Monday 21 November 2011

7:00 AM – I have breakfast in the dining hall with Kenichi and Suishin again, as on most mornings. My card is out of money so I pay [3 RMB] in cash for breakfast:

• congee with “pumpkin”
• mystery pickles
• long sesame-seed coated sticky rice (orange colored)

8:30 AM – In class I practice carving seals. There is a new woman from England in class today.

12:30 PM – I have lunch in the dining hall:

• same damn mystery meat with bones
• some kind of green stalk with carrots and chicken? or tofu strips
• chopped tomatoes with scrambled eggs
• red round candy? on a skewer

1:00 PM – Right after class I go to the window and put another $15.85 on the meal card then go to the bank to withdraw more cash. Next door at the art store I buy rice paste (jianghu) for 55 cents and then spend the afternoon in class practicing.

I have dinner in the other dining hall with two Japanese students:

• Tofu dish with mushrooms and green peppers – oily but good (see separate list of foods from menu)

In the late afternoon I call Eva to see if Wang Gongyi has arrived yet in Hangzhou.

I’m told that the colored lights high in the sky are kites.

I go in the evening to the classroom for practice.

I eat the “candy” in my room later. It turns out to be whole candy-coated crab apples.

It was a hazy morning with a sunny afternoon, chilly with smog. The temperature is 59 degrees F.