Much has changed since the last update! 🙂 

If you remember from my last update, I said I would be teaching at the Forestry University and the Mining University.  Well, only part of that is true.  The hours at the Mining University were mostly during the wrong times.  So the Mining University is out.  During my first day at the Forestry University (which includes an 8:00 – 9:50 class and a 3:40 – 5:30 class) I was taken out to lunch by Ms. Fan from Tsinghua University. (remember her? she was my Tsinghua boss last year.)  While this lunch date was being planned, I jokingly said to another teacher, ‘she’s going to offer me a job without Mr. Wang being involved.’ 🙂  Well, she did offer me a job for much more pay because we don’t have to go through the middle man (AKA Wang).  I was definitely skeptical at first.  Remember when I told you that Mr. Wang wanted me to teach 2nd grade?!  This new job is at that school but it is with 3rd – 6th grade.  In order for me to get this job I had to do a demonstration lesson….with 2nd grade! Yikes.  I guess you could say that I’m a bit afraid of 2nd graders.  They scare me.  Really.  Someone told me, ‘just sing songs with them.’  That’s great advice.  Do you know any songs that are easy and are about food/weather/appearance/etc.?   It was definitely a moment that does not need to be repeated and also affirmed my fear of teaching anything lower than 6th grade.  So, why the job?  Well, my schedule is very open now because I teach less for the same amount of money.  This gives me more time to spend in the WORD and with friends.  I’m also going to spend more time on my Chinese study.

As I write, I’m in the middle of my day at the Foresty University and I really like these students.  I’m trying to learn a little about them as people and not just have shallow conversations revolving around comparative/superlative/count nouns/non-count nouns/etc.  Since this is only their second week back in school, I decided to ask them about their class load.  They have almost no freedom when choosing their classes and they are stuck with the same group of people the entire day.  Sounds like grade school, eh? The only two classes that have different people are Chinese History and Basic Principles of Marxism. (both required classes)  They did say that a perk to those classes is that there are 180 students in the class so it is very easy to take a nap and not be noticed! 🙂 Ha!  I’m happy I have only 30 at a time.  I think a speaking class would be difficult with much more than that. 

Last week, I taught my first primary class in China.  I began my teaching at Tsinghua Primary School.  I don’t love it but I think the benefits from teaching there far outweigh the negatives.  The only difficult thing about teaching 6 identical classes during the day is remembering what you’ve taught them.  ‘Did we go over that already? No. Ok, must have been last class.’  Many of these students have pretty decent English.  Some of them have lived abroad which makes it easy to recruit for the FOC school!  At the primary school I’ll teach 4th grade, 3rd grade, and 5th grade one week, and 6th grade, 3rd grade, and 5th grade another week.  Their are 6 classes of 3rd graders at the school and I only get one class of them per week.  So, math people…that means that I get each 3rd grade class every 6 weeks! 🙂  I don’t want to think about how much the aren’t going to remember.  The day that I did my demo lesson was military training day for the 3rd-6th graders which is why I had to do a demonstration with 2nd grade.  The craziness of China continues. 🙂

B Studies have been going well so far.  It will be fun to teach with new people this year!  Making friends to bring to studies will be a little more difficult for me than last year because my students are not adults with free schedules.  I might have to become creative. 

Sorry for the quick, choppy, picture-less update.  I have to go back to school.  Someday I’ll get some pictures up! 🙂

GB!

There must be something about being from Wyoming…mountain state and state of coal mining!  🙂

Although I have only been back to China for about a week-and-a-half, it feels like much longer (like I didn’t even leave) but also much shorter.  I don’t know what to think of this new emotion. 😉 

Mr. Wang has been just as frustrating as he always is.  I asked him about a job since the Tsinghua thing wasn’t going to happen this semester.  He kept insisting on sending me to Sinopec (same place I taught first semester last year) but I kept saying no.  He does not understand that it is not worth my time to travel an hour one way for the pay that he gives (which is not much).  He keeps saying, ‘But you’ll only teach there for three and one half hours, Amber.’  Yes Mr. Wang. I know. I do not want to work for Sinopec an hour away.  I thought I had finally convinced him to stop asking me when he said, ‘Amber, I’m not trying to persuade you.’ Really, Mr. Wang? You’re not? Why do you keep asking me?  I told him that I wanted something close so that I don’t have to take the subway for an hour, and I wanted adults (or university students).  I understood that this limited my options.  But, living in the university district should have it’s advantages, right?  In the meantime, I looked for another boss to drive me crazy.

