The cleaning men did a remarkable job.  They acquired a ladder which was quite helpful.  The maintenance man arrived and put new screens on the bedroom and bathroom  windows, and also in the bedroom in 101. He replaced the plastic toilet seat, which had mold imbedded in it.  The curtain man came and put up the rod and curtains in 201 and also repaired the brackets in 101, should we want to move back down after the ants and the DDT fumes subside.  I’ve washed more curtains.  We’ve carried our clothes upstairs, and we’ve begun to pack up the winter things to send home.  The procedure for that is another whole story, but at least, we have a start on it.  Perhaps tomorrow we can get 101 organized again, and shut the door on the bedroom.  I  did find a live ant in the drawer, and only a few dead ones, when we took out our clothes.  So, now, we’ll have our study, kitchen and living room in 101, and our bedroom and clothes in 201.  And we’ll have 2 bathrooms!  Just like home.  And, maybe by Tuesday, which is supposed to be a holiday, we can start reading and grading papers to be ready for next week’s classes.

Last week after class, just as I was approaching the bus, I was given a simple Rubik’s cube, an 8 block one.  The children waiting for the bus were excited about it, so I handed it to them.  They played with it the whole ride home.  I had given a cube having six distinct colors, one per face, and I received a cube having multicolored sides.  In case I did not have enough frustration, living in discord with the ants and all, I had this new puzzle to work.

I set it on my desk and looked at it now and then.  I thought of a young boy in Iowa who delights in this puzzle, and can quickly solve it, no matter how many blocks are involved. I wondered what was required to do that.  I thought of going online to find the clues, but decided to try on my own first.  Since 1974, when this puzzle was invented, I have never solved it, though I have tried.  Gradually I realized that one must look at it from all angles, as it were.  You can’t just try to get all the blue, for example, on one side, you have to arrange the four blue faces in the way that the other sides line up also.

I’m pleased to report that last night, sitting in the clean bed in the clean room in apartment 201, that I finished solving the cube.  It’s a small thing in my daily life, but it meant that I can still enjoy a puzzle. It’s a small thing in my China experience, but it meant that I still can focus and find a solution.  It’s a small thing in view of eternity, but for me it meant that everything will be solved eventually, by the one who can see all the sides at once.

There are many kinds of ants, too many to list.  Ants live in colonies headed by queens and composed of worker ants.  When a colony becomes quite large, the ants know they need to form new colonies.  Special reproductive ants are formed. They have wings.  There will be a few females and many males.  In the spring, when there is a heavy rain followed by a bright sunny day, these special reproductive ants from several colonies will swarm looking for mates.  After the ants copulate in the air,  the males die.  A female can mate with several males.  The females then begin making their new nests which will eventually become new colonies.  I have enough mind left to find all these facts which I learned on Monday evening fascinating.

In the bedroom of Apartment 101 in the Foreign Experts Building, The ants swarmed and formed at least 8 new nests before we started killing them.  Late on Monday night (see previous post) we felt we could rest safely in our bed.  On Tuesday there was more rain, and on Wednesday another glorious day of sun.  The ants swarmed again but died before they could mate, since we had sprayed so heavily. We swept them up.

Apartment 201 is now vacant, and since we had been expecting a guest, we had the key for it. I hadn’t wanted to start cleaning it and suggested the guest could stay at a hotel.  On Thursday the guest said she couldn’t come after all.

On Thursday, the ants swarmed again.  We didn’t sweep up.  We called the official.  She brought the maintenance man who, when he saw the hundreds of dead ants on the floor and on the bed, called the head of his department.  He said that the professional exterminators would be called and they could come Saturday.  We thought about sleeping in 201, but it was so dirty, and we have such wonderful light blocking curtains which we provided for 101.  I didn’t want to move.

On Friday afternoon, the so called professional team arrived and decided the ants are coming through the window screens and sprayed heavily around the windows.

On Saturday, the ants swarmed again, and the curtain rod fell off the wall.  So, we began to clean 201, spending about 5 hours to do the bedroom and wash some curtains to put up there for the night.  I emailed the official, not expecting any reply, but within an hour she came with the person immediately above her, and a person from the science department who has a PhD and studies insects.  She also thinks they come through the windows, although on the first days, the windows were not open.  She explained the mating process, the rain, the sun, all of which I already knew.  She said, “We have to find the main nest.”  I restrained myself from saying, “DUH.”  Then she said it would be very difficult to do.

We had a conversation about cleaning in 201.  I explained to the officials that I would clean the apartment to my standards and submit my bill to the department.  I mentioned a figure I had paid in the USA several years ago for professional cleaning.  Quick calculations were done and she called the cleaning service arranging for them to come Sunday.

