Our last day in HuoZhou!

Thursday August 4, 2011We had our last day in HuoZhou on Monday.  Gary and I visited the school (2 of the other girls were still teaching a small group of students) and did a few lessons with the kids and said the first of our goodbyes.  Our housewives invited us out for one last lunch together and it was fabulous, of course.  We ate delicious noodles and other food.  The chicken “stew” was complete with a chicken foot and a chicken head.  I’m glad I didn’t dig around in there too much with my chopsticks because I’m not sure how composed I would’ve been if I had pulled that out.  Next, they took us shopping at the mall and to get Chinese names!   They have a man who has a little kiosk in the mall, and he gives names.  People take their babies to him when they are born to get an appropriate name.  You have to give him your birthday, time of birth and last name and he has a computer program that he uses.  He asked us questions throughout the process to make sure we were getting the right name.  With the name, he also gives you a little “fortune” and tells you about your life.  According to him, I will be married this year and have a husband that listens to me, and Gary will have a beautiful, rich wife that listens to him. J  We’ll have to share our names when we get back because they are hard to pronounce out loud, let alone in writing—plus my keyboard does don have the Chinese characters.  Monday night we had our final show at the square with the kids.  We sang some songs and attracted a crowd, until the program of the night started and we got drowned out.  They do this huge program in the square of singing and dancing  and there is a HUGE audience that Gary estimated at a couple thousand.  We were watching from the outskirts and soon we were whisked away to the front row and handed stools to sit on.  It’s going to be hard to adjust to no longer being VIP back in the states.  The whole show was pretty incredible with a lot of talent and very well-orchestrated.  It was also very loud!  We said our 3rd round of goodbyes and left the square because we had plans to go out for karaoke that night but due to the language barrier, our driver brought us back to the hotel.  We made the most of our last night by getting a few bottles of wine and having a party in our room with some of our new friends from the trip.  We definitely went out with a bang!Tuesday morning we stopped at the school on our way out and said our FINAL goodbyes.  It was sad to say goodbye to our friends but maybe we’ll see them again.  We have offers to go back and teach there for a year or 2 if we want, we just have to name our requirements!  We’re pretty sure that they were asking us to come back together because they still think we’re a couple, no matter how many times we’ve told them otherwise.  After we left, we spent over 7 hours on the bus driving to the city of Da Tong, which is on our way to Beijing.  Da Tong is a much bigger city than Huo Zhou, quite a bit more modern and significantly cleaner.  We also didn’t get ogled so much on the street so there must be quite a bit more tourism.  Wednesday morning bright and early, we hopped back on the bus and went to see these really amazing Buddha sculptures and paintings called the Yungang Grottoes (google it J).  It’s a series of 18 caves that are about 1500 years old and in each cave there are these giant stone carvings of different Buddhas and stories.  The largest Buddha was 17 meters high!  The site around the caves was built in 2008 and the grounds were really nice.  It was a beautiful morning to just walk around and be outside.  Next we drove back to our hotel to have a quick lunch, and then headed back out about 2 hours away to see the Hanging Monastery.  Monks built the monastery into the side of a mountain face and it is pretty spectacular.  