Update on my life

Craziness will ensue when a group of awesome people get together!  We had a potluck so each of us brought a dish or dessert.  Another foreigner teacher (not with Peace Corps) enlisted a large group of students to help him make about 20 pizzas and over 100 little berry tarts, among other things.  We had a wonderful feast which was followed by a dance party with the students and some of the school leaders.  -Thanksgiving celebration in Nejiang, Sichuan Province, 2014 (hosted by Felicia and Luis).

For English Corner at Thanksgiving, Kayla and I taught the students to make turkey headbands.

Student performances in early December

It was very cold... thank goodness for the bonfire!

With Sophia and Taylor after their performances

For 3 days, Kayla and I hosted a cyclist from England named Jon.  He biked all through Europe, and then flew to Xinjiang and biked down to Gansu.  In Zhangye he met Yiannis and from then on he was hopping from one Peace Corps Volunteer's site to another!  In Jiangyou, we attended a student dance competition, baked, ate hot pot, and because some of the female teachers were impressed with Jon, went to a bar (which was the first time Kayla and I had been to a bar in Jiangyou!)

Goodbye Jon! Enjoy your next adventures.

For our Women's Group Christmas Party, we had each girl bring a wrapped gift and we did a gift exchange game.  Vivian and Yvonne were excited to receive the goldfish!

Students enjoying the cookies they decorated.  After the crazy Halloween Party, Kayla and I learned our lesson.  We did not leave any food out, and when we were ready for the cookie decorating, Kayla stayed with the box of cookies the whole time and I helped keep the students in line.  At this first party there was still some pushing, but nonetheless the students really enjoyed the cookies.

Before the party, K and I prepared this fun fireplace decoration.  During the two parties, students made paper stockings and placed them on the wall.  Here are Lacey (L) and Vimy showing off the adorable stockings.

The students were very creative in their stockings!

This was taken at our second Christmas party, for which we selected hardworking students and invited them personally.  The students at this party were actually much more well-behaved than the students at the first party, and when Kayla brought out the box of cookies, they kept a distance until we invited students to come over and decorate, a few people at a time.

Skyping with my family on Christmas morning! Thank goodness for technology that makes it feel like we're all together in the same room for the special holiday, even though in reality we're on opposite sides of the world. 

The weekend after Christmas, Kayla and I went to Chengdu to pick up her boyfriend, Steven, at the airport.  She was so excited to be reunited with him!

I made stockings for our Christmas celebration

Kayla wanted to give Steven a special Christmas celebration, since he'd been traveling in Nepal and India and wouldn't be with his family either.

After Steven made us a delicious breakfast of banana-walnut pancakes, we made gingerbread houses!

Steven came to visit Kayla's class on Monday.  The students were VERY excited to meet him!

In January after finishing my classes, I went down to southern Sichuan to visit a student, Christina, and stay with her family.

We visited some beautiful caves with colorful lights and amazing karst rock formations.

I'd thought I'd find warmer weather down south, but actually one night it was so cold that it snowed!

Lamb hotpot!!  Later they added thistle.  It was so delicious.

After visiting Christina, I came back up to Chengdu for the Peace Corps In-Service Training (IST).  Here are a few of my buddies, in one of the 5 pictures I took that whole week (oops).

Dancing with Peace Corps volunteers at a bar in Chengdu.  It's always a party when we're together!!

After IST, I spent a week with a student named Sunflower who lives near the city of Yibin, about 6 hours east of Chengdu (by train).  This is me and her aunt's family.  That's her sister on the far right, in the blue sweatshirt.

Sunflower's mom preparing food in the kitchen.  In the top left you can see hunks of meat drying out.  The stove is a cement block with holes where they stoke the fire.  There is no refrigerator and so they store food in a closed cabinet.  They also don't have running water but water from an underground well is pumped up to fill two large cement tub-like basins.

This is the bathroom. Yes, that's a pig sleeping in a pen!  That little trough on the right is where you squat and do your business, while a pig grunts behind your back.  In case you're wondering, he doesn't eat the human waste- that empties out under the floor, and then Sunflower's parents fish it out to use as fertilizer in their farm.  Apparently having a pig in your bathroom is the norm in the countryside- I saw the same thing in her aunt's house, and in her uncles' house.

Sunflower and I!  During my time there, we visited her relatives, bathed in the hot springs, went for walks in her hometown, went fishing at a local pond, and enjoyed the delicious meals prepared by her family!!

One day we went to a funeral for Sunflower's grandma's brother, and after we played with her young cousins.