Chinese people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Day festival Tuesday, September 25th by enjoying moon cake and time with family. I spent the day preparing for my first day of class and walking around Jiujiang city center.

The Chinese follow two calendars – the twelve month Julian calendar and the lunar calendar. According to the lunar calendar yesterday marked mid-autumn – the crop harvest. To celebrate, the Chinese bake moon cakes to share with family and friends. The moon cake is a round, sweet pastry with a variety of centers ranging from fruit jellies to fibers and grains with a pattern stamped in the top. I have read three versions of the history of the moon cake and mid-autumn festival. One version, succinctly put, references an earlier Chinese ruler and the peasants’ revolt. The revolt was orchestrated by embedding plans in the pattern stamped on the surface of the cake. Others stories involve mythological characters as an explanation for the patterns seen on the surface of the full moon. The Foreign Affairs Office gave each of the foreign teachers a gift of four cakes in a beautifully designed box package. My co-teacher, John, also gave me two as a gift. I shared three with friends I have made since arriving here and enjoyed one to myself early Tuesday.

I’ve fully kicked the cold that put me down for almost a full week. After the two days of IV’s I began a regiment of running and cough syrup. By Wednesday, the 19th, I was confident the cold was over save for the productive cough and an occasional sounding of the nose-kerchief horn. I stopped the cough syrup and kept with the running each night. Air here is so heavily polluted that even now, a full week since my return to full spirits, I have something akin to smokers cough giving me the occasional burst into convulsive cough but even that is beginning to subside.

Today, Wednesday, was the first day of teaching for me. Freshmen completed their military training last Friday by conducting a magnificent parade and display on the south track and field arena in front of the university president, chairman, and other distinguished guests. Friends and family watched from the stands.

My students are IT majors that plan to study abroad their 4th year of college. Their studies here for the next three years will be an aggressive English training course to prepare them for life in a western English speaking culture. There are some stark differences between Chinese and Western academia. One example – all students, upon entering college or university practice military training for 15 days before beginning classes. This means that while sophomores thru seniors began classes September 3rd, the freshmen began classes only today, the 26th. Some other smaller differences – each class designates a class monitor before I even meet them. I do not know the details of this role yet, and I am trying to figure it out, but as near as I can tell the monitor is a student that will serve as liaison between the students and me. This student also works to maintain discipline in the classroom among the students, handles paperwork, and appears to delegate some authority over the them [the students]. A third difference I was surprised to see happen today – as the end of class approached, no one collected themselves preparing to leave five minutes before class was over. More surprising – the class bell sounded and I had to tell the students “Please leave. Class is over now. Go enjoy your afternoon.”

Aside from preparing for class since late last week, I have ventured out into the city a few times taking more photographs of everyday life in Chinese culture. Week 3 specials will be posted very soon on the Picasa site. You may notice another new link to Lightstalkers in the right column also. Lightstalkers is an online photographer member-site that offers portfolio support and a forum for photographers to share ideas, news, and photo related material. I am putting my professional work there until I can sort out the issues with accessing my personal site with my host provider. Since they are in the US they keep saying they cannot recreate the problem I am having. No kidding! You have to be BEHIND the new great wall before it blocks you.

This weekend China will celebrate National Day, a week-long celebration. Many people will travel and I plan to be one of those people. Monday night, October 1st, I will board a train to Shanghai. The train is possibly the slowest train available – I am scheduled to arrive in Shanghai 15 hours after I leave. A bus from here to Shanghai can make it in 8 hours according to Huang Xiao Kui. The price for a bus ticket is nearly double to cost of the train ticket. Much of the trip will be through the night so I will miss much of the countryside but hopefully be well rested once I arrive in Shanghai to enjoy all it has to offer [in two days]. It is extremely likely that the next post will be after I return from Shanghai.

Thanks for reading.