November 18th My sons birthday

It is the 18th and my son Seth Skyped me last night to tell me it was his birthday and did i forget. Truth be told I am still clueless as to the day or the time here. I don't carry a watch. I get up when i hear traffic outside my window. It is an odd feeling to think on terms of China time when everyone I talk to is either 7 or 14 hours behind me. So odd... The weather broke today and I was lucky enough to see sunlight for the first time in weeks. That lasted a whole ten minutes. Then the clouds shrouded the sun in an icy grey muck. It's comforting to know that somethings will not change. Which brings me to my latest musings. Old versus the new. Living in Albuquerque change is slow if it happens at all. Usually time is marked by some landmark getting a facelift. Or the freeway receiving new lanes. No where I have ever been though shows change more pronounced than here in China. There is an emerging middle class here but the change from feudal farming subsistence living to middle class disposable income is rapid and abrupt. I can see this when students meet townsfolk in the streets just outside my apartment. Or just take a walk downtown where there are highrises butting up against former enclaves of past history. No sooner is a building razed to the ground then a bright new building the new face of China emerges from the rubble. I am amazed at the pace in which transformation is taking place. Old to new. My ESL teaching assignment is teach business english. I can't think of a more boring, tedious and wasteful way to spend learning english. English is an amazing language. Learning terms like graph and slope and marketing analysis must be painful to most of these students, when these kids have embraced things like the NBA, World of War Craft and Hip Hop. My students flock to the internet cafes to engage in online death and destruction. Or they follow their latest Hip Hopster from the states trying to emulate their style. Where is there room for business english. I might as well don a frock and hassock and beat the children into learning. Amid my amazements and wonders I started to think about what makes my work tick. It's conflicting and causing me angst. There is the idea in any artist that you do what you do because of you. It's about letting go of the past and embracing the now. Taking what I know and pushing it to it's limits. So the angst is more about letting go and allowing it to be gone. It's about making those mistakes and learning from them. It's a change I am willing to embrace at this time. If China can do this I can.
One quick note about the weather... it's what makes China so tough... you don't just get through the winter you endure it...
These pictures are taken in the open market place just outside my apartment. This is the beginning of a series I call China Lost. Embracing the old. Celebrating the new.