Suzhou, Noodles and Peanut Butter

Actually, we’ve been pretty busy either traveling or getting ready for the rest of our class load to begin. Cindy starts September 25th with hers and Michael starts October 9th with his and we’re averaging 35 students per class.In the middle of the month we traveled by bus -- 2 hours -- to a wonderful city called Suzhou. Situated in the south of Jiangsu Province, in the middle of the Yangtze Delta, this city is called a water-town and is known as the "Oriental Venice." The city was set up in BC 514; being a city with history of more than 2500 years. Now tourists know it to be the place to buy silk and visit wonderful gardens.

We went to visit a new friend whom we met before coming to China. Paulo has lived in Asia for a few years and presently teaches at an International School (a private school) for the children of CEOs and other executives from all around the world including Fins, Brits, Koreans, Dutch and Americans. Unlike us, he works a full 8 hours each day, gets an expense account, has a huge salary and wonderful three bedroom apartment with a clothes dryer. That is living large! When he was back home he went to Trader Joes and shipped 19 boxes back full of food stuff and of course, personal items he’s been storing for years. Those boxes were packed, shipped and unpacked at the expense of the school. Nice situation but he really has to work for it and he has loads of practical experience and education.

Paulo made a Sunday breakfast for us that was absolutely delicious and his family tradition. He made us pancakes with peanut butter and maple syrup. Yep, and we enjoyed it so try it, you might like it. Thanks Paulo for a wonderful visit and for all the help you give us.

Back in Xiasha, our local area, we’ve found a new restaurant that we both like. It’s a Muslim place. The specialties of most Muslim restaurants are homemade noodles. Besides that and the lack of pork they are known for their cleanliness. It’s not that we don’t eat pork but we really like the cleanliness. Anyway, here’s a picture of one of the guys pulling noodles and if you’ve never had freshly made noodles, YOU ARE MISSING SOMETHING! They melt in your mouth like butter.

Cindy sat in on Pauline's class one day, she's from Canada, because Pauline brought in her toaster and made the students toasted bread with peanut butter. A first for 99% of them and only 2 of 30 didn't like the peanut butter.



Our students are warming up and beginning to express themselves more. It’s been like pulling teeth to this point but improving each week. Only seven new classes to go through the same slow warm up and we’ll be “home free.”