After virtually flying along the highway from Wuhu to Nanjing to Yangzhou, we were happy to be off the bus. It was a 3.5 hour doozy. The driver got off the wrong side of bed that morning. He just couldn't stay behind anyone. Leap frog was the order of the morning for him.

Brian, Bethany, Terry and I disembarked from the bus and were welcomed by a crowd of onlookers. "Hello's" rang from left, right, and centre. It was as if they had never seen a foreigner before. I thought that Yangzhou would have more foreigners than Wuhu and that a "Lao Wai" would be commonplace. Of course, they weren't gawking at me, but at the other teachers. Obviously, they thought I was the translator. That's what I get for being Chinese.

With the "flight" well behind us, we were eager to be in Yangzhou for our Anhui/Jiangsu Thanksgiving Get-Together. Now, some of you must be wondering why is Thanksgiving happening on Nov 13. Here's the reason why. Canadian Thanksgiving is Oct 12, but American Thanksgiving is Nov 25. So we decided we would meet somewhere halfway and celebrate a turkeyless China Thanksgiving. With one Canadian family of three and myself, we had some pull in making up this hybrid holiday.

Our team was the first to arrive. The Hefei teachers (The Sherks, Ty, Shannon, and Lois) got there around dinner time. The Bengbu girls (Debra and Christine) had a longer-than-expected trip and were a little disappointed that we didn't wait for them before going to dindin.

Debbie and Amy are our Yangzhou teachers and they teach at the Yangzhou Teachers' University. When we got to the campus, I was amazed at the tranquility. The campus and the roads around it were lined with beautiful autumn trees. The campus had very little people walking to and fro. It was great. If you remember my last message, you'll know that this is what I wanted last Sunday. It was wonderful.

Brian led the way to Debbie and Amy's house. And yes, I mean house. They have this small bungalow-like house that is right on the edge of the campus border and overlooks part of the Slender West Lake. That whole area of the campus had real character. There was one alleyway that could be described as only "a moment in time." It was wonderful. Also, I could see this stuffed-doll market just across the road from Debbie and Amy's house. Talk about a kid's dream come true.

Although it would have been nice to stay at Debbie and Amy's house, we just wouldn't all fit in there. We had booked rooms at the Experts' Guesthouse. It's called the "Hong Qiao Experts' Guesthouse" for those of you who are interested in the Chinese. It's quite a nice place. A little rough around the edges at times, but at least it had hot water 24 hours a day. That's cool...I mean hot.

We quickly made our way to the closest Mickey D's (i.e. McDonald's) after our arrival. I stuffed myself with a Big Mac, fries, and a chocolate milkshake. It was good. I never thought I'd say that about McDonald's. Later that night, we returned to the same McDonald's. The other teachers wanted to go. I think I would have preferred some cheaper food. Oh well.

The next day, we got up early in the morning for a breakfast buffet at the XiYuan, or West Garden, Hotel. Amy had like 36 tickets for a free breakfast, so there was more than enough tickets to go around. She got hers from other foreigner friends she had met. The breakfast was great. I even got this fresh egg, ham, and cheese omelette. I never thought I'd get that in China. And the orange juice tasted really good. I've been a little deprived of that here.

Soon, we were trekking around to the State Guesthouse where the much anticipated Brian vs. Amy tennis match would take place. First, Brian needed to buy some gym strip. He didn't want to sweat it out in his only change of clothing that he brought with him. We dropped into some sort of Adidas shop. Don't ask if it was authentic. I have no idea.

We arrived on the Guesthouse grounds and Brian and Amy got changed. The rest of us were enjoying the comfy couches in the lobby. It was nice to just lounge around for a while. Once they were finished, we made our way to the tennis court. Unfortunately, a group of Chinese university- age kids were playing.

It took us a while to figure that they were going to be there for a while. I guess I was too busy playing with little 4-year old Emily Sherk. She is just the cutest thing. We played pretend. She would throw a make-believe ball into the pond and I'd have to fish it out. This ball game went on for quite a while. I was starting to run out of pretend ideas for the ball. Luckily, she decided to play something else. Some chasing, some jumping, and some other plain old fun stuff.

I got tired of waiting for the game to start and I wanted to take a look at the rest of the Guesthouse grounds. Almost everyone else had already done that. So I grabbed big ol' Ty and Debra and we walked around the huge grass field. We took a few pictures here and there and then joined up with a group of the teachers sitting in the gazebo.

