I know that it is ten o’clock because the police lights are flashing outside the window. Every night a patrol car circles the basketball courts on campus, searching for any students who might be violating curfew. It’s definitely too late to play basketball, but couples have a tendency to congregate along the sidewalk and whisper in the dark, especially under the trees leading up to our building. It's been drizzling all day, though, so I don’t think the police will find anyone out tonight.


On Saturday, Alli, Mikayla, Emily, Dan, and I took a long walk down Beijing Lu to a three-story supermarket. Here is the record of our adventure in pictures. This is very much what we see daily... the wild, the gloomy, the weird, and the quirky.


Our back ally in pineapple season.


Wang, our lady of the succulent flat bread.


You can't go anywhere in Nanchang without being in sight of bamboo scaffolding or the concrete shells of unfinished buildings. This one is directly west of our back gate...we joke that it's going to be a second Metro with a new America on the top floor.


A dwelling.


An ally. (Note how it doubles as a clothes dryer.)


A boy. With a banana.


Everything travels by bike.



Garbage truck.



At the supermarket:
It's so interactive!


Select your own eel, frog, or turtle!



Scoop your own rice!


Catch your own fish!


Smile at the ducks! They're smiling at you.

At the vegetable market:







Random fact of the day:
Question: What do you do if your hands get cold on a motorcycle?
Answer: