Thursday's Chinese Literature and Art class

In our Chinese literature and art class we got to practice writing with the Mao Bi, the ancient chinese writing brush.  The person pictured above is my favorite Lao Shi, Monica Pan.  She has very good English skills and is a very good teacher.  She is an English teacher here but is teaching the CLC students Literature and Art, because she can talk to us.  What I like about her is you can see just how much she enjoys teaching us about Literature and Art; you can see her eyes light up and her face break out in a smile as she is sharing her love of her country with us.  She will be able to visit CLC in October.  I would like to be able to travel to their campus to she her again.  If not I will always be able to connect with her on QQ.

The Mao Bi, is interesting to write with.  I may get one to take back and continue to practice.  I did like this exercise.

Moncia Pan is on the right and the person in the center is the real expert with the Mao Bi.  He is putting his seal on the writing he has just completed.   He did one for me that I requested.  Mine says Lao wai, or foreign person.  Some one asked what his seal was made out of and the answer was Jade.  We are getting a seal made for us using our Chinese name. I asked if ours was going to be made of Jade but that went over their head.  I assume it will not be but I can still hope.  My Chinese name is Ni Kou.  Which I choose in honor of our first exchange student, Nico Calibre.  In Chinese is means the mouth of a lion, or a lion's mouth.  But I picked the characters for the sound.  I thought that the characters for lion and mouth would make a better Nico sound than invader of lady's under garments.  That was another possibility for the Nico sound in chinese.  If I had wanted I could have selected the Ni sound that meant "invader" and the Kou sound that is a form of lady's under garments.  That is why if you get a tattoo here you had better do your research and make sure everyone understands just what you want on your arm.  I am not going to make that mistake again!

This is a picture of the CLC students at the end of class.  After the class I helped clean the brushes and then Pan Laoshi and I went to lunch and talked until I had to go and teach my afternoon class.  I do like many of the faculty that I have met here.  I like the ones that I can easily talk to and I like the ones that I have to work at my chinese and they have to work at their english.  I have met so many nice people here and I will miss them when I return.