Mid-term exams are behind us. For me that means vacation's over for a while. For the Senior 1 students it meant five days of military training. Training started on Saturday after the last test and ended on Wednesday. The students then had to go back to school for the rest of the week. From what I understand the training consists largely of political theory and is required of all Senior 1 students throughout China.

To continue what's been developing into a good relationship with my Senior 1 students, I decided to play some games and keep things light with the few classes I saw this week. We practiced English with tongue twister races and talked about the NBA, one of their favorite subjects. Yes, it's amazing what you'll learn when you want to teach it; I now know how many teams there are, their names and locations (thanks, Jessie).

I also shared with them some tales of adventures that I got to have while they were busy furthering their education. Most students haven't had a chance to do much traveling yet, and they seemed relatively interested in hearing about my experiences in the fascinating country that surrounds them.

The first weekend was spent in Nanjing. Jessie and Dave traveled overnight on a hard-seat train for twelve hours, and Bret and June traveled two hours by bus for an impromptu reunion of sorts. Tony, a former student of one of the Chinese English teachers and a current student at a University in Nanjing, was kind enough to meet me at the train station and act as a tour guide and tourist with all of us American teachers. Tony was good fun to have along and definitely made taking the bus, ordering meals in restaurants and just getting around much more enjoyable. We spent Saturday taking in as many of the famous historical sights as we could in an area located just outside the city's center, known to tourists as 'Purple Mountain'. This is where modern China's founding father, Dr. Sun Yatsen, has his mausoleum. We were really lucky to visit during the late fall, having perfect weather and fewer crowds. The weekend went by quickly and throughout the day Sunday we all dispersed back to our home cities.

I had just enough time to get myself ready for a three-day/four-night excursion to Huang Shan (Yellow Mtn.). Rita and I stumbled off the overnight train in this far away city and proceeded to get accosted by taxi drivers and tour guides just waiting for fresh tourist blood. As we were trying to make our way to the main street, I was silly enough to ask one of the taxi drivers to point us in the direction of a restaurant, Mr. Hu's. I had just read about it in an old guidebook. I quickly learned that the restaurant was about an hour's drive away in the mountain town of Tangkou. So we just kept moving away from the hordes of local help and found a nice young woman who directed us to the bus station where we knew we could take a 12 yuan bus as opposed to a 100 yuan taxi. We took the local bus to Tangkou and were quite surprised when Mr. Hu hopped onto the bus to greet us and escort us directly to his restaurant. I guess the taxi driver I asked wasn't kidding when she said, "I know Mr. Hu, he's my friend." We went and ate some breakfast at Mr. Hu's rat-infested breakfast house (I guess guidebooks should have an expiration date), and then we wandered around the small town wondering exactly what to do with our day and how to get to our hotel destination a little further up the mountain. While we were walking about, the magical Mr. Hu appeared once or twice and wanted to know if he could help arrange transportation for us. Eventually, we realized he was our best contact in this town and took him up on the offer. For 150 yuan (about 20.00 USD) we had a mini-van and a driver for the afternoon which took us to one of the local ancient villages and then, indirectly, up to our hotel. First we had to stop at the local mechanics and have the door of the van worked on, then we had to drop off another passenger he had decided to pick up along the way. Surviving the drive on the winding mountain rodes and finally making it to our hotel that night was excitement enough for me.

The next day we hiked the steps all the way up to the top of Yellow Mtn. and then down the steps on the other side. Actually, we took the cable car up the west side and then I hiked down the east, which amounted to a perfect eight hour day on the mountain. Along the way we passed large tour groups of Chinese people, and all the local help who keep the hotels and restaurants supplied by carrying everything up on their backs. The steps and hotels that have been built into this mountain are amazing, a feat that's maybe comparable, in ways, to building the Great Wall on top of a mountain ridge. The area is beautiful and it was well worth the trek.

We spent our last Huang Shan day in style and had a 'limousine' that took us on a spectacular drive through the mountains and countryside and to three other ancient villages in the area. I decided to make official arrangements the night before using the tourist agency that booked our hotel online. The day worked out perfectly, after seeing the sights our driver took us to downtown Huang Shan and we got to have some Chinese food and a drink before heading home on an overnight train.

It was so refreshing to get into the mountains and see the beautiful rural landscape hiding not too far away inland. Seeing people live with the land and how it's used for growing tea unique to the region are images that will stay with me. But once I got home I was ready for city life again, so I went and spent a couple of days in Shanghai. Lucky for me Courtney was up for some company; we had a fun night out on the town. Shanghai is a city that holds something new each time I visit. This time it was an antique market near the posh Xintiandi district. It's pretty entertaining looking at all the revolutionary paraphernalia that's there to be bought. Anybody want a Chairman Mao watch that will wave to you?

Thanksgiving is this week. I hope this finds everyone happy and healthy and enjoying time with family and friends. Though I won't be with my usual family of friends this year, I feel really fortunate knowing I have everyone's support with me as I continue this journey. Thanks!