Precious Children and Ancient Ruins

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Monday: We slept in and enjoyed the first tasty meal for breakfast by our CCS cooks. It was excellent (as have all the meals been, but more about that later). We did not start at the kindergarten since we got in so late Sunday night, so Tuesday was the first day there. At 0930, two young ladies came to the apartment and gave us a traditional Chinese music performance. One played the erhu, which is something like a two-stringed violin, but not really. Google it. The other played the pipa, which is something like the mandolin, but not really. Google it. They were both phenomenal musicians, and played both solos and duets. They gave us a taste of some of the most famous, ancient Chinese music, and it was lovely and full of passion. This drove home to me how universal and timeless music truly is. Even though the instruments and style were quite different than their western counterparts, they communicated the same humans emotions that are common to all of us.

We then enjoyed an excellent lunch, consisting of rice (as has every meal, with one exception) and several tasty Chinese dishes, home cooked. I'm only letting myself eat with chopsticks (though I did cheat with the yogurt), so I get the full cultural experience. My skills are quickly being honed...

That afternoon, we received the standard CCS orientation from Alice, the staff-worker who has worked with us the most so far. For dinner, our Army group, along with the other volunteer group (I suppose I should explain about them at some point), went to a real Chinese restaurant (that is, it wasn't called "Happy Wok" or "First Wok Buffet"). This meal was the exception to the rule about rice; we had dumplings instead (not rice at all, which was quite surprising)! One of the CCS staff workers, Shuang, explained that dumplings are often an alternative to rice as the base dish of the meal. So we had at least 4 or 5 different types of dumplings, all of which were quite good. Then we had a variety of vegetable and meat dishes, including sweet and sour pork, vinegar cucumbers (but sweet), sugared potatoes (candied-ish), eggplant and peppers and onions, onions and beef....And some more I can't remember. All of it was quality, and definitely better than American Chinese! Although, I did miss the crab rangoon....

I could say much more, but time for a blogging break. Plus, nobody wants to read posts as long as Paige's India blogs...(I hope you read this, sister ;-)

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