For my birthday, we made quesadillas, which is a treat because we can't get cheese here. It was delicious as you can see...
Zoe made an Oreo-chocolate cake, complete with a frosted message!
My students sang "Happy Birthday" to me several times, and I got a stuffed animal moose from Alaska, a space heater (essential), and two Mickey and Minnie cross stitch patterns (also an essential for Xiuning life at times). It was a relaxing birthday and a pleasant one considering being in Xiuning.
We also had some fun afterward trying on Aladdin kid's costumes.
Today one of my students did a presentation on "jokes." Here's one of his jokes:
A: I won 92 goldfish today! B: Where are you going to put them? A: I'll put them in the bathtub. B: Then what will you do when you want to take a shower? A: I'll blindfold (眼罩) them!
Yale-China has a Spring conference every year. This year, it was at our Guangzhou site. Guangzhou is a mere two hours from Hong Kong, and there are a lot of big city similarities. The conference was only three days long over the weekend, but we had a few productive discussions. The rest of the time was devoted to experiencing Guangzhou culture and spending time with the other fellows.
Our first lunch together was a typical Guangzhou-style meal, it seems. They ordered potatoes, which are my favorite! We also had a variety of meats and other vegetables. Egg plant was a favorite, as usual.
After a four-hour discussion and panel with NGO directors (from Doctors without Borders and a leprosy-awareness and prevention organization called Handa), we went to dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant. The interior design, including a chic, tropical fish tank, was a good mood-setter for the meal.
That night, we went to a bar called The Loft in what seemed to be a very isolated place. The bar itself was nothing like its surrounding quiet residential block.
The next morning, we had dim sum!
My mom called me, and of course, Chris was there to answer.
We went on a tour of exotic (illegal?) animals' markets. The first market was fish. The markets are all meant for selling animals as pets. We hear that not all of them end up being pets though...
There were adorable little puppies left and right in the dog market. This one that I'm petting was only 300 kuai! What a deal!!
They also had huskies!
Next was the turtle market. They had turtles from all over the world, including some from Mississippi, I think!
We also saw many beautiful birds, like this incredibly beautiful peacock. Many of the more abundant birds are used as ceremonial symbols, and they are released into the wild. Unfortunately, many of the birds cannot survive on their own...
After the market tour, we went to the Guangzhou Museum of Art. It was a contemporary museum with traveling exhibits. It appears that they have no permanent collection.
This exhibit features the photographs of Zhang Dali. The interesting theme of this exhibit is the display of Dali's original photographs with the published (and doctored) versions, either in newspapers or magazines. It was amazing to see what they were able to do several decades ago without Photoshop!
For this picture, they spliced Mao Zedong and the background of a mountainous scene together.
For our last lunch, we had ramen (拉面), but with fresh noodles. It is the mac-n-cheese of Chinese food. Chrissy and Jenny are playing with Ruth, our Medical Fellow's daughter.
The second years. ='( How we'll miss them!
Our last dinner was Dongbei (North-Eastern) food. Delicious, of course.
We stayed an extra day because we traveled so far. Brendan, Zoe, and Michael check the subway map to see where we should go to find DVDs!!
Guangzhou Metro...
They had a Disney store!
After a Japanese lunch, we went to the Turkish restaurant next door for dessert. I had baklava and Turkish coffee!! Mmmm!!
For the school's annual spring trip, everyone got to go to Hangzhou, a big Westernized city about three hours away. It's a big deal for our students because many of them have never been to Hangzhou and some just don't have the time to spend a day there.
Zoe and I went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D, because we thought this was our one chance to see this movie in 3D and on the big screen. It was worth the time, and it was only 40 kuai (not even $6).
For lunch, we found a cute "New York/Italian" restaurant that seemed to be owned by an ex-pat. It was definitely an expensive meal but well worth it. I had pesto penne.
Xi Hu (West Lake) is the most famous bit of scenery in Hangzhou. Luckily, it was a sunny day for us. The Gao 2 students went the day before and it was raining the whole day.
We ran into one of our students who got separated from his friends (which surprisingly happened a lot on that day...). We bought him gelato. It was fun!
These are two more of our students...
Zoe and I with a few of our students. (Far right is Genie from our musical, "Aladdin")
Grubby, who is Iago in "Aladdin," took a picture of our bus as I took a picture of their bus!
Ruby...
Tina and Shirley...
Tom (Sultan in "Aladdin"), Ben (Narrator), and Bill (Prince Achmed)!
Students fell asleep quickly after a tiring day...
