Walking In the Sun

It was a beautiful week in Beijing; every day clear blue sky, mostly, as Garrison Keiller would say. I was amazed Tuesday night when I left Ozone by how warm the air temperature was. And even though I was walking in a city that is reported to be the size of the whole country of Belgium, it was quiet, and the air smelled like country air. It really felt more like a small town, and I suppose that it is in a way. Janice has a name for the Upper East Side, or maybe she doesn't, but she calls the area beyond our boundary China Town which pretty much says everything. We are in a little enclave surrounded by the real Beijing, especially when we go to Ozone, our home away from home. Sometimes it feels like walking in the sun.

But it's not just Ozone or Upper East Side that makes me feel that way. There are many good times, like tennis Wednesday night. Three of us from BIBS, Cathy and Xiao Hong from BBA, and You Qi, who is just plain addicted to tennis. The sun was shining too. After tennis we had a good time eating and talking at The Loaf here at Kandu.

Saturday Patty and I explored the bus routes some more, and I voted at the Bookworm at Sanlitun. Reuters Beijing was there taking pictures and they took a lot of pictures of me voting. I don't know what they did with them. This NBA sculpture is outside the new shopping mall at Sanlitun and is a popular photo op. Sunday was Jane's birthday. We bought a cake and had a party. We went back to the Kwai store, and I scored some more goodies, including a light socket that I plugged into an outlet in the kitchen, which easily makes the room twice as and bright. I had noticed a hardware store near the Kwai store and was hoping to buy a light bulb. The store is maybe 8 feet wide at the most, just enough room for two people to pass down the middle. I showed the owner my light socket, pointed at the empty socket and asked, Ni jou, mah? which I hoped was "Do you have?" He reached behind him an pulled out a box with a little bulb in it. I wondered how much light the bulb would give off, so I acted out "bright light" and he took the bulb out of the box, scewed it into the socket, plugged the socket into a power strip and turned it on. It was very bright. Duo shao jian ma? I asked which is something like how much. He held up 2 fingers--2 kwai. That's about a quarter. After Jane's party we went to Ozone where Jane and I each had a foot massage and Janice got cupped...yup, that's another story. I call it a combination foot massage/Chinese lesson with English tutoring thrown in too. It was a party in itself. It was definitely like walking in the sun.

I've seen enough bad times to know
when the good times have begun
O Lord - Even the blind man can tell
when he's walking in the sun.
I've been in Beijing nearly 8 weeks and have experienced highs and lows. Every day I've had to deal with water problems in my apartment; either I had no water or I had water where it shouldn't be. Every few days a new set of workers came and replaced my water meter, but nothing worked. Once a week my kitchen ceiling turned into a shower when the upstairs tenant washed clothes. Then the pipes under the kitchen sink started leaking all over the floor. One morning I sliced the tip of my thumb off while trying to stay out of the puddles. My closet doors either stuck or fell out on my head. The cupboard doors just fell off. I bought a screwdriver and pliers to fix them. My landlord started coming with his own work crew, trying to fix the problems. None of these people speak English and I don't speak Chinese. The people who do speak a little English don't speak it well enough to be much help/ Last Saturday the landloard came and "fixed" the leak, installed new closet doors, and plastered a wall which left plaster dust all over the place. The next morning the leak was worse than ever, in fact it was not longer a leak, it was a slow spray. That was the last straw. It was time to find a new apartment, and I did find several nice ones, but the landlord wanted one more chance to fix the leak, and this time he did it. I am thankfully enjoying trouble-free apartment dwelling for the first time since I arrived.
Things at school are looking up too. The new Chinese assistant started today, and Jenny is super. Jenny's first responsibility is to be the in-house substitute teacher so she won't always be available. Still, we will get the non-fiction cataloged this week and the Dewey in place. Next week I can start lessons. I'm still teaching ESL but I think that should be finished soon. Feels like I'm walking in the sun.