Sports Days (11-15)

Sunday was April’s birthday. I had asked if she wanted me to cook or if she wanted to eat out. She chose eating out and really got into that. She looked up restaurants online and found a groupon for a seafood dinner for 8. So the six of us and the student who helped her purchase the groupon went out Saturday night. The fixed meal included 14 dishes, mostly various kinds of seafood—squid, fish, crab, shrimp, mussels, clams. There were also a couple soups, two meat dishes (April had exchanged some dishes for those, since one person doesn’t like seafood.), a couple vegetable dishes, and steamed buns. The food was quite good even though most of it was covered with red chilies. They were dried chilies and didn’t affect the food too much; so I was able to eat all but a few dishes. Needless to say, we all ate well and enjoyed the special meal.

After dinner, we returned to our neighborhood and went to a karaoke place. April and Chrystal sang in Chinese while the rest of us used English. The guys mostly chose songs I don’t know, but it was fun to hang out there for a couple hours.

The celebration continued on Sunday, as Wang Cheng invited Dale, April, and me to have lunch with his family for April’s birthday. He took us to a really nice restaurant here in Wenjiang. I purchased a cake for the occasion as a way to contribute to the meal, since we knew they wouldn’t let us contribute to the cost. This meal, too, was delicious, of course, since we had local people to order special food. Many of the eight dishes were special Sichuan dishes, which surprised us because they weren’t full of chilies. Wang Cheng explained that a couple of the dishes traditionally don’t have chilies, and April explained later that they had emphasized that the food should not be spicy. 

Our favorite was a dish of vegetables in a ginger based sauce.

After eating, we went to a coffee shop to eat the cake and have a drink. We had a nice corner area with a low table and padded benches. It turned out that, by chance, I had selected a cake frosted with April’s favorite color—purple. She was thrilled. And she was especially happy to have a cake. This was her first birthday away from her family.

The coffee shop is in the new mall across from Floraland that Megan and I had walked around in July. So, after the family left, April, Dale, and I walked around a bit. There are more stores open now, and more people were walking around. The area near the water park was decorated with Styrofoam pumpkins. “Scary”  music was blasting from the speakers. I’m always amused at what other countries do to celebrate Western holidays and how they often leave them up much longer than we do in the U.S.

Wang Cheng and Peggy both mentioned that November 11 (11-11) is Singles’ Day in China. I’d seen a sign advertising a Singles’ Party, but, of course, the rest was in Chinese; so I didn’t know any details. Both mentioned that there are a lot of sales on this day. Peggy compared it to Black Friday. She said people were hustling to make Internet purchases to take advantage of the big discounts.

One day when I was sitting on a bench outside the library, as I do sometimes, a student joined me so she could communicate with me. (They always say “communicate,” not “talk.”) When she looked at the book I was reading and noticed that it was about China, The book is about a woman’s experiences volunteering in an orphanage from 2003-2007. When she didn’t understand the brief description on the cover, I explained that uneducated people, especially in rural areas, sometimes gave up their girl children because they wanted their one child to be a boy. She said that her grandparents don’t like her because she’s a girl, but her parents love her. The grandparents also don’t like her mother. We talked about how younger, educated people have changed their ideas and don’t always follow the old traditions.

Wednesday evening I went to yoga class with thirty students who I realized are 45 years younger than I. That’s hard to imagine. A pleasant surprise when I arrived is that the teacher speaks English well. I hadn’t thought about language when I signed up to join the class. (I did this on the day when various clubs were recruiting about a month ago.) She included instructions in English for me occasionally, which was quite nice. The music playing when we arrived sounded like music I’ve heard before in yoga classes, and it felt comfortable to have familiar music in the room. The class was good, and I was pleased that I was able to do everything they did even though I did shorten the time a few times. Participating in a class stretches me. I’m glad I went and will return each week.

Thursday and Friday were Sports Days; so no classes those days. Teachers’ events were on Thursday. Yang had invited us to sign up, and I signed up to do the 30 meter run carrying a tennis ball. She thought that meant carrying the ball on a plate, but I learned Thursday morning that the tennis ball is carried on a racket. 

I went to the opening ceremony to see how they are done in China. It was very formal with groups of students wearing various outfits marching in step into the stadium. No costumes like in Thailand. Interestingly, after the opening ceremony, they all left and didn’t stay for the competitions.

When the competitions started, I went down to the field and enjoyed watching and chatting with some of the teachers who were in my class last year. Many students greeted me when they saw me, which was also nice. It was a good visibility opportunity. I also took photos for the other foreign teachers and Peggy. Fortunately, the temperature was a little higher than it had been for a couple days; so standing around outside was pleasant. My event was after the lunch break. I was happy that I made it the whole 30 meters without dropping the ball. Then I decided I’d watched enough sports and returned home.

Friday was essentially a day off. I thought about going to see what was happening in the afternoon, but April went in the morning and reported that the events finished at 11:00. For many students both days were days off, as they didn’t participate or go to watch the competitions. Back to full weeks of classes next week—for four to six weeks, depending on when they decide we will have our final exams.

Back to Work Again (11-8)

Our "vacation" is over. By last Tuesday, I was starting to feel a bit bored and was ready to return to teaching. But I finished the week with a few busy days, which kept me from getting bored.

