Red House

I ended up wandering around my new neighborhood for most of the day yesterday. I really like it. I got as far as Da'an Forest Park. Sadly, the north part of the park is under construction but there were some marvelous trees in the south part. I can't help feeling like a tree this magnificent shouldn't just be referred to by its species name. It should somehow have a ... personal name. Also, doesn't it look like it's walking off in several directions at once? Just, really really slowly?

So far I am not craving Western food at all. But I was really craving a Western coffeeshop. Starbucks proved to be the best option, with a great second floor seating area. It was spacious and clean and wonderful. I had the quiche-and-latte special, and sitting there for several hours. Pocket of Bolts and I are reading Herodotus together while we are apart, and it's really enjoyable to work through it slowly and carefully. I also put in some time working on my manuscript...

On the way back I stopped in a secondhand bookstore. Secondhand bookstores in Beijing always gave me as disturbing sense of weirdness and decay. But this one was just like a well-run secondhand bookstore in the States. The books were well-ordered and interesting to look at. There was space to stand and browse very comfortably. Of course, there was no significant discount in price. I was not going to buy anything--I need fewer books, not more!--but I happened upon a signed copy of Yu Dan's Zhuangzi xinde in traditional characters. Everyone knocks on Yu Dan and I have always gone along, but that's from a position of ignorance. I think it would be interesting to actually get a firsthand sense. So anyway, I bought... just this one... book.

For dinner, I tried the Red House. This was for no other reason than that they had a great outdoor seating area on the second floor. The stairs up were so steep they were basically a ladder.

It was really marvelous sitting there amidst the funky decor, looking down at the square. The night was very warm but a light breeze was blowing...

I even ordered a cocktail (pictured here with the green tea that came with my meal):

It's just really too bad that the food wasn't more palatable, or I would quickly become a frequent guest. Chinese take on Mexican food... um, still a ways go to with that.

Later, I took out the garbage for the first time. That involved navigating to one particular spot, and standing among the crowds of other people also waiting for the garbage truck, which came at exactly 10:38 PM as scheduled. It was oddly festive.

I had had a hard time staying awake that long, but once I was out there I felt more lively. Because it seemed like a nice night, I went across to the night market.  It was hopping!

I bought a guava and ate it while walking around a looking at things.  I am just loving it here. There's always something to see and do, and everything is so gentle. It's like the city itself has decided to be nice to me. Including consoling me in startling ways! For example this t-shirt--

Uh, thanks I guess?

Much more to say, but it's late and I am so sleepy. I'll try post again when I wake up tomorrow.