A Trip to the Country

Recently I began tutoring a Grade 2 student at our school once a week. Her name is Lee. Her English is great and she is so friendly and sweet. She and her family invited Camille and I out to their family's home in the country for New Year's Day. Their home is in a village, which is made up of several houses, a school, a few stores with basic goods, and farms. It was really interesting for us to see this aspect of China. Lee told us that everyone in the village has the same last name, Li. Lee goes by "lee" because she knows that I, as an American, can say and understand that name. Sorry if that was a little confusing!

Lee's school friends Amy and FeFe (their English names of course) also came on the trip. The girls taught us how to play a Chinese card game called "Beat the Landlord". We also went hiking up the mountains and through the farms by the village. Lee's mom used to be a cook and she made us some delicious home-cooked Chinese food, including steamed dumplings. Ok, something for you to know... I hate Chinese food back in America....this is an on-going joke among my team members. I have been able to find a few things in Huangshi that are ok/ I kind of like. But this food was the best Chinese food I have ever had in my entire life! It was wonderful!

Lee, Amy, FeFe, and Camille at the top of a mountain (a small mountain)!

Me with the girls...I look like a giant!

This is a swimming pool. They swim here when the weather is warm and also wash clothes here. There were three swimming pools in this village.

Houses

Camille standing in a Chinese farm.

A farmer carrying a shoulder pole with vegetables.

From the top of a small mountain.

Finally made it to the top!

Cotton was growing too!

You can't really tell by the picture, but these chickens were HUGE! So were the pigs out there. 

These are the tiny little chairs everyone was sitting on. They brought out the bigger stools for Cam and I since we are giants...just kidding. They did that because we were the guests. I tried to get a picture because the chair next to the one Amy is sitting in was half the size! I'm pretty sure we could not fit on the mouse-chair!

The trip was a lot of fun. We got to learn more about Chinese culture and see different parts of China. We also got to know these girls a lot more. They are not our students at school since we only teach three Grade 2 classes and they are not in those. It is nice to know some of the other students and become friends with them!