After I'd been in Yangshuo a couple of weeks, Owen asked me to help him out. He needed a teacher on Fridays in Guilin at a school he has worked with for a couple of years. How could I turn him down? This is the man paying the rent for the apartment I live in. And besides, the pay would be nice.

So, I now leave the apartment Friday mornings at 5:45. It's very dark at 5:45. Remarkably I am seldom the only one astir, although there aren't too many of us out and about! If I wait until 6, the street lights are off and then it really is dark. Besides, I like to be on a bus by 6 as I want to be in Guilin as soon after 7:30 as possible. The buses stop often along the road north. If the crew spots someone standing along the road, they slow yelling "Guilin, Guilin." The bus soon fills with people, some country people with their produce headed to markets in Guilin. I have been the only foreigner on the bus, except the two mornings I took another volunteer with me.

With any luck I've made it to Guilin, caught a taxi out to the neighborhood where the school is and am enjoying a bowl of these dumplings by 8:00. I stumbled onto this little place the second Friday in Guilin. I'm now a regular there. The dumplings are very small. They are made with a thin skin. I love the letuce that is added. And the broth warms me on cold mornings. As does this smile and the care I get from the couple who run the place. I'm disappointed if I miss this breakfast.

Qinfeng Experimental School is a short walk from the restaurant down this narrow street. It's the four story buildings with the red lettering. There are taller apartment buildings behind the school. I think it's called an experimental school because it's grades K through 9. Usually grades K-6 are in a primary school and grades 7-9 are in a junior middle school. I am aware of one other difference. There are no bells....they play music in place of bells. Perhaps that's part of the "experiment" too.

I teach two middle school grade three groups. They would be called ninth graders in the States. This is their last year at this school. I have class 1 and class 2. That distinction means they are the top students of their level. I meet with each group for two consecutive forty minute periods. It's been fun and challenging to be back with this age student. I'm their oral English experience for the week. The students are not grouped by English ability. And they are together taking the same classes all day...may have been together since kindergarten. They stay in the same room and the teachers move in and out. All this makes for a different group dynamic than we have in American schools. The group dynamic has its pluses and minuses. But all that aside, it is fun to be with some students who can actually converse a bit with me. Most of these students have been studying English for six years...granted as a foreign language, but still after six years the more outspoken are speaking.

A definite plus to teaching at Qinfeng has been meeting Ben. Ben is the foreign affairs officer. He spent a summer going to school in Illinois in 2001. His English is very good. And he is a very nice man. Besides that his wife manages a travel agency. Such a bonus! Another side note: Ben has over a thousand orchids. He says the care of them fills all his extra moments.

Between 12:30 and 1:00 I'm back on a bus headed south to Yangshuo. The morning goes quickly. I'm happy with all that this Friday morning teaching has added to my experience in China.