Katia and Gaetan in Loic's kitchen.
Our French dinner: Russian-style potatoes (fried potatoes with cheese), Chinese salami (saucisson) - which was sweet and not very good - and pork chops, and don't forget the French wine, which in the end wasn't great but it was definitely drinkable.
The guys from left to right: Jean-Baptiste (Guillaume's classmate), Guillaume, Loic (French teacher), and Gaetan (studying economics).

We made great efforts to make it look nice: despite the paper plates, we had a nice tablecloth, no? We bought the salad bowl especially for the dinner.

Last Saturday I watched the first episode of the first season of The L Word - the TV series in which my brother shows up three times (in the 2nd season). It's pretty much sex scenes with a little bit of story inbetween. Although as with every TV show, it's addictive. What was funny was that it was just Katia and me watching...in her bed :-) Katia ended up not seeing the sun that day, since she woke up around 3 PM and I came over around 4 PM to watch the DVD.

Yesterday (Monday) was a very cool day. I had a good first class, the second class didn't go as well (because there's more students). I went out to lunch with a young colleague (Chinese guy who spent a few years studying in England so his English is good). I was called by the person who is supposed to take care of me on campus around 2:15 PM and asked, "Why aren't you in class?" I had tried calling this person over the week-end, but her cell phone wasn't working and nobody answered when I called her house. All the other teachers didn't have class, and the colleague I went to lunch with assured me there wasn't class, so I didn't go to class! And I ended up having to go to class! So I was half-an-hour late but I added around 20 minutes to the class and then I went out to dinner with fourteen of my students. It was lots of fun. They're continuing education students, they're older and more appreciative and I like them a lot.

They invited me on a trip with them the week-end after next. We're going to the countryside just outside Beijing, in a place with lots of rivers apparently, and living with the local folks (farmers?). We leave Friday afternoon and come back on Saturday. Perfect. I'm excited.

After dinner I met up with "le club des 5" (the French group) and four Chinese friends (some of Loic's students and some people Gaetan had just met while running the Beijing marathon that morning - he only ran 10 km, not the whole marathon!) at a jazz bar in a back alley outside our university. It's a super cool place, but also super dead. It's got lots of wood and just a cool atmosphere. And a resident cat. We stayed there for the evening and sang some karaokee (Backstreet Boys and Big Big World - hey, there's not much choice in English songs).

Life is good for the moment. I'm enjoying myself immensely. Today I don't work because it's "Sports Day." This morning I watched the school parade in front of me at the university stadium. Katia, Loic and Maxence, a French dude studying Chinese here, were part of the ceremony, so Gaetan and I stood in the bandstands and cheered them on. I watched the morning's races with Maxence, Loic, and some of his students. The Chinese can run fast! I was often impressed. There were also some stupid ones who would run too quickly in the beginning and then almost lose the race in the end....

Hope life is going well for you guys. Take care.