Ever more

Strange how time can go both so slowly and so quickly!

I've been here over six weeks, and everything is just so amazing. Have I ever been anywhere else before? I've been thinking that I have nowhere else I plan or would like to go (except maybe Mali or back to Martinique someday...), and it's strange to be at a place in my life where I can really anticipate the effects of long-term living in one place. It seems unfathomable, since in the last several years my life has been defined by a change of place and pace, so rich in so many things. How much richer could my experience of one place be? Unfathomable!

Some of my highlights:

- I've never loved a job this much! Spending so much time with children all the time is fabulous. This is my one day off, and I miss them! In the morning I will see them... I love that I teach English through acting, songs, dances, stories, etc. Just in line with what I want to learn and train in!

- I do Tai Chi in the morning with my neighbors, 3-5 times per week, before I go to work. It's fantastic! There are usually 30-40 of us in the park, and I have learned just enough tai chi in the past to be able to follow - and soon I will be an expert! (Well... maybe not "soon"). We have a great time. I hope to be able to dialogue with them soon. I'm a hoot to them, since I'm the only foreigner, and the only person under 40 years old - maybe evern 50! I've also done some capoeira with a small group, and I hope to return weekly.

- I've been studying Go (Weiqi in Chinese), but I have not been able to play much - just thrice since I'm here, and only online... I hope to find locals to play with on a regular basis, preferably old men, who will get a kick out of beating me.

- I've been learning lots of Chinese. My co-teachers at NewBeat help me, I'm taking a class twice per week, I just started meeting with a tutor once per week, and I might have time to use my computer software as well...

- I had a most delightful housewarming party a couple of weeks ago, for my NewBeat English school associates

On the menu, pasta with ricotta cheese (!) and veggies (carrots, broccoli, leek, etc.):


My guests brought lots and lots of fruit and prepared it in my apartment - to danio's greatest delight!






From left to right, Lillian, Liz, Touba, Jacqui, Rainbow and Shawn:


My dear friend Javad (whom I see rather frequently, as we hang out and he crashes at my place) also joined us later on:



- There are actually a good number of foreigners in Shanghai, and although cheese is imported and costs eight bucks or more for a roll, there are some nice things like cereal that I like to splurge on, just for the sake of familiarity (and taste, of course). But anyway, the food in China is absolutely terrific - especially the free lunches at school, which are vegetarian (the director is, strangely enough, vegetarian). And on a side note, I just found out that I can have exhorbitantly priced Papa John's pizza delivered to my apartment - how about that!

danio out!

Poem

Kissed by a whisp of immortality,
I have been lain to rest in nothingness,
Where thoughts and love are just formality,
Where you and me and Truth are meaningless.

The journey of the soul proceeds from hence,
But mine remains in sacrosanct orbit,
Beyond the confines of both need and sense -
Perchance oblivion may absorb it.

Quintessence and its patterns now emerge
And coalesce within a single speck:
My soul is God's, which He has come to purge
From those desires I may not expect.

I sparkle now in hidden depths, bemused
By a serenety with God suffused.

Here & Now

Here and now is all there is, especially these days for danio! He can often be caught stating, "There is nowhere else I'd rather be right now than here at home in Shanghai!"

And speaking of his home, we have precious images of his impressively luxurious apartment!

You have to wind around a little after passing through the Yong Jia Rd entrance gate, and when you get to his building, you have to walk up to the second floor. When you walk in, this is what you see:


Indeed, a kitchen - a very nice one! By walking into the next room, you get another view of said kitchen, along with the front door:


The second room is of course the livingroom:






If you go back to the kitchen, you'll also see the comfortable bathroom:




And then, of course, there's the marvelous bedroom:



(Notive the space in the back looks out on a beautiful though tiny park, and serves as a drying spot for clean clothes, as there aren't really driers in China.)

This closet is quite a beautiful piece of furniture:


and it opens too!


Behind the bed is the office, a prime spot in the apartment, as it catches someone's wireless internet access from somewhere in the area!


Across from the bed is the most important piece, the nightstand, adorned with the necessary items for survival (mainly prayer books):


You might even encounter said danio, if you come at the right time:


When I arrived, the furniture was actually all very differently arranged. The couch in the back of the livingroom is made from a bonus mattress which was found behind the cabinet. Said cabinet, with shelves behind glass panels, is now decorated with some books, my new go board, and other stuff, like the many teas I have purchased:

From left to right: orange peels, roses, jasmine, three common flowers that mix well in teas, some green tea on the bottem, and those black balls are nauseatingly stinky dried fruit-looking things which, when put in hot water, make the most delicious, sweet tea (you just have to take a breath before drinking it...)