I ended up at this place called ‘New Channel English’.  This place appears to be super organized and with it.  They were so organized and ‘with it’ that they do their monthly, yes MONTHLY schedule, days in advance!  This is unheard of in China!  Unfortunately, I went there on September 1.  🙁  So, no job at New Channel until next month and that’s probably not going to happen. 

Randomly, the next day, I received a phone call from Sophia, former assistant of Mr. Wang.  She must have kept my number from her glory days of working for him!  She asked me if I was looking for a job.  How did she know? 🙂  We made plans to meet the next day to discuss the possibility of me teaching….middle school students….. 🙁  Well, that was a downer.  Mr. Wang called me later during the day and told me he had some university teaching for me to do.  So, I had a choice between middle school and university. Not really much of a choice.  (I do love middle school, but I love university more.)   I consulted another teacher.  She told me that the going rate for foreign English teachers is 30 元 more per hour than what Mr. Wang has been paying me.  Hmmm….. So, what should I do?   Being the chicken that I am, I sent Mr. Wang a text message (no phone call for me) asking him if he could pay me more.  (After all, he did tell me last semester that he would give me a raise and he never did.)  I did not receive a message back from him. 

I got another phone call from Mr. Wang telling me about this really awesome school (awesome to who?) right on the Tsinghua campus (super close to my home).  Grade 2!  No. Way.  ‘Mr. Wang, I don’t want to teach 2nd grade.’ ‘But, Amber, they are really good students.’ ‘Mr. Wang you already told me I could teach at the university.’ ‘I know but this school wants a woman.’ ‘Mr. Wang you don’t pay me enough.’ ‘I can’t afford to pay you more.’ Right.  I told him that that the going rate was much higher than what he was paying his teachers and that I would find a different job if he didn’t pay me more.  (How’s that for bargaining…it’s the ‘walking away’ technique. Sometimes it works…sometimes it doesn’t.)  He said, ‘okay, Amber, I will pay you more but you cannot tell the other teachers. Some of them already don’t get what you make.’  Okay. 

So, to make an already very long story short, (that phrase never makes sense) I’ll be teaching at the Forestry University (sophomores) and at the Mining University (post-graduates).  Along with my dear students (now 4th and 8th grade) at the FOC school. 

A little about the language:  大 = big， 学 = study.  So, 大学 = big study or “university” 🙂  (See the title if you are wondering where I’m going with this.)  业 = industry, 林 = forest (it even looks like a forest) 🙂  矿 = mine.  So, if you want to take the names of the schools literally they are: Forest Industry Big Study 🙂 and Mine Industry Big Study.  Mr. Wang must think I’m special to have come from Wyoming, land of lots of forests and also many coal mines.  I wonder if being from there will make me more interesting to my students…. I’ll let you know!  I’m looking forward to starting the university stuff on Monday. 

As I write, it is the end of a very long day which started with teaching.  My first day of teaching this year.  Weird that this is the start of my sixth year of teaching.  I taught two classes and before the second one started I was developing a rather painful headache.  Add that to my persisting sore throat (no thanks to you, Beijing air) and you have a recipe for teaching disaster.  Thankfully, my 8th graders were really great today.  I’m also thankful that the class was only two hours this afternoon.  I went home right after class, took some ibuprofen and went to bed.  A couple of hours later, my friend Gretl sent me a message telling me she was on the way over with the butter!  For supper we were making the difficult ‘macaroni and cheese’ (Gretl loves cheese–I think she’s part American) 😉 and then watching a movie!  Gretl just left for the night and I’m finishing up my writing before heading off to bed. 

