Yesterday was a Chinese Holiday!

Usually Friday is my busiest day for teaching. Yesterday, Friday, was a holiday, so no classes! Some students wanted to spend time with me to practice their English and get to know me better. They came over at about 8am, and we looked at some photos of my home town, my family, and some cool places in the USA. Initially we planned on going hiking, but none of us were in the mood for climbing mountains; instead, we played some ping pong at the school facilities. I must be pretty good at ping pong because noone could best me at a game to 11 points.

While I was playing, the students wanted to try on my cool shades. They thought they were so cool, that they decided to take some photos of themselves with the shades on.





This was at the ping pong yard. Then, after ping pong, we went to get some lunch:



The meal was delicious: eggplant, marinated in oils, fish stew, stringy potato with sauces, pork and mushrooms, and Chingdao beer. After lunch, since they paid for it, I decided they deserved a good western style dinner: Steak and Potatoes, Texas style. So, we went shopping to try and find some good beef. it took us attempts at three grocery stores, and two street markets to find beef. Once, we found it I purchased up three large slabs of beef, some russet potatoes, some salt, pepper, and four coca colas. That is pretty American! I made them steak and potatoes for dinner. They were not used to eating so much beef, and it took them some time to get used to it. They finished their meal.

Here they are after eating their first American steak (see the cokes and the empty plates):

I had to cut the steaks up for them because all I have is chopsticks, no forks or steak knives. Franklin (middle) is having a hard time digesting all the meat. Alex and Annie, enjoyed the steaks, and Alex said he would have it again sometime.

After dinner we watched Swingers, a classic American movie. They didn't understand any of it, but they thought it was a good movie. The dialog was too fast and too colloquial for them. So, instead of finishing Swingers I popped in The Doors, movie about Jim Morrisson and the Doors by Oliver Stone.

They thought the Doors was the most visually stimulating movie they had seen. Unfortunately, I had to cover their eyes or fast forward through certain scenes, because that movie is a little mature for them. Anyone who has seen it knows it a great directorial movie for Stone, and a great catalogue of sixties and seventies culture in America.

NOTE: If you are ever in China and want to screen the movie for your Chinese students, make sure to have the remote handy to fast forward through all the mature rated scenes. Man, Oliver Stone is risque!