The last few days have been pretty uneventful. It is abundantly clear that we are officially settled in, that aspects of our lives here are becoming routine, and that I have lost the will to blog every day. Although I can also blame that on the stack of John Grisham books that were left here in the apartment which I have been working my way through each night -- finally too sick of the lone English language channel here -- CCTV , or as Michael and I like to call it -- "The Good News Channel". The nightly news is a steady stream of good news about "Bilateral Cooperation" between China and whatever foreign official happened to be in Beijing that day. This week has been even more good news than usual due to the Communist Party Congress, an every 5 year event meant to "plan the course" of the country for the next five years. The capital is flooded with local party officials reporting on the amazing success of the economy, with a rare reference to social challenges such as poverty and rising unemployment, lack of education in the rural provinces, etc. Of course there is lots of good news about life in the Tibetan autonomous region, if you get my meaning. Environmental concerns do get some airtime.
Anyway -- back to the monks. I have mentioned that our next door neighbor is the Nanputuo Temple. In addition to being a large temple with a long history in southern China (and thus a major destination for pilgrims as well as regular tourists), what is a little different about Nanputuo is that it is a working temple with a large school. So the place is full of monks, like the ones above, and the one who made friends with Sophia a while back. Actually we saw him yesterday when we went for a walk in the temple with the wife of one of the other foreign professors. I was just telling her the story of his meeting with Sophia when he came along and scooped Sophia up for a big hug, asked after Michael (the laoshi -teacher) and went on his way to whatever gathering he was headed for. A few minutes later I took the pictures above. These monks must either be senior or on there way to some ritual because they were more formally dressed. There are monks of all ages here, and Buddhist nuns, too. Most of the time the monks we see riding bicycles, eating in the vegetarian restaurant, grocery shopping, etc. are not wearing the brown robes over their other attire. Best of all are the young novices playing basketball every morning on the Xiada basketball court where I practice Tai chi (great mental picture -- the foreigner doing Tai chi while the monks play basketball). If I get up the nerve I will snap a picture of them. Another funny story is from our first days here. One day in the supermarket I was fumbling in my wallet at the cash register looking for change at the cashier's request so she wouldn't have to give me change for a 100 yuan bill and the monks behind me in line gave the cashier the coins I needed (probably from their street fundraising bowls !)
Enough musing for now -- Sophia is at my knees begging for attention and I have a full day planned with preparations for our Korea trip. We leave on Thursday and will be gone until Monday the 29th. Not sure about internet access during that time.
2 comments:
Was wondering if you had heard that Malinda, the Fulbrighter there before you has had to have brain surgery? Don't know any details, but I'm sure she could use good thoughts from her old buddies in Xiamen.
My, how did you know about mAalinda's illness? This is her mother. She had an infection in her skull but outside of her brain. The called it subdural empyema. She had emergency surgery on Sunday morning, and her condition was listed as "guarded". As on now, Tuesday night in TX, she just got out of neuro ICU. Today she looks more like her old self. We do not anticipate any neurological deficits. The girls saw her yesterday (after she was off the ventilator so the girls would not be scared). She will be on IV antibiotics for several weeks, but hey, she will live!
Fran (aka Mimi)
Post a Comment