Chinese Version 01-13-2024, Saturday, Rain
December 21，at home
On the evening of December 21, 2023, my daughter invited Grace and Lou for dinner as they were going out for Christmas. I feel very happy to host the friends we made in Massachusetts at our home in California.
While I was cooking fish, shrimps, and rice noodles for dinner (Grace likes seafood, Lou likes rice noodles), I thought of the good times we spent together in Waltham, Massachusetts. During 2020 COVID pandemic period, while my daughter was studying in Germany, I was alone at Waltham. Grace and Lou often stopped by our home to bring their home-made delicious dishes: stir-fried lamb, braised beef, Shandong pancakes, and Saqima, etc. also to spend time to chat with me. We climbed the Blue Mountains in Massachusetts together in the fall in 2020. My daughter later told me: “After you guys climbed the Blue Mountain together, Grace messaged me: ‘Your mother is in good health as she had no trouble at all with climbing.’ I was so happy to hear this news!”
It seems that the last time I saw Grace was in the summer, not long after my granddaughter was born. When I saw Grace this time, I felt she is even more beautiful and fashionable. She always reminds me of a good friend I used to work with.
During dinner, we congratulated Grace on passing her Ph.D. comprehensive exams and Lou on switching his companies.
After dinner, I gave a box of wedding candies that I had just brought back from my son and daughter-in-law’s Flower Moon Celebration in Beijing. Graces took the box and praised its festive color and beautiful design, then opened the box and poured the wedding candies on the dining table. She pointed to the pretty wedding candies and said: “Oh, many of the candies are my favorites in the past.” She and Lou then each picked out their favorite candies to eat.
Seeing Grace happily talking and soaking the wedding candy inside her mouth, I asked her: “Do you think the Egyptian pyramids are really pre-historical?” My daughter immediately asked me: “Why are you asking this question?” I said: “Recently, I watched some short video blogs that were shared by friends who travel very often and I saw the videos showed evidence that the pyramids were built with cement and said they were built by later generations. I want to know whether this statement is reliable.” Grace said: “That statement is not reliable. I am sure that the Egyptian pyramids have a very long history!” Because Grace is a doctoral student who is currently working on her Ph.D. essay on the 3000 BC Akkadian at JHU (the abbreviation for Johns Hopkins University), I believed her words and said: “Thank you for the expert’s words!” She smiled and said again: “Aunt Jing, our JHU History Department has two professors who specialize in the history of ancient Egypt. If you have more questions, I can ask the professors to answer them for you.” I quickly said: “I have no questions, I just want to know that the Egyptian pyramids are worth a visit, because I want to see them. “Then, I turned around and told my daughter: “After I came back from Peru, you asked me where I want to go next year. Now I have the answer: I want to see the pyramids of Egypt next year.”
My trips in November to Peru to see Machu Picchu and in December to Beijing to attend my daughter-in-law and son’s Flower Moon Celebration enlightened tonight’s gathering and I felt that the joy of traveling was lingering in the air.
While traveling in Peru in my free time, I came up with a despondent desire to see the pyramids of Egypt. After looking through the photos I took in Peru, I realized that it was on November 21st, exactly a month ago. There is also a story about that day.
November 21st，in Peru
Today is the first day after our tour group visited Machu Picchu, one of the “New Seven Wonders”. The tour guide took us to a farmhouse in Pisaq to make and eat local, empanadas (Spanish pies). I still remember the lady boss of the farmhouse proudly introducing herself: “I am a descendant of the King who built Machu Picchu more than 400 years ago.”
Because this was a group activity with plenty of alone time, the tour guide suggested that we form a two-people team to make empanadas and take photos of each other. I teamed up with Vaida, an Indian girl who is a sophomore in Texas. While waiting for the empanadas dough, we chatted. I told her that my daughter had also traveled alone in a tour group when she was a college student at University College of London in London. She said she is the only child in her family, she will go back to see her parents in India before Christmas, and she loves traveling. I asked her: “Where is a place worth visiting in India?” She said: “Taj Mahal.” I was not familiar with the name, so I asked her curiously: “India has a long history of Buddhism. Is this a natural scenery or a historical building?” She was surprised to hear my question, she opened her phone and found the photos of Taj Mahal and showed them to me. As soon as I saw the photo, I said quickly: “Oh, I know this place! After Diana and Charles had marital problems, she went there to take the famous photo.” Vaida frowned and seemed deflated. It was obvious that she was not satisfied with my interpretation. I looked at the innocent expression on her face and laughed quietly. I guessed she might be thinking to herself: “How could Jean so keen on gossip?” She said that she had been there with her parents a few years ago, and it is also one of the “New Seven Wonders”.
We lost our two-people team concept once we gathered around a big table and started kneading the dough to make our own empanadas, and I made two empanadas with different fillings. Because the empanadas we make will be placed on a large baking pan and put into the fire stove.， we also used dough stick to shape the first letters of our names to patch on the empanadas for easy identification so we could eat our own empanadas. I felt my empanadas were so tasty, because I made them myself.
As tonight had no group dinner and I felt altitude sickness, I stayed in my room after checking into the hotel in Cuzco to learn about India’s Taj Mahal and related information online. The “New Seven Wonders” were introduced in 2007, including
1. Great Wall of China
2. Colosseum in Roma, Italy
3. Taj Mahal in Agra, India
4. Chichen Itza in Yucatan, Mexico
5. the ancient city of Petra in Jordan
6. Machu Picchu in Peru
7. Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
It turns out that there is another “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”: the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Olympian Zeus, and The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. Six of them have disappeared, and only the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt remains.
I noticed that there are two wonders were built with legendaries of grand love: the first is the lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which was built between 604 BC and 562 BC by a King to please his beloved concubine and the second is Taj Mahal in India, which was build in 1648 in memory of a King’s beloved concubine. I guess the carrying force of this kind of legend held people’s desire for earth-shattering love. However, I have no interest in the Taj Mahal in India. I really want to see the Egyptian pyramids, a despondent desire, because I saw some videos saying that the pyramids are fake and were built by future generations with cement.
Little Episodes
1. 12-21-2023, Our dining ware, dishes, red wine, my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding candy box, wedding candy, and my granddaughter, being held by Lou, is about to be held by Grace.
2. 12-19-2023, On my first day back home from Beijing, Ben, my grandson, loved playing with his uncle and aunt’s wedding candy box, pouring out the shiny candies as toys and putting them back into the box.
3. 11-21-2023, In Pisaq, the dough for empanadas was made from seven or eight types of grains.
(The lady boss of the house wearing a black apron introduced herself: “I am a descendant of the king who built Machu Picchu more than four hundred years ago.”)
(The lady boss of the house held up the grain crops used in her empanadas one by one to show us and to explain.)
(The scene of everyone making empanadas around the big table for oneself and my two pies with the word “JS” in the rattan basket.)
Little Stories
A Story about Grace.
A Story about Lou.
In November 2023, I joined a 6-day group tour in Peru to see Machu Picchu (11-17 to 11-22) and had wonderful times：
a）The first day in South America by myself, I had a wonderful experience。
b）Unforgettable moment of chatting during Thanksgiving breakfast time in Cuzco Peru.