Wow! What to say about these past few days?? On Monday and Tuesday, we went to visit the schools and it was amazing! (Forgive my grammar at the moment I don’t care!) The kids were sooo ecstatic. All they wanted to do was take their picture with us and hug us! They kept telling us how much they loved our eyes and how beautiful we were. We visited 4 schools in all. The schools were actually on holiday, but they came in just to visit us. I can’t think of many schools that would do that in the US. At the first school we visited, the kids had different stations set up to show us how to write Chinese characters, make origami, t-shirts, and many others. They gave us at least one of the crafts they made and several other beautiful gifts. The other schools gave us gifts as well and were equally as kind. I can’t even begin to describe the awe the schools have for us. Education is a priority in China and teachers are very respected. Since we were American teachers they treated us like rock stars!! It was nice to be so appreciated for what we do. We were soo tired after the school visits, it’s harder being a celebrity than I thought! :0)
Last night we went to see the Sichuan Opera. It was great, but nothing like the traditional opera I expected. They had ornate costumes, fire breathers, Chinese shadow puppets, and music solos. All were amazing. As I mentioned earlier we are in Sichuan, and the food is SO hot. It’s not like the Mexican spicy we are used to back home it’s very different. It is so hot it numbs your tongue and burns your lips. I like spicy, but this is not even edible to me! We also experienced a hot pot for the first time today and it was….well, an experience. They actually put a pot in front of you and light a fire underneath it. Then in front of you a rotating table sends by all kinds of raw foods. You choose the food you want and boil it in your hot pot. Sounds good right? Well there was lettuce and shrimp (not bad), but the brains and guts were a bit too gross for my taste. I kid you not they had fresh brain, liver, guts, stomach lining, fish skin, etc. It was all I could do not to vomit!! As for dinner we had KFC. One of our tour guides told us “The kids [here] know the Colonel”! Last night we had Pizza Hut and the night before McDonald’s, so at least dinner is yummy. The Pizza Hut was out of control. They had pizza and pasta of course, but they also had steak, potatoes, all kinds of nice desserts, ostrich pizza, seafood pizza and other stuff you wouldn’t believe! The restaurants are soo nice too. The fast food restaurants are some of the nicer places I’ve eaten.
We’ve been to a lot of museums too and I am museumed out! I did a three story museum in 30 minutes if that tells you anything! BUT today….we saw the pandas!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! IT WAS AMAZING. I have so many pictures I don’t know where to start. There were a ton of pandas and they were playing and wrestling, too cute! It has definitely been a highlight.
Tomorrow we fly out early!!! We have to have our bags downstairs at 6 and are leaving at 6:45!! We fly to Lijiang, which is a very remote part of China in the Yunan Province. We will be very close to Tibet and Burma. Then on Sunday, we take a 4-5 hour bus ride to Zhongdian, which is even more remote. The cities are only about 100 miles away, but the roads are apparently really bad. If it has rained recently the roads may have washed out and we may not even get to go. The area is heavily Tibetan, so I’m soo excited to see it! They said we will get to see a lot of authentic minority groups. The only downside is that we will not have internet or phone service. I won’t get to call Brett on our anniversary Monday or my daddy on Father’s Day.
I'll be able to update you all again when I get to Beijing next week probably sometime Tuesday.
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