Yesterday I went to Zheng Ying Cun - which means a place where people with the last name Zheng live - which was pretty cool. Although, nowadays, not everyone is named Zheng. The family who established ShiPing's house is now a museum there - it was built about 100 years ago. Most of the people there are farmers who make a living off of grass - which is used to make baskets, and just about anything and everything they use.

Xiu Shan, another Daoist mountain - it seems like Yunnan has a lot of those. Eventually, each of them end up being the same - some steps, some bells, some temples, some statues, some gorgeous nature, and some good scenery of the surrounding cities. Afterwards we went to Bao Xiu, which is my maternal grandmother's hometown. It was really cool because it was the first time I had spent a significant amount of time in rural China. We visited my great aunt's home, where they have chickens and pigs - and piglets!~ I'm in love with pigs now! I want to go back and hold them again! We also ate pomegranites right after we picked them off the tree! How cool is that. I want to live on a farm in China and forget about everything in my life back home. About school, about worrying about med school, about the entire world. It would be so nice just to live a simple life, where all you know is your family, and your town.

Last night we went to the "plaza" of Shi Ping, it seems like every city has to have some kind of plaza - or guanchang - whether its tian an men, ba yi, or a small one. Where people can take a walk at night, roller skate, sell balloons and other things that light up, and just all in all have a relaxing time. I love coming to these places, where old people form dance groups and traditional Chinese orchestras.

This morning I went to a water lily park - we rented a boat and a guy with a bamboo stick drove us around a lake. We also ate on the boat - it was pretty cool. There is a bedroom and a kitchen in the boat - I think the owners must live there. The park was pretty, but also kind of sad - because all the lilys close to where boats could go had been picked. When the drivers pick the lily, they swat it with their pole until the stalk breaks, and then sweep it in the water to us. I felt kind of sad when the driver picked them for us, but - if he didn't, then other people would who then sell the flowers the people. So I think that in the end it doesn't matter. So don't think poorly of me when I am posing with the picked flowers!

Afterwards, my cousins and I shopped or "guan jie" which basically means walking down the street and shopping. We all enjoy shopping for "shi pin" which means small cute little things, like bags, sunglasses, hairclips, etc. I think it's kind funny because we are in the city of Shi Ping right now, so its like Shi Ping shi pin. I bought my little girl cousin a cute dress, and my little boy cousin an awesome remote control car!

The language here, Shi Ping hua - is kind of hard to understand - although not as hard as NanChang hua. Things here are pretty cheap too. All in all, I like this place. I'm even kind of disappointed that I have to leave tomorrow - because I still want to go see those pigs! However, I have a lot of things to do still.