Thursday in Pingliang

Today's language time was devoted to the subject of firecrackers...their origin, purpose, etc.  The students learned to write Haiku poems which turned out really nicely.  At lunchtime the whole group divided in half and ate at two different restaurants.  Shaun, Barb, and I ate at one while Sullivan ate at the other with the Zach.  When we go to lunch we sit around big round tables usually holding 8 or so people so there are usually 2 or 3 Americans among a group of Chinese students.  

After lunch we were again divided into groups.  One set stayed at the Activity Center to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics on DVD and learn Chinese knot tying.  The other group went to the orphanage in town.  We delivered gifts for the children for the school to hand out later and bananas to give to the older children and adults (the orphanage also houses adults that do not have family and are disabled in some way). Shaun, Barb and I went to orphanage while Sullivan stayed at the center.

After the orphanage we went to the silk tailor's to get the clothes that people had made.  One of Barb's dresses turned out really cute and the other one needed to be taken in and will be picked up tomorrow by one of the school's interns.  We also purchased some more silk yardage.

Then it was back to the Activity Center to meet up with everyone for dinner.  Barb and I went out with an intern from the school, Helen, and a teacher that has just finished a term here and is heading home, Barbara.  (She is 72 years old and absolutely wonderful.)  After fried noodles (thick long noodles with vegetables) for dinner, we had some time to kill so we walked to Barbara's apartment nearby so we could see where the teacher's live.  Barb and I admired some small drawings on her wall, and she gave them to us.  Barbara has never married and has been working "in the field" her whole life.  She said that she just couldn't take/ship one more item home and that she was leaving these pictures behind.  She had picked them up while living her in China and had loved them in her apartment, but had no room for them back in Chicago.  They are sitting beside me on my hotel desk as I write.  They are two sketches--each one has an elderly chinese person and a child in some kind of interaction.  They are really neat.

Anyway, there was a sock hop after dinner which was a riot.  Now we are back in our rooms and I am hoping for an "early" night after sampling some more tea.

Hugs and more hugs to DD.