student visits
ok! so today's my last full day at home with nothing going on for a long time. i guess that means... oh. i won't have time for livejournal the next... month, month and a half. wow. i hadn't thought of that.
tomorrow i go to visit margaret (and sandy and vivien and lizzy and who knows who else) in XINGTAI. i'll spend the night at margaret's place. that's two hours by bus from here (one hour if i took the fast train). tuesday, i'll go to HANDAN to visit daisy. she's only half an hour down the road from xingtai, after all. i'll come home tuesday night or wednesday morning. but i'll need to be back by 11 am, cause i'm meeing up with rain at that time. she lives HERE IN TOWN, and i'm invited to her house for lunch, then to... do something i couldn't understand when she said it. then i'll be able to sleep in my own bed that night. fun:) the next day, thursday, i'll get on a train and head to TANGSHAN, which, it turns out, is a ways away. penny said it takes her 8 hours by train, but dar thinks i can get there faster. we'll see. i thought about not doing this visit, but penny said she lives in the countryside, and i want to how countryside it really is. both rain and penny have pretty poor english:) it will be... interesting:) anyway, i'll stay at penny's thursday night, come home friday. another night in my own bed. saturday, at 10 am, i'll go with steve to BEIJING. we'll hang out saturday, sunday, and monday, doing whatever sounds fun at the time i guess. tuesday morning, we head to the airport and he goes back to america. i'll sit and read and watch people and write till daniel gets back from taiwan, around 9 pm-ish. i'll probably spend about 12 hours in the airport that day. while in beijing, i'll probably give juno a call, and maggie a call. maybe rusally. daniel and i will stay in beijing that night (of course) and maybe hang out for most of the next day, coming back that night. well...? hmm. ok, maybe we'll just go straight to HAERBIN on the 2nd or 3rd, cause we were going to come back, then go straight back to beijing. that sounds pretty stupid. ok, i'll have to email daniel about that. i've already blahblahblahed about the rest of my break on here. the only other new info is about the actual chinese new year holiday. wendy called to confirm, so i'll be going to her house (HERE IN TOWN) tuesday the 8th (new year's eve) and staying till the 9th. sounds like a big meal or two and watching the big party on tv. my students all tell me i should spend the new year in the countryside, cause that's where it's actually interesting. they do stuff in the countryside, my students tell me. weird, traditional stuff. they say this, but all they've told me about this weird traditional stuff that's different in the countryside is that they wake up at the crack of dawn and kowtow (bow out of respect) to the elders of their family and the village, and the kids are given pocket money. which happens in the city too, but not at the crack of dawn, i don't think. i think there's also some sort of cooking some big wonderful dish as a sacrifice, but then eating it after a day anyway. eating jiaozi (dumplings) is a given, of course. and you're supposed to wear new clothes on new year's day. i dunno. it'd be fun to spend new year's day in the countryside, but i really don't want to wander far from here for those couple days.
wow. busy busy busy. i suppose that means i should, like, work on my syllabus for next semester today, eh? and get all those things i've been putting off done. dar and i have plans to watch star trek: tng later. i also should shower. i don't think there's anything else i feel like writing on here right now. i'm sure i'll come back later this week on evenings i sleep here, but it'll be march before i get back to regular keeping up on here. and by then, i'll have a bazillion new pictures i want to post again, even though i still have pictures online i haven't posted yet that i want to. geez.
tomorrow i go to visit margaret (and sandy and vivien and lizzy and who knows who else) in XINGTAI. i'll spend the night at margaret's place. that's two hours by bus from here (one hour if i took the fast train). tuesday, i'll go to HANDAN to visit daisy. she's only half an hour down the road from xingtai, after all. i'll come home tuesday night or wednesday morning. but i'll need to be back by 11 am, cause i'm meeing up with rain at that time. she lives HERE IN TOWN, and i'm invited to her house for lunch, then to... do something i couldn't understand when she said it. then i'll be able to sleep in my own bed that night. fun:) the next day, thursday, i'll get on a train and head to TANGSHAN, which, it turns out, is a ways away. penny said it takes her 8 hours by train, but dar thinks i can get there faster. we'll see. i thought about not doing this visit, but penny said she lives in the countryside, and i want to how countryside it really is. both rain and penny have pretty poor english:) it will be... interesting:) anyway, i'll stay at penny's thursday night, come home friday. another night in my own bed. saturday, at 10 am, i'll go with steve to BEIJING. we'll hang out saturday, sunday, and monday, doing whatever sounds fun at the time i guess. tuesday morning, we head to the airport and he goes back to america. i'll sit and read and watch people and write till daniel gets back from taiwan, around 9 pm-ish. i'll probably spend about 12 hours in the airport that day. while in beijing, i'll probably give juno a call, and maggie a call. maybe rusally. daniel and i will stay in beijing that night (of course) and maybe hang out for most of the next day, coming back that night. well...? hmm. ok, maybe we'll just go straight to HAERBIN on the 2nd or 3rd, cause we were going to come back, then go straight back to beijing. that sounds pretty stupid. ok, i'll have to email daniel about that. i've already blahblahblahed about the rest of my break on here. the only other new info is about the actual chinese new year holiday. wendy called to confirm, so i'll be going to her house (HERE IN TOWN) tuesday the 8th (new year's eve) and staying till the 9th. sounds like a big meal or two and watching the big party on tv. my students all tell me i should spend the new year in the countryside, cause that's where it's actually interesting. they do stuff in the countryside, my students tell me. weird, traditional stuff. they say this, but all they've told me about this weird traditional stuff that's different in the countryside is that they wake up at the crack of dawn and kowtow (bow out of respect) to the elders of their family and the village, and the kids are given pocket money. which happens in the city too, but not at the crack of dawn, i don't think. i think there's also some sort of cooking some big wonderful dish as a sacrifice, but then eating it after a day anyway. eating jiaozi (dumplings) is a given, of course. and you're supposed to wear new clothes on new year's day. i dunno. it'd be fun to spend new year's day in the countryside, but i really don't want to wander far from here for those couple days.
wow. busy busy busy. i suppose that means i should, like, work on my syllabus for next semester today, eh? and get all those things i've been putting off done. dar and i have plans to watch star trek: tng later. i also should shower. i don't think there's anything else i feel like writing on here right now. i'm sure i'll come back later this week on evenings i sleep here, but it'll be march before i get back to regular keeping up on here. and by then, i'll have a bazillion new pictures i want to post again, even though i still have pictures online i haven't posted yet that i want to. geez.