Happenings...

FINALLY, got my sink fixed...it took 3 plumbers 10 days to tell me they can't do anything and need to order a part or what not. Finally I got fed up with that and bought the janitor a pack a Marlboros. He put down his broom and in less than an hour it was fixed. American cigarettes can do anything.

AMBER AND I said good bye to our class. It was her first session and she did about 70% of the work and did a really good job. I'll miss her in the classroom next month as I go back to the slave ship SS Danny's Book.

FOR THE FIRST TIME, I watched a scary movie on Halloween just because it was Halloween. Amber and I watched Paranormal Activity which was just downright creepy but not all that scary.

Beijing in Twilight

A few pictures around Beijing at sunset.

Tiananmen Square

Hohai Lake

Forbidden City

Right on campus

Class A Picture

I swear I am in there.

David Crowder Band - SMS [Shine]

So my bathroom is kinda....exploding

For the past several days, there has been a maddeningly annoying drip drip in my bathroom that I couldn't seem to find the source. Today I went to wash my hands and my faucet shot water from all directions and made a very loud rumbling somewhere near a jet breaking the sound barrier.

My bathroom

In a few seconds time, there is a good half inch of standing water on the floor and I'm noticing that it's getting increasingly hot. Soon my glasses are fogged up. I yank the handle on the faucet (leaving my fingerprints forever burned into the melting metal) to the "cold" setting only to find out that my faucet now comes equipped with "Burn Your Fingers Off" and "Split Your Own Atoms." I run to the building manager's office...and it's dark. Turns out they're on holiday. Great, say I. Rumble, rumble say my pipes.

One of the Chinese staff girls who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time helped me call a plumber who came in and then....couldn't speak a word of Mandarin. This plumber only spoke a regional dialect. Imagine you call a plumber and you get Billy Bubba from Kentucky and people in Kentucky all speak Pidgeon English with every third vowel removed and backwards word order with a different set of vocabulary for everything and you get a vague idea of the situation. Fortunately, same staff girl (who really should have gone home when she had the chance) happened to be from that region and spent the better part of an hour relaying everything he said from their local dialect to English (for me) and Mandarin (for the Beida official who came by to see what was going on.)

The plumber was able to stop the leak but at that time my room was doing its best Yangtze River impression. I was able to get that cleaned up and nothing was damaged too badly but I gotta wait a few days until I can get the whole problem fixed.

Winter Comes to the City

All of the sudden, it is cold. Bitter winds and apathetic raindrops have invaded Beijing. The sky is the color of old, cracked cement that barely lets any sun in. The old guard take their coats out of storage, the new ones (from the north) take a little comfort in this reminder of home, the new ones (from the south) complain about how this is China and nobody thinks of cold when they think of China. The weather pays little heed to their logic.

Student Journal

I've written in the past how students have to write journal entries every day. Most are so awful in their grammar, spelling and overall format that they rip the very fabric of time and space, while others are straight up ripped from magazines or newspapers. ("Last night, my husband Mark and I were able to watch our beloved Padres take on the Anaheim Angels and win 5-4 in one of the best pitching duels I have ever seen." This came from one of my guy students, who is apparently gay and has developed a way to get to California and back in only a few hours.)

However, every once in a while you get a good one. Such is the case with Adam, who is my oldest student and been teaching for 25 years. The assigned topic was "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?" He wrote:

If I could go anywhere in the world, I would go to America because America is the most advanced country in science and technology as well as economy which is not only the biggest country in making and producing but in creating and inventing as well. The people of America are wise as well as intelligent and hard-working. They are active and brave. They confront the evil and protect the hurt peoples of the world. They have full of the spirit in challenging and I know from our facilitators, even the elders are the same.

This spirit affects me deeply. This is the spirit of America.

The culture of America has been spread throughout the world. There are many famous writers in America. I read the story of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when I was a child by Mark Twain. I give them to my child to enjoy very much.

It was the creative spirit of adventure that makes the United States of America become stronger and richer and going forward ahead of the world. I am proud to be member of a country that is ally with America.

The history of America is not long but is full of instructiveness. That is, in the country in where everyone can be after and worship freedom and peace. The scientists are respected and fully available in their fields. I would go to America because I want to see and know much more of this mysterious country.