Sunday, October 29, 2017

Mike's Bread, Double Nines Festival, Halloween Party

Mike Qi's Bread
We had to go shopping for some groceries on Tuesday, so we decided to go to Carrefour, a French based grocery and retail store that we like the best.  It is also the easiest for us to get to from our campus.  There is also a small "baking store" near there that we have been able to get whole wheat flour, good brown sugar, pickles and several other things that most stores just don't carry.

We stopped at the store (called Mike Qi's) to get pickles and look for a metal baking pan that I can use in this small toaster oven that we have.  Right now I only have some glass pans and when we take things to our dinner group on Sunday, they are pretty heavy and David is afraid of breaking them.  We couldn't find the pans (even with Mike's help) so we bought some bread flour and the pickles.  We were checking out and Mike is the one helping us. Mike has some English that he has learned, so it was fun to talk to him.  Very personable.  He sees the bread flour and asks if I make bread. I told him that I did, then he says to wait, runs back to the back of the store and comes out with a loaf of bread.  Mike opens it up and invites us to have some.  "Just tear it off," he says.  So we did and the flavor was so wonderful!  It was a dried cranberry and coconut bread.  We just knew we had to buy it and bring it home to enjoy.  I don't think he really planned to sell it at that time because of his reaction when we told him we wanted to buy it.  My mouth waters for that bread just thinking about it!
Mike Qi's Cranberry Coconut bread.  YUM!


Double Nines Festival
Saturday was Double Nines Festival in China.  Eva told us that there would be things to do on Buddha Mountain, so we decided to go with her and see what was going on.  Double Nines Festival is a day to give respect to the elderly and, also for hiking, being outdoors and getting fresh air and exercise. 

We took the bus to where we were pretty sure we needed to get off.  We tried to ask someone on the bus, but she tried to tell us that we needed to take a different bus.  It may have been that the Chinese characters that we had printed off were not the correct ones for what we needed.  The bus was very crowded.  We had to stand the whole way and there was a traffic jam and so the traffic was extremely slow.  The bus kind of crawled to the stop where we thought we needed to get off.  When it was almost to the stop, the bus driver decided to open the doors and let us off.  (They will do this quite often when there are a lot of buses waiting in line to drop off and pick up passengers.)  The majority of people on the bus seemed to be getting off here, so we decided that it probably was the correct stop.

We followed the crowd and soon we were in the midst of a crush of people, some going and some coming back from Buddha Mountain.  We weren't sure if we would need to get a ticket, because China has a policy of allowing people over the age of 62 to enter for free, so we just had to show our passports to the guards at the gate and we were in.  We didn’t know where to find Eva so we walked along and passed a LOT of booths that were selling food and trinkets and toys. 

We decided that we needed to stop and stay at one place until we heard from Eva.  There was a little open lane that went off to the west, so we took it.  The mass of people was gone (there were still a lot there, but we weren’t rubbing shoulder to shoulder anymore) and we were able to find some steps to sit on where we could wait.

We watched the people- and they watched us, occasionally saying hello to some and just smiling at others.  Then a really cute little baby boy that looked to be just about one year old, started smiling at us with the cutest smile! He kept watching and smiling as his mom tried to get him to climb the stairs.  Eventually the family just sat behind us on the steps and David kept interacting with the baby.  There was a man that noticed us and he had tried to talk to us, but with our limited Chinese, there wasn’t much to talk about.  He had a pretty fancy camera and started taking pictures of us and of David interacting with the baby. 
We just loved this smile!


Then a lady came by with some dried sweet potato strings (which were really good!) and offered some to me.  I took one out of her bag and indicated that I like them, so she came over and had me hold out my hand and she poured a whole bunch in my hand!  Then she waved and left with a smile.

We were starting to gather a bit of a crowd around us.  One grandma came by with her nine-year-old grandson and he said “Hi.” I said “Hi,” back to him and then the grandma came up to me and said something.  The boy started using English words he had learned, and she kept encouraging him to show me how intelligent her grandson was that he could speak English.  When he had exhausted about all the words he knew, the family decided to move on, but we had made dear friends by the time they left.  All this time, the guy with the camera was snapping pictures of us and the people we were interacting with.  Of course, the grandma and her grandson had to have their picture taken with me using their camera.
We saw this at one of the booths on Buddha mountain and it looked so good so we bought a package of it.  We waited until we got home to try it.  We thought we were getting a piece of a cake that looked so good.  It wasn't.  It was glutinous rice (sticky rice) that had a little flavor.  Sorry, this one went in the garbage, not to our tastes.  We were a little disappointed.

