RETURN TO SHANGHAI

See last year's blog at www.goldenchild39.blogspot.com

A twelve hour flight seems like nothing.   Heck, it takes that long to leave the house, drive to the ferry, drive off and on to work, have office hours, catch a late lunch, and teach two classes before turning around and driving back to the ferry dock, ferrying across, and racing for home.   Okay, not quite twelve hours, but pretty close to it.   But twelve hours on a plane can get pretty tedious even if you have to partake of elderly exercise down the aisle to the toilet.   Happily there were four of them; unhappily, there were a lot of people sitting on the plane.

I sat next to a man who told me he was a plant breeder.   He also spoke with a hesitation, waiting a count of two or four before the words which were caught in his throat could emerge.  I wondered what plant breeders do.   I've seen Youtube.com videos of other breeders making making sure they completed their contracts, but I wasn't sure how hands-on plant breeders might be.  OK, truth is, I did not ask.

Xiao Ding Yaping met me at the airport and got me to a taxi pulling my two huge suitcases.   Did I say that Delta allowed two suitcases.  Wow!  and one of mine was overweight (or it was marked that way when I got off the plane though the luggage attendant clearly said to me, "Good, you're under weight."  Somehow between Seattle and Shanghai one suitcase gained over two pounds!

When I arrived about 8 PM at the SJTU Faculty Club, Honza ( Jiang Yupeng) was arriving at the same time.   Honza has been my contact with SJTU and had paperwork for me to sign and made sure that I got into the room.

This year I have a room on the first floor; it may be a little smaller than before, but it has a much more interesting layout.  It's the last room at the end of the hall and butts up against the sister hotel which apparently houses other visitors to SJTU and is a more public venue.

The apartment itself is triangular in shape, with a triangular living room that ends on one end at a small room with what appear to be a kitchen sink.   In the middle is a small bathroom with shower, about the size of the room I had last year, and then the bedroom with windows that open up almost to the street (there's a driveway and an iron fence between.

Amazingly, this room even had a little entry.

With all the construction going on everywhere I turn, I would think one of these days, they may get to doing a little remodeling with the rooms, this one especially is showing a lot of wear in the bathroom.

  The next morning was bright and sunny.  That's when I saw how much things continue to change on this campus.

No,this isn't snake creeps down, but they are doing what China does every day, and that is to have a group of people at work, in this case simply weeding by working their way across the lawn.

When I went out for a walk, you'll see what I encountered.