Jailbreak!

Mike arrived in Shanghai yesterday. He had spent the earlier part of the day laying in the grass outside of Cathedral Notre Dame but I won’t get into how jealous I am.

Today we went on a hike in Hangzhou. We wanted to see Liuhe Pagoda. I had found out that the entrance fee is 50 yuan but if you hike in from the mountain behind the pagoda (sneak in the back way), it is free. So that is what we did.

Along the way, we saw some flowers in bloom. I don’t know what any of them are called. (Rhodedendons, perhaps. Mum—help me out here) Here is a sample:

It was a beautiful spring day—cool, sunny, green with flowers everywhere.


The hike up the mountain was steep and it was 1000+ steps down the other side to the pagoda. I wonder if we expended 50 yuan’s worth of energy, each, in the hiking.



The Liuhe Pagoda is over a thousand years old and it actually looks like its over a thousand years old. The stairs are steep and worn. The ceilings look like they’ve been repainted hundreds of times. The floors creek.






Here is a sampling of the wood paneling


At the top is a little room with a support beam holding up the roof.


Around the grounds is a park full of mini-pagodas, scaled down versions of important ones in China. It was the kind of place I would’ve loved when I was nine year old— giant, complicated doll houses.



We then made our way back up the 1000+ steps and through the hills to the lake.


Our legs feel like rubber and we’re utterly exhausted. This is good because tomorrow afternoon we are flying to Kunming. I’ll see you in a few weeks!

Postcards

If you would like a postcard, email me your mailing address, even if you think I already have it. There is a link at the bottom of the page that you can use to email me if you don't already have my address.

Paris

Right now Mike is on his way to China. After visiting me, he is going to go to Paris for a conference. I wish I could go with him! Instead, I sent him a list of my favorite things to do in Paris. I am attaching parts of it below. If you have been to Paris (which I know that many of you have!), please click on the COMMENTS link at the bottom of the blog and let us know what your favorite things to do in Paris are! (Mathieu & Joe: this means you!)

1. Montmartre is a nice area. Is means "martyr mountain"-- its a big hill in
Paris, on top of which is the basilica for Saint Denis (Sacre Coeur, I think).
Saint Denis is the patron saint of Paris. I don't remember why he was killed but
they beheaded him. He then carried his head down the mountain and into town.

Montmartre is where the movie "Amelie" takes place. There are lovely stone
streets (with steps) that wind around and up and down the hill through pretty
apartment buildings and cafes.

There is a cool little museum full of work by Salvadore Dali. If you like him, its worth checking out.

2. The Pompideu Center is a nifty modern building with all the plumbing & pipes
outside (in rainbow colors). Inside are exhibits of contemporary art. When I was
there I saw one of performance artist/photographer Erwin Wurm called one minute sculptures. He had his friends do crazy poses that leave you questioning purpose and form. It was fun. Outside the Pompadeu are a bunch of neat fountains.

3. The Luxembourg Garden a big park that is full of people on a Wednesday or
weekend afternoon. I've only been to Paris in the summer and the garden was full
of flowers and people hanging out, kids playing, etc. I have no idea what it is
like during the winter. You'll probably walk though it: it seems to be on the
way to things.

4. I haven't been to the Musee D'Orsay but if you want to see impressionist
paintings (and anything more recent), thats the place to go.

5. The Louvre would take about a week to go through. If you're interested in old european art, etc, its a good place to go. Its where you'd find the Mona Lisa (which is kind of small) and Venus di Milo (which is big and has a huge butt crack).

6. The Latin Quarter (Quartier Latin) is the college student area. It has some
great cafes and restaurants (do you like egyptian food?).

7. Cathedral Notre Dame is pretty fabulous. Its incredibly tall and has
beautiful stained glass wondows. The facade of the cathedral has big doorways
framed in life-size statues. Be sure to find the one of Saint Denis.

8. If you're interested in seeing people decked out in fashionable clothing and
shopping in expensive stores, there is the Champs-Elysees. At the end of the
street is the Arch de Triumph (kind of cool) and the Paris Opera House (which is
supposed to be neat but I've never been inside).

9. There are creperies everywhere. Be sure to try a chocolate or banana crepe. Yum!

10. And be sure to hang out the cafes. Paris has the best cafes.

When I was in Paris in 2001 with my family, we stayed in the Hotel d'Amelie on Rue d'Amelie. I think its in the 7th Arrondisement (district). Its very close to the Eiffel Tower. There is a good bakery there and the neighborhood is full of cute rich little old ladies. My brother also stayed in the Hotel de Tour d'Eiffel, on the same street. He said that one was good as well. The hotels serve breakfast which is super duper good. Excellent coffee and chocolate croissants (that Jenn & I would stuff into our bags for later)

truant blog entry

Mike is arriving tomorrow and we’re going to travel to Yunnan so I probably won’t blog for a couple of weeks. I hope that doesn’t deter you from reading this blog once I get back; I’m going to have a lot to write about. Be sure to check the site in mid April!

In the meantime, here is an entry I meant to do a few weeks ago.

On a sunny weekend day, I hopped on my bike and took a ride along the lake to Nan Shan Lu. I ended up at the Leifeng Pagota.


I got a kick out of the sculptures on the railing along the walkway.





