got up at 7, woke up quietly without getting matt up. got to the main room, and waited for breakfast. Yu jia (the son), and matt got up when breakfast was ready. Breakfast was really good. There were bread with egg on, porridge, pickled veggies.
After breakfast We went over for class at 8. We had class in the secretaries office. It was a second week of colloquial phrases, like making suggestions or plans. Lasted a couple hours. Our homework for next week is to read and make a presentation on a newspaper article.
Next, we did research for a while. The other two (first year students) in my group had been studying in the same building for their test on Monday, and our research person for this was mdy teacher today (zhang laoshi). We interviewed the boyfriend of one of the high school girls that was from our host family. He wasn’t that interested in international affairs, for some reason. then an old guy passed us on the road and we started talking to him. The guy was 75, had been a farmer all his life. The high school couple followed us up the road. We walked with the man up to his plot of land, a little ways away. He was picking up firewood for the day, and we helped him gather it. It looked like it had already been cut, we were just picking it up and bringing it back to the village. We got a days worth, and then helped him tare down a drying shed since he had extra labor.
He was really a cool guy. didn’t know American president name, didn’t even know the mayor of beijing. Very concerned about food, he’d pick up extra chestnuts of the ground. An interesting guy, and quite nice.
We went back to lunch a bit late, our family had been looking for us. I waited with yu jia at the basketball court while matt looked around the old guys house. There was a Canadian guy there. He was from Saskatchewan originally but lived in beijing. He did English translations for chinese websites, but was looking to rent a house here for a more quiet atmosphere (on weekends). I later learned rent here is like 1-200 kuai a month, really low.
Lunch was great, as always. Added to the other dishes there was a different tofu dish, and a noodle dish that was really good.
Next up we met at about 2:30 for research. Actually we got there early and had trouble communicating with some 8 year olds first. The women affairs chair (lady’s) son was a college student and we met with him for a few hours. He was really interested in western culture, and quite different from the previous people we’d talked to in the village. We chatted for a good couple hours. He played guitar for us for a while as well.
After that was done we went back to my and matt’s house and talked with rebecca for a bit about our thesis for having to write up a paper about this research.
Dinner was great. a porrige, baozi (huge), potato dish, tofu dish, chicken with bones. cauliflour + tomatos + eggs.
Afterward there was debriefing. We talked about our experiences for a while. Not that exciting.
Oh, there’s a wedding tomorrow, and I’m expected to represent our group and make a short speech congratulating the bride and groom. That should be exciting :)
Ed. This is where my battery died that night. The last part is somewhat rushed as I realized the impending shutdown of my laptop, but a quick read suggests most things are there.