Zeneta makes her exit (from China)

Gao Jing is back. She went with Zeneta to Beijing in order to insure that Zeneta had less problems leaving China. While here, because the dorms were closed, she used the couch in our "den."

Gao Jing came a couple of days before Zeneta was due to leave in order to complete some final paperwork that was necessary for Wa Dou to leave the country. I was surprised at how well that went.

She and Zeneta also tried to mail back some of Zenetas clothing and personal affects, only to discover that the post offices are closed for the month in honor of the New Year. The result of that is that I still have a giant pile of stuff waiting to be shipped once the post offices open again. I am under the impression that they will open in a couple of weeks.


The first step was to take a cab to the bus station. She took a bus instead of a train fir two reasons. First, she had a tremendous amount of stuff, well over the weight limit for baggage on the train. The second reason was that, much like in America, dogs are not allowed on the train. She had hopped that the dog could sit on her lap on the trip, like he has done in the past when traveling to Zhengzhou; however, the driver insisted that he be in a cage. So, he sat in a cage, on her lap, to Zhengzhou.


In Zhengzhou they met with Sunny, one of my freshmen students who lives in that city. She then assisted them in finding their hotel and she also took Wa Dou for the night, as dogs are not allowed in any of the hotels that Zeneta contacted in Zhengzhou.


The next day they met with Sunny and went to the airport in Zhengzhou (cab from Zhengzhou to Zhengzhou International Airport is about 150? in order to fly to Beijing. It was necessary to fly form Zhengzhou both to reduce the length of the bus ride and because, having obtained his exit papers in Henan province, it was necessary for Wa Dou to leave China from Henan province.

It was at the airport in Zhengzhou that Zeneta ran into her first problem of the exit stage (which is different from the planning stage; or, the, still separate, pre-exit stage [the paperwork stage] ) Gao Jing's ticket was no good. Zeneta had purchased it from Expedia and, as such, her name was written as "Gao Jing" in pin yin (roman characters) instead of 高竟, and only Chinese characters are acceptable for Chinese nationals tickets. Instead of having her name in characters, it would have been acceptable to have her ID number on the ticket; but, that was not there either. As such, the ticket was, simply, not valid.

Zeneta ended up purchasing a ticket for her there, at the airport so that she could continue to accompany Zeneta to Beijing. Other than that, there were no big problems. She was permitted to check in her two large bags and her dishes as regular baggage. The rule is two pieces of baggage so she had taped the two large boxes of dishes together tin order to make them into one box instead of two. However, this still left her at three packages. She was still not charged for the excess baggage. This has given me some encouragement as to getting my bicycle back in June. She was charged extra for Wa Dou, we were prepared for that as the China Air website, clearly, says that animals are charged as excess baggage, even if there is no other baggage. The charge was 10? per Kilogram, or, 100? for Wa Dou and his crate.


They then flew to Beijing where they got their luggage and went through the process of checking it again, they do not transfer your luggage for you in China. You have to retrieve it and check it in at each transfer point. Here they charged the 200? that the China Air website said that it would cost for excess baggage to get Wa Dou on the plane. As before, there was no charge for the dishes, which constituted a third bag.


At that point Gao Jing left Zeneta to idle her time away as she waited to fly, non-stop from Beijing to San Francisco.

The concert

Another week goes by. It seems strange that I am preparing to leave China for the last time; or, at least for a long time. I have lived I this, cold, flat for longer than I lived in Sacramento, Redding, Burney, or Alturas. I am not sure if I have lived here longer than In lived in Chico. I doubt it; but, it has certainly been an interesting episode in my life.

This weeks lessons went very well. In general the students liked the movie. As I have stated, I generally do not like showing movies I class, I consider t to be cheating. There just isn't enough time spent talking as it is. The big problem, the same problem as in language classes around the world, is that the students do not spend time working with the target language outside of class.

We talked about the movie and even the students that did not like it were willing to discuss why. The main reason for students to dislike it was the tragic ending. The students like the pollyannic endings that are so common in the movies that they choose to watch. However, I was extremely pleased that they were willing and able to express this.

