Western Guangdong - meeting Zhi

In China, you have to eat one of two things at the end of your meal or it is not a meal at all. It depends where you are. In the north, you eat noodles. In the south, you eat rice. They do it because it makes them feel full. In the US, there is a joke about being hungry an hour after you eat Chinese food. Maybe we should be ending the meal with rice or noodles.


Also, here is a little more about rice. When the harvest is done, you burn rice plant stumps in the feilds and it is used as fertilizer. So the air was very hazy as we drove up to meet Zhi, because there were fires everywhere.








This is a Buddist Temple that we saw on our five hour drive to western Guangdong.











This is our first look at the school! I felt like we were moving as slow as a snail because I was so excited to see the girls.







This is the courtyard in front of the school. As I was walking up it, I got really shy.





This is a wedding ball. Xiongping gave it to me as soon as we got here. A wedding ball is a ball that a girl throws into a crowd of boys at a wedding. Whoever catches it is supposed to marry her. My mom says that I shouldn’t throw the ball for a looooong time! So I just threw it and caught it myself.

This is Zhi (pronounced Jer.) She is much nicer and prettier than I thought. She seems very responsible ~ I don't know why I think that.

I was shy at first but she made me feel more confident. We colored together and played basketball together. She is really good at basketball. She only missed one shot! She is a good artist too.

This is Haiyan. She is a very shy first year student. She did not talk unless you asked her a question. But she was very nice and she played basketball with Zhi and I.

This is Xiongping. She is the girl who made the wedding ball out of paper. We call her "the doctor" because she wants to be a doctor when she finishes school. She is confident and is constantly getting awards for being in the top of her class. I love Xiongping. I taught her how to play Uno and in just five games, she knew enough of the rules that she could hold the cards up play by herself. She even helped me teach other people.

This is Mintao. She is great at origami. She made us beautiful flowers. I am going to pack them in my backpack and hopefully get them home in one piece. We also have cranes, hearts and tons of lucky stars. Mintao is very friendly and social. Toni says she will make a great sales person some day. (Mom says: "Just like her sponsor's mom, Amy!")

This is the school's back courtyard and classrooms.

This is the front entrance.

This is Xiongping and her family. On the wall behind her are some of the awards that she earned in school. She is usually in the top five in her grade, usually she's first.

They gave us all of those tangerines. They were delicious!!!

This is Xiongping's bedroom door. It was decorated realllllly well. It was cool.

This is a picture of a fancy car decorated with ribbons and stuff for a wedding. I wonder if they had a wedding ball....

Tonight we are on the fourth floor of our hotel. Until now, every hotel that we have been in has not had a fourth floor because in Chinese the word "four" sounds the same as the word for "death." I hope we make it through the night!!!

Allison in China