After a fairly good night’s sleep on the boat, we make our way down to breakfast at around 7:15. It is the usual type of breakfast fare, eggs, bacon, cereal, pancakes, German deli breakfast and a small table with some Chinese items. I am guessing that they have learned that old people from the U.S are not very adventurous eaters. I try a steamed bun. The thing I like best though is a spicy noodle dish from the German breakfast items. There are two tables of Germans here. A couple of people from our Jimmy group join us after a while and we feel obliged to talk to them. Some other guy from St. Louis sits down. After finding out we are from California he opines that CA is losing population to FL and TX because of our high taxes. I know that is not true. I say I guess it depends on how much you value your quality of life and that we are happy to pay more to live in California given the weather, insect situation and recreational opportunities. People are such dicks about California sometimes. I do not go around insulting their states although in most cases it would be easy to do so.
Around 9 AM we listen to a lecture about boat safety and facilities. Then we set off for our day’s activity which is a visit to an elementary school in Yueyang which is supported by Viking. The city of Yueyang (only three million people) is pretty dismal looking. There is a lot of heavy industry revolving around coal. China generates a lot of electricity using coal. Smog is a big result.
I am expecting a nice modern school but the school is rundown and ugly. The children line our path saying “Welcome to our school” in English. It is kind of weird. Then some girls do dances. Lastly we visit a classroom where 68 students are crammed into a little classroom. They are very excited to see us. I don’t think they are faking it. They read some English for us. John is the example of the tallest American in Jimmy’s group. Later they ask us to sign their books. John gives out a business card which they want him to autograph. I show some kids the pictures I have on my camera. They are all excited. It turns out to be quite a nice visit.
This afternoon we are only on the boat which is nice. We can relax. We fall into a stuporous jetlag sleep and wake up with our hearts racing and nerves ajangle. This kind of nap is worse than not sleeping at all.
We head down to hear a lecture on the Yangtze or long river as it is known in Chinese. We learn a lot about the importance of this river, the third longest in the world. A new project that the Chinese are working on is a diversion of water from the wet south to the dry north. The idea of people drinking this water full of effluent is disturbing. The water is so dirty that when the locals wash their clothes in it, they have to take the clothes home and wash them a final time in the unsafe to drink tap water. Although the pictures in the talk have blue skies, the sky here is an opaque whitish gray.
After a pretty much tasteless Chinese dinner, we watch a show with native costumes. We decide to go to bed on the early side, hopeful that our ill-advised nap has not cost us the night’s sleep.
