Another weekend at Hangzhou

Well, this week we have final exams at school.
I spent about 1 minute with each student asking them questions from the last 5 units.
I then gave them grades based on their pronunciation and speaking ability in general.
Most of the students did very well.
I am quite impressed with the grammar and spelling abilities of these kids.
The only thing they lack is the knowledge of how to pronounce some of the words.
Even the teachers have trouble with pronunciation sometimes.
Some of the teachers will come up to me between classes and ask me"How do you pronounce this word?"
Or "What does this mean?"
I am more than happy to help the teachers. In return they help me with my Chinese.

The students also put on a performance last week.
Some sang, some danced and some played various musical instruments.


My girls doing "TheVogue".


It seems that the Chinese have a national holiday during the month of February.
They call it Spring Festival.
As a matter of fact it is pretty much the whole month of February.
So I have 4 weeks with no teaching...Time for another trip!
My shoulder has still been bothering me a bit so I think I will go back to Yang Shuo and get some more acupuncture done to it.
As much as it hurts having needles jammed into my shoulder...it seems to help.
Anyway, I love that place and I thought I would spend some time mountain biking around the little villages in that part of China.


Last weekend I went to visit my friend Jaer in Hangzhou.
We visited the Lingying Temple Saturday.
They had a whole mountainside that had Buddhist statues carved right into the side of the mountain.






This at the top of the mountain.
A good place for a Kodak moment.


We also spent some time walking around West Lake.
Here are some statues we found on the West side.





Sunday morning we went to what is called "English Corner" at West Lake.
It was crazy!!
Chinese people meet at a place beside the lake and talk with English speaking foreigners.
Some were from the UK and some from America....even a French guy.
I was surrounded by Chinese people asking questions about life in America and my experiences in China...It was a lot of fun!!
I met a Chinese guy named Kobe and he said he was going to Guilin for Spring Festival.
I mentioned that I was going also, so are going to travel together.
It will give me a chance to work on my Chinese and him his English.
Plus, traveling with someone who speaks the language always makes things a little easier.

We also met a fellow by the name of Hanson.
He invited Jaer and myself to lunch at a wonderful restaurant in a park by the lake.


They had a pond with some fish that were bigger than the kids feeding them.




Here is a photo of the Pearl Tower at night.
I took this last time I was in Shanghai.
I just found it in my camera and thought it was blog-worthy.


So, by Friday or so I will be taking a train South to Guilin and then a boat down to yang Shuo.
I think I might even try to go down to the southern coast of China to Macau and check out the South China Sea.
Maybe I'll get a chance to do a little SCUBA diving?

Jim