The penthouse

So Heidi and John and I are renting an apartment in Kunming near Green Lake.  It's nice to have a place to hang my hat, even though I haven't stopped sleeping in the sleeping bag.  Here's some photos from the courtyard, and the common room, complete with pink barbarella loveseats. Also our view, which actually includes light and not the side of another building so it could be worse.  

It's on the seventh floor with no elevator, and combined with an altitude of 6000 feet above sea level, its quite the climb.  I've stopped cussing every time I come home but just barely. The lights in the stairwell are sound-activated, which took me a couple days to figure out.  At first I was amazed at how all the bulbs could be burned out, and was blindly feeling my way home at night.   Then I noticed if I stepped loudly or was coming up with a loud talker, voila. So you snap your fingers or clap your hands as you're climbing the stairs and the lights come on and its kinda fun.  You know, these little expressions of power are important.

A notable weird thing that's going on in Kunming now is this mass street tree planting.  Crews have been cutting holes in sidewalks, in the street proper, next to already existing plantings - pretty much anywhere they can get a jackhammer in.  Everywhere you go some poor guys are cutting up the asphalt and some poor women are dragging around bags of dirt and then these little trees go in.  The trees look like hell and are planted really densely, and seem utterly doomed.  At first we thought it was because the Olympic torch was coming through town, but the torch is long gone and more trees are still going in, everywhere.  Rumor has it some company has a contract with the city and is being paid by the tree, which sounds about right. But really, the sidewalks are crowded enough without a bunch of new dead and dying little trees.

I included a photo of me at the "liquid vista" at the Kunming Institute of Botany, for those of you who miss seeing me.  Nice vest, eh?