My two piano students had good lessons today. The older was fine, tho' it seemed he needed to practice more. Later, I learned from their mom that he practices harder than his younger bro. He needs more structure and may have been a bit traumatized by a previous teacher who didn't have patience with him, making him gun-shy and uncertain about himself. She said both of them really look forward to the piano time, which was good to hear.
We did more of our laundry and left some in the dryer before heading back to XM. We picked up some fruit and crackers before heading home. L. went to class (make up classes for the ones she'll miss during our trip to Shanghai), while I went home to drop off and rearrange laundry and pick up my computer adaptor. I stopped by to pick up some onion pancakes (chung you bing) and talked with the waitresses there. I asked one of them if they'd ever thought about going to college. She said she thinks about it all the time. She so wants to go, but right now, her life at home isn't going so well. She almost started to cry when talking about it.
On my way back, "G" the Japanese teacher on our campus was the bus as well. She was at the international office in a meeting with other Japanese teachers. There's been an increase in ill-feelings towards Japanese lately, because of the refusal of the Japanese gov't to admit in their curriculum and society to atrocities against China during the WW2 years (e.g. Nanjing massacre). China holds a vote to allow Japan into the UN security council and this is a roadblock towards approving them, it seems. So it's been getting attention in the news. GW is asking Japanese teachers to be wary of the current conditions that might make it difficult for them to live here. So far, "G" says there hasn't been any backlash on our campus or the main campus. I asked her about her hometown, and their sentiments towards us, Americans. She feels there isn't any bad feelings at all among the Japanese towards Americans. Her grandparents survived the atomic bombing because they were in another city at the time, but their home was damaged.
ATV (Hong Kong) advertised a Pope John Paul II special at 10:05 pm tonight. However, some nature special on crocodiles aired instead. Outside of Catholics, there seems to be few admirers of the pope here.
