Island Adventure

(pictures to follow, my internet connection is too slow to upload)

The Thailand trip was really cool. Ted and I went to Koh Phangnan, an island in the gulf of Thailand. It was a long bus ride and then boat ride down there, almost 15 hours of travel. The bus was older and was decorated with funny fabrics. It was half full, so we each had two seats to ourselves. They showed random movies, like Blade Runner, and a newer one called “Lucky Sleven”, which froze right at the end. Damn. The bus left in the evening, making one stop around midnight at a fluorescently lit oasis along the way. Every got out to use the bathroom and buy food. A series of transfers followed at dawn, first to a minivan, then to a big bus again, and then to a boat. We finally made it to the island around 11am.

 

We walked along the pier battling hotel offers from the locals. We headed up the main strip and began looking for scooters or motorcycles to rent.

 

We found a pair of enduro motorcycles for $5/day. We drove all over the island. We must have looked like degenerate gym teachers, Ted in his boxer brief underwear (he didn’t have a bathing suit) and me in my speedo-briefs bathing suit. Or maybe we looked more like nihilists from the big lebowski. We stayed in beach bungalows that cost about $12/night for a double with no a/c, just fans, which isn’t too bad. We stayed on a different beach each night.

 

We bought snorkels and masks from a tourist shop in town and rode out to a part of the island that the guidebook recommended for diving. There weren’t very many people there. We walked along the rocky island until we found a point that looked safe enough to jump in. The waves were small, but sill crashed against the big rocks. Ted went in first and I followed suit. It was a clean entry. Once we put our faces in the water and began swimming we realized we had literally jumped into a school of fish. They were about 6-8 inches long, with yellow stripes over a silvery-blue body. There were hundreds, all swimming in sync.

 

The reef was amazing. There was tons of live coral and many different kinds of fish, some of which I remember from snorkeling at Grand Cayman as kid. We spent about three hours out in the water before calling it quits. The sun was setting and it began to get chilly. At some point Ted kicked a piece of coral with the top of his foot. It wasn’t too bad, just a few layers of skin missing, but it bled a lot, especially when he got out of the water. It looked like someone had stabbed his foot. He put his sock on, which acted like a bandage, and was good to go.

 

We left the island on our fourth day. We took a ferry in the morning, and got on a bus in the afternoon, which brought us to Bangkok around 8:30p. I had a few hours before my flight, so we went to an outdoor bar that was set up in a gas station on the street. They put tables and chairs everywhere and decorated the gas pumps. The bar was projecting the Wimbledon tennis championship on a big screen. We sat there watching tennis drinking pina coladas for a couple hours. I caught a taxi and went to the airport and got on a plane to Beijing. I arrived around 7am.

 

 

 

 

 

Thailand

The BASE program wrapped up last Friday with an exhibition of the work and 400 lamb chops grilled on our barbeque.

I flew out of Beijing and arrived in Bangkok last night. My plane sat at the gate for an hour before departure due to heavy rains. They served us dinner, which made it tollerable. I got into Bangkok around 1:30a. It always seems weird when I arrive in places late at night (it was the same when I first arrived in china a month ago) the place is seemingly more wild and mysterious because you can't see anything. You try to make out as much as you can flying down the freeway with a taxi driver you can't really communicate with. So many scenarios go through your head, but it always works out.

The taxi got me to my hostel fairly easily. I chose one in a very touristy part of town for better or worse. It's mostly young people from all over the world. There are lots of bars, restaurants, and street vendors. Everything is so cheap here it's kind of nice that there is so much of that "stuff" around. Cars and two-stroke motorcycles and scooters buzz all over the place.

Ted is meeting me here today. He flies in from Hong Kong due to a technicality with his flight back to the states and visa trouble in china.

It's been thunderstorming here today, but now it looks like the sun is coming out. It feels very tropical -the heat, the humiditity, the plants. The streets are narrow and a walk down any alley uncovers hidden stores and places to eat. My hostel has everything one could ask for, clean rooms, internet, restaurant, laundery, etc. I found a few vespa shops online that I'm going check out today.

I've already priced out buses and boats to nearby islands. About $20 and a full day of travel gets you to paradise. Ted and I tenatively talked about staying in Bangkok for a few days and then heading to the beaches for the remainder of our stay. I'm flying out of here on the 7th and will spend my last days in Beijing before heading back to the states on the 12th.

I'm off to find scooters...

Field Trip

Field Trip: Factory Tour

 

The whole BASE crew packed into two minivans this morning for a 7:15 departure. We were missing Andy, who remained asleep after two awakenings through his window, “Andy, Andy, Andy” silence, and then “Yeah?” I was wedged between a taxicab and his barred window, “Get up dude, the bus is about to leave….Are you up? Are you on your feet” I asked. He replied, “Yeah man, awhh, I’m up”, but unfortunately he never showed.

 

The first stop was the rock quarry. Beyond the gates were statues and sculptures lined in a row, although chaotic-looking. We walked around the main building into the yard where enormous chunks of granite and marble are stacked high. Workers were cutting, grinding, hammering, and drilling on various pieces. Matt Hope, the artist next door at BASE, showed us his latest piece, which was a huge sound resonance sculpture of granite. Multiple hunks of granite, carved to a perfect Boolean depression, formed this huge piece. There is a certain point where one can stand that makes any vocalization felt in the chest, as the sound waves form into constructive frequencies. Matt also had other pieces that were part of this project, like monolithic boulders drilled straight through, going from a very small diameter to a larger opening like a musical horn. We watched one of the workers try to drill through this thing with a hydraulic hammer dill powered by a diesel motor off to the side. I had to wear my earplugs to get close.

 [Matt Hope Profile]

Matt is a tall British guy with low-sloping shoulders and a serious face. His jeans are cut-off at the calf, kind of like capris, and he wears new balance running shoes and t-shirts. Matt speaks slowly with a thick accent, swearing often as he tells stories with his head tilted downward, staring up through his deep brow. Ninety percent of what comes out his mouth makes you laugh, maybe because he uses funny British vocabulary or he is just funny as hell. He looks young, like he could be a college student, but when he smiles the crows feet next to his eyes reveal his age.

 

After an hour in the rock yard we climbed back into the minivans and drove down a bumpy dirt road to the actual quarry. The road was lined with car-sized hunks of marble. We pulled up to some small offices and unloaded. The sun was shinning hard, and made it almost impossible to open your eyes. It was very uncomfortable. We walked to the edge of the quarry; a huge valley cut into a solid mountain with iridescent blue and green water at the bottom. A switchback road led the trucks down to the valley. We followed it for a while and discovered an opening in the stacked hunks of marble the workers had made. It was essentially a cave that stretched back as far the eye could see, similar to a mine tunnel. The opening literally blew cold are from its depths -natural air conditioning. Inside you could even see your breath. The outside air was probably in the 90’s and the cave shaft was earth temperature, 58 degrees, which was actually too cold to endure after five minutes, especially with sweat-soaked t-shirts.

