November

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November

So, we’re just at the end of November now and the temperature has dropped! Around -2 to -5 during the day usually (I have bought a very warm down jacket) and we’ve even had a fair amount of snow, which was very pretty, though not enough to make snowmen or sledge (we could try the mountains behind us if it does snow a lot some time, though we’ll probably end up killing ourselves - they’re steep! but we might try…). I have all my new classes and most of them are great, though a lot bigger than before, (I had 9 in one class before and now I have about 29 in every class).

Being the end of November , it’s also Thanksgiving time for all our American friends here so we joined in the celebrations - who can say know to what feels pretty much like a mini Christmas? So there was lots of mulled wine while we moved furniture around 4 different floors so we had enough table space for 15 people in one flat (not easy). Everyone cooked something to bring so in the end we had roast ham, ‘duckin’ ( apparently a roast chicken inside of a roast duck… don’t know how they did it but it was great!) lots of stuffing, mash potatoes etc. and 3 different pies for desert - apple, cherry and an oaty, chocolate concoction so certainly enough to go round! So lots of good food, lots of mulled wine and some lovely people made it a great evening!

My doctoral class has now come to an end, so we went out for dinner (at what turned out to be mine and Andrew’s favourite duck restaurant though the students chose) followed by my first experience of KTV (karaoke TV rooms) - Andrew escaped before that particular fun could start 😉 KTV turned out to be ok - at least you’re not stood up in front of an entire pub like in the UK! It turned out, most of my students were really good singers (which put me to shame) and we had a fair mix of exceptionally cheesy pop and some traditional Chinese ethnic songs as well, though I didn’t attempt any of those! Dolly Parton, 9-5 was interesting however, as the words had been changed to change the attitude of the song, “It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it!” is changed to “It’s enough to make you love it if you let it” etc. just to make sure those hard working Chinese workers don’t get any ideas… It was a good night out though and I will be very sad to see my students go home to various parts of China, they were a great class!

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Photos

Thanksgiving!
All 13 of us (the one behind the camera too ;) For those with sharp eyes, Andrew turned up later!

Lots of food!
We ran out of room on the table, so there's more behind us too!

Renwei (and my) Apple Pie
I mostly watched and talked but I did help a little! + I brought some vegtables too!

My contribution to the apple pie
I made the leaves which add an aweful lot to an apple pie I think...

Tim's(one of my students) little boy who came too
The first small child in China who actually talks! instead of hiding away behind whoever is closest. A lovely liitle boy anyway, who picked up english words amazingly quickly and wanted to sing lots of nursery rhymes on KTV!