The, overall, liked to disliked ratio was about 9-1. I asked them to tell me about why it had to have suck a tragic ending, how they would have liked to see it end, all that stuff. Keep in mind, the point is not film appreciation; instead, it is produce speaking. I have learned a lot of lessons about what works, and what does not, in showing films in class for the purpose of teaching English. This may be the last film I will show, I have not decided yet. A lot of that depends on when I am to conclude classes.

I have begun preparing my final exam for the term. I have floated it past some of the students with the question, “will your classmates be able to do this?” They all agree that their classmates can do it; however, they feel that it will be hard for some of them. That is the reason that I decided to have the exam done in groups of three, so that the stronger students can cover for the weaker ones. This works OK if it is a case of one weak student with two stronger ones. It does not work as well when there are two weak students, leaving one student trying to carry the whole group. The worst case, that fortunately does not happen often, is when the groups break out with all the strong students in their own groups and all the weak students in others.

In addition to classes, I went to a large student party on Friday. I have to add that I am seeing some real changes at this school. As many of you know, this is a new school and is still in its formative years. It is establishing it's culture. Toward that, the leaders here at Haurui are making a great effort to make this into a school that students want to be at, instead of a school they are stuck at.

The party was in the upstairs area of the old cafeteria. This gave them a large open room with space for a public dance area. It was much more of what I would think of as a party than most of th student parties I have been to. The people running it even lost control of the event and it self transformed from the usual 'presentation' format into a free party format. The bad news is that I did not know I was being invited and did not take my camera.

All the same, there were some excellent presentations. One of the students did a great solo dance routine. As I have said, most of the girls at this school are good dancers. This girl stood out above the rest. It is a good thing that she went last; because, once she did her routine the solo dance competition was over. There were games of charades, this is the first time I have seen Chinese playing this game at a party.

They pulled me out to dance with them several times. That does reflect a problem at this party. For over 300 girls there were less than twenty guys. That reflects a problem at this school, not just the activity (… problem...? What problem...? I don't see any problem...). It was a mask party; yes, we were to wear masks. I put my glasses on the outside of my mask, they all loved it, it was suitably silly. Other than the lack of beer, this party could have been mistaken for one anywhere in America.

I left well before the end of the party and the next day returned to the student area of the campus for a concert that was being held at the track. In simple terms, it was a loud rock concert. Most of the bands were student bands of varying quality.

A lot of my students were there and they all seemed to be having fun despite the concert being held outside in the cold. One of the students talking to me commented on how orderly the crowd was being. Yes, compared to a similar crowd of Americans, it was a remarkably well controlled group.

I took my pictures and listened for about an hour and a half. Then I returned to drop off my camera and go to meet with Gao Jing for dinner. While I was waiting for her I happened to run into Fish and she went to dinner with us. We went to Korean restaurant that I have gone to before with Fish (the rice rolls are pretty good). With that, another week passes.

To Chengdu

(Pictures will come later, I am writing, and posting this, in a Hostel In Xian)

Zeneta and I are finally on our vacation. We started a bit late and the first leg did not go as planned; however, it worked out. And, for a bit more information, I am writing this on my new toy.

Zeneta and I had listed a number of items that we were interested in doing at the beginning of winter vacation. However, there were a number of limiting factors, Then, both I and the
dog were sick. The dog being sick is an issue because I was not willing to leave Gao Jing in a position where she was trying to both deal with a sick puppy and prepare for her exams. My illness was just a cold; but, I was not interested in traveling while under the weather.

once we were all better Zeneta went to get tickets. The problem was that the tickets were not available so I quickly came up with two alternate itineraries. The first alternate was a no-go; but the second worked.

The plan was to go to Chengdu then Xian. The reason for Chengdu was simple. It was to see the pandas. Getting to Chengdu involved taking the D train to Hankou, or, what most people think of when they think of Wuhan. The second leg was a twenty five hour ride from there to Chengdu.

The stop in Hankou was an eleven hour layover. We had some concern because, while we were coming off of a D train, the next leg was hard sleeper. Very simply, we did not want to spend the eleven hours in a hard waiting room. Well, I had no real trouble getting them, the functionaries at the train station, to let us in the soft waiting room, which was, albeit poorly, heated. This lasted for several hours. we used the, clean, if Chinese, facilities, enjoyed our tea, I plugged in my PDA and charged it while reading a book on it.

