Garlic

Tonight I had the funniest encounter. We were dismissed from school a little early and I was preparing to go for my 2 hour 4 hand massage. I was so excited when I left the hotel and was even happier to have a line of taxi's waiting for riders lined up in front of the hotel. I went to the first taxi and the man smiled and offered to take me across town to my massage.

I still have so much to learn and really need to be more perceptive. Take garlic for instance,I should have realized the overwhelming odor of garlic was being emitted through the small opening in his car window and wasn't actually the entire atmosphere! I jumped in the cab and no sooner had I shut the door then my eyes began to water. I think when the driver peered at me in the backseat he somehow knew they were not tears of joy :) In his wonderfully polite fashion he unassumedly retrieved a small spray bottle of Binaca and gave his mouth a nice long spray. It was the sweetest gesture, the only problem lying in the fact that the binaca did not permeate every cell of his body like the garlic had, so all I received from that was a momentary whiff of delightful peppermint garlic !

The eyes eventually stopped watering and he soon began singing to me. It was just so sweet. In the worst congested traffic I have seen thus far, he somehow managed to slip past every stopped vehicle, he evaded every stop light and even drove on the sidewalk sometimes. I have to give him credit for his mad taxi driving skills and the fact that he used his horn to always alert pedestrians he was driving on their sidewalk. We arrived about 20 minutes earlier than I thought it would take us to get there, I patted him on the arm, paid my fare and slipped him a tip (my first given in Beijing). He seemed shocked...I am not sure if it was because of the tip (it's not customary here) or the fact I made gestures and sounds like an airplane to tell him he got me there 'quickly.'

Tomorrow I will blog about the massage, which was at the least completely indulgent and satisfying in every way! For now, I have to discuss my tea.

Having arrived somewhat early I strolled up the street to see what stores were there. I found their equivalent to a fairly large grocery store. To put it in perspective the entire store could not have been larger than a medium sized convenience store at our local gas stations. I did my best to diligently stroll up and down each isle, sometimes twice. I found interesting foods but my favorite may have been 'meat lollipops'. Wow, they were so funky looking. Eventually I found a shelf with a large glass jar on it that read, Citron Honey Tea. It looks like a large jar of jam.

I read the instructions and it said to add 3 teaspoons to a cup of hot or cold water. It is delicious. It's like orange marmalade loaded with shredded bits of orange peel. Mixed with boiling water it makes a nice bitter sweet drink. I find it rather delightful and the pieces of orange peel are a treat to have floating around.

After I left the massage house I went out to the streets to hail a cab. They have a real problem here with the taxi drivers. Dozens will zoom past you with no customers on board but they refuse to pick you up. After 40 minutes (it was now 10:45 pm) and walking several blocks I saw a cab across the street from where I was standing. I motioned to see if he would take me. I had seen many approach him and he never left so I didn't think he was running. I was so desperate (and I had just prayed) and he motioned for me to cross. I handed him the card to my hotel and a chinese lady came running from across the street to get in his cab. In typical New Yorker fashion, I jumped in the backseat and acted like I believed he would take me.

He began driving and motioned that he was trying to nap but I disturbed him. Of all my fares to and from the same place, he actually got me to my hotel for 3 kuai less than anyone else. I paid and was about to exit when I realized he really was an answer to my prayer. I received my change, slowly touched him on the shoulder and handed him a $20 kuai. He looked very confused and I just said, "Xie Xie...thank you, thank you so much." He was stunned but thrilled. He then just smiled at me and drove away.

It was a good night, a very good night. I smell like a mixture of garlic and lavender oil. I have noticed I am starting to smell like the locals. There are many, many dishes that look like long beans but are actually garlic scapes. They are strong! Men smile once in a while, maybe because even though I don't look chinese I smell chinese. Who knows, maybe what I smelled in the taxi was actually myself and I didn't realize how much I smelled like garlic until he shut the door, and all I 'could' smell was myself...Should make for intersting looks on the plane ride home :)