Gregor & friends

Picture above is Gregor Henderson. He is the other foreign teacher at FJUT, and the only other fluently English-speaking person that I know of within in a thousand mile radius. Gregor is a bright, adventurous, conversable fellow from New Zealand. He arrived in Fuzhou a month before me and has been studying Chinese since then. He's now at the point where he can communicate simple ideas to the locals.

English-aspiring Chinese often meet together to practice their English in casual conversation. These are called "English Corners." Gregor and I are required to hold English corner for our students once a week. The picture here, however, is from a city-wide English corner. Gregor is in the middle there and I am in the lower left corner. The older fellow next to me is Woodrow. (That's his English name, of course; Chinese people like to assume "English names" for interaction with foreigners and also just for practice in English lessons. It's just as well for me. Chinese names are hard to remember in large quantities.) Woodrow is going to take me to Panda World next week. Apparently, this is like a zoo, but just with pandas.