Saturday 7th December, 2013              1710

Today I rediscovered my legs. I was greeted this morning by thick fog (not smog, unlike some of the major cities) and what is to me these days freezing temperatures which are actually still in double figures.

Regardless, I am becoming increasingly more averse to biking to town - whereas previously I simply donned more clothing - and I decided that for my trip tomorrow to the little school I would take the bus. That presented its own problem of course. The school is on the 7 bus route by the west gate, Lottemart on the 29 at the south gate and I had a weekly pet food purchase to make. Walking from one to the other is not in itself particularly arduous but would be with heavy shopping bags. So instead of spending some of today carrying on with unpacking, I went to town shopping today so tomorrow morning I can take the bus to school and when I finish at noon simply get another back.

Thankfully many students must have decided to stay put today so I had no problem getting a seat on either the outbound or inbound buses and went to Ke Bi Wang for the first proper food in two days. Last night I bought on campus some things that looked like a spring roll and a stuffed fried nan - the spring roll that wasn’t was at least edible but the round thing was dumped for the wild dogs after just one bite. The sooner I get my stuff sorted the better, for then I can resume cooking for myself instead of just the animals.

I walked to Lottemart and took the escalator up to the 2nd floor (clothes, homeware etc) and when walking to the escalator for the third floor (food) a group of young men passed me going the other way. As often happens, once they had seen the laowei someone had to “practise” their English. It normally takes the form of “Hello, nice to meet you” followed by a childish snigger. Today though it was “What are you f*** doing?” I ignored the idiot who obviously felt clever and wanted to shock and resisted the temptation to stop the group and correct their error in omitting the “ing” from the expletive.

The fog is now returning and I am feeling rather jaded so I think Pepsi’s last walk will be at about ten so I can hopefully feel a little brighter in the morning. Our gallant party arrived in Beijing this morning and Kevin told me the place the contest is being held is so far from Beijing proper that he’s not sure he will get the chance to sightsee. If that’s the case then for him it’s an awful shame as he really enjoys that sort of thing. I did look this morning at what it would have cost per head for a return flight from Hefei to Beijing and it was under 700y (£66)  so it will be interesting to find out just how much cheaper the train was.

Sunday 8th                            2045

Just as I was about to get ready for bed last night Kevin called. Could I help a damsel in distress? One of his students was in his apartment above me and couldn’t get out. I went up and she passed me the key through the window (out of which it is impossible to climb as we have metal bars to deter burglars) and I duly unlocked the door. It wouldn’t open. Doing a Sweeney was out of the question seeing as not only do the doors open outwards but they are made of steel and have ten deadbolts. She was trapped. I advised her to make herself at home, use Kevin’s coffee and watch his TV, not confident that her call to campus security at that time of night would yield any assistance to actually release her before morning. I said I would leave my phone on all night in case of emergency.

When I came downstairs Kevin called again as apparently the girl was distraught (although she seemed stoic enough when I left) and could I comfort her. Back up I went, staying on the phone as I did so. Has she unlocked the internal latch? Yes. Did you see her do it? No, my head won’t fit through the bars. Push the door towards her and get her to try now. Bingo. Mine doesn’t need that doing so I would never have thought of it but at least the butterfly was released!

Today was memorable for a couple of reasons.

As anticipated, I awoke to thick fog but having already planned to take the bus to town it was no big deal. I had a lesson at 0930 and, thinking I would be far too early, I got to the bus stop at just past eight. I then waited in the freezing cold for 45 minutes and eventually decided that as I would miss the first class and still no bus in sight it wasn’t worth making the trip for just one lesson. Accordingly I bailed out and came back home to get warm.

Mid-morning I started receiving updates from Beijing by text. Our boy Jim was the highest scorer out of the initial six speakers. Good chance of going through to round two. Later, he was still top of the first 16, almost guaranteed a 2nd round place. Earlier this evening news came that he is still the highest scorer after 62 contestants with only 32 to go tomorrow and thus is guaranteed a 2nd round place. He will now be in the top 20 English majors in China and I have no idea how many there are but with about 2,000 universities and colleges  this must make him in the top 20 of anywhere between one and three million students - that is some feat.

Of course, the first round is a prepared and rehearsed speech. The next round is an impromptu speech and contestants are given very little time to prepare. If he gets through that round then the final round is a live debate in front of a massive audience. The lad has already made history for this university by getting to Beijing, if he can get a place that would be beyond expectation, to win it would be beyond the wildest of dreams. First place is the Holy Grail of oral English teachers  and students alike - if he got that then the foreign language department would go berserk and Kevin and I would probably have heart attacks! He is certainly putting a backwater university on the map. That’s for sure.