Chinese Crawling Champion

From what we have seen, most Chinese children (and adults) are extremely fit and healthy.  From a very young age (3 years old!), they compete against other schools in a variety of activities.  In Peter and Jack's school, they run relay races, do push-ups, sit-ups, climb ropes, and do calisthenics every day.  Many days, Peter and Jack come home with sore muscles!  Even in university, to graduate they must pass tests where they run 2 kilometers in a short period of time. 

Sophie had her first taste of this in her kindergarten.  In her school, they had a "crawling" competition, among other things, that Sophie was eligible to compete in.  In her school, they lined her up on a set of green mats and told her to crawl as fast as she could for about 100 feet.  It was a timed race, and Sophie won 2nd place in her school!

Then, Sophie's school asked us if she would represent their school in the same competition against other schools!  So, yesterday Sue took the kids to the inter-school competition.

Here they are, trying to organize all of the children ...

Sophie, holding up her school sign...

Sue, getting Sophie pumped up for the big race (as if Sophie ever needed pumping up for anything)!

    

... and here's the  Champ, getting ready for her race.  Lucky no. 2, with her name on her back.  The characters translate to a rough pronunciation of Sophie "So - Fay"









The school likes to send text messages to my telephone to tell us of the goings-on.  I mostly ignore them since it's so hard to figure out all of the Chinese characters, unless the teacher tells me to get one translated - I think one of them must have been about getting one of these blue sweatshirts.  Sophie was the only one without!


Well, without the blue sweatshirt, at least it is easy to pick her out of the crowd.  Here she is with her classmates who she really adores!
 

Munching on a piece of seaweed before the big race.  Maybe this will give her that extra burst of speed...


Hanging out with one of her teachers for a little pep talk before the big race...


 
... and SHE'S OFF! 

She crawled and crawled and won... 1ST PLACE!  I'm sure those of you that know Sophie's speed and energy are not surprised in the least!

Or, maybe it's because she wasn't encumbered by a bulky blue sweatshirt!





Here, the parents are making an arch for the children to crawl through.  Sue (blue jacket) is getting some help being an arch from the little boy behind her.


After leaving the competition, they saw this scene - people using the trees as a clothesline on this sunny day.


For Sue, it was a long day at the competition, more than 3 hours waiting for other kids to have their turn before Sophie's appearance.  There was no English to be heard either, so it was a challenging day for her, and I was teaching all day!

A Home Cooked Hot Pot

On Friday we had guests, Dan Ling and Rebecca, two students at our university.  They went with Sue on their day off to go shopping, buying several shirts, sweaters, pants, and underwear, plus the night's meal, a hot-pot pan and cab fare for under $80 US.  Here are the girls starting to cook...


Difficult to see in this picture,but our kitchen light switch broke, so we have been using the kitchen in the dark.  It has been very difficult to cook or see in there!


Here are the girls in our dark kitchen...

Here's Peter in his classroom at school.  Notice how everyone is bundled up - no heat in the classrooms.  Peter is standing with his teacher.  yes, he really is that tall, and yes, she really is that short!

One of the apartments in our building was just vacated, so Sue snuck in for a picture.  Just one room with a concrete floor.  Not nearly as nice as ours, but very typical.


... To buy groceries for tonight's hotpot meal, had to go to the local grocery.  We stopped on the way there where this man was selling popcorn.  Jack bought a big bag for 3 quai (about 40 cents).  The lady selling oranges next to him said told him, "They're foreigners, charge them 5 quai!" however we bargained him to keep the 3 quai price.


Picking over the vegetables at the local wet market.  They're cheap but it gets exhausting haggling for everything - in Chinese no less!  An attractive meat display is over my left shoulder.


And finally the piece-de-resistance!  The hot pot is filled with 2 different types of soup, usually one spicy and one not spicy, and heat is applied underneath (think fondue pot!).  Then you add your vegetables and meat to the soup, and after they cook for a bit, you fish them out and eat!  Completely delicious!  We made a small mistake on our hot pot soup so the soups were BOTH spicy.  One was REALLY spicy, and the other one was INCREDIBLY spicy - so we had our choice!