Thursday April and I went to Qingcheng Mountain, where I’d gone with Megan in June. Of course, it was a different experience this time. The bus to Dujiangyen was a rickety, old, local bus, not a direct bus like we had in June. Perhaps this was because it was a weekday, not a weekend when many people go there. Every time the bus stopped, it stalled. We were thankful it got us there, as we’d had visions of standing along the road waiting for the next bus.

As Megan and I had planned to do before we met Karen and Ju, April and I took the cable car up the mountain and walked down. There’s still a good bit of walking to get to the cable car entrance and from the exit up to the top. 

Views from the top were clearer, and we could see more of the valley below, which was fun. Walking down was much easier than walking up. The stairs were the same, but going down in cool weather isn’t as strenuous as going up in the extremely hot weather in June. No one was selling fans. When we were walking, the temperature was perfect. 

I was hoping for some autumn color, as the mountain has a lot of gingko trees. We did see some yellow ones, but most weren’t brilliantly yellow. Like the ones on campus, they’re mostly dingy yellow, but some were brilliant. 

We also saw a patch of red leaves in the distance. 

I especially enjoyed an area called “Nature’s Painting,” which we hadn’t noticed before. April pointed out that you have to think like the Chinese, as the painting was the trees. They did remind me of trees in many Chinese paintings. All in all, it was a perfect day to be hiking on the mountain. We missed the last bus back to Wenjiang by five minutes and had to take a taxi, but we were both OK with that since we’d had such a great day.

Friday afternoon I went into Chengdu. Three weeks ago I'd made a dental appointment for Saturday. (Actually, Yang made it for me in Chinese.) At the time I didn't know about the two weeks without students and thought it would be a treat to go into the city Friday night and have an early Saturday appointment. After Thursday, though, I really wanted to stay home Friday. But off I went. I'd arranged to meet Amanda from last term for dinner. She had heard about a highly recommended pizza place. It serves New York style pizza. I think the older man walking around is the American owner. I had a three cheese pizza that was delicious.

Saturday morning the dental clinic didn't have my appointment, but they let me in. They’d been doing some renovations and used that as the reason my appointment wasn’t recorded. My teeth are now clean again. No cavities. Gums are OK but she indicated that I should only brush downward in one place. (We didn’t have much language in common although she spoke more English than the last person I saw.) Afterwards I went to treat myself to a milkshake, but I missed the restaurant and found an Indian restaurant; so I had chicken masala and naan for lunch. This was another delicious meal. It was really nice to have the different flavor in my mouth. 

Next I went to Jinli, another renovated old street area to walk around and to go to the outdoor clothing place I'd read about. 

Jinli is known for its shops that sell handicrafts, and I enjoyed looking at them.

Outside the area are the outdoor clothing stores. I needed a jacket, since my light one is not enough on these cool days. Temperatures have been in the mid-50s to mid-60s with more of the former this week. I bought a packable down jacket, which I have learned from a friend is probably a down sweater. It's not what I had in mind, but I fell in love with it when I tried it on. Cost: $65. That's about the lowest price I saw in other shops. Most cost $100 or more. They aren't cheap here, either.

The three days were a nice finish to the “vacation.” I was ready to start teaching again for two uninterrupted months. Then we learned that Sports Days are next week, and classes are cancelled on Thursday and Friday for the event. Oh, well.

The event at school this week was speech contests. Dale and I were invited to be judges for the Foreign Language Department contestants Monday night. Ed went along to listen, and, of course, he got to be a judge, too. We were told to give no scores under 80 (out of 100). Some of the students were quite good, but others were difficult to understand. After they spoke, Dale and a Chinese teacher were asked to make a few remarks. Dale talked about the need for students to practice speaking and improve their pronunciation, and the Chinese teacher then made similar remarks, following his example, I think. On Tuesday, one of my students told me that she had just been to a meeting where they were told to organize students in each class into small groups and have a speaking topic to practice speaking every day. I think this is a direct result of their comments.

The final contest for students in all departments was Wednesday afternoon. Dale and I were invited to be judges, and, when I mentioned that we were still teaching our teachers’ classes, Peggy said we could cancel them. I didn’t think that would go over well with the Foreign Affairs Department, since they are very serious about these classes. Peggy communicated with Yang, who passed on the request to her superiors. Late Tuesday night, Peggy called to let me know that Dale and Ed would be judges, and Dale’s teachers could join my class for the last part. It’s always interesting to see how they work things out. That was a possibility that had occurred to me. After class, I went to hear the rest of the speeches, and I noticed that April was also judging. She had been informed at 12:50, just before our 1:00 class, that she would be a judge.

Other teaching news is that I don’t have to do any more lectures this term (unless they decided to have six more instead of five). I’ve done one lecture and have five more prepared from last term. Dale did his lecture this week. Then they have added the other four into the schedule. So much different from last term when we each had to give two lectures a month.

When I was walking back to the apartment after class one day, a few girls turned and glanced at me and then looked at me again in astonishment. Then one explained that they had thought I was Chinese and that I look a little Chinese at first glance. I’d never heard that before.

And another funny story: One of the Peace Corps doctors who doesn’t know me, called one day. When I returned her call, she must not have had her file open, as the first question she asked was, “Are you still taking birth control?” Obviously, not. She was calling people who get meds purchased in the U.S. to prepare the next order. Birth control is not the meds I need.

Even with the two-day break from classes next week, it is good to be back at it again.