Spring of Two Blue J's

Some pictures from around the city... To the sounds of the genius Cecil Taylor...

Hanyang (my part of town), behind the Rainbow Bridge, from the cross-river ferry.

Hankou, from said ferry, with lots of river in the foreground.

Myself, rising up with the farmers and labourers at Walking Street. UNITE!

A lion and a dog, raised together since cub/puppy-hood, at the Hanyang zoo.

A giant panda, napping.

A reindeer, or reindeer-like creature.

A "hippie cow," as my guide explained...

The great beast.

I don't know. Some variety of monkey.

Sweet baby orangutang.

Traditional Chinese garden.

In a traditional Chinese garden.

Back at Walking Street.

On a murderous rampage.

Seasons Greetings! On April 24th. This is a huge neon sign on the side of a building. 6 or 8 stories tall. This was one of the things I first noticed when I got to China, you see Christmas decorations all over the place. I don't know why.

I Saw the Light

One of these days I'm gonna begin a post without talking about how overdue it is. Not because it won't be, I just won't mention it. It is midterm time, so I've been, and still am, really busy. Perhaps that will buy me 30 seconds of understanding amongst the blog hounds out there.

The Great Equalizer

That is a fishbone. A fishbone that, uninvitedly, took up residence in my throat. Fish are rarely, if ever, deboned in China. Or at least everywhere that I have yet eaten. I have been warned over and over to be careful, and ordinarily air on the careless side of caution (that is, carelessly cautious). Well this particular section of endoskeleton had stowed away in an otherwise osseous tissue-free portion of unnamed aquatic vertebrate; part of a fish & preserved egg soup (about as tasty as it sounds). I didn't notice her until she was past the point of no return, so I had to try and force her down. I tried rice, bread, peanut butter, Foaming Pipe Snake (TM), Roto-Rooter, esophogeal bypass, nothing worked. I eventually had to go to the hospital to get it out, a couple students took me. The doctor was thilled at the opportunity to practice his english. I didn't think I was nervous, but the way I was sweating immediately before the procedure would indicate otherwise. Anyway he said he performs about 10 throat de-bonings a day. Common procedure. And a 100 RMB lesson: when eating fish in China, one should probably air on the slightly less careless side of caution.

As I have grown up, at somepoint when I wasn't looking, I started to like dressing up. Dressing up nice I mean. Well, what I think is nice. All my clothes will undoubtedly be tossed once a female enters the picture (they never let us have any fun...or so I'm told). So anyway I take any opportunity to don my snazzy duds and strut about like a chupacabra. Well, it seems this is very jarring, even intimidating, to my students. A necktie, you see, is very formal. And wearing one typically means you are very serious about business. No horseplay, no tomfoolery, no shenanigans, just taking care of business (at an appropriate rate of speed). I've received more compliments from students after seeing me in a t-shirt than all the Easter Sunday get-ups of my childhood combined. In this same vein I am known, among the students, as "The Detective."

Mr. Detective

Of course its too hot now for all those layers, but it seems I have been branded.

I've been working (and not working, its midterm season so I have been really busy,) on this post for over a week now. Thats no good. And what with the constant demands from my adoring public to hurry the crap up and write something else, I have decided to try a slightly different format. Well, not necessarily a new format, but I just figure that I will be able to write less substantial posts more often. So I guess until I start recieving complaints about watered-down content I'm gonna try this new way. But give me a break at first, it is after all, midterm season.

April Fool

Did you get my joke? I didn't write a blog post, April Fools! Oh man, I am hilarious.

A random observation I've been meaning to mention, What do you see a lot of in China that you hardly ever see in America? Buicks. Yeah, the American car company. Maybe I was just distracted but I don't remember noticing a Buick in America in years. I see them all over the place here.

I traveled outside of Wuhan for the first time this past weekend. We had Monday off for a holiday, Tomb Sweeping Day. It comes from the Qing Dynasty and is a time when one gathers with their family, in the mother's hometown if possible, and honor their ancestors. Someone told me that the closest American counterpart would be Memorial Day. Anyway I went, with a fellow teacher, to the small mountain town of Yichang (ee-chong), population 4 million. Yichang is west of Wuhan in the Hubei province. The Three Gorges Dam, the largest dam in the world, is right close. And it is also right close to the mountains, it was wonderful. Yichang is a very nice place. One day we drove out into the country and walked along the river for awhile (not the BIG river, a smaller tributary) and got a glimpse of rural life in China. That was my favorite part. And then of course we went and saw the dam. What can I say... it's a dam alright. And big. Sure is big. I had a great time.

And just especially for those who have been hounding me, here are some pictures...

Fields and mountains

Ditto.

The wall of the canyon. Notice the people for scale.

A little pool tucked behind some foliage.

River. More like a stream actually.

Area Girl Crosses Stream

Hubei, China: The mood was electric this past Monday as a local girl prepared to cross a stream while holding an orange. "I'm really excited about [the stunt]," said Huang Hu, 6, "I've been training really hard and I think that I am ready." A successful crossing could be a boost to the local economy said shop owner Ying Yi Ma, "I think people are definitely going to be traveling from afar to witness this historic occasion." When asked what's next for the little adventurer, she replied "Perhaps I'll climb a hill."

Another mountain shot.

Mother and child.

Playing Mahjong.

A tomb decorated for the holiday. I felt guilty taking this picture, I kinda did it on the sly. I didn't know if it might be uncouth.

The blogger thing isn't letting me put anymore pictures so that's all you get for now. I'll come back and post a link to a photo album when I get them uploaded. That is all.

EDIT: Okay, here are the rest of the pictures, with captions.