James visit

My friend James is in town. He took the all night train from Beijing and arrived just in time to visit my last class on Friday.
Ned escorted him to the classroom and when he entered the room, my students started clapping, yelling and laughing when they saw his Olympic jacket. My students will probably never get the opportunity to leave China, and for most of them, I will be the only foreign teacher they ever have. So, to have 3 foreigners (Ned, James and I) all in their classroom was overwhelming! After the class performed their skits, I had a question and answer period with James and the students. The girls were so giggly, and several of them told James that he was handsome, and one asked him, "Why did you take off your Olympic jacket? You looked so handsome in it?" This led to a series of girls trying on James' jacket and the rest of the class taking pictures with their cell phones. Most of my students have never even been to Beijing, so they had many questions for James about the city, the Olympics and the athletes that he met.

Even I, was flabbergasted to see James with his arm around famous American basketball players, and to later hear his stories about being the liaison between the basketball teams and the Chinese officials. After 2 months of working 15 hour days at the Olympics, and 3 1/2 months of traveling, James was happy to share his thoughts and feelings with us and share in a ceremonial first dinner hot pot. my favorite!

This morning we went to the 6am morning market with our friend Sun Peng, took lots of pictures, smiled at people, waved, bought fruit and fresh tofu, and ate dumplings for breakfast at a cozy table. The three boys have taken over the house, and are drinking coffee and talking about basketball downstairs, while I'm up here writing and am shortly going to take a nap!