Lots to Do

So I have had a few crazy busy days. Emily and I have spent a couple of nice days with her sister and had some delicious meals. We had hot pot, which is absolutely amazing and is nice and hot (as the name implies). Emily and I also went with Abby to Pizza Hut! It is a “classy” date restaurant here in China with all sorts of really funky foods on the menu that they think might be American-ish like spaghetti noodles with mushrooms and bean sauce. Ick. The pizza was pretty good, though the staff was scandalized that we didn’t want any traditional pizza toppings like whole unpeeled shrimp and hot dogs. I got a sweet watch and Emily FINALLY found some yarn. Today we went adventuring after a hearty meal of cabbage and pork, cucumbers in spicy sauce, fried potatoes with dipping sauce, fried peanuts, shredded pork and celery, and mi fan. We walked pretty far and got lots of funny stares. Emily found some cool stores with nifty stuff she liked and I was the backpack pack mule. Next week we may venture out to Tianyi all on our own and possibly go on an expedition with one of Abby’s friends, Jane. Jane is very nice and lives in Abby’s building. We have met many cool people through Abby. Yesterday was super fun. We took a cab all the way to NIT and met up with a pen pal of mine whose English name is Luke. He is in a cool band called Pumpkin. We met up with him and hung out in Pumpkin’s practice space. Most of the band showed up and we got to jam and hang out with them for a while. Then they took us into town to a little guitar shop that they go to. It seems like a really insular and small (but very nice) music community here. The shop owner is good friends with them and he gave me a great deal on an acoustic guitar that was in the shop. It is a weird brand called Tanglewood from the UK. It is in pretty rough shape (the bridge had come off and is pretty sloppily reglued back on); it sounded better than all but one of the other acoustics there, and the one that sounded better was 1400 yuan, while this one was only 1000. It translates into roughly $150 (more than I would have paid in the US, but not so bad for a decent sounding guitar here in China). After that we went above the shop and jammed for just a bit in the rehearsal space the owner had set up. It was really fun. Then we went out and ate with Abby and had a sing a long at her apartment. A few days ago we went and talked with Maggie’s class. It was really surreal. They wanted photos with us and asked us to sing a Christmas song (we sang Jingle Bells). We agreed to sing to them on the condition that they sing us a traditional Chinese song. They agreed and promptly nominated one girl in the class to be the singer. She sang Celine Dion. I didn’t think it was Chinese, but didn’t argue with them. Tomorrow we go to Cixi to visit the campus and meet some students. We don’t really know what we will officially be doing, but we ahve to catch the bus at 6:50 and won’t get back until 5:30ish that afternoon. I plan on bringing the ipod and kindle :)
So far I only know of classes on Monday and Tuesday, as they still haven’t figured out the schedule for either Emily and I. We feel a little like frauds since we are just hanging out, the lesson plans that we have already written are long done, and it feels like we don’t really have much of a job to do. I am in no way complaining about the work not being bad, but I am ready to start doing the job I came here for so I can see what everyday life is really going to look like once classes start. I am eager to see what the year holds!