More Chinese Painting + Tai Chi

Today was round two of Chinese painting. Our agenda was to paint bamboo using the different strokes/shades/mixtures of only ink and water. You wouldn't think you could get so many different gradients and textures with just a simple brush, but by using varying wetness you can change the texture too. After a few hours of practice, this is the final bamboo I came up with.












Tin Man gave us rice dumplings for lunch. Don't be afraid, they may look slightly different, but inside is steamed rice with peanuts and slices of delicious pork loin formed into a pyramid shape, all wrapped up in a bamboo leaf. yummy.















After class was over, I went to a Tai Chi demonstration to learn a few moves. For those of you who aren't familiar with Tai Chi it is a mixture of spiritual movement and martial arts... To be in a state of relaxed strength, maintaining a high spirit of power within. After learning a few slow, meditative motions, they explained to us how each movement is applied to combat. I learned how to take somebody down in 3 different ways and hardly touch them or grab them. It was so cool. We're going to do it every Wednesday from now on!

Tonight we celebrated Sam's surprise birthday barbecue, there was enough food there to feed a small army. I grilled for one of the first times, and everyone said my barbecue chicken was great! Probably because its the first thing they've eaten besides rice and noodles in 3 weeks. haha! I guess I always considered grilling to be a man's world... but maybe I should try it more often!

On our way back to the dorm, we found this little guy... The biggest snail I've ever seen! He was probably a good 4 inches long. Crazy.

Tomorrow we are going into the city to see the real Dragon Boat Festival, with boats! It's a National holiday so we don't have class! I'm looking forward to the nice 4 day weekend.