These pictures are from before those in part I.
This is in the Mian Bao (bread) bus that we took from Zhong Dian to Xiao Zhong Dian. It took a while for us to finally get a ride that would work. When we got off the bus in Zhong Dian, Sebrina called her student who advised her to take a bread bus, but we didn't know where to get one. The men nearby said they wouldn't go that direction, but that we must take a city bus to another bus stop where we could get one. They offered to drive us there but it would cost us, so instead we walked across the street and tried a different cluster of bread buses. They also declined, so we caught the next city bus that came along and luckily Sebrina spoke to another passenger just in time for her to tell us to get off at the next stop. There we finally found a bread bus that needed a few more passengers so they could head off.
The bus ride was fun. It was our first encounter with the local language, who even our Chinese friend could not understand. The women were all dressed in traditional garb. This was the official beginning of the exciting part of our journey.
When we arrived in Xiao Zhong Dian we sat and waited in this store until the students came to find us, since we had no clue where they were. We didn't realize we could have just walked the entire length of the town, maybe a five minute walk, to where we would stay.
Their store had everything in it from harvesting sheers to pencils.
The women working there were sitting working on their knit-wear.
This is the kitchen/living room where we were staying. The stove is in the background and behind the camera was a tv with a large poster of mao pasted on the wall behind it. Out the door on the right was a little courtyard with little vicious dogs, a pit toilet, and another building with our room. The dogs in this village are used as their security system and despite their miniature size, they really are scary. They were bred to hate it seems.
I have a particular fondness for the girl on the right at the table because we had a lengthy conversation about university, the similarities and differences between hers and mine, and about how I used to live in the Middle East.
It's amazing how much English students in China are required to learn. Her vocabulary was huge, but since she hasn't had much opportunity to practice speaking she recognizes more words by how they're spelled as opposed to how they sound. I think that's probably common for students here.
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