Blooming summer
(Flowers in the garden: Suzhou, China)
The Chinese winter is finally, turbulently merging into summer, ignoring spring altogether. Recently each day here has been donated by a different season; yesterday and today, it was crisp and sunny ‘light cardigan weather’ with breezes, but on Tuesday and Wednesday I was wearing a ski jacket against the perishingly cold windy rain. Then to top it off, Monday was dry, mild and dull.
I thought, in homage to the beautiful day outside, I would treat you to one of the views of the Horizon Resort gardens on our doorstep. Last week, these buds appeared and have since opened up to drink in the irregular bouts of sunshine and rain. There are a host of trees in bloom now, finally shaking off the grey, windy bitterness of winter. They are really stunning – I hope some remain for when my family visits. I can remember the summer here being rife with colour, even through the muted light of sunglasses, which I had to wear almost constantly due to the bright light. In the UK, it never seems to get so light, but without some shade here, my face is puckered into a collection of forced creases.
Today I feel good about China. Some days it feels very difficult to live here and I worry that I may never really settle in. Today however, I have been braver than usual and I am realising that a little more courage will make my life so much easier here. I managed (however insignificant this may seem) to book a massage appointment alone – and wait for it – with no mistakes, no confusion, no face pulling, no reading from a piece of paper, no repetition and no English. Finally I am getting the hang of Chinese with the help of Ying’s mum’s skype lessons, my new Chinese teacher from Suzhou and of course, the masseurs at the massage place. It was one of them that helped me construct the sentences to explain what kind of massage on which day at what time and with whom. I was delighted.
