know I complain a lot about China, so this blog is going to be 100%, totally and unequivocally dedicated to the things I love about living here::
*taxi drivers who continue to talk to you long after it has been established that you have no idea what they are saying
*the bird-man outside my apartment
*Chinese dumplings
*Chinese babies
*my students
*the gardens (especially the bamboo forest)
*people speaking at screaming volume level but just having regular conversations
*creative modes of transportation--especially regular bicycle riders holding on to the back someone else's moped (in order to arrive much more speedily) and homemade tractors
*tea houses
*public transportation
*recorded bird sounds playing on people's apartment balconies
*laundry hanging anywhere possible (phone wires, trees, tennis nets etc.)
*an addictive simplicity
*Lanzhou noodles
*West Lake in all of its newness blooming
*hiking in the mountains (hills?)
*canals
*merchants who smile when we are bargining
*the chaotic and overwhelming environment of the fruit and vegetable market
*ancient Chinese couples holding hands by the canal in front of my apartment or West Lake
*Engrish