Outing to a temple and flowers (3-28)

Since I don’t have classes on Thursday and Friday, last week I went for an outing, which was really nice. The first special activity upon arriving in Chengdu was a dim sum lunch. Then I checked into the hostel and walked to Jinli. 

Since I hadn’t yet been to Wuhou Temple, the largest and one of the most important ones in Chengdu, it was time to do that. I enjoyed walking around for a couple hours. I enjoyed the statues of generals near the entrance. 

In addition to the temple buildings, there is a lovely park area with a stream. 

I especially enjoyed the deciduous tree bonsai, which were still bare 

and some of which were just starting to grow their new leaves. I hadn’t seen that before, as most bonsai seem to be evergreen. 

There is also a small museum with items from the 3^rd century Three Kingdoms.

Then it was time to go to Food Street for dinner: special fresh tofu with sauce and rice cooked in pineapple, which are two of my favorites.

Friday morning I returned to Stone Elephant Lake hoping to see the tulips this year. Because I missed them last year, I had Michelle call and ask if it was a good time to go. I arrived at the park at 10:00 and was surprised at the number of buses already there. They were delivering loads of students and senior citizens. Fortunately, both groups dispersed quickly. I don’t know where the students went, but I didn’t see them again until early afternoon when I was leaving. At that time, they were sitting on the grass coloring and flying kites. The senior citizens stayed on the paved road—or maybe took the tram—to the park center; so I didn’t see them after the beginning.

It was a lovely day. The park was full of blooming tulips of many different varieties. The early-blooming ones had already died, and some of the late-blooming ones weren’t fully open, but the rest were fantastic. 

In some places, you could see tulips everywhere. 

Most of the people walking around the beds just stopped long enough to pose for a photo in front of the flowers and then moved on quickly. That left only a few of us to enjoy looking at them in depth. Unfortunately, a few people had to have their photos amongst the flowers, leaving bare spots or breaking stems.

On the way to the central area, I was surprised to see crocuses I the grass. 

There is also a section of grape hyacinths interspersed with some other flowers. 

The big hill was covered with small, purple flowers.

When I got to the central area, I ate lunch—the traditional noodle-like dish I have had before and like.

After eating, I walked around the huge area that was full of poppies this month. By this time, it was early afternoon and more people had arrived. 

Another area had beautiful dahlias, a fancier kind than I was familiar with. After wandering around leisurely for several hours, I got a 3:30 bus back to Chengdu and proceeded home, arriving at 9:00. It was a long trip back and a long, but good, day.

My office hours’ discussion groups have changed a little. As happened last year, since it’s second semester, different girls have started to come, which is nice. This has happened with both freshmen and sophomores. Usually four to six, which is a good number for the group, show up at one time. Allen returned this week and it was her 21^st birthday. She wanted to thank me for being part of her life and had a photo taken to mark the special occasion.

I gave my last lecture this week. We only have to do one this semester, which we who have been here really appreciate. Since I was recycling a lecture from two years ago and only needed to make some changes, I volunteered to be first. So now I’m finished.

I’ve been to special English Corners in two weeks. Last week’s was put on by the political science department. Two good things about it were that they did everything in English, including a nice skit, and that they didn’t have us foreign teachers do anything special. 

This week’s was put on by the physical education, automotive engineering, and construction departments. The theme was “How to arrange time at college,” which had nothing to do with the show and which none of us could get explained successfully when we asked what that meant and how it related to the show. Students had asked Julie, Sam, and me to sing a song. I wasn’t in the mood to perform that day, but I went and did. I reminded myself that no one cares how well I perform, just that I do. I sang my old standby in Thailand—Take Me Home, Country Roads—with the song on a girl’s cell phone so I had music, which I need if I’m going to sing.

Thursday evening when I was sitting on a bench reading a middle school boy rode by and then returned to hover in back of me. I knew he was trying to get up the courage to speak to me. He did, but he couldn’t speak English. He started saying random words, and I could see him struggling to think of them. Most of them I didn’t understand, but then I heard “bon jour.” I wanted to laugh, but it’s sad that he doesn’t even know it’s not English. Then he showed me his book and pointed for me to read; so I did. I’m pretty sure he can’t read the book and probably didn’t understand what I was reading. It’s sad.

We finally have our new Internet connections in our rooms. We have both wi-fi and wired. The wired is really nice and I can now watch videos on youtube and listen to recordings. Before, they were so choppy that it wasn’t worth the effort. In addition, things download faster most of the time. We’re all happy.

This year is the university’s 60^th anniversary. Student posters advertising this were on display this week.

