Recently the weather has improved and we’ve been out on a couple of excursions in the Pingxiang countryside. When Pingxiang isn’t trying to be a city it’s pretty nice.
One Sunday morning Bob called us up and informed us we were going to visit a temple. So, along with Eric, the Dean, and various colleagues/family members we drove off into the mountains. Here’s Bob with the mighty ancient temple behind him.
We were accompanied by Cowboy, our old friend from the fishing trip back in October, who latched onto Terry the moment he saw him and didn’t let him out of his sight.
At the back of the temple, up the hill, was allegedly something really good, so we started climbing up a very slippery slope. Chrissy decided it was a little too dangerous to go up so started going back down.
Mistake.
Half way up the slope we realised there were steps running alongside it.
At the top of slope was absolutely nothing.
We had a bamboo climbing competition to make up for this. Here I am advertising the great outdoors.
The ancient temple, pride of Pingxiang, was also home to the supposedly rare and important ‘square bamboo’. Here it is. Eric was very excited about it. Us not so much.
All in all, a nice day out though.
A few days later one of Chrissy’s classes invited us to go and pick strawberries near the affectionately named ‘Happy Village’. The Happy Village boasted vineyards…
...'yellow flower' fields (difficult to explain the actual name to the students)…
...and greenhouses for strawberries, watermelons, and some sort of white subterranean vegetable.
It turned out that the students didn’t actually want to pick strawberries, so we picked every available strawberry ourselves. We were relatively proud of this feat, though possibly more proud of the fact that we’d all managed to wear the same shirt.
We then went for a little wander through the countryside. There were ducks. It was very pastoral. Terry and the students played a game in the river in which they threw bricks at each other and tried not to get tetanus.
Meanwhile, some of the students went fishing.
Apart from the fact that they moaned non-stop that it was too hot, I think they all had a good time.
And on a final note, the college has decided to become more ecologically friendly as it continues to take sizeable measures for self-improvement. Observe the recently implemented ‘Plant more trees’ initiative.
Forward thinking, as ever.
