Our First Visitors

We felt so special to have our first visitors, even if we did have to share them with Heather and Patrick, the other foreign teachers placed by the Colorado China Council. Part of the overall program support provided by the Colorado China Council involves a personal visit from the Director Alice and her Assistant Ellen. Ellen and her husband taught in Lijiang two years ago. We met them and their 6 year old adopted daughter from China at their home in Laramie, WY this summer.

We were spoiled with some excellent meals and excellent company. Our eating highlight of the weekend had to be Ellen's birthday dinner at a vegetarian restaurant that got excellent reviews. The first task was finding the restaurant, the second task was convincing them to let us eat. All of the lights and light fixtures were missing and the restaurant was completely empty. We found ourselves seated in a beautiful alcove and the staff placed about 20 candles on our table. We ordered to the best of our ability and were most amused by the faux chicken feet made out of a tofu product. Steve bicycled by the restaurant today and discovered it had moved! I guess you take your lights with you when you leave.

In addition to eating we spent time wandering the markets, visiting Lashahai Lake (where Steve finally saw an Upupa Epops-a bird that has been on his life list-and Shana stepped into mud up to her waist), and debriefing the idiosyncracies of the Chinese education system.

We promise to treat all future visitors nicely, so come on over!