Take a Walk, Take a Walk

Jonathan and I like to take walks around our complex with Peter. Sometimes we go to the playground, sometimes we go to the pond and sometimes we just look for animals and leaves. Always, we find friends.

The other day, we were joined on our walk by some of Peter's favorite friends. Not that he has favorites. They do, and Peter is their favorite baby. There are many people in our complex who know us, and know Peter by name. Turns out, we stand out a bit. I feel bad that I don't know any of their names- kids or adults- and they all know Peter's name, but they don't know my name....so maybe that makes us even. Although it is strange when we pass people who I don't recognize at all and they exclaim,  "Hello! Peter!"

We started this particular day with a stroll towards the park, but got distracted when 2 girls who love us called out to us and their mom was running after us. "Hello, Peter!" She exclaimed. "How are you?" The mom knows some English and likes to practice with us. We went over towards their house and let Peter investigate their yard. I'm always more willing to let him be around other people when Jonathan is there to translate/communicate.

The 2 big girls are "the kids in the corner house with all the dogs". Then there is a little girl in a pink sweater who I refer to as "the little girl who always follows Peter around". I don't know who the boy is...but now he knows Peter. 

Like normal, everyone was amazed by how well Peter walks and how he gets around things that are harder to traverse. He turns around and scoots down stairs or crawls over big steps. They think that is grand that he can tell when it's dangerous and changes positions to be safer. I think it's normal. They asked Jonathan if we stand back from him and let him try to do it on his own on purpose. Are we raising him like that on purpose to be more independent? Um, yeah. Our child is more independent and sturdier than yours because we let him fall down a lot and test out limits. We don't constantly hold on to him because we want him to learn. Yeah, he falls and gets bumps, but he's okay!

Spot the puppies! Peter did.

Then we went to the pond and they asked if we hold onto Peter near the pond. Yes, we do. We love him to be independent, but also safe. Falling into the pond is not safe. Mom is a little nervous when we aren't holding hands at the pond bridges unless he is in the center of the bridge - no railings make me nervous.

We continued our walk through the grass. One of the big girls found a flower for Peter. 

These 2 girls are fantastic. They know a little English- Hello. How are you? What is your name? 

They love Peter.

We found this table and bench. I'm sure people use it to eat or work at. We use it to play on.

At one point two of the kids were stomping on the table and singing songs. Peter thought it was fantastic. 

This little girl is a cutie. She is a month older than Peter and loves to play with him whenever we go to the playground. Also, if her parents see us, they get just as excited, "Look, Peter, Peter!" 

It was a fun walk. Just long enough to be fun, but short enough that no one got cranky. We saw the dogs and the fish. Then, everyone had to go home for dinner, but we'll see them again.

Must Love Cats

Peter loves animals. He finds pictures of them on his socks and his shirts. Today, for instance, he has a little giraffe on his shirt. He keeps pointing at it and saying "mao, woo woo." (In Peter language that is- cat, woof woof." He says cat in Chinese.) He sees animals in books and ads on the metro. He especially loves to find real ones around our house. We have some little dogs that live a few buildings down, and some cats that live close by. There is a white cat we often see right outside our home. Peter will sometimes stand and look out the window saying "mao mao". So, we go to play at the playground but also search for animals. It takes about 3 times as long to get to the park, but he has fun. 

First he stops to check the bushes for the cat. He stands there and says, "Mao, mao."

Success! Cat located. Peter always squats down when he sees a dog or cat. Keep them at eye level.

Saying hello to mao.

The cat hid under the car. Peter tried to encourage it out, but to no avail. Baby loves his cats.

Meat and Cheese

Tonight's tale is one of disappointment and sadness. You are warned.

Dairy is harder to come by in China. There are less options and higher prices here. One cannot simply walk into any grocery store and get the things they were accustomed to having in America. I did not realize how attached I was to dairy, more specifically cheese, until I lived here. Most grocery stores either do not have cheese or have only the processed squares that don't taste good and are priced far too high.

I distinctly remember the first time I had cheese in China. Jonathan bought some shredded Cheddar at an imported food store for our anniversary in October to have on spaghetti. Maybe you don't think that is a romantic gesture, but I beg to differ. I was elated when he pulled out that bag of cheese. It was gone in two days. Jonathan's mom did send us some freeze-dried shredded cheese a while back that we used to make mac and cheese (again, a luxury here) and to add on eggs or in rice. It was fantastic, but it ran out.

