Nothing much

What have I been up to since the eclipse? I saw a bit more of Kunming, some of the old Muslim quarter that is quickly being torn down to make way for more slick buildings that lack character. People go about their business up until the night before the building is demolished and then move off to wherever.

Demolition activities:

Knitting...

napping...

and hauling bricks:



I joined a gym. The altitude here was making me feel out of shape and unmotivated, and there really isn’t a convenient place to run in my neighborhood, except a track that’s not too far away, but it’s a track. Flat. Boring. At least on the treadmill you can adjust the incline. The gym is quite nice, very spacious, decent equipment, not at all crowded at the hour I go. It would be great if they had water or toilet paper, but of course, other than 5 star hotels, no place in China provides such amenities.

I started teaching English a few hours a week. I know, I swore I wouldn’t do that, and I’m not really sure why I agreed. It’s only 3 hours a week, and even though the pay is not great, it covers all of my expenses. I’m teaching at the school that I will be going to for Chinese. They have English classes for Chinese university students on summer break. It’s funny because one of the stipulations on a student visa is not working for money. The school made sure to inform me about that, and then turned right around and hired me the next week. But everyone does this. Native speakers are in great demand. Although these students have studied English for 10 years or more, they have had very little practice with native speakers, and they are mostly unintelligible. Unfortunately, the students in the class are from vastly different levels and they have different goals, so it makes it a little tricky.

I went to Xi Shan, the closest "mountain" for hiking. It's about 8500 feet, so not a mountain really, but very pretty. There is a interesting grotto at the top built in the late 1700s , basically carved into the side of the mountain peak.


Supposedly these carvings were done by workers suspended by ropes. How they did this without power tools is beyond me. I can only guess how many people must have died.

From the top, there is a great view of Kunming and Lake Dian to the south. The lake is huge, but sadly a bright lime green from all the algal growth. It's seriously polluted, but not by Chinese standards. Here, green is much preferred to black and oily. Black, oily and steaming is even worse.




I went to the wild animal park about an hour north of town. Typically, I hate zoos. It makes me so sad to see the animals in cages, even if the cages are big. It seems so demeaning, especially for the primates, but for all of them really. When I look into their eyes, they seem no different than me (well, hairier) and yet they are treated like prisoners. They often look very depressed, very stressed. I worry about their psychological well-being, even if they look healthy and well-fed. I want to personally apologize to each animal for their unfair imprisonment by my species.　It's a real downer.
But when Melinda, one of the Hungarian girls that was staying in our extra bedroom (long story), asked me to go, for some reason I agreed. We barely squeezed onto the #10 bus heading north. I leaned against the front window and I was sure not another person could fit on, but no, about 50 more people got on before the driver started saying no. Since it was a Sunday and the #10 is the only bus to the park, it was full of people taking their little children to see the animals. After about an hour and a half, the road turned to dirt, and shortly thereafter, we came to the last stop and the final trek to the entrance.

The park is really big. It was at least 6 miles to the far end and we decided to walk instead of taking the tram since it was still overcast and not hot. It felt really refreshing to get out of the city, into the green mountains with lots of big trees and plants, very natural in appearance, but there were definite elements of the typical distressing zoo experience. Primates trapped in cages and enclosures large and small, some looking so depressed I just wanted to cry. People throwing food past the “Do not feed the animals” signs, or worse, throwing sticks or bottles at the animals trying to get their attention. At least the animals looked well-fed, unlike what I saw at the Chongqing zoo on my previous trip to China. There were even some monkeys that were free, running around and flying through the trees and generally looking like they were having a blast.
There weren’t many birds, but they did have several species of Hornbill, including several spectacular Great Hornbills that I’d never seen before and which can be found in the south of this province. Of course there were the requisite pandas, a very lonely and beautiful Golden Monkey (on the verge of extinction), a number of different species of tigers and lions, and many other animals. A couple of the lions were actually in the mood and were not at all shy about it. It was quite amazing to see the lion's mating ritual. Unbelievably fast, but she seemed to enjoy herself ;-).

Besides that, I'm just settling in to the rhythms of life here, nothing exciting. Still working on the picture thing.