A bike ride and lunch
Yesterday I had one of those experiences that seem to typify my time in China. Mary and I went out on a long bike ride, heading back out the way we'd come in from our last one a couple weeks ago. Our goal this time was to cross to the ocean on the other side of the island. We rode along some fairly quiet, tree-lined roads through small villages, and up past a reservoir and through a tunnel to the other side of the island. As we approached the tunnel I'd had a student yell and wave at me - I seem to run into students everywhere in Zhoushan - and he passed me again in a bus right as we entered the tunnel. Mary and I then coasted down the other side of the pass and pedal along for a while towards the ocean. We turned off onto a smaller road that looked like it might go to the sea. As we neared a village, there was my student again running towards us.
He's from one of my classes of younger students that have had only a year of English, and I unfortunately haven't learned his English name let alone his Chinese name. He asked us to join him at his friend's grandmother's place for lunch, motioning eating rice out of bowl, so we followed him through the village to their courtyard. We met his mom and his friend and his mom, as well as his friend's grandmother. We sat down around a wooden table with lots of seafood. I got further instruction on how to eat crabs (my favorite seafood here so far) and was encouraged to eat something that I feared was eye-balls or some such thing, but turned out to be delicious potatoes. They also served us bowls full of beer (this was at 11 am) and when they noticed that Mary hadn't drunk any of hers they poured more in until it was practically overflowing. It's been hard for me to assess how much English the students in his class have, but it was clear from this lunch that he doesn't have much. He was having trouble answering basic questions about what he'd been doing on his holiday and things like that. But then again, I had almost no Chinese to use to speak to him and his mother and friends, and he could understand me fairly well.
Once we'd finished lunch I motioned to them that I'd like to take a picture of the group. At first I thought we were going out to the courtyard for the picture, then the street, and then there we were, all seven of us, walking half a kilometer down the road to the ocean so we could take the picture with a proper background. We passed his friend's grandfather and other villagers who were quite interested by this procession. The road took us past fish farm ponds and a small farm plot that, as best I understood, his friend's grandparents farm. We reached the sea wall and entered a fish unloading dock, slipping through the bars of the gate to take pictures with the sea behind us. The pictures are pretty amusing - I'll try to post a couple soon - this student's a real character. After getting the pictures we walked back together, his friend's mom grabbing Mary's hand so they could stroll along hand in hand.
After spending a little more time at their house, and declining their offer to have us rest through the heat of the day there we headed on. We found a great road built through a remote stretch of mountains that dropped us right down into Dinghai near the university. The climb was definitely a challenge on the one-speed bikes, but we slogged up and had a great ride down.
He's from one of my classes of younger students that have had only a year of English, and I unfortunately haven't learned his English name let alone his Chinese name. He asked us to join him at his friend's grandmother's place for lunch, motioning eating rice out of bowl, so we followed him through the village to their courtyard. We met his mom and his friend and his mom, as well as his friend's grandmother. We sat down around a wooden table with lots of seafood. I got further instruction on how to eat crabs (my favorite seafood here so far) and was encouraged to eat something that I feared was eye-balls or some such thing, but turned out to be delicious potatoes. They also served us bowls full of beer (this was at 11 am) and when they noticed that Mary hadn't drunk any of hers they poured more in until it was practically overflowing. It's been hard for me to assess how much English the students in his class have, but it was clear from this lunch that he doesn't have much. He was having trouble answering basic questions about what he'd been doing on his holiday and things like that. But then again, I had almost no Chinese to use to speak to him and his mother and friends, and he could understand me fairly well.
Once we'd finished lunch I motioned to them that I'd like to take a picture of the group. At first I thought we were going out to the courtyard for the picture, then the street, and then there we were, all seven of us, walking half a kilometer down the road to the ocean so we could take the picture with a proper background. We passed his friend's grandfather and other villagers who were quite interested by this procession. The road took us past fish farm ponds and a small farm plot that, as best I understood, his friend's grandparents farm. We reached the sea wall and entered a fish unloading dock, slipping through the bars of the gate to take pictures with the sea behind us. The pictures are pretty amusing - I'll try to post a couple soon - this student's a real character. After getting the pictures we walked back together, his friend's mom grabbing Mary's hand so they could stroll along hand in hand.
After spending a little more time at their house, and declining their offer to have us rest through the heat of the day there we headed on. We found a great road built through a remote stretch of mountains that dropped us right down into Dinghai near the university. The climb was definitely a challenge on the one-speed bikes, but we slogged up and had a great ride down.
posted by Tyler C-R at 6:08 PM
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