Days 124-125: The Weekend--Xinnian Kuaile!

Saturday was pretty dull. I graded the response papers for my Honors American Literature class. Kerry and I also made some food for Guillermo (leftover spaghetti, mixed vegetable salad) and brought it to him. He seemed grateful: he told me on WeChat that he liked the spaghetti. Beyond that, nothing much really happened today. Kerry told me that he wanted to go to the Westin Brunch for New Year's Eve day--so we decided to do that!

Sunday focused on the brunch. Very high pollution day today: AQI got to 285, the worst we've seen it. In some places, it was worse: Mark said it was in the 300s in Nanjing. We got to the brunch a bit later than we thought, partly because, instead of taking the side roads as most drivers have done in the past, our driver decided to take the expressway, and it took about 50 minutes and cost 20 RMB more than usual. Plus he kept talking to his friend on WeChat and laughing the entire time. Very annnoying. But, fortunately, the Westin kept our reservation, and even let us have some drinks beforehand: I had eggnog and Kerry had a ginger ale-type drink with a splash of alcohol. However, for the first time, we opted not to get the alcohol-based brunch; honestly, I didn't miss the champagne much. I'm not a big drinker. The food, as always, was tremendous: Beijing duck, guacamole and chips, shwarma with hummus, oysters, clams, all kinds of cheeses, turkey legs, ribeye, lamb, gnocchi, bean salad, caprese salad, and all sorts of ice cream and chocolates for dessert (I had black sesame and strawberry ice cream). Near the end of the meal, I started chatting with people at the tables near us. At the table next to us, an older couple was celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary. They were with their daughter and her husband. It turns out that both the daughter and husband, who's Arabic, are English teachers in Suzhou. The daughter's name is Mary-Beth; she even game me her WeChat ID. She seemed pretty cool! They were all from Canada. At the table next to them, I met a couple from Scotland who were visiting. The (rather portly) guy told me all about the couple's travels; they had a baby girl in a baby carriage (she dropped her bunny at one point and I gave it back to them). It was fun chatting with Westerners from different countries!  Eventually, Kerry and I decided to leave; we chose to take the subway home in spite of the pollution. On the way to the East Nanjing Station, we saw a bunch of army men get out of army trucks, line up, walk in unison, and then run quickly across the street. Unusual sight! The trip home was long: Line 10 to Line 8 to Line 3 to Jiangwan Town Station, and then a 20 minute walk home. Sometimes I REALLY, REALLY wish we lived closer to a subway station. When I was in England as a graduate student in 1995, I was about three blocks from the Russell Square Station: it was very convenient!  The remainder of the evening, Kerry and I stayed in and rested.  Later on, I rang in the New Year by listening to a lot of music (mostly electronic music) on YouTube: Madonna's Like a Prayer, Peaches, Deadmau5, lots of Bjork.

Pics from the brunch (and the trip home):

The orchestra at the brunch (Kerry got on the 2nd floor to take this shot).

Dessert! That's black sesame ice cream, along with truffles, strawberry ice cream, chocolate, watermelon.

Kerry outside the hotel, safe from pollution in his Vogmask.

Chinese army men running across the street.

The crowded escalator: East Nanjing Subway station.

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone!  I will have some downtime until the 10th, when I give my Final Exam for American Literature. My grading frenzy will likely be from January 10th-19th.  And the 20th we go to Tokyo! We return on the 25th, and leave for the USA on January 30th.