We slept well in 201 and started Sunday with renewed spirits.  The “professional” cleaning men have arrived on a scooter, two men who look straight from the countryside, straw hats and ill fitting clothing.  They brought no equipment of their own.  The official said that we should make sure they clean to our standards.  This means constant supervision.  Husband is doing this, I can’t bear to watch.

Last night the main official responded to Husband’s email by giving us a rundown of the sex life of ants, as if we weren’t aware.  He said that this is common here in south China in the spring.  It reminds me of an incident many years ago when I was invited with some other women to a luncheon.  The hostess was not quite ready when we arrived, and had run upstairs for finishing touches to her dress.  She had set a pitcher of iced tea on the counter.  Her cat leaped to the counter and putting his head into the pitcher began to drink the tea.  Alarmed, we called out to her, “The cat is in the tea.”  “That’s ok,” she said, “He likes tea.”

Yesterday we awoke from a poor night’s sleep, one troubled by the sensation of things crawling on us, but not troubled enough to wake up fully.  When we looked in the daylight, we saw thousands of tiny winged ant like creatures on the floor beside the bed,  on the walls, and yes, some in the bed.  We saw tiny nests that looked like anthills in the cracks of the concrete.  We might identify these as termites, except we live in a concrete building.  I had on hand some “natural, non toxic” spray called “Avenger” specifically for travelers, for bedbugs.  I used that at first, and I must say it is remarkably effective.  But, it is a small bottle.

We called the person in charge of our “daily life” issues and she said it was common at this time of year and we should go to the market and buy bug spray.  She didn’t grasp the magnitude.  When we explained more fully, she said she would send the maintenance man to fill in the cracks in the concrete.  As homeowners ourselves, we are concerned about the little guys destroying the building, since they are obviously using the mortar to build nests.  However, this is not a concern for the University.

We took photos.  We went to the market.  We bought the “big gun” bug spray.  I imagine it is DDT, which was still in use in China last I checked.  We took the bed apart in order to move it from the wall.  We shook out the bedding and stacked it in the front room.  The bugs were limited to the bedroom and the bathroom, none in the kitchen as far as we know.  We swept and sprayed.  I mopped up the dead bugs.

Dear Husband went off to class and I waited.  I haven’t mentioned that the electricity was off all day.  No internet, no lights, no washing machine.  The day started off sunny and warm, but a cool wind was blowing, so I knew a storm was brewing.  I waited.  I graded some papers. I sat outside for a while.  I swept the balcony and sprayed around the window and the ceiling.  I waited some more.  I graded some more papers.  I waited.  I read a little bit.  The storm broke and it was quite dark for a while.  I kept on waiting for the maintenance man.  Our colleague stopped by and said, “It looks like moving day.”

Just before five o’clock, I called our official and reported that the man had not come, and would he still be coming?  She was surprised and said to give her ten minutes.  Then she called back to say they were very busy and they forgot, but they would still come. Just as I was reaching my limit of patience, the power came back on.  As is the custom, a man came first to look at the situation.  Then he came back with his solution which was a bucket of mortar.  He filled in the cracks around the base of the floor.  Then he cleaned up his mess!  This is a new guy.  Then he made known to me that he would help me put the bed back together, and we did that.

Then the student assistant came by to see things again, and told us, “Tomorrow the water will be shut off during the day.”  I did some laundry late into the night–some of that bedding, and the towels.  I got a headache during the night, I can’t imagine why.

Friday night we went to a farewell dinner for “the Russian Lady” who has been here one month teaching oil painting.  She invited us to the small exhibition of the work she has done while here, and the small ceremony in which the department thanked her for her service to the university.  Then, as we were there, we were invited to the dinner.

A table for ten in a private room was our setting.  Around the table were the head of the art department, four art teachers, a high school student who is the son of one of the teachers, a music teacher who has studied in Russia, the Russian Lady, and the two of us.  I met the young student on the bus we ride to school.  We often share a seat and speak together in English.  He asked me one day, “Do you know the Russian Lady?” I answered that I had met her.  He told me that his father studied in Russia and could speak Russian.  During a recent holiday the boy had gone along on a trip arranged by the art department for the purpose of sketching the countryside. I met his father last night. The young man was invited to the dinner so that we would have another interpreter.

My voice teacher also studied in Russia and is a friend of the Russian Lady and attended the dinner.  I met my voice teacher through her daughter who rides the school bus.  This child was the first on the bus to speak to me.  When Dear Husband gave a party for me, he invited the child and her mother.  At that party I learned she was a voice teacher and later on I asked if she might teach me.

As is the Chinese custom, many toasts were made, both group and individual.  These generally followed the line of appreciation of friendship, the three nations represented at the table, and the three generations represented.  Near the end of the dinner, I mentioned that I had met the art teacher through his son and the voice teacher through her daughter and the children through the bus.  So a toast was raised “To the Bus!” and we all drank to that.

