then you put them into this bubbling, boiling vat of broth to cook.  
Trying not to burn myself with all the hot oil.  It was kind of like fondue where you cook your own food.  It was good but I was sweating by the end of the meal- that red sauce was very spicy and the boiling liquid makes it a very hot meal!
More fun food from the Wanfujing Snack street.  They had grapes, apples, pineapples and plum kebabs that were drizzled with crystallized sugar.  It was very good!
We also went out for a fancy dinner one night to try the town specialty, Peking Duck.  It was pretty good but I don't know if duck is on the top of my eating list.  I'm ready for a nice big grilled chicken breast!

We flew from Hangzhou to Guilin- the airport wasn’t too bad but trying to keep a group of 40 people together is not fun!  Guilin is absolutely beautiful!  I love looking out and seeing mountains everywhere.  Living back in Texas really makes me appreciate scenic beauty when I get to see it!  Guilin is a smaller town down south in China- it is not too far from Vietnam actually. 

We first went to a park where we got to see a panda.  It was so lazy just laying around in the ac room.  It looked kind of sad though.  Next we went to a mountain to hike up.  My stomach was not feeling well again so I tried to take it slow.  I think the group I went with turned the wrong way because I didn’t get to see all the cool sights of the city like everyone else.  We got to one cave, which was great and allowed us to look down.  Then it started pouring.  I got soaked but luckily we were going straight back to the hotel.  The rest of the night was on our own.  It was someone’s bday so we all went out to this dance club.  I ordered a sprite, danced a little and then called it a night. 

The next day in Hangzhou we started out the day going to a Buddist temple.  It was so interesting to see people lighting incense and bowing down to a golden statue.  It made me stop and worship God- so thankful that He is real and alive- not just a statue to bow before.   I don’t know  a whole lot about Buddha or the religion though.  There were 3 Buddha halls with past, present and future and then a hall with 500 Buddhas to represent all the different sides of life. Apparently Buddha is whatever you want him to be so they make statues for everything. 

There were some cool carvings in the mountainsides that we got to hike around and see.  I'm still so amazed to see the Chinese women hiking up 100 stairs in their spike heels.  That will be a sight to miss!

Hangzhou is a beautiful city- the first blue sky we have seen since we’ve been in China!  There is little smog here like the other cities.  West Lake is so nice we took a trip to the top of a man made escalator/elevator “pagoda” to get a beautiful view of the city.  It rained a bit but it was nice because it cooled off the air. 

The next day we had a very busy long day around the city.  I like this city the best so far out of all the places I’ve been.  I never thought I’d miss the blue sky as much as I did.  We went to West Lake again to take a boat cruise.  

Then we went to a tea plantation to see how green tea is grown and harvested.  They don't use tea bags in China- they think it is the equivalent of drinking instant coffee.  I have tried a few types of tea with the leaves or flowers floating in the cup but I don't like it very much.  I bought a little so we can all try it at home.

We went Humble Administrators garden  to look around.  It was very pretty but it is sooooo hot and humid here!!  To be honest, the gardens all start to look the same after a while- pond with lotus plants, pagodas, rocks, and bridges.  You get the picture….

They are always very crowded too so it’s not very peaceful to be walking around.  It is very difficult to get a good picture without 50 people in it!

After dinner we went to take a boat cruise down through Suzhou.  Suzhou is considered to be the Venice of the east- I guess any town that has canals going through it wants to be like Venice!  The weather has been so nice and cool the past few days—it was a nice relaxing trip.  Not as spectacular as Shanghai but it was still very pretty.  

The next day we hiked up to the top of a leaning pagoda- Tiger Hill Pagoda.  Tried to take pics like Leaning tower of Pisa but don’t know how well they turned out.  Much hotter today than the last two days.  

We went to a Silk Brocade factory  in Nanjing.  Nanjing is known for brocade, which is like pictures sewn onto fabrics.  The work seems very tedious- one person sits up top on the machine to unravel and feed the silk to the person sitting below.  That person weaves other colors into the main silk to make the design.  They can work for 8 hours and finish a few inches on the design. 

We  then went to a silk embroidery museum in Suzhou.  Women embroider beautiful pictures with silk- some of them were so amazing and full of detail that they looked like a picture taken with a camera.  It is considered to be a dying art because a lot of the younger generations don’t want to learn how to do it because it takes a long time and the money is not good.  We saw one woman working on a piece that she had been working on for over a year.  That is patience!

Next we went to a Silk Factory.  It’s really funny to go to a place and get a five-minute demonstration of something and then led straight to the store.   The joys of traveling in tour groups!  We saw how they take the silkworm cocoons and unravel them so the silk stays in one long strand.  The poor little worms are boiled first so they don’t eat their way out- that would ruin the cocoon, thus ruining the one continuous strand of silk.  They had a lot of cool bedding in the store but I’m not really that into silk.  

The silk being pulled up from each coccon.  I love this picture!

School is finally finished!  These past two weeks have been a lot of hard work but it was a lot of fun.   It was great to collaborate with other teachers and get ideas- sometimes in my normal job it can be hard to even talk to another adult at school.  The children were so cute and most were very eager to learn and practice their English. Even though there were a lot of cultural differences, kids are kids everywhere.   One of my favorite kids, Richard, was so curious about everything that I taught.  He always prefaced every question with my name:

“Stacie, what kind of eggs do they use to dye for Easter?”

“Stacie, why do Americans eat cheese on everything?” (This was after I presented a lesson on Western food- I didn’t realize there was cheese on just about every picture- macaroni and cheese, cheeseburger, grilled cheese, salad, pizza, loaded baked potato, ….  Maybe its just all the food I like has lots of cheese on it!  There is really very little cheese in this country and most of the kids said they didn’t like it)

“Stacie, what are all the NBA and NFL teams in Texas?”- He knew about some teams because of Yao Ming. 

He would ask me spell everything out and he took notes over everything I taught.  By the end of the two weeks, I looked at his notebook and it was full of about 50 new words that I had taught him.  He told me his dream was to come to the U.S. because it looks so nice.  I just love kids like him!

The closing ceremony was pretty amazing.  A lot of the kids performed- each grade level did an English song and then they showed off what they had learned in their other camp classes like magic tricks, traditional Chinese dances, tap and salsa dancing, kung fu and roller blading.  On the last day, most of the students presented me with little gifts and said 1 sentence about how they enjoyed my teaching.  It was very sweet!

The teachers had also had the farewell dinner with the school officials the night before.  It was another great time.  Overall, the experience was a lot of fun.  It was harder work than I thought it might be but I’ve enjoyed all the people I’ve worked with, the students and China in general.  As much as I don’t really like traveling with big groups, I don’t know how well I would have maneuvered around China without some help.  Not speaking the language does make it a bit of pain but I’m hoping in Beijing with the Olympics just right around the corner, there will be more English spoken there.  

Kristen, Erin, Christina and me at the Farewell Dinner

Kristen and I with Sally