The sweet taste of weekend.

Today I feel like I am back at Wake. My entire curriculum for this semester is due by the end of this evening. At the beginning of my third, two hour class on Thursday my teacher buddy, Ainslee (Li Hongmei) came into my class out of breath (she always seems to be out of breath) and showed me a set of curriculum forms. "Please finish your lesson plans for this weekend and turn them in on Monday," she said. At this point in my day I was in no mood to receive additional work. Ainslee left the classroom only to return seconds later to tell me that she actually needed me to turn in the forms by Sunday evening so that she could check over them. Great. They have given me absolutely no directions and now they want an entire semester's lesson plans done in three days?

Needless to say, I have yet to start but that's what Sundays are for right? Other than this dark spot over my weekend, which will probably turn out to not be too bad after a few hours of BS-ing, my weekend has been enjoyable and relaxing. Yesterday Max and I headed in to town for a field trip with students from the old campus.

We meet Lobo, Holly, Holly's son Ludi, Fey, Ruth, Linda, Stuart, and a Korean teacher, who changes her name ever week and so won't tell Max or I what it is. Lobo is a staff member in the office at the old campus. He apparently also changes his English name on a monthly to biweekly basis. We played basketball with him last week and he is an all around good guy who speaks very good English. Holly is the head honcho on the old campus as far as Max's program is concerned. Her English is also very good, but she is much more about business than the other younger staff members. Her son....is hilarious. He acts up all the time and gets attention from everyone. He's ten and he acts like it. Fey is one of Max's teaching buddies from the old campus. I should clarify this term "teacher buddy." When we arrived here in Nanchang, we were met by a few teachers from our respective campuses. These teachers, Fey and Ainslee, have been available to help us get settled and solve any problems we might have. They have been extremely helpful, but I wouldn't say efficient. I don't know much about Ruth or Linda other than the fact that they work on the old campus. Stuart is a British teacher from Manchester who has been here for about four years. He not only teaches but has opened a bar, which is called a coffee bar for tax reasons. He chain smokes, enjoys the drink, but all in all seems to be a good guy. Finally, the last person at our table was another teacher who is from Korea. She speaks Korean, Chinese, and English all pretty fluently.

We all jumped into a few cabs and headed over across the river. My cab consisted of Lobo, Ruth, Linda, and myself. Lobo pulled out his PSP (a portable gaming device) and handed it to me with a game of NBA live playing. New Orleans Hornets vs. Miami Heat. I had told him last weekend that I went to school with Chris Paul and he had apparently remembered. I played for a while and then handed it back to Lobo so that we could maybe pull out a victory. Our taxi's crossed the Bayi bridge which spans the Gan river. We were heading to the west shore. From either shore it was virtually impossible to make out anything on the opposite shore other than the vague outline of skyscrapers. The haze was thick. The development of the west shore of Nanchang began in about 2004, so there isn't much on this side other than brand new business and government developments. It reminds me of the Pudong shore from Shanghai, but less westernized. This side of the river also offers a river walk historical exhibit, a giant fountain and light show (the tallest water jets in Asia apparently), and the worlds largest ferris wheel (until the completion of one in Singapore in 2008).

We arrived at the Qiushui square, which is the west shores response to Bayi square. However after my taxi and the taxi containing Max and a few other teachers had unloaded, we realized that we were still about a 20 minute walk from where we needed to be. The third taxi pulled up next to us and Holly told us that we had gotten out too early. Her taxi sped off. Thanks Holly.

As a group we headed over to the river walk historical exhibit. The walk is littered with statues, plaques and ponds to honor historical artists, poets and writers from Jiangxi province. This was the purpose of our field trip. Every English teacher was assigned a group of students and a list of questions about the monuments (in English). A scavenger hunt! After wondering around for about 2 hours, Max and I decided to combine groups and compare answers. We still ended up losing to group number 1, but it was a fun morning. I met a few students and teachers who were all very friendly and surprised that I could speak Chinese.

After the prizes of fruit had been handed out, all of the teachers headed out to have a group lunch. We went to a restaurant called "The Taste Factory" (literal translation). The outside of the restaurant was decorated with original statues of what seemed to be women of the African American persuasion doing street dancing. They also lacked faces (I took some pictures and posted them last night). The restaurant was very impressive inside and the bathrooms were completely covered in mirrors. We got a private room and begin what would be a very long, enjoyable lunch. About an hour in to lunch Holly recommended that we play a drinking game. Chinese love to drink.

The game consisted of way too much math for me, but thankfully we played in English which gave me a slight advantage. A number is picked (7 for example), and then someone else picks a number to start counting from. Lets say that someone picks 4 to start counting. The next person at the table says 5, then the next says 6, then the next person knocks on the table because the number is 7, the next person says 8, then the next 9. The counting continues until 14 where someone knocks again because 14 is divisible by 7. Other numbers like 21, 27, and 28 also knocked on because they are either divisible by 7 or have a 7 as the last digit. If you knock on the wrong number or say a number that should be knocked on then you have to drink. This eventually reduced down to one on one games of rock, paper, scissor where the loser had to drink. It was a very fun lunch.

Max and I wondered around the neighborhood after lunch. We found the Western bar street, which was of course abandoned at three in the afternoon, but we did find a DVD store, which had a great selection of very cheap American movies. We then headed back to Walmart to stock up for the week and then made our way back to campus. Max and I both took a nap and then had a nice leisurely dinner whilst watching "Shrek 3." That was my excitement for this weekend. Check out the pictures and the video site for updates!