Days 119-123: Christmas, Conferences, and a Crazy Class

Well, Monday, was Christmas, and also my first time EVER working on Christmas Day. It actually wasn't so bad, though. I was busy pretty much the entire day. I rode on the bus with Raymond, as usual. Then I wished my students a "Merry Christmas" in Chinese, which they applauded. We talked a bit about Maus and theoretical approaches to it, and then I tried to answer their questions about the final paper. After that, I told them what a wonderful class they were and how I would miss them. I asked them if they'd let me take their picture, and they agreed....as you see below. Bella grabbed a stranger from the hall who took a picture of the entire class with me in it. And then...I fed them cookies. Some were from ePer Market, but some were ones that Kerry picked up at Carrefour. A good variety. They sat there happily munching and did not leave until I said they could. I also noticed that they were very careful to share the cookies with all their classmates.  In American classes, I notice that American students have fewer problems saying, "Oh, only a few left over? I'll take all of them home!" As the students were eating, I opened the things that they gave me: Cora gave me a beautiful day-to-day calendar; Yanis gave me VERY TASTY chocolates; Charmian gave me a card; and Katniss did as well. (Later on, Nicole added to my stash by giving me a Dove bar and another chocolate box!) I then had a conference with Blair; after that, I had to quickly go to the Honors College to have a quick meeting with the folks there about my schedule for next term. They said that they wanted me to teach "American Literature and Culture," which I'm fine with doing, but I don't know how much ground I can cover in eight weeks (it's another every other week class).  They also told me that they want a syllabus, reading list, and biography by the end of the semester. Geez!  I can probably whip something up, but we'll see. I am glad I get to teach the Honors students again; I didn't expect this. Once the meeting was over, I went to my office and finished draft conferences with students, and then it was time to go home. Once I got home, Kerry made me hamburgers and salad for Christmas dinner and then we watched YouTube: he found a video with a Yule log that played Xmas music, and then we watched Rudolph, which was nice (it's one of my favorites). As Clarice says, "There's always tomorrow for dreams to come true," right?  It wasn't necessarily the best Christmas Day ever, but I have definitely had worse. I've learned, too, the value of keeping busy to ward off depression.

Some photos from my Christmas:

Me with my postgraduate Short Novel students on the last day!

The Hongkou campus at SISU, decorated for Christmas.

Presents from students!

Tuesday-Thursday: These days were mostly about conferences with students. Tuesday I looked over drafts to prepare for the conferences; Wednesday I held 13 conferences with students; and Thursday I held 7.  Lots of rides on the bus.  Also, it's freezing cold in Teaching Building 5: I had to wear my coat, scarf, and hat during my conferences, even with the heat on in my office.  And they always keep the halls dark! Wednesday I had to use a squat toilet for a second time in China: and this time everything was dark in all the halls, and all the electricity was out in the men's room, so I went in the women's room...there was no one around. I definitely find that it's a challenge for me; normally, I don't have to worry about aim and accuracy so much when I use the toilet. Thursday it was pouring ran all day and it took 90 minutes on the shuttle bus coming back. The long rides are one thing I will NOT MISS about SISU. Some days I do wish I was teaching somewhere else. However, I do like my students a lot, so I really can't complain.  For dinner: burgers Tuesday, Kerry's apple chicken Wednesday, and then spaghetti Thursday.

More pics:

Our kitchen in our apartment.

Our living room.

The fountain at SISU, Hongkou Campus--actually working!

Me and Charmian, one of my Short Novels students--a selfie!

Friday was a bit strange, and I didn't expect it to be. We went to Chinese class as usual. And the focus of the class was on money and buying things, such as saying, "I want to buy an apple," and so forth. Then we had a break. Guillermo, the Spanish teacher, had a burn, and had ice on his hand. We were all concerned and told him to go to the pharmacy, which he did. Two students, Navin (Indian teacher) and Claudio (Italian teacher) went with him. And we continued on. However, Navin soon called and said that the doctor said that Guillermo's case was more serious and he needed to go to the hospital. We all sprung into action. Samira, Guillermo's friend,  the French teacher, who also knew Spanish, went to the doctor to see him; Kerry and I showed her how to get there. We did our best, with the help of Wang Laoshi, to get Guillermo a cab to the hospital using Didi. I was surprised that the other teachers did not have this app. After Wang Laoshi talked to the driver, everything was in place: Kerry went to get Guillermo from the doctor, and then we all followed him to the waiting cab, where he went to the hospital. He's okay, but he has a huge bandage on his hand. I think Kerry and I will make some food for him. What a weird ending to the last Chinese class of the year!  It was pretty interesting to me how so many of us pitched in make sure that Guillermo was okay; I don't think that would have happened in an American class.

