In Autumn the air smells like sweet potatoes.

Vendors sit at street corners, they line alleyways, they gather in store entrances with their blackened metal trash cans. Inside you can see the warming glow of coals and hear the slight crackle of potato skins. One roasted sweet potato is 1.5 yuan. They hand the steaming bundle to you in a thin plastic bag and it almost burns your hand. You peel away the skin--free to toss the peels on the ground like peanut shells at Logans. At the market, you must watch your step like a cartoon character looking out for banana peels. You eat the potato like you would an apple--use the bag to protect against stickiness, hold it in both hands to stay warm. If it's late in the evening, you bring one home and mash it with honey and black sugar for dessert.


The communist party must announce the arrival of Autumn. All the world is summer; the days are hot, the girls wear short sleeves, the buses blow air conditioning. Then SWITCH!...FALL. In one day--corn appears for the first time in the market, sweet candied apples are sold on skewers, the wind blows cold, the sky turns misty and you shiver in your bed. Bright dresses are replaced with muted sweaters, wool blankets fill store shelves that once held room fans and ice trays.


With the first glimpse of what 'cold' means in Wuhan, we are all preparing to nest. I bought coffee mugs, oatmeal and hot water bottles...Jeremy bought a couch and area rug...today I might try to find some large comfy chairs. We are watching the shelves every day for electric blankets to appear for sale. If winter descends with the same suddenness as autumn, we want to be ready.


It is with this season change that I'm seeing a new difference between my US life and my China life. A life of transitions from thermostat-controlled apartments to a heated/cooled car to a thermostat-controlled office, back to car, stop at heated grocery store on way home, back to apartment....didn't leave much room for noticing the seasons. Nor did having a produce section that supplied any fruit or vegetable I could want all year round. Here, I eat what is in season while I can and feel the elements walking and biking around campus, in the unheated classroom, at the busstop, walking around the city, shopping at the outdoor market--pretty much everywhere except the two rooms of my apartment that have heating/cooling units.


As much as I love this country, I still find myself creating little tricks to escape when needed. I watch my DVDs of Friends every now and then. Bruce Springsteen plays almost constantly on my iTunes (his new album, Magic, is PERFECT. I can't stop listening to it. Here's a great review of it from NYT). I keep Oreos, coke and peanut butter stocked in the kitchen.


I suppose that snug in my little American haven, I just might make it through the long Chinese winter.