Breath, Buffalo, Dandelion, nice to meet you

I just finished my first day of morning and afternoon class, whew, four hours seems like a lot of class for one day. Especially in comparison to the past two weeks of lazing around Taigu. All of us five foreigners seem to agree, doing nothing sure takes up a hell of a lot of time. So much time that when you actually have things to do, there seems to never be enough time. It's definitely been a slow start on the teaching front, easing in first with one class last week then only 4 classes this week (instead of my full 7). I look forward to having the balance of a full class schedule and still having productive downtime.

This past weekend was when the grad students and majority of the students arrived, and for some reason, I suppose to herald the arrival of the students, Nongda blasted horrendous Kenny G covers of popular American and Chinese songs over a loud speaker through a fountain from 7:30am to about 5 or 6pm. Of all Taigu's many challenges, this was hands down the hardest thing for me to deal with so far. Not only did the music cause me to loose sleep, but my waking hours were filled with this insurmountable irritation that was surely due to the fact that the same 6 sappy songs played ALL day (amongst which were My Heart Will Go On, Moon River, and the worst of all... Pretty Woman). Lord knows I don't know anything about music but I'm pretty sure this version of Pretty Woman was as off tune as a trumpet can be.

My class this morning was a collection of wonderfully perky grad students, which made the two hour class period practically fly by. Unfortunately, my afternoon class of grad students was a perfect storm of post-lunch sleepiness and very very low English levels, so it barely crept by. However, on the bright side, I did have the distinct pleasure of meeting three students with some of the most amusing English names I've heard so far: first meet Breath, a tall gregarious student with surprisingly good English. His explanation of the name was actually incredibly poetic. He said that breathing was something easy and natural and he hoped one day that his life would be this easy. Then there is Buffalo, an older male student also with good English, who firmly refused my list of common English names, proclaiming that he already had one. When I saw what his name was, needless to say I was pleased. His English is fairly academic, somehow conflicting with his reckless cowboy name. Then, last but certainly not least, is a lovably perky pudgy male student named... Dandelion. Somehow the name fits, and I didn't at all feel the need to explain that in America Dandelion would not be considered a man's name.

Tonight apparently is "Chinese night," a name which should confuse all of you. You are probably thinking, you're in the middle of rural China, isn't every night Chinese night?! Well the answer is no. Thus explaining why my Chinese level has decreased so dramatically in the past two weeks. So tonight we will get together with the senior fellow's good Chinese friends and only speak Chinese. Again, I'll reiterate what I said in my last post, I'm excited to have my own Chinese friends and at least have the option to break free from the 老外 (foreigner) bubble, as lovely and comforting as it is.