Today was a Saturday, and a make-up day for next Monday 12/31 which we will have off from school.  I wondered how many students would show up on a Saturday, but of course there was nearly 100% attendance as usual. There's nothing like good old fashioned Chinese hard work!

Birthday Shopping Trip

I kept Peter and Jack home from school today and we went shopping nearby.  We took a taxi cab and the driver had the radio on.  As I was listening, I realized that I was understanding some of what was being said!!   What a thrill that was!  Here's the street we shopped on, on this cloudy, cool day - not rainy though!

Left: Peter and Jack, with their wallets loaded, ready to SHOP!  Right:  Part of a Buddha statue on Hefang street.

In this touristy area, there are plenty of bicycles available to rent; but then how would we carry all of our packages!


We stopped in another shop that had all kinds of interesting herbs and roots for sale, because we saw so many weird looking things inside!  Here is some kind of root artfully displayed in the window...
  

Left: In the same store was some delicious looking snake wine - snake included.  Since my brother-in-law Dan had tried some on his trip, I guess I'll have to give it a go too, just to say I did.  Right: Some green tea leaves left out to dry, available by the "jin" or 1/2 kilo.
 

Some hand-made slippers that can be had for your guests to wear.  In China, people don't wear their shoes inside their homes.  There is also a ready supply of slippers available at someone's house for guests, and shoes are always left at the door or outside.  This is one custom that we have really come to like.
 

There's a McDonald's on this street too.  I'll leave the translation of the sign up to you.


Peter and Jack successfully found some beautiful artwork to hang on our wall, which they are excited to give their Mom for her birthday (12/31).


More sights from this touristy street.  The man in the picture on the right is a Chinese tourist that paid to dress up and have his picture taken.  He doesn't know he's famous now on our blog :). 

Though Jack's hair is so short, he really wanted a Chinese comb.  So we stopped at this little kiosk where the owner was making them out of some kind of animal horns.

... and here is the finished product!  Nice!  Jack bought one with his name inscribed for 30 quai (about $4 US).
  

This weekend we both will teach class.  In China, it appears many of the major Chinese holidays (New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, being two of them) are taken off - however, the whole country makes them up on a weekend day.  So, Saturday I work and Sunday Sue works.  Then, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we have off from work.  We'll go to Shanghai, stay in a fancy hotel, eat fancy food, and maybe send Sue to a fancy spa for her birthday.

When we got home today, our water was turned back on - a day early!  Yahoo!  It's so nice to be able to flush the toilet again!

The Boys Help out at University

Sue took Peter and Jack to school last week to help with her classes.  Sue had office hours and some students came to visit including "Darling" and "Rebecca" below.  Darling is a senior and Rebecca is a Junior.


They gave us a Santa pillow, a Santa hat and a wand, which Peter and Jack are modeling.

Darling has also become Chinese tutor.  On Mondays and Tuesdays we have lunch together and she teaches me tons of vocabulary and we talk in Chinese.  Or rather, she talks in Chinese, and I scratch my head a lot :).   She's very patient and helpful!

I asked her a couple of weeks ago to become my Chinese tutor, and she has been great; except about the issue of paying her.  She won't take any money so I have insisted on buying our lunches.  However now she says it's not fair that I have to buy all of the lunches - even though she is spending her time teaching me!  I continue to be persistent!
 

Rebecca, who took us to Xitang a couple of weekends ago.


... and here is Jack hanging out in Sue's class.  Normally he is quite shy and not talkative, but Sue gave him some readings to do in class and he walked to the front and did a really great job!  He would also take Sue out into the hall and say, "Hey Mom, let's do this..." and tell her his ideas about teaching!  He really enjoyed himself as he helped out in the classroom.

... and here's Peter sitting with some of the college kids, watching Sue's lesson.

No Water

We came home Christmas night to find that we have no water to our apartment.  Talking to the building superintendent, I was surprised to learn we may not have water for 2 days or more!  This is not that much of a problem except for 1) showers and 2) toilets!    Five people using a toilet with no water can get old  and smelly after awhile!  To solve the toilet issue, he brought me across the street with a bucket which I filled up from the neighbor's hose, then I schlepped it up the stairs to our 6th floor apartment. So now we have toilet flushing water.

