SPRING APPROACHES

 As March arrives the weather begins to move slowly away from the savage cold of December and January. The sky tends to be clearer and the smogs are far less perceptible. At night however it still becomes bitterly cold, mostly owing to the lack of cloud. It does become very windy at times making cycling somewhat dangerous. There are more re-erected shanties appearing around the campus border and more of these are becoming occupied but for how long it's impossible to say. The most compelling sign of an approaching spring is that the trees around the universities are starting to bud.  

I hear from Seven and Christine, something like 3 weeks after my original message but I'm pleased. We arrange to have dinner together in a traditional old-style restaurant in the old town, where to food is mediocre but the surroundings and the conversation are good. I hope to see them again. They seem sad that I'm not coming back to China after the summer.

In the shacks the local Chinese never seem to eat anything but soup noodles: these horribly undignified dishes consist of a bowl of soup with doodles, boiled egg and some sort of meatball. They are truly disgusting and I'm constantly assailed by the sound of people slurping on these things. I do manage to find a new shack that makes a good fried rice although I have to order it in Chinese which is frustrating due to my ineptitude and I do some more home cooking: curried crab with rice and an omelette, spag bol and chicken curry. I also visit a local hot-pot place one evening with a colleague: it's a place I've tried before but have been unable to order due to language barriers.  

It gradually becomes warm enough to occasionally sit outside in the sun with only a light coat on, which is very encouraging, and there is a feeling of spring in the air: although in my experience winter can take a long time to disappear. I encourage the students to work outside the classroom as there is a huge skylight on the floor and a lot of space, so there is an atelier atmosphere!