Parent trip to Chengdu, China

Spring has come to Daegu, and we have the cherry blossom trees in full bloom!   

Gary and I had to travel to China to visit a school, so the kids got to stay for three nights in the dorm.  The best part of staying in the dorm, other than no parents is SNACKS!  That is the first thing both of them set up.

Pooks laying out her stuff... her snacks are already done, too!

The city we went to in China is called Chengdu.  While you may not have heard of it, over 14 million people live here, and it is the 5th biggest city in China.  Don't worry, though, no one has heard of your town either!  The trees are in bloom here, too!

Here are some of the students having a snack by the pond. 

One day our friend took us to an old style Chinese area, with lots of dark wood, red lanterns, and street food. 

You can see this is rabbit head.  We didn't eat this, mainly because it was about 9:30 in the morning, and we had just eaten breakfast. 

It was a bit drizzly, but still really pretty.

Then we had lunch with two people from the school.  This is Chengdu hot-pot.  You can see the pan of steaming liquid that is set into the table,  On one side is a mild broth, and the other is a spicy broth.  Vegetables and tofu get cooked on the mild side, and meats on the spicy side.  You can see that there are some meats on the table, but I will tell you what they are.  If you have a sensitive stomach you may want to skip this part. The plate in front of the guy in the white shirt has lamb slices and cow stomach (the white stuff).  The plate in front of the guy in the black jacket has pork kidney.  One one bowl in front of Gary that you can't see has congealed blood.  

When you cook the blood it turns from clear red jello-looking stuff to this maroonish-purple clot kind of thing.  It is surprisingly good, but the Chinese guy and I were the only ones that thought so.  Anyway, if you say you will eat anything, you have to either put up or shut up! 

These are the two principals of the school we visited.  The lady died laughing when I told her about our lunch, and thought we were very brave.  When we go in June, we are going to a snake restaurant.  I will be sure to take pictures!