This post is dedicated to my campus life. The first few photos show where I eat a large number of my meals--the campus dining hall. There are three dining halls on the old campus where I live, and one on the new campus where I teach. They are all essentially the same; barn-like buildings with fixed, molded plastic chair-and-table combos, dangling light bulbs and TVs hanging from the ceiling. They are not heated, like most buildings in Southern China, and so when it is cold steam rises not only from the food but also from our mouths as we breathe, huddle and eat. The dining hall shown below is about a 7 minute walk from my apartment, and is creatively called Dining Hall Number 1 (The others are #2 and the Teacher's Dining Hall).



The photo below is a typical dining hall meal for me. In the upper left you can see fanqie jidan, a common Sichuan-style dish. It could not be more simple--a scrambled egg with chopped tomato. This dish was one of my best friends during the intestinal tumult that followed my arrival in China, and I still like it when I don't want mystery meat or overwhelming spice. The upper left is a vegetable that I can never remember the Chinese name for, but it is very similar to zucchini. This is another common dish, where they julienne the vegetable and then lightly stir-fry it with garlic and spicy peppers. It is one of my favorite things, and as soon as I get my imported baking supplies, I am going to try my hand at Chinese-gua bread (a.k.a. zucchini bread). My itch to bake is getting stronger.



These next two are from the center of the old campus, called Zhong Shan for the low mountain top it covers. This campus is strikingly different from the new campus, in that it is very wooded and overgrown feeling. Visitors have commented on how jungle-like it feels. In contrast, the new campus was built on fields and so is much more bare. First, you see below a place that is almost constantly in use--the "playground." There are at least 12 basketball hoops, circled by a beaten-dirt track that a few zealous runners jog around in the evening. People, mostly young men, play basketball there at all hours of the day. I also occasionally see pick-up soccer games being played at one end of the concrete slab.



This photo is taken from the steps of the library (which I have yet to visit). If you imagine looking left outside the frame, you'd see the basketball courts. This pagoda is one of several spots on campus where students and workers can sit for a spell. In fact, I frequently see students studying there. Again, though I haven't toured it myself, I've been told that the library is a less than ideal place to study, due to lack of study space and loud "librarians." Because every student living in the dormitory has at least 3 other roommates, classrooms and outdoor spaces become study areas. This always makes me think back to the library at GAC--in memory now it seems almost ridiculously cozy and luxurious.


Now, the last two are of one of my classrooms. The students are my favorites--the sophomores of Class 1. I took these earlier in the fall, as you might notice by their lighter clothing. Now, I never see them without layers of sweaters and jackets. I am an extremely lucky English teacher, by the way--do you see the way the classroom looks huge and empty? I have small class sizes, a thing almost unheard of in China. Don't tell anyone, ok? Oh, and be sure to notice in the first picture how diligently they appear to be studying. I frequently encounter this scene when I get to the classroom, before class begins, with all the students in their seats and either studying silently or reading aloud to the open air. The first time I witnessed this, I thought it was so strange. Now, I've just come to realize it is what they do.