After the disturbing robbery of last weekend, this week and weekend have been much better. I got two surprise packages in mail: one from a friend from high school that contained candy, magazines and fruit rollups and another from my parents that was an Easter Basket. It's amazing how much English reading material and candy does to lift spirits. Thanks for thinking of me! Zhen Zhen, Ken's girlfriend, is also letting me borrow an ipod for awhile which has been really nice for working out and cruising around town on a bike or in a bus.
I started working at Web which has been easy and fun. I like it because you don't have to prepare any lesson plans or activities. You just show up and follow they plan they have for the student. It is also nice to have really small classes (so far for me just one or two students) instead of an inconsistent group of 10 or so adults. I also worked a private tutoring job this week along with a Chinese English teacher at our school. We went together to meet with a wealthy executive in fashion design who owns a few department stores in the area. Since he travels to and from Europe a lot for business he wants to improve his English and is willing to pay for both a native speaker and a helper/translator. Our first meeting was pretty interesting but since his English level is fairly low, I don't know that much about him yet. We'll see how it goes and how long his motivation lasts.
Today is Easter and I have been steadily devouring my dish of peeps, chocolate eggs and jelly beans on my coffee table. Tonight most of the teachers, Peter's girlfriend, Ken's friend John and I went over to Steve's house for a homemade meal and an animated Monopoly game. It was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone and eat delicious food cooked by Steve's wife, Spring.
Tomorrow all of us are planning on going to the zoo which is supposedly in a beautiful park with lots of canals. Rumor has it that you can buy live food to feed some of the bigger animals which has most of us intrigued if not excited. We have the day off because of the Chinese holiday of Tomb Sweeping Day. During this festival the Chinese honor the deceased. Many of the students that I have talked to are going home and planning to visit the grave sites and cemeteries of their relatives. Once at the tomb I was told that many people clean the area, plant or bring new flowers and burn fake money to bring their ancestors wealth and fortune in the afterlife. Some of the people I have talked to told me they are not going home to the grave sites because they are busy or it is too far away, but everyone is happy to have the additional time off. I know I appreciate only having to work 6 hours this week instead of the usual 8. Bring on the zoo!
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