Hongcun

Chris came to visit this week for his Mid-Autumn Festival break. We decided to go to Hongcun, a renowned ancient village in Anhui, not far from Xiuning. This was also a filming site for the Chinese movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."



Hongcun, with its picturesque scenery, is a popular place for art students to practice and study. We asked where these students were from, and they told us that they were from Hefei University. It's a good four-hour bus ride from Hefei to Hongcun, so it says a lot that students would travel so far for this bit of nature.




"Moon Pond"...


Ancient houses were built with open roofs in a courtyard, which seemed to act like a living room.


Ancient love seat?

Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節), a Chinese holiday, is similar to Thanksgiving in that everyone goes home and has a great meal together. For the holiday this year, I went to Mr. Wang's house to have dinner with his family. (Mr. Wang is our school liaison, and he often takes care of us like a father would his children.) We had moon cakes (月餅) as an appetizer!


Mr. Wang


Mr. Wang's three-month-old grandson


Mr. Wang's mother and her kitchen (this is her house, not Mr. Wang's).


The back of the house, which has an open ceiling--typical of older houses in China.


It was a wonderful evening, though I was very hesitant to try the toads and many different meats. On the night of the full moon, Chinese people often gaze at the moon and think of loved ones who live far away. Though distance separates us, we gaze at the same moon.

但願人長久
千里共嬋娟

Dinner #1

I made bread yesterday. It took two hours of waiting for the dough to rise and then 30 minutes cooking in the oven. It turned out pretty well! I also made a roasted garlic olive oil dip with balsamic vinegar.


We also made broccoli cream soup and eggplant (茄子) with peanuts! For a side dish we had cucumbers with sesame oil and vinegar. Everything was delicious and even more wonderful because we made it ourselves.


We also had a dinner with Drake Pike, a Yale-China board member, and his wife, Sally, a lawyer in Hong Kong.

An American Goes to China... again.

After a refreshing summer at home...


...I have returned to Xiuning for another year of teaching.

We had our kick-off orientation in Hong Kong again. Chris, Zoe, and I went to Hong Kong Disneyland. It was fun!!


We welcomed six new fellows to the program. Our last meal in Hong Kong was a seafood dinner at Lamma Island, complete with staff and special guests.


The new fellows are Doug...


and Aaron...


Brendan came to visit only a week later to make sure we were settling in and also to chat with Mr. Wang. Mr. Li, a Gao 3 English teacher, joined us for dinner.


Our school's opening ceremony is tomorrow. Zoe and I will be making a short speech, which we're really excited about to read for the 2,000+ students and administrators... in Chinese!!

Will report back soon!

Annie