The hood

I had already told some of my friends that here at the Quanzhou Normal University foreign teachers dwell in Section A - the dorm area entirely dedicated to girls. Among twelve or so buildings our half-a-building stands out as a place inhabited by laowai teachers of both sexes. I live on the fourth floor, and have a nice view of the dorm panorama - hundreds of balconies thriving with life. And female life forms at that. Students live three to eight people in one room, depending on how rich the families are (tuition amount stipulates stratification by the number of roommates). So the balconies are always full of newly (hand-)washed items drying off, and it is truly a nice picture. Something domestic, warm and practical.

In the evenings all of the windows are happily lighted and this picture doesn't cease to heighten my spirits.













It all looks like a fairy-tale neighborhood, with toy houses, and toy life going on the inside. Do you remember that feeling of amazement in the childhood - a toy house with the lights and furniture, and you can imagine things happening on the inside...

So now, dear Abby, is that a normal state of affairs or am I a friggin' voyeur?

: ))

Seriously now, I am not getting my kicks out of filling my life with images of that of others'. But the girls do use curtains or huge plastic sheets to create the atmosphere of a secure home. I don't, though. And I am curious as to whether while walking around the house I attract stealthy glances from any of the windows. Last semester I noticed a girl in the window of the fifth floor right opposite my apartment viewing a basketball game using binoculars. Now, that's something to think about, huh? Given all that curiosity towards foreigners.

I was walking home from the canteen up the road to my house one day, and a happy girl greeted me with a usual 'Hallou' and told me she knows me, I live in the foreigners' building, and she's the one on the fifth floor in the opposite building. After a couple of phrases I found out that she is the one watching games with binoculars. And that she never directed the lenses anywhere else of course. A new tinge to meeting people in the street - she might be less of a stranger than I think ; )