Living as I do in a communist country, I have paid attention to Karl Marx’s work.  Apparently he was a brilliant man.  Have you heard of him?  In 1848, with Engels he wrote The Communist Manifesto.  Although many American professors are thoroughly Marxist, few students study Marx himself, or read the Manifesto. Few Americans under the age of 40 have heard of him.

I asked a Chinese professor about Marx and his ideals.  I asked how China reconciled those ideas with the current capitalist policies.  I asked how people saw their own country.  He said, “China——is just China.”

In my travels here, I have seen many tourist shops.  These typically offer for sale items such as ash trays, book bags, and tee shirts showing a picture of Mr. Obama wearing a revolutionary soldier’s cap, holding his head in that classic Mao pose, and printed with the word,  “Obamao.”  Chinese people say they love Mr. Obama.  In China we love our leaders, the sky is blue and the water is clean, everyone is living harmoniously.  It is a happiness thing.

Take a close look at that Manifesto, if you haven’t already.  Scan through the first parts and get down to the ten point platform.  You will see that the USA has fully accepted at least half of the points, and partially accepted most of the others.  Rights of inheritance, for example, are so complicated by tax laws that the average person finds it difficult to pass down property to his descendants. We haven’t totally abolished inheritance, but it’s on the way out.  Certainly we have a “heavy progressive income tax” far heavier than China’s.  With the new executive order, points 7 and 9 of the Manifesto are now in place.  One of the points we’re missing,however, is “an equal obligation of all to work.”

So, when I go home, it will be to a somewhat different country than the one I left.  But, I have learned how to live in a communist country.

Daily I check the internet for news of the world, and of the USA.  I go to several sites known for news, but I did not see any news about an executive signed by Mr. Obama on March 16, 2012, until a few days ago, when Husband saw it referenced in another news story. This order is of such importance that I would think that the Communist Party in America would be holding celebrations everywhere.  I would think the Press would herald it as a triumph of “progressive thinking,” “liberalism,” or even of “the new world order.”  I would have expected the “alternate” media, sometimes known as “conservative” or “right wing” to herald this news with alarm, protest, and calls for impeachment.  I would have expected the “radicals” of the country to protest vehemently.  In fact, NOTHING!  Only now, a month later, are we getting bits and pieces of this momentous  step in the progress toward complete communism in the USA.  I wonder how soon Mr. Obama will declare himself “Leader for Life.”

You may read for yourself the whole text of this and other executive orders at

whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness

It is quite “wordy” but the essence of it, as I read it, is that the President now is in charge of all industry, agriculture, and technology and may use the products of these at will.  Various secretaries are in charge of various departments.

Please compare the Communist Manifesto,  1848, by Marx and Engels:  They give a list of ten points of which #7 is

” Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.”

Here is the introductory paragraph of Mr. Obama’s order:

“Sec. 102.  Policy.  The United States must have an industrial and technological base capable of meeting national defense requirements and capable of contributing to the technological superiority of its national defense equipment in peacetime and in times of national emergency.  The domestic industrial and technological base is the foundation for national defense preparedness.  The authorities provided in the Act shall be used to strengthen this base and to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.”

It sounds benign, of course, but the rest of this order details that from now on, the federal government will supervise EVERYTHING.

So, why is it such a SECRET?   Julia wonders.

I so admire the Chinese bus drivers.  In a country where driving is still new, these people have mastered not only the art of the stick shift transmission but also the art of maneuvering the streets full of foot traffic, taxi traffic, motorcycle traffic, and the “regular” traffic of cars and trucks, and the occasional animal in the street, and I forgot the three wheeled vehicles.  There are double yellow lines in the center of the road, but they apparently mean nothing. People will pass in the oncoming lane. A taxi will  make a U turn right in front of a bus.  A motorcyclist carrying a driver, a passenger, a small child between them and  perhaps a load of packages will weave between the cars and trucks and come up beside the bus on either side.

As a pedestrian, I know the procedure for crossing the street. I think of it as crossing lane by lane.  I look for two clear lanes before I start, but this is unlikely, so I judge the speed of the oncoming traffic.  Is it a huge truck?  Don’t start.  How about a few motorcycles and a three wheeler in the second lane?  OK, get across the first lane and be in position when those vehicles pass.  Pause on the center line and check the opposite direction.  Judge the traffic, run the other two lanes when there is even a slight break.  Watch out for the side lane where people will be turning.  Whew! Another successful crossing.

As a bus passenger, standing by the driver and seeing what he sees, I know what he has to do.  A student actually told me a few years ago, “Cross in front of the bus instead of a car, because the bus driver will not hit you.”  Can you imagine?  Because relatively few people are themselves drivers, few people understand the danger of crossing the street. But the procedure works for them, so they continue. I have already horrified my children by walking out into traffic in the USA.  I just forgot that it wasn’t necessary.

