Journal of a Sabbatical

October 17, 2000

gray crazy

Today's Reading: Coming Home Crazy by Bill Holm

This picture was taken with Zsolt's Coolpix 990, not my Mavica. It proves a good camera can't compensate for a bad photographer I guess. The sky really was that white the day I took this shot. This lotus pond/waterfall is in the Beijing botanical garden, the south garden (the scientific part), on the way to the herbarium from the guesthouse. I walked past it every day. I kept waiting for a clear day with blue sky to photograph it, but finally went ahead and did it in the haze with the white sky since that's how I saw it most days. We did get a couple of blue sky days but most of my Beijing photos (except Forbidden City) were taken in light much like this. More on the light and/or lack of it when I write the trip report.

Gee but it's good to be back home. I got back Friday night and have wanted to do nothing but sleep since. Both Saturday and Sunday were gorgeous New England fall days, so I overrode my desire to sleep so I could take in some of the spectacular show of autumn leaves, migrating monarchs, and humungous flocks of sanderlings. Not to mention getting reacquainted with Wilbur and Nancy. Then there was going through the immense pile of snail mail to find things with actual content. Same for the email, only less of that had any real content whatsoever. Now here it is Tuesday already and I'm behind schedule on everything already.

The service to inter Billy's ashes is this afternoon. It seems hard to think of that metal cube full of ashes as Billy. I don't have a whole lot to say about this right now. It's all just a tad too weird here in the cold gray of New England autumn.

So, while you're waiting for the muse to visit me and restore my ability to tell a hilarious tale hilariously, here are a few notes made during the China trip. Forgive the repetition and the gaps. All will be filled in in the real trip report.

[9/20/2000 10:28:04 PM]

Here I am in Beijing. As of last night, my luggage has joined me. I threw out the underwear and socks I had been wearing since I arrived on the 16th. My brain is returning to normal - I finally remembered my user name and password for these blogs.

I am supposed to be photographing specimens in the National Herbarium but they lock the collection up when the staff goes to lunch. They close at 4:00 PM also, so it's really hard to get enough time with the actual specimens.

It's wicked humid and hazy here today. Xiangshan mountains are visible from the window but just barely, like a hologram flickering in the haze.

Must go see if I can find somebody to let me in to the herbarium again.

[9/22/2000 6:42:30 PM]

Raining in Beijing now. Office and herbarium closed for the weekend. So much to do. So little time to do it.

Somehow we got the restaurant here at the Institute of Botany to make coffee for us this morning. It's presweetened and not strong enough, but gives that caffeine fix. They serve the coffee in a glass and hot milk in another glass. I think they boiled the milk. They brought out a plate of sugar cubes too but they were not necessary.

I tried to order noodle soup for breakfast but you can only get wonton soup at breakfast time. I didn't care, I just wanted soup, but it took awhile to get that across. I also got tea eggs - 2 of them. They are hard-boiled and then cracked and then hard-boiled again in strong tea. Very good.

[9/22/2000 6:50:24 PM]

Here I am in Beijing. My luggage finally joined me after five days. I've been to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the Summer Palace not to mention the botanical garden (which doesn't really count because I live here).

It is raining here this morning and quite warm so I feel a little damp.

For breakfast this morning we finally got coffee! They serve it in a glass with a separate glass of boiled milk and a plate of sugar cubes.

The coffee is presweetened so the sugar cubes are not really necessary. I like tea a lot but I have been missing coffee after a week and a day. I passed on the deep fried bread this morning as it has a bitter aftertaste. I had wonton soup and two tea eggs. The tea eggs are hard-boiled, cracked, then hard-boiled again in strong tea. They look weird but taste great.

[9/22/2000 7:30:44 PM]

The home page here is http://pe.ibcas.cn. There is an English version but the pretty pictures are only in the Chinese version.

[9/25/2000 11:23:13 PM]

Hazy and humid in Beijing. I got locked in at the herbarium at lunchtime. The staff went to lunch and locked the doors not noticing I was still in amidst the conifer collections. Fortunately Carol came 'round to ask if I wanted to go to lunch and we managed to get the door open by twiddling locks on both sides.

Great lunch. We tried a different restaurant from the one where we (and all the local botanists) usually eat. The food was great. We had this cold lotus root in a lemony vinegar sauce that was out of this world. Also steamed bread with thick sweetened condensed milk, ma po tofu, and some kind of pan fried dumplings. Too bad Rosalie elected not to join us.

Gotta get back to work.

[9/29/2000 8:13:51 PM]

The whole neighborhood had no water last night. None at the guesthouse, none at the herbarium, none at any of the restaurants in town. Pretty dismal. This morning our usual restaurant was still without water, but we had water at home and at the herbarium. Carol and I went to the local bakery for breakfast and sampled those hard fried cruller type things that are a Beijing regional specialty. The bakery had no tea - no tea! I think this means they too had no water.