 

We drove into the next town over and ate lunch at a “family” restaurant, one that Jason (our Chinese translator and project coordinator at BASE) and Matt Hope really like.

 

The next stop was Jason’s dad’s factory, a fiberglass port-a-potty company. It wasn’t very “factory-like”. The factory was made up of a few low pole barns integrated between several courtyard homes. The fumes were almost unbearable, and the workers wore cloth masks like doctors. The highlight of this visit was the puppies that roamed around his mother’s house.

 

Our last destination was a steel fabrication factory where Matt Hope has some other projects in the work. This factory was a large complex with many structures. It was built in 1975 by the government and remains a state-run steel facility today. The place looks a little decrepit, but it is still functional. Machines that look like dinosaurs are dotted throughout the warehouse spaces. The buildings smell warm with a thick scent of oil and metal.

 

 

Flying Pigeon Factory Tour

Flying Pigeon Factory Tour

 

Ted and Jason and I arrived in Tianjin around 10:30a via train. We waited in line for about 10 minutes to get a cab. I called Mr. Wang, the flying pigeon sales guy, and handed the phone to the driver. She drove us down the highway for about 20 minutes and dropped us off at the gate of the factory. The outside of the building was dirty and aged. Mr. Wang, a short, middle-aged Chinese man with grey hair, greeted us at the door. He brought us upstairs to the conference room and served us hot tea. We fired questions at him about shipping, quality, options, etc. He took us into another room that had about 10 bikes on display. They wer

e all a little dusty and the tires were flat. He pumped a few of them up, and Ted and Jason and I tested them out on this weird walkway. It was a long room with translucent ceiling. Pathways were made using a 6 inch tall picket fence with plastic grass inside. The pathways wove in and out from one another, creating little picket fence islands where they had a few bikes on display. And of course dust covered everything.

 

Ted quickly found himself in an intense game of ping-pong at the end of the testing area. He battled against two older women, who were easily the best ping-pong players I’ve ever seen. I joined in the doubles game with one of them as my partner, playing against Ted and the other woman. It was out of control. It drew a small crowd and there was lots of laughter.

 

After a couple games we went back to the bikes and tried to wrap things up. I wanted Mr. Wang to assemble two samples for me based on the parts that I specified for pick up next week, but he became a little surely at the idea. I told him that I want to see the bikes I was going to order first, and that I’d pay for the samples, if I liked them and placed the order my money would be refunded, and if I walked I would take the two bikes with me. He agreed to this.

 

Mr. Wang took us downstairs to the factory. He was a little ashamed of it, and said that it is very old. He couldn’t understand why we liked the way it looked. Outside the building were mounds of rusty bike frames, fenders, and forks waiting to be processed inside. They looked better than the sculptures I’ve seen at some of the galleries in Beijing. The factory was humming with machines and flashing blue lights from all the welders. Mammoth looking machines lined the walkways where women used them to bend steel for the forks. The warehouse was dark and smelled like welding, and the air was thick and hazy.

 

We walked out the other end of the building and into another where they were assembling the bicycles in a ford-like fashion, each person responsible for one task. We wound our way to the back where young men were loading wheels into a pneumatic machine to lace the hubs and tighten the spoke ends. The building smelled offensively of rubber from the stacks of tires.

 

Mr. Wang took us into another building where the frame welds were being ground down in preparation for painting. The frames were then placed on hooks that carried them into the painting area like carcasses to be washed, primed, and then painted, all in a matter of a few minutes. On the other end women attached the decals to the frame tube and chain guard. The space was dark except for task lights near the workers. Walked out one of the doors and were in the parking lot.

 

Mr. Wang got his car, a very compact mini van. He ordered Ted to sit in the front, “big, big, very tall” in a thick accent. He took us to a restaurant for lunch. He ordered the food for us, which was an impressive spread. We made small talk, and also asked some more questions about the bikes. After we ate he drove the three of us to the train station. I gave him 800 RMB for the two sample bikes (a little over $100) and he hand wrote a cryptic note as a receipt. He dropped us off and we said our goodbyes. We waited in line after line, to buy the tickets, to enter the station, to enter the platform, and then once we got to Beijing the same thing, waiting in line to exit the platform, and to get a cab. But the trip was certainly worth it.

 

A few days later:

 

I’ve been gathering quotes for a 20’ container to be sent from Tianjin to Ann Arbor. It is looking like the deal will go down. So far it seems that the shipping charges are $4500 from China to my door in Ann Arbor. A container holds 143 bicycles, which are 75% assembled. Mr. Wang quoted me between $52-57 per bike depending on the options. 

Village Trip 4

SNV Journal

 

Trip 4 [Saturday]

 

We arrived in the town outside of the village around 11a due to a late start and a few missed turns made by the driver. A lunch was scheduled at noon, so we decided to eat earlier instead of making two trips. The rain was light, but steady, and everything was soaked from the thunderstorms that swept through earlier.

 

After lunch we drove to the village. Ted and I set out to the forest accompanied by Bright Yang, a Beijing University of Technology student, who was ill prepared. We bought him an umbrella and some extra water for the hike. We started on the trail and climbed up to the tea shrine. Bright Yang said we should “be careful of snakes”. That was the red flag but Ted and I disregarded his funny comment. The shrine wasn’t very impressive –a smaller version of a Chinese house with a Buddha-type figure inside. There were many beer bottles strewn about in front of the little building. Next to the shrine is a 100 year-old tree, which was more interesting. It was severe and twisted looking, covered in moss, contrasting with the younger foliage.

 

We pressed on down the main trail looking for an offshoot that we noticed during our last trip. Bright Young asked if we had a map. We didn’t. We walked for 3km and Bright Yang said he was getting a little tired. I tried to explain to him that we didn’t need him to come with us (most of the BJUT students are sent as translators), but he didn’t seem to understand or was just stubborn. Ted and I found the side trail and we gave Bright Yang one last chance to turn around. “Bright Yang, your clothes and shoes will be very wet,” I explained. “We’re going up to the top of this mountain.” Unfortunately his English wasn’t good enough to really understand and he followed us, all the way up. The trail followed an old narrow creek bed. Halfway up the mountain the trail dead-ended into a rock wall. It was climbable, so we just kept going, in part because of Ted’s insatiable curiosity. Bright Yang looked a little perplexed but followed Ted’s lead. I watched every step he took thinking “oh shit, this kid is going to fall and break something, and we’re going to have to carry him back.” He made it, and we kept going.

