Grade 3 Plate Tectonics

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Photos:

.....no new photos this week but I did post a couple of videos of a Grade 7 student in a classroom close to my Advanced Grade 7 class on Tuesday lunchtimes. She plays the guzhen, a large, plucked stringed instrument, practices a lot & is very good. They're in the China Video album.

.....They've played around with the exam schedule, at the last minute as usual, so that we either have to cut out some questions from the test we've compiled or go back to the original plan. After a meeting of Foreign Teachers we end up with some Grades starting thier testing early & others, including mine, at the appointed time which, due to the Dragon Boat Festival next week (Tuesday to Friday) means that we'll work Saturday & Sunday both weekends.....

...... a valiant effort by a friend to render the Chinese word for diabetes into English comes out as "sweetie-wee-wee", translated from "tang niao bing" or "sweet urine sickness".....

.....stopped by a picket line on Monday evening at the Living Mall, the large shopping complex in Yangzhou's west end I ask what the commotion is about. "The people from the factory not happy". "Why". "Rent too high". Puzzled look. "Where is the factory? Why are they here at the shopping mall?". Without wishing to put you through the whole convoluted conversation it turns out the "factory" really means the very small retail outlets on the upper floors of the centre. The "factory workers" are actually small retailers with specialist shops & the rents of ¥100 a day, for a space about three metres by two metres, is too expensive. The police are in attendance but everything is peaceful & they all leave at around nine pm. Three women in Living Mall uniforms arrive with brooms & clear the water bottles & leaflets within a few minutes.....

.....several road accidents spotted recently, increasing in seriousness. A mother cradling a child in the middle of Wenchang Lu a few weeks ago, a bent e-bike on its side & a stationary car nearby, watched by a gathering crowd. The bus to the west end held up tonight by another bus & a car both trying to occupy the same lane at the same spot, locked together near Wenchang Ge. More serious still on the way back at around eleven pm where Wenchang Lu is expansive & even the median strip is about five metres wide. A powerful sports bike is lying on its side in the middle of the right hand lane, an e-bike likewise about ten or fifteen metres away. Again a crowd of people gathered but only halfway to the town centre is a police car spotted heading that way. It's unlikely either rider had a helmet & likely the e-bike had no lights on. The impact must have been considerable

.....Cathy finally leaves after four years in China. She's been counting the days until her trip back to the little town near Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she'll be resuming her old job as a dentist's secretary / receptionist as the dentist's wife, who has been doing the job, conveniently, for Cathy, decided to start studying. Not much chance of getting my old job back, certainly not for the six weeks I'll be back for the summer break. It would also be very difficult now to go back to a nine to five office job.....

.....the World Cup soccer has started & even Americans are interested, at least some of the foreign teachers. Unfortunately Will & Lauren, a Canadian couple in the third floor apartment right above me have a sort of open house & the soccer is on until at least four am. Noise isn't usually a big problem for me but one sound is guaranteed to wake most people, the high pitched whine of a mosquito in the ear at night. Having woken up for that the yelling & cheering for the footy made it harder to get back to sleep, only to wake several more times for the mozzies. I end by slapping my head & face with a damp towel every time I hear THAT sound & manage to dispense with some of them.....

.....the mosquitoes are a product of the surrounding small farms / market gardens with their irrigation dykes a suitable breeding ground. Let's hope the current stubble burning will kill off the mosquitoes before we all die of asphyxiation.....

.....I drag myself to the teachers' office in order to ask the same six questions, over & over. There are not any really funny answers this time, only the new revelation that an amazing amount of tectonic activity is happening so that China is one minute in Asia, the next in Africa then in North America. Some students fail the question on time, "At what time do you eat breakfast?" with answers like, "Breakfass like is eat milk and egg". Some who are unable to cease talking in class are struck dumb during the Kao shi (exam). I savour the moment.....

.....a short YYW this week. Exams are a tiring business & the weekly schedule is shot to pieces. I may try to visit Suzhou during the three or four day break. It's a large, historic city halfway to Shanghai from Yangzhou &, depending on your viewpoint, either the start or end of the Silk Road. It's the main centre of silk production in China & my son has asked me to look out for some silk ties. How many more cities of six, seven or eight million around here that i haven't visited yet?.....

.....I was looking at the statistics provided by the Photobucket site. For some reason the photos of Nantong, which I didn't think were that remarkable, have attracted more attention than any others I've posted before. I don't have any explanation.....

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