Purdin Forest

I was in class and we had pretty much wound down for the day. Some of the students had even left. I released them a bit early as we had finished the lesson plan for the day.

I was then approached by a couple of students that told me that they were going to the forest park on Saturday and asked if I wanted to come with them. I said, “yes.”

Their reaction was one of shock. I found it a bit funny. It looked to me like one of those moments when someone is invited with the hope and plan that they would say, “no.”

I was told that was not the case. They just had not expected me to be willing to come along.

I asked them the standard questions: when do we meet, where do we meet, how much should I expect to spend, and similar stuff. They had no answers. That was fine, I am used to how the Chinese plan. They told me that someone would call me with the details.

The details were, that we would meet at the main gate of the school on Saturday morning at 07:30 and take a bus from there. Further, I should bring at least two bottles of water (the standard bottle is 600ml) and a lunch.

So, the night before I insured that my daysack contained water, a camera, and extra batteries. I got up about 06:45 and was at the gate on time. Of course, the students were nowhere to be found.

I sent them a message (SMS is real big here) and someone came to meet me and guide me to where they were. They were eating breakfast in an alley that I often get my dinner, from various cart vendors, at. It seems that the bus they had charted had broken down on the way to the school. The good part was that my, muttered, comment, “this bodes ill,” was entirely un-understood by all around me. I had no wish to further jinx the outing. Even though they were behind the schedule that they had set, they seemed to be having fun.

The bus finally arrived and it was large enough for all that were coming, which was about twenty. It was at this point that I noticed that there were many more young men on this outing than I had ever seen in class. I asked if all the people with us were in my class V and I was assured that they were. I then pointed out that several of the people had a lot of explaining to do, as I had never seen them in class. It was at that point that some of the girls, grudgingly, admitted that they had brought their boyfriends along.

I saw no problem with it and, as far as I know, there is no rule forbidding it; however, there were comments to the effect of, “you wont tell our head teacher, will you?” So, from that I assume that it was, indeed, some minor infraction.

We got to the park and took the requisite pictures at the entrance. At that point they went to get the tickets for entrance.

I fully intended to pay the full price for admission (about 15RMB, or $2USD); however, my students had a different idea. They wanted me to get in at the student rate of 10RMB. So, they pointed out, truthfully, that I was their teacher. They then added that I was there to keep them put of trouble, the ticket seller was asked, “after all, you wouldn't want us to get into trouble would you.”

With that came the, aw shit, if for no other reason than merely by virtue of rank..., “I am in charge,” feeling. The good news was that this was, by Chinese standards, a well behaved group.

From there we wandered along the main path and I took quite a number of pictures, for which they were later grateful as my SLR took much better pictures than they had brought. I tried to get at least one good picture of each established couple. I ended up shooting a couple hundred pictures. Of course, most of them were trash, but there were a few gems in the pile.

They like to pose for pictures so it was sometimes hard to get pictures of them just having fun. This comes from the habits formed with film cameras where each picture was an expensive proposition. I later showed them the entire series, at the beginning of class, which got a lot of enjoyment and laughs.

We had lunch at a small pond that was partially drained for maintenance. I found the supports for the trees, in the pond, to be interesting. The students were bothered by the small amount of food that I had brought for my lunch (it was enough) and kept pushing more food on me.

From the lunch stop (at least they did not find it necessary to spend three hours for lunch, as is common) we continued to a playground. An American safety nut would, if they visited this playground, suffer from, “immediate exploding cranium syndrome.” For all the outlandish lack of safety, the students had a lot of fun and I got a pile of pictures. I also bumped into some of my students who were in other classes and just happened to be there at the same time.

We then walked some more. About the time we got to the end of the park the sky started to drip a bit so we began to walk back. They were sure that my bringing an umbrella is what caused it to begin raining (It seems that their logic says that if only one person brings an umbrella, then that one umbrella caused the rain). As I was wearing a hat I never did see a need to remove the umbrella from my pack. It really never did rain that hard.

We hot back and found that the bus, which was supposed to wait for us, had left. So, they called for its return and we waited bout an hour, or a little more, in the visitors center. The bus finally returned and we went back to the campus.

Preparing to return

As everyone is no doubt aware, the earthquake in China did not, appreciably effect this province. It remains in the news and more information can be found here, in China Daily . It was interesting to see the unifying effect that this had, and, unlike the Hurricane Katrina fallout, there was a much bigger focus on dealing with, and fixing, the problems than with with fixing the blame. It is what it is, a major natural disaster no one seemed to be trying to turn it into a tool of political advantage. Activities that just take time, energy, and resources from where they are needed.


I have been preparing to leave for the summer and have been packing and sending things at the post office. Zeneta asked that I ship both Giant bicycles. I have put them on the train to Zhengzhou. I still do not know if they will be able to fly with me. If they do not, then He Zhi Qing will bring them back to Xinyang.