Then, about midnight, the soft waiting room closed and they sent us to another room. This room was not bad and was not excessively crowded, like the hard waiting room would have been; however, like the hard waiting room, it was very cold. To put things in perspective, it was well below freezing (apx. -2c) and all the rooms, but the soft waiting room, do not have doors. They open directly to the outside. As stated, we were cold.

It was a bit of a relief to get on the train. At least it was heated. Both Zeneta and I had top bunks, which I have talked about before. Further, we were on opposite ends of the car. However, we both, quickly, went to sleep.

As usual, the trip itself was uneventful. The next day the lights were turned off early, about 9:30pm, because Chengdu was the end of the line and it was scheduled for 5:30am.

End of fall/winter 2007 Semester

The semester is now at a close. Some of the teachers have left, several to never return. Zeneta and I are planning our vacation. And, the snow has started to fall.

This is pretty much the end of the semester. I have given my finals and am, nearly, done grading papers and submitting my grades. The final was pretty subjective; so, what I am grading on is: first, did they answer the question, and second, can I make any sense of the answer. This can be phrased as, did they clearly state a position and support it. This is being graded quite loosely because the Chinese method of education assumes that there is only a right answer. It is not necessary to say why it is right; because, it is right.

This, of course, tests if they understood the question. Because I sometimes speak in obtuse circles the questions were reviewed by several teachers, all of whom used the same questions. We did this to insure that the questions were simple and clear and that we, the foreign teachers, were providing some level of consistency.

I also did something that I have done with some of my classes before. It is a much harder assignment than it seems, both for me and the students, because it tests reading, comprehension, vocabulary, and speaking.

I gave them, in pairs of two students to one story, newspaper shorts. These are short two to three paragraph stories from China Daily, the official English language news paper of China. The assignment is to discuss the newspaper story with their partner, using as much English as possible, and prepare to tell the class about the story. I will then find a way to force both partners to speak during the presentation, usually by asking a question or by just asking if there is anything more that the other partner can tell me about the story.

This is a lot of work for me because I, first, must know enough about each of the, over fifty, news stories to both ask questions and lead the presentation; let alone know if they have interpreted it correctly. I must also move to all of the pairs of students (and with classes that often exceed eighty students, this involves a lot of moving) and check to see if they have any questions about the article or the words in it. I then put some of the words on the board, really a projector, as it is easier for the students, in the back, to read. Those words, or phrases, such as, "stock trade," and ,"obstetrics," would then be explained to the class. While I realize that, ideally, the articles, at this point in the class, should not include any new educational material, the use of authentic material, for exam purposes, almost guarantees that there will be some new words, or uses of words.

There were a couple of surprises when I used this exercise. This is the first time I have used it as a general exercise; as a result, I was not prepared for some of the issues that arose. The first thing that surprised me was that the Chinese students have no sense of world, or even national, geography. By this, what I mean is that the students were, at many times, unable to even identify the names of the Chinese Provinces and Autonomous Regions as being places in China. World geography left the students batting a total zero; they simply have no idea where the countries of the world are (on a different exercise, when I asked some students where Europe was, they had pointed to Canada). I was told, by a student several years advanced from them, that this is a result of the "memorize it and forget it" approach to education in China.

The second interesting thing from this exercise was what they were trying to read into the news stories. This is also a result of the educational system and the nature of reading material for students, in China. The students kept trying to tell me what they should learn from the story in the form of a message or moral.

Almost immediately after delivering his last exam, Collin Brown, the very experienced teacher from Australia, left China for the last time. His wife, Bronee had already left, in order to complete her M.A. and the physical separation was unworkable for them.

He informed us of this the Sunday before he left, before church services. We then arranged for a going away dinner for him on Thursday. Of course, we also put in dibs for his stuff. About all I needed, that he had purchased here In China, was his laser printer. Arrangements were also made to donate several items, such as the TV and DVD player he had purchased, to the local Lutheran church.

