We've had a blast these past couple of days, what with Golden Week coming to a close and the school-wide three-day mini-olympics livening up everyone's spirits and giving me a few more days off. I did have to play dress up for the cameras a few times, once formally for a group photos of the hundreds of Chinese and foreign teachers here, and once in a track suit to march around the track and kick off the sporting events. But the added respite was worth being the upper management's puppet for a couple hours!

We brought Jack and Soph out the the field during the first day of the sporting events and they were a hugely popular attraction, especially to my students, who attached to us like bees to honey and did not seperate until we closed the door to our apartment. We are posting some of those photos on the blog so you can all see how much fun it was for the kids. Picture me telling Sophie to chase me, me taking off, her following, and a score of Chinese girls and a couple of guys following her laughing and taking pictures. One might think the novelty would wear off, but it did not, not for the hours we spent in the grass. Jack made fast friends with a couple of boys from my class, and as some of my students had won gold medals in a group event they were given stuffed animals as prizes, which a couple of them bequethed to Jack and Soph. Jack proceeded to use them as weapons in his ongoing struggle against my fifth graders, which was waged across the length and breadth of the field.

Yesterday we went to visit the 'north pagoda', an eight or nine story tower which we were able to climb to the top of for a wonderful 360 degree view of Suzhou. The pagoda held a series of scalloped roofs, each a biit less wide than the one below it, terminating in a spire at the top and painted red with black tile shingles. Inside, at the very middle of the ground floor was a statue of guanyin, and then another statue at each of the four cardinal directions. Going up the winding stairs was a bit harrowing, as they were very steep and narrow, but we managed with all four of us and the stroller, somehow. On the top floor, after taking in the view and listening to a man who had studied English for nine years and was proud of his use of the word "snoozy" in describing our baby's lolling head and slitted eyes, we found in the center of that upper story a cement column around which wire mesh had been wrapped, into which small-denomination bills had been stuffed as offerings. Chinese character graffiti was scored into th wood or written in pencil on all sdies.

The complex that the pagoda is located within was beautiful as well, and we were treated to a few temples, a giant and rotund statue of a reclining Buddha, some very friendly elderly Chinese who were akin for a chance to hold our kids for the camera, a scenic pond surrounded by bamboo and home to a large number of gorgeous white birds as well as tiny kittens. We also saw two monks in traditional clothes standing perfectly still on one section of the path, their faces bathed in sunlight. Scattered through the extensive grounds were concrete tables at which groups of old men and women sat playing mah jong or Chinese chess, talking queitly and barely moving in the still afternoon light.

I've just finished an article I wrote for my column, this one on some of the famous poets of old Suzhou, Fan Zhongyan, Bai Juyi, Lu Ji, and one other. Tonight we are going to our first Chinese wedding, as one of my colleagues at the magazine is tying the knot. That should be fun.

Look for our new photos, and take care!