We flew out of Kunming a few days ago and landed in Nanchang, the capitol of Jiangxi province. The flight took us over about 15 forest fires that I spotted from my side of the plane. The drought in Yunnan is bad, and some are predicting that we’ll run out of water in about a month if there is no rain. I think the last precipitation was in October.
The wind was crazy in Nanchang as we checked into a cheap hotel (so cheap it had hourly rates, but the sheets were clean) and walked to the train station to try and purchase return tickets. The trees looked as if they were bending nearly in half. The next morning, we took a double-decker bus to Jian, where we were treated to a Chinese-dubbed showing of Airplane. Once there, we were met by our host’s sister and uncle who took us to the family farm. Now, I’m not exactly an urbanite, but I’m a little soft for the Chinese countryside in winter. It’s a fair bit colder than it was in Kunming, and raining (go figure). I can handle the outhouse, but the lack of indoor heating is hard to cope with.
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and that’s when the party starts! I have pictures, but they will have to wait until I have a way to upload them.
well, that lack of central heat is all over the world it seems. There was no central heat in Spain, although they did have space heaters. And high in the Andes, which makes for very cold Peruvian winter nights, only the most luxurious of hotels even had space heaters. I frequently slept in multiple layers of clothes under very heavy highland wool blankets and still woke up cold. But, I always had the sunshine of the days to warm me up, and functioning plumming
Oddly they turned the boiler off at school over the weekend to do some maintenance, which is apparently more severe than they thought, and we spent the day without heat, while the building continued to get colder and colder, and now there is no school for students tomorrow or Friday (when they predict they can turn it back on). Do you think that would stop them in China?;)
Your yarn looks pretty. This project should keep you occupied for a while. Things are good with the boy. I spent last weekend in Florida with the fam, and it was a nice, quick getaway. Chilli, but certainly warmer and sunnier than here. Keep writing, and I miss you.