downstairs balcony garden

I made it a point when I first came back to China to buy a bunch of plants in anticipation of Winter. Beijing is a surprisingly green city, there are many public parks and tree lined streets. However, this looming Winter will quickly wipe out nearly all the green in the coming weeks. There are plants pretty much all over the house, but most are in the living room balcony.

above and below: the plant balcony with all kinds of tropical plants, cacti, and spice plants.

just inside: a newly flowering jasmine just like one from a house I grew up in in Miami. It makes the whole apartment smell good and strangely like my early teenage years. The smaller plant is something called a money tree. It's some Feng Shui (风水) thing that's supposed to bring money. Hope it works!

the downstairs...

a look into our new apartment...


The stuff above the couch; some of our paintings and some of our cool stuff, and me.

It's clearest I think to show a panoramic of the balcony (on the right), living room, stairs and entrance (on the left). The downstairs also has the kitchen, a bathroom with a washing machine, and two bedrooms one with a wide balcony we use to hang dry clothing.

upstairs...

The second floor is a big open space we use as the dining room. It has a large and comfortable common area, an enclosed balcony, an open balcony, and Silvia's bedroom room and bathroom

The open balcony with two giant David heads that came with the apartment. The one on the right broke somehow, I suspect it was some cats I've seen around. This balcony is at the top of our building and gives us a view of our whole complex and, on very clear days, a view of the mountains.

recently...

Halloween was fun. We went out to a party and a foreigner bar all dressed up. Our Friend Ruby (above) from Xi'an joined Ross and Silvia in a "dead 80's" theme

I went dressed as a XinJiang chef. This Muslim minority group from far out in the west of China are a fairly common sight all over Beijing. They have restaurants all over the city where they sell their closer to Turkish than Chinese style dishes. They also sell barbecued meat on a stick called 串 (pron. CHwar in Beijing accent Mandarin). The Chinese character represents two peices of meat skewered on a stick. I made my own 串 out sponges, I think they made my costume a success.

a memory of warmer days... just a few weeks ago it was easy to go out in a T-shirt. These last few weeks have been significantly cooler, and this weekend it's been down in the 50's midday and the 30's at night :(

I VOTED!

Even all the way from Beijing I managed to do it, so there's no excuse for anyone who didn't. I'm listening to an NPR stream of the results as they come in, eating breakfast and freaking out just a little bit :)
All of us on this side of the world should know the winner by early or mid-afternoon. We're all really excited around here, I had a pretty rough night's sleep as all the voting was going on in America. Let's hope there's big cause for celebration tonight!