I only managed to go on a couple of weekend rides this spring. I think part of the problem is that I have been too busy with the extra classes. I did manage to go on two rides. It turns out that both rides were to places that I have been to before. However, they were still enjoyable.


The first of the two I went on was to the restaurant on the top of the hill. It is a nice ride. I really didn't know where we were going when we left but when we turned through a village, I have been to before, I immediately knew where we were headed.

After lunch and hopping around on the rocks the owner of the restaurant wanted a picture with me. I think he didn't realize that I had been there before.

The next week we went to the waterfall place. This time we didn't try to pack our bicycles over the ridge into the next valley. Instead we rode back and had lunch in the town we had passed through on our way to the waterfall.

Some people wanted to rest for a couple of hours after lunch. I left with the people that wanted to get going. On the way back we rode at a much more sedate pace than we had used going out.. At one rest stop we pulled into a persons yard who had a nice concrete table and benches in his yard. He was trimming his flowers and we got to talking to him. It turned out that he had recently ridden his bicycle to Shanghai.

He let us into his courtyard and we got some fresh water (boiled, of course). He also recommended the side road that ran beside his house as a good alternative route to Xinyang.

It turned out to be a concrete road about three and a half meters wide that snaked through a number of farms and villages. Ultimately it ended in a small village that was somewhat unique for what I had seen in China. The buildings were single story. The road also met a dirt road there, which we followed the rest of the way back to Xinyang.

My packing is done and I leave in two days. I will use tomorrow for final packing and on Tuesday I will get my pay and head for the train station.

Decorations

Well, they don't understand the reason for it; but, our Chinese colleagues have given in on the point. We, the foreign teachers, have our own classrooms. It is great to not be lugging stuff all over the campus and to not be running from class to class. It has also given us the opportunity to do something very un-Chinese, to decorate our classrooms.

As the normal mode of operation is for the students, and the teachers to be constantly changing rooms, it is not common for anything to be done to them. Further, because no one is permanently assigned to a room, the rooms are, generally, filthy.

Along with rooms, one thing we requested were trash cans for the rooms. This is turning out to not be as easy as we had hoped. Getting the trash cans was no problem, the problem is getting the students to use them. They are conditioned to, just, throwing trash on the floor. Or, leaving it on the desks when they leave, for the students in the next class to throw on the floor. It is a lifetime of cultural conditioning that is proving to be hard to break (remember, we are teaching western culture as well as English, this is our job).

I also had the college provide me with a large thermos (or kettle). It seems that I do something very odd with this. I allow the students to use it. Remember, there are no drinking fountains and no one drinks tap water.

Before I go to class I pick up my kettle in the room with the boiler and fill it. I then pack it up the five floors to my classroom (this is China, no elevators). I then put it next to my desk. If a student needs water they can then fill the bottle that they have with them (all the students carry small water bottles); however, if they empty it, or I go to use it and the re is not enough, then the student who used it last will go and refill it. Then at the end of my day I take it back down to the boiler room and leave it for the night.

I have done a couple of things, so far, to decorate my class. The first thing I did was to get some plants. He Zhi Qing and I went and got some plants. We then had them delivered on a motor trike. He then dropped them off on the ground floor. At that point He Zhi Qing said that I should goto the dorm and call out my name and for my students to assemble (something like, "English majors! classes 5, 6, 7, and 8! Assemble in the front!"... she says this is how things are done...), grab a few "volunteers"out of the number that do respond and have them pack them the plants up the stairs.

This seemed too weird to me so I grabbed on side of one of the three, large, potted plants and told her to grab the other. We then packed it up the stairs. Her expression when she realized what we were going to do was evidence that she has mastered the, female, "your an idiot, and I'm being to forced to do something that I don't want to do because your an idiot," (...as she read this, she claimed to have no idea what I was writing about here). When we finally got to my classroom she told me to wait there; which was fine, I had something I needed to do. In about ten minutes she walked into my classroom with a self righteous grin on her face; you guessed it, she was followed by a number of the young men in my classes, carrying the rest of my plants.

In addition to plants, I have also ordered some posters. It is important that the posters be in English. This is to set to tone of the class. I found that several US government agencies will send free posters on request; so, I requested them. So far, the only ones I have gotten (they arrived on Friday, after class) are a set of tourism posters and maps from the Maryland Department of Transportation. I am also expecting some from the EPA.

The students seem to be very excited about the attempts to make the classroom more attractive. It is just not commonly done in China.

New Semester (no pictures)

As I am sure that you realize by now, a new semester has begun. Most
of my time has been taken by reading and preparing lessons. I have
also been spending a lot of time helping students prepare for the
TEM-4, the national English exam for English majors.

