Wednesday night I took Yvonne to the Japanese restaurant and on Thursday I decided that I would leave Saturday as a free day during which I would stay on campus taking it easy before playing Santa on Sunday afternoon and so went to town and did my shopping.
Friday was awful with 6 lessons followed by rehearsal (rehearsal my backside it was a first attempt - I’ve had no chance whatever to try to get the Chinese poem right, consequently I completely mangled their language!) and then once home, Sonya from the ABC bank - remember the skipping and aerobics interbank competition in the summer - sent a message asking me what time I was coming to town over the weekend. Apart from being driven to and from town tomorrow playing Santa I had no intention of going anywhere near but as she had been so sweet as to buy me a small Christmas gift of a tub of Snickers, apple and a rum cocktail there was no way I couldn’t make the journey.
So I invited Mulan for a Japanese meal (well it IS my favourite restaurant at the moment!). She isn’t one of my students, in fact she is a history major who really wants to swap to English and for two months she has religiously attended my 0820 class on Friday mornings. Her story is quite sad, although if I am honest that is only part of the reason I invited her, I enjoy talking with her as well because amazingly she still embraces life. She went to JiuHua mountain earlier in the week and never stopped sending me messages all the while in her exuberance for the nature she encountered.
She is the eldest of three and when she was six, her sister four and brother three, their parents simply upped sticks and abandoned all three of them. They haven’t been seen since. An uncle apparently made the decision not to marry so he could assist in supporting them as they grew up and even now assists financially. They have received some state aid plus more from social societies but all three are attending different universities having gained scholarships. They have had it hard but are making more than a go of it. Whilst I can understand a father buggering off, both parents doing it together simply beggars belief and it is incredible Mulan harbours no bitterness that I can detect.
Anyway, we met at four by the campus shops (where I took a photo of some students selling pot noodles dressed in Christmas gear) and off we went to get the bus. Far too cold for the bike now seeing as it is dipping into minus figures in the evenings. To my surprise she also wanted to present me with a gift for Christmas - see the photos! She only finished it last night, she must have been knitting that scarf for weeks now! She also gave a me a card (of the bloody Arc De Triomphe of all things!) and I thought it was ever so nice of her to do it even if the scarf is rather bright - but it does keep the neck warm! I shall cherish it for many years to come.
We went to the bank to see Sonya, at one point after they had closed having to hide in the staff room while the armed security guards came to collect all the cash (being a small branch no cash is kept out of opening hours) and I made tentative arrangements to take Sonya and a friend out for dinner during the spring festival holidays.
Onwards to the Japanese. They were surprised to see me again so soon but obviously pleased as it meant another couple of hundred yuan in the till. I got Mulan to try oysters, sushi, curry and other things. And sake. In all my life I have never seen anyone get so comprehensively drunk in so short a space of time. She had just two thimbles of the stuff and promptly spilt her bowl of seaweed and egg soup all over the cooking area! She was however determined she would finish the small mini-carafe I had paid for. She didn’t because I ended up drinking the remaining dregs but one minute she was chatting away merrily with a young girl eating with her parents and the next there was impending disaster.
I managed to steer her outside in time for her to throw up on a patch of grass!
For all that we both enjoyed our time together although quite what her roommates said when I got the cab to drop her off at her dormitory is anyone’s guess!
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