What is that bamboo sphere? a giant lotto receptacle?

Nice to see the world, organized in an other country's egocentric way. The Beijing Olympics were a perfect moment. I am glad I got to see some of the preparation.

Globe it is. I will miss seeing it painted. I bet the PRC will be in red.
My last day in Beijing, I got questioned by district police for over an hour, before I could check up on my plaster project. They wanted to know what was on my arm- iPhone, which led to podcasts and my laptop, which led to Hermonius Bosch, Bush, and relative superiority of cultures.

Nice 90+degree scaffolding work. Glad I got to do other things.

Me intrerlude- in front of the main building for BLCU.

Oh, plaster over the bamboo. Wow.
What are we hiding from?
The bamboo was well guarded. soon after it went up, we had to show our passports and school id to get into campus.
A sun umbrella for the Lotto ball. Lots of bamboo framework.
Covering up my school's name.

Many legged insect?


What is that giant woven bamboo sphere? Lotto ball holder?

Blogs and Podcasts I like

I have a new blog, started this past Friday night with a group of like minded fitness enthusiasts It is www.fitnessrulesus.blogspot.com. We met at a series of exercise classes led by a fantastic young lady, who is a PhD at a NJ pharmaceutical( for the rest of the month, then she is "job hunting")

In the enthusiasm of creating this new blog, I thought I would make note of my own blog and podcast interests. For this post I will cover only the medical links.

Medical blogs and podcasts:

http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/podcasts-from-conferences-of-university.html has a superb list of blogs and podcasts for all levels of medical personnel. I have found the Internal medicine lectures and grand rounds to be excellent accompaniment to my fitness efforts. What I find particularly worthy is the availability of CME for those who need it. This gives a reasonable level of rigor and intellectual integrity. Also, medical lectures must cover the changes in the literature and best practice changes as they are locally practiced. The reasons are illuminating as well as practical.

Anything with Mark Crislip, an Infectious Diseases MD in Seattle- http://www.pusware.com/ He does an Infectious Diseases literature review at pusware.com and a review of alternative medicines at Quackcast. His Infectious Diseases blog is http://pusware.com/rdct/

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/ is what it says. It is 35 years too late. Better late than never. Maybe this generation of physicians will have more sense to use these facts well than previous practitioners.

http://edwinleap.com/blog/ is the careful, thoughtful musings of an emergency room physician.

http://www.wellsphere.com/communities is a general public effort to encourage healthy behaviors.

An earlier site I thought had promise was http://www.realage.com/default.aspx This website has a number of self administered quizes for people to help determine how to improve the healthy aspect of their behavior. I got fed up with the continual email notices.

http://www.medpod101.com/ is an extensive set of medical case skits. The cast of characters has decent amusement value as well as enough story to help remember the medical points one is supposed to be learning.

The Albany Medical Center Emergency Medicine lecture Series http://ems.aanet.org/ems1.shtml is often riveting without any theatrics. My personal favorite was a heartwrenching retelling of the series of events that took place in the Tulane Medical Center Emergency Room in the days before, during and right after hurricane Katrina.

I am home

This weekend and yesterday I had a number of people calling to greet me home. That was very special. I still remember the excitement I saw on my husband and mother's faces when my plane was landing at ACK. We get to do the same thing next week when Kestrel arrives from Manchester, UK.

There is a fair amount of clean up, but then I left a house still under construction from bedroom and family room projects. Now, I hope that the front doors can be fixed before it gets cold.

Not all the plants made it, but then plants don't all make it in any year. I still mourn the stupid things. At least there are some interesting seeds from the Beijing Botanic Garden to amuse me in the spring.

It looks as if the bills are in order and will be filed quickly. last.fm works here. I didn't even try in Beijing. I wonder if I will ever get to any of the pictures I took this summer and if they will ever have any meaning beyond the moment I took them?

Home and updates

It is Sunday morning early, East coast US time. I arrived "home" a little over 8 hours ago and have had a quick sleep, steak, salad and corn, and my first wash with warm water in over 2 months.

The house on Nantucket is in a little moor, just at the airport end of Surfside. I fell asleep on the flight from EWR, but woke up in time for a perfect view of Martha's Vineyard and then the various Nantucket points and south shore before circling ACK to make a N to S landing. The skies were puffy cloud blue from Newark to Massachusetts.

Will P has surprised me with a finished photo of a series I started on the BLCU campus, in the last weeks of class. This globe started out life as a huge bamboo woven ball. As the scaffolding got built and the globe got put into place I took pictures. I never saw it without the scaffolding.

I seem to have a few hundred characters that I can get onto paper without prompting. I am going to see how I can build sentences from them, and I am going to work on adding from the many more characters I can recognize. My flatmate, Grahame gave me some language tapes that have been much more helpful for conversation practice than class was. I have been working with them to practice more mundane conversations than class ever managed. ( What do you do with a dialog about cigarette smoking?)

Sadly, my shoulder seems to be aggravated, so I will need to work on rotator cuff things for a few days to counter the various insults I have flung at the weak thing. When I wake up next, I will work on the police and security stories and the Erik hair cutting.

