Today started out rainy, but the birds are chirping, so there is hope it will not rain all day. We were supposed to go biking with some students, but the rain may hamper that. This week has been one full of activities as usual. On Monday, Patty and I taught a class together looking at traditions. It is interesting to see the generational switch in attitudes in China. Students are moving away from traditions and culture towards science (facts). I guess education has done its job;( This is a difficult roadblock for many students as it is in the States. They do not believe in things they do not see, but instead believe in themselves as the power to change and shape their destiny. There has been some interesting conversations though. I have been running all this week, so that has brought some interesting conversations from students. I have been running with a few of my students and then last night, I ran with a PE student from Xinjiang (60 hours away). It is good to see what their opinions are on a variety of subjects as they seem to open up more outside of class. We even had a conversation on sex before marriage and relationships. It often turns out that I end up running about 12-20 laps a night as more people come wanting to run. It makes for mighty sore legs in the morning.

This week had a few events. On every other Wednesday, different English department classes will host an English corner to give classes a chance to practice their English and play games together. We attended this and it was rather subpar, but a good chance to hang out with students and laugh and have fun together. Sometimes, they just play games that two people play while everyone else watches and there is little English learned and practiced. On Tuesday, Patty and I attended the 1st Annual Anshun Teachers College Cooking Competition. The students who practiced at our house were competing, so we went with a large group of students. I did not know what to expect and it was a rowdy affair. Each team had tons of fans who chanted slogans in Chinese and made cheers to outdo the others while the teams cooked. I had the camera along so I took some pictures (they love having these to share and publicize for next year). Patty even got to be an unofficial judge. She got to taste all of the different dishes. It was actually really fun!! The English department team even won first place of ten teams. We will have to invite those students over more often. On Thursday, one of the English department classes decided to have a dance party, so they invited us to come. It turned out that almost a hundred students came to dance in this little classroom. They did not have any fast music so they mainly played slow couples dance music, so people learned how to slow dance. We got a chance to help teach some students to slow dance which was interesting. Next time they are planning on getting a big open place to have it and invite everyone.

Next Thursday is a holiday here: we call it the May holiday, but many students and people will leave to travel even though it is only a one day holiday. We have a four day weekend, so we are planning on taking some students to Guiyang to try KFC. They have never tried American food, so this is an opportunity they do not want to miss. Yesterday, we went to get tickets almost a week in advance for the train, but we found that there were no seats left. On holidays thousands of people will travel, so we will be traveling the 1.5 hours standing up in whatever room we can find on the packed train. That should be a new experience, but we are looking forward to it. After that short trip, a couple of our students want us to go to their hometown in Zunyi--3 more hours away. That should be fun. Maybe we will go to one of the caves there and it sounds like we will go to the famous meeting hall, where the Communist Party 'started' in 1935. It is one of those famous sites that foreigners must see once I guess, but is not quite as exciting for us as the Chinese.

It appears that we might still make it out biking, but we will see. We hope that you and your families are doing well and we hope to hear from you. We enjoy getting email, letters, packages, or just short notes. Many blessings!!