Go Sports

For the first time since I've been in China, I've flipped on the TV. The first channel that comes up is the sports channel. Instead of an outdoor team sport I was seeing, the WMA which I think stands for the World Martial Arts Tournment. After dinner I saw a ping pong tournamnet, which was really cool considering our own ping pong games this weekend. Then there were featurettes on weight lifting, volley ball, snooker (which is like pool but without numbers). Honestly I've never been into watching sports on TV, but I have to say I find Chinese sports TV facinating. I guess I found another piece of me that is really Chinese.

Speaking of being Chinese, here's some more food photos, for your pleasure.

-Andrea

Shrimp with dragon fruit

Roasted Lamb

Spicy Beef Dish



Mixed Vegetables



Red Wine Pears

Fried Dumpling

Hot Pot

Going Forward

So unfortunately Blogger had a system update and a bunch of posts were deleted including my last post about the Shijiazhuang Tiedao University project.  So if you had a chance to see this limited time post, Congratulations!

I've had some great experiences in the last week.

1) Mukul and I attended a class at the Shijiazhuang Tiedao University - 1 hour 50 minutes of completely in Chinese. We answered a few questions from the students, who spoke great english (missing blog post)

2) China Team 13 visited Qiao's Grand coutyard, near Taiyuan. (Raise the Red Lantern starring Gong Li was filmed here)

3) We also got to visit Pingyao Ancient City where we got to see actors in period clothing.

4) We went to one of our translator's university and played ping pong with the students

5) I had a 1 hour body massage including fire cupping for only 45 RMB ($7 USD).  My back looks horrendous, but I feel great.

Update on bathrooms:
This weekend at the Pingyao Ancient City, we were left with only one option for a bathroom, and it was going to be another 2 hours before the next one. We were dismayed but not shocked that it was just a small four-walled brick room in the middle of a dirt parking lot with a little canal as the "toilet." No stalls so you just studiously avoid looking at your neighbors. Thank goodness it was not co-ed. Of course no hand washing facilities or toilet paper. The lack of ceiling gave us some relief for the smell if not the bugs. what shocked us was that we had to pay to use these wonderful facilities. I think the Chinese really know how to use supply and demand in their favor.

-Andrea