60th Anniversary (6-22)

June 16^th was the university’s 60^th anniversary. 

New for the anniversary.

To celebrate the event, there were a number of special activities. One was painting the manhole covers on the sidewalks. Some of the designs were quite original and very well done. Walking around to see them was fun. 

Another special activity was redoing the departmental decorated chalkboards outside the teaching buildings so that they featured 60^th anniversary designs. 

The Foreign Language Department had one in several languages and one in English; whereas in the past both boards have been in English.

And of course there were shows. Each department had to have a small show. I was invited to the one for the English Department. Since it was a last-minute invitation, I was the only foreign teacher there and was happy to represent us all. The show itself wasn’t especially great, but students appreciated my being there. 

I also went to the Education Department’s show. During our office hours’ discussion, Jar mentioned that she had to go to it to be a reviewer. So Phoebe, Snoopy, Victoria and I also went. That show was better; so I enjoyed being there.

The big production was the show for the whole university in the evening. The whole student body was in the sports field for the event. 

At 11:00 on the 16^th, the other foreign teachers and I received notification that the president wanted us to perform that night. When I received the message, I said “no” because the time was too short, and it felt too much like demanding a show from the “foreign performing monkeys,” a phrase we use on such occasions when we are expected to perform only because we’re foreign. I knew Paul would be willing to do something, as he likes to perform and know a lot of songs he can sing without preparation. So Paul, Dale, Julie, and Sam did a repeat of “Singing in the Rain” with another song that Julie and Sam know. It worked out fine for them. Four people—two men and two women—was the perfect group. I would have been an extra and would have felt in the way. 

And I was happy to sit in the audience to enjoy the show and take photos. So it worked out well in the end.

Last weekend was the Dragon Boat Festival holiday—Saturday to Monday. Saturday night Hannah invited me to have dinner with her and Johnny. William, my student who hangs out with Hannah, also joined us. Johnny cooked meat and potatoes, and Hannah cooked fish soup and carrots. She also had bread and bleu cheese, which was a surprise she purchased for me. It was a real treat, as I hadn’t had bleu cheese for years.

She had purchased a lot of zongzi, the pyramid-shaped sticky rice cooked in banana leaf that is the traditional food for this holiday. She had four kinds: wheat, red bean, bacon and corn, and green tea. I liked the green tea one but couldn’t finish it because I’d eaten too much other food.

Sunday I took Yang, Michelle, Hannah, and Peggie for the dim sum lunch at the Shangri La Hotel in Chengdu. I’d had it last semester with Xiaoyu and decided to take my four Chinese women friends there as a special treat. 

It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet in which you choose items from the menu and they are prepared for you. We had a good time chatting and eating. We consumed 27 different dishes, some of which were ordered twice. 

Michelle had her father bring her son so I could meet him. He’s four and wasn’t interested in meeting us, but we enjoyed seeing him. Her father took group photos of in the luxurious setting.

Yang and Michelle gave me a gift—four rhinestone brooches. Michelle said that Yang had picked them out, and Yang was quite excited about them. They’re lovely and are a fun reminder of them. 

Peggie gave me a set of special bookmarks featuring Chinese opera characters. Hannah gave me a planner with large boxes for each day of the month so I can write in it for a year, and when it’s finished I’ll have to write to her to get a new one. Sweet thought.

The next anniversary event was on Monday, the last day of the three-day holiday weekend—guest lecturers that the teachers had to attend. They weren’t happy about being told to come in on their holiday. I had seen a poster for an afternoon lecture about foreign language teaching; so Paul and I went with Hannah. The guest speakers were alumni of the university and/or former teachers or administrators. Most of them spoke in Chinese, and Hannah interpreted for us. One spoke in English. Later I learned that there are also guest lectures on the next two weekends.

One day last week Paul, Kasey, Sam, Hannah and I went for dinner together to an all-you-can-eat individual hot pot restaurant, which is nice because everyone can have the soup they want and choose what they want to eat. It’s the only time we’ve had a group dinner this semester.

