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Eugene Onegin at Seattle Opera

Philip Newton photo c/o Seattle Opera

Once again, I almost didn’t go to the opera. I was on a deadline and hadn’t been feeling well all weekend. A finished draft and a nap sounded better than getting dressed and leaving the house. But I had never seen a Russian opera before, and I knew I liked Tchaikovsky’s music, and Sunday was the only day I could possibly go. So I dragged myself to McCaw Hall and thoroughly enjoyed every one of the 190-some minutes of the matinee performance; then couldn’t fall asleep that night for thinking about Eugene Onegin.

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Freedom Fliers

May Wind 五月的风 is located in May Fourth Square on the waterfront in Qingdao. The park and its sculpture are dedicated to the The May 4th Movement which protested the Treaty of Versailles’ transferring the German concessions in Shandong (including Qingdao) to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China.

This sculpture is a rare Chinese celebration of freedom. But the kites flying above it represent freedom everywhere.

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The Games We Play

Movies always show groups of old men sitting around playing board games in the park, but I had never seen it in real life. Then I ran across these old men in Qingdao. I had to have a picture, but I didn’t want to walk up to them and interrupt their game to ask permission, especially when I knew it would involve dealing with language barriers and probably result in an awkwardly stage photo anyway.

So I told my daughter to hold pose for an picture, then zoomed behind her to capture the oldsters across the street. I’m pretty sure they never noticed, but my kid was on to me instantly.

“You just pretended to take a picture of me so you could take one of those old men, didn’t you?” she accused. Caught out, I refocused and took a second picture, this time of her face. But she still disapproved my deceptive little game.

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Lamp post At The End of the Chinese Garden

Coastal Chinese cities are a far cry from Narnia, but I still half-expected Mr. Tumnus to trot by when I spotted this lamp post in a garden in Qingdao.

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Glimpse of the Sea

Qingdao and Seattle have a lot in common. One of my favorite things at home is turning a corner and getting a perfectly framed view of the mountains, Puget Sound, or Lake Union. Qingdao gets that, too.