Here in China, 2011

Just arrived in Guangzhou.  There was some mix up with my apartment as someone was still there and we had to wait.  The Ayi finally came last night to clean, I am sure I will need her back soon.  I got to see my grandchildren and helped four year old Marcus make a Daniel Boone costume for his American paper doll for the preschool international day.  Now I have shopping to do.

After Spring Festival

Monday was the full moon that marked the end of the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year.  I saw a girl carrying a paper lantern hanging from a stick and remembered that this is the lantern festival.  We had our family dinner the night before at the new hotel at the wild animal park.  So Monday night I had no one to feed me tong yuan. 

 Now people are coming back to work, the TV news showed all those peach blossom branches, tangerine, somekwat trees and flowers being fed into a trash truck.  The lanterns and lights that festooned the walkways around my building are gone.  The traffic noise is loud again and the dancing in the square is going hot and heavy.  They are more into costumes this year then I remember from last year.  The belly dance girls have their gold bangle belts, the ballroom people have some nice skirts and shinny pants, the tai qi people have satin, and the low impact aerobics leaders are all sparkly with the followers in blue and white or red and black, except for the back rows who forgot the outfit.  There are so many people it seems the flowers are now getting in the way.

The weather has been getting warmer and warmer, so it's nice to be out, although there were a few dancers on one cold rainy night that I passed through.  Tonight it is all aglow.

Hats are in for Chinese New Year

Yesterday we visited the flower fair, which sells flowers, decorations, toys and HATS.  It was wonderfully festive, very crowded, pinwheels spinning, music playing, picture taking and lots of smiles.  We all bought Chinese jackets for New Year's Eve dinner tonight.

Getting Down to Work in Guangzhou

Now that I have gotten settled here I decided it was time to get some work done. I belong to a group of expat women

 who like art. Some are more serious than others, but with the shared interest they are good compay. They meet Wednesday and Friday mornings. The place we have to work in is a room on the second floor of local sculptor Xu Hongfei's house. The house occupies one corner of the lower 3 floors of a large apartment building in the Jiangnan Garden section of Guangzhou. It is near where they are building a new subway station and an apartment building. You really have to know how to get there to find it. I have a hard time telling taxi drivers, so it is easier to take the number 178 bus get off at the corner and walk up the street to the alley, which is lined with several car repair shops to the gate of the house. The door way is closed with a metal roll up gate and flanked by 2 lions. You ring one of two doorbells(the Chinese, instead of relacing a broken doorbell simply add another one next to it) and you hear the tune played inside which brings a man to the gate. He expects us, smiles and raises the gate. You cross a small bridge over a fountain and pool to enter a large room, wooden chairs form a square in the center of the room, which also has sculpture and paintings, and plants. The lights are turned off in this room and the one next to it which has more art and books. Since we do not come to be entertained we pass through and head upstairs to the second floor where there is another large room in one corner are sofas and table for tea and then sculptures and paintings around. There is also a fountain with water running. The lights are also turned off except for a sculpture and plants. Our work room is in the back of this room. Professor Xu has given us use of this room as a favor. One of our members helped him to organize a show of his sculpture in France, and a good friend of ours went to art school with him. There is yet another floor above this one, similar to the one below and always shown to guests.

So far only Christine and myself have been coming to paint since Christmas. Christine is Swiss and her husband is a perfumer for a Chinese cosmetic company. It has been pleasantly quiet just the two of us working.

I also work in the studio of my American friend, Daniel Krause.  His studio is in the "Loft 345".

This is a pretty barebones place.  Since there is no elevator you have to walk up to the 5th floor where the studio is.  The water pipes run exposed above the hallway corridor.  They have been painted red.  You can hear the water in them.  

China 2009

I arrived at the Beijing airport at 5:30 am local time on Christmas morning to change planes for the flight to Guangzhou in Southern China, about a 3 hour flight.  The sun was just coming up and the sky was turning a brilliant blue.  Who said Beijing is so polluted? The cold penetrated the glass walls of the new terminal building . It was a long trek through the terminal by moving sidewalk and walkway to the immigration station, and then a train to the baggage claim.  I stood chatting with a young man who was on his way to Hainan for his younger sister's wedding.  They both live in the US as do their parents, but they are having the wedding in their hometown for the benefit of the extended families.  The wedding would be traditional with the bride wearing a red qipao.  Once the luggage was loaded onto a cart I headed out to the domestic flight area.  This is on level 4.  I rushed because my flight was scheduled for 7:30.  They didn't tell me when I rechecked my bags that my flight had been cancelled and I was on the flight at 9:05.  

I have rented an apartment on the south bank of the Pearl River, close to the North Gate of Sun-Yat Sen University.  The apartment is on the 12th floor and faces the river.  I enjoy seeing the tour boats go by at night, some of them have large video screens, probably showing "America's funniest Home Videos".  It is quite small, but it works, only the shower doesn't have a stall and I keep getting my towels wet.

On New Year's Day, which I think is a holiday all over the world, we took my grandson to the amusement, wild animal park, waterpark(opens in May) and circus at Chimelong.  There is also a hotel with a white tiger in the middle of the restaurant.  We spent most of the time in the amusement area for small children where my grandson very seriously enjoyed some rides.  We watched a Las Vegas style dance show interspersed with acrobatic routines.  The stunt show with the flaming cars and lots of bang bang frightened the baby so we didn't stay.