SINGING CITY and OLD CITY

It is amazing that we are approaching the mid point of the first semester. We have been in China for four months. Sometimes it seems forever and sometimes it seems like forever. I think that both of these feelings are normal. Our classes continue to be enjoyable. One of these blogs will have to be a description of a day in my life - three days a week I am on the go for 12 hours. My juniors can do much more complicated work than I have given them so far. I will need to find ways to stretch them. Renee's freshmen and mine are not close to doing what the Juniors can do. How do we get them from where they are to that place? It is not completely our job. The students have four English language classes - oral, written, listening, and pronunciation. (This is 8 of their 22 hours of class.) My juniors also study American literature.

Since we wrote last, we have been to Chongqing twice. We saw a Chinese Opera. We have attended at least three parties (They call almost any gathering a party) where we danced. We have been to three musical shows. We have eaten with students and with one group had a four hour sit around a hotpot. We have played tennis and the piano. I met several times with the leaders of the Green Heart Environmental Project Assocuiation. They agreed with me to clean up around the lake. (Unfortunately, there is litter in China just like in America.) We met and discussed when and where and how to organize. Things sounded great, and I was excited except they put off doing it for several weeks. Ten days before the event they changed the date. The day before the publicity was to go up they changed where they were going to meet (that decision took two hours with the choice being between beside the lake or in the square). Therefore there was no time to decide the time to meet. Two days later it took almost two hours to decide 7:30 in the morning (I think they wanted to limit participation -they kept telling me that they would have hundreds take part) The day came with a light mist in the air - apparently not light enough because they canceled the clean up until the next "fine day." Will they revisit all of their decisions? I have told them to let me know. (Renee - actually, a lot of things do get accomplished around here; we are just not sure how that happens.)

The two highlights of the weeks included a day in Chongqing with a group of young male singers. Renee had heard them practicing and took me to hear them. We enjoyed the experience. The director then asked if we would like to come along for the performance. What fun. We traveled on their bus and were cared for. When we got to Chongqing, they took us to lunch and we had a great time with a few of the members. The young men in tuxedo shirts and black ties looked great and sounded better. Their performance was flawed by mikes that weren't quite balanced, but it did not hurt their sound. We returned to Yongchuan where we ate again and had several rounds of toasts celebrating the day and their achievement. The boys never fail to greet us on campus and we are now part of the music community here. One of our lunchmates is the one who took us to dinner with his friends and is learning Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts.

The other highlight was a trip to one of China's old cities. The government has designated 50 of them to be refurbished for tourists. Song Ji is one of them. Fortunately, we got there before the huge hotel and large housing complexes are finished. We went with several young people from XingHu (Star Lake) campus. Not our students, but they are friends. One of them was our guide since he goes there often. We got there by bus which was an experience in itslf. The old town has narrow streets and cobblestones with huge doors along the way. We saw people playing cards and majong, eating, and selling, and kids playing. It was fun. We found an old house which was for a rich family and had a hundred rooms. We didn't see them all but what fun for a kid playing hide and seek. We then walked through town and market to the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), Scampering back to town center to catch the last bus (We aren't sure of what danger we were in or not - the students didn't seem to worry.), we boarded just in time, it seemed, and then we were back on that long, bumpy, underconstruction road. Fortunately, by that time most of the huge trucks were going home for the day. When we returned, we ate on the street at a vendor who stir fries your choices of meats and vegetables. The fare tastes delicious but is probably not so good for. It was a good day.

Today it is raining, yesterday it rained, tomorrow it is supposed to rain, and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I'm not sure if the two weeks of lovely cool clear weather was all we get of autumn or not. We have tried to ask about whether the leaves change color or not, but that question gets lost in translation. Based on what we see, the answer is no. A few leaves have fallen, but they are mostly green. Although the natural environment may be heading for winter, around our neighborhood life is bursting forth. We have had three new babies in just the last two weeks. One young family have become our friends and we were very excited when Liao Jing safely delivered a boy this week, though she did have to have a C-section. The baby has an auspicious name, something that is very important in China. He is Ji Dian Shuai. The first two names are family names, but the last one means handsome and leader. In fact, when you want to say that a young man is handsome, you say "shuai ge." (schwhy guh)