Eli's School
Eli is next to the cups and hot water that they drink every day. Eli is not a fan of hot water.
Plum Blossom Hill
Another busy week has flown by. There was yet another crazy incident at the Wadley Churchhouse this morning...I had noticed that our Ayi hadn't been using the floor cleaner I bought . It's a concentrate, like Pine-Sol or something. Anyway, I asked her to use it yesterday, and didn't realize that she didn't know how. As Mike and I left for our final Salsa lesson (to Mike's great relief) yesterday afternoon, I saw her with the bottle, and thought things were going great. Aparently, I was mistaken. She does not know how to use it, and just poured it straight onto the floor and rubbed it around. We got back late last night, and this morning when we woke up, we found a thick film on every floor surface! We spent a good portion of the morning rinsing out a mop, trying to get all of the suds off of the floor. We didn't want everyone slipping and cracking their heads open! Not exactly what we had in mind for our peaceful Sunday morning. Not to worry, the floor is EXTRA shiny now!
So, now Mike and I are Salsa experts! Not! But we did learn a couple of steps together, and it turned out to be fun. We initially thought it was a ballroom dancing class, but hey! We are pretty hot now!
Some interesting things we saw this week: At 10:30 at night, there were about 30 men carrying a huge cement telephone pole up an on-ramp. One morning, there was a middle-aged woman, dressed in her exercise garb, in front of her shop, doing the HOOLA-HOOP. We saw a large construction truck, stacked three deep with big 50 pound barrels, tipping-tipping-tipping to the right. It was driving very slowly down the exit-ramp. But it was going to go any second...Jiang wasn't about to get stuck behind the mess, so he quickly drove around it. A risky move that turned out for the best...Thank goodness!
Last Friday, a friend and I happened to walk into a group of important-looking people with badges, etc. We thought it looked interesting, so we followed. I think they let us in because we were foriegn. Well, we followed them up to what we found out later was the beginning of the Plumtree Festival. At the top of the plumtree hill, they had the men who carry the emperor in a box. Who knows what that is called???? Anyway, they wanted us to try it so bad. So, I got in the box, and they picked me up and carried me around the area not once, but three times! They bounce you so high! There were also men playing wooded flutes and drumming. Everyone was staring and taking pictures. I was so embarrassed! Then my friend had her turn, and a local TV station showed up and filmed her ride. Afterward they came over and tried to interview her. She just stared, because they were speaking in Chinese. Finally she just said, "Hen Hao!" Which means very good. They seemed satisfied with that and left. It was quite the experience!
We had gorgeous weather this weekend, and the kids spent all day outside. It is so great to see the sun, and hope for green grass and warmth! Soon enough we'll wish for the cold, but hopefully by then, we'll be in the beautiful dry summer season of Utah! Caitlin's ear is better, Rachel made the football(soccer) team, and the kids got their second-to-last shot. Nicole is practicing drums on everything, Jay is happy it's warm, and Eli is still up to his "creative" thinking. Thanks to my Mom, I even worked out trying to buy something off of Ebay in China. NOT EASY! As soon as I typed our address into the system (of course after I had already won the bid) it all changed to Chinese, of course!???? I won't be trying that again! So, life continues on with the regular "life" stuff, and a few "crazy China things" too.
