My Commute (A 24 minute walk!)

The Rainbow Bridge!

48.38 miles/week!

Coming from Southern California, commutes are not usually associated with restful, relaxing, and green. All three are true of my walk from my apartment in “faculty village #1” to the foreign language building.  Our apartment is on the north-east side.  The foreign language building is on the south-west side.  Therefore, every day that I have class, I walk the hypotenuse.  As a result, my fitbit tells me that I’m frequently walking upward of 50 miles each week. 

Let me take you on my walk!

Over the rainbow bridge

So, first you walk over the “Rainbow Bridge.”  Yes!  We have one.  It connects the faculty housing to the campus.  Unfortunately there are no pets on the other side.  There is a security detail and many, many cameras, so I feel very safe.

Next, you walk along this very beautiful, leafy avenue with, yes, more cameras.  At about this point, there is an intermittent flash, taking pictures of any cars that might be driving erratically.   

Leafy Avenue

Unfortunately, it doesn’t catch the crazy electric motor bikes that frequently are driving on the sidewalk, and not the road.  On one side are the engineering buildings and alumni development.  On the other is a beautiful park with a fountain, lake and lovely gardens.  You will always see 3-4 people with large handmade straw brooms sweeping up the dirt and leaves, keeping the campus spotless

Hard Worker

Cameras!

More Cameras! And the police,
who are always very friendly,
and smile when I say "Ni Hao"

At the end of the leafy avenue are the playing fields.  I more often see staff and faculty walking/running around the track,  than students.   The students are busy studying, and sports are very much de-emphasized.  There is also usually a Chinese musical sound-track that accompanies the runners.

Staff and faculty exercising

Here is the “can-tine” (two high tones) called “Paradise of Cambridge” (only the “s” is missing, making it a parade or parodee of Cambride. ) There are usually thousands of bikes – especially around meal time.  The dining hall is basically 50-75 booths of cooks.  Each has a specialty – Noodles! Dumplings! Rice! Soup!  Each costs about 3-4 yuan (40-cents).  The students complain that the food is greasy and not like mom makes.  Somethings are universal.

Paradise of Cambridge

Each sign is a separate cook offering a different meal

One of the booths making a big bowl of soup

I then cut across a series of large plazas.  On one, to the right is the 30-40 story library – a super modern building that rivals the library of UCSD.  On the right are a series of badminton courts.  That, ping-pong (table tennis), basketball and soccer are the most common sports in which my students participate.

Badminton!

The Library

And, finally, here we are at the Shaw Building:  School of Foreign Studies and Art Museum… with more bikes. 

The Foreign Language Building

Many bikes at the foreign language building

My way home is the same thing, only backwards.  The only difference is when I teach my class from 4:40-6:30, there is a soothing man’s voice over all of the loud speakers telling the students… what?  I don’t know.  It’s a comforting voice, and I imagine him telling them not to worry if they didn’t do well on their exams.  Tomorrow is another day.  Or maybe he is reminding them that they have homework, and should hurry back to complete it.  Or maybe he’s telling them the schedule for tomorrow.  Or maybe he’s offering positive, political,  motivational thoughts to end the day.

Note the speaker... and yes, more cameras

Fruit-seller waiting for me to stop and by oranges

I then cross the rainbow bridge once more, and look over the edge.  There, below, is our fruit stand where we frequently buy our melons and oranges for the next day.