Tuesday, June 17

Today ran much more smoothly.  My schedule at school was increased a little.  It was very hot today. by 9:45 I was a mess.  But, I had a nice long break before lunch so a son of one of the teachers here (who just graduated high school) came to take me around the city a little.  It has rained torrents since yesterday afternoon.  We managed to stay relatively dry.  During our sight seeing, he took me to a fantastic coffee house.  It was very eclectic.  There were small booths with love seats or wing backed chairs.  Each piece of furniture was covered with a huge colorful antique looking quilt.  The lights were low, the walls were covered by very interesting pieces of art.  Some were pictures, some were snapshots, shelves full of books, some western pieces and some Chinese.  Then, around each booth were curtains.  Some were heavy drapes and some were lightweight sheers.  They pull those around you for privacy.  First we were served cool lemon water in antique enameled cups that looked like old children's dishes.  Very cool. Then they delivered our incredibly delicious chocolate coffee in beautiful handmade stoneware with wooden spoons and all displayed on individual hand made clay trays.  It was out of this world!  We spent some time there to dry out from the rain then headed back to school for the rest of the day.  Today was our first "play practice" at school.  I reformed "Little Red Riding Hood" enough to have 9 characters and a forest full of 20 singing animals.  :)  It should be a riot.  The kids had fun with it and we have several days left to practice.  We are performing in front of the whole school.  We'll see how that goes!  Tonight after a dinner of noodles and vegetables, we went to a tea house for Chinese tea service.  One of the friends of this family served us.  We took several kids including "Jane" and "Tom."  (The student whose family I live with and their good friend's son.)  It was a very relaxing way to end our day. At least the rains have cooled things off for the time being.  Tomorrow promises to be equally as fun!