On Thursday we all mt at the restaurant, near the East Gate, where we like to eat. In particular, Collin likes the sweet and sour pork and we have been told that it is made with chicken, not pig. The cook makes a lot of other food we like, including candied bananas. In general, it is a popular place with the westerners; even if it is a hassle to get to.

Before going to the last dinner with Collin, Zeneta, Gao Jing, He Zhi Qing , and I went to pick up my suit. Before going to the tailor, Zeneta needed to go by the Veterinarians, with Jing, for Wa Dou. As a result, I waited in the flat, with He Zhi Qing for Zeneta to call us and say that she was dome at the Vet. Well, she never did call. It seems that she had, again, left her phone behind. As a result we got to the tailor well after she and Jing had arrived.

So, instead of just picking up my suit, I was told that she had commissioned three dresses to be made. The owner of the shop still wants me to help his son work on his English over the winter vacation and has offered to make me a free suit if I can do this. His son is attending a university in another city; however, he will be back for a month as the schools release all of their students. I have told him that I will wait and see if I am in town.

At that point we caught a cab back to the restaurant and were in time to meet all of the others. Unlike the cab Mark and Joe took earlier in the same year, our cab did not get stuck, while passing a truck, in an open manhole on the sidewalk that the driver did not see because it was covered with water. There were so many things being done wrong in that last sentence that it elicited an, "only in China."

I am not sure if I will be in town because Zeneta and I have not finalized our plans for the holiday. My travels this year will be a lot less than they were last year, when i traveled with Michelle. On Zeneta's list of, "must do," things is to see the Panda Bears (xiong mao). This is best done at the Giant Panda Research and Breeding Facility in Chengdu. She also wants to go to Hong Kong (Xiang Gang) to see both Disneyland and the LDS Temple (who we have no way of contacting). However, Getting to these places is further complicated by train schedules and Wa Dou's illness.

I did not want to leave him with the girls when he was sick and that leaves us trying to get our tickets at the last moment. Further, for train rides that will take more than a day, I am a bit insistent that we travel in sleeper cars. This has left us facing a shortage of transportation. Today Zeneta and Jing will go back and try to get tickets in a manner that will do what she wants.

There is the final little thing that it has been snowing all weekend. Collin was worried that it would start snowing before he got to Wuhan, on Friday afternoon, as Mr. Gao, the head of the college was driving him there. However, it did not. It started on Friday and continued through the weekend. Wa Dou is not all to excited about the snow. He was already unhappy with the cold and the snow is, to him nothing but cold in a more tangible form.

Christmas Parties

What a day, first an all schools English teacher (and any other foreigners that could be roped in) lunch. Then a big activity planned evening and formal dinner with the city outdoor activity club.

I barely have the energy to sit down

(added to the 5 kilos that I have probably put on today)

The plan was actually worked out well in advance; pretty much as soon as it started getting cold we began over-planning the Christmas dinner. For the Chinese this is a reason to have more loud parties.

When the Western New Years and Christmas parties were combined, there were a total of nine parties that I was expected to be at. Zeneta misunderstood one of the invites and thought that the fourth was intended to be a business meeting, it was no business meeting.

All but the second were very Chinese; however, only the third, the one with the bike club, was truly Chinese, more of which I will explain later. The first party was hosted by Hua Rui College, which is a division of XYNU and is where I teach (and is the correct spelling, according to Ju Hai Ying, aka, Julia).

Most of the college leaders were there already when Julia walked us over to the restaurant on campus. It is one of the two main restaurants on campus, not counting the canteens, and is well within the old residential section (as I have said, this "small campus" is a city of over fifty thousand residents, many of whom live here year round).

The meal was very typically Chinese, served on a large revolving table and featured a great deal of toasting. One of the harder things for westerners to become accustomed to is the Chinese hesitance to drink alone; they will toast someone when they intend to drink, which leads to, what seem to be, loud, uproarious, meals.

It was also at this meal the we gave Julia her Christmas present, in order to insure that we got something proper we assigned a few of our aids to help shop for her (One teacher's idea was to get her some satin sheets, it was at that point that I decided to ask some of our girls to be the Julia shopping sub-committee). We ended up getting her a silver necklace.

