The mystery is solved. If anyone wonders whether middle schoolers are the same all over the world, the answer is YES. I have experienced a classroom full of them, and I hope that I don't have to do it ever again.

Thursday evening Mr. Shi called me to ask if I could teach two classes the next day. Now I will be teaching the senior level I students. They are about 16 years old and have studied English for three years. They don't start class until September 10, so on Friday I taught two sections of the junior level I, students who have only studied English for a year. It was crazy. I thought I had kept the lesson plan really simple, but even basic sentences were difficult for them to understand. I made the mistake of
breaking them up into pairs at one point, and all hell broke loose. Bear in mind that there are over 50 students in each class. It was so loud in there that I could barely make myself heard. Oy! It makes me shudder just thinking about it. Live and learn, I guess.

Nevertheless, today I received the happy news that for the remainder of this week, I will be teaching the senior level III students, so I am a happy camper. Middle schoolers and I - not a good mix.

Other than the teaching, I've been trying to get to know the town a bit better. On Saturday evening I went with my new friend Zhang Qi to stroll around. (That's what a person does here at night). We walked down along the Qingyijiang, the big river that runs through town. There are dozen of tributaries, so people are constantly crossing bridges. Along the river are many outdoor restaurants with large groups of people eating hot pot. A boiling broth goes in the middle of the table and people cook various meats and vegetables in it. On the tables are stacks of empty plates, napkins, and many bottles of beer. Beer is an essential accompaniment because hot pot is so spicy. This seems to be the official food of Sichuan Province.

Zhang Qi and I eventually ended up at a large outdoor square where there were upwards of two hundred people dancing. This is a common sight in the weak hours of the morning, although usually the groups are smaller then. At that hour they usually dance to more traditional music. This time was
totally different, however. Hundreds of people, mostly middle aged and older and mostly women, were all doing the same dance to pop and techno music. They looked very serious while doing it, too. I think they were afraid they would forget the moves. It was quite a sight.

Yesterday I went for a long walk on the outskirts of town. People only have to walk about five minutes, turn down a street, and suddenly the loud noises of the town - cars honking, radios blaring, people yelling - are gone and they are on a stone path only wide enough for pedestrians, bikes, and
wheelbarrows. There's a rickety suspension bridge that spans the muddy red river, and then people can walk for quite some time along the path through the farming community. At some points, the path goes along the river, and there are stands of bamboo. All the farmers' houses are situated along
this path, so I saw quite a few people, most of whom looked confused and wary about a foreigner being there. The corn is in season now, so every house has a big concrete patio with corn kernels spread out like a carpet. Anyway, the area around town is really lovely, with the rice paddies, the
red river, and the mountains all around.

A few days ago I walked up to a temple that is situated on a hill in this area. There is a giant reclining stone Buddha in front that looks out over the scenery. It is maybe 15 feet tall and 50 feet long. Renovations were in progress, probably in preparation for the tea festival. Apparently, in about ten days, Ya'an is hosting an international tea festival. (We'll see about the "international" part). Consequently, the town is really gearing up. There thousands of red and yellow paper lanterns all over with the Chinese character for tea written on them. Most impressive of all, they're building a whole bunch of temporary teahouses along the river. At least, I THINK they're temporary, but the construction is really quite nice.

Okay, one final anecdote. Today was the opening ceremony for the new campus. The juniors and seniors used to all be on the campus where I live, but now there is a whole new campus where the seniors will be, (and where I will be teaching). The assembly featured many speeches by the important people in town, and they focussed on the topic of the way in which the new campus represents the progress of Ya'an, blah, blah, blah. The students demonstrated their new military training with lots of marching, standing at attention, and saluting the flag in response to the orders an officer screamed from the stage. The speeches were all similar, and other than the part where they shot off confetti fireworks while little kids banged drums and hundreds of pigeons were set free from a truck, it was boring. Chinese society is big on long ceremonies for just about everything. However, it started raining and the assembly was outside. After enduring the rain for a while, I saw a woman on stage make a signal, and, thank God, they ended it early. Apparently it is possible to cut one of those ceremonies short as long as inclement weather interferes. This is good news, because Ya'an is known as "the rain capital." I don't think I'll see blue sky during my sojourn here.

Signing off for this week,

Molly