We didn't buy cheese again until a couple of months ago. I had been going back and forth on it. It was expensive, but I could make so many other dinners if I had some. I found some for a good price at the store "Metro". It's a German store, very similar to Costco or Sam's Club- bulk foods for a better price. We buy peanut butter, jelly, pasta and butter here, and once I bought cheese here. It was a huge block of it, priced more than I have ever spent on cheese in my life, but well worth it. Peter and I had cheese pieces with our crackers for snacks. We had grilled cheese sandwiches. I grated cheese on my pasta. We got beans and tortillas and other toppings and made burritos- with cheese of course. It was fantastic. When it ran out, I told Jonathan that we should wait until we really missed it before buying it again. So we waited, until this week.

I went to Metro on Saturday with Peter in tow. Jonathan had work all day and I wanted some cheese. It was time. We got to the store and got our jelly and pasta and went to the dairy section, only to find, to my dismay, no cheddar! There were other kinds of cheese, but for ridiculous prices. The cheddar is the cheapest kind and the only one I could justify buying. There was a little sign that read, "Item Temporarily Out of Stock." I was bummed, but thought I could go back the next week and it would likely be restocked.

Well, last night was the night. Jonathan came with us to Metro after dinner (which was chili, and delicious!). We had a lovely walk to Metro thanks to the warming weather. We arrived at the dairy section and I was aghast. No cheddar! Still?! I made Jonathan ask a nearby worker if they were still out of stock and when they would be getting more. Her reply was that they were not going to be selling cheddar for a period of time, how long she did not know. I wanted to cry. I know it's a silly thing to cry over, but sometimes China life is hard and it's the little things that help tremendously. But, I have a good husband who tries his best to make me happy. He suggested that we buy another kind. He pointed out that Gouda and Edam were only 70 rmb, which was 20 less than the Cheddar. How had I missed this before?! Probably because I cannot recall what either of those taste like, and I was not wanting to buy a huge thing of cheese if it was a stinky cheese.  Enter kind loving husband, who found small pre-sliced packages of both Gouda and Edam and suggested we buy them and then if we liked them, then buy the big cheese. Good plan.

So, we bought the small packs, and tried them out just past the cash register. We both decided Gouda was more to our liking, although both are quite delicious, and Jonathan went back in to buy the monster sized Gouda as Peter and I started our walk home. I was pretty happy. We were getting the same size cheese for less money and it was delicious. I started meal planning as I sang songs about music men playing the piano to Peter. I looked back from time to time for Jonathan. Then I saw him, running towards us....empty handed.

"Where is the cheese?!" I inquired. "It was more money than we thought. It was 70 rmb per half kilo, and 200 something total." came the reply. What?! I could have died. There is nothing like being on the verge of something great only to have it pulled away to make a joyous moment collapse. So, no cheese for us until America. Well, that's a lie, I'll probably buy a little Cheddar sometime before we come back to satisfy my dairy needs, but it will last 2-3 days max. Oh well, worse things can happen. We still have lots of great things here to eat and I'm still learning new things I can make. But just you wait America, I'm going to come back and try all the cheeses I can.

After the cheese fiasco, we walked through the meat section for Jonathan. He is planning an "American Party" for work and they want to have hamburgers and hot dogs so he wanted to price check some things. Now, I know we all like to have posts with pictures, so I found some gems while I was walking around that I thought you might enjoy. Please note there are many wonderful "normal" things we eat here, I just found some things that seem more normal to me the longer we live here.

Chicken feet...the tasty meat!

Yeah, those are hearts. 

Tasty tongues. 

A good variety of meats.

Found in the freezer section. There is also a section the the store of dried cucumber for thousands of rmb. Crazy expensive.

This sausage is made of octopus.

Meat floss is in different things here. I've never had it, but I've heard it's gross. I can imagine.

yakkity yak

There were tanks of fish along with eels, turtles- hard and soft shelled and frogs.

Peter loves this part of the store the best. He also has no idea these little guys will be eaten.

Overlord flower? What?

Yay! Pringles made it to China! Wait...what flavor?!

Although this is not a food, I thought the grandparents would like it if a picture of this little man made it in. 

Hey Teacher!

