Scattered Anecdotes

By Ruth

The freshmen have arrived on campus but are doing their military training. We expect them to start classes the end of next week or the following week, but we aren’t quite sure. Yesterday Wes asked the Vice Dean of the English Department when the freshmen classes will start. He said, “I don’t know yet. I will tell you when I find out.” That just seems to be how things work here.

Christina and I went to a vegetable market the other day. Lots of sellers were lined up along the muddy alleyways with tables and carts of fruits and vegetables and some raw meat. Among them were some guys selling teeth. They kept trying to get Christina and me to come over and have a look. We already have teeth, thank you.

Wes, Kevin, and I were looking over the Phonetics book we will be teaching from. It has a CD that goes along with it. A very British CD. Have you ever noticed that British pronunciation is a wee bit different from American pronunciation? This will be tricky since the main point of the book is pronunciation. Our students may end up even more confused than we are. On the plus side, I will learn a lot about English this semester.

Last night we were walking through the city square and saw a group of middle aged to elderly adults doing some kind of Mid-Autumn Festival dance to drum and cymbals. They were march/dancing around in a circle waving pink and purple fans. Several guys were dancing around holding purple flowery parasols. You just never know what you will see in China.

p.s. Guess how many times it took me to spell "anecdotes." Well, several.