Tea

Our "school outing" yesterday was interesting... Went to another city, visiting some city building and a school. It started out with a lot of waiting around, not knowing the schedule, and watching a video that would have been quite informative if I understood it...

But the highlight was definitely the tea ritual where we got to be served by students.

This particular tea was poured into a little tall cup, which was then covered by a wider-mouthed.



The part where she flipped it over was really dramatic!


You can see that none of the tea has spilled out... it's all suctioned inside.



After releasing the tea to drink:

Good World, Good View, Good Food

The buildings that house our office:



The VIEW from the office:


...yep, row after row of big apartment buildings. That's where everyone lives. I don't think I've seen a house yet in this city.

Typical Sunday Lunch:

Getting lost is kinda fun

Today I didn't exactly get LOST, but I took the correct bus and got off at the correct stop to meet my friend at the Kunming Botanical Gardens... and when I called her, I wasn't where she thought I should be. I eventually figured my way to the entrance and was not scared at all. It's a good thing, because this may keep happening as I navigate my way around the city.

So here are a couple of photos from the picnic and egg hunt I went to today.







And a really interesting flower:

I caused an accident today.

I live in a nicer area of Kunming.

Went walking today and ended up in what I'll call the "urban countryside"--much different from the fancy skyscraper and storefront district that my apartment is near. I saw zero foreigners in this area, where I became "lost" for a good 10 minutes of fast walking, meandering through alleys looking for a way out.

So I guess I was quite a sight for them, too. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a motorcyclist watching me...and then he crashed into another motorbike in front of him. I could laugh on the inside because they were going quite slow and no one was hurt. So now I can say that I've turned heads! Ha.

Kunming's "Wild Animal Zoo"

Went to the coolest zoo today, and my previously-working-fine batteries AND my new set all turned out to be used up, so no photos... Boo.

Located way up on a hill on who knows how many acres, this zoo was more like a hiking area--we were thankful for the tram; otherwise we would have walked for miles and miles! We walked quite a bit on the extensive boardwalk system as it was.

There were great close-up experience (need I say photo opps--sigh!) with bears, a couple of monkeys, hundreds of peacocks, yaks, emus, cranes, and much more, including pandas, of course.

You could buy a carrot strung on the end of a stick to feed to the Black bears, and the same for the lions and tigers (only it was meat instead of carrots, of course).

Not only did they have several gorgeous tigers AND lions, they also had white tigers and white lions. And the baby white tiger trying to roar was hilarious--sounded more like a wild bird than anything!

Oh, yeah, and they had orang-utans. There was a tiny hole in the glass that separated us from them, and one of the females passed me a little piece of straw through the hole. I passed it back, and she at it.

The whole thing was pretty amazing.

Once again, I'm so sad I didn't have my camera...but maybe that helped me to really take it all in. It was fun.