Ca Beijing 2014 english edition by Cá Beijing

ENGLISH EDITION

Translated from the Spanish by E. F. ZHOU

La búsqueda del significado de un signo

Guess the meaning of a sign

Title: Cá 北京 - 提起 2014 Author: AL。加西亚。TE

ENGLISH EDITION Translated from the Spanish by E. F. ZHOU

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Ca Beijing Publishing Beijing, febrero 2015

CONTENS PROLOGUE

起飞

编号

培养

结

马

口令

客服

腹肌

冻死

宗教

头疼

洗澡

皮带

骗钱

进化

菜单

刹那

咖啡

活动的

一二

闲聊着

九九九

邻居

病人

谣言

天职

弄脏了

回收

秃

椅子

房间号码

陨星

玫瑰红

茶壶

弄死

结婚戒指

眩晕

斗牛

蚊

丝绸

智能手机

失去

短信

里边 vs 外边

商店

舞蹈设计

别落音

中休

孕

称

PROLOGUE

“Diaspora” (from the Greek διασπορά, “dispersion”) on its second acceptation is defined by the Spanish Royal Academy as “dispersion of human beings who abandon their place of origin”.

This term has been inextricably related to the Jews (see the first acceptation), but it has not prevented other societies to find their place either; so is the case of the Galician culture. They head their own diaspora between the late 19th and the mid-20th century through a mass emigration that lead to the myth —or reality— which states that wherever you go, you will find someone from Galicia.

It seems then that the eminent Mr Alexandre García Vicente, loyal to the migrant DNA of the settlers on the North-Western part of the Iberian Peninsula, followed the path of Mr Alvaro Fernandes —Portuguese explorer and navigator from the 15th century, considered as the first European who arrived to Guinea Bissau in 1446— and boarded a ship to an African adventure leaving friends, family and a well-off living in Iberia.

There he spent several years writing his chronicles until Book of the Marvels of the World, also known as The Travels of Marco Polo fell into his hands. It describes the deeds of this 13th century Venetian merchant, known for his journeys through the Silk Route to China.

Having read it, the eminent Mr Alexandre —as the distinguished Mr Alonso Quijano after reading knights romances— decides to change his life not to make it in Africa anymore, but to make it in a different continent, to make it in Asia and, loyal to his Galician DNA, hop on a new adventure far away from his homeland.

And he is still there writing his chronicles. This errant Internet user, practicing Galician, public server, great friend of his friends, permanently dressed as Coronel Tappioca with a ready backpack. Who knows if he is trying to follow the steps of the well-known Cristobal Columbus or the yet another celebrated man from Galicia, Mr Luis Vaz de Torres, first European navigator who crossed the strait that separates Australia from New Guinea.

Therefore, if this reader bumps into Mr Alexandre García Vicente on the staircase and asks him if he is going up or down, be sure he will say he is staying, considering whether making it in America or in Oceania.

José Matías Hernández Sánchez December 25th 2014 3

起飞 qifei

Grosso modo and in a simple way, humans can be classified into two large categories: do-allyou-can and do-nothing in life.

Some people bet on the idea of progress by making different things or variations of the same activity in different places. Therefore, there is always a state of uncertainty in their existence, as opposed or together with those who choose a familiar setting and activity which will give them the certainty of a peaceful existence where little changes will end up being habits.

Both of these approaches are respectable as long as they are freely chosen. What some people try to do for a steady life —non exempt of stress though— will be seemed boring and pointless for some other people and, on the contrary, for others immobility will be like being dead in life, a life without 起飞.

Vital movement involves a continuous start and end within larger life stages. Life steps that were based on pondered over or just hot-headed initial ideas result in decisions and displacements, either physical or vital axis, to readjust to new situations. Human beings 起飞, live and land or finish a stage that connects with others from the past, as if life were a long journey with multiple stopovers, each of them with a new 起飞.

And yet, as time passes by, our actions resemble the more and more like an aircraft. Prior to a new 起飞, once our inner selves are full with past experiences, we take a step back that let us focus and warm up engines for us to begin a new stage.

Detente, mira a tu alrededor y sigue hacia adelante.

Beijing, January 15th 2014.

编号 bian hao

Language helps us communicate and pass on knowledge, being our most important distinguishing element from animals. We tend to humanize our environment through language and people get a unique identity after being named. That is how in a conversation people know who they are talking about, needless to describe neither thoroughly physical features nor intellectual attributes.

At the same time, names often go with other words that link us with our progenitors, people, group, all in all, to our society of origin. Cultural component, using a broader term, lies behind it all giving human attributes to the person after being named.

In contrast to humanization of the name we find the 编号dehumanization. When trying to identify members of the same group or nation with names was no longer useful since there were name coincidences but referents were different, we gave them numbers as 编号 are infinite. That is how any risk of repetition was prevented.

Then means for passing on information through computer networks were created. Users got the chance to have personal email addresses they could use for sending and receiving information, which was usually tied in with names with too much of a trouble to find a nonrepeated one.

Cá, because of the high population, possibilities of having an email address with each person name on it are remote and will need countless of tries before finding a non already registered address. Therefore, an email server company has decided to assign each user with a 编号, which obviously has not been given before, in order to provide service to millions of people by just signing up.

Awkward feeling that one of dehumanization when asking somebody else's email address. One has to write down 2781333821@qq.com on a paper, since saying it aloud would not help to remember it as one has not the mnemonic ability to memorize in one go while trying to link that number with an image or a behavior.

Only time will tell.

Beijing, January 19th 2014.

培养 pei yang

In theory, one of the indicators to determine whether a society is civilised is that most of its members have received some kind of 培养 in their lives. The education system has been globalized and compulsory schooling to eradicate illiteracy has been established in order to 培养 every member of society, along with family education.

To achieve this aim, people can attend either public or private institutions. If the home of a student is close enough to school, he would go to school premises everyday, but if that is not the case, he would be enrolled as a boarding school pupil and spend the night in premises created for such purposes.

The advance in technology has led to a great development of mass media systems. Thus, since the last five years we talk about an Information and Knowledge Society under the important influence of some works such as Jürgen Habermas’ Knowledge and Human Interests. As time went by, those above mentioned premises became virtual.

This implies that there is a greater difference between 培养and e-培养. Never mind how the e-培养 student got his certificate, as in the past, people used to travel to a different country where getting a degree certificate ad hoc was really simple, and sometimes issued at a random market.

Nowadays, you can save the trip and will only need to pay for the shipping fee and e-培养 certificate, which will be digitally made and will allow you to perform a specific activity. You can also get a nobility title, or one of the kind, that will allow you to get into certain events or countries to show those art skills you did not show at school.

Beijing, January 25th 2014.

结 jie

One of the first things we are manipulated by in early years of life is body manipulation, not yet the mental one as, at that time, our minds are nothing but sand waiting to be imprinted. Body manipulation occurs when somebody lifts your arms to dress you in what you will recognize in the future as a sweater or lifts your legs to put on a diaper and a pair of bootees just to decorate because walking at that age is not feasible.

When the moment of learning how to go from one place to another comes, from crawling to walking upright, one then begins to use proper footwear to walk. When seated, one sees how mother or another close relative puts your feet into something called 'shoes' or at least that is how one remembers it as it was heard everyday in sentences like “Come, put your shoes on” later by “You see? Now we tie the shoelaces with a 结, then a bow... And there you go!”.

No one could have imagined that something called 结, an element made of crossed laces, interlaced in the same direction or on the opposite one, could be a synonym for 'gripping' and 'bonding', meaning 'security' when mountaineering or sailing, or 'fear' when one has a lump in the throat or as a new daily accessory when using a tie.

Although Humphrey Bogart used to wear a well- 结 tie, he stood up for just the necessary strings, just as in one scene where he was sitting on a chair talking to Lauren Bacall “Walk around me. Go ahead, walk around me.” “No, no, there are no strings tied to you”.

Beijing, January 28th 2014.

马 ma

In Monte de Cerredo few saddles passed. In towns of that area it was more common to see different types of those, although equally acceptable. It was with the black and white TV and the Saturday afternoon show that used to broadcast after The Pink Panther films by John Ford or starring John Wayne in the Arizona desert or Colorado lands, when 马showed its good bearing to those riding in the field or just simply to those who were there —with whom they had an inseparable relationship— as can be seen in A man Called Horse among other films about the American West.

The relationship between a man and a horse was almost inseparable after some years even if it was a different马, to the point that they would look for them back and forth if they went missing. The common denominator was the search of the sense of freedom, men trying to live free and their companions not thinking beyond their imagination. The truth is that of those non-human animals that have walked alongside the man in history, 马 has left a lasting mark either in the physical or immaterial spheres. From Rocinante to horseshoes hung on the doors of many houses lá to shoo ghosts; from imaginary journeys in search of freedom, 马leaves no one indifferent to the environment in where it lives.

Beijing, January 30th 2014, hours before the beginning of the year of the Horse.

口令 Kou ling

With the computer revolution in the 90s the use of 口令became widespread. The popularity of computers and laptops which replaced the giant ones, along with an easier and more intuitive software, led to the need of protecting the information they contained.

In the second decade of the 21st century social networks grew popular due to the booming of smartphones with access to Internet through Wi-Fi anywhere. The computer turns into the Middle Age kingdom or county where the wandering knight was granted access after he pronounced the口令to the ones behind the frontier. Now, the wealth of our kingdom is the saved digital information, to which we need to set filters through口令.

Cá in Beijing the great majority of bars and clubs offer customers access to their Wi-Fi networks with the only condition of introducing a口令. This allows us to go through the different mental processes undergone by the people in charge of setting the口令. We have moved from the personal classics: date of birth, name of the partner or son… to the mental search of an impersonal type more related to the place one is getting Wi-Fi access from.

This way we see some who have not struggle a lot to find the口令and just set a classic backward series of numbers “8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1” or the name of the place. There are some who even try to boost their business income with things like “drinknow”. Surf, but consume. I am not forcing. Just a reminder.

Beijing, February 1st 2014.

客服 ke fu

“The 客服 is always right”. This slogan may seem far away from us but its role in the expansion of the retail sector and improvement of quality of life was determinant at a specific moment in history.

Maximizing profits and making profitable production is more and more determining and implies, among other things, that products have an expiration date. Products tend to fail once the quality guarantee time runs out and therefore need to be replaced. Sometimes, part of the service is done by the 客服, therefore the customer has to be right as it is himself who does part of the service.

Costs are being reduced at gas stations where the 客服, after done the payment, supplies fuel to the vehicle. Also at supermarkets where the 客服 scans bar codes and eventually pays with the credit card.

Cá, shared garbage collection can be seen in places like Ping Yao. The truck arrives, pulls over and people lift the dumpster and empty it. The question is whether this shared task is the outcome of a social tradition of community service or the implementation of austerity measures.