One last thing about Friday: when I was coming home on the 745 bus, I had a weird incident. I had an old lady sitting next to me.  As the bus was approaching my stop, I tapped her on the shoulder and said (in Chinese) "I'm sorry."  She stayed put.  I was worried that I'd miss my stop. Finally, I stood up and I started to move...and then she finally did. By that time, the bus driver had already closed the door to let people out! I was worried and panicked. I shouted in English, "Hey, I need to get out!"  Fortunately, some of the Chinese people yelled, "Shifu, shifu! (Driver, driver!)."  And then he opened the door.  I think he was distracted because he had already opened the front door and was letting people in there; I think he thought we'd all left.  Phew! That was close.  Lesson learned: give old Chinese ladies more warning to move.

Days 116-118: The Days Before Christmas

Well, it's getting closer to Christmas here, but it really doesn't feel a whole lot like Christmas. We are not getting cards or presents, and we just have our silly little Charlie Brown tree up on the dresser: much less extravagant than last year. It also sort of feels that people in the states have forgotten about us; I’m really not hearing from anyone. So it feels kind of lonely. And Monday I will have to work on Christmas day for the first time ever. I am trying not to let myself get down about that. However, in the meantime, I have work that I need to do: "....promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep."

Friday we did two major things: we actually attended the SISU Chinese class for the first time in awhile. Not a lot of folks were there: just me, Kerry, Guillermo, Carlo, Navin, and the Japanese professor (whose name I forget). The class today focused a lot on directions: left, right, up, down, stop, north, south, east, west. It’s a lot of writing down of vocabulary. Near the end, we were playing a game where we were counting off to six—shouting out numbers--and then naming the favorite fruits of others who shouted out the same time as us. It was silly but somewhat interesting and effective. Afterwards, Kerry and I carried on our typical Ciao Café tradition: me with my tuna panini, him with his Ciao sandwich. Soon after, I went on to the SISU International Party. I wish I could say that I loved this party, but I didn’t. Perhaps I was just in a bad mood because of my ear and because of my depression. First we had to listen to about 30 minutes of speeches. Then we got some food, which was okay but had limited protein options.  (Still, I could tell that they tried.) And I didn’t win any raffle prizes, even though there were over 30 of them. It was nice to socialize with some folks: Carol, Peter, Alex, Richard, Tomasz, Raymond were all there. I met a woman named Judith, born in Lebanon who lived her life in Bahrain, who seemed nice. A woman to my left, like Judith, was also in the School of Education; however, I forgot her name. (One problem I have with Chinese folks is that it’s difficult for me to remember their names unless they give me their cards.) She was quite pleasant, though. After eating, there was some “entertainment,” which mostly consisted of bad singing and even worse poetry that most people tuned out. I did get to see my video “Happy New Year” wish that I did, along with many others—this segment went on a bit long, though. One guy, Greg, did a good job singing a song in Chinese, and playing his guitar: something about him bothers me, though—maybe I am just jealous of younger people who are too perfect. Steve Kulich from the Intercultural Center led a good round of “Silent Night” in German, English, and Chinese. And then Betty Barr, one of the first professors at SISU (she’s very nice—84 years old, with Scottish roots) and her husband led us all in “Auld Land Syne” to conclude the evening. (Prior to this, her husband went on and on about how much he loved SISU and his wife, etc.) I made a quick exit after this, and went on to the surprisingly uncrowded 745 bus, rode it, then walked home. Overall, the evening passed time, but I was hoping for a bit more. As I said, I wasn’t in the best mood, so perhaps that affected my impressions a bit. I just wasn’t in the mood to socialize, really.

Some pictures from the party:

Before the party.

Navin gives a speech. He also win the big raffle prize!

Rania, the Greek instructor!

Richard, Alex English, Steve K. and a few others sing "Silent Night."

Betty Barr and her husband lead us in "Auld Lang Syne."

Saturday not much went on—mostly graded and did prep for the Short Novels class—and took a nap. I actually got all my response papers graded! We had pork chops and potatoes for dinner, and Kerry made a tomato and cucumber salad; he’s getting a bit creative with his cooking lately.

