Dinner! Maggie and I hung out with another artist Ko all day in the city. He bought a duck for dinner and showed up with half of it at our door.
A busier street in the South section of Beijing.
Working out!!!! This equipment is everywhere... kind of like play grounds for kids in the U.S. but instead its work out equipment and everyone uses them.
Feel the burn...
After the work out Ko found some cookies that have a taste in between a Fench crepe and a ice cream cone.
A lady knitting that Maggie bought some booties for her nephew from.
Another local lane.

At the Great Wall

Jerry my next door neighbor.
maggie and jerry....uh huh
Maggie at the restaurant playing with her chopsticks.
maggie is very happy to climb
Shipley I thought you might enjoy this sign....
I personally like rule #3....
Hmm not subtle are they...
The sweater lacey made me!!!!!!!
Thanks Lacey!!! Sory it was cold up there so I had to wear a shirt under it!
Goose sweater!!!! I hiked it up there for you Shipley...and I thought it deserved at least as good of a jump as the one from the Appalachian trail!
Gooooooose Sweater!!!
Joni smiling from the wall.
It was....welll...windy???? (Glacier Glasses)
Maggie taking a picture of everyone taking a picture.
Maggie!!! Glamour shot.
Side wall.
maggie and me
Pizza Great Wall Style...(left overs from last night brought all the way up)
Go team!!! Joni in...well...as she calls it Superwoman costume.
The luge....one option for getting down from the Great Wall...we decided to pass, especially after seeing the crevice it crosses and the rickety structure. NO THANKS!!!
However other enjoyed it...
And yet more
maggie at the restaurant down the street from us, that resembles a jungle.

Me in the jungle

Maggie getting ready to film in the cold.
An interesting thing I ran into in the street in Beijing. Lots of stores like to have Santa Clause sticky vinyl things on their doors, this time the doors were open and happened to be positioned in just the right place for the models.
Here is an even better look.
Starting to cut....
When it was still relatively warm out, Maggie with our first new bike!!! We rode to the grocery store, she peddled and I sat just about as she is sitting in the picture the whole way. She is a pretty good work horse and I think I'll keep her.
The studio from the outside. That is the coal shed to the left of the window.
We walked back into a village and found ping pong set for a dollar...it has become our entertainment.
When it snowed, the grass outside the studio.
The tree next door.

This is the kitchen which is really nice, it has a microwave, some burners, a toaster, all the pots and pans etc, a little fridge and a washing machine!
The bathroom...clean and nice...we had a mini pipe problem at first and water was going into the bathroom from the balcony above....but that got fixed.

The is the main bedroom which is really big. The only problem besides the heat is that it smells like varnish or some kind of bad bad bad mineral spirits which I am very sure we are not supposed to be breathing....but opening the window would not be wise either due to the lack of good heat....
Another shot of the main bedroom. The floors are stone-esqu so it is really COLD!!! But probably good for the summer heat. Note the large tv...we already got some dvds to watch and huddle under the covers.
The other bed, that is on the balcony. Smells much less like varnish out here but you have to get up when the sun comes up, as there is a really nice big sky light above.
A shot over the balcony. The front door is on the left and a door/window thing is on the right.
This is the work space which is really nice and open...only problem is ALL the walls are brick....no putting pins into that!!! Time for a new system of displaying paper cuttings.

The new place....so our residency is a bit out of the city. This is pretty much the landscape. One large road that is pretty deserted with the exception of some concrete apartment structures, one gas station, a hand full of small (very small) Chinese-style shops, and one grocery. The residency is down a small lane across from a power station and in a compound structure with other artists inside (most of which are Chinese and I am unsure if they have a connection to Red Gate). It is a bit more difficult to live out here in some ways (ie no car, no drinking water, little heat (coal and steam), yet there is internet, currently wireless, english dvds at the grocery store, housing developments near the grocery that remind me of america but a little more deserted, and a huge, brand new tv and dvd player, at the residency. The residency told us there are getting bikes for us, but our isolation form everything is a little stressful so those bikes don't show up soon, I at least might buy one in the city and ride it out here.