Friday, January 30, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Happy New Year
10 pm: It is the eve of the Asian New Year. The fireworks have been going since before nightfall, and intensifying by the hour. There are bursts to be seen from all windows, 360 degrees around us, across the entire city. They explode over, around, and between buildings. Distant lights flash over and behind the horizon of layered apartment blocks, which are made to appear more distant by the obscuring smoke. From our vantage on the 5th floor, nearby rockets often explode at eye-level, just outside our windows.
Men below are lighting fireworks with a shocking recklessness. With cigarettes dangling from their lips, they scurry to light new fuses among the skipping firecrackers and flying rockets lit moments before by their fellows. They carelessly lean over the rockets as they light them, as if they are tempting them to launch prematurely. A patch of grass was on fire, but now they have stamped it out.
The sharp crack of rockets mixes with the ripping roar of endless firecracker chains, and the occasional thunder of something really big. As the sound of each explosion fades, the silence is filled by the constant wail of hundreds of car alarms.
I was about to write that it would be cliche to say it sounds like a war zone, but that made me think of the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. In 1968, the Vietcong invaded Saigon in the midst of the New Year's celebration. An excellent plan, as how could anyone possibly have heard them coming?
As for tonight, there is no sign that supplies are going to run out anytime soon. People must have been storing this things by the crate in their little apartments. We should be glad the entire building didn't explode.
Updates to come as we progress through the evening...
12:30 am: I said earlier that it would be a cliche to call this a "war zone". That was before it turned into a war zone. There was a lull between about 10:45 and midnight, but that was just set up time before the main event. At midnight, the entire city went off.
When I was a kid, back before America was fully in the grip of the "nanny state" culture which now tries to protect us from every possible danger (and lawsuit) and is inexorably turning us into a nation of coddled adolescents, we had great fireworks shows in Benson, Arizona.
It really wasn't the fireworks that were that great. Actually, the rockets themself were kind of lame; the best a small town could afford, I guess. It was the atmosphere that was special. Everyone would gather on the high school football field with blankets and picnic dinners. The show was put on by the local volunteer fire department. They didn't have much to work with, and they didn't seem to really know what they were doing. There was no showmanship or timing to the launches, they just kept lighting them randomly until they ran out. The great part is that the launches were no more than thirty or forty yards from the audience. The fireworks would burst at low altitudes, sometimes right overhead. The embers often were still burning strong when they hit the ground, and dads were always anticipating the need to move blankets before they hit, and stamp out fires after they did. It was kid heaven, and it didn't even last my entire childhood before the town didn't do it that way anymore, and it faded into history.
Tonight brought back those memories, and multiplied them tenfold. We didn't watch the fireworks, we were in the fireworks. They launched from every street, sidewalk, balcony, and rooftop in the city. They sometimes burst mere feet from high rise apartment buildings, with sparks ricocheting violently off of the windows. Sometimes they deflected off of trees, causing them to explode just overhead, or even within the tree itself, blowing leaves everywhere. The sound was a constant roar, this time we couldn't hear all of the car alarms. Smoke lay in heavy blankets, even drifting into doorways. Meanwhile, people wandered the streets everywhere, while dogs barked and stray cats ran all directions in panic.
I suggest you come to China for New Year's Eve someday. They probably still have a lot of years left before the nanny state takes over and makes sure that no one does anything dangerous (or fun).
We don't have any cameras that would capture the full effect of the chaos in the darkness, but I'm going to set my alarm so I can get pictures of the aftermath before the army of little-old-lady street cleaners beats me to it. It's a war zone of paper and cardboard out there.
8 am: The fireworks died out around 2 am. I don't know if they ever went away completely, or did so just enough that we could sleep. At 6 am, they began again in earnest, so now I'm up again.
Unfortunately, even by then I had missed the chance to take the pictures that I really wanted. I beat the little old lady street sweepers to the action (they were already working, but there is too much debris for them to even make a dent so far), but I forgot to account for the roving cardboard recycling guys. With their battered little bicycle/pick-up trucks, they are constantly on patrol for anything that they can get a bit of cash for, and they must have cleaned up all of the spent launch tubes and casings during the night.
I did go out and get a few pictures, and I'll post them later. There hasn't been any big explosions nearby for a while, and I'm going to try for some more sleep. John woke up just enough to move to the couch. Lee and the girls appear to have slept through it, and Janet (who is visiting) isn't up and about. I can't imagine she didn't wake up for a while, because there was a guy setting off rockets on that side of our building an hour ago, and as I've said, they often explode at window level for us.
