First, some announcements~

1.         I am uploading some short video clips of these ten days to the following site: http://tv.mofile.com/.( Search by author: amadeussalzburg and you’ll see the files.) They are quite short, and awfully funny and enjoyable to watch—hopefully.

2.         I do have a full version of the play we performed, plus some clips of the other groups’ hilarious acting. But instead of using the camera, I used a DV, the result of which is that all my files are too large to be uploaded to the site. I am still trying to figure out ways to put them up. I am fairly confident that I shall manage that. Just please be patient.

3.         I shall not mention the school’s name too often in my writings as it is awkward using pinying. Those of you who might have fortitude enough to finish this novel of an article, bear in mind that the 40 of us were stationed in two different middle schools: 江苏省淮北中学&泗洪实验中学; that the student quality of the former was way ahead of the latter; and that most of the funny things I am going to talk about took place at the former, for I was stationed there.

4.         To Jack, Pear, and Olivia: OK, I know some of your guys probably wouldn’t even come to my space, but I am telling anyway: I will give the pictures taken during this trip to you by burning three sets of DVDs. You shall have them on the 3^rd of September—that is, if I manage to get up and go to school :)

OK, secondly, accounts of my happy ten days at Sihong~

If you have seen the recording of my National Contest prepared speech, you would probably remember that I told the story about how I was dragged into becoming a voluntary teacher and my willingness and determination to volunteer for the next possible program. Well, such a chance came during this summer holiday, and I VOLUNTEERED, as I had promised.

But, to be frank, I did not expect it to be such great fun. I knew that I would like my students and that I would do everything in my power to enlighten their minds on the subject of English. I knew that I would be in the company of my classmates—at least I wouldn’t have to travel alone and be alone like I always was forced to this time. Besides that I did not expect much.

But there is an old saying: happiness comes when you least expect it. It is most true.

August 15, 2007

Today we set out on our journey of turning on the role of teachers. The bus would leave for the other campus at eight in the morning. I was fairly excited and had a restless night the previous day. I was rather eager to see my classmates. I had never realized that I would actually miss some of them during the vacation. OK, to owe the truth, there is one particular person that adds to my desire of seeing my classmates again. But that was not the only reason why I was so excited. Just think: Chen Xing the teacher; Chen Xing the preacher; Chen Xing the English learning ambassador; Chen Xing…the life savior perhaps? How could anyone not be excited visualizing such bright prospect?

I had to get up at 6 in order to get to the hotel in time to collect the three Japanese friends. They will spend the ten days with us as teachers in Sihong. I had been with them once when I picked them up at the airport. Frankly, I was not happy at the prospect of having to put up with them at that time. I was not happy having to waste one of my precious vacation days traveling all the way to the airport to collect them. I was not happy knowing that they would live in the hotel registering under my name. I was not happy seeing that I had to collect them on the day we leave for Sihong. Yes, I had harbored some hostility towards them, for, well, I am a Chinese and they are Japanese. But after 5 minutes’ conversation with them on the car, I was ashamed of my original idea. They are among the most beautifully-behaved and friendly people in my acquaintance, so considerate, so polite, so eager to please and be pleased, and so sunny. It was then and there in the car back from the airport that I realized the difference between the Japanese government and the majority of Japanese people. It was then that I understood why our country encouraged communication and friendly intercourse between the people of the two countries. You cannot really know a capitalism country by observing its government. Sorry that I am sounding so very political here, but it is the truth.

I seemed to have wondered off into another subject…where was I…O, yes, after picking them up, I reached the place where we were to aboard the bus. I met Tsong and we had a good time exchanging our summer experiences.

The bus came on time. We set out on time. But we stuck on the Yangtze River Bridge. It was on the bridge that I understood that my friends from the other campus wouldn’t be traveling with us on this bus. They would go separately on another one. So much for wishing to see one particular person…It seemed to be a most ominous and odious start for me. But I was to be proved utterly wrong.

It turned out that the other bus was waiting for us at Pukou. After a short delay during which we fetched our ‘team uniforms’, we really set out on our journey. The two buses were traveling almost shoulder to shoulder. We could wave and make sign language to each other through the window. It was good fun trying to interpret what the others were trying to refer to. Tsong was better at the game than I was. I had no idea what Pear meant by pointing constantly to his head and laughing at me. Tsong very smartly pointed out that he was commenting on my new hairdo. OK, she was right.

But I still did not see the one I wished to see. I gave up. I gave up.

After a four-hour smooth-but-not-unmixed-with-a-few-bumpy-rides journey, we reached Sihong at half past twelve. I did not really know my feeling when I first saw the school where we were to stay except that it looked far better than my NFLS, and that my stomach was aching with hunger.

We were shown into our dormitory. To my utter dismay it consisted only of six double-decker beds. There was not even a desk. I had planned to spend all my free time writing a novel of a letter to Jessica. I abandoned the idea then and there. Again, it was turned out no great sacrifice after all. You shall see.

Though the room was rather shabby in its facilities, I must do it justice by saying that it was a thousand times cleaner than mine. I am not exaggerating.

The real problem was not with the dorm itself, but that we did not have a place to take showers. We were to spend the next ten days contenting ourselves by rubbing ourselves clean. For me it was no big deal. At home I am notorious for my disregard for utter cleanliness. But my other 11 female companions had a tough time of it.

After we had settled down and had our very late lunch, I went out to inspect the grounds. It was fairly delightful, with picturesque sceneries here and there: a small pond with water lilies blooming and litter red dots of fish gliding; an old tree that bend and twisted towards the sky; a large and empty playground that enabled me to continue my daily walk; and very very magnificent and modern teaching buildings, much grander that the new teaching buildings in Nanjing Foreign Language School, let alone that of Nanjing University. But everything is not what it seemed in Sihong. Wait till I tell you how.

I returned satisfied with my inspection and yawning violently. I was desiring the softness of my pillow and looking forward to a long and comfortable nap. But nope, the boys decided that they wanted to inspect the vicinity. Eager to grab every chance to communicate with my future colleagues, I went.

Sihong, to speak partially, does not seem a desperately poor place. It is much larger and fancier than my hometown Lishui, a little county outside Nanjing. It has got all the necessary shops and newly-built stadium. And there is more, as we would find out later.

In short we had a good time walking. But as everyone was not yet too well-acquainted with one another (don’t be surprised, though we’ve been classmates for a year now, most of us were nearly nodding acquaintances before this program), the conversation was restrained and courteous—at least it was so on my part. I do not easily get along with people, but when I do…you can figure that out from the photos.

We prepared lessons together that evening. Jack was a darling: he brought a computer—both Tsong and I were too lazy to do so.

I returned to the dormitory (my dorm mates consisted of the two Japanese girls, Mary from Class A, Olivia from Class B, and Tsong) , eager to start the next day.

Although very much fatigued by the activities of the day, I spent yet another rather sleepless night. This time not because I was excited, but because there was a bee buzzing in the dorm the whole night through…

Well, let’s see what happens the next day…after all, tomorrow is another day!

~To be continued~

'This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late parrot. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It's rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot.'

Papa, Mama, and I laughed a solid 5 minutes at the above quoted paragraph.

PROLOGUE

    FAR OUT in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

    Orbiting this at a distence of roughly nienty-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

   This planet has--or had--a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time.

   Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper which were unhappy.

   And so the problem remained; lots of people were mean, and most of them were unhappy, even the ones with digital watches.

   Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move and that no one should ever have left the oceans.

  And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change....

SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH

BY DOUGLAS ADAMS

Simply splendid opening!

No one cared to come in and wish Daddy a happy birthday.

Heartless people.