Wednesday

Trip Start Dec 13, 2009

Trip End Jan 22, 2010

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Flag of China Beijing, Beijing, China
Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The sun was shining deceptively today- giving the illusion that it was warm outside- and by warm I mean 1-2 degrees- but the temperature was still well below 0.
I was at class at 7:30 again, a classmate who came later could not believe that I get here so early every day. He lives on campus and is late every day, which was why he had arrived early. I took some of my calligraphy to show the teacher today, she had been asking about it, so I wanted to show her my latest work. She said that I did a great job and she showed the class. It was like a flashback to my prep class when the teacher showed off my drawings of shapes. The feeling was still the same now as it was then- pride.
After class, Rebecca's mum and I went to have lunch in the school cafeteria. The food was good, though some of the parts in it were cold- but it is cafeteria food after all- it does have a reputation to serve gross food that rivals airplane food

Pretty lights in the courtyard

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I only had an hour for lunch, because the calligraphy teacher asked me to come in earlier. We moved tomorrow's session to today because the teacher has commitments tomorrow, and we moved it another hour ahead so that I could help his grandson with English. His grandson lives with them, which is a common arrangement in China. The kids live with their grandparents for a substantial amount of time while the parents work, and so the grandparents can bring up the kid. For reasons that I am still unsure of, he did not go to school today, so he was already at home. I did an hour of calligraphy first, then helped him with his English. I read things out loud to him, and corrected his pronunciation when he read out loud to me. I clarified the words he was unsure about, which required some lively gestures when I wasn't sure of the word in Chinese. We eventually worked things out, an hopefully he understood everything.
The calligraphy teacher gave me a beautifully carved ink well and some new brushes. he had also painted some Chinese sayings with my name to hang on my wall at home. On top of that generosity, he didn't let me pay because I helped his grandson out for an hour. I was very grateful, and it is often hard to convey that in words.

When Rebecca got home, she gave me more brushes, ink and pads for me to practise on. She always surprises me, and she has a truly generous heart. I am lucky to have her as a close friend.

Beining hotels Slideshow