More Surprises

Yesterday, as it turned out, was filled with more surprises. Before our principal left our room she invited us to dinner with her to celebrate the Midautumn festival. First of all, one of the dishes she served us was little, brown, textured, stick-shaped things. I was worried at first that they were stick bugs. But it turned out they actually were sticks! Did you know you can fry bamboo stalks and eat them? They were really good—sort of like chips. Then after dinner itself, she brought out nuts that looked like pistachios except round. She said they were gingko nuts. Then she brought fruit and urged us to eat some of everything. Eventually we convinced her that although it was all very good, we were very full and we returned to school.

After dinner I went to the teachers office to use the internet and write yesterday’s blog post. Somewhere around 9:30 a teacher came in with peaches, chestnuts, and large, red-bean-paste-filled mooncakes and urged me to try everything. So I did, thanking her profusely because she speaks fangyan with a strong accent so I can’t otherwise communicate very much with her.

Then, at 10:30, just as I was thinking about going back to my room, I got a call from Katherine saying that the local teacher who has been helping us with everything had invited us to her house. Tomorrow? No, now.

She had another Midautumn Festival spread: meat, red bean, and flower mooncakes; roasted gingko nuts and chestnuts; and piles of apples, peaches, oranges, and pomegranates. We met her husband and sat and nibbled at the food, sometimes chatting with her and sometimes turning to watch a TV show about the Japanese occupation.

She told us that she had been in the city visiting a student in the hospital. We mentioned that we had also gone with local teachers on Saturday to visit a student in the local hospital. She said yes, some students were in the local hospital and some in the city hospital. Why are so many students in the hospital? They ate some wild-growing fruit that was poisonous. How many students? She held up four fingers. Four? Forty.

They’re all okay, most of them are already out of the hospital, and the rest should be coming back soon. Thank goodness.