If it continues past 2 days we will check into a hotel until our water service is back!  Our ayi can't cook or clean without water either, and she is quite happy to have the days off! 

We  have to look at the bright side, however; we still have internet service!  If I had to choose between no water and no internet, I'd choose no water!

Our Christmas Celebration

Well it's amazing, but Santa Claus found us in China!  We don't have a fireplace in our apartment (wish we did!), so Sue creatively drew one on a piece of paper and hung it on the wall.  Stockings were provided - shipped to us by our amazing friends Amy and Bob which we sure enjoyed opening on our Christmas Day!  We celebrated on the 23rd since I had to work on the 24th and 25th.

Among other things, Peter and Jack opened a puzzle, and between Sue and the 3 kids they had it put together in one morning.  Sophie was very good at it!

During the day, we went out for wonderful Christmas bicycle ride around part of West Lake, so we could gawk at all of the people, and they could gawk right back at us!
 

Sophie received this hat at the restaurant we visited and wore it all day.


Then,came time for the "party" with all of my 120+ students.  We came in in our normal street clothes and were greeted by my students in tuxedos and beautiful dresses!


A Chinese party is more like a talent show.  We saw skits, piano playing, singing, a magic show, and karaoke.  There were 2 karaoke groups, and I found myself holding 2 balloons to be a judge; a red balloon for one team, a white one for the other.  So, after 2 contestants finished, I had to hold up a balloon to vote for the contestant I thought sang the best!  How to choose??


Next, the 5 of us got up on stage and led the group in a round of "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".  They also interviewed the kids who were somewhat shell-shocked by the large crowd, the microphones and the spotlights!

Two of my students, "Natalie" and "Chris", the MC's for the show.
 

Singing and flute playing...


More karaoke...


A skit that was done, about a girl who is trying to win the heart of a boy.  The boy, "Parker", is wearing a sign that says "handsome".  In the end, he gets the girl!


... and more singing! 
  

We saw so many acts; it was overwhelming to see all of my dedicated students who work so hard at earning their Masters degrees to show off so many varied talents!

We also did a mini-white elephant exchange on stage which left quite a pile of garbage.  After the gift opening was over, Sue and I leaned over and grabbed some of the packaging to take off stage.  One of my students told me today that they were quite embarrassed that we had to do this.  We were the "guests of honor" with a special table up front, and he pointed out that guests of honor should not be picking up garbage from the stage.  Ooops! 

Although we missed our family and friends back home, overall we had a very interesting, lovely and happy Christmas!

An Early Christmas

Since I will be working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we held Christmas today, December 22. Here we are around our little Christmas tree ready to open our packages.  We put on Christmas carols, drank hot chocolate, and cajoled the kids into smiling for our Christmas picture :). 

Earlier today I took Sophie down the street to get her hair cut.  The salon charged me 5 quai (about $.80 US) to cut her hair.  Then we fed 3 of us lunch for 8 quai (a little over a dollar).  Finally it was time to go back upstairs to open gifts.

"Daddy, can't we PLEEEEASE open presents now?"


Some of the booty that was opened:  A stuffed animal for Sophie, who is a popular local character, and Sue got a bag from Tibet which I found on a local crafts street.  Sue identified it as something she wanted weeks ago but it was 80 quai (more than $10 US!) so she passed it up.  Being in China for the past few months sure has made us stingy!
   

Peter and Jack were tricked by an addition of marbles to their boxes to make them extra heavy.  They both received leather wallets with money inside.  Jack says, "Where is the PRESENT??" as he searches through his box of marbles and newspaper.


Amy and Bob gave the boys a Nerf basketball hoop which was a BIG HIT!  They put it together immediately and we played a little two on one.  I was the one.  They're starting to get big enough where it's getting physically exhausting to take them both on!

More of the gift-exchange aftermath!

After the clean-up, we started on the puzzle that Grandma gave us.  Sophie is quite a good helper; she has put several pieces together already!


Here's Dad, getting ready for the daily blog!

"Christmas Morning" Construction

The construction on our building is continuing at a harrowing pace.  Yesterday a man knocked on the door and drilled two 4 inch holes in our bedroom and kitchen.  They had already covered one up where the rat had come in, so now the rat has 2 alternative routes.  They also made a big mess on Sophie's bed and in the kitchen that we had to clean up.

