Day 3

It is Sunday. We get up and go to a gathering of other language teachers. They talk about recent events. Amazing things are being done by these people. I meet some really cool guys here. [omitted] – has been here 3 years, and [omitted] has been here only 3 weeks but came with his fiancee. He really seeks God an loves his fiancee. Rad. None of them speak Chinese though, even the ones that have been here for years. I find this a bit irritating

Afterwards, we went to a fantastic lunch. Well… not as good as the White House. Except for 1 thing – the ba si xiang jiao. It was basically fried, carmelized banana mush. My body liked it.

Came home, played mazhang (sp?) together w/Linda. Interesting, funny person. Then we left to pick up some food, because some of Myron’s students were going to cook for us that evening. [inserted - I found out later that the students don't have kitchens. Since they love to cook, Myron often gets a lot of free dinners in exchange for the use of his kitchen.] On the way out, we meet up with a girl named Bloom, who just got done talking with Chad and Crystal (married couple down the hall from Myron).

This girl is very interesting. She is Hui, which is a minority group in China. I have been interested in minorities in China for a long time, but the Hui held special interest for me, and she is the first that I have ever met. She is not confident in her English, and is nervous, but tags along anyway and I get to talk with her. She teaches me the Chinese words for a lot of things. She nervously blurts out “you have curly hair!” I guess that was supposed to be a compliment. She is really, really pretty. It is weird to me that an incredibly attractive girl just complimented me.

We get to the veggie and meat market and meet up with one of Myron’s students. Her little sister is riding on the back of her bicycle, toting a giant bottle of wine. [quick MS paint version of a pencil sketch on my journal]:

The little girl has a plump face and a jovial expression. I laugh hard. No one else thinks this is funny for some reason. We get food and go back to the house. The students are busy cooking in the kitchen, and Mari is watching them. Bloom is fascinated by the guitar. I teach her E and A2, along with a basic rhythm. She picks it up really fast. She and the little girl teach me how to use an abacus. The dinner is good. Myron and I clean up. When they all leave, Myron and I watch a move called Next. It’s pretty good. Day 3 the end.

 

*** Day 3 pics! ***

Myron’s fellow teachers. It is strange, but the day we were visiting was the last time that a lot of them were going to see each other, since it was the end of the semester, and a lot of them were not coming back for the next semester.

A really great group of teachers, and I was glad to get to meet them. I was not to picture snappy that afternoon, but this here is the group that came along for dinner, and the food they cooked:

Myron engaged in an orange-juice drinking contest with a few of the girls:

Myron complains that the orange juice was spilling over him. I laughed. The little girl in the back was the one totting the giant bottle. She and her older sister need to take off. Before everyone leaves we take a group photo. Bloom is the one on the left. I don’t remember the names of the others, unfortunately

~ by timu on July 9, 2007.