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Well, we spent this morning learning taichi. We learnt 6 steps to be exact! It took 2 hours and I doubt that any of us will remember them by tomorrow! Our teacher did tell us that she spent the whole day just learning one step when she first started. It looks so easy and yet is so exacting but an excellent exercise because it is low impact. We then spent the afternoon practicing calligraphy. This was less impressive but good fun and very relaxing. We were also able to choose our Chinese names (mine is 'jin er lan' - the nearest to Jean Eleanor that I could find. It has no meaning, it is simply a name.) and write our names in Chinese characters. Tomorrow we get the opportunity to learn Chinese knitting, whatever that may be, and later in the week we are going on what I fear may be very long and strenuous bike rides. I don't mind the long and strenuous, I am just concerned that, once again, I'll be trying to keep up with kids a fraction of my age. It doesn't work, but I guess we'll cross those bridges when we come to them - literally! You can see from the photo just beautiful the scenery is, so it will be fun to do some exploring.
There is another group staying at the school at the moment. They are here until the end of the week and are doing a 'China Experience' fortnight. They are a nice bunch, all young and all nationalities, and so, for much of the time, we are a group of 7, which is nice.
Yangshao is bristling with internet cafes (relatively speaking) and they are all very reasonable (30 p. an hour), so no problems in that direction.
The weather is awful! It is cold and has rained all day AND all we have at the windows is mosquito netting (there are plenty of those as well). So, it is back to the thermals and fleeces once again. There just seems to be no end to this cold weather - where's the global warming when you need it!! Sorry, I shouldn't jest, but for a so-called sub-tropical area, a lot is left to be desired.
Well, I think that just about wraps things up for now. Until next time...
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