This morning's class felt all wrong. We had just started class and Lu-lu was asking what several words meant from yesterday's lesson. After about ten words, and not much response from us, she asked, "Is it hard?" to which Sarah got up, put her books away and said, "I've got to go. I'm too far behind to make any progress today. I'll leave, study on my own and return tomorrow". This attitude didn't only confuse Lu-lu, several of us wondered at her desire to LEAVE class in order to bone up.

    Angelene was missing from class again, Bart was gone yesterday, and Artur has taken to showing up at the break - about 10:45am each morning. During the break today, Justin and I were talking about how the Russian embassy likes to torture foreigners attempting to acquire visas to enter the country when Lu-lu asked if she could discuss the class' progress (or lack thereof) with us. She said that Sarah had told Mandarin House administrators that the class was moving to quickly and that she wasn't learning anything. What Sarah failed to mention was that she is going out every night to party with foreigners at foreign bars and she doesn't study outside of class. The admin staff wouldn't care even if she had told them this bit of the story. They told Lu-lu that she was doing a poor job and better make some changes, "or else". Justin and I assured her that the class' inability to gain significant ground had nothing to do with her, but she wasn't easy to convince. She's terrified of being fired - a teacher was fired from the class next door to ours after only one week of classes. I've written a letter to two admin staff and I don't know what else I can do for Lu-lu but she seemed to be beseeching us to help or to at least explain why so many members of our class chose to party and resisted studying. As you can glean from my earlier post about Lu-lu, she thinks that alcohol is a real devil and fears that the alcohol is poisoning her students. She's right - most of these kids miss a day or two a week due to hangovers.

    On top of Lu-lu's problem, resides my own. Long story short, I need to distance myself from members of the class that spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get a rise out of me. Today was the last straw. Instead of graciously laughing at attempts to categorize me negatively, I let it affect me and I withdrew from the class. I stopped participating and receded further and further into an outer ball of silence with an inner ball of fury. By 12:30pm I was ready to leap from the 19th floor of Plaza 66 to get away from my classmates.

    Suffice it to say, I was in desperate need of an attitude adjustment. And yin found yang today because I got the adjustment of a lifetime.

    Originally, I was going to visit the Shanghai Museum this afternoon, but noted that the best time for a visit is on Saturday when the museum doesn't close until 8pm. Also, my guidebook suggests spending as much time as possible and by the time I left school, it was already 1:20pm. I chose to visit the Jing'an temple instead, as it is only a couple of blocks west on Nanjing Lu. The Lonely Planet guide to Shanghai listed a cheap eatery called "Yuan Yuan Canting" located right around the corner from the temple so I headed west. I found the restaurant easily and walked slowly through the cluttered and cramped courtyard into a dark storefront. I wasn't sure if they were still open for lunch as most of the tables were empty. A man sitting at the closest table to the door stared me down curiously and I offered, "Wo yao chi fan." (I want to eat a meal) From this point on, I had the most wonderful time. The man turned out to be the proprietor and he pulled out a chair at his table and scooted me into it. He sat down next to me with a pad and a nub of a pencil and a menu in Chinese. He asked what I wanted to eat. I said, "Ni xihuan shenme?" (You like what?) He wrote six or seven things down and spoke excitedly to the cook who peeked out of the kitchen, to a man sitting at the next table, at the woman behind the register and at three young women standing by the entrance to the back of the restaurant. I could tell that everyone in the room was either a friend or a worker at Yuan Yuan Canting. It was glorious. I was speaking broken Chinese and being understood after repeating myself three or four times and the people around me were friendly, curious and inviting. Laoban (boss) asked me where I was from. I told him the US. He asked where in the US (YES! I understood all of this!) and I told him Seattle. This pleased him greatly. He said he didn't like Bush but that Clinton was okay. I said, "Wo ye shi" (essentially: Me too).

    Laoban asked if I wanted rice and I said yes. I also remembered to say "Wo xihuan la de caifan." (I like spicy Chinese food) This seemed to excite him and the chef who ran back into the kitchen with the slip of paper Laoban originally wrote on. He asked if I wanted beer to drink, I replied yes, and he brought the baijiu down from the top shelf. (A quick note on Baijiu - this is the most toxic alcohol I've encountered in my life. It's a favorite in China and it is like drinking anise-flavored turpentine. It's made from rice and is quite cheap.) I had only smelled it before today, but Laoban poured some into my rice bowl and hollered out GAN BEI, which means literally, EMPTY GLASS! We clinked "cups" and I downed the shot. Instantly I felt tingles starting at the roots of my hair and my eyes squeezed shut as the sensation made its way down my body and through my toes. It was like being electrocuted. Laoban winked and held the bottle over my bowl, "Xihuan buxihuan?" (Like or not?) I put my hand over the bowl and choked out the word "buxihuan" (no like) repeatedly until Laoban shrugged and poured himself another shot.

    Food arrived and a cold beer was put in front of me. The chef had prepared a super-spicy Yaoguo Jiding (Chicken with cashews). Laoban got very comfortable across from me and as I ate, he held a monologue with my beer bottle. Every once in a while, he'd look at me and ask for some sort of commentary. He asked the chef to bring out other small dishes and placed morsels in my bowl. One of the younger waitresses - must have been his daughter - knew a few words in English and she would gently correct my horrendous pronunciation, or try and translate what Laoban was assuming I understood. The best part was that he talked to me as if I knew every word coming out of his mouth and he spoke FAST. He wrote his phone number down, introduced me to "Tade Taitai" (His wife) and after the meal showed me which bus to take to go home and where to enter the Jing'an temple.

    One of the dishes that came out of the kitchen was a fermented jellied egg I've had in Hong Kong - once. The eggs don't offer any sort of comfort in their looks - the "white" is a see-through black and the yolk is an opaque green. But, they're actually pretty tasty. The egg is placed in wet cement and let to ferment for several months. Vinegar is injected into each egg and the shell disintegrates, leaving the egg a jellied solid. It is sliced and served with raw cilantro, garlic, ginger and soy to kill some of the fermented flavor. I hear this is a regular companion to baijiu.

    When I finished my meal and asked for the "maidan" (bill), Laoban tried to tell me it was on the house, but I refused, as did his wife, though graciously. (The entire meal came to 17 kuai ~ approx. $2.12 US and I had leftovers for dinner) I sat and finished my beer while the staff and chefs sang the ABCs and I counted to 26 (my age). It was the best time I've had in China so far and I've decided to eat at Yuan Yuan Canting everyday while I'm in Shanghai. They're a brief walk from the school and I promised Taitai and Laoban that "Mingtian, wo de tongxue he pengyou yi qi qu Yuan Yuan Canting chi zhong fan!" (Tomorrow, my friends and classmates together with myself go to Yuan Yuan Canting to eat lunch!)

    This is what I was hoping for when I dreamt of studying and learning in China! Hurray! Shanghai reinvented!