tree mania

overnight our campus has become a green space. things change just as quickly inside the gates of our school as they do outside. on saturday night, duff and i were in a cab, coming home from our friend lindsey's. we got back by the new-b, a bar we frequented last year, now closed, and discovered a road, on which we have traveled for the past year and a half, is gone. it surprised the taxi driver, it really surprised us. a whole road, gone. we had no idea how to get home, but the cabby retraced our steps and managed to figure it out. it was too dark to see what new thing was taking up the space that was our road, but i bet it is another high-rise apartment building. we were on that road not two weeks ago when we went to the post office to get duff's bodhran!

our school is getting ready for some kind of inspection next year. i have talked with administrators and office workers about it, but i don't have a good understanding of exactly what it is. i understand the national government is checking out the school, and it is a BIG deal. it is probably related to funding, but everyone is in a tizzy. as a result, construction and campus beautification has gone into over-drive. we already have two huge buildings going up. it is often necessary to yell over the sounds of heavy construction in class. luckily, by my apartment, there isn't any building. i can year pile drivers in the distance, but i live in relative peace. i even saw a bird today.

in the last two weeks, the hospital and post office have disappeared. gone. probably a lot more on this campus has vanished, but if it isn't on my usual route it escapes my notice. in the teacher's residential area, the vegetable market is being upgraded. stalls have been built for the fruit vendors (who normally have shanties and tents, with tarps strung to protect against the rain and the wind). some of these stalls will be small restaurants. i was looking at the diorama of the campus plan the other day, and trying to orient myself using familiar buildings was impossible. in the diormam's future depiction of our school the food street where we eat every day is gone. i suspect if these people are able to keep their businesses, they will move to the teacher's residential area into the new stalls. the new campus plan includes parking lots, too. this is really amazing. i have seen parking only a few times in china. i know of only one place in wuhan with street-side parking meters.

so many buildings and small structures have vanished over the last few weeks, but if you didn't live here, you may not notice because of the mind-boggling number of trees that have been planted in the last week. and these aren't saplings, the trees are 20 feet tall, or a little more. on our walk to school, a forest has grown overnight. perhaps 60 trees have been planted. the tallest of these is almost 20 feet tall, but most are 1/2 that size. i never noticed the area before they cleared in and started trucking in soil. i thought they were getting the ground ready for a new building, but no.... i waited a day and there were trees!! in another spot, huge trees have been planted on both sides of a street, turning an ugly pot-holed stretch of road into a lovely, green, avenue. there are 25 trees in this spot. planted sometime between thursday afternoon when i walked home from class and friday night when we went out.

when i came to china the first time with huxley i remember hearing something about the people and mandatory tree planting. i have remembered this tidbit of information from time to time, but i have never asked any one about it. in beijing, the whole area has neat rows of newly planted trees. beijing has some serious air quality issues, and the trees help a lot. also, the 2008 olympics are supposed to be the green olympics, and they are trying to present an environmentally conscious olympics and beijing to match. beijing, historically, has trouble with air quality. the winds and weather come from the northwest, from siberia, across mongolia, and inner mongolia. these areas are naturally very dusty and dry. the winds pick up sand from the gobi desert, and in the dry conditions, beijing can suffer. i remember looking at a diagram of how people can tape up their windows and doors to protect themselves in a dust storm. it is hard to imagine this happening in beijing, but last year in ulan baator, mongolia, we experienced a dust storm and i can see how serious these storms can be. beijing's air quality issues are not wholly natural, smog from cars and industry contribute greatly, i just wanted to point out the natural conditions. the air quality in beijing has come a long way. i believe i notice and improvement every time i visit. perhaps this is just relative to wuhan, though.

so, yay, now we have a lot of trees on campus. i love this, it makes every so green and beautiful, and it will be great this summer to keep cool. last year, kellee and i would walk from our office to the food alley to get lunch, darting from one shady patch to the next. the trees will make a great difference.

duff and i have a fun and relaxing weekend. on friday night we went to a party at our friend bill's. i still have no idea where he lives because we experienced the densest fog ever. the taxi never drove faster than 25 mph. we couldn't see the lines on the road, students and pedestrians would pop out of the gloom right on the front bumper of the car. it was bad going to bill's and still worse leaving. it took us forever to get home, and duff and i were so turned around, we were almost at our front gate before we figured out where we were. duff got some amazing pictures of the fog, i'll post them someday.

our friend lindsey's mother is here from corinth, mississippi. we have had dinner with them the last two nights. and lindsey's boyfriend, harrish. after drunk river moon last night, we went bowling. i have included a picture of duff from a few weeks ago, boasting 5 strikes in a row. i don't ever do nearly as well, but i have gotten 3 strikes in a row before! we don't bowl nearly as much this year as we did last year, now it is like a special treat.

i must plan my lessons for the week. i tried to teach the students 'simon says' under the guise of listening and responding to commands, but they fail to care. i thought something active and fun would capture their interest, but i was wrong. i try simple commands, such as 'stand up', and 'sit down', and 'touch your knee'...and i am met with blank stares. we have worked on the vocabulary for a while, so i know that isn't the issue. i have had simon says work very well with other students, last year it was my class' favorite game. not so with these kids. ah, well, if they don't want to do anything more exciting we'll work on listening comprehension. fun.