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Published: November 4th 2007
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Dinner
All 9 of us out at a great restaurant The last three weeks have been a whirl wind. I will try to recap the most exciting moments just so I can be caught up into November.
We have neighbors in our building, Mr. and Mrs. Seamen. They are Americans from Georgia. David is a teacher at CCNU starting the French program here and teaches French at Georgia southern university. David is 67 and acts like he is our age, and Barbara celebrated her 56th birthday October 20. David threw a party for her at their apartment and invited all of us. We watched American Football games, ate Chili (barbara made texas style) and Macaroni and Cheese, and drank beer. This was the best football party I had been to in China 😉 We had a wonderful time and shared stories and had a great time. Unfotunately, David and Barbara will be going home the week of new years so that David can begin second semester at Georgia Southern. We have made great friends and they think of us as their kids.
The last week of October we were glad to welcome the Augie students on east asian term. This is the trip that I was fortunate enough to take 3
Dinner
Nick and David eating the fish eye, it is known that eating the fish eye will give men virility years ago through Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. I knew a few students but I was mainly excited to see my favorite professors from Augustana. My Chinese teacher Ma Lao Shi, my Geography professor Norm, and my history teacher Van. All three of these people have been a huge part of my interest in China and it was great to meet with them while I am here and share stories. All three of the professors treated us to a nice dinner at the hotel on campus and shared with us how proud they are of the thing we are doing. Van told us about the long history of Foreign Experts in China and the rocky road that it has been and he reminded us that we are part of the history. It was great to know that they thought of us as their kids but also treated us like adults. They also welcomed us to go visit the Provincial museum and treated us to dinner 3 of the nights they were here. Thursday the Augie students visited our classes. I had my only Freshmen class that day and they were so nervous and excited to meet Americans they didnt
Augie Invades CCNU
My freshmen with the Augie Students know how to act. I had to calm them down for 30 minutes so that they would be able to introduce themselves and ask questions. Nine Augie students visited my class, they were all of my friends, and they were great with my freshmen. My students, even though they are 18, act as though they are 12 and they giggle and are shy but the Augie kids handled it well and didnt laugh at the fact that their peers acted so immature. After class all 85 Augie students were to be matched with 2 or 3 CCNU students to guide them through campus and share what life is like for them. However all of our students were interested in guiding the augustana students, so between all seven of us teachers' classes we had over 600 CCNU students interested in showing the Augie kids a good time. The poor Augie students were swarmed with 6-12 Chinese students pulling them in different directions. The seven of us teachers stayed back to make sure everyone found their way and we had to turn some late comer CCNU students away because there werent any Americans left. One girl started to cry. It was like
Augie Invades CCNU
We were waiting for the tours to be over, I think CCNU should use this as a postcard Beatle Mania!
Saturday Norm invited us to have dinner with the group and go to a local performing arts school to see a performance. The students at this school range in age from 12-18. The their talents ranged from music to dance to vocal performance. The skill level of these kids was so impressive. After Cori and I spoke with one of the professors at the school to see if there is a chance that we can be a part of this school maybe teaching or participating or observing, anything to use our talents and knowledge of western performance to help these kids. It was a great show and the performers were so excited to see all the American people coming to their performance. Sunday morning we had the western style buffet at the Holiday Inn where Asian term was staying. We had a great breakfast and spoke with Norm who gave us some contacts in East Asia that we can visit on our travels. It was a wonderful weekend spent with different people and fun memories. However the seven of us split to see our Augie friends so by Sunday night we needed a CCNU teacher reunion. It is
Performers
Those costumes were designed and made by the students in the fashion design school so strange how attached I have become so fast to these people, we are our own family.
The week of Halloween was crazy! I taught my students about this holiday which they loved, I had my freshmen play the Mummy game, where you wrap each other in toilet paper. They thought this was a riot, chinese students love competition so they had a great time with this game. I played the Thriller video for them and most of my classes were scared. It was cute! I had the students trick or treat me which they though was great too. Halloween is not celebrated in this country so they had a good time. Tuesday October 30 was Cori's Birthday so we went to dinner at a Brazilian Barbecue. I had never heard of this before so for those of you like me I will explain, it is a buffet with lots of different dishes. However the main attraction is the skewers of beef, pork and chicken that the waiters travel around the restaurant and cut fresh at your table. It was unbelievable to eat beef without huge bones or fat on it! Afterward we met up with most of our Wuhan
friends in our favorite bar VOX.
Halloween was great because we have had the last three school days off due to sports meetings. Basically it is like a huge field day where students can participate in relay games and sports. It was nice to have more time off this month especially due to the preparations for Halloween. We searched the local market for things to complete costumes. Alexes and I had found fairy wings, wands, and headbands in Shanghai so we just needed clothes to complete our look. Due to the fact that we wont fit into Chinese clothing I decided to buy some fabric and make an outfit. I only had 1.5 hours to complete the look so I turned out to be more of a fairy godmother. We went to our favorite western pizza place Gianos, in costume, and met our friends Stian and Henry. Then we all went back to the apartments to trick or treat and finish our costumes. We headed over to VOX for the Halloween party and found that we were the only people there in costume. So we went across the river to Blue Sky a western bar and found many more westerners
Brazilian Barbeque
The group at brazilian barbeque participating in the holiday. It was a great time and we found more friends we have met along the way. It was a great celebration.
To continue our time off we went to the Walking street in Hankou, the area across the river. The street has lots of shops and restaurants and street performances and lots of other things to do. We intended to visit the Wuhan Art Museum that day however they would not grant us admission so we went to the shopping district. On walking street we found a bookstore and other fun things to occupy our time, but the best was Dreaming Space an arcade. I was really excited to go to the arcade, it was like Chuckie Cheese's without the creepy animatronics. I travelled around playing the racing games, drum game, but I wasnt in heaven until I found the plinko game where I won the jackpot of tickets and it was a 300 ticket jackpot!! It was great. Today we had a great time completing a photo scavenger hunt through Wuhan. I will have to blog a new entry with all of those photos and stories.
We have had a great two weeks and now
Brazilian Barbeque
The rest of the group it is time to get back to business. I am glad Halloween has passed so I can start the Christmas music 😊
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