Published September 22nd, 2006 by Mliesie
Time flies
Somehow time flies, even though I’m not even teaching that much at the moment….but at least I am having fun. Last weekend we went to a second-hand-market with Zhang Lei and Ma Lei, two of my writing class students. We all wanted to have some furniture to fill up our mighty mansions and we wanted to see if we could get bicycles. So off we went, our students at hand to bargain for us!!
Having arrived at the market and after having spent a lot of time there (boy, did I see some great things!!), Kate was the only one who actually bought a chair and a little cabinet. Ellie and I decided to keep the money in the pocket for another time. After that, the hunt for bicycles started….Kate and I decided on buying a new one instead of second hand. We went to quite a few shops, bargaining as best as we could (…or actually, Zhang Lei did) which finally got us 2 Chinese mountainbikes for 460 RMB each!! How am I to get through the rest of the month!!?? This wasn’t the end of our shopping spree, but I’ll save you the rest of it. Unfortunately no second-hand-bike for Ellie. Although later that week, she got Mr Gao’s son’s old bike…lucky girl!
Kate and I had planned to go for a nice bike ride on Sunday, unfortunately I woke up with a pounding headache which kept me in the house the rest of the day. Kate did go out and said her b…t hurt when she got back..
On Monday, Ellie, a Japanese student and I had to go to the PSB (Public Security Bureau) with the lovely Ms Zhang, our waiban’s assistant, to register ourselves. It took about 5 minutes, no questions asked, not even being stared at, and out we went again, WITHOUT our passports. They would be picked up by Ms Zhang the next day, together with our papers. I am very proud to tell you thet we are now officially registered in YuLin and that we are the proud holders of expert passports!
On Wednesday we were supposed to have hotpot (very famous here in YuLin), which unexpectedly didn’t happen. We were challenged by our students (or was it Ellie?) to have dinner in the College Canteen….Believe me, it really wasn’t as bad as we were told. The porridge (soup) was okay, and my hong shao qiezi (eggplant/aubergine) was good, as well as the wu xiang bing (salty bread roll) Huo Miao got us. We will definitely go back for take-out!!
Last night, Thursday, was probably the best one of the week. After having had to put off my downstairs neighbour and colleague, Ms Ji, twice;Â I was finally able to accept her invitation for a home cooked meal, together with Kate and Ellie. Both her husband and daughter, Ming Ming, were there as well. The meal Ms Ji cooked us was absolutely fantastic!!! And you know what……she wants to teach us how to do it ourselves! I can’t wait. We had a very pleasant evening, chatting away with Ms Ji and trying to understand what her husband would say to us in Chinese. Ms Ji in the meantime also translating to Ming Ming, who has just started to learn English. I don’t know how we will be able to cook her and her family as nice a meal, but we’ll try… For us this was a wonderful experience. Tasty and heartwarming….and when Ms Ji gives me a call again during lunchtime… Believe me, I’ll drop everything I’m doing right there and then, and go down for another great meal.
THANX MS JI!!!!
Ofcourse I still have my Chinese lessons on Mondays and Fridays, although I’m not sure I’m really making any progress. My teachers laughs her head off, as do I every now and then. So at least we’re having fun and, oh well, I do think I’m making progress. Just not as fast as I wish…. It takes time AND practice AND patience. I’m afraid I lack the latter….
Just now I got back from Kate’s, who had a visit from her predecessor Judy. She had also invited some students, which made it a nice surprise for Judy and a pleasant get together for the rest of us.
Tomorrow Ellie and I will be visiting Zhengbei Tower, together with some students. So, more pics to post. Tomorrow evening Lois, a new Chinese teacher in the English department, is going to cook us a homemade hotpot at Ellie’s (she has the most chairs….) and if possible we will make plans for our trip to Xi’an. Lois will be joining us for the trip to Xi’an and in Xi’an we are to meet up with some VSO-vols from the area and perhaps a former student of Kate’s. Yes, many, many plans and fun things ahead. I’ll keep you posted!
By the way, feel free to take a look at my noticeboard and at ‘Space van tantetoedeloe’, where I have posted all my pictures until I find out how to work my subpages on this website……
Enjoy the ride!   
  My new Chinese mountainbike…Â