Math and Moon Cakes

So, hopefully the drama with the math teacher is over. The Friday before yesterday, we celebrated National Teacher's Day in which all of the teachers get a day off (their work week is Mon - Sat). So they had a dinner to recognize all of their hard work. Knowing that we would be expected to attend these dinners, Matt decided to speak to our waiban (foreign affairs contact) about the situation before the evening events. She said that she would speak to him about it and that it would be taken care of.

Later in the afternoon - around 2 PM, the math teacher decided to come to school, drunk, and confront me in the hall after my class got out. Actually, more like pull me out into the hallway after the bell rang. So, with students and other faculty members around he created quite a scene in the hallway and made the situation even worse. I was against the wall with students on both sides and he won't let me go. So, when the next bell rang I bolted into a classroom (luckily where my next class was) and he still wouldn't leave. I could see him pacing up and down the hall until I heard him fall down.

Later at the Junior department dinner (my school) I sat with the English Department (Matt was luckily able to come to my school's dinner) and everything was going fine until math teacher comes. He was completely shit-faced and just had to continue where he left off. One of the English teachers in my department was really trying to keep me engaged in conversation the whole entire time so he harassed Matt instead as I had a two person buffer zone between us. His behavior was making everyone very uncomfortable at the table and several people tried to get him to leave. The headmaster of the school also tried to get him to leave. When he got up to go to the bathroom，our waiban whisked us out of the room and brought us down to another private room（so he couldn't find us）with the Senior I (Matt's department) teachers were dining.

So, last week went very well, no one was following me around and I was escorted to all of my classes by some one in my department or the headmaster. So, even if this starts to happen again at least people now know that there was a problem and it will be handled faster.

Anyhow, enough of that. Sorry about the rant last time, I was not in a very good mood with the math guy stuff, the snot and the party looming. I really don't think that the people here are trying to test me. Many do not recognize me as being a foreigner - which is nice. The snot incident was more of a wrong place, wrong time sort of thing. The laughing, well....

Yesterday was kind of fun - I got to go to the Guyuan Museum - a teacher that Matt works with knows someone who works there。So we got a nice tour of the place and I think I will start to volunteer there sometime next semester。Later that evening, one of my student's parents invited a bunch of us out to dinner so we had a nice time with them and some of the other Junior teachers even though we could not understand the vast, vast majority of the conversation.

This Sunday is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Yesterday the school gave all of the teachers a big box of moon cakes. Apparently, it is kinda like the US equivalent of Thanksgiving。People get together with their families and have a big dinner，enjoy eating moon cakes and watch the full moon。One of the teachers in my office gave me some special cakes to try。

I think that most people here have been very nice and helpful，there have been times when we just want to stay in our apartment and lock China out for a little bit and not be stared at。I think next weekend we might try to explore the city a little more - maybe trek up the hill and check out the temple at the top。It is kinda pretty here - not at all what I had pictured。The city itself isn't the nicest thing to look at，but we are surrounded by foothills and some green。I guess that the spring can be a little rough with the sandstorms， but right now，the weather has been pretty nice and we have a break coming up in October for a week （I think we will try to go to Xi'an and see the Terra Cotta Soldiers and try to find some cheese and butter）.