I miss chats with Erik, Kim, Jessica, Chen Ran, Will, Kelly and the various nuts on the CSA tour. I didn't always run into them, but the times I did were very important for my personal comfort level as I dealt with my China summer. I am very grateful for my family's understanding and love. I could not have been away so long without their support. I hope everyone calls me soon. I can't wait to hear their voices. I hope that I will be able to keep up with my China summer acquaintances, and that they will become friends.

Retlo's totally awesome last day in Beijing.

Instead of going straight to the 8 sights Garden, I got stopped by the local constabulary. That's right, passport and documents registration. They even wanted to search my bag. I was all polite and go right ahead. Then we started talking. More than an hour later, I am exchanging emails, cards, comparing Hermonious Bosch to modern Science fiction. It was a great time. They are practicing for the Olympics, these constabularies were district Police, about 12 of them in a van.

I'm sorry, but I have to crash. Pics tomorrow morning!

love to wall

class is over, I start traveling tomorrow

Well I think I passed. I know I passed the written, and the oral professor was complimentary of my paragraph presentation. What a tough language to learn.

Today was my first day without study or classes. I worked out then had a long day planned, to see a garden based on a classic Chinese novel: "The Dream of Red Mansions". Then I was going to go to Tiananmen, Wangfujing foreign languages bookstore, the restored Confucian Temple, and the brand new Beijing Apple store. I made it to everything except the Apple store, but Erik has been nice enough to volunteer to check that out for me. It is very close to his apartment. My workout was good, if constrained. I didn't get a gym membership, so I am doing pushups, lunges, abs, arm curls, and rows. I use therabands and a 2X2' mat I bought on a diagonal to have a surface I am willing to put near my face or my hands. I have been trying to work out 2-4 times a week, but the last few weeks I really didn't have time. I needed the sleep more, and when I had time, I took long hikes to see sites.

I have been marking my routes on a map of Beijing. that is now very threadbare and hard to read, but the combined routes show what I have done. The map is not as informative as could be, it labels major roads, but they rarely keep the same name over more than 2-3 blocks. there are all sorts of modifiers- north south, big, or just slightly different, but the same....

Retlo's words of advice for summer housekeeping

See the filter on the left, in place.

Lots of switches, not a lot of communication

Filter, properly removed and corners cleaned.

Euwe! at least it's not pool worms!

OK, boys and girls,

Even in foreign climes, washing machines and dryers have filters to catch the lint, hair, gnats, and other particulates that get dumped out in the H2O. If you can't find it, you aren't looking hard enough. I have now done 4 loads, and just found the lint bag on the Rinse inflow for the washer. So it is recycling water and doing a crude filter as it goes. On my machine at home, there are holes in the bottom and sides of the drum that need to be culled if I wash a particularly fuzzy article, but in general, I don't have to go excavating.

I removed the large lozenge of lint/pill crap and took my leatherman to the crevasses to get the overflow crud out of there. Now the lint filter mesh locks into place. Likewise, I can't tell you how many people I know who never clean their dryer lint collector. Guess what, you don't clean, it can't efficiently dry, and it take way longer, costs more and does a bad job. Other possible problem, the outflow from the dryer is blocked. If your dryer still takes way too long to not dry your clothes, birds may have built a nest in the outflow from the dryer. Happens to me once or twice a year. In my case, I have to haul a ladder to the exterior wall, climb up and use a thin stick to get all the encrusted lint out of the external vent cover hinges, so that it will work properly. Any other experiences?

Now, can you say hot water in Chinese: 热水 re4shui3 ok, so you can't. But I can!, and I can check the temp on the washing machine: 洗衣机 xi3yi1ji1.

Things I keep noticing

dangerous holes with no warning- all over the place, but I notice mostly near WuDaoKou station. One moment a manhole cover is exposed to 12 feet below, the next time I walk by it is capped.

wholesale demolition and construction- the police station I had to have my passport registered at has been demolished. The arch remains, and neat piles of bricks for "new" construction

gardens, trees, color use, and design- Many of the plants I see are open pollinated, or perennial. The trees are largely recently planted, with remarkable staking. I have been noticing jute lashing around trunks. Everywhere, even groundcovers have been carefully installed. When ever possible, gardens have differences in elevation. This gives a sense of exploration, discovery. The limestone TaiHu stones are important design elements in most gardenscapes. The rain we have had has been very helpful, cause I don't see any irrigation. The soil is devoid of organic material. I haven't seen or smelled a single worm anywhere, even after a rain. I have noticed bees, gnats, and flys, but not mosquitos. My flatmate is very aware of mosquitoes, though. She checks my window screen use to make sure I have not left a window open for mosquitos.

public works as handwork- digging out huge tree stumps by hand takes a week. The brooms are the same as the ones I remember from 10 years ago. I have seen people working at night on ChengFu Lu and on weekends. the sidewalks on ChengFu Lu and the gardens everywhere seem to be in continual rip up and repair. I think the water pipes near WuDaoKou were part of the reason for the massive rip in the streetscape since I have been here. Navigating that mess is interesting at any time of the day- crowds, dust, new obstacles every time, women in high heels( what are they thinking) Cars, bikes, workmen carrying shovels and picks, pedestrians in both directions, holes and rubble vie to occupy the same point in space. Odd, there are front end loaders in use during the night along the half mile of Cheng Fu Lu I usually hike. I would think a quick push with one of them would save days of laborer effort per tree.

