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)

WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN

School began in earnest for both of us over the last three weeks and then there was a week of holiday. My audio visual classes are going well. The textbook is about a Chinese student coming to an American University. It is an interesting idea. In a couple of the classes I am using the theme of friendship as the basis for their conversations. It was fun to hear them sing "Stand by Me." Their dialogues about standing by their friends were very good and revealing. In all of the classes, we do some pronunciation drills and some vocabulary building. They report to my superiors that they like it. I'm not sure that is a very good way to judge a class.

My other English activity also started. I am responsible for an English Corner on the campus where I teach. It made for one very strange day. I taught a class at 8AM and then returned to the other campus, had lunch, and taught at 2:30. Then I dropped off my books and grabbed an apple and took the public bus 45 minutes to the other campus. I spent an hour from 6-7 conversing in English with whoever came. Following the chats, I went with two students for some dinner where we watched the clock for the last bus to my home at 7:40. I made the bus but when we got into Yongchuan everyone got off but me and the driver said the end. Well, I wasn't home. Things were a little nervous, but I called my waiban who told me another bus would come in about 10 minutes. Was I not on the last bus? I still don't know. Being old and a foreigner got me onto the already full bus where I stood on one foot for about 20 minutes until a couple of people got off the bus. The solution to the problems of the evening are still to be debated.

I continue to enjoy my tennis. I now have been working with some of the new players and running some drills for the older players. I am having a great time. This would never happen in America. One tennis outing was with the President of the University and his wife as well as some of the other officials. The other great thing has been the vacation. On Monday 14 of us - mostly students - climbed the local mountain Wang Gua Shan. Not a big mountain but a good hike. In typical Chinese style the outting took six hours. We climbed and walked and explored and then ate lunch together. Great time was had by all. We then on Tuesday and Wednesday had company; another Peace Corps couple came to stay overnight, Matt and Katie Bridges from Virginia. The visit went pleasantly and gave us confidence that we can handle company. The school had dances at least three nights and we enjoy them when we aren't teaching freshmen to dance. Friday we went to Chongqing. We stayed with one of our PCV friends, Gayle. We went to celebrate two birthdays. Jason threw himself a party - I didn't realize I had missed chocolate until I ate the chocolate frosted chocolate brownie. This was washed down with a milk shake. Our good friends from Chengdu gathered and we visited on Saturday over Belgian waffles, Indian food, and then a cruise around Chongqing harbor. It is amazing how close you feel to these people who have been through and are going through what you are. The other exciting occasion was the trip. We had been nervous about heading out on our own, but at both stations we maneuvered ourselves and to my surprise the ticket sellers got out tickets for us on our first try.

Let me add my two cents or so:) On the climb up the mountain, the students learned the word "winded," which I definitely was and had to ask for a rest quite a few times. For me the ascent was a challenge, although nothing like what Lia and Ned were doing on their vacation. More than half the students were boys, some upperclassmen from Rich's campus and a few freshmen that we had invited or who heard about the climb from a friend or who just joined us at the last moment because they saw a group. The girls were all freshmen, some my students, some not.They all blended quite nicely and I was so proud of my girls because they did not giggle or simper or even flirt -- much -- but just chatted with the guys like they had been friends forever.

One girl was amazingly knowledgeable about the trees we passed, including persimmon and loquat (I haven't looked that up yet.) And one surprise was to see some cactus growing since this is such a humid climate. My special hero was a fellow whose English name is Jackson, who is auditing as many foreign teachers' classes as he can manage because he wants to learn to speak English better and better. Anyway, he is the one who helped me down the rough terrain on the way back. I'm sure he was relieved when we reached the bottom. I know I was.

I am enjoying my classes, what few I have had. I have about 240 students all told in classes of approximately 30. But since I see them only once a week, learning their names and relating to them in a meaningful way is quite a challenge. The ones I know best have walked me home from class. It also helps if they come to English Corner. My first goal for my classes is to convince them that if they are serious about learning English, they need to speak English outside of class. English Corner is one possibility. I was surprised at how well some of them talked in that informal setting when they seemed to be barely able to speak a sentence in class. Now my students will have two weeks of military training (only freshmen) and will probably need to be motivated all over again. Ah, well. I am hoping to put my free time to good use although making productive use of unstructured time is not my strong suit. My biggest hope is that I can get established with a tutor and start to work on learning more Chinese. As I have heard Rich say, as long as we can control the conversation, we stand a chance of being able to communicate, but as soon as the conversation passes out of our control, which can happen after "Ni hao", we are easily lost.