Diana's grandmother had gotten up early to make me dumplings and eggs. The night before she had allowed me to help her – she showed me how – to make dumplings.The day was spent mostly in Wuzhen (www.wuzhen.com.cn), an ancient Chinese village about two hours from Diana’s home. We were joined by Alan and his parents and Diana’s aunt (mom’s brother’s wife). We spent about 4 hours touring the village including a boat ride down the “river” (canal) which wove its way through the village. The village was built around 1600 during Qing Dynasty. While some of it was destroyed during the People’s Revolution of the 1960’s it has been restored by the government and today has people living in the village an operating old shops, much like you might see in Williamsburg, VA. See my Kodak Photo Gallery for photos of Wuzhen
We went to lunch and then went to all get a massage, which was just fun. Each of us had an attendant and I had a young girl maybe 18 years of age who was totally embarrassed that she had me, because I was the first American to visit their place. The massage consisted of an arm and shoulder massage, then an elaborate foot massage and then a back and leg massage. The whole process took about an hour and half. To say I was uncomfortable would be an understatement. The only comforting factor was that Mengli, Alan and their mom’s and Mengli’s aunt were all in the same room with me. The massage required you to lay down on a bed, but I couldn’t relax enough to lay down so I sat up almost the entire time which Mengli’s mom and Alan’s mom found funny as did the girls who were giving the massage.
We went to dinner about 6 pm with Diana and Alan and their parents and Diana’s aunt, her husband and daughter. They had brought their daughter to talk to me about attending a private school in America. For dinner, which again was about 14-16 side dishes and included such delicacies as duck tongue, pig’s face and jellyfish. I tried everything although I stuck primarily to the salmon and squid which were my “safe bets”.
After dinner Alan and Diana’s parents and I went to a coffee shop to discuss Alan’s college application process. Both Alan and Diana joined us for the discussion which Diana translated. Both sets of parents expressed their extreme pleasure in our taking care of their children. The repeated themselves more than once expressing their appreciation often making reference to the years that Diana spent in our home and Alan’s frequent visit in our home. I gave Alan and his parents a list of 6 things Alan needed to work on this summer to prepare for the college application process. We headed home around 10:00 pm. Diana and I are now sitting on her living room couch getting caught up on emails and phone calls. Diana during the day and in the midst of all our site seeing had arranged for our transportation to Hangzhou tomorrow morning, confirmed all of our appointments, confirmed our place to stay for 3 days (although I will be in Ningbo and Wenzhou for 2 days), made an appointment with Adam’s parents and invited 3 other current students to have lunch with us tomorrow. She also will take me to the train station for my trip to Ningbo and then meet me at the train station when I return from Wenzhou with Soki. Mengli has arranged transportation from the train station back to the hotel and then to our 5 pm dinner. She has also arranged transportation to the Hangzhou airport for my flight to Guangzhou the following morning. To say that Diana is taking good care of me is an understatement. She has been my guardian angel on this trip.
Mengli and I stayed up to 1 am working on the next day. I also was able to have a Skype conversation with Nam Yeon LEE who is working at the Korean consulate office in Vietnam. While in the US Nam Yeon and Dottie shared a weekly bible study together, Nam will try to contact some potential Vietnamese students for me.
