Busy as a Bee

Last week was really busy…or at least busy for me.

On Wednesday, Emma came over! I haven’t seen her in months! It was so much fun to catch up! We went to Peter’s Tex Mex Grill with Jason (RPCV from Cambodia). I got a chicken burger. Sometimes all you need is a little Western food.

On Thursday, Andrew (aka Moose) and I went to a recording studio. My voice has been noted as “so clear and loudly that a black crow can hear it,” and now students at Sichuan College of Education will hear me even when I’m gone! I didn’t do such a good job when they took the sound out of the word…so after 5 minutes of trying to make a certain sound, the dean made Andrew do it. While my chair wasn’t that comfortable, I thought, man this would be a fun job. I wish I could make several different voices with my voice so I could be the voice of a cartoon. Sigh. Oh, well. The dean took us out for a lovely dinner!

On Friday night, I went to the English corner at Sichuan University. I’m not going to lie. I was pretty popular. Kids wanted to talk to me, as well as adults, students, etc. I talked and asked questions for a solid 2 hours. I then went to a coworkers’ apartment. It was fun hanging out with someone different from work.
On Saturday, I went to the San Xi Dui Museum in Guang Han. I was a VIP for the day. I’m not used to being a VIP…One thing that is very Chinese that has been very difficult for me is during these banquet style dinners, the host orders way too much food to impress? Or show the guest that they respect them? Anyway, 11 dishes were ordered for 5 people. We left enough food that could have been 4 meals for me. Sigh. We then drank tea at a 5 star hotel. We saw a “big fish” there (along with his bodyguard.) A few hours later, we ate dinner because I had to catch the 7 pm bus back to Chengdu. After arguing for about 5 minutes, I finally agreed that someone could take me home via private car. I had a great day, but am still wondering if this was a guanxi (connections) thing or maybe they were just being really nice? The other American was just as puzzled as I was. Regardless, I had a fabulous time.




I’m going to visit my Chinese friend from Mali on Friday! I’m so excited! But before then, I have to put in more time at the recording studio, go to COS (close of service) conference, and teach.