This morning we again woke up to hammering and yelling outside our window, and the workers started to take part of the scaffolding down.

This is the view leaning outside our window, and looking east.  The men climb up and down this scaffolding from 5:30am to about 8pm with hammers, drills, buckets of cement, mud, and tiles.  Very labor intensive and dangerous!

Every morning at 5:30 they start the cement mixer.  By the time I pass them at 6:20 to catch my bus, they are well under way.
 
Here's the "disaster zone" that we pass through every day to get to our stairwell from the street around the corner.


... and our stairwell entrance with a piece of plywood overhead to catch falling debris; the cement mixer in the foreground.  The workers sleep behind that red, white and blue tarp on the left side of the picture.  They have no door or windows, so it is just like sleeping outside!  BRRR!

Although we certainly weren't in as luxurious conditions as normal, we all sure had a good time, and it will be a memorable Christmas, for sure!

Lewis Family Christmas Poem

Every year, for at least the past 10 years I have written a Christmas poem that related our family news rather than a Christmas letter.  A couple of years ago I tried writing just a regular Christmas letter and was quickly vetoed by my lovely wife, Sue. So I had to start from scratch and rewrite the letter as a poem.

This year, we're not sending out Christmas cards due to our remote location, so we decided to use the blog to broadcast this year's yuletide masterpiece :)  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and though you didn't receive a Christmas card from us this year, you are still in our thoughts this holiday season!

Christmas Poem 2007

This year’s Christmas is different for us, We’re taking a break from the holiday fuss! What a pity to miss both family and feast, But we’re having a ball here in the far East. Somehow we decided to go far away, Teaching English in China; a year we will stay. We’re learning the language, slowly for sure, But Sophie’s so fast, her learning is pure! Peter and Jack struggle in school, In a Chinese classroom they’re always so cool! Not cool like Elvis or like James Dean; More like Frosty the Snowman or some frozen ice cream. You see, heat in offices and school is lacking, But we’re staying healthy, no one’s sneezing or hacking. I also shouldn’t neglect to mention, That all of us get so much attention! When we’re in the street, or browse in a store, We attract many people, dozens or more! They love to stare at our foreign parade, And wonder at Sophie, who’s not the same shade! In the U.S. we see both Santa and elves, And packages and boxes filling our shelves. There were ornaments on our Christmas tree, And holidays from work for you and me. I’m sure you know, I don’t know if you care, But Christmas in China is a different affair! Here no elves or reindeer lurk, And of course on Christmas we all go to work! It’s the price we pay, for adventure and fun, Seeing Shanghai and Xi’an, and Thailand for sun! For meeting new friends, so helpful and kind, Such nice people nowhere else you will find. However at home it’s you we all miss, So we’re sending you wishes with a hug and a kiss. In June we’ll be home, it’s not so long to wait, In the meantime we’ll wish you a happy 2008! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Tim, Sue, Peter, Jack and Sophie Lewis

White Elephants Invade China

Sue and I both have done White Elephant exchanges in our classrooms in the past week to demonstrate another western Christmas tradition. People brought all sorts of treasures.  Peacock feather earrings, faux pearl bracelets, a used train ticket, and some milk-tea were just a few of the items.  Once the students got the hang of the game, they traded mercilessly.  I brought a chopstick set for one class and a book of puzzles in English that were both hits, and were heavily traded.  One present, the used train ticket, was inside no less than 7 boxes, that were all heavily taped and wrapped.  I had never heard my class so loud as when they were surprised by yet another box to unwrap!  I was sure I would get complaints from the class next door, but I think they are now used to us getting kind of rowdy, especially when we're shouting "Jingle Bells" at the top of our lungs.

Sue took Peter and Jack to class today, so all of the cameras and cell phones came out.  When they go to campus they always feel like paparazzi, because you can always here the clicks of cameras and cell phones going off!  They helped with her White Elephant exchanges and enjoyed the festive atmosphere, although they were tired of waiting for Sue to 'visit' with everyone.

