Visiting students can always be an interesting experience...one that almost always takes you out of your comfort zone and your control. This was certainly going to be a trip like that, as we were going to a 5 year students home (their English is not exceptional) and we were taking our dog along and going to the middle of the countryside to a place called qiyanqiao (seven eye bridge village). Even I was a bit nervous as to what would happen. We ended up taking a number of different buses, but Noah was in heaven as she could sit in the back seat on my lap with her head out the window and check out all of the new things. We walked through the muddy village and up the hill and found our student's home. It was quite nice with a big metal gate and lots of rooms and they were quite welcoming of the dog, even though a bit afraid.

We spent the afternoon climbing the mountains and being talked about by all of the villagers. Halfway up the mountain was a temple to the god of the ancestors. It gave a great view and something to talk about. We took along tons of food, as is customary of all trips with Chinese, and returned home with very little of it. The dog loved it and was able to run around and see lots of new friends. Our student was super afraid that our dog would get into a fight with other dogs so she had her umbrella out to fight off the dogs and scare them away...it was so funny, as we were not worried and Noah did not even notice most of the other dogs. Visiting students' homes is definitely a blessing when it comes to food--they always prepare something special and lots of it. We had Tunpu food--the same food from the Ming Dynasty, but the expectation is that you eat tons of food to show that you like it. We ended up being the only people at the table at the end--finishing up the delicious food.

The next day, we went to Xianrenba, a beautiful river (my first time) near Tianlong, one of the original Tunpu villages from the 1300's. It was really fun to be in the countryside with my students and then a bunch of my student's tutoring students. We got to see some of the old women planting rice, people fishing, and a bamboo forest without pandas. Sadly, there are very few if any pandas in the wild left in China, mostly just in zoos. We ate lunch at one of the tutoring student's homes, just showed up with some food and her whole family watched the crazy Americans and their dog. It was really interesting to get to stay at a Tunpu village house and have delicious food from students.

On Sunday, we had our outdoor Open House. We played some frisbee, taught a few of them how to catch a softball with gloves and I gave Patty a cut on her lip from a frisbee. She was on the phone and the frisbee smacked her right in the mouth. After a bit, we ended up indoors eating chocolate and talking. Many great opportunities and great friends.

Monday was the basketball tournament finale and the cheerleading competition. I came to cheer for my students in the cheerleading competition, they had invested 100 RMB ($14) in their uniform. But when the leaders saw me there, they dragged me over to the "official/leader" table to have front row seats. I was an unofficial judge now. Cheerleading is quite different in China. They do not do cheers but more like a dance group without stunts or the excitement. They do not smile very much but are exceptional at doing syncronized routines. The "skilled" dancers do lots of gyrating like hip hop dancers which the guys like, but it was interesting. The basketball game was a blow out-the same team I played for last year versus the team that beat us last year, this time a 29-12 beating.

On Wednesday, we had a special day in class...a wedding. Every year for oral class, we have an American wedding where students do all of the parts of the wedding. There is a photographer (we give our camera to them with some training), parents of the bride and groom, brides maids and groomsmen, flower girls, bride, groom, readers, speeches, and traditional wedding dancing. They get the whole wedding experience plus more...

The bride was chosen by volunteering, sorta. I asked for a volunteer and one girl was not listening and raised her hand--thank you for volunteering, Jane. Then the guy was voted on by the other guys, lucky Jack. They made the wedding dress out of TP, very wide stuff which they always seem to make look exceptional and some flowers from the mountains. It was quite a do-up. I taught the guys how to tie ties and each of them wore one of the ties I had and the groom in my suit coat. They really loved the wedding and got tons of pictures. The reader wanted to keep the book, so she can do more reading.

The dance and reception had non-other-then the chicken dance and the hocky-pocky and throwing the bouquet and a small flower to the winner girl and guy. Their homework was to compare an American and Chinese wedding. So far, we have not made any real lovers from this experiment but maybe in the future.

Today, we went to the vet and found out Noah is indeed pregnant which makes leaving something more complicated, but I guess she will have them in May sometime and then we will see who wants to stay and take care of them or maybe we can give them to the vet to sell when we leave, if they are weaned yet. PAtty is a little nervous about this and kicking herself for letting Noah loose once and what happened. Nothing we can do about it, but I am wondering what the puppies will look like from Noah and the strange looking black dog with a white beard. Should be interesting, maybe we can get extra money selling them as American dogs...haha. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week...love you all!!

Easter is full of traditions, but this year had all kinds of new things. Maybe they will become traditions, we will see. We went to Guiyang to get together with our fellow teacher friends and our boss. It was exciting to see them all again. We were a part of the family egg coloring and hiding and later we went out and played baseball (bangqiu). There were quite a few Chinese watching, but their school is actually starting to have baseball as a sport, only the 6th school in China. That was quite fun with a little football throwing too, kinda like Christmas or Thanksgiving. Then we went back for some homemade pizza, six different kinds and then three kinds of pie. That is my kind of tradition. That was just the beginning as it was only Saturday.