 Eva finally got there. She had met a friend who works for the government, and she was going to take us to some friends that live on Buddha Mountain and have lunch there.  However, they didn’t tell us that information until AFTER we had bought some of the local snacks and eaten some boazi (steamed buns with meat inside), that we would be going there for lunch.  They had prepared some jiaozi (dumplings) for us and when you eat dumplings at a Chinese house, you are expected to eat until you feel ready to burst!  By the time we had eaten about five or six dumplings each and also a special kind of wrap they made for us, we were very full and ready to burst.


I liked the shape of this one and also the dragon handle.  There were SO many shapes and kinds of pots.  Some dated back to the Ming and Qing dynasties.  There were over 3,000,000 RMB worth of pots in this museum.  


A very creative pot showing the elements of the earth.
After lunch, we were shown to the museum that the family takes care of.  The museum was about the history of teapots.  I don’t remember hearing the name of the woman who runs the museum, but she took us through with pride and then showed us the rest of her house.  She operates a health spa at her home, but is trying to start a business in the main area of Jinan.  
This pot was for someone who was going to be moving up in life.  The circle handle on the top shows that it can be picked up and moved.  There was one pot that didn't have the top part and that was for someone that wasn't going anywhere in life.

Then she demonstrated the art of the tea to us.  We told her that we could only drink herbal teas, so she assured us that these were not the black tea, so we would be okay.  We had to take her word for it.  Everything was run through Eva because the woman spoke no English.  They gave me a stool to sit on but had David sitting on a cushion on the floor.  We had tea in tiny cups (I was able to get about five small sips out of the cup). 

We had tea, more tea, ate some Ginko nuts, more tea, then some pomegranate, then she played some music on an ancient Chinese instrument, then more tea.  She gave me a silk scarf that she had used natural dyes to make.  She also gave one to Eva that was dyed from a flower that comes from Tibet.  We finally asked to use her bathroom and then after a little more tea, and David trying to play the instrument, the woman changed from her traditional Chinese dress to something more modern and we all headed back down the mountain, taking the back roads and avoiding all the people who were still there on the main path up Buddha Mountain.  Eva took the bus home and the woman ordered what amounts to China’s Uber driver and drove us home.
Playing the Guqin an ancient Chinese musical instrument.  Her guqin is about 500 years old, handed down to her from her grandfather.
The interior courtyard of her home.

A most interesting work table.

This water feature (the blue bowl) was added to the courtyard to add feng shui because the tree left the courtyard open to the gate, or something like that.  This pecan tree was over 70 years old.  She also had a Ginko tree that was 200 years old.

Chinese Halloween Party
On Sunday, David and I had been invited by another one of the teachers in the Foreign Languages Department (she is Chinese and teaches English) to a Halloween Party.  Wang Jing’s eight-year-old son is in a fencing club and they wanted to have a party for their children.  She wanted us to present a short program for the children showing how American children celebrated Halloween.  We modified a power point presentation that we had for our college age students and made it simpler for these children.  We also sang some Halloween songs for them and taught them one song.  One child wanted to know why it is called “Halloween,” so I tried to break the history of it down into shorter information that could easily be translated by Wang Jing to the Chinese children.
After the program, we watched some of the children display some of their musical talents.  One played a guitar and sang, and three of the other children played traditional Chinese instruments.  We ate some sandwiches, and some fruit and were invited to sit on a bench in the middle of everyone (the place of honor) to watch the performances.  

We had just finished with our food when someone came along with a piece of cake.  The man who was the fencing coach had just asked his girlfriend to marry him in front of the group and after he did, they cut the largest cake that I have ever seen and served it to us all. 

Some of the Halloween decorations.  They had pumpkin and skeleton lights up also.  CJ would have been so proud of them!

The wedding proposal.

She said yes!

After the cake, they brought us dumplings and then a cupcake and then some juice.  We were feeling pretty full after all of that.  There were a few more things they were going to do, some games and a few more performances, but we decided that we wanted to get home, so she ordered us a taxi through her Didi account (the Uber type driver).  It has been a fun week.
Here we are with Michael, Wang Jing's son.  He seemed to  understand English quite well.  I think she talks to him at home and other places using English.  A nice young man. 
They were dressing up some of the children as mummies. This boy played the part well!