The party was pretty much normal. One thing I noticed was the older man next to me was putting water in his bi jiu (a Saki like drink) cup. By doing this he was able to get away with drinking a lot less because, as one of the main leaders, it seemed that everyone wanted to toast him at least once. It was a good, if sneaky approach. My approach was to just tell them that I did not drink bi jiu (Wo bu he bi jiu).

There were no real shocking stories from this party. We all had a good time and the westerners all left sober.

The next was one held at one of the coffee shops in town and was hosted by the westerners. It was attended, not only by the teachers here, but also by teachers from the Agricultural College (Don't expect much from the Agricultural College, it is no Davis. It has a very small campus in the center of town and has no farm. The Ag project is a small, trash strewn, concrete pond in the center of the campus. [here is a List of Higher Education Institutes in Henan Province]).

The Coffee shops are not what an American would think of as a coffee shop. They are a chain of restaurants that serve western style food and are generally very plush. Due to some confusion we were not given a room but combined some tables in the front of the restaurant. The main confusion was caused by our attempt to reserve. The Chinese seldom reserve for dinner so they did not understand when Ken went to reserve several weeks in advance. We all took a guest so there were also a large number of Chinese students, I took Gao Jing and Zeneta took Huang Yun. It was necessary for both Zeneta and I to take an aid because I was going somewhere else after the dinner and Zeneta still has trouble getting around town by herself; so, Huang Yan was there to insure that Zeneta made it home.

From there Gao Jing and I caught a cab over to the bike shop. The bike shop was hosting a Christmas dinner and activities for the outdoor club. The first things done were a couple of skill challenges. There was the standard cone weave and there was a track-standing, or slow riding, competition. I was not on my own bike and ended up borrowing a bike from the shop. As a result, I did not do as well as I would have hoped; however, I did not do poorly. I could not even get Gao Jing to try to compete, she was busy talking to a Chinese club member who had been to Nebraska, USA, to study American farming techniques.

It surprised the people there that I did not hit a single cone. There is a trick to the cone weave; it is simple, do not look at the cone that you are coming to. You have already set up your angle, either you will hit it or you wont, look at the next cone.

After the contest (where I won both the foreigner class and the foreigners over forty class) we went to a nearby restaurant. I was surprised at the number of people there and we used quite a few tables. The food was very Chinese and I ended up next to my doctor who at least understood my eating preferences and habits. Of course, the toasting was de rigeur here too. As an interesting variation on the pattern, many people wandered from table to table pouring drinks and, by way of a common toast, leading the table in the making of a loud roar. I asked Gao Jing if we were supposed to be forming any particular word, she told me, "no, just noise, but it is important to be loud."

After the dinner we went outside for the fireworks; in China, any excuse is a good excuse for fireworks. This is the first time I have really looked at the launching of the mortars. A common method is the use of a prepackaged box. The box has a single fuse that is lit then there is no longer any timing or operation issues. Two boxes were lit off and then we went back inside.

When we returned back inside the tables had been cleared of the meal and snacks, such as nuts and oranges, were placed on the tables. At this point the show started. It was an interesting observation; for a people who do not plan much of anything, they do plan their parties. The schedule was full with presentations and dances. I received an award that essentially says, "foreign friend."

Later I was asked to present some gifts; however, I had trouble understanding what they were asking. I was to select five names and read them out. I was then to give them awards of the Olympic mascots. As stared, I was having a bit of trouble understanding just what it was that I was being asked to do. So, there I was on stage, they thrust a microphone in my hands and the first thing I said was, "Jing Jing, where are you?" She promptly waved, smiled, laughed at me, and returned to taking pictures of me, up on the stage.

It is noticeable how the whole country is excited and proud of the planned Olympics. It was not like this the times that the Olympics were in America. I hope I am wrong; but, I foresee disaster.

When the program ended, like most Chinese events, everyone quickly filed out. The people here do not linger and mingle. Gao Jing and I quickly found a cab and headed back to the college. The rule is that students are not to ride in cabs onto the campus; so, I rode the cab through the gate, where the cabbie told the guard' "I have an American in the car," and we were flagged through. I then sent her, and the car up to her dorm. It was too late for her to be out walking alone; particularly considering that a couple of students, both girls, had been killed walking through the woods, on campus, at night in the previous month.

