Dragon Tortoises and Performances

I got this strange looking teapot from the postgrads that I meet on Saturday mornings. Well, their supervisor gave it as a gift. It's like a tortoise with a dragon's head! The handle of the lid is another baby tortoise on the big one's back!


It's made from some special stone, which is supposed to be good for your health. Well, it makes a nice cup of tea. I haven't tried it with the Barry's teabags yet!

Anyways, Friday night I went along to see a performance put on by fist year students. My Chinese teacher was involved. She wrote and produced one of the programs in the show, so she invited me along. It was actually an interesting show!

First, some breakdancing students burst onto the stage. Quite impressive. A rock band followed and played a Chinese song, followed (to my amazement) by "About a Girl" by Nirvana! They sort of murdered it but it was good to se something with a harder edge compared to the vomit-inducing crap I usually hear blaring out f hops and establishments here!

My teacher's performance was next. It was a play based around a student growing up, leaving home and coping in University. Since the narrative was all in Chinese, I didn't get much of it. My teacher was doing some dancing. She should have sung, since she is a very god singer! The crowd loved it anyway, and they all performed very well.

More acts followed, including some traditional dancing and comedy acts. A lot of comedy here seems to revolve around 2 people in dialogue. They liked it but I was just laughing when they laughed!

Some of my Navigation students were there as well, and one guy as on stage, I don't know what was going on. They would all go up in groups of 4 to the mic and shout something ad the crowd would roar. They were all dressed in their military uniforms. I think it was something to o with debating.

I had to do my "token Westerner giving flowers to the singer on stage" thing as again! Ah, the trials of it all, having to give flowers to pretty girls! All my first year Navigation students will be bursting with jealousy, since the mention of a woman makes them all excited. They really need to get some women!

There was also a Tae Kwon Do performance, which wasn't bad. Lots of peole jumping about and breaking pieces of wood. People don't seem to be into martial arts at all over here, which is sort of srprising, since you would have thought they'd all be mad into Kung Fu. Most Chinese people don't seem to be into exercise at all. The education system is too focused on exams and books. for shame!