Christmas Eve Day: Most of today was spent at Morton’s in Shanghai. And, fortunately for us, it was a good time! We both had a crab cake appetizer; Kerry had tomato bisque soup while I had a wedge salad (with the lettuce chopped up, though; and then we each had a steak for dinner, along with some spinach and mushrooms as well as some scrumptious mashed potatoes. It was really a splendid meal: the wait staff spoke English, catered to our needs, and it wasn’t even that crowded. We spent three hours there, savoring the time. We decided to take the subway home, and we even walked home from the subway station. Even though the air was crisp, it felt more like a fall Minnesota day than Christmas Eve. I saw a lot of Santa hats and heard a lot of Christmas music. But still Christmas has nowhere near as much of a presence here as it does in the USA. However, as of this writing, I feel pretty good. My ear feels a bit better, and I’m getting some work done while Kerry’s taking a nap.

Some Morton's pictures:

Crab cake appetizer.

Wedge salad.

Steak with mashed potatoes, pate de foie gras.

Kerry's chocolate cake.

I sense that tomorrow—Christmas Day—will be weird and difficult—but hopefully my work will keep me distracted. We shall see. It is so very strange to be so disconnected from all the Christmas goings-on. However, we did have a nice day today and I’m glad we got out of the house to celebrate in our own way.

Days 112-115: School Stuff

Monday I was back at school: two classes this time. I still am not feeling well--my right ear is very stuffed up, even as I right this--but I managed to go back and be okay. We didn't have any protein in the house, so I had to go to the SISU convenience store (next to SISU coffee) before I got on the bus and grab a sandwich for later. The bus to campus seemed to take longer than usual--we didn't get there until about 12:40. The presentation from my Short Novel students was okay, but not as good as the one from last week. We then had some general discussion on Maus II. We do have some interesting discussions, but sometimes it does seems like the same people are talking, over and over again. I suppose it's that way for any class, though. I then went to my freezing cold office and ate my lunch: Yanis followed me--he wanted some information for his recommendation-and another wanted to make some last-minute changes to her response paper. I couldn't get the heater to work; for some reason, it seems to be colder in some of the buildings than it does outside. I went to my American Literature class. Even though I left at 4:12, I still got there barely on time. But they students didn't mind, especially after they saw that I had brought them Ferrero Rocher candies and cookies from Macau. They applauded these, and they also applauded when they heard that the American Literature class would continue next semester. (At least, I hope it will. No one tells me anything.) Today we talked about Chopin and Perkins Gilman. I followed my usual pattern: lecture, group discussion, full class discussion. It's about all we have time for in 90 minutes. After class, I went to the bus. Sat at the back because by the time I got there, people were taking up too many seats in the front. Richard, a professor from my building, was on the bus, too. I didn't talk to him on the bus, but I chatted with him quite a bit on the way to the bus stop. A 745 showed up right away, but the driver wouldn't let us on. Richard talked in Chinese to the driver quite a bit, but no dice. One young woman explained to us in English that the driver said he was only stopping on the highway.....okay. It did seem a bit odd to us that he wouldn't let two white guys on but others were allowed on, but we didn't question it. And what could we do?  Fortunately, though, another 745 showed up in about 10 minutes, and everything was peachy. I like Richard--he seems nice--but somewhat guarded to me. A lot of people here, Americans included, seem not to divulge much about their personal lives. Maybe I just want to make friends too much, and it shows.

Tuesday the big event of the day was Chinese lessons with Deborah, this time for 2.5 hours. We had a lot to review: numbers, time, days of the week, everything really. We also asked her for help with the Morton’s reservation and Kerry talked to her a great deal about the problems he had with his class. I do feel like a bit too much time was wasted talking, but we do like to get feedback on cultural issues as well, so maybe on some level we need to do this. I spent a lot of time in the evening working on a Brown Bag Presentation at SISU for Wednesday on GLBT Issues. It was called “GLBTQ Culture in America and China: Definitions, Experiences, and Comparisons.” I managed to whip up a PowerPoint in the evening, in spite of feeling cruddy. So kudos to me, I guess.

