Apparently anybody arriving from a foreign country is supposed to be under self-imposed house arrest/quarantine for 7 days. The H1N1 (swine flu) scare is quite intense in China … I guess SARS really scared the hell out of everyone back in the day, and they don’t want a repeat. Which meant, I wasn’t going to officially start work until a week later. Which meant I had all day every day to go out and walk around real China (vs. Chinatowns in the US).
I love China. Aaahhh, it’s been so long -5 years- since the last time I was here, and I’ve definitely missed it. Last year during the school year, I’d randomly walk out of Burton Conner or down Vassar St. or in/out of classes, or just down dorm row, see some construction, hear Cambridge bustling in the background, and be like “whoa. I feel like I’m in China right now.” It was weird, I guess I missed the atmosphere over here and was full-forcedly trying to imagine myself here even when I wasn’t.
The place I’m living for the first week is a family friend’s house. First off, to clarify: there are no such things as individual “houses” in China. Nor does the concept of suburbia exist. The “house” is basically half the 15th floor of an apartment building – think NYC apartment flats. The elevator only goes to that floor, and opens right into the doorway of their “house.” The view is fantastic, and it’s one block from the ocean, so evening strolls and afternoon runs: check.
from the sidewalk by the ocean, looking back at their apartment/house:
view from my bedroom in the family friend's house:
looking out the window of a typical "house" in China:
Didn’t really do much my first week besides going to the supermarket (which is like a mall) and the bookstore (also like a mall) and the actual mall (like a mall). We visited a small town center/area before dinner once and people were flying kites everywhere! with little small street vendors selling random things like conch shells (it's a coastal city) and other souvenirs.
Also went out onto the rocks by the ocean in the early morning to just sit there and soak in the whole being-in-China thing. It was nice, we were there one morning for almost 3 hours, sitting on rocks, taking pictures, making sketches of the oceanside … 
I love Chinese ice cream bars and popsicles. Just throwin’ that out there. Beats a lot of Nestle … but probably because I’m sick and tired of Nestle. The bookstore I went to had 5 floors including a basement, which is pretty average. It’s kind of ridiculous. Besides all of that, on rainy/gloomy days when we weren’t going out, played with Photoshop and the internets a lot … since China is exactly 12 hours ahead of the US, we overlap quite a few waking hours, so I was able to have several long, long conversations with friends in Boston or CA or the Midwest or wherever, via gchat and Skype.
I leave you with a couple views of modern China.
No comments:
Post a Comment