It was made of wood soaked in oil so it wouldn’t rot and anchored into the side of the mountain.  Our host asked us beforehand if anyone was afraid of heights before we went up there.  As far as I knew I wasn’t but when I got up there, I changed my mind.  The thought that we were in a temple, hanging off the side of the mountain was too much for me and I had to get down immediately, which was impossible because there wasn’t room to move around and we were in a line of people.  I eventually made it down all the little stairs on my rubbery legs and enjoyed the view from the base.  Gary had much more fun and many more pictures of the view from the top than I did.  We think we’ve hit our limit for how many temples and buddhas we can see so I guess its appropriate that there’s only a few days left.  After that, we drove back to the hotel in a rainstorm and were on our own for dinner.  We heard there was a McDonalds in Da Tong so Gary, Shelly and I and all the college kids decided it was a cheeseburger kind of night.  We took taxis to McDonalds and it was heavenly; we inhaled our burgers, fries and McFlurries!  After dinner we decided to walk around a little and guess what we found, a Walmart Supercenter!!!  I had no idea that they even had Walmart in China!  We obviously had to go in and check it out and it was so surreal!  We bought t-shirts that made no sense in English (they are all over China) and a few other random purchases (you can ask Gary later what he chose to buy J).  The store was set up like a Walmart in the U.S. with the major difference being the giant slabs of meat and seafood hanging out in the store.  I thought I was going to be ill when we walked through the meat section.  The bathrooms were also really yucky…I hope I never see another squatter toilet in my life after I leave here!  While we were shopping, we found a bottle of Absolut Vodka that we just had to buy.  Up until now we’ve only seen Chinese beer, an occasional red wine and the nasty clear stuff that the Chinese love to use to cheer.  Unfortunately there was a security tag on the top of the bottle that none of the Walmart workers could get off.  There were about 7 employees with various tools and things trying to get the tag off and finally they just gave up and sent us on our way with the security tag still on!  We were so worried that we were going to set off the alarm and get detained at the exit but I guess a few calls were made on our behalf that the Americans were coming through with a bottle of vodka, because we made it through with no problem!  We decided that our night of McDonalds and Walmart was our way of slowly easing back into American culture.  As I type we are back on the bus and on our way to Beijing, yay!  We plan to go to the pearl and silk markets, find some good karaoke places and hopefully catch a soccer game in the Bird’s Nest!  We may also try to get tickets to the Beijing opera, which we hear is amazing.  It’s a pretty ambitious schedule for only 3 days but hopefully we can get it all in!  We leave Monday morning August 8th and arrive Monday afternoon August 8th (due to the time change).  We have a stop in Tokyo again but then we fly straight to Minneapolis from there.  We’ve had an amazing month in China, but we are definitely ready to be back in the comforts of home.  We miss pizza and yogurt, American toilets, blue skies and clean streets!  We are also excited to sleep in our own soft beds after a month of very hard Chinese hotel beds.  This might end up being our last blog if we do not have internet service at our hotel in Beijing.  If something fabulous happens we will be sure to post it for you avid readers!!  : ) Thanks for following us on our journey.  We miss you all so much!!See you all in a few days!!!

