We are now in our 8th straight day of rain. But no worries, it isn't a downpour or 24 hours a day. But it is getting rather tiring and dodging all the rain puddles on the sidewalks can get challenging (doesn't seem to be very good drainage built in...). The weather report says we will see the sun on Friday. People around here say all this rain is unusual, but I've decided that the weather is always unusual...
Not venturing out much this weekend compared to last. Headed over to Sky's again last night for dinner and his dad prepared the meal. Sky says his dad is a better cook than his mom. He cooked up 3 dishes (they never have just a single dish) - some kind of mutton soup, eggs with sauteed onions, and something else that I have no idea what it was (very common for me!). It was all delicious. Jake and I rode one of those electric 3-wheeled taxis over there. First time I'd been in one, They are a bit cozy and slow but about a third the cost of a regular taxi. How do we tell the driver where we want to go, you ask? You have a business card of the person or place with the Chinese address written on it and just hand it to him. And no tipping!
Sky's dad is the same age as me - speaks no English but enjoys having people over. He is retired - a government worker I think. He had cancer a couple years back and Sky said he underwent chemo and lost all his hair. It looks like he has fully recovered. Both his mom and dad are members of the communist party (Sky is not and has no desire to join it). It sounds like it is a pain in the ass but has many perks. I can tell you that their apartment is certainly extremely nice!
Many of the students are studying for their upcoming SAT exams. I don't know the exact date, but the SATs are not given in China - the students have to fly to Hong Kong to take it. It ends up costing them about $1000 to take the test after figuring in plane, hotel and meals. Quite an investment! I asked Sky why don't they give it in China and he thinks that SAT doesn't want to because the Chinese students would score too well - they would take it at every opportunity. I don't know if I believe that, but I do agree they would probably take it every time it was offered!
Friday night after school a bunch of us teachers went to a new pool hall here. They have 5 beautiful tables and absolutely no one was playing and the place was deserted. I guess pool hasn't caught on here yet. So what we found out was that everyone single one of us is a terrible pool player. But it was fun. We left from there to go back to Barbecue Street for late night snacks and play some more liars dice.
They finally told us that we would have Oct.1 - 7 off for a national holiday (I can't remember what it's for right now). But in order to get a full week off we have to make up for a couple days by working 2 Sundays! And I was going to go to church...
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