Look who came to Guangzhou

So for the last three Thursdays I’ve had my graduate students over for dinner (it’s part of my job description that I love). I order delivery pizza and make some side dishes which serve as curiosities. The deviled eggs seems to have been enjoyed. The salads a little less;raw vegetables are just not done here. Brownies were too sweet (I know). For my part, I’ve learned to eat pizza with chopsticks.

Last week was Kate’s birthday celebration, her last before she becomes a mommy. Josh organized a surprise bowling expedition with pizza and cake and lots of nice folks.

China celebrates May Day in honor of the workers.  We spent it by visiting the Chen Clan Academy with Grace and Henry.  It’s a kind of old-fashioned city center to a village that has long been absorbed into the city.  I got to see more roof statues which I love, and Leah bought a gourd flute at the gift store.

Leah’s school held their first annual climbing competition to which parents were invited. I got to see Leah climb. She seems to have set the class record. While I waited for her to be done with the school day I got myself an iced milk tea in the school café (nice, right?) and graded film quizzes.

Last weekend Josh invited us to participate in the Living Library event at Guangya High School where he teaches. All of the international faculty, it seems, have multiple jobs, and one of his is teaching English at this high school which costs $15,000 for students who aren’t locally registered (maybe $5,000 for families with papers). The high school is focused on sending students abroad to university. The average student at Guangya scores 1900 on SAT’s (compared to the California average of 1500). We were asked to come speak to them about movies that inspire so they could practice their English. It was so fun. Even Henry got in on the action; though his parents are Chinese, they raised him in English which they consider to be his native language. Thanks to Josh who with his wife Kate and our other neighbors, Aurelio and Xinyu, have treated us like family (see photo of Josh and Aurelio below).

We went up our Baiyun Mountain again, this time with Grace and Henry. On the way up we saw the retired people collecting spring water. Leah and Henry took us on a paddle boat tour of the fish pond, we ate lunch in our own private room (that’s a thing here), and on the way down they played in the mud.

First we went to pick up Henry to go to the Canton Tower. We took the subway, and it was twelve stops I think. It was very crowded; only on one of the stops we got a seat. Lucky us. Finally when we got to the Canton Tower, Henry and I ran ahead up the escalator. When we got out, we looked left and right and then we looked behind us and saw the Canton Tower which looked like it was leaning. Henry and I thought we were eating at the top of the tower, but we didn’t. We ate underneath it, and then we went up in it. It’s one of the only places in the world to stand outside 111 stories off the ground.

I’m told we’ve had an unusually small amount of rain for the season. Even so we’ve had a few amazing storms. Now the mosquitoes are getting serious. We have a whole anti-mosquito arsenal of products (there’s a photo of the mosquito repellent shelf at the grocery store). Leah and Henry spend most weekend days together; they have a good influence on each other. With Leah, Henry tromps in the mud. With Henry, Leah is interested in books in a way she wasn’t before. She misses her animals but has found a few substitutes.

I love life here (Leah less). We live very near the school for faculty members’ kids, a seven-story building teaching four to nineteen year olds. The older kids practice their military-style exercises on the track that becomes Leah’s playground in the evening and the square dancers’ stage at night (see photo). The map at the entrance of the school has China at its center. In the photo of the map below, you can see that a neighbor chose a public spot to dry her chili peppers. I see all kinds of things drying in unexpected public places – clothes, bedsheets, shoes, orange peels, flowers etc. In addition to having housing and schooling for faculty members and their families, Chinese universities have canteens where students and some faculty eat (see group photo in front of our local canteen).

Foshan is a center of Chinese martial arts. A famous pop culture martial artist, Wong Fei Hung, practiced and taught others here. We took the subway to the temple where Foshan people go to honor the dead and tourists go to see the lion dance and martial arts demonstrations. Michela and Florence made friends with a British guy who had given up his bank job to study Wushu in Foshan (big red beard guy). They also prevailed on a young master to give them a demonstration while the Chinese tourists snapped pictures.

Near Shamian Island, we caught a Pearl River cruise that took us up and down the river on this full-moon night. I finally have an overall feel for the lay of the land.