A Collection of Short Stories from China

A Collection of Short Stories from ChinaThe catOur hotel has 3 little furry residents that sometimes hang out in the drained pool outside our dining rooms.  The other day at dinner, we heard a little “meow”.  At first we thought it was coming through the window from the outside, but soon realized that it came from behind the air conditioner.  There are a few types of air conditioners here, but most of the ones in the dining rooms are free standing towers.  So Gary, trying to be funny, peeked behind the air conditioner , then turned around and hissed to surprise everyone.  Well instead of surprising all of us, he shocked the cat to death, which took off around the room.  Everyone jumped up and started yelling.  One of the college students with us, who clearly didn’t get the warning from his travel nurse to not touch wild animals, grabbed the kitten and consequently got scratched.  The servers, all in matching light pink silk tops started screaming and frantically trying to catch the cat.  The cat flew into the attached bathroom and 3 servers ran in behind him and closed the door.  They were in there for a good 10 minutes and we were all waiting to see what the servers in China might do to a wild cat in the dining room.  We heard a lot of banging and crashing coming through the door.  Soon, they emerged with the little guy, soaking wet, wrapped in a towel (we think he jumped or was placed in the toilet) and they went and threw him in the drained pool.  It was all pretty exciting. JThe rainFriday morning we woke up to rain in HuoZhou!  We have only seen bits of rain but nothing like this; the streets were flooding, the hotel was leaking from every little hole possible and all the usual dirt turned to mud.  We found out soon that our plans to visit some cave homes and a remote village had been cancelled because of muddy conditions so we went back to bed and bummed around all morning.  Finding out our plans had been cancelled, our Chinese friend Helen called and invited Gary and I and our two other coteachers to her house for lunch.  She rounded up one of her neighbors with a car and came to the hotel to pick us up. It was pouring at this point and we ran to the car and squeezed in, getting completely soaked.  We went to the grocery store to buy the food for the lunch that we learned we were going to help make.  We got chicken legs, potatoes, green onions and some fruit.  We got to Helen’s house and she of course lived on the top floor, which was 6 flights up.  We have walked a LOT of stairs in this country.  We helped peel and cut potatoes and then pretty much let her do the rest.  We didn’t trust ourselves with the enormous meat cleaver.  The result was a really yummy stew type dish, complete with noodles that her neighbor downstairs made for her.  She has two kids who were running around like crazy during the lunch preparation.  In China, babies don’t wear diapers or pants.  So we watched the little guy running around and squatting occasionally and we were just waiting for an accident on the floor!  She sent the kids downstairs to a neighbor’s house when it was time to eat and the food was wonderful.  She also brought out a bottle of Remy Martin wine that she had been given by her sister in law many years ago.  We toasted again and again to “friends forever!”  We have been so overwhelmed by the generosity of our Chinese friends.  After lunch, we watched Helen’s wedding video, and that was a cultural experience!  We decided to walk home because the rain had turned into just a sprinkle.  I must’ve gotten some soap in my flip flop at some point because every step I took, I had suds come out of my shoe.  By the time we got back to the hotel, I had a very soapy foot!Hong TongSaturday we had a really fun, packed day of sight-seeing in the city of Hong Tong about 90 minutes from HuoZhou.  We first took the bus to the Flying Rainbow Pagoda, a Chinese antiquities historical site built in 147 AD (I think!).  We got there around 9am and thank the lord above, it was cool out!  We haven’t had a cool day yet in China!  The pagoda was named the Rainbow Pagoda because it was beautifully painted with really amazing colors and details.  It also towered above us so high that it was hard to get a picture in the never-ending Chinese fog.  There was also a temple that was taken care of by the monks.  It was a really wonderful place to start the day.  After that, we went to see a giant Locust tree in the city of Hong Tong.  The tree represents migration throughout China and the “roots” of China where every Chinese person can come and find their family name written on a stone in the large park full of green gardens and paths.  It was a lovely place to walk around and enjoy.  There’s not much for green plants in the city so it was nice for a change.  Gary and I found a man that will write you a poem based on your Chinese name.  Gary was sort of given a Chinese nickname at dinner one night when he dropped a glass and broke it.  The name is “Sui Sui Ping Yo” and it essentially means “grace”.  He used that name to make the poem.  Since I don’t have a Chinese name yet, he gave me a name that complemented Gary’s (since he assumed we were a couple, as everyone in China has).  It was almost hypnotic watching the man write out the poem in Chinese calligraphy.  Our translator Yan told us everything it meant and the themes running through were happiness for ourselves and our families, success, and luck in life.  Thanks Chinese man, we’ll take it!  After we left the park, we went to a brand-spanking new hotel in Hong Tong.  It was SOOOO nice.  We were totally spoiled to a very fancy lunch (which for me meant mostly inedible J ) and amazing accommodations.  They also had the best bathroom I’ve used yet in China!  There was a “throne”, toilet paper on a holder, soap AND a dry hand towel.  It was bliss!  To end our day, we were taken to an old Chinese prison (but thankfully they didn’t leave any of us there).  Picture a Chinese Alcatrez-type experience.  If I remember correctly, the prison was built somewhere around the 1700s and closed just 20 short years ago.  It was a very interesting cultural thing to see and I’m glad they thought to include that in the trip.  When we got back we were sent off to homes of our Chinese friends to help make a Chinese dinner.  We got to make dumplings with a woman who we met during our teaching.  She and her family were so gracious and we had a great time spent with great company.  These times will surely be the highlight of our trip.Sunday mountain fundaySince today is Sunday, we of course were loaded up on the bus to hike yet another mountain.  We were told this one was “not so strenuous”.  Well after an hour hiking straight up we respectfully disagreed.  The hike was gorgeous and the exercise was much needed.  We hiked up to a pagoda, took a break, and then higher up to a temple.  Gary and I decided that if we had to hike 2 hours up a mountain to go to church, chances are we wouldn’t make it very often.  Like the other mountains we’ve climbed, the view was breathtaking and the air was scrumptious to breathe.  We’ll miss our mountain Sundays…maybe JThanks for checking in, miss you all!

