Susan Sopper writes:
This morning I was reminded how important it is for a city to have a great park. Like Forest Park in St. Louis and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Green Lake Park in Kunming appears central to its community happiness and cultural vitality. Ms Simpson and Mr. Mosley joined a dance group in progress taught by an incredibly agile and fluid instructor and showed some wild dance moves themselves. After seeing how it was done, several of the students joined in as well to the utter delight of the class regulars.

Our boys (and men) got into a pick-up basketball game with some young men (and one 78 year-old gentleman) in the park. After they started, one made a quick phone call and in minutes a young man arrived on a motorcycle, removed a layer of clothes to reveal a full basketball uniform and the contest was on.

We wandered upon a Yoga-Comics-Tea Shop and another building where people were playing Mah Jong and invited us to join in. Everywhere we go people wave, say "hello" "good morning" and just generally evince pleasure at seeing us enjoying their country.

A special feature of nighttime in the park is "English Corner" where people meet to practice their English language skills. I spoke at some length with an English teacher at a local high school. Like many conversations, it started with her asking my opinion of their education system. But then she shared some of her thoughts and concerns about the system, its weaknesses as well as its obvious great strengths.

The new food treat for the day came at the Big Gold Pig Restaurant: Fried Lotus Root. It was crunchy and savory and had an excellent texture. We are getting pretty bold about the peppers. Grace showed us all how it was done with a scary looking red pepper at lunch and commented that it wasn't that hot, just flavorful. For the first time this trip we all got to sit at the same table. Meals to a group of this size are typically (I gather) served on a wheel that rotates around the center point of the table giving everyone access to each dish (there's a common term for this but it's not one about which I am personally crazy). The etiquette is that one doesn't move the wheel while another has his or her chopsticks engaged on a plate. With seventeen of us at the table we realized that "spinning" the wheel required not only patience, but a certain social sensitivity as well.

Our graduate student guide, Jiang Zewei, is studying literature. He is particularly interested in Seamus Heaney and is analyzing connections between Heaney and Robert Frost. He was delighted when presented with Mr. Blomgren's gift of a book of Robert Frost's poems. Finally, to our school visit for the day and this was truly a high point in a very exciting trip. After meeting with our teacher, administrator, and student counterparts at the Middle School Attached to Yunnan Normal University, we attended a fine arts class to learn with the class a bit of the history behind and how-to to traditional Chinese paper-cutting. The teacher started by projecting images of traditional paper cuttings of lace-like intricacy from his pc to a screen. Each of our students was sitting with a Chinese student who simultaneously translated the history lesson (with the exception of two students who fell right into talking about football (soccer) - it is amazing how they find one another.) Then scissors and paper were distributed and the teacher showed slide-by-slide and fold-by-fold how to make lucky frogs and flower patterns.

After class we invaded their gymnasium and joined their students in basketball and volleyball. All the students participated and showed great sportsmanship and pleasure in this low-pressure (except for the faux brawl between two of our more enthusiastic players) workout. Even the teachers joined briefly in the fun. It was here that the students met their Chinese host students with whom they are spending tonight and tomorrow night. The student matches seemed magically sympathetic leaving me nearly stunned with the level of care and organization and thought that has gone into this endeavor. Students had a chance to get to know one another at a special American-style dinner prepared by the school cafeteria for the whole group. After dinner we said good-bye to our students until tomorrow.