Another free breakfast, and a new area of town and some new friends

On Thursdays, my lessons are spread throughout the day.  I have one lesson at 7:45 a.m. and my next lesson is at 15:20.  Normally I go home and work and or sleep.  Today, I felt a little restless and  I decided to go for a walk.  It ended up as a long walk, maybe two hours.  It was quite a busy day so I've split it into three parts which are not necessarily chronological. Chronologically the day went: free breakfast, the Police roadblock, new friends and drugs education in China.  However I've split off the Police roadblock and drugs education in China into separate posts.  Now back to today!  As I said I was feeling restless so instead of going home for six hours I decided to go for a walk.  As I was rounding the corner to walk along the main street, I noticed one of the ladies from the park.  She was with a friend.  We smiled and waved.  I recognised her friend.  He was one of the Dragon 'kite' flyers from the park.  I looked at him and he at me.  I didn't know the work for Dragon 'kite' flyer, so I looked at hm and made the action of flying a kite.  The action involves a figure of eight action with the arm.  We both knew what we meant!  The lady patted me on the shoulder and invited me to eat with them.  I was not at all hungry, but you can't refuse an offer like that, so we  sat down and ate noodles and goose meat.  I offered to pay but as usual was not allowed!  Another free breakfast!  We ate quickly and went our separate ways.  I took a photo and was later sent the video.

The dragon 'kite' man and the singing lady eating noodles

After all this I decided to go on a long walk and discovered a new part of town.  I wandered around and smiled at a few peop0le who had never seen a foreigner before!  One family in particular looked very interested and said the usual " Ni hao"  I smiled and walked by.  I nearly missed it, a soft moment.  I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a ten pence piece, turned around and went back to try and chat with them.  There was a grandma, a mother and their son.  I asked if the boy was her son.  They understood me!  They were surprised and  said to each other  " The foreigner speaks Chinese!"  She said that he was her son.  I asked how old he was.  She said he was six.  I remarked that he was a big lad.  She said he was a bit stupid, meaning he had some mental difficulties.  I tried to offer him a lollipop but he seemed unaware of my presence.  Mum looked apologetic and again said that he was a bit stupid.  I smiled and offered her the coin.  Both mum and her mother stood up and offered me a place to sit.  I said I could not accept because I had to go back to school, and explained why I was in Jiangkou.  They looked at the coin closely and asked the important question that every Chinese person always asks "How much is is worth?"  I explained to them and they thanked me.  I said bye bye and headed back to school.  A chance meeting but a lovely one.  My only regret is that I failed to photograph it.  I am not as quick with teh camera as I used to be!