Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Visiting students can always be an interesting experience...one that almost always takes you out of your comfort zone and your control. This was certainly going to be a trip like that, as we were going to a 5 year students home (their English is not exceptional) and we were taking our dog along and going to the middle of the countryside to a place called qiyanqiao (seven eye bridge village). Even I was a bit nervous as to what would happen. We ended up taking a number of different buses, but Noah was in heaven as she could sit in the back seat on my lap with her head out the window and check out all of the new things. We walked through the muddy village and up the hill and found our student's home. It was quite nice with a big metal gate and lots of rooms and they were quite welcoming of the dog, even though a bit afraid.

We spent the afternoon climbing the mountains and being talked about by all of the villagers. Halfway up the mountain was a temple to the god of the ancestors. It gave a great view and something to talk about. We took along tons of food, as is customary of all trips with Chinese, and returned home with very little of it. The dog loved it and was able to run around and see lots of new friends. Our student was super afraid that our dog would get into a fight with other dogs so she had her umbrella out to fight off the dogs and scare them away...it was so funny, as we were not worried and Noah did not even notice most of the other dogs. Visiting students' homes is definitely a blessing when it comes to food--they always prepare something special and lots of it. We had Tunpu food--the same food from the Ming Dynasty, but the expectation is that you eat tons of food to show that you like it. We ended up being the only people at the table at the end--finishing up the delicious food.

The next day, we went to Xianrenba, a beautiful river (my first time) near Tianlong, one of the original Tunpu villages from the 1300's. It was really fun to be in the countryside with my students and then a bunch of my student's tutoring students. We got to see some of the old women planting rice, people fishing, and a bamboo forest without pandas. Sadly, there are very few if any pandas in the wild left in China, mostly just in zoos. We ate lunch at one of the tutoring student's homes, just showed up with some food and her whole family watched the crazy Americans and their dog. It was really interesting to get to stay at a Tunpu village house and have delicious food from students.

On Sunday, we had our outdoor Open House. We played some frisbee, taught a few of them how to catch a softball with gloves and I gave Patty a cut on her lip from a frisbee. She was on the phone and the frisbee smacked her right in the mouth. After a bit, we ended up indoors eating chocolate and talking. Many great opportunities and great friends.

Monday was the basketball tournament finale and the cheerleading competition. I came to cheer for my students in the cheerleading competition, they had invested 100 RMB ($14) in their uniform. But when the leaders saw me there, they dragged me over to the "official/leader" table to have front row seats. I was an unofficial judge now. Cheerleading is quite different in China. They do not do cheers but more like a dance group without stunts or the excitement. They do not smile very much but are exceptional at doing syncronized routines. The "skilled" dancers do lots of gyrating like hip hop dancers which the guys like, but it was interesting. The basketball game was a blow out-the same team I played for last year versus the team that beat us last year, this time a 29-12 beating.

On Wednesday, we had a special day in class...a wedding. Every year for oral class, we have an American wedding where students do all of the parts of the wedding. There is a photographer (we give our camera to them with some training), parents of the bride and groom, brides maids and groomsmen, flower girls, bride, groom, readers, speeches, and traditional wedding dancing. They get the whole wedding experience plus more...

The bride was chosen by volunteering, sorta. I asked for a volunteer and one girl was not listening and raised her hand--thank you for volunteering, Jane. Then the guy was voted on by the other guys, lucky Jack. They made the wedding dress out of TP, very wide stuff which they always seem to make look exceptional and some flowers from the mountains. It was quite a do-up. I taught the guys how to tie ties and each of them wore one of the ties I had and the groom in my suit coat. They really loved the wedding and got tons of pictures. The reader wanted to keep the book, so she can do more reading.

The dance and reception had non-other-then the chicken dance and the hocky-pocky and throwing the bouquet and a small flower to the winner girl and guy. Their homework was to compare an American and Chinese wedding. So far, we have not made any real lovers from this experiment but maybe in the future.

Today, we went to the vet and found out Noah is indeed pregnant which makes leaving something more complicated, but I guess she will have them in May sometime and then we will see who wants to stay and take care of them or maybe we can give them to the vet to sell when we leave, if they are weaned yet. PAtty is a little nervous about this and kicking herself for letting Noah loose once and what happened. Nothing we can do about it, but I am wondering what the puppies will look like from Noah and the strange looking black dog with a white beard. Should be interesting, maybe we can get extra money selling them as American dogs...haha. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week...love you all!!

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