Where did the week go...?

I notice these posts are getting a bit long, and I'm falling behind. No wonder: in the first five days after getting off the plane, I taught 5 classes, gave one guest lecture, and conducted 3 rehearsals. I also (occasionally) washed, slept, ate, and learned fluent Chinese. Ok, the last is not true, much to my chagrin. I have little confidence in using the language beyond "ni hao" (hello) and "xiexie" (thank you). I can identify some characters (the ones for "China," "Beijing," "exit," "West Gate," etc.), but it's not enough not to feel like an ignorant boob.
So, the rest of the week in quick review...David Gardiner (my co-director, to those of my lurking blogophiles who don't know the whole story) arrived Tuesday night, while I was out on loan to Professor Sun, and got dragged off to a drama competition himself, most of which was in Chinese. I didn't see him until next morning, somewhat the worse for wear. Wednesday afternoon we had two sophomore writing classes on the schedule, which we split. I should perhaps briefly explain about these classes that they're usually taught by Joe Graves, who is currently at Arkansas Rep, and that Joe had hired an ex-RSC actor from New York named Colin McPhillamy to do the teaching this semester. Colin left quite suddenly and under somewhat mysterious circumstances before I arrived (I had skyped with him once or twice while still in G'ville to get the briefest orientation about the teaching. He is now somewhere in Australia...we seem to be holding down the fort for a number of fugitive characters.). So, with about a month to go in the semester, David and I are now the de facto teachers of these classes, if not the teachers of record. The students of course expect us to know what's going on -- do we have a lesson plan? -- will there be exams? -- to which our extremely professional and reassuring answer is: "Uh, we'll see...we don't really work here..."
In the writing class, I had them first compose a collective story based on elements of the dramatic plot (exposition, complication, climax, etc.). They would write one element and then pass the story on to their neighbor. Then I passed out an article from the NY Times about the government's homogenizing of given names. Their homework for next week is to draft a letter to the editor in response.
On the rehearsal front, we met on Wednesday night for a read-through at the North Chemistry building (which is where the English department is headquartered. Of course.) We have nine members of the cast and several alternates, in case we lose students in the rehearsal process, which is a very real possibility, given their schedules. Before reading the script, we did some physical/improv exercises with them, like "building a machine," mostly to condition them for ensemble work.
On Thursday, I taught another oral English for freshmen in the (bloody early!) morning. The quote of the day came from one girl who said: "I must tell a joke. Do you know who is the American actor Gary Oldman?" (He's British, of course.) "You look a little like him. I think he is...charming (giggle giggle)." I accepted the compliment humbly. These students are simultaneously whip-smart and naive, a very interesting mixture.
During the afternoon, David and I wandered outside campus to a part of town called "Electronics City," which you have to imagine like a souk, if it were transplanted into Blade Runner. You are accosted from all sides by salesmen and -women trying to lure you to their stands, except they sell laptops and MP3 players and cell phones, not spices and silk. David got himself a new battery for his laptop after some haggling (de rigeur). Then we went on a quest for the Carrefour (a kind of French-based superstore chain), which, it turned out, is part of a vast underground shopping arcade that could be anywhere in Globalistan. By the time we had found it, we were too hungry to shop for anything, so we backtracked and found an Indian restaurant. We hesitated at first -- is it even right to eat Indian food in China?-- but it smelled very good and had a cheap lunch buffet. So we rationalized it by saying that at least we were on the same continent.
At evening rehearsal, we had only for actors, the others having left for the long Mayday weekend, but we had a good time improvising with them through one of the chapters/scenes of Einstein's Dreams which we are thinking of adding to the play. If we can harness the enthusiasm of that evening, we can do the play.