Sunday, October 22, 2017

Reader's Theater Pt. 2, Dr Tricia, A Visit from Former Students

We had the rest of the Reader's Theaters performed this week.  I decided to record some of them and after seeing this one, I knew it needed to be posted to my blog!  Probably one of the best ones all week.  I love how innovative the students get in preparing props and using what they have to make it better AND add a Chinese twist to it.  The criteria for grading was on individual performance, enunciation, pronunciation and emotion.  The main actor in this one got a near perfect score. 


We went to see Dr. Tricia on Wednesday.  Mostly just to talk, but she is worried about David, thinks he is pale and has lost weight (not sure that he has, but whatever...).  She would like him to try some traditional Chinese medicine to help build him up.  She will set up an appointment sometime in the next two weeks.  I also told her about the problem with my wrist and thinks I should see the orthopedic specialist here to see if there is something that can be done to avoid the surgery that my US doctor says is necessary to be rid of the pain.  We'll see what they have to say.  It would be nice to not have the surgery if it can be avoided. 

Some of my former students from four years ago wanted to come for a visit, so they came on Saturday and had lunch with us.  I made some BBQ chicken and some cookies. They brought fruit.  Six of them came.  They would have brought more students with them, but I told them how small our apartment was and so it was just those six.  It was so good to see them!  They have matured a little, but in some ways, they still retain that innocence that was so endearing when I had them the first year.  They are now in their fourth year of medical school and they will start working on their residencies in another  year or two.  They don't let them choose a specialty for another three or four years. 
From left to right, Li Ai, me, Penny, Lydia, Matthew, Ted and Jack.
They all struggled to remember their English because they don't use it that much.  Ted was probably the best of them because he spent three months this summer in Toronto, Canada receiving special training at a hospital there.  Of course, we all had to exchange WeChat ID's to stay in touch.  We will probably do this again in a few weeks.  Such promising young people!

On our way to Church today, we saw the bus we needed to catch coming down the street and so we decided to try and catch it.  When you haven't run in a few years, your muscles don't like to be pushed and so I strained a muscle in the back of my thigh.  It is painful to walk.  Did some stretches when we got home and it feels a little better now.  Won't be running again for a while. 

Yes, we caught the bus!  Here's how that happened.  We saw the bus and thought in dismay that we were just going to miss it, when all of a sudden, the bus that was coming from the opposite direction stopped for us as we waited at the crosswalk!  That RARELY happens here in China!  Pedestrians are low man on the totem pole.  The bus we needed was coming from the other directions, so we took the opportunity to cross and the bus we needed had to slam on his brakes (he was still a safe way down the street, but he was going at a pretty good clip).  After we crossed, we started running.  The  bus makes it to the pick-up spot.  People are getting on the bus.  More people are getting on the bus.  We are getting closer, still jogging.  David is closer and just as the last person is getting on the bus and the driver is closing the doors, he notices David in the side view mirror and opens the door back up.  I am still coming (in pain) and we were able to make that bus and get to where Church was on time!  Small blessings we are grateful for!

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Reader's Theater, Haircuts and Red Leaf Valley

David and I had assigned our classes reader's theaters to start presenting this week.  It was fun to watch most of them.  Some students only put in the effort to get it done.  Their voices were monotone and all they were doing was reading from the play.  Others did a power point to add to the background, added props and others even added different voices!  They were so fun to watch when they added all these things.  One play had a "brownie" in it.  They were looking up online what a "brownie" was.  The picture that I saw on one of their phones was a brownie that you would eat!  I had to find a picture on my phone to show what the brownie was that they were supposed to portray. 
On Thursday afternoon, we decided to get our hair cut.  David asked one of his student helpers to go with us because we wanted to go back to the woman who had cut our hair when we were here four years ago.  The student brought along a male friend of hers and he spoke English fairly well also.  The woman was pleased to see us and remembered us from when were were there before.  She was so happy to see us!  She cut my hair a little shorter than I am comfortable with, but it will grow back.
She insisted that we get a picture with her and then she immediately posted it to QQ (China's Facebook).
We had lunch with Eva and Dani (a student helper of Eva's that has helped us several times) on Wednesday at the Canteen.  Eva was asking if we had plans for this weekend and mentioned that it would be fun to go to Red Leaf Valley.  We had lunch with Eva again on Friday and she asked again about it.  We thought it would be fun to go, but Eva didn't want to drive her car there and try to park.  She found a tour company that would take us up there and back and got us in for 100 RMB each.  Sounded like a great price to us, so she arranged for the three of us to go.