Beijing, January 9th 2014.

腹肌 fu ji

In food shortages periods, 腹肌remained fit and flexible, part because of the burden of activities people had to do to survive and part because of the lack of abundance and excess in food and drinks.

With the improvement of life conditions, 腹肌became more limp and loose, having a curvy shape, not because it was pregnant but because progress in people's life came along with physical deterioration as a result of excesses and lack of exercise.

When quality of life became widespread, reaching out a high percentage of people, standards of beauty changed again and being chubby, which once was highly appreciated, was seen as being fat and not attractive. 腹肌, who did not have to lift a finger before, had seen itself involved in an almost daily workout of contracting and stretching muscles for it to be fit as it used to be. 腹肌 was forced to be toned up in the shortest period of time.

Months before summer, workout routines in gym facilities are a must. In those first days of summer, where everybody goes to the beach, 腹肌 is the opposite of curvy and looks like a flatland, as if it were a bar of chocolate.

Cá though, there are some rituals and habits that benefit 腹肌 toning by tightening and stretching repeatedly, which give it a flat and styling shape. We are talking about those bows in Buddhist temples before Buddha representations. Bows have to be done three times at least to each sculpture and some other more at the entrance, where incense is lit, oriented to a different cardinal direction.

Let's imagine a room or individual space of a temple with three main sculptures at the facade which means nine muscular contractions-stretching exercises of the 腹肌, plus twelve more when entering the temple, plus three more at the sculpture of the back and at least a minimum of eight in each side of the temple. All in all, we will count seventy four bows in just one room. If we take in mind that each temple usually has three rooms with sculptures, two hundred 腹肌 routine could be done in just one visit.

Thanks to the smell of the incense, we know that we are at a Buddhist temple to work out the腹肌and not in any other kind premise.

Beijing, January 18th 2014. 11

冻死 dong si

Salt was a high-valued ingredient long ago, mostly in warm places, where camel and dromedaries parades crossed deserts carrying bags of salt that were exchanged for other goods. Salt was the key element to preserve food, which guaranteed sustenance for the whole year. Even now we still use salinization method to cure jamón and other pig's parts, those cuts of pork we enjoy in a good Galician stew.

A way of preserving food is by lowering temperature. In the past, technical development changed social and human behavior by finding a way to create artificial 冻死.

When 冻死machines for inner places were created such as refrigerators, which helped larders in their functions, and then freezers which let us preserve food over months for future consumption, people's quality of life in the world also improved, either for personal use at home or to keep food at its best quality in the designated area at the supermarket.

Meat can be 冻死 as so can be humans. Cá, in winter one might almost feel being 冻死 at an airport room while waiting for the bus which will take passengers to the plane. By making use of this no-scheduled passenger conservation, airlines companies preserve us at our best quality for us to have better or similar qualities to those of the origin upon arrival to our destination.

Beijing, February 22nd 2014.

宗教 zong jiao

宗教may be distinguished from each other because of their different rituals. Ceremonies and performances are celebrated during some specific moments of the day and followed by a whole pattern that is deeply internalized in those who believe in them.

Émile Durkheim explained the origin of 宗教 on his book The elementary forms of the 宗教 life by extrapolating totemic rituals of the inhabitants in the Pacific who had to face Mother Nature's setback, as it would be electric shocks during a tropical storm, which obviously can make anyone fear. That is why everybody gathered together to venerate a totem that could protect them and make their existence safer, if only in their minds.

Every 宗教 has its books, seemed as sacred for the purpose they want to instill, albeit they actually are just books with text. Sometimes, it is usual to find Bibles for the guest to read at hotel rooms in countries where Protestantism is a tradition, saving them the burden of carrying those in the suitcase. Although now pads and smartphones make reading easier since it is weightless.

Cá, some people have another devotion, as if it were some kind of宗教: learning Chinese. Every morning psalms of vocabulary have to be learned and when the sun comes down this ritual has to be repeated. Repetition and repetition of vocabulary, as if it were the Holy Rosary for Catholics or Surah of Koran, or any other 宗教textbook.

Beijing, February 22nd 2014.

头疼 tou teng

头疼 is an alarm indicator that something is not working in one's gear, that something has run into an obstacle when doing its function. It sends alarm signs for the others to react and remove what is holding back the body's everyday functioning.

Those obstacles are usually toxic, harmful to the body, and may lead to 头疼. Its origin lies in different causes, from what we call sociomental foundation to gas particles cause, coming all over from the purest liquid state.

On the one hand, in social relationships, regardless of field and proximity to the pathogenic element, one may find people throughout life that can cause 头疼, since that sociomental relationship is not healthy and produces toxic elements, either for one or for both. This relationship often ends up in a break up or growing apart.

On the other hand and sometimes similar to the situation described above, we tend to ingest liquids in our free and leisure time. If those liquids are not good quality, they may lead to a massive release of toxins when mixed with other liquids. Once they run in our body, after some hours and euphoric moments, they make us have a specific头疼. Although it can be relieved with some medicines, only time will ease it.

Cá, another important element plays an important role, it existed in other places of the world long ago, but here it is alarming. It spreads gas particles all over and for days, which make us have 头疼 after having breathed them. Those toxic elements in our respiratory tract send alarm signs to the rest of the body.

Needless to say that 头疼 can be more harmful if various agents capable of causing 头疼 play together, which will delay the so wanted recovery. This leaves one always wondering when the pain will ease and if new healing measures have to be taken, since the pain aggravates as a result of the attack of those agents as a team.

Beijing, February 24th 2014, in between 358 and 425 micrograms per cubic meter.

洗澡 xi zao

Throughout history of humanity, humans have been 洗澡 to a greater or a lesser extent at either creeks, rivers or any other source of water, ponds or places built for that purpose. From a mere fabric hanged up between two points, a bucket or the fanciest faucet, the final purpose of it is to 洗澡.

This custom, no matter what time, lets us keep doing our activities or simply relax, since not only takes away those dirty elements from our body, but tones it and clears the mind. Therefore, its modus operandi is one of those things that parents teach to their kids in early stages.

One of the goals of 洗澡 is to get used to the environmental conditions, making the contrast between our temperature and the environment less perceptible. Cá, just as a mother helps her infant to 洗澡, sometimes because of the bad weather, 洗澡 nonliving elements is needed for their proper functioning.

While waiting in a plane to take off in the seat that was previously assigned to you, you would find hard to understand when the hostess tells you that you can unfasten your seat belt, leaving you wondering why it is no longer useful when about to take off. A tanker truck then approaches, ready to pour water just as a shower head would do, to 洗澡 the aircraft.

Once it took away those elements that were stuck on the surface because of the low temperature and having gotten rid of the electrostatic charges, all toned up, one can finally fasten the seat belt, just as one would do after 洗澡 and before going out.

Beijing, March 8th 2014.

皮带 pi dai

He woke up when the clarity was gaining ground to the darkness, when artificial lights were no longer useful and natural light was embracing more angles.

His doing was routine and mechanic. He paid a visit to the place where impurities are removed. An omeprazole pill, a coffee, then he brushed the white elements inside the oral cavity, had a shower and took a towel to dry off.

It was time for the daily ritual. He covered his body with elements made of fabric including that new element he bought few days back that is part of those accessories that cannot be shown, a 皮带.

At times, since months ago, he could feel as if something inside him were ripping him up, specifically in that place hidden under what we call inner thigh. He could feel that something inside him was tearing apart as if both parts did not belong together, as if they were of different origin or nature, one element artificial and the other one alive.

Time passed by and things got worse, something started to show discreetly to the outside, standing out, not because of its wisdom and knowledge but for its constant aim of being noticed by giving uncomfortable feelings. Measures had to be taken, first in the waist and then the purchase of a 皮带 to control what was projecting to the outside because of negativity.

Although clothes do not make the man, habits can be internalized and become a custom. That is how the皮带became part of the ritual and, together with the rest of his clothes, joined the club of his daily outfit. It was hard for the皮带 to put that protuberance in the right place though.

Once he finished the preparation of the external part, he grabbed the suitcase handle that he had left the night before once it was ready. He then left the house, locked the door, called the elevator. The door of the right elevator opened, he pushed button no. 1.

He looked at his mobile phone to check the time. It was 7 am. He was on time to start the trip he planned days ago. He opted to get the airport express train since his jetlag did not let him do what he did not wanted nor going to an unwanted place.

Though he got used to the pressure that the 皮带would give to the protuberance, he felt an awkward feeling. It felt like he was carrying something more. After the check in, he went to the boarding control.

He had internalized that phase because of his multiple trips: camera, cell phone, e-book, wallet and 皮带 on the tray and no accessories on him, just the clothes. He passed through the metal-detector machine and hopped on the platform for the security officials to frisk, as it is usual.

He opened wide his arms and the official, holding the metal-detector machine with the right hand, confirmed with the left hand that nothing was hidden until he reached the waist. He felt that something was inside and, with his fingers, he touched something solid that was neither human nor fabric tissue. He lifted his right hand and, suddenly, an alarm went off, which made all security officials turned and pointed with their weapons to him.

He slowly went from having wide arms to hands up. Flashes of the film Midnight Express directed by Alan Parker came to his mind, film that he had seen the night before on the classic movies channel. Beads of sweat trickled down his face.

The security official that began the checking had already changed the metal-detector machine for a revolver and started to separate his clothes with his left hand, trying to find what he had underneath but with the revolver pointing at his head. With his ring finger he unbuttoned the left part of his trousers. After ten seconds which seemed minutes and hours, he found the 皮带.

Coldness woke him up and he slowly realized that the sheets were stuck to his body. He overslept and sheets got all soaked. He woke up abruptly and took away that element that was on him and did not let the air pass through. He touched his face, opened his eyes and saw his bedroom, while with the left hand he pressed his inguinal hernia. In that moment, images of the film that he saw the night before were real in his mind.

Beijing, March 13th 2014.

éŞ&#x2014;é&#x2019;ą pian qian

Societies have been changing core activities, from those focused on maintaining the human species, therefore with a high physiological component that offered little room for reflection and discourse of thought, to activities focused on improving quality of life in those daily activities that already left room to think about how to progress toward improvement. That is, from walking paths in search of work to go hiking in the neighboring towns.

But perhaps since forever and, together with the very existence of human groups, there have always been elements prone to non-activity, longing for getting benefit with the minimum effort, and thus not favoring the common progress while others' activity focuses on having benefits based on the excessive trust of others.

People like the latter group are seen the more and more in different fields and generalized in the last twenty five years. However, even now, one may feel being in a Spanish film of the 60s, with Tony Leblanc as main character and actors such as Paco Martinez Soria or Jose Isbert in roles of people going to the capital to seek success.

