In the same days that Eric and Alison are getting all the mention, traveling west by train across China, Brian and Sadie are driving west across another continent; North America.
Brian’s Camry sat, virtually idle in Montpellier, France for six years, just waiting for this occasion. They set out from Belfast, Maine on Monday and spent the first night in Pennsylvania. Tuesday, they visited the Hale homestead in Lancaster, Ohio. Wednesday took them to Albia, Iowa, just south of Des Moines. Thursday, they crossed Nebraska and ventured into Wyoming, spending the night in Laramie, a town well known from cowboy movies. Today, they’re on the homestretch to Reno.
Who knew these guys, in a late September week of 2009 would be spanning two continents on opposite sides of the world?
Meanwhile, I have another three-part text message from China to share.
Fri Sep 25 8:02am
Almost 7am and still a ways 2 go in Gansu province (!) just past Jiayuguan. Due in Turpan around 2pm, but train was rnng an hour late ystdy so …
Al here. Train is fun. Scenery is spectacular. Sunrise in desert, now. Our roommate 56 yr o male teacher lives Shanghai, very nice. His colleagues uighur, like 2 sing.
Adventure!. Shaanxi gansu border amazingly beautiful, rivers – mts @ sunset.
Many of you have asked us: who is this Mrs. X and why is she her name and image obscured?
After we left the restaurant, Eric headed to the apartment while Alison and I doubled back to a clothing store we’d passed on our way to the restaurant because we’d seen that they had pajamas on display, and we wanted to buy some pajamas. Why buy pajamas? Apparently Shanghai and the Shanghailanders are famous for wearing pajamas all the time, including out on the street during the day. Plus we will be spending two nights on a train in the next few days, and it seemed appropriate to have some pajamas available to slip into for the ride. 
After the two hour tour, Eric split for a pre-arranged brunch with friends-of-friends, and Alison and I returned to the apartment to rest our feet for a bit. Then Alison left to join Eric for some art exploration, and I took off on some reconnaissance of my own. We agreed to meet on Nanxing Rd. (linking The Bund with the People’s Square), which has been transformed into a M E G A glitzy pedestrian mall at dusk. That was crazy: millions of blinking lights around hundreds of decorated store windows; loud audio “demonstrations” urging us to admire their products; thousands of people walking up and down the road along with many people aggressively wanting to hook you up with a good fake Rolex, or some fake Samsonite luggage, or something else fake of your choice. Instead of pulling up their sleeve to display ten watches, they all carried what amounted to a catalog of fake luxury items on a double-sided full color brochure. “You want a nice watch? Good price!” Whereupon they pointed to a watch among fifteen other items on the catalog page. Every sales person had the same catalog page — even the ones hanging out across town in front of the park near our apartment. I assume that they front for a store, and should we be interested, they would drag us back to the store whereupon they collect a commission, either when we arrive or when we buy something. I never did test my assumption.
You are also surrounded by construction walls (inevitably covered in posters for “Expo 2010”, usually featuring (besides their doughy mascot) the faces of Yao Ming, Lang Lang (pianist), and a third guy who I think is a race car driver), around which you must navigate through a maze of detours and construction equipment to get to a street or a building, much less find a news stand or a food store (good luck). This neighborhood is all about glass and steel, and the people on the street are here to see that and have their pictures taken in front of it, or possibly to work in it, but they’re not here to live, at least not to live lives we would recognize.
RectorSite 