The WuDaoKou light rail station is next to a long distance railroad track. the two trains are perpendicular to a very busy street- ChengFu Lu. When a long distance train is expected, 4 long bamboo lances are are slowly lowered to block pedestrian, bike, and car travel. As much as 15 minutes of warning occurs as small LED swirly circles are turned on and completely distorted announcements are made, long before the lances are lowered. The lances are lowered by hand individually. There are two barrier men, a flag man, and sometimes a police car to help shut down the traffic. Each lance is lowered individually with huge toggled levers on both sides of the road.

how is it that some people have such camera ease? The young people I have photographed have all presented such self comfort when I have photographed them. I am quite envious.

My gut- for the last 3 days I have had GI distress. Not bad enough to take Imodium or Cipro, but I am not traveling. I am apparently 1 week behind the usual onset of cases. I do not know the immediate cause, but CDC says treated or untreated, TD resolves in 3-6 days for most travelers.

I have been drinking hot water/tea and diet coke, mostly. Though there is the occasional amazing peach nectar that Kim introduced me to. There are peaches sold by free market fruit vendors on many intersections near me. I have enjoyed looking but have not eaten any. I have stuck to watermelon, oranges, and dried fruit. My food options have been hot until 3 days ago when I got cold sesame noodles on a really wicked hot humid day. I can't tell if some of my GI symptoms aren't from the remarkable amount of fresh hot chilies I have been enjoying. I am not impressed with local beers. They are weak, and either pretty flavorless or just as peculiarly flavored as the "Great Wall" hong de jiu I got for 32 yuan. I have had 2 lagers that were excellent imports- Carlsberg and Hoegaarden( I think that's right). I don't have much tolerance, so I am a good drinking companion. My companions get to finish anything but tea.


preparations v actual experiences- vaccines, eating and drinking. I have had icecubes in Beijing twice. No one seems to be as concerned about exposure as I am. I seem to have been the only person affected, of my acquaintances. I do know from microbiology that bugs that are spread by GI distress are remarkably adapted to success because of human inclination to not discuss.

Along with a charming sense of polite reserve, my flatmates are careful to not say anything that is offensive. They do want to know what I think of things like YuanMingYuan- it makes them very sad. I compared it to the great garden projects around roman ruins in Italy or the destruction of Teotichuan in Mexico. When I create my various sentences to try out on my flatmate and tutor I have been known to come up with word use that is not correct or worse, very vulgar. There are many meanings to the verb- excited. I guess I picked the wrong verb meaning excited, but Oxford is unclear on the context. Everyone in Beijing seems to be quite enthusiastic about the Olympics.

toothbrushing- I forgot my toothbrush, go figure. There are many options for mouth hygiene, and my flatmate is quite careful to not expose me to any possibly offending mouth odor. It is quite a charming part of our morning ritual of new phrases and politeness.

word use that is inappropriate- my two closest acquaintances- Jessica and Silvia have definite opinions about proper behavior- no jaywalking, quiet in home behavior, work v play. Their part of China pride, and a sense of personal improvement. they both spend large amounts of time either learning more Chinese words while watching Chinese opera(Jessica) or more literary English (Silvia). Both are quite literarily romantic.

how clear or not clear the view from my window is, the sounds I hear as I am studying.

The kids and dogs and a few other pets I have seen- dogs are allowed as long as they are below a certain height. Kids have grandmas in tow or very careful parents, in spite of lack of helmet use on bikes. I wonder if pets eat table scraps, because the pet food part of the grocery store is quite limited.

People riding sidesaddle on bikes, motorcycles, and carts. Usually ladies being shepherded by men. I enjoy that parade, but have not managed to photograph examples, yet.

The appliances in my apartment- the dishwasher looks like a dishrack with blowers, stainless steel lined. The clothes washer uses "washing powder" It has lots of things you have to do to get the wash to work. Plug in the power, turn on the water, put the clothes in, shake a light covering of washing powder on the clothes, put the water fill path in the right position, push an on switch, and then an agitation(?) switch. You know that the cycle is started when the agitation starts and the water flows. Then you can close the lid. I am sure there are choices for length of time of wash, agitation speed, length of rinse, water temperature, as I can see the selector buttons and decipher then a little, but as to the indicators for what you have changed for each, not so much. The watercooler that dispenses hot and cold water from a carboy that is clearly labeled with information demonstrating the deionization completeness of the water within. The tub that talks, and finally, the room AC by Mitsubishi that uses a remote control to work. It is on a wall, not through one, so the heat exchange aspect is a little mysterious to me.

I got tired of dealing with Blogger's uploading images and image placement quirks, so this isn't very well formatted.