 

The trail became very muddy in some parts, and Bright Yang slipped often, falling to his hands and knees. At one point the trail became very distinct and composed with flat rocks placed as steps leading up to a plateau. We reached the top and found another stone hut, circular in shape, with a small opening in the front, barely big enough to crawl through, and a small opening on the top like a chimney. Saplings and plants covered the structure revealing it’s age. We still don’t know what these are….and neither do the villagers we’ve talked to. We kept hiking and began to see light through the trees ahead of us signaling that we were almost at the top. We reached the rock peak, which gave us an impressive view of the surrounding mountains. It looked like a Chinese painting because the rain created low clouds, and the mountains off in the distance disappeared into the whiteness.

 

We turned around and began heading down to Bright Yang’s delight, which quickly became hardship as his flat-footed steps down the incline left him sitting down, again, and again. The seat of his pants was caked with mud, and the umbrella we bought him was haggard and dirty. The rock face came quick and Ted went first, and then guided Bright Yang’s feet from below, literally grabbing his foot and placing it on the rock. Despite all of his trouble, Bright Yang remained cheerful, although it may have been out of politeness.

 

We reached the bottom and started walking back down the main trail.

 

Back at the village the group was waiting for the driver to pick us up for dinner. We drove into the town, and ate another version of lunch for dinner. After our meal we drove back, and began setting up the movie to be projected on a screen Andy and the villagers had constructed out of timbers in one of the main streets.

 

The village was full of people and kids. The weekend population is much larger than what we have experienced during the week, making things seems less entropic. After about 20 minutes of shuffling around with equipment and extension cords we learned that the electricity was out for some reason. This was the first hill on our movie rollercoaster. Everyone seemed a little let down, but the crowd remained nonetheless. Then all of sudden the streetlights came on like a miracle. We were in business. One of the villagers ran the extension cord to a house, and the next hill presented itself –the female end of the American extension cord would not fit into the male end of the Chinese power strip. But the Villager quickly remedied the problem by modifying the terminals of the power strip with pliers. He bent the ground terminal completely off and twisted the remaining two to make the connection. We had power. The cloth screen was attached to the wood structure and the electronics were hooked up. We had a picture. Andy put in the DVD, but the picture came up scrambled, and there was no sound. Many attempts were made to clean off the DVD a puff of breath and a wipe of the shirt, but it did not improve. Another DVD player was brought out from someone’s home, but the disc still wouldn’t play. We didn’t have another DVD, and it seemed like the whole thing was a bust. Andy asked the village leader to bring one of his own movies, and he showed up a few minutes later with a Jackie Chan DVD from the early 90’s.

 

It probably worked out better this way because the kids in the audience were immediately captured by the action and laughed at the simple humor. The movie had some trouble with skipping, but we pushed through it’s hiccups, until about an hour into the film, after the crowd had thinned a little, a fatal skip occurred that the disc could not recover from, and the villagers naturally dispersed as if we had said show is over. It was a good turn out, and we were packed up and in the van by 10p.

(note: the top photo of the film screening was taken by Andy. He increased the exposure time on his digital camera, no photoshop effects were used) 

 

Spelunking

Inside one of the village courtyard homes (actually a former communist party headquarters) they are underground storage bunkers to keep vegetables cool. I thought it was going to be more of an underground room when I decided to jump down there. My headlamp wasn't powerful enough to illuminate the space, so I took a picture with the flash on. The space is very low, crawling room only. The most interesting sight were all the toads...they seemed a little mutant and inbred (because once you go in you never can get out) I pulled a big one out to have a closer look. 

Socialist New Village_Journal Excerpt

Socialist New Village [Trip 2]

 

Forest

 

We arrived at the village around 9:30a. The village leader greeted us briefly, and carried on about his business. The rest of the group dispersed into the narrow streets to begin their work. Ted and I walked down to the trailhead at the base of the village, and were stopped by two guys with red armbands who were sitting along the concrete wall. We tried to explain to them that everything was okay through fragmented mandarin and hand gestures, but didn’t get anywhere until we called Heyu who quickly gained us access.

 

The topo map we brought only covered about 5 minutes of our journey along the trail, so I started making line drawing of our route. I photographed the view around each bend in the trail, making notes along the way. The trail was well defined for the first hour and half, showing traces of three and four wheel vehicle traffic. We saw at least a dozen pheasants, which alarmingly explode from the brush, making your heart jump each time.

 

The terrain along the trail is lush with vegetation, but not very forest-like. After an hour of walking we finally came to a cluster of pines about 8 meters tall –finally, we thought, we found the forest. The trail slowly faded from three bare paths to one, and clusters of pines and birch trees became more frequent.

 

We found what looked to be an old farmhouse. Most of the foundation walls were still standing, and there were the remnants of a stone grinding wheel. Across the path from the house was a steep slope formed by sheer rock that contained a pool of water of below.

 

We continued along the trail and it became more and more overgrown. We noticed that the single-path trail was following an old water channel –probably a stream that was enhanced by stacking stones along it’s bank to keep it from drifting. The trail became so overgrown that we had to crouch into a walking-squat while fighting through the branches with our arms. At times the brush was for

giving, especially in areas where the trees were taller and blocked the sun from the forest floor. We found the ruins of an old earth home that looked as though it was built into the side of the hill. The hill had eroded over time causing the whole structure to slump downward. The only trace of the opening was a 50cm space with the wooden header still stretching between the rock wall structure. Farther up the hill we found old rock retaining walls holding back the earth from terraced gardens. The trees that grew in the old garden and through the home were probably 40 years old.

 

Ted and I turned around after three hours of hiking.

 

Water

 

We arrived in the village around 4pm after our hike. Leedia helped us translate a conversation with an older farmer about water. Apparently there is a well in a locked shed just outside the village. Each home is tapped into the main line, although some have direct access to the line through a well-like structure in the ground. I’m not sure if this is more advantageous or part of the necessary maintenance infrastructure. No one in the town has a private well. The old man said the well water is for drinking use only, and there is plenty of w

ater, although sometimes it is muddy and contains sediment. He said that rain waters the fields and the gardens, but I did see some homes water there gardens with city water. He said the crops in the field fail when there is not enough rain. In the village, rainwater runs off the roofs and the streets into the sewer. It is not collected anywhere.

