Qufu Train

We are finally at our new home in Qufu!  We took an overnight train last night.  This is us at 7:30am after a decent night's rest in a soft-sleeper car (which we shared with an older Chinese woman and a cute little Chinese girl).  Today we have walked around the university, found where to buy groceries, and slowly started setting up house.  We will post pictures of the apartment soon!

Chip's Chewables: 9 day traffic jam

"BEIJING — Thousands of vehicles were bogged down Monday in a more than 100-kilometre (62-mile) traffic jam leading to Beijing that has lasted nine days and highlights China's growing road congestion woes." (Click on the title to read the article)

The Great Wet Wall

The Great Wall of China

We walked up about 700 of these just to get to the wall!

Not the classic "Great Wall" shot I was hoping for. . .

Saturday we made the trek to The Great Wall of China.  Unfortunately, it was pouring rain and we had a heavy dose of Beijing smog. Our pictures aren't great, but it honestly was still a great day.  We chose not to ride up on the gondola, so we got a workout taking the steep steps all the way up to the wall.

A little history:  The wall was originally started during the Qin dynasty in about 220 BC!  What we think of today as "The Great Wall" was built during the Ming dynasty during the 1400s to keep out the Mongols, although much of it has been renovated since.  For our China savvy viewers, we visited the Mutianyu portion of the wall.

Mallary's First Hot Pot

Sweet potato, mushrooms, tofu, and yep, those are quail eggs (and nope, I did not eat them)

Hot Pot before we threw in our meat and veggies

The restaurant even provided aprons!

Our friends, Jan and Lloyd. They will be teaching in the birthplace of Hot Pot--Chongqing, China.

The Chinese have eaten hot pot for over 1,000 years.  Mallary had her first this week.  The outer ring contains fungus and green onions in a savory broth.  The inner ring contains spicy broth!  We ordered all sorts of raw meats (mostly mutton) and veggies, threw them in the broth to cook, and then pulled them out with chop sticks.  It was a fun meal.  They even served sweet tea gelatin with watermelon and raisins for dessert!

Chip's Chewables: Garbage Floods the Three Gorges Dam

"The recent floods in China, which have now killed more than 1200 people, have also swept an immense amount of trash to the Three Gorges Dam area, threatening to block the dam’s gates." (Click on the title to read the article).

Daylight Donut

We found a Daylight Donut here in Beijing!  We had already had breakfast when we stumbled across it, but we indulged in a second breakfast of apple fritter and coffee.  Delicious!

Chinese Karaoke!

I went out with some fellow teachers for Chinese karaoke. Students in China love to sing karaoke (and take it very seriously), so we are getting in some practice now before we get to our universities. Me and my friend, Jeanna, sang Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl." Me and Avery (in pink above) are pretending to sing to get warmed up.

Note: Chip is not in these pictures. Somehow he weaseled his way out of coming. . .