Tim the Teacher

I'm sitting in a computer lab and a brownout just occurred. Let's hope it does not happen again while I write this entry. I imagine the large cities get all the power first, and little cities like Yangshou receive what's left!
I've been living in Yangshou since Monday. Many foreigners come to Yangshou because it is breath of fresh air if you've been in the large cities. That, and because it is surrounded by these beautiful hills. I found a school that offers a volunteer program. In exchange for teaching two hours a week, I receive a room and meals. The feedback has already been positive so maybe there is teaching in my blood? My students come from all over China, and the average age is about 22. So much better than the noisy 2nd graders in Shanghai! We just converse about whatever. Favorite topics have included the marriage of my brother, growing up with deaf parents, and the strange foods I've encountered in China. I just found out that I ate pig's ear for the first time on Monday. Not too bad, but too rubbery as one would imagine. The students are just so talented and smart overall.
Yangshou is famous, not only for its hills, but for the trails that pass through the hills. I rode my bike for almost five hours yesterday with another volunteer teacher who is Dutch. Sore tush aside, it was so much fun. Sometimes the trail was paved, sometimes I was riding on a trail of rocks, and sometimes I found myself riding through rice paddies when the trail was unbelievably muddy and only 18 inches wide. At one point, a cow blocked the road and we had to shoosh it away with our presence. We biked through small villages (if you can even call them that) that looked like the kind of places only a few outsiders had ever visited. Still, so many of the people waved to us and said hello as we passed them. I saw chickens walking in and out of homes, buffaloes grazing along the road, and many a little elderly woman whose hunchbacked body carried heavy buckets of water from the well. After the bike ride, my legs and shoes were caked with mud. I will travel around Yangshou this weekend. Despite its size, Yangshou has a lot to offer so who knows what trouble I will get myself in.