Out There

At DisneyEnglish, a year is divided into 4 terms, each 12 weeks long. We give assessments and report cards at mid term and end of term (the equivalent of after 6 hours of teaching each in the States) and then we have an end of term performance where the parents come and watch about a half hour of class and their kids "graduate" to the next term. That was the past 2 weeks, so it's been a bit hectic. 


Sunday after work, I went to my friend Carol's house. I met Carol in on-boarding, and her parents live in Nanjing, and they invited me for dinner since she was visiting. They live south of here on the top of her parents' sofa factory. Her mom made tons of dumplings (I got to help with some), and halfway through dinner her sister-in-law and 4 year old niece came by. She and I exchanged a few words of English and Chinese. It was fun; everyone was very nice. They invited me to come back another time with more Disney people.

Carol, her parents, and her niece

The dumplings - plus another half of a tray. 

Then on the weekend, I went to Hefei with 2 new FTs, Laura and Alex. Well, I went up Tuesday morning, Laura joined me in the afternoon, and Alex came up Wednesday because her days off are different. Hefei is the capital of Anhui province and an hour or so west by train. It was very important during the time of the 3 Kingdoms, when there were wars as China was becoming modernized. We went to a couple parks, saw the temple, and explored some markets. The weather was hot, but we had a good time. 

Mingjiao Temple, Hefei

Xiaoyao Lake Park

Lord Bao Park

There's a holiday next week, so we all get this Sunday off, and trainers with my schedule have Saturday off, too, so we get a real weekend, which is very exciting. More about that next time. 

Residence of Li HongZhang - famous historical Chinese figure