Thanks for your continued pr-yers.  My job worked out, my first B study being back was amazing! (It ended up being mostly one-on-one and so great!) I’m slowly but surely regaining my health.  (Gotta love Chinese medicine!)  Life couldn’t really get much better.  (Remind me of that next week when I’m complaining about how annoyed I am about something Mr. Wang/etc. did.) 

Blessings on your long weekend! Be thankful for your work!

After a short flight from Rapid City, South Dakota to Chicago, I waited in the airport for eight hours to catch my flight to Beijing.  🙂  So, I talked to random strangers, chatted with some people, and watched TV online (while I can still get it without a VPN!)  The flight was AMAZING!  I don’t really enjoy flying all that much but this particular flight was great!  It was pretty empty on the plane so there was a lot of room to stretch out. My flight went a little something like this:  watch an episode of The Office, eat something, sleep, sleep, sleep, play some tetris, (on the screen in my seat! 🙂 ) watch a movie, get off the plane.  It was probably my best flying experience, EVER. 🙂  I got home at about 2:00 am and couldn’t sleep.  When I finally did get to sleep it was about 3:30 and I only slept for four hours.  Ugh.  I was definitely functioning on adrenaline the first day! 

First day included moving a couch and LOTS of other stuff, trying to unpack, eating amazing Chinese food, helping the new people get some things worked out, getting a much needed massage, meeting my friend Tim who happened to be in Beijing for a couple days 🙂 and climbing 6 flights of stairs over and over and over.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention biking! 

Tonight I’m having dinner with Mr. Wang to talk about where I’ll be teaching since CRCC will not send any of it’s employees to Tsinghua this semester.  (I’ll try to remember to take his picture!)  Pr-y for something as great as my classes last year.  I’ll let you know when I know!

GB!

The US National Holiday was celebrated by the Meiguoren with our own ch–ch in the morning, a trip to Haidian ch–ch with quite a few Chinese friends after that, and a visit to Lush for lunch (western restaurant) where they were serving cheap hamburgers and cheap imported beer.  I made sure to take my American flag (which was found in my apartment in the beginning of the year) along with me.  Happy 4th of July!

After a fun and delicious lunch most of us went back to another teacher’s apartment to play games!  It’s fun to teach our Chinese friends new American games.  We dispersed for a bit around suppertime because most of us had made other plans with different friends.  (I had invited two students over for Super Mario and other Wii fun!!)  But, one of the other teachers had kept a firework (singular) from the Chinese New Year festival!  🙂  So, we shot of one firework 🙂 and then watched National Treasure because we couldn’t find Independence Day.  Below are pictures from the ‘celebration.’ 🙂 

This is at the restaurant "Lush." It is run by foreigners and they had cheap burgers and beer this day!

The flag continued to make an appearance throughout the day. These are two of my Chinese friends. You might remember Tim from the pictures of the scavenger hunt!

The lighting of the firework. Check out that sweet lighter!!

🙂 Right next to buildings. We wouldn't have it any other way!

I’ve been thinking about the things I will miss while I’m in the states for seven weeks.  Things that I will miss: my Chinese friends, studies with friends, amazing Chinese food, biking in heavy traffic, and bargaining.

But, I’ve also been thinking about things that I’m looking forward to when I get to the states!  Here are a few things I’m looking forward to:  blue skies, breathing clean air, quiet traffic, walking barefoot in carpet, sleeping in a really comfortable bed, driving, wrshping in a ch–ch, and seeing friends and family!

I’ll be in Wisconsin on Tuesday night.  On the 15th it is off to Wyoming.  After that, a bit of camping with the family!  🙂  I hope I get a chance to see you while I’m visiting.  I won’t have a phone so the best way to reach me is by email! 

PRAISE HIM for keeping our ‘team’ safe this year!