 

We talked to another farmer, probably 50 years old, about irrigation. We asked him why the town below has irrigation and the village doesn’t. He said they have more water. There is a reservoir just down the road from the village, but they don’t have the money to buy the equipment to pump it up to their fields for irrigation. He also said that sometimes it rains too much, and other times not enough.

 

Night Life

 

We went to the next town over for dinner at the house where we were staying. The woman served beef ribs, hard-boiled duck eggs, peanuts, pork and asparagus, and a few other vegetable dishes. We drove back to the village to see it in the evening. At 7:30p many people were outside, sitting along the concrete planted areas on the main street with their toddlers. The women seemed to congregate in one group and the men in another. We sat with the villagers and tried to speak what little mandarin we knew –our names, where we’re from, our occupations etc. It was friendly with lots of laughs. The orange glow of the streetlights came on at 8pm, and there are enough around the village to light the major intersections between the small streets –contrary to what the village leader told us at our first meeting.

 

Morning

 

The next morning we woke up early to get to the village by 6am to see the morning routines. Heyu, Ted, and Andy and I were the only ones that made it. When we drove up the farmers were already out in the fields, crouched down with their hands busy in the soil. The landscape was hazy and morning dew dripped from everything.

 

Andy and I went down to the three abandoned homes at the base of the village to photograph each one. About eight farmers walked past us carrying scythes, and headed into the hills to tend to the terraced fields. Ted and Heyu joined us and we interviewed two forest rangers that were guarding the trailhead. They said that they work everyday, and there are two shifts, day and night, which are from 7a-5p and 9p-5a. The job pays 500 Yuan per month. One of the rangers lived in the only occupied house at the base of the village. His great, great grandfather lived in the same house, and his inheritance showed. He had a big plot of land, three houses within his courtyard, as well as smaller peripheral structures where he kept 5 goats. When asked what he did when it rained, he said he just goes inside his house. The forest ranger job began to look more and more like soft-welfare. The only thing they really had to do was stand there, and stop anyone who tried to walk up the trail. He had divorced his wife and lives alone with his 12 year-old son who attends boarding school. When asked about using some of his space as a guesthouse, he said that he had thought of that before and would be very interested. 

Shanghai

Class was on hold for a week because Robert Mangurian had to be in L.A. 

Ted and I headed for Shanghai. We took a night train out of Beijing. We had the two top bunks in a sleeper cabin. Our neighbors down below were quiet and unassuming -a younger chinese couple. The train ride was about 12 hours, which wasn't bad when you sleep through most of it. The beds had fluffy comforters and two pillows. It was pretty nice, better than the sleeper trains I have been on in europe. A one way ticket cost about $80. 

We arrived in Shanghai 7:30am on a Sunday, and decided to wander around for a few hours to give our host a little more time to sleep. Ted and I strolled through People's Park and checked out all the tai chi and other activities going on. The whole place was bustling.

We called Adam Fox and got directions to his apartment just outside of Shanghai in Pudong. He and his wife Andrea, live in a really nice two-bedroom apartment above the international school where they both teach. After settling in we all went into the city and ate brunch at a restaurant tucked away in a densely packed retail development snaking between buildings. Storefronts carved out of old buildings house boutique shops and restaurants, making it feel like europe....which is probably the intent. Shanghai is very westernized and very international. There are tons of white people there, and many natives speak english, which is a stark contrast to Beijing. The restaurants cater to a western taste, and the menus are in english of course. 

We walked the city for awhile heading towards the pet market to pick up some crickets for the class lizard -a 12 inch bearded dragon. Shanghai feels much more urban than Beijing in that the streets are smaller and the buildings are more dense. It is easy to walk the city, and the public transportation is excellent. We went back to the apartment to regroup and refresh before heading out for dinner.

We ate at a Thai restaurant, and then went to a bar called Abbey Road, and had some drinks in the courtyard area. The weather in Shanghai is hot and humid, so the night is very comfortable. 

Ted and I went all over the city then next day, checking out a couple museums, the fabric market, and random shops along the way. That evening we met with an architect who came to BASE for a lecture the week before, Fei Wang, and his friend Matt (another chinese architect) for some drinks in a fancy tourist area. Then they took us to another bar that had some interesting design stuff going for it. To enter the the building, you walk up a half-flight of stairs to a landing with flat doors on the left and right sides. In front of you are 9 illuminated holes in the wall, and you have stick both of your fist inside two of the nine holes to "unlock the door". When you get it wrong the door on the right side slides open to reveal a mirror. We got it right on the second try and the left side door slid open. Fancy cocktails are close to US prices, about $8 or $9 for a martini, but these drinks were a little better. 

Tuesday, Fei and Matt took us around Shanghai. We visited the architecture school and a few buildings. One of the standout buildings was a slaughterhouse built in the 1930's by an unknown architect (maybe British?) which was in the process of being converted into retail. The building was made entirely of concrete. Inside stairs and ramps snaked up four stories, connecting the periphery of the building to central structure. This is probably the most amazing building I've ever been in. It was like walking through a giant sculpture because the structure was so monolithic -everything concrete. It is unfortunate that nobody knows who the architect was because it would be amazing to understand the design more thoroughly. The circulation was obviously very important, getting the animals in and up to the top, and then assuming the ramps acted like slides, they slid the slaughtered animal down to be shipped out. I'm thinking about heading back down to Shanghai when my program ends to spend more time at this building, drawing and photographing the space.

Ted and I had dinner with Adam and Andrea at a Brazilian Barbeque place, which was having a fundraiser for the earthquake victims. 100 yuan bought an all-you-can eat plate. They come around every few minutes with swords skewering a hunk of meat and slice a little off on your plate. A live band played brazilian music, plus some bob marley. 

On wednesday Ted and I taught two of Adams classes one-point perspective. Each class was an hour long, and Ted and I went through the basics, and then had the students draw a room and furnish it. The kids were in 7th-9th grade, and were very bright. The school is english speaking, but the kids are from all over the world. Their parents are mostly expats. They did very well with the lesson, and we had a good time attempting to teach. In between classes we ate lunch in the cafeteria. The food was far better than what I had in middle school. It was great to see Adam with the kids because he really has a good time with them joking around, but can also get everyone focused quickly, and give them instructions about an assignment. For me the whole thing was a little nerve racking because I imagined the kids turning on me, like I remember kids doing to substitute teachers, but they were a good bunch. 

