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.
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