As my first year in China comes to a close I wanted to share with you some of the ridiculousness that has become everyday life for those of us living here.  I’m sorry if most of these don’t make sense.  Many of them would not have meant anything to me before I lived here.  (Then again–the blog isn’t only for you! 😉 ) Some of them are funny by themselves, but some are funny just because they are so true!  I cannot claim the whole list as my own.

You know you’ve been in China too long when…

…you think that a $7 shirt is a rip off. (or you find yourself bargaining over 75 cents)

…you think that walking backwards in the park listening to a transistor radio (or clapping your hands) is good exercise. 

…you consider it a challenge to see if you can get on the subway before anyone gets off. (Or the elevator. Or anywhere, really.)

…you find western toilets uncomfortable. 

…you honk your horn at people because they are in your way as you drive down the sidewalk. 🙂 (What? Don’t you?)

…you have no sense of traffic rules.  (I wonder how I’ll drive in the states…)

…you start cutting off large vehicles on your bicycle. (Buses come to mind….)

…forks feel funny. (Hehehe)

…you can’t say a number without using the appropriate hand sign. 🙂 (I love this one because I do it and don’t think about it!)

…you stop at the top or bottom of an escalator (or stairs) to plan your day. (People also do this when exiting the subway scanning ‘booth.’)

…you have an uncontrollable urge to follow people carrying small flags!

…you think that pushing the elevator button over and over again will make it go faster. (It does. I’ve tried.)

…you prefer hot water in the summer. (winter, for sure, but not summer yet)

…you’ll only wear your good high heels to climb the mountain.  (This one is my observation.)

…a fashionable outfit includes heels with ankle-high nylons, shorts with suspenders and any version of Hello, Kitty T-shirt, a purse you can fit into, a glove on one hand, a sunbrella, and your cellphone.  (Don’t worry, I don’t dress this way.)

…all white people look the same to you. 🙂  (Never thought I would actually believe that one!)

Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you roll your eyes, and sometimes you just smile.  Still never a dull moment. 🙂

It has been a fun-filled week of listening to really horrible speeches. 

My students at Tsinghua University are having a speech contest this weekend.  Ms. Fan asked me to help them with their speeches by giving them advice and editing grammar/usage/etc.  So, I told them that they could email me their drafts and I would see what I could do.  Some of them are pretty horrible.  One person made the mistake of including Chinese text also, which means that he wrote the speech in Chinese and then did a direct translation with a language translator online.  I actually copied his Chinese text into Google Translator and there it was!  Although it is mildly disappointing that my students don’t think their English is good enough to write in English, it makes for some pretty entertaining reading!  So, I decided to share a particularly funny Chinglish speech with you!  I hope you love it as much as I do!  I might consider framing it!  Here you go.  Just be warned that you may be less intelligent after you read it. 🙂

“Today, I want a different. I realize that people actually is their thinking’s accessories. I want to dominate mine thinking, I want my life is full of joy and hope. I’m reject to be a victim of the environment, and never let such as red light, long lines, traffic jams these mere inconvenience as the leading master of my emotions. I want all the negative thoughts far away, so optimistic as my partner and successfully be my symbol.

“Today, I want a different. I realize that time is the most precious thing I have. I want to full of gratitude and cherished to the upcoming 24-hours, even one minute, also as far as possible to prevent such as selfish, anxiety, boredom, lazy these harmful bacteria infection.

“Today, I want a different. I have realize that today in front of me there is only once. When tomorrow arrives, today will never be again. Therefore, I use a joy like child and courage like a giant to grasp today, treat it as the last day of my life. While it still in front of me, filled it with love and give.

“Today, I want a different. I already know that fail is not terrible，to get up is most important. I will not allow past mistakes entangled me, even my life is full of scars by fail. Never let past fail to represses me, even the failure’s shadow of my life everywhere. I can admit it, and also to amend it.

“Today, I want a different. I have realized that a man lack of love, even he has the whole world, he is still poor. Person surround by love, even without money, he is rich. I want to spend more time to appreciate the man who I love and love me. Even if I have tired, I have to chaperoning my lover, my family, even if I busy, I must find at least five minutes, with my friends, colleagues sharing even a few simple conversation, a warm hug, a look of appreciation, a gesture of gratitude.