The bus with barely twenty five seats would cover two important villages route starting early in the morning and stopping when needed. At the same time, thousands of others buses did the same across the vast country.

A few kilometers away from the start of the trip, the bus stopped in a small town where three individuals got onto: two went to the end and the other one sat on the vacant seat on the second row next to this storyteller. After some minutes, voices could be heard in a more and more high tone. A conversation-argument between these two travelers who had just sat down in the back of the bus started.

Because of the intonation and speaking, one voice resembled that of a person with some, albeit slight, mental deficiency and the other one spoke in loudness of maturity and good sense. The fact is that laughs from other passengers could be heard and a couple of them stuck their noses into the conversation. One of the motivators was the guy that was sitting on the second row and with whom they had entered.

Just when he looked back he saw how some notes of 100 yuan changed hands from the person whose voice made him seen as mental deficient to one of the passengers in the center of the bus in exchange for one yellow note. Such a strange situation since red colored 100 yuan notes 18

are the highest denomination of bills possible.

It was quiet for a few minutes until the one with the good sense voice reproached the one with the deficient voice for any incorrect behavior. The latter tried to justify himself, all in a suspicious and inquisitive environment. Once again, the guy in the second row entered the scene. In less than a minute he managed to be in the spotlight and took from his pocket a series of 100 yuan notes in exchange for the yellow note, similar to the previous situation as it happened before.

Within the next two minutes, because they were asked for, the good sense voice and the deficient one got off the bus and after 200 meters, so did the one in the second row.

Surely a 骗钱 had just been happened, taking advantage of the other driven by greed for wealth. One gives about 400 yuan notes in exchange for another of an assumed value of 500, which for any reason, the deficient voice wanted to exchange it not because that note was fake and nonexistent in the market but original.

That is why the one sitting in the second row intervened to reclaim the note, because those do not exist, they are unique pieces, and in theory he would have earned some money. Unless they took advantage of the situation to give fake notes of 100 yuan to the person who thought he was going to obtain money and this way ending the 骗钱. Notes that have not any value on the market, not because they were fake or nonexistent but because they were just a simple small picture or printed image on a paper, whence this kind of rip-off is known in other places as “timo de la estampita” that may be reusable anywhere at any time.

After some years in the garden of a senior center, three people are staring at the infinite and remembering adventures of the past and a voice, apparently deficient, asks the person right next to him whether he can swap the note he had because there was no change in the cafeteria.

Beijing, March 18th 2014.

进化 jin hua

Adaptability of humans is greater than we can imagine and hardly anyone doubts the veracity of the evolutionary theory. Physiologically talking, now we get to see millions of years as if they were a few seconds away, on a paper or panel in which processes of millions of years such as adaptation or 进化 to current social environmental situations can be seen in real-time.

Changes happen faster, what took a century to be produced now it can be done in a year. Our 进化then tends to a greater adaptability and versatility. We all think the same way because of the globalization of certain situations and trends but at some point it is obvious that some finishing touches are needed in our mental mechanism to function well.

Darwin's theory about species 进化is so embraced in daily life that we may hear messages such as this one “I will have gills if it keeps raining”, sentence I heard last winter in the village I was born after days of heavy and continuous rain.

Cá, where the pollution is really high, one can also embrace进化theory. Days in which a “un rayo de sol pasa a duras penas por entre el aire contaminado de la ciudad” (a ray of sunlight barely passes through the polluted air of the city), as one of the songs of La Polla Records described during the Movida in the 80s are very common. We tend to adapt our sight to a constant translucent image fearing that pollution had crept above 500. However, it is just cataracts what one has. Maybe in the future if somebody finds our jaw bones they will be able to deduce that “this one here used a 3M PP3. Look at the jaw”, because of the 进化of our facial features.

We must be aware as these external protection elements could be internalized at a frightening level. Not only have we had to safeguard current life but the future one. Beware of the 进化sperm since they could wear masks any day, which would have to take into account when making the remake of Woody Allen film Everything you ever wanted to know about sex* (*but were afraid to ask).

Beijing, March 25th 2014.

菜单 cai dan

In the services sector, it is really important for the customer to have a whole view of what a company offers, whether on a sheet or in electronic format. Unlike companies that provide consumable products, service is a good in which the interrelation with the customer is higher and variable.

In the case of consumer goods, the key is the quality and price of the product and the relation between them. It depends then on the customer affordability, which will be determinant when choosing, as the lack of resources will give more importance to lower prices and will try to fill a need at a minimum price.

In the services sector, presentation and customer service are key factors for the business to be successful. In restaurants, good 菜单 are a must and have to be accurate as you may find places, not so far from here, where they had just two or three dishes of what is written on the whole菜单.

Cá, it is usual to find a 菜单 as a book, full of pictures and underneath the names of them. However, 菜单 can also be a simple sheet printed both sides, usually written in the local language. That is why taking a quick look around to see what's on other tables would be a good choice for us to make a decision of what apparently could fulfill our wishes. That or going with the waiter to the place where different products are put on display. Activity that you may see in some touristic spots where they give you a 菜单 in Russian, with the aim to provide a good service to the tourist but of doubtful success since they give it to people unfamiliar with that language.

Beijing, March 30th 2014.

刹那 cha na

If we break our lifetime down to a time-space existence minimum we may find a 刹那. Changes throughout a lifetime have been caused by decisions taken in a 刹那, whether it was a 'yes' or a 'no', whether we were right or wrong, those 刹那 determined the events of our existence, facing a dilemma in which there is no other possibility but to choose.

Although we are not aware, daily course is made up by a huge number of decisions that are taken in a 刹那. Until recent years, those were limited to a world that we considered real, based on information inputs coming from different senses. However, the advent of social networks has created a new scenario with its own features.

Some material gadgets provide the basis for data reception. It usually is a communication device, most frequently a smartphone. By now, it is used to forward visual and written information and on its basis we get to create different personalities of the interlocutor.

It is true that those kind of virtual relations end up meeting several communication needs of society and providing the foundation for a plausibility structure of the reality based on everyday language, as Berger and Luckmann explained on The social construction of reality. However, it is no longer about the conversation with the newsstand vendor when buying the newspaper every morning but sending long distance messages.

But this reality lacks of sensory intensity: the partner's smell, the touch when exchanging caresses, changes of the visual environment but not of the communication channel, etc. In a 刹那 a virtual conversation can become real. A meeting point, date and time and the imagination eager to know if what was imagined matches with what we see.

Always with caution and restraint since the information provided by the other could be wrong and we do not know the customs of our chat conversational partner in a real situation. A conversation like this one might happen when you are five minutes late and you message the person you are going to meet for the first time:

- Just arrived. - Just gotten out.

The shadow of a possible stand up creeps up on him, blurring his mind and staring at the surroundings he hears the song of Mandrágora in his mind that said “Y yo aquí como un estúpido madre” (I am just up here looking like a stupid jerk). He had to choose between leaving and staying. In a 刹那 he decided to stay for fifteen more minutes thinking over/considering about what just happened, when suddenly she came. The sentence “Just gotten out” was referring to a different place.

A simple 刹那could have made the one who thought was going to be stood up stand up another one. What is important then is to live with full of 刹那.

“Chinese have a saying to describe the meeting in person of virtual friends: 见光死 (jian guangsi). Means the relation end up after meeting under light [Chuckle]”.

Beijing, April 5th 2014.

咖啡 ka fei

According to experts, first evidences that seem credible of a drink called 咖啡date back to the mid-fifteenth century in the Sufis monasteries of Yemen, coming all the way from Ethiopia through Egypt, as so did qat.

While consumption of 咖啡does not suffer any restrictions other than quality and expertise, qat enjoys significant limitations on its production and consumption because it contains cathinone, a type of amphetamine. Countries such as Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia and Yemen are more flexible though. In fact, qat replaced most of the tea and 咖啡plantations in the last above-mentioned country. More information on the qat road can be read on Eating the Flowers of Paradise: A Journey Through the Drug Fields of Ethiopia and Yemen by Kevin Rushby, edited by Altair Viajes, in which the author pursuits the steps of Richard Burton from Ethiopia to Yemen a century later.

Consumption of咖啡spread in the sixteenth century, coming all the way from Italy to the rest of Europe. Places were created for its consumption and popular people went there to have a conversation or argue while tasting a 咖啡 and eventually those gatherings became famous in some of these places.

Its spread also arrived to America and reached greater popularity after Boston Tea Party where rebels threw all the tea into the sea, key moment in the independence/development of the United States. Afterwards, its production and consumption was established in the rest of the American continent.

In Asia, however, except for Ceylon and Indonesia, tea plantations were kept and its consumption still remained the same, while咖啡 phenomenon was only important in Vietnam during the 90s. In few years, Vietnam became the second largest exporter of 咖啡 in the world. Because of the very competitive prices, in the long-term, Vietnam made the prices fell down worldwide, ending in a world crisis.

Cá, 咖啡's consumption is not common. It cannot be found in places where people gather to discuss but in big foreign commercial chains of local shares. They offer the product as it would be in Monterey (California) or in any other store throughout the world, or at European style restaurant in which one can find different varieties of 咖啡 in the menu.

In spite of what one can read on the piece of paper or folder that a waiter gives you, sometimes what one orders has nothing to do with what one had in mind, that is why when 24

you order an Irish 咖啡 they serve a simple咖啡 with cream on the top.

It is true that if there are differences in the way of making a carajillo of either cognac or brandy in places so close to each other as Santiago de Compostela and Valencia (in the first city the cognac/brandy is burnt prior to pouring 咖啡 while in the second city they pour it straight off), it would be reasonable to find more differences in the way of making an Irish 咖啡 in places so far away from each other as Beijing and Belfast. But that is only if Irish 咖啡 in Belfast is served as it is served in the rest of Europe or America.

Beijing, April 13th 2014.

活动的 Huo dong de

He was having one of his usual walks in the outskirts of Ephesus where he could find inner peace looking at the nature, trying to find the answers to: Who are we? Where are we going? Where do we come from? Twenty centuries after these questions will still sound quasianthem of an Iberian generation under any song by Siniestro Total. He stopped and stared at the river where so many times he had been when he was a child. Watching the water moving, which was 活动的, his intuition makes him conscious of something: “Everything flows, nothing remains the same”. That river that he had stared at before, always looks different. Not analysing which part of the subject influences the observed; he determines as tautology that “you cannot step twice into the same river”. Not because he has now decided to round the world from river to river as the leit motiv of his existence, but because nothing remains still. A great part of the human happiness will consist of that adaptation to the flow, to be活动的 with his environment or in活动的to another different in which to be and to be now do not confront. In fact, in the last few years, this confrontation is smaller due to the fact that the human being is more worried on being now than on being. The existence is more relevant than the essence. A life fulfilled with material needs rather than with ideas or an ideology. Once the point of comfort and stability has been reached we tend to avoid being活动的. However, to some that point is precisely being in活动的. Cá many elements are in apparent活动的. Humans change their jobs as a choice or as a result of been chosen, and business do so because either it is profitable or because it has to be changed. A活动的centered on being now.

