A trip to see Angela at the university and a chance to see some fresher military training

Today I got a call from Angela.  Did I fancy a trip to Tongren.  Of course!  I could do with a change of scenery!  So I got changed and as ready in twenty minutes.  She had ordered a taxi for me and it was waiting outside.  I jumped in and I was off to Tongren!
It was a standard taxi and as usual, it was full!  This time there were two biggish guys in the back and me!  Shoulder overlapping shoulder and thigh to thigh and this driver was in a hurry! Not too bad though.
We eventually got to Tongren and met Angela.  She took me.to the school canteen and I had lunch.  We chatted for a good whole.and caught up in what had been happening to each of us, a good gossip,  and then I accompanied her to a hair wash!   After the wash and blow dry, we took a taxi back to her place because Angela had misplaced her glasses.  We eventually found them under the baby blanket!
Then it was a trip to the military training.  For your information, military training is not quite what it seems.  It is not true military  training, but military-like training.  You wear army style clothing and do up to two weeks army style training.  This happens when you move up from middle school  to senior high school, when you move from senior high school to university, and sometimes when you move up to do a master's or a PhD.  Everyone does it.  The teachers organise it and there are not usually any military personnel present.

Although Angela is a lead teacher, she is also assigned a fresher class,  This is her class.  The flags are a numbering system.  This is Group four section one.  They are just normal university first year students undertaking normal 'military' training.

 

This video interested me because it contains singing as part of the military training.  Everyone in China can sing and does so quite openly without fear of ridicule!

We stayed there a while, but it was getting hot, so we slipped of to Angela's office and continued our conversation. We kind of ran out of juicy gossip and got down to more practical matters.  We then talked more practical matters.  Angela had decided to treat me and one other foreign  teacher, Dora, an American girl, to a hotpot, so off we went in a taxi and met with Dora.  Angela had, as usual, picked a lovely restaurant.

Angela, Dora and me the hotpot restaurant

 Dora is a member of the Peace Core, and working here by invitation on a small stipend.
She is also vegan or more correctly lacto-vegan: a new one on me!  Food allergies and preferences are not well catered for in this area of china, but we managed.  Dinner done , it was time to go.  I was due to go home in an hour so we walked towards the place where I would get my taxi and bought some milk tea.  We arrived just in time and picked up the taxi and I headed home.  At the end of the motorway, there is always a police presence.  This time they decided to stop us!

Men in black.  The SWAT members hanging around in support of the traffic police.  View from the car window.

The taxi driver, in the white tee-shirt,  being interviewed by the police ant the end of the motorway.

Before I got home I asked the driver to do me drop me off at the park rather than at my home.  I think there was a bit of misunderstanding, but we made it!  I played in the park for a while and chatted with a new friend.  Eventually I walked the long way home.  I passes a small BBQ stall.  There was a group of about right guys there who tried to get me to drink with them. I refused politely.  I walked off to a local shop and bought a small bottle of Baijiu.  I gave it to them.  They insisted I had to have just a little Baijiu. It was peach Baijiu spot wasn't too bad.  We talked for a.few minutes and then I told them I had to go.