“Today, I want a different.”

Oh, China.  You are never lacking in hilarity and strangeness!  I’m very glad I’m not done with you yet!

First of all, bike traffic continues to annoy me a bit.  Apparently the rule is this:  The bigger and faster a vehicle is, the more responsibility it has to stop for the smaller/slower vehicles.  So, really, the dump trucks who fly down the road when there isn’t much traffic have the responsibility to stop for the (stupid) biker who decides (for some crazy reason) to bike in front of him.  This seems backwards to me.  But, I have decided that I may never understand ‘common sense’ in China. 

My students are getting summer fever.  (kind of like spring fever but at a different time of year.)  🙂  One day a couple of weeks ago, they said they didn’t want to do what we were doing in class and that I should make class more interesting.  So, I asked them what they would like to learn in class instead.  (I should probably back up and tell you that Ms. Fan gives me a book to use for class but tells me that I should do something else in addition to the book for class so that they don’t get bored with the book.  The students tell me they hate the book–Ms. Fan tells me that the students tell her that I should do more book–Amber is stuck with what she should do for class.)  One issue with this class is that I kind of have to cater to the students because if they don’t like the product (the classes/material/teacher/etc.) the company will take the business elsewhere. 

I told the students my dilemma (followed by giggles) and they said, ‘do half book, half something else!’  Me: ‘I do that EVERY SINGLE class period.’  Them: ‘We could watch movies…’  Me: ‘We tried that. Remember movie class? You complained.’  Them: ‘No. Have us watch a movie outside of class and then we could discuss it in class.’  Me: ‘You don’t even do the simple homework that I give you.’  Them: ‘You could show us a flash.’ Me: ‘A what?’ Them: ‘A flash.’ Me: ‘What?’ Them: ‘A FLASH!’  (Apparently, repeating the word over and over and saying it louder will make the meaning more clear.)  They meant that I should show them a short animated video in class and then discuss it.  And that was the end of that ‘discussion.’  I came to the conclusion that they are just tired of class and don’t really want to learn anything.  I thought about this all weekend and tried to come up with something that might interest them.  I brought in American money and we talked about that for a while, I also brought in a Pixar short film and planned to have them write the words for it.  You know how most of the Pixar shorts don’t have talking? Well, I thought it might be a good exercise for them.  We watched the film. They didn’t write.  I said we would watch it again and while they were watching it, they were to write the conversation.  Still didn’t write.  They laughed.  They didn’t write. AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!  During the second class I had a completely unexpected response.  The students still didn’t write but they did spend 15 minutes (yes, 15) talking about the deeper meaning behind the video. I tried to explain to them that it was just for fun. Only funny.  Oh, No!  They thought it was about teamwork and getting along, etc., etc.  Hmmm….  I still don’t know what they want.  I don’t think I ever will. 

Ms. Fan also told me that I need to spend some time having the students practice their speeches for the speech contest.  Roger that.  Today, I brought a handout that included some tips for writing and delivering good speeches.  Then I told them that we would practice our speeches with someone else in the room.  (Lesson #972: Don’t assume that because the head teacher says the students will have the speeches finished that they actually will.)  🙂  It has been a frustrating couple of weeks at Tsinghua U.  Thankfully, students are still the same outside of the class.  Many still come to B study and bring others as well.  Even last night in a downpour, one of my students–who didn’t know where he was going–came to B study soaked.  He brought another student from the class.  I barely have to try to invite people.  They do it for me.  So, in that sense, I suppose I should say, 今天我喜欢中国。(Today I like China.)  🙂  I’ll leave you with a few pictures from my day at the Botanical Gardens with an American visitor and my Chinese B study friend, Tracy.

In the rose garden...

🙂 Beautiful Flowers

There were many bees hovering around the flowers! Some of them posed for my pictures!

It was beautiful there even though the storm from the night before had ruined some of the flowers.