Since living in China, I've had the chance to work at three different ''schools''. One thing that has stuck out the most is that it is simple to get a job teaching English here as long as you are white. It doesn't matter that I didn't speak any Chinese or that we will only be here for a few months. No one batted an eye that I don't have a working visa. I am white and I speak English- good as hired. Maybe having a teaching background has helped, but I'm pretty sure I would have gotten a job even if I didn't, especially because I didn't actually try to find any of these jobs, they just came to me.

School #1
When we lived in the city center, I was informed about a job opportunity that seemed perfect. It was Wednesday and Friday nights from 6.30-8pm. Jonathan was home from class by then, so he stayed with Peter. The school was the building right next door to our apartment building. Sometimes I spent more time waiting for the elevator and getting to the first floor than I did walking from our building to the school. They had a projector and a laptop I could use for class. I would make a powerpoint at home and then use it for class. This school was a cram school- meaning that the kids went there after their regular school. It wasn't part of their main schooling, just something their parents wanted them to do.

I taught two different groups of kids. My Wednesday group was small, about 7-9 kids aged 10-12. These kids were a very energetic group. When I say energetic, I mean that frequently I would come home feeling like my lesson had bombed and wanting to throw about half of the kids out the window. The biggest problem in this class were these three girls who always sat in the front row. The ring leader was the real problem, but the other two would follow along. These girls constantly spoke Chinese in class, ate food (in Chinese culture it is disrespectful to eat in class), and would cheat and lie during games we played. The cheating and lying is what infuriated me the most. I would make all the students put their books away so we could play a review game. These girls would always have their books open inside their desks...remember they are sitting in the front row. I could see them looking at their notebooks, but when I told them to put them away, they would pull out a math notebook and act all confused, "Teacher, it is math, not English class." Yeah, but there is another notebook under that one...I'm not blind kids. I would separate them and they would always tell me they couldn't move seats because their eyesight was poor and they had to sit in front...well guess what, you get to move anyway. Gah, they were so troublesome. One kid in that class, Tom, was fantastic. He was so loud, but so happy to answer anything. His English was good, but he had no concept of volume control. I also had a girl in this class named Orange. She didn't understand most of what I said and could speak very little English.

My Friday group had about 15 kids aged 9-13. This group was hard to teach because there was a bigger gap in abilities. My top students could talk about many subjects in English and had beautiful handwriting and fairly decent grammar. The lowest students in that class didn't understand even the simplest directions I gave and always addressed me as "Lao-shi" instead of "Teacher". This ability gap made it impossible to keep everyone's attention. I've taught much bigger groups of students before who were at different levels, but I've learned that teaching a foreign language is very different from teaching math or science. I'm not as good at teaching English as a foreign language in a big class setting. I ended up just teaching to the higher students and hoping the lower ones would catch something. We did lots of writing in this class, because I could kind of tailor that to the students, and I'd make my high ones translate assignments to the lower ones.

In general, I liked teaching at this school. The women I worked with were really nice. Some of the kids were really sweet and worked really hard to improve their English. Those kids made the nights worth it. I didn't love teaching at night, and I didn't love teaching such big groups of different abilities.

School #2
When we moved down south for Jonathan's internship, a friend of mine had a contact who was looking for a teacher. It was another cram school. They needed someone to teach Wednesday and Friday from 2-4. I had Peter with me when I met with them and I told them there was no one to watch him. It wasn't looking good. Then, the mom of one of the students that I would be teaching, offered to watch Peter while I taught. It was perfect. Also, I would be teaching a class of 4 children, aged 9-12. I would also be getting 50 rmb more an hour. The best part of this class was their English ability. These kids could talk or write about any subject and they could speak really well. So, I didn't teach them English. Instead, I taught them "what ever subject you feel most comfortable with"- US History and a Science unit on earthquakes and volcanoes. (If you are familiar with the 5th grade core of Utah, then you know that  I taught this for the last 2 years, so it was perfect.)

In the classroom I had access to a computer, projector and a smartboard. I didn't even have a smartboard teaching in the States, so I was excited. We learned about Marco Polo, Columbus, early colonists and so forth. We learned about tectonic plates and continental drift. It was awesome. These kids knew quite a bit about the early explorers and how the earth works, but they didn't have the vocabulary in English. That is what I supplied. Often I wasn't teaching them new subject matter, just the words for it in another language. We would read part of a story together and go over unknown words and then have our science/history lesson. We did spelling tests and they had homework. I felt more comfortable teaching these kids.