To Heráclito

Beijing, April 14th 2014

一二 yi er

When teaching a group of people to move together and at the same rhythm, we tend to use simple and perceptible sounds such as 一二. Paradigm of this kind of teaching is the military instruction.

When enlisting, the very first thing we learn is what image they want us to project and perfect it by repeating/training at the rhythm of 一二 day by day, month by month, year by year until the graduation of the recruited. However, we find this very same sound 一二 in other activities.

One day he started having trouble seeing objects that were far away, also from a short distance, and he realized that his lost of sight was a reality more than palpable, foreseeable from its blurriness. He needed to use a corrective element to get rid of it and make objects distinguishable. An optician is what he needed.

To make that corrective object he had to know how many diopters he had in each eye, also which kind of ocular corrective element he needed and who could determine or quantify it. That is why each of them sat in their positions and tried to find a simple code that would let them communicate, as there was not any language in common to ask questions such as “Do you see better this way or this other one?”.

At the beginning he, the sight deficient person, said sentences such as “好”(hao) to explain that what he was seeing was sharp or “不好”(bu hao) to explain the opposite. The person who had to determine the scale of sight deficiency chose to say 一二. He then had to choose one or another to express how he was seeing.

This way, at the rhythm of 一二, 一二, 一二..., gradation of his sight was completed in very simple steps, in opposition to the great effort made when graduating from military service. Thirty years ago at the military service, a person with sight problems could graduate faster, since that person would have been found no suitable for that service.

Beijing, April 15th 2014.

闲聊着

xian liao zhe

You would come from work at 7 pm, throw the jacket over one of the sofas and let your body fall over the other one. Eyes all closed, you felt how your muscles relax. After a couple of minutes, you could start up again.

She, with whom you shared moments, used to be at home, she worked from 7.30 to 15. Then she would 闲聊着. Words come from both mouths which first would be heard as sounds in the ears and eventually become words that, most of the times, were understood. That is how the days of their private life passed, in a worthy and real environment. It was mid 90s and cellphones were barely in the market.

You would come from work at 7 pm, throw the jacket over one of the sofas and sit on the other one to sign on to a social network. You start a 闲聊着 or better said, resume the one you left yesterday with her. Now is a movement of fingers pressing letters on your smartphone screen, sent in a geometric shape as so would be the sentences of the main character of a comic book.

The truth is that it is tragicomic that our private life rests on the virtual, volatile. There are some advantages though, there is no way of rising the voices or throwing objects over a fight. At the most, one would send words in capital letters while 闲聊着 to show anger or would eliminate that person from the contact list, as if he/she were picking up things and leaving.

Warm, touching and real blood are fading away and audiovisual stimulus are not enough. It is also true that every time you 闲聊着 with the virtual playmate you cover a gap in your private life, making you the more and more individual and lonely, as it is shown on the film Her by Spike Jonze.

Virtual can become real in our minds and, certainly, that would be real as well. But what we perceive through our senses and their interaction with the environment and vice versa will always be more fulfilling. Although nowadays people tend to find partial and immediate satisfactions more rewarding.

Beijing, April 26th 2014.

九九九 jiu jiu jiu

With the development of cellphones, new devices were created for everything but for talking on the phone, that is why we now call them smartphones. This may end up in a relationship inversely proportional to the intelligence of the user, since things that are not in use could atrophy. We communicate more but talk less and our discursive abilities are restrained to sending messages in social networks such as emojis, lol, etc.

The number of smartphone users in urban hubs is such that every establishment has its own Wi-Fi network, the customer being at the establishment but his mind at some other place. The access to this service has not any additional cost but a password is needed.

He was about to soothe the hunger by grabbing something quick, he chose a simple dish and a drink and sat on an individual table, from which he could see the street. Time passed by while he was watching the waiters going back and forth and those customers that were in the other side of the window panes.

Not even two minutes have passed when he took from his right pocket his new generation phone —although, according to the newest advertising campaigns, it was already in degeneration—. It was not the newest but it did not lose its intelligence and could connect to the Internet through Wi-Fi network.

After several attempts to get visual contact with any of the waiters, he gently shifted the chair on which he rested his weight back and stood up to meet the waiter whose back was opposite to the public. Once his attention was called, he showed the screen phone for him to understand, in the absence of a pre-established verbal communicative common language, what he wanted to know was the password.

- Hah! Nameoftheestablisment and nanana. - Xie xie.

While walking toward his table he started typing what he was told or, at least, what he thought he was told after the first access failure. While he was standing, he began with nameoftheestablishmentnanana, then nameoftheestablishmentaaa, nameoftheestablishmentlalala and several variations of the 'a' in the final syllables. Convinced of the misunderstanding, he returned to the place where the other waiter was and, once again, he showed the screen. 29

- Hum! Nameoftheestablishment and nanana.

This time though, he remained there until the waiter realized what the customer wanted was him to type the password, since he failed before. The waiter, using his forefinger, typed the password on the tactile screen: nameoftheestablishment and 九九九.

With a smile he returned to the table where the food was.

In the same way that a Galician or Andalusian person has a strong accent when saying 九九九 in English, cá they pronounce 九九九 using the fourth tone of the standard Mandarin, which makes it sound as nanana.

Beijing, May 2nd 2014.

邻居 lin ju

First groups of humans were formed based on blood ties, living mainly on the meat from hunting. Depending on the size of the prey, they would go hunt individually or in groups. The whole unit would go to another place in search of food, if required.

Time passed by and activities of these groups changed. Those tasks that had relation with harvesting, in a completely natural way, became a sort of land manipulation in order to obtain the so wanted product in a particular place without having to move and look for it.

Plant origin foodstuff fought for its own place in people's diet and farming tasks displaced those related with hunting, passing from nomadism to sedentary lifestyle. The latter at its finest when hunting tasks were replaced by breeding animals for their own consumption in the settlement.

Those settlements not only grouped together individuals of the same blood ties but gathered different families, clans or whatever term we want to use in the same place. They became tribes and over time, they were renamed as small towns, villages, villas, cities, large cities and metropolis.

When a family joined a single family settlement in order to take a qualitative leap, result of the quantitative accumulation which led to a larger grouping, they became 邻居of one another. Because groups were growing in quantity and were different according to the tasks they performed the number of 邻居increased as well. This contributed to the mix of different family units and, this way, one became 邻居of his original family unit.

In small groups of humans, it is usual to find common spaces for different 邻居to share activities, whether for purposes of group governance or for common profitable goals. Those places range from trees in small villages in Runsiki (Cameroon), a courtyard of a building in Madrid, a field of thresh in a small town of Ourense or the inside of a tulou in Fujian. Communal spaces in which, as a 邻居, one can leave goods fearless of being stolen.

In big cities, urban designers have established common places such as parks and green areas in particular residential compounds. There is also a common area to keep personal belongings, although at the beginning it was created to be just a transit way.

Going through ground floor units with common spaces within the same neighborhood to a block in the 30th floor out of 40th in such a short period of time has led to an interesting 31

situation. People still gather their belongings in front of the apartment door, as they used to. They park bicycles, shelves with shoes, toys, clothes racks or whatever thing they do not use inside the house and what will otherwise occupy room within.

In these kind of condos it is usual to have minimum or no contact at all with 邻居. One realizes that the 邻居has changed when closing the door and turning around to walk toward the elevator and sees that the previous personal belongings have been substituted by others of different sizes, designs and functions. The owner then is another one, therefore no more dog barking and no piano sounds. It is not a temporary absence but a change of 邻居.

Beijing, May 11th 2014.

病人 bing ren

In a simple and general way, behavior and attitude toward life can be divided into two large groups based on their inclination to activity or its opposite. On the one hand, we would find the doing, the undertaking, the progress and, ultimately, an active attitude of interest in life and in living it; while in the other hand we find expressions ranging from “being braindead”, “being carried along”, “bumping on a log”, “apapostiado” or “a velas vir” in Galician.

Needless to list social/educational or biogenetic causes that drag people into one or another vital attitude. The fact is that we live until the opposite of life comes, although sometimes one feels being a living dead body. Therefore, one could be a 病人in the sense of receiving stimulus of the environment which will remain answered, being a unidirectional receiver without vital life.

However, assets might also pass through passive stages and become 病人. Not in the sense of permissiveness toward different attitudes that will be allowed until a certain threshold is exceeded but because sometimes the body needs some rest. We have then to spend days in places where one is the 病人, with limited or no activity at all. One can eventually ingest some substances that can make lose consciousness for the doctor to repair what was damaged. Then one has to be patient because one has become the 病人. Moments in which one gets away from daily activity to become a non doer, on one's way to a future activity.

Beijing, May 15th 2014.

谣言 yao yan

One of the psychological strategies that human beings unconsciously develop to cope with different situations in life is just the opposite one, not facing them. To this end, we skirt, evade, put on hold or anything we can do rather than being aware of living. The best strategy is then not to face one's life and be interested in the lives of others in a non-empathic way.

Progress in relations between humans, in the field of proximity, is greater when the level of empathy is higher. The ability to walk in someone else's shoes to understand their existence and vice versa makes the group move forward to a greater cohesion and common achievements.

The opposite of it is a relationship based on an attitude of living others' lives rather than face one's existence, avoiding any minimum point of criticism. People spend hours looking out the window, listening to the sounds of the apartment next door, paying attention to other people's hair, whom will return with and what time..., reducing much of their daily existence to observe the other and, with others, create a non-empathic view of the existence of the other one based on 谣言.

Such trend of living in an alienated way has been enhanced in recent decades, going from town squares where the group meets for observation and quirky brainstorming to create a new 谣言, to offer them the opportunity to live alienated, worried about what others do or do not, from the comfort of their own home with shows like "Big Brother" in which a group of people, previously selected based on their personalities, are put into a home to live together until the public itself decides who should leave the house. The 谣言 is created by the media itself to be discussed later, enhanced or transformed into different conversations about it at work, in the cafeteria or on the phone.

All of the above is a way to promote the creation of a 谣言to get more audience and the use of social networks in the last decade has helped to expand it.

It's not longer necessary to say "do not tell anyone, okay!", when conveying information to those people that live other people's lives, knowing that an hour is just needed to disclose the information face to face. Now, just by using social networks we can give substance to "live other people's lives" of members of a community, and it's no longer limited to the physical space of a town and its square. These meetings for observing and commenting have disappeared and just with a smartphone connected to Wi-Fi we have access to a social network without leaving the seat, living the life of tons of others. 34

But social networks also allow disclosure of true information and it is used as an element of the relation of empathy with others as well. As other information channels, it must be used to find the truth of the 21st century.

