I wasn't going to leave the house today. I walked for 7 hours yesterday. Literally, except for stopping for coffee. We left the apartment at 8:30 and got home at 3:30.
So I wasn't going to leave the building today. There's no need to actually go anywhere.
Then I saw the date: August 8.
In June, as the Summer Solstice neared - which is the point when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Cancer, I did a little math (followed by research, tbh) to determine when the sun would be directly above Da Nang, 7.5 degrees south of the Line of Tropic. The answer was something like May 4th... and August 8. Since I'd missed the May date, August was locked in my brain.
August 8. So I had to leave the house. My inner geography nerd needed to get a picture of my noon shadow!
It's overcast today, so there is no shadow, but because it's overcast I could get a shot of the sun!
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| You have to trust me. I'm looking directly overhead. See the sun? By the powerline? |
We had decided to walk to a very popular Italian restaurant. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Italian, but this is one place that has acceptable pizza, and knows how to package it properly in a flat cardboard box.
In China, several Italian places would smash leftover pizza into a plastic container. Talk about turning me into HULK!
Now, I've recently decided not to bother with pizza here, because it is so often disappointing. Then again, I don't like pasta, and these guys do acceptable pizza, so against my better judgment, I ordered a pizza. I ate half, to take half home for supper.
The leftovers were placed in a clamshell container -
Which They Secured with Rubberbands!
Holy Hell.
This is what you get when you leave your home country, people! Poorly packaged leftovers! Stay home!
That said, it is my own private solstice - a day when the sun is directly over my head - so I will be happy! I'm determined. How do you bring yourself out of a solid pout? I'm not depressed, just extremely annoyed. Any advice?
ReplyDeleteEat the whole pizza and be the fat American?
I'm impressed with your geography nerdiness. The world needs more of us.
Thank you!
DeleteIn the States, I often ate a whole pizza, but there I had a choice of sizes.
Yes, I do see the sun in your picture.
ReplyDeleteA pout? Hmmm. Ice cream and movies? Nah. When I'm out of sorts... I don't know what I do. Maybe find a good book. Find someone to distract me. Yeah, that might be the best. Find someone or something to distract me.
I hope you're feeling better today.
The funny thing was realizing I hadn't hit "publish" 2 days later. I re-read it and almost deleted the whole part about the pizza, but decided to leave it.
DeleteGood advice for future reference!
Sometimes I like to just wallow in a deep blue funk. Sometimes being unhappy, or just annoyed with something petty, makes me strangely happy, although my other suggestion for getting out of a pout--a walk--seems like it wouldn't help you.
ReplyDeleteYou know what, a walk on the beach might well have fixed my attitude! Good point!
DeleteRed,
ReplyDeleteI do see the sun but only because you told me where to look. :) It's hard to see it through the clouds. You cracked me up with the problem you experience with getting pizza to take home. I would've not thought these problems existed but they do. You talked me into not leaving America. I mean, I'm picking enough about my pizza and I hate squashed pizza. Have a good week!
LOL Cathy! I am a Chicago girl, but through living in other parts of the US, I became accepting of other types of pizza (except NY style - that's just gross). The first pizza we tried in Beijing was the winner of the previous year's "Beijing Pizza cup". Being a MAJOR international city, however, it was Roman style, which is very different from American pizza, and frankly seemed uncooked in the middle. YUCK! Then they mushed the leftovers into a snap-lock container.
DeleteWe found a few pizza places that did decent pizza, and used proper pizza boxes. There's even a place in Beijing to get true, Chicago-style! Of course, there's a lot of weird pizza. Almost every place, even the ones who make good pizza, have "durian pizza" on their menu. Google Durian. I dare you.
However, DaNang is 4% the size of Beijing, and international only in the fact that it has a growing and vibrant expat community - not official embassies and schools, etc. I am done with pizza until we get back to the US.
I often wonder what the Chinese think when they see how Westerners do Chinese food - maybe they deliberately kill pizza as an act of revenge? I'm sorry that your culinary treats are being murdered in Vietnam too.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA! That's the best explanation I've heard!
DeleteIn fact *blows on nails* Chinese food in the US (and probably the rest of the western world) is primarily based on Cantonese food. (loosely based, by now) Back when Chinese immigrants were coming to the American west coast, they mostly came from the Hong Kong area, which is also why Americans think Cantonese is a major Chinese language. Only about 6% of Chinese people speak Cantonese, but it's a primary exported Chinese language because of the closed door regulations of the Mainland.
Recently, a Chinese-American moved to Shanghai to start a "Chinese-American" (or maybe "American-Chinese") restaurant to cater to the massive expat community there. It failed because the Chinese didn't recognize it as Chinese food. They re-marketed it as an American restaurant and it's flying now. China is weird.
I saw the sun straight away. I love that you went out of your way to get the photo even after all that walking. Hmm, well I personally need to sulk for a while sometimes but to help myself snap out of it I try to do an activity I haven't done for a while like go swimming or paint a picture. Sometimes writing helps too.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. I think that night I sat down to write. The funny thing was re-reading this post and having forgotten about the thing that had annoyed me so much!
DeleteI have to remember in the moment, that things like that don't matter.
I do not think I could survive without good pizza! It is my comfort "go to" but walks also always make me feel better! You must be able to get amazing Pho though!!!
ReplyDeleteMe too, me too. Used to be.
DeleteActually, I'm not a fan of Pho. I'm told it's great, but I've never been a big soup person. They have a different noodle dish, without the broth, and with greens in it, called "my quang" [like mee-huang]. I prefer that.
We have found that, in general, we prefer Vietnamese food to Chinese food, having lived in both countries.
When I'm out of sorts I usually cry! And then I get mad because I am crying!
ReplyDeleteThis was an anger-first situation. I don't know why I couldn't shake it! The next day was fine. Maybe I was just tired.
Delete