I've been moving around, as mentioned in the previous post.
Here are some pictures!

After a week in Evanston & Chicago (which was after the 4 months in Quebec with my sister), Omid and I drove to Baltimore. I visited there with my friend Sam, and Molly and Maia:

In Richmond, I visited and stayed with friends and family. Here I am in the lovely company of two fabulous ladies: Henrietta and June, my grandmother:

I've been in "the China area" for a month now. That is to say two weeks in Macau, a few days in Hong Kong, a few more in Guangzhou, and two weeks here in Shanghai. The following pictures are from the visit Javad and I made to Guangzhou:









This is the work of Javad's magical hands with my camera:











By the way, these are all from Bayun Mountain, in the middle of the city (kind of). We climbed nearly to the top:





This precious picture is from Hong Kong, where Sunitha blessed us with her hosting skills to show us the beauty of her home city.

Playing Catch-Up

Last moments in Quebec
A couple of days after the goodbye-danio party, my parents arrived in town, so we spent a few days visiting with them and enjoying great family time. It was my mom's first time meeting Leigh!
We had the necessary visit to "Vieux Quebec".

Leaving Quebec was probably only not much of an emotional challenge because it propelled me into a series of travels and activities which have only just ended! This is the reason of my delay in posting. This is also the reason for the somewhat impersonal nature of this post.

Montreal Visit
I had the pleasure of staying a day with Jerome and Démie. The evening I arrived, we had a delicious poutine - a strangely popular food of Quebec: potato fries soaked in a gravy-like sauce. I had tried and disliked it previously, but this version proved delicious! Funnily enough, we had crepes the next morning! Yummy times.
After the poutine, we went to see a choir performance featuring Démie's nephew at a giant basilica. It was actually remeniscent of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican! Quite majestic and imposing - one of the salient buildings of the city! It turns out that rather than just seeing a choir perform, we attended a complete, 2-hour-long Catholic Christmas service. It was wondrous, truly! The architecture really stood out to me, combining a more classical look from the outside, with a beautiful, tall dome, with a unique layout and appearance inside: all black and white and red, a wide-open space, immense curtains, sparse carvings and statues, and inside balcony, a crucified Jesus atop a glass mantelpiece, and strangely erratic black latticework in prominent spots. It was a very moving service, which had me contemplating various types of spiritual approaches to God. Jerome and I used the setting as inspiration to speak about the oneness of religion. He enjoyed hearing about the Baha'i Faith.

Chicago Visit
We had a marvelous time visiting with Brent and Liza and Brent, also seeing all my various other friends - some 12 dear friends, between different areas and different connection. It was also in Chicago that I got my visa at the Chinese Consulate. Amia (Suzanne and Husayn's daughter) is such a sweetheart! She was calling me danono, or danonono, or even danononono... There was coffee drinking, video games, freestyling, singing, walking, etc. ending with a fabulous journey back to the East coast with Omid.

Stay in Richmond
This was a very pleasant, relaxing visit. I roleplayed with friends, visited LandAmerica (my old job), went out a few time, watched movies, played board games, watched several episodes of Lost (a severely addictive TV series), etc. For quite a while there were a bunch of us best friends staying in the same house (Falconers', as usual): Brent, Peter, Orion, Robbie and I.

There was, of course, much more to the above episodes, but that's the gist. They were beautiful weeks leading up to the great move to Shanghai.

Monday

Today was truly a magical day. I was watching Leigh, and as she was napping on my breast, I was thinking fondly of my beloved friend Courtney. Moments later, after Leigh awoke, a package came in the mail from Alaska - from Courtney! She sent me fabulous gifts: an original painting from a Native Alaskan artist, depicting Raven flying to the sun, followed by his shadow; a journal with Dr. Seuss illustrations, "Oh the places you will go!", and a gorgeous framed picture of her, holding a sign that reads: "I am thinking of danio". I have been on cloud nine since.

I also spent quite some time reading for and planning my travels to Montreal (setting-up a role-playing game for Jerome, Demie and me), Evanston (preparing a fireside focusing on the fear of God and inter-religious spirituality), and China.

This evening, I had planned a dinner with Charlotte and the family, which turned out to be a surprize goodbye party, attended by some twenty friends from Quebec - mothers and their babies from the Holland Center, members of the Baha'i community, and students at Charlotte's laboratory - all of this secretly organized by her, of course... Here are some pictures:





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