Xing qi liu, wan shang

Wow, that week went fast.

I just reset the apartment's wireless connection, so that my flatmate did not have to run a 50 meter cable from her room around the eating table, over a door and a divider to the old position for the modem and router. Then I showed her how to check the status lights.

Now, I have restarted an rsync so that my pics will end up in the usual place. dialup- 185 12Megapixel pics takes about all night.

The lady at the right was a chance encounter at the top of a hillside in the Summer palace, last weekend. Between her quiet aloneness and the delightful curiosity of my companions, I had excellent examples for how to greet this city.





This week I worked very hard on translating a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale I bought last Sunday at Wangfujing bookstore. Lots of flowery baroque vocabulary but I learned the words for pearl - zhen1zhu1, garden- hua1yuan2, and forest- shu4lin2, among many more. I wish any of these words would stick. I work two hours a day with a lovely lady, named Silvia. My pronunciation finally got a " you must be from China" 3 days ago. 2 days ago Silvia liked my sentences that I had written. I am still the world's worst conversationalist in Chinese, but I am beginning to hear better.











I can get feebly around a restaurant, now. Subways are a breeze(I have my very own multipass) and I can shop in department stores and do a little haggling. I am in awe of Kim and her haggling skills, she bought a gorgeous shirt for her boyfriend in the first shop we looked at. She did have second thoughts after she saw another shirt with dragons. This is a problem with looking seriously at the first store that grabs you, literally. Her running shoes purchase was much more rational. We looked at unstrung pearls, silk clothes, messenger bags: 24 kuai ( before haggling) for the ubiquitous Chairman Mao bag.

I take lots of garden, historic venue, and demolition pictures. If you really want to look, ask me by email, and I will give you the webpage.






Last night I was traveling on the subways at rushhour. People were so packed that I watched some fall out of the cars, when the cars were opened. Not my favorite situation. Today, the subways were much less crowded, and I got to travel on one of the new lines. number 5. ( There are 4 lines that are opening in time for the Olympics) I noticed the next lady sleeping while she road the rails. A lot of people are able to nod off on the train. I am still too excited about finding the odd Walmart one stop away from my home station- WuDaoKou.




I often feel I have been thrown into Snow Crash or The Fifth Element. Even, Blade Runner at night when I am taking the long ride home in a cab. My subway line stops fairly early- before 23:00pm. I have a number of photos of things that are in reflection or through glass- the subways have ads that flicker on the outside of the train. They also have some kind of flatscreen video feed that you can see all the time, and hear when there are lulls. In one of the bathrooms I visited yesterday, there was a video feed that you could see in the middle of the mirror above the wash basins.



I have had some memorable experiences chatting with my family via iChat. The video is excellent. This morning, I had dinner with my husband, son and mother( last night) I have a dinner date, Monday morning at 6:00am with friends. Very new way of interacting and being connected. I know one young thing who leaves video chat open while sleeping so that an absent sweetie can keep closer touch. Cell phones help keep people connected here, too. I have been texting everyone in my family on a fairly regular basis. My mom enjoys texting back. Huz keeps me informed, as well. My tutor will often tell me how her commute is going, to manage arrival times, and to be let in the door.

Qingxi wu zaoshang

Shan3xi1 cheng2cu4

jintian wo shuo zhi hanyu

Yesterday, I watched a group of 3 week Beijing veterans navigate directions and finding food and a maze. It gave me the confidence to make myself speak Chinese all morning. I really do have more than I have been willing to try.



Conversations so far 1. about how my flatmate and I slept- well
2. what we will do today shuo hanyu 3. how to get more drinking water for the flat.

I had a long chat with my family- BC, gram, Terry and Cameron.

My IM with Erik is in pinyin! he is correcting me,and I am arguing with him. Cool!

The last of my home food is some very horded macadamias. I still have chocolate for serious bribes and my lemondrops, but they don't really count. Along with my tea stash.

My tutor and I really did talk in Hanyu for 2 straight hours, then we went to lunch together. rice noodles and chicken and mushrooms. Excellent. $1.18 or 8 yuan. Almost doesn't count. The orange I have been nibbling on this afternoon is a variety I have never had before- navel thick rind, individual kernals very firm, and more sour than American oranges.

My homework is to read the fairytale I bought at Wangfujing on Saturday and retell it simply. Then we are going to work on ordering from a non picture menu in a restaurant. I hope to be able to get my dinners much more easily, soon.

Also hope to do KTV and wonder if there is DDR here.

I needed music today- This mac has quite a stash, so I am listening on random. Found an Oasis song from a kid remix- "Champagne Supernova in the Sky" It sounds like it is an older song than most rock songs my kids listen to.

moving targets

Yesterday and the day before I had connectivity problems to the Internet, and then, once on, to sites I usually check: my blog, a couple others, and some news sites.

When I checked with others, apparently my blog is hosted by a domain that has been blocked here. There are some interesting sites devoted to proxy servers to allow access to such sites. My choices include trying one of these proxies, not posting any more, moving my blog to another address so that I can see it. Not sure what I am going to do, yet.