Here is story of Leifeng Pagoda

Yup, its brand-spanking new, complete with escalator out front.


The original Pagoda fell down in 1924 and was rebuilt three years ago.

Putting aside the fact that the building in brand new and another bit of Hangzhou’s manufactured tourism, it is very pretty. Leading up to the pagota is a marble staircase with pictures inscribed into the railing.


The second floor of the building has intricate wood carvings of the tale of the pagota. They are absolutely beautiful and wonderfully three dimensional. Unfortunately, my camera doesn’t do well in that kind of lighting. The story is about Bai Suzhen, an immortal snake-woman. She falls in love with Xu Xian and they have a child together. She is then imprisoned in the pagoda away from her family and is only released when the pagoda falls down.

Bai Suzhen longs for the world of mortals during the gathering of immortals



In the rain, Bai Suzhen borrows an umbrella from Xu Xian.


Suzhen revert to her original form of snake on Dragon Boat Festival.


Bai Suzhen steals the magic herb from kunlun mountain.


Bai Suzhen launches a flood battle against Fa Hai on Jinshan Temple


After the flood battle, Bai Suzhen meets Xu Xian on the Broken Bridge.


Bai Suzhen is imprisoned in the Leifeng Pagoda by Fa Hai.


The Leifeng Pagoda crumbles and the family reunites.



Here is a view of downtown Hangzhou from about half way up the pagoda

And West Lake’s islands and the Su Causeway

The gilded ceiling on the top floor of the pagoda

In the basement are the remains of the original pagoda.

Kindergarteners and Kites

Last Friday, a small army of elementary school children visited the CMS. It happened something like this: Josh’s fiancé has a friend who knows a fourth grade teacher in Hangzhou. This teacher took Josh, Aaron, David, and Xi out to dinner last month. She then invited them to visit her class and tell her students about how to get into Harvard.

So, two weeks ago, Aaron went and visited the school. (I am still trying to get him to write a blog about this.) He had a fun time and invited the fourth grade class to come visit the CMS. They showed up last Friday with the Kindergarteners in tow. (We don’t know why the Kindergarteners showed up but whatever.)

Xi, Aaron, Davide and I greeted them in the CMS lobby and Xi told them a little bit about what we do.

The Kintergardeners weren’t allowed up the stairs so they went outside while the fourth graders filed into (and filled) Andy’s office.


Within minutes, kids were climbing on the furniture, climbing in the windows from the terrace, and were checking out Andy’s computer set up.


Then Aaron and I joined the fourth graders to fly kites. (I had luckily purchased one the day before on my walk through the botanical gardens.) We filed onto the bus to go to the library and ended up at another campus of the university where we found a nice green place to run around and fly kites.

I don’t really know how to fly a kite so I didn’t get my kite in the air for more than ten seconds. But it was fun to watch the kids run around and to talk to the teachers. Kite strings snapped, kites were stepped on or got stuck in trees. There was a film crew. It was crazy and kind of fun.

birthday shindig

My birthday is this week. In fact, within the next two weeks, Monica, Aaron and David are also having birthdays. Since some of us are going to be out of town, we decided to celebrate early and went out last night.

It was the usual crowd—Andy, Aaron, David, Monica and I—plus the visiting postdocs, Davide and Alex, and Andy’s visitor and ex-babysitter, Jen. We met up at the Starbucks on Nan Shan Lu (where they play a single Norah Jones song on a continuous loop) and had dinner at a tea house on the lake (where their music loop contains five songs including Whitney Houston’s “I will always love you”).

At the tea and wine house, we were seated at a low table (poor Alex and Davide seemed like giants squeezing their legs under the hobbit-sized table) and enjoyed a dinner of Dim Sum (which literally means “with tea”).

In Boston, I avoid Dim Sum like the plague. When I’ve gone, usually I meet a bunch of friends in Harvard Square (which is the fun part) and we head to Chinatown where we binge on greasy mysterious dumplings and cakes. I then spend the rest of the day with a horrible stomachache and feeling of lethargy.

This Dim Sum was completely different. It was little dishes (kind of like tapas), delicious and fresh and not very mysterious. We had (a lot of) argentinian red wine with dinner, followed by a raspberry cake from Free Mori for dessert.

Then we huddled under umbrellas (half as many umbrellas as physicists) and ran across the street to a Salsa bar. (Organizing physicists is like herding rabbits, even if the expedition is merely across the street.) Despite the heavy rain, the bar was full of people and, in the corner, was a five person band. There were a lot of drinks followed by wiggling on the dance floor.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it is hilarious and incredibly fun to watch people dance. Knowing someone through physics, there is no way to tell what they’ll be like when they’re drunk and dancing. The results are always surprising. Watch Andy’s chicken dance was a fabulous birthday present.

Cherry Blossoms

Friends and family in Boston have been sending me photos and tales of endless winter and snow. I hope that this blog will cheer them up, remind them that winter will one day end and that spring and summer will be pretty.

Thursday was gorgeous. Around 11:30 in the morning, everyone had disappeared so there was no social pressure preventing me from going for a walk. I headed up the hill behind the library on campus and followed the ridge for about fifteen minutes and came to the secret (free) back entrance to the botanical gardens.

The gardens were full of picnickers and cherry blossoms. The sky was blue. There was a warm breeze. The birds were singing. The sun was bright.