Metro construction is moving along. One side looks almost like a street again, and the other is close.

Back to work (3-13)

Kasey and I returned to Chengdu on February 25. The flights went well. I was pleasantly relieved when the man at customs stamped my passport without asking any questions, since I had to choose “other” as the purpose of my visit.

Since nothing was happening at the university yet, I was able to relax at home for a few days. Friday I ventured out to buy some food. Shops were starting to open again after the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival holiday. About half of the vendors were at the market. By the following week, all students were back and the shops and markets were open.

Classes for English majors started on March 2; those for non-English majors started the following week. I had spoken to Dean Qiu about my need to have some English major classes, as I really don’t like the large classes (60 or more students) that non-English majors have. I said I could have some of the latter, but I needed to have some of the former as well. He told Hannah to give me only English majors this term. When she gave me the same classes I had last term, which included one class of Automotive Engineering majors, he told her to change it. I would have been fine with that, especially since it was the same class I had before. So I inherited a class of sophomore English education majors that I had last year. Hannah said they were happy when she told them I would be their teacher again.

There are three new interns. Sigve is not back, as his contract negations were not completed by the department head. The new ones are young (20, 21, 23), and everyone comments on that. One is American, one is Italian but has lived in England half his life, and one is French. Two are women, which is a nice change. As I had anticipated, Julie, the French woman, is very popular since students love France and Paris and since she is enthusiastic and beautiful. She has been dubbed “beautiful” while Sam, the American, is “cute.” Although I have never exuded with enthusiasm, I enjoy watching theirs.

As usual, the waiban did not prepare for the new foreign teachers. Omar is in one of the dorm rooms with no fridge, hot plate, washing machine or wardrobe. Sam was told to give him her fridge and she and Julie are to share one even though they are in separate rooms. The waiban had asked for four to six new interns, but they never know how many they’ll get until just before the semester begins. So they don’t plan ahead. Why prepare a new room if an additional teacher doesn’t come? Sam said her room still has long hairs in the bathroom from when Megan was here two years ago. Cleaning is not up to Western standards, and the men who have used the room apparently didn’t care.

We had the first English Corner this week. As always, all of us foreign teachers participated in the first one. We will rotate for the rest of the term and have only six more each. As I had predicted, Julie was the most popular and had the largest group. Mine was the usual size—eight to ten. Paul’s group was smaller than usual, as students wanted to meet the new teachers. I find it interesting to observe the patterns.

As happened last year, more students are coming to office hours. In addition to Ann and Abby, who came regularly last term, two others joined them. When we finished two more showed up, but I had to send them away because another girl had made an appointment. Mimi wanted to see me alone; so we walked and talked, which was a nice way to spend our time together. When I returned to the office, the girl who had failed the final exam and the class arrived with her friend/translator because she had retaken an exam with a Chinese teacher who told her to talk to me. I guess that means she failed again. She is weak in listening and speaking and is afraid to try to talk. Neither of the last two has returned, but both have moved to the front of the class and smile at me.

The university now has campus-wide wi-fi. However, it has not yet been installed in our building. We will have wired Internet rather than wi-fi. Thursday the men were here making lots of noise and putting cables in the hall ceiling. So the process has begun. In the meantime, we have to go to the office to use the Internet, which is a hassle. It’s now working well there most of the time, but it’s just inconvenient to have to plan to go there. I much prefer the convenience of working at home when I want to.

There is a big, new supermarket. It will give competition to the smaller one on Student Street, as it has more products and variety. The café that was there has been moved to the side and is one-third the size it was.

I have now told the important people—foreign teachers, Yang, Michelle, Mr. Huang, and Hannah—that this will be my last semester. Since these are my friends as well as colleagues, I wanted to tell them in person. It’s good to have that done. I have also told Bennie, who responded by telling me how much she respects me and how important I am to her. I was very moved by what she said. Parting will be difficult when I leave, as she has also been important to me.

Weather is getting warmer. The two Sundays have been warm and sunny with some blue sky. I walked around the campus taking photos of the flowering trees. I love them, and this is the last time I’ll experience them here. Bitter sweet.

Sunday was International Women’s Day. On Friday there were display boards for the occasion. 

One advertised “Girls’ Day.” The girls could get in line to win a prize. They were very pleased that only girls—and not boys—could participate. I joined the line after a few people said I should. The first step was drawing “no” or “pass.” I got “pass,” which meant that I could spin the wheel and get a prize. I won a cup, which pleased the girls.

Remnants of Chinese New Year are still around. 

Also a few remnants of Christmas, since the two seem to be merged here in terms of decorations.