Calligraphy Lesson

 This week in class one of my students gave me a lesson in calligraphy. She told me about the history and then showed me how to do it. I like it a lot and would really like to take a class in it while I'm here. The first picture is my name in calligraphy - written (painted) my student, Jumping.

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Hi Friends, I don't know if I will be able to complete this blog or not as all the tabs, icons, and instructions are now in Chinese for some unknown reason. We'll see how this goes!
WARNING!: The following blog is all flowers! My friend Kris and I went to ZhongShan park where they were celebrating a chrysanthemum  festival. I've never see so many varieties of chrysanthemum! And I've never seen them trained into trellis' and shapes - Like the Dragon that curved down the block!There must be some vine varieties. The weather was just perfect for our outing - and then it rained!

Aren't they cute!

OK, well one picture isn't flowers.

Hi All - Most of the foreign teachers (like me) and students live in the 7-story international building. The international students put on a Chinese festival last week. They learned and put on a marvelous show of  Chinese songs, dancing, instruments, Tai Chi, and martial arts demonstrations. They also had booths selling food from all the places they're from.  And lucky for us, all the festivities happened in the parking lot in front of our building. Such yummy food!  The pictures were taken from a balcony on the 4th floor. It was a fun day! It was threatening to rain all day, but thankfully it didn't until that evening.  (I hope the videos come through.)

Xian

                                                        A very serious warrior!


After the colorful music production that I wrote about in my last blog, I realized that this post will be all one color. But it is still one of the most impressive sites in all of China - the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. The construction of this army was begun when Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor of China at age 13, and the construction continued until his death at age 34, around 210 b.c. An army of 700,00 workers are estimated to have been needed for this work. Qin wanted these warriors to accompany him into the afterlife to protect him. Many of his concubines were buried alive with him in his mausoleum.
The statues are life-sized and each one is unique. They estimate that there are ~8,000 statues, but many are still buried under mounds of dirt. Once unearthed, the air caused the paint to fade and peel within 4 minutes. They are experimenting with ways to protect more recent excavations. So here they are:

I bought a book about the warriors, and actually had it signed by the man who discovered the site on his farm in 1974, while digging a well. He is quite old now. It was all so fascinating! So amazing to actually be there and see it!

Xi'an - Our last city on the tour. Sometimes we see a sign that is too good to pass up.

                                                            Some fun street musicians!

That night we we enjoyed a multi-flavored dumpling dinner and a music extravaganza in a very ornate old theater. The costuming and dancing were wonderful!

 

I saw this dance on YouTube and wished I would have a chance to see it in China. It's spectacular!  I think it's called The Thousand Dancing Hands, if you want to look it up and watch.

Village Tour

Selling raisins and nuts

Colorful bedrooms

 We took a bus ride out to a little village by Tarpan. Can't even remember it's name, but I loved it. Parts of it looked like the ancient city ruins that we'd explored, but people still lived here. We were allowed to walk the dusty roads, poke our heads into their homes, and wonder at the simplicity of their lives. These families grow grapes and dry most of them into raisins. It is extremely hot in the summer, so often their beds are on the roof to take advantage of any passing breeze. Hey, we did that too, but on our deck!

Grandma watching the kids while the parents are working.

Learning to drive.

Hey! Somebody is home!

Some beautiful doors

These buildings were for drying grapes and were all over the hills.

A peek into a couple more doorways.

T

Two car garage