A Beautiful Day, Part 2.

After lunch, it was decided we would go to a small mountain since it was such a Beautiful Day. We took the bus and during the ride I saw a sign about Lishui's Photography Museum. Since I don't read Chinese, I asked Sarafin to translate it for me, she did one better, she took me to the museum! It just so happens that it is near the entrance to the small mountain park we were headed to.

The Photography Museum is quite large, there are several rooms on two different floors. The first floor exhibit was showcasing the photographs from the 2013 International Photography Festival and Exhibition.  The week long festival takes place every two years, and consists of work by photographers from around the world. I am hoping that I will be here for the next one and perhaps submit work for consideration.

A brief walk through of the first floor is all I did today. Since I am a "photo history junkie", and a "photo nut", I can spend days in a photo museum gazing at the photographs. The museum is free of charge, so I am planning to go back many times. The entire second floor covers the history of photography in China, I know I will be spending a lot of time up there learning about an area of photography that isn't in the Photo History books (they mostly cover American and European photo history). I taught the history of photography for nine years at the Academy of Art University, what a great resource I have here in Lishui to add to my knowledge of something I'm very passionate about. I couldn't have been placed in a more appropriate city in China!

There was a sign, in Chinese and English, stating there was to be no pictures taken inside the museum. So, I only have a couple of quick images from an outdoor section of the museum, just to give you an idea of what it looked like there.

A Beautiful Day, Part 1.

It is Saturday, March 13th, and the weather is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL today!!

The sun is out, the birds are singing, and most importantly, I don't need to wear my down coat! The past couple of weeks has been cold, wet, rainy, foggy, freezing, etc., etc. But today, the weather is perfect!!

Once a month or so I go out with two of the high school students, Jina and Sarafin, so they can practice their English with me. It gives me the opportunity to go and explore the city, with good company. Today we went to lunch at a BBQ restaurant. The food was AMAZING and we stuffed ourselves with it! You cook your own food at the table, so you can see that everything you get is fresh. We had beef, chicken wings, lamb, pork, fish, mushrooms, corn on the cob, potatoes, lettuce, and cauliflower, plus two big bottles of Coke to share between the three of us. The total cost was 187 RMB, approximately $30.00 USD, which I think is super cheap for good food for three of us.

Here are some pictures to make you hungry...

The fish.

Pork and chicken wings in the foreground; lettuce, lamb, mushrooms, and cauliflower in the background.

This is Sarafin.

This is Jina.

They are both very sweet and fun.

Potatoes on the grill.

Chicken wings, beef, pork, and mushrooms.

Our tower of food.

My plate with beef, pork, cauliflower, and dipping sauce.

These are the ingredients you mix for your dipping sauce. There is vinegar, hot chili oil, a salt & pepper mixture, and a peanut sauce (which stayed away from me and the food, and my sauce was mixed from the bottles in the kitchen, since I'm allergic to peanuts!).

Corn and mushrooms.

I took a business card as we left, because this is going to be one of my "regular spots" for eating out. The food was so good! Mmmmm.......