Beijing, May 18th 2014.

天职 tian zhi

When we start being aware of the surroundings in our first years of life, we learn that these bipeds elements, for we must tilt the head back in order to see them, perform activities different from each other, but sometimes they happen to be the same.

When we leave the family nest, always supervised at the beginning, we discovered that there is a person behind a counter delivering things to eat in exchange for some papers and pseudo metal things our mother pulls out from her wallet. Later, we go to a place where a person in a white coat asks us to open our mouths to look inside. Another day, somebody calls the front door and from the bottom we observe how a hand from outside gives an envelope to the person who opened the door... And then we hear and internalize that one is called shopkeeper, the other a doctor, a messenger...

It's in school, in the start of a secondary type of socialization, where we are taught that there are lots of jobs, all of them with a role in society. But for us, at that time, that is something that just grown ups worry about. Soon we began to have predilection for an activity which lets us answer the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Deep in our bones a 天职is taking shape, based on genetic and environmental enhancements. The truth is that in many cases the 天职will change over time and will look for the best fit between our wishes and the role that we play, because not all of us become doctors, nurses or teachers, as we wanted when we were little.

So we find people with one or several frustrated 天职 for whatever reason, although I do not think that is what lies at the core of it. Cá one can find vehicles driving back and forth, whose driver offers passersby to give them a lift from one point to another in exchange for a sum of money. It is highly recommended to negotiate beforehand, mind you.

It would seem that the 天职of taxi driver is one of the most sough-after jobs given the apparent frustrated 天职 (they even drive their private vehicle to fulfill that void). But it seems it has more to do with necessity rather than anything else.

Beijing, May 24th 2014.

弄脏了 nong zang le

It was during the early years of the 1980s when blood flowed through the veins giving a sense of vitality, result of the social and personal changes during adolescence. As soundtrack, the double LP London Calling by The Clash together with Pioneros radio broadcast, among many others that were released for the first time and aimed to live.

You would cut the sleeves of the shirt and pierce the left earlobe to wear an earring, let the hair grow long, wishing to be in California. But there you were, in the west coast of Galicia, without Big Sur but with Costa da Morte and San Andres de Teixido, where festivals and pilgrimages were celebrated.

Pilgrimages in which the profane joins the pagan in a unique and particular way and where patronage can be found out. Saints and religious power were replaced by city councilman and political power during the democratic transition, as Marciall Gondar wrote in his Crítica da razón galega.

Pilgrimages in which one had to be baptized in honour of the god Bacchus. He would go there with a white spotless t-shirt which throughout the day would be 弄脏了 with red wine. Red liquid that was tossed merciless from wine skins or glasses or whatever container they had to those who were still spotless.

So he would go from Pontedeume to Breamo, from the mouth of the river Miño to Santa Tecra and at the level of the sea, to party in the Viking festival of Catoria with the guarantee that he would return with his clothes 弄脏了of red wine.

Everything was fine until an accident happened, when for a goodbye hug he made the glasses of red wine fell on the table and made his clothes弄脏了just to remember what he have experienced and what he has yet to live.

Beijing, June 24th 2014.

回收 hui shou

Forty years ago, in the city where the road ends or not anymore, since little by little the road reached Finisterre where the used boots of the pilgrim in his walk to Santiago are burnt, one of the choices to get some pocket money was to collect glass bottles of a well known American company of beverages from the streets and taking them to a supermarket where one would get some money in exchange.

In exchange for a small amount of money, glass bottles 回收in an increasingly modernized society was encouraged, while in the traditional society 回收 had not a place in the production process and consumption, since nothing was thrown away but "transformed". Concentration of humans in cities has increased large quantities of waste that must be treated.

Research on what to do with the waste and 回收these materials in order to minimize the damage to our environment is making progress. But the treatment of such waste and discrimination according to the type of it has a cost that reduces the benefit. We find bins of different colors and shapes for the civil society to classify them, action that can be performed at zero cost but, however, yellow, blue or green trash bins have to be bought in advance. Roughly said, we have gone from getting money by 回收 one glass bottle to buy the bin in which we throw the trash.

The truth is that a new problem has been arised in the family environment, "where do you have the bin to throw out the paper? Where do I leave this bottle?" or creating issues for debate and thought "what do I do with the diaper of a child with poop? Organic or plastic waste?"

Cá, a traditional process of a special plastic and paper recycling remains active. Sometimes two-wheeled vehicles can be seen transporting large quantities of these to other places for further treatment, allowing them to obtain some extra income while waste garbage is removed from the streets.

“He had arrived to the airport with enough time to check-in and get a good seat on the plane that was about to take him to a south central part of the country.

While greeting, he put his passport, residence card and e-ticket on the counter. The employee greeted back and took all the documents to process the check-in.

- Window or aisle seat?” - Window seat.

After few seconds...

- There you go, seat 43A, door 15B and boarding in an hour. Thank you very much and have a nice trip. - Thank you.

As he went toward security control, he thought about what part of the aircraft will his seat be. Given that number, he thought it would be at the tail of the plane.

Experience in security checks taught him not to wear a belt or watch. Automatically, he would leave in the tray the bag that contained those liquids and that was previously inside his backpack, which together with the phone, wallet, keys and passport and inside the latter the boarding pass, completed the contents thereof. His belongings were scanned on the chain as he passed through the metal detector without hearing any signal. The security guard pointed out that he could follow.

He put his belongings to the previous position and looked for the gate no. 15B to make the most of his waiting time while reading the book he took with him.

After half an hour he realized how people, who were sitting around, near the gate, began to stand up and walk. He realized it was true, boarding had started. After checked that only two pages were left to finish the chapter, he chose to finish them, while the rest of the passengers got into the plane.

He placed the bookmark where it has to be, in the end of chapter 2. Holding the book on his left hand he took his backpack with his right hand while standing up. He walked slowly toward the boarding gate and withdrew from his pocket the passport with the boarding pass that would allow him to get into the aircraft. The employee of the company, having checked the passenger identity, scanned the boarding pass on the bar code reader. Thinking that he would be located at the end of the aircraft, he came in and was told by the flight attendant to follow the first aisle to the right. To his very great surprise, he saw that the seat 43 was the first one in tourist class and that the last of business class was no. 12. Where are the other seats? Have they 回收economy class seats from a larger aircraft into two smaller ones?” Beijing, June 28th 2014. 39

秃 tu

A few months after having sense and awareness of his surroundings, his mother approached to him with an envelope, which by its thickness he knew that it contained just a letter. Once she sat opposite to him, he watched how she pulled out several old photos from the envelope and showed him who they were, many of them he did not know and some he would never know because they were already dead.

One of the pictures that attracted his attention was a photo when he was few months old with his parents. His father has always been quite 秃 and what was strange for him was to see family portrait pictures where his father's head looked completely different from his current self.

That is why he has always seen 秃 as something natural, to the point that for him it seemed ridiculous to make the effort to try to hide it.

He was in second grade of the Basic General Education, the different tonality of the teacher's hair called his attention, the crown being slightly different from the hair of the side. It looked almost artificial. When discussing it with different classmates, they came to the obvious conclusion that the teacher was 秃 and wore a toupee to hide it.

Acceptable and respectable choice as any other one if chosen freely. Other teachers grew their hair and laid it carefully on the 秃, not valid choice for everyone as it is impossible to do so with curly hair. Besides, being outdoors on windy days will show what one wants to be hidden.

The progress of science has obviously arrived to this field and today one can get an implant or use miraculous substances that might make what has stopped growing re-sprout in order to hide or mitigate what some feel like it is the reflect of the test of time every time they look in the mirror.

Cá while one gets his hair cut, the hairdresser does not miss the opportunity to point out, upon seeing the beginning of the road which will take him to 秃, that one has already started the 秃 journey and that they have remedies to avoid it. There's nothing better than being happy with yourself though.

Beijing, July 13th 2014. 40

椅子 yizi

Society evolves and shifts from small and family businesses toward large companies with thousands of employees across several headquarters. Similarly, thanks to the improvement of the welfare state, there has been a rise of the public administration employees to undertake all public services in order to improve the quality of life of citizens or the parties concerned.

Companies look for the customer satisfaction in exchange for a benefit whereas public administration wants the citizens’ satisfaction —customers after all—, those who support the system by paying their taxes. But in every organization, there have always been some people that prioritized their individual satisfaction at the expense of the group, as if they were illuminated by some strange vision and believed they were to receive a remuneration in exchange for a minimum service or encouraged by the path of least resistance, although sometimes performing it costs them more energy than to do the job.

By mid-last century, these elements headed first thing in the morning to their workplaces, in the sense of a physical place to stay more than a place to perform productive tasks. A newspaper was always under the arm, with the aim to read it upon arrival to the office and warming up the 椅子 as much as possible.

But the information revolution has led to a notable advance in the methods and ways to warm up the 椅子. Universalization of the use of personal computers in the workplace has led to an improvement for shorter response times to the assigned tasks and has also benefited the not so hardworking person. Also economically, since they do not have to spend part of their salary for a newspaper, since it can be read online. The skills to conceal what's being read and the art of displaying other work-related content upon arrival of other people that can disturb the peace are also being improved.

So today, a computer breakdown causes more nervousness to the person who usually warms up the椅子than to the busy and productive one who makes the most of that moment to perform other tasks. It is in those moments though, where the already widely extended smartphones play an important role, filling that spare time of computer non-operability with different contents, from sending pictures of new shoes on social networks to different hairstyles using the front camera.

It would seem fair to distinguish between the professional warming 椅子, brilliant strategist of the non-doing that justifies it and always tries to show he is busy, from the occasional 41

warming 椅子person, result of poor organization or specific technical reasons or low production and who has no problem in not hiding his no activity, since it is because by circumstances beyond his control. When work accounts for its objectives and schedule and salary in lesser time and cost, the non-doing will be cheaper because why warming the 椅子when you can do something of public or private interest that can make an improvement, either material and/or personal.

Beijing, July 16th 2014.

房间号码 fang jian hao ma

It was the second time he was traveling from the capital to an inland city to rest, to get away from the daily routine but, at the same time, to learn something new and to breathe without a mask for a few days. The experience of his previous trips gave him some reassurance. He knew that hotel internal operations were similar to their country of origin, with the exception of breakfast and difficulties, in some cases, to find a common linguistic code to guarantee a full communication.

He arrived to the hotel fifteen minutes behind the scheduled time, since the transfer from the airport had been hampered due to an accident involving a bus. It got stuck in the back of a truck transporting cattle, which was supposed to travel at a very low speed in its journey to the hill on the road that separated the airport from the urban area. The bus driver could not avoid it, given the high speed, plus the distance for a reduction of speed was not enough.

