[Life] Must be something in the air

The more time I spend in China, the more I am convinced that the most noticeable difference here is the smell. I haven't spent too much time in a lot of American cities, but my impression is that for the most part, places that I've been are pretty smell neutral for the most part. I'm not really sure of a better way to describe it. In Harbin, on the other hand, I can hardly walk to class without my nose being put to the test. That is not to say that Harbin reeks of dead animal all the time, but when I'm outside, I can't help but be subjected to smells of dust, soot, gasoline, compost, or whatever else happens to be around. None of it is particularly different from smells one would experience in the States, but for some reason I find it more noticeable or more prevalent here.

You never really give much pause toward the environment, I think, until you live in or visit a place that is significantly more polluted than where you live. I can (and do) rag on Cary every chance I get, but really it's pretty clean. Even Georgetown/DC could be a lot worse in terms of pollution. It's only autumn in Harbin, but the relationship between Chinese society and its waste is striking. I get the sense that the Chinese know they have a problem (as evidenced by maybe one in five people I see walking around with their noses and mouths covered), but they can't do anything about it. I can see the compost from the cafeterias unloaded from the compost tanks next to the building every day at 1:00. It's ladeled from the tank into oil drums, and then the drums are carted away to parts unknown in a pickup truck. Smoking is completely ubiquitous, as is spitting. My one-on-one teacher told me that in the winter, due to the massive coal use, you can see the snowfall on the ground get blacker and blacker. I find this fascinating in a macabre sort of way, and I'll definitely get pictures when that rolls around. The temperature is fast dropping, so I imagine in November we'll get some snow.

I feel like I've finally settled in, but I'm still in disbelief at 1) how fast the semester has gone by and 2) how much I miss being at Georgetown. I also miss english books. I only brought Catch-22 with me, and I'm kind of itching to find a copy of Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski, but I'm not really holding my breath at being able to. Luckily I've been able to feed my appetite for music here, but I'll save that commentary for a year-end retrospective.

I've also been trying to write a little bit more when I have the free time, just to kind of exercise my brain. Nothing groundbreaking, just anything creative. I think I finished a short story yesterday, but I'm not really sure what to do it with it, if I want to clutter up this blog with writings, or if I'll just make a new blog for it. We'll see.

In terms of assorted stuff for China, I'm in the second day of midterms. On Friday I leave for a week to go to Kunming, a city in the south of China. I'll be unwired for the week, but it should replenish my stock of nutty stories. Also, in November we're going to camp on the Great Wall for a weekend. Which should be insane. And cold. Really, really cold.

And that about sums it up. See you next week (or tonight, if I get bored)