A "Date" with Kandy

Saturday, March 14. Lyn's mother's memorial service is today so I will be thinking about her even more than usual. This is definitely one of those times when I would like to blink my eyes and be home. It's hard being so far away.

I work on my blog for a big part of the day and manage to finish ONE entry. Of course, I also spent a lot of time trying to put photos into this entry. It's pretty easy to upload the photos, but a black hole of time with respect to moving them around and putting captions on them. And then there are the ones I accidentally delete! So I'm going to focus on the writing for the moment. I can always add the photos later.

Kandy comes over for our Saturday night "date." He wants to look through my English books to try reading some. He really is so ambitious. At about 6:30, we walk up to Yandi Square, then down the street, around the corner and up another street to find a restaurant that meets with his "approval." :) He thinks our usual noodle restaurant is too noisy! How cute is that? So we find another place, and I have (guess what?) eggplant with egg and rice. It's like the egg and tomato dish that is one of the standards of Hunan cuisine, only with eggplant. Yummy.

Because we have walked so far afield, we take a taxi back to school. I ask him if he wants to watch The Year of Yao, and of course he does. I put it on with English subtitles, and he wants to stop the film every time he sees a word he doesn't know. Finally, I just decide to write down all the words that he says so he can actually just watch the movie! I'm amazed at how much he seems to understand. The words that I write down are either fairly difficult ones (like "indigenous") or slang words (e.g. "buzz"). So he goes home with a long list of words, and I have no doubt that he will study them this week! He also borrowed two English language books: Caleb's Story (by Patricia McLachlan) and Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze (by Elizabeth Lewis). He thinks he will be able to read both of them in one week! Since I don't usually have big plans for Saturday night in China, I figure this is one of the best things I can do with my time: help a student improve his oral English. He is so appreciative, and I also know that he is sometimes lonely on Saturday nights because almost all of the other students go home. His home is just too far away.