One Last Look

Open-air cafe near Beixinqiao

China is one funky place I would like to return to. There's so much history but simultaneously so much development and both sides are struggling to preserve and create.  It's like the country's on one of those makeover TV shows and you want to see the follow up episode of "where are they now".  Did they get better or worse or stay the same?

I would like to see where everyone's lives take them. Rebecca, the Russian language teacher tells me she is planning to get pregnant next year and have a baby--maybe two since minorities aren't restricted by China's one child policy.

Rebecca and I at Beidaihe

 

 

Three of my students are going to study abroad. Vanessa and Tony are headed to Australia for college and Zhao Si Yue is going to live with a host-family in Canada for high school.  It will be the first any of them have ever set foot abroad.  I can't imagine taking a plunge like that and trying to somehow perform academically--but I am so excited for them. They're going to have such great stories.

Tony and I in Bedaihe

Vanessa and I in Beidaihe

Zhao Si Yue in Beijing's 798 Art District

Finally, I would like to see what new innovations and oddities the Chinese people turn up. Below is an elaborate fluorescent light fixture in the Beijing subway station. Fluorescent because of energy and cost-savings, but decorative because anything less would be too institutional. I like it.

Then there's also the nicotine patch vending machine at the Bird's Nest Stadium because that's one of the only rare places in China where smoking is actually prohibited. I think most societies would view the placement of such a machine as a bit tactless about a very serious addiction problem but not the Chinese. They locate it of course, right next to the other vending machines where any passer by--such as a kid may access nicotine patches.  I love China, and I hope to be able to come back many times over to see how she's doing.