Another week has flown by. I am still trying to figure out that striped dog. I can't imagine it is natural. I am out with one of the Chinese students today so I will get her to ask.
I've had a busy week around here. The students continue to struggle with the class. They have never taken a marketing class AND they are taking it in English. It is becoming a challenge to come up with multiple explanations for the same thing hoping that something sticks. I admire their ability to stick with the class - not that they have a choice. They are sweet and they work so hard. It is incredibly competitive.
In my spare time I have been getting out to see some things. Last weekend we went to the Nanjing Museum. It houses one of the best collections of Chinese artifacts. That said, it was a pretty small museum. Either they have a lot of things out of sight, or Mao really did manage to wipe out a lot of Chinese history. In the spirit of keeping this dog related, here's a sample of some very old pottery from the Han Dynasty.
Considering how old it is they did a good job representing the image. Shameful to say but I don't know my breeds that well. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what type of dog this might be?
We kicked off this weekend with a trip to neighbouring town, Yangzhou, to visit Slender West Lake. The lake was formerly a river blocked off during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) where salt merchants planted trees and flowers to impress the emperor. I guess a nice bottle of wine wasn't sufficient in those days.
It is a stunning park that is just starting to bloom with spring. But there were two super stars yesterday - this little guy
...and me.
The West was a hit yesterday. The hundreds of school kids wandering around wanted to practice their English and jumped at the chance to surround the only six westerners in the park that day. The dog's excuse? Besides being super cute, it is very rare to see Schnauzers in China.
This little swarm started when I sat down on a rock to wait for the rest of my group and I casually asked boy if he liked the flowers. A couple others joined the conversation and before I knew it the whole grade 5 class of Yangzhou Primary School was on me. We has a pretty good chat about Canada and polar bears. It is amazing how much English they know already.
I'll keep you posted on the striped dog situation. I feel so sorry for them. They are way too young to be away from their mother and they sit in a box all day waiting for someone to spontaneously buy them on the way to getting eggs at the grocery store. Poor things. I wonder what the dog import laws are...
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