A Homecooked Chinese Dinner, the Foreigner Bar, ATV's, and Kobe

On Saturday night we were treated to a homecooked Chinese meal by our friends Yuchen's parents.  It was awesome.  It was very interesting to be invited into a real Chinese home, and see his mother's artwork (she knits amazing tapestries) and get a real feel for a Chinese family.  Yuchen is a single child, partly because of the one-child policy in effect, and his parents were extremely nice, but spoke little English. We started off with some Chinese green tea and appetizers such as Moon Cake, apples, pumpkin seeds, etc.  Then we went to dinner and had a humongous meal.  His parents definitely worked very hard to prepare all of the food for us.  There were about 2 dishes to each person, more food than we could eat so we had leftovers.  They made cajun tasting shrimp, a chicken soup, dumplings, vegetables pork, peking duck, lamb, humbows, sweet potatoes, egg rolls, and many others, not to mention they had some great Chinese red wine. We were very appreciative and plan to cook them an American meal.
After dinner we went out to the Foreigner bar that we had heard about.  It's a small bar tucked away in a park and when you walk in it's just like the states.  Couches, bookshelves, and there are beers from all over the world, including some of England, Germany and Belgium's finest such as Chimay, Leffe, and Newcastle.  They make fresh pizza, steak, tiramusu, and serve margraitas and espresso like starbucks.  A Chinese man owns it. He is real laid back. He let me throw on my ipod and play the jams for the evening.  It's a great little respite from foreign lands when you need one.  There were people there from the states, Ghana, Columbia, and I guess some French guys go there too.
Today we went to a different park and were going to do some paddle-boating but believe we were being charge the louway or whitie or foreigner price so we skipped that and kept walking and found some ATV's and a track.  It was about a dollar for four laps and definitely worth it. It was quite random.  I didn't expect to ride a camel or an ATV in China.
After that we went to Gulo, where we had the idea to pick up some turtles. We had seen them around before at different establishments, and the idea of having one turned into reality.  I picked up a chill mini-turtle who I have since dubbed 'Kobe.'  He's cool, he likes to chill on the couch and watch some bball. My friend JT also got one, dubbed 'Michelangelo.' There real cheap and easy to take care of. When I leave I will just give him to a friend or release him into the school pond.
Another good weekend....oh and by the way....I start teaching tomorrow, even though we weren't supposed to start for another week. We found out tonight, so it's gonna be an interesting week but I am looking forward to it.