So here I go with the third day in a row of publishing.
Recently I’ve had my doubts about my trip to the States. Why? Honestly? I find I’m liking it less and less to be on the move. I kinda like the idea of simply staying in one place and not having to be concerned about scams and the security of my stuff. The price of flights has remained pretty reasonable since I started looking at them a few weeks ago. I’ve debated flying into Los Angeles or San Francisco and spending three or four days in each. I guess one of my questions is: how long does one need to stay in a city?
Of course, each of those flights requires a transfer through some other city, but I’m used to that given my flights overseas have often involved connections through airports in Toronto or Vancouver. Likewise with my return to China, I’ll probably transfer through another city in Mainland China before finally getting back to Beijing.
I can tell that I’m suffering from jet lag, something I’ve yet to figure out how to beat. It usually takes a week to get over, but it’s times like these that I wonder what the difference is between an afternoon nap and jet lag. And is “jet lag” one or two words?
Did a little bit of shopping the other day and noticed that the couple of malls I went to were relatively busy with people. The chain coffee shops had a few people lined up while quite a few of the outlets themselves had people milling about and actually making purchases. I took note of this because in China you don’t see that happened. Granted, there is a bit of a difference between Winnipeg and Beijing, but in China you don’t often see people buy anything at a mall, just looking and playing on their cell phones. Here they still seem to be buying stuff from physical stores.
And one of the places that I saw people making purchases was at McNally Robinson Booksellers at Grant Park. It’s one of the places I like to visit each time I’m in the city and I would venture to say that the bookstore is not only a mainstay of the mall, but an integral part of the surrounding community. It has a good smell, a good selection (enough for me to peruse), a good liquidation book section (I bought one on Area 51… *eye roll*) and their cafe is usually pretty good too, though I hardly go there since it’s often busy. Although I place my larger orders online through a place like Chapters (to support a Canadian company as opposed to Amazon), I still buy a few books or magazines from places like McNally simply because I can flip through the thing first before deciding whether or not I’ll have time to read it. I picked up Foreign Affairs and Cinefex, both magazines that take a while to read and, honestly, once done, I’m not sure I’m ever more knowledgeable than before. But I bought them because they are still interesting to read. I also thought of deferring the purchase of those magazines until I got to the States just so I didn’t have to carry them but decided to get them while I was at it.
And I finally made perogies with my Mom for the first time in a very long time. I can’t remember the last time I made perogies at all, though I was thinking about trying to make them on my own in China. I recorded some of the process (she had bought the dough from the church which meant she didn’t have to make her own this time) and helped pinch a few. Can you tell which ones I made and which ones my Mom made?
And for those of you who don’t know what a perogy is, it’s a Ukrainian dumpling. In Polish it’s pierogi, Russians usually call it vereneky, in Britain it’s simply dumpling, and in China it’s jiaozi. Each culture lays claim to the founding of this type of food and each is similar but different in their own way. I think it was just the simplest thing farmers could make back in the day: dough (flour, salt, water, oil) and filling (in this case, cheese and potatoes).
And I realize I’ve been very personal on this trip to Winnipeg. I’m usually quite reserved about where I live mainly due to privacy and security concerns but that sort of changed when my father passed away last year AND I lost my job in Beijing. It dawned on me just how fleeting life is and how much of life (including the things we own and places we are) is temporary. So why not make a few posts about more personal aspects of my life? I don’t think I’m going too far. Plus, in 60 years, who knows, maybe they’ll find this information useful.
Let’s see if four days in a row happens! Starting to feel a tinge of a head cold so who knows if I’ll be able to think and write clearly in the coming days!
PS – Didn’t Thoreau write about his home in Walden or something like that?