of course, the cultural setting (China) also heightens that chance, since the students will bring values and experiences to bear as yet unknown.


We saw this in a different setting when one of Barbara's invited us to go for "dim sum" at a lovely and traditional restaurant.  We were familiar with dim sum--ordering several different "small bites" dishes, making the sampling of a variety of dishes tempting and easy.  But first, we "washed the dishes"!  A large pot of hot water is on the table, and we pour some into our small bowls and teacups, stir our Chinese style soup spoons and chopsticks in the water, and pour the remaining hot water into a large bowl on the table which the waitress would later whisk away.  Only then would we pour the first cups of tea from a teapot (into which loose tea had been added); additional hot water would be added to the pot as the meal proceeded, the tea gradually changing in strength (and even flavor?).  Towards the end of our time in China, when going to a dim sum place on our own, we saw the waitress watching as we "washed the dishes" ourselves, then smile with approval that we seemed to know (more or less) what we were doing.  (It reminded me of the time when we were in Morocco [2009] having Friday lunch with the local family we were staying with, and the older man smiled in approval when Barbara [finally!] began to put choice morsels from the common platter onto my plate as a "good wife" should.)

 There are also many other situations where "local knowledge" takes a while to learn.  One is that one passes on-coming people on the left, rather than the right (parallel to driving patterns, presumably from Western practice, especially in Hong Kong).  I was often almost running into people when walking until I learned to let them pass me on my right, rather than being on the right side.  Escalators are laid out that way as well--you take the escalator to your left rather than to your right.  On the subway itself, it may be gracious to accept the offer of someone's seat if you are an older person (like me).

It's also considered appropriate to queue properly (something that seems to have changed since when I was last in big-city China in 2004?) when getting tickets or waiting for the subway.  There are clearly-marked places for people to line up where each subway door will be once the train stops, and a young subway worker will often be there to help you stand in the right place.  This is also facilitated by the fact that the tracks aren't "open"--there is a glass wall the entire length of the stop, with sliding doors that don't open until the train has come to a halt, as well as the train doors themselves (no danger of falling onto the tracks!).

And, of course, there are other things to learn--such as passing something to someone with both hands rather than one (and they will accept it with both hands as well, as the person taking the little coupons for breakfast at our hotels would do).  All interesting!  And who knows what else we may have overlooked?

All for now.  We will write a few more times.  I'll end with a lotus flower at a Buddhist nunnery.  (Bruce)