Pictures that Grace took of me giving my lecture:

Wednesday I gave the presentation. Kerry came with me to the school and then went on to shop at Carrefour. I was very early, so I had time to buy some sandwiches (burgers—bleah) from the school convenience store. About 15 people attended: it was on the 6^th floor of Teaching Building 5—no elevator, so a loooooong walk up. I talked a long time; in fact, I was surprised how long I went on, and I even had people talking to me afterwards. Alex English, the guy who runs the show, sent me a very positive message afterwards, telling me he’d learned a lot. Summer, the young queer activist who helped me get connected to queer events on campus, also told me she enjoyed it.  Afterwards, I went to the doctor and had him look at my ears. This was a bit of a hurdle because he could speak only a little English and I could speak only a little Chinese. With the help of a couple female interpreters, we figured things out. I had to get blood drawn at one point by sticking my arm into a window and having a nurse take some blood out of my finger. This was a bit nerve-wracking for me. The doctor claimed that I have a bacterial infection and prescribed some Tylenol and an antibiotic. My biggest symptom right now is just clogged ears, especially my right ear. I don’t think the trip to Macau helped this. I just rested the remained of the day.

Thursday I rested a lot, but I also graded outlines and responded to students on WeChat. We had leftover spaghetti for dinner. We were motivated to review some Chinese in the evening; I think if we feel well enough, we’ll go to class tomorrow. We both really need to—we’ve missed so much.

Tomorrow is also the SISU International Faculty party—so we’ll see how that goes. Again, I’m not really in a partying mood. I even cancelled our Cultural Event trip to Suzhou: it just didn’t make sense to go considering the Friday party, Kerry’s desire to go to gaming, and how I feel overall.

Days 109-111: Macau

So this past weekend we went to Macau. Overall, it was a good trip. Lots of travel, though.  Friday, we went to Hongqiao Airport: we had to fill out a departure card when going through customs, but, oddly enough, we didn't have to fill out an arrival card when we arrived in Macau. On the plane, I graded response papers from my Short Novels class; the food was decent--beef and rice. When we got to the hotel, (The Parisian), there was a lot to like about it. First, it was close to the airport (and we took a shuttle). Second, it was really easy to find the lobby, and it was not crowded at all. Extreme elegance was the theme: a gorgeous fountain when you walk in, amazing paintings on the ceiling, statues adorning the hallways. The stores sell only the best: Gucci, Prada, etc. It reminded me a bit of the Bellagio in the US.  Kerry and I settled down a bit in the room and then went to Le Buffet in the hotel for dinner about 7:45. Amazing food: lobster thermidor, pate de foie gras, black truffle risotto, raw salmon, pork, brie cheese, and roast beef, among other dishes.  Tres bien!

We took a lot of pictures in Macau, so I'm going to divide them by day.  Here are the Friday pictures:

Fountain in the entrance of The Parisian.

Hotel lobby--breathtaking!

Kerry beneath a chandelier.

Lobster from the buffet.

Saturday Kerry and I slept in more than we should have--we originally intended to get an early start, but c'est dommage! Still, we managed to have a really good day. After lunch at Le Buffet, which was a smaller version of their dinner, we decided to go on a tour of the city--using one of those tour buses. It wasn't a hop-on, hop-off kind of thing: we had to come and go as the tour guide asked us to. Our first stop was a series of museums, but the museums weren't really the major attraction for us as much as a beautiful garden of flowers, which was wonderful to walk around in, especially since it was about 65 degrees there: no jacket! I did manage to pop into one of the museums for a moment, but only for a moment--it had a lot of photographs of people (particularly women) who contributed to Macanese culture. Next we went to a Buddhist temple and climbed all over the place. We burned incense and watched people pray. We even bought a mobile, left it there, and wrote a wish on it: "Wish for a happy and prosperous New Year, Brian and Kerry."  After this, we went to a tall tower--the tallest in Macau. We got to go to the 58th floor, stand inside and see the view. There was also a glass floor where we could look down and see the world below. We saw people bungee jump off the 61st floor! We went up there as well, but it was outside and far too cold. For the last part of the tour, we went to a crowded old town area of Macau: we saw the ruins of St. Paul Cathedral (from a distance...we couldn't get too close because they were preparing some sort of Christmas event), St. Dominic's Church, and Senado Square. Kerry and I briefly looked for shopping opportunities, but really didn't find any. Then we got back on the bus to the hotel. We had dinner at Le Brasserie in the hotel, a French restaurant (mais oui!). At first they wouldn't take us, but we said we'd wait, and then a table magically appeared. I had a ribeye steak, and Kerry had a steak as well. Good meal, except we found a hair in the butter and the salad was nothing more than lettuce and vinaigrette. The french onion soup and chocolate mousse were spectacular, though. After dear, we visited the Eiffel Tower at the Parisian. They wouldn't let us go to the top due to the winds, but we walked around the 7th floor. We looked around their store afterwards and bought a few items, including a cute Parisian bear and cookies and Ferrero Rocher candies for my American Lit. students.

