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!!