More fun with Mom

Here's a picture that should've been included with the last post - my reaction to eating the silkworm larvae:

Here we are taking a stroll through the school's compact but lovely garden.

The school has educational and propaganda-type posters on all of its flat surfaces. In the garden, though, I think they got confused and accidentally printed off an internet joke version of man's evolution:

I assume this is supposed to be a joke because they certainly don't discourage the kids from sitting at the computer all day. Also, the second to last man is holding a jackhammer (?). Just one more sign of man's inevitable decline!

I forget why Andy looks so sad eating his enormous Easter bunny (thanks Doug & Suzanne!). He's been gnawing away on it like a dog with a bone for the past few weeks.

Our contact teachers very generously took us and the other foreign teacher out to a feast. There were like four different desserts! We had a pretty good time. It's always interesting to tell a Chinese person that you're Jewish, which Mom did with these guys and our friend Andy. They say all the same things that Americans and Europeans say about Jews (they're clever, good at business, etc.) but apparently without any of the animosity, just admiringly. I find it sort of hard to believe. Anyway, Andy, our friend the math teacher, told us that he's from Chao Zhou, which makes him a "Chinese Jew". Yup, telling people you're Jewish always leads to a surefire interesting conversation.

Here we are at the bay between Hong Kong and China, just a few minutes from our school.

Here's Mom with a GIANT bag of dehydrated mushrooms. Almost as big as she is! I wasn't as grumpy as I look - we had just gotten caught in the rain.

Here's Mom at the Spicy Frog restaurant. I love this place! You get a huge hot pot of broth and oil, then they add whole frogs and all kinds of ingredients - tofu, mushrooms, greens, and duck's blood, which is not my favorite. The frogs are delicious!

Here's Mom practicing Tai Chi. I'm not sure how you're supposed to spell it in English anymore, but apparently it's actually tai ji, not qi or chi. Andy and Mom got up early one morning to cruise around for Tai Ji groups, and they found some ladies practicing by the grocery store. After tai ji practice was over, they invited Mom to do something with them, Andy's not sure, but they had to get back to school.

Here's Dad and Spot, very excited about the giant dried squid that I sent back with Mom. Who wouldn't be? Have you guys cracked into that yet, or are you just going to put it up on the mantle?

Check out the outfits on the guys to my left! My favorite part is that the two on the left had a pair of pink Converses and a pair of yellow Converses, and they're each wearing on shoe. Mom and I pulled a trick that the Chinese pull on me all the time - they act like they're taking a picture of something scenic, but really they're just trying to get the foreigner on film. The giant poster of Deng Xiao Ping, which is something of a Shenzhen landmark, serves well as an excuse to take a picture.

Finally, here's a series of creepy ads that are being run in the metros. I can't say I fully understand what it means, but it's definitely an ad for some kind of "learn English" program.