New Definition of Summer Vacation

Yesterday morning the students at my school finished their finals (yes, it was Sunday) and began their summer vacation. For some of the students it meant going home to find a job, others planned to stay near the school to study and find jobs in shops and tutoring children, but about 150 had a plan that I would never have dreamed of doing. It's summer vacation, you are supposed to take it easy, but these poor, rural students don't know what that means, so yesterday afternoon they loaded onto buses headed for "the big city" to be factory workers.
One student told me that they would all be working in the same factory (some kind of electric factory) 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not only will they be working together, but they will be living together in summer camp style housing. As an American I may think of this hard work as a good opportunity to make a lot of money over the summer, but they will be earning what it equivolent to $50 US per month.
Most of my students going to work in the factories are 20 years old, but when I found out that some of the 16 and 17 year old girls are going also I wanted to cry. "They are so young, so fragile, innocent, and they are going off to be corrupted by the big city!" But that is life for them and they are excited about the adventure. For the first time in their lives they get to leave the small town atmospere that is lives many decades ago and venture into the big city and how the rest of the world sees the 21st century. Their eyes are going to be opened in so many ways and they will never be the same.
So think about them as you lounge by the pool this summer, and if you have a 9-5 job in an air conditioned building, work hard and be thankful for all that you have been given. And for the teenagers out there, be so thankful that you get to experience the freedoms of youth.

As winter turned to spring we got a lot of mold on the ceiling and wall of our kitchen. We tried but could not get rid of it. Now that spring has turned to summer, we have a ton of little black bugs that have come to eat the mold (so that is why there was no mold when I moved in). These bugs don't bite, but they often fall from the ceiling and land in the most annoying places. Our new apartment is bug and mold free!

Helen, Sisi, and random man. Before I came here I thought that all the people looked very similar, but they have so many differing characteristics don't you think?

Cassie and Gloria infront of the dragon picture

Here is my attempt to serve tea. The angle of the teapot isn't quite right but at least my elbow is down this time. Notice the intricate position of the hand. Pinkies out everybody.

Serving tea is a true art form that takes strong and calloused fingers. It uses a lot of gadgets too.

This is Gloria. She doesn't normally wear this traditional style dress, but she just happened to wear it the day I brought my camera.

Same girls farther down the trail.

This is the local clothing of the area. The backs are embroidered with thread that the people dye using a certain kind of tree. There are very few minorities in this area that still wear their traditional clothing, but the Bai Ku(white pants) Yao do. It is fun to see them in town when they are walking amongst people in regular clothing.

There were a bunch of these black and blue butterflies flying around. They were about the size of sparrows but this was the closest and best picture that I could get. They must love rice.

I saw a workers had laying on the side of the path so I just had to pick it up and get a picture in the rice paddies. I love this place, it is so green.

Looking back at the exit to the cave. My host snuck some cave pearls into my pocket because she wanted to give me a souvenir, but I put them back where they belonged. Under the cool of the cave awning we ate a traditional village lunch. It was quite tasty and nothing was out of the ordinary.

This is the view from the mouth of a cave that I visited with some friends. The owner of the tea shop and some government officials wanted to take me to see some sights, so I got the royal treatment. As a foreigner I was given the special privilege of being allowed to touch the cave walls, but I was appalled at this. It has been engrained in my head. since my childhood days in the Carlsbad Carverns, that you should not touch cave walls because you will ruin the natural structure and turn the calcium build up black. But, for the sake of the video camera following me, I touched the cave a few times anyway.

Mmmmm... that is good stuff! Hen Hao Chi!

I am really amazed by how easily the college students here are amused by children's games. This is an exhilirating game of hot potato. Though I must say that I do remember playing hot potato in my apartment with my roommates last year (do you guys remember that fun boredom?).

Though she is tiny, Sue was finally able to pop the balloon.

These two were having quite a bit of trouble popping their balloon, in fact, they were never able to do it.

The two on my left dressed me up while the girl in the navy blue shirt just watched and laughed. Left to right, Linda, Melody, Sue, Anna, Me, Lucy, and Rachel

I didn't have anything to hang the crate paper up with so I decided we would play a game instead. These are the two party dress creations. I'm afraid my friends weren't too creative with my dress, they pretty much just muffified me. Hen Piaoliang (very beautiful)!

Strawberry cake is my favorite! I made the cake myself and I thought it turned out pretty well considering the fact that I did not buy enough powdered sugar from the import store in the big city and my butter tasted a little bit like onion and cheese. The icing was melting down the sides, but it tasted good. I picked my own strawberried from the field behind the school and used it in the cake and punch.

These are two of my best friends, Anna and Sue.

I celebrated my 23rd birthday this year in 3yr old style, Strawberry Shortcake. Thanks to my sister we had hats, blowers, crate paper, balloons, plates, cups, napkins. . . the whole works for a Strawberry Shortcake birthday party, plus a strawberry cake. I had six of my Asian friends over to celebrate.