Good news (if you read it in the right light...)
No, I don't have internet access at home still. I'm at school this afternoon grading 120 activity books so that my co-teachers don't yell or pout tomorrow. They should have been finished last Thursday but I've been behind and unfocused. On Friday we went tree planting, an annual tradition for Wuhan's foreigners. The man translating the Mayor's greeting put it as, "Not only do we receive the volunteer labor, but you also have a chance to enjoy Wuhan's beautiful countryside." Now if only I had enough time to outline the various misnomers in THAT sentence...
But let me get back to my good news. Since I grossly took my internet access for granted, I was feeling guilt ridden this weekend and decided to write to get some steam out. I wrote four blog entries! Now, if ever there IS internet access at home again, you'll get to read them. In the meantime, I'll try to write from school from time to time. I can't believe it is almost April. My mother's fiftieth birthday is tomorrow (today for me) and this time last year, she and I were enjoying the cherry blossoms around the lake near the Jefferson Memorial in D.C. Today I enjoyed the cherry blossoms at Wuhan University. I'd heard about these famous trees, given to the University by Japan as a peace offering to make metaphorical amends for the atrocities conducted by the Japanese during WWII and I was determined to see them before the blossoms turned into spring snow.
Today it was warm and muggy and hazy all over Wuhan. We took a taxi to the University and were dropped off across the street from the entrance. The street in-between was a moving, seething mass of students and visitors and tourists making their way through the ticket lines up the wide avenue beyond the University's main gate. Suddenly struck dumb, Eileen and I found it difficult to make moves to get through the gate. Finally she directed me to a booth where two women were selling tickets and she purchased two. She then guided me through the entrance, handing our tickets to two young ticket-takers. Next we found a bus crammed full of people and added ourselves to the crush. The bus inched its way along the wide avenue, honking maniacally at people who accidentally stepped in its path.
And then we glimpsed the first tree. My reaction was much like the one I'd have as a young girl driving south to the beach and catching sight of the first palm tree. Little did I know this tree was one of the main attractions. The bus let us off at the dead end of one street and the beginning of another. We were on top of a hill and the new street took up much of the view. To one side was a large lecture hall and planted in the grass beside the hall were several cherry trees in full bloom. Though the trees were beautiful, Eileen and I found ourselves marveling at the amount of people in sight. For every blossom in the tiny pseudo-quad there were at least three people. And these people behaved so strangely around the beautiful trees. Women were plucking branches down to their faces to flutter eyelashes behind while a photo was snapped. Boys slapped the lower-hanging branches with discarded sweaters and leaflets to watch the petals swirl down in a violent storm of white and pale pink. Men scrambled up trunks to hoist girlfriends mid-air while three camera phones sang a ditty to indicate the shutter's action.
One extremely boisterous female student hollered upon seeing Eileen and I, "Oh you so beautiful and now we take the photo with our friends. Stand there. Still please. And smile. Now another. Please wait, here are more friends. Hallo! Hallo!" Eileen mumbled to me that we should eat it up and enjoy the attention though neither of us particularly understands such attention. We smiled fixed, strained smiles for about nineteen photos and then made our apologies in order to escape. Eileen wanted a photo of her pretending to eat some blossoms but every time we tried to surreptitiously borrow a tree for humorous photos, ten to twenty pairs of curious eyes would be on us. In one desperate moment, I shouted, "What's that over there??!", pointed in the opposite direction and with one hand still pointing, snapped a shot of Eileen pretend-munching on some delicious-looking blossoms.
I feel that I have not only taken the internet for granted but also my dear Seattle. My goodness I live in a beautiful city when I'm not calling China home...(Birmingham is lovely too, of course)...I mean, we all paid 10 kuai, which isn't an arm or a leg or even a finger, but it is paying SOMETHING, just to see these trees that were plopped in this tiny space of dead grass by a big road. And SWARMS of people were there. Later, we met some friends who told us that traffic all over the city was being affected by people going to see the trees today. The UW campus has a lovely quad with even lovelier cherry trees and they are on view for anyone willing to simply walk onto campus. It all depressed me a little bit, and I suppose my real reaction should have been gratefulness at having the chance to see any trees at all here in Wuhan. I guess I was struck, yet again, by the imbalance of what I have and what others don't have. In this case, what I have may seem trivial to some, but pristine nature in your backyard is a TREASURE and those of you reading this ARE lucky to have it. I think we should all contemplate the beauty of our surroundings (or lack thereof) as spring awakens all around us. For me, I've got the baby birds in my kitchen vent (oh wait! That's a blog entry I've written but haven't posted yet...)
Oh well, on that note, I'll go back to grading...
