The (Second-to) Last Post

This is most likely my second to last post on this blog. I'm just letting you know so that you're not too disappointed when it all comes to an end. We're at the end of our last week teaching, with only Friday left, and it has gone all right. I've shown movies in most of my classes, all themed around what we have talked about in class, and the kids seem grateful for a break. I know that I am! In a couple classes we weren't able to get the tvs to work, so instead we played an improvised version of Jeopardy! The improvised part was difficult, but it was also a little fun, so it worked out in the end.

The weather turned miserably hot again on Sunday, and I can't wait to be back in America where I only have to brave the heat long enough to get the A/C in the car working. The air conditioner in my bedroom has done a good job to keep me cool, though, so I can't complain too much. I've been running it pretty steadily since Monday, so I just hope it doesn't give out before Saturday morning.

We invited some friends out to dinner last night, as a thank-you, and that was enjoyable. We had some people there that aren't really our friends, but who have helped us enough that we felt obligated to invite them, but the dinner was still fun. We're supposed to have another farewell dinner tomorrow, which is a bummer because we thought we were all finished with Chinese dinners, but one more won't kill us.

As of now, our plans are up in the air. We may go to Xi'an, but there could be problems with that. First of all, David can't leave to take us to Yangshuo until Saturday afternoon, which means we won't be able to catch a flight to Xi'an until Sunday (the earliest flight on Sunday is at 4:00 PM, which is also frustrating.) That means we'll really only be able to spend one day in Xi'an if we go, which would be enough to see the terracotta warriors, but not much else. I don't really know if I'm up to all that traveling for just one day. The other option is do a little more touring in Guilin and Yangshuo, but I'm not crazy about that idea either. The Xi'an trip would have been perfect if we could have left Saturday night, it would have given us an extra day to see some stuff and to spread our traveling out over more time, but David threw a wrench into that, so I guess it's not an option.

Other than these little notices, there's not much to tell. Oh, I do have one story. Last week at English Corner I was talking to the students about mice, and one girl casually mentioned that her brother always gives her the mouse's leg to eat. I was so surprised to hear that she had eaten mouse (which I'm pretty sure is actually rat.) All the other students were surprised that I was surprised. Only two of them had never tried rat. In fact, another girl helpfully told me that "field mouse is more delicious than house mouse," so apparently there's a range of taste among different mouse breeds. I did another survey with a different group of students later and found that all but one had eaten rat at some point. So, I'm pretty amazed. Still.

Anyway, that's all for now, I'm afraid I don't have much more. I'll write a concluding post after we get home, letting you know whether we went to Xi'an or what. Hope to talk to you all soon!