Gu Mountain

This Friday was "May Day," the Chinese equivalent of Labor Day, only more widely celebrated. For the occasion, one of my students, a girl named Melly took me to Gu Mountain, a smallish kind of mountain on the edge of the city. I doubt it would be secluded in any event, but apparently everyone takes their friends and parents and cousins to climb "mountians" on holidays. Imagine Disneyland on a Saturday afternoon of a four day weekend; then multipy that image by two. The 2000 meter walk to the peak was more like standing in an interminable queue. Here's a picture of the trail that gives you some idea (but believe it or not, that was taken during a lull).

The weather was good though, and we got a pretty good view of the city.

Here's a picture with me and Melly. Isn't she cute?

We met a bunch of her friends, none of whom spoke any English. My Chinese is sufficient to say hello and what's your name, but that's about it. However, they gave us lunch and one girl offered me three different types of nuts. Then they played a game that was so interesting I have to describe it to you.

They formed three lines with any number of people in them. We had about 25 people, and there were usually anywhere from 1 to 11 people in a line. One person was the policeman and he/she would pick any line she liked and those people would count off: yi, er, san (one, two, three)... Then she would ask the first person, "How many people are in your family?" The first person could cite any number he wished and everyone in the line over that number had to leave and run into another line before the policeman could tag him. Apparently, this stems from the government trying to control population - if your family has too many people, you get in trouble. If you got caught, you became the policeman, kind of like tag. I knew just barely enough Chinese to get by in this game, but it was really great!

I have to show this because it's kind of funny. We were taking pictures (of all the people I played the game with) and I got my friend to take my camera up there for a group shot. But somehow she got it stuck on video mode. "Bethany, it doesn't work!"

Adventures in Teaching

Last Saturday, I taught an extra class to some Chinese professors who were interested in English. They brought a camera and took snapshots during the lesson. I had no idea I looked so funny while I was up there teaching.

Look Dad! I showed them the coupons!

In other news, I got sick for a few days, but it's passed over now. I feel ready to take on the world again. I just gave my students midterm exams and now I have to sit down and grade them all. Ugh. At least I was smart enough to make them multiple choice.

Forest Park

This Saturday was a holiday for the Chinese. It's called "Tomb Sweeping Day," and its pretty much just what it sounds like. You go and clean your ancestor's graves. Anyone some students (not mine, but attendees of FJUT) invited me to go to Forest Park for the day. Thier ancestors were buried too far away to visit easily. So we just played around. Here is a picture of me standing next to a 1000 year old tree. ...Also some turtles.

We rented a boat and rowed out on the lake. We had a race and my boat won the first time, but the second time we came in last. I guess we used up all our energy.

I have to go write a mid-term for one of my classes now. Fun fun.

Odds and Ends

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that I got in a traffic accident while riding the city bus and broke my leg. The good news is that I'm writing this on April Fool's Day, so I was just joking.

My cat is so strange. He likes to sleep under the covers (never seen a cat do that before) and he always talks with his mouth full, That is, he meows for me to feed him, and when I do, he doesn't stop meowing while he eats. Only of course it comes out rather strange, a sort of - megreeeoow. I am trying to teach him to use the toliet instead of his litter box. Amazingly, it seems to be working. I might have success in a few weeks.

I made rice-crispie treats for my students at English corner last week. I found a box of rice crispies in the imported section of the grocery store. The marshmellows they have here are quite a bit harder and stickier than American marshmellows, but they worked alright. The students loved them.

On Saturday, the English department at FJUT organized an outing for teachers to celebrate "Women's Day." We took a bus ride for a couple hours and stopped at an archealogic museum on the way. Here is me and my friend Julia in front of some beautiful bamboo that grew in front of the museum.

At our destination, we entered a strawberry field where we were given a basket and told we could pick 1 kilo of berries for free. I declare, those were the sweetest, most delicious strawberries I ever had. I still have some of them in my fridge.

Across from the strawberry field was a potato field. Well...not really potatoes...but some kind of root or other. They were old and not good for eating anymore, but they were fun to pull out of the ground.

Fuzhou adventures

I don't yet have many pictures of me around China. So here is me at Wu Yi square, near the center of Fuzhou.


We (Gregor and I) went to a Daoist temple nearby. It's probably been there, in one form or another, for thousands of years. The ying-yang is classic, don't you think?

Last week Gregor and I got a side job recording our voices for a textbook for English-learning middle schoolers. They set us up in a fancy little studio with microphones. Paid us $50/hour, which is substantial even by American standards. I feel immortalized. Generations of Chinese children will listen to my voice! Until of course, they discontinue the textbook. While we were there, the manager took us out to eat at a "Western-style" restaurant. It was pretty expensive. All they served there was steak and some weird pizza. I had the pizza. But they did give us forks and played American music. Haha.

Silas

Two days ago I got a cat. I had been asking around, and finally a fellow teacher directed me to an older woman who kept cats and she gave me one. He is very young but not quite a kitten. I named him Silas. At first (as you see by the picture of him clawing desperately at the upper window), Silas did not like the idea of being trapped inside. Eventually I will let him go out to go pee and play about, but for now I want him to get used to the idea that this is his home. He is mostly happy now and he likes me a lot. Another few days and I will let him go out. He is the most vocal cat I have ever heard. Meows all the time, purrs all the time, usually in sync. Right now he is romping about in the wildest way on my bed. I should try to take a video of it. He is so funny.