I wish that information flowed much more freely in more places in this world. Also, that I was better at learning Mandarin. There are so many ways to speak English, even here. I suspect that it gets easier to force myself the farther afield I go.

That being said, I got to talk to and see my mommy and my husband, last night. iChat's video conferencing is wonderful when it works. The sounds delay was not too bad and it was very comforting to see my family.

tween Thurs and Fri

Light breeze, child chimes
greet another evening in Beijing, Haidan district
the child symphony has been building for a few hours as the day has cooled
last night I woke up twice,
the second time to a cliched wail of feminine pain.
Angry moans of distress in the dark far below
I could not see her in the late night privacy of someone's failure
in the morning, tiny confetti dots of paper surrounded a trash can.
Who knows if they are what is left of her discovery.
A designated janitor has them removed before I can photograph.
faint traditional music, calling people to stretch and prepare their bodies for the day
much nearer, soft coo cooing of pigeons
one came to visit today this afternoon.
minimal sounds from other apartments.
Sometimes my door slams from the cross breeze, but now I check the magnet.

The flow from early morning to early evening
different horns, sirens, tiny angers completely dwarfed by this gargantuan residence
the eastern seaboard megalopolis does not know the meaning of the concept.
The scale of Beijing is miles per square inch on a map,
not .25miles per avenue in NYC

here, every day is a “shift-reload” to a new screen
the physical embodiment of the early progress
I experienced as the internet became the world wide web.
No two observations were ever the same, and there was no manual.
Here, the streets, blocks, trains, apartments do not come with manuals,
though sometimes they do speak to you.....- in courteous English,
confusing, distorted Mandarin, “Have a nice shower”

some smells are good, some persist and I make sure my mask is with me for them.
The dust is everywhere.
My balance is getting practice. The sidewalk is being laid
I climb mini mountain ranges of rubble that will be
the foundation of the next sidewalk erogeny.
I will check to see how long it takes to terraform the earth's crust
from my road to the light rail station.
Has to be weeks, not months
everywhere Beijing is Olympic housecleaning.

The streets are swept, flowers distributed and planted in
instant gardening on a scale that must have the entire state of California
shipping bedding plants in continuous flotillas of cargo ships to meet the demand.
First gas, now roses.
Lots of pinks and reds. The compositions are grand scaled
What will Disneyland do when it can't get it's usual order for love or money?

The internet noise is present, too. There are 5-8 hubs in range all the time, all locked
packets buzz just like the children, still awake at 20:39

the breeze is getting stronger as the evening settles

I am thinking about dinner and wondering
if I can enjoy tonight's music without too much expense.

Mr. O'dell rev's his engines here, too.
I wonder if the overclocking gets him any closer to his destination
at any time. In any hemisphere? Would he recognize his success?

For all the shaving of space between parasoled walkers, bikes and cars,
I've only seen one accident. There was a police man there already
I could not understand the argument, but the meaning was clear-
“You were stupid to hit my car. It is ruined. Who is going to pay? “

The ambulances do not make a noticable noise.
The bikes do. Ching ching bells tell “here I come, move out of my way”
The truck bikes are motorized now.
The wheelchair bikes accommodate those who can not keep up
canes and slumps showing the need.
White hair in one case completely unprotected by helmet

No child has to be coddled by a safety helmet here.
My safety net- check twice before stepping
Keep a bottle of home clean water in my backpack at all times.
Time to practice some more.

Zaijian
jian mian mingtian

this is a test

this is only a test

Ok, so it's more than that,

the pic is a lovely courtyard in the style of a landscape, right in the middle of the Beijing Language and Culture University.

Many of the plants were recognizable, some were not. I wonder what they will do when the Acer palmatum are bigger than the stones? Move them and start all over? It is very hard to plant a garden for future perspectives. I guide looked like a giant in the scene when I asked him to pose on the path. Really did not fit in with my sense of the place.

Wednesday morning- Xing1qi1 san1 shang4 wu3 (zao3shang is earlier)

Yesterday was my first full day in Beijing. I got up early, 4:30 and went through emails, ordered my study materials, and started preparing for my tutors. I used the time to figure out what I had forgotten or misunderstood that I needed. Would you believe the old cliche- toothbrush? Hand cream- now that was just a bad brain drop. I use lots of Eucerin. I also needed to get a bigger towel. I brought my Speedo towel that is essentially a chamois. OK in a pinch, but not for 8 weeks. Last, there is a clothes washer in my suite, reminiscent of the one my husband and I used once in the 14th arrondissement in Paris. My flat mates seem to be hand washing their clothes, but I would like to save my hands, so I got washing powder. The young man who helped me shop looked like a Terry clone, all confused to be in any place that might have detergent or soap. More about him later.

My schedule- arrange for tutoring hours, get a local(?) orientation tour, contact Erik F, work on NJ loose ends, figure out how to communicate enough to be able to eat. ( Since I was doing local chore, I figured out that I could eat up the cheese and crackers from my trip and splurge on dinner) Worked just fine.

