Another weekend is here, my second in Luzhou. My weekends will always start early, as I don't have class on Fridays and I am striving to keep them commitment-free. PC policy allows us one weekend of off-site leave per month, as a mental health break from the 24/7 nature of our jobs. Being able to leave on Friday morning will allow me to really stretch that out. Plus, it is a great day for grading, lesson planning and Chinese study.

Today was spent in the sun. I did a mountain of laundry. Weather in Luzhou (and in most of Sichuan, for that matter) can normally be divided into good or bad days for laundry. This means that if the sun is shining, you can wash clothes. Without sun, the humidity is too pervasive for anything to dry. You all may remember that I have a shared kitchen on the 4th floor of the guesthouse where I'm staying. The kitchen leads out to the rooftop, where the clotheslines are. The rooftop is great, actually; it is just below the trees on the mountainside, so half is shaded and the other half with the clothes line has full sun. I dragged a chair and a table out into the semi-shade and with my laptop and textbooks, drafted a syllabus as my laundry dried.

This afternoon I dropped by the English department office to leave my syllabus for the copier. I came in the middle of a department meeting. I haven't gone to any yet, because I get the impression that I'm sort of an accessory to the rest of the department; I get to basically operate under my own system and am not really subject to all the curriculum planning that goes on. Also, the meetings are usually conducted in Chinese, effectively ruling me out, anyhow. I left my copying instructions and was invited belatedly to join the meeting.

It was really more like a party, as they were talking about National Teacher's Day, which is tomorrow (yes, a Saturday--I don't get it either). I was introduced to the whole department and offered fruit, peanuts, candies, cakes while one woman gave a little speech about the joys of teaching. Midway through her talk, the dean of the foreign language department, Mr. Li, leans over to me and asks me to give some remarks to the assembled department. Mr. Li is a bespectacled gentleman who is very kind to me; when we first met he told me he had "lots of warm feelings about America." I was glad that I'd bothered to change out of the lazy-day clothes I'd had on into more professional attire--good thing, because I was suddenly making a speech introducing myself. I think I basically just stated several times how happy I was to be here, working with them, that I'd be here for two years, and that I hoped in that time I'd learn all their names. I was applauded when I finished. They were not a very tough crowd.

Oh, and I was also informed this afternoon by my dean, another Mr. Li, that he'd "found" a host family for me. This is not part of the usual PCV site package, and the last we'd spoke of it, I told him I'd let him know if I wanted/needed a host family. Alas, I guess I need one, because I'm going to meet them sometime next week. I really hope they don't speak English, or are at least open to me practicing Chinese with them. I also hope there is a good cook in this family--much as I like cooking myself, there was something very nice about coming home to my host mother with dinner on the table every evening...

That's all the news fit to print from my little corner of mountaintop. Until next time...