On Sunday, my department is throwing a Christmas party, with the 5 of us, a couple of administrators, and 125 of my students! It should be interesting, as Chinese parties are not really like western parties, but more like a talent show.  One student will do some magic tricks.  Another will sing an opera.  Yet another will play the piano.  We are expected to do something as well, however I'm not sure what yet, but we'll think of something!  When we were asked what we would do, I'm sure I had a very concerned look on my face, but being in China is all about improvisation, adaptability and adventure... so here we come!

Sue Gets Cupped

Sue and Stefania went to a foot massage on her day off.  They got the foot massage SPECIAL, which includes a foot steam, a hot water bath with all kinds of flower petals, ginger and other mysterious ingredients, and a massage.

I would explain what these patches are they affix to you are, but Sue didn't know either.  One was placed on her back with some oil on it, each temple, and the back of the neck.  They left the one on her back on, so I had to help her peel it off when I got home from work.  OUCH!

  Sue and Stefania didn' t know what they had bought, they just said, "OK!" and waited to see what would happen!
 

The masseuses brought out a lighter and two small fish bowls.  Hmm.  What for??  Their feet were already oily from the massage, so they sprayed alcohol in the bowls, and lit a fire inside, then attached it to their feet.  The cooling bowls created suction, which sucked the skin of their feet into the bowls.  Weird!  They moved the fish bowls around their oily skin, sucking in different parts of the foot.

It felt good!!  Here is Stefania's foot getting a cup attached to it.

Oh, the wonders of China!

Things that Go Boom

The boys have been highly enthusiastic to go to a fireworks store and today they got their wish.  Fireworks are illegal to shoot off, except for 'special days'.  A special day can be just about anything; opening a restaurant, getting married, having a baby, and any day in the New Years' period.  For sure Christmas qualifies, so we'll have a chance to light some off!

Jack, looking at all of the fireworks selections.

Peter and Jack, watering at the mouth, looking at all of the possibilities.

The other night, Sophie and I were on my bicycle going to get dinner, and the restaurant next door was opening.  A fireworks display of incredible magnitude started - not just firecrackers, but rockets that went up several hundred feet and exploded.  Think Ivars!  Talking to the locals, it appears a restaurant can spend several hundred dollars on an opening display.  The theory is that they scare away the bad spirits.

In the New Year celebration (Feb 7 this year, according to the lunar calendar), fireworks are an integral component.  From what I can understand so far, there is some mythical creature that can wreck crops and steal children, who is scared away by the all of the noise. The boys are looking forward to their chance to light off fireworks!

Our Italian Dinner in China

This morning we went to our friends' apartment, an couple from Italy, Stefania and Damiano who have been in a previous blog entry.  They fixed a wonderful Italian meal for us complete with delicious bottles of wine and we were in heaven! 

Stefania and Damiano live in a very modern, gorgeous apartment in Hangzhou.  We tried to see if they would trade apartments with us, but they weren't so interested :).  Here I am holding some plates while Stefania serves.


Damiano and Tim shooting the breeze over a bottle of delicious Italian wine.


Peter, Jack and Sophie loved hanging out on their comfortable couch, watching their big screen TV.


Sophie was happy to help Stefania with the dessert process!


The boys, looking at a map of America.  Stefania and Damiano took a 5000 mile drive across America (Kansas City to L.A.), and they traced their path for us.


Enjoying cake and wine for dessert...


Sophie loved being in their apartment, playing with their wooden Japanese shoes. CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP!  People always know when Sophie is around!
.

Lately we've been having trouble getting money out of the cash machine.  It always gives us weird messages like the network is down, or our overdraft limit has been reached.  So we try to hit every one we see, and keep extra cash on hand.  One that works one day, may not work another day!

Since credit cards are rarely used here, everything is based on cash.  I bought 5 plane tickets to Guilin, and again I had to meet a man on a street corner with 9000 quai in my pocket (about $1100 US) which was more than 90 bills.  I had to plan several days in advance since the cash machine only allows us to withdraw around 2000 quai per day. 

On our way home from Stefania and Damiano's,  I went thru this "drive thru" machine :).  It was a cold, rainy night so luckily I  only had to visit one!  Thank goodness it worked!