Ted and I packed up and headed out of town. Initially we were going to go to Sunzhou but we decided to skip it and head back to beijing a day early. We tried to get sleeper tickets on the train but they were sold out, so we settled with soft-seats (essentially airplane seats). It was a bit rough. The other passengers were noisy -cell phones ringing, music playing, talking, vendor ladies yelling. We got into beijing the next day, stumbled into a mcdonalds and ate some strange croissant-like hot pockets filled with egg. We grabbed a cab and rolled into Cao Chang Di around 9:30am. I slept in my apartment for a few hours before heading over to base to begin work. 

Shanghai

Class was on hold for a week because Robert Mangurian had to be in L.A. 

Ted and I headed for Shanghai. We took a night train out of Beijing. We had the two top bunks in a sleeper cabin. Our neighbors down below were quiet and unassuming -a younger chinese couple. The train ride was about 12 hours, which wasn't bad when you sleep through most of it. The beds had fluffy comforters and two pillows. It was pretty nice, better than the sleeper trains I have been on in europe. A one way ticket cost about $80. 

We arrived in Shanghai 7:30am on a Sunday, and decided to wander around for a few hours to give our host a little more time to sleep. Ted and I strolled through People's Park and checked out all the tai chi and other activities going on. The whole place was bustling.

We called Adam Fox and got directions to his apartment just outside of Shanghai in Pudong. He and his wife Andrea, live in a really nice two-bedroom apartment above the international school where they both teach. After settling in we all went into the city and ate brunch at a restaurant tucked away in a densely packed retail development snaking between buildings. Storefronts carved out of old buildings house boutique shops and restaurants, making it feel like europe....which is probably the intent. Shanghai is very westernized and very international. There are tons of white people there, and many natives speak english, which is a stark contrast to Beijing. The restaurants cater to a western taste, and the menus are in english of course. 

We walked the city for awhile heading towards the pet market to pick up some crickets for the class lizard -a 12 inch bearded dragon. Shanghai feels much more urban than Beijing in that the streets are smaller and the buildings are more dense. It is easy to walk the city, and the public transportation is excellent. We went back to the apartment to regroup and refresh before heading out for dinner.

We ate at a Thai restaurant, and then went to a bar called Abbey Road, and had some drinks in the courtyard area. The weather in Shanghai is hot and humid, so the night is very comfortable. 

Ted and I went all over the city then next day, checking out a couple museums, the fabric market, and random shops along the way. That evening we met with an architect who came to BASE for a lecture the week before, Fei Wang, and his friend Matt (another chinese architect) for some drinks in a fancy tourist area. Then they took us to another bar that had some interesting design stuff going for it. To enter the the building, you walk up a half-flight of stairs to a landing with flat doors on the left and right sides. In front of you are 9 illuminated holes in the wall, and you have stick both of your fist inside two of the nine holes to "unlock the door". When you get it wrong the door on the right side slides open to reveal a mirror. We got it right on the second try and the left side door slid open. Fancy cocktails are close to US prices, about $8 or $9 for a martini, but these drinks were a little better. 

Tuesday, Fei and Matt took us around Shanghai. We visited the architecture school and a few buildings. One of the standout buildings was a slaughterhouse built in the 1930's by an unknown architect (maybe British?) which was in the process of being converted into retail. The building was made entirely of concrete. Inside stairs and ramps snaked up four stories, connecting the periphery of the building to central structure. This is probably the most amazing building I've ever been in. It was like walking through a giant sculpture because the structure was so monolithic -everything concrete. It is unfortunate that nobody knows who the architect is because it would be amazing to understand the design more thoroughly. The circulation was obviously very important, getting the animals in and up to the top, and then assuming the ramps acted like slides, they slid the slaughtered animal down to be shipped out. I'm thinking about heading back down to Shanghai when my program ends to spend more time at this building, drawing and photographing.

Ted and I had dinner with Adam and Andrea at a Brazilian Barbeque place, which was having a fundraiser for the earthquake victims. 100 yuan bought an all-you-can eat plate. They come around every few minutes with swords skewering a hunk of meat and slice a little off on your plate. A live band played brazilian music, plus some bob marley. 

On wednesday Ted and I taught two of Adams classes one-point perspective. Each class was an hour long, and Ted and I went through the basics, and then had the students draw a room and furnish it. The kids were in 7th-9th grade, and were very bright. The school is english speaking, but the kids are from all over the world. Their parents are mostly expats. They did very well with the lesson, and we had a good time attempting to teach. In between classes we ate lunch in the cafeteria. The food was far better than what I had in middle school. It was great to see Adam with the kids because he really has a good time with them joking around, but can also get everyone focused quickly, and give them instructions about an assignment. For me the whole thing was a little nerve racking because I imagined the kids turning on me, like I remember kids doing to substitute teachers, but they were a good bunch. 

Ted and I packed up and headed out of town. Initially we were going to go to Sunzhou but we decided to skip it and head back to beijing a day early. We tried to get sleeper tickets on the train but they were sold out, so we settled with soft-seats (essentially airplane seats). It was a bit rough. The other passengers were noisy -cell phones ringing, music playing, talking, vendor ladies yelling. We got into beijing the next day, stumbled into a mcdonalds and ate some strange croissant-like hot pockets filled with egg. We grabbed a cab and rolled into Cao Chang Di around 9:30am. I slept in my apartment for a few hours before heading over to base to begin work. 

Ass-less Chaps

This child is wearing the typical get-up for potty-training. The open seam runs front to back.

Thoughts

Travel

 

The tourist takes photos as an attempt to consume what can’t be brought back in a small suitcase. The photo acts as proof of the tourist’s experience of a place; the frame is adjusted to represent the space as accurately as possible in a fixed boundary. The tourist is an outsider at the place of tour, and quickly becomes an insider back home, as they gain experience of the outside beyond what their tribe, friends, or family possess.

 

The word tourist carries with it the notion of leisure, as opposed to someone passing through like a migrant or traveler. Regardless of titles, any person in an unfamiliar place reads the environment through visual inputs, and reacts through output action –what is impressive, what is passed by, and what is purchased or taken. The input-output system is essentially a cross-referencing structure based on what is familiar and unfamiliar. Rooted in primitive thought, place is studied and interpreted through the location of positive and negative stimuli, negotiating between danger and safety as two extremes. Within that dichotomy lies a field where curiosity can be explored based on differences and similarities of familiarity. 

 

The tourist remarks “look how they do this…look at that broom…look at that weird toilet.” The danger-safety realm is constantly being negotiated, if one decides that squatting over an open hole on train is good idea or a bad one, or whether drinking water from the tap is safe or dangerous, or even eating the chicken that seems to have all the parts still attached. What this quickly becomes is cultural perception of what is safe and dangerous, and meaning and value are derived and assigned accordingly. As meaning and value are assigned to objects and experiences, the economy of travel is exposed, and the disillusionment of capitalism becomes accessible.

