Saturday, May 24
Photo 1: Instamodel Molly
Photo 2: Tofu-making
Photo 3: Homemade Tofu
Photo 4: Outside our hotel, Chengkan Village
Photo 5: Going to pick tea
Photo 6: In the pond
Photo 7: Lunch
Photo 8: Picking Tea
Today was our first real day of Anhui after arriving really late yesterday evening. The hotel we are staying at is especially beautiful and super cool. But then Steven and Tim discovered spiders, so Conley and I (roommates once again) freaked out. We were so scared we slept in the same bed, and forced Luther to sleep in the other bed. Well actually his bed had bed bugs so he didn’t really have a choice and he probably wouldn’t willingly choose to be around the freaked out Kim and Conley. So today I got the privilege of waking up to Conley’s face and a coffee-mug-sized-demon spider looking at me from the ceiling. It was super fantastic y’all. Even thinking about the spider gives me the pee-pee-shivers. Conley and I probably overreacted but at the same time we don’t plan on changing our sleeping arrangements.
We met everyone else at 5:30 (a.m. y’all) and went to go see how tofu was made by scratch (the tofu factory). While walking there I realized the beauty of the area we are in. It was really nice ^.^ I took a bajillion pictures and Molly became my instamodel for approximately a minute before I decided she wasn’t worthy. JK y’all, Molly is fabulous.
The man making the tofu makes tofu by hand rather than how most people nowadays who use a machine. The equipment he uses was passed down for generations and generations and it was very interesting to see how he didn’t waste anything in the tofu making process. After that we ate a bunch of tofu (that was very good). Dong Laoshi apparently mentioned tofu can have a laxative effect (as Conley told me) but I didn’t really take it too seriously. Things got crazy later and I can confirm that at least this tofu has some sort of this effect. Conley and I did a survey to confirm it y’all cause we are super scientific. The tofu effect is real.
Next was breakfast (what a happy time) before picking tea leaves. We had to climb up this hill thing that was pretty muddy and our shoes got a little crazy. It was fun to pick the tea leaves but people kept trying to give me bugs as presents. That was no bueno. Also Alvin said he wanted to marry a ladybug. I wasn’t sure how to take that. Afterwards we went back to the house of the lady helping us pick tea and we watched her prepare the tea.
After tea picking we went back to eat lunch. It was so delicious. We had a short break (during which I attempted to clean my shoes) before we went to talk to Mr. Luo, a man whose ancestors had lived in Anhui for 33 generations I believe. He talked to us about Anhui I think and his family. It was a bit hard to follow what he was saying although he was a very enthusiastic man.
Later that night after dinner, Dong Laoshi and Alex told us to go wait by the bridge for a surprise. It turned out the surprise was fireworks. It was a pretty good ending to a pretty good day.
- Kimberly
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