September 25, 2013
Better than average day today and it is because I did a little leg work yesterday; our friend Amos, another foreign teacher, is from Singapore and is fluent in Chinese and English. I went to him to get some assistance on how to get from here to Wanda Plaza. From our old apartment I had no problem and Chuck has figured out how to do that on scooter but I wanted to find a way on the bus because I’m certain that when it gets cold out I will not want to ride my scooter there. Anyway after his assistance I was able to make a decision on how to best get there. I completely changed my mind this morning and told Chuck who suggested we ride out to Wanda on his scooter check out bus routes and then after I finish playing piano I come home on the newly mapped out bus route.
We had breakfast together, I gave Nate lunch money and told him to do his school work for the day and we were off. Since we didn’t have a plan we took a leisurely ride into town and noticed people everywhere. We aren’t sure if today was some unspoken of holiday or if people are merely getting ready for National Day. We think something is up; as we were passing a statue of hands clasped we saw a gathering of people giving things away and a dance group. This dance group was wearing colorful costumes and they were dancing with fans. The first group danced with yellow fans and the second group danced with bright pink fans. I got some still shots (yea!!!) as well as some video and I will try to up load them and put the links here so people can see the dancing and the dragon dancing of a few days ago.
The neat thing about living where we do now is that foreigners aren’t something that people don’t see as our school Henan University of Technology and Zhengzhou University both have foreigner teachers and seeing us around is no big deal…USUALLY. Today we were able to stand and watch the dancing without attracting attention. People just looked like they were thinking “What are the foreigners looking at?” not “Did you see the foreigners?”
After the dancing we continued on our way to Wanda Plaza stopping at bus stops looking for what busses go from our area to WP. Our very loose plan was to eat at Dashang Market upstairs but when we got up there it was closed. So we then went to KFC for lunch. Nothing odd happened while we were eating but after we used the restroom and today was change in the middle of store day as some people decided to do just that.
By this time it is afternoon so we head back to WP where Chuck dropped me off and I go practice piano at Liu Shi piano studio. I spent an hour and yes, I did warm my hands up well with Hanon before I got started. I had fun playing and then came home on the B26 and then the 45 bus. As I walked into the gate of our complex I saw a student from the spring, Jackie. He lives in the same complex he also likes music so this should be lots of fun.
Better than average day today and it is because I did a little leg work yesterday; our friend Amos, another foreign teacher, is from Singapore and is fluent in Chinese and English. I went to him to get some assistance on how to get from here to Wanda Plaza. From our old apartment I had no problem and Chuck has figured out how to do that on scooter but I wanted to find a way on the bus because I’m certain that when it gets cold out I will not want to ride my scooter there. Anyway after his assistance I was able to make a decision on how to best get there. I completely changed my mind this morning and told Chuck who suggested we ride out to Wanda on his scooter check out bus routes and then after I finish playing piano I come home on the newly mapped out bus route.
We had breakfast together, I gave Nate lunch money and told him to do his school work for the day and we were off. Since we didn’t have a plan we took a leisurely ride into town and noticed people everywhere. We aren’t sure if today was some unspoken of holiday or if people are merely getting ready for National Day. We think something is up; as we were passing a statue of hands clasped we saw a gathering of people giving things away and a dance group. This dance group was wearing colorful costumes and they were dancing with fans. The first group danced with yellow fans and the second group danced with bright pink fans. I got some still shots (yea!!!) as well as some video and I will try to up load them and put the links here so people can see the dancing and the dragon dancing of a few days ago.
The neat thing about living where we do now is that foreigners aren’t something that people don’t see as our school Henan University of Technology and Zhengzhou University both have foreigner teachers and seeing us around is no big deal…USUALLY. Today we were able to stand and watch the dancing without attracting attention. People just looked like they were thinking “What are the foreigners looking at?” not “Did you see the foreigners?”
After the dancing we continued on our way to Wanda Plaza stopping at bus stops looking for what busses go from our area to WP. Our very loose plan was to eat at Dashang Market upstairs but when we got up there it was closed. So we then went to KFC for lunch. Nothing odd happened while we were eating but after we used the restroom and today was change in the middle of store day as some people decided to do just that.
By this time it is afternoon so we head back to WP where Chuck dropped me off and I go practice piano at Liu Shi piano studio. I spent an hour and yes, I did warm my hands up well with Hanon before I got started. I had fun playing and then came home on the B26 and then the 45 bus. As I walked into the gate of our complex I saw a student from the spring, Jackie. He lives in the same complex he also likes music so this should be lots of fun.