We only taught in the morning...

We only taught in the morning on Saturday so we had some time to tour China. Two of our college interpreters offered to show us Linfen so we took off about 2:00 for China Gate and a shrine. It was a wonderful afternoon of history, beautiful sights and plenty of laughs. We enjoy Caroline and Yanji. Most of the students here choose an English name along with their Chinese name. It makes it so much easier for us but I also feel a bit torn about the need for them to do that because we have such a hard time with names. Some students didn't have English names so we gave them options to choose from if they wanted.

We ended the day at a restaurant that specializes in hot pot. It's very much like a Chinese broth fondue and was delicious. I'm still trying to figure out how they put a pan of broth by each spot on the table and kept it at a rolling boil with a tablecloth over the heating element but it worked.

Sunday was a school field trip. We left at 6 am. for a regional park about 5 hours from Linfen. We drove along ways back into the mountains and when we got closer to the park and were driving the switchback roads, our bus couldn't make the turns. Someone would hop out of the car behind, find some large rocks and prop the wheels while the driver ground the gears to get the bus turned properly. After about three rounds of this, we got out and walked the rest of the switchbacks. The park was beautiful but quite cloudy. It was at a high elevation and the air was clean. I posted some photos on the Shutterfly site. http://joaninchina2011.shutterfly.com It felt great to be out of the city for a while and to see the beautiful mountains.

I hesitated getting on the bus after the trip up the mountain but went ahead and sat down. We started down the mountain and at the first curve they wanted some of us to get out. That was my cue. I walked the rest of the switch backs. It was a long afternoon getting everyone back down the mountain. We returned to Linfen at about 9:30 and the bus transmission died about two blocks from the school, refusing to shift higher than first gear. Yikes.

We made a quick trip to KFC and headed back to the hotel for some sleep. Today is our last week of teaching.