 

Inefficient Objects and Meat

 

The broom that is made of weeds one can find on the highway holds tremendous value for the westerner, not because the broom is a good broom, but because it reveals the labor of the individual who made it. The factory made broom is anonymous and uniform, although a very efficient tool both in production and use, but it lacks a personal story. The westerner is impressed by banal objects because they gain meaning through unfamiliarity and uniqueness, the conceptual narrative.

 

The economic conditions that permit brooms to be made of weeds, or hand-objects, are unfamiliar to the western tourist. Crossing over from a synthetic, sterilized, digital lifestyle, to an analog, gritty, and modest existence becomes a living museum for the tourist to experience. The state of advanced capitalism is in many ways just as abstract as a primitive tribe who relies on witchdoctors and spiritual cleansings. The media allows the westerner to visualize what cannot be seen, like germs, microscopic airborne particles, and abstract threats like terrorism. This abstract visualization exists in foods as well, as the westerner has developed more and more iterations of taste. Snack foods boast flavors like pizza, chips & salsa, and guacamole, which are abstractions of ingredients. A stroll through a Chinese supermarket reveals chips that have 1:1 flavors, like chicken, or cucumber. Advanced capitalism has removed western sensibilities away from direct experience of what is being consumed. The western supermarket is lined with meat that most people would never be able to extract from the animal themselves, and if they could the act alone would be visceral enough to convert carnivore to vegetarian. The western palette has evolved so far beyond the thing that is actually being consumed, that visualization is no longer necessary because it exists abstractly in thought, and texture has become the common denominator weeding out “mystery meat” for “pure meat”.

 

Economics determine western taste. If America was a developing country and much of the population lived in poverty, the entire animal would be consumed. Waste would be limited to only the inedible. To illustrate this point, flip through a “soul food” menu, which has been historically confined to a challenged socioeconomic culture, and notice what parts of the animal are available. In a positive economy fueled by consumption, the edible palette can become very particular, eating only the “best” parts of the animal, fruit, or vegetable. 

New Socialist Village

The BASE program is comprised of several different courses under one umbrella. One of which is the Socialist New Socialist Countryside and Village, which is a government sponsored program to enhance rural life and make it more attractive to offset the massive migration to the cities. The term for migrant workers in chinese cities is the "floating population" (migrant, meaning they have come from the countryside). Part of our class went to visit one of these remote villages two hours outside of beijing. We will then develop a proposal to improve the village (probably a single project). There are over 200 hundred villages that are affected by the latest 5 year plan of the chinese government. 

The journey begins @ 7am

We hired a small bus to drive us out of Beijing. There were 16 of us (including the driver) packed into a bulbous van on steroids. The initial push off was crazy. To get onto the airport expressway, there is a shortcut you can take, which requires one to drive the wrong way up the exit ramp and then do a U-turn into oncoming traffic. We left during rush hour. A few of on the bus who noticed that we were in fact going the wrong way spoke up, in a last ditch effort nervous pleas were yelled, and then countered by "no it's okay, they do this all the time". I sat so that I was facing traffic during the U-turn, and from my judgement this task seemed impossible, but nonetheless he swung out into two lanes before straightening out into one, horns going off everywhere, the driver got the old diesel up to speed and we were off. Jesus. 

Within an hour we were out of the city, and the terrain became mountainous. We wound our way up switch backs through steep, lush-covered mountains, honking at every turn and at every person who the driver thought was not paying attention (everyone). The sun blared in the blue sky, and the air was hot and dry. People stopped and stared as we drove through neighboring towns and villages. Along our route we stopped at the great wall of china where the road intersected the wall along a river and a dam. We walked along the top of the damn, crossing the river, and paid a man on the other side 2 RMB to climb the side of the mountain up to the great wall. We were the only tourist here, so it was probably one of the best ways to see the wall, even though it was just a quick stop. Our presence attracted a few local merchants who were selling fireworks. We bought some and lit most of them off at the dam. They're fireworks are essentially black-cats ranging in size. Ted bought a huge string, lit it, and threw it off the 80 foot dam. It landed in the water and popped a couple more times before going out. The merchants loved it. We also picked up a variety that explodes when you throw them on the ground. A similar concept to the small, white "whipper snappers", but along the same magnitude as a black cat. I wish I could get these back to the states, but there is no way.  

We arrived at the town outside of the village and met with the "leader", as it translates from chinese to english. One of our chinese classmates, Sen, translated the conversation between the group and the mayor over loose-leaf tea in the city building. We talked on the third floor of the city building in a room with a big conference table. The air was cool and reeked of cigarettes. 

After our conversation, we walked up the main road to one of the many traditional chinese courtyard homes lining the streets. Inside the modest home was an elaborate meal set on two tables. We ate lunch, and then drove to the village, and met with their leader, again over hot loose-leaf tea. An hour later, we walked around the 200 person village, investigating each narrow street, and peering behind the courtyard walls. The homes were made of brick, and sometimes a combination of stone, mud, and straw. The roofs were covered in traditional tiles. Each home had a small garden within the walls of the courtyard, and several smaller structures to house chickens, rabbits, and goats. Many of the fences were made using tree branches, but were arranged so neatly they looked very nice. The streets were newly redone, and were one of the worst things in the village. They basically smothered everything in concrete, and smoothed over the embankments and topographical changes into one continuous flow. 

We took photos and made some sketches, then headed down to a tea house shrine, which was nothing more than a few traditional residential-like buildings. A few us hiked along a small road that led into the mountains. There was a communication breakdown along the way because Ted and I thought the tea house shrine was nestled somewhere back in the hills, not at the base of the trail (which is telling to how unassuming these structures looked) After 15 minutes the rest of the group wanted to turn back. Ted and I decided to jogged the rest of the way (it was supposed to be 3-4km away) We took off at a steady clip, and ran for 10 minutes. We never found anything, except for two pheasants that suddenly emerged out of the brush, eliciting screams. The trail continued, but we were quickly running out of time and needed to be back for the dinner. We turned back to catch up with the rest of the group, but our guides who became worried at the base of the trail met us half way between. They were not interested in jogging, so we caused the group to wait for us at the bottom. 

We drove back into town and ate dinner at a restaurant in town. It might have been a hotel or someone's house, it's hard to say. Dinner was another iteration of the lunch we ate earlier with many of the same dishes, like hard-boiled duck eggs sliced in half (very salty). A new dish was rabbit stew that was very good. We drank tea and beer, and did the best we could to eat all the food. Under the cool florescent lights we talked about architecture, representation, and Robert and Mary Ann's olive oil business in Italy. 

