Another Chinese holiday is upon us. This one, though, seems to apply only to universities. It's some kind of sports week here at CCNU, so, later in the week, while the students are off competing in the name of school pride, I'll be taking a couple of days to soak up Wuhan with the other teachers. Cori's birthday is on Thursday, so we'll be getting together with her to celebrate. As you know, Halloween is also coming up. I don't think people are aware of the holiday, unless they've learned about it from a foreign teacher. Needless to say, I will be among a select few in costume this Friday. I'm sure I'll draw a lot of looks from the locals, but that's no different from any other day.
As I said, I didn't take any major trips lately, but there are ways to stay busy. I've started teaching freshmen in addition to sophomores, plus the office hours, learning a little Chinese, and helping out with the Shakespeare Association at Cori's school when I can. They're doing an abridged version of Twelfth Night. More to come on that. Recently, I made it over to a Taoist place of worship not too far from campus. Taoism, as I learned, advocates a kind of "going with the flow," a way of letting events unfold naturally. It was a pretty enlightening experience, and we had Maggie and Jo, our Chinese friends, graciously acting as tour guides. Maggie was also nice enough to act as negotiator/translator on a trip to a fabric shop, since some of us were interested in having garments made. It's always helpful to have friends who are native speakers, and they're both fun people.
I'll leave you with a few pictures, compliments of Lao-tzu.
The Entrance.
Steven walking into one of the many buildings on the grounds.
The familiar ying-yang symbol, important to Taoist philosophy.
A "W," for some reason.
Looking down from some old stone steps.
Looking down from some old stone steps.Maggie and Bob across. They're going up as I'm going down.
This one might be a library. I don't know, we didn't go inside.
No comments:
Post a Comment