Almost ready to start another year

I went riding again this weekend. I have been having some trouble contacting the bicycle group's message board; however, on a ride, at the 10Km point, I ran into a teacher at the university. He told me that on Saturday was going to be a women's ride, but that on Sunday would be a general group ride that was leaving at eight am. He estimated about 100km (it turned out to only be 90) and stated that the route had some strong hills.

Gao Jing is in the green and white shirt on the right, Zhang Pei is the third fom the Left, looking at the camera and wearing glasses.

Gao Jing was not able to go on this ride (in truth, she has no intention of going on any of the long rides) because she got a job for the weekend. She was selling convenient noodles, these are what we call ramen noodles, in front of a market. Several of her roommates were also selling noodles at this market, and another market in town.

The ride was supposed to start at eight so I headed off, a bit behind schedule and I ate some bread as I was riding. Eating while riding, or driving, is not common here; however, talking on the cell phone certainly is (and in a nation where no one has any sense of social responsibility, it can be scary). As a result I did manage to arrive a few minutes early.

A few people noticed that I did some stuff to my bike. Because I am having some trouble finding an affordable shipping company to return it to the states (UPS quoted about 3500RMB) I am hesitating on getting a road specific bike; so, I started looking at what I can do to this bike. There are two issues that I wanted to address. The first was rattles. The second was weight. When I got it, it was what I wanted for certain tasks. I wanted a quality bike for trips to the store, this necessitated racks and carrying capacity. The second thing I wanted was a touring bike. For long rides, like the one I made in the summer. For these tasks the bike I have is close to ideal.

However, I am now using the scooter for trips on campus. And, simply, the increased carrying capacity makes the scooter well suited for trips to the store. This leaves the bikes main use as a sporting bike.

With this in mind, I removed the front rack and basket, which was a lot of the rattles. I also removed the kickstand, which was over a kilogram by itself. Being as I am riding it in, generally, good weather, I also removed the fenders. Removing the fenders took care of the occasional maladjustments' that caused tyre rubbing, noise and friction. I left the rear rack on. This was because I needed a place to put the lock. That may eventually go to, as I do not stop anywhere on my recreational rides.

Doing all this made my bike more suited to the type of riding that I am now doing. The weight removed, particularly on the front, made the bike more responsive and with the fenders gone, there was nothing for road debris to get hung up on. Of course, everything done was fully reversible; so, if I change my mind it is a simple task of bolting it all back on.

The front runners and some of us taking a break (the guy in the red shirt also teaches at XYNU)

Of those of us who were there on time, there were about six others that were present and ready to go. So, we simply left while the others were assembling, we did tell them that we were leaving. All six of us were relatively fast riders and kept a strong pace, which lead to a lot of spreading in the pack. We stopped at one spot, about 25Km down the road to insure that all were present, and then we kept going. At about 303Km we turned off the main road onto a mixed pavement road the quickly led to a village that was not noticeable from the road.

It is fun going through these little villages. We all enjoy the look of the small children when we go through their streets. It is not like automobile, or airplane, or even motorcycle racing. We are on bicycles. This is something that they can relate to; yet, when we go through faster than they have ever seen bicycles go, in formation, and with riding gear that basically provides an identifiable uniform, their eyes light up. It is something that they know is a realistic thing to think about doing.

After leaving the village we were on a narrow road, about three meters in total width. Many people were drying their crops on the road and the only way through was to ride right over. It did not seem to be a problem with anyone as we did so.

We went through one little village and something surprising happened. In general, the dogs in China do not chase bicyclists. They grow up around them and are broken of chasing at an early age. Well, this dog was an exception to that rule. It just happened to be an exception to the "dogs in China are small" rule also. I was in the back of the pack and a police officer I sometimes joke with was in the middle. When this dog came out we all went to full power. What was funny was the way I just shot through the pack from the back. Because of the admonition that I am not to ride fast, I was intentionally loafing near the rear and had a lot of energy to burn. The police officer (that is right, I forgot his name) also pulled to the front. Then another dog came out and we kept pushing (It was like the old joke that ends with "I only have to outrun you"). In a few moments we looked back and we were over a hundred meters in front of the others. We both got a good laugh over our little sprint. When we came across dogs that would bark, later in the day, we both made like we were going to sprint.

