The past week

Survived my first week of classes.  I have a few really good sections and one that is pretty miserable but overall I enjoyed it.  Classes were largely uneventful.  Friday was Teachers' Day so lots of my students brought me small gifts.  After class I was standing outside and basically got swarmed by kids who were giving me things as their parents were picking them up.  It was pretty awesome.
I managed to find another foreigner online who is living in the city so he and I met up Friday night for BBQ.  While we were there a bunch of older chinese guys were sitting next to us and kept talking to us.  Well, they tried to talk.  Only one of them spoke any English and it was pretty weak but he tried his hardest!  They invited us out to a KTV which is basically a karoke place but you get your own room.  It was a really fancy KTV with lots of snacks and semi-decent singing.  As is chinese custom they kept giving us more drinks and toasting us.  It actually gets to be quite annoying as it is considered an insult if you don't drink everytime you're toasted.
When this was done the other foreigner slipped out and I said I was going to head home as well.  They said they'd drive me, I should've known better.  We left fairly quickly but we ended up and yet another restaurant where they ordered heaps of food despite me telling them many times that I was full and had no interest in eating.  After eating as little as I could they finally gave up and took me home.  It was a fun night for sure, a good window into the culture.  I was also offered at least 30 cigarettes throughout the night as, again, it's polite to offer everyone a smoke if you want to smoke yourself.  Everyone here smokes, even the foreigners.  It kinds sucks but I'm getting used to it.  The chinese guys never accept that I don't smoke, they don't force it like they do drinking but they never remember the next time they're offering.
Last night I met up with that same foreigner (Adam).  We hit another BBQ then went to a "foreigner" bar.  Basically it's just an American style bar.  Met a few other foreigners there then went back to the BBQ where more and more foreigners kept arriving.  Must've been about 30 of us which has to be about ALL the foreigners in the whole city.  They all said they've never seen so many of us in one place before.  Was good to meet a few other people but I still want to meet some chinese people although I'm realizing that will take quite a bit more studying in Mandarin.
There's a bit of an update.  A few more pics up on Picasa. https://picasaweb.google.com/116352195029465810758
Wiseguy1