In Other News...

*The sun is coming out, Shiyan is never more beautiful than in the spring.

*This weekend the foreign women in Shiyan went to Xiangfan and spent 4 hours on a bus driving to A Hot Springs - totally worth the road blocks and rain. We relaxed, were steamed in a giant turkey like roaster, and most importantly...laid in a pool full of fish who ate our dead skin. It was creepy and amazing. Katherine, the animal tamer, was swarmed and beloved...the rest of us cringed and dealt with our 20 fish, while she had over 200 from her hips down!

*Trent and I are playing hookie (okay, I'm playing hookie, he has three weeks off) at the end of the week and taking a boat tour of the Three Gorges Dams. I am so excited about it, its one of the things that I really wanted to see when I came to China. This dam is such a treasured accomplishment in China, but there are so many potential downfalls that its quite contreversial. It endangered or eradicated countless species, the pollution levels are overwhelming and climbing, the 600 kilometer reservoir has flooded 1,300 archaeological sites, and will irrevocably alter the beautiful Three Gorges as the water rises. Erosion is causing sediment slides and they have had to relocate millions of people from homes near the reservoir.

*The men of Shiyan had an awesome retreat this last weekend, which brought tons of seekers together. I am so excited by the answered pr-y-rs this year has brought, there are incredibly inspiring Chinese walking through our doors every week. He is SO good.

*I am exactly half way through the semester...only 8 weeks of classes left!