Singing in Chinese

Wednesday, September 3. It may be just my imagination but it does seem to be getting, if almost imperceptibly, cooler. Call me crazy. Or just a "cock-eyed optimist, immature and incurably green."

Morning: Cleaned apartment. "IM'd" with Eleanor through Skype! Very cool. I can't wait to get a microphone and camera so we can actually talk and see each other!

Lunch: sliced lotus, tofu and rice. We have noticed that no one (neither students nor teachers) drinks anything during lunch. We bring our water bottles, but nothing else, not even tea, is available. Strange.

Afternoon: The memory card on my camera is full, so I download photos onto computer and put onto Picasa. Now I just need to figure out how to get them on the Web (or save to a CD) so I can reuse the memory card.

Class from 3:25 to 4:10 p.m. From 3:20 to 3:25, they have eye exercises. This is accompanied by sweet music on the classroom loudspeakers and a nice voice counting from 1 to 10 and back in Chinese. So this is what is happening as I'm setting up my things! Very pleasant (really). Also, I'm not sure what exactly is the benefit of the eye exercises, but at least they get to close their eyes, massage their temples and relax for a few minutes.

Another higher ability class today. Such a pleasure, first because most of them understand what you say (although there are a few who seem to be struggling) and second, they are in general very well behaved. Same lesson plan which goes well again. Good questions during Getting to Know You, e.g. what did you do in America before coming to China? why did you want to be a teacher (instead of a lawyer)?

Tiffany and David are visiting when repairman comes to fix hot water for shower (at least I think it's fixed, haven't tried it yet) and toilet (definitely fixed!). Just as he is leaving, Mr. Zhang comes by and says the teachers are preparing for Teachers Day - they will sing a song - and would we like to participate. Of course, we all say "yes" enthusiastically, we ask when is the rehearsal, and he says "now!" So we all rush to change shoes, grab water, and Tiffany says "of course, it's now. when else would it be?" They warned us about this in orientation, that often we would find out about things just before they happened!

So we go to singing rehearsal. The lyrics are, of course, in Chinese characters, so two people spend most of the time writing them out in pinyin for us and trying to translate. I missed most of the translation except the second song talks a lot about "Unity is Power." The songs (two of them) are quite beautiful. Teachers Day is September 10 so we will have rehearsal again tomorrow! Apparently it's a sort of competition.

And let me just comment on the quality of the singing for a minute. These people can sing - especially the men. I thought I was in the middle of a professional choir. Quite amazing. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when maybe I can actually sing something!

After rehearsal, Tyler (technically Mr. Tao) takes us to show us how to put more money on our meal cards. I add 100 yuan. He tells us that the soup is free and rice is 50 jaio, which is one-half of a yuan. Vegetables are less expensive (maybe 2-3 yuan) than meat (5 or 6).

Back to apt to figure out something for dinner. I spend most of the evening fooling around with photos on Picasa. Thunderstorm tonight.