It rained all morning, from the early morning hours until noon. I hadn’t taken many pictures this year on rainy days, so I spent a couple hours wandering around and snapping some shots for my PowerPoint slide show. I got a nice selection, so, before I decide which ones to use, I figured I’d post a bunch here. The old “run it up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes” sort of deal.

And remember, you can get the larger view just by clicking on the image.

The first shot this morning shows a few Saturday strollers passing by a bouquet of garbage cans.

The garbage trucks here are nowhere near as large as those back home. They don’t have to be, in part because of people like the guy in the picture. Whereas most folks made a deposit, he’s making a rather thorough and detailed withdrawal.   This sort of activity happens at every garbage can in the city – cardboard, wire, bottles, and old bicycle chains are extracted and sold to somebody somewhere.

It makes my wonder if, on the new campus,  such people might not be as readily available, since its about 20 miles away from anything else and isolated behind a moat.  We’ll have to wait and see, I guess.

Not far from that spot is one of two “tree farms” that I know of on campus.

When similar trees get diseases or get knocked down by the wind, these trees can readily take their place.

In fact, I’ve only recently become aware of how much planting and replanting of trees is constantly going on.

Here’s another example of replanting – a flower display of annuals going into the central square on campus.  And it’s not just  the flowers. The grass had also just been laid down like a carpet. I took this picture yesterday before the rains began so the workers are hoping to finish before they might get wet.

This next shot shows  one of the many street-side snack sources near dining hall number one.  The dining hall itself was closed, totally shut down for the hours between breakfast and lunch.

But, luckily, little snack centers like this one are everywhere.  One hopes that the new campus will also have some, even though they do seem cluttered and messy.

I was able to grab a quick shot of the dining hall itself when I walked up the stairs. Actually, it surprised me that I could do this, since most dining halls are shut up tighter than a thermos between meals.

Dining hall food is available from separate vendors which are arranged behind the windows that line the periphery of the room.  This sort of arrangement, with ten or twenty independent  vendors in one cafeteria , exhibits a level of private enterprise that I don’t remember seeing at universities in America.  Of course, it’s been about three or four decades since I’ve actually gotten food from an American campus, so who knows?

From the top of the dining hall, one can gaze out over the trees and see how thickly they crowd around the buildings.  It almost looks like the forest moon of Endor.  The tall buildings in the background are almost all recent constructions and are part of the city, not the university.

Through these trees we see here the architecture building, sitting at one end of the “Lake of Task Commitment.”  Yes, that really is its name — 敬业 湖.

From a certain angle, it kind of looks like a forest building, too.  Yep, Endor’s got nothing on us.

And taking the forest theme to its illogical extremity, here’s the entrance to the faculty activities building over by Aiwan Lake. It looks like the jungle has even wormed its way inside the building, though it’s actually just a reflection!!

Yes, there’s a lot more to this campus than the concrete and asphalt.

On the other hand, there certainly is a lot of concrete over by my office, at Beiyang Square. This morning it was used to good advantage by a couple bicycling toddlers, who sliced water as they coasted along.

Nearby, in my own office building,  is something rather diabolical.

A few days ago I finally noticed this sign along the front of the building. It said “The School of State Secret Protection.”

Man, I never knew they had schools for that sort of thing, let alone one on my own campus in my own building!  The members of this department seem to be evading the rest of us as they descend the enclosed staircase. There’s no way you’ll ever wrench a secret  from them!!!

I asked a student about that department, and he’s told me he’s never met anyone from there. Well, no surprise, I guess.

It’s said that in the springtime a young man’s fancy turns to love.  One can also say that an old man’s fancy turns to photos of flowers.   Those old guys cluster like hummingbirds around campus floral displays, like this guy at left.

I wonder where they migrate to in the winter?

And  did I also snap a shot of these flowers? Of course, I did.  And I do know where I migrate to in the winter.

Okay, I’ll finish up today with two ordinary pictures.  First, the typical pedestrian walking down the middle of the street instead of using the walkways or sidewalks. One of these days, I’ll have to put together an analysis of why this behavior exists.

Americans walk on the sidewalks, as the traffic zips by. I’m afraid that if I acquire the habit of walking in the street, and use it in America, a driver there might run me over, as I wouldn’t be expected to be walking there.

Anyway, here is the opposite scenario – a vehicle negotiating the sidewalk. This phenomenon is much less common than it was years ago when I first got here. In those days regular cars might prowl the sidewalks. Nowadays, you only see miniaturized coaches.

Okay – that’s all for now, I guess. I’m off to see a play.