Chapter 15 - Day out with Angela

Hello everyone,
i know its been awhile since my last update and i do apologize for that. So here i am to tell you about a day that i spent with 2 of my Students. well first off i got a phone call and it was Angela inviting me to come to lunch with her and Zoey to lunch. Now im thinking how did she get my number? I havent given my phone number to any kids. Come to find out that she tracked down Stone, the guy that takes care of us, and she got my number from him. She is very smart. Well we met and and started walking to Zoey's house. Wasnt far from the school and was a pretty nice house. the house looked great on the outside, just was a little barren on the inside.
Angela and zoey started to make lunch, well they just warmed up some leftover for the night before (i tell myself) and everything was good. Now the chinese with every meal have this hot pot. Sits on the table plugged in or with a fire under keeping it hot. Sort of like the main course. well this was the fish. Fish like the fish in lake powell that eat all the junk. Those fish! Also in the hot pot were dumplings in the juices. Now those were good i tried to eat as many of those quickly because there were only a few and i liked them.
Also there was a bowl of a chinese special meat call low rong which i think it was lamb and it has been the best meat i have since ive been in china! there were bones but they were ribs! and you know that i love ribs. Then there was this traditional bowl of something. Being traditional i had to try. yeah i shouldnt of tried, it was nasty! It was very soft and chewy and it was EXTREMELY spicy. Got about 4 chews in and realized it was horrible! So i just gave a big swallow to put that flaming hot loogie in my tummy. After lunch was over they went out and grabbed what looked like some tamales. They were a triangular shape and steaming. Angela started unwrapping these chinese tamales and then grabbed a chop stick and skewered it.
She poured sugar on the outside and you ate it right off the chopstick. Very good dessert. Then we decided to start walking to the park and that was quite a walk but totally worth it. well we got to the part Zoey ran off and came back with ice cream! Their ice cream is different but it is pretty good! I like it. I said thank you and its weird the chinese barely accept compliments or thank yous. Zoey said dont say thank you, you a a great friend thats why i get you ice cream and we take you to the park, no need to say thank you because we already know that you are thankful. Now those were sort of my words but that is what i got out of her telling me. So the rules are different and im trying to figure them all out as fast as i can.
At the park there was like a little trail that goes all over this mountain. At parts there are play grounds. In another area there are ponds with fish in them, or places where you can dress up in chinese clothes and they take pics of you. I plan on doing this in the summer. Or even little huts that have guys inside them playing cards or girls playing mahjong.
We came across this huge circle and there were these weird rocks! They looked so different and their texture is like no rock i have ever touched in the states so i had fun climbing on these rocks.
OF course i picked the biggest rock to conquer! Also in the park is an ancient library on the biggesst hill. We went up there and saw a wedding couple getting pics. The photographer asked us to leave because i was making the bride too nervous. hahahaha.
We came to a huge plaza where there was a huge group of people. Being curious i went oover and started looking at what was going on and come to find that the group of people were about to have a tug of war. So i jumped in on the girls side and we totally kicked the boys trash. me and my manly muscles.! That's right! They had all sorts of activities going on. Tug of war, badmitton, pics, and even jump rope. they took the rope they used for the tug of war and used it to start a huge jump rope. Everyone was jumping in, laughing and having so much fun. (and these were adults!) I dont think i would ever see this sort of thing in the states. Then i played some badmitton and totally had a blast. The ladies liked playing me for some reason and they were really good. i got my trashed kicked. hahaha
Then a lady asked for my photo and this started a domino effect. cameras' starting coming out like crazy and then 2 big red and green flags joined in and every picture had these flags in it. Come to realize that this whole event was a company party and the flags were the name of the company. So i got pics with the president of the company and everyone else in the company. Would be really funny to find their website and see their homepage and there might be a picture of me with their whole company. hahaha. Great way to spend a Saturday here in China! The library was closed because it was a saturday but i will go back and get pics of it on the inside. we left after the company party we headed back to school because Zoey and Angela had to study! Yeah study on a saturday night! Its amazing how much dedication they have to their schooling. It was a great day and i hope more days like this happen more often.
From a sunny day in Huan Yuan China
Love, Jordan