National Holiday and Beyond (10-16)

The National Day holiday was a pleasant, quiet week bordering on a little boring. I didn’t really do much. Just hung out here and relaxed. And did some special eating.

My former student, Zoe, had told me that she has a part-time job at a place that specializes in squid and had invited me to eat there when she’s working. The holiday week seemed like a good time to do that. I invited Kasey to join me, but squid is out of her comfort range. Zoe was very happy to see me and cooked my squid. It is cooked whole on stones and then dipped into boiling water for a few minutes. Then it is cut into small pieces and mixed with several seasonings. I chose a garlic sauce. It was some of the best squid I’ve had; so I’ll return again. Zoe also made me a milk tea, which was free—or she paid for it. Since the café wasn’t busy, she was able to sit and chat with me most of the time while I ate, which was nice.

The next eating outing was with the foreign teachers. We went to a local Thai restaurant that Paul had found. The menu has English, which is always a nice treat, and lovely photos of the dishes. The food was good. I can’t say I’d seen most of it in Thailand, but it may be from other parts of the country.

On Sunday Jinchuan, another former student, wanted to spend the day with me. She came at about 10:15 to cook soup for lunch. She brought chicken and a root herb to make the soup and asparagus lettuce as the other dish. The soup needed to cook for a couple hours to make the broth, as the soup was broth with pieces of chicken—complete with bones and head. I realized that asparagus lettuce is something I’ve had in dishes but didn’t know what it was. The stalk is thick, and that’s the part I recognized. She left the leafy part for me to eat another time. While the soup was cooking, we chatted. After we ate, we chatted some more, and I realized that she really did intend to stay all day. Fortunately, she speaks English well enough that we could have a good conversation and I like her.

I suggested that we go for a walk for something to do other than sit and, admittedly, with the idea that we could separate after the walk. That worked, and after walking we returned to our own residences to have a nap. She planned to return at 6:30 for another walk. Later in the afternoon I decided to turn the leftover broth, of which there was a lot, into American style vegetable soup. So I invited her to go to the market with me. Then she watched as I cut the veggies and added them to the broth to cook. She had already eaten but had a small bowl of the new soup and said she liked it. It turned out to be a pleasant day.

Work started again on the 8^th, and my lecture was that evening. Lectures for the freshmen English majors are every week, and most of us will do two lectures during the semester. Fortunately, I have lectures I prepared in my first semester here. So I just needed to refresh my mind, as I hadn’t looked at it since last year. Since students are required to attend, there are usually about 200 students at the lectures. The waiban advertises the lectures in the administration building with a poster on a bulletin board. 

Photos are taken and a summary and photo are posted on the university’s Chinese website. So this was a moment of fame. 

My post-lecture treat was a special little cake.

We had classes for nine days, including the Saturday on which we did Tuesday’s make-up classes. It was difficult to get into the spirit of planning again, since there were only two classes before the next break for freshmen. But, once I got into class, all was fine. I decided to do a short presentation on Halloween to fill in time, as I didn’t want to start new units. Students loved that.

Student clubs had their advertising and soliciting members displays last week. When I walked past the yoga club, I was asked to participate in the demonstrations. Grace later asked me to go to her ping pong club’s first meeting to help excite the new members. Since she’s one of my special girls, I’m always happy to help her. I was asked to give a brief motivational talk.

After a foreign teachers meeting last Friday, we went to a restaurant that has foreign food. Three of us had the pizza, which is definitely Chinese-style. It’s not something I need to repeat. But some of the other food looked good.

Starting on the 20^th, all freshmen have military training for two weeks. Since I have no classes for two weeks, I asked for and received permission to travel. So I’m off to Gansu province to visit the desert areas. Although part of me would like to just hang out here, I know I’d become quickly bored and I do want to see these places. I think it’s just too soon after my last long travels to be leaving again, but I know I’ll be ready to take in the new sites once I arrive.