4 Days in Anhui

On Jan 14 I went with one of my students to his hometown in Anhui province.  He and his family spoiled me as I got to taste some traditional Anhui province food such as duck tongue, river shrimp drowned in Chili sauce, quail eggs, delicious duck, and many more exciting foods.  I tried everything once like my Mommy taught me when I was a child. 

We also went up to Jiuhua shan which literally means nine flower mountain and did a lot of hiking in two days.  We had a close encounter during our hike with wild monkeys.  Had we gotten any closer to the monkeys without food, we found out our fate would not have turned out so well. The mountain is known for the many Buddhist temples built into the side of it.  Although it was a little foggy, it was a beautiful hike and I had a great time with my friend. 

Below is a picture of different types of meat or sausage hanging from trees to drain the fat and give it additional flavor.  You see this a lot around Chinese New Year.

The Grandparents of the young boy I visited.  I had a nice time visiting with them and hearing their thoughts on the changes in China over the last 50 years. 

Below are some pictures of JiuHua Shan.

"Stairway to Heaven"

Crazy monkey.  I guess if you get too close without food, they leave a lasting impression on you. (bite mark)

The start of our 3.5 mile hike up to the top.

THE SUMMIT BABY!!!!!!!

A Night Out With Friends

A couple weeks before Christmas our family went out to dinner with some friends/students.   We got spoiled at a traditional Chinese restaurant and then went to Aqua City Mall where they had many Christmas decorations.  Trey got to make a clay cactus from Plants versus Zombies and take it home as a memento.  It was a great night.  Below are some pictures.

Ping Pong Anyone?

Trey and I had a great time visiting my other campus, ZiJin, and playing ping pong with 3 of my Sophomore students.  Trey is getting the hang of Ping Pong.  I think if I can have him trained by the Chinese he might be a US Ping Pong hopeful in the next Junior Olympics.  William, Zac, and Mark were great and treated us to a lunch at the school cafeteria.  It was a great afternoon with those boys. 

Trey at School

This is what a typical picture is of Trey and Momma having school.  Trey usually has a pile of books on the coffee table and he and Sharolyn work their way through it for most of the afternoon.  Trey has been doing great and really starting to knock Math out of the park.  Sharolyn has been doing a great job changing things to keep Trey's interest level up.  

Decorating The Christmas Tree - December 2011

We were lucky enough to have some of our students over this December to help decorate our Christmas Tree.  Although it was a very small tree we still had fun decorating and sharing time with the students.  Names were Conan, Zhu Yue, Peter, and Lydia. 

December Christmas FORCE Party

    In the middle of December Sharolyn did an outstanding job organizing an afternoon Christmas party with the scholarship students on our campus.  There are about 40 total scholarship students which include over 25 freshman this year.  Sharolyn organized an event that included ice breaker games in which we could meet all the new Freshmen and learn more about them, as well as an activity in which they created their own Christmas cards  to give to their sponsors later in the month.  Sharolyn heard immediate feedback on how much that meant to the students and how much they felt at peace.
    We have since have a follow on game night with four of these freshmen but below are some pictures from the event.

Thanksgiving 2011

   We had a very different Thanksgiving this year in Nanjing.  We celebrated our American Thanksgiving, in China, eating Korean pizza.  LOL.  The Chinese don't eat turkey and to buy a turkey is extremely expensive so we all opted for Korean pizza.  Sharolyn made a small pumpkin pie and we enjoyed the rest of the evening at the Whetzell's home eating and playing games.