Arrival in Shanghai!

We finally arrive in Shanghai! The waiting rooms have little playgrounds for the kids -- what a great idea! Teachers, can you imagine teaching those characters to first graders? It's tough enough to teach them to read with just 26 letters -- I can't imagine what it's like with over 3,500 characters!

We were in China with a group of 75 people, most of them representing Dixie State College. Raging Red is an amazing performing group at Dixie, directed by Merrilee Webb. Dixie has a sister city and university in China, and so Raging Red went to China as a performing / recruiting tour. We had the President of Dixie and his wife, several faculty members, and 30 performers traveling together, and then several other people not affiliated with Dixie -- like Aubrey and I. What an amazing opportunity! When something like this comes along, don't pass it up!

While we saw AWESOME sights, and met lots of interesting people, may I just say, WE ARE SO BLESSED IN THIS COUNTRY! God Bless America!

Silkworm Cocoons . . .

We visited a jade factory, a pearl factory, and a silk factory. Did you know that there are single silkworm cocoons and double silkworm cocoons? I didn't! The single cocoons are used to make the beautiful fabrics, because you can find the end of the strand and pull it out. The double cocoons don't really have an "end", so they cut them, and stretch them (as in the picture), and then stretch them (even more) to the size of the duvet, and add layer upon layer of silk to make a lovely blanket. The Chinese claim these are warm in the winter and cool in the summer -- and I've loved using mine!

It's about time . . .

Ni hao!

It's been a while (only 3 years!) since I've posted anything, but I thought you might want to see some of the pics from China!

This is my friend, Aubrey, that teaches 1st Grade with me, and we're visiting a beautiful garden that was built at about the time Columbus was discovering America! (That's a new perspective, huh?)