Jan. 30th picture update, 9:15 pm:
Two scenes of the aftermath. The scene doesn't do the mess justice, because as I said, the cardboard recyclers had already done their work. Here is one guy still at it at 7:00 am. He was not the only one. In fact, they are all still going strong, as their are fireworks going even as I write. Last night was the 5th day after New Years, which is a holiday in its own right, and had fireworks almost as big as the first night.
One of the army of street-sweeping ladies, who was on the job by 6:30 am.
Men below are lighting fireworks with a shocking recklessness. With cigarettes dangling from their lips, they scurry to light new fuses among the skipping firecrackers and flying rockets lit moments before by their fellows. They carelessly lean over the rockets as they light them, as if they are tempting them to launch prematurely. A patch of grass was on fire, but now they have stamped it out.
The sharp crack of rockets mixes with the ripping roar of endless firecracker chains, and the occasional thunder of something really big. As the sound of each explosion fades, the silence is filled by the constant wail of hundreds of car alarms.
I was about to write that it would be cliche to say it sounds like a war zone, but that made me think of the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. In 1968, the Vietcong invaded Saigon in the midst of the New Year's celebration. An excellent plan, as how could anyone possibly have heard them coming?
As for tonight, there is no sign that supplies are going to run out anytime soon. People must have been storing this things by the crate in their little apartments. We should be glad the entire building didn't explode.
Updates to come as we progress through the evening...
12:30 am: I said earlier that it would be a cliche to call this a "war zone". That was before it turned into a war zone. There was a lull between about 10:45 and midnight, but that was just set up time before the main event. At midnight, the entire city went off.
When I was a kid, back before America was fully in the grip of the "nanny state" culture which now tries to protect us from every possible danger (and lawsuit) and is inexorably turning us into a nation of coddled adolescents, we had great fireworks shows in Benson, Arizona.
It really wasn't the fireworks that were that great. Actually, the rockets themself were kind of lame; the best a small town could afford, I guess. It was the atmosphere that was special. Everyone would gather on the high school football field with blankets and picnic dinners. The show was put on by the local volunteer fire department. They didn't have much to work with, and they didn't seem to really know what they were doing. There was no showmanship or timing to the launches, they just kept lighting them randomly until they ran out. The great part is that the launches were no more than thirty or forty yards from the audience. The fireworks would burst at low altitudes, sometimes right overhead. The embers often were still burning strong when they hit the ground, and dads were always anticipating the need to move blankets before they hit, and stamp out fires after they did. It was kid heaven, and it didn't even last my entire childhood before the town didn't do it that way anymore, and it faded into history.
Tonight brought back those memories, and multiplied them tenfold. We didn't watch the fireworks, we were in the fireworks. They launched from every street, sidewalk, balcony, and rooftop in the city. They sometimes burst mere feet from high rise apartment buildings, with sparks ricocheting violently off of the windows. Sometimes they deflected off of trees, causing them to explode just overhead, or even within the tree itself, blowing leaves everywhere. The sound was a constant roar, this time we couldn't hear all of the car alarms. Smoke lay in heavy blankets, even drifting into doorways. Meanwhile, people wandered the streets everywhere, while dogs barked and stray cats ran all directions in panic.
I suggest you come to China for New Year's Eve someday. They probably still have a lot of years left before the nanny state takes over and makes sure that no one does anything dangerous (or fun).
We don't have any cameras that would capture the full effect of the chaos in the darkness, but I'm going to set my alarm so I can get pictures of the aftermath before the army of little-old-lady street cleaners beats me to it. It's a war zone of paper and cardboard out there.
8 am: The fireworks died out around 2 am. I don't know if they ever went away completely, or did so just enough that we could sleep. At 6 am, they began again in earnest, so now I'm up again.
Unfortunately, even by then I had missed the chance to take the pictures that I really wanted. I beat the little old lady street sweepers to the action (they were already working, but there is too much debris for them to even make a dent so far), but I forgot to account for the roving cardboard recycling guys. With their battered little bicycle/pick-up trucks, they are constantly on patrol for anything that they can get a bit of cash for, and they must have cleaned up all of the spent launch tubes and casings during the night.
I did go out and get a few pictures, and I'll post them later. There hasn't been any big explosions nearby for a while, and I'm going to try for some more sleep. John woke up just enough to move to the couch. Lee and the girls appear to have slept through it, and Janet (who is visiting) isn't up and about. I can't imagine she didn't wake up for a while, because there was a guy setting off rockets on that side of our building an hour ago, and as I've said, they often explode at window level for us.
Jan. 30th picture update, 9:15 pm:
Two scenes of the aftermath. The scene doesn't do the mess justice, because as I said, the cardboard recyclers had already done their work. Here is one guy still at it at 7:00 am. He was not the only one. In fact, they are all still going strong, as their are fireworks going even as I write. Last night was the 5th day after New Years, which is a holiday in its own right, and had fireworks almost as big as the first night.
