Discovering Kunming

Sunday, May 30, 2010

I woke up at 5:50, but ended up getting to chat with Marc, which was very nice. We still have no word on when we will leave this room, yet more people keep arriving. So it is looking doubtful that we will leave anytime soon. The students met early (9) to go grab some food at a bakery down the street. I had a blueberry filling with bread thing that was wonderful. I didn’t have enough though, and got hungry very quickly.

We met at 9:30 and took the bus to the city center. Zach took us around to some markets in some older, authentic Chinese looking buildings. The girls all ended up getting some jewelry, but we were all not really in to buying things just yet. I ended up talking in Chinese to the storekeeper of a teapot shop, which was fun. We went to lunch with another teacher, Xie Laoshi, who is 24. He is my favorite so far. He wants to teach us everything, and is good at it. I think the teachers don’t think that we know much Chinese, because Yang Laoshi (head of our program) told them we couldn’t because we didn’t speak much Chinese on the first day. We were all tired though, and needed some warm up time. We had some free time in which Jeremy, Rachel, Kayla and I all play some intense Uno. Then we had a welcome banquet where we met the Dean of the International Student College and our teachers. They told us we would be tested on our Chinese knowledge on Monday morning, but then surprised us with a test right after dinner when we were all super tired/exhausted, and caught off guard and were unprepared. And yes, I know that was a run-on sentence.

Afterward I ended up being the one to fall asleep at 9 on the couch. The couch is much more comfortable than our beds, and I really needed sleep. Many people were in our room, and Rachel was using my computer. When I woke up, Rachel was laying on the floor reading, and everyone else was gone.

I had pictures to put here, but it won't let me add them. :(