1000 Buddha Cliff (6-10)

Last week I went to the last place on my list of nearby places to visit: 1000 Buddha Cliff.

As usual when I do such trips, I went to Chengdu Thursday and stayed at a hostel so I could leave early Friday morning. On Thursday I had lunch with Sigve. He’d contacted me two weeks ago, which was nice as I’d been thinking I’d like to see him again before leaving. We had a nice lunch and chatted for a few hours. Then I went to pick up Raven’s earrings, which are beautiful. After paying the goldsmith, Wu Lin Jin invited me to have tea in her shop. There I met Mandy, who got her Master’s degree in the U.S. We also had a good time chatting. She is 29 and finally has a boyfriend, which relieves some of the pressure from her parents to get married. Her degree is in hospitality, but her father doesn’t want her to work in that business; so she doesn’t.

Friday morning I took the bus to Jiajiang, which took about two hours. 

The cliff is in a small park that also has an old temple and a few pavilions. The walk to the entrance goes through an old village street that is nice because the old buildings are old and not recreated. 

There is one temple at the other side of the cliff that is being renovated. 

A nice path through a wooded area goes up to the pavilions. 

On the way there’s a small cliff with a few carvings.

The main cliff is along the river. It has 162 niches which contain 2470 Buddhas from the Tang dynasty, which was in the 7^th to 10 centuries. 

I am always awed in the presence of things so old, especially when they are as intact as these carvings are. 

Some still have paint. Most of the niches have group gatherings. They are amazingly detailed, and some still have paint on the statues and on the ceilings. I was in awe the whole way.

Since everything is in a rather small area, it didn’t take long to walk to the temple and along the cliff. Since it was a pleasant day and the view along the river was lovely, I sat on a concrete bench and relaxed and read for an hour. Then it was time to start the return trip.

The trip back took 2.5 hours. I think there was an accident on the highway, as we were stop and go for quite a while. Once in Chengdu I followed my plan to have an ice cream milkshake and eat at the restaurant that has them.  I hadn’t done that for a long time; so I especially enjoyed the milkshake. I also went to the Western-style bakery Yang had introduced me to and bought bread, scones, and doughnuts. It was a nice outing.

School news last week: I hit the jackpot for written exams in addition to the oral ones. I have to do them for both freshmen English education and business English. That’s five classes/180 students. Grading them will take most of the last weeks. This is the first time I’ve had to do them, and I got them all at once. Oh, well.

Saturday morning Winner called to tell me she was leaving and had a gift for me. That was a surprise, as she isn’t one of the girls who has spent a lot of time with me and she only started talking to me about a month ago when she told me that she would participate in the summer work program in the U.S. 

It was even more of a surprise when I saw it—a lovely sandalwood necklace with a Buddha. Her father was with her, as he was there to drive her home; so she told me that he had bought it. I was really touched. She told me again how much she loves my class.

This was the last week of teaching, which was bittersweet. Although I’m ready to be finished in China, I have enjoyed teaching and I like the classes. Students have been telling me they’ll miss me. Most wouldn’t have me as a teacher next year, but knowing I would be here is comforting even if they don’t contact me. One girl gave me an unsigned letter telling me how much she and her classmates like me even though they are quiet and have never talked to me. One of Kasey’s students told me she’s sorry I’m leaving and thinks I’m very nice and kind. Two girls who hadn’t been to office hours discussion—one since last semester and one since last year—came because it would be their last opportunity to see me. William has told me a couple times how much he has learned about being a good teacher and that he will use my techniques when he becomes a teacher.

Velvet, who has been coming for private work on pronunciation/oral reading, gave me homemade sausage made by her grandmother. The instructions were to soak it for half an hour (I’m not sure what the purpose of that is, as it looked the same before and after soaking it. Maybe it was just to add water to the sausage.) and then boil it for about half an hour. I couldn’t tell her that I don’t eat meat; so I had a bite and then gave the rest to friends. It was sweet of her to share this special food.

