What do you call a day of boiled lamb heads feasts, 4-character phrases, rice cooker buying, and cowboy hat wearing? Just another Sunday in Rebgong.
The boiled lamb head reference perhaps deserves a little more of an explanation. You see, my Tibetan teacher thought it would be nice (i.e. funny) to make the foreigner squirm while watching an unknown relative slice a spurting lamb eye-ball in two, enjoying all the deliciousness hidden inside. Yum. I could have hurled. But instead I watched as he removed the other eye ball which met with the same unfortunate fate (did I mention how BIG these eye balls are?). Welcome to Tibet. I think I am turning back towards vegetarianism, for the sake of lambs everywhere.
4-character phrases, like this one 毛塞顿开 (to suddenly see the light) are the Chinese version of idiomatic phrases expressed in, you guessed it, erudite 4 character phrases. I just bought a children’s story book that explains some and have been studying it with my new language partner.
Rice cooking is right up there with running water, electricity, and internet in my book. As such, since my old one broke, I ran to the local super-department store to pick up a new one, one of my students trailing closely behind.
Finally we come to the cowboy hat. It just feels right here, in the wild FAR FAR west.