Twenty Hours in Xi’an

Gina and I were very excited to go to Xi’an for several days. (Like we were promised before we came to China) If you’ve been following this blog very much, we’re certain you have noticed that nothing is an absolute in China.  Three to four days in Xi’an soon became two days….two days then became an overnight trip.  We were in Xi’an for a total of twenty hours.  We had to make the most of it, and we did!  Upon arriving there Tuesday late afternoon—after a seven hour bus ride— we walked around one of the city’s beautiful squares.  It was very picturesque. We were very pleased to find a Dairy Queen!!  A blizzard and a caramel latte were our first real dairy products since leaving America.  For dinner, we went to a cafeteria-style restaurant.  (To say it was confusing would be an under-statement.) We managed to eat some buns filled with a very greasy meat product.  After the square, we checked into our beautiful hotel.  The bathroom actually had a tub—the first tub we have seen in China.  And the beauty of the tub is that the bathroom floor doesn’t flood when you take a shower!  We took taxis to the “night market”.  The night market was a huge area of alleyways filled with every type of store and food stand imaginable.  You have to be on top of your bartering system game to be successful at this market.  I managed to get a beautiful chess set for 100 yuan—which equals about $16.  I didn’t really even want it, but the price started at 400 yuan and I felt like I was getting a fabulous deal.   J Gina made several purchases as well.  She managed to get a good deal on a couple “knock-off” purses. (I hope I didn’t just ruin the surprise for any of her friends!)  JWe left the night market at around 11pm—after waiting what seemed to be forever to catch a cab. Gina, our new friend Shelly and I still wanted to see the city.  We were filled with disappointment when we were told there were no bars close to the hotel.  We decided to walk a couple blocks anyway and see what we could find.  After feeling a bit unsafe in our short walk we decided to head back to the hotel and just have a beer there.  We were one of two tables in the lobby having beers.  Gina taught Shelly and I how to play Rummy. I won’t say who won.The next morning we had to be packed and downstairs of the hotel by 7am. We had breakfast and got on the bus.  Our destination—The Terra-Cotta Warriors—would prove to be one of the best attractions of our trip so far.  China dubs the TC Warriors “The Eighth Wonder of the Word”.  Gina and I will not argue with the Chinese about that!!  We were in absolute amazement/awe by the details of the statues that were constructed over 2200 years ago.  The warriors/horses each have their own distinct expressions.  That is pretty incredible since there are over 8000 statues! Gina took some breath-taking panoramic photos.  We can’t wait to share the photos and the books we purchased with you!!   J~The seven hour bus ride back to Huozhou was too much.  We were in a bus for 16 hours in a 36 hour time period.  Gina started to get a bit ill the last couple hours of the bus ride.  She is popping Cipro now and not back to normal yet. It is now Thursday here and we are headed to a “dumpling” restaurant for lunch in a bit.  We miss you all!!  Thanks for taking the time and reading about our journeys!! : )

Gam Bay!! (Chinese for“bottoms up”!)

