July 5th
Ilyena and Chloe arrived safely early this morning and our group is finally complete! It feels great to have everyone here at last. Van let me know more than once yesterday that she is very, very excited to have her roommate join the group.
Last night we ate a nice dinner not far from the center of Dali Old Town. Students tried dishes like bitter melon with pan-fried beef, a delicate seaweed soup, braised pork belly, water spinach (ong choy, kōngxīncài), egg and tomato, fried goat cheese, green tea famous in Dali, and all kinds of other new foods. After dinner, we had our first group meeting, during which everyone shared highlights of the trip so far, challenges, and things they are looking forward to on the trip. Not surprisingly, the challenges students expressed centered on the long, sometimes physically uncomfortable hours of travel. After sharing our experiences, we discussed a couple of important concepts in Chinese culture, including kǎnjià (haggling), and some useful language to help navigate markets/shopping. After our meeting, some students explored Dali some more and put this new language into practice immediately. Out on the lively streets, I heard several excited accounts of (successful) bartering, challenging and rewarding Mandarin interactions, and the discovery of...imported chocolate. Other students wisely listened to themselves and chose to stay in the hotel to relax after a long day, catch up on some rest and prepared for our hike today at Cangshan Mountain.
The hike was beautiful.
After our evening meeting students explored Dali for a while. The seven boys returned to the hotel where they played a rousing game of Uno while Chloe and Van stayed out exploring, and then came back to check in bearing ice cream cones and smiles.
This morning we had a tasty breakfast of mǐxiàn (rice noodles in broth with pork and greens), fried eggs, fried dough (yóutiáo) pickled cabbage, hot pepper sauce, and cilantro. We are all getting ready to board our bus and move on to Shaxi.