(R.I.P.)? Pink Floyd and all that?
I think someone in Chongqing saw a show like that a few too many
times. Like their Mayor or something.
I thought some of the towns I passed on the Yangtze put on a good show
at night, but Chongqing leaves them all in the dust. Or the dark. Last
night, I went on a river cruise around the city (which is situated on
an island). The light show is BLINDING. Like the over-active
imagination of a 10-year old boy who has just heard about ray guns. If
modernity is measured in lumens, Chongqing is the most modern city of
them all.
(Ironically, it was the city's invisibility beneath the blanket of its
persistent fog that saved it from Japanese bombers. Now I'm quite sure
Martians could bomb it without even aiming.)
Hi Eric,
ReplyDeleteWe miss you! I love reading your blog, your description of the hotpot is fascinating -- and I'm glad you're leading such a pork-free life, very different from the reports I had heard, and good to know!
Things in Mpls are good -- it's cold here at nights now (40's) and the trees are starting to turn. We've been taking Asa on walks on the rough path around Cedar Lake, he loves to run headlong through the woods, pausing over every tree root in the path to yell "big roots!" The language explosion continues apace: He has turned into a little inquisitor, now turning every question into a two-parter, like "Where's dad going? Huh? Huh?" "What's he doing? Huh?" Like, you might try to evade the first part of the question, but no way will you get away with ignoring him with the extra "Huh?'s" He's also picked up a ridiculous number of new, and bizarre words: Lederhosen, jellyfish, trowel, steamroller, and so on. And that's about it! I read an article today in the NYTimes about people being charged astronomical Iphone bills after returning from trips abroad, evidently if you don't disable the phone's desire to automatically check for e-mails you can run up crazy data-related bills. You probably know this already, but thought I'd pass it along anyway. Well, that's it for us. As I type this Pogo is at my side and purring away, so I'll assume she is trying to say hello to you and pass on her love, along with the rest of us. Much much love,
-Dara, Nathan, Asa, Pogo!
Thanks, Dara! Exciting to hear about the boy's ever-expanding world, and the vocabulary and interrogatives to help describe it.
ReplyDeleteRumors of the food in Chengdu being less spicy than Chongqing have been true in my experience so far. Spicy, to be sure, but not the out-of-this-world zing I encountered before. More like an ordinary "oh god, oh god, please more beer and tissues" kind of experience. Having a great time of it...