starting work: first official meeting and the teaching partners

today began like all those before it: with a trip out the west gate to get breakfast... Good as usual! 包子and egg pita!
For lunch we went with the Lee university students and some of Ben's friends (one of whom is going to be studying at Ohio State) The restaurant we went to was the 'fanciest' I have been to yet. Our hosts (the Chinese friends) ordered many dishes from the menu: all of which except for the 'duck feet' were delicious.
I spent the afternoon doing a little reading and catching up on emails until around 4:30 when our meeting with teaching partners was to begin.
My teaching partner is Hou Jian (he is a PhD student studying translation). I think that he and I hit it off pretty well. Hou Jian is interested in Philosophy and religion, and he is very eager to talk with me about his ideas and hear my ideas as well... I have found just from our short conversation that he is well versed in both eastern and western philosophy (I wish I could say the same about myself). I look forward to getting a Chinese insight on these topics...
Hou Jian tells me that I will be teaching 5 classes (2 hours each) of writing to 3rd year English Majors and 3 (also 2 hour) classes to 1st years... Unfortunately, I have class every day of the week and I begin class EVERYDAY at 8 AM!!!! Looks like I will not have much time to sleep in. (which is fine because my bed is so uncomfortable) I am meeting with him again Wednesday morning to discuss my schedule further and find out which classrooms I will be teaching in...
Following the meeting, all of the Foreign teachers (7 Americans, 1 Japanese and 1 Russian) and our teaching partners were invited by the director of the Foreign Affairs Office to a dinner at a nearby hotel. The dinner was also served Chinese traditional (family-style) with all of the dishes on a 'Lazy-Susan' spinning tray in the middle of the table. Once again I was not disappointed by any of the food. (am getting used to the whole fish on the table-which was also delicious)
At this dinner I was exposed, for the first time, to the Chinese tradition of "toasting." First the director stands and gives a lengthy speech (in Chinese-his assistant translated) and then he invites everyone to drink. Second, the assistant director makes a similar presentation and everyone drinks. After these two rounds, the Directer goes to each person at the dinner and makes a personal toast with everyone... It is then customary for each guest to get up and toast all of the other guests... Luckily, I was just drinking 啤酒 (beer) and not 白酒(literally 'white alcohol'= about 50% ABV) This dinner and toasting went on for about 2 hours... It was a fun night, but it wore me out...