After the class I chatted with WW. She says YHz is encouraging her to learn from me. She was openly skeptical, but emphasized YHz's confidence in me. I'm not used to scholarship being such a, well, social activity. It has its upside and downside. Currently, it is making me sweat because I feel like I should be working extra hard but at the same time I want to enjoy myself while Pocket of Bolts is here. The shape of developing colleague relations don't admit of that especially easily though. It's like something that builds momentum, and any step down or back is a new and undesirable change of trajectory.
In any case, I'll muddle along somehow. I have to remember that I've already gotten a lot of help from them, and even if nothing else works out in the future, I'm better off than I was.
(I had an eerie feeling that I'm being judged at every turn, more by WW but also by YHz as well. So far I've yet to fail in any important way, but the tests keep coming. I suppose any professor-student relationship is like that, but because of the cultural difference I'm never quite sure what I'm being judged on!)
My bike chain derailed on the way home, but I have learned to get it back on pretty easily now.
After I got home, I parked my bike, collected Pocket of Bolts, and we set off on a major adventure. First we took a taxi to Wudaokou. Pocket of Bolts practiced trying to tell the taxi driver our destination (at my suggestion) but the taxi driver didn't have a forgiving enough ear so I stepped in to reassure him.
Then we had lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Korean place that I had spotted on an earlier trip. This is not figurative either--it really was just a tiny bit of space between two walls, not more than a couple feet wide. It was called Shrek Kimbap. The menu didn't have more than ten things on it, but Pocket of Bolts had nice spicy noodles and I had dduk bokki (rice sticks in hot red sauce with kimchee).
From there we took the subway to the Altar of Heaven. It was actually a bit of a walk from the subway stop. First we saw a gargantuan fake Christmas tree. Here is a picture where for once Pocket of Bolts looks small.
We also got some pastries. We bought them from a fairly sketchy looking vendor, but they seem to me like a really safe type pastry, just saturated with sugar and oil, and indeed we don't seem to have any trouble because of them. I'm not sure what those pastries are called, but they're great, a sort of extra-serious doughnut.
Also on the way we took a detour through a tiny Chinese back-alley neighborhood (hutong), just to have a look at one. We felt pretty conspicuous, but it was fascinating all the same. Hutongs are great when you don't have to live in one. Pocket of Bolts took these wonderful pictures.
This is what is left after the coal is burned.
Finally we got to the Temple of Heaven, where we got a 5 RMB discount with my student ID but got gouged for a cup of very bad coffee (10 RMB). Then we started our long ramble. This is a beautiful park, and one of the only places in Beijing where I saw actual green grass. There were also old trees and charming quiet paths.
The actual Temple was not all that photogenic as far as I'm concerned, but impressive in real life.
Also, there were more gold-knobbed red doors. This photo is proof that the ugly yellow ski jacket (an M family reject, which Pocket of Bolts brought for me to use as a bicycling jacket, and which is extra warm) is actually not even funny-looking here in China. Why, I blend right in!
My favorite part was actually the echoing wall. There were no instructions, but Pocket of Bolts figured in out. You stand at one part of the curved wall, with your face right up near it, and whisper. The other person, really far away, can hear the whisper like it's right next to them, and it's perfectly natural. Lots of people all around where shouting and hollering, trying to hear the echo, but almost no one figured out the trick. Hearing Pocket of Bolts' private whispering voice while seeing him fifty yards or so away was one of my favorite parts of the day. You'd think in an era where we use skype to see and hear each other halfway around the world we'd be a bit jaded about this kind of thing, but you know what? Somehow it was still really awesome.
Again, this gorgeous picture of the echoing wall is Pocket of Bolts'. I don't even think he planned it to come out as well as it did, so I think I should at least get the credit for recognizing it as one of the best of the bunch.
We took tremendous numbers of pictures in the Altar of Heaven Park, but I can't include them all, as it's getting late and I'm so tired already! Pocket of Bolts claims he will do a guest post here when he gets to it, and he will perhaps put up some more.
After we left the part, we were almost too tired to carry out our plan to also visit the nearby Natural History Museum. But we persevered. We knew exactly what we wanted to see. First, apes in Socialist-Realist poses, in the "origin of humanity" exhibit (no hesitation about us being related to monkeys; perqs of a non-Christian country). On the way we also saw a marvelous lungfish.
Second, "the structure of the human body" exhibit, illustrated with actual preserved human body and body parts. That was quite a trip. It really makes you feel funny to see actual adult (and babies) in jars and in various stages of dissection. I realized that we usually see these things illustrated with plastic models in the States, but this was very much more real. Plastic looks so clean. These bodies were, well, messy. On some, you could see their faces.
No photos allowed, naturally.
We decided to take a bus home, because there was a direct one from just outside the natural history museum, and taking the subway was such a long trek. We made pretty good progress until just a couple miles from home, when we hit rush hour traffic. One hour to cross the entire city, one hour to go about two blocks. It was maddening.
But we made a good end to the day with more delicious Korean food and then a very early bedtime!
2 comments:
I don't think I have every had vegetarian Korean meal....
There is a great Korean soup place in San Francisco called "My Tofu House" but everything has meat in it.
I still think you should have no fear of teaching others. It is fun! I know you are a propper academic and teaching is not a core part of your job (please read with sarcasm, and bit of irony) but sharing knowledge with others can actualy be fun and motivating.
Though I agree the cultural issues are tough to work with.
I'm not sure I saw the bodies in motion exhibit? Or perhaps I don't remember?
Not only am I not too ashamed to wear the yellow jacket here in Beijing, but I have actually been complimented on its appearance--go figure.
That's pretty funny about the Tofu House. One of the best ways of getting meatless Korean food is go to a place too cheap to be able to afford meat in the dishes. At this particular one, I asked if the dish had meat and the answer was a rather shame-faced no.
As for teaching, my skills in that regard were soon to be complimented, as you'll see whenever I end up getting properly caught up with this blog... My actual attitude toward this is that as an academic one should strive to be a superb teacher but meanwhile affect total indifference and disdain toward teaching, just so as to fit in with the non-losers. :)
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