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Monday, 12 June 2006

Currently Reading
Not My Will: How Much Will Surrender Cost?
By Francena H. Arnold
see related
Wheat Harvesting

I have been waiting for the wheat around Jinan to ripen since I came back from my Spring Festival travel. When a student took me outside of Jinan a couple of weeks ago, it's yellow all around. The wheat is ready to be harvested. I wanted to take pictures of the wheat fields but because of the weather, we didn't stop. However, this weekend, I went home with a friend to visit her family. They live in a village about an hour and a half away. She said her family just started harvesting.

On the way there, I saw that most of the fields were EMPTY! The harvest is over. I began to fear that I won't have the chance to see any wheat when I get to her home. She explained to me that most of the fields here were harvest by machines. However, the fields in her village were on the mountain, the wheat is harvested by hand. So there should still be some fields left.

To my surprise, when we got there, most of the fields in her village were untouched. The harvest just started on that day. We came at the perfect time. Because I wanted to see the field so much that we went to look for her parents, who are working in the field, immediately. The fields were so beautiful. The gold color of the wheat made me feel like I was in heaven, surrounded by roads paved in gold.

Friday, 02 June 2006

Shandong Food

Shandong is famous for it's jiaozhi (dumplings). In the past 9 months, I have taken every chance offered to learn how to make them. It only totaled up to 4 times. I can't say I am good at it, but it is not as hard as I thought. I have a big bag of jiaozhi flour in my apartment that needs to be used up before I leave. Hopefully I will have a few more opportunities to practice before leaving. I want to be able to make it when I get home.

Here are some pictures showing me and my friend making jiaozhi.

Linda, Esther and I enjoying the jiaozhi we made. If you ask me, it tastes better than the ones outside.

One Friday afternoon, we went to a park to BBQ. It was a cloudy day, so we have the whole park to ourselves. We went out early in the morning to buy meat to bring to the BBQ. We had beef and shrimp all prepared in my apartment. When we got off the bus, then we realized we forgot the meat. Oh well. Too late to go back. The only thing we can do was to go there and buy what they have available at whatever the price. It turned out okay. We had mutton, fish, and something of a chicken. So, next time I go to any BBQ, I will need to remember to ask "Where's the beef?" before we leave.
Home visit

May 19-21

Karen and I were invited by a friend to visit his hometown. Without knowing much detail about his family and his hometown, we just followed him and went. He lives in a village. We stayed in his home which has two bedrooms. He gave up his bedroom so we can have it. He had to sleep on the floor of the living room. The village is quite nice. There were wheat fields all around the village. The sea was just a 15 minute walk away. His father turned out to be a fisherman. He brought back fresh seafood for us every meal. One afternoon we went out to sea on his boat and pulled in some mussels for dinner. Within the short period of time we stayed there, we have eaten 11 different types of seafood. His mom kept on apologizing that they don't have much to offer. How many people get to eat 11 types of seafood within 24 hours! We were blessed.

Here's something that could only happen in China.

Our friend went to a clinic for an IV injection. He was allowed to take it to go!
May 1-7

May Holiday

I know I am a little late in posting this, but I just want to share these beautiful pictures with you. For the May holiday, my friend, Linda, came to visit. We travel to Sichuan together and had a great time. Jiuzhaiguo and Huanglong are two beautiful places. Especially Jiuzhaiguo. They call it a fairyland. Judge for yourself.

At the end of our trip, we have a day to spend in Chengdu. It is famous for spicy hotpot and pandas. So, we had hotpot for dinner one day and went to see the pandas in the morning.

I guess eating is the theme for Chengdu.