One of the army of street-sweeping ladies, who was on the job by 6:30 am.
This last thing is a little video montage I strung together without too much care into it. I'll work on getting better video technology sometime. I tried to capture the fact that the fireworks were going on all around us, but it doesn't in any way capture the true feeling of close proximity. Note the constant flashes on the horizon, John yelling right at the beginning, and the guy shooting a Roman candle out of his window near the end.
note: video won't save right now.... I'll try again later.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
New Concepty English for Education of Weekend
Four samples of signs from local scenic areas. I think that they are threatening us.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Monday Miscellany
I'm going to go with a small set of pictures from our Hong Kong trip. I was going to give Lee a crack at these first, but she's being slow. Plus, she has lots of great photos taken with her new camera, so she'll put my poor photos to shame anyway.
Two views of shopping streets in Hong Kong, which really is shopping heaven or hell, depending on how you look at it.
A traditional-looking Chinese "Junk" in the harbor, except that it is actually a dressed-up tourist boat. In the background is Kowloon, which is the other, lesser known half of the city. "Hong Kong" itself is is on Hong Kong Island to the south (which is where I was when I took the photo).
The city from Victoria Peak. This truly is one of the great views of all the world. Lee's new camera is much better at capturing a night scene that will do it justice, so wait for those photos.
Two views of Ocean Park, a homegrown Hong Kong amusement park. They are really sprucing it up right now to compete with the newer Hong Kong Disneyland. We thought about taking the kids to the Disney park, but we heard from friends that it is really underdeveloped so far, and doesn't really have any rides for older kids (one of the guidebooks said to expect a "mutiny" if you tried to take teenagers).
The cable car/tram is really spectacular, and certainly not for anyone who is afraid of heights. It links the two halves of the park on opposite sides of a mountain. The roller coaster is "The Dragon". Everything in China is a dragon. Half of the international schools here have dragons for mascots, including ours. Sports tournaments are the Dragons vs. the Dragons, winner gets to play the Dragons. There are some teachers at our school who have pushed to change our mascot to "The Hairy Crabs", which are a local Suzhou delicacy from a nearby lake. It hasn't caught on.
Below are some more views of the roller coaster. It really looks like you are going to fly off of the end of the world. Unfortunately, Allyne is the only kid who will go on roller coasters with me.
The final photos are from a daytrip to Macau, which was once a Portuguese colony. Now it is part of China, but is semi-autonomous, much in the same way Hong Kong is. It is also the only place in China with legal casinos, hence the hideous monstrosity of a hotel that you see below. Also pictured is the facade of a 16th century church, and Allyne and John at the fort near the harbor.
Two views of shopping streets in Hong Kong, which really is shopping heaven or hell, depending on how you look at it.
A traditional-looking Chinese "Junk" in the harbor, except that it is actually a dressed-up tourist boat. In the background is Kowloon, which is the other, lesser known half of the city. "Hong Kong" itself is is on Hong Kong Island to the south (which is where I was when I took the photo).
The city from Victoria Peak. This truly is one of the great views of all the world. Lee's new camera is much better at capturing a night scene that will do it justice, so wait for those photos.
Two views of Ocean Park, a homegrown Hong Kong amusement park. They are really sprucing it up right now to compete with the newer Hong Kong Disneyland. We thought about taking the kids to the Disney park, but we heard from friends that it is really underdeveloped so far, and doesn't really have any rides for older kids (one of the guidebooks said to expect a "mutiny" if you tried to take teenagers).
The cable car/tram is really spectacular, and certainly not for anyone who is afraid of heights. It links the two halves of the park on opposite sides of a mountain. The roller coaster is "The Dragon". Everything in China is a dragon. Half of the international schools here have dragons for mascots, including ours. Sports tournaments are the Dragons vs. the Dragons, winner gets to play the Dragons. There are some teachers at our school who have pushed to change our mascot to "The Hairy Crabs", which are a local Suzhou delicacy from a nearby lake. It hasn't caught on.
Below are some more views of the roller coaster. It really looks like you are going to fly off of the end of the world. Unfortunately, Allyne is the only kid who will go on roller coasters with me.
The final photos are from a daytrip to Macau, which was once a Portuguese colony. Now it is part of China, but is semi-autonomous, much in the same way Hong Kong is. It is also the only place in China with legal casinos, hence the hideous monstrosity of a hotel that you see below. Also pictured is the facade of a 16th century church, and Allyne and John at the fort near the harbor.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday Miscellany
It's not actually Monday, I just thought I would try to get back in the groove of more regular posting. We went to Hong Kong for Christmas; partly for the vacation, and partly to be able to do American-style shopping for American-style goods, which we sorely needed. We now have a good handle on day-to-day shopping in China, but shopping for durable items like clothing, electronics, etc., is often just too daunting here. There are just too many variables and questions: Where do I find it? How much does it cost? Is it real or counterfeit? How does this item really compare to that item? I made half a dozen shopping outings for a laptop computer for Allyne's birthday, and then finally gave up (a friend helped my out by ordering one through the IT department at his corporate employer).