It’s Monday and we’ve finally had a relaxing few days without running here and there.  We are still in Huo Zhou but we are done teaching.  We are going to have a pretty full schedule of traveling and sightseeing from here on out, yay!  I just had two guys in the hotel room working hard to get our internet fixed, thank goodness!  Our last day of teaching was a success. We had a parent day and we shared songs and student work.  We also gave out certificates and said our goodbyes to the kids.  One of the students wrote us the nicest letter thanking us for teaching him.  That evening, to end our teaching time, our Housewives of Huo Zhou took us out for an amazing meal.  The restaurant put us in this huge private room with the biggest round table and lazy susan we’ve ever seen!  They brought out delicious dish after dish and we had a great time saying farewell to our amazing hosts.  We couldn’t have asked for better care!Yesterday we went to another mountain, this time it was only a short 35 minute bus ride with no switchbacks J  It was absolutely beautiful, with trees and mountains and beautiful rocks with streams running through them.  It was a pretty rigorous hike up and down stairs and trails.  The fresh air feels amazing after breathing so much pollution in the city.  There was this beautiful pagoda built into the mountain and on the way back down, we decided to stop and rest there for awhile.  We went in and there were some Chinese people having a picnic.  They needed a knife to cut their watermelon so we let them borrow one of the sharp pens we stole from a hotel.  Soon we were all long lost friends.  They shared their food and cocktails and we cheered (“gam bay” in Chinese is what we say and it means “bottoms up”!) over and over.  We sang Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells together and one of our girls serenaded them with Justin Bieber’s “Baby Baby”.  We had a fabulous time, all the while not being able to speak each other’s language.  The liquor ran out and one of the men ran down the mountain and came back with about 6 bottles of beer.  It’s definitely times like that which make traveling to another country so fun.  We got back and took a LONG nap then had dinner of beef, soup, vegetables, dumplings, steamed buns, and tea.  After dinner, one of our hostesses took 7 of us to get massages.  We had a fabulous 60 minute massage for only 60 yuan (about $9 US).  We are relaxed…Our agenda for the rest of the trip is to travel to Xi’an for 3 days to see the Terra Cotta Warriors and anything else that is there, then back to Huo Zhou for 2 days.  This is kind of our home base because the Chinese government is paying for us to stay here.  Next we will make our way slowly back to Beijing with stops along the way to see a Hanging Monastery and Buddha paintings in Da Tong.  We should arrive in Beijing on the August 4th and we will be going to the Forbidden City, the Silk Market and hopefully lots of shopping!  We’ll hopefully have internet throughout and be able to update you on the rest of our adventures.  I’m sure these last few weeks are going to fly!  **Sorry we haven’t been able to post pictures, it’s just too difficult to do it all through a third party.  We’ll have a photo night at one of our houses when we get back J

The housewives of Huo Zhou!

Thursday morning here!  I’m drinking my instant coffee and waiting for our breakfast of tofu, hard boiled eggs, steamed buns, warm milk, potatoes and some kind of mystery meat.  We have 2 more days of teaching, then a special parent presentation on Saturday.  We have nearly exhausted our repertoire of kids’ songs so it’s a good thing we’re wrapping up soon.  We’ve had a really fun couple of days with our “housewives of Huo Zhou”.  Tuesday night they took us out on the town.  We first went to a temple, of which religion we really couldn’t figure out.  They bought us incense to light and we systematically walked around and put them in various pots and made wishes to different “gods”.  There was one for children, money, protection, etc etc.  Each little arch had a Buddha type guy in it with food and gifts in front of it.  It was really interesting and really crowded.  Next they took us to the Chinese Opera that was playing on an outdoor stage in one of the town squares.  On the way there one of the girls had to use the WC, so our housewife just knocked on a door and we went into a random house to use their WC, she knows EVERYONE!  The opera was SO interesting!  The music was really loud and they sing extremely high.  Being the spoiled Americans, they wouldn’t be settled with us just watching the opera.  Instead they had to take us backstage to meet the actors and get dressed up in the clothes!  They outfitted us in various Chinese garb and took lots of pictures.  The entire band was watching us and this is all while the opera was going on.  We just might’ve stolen the show for a few minutes.  As we’ve mentioned, every meal here is a feast, and yesterday at lunch was no exception.  One of our hostesses’ bosses took us out for lunch and this guy does not mess around with his lunch!  We had an amazing spread of shrimp, sturgeon, pork, tofu, vegetables, noodles, eggs, chicken, potatoes and more!  We also weren’t hurting for drinks.  He bought endless bottles of red wine, beer and a really strong clear tequila-like liquor to shoot.  We did toast after toast after toast, and shot after shot.  The kicker was that we had to go back and teach for another 3 hours!  That definitely doesn’t happen to teachers in America J  It was a great time and we just might have to go out with that guy again before we leave.  After lunch we went to the mall for a little while and did some shopping.  Our friend Shelly bought a beautiful traditional Chinese dress and Gary bought another t-shirt with some weird English writing that makes no sense.  Our afternoon of teaching was filled with games, songs and movies because that's about all we could handle. 

