National Holiday

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Finally, three full days off of work. So far I've only had Friday's off of work, but I still have three hours of Mandarin classes in the morning, so it's not a full day. I have not missed one class though. I actually speak in Chinese when giving directions to a cab driver or ordering in a restaurant now, so that's progress. By the end of the three months I'll have taken about 80 hours of Mandarin.

The country is celebrating what they simply call "National Holiday", remembering October 1st, 1949 and the founding of the People's Republic of China. So what will my roommates and I do? Have another party of course. We're getting better and better at celebrating holidays we know very little about. (And what we do know we don't actually believe in, i.e. communism.) Our first gathering went pretty well during the Mid-Autumn festival last month. I believe there were half a dozen Americans, 8 or 9 Chinese, a couple of Japanese, a few Koreans and one Frenchman. That's not an unusual mix of people here in Beijing. Once I begin traveling in December, I think I'll see more of what China is really like. Not that I'm not enjoying the international aspects of Beijing. Right now I'm sitting at Starbucks, (free WiFi), listening to three different conversations in three different languages... The eavesdropping comes from my dad's side of the family. And just a side note, considering the economic situation in my own country, I have absolutely no problem supporting American businesses over here.

Over the last few weeks I've felt more and more confident about my teaching abilities. My students and I have gotten to know one another and conversations flow much more smoothly than before. Two of my students work in the coal industry, one is a consultant for an Australian agency and the other works for a Japanese mining company. I teach them primarily business English, helping them to explain themselves and their work, as well as conversational English. Now I know all sorts of facts and figures about coal mining, transportation and distribution. (Although these two men work for legal companies, there's a large number of illegal mines through out China that have little to no safety regulations. Thousands of miners die every year, but this is of course not reported on the local news.)

Now that the weather has gotten cooler and a fewer number of tourists are in the city, I do plan on actually sight seeing and taking pictures. For now, I just have a pic of myself, two of my roommates, and our friend Amanda. She took us to this great restaurant for dinner and a show. We're going to try to do something "cultural" like this every Sunday. As an added bonus for her, it's a free English lesson.

I love hearing from everybody and I'll write more soon!

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