A Birthday Abroad

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes. They were especially appreciated since only a few people here knew that it was my birthday. Nevertheless, it was a nice day and a pleasant long weekend.

Thursday night I made myself a chocolate cake with Nutella frosting and hand-powdered sugar.

Then on Friday, by cofellows surprised me with these adorable cupcakes!

My students didn't know that it was my birthday, but two of them gave me cards anyway! The contents were even appropriate, wishing me a happy year.

Then my cofellows and I went to Dali. Although Dali is only about three hours from Baoshan, when you add in travel to Baoshan, transfers, and all, door to door it takes about nine hours each way. Which is too far for a normal weekend, but we had this Monday off for Dragon Boat Festival. Unfortunately, there's no dragon-boat racing nearby. The locals celebrate by eating Zongzi, sticky rice wrapped up in leaves, sometimes with meat or beans inside:

We stayed at a nice hostel in the old town, with a pleasant courtyard.

In Dali I made friends with two of the four cats at the hostel:

And I took lots of pictures, including of Erhai (洱海), the largest lake in Yunnan. More to come soon.