Friday was Chinese Teacher Day, it is a  special day for teachers, when students call them, give them gifts, cards and flowers to express their appreciation.   I arrived and found a large bouquet of violet tulip like flowers, cards and gifts on my desk from various art students!  What a thrill.  I have a new coffee cup and snow globe now.   Students love telling you to have a nice teacher day, it is on TV and I think it is like a National Holiday.  I like this day.

Alice showed me how to catch a bus, ok not so hard, just lots of people, will have to keep my purse and possessions very close to me.  We took two buses to the University and it dropped us off in a nice shopping district I want to check out later today.   Time for clothes and shoes.  I like shoes, thanks to my mom!   I brought ten pair from my collection of sixty and I am missing some favorites!  Need red ones now!

I gave a call to Sarah, the mom of Filo, one of my art students.  Sarah is the lovely lady that  hooked me up with my apartment.  She was cooking dinner and wanted my company.  Yes, I will be right there.  Hopped on a Taxi and off I went back to the other side of town.  It’s dark now and the town comes alive with lights and it’s misty creating a surreal look about.  Sarah is so excited to see me, off with my shoes and on with house slippers.  I want to see what she is cooking, this is so much fun.  She has a pot of Balsamic rice in the rice cooker, sautéd tomato and fried egg dish and pork meat ball soup with mushrooms,  green chowder peas, and onions (oops forgot to tell her I was vegetarian!)  I watched her cut up some skinny green peppers and sauté them with sugar, salt, soy and some other ingredients-this was a spicy dish and very delicious.  She had fresh greens in a colander — they had red centers, never saw this plant before.  She poured a wee bit of oil in the pan and tossed these in, adding some spices and then water.  The water turned red from the plant and the plant turned dark green as it wilted.

Filo did not want to eat dinner with us, so she played on the computer in her locked room!  Sarah and I feasted with our chopsticks and small rice bowl.  Here you just pick a bit from any bowl you want and eat it.  You don’t make a plate of food.  I am getting quite good with the chopsticks and can pick up peas individually.  The rice turned pink from my greens I put on top…. and that was glorious to see.  Dinner was very good and it felt so comfortable to chat with another mom about husbands, children, our homes, our family, our life.  She had TV that was connected to a Chinese station that was in English.  ( I do not have this station at the motel, darn!)  The main news was of Teachers Day and how exciting it is for the students to make things for their teachers.  We had instant nescafe coffee and Swedish chocolates for dessert.

We admired her apartment, she has been here for over three weeks.  She and her husband live out but the drive is con-jested even though it is not far.  This is her place to stay for the week and then they travel back home during the weekends.  Many parents do this, as the high school I work for is a desired place for their children.  As we look out of her balcony the spectacular view makes me anxious to move.  I get a lesson on how to wash clothes and hang them to dry on the balcony.  Looks like I need to buy a clothes drying rack at Carrefour.

I get back to the motel, walk in and three young men students  from Nigeria, France and Morocco ask me to sit and chat.  Wow what a world talk we have about our Chinese speaking, our experiences and how long we have been here.  The cute Moroccan is working on his PhD and has been in China six years.  The other two just arrived this week and are in some culture shock but loving it.  I enjoy meeting new faces.