National Day/Golden Week 2007

This past week we have had all 5 "school days" off, and both weekends. Most people celebrate this time by traveling, going to see family, and having fun. We were only able to do the last one for 9 days, but it has been fun. (Can't travel without passports, which are tied up in a resident visa application.)

Last Sunday we listened to Florida game slip in the last seconds to Auburn, then hiked up the hill just south of our campus. We were determined to get to the top, but when we got there, the fog was so thick and our shoes so wet that we were confused as to where the top even was. We saw some beautiful things along the way, including spider webs full of water droplets, large pheasants that flew out of the bush at the last minute, and some forest scenery that would take your breath away. It took us about 2 1/2 hours go get up and down, after light lunch at the east dining hall. We eat most of our meals there unless I cook.

Monday we did some planning, laundry, and filled out a teaching schedule for the Peace Corps.

Tuesday we lazed around in the morning, then went over to Sylvia's parents' house for lunch, which was wonderful. They are the first family we have spent time with in Tianshui, and they welcomed us warmly. We showed up with some fruit, but they already had bought tons. We were greeted with some family members making dumplings, but we were encouraged to sit down and start eating the fruit and hors d'oeuvres. Nick helped to make a few dumplings, for which the shells had been made from scratch earlier in the day. I ate a pear, and then some roasted chestnuts. I have sung the song "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ..." for my whole life without ever tasting a chestnut. They are everywhere here, sold all along the streets. They are roasted in large, wok-shaped dishes on top of fires inside old oil drums. The nuts are just mixed with cinders and roasted, with frequent mixing. Then they are sifted out with big sifters, and sold in steaming baskets along the streets. For lunch we knew we were having dumplings, but they prepared many other items to put in our dumpling soup to make it taste better. These things were egg strips, pulled chicken, onions, pickled cabbage bits, and a few other things. They sure do beef up the dumpling soup, especially with some vinegar, soy sauce, and hot pepper. We left stuffed and on a search for some long underwear for Nick, which we found at a store on the way to the bus stop. Heather gray.

Wednesday we had dinner with another teacher here, Robbie from Michigan. We ate at Little Lou's of course, and he made fun of us to the waitresses in his great Chinese. It was a lot of fun. We wanted to be a little social this week, rather than sit home and watch movies all week (which we also did).

Thursday we had plans with our Chinese conversation partner (Miss Pan) to see Nan Guo Si (Nanguo temple) at the top of a mountain, but she determined that it was still too wet outside. We were ready to do something that day, so we walked over to Fuxi temple (about a 20-min walk), and see one of things that Tianshui is known for. It was preceded by a street of vendors selling thoroughly Chinese souvenirs, and we'll definitely take any visitors to Tianshui there, because some of them are really nice. One thing we almost bought was a big piece of cedar hollowed out as a decoration/pen holder/stuff holder. It smelled great, and probably would for a long time. The inside of Fuxi temple is great too - it's got not only multiple buildings with shrines to the the Fuxi, but interesting tree trunk growths, beautiful artifacts, and museum guides who will swoop in with surveys for foreigners (which we were sorry to see invalidated after they found out we live in Tianshui). It was interesting to see a progression of pictures detailing the Chinese creation story, for which the Fuxi is responsible. The statues of him show a stately man with a short beard, holding a yin yang in his right hand. The progression was all in Chinese, but the pictures indicated generally that he had to consult something in the skies before man was created. Maybe next time we'll get a tour in English.

Thursday night we had dinner with some other teachers here, a family from New Zealand. We went back to Little Lou's and had another great time. Their family includes two sons, 11 and 13. They have grown up traveling around China with their parents, so they're a little bit crazy. We went back to their apartment after dinner for tea and dessert, and got to know them a little better. It was really refreshing to be invited into someone else's family rather than having to initiate a relationship with a single other person. It was comfortable. If the 11-year old had stopped trying to attach himself to Nick, he may have been a little more comfortable. Just kidding.

Friday we went into town in the early afternoon and finally got ourselves a cell phone. We won't use it often, but it will come in very handy when we aren't home. If you want to attempt a call to China, we'll give you the number :)

Saturday I helped clean up the English language library, and we did some more lesson planning.

Today started poorly with Florida losing again in the last seconds to a school we should have beat (in this case LSU). The rest of the day was filled with some exercise and finishing up lessons. Back to school! It's good because we'll actually have something to do, but bad because it's actually work.