But, as all good things cannot last, I ended up quitting that job. The kids were fantastic. It was stimulating. And the pay wasn't too shabby. But, it wasn't working out for the other mom to watch Peter, so the receptionists were watching him. They loved him, but weren't always good at keeping him happy (but neither am I). He is a very independent person and Chinese aren't used to babies being such, so he would cry and the owner of the school didn't like him to cry. She kept trying to get me to find someone to watch him, but my friends either work or have their own kids to watch and I didn't feel comfortable leaving Peter home with a stranger. Also, she started to get pickier about how I was teaching- how many pages we read in class, I needed to give her all my lesson plans 2 weeks in advance, I needed to correct any mistake any of the children made, and so on. It just started getting too frustrating for me to be happy there. So, I used Peter as an excuse so no one would lose face, and I quit. My life and Peter's is much happier, although I do really miss those kids.

School #3
This school came about because one of the students from school #2 has a younger brother who is in this preschool and his mom wanted an English teacher in the preschool. I currently work here and for a period of time worked both at the preschool and at the second school. I work 9-10:40 MWF. This has been a tricky one to teach because of the age. There are 4-6 kids between 14 months- 3 years old. That is a huge gap in ability level at that age. Also, it's hard to really teach English to kids this young in ways other than playing games and singing songs, which is what we mostly do. The main teacher always asks if I can do more teaching and less games. I've never really worked with this age group for extended periods of time in a school setting. I'm still not sure what I can expect of the kids or if an idea is going to be great or a flop.

Peter comes with me to this school and does everything with the Chinese kids. We have fun here. There are two other teachers who speak English good enough to help me with things and we can talk about some things. The other teachers all know basic phrases or words, but not enough to become friends. There is a teacher for each child. Most of the time we all are together as a group and the adult stays with the kid to help them follow the instructions or explain things to them. I like teaching here because it helps me get the day started with Peter and it gets us out of the house and around people. Peter seems to like being around the other kids. I also like it because it supplies me with endless stories to come home and tell Jonathan about. I'll work on recording them for posterity.

Monkey Baby

One of Peter's favorite foods is banana. The other day, he went into the other room and it got really quiet. I went to investigate. If you know one thing about children, it is when they are quiet, they are about 90% of the time up to no good.

Well, this time I was lucky. Peter was trying to be good. He was also trying really hard to eat a banana. But, he doesn't quite have the dexterity needed for peeling skills. So, he was just biting through the peel to get to his fruit. Naturally, he started at the bottom....which is a lot easier than biting your way through the top.

 He would then spit out the peel and eat the banana. 

Then he started handing me the spit out peel. Yay! Just what I wanted to hold in my hands. 

Cute monkey baby.

We started working on peeling skills after the first couple of bites. He now can peel a banana if we start it for him, which makes his life much easier...and mine too.

Gimme Head with Hair

Hair has been an interesting thing here in China. In America, our hair is normal. It does not warrant extra attention. It does not cause waves of people to look at us. Here it brings more attention to us than anything else we do. I've heard many gasps during winter when I would take Peter's hat off on the metro, thus reveling his white head. Peter is constantly called the golden haired child. Sometimes people will come up and very carefully touch Peter's hair and then smile. It makes life interesting. We've also heard many interesting things in regards to our hair since we've been here. Here it goes...

Things Chinese Can't Believe
1- Hair can change colors, darken, as you get older.
2- Peter has the color hair he has (white blond) even though neither Jonathan or I have that color hair.
3- Light colored hair looks darker when it is wet.
4- People in families can have different colors of hair.
5- The amount of arm hair- Jonathan says one of his co-workers rubs his arm in amazement of the hair on his arms.

Weird things Chinese Have Said About Hair
1- Asking about Peter's hair- Do you dye it or is it naturally that color? (Seriously? Who dyes a one year old's hair?)
2- In America, do all babies have that color hair when they are born? (Again, in regards to Peter's hair.)
3- The children't hair will turn dark if they start drinking the water here. (Not said to us, but to our friends who are American and their children have blond and red hair.)

Peter and his admirers. Above is a Grandma and baby we saw at Confucius Temple. Below are three kids and their grandmas/moms who we met on a walk in our apartment complex area. One of the moms kept making her son give crackers to Peter. Peter loved it, but the little boy wasn't so keen on the idea of sharing.

An Unexpected Visitor

The other day, Jonathan had to stay at work later than usual, so Peter was in his pajamas and ready for bed when Jonathan got home. He came in the door and said, "Peter, I have something for you." I could see something brown in his hands and for a second I thought it was a mouse, and almost died. Then, I saw what Jonathan was setting on the ground...this little guy. 

