​Journal Entry #5: Tuesday – May 18, 2010

Tuesday was another good day here in China.  I did not have any classes to teach myself, but two of the English teachers that are here wanted me to come to their class and talk to their students, one class at 8:00 a.m. and one at 10:00 a.m.  I have a couple of photos from one of the classes posted here, and a few photos of the campus. ​

​At one point while out about the campus I sat down on a seat under a tree to just watch people walk by, and within five minutes or so I had a couple of girls come to say hello to me and ask if they could talk to me. Within another five minutes or so there were about 10 students gathered around "just to hear me talk" and ask questions about America, college in America, and about guys/girls their age and the college student lifestyle. It was really pretty amazing.

Then after lunch at my apartment, I got some help cleaning my apartment and had the school come over and fix a few things that were not working properly.  I still don't have water to my washing machine, but I'm hoping that will get fixed today.  The bedroom air conditioning seems to trip a breaker every time I use it; fortunately, at night it's been pretty comfortable.  The weather has not been that hot, but it’s been REALLY humid!

Tuesday evening I went with Aurelie, the other English teacher for whom I spoke to her French class earlier, and two of her Chinese student/friends to help me acquire a Chinese cell phone.  I now have a Chinese cell phone, but it only makes calls within China.  I'm still trying to get a phone card to call home cheaper.  Afterwards we went to dinner.  I realized as I sat there in the restaurant that four days earlier, I had not met any of them, no one was from America, and there I was out to dinner with four new friends in Hengyang, Hunan, China!  They were so nice to help me that I insisted on paying for dinner.  We had about five large plates of different Chinese selections and the bill came to ¥81 (Chinese Yuan/dollars), which is about $12.00 (American) for all of us, $3.00 each!  The food here is really cheap. 

By the time I got home from dinner it was about 8:30 p.m. and there was a knock at my door that revealed two students who wanted to come by to visit.  It was two of the girls that took us shopping on Sunday, Amy and Amber.  When I invited them in, etc, I subtly asked why they came by, the answer was simply, "Just to hear you talk!"  So, I had them ask me questions, and we talked for about an hour or so before they left and finally I was off to bed!  It’s really so much fun for me to do things like that!