Somewhere along the line, BC and I tried to video conference. The video worked just fine, but the sounds was just one way. I could hear him just fine, he could not hear me. As I recall we had much the same problem when we tried to do this with Kestrel on Googletalk a few years ago. Hopefully, we will work the kinks out. It was very nice to see each other real time.

I got and sent my first texts on my program cell phone. Erik F. sent me a test, and then my tutor texted me so that we could schedule our lessons. Her name is Silvia. ( The lady who is sending "Planet Earth" home in a Chinese equivalent to FedEx is called Sophia or Zhou1 Li4 Fei- FeiFei for short) Quite the flowery name choices in English. No one has offered to call me anything in Chinese, or asked. not sure of the point- like an Appalachian Trail handle? Something you get called like a nickname- retlo the word killer?

I also wanted to go to the ATM, post office, and school library, and train station with my orientation guide.

Things I don't want to foget but don't have the time to chat about:

Roses, persimmon trees?, heat and dust, relative lack of cigarettes so far, smells in subway stations, the mysterious spa bath, suite chores, wearing out the student who was my guide, dinner choices, meeting up with Erik, acquiring one more city, I can navigate in- Beijing is really much bigger than it looks on a map, taxi rides at night can be lovely- so many lights, the Olympic buildings are quite striking- especially the pool building- It looks like a rectangle of solid water.

Today is Beijing arrival day

I have nodded off a couple of times already, but I want to get my first impressions down before I give myself over to Mandarin. Beijing has made great changes since I was last here. I am in an apartment complex in Haidan District(NW) between the 3rd and 4th ring road. It is a mixed use building, with families, students, and foreigners living here. The street level is full of shops. There is everything from what looks like a sex show to a a traditional grocery with a small dry goods area and fresh produce and made sandwiches, etc.

The airport I arrived in is, I think the same one I landed in 10 years ago. Customs was fine. Just like any other country. Pick up was a little delayed, but There was a tour counter where the ladies called my contact number. 2 minutes later I was in the back of a taxi that had ruffled seat covers.

The ride in was quiet, but I looked at lots of new landscaping( people were still planting as well ) ddddddddkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk I have to go to sleep. thanks for reading. ddddddddddddddddddddddddddkkk

Successes and conclusions

I have always thought that blogging was something that took away from sleep or the time that one should need to get done anything that is a normal part of a successful day. That is really true of the last week.

I had to travel to NYC 3 times to learn enough about the visa process to make it finally successful. I have the right visa for my summer of study 72 hours before I am scheduled to leave. Whew. The experience was remarkably emotionally draining. There is a certain amount of helplessness that such a process can create. That is not very familiar ground for me.

I hope that I will have time on the plane to record my experiences. It might be useful to people. I don't think I have had to deal with such paranoia in a long time. It might also be justified. On the other hand- I did get to see part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit on "How to Read a Chinese Painting" It explicates 36 Chinese paintings covering 2000 years of Chinese art and art collection. I got through 2 paintings of horses and one landscape. I was very charmed by the way the painter helps the viewer to stop unscrolling( in a sea of mountain passages, the is a tiny man and a caravan walking back to the center of the painting. Very charming.

Yesterday, I did not want to wander too far from the NYC Chinese consulate while I was waiting for my visa. I found a diner at 11th and 45th that served a lovely omelet and included fresh squeezed OJ with the price of a breakfast. I was surprised. I also found the Chelsea Flower Market. ( not in Chelsea, but nicely interesting for this plant person. I found a plant I was unfamiliar with and have sadly miss remembered the name- something like aloa. It looked like a thinner, less finely divided bronze leaved cimicifuga. It was a tropical in a trade gallon pot. I hope I can track it down some time.

There was more time to wait after breakfast, so I walked to pier 84 and admired the Science barge and waterworks area and reviewed my packing lists. I have spent way too much time worrying them. I don't think I am constitutionally ment to pack a week in advance of a trip. The small park was full of little brown birds, the smell of landscape roses, small children getting their morning airing, people trying their hand fishing off the dock, and the occasional tourist waiting to get on the Circle line boat. If I wasn't so concerned about all the things that could go wrong with my visa, I would have had a very nice morning.

I also have many pictures of my gardens, and should have even more of my first few days in Beijing. I want to have time to post them.

Can't imaging that I will have any more time till I get to Beijing.

Monday morning, early

Memorial Day. I spent 14 years marching in parades on Memorial Day. I have numerous pictures of me in Girl Scout uniform waving to people as I march in the parade. The annual snapshot review was a timelapse I was surprisingly annoyed by. We Girl Scouts weren't really welcomed by the VFW, but I could never see why that was the case v the Little League who also marched. I guess the VFW families had more kids in Little League. I got to see myself get grayer/fatter/thinner in quick succession. I wore Ferragamo heels most years(I wonder if my mother-in-law would have approved of such a use).

Before that phase of my life, my husband and I would take a long weekend and go south to camp. I have wonderful memories of the DelMarVa peninsula and Skyline Drive in Virginia in late May. The parades were always a very different celebration of the weekend. Much more appropriate to the original intentions, but no where as personally satisfying as our camping trips to me.