After dinner we collected our things from the bus and Sen showed us where we were staying. Most people stayed in the same house where we ate lunch earlier. Several beds lined the walls of two little rooms, and in the main living area was one huge bed that sleeps six people. Traditionally, the whole family would sleep on the large bed, and it would be heated from beneath with coals to stay warm in the winter. I think the modern versions have radiant heat, but they still maintain the same form. About five of us, including the bus driver, slept in another house on a large bed. My only complaint was the snoring, but I had my earplugs with me. In the courtyard I brushed my teeth in a sink, and then got ready for bed. The bathroom was typical, a little porcelain thing punched into the ground summoning the squatting method. 

We ate breakfast at 7:30a, which was another iteration of the same meal we had for lunch and dinner. We drove the bus back the village to do a final read of the place, taking measurements, more photographs, and some sketching. Ted and Sen and I hiked up one of the mountains and got a nice view of the village from the ridge. We left at 11am, and made a pit stop at one of the satellite cites along the way, picking up snacks and some souvenirs at a hardware store. We wound our way back through the mountain, and arrived at BASE around 2:30p.

Pets

The last posting was sabotaged for some reason, this is

 full story. 

Everyone has a dog in the cao chang di village, and there are also a handful that seem to run wild. Although the wild ones probably aren't strays because the chinese gov't requires dog owners to register their pet with the local police. Most of the dogs here are muts, or not very pure purebreds. The villagers favor the pekingnese, german shepherds, and few random toy breads. They're also pretty lax when it comes to picking up after one's pet. But also wonder if I am mistaking dog droppings for babies-wearing-ass-less-chaps droppings. 

Yesterday Ted and Andy and I ventured to the pet market id downtown beijing. It was insane. You could find almost anything there. Ted came home with a tiny turtle -not sure of the species, and I picked up a green tree frog for 3 RMB (about 50 cents). The pet market is similar to the way an antique mall is set up, a giant space filled with smaller rooms housing individual merchants. There is also an outdoor section that winds it's way through some other outbuildings. Some of the stand out pets for sale were: chipmunks, squirrels, giant frogs, giant crickets (very chinese), and stingrays. 

Earlier that morning I had gone to the flower market and picked up a couple terrariums and was able to make a nice home for the frog. I'm going to smuggle the frog on the plane when I leave. If it stays healthy, and survives the plane ride it should live for a long time. I tried to get the smallest one out of the lot (about 1-1/4 inches). There were others that were at least three inches long, so I think this species can grow to be very big. This little guy even chirps at night. 

Ted's turtle is doing well, we've been feeding it meal worms, and it seems to think they're pretty good. I think ted is going to smuggle his turtle on the plane too. 

Andy almost bought one of the only puppies we saw at the market, this white fluffy thing. They were asking 100 RMB (about $14.00) It seemed healthy and happy, but it is difficult to register the dog and ship it back to the states. One of our guide books explains how to do it, but is was enough of an obstacle to thwart the sale. 

I have plans to bring a big cricket back to the states. Our professors have brought them through security without a problem (meaning they haven't been caught). At the pet market there are elaborate accessories for them, like hand-carved wooden cages and hollowed gourd containers to house them. Keeping crickets is deeply rooted in chinese culture, which is why there is such an array of products made to keep them. The big crickets are green, and about 2-1/2 inches long with fat abdomens. They live for three to nine months, and chirp loudly and frequently.

Pets

The Chinese Flu

It came quickly and unannounced. A few people in the group were already sick, but those cases seemed typical of travel, which mine may have been too. It started with aches and pains, sore muscles in my neck and lower back, until I was bed bound, literally. To add insult to injury, I inadvertently weened myself from caffeine -I just didn't have it in me to go down to the store, and besides the only thing to easily supplement coffee are these knock-off frappucino things. 

I got sick on Sunday night. Wednesday was a complete wash because I slept through it. The only thing I managed to do was ride my bike to base in the morning. I debated whether I should walk instead because the world seemed unstable. I skyped my Mom (registered nurse) for health advice, and she diagnosed my condition as the flu. Whew! A lot of strange ideas go through your head when you're sick in a foreign country, especially when you're lying in bed in a strange taxi-cab apartment for hours on end. I found myself asking questions like: what is the avian bird flu exactly? How do you know when your fever is beyond a manageable temperature? At what point do people decide to go to the hospital when they're sick? Where is all this water going? Is this headache from the caffeine?

Thursday things began looking up -I could feel slight improvement. I began eating again (wednesday was just a banana) and went out a few times to get stuff from the grocery store. Sleeping is now sweat-lodge like, but I resist uncovering myself because I remember seeing a special on the discovery channel about how the body naturally develops a fever when fighting a virus or something, because the higher temperature creates a hostile environment, making it easier to kill the foreign operators. Now when I wake up soaked in sweat, I just think, die you mofo's! And I ride it out. 

The flu has continued to sweep through the rest of the group. At least 13 0r 14 out of the 23-person lot is sick. On many levels this fascinating, for one thing it is amazing how a disease can infiltrate a group of people. Then there are those who are still healthy. They are the ones who would survive if this was something more than the flu, unscathed. Damn you! 

IKEA

We were told that the Beijing Ikea is the largest in the world. Escalators deliver shoppers to the fourth floor and turn them loose as they work their way down to bottom -in the typical ikea maze-like fashion. 

Sunday afternoon at Ikea was a madhouse. Shoulder to shoulder throughout each floor. Ted and Andy and I began our adventure eating hotdogs on the ground floor for 50 cents each. An ice cream cone cost about 16 cents. 

Bellies full we wound our way up the huge space to the top level and pushed through grabbing some essentials to make the Taxi apartment more livable. The plan was to meet back at the hotdog area in a hour. I cruised through picking up a small reading lamp, extension cord, pillow, a couple rugs, and cotton towel -the last towel purchase I made privileged the strange cow graphics instead of it's function, so I wound up covered in blue fuzz feeling slimy instead of dry.

Half way through the market place level the hotdogs, soda, and ice cream spoke sharply. I found the bathroom and waited for one of three stalls to open up. Finally, I entered only to find a below grade toilet; essentially a piss basin with an extra large hole. This seemed odd for the world's largest ikea, but I guess tradition prevails. It was not a primitive set up by any means, there was a motion sensing flusher on the wall directly behind. 

