More October Entries

Saturday, October 17. Saturday Night at the Movies with Anna, Sandi, and Peter Joe (who now wants to be called Andrew). The second Harry Potter film: I'm really enjoying these - especially Alan Rickman and Kenneth Branagh. :)

Sunday, October 18. Mama's birthday. Lesson Planning: Tongue Twisters. Dinner with Beishida Group at "deer" restaurant.

Monday, October 19. Classes 04 and 02 - give them Pronouncing "ed" worksheet. Zhuzhou Group dinner tonight at the "fish" restaurant at Yandi Square, near the TV tower. everyone there except Sarah Silberg.

Tuesday, October 20. Begin Tongue Twister lesson plan with Class 10. Tweak it a little during the hour I have free between Class 10 and Class 07. Debbie, Cynthia and Rachel come to observe Class 07. I think it went well.

Our second English Corner during 8th period. Not as many students as last week but still a small crowd. Topic: Family Problems.

After English Corner, I go out to the school gate to find a taxi to the supermarket. I stand there for a few minutes, then one of the fathers who is waiting in a car for his son/daughter, asks me where I want to go. I say "wo qu tian yuan chao shi" - so he offers to take me! And I accept - can you imagine? You would never do this in the US but in China, it seems perfectly safe.

And so here's another first: when I finish at the supermarket, carrying my 100-pound bag (!), I walk out, wave to the taxi waiting outside, the driver gives me a big grin, and when I get to the taxi, he says "beishida?" So this is a taxi driver I've had before and who remembers me! Amazing.

Brain freeze today: could not remember how to spell "applique."

Wednesday, October 21. Today is the first day that I did not turn on the a/c (or dehumidifier setting of a/c) since I have been here this year.

Friday, October 23. A/C back on today for a few hours. Just to deal with humidity.

Great evening tonight. Rob, Micah and I walk up to Yandi Square to meet Jeff. The goal is to find a crawfish restaurant near No. 8 Middle School that someone had recommended to Rob We take a cab, and the driver apparently knows the restaurant because he drops us off right in front of a place with a crawfish painted on the window.

Excellent dinner with crawfish, eggplant with green beans, noodles and greens. Rob also ordered chicken but what we got instead was frog! Apparently, the word for "chicken" and the word for "frog" are similar? Anyway, I've eaten frog legs in France, but this is a bowl of whole little frogs with (mild) green peppers, and I just can't do it! I like frogs way too much. Rob pulls off a leg for me so I can taste it and it is very good - delicate and tasty.

After dinner, we walk around to figure out exactly where we are (on He Jia Lu off of Jian She Zhong Lu). No. 8 Middle School is, in fact, just a few doors up from the restaurant. We turn right on Jian She Zhong Lu and come to the entrance of Shen Long Yuan (Mystery Dragon Park). There's a restaurant in the park (Lotus Dynasty) that has a lovely setting overlooking the lake. We go inside to look at the menu - it's pricey but looks quite good. Rob gets into a conversation with the "hostess/manager" and we look around at the dining room - and then beyond that is a wonderful "al fresco" dining area right on the lake. Sometime when we feel like having a "big splurge," we will get a group together to come here.

It is very nice to be in the park at night - everything is illuminated, including the big pagoda on a small hill that can be seen from a distance. I had been to the park previously but only in the daytime and hadn't explored the interior. Tonight, we walk all around the lake and then up the path to the pagoda. Inside the pagoda is a huge gold statue of a seated Yandi. It is a lovely temple (if in fact that's what it is), with a painted ceiling and small niches running around the top of the walls, each holding a beautiful ceramic jar or container of some sort.

At the pagoda, we encounter some students from Hunan University of Technology, many of whom are majoring in English so we chat with them for awhile and, of course, there's the obligatory photo-taking. We walk down the stairs to the gate of the temple (clearly we came up the "back way") and out of the park, hop in a taxi and home. It was a lovely evening - perfect weather, cool and dry, combined with trying a new restaurant and exploring a new part of town. The park is so verdant, it is hard to imagine you are in the middle of a city (like Central Park). We even saw people exercising their dogs in one part of the park which made me think of Dog Hill in Central Park.

Saturday, October 24. Now that the weather is getting cooler, people have begun to sell roasted sweet potatos from pushcarts. I bought one yesterday from a cart in front of our school and had it for lunch today. With a little brown sugar and butter. Yum.

Still grading lots of papers (the Pronouncing "ed" Worksheet). Seven classes down, three to go.

Sunday, October 25. Metal bars have been installed on the first floor windows of the girls and boys dormitory buildings.

Go to Nan Da Men, huge new cross-stitch section on the 8th floor. The second floor is now connected in the back to another market. I get completely turned around and literally lost. I find another set of escalators, a stairway and an entrance to the outside. Amazingly, I had taken photos of the entrance when I came in so I was able to show it to some one who directed me out of the maze!

Carrefour, run into Mr. Zhang and his wife and daughter - they invite me to dinner. wonderful fish, greens, and eggplant prepared the Xian way! walk all the way home carrying my load from Carrefour!

Tonight, the moon is like a crescent of cheddar cheese - very orange - funny because there's no cheese in china!


Monday, October 26. Two classes in the afternoon. I'm tired today because I haven't been falling asleep at night - reading a good book: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.

This evening, we meet the rest of the group at Yandi Square, and Ted leads us up into the village behind the TV tower. We walk a looooooong way - about 25-30 minutes of walking - and arrive at a restaurant at the top of a hill. I have been in part of this village before with David and Tiffany but we go a lot further up than previously. The restaurant is simple but the food is good - especially the sweet and sour pork.

We walk back down the hill, then Rob, John, Katie and I split off from the rest of the group to walk in the direction of Beishida. And this is the part that I remember from last year. We end up next to the farm that I see from my window.

Tuesday, October 27.

English Corner today. topic: Travel. I have a number of students from Senior 3 Class 5 in my group. We end up talking about museums (in Shanghai, in the US, in Hartford) and I ask if they have ever been to the museum in Changsha. None of them has. So we make a plan - with Debbie, who is their teacher - that after June 8th, the date of the college entrance exam (gao kao), we will go to Changsha together to see the museum.

Friday, October 30. John, Micah and I have dinner at restaurant across the street. The moon is almost full - will certainly be close for Halloween (tomorrow).

Saturday, October 31. The rest of the Beishida gang is going to Changsha for the Halloween festivities. I go to copy room to make copies of lyrics to YMCA for the Halloween Party/English Corner (for English teachers in Zhuzhou) that will be held at our school tomorrow evening. We are all scheduled to be in charge of something: Katie, a Halloween story; Micah, a game; Rob, carving a pumpkin, John is doing Thriller, and I'm reprising YMCA, by request! Apparently, we are expecting quite a crowd.

Saturday Night at the Movies tonight with only Sandi and Rock, so we are able to watch a "grown-up" movie for a change. After a few false starts with their first choices (having to do with bad subtitles), we watch Scent of a Woman. They love it. Such a terrific film - you just want to stand up and cheer at the end! Al Pacino is amazing.