For example, on a 40 minute bike ride with Ysa just yesterday, I went past a percussion band made up of retirees wearing lavender polyester military-style uniforms that were marching in formation in front of a new cosmetics store, a Tibetan monk, seven or eight construction cranes, a neighboring culinary institute where all of the students seemed to be wearing blue jumpsuits, a brick wall built across the end of a road with rice fields beyond it, four or five guys pushing wheelbarrows full of wet cement at least 100 yards from any construction site, three abandoned farmhouses, an entire class of college students walking along a busy street with sketchpads and folding easels, and a lunch cart with a crazily wobbling wheel being pushed directly at me. Oh, and can't forget to mention the usual five or ten people yelling "Hello, Hello!" at us as well...
See what I mean? Where can I begin talking about a bike ride like that? (Don't worry, I avoided hitting the lunch cart.) I'm starting to realize another reason why so many of my blog posts are about food - at least I can passably describe a meal in a paragraph or two. Thank goodness for Maira Kalman. At the bottom of the essay that I linked to recently, after a long series of questions about the nature of immigration in America, she writes: "'Think small' is my new motto. It helps me handle the complicated too-muchness of it all." What, does that mean that I can't describe Every Aspect of Expatriate Life in China in two-or-three-paragraph blog posts? Preach it, Maira, preach it!
Herewith, therefore, a photo of a mop I saw leaning against the wall of a Buddhist temple that we visited while in Nanchong last weekend over Easter:
Pretty, isn't it? Have a look at the larger version here - you know you want to. More (or less, as the case may be) next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment