Thursday 24 November 2011

7:00 AM – I have breakfast in the dining hall with Kenichi and Suishin:

• congee with chopped greens
• two deep-fried sesame round donuts

8:30 AM – In class I practice carving seals.

12:30 PM – I have lunch in the dining hall with Katya, Miki, and Tomomi:

• garlic stems with dofugan
• stir-fried white onions with green peppers
• rice

1:30 PM – After lunch Miki and I walk to the Ticket Center to buy a train ticket from Hangzhou to Shanghai for my return trip home ($12.36).

2:30 PM – On the way back from the Ticket Center Miki and I go into Carrefour so I can buy a suitcase ($68.35 for American Tourister) to put things in for my return home. I’m looking for a large, sturdy piece of luggage. Everyone else at Carrefour seems to be filing in for long underwear. A woman beggar pesters us on the way to the ticket center and then finds us again on our way back to campus.

I spend the late afternoon in the college library.

I have dinner in the other dining hall with Miki and Tiger:

• order eggplant with pepper flakes, mushrooms and sliced something, called “Fish Flavored Eggplant”
• bowl of rice

Happy Thanksgiving! I forgot until a Japanese student reminds me.

In the evening when I go to the classroom there’s an older woman already there. I’ve seen her in class but tonight speak with her for the first time. She is Chinese, originally from Taiwan, but has a house in New Jersey, with a US passport. She has a Masters degree in linguistics from the University of Oregon and speaks English like a native. Her husband currently has a job in China so, although she is Chinese and fluent in mandarin, she is in the Masters calligraphy program as a foreigner in the international division. Unfortunately I don’t get her name.

It’s a clear day with a chilly breeze. The temperature is 61 degrees F.