The last weekend was very eventful for me. It all started right after my Friday afternoon class. And yes, wouldn't you know it, I have a Friday afternoon class. After class, I went back to my apartment and unloaded my bags and stuff. A few of my sophomores had followed me home because the library was open. A few of us gathered in the living room around the coffee table. One of my students noticed that I had a board game on the table and he was askinq about it. The game is based on some Japanese cartoon and the board is basically a very thin piece of paper. The paper money is also extremely thin and small. Besides that, the game plays like Monopoly except that there is "fighting." I said that the game was a little too simple. That's when I remembered I had brought the Settlers of Catan with me.

For those of you not familiar with the game, you'll have to look at a website for more details. It's hard to describe if you've never played it before. It's basically a strategy game for 3-4 people.

Most of the sophomores who had come were boys, so the game fit them perfectly. I set up the board and explained the rules and got the game started.

Meanwhile, the library was open with people going in and out, Brian and Bethany were going off to volleyball games, and time was ticking away.

We must have started at about 4:45pm, but we weren't finished until about 7pm or so. We played for quite a while. By that time, Brian and Bethany had already come back, taken their showers, and eaten dinner. They couldn't believe we were still playing. I was just happy I could get a chance to play my board game.

After playing, some of us went out for dinner. It was cool. I hadn't gone out to eat with all of them except one, so I was quite excited. One of things that caught me a little off-guard is how much toasting is a part of the culture here, even with my students. They filled up the glasses with Coke and they toasted away. So, of course, I had to follow suit. Near the end of the dinner, one of my students filled up all our glasses and had his hand on his glass. I didn't know what he was doing at first until someone else said, "He's waiting for you." That's when it finally clicked in for me. It was one last round of toasting. A gan bei, no less. That means you're supposed to chug the whole glass down. I asked to be pardon from that action. The Coca Cola would've given me too much gas.

The rest of the night, I spent in the apartment with a visitor we had from out of town. It was Jeremy Kicklighter. He's the teacher who taught here in Wuhu last year before I came. He's currently a sort of supervisor with a College Teaching Fellowship team down in the Guangzhou area. He was coming through Wuhu one last time. Next year, he'll be back in the US and will get married in November.

So, he had plenty of students over that night, including some of the sophomores that I had just eaten and played with. He was recounting his romantic story of how he had proposed to his fiancee. The students lapped it up. He also shared about things he was doing in Guangzhou. It was a very enjoyable to just kick back, relax, and listen to him talk instead of me.

The next day, I had it in my head to go down to the photoshop. I had dropped off some film the day before and was hoping to finish off the roll I had in my camera. So I ventured out about nine-ish and went down to the Walking Street. I hadn't had breakfast, so I bought a steamed soup bun along the way. So as I got to the Promenade, I quickly took a seat and chowed down the bun. As I was sitting there, I spotted two of my Freshmen students by the phone booth. At first, I thought they were waiting for someone, but they were actually using the phone. Then when they were done, they spotted me.

Naturally, they came over and said hi to me. Apparently, they were hoping to go find a spot in one of the newly opened Internet Bars, but they were all very full. They were going to try again. I said see ya to them and they were on their way. And so was I. I finished the bun, brought out the camera, and started looking for photo ops.

I had taken one picture and was working on a second one, when the two girls had come back. They said that the bars were full still and wondered if they could accompany me. I thought, why not.

So we walked down the Promenade together. The street had changed a lot over the past month. There were a lot of new stores popping up. Most of them are clothing stores. One particular one was called Sanfu and was quite large. They had an ad in the window that read, "Buy 50 yuan worth and get a free Hello Kitty cup." Right beside it was a Giordano store. That's from Hong Kong. I had been meaning to check it out, but this time wasn't the time.

Just a few storefronts down from the Giordano was a bright red sign bearing Golden Arches. That's right boys and girls. McDonald's has come to Wuhu. It wasn't open yet that weekend. We could see inside, though. There was all the seats and the monster children's playground inside. I wonder if they'll have root beer. I've been sort of having a craving for that.

Because the McDs was still under construction, we ventured past the lake and the fountain towards the department stores. We got just past the KFC when one of the girls noticed the bowling alley sign. She said she had 10 yuan in her pocket and kind of wanted to play. I said why not. So we climbed up to the 3rd floor bowling alley. (I don't think I've ever been to a bowling alley above ground like that.) We signed up for a game, waited, and then played.

That must have been my worst game ever. I couldn't hit the pins with even a beach ball if I wanted to. I didn't get any sort of real pay dirt until the 7th frame or so. One of the girls had played before, but it was the first time for the other one. They wanted to play another game, but the service lady hovering over the computer pad said sorry. There were too many people waiting in line. No loss. It was still a lot of fun.

After that, we ventured back towards the campus and the Internet bar just outside the west gate. This time there was space. All three of us got on one computer. They wanted to get an email account, so I helped set one of them up on a web-based account. That was a good hour or so.

Sometimes as the page was slowly loading, I would look around at the other computers and users. My two students were the only girls in the room was one thing I noticed. I also noticed that virtually all of them were playing some sort of online story game. My students said it was a game based on a novel written by a Hong Kong author. I thought, interesting.

After getting her setup, it was about lunchtime and so we split. I went to get my photos and they went back onto campus. I really enjoyed myself that morning.

The next day was Sunday. Our other visitor, Stephanie Ching, wanted to go into Nanjing. Stephanie is also a former Wuhu teacher from about 3 years ago. She came back this year because the students she taught as Freshmen were graduating now. She's originally from Seattle.

Anyway, that Sunday, we grabbed a 7:10am bus into Nanjing. Our purpose was to visit the international fellowship there and visit an old friend. It was truly refreshing, the first part anyway. I could've done without the social part afterwards since there was no one to introduce me to somebody. But there were people from all over the place. There were people from the US, Singapore, Ghana, Australia, New Zealand, and even Canada. The guy I met from Canada is actually from North Vancouver. It figures that I'd have to be in Nanjing to meet someone from Vancouver.

After fellowship, we went off to the Black Cat Cafe and grabbed some pizza for lunch. We were also hoping for root beer. Like I mentioned before, I had a craving for it. So did some of the other teachers. No go, though. They no longer carried root beer on the menu. What a complete shame.

After lunch, Beth and Terry took a bus to Wuhu right away while Stephanie, Jeremy, Jan, and I wandered around a little. Brian stayed back in Wuhu because of previous commitments and a volleyball game. We ended up going to a bakery with our Aussie friend, Jason. At the bakery, they had ice cream too, so we ventured into some artery-cloggin' fatty ice cream. 8 yuan for two scoops. Not bad, I'd say.

There wasn't much else to do after that, so Jeremy got into a taxi bound for the airport. He was going back to Guangzhou. And we got into a taxi for the coach station. There, we quickly loaded onto an Iveco bus and were back in Wuhu within 2 hours. That was fast.

I think that weekend was one of my most eventful weekends. It was just full of a lot of good fun. The only problem is, I could've gotten more work done, but I think that was part of the fun. You know, procastinating. Heehee. Back to work...