Jiaozuo

Friday morning I left Zhengzhou and came to Jiaozuo, home of Wang Peng and Tian Hua. I am staying in Wang Peng's house now and have been enjoying it a lot. We have spent a lot of time outside enjoying all the snow. Yesterday we met up with Tian Hua and went on a long walk around Jiaozuo. It was really cool (literally and figuratively :-) because I've never seen so much snow before. That afternoon, after yet another fabulous lunch that his mother made, we met up with some of Wang Peng's friends and had a snowball fight - another first for me :-) Wang Peng and his family have been so hospitable and kind. I really wish I knew more Chinese so I could talk with his parents and brother, but even though I can't, I still feel really comfortable with them. Maybe when I come back in the future I'll have learned more and I can talk with them! I'll definitely post some more pics when I can!

Kaifeng

Here are a couple shots from the first stop on my trip. My friend/student Parker wanted to go with me and I was very glad that he came. I would have been so lost without him! I definitely underestimated how hard it would be to travel with a limited Chinese vocabulary. We got to Kaifeng around 2:00, got a hotel and then went walking around a famous place in Kaifeng. I had been planning on staying in Kaifensg for 2 nights but it snowed pretty heavily throughout the first night so I changed my plans and came back to Zhengzhou. Parker was going home that afternoon anyway and I did not want to be snowed-in in Kaifeng by myself! The next day I was planning on going to Jiaozuo to stay with my friend Wang Peng and his family and I did not want to miss out on that because of the snow. And really the main reason I am travelling this year is not to see places but rather the people in the places - my friends. So I'm glad it worked out that way because I ended up getting to stay with another friend that night in Zhengzhou.

Gingerbread House

A teacher friend gave me a gingerbread house making kit because she was leaving and wasn't going to be able to use it. So when some students came over the other night, I let them make it. This was the finished result! Of course after they finished I wanted to eat it and after some convincing, they relented and we tore it down and ate it :-)

Silliness in Han Guo

These are really old (October) but I remembered that I hadn't shared them. Part of our trip in South Korea (Han Guo) included a visit to a TV show set. So we just went around to different parts of the set and took random, silly pictures.