During the heavy rains, I kept busy painting with the Japanese teacher Nobuyo at the local youth recreation center. There is a middle school student who is usually at the art studio. Sometimes he is painting a still life, a Chinese portrait or in this case, copying into calligraphy the text of a famous romance novel. On our way to the youth center, Nobuyo and I take a shortcut through some backyard gardens and when we go through the middle school, we always pass between these dorms where there is always laundry hung on full lines.
We have wondered why on the building to the right the laundry is always shirts and pants, while on the left the laundry is always underwear. Well, when we returned late one evening, Nobuyo and I discovered exactly the reason. On the side with only underwear hanging were young men showering! Apparently both dorm buildings were all male and the side facing our path were the bathrooms. To my surprise, Nobuyo said, "We should look carefully!" and peered into the balconies as we walked pass. I exclaimed, "You are so naughty!" While some boys on the ground level looked curiously at us, Nobuyo replied, "I am 57 yearsold, I am allowed to do whatever!."
Yesterday morning, I had my first Chinese lesson with Lucky. We went over mostly basics, but I learned a lot. Like how there are just two kinds of Chinese family names, ones with a single character and a rare form with double characters. Then Rita from the English Club treated me to lunch of her favorite Dangpo noodles and invited Sander, Tammo and I to meet an English teacher from the middle school named Mike, for fishing. After securing four bicycles from various 4th year students, we biked to a river where many people were fishing on the fast moving river. Just a week ago, the rivers downtown had rose to such levels after several days of torrential downpour that most of all the ground levels of buildings were flooded including the no. 1 Marketplace.
Some folks used store bought fishing poles, while many others used long green bamboo.
I even saw a man just using fishing line and a hook, going into the water up his knees and coming out with a fish.
We could see people catching fish left and right. With so many biters, I could see why this was such a popular fishing spot. There was hardly any room on the narrow land bridge to squat with your net or pole.
But there was also plenty of debris lying along the waters edge, and the boys did not feel comfortable fishing there. So Mike who had four fishing poles we could use said we could meet by the beach and fish at the seashore.
As it was one of the first really sunny days in Wenchang lately, we stopped for some "si mi lu," a cool dessert with tapoica, sweet beans, nuts, ice and cocunut milk. While Rita and I had gone to seek for someone selling "si mi lu," the boys bought a 50 in 1 horror movies DVD for six yen. Si mi lu was sold out by the river so Rita took us to a neat and clean cafe where they had many different types of sweet soups. The "si mi lu" was delicious and refreshing, making me believe I could make it all the way across town to the ocean. After nearly an hour pedaling away, we found Mike and his friend Brock, from Sanya fishing by some docked boats. Both of them graduated from the college six years ago. Broc gave us his business carf for a Foreign Languages Training. Center and invited us to come stay at an apartment with a swimming pool the next time we want to go to Sanya. You can be sure we will try to go Sanya every three day weekend we can!
They had caught two good size fish by the time we got there, and we caught one more before heading out for seafood dinner.
The boys complained their butts hurt from the bike seats but upon seeing the plentiful feast laid out before us, said that it was the best dinner they ever had in China. Mike and Broc ordered two steamed bass with scallions, garlic stuffed crabs, noodles sauteed with crabs, greens and four black bean sauteed fish. We were so stuffed we weren't sure how we could ride home.
Ironically, we seemed to have renewed energy as we began biking down the long stretch of dark roads and palm trees. The sky looked immense and the stars sparkled. As we rounded the last traffic circle into Wenchang city, we heard a loud pop. At first, we rode on then to Rita's dismay, she realized her front tire had gone flat. While Tammo walked the rest of the way with Rita, I went with Sander to return his bike to one of Rita's students. When Rita got back, we called the girl whose bike we had borrowed and told her about the flat tire.
Then Rita said as usual, "Please feel free to call me if you need anything! I am always happy to help you," and then she added, "I'd like to be your friend, you are nice and I like your style very much." I find her words very sweet and encouraging, especially when she tells me that her friends wanted her to tell me that they think my skin is very healthy looking!
Well, I did get a two hour facial with Deanna on Saturday which included a sensous and thorough massage. But, what Rita was referring to was my color which I thought interesting since Chinese girls tend to want to remain pale. Sander and Tammo commented that Europeans prefer to be tanned. I'm just happy to be admired.
I will definately commission my favorite designer who worked with many of my friends on their haute couture to make me a grand dress. The winning class receives 200 yen which they'll most likely use to go out and celebrate.
