Goodness much has gone on since my last post! Here's the rundown:

Classes continue to go pretty well, although it's interesting how much student's energy and enthusiasm contributes to how smoothly a lesson goes. I'm hanging in there but it's really hard to gauge how they will react or respond to my lesson plans. For those who read this who are current or former teachers, any ideas for producing interesting classes would be helpful. I sometimes feel like I might be really boring. :(

On Friday I didn't have any classes and since I wasn't quite up to running again, I thought I'd take a long walk. Well my walk turned into a 3-hour wander around a new part of the city and I still have no idea where I went but I did stumble across this huge open air market. Hundreds of people and vendors and everything you could possibly imagine from live chickens to beautiful vegetables to spices--it was amazing! I eventually found my way back to campus but when I asked my friends in the office where it was they thought I went (I gave them the best landmarks I could) they just laughed and were like yeah we have no idea where you went. Another friend of mine suggested I invest in a bicycle and get to know the city on wheels. I'm thinking about it.

That afternoon, I went with a friend of mine from Boston who's been here for four years to meet one of his friends who's apparently really into the Chinese punk rock scene. He owns a little clothing shop not too far from campus, has tattoos of Chucky and Chucky's bride on his forearms, is named Freddy and is probably one of the sweetest people you could ever want to meet. Go figure :)

The teachers had a meeting that afternoon wherein we received updated schedules...They added three more classes to my load so I'm up to 20 hours of teaching and oodles of students whose names I realistically have no possible chance of remembering. Boo. I'm going to have to rethink the whole assigning journal and writing assignments for every class. Freaking takes forever to grade. It was also National Teacher's Day this weekend so in honor of the event, each of us was given a box of 40 eggs, a box of milk and a bouquet of flowers. Apparently the dairy items are pasteurized and don't need to be refrigerated. Nevertheless, my fridge appears to be quite full.

That evening, Stephen, my friend from earlier, invited me to Sichuan hot pot (spicy yumminess) to meet some of his Chinese friends who wanted to meet me. I realized I was going to get a crash course in dining and drinking with Chinese men when the waiter wheeled up a cart loaded with a full case of beer. The Chinese love their alcohol (especially the NE) and tonight was to be no exception.

I preface the following with this: when in China, drink, laugh, eat with friends, be merry! So here's how it works: everyone gets a glass (about 6 oz or so) and it is the host and his friend's job to keep everybody's glasses full while toasts are offered for anything anyone finds important. Which literally becomes everything. You are expected to "ganbei" or dry glass for every toast you're a part of. So we started with a toast to good friends, then to beautiful women, then toasts just between the host and every individual at the table and so on and on and on and on...at one point, Stephen got a drop of spicy hot grease in his eye from the hot pot and naturally we all laughed and had a toast to grease in the eye while he went and rinsed his eye out. We had another toast upon his return.

Needless to say, we were feeling pretty drunk and happy by the end of the meal when we decided to head to the night club where Stephen is the manager. Thank goodness for my newly discovered alcohol tolerance or it could have been a real short night. More drinking, dancing and whatnot at the club and since I apparently hold liquor better than my Chinese hosts, after awhile our group became two. (Jeremy, an American friend) and I met some others at a nearby bar and ended up talking until 5:30, found some breakfast of baozi and dumplings, then headed home at about 7:30...So much alcohol, but with good friends, food and laughter, such is the way of Chinese happiness and thus we were happy.

I rested most of Saturday, then toured the Imperial Palace (think Forbidden City in Beijing, but slightly smaller and way less crowded) with Jill and Hans Sunday afternoon. Stephen called me later and said Weige, the guy I had met on Friday was wanting me to come hang out (apparently friends were having a birthday celebration) and so I went and joined for karaoke. Well, the reception I received when I walked in the door! Weige's friends like me because apparently I make Weige very happy. Very. Happy. It was cool because we discovered we both speak Japanese so our communication consists of an ironic Chinese/Japanese mix which actually works really well. To be honest, I like this guy and to hear his friends tell it, he's an amazing guy. 30, good career, sweet and caring, easy on the eyes, genuine and well, apparently my new boyfriend. When in China...