This weekend is an island — as in that I worked every day for the past three weeks, and it looks like the next two weeks won’t be any different. It’s not so much that my body is tired, but my mind sure feels bruised. I hope to find some rest in Lili (黎里), an old water town south of Suzhou. I saw it on the map and the name sounds like a place of grace with open arms.

My view of watertowns in China has changed over these six years. In the beginning, everything seemed new to me. Then I had several years where I felt watertowns were all just the same; if you had seen one, you have seen all of them. Maybe that’s still true, but I can now see more uniqueness in them. And besides, my expectations have changed. To walk, eat and drink some; that’s enough.

There’s a small catholic church in the middle of Lili, a beautiful white building that combines Chinese and Western architecture with blue, orange, and green stained glass windows. The priest serves communion bread, and an old lady sings a slow and sad hymn. My mind wanders to my mom’s hometown and its catholic church building, where we as kids went countless times to sit through what we felt was a meaningless mass. But it’s because of those memories that I feel connected to this place, even though it’s the first time I’ve ever been here.

The canal that flows through Lili is part of the network of creeks and rivers that flow to Taihu Lake (太湖), and it’s lined with modern sidewalks and old moon bridges (月桥). There are dozens of tiny shops and restaurants, and an exhibition of cat photos taken in the village.

There’s a store selling sesame buns named ‘蟹壳黄’, which literally translates to ‘crab shell yellow’ — because the buns look like tiny crabs. There is also a local specialty called ‘油墩’, which means an ‘oil block’. It’s basically a lump of sticky rice (糯米) with meat inside, scorching hot and dripping with oil. But this unhealthy food is exactly what I’m looking for. I’m here, and this is now.

With all the patience and grace in the world, a lady pours joy sauce into a bottle. She’s just focused on that and nothing else, and this is exactly the slow pace that I have been missing for the past weeks.