I have been reading a series by Larry Turtledove. While he, having a
PhD in Byzantine History, generally writes in the genre known as
alternative history this series of four books features a Roman
scouting group of 1,500 being displaced (a common alternative
history theme) into a completely fictional, but very human, world.

As with any of the books I read, I downloaded these and am reading
the series on my PDA. While I have been using it for that and
scheduling purposes, I have been using my PDA less lately. I have
been using my, Linux based, Asus EeePC more. I have been using it in
class to keep records and am using it now, between my class that
ends at 18:00, and the next one that starts at 19:00.

Of course, I can not use any Linux based PC to connect to the
Internet here. First off, it should be taken as a given that the
campus is not blanketed with wi-fi. This is a culture that is not
understanding of the idea of free services. If it has value than it
should be charged for and if it has no value then it should not be
done. Actions taken for public benefit are, simply, not part of the
culture.

Further, as I have said in the past, the computer services are
married to Microsoft. Microsoft software products are viewed as
being, essentially, free. The result is that there is no way any
competing system can gain hold. For Internet access there is a
program that is needed to authenticate, remember that there is no
anonymous Internet access; users of public Internet access points,
or, Internet bars, are required to have an Internet users
identification and access card. Private computers must use the,
Microsoft only, authentication software. This all adds up to, I can
not use my Linux computers to access the Internet and have to
sneaker-net my files on and off them.

Lesson preparation is a bit different than it was last semester. I am preparing a single lesson for the non
English majors and delivering it several times in a single week. I
then develop two sets of lesson plans for the English majors to fill
four class hours. Three of those hours are used to cover the
material in the book and the other hour is used to prepare for the
TEM-4 test.

Last year no time was spent preparing the students for this, very
important, exam and it was a disaster. While, as I have mentioned, a
lot of the failure was due to campus politics, I would still like to
see the students do better. Toward that end I am beginning to spend
time working on preparing he freshmen for the exam. The most
important of the preparations, at this stage, is to get them
thinking about the exam and taking it seriously, if they learn
anything, so much the better.

In the other three class hours, per week, where we are covering the
material in the book, we do a number of language and speech drills
that center around forming sentences and reading comprehension
quizzes.

My weekends are also taken, to a large extent, in helping students
prepare for the test. Some of the students, who re now Juniors have
one opportunity to retake the test and I am helping them to prepare.
As a result I am spending a lot of time with He Zhi Qing working on
this.

I am also continuing to learn to play the violin. I will never be
good; but I am reaching the point that I can identify that I am
playing a tune, even if the tune itself remains somewhat elusive. I
am preparing to replace my current violin with a better one. The
plan is to take the D (high speed) train to Zhengzhou and look for
one there. I will take He Zhi Qing and the violin teacher with me. I
expect that for the extra cost of buying the teachers ticket I will
get a better violin just by having someone, with me, who knows
better of how to identify a good violin.

I do not want to be in a position that I am blaming the tool instead
of the user. I expect to give my current one to He Zhi Qing. She has
been attending the lessons with me and interpreting the teacher when
some point needs clarification.

What I have not been doing as much of has been evening rides. The
weather is just now getting warm enough that riding is even a
consideration. The dam that I normally cross, on my ride, is
currently under maintenance. So, I have been riding a different
loop. I also ride to school every day.

I also have to factor in the increase in my classes. Just being a lot
busier has cut into my riding. My new schedule looks like this.

[that sure didn't work]

Which means that I, really, only have Thursday and Friday evenings
available for riding.

Who's here

Here is a short list of the westerners that are here, teaching or otherwise. Of course, any person with even the weakest grip on the obvious will realize that I am here.

There is a South African is here. He has pretty much disavowed any remaining interest in South Africa and still plans to stay long term. He generally identifies himself as a Scott now.

The Browns are no longer here, Virginia has moved into their flat along with her sister. They are both form the Philippines

Soren, from Denmark, is next door to me and he is also teaching up at Hau Rui. He arrived during the winter holiday.

Dez and Lynn are still here. I do not see them much as they are both teaching at the University. They have a friend that is visiting them and she has been here for several weeks.

Mark and Joe, from Utah, USA, are still here; although, they are not teaching. The school has no need for their flats, as Joe’s uncle never did show up. So, there is no real pressure on them to leave as long as they keep paying their utilities. They did return to America for about a week; but returned. If one is going to "just hang out" for a semester, until their MBA program starts next semester, this is about as inexpensive a place to "hang out" as any other; and, provides them with interesting cultural experience.

That's pretty much it. There are the two western teachers at the Agricultural college on the other side of town. I seldom see any of them. And, there are the African Air Force personnel, who come form several different countries, that are attending at the Air Force College. I see them more often than the teachers at the Ag. College.

