It is quite easy to find sanctuary in a place like The Linden Centre. As I am writing to you, my legs are stretched out across the wicker chairs on the rooftop terrace and I am enjoying the last of the afternoon sun. When I look out onto the fields, there are cows grazing, farmers looking after their crops, and the sun is shining over the mountain tops. The contrast of the bright greens of the earth and the clear blue sky is something that I try to recreate in my sketchbook as often as possible. "When you look at this, you have to think that everything in the world is at peace," said a recent guest. It has been almost two months since I have left Door County to teach in China and my time here has been far from ordinary. As Brian Linden puts it, being able to experience the land, the people, and the life of Xizhou is an act of "cultural wandering;" where each step you take around the village is a totally unqiue experience.

About two weeks ago, I visited the village elder with Brian and some of the other guests that were staying with us. It was only a 10 minute walk to his house and when we knocked on the door, we were greeted by his smiling wife, who led us into their home. The elder has lived in his house for his entire life and has lived through the many changes of Chinese government. He told stories that Brian translated to us about living through the Cultural Revolution. We were able to go up into his attic that smelled like old wood and creeked as if it were breathing, while we were exploring every part of it. There were shelves of homemade jams and jellies in one corner and in the other corner, there were all of the instruments that he used to fix and tune. The sun light was shinning into the attic as we discovered 50 year old posters hanging on the walls and his framed collection of Mao pins and medals. It was quite an experience to meet the village elder, as well as have the chance to tour around his house and hear about local history.

The best snapshot memory of November was Thanksgiving and the day-long hike in the mountains the next day. Our Thanksgiving feast served 21 people and it included all of the fine fixins' of a typical Thanksgiving meal. One family from the U.S. Embassy and good friends of the Linden's celebrated Thanksgiving with us. They were also the ones who brought the turkey and the ham. To bring the turkey over to Xizhou, you could say that Mr. Turkey took "his final flight," the family packed him and his hammy friends in a carry-on and gave security no problems while going through the metal detectors! The boys and I had school in the morning of Thanksgiving, but once the clock struck noon, it was time to celebrate and see if there was any need for us in the kitchen. Jeanee made delicious applesauce and mashed potatoes. We also made traditional stuffing in a wok! Even though there wasn't a chance to watch the Rockettes on the Macy's Day Parade with my family nor was there a football game to watch after eatting dinner, I still felt like I was surrounded by comforts and sounds of "home." We did sit around and watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and of course, Snoopy and Woodstock stole the show.

The next day 12 of us decided to stretch our legs and work off some of the turkey that we ate the night before by taking a hike in the mountains. The first part of our all day adventure began with a gondola ride through the mountains to reach our desired path. The view from the gondola was absolutely beautiful and extremely peaceful. We were able to see the entire lake and its surrounding city, as well as the heavily mountain ridges. Once we reached the end of our gondola ride, our hike had just begun. We had two choices: The Cloud Path, that was one level and very flat; or to the gorge, which was steep up hill and down hill hiking. To really feel the burn, most of us chose to hike to the gorge of the mountain. Believe me, there was a lot of huffing and puffing going on throughout the hike, but it felt amazing! (This time I wore appropriate shoes and brought my camera!) The path became narrower and narrower as we climbed. The bamboo branches took up half of the path, so it made it difficult for Jeanee and I to hack our way through the "path less traveled by." The path wasn't a dirt road, but small, steep rocky stairs that descended at any given moment. We finally caught up with the boys (who basically ran the path from start to finish) at the end of our journey. I made my mark at the gorge by making a small heart made out of small black rocks on a large white boulder. Hopefully it's still there!

On our way back, Jeanee and I marched along and sang "You'll take the high road and I'll take the low road," in our very best Scottish accents. Before we took the gondola ride home, we saw the monkeys in the nearby cages and fed them the rest of our oranges. The wind picked up when we decided to take the gondolas back down the mountain, which made us swing back and forth. Once we were on stable ground we bought tons of fresh fruit from the ladies that had little stands near the gondola ticket booth. We ate the sweetest honeydew melon I have ever tasted, tamarins (which we later used the seeds to have a seed spitting contest while waiting for our van), and more mandarin oranges. We decided to pass on the rice and eat at a Western restaurant called The Tower in Dali. Believe me, their hamburger never tasted so good after such a long hike! The twelve of us spent the night playing card games and talking about our Thanksgiving hike.

In the afternoons, I walk or ride my bike (which is suffering from a flat tire at the moment) with the boys to music lessons. When Shane is having his guitar lesson, I help Bryce with his piano. He just learned "Silent Night" and Shane is really excelling with the guitar. Since both of the boys have been practicing music, it has made me want to start practicing the piano again. Last week, I stumbled across a book store that had many piano books to choose from. To really challenge myself, I chose the hardest book available and I have been trying to practice every day. It's nice to get back into the swing of things with piano. I didn't realize how much I missed it!

I am slowly, but surely learning Chinese. The other day I sat in on Shane and Bryce's Chinese lesson. Since the lesson was more geared toward them, the teacher was showing them the book and I was peaking over her shoulder. Let's just say that learning the Chinese characters upside-down and trying to write them correctly is a major challenge! That is all for the month of November! It totally flew past me, so I apologize for not writing sooner! I can't believe that it is already Decemeber. Yesterday, Jeanee and I went on a mission to find fun things to decorate the trees for Christmas. I will be posting more pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner and hike as soon as possible. Look for my Pulse article that is coming out this coming Friday! For those of you who can't easily pick up the Pulse in your neck of the woods, check out their website at www.ppulse.com.
Miss you all.
Peace, love, and sweet travels,
Martha