I really liked this flower. I don't know what it is though.

Lots of beautiful places like this one...all roped off so that you couldn't walk through them! Ah, China!

This was actually the bee that posed for my picture. I crouched down, he landed, I took the shot, he flew away. It's like he knew...

Since red is my favorite color...

I may or may not love bees as much as I love pandas! 🙂 But, if they start to fly away, so do I!

Yesterday was Children's Day in China. This means that the Children don't have school and that every tourist place is packed with people! This family was all wearing the same color. Too bad the black and white version was better picture. You'll just have to use your imagination.

These two were part of a much larger game of something that resembled duck, duck, goose. But, as soon as they noticed that two foreigners were watching them, the whole group of people got up and left. 🙂 Probably because I was taking pictures.

Here’s a little geography lesson about Beijing:

At the center of the city is the former Imperial Palace and the Forbidden City.  Just south of that lies Tian’anmen Square and other important government buildings.  Between Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City is Chang’an Street (Eternal Peace–which I find incredibly ironic, actually).  Encircling the Forbidden City is the 2nd Ring Road.  A little further out is the 3rd Ring Road, and after that, the 4th Ring Road.  Beijing actually has six ‘ring roads’ that encircle each other with the 5th and 6th being furthest away from each other. 

A while back I got this crazy idea in my head that I wanted to ride my bike around the 4th Ring Road (about 42 miles, or 68ish kilometers) for a challenge.  I was thinking about doing it over the May holiday but ended up traveling instead. 🙂  So, an American friend and I decided that we were going to do it!  I decided to ask my students if any of them wanted to join us.  On Friday in my business class, I began by drawing Beijing on the board. 🙂  (This was actually really funny because as soon as I started drawing they started guessing!)  It didn’t take them too long to figure out what I was drawing.  Then I labeled some key places (Forbidden City, the ring roads, Tsinghua University, my home, etc.) so they had a frame of reference.  Then I drew a bike on the 4th ring road and an arrow all the way around it.  A few of them caught on to what I was ‘telling’ them.  Then I asked them, ‘who wants to come with me?’  Most of them said, ‘you’re crazy!’ or ‘too far!’  But, I ended up with two students who said they would come with me. 🙂 

I told them where we were going to meet and at what time.  (Actually, I told them a little earlier because they are notorious for being late.)  The plan was to meet at 7:40 (for them) on the corner of the 4th Ring and another street close to the university.  I got a phone call from one of them at 7:15.  I answered.  He said, ‘where are you?’  WHAT?!?  I said, ‘I’m at home. Where are you?’  He said, ‘we are on the way!’  AAAAHHHHHH!!!  Then, I got to where we were meeting and received another phone call from a different student (a student who didn’t actually tell me he was coming on the trip–four students ended up coming!).  They were on the opposite corner of the intersection and wanted to bike the other way because they didn’t want to look into the sun.  I guess I didn’t really care which way we biked so I agreed.  So began our journey ‘around’ Beijing.

I had warned the men that we were going to go fast. (I’m used to Chinese people biking slowly and I didn’t want to be biking for 12 hours.)  I was impressed with their speed and was happy that we would finish the journey in a reasonable amount of time!  🙂 Hehehe….ever the optimist…  Dexter brought his map so that we wouldn’t get lost. 😉  (apparently Dexter doesn’t read road signs).  And, the map didn’t help anyway.  In the first hour of the journey, he and Edward led us astray 5-6 times.  Aaaaahhhhh!!!  Each time I said to them, ‘we need to go this way’ and they wouldn’t listen.  I may not speak Chinese but I’m really good at reading road signs that are IN ENGLISH!  After a few wrong turns, they finally figured out that the foreign girls might actually know what’s going on.  There were a few times where we didn’t even let them stop long enough to check/ask.  We just kept going so they were forced to follow. 

