RIP Camera

Since my camera finally decided to end its life for good, I suppose I'll put up the pictures I occasionally take on my crappy phone camera... This will just be a jumble of pictures from the past few months- but I think they capture the essence of Hunan/China well. Also, if anyone has a spare good quality digital camera lying around that is never used, I know someone who would greatly appreciate it!

Late night shao kao in Changsha

 HuaRong sweet HuaRong...

The 92 year old man in my building has been playing with fire all day since it got cold out. 

MiiOW sexyzone

The next few pictures are from YueYang, the city near HuaRong. It's a city of about 5 million people.

The bus I take to get between HuaRong and YueYang.

Peanuts!

Streetfood <3

So lucky to have met such great friends who come and visit me!  

My Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely delicious.

The little things...

"Youzi" is Chinese grapefruit and it's SO delicious, I absolutely love it. You peel of all of the skin and just eat the juiciness. I think it's very pretty.

The way pineapple is served to-go 

The pool I swim in... They turn these lights on so you can't see the color of the pool water... wise move. 

Just your average storefront in Huarong

The tea shop in Huarong. The family is incredibly friendly. They spent two hours with us, letting us try different teas and teaching us a lot about Chinese tea. 

So cute.

In the back of one of my classrooms... I don't know what it says, but it's great.

Between 9:45 and 10:10 all students have to go outside to do a huge group exercise. It's AWESOME.

Hey, beautiful

My Halloween

Back on the 500 monks mountain

On Saturday (Halloween), a student of mine (Suzerraine) invited me to lunch with her family at her grandmothers house in the countryside. Besides feeling honored and happy to be invited to this lunch, I also felt extremely lucky to be able to take a glimpse into the life of people in the countryside. In the next series of pictures, you will see how the grandmother and a couple of families around her live day in, day out. It was beautiful, quiet and simple. I liked it very much.

Grandmother and a family member in the kitchen. One person always needs to sit by the stove to tend the fire while the other person cooks.

Suzerraine's mother and grandmother- ADORABLE

Beans

Chicken in the tree

They grow all of their own food. AH so cool.  

The road to the cluster of houses

nom nom nom eggs

Neighbors

Picking yummy Chinese oranges

Chinese grapefruit <3 

Lunch. All fresh, all delicious.

After lunch, Suzerraine and her parents took me to Junshan island, a famous island in Yueyang on Dongting lake. 

"Dragonspit Well" duh what else would it be named

<3 her parents are so cute

Poor poor unhappy monkeys :(

Yay lets feed the fish!

Dinner