A Week of Fables, Movie Sets, and "Burning Leaves"

This week has by far been the craziest one since I've arrived back in Tianjin. I haven't had a moment of "down-time" and the laundry and dish piles are beginning to creep across the room... Here are just a few of the things that have been going on.

Fables
I spent two evenings this week doing a voice recording for an Aesop's Fables workbook for a Chinese kindergarten class. Basically I sit in a recording room, read English for two hours and they pay me a lot of money! Pretty sweet deal. :) This recording was especially fun because I got to read as if I were having story-time with a bunch of little kids - all animated and with different voices. I also got to read a bunch of cute rhymes like "Eensy Weensy Spider" and many more that called for animal sounds. It was actually fun! Apparently they like my voice so they've asked me to come back next week for a different recording.

Movie Sets
This week on my campus they've been filming a Chinese movie so there have been actors, lights, cameras, and sets all over the place. I got some pictures one day as I was going past and almost jumped for joy when they didn't ask me to do anything in the movie! Usually when I walk past things like this I am immediately asked to be in pictures or scenes...not my cup of tea...

One of the sets

An actress taking a break from a scene

"Burning Leaves"
Some of my friends would call me an optimist so I shouldn't be surprised when they laughed at me for saying that the strange smell outside was burning leaves. Oh yeah, they don't burn leaves in Tianjn... In fact, lately the pollution has been so thick that it stinks. The beginning of the week started out great (see picture of blue sky below) but by the end of the week a thick cloud of pollution had descended upon the city making it difficult to see skyscrapers even 1 or 2 blocks away. I'll try to get a good picture sometime today so that you can see what I am talking about!


The rest of the week was filled with lesson planning, grading, lunches with students, some editing and wedding decorating. Two of my friends are getting married today so I will post again soon with pictures from that event! Okay...I'm out of here...what to wear to the wedding?!?!