feeling better and some pictures

I'm feeling a lot better after taking the medicine Erin and I got from the pharmacy in our neighborhood. It doesn't really matter to me whether it was the Eastern medicine or the Western medicine that fixed me up. I think it was both, working in conjunction. The best part was that there was this ancient, ancient looking Chinese woman who was in the pharmacy at the same time we were. She kept coming over and watching what the pharmacists were going to give me, and asking them questions. On the way out of the pharmacy she explained to Erin and I that she's a doctor, and she wanted to make sure they were giving me the right medicine. Then she got on her bicycle and went on her merry way. Sometimes I love China. She was really nice. But on to more interesting business than me being sick.

I've been wanting to post some of these pictures for a long time now on ye olde blogge. During all of our travels I felt compelled to take pictures of door-knockers, rain-gutters, paving stones and other smaller details. I think this stemmed from a frustration with the grandiose, tourist-shots I was taking at the beginning of our travels. It's essentially impossible to convey the scope, or beauty of most of the places we've traveled in any kind of landscape shot. Or rather, grandiose beauty is far less interesting to me than idiosyncratic details. I think it's a little bit pointless to take shot after shot of places like, say, Tienanmen Square, or even the Forbidden City. I still took plenty of these pictures, but the photos I like most are the ones that focus on minutia, or on the people in my neighborhood. This is all, of course, my completely subjective, personal opinion. Without further adieu, I present to you some of the pictures I took on our trip that I think are interesting:

I think I might actually just be allergic to China.

So, we've been back home for about three days from our travels, and I'm still sick. This is a little distressing to me. I was sick for about the last week and a half of our trip. I'm starting to forget what it was actually like to be able to breath out of my nose, or to not wake up each morning hacking up...well, we won't go into that. When I was pondering this, I realized that I was actually quite ill at the beginning of our trip, when we met up with our friend Jen in Beijing. Then I remembered that I was sick when I was grading all of my students final examinations, before that trip. Thinking about grading those finals caused me to remember the different colds I had last semester (about 4 or 5). My new, tentative hypothesis is that I am, in fact, completely allergic to China. This is not an impossible theory, given that Tianjin has some of the highest air pollution levels of any city in the world. My new plan is to never leave my apartment. Does this seem like a plausible idea? I mean, teaching might be a little difficult, and buying food, but I figure I can use Skype to teach my students and then rig up some kind of magic tube to have food "beamed" into our kitchen. Until I get better, this is the imaginary world I will be living in. When we return to the states, I will breath in the sweet, sweet, Barak-odored air of freedom.

photo-editing and bronchial spasms

We've finally made our way back to Tianjin. I'm in the process of a giant photo-editing extravaganza, punctuated by what I assume is bronchitis. My goal is to make coherent, organized posts about each of the places we've traveled with a few specific photos. I do want to post one picture I tried to take, though. When we were in Xi'an, at the Terra Cotta warriors dig site/museum, I tried to take a panoramic picture using three shots, one after another. Then I used a photo-editing program to kind of cobble them together. I didn't have a tripod, but I think my dad would be proud. The actual size of the dig was the most impressive thing to me. I think if you click on the photo you can view the larger version.

curious celebrations in People's park

Erin, Nathan and I wandered around Chengdu a few days ago and went to the People's Park near our hotel. It was a little unclear what exactly was going on (which is the norm), but it seemed like there was a celebration underway specifically for older people in Tianjin. There were a number of different bands performing, and older Chinese citizens dancing and doing their exercises (those two things sometimes go hand in hand). I took a few videos, but these don't do the situation justice. I've decided I like the Sichuan people. I've been trying to learn more about the history of this province, and what I've learned so far only increases my affection for this part of China.

pandas like to eat

Here are some pictures/film-clips of pandas doing what they do best. Erin and I kept speculating just what our cat, JBJ, would do if he were to encounter a panda. Perhaps they could have an eating contest. Ah, JBJ. There is nothing quite as fluffy as you in this part of the world, but pandas are a close second.

Chengdu is great

I like this city. Everything is going well, even though we've had to revise some of our travel plans. Apparently everyone and their grandmother wants to go to Lanzho right now. As a result, we're heading to Xi'an after Chengdu, in a few days. That's just fine, though. Our hostel is run by a group of artists. They bought this old factory building and converted it. They have a studio in the building, and there's a restaurant and a cafe, and even a pool table. The TexMex restaurant was amazing and surreal. Today we're going to Du Fu's cottage and the historical park related to Tang Dynasty poets.

Guilin, Chongqing and Dazu County

I'm fairly miserable at posting regularly on my blog, but I'll try to write for a bit here. Today we're in Chongqing (Chung King, pre-Pinyin). Tomorrow we'll be catching another train for Chungdu. Chungdu is a city where the poet Tu Fu lived and wrote a large number of his poems. He is one of my favorite two poets from the Tang Dynasty. I'm looking forward to seeing the cottage he lived in when he was in Chengdu. Also, there's a TexMex restaurant in Chengdu. One thing my experiences here in China have impressed upon me is that what seems incongruous is 100% a product of one's culture. Who says that TexMex doesn't belong in Chungdu? I've made my peace with the fact that expecting things to belong anywhere is a farcical prospect at best, and is incredibly silly the further you move away from your home country. For example, Erin and I just finished walking through the tight, windy streets of Chongqing's market area and I bought some socks. The sock store was in between a food vendor and a guy who sold giant koosh balls. I had no idea that I would find socks where I did, but it was magical when it happened and it seemed right.

One of my fears is that I'll move back to the states and forget this realization that expectations about where things should be and what people should be doing in certain places are socially constructed. I fear that it will be all too easy to slip back into the comfort of "knowing" what's going on. I like my intense, edgy sense of displacement over here. I think it's keeping my wits sharp and my instincts intact. I'll post some more photos of Guilin, Chongqing and Dazu Country. We took a bus trip to Dazu Country yesterday. The sculptures there are ancient. I wished that my friends Josh and Jeff could have been there, since they're sculptors themselves. Actually, it occurs to me that Kari, who I used to work with at the Red Door, and Alicia, who also worked at the Red Door, would have loved this place too. Sculptors of the world need to check this place out.

weaving

still traveling

Tonight we're in Chongqing. Our next stop is Chengdu, and then Xiahe. So far we've been on the road for about two weeks, and we'll be gone for two weeks more before we're back in Tianjin. Here are a few recent pictures.