I walked onto campus greeted by a thousand students in uniform doing tai chi.  Now that was overwhelming and very wonderful to watch.  A nice start to the day.  Had lunch in the canteen (school cafeteria) with my Chinese colleague lady teachers.  There is a meat and vegetarian option.  YEW HAW!  So this is what I had:  bamboos shoots steamed with chili peppers, sauteed julienne sliced celery, sauteed sliced potatoes, a Chinese steamed spinach, sauteed cucumber, rice and a bowl of water soup with a see through square vegetable-looked more like a Jello cube.  Each item was it’s own dish.  The soup was blah but everything else was pretty good.  I just didn’t recognize the taste of the potatoes as a potato!  I get free lunch with my school card.   What a deal.

Class consisted of three delightful DP HL students working on individual art projects.  Class was an hour and a half.  Off to the bank  to open a checking account.  There is a 45 minute wait, and then much stamping of documents with the ever familiar red chop to open my account! I get my debit card and some other card with scratch off numbers on the back.  Is it a lottery card?   No it’s extra pin numbers when you login to your internet account.  Ah ha, something we should do in the states — extra security.  Walk back to school and everyone is out playing badminton when I return.  I have to weave in and out of  hundred plus kids swatting their rackets at the little birdie.  What a sight.

I just make it in time to see the Military Training presentation put on by the Pre IB or foundation students.  During the summer these students are required to attend one week of military training about two hours away in the countryside.  They showed videos of their training, did skits, played music, sang and gave each other awards for a variety of good deeds.  The program was in Chinese but the skit was about how to be a good military student, respect your officer and be disciplined.  Maybe we should do this with American students!

I am told I can leave early, cause the program is in Chinese, so I head out for a taxi!  By now there are none to be had so I walk a ways, stop get a iced latte (maybe a long walk and need to stay awake).  Still can’t get a taxi, so one of the police men point down a smaller street, so I walk that way.   I check out a pastry vendor, shoe store and a cosmetic shop.  (found some fingernail polish  and the clerk gave me  free lotion!)  Walking to the corner see a McDonald’s, ah good spot to get a taxi, no way!  Now it is between 5 and 6 pm –shift change for taxi drivers, darn!  Then out of the blue this swarthy guy with an electric powered rikisha pops up and motions he can take me, so off I go on an open aired three wheel bike for the price of two fingers.  We make a couple of cut through turns and end up in a seedy area.  At this point I am thinking this guy in his “Bobby Gang” shirt and pink Crocs might just turn down a dark alley and take my 3oo yuan. ($45)  But we pop out onto a street I recognize.  Then he stops and picks up a metal pipe he sees in the road and stores it for later under my seat.  He lits up a cigarette and motions I should take a hit!  Think not.  Off we go again passing hundreds of people, bikes and cars.  I see the familar McDonalds on the corner by the University.  We made it.  I hand him two yuan and he gets madder than a hornet.  He pounds his fist and stubby fingers demanding more–so I think he says four, still not enough. I motion for the University guard to come over and so does a college student, now this is getting loud and lots of Chinese verbiage is flying.  The college girls asks me what he said he charged?  I remember the two fingers, well I guess I didn’t get the figure or fingers right.  He wanted 40 yuan (almost three times a taxi ride!)  I looked at her and said I had gotten taken, she agreed, and I gave him 37 and just walked off.  Geez what a night.  I need to learn more Chinese and how the bus system works!