Sunday, May 16, 2010

Thought of the day:
Was Hillary Clinton thinking of the “Global Family” when she wrote It Takes A Village?

It is vital for us remember our “Family Relationship” is symbiotic.
For my part I can in a small way help their young people to see us as good friends who wish to share our language with them. –Bob


I’m sitting here writing this journal entry that was due over two days ago. Normally if this was an assignment for one of my courses, I would get at least 20% off for the delay, but fortunately Baoli and my fellow teammates were kind enough to grant me the extension without much penalties.

It was a cloudy day today. I had breakfast downstairs with Bob, Karen, and Allison in the morning, where we planned out the details for going to the Art Street and the forest of stone tablets in the afternoon. We decided that we will first take a taxi to South Gate near the entrance to the Art Street, and then walk through the Art Street to the Stone Tablets Museum.

After breakfast, I went to Room 302 to do some studying while Bob and Karen did their lesson planning together for the new set of lessons next week. I believe Allison was finishing the journal entry for the previous day in her room. The morning went by quickly and at around noon, I went down the hotel together with Bob and Karen to the photocopy shop because they needed to photocopy extra copies of the song lyrics and I needed a copy of my passport. While we were at the shop, Bob and Karen each bought a No Smoking sign in Chinese and they said they will use them in their houses to ward off those pesky smokers.

After lunch, we carried on with our tour plans, and at first we had some issues getting a cab. Thankfully a hotel staff was able to quickly get one for us before the day dragged on too much longer. The Art Street turned out to be a street full of small street vendors and shops selling the usual Chinese souvenirs of jade bracelets. I didn’t buy anything but I did help bargain for Bob for the nice little ceramic goldfish he bought for his daughter.

At the end of the Art Street was the forest of stone tablets. It was an extremely interesting and beautiful place filled with ancient stone tablets with books, poems, and drawings on them. I’m now curious to know how on earth they moved these tablets back in the days, because I can assure you they are quite heavy.

Unfortunately we ran out of time and were not able to visit all the rooms. We had some serious issues getting a cab to get back to the hotel, and we while we were waiting in the rain we were constantly harrassed by the little two-seater electric tricycle drivers. Boy they sure don’t understand the meaning of “no” and “go away”.

After about 40 minutes, we finally got a cab near south gate and returned home safely to Baoli’s warm arms. Allison had to cancel her opera trip because of the delay but it was an interesting experience for all of us today.

-Yibo