With nothing to grab onto I recalled the way children in china handle this situation. The babies and toddlers wear ass-less chaps, as I like to call them. They are basically pants with the a hole in the back ready to permit anything that comes. This invention eliminates diapers. A common sight in the village is a little kid squatting on the sidewalk doing their business, number one or two. I emerged a little red in the face, partly from the experience and the other from a sustained power-squat.  

The shopping continued down the check out and I made it through with a bill of 222 RMB, about $75 american dollars, which was well worth it. Cabs are lined up outside ready to take people home. We hopped in and drove back to the Caochangdi. 

Food Notes

Much of this past week has revolved around food, like group lunches, arranged B.A.S.E dinners, and randomly picked restaurants.

For breakfast I've been eating a crepe-like thing that begins as a huge, thin pancake spread around a hot skillet. An egg is added and spread around the 12 inch skin of dough. Seeds are sprinkled, spicy sauce is spread, and a few dashes of greens,

 then a crispy thing is added and the whole deal gets folded up, then halved, and served. It's really not that great, but so far the best thing I can find, and it's only 50 cents. The other options are pita-like biscuits. Some of them are filled with a slightly sweet bean paste, and others have funny things inside. I'm not sure how to ask for the sweet one, so it's hit or miss. Coffee is non-existent, save nescafe instant coffee. There are quite a few coffee-milk drinks in small cans, like bottled frappucino. 

For lunch a few of us usually go to a restaurant. Sometimes the restaurants have an english menu, but mostly we choose visually from bright pictures. Some of the entrees we've ordered have been inedible, like a chicken entree, cooked but served cold the whole chicken was sliced up into sections -bones and all. It was hard to distinguish between meat, fat, cartilage, and whatever else is inside a chicken. The positive side to all of this is that a huge four-person meal with drinks usually costs between $5 and $8 

dollars each, so it's not the end of the world if you have a bunk meal. 

The dinners have been more catastrophic. At a restaurant suggested to us by Robert and Mary Ann, someone ordered fried tofu, which seemed like a safe move, but it had the worst odor you can imagine. It smelled exactly like a pig with a hint of manure. I'm not sure how they get it to smell like this but it does. Nonetheless I tried one, and of course it tasted just as it smelled. I was so impressed by these stinky little nuggets that I wrapped one up to show the rest of group when we met up later that night for drinks. 

I've been trying quite a few different drinks from the supermarket. There are a lot of sweet-milky tea drinks, and syrupy juices. I've tried the frappucino knock offs in a can, most of which are good, but I picked one the other day that was carbonated cola with coffee flavored -that one got dumped into the sink. All the standard stuff is here, coke, pepsi, sprite, but with a chinese label. Beer is really cheap, a 22 ounce bottle is 2 RMB, which is about 30 cents american.

Settling in

I have some blog catch up work to do. I've been in Beijing for 6 days and just got this blog going. There may be some missing pieces and non-linear fragments:

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The Travel:

I flew out of Ohare Saturday morning and arrived in San Fransciso early afternoon to find out my plane to beijing was delayed 7 hours. It worked out well that the BART train is adjacent to the international terminal. I took the train into the city and went to SF MoMA. They had an exhibit on section with a bunch of architectural drawings and models. I took a bus to the haight in an attempt to eat at a restaurant I remembered from my visits when John was living there, but anxiously got off too early. I ended up at some memphis barbeque place instead. 

I headed back to the airport and flew off a couple hours later. The China Air plane was funky, and I think they reuse the pillow cases and blankets a few times before washing them -several hairs and food stains could be seen. But when you're tired enough that is easily dismissed. They served two dinners, one at 11pm west coast time and the other about 9 hou

rs later. The meals were strange amalgamation of chinese and american food, all of which was pretty gross. I slept almost the whole way.

The airport in Beijing is the largest building I have ever seen. I'm looking forward to having another look at it when I leave because I was probably too disoriented to appreciate it when arrived. With the time zone switch of 12 hours and the delay in San Francisco I wasn't sure what day it was. I got to my hotel without any problems -it was 1:30 am in Beijing. The taxi driver flew down the highway passing the rest of the taxis. He was going 160km/hr, I think that is 100 mph. 

I checked into the Botai Hotel. It was similar to the plane, a little stuffy and funky. The small bathroom had mold around the base of the toilet and shower. Not an uncommon sight in my own house, but unexpected in a hotel. 

It was 3 in the morning beijing time, 3 in the afternoon my time. I slept for a few hours until it became light, and went out to see where I was. I ran into one of the other baser's in the lobby, and he took me to a little crepe stand where make breakfast sandwiches. 

I thought it was Sunday (because I left the states Saturday) but it was actually Monday, and we were due at B.A.S.E in couple hours. The taxi ride out to the Cao Chand Di village took about 45 minutes in rush hour traffic and cost around $5.  B.A.S.E had been closed up for awhile and we cleaned a thick layer of dust off the surfaces, set up the desks, and began organizing the equipment.

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The Village:

B.A.S.E is located in a village about 30 minutes outside of Beijing. It is supposedly a thriving at district, but the streets function like hallways because the buildings and residences put up large walls, creating courtyards and private spaces. If you didn't know there was an art scene here, you certainly would not be able to tell from the look of things. Deeper into the village everything becomes much more informal. The streets and paths are irregular as well as the structures. The roads are dirty, and lumpy -a mix between pavement gravel. The stores and restaurants spill out of the cramped indoor spaces turning the outdoor space an open air market. Snarls of electrical wire stretch from building to building.

A few of us are staying in the taxi apartments. A single efficiency studio costs $100 per month. 

We each have a private bathroom, which combines the shower with the rest of the bathroom fixtures, in other words, you shower in the same space as you brush your teeth or use the toilet, there is a drain in the floor and the surfaces are impervious. It's really a good idea except when you have to go back in to get something, and either get your feet wet, or your shoes wet, which then leaves dirty footprints all over the rest of the apartment. 

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The B.A.S.E

B.A.S.E is a large warehouse space. It used to be an old factory (I think). The ceilings are probably 30 feet high. It is set up like an office, with a library, a manager's corner, a kitchen, meeting area etc. The floors are concrete and the acoustics are pretty bad -you hear everything. There is amazing light through windows on

either side of the rectangular space, and a few skylights punched through the elliptical roof. Like the rest of the buildings around here, it is protected by a walled courtyard, and is nested even further back along a side alley. There are some other studios here, next door is a british artist named Matt Hope. I'm not sure exactly what he does...I need to check his website too. I do know that he is getting 30 ton boulders out of a local quarry for an installation somewhere. I think there will be a field trip arranged to see the quarry. 

Stay tuned....