China Post #36 Music Class

Linda's parents have been in town for the last week and Dylan has been out of school. The school closed for the summer because the teacher is in Beijing for a few months of training. I have to say that it was nice for the three weeks or so that Dylan went to school all day and especially the last week and a half when they provided a hot lunch. Without a car it was hard to get much done when he was only going for a few hours a day, I miss driving.

Anyway, over the weekend Linda went with her parents and her coworker to see a tailor in Dalian and pick out cloth to have some pants made as well as a pair of shorts for me. Then on Sunday when I was hoping to get a long ride in, it decided to rain for the whole day. Instead we headed back into Dalian to do some shopping for gifts and mostly got wet. At least the market was not crowded because the rain was keeping people from leaving their homes.

On Monday, Dylan was invited to the music room where his school is. The room is run by his friend, Jing Gong's mother, so naturally I expected Jing Gong to be there and they would spend the time playing together. After dropping Dylan off and finding out that Jing Gong was not there I headed across the street to the sports park with Linda's parents and walked around the track with them. Here is a view of about 15-20 buildings that will be condos going up in various stages, there are more behind the ones that are closer.

At a minimum of 4 units per floor and roughly 20 stories high this should house 1200-1500 or more families. Pretty crazy, and there are at least 5 other locations around Dalian and the Development Area that are the same.

When we returned after almost an hour this is what Dylan was up to.
Yup, he was having an actual piano lesson, maybe you can get excited now mom, we will see, he seems to enjoy it but we would have to find an instructor back in Albuquerque if we want him to continue.

Later we headed with the Music teacher to where Jing Gong was taking what seemed to be a pretty advanced Chinese lesson. Jing Gong is only 10 months older than Dylan, so about 4 and a half, and was reading a chinese children's book (not one that is only a few words per page either, but more like 100 words per page) that was written in characters, not phonetics.

After the lesson was over we headed to lunch with Jing Gong's family and the Chinese teacher. Here is Linda's mom talking with Jing Gong's mom (music teacher) and Linda's dad talking with the Chinese teacher.
And of course Dylan and Jing Gong on our way to lunch.
So Dylan eventually had 3 classes in the 4 days we are here this week and Linda's mom gave several gifts to the teacher and Jing Gong. Of course Dylan got a handful of small toys as well and we were not charged for the classes.

Here is an interesting sight. A group of three street vendors.
You have the guy selling fruit out of the back of a truck, one out of the back of a horse drawn cart and a hot food (I think) cart all hanging out on the same corner on the way to Dylan's school and piano lessons.