Holidays can be so tricky and precious. The time for unconstrained rest is very rare. This holiday does not require family, just respect for those who made our homes and safety possible. With my gardening and the need for me to be ready to leave for Beijing, there is a reasonable amount of anticipatory angst going on. Hopefully the sunny, cool day will see additional progress. My husband has been wondering about the management of things Cheswick while I am gone. I am wondering if we can communicate well enough for him to pay the bills on line. Can we keep the house running for 3 months without my presence?

Communication about the management of a house: bills and repairs. 20 years ago, I would collect the bills twice a month and pay them out in 2 chunks. Now, I try to pay them on line with selected payment dates from the drop down menus in my banking program. No stamps, addressing envelopes, or forgetting to drop the payment into the mail. I even know how to make international direct bank transfers, too, curtesy of my summer class in Beijing. I don't think I will be paying any bills in Beijing, though. That is a scary thought.

I just got the visa support documents tonight. That means that I have 2 whole weeks to get my visas in order instead of the 4 day rush I was expecting. I am so glad it is supposed to rain on Tuesday. I have the perfect excuse to go into Manhattan and get the visa process going. Yeah!!!!

After I plant out annuals tomorrow morning, I am going to go over packing goodies with my husband, BC. We are packing for Nantucket when I come back and I am packing for China. I have kept Nantucket packing lists since the kids were toddlers. Thank goodness, I don't have to get long distance cradles and cribs to Nantucket. I would be happy with some handwork and bathing suits. I think I will be tired of my Beijing clothes, so I will have a couple of pairs of shorts and hiking pants. I wonder if we will use our great bike rack to take the bikes. I hope we can rent a tandem too, even for a week. Last year I resewed a steerable kite. This year we should be able to fly it. What a nice thing to look forward to.

Old Nantucket list:

Ferry tickets for us and car
Where to stay in Hyannis
where to eat in Hyannis
CD-player
kites
weights and mat
telescope
tripod
adapters
bikes and helmets
sun screen
bug spray
beach towels
wisk
tea
knives
vanilla
spices
cameras
cables
talkabouts
beach chairs
hats
bathing suits
evening dress inc BC
Nantucket basket
surf boards
computer
books books books
frisbies
juggling
soccer balls
cones
goals
handwork
sewing machine
toiletries

I think this year- books, bikes, sewing machine, and handwork will top the list. GPS, cell phones and chargers. Maybe some wine. I wonder what will be important for BC and the kids. I hope my mom will come to Nantucket, too.

extreme fatigue, looking forward, looking back

This week has been one of those weeks that time has compressed. Monday felt like Friday had already happened, and I was still not done with Monday jobs. Quite the horror. My routine is work when the birds wake me up, till I can't put a sentence together any more, then unload the car, wash the wet, cold clothes and retlo, eat, go to bed.

repeat.

Wednesday was a mix of very special excitement and the pleasure of good work almost done. the garden I was working on is a difficult strip of retaining wall that will be a path in a year or two. I like seeing the garden emerging from the rain and dirt. I am looking forward to seeing the soil improving in the years ahead.

My daughter got news about the program she wanted to transfer into- she got in. They told her at her interview. That kind of delirium is very rare and worth cherishing. I am so grateful for her and am looking forward to the next 4 years of her work even if it is on another continent.

I ended the night having a quick chat with Erik who will get to Beijing before me. particulars about how to contact each other and what we are taking. shit I hear a couple of birds, so much for my night's sleep.

Vaccinations and travel health

I got my last vaccinations on Friday. It was very nice to be done with that chore. Both the hour round trip every Friday for 4 weeks and the sore shoulders some times. These last shots were no problem. I still have to figure out how I am going to deal with water and mosquitoes. Too many ways to expose myself to bugs via these two routes.

My throat has been sore most of the last 4 weeks. In the last 3 days, it seems to be clearing up. I was able to help run some big trees up a hill with the landscaping guys. My legs and lungs did not embarrass me. I don't know if the throat was spring hay fever or vaccine related. I am glad the tickle is easing. Glad I can still push/pull reasonably big trees. Testosterone still rules. Nice that I can borrow some to plant big trees.

FYI- my vaccines were expensive. Almost $2000, total. We used our HSA to pay for them. Most of the vaccines are good for 3-6 years and need boosters if you travel again.

Sunday fatigue and week's worth of chores

The last 3 days have been full of rain, planting, a prickly response to having to hug a number of conifers, and transplanted seedlings. It is still way too cold for decent fast growing. On the other hand the transplanted seedlings have an easier time of adjusting to their new roomier digs. For once I got a bunch of seedlings into the 4 inch pots they need to grow out in. And I got them back into a green house for the cool nighttime. Even without an external heat source, the greenhouse is keeping the plants 10 degrees warmer than the ambient temp if I close it up before the sun goes down.

Gas is a noteworthy cost these days. I have driven to PA or upstate NJ most days this week in a van. Gas is $3.60 a gallon. At least NJ still has people who pump for you. It is a small luxury that I do enjoy.

