I am back in Guiyang and ready for another year of teaching at Guizhou Normal University.  It was a wonderful summer vacation.  I spent the whole time in Northern Michigan, in Traverse City, my home town.

I was a farmer for a little while, harvesting cherries on a friend’s farm.  I was up at 5am and in the fields by 7am.  Cherries aren’t picked anymore.  We mechanically shake the trees and collect the cherries on a big mechanical tarp, called a “catching frame”.  It then feeds into a mechanical conveyor belt and delivers the cherries into large 42 inch cubed boxes.  The boxes, when full, must weight about a ton.  I drove a tractor and delivered full boxes to the storage area and returned to the field with a new box. It was a great time.

The rest of the time I spent doing BBQs, golfing, and playing racketball.  I also hung around the health club, even lifting weights from time to time. I came back through Shanghai and saw some old friends there.Altogether, it was a wonderful seven weeks.

Flying back to Guiyang was a pain.  The bags were overweight and I had to mail some items back to Guiyang to minimize the expense.  My limited Chinese was taxed heavily, dealing with the post office.  Well, I got the package today, and all is well.