We are finally home!! Well, we are back in our apartment at least after our wild adventure of 46 days. I do not think you can call it a vacation after being that long--it was more like a trek or an insanely long trip. This morning we get to do our own work which is great. I went out to the market and got to visit with the farmers again--they seemed excited to see that we were back (more customers). It will be fun to cook again!! Now comes preparing for classes, sorting through our over 3000 pictures and deleting some and posting some, reconnecting with friends and most importantly relaxing.

During our visits we got to see lots of farming, farmers, and villages and now I understand why China is among the leading producers of rice and corn. It is very different though in our area. The corn fields are super small but there are lots of them. Here is my take on it: in america a square mile has 640 acres farmed by 3-5 farmers, but in China that same area would be spread out among 2-10 thousand farmers and not on flat ground but planted on the mountainsides. The flat area is kept for planting rice. There are larger fields to the north, but it is insane how small the corn fields are but how much work goes into it. We got our chance to harvest corn in a village by Zunyi. We wore our baskets, climbed up the hill, and harvested corn in the muddy slopes. We got nearly 500 ears of corn (maybe more) and then we had to prepare them for drying. We hung them from the roof of the building by their husks, while many families will dry the individual kernels in front of their house on mats or almost anywhere there is flat ground. It is crazy to see almost every house, road, street lined with corn drying with just enough room for people and vehicles to get by. The corn we harvested was not so good with lots of worms, bugs, and mold, but the quality tends to be pretty good generally. The rice fields are getting close to getting ready so maybe I will have a chance to help harvest rice also.

Patty had a "big" blunder with her Chinese while traveling home on the train. We were very tired and a guy came up trying to sell things and asked ZhongGuo (China) hao bu hao?? What do you think of China, good or bad?? Patty said Zhongguo bu hao, meaning China is bad. The guy was super surprised as was I and he asked again and Patty repeated herself again louder and the whole train car kinda turned and he asked where we were from and she said America and then he was like then America is bad also. The thing is that Patty had not comprehended what she just said, so I told her and she was very upset. What she wanted to say was that her Chinese was not very good, not that China was not good. Or maybe her Olympic competitiveness is showing through--just kidding. We have been enjoying watching it though!! Hope you are blessed incredibly.

It has been a long season of traveling for us, from Anshun to Xian to Inner Mongolia, Mongolia, Beijing, Yunnan and now we are taking a train from Kunming to Anshun, but only for a short (5 minute) stop before heading onward to our last student visit of the summer in Zunyi (north of Anshun). We are very tired from the travels and not being able to live normally but having instead to be based on others plans and different rules and schedules. We have learned a lot about traveling in China though and will write a few of them here.

1) An oldie but important, always be prepared to pay for the bathroom at almost any place. The more you pay does not ensure a better bathroom. Most of them are squatties and smell quite foul. Toilet paper is extra or bring your own.

2) When traveling it is important who you know, or in our case who you know that knows others. Relationships are very important in Chinese culture, known as Guanxi. Almost everywhere we traveled from Xian to the Yunnan, we met people who were related through friends or others ensuring us with many unasked for blessings. Sometimes it was a bit overwhelming though. Some families made us food everyday and gave us snacks from their bakery, or paid for everything and everywhere we went, or knew the best way to get around. Some shopkeepers even gave us free things because they knew our friend. Patty even got to dress up in one of their minority costumes and take pictures. Our friends father seemed to know everyone and even knew the owner of a tourist site from making many of the stones for the place so we got in free through the special door.

3) Some places charge 'special' fees for foreigners to get into parks and other areas. In Lijiang, we found that the parks and even special shopping areas charged a 80 RMB per person fee only for foreigners to get in, they called it to protect and upkeep the areas. It was very frustrating, but then again we had relationships and they knew how to get around the fees.

4) When you plan many things it is bound to rain. The week or so we spent in Yunnan it seemed to rain almost everytime we left to do something so it was important to bring an umbrella.

5) When visiting students or friends it is important to not eat for a week. They will feed you more food than is humanly possible to eat and say the dreaded words, "help yourself, don't be shy." This means to keep eating until it is gone or you explode. The food tends to be amazing but it is far too much for any one person to eat. We did get to eat some new firsts such as caterpillar and silk worm and almost every part of a pig from its stomach to its esophogus, liver and kidneys. Yummy though with hot sauce (it is the miracle food for getting all food down).

Here are some of the highlights of our time in the Yunnan. We went to visit our student and friend Bobby in his village of Heqing near Lijiang. Most of the villagers are from the Bai Minority and are farmers or fishermen. We did some fishing and caught some small 3-5 pound fish (their words not mine). We visited Lijiang for many days and saw many different things from the dancing at night, visiting his cousin and family, the Dongba culture of the Naxi minority, parks, and temples. We went to Shangrila (ZhongDian) for a couple of days and met a friend of his families who own a bakery. They provided us with almost everything--we ate way too much baked goods for a lifetime in two days. We saw many different areas around the city on rainy days and its Tibetan culture was very interesting. We went to Tiger Leaping Gorge on our way back--a super huge Gorge that the Yangtze River cuts through. The story is that Tigers would jump across the Gorge using stones in the middle. There are two tall mountain chains on each side and Bobby and I made the 1 hour long hike down the mountain to the water to get some pictures and see the furious water.

With the coming of the Olympic games we have been trying to stay close to a TV as we both love them. The opening ceremony was quite the spectacle if any of you saw it--4 hours of excitement and Chinese culture (very fascinating to see with a Chinese family). We hope that you all are doing well and chearing for America of course.

Thirty hours...that is the amount of time it took for us to make it from Northern China to Southern China. It was a trip of trains, planes, and buses. We took a train from Hohhot to Beijing which was a major change from our other train experiences: the train was very clean, everyone was very orderly, and they were decked out in Olympic insignia. The 11 hours went very quickly, but without much sleep. We arrived in Beijing early in the morning and with some help and some practice on our Chinese we found the right buses and directions to get to the airport. It seems like our Father blesses our travels with putting people in our paths to help. The city is doing the final things to prepare for the big day--8-8-08 and the Olympics. There is security everywhere and it is super clean and beautiful. The plane ride was very nice and fun to see over China. We arrived in Kunming after 3 hours and were able to meet many people in our travels to the bus station. We had lots of help and practice and we got on a bus to Heqing our student's hometown. The bus driver told us we would arrive by 10 pm, so we wrote to our friend and a little while later our phone went dead. You can guess what happened. We traveled and traveled stopping along the way to eat and do other things, but it became ten and we were still very far away and could not write to our friend. It turned out that we arrived in little Heqing at a little past midnight and our friend was gone. We got a hotel room and called him and now we are enjoying spending time with him. We saw a few of the villages nearby and tomorrow are traveling to Lijiang a famous city nearby. Most of the people in his area are from the Bai minority so their dress is quite beautiful. If you can keep them and our friend in your thoughts during our week of travels with him we would be thankful. We wish you many blessings in all of your work, travels, and life moments. May the creator have his will over all you do.