Okay, so what have we been up to again?

Ant Logistics, originally uploaded by zawelski.

(posted by Dave)
It just occurred to me that our faithful reader(s?) (hi, Mom!) might be missing a sense of chronology here at Slow Boat Central. To tell you the truth, as the days are rapidly blending into each other here, I think I’ve been missing one too. But here, for the record is...

A QUICK RECAP OF NOTABLE EVENTS IN THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER (beginning October 31st) ARRANGED ACCORDING TO TIME AND IN MORE OR LESS CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, UNTIL THE MIDDLE OF THE MONTH, AT WHICH POINT I GIVE UP AND JUST START WRITING DOWN STUFF AT RAMDOM:

Oct 31: Had a Halloween Party with around 35 people at our house. Of those 35, ten were under four feet tall, fifteen came in costume, twenty could speak English with varying degrees of fluency, and only five people (i.e., our family) had more than a faint inkling of what Halloween was. Our apartment was decked out with two jack-o-lanterns, countless paper bat cutouts, and a fake spiderweb or two. We had a vampire, a construction worker, several hyperactive fairies, and a bloodthirsty zombie (yers truly) that gleefully hacked up a (watermelon) brain and served it to the guests. Much fun was had by all - even by those who were slightly bewildered by a bunch of sugared-up kids tearing up and down five flights of stairs asking for candy at a few prearranged apartments.

The Next Sunday: A quick tour of the art scene in Chengdu, in preparation for Jens Reulecke, a visiting German performance artist sponsored by our organization.

The Thursday Evening After That: Went in to the Bookworm (Chengdu’s English language bookstore/cafe) to see Jens perform and present his work. It was one of those performances that clicked somehow, and made me see everything surrounding me as Art (note the capital “A”) for the rest of the evening. Beer and conversation afterwards until late, finally making it to bed around 1:30.

Friday: A whole day touring galleries, visiting studios, and talking art with Jens and Snow, a Chinese art student who had spent three years on exchange in Cape Giradeau, MO, of all places, and acted as our interpreter for the day. The day was fun, long (8am to 7pm), and inspiring.

Thanksgiving: (A bit earlier than usual) Jane and the kids came down and met me at Sichuan Normal University in Chengdu, the site of our summer language program. MPC, our organization, sponsored a weekend long Thanksgiving retreat. Besides retreating, we conversed, met, ate out, and generally caught up with the group.

Other things I’ve done: (can you tell that I started writing this post three weeks ago and now am writing down stuff at random to justify posting this?)

Lectured to an auditorium full of about 150 English majors about the American media. Started an a cappella music class. Played some ping pong and realized that I’ve got a lot of practicing to do.

Realized that next semester we’ll be getting more classes, and resolved to spend more of our time in the mornings learning Chinese. Can now understand the name of our local bus stop. Went to several post offices to pick up and send off various packages.

Broke out the Christmas decorations. Made an Advent Calendar with Xander and Zekey. Tried my best to distract the kids and put them to bed while 15 students are in our apartment during Jane’s Thursday night baking classes. Enjoyed fresh-baked apple pie and baguettes with Gouda. (thanks, Jane! thanks, students!)

Realized the incompleteness of memory. Tried (and failed) to think of witty closures to blog posts.