That is pretty much it. A foreign face really is less than one in ten-thousand in this town.

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.

New Year parties

Following the Christmas parties, there were several New Years parties. Keep in mind that while Western New Year has already taken place, Chinese New Year is yet to come. What is more, the school will be closed down on Chinese New Year.

As a result, we had a couple of New Years parties. The first was with the administration for XYNU and the foreign affairs office. The second was at Hau Rui.

The dinner with the administration was at a restaurant that I had been to before; however, it turned out that most of the other foreign teachers had never been to it before. As usual we went to a large room with several others. About half way through I realized that Ju Hai Ying, Mrs. Jhang, and another person who had come with us were not present. I discovered that they were eating in another room and, considering that some of our party had left, heaving plenty of room for them, found them and asked them to join us.

I ended up eating something that did not set well with me and spent the next week with a sour stomach. These things happen on occasion...

Later in the week several of us attended a New Years celebration at Hau Rui. It was in H2, the new building, on the fifth floor in the new sports room. Last year, the place that this room is now, was an empty, open air, patio.

The master of ceremonies was one of the English teachers.

Of course, the head administrators needed to speak.

The teachers chior provided the singing.

And, there was dancing.

There were also games.

The goal of this particular game was to push hard enough to pop the balloon without knocking your partner over. Near the end, we, the foreign teachers were asked to go up and sing a song for the other teachers. In all it was a good time; however, several of the western teachers were glad when it ended, simply because it was getting cold ( remember, no heating).

New Suit

Today, Monday, was the first day of our Western New Year vacation. We had Sunday off; however, we had to work on Saturday. The reasoning behind that was that we only, officially had Tuesday and Wednesday off. So, in order to have Monday off, we worked on Saturday.

It makes some demented sense. The fact that we even have a Western New Year holiday is new to this year. The Chinese government is trying to bring about a change and go away from the Chinese system of a few long holidays, where the entire country shuts down for a week several times a year, to the Western model of several short holidays. How well it works out is something that only time will tell.

At church on Sunday I had noticed the suits that both Mark and Joe were wearing. Both were somewhat similar and tailored to fit them. In further discussion they told me that they had been made locally. The process is somewhat simple and we decided to go on Monday and see about having a suit made for me.

After church I spent the day trying to get all of the data files moved over to the new computer that the college had issued me. After that I had my violin lessons.

The lessons are going pretty well, the teacher speaks pretty good English and comes over to my place once a week and gives a lesson. She is very fixated on teaching songs, somewhat before I have even gotten the basics down cold; however, I am learning some. He Zhi Qing also comes with her in order to help with the lesson. Seeing as she is, for all intents and purposes, taking part in the lessons, I have already decided that I will give her this violin as soon as I get a better one. This one is fair, but not great, when I got it I really did not know what I was looking for. Now I have a much better idea and, after my vacation with Zeneta, it is due for replacement.

Monday I called He Zhi Qing, arranged for her to come along, and the minor confusions ensued. About forty-five minutes later she called to inform me that she was waiting at the main gate. I then told her to come up to my flat while I lit a fire under Mark and Joe. I had spoken to them about an hour prior, about going, and they had said that they would get ready. Well, they were still lounging about in pajamas.

About this time Rachel, a Chinese Tourism student, arrived to help them during the day and they started moving. We then went down to find a cab and realized that there are four seats in a cab, and with the two girls, there were five of us. The good thing is that neither Rachel nor He Zhi Qing are very big and we had no issues with a couple of pretty girls sitting on our laps ( to give you an idea, next to He Zhi Qing [who, by Chinese standards, is not small] Debra looked like a giant; and, as you may recall, had giant sized problems finding clothing to fit).

We went to a clothing market that neither I nor He Zhi Qing were familiar with. Outside the shops were large bolts of fabric with the better fabric inside. We wandered to the shop that Mark and Joe had previously gone to and I looked at the fabric and pointed to a long bolt of a Grey wool. At that point the haggling ensued; little details, like the material and cost of the liner, for the coat, had to be discussed.

I will say that Rachel did an excellent job of working on the price. So, the first thing I did was to purchase the cloth. Then I was measured and arrangements were made to phone He Zhi Qing if there was a need for re-measurement. At that point the fabric was packaged for a courier to pick it up, by motorcycle, and take it to the tailor who is to turn it into a coat and pants. The total cost is 450RMB and the current exchange rate is about 7.6RMB/1USD. I have to say I am very curious how it turns out; if I like the end result I will probably order more.

After that we (Mark, Joe, Rachel, He Zhi Qing, and I) wandered for a while, until Mark and Joe saw the electric massaging chairs in a shop. At that point they were lost into their own little land of bliss and He Zhi Qing and I wandered off.

Those ain't sheep

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.