Finishing Jigou shan and preparing to leave for Shanghai

At that point we all returned to our hotel in order to dress for dinner. Seeing as none of us had any dinner clothing, we, essentially, returned as we were. I did wash a shirt that I had managed to splatter during lunch and borrowed a spare from Collin.

We then all headed off for dinner. Dinner was standard Chinese fare. The foot of some chicken was sticking out of the soup; it looked shockingly like a little hand.

Because the table was not large enough for us all, the Chinese ended up sitting in a larger, less ornate, room and coming to visit us at our table from time to time.

After dinner conversation seemed to drift to how to go about refocusing the English club. It is our desire that the students spend more time talking to each other, in English, and less time with us, the westerners, talking. On a cultural note, the Chinese do not talk business after dinner; they talk business during the meal. So, if there is a lot to talk about then a lot of food is ordered (remember, all meals are shared) and once the food is done then it is time to leave.

This cultural difference was notable at this dinner because the Chinese finished well after us; but, when they saw that we were done eating and were talking they quickly announced that it was time to leave.

Shortly after we returned to the hotel a storm fell upon us. It was fine all day and walking back; but, within a half an hour of our return to the hotel, a string wind came and, with it, brought heavy rain.

The rest of the evening there was little to do but sit and watch a Chinese horror movie, it did have English subtitles. The balcony on my room was covered however the wind blew the shirts I had hanging outside onto the ground and I had to go and retrieve them the next morning.

By the next morning the weather had not improved. So, after breakfast in the village that Colin, Brawnie and I had been walking toward the previous morning, when we were stopped, we returned to our hotel and waited, drinking tea and chatting, in the hotel lobby, until it was time to return to the school.

After the test I went to dinner with some of the students, something I have done very little of this semester. Before dinner they wrote to the Hostel (in Chinese) and asked them to call me so that I could make a reservation; of course, the call came in while we were eating dinner. That actually worked out well because Sam was able to talk to the woman at the hostel. Then, on Tuesday, which is my afternoon that I have off, I went with Gao, Sam, Lee, and Walick to get my train ticket to Su Zhou, seeing as I now had a confirmed place to stay.

Wednesday, Sam, Lee and I made some scrabble like pieces and a game board; in total, we made three complete sets. A real Scrabble set costs over 375RMB here, if you can find one, and it was quickly decided that if I wanted a scrabble set I was going to make it.

The scrabble issue can up in an attempt to decide what to do during the week after the test. Because the test was followed by a week of classes and then a week of vacation, as stated, a lot of the students left early. I wanted something easy and fun to do in class; however, it still needed to be educational. It is interesting to see how competitive they get and to observe their sense of fairness.

Friday morning I had one class (two sessions) and there were no students at all. Julia came by and told me that all of her students were also gone; so, after waiting a while to see if any stragglers came in I left to start packing for my trip.

Visiting Jigong Shan

The students have finished their big test, the TEM-4. This is a test to be taken during the sophomore year. If the student fails they receive one more opportunity to pass it, during their junior year. The then take a compressive exam in their fourth, or senior, year.

These tests place a tremendous amount of stress on the students but are one of the few workable alternatives to the cartel approach to education that is used in the west. One thing that I would expect to have done different if the west were to ever adopt a similar system would be an approach that allowed more than a single retest. A second difference would be an effort to rein in the rampant cheating.

The test highlights one of the problems with the visiting, or guest, teacher system. The facts are that by the time we, the guest teachers, understand what we need to be doing to help the students it is time to leave the school, or even the country.

Being a little aware of this impending test I often, during this semester, asked the students if there is any thing that I could be better doing to help them prepare for the test. Like most students, they had no idea what to say; so, they said, "no." I also asked my head teacher, Julia (a.k.a. Ju Hi Ing), the same question and was told that, "no, the students prepare for the test on their own."

