First Day in Foreign Teachers' Office

Tuesday, September 23. Our first day working in the official Foreign Teachers' Office. It's quite nice actually to have a place to put all our teaching materials and to meet when we're not teaching. It's in the building next to Senior School so fairly convenient for me. Mr. Zhang mopped the floor today, I think in preparation for officials coming (see below). I took a wet rag and wiped down desks, moulding (such as it is), windowsills and then taped up some reproductions from 2008 Metropolitan Museum of Art calendars that I bought in February on sale for $2 each. Great art work! I hung 9 pictures from a calendar with paintings of New York City and, on the opposite wall, another 9 Edward Hopper repros. They cover up (or at least draw one's attention away from) all the marks on the walls! Makes quite a difference.

Two people from foreign affairs division of police department come today to take video and still pictures of the foreign teachers teaching and chatting with the representatives (Mr. Zhang translating!). I'm not sure what these will be used for but will try to find out.

Wang Xian (the school computer expert who installed my webcam) comes to our office to see about installing the internet. It turns out that we need an "internet box," whatever that is, and he has to requisition it, then get it approved by his boss and then approved by the financial office. So maybe we will have an internet connection one of these days. We tell Mr. Z that, in English, this is called "red tape."

Still horribly hot, but we have a big thunderstorm this afternoon (and lose electricity for a short time). It cools things down a little but still very humid, like a sauna!

This evening, I make soup with boneless chicken breasts, shallots, garlic, tomatoes, carrots, edamame, a bag of frozen corn and of course purified water. I have it for dinner tonight and have enough left for four more dinners. I'm sure I'll be doing this all winter.