We're half way done...

---

Greetings everyone ~

Currently it is 4:45am Wednesday morning, China time ~ 4:45pm Tuesday evening, Buckeye time.

Yesterday (our Tuesday) the kids spent the entire day attending classes at the Huiwen School, where we are staying. From what I heard at dinner, they had a fun day.

The adults that did not have to stay with the students went on an adventure to the silk market. I have never experienced anything like it. It is a department store-type building with seven floors. Each floor has hundreds of stalls, probably about 12 x 12 completely full of everything from name brand clothes to purses and luggage to shoes to scarves and coats. As you walk down the aisles, the keepers of each stall are yelling at you, wanting you to buy what they have. I have never been called a beautiful lady so many times in my life! If you see something of interest, then they think they have you. They will start you at a high price - though by American standards, the price would be close to what we would pay retail - and then you are expected to negotiate. At first it is overwhelming and intimidating, but once you realize the system and the fact that everyone is doing the same, you acquire a skill. By the end of the day we felt we came away with some great bargains and were quite full of ourselves for our bartering skills. We will be taking the kids there tomorrow. No doubt they will have their own stories to tell of this place.

We all regrouped for dinner and decided that another night of Huiwen High cafeteria school was more than we cared to have. So, Mrs. Raymond graciously treated everyone to dinner at a local chinese noodle restaurant. From the observation of empty bowls, the kids were either famished or really enjoyed the food. Eating at this restaurant - and any restaurant - is interesting. The server accompanies you to the table immediately and waits while you decide what you want. You pay first and you never tip.

Since I did not spend lots of time with the kids today, I thought I would share some cultural observations and "China" pictures with you.

People are everyone. The roads are constantly jammed with cars, and people are walking or riding bikes everywhere. I have yet to see a house. There are hundreds upon hundreds of high-rise apartments and then alleys upon alleys that lead to what I would call small shacks - such as the first picture I send you today. As you drive, most apartments have glass sun windows with laundry hanging to dry. Yesterday was laundry day at Huiwen. For 5 yuan (about 70 cents) we could fill a bag - like you would get when shopping at WalMart - of dirty clothes and while we were at dinner, the clothes were washed. When we returned the bags of wet clothes were waiting on our floor for us to take to our rooms and hang to dry.

The second picture I share of the sweeper is also a common observation. People are sweeping everywhere. It's as if they have nothing more to do, and maybe they don't.

My family has always had an interest in agriculture, so I found the picture of the cows to be something I wanted to share. Where we have acres and acres of pasture for our livestock, they have small patches of land shared by many animals. However saying that, I have found few patches with few animals so far.

When traveling to Tianjin a couple days ago, we passed a lot of crop growing, but they were small patches of ground vs. our large farms with many acres. Here they might have a quarter acre of corn planted next to a half acre of wheat next to another half acre of corn. The fields look like patch-work quilts. I am guessing this may be because it appears that a lot of the farming is done manually. We did pass two John Deere combines harvesting wheat - they must have been 30 years old - but most of the work seems to be done by hand. A few fields we have passed have been full of men gathering mounds of straw by hand. One stretch of land we passed had clearly divided areas of wheat sectioned off along the road side and people were sweeping very methodically and then just sitting beside it, waiting. When we drove back by several hours later, the people were sweeping the wheat into large grain bags. Apparently they took the grain and poured it along the highway to dry. In what I would call the suburb of Beijing, we pass many community garden areas that I am sure are for individual/family use.

Anyway, I have gone too long today, but I thought you might find some of the cultural things of interest.

Today we will be doing more sightseeing as a group and tonight we are having a Peking Duck dinner.

Your emails have been shared with your children. Other than I think we are all tired - we have accomplished very full days - everyone continues to have a good time.

Later!

penny

---

Photos

A typcial Chinese street
Alleys are the gateway to the huts, shacks, and sometimes tents that much of the population live in.

Street Sweeper
Everywhere you turn, someone is sweeping the street. It is almost as if they have nothing more to do.

Livestock...for my dad...
I counted 20 head of cows in this patch of ground that could not have been bigger than a quarter acre.

Another Group Picture
I did not want a day to pass without you getting a glimpse of the kids. This was taken a couple days ago.