Life in Nanjing

Flora, and her new friend, Tracy. Tracy teaches Enlish at the Nanjin Foreign Language School.

Today was a somewhat peaceful day compared to yesterday. We spent the day at the Nanjing Foreign Language School. It was really nice to let my feet and knees rest. At the school I spent the morning sharing information with an English teacher there named Hun Jiali (Nancy). We had a great conversation comparing Chinese and American education. We are going to stay in touch via e-mail and do some lesson plan sharing. I am hoping she will help me with our Chinese curricululm and I will help her find resources to supplement her English curriculum. They are required to teach from Chinese textbooks, but she is always looking for additional things to keep the kids motivated. We hope to have email penpals as well. That should be fun.

During our lunch break I had my Chinese first: Using a squat toilet. I was trying to see how long it would take before I would have to participate in that adventure. Not because I was afraid of squatting. For heavens sake, my thigh muscles are pretty strong from all the stairs. Rather, I didn't want my pants to get wet. Thanks to my friend Kara, I successfully transitioned today to Chinese squatting. She gave me wonderful advice and it worked well. No more

Okay, so it looks like an improperly installed urinal. But if public bathrooms stateside were this clean, squatting would be worth the extra effort.

western toilets for me!

The Chinese love stairs. Up and down and up and down all day long. We had meetings on the 4th floor and then lunch on the 2nd floor in a different building. The toilet on the 3rd floor. Jeeze...enough steps already. It was a bit nicer weather wise; the sun hid behind the clouds and there was a slight breeze. My Chinese second act today was crossing the street. OH MY GOODNESS! I'm lucky I don't have a broken leg. The Chinese do not have the same sense of space as me and I don't believe they have traffic laws, or at least that's the way it appears to these Western eyes. Cars even drive on sidewalks! I wanted to cross the street to go to the grocery store during a break. I found the trick: Get in the middle of a bunch of Chinese teens and follow the pack. Tomorrow we have another cultural visit day. Sundays are the only day off for teachers and students in China. Hurrah for Sundays!