A Weekend Away

This past week we had a four-day weekend thanks to Tomb Sweeping Day.  No, I did not sweep any tombs, but I did stay the weekend with one of my grad students, her friend, and her family.  Here are some pictures from our time together:

Zoe, Claire, and I went hiking in DouPeng Mountain just outside of Zoe’s hometown.  To get there, we piled into a Chinese bush taxi (which, by the way is pretty similar to Nigerien bush taxis, only there are fewer people crammed inside.  However, there was no lack of live chickens shoved into bags), and drove an hour through the beautiful countryside to arrive at the nature reserve.  At the end of the trail we had a picnic (bananas, sweet buns, blueberry Lays, snickers bars, dried plums, and chicken feet) next to a waterfall.  It was a beautiful hike along the river, especially since all the spring flowers are in bloom.

 Here Zoe, her mom, and Claire are teaching me to make pork and vegetable jiaozi (dumplings).  When we finished the entire end of the table was full of dumplings.  In case you were wondering, they taste like a party in a pasta pocket :)