Thursday 13 March 2008

who's ya daddy?
the secret to crossing roads in china, so says lonely planet, is to wait at a junction until a large group of pedestrians gather, enough for them to be considered a force to be reckoned with.

which advice works, but i sometimes think it's all in your attitude. you've gotta hurry across the road, of course, but at the same time one should look nonchalant and unflustered as one walks in front of the cars raring to go even though the lights are in one's favour. and the best way to achieve this, i think, is to think to yourself: this is my grandfather's road.

这是我爷爷的路。

shangren thinks that that doesn't have any effect, because if it really was your grandfather's road cars would actually be lining up to drive you across, or drivers would come out of their cars and sprinkle rose petals at your feet, offering the coats off their backs for you to walk on. that sort of customary nonsense.

there are some lectures in school which are so popular that students go the night before to the classroom to reserve seats. they write 占座 on a piece of paper and stick it to the desks. or, on the morning of the class itself, they hurry to a counter where they can exchange their student IDs for a stool, and then they sit in the aisles or at the front or back of the classroom.

if you're left without a seat you can stand, of course.

today we woke up to wondrously clear, blue skies. for the first time, when we looked out of our apartment windows into the dawn, the colour of the buildings gradually became clearer in the grey-blue light, and beijing from our side of town looked absolutely beautiful.

but that, of course, just meant that there was a horrific wind chill to deal with when we stepped out of the house.

if not, you tell me how all that sand from the gobi desert got blown away (hopefully back to where it came from)?

jinni said, it's as though our eyes have been cleansed!

i said no, more like our windows.

it's finally beginning to look like spring, and the brilliant sunshine and blue skies i saw after class meant that the temperature was having a good time being erratic. the locals have said that it's easy to fall sick in spring, and i think this is the reason.

at least it's pretty. there are cherry blossoms, and as soon as jolie takes more spring-ish photos i might consider palming them off her.

the day before yesterday i bought a 1.1 litre thermos flask, and today in class i unzipped my bag and produced it, much to jinni's amazement.

wah chloe isn't that a bit too 夸张 (kua1 zhang1 too much)? she said.

anything for hot water and a bit of respite from the cold.

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