Day 48
It got the coldest we have had here in
China so far, but still just jacket weather.
It cleared off very nicely after the rain yesterday and we saw a lot of
blue sky today. That was nice.
I taught two freshman classes today. It
went well. The second class is small
(30!) and they are very organized and easy to get along with. Had a great time! David came to get my bag and materials so
that we could get away faster after class and they all clapped when I
introduced him.
David and I met for lunch and went to the teacher
buffet room. Danny was there so we sat
and ate with him. Then we met Ben and Ethan
outside the canteen and took a taxi to a used furniture market that they knew
of. We were looking for some computer
chairs and a TV stand to make our life a little better here. They sure knew the right place to go! We found several chairs, but settled on some
nice ones with lumbar support and neck support for me. They were able to negotiate the price down
for us so that we paid 210 RMB for each chair.
Then we found a little stand with drawers for the TV for 40 RMB. It was
funny that the guy first told Ben that he wanted 50 RMB for it, but when I
walked up to inspect it, he immediately dropped the price to 40 RMB! It was like he really wanted me to buy
it. Then Ethan and Ben negotiated with a
woman that had one of those motorcycle trucks to have it delivered to us. Ethan rode with her to show her the way to our
place and we took at taxi back to our place with Ben. We got all of it; chairs, TV stand and
delivery for about $100 US. Works for
me!
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| This is what the used furniture market looked like, well part of it. |
David had six of his students that wanted
to come over and learn to square dance today.
They went down on the sidewalk in front of our building and turned up
the music. He said they caught on pretty
quickly and they were able to get through, “Oh, Johnny” and “Virginia Reel.” He will be doing it again tomorrow
afternoon. I think there may be a little
bit bigger crowd tomorrow if word gets around about how much fun they had.
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| David teaching square dance. |
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| The Virginia Reel |
We have also been approached by several
people who want us to teach and tutor.
One of them came over this evening and talked to us. They run a school in a suburb of Ji’nan that
they want to have English instruction as a Saturday program for the
children. We think it sounds fun, so we
will be going with them on Friday evening to meet the children and look over
the program to make a decision about it for certain. There is also a father here on campus that
wants his teenage son tutored so he can go to study in the US next fall. David will meet with him tomorrow to see if
that will work.
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