Our kitchen window gives us a bird's eye view of daily life on our street. We often say to each other this is one of the best things about the apartment we have.
When a power outage strikes, which fortunately isn't very often, repair men shimmy up and make repairs. The equipment includes a small stool, a long pole, and men wearing climbing cleats on their shoes.
Each day the potato man cycles over and sells hot yams from his cart while bicycles and electric bikes whiz by. And Daniel's ever-favorite Smart car was even sighted. All this in the sideroad -- the main lanes are across the curb.
This is the season for dried fruit, including kiwi. On the fresh fruit side the oranges we always associate with Christmas, Mandarins, are in season and have become a daily staple.
A large cadre of street sweepers are employed in China. Given the amount of litter in public spaces, they're kept busy and appear to have guaranteed employment.
The pancake lady makes delicious crepes filled with egg, vegies, and braided bread. Excellent fare for about 65 cents. After the lunch rush street vendors and cleaners sit together on small stools, gossiping about daily events.
As part of China's National week holiday we took in more of Inner Mongolia's sights.
The Genghis Khan (1162-1227) Mausoleum is a bit of a misnomer since he isn't buried there, but hundreds of larger than life statues of soldiers on horseback and cattle pulling yurts is an impressive sight.
Sheep-herding dogs were part of the Mongol campaigns.
A week-long holiday (National Day) gave us the opportunity to head north and visit the Mongolian grasslands. Blue sky, friends, and a new adventure -- what more could one ask for?
We stayed with a family in one of their yurts (Mongolian colors are blue for sky and white for milk). Their horses, cattle, and sheep were friendly visitors too. We learned that "yurt" is a Russian word, the Mongolian word is "ger".
The food here is marvelous - from the silk worms in the market (haven't tried that yet), to the grocery store chocolate bars with security tags (chocolate is relatively new and pricey), to KFC (yes, the Colonel is here with a fleet of bikes to deliver to your door).
Our favorite corn lady always has a distinctive call, making it easy to track her down. Like many folks here, her cell phone is always at the ready.
This butcher had an enthusastic audience (including a dog who is just outside the picture). Inner Mongolia is the land of meat and wheat, rather like our Canadian roots.
Bread pockets are universal - be they pita, quesadillas, dumplings, or baozi - and are good any time of day.
A fall treat is candied apples and grapes.
Just outside the College gates are steam tables set up with grilled meats and vegetables. Make your selection, put it in the bowl provided, and eat up. Students line up for this one.
The mid-Autumn Moon festival here is a three day holiday, so instead of teaching we enjoyed some of Baotou's parks.
Musical groups gather to play among the trees. These aren't buskers and onlookers just seem to come and go. We also heard traditional opera, and saw tai chi and sword dancing as well as some serious card and checker games.
In the plaza some older men were doing calligraphy, writing ephemeral poems on the flagstones with water and big pointed brushes.
We buy fruit and vegies from these friendly sellers on our street -- fresh, inexpensive, and convenient.
The lake at nearby Workers' Park is a great place for a Sunday stroll; there's a small zoo, children's rides, and a hilltop pagoda.
So far we've said what we're doing but not much about where we live, which is now feeling like home, sweet home.
Our home in Baotou is above a row of shops on a busy street -- that's the way we like it, since we're city people. Our front windows are on the 2nd residential floor.
Looking out our front window, across the street is one of the entrance gates of the College where we teach.
Daniel looked and acted like a real ghoul while Diane had the perfect witch's broom, not to mention the nose. Everyone wanted to have their picture taken with these apparitions.
Pin the nose on the pumpkin was a popular game (the pumpkins here are rather small and used in the kitchen, so we didn't have any to carve or decorate). Also popular was musical chairs, candy toss, and pass the orange while the movie "Ghostbusters" was on.
Mummy decorating was a hit, and we went through rolls of toilet paper.
Two of our young faculty came out in costume -- Michael Jackson on the left and Marilyn Monroe on the right.
And of course it wouldn't be Halloween without bobbing for apples. We had four bobbing stations and a few hundred apples. The students are already asking when we can do it again!
