Basketball, Ping Pong and Coffee

Well I met up with Jeff over at his place and we went down the street to a public school that has a basketball court.




We found some Chinese kids playing Ping Pong and they invited me to play.


They spoke English quite well.



They kicked my white American butt!!

No big surprise.

Then we played some basketball.
One Chinese and one American per team.
Me and Tong kicked butt there...

Mind you it was probably 95 degrees out.

But Jeff wanted to play basketball.













After that we went to a coffee/tea house down the street that belongs to one of his Chinese teachers mom.
This was my first good cup of coffee in two weeks....it was so good.
All I can find is Nescafe instant coffee...it is soooo bad!

Moments after we sat down a few people came in and one was a young lady who spoke English, so we invited her to join us.





Her name was Lucy (a very popular name here). She is from a city about an hour from here...Just visiting for the day.


After some conversation we found out that she was good friends with Julin, the teacher whose parents own the place.
Small world.


That gal on the right was our waitress. Her name was...Well I couldn't pronounce her name.
We asked her if she had an English name and she said no but wanted one so Jeff and I gave her a name...Jessica.

That's one thing I found that is very strange around here.
I get to give a lot of kids...And adults, English names.
There are a lot more Chinese kids named Chad, Robert, Connie, Sydney and Jimmy around here.
These are names of my family members...Sorry Dave...Dave is already being used too much. LOL

Julins mother would not take our money (we forced a tip) for the coffee(and watermelon).
Watermelon is served with everything!
Julins mother said whenever we come here everything was free.
Chinese hospitality...these people are so great.
I think they just like having foreigners in their shop.

After that we went back to his place and listened to a beautiful little girl play a Chinese instrument called a Erhu...Pronounced R-who.
WOW...it sounded so amazing.





It was kind of like a Chinese violin.
But it only had two strings.
How anybody can make such beautiful music with just two strings is beyond me.



She said she would teach me how to play it....I can't wait!!

Tonight I'm meeting up with Bill, his wife, Jeff and a few other people for dinner.

I wonder what's on the menu tonight?

Stay tuned for the exciting adventures of....."What Will Jim Eat Next"?

Jim