I got a phone call from Emile yesterday. We had lunch with him last weekend and he has my resume etc. to see about some work part-time. A client of his needed an English speaker to judge at an English Contest and I was called.
Today has been lots of fun. I met Marvin and the waiting car at a bank near our house and then drove to a suburb west of the city of Xingyang to judge an English Talent Competition. Students aged 9-14 gave a brief introduction of themselves and then we asked them questions to see if they could understand spoken English. Some kids read from written speeches and others memorized their speech. When question time came around the audience helped out some but that didn't help us to know if the children really new their stuff or not. I feel bad as everyone is cleaning up and I am not allowed to help. I have to get used to that one. I sat in the front set on the way home and got to write down street names as we drove. We also went to a gas station, my first time at one in China. Since we don’t own a car here and if we are in taxi’s or buses they get filled up when we aren't riding them but since today was a private car, the one of the boss for this event, we stopped. Gas station attendants like their counterpart in the US 30 or so years ago, pumped the gas, that was different after pumping my own gas most of my driving life. I really enjoyed the experience, it was very similar to the English Contest I helped judge on the new campus in the fall. Biggest differences were that this was sponsored by CCTV10 a local television station and the students were younger.