Day 98 & 99 - Campus Visits

Day 98 – Wednesday

Had the usual classes today.  One of the girls in my second class had a bunch of origami flowers that she has made to give to her boyfriend and after she asked me what color I liked, she gave me one of them.  I guess that is how I rank… next to the boyfriend.  If you know anything about these students, because they are not allowed to date in high school, this is their first experience to have more serious relationships.  It is a big deal to them to have a boyfriend or girlfriend. 

My origami lily from Annie.

After a very quick lunch, David and I went to a meeting with Jane, who is the advisors office to the University English Broadcasting Station.  We have been asked to be judges at an English speaking competition they are having Friday evening and she wanted to give us an orientation about it.  Then she walked us over to the building where it will be held so we would know where to go on Friday.

I had my afternoon sophomore class and we played a game of “Celebrity Jeopardy” that was on one of the jump drives from a former teacher.  The students had a great time with it.

Day 99 – Thursday

David had his classes and I had work to do here.  Chatted with Kadie for a while before Joshua and Annalisa went to bed.  It was cute to see them.  Joshua seemed to remember me, but maybe he was just happy to see the baby in the little window of the chat window. 

I met Eva at the canteen and we had lunch with David, and Danny Sariento.  Eva was going to drive all of us and Stan Pace around to some of the other campuses to see them, but Danny had something else he had promised to do for his students, so he didn’t go.  We picked up Stan and drove to the newest campus south of Jinan, Xinglongshan Campus.  It is in a beautiful spot out of the middle of the mountain area and they have a small lake and lots of trees that they have planted.  Even though all the leaves are gone, it was still beautiful.   We drove all around there.   They keep most of the freshman on that campus.  I’m not sure why they separate them so much, but they do.  All of the medical student freshman are on this Central campus that we are at and after two years they transfer them to the Baotu Campus.

Xinglongshan campus.  The name means prosperity because they want the students to think of prospering in life.

A view of the lake at that campus.

Another view of the lake.

More of the campus.

After the Xinglongshan Campus, we got a little lost on the way to the Baotu campus.  We did find our way and once again, I’m glad I don’t drive in China!  That campus is much older and smaller, but it has a very Chinese charm to it.  Eva wanted to take us to that campus because I will be teaching two classes there next semester and she wanted me to not be too nervous about it all. 

After the Baotu campus, Eva wanted to show us another store that sells “Western” food products called, “UMart.”  We found cheddar cheese!!!  We bought that and then went to the restaurant next door that is connected to the UMart and had a “Western” dinner, Jenny’s Cafe.  David and Stan got sandwiches, Eva got Fettuccini Alfredo and I got Penne Chicken.  We all shared bits of each other’s meals and then shared a piece of walnut pie and a piece of Black Forest Cake.  Eva has never had an Italian dish before, so she was excited to try it. 

When we were done at Jenny’s Café the traffic was pretty heavy for rush hour and Eva is nervous to drive in it, so we walked around a bit.  There was a music store next door with pianos, so we walked in there and looked at the pianos.  The sales gal let  David sit down and play for a while.  Then he went over and got a guitar and he, Stan and I sang, “Grandma’s Feather Bed.”  The sales person brought us all a cup of hot tea.  We stood around for a little while after that and then decided to leave.  There was a well-watered tree outside of that store because we all dumped out tea out there.  Even Eva did because she can’t drink tea that late at night or it keeps her awake.

We maneuvered around the traffic and finally made it home.  It was a fun afternoon and evening.