Well we're off to breakfast, thanks for checking in, we love reading your comments and miss everyone! 

Tsingtsao and Snow & more!

We survived our second weekend in China!  On Friday night we did some serious advertising/recruiting in the town square.  Gary, Shelly and I got decked out in our matching school T-shirts and led our students in songs with about 200 people watching.  We had to compete with the karaoke, the HUGE TV, the line dancing, the fireworks,  and the traffic.  It was quite an experience!  We are getting used to stardom and anyone and everyone taking our picture.  They adore our blond hair J  Saturday morning we “taught” 3 hours of school.  We played games, sang songs and watched a bootleg, Chinese subtitled version of Home Alone.  The humor seemed to transcend the language barrier.Saturday afternoon we packed up and headed to Linfen, the city where the rest of the teachers are staying.  It’s about a one hour drive.  We checked into another hotel room and went shopping.  Linfen is much bigger than the city we are in, with more traffic, shopping, people, etc.  We shopped for a few hours and found some really good buys.  Gary bought a few shirts, and we got a few gifts.  Unfortunately Gary and I can’t find shoes big enough to fit our feet so we just had to window shop for those.  After shopping we stopped at a restaurant and ordered beer and our favorite steamed buns.  I’m pretty sure they thought we were nuts to come in and just have that, but it worked for us.  There are 2 Chinese beers that we have come to like, Tsingtsao and Snow.  They come in really big bottles with little cups to share, but we usually end up just getting our own.   We had to run to the supermarket to get food for our supposed “picnic” on Sunday.  Since we can’t read any of the labels, we usually get a hodge podge of random snacks.  We got some interesting meat this time, and by interesting, I mean really gross looking.  Sunday morning we woke up at 4:30am, yes AM, to go on a field trip.  It was more for the teachers in Linfen with their students and it was optional for us.  We arrived at the bus and asked our host how long the ride would be and where we were going.  He told us we were going on a picnic and it would be about an hour maximum.  So we loaded up onto 3 buses and started off.  We drove for about 2 hours, then 3, then 4, then we started up these scary one lane mountain roads with a ton of switchbacks.  Our little bus (with one bald tire) barely made it up this mountain and we were holding our breath and closing our eyes.  The driver kept getting stuck on the corners and we’d have to put rocks behind the tires for him to back up and try again.  So finally, about 5 hours later, we arrived at the top of this mountain called Li Shan translated “farming mountain”.  The view was breathtaking and the mountain air was extremely refreshing after breathing pollution for a week.  We hiked a loop of 8 km and stopped often to take pictures.  They gave us matching, bright orange hats to wear and there was a Chinese cameraman shooting video the whole time.  We are pretty sure it is going to be a promotional video for their school in China, and a recruiting tool.  We’ll be scouring You Tube when we get home to see if we can find it.  J  Shelly and I decided to take a potty break on the top of the mountain behind some shrubbery, using our Delta Airline’s blanket for a little barrier from the Chinese paparazzi.  Finally, we stopped for a brief moment to have our picnic, bread with jelly and strange Chinese snacks, and it started raining.  We hurried down the mountain to hop on our bus and thought we were heading back.  About an hour later, after more pictures and speeches by our leaders, we got on our bus and started down the mountain.  At the very first switchback we got stuck, and now the mountain roads were wet.  Gary and a few other people got off the bus because they were afraid of plummeting to their death.  I was brave and stayed on for about 2 more minutes until the bus lurched forward and almost didn’t stop.  The edge of the road was a steep drop-off—all the way down the mountain. We all got off the bus and decided to walk down the mountain.  This was a downhill, 45 minute walk with bags and all, and I was wearing flip flops!!!  But it was worth it to not be in the death mobile on the corners.  We finally got out of the mountain and stopped in this really beautiful little town in the middle of nowhere.  I should mention the bathrooms in this town.  If you had asked me, before I went to China, to picture the worst imaginable bathroom in the world, this would’ve been it.  It was a brick type structure put up with no roof and 2 holes in the brick floor.  I actually went in there once on the way up the mountain, once on the way down.  Gary went in this “bathroom” as well.  When he was finished he realized a tall bus could see him over the short brick structure.  I’m going to drop down and kiss the first toilet I see in America J  Thankfully, the 4 of us that had to get back to Huo Zhou were able to take a car back to Linfen because we still had an hour drive back to our “home”.  Our driver was an absolute saint and stopped at McDonalds on the way back to the hotel so we could get some dinner, we quickly packed and got back around 10pm.  We were tired teachers today!  We think we have just this week of teaching left, then hopefully we will be traveling and sight-seeing.  Nothing is for sure in China, so we’re staying flexible. 