This rolling single lane of mixed pavement and dirt continued until we got to the last four Km. then it turned into a narrow, about 3 meter wide, road that was well paved. It was just outlandishly steep. There was one spot we measured; it had more than a meter of rise for four meters of run. Some of it was rideable. However, we all had to make the walk of shame. I was not the first, and I was not the last to start walking.

When we got to the top of the road there was a large, rather new, roadhouse. We all went in to watch the Beijing World Cup Triathlon (Spain won) on television and wait for the others. It was sort of embarrassing when they arrived and asked us when we had gotten there. We had been there for over an hour when they arrived.

We then walked to the top of the mountain. The climbing was not hard but I really need to start wearing something other than sandals for these activities. The view from the top was blocked by trees but there was a great rock shelf that offered a great look at the road we had just ridden and the rest of the valley.

After the short hike we returned to the roadhouse for a typical Chinese meal. They have their large meal at mid day; so, the meal consisted of eight dishes and two soups, along with rice and rice crust. This meal went well for me because I did something. I asked Gao Jing to contact the ride leader and let him know what I do eat.

In the past there has been a lot of concern that about all I was eating at lunch was rice and broth. Well, I just can not get into floating head and foot soup. As most of you know, I do not eat really fatty food and avoid pork. I also do not like eating food that leaves me spending more time spiting bones onto the table than I spend eating. Yes, I am picky but I will not starve (just to be sure, I put some bread rolls in my pack before leaving).

After the meal we went on another hike. This one was boulder hopping down a hillside. I did not go all the way down. I came to the conclusion that everything I hopped down, I would have to climb back up. I went back up to the pools by the small waterfall and waited there.

We then returned to the roadhouse, where they had moved our bikes to keep the seats out of the sun; however, that made mine hard to get to. We then got some water and prepared to leave.

Leaving was harder than it seemed. Not because of all the photo opps that took so much time (trying to get that many people in a single picture is not always easy, particularly when the person taking the pictures wants to be in them and does not have a tripod). Instead it was because of the hill that had tested us as we rode to the roadhouse. Going down it was its own challenge. Several people's brakes were barely up to it. I even had some problems with over heating, this was a place that the disk brakes, that some of the bikes were equipped with, showed their worth.

The ride back was quick and easy. We regrouped once; however, I was one of the first into the rest point, and, as such, I was also one of the first out. Having actually eaten lunch helped my riding a lot.

Just another rest stop, only about half the riders are in this picture.

I was asked by a person what it was like living in China. I pointed them at my, rather lengthy, blog. I think if it were ever printed out that it would come to a couple hundred pages; and, I do hope that, somewhere, in this mountainous haystack of, largely repetitive, diatribe are a few needles. So, if you are reading this, make a few comments now and again so I will know that, at least, someone is reading it. Also, comments help me to zero in on what people are interested in hearing about.

Later in the week I went to take part in the evening fitness ride instead of going alone. I was under the impression that they leave at six thirty. However, I discovered at they leave at six. So, I ended up riding alone anyway.

I went back the next night and went riding with the mechanic and a girl. I then had all kinds of bike trouble. Either, it was a good thing the mechanic was with me, or, he was bad luck. He ended up taking my bike back to the shop where we determined that the derailleur was not repairable. I ended up taking a cab back.

While we were at the shop, we saw a bike that Zeneta liked and we added another to the stable. I will post some pictures of her riding soon.

I was planning to go, with the other teacher, Ken, and visit a coal mine and power plant during the past week. As we understand, the coal mine is an open mine; as such, it should be entirely safe. We were then to travel on the route that the coal takes to a power plant. We are told that this plant has been in service for over one hundred years.