Saturday pictures:

Lunch at Le Buffet.

Beautiful garden near some museums.

Kerry at the garden we visited.

Kerry at the temple.

Our New Year's wish, left at the temple.

Shrine at the temple.

Me outside the temple.

View from the 58th floor of the observation tower!

The Ruins of St. Paul.

St. Dominic's Church.

Kerry in Senado Square.

Chocolate mousse at La Brasserie.

La Tour Eiffel at The Parisian.

A view of Macau from the Eiffel Tower.

We began Sunday with breakfast at Le Buffet: they had scrambled eggs, but they were sort of watery. Still, they had ham, croissants, danishes, pork sausage, and other breakfast goodies. Soon after, we did the Express checkout and were on our way to the airport. It's a pretty small airport (Macau International), but the security lines were as long as the US.  We did a currency exchange before we left: patacas back to RMB. (As of this writing, 8 Macau patacas=1 US dollar.) They seated us almost in the very back of the plane--only one foreigner sitting behind us--and the plane got off to a late start, almost 40 minutes late. I slept a bit on the plane and graded more response papers. Walking out we were accosted by two different people (one woman, one man) asking us, in English, if we wanted a taxi. And they were both very aggressive and persistent. However, once I said "Bu yao" to which one, firmly, they shut up.  Once they see that we know some Chinese, they back off. Deborah told us that they think foreigners are rich, and they will think 300 RMB is reasonable.  Our driver was nice--but it was a long way home from the Pudong Airport (for some reason we had to leave from Hongqiao but flew into Pudong). 200 RMB for the ride, partly because the driver got a bit lost on the way home--I hope he wasn't just "lost" to add money on the tab. But we are still vulnerable here and need to trust people to some extent. That was really most of the day, other than some prep I had to do in the evening--plan sheets, mostly. Kerry made a WONDERFUL chicken dish with the apples from Tomasz: he butterflied the chicken breasts and put cheddar cheese and sugared apples on top of them. Great combination of savory and sweet, and he came up with this on his own!  Yay!

Sunday pictures:

View from our hotel room.

Breakfast at Le Buffet.

Kerry by the Xmas tree at Le Buffet.

Me by the fountain in the hotel entrance.

A 100 pataca bill. 8 patacas=1 dollar.

Nicest surprise of the day: Kerry's apple chicken after a long flight.

Days 106-108: Huang Shan (Anhui Province)