After the usual greetings to the hotel reception personnel, he gave his passport and reservation sheet. Data input on the computer was done as usual without any problem.

- Here you have. Your 房间号码 is 8326. Please sign the receipt of the bond payment. - Alright. Thank you so much.

He took a glimpse and found that the elevators were right next to the desk reception, so he went toward them, getting there just when one of the doors opened. Without delay and once the couple that was inside went out he got in.

While the doors were closing he could not find the 8th floor on the operating panel, which made him feel astonished, contradicted and surprised in just one second. Experience had taught him that the first number of the 房间号码 always tells which floor, being impossible to reach the 8th floor if the building had only four.

Dazed, he pushed the open door button and went out to avoid going up and down until knowing which floor he should get off. Automatically, he turned to his left and saw a sign that reminded the achievements of the country in 2008 Olympic Games. He remembered that the 43

opening ceremony had taken place at 8 pm of the 8th month in 2008 since number 8 brings good luck.

He looked at the door card that he held on his right hand and without delay he went into the elevator and pressed button no. 3.

Beijing, August 3rd 2014.

陨星 Yun xing

When facing circumstances or astonishing events to which the human being is unable to find an immediate rational explanation to, we opt for complicated contrastable hypothesis, which will only come with a temporary truthfulness. When a human being was looking at the unpolluted sky staring at the rounded element called “moon”, which was there like every day, he looked for an explanation to its origin guessing that a big 陨星 crashed against another rounded object called Earth and as a result it was left floating by the Earth. They called it “moon”, and then “lunatics” to those whose minds were up there instead than cá where they lived. It might be the same fact or a similar circumstance when another陨星 ended up with some beings whose magnitude and dimensions make it difficult to understand how they could disappear. However, their presence in the movie theatres, thanks to technical development, has rewarded Spielberg with some fame. Starting from a potential impact of a陨星called Melancholia Lars Von Trier shows a film about the end of the world. The same title as the dead rounded object moving toward an impact from which once again a non-empirically contrastable hypothesis will be developed. The fact of proving its veracity implies at the same time the extinction of its reality. One is free to see the similarity between the impact of a陨星 against the Earth and the wind coming up from the floor making small elements float in the air at high speed like many “Melancholia”, until one or a few crash into the unaware human eye. The lack of vision makes the darkness visible. Like a hypothetical impact of a big陨星 against the Earth. He leaned his head to the floor on different movements to maintain his integrity. Like the Solar System did when its components suffered an impact. As a matter of fact, three Earth rotations equivalent to 24 hours, according to the current system, had to pass to so that the eye surface recovered the sensation of a new passing of the time within the canons of a certain future by induced veracity.

Beijing, August 5th 2014.

玫瑰红 mei gui hong

Choice A:

Three seconds not even had passed when she got off the Mercedes Benz from the right rear seat. The driver, after grabbing the handle, proceeded to create a space between the door and the rest of the vehicle. The guard from the compound got to watch, after seeing a black right shoe, how a well designed female leg got off the car. In seconds, it became a feature that called his attention because of her firm and straight walking. The driver blank stared at her, not used to see nor hear something other than noises of motor vehicles or traffic circulation. Not looking back, she walked with a bouquet of 玫瑰红in her right hand toward the door. The guard rushed to open it for her and went through with almost no time for the air to pass.

Staring straight ahead, she went into the condo where she had an apartment on the 32nd floor. She pulled out from her bag the card that would let her in the hall and waited for the elevator to come. For the first time in the last minutes, she looked down 45 degrees to check that the right elevator was on the 32nd floor and the left one on the 5th. She lifted her right hand to push the button and realized that she had a bouquet of 玫瑰红. She put it in the trash bin that was right underneath the buttons.

Already released, she pressed the button and looked up. A smile grew on her face and became visible to her when staring at the mirror just when she got into the elevator without looking back. Doors closed and she got carried away.

Choice B:

He got off the cab in a hurry and putting the change in his right pocket, he realized he forgot the bouquet of 玫瑰红 in the rear seat of the cab. He stretched out his arm to pick it up while the driver, phlegmatic, looked at him by the rear view mirror.

While he was approaching the compound entrance, the guard looked at him without much eagerness to open up the door for him, until he realized his face looked familiar and opened the door slowly, indifferent to the speed shown by the person carrying the bouquet of 玫瑰红.

In a hurry he got into the condo, where the 玫瑰红bouquet addressee lived. He pushed buttons 3 and 2 on the automatic entry phone. He repeated the operation, holding the buttons for some seconds, with no response. Just when he was about to make the third attempt, the door opened because of the impetus and momentum of a German Shepherd, which was trying to be controlled by its owner with a leash. Finally, he went into the hall where the elevator doors were.

He saw that the right elevator began to go down from the thirty-two floor and the left one, despite pressing the call switch repeatedly, remained at minus two. Resigned, he waited for the right elevator to come. Astonished, he got to see the addressee of the bouquet of 玫瑰红getting off the elevator. Since she was talking on the phone, she did not realize he was there and left from the front door.

He looked at the bouquet of 玫瑰红and looking out of the corner of his eye; he felt the presence of a trash bin. That was the place where the flowers ended up.

Choice C:

- Inflarflora, how can I help you? - I would like to send a bouquet of 玫瑰红to the 32nd floor of the address I am about to send you on wechat. - Alright, we will deliver it right away.

He entered the compound with his delivery tricycle, full of boxes for immediate delivery (although he knew that only one would be delivered on time, but why not trying?). He picked up the bouquet of 玫瑰红; he pressed the access code for home delivering companies and saw that one elevator was on the 32nd floor. The problem was that he had no time and decided to leave it inside the trash bin and call the adressee to let her know she had something in the hall.

I thought part of this when I was waiting for the elevator to arrive and saw a bouquet of 玫瑰红inside the trash bin.

Beijing, August 14th 2014.

茶壶 cha hu

Over the last months, every morning he would sit in the front door of his house to see the spring sunrise as the break of the day began to brighten the world. As days passed, he realized how rooftops shined as a reflection of sunlight because rooftops were full of satellite dishes.

He stared so hard that he had to wear sunglasses to keep his observation. It was simple, the stronger the reflection of sunlight the more the feeling of warmth. That was the result of the sunlight beating on concave circles from which few lines bulged and converged at the same point where receivers were.

Over time, large antennas were replaced by smaller ones, from one meter and a half diameter to half a meter, so that obsolete ones were thrown away and, in the wait of being recycled, they were put in any spare room.

He went out one morning to watch the sunrise with such a tight schedule that he had no time to leave the 茶壶 on the fire. He went out onto the rooftop and left it on the satellite dish that was there, waiting to be recycled. Lost in his thought, he forgot about the 茶壶and when he felt full of sun energy he stood up and began his daily routine.

He went home to have lunch and realized he left the 茶壶on the satellite dish that morning. He went for it and felt that it was warm, so he decided to pour a bit of water in a glass and test the temperature. It was perfectly ready to brew some tea.

The day after, he did the same and left the 茶壶on the satellite dish. He was so proud of having discovered a new system to heat up the water without electric energy consumption and, at the same time, having found a new function for that concave circumference that would become the perfect sundial 茶壶heater with a little enhancement in the support platform.

Cá several sundial 茶壶 can be seen right next to the road from Zhang Ye to Dan Xia.

Beijing, August 17th 2014.

弄死 nong si

Every day when he woke up and left the house, he looked at the pool more aware of the difficulty of his existence. He realized that with the years those roots he was fond of long ago, were now starting to bother him, wrecking everything which surrounded him. What once was harmony is now an expanding fracture enlarging the wound, making anger and hate slowly grow inside him whenever he thought of himself or of what he was doing. Anger and hate turned his expression into a look that 弄死。 During a warm sunset sitting at the edge of the pool, enjoying a glass of red wine, he realized that there was no turning back on the breaking of that well-maintained base formed long ago. Roots, instead of grasping the surface they set on, were breaking and transforming the past. How could he escape from that imminent future without having to pack for a different place? He owned the property he lived in, and if someone had to disappear it was him. He put down roots, but he knew the impossibility of doing so by himself and the risk that 弄死 involved. Society protects its members, but the situation was unacceptable. He finished the glass of wine in one gulp and left it on the table. He took the keys of the car and the wallet and went determined to the hardware store in town where he bought different carpenter tools and some lime. He left all the equipment on the back of the car and walked to the bar so the neighbourhood could see him having a drink. He waited until it was completely dark to come back home. After parking the car in the garage, he took from the trunk what he had bought and noticed that there he was. Unemotional by the pool showing no signs of leaving. His body started to shiver and grew an inner anger. With his right hand took the axe from the shopping bag. Unhesitatingly he run to him and stuck it into one side, making elements shoot off staining the surroundings. He stopped for a second and realized that technique was leaving a perceptible trace. Taking advantage of the immobility of the victim, he grabbed the lime bag and pour it onto him to achieve a clean and less evident 弄死. Exhausted he left to rest. The next morning, just like every day, he went out and noticed that the oak was beginning to dry. This meant that very soon he could chop it down to take off the roots that were cracking the base of the pool, and so, once it was repaired, being able to enjoy daily sunrise and sunset baths.

Beijing, August 31st 2014.

结婚戒指 Jie hun jie zhi

After having traveled more than 12 hours, at the end of the day, close to midnight, they reached the place where they were to stay. They tried to stay wide awake, knowing that once they lied on the bed the aim was to rest and sleep so to quickly adapt to the new morningnight shift. However, their young daughter who had not yet lived three winters, knew little about any other time readjustment that was not set by her very own existence. Tiresome finally appeared and they lied down. The young girl in the middle of them was still awake playing around with some adhesive silhouettes, sticking them on her forearm and the sheets. Meanwhile, on the bedside table he put some spare coins that would not be of any use here where a different currency is used. She left her 结婚戒指 on the same place. It hurt after the atmosphere pressure had swollen her fingers. The little girl climbed up her mum’s waist to stick on her face one of the remaining silhouettes and noticed that her eyes were half open. Since she was already at the top of the maternal frontier she descended from the bed caressing the side of mum’s face that was not resting on the pillow. Once she was up by the bed, the light of the lamp, thanks to which she could she, even if she was not conscious of this fact at her young age, called her attention. She focused on some tiny rounded objects made out of metal which adults call “coins”. On the other side, the one thing she remembered her parents referring to as “结婚戒指”when she asked the first time after seeing it in her mum’s hand. She did not understand what it was doing there all alone with no finger to stick into. After looking at the different coins analysing what made them different, she picked the newest object as it seemed more entertaining. Once she grabbed it with her little hand she turned around to the spot at the feet of the bed and called her invisible friend. -Rossy, look what I got. It´s mum's结婚戒指-. She offered the结婚戒指and put it on the floor. -Rossy, you're still too young to wear a结婚戒指. -…-It’s true, look. If I try to fit it in, it falls. The best is that we keep it in a special box so nothing can damage it. This way when we are adults we can wear it like mom does. -… -Ok, you keep it. And that is how结婚戒指crossed the barrier between the visible and the invisible, unable to be found, when after waking up they tried to find it somewhere in the room.