A little toad that he found when he was walking home. It had been raining and Jonathan said he saw tons of them on his walk home. 

Peter loves animals, and this was no exception.

It made him a little nervous at first, but in no time, he was holding the toad himself. The toad promptly peed all over the floor. Peter was not phased by that at all, although I was a bit phased. I clean up too much pee as it is, geez toad.

Jonathan put the toad on Peter's leg, and Peter touched it really carefully. 

A boy and his toad.

Peter loved the little toad and it was a great learning experience of how to touch/hold small animals.

Don't worry, he didn't lick it, or even try to. Peter just likes to stick his tongue out a little bit sometimes. Also, we all washed out hands once toad returned to his home outdoors. It was a fun little time before bedtime. Peter and toad together.

Tomb Sweeping Festival- Going to the country

Last Saturday, a former student of mine, Keer, called and asked if we had any plans for the next day and invited us to go to the countryside with her family for the holiday. I explained we had church, but if they could go a little bit later, then we would leave church early and go with them. After passing the phone to Jonathan and some Chinese talking, things were planned and we were excited.

Keer and her dad picked us up from church and led us to their cars. We were going with another one of my former students, Peter, and his mom. Peter's mom drove us and Keer while Peter and Keer's dad drove the other car. We don't use a car seat in China- most Chinese don't either. Peter loves his freedom in the backseat, and I'm pretty nervous for when we get back to America and we buckle him in again. On the ride up (it was about a 40 minute drive outside the city), Peter's mom gave Jonathan some riddles in Chinese to "test" his language skills. Even though he didn't get the riddles, she was still impressed with his Chinese.

When we got to the house, Keer took us around and showed us the land that belongs to her grandfather. Also, you can see all of the cars parked on the sides of the road. This area has become a very popular tourist spot for the Tomb Sweeping Festival, which China was celebrating that day. People go to temples and burn fake money to send to their ancestors and remember them. They also spend time with families. 

More of the farm/garden area. While we were looking at the land from the porch, they asked if we wanted to "have a look" and of course we did! So we went out to the land to look at their plants.

The house through the branches in the house we were visiting. This tree is a peach tree and the family was very proud of it.

They told us we had to get a picture of Peter in the yellow flowers. So, they set him down in a patch of them and broke off a little bundle of them for him to hold.

Flower child.

They had some part of the garden that was full of vegetables and part where tea trees were growing.

We returned to the house to eat lunch. These two women prepared everything we ate. They were hard at work when we arrived, but were at ease working together. I think the one on the right is Keer's mom and the one on the left her sister (?- Keer said the other little girl there- Jing Xiu- was her cousin and the woman on the left was Jing Xiu's mom, but sometimes they use the word cousin even when they aren't actually related, so I'm not sure if they are family or just friends.)

The eating area was next door to the kitchen. 

We waited for lunch in the courtyard area. Peter loved all the attention and always found new things to play with. Keer is in the green jacket, the other little one in the red is Jing Xiu (she loved Peter and tried to hold him as much as she could), and big Peter in the blue. 

Then it was time to eat. There were lots of vegetable dishes, my favorite is the green on on the bottom, one mushroom and egg, a couple of meat dishes, duck, tofu, and later they brought out rice and a soup. Everything was delicious. I loved that it was all very simple, but such different flavors and textures. I didn't think about it until afterwards, but I wish I had stayed in the kitchen and watched the women making the food and learned a thing or two. We sat around and ate for a while. They made a special egg custard thing for little Peter, but he mostly ate the same things we did. 

After we ate, we went on a long walk to look more at their land and the town. This area is most famous for their tea trees, and this is the time of year that they pick and make the first batch of tea, so it's the most expensive. 

Little bridges to cross little streams.

All the tea trees in this section belonged to the family we were visiting.

Then we started to walk to the little town. It was here that we noticed that little Peter was falling asleep on Jonathan's shoulders. Jonathan lifted him down and the other adults all wanted to hold him. They were also all very concerned for Peter's warmth- there was a cool steady wind- so they wrapped Peter in Keer's dad's jacket and passed him around as we walked. 

A teapot made from a bush.

It even has water that pours out of its spout. 

