Beibei: Its hot!

My friendship with the three basketball players, Kobe, Crazy and Will, has flourished since the last entry. I still play basketball everyday, but I now eat dinner with them every night and hang out in their apartment. The three share a small apartment five stories directly above the basketball court. There is no elevator in the building. There are no windows either. The tenants on the first floor are an elderly Chinese couple who recognize me and smile as I pass their door. The apartment is littered with beer bottles and clothes like any college apartment in the States. The heat and humidity is suffocating here, so we choose to share the discomfort. Americans may prefer to pass a heat spell isolated in air conditioning. We pass the time listening to music, playing cards, and drinking beer together in a small living room. Between jokes and games they remind me: We are best friends, we are brothers.

They call me Chen Shway (spelled phonetically), which means “very handsome”. The three most important things to my friends: 1. Finding me a Chinese girlfriend. 2. Eating 3. And paying for everything in pursuit of both quests. I am humbled and uncomfortable with their generosity, as they come from rurally Sichuan, where their families live simply (Americans call it poverty). The other day we were at a restaurant and I tried to sneak away early to pay the bill. They ran up to the cashier and semi-violently pushed me away. I think I will have to buy them gifts when they aren't around.

Their favorite drinking game is rock, paper, scissors. They go wild playing it, imagine English swear words and Kung Fu moves.

I woke up early this morning to prepare for my first lecture. I am scheduled to teach two Sophomore Conversational English classes at 2:30 and 4:10, or at least I was scheduled to teach. I got to my teaching building today  (#5 Teacher’s Building for Foreign Languages Study) and went to my office to make a PowerPoint introducing myself, only to find that the electricity had shut off. Apparently the Chongqing locals are not even equipped for the heat we are experiencing! I received a call from my boss stating that all afternoon classes are cancelled for the next two days, which means Wednesday morning is day 1 for Prof. Chen Shway.

Here is my teaching schedule. Each class is an hour and a half long, which includes a 10 minute break in the middle of class:
Monday: 2:30 and 4:10
Tuesday: 2:30 and 4:10
Wednesday: 8* and 2:30
Thursday: 8 and 9:40
Friday: NOTHING

*All my class are Sophomore Conversational English except Wednesday at 8, which is Junior Creative Writing. I have been warned that this will be my toughest task and I realize that in no way am I qualified to teach this class, but I am excited to see what Prof. Chen Shway can pull off.

Love,
John