* November was not the action-packed event month that October was but it had its moments. To celebrate Thanksgiving a few of the foreign teachers here from the US got together and enjoyed a night of food and wine. The Chinese do not have turkey but we made-do by eating Rachel’s “Tofu-key.”

On the first weekend of the month the school held its annual sports meeting – a track and field event, that lasted for three days. One of my students, James, took third in the 4 man 400 meter relay.

During Veterans Day weekend the city of Jiujiang hosted an international lion and dragon dance contest. Countries from around the world, including America, competed in the performance of traditional Chinese lion and dragon dances.

The following weekend I was invited to an overnight conference in the town of Xianzi at the LuShan Buhong Hotspring Hotel where the hot springs of LuShan [Green Mountain] supply the hotels hot water with teachers from the English department of Jiujiang University. I’ve never been to a spa in the U.S. but I imagine this is a similar environment and I wholly enjoyed the experience.

Last weekend I was invited to the home town of one of my new friends in Jiujiang county. The separation from city to rural life is harsh. They live an agrarian life a half hours travel from the city that the U.S. has not seen in two [maybe three] generations. All of the field and farm maintenance is done manually. Livestock roams freely around the homes – chickens and geese mostly, with some ducks and dogs near by. The pigs were fenced in [thankfully].

After summing the month up it reads like a much more event filled month but it really felt like a comfortable non-rushed month. Photos will be online very soon for the month of November and the third page of the Shanghai story posted two days ago.

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy taking them for you. Merry Christmas!

* From the December Newsletter. If you would like to receive the monthly newsletter and the occasional update about what is going on in email you can leave a comment to this post requesting to be included or email me directly at chadowsley@gmail.com.