In fact the main traffic here moves fairly slowly, and the drivers are always expecting to see the variety of traffic.  Still, their procedure is to lay on the horn, as if to say, “Watch out, I’m coming through.”  At first I was upset by all the noise of the horns, and as an American I asked myself, “Why?”  (Americans love this question but it doesn’t occur to the Chinese.) I have concluded that, besides the fact that many people are near sighted and don’t wear glasses, people are so new to driving that they are fearful of the power they hold in their hands.   They aren’t fully aware of how to stop, nor do they judge how quickly they can stop, so they blow the horn and let the person run.

Motorcycles operate by a different set of rules. They don’t stop at the traffic signals, they can go either way on a one way street, and they go faster than the cars.  Taxis also speed, make U turns, pass in oncoming traffic,  weave through the lanes, and stop abruptly if they see a potential client. The three wheelers — I don’t know what their rules are.  Perhaps “Survive” is the main one.  Some of these have a bicycle with a cart attached, while others are motorcycles with cart attached.  What really are the rules?  I can see only one in operation: the biggest vehicle has the right of way.

The bus drivers must account for all this chaotic jumble in the road while keeping track of who needs to get off or get on the bus. The bus is designed for perhaps 60 passengers, but it is not unusual, especially at peak times like 5 pm, to have more than 100 people on the bus.  I haven’t actually counted as I am squeezed between the bodies, but I have estimated.  Sometimes 3 people get off and 6 get on.  One time I wanted to wait for the next bus, but Dear Husband pulled me on behind him and the door closed behind me, scraping my coat as I stood on the bottom step and nudging me forward into Husband’s back.  At the next stop, more people got on, more than got off, but people shifted and moved slightly, so that the mass could move forward.  Gradually we were moved to the center of the bus.  It often reminds me of putting flour into a canister–shake it down and put more in.

In a recent class, I gave students pictures of cities.  The task was to describe the pictures.  The New York City picture shows a street scene.  It includes tall buildings, one quite ornate featuring a statue, red advertising banners, people walking, signs, decorative street lights, traffic signals, and the cars, trucks and buses on the street.  Of all that is in the picture, one student noticed, “The traffic is so orderly.”

For several years, I was accustomed to reading about two books per week. In early December I received from friends a “care” package including a novel, which I savored as soon as I completed the term and turned in my grades. In late January, I received from my friend a package containing five English books! I regarded the package as treasure and tried to restrain myself from reading all the books at once, so that they could last through the end of  term, but could not, and read the first two right away.  Then I saved Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford for February.  It is a complex novel set in Seattle and shifts between the 1980’s and the 1940’s showing the past woven beneath and through the present.

In March I went to Shanghai for a conference and bought all four of the speaker’s books.  I read all of them immediately, one before I left Shanghai.  In the past three days, I have read my book for April, The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, a story set in 1941.  Today I read various news items from the internet and felt that I was still inside the book.  “Chilling” is not too strong a word for my feeling.

Read on: take flight, visit another world, another time, another place; take heart, test your mind and your spirit; take life in all its grief and all its glory.

We are giving a joint lecture tomorrow (Monday for us) night.  Our topic is “Spring Time in USA” and we are excited.  Thanks to the internet and the modern computers (which still amaze me) we have prepared power point presentations for the segments.  To organize our thoughts, I folded a piece of paper so that it would show little blocks, similar to a quilt pattern.  Then we filled in the blocks with ideas and then marked out what we wanted to highlight and in what progression.

The first block is what I call a “sport report.”  March madness, which is the collegiate basketball tournament, golf, track and field, and baseball are the Spring sports events. We’re happy the Detroit Tigers won the opening game of the season.  The pictures show the human form in its strength, beauty and glory.

Next, a mention of Martin Luther King Jr. who died in the Spring, but whose famous words live on.  We’ll quote his most famous words, and some of his last words in which he said he had seen the glory of the Lord.  Chinese students often recite the segment “I have a dream” from his most famous speech.

The third block is my turn.  I plan to play a segment of  “Spring” by Vivaldi  while showing pictures of spring flowers, some from my own garden, and birds, ending with daffodils under a tree.  Then I’ll  recite Wordsworth’s famous poem. I’ll mention spring weather, with Song of Songs lines about the winter being over, planting season, prom and graduation, and then Easter eggs.  I’ve cut out over 100 paper eggs which I’ll hide in the auditorium for the students to find, and then I’ll give out small candies.  This activity will serve as the break.

Easter will be featured in the next block and will include some special music.  Finally, Husband will conclude the presentation, tying together all the parts with the theme of Celebrating New Life!

In the morning, we’ll go to the hall to make sure that everything works and hide those paper eggs.  Neither of us have class tomorrow, so we can focus all attention on this event.  Wish us well, as we wish you all the blessings of this glorious season.