Hugo Meets AnqingAnqing, the town we stayed in, was smack in the middle of a gazillion race paddies. wonderful. We navigated the little dirt roads between extended-family-sized concrete houses by motorbike, which I learned how to drive too! Fortunately, the roads are bumpy so we never got going real fast, and the mud-pit wallowing water buffalo seemed to be used to the whir of the bikes.
It seems like everybody in Anqing knew everybody, which was probably true... Austin's grandparents' had a steady stream of little people toddling in for candy, wizened old folks dropping by to smoke and talk, and random chickens hopping about the yard. There were definitely a lot of grandparents and babies around, with not a whole lot of parents in town. Austin said many of the parents had gone away to the cities to work, and would eventually come back... maybe to begin their own jobs of raising grandchildren and tending to the fields...
Katie and Hugo and MunchkinsSo while us young (but not so young to be in split pants) kids were around, we ruled our age bracket, and lived it up accordingly! The second night, hugo and I went for a walk (I was hoping to see some frogs to catch, but I think they weren't out yet), and the whole passel of grandparents, Austin's sister and her boyfriend, random cousins, a teacher, and other relatives met us out in the fields where we promptly began singing songs to each other, and Hugo and I started impressionistic dancing, dragging Austin into playing with us too.
The Littlest CousinWe also went to "climb a mountain" that was uh, a little short to be a mountain... but it's all good. There wasn't really a trail so we bush-whacked it, much to Hugo's citified chagrin, and the littlest cousin's delight (follow me! there's a trail!!). After resting several times, we finally made it up, where we took a good long rest before braving the trail (we found one at the top) back down to wade in the river and skip stones and build a huge sand mountain! And a huge sand pit!
If that wasn't enough, Austin's grandparents dutifully stuffed us with more food than we could possibly eat... most of it home-grown, or stolen from underneath the chickens, or caught in the river... I even got to help out (they protested of course, but I told them I liked it, and shouldn't they let me do what I like? and they gave in eventually) and shelled peas and soy beans and cleared the table and even cooked some food in the separate kitchen building's gigantic built-in wok (it didn't even taste that bad...)!
Cheryl's Caterpillar CakeSpeaking of cooking, Cheryl's birthday was also May 1st, but she was off to Hangzhou (and I to Anqing), so we celebrated early! Her one request was to have enough substantial cake (most chinese cake is really airy, and not very satisfying) to really feed everyone who would come... and we had about 20 folks on our invite list who agreed to show up... So, we made alternating chocolate and milk cakes that I made into a most delicious caterpillar (if I do say so myself)... We had the party at my house, and I even washed the rugs and the tablecloth for the event... which I probably shouldn't have, as, like all good birthdays, Cheryl's became a frosting fight at the end... and my rugs and tablecloth became innocent victims of the flying strawberry and chocolate goo that soon plastered our faces and arms. good times good times.
The rugs have been beaten into cleanliness now, I'm back from the rice paddies and toddlers for school, and preparing for my most difficult class of the week... the ACCIS boys who've learned they can refuse to participate... and there's not much you can do when they've decided they're not going to learn today... except take them outside and beat them into cleanliness... hehe, but they're good people, just not so good at the whole academic thing. Off to continue my conversation about religion with Mathguy..
