<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;">A Hoodie Day</b><br>
<div style="font-family:helvetica,arial;font-size:10pt;color:black">
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1_4fb41037-d660-4d62-978d-75aa8df032f5"><font color="black" size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">No, this is not a tribute to Trayvon Martin and the
hoodie. It is a cold day in Dong Bei and
the children by the playground are wearing mitts and neck scarves, and yes, the
hoodie is up. The sun is out all right
but while it's rays hit me on the 2nd floor of my building right straight to my
solarium, the building across shades the park where the children play and the
guardians huddle in the benches.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">My retirement motto says, "Monday to Saturday, I do
nothing. Sunday is my day of
rest!" It is a Hoodie Sunday.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Knowing human nature to always see the grass greener on the
other side, those basking in the sun in Saipan would detest my description of
the cold while they sweat it out midday, or fan themselves with the afternoon breeze
that blows in from the lagoon. I, too,
am in the same bandwagon of delusion, thinking that anywhere other than where I
am must be better. But I have grown old
enough to know what a terrible illusion that is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, the transiting Pinay nurses who already settled
their NCLEX and are waiting for their visa to Canada while putting in a coupe
of years at CHC, browse through the jackets offered in the Galleria, often
grabbing many items on sale when a shop discards old inventory to accommodate
new incoming ones. I once saw a closet
full of attires one would not be caught wearing even in December in one of the
hotels that lowers the temperature for effect.
Later, in Sherbrooke or Quebec, or St. John's in Newfoundland, it will be
fashionable to put up the hood but looks awkward on Middle Road Garapan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">My retired school teacher neighbor in Shenyang already has
her northern China leeks laid out on the ground next to the napa cabbage that
will make great hot and sour soup in the cold, though with natural cold and
refrigeration available, I still do not understand the culinary necessity of
drying both into flakes just for preserving the items.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Across the Yalu, the napa cabbage is the main ingredient to
the famous <i>kimchi </i>and I understand
why they ferment them in big jars on the ground in autumn. It not only preserves the vegetable but also,
the heavily spiced variety is not only a delight in the palate but also an
internal inferno of warmth in the cold. Eaten
in moderation, the <i>kimchi </i>is a requisite
side dish in Saipan's eateries if the olfactory trail does not offend. (Enclosed dining rooms in the starred hotels
forego the dish to avoid the smell, or assign you a table by the porch!) It can only delight the tourists from Japan,
Korea, and China!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">It is the flakes of the dried leeks that are a subtle flavor
savored by tongue licks on the discriminating palate. The romp of the gourmet on this one is a slow
boat to China, not to be rushed down the Chiang Jiang through the rapids of the
three gorges dam. Yunnan spices tend to
dominate and overwhelm, and Sichuan reds tend to have someone see red. But the onion flakes of the leeks dried in
the sun require the disciplined concentration of the <i>samurai </i>consuming his Geisha tea, properly rotated and ceremonially
served,<i> </i>before giving a slurp on the <i>shirataki.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><i> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">One might get the impression that when confined indoors on a
hoodie day, one indulges in the fine points of cuisine. One can't stray too far afield with the rice
and wheat noodles and dumplings in northeast China as a main offering before dipping
the chops into the hot pot, the all-purpose boiling water where the raw
ingredients laid on the side are cooked and sauced accordingly. The broiling variety is the preferred mode
outdoors in the summer but the <i>Zhongguoren</i>
is <i>sabi </i>(casually used to mean "crazy",
though the word is also literally sexual) enough to unfold his tables and
chairs outside in the afternoon before the snow comes, the charcoal adding haze
into the smoke and fog of the ambience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">The "hoodie" though is the democratizing leveler
in many grounds these days, whether it is the gym sweatshirt in Gualo Rai, gone
thicker with long sleeves north of the Tropic of Cancer, or the hoods that
comes along with any decent winter jacket to protect one's earlobes from
freezing Siberian winds. Unlike residents
in the windy city of Chicago, dealing with the cold is not to get out of it,
but to learn how to be in it. Many store
personnel in Shenyang bring their wares out in the sidewalk, put their hoods to
match lipstick and legging, and hawk their goods to the pedestrian market. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">The point of our musing is deciding to live in the richness
of the location one lives in rather than hope to be elsewhere. A Finn friend once narrated how a new couple
retreated to the Lapp lands in the 60s to avoid modern incursion into their
lives until the Russian military started maneuvers in the area. They moved to Barrows, Alaska but not too
long after, the derricks came to gush the oil.
They looked for another place and located paradise in the Atlantic some
30 degrees south latitude of the Tropic of Capricorn. They discovered the Falklands! So did the armies of UK and Argentina.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Enjoy your hoodie day!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<br>
<div style="clear:both"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
</div>
</div>
</font>
</div>
</div>
</font>