MY LIFE IN PICTURES

It occurs to me that I have been writing too many strange stories about offensive hoodies and human douches and not posting enough pictures lately. Thus, I present a gallery from recent weeks.

First are some pictures from Xi'an of some of the teachers hamming it up for the camera.

The second from the left is my teacher Li laoshi, and the fellow on the right is Ding laoshi.

I can't remember this teacher's name, but she is widely agreed to be one of the most adorable things any of us students have ever laid eyes upon.
Cai laoshi with Ding laoshi. Ding laoshi has a strong penchant for stripes and is rumored to have excellent connections in the CCP. He teaches my Talks on Chinese Culture class, using a textbook which discusses things like traditional marriage and Chinese fiscal policy and which has the characters in the dialogues (necessary because spoken Chinese is very different from written Chinese) say things to each other like: "Your knowledge of changes in the post-war Chinese monetary system is impressive! This conversation has greatly enhanced my understanding". I'm grateful that my classmate Wei Lian studies economics at MIT. You should see how excited he gets when we talk about national reserve funds and foreign exchange. Actually, it looks kind of like this:

Anna, Wang Yang, Joel, Richard, and Wei Lian (at bottom) in Xi'an.

Anna and Wang Yang looked a little different at the Halloween Party Leslie hosted the weekend before last.

Leslie, at left, went as a rapper, but was identified as J. Lo by one of our teachers. Wang Yang, at center, was a chengyu, a traditional Chinese 4-character expression, this one meaning "as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns" (you can't see her horn, but it was impressive). Anna was Robin Hood. They made quite the gang.

Canaan was in a costume instantly recognizable to anyone who has lived in China, the curbside bike mechanic. These dudes set up shop all over the place (I pass about 3 during my 15 minute commute) and they are always smoking and wearing grubby button-up shirts and jackets. They'll also tighten up a loose chain for about 28 cents.

Me, Leslie, and Peter. I didn't have much in the way of materials with which to cobble together a costume so I made use of the hat I bought in Xi'an and went as a Russian spy. Peter was a shudaizi, or bookworm, but for him, that isn't really a costume.

Ding Ding was attempting to costume himself as an Ivy League student, but we all just told him he looked like a newsie. I don't think Loafers even noticed, but if he had I'm certain he would have taken it as tribute rather than offense.

This past weekend, Leslie, Canaan, Anna and I took advantage of the crisp, clear day and moderately clean post-rain air and rode our bikes out to the Summer Palace. Pretty amazing that I live in a big, filthy city in one of the most polluted countries in the world and yet it only takes about 45 minutes to ride from my house to here:

Here is a close-up of the actual Summer Palace complex.

I had really wanted to take out a boat again and my classmates indulged me. Good thing too, as all that peddling kept us nice and toasty. Here are Leslie and Canaan looking at the island in the center of Kunming Lake.

This lovely bridge connects it to the land, and you can get a pretty good echo from going through the archways.

As we were walking back around the lake to get to our bikes an old man starting singing, quite beautifully. I took a little video but I don't know if you can see him in it. Sorry it's so shaky but I was trying to figure out if I could zoom in (nope).



Anyhow, it was a fine day. It made me feel just as fresh and rejuvenated as if I had just ......................................... oh, forget about it.