Twisted

This is a picture of a piece of art that was towards the front of our apartment complex in Pudong; it was on the path that we always took when we were coming in or leaving.

You can see in the pictures, it is surrounded by a small moat of water, and you can see the reflection of the piece in the water. At night, the lights would shine on the piece and the water would have a red tint.

I always enjoyed watching my perspective of the piece change as I walked by. I would try to 'untwist' the twisted piece.

For the other mathies reading this, I'm pretty sure the piece is topographically equivalent to a torus, not a mobius strip.


From another angle:

New Digs

Jim is back in the land of free-flowing BBQ, enchaladas, Dr. Pepper, etc. and I'm in China through June. Wow, I could have never imagined that this would be a reality for us.

As Jim mentioned last week, I'm now living in a furnished school-owned apartment at the Shanghai Racquet Club, SRC for short. I decided to post some pics of my new place so folks will know what type of accomodations I'm living in, and maybe ease some of the fears/concerns friends and family may have.

The entry way...

The closet in the entry way. This is only one of three closets in the apartment.
The living room...
View of the living room into the kitchen.

Kitchen that includes a real oven, our old apartment only had a dish dryer.
View of the kitchen and the dishwasher, even though I have an ayi (chinese for maid.)

Laundry room, with a full size washer & dryer. The old washer only had a cold water cycle, and the dryer didn't have a heat setting.
The bedroom (with another closet!) The guest bedroom has a desk, a futon, the third closet, and is separated from my room by a set of sliding doors that turn into a wall.

My bathroom. There is another bathroom sans bathtub, avec stand-in shower, again not picture-worthy. I also have a balcony, but I'll have to take some pics during the daytime.

I'm really excited about some photos from our journeys we had printed and framed, and they should be delivered within a few weeks, so I'm hoping to have those on the walls for a little while before I ship them back to the states.

I'm pleased with the place, our other apartment was nice, but laid out in much more of a Chinese-style and the arcitecture may have been a tad too modern for my tastes. The SRC was designed in a more traditional western style.

That's a pretty much it for the picture tour of the apartment. I will take some pictures of the outside of the complex this weekend. All the plants are begining to bloom, I especially love the magnolias and the cherry blossoms.

I'm doing fine, work keeps me busy, which eases the adjustment. I also have a great support system of friend and colleagues. I will ask for two favors: if you think about me, say a little prayer (for well-being, continued sanity, health, etc.), and if you see my husband, please give him a hug for me. :)

Finally, here's one last photo of me sitting in the living room.