Then… my friend and I were pretty hungry at about 11:15-11:30ish.  We’d been riding for a few hours.  So I said, ‘let’s find a place to stop and eat.’  Dexter said, ‘we’ll eat at 12.’  🙂  Then we had a little exchange about how I eat when I’m hungry and not when the clock tells me to eat and how he thinks one should have an eating schedule….blah blah blah.  This concept was so foreign to him.  We ended up stopping to eat (at one of the nicest restaurants I’ve been to in China–in sweaty athletic clothes!).  Lunch took way too long because they assumed that we wanted to have a sit down meal.  I would have been fine with baozi from the street or some other street food.  After our hour-long lunch we got back on the bikes.  (this was pretty painful)  About another hour into the trip, Dexter’s bike chain came off.  🙂 He immediately got out his tissue so that his hands wouldn’t get dirty. 🙂  The chain was stuck and he wasn’t able to pull it out.  So, he went off the road to find a branch to use for leverage.  While he was looking for the branch, I pulled his chain out (sans tissue) and proceeded to put it back on his bike.  It was pretty humorous to hear the reaction of the other three guys.  Clearly they think that I am not capable.  (Thanks, Dad, for all the times you ‘let’ me help you with handy things around the garage/house/cars/etc.) 

So, we were back on the road.  About 30 minutes later, my tire went flat.  I ran over a nail-like object.  At the same time, the spring on Hubert’s kick-stand broke so it wouldn’t stay up. (I fixed that one with a piece of ribbon I happened to have in my bag)  So another 30 minutes was spent finding a bike guy and repairing my tire.  Edward wanted to send me home in a taxi!  No way was I going to stop when I was so close to finishing!  After fixing the bike and having a popsicle we were back on the road. 

We were on the final stretch home when we lost the guys in the last kilometer.  They decided that we didn’t know where we were going and went a different way.  Who ended up in the right spot?  That’s right…the two foreigners.  They never did show up at the original corner.  They just found the back road back to the university.  🙂 

At the end of the journey, I was sore in the rear and burnt in the face.  But, it was a fantastic day!!  🙂  See below for a map of our journey.

The red dot is where I live. The line from the red dot is where I bike every day on my way to the university. My original idea was to go clockwise so that we didn't have to worry about crossing intersections on the corners. They wanted to go the other way because the sun would have been in our faces for the first hour. Total time for the trip including wrong turns, extended lunch, flat tire, and broken kick-stand: just over 7 hours. A bit embarassing for 42 miles. Next time I hope to beat that time!

In my afternoon classes at Qinghua U my students were doing presentations.  Of course, it is rather difficult to motivate 25-35 year old businessmen to prepare for an English presentation about anything.  The presentations were pretty awful.  A few of them did prepare, however.  The presentations were supposed to be only 2-3 minutes, and I would take notes on their grammar and have little mini-lessons after each one. One student kept talking and I had to cut him off at about 17 minutes.  Another student copied and pasted a wikipedia article onto a slide presentation and made the class read it.  One more student showed an inappropriate 11-minute video about Japan. Hmmm…. 

Clark (aka Superman–remember him? Just got married…wasn’t going to tell me…) went to the front of the class to give his presentation.  He decided that he was going to tell the class about his new wife. 🙂 Awwww…  He told us about how he met her and other things.  He also said, ‘…and in 8 months we will have a baby!’  (Which was followed by uproarious laughter from the rest of the class)  I asked him, ‘You do know it takes 9 months to have a baby, right?’  To which he replied, ‘I know.’ So I decided to share the English phrase ‘Shotgun wedding’ with them.  They thought this was hilarious and were happy to hear another ‘useful’ English phrase.  What I didn’t realize was that Clark/Superman didn’t appreciate the comment.  When I was dismissing the class for the afternoon he came up to me and said, ‘My wife and I have had our marriage license for three months already.’  I think I may have hurt his feelings. 🙁 

A note about Chinese culture:  Just because the wedding just happened doesn’t mean that the couple hasn’t been legally married for much longer.  Many of them wait until they can afford it to have the actual ceremony.   So he didn’t just get married two weeks ago. 

Another lesson learned…