Moving around China!

Wow!  Where do we start? We have had quite the first week.  Nothing—and we do mean nothing has gone as expected.  As you may or may not know, we cannot post directly on our blog from China. (Due to political reasons with Facebook and Google in China)  We will type our trials and tribulations in Word and then e-mail them to Gina’s mom.  She will then post them on our blog.  (Thanks so much Sue!!)We are not in Linfen, China as we were originally planning.  Not enough students registered for English classes in Linfen—once again due to political reasons. (Which we will discuss when we get back.) Four teachers needed to volunteer to leave Linfen and go to Huo Zhou, China.  Huo Zhou is about one hour from Linfen.  We are happy with the decision that we made.  We are staying in a fantabulous hotel.  The name of the hotel in English means: Healthy, Happy Home. The energy in the hotel is very positive.  There are only about 15 total rooms in the hotel.The “Housewives of Huo Zhou” have been treating us like royalty. They arrange for a driver to pick us up every morning from the hotel—this is after a special breakfast was prepared just for us. We teach two English sessions daily.  The first session is from 9-12 and the second session is from 3-6.  After session one, “The Housewives” take us out for a huge lunch.  From lunch we usually are dropped off at the hotel to “rest” before our second session.  We are then picked up at the hotel and driven to school for session two.  After that, we go out to dinner with “The Housewives”.  They are terrific!!  They just finished doing our laundry and returning it for us.  We are very spoiled here!!  Two nights ago, we were special guests at a basketball tournament.  There were over 1,000 people there.  The mayor had us introduce ourselves and interviewed us.  There was an interpreter of course.  J Everyone wonders what four white people are doing in their town of no diversity.  We are celebrities here.  People ask to take their photos with us or even videos. We cannot walk down the street without everyone looking and staring, and staring, and staring! Well, we can’t believe it’s only been a week!  Thanks for checking in and email us anytime.  We have a computer with a webcam in our hotel room so we can email, chat or Skype!  Dsai-jian! Gary and Gina