I may post some pictures related to Christmas, but Lee and I decided that I was going to post about Thanksgiving, and she would take Christmas. Therefore, I'll give her first choice of the photos and the stories. In the meantime, here are some more miscellaneous pictures:
A giant Buddha statue somewhere west of Suzhou. It seems to me that Buddha statues get built as sort of an municipal economy booster. If a place really needs to get some tourist dollars, what better than building a big statue and hoping for some piligrims? I don't begrudge it to them. In the same vein I actually admire how the town of Roswell, New Mexico, found a way to turn the whole "crashed flying saucer" tale into a way to actually have a viable local economy. Side note: the traditional fat "laughing buddha" of China is not Siddhartha, the Indian Prince and origin of Buddhist religion. The true Buddhas are always thin, to represent his self-sacrifice and freedom from the appetites of this world. There is a loose historical source for the fat buddha, which is something about a kind hearted monk of centuries past. I suppose you could loosely equate him to a Santa Claus figure.
I really amused myself with this next photo. It calls to mind on of those old cheesy/good monster movies, like the bronze statue monster in Jason and the Argonauts. Or perhaps the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters.
A spot on the shore of Tai Hu lake. (a redundancy for me to write it that way, since Hu means lake).
Seemingly every stinkin' consumer product in Asia has a cute face on it. It gets old sometimes.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Happy Holidays
Merry Christmas to everyone from all of us.
May you one day join us in the bamboo forest (actually, it is just a spot in the park down the street). Yes, we know, John looks grumpy. He has entered the "always looking hostile in family photographs" stage of childhood development. It is a well-known phase, documented by the pioneering child psychologist Jean Piaget (okay, I made that up, but you have to admit that it was a glaring oversight in his research). Since he always swears he is not angry, I just call it his "secret agent face". So if you know what is good for you, you will have a Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Oliver
Friday night was the last showing of Oliver Twist at the school, and it was quite the production. I've never seen quite so much effort, expertise, and expense put into a school play. I was actually involved, because I did much of the set building. However, that is only a side note, because the bigger family news was that Allyne was in it. She played Charlie Bates, the sidekick of the Artful Dodger. Below are two photos of her. I'm not going to point her out, because I wan't everyone else to have as hard of a time as we did. I didn't realize she was on stage until she started speaking, and she has at least one friend who sat through the entire play without recognizing her.
This is the cast list from the program, from which I blurred out the names except Allyne. It also gives a nice sense of the international student body.
This is a video clip of one of Allyne's scenes. It is just a little thing that I filmed with my pocket camera, so the quality is really low. The school had the production filmed as well, so we will get "grandparent copies" sent home later. Just click on the button at bottom left to run it.
Finally, some pictures of the set and prop work that I helped out with. For me, the biggest part of this project was that I designed a set of wheeled metal stands with detachable steps. During this play, it was used as a bridge, a jail, a judge's bench, and part of Fagin's house. My idea was that they would be a versatile set pieces for all future productions as well. I contracted with a Chinese welder to make the pieces. They came out just as ordered, except that he built them out of much heavier steel than I intended him to use. Therefore, the end result came out as this massive, indestructable battleship. I have, in fact, given it a name consistent with the production.... it has been dubbed the "HMS Oliver". It will outlast the building around it, and would be servicable as an earthquake shelter.
The backdrop, with sets for the first scene.
The HMS Oliver
This is the cast list from the program, from which I blurred out the names except Allyne. It also gives a nice sense of the international student body.
This is a video clip of one of Allyne's scenes. It is just a little thing that I filmed with my pocket camera, so the quality is really low. The school had the production filmed as well, so we will get "grandparent copies" sent home later. Just click on the button at bottom left to run it.
Finally, some pictures of the set and prop work that I helped out with. For me, the biggest part of this project was that I designed a set of wheeled metal stands with detachable steps. During this play, it was used as a bridge, a jail, a judge's bench, and part of Fagin's house. My idea was that they would be a versatile set pieces for all future productions as well. I contracted with a Chinese welder to make the pieces. They came out just as ordered, except that he built them out of much heavier steel than I intended him to use. Therefore, the end result came out as this massive, indestructable battleship. I have, in fact, given it a name consistent with the production.... it has been dubbed the "HMS Oliver". It will outlast the building around it, and would be servicable as an earthquake shelter.
The backdrop, with sets for the first scene.
The HMS Oliver
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