A gray day that became cold and rainy as it went along. My scheme for training Amanda came to a crashing halt when Siren and Rachel, who had been working with Mike, both wanted me to work with them. We went back to the galleries and the three girls took turns presenting their material. Amanda [...]
Archive for October, 2008
Thursday, October 30
Posted in Uncategorized on October 31, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Wednesday October 29
Posted in Xian, tagged beggars, Halloween, memorial observance, Shaanxi Museum on October 30, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Another day with Amanda, although Siren joined us after about an hour. When I first arrived at the museum there were a lot of cars parked on the pavement, mostly black expensive ones with darkened windows—party cadre cars. Amanda, who is usually waiting for me, rushed up and told me there was a big [...]
Tuesday, October 28
Posted in Xian, tagged Chinese music, Shaanxi Museum on October 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Today I worked alone with Amanda, and discovered her English was worse than I had thought. We spent a painful hour and a half walking around the museum with me correcting her pronunciation, asking her to repeat what she had just said because it probably wasn’t English, at least not as I know it, and [...]
Monday, continued
Posted in Xian, tagged folk house, Muslim quarter, shadow puppets, Xian on October 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In the evening, four of our group, which is now down to six, went to visit an ancient folk house also in the Muslim Quarter of the walled city. This house, which has 86 rooms and covers an area of 2517 square meters, was awarded by the emperor to a man who, at the age [...]
Monday, October 27
Posted in Xian, tagged Hanguang, Museum of the city wall, Muslim quarter, xian city wall on October 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Today, being my day off, I decided to walk on the city wall. Xian has had walls almost since its beginnings. Most of the group went up there during our first week. They rented bicycles and rode around the walls. It’s a long trip. The bike rental gives you 100 minutes and they barely [...]
Sunday, October 26.
Posted in Xian, tagged Forest of stele, home visit, Xian on October 27, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I returned late last night and as I got in bed it felt like I had come home. After the stress of traveling and never being sure I was in the right place it was just wonderful to get back here. I went out to the Forest of Stele Museum this morning. Again I had [...]
Saturday, October 25
Posted in China, Uncategorized, tagged Buddhist sculpture, Longmen grottoes, Luoyang on October 26, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Back on the train to Xian and very tired. Longmen caves were good but too crowded. I came here with the idea of strolling alone along a path lined with caves and grottoes cut into the mountain. And my stroll was on flat land, probably because when I was in Dun Huang in 1982 our [...]
Friday, October 24
Posted in China, tagged CCS, China - Xian on October 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I am sitting on a very crowded train on my way to Luoyang. Eva made the arrangements for me and gave me a paper with pertinent Chinese phrases for getting me on the train. The train station is huge and the area in front of it was filled with people, coming and going. Eva told [...]
Thursday, October 23
Posted in China, Xian on October 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Sunshine today, the sky almost as clear as last night. We finally finished the tour of the museum. Tomorrow we begin all over again. Also, tomorrow I will go to Luoyang to visit the Longmen Grottoes, more Buddhist caves. I spent most of the afternoon preparing for my train trip tomorrow. I wanted more Chinese [...]
Calligraphy and Dumplings
Posted in Uncategorized on October 23, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Working hard at filling in the characters
Our teacher, Liu Lei, an eminent calligrapher from one of the art schools.
Professor Liu’s work
Eva showing how to make the dumplings
Half of our kitchen. The other half is about 3 feet away.
