Kirsten Goes to School

Time for School

Pass the tiny park where a group of middle aged women practice Tai Chi Sword each morning.

The streets are always clean because people dressed in this bright outfit sweep the streets every morning.

Meet Nice Lady. That's the name that students past bestowed upon her and that is what everyone still calls her. Her husband and daughter go by Nice Lady's husband and Nice Lady's daughter. None of them speak English and therefore are unaware of their names. They keep the same ours that we do, meaning the store opens by 7:30 am to sell us water and pastries before school and stays open until 3:30 am for late night pi jiu (beer) runs.

Busy intersection. Sometimes I feel like a salmon swimming up a stream of bicycles.

Drive-thru.

This is the baozi lady. Baozi (pictured below) is the breakfast of choice here. Don't be deceived by her friendly smile, this lady is a sly saleswoman. The first time I bought baozi from her, I told her I wanted 4. "Six?" No, four. "Okay six."(she put six baozi in a bag) No, four. One, two, three, four. Four. -- When I arrived at school, one of my classmates had a massive bag full of baozi. I asked why so many, she replied, "I asked for three, she gave me eight."

I have to admit, as long as she behaves she does have the cheapest baozi in town.

This is a baozi. Its a bread ball stuffed with whatever (usually pork or beef, but sometimes you are surprised) and steam-baked.

This is my Intermediate 2 class. Just four of us. From the right is Autumn, Sarah, and Paul. Paul refused to look at the camera because I said he wasn't pretty. I also am taking an introductory course to Modern Chinese Culture and I sit in on the Intermediate 1 class. Both instructors for those two classes lived through the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. I am getting a very eye-openning education.

This is Zhong laoshi. She is the instructor for Intermediate 2. Her English is about as bad as our Chinese. Today she asked us how we celebrate Easter (note that the Chinese name for Easter directly translates as resurrection day). "There's a rabbit. An Easter rabbit that hides color-painted eggs. But the eggs are really hidden by our parents. The rabbit isn't real, we just think it's real. Then our parents give us a basket, an Easter basket, filled with Easter candy and rabbit-shaped chocolate. The rabbit-shaped chocolate is supposed to be the Easter rabbit." After that explanation, which was all in Chinese and took about 20 minutes, she asked us why we do this.

This is my classmate (tongxue) and apartment mate (tongyu) Paul. Tongxue and tongyu are not to be confused with tongzhi, which means comrade and is now slang for a male homosexual.

The feathered object is the toy Paul brought from Beijing, which is quite possibly the most amazing invention since the slinky. It is four feathers tucked into a bunch of washers. You kick it like a hacky-sack. Unlike a hacky-sack, it suspends in the air longer along with other kinesthetic superiorities making it the ultimate in class-break entertainment.

This is my Tai Chi Chuan instructor. We're not sure exactly how old he is, we just know he's over 80. I can't remember his actual name, but we all call him Bubbles. He is the tiniest person ever. His legs are as big as my arms and he is physically incapable of speaking loudly. When he wants us to gather around for a demonstration, he says, "Come on, come on. First watch, then you try." He speaks very little English, but when he does speak, it is the most adorable thing in the world. He's also playful. The woman in pink behind him is his assistant. She's a bundle of fun and mischief. Often when Master Bubbles is instructing us, she'll sneak behind him and pretend to kick his legs out from under him. Today she demonstrated Tai Chi Fan, it was beautiful. There is the possibility that a small group of students can start studying Tai Chi Sword with Master Bubbles and/or Tai Chi Fan with his assistant, either in groups or individually.

Notice how still Master Bubbles is as he effortlessly tosses my classmate across the room.

He may look frail, but don't underestimate him or you will be in pain. This makes me weary of every old person I meet.

That's all for now. Tomorrow we go to Leshan and Emeishan, so look forward to a lot of photos!