Gentle Reader,
As is often the way of life here in China, a day becomes an adventure. On Sunday, Ledong (the Chinese/Oakland University coordinator) asked us if we would like to go on an outing. The only info we received was that it might include a special picnic. It is customary to accept such invitations, as they are rooted in the generosity of the people here. This outing was hosted by a young man named Jack, who is 12 years old. He and his friend George are on their way to a 21 day trip to America this week, and part of the design of the outing was to give the boys an opportunity to really interact with native english speakers before they left. They both did a fine job communicating and we spent much of the day laughing at our trying to understand one another. They talked food and sports and wanted to know all about New York City. They connected with Scott on video games, too.
Jack's mom picked us up at Gate #2. By the way, we are in a gated compound and have been told not to go out at night because the area is so isolated. We also cannot go up into the hills, largely due to the immense snake population. Let's be honest... this gated community lifestyle is driving me crazy. We are feeling quite isolated, and the lockdown situation makes it difficult to commute into town. We took a city bus into Guiyang on Saturday, under a weird set of circumstances. Leon, who in the head monitor here, offered to help us travel into downtown Guiyang. We had a choice of taking a taxi, which would have run 40 yuan both ways (which is about $12 total), or we could take the city bus for 2 yuan both ways (which is about 60 cents). Huge diffference! So, we opted for the adventure of the bus.
We needed to get to Guiyang to meet Tian, who is one of the Chinese students Scott had living with him during the 2009 academic year. Tian flew in all the way from Beijing to see us, so we were quite impressed with the arrangements he made. He brought a beautiful flower painting from the Sung Dynasty as a gift to Scott.
With some guidance from Monitor Leon, we made it back to our hotel in Guiyang, where we had stayed for Opening Ceremonies. We found Tian and Kathy, a friend of his from Guiyang, in the lobby. As we chatted one another up, another young man named Jack joined the conversation. Jack is 18 years old and was just off the leash for the night, waiting to meet friends/family. He glommed onto us in a big way, sort of inviting himself to spend the evening with us. This was my experience in Bieje three summers ago, too. Young people would clearly identify me as a "foreigner" and then latch on so they could practice their English. Jack had very little English under his belt and depended on Tian for translation, but he sure was a loquacious chap!
We ended up going out to a restaurant that featured the local Guiyang cuisine, which is very spicy hot. Jack was very animated during dinner, even to the point of taking over the waitress's job of serving tea. He just ran over and grabbed the teapot when he saw our cups were running low. He ended up giving both Scott and I bracelets that he was wearing. Mine is of brown sort of marblized beads and Scott's is made of a green wood. We think the beads are treated with camphor, as the smell is very aromatic. Lovely souvenirs of a delightful evening!
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