OK, so moving on to today. I got up at my usual 8:00am, took the bus to Ben Frank's, and was disappointed that "Western Breakfast" was on the menu. I should have taken a picture, but they gave me toast, eggs, a pork chop, and...baked beans? By the time I was done the beans and most of the pork chop were still there. I just don't get it. But I'm glad that I decided early on to expect anything on my plate because now it seems the possibilities are endless. Baked beans for breakfast, thanks but no thanks.
Morning class was uneventful. I aced a vocabulary quiz, and Han Laoshi complimented my handwriting. So don't worry, guys, I'm doing well in all my classes.
After class we rushed back to the dorm. Normally, I don't like to go back to the dorm during lunch because that's when I like to take walks around campus, but we had a group assignment due for the afternoon class and my group had to practice our skit. We did that, and I think my blood sugar dropped a bit around 1:30pm because my hand started shaking a bit. Don't worry, though, because I had some tortellini soup on hand, which I just heated up and ate while we practiced. A minute or two after eating, the hand-shaking stopped so all was well.
Our skit went off without a hitch, and we didn't suck any more than the other groups. Job well-enough done. Next time, though, we ought to do more advance preparation, just for my sanity's sake.
Since I had missed my lunchtime walk, I had all this pent-up energy that needed releasing after class. I dropped my stuff off at the dorm, and quickly (but thoroughly) completed my homework. About 5:30pm, I was ready to get going. I decided to explore one of the nature walks we heard about so I took the bus to the entrance. I snapped this photo from the bus so y'all could see the crest for Shaw College. Exciting, no?
OK, so about the nature trail...this is one of the entrances to the Alumni Garden. This one's located directly behind Ben Frank's. I took lots of photos so everyone could enjoy the scenery with me. Have a look:
You might have to look carefully in this one to see what I was taking a picture of, but focus on the middle. This little guy might be tiny, but he was making a huge racket croaking his little heart out.
Supposedly, you can also see all these birds on the trail. I was pretty proud of myself for identifying one of them from this sign. Maybe I'll eventually see them all.
Oh, and my past came back to haunt me. Just for the record, I took the alternate route.
Finally, I came out by the Chung Chi College Chapel and the Orchid Lodge. However, my nature-seeking bug still wasn't satisfied. Therefore, I sought out another trail. I remembered seeing the entrance to one across the street from the train station, which was not far away from where I was. So, I walked a couple of blocks until I reached my destination. Ironically, this one was more garden-like than the Alumni Garden. I'll walk you around a bit:
Look closely in the picture below for the koi.
Beautiful, right? What's awesome is that this garden is really close to my classes. Tomorrow, if the weather's nice, I'm going to MX Restaurant for lunch and ordering it to go so I can take it out here for a picnic and maybe sit down to read "Love in the Time of Cholera" for a while before my afternoon class. Or maybe I'll just bring my iPod. I haven't decided yet.
Eventually, I realized I had been walking around exploring for over an hour and I was getting a little hungry. I walked back to Ben Frank's and got Honey-Glazed Pork Rice with Vegetables. Believe it or not, I had been craving this specific dish. I suppose that's good evidence of getting used to a place. And guess who I ran into at Sandwich Club? Well, Travis, but he was watching the news, and he was almost finished. No, the person I ran into was none other than Mei Nai Nai, my Hong Kong Grandma!
We got our food about 6:30pm, and didn't leave until the restaurant closed at 9:00pm. My gut-feeling of having a connection with this lady was apparently dead-on. I think I now know what I'm going to be like when I'm old.
Mei Nai Nai told me more about herself. She said that when she was very young, her parents were PhD students at Columbia University, her father in economics and her mother in the liberal arts. She and her two brothers lived in New York until she was about 4 years old, and then they moved back to China. She told me many different stories about her family, and I told her about mine. She said that my family sounds like a traditional Chinese family, and from what she said about hers, I think I have to agree. It turns out that she has a large family because her parents have many siblings with children and her brothers have many children. She, herself, though never had any children. I guess that's why she's having so much fun being my surrogate grandma. We talked and talked and had such a grand time that I didn't even notice when some of the other IBCE folks came in, ate, and left, and Mei Nai Nai didn't even notice when the staff started closing the dining hall.
I had apparently misunderstood her before when I thought she worked at the canteen. What she said was "I work here," which I thought meant at the canteen. What she meant was that she works at CUHK, and I believe she said as a professor. Professor of what exactly, I'm not sure, but I think she's in the theology and religion department. She told me that she's going to a conference on "Christianity in China" in two days, and that she'll be sure to tell me all about it. She asked me if I was Christian and, when I told her I was, she told me that she is too. In fact, she said she often attends church at Chung Chi College Chapel, although she wasn't there this past Sunday. Eventually, we both left and I took the bus back to Shaw College. I hope tomorrow is just as interesting, but in a good (not like Saturday) kind of way.
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