Fly Boys

One class full of very serious and responsible future pilots:



A few guys from another one of my classes. Adorable, no?



The uniformed pilot students walk to their next classes in neat rows of ten. The bridge has just enough room for one class to move in each direction.

The Black Cars

One of the things that fill me with fear when travelling is getting into a car or taxi - I always worry that the driver is some kind of criminal. In the city cabs are easy to identify, if not always easy to grab. On the outskirts of the city or near a school or software park, the official taxis are much rarer. Places like this often have a cluster of vehicles with their drivers hanging around waiting for passengers - the illegal taxis. They are called 黑车 (hei1che1, black cars) or 野租 (ye3zu1, wild rental). Anyway, I'm sufficiently used to life here that I now hop into the illegal taxis without another thought. No meter, so you have to fix the price ahead of time.

The next driver in line moves his car ahead by hand to save fuel.

The Neighbourhood

My street - two rows of six-storey walkup teachers' apartments, with fields on the other side. (I'm on the third floor.) When I arrived a few months ago the fields were all brown but I could see farmers sprinkling something white on the ground by hand. I asked a student what they were doing and he said they were seeding, which I didn't really believe - who plants crops in October? But now there is stuff growing there so he must have been right.

Market at Southgate

Actually, the New South Gate. I found this market, which is close to my office and my gym, the usual way - by walking in the opposite direction of people carrying bags of food. It is bigger, busier, and dirtier than the market in my old neighborhood.

Fresh noodles in different lengths, jiaozi skins, and made to order chao shou (wontons):


Beans, chilies, garlic and ginger, eggs, and fermented chili and bean pastes:



Preserved and marinated vegetables:



I prefer buying chickens and rabbits here rather than at the big grocery stores because you are buying fresh animals from the farmers rather than mass produced meat, though in the summer I am leery of carcasses that have been sitting in the unrefrigerated case all day. A bird usually includes the head, feet, and internal organs with any partly formed eggs. Sellers will cut up your purchase as you request, though no matter how many elbow-chopping motions I make I have never been able to convey the idea that I want it cut at the joints. I always tell them to keep the head. When they hand you your change, it is often damp from the meat.



Bigger animals are displayed on hooks, and you tell the seller which part you want and they chop it up for you. Below is pork; beef is also sold here and once a severed goat's head advertised that goat meat was available.



Soybean products - various types of tofu and bean sprouts:



This month, oranges are the main attraction at the fruit stands.

From a Student

Respectable Ms. S:
I'm so sorry that I have to ask for a leave. Yesterday the doctor gave a notice to me that I have something wrong with my boo blood and I have to do some examine about it. Because I am a flight student. So I have to do the things doctor arquirst me to Please forgive my absence and I'll come back as soon as possible. I hope you will will let me come into the classroom. Thank you!

Your Student
------------
November 14th

I let him in.

Mongolian Salty Milk Tea

This is a comforting drink on a chilly morning. I got it in powdered form as a gift from one of my students. Think my tastes are adapting because when I first arrived here I would have spit out something that tasted like this, but now I like it.

Aviation University

Am now living and teaching at the Aviation University in Guanghan, where China's commercial pilots are trained. China is facing a great shortage of pilots, who have to know English, so there are many students and lots of work - I have three hundred and sixty three first year students from all over the country. In their English classes taught by locals the students are given three days to memorize several paragraphs of English. These students are all reciting their passages:


Aircraft engine maintenance building:


The grounds are really nice, though have an under construction feel. The new library:


The students have to keep up a demanding physical program, including workouts on equipment to train their balance and control. Behind the propeller-like swings you can see both fixed and free rolling wheels that the students have to be able to control.


My students brought me to try these out one day and it was very fun, though I didn't try to spin one all the way around.