I have been emailing my daily todo lists and "what I did" lists to myself. That way I am keeping a record in multiple places and I can transfer the info between my Mac and PC worlds. Somewhat of an additional data pain. My plant databases are also way too big now. I have multiple years and multiple gardens for which I must keep information. I like the challenge. Today I managed to repot some agave and yuccas into pots that better matched their eventual sizes. They are potentially anywhere from 4" diameter plants to 18' tall trees. I don't think we will be able to keep the yucca growing that long, but it will be fun to try.

Friday night lights

I just woke up from a long afternoon nap. I really hadn't had time to eat or sleep much since Wednesday. It's dark here. The house was quiet except for the 2 male cats' persistent tug-of-war. Terry has gone off to do Terry things after a rainy day of forced servitude to me. Almost every light in the basement that could be on was on, including the theater lights. So, I suppose gaming was involved.

What is so hard about turning lights off? You aren't afraid of the dark when you are 22, mostly. Though sometimes I still am, courtesy of an long standing childhood memory of an Outer Limits radio program story. Gaming- the Sara Jane Chronicles that I just skimmed was about kids who were being snatched by aliens when they got too good at a first person shooter. "The Last Starfighter" was a better telling of the basic story. I wonder if the story line could be changed to include the turning lights on as a plot point.

Somehow energy wastage should be as interesting to the neo-gaia conservationist director/producer types as RPG results. It would add a level of depth to the characterizations so far unseen in Friday night tv.

Well, I'm none with plants and people for the day. Time to enjoy Harriet Vane and Peter Wimsey play with time tables and their strained relationship. I wonder what other people's solutions for interesting Friday nights are. BC is in a Red Carpet club between long flights. I can hear the rain outside. I think another cup of tea would be lovely.

Journals, memories, and expectations

skiff, the cat, just jumped up on my lap. I wish he could keep my feet warm as well as my lap.

Erik F. has encouraged me to blog for a few years, but I have never given it the time. (Skiff just decided that the lap was the place of mutual warmth. I guess feet are too non conductive)

I decided a few nights ago to keep a journal for my summer, because I am spending it in Beijing working on my Chinese skills. I wrote down a few thoughts about my plants and garden design. then I realized that I had set up the same blog last year, just forgot about it. So I moved my new posts to the old blog tonight. Seems my thoughts about this summer are similar enough to last summer to be repetitive or consistent. I am hoping for consistent and even a little intermediate improvement in educational scope.

I am hoping that making these thought dribbles will be the practice I need to make a more interesting/useful blog.

Alocasia, colocasia, taro, astilboides

Big leaves, vascular system patterns that make emphatic claims to your visual attention. What were Victorian gardeners thinking? Why were such overwhelming plants major parts of the plan? Olmstead? A careful insistence on big leaves to manage the scale of the house in the landscape?

I am suspicious that big leaves, in over whelming use are like yellow leaves and variegated ones in other landscapes- very easy to overuse.

These tropical plants can succeed in providing that extra kick in a garden design. I am looking forward to seeing the Victorian garden on the busy street in B'ville, with lots of purples, chenille plant, and one or two alocasia and an astilboides if I can find one. There may be a hidden vantage point from which I can watch people as they sit in their cars. I want to see the moment they turn their heads and notice this very different and hotly colored garden.

Wonder if the actuality will have any of the feel of what is in my head and drawings.

15 May- last frost date for this area

It is 14 May, not 15 May, but the point is that, I just put the sheets I was using for frost protection of my tender plants in the wash. It has been a week since the last really cold day that might have given frost warnings at night. Tomorrow is the last "traditional day of possible frost" in this area. It has been a very cool and cloudy spring. The early flowering trees have had maximal opportunity for bloom time. Everything is late. The leucojum has been in bloom for almost a month. Every time I walk down the hill, I get a kick out of seeing their little white bells dangling in the breeze.

I think I will be getting the annuals/bedding plants in the ground in the next week. Just on time. With Terry's help, I might even get my own garden planted in reasonable time.

On the plate: prep for going to Beijing to work on Mandarin, and finishing my gardens and computer work for the season. The house is in disarray as we renegotiate the books in new locations and new wiring for the HD tv stuff in the main public areas. I wonder if I will be able to get this under control before I leave for Beijing?

As soon as I have time- pics of the plants and mantle that can come apart to change cables. Pretty cool. Can't wait to see the Moravian tile go up around the fireplace.

sore throats and gardens

I've had a sore throat for 3+ weeks. Probably caused by something related to my seasonal allergies and my vaccinations. If it is post nasal drip, why don't I have a stuffy nose? It just keeps dripping.

JE
Polio
Hep A B
Typhoid
Meningitis
Rabies
Tetanus booster ? I have to check

I checked- 15 May I had a Tdap ( only vaccine that really had any reactions. That sight was sore for a few days.)

had a TB test to get a baseline

none of the vaccinations are perfect, but they do help.

I did my annual physical thing, too, so I am up to date on all those lovely checks on over 50 bodies.
Wish I had some time to do abs and stretching. I am going to practice characters while stretching when I get to Beijing.