The Toner at the Big Buddha.

To see things through a child's eye is to see them anew.  That is why I regret not being able to accompany my wife and Tony to the Ma Shan Big Buddha in Wuxi, China yesterday.

For one thing, my wife forgot to bring our camera to Ma Shan yesterday so I regret (maybe you don't) that I won't have many photos to show you (my wife did have one photo taken by an on-site photographer which I will have scanned at work).

Tony was apparently impressed by the water fountain show.  My wife said he was screaming at the sight of the water "falling".

As for the Big Buddha itself, the wife said he seemed curious about staring at it all the while.

 

While Tony was gazing at the Buddha, I was told a couple of interesting tidbits of information by my students.  One student told me that in Shanghai they call left turns in traffic "big turns" and right turns "small turns" presumably because the differences in dialects mean that the local taxi drivers don't understand visitors when they say left or right.  Another student told me tales of Chinese students bringing beer to school in their back packs so they could have one for lunch.  Two would be a better idea, insisted yet another student, because if the teacher caught you, you could offer one to the teacher and everything would be alright.

 

It seems that Blogspot is again blocked in Wuxi and maybe China.  Anytime I can access it, I am surprised. 

 

The Tibet issue is a no go issue with the students.  The ones who are interested get very excited and say the most outlandish things.  There is no way you say anything about it because you worry about the consequences.  Lord knows what people will do when their "feelings are hurt".

 

There are less than 100 days till the Olympics.  I can hardly wait till they are over and done with.  I find the Olympics boring anyway and the controversy surrounding these ones creates an atmosphere of eerie foreboding.