Tired Tired Tired

Today we started with a Language project about the Lantern Festival here.  We talked about the lantern festival and that in olden days riddles were written on the lanterns for entertainment value and hopes were written on lanterns as requests to god in the new year.  Everyone made large paper lanterns  in which will be hung glow sticks to our own lantern festival another evening.  Part way through the morning one of the other Americans came to me and said "I think Barb needs you."  I found her shaky with her head resting on her hands feeling dizzy.  Turns out she hasn't been eating much. All the food here is spicy.  Even when you ask for no spice, it is still usually spice by our standards.  I have asked her every day, and she has been telling me she is eating enough, but apparently she really hasn't and even she didn't realize the extent.  We immediately swung into action giving her fruit and goldfish crackers.  The teachers from the school broke into the stash of american food and gave her a jar of peanut butter and some ritz crackers.  Lunch was at the only fast food restaurant in Pingliang-Dicos.  The place serves only chicken, and the school made sure they had sandwiches free of spice.  I think all the Americans enjoyed having nonspicy chicken sandwiches, french fries, and soda...a little taste of home.  Barb had perked up considerably by the end.  She had also gone to a store nearby with a wonderful staff member named Michelle and bought a loaf of fresh sandwich bread and some jam to make sandwiches to take to future meals "just in case".  

After lunch we had a large group photo in  People's Square and then it was on to a scavenger hunt in the International Market (where nothing is international--just a cool name).  The students were broken in to small groups with two Americans in each.  They had never done a scavenger hunt, but it took them only a few minutes to get the idea of what we were doing.  We didn't have to buy anything...just take photos--getting a ride in a bike drawn cart, riding a broom like a horse, etc.  It was a lot of fun.  The hardest item for everyone was finding a Michael Jackson CD.  Who would have thought we would all the cheering to find one.  

Barb went shopping for some clothes with some students afterward, and then it was off to dinner.  Barb and I were in a group that went to a wonderful restaurant...that had no spice in their food.  Our table of 3 americans and 7 students polished off plate after plate of food.  It was delicious!  Shaun and Sullivan went with a group to a Muslim restaurant which had roughly the same food and which they said they enjoyed as well.  

This evening we went back to the Activity Center and watched Kung Fu Panda...or rather I slept through it.  I was sooooo tired.  Zach and Sullivan didn't watch it either...they went to a market near the hotel that Zach loves to wander through.  So here we are at the end of another day.  I am so tired, I can hardly see straight.  As soon as I am done with this blog, I need to contact our credit card companies by email because we are being refused at the ATMs.  We forgot to tell them we were coming to China.

Love to all who are following this.  Give DD a special love from us.