Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful.
It is the symbol of his liberty - his excessive freedom.
He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically,
but almost with pleasure.

Aldous Huxley


Saturday, September 13, 2008

Back to Beijing! In dreams only...


Factory 798 in Beijing. A huge, enormous and gigantic complex of old factories not in use anymore were artists have settled themselves. Cafes, art galleries, relax ambiance... A very nice and interesting place. Instead, I am now sitting in my kitchen, it is raining outside, grey, so autumnish... And I have tons of homework to do... What a depressing thought.
But I have to say it is also nice to be back. For instance I am still coughing from the pollution in Beijing, that can easily be observed by the greyness of my pictures... On the one bellow, right behind the workers, it is already possible to observe the ambient midst, even if this was maybe 15 meters away from me when I took the picture. Indeed these pictures are from end of June 2008, when the pollution had reached its peak right before all cars and factories were turned off for the Olympics.


Lunch break for the workers who arr renovating Sanlitum street, end of June 2008. A month later it was crowded with drunk tourists all nights of the week...



Be careful the safe!


7:00 a.m in a Hutong, the dumplings are smoking outside every little restaurants...




Dazhalan street where our hostel was. The pollution was not as bad as in the picture with the workers.


Factory 798.





People always have birds in cages everywhere...




Wall painting in factory 798.

Welcome to Fall


So it is now Fall. I am done with travelling for a while... at least untill chrismass. Semester all started from the starting blocks, and there is a lot to do. But after 4 months being here and there, it's good to be back home. Last night Sabrina and me went to a school funded party with free beer at the key. Pretty nice. I never got drunk for that cheap.

Also since Sabrina bought herself a new digital SLR, big and expenseive, I decided to use my own camera and finish the film that was on since Beijing... So I went out with my bike and pretended to be a photograph for a while. I felt good.

What else? Today I went to get my pictures and so I saw some pictures of Beijing... Makes me want to go back! I thus feel good about taking a 6 credits course of Chinese right now, even if I'm already late. I definitely want to go back as soon as possible and travel again in this Empire now that I can speak some Chinese... It's such a different experience! And there is so much to learn from these people, since they are so different! Anyways, our little dinner at Chinatown yesterday was nice enough.

Maisonneuve street, looking toward downtown.


Loyola's main building, were we had our pizza lunch without pizza...


Some mad statue, sun bathing tranquillo..