So during the last three days, we went on a Fulbright Cultural Event to Huang Shan, in the Anhui Province of China. Lots of travelling. Tuesday we took a 4.5 hour train ride there. Tracy was on the same train as us, even in the same coach. We almost didn't make it: the taxi got stuck in traffic, plus we had a hard time finding where we were supposed to go for our tickets. Kerry finally located an Inquiry desk with a lady who told us to "zou guai" (turn left) to find a ticket counter. We got the tickets and went to the line; they were boarding when we got there. The ride itself was pretty uneventful and I actually slept part of the way; the rest of the time I read Maus II and talked to Kerry. William, the tour guide, was holding a sign with our names as we walked out of the station. A driver took us to a hotel about 20 minutes away. It was a French Provincial hotel out of the city, with an emphasis on the provincial. It was quaint--wood furnishings, goldfish ponds--but our room was FREEZING. We quickly turned the heat on and then rested a bit. We tried to convey to the people at the desk that we were hungry (Chi Fan); I think they understood that we were hungry, but couldn't tell us where to go. We then ran into Tracy, who walked with us a bit down an old street. We ran into a place that looked like nothing from the outside, but this old man and woman invited us in to look over their ingredients and pick out something to eat. Very different from most restaurant service I'm used to. The had such items as scallions, lotus root, and pork.  They made us one dish with lotus root and pork, one with scrambled egg and onion, and one with tofu. It was SOOO good! About as fresh as you can get. We ate outside with neighborhood dogs begging at our feet; we gave them scraps after the meal. We strolled around before and after the meal and saw a lot of animals: cats (two of whom were fighting with each other, playfully), dogs (all over), and plenty of ducks (some of whom were the non-living versions, strung up in front of shops). Then Kerry and I took a nap and waited for dinner. At 6 pm we got to see Mark and the others, including Samuel again (the young Duke graduate) and Sean Cortney (who we had dinner with in D.C.--blond guy who Kerry thinks looks like Jude Law).  We also met an interesting Chinese female sociology and gender studies professor, who talks about transgender issues, as well as a young Chinese woman who had just defended her Ph.D. dissertation on American Literature--Cormac McCarthy, to be specific. During dinner, a woman sang Chinese opera to us with her karaoke machine a couple times during dinner. The food was good but a bit spicy, which is sort of a theme with Hui cuisine. Afterwards, Mark, Kerry, and I had an interesting "conversation" with one of the desk managers at the hotel; he'd say something in Chinese, and then his phone would translate it in English so we could understand it. How cool! We tried to talk back to him using our Google Translate and Pleco. It's amazing what technology makes possible.

Wednesday was really the big "cultural event" day. The purpose was to explore the "four treasures" of Huang Shan. We began by going to a brushmaker's--a young man whose family had been doing this for generations (his father, the owner, was also around). The young man showed us how to make a brush, and then we made one of our own. That was pretty fun; I like being creative and creating something by myself. And we had a brush to take home as a result. We did a bit of shopping: I got a few more gifts for people, and Mark bought some pots and some swords at once place. We then had a really good lunch. I'm really starting to leave the greens in China--perhaps the vegetable oil is a good way to cook them. I also liked the little shrimp that I didn't have to peel, and the fish that didn't have a lot of bones in it. It was called "stinky fish," but it wasn't really stinky at all. After lunch, we went to an ink factory and saw real craftsmen make ink, do carvings, and dry the ink. It was nice to see real humans involved in a creative process. We also saw a room with a lot of stone carvings: one of the stones sold for $100,000 (and yes, that's USD).  Beautiful, painstakingly done. Afterwards, we went to a paper factory and saw the process by which paper is made by hand. Such items as tree bark and kiwi juice are used. Mark ended up purchasing a scroll that he admired: original price 800 RMB, but he got it for 500 RMB.  Then we walked back to the hotel, exploring the old street again. But by this time it was raining.  Soon after, we piled back in the bus and went to dinner in a hotel. This dinner, though, was my least favorite: they served such dishes as pig intestine, sheep's hearts, and cow tripe. Even the pork was way too fatty. The dates and peanuts were good, though, and I liked the rice wine.  At the end of the day, we gave Mark his Xmas presents and then turned in. I finished Maus II before going to bed.

Thursday we went home. We got up about 6:20 am and then took a van back to the train station. The folks at the hotel gave us a breakfast to take with us: brown eggs, bread, corn, and oranges. Pretty filling. I rested on the train, but I didn't really sleep. I read Chopin and Perkins Gilman for my American Lit. class. At one point we had to switch our seats around to the opposite direction--that was bizarre. But we went with the flow. Taxi ride back was about 93 RMB. Kerry did laundry, we had lunch, and then took a nap. I did some grading of American Lit. papers. We just had potatoes and some cheese for dinner.

Here are some pictures of Huang Shan:

Old Town area of Huang Shan.

Tofu and sunflower seeds from our outdoor meal.

The wonderful couple who cooked our lunch.

Singer with our first dinner!

Outdoor area around our hotel.

Mark makes a brush.

Shopping area.

Making ink.

Craftswoman at stone factory.

Beautiful carved stone.

Bus selfie!

Scroll from paper factory.

Another paper factory scroll. Mark haggled and bought this one.

Ducks!

Final meal.  That's Sean Cortney, Mark, and Tracy.