the sun!

apparently the rain does have an end; today it's sunny, though still a bit humid and quite hot. but none of this matters, because in twenty minutes we'll be on a bus to shanxi province. we just had a review this morning, producing a complete preliminary design since our last review on monday. it's amazing how much work a group of people can generate in just a few days (though those days were certainly long...). we've come a long way from our concept diagrams, and despite our ever-enduring penchant for producing explanatory diagrams, we finally have a real plan too. i must say that it looks like real fabric - that is, circuitous streets contained within a larger grid system (we based ours on rice paddy dimensions, and the grain is a combination of natural physical characteristics, and artificial characteristics we added). i definitely got lucky with my group - the mit students are great, and the chinese students aren't as horrible as other groups' students. it's especially fortuitous, considering that we basically spend all day with each other - studio, meals, social trips - and we're not completely tired of each other yet. i guess we're all doing enough independent work to not butt heads too much; it also appears that we have a fair modicum of patience.

we had a few hours between our review and our departure, so we stopped off at the supermarket on campus. we went to the one near our dorm, where we found a little stand (inside the supermarket) that was selling "egg crepes" (neeraj's term). basically, the guy made a crepe, cracking two eggs onto the crepe as it cooked, then a rectangle of thin, crispy/crackly bread, scallions, and some sort of hoisin or plum sauce. he folded the sides in, using his two spatulas to break the bread where the folds were, and grabbed the whole thing with a small plastic bag, turning it inside out to envelop the whole thing. it was the image of efficiency - no wasted movements at all. best of all, they were only 2.5 yuan (25 cents)! ok, so there were some flies hanging around, but the area was in the supermarket, shaded, and as long as you don't think about the dirt - not everyone can have thomas keller's kitchen sadly. i haven't gotten sick yet (knock on wood). there were two guys in the little stall, and one handled the money, and the other cooked, which was encouraging.

anyway, more soon - i'm in the middle of typing up my june 14th entry, so eventually all of those backdated entries will be up. i should have more pictures up when i get back - think mountains!