We got up early Saturday, took a taxi to the place we were to meet the tour group and Eva, and got on the bus.  It was about an hour ride south and east of Jinan.  As we get close to the site, we have to go up this rather steep road in that big 60 passenger coach bus.  Some of those turns the driver had to take were very sharp.  One turn, he had to back up a little bit (with a sheer cliff on the other edge!) and then start on up the rest of the turn.

We walked and saw a lot of the things from a small aviary to some carnival rides for children, but mostly we wanted to get where the leaves had started to turn.  There are a lot of maple trees and other deciduous trees that make pretty autumn colors there.  They also plant a tulip garden for the Spring and they have orchards of apple and cherry trees in the Spring also.
Some of the color in Red Leaf Valley.

Looking down at a gate that is amid all the colors.

A view of the pagoda.

The waterfall that is by the lake.
We walked up to where the pagoda is, occasionally being stopped by people for pictures.  We decided to stop on some stumps to rest and have a few snacks.  While we were sitting there, people passing by and then a few children wanted to use their English and say "Hello."  We tried to talk to some of them and then they wanted pictures.  I lost track of how many children came next to me to get their picture taken.  Eva was getting a kick out of all of this.
This little girl was so happy to have her picture taken with both of us. 


This woman was so happy that we let her get her picture with us.

The little boy that I'm "talking" to just kept coming over to me and wanting more attention.

Another little happy Chinese child that got to meet the Americans!
After all the children left, we continued our way up the mountain. One of the areas was called "Lover's Valley."  They decorated it with probably a million pinwheels all around the area.
Lover's Valley.  Eva wanted to know our story of how we met.


We stopped at one of the little make-shift restaurants that just pop-up all over the place.  We had a type of dumpling that is fried, rather than boiled and some won-ton soup.  Both were delicious and hit the spot.  A boy that looked to be about eight, just stood and watched us the whole time.  He had been playing with Legos while the parents worked, but he stopped and came over close to our table and just watched us.  Sometimes it feels like we are aliens and they can't believe that we eat and drink and talk.
These are the fried dumplings.  Filled with pork and leeks.  Very tasty!

Won ton soup with pork, kelp and what Eva called, "baby celery."

We made our way back to the tour bus on time and then took a city bus back to our campus area.  We stopped by a new fruit and vegetable market that is in our area and bought some fruit.  As we were crossing the street headed back to the campus, two men, that we learned were here from Pakistan, started talking to us and asking where we were from. They are here getting their Doctorate degrees in microbiology and physics and then they plan to go back to Pakistan and help their country build their knowledge and program there.  They received their Bachelor and Masters Degrees from Pakistan where all the courses in their schooling are taught in English. Then they come to China for their Doctorate degree and have to learn Chinese along with work on their Doctorates.  They offered us some of their food, but we declined because we had already just bought what we needed.  They sure seemed like fine young men.
Some of the places we were walking were fairly steep and it was bothering my knee, so Eva suggested that walking backward would not be as hard on my knee.  The way David was holding me, I suggested that it felt like we should be dancing.  Well, we started to dance!  That was fun!  Also, another picture taking opportunity for some girls who were passing by and applauded us.


Among the colorful leaves with Eva.

Paddle boats that you can rent to paddle around the small lake.

It was fun to watch kids playing in these plastic bubble rolls.  It looked like a lot of fun.

Monday, October 9, 2017

Day 6. Flying home - First Class!

Saturday, October 07, 2017

We left the hotel at 9:30 and drove straight to the airport with the whole group.  About half of us had to leave between 11:15 and 12:30, so our guide, Ted, got us all checked in for our flights and then went back to the bus to take the later group that left at 2:30 to new mall in town so they didn’t have to sit at the airport for 4 hours.  Ted was great guide and we all tipped him handsomely. 

David and I were the only non-Chinese on the plane.  We had seats right in the front of the economy class seats.  Our plane made a short stop in the city of Yichang where a majority of the passengers got off and the rest who were going on to Jinan stayed on the plane. 

One of the flight attendants, who had been an attendant for overseas flights to the US, came to talk to us.  We asked her if she had been able to visit any sites while she was in the US and she said that one time they had rented a car and went to Yosemite National Park.  