We began walking through the little town. Then the man who had been holding Peter came up to Jonathan and I and said that Peter was sleeping and getting some sun. My first thought was that he had set Peter down somewhere with the intent of getting him when we went back. I was confused/worried as Chinese talk went back and forth between Jonathan and the man, then it was cleared up that Peter was with another one of the adults with us. Then I was able to relax. They didn't leave Peter alone, just with another dad- that baby was passed around all day. I held him maybe 5% of the day. Luckily Peter does not get scared of strangers or it would have been a rough day. 

Why doesn't Peter have one of these?! Cutest elephant ever.

This is what the street looked like of the little town. We were told that it used to be just a small little town, with clean air and water, very quiet and everyone knew each other. But the government came in and made it touristy and it is much busier and louder.

We walked past a window and we could see in and watch them drying and rolling the leaves. The man we were with knew one of the guys inside and he let us in so we could get a good picture of them at work. It was good to have a local with us. The metal bowl is heated to help with the drying. They pick up a handful and rub it together and let it fall back in and the pick up some more, over and over and over. A simple step, but a very important one.

This is one of the traditional tea houses.

Peter was still sleeping, so just us.

Keer, Jonathan, Robin and Jing Xiu

Big Peter wanted to get into this boat. He's a little bit mischievous, but a fun kid.

There was a big area where lots of families had gathered to spend the day. When we do picnics in America, we bring a blanket. When the Chinese do picnics, they bring tents. So many tents. Also, the hedge is in the shape of a dragon, but this picture doesn't do it justice.

Jing Xiu and her dad. They would keep Peter if we let them. Like I said, we barely touched the baby all day, because everyone else wanted to and as long as Peter is okay with it then so am I.

After visiting the touristy town, they took us on a hike through the bamboo grove in the mountain (very low mountain, but a mountain it was). It was a beautiful hike. We passed lots of tea tree fields, some of them had workers picking leaves, and some were empty.

I loved being in an area so green. It was gorgeous. 

Peter is now with Keer's dad. 

Bamboo all around.

Keer's dad found the thinner bamboo and would pull it down a release it and it would bounce back up. Peter thought that was hilarious. 

Jing Xiu's dad was the ultimate wilderness man. He would find plants and tell us what they are and he knew if they were edible or what you could use them for. The one Jonathan is trying out was sour, but he thought it was delicious. It was neat to go around with Jing Xiu's dad.

Jing Xiu and Peter on the bench. Peter lately likes to stick his tongue out all the time. Little baby snake.

Peter got off the bench and just started walking. I followed him, but he was content to just go. He didn't care that no one was going that way. He made snuffling noises the whole way. He just has to move, has to explore. 

I reigned Peter in and then we were off again. From left to right in this picture- Jonathan, Jing Xiu's dad, Peter, big Peter's mom, Keer, and Peter. 

Focused on walking, so the tongue pokes out.

Family photo in the Chinese country.

A shot of almost everyone we spent time with that day. Left to right- Keer, big Peter, Jonathan, little Peter, Keer's dad, Jing Xiu, Peter's mom, Jing Xiu's dad, and the last two people- friends of the family whose name I never caught. Everyone was super nice and we had a great day.

More tea leaf picking.

More China countryside. I later learned that the road we were on was one of the first roads to connect Nanjing with another important city, but only royalty or very wealthy people could use it. Now, it's just a little paved road.

Close up tea leaf picking.

Tea leaf basket.

The pick of the day.

Sights like this used to shock me, now they seem pretty normal. Ducks out to dry.

Tea and rice.

We did not know this grandma, but I thought she was adorable, and she thought Peter was adorable. Win-win.

We finally got back to the house. Peter played with the kids in the area across the courtyard while the adults talked. We talked about how to teach kids English, how Jonathan learned to speak Chinese, and about Jonathan's internship company. It turns out, that Peter's mom has recently applied to Jonathan's work for them to help get her non-profit group running. They want to set up "reading rooms", which, from my understanding, would be similar to libraries, but also staffed with people who teach underprivileged kids- especially in the mountain areas- how to read. It sounds like a fantastic idea, and I hope they get picked for funding. 

Peter is learning some ninja skills. 

We ate one more time before we said goodbye and headed home. We had a great time. They told us that maybe we could come with them again, but they will try to do it on a Saturday since we have church. I hope it works out again. It was so nice to get out of the city and be outside and see a different side of China. I am grateful for the hospitality of the friends we made and their love. I am grateful for this experience to live in China and see so many different types of life. Living here has taught me so much and given me a great perspective on so many things.