Pictures

My 20-year-old student, Yang Yang, performing a trick for us outside the cafeterias. He broke his arm last summer (fell from a jump) and hasn't been skateboarding much since.
Guillaume tried his hand at it and although he looks good in the picture, he wasn't super successful in real life. He's in front of "di er shi teng" - the second cafeteria. We very often eat dinner there now, since we go right after Chinese class finishes at 7 PM.
Pictures from Bed - the cool bar we went to Friday night (December 30th).
We were falling asleep so Katia took a ton of pictures of us.
Katia, me and Gaetan - I gained weight, yes, but not to the point of having a double chin!!! It's just the picture...
Matt - the 24-year-old American teacher - was there.
Guillaume was also there. This is us sometime in December. We went to a Muslim restaurant not far from Erwai (our university) and there happened to be no electricity that evening so we ate in our coats (we were freezing) and by candlelight (very romantic). Bob's to my right (on the left of the pic) and Loic's student is on his left (on the right of the pic). Her name's Nina and she's 23 and in Loic's "adult" class - they're older than his usual students.
The flash ruined the atmosphere of the candlelight. Here's us digging in - the food is delicious.
And to finish - we bought fake snow-in-a-can and decorated my apartment's windows (with snowflakes) and the window outside my room in the hallway. Joyeux Noel = Merry Christmas.

Today I had to wake up at 9 AM because the cleaning lady was to come at 10 and I had to clean up beforehand. I handed in the grades for my Year 2 students and then I went to Xidan by myself. Xidan is a crowded shopping district in the city centre. I browsed the bookstore for books on Speaking English and bought three. I went to Yang Yang and Xiao Sheng's apartment and I helped YY with some of his homework and he helped me with my Chinese and then I napped because I was exhausted and then it was time for class already...crazy!

We had dinner with Kim (Guillaume's Korean roommate who is going back to Korea this Saturday) and Andy, his friend, at a Korean restaurant called A Sa A Sa! We'd been there once before. This time it was pretty expensive. Kim eats a lot. :-)

After dinner we went to Katia's and watched a Bill Murray movie I had never heard of called BROKEN FLOWERS. It was slow-going and some would say pointless, but I liked it. It was about an "over-the-hill don juan" who receives a mysterious letter saying he has a 19-year-old son, so he goes to see the four lovers he had at that time to guess which one is the mother - which one sent him the letter. Well, I won't tell you the ending, but it's not a movie you see to find out what happens. It's a movie you enjoy just because of the present moment.

And with that I wish you good night!