Large Big Ocean

By now, you know how sweet my students are. Well, they are the gift that keeps on giving.

I've had a cold, and they know. They know because I've told them, because I took a day off work, and because I've been wandering around with a scarf wrapped around my neck and a hat on my head. And the Chinese, in general, are very happy and eager to share their knowledge with you. Drink hot water! Not, tea... water! With honey. Take these pills. Ms. Scott, this tea is good for your throat. This from a student who loves Chinese folklore and food (the two often go hand-in-hand). She struggles to explain it to me in English... because she loves it so much, she is willing to struggle.

Hmm. Good for my throat. I'll try that.

Today, I open up the packet of "tea" and dump it in my mug. Oooh, nuts and berries. I look it over with my Partner-in-Crime. Those things that look like rat turds, they're some kind of berry (or just rat turds). There are some dried daisies. Some chopped up green things. Something that looks like orange rind. And a brown thing that looks a lot like the tip of a morel mushroom. It's probably not a mushroom, and not a psilocybic one, but that would make class more interesting.

I walk down the hall and fill up my mug with water. I walk to the classroom and set down my mug to get out my book. I write the objective on the board (thanks, Cali!). I turn back around and pick up my mug to take a sip and start class and...

"Eeep!" I screen in a rather girlish way. I almost drop my cup in fright. What before had seemed a benign mixture of nuts and berries has suddenly blossomed into a brown, gelatinous mass in my cup. I can see it throbbing and oozing in the hot water. The kids are now intensely interested in my mug. I show them what's there... They lean over with intense interest... Oh. That. It's a ... (they type something into their dictionaries and show it to me)... Not that I have any idea what it is. "It's good for your throat," they all assure me.

I wrote it down. In Chinese it's pang da hai or scaphium scaphigerum which is the seed of the boat-fruited sterculia. Whatever that means.

By now, the top of my tea is covered with floating daisy leaves and this mushroom-looking thing is lurking just beneath the surface. I set the cup down. "Maybe I'll wait a minute to let things settle."

"Oh, no, Ms. Scott." They look at me earnestly, "It's only going to get bigger." Their eyes widen.

"Bigger! I guess I have to drink it quickly."

They nod.

I take a tentative sip. I spit out the daisy leaves. They giggle. I take another sip, trying to avoid all the debris floating in my cup of water. 

"How is it?" they want to know.

"Well, it doesn't taste bad."

I finished the drink by fishing out an orange rind and using it to push the daisy petals to one side of my mug. When the class is over, I fish the lump of seed out of my mug to hold it. It is gelatinous. It does look like fungus. The edges of it expand outward and you can see the thin, furry edges of the ... whatever. Seed insides. It jiggles like Jello when you shake the cup. 

"You can use it again, you know." 

Back down the hall. More hot water. The seed grows larger. I sip around the edges. As I add more water throughout the day, the daisy petals sink to the bottom and no longer interfere with my drinking. Now I just stare at the brown blob. It stares back at me.

I told my student about my experience during our class. She laughed at me, too. She asked if I liked the taste. I told her that it wasn't bad, although it was different. She explained that the three characters, pang da hai, translate literally as "large big ocean" (or something very close to that). When she was young, she asked her mother why that was so, since the seed was so small. Her mother put a seed in a cup with water and she watched it grow. 

And I must say, if my throat doesn't feel better, it certainly doesn't feel any worse.

(Tomorrow, I'll bring my camera and take some pictures and update the blog. So check the post in a couple of days if you want to see the craziness for yourself.)