N: Lonestar Pie

This picture has been my landscape for the past 8 or so weeks.  I guess I would prefer that view to the one K has.

K is 13 weeks pregnant.  :)
We found out when we were in Dali (I told you I would talk about Dali again).

Due date is September 20.  We plan on having the baby in the states.

We call him/her Lonestar Pie.  It sounds ridiculous, I know.  Lonestar was initially the name, in salute to where we were both raised and where the child will most likely be born.  Pie comes from our teammate from last year who declared after hearing our options for names “They could both be pies!”

N: Homeroom

Middle school was a time that I did not enjoy very much.  It was fine.  The other people in my grade didn’t pick on me, it was those that were in the grade ahead of me that saw me as an easy target.  Can’t blame them too much though, I would’ve picked on someone too if they were younger, cooler, better looking, and a real athlete (cross country and soccer.)  :)

Every morning a group of about 25 of us would meet in a room on the 10th floor for about 20 minutes.  A teacher would facilitate the time by taking roll, passing along any announcements, and sharing with the class a devotional.  Homeroom, we called it.

As I stroll to my office at about 7:30 each morning here in Yinchuan for my 8-o-clock classes, the college classrooms already have a slight buzz to them.  Students are studying, prepping for the day, practicing dialogues, and working on homework in a classroom that has been assigned to them by the school.  There aren’t enough classrooms for every class to have a “homeroom” so Juniors and Seniors are on their own, responsible for finding an empty seat in whatever classroom they choose.

Classes that have been given a room for their use often decorate it with signs and posters.  In the English department, many classes choose English slogans or phrases to encourage them in their learning.  Sometimes they will use materials from one of their classes to put on the wall.  Remember K’s book class?  For a final review last semester, she gave each student a picture from a Children’s Sunday School book.  Each picture was colored by the individual student and then the student had to stand up and tell the story.  30 pictures = 30 stories.  Lots of review!  Those students chose to put the pictures in chronological order on the wall of their homeroom. 

I snapped a couple pictures of some of the student decorations.

N: Snowsports

Before the previous semester ended and while we were preparing for our time away from the school, our team made a decision to have an outing together.  Going out as a team can be pretty fun, but just the logistics of getting all 12 of us to the same location limits how often we make plans for off campus fun.  We went sledding. 

Even though our city has a climate similar to Grand Junction, CO, moisture is considerably lacking, and   finding a patch of snow to slide down can be difficult.  We didn’t worry too much though.  About 30km away from us and towards the mountains, there is a postage stamp sized area of artificial snow.  We have our very own ski slope.  Now this ski slope is limited to a rope tow, toboggan run, hill for sledding, and something very similar to a small bunny hill.  It was an afternoon full of awesome.  We were the only ones at the ‘resort’ for about an hour and a half and had the whole place to ourselves.  No lines!

The video is about 14 seconds of the toboggan run.  You could really get some good speed!  The employees put down some mats in the run to slow it down so that people wouldn’t get thrown out of the chute on turns.

The weather is getting considerably warmer.  Spring will be here any day now.

DAY 3-5: DALI (backpost)

Second week of January:

We had taken an overnight train from Yinchuan to Xi’an.  After arriving in Xi’an we took a cab from the train station to the airport.  From there we flew to Kunming, Yunnan province which is in the south of China.  Traditionally when people think of the south they have images of Guangzhou or Hong Kong or someplace in the southeast.  Kunming is more southwest China and topographically is situated near the Tibetan plateau.   Last year we visited the two cities of Kunming and Lijiang.  Lijiang gets a good bit of traffic because of its proximity to Tiger Leaping Gorge.  That is precisely the reason we had decided to go there last year.  This year we decided to check out another city that also gets some foot traffic because of its beauty but is just slightly off the well beaten path.  We had briefly mentioned to some teammates that we were thinking of visiting Dali to which they immediately put us in contact with some people they knew who were located there.  Quick quick quick we had our plans together.

We arrived in Kunming on Jan 7 and immediately went to the train station to procure tickets for the next overnight train.  Train stations aren’t places to hang out.  Not in the sense that you’re gonna get mugged or that there are violent perpetrators looking for their next victim (that may exist though) but more in the sense that they are crowded and regardless of whether you are holding a ticket or not, people feel that if they don’t push to get to the front of the line, your spot won’t be waiting for you.  While waiting for our train, N got some cards and a couple bowls of noodles for the train.

We arrived in Dali the next morning about 6 A.M.  We had booked a room at a local’s guest house and made our way there.  Next door to the guest house lived our teammates’ connection.  We touched base with them and they took us into town to show us the place.  Bike rentals, wood-fired pizza, local ethnic products, coffee shops, etc.  All stuff that we were looking for in a tourist place.

The family that hooked us up with the tour of the city and that lived next door to the guest house really helped make the trip relaxing.  This family of 10 told us we could use their internet if we needed, invited us over for dinner, and even entertained N one afternoon while K was napping.  In N’s free afternoon he challenged them to a Tetherball Tournament of Champions.  Not only did he lack the necessary skills to beat a 13 year old, but also managed to stop the ball with his face.  The wound wasn’t large, but he was certainly proud of it. (“K!  Take a picture!  This is awesome.  I’ve never been wounded by a tetherball.  Soccer ball , yes.  But a tetherball??  Awesome…”)

We only actually spent one night in Dali but because of the early train arrival and our late night departure, we had a full two days.  We’ll share a little more about the trip in a future post.  Next up: Return to Kunming for a night and then off to Chiang Mai, Thailand for classes.

New Photo Album

We put together a photo album of pictures from our travels.  It's posted on the left side of this page.  Enjoy!