Thursday, October 11, 2007

Autumnal arrival

The serene corner: it can always be found, if I look hard enough (and walk long enough)! Here I found one in inner-city Beijing:




Surprises never cease in the land of BJ: this week subway tickets were reduced from RMB 5 (a combined light railway and main subway ticket) to RMB 2 (to ride the WHOLE subway system, including the newly opened, super shiny Line 5!) Olympic fever is in the air!

Sooooooooo, Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature. Bravo! I've never read her books, but I'll make a point of doing so soon. Especially as I'm rather inclined to agree with her comment that:
"I find myself increasingly shocked at the unthinking and automatic rubbishing of men which is now so part of our culture that it is hardly even noticed"
This trend has been troubling me for some time, and I plan to be more proactive in stamping it out. Of course, we typically make jokes based on differences; but lines are being crossed...

Has anyone read Anna Karenina? I'm at the half-way stage! I'm identifying with Levin far more than Anna at the moment - how odd does that make me?

Umm, back to Beijing: autumn here is wonderful! Classes are going well! The Chinese language is finally starting to find its comfy spot and make its groove in my brain (think bum on a beanbag: even a language has to be comfortable!) I start Qigong classes this weekend - I'm not entirely sure what that entails, but come Sunday afternoon I shall reveal all!

Do be well, do be happy, do be comfortable, but do be daring!
Bec
x

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