Good Morning Friends

It started out as a rainy week which gave me time to catch up on several projects I needed to get to; but by Thursday, it became a biking weekend.  I also enjoyed a few "cultural" events the past few weeks including going to the circus in the park next to me.  It was actually quite fun ... especially the elephant ride :-)

Brigham Young University had a couple of touring groups in Xi'an this month so it was fun going to their performances.  The Young Ambassadors, a song and dance group, brought down the house with their Chinese numbers ... everyone in the audience was singing along.  It was a lot of fun.

A dance group has been here for a couple of weeks studying at one of the local universities and they left for Beijing on Friday to study and perform.  We had a pot luck dinner after church and they were so excited to eat "regular" food.  We all like the Chinese food but sometimes a taste of home is greatly appreciated.  The students were delightful and heir performance Thursday night was wonderful.

Friends and I took another bike ride this week during a break in the rain ... it was great riding weather because of the drop in temperature and clear air.  The rain always clears out the pollution so for at least a few days we have clear skies and fresh air.  We rode up to a new area of the plateau and it was beautiful.

The North Dakota girl in me had to have a picture of the wheat fields ... much bigger farms in this area

Cherry farmer who got a kick out of us riding "all the way" from Xi'an

Hollyhocks are blooming everywhere 

This man went and put this jacket on and then carried our bikes into his courtyard and invited us into his home and gave us fresh walnuts  from his trees ... he was very sweet but living alone and lonely ... glad we could stop for a visit

Dog training course ... the dogs across the road were German Shepherds so we think it was a police dog training area.

I love all the tree lined roads

The sign reads Farmers Peace Road ... A perfect description for this beautiful area 

A little "downhill" was great fun after the 6 mile climb to the top of the plateau

People often sit outside their homes to eat or outside their business

This little guy was learning to walk but he was more focused on us

bricks hanging from branches to "train" the fruit trees to spread out their branches for bigger and more fruit

We could see the mountains around us in every direction

after going down several hills we came to a dead end and had to go all the way
back up the plateau to catch another road ... ugg

This little lady was having trouble pushing her cart uphill so Deanne pushed
her cart up and I brought both bikes ... we were met at the top by either a daughter
or granddaughter who gave us cherries to thank us ... the chatter was a big story
that I'm sure brought many laughs around the dinner table

Happy cherry farmer taking it easy

The sun was starting to set by the time we got back to the city

Friday I was stiff from grading papers all day so I took another bike ride around the city wall and discovered a new "heritage park."  It was beautiful but the sun was setting so I only got a couple of pictures.  Saturday we joined some other teachers and went to a silk market and then when it started to cool off we took another bike ride out along the river and Expo center.  We didn't get back until about 11:30 p.m. but it was very pleasant riding at night and fun to see so many people out enjoying the cool night air.  The path along the river and around the expo was all lit up.

Never know who you will meet up with in the park

Note the war medal on his jacket ... he was delightful!

You get the meaning!

These ladies convinced me to play a little badminton with them ... they made it a workout!