Beijing

Ok, the last set of pictures from Beijing...

Summer Palace

This building was made without any nails! The craftsman in me was amazed... Few of you have seen what I produced without nails, maybe my old roomate Aruna could find a way to take a picture of it... Funny story actually, before coming to China, I decided to build a workbench to fill my time. I had recently gotten interested in woodworking, specifically without the use of power tools (not normal, I know). I used a book my great great friend George Sluski gave me entitled "Woodworking for Women." He and I thought it was funny that women would require a special book for woodworking... after building my workbench however, I found out the reason: my workbench was a little over two feet high. It ended up being a great place for me to sit on while doing work, but was way too small. If any short person out there wants a workbench, it's probably still in the basement of 5600 Howe St, Pittsburgh PA, 15232... Check it out. Oh, another funny thing about the "Woodworking for Women" book was that it spent a lot of time inspiring it's readers to just "get up and go to the wood store" even thought said wood store was "quite a masculine place." It's probably one of the only woodworking books that would ever say: "don't be afraid if you feel out of place" or "learn your stuff and show em who's boss." I think I ended up spending more time reading the book looking for gems like this than actually working with wood...


Beijing Opera:

This was quite an experience... My guide book said there would be english sub-titles shown, but guess what! There weren't! After the initial amazement of this wore off, I spent the rest of the time praticing my character recignition... Sadly I only know ~20 characters, but you'd be suprised how much "I" "you" "he" "she" "to be" and "at" come up...