Huainan in the Spring Festival

Spring Festival...a festival that lasts fifteen days...when all of China celebrates, and a large part of it shuts down...like the restaurants that line the street outside my university. With almost all the students having gone home for the holidays, the laobans (bosses) figured there wouldn't be much by way of clients or business and so, they too have gone wherever... ...And, foreign teachers like me have been left alone to fend for them(our)selves... I tried cooking...a long time ago...burned my hand once...cut my hand the next and that was the end of my misadventures with fire and food, and oil and cooking gas...I have learnt instead, to depend on what life hands out...and sometimes, life decides to hand out little, even when i'm ready to pay for the handout...like these times, in Huainan...south of river Huai, the third longest river in China. Huainan is a mid-sized city, unlike some of the giant cities in China like Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing and god knows how many others. I have seen cities that are reportedly small, like Dongguan in South China but even they seem to go on an on...Anyway, Huainan, famous for the black and white and my students ofte remind me...the black is the steam coeal that is mined here in huge quantities and the white is the tofu or 'doufu' as the Pinyin purists like to put it...Huainan is proudly touted as the home of the beancurd, the place where it originated. And, yes, the locals seem to know how to use that protein-rich food. I have meandered like the Huai river and now I must hold myself...ad return next time to speak of another adventure...well, good fortune if you like...albeit a small one...one that i went to...and one that met me, arms outstretched...