What is so interesting to me about Jingdezhen is the entire city is dedicated to a single thing, the production of porcelain or ceramics.  Every where you look there is pottery in every stage of completion.  In molds, on the street, being painted, being glazed, being carved.

My friends Tonya, Emmy, Cathrin and I went away for the weekend and we took our lovely ayis Ling Ling and Xiao Qing along with us.

It was so fun to spend time with everyone, look around at the pottery  and eat yummy, but very spicy food. I bought one new item.  My friends all bought a dozen or more.

The weather was mostly awful so my camera stayed in mostly in my bag, but here are some shots.

This wall was built in a very cool artists village.  We had lunch nearby.  Everything was full of chilis and my lips were sizzling, but my goodness it was tasty.

I was so drawn to the blue and white traditional colours.  I didn’t want to buy any but I could stare at them for ages.

Cathrin, Tonya, Xiao Qing and Ling Ling investigate some lovely pots.  Tonya bought a red one and Cathrin bought a white one from this stall.  This area was everyone’s favorite shopping area.  The pottery was plentiful and the prices were very affordable.

Emmy really wanted this pretty green one but the seller would not come down in price.

More blue and white.  So lovely.

Emmy and Tonya both bought lots of things from this lady.

Cathrin poses by the laundry in the antique market.  The antique market was really just narrow streets full of small pottery stalls.

And here we all are.  Cathrin, Emmy, Tonya, Xiao Qing, Ling Ling, me and Ping, our awesome guide.

Blake graduated from Kung Fu class today.  He and his classmates did a little performance.  Afterwards, he was given a certificate and a promotion to level 2.

Way to go Blake!

Lots of outdoor time time here lately, which is fabulous.  Spring has finally arrived.

All that running, jumping, scootering, playing and riding, makes a boy sweaty and dirty.

The longer days can make it tricky to squeeze in the long luxurious baths Blake has grown accustomed to.  We play outside until the sun goes down, eat dinner and then BAM suddenly it’s already past his bedtime.

We have been improvising.  Sometimes baths, sometimes showers (although those also tend to last forever as well) and sometimes quick washes in the sink.

We were trying to take one of those short cuts on the weekend and wash his black feet in a tub of water on the deck. We quickly realized that just wasn’t going to cut it and moved the whole tub into the actual tub.

I popped into art class today to speak to his art teacher for a quick second.  Lucky me, Blake’s class was in there.  He was totally engaged painting a toilet roll pink, that’s one of his favorite colors.  He loves all the colors of the rainbow except yellow.

I snapped a quick pic of a boy very involved in his work.

Another one of our China Alive activities was a visit, performance and demonstration from a martial arts expert.  Blake got a chance to do some moves.

Almost our entire school is celebrating our host culture this week.  Our MS students are all traveling around the country experiencing amazing cultural activities.  Our elementary students are having a week of activities here on campus.  Chinese indoor games, outdoor games, movies, and activities galore.  Our 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students are all going on a big field trip tomorrow.

Blake’s class spent the morning in the gym.

Blake got dressed up as an emperor, with a little help from Yang Lao Shi, his lovely  teacher.

He played a ring toss game and did some tangrams.

He also played a game – how many skittles can you pick up with chopsticks.  He’s lived in China his whole life and has never held chopsticks.  I think we were both a little surprised by this.  He gave it his best go.  Doesn’t like a whole lot of help, my boy, “I can do it by mine self!”  Scott just came in the office and told me that yes Blake has used chopsticks (he has a game his grandma gave him) he just isn’t very good at it.

Check out the changes in Blake’s drawing between August 2012 and May 2013.  WOW!!!!

We were digging through the art room on the weekend and found an unopened box of fabric markers.  We hit up decathalon and bought two white t-shirts and began drawing last night.

Here are their drawings.

From the front.

and a cuddle

Our friend’s Kath and Lawrence came into town this weekend from Hong Kong.  We’ve both lived in Shanghai for years and years, but we decided to do some touristy things.

We cruised the Huangpu River on Saturday and hit the Aquarium on Sunday.

It’s so fun catching up with old friends and seeing the city at the same time.