Thanksgiving Day!

Thursday, November 27. A beautiful, clear, sunny day. Cold (in the high 40s) and a little windy but the wind clears the air, so we don't care.

Two classes today: morning and afternoon. After my last class, which ends at 4:10 p.m., I race back to my apartment to change clothes and grab a taxi to the bus station to meet Suzanne. We're going to Changsha for the evening, where the Sheraton hotel is having a real Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie! About 25 of the WT volunteers will be there so should be quite festive. It's fairly pricey (for China - 190 yuan, or less than $30) but apparently the food at the Sheraton is very good. Stay tuned.

Later (around midnight): What a terrific evening! Well, at least, it's terrific once we actually arrive. There is a lot of traffic on the roads as well as an accident, so the bus takes an hour and a half to get to Changsha from ZZ. We arrive at the Sheraton right at 7 p.m., having left ZZ at about 5:15.

So much fun seeing Brooke, Quincy, Taryn, Sean, Cullen, Melissa, Tara, Daria, Joe, Karen etc etc. I also meet a young French woman, Sophie, who is teaching French (!) at YiZhong and whom Chris has befriended as she is the only person in Changsha from her volunteer organization. So I get to speak a little French too. We will get together again when I come back to Changsha sometime for the weekend.

The turkey, stuffing, mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie are quite good. Not what one would get at home, naturally, but not bad considering we're in China.

Suzanne and I take the train home (the train, not subject to traffic jams, takes only 40 minutes - when it's running on time!) and I get home before midnight.