The days are going past so quickly. I can't believe it's been over a week since I last wrote here. I guess in some way I have gotten into a routine now, only I wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day, so many things to do and so many people to see. My little world here -my flat, our street, the teaching building, the cantine, the international department- is really beginning to feel like *my* world.

Lots of interesting topics have come up in class this week. On days when we have four lessons I have started having the afternoon classes just for conversation. Just now I got back from a class where we were talking about work, and I asked the students about the jobs their parents have or had. And turned out that just about everyone's parents are farmers, and usually not by choice. The only exceptions were three of their fathers who are teachers. One of them had actually managed to become a teacher after having forced to leave his university during the cultural revolution and become a farmer (surprise...), but when times got better he got back into teaching, which was not easy I'm sure. Another father had been working at a train station but was practically forced into teaching Chinese at the railways' middle school, being threatened with a reputation of a bad party member if he refused. So even today this man is teaching and not enjoying it one bit.

Another interesting discussion this week was about the ways Chinese wives punish their husbands (for various reasons...). I can't remember how we ended up talking about this topic (i think we begun by talking about health and exercise), but in a few minutes, the whole class had the hysterics, especially a couple of the women were about to fall off their chairs laughing. The favourite old Chinese punishement for misbehaving husbands seems to be making them kneel down on a wooden washboard, while balancing something on their head, so they have to stay upright. Most agreed that this something would be a pillow, but someone said that it'd be a burning candle. Apparently, some Chinese wives go through quite a few washboards during their marriages... I'm really learning something here!

There are loudspeakers all over the campus, broadcasting all sorts of (educational) pieces, the only ones I can (vaguely) understand are the English lessons. Today, the students told me that the campus radio broadcasted a programme on Finland last night. They of course though that I had written the piece or that someone had interviewed me or something, but I said I could not take the credit. Anyway, they came up with all this information on the finnish forestry and paper making industries, education system, libraries, economy and so on. Way to go AUH :)

Last weekend was good. On friday night we had the excuse of it being Halloween to organise a little 'party', if you can call it that. Just had a few people round to Griselle's, some food and drinks, music & chat. Bishi, the third foreign teacher at AUH, came as well, which was nice as I don't see him much, he's the quiet, a really nice bloke. However, the star of that night was unquestionably this 60-yr-old Australian woman, Pam, who is teaching at a middle school here in Baoding. She is one fiery little woman, and kept us cracking up the whole night. Escpecially after she had a couple of shots of whiskey (which she said she needed to cure her cold, a good enough reason for us to let her have most of it) she really got going. We decided to go check out the Halloween night at Rolling Stones (as we'd seen the posters advertising it the week before) and after a long taxi drive (with the driver being lost, and Pam shouting "Oye, George [her name for all taxi drivers] this is the last lap! Guitarra, discotheque, George!") we made it there, only to find out that this special night meant endless games, 'funny' sketches and cheesy Chinese pop, with one of the waitresses hitting on Pam. Oh well...

On saturday I met with a couple of my students from the evening class, Jane & Sonya (still having trouble with those Chinese names, though I feel really silly calling people by these made-up English names), who wanted to take me roller skating. And so we went, after a lunch in the AUH cantine, and I put on these worn-out skates and then it was around-round-round the rink, with some LOUD chinese techno music on the backgroud. But hey, there would have been worse ways to spend an early saturday afternoon :)

On sunday morning, I went out with another two students from the same class, Vivian and Loulou [Lulu?] (which is her actual Chinese nickname, for a change). They had booked a table at a good restaurant for an early lunch, but when we got there, it turned out that the whole place was booked for a wedding party. So we headed across the city to another place and had a huge lunch, these girls can sure eat! I felt right at home with them :)
And then it was a tour of the centre of Baoding for me. The first stop was a complex of buildings, where the governer of the province used to live and work. Baoding used to be the capital of Hebei province, and was an important centre during the Qing dynasty (which is the last of the dynasties), being so close to Beijing. Hebei province has many sites that still remind of the old days, including tombs of emperors. The governor's house is right in the centre of Baoding, on the main street, beautiful traditional Chinese buildings. It was a sunny day, and what a change it was, just stepping away from the busy, noisy and dusty street, into the courtyard, where you could hear the leaves rustling and the birds singing, with only a couple of other people around. I felt great being there, but Loulou said that the silence actually made her scared, as silence for her is something very rare and strange.

We also went to see a catholic church along the same street. It was closed (though it claimed it'd be open on sundays) but i got a peep through the window, it looked like a bright, colourful combination of European churches and Chinese colour schemes and decoration style.

The last stop was this little brick tower with a huge bell, which is almost 1000 years old. Most of the people living here who I've asked say that they've never bothered to walk up the stairs to see it, in a country like this, full of historical sights and buildings, what's another bell with some writing on it. So this little tower stands there, in the middle of all the shops and the traffic, guarding the bell. I wonder if it will see another thousand years go by.

On sunday evening I went to a big square/park with Juan. We just sat there, watching the old men flying their kites or writing Chinese characters on the pavement with water, only to see then fade away seconds later, or the little children running around with their parents and grandparents. I have to say that the Chinese children are just the cutest, especially the little girls with their pigtails and their wide smiles. I wish I could borrow one for a day...

On sunday I bought a DVD player and a bunch of films, so entertainment is guaranteed for quite a while now. The films cost less than a euro apiece. Juan & me spent a couple of hours on sunday evening trying to figure out how to connect the cables to actually get a picture, and even tried to go back to the shop to ask them how to do it, only to find they had closed already. On monday, I had two of my students come take a look, but even they could not figure out what the instruction manual (in Chinese) was trying to say. So we went to the shop, had them show us how to do it, and now I'm a happy owner of my own little home cinema.

The weather has suddenly turned *really* cold, it must be near zero (centigrade) outside, plus it's raining so it feels like the cold gets right to your bones. Tomorrow morning I'll have to go shopping for a winter coat and some warm gloves etc. I hope the heating will be turned on soon, too, although so far I'm doing fine having my air conditioning system on 30C and blasting out hot air. God knows how much electricity it must be taking up though... From what I hear, the forecast for tonight is snow & hail. Brrrrrr.

But I have to sign off now, though there would be many things to tell, it's thursday night and my PhD students have started having a dinner and a party every thursday. I have my evening class at 7 so I can't go for long, and to be honest, I wouldn't mind just staying at home and taking a nap instead, but they insisted that I come for an hour and eat quickly, so that's what i'll do. Oh, I almost forgot the best piece of news: I managed to cut down my evening classes by half, starting next week!! I just told the teacher in charge that I feel that the hours are too much for me, and to my surprise she agreed to it there and then and I announced to the class that from next week the class will only be on monday and wednesday. Which means that I'll also be able to attend the thursday night parties from now on :)