a day of discovery and firsts

this is the center of the city and we were told this is where sacrifices used to be made. of course this is no longer the practice, but it does give one cause to stop and think.

the teams all reconvened at a "hot pepper" restuaurant where we dined on some delicious chinese food. steamed rice was accompanied by an eggplant dish (mmmm), some sort of spinachy business that didn't seem too popular (sorry moms), a hot peppery beef dish that disappeared, some little bean paste dumplings that were AMAZING, some potatoes and a signature dish that our entire group gave the "thumbs down." blecch. couldn't even tell you what was in it, other than hot peppers, not all that curious, considering the name of the restaurant!

besides the obvious food/eating, etc. this was an opprtunity to share about the day's findings and meet new friends. Juliann, a friend from last year's team, joined us for dinner along with her former calligraphy teacher and his wife. he designs beautiful scrolls and did some custom work for us last year, so we will be visiting his studio while we are here. we filled up on food and fellowship and many of us again began to feel the effects of a switched up clock and realized we better get moving again or risk falling asleep in a plate of uneaten spinach.

another big milestone as we acclimate to chinese life is learning the fine art of squatting. chelsey was proud of her skills and the fact that she remembered to bring tissue, as china is a BYOTP kind of country!

we capped off the evening with a trip to guiyang's super walmart, located across the street from the giant mao statue that kathryn high fived (well not really, but we had fun with that!). a sea of chinese crowded every isle of the superstore built completely underground to perserved the integrity of a very popular park aboveground. two beautiful glass pyramids hearald the entrance. we bought things for our picnic. . . hopefully the chinese will enjoy the delicacy of peanut butter and jelly! stay tuned for more from the land we are beginning to love!