On the good news front, we finally got a replacement AC adapter for István laptop. Carol has gone to fetch it now while I put the stuff we're not taking to Tibet in the storage room next to Chin's office. I finished making my CD of the type collection about 10 minutes ago. Talk about coming right down to the wire. We are going to Tibet tomorrow morning for 9 days. The herbarium is closing today at noon for the national holiday tomorrow and will be closed for three days so this seemed like a good time to go traveling now that we finally got the permits for Tibet.

I can't wait to find out if any of the restaurants have water and are serving lunch. Else it's gonna be dry hard crullers with no tea for lunch too.

Rosalie has fled to a luxury hotel in the city. Carol and I plan to go visit her this evening to admire the lights for National Day then come back to our little hovels, which at least have some water...

Oh, and the sun is out and the air dry and cool for the first time in a week. I can actually see the building on top of Incense Burner Peak as well as the cell phone towers on the Xiangshan mountains.

When we get back here after our vacation, I only have two more days to get some work done before I leave for home. Who knew a month would not be enough time?

[10/10/2000 1:53:22 AM]

Back in Beijing after 9 days in Tibet. The haze over Beijing has not let up. If anything, the visibility is worse and the humidity is higher.

Quite a change from the dry air and clear skies of Tibet.

After having seen the Himalayas, Incense Burner Peak here looks like a little dirt mound - not worthy of being called a mountain. That is if I could even see Incense Burner Peak. The haze has gotten worse in the last couple of hours. I think it might rain. I have laundry hung up to dry in the pomegranate yard of the herbarium so maybe I better take it down before I walk home to my little hovel. Actually, I'm in a slightly better hovel as I have moved in with Carol in her hovel because the toilet in mine blew a gasket when the water came back on. It seemed easier to just share with her since I'm only going to be here a couple more days.

I took about 40 photos in the permanent herbarium collection today, down from my high of 110 in one day before vacation. Mostly I spent this morning trying to communicate to the guardians who keep riffraff out of the collection that I needed an extension cord. I do not know the Chinese word for extension cord so mimed plugging something in and reaching far but somehow they thought that meant I wanted a pot of glue. I drew a perfect picture of exactly the kind of extension cord they use here and showed it to the guardian. She still didn't get it. One of the scientists came by and she showed her the picture. Light dawned. The scientist told her what I wanted and she went and found me one. Remind me next time to get a phrase book that includes "extension cord".

Anyway, it sure is easier to breathe here than way the hell up at 19,000+ feet.

There was Internet access available in Lhasa, but I was mainly way out in the countryside where there was nothing but yaks and sheep. The nomads do have trucks - which look weird parked next to their tents - but they did not seem to have access to the net.

Come to think of it, I don't think they had cell phones either, although around here it seems that all Chinese citizens are issued cellphones at birth. Maybe they just haven't distributed them to the nomads yet.

[10/10/2000 8:35:07 PM]

Overnight Beijing has gone from hot and humid to freezing cold and windy. Majorly windy. Incense Burner Peak has become visible again but is still a poor excuse for a mountain by Tibet standards. We are supposed to take a cable car (actually a ski gondola) up to the top this afternoon, but the wind may prevent that.

Despite having slept in until 8:15 this morning, we scored the last two Beijing-style crullers at the local bakery. These have to be tasted to be appreciated. They aren't really crullers, just look like 'em. One of the many famous snack foods of Beijing. Snacking is second only to eating elaborate meals as a pastime here. Street food in Beijing is glorious. My favorites are the aforementioned crullers and corn on the cob on a stick. Delightful. I will miss it.

YY is back from the field (Yunnan). We ran into him in the garden last night when we were walking home. He says collecting in Yunnan was very successful. Three of our guys (but not Zsolt and István) are due back today. A couple of them are leaving tomorrow same as me.

I spent the morning packing up the computers for storage 'til Z&I get back and writing detailed notes on everything I've done. It's almost lunch time now. I can't believe this is my second to last day here. So much work left to do....

Back in the USA. There's nothing like crossing the International Date Line and having to live through Friday the 13th twice to confuse one. But here I am.

On All Things Considered last night a reporter covering the construction of the new China National Theater in Beijing described the street scene in downtown (around Tiananmen Square). The first thing he mentioned was people eating corn on the cob on a stick. I got a pang of nostalgia and I've only been back 3 days. If he'd mentioned crullers, I might have cried.

Nobody does corn on the cob like Beijing street vendors. Nobody.

[10/17/2000 7:01:03 AM]

Gee but it's good to be back home among the flaming maple leaves, fresh apple cider, and migrating ducks. But I do miss that Beijing style corn on the cob on a stick.

The local pigeon flock (12 gray, 1 white) is making quite a fuss in the parking lot just now. I have no idea what stirred them up but they're wheeling and whirling and flapping all over the place in disorganized fashion.