The problem is getting there. This shows one of the cultural differences between westerners and Chinese. As westerners, we insist on a plan. We have worked out the itinerary and the trains that we will need to, both, depart and return. However, train tickets are, generally, not available in advance. It is simple; if you do not plan then purchasing tickets in advance is not a problem because you do not do it. Like I have mentioned, if a Chinese Citizen needs to go somewhere they wait until they are ready to go and then go to the train station and try to see what kinds of tickets are available. If they can only get a standing ticket, then they stand.

For us, this is a last option, not the plan. So, I first look up the trains on the internet and find the time and cost. At that point I go to the advance sales ticket office. The problem is that I then am told that the first train on my list is available, but the others are not. The suggestion is, as expected, to take that train and try to get tickets when I get to the next town.

Part of the problem is the ticketing system. It is a holdover from the pre-computer days. Each city is permitted to sell a certain number of tickets for each train. If they sell those tickets, then the train is sold out. This is another part of the problem that leads to people being told that there are no tickets on a train that is running practically empty. It made sense in the mail pouch days when stations were mailed tickets. However, now that they all use terminals that are tied into the same ticketing computer, it makes no sense.

The D train, being an entirely new system, does not use this method of ticketing; they use a unified ticket management instead of a city based ticket management system. As such, it is easy to get a ticket on that train. However, the D train only takes us as far as Zhengzhou and does not get us back.

The new plan is to go during the October holiday instead. We are still trying to work out the tickets and to be sure we can get them. To add to the confusion, tickets can only be sold ten days in advance. While this does help prevent unexpected problems from throwing the entire system out of whack, it makes it hard to travel for people who insist on planning

I got my class schedule last night, about nine p.m. on the Friday before classes are scheduled to start on Monday. I still do not have my books. I am told that they will be delivered later today.

Last Wednesday we had a meeting to discuss what we will be teaching. By this, I mean the pedagogy, or the method of teaching. We had some proponents of teaching through films. Others wanted to use the dialog book. It appears that the dialog book people won.

One difference this year is that all of the foreign teachers will be teaching freshmen. There are about 2000 new freshmen at Haurai College, which is a small art of Xinyang Normal University, and it is where I, and four other foreign teachers, teach. The plan is that all new freshmen will have a foreign teacher for their English class. Some of the teachers still have a couple of classes of sophomores; however, I have, as expected, all freshmen.

Waiting for school

As I stated prior, school has not restarted. However, the students are all back. I am having the most contact with the students, who attended class, from class four. It turns out that they do not have an assigned foreign teacher. So, they have been visiting a lot. I am getting tutoring on my Chinese and they are getting tutoring on their English.

HZQ (He Zhi Qing) has informed me that there is a violin teacher near the campus. So, I expect to begin visiting him soon.

This coming weekend I had intended to go to a Coal Mine and Power plant; basically, to follow a lump of coal from the ground to the lines. However, the plans got interrupted because of a lack of available trains. I worked out a train schedule and went to purchase all of the tickets (there are three of us going, so that as a total of twelve tickets). When I got there I was told that all but the high-speed train from Xinyang to Zhengzhou were not available. It was then recommended that we go to Zhengzhou and try to get a train form there. Very simply, I was not going to play that game.

As you can see, we have a new toy. Zeneta has ridden it a little. The main reason I got it was for trips on campus. There is a bicycle rule that irritates me just about every day. I decided that instead of being angry about it all the time I would just do what the law is, partially, to encourage me to do and stop riding my bike on campus.

We got a small one. I was about to get a bigger scooter when I was at a shop that I was about to buy from; because, they both had the lowest price and an established service department. Then they did something that even the Chinese I had assisting me considered to be unethical. I then wandered off to the bicycle shop I often frequent. They had an older, smaller, model for a bit less.

The building next to us is being knocked down to make way for something. It is interesting to watch these people. There will be a guy standing on the top of a wall, five floors above the ground, knocking the bricks between his feet out with a sledge. The other picture I took is a nice detail picture of roof construction.

We still haven't done much cooking. I Think I did more cooking before Zeneta came back than has been done in my kitchen since she returned. One evening Gao Jing mentioned that she and her roommates were trying to figure out how to cook in their dorm room without getting caught (it is not permitted). I mentioned that they were welcome to use my kitchen; they just had to feed me as part of the deal.

And that's the news from Xinyang