Just as I was sitting down, someone yelled out, "Hey! They're starting." Great. So I bolted out from the gazebo, hopped across these stones in the adjacent stream, and streaked across the grass field. Finally. The game was starting.

Honestly, the excitement didn't last long. I took a few pictures and didn't have much else to do. It was the same with everyone else. So we decided to go and meet up the tennis players later.

We made our way to the market right along the canal. We were there to check out all the birds and animals on sale. It is really a very unique place. It was also a little noisy. There was a lot to look at and we basically meandered around the displays for about a half-hour or so. We also bumped into Lois and Jan, Terry's wife, while we were there. Debra decided to spend some money and bought 3 knives. One for every boy in her family. They were actually quite nice.

Some of us were getting hungry while the rest of us wanted to check out the Museum courtyard that Terry told us about. I was one of the latter. I wasn't hungry at all. That breakfast was holding up pretty well.

Along the way to the Museum, we passed by all these buildings right along the water. I decided to take the scenic route with Lois and stumbled across the tea barges. I was surprised at how clean the boats were. I really wanted to get onto one, but I shuddered to think about the cost.

We got to the Museum courtyard and scoped out the shops. There was one shop that we went into and there was something that caught Debra's eye. The vendor noticed and started trying to sell the thing to her. I ended up being the go-between with my horendous Putonghua. He was asking for 150 yuan and Debra didn't have that kind of money. The man insisted on me asking Debra for a counter-offer. Debra reluctantly said 25 yuan and the man was a little taken aback. In the end, we weren't interested and the guy must have been a little offended at the offer. Oh well. A bit of an OAF (Outsider, Alien, Foreigner) mishap.

One of the shops further down really caught my eye. I saw the fans he had from the outside. Lois noticed all the paintings. It was the artist himself who was looking after the shop. He gave us his business cards and a sheet of paper with a blurb about his work. His name is Wang Kaishen for those of you who are interested. He had some really nice stuff. Most of it was out of our range. He had some exquisite paintings of horses that I really liked. They were the paintings of noblemen and women riding on horses during the four different seasons. It was stunning, but way out of our budget. When I asked about the fans and discovered that they only cost 30 yuan, I was hooked. I chose one I liked and I bought it.

Then we also had some fun at a postage store in the courtyard. For the first time, I saw the great variety of calling cards that they have in China and was greatly impressed. They were really nice, but, of course, pricey. I imagine that they are collectors' items. I only came out of the store with a set of postcards. Damage: 10 yuan.

We slowly made our way back to the university by taking the scenic route. Along the way, we saw a large square had been cordoned off for roller skating. It was cool. At that moment, I really wanted to strap on a pair of blades and go rip-roaring around the square. Christine, from Detroit, felt the same. Some of the kids there came up to Jan and started speaking English with her. It was a cool moment, so I captured it on film.

We left the square and went along the canal. We were just outside the university when I wanted to step into a store. Lois told me that she had bought something from there earlier today. The store specialized in selling Chinese Blue Calico. There was this tapestry of a horse that I thought would be great for my dad, but I didn't have that kind of money to spend at the moment. However, I found these cute little cloth puppies. I quickly gobbled those ones up. Damage: 18 yuan.

Just before dinner, all the teachers got together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Terry had a few words to share and we sang together. It was a very moving hour for me. It was great to have that sort of team time together. Very uplifting.

With the meeting behind us, we were ready for the grand- daddy buffet of the day. We marched on down to the Metropole Hotel which was about 15 minutes away. The lobby was quite a sight and the dining hall was very comfortable. At the dinner, not only did I get fed, but I also got to talk to Murray Sherk. He's from Stratford, Ontario, but he has not followed hockey very intently since 1991. It was great to talk about hockey.

After enjoying some fine Western dining, we made our way back to Debbie and Amy's place and plopped in "Men In Black". It was the first time I saw it. If you really know me, then you know I'm usually very picky about going to the theatres. Plus, I'm not much of video renter either. So that explains why I hadn't seen it.

All around, everyone had a very relaxing time at the dinner and for the rest of the weekend too. I really enjoyed seeing and talking to people I had met in California for training. It was really fun. Unfortunately, our bus was leaving 7:45am. There was still a lot of things that I wanted to, like go to the Slender West Lake Park. There just wasn't enough time for it, though. We said our good-byes that night and then we were "flying" again the next morning.