September has come and passed again, my fourth one here in China. For the far northeast part of the country, it’s a month which brings brisk mornings and lots of clear blue skies. Mid-Autumn Festival, which this year fell on September 12, must feel like a misplaced holiday in the warmer parts of China, but it fits right in up here with temperatures dipping into the 30s at night and a few leaves changing color. We all know the icy cold will be here soon! But the cooler temperatures and sunny skies combine to provide my favorite type of weather for afternoon bike rides and outdoor basketball.
Mid-Autumn Festival is not a long holiday, but the Monday off provided for a long weekend, allowing me join a group of teacher friends on an overnight trip to nearby Shenyang. The trip is only four hours by high-speed train, through miles of flat corn fields and villages of one or two room houses. Shenyang, on the other hand, is like any big city in China: full of modern buildings with many more going up. We enjoyed Starbucks coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts, and IKEA. The girls especially enjoyed shopping in IKEA, but even I found a nice, well-priced lamp for my apartment! A couple of the guys and I also visited a huge park which is built around the tomb of an emperor from several hundred years ago. We topped off the trip with loaded sandwiches from Subway on the train back!
Opportunities abound for building relationships with the people here. Early in the month, I was in a taxi and noticed that the driver had a card with English words on his dashboard. I asked if he liked to study English, and that led to a long conversation (in Chinese, not English). He was one of the friendliest and most sincere taxi drivers I have met, and when we got to the destination, he wouldn’t let me pay. Of course, I insisted, but he absolutely would not take the money, saying in English that we would be “friends forever!” Another day, I had the chance to discuss at length a news article with my boss’ college-age son. He was translating it for a competition and wanted some insight into difficult phrases. It was about the death of Bin Laden and the lies he promoted, and provided a chance to discuss the truth and lies of life, though not in great detail.