Dumpling Making Lessons

Our neighbor and friend Amu came over today to give us a lesson in how to make Chinese dumplings.  She is also a teacher in our school.  She teaches in the machine shop, but she is also an excellent cook!  Amu picked up Sue at 1pm and off they went to the store to procure the necessary dumpling creation supplies.  They came back and started chopping the meat and vegetables.

Washing and chopping...
  
Sue had her sous-chef, Sophie, helping her in the kitchen.
 

Sophie eventually went for a nap, and Amu was trying to chop the meat quietly.  Not an easy feat!


Next, it was time to roll out the dough for the outside of the dumplings.
 

After cutting them into small pieces, they got the dumplings ready to be filled with meat and vegetables.


Jack enjoyed watching the process so much he decided to join in and had a great time.  Sophie rolled some dough too.


Amu was a very patient teacher.  Between answering questions about dumplings from Sue, Chinese questions from me, and being 5 months pregnant, she was a pillar of patience.


After awhile, Amu's husband Tou Kai came up for dinner and watched the process as well, and after a few minutes, joined in!
 

Amu helped Jack make his first dumpling.  It was reminiscent of making Christmas cookies with our small tree in the corner.  However they tasted completely different!


Sous-chef Jack taking a dumpling lesson from the master.


Here's the happy couple, Amu and Tou Kai.


Peter also took a dumpling making lesson from her.


Here are some of the dumplings, ready to be boiled!  They prepared 3 different fillings including pork and cabbage and celery and garlic chives.


Our dining table; now a dumpling making factory.


... and here are the cooks with the hot dumplings on the table, ready to be eaten. The dumpling making and shopping started at 1pm, and we ate at 7pm!  They were scrumptious and worth waiting for!  However between the 7 of us we could only eat about half of what was made! 

Introducing a Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich

Sue needed to give a lesson on following instructions, so she wrote out all of the details for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Then off she went to school carrying 4 loaves of bread, 3 small jars of jam, 2 jars of peanut butter, and a bevy of knives.  It was a cultural exchange as well.  While any French student should know how to make a crepe, a student of American English should know how to make a PB&J!

Here are some of Sue's students in the throes of making their sandwiches.

They split up the sandwiches so everyone could have a taste.  Nothing like fine American cuisine!  Only one person out of all of her classes did not like the taste.

"I think I'll eat these every day!"

Overall it was a great hit.  American teachers are hired to help the students with their pronunciation, but also to teach more understanding of Westerners and western culture.  Sue's classes sure received their western culture dose for the day!

Christmas Deco in China

Sue and Sophie went shopping today, and Sophie found this Chinese Santa Claus.  Many decorations are now up in some of the stores.  She had a playdate with Sue and some other Moms and had no nap today so she went to bed very easily tonight (so far - but the night is young!)

More "Chinglish":  CHUTION WHEN USING CART!

... and another Santa Claus!  Sophie was completely in heaven seeing these Santa Clauses around.

She loves riding on these mechanical toys.  It costs 1 quai (about $.14 US),so we spring for it because it makes her SO happy!

The entrance to KFC was all decked out, of course because it has American roots.

Secret Santa

Of all of my 120 students, only 3 people have not received something from their Secret Santas, so it has become quite a success!  People have received coffees and teas, socks, had their laundry done, and received Christmas cards.  They have received coffee mugs, candy, fruit, shaving kits, cologne, and paper roses.  They have also been very creative on delivery; sneaking items into dorm rooms, classrooms and laboratories, ringing doorbells and running, or finding a middle man to deliver the goods.

Today I asked the students to create plays based on all of the Christmas subjects we have studied; Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Christian beliefs, the birth of Jesus, the Catholic Church, Frosty the Snowman, Christmas Carols, the 12 days of Christmas, and the movie "It's a Wonderful Life".  They performed their plays today and they were very entertaining using many of the themes above.  We have a student party on December 23rd which I think will be an interesting evening.  We're not sure what to expect!

Jiliang Snack Fair

A snack fair was held at our university, with many good and/or interesting treats to eat.  As with any big Chinese festival, fireworks kicked off the celebration.  Here is the battery of fireworks launchers, all set up and ready for the event.

Baby Duck on a Stick anyone?  Yum.