A few minutes after she left to do something and then we see the pilot coming toward us!  He wanted to speak to us, after learning there were Americans who were teachers on board.  He also had a pretty good command of the English language.  We told him what we were doing in China and he soon left and talked with some of the flight attendants.  Then he came back to us just as they started loading the plane and invited us to sit in the first-class passenger area.  The seats had been empty since the first flight and were not being used during the second flight.  It was a lot more comfortable! They also brought us a free soda.  It was nice. He said he did  it because he has great respect for teachers. 


We are home again and classes start in again on Monday.  Tomorrow in Church, we will be listening to a conference session since we don’t get it in China until a week late.  It has started raining and has turned colder in Jinan.  It's nice to not have it so hot, but then, you have to contend with the rain and turn on the space heater because cement buildings get cold fast!  Excited to be home with a more decent and reliable internet connection too.

Day 5, Oct. 6, 2017. Waterfalls Day.

Friday, October 06, 2017

Today was an early start as we needed to be ready to go at 8 a.m.  We loaded the bus and headed up to the National Park that has the tallest and also the widest waterfalls in Asia.  It was a fairly easy walk to the first waterfall that was the widest in Asia. It was gorgeous.  The crowds were starting to get heavy, so we moved on to catch a bus to get to the next waterfall.

Longest waterfall in China.  They have a national park dedicated to these beautiful waterfalls.

This is my favorite picture of it. 

After the bus dropped us off, we walked down to a village full of vendors.  The rest of the group was going to go on a hike that would last two hours.  I knew my knee would not hold up and two other women were not anxious to take that hike on either, so we stayed behind after walking part way with them.  We tried to go see a few things in that area, but it really wasn’t much else to see unless we got caught in a great crowd that would have been too much for us.  We bought some ice cream and some oranges and sat under a tree on a bench most of the two hours that we waited.  Some people said, “Hello” and other took pictures. 

Shortly before the rest of our group got back, two young men came up to David and started talking to him.  They were both teachers in a middle school in a province in the south of China.  They had pretty good English skills and one wants to travel the US and parts of Europe, Spain and Great Britain specifically.  They walked with us most of the way up the hill until we had to hurry up to catch up with our group to get on the bus.

David talking with the two young teachers from Southern China.  They were also here with another tour group for the National Holiday.
One of the bus drivers was so thrilled to have a group of Americans on his bus that he had to get a video of us before he would drive off.  We sang Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree for everyone and they clapped for us.

After lunch, we went on the hike to the tallest waterfall in Asia.  We walked through an area called a "potted forest" because it was a Bonsai Forest.  It would have been nice to take some time and look at more of the bonsai and even get some pictures, but our goal was to get to the waterfall.  It was hard working through the crowd to stay together and get to where we needed to be, but it was worth the effort. 
Our first view of the Huangguoshu Waterfall.  It is 81 meters in width.

Very hot and muggy here.  We almost didn't want to hold hands because it was such high humidity.

This is my favorite photo of this waterfall.  It was amazing.  Now I need to go to Niagara Falls and be amazed by it!

This might give you a small idea of the crowds we had to shoulder through (gently, of course).  


We walked back along the river and we were very happy that we wouldn’t have to climb all the way back up because they have an escalator the takes you back to up almost the top (about 80 meters up).  We were hot and tired and went through all the vendors to get to the bus and endure the three hour ride back to Guiyang where we are spent the night.  

We were all amazed at this beautiful chandelier that was in the lobby of the hotel we stayed at the night before. 

Day 4, Oct. 5, 2017. Tiantai Mountain Dragon Temple. Dragon Palace Cave

Thursday, October 05, 2017

We were out of hotel at 8 a.m. today.  We traveled about three hours south of Guiyang and the first stop was at Tiantai Mountain Dragon Temple.  It is an old temple that is at the top of a mountain and also doubled as a fortress.  It started out as stairs and continued as stairs all the way to the top!  Someone said that going up and down was about 2.5 miles.  It was a difficult climb and my knees are angry at me for doing that.

This was fairly early in our climb up to the Dragon Temple.  

A Ginko tree that has been around for a while.  They tie red ribbons on as wishes on the tree.

The Dragon Temple from the bottom of the hill, but not where we started.  We had to go up about 50-75 steps first and then start on the trail to the temple.  Little did we know...

One of several gates we went through on our climb.

A mural of the seven tenets of Daoism (I think).

We were only about half way up at this point.

