Hubei University Day 3

Day three on campus was VERY humid and muggy...the air was so heavy and it made being outside very tough. So I stayed inside unless I was travelling from the hotel room to my classes or to a meal.


Our morning class was our first time with Chinese Traditional Music. The instructor was Ms. Zhou Liling (in Chinese the Zh has a J sound...so you would pronounce her name as "Joe" and it is her sur name...the Chinese put the sur name, or last name first and then your given name last). It was excellent. She shared what the various traditional instruments were and then showed a clip of video with the instrument being played.

The highlight was her performance on the Zheng (Jeng). She played a couple of traditional Chinese folk songs, and then she played Edelweiss from The Sound of Music. It was great. The instrument that I'm (not) playing is the Xiao (Sh-ow).
On the lunch break I dropped by the Post Office to mail 12 post cards....only people who sent me their addresses in a timely manner had one MAILED to them!!! They should arrive if all goes well and there are no mishaps around .....October...(seriously) haha. It will be a little Halloween present for folks.

Then, on day 11 of our trip...John (Stephany)my roommate from Memphis, and I had to make a run for it at lunch time and catch a city bus (1 yuan) to the McDonald's two bus stops away...we love the food here, but needed a WESTERN FIX!!!! It was sooooooo GOOD...of course like all the food here in China...it is served fresh...so the fries don't sit and get old and hard in the fryer like they do back home...so the FRIES were SOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!! I had a number ee (which is #1) large size and I wanted my Coke to be hen ben (which is icey cold!) YEAH ICE!!! (not a lot around here).

We then had our third lesson on History and Culture with Ms. Gu Ya. We covered a lot of territory in regard to Confucius...or Kong qiu as he is called in China. Excellent information.

I wrote many of the sayings and beliefs of Confucius out in Chinese script today...it was not easy, but certainly worthwhile. The big thing that stuck out to me was the idea expressed by Confucius back around 500BC... Ji Suo Bu Yu (pronounced "gee-swo-boo-yoo" which means "Treat others how you want to be treated." The "Golden Rule" 500 years before Christ....or Ke Ji (pronounced "kee jee") "Have Self Discipline." It was a great 3 hours of learning. My head hurt when it was over after trying to comprehend all she was saying (in Mandarin w/ an interpreter) and my writing it down in Ping Ying (the way I'm writing it here) and in the normal Chinese script...which I can't write here because I don't have the font on this computer. But the picture below gives you some idea of the type of things I was writing.

She wrote this on the chalk board in like a minute and a half. Sheeeesh.

We went out and found some local color tonight...I have some amazing pics....I thought I'd send this one we've found a place close by in a back alley near the school where there is NOTHING but energy..great food being cooked out in the open... The family that runs the place we go to drink is AMAZING...such gracious hosts...and just took us in as one of their own. I'll have more pictures of them all later.