Left: A rice and meat mixture inside of a piece of bamboo.  Right: a small dumpling with meat or vegetables.  Both delicious!
 
The snack festival took place between the dormitories, and was extremely popular.

Fish on a stick was a popular attraction.

... and here are the fish being prepared.

The preparers are trying to make these dumplings as fast as they can to satisfy the huge crowd.

Squid on a stick - also a very popular dish.
 
... and finally, oysters on the half shell.  The whole snack fair was a 4 day event and all of the students (and many of us teachers) really enjoyed it!

The prices were incredibly cheap, about $.50 US to buy a snack at the fair.Considering the average income for a student in a month is about $100 US, the price is right to draw a big crowd!

A Visit to Xitang

I haven't blogged for a couple of days because we were out of internet range - so you get extra today!  We stayed in a town called Xitang "shee-tong", which I would officially categorize as Out of the Way, and Off the Beaten Track. 

Some students from our university acted as our tour guides, so we made our way to the Hangzhou East Bus Station after a 30 min taxi ride to meet up with them.  Here we are waiting for our bus to Xitang to arrive.

Jack loves his stocking cap because a) it keeps him warm, and b) people don't know he's a blondie, so he gets a little less attention that way.

After starting from our house about 7:45 am, and 4 hours of walking, taxis, and 2 bus transfers, we finally arrived at Xitang.  This sign caught our fancy.  If you're going to fall into the water - do it carefully!
 
As we were waiting to go inside this proud poodle with purple ears walked by. 

We stayed for a night in a little local hotel.  We were so thankful to have our students with us because we would have never found our little accommodations down this very tight alleyway.  Their rooms weren't all together but scattered around the town.  They wanted to put the boys in a room that was in a different building, on a different street than ours.  We traded rooms around and we got a nice little upstairs-downstairs arrangement right next to the canal.

... and here's the entrance to our little hotel.  It is a local place that doesn't see many Westerners and we probably wouldn't have been able to stay without our students helping us.

Sophie and Sue, coming out the alleyway into the entrance of the hotel.

Peter and Jack having a rest in the little anteroom of the hotel after our 4 hour trek to get there!

Xitang is a beautiful water town where part of "Mission Impossible 3" was filmed, so there are a few pictures around of Tom Cruise doing his stunts and interacting with the locals.  The houses, shops and boardwalk are built right along the canals.

Day to day life goes on next to the canals too.  This little Pomeranian was getting a trim and a blow-dry.

This town is located in the Yangtze River Delta and has a history of over 2,500 years.  Long sheltered passageways crisscross the town allowing the people to stay dry when it rains.  It's a gathering place for many talented arts and crafts people.


Left: A sign advertising a local hotel, and Right: our friend and fellow teacher, Ashley who came with us on this weekend expedition.

Some local boatmen waiting for customers to take up and down the canals.  We were told to wait to do this after nightfall as the town lights are especially pretty then.

A scene through one of the decorative portals on one of the river bridges.
   
There were many little dogs around, and Sophie had to try to pet all of them.  Some of them were not too friendly so we had to block her a few times from getting nipped. One of the students, Rebecca, on the left helped organize the trip, and also helped a lot with Sophie.

People moving up and down the canals...

Some of the quaint little houses that line the canals...

We ate a late lunch, and although it was about 40 degrees, there was no heat and all the windows were open, so everyone was bundled up.  Everyone, that is, except Sophie who likes to be as cold as possible.

"Michelle" and "Rebecca", the two girls who organized our trip and took such good care of us.

... the view from the restaurant window.

From the boardwalk side of the canal, we could look across and see a Chinese Opera going on.

As evening advanced, more boats began appearing on the river.



This fisherman had some help!  He grabs his trained birds by the head and dumps them into the water. They dive down, grab some fish, and give it to him.  Then he gives them a treat.  We have heard before of the fishermen placing metal bands around their necks so they can't swallow the fish themselves, but these birds didn't seem to have the bands.  He would call his birds by splashing his oar on the water so they could hear him when they were beneath the surface.
 
Late afternoon looking down one of the canals.
 
Later in the day, it's getting colder, but this restaurant's windows are all open!

Our 3 lovely tour g