A Day at the Antique Market - Saturday

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Yesterday was Saturday June 2nd and I spent most of the afternoon at the Antique Market visiting old friends and acquaintances. There was also a lot of art to look at.

At around 4:00 we left the Antique Market and went to the Rainbow Bridge tea shop. That is what I call it anyway. It is a tea shop very close to the Rainbow Bridge along with a thousand others. Many friends were already there sitting outside talking and joking. There was also a monk from the Sakya monastery in Lingtsang. It began to rain very lightly so we moved inside to be dry and more comfortable thinking it would start to rain much harder - it didn't. Inside the shop we also have the possibility of taking a nap on the longer cushioned couches.

I spent most of the time writing emails and preparing numbered images for Simon to make beautiful back at the office. It was quite busy in the tea shop being a late Saturday afternoon, children underfoot, loud voices and the not so remote sounds of hundreds of mahjong tiles rhythmically slapped together from the many private rooms in the back.

After 9:00 we made plans by phone with others to meet at a nearby bar half way between the tea shop and the well known Jinjiang Hotel. By this time we were a group of six and after arriving at the bar we became a group of about twelve. I knew most of the people, however after one beer our plans changed quickly when the moisture threatening skies finally could take no more and began to really rain down on our outside patio seating. Unfortunately there were no free tables inside. The change in weather was the perfect excuse to say farewell to the ever enlarging gang, quickly find a taxi in the rain, and escape back to the quiet of the apartment and an early night to bed.

As for Jet lag, well it has not completely worn off. It usually takes three to five days to begin to really feel normal. When arriving back in New York it easily takes one to two weeks to feel normal. I don't know why it is so much easier when arriving China from the west unless there is a different effect on the body between flying West to East or east to West.

At this moment, as I write this entry, I am curled up on a couch wrapped in a blanket and drinking hot tea with extra milk. Outside it is dark, grey, cold, wet, dripping, moist and slightly noisy with the ever constant sound of an asynchronous cacophony made by the small and large seemingly unending waves of rainfall. It is supposed to be wet for the next few days.

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