Day 86 Observation Day and Chinese Arts

Day 86 – Observation Day

David and I both taught this morning.  Geniel Ballentine came about 8:30 to my first class and observed me teaching.  I was happy with how well things went.  I taught them the basic phonics lesson that I had decided to do with all my classes now.  At the end of the second class, Faith (my class monitor and my protector), came up to me and thanked me for teaching them that.  She said they had never been taught the information about long and short vowels and rules to tell how a word should sound!  All they have ever done it memorize words!  She said how it makes sense for her now.  You could have blown me away.  I knew that they were interested, but I never dreamed it was because I was telling them something so new to their knowledge of English that it may open a few eyes and help them to learn it easier now!  My classes just went super well today and of course success like that makes me happy.

We had a small lunch here then David took his bike over to the bike repairman that sits on Shanda Nan Road and had him put a new tire on.  The other one had cracks in it and looked like it may burst at any time.  He also put on a new pedal and straightened the one that was bent.  It’s not the best bike, but it gets him where he needs to go. 

When he got back, we went to the little market and got some fruits and vegetables that we were totally out of.  David then had a few minutes when we got back to get a quick nap in before he went to the canteen to play games with his students.

I went to the canteen at 4:30 and waited around for the others.  The Clarke’s got there ahead of me and waited upstairs.  I waited outside to see if the others were coming and when the Pace’s got there, I headed up with them.  Those coming for dinner from the Hanlin Hotel were really late and didn’t know which bus to take to get to our campus.  They did get here, but the food was cold and we had to hurry a little to make it to the concert on time.

We got the bus and we met Kathy Hong, her husband, Simon and son, Hanson, outside of the theater for the Shandong Arts College.  They had reserved a whole row of seats for all of us in front of the school official bigwigs.  All the words were in Chinese, but some of the performances transcended words and you got the feeling that they were trying to convey in their works.  It was an enjoyable evening and we were able to catch the last bus back to our campus and made it home in good time. 

Playing traditional Chinese Instruments.  Probably the most beautiful performance all night.

A lute type instrument.

This was an interpretive dance.

The most amazing part of the interpretive dance!

The Choir of retired Arts University personal.  

In front of the mike is Kathy's mother.  She was a professional Chinese opera star in her younger days and sang the solo in this piece.  She still has an amazing voice.