Thanks to my Dad, I can now upload my videos to YouTube and show them to you here.  The following video is of me feeding the pigeons located at the People’s Square.  You pay the attendant 2 yuan and he/she gives you a small plastic bag with some seed. When watching the video, you can hear the attendant yelling at a little boy who comes up to me and grabs one of the birds by its’ tail.  She is saying something like, “Just look! Just look!”   Of course, the boy doesn’t listen and grabs anyway.  I felt really bad for the bird.

Phil and I went to Qufu this weekend, and I have some picture and videos that I will be posting soon. I just have to allot some time to do it.  Well, anyway, enjoy the video!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpkuVLktKSI[/youtube]

I love lamb.  It is by far my favorite meat, but only when it is prepared Chinese style.  It typically comes in one of two forms: thinly sliced and put on top of your vegetables and rice  or placed in front of you and six of your closest friends who are waiting to devour it whole.    And I am not exaggerating at all when I say whole.  See for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Our dinner was a going away party for two expats that we’ve come to know in our short time in Linyi.  I am sad to see them go, but they are moving on to bigger and better things, as do most expats.  The meal was fantastic.  I have only ever had a leg of lamb or the slices of lamb that I mentioned earlier, but never have I been given the opportunity to pick meat off the entire animal before.   Lamb may be awesome, but every time I eat it, especially this particular time, I always think about how cute and fluffy white they are.  It makes it hard when I picture them being slaughtered and prepared just for my pleasure.  It is images like this that make me want to become a vegetarian sometimes.

And here is what our little lamb looked like after we picked his bones clean.

I think we could have picked more meat off, but at this point we were all pretty stuffed and ready for bed.  I believe that between the entire lamb, 12 beers, two plates of bread, and some vegetables for dipping, the total came to 536 yuan.  That is approximately 78 USD, and between 7 people that cost each of us 11 dollars.  In America, I can’t imagine how much all that would have cost.

I know that it is really hard to see, but this is the area where they cook the lamb. Looks pretty medieval, eh?

I know one thing for certain, I will be coming back to place soon.  It was just that good.

Mom, Dad, don’t hate me.  I couldn’t resist.  You have to admit, though, I do look awesome!  I hear there are some great Obamao t-shirts in Beijing.  Google it; I am sure there are plenty of images out there.  I’m going to have to pick one up when I go.  I think it will make a great souvenir.  I wonder what would happen if a bunch a people showed up at a Democratic rally wearing them.  Tehe.

Gabe, the Party Member.

A few Saturdays ago, Phil and I were invited to go to a strawberry farm with a lady who works in my office.  This may come as a surprise, but I cannot remember ever going strawberry picking in South Carolina, even though we have many farms in the area.  I’ve only just bought them at roadside stands.  Phil said that his elementary school took him on a few field trips.   I guess my school wasn’t as cool as his.

There were six of us all together – all couples.  I guess it was supposed to be a relationship building activity or something.  🙂 The farm was just outside of the city, maybe twenty or so minutes.   Once you leave the city area of Linyi, the tall buildings fall away, and the landscape turns into farms.  There are vegetable farms and tree farms as far your eyes can see.  They all sorta just blend together after awhile.  This is why I never would have known the strawberry farm was there had the car not pulled over.  There were no visible sign or anything, at least not that I could tell.  I am not sure what sort of farm I imagined in my head before we got there, but I can tell you that I had no idea just how big the farm was going to be.  It was like Strawberry Heaven.  I have never seen so many strawberry plants in all my life.

One of the greenhouses.

One of the Strawberry Heavens.

Phil picking some strawberries.

Walking through the paths were hard.  I kept stepping on strawberries.

Some pretty strawberries.  Tasted pretty, too.

My hair is sorta the color of strawberries.

After we picked several boxes, we were driven to a restaurant in the country where we were going to have lunch. We had told the friend we went with what some of our favorite dishes were, but we didn’t get any of those.  Instead, we were severed traditional country foods or at least what I imagine to be traditional country foods.  We were served a plate of cicadas, testicles, cold chicken with a strange gooey sauce, and cold pigs feet.  I somehow was able to eat a cicada, but I said absolutely no to the testicles.  I really don’t know why Phil ate one.  Maybe he was feeling a little adventurous or something.  I’m not sure what made us sick as dogs, but the entire next day was spent throwing up and sitting on the pot.  We are no longer taking part in exotic country foods.  Our stomachs will not allow to ever happen again.   When we went to leave, I told my friend I had to stop in the bathroom for a second.  When she told me to be careful, all sorts of images flooded my mind.  I was like, “What is there to be careful of in a bathroom.”  I soon found out what she meant.  Thankfully, I had experienced something like it before, so I wasn’t too terribly bothered by what I saw.  There is no such thing as a western toilet in the middle of no where.  I was lucky to have a trough.  Scroll down to see, but I warn you, it isn’t a pretty sight.  I took a picture only because I wanted you all to understand, not because I have some weird fetish for dirty bathrooms.

Pretty picture on the wall where we ate lunch.

99 bottles of beer on the wall . . .

Cicadas = protein. I hope I never have to eat these when the Apocalypse begins.

Baijiu tree.

Probably the last picture of a toilet I will ever take.

Seems I have been a very bad blogger.  I would apologize, but I figure this sort of thing is bound to happen a lot.  I have been very busy this last month and a bit sick.  Wanted to post something, though, so that you could see a little through my eyes.

What was given to us at one of our dinners here. The white fruit with black seeds is known as Dragon Fruit and it pretty good stuff. The first time we came to China, I called it Mario Fruit, because well, it looked like something out of Mario World.

I saw this when I was walking through one of the bigger grocery stores here.  It made me laugh not only because of the picture, but because it was in the kid’s section of the store.

I had no idea all of China could fit in a box this small. I want to buy it just to see what kind of game it is.

What we were given to us for getting an account through the China Construction Bank – without the mustache of course.

If in need, the acne fighters for both men and women are here.

How water is delivered here.

This is one of the strangest Chinese birds I have ever seen.  It has white and black wings.

That is all for now, folks. I have to eat me some PB&J and go to bed.