Semester End

We are going up to Xi'an again today - that's where we visited this time last year! We had a train ticket booked, for the three of us and George and his Chinese girlfriend, to go yesterday afternoon. We thought Lucy (George's girl) would be an asset in translating stuff for us ... but she was so slow and indecisive when we were trying to get to the station that we missed the train!! So we are trying again today. We will (hopefully!) be leaving soon to catch the bus(es) to the Zhengzhou railway station.

My students have all left. They went about 3 days earlier than anyone expected. We suspect that burst water pipes in the students apartments and the general discomfort there may have had something to do with it. (They reckon we are having a colder winter here than usual.) They have gone off to have their medicals and all the rest before they leave. And I have just been hearing about the fires and stuff in SA! I have no idea what will be expected of me for the next 10 days of lessons before the semester actually ends.

Peter is very excited because the students in his class (many of whom are also about to leave) have just given his a Chinese name ... but I have no idea how to spell it. Its something like "Wei Da Zhi". Wei is an old dynasty name - so no one can complain that he stole their name. If/when I get a Chinese name I would not have the same family name. The two given names mean "intelligent" and ... I can't remember what the other one is.

My hamster has become very tame. We have so much fun watching himj stuff his pouches. We give him peanuts and sunflower seeds and count how many he can get in each pouch! The other day he picked up a whole burnt match-stick and put it in his pouch - he's only a baby yet!

For reasons they have not told us about - probably the burst water-pipes that we aren't supposed to know about, but the students told us about (despite being told not to) because we kept nagging them about why they all suddenly became extra tired in class - the semester is going to end earlier than expected. So we get 4 weeks holiday instead of 3 over the winter. We haven't yet decided what to do with it all!