To Martina Erea.

Beijing, September 8th 2014 50

眩晕 Xuan yun

Our existence and perception of the world depends on our mind, on how we see it and on the way we approach or avoid everything surrounding us. The same situation can be pleasant or unwelcome. The line that divides this is too fine. A simple sensation as an incentive can make something be perceived as a failure or a success, as something unforgettable or something to forget. The science philosophers are showing that the scientific knowledge depends on the theoretical framework valid at that time, different from the previous and the later. The changes of the “paradigm” in the sense given by Thomas S. Kuhn in his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions determine our vision of this and therefore our existence. The anonymous transmitters of the popular culture are also showing the same idea through the expression “It all depends on how you look at it”. No deeper questioning intended, since, having a different lifestyle, they do not have much time for theoretical reasoning. This different way of living makes this expression more directly applicable to the daily existence. We usually limit the former to emotional-related situations, with a few physiological elements, but maybe the 眩晕stands as one of this times in which the emotional and physical parts are deeply united. If we control the situation through a change of perspective in our insecurity, the one that overwhelms the mind, the眩晕takes it and leads us to lose balance for the fear of losing it, we could move from a terrifying and shocking moment to a pleasant one. The眩晕might just be a fear to an unknown situation which freezes our body and keeps us from moving forward. However, just as we go up the mountain amid the clouds that hide the precipices, where the眩晕always appears, we have to overcome the mental眩晕to the unknown that stops us. As if we were performing the Karl Popper Falsifiability Principle, we have to move forward on our knowledge overcoming those obstacle-mountains. No fear. Every step in the midst is a step forward. Step by step the眩晕 will be overcome. It will keep control of that situational fear. As a mountain can be climbed without眩晕, walking in the midst we must move forward in the search of truth. Even though we know we will never achieve it and that these are just small steps in the midst bidding as knowledge.

Beijing, September 15th 2014.

斗牛 Dóu niú

Some consider it a type of art, a fight between the strength and the ability of the weak to use his resources and win. Some consider it a mistreatment, because that ability makes him stronger than the strong adversary and in few occasions the result is reverted. This is crystal clear, the one who invented this created it to win and not to be defeated. The scenario is so perfectly neat that no one remains indifferent.

That斗牛art, in which theoretically the weakest one delicate and elegantly dodges his rival rush, is surpassed without wound or scratch and allows himself to continue not looking back because it is taken for granted that he had no option to turn against him.

Cá in Beijing, even if at first sight one cannot perceive the slightest interest about the 斗牛, it is in fact something that progress has taken to the streets of Beijing, now full of cars taking turns to come out to the bullring, as doing so in a pack is impossible.

Like beasts, they have taken over the streets of Beijing replacing bicycles, turning pedestrians into experienced 斗牛 aspirants. They elegantly approach the intersection; cautiously look where the charge might come from, left or right. Once the wheeled enemy is located coming toward, the pedestrian lets one of them surpass him, walking as if he were grasping a crutch with his right hand, moves firmly forward letting one more pass him back, ready for the next one until reaching the other side of the street and complete his performance.

However, unlike the 斗牛, in this new art, in case of an inevitable hand to hand confrontation, the strong one will always win.

Beijing, September 19th 2014.

č&#x161;&#x160; Wen

Comparing her short life expectancy to the people she fed from, it was long ago that she had moved to the town centre looking for a better access to that precise nutrient that will guarantee her survival.

In her short memory, she remembered having heard some of her colleagues saying how convenient it was to live in the highest floors of the skyscrapers. These were getting more popular in the town center and the outskirts of the city. She fluttered until she reached a pack of high buildings, where she analysed how to make her way into them.

At first sight it did not seem very difficult. People came in from the main door, waved at the doorman and a door was opened. A slim girl, height above-average, skirt below-average, entered the building. She took advantage of the situation to get in stuck on her back, less perceptible than usual. Thus, she entered an unknown world where, still dizzy, made her lose track of the slim girl.

She flew around looking for a place to rest. Either the wall in front of the metallic doors or the corner of a stand-up ashtray. It occurred then that those doors opened giving way to a messenger coming in from the outside world and a suited-up young man going out leaving a trace of perfume and lemon that made her nauseous. It led her to think of surrendering, but also boost her energy to follow the messenger.

Reduced space enlarged by the lightning and the mirrors. A string of numbers from which the messenger pressed the 30th floor. Unaware of her existence, maybe because she hid behind the parcel, the rising force of the elevator took them up.

Once they arrived at the 30th floor, she followed the messenger to the door of the apartment H3002. Lead by Rinsky Korsakoffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s El moscardĂłn she made his way into the dormitory while the tenant opened the door and signed the receipt.

Everything she heard of was nothing compared to that. The views from the 30th floor were astonishing. She could spend the entire day grabbing the curtains and admiring the immensity in front of her, no wind unbalancing her, no need to keep the balance. She turned her head around and looked at the enormous, empty bed. Once again she would have to wait.

And so the night came in. It was not two but three. Without a single sight of shyness she rushed into the light that came through the curtains to bite the first ear she found on the way. 53

That great was her joy that she emitted the distinctive buzz of that type of č&#x161;&#x160;. This alerted the suppliers who tried to catch her, performing the popular hunting gesticulations, while slapping their own ears, cheeks and legs, but nothing else trapped in-between.

Not being too greedy, she only bit twice more on each ear and the ankles. On a full stomach she flew to the top of the closet from where, on the South-West, could see the body of the suppliers trying to hide under the sheets; and on the South-East, the illuminated buildings where, she thought, her fellows would be enjoying a short existence.

She died two days later. Old but satisfied for having live a luxurious existence for more than half of her life.

Beijing, September 22nd 2014.

丝绸 si chou

Looking for the Eastern he found the West, he named the land he had just found as "La Española". But after few days, he realized that there was no 丝绸 and the only thing they were able to find was potatoes. He made more trips, not without effort, unable to find the way to the place whence spices and valued丝绸 fabrics came.

That trip eventually made people change the vision of the earth, from two-dimensional plain to three-dimensional sphere, confirmed by other later boaters who were compelled by trade and economy. It might be wrong to say that today the power de facto is already the economy because for sure what has moved the man from yesteryear until now has been the market. We are, above all, "homo economicus".

As it happened more than five hundred years ago, we wish to find in the Eastern an exit to a stagnated situation in our origin and, unconsciously, we look for a 丝绸market to buy high quality and low price garments. However, we forget that we already live in an economically globalized world and the 丝绸 route, whose journey from market to market has been replaced by the route of information, is no longer far away from us. We get to buy these 丝绸 from the comfort of your own home. No need of having a ship’s captain diploma or life vest for this navigation, although there is a risk to be drowned, not by water but by debts. You always have to be attentive to the changing environment and be cautious about ads since what some call today 丝绸market is not what we actually find. And it does not necessarily have great deals or a whole range of that product but rather of many others. Like a Spanish shopping mall that has "Inglés" on its name and has nothing to do with it, cá there is a market that barely has "丝绸".

Beijing, October 3rd 2014.

智能手机 zhi neng shou ji

He introduced the forefinger… … of his left hand in the number 9 circle. Made the wheel turn to the right, up until the end. He did the same with number 8 and continued until complete the nine digits that led to a classic “ring, ring, ring” sound coming from the upper part of the headset he was holding with his left hand, followed by a “hello” toward the bottom of the device after he heard a “click” right before a “Yes?”.

He pressed the number 9 key with the forefinger… … of his left hand. He heard a “beep” coming from the upper part of the headset he was holding with his left hand. He then pressed the number 8 key until complete the nine digits that lead to a classic “beep, beep, beep”. He repeated the process with no answer from the other side.

He took it out of his bag and once he flipped it… …the keyboard lightened. Using the forefinger of his left hand he pressed the relevant keys to number 9, 8… until he could see all the digits on the top of the device. He saw how a lightning sign made out of concentric semicircles, bigger as they got, informed of the outgoing call. When he looked at the screen and saw 00.01 he took the top of the device to his ear and said “Oh, Hi! Before I forgot to tell you that…”

It started to vibrate inside his left pocket… …He took it off his trousers with his left hand and pressing the green button of the 智能手机 answered “Tell me!” “No. You tell me, what do you want?” “Nothing. I didn’t call you” “Well, there’s a missed call from you 5 minutes ago” “It must have been that it accidentally called your number while I was walking”. “Ok, see you around! Bye!” “See you”.

These智能手机 are more and more intelligent. They evade the locking code and activate whatever they deem appropriate at that time. Will they be related to HAL9000, the computer on Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Beijing, October 4th 2014.

失去 shi qu

More than five years ago a TV show, whose title made clear reference to how 失去their main characters were, achieved a great success among the audience. Its characters were both physically and perhaps even more mentally 失去, since their natural environment had disappeared and lost all past referent.

From yesteryear to nowadays, society has been integrating the concept of having anything as part of one's self, quasi forming an indivisible unit. 失去 is then seen as something tragic and heartbreaking and it certainly bothers and disorients us. In most of the cases that lack changes from a material to an immaterial level, either because neurons have not a good connection between them as a result of not accepting the reality when it changes or because perception of failure is found on the same subject who presumably misunderstands a given reality.

失去 in 90 percent of the cases connotes negativity and tragedy, sometimes even wanting one's death when there is a lack of perspective. But there is always a positive point of view, from indifference of not owning material things to a much longed adventure going in depth into the unknown or just simply because after three days the bathroom scale tells you have lost weight.

Day after day, after having a shower he would stand on the bathroom scale to check if he had 失去 any extra kilo and telling himself that it is better to 失去 the excess, going from a negative to a positive point of view of life.

Beijing, October 9th 2014.

短信 duan xin

..._ _ _ … dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot he tried to transmit signals by pressing the button which created a series of programmed intervals. Due to the electric energy provided by a 4V battery, it would make contact with the metal wire and produce energy. He had already checked whether that battery had power by putting both poles on his tongue. A tickle run inside his mouth which meant that there was electricity, conducted by saliva.

At the other side of the wire he connected a little bulb that received electricity and therefore, in accordance with electric impulses, would light and reinforce the lesson that the physics and chemistry teacher of 7th grade of the former General Basic Education system had explained at 11.30 after the break, to enlighten his students with the function of Morse Code and its significance to current communications.

Thirty five years have gone by and similar memories came filling up his imagination with images of the past while he looked to the different communication choices that his cellphone, which he held with his left hand, provided without any wire. He wanted to send an SOS message.

