Peach Blossom Day

Since my last post was rather gloomy, let me list the excellent things about today. First, the weather was beautiful. It was clear and cool all day, and what is finer than being just a little bit chilly in a long-sleeve shirt?

Next, my stomach is better. Not one hundred percent better, but enough better that I managed to do things rather than lying around in bed moaning. The turtles, miraculously, are better as well. Last night, before I went to bed, I changed their water and refilled their tank with warmish water, just a little off bath-water. I think they liked that, because today they both hopped off their basking shelf and tried comically to swim away and hide when I peered at them. Very normal turtle behavior. And while Queequeg is still a bit sluggish, Yojo is much more active again. Reprieved from the guilt of poor turtle husbandry, at least for now!

As I was getting out of the shower, there was a knock on the door. I looked through the peep-hole and it was the postman! So I shouted apologetically for him to wait, quickly threw on my house-dress, and opened the door . What was he bringing, but a lovely box from my wonderful, thoughtful, caring, considerate guy. Little things from home that I'd left behind or hadn't known I needed, and a little present too, a brilliant-colored turkey (rooster?) finger-puppet.

When I got my bicycle out of its overnight sleeping place in the apartment complex's basement market, it was in a good temper too: instead of making its usual metal-on-metal scream and whine and ding, it just mumbled a little.

I went out not in a hurry, planning just to have a little lunch, look for a book, and talk to my professor after lunch. So I ate and then wandered leisurely through the bookstores. They didn't have the book I was looking for, but that was all right. I then went for a long walk on the north side of campus, where I hardly ever go. There are ponds and bridges, and there were lots of people painting the ponds and bridges. It was pretty cool. Far in the northwest corner there was a sort of run-down abandoned pond thick with lotus leaves but not well taken care of. The only living things there were a couple of fat insouciant magpies. (Magpies, like bats, are common here because they are considered lucky.) It was so nice to be outside, it made me wonder why I don't do it more often!

Slowly, I walked back to my professor's office and called her as instructed. She said came up and take away this pile of books! She had found me some really useful books, some which would have been quite expensive to me, because she had worked on some of them. We stuffed the books into my backpack, an embarrassment of riches, and she laughed at me and said I looked like I was set to go climb a mountain. Then we had a very pleasant chat, and she asked me some more questions about my program and my plans. We discussed writing things in English versus in Chinese. Also, I remembered my lessons from AL, and asked her (as AL had suggested) how she might recommend going about this research. This proved to be a good and appropriate question, as it got me some useful advice and further offers of help and consultation. I left feeling very cheered and inspired.

After lugging my books home and temporarily parking my bike outside the gate, I loafed around the house for the afternoon, resting and watching a little TV--which really is education insofar as it helps my listening comprehension. I put the little turtles up on a table by the open window so they could catch some real UV rays, purported to be good for them. I also caught up with a few e-mails, and didn't go out until around 5. After some searching, I successfully located the book I was looking for at the big four-story bookstore down the street.

Then I went to the play. It was a performance of the The Peach Blossom Fan, as I mentioned earlier. That play is a classic of Qing theater, completed in 1699. It was not (just) a languishing love drama but also a magnificent tragedy (though not in a Greek sense) of dynastic fall. And in some sense the love story and the political story are allegorically intertwined, but it's not simple and easy to unravel, at least to my fairly uneducated ear. The really enjoyable thing was, the play had subtitles in English as well as Chinese, so I wasn't lost at all, as I'd feared I'd be. I could follow it just fine.

My favorite moments were: when the handsome young groom carries his beautiful bridge across the threshhold, and suddenly the translucent screen behind them becomes transparent as they are plunged into a romantic semi-darkness, while the orchestra behind the screen is lit up and fully visible, providing the wedding music! Also the moment when the messenger comes to the marvelously martial and dignified old general, announcing that the unthinkable has happened--that the emperor has hanged himself--and the general throws the messenger across the stage in his dismay. (The messenger is a skillful tumbler and acrobat so you don't have to feel sorry for him, and it is a wonderfully expressive, stylized moment.) In general, I liked the sudden sense of stillness when various characters heard the bad news. And on the other hand, I also liked very much the way the narrator invariably came on stage with a huge cackle of laughter.

Overall, it was a very fun experience and I'm looking forward to going back again tomorrow night for part 2!