This school year has started off with a buzz of activity, and then a nice week-long holiday. Our library is open for business, and we have a a new snazzy system for actually keeping track of the books checked out. A big thank-you to all who have donated materials. We will have various publicity events this term to get more students into the library.
We spent our holiday week by traveling pretty far away along the old Silk Road of China over to
Xinjiang Autonomous Region (province). Think desert, camels, mountains, Islam, Arabic script, mutton, and people with lighter hair and eyes. We took a train to Urumqi, but only stayed one night before heading out to the city of
Turpan, an ancient capital with a very large and well-preserved city of ruins. From C-14 dating, the ruins are said to have 1600 years of history. And because they are in an arid climate where erosion happens only because of wind, many of the walls are still standing, and archaeologists have put together an excellent idea of the buildings, the areas, the way of life, etc. These are the
Jiaohe (jau-huh) Ruins. Turpan is a small city, so we rented bikes and rode the 10 km out to the ruins, passing wonderful courtyard homes, herds of goats and sheep, countless donkey cards which Nick pulled up next to and said hello in his newly acquired Uighur tongue, and fields of cotton and grapes.
This picture is the way that little stuffed breads are cooked - stuck to the side of a metal cylindrical stove with the heating element at the bottom. The breads are stuffed with mutton, onions, and spices.
After another night back in Urumqi, we headed to
Tianchi Lake (or Heavenly Peak Lake). We hiked around it after a crappy morning spent puttering around on a tourist bus, and stayed the night in a serene Kazak yurt. The next morning we hiked around the lake, dodged cows, and inhaled the fresh air. While hiking down, Nick and I had the idea to make a "Flat Sarah." There is a popular school project called "
Flat Stanley" where a traveler will take a drawing of a character (Stanley) in his suitcase and take pictures of Stanley with various landmarks or exciting things behind him. Stanley travels the world, then reports back to the student, who can learn about those places. So, we were thinking that with Sarah Palin needing to beef up her travel experience, we could make a "Flat Sarah" and take pictures of her wherever we went, thereby bestowing a plethora of new travel experience (we might even call it "foreign policy experience"). What do you think?
This is a stuffed camel, begging for some affection, at the base of the mountain. Check out the rest of our pictures at
this link. Happy Halloween!
This school year has started off with a buzz of activity, and then a nice week-long holiday. Our library is open for business, and we have a a new snazzy system for actually keeping track of the books checked out. A big thank-you to all who have donated materials. We will have various publicity events this term to get more students into the library.
We spent our holiday week by traveling pretty far away along the old Silk Road of China over to Xinjiang Autonomous Region (province). Think desert, camels, mountains, Islam, Arabic script, mutton, and people with lighter hair and eyes. We took a train to Urumqi, but only stayed one night before heading out to the city of Turpan, an ancient capital with a very large and well-preserved city of ruins. From C-14 dating, the ruins are said to have 1600 years of history. And because they are in an arid climate where erosion happens only because of wind, many of the walls are still standing, and archaeologists have put together an excellent idea of the buildings, the areas, the way of life, etc. These are the Jiaohe (jau-huh) Ruins. Turpan is a small city, so we rented bikes and rode the 10 km out to the ruins, passing wonderful courtyard homes, herds of goats and sheep, countless donkey cards which Nick pulled up next to and said hello in his newly acquired Uighur tongue, and fields of cotton and grapes.
This picture is the way that little stuffed breads are cooked - stuck to the side of a metal cylindrical stove with the heating element at the bottom. The breads are stuffed with mutton, onions, and spices.
After another night back in Urumqi, we headed to Tianchi Lake (or Heavenly Peak Lake). We hiked around it after a crappy morning spent puttering around on a tourist bus, and stayed the night in a serene Kazak yurt. The next morning we hiked around the lake, dodged cows, and inhaled the fresh air. While hiking down, Nick and I had the idea to make a "Flat Sarah." There is a popular school project called "Flat Stanley" where a traveler will take a drawing of a character (Stanley) in his suitcase and take pictures of Stanley with various landmarks or exciting things behind him. Stanley travels the world, then reports back to the student, who can learn about those places. So, we were thinking that with Sarah Palin needing to beef up her travel experience, we could make a "Flat Sarah" and take pictures of her wherever we went, thereby bestowing a plethora of new travel experience (we might even call it "foreign policy experience"). What do you think?
This is a stuffed camel, begging for some affection, at the base of the mountain. Check out the rest of our pictures at this link. Happy Halloween!
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