We also had the last English Corner this week. The students organized games for an hour before we had a short chatting time. Several of my students formed my group and wanted to talk about my plans.

Artists' Exhibition (6-2)

The highlight of the past two weeks was an International Artists’ Exhibition at the university. I learned about it when Hannah mentioned it in a message to us. Since I love art, I went to see it and found out that the artists were creating art on site for several days. I was hooked and went to see what was happening every day.

The eleven artists were from Thailand, Turkey, Korea, Japan, and Canada. Several spoke English well, and it was fun to talk with them. Since Thailand and Turkey are among my homes, I especially enjoyed interacting with the artists from those countries. One from each country spoke English well enough to converse; the others communicated with smiles and gestures and a few words. The other two I interacted with a lot were the artists from Canada and Korea. I think I was the only person—certainly one of the few—who stopped by frequently. Everyone was always happy to see me.

On Wednesday after discussion group, the girls asked what I was going to do. When I said I’d go to check out the exhibit, four of them went with me, which was nice. They interacted with the English-speaking artists. When Catherine learned that there was a Korean artist, she was excited because she is taking a class in Korean. So she talked to the her in Korean a little and then in English. We were with her almost an hour, as she was very kind to the girls and kept them talking.

Every day I checked to see what was happening and how the art works had changed. It was fun to see when one was completed and another started. One artist used his fingers to dab on paint for most of the painting.

Three used charcoal in different ways. One also painted.

One had a tea culture theme.

One of the men combined elements of Chinese characters with chairs, calling his theme “Chair-Share.”

The Korea woman did collages with paper she had colored with black paint.

The Canadian described his work as windows put together to make a whole. He painted small paintings and then assembled them into a large one.

One Turkish artist specializes in Lena and the Swan. He had a large painting that he changed a bit for four days.

The Japanese woman created only one painting. It took her a few days to get started. I really enjoyed seeing the step-by-step progress of her painting, as I’d not seen that before for this style of painting and could not have imagined how it was created.

Michelle and Catherine wanted to go to the exhibit with me again on Saturday. So we did. The Korean woman wasn’t there, but they were able to talk with the Thai and Turkish artists. Photos were taken. 

When we left, they asked what we would do next. I hadn’t realized that they planned to be together longer, but, since they wanted to hang out, we went to a drinks shop. Then we had a light dinner before returning to campus. It was enjoyable, as they both chatted quite a bit. They have just recently joined the office hours’ discussion and are keen to speak with me now.

On Sunday most of the work was completed. On Monday it was hung for the exhibition, which opened Tuesday morning. Monday afternoon Jar wanted to go to the exhibition; so she, Victoria, and I went after class. We got to see the completed work of the artists we had met hanging on the wall as well as art from some of the Chinese artists that was being hung. They chatted with the Korean and Canadian artists. I was pleased that they were so interested and that Jar was so confident in her English speaking.

Since I have classes Tuesday morning, I missed the opening, but I stopped by in the afternoon. Some of the artists were there and were just leaving. A few stopped to say “good-bye” to me, which was nice. The Turkish artist I’d talked to a lot gave me—and Hannah as translator—a drawing, which was very nice of him.

The exhibition also included 19 Chinese artists, many of whom teach at the university. The videos that were produced were shown. Saturday when Peggie was there to translate for a media interview, one of the videographers asked her for my name so he could use it in the video along with film of me as a foreign teacher who was interested in the exhibit. He was thrilled with I gave it to him.

Also of  note is the stunning, clear, blue sky with clouds on Friday. Blue sky is rare enough, and this was the most spectacular sky I've seen in my 2.5 years here. When I mentioned that to a student, she said that I'm not the only one who thinks that. One of her teachers said it was the most beautiful day she has seen here for many years.