A view of the surrounding mountains from the top.  The rounded tops are interesting.

This was inside the temple.  They coat the wood with tung oil to keep the insects out of the wood.  That was the reason for the distinctive odor in the room.

Finally, the TOP!








Our next stop was to an ancient Han ethnicity village.  We walked around the old streets that were full of vendors.  We did some shopping and eventually stopped for lunch at a restaurant.  Evidently horse meat is a specialty of the people in this area, so we were given a plate of horse meat for lunch.  It had a little strong taste, but it was okay, rather dry actually. 
As we were going through the village, we stopped in front of a shop that was selling batik clothing and pictures.  I was fascinated to see how they did it.  They draw the outline of a design on the fabric, apply wax with a paint brush to the areas they want to keep white or some other color and then dye the rest of the fabric.  Most of the tablecloths and pictures they had were dyed with indigo, but there were some others that had a little bit of yellow or red on them. 

After lunch, we walked around some more and we were shown some of the really old stone buildings that are still standing and being lived in.  Then we went to see a small opera show they have there.  I guess when you have been to the bigger shows, the little one wasn’t all that impressive.

One of the old stone buildings in the Han Village. The slit in the wall was made so they could shoot arrows through for defense.

Narrow walkway through the ancient village. These walls are over 500 years old.

Another view of the village lane.

Outside of the cave where one waterfall came out. 
We had to hurry after that to get back to the bus and go to the next venue.  This was a cave that you ride a boat through and see all the lights that they have rigged up in the cave.  It is really pretty, but what kept going through my mind is that our National Parks service would NEVER allow us to do this in our caves at home! 
The opening of Dragon Palace Cave.  Some areas of the cave only had room for one boat to go through at a time.
Colorful lights added to the cave.
Where the water from the cave comes out.
























While we were waiting for our guide to get the tickets for the boat ride, we were treated to a concert from this group of people from the Buyi (pronouced boo-ee) people.  Each of their instruments were hand made and all were a little different.

When the boat ride reached the end of the cave, we were supposed to turn around and head back, but for some reason, our driver didn’t do that and we docked the boat and they told us to get out of the boat, so we did.  We walked along a pontoon walkway to the other side of the cave and waited for the rest of our group.  After a long while, our guide comes to find us and said that we weren’t supposed to get out of the boat!  We got back in the line to get back on the boat and that was longer than we had time for and we were supposed to do so we could get onto the next thing we were going to see. 
This is Tiger Cave Falls that we weren't supposed to go see.  
Finally, we got back to the boat dock and then we all lined up for a group photo.  So many Chinese started taking pictures of us and then we started inviting them to join with us also for a big group photo.  We had about 30 people come join us, all just laughing and having a good time joining these Americans! 

Take a ride through the Dragon Palace Cave with us!

Our next stop was a lake that has a perpetual swirl in it. Our guide called this "Whirlpool Lake", but it was a really slow swirl that drains somewhere in the middle and from there they weren’t sure where it went to.  We also walked to see a Budda in a cave.  David and I saw the Budda, but we were so tired we just sat around the outside entrance and waited for the rest of the group to come out.  A group of three men stopped and asked if they could take a picture with us.  Of course, asking is in the form of holding their phones out, saying “hello” in either English or Chinese and then pointing and saying “Photo, photo?”  We agreed and pretty soon we had about 10 people that stopped and wanted their picture with us also, each one or two at a time.  The last was a woman who stood between us and then they all left.
Whirlpool Lake.  You can't see the swirl in this picture for how slow it was.  We could only see it because there were some leaves on the water and you could see them moving slowly in a circular pattern.

The guide said it was time to go and so we started out well ahead of the others and as we passed through the town, we smiled and said “Hi” to a lot of people and admired several babies.  We arrived well ahead of the rest of the group, so we sat on a wall and two girls, both we had said “hi” to earlier but got no response except a shocked look that we interpreted as, “They speak, they are human!”, came up to us.  We tried to speak some Chinese to them, but they either didn’t understand Mandarin (which is possible in these back-country places where they learn the Minority language) or we had a really bad pronunciation.  Eventually the one girl loosened up with us enough to remember some of the English she has been taught in school and answered the question, “How old are you?”  We were gathering quite a crowd of towns people around us at this point and they had a lot to say to us that we couldn’t understand, but they seemed to enjoy just being there looking at us.  The rest of the group eventually came, so we said good-bye to them all and left. 

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