Second Tea House on the Left: Local Laoban Outings

Over the past week, plans have often been co-opted by the owner of the local hotel that we stay at on the weekends. If you haven't read the previous post in which the hotel Laoban took our photo and asked to hang it in the lobby, I suggest you check it out. After that, my friend Ida and I ran into the Laoban after one of our days teaching at the elementary school. It ends up that the Laoban has a sixth grader who was attending the Teach for China summer camp at the school.
As soon as he saw us, the Laoban invited us to have lunch with him. Ida and I looked at each other with a kind of bemused expression that visits our faces often in rural China. After a quick interchange of shrugs and half-nods, we responded positively (I should really say "I responded" - the Laoban essentially always speaks with me and not with Ida. She has reported to me that they have made eye contact at least once). However, we were worried that we would not be able to eat and still get back to the middle school for our classes that would begin in under 50 minutes, so we said that we should probably go back with the rest of the fellows and that we could get lunch another time. The Laoban would have nothing of it. He assured us that he would get us back on time and that he would drive us back himself. While we were worried about time, we were also very tired of the school cafeteria, so we agreed and followed him to a restaurant right next to the school. In the end, we had lunch with the Laoban, his wife, his sister, his nephew (who was actually one of Ida's students), and, for some reason, three of the school's security guards. The food was delicious and the Laoban managed to get us back to the school and to our Chinese class earlier than we normally get there. A lesson on why to say "yes" to opportunities that present themselves in rural China.

This weekend, I was planning on getting all my lesson planning (and blogging) done for the next week or so in the comfort of the hotel. Thus Saturday afternoon found both Ida and myself working on lesson plans and blogging when we were interrupted by a call from the hotel Laoban. Since we were in the midst of being productive, I was tempted not to take the call, but was convinced to by Ida, who wanted to get out and move. When I answered the phone, I was surprised not to hear the Laoban's gruff Chinese, but the excellent English of Yuan Yuan, a Chinese staff member. She told me that she was in the car with the Laoban, and that he was inviting us to go to a nearby ancient town with him (and Yuan Yuan and another Chinese staff member, Stephen, both of whom had been touring Dayao with the Laoban during the morning). Ida and I again shared a brief exchange of shrugs, nods, and raised eyebrows before agreeing to meet them by the hotel (the Laoban's hotel, it should be mentioned) in ten minutes.
The day after that was full of interesting and fun exploring. We went to a nearby town and visited a Buddhist temple, an old government building, a pond full of flowering waterlilies, and an excellent restaurant. We ran into some other Teach for China fellows who had found their way to the town and struggled to explain how exactly we had found ourselves there with Yuan Yuan, Stephen, and the Laoban. It was hard to describe how we had gotten there. It was somehow connected with us saying yes at questionable yet key moments. I'll have to remember that as I go off to placement.