I was still not satisfied with this answer. So, I met with some of my class monitors on a Saturday to discuss the same issue. I was again assured that the students prepare for the test on their own (It seems that preparing for the test is also an acceptable excuse for missing class; as attendance in both my and Julia's classes has been deficient this semester). Of course, as these things happen, two days before the test I get students coming to me saying that they needed help. Of course, I gave what help I could; however, it was too late.

Possibly in an effort to control cheating, the weekend of the test we, the western teachers, were taken off campus and observed most of the time. The one time that we went for a walk by ourselves we found the local director of police to be shouting at our guide because he was not with us.

We were taken to a local resort. It was a very beautiful place filled with resort hotels, one of which we stayed at, and a number of pre-W.W.II and pre revolution buildings. This was the primary residence of Chang Ki Chek during the war and features a number of historic buildings. It also contains an undeveloped (in Chinese terms) hiking area, a small lake within the park, and the local prominent mountain, Rooster Mountain. The entire park is known as Jigoshan.

I was contacted, regarding this outing, only about two days in advance. We then assembled in front of the school at about 8:30am. We then all climbed in a van and were taken to a, seeming random, location where we exited that van and switched to another van. That van then took us to the resort hotel. It was at this point that we discovered that the black car (I am not kidding, the car really was black) that had followed us the entire distance was the head of campus police and some of his associates.

By Chinese standards the hotel was a good one. The rooms had their own hot water heaters (geezers) and drinking water dispensers. [as I write this I am looking at a canal in SuZhou; watching a canal boat that would look proper in a picture of Venice pass under a pedestrain bridge and pull up to a set of stone steps and discharge its passengers] Of course, being intended for Chinese, the showers were whole room and the toilets were squat type.

It was after checking in that I decided to go for a walk and ran into Collin and Brawnie preparing to do the same. As we wandered through a set of single lane streets toward an area where new hotels were being constructed we were "invited" to come to the local police station for tea.

As we sat on the balcony that ran along the upper floor of the station (and I have to admit, it was very comfortable and had a great view; but, this was not a good time to have been taking pictures) we enjoyed our tea with the director of police in this resort. The common Chinese snack at these mid day meetings are sunflower seeds. They also had a miniature rabbit in a small cage on the balcony that we played with by giving it seeds to chew on. About this time Mr. Zhang arrived and it seems that the director made it clear that we were not to be wandering around unsupervised; there was a "danger" if we were to become lost... not all to clear who would be in danger...

While we were there we were also invited back to the station house for dinner. From the balcony we saw what looked like the first stage of dinner preparation, a couple of police officers killing some rosters.

From there we walked, with Mr. Zhang and several others, to lunch. On the way to lunch we saw several of the historic buildings at this resort including a school building that had been built for the children of western missionaries.

There was a poisonous snake on the walk way to the restaurant. This snake prompted some discussion of the role of the snake in the Genesis story. It was surprising to all of us how many of the bible stories they are familiar with.

After lunch, and a short rest, we began our planned walk around the resort. One of the places that we went to see was a monastery that was under construction. Clearly, the first part that was constructed was the interior of the temple and the incense burners. While most of the construction was made of concrete, including trim portions that I had, previously, thought to be made of wood, there was some wood in use. The lumber was made on the spot using trees that were delivered the site. The scrap from this process was then used by the construction crews for cooking and heating.

From the monastery we headed off toward the peak of the mountain. The mountain is called Roster Mountain because, from some angle that I never saw, it appears to look like the head of a roster. The path was well traveled had poorly spaced steps carved in to the stone. However, all told, it was very easy to reach the top and required no skill to achieve. Waking to the top of this mountain is a popular class activity and it seems that they all do so, at least once.

From there we began to return, with some detours. We gave some consideration to taking the cable seat down to shortcut across the lake. However, most wanted to see the ballroom used by the wife of ChangKi Chek during WWII so we continued walking. It was at that point that we noticed the round trip cable car, similar to a ski lift. Unfortunately, it had just closed operation for the day; so, we put that of for Sunday, along with the cable across the lake.

At that point we all returned to our hotel in order to dress for dinner