Easter Sunday, or as I rather like FuHuoJie Come back from death day or Resurrection Day was quite a busy one for our group. Patty and many of the others were playing music for the gathering of foreigners at a local hotel called the Miracle. I was giving the message. As always, I was very nervous, but everything went very well. Afterwards, we went out to Pizza Fun, a pizza and western food buffet, over 100 of us chowing on pizza and sharing about how things are going. I could get used to a tradition like that--great fellowship, friends, and food. The only thing that was missing was family...we definitely have to say that we miss our family during the holidays, but we love you all very much and look forward to coming home soon. Not really sure what is going on for next year totally yet though, lots of conflicting ideas. One day at a time though and only 2.5 more months I think.

Monday was also busy as I taught my British Literature class then had my first Geology Lecture--next term they made a class called Special English for Science majors. I wonder what special english is though?? I made a powerpoint with tons of pictures and was talking about plate tectonics, plate movements that cause the mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes that shape and shake our lives. It still went very well as I shared lots of stories and enjoyed it...150 students. Following class, I played in the 3-on-3 basketball tournament for the teacher team but sadly lost to the champions from last year--the team that beat us last year too. Looking forward to the weekend and relaxing a bit though, hope you are all doing well.

In the business of the week, I did not get a chance to share about the "Golden Birthday Weekend" for Patty. She was not expecting much, so as always we went over the top. On Friday, we told the students we would cook fish for them, so we tried to make our own version of toasted fish with potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and many other vegetables cooked together with our mammoth fish. We went to the market to get the fish and asked for one that was about 6 pounds because we had 8 people and Noah, and they brought out a monsterous fish. It turned out to be only 5 pounds but was much bigger then would fit in our toaster oven...what to do now??

They killed it, scaled it and we took it back home, cut up endless amounts of vegetables and decided to steam the fish and vegetables before cooking them together in the juices. Yet again the fish was too big...so we had to get out the huge knife, which the last time we used it almost broke the table we have in the kitchen--it is huge and heavy. We were able to slice the fish in half, sorta and put each part in with some seasoning (nothing too spicy because many of these students do not like lajiao). It turned out being so much food and so much fish that students left with buckets of leftovers and all were satisfied. Notch up another success and new thing we can sorta make. Next time to make it with lajiao (hot peppers). We have been incredibly blessed by this group and their heart for learning and their growth in understanding and love. Keep them in your thoughts if you could.

On Saturday was the big day, Friday was super hot that shorts were needed, but Saturday was supposed to be cold and rainy, so we were a little bummed but expected the weatherman to be wrong and it to be a blessed day. It did not rain all day but a little cold. We did not let that get to us as we gathered, a group counting 17 people to go to Luo Xian Cun. It was Patty's wish to go pick strawberries and have a special meal there. It is a fun hike of about 3 km to get there which was the first time for a couple of the students. We enjoyed the people and time together and once we got there, we found our eating place and haggled a price (the students did this as they are masterful). 238 RMB ($34) for the whole morning and afternoon, including mah jong, fishing, karaoke, and of course the homemade meal of countryside foods. We could do so many things and everyone had a chance to have fun together. It was so much fun...we had brought along some food to snack on and we relaxed and enjoyed the company...the food was amazing, so many dishes and so good. We had lots of left over fei rou (literally fat meat or bacon) that we took home and gave to Noah. She enjoyed her day with lots of running around and chasing animals. We picked strawberries for several hours at several places until everyone had at least a pound of strawberries to enjoy on our walk back.

We then started our walk home...the students are always weary of taking this route because you need to climb a tall mountain to get there, but it is not so bad and an amazing view. We walked through a bamboo grove and up the mountain to see the fields below and had a warm walk back seeing the villages around and people out working. I love the countryside as it reminds me of home a bit and my family. The day was not over when we arrived home after almost 7 hours of being out. I made a special meal for Patty from some taco shells we got from a friend and taco seasoning...the first real tacos in such a long time--without the real cheese though but amazing!! At night, students came over with a huge cake--they are the most intricate things, it had a whipped cream Patty, Dan and Noah on it and tasted very good. It was big enough for the 20+ people who came. And of course there were presents, which can be quite the interesting thing in China as they are known for getting the oddest, strangest things. The time started out great as some close friends got her a beautiful wind chime that now is over our bed and many picture frames for our many pictures taken, but then they came as they always do. The first was a mug with eyeballs on it that moved when you drank out of it, and another was a hand paperweight that you put your cell phone on and it lights up when you get calls (Patty calls it the Hand of God). but nothing can beat our gift for letting a student stay at our house over the winter holiday...she got us this guy with a Jamaican hat on, a goatee, holding a marijuana cigarette with a marijuana leaf on it shirt and wearing a camo skirt. It dances to the music of Row, row, row your boat. We bring it out when we need a laugh (we agree with her first statement, "When I first saw it I thought it was ugly.") but she still bought it thinking it was the perfect gift to say thank you. It was also meant to be a replacement for a plate broken from someone at home...that is a "typical" chinese style birthday. By the way, Patty ended up with 8 boyfriends with the crazy Chinese candles. Many blessings to you all...we have a holiday this weekend, QingMingJie Tomb Sweeping Day. Will share more about that next time. Love you all!!