Lunch and Justin leaving

Lunch with Lori:
The other day we went out to lunch with a Chinese family Justin and Sebrina met here. The woman, Lori, is an English teacher and they just happened to meet in a cafe one day.
We ate in one of the private rooms of the restaurant, so it was banquet style which means a large round table with the lazy suzanne in the center. When we entered the room I was worried that this meant we had to sit in the culturally respectful spots in the room. During a banquet the person with the highest authority sits facing the door and all around the table the rank lowers person by person, though I'm not sure in what direction. If you sit in the wrong spot you could be trying to say you are higher up than them. But Sebrina told me it wasn't a real banquet so it wouldn't matter.

We ate some interesting dishes. The restaurant specialized in Sichzuan (sp?) province foods, which generally means a lot of bean curd and spice. One of them was a plate of thin slices of pork with a sweet brown sauce on top of flat folded squares of bean curd. You're meant to wrap the pork inside the bean curd and eat it like that. Another was a big bowl of opaque green liquid. After the server put the bowl down she opened up a tiny plastic bag of powder and poured that in. Over time the liquid became a gelatin. Apparently that too was bean curd, but made into jello. It came with little dishes of spices and nuts that you mix with it. The texture was so strange it was hard to eat without feeling queasy. (at least for me that was true. i looked around the room though and most of us hadn't finished our bowls of it.) They also ordered a fish and as some of the dishes were coming out a man walked in with a pink bucket, showing the contents to the woman who had ordered. She looked in and said it was okay. It's common here for people to look at the fish while it's still alive and make sure it's the one they want.

English Camp:
Lori runs a summer camp for students wanting to learn English. She has been looking to find foreignors who would help with the camp to make it more appealing for the students and her business. When she heard that I had studied some Chinese, she asked me if I liked to teach teenagers. I said 'I don't know. I've never taught teenagers.' I think she may have meant to ask if I wanted to teach, but I wanted to be a little stubborn at least at first. Sebrina had warned me she was looking for foreignors so I knew I would be badgered some. She talked to me about it for a while, and told me I would be paid. I said I would think about it, and she said 'just let me know quickly.' Before we left she whispered in my ear 'if you want to work at my summer camp I will pay you more.' I just said again 'I'll let you know.' I'm assuming that means she would pay me more than the other foreignors working there. I think I'm her top choice right now because of the connection through Justin and Sebrina, and that I'm young. I don't know, it made me uncomfortable because I felt bribed. But I'm trying to think of it more like it would be of help to her if I did this and it would look good on a resume later. I could run a little drawing class while I'm there, and say I taught an art class in China...because I did!
The only debate now is if Sebrina is planning to travel to Yunnan province during that time, then I would rather go with her because it's somewhere I've never been. I'm waiting to here when she plans to go, to decide.

Justin is headed for the U.S. of A.:
Justin is leaving today at noon. It's kind of sad to see him go, but it'll be fun with just the four of us girls here. (Sebrina, the ayi, madison, and I) I think I already said why he's going to the states. Hopefully it all works out smoothly and he doesn't have to wait on his visa for more than a week. I'm sure Shaun (my other brother) will have fun hanging out with him. Sebrina and I might go get facials and manicures. I would never do that in the states, but here apparently it's very cheap. Also, there's something about being in China that makes what's considered normal in another place feel like an adventure.

The heat:
Oh wow, Sebrina just came in the room to get something, and she told me I could put the AC on since it's so hot. She said it's 35 Celsius outside, which is 95 Fahrenheit. No wonder last night I woke up sweating. Also last night there was a thunder/lightning storm. I woke up a few times from the loudness of the thunder clapping and the brightness of the lightning. A few times I thought I was dreaming, but I'm pretty sure, reflecting on it now, that it was real.

Yunnan:
Last night I watched a documentary about Yunnan province and it really does look gorgeous. Since the last time I was in China we were in one of the poorest cities of Shandong province, I experienced a very polluted area and generally think of all of China looking that way. But Yunnan has clear skies. In the video there was footage of big snow-capped mountains with bright blue sky and white fluffy clouds. I'm yet to see that here, and am hoping to. They also have forests where things like the red panda and some weird button nosed monkey live.