What a Long Strange Trip It's Been, pt 8
2005-10-21, 15:42

Into the Park

After our short but sweet time in the local temple (H just recently connected why the place was under construction, by the way - seems they'd just in the last couple of years finally got the funds together to do proper reconstruction from the damage done by the Cultural Revolution), we crossed the busy street (which was an experience in itself, considering there were no crosswalks - or any kind of traffic system - to be found; we just followed some locals on when seemed the best time to cross and prayed they knew what they were doing) and ventured into August 1st Park.

An Aside: I just Googled "August 1st Park" and found very little information on the subject. There were a few 'Our Trip to Get So-and-So' journal/shrines, and a few sites that had about two paragraphs on Nanchang in general, all of which had the exact same info, word for word, even typo for typo. What's with that? For a city that was the heart of the Communist revolution in a country that holds one fifth of the world's population, there's not much to go on there. Knowledge is power, kids.

We immediately knew we'd like it here; the entrance to the park was bustling (for a park) and was adorned with beautiful natural stone displays. We wandered in and soon saw the supposedly clich� display of older folk in shady areas doing their stretching and Tai Chi, as well as many families, single folk, couples, all milling about and doing their thing. It made me wonder, again, how it is that a park would be so busy in the middle of a weekday. Work? School? Do these things happen at night here or something?

There were also a few groups of musicians. We had our video camera with us, and H went up to capture a little if the local traditional music scene. The performers, after spotting her, quickly got embarrassed and then broke into what I vaguely recall being Jingle Bells (I'll have to check the tape). After showing our appreciation for their attempt at intercultural communication, we moved off a ways until they got back into their own thing, then H snuck up and tried getting a little of their own music. Again, I've got to check the tape (seems a shame that we haven't managed to look at any of the video we took there yet). Moving on, we go to the rides area of the park. There was a carousel, some bumper cars, another carousel-like ride that was sea dragon boats in shallow water going round. There were also these things that looked like three-wheeled, covered rickshaws without the pulling handles. We had no idea what they were until a mother and her young child hopped into one and plugged in a coin-- then it started going in circles, bouncing lightly and playing ice-cream-truck-style music. Awesome ride! We want one. For some reason, it never actually occurred to us to try and get in one. It probably would have attracted too much attention, anyway-- heck, just standing there attracted attention. More than once a spunky teenager would come up to us indicating that they wanted to get a picture with us. It was a little weird being treated as novel objects, but we had fun with it.

Further down the path, we came upon more musicians, this time electrically amplified and with a singer. They were performing some traditional music and had a decent crowd (at least 50 people) watching and listening. We stood a bit off, then H cracked open the vidcam and went up to get some footage of the performers. My presence, a (comparatively) tall American with a Chinese baby strapped to his chest (thank you, Snugli), inevitably attracted some notice. A few came over to see the baby, a few to see me. A couple of older ladies were chattering away and reverencing the baby, indicating things like 'it's too hot for that outfit' and 'you shouldn't let her suck her thumb' (something she doesn't do, now - she's got her woobie, after all). Lots of people wanted to touch the baby (for good luck - theirs and hers). Mostly though, it was curiosity about Big American with Baby On Chest. With my trying to communicate with the advice-givers and such mainly through smiles, nods and gestures (and the occasional 'xie xie', which I was trying really hard to get just right), it took me (and H, who was absorbed in getting footage of the musicians) a moment to notice that I'd managed to attract most of the audience. It was almost claustrophobic (and probably would have been, had I not been able to see over most of their heads), and I was doing my best to be as cordial as possible, so as not to give off the stereotypical Idiot American vibe. I'm pretty sure that I did okay. H then finally noticed the crowd and came over to help if not save me. After a little more nodding and smiling, we managed to venture on.

More pretty park, more hot day. We couldn't see the sun behind the grey slate of clouds, but boy we knew it was lurking up there somewhere. The baby got to touch a bunch of stuff - rocks, bamboo leaves, metal, wood, all sorts of stuff. She's really into touching stuff. And not just cos she wants to put it in her mouth or drop it on the floor; she gets joy out of tactile input. Could be wallpaper, could be a painting, could be a cat, could be a mirror, and certainly could be your glasses: she's got to get her hands on it, and a few seconds later she's doing her wiggly dance and either squealing or making her cute little grunting noise. It's so much fun, and an easy way to entertain. A close second to her wanting to touch stuff is wanting to put her forehead against things, especially other peoples' foreheads. I think it's a form of greeting on her planet. We play this baby game called 'toots', where the adult and baby slowly bring their heads closer together, saying 'aaaaahhhhh... toots!', toots being when the foreheads meet gently. She now does this with just about anything. The process has healing powers, as well; when she went to the doc's office for shot updates, the nurse felt bad about making the baby cry. Two minutes later, though, the baby was smiling and tootsing the nurse. I'd say that she could be in international relations when she grows up, but I don; think tootsing would be very popular among the world leaders.

Anyway, the afternoon was getting long, it was threatening rain and Little Monkey was getting tired, so back to the hotel we went. Or tried; the park proved something of a maze, and it took us a few tries to find the entrance we went into originally. I was of course perfectly calm, with an agitated baby on my chest, worrying about rain and trying to hide the severity of the pain in my wrist. Yes, I was showing no sign of distress at all.

That evening we were slated for a group dinner. We gathered up in the hotel lobby and the guides shepherded us along like we were suddenly idiots (which was especially annoying to me since we seemed to be navigating the town well enough on our own), and was taking us to a veg-friendly restaurant... well, whaddaya know, it's 0791! We of course showed off our travel savvy by saying that we'd already been here and isn't it really good and cheap and the d�cor and the fish tank! Apparently, though, having a large group gives license for a restaurant to schlep, because the service wasn't nearly as good as when it was just the five-plus-kids of us. The tea was all but just hot water, the food was slow in coming (that part I could at least understand, our group being so large), and everything was, for some reason, twice as expensive. Of course, we wouldn't have known the place was any good if we hadn't been there the previous day. Just goes to prove, kids: there may be safety in numbers, but there isn't any good food.

More to come.

-- End Transmission --