He pressed the button 短信and chose from his contact list the number of that classmate of 7th grade, the one that he run into last week in that shopping mall next to the center of the city he was born, along with his wife and kids, after that meeting he had and before taking the train that would take him to the airport.

He hit these keys “... _ _ _... ..._ _ _... ..._ _ _...” on the 短信service of his device and stared at the screen unable to understand neither what nor why he was doing. He pressed the green button with white letters that said “send”.

Turning the phone around, he left it on the table and picked up the jacket that he left the night before at wee hours on the chair and went out to live. He realized that what he was about to do was an attempt to cling to the past not to face the test of time and the presentfuture.

Beijing, October 13th 2014.

里边 vs 外边 libian vs waibian

In a very simple way and without any scientific accuracy, history of the social development of human beings could be explained based on the relationship among members of society with it. In other words, the range of possibilities that can make you feel being 里边 or 外边 of society structure.

This approach rests on the basic differentiation of the public and private sector, and which part of those is more important in a particular society since it is structured by different rules that regulate the interaction among its members, either individually or when in groups. These rules standardize, therefore distinguish, between what's acceptable and not. Sometimes we find rules that are different from each other but pursue the same goal.

An example can be found in the recent sanctioned rules that regulate whether smoking is allowed. It aims at improving quality of life of society members but its development and application may be different depending on the place or approach. To sum up, if people can smoke 里边 or 外边.

In most of the European countries smoking in 里边 public places is banned while it is allowed 外边 where members of society walk by, whereas in places such as Japan smoking 外边 is usually forbidden and it is allowed 里边 depending on the owner's criteria.

Which of these rules benefit more society members, the one that allows smoking 里边 and bans it 外边 or the opposite one?

Beijing, October 27th 2014.

商店 shang dian

When one was allowed to leave the house alone, mostly to run some errands, one of the most usual permissions was to go to the closest 商店. That one that offered its services to the whole neighborhood, everything at the customers' disposal. Besides, as the owner lived in the apartment right on top, it was acceptable to go outside regular opening hours since neighborliness allowed those licenses.

Most of them had a sign on the outside in which the word “overseas products” could be read. Many of us thought how overseas products could have arrived to a tiny place so far from the sea. Anyhow, those neighborhood商店 had almost everything and its rural variant was a bar商店.

The emergence of retail chains made wiped out those neighborhood 商店named after the owners, as it was Adelaida's 商店 for instance. Its customer service joined these chains, in most cases closing when large shopping malls were installed in the suburbs. Nowadays, children no longer go through the rite of going alone to the 商店 to buy an urgent thing. They do not carry money or, in other words, they do not carry the responsibility of doing that task, the responsability of what to purchase and at what price.

But history is cyclical in many aspects and that function as intermediaries of providing urgent and diverse products that those former neighborhood 商店had, it is now on the hands of the 7-Eleven, almost at every corner of Tokyo. One can find almost anything any time, with the addition that the service goes beyond products overseas. So now you can take the clothes to the laundry, pay and withdraw a ticket that you have booked online, while taking a coffee before going to work.

Beijing, November 2nd2014.

舞蹈设计 Wu dao she ji

During the local saint feasts celebrated through the holiday season in certain home town, a local band is a must to guarantee an entertaining soiree from a stage set up in the middle of a square or in the countryside. That is how from an early age we start taking our first dancing steps sketching a simple 舞蹈设计. Right foot forward, left foot back, now forward, right back to back.

The initiation process is led by one of the parents or sisters and then followed by an autonomous attempt with a fellow girl of the same age. At the beginning one moves on the inexperience and shyness under the watchful eye of the spectators.

As the body grows, our skills do too, so once adolescence is reached it is necessary to fully explode what has been learned and invite our admired companion to dance. He tries to entertain her with more and more provocative movements, longing for another kind of dance.

This type of 舞蹈设计was subsequently moved to clubs. It was starting to be more popular in small towns being known as handhold dance, not because they were at hand, but because they mutually handed each other so the bodies could move to the same rhythm.

However, sprightly music comes up and the舞蹈设计is no longer based on holding hands. It gives the dancers freedom to shake their bodies. Although they are one in front of each other, their bodies barely touch, and if it happens, it means a step forward to another twisted dance.

He was so focused on what he was listening to, that while dancing, closed his eyes and forgot he was moving with another person. Dancing to a new 舞蹈设计by a speaker, playing an imaginary guitar accompanied by the relevant head movements.

Hard rock developed in different styles with its different 舞蹈设计. In one of those, the person moves his head, clockwise, as fast as he can, and after a few whirls, do the same backwards.

Without a solid uniform, he was cá sitting on a B road bus, looking at how other passengers, while apparently sleeping, leaned their heads forward on a舞蹈设计set by the potholes and the gear changing. It is not easy to tell whether they were being tucked in by Morpheus or 61

listening to a trash metal song through the earphones so they could dance to the top hits while traveling.

Beijing, 23rd November 2014.

别落音 bie luo yin

A别落音 is a fundamental component to the body that shows our external appearance to others and to ourselves in front of the mirror. This factor has such an influence in how we look, that people could all the reason think one is dead. However, apart from this essential physiological element, some people need other elements 别落音.

Many times it is been said that living is a 别落音 of doing and feeling things. Thus, we can see how some rituals, as it is dancing, are bound to make us feel alive. Dancing in social ceremonies as a rite of social integration and admiration of the supernatural, has turned into a 别落音 dancing in clubs until the break of dawn so, figuratively speaking, one can feel exhaustedly alive.

In fact, it is easy 别落音 doing what one likes, but even when our physiological part can be controlled and stimulated by the mental one, the physical elements have limitations too. We will drop dead before getting to the dancing limits of Sidney Pollack’s They shoot Horses, Don’t They? In this case the contestants danced for the need to win a cash prize. We will also realize that the one who once said “When I start reading I 别落音” after a while will end up placing the book on the table, exhausted, not having finished reading it.

For those issues in which the gear, the process and in general the mechanism created by 别落音 truly matters, productive processes and physical elements have been developed. They intervene in it to gradually substitute the working man and prevent his physical break-down stop the process.

And so, cá one can see how this substitution of the man for the machine has been taken to some Buddhist temples. I don’t know if it is due to the need of monks’ absence or to guarantee a continuous prayer, a 别落音 prayer. As a matter of fact, what one can find once inside the temple is that the prayer mumble, heard from the distance, was not a group of monks, but a CD player. One guess it was in a loop not only because everything heard is similar, but also because when the person guarding the building left it, closed the doors with a 别落音 of prayers still functioning.

Beijing, November 29th 2014.

中休 zhong xiu

After the entry of Spain into the European Union, funding to promote structural development went to this country with the aim to build infrastructure so that trade and economic development could be boosted. That is how, for instance, the highway to Adanero was built to Benavente direction.

Years of changing domestic Law passed to be gradually on a par with Community Standards. The goal was to achieve the Welfare State, term that began to disappear from the programmed objectives and palpable reality seven years ago.

It was time to regulate passenger transport by road in depth. Depending on the route, two drivers were asked to be in the same vehicle on a mandatory basis, each with a tachograph to direct and record data automatically on the mileage, speed, uptime and 中休 of each driver. Each driver was forced to make a 中休 to prevent any risk of accident.

Having imported the idea of regulating 中休 to all activities, one might think that cá it is also applied to the engine parts. In a trip where three big mountains were run through, in a zig zag narrow road, one found that after the first pass and three hours of journey, they stopped the bus not only for the driver and passengers to 中休but also to change buses, from one vehicle to two of 21 seats each. After the second pass and three hours of journey, another 中休took place for the driver to rest but, unlike the first one and in the other way round, the very same passengers went from two buses to a big one. After the third pass and three hours of journey, they arrived to their destination, new driver in the front.

But it seems that those bus' 中休which came along with changes of vehicles and drivers and transfer of passengers were motivated by road conditions more than in search of the 中休of the vehicle, since it would have been difficult for a bus of 35 seats to maneuver in such narrow roads.

Beijing, November 30th 2014.

孕 Yun

It was 9.30 am and the half an hour waited since 9.00 felt like five hours. Anxiety and hunger were unconsciously growing “I’m sure that’s it, otherwise why would I be this hungry?” Having worked as an intern at the ER in that hospital, he was given an appointment first time in the morning right after been back from holidays. However, he was so worried he could not continue reading the engaging Murakami’s 1Q84 he got hooked on during his trip. While waiting from the airport to the hospital and in the waiting room, his mind wondered between a perceived and a potential world, between 1984 and 1Q84 passing by the reflections the film Interstellar left on him. Sometimes he struggled to be conscious and looked at the reality surrounding him, at his current reality, 9.30 am. He was waiting for the gynaecologist been sure that after seeing how it turned light blue in contact with his urine, any 孕 test would test positive. He could finally hear the so longed for “Please, come in”. Picked up his travel bag, the 1Q84 book and sat on the chair for the purpose intended in front of the gynaecologist who staring at him said: -If what the nurse just told me is true, I don’t think there’s much to talk about. -What? Aren’t you a gynaecologist?-. He muttered trying to get rid of the coldness of those words. -Yes. Your urine cannot test positive on a孕 test. -But it is true that when I went urinate at the airport the object for this purpose in the restroom changed its colour in contact with my urine. -I can’t say no to that. I myself have experienced the same at that airport, but it never crossed my mind it could be a孕 test. -Why not? -Simply because I am, just like you are, a man. And in today’s December 15th 2014 the孕is an exclusive female phenomena. Those blue balls on the urinary are for you to focus on them and don’t let any drop out its intended place. Besides, they help reducing the bad smell. He stared at him, speechless he left the room and went to the men’s bathroom to urinate.

Beijing, December 17th 2014.

称 cheng

Life goes, life goes on and kilos hop on. However, it is the inside weight that actually increases, as if it was outside, it would be easy to eliminate. This would only need to put onto another element, then step on the 称 to control it daily, careless about the result.

However, after having lived a certain amount of time, the body weight turns into a weight element, and the称 begins to act as a common object in developed society homes.

It is more frequently used first time in the morning before ingesting any food. This way, without a care in the world or regret, at the hotel buffet one can have a breakfast which includes sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, radish, cherry tomatoes, fried fish, vegetables and a grilled steak, cereals with whole cold milk, coffee, no sugar. No thoughts given to step on the称.

One can be surprised by the ingested control system when looking at the waiter you can see a trolley with a称on it, and on the称a tray to weight the cherry tomatoes, write it down, and do the same with a different product displayed at the buffet.

It comes as no surprise that someday we might find a publication with such a heading: The Weight of the Buffet Breakfast: The Weight of the Food Ingested and its Distribution in the Body of each Guest.

Beijing, December 17th 2014.

Cá 北京 - 提起 2014