《旧城之思与梦

酥脆脆饼在穆斯林区

几周前，安德里亚、乔伊和我决定周一在市中心休息一天。我们想买一些圣诞节礼物寄回家，但我们的主要目标是去“穆斯林区”，买一些我们大约一个月前发现的美味、甜的花生棒。他们太棒了!它们由碾碎的花生卷成大管子和这种奇怪的甜的，易碎的太妃糖组成。它们尝起来就像脆脆棒里面的味道!!安德里亚和我在一条小街上找了找，发现了几家古雅的自制糖果和脆糖店，因为那里的价格和礼貌比主要的旅游大道要亲切得多。我们决定带乔伊回到同一个地方，这次是批量购买!!我们让步了，买了3公斤。很明显，我们吃得太多了，再吃一块的想法经常让我觉得不舒服!我们现在的麻烦是我们还有一公斤要去!!

谨慎的习俗

我对这里的海关工作感到非常失望，因为他们给我带来了相当多的烦恼。在我们这一天以及其他几天购买的圣诞礼物中，并不是所有的礼物都被允许回家。除了寄给我父亲和姐妹们的那些礼物，我们寄的东西都很好。这是因为它是艺术!我从未想过，一个以游客通过小贩购买艺术品而闻名的国家，在将艺术品邮寄出境方面会如此严格。我们联系的那家出口公司警告我们，海关官员很可能会没收这些艺术品，他们会错误地(或者可能是故意地)指责这些艺术品具有国家意义。艾薇(一位中国同事)告诉我，海关部门非常保护他们的民族文化，因此艺术品等纪念品可能是最具活力的文化表达方式。我完全理解他们的担忧，但我仍然感到沮丧，因为这些艺术品(尽管很漂亮，发人深省，而且都是原创)实际上是由供应商购买的，我能够以最低的价格(我希望)为它们讨价还价。以美元价值计算，当转换成CDN美元时，它们的价值非常低，但我们对这类艺术的最佳价值从来不是货币。我对我们买的东西很兴奋，我只是难过他们要到明年夏天才能回家……当我们带他们来的时候。 I've been told many times that if you carry the art through customs yourself, the sailing is smooth as you are quickly able to discuss the circumstances in which you paid for them. I just hope they don't ask for receipts because if they do, we're done for. We have never been offered a receipt for any of the art so far...and so far that has made up the bulk of our purchases. We have some enormous originals that we have discovered. Ever since mailing that package we have learned our lesson and from now on we are going to ask for receipts. I'm not too worried though. But we will have a lot of art coming home, especially when we hunt for some more pieces in Thailand next August!!

莲湖公园沉思

回到我们的时代。我们拿了一大袋“脆脆脆”之后，决定向北走几个街区，去找一块名叫莲湖公园的绿地。谢天谢地，我们很高兴能很容易地找到它。西安的一些地方(即使是像公园这样的大地方，在旅游地图上都有明确的标注)，当你在寻找它们的时候，你会感到头脑麻木。毕竟，这是一个有“墙”的地方，很多时候为了找到更绿的草，你需要先穿过一个有守卫的门!令人惊讶的是，这个特别的公园不需要任何钱就可以进入，尽管我们都认为它急需一些资金。这个地方正在分崩离析。这个位于闹市中心的老地方就在这座城市的眼前腐烂。现在它唯一的优势是树木和灌木本身，它们设法以某种方式保留了它们的美丽……也许这种印象仅仅是因为这个地方的其他地方是如此沉闷和尘土飞扬。孩子们的游乐设施陈旧生锈(当然，虽然还在正常运转)，摆食品的桌子需要油漆，内部的池塘需要清洁，内部的旧建筑既需要油漆，也需要支架。 This was like the cemetery of parks. In the northwest corner of the park there was an old building which must have been a restaurant in the previous decades. The structure was abstract yet traditional and it was evident that this place was at one time very famous. Looking upon this, all I could think of was the old Goderich train station back in Ontario, and all of the times Andrea and I had talked about how elegant and classy of a restaurant it could be with a few dollars and TLC added. The rear of this building also overlooked a large cement pad, equiped with a bandstand and a cheesy old backdrop. No doubt a relic from years ago. My immediate impression was that of the old Riverview Restaurant beside Wonderland Park in London, Ontario. I could see the live dances and music shows in my head. It screamed 1950s and 60s. I don't think this place has been used for a long time. The surroundings have been left for dead. Still, with all of our pessimism that was growing concerning such a waste of a surely formerly glorified meeting place, we still have to respect the fact that the locals still love it there. In this neighbourhood, this place is everyone's back yard and lots of people were strolling the walkways...however, sadly no one here has the money to 'hire a gardener'. Men gathered around for friendly (yet incredibly serious) chess games, lovers took a moment alone, and grandmas kept a slow pace with their grandchildren. People were laughing, smiling, playing badminton, reading, playing ancient instruments, you name it. It was used for every reason that day. Perhaps they have resigned to the fact that this is the fate of the park, but I shouldn't believe this is true. These people respect the beauty of their lands, they have 5000 years of history describing how beautiful it was, it is, and can be again. I do however, acknowledge that maybe China has much more pressing issues to deal with right now than a tiny park in the heart of the city, yet sometimes all it takes is a community project such as this to revitalize the hopes, dreams and grace of a whole city. If only I had money to invest in that old rundown restaurant....

铭记丝绸之路

在我们有趣的“短途旅行”完公园后，乔伊决定带着他同样大的袋子回家，而安德里亚和我选择乘公共汽车深入到西墙的边界之外。城市的西部比我们的东部要脏得多。空气是浓汤。粘稠、灰色、尝起来像化学物质，我们被它呛了一个多小时。在某些地区，我们的能见度降低到只有几个街区。西侧的工业化程度比城市其他任何地区都要严重得多，污染水平证明了它的存在。这次探险带我们去寻找中国通往西方的丝绸之路的历史起点。我们看到的图片上有巨大的石像，纪念古代旅行者和他们的动物同伴。万博定制的zippo价格我很高兴能站在如此重要的地方，考虑到中国贸易对古代中东和欧洲世界的影响，以及中国贸易对古代中东和欧洲世界的影响。中国人向西方引进了丝绸、纸张、火药和香料。 This establishment of this trade route forever altered the economics and desires of the wealthy in the western lands. The Chinese in returned sought out new crops, farming methods, weaponry, literature and religion ?helping to bring Islam and Christianity to China. As the bus stopped and we walked towards the site, we were slightly disappointed to see that not much of a site existed at all. For such an important piece of ground, all that stood signifying it were those same statues we had seen in pictures. We were hoping for much more. This tiny spot of land surely requires a grand museum with artifacts, stories and artists renditions of life along this world-famous route. Sadly, we were left with little beyond the statues in front and our thoughts of what could and should be in our heads. But don't get me wrong, this didn't take away from the significance itself of just being there. I imagined myself setting off on a journey to a far-off place a thousand years ago, knowing that with just a few people, some camels and horses, and limited supplies, anything might happen along the hundreds of kilometers of open spaces that divided civilizations back then. If you can escape the air and the traffic noise to ponder this spot for a moment, you might really find appreciation for it. I tried my best. Damn smog.

这不是我们在西安度过的最有趣的一天，但和往常一样，每天走出自己的街区本身就是一场冒险。我们自己的社区往往比任何地方都更冒险!当心那些骑着听起来像电锯的巨大三轮车的疯老头，因为他们很可能不是在照顾你!我们的街道是印地赛道，但每个人都在驾驶不同的东西!!疯了,疯了……